Tag Archives: Current Affairs

About the Lokpal Bill

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1. Who is Anna Hazare?
An ex-army man. Fought 1965 Indo-Pak War

2. What’s so special about him?
He built a village Ralegaon Siddhi in Ahamad Nagar district, Maharashtra

3. So what?
This village is a self-sustained model village. Energy is produced in the village itself from solar power, biofuel and wind mills.
In 1975, it used to be a poverty stricken village. Now it is one of the richest village in India. It has become a model for self-sustained, eco-friendly & harmonic village.

 

4. Ok,…?
This guy, Anna Hazare was awarded Padma Bhushan and is a known figure for his social activities.

5. Really, what is he fighting for?
He is supporting a cause, the amendment of a law to curb corruption in India.

6. How that can be possible?
He is advocating for a Bill, The Lok Pal Bill (The Citizen Ombudsman Bill), that will form an autonomous authority who will make politicians (ministers), bureaucrats (IAS/IPS) accountable for their deeds.

7. It’s an entirely new thing right..?
In 1972, the bill was proposed by then Law minister Mr. Shanti Bhushan. Since then it has been neglected by the politicians and some are trying to change the bill to suit their theft (corruption).
8. Oh.. He is going on a hunger strike for the passing of a Bill ! How can that be possible in such a short span of time?
The first thing he is asking for is: the government should come forward and announce that the bill is going to be passed.

Next, they make a joint committee to DRAFT the LOK PAL BILL. 50% goverment participation and 50% public participation. Because you cant trust the government entirely for making such a bill which does not suit them.

9. Fine, What will happen when this bill is passed?
A LokPal will be appointed at the centre. He will have an autonomous charge, say like the Election Commission of India. In each and every state, Lokayukta will be appointed. The job is to bring any and all alleged parties to trial in case of corruptions within 1 year. Within 2 years, the guilty will be punished. Not like, Bofors scam or Bhopal Gas Tragedy case, that has been going for last 25 years without any result.

10. Is he alone? Who else is there in the fight with Anna Hazare?
Baba Ramdev, Ex. IPS Kiran Bedi, Social Activist Swami Agnivesh, RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal and many more.

Prominent personalities like Aamir Khan is supporting his cause.

11. Ok, got it. What can I do?
At best : accompany him on a chain hunger strike.
At worst : spread the message – put status message, links, video, changing profile pics

 

 

Salient features of Jan Lokpal Bill :
Drafted by Justice Santosh Hegde, Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal, this Bill has been refined on the basis of feedback received from public on website and after series of public consultations. It has also been vetted by and is supported by Shanti Bhushan, J M Lyngdoh, Kiran Bedi, Anna Hazare etc. It was sent to the PM and all CMs on 1st December.
An institution called LOKPAL at the centre and LOKAYUKTA in each state will be set up  Like Supreme Court and Election Commission, they will be completely independent of the governments. No minister or bureaucrat will be able to influence their investigations. Cases against corrupt people will not linger on for years anymore: Investigations in any case will have to be completed in one year. Trial should be completed in next one year so that the corrupt politician, officer or judge is sent to jail within two years. The loss that a corrupt person caused to the government will be recovered at the time of conviction.
How it will help a common citizen: If any work of any citizen is not done in prescribed time in any government office, Lokpal will impose financial penalty on guilty officers, which will be given as compensation to the complainant.
So, you can approach Lokpal if your ration card or passport or voter card is not being made or if police is not registering your case or any other work is not being done in prescribed time. Lokpal will have to get it done in a month’s time. You could also report any case of corruption to Lokpal like ration being siphoned off, poor quality roads been constructed or panchayat funds being siphoned off. Lokpal will have to complete its investigations in a year, trial will be over in next one year and the guilty will go to jail within two years.

But wont the government appoint corrupt and weak people as Lokpal members? That wont be possible because its members will be selected by judges, citizens and constitutional authorities and not by politicians, through a completely transparent and participatory process.

 

What if some officer in Lokpal becomes corrupt? The entire functioning of Lokpal/ Lokayukta will be completely transparent. Any complaint against any officer of Lokpal shall be investigated and the officer dismissed within two months.
What will happen to existing anti-corruption agencies? CVC, departmental vigilance and anti-corruption branch of CBI will be merged into Lokpal. Lokpal will have complete powers and machinery to independently investigate and prosecute any officer, judge or politician.
PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS WIDELY…this effort of educated people like you and me may perhaps be a drop in the ocean but i guess the time has come for educated and the “so-called liberated Indians” to take a stand for the future of our great country…!!!!

