My Regular 9 Picks

My previous post was on tags and this one is an apt continuation. Some days ago Nu tagged me with this one. In fact she has tagged me quite a few times and now I’m trying desperately to finish them. I’d liked this tag since it was shorter and more interesting than other ones and hence it comes first!

I have to list 9 things that I wear regularly. This can be a bit tough for the mother of a 2-year old, since I’m left with little or no time for myself or my choices, but let me try and get this list ready :)

1.Rings- at any given point of time one would find me wearing at least 3 rings on my fingers. I’m absolutely in love with them and do not choose to part with them at any cost!:)
2.More rings- My brother jokes exaggerates that one day I’ll become a sieve, owing to my fondness to get pierced. I wear three pairs of earrings and a nose ring too!;)
3.Hair accessories- Though I have gorgeous hair that look best when left open, on any regular day my hair are carelessly done up into a bun with the help of a clutcher/hair pin. I hate the constant distraction they cause otherwise.
4.Kajal- I detest any other form of eye make-up but I can’t do without my kajal. I love the sensuous and smoky look it gives to my eyes and wear it everyday.
5.Jeans- From being signature cowboy attire to being an integral part of any girl’s wardrobe Jeans have come a long way. I swear by my untorn and very conservative pair of Jeans (colour no bar) at all times and comfortably slip into them anytime!:)
6.Smile- Wonder if this should’ve been first on the list, but nevertheless. A Jr’s innocent smile has taught me the importance of a smile like I never knew before. So now even when I’m not in the best of my moods I try to wear a smile on my face and scare those frowns away!:) :)
7.Slip-ons- I don’t like being barefoot even at home and love to don my soft and comfortable pair of slip-ons all the time.
8.Face creams/lip balms- I’m very picky when it comes to either of those ‘se my skin is very sensitive. I do not put any make-up but there won’t be a single day when I didn’t pamper myself with these!
9.My heart- People say that I wear my heart on my sleeves, and that I guess can come under the regular ‘wearable’ category! I’m very emotional and feel and cry more than I’ll ever accept.:D

So there!! That was the list of my essential and regular 'wearable' stuff! I'm not tagging anyone here. Whoever likes it can this up and drop a comment on my blog informing me of it!

My 'Man'ly sins and me! (edited)

I was having the time of my life reading everyone’s sinful confessions, not worried in the least to think of my sins even once. Pinsy tagged me to do this (!) and before everyone claims my sins along with theirs, I’m doing it right away.

IHM has created this interesting tag. It goes like this – The tag is called ‘My Sins against Gender-Stereotypes’. You are to list at least ten things you have ever wanted or done which your gender is not supposed to and tag twelve blogging friends to come out with their sins ;)

1.There seems to be a collective obsession for SUVs amongst girls and I’m no exception! I’ve been in love with Land Cruiser ever since I set my eyes on it few years back. Buying it would imply me robbing a bank or something, so I’m ready to settle for a Tata Safari :)

2.I’m a Mechanical engineer and was the only girl amongst 75 boys in my class. Girls from other branches joked that I blended so well with them that it was impossible to spot me in a group!:P

3.I love speed and have been reprimanded by my parents countless times for it. At times I was threatened with dire consequences if I didn’t keep check on the speedometer. And oh yes, my Kinetic had very loose brakes too :P

4.My beautician always complained that I was her lousiest client. My eyebrows, hands, legs resembled a mini-jungle whenever I went to her. She tried to make me understand the rewards of being well-kept, but finally gave up for good. :/

5.Just let someone say I cannot do something ‘se I’m a girl, and he/she can be sure I’ll prove him/her wrong! There’s a rebel in me who refuses to acknowledge the belief that choices/preferences/opportunities/endurance are gender-dependant.

6.If being a girl means crying at the drop of a hat or being hyper-sensitive and delicate, then I don’t fit the bill for sure. I’ve always been the rugged one, cold and distant. I prefer being on my own and cry in solitude.

7.I swear sometimes when I’m upset, a big no-no for an acche ghar ki ladki. This is too much to comprehend since I’ve never heard A swear in 4 years of our married life. I still remember the incredulous look on his face when he’d heard me swear for the first time. :O

8.For a better part of my childhood I had a boy-cut and loved it. Some people even mistook me for a boy once. Even now, many times I have this sweeping urge to snip my long tresses and get that very comfortable zero maintenance haircut back!:)

9.I do not qualify to be the cover model for the most dutiful bahu! I’ve done things (which I wouldn’t like to confess here) which would give the MIL a heart-attack of sorts if she ever finds out about them. My stance is clear, obeying but non-committal.

