I was watching a movie on Thursday evening starring Thala Ajith. I have been a Vijay fan for long, but as of last Thursday I am an Ajith fan.

You might ask why not be a fan of both, but I am sorry, it doesn’t work that way. For the uninitiated, Vijay and Ajith are like the Salman and Sharukh of Tamil cinema, for context.

Halfway through the movie, just before I predicted when the interval would come—so I could beat everyone to the theatre snacks counter—a thought struck me. (If you’re one of those people who take their time and slowly walk to the stand when it’s fully queued up, please seek professional help.) Hey, Ajith is not so bad. He’s actually good. Kind of dig the salt-and-pepper vibes he’s got going..

I have to share this new found enthusiasm with the world. So, what do I do? I share it on Facebook, obviously.

I live still in the early 2010s and I am a Boomer. Actual boomers hang on Facebook and it’s a sad story that even the Boomers don’t like my posts anymore.

Case in point.

Now, next day I actually realize Mangatha is not his best film. Now Ajith has done so many awful films that I actually forgot about a beautiful early 2000’s film Citizen. So what do I do? You guessed it.

Hey, that was only in the morning. Then, someone liked my post. I still have my fans and well-wishers, I tell myself. I check who liked my post.

It’s my doting mother. 😀

As my therapist ChatGPT says these days, we take a lot after our parents. I formed a lot of my opinions as a child based on what my parents liked. They like filter coffee, I have been drinking it since I was 3. My mother for one swears Ajith does’t know how to act.

Now, I have judged Ajith for a long long time, but poor guy he is fine looking and is actually a good actor. I am at an age where I look at men with greying hair and think, I will look like them in a few years time.

Speaking of getting old, one thing I have noticed is it’s really hard to make new friends. I do enjoy learning new things, but I am also a terrible student. So, I come up with a genius idea. I will self teach swimming.

I can swim reasonably well now and I figured I will go to a swimming pool, you know something to do away from remote work. Of course, it didn’t occur to me then that there is no way to talk under water, and speaking is a big necessity when you want to make new friends.

Of course, my swimming compatriots are 8 year olds who don’t stay in their lanes and keep bumping into me.

If it’s an adult, I could stare them down since I am too shy to initiate a verbal confrontation. With children? None of that works. I naturally resort to the next best thing. An unspoken swimming race with my nemesis, I swim well half way and then I realize, I am losing this race.

Clearly swimming isn’t a great place to have friends. Or even enemies whom I can defeat in a swimming race.

I now turn to my next best passion: drinking writing. This aptly named newsletter is my attempt to do something fun and fulfilling before I jump to the next fulfilling thing in two days.

There is a fire-drill happening at my apartment at the moment. They’re going to light a LPG cylinder and turn it off in real time. I am going to hide from my balcony and look at it. I am hiding to escape all the boomers in my building who are a regular at these events. Not really, I am mad at the boomers for not liking my Facebook post.

Sayanora!