Fifteen...

 Last year, I thought I should wrap up this tradition. 14 years was a right number, the end of the 'vanvaas', so to say.

But this blog hardly gets updated, and at least this tradition allows me to step back into this long forgotten space, sweep away the cobwebs, dust it up a bit and take a little walk down nostalgia lane, when life was simpler, I was younger and I could crib here about my single status and sneer at all the lovey-dovey couple posting mushy romantic stuff on their Facebook page.

Little did I know that I would end up being one of 'those' folks. Life has a way of gradually turning you into the very people you mock in your youth.

On that wistful note, let me try my hand at this year's edition...

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As I look back and wonder how long it has been

That I have been whining for more than fifteen

And I realize that kids who were not even born

When I first started, will now be eating popcorn

With their girlfriends in a theatre, waiting for a 'scene'...

And if you think realizing that makes me feel really really old,  

Yes, sometimes my joints creak, even in Mumbai's mild cold,

But the more things change, the more they remain the same,

I remind myself that I may lose but I can still play the game,

Because in life, you call or you raise, but you never ever fold!

And as we complete two whole years of this boring 'stay-at-home' 

The virus wrecks our plans to go visit London, Paris, and Rome

All we can do is reminisce about the mountain lake in Bergen

Or about the translation of that Russian hostel lady and her gun   

Is there a German word for this 'wanting to travel' syndrome?

Because what is love, but the memories we collect together

Of remembering all the silly things I did just to-get-her

It is also about wanting to continue to create newer memories

Like 'pasta without shrimp' and 'breakfasts of only berries'  

Of inside jokes and secrets that make sense only to each other

Love is joking to folks that you have forgotten how to ride a bike

And going on a walking tour, but cribbing about the 10 hour hike

Waking up tired the next day and going for another long, scenic route  

And then wrapping up with a dinner of reindeer and pureed beetroot 

And wondering later which is the veg dish, since they both look alike!

Love is sleeping through dinner time, and having just carrot cake

And also 'birthday special' trips to a hotel overlooking a lake

But love is not just about fancy trips but the daily routine stuff too

It is about how you care for me, and the little things that you do 

Like worrying when I wheeze, and the medicines you insist I take...

  

Some wise old man said the older you become, the wiser you get

Even if you mostly tend to ramble a lot and most things you forget

But nothing beats the feeling of being young, and walking a mile 

Just in the hope of catching your eye, and sharing a silent smile

Even the wise old men would like to rewind the clock, I bet... 

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PS: And like every year, I hope to get away by writing some crappy rhyme in place of a nice shiny gift...