Monday, February 24, 2014

Disturbed

What’s the problem??!! Why is this happening always??!!
Is there no end to this crap on women?
No punishment is gonna stop these violent “men”?

On hearing the news about two of my colleagues, I don’t even know them, but just hearing this and knowing and relating them to the work place I had worked few months back only makes me sooo disturbed.

Siru seri in Chennai is no doubt a forest away from the city. It’s scary in the evenings to go out alone.
Whom to be blamed?!!
Ruthless behavior….

There are n number of such incidents, why some caused nation breakthrough… what’s the use?
Who has changed coz of it? It’s gotten worse…. I guess!
The fear of being punished if found culprit, has made them do a bigger mistake by not leaving any hint of the incident and now not even trace of the victim….
Not that I wanna refer her victim…. But we are all victims to this!!
Not able to change the society but sit at one corner typing all this to get the anger out of me….
We are victims to this unfair society!!

Starting from home to public places, women are always considered lesser… lesser in what? Everything?
Dunno why!!
Women have to be safe… that’s the end point stated …

Alright… there are tons of articles, newsletters, blogs where people talk and debate about this.
Even then there is no end… and this is my part of anguish…
The pain and agony she must have gone through is incomparable to what we write or how much we talk about it.


An unfair society…

Marriage - an encounter... contd...

Yeah… back to my encounter on marriage…
The changes after marriage are huge, starting from change of place to living…

Am still in my initial months of marriage, that’s how I tell myself to still feel like a new bride…
It is a great feeling. The days after marriage are a little embarrassing initially with you know what J
As time passes, I got used to it and so I guess the people around too.

Am a feminist and I respect every woman for the changes she goes through, how she accustoms to it.
My mother, mother in law, grandmother, aunt, sisters, friends….
After marriage, the respect has multiplied by bounds! I can relate how they would have handled it and managed.
My friend and I were discussing the same, she is married too. She was telling how much time she took to adjust and accustom to the changes.
25 plus years living comfortably in one place, under a roof where every room and wall is your friend. Moving to a totally different place within city or outside, that place is always alien and never feel or refer it as home!

But women do finally take that as their home... That’s the power of women!
For men, it is easy… coz it’s always been their home.  But still I appreciate men for managing between mother and wife attempting to make the wife comfortable in her new home.

Relatives – it is another big challenge… and relatives of relatives is further complicated.
Now you have thrice the relatives as compared to before marriage. It was ok not to enquire or talk on phone or not visiting relatives and their relatives, but after marriage… you are bound to do all that.
May be not all compel in this generation, but I guess still in some families it’s expected.
Thankfully not the case in mine J I am glad!!

But definitely, relatives make a change and their talks and comments…
I suggest “ignore”. That’s the best way to get them out of our line.
“Ignorance is bliss”, truly applicable and best after marriage.

Next comes responsibilities. Before marriage all girls, atleast most of us, don’t have much responsibilities. We have our parents to take care of every little thing.
But once married, even if you have in-laws and other important relatives, you should be responsible. From the house’s cleanliness to assets… That’s a big change which I guess people expect in a day!
Give the woman a little time, it’s there in every woman and she will definitely come out successful.

This pressure is not only in the in-laws side, even in our mother’s. My family will get a good name only if I adhere and follow the above. That’s their thought.

Gimme a break, lot of woman do all this, still they don’t have that good impression. Why struggle.
I suggest, take your time…. First get to know your new family, coz they are important. Your husband. Spend more time with him and make the best use of the first year to impress him the best coz that relation is the foundation for the rest.

COOOKINGGGGG… can I stress more on that? No way!
I am definitely not a good cook and I don’t cook only. My mother in law does and she does it amazingly well that I can never make it like her. So why give competition? ;)
The same pressure from mother’s side as in the above case continues here and sometimes more stressed!
My friend says, a family and impressing them starts from kitchen. So true…..
No doubt you can reach all of their hearts through good tasty loving food. So again take your time for this. Coz first impression is best impression. So learn good cooking, am sure it’s not hard. Just need the right time to do it. Use it.
Don’t compete for the kitchen. If you are in a joint family, give the mother the space she owned in her kitchen all the years. Don’t try to take over. She’ll get offended.  Grow with her in the kitchen and make it as OUR kitchen!!

Attending weddings and other relative’s functions – pressure to look good and impressive. Talk a lot. Smile always…
We attended a marriage recently in another city along with my in-laws.
I was following the “rules” to attend a function as above and yeah… my smile… guess I over did that ;)
One of my relatives commented that … “Oh… come here, where is she the one who smiles a lot”

It was embarrassing, not knowing how to be. I was confused. So should I smile or not???

