Before I really go about writing this post, I wanna state that I am not a male chauvinist, neither am I a feminist and I hate it totally when people of the two ideologies strain their vocal chords to prove their point, over the other!(phew! bail taken!hopefully granted! :P)
It was a Friday afternoon and even being an hour early did not really help me get into a comfortable position in the long queue of people waiting to take their learner's license. Well the test had to be easy...at least thats what people around me had told me... however that did not really stop me from taking momentary glances into the test-guide i had been given earlier that day!
It was around 1:45 pm. I could not help noticing that i was sweating profusely(thanks to the sultry monsoon weather) and even being on the first floor veranda with an open side facing a barren land did not help much!
I looked around.. There was a group of guys, flocked together in front of me making it difficult to see what was happening ahead of them, in the queue. I even doubted if they were there for the same reason as I was.... Well I took a chance and slid ahead of them, as if I motioned just to see where the curved queue was heading! When they sensed that I was lurking around for more than 2-3 minutes, they started giving me weird looks and I sensed it would be better(for their vocal chords and my ego)(or thinking further, for their fists and my face) to return to my original "coveted" position in the queue! Before I returned I did notice that the person standing immediately next to the group was almost a meter ahead of them and it turned out to be a girl of around 18, who was constantly throwing glances of discomfort and fear back at them! She was one of those typical Malayalee mankas(traditional beauties) with hip-long hair (almost entirely soaked in coconut oil) tied in a mudi-pinnal fashion(hmm... its a mallu lady-hair style where u take 3 strands of hair, one each from right, left and center and inter twine them and let the rest of the hair flow :))well of course her light green colored churidaar with a neatly ironed one-time-folded shawl, pinned towards her left shoulder, covering the entire length of her salwaar, almost confirmed my doubts that she belonged to a typical mallu family which had its own share of narrow minded thoughts when it came to girls and their freedom! I really wished I took a place in that 1 meter gap but i guess I dint trust my physique much :P and yeah I dint wanna scare that girl either..
It was almost 2 when another girl walked in(with almost similar physical appearance as the previous) and she took a look around the place and decided to take up a position in that 1-meter gap with the least of guilt! "Noooooooooooooooooooo...." I shouted to myself! "Thats mine.. I spotted it first,you bitch! :x " "anyways you wont be there for long! those guys will anyways throw you off the queue in no time... I am pretty sure you wont be able to resist those looks! muahahhaha " I consoled myself!:)
But that was not meant to be! or maybe that was meant not to be! Not a single guy retorted.. on the contrary they moved a step back to maintain the 1meter gap! "losers :x"... A guy from inside came out and announced that the server was down and the chances of test being held today were dim! "wah! 1 hour worth wait for nothing! :x" But something told me I should wait a bit more and test my luck and I was all set to grab the spot right behind the girls if the group of guys left.. They,however, were undecided on their next move!
Suddenly as if a flock of birds had been shot at, they decided to leave the space in the most random fashion ever and I could not even save myself from their stabs and hits , forget grabbing the spot right behind the girls.. and as soon as I freed myself off their clutches i realized that the spots were filled but I dint really regret since it was quite a cute girl(pretty modern for kerala standards) standing right in front of the guy standing in front of me! Of course his testosterone levels were at an all time high and he had started his hit-on attempts right from the beginning thought it took sometime for them to see the fruits of success because the girl could not, even for a moment, take her hands and eyes off the mobile set into which she was typing in stuff as fast as she could making sure her mom(standing next to her) saw nothing of the text! In the mean time they had announced that the server was back on track(yipeeeeeeeee "at least one right decision")... One by one everyone made their entry into the cubicle where the test was bound to happen! Of course that wasn't anywhere in the near vicinity though! I amused myself with his on-going failed attempts to patao that girl(he even excused himself and brought her mom a chair from i dunno where!ha the old impress-mom-impress-daughter technique!)and the moment I thought i should probably lend him a helping hand in his endeavors (:P) the girl started showing interest in him too!
