deviousways

So billionaire tech investor/entrepreneur Vinod Khosla is in the news, again. But for not the right reasons--as the father of a child who has had her privacy violated. His daughter's ex has apparently threatened to make her nude photos public. That's not the whole story of course, but how terrible this must be. As a parent myself, I cannot imagine how traumatic this must be for the family. But you know, I kept thinking, how could this obviously super intelligent young woman (she and the alleged extortionist ex met as students at Stanford University) do something so dumb? Share nude pictures of herself with her then boyfriend? Granted, they were in a relationship and all that. But this is a young woman who must know and who grew up knowing just how powerful technology can be, how all-reaching it is. How invasive, how intrusive it is. Yet, she shared her intimate pictures and is now being blackmailed over those very pictures. Why would she do something so dumb? Actually, the ...

Yesterday morning, 11 am. A pressure cooker full of vegetables and dal steams away shrilly in the kitchen; on a nearby bench lies a mass of coriander and methi leaves yet to be cleaned and sorted; beyond that, in the sink are dirty dishes, needing to be washed; the child sits on the floor in the adjoining room, tinkering with his mechanical set--toys scattered in a circle around him. Of course, he is blissfully oblivious to the line of books he has knocked over, in a corner. I have not breakfasted yet. (Little man has, thankfully, else he would have been starving by now). Nor started cooking, let alone made any sort of effort at cleaning (my cook/maid played truant again, the third time this month, sigh). Then I hear a couple of familiar 'pings' on my 'phone and before you can say, "what a mess", there I am checking Facebook. I had posted a couple of photos of said child and my friends are loving the photos. I am gratified, naturally. And say so in my replie...

An ex sent me a 'friend' request on Facebook recently. It left me in a quandry. He and I shared an intense relationship. I was young when I met him--21 or 22. He was ten years older. He was my first 'serious' love. We fell hard for each other. He seemed everything I'd wanted--macho, mature (or so I thought) and of course I was madly in love. I was ready to do anything for him. And I did, actually. I hurt a very dear friend, to go out with this man. So, having grown up on Mills&Boon romances, I assumed we'd be together forever. My first serious love and lover. How naive I was. Well, he got engaged. Apparently, his mother threatened to kill herself or do something drastic, if he had persisted in wanting to marry me. Well, that's what he told me. Foolishly, I believed him. We continued to profess undying love for each other. Till he actually got married. And even then, on his honeymoon, he called me, to tell me again, how much he loved me. That he was...