The kid has finally grown up

That’s what my mum would be telling herself at the end of this week. This week turned out to be one of the most gratifying week of my entire life. It ranks right up with the week that I got married and the week that I graduated and the week that I joined my first full time job. The reason is pretty simple. I finally, I mean finally, learnt to mix rice (anna) and curry (saaru) with my own hands and used my own bare hand to eat the mixture. No spoon, no fork, no knives, just my fingers. Believe it or not, it felt great !!

You may be thinking “what’s the big deal !?” Wait till you hear this – I have never mixed and eaten rice curry, which also happens to be the staple food of the people of Southern Karnataka, with my own hands continuously for a whole week for lunch/dinner with my mum around ever ! I simply cannot think of a time when I had to do that. My mum has always mixed them for me and like an icing on the cake, given me a spoon to eat it up. It is funny but mums are mums. After completing the process of eating rice n’ curry myself on the first day of the week in front of my mum, I actually felt empowered ! I felt like I owned something ! I felt like I controlled something ! The feeling is akin to one felt by a fledgling when it takes its first flight ! The feeling is just indescribable. And add to all this, my mum started giving me smart tips on how to mix rice and curry better and in the end she said "Remember, add a pinch of salt to the mixture of rice, curry and ghee and that will make it a lot tastier". Does this "Remember,..." dialogue ring a bell in you ? It certainly does in me. The Lion King, ladies and gentlemen. This is when I thought she felt that her son has come off age.

It doesn't mean that I've never mixed or eaten rice n' curry like this before. I have, but only when I haven't had an option, when ever I had an option I was only happy to take it. Weddings and other functions were my experiment grounds. I've to admit I haven't embarrassed myself doing it, at least that’s what I'd like to believe, but it was never a 100% satisfactory performance and I was never at ease doing it. Now, I will have no qualms mixing rice and curry. In fact, I may become an expert at it. Probably, I will open a school for all the people who are absolutely incompetent, like I once *was*, in mixing rice curry. I may even win an award for my social service activities of enlightening people of this wonderful art. The possibilities are countless.

This also means that I don't have to hang my head in shame when my 8 year old niece is telling me about how she is so adept at handling rice curry and I, so inept at the same task. Now, she will not dare to talk to me when we are having food together. She did giggle and make fun of me for the first two days, but even she has started taking me seriously after a week's marathon. She sees a responsible individual who needs no hand holding when he feels hungry. In summary, it is a wonderful feeling that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

I've overcome an obstacle that seemed insurmountable till last week. Today, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all those wonderful ladies who've helped me with my disability. My sisters, mum-in-law, aunts, mums of few of my friends, and finally, my lovely wife, thank you !

And Thank you Maa !

P.S : I am a 26 year old "boy" who is already married for more than two years. This is just to emphasize how important an achievement this is. You got to appreciate it !

Barack Obama is the president of United States

This is an attempt at a comeback of sorts and you may think what a no-brainer of a title for a post that is suppose to be a “comeback post”, but some people in my country just don’t get this simple fact. Prathiba Patil is our president, albeit a nominated head of the state with zero powers, not Barack Obama, whose powers know no bounds, apples and oranges you see. He is the President of United States of America (USA), you idiots !

Now don’t start looking behind you, this was meant for the electronic media of my lovely country. Specially a section of the media which claims to represent the heart and soul of India. And that heart and soul is the urban upper middle-class. Really !? I am not really sure if they do represent them though. I think we should form a JPC and let them find out the truth or perhaps a SIT, no ! we should form (sic) a one-man Justice I-will-take-twenty-years-to-complete-investigation commission to verify the authenticity of the claim. Now that we’ve settled that debate lets move on to this epic visit to India by the President of United States. Epic, not because he is here to do business with India to the tune of about 10 billion bucks in just three days but because this visit inspired me back to my long forsaken blog ! OK, I am little self-centered, get over it !

He is here to serve the interests of his own country. He is their President and he is right in doing so. I am not expecting my PM to go on a world tour and give freebies to who ever he meets at my cost. And why are we so upset anyway ? The answer is that the President didn’t mention Pakistan in any of his addresses ! Now, WTF ! US needs Pakistan, they blocked NATO supply routes through NWFP for a couple of days and Americans were shitting in their pants ! That’s how important they are to them. Obama can’t say Pakistan is a terrorist state, it may be one but that is irrelevant. Obama can’t even say Pakistan is a failed state, hell ! he can’t even call Zardari by his pet name : Ten-percent ! Even if he calls them some name, it won’t be anything than just that – name calling. The same media was up in arms when Obama had said China has a role in South Asia. We don’t approve of that comment, do we ? One man’s meat is another man’s poison. You can count on Obama to not shoot his foot again with a shotgun. And seriously, we should stop running to some one else hoping that they will fix our problems. You got hit in the guts, spit the blood out and get back on your feet to punch back. We are the USA of South Asia, aren’t we ? Flex some economic muscle, I say ! And this is from a country that aspires to be a global power. If we don’t stop acting like sissies then even Nauru will not give us a hoot !

It is about time we move from this Pakistan fixation, it is not worth the time and effort really. We can deal with them bilaterally but bringing Pakistan in our talks with US, China, Russia, Uganda, Somalia and who ever else we are talking to, just gives them undue importance. It completely messes up the equation. Getting fixated is a thing for the Pakistanis, one look at their newspaper websites and you will know what fixation means. In any case, what ever happens between India and Pakistan is a bilateral issue. Lets keep it that way and try to resolve issues rather than expecting head of state of every other country to toe our line. It is sheer stupidity. I must admit, however, these TV-wallahs do all these drama to just get the eye-balls. Rest assured my friends, you’ve got a couple here !