Wednesday, July 29, 2009

An Evening of HahahahaHehehehehe

It was a lazy Friday evening when I received an sms for the S Ve. Shekar drama to be held in Bangalore. I was immediately transported to the years I spent living in Chennai. I was introduced to S Ve Shekar's brand of humour by friends and cousins. We spent countless afternoons listening to his cassettes and laughing at his jokes. We actually even knew some of the dialogues by-heart. "Yenna Mirugam Aakathe" was a personal favorite that was usually uttered by the actor who played S Ve Shekar's father in the drama. I soon liked his clean sense of humour and his comic timing, which was an amazing contrast to the Sendhil-Goundamani comedy style that was sweeping Tollywood. I wished I could attend a live performance - but alas that never happened while I was in Chennai. So, receiving this sms was like a "Wah Wah Woo".

I pestered the Arien to book tickets but he was not too keen. Finally after a lot of rhona-dhona, usually a major part of all tamil mega serials, I got my way. The Senior Arien was going to be all-alone over the weekend as the Taurean was away at Chennai. Used version 2 of rhona-dhona and managed to get a Yes from him as well.

Sunday, 4:10 pm, saw us (the senior Arien, the Arien, and self) happily driving to "Ghana Sabha". I had amazingly deleted all the smses and so was not sure of the name of the place. An auto-driver informed me that there was no "Ghana Sabha" in K R Road and that I am probably looking for "Ghayana Samaj". After reaching K R Road, and taking various detours, we finally reached Ghayana Samaj at 5:15 pm. While the Arien goes to park the car, I get the tickets by sharing the online booking id and the senior Arien is asking ppl standing outside if the show has begun - we suddenly spot the comedian himself sauntering past us. He has not changed much. He is extra-ordinarily fair in person and he speaks in a typical tam-bram accent when he informs the organizer that he does not want to make the audience wait any longer. Both the Senior Arien and self are busy gogling at him, beaming at none in particular, when the Arien walks up and asks us 'bout the tickets - we tell him in hushed tones that HE jes walked by.

At 5:30, the play titled "Periya Thambi" began. It was a new experience for the Arien. The Senior Arien and self were laughing away to glory. It was funny, familiar, laced with political inundoes, and naughty as well. The auditorium was one of those "Thaatha Kalathu sabhas" and soon it was pretty warm inspite of the fans. We were seated 5 rows away frm the stage which was perfect - I spotted certain improvisations made by the artistes tht would not be visible frm say the 10th row. The grandfather who uttered senseless proverbs was hilarious. Its usually pretty tough doing a live show and I was pretty impressed at the way they performed. A young gal in the third row was recording the play using her cell phone and S Ve Shekar caught her and waved a No! from on stage. While it was pretty embarrassing for the gal and her companions, I was surprised he could make out smne was recording with all tht light on the stage and the near darkness that the audience is in. The play was 2 hours short and had an intermission for 10 mts after the first hour.

After the play, S Ve Shekar introduced all the cast members and he was at his funny best at tht time. He also thanked the audience for encouraging drama artistes by coming to these plays when temptation such as multiplexes lured you. He also shared details 'bout his first play in Bangalore. It was complete wholesome entertainment and we had a Hahahahahehehehehe evening. Both the Ariens enjoyed the different experience inspite of creating all tht fuss earlier :D

Friday, July 24, 2009

Not Without My Daughter

It was a hectic saturday and after checking all the items on my To-Do list, I reached for my "If-Possible" list. The only item on that list was to visit the library. Happy that we had completed all the tasks planned for the weekend on a single day - we went to the library. After picking up 3 books (all fiction), I was drawn to a book on the Non-Fiction section titled "Not Without My Daughter". I added that book to my collection and the Arien added 1 magazine to this collection and we were all set.

It was Wednesday when I got around to reading "Not Without My Daughter". As I read it, I was reminded of one of my childhood nightmares that would occur everytime I saw a horror movie. It is a sunny evening and I am happily walking hand-in-hand with a frend into a huge crowd. Suddenly, the crowd disappears, there is a huge storm and I am all alone with my friend.. who is now a monster. The fear that wud grip my heart was smthng I wud feel even after I woke up frm the nightmare. There are many places in this book that feel like I am walking into the same nightmare only in slow motion.

The story begins with Betty, an american woman married to Mahmoody, an Iranian doctor, going on a two-week vacation to Iran with Mahtob, their daughter. From the beginning of the vacation, Betty feels that they may never come back to America. Betty, Moody, and Mahtob stay at Amee Bozorg's house. Amee Bozorg is Mahmoody's respected older sister. Betty finds the entire stay at their place very difficult but is willing to compromise as it is only a two week holiday. On the day of their departure, Betty is all dressed to leave when she realizes that there is some issue with the tickets and that they will leave in a few days time. Days change to weeks, and Betty learns that Mahmoody has lost his job in the US and has no plans of returning to the US. He also wants to admit Mahtob to an Iranian school. The rest of the story is about how Betty gets back to the US.

