The Drama Queen

This is definitely more important than ‘Made In India’. At the onset, excuse me for the M-word. To be honest, may be ‘Lifeline’ would be a more appropriate title for them. I would rather call them Domestic Help (DH, for future reference). And you bet, it is the DH that we are all eternally grateful for. So what do we look for, in an ideal DH? Well, the demands have certainly gone up. Earlier it used to be less pay, less holidays and coming on time, more or less. But with the spending power of a working couple growing left, right and centre, their demands have also gone up exponentially, as well. To begin with, the DH should be hygienic and presentable. The first bell of the day and a shabby, doing-a-favour-on-you look vs a smart and eager person, keen-on-helping-you with your misery of dirty dishes and messy floors, dressed in a crisp attire... no prizes for guessing whom we all would prefer. The almost immediate pre-requisite would be to know the local language while...

The Mystery of the Missing Diamonds “Yippee!” shouted Amar. “This is awesome!” exclaimed Arjun. Amar and his younger brother, Arjun, were at their uncle’s luxurious five-star resort during their summer vacations. They were skiing in the fake snow room. “Amar! Arjun!” Their uncle was calling them for lunch. “Lunch time! Finally! I am famished!” Arjun exclaimed. The two brothers raced to the magnificent dining hall. One look at their dining table made their mouths water. Inviting mounds of mashed potatoes, roast chicken, colourful gravies, an upside down pineapple cake, salads topped with delicious dressing, a huge platter of assorted cheese and exotic fruits and slabs of chocolate ice-cream… they were spellbound.   As the two brothers were stuffing their mouths, a wealthy-looking man entered the room and started screaming hysterically, “MY SOCKS! MY SOCKS ARE MISSING!” The absurdity of this statement made the two brothers laugh. The man glared at them and started complai...

We all have been guilty of giving some form of threat to our children, or the other. They vary from parent to parent. Also, from child to child. As they overuse in parenting that no two fingers are alike, how can you expect the children to be alike. Hell what, even siblings are so different from each other. The same way, no single threat can be applied to two different children. The way I ‘handle’ my older one is so different from how I ‘tackle’ my younger one. The older one needs a logical explanation for everything around her. So, to tell her why we shouldn’t put our hand out of a moving vehicle, I had to use Physics, Biology and the Social Sciences. My younger one is a stickler for rules and regulations. All I had to tell him was that it is a rule to not take your hand out of a moving vehicle, and we were sorted. Life is not all hunky dory, though. Every now and then, comes the time to get creative. Or be ready to lose the battle against the cute little monsters. It will be a ...

Nirbhaya...... Asifa Bus....... Temple Jeans....... Burkha The problem lies not in the religion one is following. Or in the clothes one is choosing to wear. Or the age-group one belongs to. Or the time and place one is picking to go. The problem lies in the mentality. The problem lies in the attitude that infants and girls and women are mere objects. The problem lies in the upbringing where we let the young adults believe that it is OK to treat the women folk like dirt. They see this happening in their own houses while growing up. The mother is abused by the father and she goes about ‘allowing it’. The brother is given more preference over the sister and she keeps ‘tolerating it’. The son is given more importance than the daughter and she keeps ‘accepting her fate’. That is where the seeds are sown. When we subconsciously tell the ‘men’ that it is OK. It is OK to feel superior to your female sibling. It is OK to suppress your wife. It is OK to tell your daughter to ‘be ...