THRIVING IN TIMES OF COVID19 – 3

April 30, 2020Leave a comment

I live on the third floor of our building. Most of the houses in the neighborhood are either G+1 floor or G+2 floors. As a result, I can get visibility of far more buildings and terraces than if I were living on the first floor. One the results of the COVID19 lockdown is that the terraces of the buildings in my neighborhood have become relaxation/ socialization spots for people in the evenings. I live in a densely crowded part of the city and going for a walk on the streets is not advisable. Since its peak summer here and staying indoors for an extended period of time is extremely suffocating, a stroll in the terrace is a welcome break or rather an unusual luxury during these extraordinary times.

The terrace of the apartment complex immediately behind my house gets converted into a cricket field @ 5.20 pm almost everyday. A guy in his fifties comes to play with his two sons, one probably in his late teens and another in his preteens. They look like Tamilians but the boys talk only in Hindi. As is usually the case with boys of this age and age gap, they keep quarreling a lot about a potential catch, wrong delivery, bad shot and on and on. The dad is an extreme contrast to his sons, he rarely speaks and the look on his face resembles that of a Zen monk. After the match and on days when his sons don’t come to play cricket he goes for a brisk walk on the terrace. I think the elder son goes for cricket coaching and I have seen him do exercises (similar to the ones done perform cricket coaching sessions) on the terrace.

I have seen a couple of ladies go for walking or do warm-up exercises in the evening. But they never interact and one of them is always wearing a earphone connected to her mobile. Around 8 to 8.30 PM a couple of college guys come to the terrace to talk on mobiles. Sometimes they also do group study on the terrace. The terrace of the building beyond this one gets converted into a playground for less than 10 year olds. They are mostly accompanied by their grand parents. Sometimes I see these kids lean on the parapet wall and talk to kids in the next terrace or kids standing in their balconies in the next building.

On the terrace of the house immediately to the left of my house an elderly man and an elderly lady (most likely a couple) go for a walk in the evenings. The lady goes for a very brisk walk while chatting on mobile phone; Abishek Bachan would be proud that she is following his maxim: Walk & Talk. The guy generally strolls slowly with the look of reluctance in his face. The house and the apartments next to this building also have someone or the other in walk & talk mode. The family in the house immediately in front of my house never venture to their terrace or their balconies in the evenings. However one of the persons who lives in the house aging about sixty comes to his balcony in the mornings and chants come mantra while holding a little bit of water on his right palm.

On the terrace diagonally in front of my house, there is a very small roof garden with flowering plants. Every evening a guy in his forties or a lady in her sixties are either watering the plant or doing some sort of attending to the plants. There is a railway line of Elevated Metro Train Service very near my house. In normal days you could see and hear the sound of the trains. With the lockdown in place, the trains have gone silent. Despite all these people that I have described doing some activity or the other, a vast majority of the people still do not venture out to the terraces. Not sure, what do they do keep themselves occupied and remain sane.

Thriving in times of COVID19 – 2

April 29, 2020April 29, 2020Leave a comment

There are a bunch of trees near my house, a rarity in my city these days. As a result I get to see a bunch of birds every time I step into my house terrace. Ever since shifting to this house I have made it a point to feed the crows that live in the nearby trees. Since the lock-down feeding the crows has become a ritual. I feed them twice a day, once around 10.30 AM and once around 4 PM. It’s a fascinating sight to see the crows flying towards my house as I start placing food on the parapet wall of our terrace.

As the days have passed I have noticed a few smaller things that I have not paid much attention to in the past. The crows do seem to have their favorite foods: Chapathis are their favorite, bread comes next and they like savories like Ompodi & Mixture. The have a particular liking for Medu Vadai. They are ok with biscuits, water melon & musk melon but do not seem to like bananas. They don’t like Sundal either. Crows also exhibit different personality traits: some of them descend down on the wall pick up their share of food and fly back to the trees, some sit on the wall and eat uneasily, while others rather than eating, shout on top of their voice to broadcast to others that food is available.

I get to see other birds too. There are a bunch of pigeons that live in the neighborhood. My immediate next house neighbor places water in mud plates on his terrace for the pigeons, so they have kind of made his terrace their home. Two of the pigeons come to eat if I place scraps of fruits for the crows. Ditto for a couple of squirrels. The pigeons and squirrels come to eat only after most of the crows have left. A couple of times I have seen a solitary Myna too eating on our terrace. However all these creatures make a quick exit if I even get near the door of our terrace.

