Home-maker – Is this status really that bad?

Few months back, we went to an Indian gathering where lots of my husband’s colleagues were there. One of my hubby’s colleague’s better half asked me where I work to which I replied proudly that I am a home-maker. Her next question came quickly, enquiring if we have any kids. When I denied of having any kids, I remember the disgusting expression she made of my status.

Few decades back when woman were encouraged to study they were discouraged saying “Padh likh kar afsar banana hai kya?” (Want to become an officer after studies?) . Now the trend has changed, specially in cities and towns, where educated home-makers are commented as “Itni padh likh kar ghar mein baitkar bartan maanjane ke liye kya?” So somehow studies are linked with jobs in our society.

My mom is not that educated in the sense that she was not able to go for her graduation. But I know had she got that opportunity she would have excelled cos I know how intelligent and sensible she is when she used to take decisions in our family matters. Lot of times I had to agree with my mom than my dad who had an engineering degree. Though my mom never studied in English medium schools, but soon after her marriage she educated herself with English and till date she never misses reading Times of India everyday in the morning. As kids, she used to update us with the news. She used her knowledge to her best with whatever education she had and brought up her 3 kids in such a manner that today we all are proud of her for being such an exceptional Home-maker.

Well getting educated means getting knowledge in the first place and then using that knowledge to earn money is secondary purpose for education. I am a staunch believer that in a family, a man should be a bread earner and a woman may or may not be part of it. I strongly believe that God created woman in such a way that she can take care of her family, with care, sensibility, emotion, and love which a man cannot do with equal measure. If woman can do all the above along with a job then its an added bonus for a family. Getting a working knowledge is also part of education, if one can avail, because it will boost the inner confidence of facing different people. But when a woman chooses not to work, as long as she is well educated, she too plays a major part in upbringing her family with using her knowledge in best possible way. So next time please don’t ridicule a home-maker because she too plays an important part in the society.

Missing Rajeev Gandhi :(

Recently when Mr Manmohan Singh won the no-confidence motion, I started wondering whether Congress can ever have a minister like Late Shri Rajeev Gandhi again. The persona attached to him was something very unique and modern which none of our Prime Ministers after him have.

I remember the day when he was assassinated, I was in my 7th standard, didn’t had any kind of knowledge about politics, but still felt at loss, as the whole nation. I guess it made a deeper impact than when Mahatma Gandhi or Indira Gandhi were assassinated. Nobody was able to digest the fact that a great leader’s life had came to an end in such a young age. It was a shockwave as if the whole nation caught flu all at once. There were so many imminent comparisons of him with John .F.Kennedy then.

I keep wondering how different would our nation have been had he been alive. He was the person who was responsible for bringing IT revolution in India. The person who was responsible for removing License Raj from India. After Rajeev Gandhi, the other two personalities of Congress party, who had the same charisma were Late Shri Madhavrao Scindia and Late Shri Rajesh Pilot. Its ironic that all these three people from Congress were snatched away very early in their life. And another similarity for all these three people is that, they all have sons of around the same age trying their hands in politics. Though I don’t see much potential in Rahul Gandhi, son of Rajeev Gandhi, but I could see lot of capacity in Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot who are modern, well educated, good speakers, good personality and charm. But it would be a long path to cross, until they can contest for Prime Minister post. Until then we will miss a person like Rajeev Gandhi to again become Prime Minister of India.

USA – Taxes, Insurances, Medical Facilities..s****ks

It’s been 1year and 3 months since I am in USA. So my post here is purely about my experience.

As long as I was in India, my view about USA was very different. I used to see it as a country where you enter and it would be a luxury bus ride. My views were solely based upon what I used to hear from my NRI cousins, their extravagant expenses when they used to visit India. May be 8-10 years back situation was different than it is now.

After coming here, I have understood life in USA is not as easy I thought or assumed. Even though USA is one of the most powerful country in the world and a very developed nation, I don’t see what its government provides back to its people. Other than the annual Income tax, there are taxes on each and everything we buy, eat, wear, use!! I was horrified when we were levied a tax of $450 from municipality division of our area for our new car. We didn’t understand the purpose of that tax, later after inquiring we got to know, that the tax is for the purpose of facilities municipality provides for our car to run in our area!!!! What facilities are they talking about?? I don’t know about the other states of USA but in the state where I am staying, Massachusetts, has some worst road conditions. I see road work, going on and on for months/years and there is no sign of completion. Road work is carried on during the peak hours of morning traffic resulting into long standing traffic jams. Public transportation is only limited for bigger cities resulting into one person taking one car. With growing fuel prices, why doesn’t US increase the public transportation facility in every area!

Other than taxes, the other pinching factor in US is its medical facilities. Without a medical Insurance, life is that of a dead chicken here! Almost an amount of $500 - $1500 per month, depending upon the size of the family, goes towards the medical insurance, regardless of whether we use it or not. For Indians, who have had the facility of a doctor at every nook and corner of the street back in India, here you will not get an appointment within first 5 days of calling. The results/reports of our different medical tests, are not given in our hands so easily as it happens in India. In case of emergency, you cannot go to a clinic, instead one has to go to Emergency department of a hospital facility, where you have to wait for hours and hours before you are being called. And by that time I guess, even the pain vanishes away and you will start wondering, why did you came to hospital the first place!! Now I understand why there is sudden rush of medical tours to India from various parts of the world.

Hmm it has been pretty unsettling time for me and my husband. My views and observations may not suffice all but this is what I have seen so far. It seems all our/peoples taxes are invested in wars and its warfare :(((((((

Larry king live – Ingrid Betancourt episode.

Hi friends, sorry, I took a long break from blogging due to some unavoidable personal reasons but now I am back to what I once loved.


Though I don’t watch Larry King’s interviews a lot, but just few days back I happened to see the episode where he interviewed Miss Ingrid Betancourt, one of the hostages who were released from Colombia after 6years of rebel captivity, just 2 weeks back. The whole interview was very disturbing to watch.

Miss Ingrid who is a Columbian-French politician, just got released after 6 years and it was just after 1 week this interview was conducted by Larry King for CNN. One could see how tired and exhausted she looked and these media people in the competition of wanting first hand report, might have really persisted her to give the interview. She spent nearly 6 years in the jungles of Columbia and she was the only lady among all the hostages. We can imagine the kind of nightmare and horrible times she might have gone through all these years. Why cant media give her some time to settle down.

The thing which disturbed me most was when Larry King asked Miss Ingrid, if she ever experienced any sexual misconduct from any of her captors! How on earth, could he ask such question on a live telecast, and how did he expect she would answer such a question!! But Miss Ingrid very carefully answered the question saying what happened in jungle should be left back in jungle and avoided giving any juicy details which these media people might have expected.

Media plays an important role in day to day life, but in the pursuit of wanting first hand news, they sometimes make people’s live miserable. Princess Diana lost her life due to media frenzy people. Anyway I guess for everything there is pros and cons and we have to deal with the life the way it is specially in a commercialized country like USA.

P.S - Link of the interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw8u9LvrQ3E