A few days ago, newspapers greeted us with full-page ads, all vying to outdo one another in wishing the PM on his birthday. We also watched lavish celebrations and wondered whether we were still a democracy—or whether we had quietly slipped into some ancient monarchy.

Streets were decorated, speeches thundered, and sycophants gushed as if the nation itself had been born on that day.

Now, don't get me wrong. Every birthday is a milestone. Seventy-five is no small feat, especially in a country where life expectancy often struggles to reach those numbers. But should the birthday of a leader, however tall, be turned into a national spectacle?

Isn't it the Republic we swore to honour, not one individual within it?

Democracy, as I learnt in dusty civics classrooms, rests on a simple truth: no man is greater than the system. Leaders are not owners; they are caretakers—temporary custodians of the Constitution. They come, they go, but the Constitution remains.

To elevate one person above the system, even for a day, is to send the wrong signal—that loyalty to a man is greater than loyalty to the nation.

Imagine if Modi, on his 75th, had chosen differently. A quiet day of service. A hospital visit without cameras. A lunch with farmers, not photo ops. A whispered prayer, not a booming rally. That would have been a masterstroke—true humility wrapped in silence. The sort of gesture that lingers longer than fireworks.

But sadly, our Indian leaders love fanfare: we love to clap louder, make our garlands bigger, and the cake taller, with posters stretching from one lamp post to the next.

And yes, we, the citizens, are also to blame. By cheering birthdays as if they were Independence Day, we blur the line between servant and master.

I say leave the grand shows for the days that belong to the nation: August 15th and January 26th. Those are the days worth parades and fireworks. Days when we celebrate the birth of India's freedom and the birth of her Constitution. The rest, whether it's Modi at 75 or any leader at 80, should be marked with dignity, simplicity, and humility.

Because, let's be honest, the louder the music at a leader's birthday, the weaker the message of democracy becomes. The bigger the cut-outs, the smaller the confidence. It is almost as if the candles on the cake are meant to distract us from the cracks in the system.

So here's my birthday wish for every leader, not just Modi: Blow out your candles if you must, but don't blow out the light of democracy. For while birthdays come once a year, the Republic must breathe every single day...