There are about 4 parrots living in a hole on the side walls of apartments two building from my house. I can see them only in the morning around 8 AM but they seem to vanish from sight after that. In the evening they will be flying at high-speed from one tree to another. Guess they have the same attitude of adolescent guys indulging in bike racing in East-coast Road. I have never seen these parrots coming to eat at my house or drink at my neighbors house. May be once of the days, I need to wake up at daybreak and see what these parrots are up to.

I also get to see cranes flying in the sky; guess they are moving towards Foreshore Estate where there is creek / backwaters. I get to see eagles gliding high in the sky over a nearby hotel, the most that I have seen is six of them. I guess a crows have made nest on the terrace of the hotel. From time to time, I see a couple of crows trying to chase a solitary eagle; it’s like watching fighter planes indulging in dogfight. Most of the times, the crows seem to be successful; happy ending… for the crows and hungry tummy for the eagles.

Around 6 PM, the villains of the current season, Bats start making their appearance in the sky. It’s quite a scary sight to see a constant stream of bats flying from south-east to the north-west direction. I guess they are coming from somewhere near Foreshore Estate where there are a couple of water-bodies and a lot of trees, but I am not sure. Once the bats start gracing the sky with their appearance, I shut the terrace door and get back into the house. The sun by this time would be beating a hasty retreat and in no time mosquitoes would be busy making everybody’s life uncomfortable.

It’s my deepest wish or daydream that on one of the days when I open my terrace door to feed the crows there should be bunch of Scarlet Macaw Parrots or a couple of Indian Peafowls sitting on my terrace’s parapet wall.

There’s a Circus in Town

April 11, 2019Leave a comment

There’s a circus in town

Election circus is in town

Selling us Utopia

Cashing on our Myopia

Begging for our votes

Enticing us with notes

There’s a circus in town

Election circus is in town

Bottles mask the potholes

Money masks the assholes

The trivial trumps the actual

The troll trumps the factual

There’s a circus in town

Election circus is in town

Clowns pose as knights

As defaulters board flights

Caste & cult, a heady combo

Leaving the nation in a Limbo

There’s a circus in town

Election circus is in town

Devotion to them is delusion

Choice is but an illusion

Election day is quite an occasion

Leading to five years of suffocation

There’s a circus in town

Election circus is in town

All of us yearn for the pinnacle

All we get is election spectacle

Money and power are in bed

Leaving our democracy in red

There’s a circus in town

Election circus is in town

The crooks get the crowns

And make us all clowns

It’s been quite a long night

There’s no dawn still in sight

There’s a circus in town

Election circus is in town

The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell

July 29, 2016Leave a comment

The Power of Myth

Yesterday I finished reading ‘The Power of Myth’ based on a televised conversation between Comparative Mythologist, Joseph Campbell and TV anchor, Bill Moyers. The book set in the conversational style and makes for an easy read.

The sentence ‘Myths are clues to spiritual potentialities of the human life’ appear in the opening chapter as well as the closing chapter of the book. And that’s one of the key messages that this conveys. The other key theme discussed in this book is the similarity or proximities between myths from different cultures, places and times. The close association, as per Campbell, is due to ‘certain powers in the psyche that are common to all mankind.’ As per Campbell, ‘Every mythology has to do with the wisdom of life as related to a specific culture at a specific time. It integrates the individual into his society and the society into the field of nature.’

Some of the countless nuggets of wisdom from the book:

Every religion is true in one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck to its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble.

If you think that the metaphor is itself the reference, it would be like going to a restaurant, asking for the menu, seeing beefsteak written there, and starting to eat the menu.

Compassion is the fundamental religious experience, and, unless that is there, you have nothing. (A very important observation given the current series of religion based hate crimes).

You get a totally different civilization and a totally different way of living according to whether your myth presents nature as fallen or whether nature is in itself a manifestation of divinity, and the spirit is the revelation of the divinity that is inherent in nature.

Life is pain, but compassion is what gives it the possibility of continuing.

It’s characteristic of democracy that majority rule is understood as being effective not only in politics but also in thinking. In thinking, of course, the majority is always wrong.

Giving birth is definitely a heroic deed, in that it is giving over of oneself to the life of another.

Making money gets more advertisement. So the thing that happens and happens and happens, no matter how heroic it may be, is not news. Motherhood has lost its novelty, you might say.

