I've grown "flexible"!

Someone told me once, its good to look at any hitch in a positive way, instead of cribbing. So, when the worker from Chennai Corporation rang the bell and announced that the romp right outside the gate would be dug out for constructing storm water drains, I looked at it this way-finally, when the rain lashes out, I will not have to swim (kids in tow) in the dirty water.But I managed to ask the guy, how long would the work take from start to finish. Pat came the reply,'2-3 days madam', with a smile.

I should have guessed it when the guy smiled. '2-3 days' in government parlance means each day consists of nearly 100 hours. The guys who swung into action the minute the bell ringing guy disappeared from my doorstep, are nowhere to be found after digging out the slabs outside. The dug out debris has been heaped to form a little mountain right in the middle of the road, so I needn't suffer alone. Afterall, I have the buses, cars, two-wheelers and what not for hard-to-commute-company. The Government has this very generous policy and would never permit any one person to suffer ALONE.

But coming to the first line of this post....what's my positive outlook, you ask? For this I need to give a small flashback. While at school, during the sports hour, all I have managed is to take charge of the stopwatch, hold the bags and stuff of girls who ran, jumped, flung the shotput etc, assist the teachers by noting down names for inter school competitions and writing names in certificates. Others names, I mean. But now, the athlete in me has woken up with a bang. I do a long jump to cross the narrow lake(!) when out alone, and do a high jump over the wall, (after almost throwing the kid into the hands of my neighbour), and finally after safely landing,I blow a kiss to the toddler in his mother's arms who cheers me from his 3rd floor balcony! His mother even uses this high drama unfolding every other day at around noon time to feed lunch to her usually obstinate son.

Its all in the mind, really

A friend invited me to her son's second B'day. I dropped in early to help her decorate the house. After sellotaping the balloons and ribbons I started arranging the letters of the boy's name to pop them up. She pulled me aside and said not to be angry, but she's changed the kid's name, based on the numerologist's advice. I was gobsmacked. Because, she had already changed the way her name is spelt sometime back. And her initials. And her wedding anniversary date. I was worried for her. But she felt (and still feels) these changes have indeed solved some of the problems which were posing as potential threats to her peace of mind. I am convinced that its her positive thinking combined with stubborn determination which bounces her back from any depths of worries and NOT any magical rearrangement of alphabets or numbers. But I know better than to advice her on this. I would never dissaude her from believing in her theories. If those things make her happy so be it.

But I draw a fine line when it comes to astrology/numerology. I'm not the kind who'd call them absolute humbug. But I would not run, horoscope in hand, at the first instance of trouble striking.

I'm not a very religious person either. I follow traditions only to the extent that I can. And I do them for my own/immediate family circle's satisfaction or just of out of habit. My father says one should either follow the system to the T, or be bold enough to say NO to such practices. but I'm content to balance (not hang) somewhere in between.

I don't make a face or ruffle my nose when someone eats non-veg, and consider people who do make faces to be really rude. And I do not like comments such as "She claims to be a vegeterian, but try tempting her with this pastry, you'll know!". Yes I've tried eating eggs, but disliked them. But I do eat some cakes made of eggs, as hey, they are tasty, so. If asked whether I'm a veg or a non-veg, I say I'm veg. If someome says I'm not being true to myself they're wrong. And I will not try and argue with people to prove my point.

I keep a bindhi even when I wear jeans/skirts or the most elegant frock coat. Well, the size of the bindhi may be small (Resembles a mosquito bite, is what my mother would say). But I don't panic when my bindhi falls off even when I'm in a saree and I couldn't find the bindhi packet in my handbag;

But I'm a temple person. It is not that I need to visit temples on a regular basis, but when at close proximity, I make it a habit. So when this friend of mine said there's a Vinayakar Temple 5 mins from where I live, I set out. I usually google any place before I visit, but since my friend said its about 10 steps from the shop I frequent, I went without doing the usual homework. The Temple was a small one but I was happy that there's a place of worship to visit. After returning home, I surfed for some info like how long the temple has been there etc. and came to know that the place where the temple now stands was apparently a leisure centre. Also, the tone of the article in which I read this was meant to give an idea of how people have gone to the extent of huddling many Gods together in for convenience sake. I was jolted a bit but not utterly shocked. So what if the place where a Peter was probably swimming or running on the treadmill has now become the place where a Palani comes to seek blessings from God? One could pray with solemnity at any place (be it a temple or not) is my humble opinion.

Mind and our numerous beliefs could really get complex. Not very frequently, I have found myself contradicting what I used to believe/follow. But why not, I ask? Its ok to change as the circumstances so warrant.

Just about this and that

How exciting would it be to get back in touch with an old friend?

This Saturday,I received a call around noon time. It was the excited voice of my mother : "do you remember that friend of yours? Her dad..." and then I lost the connection. Sitting thousands of miles away from home, only triggered all negative thoughts on what my mother was about to say. She called again within few seconds and thankfully put a fullstop to my wild speculations. Apparently my friend's dad had visited my house to get my contact info, as I had lost touch with the girl. This girl was a close buddy from school days, got married quite early, shifted places a dozen times eventually losing contacts with me. She had very sweetly sent her dad to my place to know how I've been. Numbers were exchanged, calls were made and we sank into sweet memories. I felt cared for, and happy.

x----------x----------x

How exasperating this could be?

Couple of hours later, I signed into the few social networking sites that I am a silent member of. While browsing through the ever interesting friend suggestions, I happened to see couple of names that I had already added months ago. Some have ceased being friends with me probably, as I've been deleted from their lists, and the poor software, innoccently prompts them as suggestions! Seriously, things couldn't get more kiddish. I felt bad; for maybe around 5.5 seconds.. (Thank you Almighty for the busy life that you've given me). Not responding or acknowledging is EVEN more kiddish. I'd rather someone add another as a friend, only if they want to know and want to continue to know them. But hey, that's just my 2 cents.