In about an hours time, i was at the origin of the queue and all 3 of us suddenly got confused as to where we were supposed to go! I inquired and found out the right counter we were supposed to go to! But the guy in front of me insisted on going to the other counter and of course the girl believed "her man" more.. lol... anyways i stuck to the right counter but the queue still had around 5-6 people in front of me! and soon the duo realized their mistake and got back... As i saw them coming I said to myself "i tooooooooold you...serves u right.. now stand behind me as a punishment for not listening to me":P.. To my shock the girl made a separate girls queue(wah! smartass!) and the guy stood in a peculiar way, semi-legged, with one leg in (now) the gents- queue as if he was there only to have a chit-chat with the girl and nothing else... soon her turn was up and she handed over her form to the person at the counter and said in one of her girly tones " Sir, I hope you wouldnt mind taking his form too.. he is with me" and waved a smile at him! The guy dint give a second thought and took it! "what the helllll! not again!!! as if the earlier queue mishap wasn't enough! :x"i looked back and gave a "you-loser!" look to all of the men standing behind me... well it took me another half an hour to get done with my tests and walk off that building!!!
As i walked back I thought to myself about the social set up in Kerala and the position women held in it! (this is where my bail comes into action.. just to remind you :P) I had met 3 entirely different kind of girls in past 3 hours, and all of them reminded me of the weird society we had set up for women in Kerala... Of course it is the most literate state in India especially when it comes down to female literacy and it has always boasted about its much-envied sex-ratio! But in spite of all these, when it comes down to dealing with men especially by a girl of the first kind I had mentioned, brought up in a typical mallu, narrow-minded, male-chauvinism- supporting family, she would find her mouth drying and knees shivering! The second girl who remorselessly occupied the free spot would definitely want to believe those MCP theories but would rather "turn the court" in favor of her benefits and take advantage of the social situations (where an act of insult to women is highly defined, forcing one to believe that it is more at the mercy of women than at men) which have in turn been formulated from these very MCP theories!The third one is an out right believer in equality of the sexes and maybe even one of those who thinks it is her responsibility to take care of her man than vice-versa!
And all these different ideologies are set against the backdrop of the "age of women liberation"!It sure does puzzle me how the whole women's liberation act is going to happen over the coming years (at least in Kerala) where probably every woman has a different interpretation of her existence and her strength in comparison to men! I guess that is where men score! They universally believe they are the better sex! I guess once women r universally made to believe the same, things should be much easier! But of course that would be an uphill task!
Now I don't wish to support any school of thought! I have and will always believe in the power women possess, however different it might be! "Where there is a Girl, There is a way"
P.S Well maybe the context is well applicable to all states and all countries. But I believe Kerala required its share of attention in gender issues for the reasons i stated above and u guessed it right! I am a mallu :)
Monday, July 21, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
The Survivor...
It was a bright July morning, a pleasant break from the otherwise dull and cloudy monsoon weather and it did bring with it, a hope that something good was bound to happen!:)"Nature could not have set a better tone to this!" said the old lady, waiting outside the Operation Theater, anxiously waiting to see the birth of her 7th grand child!
Inside, Dr.Radha was busy at her work, helping the mother deliver her baby with as little pain as possible!This was definitely no big deal for her, for she was a name in the medical field and the delivery had absolutely no complications!
"We are almost done here!" She exclaimed as the baby's head started popping out... Well...it seemed as thought nothing could go wrong!Suddenly,the doctor noticed that the baby had started turning blue! She could not think of anything that could have possibly gone wrong..hence she attempted to pull the baby out with utmost care possible.. She noticed that the baby turned bluer! Now that was not meant to BE!
After a moment of brief panic, she observed carefully! The reason suddenly caught her eye... The umbilical cord (the cord that connects the child to the mother through its naval) had unfortunately been wound around the baby's neck and with every successive attempts to pull the baby out, it got tighter around its neck making it difficult for the baby to breathe!She cut the chord off instantly,pulled the baby out softly and had it(still blue in color) delivered into the mother's hands "It is a boy ma'am!" She turned and reached for the door to let the family know of the boy's birth and as she walked she thought to herself "A couple of pulls more and the boy would have died!Thank God, he survived!"
