Me? Grandma? Already?

No, no. Not a real one. Whew! What a relief....

It all started innocently. My daughter wanted a small baby doll. I lodged a loud protest, about how the house is exploding with dolls already, followed with my best and heavy sarcasm and betting about how long it would take before the new doll would be buried along with 10,000 of it's cousins. Any child would wilt under these verbal assaults, but on my iron-willed one - it made no impact, whatsoever. Could have at least spared my larynx. As usual, she won the case hand-down, after pointing out how the baby doll is essential to make her life complete and cleverly putting it down under Santa's wishlist.

And, thus one more member got added to our family. Literally. Overnight, we have all become part of the doll's family. I have been promoted to a grandma (deep groan), my husband the grandpa (deeper groan) and my older one the aunt (for a change -sigh). Ok. Even then, we took it in spirit. Doesn't matter, we told ourselves. All this will be over in a week.

Well, no such luck. It's been a month and matters have gone worse. My role as a grandmother has been increasing every day now. I am supposed to feed her, rock her to sleep, change clothes. All when her mommy junior a.k.a my daughter is watching cartoons and playing with her friends. When asked, she goes, "You know, i am tired now, so can you please take care of my baby? Well, you're the grandma....." Very clear expectations from my role. You got to give it to her. No ambiguity there.

So, can you guys see what's store in future for me when i become a 'real' granny? Me, no like it. Waaaaah, i want my mommy. Right now.

Minding the language...

So, the ability to use language as a mode of communication is one of the main differentiating factor between us and the rest of our primate friends. It gives us that crucial "one-up" to dominate the earthly scene, making us feel all superior. Of course, we easily gloss over the fact that some of us can share so many other traits with the animal kingdom - don't we have enough samples of sly foxes, wise owls, slimy weasels, scared chickens, sharp eagles, vain peacocks etc all around us? Makes one raise an important, poignant question: are we so different after all? Me thinks nah, not so much. More on this topic, it's also fascinating that there are around 3000-6000 languages spoken by us humans around the world (as per our friend "Wise Wiki"). In India, even if you're linguistically-challenged like me, there should be an average of at least two languages acquired over a life time by each person (this is my own extrapolation, so please don't ana...

You and your compass....

Let's talk about what each and every one of us have within ourselves. That deep, down voice that tells us strongly what to do, not to do, what we ought to do but choose not to and regret later on with a "I-told-me-so", things that we wish to do but dare not try in our lifetime....you get the drift. Yes, it is that all-pervading, metaphorical inner compass, or the SatNavs of our lives that I'm getting into. Young adults think they have an independent mind, and do and act that way. In reality, though, in most of the cases, it's not even of their own choice, but out of peer pressure. Which interestingly, brings a point- whose collective, mob voice is it then? If everyone is busy copying someone else doing the same, then who the heck started the fire? No clue, but let's assume for sanity's sake that some life form starts a trend which gets viral, bacterial, whatever. And, suddenly there's a strong urge that compels every youngster to do it ...

Human Needs and Relationships......Part 2

continued from part 1..... Let's start from the bottom of Maslow's pyramid, which is Physiological & Safety needs . These are our basic survival ones like eating, breathing, clothing and, living under a decent roof. The human mind will come to grinding stop if these are not met, and you'll be unable to even think about the next level of needs. Don't believe me? Try dieting/fasting for a day, and you'll be amazed how your fat brain (please, it's a compliment) which used to process complicated thoughts like the greenhouse effect, looming elections, world economy etc. till the day before, can obsessively think of only one thing and nothing else now, which would be the magical, four-letter manna - FOOD. Anyways, these needs would probably come from the closest relationship of all, i.e. parents or caregivers. And, from an evolution point of view, would be our Infant/Childhood stage. Next, is the Love/Belonging needs, which deals with our sense of ...

C'est La Vie;That's life

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