NBC’s Outsourced, a comedy centered around the lives of call center employees in India and their non-Indian managers, seemed to be a polarizing comedy amongst South Asians.  I personally loved it not only because it was set in India and made me non-stop LOL at everything that is amazing, absurd and amusing about the motherland, but because it was the first and only comedy that I could watch with my parents where they understood the majority of the jokes.

My absolute favorite character on the show was Manmeet, played by Sacha Dhawan; Manmeet was the perfect blend of hopeful, mischievous, endearing, charming, good-hearted & funny all while being sweetly naive to the workings of women (although I do not think anyone on the show or in real life has that quite figured out), and one thing that my gut told me about the person playing him was that he was kind.

2018 Relaunch 7-years-after-this-post edit: At this juncture in my life (& I have no crystal ball to tell you about the future), I have no desire to be dating/in a relationship/with a life partner/married or have kids. For the first time (& after 20+ years of caring so much about this as the “end-all-be-all” life goal), I don’t care at all and am fully engaged in a relationship with myself. I love my own company, feel no lack, and – accordingly – feel complete and whole on my own; it is an absolutely revolutionary feeling and I wish I could have known it in my 20’s. More on that later…

Fasting – to find a husband/for your husband…

Before anyone gets upset at me over this post, when it comes to religion, spirituality, politics, and everything in between, we all believe in different things and practice those beliefs differently.  This post is about my beliefs with no disrespect intended towards anyone or any assertion that my beliefs are right and that anyone else’s is wrong, especially considering that every woman in my family believes in fasting and my mom is probably the most die-hard of them all.   Having said that, I know this post will still run plenty of people the wrong way.

2018 relaunch afterthought: This post was written before “the events of 2012” (me becoming a domestic violence survivor) – almost exactly 6 months before that night that changed my life forever – and, looking back, I am so in awe (both in good and bad ways) of the person who wrote the below…

When I was in my 20’s, when single women in their 30’s would say things like “just wait, your 30’s are the best time of your life,” I am not going to lie but I always felt a pang of “awe” for them because it felt like a need-to-say-so-that-you-feel-better-about-your-life cliched type of thing because – let’s keep it real – that couldn’t possibly be true.

& now that I am past the always exciting “Hoorah!” of turning the big 3-0 and am in my “early 30’s,” I know that the expected thing to say in this post would be YES, your 30’s are the best time of your life, but I will not say that because I haven’t lived long enough to give an accurate assessment but more than that, I ideally believe that the best time of your life is not any particular decade or some time that you wax nostalgic about but the moment that we are in now, because shoot, we are just lucky to be here (something I remind myself of often because I know at least 20 under-30 somethings – either directly or indirectly – who aren’t here today).

August 4, 2007 – Wedding Speech for Broisha (ignore my worse than normal grammar; this was written the way I wanted to say it and never with the intention that anyone would ever read it).

“Hi everyone, just in case this gets lengthy, I’d like to apologize in advance; the thing is that I’ve had this speech running through my head ever since R & M started dating. My Ram-like brother has finally met his Sita & I couldn’t be any happier.

Please don’t mind me for going on about R; my brother, who I warmly like to call, the Bro, is humble to a fault & I finally get to sing his praises.  Whether you’ve known R for a lifetime or are just getting to know him, it’s clear that there is something unique about him – he has a genuine kindness, unlike anyone you’ve ever met.  R is the son, brother, friend, colleague, doctor & even one-time acquaintance, who makes every person that comes into his life feel important… Unlike so many others who act this way with a purpose, R is this way because he is simply a really nice guy.  Now I’m the extremely lucky sister because R was born this way & I got to reap all the benefits – I love reminiscing about our childhood & my unique big-brother experience because R never beat me up or tormented me – minus a few mind games here or there – instead he held my hand & let me tag along for the ride.  Sure I’m a big wimp because of it, but it’s all good!  I know a few of you might be curious about those mind games – let’s just say that during our Star Trek phase R managed to have me clean up his room many times at Mach 10 speed. You’d think I would’ve learned after the first time!  There are other stories but they’re really just embarrassing for me.  Thankfully, I can also tell you stories of hero-Toddler R rescuing me from a fire or my incredibly thoughtful grown-up “Bro” who sends flowers to his sister on Valentine’s day 🙂

Hi everyone,

I’m sure I did not come up with the term “e-communicating,” but – in my mind – I would like to think that I did and if you have followed my blog, you know that when it comes to e-communicating (texting, e-mailing, chatting & FB) as it relates to dating, I am not a fan.  My stance on the topic has always been that people are not necessarily their authentic selves via these forms of communication… This is not something they do knowingly, but – more often than not – they are way bolder (usually far more flirtatious & forward) than they would be on the phone or in-person… Most of us are much more comfortable when we are able to write our thoughts than we would be if we had to say them out loud.

2018 Relaunch 7-years-after-this-post edit: At this juncture in my life (& I have no crystal ball to tell you about the future), I have no desire to be dating/in a relationship/with a life partner/married or have kids. For the first time (& after 20+ years of caring so much about this as the “end-all-be-all” life goal), I don’t care at all and am fully engaged in a relationship with myself. I love my own company, feel no lack, and – accordingly – feel complete and whole on my own; it is an absolutely revolutionary feeling and I wish I could have known it in my 20’s. More on that later…

While I was on my way to the gym on Monday morning, I was listening to the radio and heard a segment on Hot 99.5 that discussed the “Where Have the Good Men Gone?” article published in the Wall Street Journal & written by Kay S. Hymowitz who “argues that too many men in their 20’s are living in a new kind of extended adolescence.”  What was interesting about the I Want a Silver Fox Podcast was that one of the hosts (a 29 year old female) essentially wrote off all 20-something males as pretty much being incapable of being serious about dating and encouraged them to just sow their oats (even though I am born & raised here there are some expressions I will never understand) because that’s what they “should” be doing.  What was even more interesting was that at the end of the segment, a 22-year old male called in saying that he was ready to settle down (get married, have kids, etc.) and everyone made fun of and balked at him.