Feeling Blue

Having given up on ever understanding me, my parents have started seeking divine explanations in the hopes that fate, cosmic interventions and destiny all play a stronger part in my life than my own choices do. Possibly because they don't like the choices I make or hope to counter them with some help from the stars. I still haven't resolved the inner debate on fate vs choice and while I have my fair share of eastern fatalism I do like to think I have control over some things. 
So when there's a question of fate can horoscopes and astrologers be far behind? I don't pretend to know much about astrology and since I haven't delved into the science it claims to be based on I prefer to be dictated by, for lack of a better word - philosophy or systems of reasoning, that I can actually make sense of.
The root of this whole rigmarole of an explanation lies in a very recent analysis made by an astrologer about, not the havoc planets and constellations were wreaking on my life, but the effect colours were. Yep, that's right.
Ok so I know blue is a 'cool' colour, red is a 'warm' colour and all the frequency stuff and green being soothing but I hadn't realized that astrologers had started including colours as makers of fate in their repertoire. I actually wonder if having run out of regular reasons like planetary misalignment and warped orbits wreaking havoc on my life the astrologer had to pull something out of his hat in desperation and voila! colour it was!
Whatever may the case be, a slight twist to this is that the guy actually got it spot on that my curtains were blue. He then theorized that the blue colour was to blame for a number of unnamed things and I need to immediately drench my life in yellow. This is the part I really hate - when a wild guess mixes with the little bit of eastern fatalism streak I have and messes with my mind.
 A small part of my brain is egging me on to go on and experiment and change my curtains to yellow; after all it's harmless, they're only curtains and it's not like I'm going to change them and then sit around waiting for yellow to work its miracle and transform my life. "What if there are golden opportunities I've been missing which I won't even know, because my curtains are blue?"
That's when the inner struggle begins.
"So you think if you change them everything will start going right? What's been going wrong anyway?"
"Well but how do I know they can't go more right than they are going now?"
"But if they go along the same as before will you start getting annoyed at yellow for not doing it's work? Or if something great happens it's no credit to you and it's all credit to yellow curtains?"
"Ummmmm no, but I can just change them and then forget about it. No harm right?"
"What if something not nice happens? Then you'll start thinking you were better off with blue"
"Uhhhh maybe"
"And then you're going to stop thinking you're responsible for anything that happens to you and ..."
At this point my mind descends in to general chaos.Do I need the crutch of this mumbo jumbo? Dare I invite the wrath of the colour deities?  This, over the colour of my curtains, mind you.
The jury is still out on this one. In the meantime I will listen to "Yellow" by Coldplay and hope that it counts in some measure against the cosmic war blue is waging on my fate.

India shining. But do you guys have ketchup?

Some years before the Indian IT storm hit the world and made people sit up and get acquainted with the actual India as opposed to their romantic notions of it, I happened to be in my role of 'foreign student' in Canada and fielded many ludicrous queries, all to do with people's perceptions of what India and Indians should be like. Most of them were amusing, some quite dumb and a few downright offensive - at least then.

In retrospect all these questions and comment were funny and good fodder for a post. Some were of course the expected ones but some really creative ones left me quite speechless momentarily! Here goes

This is six months into my first year and I'm eating in the campus grill with a friend who I've gotten to know quite well and watching me eat fries he suddenly asks "Do you guys have ketchup in India?". I'm not the authority on what the mark of a developed country, but apparently ketchup is.

Then there was a time I was returning a few library books and got chatting with the librarian who had a pleasant enough conversation with me but I could see by the end of it wanted to say something but didn't know if she should. So mustering all her courage she complimented me on my fluent English considering I must have learned it only in the last two years or so. I mean the English part is a standard question but this was the first time someone assumed I picked it up in two years!

 Another gem from ketchup friend - "how did you get to the airport to catch your flight to Canada, I mean are there roads and cars?" So we can have international flights going around the globe but we're going to bloody make sure noone can take those by not building any roads to the airport.

I don't know if it's what they show on TV and news and documentaries but when someone asked me whether we have bathrooms in India, I really wanted to sue TV channels for the broad, generic and stereotypical portrayal of  India which I think influences the perceptions of most people quite a bit.

These were the ones that stood out in my memory, there were plenty of smaller such incidents and after a while I gave up trying to earnestly explain the reality behind their assumptions.