10.I love the feeling of love and all that it entails but I can’t stand a lot of mush. I hate reading romantic novels. And more so, I hate sharing personal things with others like most girls do. It seems very tacky to me.

So there…my sins are out in the open. Doesn't feel less of a girl,really!
Need to get back to being a pampering Mom and loving wifey mode anyway ;)

Here are few people who's sins I'd love to know : Garf Rohini   Nu Preeti D Titaxy Analyst Reflections Zephyr G Chatterbox Psych Babbler

And yes, most people I know have been tagged already, so those who haven't done it already consider yourself tagged and drop a comment...would love to read your sins too :D

The First language

A short post, which is more of a question for all of you. I’ve read many articles on the growing influence and English-nisation of education around the world, so much so that many native languages are on the verge of extinction. More often than not I see parents, especially in metros, conversing with their kids in English. Whatever happened to our so-called mother tongues? Do we have fond memories of our grandmothers and mothers singing lullabys to us or telling us stories in our native language or English? If at home we do not take the initiative to make our child follow and understand our roots and language, where else would (s)he learn it? English is the first language in every English medium school; hence the child can be relied upon to grasp it with little difficulty. 

Doesn’t it become our collective responsibility then to safeguard our language and our culture, or is it too down-class to use your mother tongue at all?

On summers and Adios!

‘I want to have summer vacations now like we had when we were kids!’ I told A the other day, out of the blue.

Slightly perplexed, A replied with a couple of questions, ‘What would you do if you did have summer vacations? What did you do back then?’

‘Well…I went to my Mama’s(maternal Uncle) place…met all my cousins..had a blast with them..ate lots of mangoes…watched TV all the time..slept on the terrace and got up only when the sun seemed like it was torching my skin..played all kinds of games…in short…it was masti time!’ I went on and on…oh such nostalgic moments! :)

‘Wow…sounds fun…what’s stopping you then? You can do all of that even now. It’ll be a good break for you from the monotony out here. Want me to make your travel arrangements?’ A was being incredibly supportive. *Danger/Confusion/Jhol alert*

Weighing my options and scrutinizing the whole scene clearly made me realize that what seemed very simple in theory was far too tricky practically. Some of my cousins are working and won’t get holidays easily, the ones who are studying have some or the other classes to attend even during this time. I’m on a 'losing weight’ mission and have to seriously cut down calories, so mangoes have to be limited too (sulk..sulk..sulk). I don’t have any deadline for watching TV now, in fact I’m kind of bored with the whole lot of nonsense shown on it nowadays. And most important, if I go to my Mama’s place I’ll have to cancel going to my Mom’s since A Junior has limited summer vacations. Where does that leave me then? Do I really want this? *Wondering endlessly*

As if reading my thoughts, A, my knight in shining armour came to my rescue. ‘Changes happen in our life, many times without our knowledge and consent, but they do. Our priorities change, and so do our responsibilities. Mom did her best by making sure you got a slice of that fun at your Mama’s place by sending you there. It’s your turn now. You’ve to let A Junior spend time with his family, his Grandmas and Grandpas, his Uncles and Aunts and his sweet little cousin. We’ve been there, done that. Let him get all the pampering too!’ He said matter-of-factly, knowing this was exactly what I wanted to hear.

I hate to admit, but he was right. Although we’d love to be spoilt all our lives and refuse to grow up ever, it’s an imperative phase of our life and we have to accept it whole-heartedly. Childhood is the best time of our life, and gives us lovely memories for a lifetime. We can tuck those moments away safely in some corner of our mind and look back at them fondly, whenever we want.

Having said that, I’d like to inform all my dear friends out here that I’m going to be away from our blog world for the next few days. I’m off on a holiday and won’t be carrying my laptop with me. Would try and keep up with you guys, going to miss you all! You all are such lovely people! Adios! :)

Seven Random Things

Everyone seems to be bitten by the 'tag' virus! Before you attempt finishing one, another one is ready to pounce upon you. The Analyst and Comfy had tagged me to write seven random things about myself. I'm a very boring person and scratched my head a lot to try and make this an interesting read, but alas! I warn you that you might sleep by the time I'm finished, so read at your own risk! :P

Here goes:

1. I had my first crush when I was in Std V. He was a very cute South-Indian boy in Std VI.I met him when we sat together during our exams. He was very nice to me and was also very good at drawing. Soon after that he left our school and I never got to see him again, but the memory remains :) (and I still have a soft corner for dark South-Indian guys :P)

2. I'm a somniloquist (sleep-talker) and sometimes I'm voluble enough to disturb the person sleeping next to me. My parents, my room-mates and now A; all of them can vouch for this. They’ve been scared out of their wits by me, some or the other time.

