When was the last time you picked a print subscription? Maybe this question will not be as big at the moment so let me rephrase it. When was the last time you remember there was a day when you didn’t pick anything in print, as compared to a day without internet?

If I were to answer the question, I pick a magazine every morning while going through the morning raaga - its only because I haven’t figured out a way to carry my laptop inside without creating any sort of hygienic/sanitary mental discomforts. I know friends, who prefer their blackberries and iphones to a printed version of Wired and the only reason why I have even considered buying one of the wifi enable phones is for the same reason.
Magazines like Business2.0 - ironically reporting about the companies/applications that would soon overthrow them were the first ones smart enough to shut down their print versions. Reminds me of Starwars and other scifi channel shows - remember how clean their rooms look without the clutter of paper. I wonder how long will it be before we are all wearing tight silver jump suits with V stripes in front, hairdo is our fashion statement - *shake it off* - I prefer the jeans and t-shirt wearing culture!

For me internet is the new religion, I am one of the missionaries spreading it - converting a 72year old lady to ‘Internetism’ was my first accomplishment. Social networks are our new churches/temples/mosques - a meeting place for people with like minds (or just too much time in hand), blogs are our newspapers, video sharing sites offer on-demand entertainment. wifi networks are our new roads without bumps, molesters are terrorists, hackers are the jihadis! We have everything - there are people who believe in it and then there are some Nobel laureates who think internet makes us dumb (will send us to hell) - whatever the case maybe - its definitely the fastest growing religion and if you are connected you are already a part of it.

What you pick from the book shelf can reflect the state of your life! Well, not always but presently* in my case it does!

Why is it that you have to answer all these questions in life? Why is it so difficult to have a life without indecisions - life where you don’t have to grow up?

On my last 2 visits to India every person I met either asked me the same question or their eyes did the questioning for them. Being a 28 year old desi (Indian subcontinent ethnicity), born in a typical (sort of - if my extended family is counted) marwari family, with a steady job - you are posed with this question more often than you can imagine.

The big question -

‘WHEN ARE YOU GETTING MARRIED?’

- humm .. well, when I feel like getting married, I will!

‘Everyone around you is getting married! All your friends are married or engaged, why wouldn’t you?’

Why wouldn’t I?

Makes me wonder - is it because I have a problem that I cannot decide? Or, is there something beyond that. Wasn’t life better when someone else took decisions for you!

While someone I know likes growing up, I don’t! I liked it more when all I to decide was between ‘5-star’ and ‘Perk’, not the question that I buy it or not!

‘Indecision’ by Benjamin Kunkel is the book, read it if the title is something you can relate - to get a kick of humor for the indecisions in life!

*presently - this post was drafted some time back when I was reading the book, situation has changed since then, but the questions are still the same!

Came across this snippet in BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7068875.stm

“They wear pink saris and go after corrupt officials and boorish men with sticks and axes”

I have to say, the article made me smile and frown at the same time.
While it is heartening to see more women take control of their lives, there is fine line between justice and taking law into your own hands.
Will the Govt. take notice soon enough?

I had started writing this post with something totally different in mind, with the thought of sharing this article (Why are men happier than women?) and asking if you would rate yourself happy and why?

And how will these figures relate in India? Considering that most of the women in India are still in the 60s-70s of US, stay at home mom - keeping themselves busy with dusting and cooking food, having their expectations set low (either by choice or situation) and implying (according to this article) that they are happier than men.

But, more I thought about it, more questions popped, more things I could relate!

I wanted to find out the percentage of women in India that are housewives - surprisingly Google didn’t help much, but it did change how I was approaching this subject with reference to my home country!

Women being happier than men - can that even be a question for countries like India?

She starts her day early in the morning by cleaning the house, getting her kids ready for school (if they go to school), cooking the food, then she goes to the field in the afternoon, works the whole day in the scorching heat, comes back home - cooks food, feeds everyone, cleans dishes and by the time she is done wrapping the house its late in the middle of the night. Next day, same routine awaits her, day after day! She never gets paid a dime in her lifetime, or gets the respect she deserves at home after the whole day of killing herself. Looking from her perspective - definition of happiness just about changes! If asked the question, what will her answer be?

