printf ("Error: you are a girl ! \n");

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#define GIRL 0
#define BOY 1
int main()
{

     int girlorboy = 0;
     char nation[100], ans;
     printf("Welcome on planet earth ! Enter your nation in block letters:\t");
     scanf("%s\n", nation);
     printf("Please enter your gender in block letters:\t");
     scanf("%d\n", &girlorboy);
     switch (girlorboy)
     {
          case BOY:
          {
     while( strcmp( nation, "NULL") != 0) ) //any nation
      {
         printf("You are heartily welcome! Facilities which you will enjoy on planet earth are:\n\n");
       printf("1.   Good education\n");
       printf("2.   Relaxed societal norms\n");
       printf("3.   Will never be advised on the way you should dress\n");
       printf("4.   You will never be forced to learn cooking\n");
       printf("5.   Can have any code of conduct. Nobody will ever have any problem with that\n");
       printf("6.   Will never have to compromise your career with marriage\n");
       printf("7.   Won't have to leave your house after marriage\n");
       printf("8.   Won't be burnt alive or tortured for dowry\n");
       printf("9.   Will be free to go anywhere and do WHATEVER you want\n");
       printf("10. Will be absolutely free to tease a girl and if she protests, you can force yourself upon her\n");
       break;
       }/* while( strcmp( nation, "NULL") != 0) ) ends*/
           }/*case BOY ends*/
        case GIRL:
         {
            if( strcmp( nation, "INDIA") == 0) //in India
           {
     perror("Fatal error: you are a girl ! Wanna continue (y/n)?:\t");
     scanf("%c\n", &ans);
     if (ans == 'y')
    {
       printf("You will be considered nothing but an object of desire\n");
       printf("Additional attrocities which you will bear here are:\n\n");
       printf("1.   Female foeticide\n");
       printf("2.   May or may not get good education; depends on your luck!\n");
       printf("3.   Harshest possible societal norms will be imposed on you and you will HAVE TO  FOLLOW them\n");
       printf("4.   Will always be reminded that you are a guest in your own house and will have to leave it once you get married\n");
       printf("5.   You won't be allowed to step out alone\n");
       printf("6.   Will not have any right to choose your life partner on your own\n");
       printf("7.   Will always be taught to consider family more important than your career\n");
       printf("8.   'Teaching' will be the only career you'll be allowed to pursue after marriage\n");
       printf("9.   You yourself will be responsible for anything wrong that happens to you\n");
       printf("10.  Adding to it, you will have to bear dowry torture and domestic violence in marriage\n");
       printf("11.  Society will never support you and your life will be full of compromises\n");
       System_abort("All because you are a girl\n");
    }/* if (ans == 'y') ends */
           
          }/* if( strcmp( nation, "INDIA") == 0) ends*/
          else
          {
     printf("Cannot say\n");
     break;
           }

       }/* case GIRL ends*/

   }/* switch(girlorboy) ends*/

     return 0;

}/* main function ends*/

Being in ladies coach…

It has been two years, ten weeks and five days since ladies coach got introduced in the Delhi metro. It is a great gift to all the women and has made travelling safe and convenient for them.

Here, I would like to share my experience of travelling day and night in Delhi metro’s ladies coach. Since day one I have noticed a few things and, as of now, there hasn’t been any change in them. My observations are still the same – every day, every month.

Observation number 1- be it 6 in the morning or 11 in the night, you can always find ladies talking (read ‘gossiping’) and making you bereft of mental peace. Whatever time, whatever occasion, and whatever place, they will always have some worldly matter to elaborate their views upon. And the funniest part of the story is -they keep on asking others in between – ‘which station is this?’

Next, the Delhi metro is mostly occupied by school teachers in the morning. They are busy checking answer sheets with an un-measurable super speed- awarding more of zeroes than five on fives. You can find them completing their teacher’s diary on the move every day. They also discuss their kids, talk of their lives or complain about their maids with their companions.

