Such, such are the joys of being your own man

But… Seriously

Ajay Hotchandani

It’s Wednesday afternoon and I driving home from work when I get a craving for ice cream. Not just any ice cream, but New York Cheesecake ice cream with waffle cone. So, without hesitation, I take a different path home, a path that takes me in the opposite direction of my home, to get ice cream.

This is a stark contrast from when I was a kid in school. While coming home from school I would ask my dad or sister to buy me ice cream, because I was craving ice cream. The answer would always be no. It’s not like we had to go out of the way, because the ice cream place was on the way home. But I was a kid who had to go home and eat roti and chicken. Because everyone knows that a 10 year old kid rather eat roti and chicken rather than chocolate ice cream.

Long gone are the days where I have to eat what someone tells me to eat, eat when someone tells me to eat, sleep when someone tells me to sleep and come home when someone tells me to come home. My fellow readers of the wonderful city of Hyderabad – home of the largest collection of tiffin, I say if it is 3 PM and you feel like eating chocolate cake with mango chutney then you go right ahead!

Looking back I revisit some of the things I weren’t allowed to do as a kid, that I can now do as a grown up kid:

Bed time – before I had to be in bed and asleep by 9PM no questions asked. If my dad came through that door and we were not in bed with the lights off there would be hell to pay. Unless we were studying for final exams there is no other reason that would be allowed. Now – 9PM! HA! I laugh at 9PM. Sometimes I haven’t even had my dinner at 9PM. In an act of rebellion that has persisted for some time now, the earliest I go to bed is 12AM.

Junk Food – you better have gotten a 100% on an exam, be your birthday or be attending someone’s birthday party to get some good junk food like chocolates, sweets and cake otherwise it just wasn’t going to happen. Today, I think I stocked up enough junk food in my room to give someone diabetes overnight. I am a chocoholic. I do not deny it. There is a good chance I will take off your slippers and throw it away if you don’t give me a piece of your chocolate.

Video Games – Oh Mario! How I wasted my youth steering you through the underground world fighting giant turtles and rescuing the princess. I was addicted to playing Super Mario Brothers on the original Nintendo gaming system. I’d get home from school (without ice cream), and start playing. I’d play until I got yelled at to go eat chicken and roti. Then I’d go back to play until I got yelled at again to go do homework. I have a permanent indentation on my thumb from pressing the A B buttons on the remote. Today not much has changed except I come home and play Call of Duty 3 online and no one yells at me. It could be 11.30PM and instead of writing my article for Postnoon, so the amazing readers of Hyderabad can enjoy, I’m playing video games.

Some people (girls mainly) like to say that boys will be boys and they never grow up. To them I say, be quiet I’m playing video games!

There are few things I can do as an adult that I couldn’t do as a kid, but I can’t write about it without getting in trouble with the law.

Tags: Ajay Hotchandani, But... Seriously

Category: Opinion