The Right 'Wrong" Side

The week flew by in work, long tiring days, and finally Thursday was here... Gawwd I love Thursdays. The feeling of freedom that comes with breaking out of any routine is very sweet. That mixed with a rhapsodic laziness of the Thursday evenings at home, the bliss is so delicious you can almost taste it.

I ditched a friend as I wasn't ready to sacrifice the precious evening over plastic conversations and pretentious food..

I reached home and was barely comfortable when a friend rang the bell, it was a quick surprise visit as she was leaving for vacations. We shared quick gossips over chai and biscuits. During her non-stop banter about her inlaws and parents and husband, she told me how envious she was of my freedom and how sometimes she regretted getting married right after college.

That got me to thinking, as to how right she was. Being girls in our culture, we barely get to have any real freedom till the time we are studying. Parents have certain expectation, vividly laid out plans and rules that we have to follow by hook or by crook. Even the rebels succumb to the emotional blackmail if not to the psychological exploitation of power. (To be fair this doesn't only apply to girls)

Not stepping on toes here, all parents love their children. But its more of an incessant need to fit in mixed with an amalgamation of love and care that they start forcing their kids to get 'settled' in life right after college. Girls come under this radar right after they hit twenty (again many boys can't survive past 26 too). In my own group there is barely anyone who isn't married. (More than half of them are miserable) The last ones standing are lined up for this year. It is tragic when shaadis are carried out as a chore or a social duty and in some cases a business deal. And this goes for all types of shaadis; Love, Arranged or Blind.

So I was saying that till we are studying we barely know what we want. Who we are. The process of self discovery starts when one discovers the world on their own. After we open our eyes in the real world, after the teething period of settling in, we accidentally trip on ourselves. The individual in us is shaped. The reactions, the likes, the tastes and the habits, all of them take a solid form when we are able to afford our own vices along with our cars.

At least this has been my own experience, I did not meet myself until I entered the wrong side of 20's. And it has never felt so right!!