The New Ramp

We have seen fashion shows on ramps, hotels, lounges and even restaurants. Recently I have discovered a new kind of an unconventional ramp. The reason behind calling it unconventional is that it is not primarily meant to display designer cloths, accessories, jewelry, footwear etc. The primary purpose of this ramp is…well any guesses…I’m sure you will not get this one…traveling. Yes I am talking about airports.

If I recall my childhood days, traveling to some place usually consisted of a long 12-24 hours journey in a train or a bus. My mother used to dress in a comfortable saree or kurta which was not very expensive or exclusive. The whole idea was to have an easy travel and prevent expensive attire from getting ruined. Now a day it’s a complete paradigm shift. When traveling has reduced from days to just an hour or so, the concern of comfort has already vanished. And with rising status of people the showoff business has taken a grand leap.

Now when you enter airports you are dazzled. Skimpy jeans, short skirts, hot pants, backless tops, halter necks, Armani jackets, designer wears, high pencil heels, cufflinks, accessories, expensive perfumes, watches, sunglasses, jewelry, handbags etc are a norm. You name it and you will find someone wearing it. Mothers have nannies to manage their kids as it is not possible for them to display style and cater to kid at the same time. Males are busy chatting and displaying their top end mobile phones giving a damn about…well…anything. Woo hoo it surely does look like a ramp.

So when you travel next time, there are two options. Either be a spectator and enjoy the show or be a model and rock the ramp.

Where are we heading to....

Yesterday night I wasn’t feeling sleepy. After restlessly tossing in bed for sometime in the hope of getting a good sleep, I finally gave up. My cell phone showed 2:30 AM. What the hell was my first reaction. After sitting still and glaring at the darkness for sometime I decided to turn on my laptop and do some time pass. For people like us the word time pass is now confined to laptop, internet, chatting, orkutting etc. I always wondered why orkutting is not yet added in the dictionary. With recession seeing mass impacts and inclusion of ‘Bangalored’ in dictionary, orkutting is next to follow. Anyways that’s a topic for separate discussion.

So I logged in to see if some friends are online, of course the only hope I had was to find friends who are outside India . Or if insomnia has a mass strike too the way swine flu had then I could find my friends in India too. Unfortunately insomnia still has to catch up. Seeing no friend online was quite a disappointment. God!!! Now what? Suddenly something caught my attention. I saw my cousin online and his View my webcam at 2:30 AM was enough of a draft to snatch away my remaining slumber. And yes I am not being melodramatic and impulsive; the only reason for this bizarre reaction was that my cousin is in class 5th which means he is only 11-12 years of age.

I buzzed him and asked what is he doing? This is how our conversation went.

Me: Hey. What’s up?
My Cousin: Hey di. What keeps you awake this 2:30 ;-)
Me: Well. I should be the one asking this question.
My Cousin: Yeah…right. Well I am chatting with my friend.
Me: Hmmmm…is it not too late for that.
My Cousin: She is in US so I have to match the time.
Me: :O how come you have a friend in US.
My Cousin: She is my online buddy.
Me: Ohh ok. So what are you talking about? And what’s with the webcam?
My Cousin: Sorry di. It’s too personal to tell.
Me: Is anyone aware that you are up so late.
My Cousin: What are you talking about? They are going to reprimand me bad if they’ll come to know. Please don’t tell them.

OMG!!! Personal!!! Was my first reaction after this conversation. When I was of his age I didn’t even know what personal implies. For me computers were only meant for learning BASIC language and paint brush. Online buddies and webcam was a far cry. And I didn’t even dare to dream about doing something without telling my parents.

I decided to do the RCA of why there is such an enormous difference in thinking pattern of youth today. RCA!!! Uff these IT jargons won’t leave me alone even in the middle of the night. Btw RCA is Root Cause analysis. I could think of many reasons like – Impact of western culture, peer influence, increased nudity and profanity in cinema etc. All these reasons don’t even need further justification or explanation. And infact parents today are well aware of all these factors and they do try to prevent their kids. But I personally feel that the main reason for this drift is that parents of today are not able to spend much time with their kids. So when it is the time to imbibe values and teach culture to their children, parents are busy earning, working, partying, socializing and traveling. They are not able to give sufficient time to their children but they do provide swarming resources to them by fulfilling all the demands. This is making matters worse.

My chain of thoughts was broken by the alarm. It was 6:30 in the morning and time to get up. I wasn’t feeling too bad about the sleepless night as I at least gave a thought to a problem which I’ll be facing soon when I’ll have kids.

Advancing is not bad. We cannot expect things to be the same as they were twenty years back. This will be indicative of stagnancy and non progress. It is a great achievement to see children of today well versed with technologies like computers, internet, media, cellular phones. What is missing is the wisdom to distinguish between what is good and what is evil. If we elders can inculcate this sense in the coming generation, I see a bright future ahead of us.

A woman’s perspective

What woman wants? Well that’s a difficult question as you all know. And I am in no way attempting to answer this here. Mostly guys wonder what will be the ways to win a woman. There have been many things written as a guide for that, a list of all do’s and don’ts. Well this is my version of it. This may stand true for most cases and may not for many others. You know women are so different. But yeah well this is at least my side of the story.

The first thing is intelligence. Yes woman are crazy for guys who are intelligent. So guys buckle up. If you have your facts and logic in place, women will be all around you.

The second thing is sophistication. Yes woman do get attracted to sexy velvet English or neutral accents and impeccable styles, dressing and behavior. So if you burp in public or do belching while eating or talk in a vernacular accent or smell like shit or wear crumpled clothing or have unkempt hair, then I am sorry to say you have a long way to go to find a woman.

The third thing is confidence. This can really help to sweep her off her feet. So approach a woman with your chin up, shoulders straight, poised posture, mature voice and I bet she will be all yours. And if you are fumbling, stammering or wavering then my friend better luck next time.

The fourth thing is give attention to her. So if she is looking pretty then don’t hesitate in giving a genuine compliment. But please don’t resort to fake appreciations as all women may not be so dumb to understand it.

Well I guess at this point you might be thinking that I am talking about all external or physical factors. Actually these factors are important to at least get into proximity of a woman. If you don’t have them, believe me how good you are as a person, it will be difficult for you to make her yours. But to make a woman fall in love with you, you need much more then these external/physical things. Let’s try and explore that.

You should be caring. Yes if you love her it should show in the way you care for her. By caring it doesn’t mean that you are hovering around her all the time. It means that your woman feels that if anything goes wrong you will be there to protect her. If she is trapped in some problem you will be there to rescue her. It’s not necessary that you are there in her good times but you should be/must be there in her bad times.

You should not try to change her. Yes this is a big no no. Woman of today knows what is right and what is wrong. So don’t try to judge her doings. She may find it as an intrusion to her personality. But that doesn’t mean that you don’t correct her if she is on a wrong side. Talk to her, explain your view point and try to bring out the problems with her actions but always leave the final decision to her. Doing this will make her realize that she was wrong. And she will be thankful to you in guiding her but not commanding her.

I would stop here. I won’t again say the things like you should understand her and above all love her with all you have. Anyways if you have chosen a woman to be your companion for the rest of you life, loving her will come naturally.

P.S. – Not all women may have the same perspective as mine. So observe her carefully first and then only try all these. And I don’t take any guarantee for any of the things suggested above if tried on any other women apart from me :-).