I had a distinctly unpleasant head-on collision with age recently. On the prowl for much sought after (and eventually sold out) tickets to the performance of Ayub, an ex Grammarian friend and I ended up at Karachi Grammar School on a tip that they were selling tickets. Unfortunately, the gatekeeper didn't quite like the look of the two of us and insisted we wait on the benches near the gate with various mothers awaiting the release of their children. I can't say I blame him, I'm not the most dazzlingly stylish people on a good day and going to Grammar in everyday clothes struck me as a perfectly natural thing to do, I mean, was I going to dress up for a bunch of snobby school children? My friend, having undergone a radical change in her world view, was covered from head to waist with a dupatta, taken over her jeans, so we made an odd and (to the gentleman in charge of admittance) suspicious pair. Anyhow, we were confined to the waiting area for nearly an hour, during which some A-level students had their games period and came out to play volleyball. During a lazy debate amongst ourselves over whether or not volleyball as a sport qualified as very manly and how the young athletes looking to make an impression on the young ladies should be playing soccer or cricket instead, I observed some of the students were not half bad to look at. Whilst admiring their barely rippling muscles and "interesting" hairstyling experiments, I realized, to my horror, that all these students were in the 16-18 age group and I, a 22 year old woman was oogling 16 year old boys! The smallest of the lot were six years younger than me and the oldest ones were a little less than five years younger. Doing an entirely mental version of the "ewww" wince and shudder as I vehemently brushed away the mental image of Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, I not so much turned as whipped my attention to the drivers waiting by the gate instead. They didn't have the slightest hint of rippling muscles or noteworthy hairstyles, but hey, at least they weren't underage.

Youth is so very wasted on the young.