तू कितने बरस का? The Confusion about Date of Birth

“When the Supreme Court eventually decided that the Army Chief is actually going to be 60 this year though he will not really be 60 years old, it was a mature decision from a wise judiciary which knew how messy it would get if it went into documentation arguments” Jigneshbhai declared as we were having our coffee last weekend.

I thought he was right in saying so, but Swami did not seem to agree.

But more than Swami, there was a lot of talk from our adjoining table which had a lot of senior citizens today.

One of the senior citizens seated there was disappointed.

“When he is saying he was born in 1951, how can they say that he was born in 1950 because the army records say so? Army records recorded the wrong date of birth” he complained.

“There are so many people who have this problem in our generation” he continued. “At that time there was no municipality. Even I have two dates of birth; one in June and another in December of the same year.”

Another senior citizen next to him, close to 70 and probably his elder brother, joined the conversation.

“Yes, when he was born, all that everyone remembers is that it was a day of fast and everyone was on a fast.” As he dug out the story from his memory, I could see a smile on his face. “Now which fast it was, no one knows for sure. So they got two certificates made later, one for the fast in June, another for the fast in December.”

I heard a loud bout of laughter after this story. Date of birth seemed like a common topic of complain in the senior citizen gang. Now a third senior citizen started. “Everyone had told me that I was born on a Holi, but no one bothered to note the date. So they kept celebrating my birthday on Holi every year, only to find out when I was five that my date of birth was required for school admission. So then they back calculated.” And he laughed heartily.

Another friend out there told stories of some relative’s father changing his date of birth from a date in 1946 to some date in 1947, because the government had announced some benefits for children born around independence.

Today, Jigneshbhai, Swami and I were doing all the listening while having our coffee. Not that we were complaining, as it was quite entertaining.

Jigneshbhai and I thought it was a problem only faced by the senior citizens. But then our very own Swami started his birth certificate woes.

“My birth certificate says one thing and my school leaving certificate says something else. So my entire education recorded the school leaving certificate’s date as his date of birth.”

Swami’s date of birth did not end there.

“It was fine for a while. But then I had to apply for a passport many years back, for which I had to submit my birth certificate and graduation certificate, both of which showed different dates.”

When I asked him what he did, Swami explained. “Well, they asked me to go back to the municipality in which I was born and get the date of birth corrected on my birth certificate, based on my school leaving certificate, and some affidavit from my hospital of birth.”

“So now you know how things go awry” Swami continued in full fervour. Now the senior citizens at the next table had also got interested in his story.

“Getting an affidavit some 25 years after my birth did not sound like an encouraging or a realistic proposition. Obviously, so I got a passport done with my date of birth on my birth certificate.”

And then his story continued. He needed an election voter’s card, which listed school leaving certificate as one of the many documents accepted. I wasn’t there in the country then, and so my wife submitted the school leaving certificate.

“So they put my school leaving certificate’s date as my date of birth on the voter ID card.”

So I asked him what does he do, with two different official birth dates?

“I use them based on convenience and whatever works.”

And Jigneshbhai, Swami and I had a hearty laugh joined in by the senior citizens from the next table. Swami said that he always wondered what to do about these two dates of birth that he has on government records.

The wealthy old man had joined the senior citizen gang at their table. He left us with sound advice over which we had another hearty laugh.

“Do what this guy does” he said pointing to one of his 70 plus friends. “Thank God that there is no confusion about your name. And celebrate your birthday twice a year!”