Confronting the culture of violence against women

Is capital punishment, a real deterrent for gang rapes? There had been many discussions on this and still going on after the Supreme court's decision to give death penalty to all the remaining four accused in the Delhi gang rape case, suggesting that this case falls under the rarest of rare category.

      But, can we expect this judgement to reduce gang rapes in India? 

     Do these criminal minds fear the law in that moment of lechery?

     And if they fear, does that make them stop from doing it? Or does that make them do the more evil thing, so that no one knows a thing about what they had done? 

    These are the questions, to which, we can never be sure of the answers, no matter who give them. The thing that we can be sure of is that the death penalty alone can't deter this horrendous crime. 

    The recent Hyderabad episode is an other example that reveals that this problem is more complex to be solved by a law. What will we do if some products of a company are faulty? We surely throw the product into trash, but the top priority would be to make sure that the company makes them right from then on.

      These culprits are exactly the same faulty products that were manufactured by our faulty system. For this, more than thinking about the kind of trash box we want to put in the faulty products, we need to think about the repair works that are quickly needed to stop this faulty manufacturing. Thats what exactly the Justice Varma panel suggested. Repair the damn manufacturing system.

It has been a habit for the government to constitute committees on pressing issues, but only implementing the politically suitable sections of the report, rather than the important ones. The Justice JS Verma committee's report was no exception(government did bring some changes in the rape law) 

      Its true that the report is far reaching, and it should be, as it gives the whole picture of women's problems in the society, at various levels. But, it only shows the poor state of affairs relating to gender bias that are still prevailing in our nation in implementing what our constitution assures women, in particular.

     As the report clearly asserts, We are in urgent need of electoral, educational and police reforms, which are the causes of more social evils. with special emphasis on how to gender-sensitize the children and adults to reach a matured state.

Bargaining Death

              How many of us took/gave(or going to take/give) dowry and think that it harms no one as the givers are quite capable of giving and takers are not going to ask for more?

Do you know that one woman dies every hour due to dowry related reasons on an average in India? And the death rate had even been raising in the last 12 years? National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) figures state that 8,233 dowry deaths were reported in 2012.

Who are really responsible for these deaths? No. Not just the husband, or in-laws, or even the parents, It's a collective failure of every one of us, the society, that is still encouraging the dowry arrangement, despite the progress we made in various fields over the years.

  Why dowry is still being taken as a prestige issue, or a status symbol? By taking/giving dowry you are only encouraging a whole bunch of people around you, who can be a lot greedier than they seem to be. And greedy enough to the extent of causing death in one or the other way.

If you think its just the uneducated or rural people that are victims of this social evil, you are completely wrong(please watch the video below). These deaths include a number of working women in urban areas like Delhi in this case.

The only remedy is collective banishment of the dowry system from the society. You can't be irresponsible towards these social evils and get away with it all the time. It can eventually harm any one of your dear ones at a later time.

So, my modest appeal to each one of you, take the first step towards breaking the walls of this Gender-bias, say no to dowry, both givers and takers.

Common Nonsense - Gender Bias

"Common Nonsense" is the phrase that came to my mind, when i was pondering about most of the common practices we are still following in our long running patriarchal society. Like an average netizen I instantly googled the phrase "Common Non-sense," to know whether its used commonly or not. It came out that there is a book by that phrase about some guy's biography and a website, but otherwise not common.

I have only recently started putting my thoughts on paper or rather on a digital screen. I can't say whether I got any better or worse in anyway(may be you can). But I am not going to stop with all these thoughts circling in my head. This seems to be at the least a small temporary relief.

We are in modern era, equal opportunities for men and women. Women have already reached the most powerful posts in the country.We have women CEOs, Women entrepreneurs and even women Chief Ministers. We hear these comments daily about the all-round progress that was brought up in the lifestyle of women.

But, after reading this piece from NewsLaundry, which has no surprises for any body living in our self-inflicted society, about the common practices of discriminating women, each one of us will definitely be relating to our own part in this humiliation, knowingly or unknowingly. And they qualify to be termed as common non-sense.

As a society, are we i.e., both men and women, treating our women equal to men? Are we treating a baby boy same as a baby girl at birth? Or during their childhood? Adolescence? Or even after being an adult? During marriage? After marriage? No. Never. We show discrimination at each and every step.

