Still 15 at heart

I am 20 now and turning 21 this September. According to a friend of mine, 20 is the age where ideally one should be running out of excuses to do anything stupid! 20 is supposedly the age where our life is at a very important crossroads from where it can head anywhere.

Funnily, according to the same people, we were at the same crossroads when we finished our "Life Changing" Boards of tenth and the "Future Deciding" entrances after our 12th. So, after all those years of slogging our asses off (Atleast,I didn't.But, all those poor souls who lived pitiful lives buried in books and were thrown around between tutions and foundation classes and school did) and those endless hours we spent at college doing "Gyaan Praapthi" we are back to the same crossroads!Fine, the counter argument maybe that the crossroads are not the same and after any journey one is bound to come across crossroads. But, somehow I feel cheated and wasted! Honestly after 3 years of engineering in of the more reputed universities of the nation I don't feel anything even close to an engineer. And trust me it is not my fault. I may not exactly be an ass slogger but I make sure I know my stuff.It is just that nothing at college managed to motivate me to pursue a full feldged career in engineering.
So this summer I decided I have had enough!Enough of running the Rat race which has no finish line! I decided I needed a break. So,I pushed all my books aside and went out there and be a kid again!
Now how do I be a kid! That is a tough thing in my locality considering that all the flats here are a haven for all the retired folk. I tried desperately to pull some of old childhood chums who hadn't grown up too much or hadn't moved out of the colony to play. But,none seemed interested. After a day of futile attempts I gave up and came back home. Then my sister took me to this group of kids (They were still doing their schooling.So I assume I can call them kids) in the adjacent colony who were playing Dumb Charades when I met them.They were more than glad to take a 6 foot half engineer into their fold. I must say I was pretty apprehensive when I joined them if I would in their group but I was surprised by kid who was still there in me. So much for me trying to be an aritculate grown up for the last two years. So cheers to this daily routine of "Gappe Maarna", sitting on the top of the tank and watching the clouds shift shapes and all those endless pani puri plates we had at the chat bhandi!

Why did the chicken cross the road!

"Why did the chicken cross the road?"
This question is probably the one question which we must have heard a million times but we never manage to have an answer for it.
Even now,I am not too sure myself but I thought I will give my take on it.So,here goes.
To answer this question it is very important that we look at what the chicken has to gain by crossing the road.On the side it is right now,it has a pretty content life with everything it needs.No complaints whatsoever. By crossing the road not only is it risking injury but also the all the comforts which it currently enjoys for it is not necessary that the other side be better than the first one.So, why does it have to?It doesn't make any logical sense!
To understand this I will give you a simple analogy.Imagine you have a Maruti Alto and one fine weekend while you are strolling in a new mall in the city you come across a new mid segment sedan on display.The smartass salesperson there catches hold of you and convinces you with all those big words that he spent his life mastering that this car is the one thing you have been searching all your life!So,you decide to get rid of your sufficiently comfortable Alto and buy the sedan on a loan!
Another somewhat similar but slightly different scenario.Say you are in a supermarket buying your monthly rations. Usually you would have bought three boxes of icecream for the month which would have been more than enough.However,you notice there is an offer which is giving you five boxes for the price of four.Seeing the offer you start thinking again "If I pay a little more I am getting a good deal".So instead of paying for the three boxes, you pay for four and take home five boxes happy and content.So,where is the relation you may ask.The point to notice here is that it is not the extra box you are getting for free which is not important but the extra box you are paying even though you don't really need it.
I am guessing the fallacy is pretty obvious by now.Pursuit of `"better" things in life is something which is deeply embodied in the nature of any living creature and thanks to all of today's brilliant ad makers and marketing gurus we are living in a make believe world where "Happiness" is bottled in the bubbles of Coca-Cola,"Life's Good" because you have a LCD TV in your living room and quality time with family means a night out in Domino's Pizza.
And that people is the reason why the chicken crossed the road!