I don’t respect age, age as in the number of years spent on Mother Earth. Shocked?? I bet you are for do I also not belong to the category of those who have spent considerable (Oho now you want to know how many??!! The curious can check here) years here than they care to admit?? And yet here I am throwing bricks at my own self with statements of not respecting age or so you think. You couldn’t be farther from the truth!! Age, as I hear mentioned often enough by those so utterly captivated and conscious of such things, is just a number. I agree wholeheartedly. Now at this point if you have a sneaking suspicion that my thumbs up for it is due to totally different reasons, buddy then you are right on target.

In the short (??) span that I have spent on Mother Earth who grabbed me for herself while I was enroute to Neptune, I might add, I stumbled upon this great truth. Don’t divert me with questions of why I was headed for Neptune! What do you mean ‘why’??!! I belong there!! And if you want to know any more you will have to come back and read all about it at some later date, when I get down to writing about it, won’t you?? Now the great truth: The number of years you spend on Mother Earth (i.e. your age) means nothing in terms of wisdom, understanding, perception, insight… tra-la-la-la-la and la. And for someone from Neptune I assure you this is baffling to say the least.

Haven’t you seen that harassed daughter-in-law learning absolutely nothing from her own experiences and turning out to be a monster mother-in-law when her turn comes?? What has the extra years taught her?? What of those religious zealots, language chauvinists…. Oh my God, I am entering deep waters here and all I meant was to wade a bit at the shallow end. Let me retreat. Suffice to say that if such people expect me to respect them because they are older to me………… Oh yes that IS me you see walking away. And no, that is not air escaping from a tube. I am trying to whistle nonchalantly and the least you can do is throw a word or two of encouragement my way. Oh well…

Wisdom has nothing to do with the years spent on Earth (Things are a lot different in Neptune. Sigh!). You see grown people behaving in the silliest manner. Look at what happened because I took a few liberties as a writer, ooops… correction blogger. Quite naturally, as I am sure it happens with many a blogger, a chance remark, a question, an observation or an argument, sends you sailing along a train of thought and before you know it, there you are adding a few herbs and some spices for flavor, in no time, ready with a delectable (you hope) blog dish.. Being a conscientious person, of course, one refrains from naming names who contributed to the making of this tantalizingly scrumptious (you hope) blog dish. Yet what do you think happens?? You have people jumping off the deep end.

One rushes off banging his head, to write a post announcing himself to be the character who spouted those unforgettable words. Another is offended though assured repeatedly that no personal enmity exists, that a point of view slammed in your post just happens to be one held by him. I mean am I supposed to refrain from mentioning it just because of that??! A third says, ‘I thought our argument was over’!! It had been over, but can you not write about your views on the subject because, the argument is over??!! And mind you, these are all people who have spent close to four decades and some even more soaking up the sun on Earth. And Neptune is thirty times the distance of Earth from the Sun. Sigh!

Before you jump to the erroneous conclusion that ALL my ‘friends’ from Earth are the same, let me assure you they are not. Some of them CAN see the humor and appreciate it for what it is. Some of them do concede that the fact we discussed a matter does not in any preclude me from writing about it. Some of them do appreciate a writer’s (sorry, that should read blogger’s) license, which is akin to poetic license of sorts. Once I found a remark made by a blogger friend’s wife quite ‘irresistible’ as blog fodder, to convey what I had in mind. When the friend read, he was cool about it having realized that I had used the remark as a pivot to get across a certain point that I had in mind. He knew I was a cheeky monkey (there I have come out and admitted it. Now you know why I keep calling my children monkeys!!), but not malicious. Beside, I don’t mind having my leg pulled too. At five feet nothing I can do with a little bit of that as every extra inch (or even a centimeter or part there of) counts. All I ask is that the sciatica be taken note of. I don’t want to be limping around with leg-pullers getting a little too enthusiastic.

Now that brings me to why I wrote this post. This is to you my young friend, but for whom I wouldn’t have written the poem Hey Shail! The conversation we had was the inspiration behind it. There I was sitting minding my own business when it popped into my head and just wouldn’t go away. I just had to post it! I was apprehensive as to how it would be received considering my earlier experiences. You, I learnt, are a terribly good sport unlike some of my other so-called ‘friends’ who are older to you in decades. Age is just a number and I don’t set store by it. One needs more than just age to act maturely. I won’t name you as per my policy. You know who you are. Here’s to you!