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On the greener side of 25

I have always been confused about how the system of the age of a person works with respect to his or her birthday. So lets say if you were born on 1st March 1980; what would you say your age is right now: 26 or 27? After several bouts of finding myself suddenly ineligible for Air Force exams or NDA admissions, or at times suddenly discovering that after romantic incidents I could be disqualified for being overage by just six months, I decided to settle for the higher of the two values whenever I had to tell my age to somebody. Advantage of being a guy: you don't need to fudge figures to prove that you still are in the 'desirable' age range ;)

So I had always stuck to this convention of using the ceiling value whenever someone asked. Yet it also entailed a feeling of the biological clock ticking more rapidly than I would like it to -- one fine morning when I was going over something I suddenly realised that by my convention I am 26 already!! So when surveys came out that about 54% of the population of India was at most 25 years of age (and the great potential this had for the country, etc), I got the feeling that I must be on the other side of that golden line of 25 years. I had accepted it, just like I accepted random things that I sometimes thought I was missing out in life because of lack of chance and/or motivation to do them --- snow-skiing, flying jet fighter planes, being a complete geek, being Cassanova, etc. Yeah you don't need to pull my leg over these: I try to live through these lives mentally without thinking of the right or wrong of them: pure fun and fantasy, that is.

So let me switch gears here a bit. After I came here and as a student employee of the university, there were a lot of forms that I needed to fill up. As is true for many other places, I had to fill in details about by date of birth, home address, and a lot of other details. We went to this orientation session where we were told about various compliance stuff that we needed to do or view courses online in order to complete. Towards the end, the presenter remarked that everybody who is still at or below 25 needs to complete a special registration and form, etc as well. Apparently Uncle Sam believes that the wild streak in a person's nature is magically turned off after you cross the golden line ;) I mentally made a note that obviously they hadn't thought about me when they were making that rule: I don't think my kiddish pranks and ideas will ever stop being with me. So, anyway, I did not bother about the compliance training stuff too much as I was already 26: I finished most of the other training programs and busied myself with my work.

Imagine my surprise when I received an urgent email from the graduate secretary of the department asking me to complete the 25-and-under compliance training/registration, because the deadline was within a day! I went and talked to her, and she told me that since I wasn't 26 yet, I was still 25 and therefore had to fill the forms. I'd say that that was nothing short of an epiphany for me: it was like, "Whoa, I'm still young!!". I don't mean to say that 26 is old, but the fact that I had realised that I was 26 suddenly one day without mentally living through the 25th year of my life was sort of depressing, especially given the existence of this golden line. So all those times when a close friend told me that I had lost the teenage time of chasing girls by being in all-boys hostels, or the fact that someone tried to convince me that I had lost out a lot of college life by not boozing/ doing drugs etc --- I suddenly felt proud and vindicated! It was like when the datelines change and you suddenly have an extra hour to sleep one day!

And it is a funny feeling, really, because I know that I will turn 26 one day, but I will not regret turning 26 then --- I'd rather be happy to have experienced the world another year. It is the feeling of being young, of knowing the blood rushing through your veins and feeling good and feeling confident. I still am on the greener side of 25, folks, I still count! :)

Comments

  1. The youthfulness one carries isnt decided by whether being on the wrong side of 25 or not...it is more decided by one's optimism,enthusiasm....the spirit to find an air of freshness in this topsy curvy journey called life.-Non MAC Anonymous

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lash, hey... welcome onboard! Arre na na... there is no golden line or greenery. Yes the sense of aging is there with each passing year: of not having done so much that could have been done. But if you look at what you have achieved in your 24(?) years of life, you'll feel good about yourself.

    Non-MAC Anonymous, yes those are very well-written words of wisdom, sire! And I fully agree... In my case I guess I had just suddenly thought of having lost a full year without living through it, thats all.

    ReplyDelete
  3. im 27. hmpff.

    and i was born on march 12.

    you still have 4 months left to turn 26 if yours is March 1.

    so go do all the things you arent supposed to do NOW.

    what am i blabbering. its all good until the big 3 0.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Grafxgurl, aare na na... I never meant that there is any such line. You may be 27 or 31 or whatever, but if I may say so, you're still young! :P Look at what Mr. Non-MAC Anonymous says above.

