The date line....

One more of those survey findings that bloomed atop a lifestyle journos desk as a filler for the next days edition. But I found this one interesting. Women dates an average 24 times before they meet Mr. Right. Each set back adds up 8 pounds. Just imagine... by the time the average 'golden date number' is crossed she would have flabbed colossally....

I presume the journo either got the maths wrong or is a fan of junk food corporations that run global obesity mines - if latter then a feeble attempt to wipe the guilt smeared on them.

My pick is that the journo was just bad in numbers. Else how does one explain many of our toned page 3 celebrities.

In search of a song...

Simon Cowell commented to one of the American Idol participant that she performed a song that didnt represent her personality. The song represented someone else and not 'her' that they had seen in the last couple of weeks.

But what caught my attention was the participants immediate well articulated response to his comment. She said ' Am not sure why I should just portray one single personality. I embodify very distinct pieces of varied personalities that come into play in different situations. Which one should i  pick for American Idol?  I dont think i need to pick one of them to represent me here...rather go with a mix!' 

So true. We all do.... play different roles and personifies as the script demands. As a sibling, spouse, colleague, lover, client, boss, or as a stranger who picks up a conversation while in metro, we all exude multiple layers of personlaities. I have not come across a single song that can personify this myriad collage of human ego and alter egos.

The mud sling on Tiger Woods brand representation or the questionable 'Sweat Equity' of Ms. Pushkar that consumed tons of brazilain rain forest pulp and peaked traffic on global fibre-optic networks, i guess was all about millions of Simons' quest for a singular persona in these tabliod victims thats palatable for public consumption.

Tweets - Remembering Tharoor, Sunanda and Jessica

Be it the nail biting match point played out by Sania and Mailk in media glare or images of fake eyelashes of Sunanda Pushkar and of a confident stubborn Tharoor that filled the flat screens for days, the fun doesn’t end. These days media gets their ‘stories’ (they are no more news) from a small birdie that tweets it out in 140 characters.


Tweeting - the neologism that feeds the new age news media in fact broadcasts to a global collective consciousness. A powerful set of 140 characters that can oust a minister in India and an attractive brand consultant in Dubai to lose her ‘sweat equity’.

I miss the good old ‘Doordarshan’ days. Even though they were heavily loaded with ‘Rajiv Gandhi’ PR, I wish I could switch on to a 8.40 pm news read by Salma Sultan (with a rose nestled in her hair) or to the English verion read by G.B. Komal Singh and the path breaking ‘World this week’ from Prannoy Roy.

But in equal measure also acknowledge how the same new age media was instrumental in bringing final justice to Jessica Lal today after an agonizing 11 years.

Once upon a time...

Story telling is an art especially when you have a heavy pair of eyes working against gravity in the dark. Children love to listen to bedtime stories. Listening to the same story over and over again never really bores them. On the contrary they memorise it each time and ensure that you don’t take any short cuts to finish the story earlier than schedule.

I have rehashed familiar stories and swapped characters when run out of new stories. At times I invent my own stories where the characters love to eat vegetables and hate KFC and colas. She agrees to the moral of the story but is short lived … giving me enough opportunity to repeat it again and again.

I think repeated listening of the favourite fairly tales in a way gives children the confidence to form their own visuals within and to relate to their surroundings. For a child each new day is an experience that augments the surreal world sketched by beautiful princesses, dwarfs, fairies et al.

Once upon a time there was a princess…..don’t yawn ….let your child paint a beautiful world that only belongs to her.

Second chances...

They lost all their wealth including a palatial house that stood majestically in half acre of tropical land with jack fruit trees, myriad varities of mango and banana, scores of teakwood trees, and a land scaped lawn among others.

A decade later they were fortunate to buy it back from the very same couple to whom they had sold it. To me it sounded a bit celluliodish. We seldom hear something like that. Even if you have the money owning a previously sold property is not easy...especially when its a house and the present owner has no financial reason to sell it.

I believe it was destiny...and believe in the age old saying 'you cant win a desired love or land; it has to come over to you.'

This second chance has also restored the memories of their childeren that were lost in the dust that ensued the trauma of loss.

We all deserve second chances...be it a lost love, a job that slipped away or a terrible illness. Its only a question of how much we need it.

Creation of Wealth and Maids or (No) maid = (No) half wealth

Price tags in the Middleeastern cities have surged in sync with the skyscrapers in the last decade forcing expat women to step out of their apartments and take up jobs to support the growing family budget. This meant they could afford more spends on luxury goods, signing up for yoga or weigth loss classes, occasional leisure travel....and reasonable savings.

Families with babies and or school going children owes a big part of this wealth creation opportunity to a person who takes care of their children while they are at work - the Maid. With a lack of a social support system in the arab cities, a maid becomes a key resource in the economic equation of an expat family.

They come cheap and hence most families have one. Western expats live a dream with some families going for more than one maid to support the family chores (a expensive dream in their home country. So its just not the tax free haven that keeps them going.). Some local families have one for every child (guestimated average would be around at 4 kids per family). The couple, kids and their respective maids move around in malls like a NGO delegation atteding an UN conference on shoppping.

Last week my friend was at receiving end from his wife when he was late to pick her after work. Reason being they are late to reach home as the maid needs to leave for the day. For a moment he felt the maid had priority over him in his wife's check list. I told him that half of your monthly wealth creation starts and ends with the maid. (No) maid = (No) half wealth. He is good in maths, understands economics and has an MBA from IIM.

He is a happy man now. Leaves office on time.