Help!

Hey everyone! Finally, that day that I dreaded has arrived. I have a whacko who is not only writing cheap comments to some of my blogs but is also plagiarizing my writing.

Can anyone suggest a technology-duh person like me about what I can do? How do I ban him from coming to my site? And do you think that the best option would be to make my blogs private to prevent this?

Serious Hum Tum

I poked fun at the innate differences that exist between men and women in Hum Tum I and Hum Tum II, very recently. These days a tag is making the rounds, a tag that involves writing down ten things that you hate about the opposite gender. Some people have taken it very seriously and have vented out their frustrations without paying heed to any limits, while some have been polite enough to refrain from swearing and have been diplomatic enough to express what they wanted without getting into anyone's bad books! Phew now that is a task!

Seriously, why are we so hung up on the differences between the two sexes? It is a known fact that we cannot live without each other. And even if you can, the bitter truth is that one cannot reproduce without the other. And if technology takes care of that, it is the norm that ultimately, a man will marry a woman and vice versa when they so desire (otherwise gay men and lesbian women would be well-accepted.

Men say women talk too much. Women say men never listen. Men say they do not listen because the women talk too much. Women say that because the men do not listen, they talk too much hoping that some of it is registered. Who started the cycle?

Women say men stare at their breasts while talking. Men say if they wore decent clothes they would not be distracted. Women say who are the men to tell them what to wear when men wear whatever pleases them. And if women do indeed start wearing "decent" clothes, men call them names such as "maniben" (at least in Gujjuland).

Men say women drive horribly. Women say men do not keep their eyes on the road and stare at female pedestrians.

Women say men are interested only in having sex. Men say they are born with those needs.

Men say women are too hormonal. Women say that only because of those hormones, can they give birth.

This can go on and on...It is a never-ending battle.

Is there a point to asking questions and making statements that will only make living with the opposite sex harder? Its hard to begin with....(judging from the number of posts that men and women write about how their loved ones left them in the lurch).

ACCEPTANCE and SHUTTING UP is the key.
Boys will be boys. Girls will be girls! Unless you have a sex change operation.....(that is altogether another story)......

I HATE MATH!

Life is not math, even though we sometimes think it is.

We see a girl coming out of a room with a boy after 2 hours of locked silence. We add two and two together and assume they are lovers, when they could very well be clearing off a misunderstanding without wanting to be disturbed.

We watch TV, do our homework, cook, IM, and talk on the phone at the same time. We divide our attention between all these tasks and fail to do justice to any of them.

We hear rumors about what someone had to say about us, how so and so really hates us, how tom, dick, and harry tried to dupe us, and we instantly subtract them from our lives.

And then, we are always multiplying. You lie to your friend about how you need to study for an exam when they invite you for dinner, and then later you have to lie to them about why you ended up watching TV instead of studying, and yet again, lie about how the TV program concerned your assignment. The lies continue to multiply.

And then comes the worst part (but the easiest); rounding off!! In other words, generalizations.

• If a girl on the road is driving bad, all women drivers are bitches and poor at driving.
• If a black guy is caught breaking into someone's home, all black men are dangerous and criminals.
• If one rich boy is arrogant and vain, all rich boys think no end of themselves.
• If one bengali, gujarati, chinese, mexican, punjabi is smelly, stingy, a poor english speaker, lazy, all of them are the same.
• If one beautiful girl fails her examinations, all beautiful girls come with "no brains".
  
• If one man who walks with a pronounced gait and has dramatic hand movements is a gay, all men who do that are homosexual.

Are we doing all this math in life to make it simpler? Do generalizations help people who appear different than us seem less complicated? Is it fair that we do all this math? Can we not keep life simple?

I hate MATH. Do you?

It's All About Control...

It's All About Control..

You control your diet so that you do not put on weight.
But you might still get cancer and die.

You match horoscopes with a potential partner before getting married.
But you still might end up getting a divorce.

You monitor your partner's cellphone bill so that you know that they are not cheating on you.
But they might still not love you and you will be unhappy.

You ask your child to sign up for an engineering or medicine program.
But they might still not do well and fail.

You balance your checkbook each time and keep your extravagant purchases under check.
But you might still be robbed and lose all your savings.

You might keep your car shining bright and sparkling clean so that it continues to look brand new.
But you might still have someone scratch it and bump into it without you knowing.

You might spread rumors or bite someone in the back so that they are not liked.
But you might end up being the one who is disliked.

You might plan your next vacation spot to a T.
But you might still face stormy weather and never take off.

It's all about control, we think. You control our life, your actions, your behaviors, other's choices, and then cry when things do not work out. Planning is good..but control?

It's all about control. Yes! A different kind of control. Control that thought that things should always be a certain way. Control that worry of what will happen if things do not happen they way you planned them. Control the rigidity. Sometimes, things do not work out. And no matter how hard you try to hold them a certain way, they will slip away..just like sand in your palms. Control what you can. And be open to what comes along.

There is only so much you can do.

Drowning In A Swimming Pool

This post is related to a lot of different posts that I have seen going around lately about how things are getting mean on blogosphere, how people are being rude, arrogant, immature, judgmental, and how people are shocked about that! Some disappointed, some angry, some disillusioned, and some helpless.

Come on now! Are you really shocked? This is blogosphere, no doubt. A virtual world. Did you expect this to be paradise? A refreshing respite from the bitterness and the politics that exist in the real world? Did you expect to form life-making friendships here in an effort to escape the hard work that we need to put in to maintain relationships face-to-face? But we do not really have virtual people and characters created only for blogosphere by E-Blogger, do we? The people who make this blogosphere are real people. Feelings are going to be projected onto this world. More so, I would believe, because it is easy to say what you want here. You type, delete, rephrase, edit, feel happy, click, post! Voila!!

It is not so easy to do that in real life. Once the words pop out of your mouth, its over! There is no looking back. Sometimes people think hard before they talk, for the very same reason. Therefore, many conflicts in real life are avoided and suppressed. However, when typing, its easier (well lets say, at least for me it is). We often may not be aware of how the other person might react. We have no fear of facing punches in our belly or suffering from black eyes. And we think, "If they feel bad, too bad." because you do not have to be in their face all day. With the touch of a button, you will ignore them! Click!

Think about it. Blogosphere is like a swimming pool compared to the big oceans out there. Its a part. Do not make it a whole. If you find yourself drowning, do not pull someone else in with you. If you find yourself scrambling for the floor beneath you, be calm, and glide over to the shallow end. I am sure you know swimming. Otherwise you would not have jumped into the pool to begin with. And if you jumped in for the sake of learning, stay at the shallow end please!! There are no lifeguards here. Someone might come to your aid, or they might not. We all have to look out for ourselves.

Let's play it easy.