KIDS-SANS-NATION

                                                  

 A famous actor on an Indian television chat show recently declared- I am not going to have kids; not because I don’t like them but because I think that there is already so much happening in the world that there is no place left for kids to come in.

For a moment, it felt like any other celebrity trying to make an avante garde statement but on prolonged subsequent thoughts, I realized he was right in saying so. The world has indeed become disparate for more kids to come in.

Let us reason this.

Procreation may have been a need once but with the ever increasing population, it has only become a quaint social norm that we can do without. The plight of the kids is pitiable. The next time you pass across a bunch of school going kids, stop for a moment, observe, reminisce and answer- Do they look half as happy as you used to when you were a kid?

The answer is No. For people our age, school was where the fun was. Of course, the whole curriculum revolved around academics yet the pressure never surmounted to sub-human levels. Unfortunately, the picture has become lopsided now. A five year old goes to school carrying a bag as heavy as his own weight.  A ten year old is grinded each day to learn to work harder than he possibly can and logically should. A fifteen year old is subjugated to learn C++ (a language which was introduced to only IT professionals till a few years back). At first, it is about scoring well in the metric exams. The next climb is to qualify for a carrier that gets you good money, ricochets your parent’s respect and establishes you as a “man of worth” in the society. The truth is that if you cannot outshine everyone else at every step of life, you will be labeled an “average” and the world today is no place for the “averages”.

Why do we procreate? The most obvious answer is because we wish to survive ourselves through our children; through our name that they bear. Is it right to bring a life into this already messed up world for the sake of carrying a name forward? I think the answer is no. However, though a name may or may not need survival; the world needs to survive. So, children are inevitability. What is the solution then?

The amount of pressure that is put on children these days would lead to dire consequences. Virtues of life will be replaced by blatant acceptance of much needed vices essential for survival in this overtly competent world. Both education and lifestyle needs to be reviewed and corrected. The present scenario is a disturbing one. However, since change needs time, I propose a more temporary solution. There are about 22 million orphans in India. Instead of creating more life on this planet; let us make better the life that already exists. Adopt a child. Provide an orphan with a home. Give him a name; your name. Provide him with a kind of education and upbringing that would help him stand against the tide and make the world a place suitable enough to bring more children.

"Our family never shared the same last name

 But our family was a family just the same

 And they say blood is thicker than water

Oh, but love is thicker than blood."

The Travelling Saga- Twilight to Breaking Dawn!

On the 29^th of the last month, my sister delivered us a very happy surprise- a nephew and I, soaked in `maternal- aunt` love decided to go to Delhi to see him at once. However, at that time I had no clue that this would prove to be a journey of awakening.

The first train from Aligarh to Delhi runs at six in the morning and I had every plan of getting on it until the time I reached the railway station. Let me tell you this weird fact that most railway stations in India look more of a relief camp (with a hundred or more dull and lost faces filling its every corner) and less of a railroad station. Once I was there, I began with the never ending process of being able to get hold of a ticket. Standing in a cue does not hurt as much as the sound of the lady standing right next to you when she calls out to her husband(trying his luck in the men`s cue) every second minute or the site of her, thrashing her children every time they dare move an inch. Nevertheless, after trying my luck for twenty minutes, I was still behind seven people in the line and without a ticket. I knew my chances were negative and so, I decided to take a bus instead.

There are buses at a gap of every five minute to Delhi and hence getting one was never much of a problem. However, sitting inside it for four hours was a big one because in any roadways bus in India, the windows and the seats make more noise than the passengers themselves. One inevitable thing that I came to know after traveling in a roadways bus that day, is that the peanuts are omnipresent in India. Irrespective of what season it is; you will always find at least a few peanut wraps under some seat of an Indian bus. And if you are lucky enough, you will get a romantic driver who will make Mohd. Rafi and Altaf Raja, your accomplices in the journey.

The most unendurable yet the funniest part of an Indian bus journey begins when the driver pulls the bus at some road side plaza for tea and enters the man who is there to sell you the world`s best products. In my case, that day, the efficient sales person turned out to be a rather gory looking man trying to dispose off some tablets that he claimed would come handy in case of constipation and loose motions, vomiting, nausea and what not! (It seemed like the tablet was this medical wonder that could singly cure everything, even AIDS). Even more surprising was this- some half of the passengers bought it. We were on the road again in no time. Alas! The rest of the journey was rather eventless and the free time it provided, prompted me to think about the traveling saga of India.