We show discrimination in celebrating their birth, in buying them toys during childhood. We make girls accustomed to do household things while leaving boys to themselves during their teenage. There is an example of a grandmother who reacts contrastingly, when she sees her grand-son shaking his legs sitting in a chair and when her grand-daughter does the same. It's only a small example of how inferior women feel of themselves.  Bluntly put, it's a systematic brain wash that's still going on from generation to generation.

And we all know about the traditional act of male chauvinism that takes place during the marriage. Man tying a 'Mangal Sutra,' a supposedly sacred thread around the woman's neck, as a process of taking responsibility of her as in what? Is marriage still being seen as transferring responsibility of a woman to a man? If not, Why are we still going through this process? Will any man ever be comfortable with it, if the same is done to him?, including the acts like touching wife's feet, etc.

Isn't this kind of unequal treatment of society is what making women feel inferior to men and men, superior to women, causing the horrific crimes that are under scanner nationwide in the present times. Are we developing our social norms along with our development in other fields? Is it too early to expect such change? Do we need to wait till generations after generations to see that change? Can it be done in one generation if young people won't bow down to pressures to follow this common non-sense? I have nothing but hope.

Troubling Times...

As you are reading this, I take it that you are trying to be knowledgeable of the things that are happening around. These are troubling times for democracy. We have been watching and feeling the raising apathy among persons in various positions of the government, starting from the President/PM to a peon in the govt. office, towards the common man. The Mind-boggling numbers associated with each scam and the high reputations of people involved in these scams puts our faith in this democratic system our forefathers built for us, to test.

You must have heard about the Niira Radia tapes (you can listen to some tapes which are leaked, by clicking on link there or download a zip here) that came out during 2G scam investigation, which were in the nation's discussion some 3 years back and as usual forgotten. The institutions like CBI and IT(Income Tax) Department also slept on them saying they are private conversations, until a PIL is filed in SC(Supreme Court) recently. The CBI was already caught by the SC during Coal-Gate investigation, changing case reports, also termed as govt.'s parrot , which does cover-ups for govt. choosing cases that suits the party in power. This issue had resulted in the resignation of the Law minister but, the more culpable Attorney general got away.

Coming back to the tapes, The SC Questioned the inaction of CBI and IT on these tapes, which clearly show the involvement of the big corporate names(Ambanis,Tatas) and their lobbyists in

1. The decisions the govt. or opposition takes,

2. The discussions of parliament,

3. The MSM(Main Stream Media) news and articles.

With this kind of involvement in every govt. decision, is it any surprise that the scams are queuing up one after the other. Our govt. has been converted into a system that manufactures scams and the Media lives short on real investigations and more on political drama.

Often we blame a person or a class of people on the spur of the moment. But we know its not a single uncommon incident. All public systems are getting murkier and the plague is spreading fast with the honest getting punished, threatened or even killed. If you are a daily news follower, you know what I am talking about. We only know one Narendra Kumar who was killed, one Ashok Khemka(Vadra-DLF deals-Full Video) who face transfer twice every year, one Durga Nagpal who was suspended and don't even know how many others were forced into the system or out of it. Some of you may know more such cases.

           On the other way around, we face the corrupt babus regularly while applying for a Driving License, during a Passport verification or land registration, etc. We please him/them and tell to ourselves, it's not really going to do any damage to the already "corrupted to core" System. On each time, we feel we are alone against it and there is nothing else we can do to get what we needed. We can think of getting rid of it only if we unite against it.

One doesn't need to sacrifice his life or leave every thing else in his life, to fight against corruption, if only majority of citizens really feel concerned about it and act against it. Unfortunately, it's not the case in our country. We often have/had a fistful of corruption crusaders and sadly they are/were hunted down. How many can be hunted down, if every one join.

Its 8 years since RTI(Right to Information) Act is passed by parliament after a tremendous effort put in by the various Civil Society Organizations. But still only a small group of people know about it, and even less use it. Though it's not a magical eradicator of corruption by any means, its impact will be felt by the corrupt. I am one of the small group who knows about it and I intend to try and file some RTIs myself and I encourage you to do the same.

Do you know that the 6 major political parties(Congress, BJP, NCP, CPI (M), CPI and BSP) uses public money indirectly in the form of subsidies, Tax exemptions and benefits and also were given lands in prime areas at low rates whenever their party is in power in a state or at the centre, based on which, they come under Public Authorities as per the RTI Act. and same is ruled by the CIC(Central Information Commission) 2 months back. 

