Sunday, March 20, 2016

Being an Aunty to an Uncle!!





On a Sunday afternoon- when the sunlight outside is making merry, scathing the environment- an alarming thought strikes my idle mind. This came up in a conversation, when my Significant Other happily termed me as an Aunty.

No, it does not feel nice to be addressed so - when all along you are used to the roses and blushes of communication. To be promoted to seniority, is hardly a pleasure. But when did that perception change I wonder.

Tracing back to the past 'n' number of month events, I realize to whatever my better half suggests, I negate scrupulously, citing my story of lack of time." Or, it's too sunny outside," with baleful eyes vexing at the yellow sky.

Role reversal tells me how telling it is on his boyish patience. My man may have grown up to his 6.1" frame but inside him is the little boy who still wants to play in the mud with his best friend and dog all rolled into one. Inside me too, lurks the little girl, with the wild hair flying loose, waiting to chase the wind, against the sun - much against all odds. Both the little girl and little boy want to play - in the sun, amidst nature, with sweet sweat pouring down tanned backs, our hands & feet stained with the muddy marks that bring a glow to our ruddy cheeks.

But is it age or life-stage that suddenly makes me an Aunty and he gets to retain his little boy image and not be the dreaded Uncle?

Stirring my orange Rasna and making sure the ice-cubes clink against each other, I ponder to the sudden shift in our dynamics. No this is not a couple post or me trying to be a pseudo love-guru. It's  a post that will help me figure out where and how the time changed - just like the Rasna would take time to dissolve in the water for the bright orange spark - my inner turmoil must also see the light of the day.

We read posts on anti aging treatment - taking the passage of time for granted. But what are we really doing the passage of time, to make it worthwhile? Moments do not freeze over and not all memoirs can be Instagrammed - but what about the moments of purity that one must find time to revel in? Do we create time from our busy calendars to "check-in" such moments in our lives?


Technology has eradicated the tempospatial dimensions that separate us living beings from fusing together into a Pangea like Organic state. Yes, Facetime with the cousin, distant in the Amreeka is appealing - what is not are the diurnal all day long, Whatsapp pings on groups or ping pongs of emails where the peanuts scream their pea-brains out!

Technology seems to be a multi pronged attack force - unless you switch it off, it destabilizes your every anchor. And even when you switch it back on, you are bombarded with more and more and more.. of the same loop!

In the end two things get drained, the battery and the battered mind. There is loss of capacity for processing the beauty of life, living, simple moments spent with loved ones before they do not become the Late - or simply loving yourself! Mostly, we are tired, bone weary from the incessant staring at laptop or phone screens - with no time than to simply crash at the end of the day.


Is it only in India, I wonder? This slave driven template is mostly found in our land, where we work across countries and even work for those countries who may have the money but not the brain power. What a brain drain chain!!

We become Aunties and Uncles - with alopecia like tendencies and stressed Varicose Veins every where - mainly because in a day of 24 hours, we desire for 35 instead - the remaining 11 for US only!Instead we message each other - "I love you".. "I miss you!".. "I want to spend time with you only and no phones!!"

No phones?! Has it really come to that? Have we really started a new chapter of our collective consciousness where digital detox, is a desire than a must?

We live in a world of IM - where along with the faster messaging service, our response time to situations too have become increasingly shortened. Flexibility is a taken for granted ability where all of us lean out to multi-task through the trillion of tasks that surround.


Time spent on ourselves and with each other - seems like a sinful indulgence. The result is a burnt out soul - further charred by the sadistic sun.


The sun too shamelessly laps up the carbon footprint created by our willful use of technology - the more we use phones, iPads, gadgets, robots, ourselves too (we are machines, too, remember?!?!) - the more carbon emission spirals up the sun-path - fueling  Coldplay to blare while we glare - "It was all yellow..."


There was once an ad I remember, where they showed the sun sipping out the brain juices or maybe the elixir of life from a child's head - to that creative frame-work, I must contribute my humble paintbrush stroke - our very own Laptop mouse or perhaps the phone radiation - what a carcinogenic feast we expose the primal body parts to, day in and day out!

Soon we'll find a new age pornography - where man f**cks a computer- what'll we get - bipedal computers who are Robot's best friends?

Dear Moon - here we come. The ones who love to be young sans alopecia, technology and pings.