40 is often referred to as the beginning of the end or going down the hill. Really now!! Personally, Life couldn’t have been more on top of the hill, for me. I feel more secure ,more confident ,more happier, more sexier, more everything. The brats have grown up, curbing down the crazy mayhem that involves raising 2 kids ( and god help you if both are boys). The relationship has grown up, has matured…Ripened is the word I would coin for it. The ups and downs are more familiar and feel less alien. C’mon!!, now is the time to sit back and enjoy the journey…:)
Actress-Director Suhasini Maniratnam once famously said “ Life for an Indian woman begins at 40”. Totally with her on this. At 40 Life for me is all about ‘ moi’. Earlier hubby, kids, family ,home hogged a major share of my life’s pie-chart. There was hardly any left for me. Now it’s just me, me and me. Selfish??...mebbe!!..Being a woman, and a Indian woman at that, i will never cease to be a daughter, wife, mother n a sister (don’t want to either). I just don’t want to be defined only by a relationship anymore. There is so much more to me than what can be defined by a relationship. There is so much about me that I , myself have to discover yet, that sometimes I feel one lifetime isn’t enough. So what, if I don’t have a career and don’t earn my own money. Don’t i deserve my own identity??. Is it taboo for me to even want to establish my own identity??...I don’t think so.
I had stopped noticing a lot of things about myself because of the constant changes that seemed to engulf my existence . My different roleplays left me emotionally drained-out. So i find it really weird at times that I have actually managed to discover my ability to look beyond the mundane in my life. To reach out , seek and find happiness within me.
Nowadays you get to hear a lot of ’40 is the new 30’ or ’40 is the new 20’ . what the heck!!!. Why does 40 have to be anything other than 40?? I don’t want to be the new 20 or the new 30. I am 41..PERIOD!! How insecure one ought to be to hide behind the new-20 n new-30 label. It’s a crime to even compare 40 to a 30 or a disastrous-20. Unlike the 20’s I feel so much at home in my own skin. I have learnt to respect my body, have become more aware of its needs and less conscious of what the world and its cousins think of it. The result: a more confident and a stronger me!!. Unlike the 30’s, I have learnt not to give up easily and to fight people, things and situations that threaten to bring me down. Where would we be if we gave up easily!!
I most certainly would love to have a tete-a-tete with the clueless-halfwit who said woman of 40 are dried-up and drifting. I definitely am not dried-up and wont be drifting anywhere soon, rest assured. My hormones maybe going bonkers at 40, but I’ve never had it betta than this!!.
Believe you me , there is nothing more beautiful in this world than a woman who knows where she is going. Ladies and gentleman, sit up and take notice…The woman of 40 have arrived!!!
P.S...thts me up there on the day i turned sweet 40...:))
