A friend was recently invited to attend the birthday celebrations of the one-year-old child of his friend. This was not the traditional first birthday ceremony with the priest invoking all the Gods to bless the child. This was a Paaartyyy!! There was a designer birthday cake depicting a football field (parents must be into football). There were foreigners dressed as clowns to entertain the guests (of all ages) with skits and games.

This got me wondering as to what the one-year-old birthday baby must have made of his party. He must surely have been pretty annoyed at being passed on from one strange adult to another to have his person squeezed, kissed and pinched. He definitely does not appreciate a skit. Nor can the little guy participate in the games. He must have experienced some trauma due to the presence of alien beings (the foreign clowns) at his home, which so far had been a safe place. And who are all those screaming goons tearing around his territory?

And the lovely football field cake? All the birthday baby gets of that is a teeny-weeny taste. The rest of the food would have definitely been beyond his digestive capabilities. So at the end of this mega party celebrating the successful completion of his one year on planet Earth, the kid has no idea as to what happened. Who were those people, why were they there and is he ever going to cherish memories of the party. So what was the point of the whole exercise? After mulling over that question I have come up with the only plausible answer - maybe, just maybe, it's an early lesson in altruism for the more privileged one-year-olds - all for the benefit of the guests who attended.