Time. Precious?
Posted: March 26, 2013 Filed under: behaviour, India, opinion, parent, Uncategorized | Tags: commitment, kids, parenting, punctuality, time Leave a comment »A is going for his summer coaching. He has chosen cricket. I know it is just spring tune as per the calendar 
. These coaching classes started yesterday and go on till mid-April. Starts at 5:30am IST.
Yesterday I saw parents bringing their kids in even a little after 6!!!! I thought maybe because it was the first day people were taking it easy. It continues today. I remember it was the case last year too.
This has got me thinking. I have been embarrassed many times when it has been pointed out that punctuality is not a part of the Indian psyche. I have even argued that it cannot be generalised. That said, in all honesty, we Indians are lackadaisical when it comes to keeping time. It is ok to make someone wait. I think I have written about how wedding receptions never start on time & people actually were surprised about my ignorance of this fact!! The invitation says 7PM means it will probably start at 8PM if we are lucky!!
It is weird that the same set of people cannot wait a few seconds at the traffic signal. People honk, start moving even before the light turns green. The don’t stop when the light turns red. All because if they stop, they will waste those precious minutes!!!! (Guess traffic etiquette is a whole different blog post).
So when and how will our kids learn the virtue of punctuality? Do I say the kids had not woken up to get here on time or do I say the parents didn’t enforce the same? I can understand if it is a stray one or 2 kids coming in late (something must have held things up! ) I find it is a whole bunch of kids!!!
Since parents are not allowed to watch the kids at the camp, I do not know if the teachers there reiterate the importance if being on time. I sure hope they do.
Having been brought up with this fact drilled into my head; I find it hard to accept the nonchalance in general. To my grand dad or mother, 5:30 is that on dot. Be early but never late. Respect the other person’s time. Make the effort. These are what had been told to me.
In the case of this camp, the kids have been enrolled because they want to ( or the parents want them to ). Either way , shouldn’t the effort be taken to just show up on time?!?!
I am sure there still will be kids coming in late day after day till the end of the camp. Just wish they show some commitment in getting to the school on time!! Teach them young we are told!
Freedom!
Posted: March 6, 2013 Filed under: analysis?, behaviour, learning, life | Tags: analysis?, Facebook, freedom, friends, internet, iPhone5, malfunction, mobile, network, survival, temple run, whatsapp 1 Comment »I have written about how compulsive I am when it comes to phone calls or messages. I don’t ignore any of them. I would rather pick up & give a piece of my mind than let the call go. So one can imagine how much a part of my life my dear mobile phone has become.
It has made me feel less lonely (theoretically someone is just a phone call away). I think I have ranted enough of how people don’t have the etiquette to return calls/messages or just pick up the phone and call. So will spare my readers that….
I resisted adding an internet package to my phone saying I don’t want to get addicted to being online all the time. Well, I buckled and did that too! I jumped from one fruit to another and back. I love my gadgets (another known fact now to most of those friends who still visit this space).
So, why do I feel free? I was not talking about me being single now… 
Yes, my phone broke down. I have an iPhone5 now. It just keeps searching for my mobile network. Everything else works fine. I know am going to hear look you spent so much on a phone that just breaks down and all that crap (excuse my language…). No…I wish I would get freedom from that kind of attitude but hey everyone is entitled to an opinion!! 
I felt I would miss my phone like crazy! I did for say an hour. I went for offense is the best form of defense & before anyone could ask, I ended up saying oh my phone is not working saga!! In reality though, I just have this sense of how do I put it? relief?!
I hardly get one or two calls a day. I keep in touch with a couple of friends on whatsapp. Otherwise, I nowadays just seem to use the phone to check facebook, tweet or play games (getting addicted to temple run2). So, it seemed fine that I was not accessible. Don’t think anyone even would have noticed!! LOL!!
Nah, not giving up on my phone entirely. Hope it gets fixed. Fingers crossed but then I realised I am not addicted to it either. I can live without my phone and I am surviving. It really is no big deal. I can feel free…nothing to carry, no need to wonder if there is enough charge, spam texts not bothering me.
On my usual self analytic note, I guess once I accept that I have to live my life alone; it really might end up with me feeling free?! I probably will survive my ending up dead alone!! wow!! that is one oxymoron!! I should just start telling myself it is that simple stupid!!
PS: For the very few (1 or 2) if you do read this space, I will be back to troubling you once my phone is set right!! No freedom for you!!
Who’s responsible?!
