Part time parent

I know people who are part time parents. They do it artfully and you know you are one when:

1)The daily modicum does not bother you. Children grow on their own is your motto!
2)It does not matter whether you speak with the children or not. They are there like your favorite potted plant.
3)Their fears or phobias do not matter. Somebody else is handling it.
4) It is even more better if there is no financial involvement. The other parent is taking care of it. After all I paid with my sperms!!!!!
5)The thought that someday when children grow up, they come sniffing after  the money so how does the growing years matter.
6) When children become adults, therapists can successfully change how they think about their part time parent.
7) You admonish more and love less.
8)You know the children dislike you but the part time parent has to QED that quality time is important and not the quantity.
9)Your heart does not tug at you when your child is ill. The other sucker parent is sitting up tending!!!
10) At the end of the day the children do not remember who gave and who took!!!!

 

My daughters, fearless and frank.

Last night was a humid and sultry one. The rains have deserted Mumbai . The greens of my garden longed for water from the skies.
I was up reading and writing. Writing to create the fate of my characters and playing God.  The cuckoo from my clock came out and cried two times. It was 2 am in the morning!

Sleep still eluded me. The kids were sleeping in their room.
I felt the need to step out of my room and see if all was okay. Or if I were to hone in I would say that I felt someone moving around.
I walked out to see Aaliyah walking up to her room with a glass of water. All of eight years old. At 2 am she climbed down the stairs ( her room is at a level higher than the kitchen's) and reached the kitchen, She poured a glass of water for herself and walked back.
'I was thirsty, she explained.
When did this happen? She is not frightened of the dark. She did not want to disturb me. She represented to me growth. Two years ago the swaying palms in her balcony scared her and last year fictional characters from her favorite TV serial.
Today nobody can frighten her with ghosts or monsters or like.
When we were watching a movie on Helen Keller, Aaliyah said she did not want to watch the young Helen. The dramatization of the young Helen was painful. I thought Aaliyah was frightened.
She said that she was disturbed by a young girl who was impaired visually and could not hear as well.
She is growing up as a rational, fearless woman.
I am a proud mum....
 

I am a superwoman!!!!

I realized this when:

1)I began managing my job, family and my writing efficiently.
2)In spite of being in an unequal relationship I never let it affect my self esteem.
3)years of being side lined in relationships I did not aver my faith in myself!
4)I handled my pregnancy, delivery and back- to- my 58 kg frame single  handedly.
5) My book featured in all the major critics list.
6)the treatment meted out to my children by their father when they were young makes me feel sorry for him!!!!!!! Such apathy towards the young needs penance!!!
7)Relationships have to be nurtured. It cannot work with only one giving and the other judging!!!!
8)friends who are with me for decades and new friends have made me and want to make me a part of their life!!!!!!
9) Sex drives can go up or down. It does not mean a thing in a relationship.  My orgasm today is a cup of hot ginger tea with a nice salad.
10)I fix breakfast, lunch with my own hands for the grateful and the ungrateful!
11)I am a hands on mother. I drop the kids to school, feed them, pay for their school, buy stuff for them, take an interest in their lives, activities and try to raise them as good human beings.
12)At my work place I have reached where I can call a spade a spade and also move on....
13)I have sold houses, purchased houses and remodeled them.
14)I do not have a need to be accepted. Others have to fit in!
15) I have moved on from issues that used to affect me by contemplating that ,'If I do not matter, then I have no business to be here'. I am important.
16) I pretend that I am an army wife whose husband is on the front and the problem is mine and solution also!!!!!
17)my new manuscript is racing to an end.  And I have people in the literary world waiting.
18) I can still be happy when a cherry tomato grows on my plant, I hear a new tune or I buy a new dress!
19) I can dance, laugh loudly, sing and reach out to people.
20) I am the Margaret Mead of my life!!!!!!!
21) Yet, I am a woman, vulnerable and like the mosaic of an old mosque.


 

Faiz Ahmed Faiz- Salutations!!!!

