The Metamorphosis

This essay was written in the wake of a sudden flash of inspiration while on the pot (I mean it!); As for calling it ‘essay’, I don’t think this can exactly be called a blog entry and I could think of nothing better than the title of Franz Kafka’s book,(Thank you sir!).

These are some other titles that I thought of:

You’re Small, Keep Quiet: A Kid’s Point of View.

Being Politically Correct in an Adult World. (Sounds like Nathaniel’s book in Enchanted, right?)

On with it...

I turned 18 recently, thus joining the society of ‘adults’. And now, life is very different from the off-handed approach I took to people, friends, activities and life in general when I was a kid, when good things did not come with strings attached, when you could speak your mind without being afraid it would make you look like a crazy loon in the other persons’ eyes. (I empathize with Maurice in Beauty and the Beast.)

Now, everything has become more serious, more important, having an effect on my future (though if it’s anything like now then it’s a seriously bleak and boring prospect).

Everything I do has a motive, a purpose...

Why are you studying? To get a job.

Why get a job? To earn.

Why earn? To have all the material comforts I need and get a well-paid husband.

How will you get him? By being physically, financially, morally (in the eyes of society) and everything-ly perfect.

Now, I have people looking up to me, namely: Kids calling me chechi (elder sister) not by name, shopkeepers calling me madam not baby (that’s lass in Mumbai and is pronounced like be-bi!) and a feeling that the society goddess (the one who keeps everyone’s societal track record and his/her image before other men (and women because I'm feminist, well, sort of)) is always keeping an eye on me, seeing what I'm doing, waiting for me to make a social blunder thus tarnishing my image.

Now, I have to keep up with everyone’s expectations of me. Trade imagination for practicality...I guess that’s why true virtuosos in most arts always shun society, (no excuse to lock yourself away in a darkened room and play maniacal mournful tunes on the piano...note to self!)

It’s because they're unfettered souls, straining against the invisible but strong spider web society has spun to keep in check the minds of people...that does sound lyrical!

Time for a poem...

What I want to do, I cannot do,

Because of what mummy says to me,

Be a good girl now, you've grown up you see.

Now you must learn to cook and preen and knead and dress,

Pick up your stuff and even clean others’ mess,

Because you've grown up you see.

One day, my dear, you'll have to pick your Prince Charming-like husband,

Who'll take you away to his house and give you new in-laws who, you might think treat you like a servant,

There are other things too (which a too R-rated to mention here!).

And you'll have to grin and bear them all....

But through all these experiences remember your God's child and my little baby doll!

But watch me; I'm a free bird,

I'll do what I want to do, go where I want, see what I want to,

And learn things for myself instead of learning them all from aunties who say, ‘Never do!'

I'll be successful one day, I pray,

And be myself all through the way!

Afterthought:

This sounds like the kind of song you’d see in a Disney movie with Julie Andrews as the mother and the typical doe-eyed English beauty playing the daughter. Hee hee. I'm a scriptwriter now!

I miss the clear-cut direct straightforwardness from before (Read: childhood). Now, you never know how a simple act or word of yours will be interpreted. Everything has two (possibly more) meanings.

After the LGBT wave, two girls holding hands is seen, not as a sweet symbol of friendship, but as a sign that those girls might be lesbian. How successfully society has managed to fool us. By deluding man into thinking he's developing (when he is in fact only narrowing his already boxed-in mind), she, (Goddess, remember?), has played us for fools and now instead of getting better as he grows older, man is getting more and more narrow minded and this will go on till the day when he has nowhere to move, a societal straightjacket....

I only hope more people realize this before all goes to ruin.

I've definitely become one of those the-world-is-ending people now!

But I mean what I say. Shouldn't humanity be progressing as the years go by instead of worsening day after day and coming to an end as described in The Bible?

It’s something to think about...