Wednesday, 11 September 2013

The story of hurt sentiments

Before anyone comes and sues me for hurting their sentiments by copying their idea, I hereby declare that this post is completely my idea, my views, and my thoughts. In short, it is originality at its best!
I also apologize to all whose sentiments will be hurt after reading this post. Who knows I might get arrested by someone because I have hurt their sentiments! After all creating a ruckus and asking others to apologize on the grounds of their ‘sentiments getting hurt’ is the biggest trend these days.

The other day Mr. XingXoXing’s 2 year old son plucked, by mistake, a bright red rose flower from Mr. YingYoYing’s green garden. I am sorry if you find it difficult to pronounce Mr. XingXoXing and Mr. YingYoYing. Yes I could have chosen some easy to pronounce, earthly names like Mr. Chaddha or Mr. Sharma. But then, you see, I do not want to spend my days and nights waiting and being afraid of the moment Mr. Chaddha or Mr. Sharma will come with all the Indian media (I dare not take their names!), sit on fast unto death outside my home, and force me to apologize. So I chose some Chinese or Japanese names. I know these people have lots of important tasks, other than creating a ruckus on their sentiments getting hurt, to do. And that is why, I guess, they are way far developed than India. But I assure you; Mr. XingXoXing and Mr. YingYoYing belong to India. Anyways where was I? Yeah so, our Indian Mr. XingXoXing’s son plucked a rose from Mr. YingYoYing’s garden. YingYoYing, being Indian, went crazy. His deep and out of the world sentiments were hurt. He lodged an FIR against Mr. XingXoXing and then Mr. XingXoXing was forced to apologize face to face and also on twitter (Today’s fashion you know!).

Later when Mr. XingXoXing’s son WingWoWing grew up to be a director, he directed a movie based on some UVUV community in India. He had done complete research on them, had burned the midnight oil and the movie was a result of his months of hard work. Everything was perfect about the movie: story, cast, crew, dialogues, songs, etc. It was sure to do a good business. But just one fault brought down everything. The mistake was: people of UVUV community were shown to be wearing a 3.755 meter cloth in the movie whereas in reality they wear 3.754 meter! Complete 1cm difference! What next? Sentiments of UVUV community were deeply hurt. They lodged nationwide protests and did not allow the movie to be released anywhere in India. Whole of the media went crazy. All of the time slots were booked only to have discussions on this ‘most important’ topic. UVUV people sat on fast unto death and broke their fast only when WingWoWing apologized publicly and of course on twitter! WingWoWing could not bear the insult and left the profession of director.

A few years later when elections were going on in WingWoWing’s locality, another calamity befell upon him. What happened was WingWoWing expressed on facebook that he does not like the pink color of the symbol of the party contesting for elections in his area. Consequence? Volcanic sentiments of the contesting party were hurt. He was arrested, sent to jail for 6 months and forced to apologize on the national TV; needless to say on twitter too.


Time passed by and our WingWoWing turned 75. He had not received his pension for the last 12 months. He went to pension office to collect his meager pension of Rs. 5000. What he got was just Rs. 2000. He complained to senior officials, waited for another one year. No action took place. Now that his justified sentiments were hurt, he decided to do what was done to him. He sat on a fast unto death motion. None of the media highlighted this issue, no action was taken, and he died within four days. Nobody’s sentiments were hurt, no apologies were made and no one mentioned him on twitter.



Friday, 6 September 2013

Shopping with mom

Every Wednesday, I quickly finish my dinner, hurry up to brush my teeth, and get into my green pajamas as soon as possible. I keep two bags and two hundred and fifty rupees ready in my hand. As soon as the silver-grey Titan clock, hanging in my living room two-and-a-half feet above the wooden table which holds the Samsung television, strikes 8:45pm I leave for nearby market along with my mom. It is time now for some weekly shopping in our local Wednesday market.

I do not like shopping but when it is about shopping with mom, I just can’t stop myself! After all, shopping with mom is a great fun. Be it the purchasing of weekly groceries, cosmetic items, some new clothes, a pair of new shoes, good electronic items, interesting books, etc, it is always worth the time. She visits shop after shop and looks over a hundred different varieties before picking up the masterpiece. I sincerely want to learn the way she bargains with the shop keeper and gets 800 Rs bag for 300 only. ‘bhaiyya dekho theek theek laga lo.. ye wala dikhana! Achcha wo wala dikhao to..‘. She bargains with an un-matching flattering skill, keeps on telling me in between why is this good and why on earth is this bad. Why to choose this and why to reject that! Though yes mom, I still do not know the difference between chiffon, cotton, silk, and georgette. And also I do not know how to identify which brinjal is good and which is bad! 

And the moment we get tired of it, then just one plate full of ‘moong-daal-ke-laddoo-with-grated-raddish-and-hare-dhaniye-ki-chutney’ is enough to rejuvenate both of us! They are extremely tasty and simply amazing!


But why do I like shopping only with mom? I guess the answer is not so difficult.
Dad leaves no chance to make the experience as much boring as possible with his I-will-talk-in-a-virtually-non-existent-volume, will-not-argue-with-the-shopkeeper and will-not-stay-at-a-shop-for-more-than-five-minutes attitude! Statistics bear testimony to the fact that of all the things he had purchased on his own, 95% of them were very bad! And I guess all men including my dad have I-feel-embarrassed-in-returning-a-purchased-object-even-though-it-costs-me-millions attitude!
While it is boring to shop with dad, it is a completely different experience to shop with my sister. We would walk at speed of ten steps in a minute, keep on laughing for the whole way, argue at the shop- I want this, you take that- fight with each other and both return empty handed.

So mom! You win clearly!