40s aren't the new 20s!

Well, someone said 40s is the new 20s and like a fool I believed them! Till the oft bothering back called me to reality. 

So when the clock stuck 12 last week on the 6th of June, I completed the 4th decade of my life. 40 years! I mean, how did that happen?I feel like it was only yesterday when the dad was pulling my leg saying this could be the last bachelor birthday of my life. I was only 24 that day. The best friend and I just cut a random bun with a blade to celebrate that day. Well, bachelor days and age 24 just needed a bun and a blade with the friend. Life was that simple.

Suddenly, when life hit 40, there were the in-laws, the wife and ofcourse the two little munchkins calling me appa. Life seems a lot more complicated. 

Can the 20s ever come back? Can I go back to the days of simple, unfiltered independence? When nobody bothered about what and where I ate and how much I spent. That night, the friend and I just had a random walk down the usually buzzing chennai street at midnight looking for some cooked chicken, doing random talk about dreams, future, love and marriage. After the meaningless walk, we realised the clock had just stuck 5:00 AM and went off to play ball and then slowly back to our day jobs. The body wasn't tired. The mind never panicked. Life was lived at a different pace; it was listening to a different drummer - the heart - then had very minimal rhythms to dance to. 

But 40, sounds different. I'm sure the stress on the letter 'F' to pronounce forty is intentional. It was meant to scare people. To shake off the rust and wake up to reality. The aching back, the tiring legs, the bills to pay, the food needed to be on the table, the wife's nerves, the presentation at work and the children's tantrums. 

No, I don't wish to go back to my twenties. Twenties had their time. I loved it. It was refreshing. Dreams in the middle of the day and mindless chatter in the middle of the night were exhilarating. Independence and freedom of that age were surely the best of times. Yet, no, I don't want to go back to those days. 

Rather, I look forward! Forties aren't going to be flowery. The insufferable back can only go worse. The tantrums of children I have heard will only go worse as they grow older apparently. The parents are going to fall and break bones. They are going to be unbearable. The realities of life are more stark in the forties I suppose; and yet, I look forward to it. 

No, not for some fetish about wisdom and ageing, neither some frivolous understanding of the world. It is just the calmness of mind which comes off with the grey hair and the wider appreciation of world around and the people who come with it. The 20s can never give me the thrill of my children's effervescence or the quiet and longing conversation with the wifey. That age of dare could never replace the victories of the Mind over the aching body. Ah, the thrill of learning that my mind can overcome a hurt knee and still win a badminton match! Perhaps I was late. But only later life lessons has taught me that. The concept of Mind over matter! The concept that you fight till you win and not quit when it pains. The insecurity of the young adulthood pales in comparison to the understanding of security. The lessons of the 20s are pale compared to the life lessons of the older populace. 

Hence, I look at my parents and in-laws and my uncles and aunts with a lot more respect. I look at the world with a lot more awe. I have bigger, and yet more realistic dreams. Responsibilities don't shrink me anymore. Rather they invigorate me. So, here I come 40s. I'm ready to conquer!

No, 40s aren't the new 20s. Ain't meant to be!