Bitten by the ant-tee bug!!!

I was sashaying in from the Sweatshop yesterday when it happened.
A high-pitched voice yelling "ant-ee, ant-ee", stopped me in my tracks.
And then I spotted the Bug. It was my 35 plus something neighbour beckoning me with a smile..
Ant-ee? Oh Aunty...
Yikes, did I hear right?
Did she really call me Aunty? Oh heck!!!!

Pushing 30?
Okay girl, the game has just begun..
The odd kid sprouting downy hair on his upper lip, shuffles his feet and mumbles: "OK aunty" to something you said.

"Hey kid what was that you said??..Aunty??? Who me???"
Maybe the kid is short sighted in addition to being challenged in the intelligence department...you think..
But then, it happens again...you cringe..and again... you cringe some more
Could it be that single strand of grey just behind my ear that is doing it??? Could it be???Could it?? Have I got there? Already??

Hit 40? The rules change..
The frequency of the bite varies depending on factors such as the quantum of excess adipose tissue on your person, the size of Spouse's paunch, the facial hair on your adolescent's face and mostly, how much of a push-over are you? Will you take it lying down? And in quiet embarrassment?

Fifty may be the new 30 in Madonna-land, but if Madonna was Indian, she would be Madonna Aunty to many of us.

Would she gyrate and strut her stuff with gay abandon, flex her muscles or tongue-lock with a Britney Spears if hordes of teenagers went to her rock concert and thumped their feet and chanted in unison: Aunty-Aunty-Aunty-Aunty???

She would feel like a butterfly on a dissection board. Pained...pinned down and ...
Labelled...

In the Madras of yore, in my growing up years, the rules were simple: mother's friends were aunty, father's friends were uncle....

But in the Chennai of today, we do tend to take this respect thing a bit too far......we all have a name..often beautiful ones which our parents scoured the length and breadth of their world to find..how about using that for God's sake...or if making a show of respect is your thing, then preface it with a Mrs or a Ms....

I would even settle for Madam...that it makes me feel like the Mistress of a Bordello keeping close tabs on her brood of perky young hookers is quite another matter...

Cheers!!!!