Posted: February 19, 2013 Filed under: analysis?, behaviour, emotions, learning, life, opinion, Uncategorized | Tags: Meaning message perception relationship woman conversation misunderstanding Leave a comment »I am only responsible for what I say, not for what you understand
I read this somewhere, it struck a chord & I tweeted it immediately.
I am getting tired of explaining what I said. I find that most of the time, we will not change our perspective of what we heard. I am guilty of this too hence use “we”.
Do we complicate things unnecessarily? Think too much into anything said/ heard?!
I used to be one of those who took the wysiwyg in this case wyhiwyg (hear) attitude. Not delve too deep, this is because I say what I think. I don’t tuck in cryptic messages. So I am quite dense when it comes to understanding such messages. Guess am not the typical woman wherein when she says no it is a maybe?!?
Over time I realise others are not the same. I need to decipher the actual message!
Why not make things simple? Just say what you mean. Saves a lot of time & effort for everyone involved!! This will also save quite a few relationships!!!
Wondering now who is responsible?! The one who says something or one who understands something else?!?
Maybe it is just me….
Posted: December 9, 2012 Filed under: behaviour, emotions, friends, life, opinion, parent, questions | Tags: emotions, friends, life, time 3 Comments »Well, it has been so long since I even logged into WordPress!! Was taken aback by all the interface changes!! That is how long!!!
It was nice to see an award when I did log in!!! Been 5 years since I registered it seems!! Wow!! Just a few days back I thought time flies – A turned 8. I think it again today – Didn’t realise it has been 5 years since I registered here!!
Life has not changed much but it has too!! I start afresh yet again in a way tomorrow. Nervous about this yet tired of new beginnings. I just wish I had no more… I am at a weird place now. I want change but I don’t want it either. I feel lonely yet think am too set in my own ways that I can’t think of adapting to being with someone either….
A has been the one strength. I have poured out my anger & frustration to him yet he still manages to give me such a welcoming smile when he sees me. Never ceases to please me. Ever ready to give me a hug. As much as I have resented being the only one responsible for him, I love him to bits.
I truly wish my life was less complicated. Wish I could just enjoy the simple things in life. Days I want to see how A has grown up & what he will become. Days I just don’t want to wake up at all.
I have made some new friends yet, have started to think they are not going to be around either. It is not them…I think it is me! As a friend told me, I am not ready to trust anyone any more. Been left stranded way too many times.
Times I just don’t know what I want. One thing though…no more getting hurt & being used.If it means I don’t trust people or be called rude – so be it. I am tired of feeling lost, sad & many times breaking down into tears, feeling defeated. I may not laugh or smile but I do not want to feel crushed.
I do not think time heals! I don’t even think it makes me feel numb over time…may be it is just me!??!
Just don’t fit in!
Posted: October 11, 2012 Filed under: acceptability, analysis?, behaviour, hurt, life | Tags: fitting in, lonely, misfit Leave a comment »This is what I have been feeling for quite a while now! Working in a company where the average age of the employees is around 25, I am old there! I did write that I found a few friends; then why do I feel like I don’t fit in….not there not anywhere.
I have come to realise why there are support groups with similar people coming together! I didn’t before this. Now I am a single mother living with her parents. My friends are single either living on their own or with their parents. So, there are times they don’t get it that I have a kid back home with my parents who I don’t want to act as parents to my son! I really can’t hamper their plans just because I have a kid, or make them accomodate the kiddo! My other friends who do have kids, well, that is another story! They are married and have a proper standard family. I can’t really hinder them either. I do feel I am part of neither group!
At work, I am older in the company than what I was when I joined but still not old enough to be tenured! So, I don’t quite fit in there either. As much as I dread being alone, it appears to be my only option these days. I would rather not trouble my friends and make them change their plans or conversations for me!
These aren’t the only reasons that make me feel like I don’t fit in. There are quite a few more….one more; some friends of mine are so out of the box thinking (I don’t have that thinking but admire them for it!) or they are so boxed in (which also I admire as I can’t do that either!)
Seriously contemplating to shut myself out from everything & everything, keep to myself rather than feel uncomfortably about not fitting in anywhere! Saves me the pain & agony – that is for sure!
One foot in each world
Posted: October 3, 2012 Filed under: analysis?, behaviour, emotions, friends, life | Tags: emotions, horoscope, loneliness, society 1 Comment »I have this horoscope subscription to my mailbox. Just out of habit, I look at it everyday… sometimes wondering what it might mean, sometimes laugh at how weird it sounds…whatever I look at this. Today’s horoscope is
You’re feeling a bit more introspective than usual today as your key planet Venus enters your 12th House of Privacy. If you must spend the day with others, you can still withdraw into your imagination while appearing as socially astute as ever. Balancing your previous obligations with your current need to be alone might be tricky unless you’re willing to keep one foot in each world
This just makes me smile!!! I was thinking as I read…hey this is what I do every day!!! Have a foot in each world. Smile/laugh go about everything while my mind is racing with other things yearning to withdraw!! Completely withdraw.
