Indi novels and the lessons in them

There's been so much going on, and so many paralell thoughts traversing my mind right now that I wouldn't be able to sound coherent if I started rambling on all of them. Let's try the "slow and steady" or the "one at a time" strategy.

I read two books by Indian authors in as many days, in the last week. While the first one was decidedly amusing and "fresh", the second one didn't come right up there on my charts. The author's an MBA (and from IIM C, no less) so maybe that's why she put in such an elaborate plot that involved an MNC and professional ethics and competition and all of those things that basically sap the energy out of you at the end of a working day...so maybe that's why the novel didn't particularly appeal to my senses. I mean who would want to be reminded of the mundane stuff in her life when she is trying to find solace in something unique and out of the world? So yeah, please don't read "Piece of cake" unless you want to know how a product manager for a cake would promote her product (or launch it, or whatever it is that Minal Sharma was trying to do in the book).
Now the other book "Almost single"... it's another piece of cake altogether (pun intended). Read it and savour its deliciousness, that's all I would say :)

So that brings me to dwell upon that quintessential question that springs up when you read both books... what is it with Indians that blocks their mind to accepting 25+ year old single females as smart, good looking, moral, sensible and caring human beings? Why is it that if you are older than 25, you have to be married (and preferably have a kid perched on your hip), as proof of being a nice human being? (nice = someone who cared enough to "allow" her parents to get her married off at the "right age").

And no, I am not a feminist! It's just that I think that the Indian system sucks somewhere. Just take a rational look at it, where you probably place yourself in a frame of reference that's apart from the one where the parents and the kids are placed (think high school physics)... so you have parents that mollycoddle and spoon feed their kids all through the kids' childhood and then when the kids grow up, the former seem to forget to let go of the reins; so they proceed to decide when the "kid" should marry and when she should procreate, and where the "kid" should live, or what career she should pursue or if she should have one at all (and this is not true for female offspring alone, though they do seem to be more "susceptible" to such parental treatment) . And all our movies and serials and reality shows try to promote this as THE most important national value!

At the risk of sounding unpatriotic, I must say, that that kind of interference sucks; and it's time we accept that the great Indian culture does have some gaping holes!

P.S: I haven't based all of what I have written, on two novels alone. Like most other "normal" human beings, I think too :)

swine flu and other maladies...

one cannot have a conversation, watch the t.v., read the newspaper, or even surf the internet without chancing upon that most dreaded term "swine flu", these days. dreaded, not because of its potential to induce fatality, but mostly because the topic's been beaten to death and frankly, has become like an eye sore that won't go away. i think i need vaccines to sanitise myself against monotonous discourses on swine flu, causes and symtoms, death tolls, preventive measures and what not.
so the in-laws would like us to stay cooped within our house until god knows when.
and the client wants to implement a bcp.
and i am sure the government will declare emergency if people put up the same pressure for another 2 months.
in the meantime, we have scores of people passing away because of our negligent driving, or because of potentially far more fatal diseases like malaria, dengue, AIDS, and several others. but no, we must let the swine flu have its day in the sun, mustn't we? and forget about everything else until another dreaded disease decides to have its share of attention...

after a long time...

the monsoons are here atlast, or so we comfort ourselves. nothing fullblown like last year, but it's wet and drizzling most of the time. dad's happy with that bit; he was starting to get worried about the 7 hour powercuts that my sibling was having to put up with.

it's strange how parents never seem to stop worrying about their offspring. the sibling is all of 33 years old (well almost!) and dad still frets over him and me as though we were still the school kids prancing around the garden, playing gulley cricket and head-ball (my brother's innovation, haha) or sometimes on rainy afternoons, bus-bus (strange little game where he would be the bus conductor and me the passenger) :D perhaps dad now feels, subconsciously, that he needs to do double the worrying (mom's share too).

i don't suffer from bouts of nostalgia anymore... or if i do, i am certainly not aware of it at a very conscious level. thank god for small mercies... it doesn't serve much purpose to reminisce about a homestead that now exists only in one's memories, and of a time that can never ever come back!

