Life as I find it

Speechless at the moment. I don’t know how I feel about this right now. While it is true that discrimination by the government and police against the minorities needs to be fought, I’m not sure that the accused in the bomb blast case are what we would be looking up to as model, upright citizens either. I can’t believe that all of them are innocent either.

Fighting for people who have been victims and targets of the state is admirable, considering the amount of fake arrests and accusations we see happening recently, but again, is this about a fight for justice and rights, or a general support system for anyone accused? Because then, this could turn into trouble with time. Also, why a political group? This seems to be more of a human rights issue, which could even garner support across political parties rather than focus on creating a party of victims that the normal public may not identify with, or even want to identify with.

Anyway, read this article that I’m quoting from here, and see what you feel:

Mumbai, May 15: Even as the Tada court prepares to pronounce the sentences of those convicted in the ‘93 blasts case, those accused in the case have decided to float a political party called the Dalit Muslim United Front. Mustafa ‘Majnu’ Dossa, an accused, whose case will be tried separately, has been declared party president. He is currently lodged in the Arthur Road Jail.

Haji Gulam Rasool Ehtesham, who has been held guilty by the Tada court, is the ad-hoc secretary. The court is yet to announce the quantum of his punishment. And the party vice-president is Salim Shah, who is also an accused in the case.

The party will primarily consist of those accused in the bomb blasts case. However, Mustafa Dossa’s advocate Parvez Alam, the main objective of the party is to fight for people who have been victims of state oppression and state terrorism. “Our party will fight for people who have been victims and targets of state and its establishments,” Alam said.

A majority of the party workers will be those who are accused in the bomb blast case. “Even those who have been acquitted have promised to be a part of the party,” Alam said.

Alam also said that during the just-concluded state assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, their party workers had distributed more than two lakh pamphlets urging people to support Mayawati. “The fact that Mayawati has been elected, has led us to believe that people heard our plea,” said Alam.

The final decision to float the party was taken at Arthur Road Jail on Monday evening. “We will first set up our office and gather our team members and then we will approach the election commission to formally register our party,” said Alam, adding that the party is also in dialogue with several Dalit leaders who have been to jail in the past.

The party also plans to meet Mayawati. “There are a few people in UP who wish to be a part of our party and are also close to Mayawati,” said Alam.

The party’s immediate plan is to contest the local elections in Mira Road.

Planning to keep an eye on this and decide with time if this is what we need, or another bunch of unrespectable people trying to have political clout in the country.

I read an article on the NDTV site which says there is the possibility of a hike in train fares in Mumbai, which would bring the average Rs30/- minimum fare for first class to Rs.32/-. The added funds from this hike will be used to support the loan taken from the World Bank by the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation - the agency executing the Mumbai Urban Transport Project. The amount of the loan is Rs.1,300 crore which is half the project cost.

This will mean an added expense to commuters, but will help repay the loan faster. Mumbai locals are an extremely convenient and fast system of transport for the middle and lower classes, and this hike might casue some concern to people who rely on the locals for quick and inexpensive transport. However, the amounts recovered and repayed will be quite huge considering the amount of people using the service, even though the individual difference will only be a couple of rupees. Ticket sales are expected to jump to Rs. 1080 crores per year from the Rs.900 crore that is currently the number.

I had brought this up in an earlier forum, where I had suggested a hike in prices for adding security measures to the railway system. While repaying the loan is a priority, with the recent bomb blasts and overall trend for terrorists to target public transport, it is becoming a matter of urgency to increase monitoring and block access tothe system from unofficial points of entry. I don’t know how much a communter either knows or bothers about loans from the world bank, but this surely would have them happy to pay a rupee or so in addition to their normal ticket price.

Suggestions from some of the members on the discussion forum included:

• Isolation of railway tracks by the construction of boundary walls
• Blocking of all access to the railway system except official entrances and exits
• Camera surveillance on trains, platforms, ticket counters, and entrance and exit points
• Metal detectors and other security measures at entrance and exit points
• Training of all staff to handle emergencies related with terrorism

It sounds like a phenomenal expense, but I doubt if it is impossible in reality. It is not as expensive as the development of railway tracks, or rakes. I think these are all very good suggestions and could gradually be covered with a rupee or so added to the price of every ticket. It wouldn’t be instantaneous, but the funds would surely flow to tackle one thing at a time steadily and then cover their maintenance as well later.

