The Maanga

Varma boy and his ilk may give several reasons which mean nothing.

The real reason is — if one has to make a cost analysis of marriage over a reasonably long period of time, one needs to know how much a woman will cost, for one night; or day. For sex, that is. If you want love, the answer lies in sexuality — not necessarily sex.

The problem with it being illegal is, there is no set price and we can’t have healthy competition decide the rate. Prostitution being illegal, I am sure, is one of the reasons why Hedge Fund Managers make horrendous mistakes and why we have a credit crunch. Greed is, after all, a result of insecurity.

Since I was going on 50, balding, had a strange gap in my teeth and young women were blogging about how lecherous I was, I prayed that I should get married. Read Sundara Kandam, listened to Velukkudi droning away, agreed to amma´s request for a thulabaram as success fee, considered angapradakshinam, started doing sandhya vandanam regularly.  

Finally I got married. Got back to my high paying job from Chennai and promptly got laid off.  

It’s not enough if you don’t wear denim trousers, kid; you must also stop wearing sleeveless shirts.

PS: A reader (actually, a writer) writes in,

This P.R.E.E.T.I girl is something. Look at this one from last December

Priya- my awesomely fun, beautiful and entirely LOVABLE dido.

Isn’t there a spelling mistake somewhere there?

Now am clever, via whatever.

A friend of mine, who grew up in North India, often wonders why South Indian men have a very indifferent relationship with their parents. I tried explaining that we were raised that way — and that the process of transcending into adulthood is very subtle. One rarely ever asserts one’s own independence but just claims it. Result is — we don’t buy clothes or jewelery as gifts for people at home; we don’t sing songs together or go out. We don’t have casual conversations either. We have friends for that and family is mostly for transferring generational wealth and food. I rambled further, even. Just that someone else has captured that quite well,

Recently, she has returned to live with her parents, but the pressure to conform to societal expectations remains strong. “They are like, ‘O.K., you are a transsexual, but don’t dress like that at home, and please get married.’ ” There is quiet hostility to the talk show project from her mother, who still hides Rose’s dresses and jewelry whenever she gets a chance. Only her grandmother has given her blessings for the show.

One’s political opinions and contempt for the existing establishment have a place; that’s not in a story on the lovable Semicolon.

The linguist Noam Chomsky sniffed, “I suppose Bush would claim it’s the effect of No Child Left Behind.”

Prediction: Rohit Sharma will be India’s most succesful Test batsman.

It’s a pity this boy is from Bombay and not Madras.

I want to write something clever.

2008 has begun badly for at least one feminist.

Hillary Clinton continues to lose, despite the much vaunted Gloria Steinem piece.

Indra Nooyi got fooled by a hoax analyst, who gets on earnings calls and pesters CEOs with silly questions on efficiency issues.

I have now decided, fools such as these exist because idiots such as he pontificate.

In other words, you cannot choose to be an Indian unless the rest of us let you.