Fufi was the slowest cashiere in the store. Not that she ever wanted to be one. She grew up thinking that her life would begin and end within a marraige. She devoted her time to helping others, taking care of a large extended family. Never had she imagined that she would end up working for a living .
But fate had other plans for her and at the age of 45 ,Fufi's husband died in a tragic accident.She was left alone with three teenagers, none of whom had completed the desired level of education. There was a lot of sympathy for the family in the begining but it soon faded, and they were left to fend for themselves.
The teenagers took part time jobs in call centres and as pizza delivery guys, and Fufi secured a job in the supermarket as a casheire.Far from being good at her work, she was the most confused person there who had no idea about any of the products in the modern supermarket . Whats more she did not care to remember a thing they taught her. She gladly accepted help from her fellow workers and even from the customers. If they asked her the whereabouts of any thing as simple as the maggie noodle, she would stare blankly at them in complete mystification. She also wondered what a maggie noodle was. She hated her job and blamed her karma openly .
Once when she was new in her job, her teenagers came to her store. They discovered the horrible truth about Fufi. How very slow and incompetent she was in her job, how she never heard anything right, or saw properly without her glasses. They discovered how painfully akward she was at returning the change. By the time she started bagging three happy customers had already finished their business in the other line.They felt terribly ashamed of her.
"God how can you ever be a cashiere ?You have no idea how slow you are. We are not working there and yet we can be better than you.God! How can they keep you there? How come you are not yet fired."They hurried out of the store determined never to set foot there agian!
Those were the exact questions fufi asked herself everyday in the first few months."Why dont they just fire me?" But it never happened. Life settled into a slow routine once more. She got a little faster as years went by and at the end of four years she finally knew where all the things were. She even began to relax on the register and joked with her customers who had acceped her incompetance as a fact of life.
Five years went by.One of her son got a very good job and the other had an offer as soon as he graduated. Life was looking good. On the fifth anniversary of her job, the owners offered Fufi a little silver coin with goddess Laxmi and Shri Ganesha on either side.They also gave her a sealed envelope."Aha this must be a salary increase" thought Fufi in excitement and opened her envelope. It contained a message:Your services will no longer be required .
Fufi could not beleive it. "Why me? Why now? Where will I go from here. I am so old.. who will give me a job now?" She ran out crying.
It was then that she saw an old lady painfully walking with the help of a wobbly walking stick.As she was trying to cross the road a rash youth drove right into her and knocked her down. Instead of stopping and assisting the old lady he just kept on driving.
The walking stick broke into two.Fufi and a few others rushed forward to help the old lady. She was badly shaken, and trembling .Tears were rolling down her face and she had suffered several cuts and bruises.
But she got up with the help of the passers by, and thanked them. "God bless you all !" she cried and continued to walk home without her walking stick.
Fufi picked up the broken pieces and silently followed her.
Monday, March 17, 2008
The grinn of cheshire cat :)
Tarzen the jungle boy was caught in the deep forest where he had grown among the wild beasts. He had no contact with civilization at all.
Naturally they took him to the lab to civilize him and teach him language, religion and morality.He soon grew fond of his teacher, Jane by way of pure animal instinct .
To everyones amazement, Tarzen spent hours at a time in front of TV. He especially liked to watch bollywood dances. They seemed to call out to the animal in him.
So Jane decided to use films as her medium of instruction. And what better way to educate a person then start them off with the cartoon network ? So there Tarzen was, watching the best of disney cartoons. He really got involved in Alice in Wonderland, and could never sit in one place while watching it. He tumbled and cartwheeled and climbed on to the fan and tried to immitate the animals he saw there.Till he met the Cheshire cats grin.
Try as he might he could not vanish and reappear and that drove him nuts. So he decided to study the books. He wanted to become wise. He wanted to learn the vanishing trick, in order to escape back to his beloved jungle. One by one he studied history geography maths, till he came to moral science.
He could not understand how it was OK to kill the infidels, ie those who do not think like you.He could not understand how GOD told one group of people to go and kill another group of people and loot and plunder and rape in GOD's name
He could not understand why the people needed any holy priests to stand between and deny entry to GOD's presence just like the receptionist in the front office who kept him away from meeting the visitors.
Suddenly he saw the... grinn followed by the cheshire cat! Tarzen leaped up and caught the purple cat. which promptly vanished, plastering his big grinn on the walls.
They are all the same said the grinn :)
OM : chant the Hindus
Amen: chant the Christians
Ameen: chant the Muslims
OM, Amen , Ameen ..
All are the same. Different strokes, different times, different places, different ways of survival in a difficult world. And as for you Tarzen. just open the door walk out and keep walking.
Eventually you will get there.
