My first post for 2009.
Almost 2 weeks late, but hey - better late than never, aint it!
i've been a wee bit busy travelling, bonding with folks, and fighting some demons on the way. Emotionally tired after it all, but charged to move ahead...so it was a welcome change to be at home this last weekend, and to do....absolutely nothing.
did read the papers page to page. :) And it is with an interesting article, from the opinion section of TOI, that i have decided to start off posting in 2009.
Mr. Jug'gler with the JUGULAR VEIN, you help me laugh away my Saturday hangovers...
Calendar daze
Jug Suraiya
A fringe benefit of the economic downturn is that people have stopped sending out calendars and diaries. Remember how it used to be? Come the start of the year and you’d get a bunch of calendars, with a couple of diaries thrown in for good measure. The calendars were from big business houses, hotel chains, your local halwai, and they all had pictures: of major construction projects, of exotic holiday resorts where beautiful young things reclined in hammocks sipping complicated-looking drinks through straws, of well-fleshed gods and goddesses who were a divine testimonial to the virtues of asli ghee. I found the calendars useful, for covering the patch on the wall where a bit of the plaster had come off, or where a swatted mosquito had left a splatty brownish-red stain. The diaries didn’t have pictures. But they had their uses too. I used them to jot down random telephone numbers (random because i never remembered to put a name with the number, with the result that we had a collection of numbers that would have done a phone directory proud except we hadn’t a clue as to whom any of those numbers belonged), make grocery lists, and do the weekly sabzi hisaab.
I found plenty of uses for all those calendars and diaries and was grateful to the kind souls who’d been considerate enough to send them to me. The problem was that they gave me a guilt trip. The calendars and diaries, that is, not the people who sent them. And the reason for this was that a question kept nagging me: that while those calendars and diaries were undoubtedly being put to use, were they being put to the use they were meant for? And the answer, i had to admit, was ‘No’.
Calendars, and, even more so perhaps, diaries, are markers, or milestones, if you like, which chart the course of that invisible, intangible and relentless stream called time, which bears us along, often without our realising it, from moment to moment, day to day, year to year, birth to the other thing. Calendars, and diaries, are reminders, wake-up calls, which make us ask ourselves: are we making the most of the gift of time, can we “fill the unforgiving minute/With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run?” And in my case, the answer was a resounding ‘Nope’.
For instance, did Jan 1 on my calendar feature the reminder ‘Power breakfast with PM and PC’? Did my diary contain the Jan 1 entry ‘Teleconference with Bill G and W Buffett. Gave Warren some market tips and brought Bill up to speed on 3G convergence’? Uh, uh. Jan 1 on my calendar would likely be marked ‘Don’t forget the Saridon for hangover’. And the diary would probably say ‘1 kg Surfmatic, Amul cheese slices for Brindle, 2 toilet rolls, and WHERE’S THE GODDAM SARIDON??’ Not Samuel Pepys. Or Anne Frank.
So, not getting any calendars or diaries this year lets me off the hook in that i won’t feel obliged to do anything noteworthy or memorable, or indeed anything at all, in 2009. Which, so far as i’m concerned, is just fine. But is it also fine for all of us collectively, for what we call Civilisation As We’ve Got Accustomed To?
If on Jan 1, 30,000 BC, some unknown bright spark hadn’t inked onto his calendar ‘Must discover fire’ and in his diary for the same date ‘Invented wheel — now waiting for someone to invent General Motors. Boy, what a killing i’ll make’, would humankind have progressed so as to face the greatest global economic crisis ever? No way. And how are we going to get out of this crisis unless people like the PM, and PC, and Bill, and Warren, and you, buzz around like performance-enhanced bees and get things done? But how are you going to get anything done unless you have a calendar and a diary to motivate you to do it? Tell you what. Since no one else is sending them around, i’ll send everyone calendars and diaries. I’ll mark that on my calendar to remind myself to do so. Heck. Don’t have one, do i?
1) religiously maintain a blog :)
2) decide my status
3) europe
4) south america
6) japan
7) find my 'work' passion
8) till then, work with passion
9) learn to bike, then own a superbike
10) have/adopt a baby
11) update my 'things to do before 40' list
One thing that hit me as i was reading page 2 of todays TOI edition - the article on ideal teacher - is the fact that all the 10 bachchas, whose high opinions were printed, referred to the teacher as a 'She'. thats not a bad thing :D
"The ideal teacher should not scold me. She should tell stories. She should make the lessons interesting" and so on...every one of the 10 kids, from grade 1 to grade 10, said it as it is!
And my thoughts started to fly. The english language does not genderize objects like french.
that being said, just imagine > Teacher = female, Chef = male, General Doctor = male, Gynecologist = female..the stereotyping continues. But in recent times, arent we talking about the gender benders decreasing, almost disappearing? or is it now?
i have had the privilege of having been taught by 5 he-teachers. and believe me, they were on par with the she-teachers. and yet they are a minority. is it a profession many opt to ignore?
and how is it that a woman cooking at home is not elevated to any high status nor paid a whopping sum, yet a man cooking at any hotel - from 7 stars to no stars - is given the status of a 'chef' with benefits and a handsome package thrown in (in most cases that is :D)
mom, if you ever get to read this, you are my 7 star chef!
He was born around 8pm on 14th of august. And from then on pumpkin is what I have called him and will do so until he holds a gun to my head! I have another 21 years! Or do I? considering the coorg clan is unique and protected and priviledged when it comes guns and gun laws….
Pumpkin and his mom are one bindaas combination. Rarely have I seen a first time mother so relaxed and chilled about her just-born. M didnt panic when the baby was crying, didnt panic when a newbie-to-babies held pumpkin, didnt panic when someone with a dreadful cold (read:me) played and multi-kissed pumpkin, didnt panic if pumpkin refused to be fed, didnt panic if he overfed; basically her panic button disappeared and her maternal instinct matured!
I'm proud of you, M. Proud of how you have dealt with pumpkin, pre and post production! :D
The 24-hr labor was nothing compared to finding a name. Choosing a name: never did I realize what an unnerving task it could be. He had to be named according to the star sign. At least one of his names - either the calling name or the official coorg name. Scouring through the net, I found a dozen names but none seemed truly fit for the new hero. His folks also had some choices, but nothing that got everyone’s approval. In the course of this hiliraious name-searching trip, (that came up with bodhan, jashith, bopanna, jeet, jeegar, and what nots), I came to realize why some folks (esp the malayalees) would prefer to pick out combinations of phonetics and or parental names, than to actually log in a high amount of cyber or otherwise footprint! more on this thought later.And so finally, M & P picked a name. And how. They wrote down 4 choices and picked chits. The winner > Jashan Beliappa. And it worked out that both names fell under the star sign. I kind of consider it an apt name. What with coorgs closely linked to celebrations at the drop of any hat anywhere in the world. Especially, M & P.
And by the way, pumpkin, you can hold me responsible for your calling name.
there are some people who touch your life and then there are those who fly by. you've read the fwd on -for a season, -for a reason, -for a lifetime.
i'd like to start or rather restart my posts. and try to be more regular (the moderator in me laughs yet again - pip down i say).
i'll start. soon.
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