“Happy Birthday Weirdo” She gives me a rose.

I nod and mumble a feeble Thank You.

“Are you alright?” she asks me.

I nod again. Yes I am alright. Never been better.

But she doesn’t let it go. She asks me again, “Don’t bluff. What’s eating you?”

I remain silent. As a matter of fact, there’s nothing eating me.

“You are never this silent Nirmal. Share with me, please?”

I sigh. Nitya is impossible sometimes. You can probably get rid of an Amway agent but you can’t shrug off Nitya if she is determined.

“Nothing much,” I say, “You know, I’ve completed 29 years. 30^th year has entered my life. With it, the so-called middle age. It’s a bit odd that I have reached the last twenty so soon. I don’t want to leave the twenties. I want to be twenty something always.”

Nitya looks straight into my eyes. “You know what Nirmal? When you say all those things, you look like a cute adorable kid to me… and those hazel eyes of yours – I could just drown in them!”

I suppress a sense of pride. My hazel eyes have indeed been relished by many a young girl.

Nitya is staring at them making me uncomfortable. “What are you doing Nitya?” I ask her.

“Just reading your eyes,” She replies.

I smile. “But I have other things to do.”

Nitya shakes her head. “This is much better than thinking about your last twenty.”

Blushed, I return to the laptop.

“Nirmal, you know what? Middle age doesn’t start until you are thirty five. You have five more years.”

I nod.

“That is your mental age I am talking about not your physical age.”

I nod again.

“Unlike physical age, mental age is something you can control.”

“Really? Tell me about it” I close my laptop and turn to her. “I thought there are a hundred thousand external factors that influence the mental age of a person.”

She waves her hand, “that INFLUENCE the mental age of a person. What if you don’t let your mental age to be influenced?”

“Shut it off?” I ask her.

“Yeah! Just detach it from the external world.”

“And?”

“And what? You’ll remain a young man forever” Nitya is excited.

I look out from the window. The sun is warm. There is a gentle breeze.

“Perhaps we should continue this conversation on a cold rainy day. It’s a beautiful day outside. We should hit the road.” I suggest.

“That sounds reasonable” She agrees.

So we hit the road. I forget my entering the thirties.

Life goes on.