She gets married at 21, right out of college, goes in a family where she is treated well (not the conventional scenario usually talked about) - sits at home all day long, watches every sick soap-opera aired on TV channels, goes shopping in the evening with sister-in-law, enjoys all the riches in the world - Is she happy?

She went to the top school in the country, did whatever she wanted to do, has a six figure job, got married at the age she felt she wanted to. Leaves for work early in the morning, has her usual rift with her boss on some trivial issue, comes back home all tired, throws some ready to eat stuff in the microwave for dinner, goes to bed - wakes up and starts the routine again waiting for the weekend. Happy, or not?

Nothing very atypical about either of these situations, no fights, no burning of girl by her in-laws, no husband cheating on their loving wives!

Who seems happiest? Can we even judge someone’s happiness? I have been a person who has tried judging, mostly because the people involved were the ones I care for. On occasions I have talked with my father ‘they are happy where they are, their parents are happy for them, for them this is what life is all about, no point for you and me to think about it.’

I was at a friends housewarming party and this conversation started, (after I had written part of this post) one of the girls there said ‘their life must be miserable’ - she was referring to the second scenario, another girl pointed ‘they were not given a choice, and when they come across others not like themselves, they will realize what they missed out’. Sure enough, but what about the other cases - most certainly the first women will only come across women like her in her lifetime, getting water from the well and the business women, she had her way in life…

Ball is inching towards the boundary for a four; it is about to bounce twice on the racquetball court; it is flying to second consecutive ace - What do you do? Do you jump (throw yourself forward) like this is the last run/point of the game and if you loose it you loose the match? Or, do you put in all your effort you can and run towards it?

Me, if it is not the last point of the match I almost never jump - partly because I am afraid I will break every bone in my body and my prescription glasses I like so much and partly because I think its usually not the most effective way to take that shot. Lets ignore cricket for a while, but in racquetball, I know I will have a better control of the ball if I reach it running rather than being half suspended in air - to meet my fate - the shinny wooden floor moments later!

“There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, that provides the difficulties” - If only I can remember this every time I jump!

But I have seen people on the court who jump all the time. Countless times I have thought to myself while watching a cricket match, why did that stupid guy jump - he could have easily reached there and not miss the catch and at times - he is such a chicken, he should have just jumped, our team sucks!

Do you jump consciously, or you just do it because you are wearing Nike? When is jumping (throwing yourself forward), more efficient than running?

The only thing constant is change. With every passing day, with every thought-provoking event, we are evolving. Being raised as the eldest (female) child in my family, I grew up with pretty strictly enforced traditionalistic ideas. And then, I came to a small college town in US of A. There is a miniscule population of Indian students, who seem to be not very fond of me…can’t do anything about that!! Anyway, so it is only the non-Indian souls that I interact with on a daily basis. There are endless discussion about cultural differences, traditions and modernism. There are a millions of things that never crossed my mind, never once in 20 something years of my life; until one fine day, when I lent my ears to people who had so much to say. Since such a gifted thinker I am, my neurons go crazy evaluating the pros and cons of every view that it encounters. Imbibing the ideas that appealed to my sub-conscious mind has become a regular thing. Hence, I have become an extremely rapidly mutating species and probably rightly accused of being easily influenced by others. Well, there are people on the other side of spectrum, who impart ‘influence’ to sub mortals like myself. I went around asking people if they were the influenced or the influential. Most people (actually all) thought that they did not get influenced by anyone (it could be a self satisfying egotistical answer, nonetheless the held their belief of not being influenced)…It almost made me feel that I was the only adaptive species. And despite
Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’ theory and the well-know phrase ‘peer-pressure’, everyone seems to be doing really well without changing. And I on the other side seem to be getting ‘Americanized’ everyday. Is being actively open to changing ideas a bad idea???

Remember the times when the four of us lived in a shabby two-bedroom apartment (it wasn’t too shabby!) - fully furnished, thanks to our rich seniors who left their furniture in the trash that they had acquired from the dumpster when they first moved in. TV that turned on/off with a remote, a remote that could have been any footwear resting next to you, routine haircuts standing in the bathtub!

