Hmmm…interesting

For those of you wondering, yes I deleted my post from yesterday. I will post it again after some editing. It just became too personal and I was feeling very uneasy about it, hence the deletion.

However, for some unknown reason I also submitted the post on Indivine (I contacted them regarding removing my post and haven’t heard back from them) . For those who don’t know: Indivine is a platform provided by IndiBlogger to submit the links to your post with a small synopsis. Other members “vote” on your post and, well, I really don’t know what happens after that. But I always thought that at least some people read your post. That notion was removed today morning when 6 more people voted on my post even though the link I submitted no longer works. Don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate the vote of confidence that these people have shown in me. I guess they took it on blind faith that whatever I wrote must be good. Though I would have appreciated more if they had actually read my post. Well not the post I deleted but otherwise.

I usually browse Indivine as well as blogadda in order to find interesting blogs/posts which means I click on the post links and read them. I might not necessarily remember to vote on them but at least I read the post.

P.S.: Personally I like bloggada’s format better but I have found more bloggers through indivine than bloggada. Guess both of them have their own advantages.

Thoughts tag

I came out of the fitting room of a posh garment shop and could still hear the kid fussing/crying over top of his voice. He must have been 4-5 years old. The mom held him up and continued browsing through the racks. She didn’t even try to ask what’s wrong. Another lady standing nearby me couldn’t (or wouldn’t) take it anymore and said in a loud voice, 'Oh for God’s sake. Take him home. He doesn’t want to be in the store”.  Mom still kept browsing through the ongoing sale. Let her kid scream his lungs out. Let other people get headaches due to that. She will get her discounts.

****

An acquaintance of a friend, decided to join gym to control her weight. Her husband decided to come along. Problem? What will they do with their 4 year old? Oh that’s right, dump him in the acquaintance (my friend) place every weekend for 2-3 hours while they work out in the gym. I asked my friend why don’t they hire a baby sitter if they are planning to go to gym every weekend? She pointed and laughed at me. Apparently Indian parents don’t hire baby-sitter. They use their acquaintances. It doesn’t matter if the acquaintances might have other plans (the reason the whole thing came up. I invited her over during a weekend). Hey, it’s your kid and your responsibility and not someone else’s.

****

Another acquaintance, another friend. This acquaintance is pregnant and is in her first trimester=> She has morning sickness. She can’t tolerate a lot of things, among them is the smell of Indian curry. Yet a colleague of theirs decided to get an Indian takeout/leftovers for his lunch and ate it right on his desk which is right next to this pregnant lady (and yes he knew). They have a big cafeteria provided by the company and he could have eaten there. But NO. As Apu pointed out in this post, he didn’t want to give the ‘special treatment’ to a woman just because she happens to be pregnant. Women, their bodies and their pregnancy aren’t the norm of this world.

****

Another acquaintance of another friend. This time acquaintance wife is pregnant. He (the acquaintance) is hoping that it’s not a girl. Why? If it’s a boy, he doesn’t have to worry about him returning home pregnant. Of course, it doesn’t matter if he impregnates a girl because like most Indians, he is not planning to teach his son about responsibilities and consequences of unsafe sex.  Since a male body don’t carry the baby, they don’t have any responsibility for a baby.

First time I heard these arguments were when a friend’s family decided to have a dog and her parents ruled against getting a she-dog (yes I know what they are called) even though a she-puppy was available at the moment. Guess in our world, a pet and a daughter are equivalent.

****

An acquaintance was complaining about a common friend. The common friend had the audacity of telling off her spoiled son (4 years old) when he was hitting her with his toy car while she (the acquaintance) watched. She never explained why the common friend is supposed to take the abuse (the metallic toy car hurts!) or why didn’t she herself told him off?

****

A friend of mine doesn’t want kids because she can’t and won’t raise an unruly kids as most parents these day do. She, like me, can’t tolerate spoiled kids. And yet, she says, that kid will grow up in a world filled with those spoiled kids. Nah, according to her, those spoiled kids will be the norm of next generation (and number of spoiled kids I see these days, I can’t argue with her). How will her kid with his/her values survive in a world like that? She think, she will, by her ways of bringing him/her up, make sure that her kid will be a failure in the future world.

****

I know all these thoughts are not connected with each other in any way and each of them deserves a post of its own but as I am not too big on writing posts these days due to my thesis, I thought I would put the thoughts/events that I thought can become potential posts out there for you to think about. I know quite a few of these events can provoke a reaction in almost all of us and I will be happy to hear your thoughts about it.

So I tag all the readers to either write a post or comment here on any of these events that particularly pinched them. It’s free for all tag. Since I am starting the tag, I am taking the liberty to tag a few of my favorite bloggers. Hopefully they will respond. And they are: Apu, IHM, PB, Rachna, Shilpa, Sudipta, Usha and Viji.

