I couldn't agree more with the saying about the grass being greener on the other side than I do now.

When I was little all I wanted to do was become an adult. Now that I'm actually being given the "privilege" of being one, all I want to do is frantically turn back time somehow.

Being a kid is so much more easier. Not that I'm having a burdensome life as an adult. Life is going just right. But then I look at all my little cousins and nieces and nephews who are not-so-little-anymore and wonder how the heck everyone grew up so quickly. I guess I've just been cribbing for so long about being a child and not being taken seriously, that I haven't noticed that I've been given the chance to shut up now. Paradoxically I now want to indulge in baby-talk, be pampered, pinch people on restless impulse, act like a kindergarten kid....

The first shock came with a phone call to my cousin brother whom I haven't spoken to for around five years. No specific reason behind the silence, we'd just gotten out of touch. So when he called from Mumbai and asked for me, I expected a bratty little voice to say "Mish chechi, what you doing?" ("Mish" because he could somehow never say Nish). What I did hear, however, was this deep mature voice enquiring how Nish chechi was doing. And that too in the most well-behaved, polite voice I've ever heard in my entire life. I was so stunned. Absolutely stunned. My mum reminded me that he was a seventeeen year old young man now. Gosh. How very different from the little devil who repeatedly chased my brother and me around the house in red underwear, despite the fact that we were both older than him.

Shock number two came when the nephews from Orlando arrived. Gone are the energetic bright kids. Now they're tall strapping teenagers who have built their respective fortresses of awkwardness around themselves. The younger one's hairstyle is rather cute now, though. Black curly snake-like strands, about two inches long and giving him a cherubic appearance. I can just about picture girls his age "crushing" over him. Consequent surprises included discovering that my niece had grown taller and more quiet and that my baby nephew had started talking (wasn't he born very recently?)

Other than all this my cousin sister who used to latch herself onto me (literally!) has become extremely withdrawn. When I gently probe to know "whats up", she doesn't say anything except "nothing much" or "you won't understand". It wasn't too long ago that I'd said similar things to my mother. When I told mum she just sighed and said "it's the age". It IS the age indeed....

I feel old.

I'm contemplating saving up considerable amount of moolah. For my dentures, hearing aids...walking sticks....spectacles...the save-me-a-place-in-heaven-Lord pilgrimages...

And while I plan my exit formalities from good ol' Earth, you can fund the journey upto the exit stage.

Be generous.

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