Deep Ties

Spoiler alert: This is not for those who have read my daughter’s status on Facebook! J “Shall I make some dal (lentils) today?” I asked my daughter, Priyanka, who is a true-blue carnivore, quite expecting to be turned down. Chicken curry is more to her taste, after all. I was pleasantly surprised when she answered, “No, Ma, make sambar instead!” So off I whizzed, all my maternal instincts oozing, as I set out to make a spicy, flavoursome dish for the children. The one thing I had to look out for was the fact that the spices in South Africa often wilted before those in India. So I needed to put double the quantities, and pray to the Almighty while I was about it as well! Is it Murphy’s Law that warns one that if something has to go wrong, it will? Canny old soul, this Murphy! He certainly knew his business, and that of everyone else, as well, considering the number of times his name gets invoked in a day around the world. So there I was, humming as I pared pota...

According to William Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar was on his way to the Capitol, when he was suddenly accosted by a voice in the crowd. Caesar: Who is it in the press that calls on me? I hear a tongue shriller than all the music Cry "Caesar!" Speak, Caesar is turn'd to hear. Soothsayer: Beware the ides of March. Caesar: What man is that? Brutus: A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March. Caesar : Set him before me; let me see his face. Cassius : Fellow, come from the throng; look upon Caesar. Caesar: What say’st thou to me now? Speak once again. Soothsayer : Beware the Ides of March. Caesar: He is a dreamer; let us leave him: pass. Julius Caesar – Act 1 Scene 2 It was William Shakespeare who made the phrase ‘the Ides of March’ popular through his play, Julius Caesar. Can you imagine the scene being enacted? It is the festival of Lupercalia, an ancient Roman holiday. The dictator, Julius Caesar, steps out in al...

The public message on television says it all too clearly! The camera pans on a little boy's face, a little boy who has tears running down his cheeks. The reasons may be galore - either he has been bullied by somebody, or he has fallen and hurt himself. Maybe his friends didn't want him to play with them! Or it could be a deeper hurt - his father has walked out on him and his mother. Or his pet has just died and his tender heart is breaking! Whatever the reason, the message is, 99 times out of a 100, the same. "Don't cry! You're not a girl!" and "What's wrong with you? Don't you know that only girls cry?" "How dare you be a namby-pamby?" Parents repeat this like a litany, classmates enforce it, and the world turns into a war zone, with emotions battling it out with attitudes that refuse to ever change. It is said that most of a child's learning takes place at his mother's knee. And if mothers reinforce the abov...

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY!  Let’s throw those clichés away today! And for all the wonderful, caring men around, (I have a few in my family as well!) this post is a pat on your backs! For the rest: Don’t stereotype women by hemming them into the multiple roles they play – great- grandmother, grandmother, mother, sister, aunt, daughter and granddaughter! Why is there a woman behind every successful man, not alongside him, shoulder to shoulder? A hand held out is worth all the nudges on your back! Do not portray mothers as self-sacrificing? The sacrifices come straight from the heart; little joys and sorrows that are part and parcel of bringing up a child. Look upon them as the rungs of a ladder. Why do sisters need to step aside for their brothers? Let them do so if they want to, and not because they have been forced to! Brothers can be wonderful human beings too, if you peep into their psyches. Why does outer beauty define a woman? Tell her she is b...