 

 

If you think this made some difference to you then you can probably do more by

 

Signing the online petetion – http://www.petitiononline.com/lokpal/petition.html..

OR

You can give just a missed call. Yes a missed call. By giving a missed call to India Against Corruption(founded by Anna Hazare, Kiran Bedi, JM Limdhoh) at 022-61550789, you can join this movement to fight against corruption.

Liberté, égalité, fraternité

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This was the cry of the oppressed peasants during the French revolution and is now the national motto of France.

Let me quote Wikipedia here on what these terms stand for.

“Liberty consists of being able to do anything that does not harm others: thus, the exercise of the natural rights of every man or woman has no bounds other than those that guarantee other members of society the enjoyment of these same rights.”

Unfortunately in our side of the world, we tend to stand judgment on others, discuss and argue to death about certain issues that definitely belong within the purview of the natural rights of another person – like his/her sexual choices, food habits and when we are pushed to the wall, we use arguments like “culture”, “ethics” and “morals” to defend our right to dictate  other peoples’ choices and condemn theirs – just because we find them inconvenient.  In fact honor killing by parents or this sad and sordid case of a mother posting her daughter’s nude pic on the internet would not happen if us Asians truly respected our children and treated them as responsible adults with the right to choices and privacy.

Equality is another impossible ideal.  To quote Wikipedia again : The law “must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes. All citizens, being equal in its eyes, shall be equally eligible to all high offices, public positions and employments, according to their ability, and without other distinction than that of their virtues and talents.”

But in our corner of the planet the law is a chattel or slave of the rich and powerful.  The poor are at the mercy of police and influential despots.  We have a Mayawati who tramples the rights of the dalits who voted her to power, we have a Kalmadi and a Raja who are sure that the law will look the other way and they wont get punished.  We have parents who think their children are puppets – a school of thought beautifully portrayed by Rishi Kapoor in the movie Patiala House.  The repression, the over bearing behavior put my teeth on edge.

Fraternity : “Any man aspires to liberty, to equality, but he can not achieve it without the assistance of other men, without fraternity”

Tell this to an Indian, who has been schooled well in our schools and colleges, where cut throat competiton started in pre nursery and has been the only constant factor in his/her otherwise diverse life, and that person will laugh at you.  We look at our fellow man as a competitor, and are ready to snatch, grab and back stab.  Not only that, we discriminate between the fair and the dark skins, the castes and the sexes.

I wonder at the future of my country – that I love dearly.  More than that, I mourn at the state of the ideals stated above, ideals that I cherish more than any thing else in life.

I long for a revolution – that will grant us the ideals.

Hell, forget that, I long for the thrill of marching in a procession at Jantar Mantar yelling at the top of my voice

Liberté, égalité, fraternité

Damn You, Computer!

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My office computer has a virus.  Damn

My Office Computer hereinafter christened as O.C. (Yes, this is a nod to Suresh Kalmadi’s Organizing committee) has a virus.

I use Firefox – no special reason, I just like the name, its fiery.  I have even disabled Internet Explorer, but randomly, just when I am crunching numbers, or doing something really important, some IE windows open up – 5 at a time or something until they choke the ram up.

Sigh ….

It has to get reformatted.

And I did not even make crores on this O.C. :(

On the brighter side, I won’t have notoriety and Arnab Goswami and CBI at my throat.

See you on the other side of computer reformatting.

How much is too much?

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This is a long and rambling post, a lot of what is happening in this country is pissing me off. Yeah I guess you may call this a rant. Times have changed so much – and sometimes not for the better, sadly.

1. When I was growing up, one of my grandmother’s reprimand for rudeness was, “Do you know why the tongue is in the mouth? So that the teeth can bite it if it says something nasty. Go bite your tongue!” Parents often said “If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything”. Agreed that it made one a pushover and we did say a whole lot of things to each other in a round about way, but never direct. Sometimes the rudeness of the youth disturbs, but I can understand and appreciate the honesty and confidence they have in themselves. No hiding behind smokescreens and webs of words for them.

What I can’t understand is the reality shows … like Sach Ka Saamna, Rakhee Ka Insaaf. That woman Rakhee is horrible! Why did she call a young man with self esteem issues “Napunsak” and “Namard”? The fella went and committed suicide! Sheesh!! Why do people have to wash their dirty linen on national television? What’s with this world??? Did she think she was being ‘frank’ and ‘honest’? Why is she so much “in-your-face”. Why do t.v. chanels give her so much airtime? That woman is toxic.

