Marriage... the why

Ah... this was a topic I had outlined back in December 2010. With one of my closest cousin getting married in exactly 2 weeks, I thought it was absolutely essential to talk about the forbidden topic of Marriage/Shaadi/Lifetime-of-Hell/ whatever you wanna call it.

I'll start with a quick over view of why marriage seems as though it's so much more important in our culture than any other -- it's basically the foundation of our parents being. It's a sad realisation, but our parents will never feel as though they can retire until their children (more importantly daughters) are married. In turn forcing us to get married so our parents can be truly happy.

Now at the age of 23... I've actually started to notice my parents trying to "clean me up", what use to be fun cooking lessons are now a test to see if I'll be able to please a future mother in law. Cleaning your house is no longer a chore, but  now a drill. The worst part? From 17-22 it was all fair game to hit up any ole club/party/parking lot any time, any day... now? My phone (fine my cousins' phone too) gets blown up by my Mother and Father if I'm not home by 9:30. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with my parents... until my mother dropped the "Finish your degree, lose weight, learn how to make a perfectly round roti, we need to start looking for you" line.

FML. My poor parents, I tried to kindly explain to her that marriage is no where in my near future. She had a difficult time understanding this. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of a wedding, and gifts, and jewelry and double income, and a vacation home -- but a marriage? Please, no thanks.

So.. with two very typical, very conservative desi parents, and one bad ass daughter, what's my solution? *clears throat* MBA. Law School. Yes, that's the only viable solution. Take the academic route, "School is too important to get married, I'll get married later, bla bla, bla". We'll see how far this takes me - who knows, this could always end with me inviting you to my big fat desi wedding in India next year to some "doctor".

Stay tuned, I have about a 100 other perspectives about marriage to share; from failed institution, arranged marriages, to why I'll have a wedding.

So, what are your thoughts on marriage? Go on, don't be shy, share.

ps. You ever notice how a desi bride is NEVER happy on her wedding day?! mmhmm.

Plenty of Syph

Sure I have 33 other topics to blog about.. but I just couldn't get over this. 

I've heard the radio ads, the TV commercial scared me so bad I moved away from my BFF, and the site killed me. 

This has got to be an awesome viral campaign, from a media standpoint they've done a great job at getting the awareness necessary for syphilis. I had barely known about this STI until this recent awareness campaign. 

I haven't quite figured out why they targeted plentyoffish.com, it's slightly unfortunate. I know some real great people who've met through that site. POF doesn't exactly encourage you to just f*&%, so why the parody? Because it's catchy? 

My major concern with this whole awareness campaign is their ultimate solution no not contracting an STI.... wait for it..*drum roll please*.... don't have sex. UH... really? that's your advice?  They have got to be joking.. I can't take that seriously at all. What about just ensuring people are consciously aware of their decisions? Not only that, but I don't find their site as informative as it could be, they waste too much time mocking the dating site and not enough educating. Most people won't spend the time I did trying to figure out this disease. 

On the other hand.. they got my attention and thousands of others too. 

So, what are your thoughts about the PlentyOfSyph.com site and this awareness campaign? 

Old Friends

I believe that each person you meet in life causes you to learn something new about yourself. I've been very fortunate to have met some amazing people in my life. I have a ton of friends that I've lost touch with and continue to wonder what they're up to. And others who when I catch up with - months and years seem like they were just days ago. 

It's hard getting in touch with some old friends, but sending an email doesn't take much effort. But as I'm writing this post there's still certain people that I know an email will never be sufficient enough for, so therefore I cannot bring myself to contact them. 

This blog is dedicated to the friends I hope to reconnect with soon, and to those who I hope some day our paths will cross again. 

To all my old and new friends - I wish you all the happiness in the world.