Research shows that around 80% of 26 year olds are already married/engaged (No worries, I will hold the Bachelor fort for another couple of years at the very least!). Of this, at least 43% are parents. This is a completely different world compared to 25 year olds where a majority are still single! In case you happen to be one of the few singles in this age group, you'd realize that your parents and relatives begin conversations with you with the sentence "Its time you settled down" or "There is this good girl that we've come across" or "We are old people now… If you make us wait any longer we'll not be able to help out in your wedding". (In my case, one of my cousins has already warned me that if she catches hold of me in any family function, she'd get me engaged on the spot…)
26-year old is also a different world as far as conversations are concerned. While the conversations among 25-year olds centre on girls, or cars/bikes or gizmos, us 26 year olds talk about health, pension, family, loans, diseases, gas, constipation and what not! Our conversations begin with the sentence "Do you remember in 1995…." or "Those were the days…" or "When I was young…." etc etc. We relish in talking about the plethora of diseases that haunt our bodies and the millions of ayurvedic or grandma's medicines that can turn us back to 25. We tend to laugh at the younger lot, while secretly wishing it was they who'd aged and not us!
Anyways, my Budday week happened to be a memorable one. I happened to be in Kolkata on 17th, which was the day when it seemed that the 2012 phenomenon had arrived a little before time. The entire city was deluged and there was knee deep water all around. I needed to collect some bills since I had to return to Monghyr the next day and hence waded in knee and ankle deep water from Loudon street to Camac street and back with non-stop rains. When it was time to catch a cab to go to the railway station, drivers flatly refused saying that Howrah was inundated. For 30 minutes, as the invisible Sun set before my eyes, with water all around and the rain Gods refusing to chill (!) I stood in knee deep water outside Loudon street frantically trying to hire a cab. Some cabs wouldn't stop, others would splash water on me and still others would move on with a sickening grin plastered on their faces. I was mentally prepared for another adventure in Kolkata when one cab driver stopped and agreed to take me to Howrah for a princely sum of 250 bucks. A journey I thought would take 2-2.5 hours was completed in 20 mins flat and I was left destitute at the station, whiling away time! Next day, once I was back in office, I could merely glance at my cake (it looked tempting) before it ended up on my face (as a tit for tat for having done the same to others).
Last Sunday was a memorable one too with an impromptu trip to Qamarganj (its actually Kamarganj, but the Q makes it sound much more Arabesque and exotic!). The ride across Ganga with water rocking the flimsy boat made the trip completely worth it. The other side of Ganga was more like a virgin beach. Qamarganj must definitely be on the tourist list for this place. In the evening, I purchased my latest vehicle-a Hero Hawk (its a bicycle!) to commute to office (My small contribution to the environment). And before I knew it, Budday week was over and I was firmly entrenched in the group of 26 year old oldies! :D
This wiseass couldn't have been more correct-
There is absolutely nothing to be said in favour of growing old. There ought to be legislation against it.
~ Patrick Moore ~
