Being 25 : my life & my experiences

This week I turn 25. Twenty-five is a rough age. All my life, I looked forward to being eighteen so that I am allowed to stay out late. Then I spent the next few years being glad that I can stay out late. Twenty-one was cool, I got my first job and was happy with my meager amount. Years after that were real fun when I enjoyed with my friends, travelled round the year and spent more than I earned, thanks to my multiple credit cards (11 in total).

And then BOOM. I realize that within couple of days I will turn twenty-five and suddenly, it's not so cool anymore. I am only five years away from being thirty. I have started analyzing every aspect of my life. Where is it going? How is my career shaping up? What are my accomplishments? What is my financial condition? Since November 2009, I have already attended wedding of 9 of my friends and already have invitation for another 4 by the end of this year. They are already moving towards a ‘settled’ life. Though I find difficult to understand the term, but I too want the same.

I have also started thinking about all the things in life that I haven't done yet. I still haven't traveled to Leh... I am still to do river rafting… I still haven’t bought a car… Still haven’t found love of my life… Still to have a library of my own… I still haven't published a book...and why did I stop writing; it was my passion until a couple of years ago…

Then I started analyzing my job. I work as a Corporate Communications professional. Though paid some-what decently, but I am still at the lowest level of hierarchy. In my professional life till date, I have met some fantastic professionals; and then met many who can only be described as weirdos. In one of my previous organizations, I often had to deal with international firms, and I must admit that these firangs are damn good professionals. Also met few desi s who speak in firang-accent and claim Hindi to be an alien language to them, but are loaded with ‘chalta hai’ attitude. The fact remains that change of accent does not necessarily result in changed work-ethic. Once even met a hot chick (well at least she considered herself so), who claimed to be in love with sophistication of French men and kept complaining about rude and badly-behaved men in Delhi. It was fun to discover that she is married to a rich Jat boy belonging to a Haryana village. There are smart and intelligent people out there but BTBs and DTDs easily outnumber them. (for innocents – BTB means Behenji Trying To Be Babe and DTD means Dhakkan Trying To Be Dude).

All in all, I think at twenty-five I have started discovering myself and the world around me. Earlier, I considered the world around me nothing more than mad-house, and for the rest of the world I was just another mad soul. Gradually I discovered my madness to be in sync with this mad world and living in it not as irritating as was in the first quarter on my life.

To sum up everything, 25 is the official year of OLD. I am no longer a kid, but an ADULT. It is something that is inevitable, something that happens to everybody. I am ready for a more sensible life, but somewhere deep down; I still want to be a stupid and immature kid. That is my right. But something about 25 makes you feel like oldie type --the type where stupid crap is no more allowed, that place where carefree life is gone. I am no longer allowed to be an idiot. That is gone. FOREVER.

It is time to grow up. I am probably being over-dramatic. But, right now, in this moment, I am freaked out. 25. 25!!! TWENTY-FIVE!!!!! Say it with me, "I am 25-years-old."