Perhaps, even extra funds from a station could directly be put to use developing that station, resulting in the more important stations naturally being protected first through their higher sales of tickets and greater number of commuters requiring greater security. It would mean other useful things as well. Helping investigate pick pockets, eve teasing, damaging railway property or spitting/littering, etc. It would undeniable make the railway experience cleaner and safer while requiring less personnel to monitor more factors. This could get our outstanding, but shabby service to admirable standards while setting a standard for public cleanliness and security for other areas of public life.

I feel that paying a rupee or so more would be a very worthwhile investment for something like this and people would participate willingly for something that directly adds to their experience rather than vanishes into a loan they are hardly aware of, even though that money needs to be recovered somehow.

I guess this is still a distant dream, but it doesn’t stop me from wishing that a hike in fares actually meant something to ensure my safety as well, even if it means a hike of two rupees in stead of one.

What is it about the BJP and Gujrat that makes so many embarrassing stories for the country?

This time around, its art. Apparently, the erotica that has always been a frank element of our culture, is also now about shame. An art student’s work is put up for exhibition, and he gets arrested. Why? What is this new brand of moral policing? And what is it about Hindutva they are protecting? Why does a government need to interfere with an art student’s work?

The uproar hit the ceiling when the fellow students of the arrested Chandramohan organized an exhibition of Indian erotica. Vice-Chancellor Manoj Soni, living up to his reputation as an RSS stooge, took the decision to seal the department after BJP municipal councillors complained about the erotica exhibition. Oh really! Give me a break. Nudes are a staple of fine art education and study of anatomy. Good work elicts admiration, bad work elicts criticism, but arrests? Shutting down of a fine arts department?

I wouldn’t be surprised if owning a copy of the Kama Sutra became illegal in Gujrat, or if Khajuraho itself got destroyed after this. What are we, the citizens doing, allowing such insanity to rule our country?

Nudity exists. Acting holier-than-thou doesn’t change what the mirror shows us as we change clothes. It doesn’t stop minimal clothing and erotic films from being best sellers. It doesn’t stop people from seeing the beauty of the human form, and finding appeal in it. Where is the shame in erotica, a student’s art, or Indian erotica? It is not like they are exhibiting these on the street. People walking into an exhibition are well aware of its theme and what to expect. If they don’t like it, they can stay away. What is this with arresting artists?

What do we do about Indian artists who have already painted plenty of nudes in the history of India? What is this new overgrown morality being imposed on people?

So what’s next? Will love matches and dating be banned and offenders arrested if they are seen together in a public place? Are we India of the Kama Sutra, or are we Saudi Arabia?

Arrest after man buries twins alive caught my eye as I read on in horror. While the issues raised by the selective abortion of female foetuses creates a great deal of social concern for the future of India, I think it is worse that newly borns are burried alive after birth. This makes me think that perhaps we as a society, a government are imposing our morals on people who would like to have the choice of gender in their offspring. If banning the testing of sex of infants and terminating female foetuses only mean that these activities are done illegally anyway, if it means that the women undergoing those options may not even have the right to sue for any malpractices they may be enduring because of their act being illegal, if it means that babies are being murdered…… I think that somewhere we are creating rules for how a whole lot of people should have kids. We are not consulting them, their interests, their concerns, or their choice. This is creating far worse problems than the ones it attempts to avoid.

A father who kills his own daughters may be a murderer, but are we doing the daughters that get saved any favours, if this is the amount of hatred they will be facing in life? Do those families really want them? Will they love them and be fair to them, or have a grudge about not having a son instead, for eating up the family resources? Would these parents be expected to raise these girls as healthy, happy citizens anyway? Would they care about their education?

On a different note, I have a feeling that society cures itself over time through the consequences of its own actions. Today, we are facing problems with discrimination against women, harrassment, social unacceptability of a divorce, dowry problems, unacceptability of remarriage for widows, etc. If things continue as they are, society is going to fall short on women in comparison with men. This might just be what the doctor ordered to deal with the other issues.

If women become rarer, they will be valued more. Competition between prospective husbands will ensure an eventual death of the dowry system out of sheer competitive tactics to procure a wife in the first place regardless of money. Women may be respected more. Widows and divorcees may have better chances of acceptance and remarriage through the sheer need of marrigable women. A decrease in the female population will eventually also reflect in a decreased population. Even homosexuality may be more easily accepted out of sheer acclimatization through necessity. I think, this would not really be a bad thing.

Consider a family who wants a male child. They may want it to carry on the “family name”. They may want it for managing the property of a home in the future in an agricultural society. They may want it to ensure “their support” in their old age. They may even want it because they like boys more than girls…… Whatever the reasons are, they are their reasons. They are as important to them, as our vision of respect for women is for us. Who are we to dictate what they should or should not do with regard to their own children? We can influence, but if we force, we are forcing them into something they don’t want for themselves.

