We'll be just fine.

It all started when my brother made an exclamation remark while travelling in the car with my mother and me- “Oh Fish!” Surprised as I was to hear my little brother talking like that (he’s not that little), I kept my mouth shut owing to my mother’s presence.

The next morning over breakfast, somehow the conversation turned to the kind of language that people use these days. Mom and dad had a lot to say about it. (It’s going to sound familiar)

1.     The language you people use is disgusting.

2.     Really? If you don’t find it disgusting, then maybe you should exclaim “Oh Shit” next time in Hindi.

3.     You think using such language is a way of standing out.

4.     You think using such language, you can easily fit in with the rest of the people who use such language. (Yes, she actually made both these statements with a short gap)

5.     I think the way your language is progressing, it’s just going to get worse with time.

6.     You shouldn’t try fitting into the herd mentality.

7.     I’m not saying it to you, I’m talking about the entire generation.

And of course, no conversation with any parent can ever stay bound to one topic no matter what the origination may have been. (Not a part of the above conversation, but something I think all of us face on an everyday basis.)

8. You people think you are invincible.

9. Why do you drive that way? Do you think driving that fast is cool?

10.  Why do you want to start a company or get into social work? Why don’t you just get a regular job like other people? (I read this as herd)

11.  I don’t understand your generation. You guys (oops! my mistake! You people... most parents would ever use "guys") have an attitude problem!

12.  Let me talk to so-and-so uncle and get you a job.

13.  Why don’t you want me to get you a job? Why are you so against getting help from your own parents? (The reality is, they became self sustained paying their own tuitions and books etc in their first year of college).

14.  Oho! Bohot bade/badi ho gayi ho na? Sab kuchh aata hai tumhe ab to?

15.  Tumhe zyada pata hai?

16.  Ye baal aise hi safed nahi kiye hain humne!

17.  Pachaas saal ki duniya dekhi hai, tumse zyada jaante hain. (No offence, even though they may have been working in the same office, at the same position for 40 years now.)

18.  Etc etc etc….. (Feel free to add more commonly heard statements in the comments)

The point is, life has changed a lot in the past 25-30 years since they were 20-22 year olds. Options have increased. Opportunities have increased. Job availabilities have decreased. And believe it or not mom and dad and uncle and aunt and grandfather and grandmother and the whole wide spectrum of family and friends of family who are always ready to molly-coddle and worry about us to death, we are actually capable of taking care of ourselves!

We took care of ourselves when we were being bullied in school. We took care of ourselves all day long when we were alone at home and everyone was off to work. We took care of ourselves when we had to travel all around the city for the hundred thousand tuitions that we had to take for the gamble of getting into a good college. We took care of ourselves for 3/4/5/6 years in the hostel. Yeah, okay we may have gotten a few bad habits, and some of us got a tattoo and a couple of unconventional piercings, and maybe we didn’t bathe for a couple of weeks sometimes and maybe the room was in a complete mess 24x7 (except for the times when you came to visit, when it took 5 minutes and everybody cleaned up your room and theirs), but hey, we got out great! At our age, you guys were raising us, but you don’t trust us enough to raise ourselves?

By the way, the internet that your keep cribbing about (that we never go offline and are hooked to our laptops and phones and our lives are meant to be doomed), that’s the reason why we’re still surviving. There’s a reason why the world is as advanced as it is today. It’s because everybody actually does know everything. And if we have to be in the race, we got to know everything too. That’s why we NEED Google! (If we weren’t online all the time, maybe in that case you could actually have worried about whether we could take care of ourselves.) Yes we're constantly texting, and we use more acronyms than actual words. (fyi, TRAI has made life living hell for us) And we stay online on facebook, gtalk and twitter all the time. (By the way, that's how we remind you of your friend's birthdays so you can wish them). That's how we know where everyone is and what everyone is doing. (You're the one who keeps complaining that you've lost touch with your school friends and that you have no idea where they are! Zuckerberg gave us an awesome opportunity so that we dont make the same mistake.)

