As if the Terrorists were not tormenting enough…

…we have Mamta Banerjee literally arm-twisting the Tata’s out of Singur by Violence and threatening the lives of the workers in the plant, without giving a second thought to the fact that this might be the last nail in the coffin of West Bengal’s progress.

…we have Ramalinga Raju who did not care a bit about the 53,000 employees and their families before commiting the biggest scam in the history of the Indian IT industry.

…we have NDTV and Barkha Dutt attempting to Talibanise the freedom of expression by threatning to sue a blogger who wrote about the negative role of media during the 26/11 attacks. The blogger had to finally withdraw his post and put up a forced apology on his blog. So, wait a minute…in India I can’t roam around with my girlfriend, I can’t go to pubs and malls

 and I can’t give my opinion on my own blog. I wonder if I am free to breathe? 

…we have the DDA scam where thousands of people put up their hard earned money for a chance to get their dream house and finally realized in horror that all of them were taken for a ride.

…we have Hindu extremists raping and burning nuns in Orissa. The condition was similar to what happened during the partition. Even after more than half a century of independence, we are still burning each other up. 

…our fellow citizens are killing 5,00,000 unborn girls each year in India due to gender selection because of which India has the lowest sex ratio in the world. An estimated 10 million unborn girls have been killed in the last 20 years. Its ok to worship a woman as a Goddess but its not ok to bring her to life. 

…we have Raj Thackeray sending his Sena of cheap goons to beat up all the North Indian candidates appearing in the all-India Railway Recruitment Board entrance exam. This was one of the thousands of atrocities which Raj has tormented us with. He is the one who is truely responsible for dividing the people of India further and shaming the whole country.

…we have pushed 300,000-500,000 children in prostitution in India. The red light district in Mumbai generates at least $400 million a year in revenue, with 100,000 prostitutes servicing men 365 days a year, averaging 6 customers a day, at $2 each, AND that’s just the statistics for Mumbai. There are approximately 10 million prostitutes in India. Is that a world record? 

…we have sharply pushed the Dowry deaths up ever since India opened up to foreign investment in 1990. The country has seen a rise in dowry-related violence alongside its economic boom. Dowry deaths surged from 400 a year in the mid-1980s to 5,800 a year in the mid-1990s, according to a 2001 report in Time magazine. So, the more prosperous we become, we end up being more prehistoric? Is that a world record too? 

…we have the Ram Sena, molesting and beating up girls in Mangalore because they were not following the Indian traditions and defaming it. The best part is that the goons were out on bail the very next day. The next thing you know,they might be throwing widows into the burning pyre of

 their husbands just because they may want to bring back the old Indian tradition of Sati which got lost due to the Britishers.

…we have a jaw dropping 678% increase in rape cases since 1971. According to the NCRB report, over 75% rapists were known to the victims. In fact, nearly 10% were relatives. Another disturbing aspect was that about a quarter of the rape victims were minors. And remember, this is just a data of those cases which were reported. Got the picture?

…we have the repeatedly successful attempts by the Indian government for not providing security to its citizens even when they are repeatedly alerted about the terrorist attacks way in advance. The “soft” government which waits for hunderds to die before yawning into some action. 

And Oh Yes!!! India will be able to send a man to moon by 2025. Seems quite insignificant. Doesn’t it???

Kalyug’s Ram Sena

Ramayana depicts Ram Sena as an army of monkeys who helped Sri Ram to build a bridge to Sri Lanka and saved Sita from the clutches of Ravan. In Kalyug, Ram Sena means a bunch of illiterate, unemployed and brainwashed monkeys who beat up and molest girls just because, according to them, the girls are not in sync with the “Indian” culture. Well, how times change! 

