Twenty- five Seven

Holding up half the sky

May 7, 2015

“Madam ji, can you lend me some money?”

“But why? Every month you ask me for advance. I find it very difficult to keep track of things.”

“Madam ji, please, I really need the money to pay Kaushal’s fees.”

“Arre, every month you sing the same song. What about your husband. Isn’t he responsible for paying the fees too? Last month you took an advance to buy Kaushal’s uniform and books, the month before that you took some money for his tuition class. How long will you be the only one to look after your son?

“Madam ji, what to say? These men are useless. Every day he goes to Aunty’s shop and drinks a quarter.”

“What? A quarter? He will kill himself one day. Drinking himself to death.”

“Better he dies madam. At least I won’t have to beg every month. I can spend the money only on me and Kaushal.”

“What kind of a useless man you’ve married Divya! How did your mother let you?”

“She only found him Madam ji.”

Reluctantly Jyoti pulled out her wallet from her hand bag and took out a few Rs. 500 notes. For how long will this story go on she wondered. “Here, now be smart. Hide this from that drunk.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Gosh you look like a truck hit you,” said Gloria

” Feels like that. I haven’t slept a wink.”

” Really? All night movie?”

” Ha! I wish it was that. Anu was up the whole night. Poor thing was just crying all the time.”

“But why couldn’t Prashant help? Isn’t he on holiday?”

“Ya, he needs his beauty sleep. Had to get up for his trek to Matheran this morning.”

“What??? You mean to say the son of a gun actually went trekking this morning?”

“Yes, and I had to pack him sandwiches too.!”

“By the way, Madam, the CIROS delegation is coming to meet you this afternoon. I’ve reserved the VIP Conference room for you. And the Sales Team will run their presentation through with you by 11.”

Meghana sighed. It was tough being the CEO of a successful company but even tougher being a mom.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Darling, I hope you haven’t forgotten, the Head Office guys are coming to dinner next Tuesday.”

“Oof fo! I forgot.”

“How can you be so casual? You know how fussy Kapoor is. You have to create a good impression.”

“Ya but you know it is year end for me. I also have my commitments.”

“But you’re running the house. You should plan things better.”

“Ok let’s not fight.I’ll organise something,” said Priti, bristling as she put down the phone.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The scenarios are endless. The situations different but the parameters are almost always the same. It is the women who have to make the adjustments to keep the good ship floating, cruising and on even keel. It doesn’t matter whether the woman is educated, working or retired. It doesn’t really matter whether the husband is educated or considerate or kind- most women find themselves shouldering a heavier load when it comes to household responsibilites. Men happily delegate jobs to their wives, freely offer their services to others in need (don’t worry, my wife will help you).

#Sharing the Load just doesn’t mean helping in the physical housework. Men have to realise that they have to share the load of bringing up a family, provide emotional support and pull their weight as a team. The family is a unit that only works when both wheels move together in the same direction.

This post is also linked to Write Tribe ProBlogger Challenge

“I am writing for the #ShareTheLoad activity at BlogAdda.com in association withAriel.”
Thank You A to Z

May 5, 2015

Well as they say, all good things come to an end.

April was a month of madness for me, a month where I am totally blogged out. It has been challenging in more ways than one – firstly because I undertook two challenges at once albeit unknowingly. But what I learnt about this was that YES I CAN DO IT.

The A to Z challenge also taught me that it is far easier to plan and have an actual theme. I thought it would be easy to just wing it – wake up in the morning and write about the first word that comes to mind. Well, let me confess that this was far difficult. But I didn’t have a theme to start with because I didn’t exactly know how the road would take me. I discovered that I have a natural tendency to veer towards food so quite obviously my next year’s theme would be food related. So that’s one thing sorted out for next year’s challenge.

The A to Z challenge has a wide reach – over oceans and continents and spanning several generations. This amazing community is creative and I couldn’t get over how some letters inspired exactly or almost similar thoughts ( J had many bloggers write about Judgement) while at other times the same letter evoked so many varied responses.

