The Metrosexual male

I dont claim to be a fashion pundit. Infact I dont claim to know anything about fashion at all, and it isn't unusual for me to wear a green tee-shirt over a pair of red cargos. Before anyone jumps to any conclusions, no I am not a Govinda fan. But this is not about me or the lack of my fashion or dressing sense.

I dont very well remember when I first heard about this term, 'metrosexual male', but it must have been somewhere in 2001 when Dil Chahta Hain was released and we were seeing Aamir and Saif and to a lesser extent Akshaye Khanna in very different look. The long hair for Saif and thankfully for the rapidly balding Akshaye Khanna had disappeared and Aamir was actually spiking his hair. Ok, must just be a fashion trend I thought and infact to be very honest was quite impressed with the transformation of these three guys. Then I think it was Kal Ho Na Ho where Saif was given two different but very pleasing looks, the formal business one and the casual one, and again I must say, I thought that too was a great look. 2004 was entirely John Abraham's year and there were girls all over the country and I am pretty sure abroad who were probably having some pretty wicked thoughts about him!

I think it's been ever since that this metrosexual male concept has just taken off. Honestly I dont even know what it means! One definition I found with a quick google search is "An urban male with a heterosexual orientation who rejects many macho attributes often linked to masculinity. ..." Well John Abraham isn't really metrosexual then is he? I mean they dont come more macho than him! Well never mind...Now my understnding of this term is a little different... a heterosexual male who essentially likes to groom himself well, is what my thinking is.

Now I have no issues with men who want to take efforts in grooming themselves well, but grooming well to me means making sure you are well dressed and making efforts to make sure you look decent enough. Grooming well for men for me doesnt mean getting manicures and pedicures and chocolate facials and getting your nails done. I mean yea sure equality in sexes is fine, but you know there are some things which are best left for a particular sex only!

Shoe trouble!

This past week I had the chance to go for the annual NSGC (National Society of Genetic Counselors) meet in Kansas City, Missouri. For a country that claims to be developed it is kindda funny that the geography in this country is quite confusing. So you have a state Kansas, but Kansas City is in Missouri. Now do we have a Maharashtra city in Assam?? No we dont, b'coz we like making things simple, something that Americans clearly dont like doing. But that's okay, I enjoyed telling all my friends, "Oh I'm going to Kansas city, no it's not in the state Kansas, it's actually in Missouri"...I do get pleasures in unusual things. Moving on....well it was a good experience. Honestly I liked the one in Nashville last year better in terms of content, but that's a different matter altogether.

So after 4 days of this conference and my annual over exposure to Estrogen, I was happy to be on my flight back home to Houston. After a rather long and may I add boring wait of 3 hours at the airport in Kansas city (which if you care to know, has like 2 plug poits in the entire waiting area, so sadly I couldlt plug in my laptop) I was finally boarding my flight. Now I had a stop-over at Dallas. I hate stop-overs. Well they save you money and I love money. My love for money exceeds my hatred for stopovers, so I choose this flight. Moving on...after a rather long flight I reached Houston airport at around 8.20, 20 mins later than the scheduled time of arrival.

Now here's my mental state....having lived in Kansas city for like 4 days, probably 12 hours of sleep in those 4 days, tired, overexposed to estrogen, wanting to just come home and crash...generally I was crabby. Could things be worse?? They could, I could be in Iraq for all you know....but that isnt important here. Well things did get worse as my luggage didnt show up. So in quite a pissed mood, I went up to the baggage claim area to see what we could do about this.

