Committing the felony of Eating, praying, loving..

I bought this book "Eat,Pray,Love" (Elizabeth Gilbert), from a roadside hawker, few months back. Those xeroxed ones.
But after reading 229 pages of it, I realized it started repeating the previous pages and many of the pages in between were lost.

So I went back to that place and asked him to exchange it.
He said, he dint have any copy of that book with him anymore, and added
     "Why dont you read 'Committed", its from the same author".
As if the same author means the same book?!
I dint want to read "Committed", so I said I will wait for "Eat,Pray,Love",

I kept going to him, once every week, and this continued for a month
And each time, he tried handing me "Committed".
Finally I thought I will bargain for some other book with him.

But I desperately wanted to read that book so I started trying at other places.

I encompassed a whole of 4 kilometers around my area for that book, and interestingly none of them had it. And EACH one of them tried handing over "Committed" to me.(With the same story about how its from the same author)

This began amusing me, and then I deliberately started asking any hawker I saw, for this book Knowing fully well he wont have it. Just to see if he offers me "Committed" or not. And they all did!

After a while I started feeling as if this was some sign.
As if God was trying to tell me "You have done enough of eating, praying and loving,  now its time to go "Committed"!"

I finally exchanged my "Eat, Pray,Love" with "Committed", from the original shop.
But I wont be opening a page from that book, unless I find and finish my "Eat,Pray,Love"

I am adamant to finish all my eating, praying and loving...till its time for "Committed"..
And the time is never right...unless it feels absolutely right

I wonder if all the mystery in me, my joie de vivre, my humour, my wit will be enough to survive a witless, lackluster, self obsessed, insipid man. Sometimes I get a feeling, it just might.
I dont really need to find my equal.
If yes, then marriage is good, if no then its scary
Cos in the end, it will only be me..its all about me

Oh these fathers..I tell you!

A question to all you women, whether you also have experienced this one thing, which is very common amongst all young fathers of cute toddlers.
I will explain what that thing is now.

I am very wary of it..

I love kids to an obsessive edge. These sweet looking things, engrossed in their own world, invite you into theirs..and I enter it without abandon
It does not matter whose kid it is, my sister's, or maid's, or complete stranger's I see on the streets

But sometimes it becomes a nuisance. Cos my liking is pretty vocal and I go out of my way at times, which can lead to unwanted repercussions.

For example, when you try to ogle at a cute one in a mall, without knowing that you are giving the young father(who might be carrying the child) this feeling that you might be ogling at him. And they would start petting their kid, like a show business, to maybe gain your attention

If you see a child alone in a park and try to sweet-chat him/her, the father will suddenly develop extreme fondness for his kid at the same time and in the disguise of love for his own child, would try to start some small talk with you(provided wife is not in sight, or even if she is, this is such a harmless act, isn't it?)

So many a times I check myself before I go overboard with my emotions.

The floor where I live in my apartment, has kids, between the age group of 2-10, in each house, except mine. I usually dont mix much with anyone there, as for most part of the day I am not home. Another thing why I dont mix is cos a single woman is seen as a threat by many married women, so I try avoiding any such animosity and keep to myself.

There is this extremely cuddly 2 year old, and one day when I came out of my flat to go for work, I saw him playing with a ball near my door. I also noticed that his house door, which was straight down the alley from my door, was open and his father was sitting there watching him.

So I just moved towards the lift, without pulling his cheeks, which I felt like.
But I hid behind the wall to see this kid's adorable antics.

He was kicking the ball with his legs, and then getting baffled at how the ball moved away and then running behind it. Each time he came close to the ball, his feet would somehow kick it, and ball would go rolling, and the kid would run behind it with a bewildered and frustrated face, as he was trying to catch the ball.

At one point, the kid looked so deliciously sweet that I forgot the father was watching him from his door and came out of my hiding place to play with the kid.

And lo and behold, this act of mine was like a trigger or stimuli for the father. Seeing me, he got up from his seat and started moving towards the kid.

I had couple of seconds to think of my next move, before the father reached me and the kid.
I stood transfixed for a moment.
There was a tug of war between my liking for the kid and my distaste for the unnecessary interaction with the father(which I anticipated based on my experience).

But my distaste won, I did an about turn, and without waiting for the lift to reach, ran down the stairs.

Analysing skills

Those of you who have not yet seen this ad, take a look to understand the context of this conversation..




Me and my cousin were lazily lying on sofa, with tea in our hands and staring at tv mindlessly, hardly aware of what we were watching, when this ad pops up

This starts off our mind and this intellectual conversation:

I - "This ad irks me to no end, for some reason"

She - "I hate this guy, and his smile with chocolate stuffed in his mouth'

I - "Oh I hate them both! What the hell are they trying to show?Do they think its cute?"

She - "Besharm ladka hai(Shameless guy that kiddo)! He is being introduced to the girl's father and look at his insolence and disrespect, to smile like that!! With chocolate smeared all over his mouth!"

I - "Jab khud ka hi sikka khota ho to ladke ki kya galti hai(If you own daughter does not care, why blame the guy)? She should be the one bothering about loafing around with that guy on stair case when her father crosses them. If she does not give due respect, why would the guy bother a bit? This ad is endorsing wrong values. Will give wrong ideas to teenagers"

By the time I finished my statement, I started laughing and we both collapsed. At the seriousness of our tone, on this harmlessness ad

We women have the capacity to dissect every innocuous thing, and tear it to shreds
Also, we invariably find a reason to blame our own gender(though in this context this blame was not ill placed :)

But seriously, that ad is done in a very bad taste. Later when I searched for this ad on you tube, I found similar comments from others