With a lil help from aunts , uncles and people I don’t really know…..

I am tired, just dog tired. Last couple of weeks K and I have been arranging a function which happened over this weekend. It thankfully went on well, with the help of friends and family and basically I was kicked that I survived with 2 hours sleep and didn’t freeze in cold October air (Don’t ask !!!). The last month was exasperating and exhilarating in equal measure.

When I was younger, I used to love family functions, this was the time to dress up and eat well. Of course mom and aunts would be running around, and we girls would twirl around in our pretty silk pavadai’s (skirts) , waiting for the time we could wear the Sarees and heavy jewelry reserved for special occasions. The running around, was primarily to feel the anklets and bangles jangling , against the rustle of silk. Growing up, I started avoiding the functions because it meant helping mom which essentially added up to cutting bucket loads of vegetables and a whole lot of preparatory cooking work. It also meant the older aunts who looked over you, judging when you’ll enter the marriage market and subtle hints on how I should stop gorging on the vadai’s (fried patties) to do so. (Well aunty, I didn’t stop and K still married me – So there :D ) !!. When I turned 25 these functions became concentration of excruciating pain. Every time someone blessed you, it was to find a “Good boy” quickly ( I mean how many of us girls are willingly searching for bad boys ???) . So through this subconscious blessing, you do agree to marry someone you have known for a month consciously thinking that the third degree will stop, but that’s where you are fooled. The next one is of course ( all married woman say this with me) “When’s the baby coming – your getting older”. Well I know , I’m getting older, but a constant reminder about my ticking biological clock, which might just explode because of the strain of my age is kind of worrying :) ! But thinking about it , its this pressure, that makes people go ahead and how do I put this delicately – reproduce. I mean in the current scenario, no one wants to change their life. I love my little quirks that are selfishly mine. I hate early mornings and any type of physical activity .I love curling up with a book anytime, when I don’t have to work. Cleaning is not my forte and cooking for two is my only specialty. With the rising prices, you really don’t want to spend a small fortune on diapers which last a sum total of 3 minutes. So I wonder, if these aunts , uncles and totally unknown persons who are just plain inquisitive were created for people like me. The ones who are perfectly happy to stay in one place through their lives refusing to move or change. If it wasn’t for these folks, I would probably be in my mother’s kitchen chewing on a vadai and reading a old Agatha Christy. Actually thinking about it, that sounds good now (Sigh!)

But its people also known as society which actually bring about improvements or changes in our lives. We might hate them and they may be the most annoying people around, who really just need a life. But to take the next step , these annoying infuriating people actually make you consider options that you probably may not. For all the single woman out there, I am not saying you should follow their every direction, but sometimes just looking at the direction they are pointing at, will maybe take you to a place, that you always wanted but never knew how to get there. It not only marriage or spouse related. I remember when I was younger, one of these busy bodies told my mother, that she should get me married when I was 18 , because there was no way I would pass my high school with good enough marks for college. Well to blow my own horn (as no one else will :D) I scored a perfect 100 in my main subject, just to prove her wrong. So Mrs.R , wherever you are , thank you !

This post is actually inspired by my 3 year wedding anniversary and better still my birthday next week (K’s joy is that they are on the same day, so all he has to remember is one date in a full year and my promise is that if he doesn’t, it gives me reason for justifiable homicide !) . With every birthday I analyze my year and figure out all the places where I could have done better. At the end of it I am so tired counting my mistakes, that I just fall asleep thankful I lived another year :D !! But this year , I call my “grown up year”. Why, because every person I met or spoke to , taught me something - not really life saving, but just something which I need to wrap my mind around. I learnt how people can be racist or plain rude, with no clue that are being so, people hold on to words spoken in jest so close that words are mightier than the sword and most importantly, you cant always win and sometimes its better not to. Somehow this year I keep going back to my childhood (No I’m not old enough to start reminiscing with “Back in good old days”!!). And now after this function, I feel that I am standing in my mothers slippers, during the days of the function. Where your so busy trying to just ensure that everything is going just right and sky doesnt fall on your head, you turn around to see little girls in pretty skirts and boys in their best dressed clothes running around, you remember what these occasions mean. Not only a time to bring friends and family together, but to see the next generation running around and understand what those aunts, uncles and other unknown individuals were actually talking about.

Also before I end, I wanted to do a shout out to my sis, whose birthday is a day ahead of mine. She is 7 years older than me and a thousand decades more wiser. So “Happy Birthday P, I’m sure this year every one of your positive thoughts will materialize into actuality ”.

For the smile…

Out Of The Mouths Of Babes.......
After teaching the children about Salvation, the Teacher asked her Sunday School Class: "If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the Church, would that get me into Heaven?"

"NO!" the children all answered. "If I cleaned the Church every day, mowed the yard, and kept
Everything neat and tidy, would that get me into Heaven?"

Again, the answer was, "NO!" "Well, then, if I was kind to animals and gave candy to all the children, and loved my husband, would that get me into Heaven?" The Teacher asked them again.

Again, they all answered, "NO!" "Well," The Teacher replied, "then how can I get into Heaven?" A five-year-old boy shouted out, "YOU GOTTA BE DEAD!"

Keep Smiling ppl,
Anu