Our life evokes our character. You find out more about yourself as you go on. That’s why it’s good to be able to put yourself in situations that will evoke your higher nature rather than your lower.

Mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphorical.

The myth is the public dream and the dream is the private myth (just brilliant).

A legendary hero is usually the founder of something – the founder of a new age, the founder of a new religion, the founder of a new city, the founder of a new way of life.

In order to found something new, one has to leave the old and go in quest of the seed idea, a germinal idea that will have the potentiality of bringing forth that new thing.

You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning……. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation.
The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. (People carrying out the destruction of the ecology in pursuit of a fat bank account, please take a note.)
People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances within our own innermost reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.
What we’re learning in our schools is not wisdom of life. We’re learning technologies, we’re getting information. There’s a curious reluctance on the part of faculties to indicate the life values of their subjects.

When I was watching the movie Troy, based on Greek epic Iliad, I was struck while watching the scene in which Achilles is killed by an arrow piercing his heel which is similar to a scene from Hindu epic Mahabharata, in which Krishna is killed by an arrow piercing his foot. After reading this book, I now realize that there are countless similarities between mythologies from different parts of the world.

There is one striking conversation in the second chapter in which Moyers reads verses from the creation story in Genesis and Campbell gives equivalent verses from other cultures ranging from the Pima Indians in Arizona, the Hindu Upanishads from India and the Bassari People of West Africa.

There is another conversation in the book about a story from Persia that Satan was condemned to hell because he loved God so much. I remember the The parallel episode to this from Hindu stories where the gate keepers of Vaikuntam, the heavenly abode of God Vishnu, are cursed by a group of saints. On the intervention of God Vishnu they are given an option between staying away from Vishnu for six births if they praise Vishnu in each birth or staying away from Vishnu for three births if they denounce him in each birth. Not able to bear the thought of being away Vishnu for six births, they accept to denounce him and are born as Asoora (Demon-like) kings in their next three births.

Reading ‘The Power of Myth’ is the best way to realize that humanity as whole shares the same roots, shares the same resources, shares the same fears and ultimately shares the same fate on this earth. As they say: ‘God is Love and Love is God.’ Love life and let all life forms live and flourish on this beautiful planet. May the power of sanity be with us and lead us to embrace the God within each one of us.

Mirror mirror on the wall who is the most ritualistic of them all?

May 4, 2016May 5, 20162 Comments

Question Mark

It has become fashionable these days to question anything and everything related to beliefs and sentiments of Indians, especially anybody of knowledge or way of living handed to us by our earlier generation. Sadly it’s the Indians who indulge in this activity more than westerners. ‘In this age’…. Wow, I like the phrase, it makes me feel like mortality has been conquered, Planets unknown until recently have been colonized, India has become the richest and the most equitable country in the universe, Elephants and Apes are signing in Opera Houses, Humans have stopped unleashing hell on each other in the name of ideology and men have started giving birth to babies. None of the above have become true and the fact is that this age is not much different from the by-gone ones.

It seems to me that to some us anything that our elders taught us is ritualistic, burdensome and not relevant anymore. Going to a place of worship on an auspicious day…. That’s too ritualistic. Touching the feet of our elders… that is so uncool. Living in harmony with nature…that’s not relevant to this age. We are quick and proud to declare that each one of these is just a solace to fight our fears and insecurities. We are one hundred percent sure that our ancestors were delusional crackpots who made our life miserable by making us dance to the tunes of meaningless rituals. ‘To Hell with the Rituals.’

Well, let’s look at some of the super-cool episodes from the rational life and ultra-modern age of ours. When a bunch of friends want to meet, the place that we choose is most often a bar and we can’t discuss about the happenings in our life without gulping a few glasses of alcohol. Does this not sound like a ritual? When a bunch of youngsters want to travel bike from one place to another, they have to ride without wearing helmets, have to over speed on the roads and honk horns like hell. Does this not sound like a ritual? Any new movie has to be watched on the day of its release and we have to perform abhishekam to the hero’s cutout wasting either our or our parent’s hard earned money. Does this not sound like a ritual? Smoking has become so integral to the act of colleagues taking a break from work for a chat, that the session is popularly called as ‘Sutta Socializing Session.’ If this is not a ritual what else would you call as a ritual?