3. I have a fetish for hands (in guys!). More often than not you'll find me checking out or admiring a boy's hands more than I'd care to look at his face. It might sound abnormal, but that's me! :P

4. I'm a constant worrier. Call it a manufacturing defect. You'll find me exasperated and deflated trying to fix something or find something which might not be of any real importance. Everything needs to be in place. And the moment something goes out of hand, I get worked up.

5. I seem to have a knack of getting right any recipe that I try and am good at inventing few of my own too. My unseen and unheard of combinations and concoctions turn out fabulously, almost always. And luckily for me, A doesn’t mind being the guinea pig for them. In fact he pushes me to try something new, everytime.

6. Whenever I listen to my favourite song I cannot help but hum or sing along, depending on where I am. I tend to remember the lyrics impeccably even if I haven’t heard the song in years. And yes, I hate it when people mix up or add their own imaginative words to them.

7. I hate putting on make-up. I often find myself marveling at the patience, persistence and will of girls who can spend hours in front of the mirror painting their faces everyday. I don’t mind jazzing it up for some occasion, but on a regular day, kajal and a brown or maroon shaded lipstick is all I need.

Hah! Over and out with it! Seven more people who need to endure this torture after me (this is heartening) :  Nu, Chandrika, Rohini, zephyr, Chatterbox, Mihir, Deven

Enjoy!! :)

Positivity with a twist

We’ve heard, seen and read about people who have certain positivity about them. Being with or around them makes us feel immensely blessed and comforted. It seems like they have a bag full of happy sand which they sprinkle on everyone who comes across them. We would never imagine such people in the role of a heart-breaker or someone who’d hurt us on purpose, would we?

I did come across one such person. I was in college then, and the person in question here, J, was one of my closest friend’s love interest (refraining using boyfriend since she hated him being called that). He was a happy-go-lucky person and due to his affable and easy-going nature he soon became an integral part of our close-knit group. All of us grew very fond of him, instantly. I’d warned him to make sure he meets me every day ‘se just being with him made me feel immensely pleased about myself.

My friend loved this guy to the core and used to day-dream about their future married life. They were from completely different cultures but she was more than happy to embrace his life and family. Life couldn’t have been more rewarding and we were all very happy for her.

Destiny had different plans, alas! Even in our wildest dreams we could never have imagined what followed. This person, who we thought as God-sent in her life, broke to her one fine day that what had seemed fun at first had become achingly serious and he wasn’t ready to take the plunge yet. Wooing her and pleasing her were amusing, but after getting her he was bored.

She tried convincing him that she was in no hurry to get married and he can think this through, again. But he was adamant. All her wails fell on deaf ears and he walked out of her life, as easily as he’d walked into it.

He might be the most positive person in the world, but what he did hardly seems pardonable. What can he be called then, a positive person with a confused state of positivity?

The Hi-Five Tag!

This tag has been created by yours truly and the questions are all impulsive. I know my friends will have a great time answering them. All the while they'll remember me (if only to curse me) and will endlessly scratch their heads, which is exactly what I want!

It is simple. Answer the following five questions and kindly update it in my comments section once you're done so I can see them. You have to tag 5 more people.

5 pathetically horrible movies you’ve seen
1.Saawariya(Everyone has to agree with this!)
2.Prem (Yeah! I saw this one!)
3.300 (Blood and only blood everywhere...felt like puking)
4.Ramsay brothers' horror movies (As a kid they scared me but now I find them rather foolish)
5.The whole Scary Movie series (Very vulgar and utterly disgusting spoofs on some good movies!)
 

5 accessories you can create out of food 

1.Rings made out of round-cut green chillies with cloves used as diamonds
2.Bracelets made out of noodles and held together by colourful bell peppers cut in julianne
3.Spring onions used as flowers and spinach as leaves in hair
4.Any type of berries used as a solitaire
5.An ensemble of fruits made up into a hat

5 places where you won’t be seen dead at 
1.Any of the Chowpatty's in Mumbai...I have zero tolerance for the stink, dirt and shopwallahs there :(
2.Having my own Swayamvar on TV! (even if I wasn't married!) :P
3.Any Himesh Reshammiya concert...even if I was paid to see it!
4.Singing or dancing on any public platform!
5.Unisex salons (The idea never settles in, just don't know why!)