Again I follow – IGNORE!!

So friends, marriage isn't that hard, just take it as the next event in your life… like education/work so on…
Don’t dread it (I used to earlier). It’s the next occurrence in life… An encounter

I am still in the start, but sharing and learning every bit of it makes it more interesting.

Monday, January 27, 2014

Marriage as an encounter

Marriage – seems to be something that takes you off board literally, as a girl moves away from her home to a new home.

In matter of no time, this happens and I too went through this transition 2 months back!
No doubt I had bounds of fear that cannot be expressed. And I learnt that every girl who becomes a woman after marriage goes through the same.

Fear of being accepted,
Fear of being a “good” daughter-in-law,
Fear of being a “good” wife,
Fear of being a “good” sister-in-law,
Fear of being a “good” co-sister,
Fear of being a “good” aunt for tomorrow,
Fear of change,
Fear of living together,
Fear of household chores,
Fear of work-personal life balance,
Fear of financial troubles,
Fear of differences,
Fear of pleasing relatives,
And so on…..

I've ordered the relationship fears exactly the way it’s prioritized for always in our Indian society, being a “good” daughter-in-law fulfills half the “good” wife requirement. J

Accepting the new people as family is toughest for me. I have had situations where I couldn’t easily take in them as “my” family.  I still refer my mom, dad, grandma and the others with whom I grew up as “my family”.

We all learn from our mistakes and so from others… but every woman/individual has to experience this and learn something new by herself/themselves.

Here are some moments which I would like to recapture on the changes I’ve gone through and enjoyed too…
The day I got engaged, that was the first time I got to meet all my in-laws relatives. I was scared to be accepted by all, because the entire audience of relatives hadn’t seen me before.
But I was shocked and overwhelmed to find that they accepted and welcomed me with full hands!!
The love transmitted in smiles and welcomes… I felt accepted for the first time.
It was almost 2 weeks of pressure I had on this, before engagement.

Courtship – a beautiful time where two people entering into bond of marriage, try to impress each other the best they can to give an assurance to the other that this person is my “perfect” life partner.
I had a period of 4 months and I must tell you, I enjoyed it even more for it wasn’t the way I stated before. I experienced to see a person who was casual and not trying to impress the girl he was going to marry. A practical one!!
I dint have any head over heel moments but definitely could see myself entering into a future of matured relationship.

The reassurance I got through this was high, it could be because of my age too where I wasn’t in for any such flirt talks but I never regretted for not having one either.

As wedding was nearing, the demands in the relationship changed. The fears increased as we were just being two people getting to know each other with no expectation!
I was stunned at myself for this….

Am sure the groom also has his part of fears and they are known easily in the conversations J
The wedding planner begins… the attires, dress rehearsals, honeymoon, mehendi etc…
These are indeed the best part of pre-marriage!!

And I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of this and that. The tension, stress, endless shopping, packing etc.
This is one time and we must cherish and live the moment by enjoying it.

Started counting the days that I was going to be home. Excited and scared!
The wedding day arrived…. OMG… quick…
Wedding is over!!!!!!!!!!!
And am married now….

This is how quick the marriage happens after the months of fear and excitement!!
Sometimes I wondered, did I do all the spending for this one day???
But when I see the pictures and videos, definitely worth it!!!

Happiness of your family and friends, boundless!
Smiles and tears rolling off your loved ones cannot be captured in words.
I really got to see lot of loving moments during my marriage and I will cherish those throughout my life!

And yea, I just got married…. But the encounter of marriage is to be continued…. 

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Oh!!! its the last day of 2013???!!!!


2013, yes… it’s going to get over and today is the last day of this year…
Usually every New Year as it begins and the previous year ends, I get excited, but somehow today I feel it’s just another day!!!!!!!!!

Why so?
Getting old gets us practical? Or is it that the other things which are more important take priority…
I wish I had an answer… something missing. No idea what?!!

December 31, 2013 …. A day to remember? When I looked at the calendar today, it made me realize I never even noticed we are nearing the end of a year, where a lot of things happened in my life this year…

This year is special to me for several reasons. Still, something feels vacant, with no excitement for the New Year coming. Every time I try to cheer myself up with this, I feel am forcing me to do so.

“It’s never the same” … I keep repeating this to myself.

2013 – I really don’t know what happened in the outside world that I was concentrating so much on myself and the things happening around in my life.
Life must move on so does the days and the calendar.

