The Melting Pot

Is what is being done right ???

There is this friend of mine, in my class, very nicely known to me. She is from a very well-off rather elite family with almost all riches, her dad being a city-famous lawyer and what not!? Now the timing b/w her parents is not really the way it should be but they are just living under one roof because of their social status. There is gender discrimination also as my friend is discriminated from her very own brother. Except from the luxuries and the comforts, her parents provide her with little love or affection. All the frustration and tension in the house obviously leads to bad results. She is kinda dumb, which makes her the laughing stock of the class. Moreover whichever guy she tries to approach, that guy turns out to be a big-time bastard, according to her.! She isn’t good in studies, if has any talent—then never has she showcased it, and the present situation is that her life is in a complete mess and a disaster. Because of all these not-very-good things, she is not interested or determined to do anything in life. No career or anything.

Her parents want her to do law and carry the family tradition going. Now, 1st of all, she is not at all convincing to pursue law and more so, law holds no interest for her. Her apparent riches and Carmel-education has made her rebellious and it’s time she had a reality check. Now last night, she might have had a small talk with her parents about career which resulted in a massive beating of hers. Her mum beat her tight leaving visibly painful bruises, sprains and wounds. Almost all day her eyes were moist. The problem—she wants to go abroad but her parents have enrolled her into law tuition already—starting very soon.

She cannot talk to her parents about anything—her dad being the typical strict-stern fathers, her mother being busy in her diamonds and kitty-parties. Because of all this she has become the way she is—stubborn, dumb, kinda haughty and does not really contains good personality traits. This definitely shows at home also and according to me, her parents must be worried about her casual approach towards life. This is a chain reaction. The word is ADJUSTMENT and it is nowhere to be seen. I’ve told her to visit a councilor but she says that she can’t do so.

The problem is not of the physical wounds that this family gives to each other, but the spoiling of an institution which is so beautiful. They are spoiling her life.

Just a week before she told me,” Divi, I bought Tommy Hilfiger shoes worth Rs. 5000. Damn they look luxurious, rich!” I just thought to myself—- is this the real wealth, or she is just diverting herself from the real life.

The Other Side

Osama bin Laden: He sucks and we hate him. But have we never known ourselves to be unreasonable, even cruel, irrational, hypocritical, etc.? (No, I am NOT sympathising with Mr. Bin Laden.)

Talk of reservations, we talk about reserving seats for women-folk. Why dont we then say that this wud be unfair for men, and let the competition be open? But when it comes to SCs, STs etc, we get those voices in our head talking of justice, equality. And their %age is more than 50%. Besides, one cant expect tht reservations for women wont be misused. (Pls note, I am NOT supporting reservations.)

What does this tell us about ourselves? Tht the motive of every single person is to use the society. There is no harm in it. The institution of society was built for this very purpose. But society has certain demands. Dont bear injustice, definitely no. But understand it and ask for justice only when u can give it.

Love don’t cost a thing??

…You think I’m gonna spend your cash
I won’t
Even if you were broke
My love don’t cost a thing
Think I wanna drive your benz
I don’t…

Those were the lines from JLo’s song. All she’s trying to say is that she’s in love with the guy and not his wallet.
But how true is it? Do girls or guys simply go out with each other ’cause they love each other?? I don’t think so.

I won’t name people here but I know plenty of people who go out just because their partner has a heavy wallet/purse. All they wanna do is go places with them, party, spend money, buy fancy gifts… That’s their sole motive of going out with a rich person. They don’t like him/her. They like the gifts that they buy for them.

Khanna told me about his friend who proposed to a girl by taking her out to Taj & then giving her an expensive piece of jewellery. The girl said yes. OK… he did not ask her to marry him. The guy is just 18. He simply asked her out and after giving her the gift he was now the proud owner…oops… I mean boyfriend of that girl.

So is it actually wise throwing away your dad’s or even your own hard-earned money on fake people who just look good??

Looks can be deceptive, trust me. I once saw a girl who looked stunning. But then, I turned around once again and I saw her digging her nose!!! So there you are, don’t judge a person by how he/she looks. Look inside!!

And spending cash can buy you a so-called “loyal” girlfriend/boyfriend who just stick to you for the luxuries. Such people can never be true soul-mates.

Power’s unkind shower!

