Bah!

Scenario: 21:10 hrs, Four of us at the Wooden-Tables beside the salad counter, Canteen.


Shyamala's taken a day off today, she's not feeling well (sure, whatever you say lady )
Renu's no where in the scene..she's perhaps decided to stay back at the cubicle and wait for Damu and Subin to take her place (I absolve thee Miss.Paulose)
Surosa has broken her leg and is at home sending us senti-senti friendhip sms'es. Veena 's on call as usual and Krati..well, I just dont know where Krati is.

So,where does that bring me?
Well, it brings me to the wooden tables opposite the Salad Bar at the canteen, with just 3 gentlemen (out of the 10 members at work)- Damu, Subin and Ravi (my precious teamie )

Now, normally these guys are a pleasure to dine with. We'd have a vibrant discussion on multi-farious topics ranging from the intricacies of Vaishnavaite philosophy to Kurt Cobain.

But today's not like that. There's a Cricket match on (or so I discover, from the abominable silence at the table).
My reaction to cricket-matches these days is '*Yawn* Nice... Can you pass me the salt please?'

I witness 40 minutes of silence at the dinner table while these 3 men have their heads tilted at an angle of 45 degrees gazing intently at the telly placed directly on top of my head.

Dinner time at work is very precious and I/we generally treasure every minute of it.
Not that we're made to work like cattle and are facing a severe time crisis at work or anything(Hell no! I love my boss. Well, when there's an appraisal on its way, why wouldn't I?), its just that its the only common time we have to do some friendly bantering and catch up with the chaos in everyone's team. We really enjoy it and we really do look forward to it. I know I do.

Silence at the dinner table? I mean, thats unheard of ..unless one of us was being paid to shut-up or all of us were feeding on our Canteen's special glue...sorry, halwa. Our team wouldn't know silence even if it bit us in our ear.
Today...well, I could have strangled my self and these guys wouldnt have noticed.

Next time theres a match, I'm heading straight to the Salad bar and dining with some of the married ladies there. I'd rather hear them blah-blah nonsense all day long than not have a a single word at dinner.

Men.
Cricket.
Bah!

Well, I'll be damned!

Appalled.
Thats what I am now.

http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/sanjeebmukherjea/262/2126/rajini-the-blogbuster.html

For some reason, I not only find this blog repulsive but also sad, in a sense that our country has to put up with a shit-load of racists like this.

Not that I'm a confirmed Rajini fan or a Dravidian-fanatic (except when its Rahul Dravid we're talking about), but its the constant battering of the so called 'Dravidian' race (the dogmatic way of referring to the southies) like they belong to a completely different lineage.

What in heaven's name are these guys trying to do...that too in a public forum???
Friggin Racists!

It spreads inside you and outside too

There is something about the word ‘cancer’ these days that gives me an instant gush of fear about the profound uncertainty of ..life. Uncertainty manifests itself into a whole new meaning when taking the word cancer into consideration.

Now, this is one disease which hits us when we’re in the pink of health and when most unexpected. The sad part of succumbing to this wicked-disease is that, its perhaps the only one (apart from tumor which again is another form of cancer) which defies Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion
"For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”
(ok….serious misinterpretation of 11th grade Physics I hear you say, but wait…hear me out I say)

I’ve always thought of diseases to be a result of some perceptible cause. I’m not saying that its karmic ‘n all, just that you can account for every state of illness, injury or disorder that you endure. Everything can be accounted for.
Everything has a concrete cause.
Everything.

Except Cancer.

So far, from what I’ve seen, cancer can hit absolutely anybody.
Regardless of whether you live a tobacco free life or whether you own a tobacco factory....Its just as random as the grading in one of my papers in 6th sem.
Anybody.

This very thought hits me with a sudden spasm of sadness and anger considering that we humans, the most intelligent and powerful species in the Universe (disregarding any probable signs of extra-terrestrial wildlife out there ) are incapable of confronting and curing something very much science related as opposed to a tsunami (which man possibly couldn't control or evade); despite the colossal advancement we’ve made, over the years, in the field of science and medicine.

