The usual jabbering...

Hello readers. I know it has been a very long time since I put anything up here. In fact, I think most of you must have even stopped checking my blog. Well sometimes you just don't have the inspiration to write. I mean, either the intensity or the clarity is lacking. And on other times, you just don't have the time and then the idea fades away. There are a couple of drafts that I've written and saved, but I wont post them because they don't seem honest enough!
(God! What happened to me while I was evolving?)

Okay. This was one of the funny dinner-table conversations at home recently. (Most of it was hindi but I'll translate anyway.)
Mom: Mera dil dehel gaya kal!
(Me, bro n dad look up at her, shocked and then confused.)
Me: Reference?
Dad: I'm guessing its that female fetecide news from Udaipur.
(Mom continues to chew her food. I nod at my dad and bro.)
Mom: It was horrifying!
Dad (generalizing): Such cruelty persists only in north-India now.
Mom (personalizing): Even my in-laws never wanted a daughter in the family. (Then suddenly remembers dad is going out of the country for three months.) Of course, except your dad. He was crazy for a daughter.
(My parents smile. My bro is busy feeding himself, hardly looking up.)
(Then follows for the nth time how my dad used to adore me as a kid, how he used to take me every where with him on his bicycle...)
Dad: There should be a daughter in a family.
(Now my bro is interested.)
Bro: Why?
Dad: Its good to have a daughter.
Mom: Yes its good to have a daughter.
Bro: How?
(Since I have known that being mean to sibs is a way of life, I chose to be amused over being defensive. Okay mom and dad, whats the advantages of having a daughter?)
Mom: *silent*
Dad: *silent*
Bro: And to be specific, what are the advantages that you have?
(Thats what is taking them so long you freak!)
Mom: Well, (turns to me) you used to help me out in house-hold work in some era.
Dad: *silent*
Mom: Girls have their own way of life, but...er...
Dad: *silent*
Mom: I got it! We all have one-one!
(Now we are totally amazed! Can't wait for whats coming next!)
Mom: I mean, like I have one husband, one son and one daughter.
(Bro feels the enlightenment too.)
Bro: Yes. And I have one father, one mother and one sister. And you...
(I concentrated on my food thereafter.)

PS : Regarding the AMOship crap, as Roshni Desai put it very aptly,"The gov should concentrate on building more toilets than recruiting AMO's. Its toilets that we need today. More and more toilets!" I totally agree Roshni. But they just can't stop giving us this shit instead of toilets!

PPS: Steve Irwin was a great guy. His demise is very shocking and disturbing. He was the guy who taught us Australian. His dedication to wild-life was more than just his job. We have seen him cry while sending one of his crocs back to the wild. We have seen him amused like a child when he came across some exotic species in the Australian desert. Its a loss. May his family find peace. I'll miss him...