I resign as an adult! To Whom It May Concern! I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult. I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of a 8 year old again. I want to go to an ordinary Udipi Restaurant close to my house and think that it's a four star restaurant, have my faourite idli-vada's and sambhar. I want to go across a fresh mud puddle especially after the first monsoon rain, and make ripples with rocks. I want to think M stand for "majaa" and not money, because you can enjoy them. I want to play football during recess or when it is raining and scribble on the walls with colour crayons and splash watercolors on white walls with balloons filled with colours and I throw them on a white wall to create an inexplicable piece of art. I want to lie under a big papal tree and drink lemon juice, mango juice, pine apple juice, sugar cane juice, grape juice, lassi, with my friends on a hot summers day. I want to climb the highest hills and want the clouds to brush past my face, I want to know if it feels cold or warm. I want to return to a time when life was simple. When all you knew were colors, addition tables and simple nursery rhymes, and building vocabulary.

We never knew the words like terrorism, hi-jack, and so many of the vulgar words that are used so blatantly these days - in the head lines of news papers too. But that didn't bother you, because you didn't know what you didn't know and you didn't care. When all you knew was to be happy because you didn't know all the things that should make you worried and upset. I want to think that the world is fair. That everyone in it is honest and good. I want to believe that anything and everything is possible. When we thought the worst thing in the world was if someone took your jump rope from you or picked you last for kickball? I want to be oblivious to the complexity of life and be overly excited by little things once again. I want to return to the days when reading was fun and music was clean. When television was used to report the news or for family entertainment I would walk on the beach and only think of the sand between my toes and the prettiest seashell I could find. I would pick up every round and soft stone while I used to walk back home from school I would spend my afternoon climbing trees and riding my bike. I would spin the top, play marbles, catch dragon flies and tie a thin tread to see it fly as if a jet was leaving a vapour trail I want to live simply again. I don't want my day to consist of computer crashes, mountains of paperwork, depressing news, or how to survive more days in the month than there is money in the bank, doctor bills, gossip, illness and loss of loved ones. I want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, justice, peace, dreams, the imagination, the advancement of mankind and making sand castles on the beach sand. I want my father to take us over long drives on weekends, and treat us to good simple lunches, take us to the lake, take us for walks on the banks of the river, eat peanuts, popcorns, drink tender coconut water, eat raw mango with salt and chilli powder, and my mother making all of us sit around to play or to sing or to feed us all from her hands. So....no more cheque book, no more cars and the traffic to worry about and I want to reduce me credit cards to ashes. I am officially resigning from adulthood. And if you want to discuss this further, you'll have to catch me first, cause............. You will have to also resign from adulthood and become a "child" again...

Author : R Bharadwaj