There is indeed a huge shortage of power nowadays. And it surely is affecting the common people.
Right now I am in Delhi and yesterday as we were going home, Dad, looking at the overtly lit area( somewhere in front of Fiends Colony), said,” I dunno why they light so many street lights!? There is barely a difference of I meter b/w 2 street light-poles and with all the cars having lights and the area also being so heavily crowded by them, I think they should withdraw electricity from these poles.” I said, “ They should light every alternative pole, that would save at least half of the presently-consumed elec..”

We reached home and today morning the headline of TOI was, “it’s lights out at 7.30 PM”. The article announced various restrictions imposed by the Delhi-Govt. on the usage or rather saving of electricity.
Ø Markets, malls to be closed by 7.30 P.M.
Ø A.C. in govt. offices to be switched off by 6.30 P.M.
Ø Residents to operate A.C.s only after 9 P.M.
These were the snippets. Already there are so many power-cuts in Delhi that even the inverters give up after a while. The Govt, expects off the civilians to be careful about electricity but the waste which they are doing is not being watched over. on the way to Delhi, something like 10-12 kms before the ring road, numeral banquet-halls and resorts have opened—actually in abundance. And I was surprised to see that in almost all of ‘em, you cannot find the silhouette (ouch!) or the outline, to be blunt, of the building. It is lighted in such a manner that it literally hurts the eyes! I dunno that by how many centimeters my cornea would have contracted! But the Govt. has all its eyes closed for them. Damn! Go and tell them to save elec.. the Govt. makes the common man pay for the shortage of elec. by tolerating those power-cuts and for the ones who are actually wasting power, it is doing nothing. It is so hot outside that you can’t just go out in the day and inside the house, it is slowly getting almost similar. But thanx to my inverter, seriously, YOU ROCK!!!

But the biggest problem 4 me is that as I am not much of a frequent shopper, I just shop in summer coz of my janam-din. But this time all the malls are gonna be closed by 7.30 P.M. and we actually go out to shop at 7 P.M. Damn! What am I gonna do this time!!!

After Sales Service : Huh what’s that mister?

Its been bloody six days since I’ve been calling up the stupid lazy asses up at Hitachi to come and service my AC. I know its not a big deal and I can get it serviced from any damn person but I prefer to get it done from the company.

I’ve been to their office and registered thrice. But they don’t seem to pay heed. Their excuse is that since its the “season” so they’re short of workers. LAME EXCUSE!! When you know that your’s is a seasonal industry then go employ some extra people in summer. Are you gonna service my AC in October.

The same is the case with Car dealers. When they sell you a car, they are all nice and try to convince you. But after you buy a car they don’t even bother to call you up and ask you how the damn thing is running. Home appliances and vehicles cannot be replaced easily because they are not cheap. Its not like your soap just finished and you immediately go and buy another one.

Harry has been tormented by the cellular phone service providers.
A manager at General Motors once refused to listen to my dad because he thought that he was unnecessarily bothering them!! Assholes, how are we supposed to fix the car AC all by ourselves??

The concept of after sales service does not exist in India. Take any product, service, sector… They are least bothered about the customer once they’ve made their sale.

Its high time you bastards woke up!!!

(Sorry for the foul language)

Weird Village!

Nat Purwa. Does the name ring a bell?

Its not the name of a person but its the name of a village near Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. Its like any other village in India. Illiterate people, poor infrastructure etc. But there’s a difference.

The menfolk don’t work. Its the women of the village who are the bread winners. Now you would say, kudos to the village community for realising the potential of its women and not discriminating. Think again. The men don’t work part is correct. But the women, from generations, take up prostitution to support their families!! Yes prostitution. Surprisingly, the people of the village do not have any problem with this age old tradition. The women have no objections and accept the tradition as their fate. But more surprising is that the daughters-in-law are not forced into flesh trade. The villagers believe that since their daugters-in-law come from different villages where such a tradition does not exist, it would not be right to force them into selling their body to support the family.

But the same does not hold good for the innocent daughters of the same daughters-in-law who are forced to take up this dirty profession at a tender age just because they were born in a family which follows a stupid and abusive tradition. These girls are busy pleasing men who are the age of their fathers while girls of the same age in other parts of the country are busy attending school and playing.

Never before had I heard of such a thing. It is indeed shocking. For more on this, grab a copy of Outlook (April 10, 2006) & just open up page 10. The article features a woman, Chandralekha, who broke this age old tradition and stood up for herself and her family after being nearly 20 years in the flesh trade.

Read about it here.

And this time, I really want to know what you people think!!