You Know You’re 40 When

1. You no longer feel like you’re just out of college.
2. You are 20 kgs heavier than when you were 20 but you feel very slim.
3. You will never have time to do all that you have to or want to.
4. You are wise and you have given up trying – there’s a long long ‘To-do’ list which will never go away.
5. The Loreal representative at the local mall tries to get you to buy more natural looking hair dye – even though you don’t dye your hair.
6. Even the Sabjiwalla who used to call you Baby, then Didi, then Bhabhi, now calls you Auntie.

In case you’re not from India, the Sabjiwalla is the vegetable vendor.

Indians address each other with titles which are often based on age. The boy child is Baba or Beta and the girl child is Baby or Beti. All young women are addressed by strangers as Didi (elder sister), and the not so young women as Bhabhi (sister-in-law). Auntie is just one step away from Nani – which means grandmother – a title you get when you look like, or are a senior citizen.