The Early Morning Phone Call...

How many of you get triggered to write at 8 in the morning, as soon as u get up? Well, I'm writing exactly at that time, except that I haven't slept all night. Am I an Insomniac, a Workaholic, an Owl or just a freak... You'd have to know me for another 50 years to actually decide. So you're wondering what that trigger was? It was an early morning call from a dear friend of mine. It was a pretty interesting call actualy. Very much like 2 ordinary people speaking, except that neither one of us is ordinary.

So, it's just two non-ordinary people speaking about a lot of weird stuff... "sleep" to start off with...and "sleep" to move on with... So much "sleep" talk that I ended up putting this on FB - "Sleep is too over-rated". Of course my dear friend had my best interests at heart and she was just trying to make me realise that "ordinary" people sleep!! Sounded absurd coming from a non-ordinary person like her... :)

Anyways, as I said... Sleep IS over-rated and the talk did eventually shift to other crazier topics. This time the trigger was FB and one of its friend suggestions - "Vineet Nair". The discussion began on "Nair" and I ended up doing a search on Wikepedia, which informed me that the Nairs are a clan from Kerala and are also known as Malayala Kshatriya. That was when I remembered a search I had done last night, about "matriarchal society". Behind that is another long story and another phone call...(Yes, like my friends Neha & Ashish say... I am on my phone a lot). If you're wondering what matriarchal societies are, I'll tell u just enough to keep you interested... It refers to a form of society in which the leading role is taken by the women and especially by mothers of a community. Yes guys, I mean to say exactly what your thinking - Men take their wives' surnames after marriage, women/mothers own all the property, daughters GET all the property. Snap out of your nightmares (or beautiful dreams if you're a gal) coz Wikipedia says this - "There are no known societies that are unambiguously matriarchal." I'm hopeful even though my other friend (the one I was speaking to last night) said that 25 years from now, when I have kids, India might just be a matriarchy. I'm not any prophet, but I find that close to impossible.

All this discussion on Wikipedia facts ended up in my dear friend saying that now she knew what I did all night... Girls are sooooo naive... Sorry was that too cheezy? :)

Anyways, i moved on to more interesting grounds after that... I thought of reading out lyrics of two beautiful songs I had heard a few days back. The words made so much sense... especially me reading them to her. I don't think she realised that either... :)

We spoke about quite a few other things as well...

a) A cheque of mine which I "supposedly" did not tell this friend about (at least not b4 she found out from someone else) and now that cheque is lost in the stationary of SBI probably and never got cashed into my account. I told her - "tumhari nazar lag gai" and asked her not to repeat the same to another cheque coming in 2 days...She replied - "I'll transfer your lost money from my account to yours if you want".. now, if you're thinking..What a gr8 friend... I'll just tell you that she was JOKING and she's a pakka baniya (is the gender right for a gal... dunno).

b) A Teaching Associate at IIM Indore who apparently has a lot of student friends on FB, including my dear friend.

c) A blog - "Wake up and Smell the Coffee" which I was recommending her to read.... This was I believe the time when she commented - "I guess this is the prelude to an author's life" in a very sarcastic but friendly way. I joked back - "Why don't u just say Madness before becoming an Author". She kinda didn't like that joke. She doesn't like a LOT of things about me (my humour being just one of those things which are pretty high up on the list). I got a good verbal bashing for that.... And that was just the start.

Over the course of our 27 minute talk... she got the impression (more than once) that I was asking her to hang up or sleep (never realising that she HERSELF did mention numerous times that she loved sleeping and could take another nap). Anyways, she eventually slammed the phone on me (I don't know if that line works these days, considering that we all use cell phones, but anyways, I'm sure u get the point). I know... How rude of her!! She didn't call back either. Yes... I did, and gave her a nice sentimental line - "You won't always find people who'll call you back" and then I hung up (what did u think I'd do...??). This time she did call back... but it all went down-hill from there.. I could feel the tension between us on the line. It ended with a lot of silence... another one of my crazy jokes and a pretty rough "good bye". No one called after that...

But technology did some more damage. I'm referring to the devil abbreviated as "SMS". She texted a few things... and I wrote back nastier stuff (her fault... she put them in my mouth, or should I say fingers..). That was the end of the beautiful morning... From Great to Nice to Bad to Horrible. Am I saying Sorry to her...?? I'd love to, but I know her too well. She wouldn't care. After a couple of days, she'll just behave as if nothing happened... Suits her. Doesn't suit me but I guess we all live in a matriarchal society in some ways... :)

This post is dedicated to my "Dear Friend"... Friends Forever....

Phobias galore...

One word or rather suffix which many people would've come across in life on many occasions is phobia...The term phobia is derived from the Greek word "phobos" meaning 'fear'. Clinical phobia is defined as an irrational, intense, persistent fear of certain situations, activities, things, or persons. The main symptom of this disorder is the excessive, unreasonable desire to avoid the feared subject.
Phobias are more often than not linked to the amygdala, an area of the brain located behind the pituitary gland. The amygdala secretes hormones that control fear and aggression. When the fear or aggression response is initiated, it releases hormones into the body to put the human body into an "alert" state, in which they are ready to move, run, fight, etc.
It is possible for an individual to develop a phobia over virtually anything. The name of a phobia generally contains a Greek word for what the patient fears plus the suffix -phobia. Creating these terms is something of a word game. Few of these terms are found in medical literature. However, this does not necessarily make it a non-psychological condition. To elaborate on this idea, I surveyed a few friends to discover their worst phobias. Some of them were realistic while others were pure fun; they did run their creative minds. I’ll share a few of them with you here...Though some of the words created may sound funny, you'll find that many of us do face similar fears...
1. Episodophobia: Fear of addiction to serials/soap operas
2. Escalator-phobia: Fear of escalators (I have an aunt as a practical ex. of this)
3. Studyophobia: I don't think I need to elaborate this one 
4. Ghostophobia: Yup, people do believe in ghosts....
5. Projectophobia, Schedule-phobia: Both related to fear of tight schedules on projects,etc.I'd just call it deadline-phobia (something I'm facing at IIM right now)
6. Identity-phobia: I coined this one for a friend who identifies it as "Fear of knowing who u are but wishing not to be that
7. Another friend said she was grandfather-phobic... I thought they were supposed to be God's gift to children... NOT FOR HER!!
8. Doll-o-phobia: Fear of dolls- Those of you thinking how's that possible, watch Child's Play.
9. Venusophobia: Fear of speaking to stunning women
10. Fightophobia: A very common fear; the fear of getting into a brawl
11. Speedophobia: Fear of speed; I guess most parents have this fear when giving their kids a vehicle; recently my dad has been facing the same.
12. Fatophobia: The biggest fear for all those sexy babes out there; I swear, as soon as a girl puts on 3 extra kgs. she starts hyperventilating.
13. Home alone-phobia: Ring any bells??
14. Cattle-phobia: I think people are more scared of the horns, but hornophobia sounded a bit porno...
15. Now this one came as a shock to me,but I must say, it was the best- “RAVIOPHOBIA”: How can people be scared of a sweet person like me?

Some of the most common methods of treating phobias, used by psychologists are Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), Hypnotherapy coupled with Neuro-linguistic programming, Anti-anxiety or anti-depression medications, Emotional Freedom Technique, etc.

For other comprehensive lists on phobias, I'd suggest:
http://phobialist.com/
http://psychology.about.com/od/phobias/a/phobialist.htm

P.S. I’d like to thank my friends (Shobi, Goks, Borve, Raj, Swathi, Bhashni, Sonali, Rohit, Rudhra, Mridu, Madhu, etc.) for their valuable inputs and creative ideas.