So, according to the Taliban-inspired-Ram-Sena, women in India are supposed to maintain a certain amount of decorum. But then, if that is the case, all of us should completely abide to the norms set by our culture. If they are forcing girls and boys to disown the “pub” and “mall” culture, then they should make sure that the following are followed too:

• Girls should only wear saree or salwaar-kameez. All the girls wearing jeans, skirts or pants should be beaten up. 
• Boys should only wear Kurta or other regional dresses. Jeans and other western dresses should not be allowed.
• Girls should not work and sit at home and learn the various household activities. 
• Love marriages should not be allowed. Only parents should have the right to choose the spouse for their kids.
• All the pubs in the country should be closed down.
• All the shops selling foreign attires and goods should be closed or burned down.
• All the malls should be closed down.
• All the couples roaming around in public areas should be harassed and beaten up.
• Girls should not move out of their homes alone. They should always be accompanied by an elder male member.

I am sure, the brainwashed Sena will be jumping with excitement to implement all the above mentioned points. Although, there are a few questions I would love to ask them:

1. How many of the Ram Sainiks don’t drink liquor themselves? Is it only girls who are not supposed to drink? Its ok if guys drink and indulge in all kind of inappropriate activities?
2. How many of the Ram Sainiks have not molested girls or eve-teased them? After what we all saw on television, it can be easily concluded that they were quite dexterous and I won’t be surprised if they would have practiced using Mannequins.
3. How many of the Ram Sainiks have beaten up a gang of boys eveteasing a girl, or a man beating up his wife, or a police officer taking a bribe? Of course, they won’t do all these measly tasks when they have more interesting tasks like beating up girls.
4. How many of the Ram Sainiks don’t have girlfriends and don’t roam around with girls? Are all of them Hanuman Bhakts and have taken an oath of staying unmarried for their entire life? I think “Perverts” and “Hypocrites” will be small words for them.
5. Do the Ram Sainiks realise that this is a Democracy and people who visit pubs are above 18 years of age and all capable of understanding the Indian Culture by themselves? When something has to be banned, it is the government which will decide that and not a bunch of uneducated, rustic and directionless men who are a part of an organization which is used by politicians during elections for various illegal activities.
6. Do the Ram Sainiks realize that there is a difference between India and Afganistan and they are turning the former into the latter? Should I be glad that they didn’t stone the girls to death instead of beating them up?

India is full of such Hypocrite people who can be mislead and do anything for money. What happened in Mangalore was a shameful act which just goes to show what a bunch of illiterate people we are. And, then we go ahead and belittle movies like Slumdog Millionare which show the reality to the world. If you can’t digest that, then too bad!!

I was going through a few articles on the internet about what happened in Mangalore, and here are a few gems :

• “We acted like brothers. There is no need to apologize for an act done with good intention.” – Prasad Attavar, state convener, Sri Rama Sena. [[Oh!! That is how brothers behave! Slap, shove and punch sisters?? Guess, I have to revisit my basics.]]
• “Drinking by women is not Indian culture. It’ll morally degrade our society. Women are our mothers and they should behave like that” – Prasad Attavar, state convener, Sri Rama Sena. Full story here. [[What about drinking by men?? Care to comment on that sir?? And that is how we treat our mothers??]]
• ” Women have to be protected as the law has failed. Parents are worried about their wards going astray in materialistic pursuits. We are the custodians of Indian culture” – Sri Ram Sena (SRS) founder Pramod Mutalik. Full story here. [[Which law has failed if a woman is drinking in a pub?? Do we have laws for that too??]]
• “There is no need to raise such a hue and cry about the incident.” – Sri Ram Sena (SRS) founder Pramod Mutalik. [[Yes! No one was raped or killed. Everyone is alive.]]
• “The Karnataka government will not allow pub culture to grow in the state. “ – Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa. Full story here. [[And what about the culture where men beat up women? Care to stop that?]]

I am disgusted, ashamed and sick by the mere thought that I am breathing the same air as these people. I am sorry to call such people my countrymen. I am sorry to be a part of a nation where people take pride in killing their daughters if they fall in love with a guy outside their community, where people rape nuns and where people beat up a girl because she is sitting in a pub. Of course, you can argue that we are better off than Afganistan. But, don’t worry. We are getting there.

Here is a video of the brotherly love. The images might be disturbing.

Feminism, A and the Award

Ages ago, I was tagged by Nita and Sulz and till now I have been shamelessly ignoring the tags. But the guilt is killing me and I must finish the task assigned to me. Keeping the melodrama aside, I’ll start with Nita’s tag. This is what she tagged me to write about.