Google again

Did you know about Google’s contest where the winner city gets awarded with their experimental project which will provide around half a million people with fiber-optic internet cables. You know what that means? 1Gigabyte/Sec internet speed!

Okay if someone from the future is reading this post: don’t laugh. It’s a big deal!! I have 16mbps download speed and it’s supposed to be pretty good internet speed. 1 gbps is something unheard of yet.

For those who are still in this time, and don’t get what I am talking about. Well you can try speedtest.net to check your download and upload speeds. Those of you who have a fast internet connection you would have a speed of around 20mbps. Now imagine 1gbps!!

Anyway, I am not the only one super excited about such a project. Seems like a lot of people are going nuts over this project. You don’t believe me?

To start with Topeka, Kansas unofficially changed its name to Google, Kansas. In response to this gesture, a lot of communities across the US has risen up to attract Google’s attention. For example, this skit:

And that’s not it, the mayor of Duluth went and took a dip in Lake superior. Here is the video for that:

And then the mayor of Sarasota went for a swim in shark tank. Who knew swimming in a shark tank was part of the job description for mayor’s office?

They have jingles, they are organizing rallies and what not. Let’s see who finally wins the contest. Though I don’t have the luxury, but I would have loved to live in the town where they have 1 gbps internet speed.

P.S.: While I am talking about computers, have you heard Intel Itanium Processor 9100 series? They enable system configurations of as many as 512 processors and a full petabyte (1024 TB) of RAM. 1PB RAM! Okay, you got me. I am fascinated by technology. Mind you, I am not that big a fan of gadgets but technology gets me. These days I am dreaming of building a CPU from scratch. Configuration, you ask? How about Intel i7920(2.66Hz), 12GB RAM, 2TB hard drive? Sounds cool, right? oh well, someday.

I am sick to my stomach

…after reading this report on Texas conservatives changing the high school curriculum. Did I ever mention that I hate Texas and don’t want to live there? Unfortunately though, I am moving there in six months. I am thankful that I don’t have any kids or I would have homeschooled them. Seriously. Otherwise I would have sent them to India to study or something.

I don’t get it. How and why the politician gets the authority on high school curriculum? (We have similar problems in India though not this severe). According to the report:

There were no historians, sociologists or economists consulted at the meetings..

Hmmm..interesting. So if you are in power, you can rewrite the facts to suite your convenience? To hell with people who spent their life studying these subjects. What do they know?

In recent years, board members have been locked in an ideological battle between a bloc of conservatives who question Darwin’s theory of evolution and believe the Founding Fathers were guided by Christian principles, and a handful of Democrats and moderate Republicans who have fought to preserve the teaching of Darwinism and the separation of church and state.

Question Darwin’s theory of evolution? Someone has to fight to preserve the teaching of Darwinism? Was time travel invented and was I transported to the era of bigotry when they denounced Galileo and Copernican theory as heresy? On that topic, I am not sure why didn’t the board change the curriculum to include the bible’s view about astronomy that Earth is flat and it is the center of universe? Too far fetched? Scared that even 10 year olds will laugh at them if they say something like that? As far as I am concerned, questioning the Darwin’s theory is exactly the same.

But then they have privilege to believe in what they want, don’t they? They won’t believe in carbon dating as it proves Darwinism, however they will believe in X-rays. Convenient, eh? If you don’t believe in radiations and the fact that we can count how old a bone is based on ratio of product and source then you don’t get to believe in it’s other applications as well. But then they are in the power (for some unknown reason). That’s why they can do this too:

They also included a plank to ensure that students learn about “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.”

Does anyone sense anything here (well you would need to know about these people and organization to understand. feel free to click on wiki link)? No? Let’s see:

In the field of sociology, another conservative member, Barbara Cargill, won passage of an amendment requiring the teaching of “the importance of personal responsibility for life choices” in a section on teenage suicide, dating violence, sexuality, drug use and eating disorders.

Did you notice how they put sexuality right in middle of the other genuine  problems as teenage suicide, drug use, dating violence and eating disorders? And notice how they worded it as “life choices” and how it is a “personal responsibility”? Oh, you catch my drift. And yes, they will teach that in high schools in Texas because the experts in sociology says so. Oh no wait, they never studied sociology or human behavior or sexuality. But they studied bible and that makes them expert in science, sociology, human behavior and history. Right? My question is: why not get rid of all the other textbooks and just have one book in school curriculum: bible. It anyways make anyone and everyone an expert in all existing subject then what’s the point of studying anything else? Abolish schools and universities altogether. What’s the point in loading the mind of these youngsters with anything else?

And no, they didn’t forget racism? No. How can they?

Efforts by Hispanic board members to include more Latino figures as role models for the state’s large Hispanic population were consistently defeated, prompting one member, Mary Helen Berlanga, to storm out of a meeting late Thursday night, saying, “They can just pretend this is a white America and Hispanics don’t exist.”