I met some very interesting bloggers on the blogosphere which was both revealing and depressing. Revealing because several bloggers who have a large number of followers are not really good writers and I was astonished that despite their several grammatical mistakes they have a huge following. Consequently, this left me depressed at times and made me wonder about continuing blogging at all.

Finding my voice – Now that was something I was finding rather elusive. What exactly is my voice? I must confess that I kind of found it during this challenge.

But I also realised that despite my years of blogging there are several things I still need to address –

How to link back to other blogs
How to engage readers and other bloggers
How to grow my network
How to add graphics and pictures to my blog

These are areas which I am still grappling with. When I see other blogs with pictures I wonder how they manage to source them. Which search engine are they using? What sites do they use?

How much time do they spend on their blogs?

But all in all I enjoyed this challenge. I came across some lovely bloggers like Suzy, ( whose unique narration of the Ramayan leaves one spellbound), Athira, (whose wandering mind blew me away), Swati, (whose unique theme of writing a novella linked to a Novel got me hooked) Vineetha (whose void thoughts often made my hair stand), Shalzz (whose 26 hours before marriage really got my heart beating) and Inderpreet. (whose theme of Indian Writers introduced me to some new Indian authors) I got encouraging comments from Debbie (whose blog I enjoyed reading!) and got prompt support from Arlee (the Bird who started it all in the first place!) when I needed some help. And of course I can’t thank Corinne (you need a special hug for your everyday gyaan I can’t do without) and Vidya who truly smiles in an inspiring way) for their enthusiasm and encouragement.

So thank you all and thanks to those who I’ve forgotten to thank too! Thank you readers and fellow bloggers for your comments.

And thank you A to Z for this Challenge. I look forward to meeting you all next year!

Thanks also to Write Tribe that introduced me to this in the first place.
When the ground shakes

May 3, 2015

The last few days have been horrific for the people of Nepal. They’ve been horrific for several people all over the world too, those who’ve had their loved ones stuck in Nepal: with no news of their whereabouts and with no way to contact them. Even if Arnav thunders “the Nation wants to know, how a tragedy of this magnitude has occurred? ” no one can give an answer for when the ground shakes, all you can do is just pray that you stay grounded. Just pray that the fan swinging wildly over your head doesn’t fall down. Just pray that the walls around you don’t crumble and just pray that it all stays still.

I must have been hardly 3-4 years old when I remember the ground shaking. We were luckily out in the open, sleeping on the rope khatiyas out in the courtyard with the other families staying in our building. My memory is very vague as to why we were out there underneath the stars. Perhaps that was the way everyone slept in a Delhi summer but I distinctly remember being shaken like a rag doll. I was scared and couldn’t understand why everything seemed to be moving but luckily it stopped before anything could fall.

It was around seven years later when I felt the next tremors. This time we were in Pune and the Koyna river had just been dammed. The earth around was angry, furious at this violation and showed it one night. We woke up to the rumble of the beds moving beneath us and somehow made our way to my parents’ room. There the dog lay quivering and my father tried to open the bolt to get us out doors. He didn’t have his spectacles and tried to feel the bolt. The dog began to bark and we didn’t know whether to scream or laugh. My brother and I just clutched on to each other and then the trembling stopped.

Then in 2001 while the whole country was watching the Republic Day parade, I felt the fan overhead swing crazily and the ground beneath my feet shake. For a minute I wondered if I had lost my balance then my husband shouted out ” Did you feel the earth move?” That’s when I knew it was an earthquake.

There’s nothing really one can do when the ground beneath your feet begins to shake and frankly no amount of preparedness will every prepare you for such a tragedy.

With Nepal being the focus of a tragedy, my school WhatsApp group has been sending messages about what should be done in the event of an earthquake but from my first hand experience, when tragedy strikes your blood literally runs cold. All you work on is instinct and the only thing that helps is prayer.

The damage they say is enormous; it will take years for things to get back to normal again. But human beings are resilient and will slowly get there.

I’m also linking this to Write Tribe ProBlogger

Holding up half the sky

Thank You A to Z

When the ground shakes