The story evokes a lot of sympathy for Betty, especially the sections where she describes how her various escape plans are thwarted time and again, when she is not allowed to call her family in the US and find out how her kids from her former marriage are doing, how her dad, diagnosed with terminal cancer, is doing. And also, towards the end where she has described her perilous journey from Iran to the US. While Betty has potrayed herself as an intelligent, astute typical american, she has potrayed Mahmoody as an evil, illogical, violent Iranian man prone to fits of depression. I feel she was playing it safe by sticking to stereotypes. The book was also made into a movie starring Sally Field, Roshan Seth and others.

Mahmoody has also presented his side of the story in another movie titled "Without my Daughter". His grouse is that he can never enter the US - thanks to Betty. And he states that he is the one without the daughter. Betty has not allowed Mahmoody to contact her or Mahtob.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Maid in India - Boon or bane of working women

With the topic title like that - I am sure you are reminded of class VIII debates that one wud b forced to participate in. Well, this is not a debate and neither is it a post 'bout the notorious Shiney Ahuja case tht grabbed eyeballs. In fact, now that it is clear that the not-so-shiney Ahuja did indeed rape a minor, I must admit that I had not pegged him as an offender at all. Surprisingly, almost everyone who knew him said tht he was incapable of such an act, including his poor wife, Anupam. Or shd I say poorer maid? Anyway, thts not the subject of this post.

When my maid wanted 3 days leave to help out a distant relative around Christmas last year, if we had had any idea that we wud never see her again or how quickly our well-managed household wud fast become a mess - we wud have begged n pleaded with her to stay. Of course, since we did not know, we happily gave her leave to go. In the past 6 plus mnths - I have realized the important role a maid plays in the smooth functioning of my house and also how very difficult it is to get a good maid.

We have had maids who kept their own timings, demanded naashtha (breakfast), wanted Cha (tea) before they started work, or spoke too much. If they washed the dishes well, they did a bad job of sweeping and if they did a good job of sweeping they did a bad job of washing the dishes. It seemed so difficult to get a maid who did a good job of washing the dishes, sweeping and swabbing. Punctuality, cleanliness, gossip soon became the least of our concerns. They actually seemed trivial in comparison.

Some Gems:
  • Stains? I cannot see any stain on this tea-cup. I have worked for marwadis. Do you know how clean they expect their cups to be? [This was in response to my pointing out a very visible tea-stain on the inside of a white cup.]
  • Do I have to swab everyday? [This was a week after negotiating the salary based on the 3 things she has to do everyday: wash vessels, sweep the floor, and swab the floor.]
  • I will work only wen you are there. [This comment had the Arien jumpin up n down. He said "Does she think I am another shiney?? Grrrr" A trip to KFC and a lot of "She did not mean tht... Its ok" helped him calm down n decide against kicking this maid out.]
  • I am part of the ladies club and we meet at 4 pm every sunday. Can I just do the dishes for today? [Do I have to say anything?? ]
  • Aunty, has uncle gone out??? [Whaaattt??? She was the mother of two toddlers and I was the aunty? Grrr..]
  • When do you plan to have children? [Whoaa???]

Pfhwah!! Phew!!! Blaaaah!!! GRRRR!!! We had had enuf of it. We even did a pilot without having any one for close to a month. By end of month, we were praying for a maid. I was ready to accept all her conditions. I decided not to have any conditions of my own. As you can see, I was pretty desperate for a maid to help me out with some of the household chores. I brought this topic up at general get-togethers and this is what I found:

  • No Maid?? Are you kidding me?? I have a toddler and in-laws staying with me. We have a cook, a maid, and a driver.
  • Why wud I want to do all this menial work?? My brain will be pakaoed. I have a life.
  • My maid cooks, cleans, sweeps, swabs, and washes clothes as well. I pay her well and she is almost like an extended family. She has breakfast and lunch at my home and packs some for her kids as well.
  • Initially, when my MIL insisted that we don't need a maid for the two of us, I agreed. Our marriage almost crumbled under the pressure that I was going through. I don't care how the older generation managed... I cannot manage on my own. The maid brought a lot of peace in my home.
  • I think a housewife does not need a maid. If you are working, it is better to opt for one. It also depends on the kind of work tht you do, and the support-system you have. Some one who has a stress-free life with fixed timings can take on additional tasks - if she so feels like it.

Interesting huh??!! So, what do you think??