Grow up...Not!

From the very first day of our lives -or even before we are actually born– a lot of expectations are imposed upon us!*THUMP*! But who decides the age at which we are supposed to take charge of our actions? Is it when we are caught cheating in the exams or when we “forgot” to complete our homework thrice in a row? Is it when we “accidentally” started dating our best friends’ partner or is it when we forgot to pick up our kid from school? Or are these simply some innocent gestures, suggesting the way of life? There will definitely be a zillion times in your life when people must have asked you to “grow up”! Be it when you are trying to steal money from your dad’s pocket to buy candy or when you are trying to shop-lift!

So, what is “growing up” (of course, apart from the metabolic growth)? Growing is learning manners and when and how to actually use those…blah blah blah. It’s when you dump all your Barbie dolls and G.I. Joes in a box stuffed into some corner of the attic. It is also realizing that you are not the only bitch in the world! Each and every soul on this planet is selfish.

However, there are two kinds of people in this world. The first ones are the ones that believe in living life according to the rules set by the institution: say never bunking classes, never to distract your neighbor, or never to speak ill of your teachers or in-laws (yeah, right!!).The other kind are the ones who always live off the edge. Whether it’s lying to your parents about a night party you attended or simply challenging a monstrous guy just because he called your BFF fat!! Then again, there is the third kind. These are what we call the ‘smart asses’! They always know when to cross the line and when to simply sit-back and lick asses!! But, I am not going to discuss about the “asses” I have come across in my life.

You know, there is a very thin line between being “childish” and “childlike”. The only problem is to know where exactly to draw the line (as is, in any other case). Being childish means not knowing when to stop acting like a child (say : whining and making stupid unreasonable demands). Being childlike is simply listening to the child inside you, yet not letting it overpower you. Demanding for a candy and crying until someone got it for you is childish. But craving badly for a candy and wondering whether to bake a cake or buy a pastry is childlike. It’s like asking your husband to hire a guy as his Personal Assistant instead of asking him to have lunch with you every day. In short, if you are childish, there’s still scope for you to grow up (need more so, than scope), whereas you’ll never grow out of being childlike.

I like to have milk and bourn vita instead of coffee! I like to hug my teddy good night. I like to use a baby tone once a while (maybe more often so). But does that really mean I am not a grown up? I am well behaved most of the time, manage my accounts considerably well (that’s part of being a Gujju though), and I act as an agony aunt to all my friends as well.

It probably means that a part of me doesn’t really want to grow up. You would think I am going backwards: Instead of growing out of the petty things, I am growing more and more fond of them. Instead of being fed up of having all that Pani Puri, I crave even more for it now! As and when we grow up, like any other memory storage device, our brain also starts filling up with memories. More the age, more the data, the more we start cherishing them. Nostalgia is always the barrier that stops you from moving ahead at some or the other point of your life.

So when these memories and “childlikeness” bring so much happiness to us, why grow up?