The Perfect Piece

I want to write a well-researched piece. Not just well researched, in terms of the body of the piece, but well researched in the depths of the language used. A piece where every word is loaded. Every word has meaning. Not just individually, but contributing to the piece and, may be beyond. Every phrase should be able to stand its own and fit into context. It should be mundane in its delivery but exciting in its reach.

“Will you marry me?” OR “Will your daughter marry my son?”

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This is not a post for winning the Indiblogger contest. This post is a desperate attempt on my part to come out of the “writer’s block” that I have been facing recently. This topic by Indiblogger just got my thoughts running and got my fingers typing. But since the good people at Sony entertainment are giving out free hampers for every valid entry, the Indian or should I say the “Malayali” in me got greedy.

Love Marriage or Arranged Marriage?

As far as I’m concerned, one should only marry another person if they love each other. I’m a bit iffy on the whole concept of love (how there is no love between two people, just caring and compatibility), but that’s a whole different story.

Now, coming to the “love” marriage part. If two people believe they are “in-love”, and can bear each other for the rest of their lives, then I believe they should marry each other. And like Aamir Khan, so powerfully suggested in Satyameva Jayate, any person after they reach the adulthood age (so prescribed by the government), can marry anyone they like. And I believe in it. If you are happy in a relationship, then no matter what the society thinks or (I’ll go a bit bolder and say) no matter what your parents say, it’s your life! You are absolutely free to do anything. And I personally don’t think any parent can be unforgiving, if at all they think you are committing a mistake.

‘SIT’ – ‘CON’dition

This is just so wrong…so wrong…in so many ways..on so many levels.

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Do you know what distinguishes the entire Indian subcontinent from the ‘western world’? Of course, apart from the fact that they are much more civilised, advanced, and developed. The one thing that I noticed about their way of living is their disrespect for the ground. You read right, disrespect.

Did you ever notice that they never sit on the ground? While we consider ‘Mother Earth’ to be divine and ‘pure’, they have absolutely nothing but resent for the terra firma. All our ‘holy’ ceremonies are conducted on the earth that we stand on. But the only response to a person sitting/laying/doing anything but standing on the floor from a ‘westerner’ is “Get you a** of the floor.”

We conduct marriages sitting down. Right from the birth of a child, his ‘naming ceremony’ (which is an utter waste of time, according to me, but more on that later), and all his rituals are conducted on the ground. While the westerners (I don’t know why I keep saying that, although the world is round, well an elliptical sphere, but still you get the idea), have their marriages/weddings in  a church, wearing their Sunday best, not to mention standing up, we prefer doing it in front of a fire on the ground sitting down in our dhotis/mundus.

For them, sitting down automatically implies, on a chair. You ask an Indian to sit down, and he WILL sit DOWN! He will sit on the ground with crossed legs as if lunch is about to be served. The only time you’d ever find a European or an American do it is if they are practising yoga, which is India’s national exercise, apparently.

And don’t even get me started on the way the Indian sub-continent does do-do and wee-wee. But I can make my peace with that, since the Indian government doesn’t have enough funds to build a European-style toilet in every home. But to those who prefer to use the Indian method, which, by the way, is far less sanitary and highly ridiculous, I just want to ask this – WHY?

The Lungi Conundrum

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I’m in Kerala, right now, attending to the chores and rituals of the pre-wedding/pre-marital of my dear cousin. And it is because of this predisposition that I was away from my dear blog. But, the awesome guy that I am, I found just enough time in between the engagement and the wedding, and all the hazy hastiness that surrounds me, to come up with a post. So, kudos to me!

Now that I’ve praised myself, I can carry on with my post. This is a list of reasons why I hate wearing a ‘lungi’. Now, for those who are unaware of ‘the lungi’ (Scientific name = ‘mundu’), the lungi is a piece of cloth, usually cotton, 220×115 dimensions, and is worn around the waist like a skirt, minus the puffiness. In Kerala, lungis are open, in contrast to those in Bengal or Tamil Nadu, which are tube-like and one has to hop into them and then tighten them.

Now for the staple food of South India… Just Kidding. Enough with the geography class already!

Even though it seems like what a woman would wear for an underskirt, it really is manly. Apparently, the ‘madaki kuthu’ move conveys more emotions than classical dancers do. Anyways, the feminine aspect of wearing a skirt-like object is the least of my worries. Well, not the least, but still.

Reasons why I don’t like wearing lungi:

Feels Good To Be Back

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Phew!!! I’m finally done with my exams!! Both internals (read ass-kissing skills) and externals (read story writing skills).

Now that I’m back after the hiatus, I’d like to clear a few things first.

1. I was not offline for a month by choice. I had no internet connectivity and the very few time that I did spend on my friends’ Wi-Fi was wasted on other petty things (I mean projects and stuff… GROW UP!!).
2. To all my ardent followers and readers, who kept on coming to my blog just to check for new posts and had to go back dejected, I’m sorry for leaving without so much as a note, but now I’m back, for good, I hope. (Just Kidding and hoping that someone did ACTUALLY miss me.)