Trials and Tribulations by Fire

The flight landed at 23:50 IST, Indian Standard Time. The tires screeched to a halt and we tumbled out of the jet, ready to be jet-lagged. The actual jet lag thing didn't hit me till I reached home and dozed off. The next few days were hazy, I could not understand what was happening to me. My friends were in the same boat, I believed. Or atleast I thought so, 'coz I did not turn back and check. I went to office, said the right things, returned and life continued. But the drowsiness remained. It slowly became a part of me. I was seriously jet lagged! Wow. Is this how people lag behind jets. Aah. I am now sleeping intermittently, between naps. Sleeping has become an integral part of my routine. Previously I would sleep when my routine allowed me. Now I have changed my routine to accomodate more zzzz time. Life has certainly changed, for me.  

A close girl friend and I were having this conversation last evening. We usually end up talking about such issues, passionately, such as behaviour of young women vis a vis their mothers in law (MILs). She said, when we retort back to our MILs, we are actually behaving the way they want us to behave, like daughters in law (DILs). If we keep our sanity intact, curb the urge to murder them, and behave in a rational way, the MILs wont know how to react. This, is easier said than done. She continued, MILs as a group are a very insecure lot. They are scared that the young hot woman in their son's life is out to rob them of the unbridled freedom and hold they had on the men's lives. The young women take away the most important possession from the MILs, their darling sons! They show no remorse, no pity to the older women. The DILs take away the sons physically away sometimes as well. The MILs find themselves completely cloistered with their husbands, again! This causes...

Recently, I was reading a friend's blog and thinking about what could probably affect her so much. She has been always a fiery woman, lashing out at unruly bums and treat them like poo. Poo, these bums are worth, surely, but I sometimes wonder what moves me. What is that one thing that makes me cry or ponder? Now, that would certainly be human intelligence. Be it humor or a witty conversation. Intelligence makes me take note of people. Warm and dumb people also make an impact. I forget them very easily and quickly. Of late, I have behaved in an abysmal manner and ridiculed a person a lot. Of course, I am feeling bad about it. I think I have reached a stage where  I do not make fun of anybody. But baser instincts do kick in sometimes and take hold of, rather possess me, to go ahead and ridicule. I love churning out words, I like the feel of the words on my tongue. To be able to speak correctly and well means a lot to me. Hence, I ridicule, people who care less ...

Navratri had no significance to me till I got married. For that matter, none of the Hindu festivals did. Of late, I have begun to appreciate and learn the customs and rituals followed by my ancestors for hundreds of years. Though I was a sceptic at first, I began my journey of belief to rekindle the Hindu in me. Be it lighting the diya or drawing a kolam in front of the house, I try to follow whatever my elders expect a married Hindu woman to do.

Is ridicule a step-sister of jealosy? When we ridicule people about anything, we tend to face our deepest fears ourselves. Its a given that people who find flaws in others tend to be weak in those areas.