Explode and Flow

I had an interesting mental conversation with myself prompted by an online comment from a writer colleague. A conversation that revolved around old-fashionedness in writing: traditional structure, correct language usage as opposed to lingo and slang and wild, exciting peregrinations.
In ‘Asha Goes to the Cinema’ a tale of a young college girl whose first explorations into adolescence overwhelm her somewhat into valuing the security of home, there is the phrase: “Asha stayed in the autorickshaw on the pretext of holding it. She knew that if she went in, her grandmother would somehow get to know.”
Pretext – nobody says that anymore, it makes the text pedantic. I know that but I can’t bring myself to sound sassy and with-it. I can’t make myself sound like someone else.
In the end, I guess, one just has to be oneself and let it explode out of one and flow ......