He is Coming Down the Montain, Here He Comes...

The phone rings, My Mother picks up.
She: "Hello?... aha! oh! hmm... hmmm... hmmm.. oh! great!.. hold on a second"
Now she turns towards me, a hapless creature who is ruthlessly trapped in a crazy world of crazy people who think marriage is the final and only destination for a girl. Back to the conversation now.
She: "Hey! Your Grandpa's friend's friend's daughter's mother-in-law's nephew" phew! "is searching" read: hunting desperately "for a girl who is a software engineer" notice the qualification being stressed "soooo.... interested?"
Me: "Mom! but I dont want to marry, not in the near future, you know.." She stops me
She: "Look the boy" predator "is really well qualified and decent" and she learnt this in two minutes of introduction.
Me:"But mom!"
She: "No buts here!"
Me: "I'm not interested"
She: Now returning back to my grandpa's friend's friend "Leave your number with me, I'll call you back" she smiles as if he can see her and scribbles the number wrong, and my belief in God grew stronger.
She: "Look, you are not getting any younger, you will have to get married someday!"
Me: "Is that a rule?"
She: "Now don't talk like that!" never seen her blush so much
Me: Seeing no way out "Ok tell me what's he doing?"
She: Happier "He is working in Infosys"
Me: "As a?"
She : "Of course he will be working as a software engineer!"
Me: Roll my eyes "Not necessarily"
She : "He will be! can't you see?" see what? "he is looking for a qualified girl! and he is from *long name* family"
Me: out of curiosity "how tall is he?"
She: "5 feet 5 inches"
Me: "But mom, I'm 5,5!! I need a tall guy!"
She: "You dont wear high heeled shoes anyway.. so it will work out and besides he is going to US by January next year and he needs to marry before that"
Me: "What? how will I get to know him in such short time? and what will I do when he goes off in Jan, till I get my Visa should I sit at home n eat nuts?"
She: "Girls these days! make them economically independent and they forget their manners and culture and &%##$@ &*%%$# @#$$%^# ..."
Me: I change the TV channel to a local one "Mom, your serial has started"
She: "Oh! I missed the first 5 minutes! I wonder where that guy ran away with the child, it was so crucial!"
Me: "Mom.. he is still running" Geeesh! I slowly slip away. My dad, who was a mute specatator all this time, smiles. It was almost a Hi5.
Now over to next weekend and the drama continues..

It Took 1 to Change 287 Bulbs

I did the Landmark Forum, one of the programs offered by Landmark education, mainly out of curiosity. I wanted to know how it really works to thousands of people world wide and also wanted a miracle to happen. But that's what they teach, miracles dont happen. One has to create his own possiblity and then a miracle happens. Sorry! now I'm talking like them! For three full days and an evening session I got 14 hours of brain drain. They drill to maximum and you'll hate them. Not only do you reach home after midnight, you get assignments, like call people and make them think you've turned lunatic for waking them up from their sweet slumber, just to "complete" something with them and ask sorry for something they have no clue about! If you haven't experienced enough frustation and anger (and boredom), thats the place you ought to be. And whats more annoying is that they cant stop extolling about Landmark, and force you to take up the next level course. The breaks are after two and a half or three hours, so not advisable for people who cant control 'you know what I mean' for long. The breaks are just half hour long and they expect you to finish your visit to loo, the next door Chai shop and complete your assignments by calling people. If you are an irascible person like me, you will feel extremes of emotions.

Having said all that, let me get to its good part. They make you see how silly and stupid you've been coz you are making up stories in your head about your problems that are so minute and worthless to spend your time cribbing about. Also you get to complete a chapter of your life that was in the past but you keep living it everyday! At the end of it all, I was weary, irritated, emotionally vulnerable. The illusion in which I was living in, that nothing can go wrong in my life and everything I do is right, vanished. They dont change you. They wont even take away your problems and they dont make you Mahatma Gandhi. All they do is give you a new perspective towards life. They burst your bubble and slap you, make you stand up and take a look at your life.

I enjoyed watching people argue with the leader, just how people argue to prove that they are right. You get to see how unique is each one's problem. People walk up to the stage and put up a show. There was even a junior Meena Kumari (a Bollywood actress who cried buckets of tears). Some even claimed that they were transformed and felt ecstasy, some saw miracles happen and some were left dejected and disapointed. And they was one category in which I fall into, uncertain what happened, but left a little sattisfied. They tried their best to put all of us in advance course, but man! the course fee is too high and I wriggled my way out of it! There are still 10 seminars to attend, but I'm done with this. I did some research today (unfortunately?) on how the Landmark works and came across some shocking personal stories! check them out too.

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