Posted on: Mar 15, '08
Evolution - Not the Darwin kinds!
Darwin must be turning in his grave to hear the E-word.But he just proposed a theory? So I will take the liberty (You bet I will!) to give a whole new meaning to Evolution.
Right from the day we open our eyes to this beautiful world (Okay if your obstetrician wasn't exactly Michael Douglas and was the first face you saw,I can't help it,can I ?! ) there is so much going on around us and so fast,we've got to adapt...Evolve!
1.Let's see,Childhood.
So you came into this world crying (remember rotey hue aate hain sab? I don't blame you,that slap on the butt had you cursing the doc and you coined your very first expletive,something like 'What the bub-gub-goob-jibb!' Infant expletive you know!) You are confused and while you are still trying to adjust the brightness/contrast/sharpness levels of the new world,you have all sorts of faces popping up infront of you going 'Aww,what a cute little bundle of joy!' 'Look at those eyes!' 'Oh the tiny hands!'.You feel nauseous.
'What the bub-gub-goob-jibb people?! Give me a break,will ya?I've had quite a day and am looking for a moment's peace!'
You soon learn this is going to go on for quite sometime,might as well put up with it and it ceases to bother you. You evolve!
Just when you thought life was all about eating,puking,farting,jabbering and dozing off,you were stuffed into an odd looking dress,what did mommy call it? unimorph..something? and before you had time to protest,you were sent packing and off to school with a teary-eyed mommy waving you goodbye.'What the babble-gabble-gooble-jibble?! I just thought up a new expletive and they send me away?So much for ingenuity!' This starts happening everyday.Hmphhh,looks like there's no end to your misery,so you learn to coax mommy into not sending you to school for one day,'just for one day please mom?' Emotional blackmail rocks and you use it more often.You evolve!
So many kiddos around you make you feel slightly lost at first...and then you warm up to the idea,they go through the same things as you,'They wail like me when they are hungry and when they wet themselves and when they want a toy and when they trip and fall and when they have nothing else to do.Same interests! Whoopie!' You learn to relate to people and to befriend them.You evolve!
There are somethings that you love to do,others that you hate but learn to do anyways.But there are still some things that continue to elude you.'Maybe somewhere in the future I will find out the answers.'You evolve!
2. Life isn't really a cosy cot with a cuddly teddy bear.Or the little carousel by your bedside.It can spin out of control and send you flying in the air.
The school bag is getting heavier by the day,literally,your best friend is moving to a different town,you have a new crush who doesnt give you any bhaav,your math teacher gives you something..hell,and the acne is making you suicidal. Soon enough,you learn that for the next few years you'll be reciting to yourself 'Why me? Oh my gosh,why am I so fat? Man I'm ugly! Why is everyone staring at the corn on my little left toe? Am I going to botch up bigtime at the prom?!' and questions to that effect.And unfortunately for you,your one track mind with a strong vein of 'I suck' running through every thought it conjures up,the answer is always A Big Fat YES! But it isn't always gray and cloudy,you do have your fun times. 'It isn't going to be as depressing as this'.You evolve!
3.Daybreak.Well,mostly.
So you've kind of come to grips with the chaos and the dissonance,both inside your head as well as outside.You curse yourself for choosing the career you did,yet still plod on.You meet new people,and like a famous faux pas, 'you hate half,love another half and forget the remaining.'Different people touch your life in a million different ways.You still face your share of dilemmas and distresses.But they become routine..in other words,you feel strangely unfamiliar in a territory where life doesn't kick you in the gut at some point in time.Sense prevails and you take whatever life dishes out to you on the chin (sometimes with a mandible fracture). Not like you have a choice anyways!
End of day,life is beautiful and that it is too short to waste somehow seems tritely true.And the fact that it is so beautiful even in it's trite glory,makes it even more beautiful.You evolve.
4.Dusk yet? Depends on your own 'quirks and twists'.
You try to implement the over-the-years accumulated wisdom (or just accumulated 'stuff') in an effort not to gum up any further.For some people,it happens at 30,for others at 40,50,60 and so on.Better yet,it doesn't happen for some at all!
It's funny how we start having those teenage troubles again.For women,it's the wrinkles,the cellulite,the dark circles.It's when you stand in the closet and suddenly realise your wardrobe needs a make over.'Jinkies!I could use a little make over myself!' It's when your 13 year old tells you how you don't look very cool nowadays.It's when you walk upto the counter at McDonald's and the guy smiles at you and drops a bomb 'Your usual,everything with extra calories?' It's when you go for your youngest one's game at the school and the coach remarks,'Oh how kind of your grandma to come along even at this age!'.It's when you go to the music store and wander about in the rock/hip hop section just to mug up names of the 'cool and happening' so you could throw them back at your kids and this crazy-looking kid with tattoos and a badge that suggests he works there,walks upto you and says,'Yo mama,I think you aint lookin' in the right section,the Verses from the Bible CD and uhh stuff is back there,plus the uhh stuff from your time,you know ?Yeah,that's back there too.'
For men,it's the beer belly,the bald spot on the head etc.It's when you decide to take a stroll in the park and tuck your tummy in when an attractive woman passes by.It's when you gallantly announce you're going to jog for 5 miles on a daily basis,start for it the next morning and breathlessly call a cab 20 steps from home.It's when you walk up to your car and for the nth time realise you forgot the keys.It's when you wake up at the crack of dawn to wish your wife on her birthday and she says 'No?! Happy birthday to YOU!'
And then one day, you FINALLY realise age is,after all, just a number! It's when you walk upto your hubby and he still gives you a non-commital 'Umm yeah,sure,you still look stunning sweetheart' that you know it doesn't matter if you don't. It's when your 13year old (yes the same li'l rat who had said you don't look cool!) says that again but adds 'But you are the best mom/dad ever!' and gives you a hug that makes you revel in the very fact that you don't look cool.It's when the whole concept of young and old changes and you realise how dumb you had been to ever care about 'age'.It's when your friends call you up to know your take on the 'important' issues of life that you realise age = experience/wisdom(well mostly!).It's when you get a raise at doing exceptionally well at office and glance in the mirror and smile to yourself..with pride and pure joy that you realise,yet again,that there's nothing 'uncool' about ageing.It's when you buy that Porsche you had always wanted when young. Age reminds you to take a look in the rear view mirror and to be happy for time well spent and for all the wonderful moments yet to come and all the opportunities that still await you.It reminds you that you could have given up on family,friends,work,even yourself at different times in life a long long time ago,but that you didn't and that you trudged on through thick and thin is what makes ageing worth it.It reminds you that out of every experience you had,however small,you grew.You evolve.
Through it all,You learnt to bunk and debunk,to sting and to slink,to mess up and to make up,to pry and to dodge the prying eye,to slog and sometimes be high on the hog,to accept and to except,to put up and to shut up,to dare and to spare,to forgive and sometimes forget...and most of all,you learn to live and to be comfortable in your own skin.
You evolve :)
Tags: darwin, age, learning, evolution
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