9 Months...

When does one actually grow up??

The answer to that question perhaps lies in this quote by Wordsworth "The child is the father of the man".

My recently found understanding (albeit my own interpretation!) of this profound statement is courtesy imminent fatherhood.

The routine visits to the doctor are something that I look forward to; specially the one's that involve a scan. Getting to see your unborn child is perhaps the most numbing experience...it's at that moment that you grow up...become a man.

They say that women owing to the fact that they carry the baby inside them and have a physical connect have a headstart in terms of feelings of parenthood. Men, on the other hand, perhaps take a while after the baby is born and has warmed up to them.

Guess technology has contributed in changing that. Earlier, you perhaps waited for the woman to say "Hey!! It's kicking!!" and tried to imagine how it'd feel. Now atleast you have a connect... you put your hands on the tummy and can visualise the movement.

We men have it easy..get a bundle of joy without enduring what our woman folk have to contend with..bulging tummies..haywire hormones...aches, pains..what not?

Am sure men and women both have different reasons for looking forward to the end of 9 months!!

A la Humphrey Bogart...I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship..

And to sign off a song by Paul Anka featuring Odia Coates .. an ode to the person who's making it all happen...

Havin' my baby
What a lovely way of sayin' how much you love me
Havin' my baby
What a lovely way of sayin' what you're thinkin' of me
I can see it, face is glowin'
I can see in your eyes
I'm happy you know it
That you're havin' my baby

You're the woman I love and I love what it's doin' to ya
Havin' my baby
You're a woman in love and I love what's goin' through ya

The need inside you I see it showin'
Whoa, the seed inside ya Baby, do you feel it growin'
Are you happy you know it
That you're havin' my baby

Roots

How important is it to have a town that you could call yours?

Someplace which would always be home...

You can't always explain this feeling but one does get attached to places..more often than not these are places where you grew up..despite all their shortcomings some corner of your heart always craves and wishes that you could find your way back.

The point I'm trying to make is that it's not just about the house you lived in..there's so much more associated with a hometown...it is what lies beneath the surface..the people you know, the kids you played with and those you went to school with, the evening hangouts and the neighbourhood store...those quaint places..streets and corners with anecdotes associated with them... always knowing the best place to find most any thing that you could think of..food, shopping for clothes, you name it. I guess this is what constitutes your roots.

You might spend half your life away from your hometown but it's always a special feeling when you are back. And no it's not something that lasts a day or two I've noticed that it continues even after you leave..of course with knowledge of the fact that you'll be back again. But what if you knew that the next time you are back there would be no place you could call home?? If you had to stay overnight in a hotel or at a friend's or relatives place?

The word that closest describes that feeling is uprooted!!!

And to close a few lines from this classic by Jerry Lewis

The old hometown looks the same

As I step down from the train....

....It's good to touch the green, green grass of home.

The old house is still standing

Though the paint is cracked and dry

And there's that old oak tree

that I used to play on

Down the lane I'd walk ...

It's good to touch the green, green grass of home.

...Then I awake and look around me

At the gray walls that surround me

And I realized that I was only dreaming..

Getting High on Malls

What is it with shopping and women?
Is it some thing that can be ascribed to the paleolithic times when the women had to collect berries and flowers from around the habitat whilst the men hunted? If it is so it sure has evolvled into an artform (which for some strange reason men simply cannot appreciate!!).
Why do they have to check 4 different stores before they decide? And boy can they haggle!! They might not get along otherwise but send them shopping and they get along like a house on fire. That's the amazing power of shopping. My theory is that much like chocolates shopping triggers/tickles something somewhere which leads to a biochemical reaction within the female anatomy that makes them happy. What probably ruins that high is going shopping with a man. As hard as we may try we can never be convincingly interested in the object de'attention (Which by the way in a blink can change from a wineglass to a curtain!!)
And there's a reason...men you see hand were hunters and therefore tend to have a very focussed approach to shopping Which basically means... enter mall...choose shirt...walk out.
That brings me to the topic of malls in general. While the economists might be busy attributing the mushrooming of malls to the increasing disposable income we should not forget that these malls are catering to this primitive need for collecting berries and flowers!! It's just that with increasing education and employment this need has found a manifestation in the form of shopping. During paleolithic times they'd go out to pick berries but they'd pick flowers too..in the modern times they go shopping for groceries and comeback with cosmetics, clothes and shoes too!
They can shop when they are feeling low, they can shop when they're on a high. They can shop when they want to socialise or even when they want to be left alone.
And at some level I'm sure all women live every word of this song made popular by Barenaked Ladies

Well you know that it's going to be alright

I think it's gonna be alright

Everything will always be alright

When we go shopping
Well you know that it's going to be alright

When we go shopping

It's always lalalalala...

Shopping spree begin

It's always lalalalala...

Everybody wins
So shutup

And never stop

Let's shop

Until we drop
...Shopping with our friends

Shopping once again...
...It's never enough

Until you've got all the stuff