The fact of the matter is that we are actually quite capable now. We’re all 21+ lads and ladies. Let us make our own careers. Let us make our own decisions. Trust us. Believe it or not, we have grown up. And you have to stop looking at us like a bunch of 12 year olds even if behave like that. (If we don’t drown enough chips and fizzy drinks at this age, we sure as hell won’t be able to do it at 50!)

We may goof up a couple of times, but give us a chance, and we’ll do well. It’s because you raised us just fine. And we love you for that!

A game... And my illusion of its reality. Part 2.

The dependency was temporarily complete… a momentary unstable state.

The puppeteer was always a puppeteer, momentarily addicted to the puppet.

The bond was opaque. Neither a wisp of air, nor something substantially solid.

The father, friend, philosopher, guide, mentor, counselor, brother, was always there…. Someone who fulfilled the roles and duties par excellence.

The exception is still an exception, no matter what it may show on the outside.

The puppet will wait for its master to come.

The sin may be committed, but it would take away with it the master and the puppet together.

The emotional consequences have been severe, but that does not mean the end of anything… the story shall continue and the golf ball… intact!

The puppet was not always a puppet. A long time back, the puppet was actually a little girl. A girl who used to stay in her dreams, lived in a fantasy of a castle and kingdom, believed it all to be the truth, lived in a world of illusion. Then one day, she met a person from the real world, someone who knew that the life was not a castle in a kingdom with rainbows and butterflies. Not everything, or rather nothing was as beautiful as it seemed in the first glance. The person saw what an illusion this little girl was in and knew that soon when she shall have to plunge out of that world into reality, she will not be able to withstand the shock. And so, he took pity on the little girl (Bless his soul), and promised himself that he would teach her the realities, pull her out of the illusion, so that she may live like a real person in the real world, taking care of herself, safely.

The harsh part came when the person from the real world realized that there was no pleasant method of doing what he was about to. It would be an un-natural act- To disrupt a normal flow of life and put it into something else. But at the same time, it was necessary. He tried his best not to let the situation fall out of control into the worst. But he could not stop it. The situation did eventually become the game of the puppet and the puppeteer.

My happy ending

I remember the times in school when I was surrounded by friends who had boyfriends. Pretty girls, girls with a lot of attitude, the kind whom boys would willing run after, the kinds who would get surprises, gifts, and a lot of affection.

Never was I the pretty one and I was most certainly never the delicate one. On the contrary, I would behave like a boy, athletic in my spirits and would use a very colorful language. Whatever was the case, I always did dream about having a 'boyfriend' who would be head over heels crazy about me. I guess I had fallen in love with the idea of being in a relationship instead of wanting the person to be in a relationship with.

I still see people around me like that, but fortunately, know the truth about their relationships now. It feels good to observe that I never made that mistake of falling into an amateur puppy love relationship long back. But it doesnt mean that I didnt make the mistakes that almost every girl does at that stage. In love with the idea of a relationship, I jumped at the first chance I got with a moron and finally made the mistake. Thankfully, that got over before I could lose myself over it. (A Superman rescued me. :P )

And then I grew. Immensely. I realize why was such a kid for so long. You need heat to melt and mold metal. You need the experience to mold you, and to grow up. A little on my own, and a little help from Mr. Superman, the experience, the sense and the practicality just came along on its own. Little did I know, that it was just another mistake. After all, Superman doesnt remain a superman forever. He does go back to becoming Clark Kent. And he does lose his powers. You cant be dependent on him. But loss of powers doesnt kill. And neither did it kill me.

But then again, Lois Lane didnt stop loving Superman when he lost his powers. Neither did I. No superpowers does mean that I have to think again, settle things, adjust to the new atmosphere. And it'll happen. A little bit of practicality. A little bit of experience. A little bit of wisdom. And a LOT of mistakes. It will become okay. It always does.