A friend forwarded this SMS:

Someone asked God 'Who is your favorite person?'

God replied 'The one who has the power to take revenge but chooses to forgive'

Hmmm.....looks like I won't make it to God's List of 100 favorite humans, EVER :-)

I noticed her when I was watching car after car turn onto the road leading to the international airport and wondering where the occupants must be heading. She was a little girl selling plastic models of airplanes. The traffic signal had just turned green so she didn't have any car windows to tap on. As I watched her she retreated to the area below the bridge and started wandering aimlessly.

I was about to look away when she twirled once and then kept twirling. Her face broke into a grin as she looked at someone who was sitting below the bridge – most probably her mom or someone from her family. Only when she looked at her skirt as she twirled away did I realize that maybe she had worn it for the first time that day. From a distance, it looked bright with lots of colors – probably not a hand-me-down then, I fervently hoped.

As my AC bus pulled away, my mind flashed to the moment when I had got into the bus and fumed inwardly at all the people sitting at the west-facing windows. The bus wasn't crowded, the AC was going full-blast, I had got a window seat but none of these luxuries had mattered because I was forced to sit where I didn't want to.

And here was the little girl – probably without a proper home, with no chance of educating herself, forced to earn her livelihood by standing in the merciless sun inhaling vehicle exhaust all day and yet she managed to find it in her heart to smile and have fun with whatever life fate had doled out to her.

Should I be complaining – I asked myself. NO WAY – I answered back. Unfortunately, I know from past experiences that this lesson isn't going to stick forever. I will be back to my complaining self sooner rather than later.

I wonder if it is because I haven't paid any price to learn it? :-(

A friend recently forwarded this on SMS:

When you fully trust a person without any doubt, you will finally get one of the following two:


A person for life


Or


A lesson for life

I replied back saying this was very true. He replied back saying that many of friends replied something on the lines of 'Most probably, a lesson for life'!

I wouldn't have normally noticed it as I usually sit with my nose buried deep in the newspaper. But the bus was bouncing a lot on the roads that are in ruins even before the first raindrops hit the city. And I didn't want to end up damaging my eyes. So I was looking out the window when I noticed the little girl squatting hunched on the pavement. My first thought was 'Oh no, I hope that child is not lost. Where is her mother?'.

Turned out that the mother was sitting nearby. It was only when she came forward and picked up the little girl that I realized that the girl was answering nature's call - the one that takes longer.

How I wish Montek Singh Ahluwalia was around. It would have been interesting to see if he could still justify Rs. 35 for the toilet!

And finally some food for thought.....

Relations which are to be managed are never true

and

If the relations are true, they are never required to be managed

Reading yet another article on what dire straits the Indian economy is falling into wasn't helping my mood – already 'blue' because of a Monday morning. So I decided to find out what the woman sitting next to me was so busy doing. For the past 5-10 minutes she had been busily scribbling something in a notebook. On closer inspection, the notebook page had a religious mantra typed at the top followed by a table with about 5 rows and 5 columns. The woman was writing the mantra in each table cell (wow! This has a nice 'techie' ring to it). The page opposite had a different mantra typed at the top. I just wondered if they have different editions for different deities – Hindu religion has about 33 crores of them, the last I heard.

Though I am not very religious, I believe in God and in remembering Him in both good times and bad. I also concede that we all have our own ways of doing this. But this notebook smacked of crass commercialization of religion. A plain ruled notebook would have served the same purpose with the added freedom that the same mantra or God's name could have been written more number of times, as per the devotee's wish.

I guess it is a reflection of how increasingly we are embracing anything and everything that will save us a few precious moments of our exceedingly busy lives :-(

Going by the brouhaha that the government and its allies are creating, any non-Indian can be pardoned for believing that the fate of the world hinges on who becomes the next Indian president. The country would be in a much better shape if all this time is spent instead on taking the tough measures that the economy so desperately needs.

Words from a Hollywood flick come to mind 'Enough monkey business. Do it already" :-)

I guess if any working woman is stopped in her tracks and asked 'how do you feel when you see fellow women who have stepped out of their homes and are now working', chances are that she will give you a confused look and a shrug. Working women are no longer a novelty in many parts of the country.

Yet, when I saw a woman traffic cop deftly directing traffic at a busy city junction during evening rush hours, I just couldn't help but feel immensely proud. If that makes me a female chauvinistic pig, so be it :-)