“They are going overboard, they are not experts, they are not historians,” she said. “They are rewriting history, not only of Texas but of the United States and the world.”

…

Dr. McLeroy, a dentist by training, pushed through a change to the teaching of the civil rights movement to ensure that students study the violent philosophy of the Black Panthers in addition to the nonviolent approach of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He also made sure that textbooks would mention the votes in Congress on civil rights legislation, which Republicans supported.

Do you know why they are doing that? Well here is what they say:

“We are adding balance,” said Dr. Don McLeroy, the leader of the conservative faction on the board, after the vote. “History has already been skewed. Academia is skewed too far to the left. ” (Emphasis Mine)

Did you know “believing” in Darwinism is a political choice and not a scientific conviction?

Yes. I am moving to Texas in six months after spending six years in wonderful San Francisco bay area. And no, I am not looking forward to it.

A strange thought…

…occurred to me today: What if someone made a movie based on my life?

I don’t know why it suddenly struck me- may be because my life is so melodramatic at times, or may be I just want the current period of my life (writing the thesis and making sense of last 5 years of my life) to be a musical montage like one of those training musical montages in the movies after which the lead is ready to take on the bad guys, or may be I am simply turning into a narcissist.

Whatever the reason, after the moment that thought occurred to me, I spent the rest of my day (well it’s still going on) with a background narration in my head complete with background musical scores. Did you ever have one of those days? It had been a very weird day. The simplest of daily task felt weird and funny. And worst of it: I can’t stop it. It’s like one of those bad tunes stuck in your head that you hum all day long incessantly. You hate the tune and yet it keeps going over and over and over in your head. Does someone has a cure for this? I am having a weird day, seriously.

Habits

Came across this nazam by Gulzar and I had to share it. A loose translation is provided below:

Img from:http://www.lostartofblogging.com

साँस लेना भी कैसी आदत है
जीये जाना भी क्या रवायत है
कोई आहट नहीं बदन में कहीं
कोई साया नहीं है आँखों में
पाँव बेहिस हैं, चलते जाते हैं
इक सफ़र है जो बहता रहता है
कितने बरसों से, कितनी सदियों से
जिये जाते हैं, जिये जाते हैं
आदतें भी अजीब होती हैं…

What a habit it is to breathe
What a tradition it is to live
There is no response in the body
There is no shades in the eyes
Feet are in a stupor, they keep walking
It’s a journey that keeps flowing
For how many years, for how many centuries
We keep living, we keep living
Habits are very strange thing..

Scenic Dish

Oh well, what do you know, Spring is here. Temperature has been constantly rising and skies have taken a shade of blue instead of their usual gray. Sun is out and about and so are the walkers, hikers and runners.

So last weekend I decided to take a hike and while doing so, take some pictures. So I went to Stanford Dish and took some pictures.

Well, I am not really sure what Stanford dish is used for except that it’s there for some research. All I know that it has two big dish antennas…

..and beautiful scenery especially if you are there on a beautiful day like these:

Did I tell you that it’s part of Stanford Campus and probably the highest point near the Stanford Campus which means you can see the entire Stanford campus and surrounding area from certain points in the area as:

So the tall building in the center is the Hoover Tower (after Herbert Hoover, the 31st US president and Stanford alumnus). The mountains in the background are in East Bay (Diablo Range?). The water body in middle is the San Francisco Bay. You can also see Dumbarton Bridge from certain points as here (look closely. You can also spot the Stanford Stadium towards the right (red benches)):

The main use of dish area, as far as I am concerned, is for recreational purposes. It has pretty steep slopes. A lot of people from Stanford visit Dish daily to walk or to run (I really admire the runners who can run around Dish while talking to their friends. I wish I had as much stamina).

Oh well, that’s about it unless you want to see the pictures of random squirrels and birds. Thought so. Well, till next time..

Protectors

Update: I had to edit the ending of the post after reading (actually finding it again, I read the news 5 days ago but couldn’t locate it for the link) the recent ruling of high court.)

The other day while walking towards my terminal in an airport, I noticed a family ahead of me. Mom-dad and their daughter. The airport was a bit crowded and a lot of military officer in their uniforms were there (with their luggage, so they were either boarding the planes or landing). Anyway, so this family comes to a moving halt and the girl a bit shyly, a bit tentatively approached an army office approaching from the other side. She said a quick ‘Thank You’ to him before dashing off behind her mother.

Sweet, right?

Now compare it to image of an Indian army soldier in our public. A very good example is this footage shown on NDTV a while ago where a young lady retaliated bravely against the molestation attempt by an army soldier.

I am not sure if my experience is shared by everyone but I think the army soldiers are the creepiest fellow passengers I ever had misfortune to travel with. They constantly stare at female passengers in a very sinister way. It doesn’t matter, if you stare back or you ignore them. They will continue to make you uncomfortable. That’s the worst I have experienced but then I wasn’t not in a disturbed area with heavy military presence.

