My Daddy can cook (well, at least he can pull off a basic omelette and he makes a very nice cup of tea).
He can also clean (this would translate to dusting his books and the surface of his study table several times a week, which is still more than the maid ever does).
He can make his own bed (this was learnt in self-defense since whenever I'm fighting with the parents I sulk and refuse to even enter their bedroom....well my sulks usually last for five minutes but by then Baba has started sulking and refuses to let me do anything for him...five minutes into his sulk, he's ready to forgive except by then I've started sulking and so it goes on...)
Basically what I'm trying to establish here is my Dad, beyond the fact that he does a commendable job at work, is also the *sensitive* male type who can lend a hand at household stuff (as opposed to some of the men I've seen who consider it a sign of manliness to leave their smelly socks lying about and wouldn't dream of lifting a duster unless paid a million pounds or so).
I mean my Daddy can even wash dishes! (Some of my relatives, male and female, have swooned on hearing this, I kid you not).
But, and this is the all important but he cannot put a cover on a pillow!!!

So the scene last night goes like this, Ma and I were sitting and watching Humtum (as you can see the level of my intellectual activities is rising by the day, but more on that later) when into the room came Baba. He had this forlorn look on his face and in his left hand he was half-hugging a pillow while from the right dangled a pillow case. He held out both to Ma, wordlessly, with that same woebegone look on his face. And she took them, equally wordlessly, fitted the pillow into its case and handed it back with the we've-been-married-for-thirty-years-and-i-don't need-to-tell-you-i-love-you-but-i-do look. And Daddy went off hugging pillow happily while Ma turned back to watch movie with what seemed like avid interest but I knew she was just mooning. And anyone who's going aww here *go away*!! The point of the story is not that my parents still behave like they're love-struck thirteen year olds but that my Daddy cannot do something as basic as stuffing a pillow into it's case!!! And when I tried telling Ma that she really hadn't trained him well in housework all she did was give me an aww-isn't-that-cute look.
Parents, I tell you!!!

The Sister in the meantime seems well on her way to marital bliss (one has always believed the phrase was an oxymoron, but one does not dare so in *this* house at least). What she doesn't realize sitting in distant Hyderabad is that she's completely wrong in thinking the Parents are preparing for *her* marriage. They're not.
Consider this, in the last week or so the menu for her wedding has been altered a minimum of thirty times. On the other hand they've decided what the menu for my wedding is going to be! In case you're wondering, there is no groom in sight (well except for the dozen or so matches my aunts keep trying to fix up every time they come to India. It being their opinion that education is all very well in it's own place but a girl does need to get married, and soon.) And all ye who disagree with this idea hold back the vitriol ok. I'm rather fond of these aunts even if they do have ideas which belong to the last century or the one before it.

Having given a general update on the family I suppose I should be talking about myself...sigh....except that's one topic I would rather not touch. Ideally last evening should have been spent studying. Instead I watched Humtum. It's a sweet movie and all but *sigh* just not pretentiously intellectual enough.
And I will always prefer When Harry Met Sally (even if Saif Ali Khan does look a *wee* bit better than Billy Crystal). With all due apologies to the lovers of the hindi version I think it was a bit, umm...how does one put this politely, *soppy*, or maybe the word I'm looking for is sappy. Romance is good, it's excellent, I can think of few things better than mushy love but I'd rather live it, thank you very much, than watch it enacted by two people who aren't exactly looking forward to a lifetime spent together as much as their paychecks. And they screwed up the most crucial line in the movie. Look at what Harry said, "men and women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way." In the hindi the sex part changes to pyar. Bizarre!! Why, if they can make a movie that clearly targets an urban *and presumably elite* class can't they use the word sex?!!! They can show the hero and heroine in bed the morning after, if only for two seconds but at least it's pretty clear that they have not spent the night exchanging small talk, and they shudder at the use of the three letter word. Hypocrisy dude, that's all it is. And anyone who wants to crib about this had better explain while they're at it, why it is that there should be no pyar between friends. I thought the whole point to friendship was love. It's sex which redefines boundaries. They say sex sells. They'd probably like to add, not in India. Except hehe, sex probably sells more in India, we're just a bit too politically correct (or should that be sushma-swaraj-correct?)