Our Friendly Neighborhood....

Yeah, just like the Spiderman song, except for missing in action - a super hero sprawling his webbed feet on our windows. Talking about spider man and his neighborhood, here's an unfriendly thought. Ok, he gets bad guys and saves the world, blah blah, but can you imagine opening your curtains every day and peer into a grotesquely-dressed, not even remotely spider-like, eeriely-masked man staring at you? Eeeeek.

Back to reality, our neighborhood is a very child-centric, a la Sesame street style. Only a brightly feathered, nasal-voiced yellow bird and an unbelievably over-hyped, shockingly high-priced, ridiculously-talking red moppet are missing from this pretty picture. What? You say, enough with the parental vent and the way too many hyphenated adjectives? Ok, fine. So be it. Strict sentiments from now on.

Any given day, you can come around our locale and see children riding their bikes, scooters, roller skates or maybe hop scotch, hide and go-seek. Shrieking voices, chatters, whispers going around - full of young life. Kiddos moving and out of neighbors' houses as if it's their own. Being a cul-de-sac is useful in not needing to keep tabs on the children. Anyways, most of the grownups are always outside "gossiping", oops sorry, let me rephrase it - catching up on current events happening in each others' intricate personal lives. Ohh, that makes it all better.

Summers are especially great because we get the sprinklers out, the kids don their swim wear and have a huge splash all afternoon. We lunch or snack outside too and add to the fun. We carpool, share everything from groceries to ladders, you name it all. Some of our children have grown together. We have welcomed new residents as well as given farewells to those who have moved on.

And, now after a long 8 years, it's our turn to leave soon and I am missing this place already. Changes are necessary, but hard at the same time, isn't it?

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 ...

On Equality....

So much hoopla about womanhood, feminism, and what's right or wrong, extreme or mild versions of it, am suddenly feeling a urge to clarify my views on this topic. Quite bizarrestrangoweird that it never crossed my mind all these donkey's years, to actually think of what being a woman meant to me, leave alone write about it. Anyways, let me just sit down and make an attempt to de-clutter all the muck and mud surrounding this mess. One word pretty much bottoms it down, and I've given away the punchline in my title anyway- EQUALITY. As simple as that. What goes for the goose goes for the gander. Except, what both genders physiologically can and can't do- pregnancy and childbirth, hormones, work that involves upper body strength etc. Even the latter is kind of debatable, with sports being a levelling field right now - yes, that was meant to be "punny" :-) Anything else that is possible for both genders, like education, work, choosing a life pa...

Mothering Business....

Quite a bunch, aren't we? Not only burdened with the responsibilities of raising new-age kids who are high tech, but come with nope, not even a "Parenting for dummies" manual, managing a challenging and dynamic job-front, dealing with the social aspects of the family like being the perfect daughter, a good sister, the kind neighbor, a caring wife, dutiful daughter-in-law et al. Add the mundane chores of cooking, cleaning, gardening, chauffering to this list and - I know, my head is spinning too. Easy now, let's sit down for a minute. Most of the current gen mothers that I know take their diverse roles to their heart, and try to make the best out of it. It's business as usual for them. No big deal, they would brush off. But, I always wonder if we're all unconsciously trying to be "Supermums", especially the huge task of balancing work and home. We definitely want to be out having a career or a job which is what keeps us sane and yet, no way ...

C'est La Vie;That's life

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