I have lived 50 years on this earth and my hair is streaked with grey.

My mom says that the grey is wisdom that you get as you travel along life’s way.

So feeling pretty wise, I thought I’d share

A little bit of wisdom through these 50 strands of grey.

1. It doesn’t matter whether you are 15 or 50, if your parents live with you, they still want to know what time you’ll be home.
2. When you were younger you swore you’d never be anything like your mother and now you’d give anything to be like her.
3. Especially as slim and well groomed as her.
4. You suddenly feel all grown up when Dad calls up and asks, “Want to come over and share some chicken curry and a bottle of beer?”
5. You still enjoy having mom and dad all to yourself.
6. And feel on the top of the world when they listen to and praise the poems you’ve written.
7. There are times when you kidnap your mom and both of you run away for a stolen plate of pani puri.
8. You stop going over and tidying up your mom’s house when your kids come over and start tidying up your place.
9. It is possible to stop being a mother and become a friend instead. It just takes a hell of a lot of practice and yelling contests with your kids; and midnight chats over coffee.
10. You don’t really cry when your last chick flies from the roost. You come home after seeing her off, put on some music, open a beer, order a pizza and celebrate your freedom.
11. Your kids don’t have to get married just because you want them to.
12. In fact they don’t have to do anything just because you want them to.
13. Your son is not unhappy because the live- in relationship he is in does not seem to be moving towards marriage. You are. He is perfectly happy in the relationship.
14. Your daughter does not wish you were there to help her set up her first home. She is having the time of her life picking furniture and stuff that she likes for it, without your interference.
15. A lot of fights happen because either one of you or both of you are hungry.
16. People don’t like you telling them that you love them. It doesn’t matter if it is your kid, friend, sibling, or partner. It puts too much pressure on them to feel the same towards you.
17. If you give in, it doesn’t mean you lose. As my mom always says, “Be an ant and eat sugar, don’t be an elephant and eat sugarcane.”
18. Some of your best friends are half your age.
19. There are friends who love you just for who you are, madness and all.
20. But then, that’s because they are equally mad.
21. You can go out on the most fantastic dates even if you are not romantically involved.
22. You can still tell your teddy bear all your secrets.
23. No matter how old you are, you still keep looking for that someone special.
24. Finding pretty lingerie that fits is an achievement worthy of celebration.
25. It’s possible to drool over Nathan Fillion, Jean Claude Van Dammne, Kevin Sorbo and Milind Soman all at the same time.
26. You have to explain to your younger friends who everyone else except Nathan Fillion is.
27. There is something very special about being all alone at home on a Sunday with nothing to do but loll about all day reading.
28. There is nothing like music to start the day.
29. Unless it’s the knowledge that you don’t have to get up for another couple of hours.
30. Enid Blyton books are as much fun to read at 50 as they are at 5.
31. You finally make friends with the mess in your house and gang up against those who criticise you for it.
32. The best supplies for getting your house clean are a bottle of beer, a tub of ice cream and lots of chocolate.
33. You wonder how you managed to sleep for so many years without a puppy cuddled against your heart.
34. You don’t cook for your self, but the dog’s dinner is always ready on time.
35. When people ask you why you want the trouble of having a dog at this age, you look at them as if they are crazy.
36. After learning parentese and baby talk and husbandese of course, you realise growls and woofs are pretty easy to comprehend.
37. It doesn’t bother you anymore to walk into a restaurant alone for a meal.
38. Or go for a movie alone. You know you might never get to see one if you wait for company.
39. It is okay to wear a sun hat when you go for a holiday. But if you wear one in summer back home, everyone looks at you as if you are crazy. Wear one anyway.
40. And for some reason ice-cream always tastes better when you eat it in the rain.
41. Just because you are always the life of a party, people expect you to never be depressed.
42. No one is really interested in your story. Their own story is so much more interesting no?
43. You are not interesting when you are happy. Your misery is great fodder for gossip.
44. You are considered no fun if you don’t gossip about other people.
45. Never lend your books to anybody! There are libraries for that!
46. You always get your best story ideas when you are scrubbing the vessels.
47. When someone you love dies, you never really recover. You just learn to cope because there is no choice.
48. Simple things like a sabudana vada can bring back memories and make you cry.
49. Your sisters- in- law are more sisters than in laws and you belong.
50. You are comfortable and happy with who you are and know no one can take that away from you.