The reason I did not do a women’s day post

I got countless messages and mails on Women’s Day. Somehow they did not move me ……

One of the most infamous lines of Tulsidas were

Dhol,gawar,sudra,pashu, nari sakal tadana ke adhikari

A drum, a village idiot, an animal and a woman, all need to be beaten ….. have the right to expect being beaten ….

Times have changed. Apart from the drum (unless its the electronic sort) none of the others need to be beaten. However the other alternative is also a stick …. in the form of a crutch. That is what reservations are, these stuff like “Ladies first” and the oh so patronizing platitudes about the gentler sex are.

I dont agree with them. I dont believe we women are lesser than men, or on contrary, better than men …, or less corrupt or less blood thirsty. We are just different.

Once as a child, I heard one of the ladies who belonged to my mother’s kitty and card parties defend her decision to enroll and keep her handicapped child in a school meant for normal children

“If I put him in a school meant for handicapped people, I will cripple him from day one. He will only learn to beg and then demand special concessions.”

No, she did not think that she was being a bad mother, she insisted that it was good for him …. and it was! The boy (Nirmal remember those days?) learnt to play cricket, wield a hockey stick and also to study with normal kids. He is blind from one eye, had a club foot, could not write with his right hand but so what? What he learnt was that he was no less than the other kids. So what if he could not make it in the team, he was equal to other kids and that made him a winner! Today he is in the IAS and doing well for himself.

My BFF (best female friend) is the scholarly idealistic type. She is out to save the world …. hmmmm just realized that may be ~ just maybe ~ I am one of her countless missions … I need to call her up for clarification. Sorry for the digression – I type the way I think

Anyhow ~ she insists that Women’s Day is important for a lot of women in really bad circumstances. I cant see that! Women’s Day or Reservation of any sort is a label. It cripples us mentally. Just read what IHM says in her blog about her maid . The maid she talks about has more empowerment in her little finger than a whole lot of the Main bechari abala naari types – born to more affluent circumstances and having more education have in their entire persons.

I think we should have a Liberation and Empowerment Day for humans. A day to remind men that they do not need to save the world and bring in the bacon and look macho. For men to understand that its okay, they do not need to hide the fact that they also find the world hard, cruel and overwhelming. For them to be okay with crying or being soft, and not have others point fingers and say “Dude that is so G A Y Y Y !!”

We, as women, need that so much! When guys unbend, they will stop freaking out and trying to control us or shove us back into the restrictive moulds, in anger, in fear and with force and violence. The mould is outdated and one that many women have already broken and crawled out of – some in anger, some in desperation and so many of us in pain and for our very survival.

Women have evolved, we have changed a lot, in spite of Ekta Kapoor and our mothers/mother in laws. Those that are stuck in the restrictive mould are drawing inspiration from others that have grown out of it.

What we need is a Liberation and Empowerment Day for both sexes. We need our men, they need us. We need a joint day and together we need to learn the lesson that I found in IHM’s blog

The lady in question may be a maid by profession – but to me she is a sage! She is truly empowered and we – no not as men or as women, but as humans and thinking beings – have a lot to learn from her.

Its all about the mind, the attitude and not about being a woman or a man. I think the “abala naari” bit is overdone, and I think the “man as superior sex” is overdone too. It imposes role models and burdens that are quite unnnecessary. True empowerment would do away with labels and help us meet at the same platform as equals – different but equal.

This is a call for true equality here. Wish we get it – in my lifetime.

Such a tame New Year celebration : Groan

We are not what can be called a normal family …. no that did not come out right!

Let me put it in a better way : – what is normal for us is not normal for a whole lot of people.  What is normal for a whole lot of people is either hypocrisy to us … or downright boring to us.

For new years, like everyone else I got a whole lot of calls from 31st morning onwards – not to mention – an deluge of messages on my cellphone.  Since all I normally get as sms are reminders to feed the bank so that my EMI’s reach the financial Gods in time – I ignore them …

Guess what – people actually did message me to wish me a Happy New Year.  I am so chuffed up heh!

