two points i have to make…

on the tejpal issue…

1. echoing what a former tehelka employee said in a TV interview… — if tejpal, 50 years old, considered himself a father figure type to the young journalist, then even if she did make advances(for the sake of an argument) why didn’t he say stop, and sit her down and have a chat with her, instead of doing what he did.
isn’t that what a father figure would do?

and on the aarushi issue

2. why was a live-in manservant needed in the Talwar home, in the first place? it’s a nuclear family with working parents and a girl in her early teens — I am sure no one needs constant domesticity /attention, esp a sort that can be given only by a man –( a man’s services may be needed if there was an invalid, some heavy lifting and such like…)

wishing these two crimes had never happened. horrible.

#flashfictioninindia

She got dressed. Wore her long earrings. Slipped on her red fit flops. Reached the passport office. The officials said she had all the necessary documents. She got her passport renewed.  

firstborn participates in a group singing

contest at school…

so far so good.

but when he remembers the name of the judge and reports it neatly. “It was a Vinaya Aunty, ma” he tells me.

I am stunned.

this is firstborn. who forgets there are lunchboxes to be carried to school. that yesterdays lunchboxes must be kept outside the bag.
the firstborn who neatly solves the easier Sudokus but thinks that there exists a paper called the “times of hindu”. the firstborn who responds after the sixth summon and claims it was the first time I called out.

Still stunned I ask…

“But how did you remember her name, child, after all the contest was held at 9 am and it is now almost 6 in the evening?”

“Because her name sounds like R Vinay Kumar, ma. who plays for RCB. and he has spikey brown hair, and just played against Australia; that’s why.”

oh.

duh. why didn’t I think of that.

you know baby param is a city kid

because he thinks cows have horns for honking… just like a car.

only difference is that the sound they make when they honk their horn is “moo.”

#factsoflife

the mmmim looks in while firstborn is solving maths problem and I am correcting the work.

 

“firstborn, the only difference between you and your ma is that your ma looks at the book answers.”

__

heh heh

i have been tedxing

as in watching some speeches on tedx.

here are some of what I liked watching…

the first video is dr. jill, a scientist who had a stroke, and here’s her almost freewheeling speech. I watched her interview on oprah, sometime ago in KL. I need to buy her book on amazon.in, asap.

the speech is unlike a speech, and she is now famous for the quote …” Please take responsibility for the energy you bring into this space”

___

and this next video is very logical, peppered with wry humour on food and dieting. by an MD. and on my pet project — fasting…

___

i liked what this man did. he gave away one thing he owned everyday for one year — books, shoes, CDs, clothes, bookcases, furniture, photo frames etc etc — and blogged about it. everyday.
am tempted to start something similar, as well… (ma, are you reading)

and amazingly he lost considerable weight at the end of the year…
he makes a point about how much our possessions weigh us down, quite.

—

and my blog turns five years old this month. i should do a giveaway, no? or procrastinate procrastinate and do it next year — and what would be a good giveaway? something from

http://mayacravestocreate.wordpress.com/

(the creator is a friend)

or should i give away somethings from my home?

v. puzzling. so i am sitting on the fence, as i key this in…

the more things change…

… the more they remain the same,

30 something deepavalis, and I still am peering at the wire-sparkler… wondering which side lights up?

have a great deepavali! I hope you all are having better luck with the wire-sparkler than I am…