Gung ho!

Today's story is dedicated to women I have known over the past year... from all walks of life. So be it a conversation I overheard at the massage parlour where two friends were talking about masturbating in the shower with an enlivened enthusiasm that was just so refershing! Its been long due that women in this country could be sexually experimental and be happy with it. Just happy... not guilty, or have an overboard I-left-my-bra-at-home attitude. Just be simply happy.

Take the lady who stayed in this flat before me. She took control of life, got onto shaadi.com, cherry picked 5 men and as she had the house to herself... tested the sexual prowess of every single one of them before deciding on which one to go for. She said that it was very essential for her to get along with 'the man' in bed and there was no way in hell she was giving up on that.

On a different note, my lady cook can make it to any of those women empowerment stories in the magazines. She with her meagre income, in 7 years that she has spent in Bombay washing utensils, clothes and cooking at homes, she now owns a flat in a far corner of the city. Its not long before civilisation and malls will creep up on her property and she is waiting, biding her time. Its commendable coz in terms of returns its definitely better than my systematic investment plans and equity holdings which prolly stand no where given the share market melt down! Oh by the way... its time to cherry pick the stock market too coz you may never get such a pick at such price... deeply undervalued and how! And I digress. So I was saying... my maid has three sons, runs the house, and supports their education as well. Swell rt?

Her dedication to her work and family is nothing short of inspiring. Here you have a lady, who works hard, manages her and her husband's money, better than most of my educated MBA friends and is always there on time at my place every day with a smile! Never a crib about life or how unfair its been. Always full of ideas on how to do things better... She taught me a thing or two about managing my kitchen! She takes her work very seriously and I have never seen her enthusiasm abate. She is never lazy, never lies or steals and is all for positive conversation. The one thing she worries about is if her children will grow up ok and be good people.

I feel like a sham sometimes... with all these worries and problems of mine. I am reminded of how much I have... from a small thing like never to have to bathe in a public bathroom to being able to eat anything I want anytime. Sounds so simple rt? Things we take for granted.

Take my cleaning maid now. She left her abusive husband and lives on her own now, supporting her son and his education. The family I saw at the signal that day... 3 girls in tattered clothes with their mother waiting to cross the signal. Every single one of them with a school bag. I felt my heart swell at the thought that they dint choose to beg on that signal. Its an easy choice, on the surface perhaps. Life must not be easy and I loved the fact that somewhere that woman with them had not given up.

And so came the thought. Life is all about choices. Heard it already? Several times? But then how many really put this to use. Its about focussing on what you want, rather than what you don't. Its about all those values we were taught as kids but we learnt to scoff at without seeing the real merit in them. The simple thing like be grateful for what you have. That things like integrity, honesty, enthusiasm, living each day to your highest sense of right... are timeless and don't change no matter how many centuries go by.
But then! pride takes over and you don't want to accept you could have been wrong all this while, and yourself responsible for all the crap to come your way. The virtue of being a rebel in the short run becomes higher than that of being a better human in the long... labelling all others as conformist approval junkies.
But then! misery is such an intoxicating potion! What better than to feel you are the wronged one! And therefore the hero... the suffering martyr... the one making the sacrifices! having a finger to point always knowing exactly who did it this time!

Looking at these people around me brings me back to mother earth. It reminds me to stop being so un-bloody-hinged all the time and get my act together. And I am so grateful to the powers that be... that I always manage to be around positive souls... I still have my moodier moments... but then if there is one thing I have always managed to find, its inspiration. And these common men and women are my heroes... I need go no further.