Sweet? ^$*#&^$*#^ Sixteen
I have been wondering all these years what all the fuss about sweet sixteens & college romances is all about. At sixteen, if you were an average middle class Indian teenager like me, you would have been neck deep in studies for class 12 or for entrance exams for professional courses. Moreover, if you were anything like me, you were probably ugly. Yes, pimply, with oiled, plaited hair & wore sports shoes (ragged of course) with punjabi suits. Yes, there were better looking teenagers too - what with my dad being posted in an Airforce station, we had mini-skirted, dog-on-leash, smart teenagers too but to me, they looked like creatures from another planet.
After school, one leaves for college & one is assured by the hindi film industry that romance is just around the corner. But here again, off I went to an engineering college where there are said to be two types of people "boys" and "non-boys". What's more, your pimples get worse & you get sunken eyes because you get no more mummy-cooked food (sob!). The strongest emotion I remember from college life is "hunger".
I dont know where the hindi films get their weird ideas from. Sixteen is anything but sweet & college life is one long maggi-eating-on-rumbling-stomach episode.