Pondering over the monkey story.....

If you are aware of the story then skip this para else go on till you get a hang of the story & then skip to next para. Group of monkeys caged, bunch of bananas lowered from roof of cage, monkeys jump to grab, the instant they do this hot water is splashed on them, this is done everytime the monkeys attempt to jump & grab bananas so they build in a fear . Now one monkey from group replaced by new monkey, unaware of the consequences it tries to jump, the old monkeys pull it back, it tries again but is pulled back each time. Another old monkey replaced same action repeated. Finally all monkeys replaced by new ones, none of them try to jump & grab bananas, inspite of the fact that none know the reason for not doing so.
Dont you think this story is worth pondering? Just imagine a new born baby is brought up in a marooned island such that s/he is unaware of the outside world, isnt there a possiblity that s/he will like the stink of garbage & abhor the fragrance of flowers? We dislike the former & like the latter only because everybody does so, we go by convention, dont we?
Why should only women where sarees & only men dhotis? Why should we have Sunday & Saturday(consecutive days) as holidays & why not Saturday & Wednesday instead so that week is broken into two? These questions show how we have accepted conventions as they are without a thought that there can be other options too. These are a few conventions we blindly follow without questioning that come to my mind right now, if you have anything else in mind do comment.
We tend to accept conventions only because of fear of being laughed at by others. Metrosexual men, women in army, etc... have raised many a brow only because they defy convention, but when we look deeper into them there is nothing abnormal about it, its a matter of personal choice. When talking about defying conventions one person who comes to my mind is Mallika Sarabhai, she is an IIM grad but went on to become a professional dancer, the other day I was watching her interview on TV, she wore different earrings to each ear, I mean the two were from twp diffrent pairs, now that called being 'different', you tell me, will any 'sane' person do that? I can hear you saying 'NO' , but why not? It is just that we have always seen women wearing a pair of identical ear rings, if unidentical the person will be looked at as insane. We just dont have the guts to break conventions & face the public gazing at us.
Like any Barkha Dutt or Karan Thapar show even after a lot of discussion which looks like a lot of sense the result is life goes on as usual without any change. Men may come and men may go but conventions go on for ever................

Sense of Humour.....

After reading a series of serious posts the word humour may have brought some relief to you..... but hold on this post is yet another serious observation on sense of humour. Over the years Ihave been observing that it is mostly men who have a good sense of humour. Before all you girls start hurling vehement comments on this post let me tell you even I am an equalist (though not a feminist ), so much so that I am against the idea that a woman should change her surname after marriage, I support the concept of equal sharing of domestic responsibility. Despite all these convictions, it has been my personal observation that most women are serious and lack sense of humour. This conclusion is after looking at people at workplace, VJs on TV(mostly male VJs are the funny kind, dont you agree?), and so on...
Girls usually play with dolls & boys with cars, I read an article on this which said it has been scientifically proven that this quality is inherent, & is true not just for human species but also simians. But dont agree with this idea, I strongly believe it is all because of upbringing, it is we who gift baby girls with dolls & boys with cars & so their preferances are made.
But the same thing cannot be said about sense of humour, it has got nothing to do with upbringing. I Is it that most of the female species takes life rather seriousy & lacks sense of humour because it is inherent to her?This big question remains unanswerered......

(PS Usage of the word most is to show that there are always exceptions)

Eveything is made up of ---------------

This was the question or rather fill in the blank so to speak, I asked a10 yr old boy as a part of the revision for his science test. Till you do the guessing for the answer, I shall give a little background on this.
The social wing of my company sponsors the education of children who belong to the BPL(below poverty line) families in a village, althe volunteers take turns to go to this village on weekends, to tutor these kids. So did I, one weekend only to realise how tough teaching profession is. "Patience" is the key to this profession & unfortunately that is something I lack.
The kids had exams the following week, & so we were helping them revise their lessons. There was this one boy, the naughtiest among them all who was disturbing every one around, I was despite several warnings. This short little boy who looked six but was ten years, was physically weak but had all the energy in the world, seemed to me like a weed spoiling all the crop. Vexed up with his very appearance & his unsteadiness, I started pouring questions on him, assuming that this embarrasment will be sufficient to get him started, or rather make him serious. As expected he answered none of the questions till, came the question metioned in the title, "Everthing is made of -------" yo, you guessed it right, the answer as per the notes was MATTER. But to this question he sponteneously replied, "Everything is made up of GOD". This instantly changed my anger to love for his sweet innocence, I dont know what it was but it pricked my heart, I can never forget that feeling, that little boy with gleamy eyes & a smirk giving out an answer that was beyond science just out of pure innocence.