as my famous professor quipped in NLS ...."just in the sense, what are you doing?" (please add mallu accent for extra effect) .........while he was referring to my sleeping in corporate law class the question he asked is one of the eternal questions dogging everyone with a brain.... what to do with life?
the Indian education system mandates that you should know what to do with your life by the time you are 14/15/16-which is probably the age when you have just realised that Santa Claus is not real and that babies are not delivered by Storks...so at the most confusing stage in your life you end up making a decision about what to do with the rest of your life.... thus begins the saga that is the story of every person ..... poring over textbooks to crack the IIT exams (even NLS exam nowadays :)...) ..after all if you are not an engineer how can you possibly get a good bride/groom? or to crack that all india medical entrance exams to get into that elusive list of top 5% of India's intelligensia....graduation not being enough you end up getting submerged in text books to do your post graduation as well.....all in pursuit of a decision which you took when you were 14/15? ....
which explains the import of the question-what to do with life? Is life about sticking by the decision you made at 14? or is it about acquiring assets-a huge house, a huge car, diamonds? Or is it about showing others how perfect a life you have- a classic Hum Aapke Hain Kaun family who sings and dances to communicate to each other with a house in London and two kids (a boy and a girl of course!) thrown in for good measure ? or all of the above?...........
Maybe wondering what YOU want to do with life itself is life.....poring over options, talking to friends, scaring your parents about the probability of you joining the PLO, wondering how to ensure your good looks continue till when you are 40...All life..
at the cost of sounding mushy I think life for me is about playing with my nephew and have him recite "vava aunty (that's me) is the best" over and over again (all done voluntary I must add :)..) ....hugging my sister and telling her that she is the best....or feeling happy and celebrating with your loved one on a promotion or acquisition of a house or a car....
and sometimes it's simply about about enjoying hot briyani with your loved one at the end of a famished day...ahhh...
Just in the sense, professor ..are you listening?
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Sunday, September 18, 2005
tickling ....
The last week was a usual week...12 hour work shifts punctuated by efforts to have a life outside it...needless to say my efforts in the latter direction failed consistently.....and a good sense of humour was the best way to get by ...
ofcourse my profession provides me with good fodder for humour .....noo this is not one of those classic lawyer jokes where all lawyers are made to jump into the sea with an anchor tied to their legs or screw on a light bulb.... this was about definition of the term "force majeure", which technically means "Acts of God" and includes natural calamities like flood, storm or in todays times George Bush. Force majeure was however defined as "an event caused by superior brute force"....Needless to say my colleague who reviewed the document had a lonnnnngggg night...........
Ofcourse my sister and her husband have a good sense of humour........Saturday was the last day of Ganesh utosav...and that is the day the whole of Mumbai goes to the sea....though I have never witnessed it I believe it is quite a traffic stopping event...with loads of people carrying ganeshas and immersing it in the sea......and as always I tried to get out that very day....my sister ofcourse put a spoke to my plans when she remarked casually that people might mistake me for Ganapati if I went out ......hmm..... am trying not to think of it as any kind of reference to my physical appearance, past or future....
Scared by such a possibility I sat at home with my sister and Christy doing what every family would do .....watching TV!!...ofcourse I had to wrest control of the remote from my nephew who insisted on watching a japanese converted into english cartoon....and introduced him to some nice hardcore Arnold SCHWARZENEGGER....It was my brother in law's turn this time as he kept calling the Governor of California "Shivashekaran"....first I thot he was referring to one of the many mallu magazines lying around the place and a Shivashekaran in that ....only to be introduced to his theory that the Governor of California is an exiled Tamilian and that Schwarzenegger was actually the german version of the name Shivashekaran.....am sure my friend Shyam would be happy to endorse that view....considering it is his ardent belief that there is a Tamilian hidden in every human being....
and I think my Boss also had a sense of humour when he msged me last night saying that I would have to take a call at 5 in the evening on Sunday....hahaha...did I hear it right? Sunday??? u mean the day even God relaxed after creating the world?? ....I hope I dont keep laughing through the call.....
anyways gotta to get ready for a biggggg Onam Sadhya at Devika's place......
ofcourse my profession provides me with good fodder for humour .....noo this is not one of those classic lawyer jokes where all lawyers are made to jump into the sea with an anchor tied to their legs or screw on a light bulb.... this was about definition of the term "force majeure", which technically means "Acts of God" and includes natural calamities like flood, storm or in todays times George Bush. Force majeure was however defined as "an event caused by superior brute force"....Needless to say my colleague who reviewed the document had a lonnnnngggg night...........
Ofcourse my sister and her husband have a good sense of humour........Saturday was the last day of Ganesh utosav...and that is the day the whole of Mumbai goes to the sea....though I have never witnessed it I believe it is quite a traffic stopping event...with loads of people carrying ganeshas and immersing it in the sea......and as always I tried to get out that very day....my sister ofcourse put a spoke to my plans when she remarked casually that people might mistake me for Ganapati if I went out ......hmm..... am trying not to think of it as any kind of reference to my physical appearance, past or future....
