get it right

of my four years of college life, not even once have people guessed my course right. by people here, i mean strangers and long lost acquaintances. by looking at the paraphernalia that i am carrying with me they invariably jump into wrong conclusion. let me share with you four of such experiences out of the innumerable.

during the first year, first semester, all we engineers have to carry the drafter. though, apart from mechanical, civil, architecture branches, none of the engineers from other departments will ever glance at an engineering diagram throughout our life is a major fact, god only knows why ALL department students should suffer with that subject. so there i was, lugging the drafter and walking my way home from the bus stop. en route, i stopped at a box shop to get some stuff. the shopkeeper eying my drafter asked "polytechnic eh?" god!!! great insult...asking an engineering student whether she is studying polytechnic. glaring at him, i said "no. ENGINEERING" and huffed away.

the other day during my second year, i got up really late and was rushing up to get ready and leave so as to catch the college bus at time. at the last moment, i remembered my lab coat and having no time to stuff it into my bag, i just slung it over my shoulder and rushed off to the bus stop. there, two middle aged men, on seeing me with the white lab coat, were smugly telling each other that i must be a 'medical student'. wow!! now that felt good i tell you. but then, at that moment, my college bus came. getting into the bus, i looked out at the men from the window and needless to say, they looked at me sheepishly. dear people, here i would like to say that we engineers too use white lab coat extensively through out our four year course. we suffer through 15-20 labs and for that, we must wear the white lab coat.

when i was in my 3rd year, me and my friends, after finishing the model exam headed to the beach from the college. we got into the bus and as we didn't get any seat, we gave our bags to some of the aunties who were sitting. one of them looked up at us, said the name of an 'arts college' which is near our own college and asked whether we were studying there. gosh!! just because we were heading out in the afternoon, does it mean that we are 'art students'?
"hehe, no aunty, we are engineering students." i said. she eyed us suspiciously and asked " but don't you have college till 4 pm? " we told her about the model exam. for that, she just said an unconvinced "oh" and turned away from us.

now, am in the final year, and even yesterday, an acquaintance took a wrong guess. during the final semester, we have to do project and we won't be having regular classes on all five days of the week. so, that day, i was coming home from college and i was just carrying my purse. there wasn't any classes that day in college so i didn't have to carry any books. "hey Aruna!!! how are you? started working eh? where?" the acquaintance enthused. "oh no no. am in my final sem...b.e..." i dragged out. "oh. where are your books? no bag? where did you have your lunch? " she went on. boy!! isn't she considerate? i really was in no mood to explain about project and the final sem class schedule to her. so i just said " my college has a canteen aunty. i had lunch there." and rushed off.

God...will someone, ever ask, for a change "are you an ENGINEERING student?" before i complete my course?

women's day?

Oh god! i am really feeling sick. for the past few days, i am being assaulted by this 'woman's day' mania. everywhere i go, i see shops-right from the biggest one in town to the smallest of boutiques offering WD discount. also thrown in are 'surprise gifts' for female shoppers, 'attractive offers' on women apparels and cosmetics (though they turn out to be a ridiculous 5% discount is another story), mindless forms to be filled where they ask 'insightful' and 'thought provoking question' like

*i love being a woman because...(as if we have a choice on selecting our gender)
*of the following women, who do you relate yourself to?
1.Sania Mirza 2. Mother theresa 3. Kalpana Chawla 4. Sonia Gandhi
(i mean, please grow up people. why should any woman relate herself with any of the abovesaid? )

radio stations mouthing absolutely senseless sentences comprising of the words 'liberation' and 'empowerment' over and over again inbetween songs which vulgarly describes the female physical parts, interviewing eminent female achievers and boring them to tears with questions which sound as if they were prepared by a 5th grader...UGH!

as a culmination of this madness, today i woke up to a barrage of sms saying 'happy women's day :)' ridding my inbox of these messages alone took me a solid 20 minutes. after brushing, i sat down to read the papers with a steaming cuppa. apart from the news, every article-editorials, columns, magazine sections and even advertisements were filled with WD crap. in our home, we buy 4 papers and believe me people, not even a single paper had a trace of sanity today.

