My first Puncture

So last week I got into my car all pleased about leaving from work before 6, only to find that my way was blocked by some cars, whose drivers were having their afternoon chat session in a car some rows away! Well, the security guy went and called them and then they were nice enough to move their cars out of the way, even guide me out of my spot. Only my Sparky just wudnt relent. I am usually quite proud of what my driving skills have come to be with a year of practice. But today it was no fun with Sparky just not listening to me. Hmpph!! And then I hear those fatal words "Madam, tyre to puncture hua hai!!" Huh!! What?!! My car's tyre? Do these things actually happen? okay, am just kidding, of course they happen! And what better place to happen than the office parking lot, where there are a bunch of drivers whose highlight of the day would probably have been a dash between cars at the most! :) Okay thats a cruel thought! But the fact that these guys didnt have much to do the entire day made them all(ateast 5 of them) willing volunteers to change my car's tire! And from that moment on all I did was pointed my finger to where the jack was, or the rag was. Till something spun me into action, and I was like everytime the tire gets punctures I will not be surrounded by helpful strangers, so maybe I should contribute to this process! So well I picked up the puntured tyre and got appreciative glances from all till I tried putting it in my boot and I realised that I was putting it in the wrong way! So I left like that and went to watch where the jack was placed and how high it had to be cranked up ( is that the term?). Well, at the end of it I felt very educated and told myself I could do this if I were stranded on the highway! ( I can hear the snickering !!! )

So after the new tire was on and the punctured one placed properly (remember I had just left it in the boot) and the tools packed away, came my next dilemna!! Should I pay these helpful souls something for their time and energy? They drove for owners of Honda Civics, Skodas and even a Merc!!! What would be right amount to give 5 of them, I had like about 100 bucks in my purse that day!!! Was that too little for 5 of them, or too much for a tire change? I have never had a tire changed in my life ever (that is if you dont count the cycle tyre punctures a decade and a half ago that cost like a buck to have fixed) ! So I just did the smartest thing that I could think off, put on my sunglasses to avoid a direct look, slinked into my seat and drove away! :D With a victorious feeling of having had my first car puncture and overcome it succesfully (you are not allowed to question my input to the process)! And atleast an half an hour late for the appointment that I had started out early from office for!

Well learnt a couple of things that day, well actually made aware of them, that tubeless tires do get punctured!! And that its not such a bad thing being a woman, you can get a tire changed without getting your hands dirty or having to call your emergency number, unless u want to prove you are not a sissy and pick up the dirty punctured tire and try putting it in its place!! :D

When cigarettes become toooo damn expensive!!!

The Conformist

No No! No No! Its not another review on the movie! More of a thought about the generation of people who are somewhere in between, still trying to find where we belong!

Are we socialists, feminists, conformists, partly traditional, partly orthodox, partly liberal, partly bold, partly independent - isn't anything in parts just dangerous!!?! Sometimes we are so swamped by social theories, political movements and moral philosophies, we forget exactly what we are but then is there such a thing at all!

I haven't always conformed to the way a "indian girl child" should be and behave, but I have never really broken away from the mould either. There so many of us who like to be as different as we can be and yet are scared to be too different! We want to be noticed yet not stand out(like a sore thumb!!?!?!) in a crowd! Seems to be a thing that I live with in every decision I make everyday! And I wonder if its just me or its everything around me that makes me this way! The fact that parents arent yet used to the need of "wanting to be different" or the new breed at work who are all so "different" that we have to strive very hard to keep up!

A post on the posts on my posts!

Hey Random thoughts, that was a very nice augment to my thought!

A statement does not always have to mean exactly what it states or yes it does, but what it states is what the person who says it wants people to understand or maybe what the listener wants to hear!

Hmm! But rightly said, upto each one of us to decide whether, we are the ship, the boat, the boat with wings or the carrier ship, that could launch a thousand flights!

To the anonymous people, I am flattered that people read my blogs and it initiated thots enough for them to want to respond, but it'd be great if you signed with your blog id (of course only if you have one).

UPA Government’s Domestic Violence Bill - Imprecise Act?

That's what Karan Thapar would like to call it! But imprecise, being the word of the day is what I would like to call his interviewing skills! This is the guy who when interviewing Renuka Chowdhury about her new bill said that "that laws are always judged by the extremes, not by the middle position." and then said less than 2 mins later "You talk of a minute percentage of people", even though this "minute percentage of people" is a reference to the women who are burnt on the pyres of their husbands, don’t you think that is extreme Mr. Thapar, losing your life just becos your partner did, a partner, one might add, not necessarily of choice (not that it makes any difference)! And he doesn’t stop there, he seems more worried about the sad plight of those husbands who cant be sarcastic to their wives, "That means you can’t be sarcastic to your wife, it means you can’t call you brother-in-law an ass or a mother-in-law a nag even if both of those are correct.", something to think about! There are women getting killed all over the country and all Mr. Thapar seems to be worried about is that men wont be able to call their brothers-in-law an 'ass'. Talk about priorities!

He is also worried about what would happen if a guy happened to abuse the step-brother of an ex-girlfriend of before a decade, and I wonder why anybody would want to do that in the first place! He almost reprimands the lady when she says that there is a chance that every divorce case need not have an alimony set on the merits of the case, by saying that "Are you saying that the judges are wrong? Are you stepping in to correct what judges have done? " and yet without a second thought to his earlier incredulous statements, he very happily declares "You are adding to the situation of bad judges by giving them a bad law. ", insinuating, no I would say, saying in no uncertain words, that bad judges are not a rarity in Indian courts.

Really Mr. Thapar!!!!There were also misplaced comments like "But you don’t need a law to tackle Sati" of course, grace saved by adjoining it with a "But it’s already a crime in India. We don’t need a new law", not a miss one would expect from a journalist of Mr. Thapar's experience. On the whole he seemed to be a bundle of contradictions in himself.

I think all of Mr. Thapar's worries would be swept aside by the one statement made by Renuka Chowdhury, if the relationship is harmonious then there would be no reason for the husbands or in-laws to be worried. And for anyone who lives in the Indian society, they would know let alone a harmonious household, it still is amazingly rare that a woman ever opposes her household, how much ever torture she endures there!

To Mr. Thapar I would like to say - Chill, 'innocent' husbands are not very likely to be dragged to the courts!

F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

What would we do without them!

Taking life as it comes

What does that mean? Does it mean you are so tough that you can handle anything that life will bring your way, or that you are just too lazy to do anything about anything and will take whatever morsels life tosses your way.