Kid#1 rang me up at 10 a.m. and wished me and then said he was fed up of Christmas and New Year festivities and was gonna go underground while this madness was afoot!  My current mental state being actually hostile to human civilization, I could quite empathize with him.  Wanted to tell him to point me to an underground bunker near by where I could crawl into.

Ex rang up to wish me Happy New Year.  He was going to a Reverse James Bond Party, where he was supposed to be dressed up like a femme fatale and his wife as 007.  God is very merciful – I did not have to witness this one!  :mrgreen:

Kid#2 was footloose.  He has a 21st century relationship – on and off.  At present having been dumped by his on sometimes off sometimes girl friend was single so he decided to go to a party at 2 a.m. after bringing in the New Year with us.

DIL is actively against going out to celebrate New Year.  She would like to be with family (I pause here so that all of you can say Awww so sweet!).  In my bitchy avataar let me point out that if her husband was here, they would have been out partying.

So we started our New Year binge at 10 p.m.  No fancy cooking.  Just got food from some Italian joint and sweets from Open Oven, lots of alcohol to wet the food pipe and settled around the heater.

What can I say ….

Being rather occaisional drinkers (pshaw!) both DIL and I were out for the count by 11.30.  Kid#2 woke us up at 12 and wished us while we went into our rooms and crashed.

Really tame.  I am quite ashamed of myself.  By 2010 end, I need to elope with someone of half my age with four times as much money ….

That would start 2011 with a bang!

My tribute to the gay march

DISCLAIMER: On a personal level male homosexuality makes me a tad more  uncomfortable while  lesbianism does not.  Possibly because I studied in all girls hostels and that was something I saw and dismissed with a shrug!  However I defend their right to live and love.

Gays do have a right to live free and with pride.  Its not new and definitely not unnatural.  Check out these quotes from the ancient world which seemed to be more tolerant than ours towards .

“Homosexuality,” Plato wrote, “is regarded as shameful by barbarians and by those who live under despotic governments just as philosophy is regarded as shameful by them, because it is apparently not in the interest of such rulers to have great ideas engendered in their subjects, or powerful friendships or passionate love-all of which homosexuality is particularly apt to produce.” This attitude of Plato’s was characteristic of the ancient world.

“Zeus came as an eagle to god like Ganymede and as a swan to the fair haired mother of Helen. One person prefers one gender, another the other, I like both.” Author unknown

Plutarch wrote , “No sensible person can imagine that the sexes differ in matters of love as they do in matters of clothing. The intelligent lover of beauty will be attracted to beauty in whichever gender he finds it.”

In ancient Rome gay men were not thought to be less masculine than straight men and lesbian women were not thought of as less feminine than straight women. Gay people were not thought to be any better or worse than straight people-an attitude which differed both from that of the society that preceded it, since many Greeks thought gay people were inherently better than straight people, and from that of the society which followed it, in which gay people were often thought to be inferior to others.

This tolerance in the times which we consider as barbaric?

I am glad that stupid law that persecuted gay people is under fire!  The cops have one less set of people to bully.

 

I become Mr. Bean

I despise Mr. Bean. Somehow the idea of an adult man having no control over himself, his life and his environment does not appeal to me. So when this happened to me yesterday, it made me almost froth in the mouth.

1. Got my voters ID out of the almairah and into my purse

2. Rounded up the kids, for their first time voting (Kid#1 was out of country for the previous one)

3. Got into car and boldly ventured to exercise our demo(effin)cratic right to elect our government

4. Found that we were not listed in the voters list at our new address where we have lived for almost two years

5. Drove to our previous address and found that we were not listed there either – we lived there for more than 20 years dammit!

6. Had a WTF moment (when three people have the same WTF moment, I must tell you its fairly profound and creates blissful one-ness which in our case translated into a “since we are out, might as well as have lunch somewhere outside”)

7. DIL had gone to parental abode to vote, and came back proudly showing us the finger : The Bacchhan family has a lot to answer for! Humph!

8. I was overstuffed on restaurant food, angry and irritated : How does a person who has lived for 25 effin years in the same town be missing from the town’s list? I did what any one in my place would do … I went to sleep.

