Who is to be paid respect to on your birthday?

Today was a birthday of one of my Indian relatives. Acording to Indian traditions, they bow to elders (especially to parents) on this occasion in order to seek their blessings. As long as nowadays relatives may live in other cities or even countries, they call them and make a bow over the phone.When people bow to the elder they utter something which means “I bow to you” or “Bowing to you”in their own language. For example, in Gujarati it translates to Page Laagu Chhu.The common words that comes as a reply means “Many blessings to you”  or “May you always be happy” in Gujarati it translates to Khub khub aasheervad and Khub khush raho respectively. On personal meeting a gift may follow after the blessings, usually in the form of money, then the total sum should not end in "0", thus one coin is always there. When my husband was a small boy on the day of his birthday he started  early from home to visit all his elder relatives to get as much such "blessings"  as possible.