You're a completely worthless waste of space, but, you know... don't take it personally!

I will never understand this line, 'Don't take it personally.'

The Manager at the store where I have a part-time job (that I am thankfully quitting soon) had a little talk with the Assistant Manager. She told her that all the other staff had complained about her 'driving them too hard', being rude and unapproachable, that a client had called to talk about her attitude and 'tone' and that she needed to 'chill out and relax.' She then proceeded to leave the store early because she wasn't feeling too well and gave the Assistant Manager a list of about 12 things to do for the next day. You know, so that she could... relax and take it easy.

So when I was asked by this lovely Italian lady if I had said anything to the Manager, I was surprised, because I quite like working with her. Moreover, if I have a problem with someone, they're likely to find out about it in a more direct manner, i.e. through me.

Then the Manager asks me if the Assistant Manager had spoken to me (yes, I hope you're following the intricacies of retail politics), and I expressed my displeasure about being used as a little pawn in whatever weird strategy games they were trying to play,especially when I had never said anything to anyone about any of this!

To which she says, 'Oh, I had no idea she'd take it so personally.'

Which leads me to ask, what exactly does that mean? What other way is there to take it when your personal and professional qualities are being called into question? Are you supposed to file it under some other alter-ego and carry on as if nothing was said?

No one seems to know, but no one wants you to ever take anything they've said 'too personally'. Heaven forbid they may actually hurt your feelings with their unthinking words, callousness and (in the case of this particular Manager) downright lies.

Reality Check

Today I was told that I was a bit of a hypocrite for asking people not to be too bitchy, and then slagging off others on my blog.

It actually got me thinking, what if that's true?!

I'm not a fan of pretentiousness, so this scared me quite a bit.

But after a chat with my sounding board, here's how it is.

Yes, I do talk about things that annoy me, and even people that annoy me and you know what? this is my space to do that.

More to the point, I never mention these people by name - even when it would've been really easy (and God knows more satisfying!) to do so.

I've never found myself with such a low level of self-esteem and nastiness that I needed to talk about someone's physical attributes in order to make my posts seem funnier or more sarcastically appealing to someone reading it. And I hope I never will.

I've been told that 'this is what some people do'. But for the sake of my own sanity and faith in those who I still consider decent human beings, I have to hold on to the hope that this isn't true. And that when the funny talk gets to being downright debased and trashy, someone else has the guts to say that it's wrong, and then walk out of the room.

Encore

It has been said so many times before, and yet it needs a repeat. So let me be the one to say it... again.

India was colonised by the British. Therefore, it follows that our grasp on English would be fairly good, i.e. let go of the shock when I can string a whole sentence together without any grammatical or pronunciation errors.

And yes, it is completely possible that English is my first language. If you don't believe me, I could talk to you in Hindi, you could laugh, and then we'll settle this matter once and for all.

Agreed?

Surprise!

My morning routine usually follows this pattern:

Get up, walk to the front of the house, collect newspaper, skim headlines, make sure that the world is still going to hell in a hand basket, carry on with other morning activities.
The necessary ingredients in the newspaper are always present.
Murder- check
Rape - check
Corrupt Politician-check
Sania Mirza loses a match - check
And so it goes on...

But there are some mornings which just take you by complete surprise, even when you are as fairly cynical about life in general as I have become. Thankfully, I have only had the misfortune to come across one particularly crazy individual who dated three women at the same time. Not just had a drink, flirted, made a few calls; but actually had three functional relationships during the same time period. Now despite all the possible excuses of 'I work in advertising', 'My mother is dying', 'I had a bad childhood', 'My parents got divorced', 'I have no friends' etc etc, I somehow imagined that this was really as bad as it got!

But then, I woke up this morning and read this lovely article in The Times of India. I was in absolute awe! Despite everything else and all the moral implications of his actions, you have to admire the sheer genius of juggling 14 wives at the same time! And that too, on a mere Rs 70,000 per month salary. While the rest of us struggle to keep one life above water and in some semblance of sanity, this guy led 14 completely independent lives! Before he is jailed for bigamy (is it still bigamy when it's more than two?) and deceit and marrying women under false pretences, I think someone should give him a prize!

This is what I love about life. Just when you think nothing could surprise you, it does!

There is something unnatural and creepy about people who are perpetually happy.

I want to hit them.

Indian Psyche Questions

How is it that we strap on our seat-belts as soon as we get into a car and gasp in shock every time another vehicle seems to come within two feet of us and can still hop into a rattle trap of an auto rickshaw with no safety features whatsoever and fall asleep within two minutes?

T-Shirt in desperate need of making for sale on local Harbour-Line trains

"I am getting off at CHEMBUR! Not Kurla, not GTB, not Vashi. CHEMBUR!!!
Now please for the love of God, STOP TAPPING MY SHOULDER EVERY SINGLE BLOODY DAY AND ASKING ME THE SAME QUESTION!!!!"

P.S. No I will not give you my seat because I do not believe in reservations of any form or type.

!

I would usually avoid talking about a subject like this on a blog that was meant for... other things. But this is something I feel really strongly about, so I thought it would be worth mentioning here. This is a note I had written for a project started by my boss to get his employees to 'use their brains' (that's a direct quote).
Read on.

26th July 2009: On the same day that there were reports of three instances of rape of minors in the country, there were also reports of Samajwadi Party MP Kamal Akhtar’s statement that reality TV shows in India were attacking family values in India and promoting obscenity.

This is not the first time, nor will it be the last that the quality of media content in India has been questioned. The content on the Star Plus show ‘Sach ka Saamna’ was called ‘objectionable’, ‘indecent’ and ‘not in good taste’ by various politicians and social activists. Yet not one of these people will use their political clout to address a far greater problem than our media content.

Those fighting to preserve India’s moral code should consider the fact that the rape of one Indian woman every half an hour is an extremely ‘offensive’ statistic. On an international women’s website, it was called ‘India’s Rape Pandemic’. While the media content issue was immediately addressed with a meeting of the I&B Ministry and TV Broadcasters to discuss how best to solve the problem, the issue of crimes against women in India has become so commonplace that it has ceased to shock the public or even warrant much space in the media.

From an objective viewpoint, there is something clearly wrong with a country that cannot tackle such a widespread attack on its female population and dismisses it with comments from government representatives such as, “Women dress so indecently these days, they ask for trouble” (Shiv Sena comment through Saamna newspaper). In the most bizarre cases, women are made to marry their rapists in order to sanctify their union which subjects them to further sexual abuse.

Kamal Akhtar is worried that our family values and morals are being eroded by a TV show that forces participants to tell the truth, no matter how hurtful or painful it may be. Perhaps if we all were being honest, we would see that Indian society is already obscene, indecent and offensive. We've just been keeping it behind closed doors instead of talking about it on national television.

When should I have stopped?

My hair was long at one point in time. It is not anymore.

I met a very nice librarian who I had not met in quite a while, and she was clearly surprised at the short hairdo.

L: My! You're looking so different!

Me: Yes, I know. How are you?

L: You're looking very cute.

Me (feeling quite chuffed): Thank you! I quite like it too.

L: In fact, you're looking better like this than you did before.