Due to these encounter with them, I was never surprised by the stories of soldiers molesting/raping women in disturbed areas neither was I surprised when that footage came out. I understood that girl’s reaction perfectly.

Every time I spot an Indian soldier in any public place, my first reaction would be to get away from them as much as possible, minimize my interaction with them and while doing all that I feel a bit revolted, a bit nauseated as I consider them the worst of all the predators roaming on our streets. Whatever I feel, one thing is certain that I don’t feel any gratitude towards them.

Watching that little girl saying thanks made me wonder is there something wrong with me? or, is something wrong with our culture that we don’t feel gratitude for our soldiers? or, is there something wrong with our army and their culture? I wonder with all the discipline we impose in army, why can’t we impose a zero tolerance policy against all army soldier who attempt anything like that? But then may be like police, army don’t consider such issues important. How does it matter how they treat women, after all, women are, or rather, should be used to treatments like these. Right?

The bigoted attitude of army towards women is obvious by the fact they treat the women officer. Did you know that until 5 days ago, women officers were forced to retire after 14 years in service, irrespective of their record. Male officers were allowed a full tenure after just five years in service. Women officers were not eligible for any pension or financial benefits as men. Talk about discrimination. And you know the worst? The affidavit that Army filed in High court for this case actually said:

The background of our troops who hail from rural areas with fixed concepts of women had to be considered at the time of induction of women as officers into the Army. Grant of Permanent Commission would result in placing women officers as Commanding Officers of units, which was considered inappropriate.

Now let me get this straight. The rural population that  migrate to cities, and work as servants, gardeners etc, don’t have a problem taking orders from women but army soldiers do? Why is this different? And even if it is so, the solution army has to offer is not to put women in commanding position. How does keeping women away from commanding positions going to help in changing that?

If we have to follow that logic, no engineering college should have opened their gates for female students as engineering has been male dominant field, and before 1970s, men (even urban men) weren’t used to having women in their engineering classes. And again any construction site or foundry or manufacturing industry, is male dominant and surprise, surprise, most of the workers hail from rural areas. How could they have learnt to take orders from, oh my God, a woman? And yet they did.

So how come our dearest Army is still living in the 1950s? When will they change and get in the 21st century? And when and if, they decide to join us I hope they introduce a zero tolerance policy against any act of eve teasing/molestation/rape by soldiers and instead of covering for them, they make an example of anyone who dares to violate this policy. And then, we might be able to feel the well deserved gratitude towards them for putting their life in line for us.

P.S.: I wrote the original post  for International Women’s day and in response to PsychBabbler’s Tag. but as this post didn’t fall in any of the categories mentioned on Indusladies (the tag) and I wasn’t sure if it’s really a woman’s right issue, so I didn’t post it then. I still needed to get this one out of my system before I loose my steam so here it is.

Scientifically, statistically and mathematically correct

A delight for all the scientist, mathematician, statistician. Watch:

Heh!

Farmville Crazy?

So the newest trend on Facebook by non-Farmville-crazy friends of mine is to join the hate groups like:

I don’t care about your farmville status. SO STOP POSTIING THEM, or

Another Farmville invite and I will kill your animals and burn your crops, or

I hate Farmville, or

To Hell with Farmville, etc.

If you are Farmville crazy and have friends that are less understanding to your idiosyncrasies like you are of theirs (as their non-stop quizzes or their daily updates of their “friend's of day” or “Fortune Cookie” or their non-sensical statuses), then you might want to read this post. BTW, isn’t that the point of these stupid social network statuses? And, if you are so bothered by these statuses there is a simple way to stop all the updates from people hooked in to Farmville. At least that’s what I do with people who take too many quizzes. I think it’s more polite than joining these groups. But then each to his/her own. Politeness isn’t a universal phenomenon.

So the point of the post is to teach you a way to be able to publish the Farmville updates only to your Farmville-crazed friends (and yes it is very important for us to publish those updates as they help us in the game). The trick is simple. Make a new friend list and select that list every time you publish your Farmville notifications. Got it? NO? Okay, let me break it into smaller steps:

1. Create a new list, say Farmville. At the moment (Oh yes, I am sick of Facebook changing its appearance all the time) you can do this by clicking on the “Account” (it’s on top right corner) and select “Edit Friend”. It initially takes you to the “Find Friends” page. However, if you browse the left side menu, it shows the List. Click on the “Friends”. You will reach the page as seen below:

Now you can create a new list either by clicking the “Create New List” and then selecting the friends that play Farmville. Or you can select the list to assign to your friend to from the list menu given in front of your friend’s name.

2. Once you have created the list, it’s pretty simple. So anytime Farmville prompts you to publish something, you will get a window like:

Click on the lock next to “Publish” button. Select “Customize” from the list and next window “Custom Privacy” will pop-up:

On the menu of “Make this visible to”, select “Specific People”. Now you can type the name of your list in the text box provided below and click “Save Setting”.

