Friday, October 23, 2009

The idle mind again

You ever notice how almost everyone who doesn’t do well in examinations says ‘The system sucks. They just care about the handwriting and thickness of the answer paper, and don’t care about the content. That’s why I don’t care for examinations or for marks’. Yeah, right! Very few people actually have the honesty to say that they didn’t do well because they couldn’t study or didn’t care to study.
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I’m writing this in the train, traveling to Hyderabad, for Bujji Anna’s engagement on Saturday morning. So I got talking with a bunch of students, and turned out one of them was from my school, albeit many years my junior. In fact, he’s junior to even my sister so one can imagine how old I felt! I mean, the kid was in the 6th standard, still in short pants, when I was passing out of school! So this kid was quite excited at running into his ‘super duper senior’ (as he termed it), and seated himself opposite me and started talking. And talking. And talking. Phew!

So I turned on my laptop and started…..err…..working. And he still didn’t stop talking. All of you out there who I’ve bored to death with my non-stop talking: rejoice, for this is divine justice. This has been a lesson to me and henceforth I shall endeavour to talk less and listen more – now let’s see how long that lasts!
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You know how girls are tricked into believing that marriage is the most amazing thing that will happen/ has happened in their life, and that a girl who isn’t married is a girl whose life isn’t complete? You know how girls are tricked into going into a tizzy when their marriage approaches, who just can’t hold the excitement at getting married?

And you know how guys behave like marriage heralds the end of their life and have to be almost forced into it, irrespective of how much of a loser they are; while some otherwise simply amazing and awesome girls are so desperate to get married that they will agree to marry any random, useless guy who happens to pass by their way?

Well, I just don’t get it! I mean, why? Why, why, why??? Most women’s lives change completely post marriage. They leave jobs, shift cities, sometimes shift countries, take on their husband’s surname, and are expected to now belong to another family. In some cases, they are expected to cook, clean, take care of the house, take care of the elderly parents and the spoilt siblings of the husband, and even bear babies. They are no longer allowed to take any decisions on their own and are expected to consult their husband and his family, and defer to them.

Essentially, a woman’s life, as she has known it till now, completely transforms post marriage. And the ownership she has over her own life, which would anyway likely have been limited, reduces even more post marriage. And yet, women are supposed to buy into the myth that marriage is all sunflowers and roses, and are made to feel incomplete till they are married. Sigh! It makes me so mad.

Disclaimer: I don’t mean, of course, that marriage is like this for all women, though it is certainly true for a significant number of them.

P.S: Also apologize for incoherent, foaming at the mouth nature of post, which sudden drift from otherwise boring but sensible narrative of random thoughts, is bound to have led readers, if any, running for cover. Sorry, not done thing one knows, but couldn’t be helped…..strong feelings ‘bout it you know. Best I take your leave now, old pal. We shall catch up soon I’m sure!