Indomitable,inscrutable,ever loving-Thy name is woman

I n the last scene of the film Jungle Book Moogli reaches a river and looks at a pretty girl filling water in a vessel ,wide eyed.The girl rolls her eyes ,looks at him and purposely drops the vessel with water.Moogli rushes to her aid,fills up water,carries the vessel and follows the girl oblivious of his mentors and friends.Baloo the bear makes an all knowing statement”He is hooked”.That is what happens to all of us.All through a man’s life he is guided or dominated by a woman-First as a mother,a major portion of life as a wife and lastly as daughter.
Mere pass Ma Hai-thundered A.R.Rahman before an elite audience while receiving the Oscar-the sentiment touched a chord in millions of TV viewers all over the Globe.A lesser mortal would have been fired by his wife for not mentioning a word about her[just for fun please] His Holiness Dalai Lama in a recent seminar was categorical that a child which had not received a mother”s affection became violent in later life.
My mother gave birth to ten children and being the eldest I am privy to her trials and tribulations in bringing us up.I was asked to rush to my home after my 10<SUP>th</SUP> standard as my mother was to deliver my 3<SUP>rd</SUP> sister[7<SUP>th</SUP> in the hierarchy].For almost 6 hours she worked non stop,prepared enough idli atta to last for 3 days,pulikachal[a ready mix which goes with rice]to last for aweek, coconut chutney and arranged all the cooking items and vessels in the kitchen.After completing her work she asked me to bring the midwife and went into the room.I brought the midwife and within a few minutes the baby was born.After the mandatory rest for 11 days she was back in the kitchen.Cooking and feeding us well was her passion and hobby.She had her own faults but more than made up for these by being active and passing away peacefully at the ripe age of 87 without a day of hospitalization. .

I married at the age of 33 and it was an arranged marriage ..Within 10 days of marriage she travels with me a complete stranger to Orissa to set up home .Can you call this inner strength of an I ndian woman or put it on her conditioning.All through the journey she takes care of me as if we have lived together for years.In course of time two daughters are born.Even now I do not know how they were brought up as I travelled for more than two weeks a month.When we had to put them in school,we had the first argument as to who will teach themat home.My wife cleverly told me ,”Teach them the alphabets,I will tak care of the rest.”This reminded me of a story of a rummy player doing penance .When Shiva appeared before him and asked for his wish , he said,”My request is simple.I am a rummy player.Just help me with a natural sequence and a joker,I will take care of the rest”.Teaching my children values,helping me as a sounding board whenever I was confronted with problems at office and counselling me to take objective views helped me reach the pinnacle of my career.I am not surprised therfore when people say that behind every successful man is a woman.My only regret is that she refused to smuggle, home food into the hospital after my coronary by pass surgery, where it was compulsory to take only food served in the hospital.Infact I suggested that she should wear a nine yards saree while visiting the hospital which gives enough room to tuck away food in its folds.

Daughters have grown into wonderful humanbeings.We have to talk to each other everyday on telephone. If by mistake I mention thatn I have a cold they will not leave me till I visit a Doctor followed by hourly enquiries about the progress.During their teens what helped us to mould them was open communication,understanding and appreciating their problems as friends.Instead of advising them directly we used to do SWOT analysis for each one of us including me.(SWOT stands for Strength,Weakness,Opportunity and Threats).Each one of us would openly discuss these aspects.This helped us to correct our weaknesses without pontification.They will quietly book air tickets for our journey and plead with us to travel by air on some pretext or other.My daughters support me normally,while they rush to their mother’s side when controversies arise.

I have worked very hard to reach a high level in office.But my wife says it is due to her horoscope.A husband and wife went to a petrol station o fill in petrol.The lady got down and chatted with the petrol pump attendant for some time.After the car started the husband asked the wife whether she knew the attendant,She said ,”Yes,we dated for some time.”The husband said,”You should thank your stars you married me as otherwise you would have been the wife of a petrol pump attendant.”The wife replied that it was the otherway round,”If I had not married you,you would have been the petrol pump attendant.”

Can we ever say that husbands and wives don’t quarrel?One gentleman told his friend that he had no problems with his wife.When asked for the secret he said that there was a clear division of responsibilities-he takes all major decisions and the wife minor decisions.When asked to elaborate, the man said that major decisions like who should become the Prime minister of India and with which parties the Congress should forge an alliance etc were taken by him,while on the other hand his wife took minor decisions such as living in a rented house versus buying a house,which car to buy etc .A man entered a book store and asked the girl or the book titled “Man the master of woman”.The girl said,”Try the fiction section,Sir.”This is the reality of life.One way to get over arguments is get the wife trained in internet use and encouraging her to be an active blogger.

L.G.Kulkarni a noted Management guru,says the following in his book”Management is the name of th Game”
“You provide the money.Most of you normally provide children .Given these ,your wife looks after you,the children, the dog,the cat,th cockroaches,the house ,the food ,the clothing ,the tidying ,the quarrels,the disorders,the fun and non fun till you each your ripe old age,attain a well deserved oblivion and eventually die.”The wife thus manages you and the house and what she does to you and to the house is called Management.The male of the human species is ,in most houses the executive –he executes the orders of the Management.”​

 

Dear Malathi,
Iam happy you enjoyed the post.In most of the houses you will find two common comments.One is the wife boasting that even before marriage she knew that her husband would do wll because of the planetary position in her horoscope.The other comment is daughters telling their mother ,"You can only manage with daddy."Men acquiesce such statements to buy peace at home.
Regards
lakshiminarayanan

 

Dear Padmini,
Happy that you enjoyed the 'vanjaga pugazhchi'.If you find a home which is peaceful and everybody going on with their chores happily,invariably you will find that thwe woman of the home is respnsible for such a happy state of affair.I do mean it.

Regards

lakshiminarayanan