5 people you’d love to hit, anytime, anywhere
1.My brother ( Its like an instinct) :)
2.My old friends (They're pretty much used to be hit by me :))
3.Our laundry boy ( Just when we're ready to hit the bed he presses our doorbell, many times!!)
4.Our nosy neighbour who thinks her misbehaving kids are very adorable and belongs to the 'know-it-all' category
5.Receptionists/nurses in clinics (they're all made from the same dough,khadoos and very rude)

5 things you’d do to scare anybody
1.Keep giving someone missed calls. When that person calls up don't pick up the phone. Once the initial irritation subsides he's sure to get scared :)
2.Tell my friend who borrowed my bike that it has no brakes, just after he's picked up speed :P
3.Bang something on the floor or burst a balloon when everyone's watching something 'serious' on TV ;)
4.Minutes before your exam is scheduled to begin tell an already nervous friend that there's been some last minute change and instead of X you now have Y paper (Ouch!)
5.(I did this one and my Mom was just one step short of slapping me!) Hide under the sofa around bed time and make everyone look around for you.

I tag Nu, G, Comfy, T and Reflections!!

Go have fun! :D

The Pain of Perfection

Have you ever come across one of those seemingly perfect people who like to show that they ‘know it all’? You talk about anything under the sun and pat will come the reply, ‘Oh that, ya I’ve seen that long ago’ or ‘Oh you don’t know it, I know it like the back of my hand’ and blah blah blah!!

What makes me wonder is that whether these people are really as smart as they like to pretend or are they are shallow and don’t know a thing of what they say. I mean, it’s not impossible to be well-versed and well-informed, but can one person be a ‘master of all trades’? I doubt that…

I’ve had the misfortune of running into umpteen such people and I insist, talking to or handling such people is tougher than finding water in a desert. These people are surrounded by an impregnable wall of their huge egos and they just won’t take any of your well-meant advice or suggestion. What a pity!

I’m no student of psychology but I do know that every individual has some unique character traits and there can be no argument about their ‘rightness’ or ‘wrongness’. Can we question why mangoes are sweet and lemons are sour? No! They are meant to be that way, how else would the balance of nature be maintained?

There’s a huge difference between them and humans though. You can choose not eating mangoes if you don’t like sweet and ignore the lemon if you don’t like sour. But people cannot be put away like this! Even if a person is nothing but a pain to you, you have to adjust with him, bear him.

Such characters are found everywhere; he can be your colleague who boasts of some lame undeserved and unrewarding expertise to impress your seniors, your relative who’s not achieved anything on his own but was blessed with some ancestral fortune and thinks he’s seen it all, your friend who took tuitions from you until some time back and now advises you on how naïve you are….the list never ends!

My patience wears out sometimes in such cases and to shield myself from the constant bombardment of their unwelcome ‘knowledge’ I have to limitlessly stretch all my tolerance limits. The irritation after it although, refuses to go easily.

What do you do when faced with a similar situation?

Child Abuse: A Disturbing Truth

When I was young the ‘SEX’ word was a taboo and anything pertaining it essentially needed to be spoken in whispers and hushed tones. That was the time when sex education was not a compulsory part of our curriculum and cases of sex abuse against children were not very frequently seen or heard of. The world has changed a lot after that, and unfortunately, for the worse.

Apart from coping with the increasing competition, the pressure of better performance and the burden of their parents’ expectations, one more thing that kids have to face nowadays is the sexually explicit overtures of their family members, friends, neighbours and teachers. There’s not a single day when the newspaper does not carry some story about such a crime being committed against some minor. There are two such accounts that I’d like to share.

1.K belonged to a typical upper middle-class family. Her family consisted of her parents, a kid sister, grandparents and one uncle. Everything was going fine until a far-off relative of hers, another uncle, who found a job in their city came to live with them. From the day he entered their home he was overtly nice to her, giving her presents and not losing a single chance to touch or feel her when no one was around. She was young then and too naïve to interpret his advances. He continued his lewd acts and she never objected as she had started liking him. However, as she grew older and came to understand that theirs was an incest relationship, she decided she should confide in her family about it and asked him to face the music with her. As expected, he begged himself out. He wanted her to continue giving him all the pleasures but he didn’t want the world to know about it! With help from close friends and maintaining deliberate distance from him, she finally came out of the ridiculous situation. Now she’s happily married to a wonderful man, and the pervert still keeps trying unsuccessfully to get lucky with her.

