Monthly Archives: October 2008

T Nagar = Terror Nagar

Saravana Stores = How going to moon looked simpler than reaching there!

 

Auto Anna: 1 (He kind of looked like our Illaya Thalapathi, It was quite heartbreaking to call him Anna, but that’s what I’ve sworn to do. CALL ALL AUTO GUYS ANNA”)

Me … “Anna, Auto Varuma”

Him … “Enga Ma?”

Me … New Sarav…. [Yes, I dint even complete]

Him… “Aiyooooo Enna Enga ma Kupidarey” … “Aalavidu thaye” – Puff He vanished.

Me… [It took me couple of minutes to realize that he laughed at me, YES laughed at me for calling him to come till Saravana Stores]

 

Auto Anna: 2 (He reminded me of my Sanskrit teacher, 5th STD, I never looked back at that language again)

Me … “Anna…Auto?”

Him … “Solluma… Enga?”

Me…. “Pudu Saravana Stores’s munadi”

Him … (he tilts his neck side ways… like he was thinking)… “Ok…150/- Polama??”

Me …. “ahahahahahha…..” – Puff I vanished.

 

Auto Thambi: 3 (Too small to drive that BIG Auto, but I dint care much)

Me .. “Auto… Hello Auto”… [Am shouting at the top of my voice, where everyone else in the road, except, for that lilttle bastard heard me]

Him … “Engey Madam”

Me… (Tried being smart by not saying the horrendous stores name) .. “Usman Road, Near RKM School”

Him … “Just a look” [The look, plain, unexplainable, Shock mixed with a little sarcasm and a little more of shock, in short very UGLY] 

Me… [At this exact point, I wish the earth under my feet would just split open and take me inside...]

I stand there with a “thiruvizha la kanama ponna” look.

Auto Anna: 4 (very elderly, could have called him Uncle or Thatha, but you will never know.. people get offended very easily” [am dead sure he saw the look on my face and really wanted to help me]

Him … “Enna ma Autova?”

Me … (with absolutely no expression on the face and a very very rude look)… UsmanRoad, Saravana, Vareengala??
Him …. “Inna ma antha pakkama,…. Antha areala enna thani nikithu theriyuma??? Auto Ota Mudiyathu ma.. boatu than venum.. enna ma nee… blah blah blah…”

Me … [Poor him, dint notice that I was not there]

 

I gave up, really! Almost after standing in the road for about 70 mins plus!! You think why only 4 Auto Anna’s ? There were number of Auto Annas who looked at me…. and gave me a confused + silly look like as if I was shouting for some help in something that sounded very foreign and also not able to get the hand movements I made ! Sigh !!

“If I you ask me to choose between doing things my way and doing things the right way, I would choose the former, which proves right to me!!”

Some one asked me today of why I keep changing my last name, (I keep doing this in orkut) I still don’t get it why people are so jobless noticing things that are so trivial! My explanation, here it comes.

 

1.      That’s none of your effing business.

2.      I seriously hope that you would have better things to do.

3.      If not, I don’t want to be annoyed with such questions.

 

Actually, I change it, I change it according to my whims and fancies yes, I do. Do you know that I have broad minded husband who does not flinch when some one calls me AJ or says I am not his wife just because my last name does not represent him. Thankfully my inlaws still consider me being married to their son and belong to their family while I be called as what ever I want to! But I loved to be called as SM too! I have not changed my name in any of the Govt Certificates till date, no need yet; unless I have a H1B dependent visa to be stamped immediately and he would leave me here if I don’t get it done, this definitely is not on any of the to-do’s list. 

 

I am A.J and I loved to be called that way, I am  his daughter and would continue to be so till the very end. I like being called A.M where it acknowledges the feeling of oneness and having some one to be referred upon. I answer his cell phone at times and would gleam while I answer “this is Mrs SM”, it depends on where and when I want to use. The key word here is “I”. If you have a family name to inherit that’s a different game, but if your husband or his family does not insist on doing anything like that, I guess it’s your name and you can feel free to keep it the way you want it. I am not talking about anything to do with women empowerment and all that jazz, I am just saying, let us do what we like to and let us not be questioned for every single God damn thing!!

 

While I use my dad’s name I feel proud to represent him, he is the one who has supported me, till I met this stranger two years ago and what sense does it make for anyone to expect a woman to lose her identity which she carried for a quarter of her life, over one night of acquisition to someone?? I respect every single woman who carry their husband’s name, but if that is what they like doing. If they don’t and they still do because of the fact that it is supposed to be like that, I am very sorry, I fail to fall in such category!  I do things because I like doing them not because of that’s how it is to be done. And very honestly, I would love to have a name like Aishwarya Rai Bachan, but what the heck; the combination of dad and SM’s name would look like a long joke on me Its hard and its too long.

 

The point my dear friend here is, either way, it is that particular persons interest and view, some random third person does not have to take the pain of asking such fantastic questions to make their day even more fantastic.

 

What the hell!! This is the I lost count times of stupid things that people have asked. When are we going to grow? While I only mean our brain, please don’t take it otherwise.

I still can’t understand why every issue running in this country is linked somewhere to some religion or the other? Why can we run our govt without blaming one community and taking shelter in another?

 

A woman has been raped by few men; I think that it is offensive enough to take it in hands and punishing the culprits severely! Well… if you did see the papers the issue has gone beyond that, there is Hindus who raped a Catholic nun, and that has become a bigger problem than a woman in a free country being treated like that. The Media could have been a bit more focused on the issue rather than that of who did it and what made him do that.

