How Old is Old?

You Are Old, Father William
Lewis Carroll

"You are old, father William," the young man said,
"And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head--
Do you think, at your age, it is right?"

"In my youth," father William replied to his son,
"I feared it might injure the brain;
But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again."

"You are old," said the youth, "as I mentioned before,
And you have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door--
Pray what is the reason for that?"

"In my youth," said the sage, as he shook his grey locks,
"I kept all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment - one shilling a box--
Allow me to sell you a couple?"

"You are old," said the youth, "and your jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak--
Pray, how did you manage to do it?"

"In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life."

"You are old," said the youth, "one would hardly suppose
That your eye was as steady as ever;
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose--
What made you so awfully clever?"

"I have answered three questions, and that is enough,"
Said his father. "Don't give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
Be off, or I'll kick you down stairs.

Sometimes, that is exactly what I feel like doing! Kicking some silly, young goose down the stairs! Especially when I meet up with old friends, like I did this week.
In the process of saying goodbye to everybody, close to the top of my list were two old college friends. One of them is getting married in May and I'm really sorry that I will be missing her wedding. So, on Monday, I traveled all the way to Inorbit Mall in Malad, by local train even. Those of you who know me well will realise how much I love these girls by the mere fact that I took a train to meet them! Anyway, train taken, destination arrived at all of 40 minutes early. (Another miracle!) I browsed around at Crosswords before I met the two at Rajdhani for lunch. And when we met, it was as though we were back in college. We chatted non-stop, interrupted each other, laughed like a pack of hyenas, and generally had a great time. And somewhere in that conversation, I realised I was growing old. Old as in the dreaded settling-down-having-kids-becoming-boring old! Yet, it wasn't all bad. Here were two of my pals also on the verge of growing "old" and frankly, we were all quite excited, and happy for each other. So it couldn't be that bad, could it?
As I mulled over the question on my way home, I thought of college and work and everything in between and became quite maudlin. Until that is, I got home and met my cousin who is all of 13 and just entering into the horrors of adolescence. All thoughts of being younger evaporated :)
I'm now thinking of subsiding into elegant and wise oldness, as against senile and incontinent oldness which comes much, much later(hopefully!) . And if elegant and wise is asking for too much, then I guess I'll settle for smart and not-looking-my-age oldness. All in all, I've reconciled myself to it.
That reconciliation has taken up the better part of this last week. Although I did manage a trip to the office in the interim. Another round of goodbyes were said. Jokes about returning were made. And somebody complained about the Comments policy on the blog. I was just happy that someone was reading it!! And wanting to comment! So as of now, the comments are open to all!
Nothing much else really. Bags are almost packed. And all is set! Come Saturday and I take off for the US. I'm soooo excited!! I'm going to be on a plane!!
Sigh! Guess am not that old after all!