I hate the thought of an abortion being done simply because the child is female. I wouldn’t do it. That doesn’t mean that everyone has to be like me.

Consider this family we are speaking of. They want a child. A boy. Ideally, they want only one, because that is what they think they can afford. Great. They get pregnant. They would like to ensure that their child is a boy as planned. They go to some shady sex determination clinic. Their being shady also makes them be careful to stay under the radar. No one can say that the instruments they use or the procedures they follow are safe. This couple is already required to flirt with risk to the mother’s life and health through a need for a technology that is available through clean medical facilities as well, if not banned. Yet, if they want to do it enough, they will do it anyway.

This is for the poor and gullible. Those who can afford it can simply fly out of the country and test all they like. So it cannot be completely stopped anyway. These shady things happen by those with access to information on these illegal facilities. Others will go on to deliver and find out. If it is a boy, Excellent! If it is a girl, she’s lucky if the parents fall in love with her at birth, or the options ahead are far worse - being murdered, or being hated all her life for being female. What right to we as a collective society have to inflict this on them? Is this killing of infants already born preferrable to the hypothetical lives that might be born in the future to those who cannot figure out illegal facilities? I think we are hurting the rights of the parents to avail all available knowledge to make their planned child exactly the way they want it. Abortion is legal in India. So why this selective fuss to condemn those born to hate and violence at an age when they don’t even understand anything at all?

We as a society are bigotted rats. We impose our assessments of what is right and wrong very easily, but what are the factors we should really be considering? Should we be sacrificing female babies to their own parents to follow our dream of equal gender ratios in the “shining India”? What right do we have to prevent the painless termination of an unborn life only to force it to be delivered into a cradle of hate?

If India has less females in the future, so be it. This is what society wanted, this is what it will get. If they find out in the future that they don’t like this scarcity of females and they want more girls to be around, they can allow their female offspring to live exclusively as well, and make their choice. It is not like the massive population of India is suddenly going to go extinct.

Today’s match was everything we had wanted the day before’s to be. Good batting, good fielding, the works. Is it my imagination, or were the Bangladeshis not at full power today? Or was it that Indians were really charging? Can’t say.

All I know is that we did really well. This should ease some cricketing concerns, if we can manage to make this a regular feature of our performance.

I’m not giving all details of the match, as they are easily available all over the net, but Goutam Gambhir was outstanding as the man of the match as well as the fastest century today. He just played and very well. He was hit by cramps too toward his century, but I guess it is a regular thing in this heat and humidity. Some Bangladeshis had trouble as well.

Today was what comes really close to my imagination as a good batting innings. All players did their thing as they could, even though the wickets fell. No gifts of wickets except of course for the mandatory Sehwag wicket.

About Sehwag….. I have begun getting this feeling that it is a kind of formula. He comes, blazes boundaries, and then tosses the ball into a fielder’s hands to return to the sir-conditioned dressing room. Its sad to see Utthappa being wasted in the dressing room. The only blessing I see is that he can’t be accused of hatching overs. But if the team is performing like they did today, I can see the blessing into even a Sehwag up there in the batting order. Sky-rocket the runrate for the price of one wicket.

The key in this I think is that all the other players must play the remaining game. Do their thing, keep the score board nice and high, and be careful. No need to excessively worry about wickets if all of them are keyed in like today. Even Zaheer Khan came in for the last few balls and smashed two boundaries.

Another thing I loved about todays match is the “kid” Piyush Chawla. Heh kid? Well, try to see him hugging Dhoni. He looks so small and innocent, he could be his son. He could be our next Kumble. Leg spinner, and mighty nice with it. Three wickets in an ODI debut is not bad either, but what I loved was the total bewilderment he caused in the batsmen with his bowling. It took them quite some time to figure him out, and I still am not sure they are sorted about him. That’s good for a debut. His first over was kinda flaky, but then he just went ahead and owned the pitch. Got hit around a bit too, but hey, with three wickets, from a newbie, who’s complaining?

But the thing that delighted me the most was that the Indian fielding just came to life out of nowhere today. Our men were all over the field, diving, chasing, fast reflexes…. the works. Really welcome after the endless sloppiness they had been demonstrating. One run out from Chawla and Dhoni was lightning fast. I’m impressed.

Looks like the Indian team has really taken cricket VERY seriously all of a sudden, and I for one ain’t complaining. Nothing like cheering our side to a thumping victory like todays.