Uncle 'n' Auntie

Never guess someone's age based on their physical appearance.  Sure, a graying bean or a creased epidermis can indicate aging, but these are neither physiologically accurate indicators nor states that cannot be temporarily undone with the help of some age-defying makeup.  And before you think I'm going to go all philosophical and say that you are only as old as you feel or that age is just a number, let me state that society really doesn't care about how old you feel or actually are.  At the end of the day, your age is a nothing more than a social perception determined by your function in society.

Allow me to explain.

I started teaching music at the age of 24.  A relatively bantam age, right?  Not according to society!  Here I am, on the first day of teaching, sitting in my bicep hugging Aeropostale t-shirt and juvenile faded jeans from Old Navy, feeling all youthful and buoyant (you get the picture), and the mother nonchalantly says to her child:

"Beta, ANKAL ko Namaste bolo...".  

Boom!  --  From that day forward, I became an Uncle.  Sometimes Sir, sometimes Master, rarely Anna or Mama, but mostly Uncle.  Pavana wasn't spared either; she became an Auntie too around the same time!  

In reality though, it would just be a matter of time before these honorifics would start feeling appropriate.  Besides, I personally find honorifics petty and couldn't care less about what honorific was attached to me, if that.  I just find it interesting that students that are almost the same age I was when I started teaching still call the two of us Uncle and Auntie!