Scared by such a possibility I sat at home with my sister and Christy doing what every family would do .....watching TV!!...ofcourse I had to wrest control of the remote from my nephew who insisted on watching a japanese converted into english cartoon....and introduced him to some nice hardcore Arnold SCHWARZENEGGER....It was my brother in law's turn this time as he kept calling the Governor of California "Shivashekaran"....first I thot he was referring to one of the many mallu magazines lying around the place and a Shivashekaran in that ....only to be introduced to his theory that the Governor of California is an exiled Tamilian and that Schwarzenegger was actually the german version of the name Shivashekaran.....am sure my friend Shyam would be happy to endorse that view....considering it is his ardent belief that there is a Tamilian hidden in every human being....
and I think my Boss also had a sense of humour when he msged me last night saying that I would have to take a call at 5 in the evening on Sunday....hahaha...did I hear it right? Sunday??? u mean the day even God relaxed after creating the world?? ....I hope I dont keep laughing through the call.....
anyways gotta to get ready for a biggggg Onam Sadhya at Devika's place......
Friday, September 09, 2005
Feeling of being wanted.....by pigeons!!!
Call it the charm of my house or even me...for the past few weeks I have been fighting a pigeon who has been desperately trying her best to build a nest on my bathroom window...
infact the pigeon, who I shall lovingly call "Bunty"(cos she does look as chalu and round as Rani Mukerjee in Bunty aur Babli), has altered my daily routine ....Now it goes somewhat like this....Get up in the morning, go for a bath, open the bathroom window, throw out the twigs Bunty has flown in to build her nest and go to office...evening come back from office, go for a bath, open the window and throw out the twigs once again and then sleep...and every time I did this Bunty would roll her eyes at me trying to melt me into submission....but like someone told me "all you can or will get at the end of the day for your hospitality is an egg!!"... so with such profound insight nudging me I decided not to invite Bunty into my house and my life....and went about happily with the routine ....
until today......when I saw that there was no Bunty or the twigs to throw out of the window....she had finally got the message and discarded all attempts at building a nest ....the window was like any other window - no life there to interest me now....I miss Bunty.....she had become such a part of my life ....so much so that I had unknowingly started introducing her to my friends...."do you know the pigeon who comes to my bathroom window everyday?" "Do you want to meet the pigeon who lives in my house?".....Not that any of my friends reacted enthusiastically to that suggestion....
Anyways I miss you Bunty....Have a good home wherever...and may you have a thousand eggs!!...and if you do, keep them away from my nephew... Talking about my nephew ....he is the cutest .... One day I jerked up from my sleep on hearing a loud "Good Bye"....it was Christy saying Good Bye to me in all his school finery-a school bag that was twice his size to carry one book and a lunch box, a blue water bottle and black shoes with white socks...promptly after saying Good bye he pushed my head back into the pillow and said "now you go back to sleep and stay home"....ofcourse going back to sleep is the last thing on your mind after such a warm greeting in the morning...
Okk think I want sleep and sleep wants me.....Heres wishing and hoping everyone feels wanted everyday of their lives.....
infact the pigeon, who I shall lovingly call "Bunty"(cos she does look as chalu and round as Rani Mukerjee in Bunty aur Babli), has altered my daily routine ....Now it goes somewhat like this....Get up in the morning, go for a bath, open the bathroom window, throw out the twigs Bunty has flown in to build her nest and go to office...evening come back from office, go for a bath, open the window and throw out the twigs once again and then sleep...and every time I did this Bunty would roll her eyes at me trying to melt me into submission....but like someone told me "all you can or will get at the end of the day for your hospitality is an egg!!"... so with such profound insight nudging me I decided not to invite Bunty into my house and my life....and went about happily with the routine ....
until today......when I saw that there was no Bunty or the twigs to throw out of the window....she had finally got the message and discarded all attempts at building a nest ....the window was like any other window - no life there to interest me now....I miss Bunty.....she had become such a part of my life ....so much so that I had unknowingly started introducing her to my friends...."do you know the pigeon who comes to my bathroom window everyday?" "Do you want to meet the pigeon who lives in my house?".....Not that any of my friends reacted enthusiastically to that suggestion....
Anyways I miss you Bunty....Have a good home wherever...and may you have a thousand eggs!!...and if you do, keep them away from my nephew... Talking about my nephew ....he is the cutest .... One day I jerked up from my sleep on hearing a loud "Good Bye"....it was Christy saying Good Bye to me in all his school finery-a school bag that was twice his size to carry one book and a lunch box, a blue water bottle and black shoes with white socks...promptly after saying Good bye he pushed my head back into the pillow and said "now you go back to sleep and stay home"....ofcourse going back to sleep is the last thing on your mind after such a warm greeting in the morning...
Okk think I want sleep and sleep wants me.....Heres wishing and hoping everyone feels wanted everyday of their lives.....
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