Sometimes, when you're working really late, or you're going through some really tough shit in life, and you happen to have some company around you on the weekend (a friend if you're lucky!), the images in your head go black-and-white and grainy, as you say "How I remember the old days...."
You'll then proceed to recount how you were so carefree back then, and how innocent, with some misty eyes. If that friend knew you for long enough, depending on how empathizing he was, he would either murmur his acknowledgement or remind you that you had stolen his favorite comic books AND that apple or two from that neighbour's tree BESIDES protesting that you hadn't done it and squarely putting the blame on the neighbourhood geek/known rascal/mortal-enemy-kid. I luckily have very few of the second type, but invariably when I start going "Those were the days...", I seem to have the supremely good fortune of only being surrounded by these kinds of morons. Seriously, with dumasses like these, who needs enemies? If not these guys, I had the practical ones around me who said "Yes dude, that's really sad, but now it's your turn to pay the bill, the waiter's giving dirty stares, let's get out of here already!"
And that always brings me back! In a way, these guys are right. It's quite stupid to dwell on how you were as a child. And in my heart, I know I sure as hell wouldnt want to relive those days. I couldn't stand the homework, or the exams! Who enjoyed that? Sure, there were some good times. We got to stay out between 4 and 6, and play till we ran out of energy, or the sun went down early, and then we'd go home and loll around till some parent finally lost patience and said "Dont you have anything to do? Go study!" after which we'd ply a couple of comics up, and hide them in front of our books, and pretend to be engrossed in Newton's laws, when we were really reading Superman comics where obviously gravity, action and reaction didn't exist!
And those other days when we'd come home to see a piping hot bowl of Maggi noodles, which were supposed to take two minutes to make. Just like every other thing that is Indian in nature, "Just two minutes..." actually meant ten or fifteen. But we'd sit down, watch 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' on the telly, slurp the noodles and feel it smack against our noses when we slurped too fast, and then proceed to lick the masala off the tip of our nose, give up and wipe it against our sleeves. When we start hearing the clang of the plate, we look down from the telly to the plate, realize the noodles were over, but the plate still had that thick gravy on it, so you'd proceed to lick it all off, making the plate look spic and span, under the disapproving looks from your parents who were unsuccessfully trying to hide a smile. We didnt care, we knew that they knew that we liked that gravy. But now, would you really do that again? Come on! We grow up! There's such a thing as decency, table manners! It's stoopid to do such childish stuff!
And waking up every morning to go to school, listen to the teachers the whole day, seriously..! Who would wanna relive those days? And college didnt really get any better! The exams were more serious, your life and job depended on it, so you had to pay attention while the teachers droned on about the laws of Thermodynamics, Three-phase power, Op-amps so that you could become a halfway decent Electronics Engineer. And what do we do? Write code in C, Java, VB.
People dont really want to become children again, they just want to relive the happy times. They only remember the good times. The playing when you were a child, the outings with your college friends to bizarre places so you could trek across a couple of mountains to swim in some lake. We weren't practical then. The swimming pool cost 1/50th the price. We were more... carefree. Practicality only extended to "I have X rupees I get as pocket money every month, how can I make sure I survive on X+Y till the second last week?" The last week was basically a lesson in frugality, the Y was treats we could mooch off of unsuspecting friends if it was their birthday, or they happened to get great grades, OR they barely avoided death thanks to Bangalore's great traffic. Could you imagine going back to a life where you didn't earn such fantastic amounts of moolah? For writing "Hello world" everyday?
But I know us all. We come through. It's just for that span that we rejuvenate our sense of happiness, or atleast dull the sense of sadness, through the happy thoughts of our carefree past. I get it. We like thinking of the good times, it makes us think that life was good, and there's a chance of it getting better. But we ought to leave it at that! We're older now, we're more responsible. We need to remember that. It's fine to remember the good old days, but we ought to stop acting like life's over. Shit happens. Suck it up, move on. We need to take our time to get out of that low, but we sure as hell can't sit and dwell on oh-if-only-i-got-those-years-back. If you do, ATLEAST remember the bad times as well! God alone knows, if you happen to come across a wishing lamp, and you are granted one wish.... All I'm trying to say is be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.
I was watching One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and The Blind Side the other day, which were both pretty good. It's because I'm an adult (or so I claim to be), that I can understand the underlying themes or messages of these movies. I was half way through the Blind Side, I was feeling hungry, so I went to the kitchen and sifted through some stuff. Found a packet of Maggi noodles that were lying around since they seemed to need the least effort to make. See? Adult decision! Efficiency! I then proceeded to make it, tidy up the kitchen and settled down to continue to watch the rest of the movie. Around the time when Sandra Bullock tries to coach her son about his expected role in his team, I heard a clang. I looked down and saw the mess on my plate.
I proceeded to lick the plate clean.
