Sunday, August 17, 2008

The forgotten breed...

How many of us remember people who've helped us on our path to success? How many of us still have contacts with them, at the very least?

These questions can't be answered so easily with a simple yes. Truth is most of us don't ve any contact with those people. You may think. My dad and mom are responsible for my success and i'm with them 24*7. You are right and you are wrong. Right- true, they too have been responsible for your success till now. (Mark the word too). Now, you are wrong. WHY?

Think about it for a couple of min...













Thought enough? I'll tell you whom you've missed in that list.

Your first thoughts other than your parents must 've been your girl/boyfriend, if you have one that is. Next in line would 've been your closest circle of friends, ok agreed. Then? some close relatives, then..... The buck would 've stopped right there.

Spare a thought for a breed of people who can be stern and strict at times. Looking at you with piercing eyes and seeing through all your lies and alibis. Those people would 've supported you for the major part of your life. Those people would've taught you so much, drilled so much of things into that hardwood head of yours. They are a forgotten breed of people.


Now, you know whom i'm talking about... yes.. your teachers, mine as well. Be honest.. haven't you forgotten them? all of us may forget most of them, certainly not all of them. Your favourite teacher maybe the one who came on hard on you and yet managed to win your heart at some point of time. For others it would be the softer variant. Now, i think there maybe a bit of nostalgia going on in your head. Anyways, just dont forget them... The forgotten breed.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Dynasty or Die-nasty??

Ever seen dynasty politics?? or at least heard of it??

Well.. what exactly is Die-nasty or is it dynasty politics? Little too confusing ain't it? Simple, yet so complex.. That's what it's all about. Dynasty politics is a little complex compared to die-nasty politics..

Die-nasty politics.. easy one.. politics in which u get to die in a nasty way.. ugh.. that's die-nasty politics. for eg: You get involved with a tiff with your rivals, and they are out to get you; Make you feel real bad about that tiff, so they put up a really devious plot, which 'll get you killed or at least hurt very badly. Now, that's what you'd say Die-nasty politics.

Toughie- Dynasty politics.... this 's something more delicate than the die-nasty politics. Simply put, a dynasty is a family. So, it 's more often than not called, family politics. Now, family politics, as popularly known, it's basically all the political happenings within a family. Consider a very Indian scenario, to better understand family politics. To understand this deeper, consider a typical, Indian joint family.

In a typical joint family, it's more or less like the elders rule the roost. In the elders itself, in almost 9 out of every 10 families, have the poor male "head" of the family, who happens to be the "head" only as a name. AKA rubber-stamp . This "head" has to obey his wife, who happens to be more or less dominating. She continues to dominate the male, till the poor guy passes away.. that's a bad one.. Then, in the heirarchy, comes the daughters of the "head". These daughters. These daughters are eventually the mother's pet. Obviously, if there are more than one daughters , the last one's bound to be the favourite. And the the last daughter's kids get more attention and care than even the son's kids.

And yes of course, just like their mother, these daughters tend to go after their husbands, reducing their husbands also to the status of their father, the rubber-stamp. Finally, lowest down in the order would come the son, his wife and kids, who do everything for the "head" and his wife, who hardly ever recognise anything done by them. To the "head" and his wife, or to be even more precise, the wife would hardly ever give a shit to what her daughter in law does or says. Then, even if the daughter in law's extremely good, she gets kicked even then. Right from day one, when a girl gets married into a typical Indian joint family, she is looked at with such contempt, like she 's meant for bonded menial labour. Not only does the head's wife irritate her, she draws flak from her sisters in law for being the nice girl that her husband and mother in law want. Apart from all this, she has the additional burden of taking care of her parents and siblings; which is to compound her already existing problems. Final nail in the coffin- she goes to work and has an extremely demanding boss. Bad times befall her everywhere. All in all to sum it up- it's saas vs bahu, everywhere, with all the others playing supporting cast.

Poof.. That's just the outline, and I know, your eyes bleed already. Imagine, if this 's just the trailer, then the movie??? Anyways, it's all a part and parcel of life in an Indian family...


"All the world's a stage,And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts,"

Where do these lines fit in? The rubber-stamp was once upon a time a kid to his mother, then a husband to his wife, a father to his kids and then finally a grandparent to his grandkids. Implied meaning- Males are always dominated by his female counterpart. There may be a few families in which the females are dominated. If you, as a reader are from one of those few families, please forgive me.

Disclaimer: The above post was written from my own observations. Any resemblance to any real life happening is purely coincidence. And, I'm not a chauvinist.