YES... I DID SURVIVE :)
P.S LOLOLOL... Everything that I have written above is true to THE CORE!of course the whole "nature" thing is all drama and i am sure you would have sensed that!(yes, vidya...go ahead and call me a narcissist) but the rest is all true.. lol
P.P.S Finally a short article!!! Yipeeeeeeeeee
Inside, Dr.Radha was busy at her work, helping the mother deliver her baby with as little pain as possible!This was definitely no big deal for her, for she was a name in the medical field and the delivery had absolutely no complications!
"We are almost done here!" She exclaimed as the baby's head started popping out... Well...it seemed as thought nothing could go wrong!Suddenly,the doctor noticed that the baby had started turning blue! She could not think of anything that could have possibly gone wrong..hence she attempted to pull the baby out with utmost care possible.. She noticed that the baby turned bluer! Now that was not meant to BE!
After a moment of brief panic, she observed carefully! The reason suddenly caught her eye... The umbilical cord (the cord that connects the child to the mother through its naval) had unfortunately been wound around the baby's neck and with every successive attempts to pull the baby out, it got tighter around its neck making it difficult for the baby to breathe!She cut the chord off instantly,pulled the baby out softly and had it(still blue in color) delivered into the mother's hands "It is a boy ma'am!" She turned and reached for the door to let the family know of the boy's birth and as she walked she thought to herself "A couple of pulls more and the boy would have died!Thank God, he survived!"
YES... I DID SURVIVE :)
P.S LOLOLOL... Everything that I have written above is true to THE CORE!of course the whole "nature" thing is all drama and i am sure you would have sensed that!(yes, vidya...go ahead and call me a narcissist) but the rest is all true.. lol
P.P.S Finally a short article!!! Yipeeeeeeeeee
Friday, June 20, 2008
Taking life with a pinch of salt
It was around 12:10 in the night yesterday... and i was closing all my chat conversations so that i could hit the bed asap...
me :k i gtg...cya..tc
friend: me too.... EURO calling..btw,who is your money on???any favourites???
me :hmmm.. i don't really follow euro... not a fan of football at all for that matter...
friend: woahhh! really...? oh ok.. thats really wierd.. anyways cya bye...
me :hmm...bye ('phew!glad it did not go further' I thought to myself)
It was a warm April morning... I checked my watch... It was 3 40 pm...I decided to buy myself a coffee from the IC before I left for my mup class... Though I struggled a bit(thanks to the heavy rush there) I did end up buying one strong cup of coffee and settled down along with two of my Music Club friends on a nearby table... and the conversation unfolded...
Friend1:"So you mean to say you have never seen Hidey?"(I hope I spelled it right)
Me :('oh shit! not again.. I am in no mood to explain!..ok...watever...u need to say something but do choose your words right...ashwin')hmmm...No not really...as in.. I never really liked cartoons.. Never watched them as a child you know...
Friend2:"OMG Ashwin... How is it possible?? How can a child not like cartoons??? Thats like the most insane thing on earth!!!
Me :('Shit i told u to choose your words right'..you could have said an 'I donno' and ended it with a sheepsih smile' But NO you had to spit out the whole thing.. LOSER!.. now at least give a sheepish smile and end it..')"HeeHee"
Friend1:"Thats true... I am really surprised... How can ......."(I turned a deaf ear to the conversation and it did not end until we entered the class)
Two days before I had met a long-lost friend(LOL) on my way back home from class and after the mutual "hey"s and "where r u"s and "wat r u doing now?"s we drifted off to our discussion on friends...
Friend:"Oh He bought an Apachi... "
ME : "Huh? what exactly is that??"
Friend:"Ashwin..you havent changed a bit.. Have you???"
Me :('Get ready dear... thats the next one coming up!!! all the best... start off with a stupid grin.. we'll see where it goes')"HeeHee..."
