Women, Where Art Thou?

I was talking to a friend of mine recently and he mentioned that he postponed his visit to India. The reason being he want to go when someone in his family gets married so he can have a fun time. Nothing wrong with that but the fact that all the eligible people being guys. Apparently it has become difficult to find suitable girls for these guys. It looks like he has to wait a long time.

Gone are the days when a guy has to say yes and then there would be a lot of calls from girl's families to arrange a match. Not any more. Everyone I speak of late, know more and more guys who are in the match making queue with a long wait ahead of them.

I personally know atleast 4 guys who are raring to go and get married. Alas! the girl is not to be found. The same story is repeated from my wife's side family as well. Their's is a huge family and astonishingly they do not have a single suitable girl. But guys there are a gazillion galore.

Where must have the girls gone? If you look at statistics, there are 927 ladies for every 1000 guys and that explains it (The serious consequences are a different discussion). The stat is alarmingly low in infants where it is 880 for 1000. The stats are even more glaring when compared them with other countries where women are 1045 for every 1000 men which is understandable as women are known to live longer.

So It looks that 7 in 100 guys have to remain unmarried unless it becomes acceptable socially and legally for a girl to have multiple spouses. Divine intervention is needed to change this imbalance. And sure enough God has heard my pray. My friends who had kids recently were all girls. Long live the girl child.

For a more serious perpective please view the links below
Sex ratio: the hidden horrors
An Overview India's Population
The Hindu : Men without women

Hey Kiddo

I recently visited my Dentist for a dental clean. I wish I did not make that visit. The doctor visits me and says 'Hey Kiddo Sit down here'. At first, I thought I did not hear well. She must have said something in her accent that I could not understand or did not know.

People have said to me that I look younger than I am. I have frequently been asked what school am I going to or Do I go to school. I would be flattered sometimes and disgusted sometimes depending on who asks it and how, but mostly it was the former. Who does not want to feel young? Not me for one.

All that self flattery vanished when my dentist called me again 'Turn your head this side KIDDO'. This time I could not have missed it. At first I thought she was playing. But her demeanor did not suggest so from what I can say as good a judge of demeanor I am. I have always wanted to say something funny with my doctor like Nag says to the Doctor on his hospital bed 'Will you marry me' in the movie ‘Geethanjali’. That movie and that dialogue have left a lasting impression on me when in teens. I definitely cannot say that now. She thinks I am a kid. Has she gone blind or something? Did she not notice my receding hairline? (On any other circumstance I would highly prefer anyone not noticing it).

I came out of her office in pain both mentally and physically. Physically because of the numbness from injecting the anesthesia in my cheeks that they did with 4 injections. And mentally because the world thinks that I am a kid. I began thinking nobody takes me seriously at home or at work. I believe that is why no suggestions of mine were considered in our team meetings despite their genuine greatness.

Had I looked older, I am lead to believe, everything else would fall in place. Oh my GOD! What am I to do, March Madness and NBA playoff are here and I need to concentrate on the scores. The leaking dish washer, that my wife asks me to look at, can wait and so can the smelling trash can. I digress into other domestic stuff. So I revert back to the original rant.

I wish to be in my Dad's shoes. He was on the other side of the window that I am in now for as long as I think of. He had premature hair graying. He was called uncle by people elder to him. He has finally reached a stage where he looks his age.
But his younger years were filled with such instances daily where people mistook him for 20-30 years older than he really is. He would always take it laughingly and would say what does it matter, everybody has to become old once, I only look old now and will be old soon enough. It was fine by him, but not to me. I even took up his cause against a 40 year old Marwadi airhead who called my 38 year old Dad 'Dadaji'.

After all that, when the world thinks I am young (in fact a kid), I wish I was in his shoes. So that night, I told my wife the story as to what happened. She said 'Don't worry. How does it matter what the world thinks. You cannot stop them. All that matters is what you perceive of yourself' and I began to feel better. I makes sense right. But wait a minute, did she say that because that she considers me a am kid too. NOOOOOOOOOO...