 

 Hell there was one heck of horny men trying to create problems, there idea is to create a problem but why is that the whole community getting pointed at for them becoming horny? Am helpless, not trying to defend those bastards but… they being a Hindu has nothing to do with the fact they were horny?! My point is, can’t we see anything as it is? A bunch of men raped women? Isn’t that quite common in the National Daily’s? If you read one, you would know of how many such cases do come up. Or is it legal to rape in the own community? I haven’t seen a Rape case become this big politically!!

 

Then there is this very famous issue on Ram Sethu Bridge! Why cant people leave him alone, he is long gone history. Is he a God or is he a human is not worth talking about NOW and definitely if he was already drunk or not is none of our f**king business!! None of us have seen him. None of us know of what and where he came from. We go with all the books and other things that are available which adds up to the term called FAITH, but dint any of our parents and schools teach us that it’s very cynical and cheap to mock at others faith?? Correct me if I am wrong, Isn’t the majority of the population living in India the Hindus? Is it our fault that we became the majority in terms of number and the others calling themselves a minority in numbers only has taken the word ‘minority’ to a different level? I don’t blame them, that is what they have been portrayed as! That’s exactly what they will pass on generation after generation!! God save our kids! Oh but then which God are we calling for help here?

 

Are you people telling me that the lives of the Majorities have been always rosy? How much have I’ve been mocked quite friendly by my own friends and very harshly by outsiders that I carry only “Curd Rice and Pickle” everyday to school or that the straight line in my scalp is unexplainable and is very important to have in our custom and why we wear those yellow threads even before we got married during certain poojas? Why are we kept alone while we have those days? Why are we always wearing that weird red or white powder daily on our forehead? And can you actually believe that when you say you are an Iyer you just can’t make any friends that easily in a Convent? You are imitated almost immediately for using language like “Ava Varuva” “Neenga Pongo” “Ennaku Theriyathey”!! It is almost scary to think that few people actually thought that I can do some magical tricks and was considered  a witch for sometime just because I kept reciting some ‘Slokhas’ which they never understood! And why is that all the boys in our community wear that ugly thread around there shoulders and are very shy and timid to take there shirt off in public, every time he attempts to do so, he is laughed at for not having any six pack! you cant develop them by just eating curd rice and pickle! Can you???

 

Life is not easy when you start mocking people or question them on there FAITH and BELIEFS immaterial of whatever religion they belong to.

 

What does this entire thing called “Terrorism” has to do with Islamic people except for a fact that most of the names caught in are Islamic? Are you saying that there is no Terrorist in other communities? Yes I understand that it’s more there, but I have a slight itchy feeling that it was the media… it was the papers and selfish political leaders of certain community have made it look even bigger than it actually is!? I am reading people facing challenges handling day to day life because of these religious splits.

 

All I am asking the media is not to generalize, group and mock at the entire set of people just because there are few rotten ones in every place! It hurts and it hurts the entire system. Is it that difficult to see the problems in a better light without letting a issue develop into a communal or religious riot?

 

We have people burning and starving to death, we have a well educated IITian IB guy who killed himself and his family due to the economy going haywire? Is the Finance minister doing any thing to ascertain people who are panicked to death in the trading centers? Are we even worried about on how many people are going to lose there jobs and how many lives will come stand still? Is that worth talking? Is any effing authoritative political leader in this country worried about the increase in prices of every common item needed to lead a simple life? Or is it too boring it has no religious ties within?

 

At times I am forced to think that India would have been a much better place if it had only one Culture and one Community to handle with. Too many diversification and too little smart heads to actually manage it! When you say USA or any European Countries it’s all Catholics of different kinds, when you say Pakistan it’s all Islamic, but try saying India? What the hell are we? If some one says we are Indian, I will personally deliver a tight slap and a bunch of very abusive words. We should not be calling ourselves an Indian if we are not capable of handling basic issues like respecting other feelings more specific religious feelings!

 

We should not hold our heads up and say “Unity in Diversity” and all that horseshit. We have diversity; we DO NOT have unity in anything! Just because few people in the not so few community have behaved way too bad IT is not FAIR at all to judge, blame and punish the entire crowd. India will never become a better place to live in until we learn to sort out issues as they are without taking cushion and resting on the respective ‘Religion’, majorly because WE Indians are Born with Diversification written all over our blood unless we use our head, there is no way out!

Yes I have, its a confession! I’ve been to mom’s place after a long while say after two years (been there several times a day too but its been a long time since i stayed ) There are few things I noticed which has not changed at all, and then few I could not even relate to. Well things change, What can I say!

The fact that I’ve grown is evident by the following examples

- I dint fight for the place where I usually sleep. Now it has been dutifully take over by my sister.

- I dint ask for MY fluffy pillow, there used to be a WAR on who.has.it.when types.

- I was generous enough to give my mobile to my sister, while i remember two yrs before i used to scream my guts off if she had her eyes on it. am still wondering why this is tough? and what has changed?

- I let my sister and my grand mother take full control over the T.V, while i remember again this is one huge platform for a good solid fight everyday !

- I even offered to cook, clean and wash !! whats happening to me?

* I notice that they are missing me in fact, A LOT of my photos have come out of the album and have taken places on TOP of the TV and on the showcase, which makes me giggle like a candy seen kid.

Am loving the whole feeling of being back in my nest !! :)