Presenting a story that I read in one of the communities on orkut... I just loved it... :)

A SPANISH Teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.

'House' for instance, is feminine: 'la casa.'
'Pencil' however, is masculine: 'el lapiz.'

A student asked, 'What gender is 'computer'?'

Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two
groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether computer' should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.

The men's group decided that 'computer' should definitely be of the
feminine gender ('la computadora'), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;

2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;

3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for
possible later retrieval; and

4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself
spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

(THIS GETS BETTER!)

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be
Masculine ('el computador'), because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;

2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;

3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and

4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

The women won.

:)

"I wish I could tell you how I was feeling." Resaa thought.

Siddharth was sitting on the chair looking at their wedding photo in his hand. His eyes were red. He had just cried. He felt as if sumo wrestler was sitting on his chest and the only way to take him off was to cry. Resaa wanted to take him in her arms and let go his tears. But all she could do was to watch him like this.

Sarita aunt called him for dinner. He kept the photo on the table and went to dinning room.

Resaa stood there looking at their wedding photo. "I look happy in this snap."

A sigh came from inside. She went in the dinning room. Sarita aunt, Siddharth and his parents were having dinner, quietly. Sarita aunt tried to keep some talks going.

Resaa went to the window. Two ladies were entering the gate of their building. They were her neighbours and were talking something looking at her window.

"Why are they looking here?" Resaa went to the ground and reached close to them in a nanosecond.

"This is fun" She liked her new speed.

"I think her husband must be cheating on her", Kavita, the next door neighbour was taking to Seema, the one who stayed on 5th floor.

Seema replied, "How can he do this? But he does not look like that."

Kavita replied, "All man are like that only, given a chance all will want other woman, along with the wife." Bitterness reflected in voice as memories flooded her mind.


"Don't think like that for Siddharth, he has not cheated me." Resaa said.

They did not listen and went in to the lift.


Resaa saw a car entering the gate. It was Rahul, the banker guy and his wife Shruti who stayed on 6th floor. Rahul parked the car. Shruti got down with few shopping bags.

"I really wonder why she did this", Resaa realised they were talking about her when Shruti said this.


"Sumeet told me she loved someone during college. May be she could not get over him. I guess her marriage was also delayed because of this." Sumeet was Rahul's colleague and Resaa's classmate.

"I don't think she can do such thing for this reason. She was quite sensible for this."


"May be, but Sumeet said she was madly in love with that guy, but they could not marry because of some odd reasons, which no one knows. He got married to someone else."


Resaa remembered Abhi, Abhinav Shah, the guy whom she had loved the most.


She went to Shruti and started to speak, "But I didn't do this because of Abhi."


Rahul and Shruti walked towards the lift.


Shruti said," I am really puzzled why she did this."


Resaa had a blank look.


"Why did I do this?"


She stood there for sometime thinking and came back to home.

Her mother-in-law was crying in the drawing room. Sarita aunt was consoling her with tears in her eyes as well. "We never had any fights. Both of us got along well. We treated her like our daughter. She never told me anything."


She paused to catch her breath, with a long sigh she said, "I don't know what mistake we made."


Resaa's eyes got wet, "I didn't do this because of you mummyji."

She could not see her mother-in-law crying like this. She walked to her bedroom. Siddharth was lying on the bed with eyes open.


She sat beside him.


"I am sorry Siddharth. There was no problem in our marriage and you know that. There was no problem at my work also except the fact that I did not enjoy it much. Three was no problem as such anywhere."


Siddharth's eyes were fixed on the ceiling.


"But I was not happy, that was the only problem. Why, I don't know. I could not find a clear answer."

" I want to ask my mother, did she had a delayed labour at my time? I guess I must be late in knowing that it was time for me to be born.... I have been late in everything.... Late in realizing what I would have loved studying.... late in realizing what I want to do... late in realizing where I want to be...with whom I want to be....late in everything."

She paused as if she wanted him to say something.

"There was no fault of anyone. It was just me."

"I wanted to live my life happily. But somehow it was not happening. There was emptiness in me which I could not fill."

"I had lost myself somewhere...couldn't' t find back."

She wanted to shake him and make him listen to her. She did not want him to blame himself for all this. All she could do was to sit beside him and just watch him. He could not hear her.

"I really wish I could have made it look like an accident. I tried but could not find such way. I wish I could have saved you from this pain."

Around 2 am Siddharth got some sleep.

Resaa just sat beside him.

In the morning Sarita aunt came in the room and put a garland of dried flowers on Resaa's photo.

Resaa got up and looked at her photo.

"It's so strange to see my own photo like this."

She smiled.

Saans lene mein

kuchh kami si lagti hai...

Chal rahe hai hum

raah thami si lagti hai...

Dikh raha tha kaafila

dhundhla ho gaya...

Aankhon mein aayi

kuchh nami si lagti hai...

Saans lene mein

kuchh kami si lagti hai.

from my diary

"Koini jindagi chhu,

koini shaayari chhu,

Mane koi adasho nahi

Hu koini diary chhu."

- Unkown


Nostalgia...brought by old diaries... collections....and silent words....


