Thanks for your kind wishes

This morning as soon as my daughter and I arrived her school she walked straight to her teacher and whispered something to her. The teacher then came to me smiling and said “Happy birthday”. I was taken aback even as I answered “thank you”. Again, as I drove off to work my phone rang, so I pulled by the side of the road to answer. It was another surprising birthday wish from my wife who sounded very pleased. I was confused. Then as I reached the university and walked to my department I received yet another phone call. This time I heard Imam say “Abba…me, Ni’ima and Umma wish you many more happy birthdays.” It suddenly occurred to me something was really wrong. By my calculation today is 5th of February and I know I was born on the sixth day of a February. But here am I getting birthday wishes from every member of my family a day before what I thought was my birthday. I quietly walked into the office laboring my mind with this thought but sought diversion by signing in to Facebook and behold! Loads of kind birthday messages from friends. It was then I realized everyone but me just couldn’t be wrong. So I quickly reached for the calendar and discovered to my complete shocker that today is actually the 6th day of February 2013. I know this is really weird but I have just missed my birthday even though the good elderly Hendersons were so kind enough to mail me a birthday card yesterday. I know it is unbelievable, but this is for real! I missed it. My only excuse is I have been under very serious pressure. Assessment feedbacks/marks for semester 1 were due yesterday, in time for external examiner’s scrutiny this week. There were several other deadlines including journal articles to be peer-reviewed and conference papers to complete. Plus I have just relocated to Coventry and everything seems unfamiliar and chaotic. This is what pressure has done to me (although it gave wifey and kids the perfect opportunity to hand in all the surprises – Ni’ima and Imam’s hand-made cards and wifey’s present etc). But without you all it would have been a different story. I SAY A VERY BIG THANK YOU. I am humbled.

This was written on Wednesday 6/2/13.