THE HILLS

June 5^th, 2013.

At the beginning of a vacation if one is dragged to a hill station where there is nothing but the sound of silence and a chaotic family then …I doubt one can be very happy. Yes the mist descends upon my house ……yes the clouds float into my room …yes I now have a cold! So I now do what my family believes I do…I am now on my own trip and in the words of a friend of mine internet blabbing… it’s obvious when the only company we have is each other and the billion insects!!

At one time we used to have the most interesting neighbors now its empty houses. A compound that used to be bustling with children who metamorphosed into teenagers have finally grown up and managed to convince their families to stop having these annual visits to the HILLS…unfortunately for me the older I grew the more insistent my family became…and once again I’m stuck in a place where my company ranges from dust to air to flies to bees to mist. Yes, it’s highly interesting company for a 60 year old (no offense intended) not for a 17 year old!

It’s a little hard to believe that they do not see this…I guess it’s the security that an older child will assume responsibility and take control of the younger kids and the house...It’s after all their time to go on vacation…so being the eldest one has to sacrifice or feign autism...An since my acting skills aren’t that great I feign sleep...It’s the closest to autism that I will get to… take it from me IT DOES NOT WORK…they wake you up and criticize you like there is no tomorrow .

This ultimately brings me to the crux of the article...Criticism.  Human nature encourages us to criticize everyone and everything including ourselves. We for some reason to look better criticize those we sometimes hold closest to ourselves. Personally I criticize my younger brother to no end and most of the time it is to irritate him and so many times its so that I can establish my authority over him if even for a few hours or minutes. Well it almost always backfires as he being the ‘little boy’ gets all the family support in his mini fights and inconsequential arguments!!

The Hills are a good place to contemplate as well as introspect... my very deep findings are to mess with the younger kid one needs the support of even littler kids!!! So if you want travel advice with pros and cons feel free to ask me…I have older as well as younger cousins and I swear by “the hills” I do travel a lot.

*all thoughts are solely of the authors perspective and are not binding on any reader and bear no direct reference to any individual unless  specially mentioned.