"Aa vishv ma

Kai ketlaay chaheraa malyaa,

Koi janm thi saathe,

Koi paachad thi malyaa,

he mann, tane samje

evaa koi malyaa kharaa? "

Being prejudiced

That day i got in the bus and saw it full...wished i had the magic of Harry and could turn myself thin like silk then probably i could pass through the crowd of men standing in the bus...somehow i managed to get the way by saying "excuse me" to all the men standing in my way...and found a little space to stand, a man and a woman sitting on the seat next to me.

I had hardly managed to stand and there came a man with a big belly, mustache, white half sleeve kurta and a plastic bag in his hand and stood in center. "Seems to be a bhaiya" I thought. Standing in the center he blocked the way. One man wanting to get down on next stop asked him to give him way and he shifted towards my side and was standing near me...."oohhh" I felt. I was struggling to balance myself and was uncomfortable with this man standing next to me with all that picture of a bhaiya i had in mind. I thought he was staring at me and i wondered what all he was thinking!

People kept coming in and my struggle to achieve balance became more difficult and i was pushed on the seat near me where the other man and woman were sitting. Seeing me struggling hard, the bhaiya asked the fellow sitting, "ladies ko baithne do". I was surprised !! The man stood up and gave me the place.

Sitting there i was thinking about the bhiaya. How quickly i had judged this man when he entered! My prejudice! I used to think that I don't tend to get prejudice, he proved me wrong. Prejudice leading to generalisation and judging. Our prejudices are so deep that we are not aware of it. This was one incidence and there are many like this where we get influenced by our prejudice. We jump to conclusion about people based on our prejudice and whats worse we don't accept that we are prejudiced! Try telling someone that you are being prejudice, they will not accept it and i don't think would be willing to give a thought to it. Many problems arise out of our prejudice and we don't realise it, if we do may be we would be able to avoid some of the problems if not all.

Overcrowded bus..

Traveling in BEST demands lot of patience and tolerance, especially if you are going towards on of the most popular suburb of Mumbai. The bus is filled to its capacity in the peak hours and unfortunately my travel timings coincide with that (like thousands of other people).


What makes it more uncomfortable is, no separate compartment for ladies… especially in a crowded bus. I am not going to complain about this....instead I found some things that make a crowded bus ride tolerable...especially for females.

• Man standing near you, but not falling over you - I must say mostly educated, well cultured men come in this category.
  
• A man offering you to sit, though its not the ladies' seat, and he prefers to stand - i guess they truly empathies with females and again the same category of guys here also.
  
• Senior citizen-male, getting up from the ladies seat immediately as he sees you standing to give you your comfort zone.
  
• A well mannered conductor who does not shout when someone pays him in 500 Rs for a 8 or 10 Rs fare.

Enough of praises for men :) now its women's turn:

• Women not making faces when they get a push from another woman. (sad but true they tend to make faces)
  
• Another one in favor of women, something I didn't expect: When I was standing near the ladies' seat, and the bus was very crowded, a lady offered me to keep my bag with her, on her lap, so that I can stand comfortably. Next time another lady also offered me, but that was because my bag was hurting her :D she wanted to make herself comfortable...fair enough.

I know such small things are not enough to reassure someone for a comfortable ride, but we have to find some relief in these things...makes it easier :)

stars shone in her eyes
as she heard his voice
she looked around
wait was getting longer
her patience was stronger
rain was accompanying her
memories flooding in her
giving a chill in her being
eyes on a book
heart on the route
just few minutes will end the wait
she tried to keep her straight
time started to fly
another day went by
on the table a lonely rose lie...

What is in a name?

If Shakespeare was alive today, he would have changed his statement. Wouldn’t he?

Name, a word made up by few letters, becomes the identity of a person. One identifies so much with the name that either you would love a person with the same name or you would hate him or her.

Since the time a couple plans a child, the talks about the name start. By the time the child is born the search for the name goes from traditional Indian name, Sanskrit name, fashionable names, to Greek and Latin name and so on, to find the best and the different name. Usually the search ends by the time the baby is 4 to 6 months old but some parents finalize the names only when they have to register the name. You will often found parents saying, “I want meaningful name”, “It should be a short name”, “Sweetest name”, “I want a big name, should sound impressive” and so on. The trend in naming the child changes with times, some years back it was Vedic names, and now its exotic names like Greek or Latin names.

There is a new fashion especially among teenagers and collegians. Krups for Krupa, Rups for Rupal....I think Bips- Bipasha must have started this fashion.

When I tell my name to some one on phone, I have to spell it, else they usually get Shruti. When someone misspells your name or gets some other name, how do you react? I have seen people bouncing if someone misspells their name. We get so much attached to our name!

We see names of donors displayed in Temples, Hospitals and Schools; I feel it’s more for the name than for the charity, most of the times. Reason- the desire to leave the name behind after the death. If you go in the jogger’s park near my house, you will see names on every plant, names of their donors. How much people love their name!!

My friend was conducting medical camp in a school. She came across a name, Pushkar, a 7-8 year old boy. She liked the name and asked the meaning to the boy. First he smiled for sometime then he said, “Push kar” and with his hands, he did action of pushing!! Names are funny sometimes, especially when one uses short form of name.

People change their spellings or full name, as per the advice of astrologer or numerologist. They say your name can change your destiny.

Can we still say “what is in a name?”