But our so called major parties are so terrified of the CIC that the govt. proposed an amendment bill instantly which is welcomed by all parties(except very few) with in days. And the proposed amendment also comes with a retrospective effect from the date of the CIC ruling. 

Our parliament which take years and decades(even a century is possible as we still wait on…) to pass bills that the nation badly in need of, is going to pass this bill in days. There may be another amendment forthcoming to counter the recent SC ruling(without any retrospective effect) that no convicted criminal should stand in elections. What does this say about these parties? They are only there to safe guard their interests, and leave no trials of the loot happened.

But, we have a better weapon than RTI, which unfortunately comes only once in 5 years, and we won't even feel like using it and using it for good against corruption. 

I appeal to you, that this once we use it for the fight against corruption, without worrying about relation,caste,religion,region(I thought i could include party in this list, but after a second thought i think we need to choose an untraditional honest party as honest people in traditional parties were reduced to mute spectators like dolls used for showcases) and vote for the honest and non-corrupt candidate who delivers not for his parties, relatives and close friends but for the common man. We also need to implore our friends and relatives to join this fight, remember its always majority which wins in a democracy. 

We are lucky that these issues haven't really affected in a disastrous manner yet, or we think so, but you can't expect it to continue long and to your children. These are troubling times and we need to act united against corruption for the future of our nation.

Gullible Media

In the recent times of confusing news articles, tv debates and discussions, As a daily news absorber, I have been acquiring a useful skill of sorts, the skill of differentiating the bakwaas(crap) news from the truth. Most of the times, it can easily be done by differentiating the politicians who just speak whatever come to their mind at that moment to defend themselves/offend the other. Most of the bakwaas news will come from these politicians and they also become famous for it. You can easily see most of them trending on twitter on various issues. They definitely made a name for themselves, and they think it won't matter, as our so called democratic country is full of people like them winning election after election, you know how!!

Are our media channels are sincere enough? Almost all national news channels and most of the news papers nowadays, seems to be compromised, you can read about one of them here and here. It's amazing how conveniently they fail/ignore to investigate the important issues and bury them as early as another new issue comes. They ask questions every day and mentions at least a scam in every show(yes, news also became shows now), but who is stopping them from investigating a scam and bring the truth out for everyone. Or may be they are busy analyzing whats going inside each party and what gimmicks politicians are playing on each other. The National news channels are losing their credibility badly. And the regional news channels(at least in AP) are comfortable doing senseless debates or being movie masala outlets.

During the current Uttarakhand disaster, where still thousands of people are waiting to be rescued, TOI came up with this crap, which shows they didn't even bothered to double-check it from another source, and later they blame Modi's spin doctors for it? as far as i can see only TOI got that news posted on that day(tell me if i am wrong). May be TOI is very weak in playing spin. Now this whole shameful episode is well explained here. 

Is our media so corrupt that they just sold their soul to the politicians/political parties/big daddies or they just became so gullible that they can be persuaded to any extent? 

However, I still believe not everything had gone to dust.There are still good articles written. I think Caravan is doing a good job of reportage(at least its good till now). Some of its best articles in recent times: The Insurgent on Aravind Kejriwal, The Outlier on Subramanya Swamy and Inside Man about the Attorney General Of India Gulam Vahanvathi. There are many more articles if you have time.

And at last, You shouldn't miss the newly launched online portal, NewsLaundry, and especially Cothesline(a weekly episode on NewsLaundry), if you want to know whats really going wrong on in our media.

Dada returns !!

The silence when Sourav Ganguly's name was called at the auction was treated as a snub not just to the man but to the nation's ethos. How could the man who had lent teeth to the lambs of Indian cricket, the man who had left Steve Waugh waiting at the toss, the man who had whirled his shirt around his head on the balcony at Lord's be left out of a tournament that claimed to be the Indian Premier League. When "Dada" finally played his first game for Pune Warriors, after joining them as a replacement for Ashish Nehra, one fan was so overcome with emotion he ran on to the field in Hyderabad and fell at Ganguly's feet in reverence.(picked from cricinfo)

The Young India proved themselves at Vizag!!

At last,Micheal Clark got his much awaited big knock in the ongoing tour, but it went in vain before the young enthusiastic Indian batting on display last night at the YSR (A to Z) stadium at Vizag. Indians kept their record intact winning the third match in a row at this stadium. Both teams had the similar type of innings losing two quick wickets at the start and then a having a century partnership for the third wicket between a left handed and a right-handed batsman( right hander got hundred & left hander gets fifty). The only difference is that the Indian scoring rate was better than the Aussies.


