just random things....

Today was Holi or the festival of colours.....or in other words the one day where you can freely catch people and dunk them with dirty water....so like most people I stayed at home scared by the thot of getting dunked....which was good cos I got to sleep a lot ....

and in the evening my aunt was celebrating her b'day...she is over 70 now so she does not remember her b'day she says....she just celebrates it in March....and she had called her friends from her bridge sessions...and they are all 90+ I think...last time I met them one of them was in a wheel chair and we had the toughest time picking her up when she along with the wheelchair fell down.....and one of her friends is a lady who studied at the lady's college at Lahore and then ran away to India during partition....she was also married to a Pakistani....and later fell in love with an Indian army officer.....and she still has the blackest of black hair and looks like a slightly older version of Zeenat Aman....her hair was carefully styled with clips in the right place.....I just could not stop admiring her...am sure she thot I was some kind of freak...but my aunt herself is amazing...at her age she is still active...have to admit that my wish is to be that active when I am her age....happy b'day Sarah Kochamma....heres to many more....

And today the tiniest of kids came and begged me while I was travelling on the train........she was so tiny that I could have picked her up with a finger...and she was just about crawling her way around.....she didnt know how to speak but she knew the gesture of begging.... now whose heart wouldnt melt with that? she saw the bunch of flowers in my hand and just raised her hand asking me for them...she was so tiny I could not refuse but since she was the same size as the bunch of flowers I just gave her shiny ribbon to play with....she promptly went and gave her sister the ribbon... as always seeing such things make me wonder about how bad things are with some people....which is why when Christy sometimes raves and rants about not getting some things I keep telling him to look at those kids and realise how much better he is....needless to say Christy mostly ignores such talk....

Mind your language please:

And now the latest on the english language lessons...

I was asked by the american partner not to use the "ampersand" in my draft....ofcourse! I merrily replied...but what the hell was an ampersand...it turned out to be the sign for AND ..you know this sign- "&"....well I consoled myself saying that everyday is a learning process ...besides I realised that I was not the only one.......when asked whether she knew what an ampersand was, my friend Juhi promptly replied "Yeah. My friend works in that Company." Ha! I am not the only one people....

Memories of the memoirs...

What could be more fitting than watching an oscar nominated, women centric movie like Memoirs of a Geisha on International Women's day? Hmmm.. perhaps not watching it?

It was just ironical that on the day that womanhood is celebrated all over the world I watched a movie that concentrated totally on how to attract a man and getting a man to accept you as his "dannair" or as I interpreted it as the "donor"...So the movie was filled with tips such as "how to trip a man with just a look'...and "how to show a little of your skin and then retract it to get his interest"...and "how to talk intellgently to snare a man away from competition"....not that executing any of those tips would have been easy...at least for me ....instead of tripping a man with my looks I would have probably tripped him with my leg ......and in the process of showing a bit of skin and retracting it I would have spilt coffee over him .... well people... you have it or you dont...

Not that the world has progressed much since the Geisha days....silent competition between women still exist over getting the perfect "catch"... it is sad, but women of today still measure their success in terms of the husbands they have managed to get...Poor husbands actually...they have to live up to the neighbour's standards....

but at the end of the movie I came away feeling sad for all those women who dont have choices like me...for the number of girls whose families trade in them to earn their bread...I feel helpless as always...I guess the movie did achieve its purpose..and in a day or two I will mask my helpless with a sense of nonchalance.....I cant change the world alone is what I will keep saying to myself to deny my guilt in perpetuating the system...

And I instinctively know I am not alone in that thought process...

International women's day and Me

Since it is supposedly the most important day for a woman I thought I would put in my two bits about what this day signifies for me....

The first thought that occurs to me when someone wishes me on this day is - Why do we need a day like this?...I mean why do I need special treatment as a woman..if I am indeed equal to a man why do I need a special day reminding me..Then I realise that I am not the one this day is targeted at...Its for the millions of women who dont have a voice...and who until told specifically will never realise that they are the masters of their destiny and life ....for women who are made to believe that they will never be equal to a man....

Yet the fundamental question remains - why does the world need reminding? Is it not obvious that women are equal albeit different? Is it not obvious that life as we know it is not possible without women? Or is it just convenient for the world to forget it? Just makes more economic sense when half of the world does not get a share in it?

Sometimes I feel women themselves dont realise their own value and perpetuate the trend through generations....

Three cheers for Christy!!

yaaayyyyy......Christy has graduated from the Upper KG to the First Standard.....apparently he got excellent for talking...another lawyer in the making I see....I doubt whether christy even understands the difference between KG and First Standard but he sure is happy for the 2 week holiday in between...

eventhough his mom is not exactly thrilled with the idea of having him around in the house for the whole day for two weeks... I think she has been making discreet studies on stress reduction techniques.....Infact my sister had mixed reactions to the good news...she was happy that he graduated..and that he would now be in school till the afternoon giving her peace of mind for half a day at least....she was however sad that he had finally "grown up"...I think there was a tear forming in her brain but didnt really come out in time..Grown up?? How???..Christy, whose favourite pass time includes hiding my bag and putting salt into sugar bowl and vice versa, has a long way from being a grown up dont you think?...in some ways even I feel bad that he will soon be learning about the real world...

But today its about celebrating Christy's graduation...congratulations Christy..Heres to more of them.....