The irony of having a twitter handle and blog alias like
Choti Mata (means little mother in Hindi. Purists will insist that it means
small pox. But Choti Mata has long lost the ability to pay attention to
inconvenient opinions) and writing about growing up is not lost on me. But personally,
2016 has been interestingly unsubtle in its constant reminders about the notion
of passage of time and the weirdly engaging ways age plays a role in how we
perceive life and its absurdities.
When I was young and by young I mean, very early twenties, a moonlit night was supposed to be spent on the
hostel roof top, staring at the stars, listening to melancholy mood music,
talking about deep philosophical questions and dealing with arbitrary
existential crises.
Now, when I am not that young…and by that I mean, really late twenties, a moonlit night,
when you are out on a camping trip is spent staring at the sky, spotting
constellations and wondering who the hell is Orion and why is he wearing a skirt?
For the uninitiated, Orion the Hunter is a constellation. It
is easy to spot and wears a skirt. A half skirt to be precise. It also offers
the kind of conversation starter that may be deemed to be extremely
inappropriate in polite settings.
Contrary to the popular opinion, growing up is not about being serious. It is in fact the
exact opposite. It is about learning to appreciate the absurdity of life with
humor and humility that only maturity can afford. It is about learning to bond
over the ridiculous, the inappropriate, the outrageous. It is about knowing
that existential crisis is a trap. That life is too short to muse over
questions that are unanswerable. That philosophy is important but not more than having fun. That a moonlit night is not an excuse to ponder over the
meaning of life or wallow in things that you can’t control. It is merely a
night to celebrate the fact that you do in fact have such a night in the first
place; an excuse to make rowdy jokes about benign stars and flash torches to
signal each other in Morse code that you never really learnt.
It is an excuse to live. To celebrate being alive.
There is a particular kind of pleasure in meeting people who
are candidates for quarter and mid life crisis but defy the very idea of it, choosing to use their wise heads to embrace their life instead.
It is an even greater pleasure to be one of those people.
Life is tough. Nobody promised otherwise. But to use
maturity as an excuse to stop living is terrible.
Angst is a great emotion. In fiction. In life, it just makes
things that are already very hard…much harder.
Leave your angst behind…where it belongs, with your teenage
self still staring at the stars from the hostel rooftop.
Keep the child in you alive…but do remember to kill the
teenager!
good blog runjhun.
ReplyDeleteit looks like u have decided to write blogs every quarterly.
yep, life needs to be lived in a light and humorous way instead of living seriously.
life is too short to waste by pondering over meaningless questions.
u write well but for me sometimes it bounces over my tiny brain.
have fun, well have a blast
Hey! Thanks a ton for your kind words. Also, I am trying to rectify the quarterly posting thing, now that I have (almost) take up writing full time! Please keep reading. You keep this blog alive! :)
ReplyDeleteI enjoy reading your blogs. You write on diverse topics and its good to read your take on them. keep them coming.
ReplyDelete