Princess Diana: ‘Dauntingly Phenomenal’

She was amazingly beautiful; the most-talked about; allegedly the most photographed; she was, also, perhaps the most misunderstood Princess. For most, it probably couldn't get any better than this: being a ‘Royal’ and even maybe a Queen some day. Their wedding was a fairy-tale. Atleast, that’s how it was portrayed in the media. The whole ceremony was televised and there were hundreds of thousands of people on the streets of London that day, and pretty much the same is expected tomorrow for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s D-day. But, I mean that not normal, right? Every little, minute detail was up for grabs in the 1981 Royal wedding, the bride is wearing what, who’s designed it, which carriage is she coming in in, the bouquet of flowers in her hands, the bridesmaids, the train (25 feet!!!); come on, so much media attention, its got to catch up with you. On the day, Lady Diana did look like a princess but all that everyone can think of telling now in hindsight (and before the Will-Kate wedding, of course) is: Why is she so sad??? If you knew she was so sad, why would say that the wedding was a fairy-tale and that the bride really looked like a princess. I thought she looked lovely, not at all sad; she was looking like any 20-year-old would if she was going to marry a Prince; she messed up with the name, held the hand of her to-be-husband in the middle of hymns with the whole of 3500 people audience looking at them at the altar, that doesn't reflect as someone who is sad.

People have the tendency to claim that things were looking bad after they actually have turned bad. But that’s the way people are, and that can’t be helped.

I think it is a big responsibility to get married. It is a huge thing. And doing service to the people, is always met with dissatisfaction. Whether queen or housewife, really.

“When no one listens to you, or you feel no one's listening to you, all sorts of things start to happen. For instance you have so much pain inside yourself that you try and hurt yourself on the outside because you want help, but it's the wrong help you're asking for. People see it as crying wolf or attention-seeking, and they think because you're in the media all the time you've got enough attention, inverted commas. But I was actually crying out because I wanted to get better in order to go forward and continue my duty and my role as wife, mother, Princess of Wales. So yes, I did inflict upon myself. I didn't like myself, I was ashamed because I couldn't cope with the pressures”

I think this is true about pressure. Lots of people tell, ‘cope up with the pressure; become stronger, there is no other way to deal with this.’ And you know what; I don’t think it’s about that. I mean I feel is more about the after-math of the handling pressure than the actual handling the pressure bit. It’s about how you deal with dealing with pressure.

I think she was a great and good person. Maybe where she went wrong was the manner in which she handled the lack of care or love that was always displayed to her. But to say that she didn’t handle the pressures well enough is wrong, I mean, she did she was told, she didn’t do what she was told not to do, and in the middle of it all, made quite a few sacrifices; but even after all that, she was not shown the care and love that she yearned for. And I think that is where she is like the rest of us; very lucky are those people who are loved and cared and that must always be cherished.

House: Everybody Lies

“Treating illnesses is why we became doctors. Treating patients is what makes most doctors miserable.”

I’ve been watching House for more than 4 years now. Trying to make a collection of all the series, but its not been that easy. (If anyone has any episodes from Season 1/2/3, would love to get a copy.) I don’t think that a doctor such as House’s character is around in real life and that too practicing medicine; but I guess there are many shades of House in various professions. His way of thinking is very sadistic to say the least, but it’s just the ting of things that he does that reminds us of him being human. Like in the latest one, he agrees to ‘kill’ his colleague who is suffering from Huntington’s. He encourages his team to get information about the patient through rather different means and methods (like breaking into their homes/workplaces and doing searches). He is almost a detective-doctor. Coz he believes everybody lies.

And I guess that it’s true. We all lie. First it’s with strangers or people whom you know you will only meet during that one time like in a train, or at a place you are visiting; we lie to them almost all the time. Then it’s the other people in life, whom we want to impress or want to prove something; we lie to them most of the times. And the worst: lying to ourselves, mostly because we want to make ourselves feel better or to make excuses.

“People choose the paths that grant them the greatest rewards for the least amount of effort.”

the weight loss tamasha

“If you have an ass, move it.”

Been reading Rujuta Diwekar’s second book for quite some time now. Hoping that I will finally start the losing weight part and get off the ‘tamasha’ bit of weight loss, or better yet, fat loss. If you know me well, (and mostly you will, otherwise would not have read till here) you would know that I’ve been trying to lose weight since god alone knows how many years.

But you know, I’ve been reading this book, and it talks more about women and Indian women’s lifestyle (mostly after marriage and kids) and how to inculcate the ‘looking after yourself’ bit for housewives and that its equally important for them to look after themselves so that they don’t tire and frustrate themselves out.

The reason the book is really good is that it actually recognizes the day-to-day lifestyle of a typical housewife and it encourages bringing about a change in the thinking of the housewife: she doesn’t only have to think and look after her family, (read: husband/in-laws/kids/extended family) and that eventually if she doesn’t start giving herself time to look after her body and health, she will have wear and tear and end up feeling tired and frustrate in life.

That’s true. It’s really not that easy to keep putting others before yourself and feel good about it. It only happens in Indian daily soaps.

It’s the world’s most unthankful job: being a (Indian) housewife.

I think the only way to get over this notion is for every (Indian) housewife is start looking after herself in the form of health and exercise and to keep herself fit.

So Happy House-wifying.

Pesto v.1

Thanks to Dolly Di, Shyla & Shyam Jijaji , we have Pesto. There she is now, chewing on her first victim: the brand new red aerosoft chappals that she attacked on since day two. She was in discovery mode and probably felt that the whole 1000 sq. ft. house was palatial-like for her, roaming around endlessly in each room, sniffing and licking and getting her self familiar to her new home. I still remember the first day we got her, she hardly did anything apart from whining and eating/drinking just about anything that came in front of her. She doesn’t whine that much anymore (apart from becoming a dukhiyari when Kuldip out of the house); but she still eats…pretty much anything. She’s gotten used to the house, she recognizes her house. She knows which room she sleeps in, where Mom-Dad’s room is, where the bathroom is (to keep stealing scrubs from) and the best of all, she doesn’t forget to fall asleep right over my head.

As I speak, she’s chewing on some other piece of plastic, god this girl. Is she ever really going to learn and give up these different plastics which are harmful for her?? Do dogs learn from mistakes?

Thanks to her, there are lots of changes around the house: starting with waking up earlier (esp for Kuldip) in the morning as she’s now the alarm clock; keeping things orderly around the house so that she cant hurt herself; Cerelac and NAN have entered the house (which would rather have happened at a later stage); there is meat (even though only in kibble format) in the house and isn’t objected to; cleaning of susu-potty numerous times a day; accompanying me to welcome everybody who comes to the door; alerting me when my phone rings in a room and I’m around the house working (she actually barks and takes me to where my phone is); but I guess we’re ready for many more firsts with her. Thanks Pesto, for all joy that you give us.

PS We just started using the newspaper method to toilet train her, does anybody know that it works or if there is something else that works out better??