 So 2013, am sorry that I have nothing great to take forward expect for a few important life changing event in my life. Even though, a life changing event, am worried and wondering what’s gonna happen next and how am gonna handle it.

So …. Bbye 2013….

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Dear Diary?

Today was a different day for me indeed. I did have the habit of entering my daily diary.But in the last 2 years I have never done that at all. But I decided to have a

look at my old ones and to my surprise or horror... man my life has been soooo boring!!
The same problems, same complains for 5 years??? That's a lot.. and I even realized that I hadn't changed a bit in my thoughts but just that I stopped entering them on

a daily basis maybe because I was lazy to write the same thing?!!!

I read through some of my pages and I had cribbed about the same happenings, there are hardly few entries with happy days and how would I know with the many many 1000

pages I had written in ages.
I literally decided to trash them away!!
Yes; I started tearing away every page I had written; some were blank and I felt so bad for wasting that paper...

There are times in life we would like to look back who we were and where we stand now , right?
But its a nightmare to know that you have not changed in areas you wanted to change. The "I" and "conscious" factor in us know this... that I have become worse!!

Am not ashamed to admit this because if I don't now; I would never...

Since schooling we are taught to write our diary but we must also learn what to write in that because the impact on it after years is huge like this.
Writing good things and challenges in your day to day life helps you in knowing where you stand and what needs to be done next. There is no use sulking about things

not in your hands especially PEOPLE!
Some learning are to yourself and I too learnt tons from my diary today... and what to write what not to write.
Its more than the writing, I realized where I have been wrong and the mistakes I have been doing which requires an immediate action for correction from me!!

So today, I tore away all my old written diaries and I feel a relief within me.
Yes its the same feeling that I saw in movies too when they burn their x's photo or phone number or anything old and unnecessary bad memories!

Maybe its a good step to see a new us! It wont happen over night; its a slow process but at least a start by throwing away bad memories carrying only the learning out

of it.

Alright... its getting too serious now... So how many of you think its really worth penning your diary with every incident happening?
I believe I should still continue to pen my thoughts and feelings like this blog; but a little more personal. This will definitely help us be a better person not just

tomorrow; but EVERYDAY!

Diary is like music; some songs always remind us of people and incidents in life that took the bad path...

Friday, May 17, 2013

The point of no return


In life, we do make a lot of mistakes and lose our control. Earlier I used to think it was
only death which brought an end to a relationship with a person and that it was “the point
of no return”. At least that is how my life was…

But recently, a particular relationship taught me that an end and a point of no return came
even when the two people are around each other.
Some people in our life come and go; it doesn’t hurt us when those who leave are not
important to us. But when we consider someone important and they leave us, life seems
like a misery… a misfortune…

The reasons behind this partition could be any, from misunderstandings to fights or sheer
understanding to let go the person. Could be anything!!!!!!!!

But the truth hits us hard when we realize that, that person is no more part of your life…
It did for me. THE POINT OF NO RETURN to the relationship we shared.

Many times we try to work out things, to change or what ever. But it’s not possible.
Maybe it’s what we are and sometimes it’s how we react to what we get!

It could be lame to give reasons for our losses and mistakes but if we keep on blaming
our self, we will get no where!!

These are lessons and everything happens for a reason. I believe strongly in that!
There cannot be learning without a mistake and it cannot be a mistake while learning…

Believe me my friend, if a relationship is very important for you; never even get to “the
point of no return” by yourself for it might hurt you more than when it happens naturally.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Is it just a card?

Yesterday, I was just going through some of my old stuff and I found a dozen of greeting cards. It took me back years and wondered if I am even in touch with some of them.


Cards have words; but do those mean anything?

Some friends had given me “Friends Forever” cards and we aren’t even in touch today. But definitely it helped me in bringing back the memory who I was and what I am today.

The current emotions of a person are expressed as words and so do the cards have…

Indeed am very glad that those who gave me the cards were in that emotion and am thankful to them for having had the time and thought to get me one.

We should value these cards and treasure them for sometime, for when you’re all alone all by yourself; all you might have is these cards to kindle your good memories!

Maybe am not in touch with many of the friends who had shared such stuff with me in earlier years, but definitely we are there in each other’s memories and have learnt a lot through them. This is why they say maybe –

Life is like a book and every person you meet is a chapter!!

Some chapters end, some chapters are yet to begin…

And in every ending there is a new beginning…. :)
So let me not really criticize someone for sharing a card with just WORDS and take them as a gift to help me move on and make me feel who I was and where am I today….

And which I like better… because the choice of who you want to be is in your hands...