The survey man

I was at my in-laws' place the other day and we were generally enjoying a lazy afternoon. Prashant (my husband) and Rohan (my bro-in-law) were playing on the terrace, with Vedant (my little one) in Prashant's arms. I was busy learning to spin a top for the first time in my life and I happened to take front row seats to their highly evolved game of foot powder (For those who are interested, they customized football, replacing the ball with a powder box, the goal with plants, the field with the terrace and the foot with the foot.)

A young man came up to us and asked us if we could spare some time. He mentioned that he was representing Future Group and that he was doing a survey regarding household expenses on various items. Prashant requested him to speak with me as he was otherwise occupied in the aforementioned activity. I looked up to Prashant in a way that said, "Really? You play this exciting new game and I speak on a subject as interesting as household expenses?"

The incredulity on my face was probably misconstrued by the young man. He decided that he must come to my rescue. What he said next blew our minds! He shook his head and said in a tone which indicated he had this by rote, "I want to talk to somebody who is in charge and the primary decision maker in the house."

We were so taken aback that we simply sent him packing. So, here's my question. Are these stereotypes so deeply embedded in our psyche that we can't even consider that a woman is capable of making decisions in the house? So much so, that we need a man even to answer a survey?

From Burj Khalifa to Marina

And it was that time of the year again. I was on notice period.

In this highly productive period of my life, I decided that I needed a well deserved break before I began my new assignment. So, in spite of my busy schedule, I took on the responsibility of planning the sojourn. Such is life. As the famous quote from Atlas Shrugged goes “If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders - What would you tell him?"
I…don't know. What…could he do? What would you tell him?"
To shrug.”

But, shrug I didn’t. I labored on. The instructions for me were simple. The trip had to span four days, between 23^rd and 26^th August. Not a day more, not a day less. I wanted to maximize the utility of the trip by making it international. Considering the criteria, my initial research on the web led me to zero in on Dubai as the ideal destination. We had folks in Dubai who had been asking us to visit them or a very long time. And, it seemed to be the right fit in terms of possibility of coverage in the time given and budget. I narrowed in on flights giving us the optimum amount of time in Dubai. Just as I was about to plan out our itinerary, everything changed. My aunt from Dubai visited home. She said, “Oh please do come! But, it would be scorching at the end of August!” We didn’t need anything further to cancel the trip. We were not taking a nine month old baby to a city at a sweltering 50 degrees Celsius! Dubai scrapped.

But, I was not one to be deterred easily. So, I assessed the next viable option as ‘Singapore’. I found that we probably had a day less at the minimum, but it could be done. So, I again narrowed down package options, optimum flights and the whole shebang. After a whole day of going through contacting travel portals, researching costs, preparing itineraries, Singapore was dismissed as an option mercilessly. My own mother was the one to kill the idea this time. She said, “Do you think we can do all that sightseeing with the baby? He needs to be able to crawl about all the time”. Singapore scrapped.

Now, I turned my attention to another domestic travel hotspot – Rajasthan. But, as luck would have it, the accommodation I wanted was either unavailable or involved too much travel. At this point, I had begun laughing. Anybody who knows me will tell you that is not a good sign. It means Shruti has lost all control. I gave up and resigned myself to a vacation that served a higher purpose – satisfying my baby’s fans. I decided that we were destined to head out to good old Chennai and sealed the deal.

So, here I am. I am excited about our trip to Chennai and happy to visit our most frequented city for a four day holiday with Baby Dant. Yenjaay J