Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Pure Joy

My daughter wants me to be a teacher. Since I refused quite firmly, she said,"Atleast come to school and talk to my teacher and other aunties after school."
Everyday a group of moms do this dilegently, picking and dropping their kids off at school. This group gathers together and talk while waiting for the classes to end for the day.
They even chat to the teacher occasionally and my younger one wants me to be a part of this group.
Now for me, this is just not possible...
Today morning, I promised her that I would come to get her from school. She was not very sure I would but when she saw me after school, waiting patiently with the group of moms, her happiness knew no bounds...
We came home and when I was going back to office, she came out with me and said formally, "Thank you so much for coming. I had a nice time at the party."
She must have got it all wrong but I understood instantly what she meant...

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Two vadas and a chai

I went to the Watches and Jewellery exhibition this time. This was one event I had never covered and was never comfortable attending!
There is no space for the lesser mortals here, the photographers and the journalists were like guests on a spree, looking at the luxury, gaping and gasping...
I felt that the air we breathed would be charged, it was so reeking of expensive perfumes that I was choking...and I even felt that the floor would open up and a model rise out and ask me, "Do you belong here?"
I passed through the pavilions and was horrified with what I saw...
Huge jewels hung precariously to flashy chains and was this art? It could only be called monstrous...
Well, there were good designs too but well, it was all well beyond what I could afford and so I hated everything there instantly...
But then the exhibition was all about being flashy and presumptuous, be it the jewels that were on display, the models who were romping about with a decidedly bored expression, or even visitors who came with their accomplices...
Finally the ordeal was over and on the way back I got talking to a person, someone who is here in the Gulf to make a living while his family is back at his hometown...
He told me matter-of-factly that people were exhibiting millions of riyals worth of jewellery and there seems to be buyers for that when back at work people talked about layoffs and a bonus-less, increment-less year ahead.
He said that what he earned was just enough to send home as education was getting costlier even at his hometown.
To me, this was not complaints of a depressed person, but it was just a happy positive expat hoping that life would be simple and not as complicated as it seemed to him now...
Here was someone who was not at all impressed with the glitter and shine but who was grounded and knew that he could never be part of what he saw just then...
As we neared his office, I asked him," So what will do for dinner?"
He answered ," I have just 3 riyals but it is enough for two vadas and a chai."
Sad...but that is the irony of life...

Monday, February 15, 2010

Singapore Snippets

1. It seems as if Singapore was initially a forest and buildings have been carefully placed around without disturbing the natural flora and fauna.
What this really shows is how well buildings and the city as a whole is planned so as not to disturb the natural balance of the environment.
2. Traffic bottlenecks are just not here and it is equally difficult to spot a policeman in Singapore unless of course there is an emergency.
3. If you visit Singapore in the gap of three to four years, the city will look different, there will be new buildings and old ones will be redeveloped to cater to the increasing needs.
This is because the country has so little space, the government has to constantly innovate and build and rebuild to maximise the land utilisation for the increasing population.
4. 25 percent of Singapore is reclaimed...but isn't this against the environment or is this justified?
5. The old buildings in Singapore, the Supreme Court, the City Hall etc is all redesigned to be included in the National Art Gallery. The whole street is being redesigned so that the these old buildings meld into the new forms...a big push for culture and a sight to behold for sure when complete.
6. I love the modern buildings in Singapore...all of them have a character of its own and it seems to me as if I am opening the pages of an architectural magazine, with the who's who in the field of architecture having designed a building to represent them and their design. Be it the big dish like new Supreme Court Building by Norman Foster or the tall residential tower by IM Pei...Singapore has it all...
7. At the Singapore Art Museum I found contemporary art that literally shocked me...A long table with a black cloth hanging over it and words spelt out in locks of hair spread on the floor below the table...Whatever the explanation, this was art that truly left me wordless...
8. After all the culture gupshup, I thought I would love the Opera, after all it was in the Esplanade, the architectural model and a place that has a 'feel' to it...
I had even imagined if Amir Khan liked it in Dil Chata Hai, well I would surely like it...after all I like him a lot and we have so much in common (and that's in by imagination...)
But sadly, I found out that I am just not cut for the Opera kind of entertainment, I had to pinch myself to keep my eyes open and the loud snores from the person sitting next to me, didn't help me either...
9. Malls and restaurants...look anywhere and you will never find any shortage for both...
10. People are so committed to their work...and you can instantly bond with them, they come with a dose of 'goodness', of genuineness ...
A visit to Singapore recommended to those who want to revive their belief in mankind...

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

"Just Friends"

The Singapore visit had many pluses. One of them was meeting up with my batch mates after 18 long years...
Not close friends, but still guys who I was friendly with.
We met at the Changi Airport after my last leg of scheduled appointments and talked nonstop for hours...
We found that one of the hard-core Marxists guys in our batch had migrated to the US and had married an American. We laughed at the irony of that!
Then about a shy, studious guy who had come out of the closet and was writing about inclusion of gay men in the system and that too in our own prude state of Kerala...
We wondered about that ...
We reminisced about the college and the places around it, Pappachan's thattu kada, the juice shop outside, the valley which was privy to a number of budding romances!
It was time well spent. They talked about their children with pride and I talked of mine too...We talked about those who had arranged marriage and those who had to do a bit of talking (read fighting) to make their parents understand and finally agree to it.
At the end of our gupshup, when it was time for me to board my plane, I asked them, "So why didn’t you guys bring your wives along?"
"It was too late," they said, which was true, my flight was at 2am and I could be free only at 10.30pm to reach the airport around 11pm.
But probing further I found that one of them had not mentioned that he was meeting an old classmate of the opposite sex, a convenient omission of sorts...
That pained me and took some or most of the joy away...
I guess honesty is a virtue that isn't prevalent these days and a male-female friendship is still seen with some mistrust.
Is the fault with us women that we view any form of friendship that our menfolk have with a lot of misgiving or that the men can just not have open discussions with their counterparts?
What do you think?

