Of Growing Up .... And Still Not Wanting To Grow Up!

If it weren't for cockroaches, I'd choose to retire in a beach house. 

On our recent trip to Thailand, The Husband and I were talking about where we'd like to build our retirement home. He picked icy mountains and me, the beach. What began as a harmless discussion soon avalanched into a heated discussion of where the retirement house actually would be. There's nothing that spells 3 years of marriage as much as these avalanched arguments do! Very soon there were defenses flying in from both ends, memories being brought alive from previous trips to the mountains and the beaches, each one wanting a desperate one-up against the other and then when all tricks were exhausted, The Husband came up with the last standing nuke in his arsenal - the C bomb!

"There'd be cockroaches all over your beach house, by the way.", he smiled. "It's a tropical country problem", he continued. It was just the morning after we were attacked by a huge cockroach in our hotel room and after scaring me, hid somewhere in the room, not to be found, leaving me to sleep completely covered under the blanket, lest the big brown monster attacked me in my sleep. And this won The Husband the retirement home. 

And I gave him the nastiest stare I could manage. He was right. He knew it and I knew it. He burst out laughing and I conceded to the mountain home, albeit one that overlooks the sea!  Yes, castles of Scotland would be apt, I know. We're open to accepting donations for our retirement home. PayTM accepted happily. Heck, if you really want to donate, I'll even accept the old 500/1000 notes!

It's just funny how some things don't change even when you grow up. 

Just like how I still need to show my ID proof even at 28! There was a time, when I really wished people stopped asking for my ID proof. It was embarrassing enough to be stopped at a casino at 24 when my 16 year old cousins would waltz past me, roaring with laughter. I even thought that there might be a police raid at my wedding and my Dad would have to show my birth certificate to prove the marriage is between legal aged people! Thankfully none of this melodrama happened at the wedding. So, digressions apart, from 24, an age, where one really wants be considered older than what they are, you suddenly cross the invisibly scary Quarter Life Crisis Line of 25 and all hell breaks loose. Till this line, all marketers are making a bee-line to woo you. After crossing this line, its all anti-aging creams and hair color brands promising 100% gray coverage chasing you. Yes, so you're in this why-did-I-grow-up/I-still-want-to-be-18/24 zone and a bouncer outside a pub asks you for your ID proof and you feel 18 all over again! Your happiness will know no bounds. This bouncer would have made your day with just one line - that you still look 18 or younger! So all the anger you had on all the bouncers who'd previously asked you for an ID proof vanishes in a minute and you have new found positive feeling towards them!

As for people who're wondering about the kind of brands behind women nearing 30 and 3 years married, please have a look at the pic below. 

Yes, showing are-you-pregnant/are-you-wanting-to-get-pregnant ads are so passe. Thank you Google, for acting like a nosy relative!

It's all a part of growing up, I guess. But as we're growing up, I feel society's evolving in reverse. No, I'm not referring to the kinds of ads shown to me, I'm over it. I'm referring to chat conversations of today, where words have been so easily replaced with emojis. Especially when The Husband does that, when what you're really expecting is a nice 3 paragraph reply and all you get is a smile smiley. It drives you nuts! I mean come on, how difficult is it to type, we don't even have the press-thrice-for-a-letter Nokia phones anymore! Our ancestors took millions of years to evolve from cave paintings to words and language, and we've so easily evolved back to cave paintings in a conversations via emojis! I think all husbands should definitely stop using them. Immediately. For Evolution's sake, if not their wives. I hardly think Husbands would do it for Evolution too, maybe if they got Dhoni's captaincy back in return, they'd do it! Men, phew!

This was my small bit to humankind and Evolution, this return to blogging. Hoping to seeing you'll more often :)

Let me know what you think!

P.S - sent the link to The Husband for what he thought of the new post. Guess what I got as a reply? Yes, a smiley 😊. There's no hope left for Humankind. Evolution in Reverse has begun!

Of Growing Up and .... Getting Married

You're growing old and looking for prospective grooms/about to get married/frustrated with your friend's changed relationship status and couple pics. That's a fact.

But it doesn't hit you when you shift your cribbing focus from men (this cribbing topic is for keeps for life, age no bar!) to the meaninglessness of life. Doesn't hit you when it's been years since you completed your post graduation. Doesn't even hit you when your classmates get married, have babies. Doesn't hit you when people whom you once cribbed about men to, are getting married. Doesn't even hit when you're own best buds tell you they're getting married. This in fact gets you more excited about life! It doesn't hit when you're busy getting wasted at her bachelorette party. Doesn't hit when you're getting engaged yourself. You think it'll hit you when the time comes for you to act like a daughter in law along with being a daughter and balance both, it doesn't hit you even then. You know you're growing old but it just plain refuses to sink in.