Suddenly the door opened and the Cheshire cat walked out with his tail in the air.!..:) He knew that Tarzen would leap out after him.
Naturally they took him to the lab to civilize him and teach him language, religion and morality.He soon grew fond of his teacher, Jane by way of pure animal instinct .
To everyones amazement, Tarzen spent hours at a time in front of TV. He especially liked to watch bollywood dances. They seemed to call out to the animal in him.
So Jane decided to use films as her medium of instruction. And what better way to educate a person then start them off with the cartoon network ? So there Tarzen was, watching the best of disney cartoons. He really got involved in Alice in Wonderland, and could never sit in one place while watching it. He tumbled and cartwheeled and climbed on to the fan and tried to immitate the animals he saw there.Till he met the Cheshire cats grin.
Try as he might he could not vanish and reappear and that drove him nuts. So he decided to study the books. He wanted to become wise. He wanted to learn the vanishing trick, in order to escape back to his beloved jungle. One by one he studied history geography maths, till he came to moral science.
He could not understand how it was OK to kill the infidels, ie those who do not think like you.He could not understand how GOD told one group of people to go and kill another group of people and loot and plunder and rape in GOD's name
He could not understand why the people needed any holy priests to stand between and deny entry to GOD's presence just like the receptionist in the front office who kept him away from meeting the visitors.
Suddenly he saw the... grinn followed by the cheshire cat! Tarzen leaped up and caught the purple cat. which promptly vanished, plastering his big grinn on the walls.
They are all the same said the grinn :)
OM : chant the Hindus
Amen: chant the Christians
Ameen: chant the Muslims
OM, Amen , Ameen ..
All are the same. Different strokes, different times, different places, different ways of survival in a difficult world. And as for you Tarzen. just open the door walk out and keep walking.
Eventually you will get there.
Suddenly the door opened and the Cheshire cat walked out with his tail in the air.!..:) He knew that Tarzen would leap out after him.
the frog and the crocodile
A little tadpole was happily splashing around in the splash pool when she had this sinking feelingIt began at the tip of her tailLo and Behold..Her tail was shrinking in front of her very eyes ! Somebody help me she cried out in terror.
A E I O UCame the reply She looked up to see a hookah smoking caterpillar peering at her. His look is so disgusting thought the tadpole.
I will EAT U . I O U.
I already ate you,
came the reply..
Who R U cried the tadpole.
By now her tail had vanished and so had her fears
For she had grown beautiful legs to replace her akward mermaid tail.
I am the crocodile in the ancient valley of the nile.
But I am not a small fish and not even a stupid fish.I know the jaws of the crocodile said the frog as she hopped out of the splash pool in search of the fat worm .
The caterpillar was nowhere to be found.
Instead there was a little butterfly flashing his wings at her.
Things change said the butterfly in the deep throaty voice of Big B,
You have changed and so have I
Nothing ever remains the same. Dont xpect it to.
The only permanent thing about life is CHANGE
Change change change change
CHANGE they sang and they vanished together into the blue hand in hand
A E I O UCame the reply She looked up to see a hookah smoking caterpillar peering at her. His look is so disgusting thought the tadpole.
I will EAT U . I O U.
I already ate you,
came the reply..
Who R U cried the tadpole.
By now her tail had vanished and so had her fears
For she had grown beautiful legs to replace her akward mermaid tail.
I am the crocodile in the ancient valley of the nile.
But I am not a small fish and not even a stupid fish.I know the jaws of the crocodile said the frog as she hopped out of the splash pool in search of the fat worm .
The caterpillar was nowhere to be found.
Instead there was a little butterfly flashing his wings at her.
Things change said the butterfly in the deep throaty voice of Big B,
You have changed and so have I
Nothing ever remains the same. Dont xpect it to.
The only permanent thing about life is CHANGE
Change change change change
CHANGE they sang and they vanished together into the blue hand in hand
My family
After seeing all those wonderful couples and wonderful lovers online I thought Bling ; Time for reality check !lets look into my normal happy family
Hum do humare do
miya bibi ladka ladki
fair and square
but do we agree on anything???
NO Way.miya looks north bibi looks east ladka looks west and ladki looks in the mirror.
Food
miya wants dal roti and besan ka laddoo bibi wants steamed vegetables and chinese foodladka wants biryani pav bhaji and pizza and ladki wants to derive all her calories from chocolates and carrots.?????
Happy meal times. Nobody eats at the dining table anymore. They all eat in front of the TV or computer screens. A family that eats together stays together....??????
