The Perfect Match

Marriages are made in heaven….are they? At least we have been brought up to believe it. I have seen many couples ….happy ones, sad ones, arguing couples, quarrelling couples, prefect looking couples, weird couples and it has always made me wonder as to how did these two absolute strangers manage to find each other, and how on earth did they decide that they want to spend the rest of their lives with each other. I am not going to talk about how marriages or rather matches should be made, because hell I’ve no clue about it. Neither am I going to discuss the divorce rate or success rate of marriages these days. It’s just the whole process of decision making that interests me or rather fascinates me.

This comes after I have been through the grueling process myself. However the match was not for me but for a very close family member. I wasn’t given the authority to take THE decision on her behalf, (I wouldn’t do it - not for the world) I was just involved in the screening and handling the communication part of it. Of course I am referring to arranged marriages here.

The process of finding a match has its own challenges and that vary from one community to another. A few communities have well educated and good looking guys (oh yes, looks do matter….they DO MATTER) but the girls do not seem to be up to the mark. A few others are very particular about the dialect of a particular language or the city that you belong to. For example, for a Maharashtrian guy settled in Pune, his family would want a girl only from Maharashtra, any girl belonging to the Maratha community but staying in Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh is disqualified right away. Things like educational qualification, values, and family ethics of the girl are not even considered.

Consider this; Case 1: The first guy that we looked for was a well settled guy (this has no specific meaning or definition) with a software job in the US. When we sent the proposal with a picture of the girl, the mom said “we can take the decision only after our son comes back from the US, and then, after some time she has the audacity to give us contact details of another person and to say, “In the meanwhile you can get in touch with this guy, he is my son’s friend and both are very similar”.  Even the poorest of salesmen would not use this cheap technique to sell merchandise! I was literally fuming when my dad shared this with me.

Case 2: Now this guy is mesmerized the moment he sees the photograph of the girl, since the girl in question is beautiful. He wants to set a classic example for ‘love at first sight’, doesn’t bother to know more about the girl, doesn’t want to talk to her, for his utter shock the photo could have been a beautiful work of Photoshop (which was not the case of course), but apparently the guy had lost his thinking ability the moment he saw the picture. I had expected a little better from him considering that he was well educated and had a job in Australia. There’s another interesting twist to the tale. Apparently the guy’s parents had already seen a girl for him and his mom already gave a word to them, that she would get her son married to this girl. Till now the guy is not aware that his parents or his mom to be more specific has given a word, he only knew that they were looking for a match. Now the guy is adamant that he will marry the girl, whose picture he has fallen in love with. Till now he has no clue about what kind of a person she is. His parents were  having a tough time convincing him as it is, and when the other girl’s family came to know about the whole fiasco they landed in the guy’s house and started an argument, more of a fight, as to how can they go back on their words, and how their daughter has already applied for the passport and all that. So the mother’s word was final like in most Maharashtrian families and the guy finally gave in.

Case 3: Now this was a good looking guy, had a decent job and had come up in his life on his own. Through his own hard work, with little or no guidance from his family. But the issue was he had very little financial stability. The job was all he had. We were still considering this until my dad spoke to the guy’s dad directly. After the initial exchange of greetings he started bragging about how his was a well educated family with political and bureaucratic links. Later on after a little investigation we also came to know that he was expecting a huge sum of money as dowry. So we gave up.

Case 4: I cannot really write much about this as it is personal. But all I can say is this guy took all the time to know the girl, to think through it and only after that did he take the decision. The girl as a human being is only what mattered to him and his family, and nothing else. I had given up hope that well off families with guys with a good job will ever value a human being. All that would matter to them is social status, monetary expectations and gaining mileage. But I was proved wrong. There are parents who believe in values and instill the same in their young kids. In some cases things tend to change later on, due to circumstances, societal pressure or could be any other reason. Parents need to be strong; they must not succumb to pressure and must instill confidence in their kids for believing in everything that is right.

I am not trying to ridicule any of the parents or guys over here. Neither am I trying to say that all the above mentioned guys were ineligible for marriage. They might probably make the best of couples with their life partners if they look for the right things in the girl. It’s just that they were not the best match for the girl in question. The problem here was with their approach towards the entire thing.

I have realized that the entire process is no less than an adventure and how things change within a matter of days. It is one hell of a roller coaster ride! The anxiety, the disappointment, the feeling of being so near yet so far, and not to mention the wait! You patience is tested to the core! No matter how logical an approach you try to make, something will happen which is beyond what you had expected or thought.  You try to control everything, things don’t work, you still hang on, with double cautiousness, things still don’t work out, the stress gets on to you and just when you are about to give up, there comes the silver lining in the dark clouds.

Maybe everything happens according to the plan that destiny has for us. All we can do is to have the right approach and leave the rest to destiny. But the last part of the entire process, the silver lining in the dark clouds, forces me to believe that marriages are indeed made in heaven.