What does Feminism means to me

First of all, I was not sure what the word meant, so I landed up in an online dictionary and this is what popped up there : 

fem·i·nism n.  

1. Belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.

2. The movement organized around this belief.

Ahem! Well, I think, the socio economic structure of the society in which we live plays an important role in determining the level of the “movement”. When the First wave came, India was still fighting for its freedom and there was no way it could have affected her. When the second wave came in the 1960s, India was all up and ready for it. Even today when we are in the third wave, an American society is much mature when it comes to a woman choosing the kind of life she wants to lead. In India, we still beat up the girl if she falls in love with a guy outside her cast. Infact, even if you compare the freedom given to women in a city with a small town/village in India, you would be shocked by the difference. After three waves, we still have to go a long way in India. Even after having laws in place, there are rapes, sexual harassment, forced abortions, forced reproductions, domestic violence etc and what not! People still think that women are vulnerable because they are weak but its just because of the kind of environment we are all brought up in. I am sure any woman who is a black belt in Karate can throw me two feet towards the sky with a single chop. 🙂

The problem is in our brains. We are wired in a wrong fashion from the time we are born. Women are not born vulnerable but are taught to be so. Similarly men are not born strong. They pick it up from what they see in their family and surroundings. I could never understand how we reached a stage where a human has to ask for her rights? And what surprises me is that we are still there. 

All these issues are way too big, but people need to understand the basic rights of an individual. I can understand when a father asks her daughter to return home before twilight because raping a girl is becoming an activity as common as wiping your ass with a tissue. But, I cannot understand when he asks her to forget the guy she loves because he does not belong to the same community. I find that laughable. Similarly, I don’t believe that a homemaker is worse off than a working woman. Its a very individual choice and depends on many factors. Equality of sexes certainly does not mean that a woman has to work to be a true blue feminist. 

It all boils down to the theory of Live and let live. We all make sacrifices in our life, but let’s not force someone to make a sacrifice because of her gender.

The alphabet A

Sulz’s tag. I have to write 7(?) words starting with alphabet A. I am putting up words which describe me. Here goes :

Absurd – Yes!Yes! I am ridiculous, illogical and senseless at times, but then even God is sometimes! So you see, no one is perfect. 😛 

Able – Leaving aside the fact that I am destiny’s favourite toy, I am quite able if I am left to my own means. If I find something interesting enough, I’ll take it up with perfect dexterity till the time I get completely bored of it. I told you I was absurd! 😛

Assiduous – I have obtained this quality from my Mom. Whenever I have to shop for clothes and I take her with me, she picks up clothes which are poles apart from my taste and then both of us “assiduously” attempt to disparage each other. 😐 Well, I consider it to be a good quality. Atleast I pick up clothes of my choice and I always win! 🙂

Aloof – I can be alarmingly aloof with strangers, so much that I am mistaken as an Egotist whose nose is always at an angle of 80 degrees from the ground. Many of my friends were surprised when they dared to know me better after that initial cold shoulder. 

Amiable – Well! That is what I actually become once I allow you to be my friend. 🙂 Its a difficult path and only a few daredevils have dared. 😛

Anchor – Whenever I become a part of a group, I end up becoming the anchor which holds the group together after everyone moves away to their new life/city. I met a group of friends recently after 7 years and again(!!!!) it was me who made all the phone calls and arranged the meeting. Good old Amit!

The awards

Finally, the awards. I was given the Friendship Embracelet by Kiran sometime back and the Garland Award by Kanagu. Thankyou both of you. 🙂

 

That is all guys and girls. Over and out.

Can I live please?

I went to Barakhamba Road yesterday. I was standing at the exact place where the bomb blast happened last year. I moved my right ankle in a semi circle to displace the dirt on the road. Maybe I was trying to see if it was still red? I went there to meet my very old friends whom I was meeting after a gap of 7 years.  While standing there I realized how fragile my own life was. I have a lovely family, adorable friends, a good job and some dreams, but someone can press a button and everything will vanish in a second. I just have to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Moving around in Connaught Place yesterday gave me this creepy feeling. I loved that place! I have some beautiful memories of C.P. but now there is always this fear that its not a safe place. The old warm feeling has died. Its gone.