You will taken back to the main window and if you hover over the lock now, you will be able to see the name of your list:

Mind you, you have to undergo this procedure every time you need to publish anything for the Farmville. So if your friends are bothering you, use this small trick.

 

Coming back to real world! I am sorry I didn’t keep up my promise about Friday favs. For some reason, I have a writer’s block against them, so I am ditching it for now. I don’t want to stop writing completely due to that.

On yet another note, it was Holi today and I made this special farm montage especially for you guys! (well it looks way cooler in the farm. The white flowers in the side are Lilies, The red color is due to Tulips and yellow is Golden Tulips. Alas! I have to harvest my hard work) Hope those of you who are India, got to celebrate Holi in a nice and safe way, and it lacked the groping and other harassment usually associated with the festival.

The question they ask!

So the past one week was one of the most productive week I have had in a while. I think, I was even working in my dreams. Anyway, it also meant that I wasn’t blogging (as you might have noticed) or twittering, or mailing or facebooking (ok I did work on my farm but nothing else). So here I am again, after missing two Friday favs in row {*head hanging in shame*}, trying to convince you guys to be a bit more understanding. (I will post three Friday Fav this Friday, I promise, that too, in separate posts. I already have the songs picked up, I just didn’t get time to post.)

Today, I had to take a break from my productive streak to finish a few chores that I have been postponing, like, filling out Visa forms, vehicle registration and stuffs. I know, I know, it’s far more important than the work, but once the productivity bug bites me, it’s pretty hard for me to think about, let alone do, anything else. So today I finally filled out the Visa questionnaire sent by the company. And as usual, dearest immigration department had to ask those delightful questions. And I, again, can’t resist my urge to post my actual replies, had I been given a box to write them out instead of the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. Actually let me write down my response as it went in my head as I went through the questions.


Have you ever, in or outside the U.S. knowingly committed any crime of moral turpitude or a drug-related offense for which you have not been arrested?

Huh, No.


Have you ever, in or outside the U.S. been arrested, cited, charged, indicted, fined, or imprisoned for breaking or violating any law or ordinance, excluding traffic violations?

Nope.


Have you ever, in or outside the U.S. been the beneficiary of a pardon, amnesty, rehabilitation decree, other act of clemency or similar action?

Again no. Though I do beg people’s pardon occasionally as I was told it was polite to do so. I hope they do
pardon me on those occasions so by that logic I have been beneficiary of a pardon or two.


Have you ever, in or outside the U.S. exercised diplomatic immunity to avoid prosecution for a criminal offense in the U.S.?

Diplomacy had never been my cup of tea so I guess I can safely say that I am immune to diplomatic immunity.


Have you ever within the past 10 years been a prostitute or procured anyone for prostitution, or intend to engage in such activities in the future?

Come again?


Have you ever engaged in any unlawful commercialized vice, including, but not limited to, illegal gambling?

I have been to Las Vegas twice so far and haven’t spent a single dime on gambling so a big no for gambling: legal or illegal. However I have no idea about any other commercialized vice: Is celebrating Valentine’s day a commercialized vice?


Have you ever illicitly trafficked in any controlled substance, or knowingly assisted, abetted or colluded in the illicit trafficking of any controlled substance?

Do pickles count? Not that I trafficked any pickles at any time. Just curious.


Do you intend to engage in the U.S. in espionage?

What kind of spy will answer this question in affirmative? Again, I am just curious. What’s the point of this question?


Did you, during the period March 23, 1933 to May 8, 1945, in association with either the Nazi Government of Germany or any organization or government associated or allied with the Nazi Government of Germany, ever order, incite, assist or otherwise participate in the persecution of any person because of race, religion, national origin or political opinion?

I wasn’t even born, dude. Forget that, not even my parents were alive back then.


Have you ever been deported from the U.S., or removed from the U.S. at government expense, excluded within the past year, or are you now in exclusion or deportation proceedings?

Right and I am trying to fool you by applying for this visa. So basically you think that I think you are dumb, right?


Have you ever been a J nonimmigrant exchange visitor?

Hahaha..you think Indian government cares if I return there or not? Hahahahahehehehohohoho… {*Pointing and laughing*}


Are you now withholding custody of a U.S. Citizen child outside the U.S. from a person granted custody of the child?

No child boss. And if I had one, I would have given back if there is someone claiming his or her custody. My policy: children and pets are great, if they are someone else’s. You get to play with them and return back. No responsibility, all fun.


Do you plan to practice polygamy in the U.S.?

Hmm..how do I answer this? I am having problem with Mono, good sir, Poly will be too much to handle.

Will you have access to controlled technology? (Nuclear materials, chemicals, microorganisms, toxins, materials processing, electronics, computers, telecommunications and information security, sensors, lasers, navigation, avionics, marine, propulsion systems, space vehicles or related materials or equipment.)