 

PS: Here’s wishing that the couple lives happily ever after. :)

Trip to Mysore

Mysore.....I only knew it as a city in Karnataka, known for a few tourist spots and of course the Infosys campus. I have recently been to the city and to the campus as well (My brother was there for his training in Infosys). Talking about the campus first, it is no less than world-class. The architecture of buildings, the recreational facilities, the maintenance, everything is top notch. The most pleasing and refreshing thing about the city in general and the campus in particular, was the greenery. It was so refreshing and soothing to the mind and body that I felt like I was very close to nature. Earlier I always used to wonder, why do you have to hire people from different parts of the country and then train them all only in Mysore? Why not do it in the respective cities and for a period of less than six months? because six months of training sounds unnecessary as every graduate (engineer) spends 4 years learning the subject as it is.

After being to the campus and after my brother shared his experience with me, my opinion changed. The method makes sure that there is uniformity in the standards of training, but most importantly this is a period to know oneself and do a little bit of soul-searching as well. Employees come from different backgrounds, families and cultures. Some of them might not have had any privacy in their lives so far, or some others might not have spent any time away form their families. So this period of six months gives a golden opportunity to not only know oneself but also to establish a strong individuality/identity of their own. It is an opportunity to not only grow professionally but also emotionally and intellectually. And I can see a few changes in my brother already. :-)

My Hero

My blog is incomplete without this post. This one's for my hero....Brett Lee. Yes, he is my hero. He had everything that I wanted in a guy, as a teenager. He had looks that could kill, he was a sportsman, he was stylish and aggressive, he was a guitarist in a band (Six and out) and a super romantic at heart. Not to say that he does not have any of these qualities anymore. For me, he is still the same. People say that he has grown old and all that, but NO MATTER WHAT! He is still my prince charming and always will be.

It all started when I was a teenager. I started following his game and also started to maintain a scrapbook with cut outs of his pictures from newspapers and magazines. Not even a single picture was spared, anything about him, an article, a picture or the minutest of information HAD to be there in my scrapbook! There was a point when my family and friends began to collect his pictures and they would very religiously hand them over to me. I was crazy about him. I still am. I am not a teenager anymore, so the craziness is more subtle now. My heart would skip a beat every time he was on T.V. His run up while bowling was so swift and sexy! He is one of the fastest bowlers in the world. 

I came to know more about his personality when he was a guest on a talk show with Simi Garewal. Facts like he had a clothing label of his own (BL), he likes to style his own hair, he is a family man and a good human being at heart. I started to admire him truly after knowing more about him. I used to like Priety Zinta as an actress specially after Dil Chahta Hai, but when I came to know that Brett had a crush on her, I started to hate her for obvious reasons. ( I must have been 20 then) Later, he got married, was blessed with a son and he got divorced after a couple of years. I felt sad for him because it was a difficult phase in his life.

I still remember the way I was praying before he delivered the third ball of his hat trick in a world cup. Last year I got a chance to watch him live in a match in a cricket stadium. (thanks to my sweet friends at work) He not only bowled well but also scored good runs. He was awarded the man of the match! (call it coincidence if you want) I got to see him in flesh and blood when he took a walk around the stadium while applauding and thanking the spectators. There he was! My prince charming...as charming as ever!! My excitement knew no bounds! It was definitely one of the most memorable moments of my life.


No matter how old I grow, this crazy part of me will never change.


This one's for you Binga!! (That's his nickname)

Master Chef

These days my Mom is the most relaxed person over weekends. Reason, she gets a break from cooking. Her interest towards cooking has been nose diving for the past few years. I guess it’s understandable as she has been doing it for close to 33 years! For us, eating food is no more relished. It is more like we are eating only to survive! But lately, things have changed for the better.

The person who has taken up the role of a cook (only on weekends) in my family is….Me! Let me mention that I am not a great cook, not even average to be honest.  There are just about a few things that I can cook well. I am a beginner in this art. Yes I have realized that cooking is indeed an art. Because it requires creativity, patience, the right mix (of the ingredients) and a great deal of concentration and positive energy. So I am on this cooking spree and my family is simply loving it!! They seem to relish every meal.

But I am wondering who do I give the credit to? Google or Sanjeev Kapoor? Maybe both. I search his recipes on Google and follow his instructions to a T. According to me, he is a true genius and the most creative cook ever!! I was not a tech savvy person and was completely ignorant of the power of internet (or rather Google) until a few years ago. I had read it somewhere that Google believes in the ability of technology to change people’s lives. I guess my family got a taste (literally) of what they mean!

Bon Appétit!!

The charming city

Clearly, the “blogging once a week” plan is not working out. But I would still try my best to write blogs as often as I can. These days my day begins early in the morning (around 6) unlike earlier when it used to begin a little before afternoon. This, thanks to my new assignment which involves training newly hired employees at the NIIT office (Basheerbagh & Secunderabad). I begin the training at 9 in the morning at Basheerbagh and then leave for secunderabad (clock tower) at 1. This training ends by 6 in the evening.

But what I really want to talk about is the place, secunderabad. I really like my journey from Basheerbagh to Secunderabad via Tank bund. I generally love to just sit and observe people and the mundane things that they do. There is something special and charming about this place. I can identify with the place for some weird reason. I like the cosmopolitan and liberal nature of the city, because I love freedom. Restrictions choke me. It has a mix of communities and the one I like the most is the Anglo – Indian culture. The liberal thinking can be attributed to the fact that the city was directly under the control of the British. I feel the place still has an old-world charm.

