September 7th, 2008 by galadriel

I have mentioned that I am 24, single unmarried (wink wink ) and loving it. I also have some very close friends, all more or less my age. Most of them are dating, in relationships, blah, blah and blah and this whole social charade gets me thinking…. I have a few relationship questions that need clarification. Maybe someone should publish a manual that has in-depth answers. I wonder if the Hitchhiker’s Guide had them.

Dating: When is an appropriate time to start saying you’re dating? One, two, three dates? And, really, what does qualify as dating? Coffee, dinner, movie, drinks, thrown in with copious amounts of subtle flirting and double entendres hidden in every sentence we speak? Then does that mean that some people I know end up dating even their friends (or people they “claim” are their friends) ? A touch here, a naughty smile there, a peck on the cheek that lingered a moment too long? And how long does it take to actually proceed from “a date” to “dating” ?

Relationship: When does it go from “dating” to “being in a relationship” ? Is there an intermediate phase in between these two? And amongst all this confusion when does the first kiss take place? And how long does it take to move from the kiss to other, more interesting things? Does it mean that whoever you’re getting it on with is the person you’re in a relationship with? And what if you’re with them, have all the benefits of a relationship (well, I can only think of one big benefit, but for peace of mind, let’s add the plural) and yet deny ever being in the relationship/going around/blah-bloo-blah?

Commitment: We’ve all heard this word. And in all probability, more often than not we’ve heard it along with the phrase “not ready”. So when does a relationship transform into a commitment? And does making out have any part to play in this? I for one cannot imagine a guy being committed to a girl because she’s mind-numbingly hot in bed/makes love like a tigress. And I do happen to know women who would sleep with men and then claim to be “not ready for a commitment” leaving the guy gaping. But I also happen to know men who do the exact same thing. So what does commitment mean?

Living together: So do you live together once you’ve “committed” to one another? When you’re in a “relationship”? Please tell me you don’t move in together when you’re dating. Does living together require the relationship to pass the above two stages? Or can it be done in between one of these? So does it also signify that your relationship is definitely moving towards marriage? How much time passes between the living-in and the popping-of-final-question? So when you’re living with someone, you’re all but married right? So then why do people break up even after years of living together? And is it allowed to come back with the “no commitment” drill after you’ve lived with someone?

And, the most puzzling question of all…. Where does “love” fit in the grand scheme of relationship-y things? When is an appropriate time to say the dreaded 3 words? How easy or difficult is it to slide from one intense (emotionally and physically) relationship to another while having said (or at least felt) the L-word?

Maybe we should all go back to our parents’ and grandparents’ generations where life was simple and you didn’t have to think so much. Meet boy, parents say yes, you say yes, get married, sleep with the almost-stranger you just married, have kids, live happily ever after.

Pshaw.

August 17th, 2008 by galadriel

One email, one line, one phone call, one sentence, one moment remembered, one kind word, one little gesture, one promise kept, one action executed, one commitment adhered to, one expression of love… Just one.

Things I expect people to do when I need them the most. Things that never happen and end up disappointing me. Things that make me lose faith in the one person I should never lose faith in.

July 15th, 2008 by galadriel

A.k.a. The Kalyanam Chronicles.

With all my friends getting married and me visiting the happy couple, I had to do this.

I hate weddings. I hate all the fanfare, the big hullabaloo, the smoky atmosphere, the silk sarees, the jewelry on display, everything.

But the fun part is when random Uncles/Thathas/elderly gentlemen walk upto you and go ‘When I last saw you you were about this tall.’ and making a gesture that would make you about as tall as Tom Thumb. *Was that the same time as when you had hair on your head?*

“Oh, marine science aa? What will you do with it?” *I’ll make pickles, at least I’ll do it better than your jobless daughter.*

“Oceanography? Heard of National Institute of Oceanography in Goa?” *Well, duhh, I am an oceanographer. And I know NIO sucks. Why do you think I’m in the US?*

Enter the Maami Mafia. “Enna ma? Can you sing? Can you do alapanai?” *Why, would I not qualify as a singer if I sang a Beatles song?”

“Oh-o! You look like K.R.Vijaya! I always told your mother you’d turn out like this.” *Erm.. why would you tell her I’d look like an actress who used to be a peasant-girl selling flowers at the Guruvayoorappan temple? And is it no wonder then that neither my mom nor I have seen you ever since??*

“You’re 23? When do you plan to get married? Or are you one of these career-oriented girls?” *Yep, I’ll have a job and so naturally I’ll torture your son into doing household chores, which means I can’t be a good wife anyway.*

“I know a very good boy, he’ll be perfect for you.” *Does he like practising wrestling with his body pillows? No? Then he’s not perfect for me, sorry.*

“Can you sing? Can you cook?” *Pray, please to tell me how the two are related. AND how they’re related to marriage? Unless, of course, I marry him, then I sing and he dies. If he’s survived my singing, I can poison his dinner, is that how?*

“My son also lives in the US, you should meet him sometime.” *Lady, you do realize that the US is an actual country?*

And this happened when I was standing at one wedding with my grandmom.