Whom should I blame? Whom should I blame for embedding this fear in my heart? The fear that I might have to see a mingled, limbless, burnt body of a family member one day? The fear that I, who just want to lead his normal life and live happily ever after with his family and friends, might be blown apart the very next second?

Should I blame the Indian Government? Indians have a “Get used to it” attitude towards everything. Someone is littering on the road. Get used to it! Spitting? Get used to it! Corrupt policemen? Get used to it! BOMB BLASTS? Get used to it! Ofcourse, the Government officials also suffer from the same disease. It took thousands of people flocking the roads of Mumbai and carrying derogatory posters to wake up the government and to make them realise that there is a difference between butchering humans and butchering goats, to make them realise that they were chosen to protect us, to make them realise that “Get used to it” is not going to work this time. We, the citizens of India, choose politicians and give them bullet proof vehicles and 50 black cat commandos each from our hard earned money, not because they can feel safe and forget about the common man who is as vulnerable as he always was. Thinking and mulling over something is good but there comes a point when action is required. How long did the Pakistan Government took to sack its National Security adviser after he confirmed that the lone surviving terrorist is Pakistani? And how long did the Indian Government took to decide “something” about what Mr. A.R. Antulay said? The difference is stark and naked, and THAT is the problem with us. Having a pessimistic and defensive approach does not work when your neighbouring countries are a breeding ground for terrorists. War can never be an option, but can the  government at least come strong on our own security agencies and the police force? 

Or should I blame the Pakistani PM? He is trying every trick to make the world believe that its an internal problem of India. Infact, after his latest statement today, which says that – Why is the world more concerned about the Mumbai attacks than the killings in Palestine? ‘‘We have to see that the world does not have double standards. See how many innocent women and children have been killed in Palestine. Why is nobody talking about that? Why is the world silent on that?’’, I have decided not to follow the buffoonery anymore. Its tormenting. I think its high time that the Pakistani PM stops using the forced and mindboggling euphemisms and tell India to go to hell. That would be at least honest, if nothing else! Whether it may be Mumbai or Palestine, you would be glad to know Mr. PM, that it is me, the common man, who is dying.

I don’t care about the political mud slinging matches which Indian and Pakistani politicians are indulging in right now. I don’t care about and I am not a part of the various religious groups which are fighting their mindless and stoical wars by killing innocent people like me all over the world.

I just want to live happily. I want to love the city I live in. I wan’t to roam fearlessly in C.P. I want to believe that I will live to see my dreams fulfilled and will not be shot through my head while celebrating a friend’s birthday in a hotel or when I am at a railway station to receive a family member. Am I asking for too much? Is it too hard to achieve this? Is it too hard to stop fighting over pieces of lands, stop turning terrorism into a profession, stop waging wars in the name of religion?

Or is everything too complicated now to move it backwards? 

The shakable article of faith

Michael Jackson is now Mikaeel after the singer embraced Islam. According to the reports, Jackson discussed religion with a music producer and songwriter of his new album, both of whom have converted to Islam. Michael warmed to the idea and the conversion happened.

This is not the first time when we have seen a celebrity converting to another religion. Half of Hollywood has already converted to Scientology and Quaker and back home A.R. Rehman’s conversion was the most visible one in the past few years. A common man also finds his own reasons for such conversions. Sometimes its for money, sometimes its because of the fear of death, sometimes its for love and sometimes its because of unanswered question which the present faith can’t answer.

Leaving aside the topic of Forced Conversions, according to this very elaborate survey done by The Pew Forum, 28% of American adults have left their faith in which they were born in favour of another. If the change of affiliation from one form of Protestantism to another is included, the percentage stands at a staggering 44%. Also the number of people who do not attach themselves to any faith have increased.

So, what is the big deal about changing religion and why do people indulge in the activity? Most of the children who are born to parents practicing a single faith, tend to accept the religion. The children born to parents with mixed religions tend to change their faith to an entirely new one because to the conflicts and confusions in their mind. It is nothing more than a mean of ironing out the complexities into which they were born. The whole idea of changing the religion stem out of the fact that people strive to smooth out their lives. It has more to do with psychology rather than pragmatism. It has more to do with finding an anchor.