    And BTW, my 'expiry date' is not 1st March :) ... that was just an example

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey buddy....lemme correct u...I am NOT a Mr Non MAC Anonymous....my more 'precise' identity is that of a 23 yr old girl...so don't address me as 'sire' again..this is hilarious !!!!-Ms Non MAC Anonymous

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your blog posts are mundane and trivial...as much as i find your blogs prolific, i find the content disappointingly shallow, inconsequential, lacking in depth and lacking in intellectual bravado...or maybe it's just the fact that i have higher expectations from someone of your intellectual callibre...

    ReplyDelete
  7. and while i'm on the subject of this blog post...if you were born on 1 Mar, 1980, then you have completed 26 years of life on 1 Mar, 2006 so ofcourse, you are 26 years old and going on 27...i don't see where the confusion arises...is it just me or do you just not know math?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Crossing over into 26, hmmm now that's one of the things I am looking forward to. If not for anything else, for just one thing. When I rent out a car, I wouldn't have to pay bucket full of bucks for that!! HE HE :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ms Non-MAC Anonymous, ohh! Well, my 50% apologies for creating this confusion, ma'am: the other 50% are your doing :) And I know the fun part of this whole affair: most people mistake my Sudipt-a for a girl's name :D

    Das, yes I'll take that positive criticism: have shifted to a bit of more mundane topics lately. Good posts just happen... I'll have to just wait and watch.

    About the blog post: yes, that is true. But some people would refer to my age as 27 because I am in the 27th revolution around the Sun right now --- that is the source of the confusion.

    Life lover, really? :D Now, thats news, 'coz I've never seen girls go happy with that. Anyway, good to know that you'll save some money: gimme a ride when I go to California ;)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Ye sab kya likha hai? So unlike you. Does the too much professional and perfectionist life there catching up you? Kuch achcha sa likho. When I comapre this post with others, its not upto ... Of course, I am talking about Sudipta Vs Sudipta. :-)
    Ha! Ha!Ha! An equally confusing comment.

    ReplyDelete
  11. At 20 you are a teen no more..
    At 25 you are supposed to go through a quarter-life-crisis..
    At 30 you are supposed to have realised your dreams...

    But who cares??
    You are the age you think you are!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wat these folks r expressing above is absolute bullshit..writing on mundane issues isnt uncool..y cant dey simply relate(despite being bloggers themselves)dat a writer's work moulds itself like the changing colors of a horizon...the power to churn stuff of 'intellectual'calibre isnt art..it reflects their oh-so-showy personas..writers r no technocrats..art comes naturally..but yes wat i as a reader m lookin forward to is seeing all moods n shapes of dat horizon...gr8 going n keep it up !!!!!!!-Ms NMA(Non MAC Anonymous)

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  13. Alka, arre lekin mere dimak mein yehi chal raha tha! Well lets see if the new posts present any better a picture... And yes, Sudipta vs Sudipta should be interesting! :)

    Strider, yeah we are supposed to do a lot of things at different times. But as you say, we are the age we think we are --- it is never too late :)

    Ms Non-MAC Anonymous, you must be the first of a kind. Not only do you encourage me, but you actually use your anonymity to lash back against other NON-anonymous commenters and defend the writer's work. Thanks, really... your encouragements meant a lot to me. :)

    BTW, I don't think that the readers above meant in any way to discourage me: they were trying, in their own ways, to help me reveal all the shades of the rainbow. Keep visiting!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Wow! I never knew soooo much was der in two numbers. Maybe that is coz I still have not got their full force(like u)! A good post, do keep at it!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hi

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    ReplyDelete
  16. Alpine Path, yeah thanks... I wish that you never get 'hit' by any of these numeric forces :)

    Monusoft, umm yeah right we'll see ;)

    ReplyDelete
  17. I so hated to be 26. Trust me. I felt I jumped the hill somehow. Somehow I began to fell old :(. My craiglist prospects also disappeared dramatically after jumping the hill hehehehe :D

    That said, Year 26 was the best year of my life. Though I wish I was younger. I never wanted to be above 25 frankly.

    S

    ReplyDelete
  18. Supremus, ha ahhaha... oldie! :P

    Jokes apart... I understand. And I do wish to you that you may have a much happier year for every new year that comes from now on. :)

    ReplyDelete

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