I have been in touch with more males from my college than females and the reason for that is simple, there are fewer of my female batch mates on FB and other social networking sites...
I sincerely wish I could be in touch with more girls of my batch and wish the guys would be more honest.
(P.S: I was honest, I had talked to my husband about meeting these guys, so girls can be honest!)



Sunday, February 7, 2010

Who am I?

An architect, with whom I worked during my initial years after passing out from college and in my first years at Mumbai, recently commented on FB, "You have changed so much, wish I knew this Sindhu."
I haven't changed much, except maybe for the superfluous fat I have gathered around by mid riff and that isn't much of a sight, I assure you.
But then he hasn't seen me aside from what I chose to put up on FB, so how did he 'see' this change in me?
He just assumed that the person in FB, the one who puts up status line messages every other day, pastes interesting quips from newspapers or anywhere else is pretty much a hep and happening woman!
That aside, once, a few months ago, the wife of a colleague, remarked that she could never associate me to a journalist, the kinds of which she has seen in her country.
We met at a dinner party, where I was busy running behind my kids, getting them to eat.
Well, I am not entirely the person on FB, nor the persistent brash person associated with the term journalist, not someone who sees a story before the person involved, but a human being, inquisitive, like how journalist should be, someone who is interested in people and is affected by what is happening around her.
But first and foremost I am a mother...

And with that I have written the 100th blog, finally, and after ages, it seems!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

A Singapore Experience

Have you ever felt so happy in life, a sense of having done it all, seen it all experience? A nirvana of sorts...
I thought I would experience that when I bungee jump or para glide, some day before I die.
Well, I have either got lucky or I am nearing the end of life and I strongly hope it is not the later. Surprisingly I had this feeling not while doing anything extraordinary but by just connecting with good people in a fine country.
The people in Singapore, at least those who I met during my media trip were all so warm, so open and friendly, that it made the five days I was away from home less miserable.
The Uniquely Singapore tag line to attract tourists to Singapore with an animal pictured on its side should ideally have the faces of the natives of the country, the mix of Chinese Malay and even Indian origin Singaporeans.
But it is not just the peaceful people that are to be applauded, the systems are so efficient, the transport system especially. Even before the West started thinking about carbon footprints, Singapore was a step ahead and had dealt with the issue too. The taxes on private vehicles are so high and kept so to discourage people using them and then the govt has made public transport systems so efficient, making it easier for people to travel anywhere within the country.
Housing is also taken care, though it is considered a bit too expensive. The only flaw that the Singaporeans could think about was that everything was so controlled that they had nothing to worry about. The 'mothering' role of the government was sometimes a bit stifling, they say. But isn't that too minor a fault! I would love a bit of mothering from my motherland, instead of the class distinctions, the sharp divide between the poor and the rich and the utter sad state of infrastructure that is the present state of affairs.
Well, as for my experience, these people, their positive attitude, their enthusiasm, their passion towards what they are doing certainly made me more positive in the way I perceive mankind.
I even got a bit daring and have now earned a status of sorts with my colleagues at work...
Singapore has a population growth rate of 1 percent and to encourage families to have kids, office timings are reduced giving couple time to procreate. Among other things, sex shops are also rampant in all the malls. And, the new confident me, not only went into one of the shops, I bought a few things too! Now if that is not one of a kind experience, what is!
And guess who is the happiest person around...my husband! Now keep guessing what I bought from the shop!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

It is all about Me

Blogging is a habit. If you are out of it, it loses significance, it grows smaller and smaller in the context of the rest of everything you are doing...
I loved it when I was doing it constantly and am falling out of love since I am not so regular, now.
I loved the freedom it offered me and now am hesitant of the same freedom and feel it restricting me.
The same incidents that seemed like issues to blog about seem too trivial to even think of being written or blogging about.
I know I will go back to loving it once I give free rein to my fingers and thoughts....till then I tinker about with half finished ideas and thoughts that loose significance once I open my blogger page.
This New Year has been different, very controlled, small scaled, with close friends who matter, a huge change from the loud celebrations we normally had...
But this change has made me feel so good within, happy about the few friends I have, cherish the little gestures I receive. Talk openly about things that matter without being judged. Talk normaly about my job and the people I come across, not to keep them under wraps to make me fit in with the rest, which was the case earlier.
There is a part of me that still misses all the hallabulla, mostly for the kids than for me, but well, I can live with that.
More than anything I am happy being myself, be it alone or with company, maybe I have finally found peace with the self, a sort of understanding of the person I am. I have finally realised that I can never be what others want me to be, and that realisation makes me feel happy and feel complete!