2.I remember I was some 10-12 years old when I’d first seen on television, the story of a 4-year old girl who was abused by her father, repeatedly. The girl’s mother had reported the matter to the police and got him arrested. She said that she’d found her daughter hiding under the bed afraid that her father had come home, while it was her. She took her close, hugged her tight and asked her what had happened. To her horror and sheer disbelief, the kid enacted what all her father had been doing with her on the pretence of giving her a bath or putting her to sleep. It was all very disturbing. The lady couldn't stop her tears while explaining what all her little baby had gone through. She'd been there all the time, but she'd noticed nothing, sensed nothing. She'd assumed that they were bonding, but it turned out to be a nightmarish experience, for both the ladies. I wonder how long it must’ve taken for them to come back to a normal life and put such a dark past behind them.

The whole day after that I couldn’t think straight. The little girl’s face refused to leave my mind. My stomach turned at even the thought of it. When the person who’s support to look after you, protect you, pamper you and love you turns out to be a sex-starved monster, what can one do?

The government is taking steps to create awareness in school-going kids by giving them sex education and knowledge about how to identify any untoward behaviour. As parents it is our job also to make ourselves approachable to our kids and making them confide in us. It is only when they feel we’ll understand and empathize with them that such crimes will be easily detected and the culprits will be caught hold of and punished.

It’s very heartening to see everyone speak up openly and uninhibitedly about the many rampant issues faced by women. These concerns have been around for some time and it’s about time we not only create awareness regarding them but also do whatever we can in our capacity to put a check on them.

Choosing your own relationships

I'm Nu from Randomness had tagged me for the entry to this blog post at Indusladies on occasion of Women's Day. I've chosen to write on Relationships.

I’d like to define relationships as those complex alliances wherein all the associated parties are related, with or without their consent and will. They’re supposed to bring about a positive change in our lives and help us grow and prosper. But what happens when one such relationship becomes the saddest truth of your life, a weight that you don’t want to carry?

Let me tell you a small story about a girl, say S. S belonged to a conservative joint family. Her family consisted of her Granny, many uncles and aunts and a whole lot of cousins. She however was the only child of her parents. Affluence was not something that her family had been able to enjoy. Her Grandpa had passed away when her father was young, and Granny had brought up all her kids all by herself. Her father was the youngest of all brothers.

She was the apple of her parents’ eye. While living in a joint family it was not possible for them to cater to all her wishes, but they did all they could for her. She was a vivacious, chirpy and pampered little girl with many dreams. When she stepped into teenage, as inadvertently happens with most of us, she fell in love. The boy had all she could ask for; good looks, good family and a good job. But there was a catch. The guy was from another caste and hence an alliance was complicated. She endlessly tried to convince her family, but it all went into vain. Even her parents refused to take her side. Sadly, she couldn’t bring herself to rebel against her own family. The end result: she was married to another guy much against her wish and packed away to a faraway city.

Let’s see how life changed for her post-marriage. This girl who used to lighten up the mood in any room with her mere presence had become unnaturally quiet and gloomy after marriage. Her resentment for her family was understandable, but unfortunately her husband too never tried to make her feel loved and cared for. She tried to accept her husband, his family, his life, but it was easier said than done. There was a void in her life that refused to get filled up. While she was battling with all these problems, she had no idea that there was a storm just waiting to hit her.

To cut a long story short, she met someone. Let’s call this someone R. R came into her life like a ray of light. He became the friend she needed, the companion she desired. He listened to her talk about her life, her likes and dislikes, her music, her poetry, everything that no one had ever tried to know. He made her laugh again, made her want to live again, made her love again. Yes! She fell in love with him. Without her knowledge, but slowly and very surely he became a part of her life. I know this is not ideally what a woman is expected to do, but she did. Wasn’t it obvious?

You’d ask me what happened next, right? What followed was not something anyone had anticipated. She came out in the open about her relationship with him since she didn’t want to cheat her husband behind his back. The relationship with R was sacred to her and she wanted it to command all the respect it deserved.

What I wanted to portray with this story was that everyone in this world should be given the right and freedom to make their own choices. We cannot choose our family, our relatives, but we can choose our friends and our life partners. These decisions should be taken with the approval of all people involved or we’d witness another story like that of S. In this case S had the courage to stand up for her love and her desired life, but what about those not-so-courageous ones who feel trapped but still are a part of such a bad marriage?