9. I searched the net for the person whom I should bash for omitting the names of my whole damn family (we are 3 people, guys, not so much of an effort to include?). I did not find the person I should send hate mail to

10. I am using a CD Marker to make a black spot on my finger to show to Mr. Bacchhan and family and various sundry celebrities.

Gaah! I am such a wannabe!!!!

Shoes – Citizen Weaponry

 

WHAT AN IDEA SIRJI

Sales Meeting at a Footwear Manufacturing Plant in North India

Wholesaler 1 : Joota aisa ho ki upper alag na ho

G.M. Sales : But our shoes are durable, the upper is cemented to the sole with the most durable adhesive

Wholesaler 2 : Sir, Jootas now-a-days need to be very strong

Sales Executive : But of course our brand is strong, you have been selling our brand for many years.  We take care of quality

GM Sales : The adhesive is rightly sourced, A one quality, the sole is tested for water proof, sole can last on rough terrain

Both wholesalers look at each other resignedly

Wholesaler 1 : Sir you dont understand, we do not need strong soles.  We need you to make a new shoe line

GM Sales : Samjaho

Wholesaler 2 : Sir we can have a new shoe line, the shoe should be built to be aerodynamic, light, with a nice lift to it

Wholesaler 1 : Can you put in a computer chip with latest technology? Kitna cost karega?

GM Sales (Gulping down his cold drink, perplexed) : What is on your mind?

Wholesaler 1 : Sahib, novel idea hai, ekdum latest.  Bahut sale hoga

Gm Sales ( encouragingly) : We always want to listen to you.  You are our front liners, in tune with customer demands.  Company policy hai

Wholesaler 2 : Sir, shoes are no longer footwear to be walked upon.  Shoes have been upgraded to become a political statement.  We want a shoe that is light to throw

Wholesaler 1 : Aerodynamic

Wholesaler 2 : With computer chip like a homing missile – target nahin miss hona chahiye

Wholesaler 1 : The sole and upper should be tightly glued, if they break open target will be missed

Both together : Bahut bikri hoga Boss!  Costing kitna hoga? Humara commission kitna hoga? 

Wholesaler 1 : We want it fast – abhi election season hai na …  Sirr Obama said “We Can Do It!”: Humara Slogan hoga “We Can Throw It”

Ek Dum Hit Idea Hai Boss!

Poll Wars

Jai Ho Vesus Bhay Ho

Watch this video … it had me laughing! The irony is too much

Bhay Ho

And of course the witty cartoon here

Vote please, its important

I have voted every single time I could … and I guess got cheated because there is no decent leadership in the country.

I voted for Mrs. G, and that was when I was young and a big fan of her personality.  She had charisma!  I did not know or care about the condition of this country …… so I got what I deserved!

I revolted and then voted for Janata Dal …. does any one even remember it?

Well!!

Guess I got what I deserved!

Then since I was a huge fan of Mr. Vajpayee’s poetry, I voted for him.  Dammit poets dont make good politicians!  Some one kick me in the a%$# please!  A minority government and outside support cooked his verse (worse?)

Now what?

We badly need a messaiah!  No one wants to be one, though.  Humanity has a bad track record with messiahs.  We stone them, we hang them, we crucify them.

But to find a messiah and give him the keys to the office, we need to vote.

Here is a link to a person who wants to vote but cant

He never has

We can and should.  We have a working democracy and we should keep it ticking even if we vote for stupid reasons like Mrs. G’s ada and Mr. V’s poems.

Death of a blogger

This news article made me so sad

Omid Reza Misayafi, one of the many Iranian bloggers arrested for insulting the government and religious authorities is dead.

The more we get media savvy and exercise freedom of expression, the more severe and reactionary people in power get.

Why the hell cant people take criticism well?  Why do they want to kill, or, as it is more than likely here, drive people to death?

And the Shri Ram Sene strikes again

They are running scared …..

So they beat up women in jeans

They beat up women who they think belong to the Pink Chaddi campaign

The Home Minister does not know what happens in the state

WHO ARE THESE IDIOTS?

Humaara Slumdog

A friend and a very talented cartoonist has a blog called India Uploads

He nailed the win and our pride very well

Do visit Taposh’s blog for more gems of wisdom, done in cartoons

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