Touching Twenty

With many of us being at the foothills of Mount Twenty, we look back on our innocent childhood and our not-so-innocent teens. The teenage years are about to end and we are going to be called ( ughhh.... ) over-the-hill.


My friend and I were returning from a book signing event we had attended. The auto-rickshaw was powering on with a low hum when, all of a sudden, he let loose the depressing deliberation. "We are going to be twenty. TWENTY! "

Sure enough, those words made both of us contemplative. Will the trimming of our hair or the removal of the goatee reduce a year or two; or will it not; or did it matter, anyway? Life will go on, whether we shed a few strands or not. Time and tide wait for no man, unless it's a group going by the name of The Beatles.

The childhood memories seem to be the fondest; when you thought over and over again why you couldn't locate heaven and hell on the world map and why people say something in front of someone, and the complete opposite behind his/her back. Life used to be a lot less complicated when girls were, well, you know, just girls.

With the onset of adolescence, the creative juices started to flow ( Did I italicize 'juices'? My bad. ). Girls became girls and what you wore and how you looked mattered more than whether an asteroid was going to hit the earth, all the while still believing it was your oyster. The fun you had with friends and alienation from your parents,  are what would be written on the address boards of the memory lanes.

Then, you stepped into your late teens, when you realized you're unique, just like everyone else is and the world is not anyone's oyster. Your parents are going to stick with you when you cross the highest of the mountains and especially the lowest of the valleys. Not all friends are there without a reason and almost everyone comes with a list of conditions and a set of rules and regulations. You strived to make this world a better place to live in; only the world turned on you and punctured your goodwill.

With these thoughts giving you a dizzy head, you are going to turn twenty. Let us see if you are up for life's practicals.