 I stay in almost the other end of the city right now. But I would like to settle in secunderabad one day. :-)

Myself....Then and Now

Today, this weird thought came to my mind….about how I’ve changed as a person. This is not as weird a thought I guess.

In my teens and until the age of 24, I was this girl who, maybe did not know what she wanted, but knew what she did not want. I had this amazing control over my thoughts and feelings which I seem to have lost now! I had this magical talent of going against what I felt like doing, when I knew doing certain things was not in the best of my interests. I was a very lonely person back then, all my emotions locked up within me. Lonely by choice maybe? I always took pride in the fact that I can survive on my own and I did not need anyone (except for my family of course). I wore this look (mature?) which was too old for my age.  I would give a look of disgust (in my mind) to anything and anyone that seemed silly to me. I took myself a little too seriously, and I hated it when others didn’t treat me likewise.  This made me vulnerable and it was quite a task for me to move on and forgive when I was hurt. I spoke only when I was spoken to. I did not make any friends in the first 2 ½ years of my career in a BPO! Unbelievable? I felt no one around was mature enough or genuine enough to be friends with. I was this no non sense girl who was absolutely confident about who she was. I had the least emotional attachment with people around. I simply adore this aspect of that girl.

Being lonely is not that bad after all! I think being with myself is what I miss now. Something which gave me immense strength I suppose. I do spend time alone even now. But there is a difference. I am constantly occupied by thoughts about people around me …more specifically people in my life. This is not to say that I blame the people around me for losing the strength that I once had. I am glad that I have all the people that I do have, as a part of my life. Apart from these people, there were other incidents in my life that changed me. Things that I've learnt are:

•  Do not take yourself too seriously, so that you don’t get disappointed or hurt. And more importantly, MOVE ON!!
• Expressing your emotions is not a crime, as long as they are genuine.
• Its ok to make mistakes, do not be too harsh on yourself. (I’ve been taking undue advantage of this lately)
• Genuine and trustworthy people do exist in this world, people who are worthy of being your friends.
• It’s absolutely alright to be a kid and let loose once in a while.

I so want to bring back that girl in me. I need to start my journey towards rediscovering myself. What I am essentially looking for is a balance between who I was and who I am. I need to strive really hard to get the self control back. And I know who can help me with this. Someone who’s been there with me, when nobody was! J

P.S. Listened to Crash and burn by Savage Garden…fell in love with it.

V

Who the hell is running my country??

I was shocked to read an article in the newspaper today, “The cosy world behind the tapes” in The Hindu dated 9th December ’10. It spoke about the “Radia tapes” and the involvement of the so called “elite” journalists, media heads and business tycoons. Since it did not have details about the whole (Radia tapes) thing, I decided to do a quick research on it. And I found a detailed account of it on Wikipedia. Yes! Wiki leaked again!

This article was something which shook me…actually shook me! I also listened to some of the recorded conversations between Ms. Radia and Ms. Barkha Dutt. Maybe the intensity of my shock is greater than normal because I am not very fond of politics (I guess no one is) or rather I do not know the game very well. After reading the whole thing, I was glad that I was a no one in the world of famous people. Because, if this is what is called being “someone” then I am more than happy to be myself! I was wondering, who the hell is running my country? I thought it was Sonia Gandhi! A tough question to crack this one! The choices that I had were: Karunanidhi, Dayanidhi Maran, Ms.Radia, (includes all the lobbyists) Ms. Barkha Dutt (includes all the journalists who were involved), Ratan Tata, the Ambanis, Ghulam Nabi Azad or Manmohan Singh & Aam aadmi (I’ve placed these two together because I feel they have the least amount of control over the situation). Then I settled for an answer which does not figure in this list. It is MONEY.

I was shocked to know how a journalist can have this amount of control! She has the audacity to term this as “modern day journalism”. How can he/she decide or influence the decision of who the cabinet minister is going to be? Or how could Mukesh Ambani say “Congress to ghar ki baat hai!”? But at another level it made me wonder, what happens to the inspiration of so many kids? Barkha Dutt, Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, they were the role models for so many kids in their respective fields. Who are they to look up to now? And more importantly, what price should one be ready to pay for success? For some people the price is - “anything”. Guess it depends on what success means to you. And this is a very personal choice to make.

Success, fame, adulation comes with great responsibilities. Even before one decides “the price”, one should be ready for the responsibility. One has a choice to decide the price, but one does not have the choice to overlook the responsibility.

These days it seems it is all about how well you can play the game. Everything in today’s world is reduced to a game after all! A game played everywhere, in politics, corporate world, families, business or relationships for that matter!

I would like to admit that I am no saint. Even I get tempted to use certain information to my benefit, or to take short cuts in order to achieve what I want to. But more often than not I am able to refrain myself from doing so. Going forward I am going to try and do it every single time. And I am also going to be extra careful, when I am speaking over the phone.

That’s it for now. Off to play a game. A game on my PC of course! :-p

Mera Bharat Mahan? (Couldn’t stop myself from adding the question mark.)