My friends would know that I recently became a dad to twin girls. Congratulations and best wishes came from all directions and I am very grateful for that. But some of my friends are, let’s just say, very innovative in their wishes. A friend who knows that most of the videos I watch on YouTube are in 2x speed (to save time) told me how I got twins because of this entire “2x system” that I follow 😂. And then another friend reminded me how I am now officially an ‘uncle’. Thank you for the reminder, not that I needed it.
Young children have a tendency to call you ‘uncle’ and ‘aunty’ every now and then so I hope nobody is losing sleep over that. But this reminds me of an instance which I wanted to share on this blog.
19 June 2019, I had an early morning Bangalore to Pune flight for an official trip. And no, I am not at all good with dates. I had to look this up.
There is always a first time for everything. And this was my first time for something memorable. Just to set the context, I am an aisle-seat-person but since this was an official trip, my tickets were booked by the office and it was a window seat. I am typically among the last few people that board the flight which is what I did that day too. My seat however was already occupied by a young girl who must be in her teens. She was accompanied by her mom who had the middle seat. Realizing that I was going to join them, the mom politely asked if her daughter had taken my seat. I replied that her daughter can have the window seat if she pleases.
I will trade the window seat for an aisle any day. I placed the laptop bag in the overhead bin and settled peacefully. But before I could fasten my seat belt, this young girl looked at me and said – “Thank you uncle!”
I gently replied, “No worries”.
I must admit I was a bit taken aback because this was the first time someone from the Gen Z addressed me as ‘uncle’. Now this might sound counter-intuitive but it almost felt like an accomplishment. As if I had successfully crossed a phase of life and entered another. I couldn’t help but smile.
I know ageism is a thing and I might still be young to comment on that but as they say,
Change the changeable, accept the unchangeable.
So yeah that’s pretty much all that there is to this ‘uncle’ story and I just wanted to document it. Thank you for reading along 😊
Do you have any such story?