I am staring at 30. Ok, not mentally but still. For a moment I can’t believe it is true. However, each seemingly harmless but vicious “Birthday bump” is reminding me with great alacrity that “Times running, nay flying, probably zooming and your sell-by date is almost up.”
I look back… didn’t see anything noteworthy and turned around again. Didn’t see anything particularly bright lying ahead and went into a virtual trance. Birthdays never made me over joyous and particularly so when someone else was happier than me that I was born.
By this time, sumptuous portions of a wonderful cake had been wasted on my half-smiling, half-quizzical face; supposedly to decorate it. Electronic gadgetry had been put to good use to capture this paddle-back to primitivism and embarrass me later.
Roomies wished me and all turned back to their beds. As I lay pondering, I realized it is us that accords meanings to actions. Normally someone kicking me would have been subject to a similar fate at my hands but here I was smiling, somehow avoiding those brutal swaggers. I hardly ever waste food; sometimes even lick stuff of the table and here I was letting a whole big cake slice being wasted completely. I viewed the entire thing in a different light as I knew it was a friendly act. There was immense warmth in the barbaric nature of the celebrations. I guess this is how animals evolve. They realize what’s good for them. I guess that’s why something as gory as hunting suggests immense love of the female tiger for her cub.
I guess… some things don’t have rationale. They are accepted as part of their tokenism, however misplaced it might be. I guess that’s why every little step we depict by actions such as opening of the pass to Pakistan, buying global steel firms, signing the 123 deal and so on and so forth, even though symbolic suggests a far superior self-confident nation. India, widely tipped to be a disaster has not only avoided the gore of its formation but has handsomely carved out a place of eminence in the golbal spectrum today. WE matter, as a country and as individuals.
I am glad I am approaching half the age of India. I would be thrilled if I turn out half as mature and self-confident an individual as my motherland is.
