Life as I find it

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.