Doesn’t it haunt you when you realize that there’s a probability that you might be in a position to confront something you can’t understand or account for?
Something you can’t reason with or bargain with?
Something you can solve or resolve?
Something that brings irreplaceable sorrow and loss that spreads across a family or an entire generation,like a cancer (pun intended).

I would mention the various intriguing causes to cancer listed in one of the sites...someof them absurd, but fascinating just the same...
But that’s not what I blog for.... No. I don’t discuss useful information :P(that you should’ve discovered by now after reading some of my informatively-prolific blogs, O tolerant reader).

I’m still baffled by this medical-enigma and all I wish to say is that.. ..No one deserves to be killed unless he legally deserves it or illegally wants to.

Its one thing if you are diagnosed with malignancy after puffing a fat six-digit-number of cigarettes (die smokers, die!) but it’s totally different thing when your diagnosed with the same while/after living life abiding by all the protocols of perfect healthy living; when it suddenly hits you like a bus.

Life has so much it can unravel.
Sometimes, the best-est of solutions to any confusion in life could lie in answering a simple question… Will you have fun while resorting to it…?

Because at the end of the day, you should be proud of what you’ve lived for and lived through… and not how long you spend doing just that.

To Smt. Vatsala Nagarajan whom I love and respect with all my heart. Its not fair what life (or otherwise..) does to fabulous people like you.

Woman's Day...or something like that

I seriously fail to understand what this day is all about.
This 'Women's Day'
Forgive me,but I really am a dumb girl.
My logic is generally acknowledged to work in the most bizarre of ways, so I don't wish to impose it on all of mankind but I still feel that I have the liberty,if not, the right,to proclaim what I'm ponddering over.

With due respect to all the women of this world (a dignified fraternity of which even I am a part of) who feel that this very day has its own significance in the calendar, let me say that I cherish this very day and I do agree,we certainly are a unique species and I don't wish to disprove or antagonize you.

But still, I go on to ask... What exactly are we trying to prove to the world here, on this special day?
The existence of women?
The importance of women?
The crucial and indispensible role we play in the circle of life?
The significance of the weaker sex?
The compassion thats an intrcate part of us??
The extent to which we can make a difference in the society?
The equality,if not the superiority, of the Women-species V's Men-species?


This is something that has always irked me on the dawn of every 8th of March, every year, ever since I was able to think clearly on my own; uninfluenced by the shadow of my parent's and society's thought processes.


Gandhi-Day, Nehru-Day, Netaji-Day..yes understandable.
You pay homage on that one day dedicated to them, bcause you certainly can't remember them everyday.
They are indeed great souls, yes, but come on, they're dead people.

But Tell me...Are women something to be remembered and celebrated on just ONE day in the calendar?
Is that ALL we are???
Somethin to be remembered?

On this day, 8th of March, We thank the woman for being who she is....
while for the rest of the year we watch, in total helplessness, man beat his wife, a child scream at his/her mom, girls harassed on streets, adults throwing their aged-parents into old-age-homes, young girls(and boys)forced into child labour, female-infantiside
We watch all of this with total indifference and non-chalance.


Women have suffered in the past and have been submissive till the dawn on the 19th century.
Yes, women didn't receive the appreciation they deserved in the past.
Yes, women were looked at with scorn and contempt, as useless memebers who could contribute nothing to the family except food and off-spring.

Now things have changed.
But only in a superficial level.

A deep look into the interior villages of India can bring the entire country to shame at the way women are looked at and treated.


Women can't be thanked on just one day.
We are beyond all that.
We have to do something more.

We ought to kick this hypocracy of 'Celebrating Women' out the door...and deal with serious matters.
Are women being treated the way they ought to be, in the real world?

Is a women free to walk out into the streets of Delhi at 11:30 pm without any element of fear?
Can a woman walk into a police station and file a complaint against one of the police-men working there...without anticipating an attack on her family the very next day?

When she can...that will be a revelation and definitely my idea of a celbreation.
That will be my 'Woman's Day'.

Untill then....we can just wait and watch.

Happy Woman's Day!
8.3.07