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Tea on the kitchen table


Tea and biscuits on the kitchen table and we spoke about being in one’s early 30s and in mid 20s.

It started with a question “Adi, I am scared to be 25, how did it feel for you?”

And 25 to someone in his 30s feels fleeting, so much time to do many things!, chase dreams! Live!! and apparently 25 to someone in his 30s is ‘still young’.So then, does the ones in their 40s think the same about the 30 year olds? 

Or are we all just full of sighs about the days we did not seize and envious of the ones who still have time?

A few months ago, I sat in a deep conversations with a 90 year old flamboyant lady. She spoke with vivid clarity and energy, constantly drawing me back to think of myself as an aged old rock while her gleaming eyes with expression still reflected her salad days at Sydney. 

Later that evening, I poured  praises about her to a 50 something year old uncle who smirked “Some old woman!”. At that moment, I saw in him a poor old man so gray, like an abandoned painting on the kitchen wall near the chimney, smudged in black and grey by the smoke of the winter fireplace smelling of Ash and Pinewood. 

Those fine line of wrinkles running under his tired eyes as glorious signs of age, for the first time, looked ugly and regretful.

A day or two after that evening, I finally met my nephew and as I pointed my index finger at him,  his wholesome tiny hand wrapped around my fingers as he smiled giggling with those two teeth.

At that moment I finally understood; I understood time and timings.

Months later now when I drink my tea dipping my favourite butter biscuit in it, I often question myself if am scared anymore to be 25.

At most times I just laugh and lick the drops of tea and crumbles of my favourite biscuit on my fingers.

(Note: Adi is an Ao Naga word addressed to an older/elder sibling)

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