Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Changing Constantly

Scene 1
Act 1
2008
He walked into his house. Mom noticed he wasn't listening to music. 'Must have been a long day', she thought. He was the never kind who brought his work troubles back home. He had quite wonderfully managed to divorce himself from all the work-related stress. At home, he was a very good son and just that. Mom was expecting big things off him. She wasn't ever wrong.
But today something was wrong. He was not eating. And that was a sure indicator that things were out of kilter. She was getting antsy. He had his fair share of mood swings but never had he looked so forlorn. She wanted to ask but din't know what to ask.
Things were getting out of hand. He hadn't talked even a word the whole evening. She decided to take it up with him. She approached him apprehensively. 'Is it work?' she asked in a whisper. 'No', he lied. 'Stop lying and tell me what it is', she said. He decided he had to tell someone and now that someone was asking, he decided to go ahead and tell her. 'Mom', he droned on in that plaintive tone that comes on when we are sad (somehow melodrama never creeps into your voice when you are sad) 'I love a girl. She loves me too, but her parents don't approve of this...' All else was lost on Mom. 'I love a girl.' She heard nothing else. Blanked out. Nothing else mattered. This was not happening.
How could my dear son have done to this me? How could he have selected someone without my approval or his father's approval? Did he think that we might not find a good enough girl for him? What about the girl? Would she be appropriate for our family? Things are never going to be the same from hereon. She was breathing heavily now. Tears were rolling down. And He had only just started..

Scene 1
Act 2
2028 or any year sufficiently into the future

Something was terribly wrong. He had walked into the house, all singing and dancing. He was never so overt with his emotions. He was someone who kept everything to himself, be it the good times or the not-so-good ones. But Mom was happy for him. If he was this happy, something really good must have happened. Maybe, he found a girl! Oh! that must be it! I, of all the people, can recognise someone in love, she thought. But i'll wait till he spills the beans himself. Maybe he will blush too!!
Now a song was running on her lips too. Songs (even bad ones) and Smiles can be contagious. She wanted to know very badly now. So, she just casually started, 'Aren't we happy today'. A huge smile plastered across his face - 'Ya mom, i'm on top of the world, looking down on creations, and the only explanation..', She was quivering with joy now. 'Is this guy in college Mom. I proposed to him today and he accepted! I'm in love mom!'
Her innards just turned to stone and fell into her stomach. Why is this happening to her. Her son, smartest in school and college, charming, chivalrous, the perfect guy for a GIRL had fallen for a guy. This is not true. Did he think of the consequences. Will they get married?!?!

To the many of you who went yewwwwww, there isn't a lot of difference between act 1 and act 2. The scene is the same. We are all resistant to change. We have our comfort zones. We hate coming out of it. Change is always treated as abnormal. Gen X, Gen Y doesn't matter. We, as humans, are not very appreciative of change. We need to appreciate that fact first.
So, next time your parents get shocked when you tell them you are in love, just give them time. Nothing else works better.

P.S.: I'm happily heterosexual, for those of you worried about my orientation.

15 comments:

$uprema said...

lol... thanks for the postscript. :P

Hmm... giving parents time to adjust to change is all fine... its the question of exactly how much time that nags most of us. :)

You might wanna read this... I came across it a couple of hours ago...

Unknown said...

nah disagree .. dont care...if i was a parent i would kill my kid if he/she were gay....

call it resistant to change...call it watever....anything but gay....be it 2008 or 2800....

Anonymous said...

second the guy above!!! :D

ThoughPot said...

I don't think accepting the decision of a child who is allegedly homosexual, signifies change, the same way that allowing the son/daughter to go 'date' people during their teens and then decide who it is they wanna settle with, wouldn't.

And by the way, which Sulaiman is this?
'Sully' from college?

ravikiran said...

@ sup
I read that. That guy still writes like a dream.
@ sulli
yes, i wouldnt trust you to do anything else.
@ anon
be anon and die a silent death.. hehe
@ mir
i'm talking about being resistant to change. We have certain things engrained into our minds. they won't change easily. someone once said, You can even move mountains but not shape a person's character. Thats the change i'm talking about. The ability to change our mindset.

Anonymous said...

Dude...
that was well written...
And i must agree, there is nothing harder than change out there...
we dont even think twice abt certain things. in fact we just dont want to.
It's high time to change that sort of a mentality in today's flat world.
But then i also believe certain things just cant change - like accepting homosexual marriages ;)
keep it going :-)

$uprema said...

Judging by the comments, you chose the wrong theme to bring out resistance to change. ;)

But I agree with the above comment.. Certain things just cant change.
There could be a valid reason to resist change for as long as possible, even in scene 1.

Unknown said...

to all those who are for same sex marriages... will you be ok if someone in ur family turned out to be this way... say ur brother or sis... will u still accept it???

cheers,
same anon as the one above

Shravan said...

haha... the postscript cleared my doubts!!

I'm not really sure on what I'll do if my kid was gay..

And got here after reading about your blog in the Crescent magazine! You might wanna take a look at mine too!

ravikiran said...

@shravan, yes exactly. We'll never know how we'll react unless we are actually confronted by that situation. so clamoring on about my brother or sister being homosexual makes no sense to me.

And ya, thanks to the mag for my increased hits :D. will check out yours.

-=A.R.N.=- said...

"Change" is the excuse mankind gives, when it tries to bring abomination and chaos into human society.
Agreed that some change is for good; but sodomy as a 'change' is just an excuse for the gullible, question-loaded Gen-Y who believe that anything can be done, with no consequence to the thought.

ravikiran said...

Abdul, who was talking about sodomy here?
And you call the "Gen-Y" question-loaded and gullible. How can one be question-loaded AND gullible at the same time?
Every Generation has its questions bro. That remains the same. Its the questions that keep changing.
Stop making pointless allegations.

Anonymous said...

To each his own. Every person believes in a school of thought. Right or wrong can vary with individuals. The system is dynamic in nature and change is inevitable. Acceptance is required. Just sail smooth :)

the g said...

Gen x parents worst nightmare.

I might be very cosmopolitan in outlook, I even have Gay/Lesbian friends, Will I accept if my son or daughter turns out to be one ?

Its very easy to be accepting an "away from normal" behaviour in non family members, but its a different ball game when it comes to family members.


Good post though!

Rgds
G

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