The person sitting across in the baggage claim area, the representative for the airlines happens to a desi aunty. 'Hey Bhaggu', I say to myself...just what I needed. So i trudge along to tell her what has happened. Obviously she has to ask me the most ridiculous questions. At times I wonder, is it written on my face, "You are allowed to ask me the stupidest possible questions?" (and for all those wonderful professors of mine who say, "no question is a stupid question"...well sorry but I disagree, lead my life and you will soon know). So the conversation that followed:
Desi Aunty (DA): Oh sir how can I help you?
Me: I was travelling from Kansas City (Grrr) to Houston and my luggage hasnt reached here.
DA: Which airlines did you fly?
Me: American airlines(why else would I come to your desk, I mean you are the American Airlines representative...am I a retard to come here)
DA: And you checked on the belt???
Me: Yes I did and it is not there (Grrr....)
DA: Ok I can help you (smiles)
Me: Thank You (thank God for small mercies)
DA: When did you last see your bags?
Me: At Kansas City airport when I checked in (this question sounded more like an interrogation to me)
DA: So you checked it in..
Me: Yes (No I just expected that my bags would fly with me and reach here)
DA: Ok what color bag were you carrying?
Me: It was blue.
Da: Blue?? Dark blue, light blue
Me: Dark blue..(you have the tag on the bag, just match the freakin number)
DA: What were you carrying in the bag?
Me: Clothes! (Actually I had 2 bodies neatly folded and there were 2 AK 47s also)
DA: Describe your clothes
Me: White dress shirt, grey trousers, brown trousers.
DA: No, no something more specific
Me: Ummmm...(a pair of bright red boxers with green trees on them)(no I dont have these but...)
Well there were 3 pairs of shoes....$%#@!!!
All 3 pairs of shoes that I have were in that freakin bag! What the hell was I going to wear to work the next day?? That's when it struck me! Never before in my life have I come across such a freakin funny and yet potentially serious situation before. I was so amused by it that for the next hour I was actually laughing about it. Two phone calls followed this and I was thinking of all the possible things I could say, to try and avoid reporting to work. Unfortunately none of them worked and I ended up showing up at work wearing my favourite, ultra-comfortable flip-flops (thongs, as they are called in Australia)! Shoe trouble anyone?!?!?!

Why GC?

I must admit this is a very different kind of a post from my usual ones where there is a sarcastic take on different issues. But this thought has been bugging me for quite some time and I have not been able to decide if I am business minded or not. How did I start thinking about this? So by profession I am a genetic counselor, well a recently graduated genetic counselor to be precise. So a lot of my work deals with working with patients, usually with some genetic issues. So when I work I have to be this politically correct person, using appropriate language, not giving an opinion (which for someone like me who is very opinionated is very difficult), etc etc. And I must admit, I enjoy my profession to a large extent. Yes, there are days that I do feel drained, but that's a part and parcel of any profession I would think.

The problem I have is that most genetic counselors I have met try to (and I say try to b'coz I dont know if they truly believe in what they say!) portray this image of being philanthropists (well not technically, but you my point na). It's almost like, "Oh I choose this profession b'coz I want to do good to mankind"..blah blah blah... And fine 2-3% of people in the world may be like this, but I find it difficult to believe that more than 98% of people in a certain profession echo the same sentiments. I will stick my neck out and say I choose this profession for two reasons, first my love for genetics and second I want to earn money. Now I realize the first of the two reasons sure is being fulfilled, the second one, umm maybe there isnt as much money in this profession as I thought ther would be...but that's another story altogether.

Clearly I am doing this because I like to do this. I am doing this because this is how I am going to earn money. I am doing this because it gives me the intellectual satisfaction that otherwise I do not get. I like being the 'person who will talk about genetics and diseases' with patients. Secretly deep down inside me it gives me a thrill I am one of the few people who have the capability of discussing issues with patients that most other (most being the important word, have not said all) health care providers are not comfortable with.

Another issue I have very strong feelings about is money. Whenever it comes to the health care providers, people always seem to have a problem paying. They have all the moolah when they want to go out shopping, and even though they complain about the steep price of clothes, it doesnt deter them from buying them. But when it comes to paying the health care providers, money always becomes an issue. When their children want some obnoxious looking stuffed toys which are priced probably 10 times more than what I spend on my weekly gorcery, they seem to have the money. But when it comes to shelling out money to us, no it's an ongoing complaint, "Doctors and other health care providers should not charge this much, it's a nobel profession". Why?? Dont we have our own needs, dont we want to live a comfortable life, and yes dont some of us also want to spend money on that same obnoxious stuffed toy! I think medicine should also be treated like a business, after all we are also here to make a living. If you dont have a problem with Ambani's swimming and probably drowning in money why do you have a problem with people in my profession who at least dream of tying to float in money???