Even I want one!

I want my own TV, PC and telephone. So does almost everyone else. So one enterprising and intelligent Indian at a US university (where else?) has come up with the concept of a PCtvt. That's a PC, TV and telephone all-in-one! The chap has aimed it at the poor people of rural India, but hey, I wouldn't mind owning a PCtvt.

Here's the dope. But in the (true) nature of BBC, the first paragraph is condescending.

Real Awards

Award for most Religious TV serial: Kasauti Zindagi Kay (Mom counted at least five aartis/poojas in less than 10 episodes.

Award for Best Movie (Drama): Uma's Suspension (starring Uma Bharti, LK Advani, with Atal Behari Vajpayee in a supporting role)

Award for Best Dialogue: Kanchi Shankaracharya (for "Am I Veerappan?")

Award for Best Action: BCCI-Clive Lloyd-ICC (over Sourav Ganguly's two-match ban)

Award for Best PR campaign: 'Bad Pitch in Mumbai'

Award for Unoriginality: India's Best- Cinestars ki Khoj, Indian Idol, and all the other 'talent' hunts in the country right now

Award for Best Idea: Newly-married guy selling his wife for a night in a game of cards (nope, not Mahabharata, but one of the K-serials)

Award for Most Popular Event on TV: Reincarnation

Award for Idiot of the Year: We all know who...

Volte Face

There was a time, not too long ago, when Zaheera Shaikh was the star of the news channels. And Sourav Ganguly was every cricket fan's favourite cricketer or captain. Well, things changed. A lot. Was it the people who changed? Or was it their circumstances? Or were they always like this, and we never noticed?

No More Parking

I had to meet the Editor of Education Times at the Times of India building at VT (or CST, as the Sainiks like to call it). I left home at 2.30 pm, so I'd be there by 3 pm (twenty minutes to reach the area, ten minutes to park, and walk it up to VT). I didn't find any parking. Not at Crawford Market, not at Xavier's College, not at Metro. So I took the option I'd never thought I'd go for.

I parked at Churchgate, and had to leave my keys with the guy there. So, instead of taking the amount written on the pay-and-park slip, he said he'd take Rs. 20 for two hours. I had to agree. I then took a taxi till VT.

So total amount spent: Rs. 20 (for parking) + Rs. 50 for taxi (Rs. 25 each way)= Rs. 70. Of course I haven't taken into account the petrol (which is way too expensive these days).

So while waiting at the Times office, my hair entangled, my shirt soaked with perspiration (luckily my Burberry deo was still working), I decided- I'm never going to get the car to VT or any office area again.

And that's when it struck me- the perfect solution to the mad traffic in Mumbai. Abolish all parking lots. Only private ones in building, hotels and hospitals should be allowed.

Radical, but might just work. ;-)

PS- The blog writer was not in her right mind when she wrote the above post. The poor girl is still suffering from the trauma of not finding parking for 45 minutes. The above post is, therefore, not to be taken literally. Thank you for your co-operation.

Girls versus Boys

When my cousin R walked in last evening, the first thing my maternal grandmother asked him was, "How's your baby boy?"

A pretty normal greeting, but get this- my cousin doesn't have a kid yet. His wife is just two months pregnant. And he doesn't know the sex of his child.

When I went travelling earlier this month, my grandmother gave me strict instructions- Get only blue clothes for R's unborn kid.

Every time someone in the family is pregnant, my grandmother talks about the unborn child being a boy. Almost like nothing else but a boy will do. And when a girl does come, she just shrugs. Like it is no big deal. And then she tells the new mother, "So what? Your next child will be a boy." Which means that unless you don't have a son, your life is not complete.

I don't know what irritates me more- the belief that talking of a boy and buying blue clothes will ensure a boy is born, or the overt preference for a boy. I think the latter is more hypocritical, because it is the samegrandmother who declares occassionally, "There's no difference between girls and boys."

If my grandmother really believes that there is no difference between girls and boys, why does she keeping talking about a boy?

Just last week, a dozen of us sat at the dining table, and the conversation veered to the "missing" baby girls in both urban and rural areas of North India. We agreed that it was a shame that girls were being killed mercilessly in Punjab and Haryana just because they were girls.

"Very sad," someone said.

We all nodded solmenly.

It was easy for us to say that, the stand we took seemed almost "natural".

But what was the point of discussing female foeticide? My grandmother's statements prove that she is inherently biased towards boys. So, here we are, in a modern, urban environment, criticising people who kill baby girls (born and unborn), and then we do nothing as our Head of Family displays her preference.

How can we expect the rural population to change their outlook, when we, the educated ones, are not able to shed our bias?

I tried to confront my grandmother yesterday on this issue.

"You think asking R about his baby boy and buying blue clothes will ensure that the child is a boy? What if it's a girl?"

"It will be a BOY," she said.

And that was that.