I agree my choice of topic is different from the usual ones, but I strongly feel that we need to come out of the closet and accept things for what they are. Living in ignorance and fear of truth can only result in us living unhappily.

I tag  Reflections,Titaxy and D.

The Good and Bad World

My Name Is Khan had put forward a thought about the world consisting of only two types of people: good and bad. Conceptually, and broadly speaking, it might be true, but we’ll all unanimously agree that there are elements of good and bad in all of us. When we are judging a person we do not know anything about, it takes only but one good or bad episode for us to be or not to be impressed by him.

I’m going to write about something on the same lines. It’s not something that’s never happened with anyone, but I’m going to talk about it in the relevance of the essentially good and bad people we come across in our everyday lives, when an assumingly ‘sober’ person displays his dark side and a visibly ‘mawali’ person turns out as the good one.

While travelling long distances in Mumbai me and A prefer to take the ‘conventional’ mode of transport, the local train. The travelling time is reduced to half since traffic is not a problem and baby A too does not seem to mind the ride. In fact he enjoys all the activity around, he even smiles at the hawkers and eunuchs sometimes, much to my annoyance. Anyway, coming back to our topic..

Since we were travelling together and it was a Saturday, A suggested that I enter into the general compartment with him, and I obliged. As luck would have it, the train only got more and more crowded with every passing station. A squeezed his way through the crowd, but petrified with the thought of me brushing against those men stinking of God-knows-what-all; I cornered myself near the door.

An elderly man was standing next to me and was supposedly carrying something in his hands. Gingerly he moved step by step near me and his hand touched me suggestively. I ignored it a couple of times assuming it to be a genuine mistake. However, not the one to give up on it, he was persistent. I decided to take him to task and reprimanded him while all the other stunned men stared at us incredulously. He got the message alright! All this while A didn’t have the slightest idea of what happened.

While coming back home the same situation stared at me in the face and A promised that this time round he wouldn’t leave my side even for a second. What followed, ironically, was something I hadn’t expected. A guy who looked like a typical ‘tapori’ saw me struggling for some space to stand, and very courteously indeed, left his place and offered it to me. The smile on my face that time was honest and genuinely thankful.

Eve-teasing is a crime that probably every girl has to bear with, but few have the courage to stand up to it or raise their voice against it. We choose to keep quiet in fear of embarrassment in front of others or scared of what else might follow. This in turn only encourages these perverts to take us for granted and continue their sleazy acts. I’ve always chosen not to take it lying down and would persuade every girl to think and act similarly.

These two episodes forced me to think about how deceptive appearances can be. We classify a person as good or bad based on what we’ve seen or heard about him, but it does not comprise his whole personality. Therefore, I beg to differ from Karan Johar and Shahrukh Khan on this idea. Only good and only bad people can exist only in a perfect world, and ours is what imperfection stands for.

Ye Atithi Kab Jayenge?

I’ve found myself in a real fix right now and I hope that by the time you finish reading this you can suggest some resolution for my predicament.

We’ve all heard about ‘nesting’, and about how would-be mothers of all species strive to create a cosy and comfy environment for their little ones and make sure they’re very well looked after. It sounds very sweet and emotional, but this same thing has become a hindrance for me.

One thing that I got as a house-warming present (unwarned as it was) for our new home was a bunch of pigeons who consider our balcony their permanent residence. We have three balconies and all of them have at least two or more of these creatures hanging around them at all times.

I tried not to obsess or panic and just let them be, but accepting the muck these pigeons spread is a bit too much, especially with a kid in the house. Added to that the constant clamor and that fluttering of feathers is impossible to bear. I’m kind of petrified that some day they might break some window glass with their constant banging against them. Honestly it is sometimes frightening, for my son as well as for me.

As if all this wasn’t enough these pigeons have started laying legs eggs (oops!!) in our balcony and the clutter has increased even more. They’re also destroying my plants, crapping on them and devastating my rose buds. I try to scare them away but they come back in no time since their young ones are still in there.

As a kid I remember being impressed with and marvel at how meticulously and strenously these birds build their nests on tree branches. The guilt of us humans cutting down trees to make way for creating homes for us and robbing all these birds of their own homes took over me and I took it all with a bold demeanor till now. I’m a mother myself and I can understand this motherly concern, even if it is regarding them.

Something however needs to be done about this before these visitors become our permanent non-paying guests and we become unofficial caretakers of their current as well as future generations.

I’m clueless. Can you help me arrive at a proper conclusion?