Vein in Vanity

Posts

Am I Enough?

Isn’t it true that many of us live with the constant feeling that we aren’t doing enough with our live. Living with a constant fear of failure and getting it right everytime, we are so anxious about doing something worthwhile. The anthem being-Shouldn't I be doing something, going some place, making it big in life? I do believe that some people are meant for fame (on any scale) while some others are meant to lead lives away from the lime light. Because that’s pretty darn hard too. If there aren’t gardeners there aren’t flowers. If there is no coach there is no champion. Without a director there can be no star. And if some of us aren’t conventional then the eccentric go unnoticed. In times where crime (of every possible sort) is commonplace, being able to live upto a certain age without having to go through any significant, life altering trauma is a feat in itself. And if you can protect your family and loved ones then kudos to you. I am unsure if things were always this bad or if

Blessed are the Silver-tounged

Self-possession isn’t for everyone. But there are greats who always say and do the right things especially in challenging situations. Responding to belligerence with indifference, to doubt with confidence, to superciliousness with pity. Then there are some who never find their tongue. I cannot count the number of times I have thought of “the fitting reply to that pretentious toad” long after the conversation has ended. Then promising to avenge myself the next time this happens. After all, playing out the scene a hundred times in my head should count as good practice? Sadly there never are any replays and in the rare case I have an another shot, things never go as planned. What is it that makes some people so spontaneous? Ironically it is because they think before they speak. At least that is what I think. You say lame? I say give me a chance and hear me out. Now whenever I am having a conversation especially with the aforementioned “pretentious toad” kinds I wan

Growing Up With Children

I was still in high school when my sister had her first baby. As cliché as it sounds I was over the moon. Consequently I played mother very enthusiastically and believed I was doing much better than her biological mother. Ergo the idea that I was great with kids took root. Now about 20 years later, it turns out I was right. I am great with kids. Just not with my own kids. Your children are essentially you. My children are a smaller but truer version of me. And no I am not proud. When I see my daughter handling a tense situation the way I would (which is lose my mind and wring my hands) I do exactly that - lose my mind and wring my hands. Because why would I want her to inherit the “bad traits”? As parents aren’t we trying to raise children who are well rounded and happy? (Read don’t mess up as much as we did.) But children learn essentially through imitation. What they see they reproduce till they are grown enough to have an opinion of their own. Now this forces me t

Selfish and Unapologetic

Know how all of us are selfish but try our best to prove otherwise? How we grimace every time the "menacing" emotion is displayed (by someone else of course) or even discussed. I don't know how to say this without sounding like a total prick. But here it is anyway. We are all selfish and will continue to be unless we transmute to something else. Why? Because man is made that way and so it’s OK to be that way. It is only normal to look out for yourself. Let me explain. Remember that time when you were newly married and trying to wrap your head around the fact that, well, that you were MARRIED? or When you got your first job and felt like you were a misfit and will never make it? or That time when you were trying hard to keep your new born alive? And then do you remember that person (you thought was from a parallel universe) complain and whine about how you aren't keeping in touch, how you have become anti social, how you just don't care and how you are

Good Times In Bad Times

Over the last month things have been a little shaky health-wise in the household. We have been falling sick one after the other. Reason to be blue? But when both the man and the woman in the house are sick, with two children to tend to, blue becomes black and bleak. Yesterday out of sheer desperation, I went to visit a doctor for the first time since we got here. Until now I was doing very well on the calpol snd benedryl I had brought along. The medical system here though very efficient needs some getting used to. In every district doctors have clinics that are open from Monday to Friday but only at specific times. They don't give out appointments and the waiting time is a minimum of two hours. Reason enough to not see a doctor huh? Also if you fall sick on a weekend you need to go to the hospital where the waiting time… well lets just say you might have to wait very long. As a rule we, especially the kids, always fall sick on Fridays allowing us enough time to worry. Most

Life as it happens

Sitting in the park with the sun caressing my body I think to myself the best things in life are free. Alongside is a weary peddler hawking his wares, a subtle reminder that there is no such thing as free lunch A woman in the finest attire draws attention of many a passerby, of course clothes maketh a man. Once she starts to damn the crying child, eyes revert as you never judge a book by its cover. A young boy practises his interview skills for he wants to make the first impression the best. While his friends wonder out aloud aren't mistakes another chance of getting it right. I see a man smiling to himself, perhaps thinking of his lover back home bringing to mind that absence makes the heart grow fonder. But not without a streak of misgiving because isn't out of sight out of mind? For personal benefit two rival politicians see eye to eye with the smug satisfaction that great minds think alike. The bourgeois, watching this charade unravel thinks to