On Why I Became A Housewife

My job as a banker was something I cherished. I really liked counting money and glaring at people. It was nice to see people squirm when we bankers glowered at them and asked questions. In this context, I have to mention one incident that really made me proud. When I was a teller, we had to ask all depositors whether they were depositing into their own account to avoid third party transactions. One nervous customer at the end of the line was trying to find out what we were asking. It went like this-

Me: Whose account is this?

Customer 1: Mine

Me: Is this your account?

Customer 2: Yeah

Me: Whose account is this?

Customer 3: Mine

Me: Is this your account? 

Customer 4: Yes

Me: Is this your account?

Last customer: Meyaw

As you can imagine, it was a lot of fun being a banker. So why should I quit this juicy job to become a housewife?

Well, when I got pregnant I faced a dilemma. Should I continue working and let my child run free from my torture or should I quit my job and make him or her (I didn’t know what it was then) study for his or her tenth boards. Everyone I knew then said I should select the latter path because tenth boards’ preps should ideally start from before birth.

Of course, my manager and bank customers were very disappointed; but they accepted the news with a smile. So I quit my job and became a housewife. But I was in for a big shock. I never really knew that the role of a housewife included housekeeping. Though there was no pressure from my family, the society dictates a housewife to cook, clean and clean.

So now I cook, clean (at least the TV to see the screen behind the dust), shop, pay all bills and maintain my husband’s bank accounts online (this means changing all passwords so that he doesn’t know what’s happening to his account). So much work; shtill I’m a housewife…

By the way, we’ve not yet started preparing for the tenth board though my son is already four years old because I’m not sure if he’ll have boards.

Raavanan – my review

Remember Crazy thieves in Pallavakkam? Upilli’s English is put to test when he’s asked, “Rama kills Ravana. Change the voice.” Out comes a squeaky “Rama kills Ravana.”

Mani Ratnam’s Raavanan is the squeaky Rama kills Ravana. Squeaky because it was weak in certain places; however, overall the movie wasn’t that bad. I expected it to be worse after reading a lot of negative reviews.

Maybe the only mistake Mani Ratnam made was to project this as another Ramayan story and put in a lot of characters to correspond with the original. Most of our time was spent in trying to figure out who’s who. Of course, the director’s given a lot of clues to help us; like making Karthik jump around most of the time and making Priyamani dub for herself as Surpanakha. And of course, Kumbakarna’s role’s tailor-made for Prabhu.

If this had been just another movie where the bad uncle kidnaps the beautiful aunty and she realises he’s not the bad uncle after all, it would have been much better. Roping in Ramayan and giving Rama bad shades just show Ravanan in a good light was unnecessary.

This is Ravana’s story throughout and Vikram’s very good in spite of his “dan dan dan” and the ten voices inside his head that disappear after the first half. Another major positive is the photography and locations. It makes you feel like you’re watching the movie from inside a lake. I even started shivering in the first few scenes, then stopped when I got used to the cold. Rahman’s music grows on you; all the songs are good.

The movie was quite fast-paced too; not too many unnecessary scenes except for the “thangachi” sentiment that could have been avoided. Prithviraj has a constipated look throughout the movie; this makes him look more sorrowful when his wife’s around than when she’s kidnapped. Aishwarya’s costumes make her look like the dancer she’s supposed to be; but more on the lines of Anita Ratnam and other vayasaana dancers.

All villains are good people. All heroes are bad. Some heroes may be good. Does this mean all villains are heroes? Veera is a Veerapan cum Robin Hood character; Surpanakha’s never met Rama and Kumbakarna looks like he’s born to wait on Sita Devi. Dev (Prithviraj) is a good police officer, but he uses his wife as a pawn to catch Veera.

Moral of the story? It’s better to be grey than to be black or white. I think this is a movie worth watching; especially the ending scene where Rama kills Ravana.

A Housewife’s First Blog

     

        How does a housewife create a Blog? I pondered over this for a long time and decided to follow the usual routine. I called up my aunt, a veteran housewife of over 30 years and asked her how to start a blog. She told me to first finish all housekeeping chores,  clean the laptop using Collins and then start typing. She consulted my horoscope and told me to start the blog on a Friday afternoon with a small prayer.

       So, here I am, typing away on a Friday afternoon with a prayer that every mother worth her ABCs knows –

       Oh God, please tell me who will be the writer, of this very fine blog!

       A – U – I – O – E!

       And that is Me!

      So God, save my readers.