Oh let’s not forget our trips to malls and shopping therapies every single weekend. How about evening after evening spent watching IPL, ISL and Pro Kabbaddi matches? How about a ‘Facebook Like’ for every random post by our friends and ‘Updates on Twitter’ for every trivial action of ours? How about compulsory selfies at get-togethers? What about the mother of all modern day rituals – Valentine’s Day Celebration? Isn’t showering lover or spouse with cards, gifts, flowers and lavish dinners at upscale restaurants on one particular day every year a ritual?

The fact is Beer Bash, Valentine’s Day Celebration and Over Speeding on Roads are as much ritualistic as visiting a place of worship or fasting for religious reasons. The last two are rituals that have been handed down to us and the first three are the ones that we ourselves have added to the list. Nothing more and nothing less. The reasons attributed to each one of them may vary. The demographics of the population indulging in each of these activities may vary as well. Value systems, aside each of these rituals is a method to the madness for traversing through the chaos called Life. The Indian way of life is very flexible. After all we are not a nation that restrict our political sphere to only two political parties. We have hundreds of languages and multiple religions. We have as much choice possible in most issues that are important to us. What matters is that each one of us rationally chooses a way of life that is meaningful and provides satisfaction to us. What is even more important is not to mock, ridicule or look down upon the way of life that is suitable to another person. Let’s make ‘Mutual Respect to Each Other,’ the foundation for our ‘Indian Way of Living.’

Note: This post is written for IndiSpire – Edition 115: ‘We Indians give too much importance to rituals…visiting a temple on a particular day, fasting for religious reasons…are these relevant in this age? Or they are just a solace to fight our fears and insecurities? #rituals’

My Blogging Story

April 24, 2016April 24, 2016Leave a comment

I created my first blog on ‘Blogger’ platform and named it as ‘Eastern Sputnik.’ Sputnik means ‘travelling companion,’ since I was interested in travelling and am from the eastern world I gave the above said name to my blog. A colleague of mine mentioned to me at that time that the name does not make much sense; however in order to avoid going in a tangent, let me skip that discussion. My first post was ‘Religion – Should we Believe in it or not!’ I continued publishing posts on this blog though only very sporadically; in all I published only 11 posts from March 2007 to May 2010 and I had only 2 followers, both of them my friends. Then I completely forgot about blogging.

After a long hiatus I decided to get back to blogging. But instead of continuing at my blogspot blog, I decided to create a new one at WordPress (based on the advantages that WordPress offered over Blogspot). I named the blog as ‘Yogi’s Blogosmos’ a combination on Blog and Cosmos. I posted my first post ‘Success’ on October 19, 2014. I use this as a personal blog to post personal narratives, book reviews, free-verse & haiku poems and photos. I have posted 105 posts including this one and so far I have 91 followers. One of the biggest motives of starting a blog is to get into a habit of writing. But soon I realized that not everything that I write is fit to be posted. Hence I started maintaining a journal to scribble whatever comes to my mind and then I decided on which ones to post to my blog.

Based on a friend’s advice, I enrolled in IndiBlogger to popularize my blog. At the start of the year I decided to use the prompts posted in ‘IndiSpire’ to write blog posts. After religiously writing based on these prompts, I found that some of the prompts are not to my liking and are not in my interest areas. These days I check the IndiSpire prompt every week and if I find that interesting then I publish a post based on the prompt like this post which is based on IndiSpire edition 114: ‘Tell us your blogging story. When did you start? Why did you start? Everything.’

At the beginning of the year I made a resolution to publish at least two blog posts a week. I have been falling back on that target. Discipline is still a big issue when it comes to blogging or maintaining my journal. I am happy with the progress that I have made so far but I also realize that there is a long way to go. Blogging has given me a platform to publish my thoughts and helped me to improve my writing skills. As a result of trying earnestly to improve my writing skills, this year I had my first piece of published work in an anthology. I have come a long way on my writing journey which has been an enjoyable and exciting one so far.

ABCs of the pursuit of everlasting Happiness

March 26, 2016March 26, 20161 Comment

The Pursuit of Everlasting Happiness is like…..