I also believe that once a person has converted, he begins to subconsciously unclog his life. For e.g. the person can be a true blue dipsomaniac but might tend to leave the habit after conversion. This is something he could have done without converting but maybe he just needed a driving force. This does not mean that we can ask questions like – “So, would I be better off if I convert to another faith?”. The question should be – “Do I have to convert to another faith to be better off?”. Most of the times, the answer would be No, but as I pointed out earlier, some people do need a strong driving force, specially when their life had been turbulent.

Another aspect which raises its hood after conversions is – “How much does the life of the person change?” You can read the story of five people who converted to Islam here. Yes, the person has to go through a tough process of making the family and friends understand specially when the religions had always been conflicting. Sometimes, when the person converts for love, its hard to make the family understand specially when they realize that its the whole persona which is going to change.

Ofcourse, I must emphasise that I somehow don’t subscribe to the thought process which might lead to a conversion. To me, its something similar to changing your shampoo brand. Its still a shampoo which you are rubbing on your head! I somehow don’t connect to the idea of religion playing such an important part in my life and thus this whole topic fascinates me. I have been to a Church, a Gurudwara and a Temple and I could not find much of a difference. We pray in all of them for a better life. I could not grasp the idea where people stop calling God by a certain name and start calling him by another one. But I would love to meet a convert and understand his point of view.

Have you ever known a person who has converted from one religion to another?

Two interesting links which I found –

The Big Religion Chart

The Psychology of Religious Conversion

Delhi Bomb Blasts – A pigeon’s view

Hi. My name is Sherley. I am a pigeon and I have been born and brought up in a place called Delhi. I can speak and read English, just like Dory in Finding Nemo. I have known Amit from the last two months. I come to eat grains on his terrace where his mom put the grains every morning. We have been friends since then. He tells me about his life and I tell him about mine(although there isn’t much to tell from my side except my affairs).

Yesterday I was flying over a place which they called Connaught Place. It was a beautiful place with lights, fountains and smiling people enjoying themselves. Suddenly there was a blinding flash of light(which Amit termed as a bomb blast later, although I am still not sure how they do that) and everything turned dark. People were running here and there. There was chaos. People were dying. I sat on a building watching the scene below and trying to understand what was happening. I heard someone say that there were more blasts. More blood. More people died.

My mind was in a whirlpool. I asked Amit about it the next day. He was very angry. He told me that all this was happening for a piece of land. He said that we should give back that wretched land which has taken so many lives and ask all the terrorists to fu*k off.

“Will people stop dying then?”, I asked him.

“It’s not that easy. Even if India separates from that chunk, other people will start demanding for their separate lands and then we will be having terrorists from some other places killing people who don’t give a shit about all this. People who just want to live happily with their families, buy groceries, get married and have kids.”, he said.

He told me that humans can’t live in an Utopian society. It won’t work. He asked me if I was able to understand what he was saying. I told him very frankly that none of this made much sense to me. We fight only for females. If a pigeon has made a nest on a tree, no other pigeon will come and kill him to occupy that nest. True that cats kill us, but they are a different specie and we are their food. They don’t kill us for fun.

They say that 30 people died yesterday. People who were just out there buying something or having a good time with their family. Amit was not smiling no matter how good a joke I told him to cheer him up. He asked me to leave him alone for some time. I asked him to take care and flew to a high branch. As I saw the crowd of humans below, I was fascinated by their lifestyle. They have made such great inventions. They have cars, TV, medicines, mobiles, movies, aeroplanes, rockets and so many other things which my species cannot even think of conceptualising. But then what is the point of having all this when you can’t trust your own species. A pigeon lives in the fear that a cat might kill him. A human lives in the fear that another human might kill him. Isn’t that a pity?

