Seriously!

Let's call her Ritu auntie...she is in her early forties...she is a professor in a very reputed institution...an author (with a couple of books to her credit)...she also handles her family business almost single handedly...she is single with no kids...she is heavily into meditation, reiki, yoga etc...she reads, travels, socializes...she is basically a star...she is the woman who can come an hour late to a drab family party, take the mike and just turn it into a fun filled evening! She has a huge circle of friends...she can even sing and dance...does everything for her personal development and growth...which is great and really admirable...Would I like to be as rich, successful and awesome as her? Yeah, definitely!

The only problem with Ritu auntie is that, by some stroke of fate, she is a distant family friend of ours...and its anything but helpful...because since she has been through so much in life, overcome it and become this superwoman, she considers it her moral obligation to impart her wisdom on everyone she 'cares about'...and I don't know why or how, but I find myself to be amongst those fortunate many once in a blue moon...like this family party the other day...apparently she could see 'an unhappy aura' around me...and that if I go to any shrink, he/she would be able to tell in a matter seconds that I was depressed...she asked me what I did to recoup from all the stress...to which I lamely mumbled something to the effect of - err, sleeping...quite predictably that was the wrong answer! She told me to do yoga and meditation...or something equivalent...and just to ensure that the advice is acted upon, she gave the same schpiel to my father...now my father, being the simple man he is, was quite taken aback...its not everyday that he is forced to wonder whether his generally happy and normal daughter is becoming suicidal!

Anyhow, luckily we escaped her that day...but I was just left with a certain bitter feeling...does knowing someone socially give you the right to comment and advice them on how to lead their lives? If she is so good at seeing people's aura, can't she see that a person like me will not take this well? Is she really this saintly or is it just another attempt to control people around her? Is her way of leading her life the perfect way? Is greatness the only way to be?? In no way am I disputing the fact that what she noticed was wrong - it could be anything...depression, exhaustion, boredom...I don't know...maybe I am just in denial...but just like her, don't I have the right to discover my own mechanisms to fight my battles?? In a way, this blog is my recoup mechanism, but since, it is private and not announced to the world, I am labeled depressed and in need of some serious advice...

So, Ritu auntie, here's say no to your concern...I might or might not enroll for yoga classes but that's only because I think it is necessary...and not because some incorrigible know-it-all control freak asked me to...