Wow! Space vehicles. Can I have one? Please, please pleeease. Pretty Please? Cherry on the top please?

Oh well, it’s so much fun filling up the visa forms. I just hate the other paper work involved with it. Scan this, scan that, get pay slips, bank statements, rental agreements and God only knows what else.
I am going back to my productive streak from tomorrow (I hope I didn’t loose it). Yeah, yeah I remember my promise. 3 posts coming up for you on Friday. Till then..

Here is to Love

Over past 10 days, I checked my mails twice, my Facebook account once, logged in and posted on my blog once (last Friday) and didn’t watch TV at all. Now can you imagine how much fun I was having for last few days that I didn’t need any of my usual (aforementioned) means of entertainment? So do you really want me to apologize for having such a good time and thus, neglecting the blog? I thought so.

At the moment, I am endeavoring to return to the real world. All I can post today is this beautiful rose. Enjoy, I will be back soon enough…

February Friday Favorite: Yeh zulfon ki bikhri ghata

Okay I am too tired today to write a real post. I could only put up the song I had planned for today. It's a beautiful song by my favorite singer Asha Bhosle. Music by Rajesh Roshan and lyrics by Anjaan. Hope you like this beautiful song.

Enjoy...

In response to…

“it is simple, there are lot of hot and serious issues to discussed and debated like genocide in Kashmir by the great army of your great nation. These are futile issues, any body is gay or lesbian, doesn't matter. People r not used to it that is y it looks funny to them but in coming decade people won't feel like that. You should write how communistic tendencies have become elitetistic in this pseudo-secular n antidemocratic country?
You should write about the Imperialistic and colonial tendencies of your great nation instead ............ !! Please channelize your creative tendencies to revolutionize your nation not to harp on a non-issue.”

As you might have guessed it, this is a comment that I received on my last post. This isn’t the first time I have heard someone trivializing the Gay issue because according to them, there are far more pressing issues in the world to talk about.

Well, if being Gay is such a non-issue then why almost all the religious sects, including Christianity, Islam and Hinduism (for once they agree on something) prohibit the homosexuality and do everything possible (= spend a lot of money and resources) to make life difficult for Homosexuals and whenever possible, attempt to criminalize homosexuality with the penalty of death? Why are homosexuals tortured - mentally, socially and physically, beaten- at times beaten to death, murdered and hanged all the time? In South Africa, lesbians are being raped in order to turn them heterosexual (read this brilliant post by Sparky on how less the life of a homosexual is valued in today’s world). How can all this be a non-issue? It’s a worldwide genocide condoned by all religious sect and quite often by the Government.  Just because you or anyone you know haven’t suffered yet due to this, it doesn’t mean that it becomes a non-issue. And if you can laugh at this genocide and try to trivialize it, with what right do you expect anyone to be sympathetic to your cause? How can you be indifferent towards one genocide while fighting against the other?

On a side note, I have often posted about how woman in our society are at the lowest levels. Well, congratulations ladies, we have found a group even lower than us on the social ladder: The LGBTs. Why else would a reputed news channel as BBC, dare to run a survey on its website asking if homosexuals should face execution? The key word being “if”, as if it is an option worth considering: should we legally kill another human for the “non-issue” crime of homosexuality? (Yeah, it’s such a non-issue! How does it matter if we kill homosexuals or not?)  It was later retracted by BBC but yet they did put it there in the first place, as if it was a legitimate question to ask. At least no news channel, even an Indian news channel, will put up a poll asking if we should execute women, will it now? (Worst: Such questions are actually debated in the parliaments of many countries and are passed as laws. Non-issue? Really?)

CREDITS: Most of the issues raised here as well as the references came from Sparky’s site. Please do visit his wonderful site for more info.


P.S.: 1. As for my opinion on Kashmir issue, I wrote about it here (well I paraphrased most of it from Vir Sanghvi’s article on the same subject but then I do agree with him on the issue..).


2. I don’t understand this line in the comment above:
“ You should write how communistic tendencies have become elitetistic in this pseudo-secular n antidemocratic country?”
Anyone care to explain it? I am scratching my head here.

I don’t understand

I don’t understand why being gay is so funny for Indian audience. Honestly, Indians laugh/snigger whenever someone mentions or accuses of someone else (especially a guy) being gay (in a movie or in reality). What is so funny about someone being gay? Please do share the joke..

I don’t understand why writing about gay and gay rights such a taboo? I have been advised by my friends that I should not write about the subject so often. If you ask them why, they simply shrug and say that people might get wrong ideas but they never explains what wrong ideas. (Any of you have any of these aforementioned “wrong ideas”, please let me know. I won’t publish your comment but at least I would know. I am really curious).

Anyone?

