TURNING 21

“Life isn’t Fair” this is probably the most common thought in my head these days. Well, whether it is fair or not, there is no way to know now. So chuck it… oh yeah, that’s another favorite line these days “Chuck it”. As you might have guessed I turned 21 recently. It put me in to thinking, what’s special about it? Like sweet 16 or 18, when the signature you’ve been practicing finally gets a value or the end of ‘teen’age when you turn 20. And I know I am pretty incoherent… again the reason is 21!

Well, I did realize that at 21 you are officially eligible for Marriage in India… then I realized that it is not that exciting because you cannot do it alone. Ok, let us leave the crap here; since I am in twenties now, people expect me to be a little more matured. I thought I would give it some serious thought! 

From things that surround me I figured that, It’s the age when you are probably in your final year of engineering or have just passed out from a college with degree in hand. Probably searching for a job or trying to get placed in the campus selections, or even trying to apply to every possible graduate school for higher studies. But that was too obvious to be called as an observation isn’t it!

Well, Things have started to change everywhere, Professors no longer consider you as morons and try to treat you like an adult in a desperate hope that you would respond like an adult, just to prepare you for the placements and the world outside the compounds we have been jumping at nights for years!. The parents have changed too, somehow they are worried “what next!”, half the time acting like they just saw us perform “papa kehte hain bada naam karega”. Dads talk like you gotta get more serious, and moms are worried that you’ll be outta home for even longer, she knew it right! From the day we got into hostels. But guess moms realize it every time someone or something brings it up.

Friends have changed too.. People whom you hung out with everyday and every night are now busy all the time, preparing for GRE, TOEFL, IELTS, placements and what not… It is as though everyone has finally found their destiny! I don’t believe it though, it happens just before every semester exam. Things like “Dude, I’m blank, my GPA is screwed this sem.. from next sem I’m gonna study from the first day and make all the notes, and never let this happen again” are said as often as the exams itself. 

Some friends have finally realized they did not have enough fun during college, so they have vowed to make it up in the final year. In the campus booze and cigarettes could surpass the god himself in terms of presence! The forever-lasting love stories are reaching climax, bitter realities which they ignored for four years has made its way to their brains! Break ups and wailings have become as common as was getting committed in first year.. Guess break ups are a function of commitments in a closed system you know..

Four years of texting has affected our English a lot.. All the hard work of our school teachers to teach us intricacies of grammar has failed and here we are reading grammar and ‘word-list’ from barrons! Even the formal letters are riddled with short forms of every English word possible! Guess it’s payback for the brits..

Oh, forgot to mention.. The damned final year projects and all the pain in the wrong place reviews! Panel of highly qualified people sit there listening to your project details, not understanding a thing you are telling [because they got their PhD in a different subject you see]. Then they decide it is not good enough and throw your report into the bin, and NEXT! Who cares what project we do, things they teach us are from the notes they made in 70’s and they expect us to do something ‘innovative’. Frankly, with their never ending assignments, surprise tests, internal exams and ‘attend the class or you’ll see’ attitude, they didn’t leave enough room for innovation. Standing there in front of them, realizing how dumb they are compared to you, the only thing you would want to do is to tell them how you feel with just one finger. Because words can’t describe such a feeling, or it is just more Cool to do it that way! Whatever! [For the record, if you do such a thing, your grades are fixed, D - ]

So much has changed but one question keeps coming back to me, Have I? I guess I have, I must have you know! But have I grown up? Have I screwed up? What did I accomplish? What am I gonna do next? And that is when I remember the GRE preparation material lying in my cupboard, all the bookmarks in my browser for a dozen Universities I wish I could get into, the companies coming to recruit and my grade sheets, my uncompleted projects, my friends who, in a year will be as far as is my home now.

Life is moving on so fast, Did not realize where the graduation years vanished, another year will pass too. But this year it is different, there is no coming back to hostels after vacation, no fretting about the new semester and the psycho teacher who is planning to take a course for us. No waiting for the juniors [ guys and gals equally]. It is like a beautiful dream ending, and all you did in the dream was to do all the routing stuff you did. Life is calling, present does not want to let go, future will not wait… and here I stand right in between… 

21, after all is another year in your life, but I wonder if any other year will be as eventful as this is going to be! Maybe someday I’ll look back and say, 21 is when I became what I am now! Cheers to all of you who have been a part of it…