V.E.T.O

I have just returned from my hometown Indore. After being away from familiar faces and warmth of OUR people i decided to soak myself in some affection, dal baati, garam jalebi and rain and went home for 10days. My friends were perhaps never more excited to see me as they were this time and understandably so coz i am the only one who has ever been part of a film crew from all the people they know closely! I feel proud yes, and i also feel very humbled by the love and affection they showered. Frankly i also loved all the attention i got from my friends this time ;-)

I went to my old office.. (that's where all my friends are still) and Deepta merrily ignored me coz she dint expect me to be there. And also i was roasted 3rd degree for even my family to recognise me. Anyway, she walked past me and dint notice me... and when she did she was overjoyed and surprised. We shouted and screamed and hell broke loose in office. We are both insanely close to 30 now and all this is not usual with 'other people' our age. So we are usually laughed at but who cares! Charu and i still baby talk and our language for 'other people' is a bit far from understandable. We dont care. Our bunch of friends are anywhere between the age of 20 to 25. I know... very young... but that's the latest demographics of this country. We are left wondering where have all the 28-30 year olds gone???

VETO, we refuse to grow up. Every time i meet them i feel i am their age or i haven't grown up yet. We are all alike. I know what will happen when all my friends will meet. I know what would have happened when they recently had a reunion that i unfortunately couldnt attend. Our jokes haven't changed since 1920 and we still laugh at sahu's 1780 crore, danny's funny mails, JD's sad pj's, Pranavs potty jokes, deeptas lack of interest in normal life, charu's desi punches and we all crack up at the mention of each others names! Our jokes have been the same for ages now... i wonder how we still are amused by it.

We are all basically children at heart. We have all refused to grow up and for the world we may look like a mature bunch of achievers but deep down we are all stuck in a time warp that doesn't allow us to age. Its like archies comics... where everybody for the entire life has been 17-22 years old, or may be lesser. We have all crossed the age bar where people look at us as adults. Some of us are married, some have kids as well. But when we are together we are no less than kids!

I dont know if its good or bad to not grow up. I dont know if its odd to not accept your age, coz at heart we are all kids and as they say there is a kid in all of us waiting to get out. I still do things that amaze people around me when that kids comes out suddenly. I break into a dance suddenly may be... i would be obstinate may be at certain occassions... make unreasonable demands... but hey! who cares... we all want to be kids once again for some time atleast in our lives. We all have the same energy and enthusiam as a 20 year old around us would have and which is why perhaps we are friends with them even though we are a whole 2 generations apart!

I do feel a little awkward sometimes when i look around and see there 20 somethings doing things their age demands, saying things they ought to say... i do feel like one old banyan tree amidst all there fresh bunch of roses. I also feel tremendously old when i find myself totally in the company of 20's like i was the only one born in the year i was born, in the whole wide world. So lonely!

We refuse to grow up. We don't even know what growing up is actually. As long as we are happy in each other's company and as long as our zeal for life remains, we decline to grow up.