Yet Untitled

The forcibly-made-former President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, has been hanged to death. And most certainly this is not going to change the way things are. Except that the number of posts today will increase significantly in the blogosphere, riots will break out for some more days, people will protest in the coming months, I shall continue to download more Metallica FLVs and Wiki gets one more article.

I was glad about the ten day trip to home and it’s been already a week in Hyderabad and the moments are passing even before I realise what’s happening right then. The welcome news was sad. A very close relative of ours expired. Some were glad that she hasn’t troubled her children or husband by getting hospitalized for months or spending months on the bed chanting God’s name seeking the slightest of helps from others. And some others were sad that her ‘time has come so soon’. Her husband (my uncle a.k.a pedananna), who is incidentally a lot into life and its philosophy, accepted fate, but was happy that she passed away on the banks of river Krishna according to her last wish.

So things have returned to normalcy except for the daily rituals that have been taking place since then. I accompanied mom and dad almost everyday during the dinner time. Fortunately, relationships in our family are enjoyable. And so are the relatives. Just for some trivia, dad has 7 brothers and 3 sisters. With that same logic, I have close to 40 siblings (all ahead of me!). And all of them married. Or should I speak of the only unmarried?

Before my sister got married, she was the common target among the group of elderly women in any occasion. The only discussion on earth apart from jewellery, sarees and deaths that these sorts of women can ever have is to pull the legs of the oldest-yet-young unmarried person in the family.

Fortunately or unfortunately, this crown is now on my head.

It all starts off taking the word ‘marriage’. And before you start blushing, the discussion diverts to what bride’s gifts each of the women would give and get. Give is always far lesser than get though. And most of the times, my mom manages to make her presence while this discussion goes on. Her (or any conventional mom for that matter!) stance rises when these close-relatives-cum-GD-women speak about son’s marriage. A discussion of daughter’s marriage involves a lot of ‘you-have-to-give’ dialogues while son’s marriage essentially delivers a lot of ‘we-shall-not-take-anything-from-them’ kind of words. Happily proud, you see.

And the worst part is elder women who have beautiful unmarried daughters never speak all this. Bad.

Apart from that, I got to receive some off-beat comments like ‘You look complete now!’ (God alone knows what was incomplete in me before!), some routine comments like ‘You are getting thinner everyday. Your cheeks are drying up and going inside.’ Followed by an ‘Aren’t you eating properly?’ and some good-old comments like ‘You were thissss much when I saw you 20 years back…’ I can’t help but wonder if it isn’t obvious!

But still, its all funny and enjoyable. It’s a fact that it has really been a long time since all of us relatives are together. Or may be it would sound more apt if I say that I haven’t been to many of the recent ceremonies, functions or these occasionally held get-togethers. Somehow, this time I realised that many among my relatives were getting old. Their energy levels have come down. Most of the kids whom I have seen the last time are now in their higher schools. And unlike how they were before, they all have become silent. Among these tens of transitions that people have made in their lives, careers or education, I’m the only one to go for a job. And I was happy to realise that I was forcibly made the role-model for some of the children of my many cousins. Some others have taken sessions on what I should do next and whom to see as a role-model to grow in life. Well, they meant it when they said that taking up a job is not the last step in your career. And strangely, there is a sense of respect that you get from some more of them when they know that you are in a job working for a company like Wipro. And it doubles when you are not in your hometown, living on nothing but yourself.

Relationships are getting branched. Priorities are driving relations. Food tastes the same. Yet, the lives don't.

Apart from all of this, I spent most of my time meeting friends and doing some ‘to-be-done’ things. I actually prepared one such list before I came down to Hyderabad and successfully executed most of them. At the end of my trip to home, this trivial list of mine looked somewhat like:

Convocation.
Audio system.
Battery.
Wirewash.
Laundry.
Ticket Cancellation.
Change Blog.
Hutch Bill.
Hit.
Clean It - CD Player, Computer.

'Convocation' meant going to JNTU and applying for my convocation certificate. ‘Battery’ is to change the battery of the cordless phone in my house. On a lighter note, I learnt how to play Metallica’s Battery on the guitar. Wirewash is as stupid as it sounds. Actually stupider than it sounds. It is to wash the wires of the earphones of my MP3 player. Yeah. Wash them. Laundry Work. (Which is left half done. And so is the half-strike on it.) Cancel the train ticket booked originally for 26th. Change the template of this blog. Pay my telephone bill. Buy HIT! And finally clean the audio system and computer with Colin.

My trip to home has almost come to an end. And as it always is, some things never change in life. I shall be in my cubicle in a couple of days. Coffee, printouts, meetings, t-con’s, life, from now and on…

By the way, I wish all the readers of my blog a wonderful new year ahead! Have a great time.