youngster no college kid was ever going to call me an uncle again well at least not for the next ten years or so anti aging cream check gym membership check home cooked tiffin services check saying no to fast food during weekdays check saying no to fizzy drinkshard drinkscigarettes etc ummm the journey to healthy living had well and truly commenced for safe measure i also started reading what i thought teenagers were reading i switched over from the twilight zone to the twilight saga faster than you could name the members of the cullen family yet something was amiss i couldnt really associate myself with the things that were trendy and in no matter how many times i listened to taylor swift or tried embracing edm itit just wasnt me i had grown up listening to backstreet boys yes mock me indipop bryan adams and lucky ali and no sixteen year old could baby baby me into liking him i was okay with that bit what does looking young have to do with actually being young i had thought but after that first episode it seemed more and more people were referring to and treating me as an uncle ji call me bhaiya not uncle i said to a colleagues 10 year old daughter she giggled in response aap toh uncle hopata hai uncleuncleuncleuncllleeeeee you are an uncle only uncleuncleuncllleeeeee little devil i went home for dussehra instead of career plans the relatives were asking about marriage plans divide my father and i were crossing a street side by side someone called out o uncleand both of us turned around in reflex there was no going back it seemed but by far the most embarrassing incident happened a few months later the lift in my housing society wasnt working i had to use the stairs there were a couple of kids who gathered around in the evenings to play some weird game sitting at the stairs parks are so yesterday and as soon as they heard my footsteps one particular kid complained yaaaar aunty aa rahi hai uthna padhega aunty is coming well have to get up then i entered their field of vision and child no 2 a snitch theres always one in a group came running to me dragging child no 1 with him uncle uncle issne aapko aunty bola maariye issezor se maariye uncle uncle he called you an aunty slap him hard child no 1 protested weakly i gave him a gentle pat the not so gentle slap on the back was reserved for child no 2 the said snitch who looked back at me in astonishment instead of being rewarded he had been given a mild rebuke i explained the reason yeh toh mujhe aunty bola bina dekhke par tu toh mujhe dekhke uncle bula raha hai uska kya karu he called me aunty without looking at me but you called me uncle deliberately what do i