Then one day your Dad comes home with overpriced mangoes and tells your mom to feed you 4 mangoes a day because this is your last mango season at home and it hits you. More potent than a neat vodka shot. That you're getting married ... You're not getting old, but have actually become old.

You ask your best friend a week before her wedding what she's doing and she says she's packing. And you count the days left for you to start packing 24 years of your life in a few suitcases and move on to call another house as your own.

And all we wanted to do when we were young, playing with and getting our Barbies married, was to grow up and get married! And now when we are, it refuses to sink it, it's difficult to let go...

The heroine of my blog is getting married next week to be the heroine of someone else's life. Aanchal, wish you a lifetime and beyond of happiness. And P.S, barring a few days when I couldn't make it for your sangeet's dance practice, we successfully averted Bride Wars!

Of Growing Up and Twilight, Harry Potter and Other Casualties

There was a time when I was crazy about the Twilight series. And by crazy, I mean the mad crazy levels where one needs rehab. And I have written about it too! But then between finishing reading the series almost 3 years back and now, a lot of growing up has happened, which makes you laugh at your once-upon-a-time choices. It started last year when I saw Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 1 with a friend who had no clue about the Twilight series and and when I explained the story, the look I got from my friend was like was well, rather not be explained! Obviously, what would you get when you tell a person that you were crazy behind a book who's story was about a love triangle between a vampire, a human and a werewolf. And the human chooses the vampire over to werewolf and the dejected werewolf turns into a pedophile falling for the human and vampire's kid! Yes, it sounds funny, but read the books. They would make you want to get rehab! They're so addictive. Anyways, so since I was over Twilight, I thought I'd see the last installment of the series, Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 only to laugh about it. And laugh on me. The movie was strictly ok. Because there was only Bella in it and so less of Edward Cullen. Who wants to watch Twilight for Bella?! And in the middle of cursing the director for too much of Bella (I was wondering if Kristen Stewart had an affair with this director too. Does this sound like I read a lotta tabloids... Damn!) yeah, so digressions apart, amidst wondering why I liked Twilight at all, there came this song in the last 5 mins wherein they showed a flashback of all the 4 movies, and my long lost love for Edward and Twilight resurfaced with full force! Ah! Old romances do die hard! There's just something about 'forever' that make women go weak in their knees. Maybe that's why the diamond companies position diamonds as things that are there forever!

Growing up has a lot of casualties. Like one was not liking Twilight anymore. Another is that you stop sugar coating your words while giving advice. Have too many close friends dealing with 5-6 years of relationships breaking down. So earlier, when hope, faith, be positive would do the trick, you're now telling them to just accept that it's over and move on. People find it weird to listen to it from a person who believed in YRF romances and Twilight of course! Well, growing up does that to you. Changes your outlook in life. But, sometimes life isn't a bed of roses. Sometimes, to cure a wound, you just need to have a firm hand, cut and suture. Like a surgeon. (Yes, there's too much of Grey's Anatomy in my blood right now. You can't blame me. McDreamy is hot. Denny was hotter, though. They should have taken a better looking Meredith! Just like how Top Gun would've been much better with a better looking actress.)

Also, SRK had sent out a nice tweet which I feel is very true when Yash Chopra passed away, which was something like, when someone dies, a part of you dies with that person. Well, that's kinda true. Not just with death. With every person who was there in your life at one point and isn't there anymore, that person takes a part of you with him/her while leaving. A part of you kinda dies. Not in a very creepy Horcrux way though. (Horcrux what? Well, oh yeah, I 've been a Harry Potter fan too :P) 

I read this interesting article about being in your 20s. And there was this one point that was so freaking true. It goes like 'You’re going to lose touch with a lot of your friends. With some people, it will be expected but with others it will feel like a punch to the stomach. No friendship is truly safe in your twenties. You’re undergoing so many personal and professional changes that there’s bound to be some casualties along the way. Don’t worry though. You’ll end up with the ones that matter. If someone’s no longer in your life, it’s for a reason.'  And this practically sums up your friends equation between beginning your life in 20s and ending it. And I'm in the first half of 20s and already scared at the rate we're losing touch with friends.

I had been to a friend's engagement sometime last week and I just remarked to another friend that how when we were studying together, 5 years back we knew what our friend's other friends are upto and now, we barely know what happening with our friends. At least some of them inform you about their impending weddings/engagements, for the others, you're left at Facebook's mercy! I dread the day when a friend would invite for for their wedding through an invite on Facebook!

Enough serious thoughts for a Sunday evening! Time to listen to A Thousand Years from Twilight again and getting lost into Twilight again :) Brings back sweet memories of the past. Craziness was fun. Anyone game for watching the series again next weekend over popcorn and girly giggles for Edward? Do send me an invite on Facebook :P

Hope reading this blog today was as good as reading this blog back in 2008-09 :) Do let me know. Can do with some ego massage :P