Friend:"ok.. FYI ,its this new bike........('Yeah right!It took me around 2 months to by-heart my own car's name and you expect me to know some random bike???') ....... "
Oh!You might be wondering what kind of an association I am trying to make with these 3 random incidents that happened to me..well some of you might have already guessed it.. (for all those intelligent ones... please be patient until i explain it to the rest or move on to the next para.. :P i know u wont though.. lol) and to the rest... hmm... here we go! Well I often had this feeling that life had been unfair to me in many ways!Especially when it came down to scenes as typical as these where the conversations were all about "woah"s or "omg"s let out in tones of surprise or contempt(or sometimes a mix of the two) followed by "How can anyone... "s and "You haven't changed a bit..."s. All that was different about each of them was that the people who i talked to, changed and the Hidey/Apache/Euro were replaced by either a hot-selling car in the market or some gaming-talk or maybe even an action-movie... (the list is pretty long and it is not at all as trivial and as materialistic as it sounds... it has a lot to do with my thoughts and views that i basically live on.. but i don't want to mention them and add weight to the already-heavy blog! :) )anyways...
Verdict: I don't necessarily have the same interests which my friends do(which unfortunately happens to be the most-sought-after interest for a person(or a guy as the case maybe)of my age) neither do I hold the same views about life as them. ..hmm... or to make it even shorter.... I AM DIFFERENT!!... wait a minute... now thats a word i should use with a little caution because it is highly deceptive for quite a few reasons(which i shall mention later on)...but i suppose you got the picture anyways and thats enough to read on!
The worst part of the whole issue is not being left out in a group.. neither is it those lecture sessions when your relatives comment on how a stereotypical boy of 20 should be... but its those moments when you realize that even your closest of friends question you about the way you are and fail to ACCEPT you for what you are!!!(after all..i was not hurting anyone by having a few individualistic interests and thought...!)ooh not to forget those kill-joy irritating ones who love taunting you, making it a point to bring the topic in especially when you are in a group!(yuck.. i hate them)
It is always tough for anyone to go against the flow and I did have my share of troubles too... There was a point in my life when I thought I had an abnormal childhood and another,when I hated myself so much that I decided to give myself a try being the more-acceptable one! But it definitely did not put me into a comfort zone and i decided to switch back! and days of confusion followed...
It did take me sometime to put myself into a single piece to realize that I am THE BEST the way i am and i should be proud of it and that i could probably be an exquisite piece in the entire world :P... I have absolutely no idea how and why i came to this conclusion..maybe it was an optimism-instilled-deterministic attitude that i developed or maybe it was just that these things kept happening so frequently that i had got immune to them... but whatever it was, i had gone through a lot of trial and error experimentation methods until i hit upon the right set of reactions that would work in my favor whenever unpleasant discussions dropped in... sometimes it was a sheepish smile..hmmm...sometimes it was a sudden change of topic.. and yeah sometimes even being a little pretentious worked!:P(and... boy!it was fun to watch the disappointment on certain faces when i conveyed the fact that I simply loved being MYSELF!:P)
And I also did realize that there will always be people to love you and accept you for what you are... It might not necessarily be the same ones you expect.. But there always will BE at least a single soul out there to help you find your way out(As in my case it has always been true and as a true-optimist should, I would like to continue believing that :P)
(Note: The next para is gonna be highly philosophical.. and there is no compulsion u should read it :P...you wouldn't miss much if you skip this one.. lol ..but those who wish may read on)
The fact that every individual differed from the other and the even more obvious fact that everyone was aware of it but still continued to group up and behave differently to the "different" ones always perplexed me because if it were really true then everyone should treat the other indifferently! right???I really don't know if I found the answer for that... but I think its mostly because people are assured a certain kind of safety being one in a million and its simpler to go with the flow than against it.. and so the psych of a human being always searches for commonalities with the environment around himself which would leave him the most comfortable with the least complexities... and thats pretty much a reasonable explanation as to why one wants to stereotype himself and why he expects the same from others... but as i went on analyzing people, i felt that the types of people were not just 2(the daring ones and the stereotyped ones), it was 4... Type 1-the stereotyped ones who prefer to follow the majority.. Type 2- the ones who have stereotypical interests who wish to be different but are not(trust me!such people exist.. the so called 'pseudo-intellectuals' probably come under this.. and yeah if u r one of those ..please contact me!we can trade our personalities at the earliest!Lol)Type 3-the ones who are different who wanna be a commoner and type 4- who don't care a bit about being different!Ofcourse, there are lots of people with mixed characteristics as well... and maybe I would call myself a mix of type 3 and 1!(i really dunno :P) ... of course the factors that affect which group you fall into are also interesting!!! You can pretty much divide all your thoughts and actions into 2...one group of actions or interests where you are allowed to choose your individualistic taste.. another where you ought to follow what the mass does and its the percentage of each group that decides if you are DIFFERENT or not(phew!mission accomplished!)...(and that would explain why some of my friends who claim to be different are actually not and some who think are not, are!:))
Well to wind up... hmmm.. i ll tell you why i wrote this.. It was definitely not to gain your sympathy hoping you would understand me and treat me better.. all of u r just perfect the way u r (as i said b4)... it was definitely a sincere attempt to let my readers know what kind of a person i am but more than that it is for those sad souls who have been/are in the same state as me and have had problems liking themselves! :) .... maybe they would learn a lesson or two from this and start liking themselves...
