Karma…. I think I mentioned this before…I am a HUGE believer of Karma. I think what goes around really does come around.

The Snobby Gora Aunty

I was recently thinking about a few personal experiences… it was all triggered by finding a very old friend of mine from middle school. I lived in Connecticut for a long time when I was young. CT is a predominantly white state, or it was when I was there. Apparently a lot of South Asians from NY have recently moved there so it’s different now. But when I lived there, in my middle school I was one of 2-3 South Asian kids in my class of 400, and maybe a total of 5 in my school of 1200. I was constantly asked about the dots, the curry smells, thank god 9/11 didn’t happen back then, I can only imagine what I would’ve faced. Anyways, so I found my friend Mary. She was my best friend of 5 years. She loved me to death, she really did. She was one of the sweetest girls. Lived in the picket fenced white house, had a dog, a typical white mom and dad. But I have these awful memories of her mom. Her mom was very polite to me. But whenever she would drop off Mary to my house, or drop me home, she would make comments to Mary such as, “I hate dropping you off here, it’s such a bad neighborhood”, “Look, there’s a bar down the street, how can people raise kids here, what kind of values will the kids get?” She would make these comments while I would sit in the backseat, almost as if I wasn’t there. I never said anything, I thought I did live in such a bad neighborhood, and was embarrassed. Honestly, now that I think about it, we didn’t live in a shady neighborhood, there is hardly any shady neighborhoods in CT, it was just the downtown part of CT, and we lived in a rented Townhouse, while they lived in those pure suburban white neighborhoods with green lawns and apple trees. I just remembered her comments when I noticed where Mary is now in her life and where I am. Mary did not go to university, is now living her boyfriend who is Hispanic, doesn’t work, and pregnant. I’m not bragging or anything, but I couldn’t help but remember her mom’s constant comments about how my parents could raise me in such a bad neighborhood. And about her assumption on what values I was getting. I just now wonder what a grown woman got out of making a 10 year old kid feel embarrassed about her parents? And I wonder how she feels now about the values she has given her own daughter.

The Shallow Aunty

When I first got married, an aunty saw me, and the only comment she could say about me was that I was fat. As a new bride, its hardly the thing you want to hear. Recently I saw her son’s bride, and I found it ironic how his son’s bride has a good 200 pounds on me.

The Proud Aunty

There was this one aunty who was really proud of her sons. One was already very successful in school, and she was equally proud of her other sons were in high school. At every party she would make it a point to ask which university everyone’s son was going to attend or attending, and ask what program. Then proceed to brag about her sons. All through my university, she would ask me if I am still in Computer Science. But I don’t think she cared much about what I did, unless I guess if I went after one of her sons but alas she didn’t have the chance to say no to me, I was already taken But I would always watch her give advice to other aunties on how to raise gems like her sons. Then I went awol for a while and when I returned to society, I hear news of how one of her sons dropped out of high school, got into drugs and everything else. They tried to lie their way through it by saying he is attending university part time only to have the son tell others how he dropped out, is getting his GED. Nowadays the aunty hardly talks about her sons anymore when I see her.

The Loving Aunty

I know an aunty who was sweet, loving and did everything from her heart. Her oldest son got involved with drugs early on in his life. Dropped out of school, didn’t work, spent years just doing nothing. Even though she was always deeply sad, I never saw her bitter to others, or jealous, or try to hurt others. That same son, at the end of his 20’s went back to university, got his undergrad, got his masters, and is now working and recently got married to an amazing wife.

So what is the point of these little short stories?

That Karma(your actions) does matter. If you go through life purposely hurting others, it will come back to you. Maybe not in your life, but it might happen to your children. If you know someone has a weak point, don’t rub it in their face. Don’t purposely brag to others about what you have when you already know they don’t have it. I believe it’s different to talk about the things you have, and it’s very different to brag about the things you have. And people, especially Aunty’s, have a habit of bragging. I’m not perfect, but I try to reduce bad karma in my life as much as possible. Maybe that’s why I don’t fight with people, because I am human, and I think many things in my head that are arrogant, and mean, but I don’t act on them. The minute you act on a hurtful thought, you contaminate the air around you, and one day it will suffocate you.  And the same goes for good karma, if you make others feel good, one day the air around you will lift you up and take you where you want to go.  That’s just my 2 cents….