Conversations I have been having with close friends lately made me realise that each of one us is like that. Just the thoughts in our parallel world are different. I am lucky to have a few friends who I can be myself with. Be lost in my own world and not bother with civilities! I wish that each of us have someone at least one someone like that. It is difficult to live in two (or sometimes even more ) worlds constantly!! Takes a toll.
I don’t know how to switch off!! I wish sometimes I could just scream and most times, just be myself locked up in a room. Some who know me well keep asking me what good that would do! I don’t know. May be I won’t be torn apart all the time! Wallowing does not help they say. I say I am not!! Well, one thing is for sure… it will be a long time before I figure this out.
Just that I am glad that I am not alone as there was one significant person in my life who used to say I am mad/crazy/weird. Glad that it is actually normal and even if it is not, I am not the only mad/crazy/weird person!!
I am a divorcee!
Posted: May 20, 2012 Filed under: acceptability, analysis?, behaviour, divorce, emotions, hurt, India | Tags: divorce, frustration, Lie, rant 15 Comments »Yes I am a divorcee… I am not proud of it or anything. It is just a fact. I don’t know why I must hide or be ashamed of that? It happened…and here I am. I have my life ahead of me. It did not end there, did it?
Why must people “advise” me to not divulge this? It is not like I have committed murder, I am not a paedophile or any such thing to be secretive about this. The number of people who said…you are going to a new job…Don’t tell anyone that you are divorced. Just say that your husband is abroad!!
What is the reasoning behind this?! Should I be ashamed that I could not make my marriage work? That I am a single mother who has resorted to living with her parents?
I feel that those guys who assume that since I am a divorcee, I will be ready for flings & hit on me shamlessly should be the ones who must follow restraint. Those who box me into some stereo-type…
Why can’t I just let be? Why must I lie? Sick & tired…these are really the things that pain me about my divorce…. Grow up all!!
Why?
Posted: May 12, 2012 Filed under: analysis?, behaviour, divorce, emotions, friends, learning, life, questions | Tags: annoyed, car, career, change, intrusion, intrusive, job, life, phone, Tennyson 12 Comments »I think one of my mum’s favourite quotes is
Ours not to reason why, ours but to do and die. -Alfred Lord Tennyson
Off late, this question bugs me! Why? Why are you doing this? Why don’t you think this over? I have been snapping at those who throw this question at me for whatever reason from something as trivial as why did you change your hairstyle to why did you take this life altering decision? I can understand someone who is concerned asking such questions…but the same thing from those who we say just hello & bye to?!? Ridiculous! What bothers them? How does anything affect them? Nowadays I don’t want to answer that question even if it may remotely affect the person asking it!! Like my parents!
In the down period from the blog, I am now officially single (rather divorced in Indian terms..). Got my divorce decree. I am waiting to join a new job next week. Nervous & excited. Yes, trivial things like I have changed my iPhone & car too.I have reactivated my facebook since I left my previous job (to come out of hermithood like my friend Laksh said ) I have had to listen to the question “why” for all of those!! Seriously…I have asked the same question why for my divorce and never got any answers! Me aking that question I think is valid….and I ask it to myself or bug my close friends while trying to figure things out…
Anyways… lots of changes in the last few months. I certainly would like to thank those who drove me nuts who in turn I drove crazy! (think it is more me driving them crazy than the other way round!) Been through up & down emotions through this…so thanks to those patient wonderful friends of mine. May you remain as patient through our lives….just so you have to manage me!!
I certainly don’t know what is in store. I don’t know what I will do or why I will do whatever… but as a colleague (rather ex-colleague) said…life moves on. Hope I get some of the patience that my friends have in enduring me so I can handle things better BTW, A seems to have immense patience!! Thank whoever!! (Don’t really believe in God or evil – this again is a statement by a very dear friend of mine about me! )
Well… I guess I will just do & die, not to be questioned/question why!