P.S I would not really wanna have a chat with anyone as to whether i have had any incident similar to those 3 ones, with them.... :)
me :k i gtg...cya..tc
friend: me too.... EURO calling..btw,who is your money on???any favourites???
me :hmmm.. i don't really follow euro... not a fan of football at all for that matter...
friend: woahhh! really...? oh ok.. thats really wierd.. anyways cya bye...
me :hmm...bye ('phew!glad it did not go further' I thought to myself)
It was a warm April morning... I checked my watch... It was 3 40 pm...I decided to buy myself a coffee from the IC before I left for my mup class... Though I struggled a bit(thanks to the heavy rush there) I did end up buying one strong cup of coffee and settled down along with two of my Music Club friends on a nearby table... and the conversation unfolded...
Friend1:"So you mean to say you have never seen Hidey?"(I hope I spelled it right)
Me :('oh shit! not again.. I am in no mood to explain!..ok...watever...u need to say something but do choose your words right...ashwin')hmmm...No not really...as in.. I never really liked cartoons.. Never watched them as a child you know...
Friend2:"OMG Ashwin... How is it possible?? How can a child not like cartoons??? Thats like the most insane thing on earth!!!
Me :('Shit i told u to choose your words right'..you could have said an 'I donno' and ended it with a sheepsih smile' But NO you had to spit out the whole thing.. LOSER!.. now at least give a sheepish smile and end it..')"HeeHee"
Friend1:"Thats true... I am really surprised... How can ......."(I turned a deaf ear to the conversation and it did not end until we entered the class)
Two days before I had met a long-lost friend(LOL) on my way back home from class and after the mutual "hey"s and "where r u"s and "wat r u doing now?"s we drifted off to our discussion on friends...
Friend:"Oh He bought an Apachi... "
ME : "Huh? what exactly is that??"
Friend:"Ashwin..you havent changed a bit.. Have you???"
Me :('Get ready dear... thats the next one coming up!!! all the best... start off with a stupid grin.. we'll see where it goes')"HeeHee..."
Friend:"ok.. FYI ,its this new bike........('Yeah right!It took me around 2 months to by-heart my own car's name and you expect me to know some random bike???') ....... "
Oh!You might be wondering what kind of an association I am trying to make with these 3 random incidents that happened to me..well some of you might have already guessed it.. (for all those intelligent ones... please be patient until i explain it to the rest or move on to the next para.. :P i know u wont though.. lol) and to the rest... hmm... here we go! Well I often had this feeling that life had been unfair to me in many ways!Especially when it came down to scenes as typical as these where the conversations were all about "woah"s or "omg"s let out in tones of surprise or contempt(or sometimes a mix of the two) followed by "How can anyone... "s and "You haven't changed a bit..."s. All that was different about each of them was that the people who i talked to, changed and the Hidey/Apache/Euro were replaced by either a hot-selling car in the market or some gaming-talk or maybe even an action-movie... (the list is pretty long and it is not at all as trivial and as materialistic as it sounds... it has a lot to do with my thoughts and views that i basically live on.. but i don't want to mention them and add weight to the already-heavy blog! :) )anyways...
Verdict: I don't necessarily have the same interests which my friends do(which unfortunately happens to be the most-sought-after interest for a person(or a guy as the case maybe)of my age) neither do I hold the same views about life as them. ..hmm... or to make it even shorter.... I AM DIFFERENT!!... wait a minute... now thats a word i should use with a little caution because it is highly deceptive for quite a few reasons(which i shall mention later on)...but i suppose you got the picture anyways and thats enough to read on!