(Img src: http://5.media.tumblr.com/XO6T2i0sqgqo01kiVg0Y9jkHo1_400.gif)

Tree hates Bigots

The Wesboro Baptist Church (headed by Fred Phelps) was in Stanford campus on Friday morning to demonstrate. It’s one of the worst legal hate group in US. Their main targets: any faith that’s not Christianity or any Christian group that supports Gays. They have been known to make racist slurs against African Americans.

They also maintain a God Hates India website(I don’t want to link to any of those stupid sites. Please search the words “God Hates India”  in Google and you will, hopefully, find the site) They have a link there called “Poster Children for sin”. You know who they are? First in their list is Mahatma Gandhi. That’s right. Then comes Nobel laureate Amrtya Sen, writer Vikram Seth and others.

Then comes another link on the same site: “False Religious System”. And here I have to actually quote them:

80% of India’s population claim to practice Hinduism. ‘Nuff said. A country full of idolatry inevitably results in a nation full of fags and fag-enablers, because that’s what happens when you depart from the Living God!

…

If you would STOP worshipping false gods, being a fag would not be a complex matter.  Stop going a whoring after other gods and start serving the Living God in truth!

Enraged enough? At least you got the context of what I am talking about. So these guys were here in STANFORD CAMPUS to demonstrate and picket. Ever since their announcement to be in Campus, there have been a lot of activity with in Stanford to organize a counter demonstration (I wanted to be there, but unfortunately, I forgot to put it on my calendar and I missed. Two reasons I wanted to be there: to take pictures and to see the real live people who propagates such things. I have always seen them on TV only). They picked up Hillel Center at Stanford (from Hillel the Elder): It’s the Jew center in Campus (and yes, we have a Hindu society as well that organizes satsang sessions every Sunday).

I am not a religious person (I am an agnostic atheist as Jeff explains here) but I do respect a right of a person to its faith/religion/belief/views. And don’t give me the crap about the freedom of Wesboro Church’s faith. Their religious freedom stops where other’s faith begins as Sparky explains here.

Anyway, I was ecstatic when I saw this on Unofficial Stanford Blog:

For those who doesn’t know about Stanford: The tree you see running around is Stanford Mascot and is called Stanford Tree (Don’t ask!). Stanford Band was there along with hundreds of students. I am so proud of being a Cardinal (nickname for Stanford) right now. I just wish I was there to witness this first hand! GO STANFORD!!

P.S.: I wonder how can someone devote their life to hate. Are culture, tradition, religion or any other principle so important that one forgets the life itself? I thought all these things were designed to help us to get through life and not the other way round.

Statistics

While upgrading my laptop, I forgot to backup my web bookmarks. Result: I haven’t been able to check my quota of comic strips. So I didn’t discover this gem till today. As usual, it’s from my favorite cartoonist Jorge Cham and his infamous Ph.D. Comics.

           CLICK TO ENLARGE (Img Source: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1271)

You know, just because they are numbers, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are right. Interpretation of those numbers is equally important. As Jorge Cham puts it: Anyone with basic statistics course would have told them so but then if they only stopped and thought about it, they wouldn’t be journalist, would they?

P.S.: I especially like the last point: What if all polls included the opinion “Don’t Care”?

February Friday Favorite: Kali Palak Teri

Yeah Yeah I know. It’s not February yet!However, it will be February in 3 days so I decided to start this special edition of this series. Yep, you got it, I am trying to capitalize on the popularity of Valentine’s day. So next month is going to be Romantic songs only month starting with today’s song:

Please don’t mind the stupid video. I think, apart from Tanjua being in the towel (well, she is sexy but Dharmendra’s stupid mannerism completely spoils the video), the video has no value what so ever.

The best thing about the song is the beautiful lyrics given by Majrooh Sultanpuri. The soft and harsh effects of music given by the R.D. Burman to emphasize the lyrics comes only slightly lower than that. For example, the second stanza:

na to main dor se baandhun, na jaal bichhaun, na tir chalaun
naazuk kamar se lagaon, chhuri na kataari saajana. o sajana
main to tera dil lungi tujhise chhupa ke, nazar ko bacha ke
yun hi zara muska ke kahungi anaadi saajana
roz raat ko tere ghar hogi, teri chori, ho chori

It’s my favorite stanza in the song, especially the last line: roz raat ko tere ghar hogi, teri chori. Simply beautiful.

And then, of course, there are Kishore and Lata, the singers. The naughtiness in Kishore’s voice can’t be contained. The only thing that I could find against the song was it’s picturization. But then it also grows on you. I actually like the pink towel Tanuja has.

Anyway, Happy February, everyone. Have fun in the shortest month of the year..

Holy Cow

So last night, I was explaining to my flat-mate, the concept of Paneer. In the end, she asked if we use Goat milk to make Paneer as Cow is supposed to be sacred and all.