Ascent of an imaginary summit

Bathing with nothing but air

Carving a sculpture without tools

Dive in to a bottomless ocean

Eating with a hungry ghost

Flight to an unreachable horizon

Gathering sand grains on the seashore

Hoping onto an endless rollercoaster

Influencing a million people with silence

Journey through emotional cliffs and valleys

Knitting the world with a stream of words

Lecturing a bunch of puppies

Measuring a shape shifting monster

Never ending marathon

Oscillating between darkness and light

Pursuit of an oasis of quicksand

Quarrelling with oneself

Racing back in time

Star gazing on a cloudy night

Taming a wild beast

Unleashing nothing

Valuing the invaluable

Wedding with a quirky stranger

X-ray of skeleton less body

Yawning while underwater

Zooming into a black hole

Happiness

March 17, 20164 Comments

Happiness is an eternal quest. Happiness is a mirage. Happiness is like passing clouds. There are two kinds of happiness: Happiness that we derive by doing the things that we like and happiness that we derive by doing the right things irrespective of whether we like it or not. Happiness is not a one-size fits all suit. The activities that lead to happiness in one stage of our life will not lead to happiness in a different stage in life; it might look outright absurdity too. Happiness can’t be expressed well with words but we can recognize moments when we were/are happy (if we are not evaluative or critical).

While I am sleeping do I actually know that I am sleeping? The moment that I try to gauge my level of happiness or if I am happy at all, I am no happier. Happiness can be achieved by being in the moment. Happiness is the fuel that drives life forward. Without happiness, that sense of well-being, what is the point of the pursuit called life? It is better to identify the unique set of activities and things from which we derive happiness than being driven in pursuit of the social stereotypes of happiness. Enough of the philosophical rhetoric on happiness.

Now to the practical aspect of how I experience happiness in my daily life. To me happiness is series of little moments scattered across my entire lifetime. My pursuit of happiness is as unique as me. Below are the list of things/ activities that give/have given me happiness at different times:

Unexpected rain on a summer day
A sip of water post a bite of chilly
Patience to laugh at my own follies
The wag of tail by man’s best friend
Strange sounds of feathery vagabonds
Extended slumber sessions on a holiday
The roses that blossom in my rose plant
A timeless statue smiling at me in vanity
Reading a favorite book at a leisurely pace
Kind words by my wife in times of distress
Playing a prank on my sisters and friends
Unspent money in the wallet at month-end
Eternal race of endless waves on the seashore
The moment a favorite dish melts in my mouth
Pretending to lose to my child in a boxing match
A cocktail of music that takes me on a time travel
An endless road inviting to an unexplored journey
Walk on the seashore while enjoying dawn or dusk
Droplets of water hanging on to a leaf like dear life
A game of cricket with old buddies on a lazy Sunday
The radiant smile of my child after a hard day’s work
The aroma of freshly baked bread as I walk past a bakery
A cold water bath of hot day and hot water bath on a cold day
A favorite movie whose dialogues that I can remember by heart
Stumbling upon an old friend in a crowded market in a new city
The new language scripted by my daughter when she started talking
As a young boy, holding my parents hands when we went out for a walk
The tiny dot of light turning the endless canvas called sky into infinite shades
A fraction of heat from the tea mug that seeps into my palm on a cold morning

Note: This post has been written for Indiblogger’s Indispire edition 108: ‘What does happiness mean to you? Do you go looking for happiness?’

My Daughter’s First Annual Day (Part Two)

March 14, 2016April 12, 2016Leave a comment

On 10^th March, we reached the venue for the annual day exactly by the stipulated time which is kind of a cosmic miracle considering my life-long issues (should I say my legacy) with time management. Looks like the school authorities had accounted for Indians’ Standard Time (which is basically being at least 30 minutes late for any program) and the program was nowhere near getting started. Slowly the venue started getting filled.

The rebellious mothers of my daughters’ class decided to ditch the golden color overcoat for the girls and instead to use a mini-apron in the same color as the skirt. I basically left my wife to sit with my daughter, her classmates and their respective mother and moved to another row to sit with my daughter’s classmate’s father. As I looked at the bright and colorful costumes of kids in other dances, I felt that may be my wife was right about my daughter’s dance costume. Seriously, what was I thinking? I should have been extremely naïve or extremely audacious to doubt the judgement of an Indian Mom. Lesson learned: It’s ok to doubt the judgement of your wife in her role as wife, but it’s naïve to doubt her judgement in role as a mother. Thankfully my daughter’s class teacher did not object or question the slight change in costume for the girls and what could have been an unpleasant conversation was averted.

My daughter’s dance program was listed as the eleventh one in the itinerary. There was only one skit which was kind of narration skit that introduced each and every dance performance. In all there were eleven dance performances for songs including Barbie World, Macarena, Tarzan and Jane, Witch Doctor, etc. There were even a couple of Hindi And Tamil folk dances too.

