Bagel

A few days ago, Kartik was to pick me up from Great Neck train station, and because of timing clash, I had to wait for him at Dunkin Donuts right next to the station. Well, the wait part was a welcome (this time) because I got the opportunity to feast on the not so healthy stuff. And, boy, I really needed the not so healthy stuff.


So, as I helped myself to a toasted bagel with vegetable cream cheese and a hot hazelnut coffee, I heard a sudden cacophony. I turned around to see what it was and my eyes settled on a bunch of teenagers. Oh, them, I said to myself and rolled my eyes, took my delightful yummy things and made myself comfortable on one of the tables in the corner by the window. As I crumpled the bagel wrapper, the cacophony grew louder in an ascending manner. And, within seconds, it was hovering at the table right next to mine. My quiet corner was history. Well, as long as I had my bagel, I could live with that.


The conversations from the teenage group got intense and I couldn't help but let my ears be audience to some of the things they were saying. One of the boys talked about how the location of his locker was causing him stress. And, there I was, stressing about the next steps with Banno Raani. Then another girl interrupted and confided that she was going to get her hair straightened a la Japanese treatment as she couldn't deal with frizz anymore. And, there I could almost confess that my ambitions and goals could need some straightener for I didn't want my dreams to get any frizzier. 


Amazing, isn't it? How the pangs, the worries, the issues change in their intensity as we grow up. Life becomes a bit more layered and it gets a bit more difficult to classify things as pure black and white. Hmm, actually life becomes more blackish-purply-bluish-reddish-peachy-greenish-violety-white.


Well, there was more. Topics ranging from boys to eyeliner to girls to video games to who could dance off the fastest reverberated the closed confines of Dunkin Donuts.  The teenage mob had almost smothered me in their simple yet highly anxious life.


But, as long as I had my bagel, I could live with that.


Hugs!