I explained to her the concept of Cow being sacred: Cow gives us milk and hence is equivalent to our mother. You can’t kill your mother and hence the whole sacred concept (at least that’s how I understand it!). Having said that, I had to add that I don’t understand why Buffaloes, Goats or Camels are not sacred as they also give us milk. What did Cow do to deserve such a privilege?

But then, I didn’t make the rules. I don’t follow them either but hey, that’s another story.

P.S.: On a side note, I grew up on Buffalo’s milk. My brother used to quote that as the reason for the way I turned out to be: Dark and fat. Brothers and their sense of humor! Hmph.

Just FYI, my brother is just a shade lighter than I and hence for all worldly purpose, he is also considered dark. And with age, he has gained a very rotund tummy (he used to be athletic during his younger years). Even though I am a complete angel compared to him, even I can’t resist  teasing him for the football he carries around now. :P

Indian Women

The other day my flat-mate, who was reading a book by an Indian author for her book-club, wanted to know few facts given in the book. During the discussion, she brought up the notion of Indian women having it easy as opposed to Indian men, something she gathered from the book, (I haven’t read the book, so can’t comment exactly) and I was shocked! How and why any Indian can say that? And that’s when I realize that the author must be a man. As it turns out she was reading White Tiger by Aravind Adiga.

As an answer to her query, I quoted a simple statistics that I had read a few days ago: Out of all the suicides reported in India, about 20% are committed by house wives. They form the second largest group (largest group being self employed: read farmers) of 'professionals'** in the suicides reported to the police. Note the use of the phrase ‘reported suicides’ here. As suicide is a crime in India, quite a lot of suicides go unreported, especially in states like Bihar and UP. And I have a hunch that suicides by house wives would be covered up more than any other ‘professional’ group.

(Img from: http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2007/Suicides07.pdf)

According this study, conducted in Vellore, India, “the rates of suicides are several fold higher than those reported anywhere in the world, especially in young women”. Instead of relying on police reports, this study was based on autopsy reports obtained from local hospital as well as the reports of community health worker. According to the study: “The average suicide rate for young women (age 10-19) was 148 per 100 000, and for young men (age 10-19) 58 per 100 000”. The number of suicides by girls was thrice of boys! Just FYI, globally the trends are opposite: men are more susceptible to commit suicide than women. Indian women have it easy, eh?

To start with, we already have a very skewed gender ratio in our populace due to female foeticide and infanticide: for every 1,000 boys under the age of four, there are a mere 934 girls. The one’s that are allowed to live, are constantly told about how much burden their life is to their parents. Imagine telling that to a child and that too your own child! Do these people have a heart? And then there is that bias towards the son, shown so openly, so shamelessly. No wonder, by the time these girls reach teenage, they have no self-respect, no self-worth. I am not sure if their deaths are even mourned by their family? May be it’s just a good riddance for them.

At times, I feel so disgusted by the society we live in. I have been told since my childhood that we should be proud of our culture but times like these I am completely at loss of what am I supposed to be proud of? The way we treat our children? Or the way we treat and respect women? The way fear of society becomes more important than love of a child as much as we let our own flesh and blood get tortured and beaten? Or the way we blame the rape victims? What exactly am I supposed to be proud of? And why does our personal freedom to dress, to speak, or rather just to be poses a threat to this great Indian culture? What is so great about our culture?

Oh, I know: Family system, right? 20% of suicide are committed by house wives. 71.5% of total suicide victims were married. Our teens have the highest suicide rate in the world. These statistics indicate that our so called family system isn’t as good as portrayed. And these statistics don’t even include the domestic violence cases or the extra marital affairs.

Anything else?

BTW, did you know that in 2007, 336 suicides took place per day or 14 Suicides took place every hour. That 80 Suicides per day took place due to family problems. That 9 Suicides per day due to Love Affairs. That 5 Suicides per day due to Failure in Examination. Just quoting statistics.

Update: ** (Modified from comments below): National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) described Housewife as a profession which I think is quite appropriate. However, I think being a housewife in India should be the worst profession ever. The parents are expected to pay the dowry to her in-laws for her to become a housewife and then she is expected to serve her husband and in-laws for life. Even in slave trade, the slaves were bought and money was paid to previous "owners" and not the other way around. Even the animals are sold and bought in the same way. Then why the value of woman is so low that her parents have to pay money to get rid of her? What kind of profession is this?  And obviously, in some cases these housewives are treated worse than animals while their parents turn a blind eye and a deaf ear towards their own flesh and blood. Talk about compassion and love!


Aren't Indians supposed to be paragon of compassion and love, at least that's what Manoj Kumar had led us to believe in his numerous patriotic and oh-our-so-great-culture movies (Remember: Hai Preet Jahan Ki Reet Sada)? Or the compassion and love that he talks about is strictly for male only? Why can't parents show some of it to their own daughters? Even animals love their child, irrespective of the child's gender. How can humans be so cruel and heartless?