New Blog and other things.

Well, I know it’s been some time and most of you have been waiting for some updates about my son, but I have to confess I have become a lazy bum!
It would be wrong if I say I didn’t get time because of my son … (touch wood) he has been a very good boy till now. He doesn’t get cranky at all, and sleeps well during the night which is a blessing I am sure many mothers would agree. I have just been plain lazy. Being in mom’s house doesn’t help either. You get to order around and get pampered all at the same time ;-)
Now that two months are over since my son was born I have decided to wake up finally. Have to get back to not-being-lazy mode soon.

I have decided to start a separate blog to write about my son. Want to keep this one general. So here it is. It’s not too difficult to guess that updates on the other blog will be more than here ;-) but still I would want to keep this one to write about my general feelings and comments on happenings around me.

I have been reading reports of racism in Australia. I do agree that those have to be condemned and the Aussie police have to really wake up and take appropriate measures. But I cant stop myself but ask the question.. we raise all hue and cry when “others” (read foreigners) discriminate us, but don’t we do the same? We may not attack and kill but I am sure our “treatment” is no less traumatic. How many tourists have had a “safe” and “deceit-less” trip to India? Mysore boasts of quite a few foreign students. Palestinians, Africans, Chinese etc.., Ask them how many times they have been teased in public not only in their college campus but in general on road, in busses etc.
How can we ever forget our “casteism”? Isn’t it racism with a different name? Forget about inter-caste marriages, that’s a different topic altogether. But let us just look at our daily lives. How many of us allow maids to come inside the kitchen? How many of us readily eat in our neighbor’s house if they are of a different caste? I can go on and on... but I am sure you get the point. So before pointing fingers at other countries, let us first look at ourselves. First clean your house before dusting your neighbor’s house! I am sure there is no less “groupism/favoritism/casteism” in our own universities. Have we even given a thought to it? I am sure we would be the biggest market for fairness creams. What with our obsession to be fair. How many dark girls get good grooms easily? I think we better clean our house first before trying to clean our neighbor’s house! (I have to mention a kannada saying here “Avara yelili heggaNa biddidru pakkada yele noNa Odisdranthe!”).

I must also mention about the political scenario we have right now. I was at a loss for words when Mr.Karunanidhi was so bent upon getting cabinet births for all his family members! It was a mockery of democracy to say the least. I wonder when people of TN will ever realize that this man is in the game only for personal reasons. For that matter I wonder who is clean after all. I am sure we won’t even get enough candidates to count in our fingers! But at the same time, I am optimistic that things are going to change. I can see the change in attitude for most of the people from “I don’t care” to “I can do something for a start.. i.e vote”. Also I can see that there are more young faces (though it does not rule out corruption) who I hope will bring about some change.

On a totally different note, I wonder when people will ever be “satisfied”. I am sometimes at loss for words or expression when people expect things which are totally uncalled for. Suppose A was never talking with B, the moment A talks to B, B “expects” A to talk nicely. A talks nicely, then the expectation is that A tells everything to B and so on... it’s a never ending expectation-cycle if I can call it that! Why can’t B be satisfied that A is on talking terms? The situation gets more complex when there is C and D to mix up the mind of B! Aaaarrrggghhhh!!!

Now, to end the post on a bright note… I am finally slowly getting back to shape, after being shapeless for almost a year ;-)! Though this does not mean I am thin even in a remote way... but atleast I am getting back to my normal (read original) weight :-)

Human Nature

Human nature is sure weird. Come to think of it I don't even know if its weird or confusing or straightforward (as human psychologists claim) or whatever...

Case1: My mom, a few years back had a slip disc and that troubles her every now and then. But you should have seen her during my sis's wedding. Everything was perfectly managed and her energy levels were on an all time high. Warnings from any number of family members to take care of herself fell on deaf ears. The very next day after the wedding her pains bounced back ;-). I know that people rise up to the situation and she also had to do it as it was her own daughters wedding and all that.... so are all ailments just in our mind? Can we overcome just anything and everything just by being strong in our mind?

Case2: Unfortunately my mom-in-law met with an accident recently and her left hand little finger had to be amputed. She also has a fracture in her wrist and so has a cast on her left hand. She is able to use only her right hand for now. But this has made her over sensitive. She insists on doing work with her one hand. If somebody offers to help she gets upset. My sister-in-law is home to help her take bath and all... but if she tries to overdo the helping part, she gets back immediately. She not only wants to do her own work, but also wants to do other house hold work. She used to completely manage the kicthen before and so now not being able to do that must have hurt her confidence really bad. Also I noticed one more thing. The moment people become too "sympathetic" she gets defensive. P and me tried to tell this subtely to my sister-in-laws not to greive about the bad thing that has happened in front of my mil. But then can't blame them as well... its their mother and they can't see that she is suffering, tries to help her as much as they can and inturn get scoldings ;-)
Now this is also a case of mind game. Empathysing with her physical pain, I can't help but feel that this "insecurity" and all is just again in her mind.

Case3: P. My most fav character for analysis. Its almost 9 years since I know him, but even now I can't predict how he will react in certain situations. He reacts in totally different ways for the same situation/condition on different days. Like for example, the other day I mentioned I was feeling very tired becasue of all this extra work (office, college, home and ofcourse P), he was very sympathetic... said that this is all temporary and from the next day he even got up with me at 5:30 in the morning to help me in the kitchen. Now thats a starightforward reaction from a caring husband. But then hold on.. thats not the end of the story. On last friday, I had to skip breakfast as I got late for college and had to rush. We were celebrating "Paksha" on that day in our house so when I came back from college in the afternoon there were guests at home, so couldn't have lunch also on time.. finally when I had lunch at 4pm I felt really really tired and had to sleep off for a few minutes to be able to walk again. That evening when I told that it happened this way, he shouted back at me saying he can't help it if I don't have food on time. He is not to be blamed. He cannot spoon feed me all the time and all that..... All I expected from him this time also was the same old reaction you know... just say that "oho... did it happen like that? make sure you get up 20 mins early from next time and eat breakfast..". That's it, nothing more, nothing less. But no, all I get is shoutings...
What should we call this. People behave differently in different situations is completely understandable, but why do people behave so differently for same situations?

P.S: have noticed that I analyse things a bit too much, like the above paragraph. I can't just move on thinking that yes people behave like this and that's the be all and end all. I always end up analysing anything and everything. Any tried and tested way to stop this tendency?