Where are we heading???

He was a tall, fair and well-built man when he bumped into her. They fell in love instantly and started living together. Their symbol of love - a cute baby girl with green eyes and golden hair - was born soon. Their relationship went through ups and downs as the child became a naughty kid of age 7. One fine morning they decided they cudnt stay together anymore. Everything about their relationship - love, marriage, kid ,dislike - had been dynamic and fast. And the split followed suit. They were divorced. All that he went thorugh with her was like a fast-paced action movie for him - thrilling twists and turns, intermittent bursts of emotion ..but nothing concrete to cherish or brood over. The only thread still connecting him to the past was his innocent daughter. He loved her dearly and cursed himself for losing her to her mother.
The deal was this - The child stays with the mother. The father pays a hefty compensation every month and is (in return??) allowed to meet the child for 2 hours every forthnight. He had to talk to her, tender her, tell her his long-accumulated bed-time stories, buy her candies,kiss her and above all - remind her that she does have a dad - all in 2 hours!!
It was three months since they had parted ways. He had always paid the compensation on time. It was the sixth time he was meeting his child. Hardly an hour had passed, and the child was to be taken back so that she prepares for her exams due next day. He stood the pain in his daughter's interests and reserved all that was due for the next time. The next time around, the child was taken away in half-an-hour since she had a medical check-up. The ensuing month was Urlaub(vacation) time for the mom and kid...or rather cremation time for his soul.. . Exams,check-ups, vacations -they kept coming ...his soul kept burning ...he slowly became a non-entity in his daughter's world..Disaster struck in the form of a transfer. His fone calls went unattended. His bday and christmas gifts were never opened...But the money never refused...
Two years since divorce, she found a new partner for herself. And as a natural consequence, the "burden" was dumped on him....He cherished every moment with his daughter...He wished the clock never ticked - coz he dreaded the thought of his child's future. Insecurity filled his mind when he tried to answer the hardest question - "How long is this honey-moon...how long will she be under the spell of her new-found partner...how long will my daughtie keep changing her details in school....."
He knew her so well. The new partner wasnt worth a penny - and it showed in his getting fired a year after their marriage. The mother suddenly missed her daughter so much ...coz the affection will fetch a monthly 250 Euros from the givernment...The ball was back to square one...
Years rolled on ...He had long lost his tall, handsome look...Shades of gray had filled his hair....The vacuum pump in his company rolled on mechanically - he was used to this vacuum now....It was his daughter's 20th bday and he knew she was in town......He tried to break the ice and wish her... and got a "have u ever acted like a dad to me??" in return....
60% of the divorce cases in Germany are ruled that the kid should remain with the mother. And the lady in this story represents 95% of the divorced women!!
A light-hearted, silly "german culture is great...u guys can split so easily when u feel like" from me was all that was needed to trigger off this nostalgaic,piteous tale from my colleague...He owns 10% of shares of a prosperous firm, drives one of the costliest BMWs and has enuf reserves to holiday for a month in Florida....Raghavendra Rao, at 92, with eight kids, 40 years of toil , and not even a tenth of his salary behind him is much more content and happy.....
Indian husbands are MCPS ....Patriarchy puts women in hell....they shud have the right to part ways ...all agreed!! But in a land where marriage and an ensuing kid are default, is divorce really a sustainable solution?? We run after money...We believe women's liberation is synonymous to just letting them act as senselessly as men in taking cynical decisions...Where are we heading??
I am not attacking Womenfolk. I am not justifying what has happened to many Indian housewives...I am not generalising this story...But can surely understand why the aunty next door never went for a divorce from her drunkard-husband....

"The Fountain Head" in six words

I think I do I live
i observe i adapt i exist

http://www.ayn-rand.com/ayn-rand-fountainhead.asp

spits for passports

It was a shoddy,rainy day. We got out of the train to have our first glimpse of Radebeul - a small town in the east of Germany. The railway station with tarpaulin sheds, the old-fashioned, huge and rigid structures made of those huge stones - all those typical of the erstwhile USSR. As we came out, we started asking around for directions to Mr Jaljhir Singh's Pizzareiha, where we intended to seek a summer job."Entschuldigen Sie..."(Excuse me)... and the old pot-bellied man was gone without even turning to us.We managed to get the whole sentence through with the second one we met- only got a cold, indifferent scorn in return.My friend growled:"He thinks we are creatures from Mars..What ppl these...racist b*******" .The third one was nice enuf to consider us human and give a cold "Ich weiss nicht"(I dont know). After many such attempts, we finally got to know from someone that we must cross the bridge and walk straight...My friend was already burning with indignation when the worse happened- A guy rushing past us spit ..YES -SPIT!! and it just missed my shoulders...."Racists of the 10th grade.....My uncle warned me of the damn thing the moment I decided to come to germany...Dunno how Iam going to live in peace here.....Narrow-minded a*******...blah blah blah..."..my friend kept cribbing and I kept silently , but strongly empathising all along...We finally reached the Pizzareiha and were informed that we could meet the chef only after an hour. We got introduced to the 3 Punjabis working there and began a conversation. On knowing we wanted part-time jobs, one of them quipped immediately: "Papers hai"?? (Papers - legal documents like passport, visa and tax card). "haan ji". ..."Tho mil sakhtha hai..chef se milo"...We were quite happy that we stood a chance. We discussed many things like our studies, germany knowledge, places we hail from and much more..and finally came to german girls. one of the guys asked me instantly:"kuch ladki vidki phasaaya bhai saab"?? "nahin ji...ab tak nahin"....."arre yaar...jaldi se jaldi ek phasaalo...aaraam se ghoomo...fir shaadi karo..passport mil jaayega" ...He said all this in one breath - absolutely no sense of shame in it. We discovered this was the general "strategy" of all of their kind. Somehow get into this country, get a passport and then get ur whole family here. Their chef had done it 15 yrs ago. They were here by his blessings - and will dutifilly carry on the "mission" . When the chef finally come out, we got to know that the position was already filled. The advertisement never vanished from the website. But the job was never vacant. It then got to me that the ad was actually an eye-wash...just to satisfy the government that he was still "searching" for a cleaner and to employ his farthest kin from punjab without "papers" for one-fourth the salary. There are many such ads...many such lost jobs...As we strolled back our way to the railway station, I was'nt bitching about the guy who tried to spit on me anymore...but was feeling ashamed of my fellow brown-skinned who,in the eyes of the "white-skinned" who spit on me, had left the scar of "unethical, money-minded parasites" on my "Race":)The only asian that the "white-skinned" knew was Jagjith Singh. Thanks a ton to the Jagjith Singhs for earning us taunts and spits in return for their passports....by the way, i dont have the right to blame jagjith singh because, afterall, i also DID try to get benifitted by him...the intention of this write-up is to show how foolish and superficial it is to dismiss all germans as "racists":)

when prof became pig...

Learning a language cud be a funny experience sometimes...My german lecturer was shattered when I, in reference to the lady Prof. Dr.A, said "Sie ist Sau"(She is a pig!!) I cudnt understand the wierd look on his face until I realised I had confused "schlau"(intelligent) with "Sau"(female pig)...:D

We both had a hearty laugh over it later!!