"BIRTHDAY GIRL"

At 29, the concept of New Year's resolutions can seem as mythical as Santa Claus himself. Nevertheless, there's one promise I consistently make to myself every January: to immerse myself more in the world of writing and reading.

This year, I didn't pick up my first book until the first week of March (January and February were officially the trial months for 2024). It was an impulsive buy on Blinkit, yes, the platform where you buy your chakna. I stumbled upon a Murakami book "BIRTHDAY GIRL" for just 99 rupees (what a steal!), so I decided to order it. For those unfamiliar, Haruki Murakami is a renowned Japanese author known for his unique style and genre.

I expected the book to be a hefty read, similar to the Kafka one I had previously bought but regrettably lost during my first solo trip to Bangalore in 2016. I never read a page of it (reading while traveling is a myth for me— is it the same for you?). However, to my surprise, after 15 minutes, all I received was a pocketbook containing 50 pages, which I managed to finish in less than 30 minutes.

Despite its brevity, being a Murakami work, I knew it would be mind-boggling, and it certainly lived up to its reputation. The short story was incredibly gripping, but its open ending left me pondering its meaning. Of course, my immediate reaction was to Google it, delving into explanations on Quora and Reddit, but I couldn't find a satisfying conclusion. The ambiguity of the ending still leaves me feeling uneasy.

Let me summarize the plot for you before I delve into my interpretations and learnings. The story revolves around a 19-year-old waitress who had plans to take a leave on her 20th birthday eve. However, due to the other part-time girl falling sick, she ends up working. Due to unforeseen circumstances, she is tasked with delivering food to the restaurant owner's room for the first time, which is a huge deal since no one except for the manager has ever seen his face.

The owner asks her to join in a conversation while receiving the food, and in the middle of that conversation, he learns that it's her 20th birthday eve. He asks her to make a wish, which he promises to grant as a birthday gift. She paused for a moment, trying to understand if he was joking or serious, and then decided to go with the flow.

He thought she might have wanted to be prettier, smarter, or richer. The girl didn’t wish for any of these:

“Of course, I’d like to be prettier, smarter, or richer. But I really can’t imagine what would happen to me if any of those things came true. They might be more than I could handle. I still don’t really know what life is all about. I don’t know how it works.”

He says that her wish has been granted, and the story ends with a scenic explanation of her present life, which includes an Audi, a house, a husband, and kids. She is happy and is narrating the incident to someone close. The wish is never revealed, of course. And while the present-day conversation drops some hints, the ending leaves you wondering what she wished for.

There have been a lot of interpretations on the internet, and the most common and accurate one seems to be that she wished for all her wishes to come true in the future, explaining the lovely life she is living.

But what caught my attention were three things:

Firstly, the fact that she believes that since it's her 20th birthday, something extraordinary is bound to happen, and she believes the man. This tells so much about human psychology; even if we are alone, working far from home without our family or friends, the idea that "it's my birthday today, something miraculous is going to happen" persists.

Secondly, the unpredictability of life yet the planning of the universe becomes evident in this narrative. If her friend hadn't taken the day off, if her manager hadn't fallen sick (which had never happened in the years of her working there), the events wouldn't have unfolded as they did. Life's twists and turns are often beyond our control, shaping our lives in ways we could not have imagined. It all worked out for her as if the universe had conspired.

Thirdly, there is a quote that caught my attention and left me wondering what it meant: "No matter how far they go, people can never be anything but themselves."

As with the book, I leave the ending of this blog open for interpretations of this quote.