I am a student, and have been for the past 18 years. I've been one of those people who spend, correction please, splurge on my birthdays. That splurging usually happens with a lot of people, acquaintance mostly! Last year, I spent about 9k (Indian Rupees) on my birthday party. For the record, I do not freelance. All the money that I have been splurging have been my savings from my father's pocket or my scholarship (Now that I've written it down, it sounds so irresponsible). I've been doing this for the past 6 years and even though I knew this ain't what I want, I did it anyhow (mostly because the influences of TV). But this time I thought I'd do something which does not involve partying (in the mainstream way).

I did splurge a lot this time too, but on things that I wanted to do, for a long time. I spent my birthday alone.

My 'birth'day started out late because I wasn't sure if I actually wanted to do this. So I looked up places, online, to go to for about 2-3 hours. Finally I thought, chuck it, if it goes bad, then be it! At least I'll know that it doesn't work for me.

I booked an Ola prime, because why not?! and headed towards Title waves which is a apparently a very popular bookstore in Bandra with a good comic collection.

I'd read about it so much that in my mind I had built this imaginary, fabulous picture of the bookstore, which of course it didn't turn out to be so. But their comic book collection is one that I haven't seen anywhere else in Mumbai. I spent 2 hours only at the comic collection pillar and finally bought 2 comics. One was Suicide Squad,Volume 3:Death is for suckers for Rs.899/- and the second one was a manga, One piece, volume 85, Liar for Rs.499/-. These became my first ever purchase of comic books and now they've been written down in history (by history, I mean this blog post which probably no one is going to read).

I was so happy after buying those comics that I blindly started walking down the roads in Bandra and wandered for about an hour after which I realized that I was hungry. I started looking for cafes but all, all of them were so full of people and I thought it would be awkward to sit in the middle of the crowd and eat alone (still working on this...).

So I kept walking and walking and I reached Jogger's park in Bandra which was about 3kms from Title waves. I sat down on the side and saw the waves hitting the rocks and I thought, this day couldn't have been better (cheesy? yeah, but the sea has a way of making you feel a certain way, and you're reading my blog, so deal with it!)

After that I went to carter road to eat something. Bought a shawarma and a bubble tea (green apple with cranberry bubbles is not that bad) and sat on the palladium on the seas side, and O boy! The guard uncle was so pissed. I didn't know that you aren't allowed to eat there. Uncle made me realize how uneducated I am and that I was somehow wanted to trouble him by my actions. He didn't stop scolding me until I vanished from his vicinity.

Anyhow, the sun had set and I thought, what now? I can't end my birthday at 7 in the evening! (My inner party animal character that had evolved over years didn't want me to quit so early). I opened BookMyShow and booked the closest stand-up show that was available and in the next hour I found myself here.

The Habitat was on my bucket list for so long. I've watched so many acts online that were shot here. That letter 'H'! I knew our destinies had to cross one another someday. There were three acts that night; Dattaprasad, Neelaksh Mathur and Sumaira Shaikh (go watch her, she's a-m-a-z-i-n-g). One thing about watching a stand-up siting on the first row in a room with only 10 people is that you'll have a great time being picked up by the comics (kya batau kya feel aati hai, kar k dekho..acha lagta hai).

Annnnndddd....that wast a wrap for the day! As scary as it got, I had all the good memories to think about when I reached back to my room and a feeling of accomplishment that I did it, finally!