Provoke some...

Firstly my heartiest reverence for people who have adopted children without an iota of hesitation that could have arisen considering the religion, caste, creed, colour, race or sex of the child being adopted. These people have been able to give a better future to kids born either in depravity, were abandoned or put up for adoption by their biological parents due to various reasons. Seriously guys… I BOW… This note is in no way trying to say that people who are adopting children are doing anything wrong. Adopting a child, giving her a home and a name of the family helps in achieving certain aspirations of the adoptive parents. The child lives with the family and an invaluable parent-child bond is created that fills up a certain gap in the life of the parents. I am, like always, just giving a perspective to ponder about. FACT: 50% of Indians are poor. Really poor. These people cook in the open using wood or coal. These people don’t have toilets and hence defecate in the ope...

Yaar- Papa... That's how my son addresses me. He has been doing so for sometime but somehow I only noticed it a few days back. " Yaar " in Hindi is generally used for someone who is a bosom friend ( langotiya yaar  sounds better) and "Papa" should wield respect and a guarded distance. That truly sounds like an oxymoron, surely Yaar & Papa seem contradictory. Forget calling my Father  Yaar- Papa, I wouldn't dare even uttering the " Yaar " word in front of him as he considered it  sadak chhap (language of the ruffians), all of which was forbidden to be used. I would barely see my Father once a week, sometimes even once a month when he would go off on extended business tours. He had a large family to feed and five younger siblings to get married off while I was being brought up by my Aunts. There was absolutely no way of getting any closer to my Father. So, when I heard my son calling me Yaar-Papa, it made me thinking. While everyone keeps ...