Third, you will also find school girls travelling in the Delhi metro in school uniform (I doubt. Is it seriously a school uniform?). Seeing them, I often wonder ‘It has been simply four or (max to max) five years since I passed my senior secondary and see the turnover in the dressing sense of school children!’ I do not fail to ask myself a question- ‘Were we superlatively simple in our school days or have they turned ultra-modern?’ Our uniform would always be proper and we did not have even Nokia in our school days - let alone the BlackBerry. But today’s ultra-modern school students that I find in metro do not have anything less than a Samsung Galaxy note or an iPad. BlackBerry is un-trendy for them! They have altered the school uniform as per their wish and carry red, green, sky blue, black, orange and yellow nail colors (yes, even yellow is in fashion these days!). Oops! I forgot to mention the lip gloss. Needless to say, they go to beauty parlors every now and then. I guess the schools themselves have modernized.

Every alternate day or so, I am encountered with girls chatting with their boy-friends over phone. They laugh, they giggle and they talk endlessly for hours. At times I also find them arguing, quarreling, and fighting with their BFs on phone. Sometimes they get too loud and everybody in the metro gets to over hear their conversation. :-P

And then there are some who are busy reading novels (more of romantic pieces and less of thrill!) namely – I too had a love a story, Can love happen twice, Revolution 2020, Mysterious affair at Styles, The woman in Black, Immortals of Meluha, Casual Vacancy, etc. How can I forget to mention that I daily witness one or two reading either ‘Fifty shades of Grey’ or ‘Fifty shades Darker’! They are either extremely indifferent or completely crazy for having reading such a book in public!  

I often find a few, I repeat – just a few, ladies reading some holy books and one or two carrying out anulom-vilom yoga in the air-conditioned metro! Can you figure that out?

Of the latest, I am coming across young girls pursuing their Bachelor of Education degree course and wearing saris. They usually travel in a group of 5-6 and keep on laughing bitterly; thus disturbing the complete ladies coach.

Having gone through seven points, I pause. But I find I am not done with it yet. The list is endless… If I enlist all my observations, then I guess, I will be able to write a complete book on it! Better I end here and do not disclose rest of the secrets. What say, ladies?

Being judgemental

Reading ‘scientific research’ column in today’s newspaper made me ask some questions to myself. I jotted them down and one of the questions in the list was- Do we perceive one another in exactly the same manner? My answer would be in negation. Next, does age provide us with an ample amount of wisdom to frame an appropriate conclusion about a person’s behavior? Yeah. But then what about people with split personalities. Further does experience teach us how to analyze them in one go? May be it does. May be it does not. And topping the list was the question- Why am I asking these questions all of a sudden? Don’t know but that article has driven me really crazy. These days, I am looking for ways to utilize my ‘almost null’ experience and ‘absolutely little’ wisdom in analyzing behavior of people around me.

At this moment I recall a significant statement stated by my colleague, Vishakha, while we were on our way from office in the metro. We were discussing some random stuff in relation to which she said ‘Mitali, these are the instantaneous but significant reactions of a person to small incidents which describe his/her behavior and big incidents depict his/her intelligence and wisdom because we apply our brain in dealing through them.’ Apparently, she is correct and that philosophical article further adds value to her point. Indeed our spontaneous reactions to normal situations do speak words about our default character.

They are an apt measure of the degree of patience we have, the amount of ‘easily lost temper’ we contain, and of the insurmountable courage we own. They also speak volumes about how much social, caring and helpful we are, how much happiness we derive from other’s success and how much feeling of jealousy we hold. Implicitly, they do add value to how much dedication we have towards our work. They give us the true proportion in which we imbibe fifty shades of emotions and hundred colors of displayable qualities. However, our reactions to big incidents of life certainly depict our intelligence and wisdom. They can only be learnt through experience. So they really cannot describe our ‘by default’ behavior. Small reactions are the signs to watch out for.

So I see, she had already given me the answer to all my questions. My only need now is to be observant enough and understand reactions of people to various situations. A great many thanks to you, Vishakha!