Clothes
miya wants well ironed formal office wear. No shabby chic for himbibi wants jeans and Ts no ironing at all ladka wants to wear shorts and nothing but shortsladki abse cool flipping pages of imported magazines
Indian dress code ? This is globalization my dear
holidays
miya wants to go treking
bibi wants to go shopping
ladka wants to play nintendo
ladki wants to hang out with her friends( We are so old )nowhere is there any "least common factor" to tie our family together
but dears we do love each other while we hate everthing about each others behaviour
we cant wait to be with each other when apart
we phone, send sms and text msgs to check on one another
and cant stand each other once we are together
Ours is the average happy go lucky indian family
Happy days to your happy family from ours dear friendswe are so lucky to have you too in our lives till all this ends...
Hum do humare do
miya bibi ladka ladki
fair and square
but do we agree on anything???
NO Way.miya looks north bibi looks east ladka looks west and ladki looks in the mirror.
Food
miya wants dal roti and besan ka laddoo bibi wants steamed vegetables and chinese foodladka wants biryani pav bhaji and pizza and ladki wants to derive all her calories from chocolates and carrots.?????
Happy meal times. Nobody eats at the dining table anymore. They all eat in front of the TV or computer screens. A family that eats together stays together....??????
Clothes
miya wants well ironed formal office wear. No shabby chic for himbibi wants jeans and Ts no ironing at all ladka wants to wear shorts and nothing but shortsladki abse cool flipping pages of imported magazines
Indian dress code ? This is globalization my dear
holidays
miya wants to go treking
bibi wants to go shopping
ladka wants to play nintendo
ladki wants to hang out with her friends( We are so old )nowhere is there any "least common factor" to tie our family together
but dears we do love each other while we hate everthing about each others behaviour
we cant wait to be with each other when apart
we phone, send sms and text msgs to check on one another
and cant stand each other once we are together
Ours is the average happy go lucky indian family
Happy days to your happy family from ours dear friendswe are so lucky to have you too in our lives till all this ends...
kanchuki club
Asha's 90 yr old great grandmother and her five yr old daughter had heard the loud sobbing and come to investigate. Asha' other three friends and me, were all trying to console the hysterical female who was holding a 38 DD lace and satin bra and yelling at the top of her voice:"Whose is this? What is my fault ? Where did I go wrong?"
The great grandma told Asha's daughter to go and get a glass of cold water . She then took away the bra from Asha's hands and drew my sobbing friend and consoled her with a big hug. The old lady then proceeded to tell us all a story from her past.
"This is not a modern day problem Asha " she whispered. "It was there even in our days!"Asha momentarily looked up in bewilderment at her badi sasuji..."We were a group of seven young brides all 15 or 16 yrs old when we had discovered the dirty secret about the kanchuki club! Oh yes" The grand old lady wiped off a tear and continued:"
We had just found out that our husbands not only had mistresses, but they all belonged to a secret society of mistress swappers.They called themselves members of the kanchuki club! "Kanchuki was a traditional undergarment, not as fancy as this one.."She lovingly felt the silk and the lace and admired the crafting of a 38 DD push up bra.She sighed as she spoke
"On every weekend they used to meet in their aristocratic friends house for wine women and song.They had a regular mehefil and dancing girls and all that stuff. After drinking and gambling they each got out their mistress's kanchuki and tossed it in a big copper pot.Then everyone drew one out and off he went with the mistress to whom it belonged." She seemed lost in thoughts.
"After about four months of my marriage I came to know that my husband was an active member of the kanchuki club.I was totally shattered.I went back to my parents house, but they told me that we cant help you in this matter. It is between you and your husband, and they sent me back to him. I was alone, in that great big house barely 15 years old, and my husband was 18. On top of that I had found out that I was also pregnant.So I was stuck for good with that crazy life!!"
We all were stunned. None of us had the courage to ask what happened next. Only Asha's 5 year old daughter dared ask the obvious next question. "Then what did you do grandma?" she wanted some answers before her great grand mother fell asleep in the middle of her story or forgot it alltogether.
"Oh yes! I did the same thing that you are doing now. I took the kanchuki belonging to my husbands mistress to my friend's house.We all were equally perturbed. None of us could dare divorce in those days, but we did not want any kanchuki rivals either." Another pregnant pause from the old lady. It was killing the cats.
"So we decided to start a ladies club of our own.We began inviting young poets and young writers to our club and started showering them with praise and admiration.This began to irritate our husbands.We began praising these young Turks openly till our husbands began to worry a bit. "The old lady burst out laughing till tears rolled down."We declared that we would be going on a picnic with all our friends and children and the poets will accompany us.That did it. All the husbands wanted to come too.They found our activities highly suspicious and they never wanted to leave us out of sight." More laughter.
