It may seem a weird question but what exactly celebration means to you?

Many a times friends and acquaintances have invited me to some sort of celebration event. But when I ask them how would they want to celebrate, I'd mostly get similar responses every time. Some would say to drink hard with some non-veg or sea-food and party until late night, others would love to have a lavish dinner at some high-end fine dining restaurant. Some even like to indulge in dance bars and spend time with paid sex-workers . To some, gifts, sweets and shopping is part of the celebration.

Birthdays and anniversaries involve cake-cutting ceremony and having some fun game together.

Do you know any more ways to celebrate a day or event?

Most of these offers don't appeal me. I don't love drinking alcohol or smoking stuff, so that option is not a celebration for me. Taking a dinner out is also not possible with me as I don't take meals after Sunset. Eating out is also not preferred by me as I don't eat commercially prepared meals as far as possible. Sex and dance bars can't lure me as I ain't interested in these activities. Sweets, gifts and shopping all looks superfluous to me as I'm a minimalist.

And if somebody wants to invite me to their home for a simple meal together, it isn't any different for me than eating a meal at my own home.

No doubt that most people get puzzled after my reactions and don't know how to celebrate with me. I normally accompany them to wherever they want, to make them happy but I see all these a waste of time, energy and money.

Cake cutting ceremony is not an Indian culture

I can tell you that in my 44 years of existence on this planet, I've never cut a birthday cake. But strangely, my birthday keep coming to me every year 😉. When I was a child, I asked my mother to not to do anything special for my birthday. I wasn't interested to celebrate it.

Nevertheless, my mother always want to do something even if it wasn't too grand. It was my birthday earlier this week. So for about a month she was asking me what sweet should she prepare for my birthday. As usual, I told her not to do anything. Finally, she came up with two simple options for me - either she will prepare some kaju katli (cashew cakes) or kheer (porridge). When I understood that she is going to do something anyhow, I explicitly told her that I'm not interested in ingesting any refined sugar. So sweets are not a possibility.

Now how can a birthday be celebrated without any sweets! Is it really not possible?

Perhaps not, as sweets have become an integral part of any celebrations and festivities. So my mother prepared the kheer without sugar. As a sweetener, she added jaggery syrup to it. And since I'm vegan, obviously that kheer wasn't prepared from any dairy milk. For those who are wondering, it was prepared from freshly made almond milk.

Of course, the dish was delicious and I ate a lot!

But my point is why do we need to celebrate special occasions? And what should be the right way to celebrate?

For me, whole life is a celebration. Every moment is an invaluable gift.

Celebrations tend to involve some change from the routine life.
But when you celebrate some special moments, it assumes that those celebration moments will be happier moments and rest of the time, you were less happy or living a sad and gloomy life. Unless you are living a boring and dull life that makes you sad, celebrations can't make you happier!

Planned and momentary celebrations can infuse some amount of happiness in you but will certainly followed by more misery and sorrow. Without misery, happiness can't exist.

This brings me to the conclusion that most of the world is in a state of misery. Most of us are always excitedly looking for an invitation to some celebration. But if you are already happy, what can an event of celebration do for you?

This is the reason, instead of looking for special celebrations and fun times, we should crave for a lasting blissful state. If you are constantly in a bliss, misery or happiness can't move you.

• Have you ever thought about this issue?
  What did you gather?