who CELLed the cat??

There we are walking out of the Cafe Coffee Day with dilated pupils, thanks to the 2 hours of caffeine-that-we-sipped or may be jus pure Gossip... and all of a sudden "This is the story of a girl..." my cell phone sings (awe shaaaat aaaaap i like that song :P)..
"hi pappa....CCD...with friends, i'd told you na........will be home in 10... im just leaving..... ya ya coming coming, nobody can afford kidnapping me......i was kidding, relaxxxx.. byeeee!!"
That was my dad wanting to know where i was, with who n when im coming back home... A father who sent his only daughter [what? it sounds better than 2nd child ;)] to Manipal when she was 17 :D :D
Sheesh sometimes i don't understand parents... they juggle you between childhood n adulthood (putting us in the wrong category at the wrong times usually)... they teach you to write an essay about "all Indians being your brothers and sisters" and in a couple of years you get the "boys can be evil" talk (although by then most girls tend to have a bad-boy-tracking-device implanted within them thanks to abundant eve-teasing..)... they worry when there is actually nothing to worry about (when i was 625 kms away having a nervous breakdown before one of my final university exams, my dad was advising me to stay 'as cool as a cucumber' :D and when i'm 2 streets away from home drinking coffee they worry!)
BUT I'm not here to marvel about our parents cos we all love them unconditionally.... Period.
I'm not here to tell you about my friends cos that'l take all night and my stomach is vigorously responding to the stimulus provided by the dinner bubbling in the kitchen (stay reeeeeal quiet n you may just hear something)..
I'm here wondering about that thing that connects us all...... OUR CELL PHONES.
We have them and all of us have hated owning them at one point of time (if that 'point' hasnt come in your life, i'm pretty sure you are a Man with the Best Boss!).. probably because of 'who' 'when' or 'why' it buzzed...
But how did we end up with this leash??? I got mine a day before i left for my hostel so the whole communication process simplifies, not that i was smart enough to not want one all along but i was just lazy to be responsible for one.. But seriously, these days there are school kids who EXPECT one for their 13th birthday (when i turned 13 i hoped for a Hrithik Roshan poster... which i did get... thanks sis!).... what is happening to the kids these days??!?! Is it the peer pressure or just fascination? Is curiosity killing the cat or just "cell"ing it?

LOTS in a name!

Naming a child is one big affair, especially in India.. It always amazed me, even as a child.. i wondered how do people know what to name their babies, its a big decision after all, Names are something we are stuck with throughout our lives!! One wrong decision n it could DESTROY our social lives!!
But as i grew up i realised its gotten way overrated.. Couples start naming their hypothetical babies even before they plan to have those babies! School girls maintained diaries with a collection of names they would like their kids to have (i ain't shitting u.. i actually know somebody who has one since she was in primary).
There used to be a time when they named the babies based on certain features.. like if the kid has beautiful eyes= Sunaina, melodious voice (ahem excuse me.....voice??!?!?!)= Sangeet/Sangeeta, Born on a rainy day= Mayur, Born on a sunny day= Aditya etc etc...
Then came the era of progression, there was always a pattern...all family members had names beginning with the same letter, or the name was a combination of both parents' names (eg: Sushita and Vijay could be Sujay).
Then came lets-see-who-can-come-up-with-whackier-names era, people would search all the worlds (or may be just the internet) to find never before heard of names (even just "sounds" at times)... some gave rise to really nice names but some made u wonder why would ANYBODY want to brand a poor puny baby with something that he/she'l be able to pronounce when he/she turns ten?!
Also there is the Numerology effect or just the guess-how-i-spell-it names... Yoseph (pronounced as Joseph), Triesha, Shoyeta..
And of course there is the name-the-kid-what-the-guy/girl-on-tv-is-named, im sure all the Aishwaryas, Aryans, Rishabhs [remember Rohit Roy of Swabhimaan fame?? :)] etc would agree with me..
I know an Aditya who was born on a Sunday, a Caroline (December born... "they named me Carol first but then Dads name begins with a C, mums begins with E.. so i start with a C n end with an E.."), a Hari ("was born on a flooded day, had to be brought home bundled warm and held up high because the water level had risen to dangerous levels"), a Madhavan (cos "The Madhavan" is soooooooo cuteeeeeeeee.. :D ), a Roshan (born on Diwali), a Shushruth (both parents are doctors), an Ishwariya ("cos some smarty pants who made my birth certificate couldnt spell")... Fascinating eh? I love attending naming ceremonies, there is almost always a little story behind it..
So after almost 2 decades of living with my name i went up to my darling mother one lazy sunday afternoon n asked her "Amma..... who named me?"... she (engrossed in embroidery) said "I did.."... Even better i thought, i get to hear the story from the creator herself, "why did u name me PRIYANKA ma?".... She looked up at me n gave me this smile n said "You were born more than a month before your expected date.. We were not entirely prepared, so i looked around n realised everybody was naming their daughter Priyanka.. i thought it was a nice name so...:)" .................... :O ..................... And they say KIDS say the DARNEST things! :D

No wonder my school attendance sounded like a stuck record, "Prajwal.... Prerna.... Prithvi..... Priyadarshini....Priyanka..... Priyanka..... Priyanka.... Priyanka...... Priyanka..... Priyanka.....Rashmi" And everytime i change my cell phone number i spend my free messages sending a "this is my new number...Priyanka" message and then half my balance letting them know which one!
BUT i'm not complaining.............. especially since my big brother wanted to name me "Tintika" :)