Have you noticed how everything is so ‘Awesome’ these days? Nothing is ‘good’ anymore; if it’s good, it’s just ‘Awesome’. The new movie you saw was ‘Awesome’, your vacation was ‘Awesome’, the artifacts shop at the mall is ‘Awesome’, your cousin’s wedding was ‘Awesome’, the pasta at the new Italian restaurant is ‘Awesome’, your pictures are ‘Awesome’, your grandma is ‘Awesome’, my blogs are ‘Awesome’ – I am so bored of ‘Awesome’.

My first encounter with ‘Awesome’ was during my initial days in the USA. Over a casual discussion over lunch with my American colleagues the topic drifted towards the Indian tradition of ‘Arranged Marriages’, and all of a sudden I was bombarded with questions on how, why, and what about the tradition. While I was trying my best to tackle those questions, trying to explain how parents go about the whole matchmaking process, when suddenly Mr. Bob Levinson in the most expressionless tone and with a heavy Texan accent remarked “Oh that’s Awesome”; and I had no clue what that meant. Frankly, I had never heard ‘Awesome’ before and hence I was not sure how to react to his awesome remark. I had no idea what it meant. I knew ‘Awful’ and I thought ‘Awesome’ must be something similar. But then I thought maybe not. I was very much tempted to ask ‘What is Awesome?’, but I didn’t have the courage to admit my ignorance. So I let the situation pass with an awkward smile on my face and a slight wobble like nod of the head.

Well you could blame my awesome ignorance on my poor vocabulary, but then back in my younger days nothing around was ‘Awesome’. Things were just ‘good’ and ‘nice’ and occasionally they were ‘very good’ or ‘superb’ or just ‘suuuuperrr’ (especially with my friends from the southern part of the subcontinent). Then sometime in the early 90’s everything was ‘sexy’ – from Yamaha’s new bike model, to the pav-bhaji opposite VT station, to those big bulky mobile phones – all just sexy. We lived in a sexy world. Nike’s made sexy shoes, ‘Andaz Apna Apna’ was a sexy movie, Internet and email was sexy, and Govinda even claimed his shirt, pant, hair and rumaal to be sexy. But now nothing is sexy anymore (baring a few exceptions of course!). Things are just awesome these days. Everything is just so awesome. Awesome is sexy.

A few days back I met a friend who had just returned from a vacation from the Andaman Islands, and I asked him how his vacation was. I was expecting an ‘Awesome’ reply but much to my surprise he didn’t say it. ‘Mind-blowing’ is what he said instead. I was taken aback. I knew Awesome had found competition and my countless urbanites fellows would soon be blowing away their minds with a plethora of what they would claim to be ‘Mind-Blowing’ experiences.