"Gone were the mistresses and the kanchukis! We continued to organize some new activities every weekend, and soon involved the husbands in every possible way. We flirted openly with each others husbands, knowing all the proper commas, semi -colons , question marks ,and fullstops, and never going too far!!"
Asha wiped off her tears and drank the whole glass of water. She wiped off her tears and ventured a feeble smile.
"That little spice which these activities added to our lives saved all of us.We all had 5- 6 or even more children, and overall led happy married lives, or at least so we like to think.!" Great grand mother had finally fallen asleep.
"Oh you were very clever grandma!" said the 5 year old and ran inside to drag out an old black and white photo album from the old women's trunk. It had pictures of all those picnics. Can you believe it? All the famous marathi poets from the 20s and 30s were there in those yellowing photos....Wow!Could it be true?
My girlfriends decided there and then that we needed to spend more quality time with our hubbys, in the bedrooms of course,and it all started with a trip to the Lingerie shop.We got the wackiest ,expensive ,silky, satiny ,Lacy push ups and Cami's and undies that they had in the shop.We too hoped to engage our straying partners in wild escapades so they would not be tempted to form a modern kanchuki club.
The great grandma told Asha's daughter to go and get a glass of cold water . She then took away the bra from Asha's hands and drew my sobbing friend and consoled her with a big hug. The old lady then proceeded to tell us all a story from her past.
"This is not a modern day problem Asha " she whispered. "It was there even in our days!"Asha momentarily looked up in bewilderment at her badi sasuji..."We were a group of seven young brides all 15 or 16 yrs old when we had discovered the dirty secret about the kanchuki club! Oh yes" The grand old lady wiped off a tear and continued:"
We had just found out that our husbands not only had mistresses, but they all belonged to a secret society of mistress swappers.They called themselves members of the kanchuki club! "Kanchuki was a traditional undergarment, not as fancy as this one.."She lovingly felt the silk and the lace and admired the crafting of a 38 DD push up bra.She sighed as she spoke
"On every weekend they used to meet in their aristocratic friends house for wine women and song.They had a regular mehefil and dancing girls and all that stuff. After drinking and gambling they each got out their mistress's kanchuki and tossed it in a big copper pot.Then everyone drew one out and off he went with the mistress to whom it belonged." She seemed lost in thoughts.
"After about four months of my marriage I came to know that my husband was an active member of the kanchuki club.I was totally shattered.I went back to my parents house, but they told me that we cant help you in this matter. It is between you and your husband, and they sent me back to him. I was alone, in that great big house barely 15 years old, and my husband was 18. On top of that I had found out that I was also pregnant.So I was stuck for good with that crazy life!!"
We all were stunned. None of us had the courage to ask what happened next. Only Asha's 5 year old daughter dared ask the obvious next question. "Then what did you do grandma?" she wanted some answers before her great grand mother fell asleep in the middle of her story or forgot it alltogether.
"Oh yes! I did the same thing that you are doing now. I took the kanchuki belonging to my husbands mistress to my friend's house.We all were equally perturbed. None of us could dare divorce in those days, but we did not want any kanchuki rivals either." Another pregnant pause from the old lady. It was killing the cats.
"So we decided to start a ladies club of our own.We began inviting young poets and young writers to our club and started showering them with praise and admiration.This began to irritate our husbands.We began praising these young Turks openly till our husbands began to worry a bit. "The old lady burst out laughing till tears rolled down."We declared that we would be going on a picnic with all our friends and children and the poets will accompany us.That did it. All the husbands wanted to come too.They found our activities highly suspicious and they never wanted to leave us out of sight." More laughter.
"Gone were the mistresses and the kanchukis! We continued to organize some new activities every weekend, and soon involved the husbands in every possible way. We flirted openly with each others husbands, knowing all the proper commas, semi -colons , question marks ,and fullstops, and never going too far!!"
Asha wiped off her tears and drank the whole glass of water. She wiped off her tears and ventured a feeble smile.
"That little spice which these activities added to our lives saved all of us.We all had 5- 6 or even more children, and overall led happy married lives, or at least so we like to think.!" Great grand mother had finally fallen asleep.
"Oh you were very clever grandma!" said the 5 year old and ran inside to drag out an old black and white photo album from the old women's trunk. It had pictures of all those picnics. Can you believe it? All the famous marathi poets from the 20s and 30s were there in those yellowing photos....Wow!Could it be true?
My girlfriends decided there and then that we needed to spend more quality time with our hubbys, in the bedrooms of course,and it all started with a trip to the Lingerie shop.We got the wackiest ,expensive ,silky, satiny ,Lacy push ups and Cami's and undies that they had in the shop.We too hoped to engage our straying partners in wild escapades so they would not be tempted to form a modern kanchuki club.
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