The Other Side

As girl children, most of us could hardly wait to grow up. At that age,our tiny brains are not capable of comprehending anything more rewarding than the freedom to paint our lips in bright shades of our mother’s lipsticks, dress our eyes black and hang those colorful loops in our ear lobes.

Personally my fascination with the Kajal was such that I would end up sketching dozens of pairs of oculi exclusively with it and my mom would return home to find half of the pencil consumed creating eyes I thought would come to life one day.

The colorful, glittery and frequently gaudy Saris, the multicolored bangles and the colorful bindis; I believe we all ached to be able to get into and make use of them someday and looked up to our mothers, sisters and aunts as our Fashionistas!

I would often plead with them to save me a few of their dresses and a simple nod of the head in the affirmative was enough to get me sufficiently overjoyed.

Back in school, the high school students had the privilege of dressing in crisp white shirts and we juniors had blue checked shirts as a part of our uniform - proof of how unfair life was to us kids!

In my later school years, the concept of college was seeded in my head and thoughts of dressing as one pleased sprouted out of it - as a consequence of which, the white shirt lost its charm.

We friends would frequently discuss the pros of college life and the cons of being a school kid. Well, good thing then that the wait was almost over.

Once in college, fashion was high on all our minds for a while before it was offset by thoughts of financial freedom and how essential it was for us to have a monthly source of income. Verdict:  Nothing beats a good job and a monthly cash flow. Well, we could then shop all we wanted (no strings attached-monetary or otherwise)

So at this point of time in my life, vogue in campus had almost lost all its appeal.

After three years of life in the corporate and a decent monthly `pocket money’,things changed yet again!

I missed being that carefree child, that sincere student; that chic college goer.

Don't we all?

Social conditioning is such that the other side somehow always seems more appealing, more happening and more interesting.

As much as we may try living in the present, thoughts of a better tomorrow are a part of our sub conscience as much as are memories of our yesteryear's.

For almost all of us, today is consumed reflecting on yesterday and focusing on tomorrow. 

And as some wise guy put it, Yesterday is but today's memory, and tomorrow is today's dream.