To Being Young

We are young, we run free

Stay up late, we don’t sleep

Got our friends, got the night

We’ll be alright.

I have no idea why but I’ve been hooked to this song for the past two days now. One of the reasons could be my fast approaching birthday. Come Monday I will be celebrating my 19^th and last teen birthday. With all my friends rushing into their twenties I am one of the few left behind in their teens.

One of my friends told me how our lives would have changed completely by the end of this decade. We’ll be earning, have a house of our own, some of us will be married and some might also have kids. But I suppose the decade that passed by has been equally life changing.

Teenage, what crazy years they have been!

From being silly at 13, bratty at 14, queer when 15 (not just by appearance), a little excited about 16, growing wild in 17 and 18 and finally a little grown up by 19. I am sure it might’ve been different for everyone but mostly by the time we reach the big twenty we all have some sense knocked into us.

We've all quite literally evolved in this decade from being little monkeys to young adults. It has changed us enough to look back at our old pictures and videos and feel nostalgic and highly embarrassed at times. All those old school pictures with friends and teachers, the annual and sports day videos that our parents took with great excitement, the certificates that brought so much pleasure and report cards of school that we laugh at now had been a source of continual terror back then, I realize we’ve all come a long way.

If anyone ever came and told me in my high school that I would one day laugh at the various tactics of telling my marks to mom or showing my dad a diary note then I would’ve thought that the person is simply pulling my leg or being very rude.

Though now when I recall certain incidents from school I do wonder why, had I been that stupid.

At times we did something which made us feel how grown up we were and could never understand why our parents found that so funny. Well now I do know why they found it funny because coming home with a traffic policeman because the bus driver left you behind was hardly sensible, nor was adding salt to an extra sugary tea an example of quick thinking. But those were pre-teens when we did not take offence for being laughed at.

And as we moved into our teens it was sort of in vogue to argue with Mom and Dad on every single topic under the sun. Even if at the end of the argument we don’t get our way through we simply had to defy whatever they had to say. By the time we reached the last few years of high school we were convinced that our parents had a lot of catching up to do.

And suddenly when we made it to college as freshmen and had absolutely no idea about how things worked outside school, Mom and Dad gained back all the sense of superiority because well we were back to being the youngest. 

I am a little excited, a little nervous, a tiny bit scared and every bit confused about the years ahead of me. I just hope that a decade later I will be able to laugh at the years gone by and say
 “What an idiot I’ve been”.

Because if I manage that I’d know I’ve had some memorable times.

The Shoe Rack

Happy New Year folks!

I haven’t got loads to tell today. I’ve just got this old piece of my writing which I’d like to share.

This was written during the Video Film making module of my course. I wanted to make a short film based on this but I haven’t been able to as yet. I wish I could say that the video is coming soon but for now all I have is the script.

The Shoe Rack

It’s a regular college day, the regular crowd, regular classes and regular mess food. I am sitting by the stairs, staring out of the window. I am staring outside at nothing in particular. There is the playground, the busy street, the pavement full of cars and kids. As I carry on with my aimless staring my eyes focus on the kids playing on the pavement. They are all the kids from a nearby slum. Sitting up here all I can see is their shrunken heads and naked feet. Those naked feet have somehow caught my attention. I look back inside the college building and without meaning to my eyes stare at the shoes of every passerby.

Some walk by wearing sport shoes, some strut around in them. There are those who rush by wearing comfy floaters and there are those who walk around at leisure in them.
There are some who seem to be dragging themselves in their slippers and there are some who have socks teamed with them. There are also fleeting glances of those who are running with time in their pointed shiny formals. 
Just as I am following a pair of Kolhapuris tumbling down the stairs the tick-tock of a stiletto draws my attention. I look up at them cat-walking down the stairs accompanied by a pair of stocking and boot clad legs. There are then the glimpses of the trendy All Star Converse in the variations of blue, red or black.

Two pairs of feet are huddled together, the feminine mojdis sitting a step above the Reebok sneakers. The occasional but in vogue osho slippers also make their way around.
You then have those sudden striking experiments of footwear. A brightly coloured bally or a loud gladiator. You might also find shoes that don’t exactly look like shoes or a weird looking sandal. 
The old school chappals and leather jootis also have their fare share. I look down at my own feet snug in a pair of the rubber jootis you get these days. All of them feet are moving in front of my eyes.
Slowly they all become a blur to me. 
And then a silent pattering of naked feet comes into focus and I stare at them hurrying down the stairs with some unknown purpose. I follow those feet trying to place their owner but before I can come down to any understanding they are gone.

It is said that you judge a person by their shoes.

What if they don’t have any?

My mind is drawn back to the street children playing down stairs. They all look the same to me, little shrunken heads and naked feet.

Again, you judge a person by their shoes, What if they don’t have any?