Being a teenager, I have often read about women in their late-twenties and cruising to the thirties lamenting about that very fact. I have heard a few of them speak about the shift that has come about in their responsibilities and perceptions.
They crib of how frustrating it can be, leaving the blissful period of twenty-something. I could never make out, as in the case of everybody else my age, the reasons for such futile mourning. Teenage and the early twenties are always rose-tinted.
Once knee-deep in the same age, the wave of realism strikes you. There are pointers to indicate an intended sarcasm, occasionally pushing the first thoughts of desperation in you: the actuality that you are as well joining the bandwagon of womenfolk accelerating into the thirties.
A child addressing you as an aunt, you may unintentionally smirk. Too many conversations on marriage and parenting and, of course, of dear husbands. Technically a gargantuan amount of bills to be paid and forms to be filled. All of it invariably suggests you are getting older and normally boring.
The late-twenties represent an age when you would find a mixed set of women in your circle. Some are married with no kids yet, a few already have a kid, even two of them, a handful are not married at all, others are very focussed on their career and many are making crucial decisions, weighing their career on the one side and family life on the other. It is difficult for this diverse group of women to comprehend, leave alone appreciate, each other given that they come from entirely dissimilar backgrounds.
Past twenty-five is an age where we are strong in our ideologies and choices. We reach a point when our decisions matter more than others’ perceptions of us.
We maintain relationships with peers, friends and family even over troubling disagreements.
We learn to behave. Well, at least most of them.
Distracted vision Frankly speaking, I wasn’t quite enjoying my birthdays as much, over the last few years. ‘Age is but a number’ is an oft-heard phrase, and it is forgotten in the very next breath. Keeping oneself motivated over various personal goals was hard. The looming thirties distracted the vision.
Many of us are asked to bottle up our energies, giggle less, slow down the enthusiasm, and act our age.
And when we raise the question why, there is obviously a reason that we must never overtly use our freedom. What are the boundaries? And who decides the boundaries for women? And why is freedom interpreted wrongly? Most of the ladies will not identify themselves with this idea currently, but there are still a few who are often questioned on it. Say what may, being a man is still at least a wee bit better in this part of the world than being the woman of her own will. The times are obviously brighter. Yet, it hasn’t reached a crescendo for a lot of them, and this is known only to those.
Choice and equality are always debated as a western ideology. To many a woman, either of the ideas is simply unheard of.
gouri8891@yahoo.co.in
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