Recently, a kid came up to me in a library hands tied behind
his back, and said “HI! I am Jigar. What’s your name? “Before I could come up
with a reply (my name)... I was stunned by the way he spoke... so seemingly
confident with himself and the way he went up to each and every person there to
introduce himself and chat with them with an ease and charm that I m sorry to
say even some of my batch mates find hard to exude. It is then that it struck
me that how we conduct ourselves, how we interact and how we think is not a
reflection of what our age is but it is actually vice versa. Ok, how do we
define age? The number of years since we are born... Right?? It is just simple
mathematics and a tool to keep track of the time of our existence. It’s just a
number. Shakespeare said what’s in a name? I say what’s in a number? That is
one kind of age. The other kind, which is actually overlooked (a lot) in our society,
is the mental age or the social age. These two terms are interchangeable as one
affects the other. This is actually based on our journey since our birth... How
much we know, how much do we understand and how do we carry ourselves. There
are people who are still kids at heart not because they like having fun but
because most of the times they are unaware of what is actually going on around
them and how it is going to affect them. Similarly, there are people who might
be considered kids because of their “age” but know and understand a lot than
their peers. My point being that just because it’s been twenty five years since
somebody was born doesn’t make them an adult and just because somebody was born
a bit late they don’t have to remain a kid for a longer time just to suit the
norms of the society and the people around them. We age when we take decisions
and stick to them, we age whenever we learn new things, have new experiences! In
other words, we grow up when we face the world on our own; understand what who
we are and what we want. It is time now that this age starts deciding who is a
kid and who is not and our society enjoys seeing the kids growing up in this way.
