The logic of a sexist mind set

"Chittiya KalaiyaVe" goes the song. Listen to it. It means, "Girl with white wrists!, I'm a girl with white wrists. Take me shopping. I request you. I'm the girl with white wrists" For all the sexist and racist undertones, it;'s catchy.

It's sexist at many levels. Yes, there are women in villages and town, who depend on men to take them out shopping. They do sing such tunes in real life. Take me shopping.Get me a pink scarf. But these girls in designer wear!!!!
The sad part is that Jackie, the lead mouth piece here is not just educated and smart, but from a politically powerful, wealthy family of a neighbouring nation. She is modern, confident and winner of a beauty pageant and ambitious enough to travel thousands of miles northwards into an alien land and act in films in a foreign language.
Not just she, every woman in that video is bright, ambitious and gutsy. Most of them probably support huge families of unemployed dads, brothers, husbands and sons. Yet, for them to make their bread and butter, they should chant and gyrate to, "Take me shopping, I'm the girl with white writs."Watch the song. It's fun in its own way.

A Dog's Logic

In this man made den of ours, Zelda's instincts lead her to do strange things.She digs on the bed, piles up the sheets, pretends she has softened the hard ground and plops onto it.

Sweet.

Logic of lost last names

Most people of Tamilnadu do not have a second name. How did this happen? In a bid to get rid of caste identities, the leaders of the state encouraged people to shed their second names, as second names in India show what caste one belongs to. So how do we fill passport forms and other documents that ask for  a second name?
Like Malcolm X we use the initial letter of our parents' names. But we attach it to the beginning of our names. It is called our initial. For instance, I was D. Rajalakshmi, as my Dad's first and only name was Desikan.Some people use only the initial. Some people expand the initial to their father's name, while filling up forms, which means that to a westerner, it looks like your father's name is your first name.
While people create facebook accounts, they are reluctant to mention their initials. So they break their names into two parts.Since old timers like me have long names anyway, its easy. I call myself Raja Lakshmi. And those who have short names just use their names twice. (Varun Varun/ Latha Latha) and so on. When I travel to other states, I realize that although we Tamils feel awkward about having initials an single names, it was a pretty good idea to get rid of caste based surnames.

Two years ago I crossed two thousand six hundred kms to reach an unknown city. It was a movement towards a new experience. A restful period followed; I did not establish new contacts and kept up minimally as possible with what had been my community.  I was also now in the loving company of my daughter and her friends.
Away from the frenetic compulsions of my old job, I did this and that till realized that I was finally in a position to try my hand at writing: something I had always wanted to do. I got myself the wonderful companionship of a dog, stopped getting out of my house, taught online to help with bills, and started taking up textbook writing projects ( the only kind of writing assignments I seemed to be getting)Now I can even toy with the idea of giving up teaching totally. I have worked on interesting projects that seem to find their way to unambitious, non-enterprising me.

At the end of this month we are moving southward again. Two thousand kms with our puppy, who is almost a dog. Going southward as a writer. Happy!
But most importantly, for the first time in my life, I have known hours, even days of idleness. Almost beginning to relax and actually tasting fun that I have not slogged over in the first place to make it happen.
Travelling to exotic places without looking at the calendar. Spending a whole day and then another, and then countless other days without looking at a clock.

 Came face to face with a different culture; so many talented people, rich and poor; a different climate , a different environment! Grateful to Gurgaon and its multiple faces. Good bye!

Arvind Kejriwal is now Chief Minister of Delhi. So many south Indians who support the Hindutva party (although they are not seriously conscious of how backward and cruel to minorities that party is) are amazed.
Such a strong mandate!

For the muffler man!

Wake up, fellow Indians. People in Delhi did not suffer a lapse of judgement.

Why?
why?
Why???
go facebook posts. That man resigned in 49 days. He destroyed the trust the people had placed on him.

Why would they vote for him? they raise their eyebrows in mock disbelief. Because disbelief is not what they feel. It's shock. They have yet to realize that Modi and HIndutva are jingo jangos. They are shocked that someone who roots for the common man and fights corruption can actually get such a large mandate.
What people from other parts of India do not  know is that people in Delhi enjoyed 49 days of strict governance. Auto driver and cab drivers tell us that they were never intercepted by the police on those 49 days for commissions. Make shift homes for the homeless made the streets much safer for all.They did pay very less for electricity for a month and a half. The water supply was better than ever. Lots of unregulated workers got permanent posts in the government. Just in a month and a half, they showed that governments can work too.
So they trust Kejriwal, even though he 'ran away'.
He is back, with a better team than before, I hear.

Good luck Kejriwal.

Everyday I think of things I want to blog about.

Vow to myself that I would review movies I watch and books I read.

Nothing happens when I find the time to write.I don't even remember even a bit of anything or even what that line or thought was about.

OK. I love my dog and spend a lot of time with her (That's all I can think of placing on record)

stupid coke ad

Sanskrit, a dead language and English, the language of the world are two of the twenty two official languages of India. On top of this there are over 1750 languages spoken in this country.

Everyone knows that there is a language known as hindi. I belong to a state in the southern part of the the country, where political parties emerged and succeeded because they opposed the imposition of Hindi.
Even today, very few people in Tamil nadu, my state, can speak in Hindi. People in the north, where several languages are spoken and where a large percentage also speak Hindi are amazed that we do not speak this dominant language
They constantly poke fun at the Tamil language. Blissfully unaware of this the Tamil state which is stereotyped as rowdy has not retaliated.

When I worked for a short period with Hindi speaking people, I got to hear all these jokes. One of their theories is that Tamils add the sound aaaa to all words. Even after I explained that this sound was a grammatical addition to frame questions like the English 'eh?" You are going eh? Tamils say you are going a?

But to no avail. They continued to say. You forgot your helmeta. You go righta. I will go lefta.

Further proof to this is provided by the latest coke ad.

Adjusta ....very irritating.