Vo log bahut Khush_qismat the
jo ishq ko kaam samajhate the
yaa kaam se aashiqii karate the
ham jiite jii masaruuf rahe
kuchh ishq kiyaa kuchh kaam kiyaa

kaam ishq ke aade aataa rahaa
aur ishq se kaam ulajhataa rahaa
phir aakhir tang aakar ham ne
donon ko adhuuraa chhod diyaa

source- Urdu poetry.com

And an underdog called Sabina loses her job

So there was a cat fight in the kingdom. P Freud"s girl Vapidity got into a brawl. The story goes like this:
On a hot humid day in the kingdom Sabina entered Vapidity's room and started screaming and behaving in a manner that did not befit the ethics of the kingdom. The issue was related to some dates of recruitment.  Allegedly Sabina pushed Vapidity.
Vapidity screamed and cried. She is the head of recruitment. Her defense is that she needs to wail to let out her steam. And then some other mortals physically separated Sabina and Vapidity.  Vapidity had a look that said,' I am hurt beyond doubt 'and she went around like a martyr.
According to the bird the motto of  a mature HR person is to behave with grace and control if at all another employee is losing it. And why is Sabina losing it with Vapidity????? Vapidity, it takes two to tango!!!!! Incase you did not know.

Now the justice expended.... Sabina was sacked by P Freud who was full of sympathy for Vapidity who she felt was very sensitive, very wronged and yada yada yada.
THIS IS SO WRONG.  Justice is not served. It is denied.
Great successful companies in such cases sack both the employees or keep both. In this case the underdog, contract employee was asked to go while the person in power was asked to stay.
I AM DISGUSTED.
The message it gives is: 1) The contract unrepresented worker is expendable.
2) People like Vapidity in power are graced.

Should the bird fly to the Emperor and chirp?????
Let me know.....




 

Violations in the kingdom

And so everybody is trying to find their mojo in the kingdom. The Stick man and Ken seem to have settled into the depths of inefficiency.
Barbie is being tried by the courts. Tch Tch she must mend her ways.
However, I as the bird on the tree can see it all. The bird is friends with all.
P Freud is speaking a lot. P Freud does not realize the porosity of the kingdom. P Freud comes across as a start up venture!!!!!!!!! with a trustometer!!!!
Well, P Freud also violated....... P Freud showed salaries and proposed hike to Robot. And discussed issues of the same to Robot who has no stake in this. Salaries and proposed hikes are private and very personal, so God said!!!!
Robot was shocked however curiosity got better. And so now every one knows everything!!!!
Shame....
Is this ethical in the banana republic???? I think P Freud has done the office it is holding a dishonor.
What can be the solution? No answer!!! The plot thickens!!!!!
P Freud needs a scotch tape, Robot may do the hatch job.
The slow steady wheels of the kingdom are moving at a snail's pace.
The Emperor seems to have also sobered. The bird wants to have a tete a tete with him.

Chirp Chirp I have to fly away. The dead bodies are rotting here.
 

The knigdom's mantras

Come on Barbie, let's go Barbie....this was Ken's corporate mantra !!!!!!
Where is the center of least work? was Barbie's mantra
'How to do nothing and make it look like work? was Mermaid's mantra
'Yeh sab kya ho raha hain, was colored man's mantra
;I can see better because my head is inches higher, was Giraffes mantra
'How to make grown ups frightened of fire, deluge, bubonic plague, volcanoes and the unseen to retain my state, was the Stick man's mantra
'Hear Hear..The king has something to proclaim (when he actually has nothing)....was the Byron's mantra
'The kingdom is earning in brass, spending gold..now how to show diamonds....was the coin man's mantra
And the real knights who worked to keep the hearth of the kingdom warm had a  ,' How can I get out of here? mantra
The Emperor's mantra.........
I love you!!!!!!!!

 

The Emperor and his foolish men!!!!

So,
The Emperor sat on his throne. He was a nice man and a sharp thinker. However, he had surrounded himself with a bunch of fools, Barbie and Ken included.
The Emperor sat with his goblet and listened to his coterie. At times he was exasperated and at times he was amused. So the days went by......
One day, the Emperor decided to review the state of his kingdom with his brood of men and women. They rode to the outskirts. The Emperor of course had the fastest steed and the best tent. The others too had their own horses of course paid for by the workers of the state. Barbie and Ken were very happy and so was Mermaid.
When they reached the campsite, the Emperor realized that he had forgotten to carry his clothes. Barbie giggled nervously. Mermaid was disgusted. She was the moral keeper of the kingdom.
One or two wise men raised their hands in vain.
Then the colored man got an idea. He said, I know a tailor who will fit you with the best clothes.
The Emperor looked unsure for in his hearts he knew that colored man was a donkey however he bid him to go. Now the colored man was in a soup. He knew no tailor but he fibbed. Hoping that someone would offer their clothes to the Emperor.
The colored man gathered the Mermaid , Barbie, Ken , Giraffe and conferred. He confessed that he knew no tailor. And then the hoax.
Colored man got the Wheeler Dealer and said, Your highness, he has a talent . He also sews.
The Emperor got out of his clothes and stood without a stich. Wheeler Dealer pretended to fit him with clothes and everyone appreciated the weave and weft.
The Emperor looked down and said, I am naked
No you are not. The fabric is so fine that even you cannot see it!!!the colored man said.
The Emperor was happy. And so the mardi gras began, Barbie also waxed and waned stumbling and fluttering. Mermaid had no clue what she was doing in the kingdom. Ken did some useless activity that a laborer could do. The wise men were drowned in this useless activity.
The Bourgeois’ ate cakes that the peasants baked.
And then the Emperor mounted his steed and his troop theirs.
Barbie was still giggling.
Now who will tell the Emperor he has no clothes?????

