so baby george has become too smart for his little boots....apparently his latest addiction is a computer game.... which he plays day and night.... much to the concern of his mother..... but the alarm bells were set off when Baby George feigned illness everyday refusing to go to school.... only for his mother to notice that he was never ill to play on the computer....

so now there has been a complete crackdown on his access.... and Baby George is apparently very unhappy with attending school....apparently computer generated figurines aer betetr company for baby george

When bad things happen ... you should know that this is only the lull before the storm of good comes your way....

You know what... i am not giving in.... come on.... lets see how far this goes on...

Sometimes all you want is a hug from someone who cares for you and tells you that everything is alright... and in a very Shah Rukh way - Main Hoon Na...

Hmmmm... I wonder whether you can buy that from the stores nowadays.... the CD of Main Hoon Na that is....

I have always heard it... but never really believed in it... but when you dont get something you really want... then probably God spared you that....

So this is a story about a friend of mine... who promised to visit me in London.... and excitedly chartered out her holiday plans in front of the family.... the family responded..."arree you are going to London? WHy dont we also come with you?'.... friend explains and I am very happy to have her parents also visit me.... good good good....

cut to 3 weeks later... friend calls me to say that there is a change in plan...what change I asked?... my friend reluctantly explained....well... now we are not coming to London.... you see my entire family is now travelling with me... and by entire family I mean my uncles, aunts, nephews, 2nd cousins etc.... they all applied for UK visa but some of them got rejected... so now all of us are going to Europe instead....including our Maharaj (the cook).....

So that is how an entire Gujju family travelled around Europe in a volvo bus ... with periodic breaks to eat the Thepla and Kakhra....and lamenting the fact that there is no Jain food anywhere in Europe.....as they say the Gujjus are the "Japanese" tourists from India... you can spot them a mile away ....

my only question to my friend was ... can you send me some Thepla from Interlaken?

not that i have been going around looking for it...but so much talk around me is about women... there is the debate about whether Indian women politicians are as good as their male counterparts( when actually it should be are they as bad?)... whether Womens Reservation Bill should be passed...

One of the new ideas that came about was the Slut Walk... now this is a walk where women dress as they want to give out the message that they are not the ones who attract the people... the people who attack women based on their clothes is actually at fault.... for long it has been the lot of women to suffer the attack and also the guilt of somehow having brought it on themselves.... I completely see the point of this walk.... and hope it takes place.... a womans right to dress as she wants without being cornered is very critical to her existence...

On one hand there is this advanced thinking... on the othere there is the daily hindi soaps we see on TV... now yes I like channel surfing and sometimes when it looks good I stop by to follow... and one such serial had a scene where there are 3 men... two of them are washing clothes... in walks a woman... apparently she is the estranged daughter in law....she looks at these men washing the clothes and asks them what they are doing.... and they respond that since she has left them now they have to do all the household stuff.... and in typical bharatiya nari style she looks at them in a guilty way and admits that washing clothes is actually her job....and gets her hand down and dirty immediately... relieving the young men from their hell.....suffice to say this serial put the woman in her place....

when will such subtle messages be discarded in our society?

Alright ... enough with this civil society jazz.... I mean I have a lot of respect for people working on the sidelines... which somehow makes me live better with my middle class guilt of sitting in an AC office and working for a corporate honcho....

but seriously I dont like the way the Civil Society members are behaving.... do they really think they can bulldoze members of elected parliament? do they really think that they represent India more than the elected members? do they really believe that the best way to negotiate is to call the other side cheats and liars?? where will all this stop?? when do we see maturity and a process of give and take...

I honestly believe this government has done enough to placate the civil society members... and I honestly believe this government is doing the right thing by drawing the line now as well... and telling the civil society members that they will not be threatened anymore... so if you want to go on a fast and die .. please do so... we will also be at liberty to take whatever action is necessary...

and the world at large - what is with them?? do they not see the dangerous precedent being set by the civil society members?? do they not see how you are gradually diluting your electoral process by getting non elected member dictate to the government?? so why are you criticising the government for taking a tough stand based on what they know best - governance!so please let the government do its job... by all means keep the vigilance going... but dont let your guard down...

Sometimes I just dont understand people.... more specifically I cant understand some women...

I had two conversations with two different women from different ends of the spectrum.... to both I asked the question, where are you from? innocuous enough...to which both replied their respective communities "I am a gujarati" or "I am a Sindhi".... ofcourse I didnt think much of that... and may have even volunteered details of where I am from... only later when conversaions went deeper did I realise that these women were actually from totally different communities... they were actually saying that they are from the community that they were married into!! So these women had changed their entire identity to that of the husbands... and it seems they had even changed their genes!

I mean how does one lose their original identity by marriage... do you suddenly become a South Indian just because your spouse is from South India?? by that logic do you become educated just because your spouse is educated??

while my attempts to ask them these questions were met with a lot of disdain... but I seriously started wondering...

Whether women themselves are behind their own devaluation???? something to think about...... and something for me to also think about as well - why I think so differently....

What do you do with a mad man who has a massive following???? seriously what do you do to a man who first says he forgives the PM and then says he is raising an army to defend himself and his followers???

And then there is the song and dance about Sushma's dance at Rajghat... while seeing the jig I was quite apalled thinking to myself that this does not do good for the image of the BJP... firstly it is at Gandhi's samdhi.... which for all reasons is akin to visiting say a demi God's resting place... Indians still do not want to see Gandhi to be openly insulted... even more perplexing is the fact that it is the BJP which actually went to Rajghat to perform Sathyagraha... as if in some way saying we are now taking the support of Gandhi.... have they forgotten that it is their non - political wing which actually assasinated Gandhi?? I just could not miss the irony of it all... so when I saw them dancing I wondered whether this dancing was in support of a cause or they just found a way to make merry....

and even more disgusting is the fact that parties have jumped on this dance to pull down Sushma Swaraj... seriously people lets find issues to fight about....

This whole political drama has put me off.... it looks like one party is worse than the other... but my loyalties lie firmly with the Congress... but I wish to see some amount of maturity ....

I feel sad... a good man trying to do good is cut into a million pieces.... what hope is there for people who are more ordinary than him.....

Baba Ramdev drama unfolding in Delhi today.... and I cant believe how insane the opposition parties are.... they are all saying it is an affront to democracy.... and LK Advani likened it to Jallianwala Bagh.... Whattttttt!!!! Does he know his history lesson??? Or should he be given a history lesson... if this is Jallianwala then what would he call what his government did in Gujarat??? Ofcourse that they call as a the legitimate response of the majority government....

EVerybody has the right to protest in Inda... and that is the beauty of our country.... there is a certain amount of respect that should be given to people who have the guts to protest.... but in no country should civil society hijack the government.... are we now going to listen to any tom, dick and harry who come to protest??? Should we now listen to RSS who will say that all minorities should be given a place in Pakistan??? If we start listening to all and sundry then what is the purpose of a democracy....

Seriously .... BJP... find a new cause....