Talking your way through life! Smriti Irani style!

Everybody close to me knows that I'm a loud mouth! I simply talk too much. And talking is an integral part of life especially in the Indian context. In India especially, if you can talk, you will be considered great.

BJP, the ruling party has clearly understood that I presume! Clearly they have some of the most efficient public speakers. The prime minister won the whole country single handedly by his sheer ability to talk his way through anything. And now the education minister, has learnt what it is to talk your way through problems.

And speak she did! What a speech that was. And if you can emote a little. nothing like it; The actress in her brought forward the emotion quotient and the orator she is, no doubt floored the nation.

No, no! The speech had absolutely no content. She did not talk about a master design on how the education system of this country could be changed. She did not talk about the curriculum being designed and redefined for the children of this country. She just spoke! Plain and simple.

It had nothing to do with truth! I mean, the entire speech had so many lies, but who cares? Do we even need truth to give brilliant scintillating talks? Hell, who cares about truth and honesty anyways!

So, you don't need to have content, neither do you need truth, to become successful public personalities. You just have to be a loud mouth and you can talk your way through life! And with the way things are going, you just have to be a loudmouth to be a politician!

I'm pretty sure I have it in me! To talk my way through life! Politics is waiting for me, I presume!

Looking out of the window!

During her last days, she was not at her cheerful best. The long late night chats and the laughter all faded away. She was just not herself!

But one day as she was looking out of the window right across the room where we were staying in the Christian Medical College Hospital, She made a comment muchly like her. Across the window, was what looked like then a conference hall/ luncheon  meeting place, where all the big shots meet over lunch.

"Yellaarum periya aalunga (All are big shots)", said my mom! I know what her simple mind was thinking. I know her all too well. She wished, her children could be seen having the luncheon's in that place. That is all she was! Such a simple human being.

And yesterday suddenly it dawned on me I'm having lunch there for the umpteenth time in the last two weeks.

Now, the conference room/luncheon/big people meeting place, which my mom thought it was, actually is, an ordinary place where anybody meet for lunch. It is just an extension of the canteen. How the reality changes when you are on the other side?

How true is the quote, 'the grass looks greener on the other side'; More so if you are looking out of the window.

Ma, I'm having lunch in that VIP hall! If you can see, I'm an VIP now too:) 

The madness called educating our children!

I almost choked when I heard what she said! "Mam, can you please give only the certificates where he has won some competitions; Don't give the participation certificates" said the lady sitting in the reception of this school to which I had gone along with my friend, for her children's admission. And one of the two children is in class 1.

This friend's son is now awaiting an entrance exam followed by an interview to get in to class 1! An interview? And to think that I had my first interview when I joined Cognizant!

And yesterday a friend whose daughter is 4 months old, told me she has started the research on which CBSE school they should enroll her child into!

Are we panicking? Do we feel a shudder in the spine when we think of our children's future?

Relax people! I did not study the 'states and the capitals' at least till class 6, which my friend's son is preparing for his impending interview. And most of what I studied in school has nothing to do with where and what I do now. So calm down and relax! We all are doing well in life and most of us did not set the stage ablaze in school. The children will do well in life too. Better than us, for sure!

And please, let us not get in to the mad rush to teach the children every other thing in the world. It is okay if the children do not understand Japanese; It is okay if the neighbour sends his children for music classes and yours just do not go!It is okay if your child does not talk proper grammatical english. When spoken english is how you evaluate your children, you are actually demeaning them!

This schooling is becoming a farce. Let them not be limited by the two covers of a school book. Let us not restrict them by marks and eloquent languages. Let them not be limited by the neighbourhood or the father's dream. Throw all CBSE, ICSE, and all other alphabets to dogs!

Show them the world. A world waiting to be conquered.

Let them be; Let them dream and live it too!

Ma, Dan is getting married!

I really don't think people will be reading blogs in heaven ma! And I'm pretty sure, you are there. If you had not gone there for the person you were, surely I won't be allowed there either. Anyways, that is for another day!

Ma, your younger son, the young innocent boy we all know him to be, is suddenly getting engaged! Phew, am I getting that old?

It is still sinking in ma; How I wish you were there when we went to see his girl! You would have seen him blush ma; He did! He looked confused, but still he blushed. Chithi was there around ma and so was athai and of course Jessie, to handle the womanly things which should be done when we go to see a girl; Yet, your absence was palpable. You were the calming presence which is very much absent in our men only house now.

Do you know ma, that a year from now, Dan will be guiding a girl around a city? Just last week he got down from a bus in the wrong place ma, and as usual called me to tell he had made the mistake; Now, another girl will be getting down in the wrong bus stop along with him ma!

Ma, the innocent young boy, the boy whom you always said was nothing more than a child, is a man now! You remember the times, you said, 'Dan paavam, avanukku yethuvume theriyaathu'! That very same boy is a man now ma.

As I sit alone typing this, tears flow down ma. Tears of happiness and yet of sadness. Happy for Dan to have whole heartedly taken the next major step in life;  Sad, that you will miss the next wedding season of the family also.

I hope people watch weddings from heaven ma! If so, you will see no longer see the young boy you begot ma! Look for a man! For Dan, is going to be a man now.

Christianity and caste system - Oxymoron

Rohith Vemula, a young Dalit(hate using the word here) research scholar and student activist of the University of Hyderabad, would certainly not have wanted to die. No one with dreams does, after all. Yet he killed himself! He was in fact killed by the phantom limb of caste system on which this pretentious democratic credentials are superimposed.

This gutter called caste system! Is it all worth it? Worth the life of a brilliant young mind? 

When I read this news I was at the same time fighting against this within a community which considers itself morally superior to others, yet follows this sham called caste system. Yes, the christian community, one which I am part of for a pretty long time, shamefully still follows caste system.

Why do I talk only about this community? I know them well enough and I'm pretty sure that the holy book which this community adheres to absolutely does not support this

Sadly, almost everybody I talk to, know that its origins should have nothing to do with the so called christian principles which they claim to follow; Yet, in the inner most hearts, they desire their children marry within the same caste! They want reservation for their children and the grand children!

Dear christian community, Casteism is plain wrong. The Holy Bible does not prescribe to marrying your children within the same caste. The christian religion does not support anybody belonging to any caste. The church should not be based on casteism, and if they are it is a sham (For want of a harsher word). Please respect every single human being, as a soul wanting to live a happy life. In the name of a stupid, baseless, discrimination called casteism, if you continue to divide people, woe unto you! You do not deserve to be called the followers of the Jehovah God. Period.

PS: Sorry for the harsh rant; I vent out anger on blogs you see!