The road transport in India is neither crippled nor impotent. It is very capable of delivering good results; where we lack in a major way is the administration. There is no dearth of buses and trains but there is a nescience of a working staff that is willing to provide help. It is for this reason that enquiry numbers never connect and the cues on ticket counters take hours to move forward; that people sleep on railway platforms when there are rest rooms and the buses gets swabbed only once in a blue moon. If the situation is to be made better, the ministry of railways, roads and highway transport will have to start looking beyond increasing the counts. It will have to work more on getting an efficient administration in place.

The traveling Saga in India starts from twilight, owing to deficient administration, moves to an eclipse but with an effort can be made into a Breaking dawn.

O! Fish!!

I love water. I love the gossamer blue of it. It is extremely comforting to sit on a beach and listen to the sound of water striking against the shores; at times rough and at times slow. It was my love for water that compelled me to take a flight to the Marari Beach in Kerala on a Friday afternoon.

Courtesy of an old friend, who happens to be an employee of the Kerala Government, a guest house was assigned to me for three days. Nepotism is actually not such a bad thing, is it? I spent the Saturday morning on the beach. In the afternoon, I went for a meal at an inexpensive beach restaurant. In the evening, I went to visit a few tourist places. Sunday Morning saw me on the beach again and to tell you the truth, by the evening, I had begun to pine for Delhi way too much.

My flight way back home was on Monday evening.  To while away some free time, I went for fishing in the morning. I guess I was just hapless; couldn’t catch a single fish. After an hour, my spirits resigned; the love for water precipitated off and just when I was about to drag my heavy feet back to the guest house, something funny happened.

A fish emerged from water, took a high flight into the air and dropped off its weight on my feet. Right next to my feet, it twisted, contorted and gasped for oxygen. In a few seconds, it found eternal peace and stopped twisting forever. And that’s when I said- O FISH! I DID NOT EVOLVE FROM THE APES ALONE.

While watching a fish die underneath my feet on the silken sand of an Indian beach, I came up with an evolution theory that Darwin would kill me for prophesying; a theory which is physically impossible and conceivably disgusting but plausible to the mind of an insane woman and hence, I will propose it.

The humans evolved from apes. We evolved and started looking better. Unfortunately, some of us didn’t evolve much and continue to look and act like apes even to this day. But I propose that the apes must have externally fertilized with a number of different animals and that’s how humans came to existence. This also precisely explains the analogy of human behavior with the action pattern of different animals.

For instance, I am a fish. I could not savor the Marari Beach because I survive best in my own waters. I like being at home. If you put me somewhere else, I twist and turn and yell till I am thrown back into the place where I came from. Some people I know are like Ostriches - just because they have closed their eyes and hidden their faces, they presume very wrongly that the world will not notice them. They fall a prey to their own follies. Then some are Jackasses, the ones who are born morons. Category "Apodogs" includes the ones that descended from ancestors produced from conjugation of apes and dogs. They are a ferocious species of humans. They bite more than they listen. The turtle humans are those who creep slowly all their lives. The lion humans are one-man-shows.. And the worst of all kinds are the cat humans. They are cunning, connive and selfish.

So, you see I have a theory that may seem funny but it is quite plausible. Peep inside your own soul and tell me, which animal are you?

Be true to yourself.

I WILL VOTE FOR DONALD DUCK!!!

The Indian democracy has come to become that dice which has only a single facet. Even if you shake it, roll it and throw it hard, you will only get but one number. The number in the context of the Indian Politics is a name- The Congress.

Publicly embarrassed by scandals and aspersions, the image of AICC has suffered a huge setback in the last one year. The political party has been in deep political mire for a while now. Pages like, “Rahul Gandhi is not the future of Uttar Pradesh”, “I hate Congress”, “We want our money back” etc., on various public networking sites speak volumes about the dwindling credibility of the Congress. The bigger question however is- Would all the scams and scandals lead to a shrunken vote bank for Congress in 2014 elections?