Once the Annual Day Programs started they proceeded at a break neck speed. Each class had its own dance performance. The school authorities ensured that all the kids in the class including kids with special needs also participated in the performance, which is commendable. For all the dance programs the respective class teachers would also dance in front of the stage so that the kids follow them and dance. It was kind of funny and heartwarming to watch the activities of the kids on stage. The dances were far from perfect but even imperfection is perfection when it involves kids. Some of kids were distracted seeing their parents capturing videos of the dance performance, which was exactly what the school authorities forewarned and forbade.

My daughter’s dance performance went very well. The showstopper of the evening was a speech by a girl thanking all the teachers and parents. She spoke very well for five minutes with just one minor hiccup which for her age is a tremendous achievement. At the end of the Annual Day function after the National Anthem, most of the people were in a hurry to leave the venue which I could not understand as the program got over well ahead of time.

We went onstage and took a few snaps of my daughter with her friends, class teacher and school head. We also thanked our daughter’s class teacher for all her efforts. The Teachers should be thanked for all their efforts and preparation for the annual day. It is very difficult to make children of this age perform in unison and the teachers had done a remarkable job. On the way home, my wife sponsored our Celebratory Dinner at Cream Center.

My Daughter’s First Annual Day (Part One)

March 13, 2016Leave a comment

On 10th March, my daughter’s playschool, ‘Eurokids – Kotturpuram,’ conducted their annual day. The event was held in another school’s auditorium in Alwarpet. The school had planned for the programs in such a way that all the kids participated in at least one program. My daughter was participating in ‘Tarzan and Jane’ dance. In the run-up to the annual day, my daughter kept us informed with the happenings in her dance practice sessions.

About ten days back when my daughter’s class teacher revealed the costumes for the dance, the mothers of girl children in the class almost blinked in sync in disbelief. Since the song was based on Tarzan, the teacher had chosen for girls’ black full hand t-shirt, black full trouser with a blue mini-skirt and a golden over coat. They had problem with choice of costume, the color, etc. My wife was one of the rebellious mothers who was hell-bent on ensuring that her daughter shines like an angel from another world.

My wife and my daughters classmates’ mothers were left fuming further when they came to know the choices made by other class teachers: Pink Barbie Gown, Colorful Beach Trousers and T-Shirts, Gagra-Choli, etc. In the days leading up to the annual day, I can safely assume that these mothers hated their daughters’ class teacher more than their respective mother-in-laws. There were suggestions and counter-suggestions going back and forth. Not a single day passed without my wife complaining about the dance costume and feeling bad that while other kids would have wonderful costume, our daughter would have a (a perceived) funny costume. I finally managed to pacify her saying that ‘we would buy all kinds of good looking costume for our daughter but not a jungle themed costume; so in way the teacher is doing us a favor!’

Two days before the event when the teacher handed over the costume to us, my wife’s blood pressure reached the stratosphere. I tried to reason with her and calm her down; however she suddenly took George W. Bush kind of stance against me, ‘If you are not with us you’re against.’ Not wanting get crushed under the wrath of the Lady Tsunami in the house, I basically chose to confine my logical opinion to the safest corner in my house, which is basically within my own head!!! My wife rang up one of my daughter’s classmate’s mother and the two moms brainstormed on how the situation can be salvaged.

My wife altered the length of the skirt and with the remaining cloth made head bands and rubber-bands of the same color for all the five girls in the dance. My daughter’s classmate’s mother went even further: she managed to trace down the cloth used in the skirt to a shop in T. Nagar and found a tailor who would stitch a mini-apron for all the five girls in one-single day. And on the day of the event they were getting ready to unleash a ‘Fashion Revolution.’ Wow, hats off to these Supermoms!!! Viva Fashion Revolution!!!

Well, what did the dads do? One, we never interacted much, so the idea of coordination between us is never going to take flight. Two, our fashion sense is as weak as the depleted knee bone of ninety year old man; so the lady in the respective household is never going to allow us to decide on something as important as the costume for the daughter’s first annual day. Three, we are VERY LAZY to do so much work in one single day; Therefore all of us should have independently come to the same conclusion: ‘we would buy all kinds of good looking costume for our respective daughters but not a jungle themed costume; so in way the teacher is doing us a favor!!!’ I think that was the right conclusion since we need not be disturbed from our state of bliss called as ‘Inertia!’