What path have you taken?

I know I haven't responded to comments in the previous post. And I know a lot of you had several intelligent things to say. At the risk of sounding snobbish and even rude, I'd say, we live in our own worlds and so, its easy for us to say - its the girls' prerogative or that the whole idea is bullshit. Its not. Its happening around you, whether you do it or not, it affects you, and you can help mitigate it by small steps only. That said, this is a different post. Sorry. I just wanted to take that out of my system.

I logged onto Twitter after ages and found a tweet from a friend. She found it creepy when she went to this website: http://whathappenedinmybirthyear.com/ and typed her year of birth. I did the same, just for fun. I thought so, at least. It wasn't.

This is what I got.

In 1983, the world was a different place.

There was no Google yet. Or Yahoo. Or Twitter, for that matter.

In 1983, the year of your birth, the top selling movie was Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. People buying the popcorn in the cinema lobby had glazing eyes when looking at the poster. Remember, that was before there were DVDs. People were indeed watching movies in the cinema, and not downloading them online. Imagine the packed seats, the laughter, the excitement, the novelty. And mostly all of that without 3D computer effects......

.....In the year 1983, the time when you arrived on this planet, books were still popularly read on paper, not on digital devices. Trees were felled to get the word out.

In 1983... ..

...That was the world you were born into. Since then, you and others have changed it.

The Nobel prize for Literature that year went to William Golding. The Nobel Peace prize went to Lech Walesa. The Nobel prize for physics went to Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar from the United States for his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars. The sensation this created was big. But it didn't stop the planets from spinning, on and on, year by year. Years in which you would grow bigger, older, smarter, and, if you were lucky, sometimes wiser. Years in which you also lost some things. Possessions got misplaced. Memories faded. Friends parted ways. The best friends, you tried to hold on. This is what counts in life, isn't it?

The 1980s were indeed a special decade....

.....There's a kid outside, shouting, playing. It doesn't care about time. It doesn't know about time. It shouts and it plays and thinks time is forever. You were once that kid....

6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... it's 1983....

Progress, year after year. Do you wonder where the world is heading towards? The technology available today would have blown your mind in 1983. Do you know what was invented in the year you were born? The Personal Digital Assistant. The First TCP/IP Network. Color LCD Television..

In 1983, a new character entered the world of comic books: Wild Child. Bang! Boom! But that's just fiction, right? In the real world, in 1983, Kim Smith was born. And Kim Clijsters.Samantha Mumba, too. And you, of course. Everyone an individual. Everyone special. Everyone taking a different path through life.

It's 2010.

The world is a different place.

What path have you taken?

I know. I know. Just another thing to read and laugh or reminisce and leave it. I couldn't.

I had a conversation with some people who I've become very close to, now. Thanks the the Internet that wasn't there when I was born. I feel a deep sense of empathy with these people. I wondered, along with a friend why we got along so well. Some of us haven't even met. We talk everyday. Random stuff. Girls, boys, food, India, blogs, gossip, our relationships or the lack of it ;), our troubles. We figured it was because we are all in the same boat. Trying to take the same path. Like everyone else. Get a job, earn some money, do well. Be happy.

What makes us happy though? I realized this, only recently. While talking to another group of friends. The three of us did theater back in college and what days they were. We still feel the same way. But each of us is embroiled in our lives. We feel a sense of achievement and responsibility because we have jobs to do, people depending on us. At least this is what the most mature one among the three of us, S said and thought. V countered. The meekest of us all. The youngest of us all. The quietest of us all. She said: what if you don't do a thing? Do you feel sick at the end of the day? I tried to duck. I looked down. For all my bravado, that's true of me. That's become true of me over the last 2-3 years. I knew nothing but work before. I knew nothing but being busy. Its not about the money, its not about the fun at work. Its about a deep sense of satisfaction and a high level of conscientiousness that made the three of us friends.

I don't have that anymore, I thought. Then everything V said, and everything I was trying to tell S, hit me back. Like a rude slap. Like your head dunked into a bucket full of cold water. Its okay. I'm ready to sit around, potter around the house with books, a couple of movies, food, cooking and I don't know what else I will take up. Not like I don't want to do a job. But its slowly creeping in - the idea that I'm not defined by my financial independence or my need to be. Yes, I know I will see comments here that say, its all in the mind, and that it doesn't matter at all. But then, all of us run behind the same things. Yes, including you. You only. I don't blame you. My mom thinks she hasn't done much in her life. I don't know if I should be offended :) Or, if I should understand where that's coming from. For now. I'm going to contemplate, talk, read and soothe the neglected soul. And take AB along with me on this journey.

Take a deep breath. Give me some credit ;) for figuring this out after two years of innumerable chats with 6 wonderful people, a deep sense of connection with 3 other people without even keeping in touch, regularly.

This is to those people who are in the same boat with me, hanging on, without even meeting each other, but trusting each other not to stab the other :D. Here's to all the sepankizhangu/beans curry lunches, and never-ending coffees (:P) and boiled eggs. Keep the faith. This too shall pass.

W.H. Davies wrote this long back, I assume. I read this long back. When I was in school. And when I loved to read and recite poems. My mom taught me the right intonation. I always won the first prize. Little did I know that I'd keep that as an indicator of me. Little did I know that my mom taught me these poems for a reason. Like this one, which I found while cleaning my desk.

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?—

No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

P.S. - A lot of the what happened in 1983 has been edited by me.