Trials and Tribulations by Fire

Had Absolut fun on Saturday. The junta called us for an impromptu party and we went along, glad to meet other people. The usual gossip sessions began. My mind went off to graze, as usual. I wondered dont they get bored talking about the same issues, over and over again. Well, when we crib, that is exactly we do? We chew the cud so many times, it becomes milky and then more chewy. I guess the nutrients are far gone from it. What is left is just fibre. Fibre, by the way is good for the body, it gets rid of crap. Now that we are clear about the fibre and crap, let us move on. Atleast here. The females had a lot of cribbing to do about the women who gave birth to their partners. The older women, presumably were arrogant and rude, and demanded undivided attention of their sons. I do not know if it is right, wrong. I dont care. Women who have nothing to look forward to in their lives demand and fight for the attentin of men in their lives: husbands, sons, neighbors...

It has become a habit to conform, to agree, to nod, to swallow insults, silently.  What is it that makes one agree to all this, given the fact that one is brought up as an independent thinking person, as a person who has the freedom to fend and feed themselves. What role does society play in screwing up the minds of Indian men so much that they get this wierd idea that they 'allow' women in their lives to work and earn. Do they actually have the right to do so? Or are they so insecure about their own sorry selves that they just have to use force and pressure to subjugate women, to smother their lives, their voices. How sad is the state of a man? Was a man always this weak? Or has the education system and the patriarchal societal structure made the man, a eunuch? A being with no identity? A being that has no self esteem, that has to use power to force women into subjugation.  Being a woman, it often is the case that I face some sort of harassment and try to undert...

There comes a day in the life of all married women, ok ok, all married Tamil Brahmin women, when they must abstain from food and pray for the longevity of their husbands. Well, that is me, in the modern Savitri avatar! Since Satyavan is not around, I had to click my picture myself. This is how I ended up resembling Mrs. Savitri. In this day and age, how much of this is desirable is left to one's imagination, but, for me, it was always an opportunity to gorge on the yummy kara adais and sweet adais. Here are some photos: Well, the adais came out well. My Satyavan seemed quite satiated and the look on his face, while he polished off the adais with the butter, was the reward. My statement sounded quite regressive, even to me. But, yeah, I suddenly got into this maternal mode and fed the DH till he declared that he was going to burst. So, I polished off the rest of the adais and felt nice. Then, I remembered my promise to my team buddies th...

Here is a true account of a woman called Seeta. She works as a technical writer in my company. _____________________________________________________________________________ In a distant town outside Chennai lived a woman called a Seeta. She used to live in her dream world, always, and float around, unaware of her surroundings. She lived liek this for years, not gathering any moss. She managed to complete a PG degree in Physics and got into the corporate world. Now, here, things went totally out of control. People in the corporate world expected her to be dynamic, attentive, hardworking and bla bla. Seeta, couldn't care less. She kept smiling inwardly and continued her tryst with herself.  She joined a software major, HCL, as a technical writer. Seeta had a solid grip over the language and could shoot off her mouth whenever she wanted. She wrote well too. The hiring manager saw immense potential and hired her at a premium salary, whatever she...