Ithaca Birthday Parties

Birthday parties among the chemistry graduate students in Ithaca are unique and so much fun. I had witnessed two myself within past two days and one of them was mine. Though I have never celebrated my b’day ever in my life, but I am pretty sure that my first ever b’day celebrations couldn’t have been better than this one.

So, let me come back to the discussion of the Ithaca birthday parties. The people gather together at the place of the person whose birthday they are going to celebrate and then wait for the clock to tick 12. As soon as the moment arrives, following cake cutting the Chem Cornellians start their unique way of wishing and celebrating the b’day. Sometimes they even get two cakes, one to eat and one to smear onto the face of the bakra (birthday boy or girl). Besides using the cake, they use whole lot of stuff (almost whatever u can think of) e.g. egg, tomatoes, cream, vaseline, sprays and the list goes on. Occasionally, they give moderate treatment to the person if he is screaming or resisting too much. This is an exclusive style of Chem Cornellians to show their love and care for the person. I was spared to certain extent because it was my first b’day here and they didn’t want to scare me the very first time. But they warned me saying that its going to get worse from next time onwards.

There is no substitute for the parents and family back home. But these awesome Chem grad students make sure that the bakra shouldn’t miss his home. In other words, this splendid treatment makes the person feel really special and so did happen with me too today. Also, they take the b’day person out for dinner or lunch on the same day. From my previous experiences, it’s the b’day person who gives the treat to the rest of the group on this day; but in Ithaca the concept of b’day parties is completely opposite. So, its kinda unique. But I loved this style and looking forward for more to attend in future.