Milestones

I was cruising through the murky under waters of the social network and suddenly, after a mere ten minutes, I had to log out and shut down the computer. Nope, no ugly, nude photos of over-touchy, boundary-challenged new lovers but just a reminder of my age and a not-so-subtle shout out to where in life I should be.

Over the years we have heard parents compare us to everyone around us. Cousin Skinny scored this much in Math, cousin Bitchy topped her class, pot-bellied uncle's daughter is learning Carnatic music, gossipy Ganga's son is now working here and earning this much. You get the drift. It was a weird, convoluted, loving way of informing us about their achievements and reiterating where we should be, but are clearly, not. 

Years later in the throes of making a career it was not uncommon for phone calls from home to be filled with news about Skinny cousin now getting married or cousin Bitchy eloping and basically everyone but you finding marital bliss. This would inevitably lead to the mater hinting, whining, pleading, emailing pictures of strange men and in the end threatening you with dire consequences if you did not get married within the year. 

And then you finally find someone you want to marry, spend money, and travel with and you think that is all. Every one is happy. No more requests. You create FB, Twitter, Google+ accounts and watch from afar what friends, cousins, peers are up to. You are happy knowing that everyone is well and are content catching up at frequent intervals. You see that everyone is pretty much at the same place in life as you are career-wise, relationship-wise and well mental level-wise I guess!

Till one day you log in and see status after status, ten consecutive messages to be exact, about babies, new-born, toddlers, infants. Parents holding their tiny bundles of joy, commenting on sleepless nights, some announcing their arrival to the world, yet some with cute pictures of shenanigans their little devils did. You read through them all, look at all the pictures and slowly realize where you are. All around you, your peers are having babies. Will you be left behind? Are these subtle albeit strong reminders of milestones along the highway? 

Well played, Mother, Well played.