I am a 25-year-old living in Dubai and I enjoy myself most when I'm with a group of friends rather than my family. I feel as if my family takes me for granted for being too nice and for listening to all the instructions given by them. No, but the truth is, I fake my identity with my family and I have a completely different personality that they can't acknowledge.

According to my family, I'm just a spoiled child, but I only wish they knew the truth. I want to be as far away from my family as possible because I don't like to enjoy my life to the fullest. By that I mean, I hate being reckless. I'm a very responsible person who wants to take excellent care of my parents, and I share my earnings with my family. I want to support them in every way possible.

But apart from all this, I am also the kind of person who does things which no parent would want their good boy to do. I don't want to get into the details, but my definition of enjoying life is very different from what they had in mind for me. I bet you're already making guesses about what it could be.

When it's time for a vacation, I don't want to go home. I always find reasons to avoid going back home and spend that time with my friends instead. But this year, something was different.

I came home after three years because I had run out of reasons to avoid my family. I came home during festival time and my entire family had pretty weird questions to ask me. I just wanted some space for myself so I could relax and have my chai, sutta, and some good green stuff.

I had 20 vacation days left before I had to head back to Dubai. After the festivities were over, my family planned to go out on a trip, but all I wanted was to just stay at home. During this time, my grandpa was alone and he was supposed to spend time at my uncle's place in Ooty. As I had no inclination to travel with my family, my mother asked me to take grandpa to Ooty. In my head, it seemed like a good idea to go away to Ooty and spend some peaceful time alone in the middle of the hills.

Just as we reached Ooty, my uncle got news that his mother-in-law passed away, so he and my aunt went away to Chennai, leaving my grandpa and me alone at their home. I couldn't say no to them because I was still the sweet, obedient boy in their eyes. They promised to return in five days.

On the first day, I left grandpa alone at home and went out to explore Ooty. When I returned, I found him asleep without having his dinner or taking his medicines. I woke him up and asked him why he had skipped these, to which he said that he was waiting for me to come home.

I wasn't at all emotional about it. I told him that I had already had dinner and asked him to eat so he could go to sleep comfortably. I had scored some of the green stuff, so I smoked it up and went to sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I discovered that grandpa had wet his bed in his sleep. This left me annoyed and frustrated. I really wanted to leave and go back home then, because I felt like I wasn't meant to take care of an old guy and diaper change him.

But I was wrong. Those 5 days that I spent with my grandpa ended up teaching me very important life lessons. It was tough and unpleasant at first, but then we started talking and he was recollecting stories from his youth. It made me realize that he was a lot like me. Or perhaps, I was a lot like him. It was like looking in a mirror.

He was older now, and he openly declared that he was only waiting for his death. I felt sad for him that he couldnt enjoy his life like I did.

He had spent all his savings exploring places and doing outright crazy things with his friends. He told me that the best green stuff he had ever scored was from Manali. I was amazed by this revelation and thought that maybe coming to Ooty with him was a good thing, after all.

I took him out and we explored places together and he became my new travel buddy that day. When I got back home, I wanted to stay back a little longer just to spend time with my grandpa. After all, he was the best company I could ask for.

I'm back in Dubai now and I'm a completely different person. I'm looking forward to my next annual vacation so I can go home and spend time with my family.

Oh, who am I kidding? I really just want to hang out with the coolest grandpa in the world!

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