Off Facebook
Posted: February 5, 2012 Filed under: behaviour, emotions, friends, hurt, learning, life | Tags: Facebook, friendships, interactions, internet, LinkedIn, Twitter 24 Comments »I know I have not blogged since around Christmas last year. So I must say I have been off blogging and off Facebook. The latter since October last year. It started off with lots of thoughts running in my mind as usual Wondering why I must be on a social networking site where I really was not interested in reading mundane status updates & I didn’t have much to actually do status updates. I had also brought down photos of A from the site much earlier (rather increased privacy options for those albums). Then came a challenge from a good friend saying I could not stay off the internet at all. I deactivated my Facebook account then. Many didn’t realise I was off the site now. Some turned around and asked where I was and whether I had taken them off my list . I get the “oh! you must have read that on Facebook” and when I say “Am off Facebook”, I am received with a gamut of reactions from why to what is wrong with you?!
I can honestly say I do not miss Facebook after nearly 6 months of not being on it. I had no withdrawal symptoms! I still am on Twitter,LinkedIn, come online (mostly invisible) on gtalk or yahoo chat. I read my mails regularly – though the actual personal mails I receive average probably at 1 or 2 a week!! Am not doing much here at my popularity rating am I?!
The last few months have actually made me wonder about friendship & evaluation of the same. Was laughing at the fact that some felt offended that I probably had taken them off my friends’ list to being touched by some’s concern that I had gone bonkers to be offline. LOL!! I was asked if I was surprised that some did not even notice my absence, I said not at all to them… after all each of us have 100s in our list, how would one know if someone went missing unless you interact with them on a daily basis?!
Started wondering how much we give importance to being “friends” on Facebook. Is that being a friend? May be I am old fashioned. To me, a friend is one who will stand by me, through all my stupid emotions (ping ponging as someone recently said); some one who I can call and share a joke or my pains whatever the case might be then. I will do that to anyone who I call a friend. I will not evaluate friendship (yes heard that too!! ) Alright, I digress here though not entirely. Guess I am trying to say that the value of friendship is somehow lost somewhere or so I feel. I am glad that I still have some friends who I can bank on who are used to my ping-pong emotions (and have said hey you are human…if you were a robot may be you won’t have all that and would also be boring! ), who do give me the time of day if I needed a shoulder to cry on or hold my hand, just be there for me. It is difficult when life’s responsibilities take over and friendship does take a backseat many times but all of us acknowledge that we will be there in need. May not be able to take away the pain that one feels of an ailing child or loneliness – but be understanding. Thanks to all those friends who I don’t talk/chat with often but I do know they are there; have been for ages now.
I must also say that I am being really wary of new people thanks to my recent experiences. I do not want people who are weighing in whether they need to be friends. Sorry! stay away!!
Isn’t it weird?
Posted: September 7, 2011 Filed under: behaviour, emotions, friends, hurt, learning, life, questions | Tags: communication, technology 5 Comments »I’ve off late been wondering how weird it is that people with most access to technology and the best means of communication are the most incommunicado. Or is it just those who are in my life who are like that?
These highly tech savvy people seem to have internet access 24/7, a phone with a good network in their hands (phones like the iphone or blackberry), signed up in all kinds of networks from Google+ to facebook to Twitter to whatever else there is…. So in theory, they must be accessible all the time and respond to a call by some means. Sadly, this is not the case.
I feel like I was more in touch with people back in the days when we did not have mobile phones, and internet was at snail’s pace and not omnipresent. Is it me? Probably it is!!
Read this somewhere
The Silent Killer of relationships is the lack of communication…. communicate before misunderstanding separates you, with hurt, pain, n thoughts
How many of us bother to just say hello?! or even smile at someone we know when we pass by them on the corridor at work?! When all it takes is even a virtual poke or a text message, there seems to be hardly any effort to keep in touch. If someone calls out of the blue, the thought that crosses one’s mind is …ok so what does that person want?! Get to the point already!!!
As I said earlier, may be it is just me and my cynical-self! I used to make an effort to drop that occasional email just to say hi and enquire about welfare. Now I just feel it is futile. I used to send in updated pics of A to people….now I don’t bother! In fact there are times I feel like it is not worth the time or effort to do any of this.
I had quite an accident last week. Called this friend who I have known for ages now. Recounted this…and in the midst of handling this, hung up after asking a query about where I can get the car repaired. Had I been in this person’s place or had it been a few years back, I would have received a call say half an hour or hour later enquiring if things were alright. Guess what? The person pings me when I log on to a chat module much later in the night….and asks “so did you get the car to the repair shop?!” I lost it and responded saying that the question was way too early to be answered…and this friend just disappeared! I guess I must just be thankful that this friend even bothered to ask me later on at night?!?!
Just feel like I am turning more cynical, more bitter & less hopeful by the day. Makes me wonder if it is just me or people are just not what they used to be?! Feel like there is more distance now that the world is virtually a much smaller place…at least in my case!
