Tuesday 21 January 2014

Twenty Four

I trust I have no readers who assumed this was about some TV show. Right? It isn't . This is about me turning a year older.  Yes, thank you.

Our perception of birthdays varies every year, doesn't it? There's the longish phase where birthdays meant wanting to cut a cake and distribute chocolates in school. Then there was the Orkut era which, in hindsight makes one feel like a ragpicker, involved checking out scraps. I'd like to think we're all in a slightly better phase now. Sure, we all wish each other on social networking sites. Heck, some folks wished me on Google+ already! That's as personal a wish as it gets because those handful of people and I are the only who bothered to open Google+ today.

On a more serious note, birthdays are great days to make amends to friendships and relationships. If you haven't spoken to someone in a long time, a birthday is a great excuse to change that. I used to be very cynical and crib about how impersonal wishing on social media is, but hey people taking a few seconds off to remember you is what matters. No one likes to be forgotten, and by the time you're a couple of dozen years you've given a whole bunch of people reasons to forget you. It feels good to be remembered.

Twenty four is an age no one wants to be. Kids want to be 18 or 21(depending on the legal drinking age) and adults want to go back to college and be 21 or 22 too. No one wants to be in that awkward age between hitting on everything that moves and changing diapers.Having a January birthday means your new year resolutions and birthday resolutions are pretty much the same too.  Of course, none of my resolutions are as radical as that of my female peers who seem to have decided to make a new person after turning 24 instead of becoming a new person.  I, on the other hand, don't even want to be a new person. I want to be the same person, but I know I'm heading towards a quarter-life crisis and that I must avoid the quarter life crisis.  The world around me is divided into two kinds of people: those who think I'm too old and those who think I'm too young.

Ever seen those sitcoms where an entire year is condensed into an hour-long episode?  Going by the number of times I've been called a dog, and the famous adage which dictates that every dog has its day, my 24 hours just got over.


To take this like another day I'm no saint,
High I'll get but not the kind that makes you faint.
Every wish and blessing gives me positivity I'll need,
Foul advice I'll consider and the rest I'll heed.
Under the sun everything seems within reach,
North-bound treks and alone time at a beach.
Settling down- is a phrase I often hear,
That'll only happen once these heights evoke fear.
Am I at the stage that can be considered my prime?
Real-life conversations can't compete with a rhyme.
These my-own-muse moments make me feel like a king,
Sometimes I feel like acrostics have become my thing.
Neither my readers nor I have a problem with this,
Oh, you got this far? I won't give your wish a miss,
Well, today, I've got to act like I'm too busy to take a piss. 

Tuesday 14 January 2014

One for the poets

Play we do with a limited set of words,
On a canvas riddled with myriad rules.
Each syllable must amaze you like soaring birds,
Their meaning must bear weight like the back of mules. 
Readers’ delight is but secondary to us,
Yet why would we write if not to be read?
If not for narcissism would we be thus?
Subtlety may be our butter, but acknowledgement is our bread.
Never do we swerve from our styles and schemes,
’Tis not in our nature to be blind to beauty.
Even the free souls among us have their themes,
Anglou speaks of African-americans, and Eminem of booty.
Some of us may seem eccentric or maybe even caustic,
You did well if you realised, that this is a sonnet that’s acrostic.