How old is old?

I have always seen kids intrigued by adults. Boys behave like their fathers on the laptop and over the cell phone, little girls dress up like their teachers and at times scream/scold like their mothers. Boys love to be WWE champions who can box, kick and do multiple summersaults. They love being BIG, but don't know how big, big really is.

Sitting in a class filled with 4 & 5 year olds, we were talking about introductions and ages. After telling me their ages, they were curious to know mine!! One of the girls asked me my age and when I let her guess, she made me the happiest girl on earth...heheheh!!!After serious thought and pondering over her arithmetic and understanding of age, she said, "You are 9 years old!!!" She had an exasperated look on her face while uttering that number thinking she had nailed the answer. When I shook my head in denial, another boy stepped in with a response he believed cannot be wrong - you are 13 years old. After a denial yet again, they decided to give up and asked me how old I was.

On hearing 28!!! They almost fell off their chairs!

Their perception of age - 28 phew!! is ancient. I saw a changed sense of respect in their eye for me from that day on. They were now in the midst of a species surviving from the yester-years.