Amit once told me that he could never understand why God took away the Dinosaurs. He said that they were more intelligent than humans. I think he is right because from what I saw yesterday, I think even a mosquito is more intelligent. Too much of a brain is a bad thing, I guess. It allows you to divide all that which does not need division. It allows you to create all that which should have never been created. It allows you to be turned into someone who should never have existed.

Thank God I am a pigeon. A “stupid” bird who just eats, sleeps, have sex and bring up their kids. A very boring life by human standards. *chuckles*

Now off I go to fly high in the free sky.

GenX and the Dowry Demon

While my “extended” stay in Chennai I stumbled upon a truckload of some amazing facts about the Dowry system which I thought were quite extinct as far as the city-dwelling-and-riding-on-the-IT-boom GenX was concerned. An incidence in one of my friend’s office landed me back into reality. A few days back my friend saw one of his colleague making fun of another one. The talk went something like this –

Colleague 1: What??? You are getting only 12 lakhs? Nothing more?

Colleague 2: No. 12 lakhs in cash. That’s it. Maybe a car or a flat too and Gold ofcourse. But I am not sure about that.

Colleague 1: Do you know how much I am getting?

Colleague 2: How much?

Colleague 1: 67 Lakhs in cash with Gold, car and a flat. [*laughs out loud*] I really pity you [*laughs again*]

Colleague 2: [*Grumbles and becomes sad*]

When my friend told me about this, I just wanted to run into the bathroom and puke. No matter how unbelievable the chat seems to be, but it is true and it took place between two well established Engineers working in a top IT company in India. What took me by surprise was the fact that I always believed that our present, well educated, city bred generation is completely against this preposterous ritual, but this talk completely bowled me over.

What is the point of being educated when your brain still dwells into the Jurassic era? What is the point of being educated when you think that its a matter of pride to obtain a hefty sum of someones hard earned money? What is the point of being educated if you think that you can boast about your “Price” tag?

I talked to a few more friends about this and was surprised to know that in South India(*I am specifically talking about South because the friends with whom I talked to are South Indians, although this is equally prevalent in North India too*), parents spend their entire lifetime to collect gold and cash for their daughter’s marriage. There have been certain cases when the girls are not even asked whether they would “like” to marry a particular guy. They are just informed. And, yes, I am talking about girls working in an IT company.

There have been instances when the present generation has raised a voice against this. One of my friend told me about such a case when a boy refused to take in any sort of dowry. He was asked whether he has some physical anomaly because of which he is refusing?

Another friend of mine told me that her parents are really worried about her as she is past her marriageable age of 22 and will be soon going on an on-site assignment which means more delay. Her community is really worried and a very close family friend has stopped talking to her for obvious reasons, primary being that my friend has still not ended up being a child-generator. I asked her if she could bring herself to love a man who would be sitting on a substantial amount of her father’s hard earned money? Who thinks its his birthright to ask for Gold in Kilos because he is marrying you? She told me – There are many things in my life for which I have to compromise. And I am prepared for them. I told her about the case of the guy getting 67 lakhs in cash and she was not at all surprised. She informed me that there are certain communities where giving such huge dowry money is not a big deal and not to forget the kilos of gold which go with it. After the girl is selected, the second question asked is the amount of cash and the kilos of gold which can be provided. She even told of an incidence where the mother of a prospective groom asked her if she could sing!!!!

The worst part is that the present generation who have grown up in such an environment where giving and taking dowry is considered auspicious, do not think that there is anything wrong with it. Girls are not allowed to speak in front of elders and boys are “ok” with the process. One of my colleague told me that he might save his dowry money for his own daughter’s wedding, given the fact that he is still to get married.

I have started wondering if there is something wrong in our genes? If education can’t bring visible changes in our society then I wonder what will? We all know its wrong. Don’t we? But still we go ahead with it because that’s the way things have been and Ego is something very hard to kill. A social standing is more important than killing an age old ritual which is wrong? I have stopped considering India as an emerging modern society. We are still rustic at heart. What’s worse is that the virus is shamelessly passed to GenX and there is no antidote in sight. Not even education. Not even a growing economy. Not even an evolving Western Influence.

There is 1 dowry death every 4 hours in India. Can you beat that?

(the image is taken from : http://www.buy-oil-painting.com)