Fast Please!

I am going to write about the buzz word which I had been hearing for last 1 week. Loads of friend’s status updates changed on whatsapp! And as soon as I would switch on the TV, this was the only masala news they had to broadcast.

I was about to enter an important meeting on 22nd October at 2.00pm when I get a message “are you fasting?” from a friend. My reaction having been lost in my work was “WHOOATTTT FOR?????” The extra OO’s and TTTT’s were ment to threaten him meaning ‘don’t dare to send some crappy reply’, but still I got one “Karwa Chauth?” My reaction would have been worse, if my meeting had not started.

I forgot about the message as I was totally engrossed in work and thus my friend was saved until I switched on the TV in evening, waiting for my other friends to join me for dinner. As I was flipping through the channels I saw the news scrolling in the bottom of the news channels‘Patna me dikha Chand! Jammu me dikha chand! Dilli me dikha chand!’ and in few others channels were message from husband to wife and wife to husband. What was I supposed to do with Mr. and Mrs. Dholakia messages to each other on TV. Well there were others too but I found this name to be funny, which got registered in my mind and thus they get a special mention in my blog! lol! Well people don’t need TV to send messages to their husband or wife in this era of technology!

Should I call this an advantage or disadvantage of having a family member from media background, I don’t know. My sister used to walk with the next day’s newspaper at night and once she said “we didn’t get an update from the astrologer for tomorrow’s horoscope so we used last to last month’s newspaper, picked out the horoscope of some other sun sign, pasted it and work got over”. Not to mention the name, but I am talking about one of the largest daily newspapers of India. On the similar lines I was wondering if Mr. and Mrs. Dholakia were some imaginary characters of any news journalist and so could have been the messages.

I picked up my phone and replied back to my friend, “dikha chand janab? Mil fir, din me tare bhi dikhaungi tujhe!” and we laughed at that. And yes I did try to irritate some people asking the same question “did you fast” but ensured the timings weren’t wrong! :p

Before I go to sleep, I really wanted to understand the significance of this festival. I browsed through few sites and everything had a mention of how it is celebrated but none gave a reason of why karwa chauth is celebrated. Or rather none gave the actual significance of the festival. During my search I came across one article of Shobha de in times website, which said “it is absurd to do such a thing”. Well I have found loads of other rituals which I feel were absurd and often would get into arguments/trouble with people who said “things are important without any practical explanation behind the rituals!”

So here are some of the practical reasons I thought why Karwa chauth is being celebrated (Warning: Some reasons may be too sarcastic to handle! Do not read further if you can’t take a joke as a joke).
•Women get to remember their husband all through the day as compared to any other normal day. Well if they talk about them on a happy note or angry note that depends…..!

•In today’s era most of us (married working women) don’t cook all three meals at home. Both husband and wife are working, so they manage to eat at office. Well weren’t guys doing it before they got married as bachelors? So they continue to do so after wedding also, which is OK! But yes this day of karwa chauth would help such ladies realized that if they cook, atleast once in the day, their husbands might remember them and be glad to have them as their wife! So they may get to know the importance of cooking lunch! But I believe most the married working women would react to this by saying “10 ghanta they didn’t remember so just for a minute of their remembrance, I don’t think it would be worth cooking wasting my morning sleep!

•This is not a sarcastic one. For those who aren’t working, this may be a good opportunity to socialize with women who are sailing in the same boat. And it may be a good opportunity to gossip about their mother in law or daughter in laws! ohh I think that again got sarcastic!

•I was taught during my MBA about the concept of success transfer which I have already mentioned in few of my blogs. Women tend to put on weight after marriage and it’s a process of success transfer to reduce weight. If women can go without food for a day, the success can be transferred to other days as well. Logically this looks like the most practical reason for celebrating this festival.

•And last but not the least, time to test your husband and their level of dedication. Thanks to Shahrukh khan of DDLJ, women do expect their husbands to fast too! Ask them to and test their loyalty. YES guys would have their own reasons and complaints that they are tested day in and day out post their wedding and they don’t need a day to prove themselves! BEWARE if that is the case, the same is applicable for women also.

For once in my life, I am proud to be an IYER. All that we do in all festivals is to EAT! EAT! EAT! Or is it just my family problem of eating, I don’t know!

Consequences of quitting Facebook

•People no more remember my birthday, nor do I remember anyone’s except for the close friends. So? Good I would have lot of time to talk to people on my birthday rather than taking calls every minute! And I save time as I don’t wish every tom dick and harry on their birthdays on Facebook!

•Some people thought I got married! Good imagination that was! But I did wonder why!

•I got to know who gossip mongers were, as they kept calling to know what’s happening in “MY” life.

•Some didn’t realize also, should that make a difference of having such people as my friends? I wondered

•Some very close and some not so close friends did realize and called me after few months “when did you leave FB?” my reaction was der hai andher nahi, you realized I quit!

•No more do I click self-obsessed photos to post on FB! And neither do I keep checking every minute of how many likes I got! Now I like and love my own self! lol

•I do miss out on some stupid jokes being discussed amongst my friends and colleague, but that’s ohk! Had I been on FB, jokes would have been on me only!

•Well my cousins got really angry, imagining that we took them off from friends list, without realizing that I actually quit! So we have some fights and yet going on with some! But they would eventually understand that FB is for socializing with friends and family would always be family , whether they are on my friends list in FB or I don’t exist on FB

•I have so much time for myself that I don’t know what to do?

•I don’t have to worry who is going to tag me in what comment or what photo!

•I don’t get to know about things like rose day and chocolate day or any other small occasions unless its declared holiday

•No one gets to know my daily mood, whether good or bad and I am glad unwanted people don’t mess around in that case

•Well I don’t get to hear from my friends “how bad my update was” or “how frequent they were” although I did realize they didn’t have any other business than to follow my updates

•I don’t get to see the wedding photos of people. Well I am sure I would soon get to see the photos of the kids of the same couples and I am glad I quit before that! The worst are the wedding invitations posted on FB.

Realization: In the name of social networking, we have stopped the actual networking with the real friends which is more important. The virtuality of life has taken over reality of emotions!

I wish I was on FB to see how many likes I would have got for my blog as soon I would have posted it!:p