2011

So 2011 has begun and we are well into the 13th day of the first month of this New Year. I began the year resolving to keep 'No Resolutions' but I am rethinking that resolve and trying to draw up a couple of resolutions that I can keep or may be break.

The New Year started on a quiet note for me, nothing fancy, the weather itself was such a spoilsport. It has been so chilly and cold and it is only now that the Sun has met with some success at trying to push its way through the fog and clouds...but the Sun's attempt was sincere, to say the least.

But I am looking forward to this 2011...especially now that I have some resolutions to keep, albeit simple ones...but I bet you agree with me that the simple ones are the ones that are tough to follow...like back in school...my resolution every year would be...'I will get 90% in all my subjects'....eventually, I learnt not to keep unrealistic resolutions so my hopes don't get dashed.

Talking of hopes getting dashed, my heart goes out to the family of Rajeev Jolly Wilson, a strapping young man in his 30s who lost his very life, in a freak road rage incident....Devastating! I wonder where Tolerance and Peace are...The two probably realized that the last time they made news was when Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was shot dead. Their Claim to fame - The Newspaper headlines on 31 January 1950...

                             MK Gandhi shot dead... end of the road for Tolerance  and Peace

Speaking of newspapers, there's been a significant change in what's been making news in the last couple of years...as for me, I usually choose to start my day with the daily supplement mainly because this ensures harmony at home and there are no fights over who gets to read first. I choose to be the sweet, benevolent spouse ready to give up her claims!

Call me an escapist, but with news of road rage, murder, rape and honour killings, I would rather escape into the colorful pages of the Delhi times, where smiles may be fake and the grapevine rife with news of the    'Munnis'(courtesy: Dabangg) and Sheilas (courtesy  Tees Maar Khan) of our times, but at least it is a welcome relief, however short lived, from the stark news of our life and times. Indeed on the 1st of January 2011, Delhi woke up to the headline of how a  young woman had been brutally marauded by men who decided that the way to celebrate the New Year was by assaulting a woman's dignity and looting her of her greatest possession, her self esteem. This, on a day when more than 30,000 khaki clad were patrolling the streets of Delhi.

News has reached an all time high or low (pick what suits you) with inflation, sexual preferences, scams and crimes of passion hitting headlines...depressing.

Yet as I search for my haven in the glitz and glamour of the Supplement, I am innately aware, that this is not the real world because a lot of the celebs featured are paying fat salaries to their PR agents who do the job, that perhaps a lot of them are fighting depression, loneliness and alcohol and drug abuse and are battling their greatest fear of dying alone.

I shudder to think what a difficult world, my little boy has to grow up in...A world full of choices but no clear distinction between good and evil...where 'alternative' is the word of the day because it stamps a seal of approval over everything from lifestyle, religious belief, sexuality, food habits,agriculture and even fertility. 

Sigh....Sometimes I want to bundle up the little fellow and put him right back into my womb...where I can shield him. But then that's not possible and won't be correct. So then what will be?....

I guess it is time to take some resolutions. Not just frivolously but purposefully...not for the heck of it but to take stock of things....to do my bit to create a better world for my little son, to teach him the value of prayer to train him to listen to God's voice in the cacophony of the world so that when 'alternative' becomes his 'Word of the Day'....His only alternative will be to listen his heart, a heart that is right with God.

Time to turn back to God....Thanking Him for the years so far and trusting Him with the year ahead.

Happy tenth anniversary, Mancha!!!

We've made it thus far, crossed the first bridge,

Completed a decade in our Historical Hitch,

The walk's been good, since the one down the aisle,

We've already outlived the Seven Year Itch!

Being 'husband' and 'wife', sometimes made us twitch

I must admit, I've fancied if the 'roles' we were to 'switch'

So I claim not perfection and admit to many a glitch

But with Jesus in our hearts, we smoothened the marriage pitch

I know not why God chose you and me, His reasons still have me bewitched

We always agree to disagree in this, Our Glorious Hitch

Yet today completing 10 years of that Historical Hitch

I know this decade with you Manucha, has me so enriched.

I cannot think of better words that rhyme with the word 'hitch'!

So I am going to end this little poem, I hope you dont' say 'Tch, tch!!'

Before I go, I hope and pray that God gives ten times ten,

Another 90 years with you is what i'd like to spend

We'll grow old together, and laugh till we're in splits

In all the moments thus far, we've enjoyed most bits!

I thank you darling Mancha for having and holding me to be your 'lovely' wife

I may not be the Proverbs 31 woman, but I sure as heck have tried.

So God be with us Mancha; Joshua, you and me,

For He saw through our emptiness and made us family

We'll get by with God, through the laughter and the pain,

And this I pray till life's end, devoted to Him, we remain