If I didn’t learn anything else from the 2 years in North Carolina State University, I decided to master my hands at cutting hair with all the freeloaders who were willing to let me have all the experience needed - I imagined making a leaving out of it, if the tech industry decided to throw me out on the streets! Barbers have a steady set of income. Hair grows, and we need a hair-cut irrespective of how the market is doing. If you have a job you want to look decent by avoiding the extra hair riding on the back of your neck. If you lost your job you still get a hair-cut (when needed) to look nice on your next job interview.

Only person who was brave (at times stupid) enough to cut his own hair was our forth roommate, you-know-who, he mostly did a good job at that. I was reminded of you-know-who when I bumped across this step by step guide to cutting your own hair - if anyone decides to use it, do share a before & after picture!

And you thought I am going to teach you how to cut your own hair! How can I? I want my customers for the bad days, my bad days not their’s :)

While at a Timberland store, I could not help but notice these boxes! On the side they had a green label that said ‘Our Footprint‘ and mentioned, was information like - how much impact they had on the environment and the community, while creating these pair of shoes you were going to buy. If child labor was involved, code of conduct in the factories, where it was manufactured - while not everything there made sense to me it was interesting to see the information.

I searched online to find out more about this and found many other products that avail this information. A trip to the grocery store is in order to get the real deal!

But unfortunately, presently only manufacturers publishing this information are the ones that are already doing things the right (greener) way, and have a customer base that is ready to pay that extra dollar! It will be interesting to see these labels on our regular products that we get at the grocery market, for instance footprint for ‘ABC mineral water’ might look something like this

Makes me thirsty, I am going to fetch a glass of freshly delivered tap water!

I have always wondered if all these online petitions that float around actually work! While I have signed petitions in the past, I feel they are waste of time but worth the effort (time) if adding a voice ‘might’ make some difference.

In the last week of June, city officials in New York had proposed a law that would have forced photographers and film makers to obtain permits and a liability insurance of $1million to take pictures and shoot videos in the city. Any group of 2 or more photographers shooting in an area for more than 30 minutes would require this permit. Rule also applies to those using their Gorillapods, or tripods in a group of 5 or more for more than 10 minutes.

While this law was meant for professional filmmakers and photographers, ambiguity in the proposal would have made it difficult for amateurs like yours truly to hang around Times Square!

An online petition was signed by 31,000 photographers against this. As a result, city officials have withdrawn this proposal and have said they will work on a revised version.

Conclusion (based on this): Yes, they do! But really, do they work??

ps: reading Molishree’s comment, I modified the conclusion and I leave it open for others to answer!

It took a month for the “altruistic eyes” to consume my existence. Consequent to a rather competitive mud-slinging battle, they replaced the previous hold of “unholy cigarettes.” Ironically enough, the beedis were too addicted to me to hop on to a homeward bound flight. But their might couldn’t stand one bit in front yours truly’s new found interest in charitable flying eye hospitals. The beedis had to be thus packed away and sent to rehab (lest they fall into a familiar downward spiral of withdrawal symptoms).

Such drastic changes serve as a comfortable assurance that I can continue to equate my life with high drama. Only, no one is paying the three-figure Broadway price to experience it all. Not even if I offer premium seating.

It would be fitting to say that the lenses have changed. The scenery is different. The wardrobe has been subsumed by a full fledged revolution – the kind I like. The bank balance reflects more zeros before the decimal. To cap it all, I rest my head - in sublime surrender to Morpheus, the Greek God of sleep – on red sheets between two towering red book cases selected in complete satisfaction from many of IKEAS’s other gifts to humankind. Just 365*2 days ago, my entire subsistence could snugly fit in 2 suitcases, the only ones my family owned. Now, I can probably pack my entire family, almost equally snugly, in the nouveau habitat. Did I ever tell you that I like growing up?

With that, I announce my presence on chai-garam. Why? I need to confess because I can never tell a straight lie. And I never tell the truth.

PS: How I would love to imagine myself as a seedy ‘young’ thing hooked to domestic tobacco (very much like you are imagining right now-I know, I have x-ray vision). Unfortunately, the addiction and the love affair with beedis never went beyond a Master’s Thesis on tobacco taxation, now all bound in black with my name printed in gold letters upfront! However, if I graduated from Cornell with just that black book in hand, life wouldn’t look half as good (to me or to others is a different question altogether). So I went and got myself a job. In real time currently, I spend the majority of my waking hours trying to improve an international blindness prevention NGO’s programmatic strategies. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, eh?