Kid sister’s life changing gyan !

I have a younger sister; she is ten years younger than me. And she is a proto-type mid teen girl, anorexic, gothic and thinks the world of Zac Effron. Her daily source of energy comes from the iPod she blasts around, it never leaves her hip. She is a walking encyclopaedia on international brands, their prices and where their showrooms are located.

K prefers hip hop over bharatanayam, a keytar over a clavinova. She thinks Indian classical music is synonymous with Susheela Raman’s salt rain.

She hates being stuck in my sleepy town and New York, is her dream destination. She aspires to hold the green ticket to freedom in America.

Since my parents are on the other side of fifty, they hardly have the energy or the patience to deal with her hormone filled teenage angst. So they leave the dealing with the tantrums and mood shifts she has, to me.

Thus being an elder sister, coroneted with parental powers, I hate to abuse either of them. So I try hard to explain and understand her.

I hate to admit that, even though all we have is a ten year gap, we do have a world of a generation gap! How did that happen?

Some ten years ago, let me to describe to you what south India was; let me start with Kerala.

Cochin was indeed the “capital “of Kerala, Trivandrum had lost that battle ever since monarchy ended in Kerala. And in Cochin life circled around kacheripadi, and maybe on marine drive, shopping was restricted to Seemati and Jayalakshmi and occasionally Parthas.

The rest of the state was quaint and quiet, no shopping malls, no international brands, everyone was happy to use the “levy genes” instead of an original Levi!

There were occasional hi-fi places, which put up hoardings saying “American- burger” and “Italian-pizza” of course with hand-drawn pictures. We all were happy with buns and cutlets and they were quintessentially burgers.

Even Chennai, was all about just Spencer plaza, Pondy bazaar, Nalli silks and walking along the Marina. Everyone marched around brigade road in Bangalore and Banjara Hills summed up Hyderabad.When I used to go to Dubai, for my annual vacations, everything from the city lights, to the massive malls, the speeding cars used to make me ditzy and my eyes blind!

But it was not like we did not enjoy life, we had our paperback novels instead of kindle, our taped-music instead of torrents, the TV with some thirty forty channels instead of high definition. We had museums to visit instead of youtube video’s to watch, encyclopaedias to look up instead of goggling it , school homework to do rather than face-book status’s to update! Life was perhaps slower, but that did not make out 24 hours less fun filled.

Initially I was sceptical to accept, this new way of living. But slowly, I have changed, from fully depending on my ATM, to carrying currency. To having a sub-meal, instead of kappaand fish curry. I am learning to read my paper online rather than depending on the roll outside my door step. I gave in to the materialistic ease of Americanisation. But till late, socially, I kept myself within high walls, secluding myself from imaginary predators online.

Last year my life, which I believed was a well oiled machine went out of gear, and spiralled down into some bottomless pit. At-least I felt that way. To save myself from embarrassment and questions, I shut myself up. Changed cell phone numbers, deleted my face book account. It was not denial. It was not the lack of acceptance. It was just that I thought I needed privacy to deal with a personal tragedy.

That transition was a real eye opener for me. Family and friends, who I thought would reach out from across online portals, simply believed that I was unreachable.

Months later when I was more in control of myself, I felt an unfamiliar void: The lack of friends and social associations. It was then that I took my kid sisters advice and decided to loosen up a bit. I joined twitter.

I was surprised that people, who never knew me, just accepted me even though I hid behind the veil of anonymity. Behind handles, were real people, with real lives and real dreams! They enlightened me; made me believe that impossible is nothing. They pushed me to reach out for the stars. It was a more mature world, far above photo-shopped pictures. Beyond the webs and mazes of the internet, they extend their love and with single sentence’s they showed me they care.

It was indeed a good decision on my part, to trust my little sister, and let go of my fears. I am glad I listened to her, got on to twitter, and got myself inspired, instead of sulk in my own cocoon.

I still have to teach her a lot, change her mind set and her obsession with the stars and the stripes. But till then, I have to thank her and of course twitter!

Note : this post is dedicated to @sedwinsv @drwiz @jay_ambadi @morphius1375 @vivekpoduval @aashkey @ashwinissac @dr_lax @radic533 @gaurravg and the list continues..