Moral: Keep yourself physically fit, for you may sometimes have to be naked!!!!!!!!!!

 

Flower petals and its relevance....

 An Indian marriage is characterized by flower petals. The groom who is positioned at a larger than life pedestal is showered with flowers.
And so are funerals. Where the dead body is covered with flowers.
And so when corporates start using flowers to decorate their hallways and make garlands to string at their entrances one is likely to think that there is a marriage or a funeral.
But no.....
 You are flummoxed when you are informed that foreign white guests are visiting you ( read as professionals) and the whole office smells like a funeral parlor or a wedding hall.

Barbies and Kens stand with the vermillion and a flame on a stainless steel plate (where the price sticker is still not removed) and without any meaning move the plate round and round the white guest.
Two consequences:
1)The white guests consider fire to be a hazard and wonder why the hell the fire alarms are not going off?
2)They almost go squint fearing that the fire does not touch them.

Why? Why?
What is the need to pretend that we extremely smart Indian professionals have to resort to this mambo jambo to receive our white guests. Why follow an archaic system?
Hospitality industry regularly does this for it is a part of their business culture.
In all through my travels to corporates abroad I have never seen ostentatious display being used to make any one comfortable. The mantra is ' Run your business like a tight ship'
A firm handshake and a warm smile, of course with soaring numbers will do the trick.

Mercifully we have not started sprinkling our guests with the incense water.......
Its time we behave like professionals and show to the world that we are because we can!
And we need not resort to any fancy dress or medieval systems to explain our feats and fallacies.

Let us be proud of the body of work that we do .....
And show it to the world...that we CAN!!!!

 

you smoothened the creased map with your forearm,
while I blew at my tea
and watched
your finger trace the coastline
from Mercara
along the blue Arabian sea
it stopped for a moment
hesitatingly,
at Cannanore
and then traced the paddy fields
all along
to the wooden granaries in old homes,
where memories and grannies jostle by the side,



 

do you know?

The need to know

Why you want to

Fuck me

my mother

my sister

my grandmother

my aunt

every female

That I know

when you want to score a point,

Have I missed a step

In your evolution

Or is it that I have moved up

Spiralling

Propelled

By life"s motion.

The survivor.

Oh! how are you?

He asks his eyes pained

My torn lips tremble

breasts ache in pain

And eyelids droop in shame

He prods and probes

Like a  stranger

I read too much into his lines

I did not have an orgasm, I say

If that is what you want to know.

I sense heavy

Unasked questions

I am taking a metro

Getting to work, having my espresso,and my favourite croissant I have always Been a survivor .

His eyes pained and lips trembled

But he did not hold me

nor turn back

When he shut the door.

I am again alone

A soliloquy

Monotone and monochrome.

 

The rape

The violation of my body begins

when you rip my vagina apart

Without my consent

And without consulting my heart.

 

The violation of my mind begins

When you impose laws

conditions and sanction

And my freedom you ration.

 

My index finger raises

to point

My perpetrator

His penis or his hands

I do not fear.

 

I know I am the creator

And a survivor

I cannot be vanquished

Stamped or tramped

 

For I carry the seed 

And so I can end this show

Lest you forget

I have the power to reap and sow!

A woman!

Give me a shovel,

I will make a farm.

Give me a pen

I will write poetry

Give me a scalpel

I.will save lives

Give me a foot square

I will make bridges

Give me a day in court

I will serve justice

Give me a baton

I will maintain law

Give me a cradle

I will rock it

Give me a man

I will love him

Give me a life

I will live it....

Woman...

That is who I am!