The worst part of the whole issue is not being left out in a group.. neither is it those lecture sessions when your relatives comment on how a stereotypical boy of 20 should be... but its those moments when you realize that even your closest of friends question you about the way you are and fail to ACCEPT you for what you are!!!(after all..i was not hurting anyone by having a few individualistic interests and thought...!)ooh not to forget those kill-joy irritating ones who love taunting you, making it a point to bring the topic in especially when you are in a group!(yuck.. i hate them)
It is always tough for anyone to go against the flow and I did have my share of troubles too... There was a point in my life when I thought I had an abnormal childhood and another,when I hated myself so much that I decided to give myself a try being the more-acceptable one! But it definitely did not put me into a comfort zone and i decided to switch back! and days of confusion followed...
It did take me sometime to put myself into a single piece to realize that I am THE BEST the way i am and i should be proud of it and that i could probably be an exquisite piece in the entire world :P... I have absolutely no idea how and why i came to this conclusion..maybe it was an optimism-instilled-deterministic attitude that i developed or maybe it was just that these things kept happening so frequently that i had got immune to them... but whatever it was, i had gone through a lot of trial and error experimentation methods until i hit upon the right set of reactions that would work in my favor whenever unpleasant discussions dropped in... sometimes it was a sheepish smile..hmmm...sometimes it was a sudden change of topic.. and yeah sometimes even being a little pretentious worked!:P(and... boy!it was fun to watch the disappointment on certain faces when i conveyed the fact that I simply loved being MYSELF!:P)
And I also did realize that there will always be people to love you and accept you for what you are... It might not necessarily be the same ones you expect.. But there always will BE at least a single soul out there to help you find your way out(As in my case it has always been true and as a true-optimist should, I would like to continue believing that :P)
(Note: The next para is gonna be highly philosophical.. and there is no compulsion u should read it :P...you wouldn't miss much if you skip this one.. lol ..but those who wish may read on)
The fact that every individual differed from the other and the even more obvious fact that everyone was aware of it but still continued to group up and behave differently to the "different" ones always perplexed me because if it were really true then everyone should treat the other indifferently! right???I really don't know if I found the answer for that... but I think its mostly because people are assured a certain kind of safety being one in a million and its simpler to go with the flow than against it.. and so the psych of a human being always searches for commonalities with the environment around himself which would leave him the most comfortable with the least complexities... and thats pretty much a reasonable explanation as to why one wants to stereotype himself and why he expects the same from others... but as i went on analyzing people, i felt that the types of people were not just 2(the daring ones and the stereotyped ones), it was 4... Type 1-the stereotyped ones who prefer to follow the majority.. Type 2- the ones who have stereotypical interests who wish to be different but are not(trust me!such people exist.. the so called 'pseudo-intellectuals' probably come under this.. and yeah if u r one of those ..please contact me!we can trade our personalities at the earliest!Lol)Type 3-the ones who are different who wanna be a commoner and type 4- who don't care a bit about being different!Ofcourse, there are lots of people with mixed characteristics as well... and maybe I would call myself a mix of type 3 and 1!(i really dunno :P) ... of course the factors that affect which group you fall into are also interesting!!! You can pretty much divide all your thoughts and actions into 2...one group of actions or interests where you are allowed to choose your individualistic taste.. another where you ought to follow what the mass does and its the percentage of each group that decides if you are DIFFERENT or not(phew!mission accomplished!)...(and that would explain why some of my friends who claim to be different are actually not and some who think are not, are!:))
Well to wind up... hmmm.. i ll tell you why i wrote this.. It was definitely not to gain your sympathy hoping you would understand me and treat me better.. all of u r just perfect the way u r (as i said b4)... it was definitely a sincere attempt to let my readers know what kind of a person i am but more than that it is for those sad souls who have been/are in the same state as me and have had problems liking themselves! :) .... maybe they would learn a lesson or two from this and start liking themselves...
P.S I would not really wanna have a chat with anyone as to whether i have had any incident similar to those 3 ones, with them.... :)
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