i am kind of looking forward to this weekend, but i do have gigantic butterflies in my stomach too. i hope it all goes well... wish me luck, someone :)

what is wrong with the self righteous folks? i mean, can't they get a life? open their eyes wide and look around and realise that the world does not revolve around them? truly, that shouldn't be hard, considering that the ones i know are all reasonably well educated and men/women of wisdom! bah...

overheard in the office canteen...
girl: you know, varun gandhi is not related to menaka gandhi...he is mahatma gandhi's great grandson...

sheesh...whatever happened to general knowledge?


abc: doc, what's wrong with me?
doc: nothing's wrong with you
abc: i wish something were actually wrong with me....
doc: *blinks*

i am well and truly in a writer's block; can't come up with anything that is coherent or remotely aesthetic :(

wish me luck

i hope she is in a better place now...someplace where there is no pain, no suffocation, no hassles, no suffering. in the end, that's all i wanted for her; for the pain to disappear. of all the disappointments i've ever faced, this one has been the biggest; the disappointment and hurt associated with losing someone so dear.

one moment you are feeling very safe and secure, assured of unconditional and limitless love, and the next moment that safety net is yanked and you see the depths of the abyss that you could fall into. it's a crazy feeling, one that leaves you feeling very unnerved.

i think she must know that i miss her...that behind the calm face and the dry eyes, there lurks a sense of intense longing, to be able to pick up the phone, dial that number and talk to her for a while, about everything under the blue sky.

there has never been a soul and there never will be one again, that knew my entire life without having to be told about it. she knew the secret desires of my heart, she knew of the crushes, the first love..everything! and she was magnanimous enough to let me pretend that i thought she didn't know...

someone who could smile through pain, and sound as cheerful as though she were in the pink of health. i feel proud of having known her and even more so that a part of her lives on in me.

miss you my sweetheart, mamma! miss you lots!

I wish some things lasted forever...innocence, love, liking, relationships. And also that these feelings were always mutual among two or more people (more like a "at first sight" thingy).

Pipedreams I know...and it may not make much sense to a lot of people, but increasingly, i wish it were true :

and i wish that some things could be in our control too; once in a while atleast. it breaks my heart everytime i think of the few most important things in my life that aren't in my control, and i feel so helpless seeing them go awry day by day. i guess i have truly reached the nadir and all roads lead up from hereon...(i hope so)

a lot of stuff...and happy new year!

What the overdose of technology has done for mankind can be surmised thus "the world has become a smaller place". Basically, that is a very good thing. You get to know what happens at the antipodal end of the world in a matter of a few minutes, and you feel enlightened and happy and awed, and all of those emotions that one associates with a state of well being. On the other hand, the smallness thingy does constrict you in ways that you would never think of. People have suddenly found that they can beat their drums and blow their trumpets in ways that they could never have fathomed ere the techno era. And so we have orkut, and then we have facebook, and then we have linked in...and the list goes on.

The thing with these social (and professional) networks is that people invest a lot of time and energy in these to show off to the world that they are the best. And the moment they think that someone on their "friends list" is a wee bit better (based on the latest snaps and the newest communities to his/her credit), they cannot stop until they put in something that makes them an inch ahead in the race for whatever it is that all of seem to be vying for...i haven't been able to pinpoint it as yet!

For my part, I would have liked to say that I am unmoved by it all; but that wouldn't be entirely true because a few months back I got so depressed at my apparent lack of achievements, that I cut myself off from the world. So well, I am vain and human too...but I would like to think that I am less so. Whether others agree, is entirely upto them.


And now for some seasons greetings:

Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have a vision now and then
Of a world where every neighbour is a friend
Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have our hopes, our will to try
If we dont we might as well lay down and die
You and I

(That's from a very favourite song which I used to listen endlessly on hot summer afternoons when I was growing up)

My new year resolution:
Not to lose my self esteem by knocking on doors that have been banged shut.

so, here's wishing that 2009's the year when all our dreams come true :)