The answer is a hesitant No. Most likely, the Congree would still remain to be the national party with the highest votes in 2014 general elections. This, however, is not because Congress has proved its competency and dedication towards the nation in its present term; it is more due to the fact India does not have any another meritorious and creditable party to vote for. The only other two national parties that can play a huge role in Indian politics are the Bhartiya Janta Party and the Left Coalition of India. Though both these parties are capable of playing a major role in a coalition, they are equally incapable of completely sidelining the Congress in future politics.

The Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) lost its integrity and trustworthiness by harping on the communal issue of “Ram Janam Bhumi- Ayodhya Mandir” for far too long. Its image was tainted forever after the Godhra Violence of 2002. The BJP cannot woo the Muslim voters until the time it chooses to shed off its “Hindutva” ideals, which it has declared that it will stick to, even in the 2014 general elections. If this case, not just the Muslim voters but even the educated youth of India would not vote for a political party that lays its foundations on an old, failed  and rotten concept of ”Hindutva”. If BJP has to win the trust of its voters back, it will have to reshuffle and transfigure its ideologies, which unfortunately seems a far cry as of now.

On the other hand, as alluring and as charming as it may appear, the truth is that socialism has never really succeeded in India. Communism crept into the Indian society through the Russian Revolution and thenceforth, it could never make a niche for it in the India pattern of politics. Owing to its hold in certain states, the Left would continue to play a major role in the Indian Coalition politics but unfortunately, as of now, it is not a political force than can dismantle the ground for Congress in India.

Congress does not have my trust. The BJP does not have my faith and the Left does not have my conviction. So, given the present scenario, who would I vote for in the 2014 general elections?

I WOULD VOTE FOR DONALD DUCK.

(Refer to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protest_vote)

Welcome SlutWalk

Welcome SlutWalk!

The much celebrated SlutWalk is reaching India on the 25^th of June.  Celebrities and non-celebrities alike are all gearing up to walk the protest. Amidst all the hoopla that has surrounded the SlutWalk, one question has been left unanswered in many ways- Does India even need a SlutWalk?

SlutWalk first evolved as a goading response to a statement made by a Toronto Police Officer. While addressing a University gathering on the issue of “Crime Prevention”, the officer remarked, “The women should stop dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized”. This particular comment of Michael Sanguinetti evoked extreme fury among the activists and led to the launch of the SlutWalk. SlutWalk isn’t about setting an agenda. It is has emerged as a unique proposition for making the world conceive the idea that a woman, irrespective of the way she dresses or puts her make-up, is not responsible for rape or sexual assault in any ways and that there can absolutely be no excuse provided for heinous crimes like rape or sexual assault.

Does India need SlutWalk?

The answer is a vehement yes. India, as an essentially patriarchal society has been unjust to its women nationals in many ways. To name, female Feticide, dowry killings, sexual slavery, sexual assault and rape are just a few delinquencies that a woman has to face owing to her sex.  In the last one decade, crime against women has reached its zenith. According to the statistics, a woman is raped every 25 minutes in India. Only one out of 70 rape cases is actually reported. Unfortunately, the proceedings in these few reported cases are either too sloppy or completely absent for mostly the accused are people with good “political” backing. The bare truth is that the Indian authorities have been fairly unsuccessful in safeguarding the sexuality of the fairer sex. Thus, it is time that women make efforts to make them heard. SlutWalk is the voice of the women who have decided to take a stand to protect them.

Welcome SlutWalk for it is a way of telling the world that the Indian Women are unwilling to take any more atrocities. Welcome SlutWalk for it is a movement which intends to safeguard women’s right to choose. Welcome SlutWalk for it is a method of making the nation listen that yes means yes and no means no. Welcome SlutWalk for it is time to make the men understand that the Indian women are not going to tolerate their libido. Welcome SlutWalk to give the Toronto Police Official and the million others of his kind, a lesson to remember.

The greatest misconception regarding the SlutWalk is that while walking the protest, one is supposed to wear revealing clothes and unveil their body in “slutty” fashion. Though SlutWalk aims to redeem the true meaning of the word “slut”, it does not intend to do so by compelling the protestors to shed off their clothes. The official website of SlutWalk, SlutWalk Toronto, clearly states that anyone and everyone are welcome to support the moment by simply walking the protest. It is absolutely not necessary to dress scanty.

This 25^th of June, I will walk the SlutWalk to protect my freedom and my sexuality. Hope to see you there too.