Happy Birthday to Mirinda!

Our second day in Jumla happened to be my birthday. We were settled in our rooms at Pooja Pattarasi Hotel in Chautara where we were to be based for the first half of shooting. This is also my Jumla family, the people and community that I have forged bonds with over the past year and a half. We had the warmest welcome when we arrived and were covered in garlands of marigolds and red tikas across our foreheads as soon as we arrived in the village.

My birthday was our first full day of shooting and the first time that I felt like I was actually ‘directing’. We were up at the crack of dawn to shoot Rama’s morning routine and the day wound round the twists of village activities from there. Rama was also making a buckwheat cake for me, so of course, we shot that too. By the evening, we’d been shooting for over twelve hours and now the festivities were getting underway.

I didn’t really know what to expect as I was under the impression that people don’t really celebrate birthdays here, but that was certainly not the case. The upstairs room where we held the training in May was set up with a table and my birthday cake with what seemed like far too many candles on it. On the white board behind, in big letters ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MIRINDA’ and the date. A chair placed like a throne at the table with a cloth over it and I was ushered into my seat facing the room of smiling faces seated on benches and chairs.

Everyone started clapping and I was instructed to light my candles. Rama had to come to assist me as it was taking me so long to light them all. And all the while, the clapping continued. Eventually my cake was ablaze, I made a wish and blew and a garbled rendition of Happy Birthday to You was sung. All very birthday and incredibly sweet. What I wasn’t expecting was what came next. One by one, everyone in the room came to wish me happy birthday, giving me a red tika in ever increasing smudges on my forehead and cutting a piece of cake and feeding it to me. I soon realised that I was supposed to also feed them a slice. Soon half my face was red and half the cake was gone – half of it in my tummy.

Singing and dancing followed and then the rakshi was brought up. More singing, more food. It was a really special birthday. The effort everyone made was incredibly moving and half the village came to wish me well. I don’t think such a fuss has been made of my birthday in a long time. Combining the evening’s festivities with the full day of shooting, when I went to bed, I knew I would sleep well. It was a wonderful day. And I was a director.