I am scared of turning 30

Fears of turning 30
Most boys and girls become men and women when they touch 30, 30 is such a benchmark in terms of age that it often generates emotions of different types and is an age when we have our realizations of where we have reached and where we wanted to be when we are 30.

CAREER
We had all set targets to buy beamers by 30 or to have traveled across the world by 30 or to be at least a VP of a large company by 30 or own the business that we really wanted. 30 is the benchmark that more often than not we lose out to, we set ambitious targets on career goals younger ages and when we miss them there is a sense of underachievement, though it’s not a very dominant feeling but its there. We have all missed out on the goals but then more often than not we realize that what we have achieved is no less and it’s often not such a big deal as we were unrealistic while we were in school or college.
30 is also a time when you like to take stock as to where we are in comparison to our classmates in school and college and realize the differences in every thing that all of us are doing, its been 12 years since school, but we still end up talking about the same instances that happened while in school, the same sports, the same girls, clubs parties and everything, somehow with school and college friends life does not change when we are together.
30 is a time when you look at the next decade with anticipation, 30’s is a critical time in career when one is knocking at the doors of the middle management while nursing kids at home, more often than not most people plan families by 40 so the stability factor in career is far more important in 30’s. People are far more responsible in 30’s than they ever were in 20’s and stability takes priority over money and fast growth, a house takes priority over big cars as we start thinking about our kids and not just ourselves and our wives/girlfriends.

AGEING
“30 is old period” is something that most of us have always felt while we were not 30. 20’s is young whether we are students or professionals we are all young and there is a back of the mind difference that happens when we turn 30. I don’t know if we feel old when we really touch 30 but we don’t feel boyish anymore. 30 is the age where I would like to call myself into smart young men who have been super achievers. The old age is consistently shifting from 30 and upwards, but anyways it is a feeling of getting old that we cant deny. When someone mentions that the age is 30, you definitely don’t make a picture of a young man or women in your mind. Personally I don’t mind being perceived to be called old as I really don’t care about being called young. The reason why anyone is scared of getting old is that it’s irreversible. 30 for me frankly is the purple patch, you are young enough to enjoy life like kids and you are old enough to afford most pleasures of life. Really we don’t mind this ageing.

SOCIAL PRESSURES
There are a lot of social pressures attached to reaching the age of 30. If you are unmarried there is a pressure to get married, if you are married then to have kids, if you have a kid it is to have a second kid but its always on. These pressures come from the family as well as peers. For unmarried men who don’t have a girlfriend there is always a fear that probably they have missed the bus and they might not be able to find anyone at all. You would often see men benchmarking 30 as the age that they would ask their parents to find out a bride for them and not the other way round.


Whatever said and done the feeling of 30 is brilliant, I would like to feel that I have achieved significantly in comparison to the targets that I had sought to achieve before 30, my targets for 40 are far more achievable.. YAHOOOOOOOO…..

Turning 30

Well i have reached a new benchmark in my age and am 30 years old right now. When i was 12 I treated my friends to a treat as i got into the teens and being a teenager had a lot of significance as you were now gonna be taken seriously in the social arena at school and otherwise and you have finally arrived.

The beginning of 20's was a great event for me four days before my sister's wedding. For me 20's has been the most important decade of my life for the good and for the worse and i cherish every birthday while in my 20's. At the beginning of 20's i was in Calcutta and was trying to get popular with kids pumping iron and becoming the "Johnny Bravo" of the group. My major friendships started while i was in Calcutta and was a good 3 year stay that i had there due to my father's transfer there. The college at Bhawanipur could not have been cooler, though i secretly wish i had been to a college with a higher degree of involvement than Bhawanipur. My first work experience was in Hotel Hindustan International as i learnt the skills of tele-selling as a part time job. I was always bad in studies but i enjoyed working and which is why i enjoyed doing my first full time job at Karvy in 2002.

Joining IIPM in 2003 was a turning point in my life as i came back to my favorite city of Delhi and i had my lion's share of friendships and attachments here in Delhi. IIPM was a great experience and it got me my first break of career at CitiFinancial and if IIPM was great learning experience Citi turned around my life for the good, taught me everything required to succeed in the future. One year at Citi got me the best break of my life at HSBC and its all due to Citi. 2005 was the worst year of my life personally as i lost m,y dad and it changed me as a man in the next few years. I got my mom to stay with me in Chandigarh where i got placed with HSBC and this was a great personal decision as i connected even more with my mom and the friends that i got in Chandigarh were the most chilled out. I took a major decision in Chandigarh to move out of HSBC into Kotak 2006 and that has been a blessing and i feel i was fortunate to work with Kotak in their best years. I had grown with Kotak in every manner intellectually as well as professionally and have grown up to be a far more capable person than i ever was. My friends at Kotak are my best friends till date and i believe that these boys would hang around with me forever. I shifted back to Delhi in 2008 and have been rocking and rolling since then. Last ten years seem to have passed out real quick but there is been enough learning and the world around us has changed so much, mobile phones, mobile internet, metro, commonwealth and all. Both my nephews were born in the last decade, our family of four is now an extended family of 8 with Kids. The biggest change for me is the absence of my father in person, but frankly i try to be more and more like him every day of my life and hopefully lessen the absence that is all the time. Nevertheless there are no regrets for the decade. I love my life the way its been in the last ten years and i would make it happen in the next ten too.

The next biggest thing to happen in the last ten years was my wedding with Shraddha, it was a logical interim conclusion to a relationship so beautiful which has lasted 8 years now, Shraddha has been the biggest pillar of support of my life and i can attribute a major part of my l successes to her. The women in my family are very strong my mom, my sister and my wife are the strongest persons that i have come across. I am fortunate to have such wonderful people in my life.

I am looking forward to 30's with a lot of anticipation and zeal, and yes i am still very young.