Grandma: “What do you think of so-and-so’s son for our little girl?”

Random lady: ” Nice boy but his onnu-vitta-mama (some uncle, once removed) had cancer so their family medical history is not good.”

Grandma: “Ohh.. Thanks ma, good I spoke to you, what a good deed you have done.”

Me: “Umm.. Paati, what about our athai who also died of cancer?”

Grandma: “You stay quiet, periyava pesarche unakku enna anga velai?” (big people talking, you what there doing?)

And, of course, there’s always this one loser who goes to weddings just to see if any pretty eligible girls will make the mistake of considering him as a prospective groom. One such character apparently took a liking to me at one wedding ;). He kept following me around trying to make conversation *Did he not see me rolling my eyes after every sentence he spoke??* and convincing me how it is so cool that he chucked his PhD at Wayne State University and is doing a Masters at IIT Madras because he “wants to serve the country”. *Pray, how? By choosing a career by which you will eventually end up working for an MNC?”

He introduced himself so.

Shady Character: “Hi, I’m Ranga, short for Ranganathan.”

Me: *Not quite impressed with the nicknaming of self, it was still a loser name.* “Erm.. Hi.”

SC: “I’m Prema’s son.”

Me: <staring at him blankly>

SC: “Vijaya’s sister?”

Me: <still blank>

SC: “Umm.. Raghu Chithappa’s wife Vijaya?”

Me: <beginning to panic, wondering if I was at the right wedding> *Who were all these people???*

SC: “Umm.. whose side are you from? The bride or the groom?”

Me: “Erm.. err… I think my Mom’s calling out to me. Bye.”

Turns out, Vijaya was the bride’s mom and the bride was my mom’s cousin, so that made Raghu Chithappa, my mom’s Mama. I found that out much later, of course, thanks to my mom who had seen all this happening and was bursting with laughter.

So why do I still attend weddings? For the food, of course. And for material to blog about. Later.

July 12th, 2008 by galadriel

So I was in Texas for the long weekend. It was the best weekend I have had in a long time. And truly, everything is BIG in Texas! They have these monster trucks that seem to occupy the entire road. The speed limits are higher. The people there all seem to be XXL by default. And Plano has the best paani puri I have eaten in the US.

What really attracts me to the place is its wild nature, it’s rustic freedom, it’s don’t-give-a-crap attitude. Texas is the only state that can declare itself an independent republic at any time, did you know ?? And they can survive, they have all the oil. There are people who actually build houses without basements because digging below foundation level opens up oil wells causing crude oil to flow like water flowing out of broken pipelines!

However, the BEST part of my trip, was visiting my good one of the closest friends I’ve made over the last 8 months. The crazy, cooky, nutty, and tiny Rayshma. And yes, I promised to make sambhar. And yes, I only made dal. But Rayshma aur Shera decided that we needed to go out to Chilli’s to have dinner so the process had to be stopped halfway. She conveniently left out this little detail didn’t she?

Shera is sweet and docile. She… well, the less said about their domestic relationship the better. The poor chap left a sock in the living room. Man, she scared me! He bought her very cute gifts, shopping for which was done after he left from his lab so now he knows the closing times of all big stores.

He got us lost in the middle of nowhere, wouldn’t stop for directions, got yelled at by da lady, got us back on track using his expert navigational abilities and took us to Taco Bell for lunch where we realized that in all the getting lost, we had lost so much time that we had to skip one of the places we were supposed to go to. But it worked out in our favor coz the weather was bad anyway.

They finally dumped me at the airport and scrammed for their life. Methinks, no more invitations from College Sation are going to make it my way for a long long time.

Anyway, I had fun. The most fun I have had in a while now. Me now looking forward to California. I don’t know when that will be! Until then, you can choose to follow the morose details of my morbid life. Or you can get a life of your own.

June 7th, 2008 by galadriel

Pixie thinks I’m nice! *blushing*

Thanks Pix!

I guess I’ve only been blogging for a li’l while now and this makes me feel like people actually like reading me.

There, that’s the closest I’m ever going to come to making an Academy Award-like speech.

I would like to bestow this award upon Alice and Lavs. They’ve both in their won way put a lot of perspective into my thinking. Thanks, guys!