what is the poin in making such hue and cry for a single day? is it really going to make a difference? definitely celebrating women's day - atleast in a way it is being celebrated in these recent years is NOT going to change the lives of women. like everything else, WD too is now riddled with crass commercialism. as a first step towards doing something meaningful for women, we women must first change our attitude. what attitude you ask? ok, let me share with you an incident which happened on friday (6.3.09).

in our building, we have this absolutely adorable 6yr old kid. his mom works in a corporate and his dad is currently on a 3 month official visit to the US. his maternal grandmother takes care of him till his mom returns home from work.

that day, his mom came home late as they were hosting WD celebrations in her work place. she came back home by 11.30pm and was greeted by her sleepy,happy child and a worried, grumpy mother. me and my family were watching all these proceedings.

after saying good nights and locking our door, my mom, in her most 'holier than thou' voice said "she(mother of the kid) really is very irresponsible. how can she party at her office when she has a child to come back home for? poor kid."
i said, "but mom, its not like as if she abandoned the kid in the streets. he was left in the care of his grandmother. so what is the big issue here?"
"stop arguing with me aruna. as a mother, it is her duty to take care of the child. she must have come home early. afterall, she must not forget that she is a female."
"but amma, that is precisely why she was late today." was my bewildered reply. i never expected this kind of attitude in my educated, working mother.

now, do you accept wih me, that these celebrations are absolutely pointless unless and until we women first change out attitude and outlook for any change to take place in our society?

the ladies compartment

traveling by the local train in Chennai is real bliss. no traffic hassles,no break downs, no ticket passing...and the best part is that it is fast and prompt.

ladies compartment in the local train has its own charms. in the morning hours, you can see the working women doing everything-except bathing and relieving themselves, in the train.

some of them dutifully comb their hair...at the extremes even with special lice removing combs. the poor co passengers often sneeze themselves to misery because of this. and you know what is the worst part? a woman combing her hair and a women eating her breakfast sitting next to each other.

talking about eating, Chennai women aren't yet overly comfortable with the concept of using spoon for eating. so, they eat with hand. most often you can see fingers from two to three hands wriggling together in the same tiffin box. so, after eating, they migrate either towards the entrance or near a window, skilfully unscrew a bottle open with one hand and wash the other hand-in a MOVING train. most of the window seat passengers experience a mini drizzle many times in the course of their journey because of this. and for your information, these women also wash their mouths.

another important and indispensable part of the ladies compartment are its vendors...that too the gypsies. with a dress that is half way between a sari and hair that is coloured brown-courtesy the Chennai sun,dirt and lack of oil, these women sell coloured beads,safety pins, clips, bands, key chains and and an assortment of other items which you can buy for rs.5 to rs.20.

with a baby slung on their shoulder, they often makes agile jumps in and out of the train...when the train is about to leave the platform. their arrival is often heralded by a powerfull smell, even before they start hawking their wares. handing out the chosen items to the customers, they dig deep to retrive their money pouch-often placed in strategic places and give out the changes. wow...ultimate shopping experience.

if you feel hungry during the travel and u are not the type to carry tiffin box, dont worry. a wide range of eatables-from popcorn to papaya can be brought in the train. the skins of peanuts, oranges, bananas and a variety of other fruits provide a bright and peppy decoration to the otherwise boring steel flooring of the train. most of the accidents in a ladies compartment occur due to the lethal combination of high heels and banana peels.

but the most testing part of train travel is the way the ladies stand at the entrance...even when there is enough space available to do somersaults in the aisles. with a mini war raging between the boarding and departing parties, where women transform into wrestlers and shove at each to get into the compartment, these stupid,commonsenseless creatures stand at the side of the entrance...happily watching the ensuing commotion with a grimace plastered on the face.

with only 20% of the total breadth available, a great deal of pushing,shoving,stomping, whacking and what not occurs among the pasengers. when you see a dishevelled women with her hair sticking every which way and her dress looking as if it has been just retrived from the drier of the washing machine, please dont screw up your face in contempt. she is a victorius woman who has managed to escape unscathed at her destined station.

ah!! the joys of train travelling are so numerous. you have to accept the fact that travelling by train...that too in peak hours teach you some important survival skills, increasing your ability to face this mad bad world with confidence.