India started well taking two quick wickets of Marsh and Paine, and kept on bowling good lines and lengths and made the Aussie batsmen work for runs. Australia were 30/2 at the end of 10 overs. Clark and Hussey pulled of a century partnership to study the ship..Micheal clark played a patient innings with some good hits at the end of the innings to reach his hundred. Even though ,the Australians seem to be going at a very slow rate, Cameron White took the Indian bowlers to the cleaners at the end to reach a good score of 289/3.

Aussies with the young bowling attack got the first wicket on the second ball, when an in-swinger from Mccay beat the defenses of the debutant Shikhar Dhawan to take the off-stump. Later,Vijay who looked in good touch faint-edged a length ball into the hands of Paine after a brief innings. Despite of losing the two early wickets, India kept the pressure on the Aussie bowlers, scoring singles,twos at ease and getting boundaries of the loose deliveries.

Kohli played the Clark's role in the indian innings building a century partner ship with Yuvraj, who wasn't  though at his best, hit some good boundaries. After reaching fifty, Yuvraj tried to pull a slow delivery from Mccay to mid-wicket, only missing it onto the off stump. On previous ball. he was frustrated by the refusal of a possible single by Dhawan at the non-striker end who was running for Kohli because of cramps.

Suresh Raina wasted no time like Cameron White who took time to settle during the Aussie innings.Raina was fabulous with his timing and choosing the right deliveries to hit. With the runs flowing from the other end from Raina's bat, Kohli just rotated the strike and reached his Third ODI Hundred, nearly run a ball. As usual, India had a brief collapse at the end, but Raina stood fluent hitting the boundaries on will and the second debutant of India today, Saurabh Tiwary got the chance of finishing victory.

The Resurgence Of Test Cricket

Test Cricket has always been the most preferred by the cricketing giants when asked about the best form of cricket.It may not be the most watched form of the game, but a good test match between two tough teams, keeps the cricket lovers on the edge for a long time.In these times,where even a two hour movie can't grip the audience intact, keeping them for 5 days is not that easy.Anyway,the glamorous T20 should be given its due credit for the increase in the test matches getting results.

I am not really going into the stats, but one can see the results every where now.The recently concluded India Vs Australia(2-0) test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, has been one of the big hits of the test arena, where the two teams were very competitive and as Ravi Sastry would say "The fortunes were fluctuated from one team to the other".

 The Australians who are known to be a tough team in any format, fought hard as always to give their Captain the first win in India and they almost got it in the first test.The 2-0 result may not show really how close the winning margin was. Everybody who watched the two matches know that 9 of the 10 days were evenly poised.

The series has some very good knocks including a double hundred from the maestro and good bowling spells from both sides.The first match drew the attention of the people with a stunning finish and gathered crowds for the second test, who supported India undoubtedly, but appreciated the Australians hard work, at times too.

In the two test  matches,we can see that both teams were really trying for a result..In both matches we have a 400+ score in the first and second innings and a 200 around score in the third and fourth Innings.Unlike the earlier times, the batting team is really trying to press the paddle after reaching around 400. It forced the test match to have a result in both the occasions.

It is also true that the teams lost their way in trying to increase the scoring rate at times,which may not happen every time. But a test match with a result is what every one ask for and when we are getting it, every one should be happy.

Telugu movie rules(some new directors are avoiding these,any way..)

1. Movie should start with powerful villain(s) and normal hero.
2. Hero must have at least one comedian friend, whom he will be slapping occasionally(more frequent,if hero is RAVITEJA)
3. Hero introduction should start with a small fight hitting 1-5 members,bur it should start with a powerful punch.
4. There must be a song for every half an hour(1 intro+1 item or club+3 foreign shot).
5. Each villain should have a comedian assistant too.
6. A comedian can be slapped by any one.(thats called comedy)
7. Hero should finish most of the love story in the first half.
8. First half ends with 1 0r 2 medium fights(5-10 people).
9. In second half,hero tells some flash back.
10. second half will have 2 more medium fights and all foreign villains will come home or hero goes there.
11. All friends of hero will move aside.(rarely appear)
12. For the climax scene, all the people come to an open place.
13. In the climax, hero hits every body 500m away from him(a large fight:25-30).
14. All villains realize their bad things and change.

This is simply a reaction.

Immediate cause: watching "DON SEENU"

1.