2. Another person who is making my blood boil is SPS Rathore! Actually it is not the Police officer who is bothering me. He is what he is, otherwise he would not be accused of such heinous crimes. What bothers me is that he seems to have gotten away. What bothers me is abuse of office, of the law and of the system of the land. Another product of the times – as a nation we have become shameless. We use our office as a perk. Office cars are used to pick and drop our children, something that was unheard of when I was a girl. Let us not even begin to talk of misuse of office cellphone and office net. We do that with impunity (I am guilty too). So I guess people holding powerful offices abuse them to greater extent. And it is done shamelessly, without any kind of guilt. Even if it drives a young girl to suicide, gets a little boy to be paraded naked on trumped up charges, even if it destroys a family.

3. I know that it has become a fashion to berate politicians. We are a nation full of heavy asses and long tongues. The asses we use to sit in our cushy couches and office chairs, and the tongues we use to complain about the system. Damn it, we are the system! And we are doing nothing to improve it. I can scream about Kalmadi and about Raja. I can weep about the money being looted, money that could be used to build hospitals, orphanages, provide health care and social security to the very poor. The money that could build roads …. help battered women build a future. As a citizen it is my right to demand answers …. but how many of us would actually want that job? We don’t want to work, we don’t even want to vote!

What sort of country are we handing over to our children?

Good Bye

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This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 13; the thirteenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

It was long past midnight.  He was standing alone in his room overlooking the vast sprawling grounds of his house.  The doctor had told him that he should exercise a bit ….. which at 85 years of age he found laughable.  He looked out …. the grounds were flat and the trees dusty.  He felt a huge wave of homesickness for the hills he grew up in.  They did not have much in his youth, but what they had was fresh and untainted. His aging lungs longed for the fresh air of the hills.

Delhi had given them so much.  He had joined politics, and had swiftly risen in ranks.  Now his ministry was bringing in a huge project ….. and as was the norm, people who wanted a piece of the action had trooped in during the last week with suitcases full of currency.  Those bags of currency were all over the house, in his room even.  The staff was not being able to cope with the task of concealing the lot.

There was a time such things thrilled him.  It was all a game.  But he was an aged lion now.  The chase was beyond him and the kill did not thrill him.  He wanted to get away, but like all men who ride the tiger, he knew it was impossible.  His party, his sons, his employees would not allow him to go easily.  The hills, his village would have to wait ….. There was game afoot. There would be time to say goodbye soon.

He heard a movement, a bag was being torn from inside!  He stared, and a slight figure, almost that of a child ripped open a soft bag and came out.  The person was dressed in a mask and a cat suit.  The shock was too much for his aging heart. He watched helplessly.  The person took photos of the many bags in the room with a cellphone.  He shuddered as a pain gripped his chest, and the person swiftly shone a torch at him.  The minister was having a heart attack while he witnessed a sting operation in his own house.  He fell on the floor.  The person hesitated, then picked up a pillow to place under his head.  Currency notes spilled out of the pillow case!

“Goodbye Minister” said the person while taking pictures of the minister lying on a pillow case from which currency notes were spilling out.

The headlines next day

MINISTER SLEEPS ON TAX PAYERS MONEY WHILE THE NATION WEEPS

Writers Note : Inspired by this news item about Ex Minister Sukhram

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

Shashi Tharoor – the background

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I got this in mail and thought it needed a bigger platform

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AN EXAMPLE IS MADE THE EXCEPTION

When I turned on the television, when I refreshed my twitter or when I checked my BlackBerry Messenger, only one question seemed pertinent; do these people truly know Shashi Tharoor?

Over the months gone by, the Indian Union Minister of State for External Affairs, Dr. Shashi Tharoor has been repeatedly in the public eye, but hardly ever about his accomplishments and undertakings or his unrelenting efforts at building relations with foreign countries. If I defend him, it will appear partial and if I cringe at the horrendous allegations against him, it will be alleged that my judgement is clouded. Therefore, allow me to take you on a short journey as we delve into the life of Shashi Tharoor. It will allow you to decide who he really is.

Education

When Shashi Tharoor graduated with the Robert B. Stewart prize for best student from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (a joint campus between the prestigious Harvard and Tufts Universities) , he walked out with PhD laurels resting on his 22 year old shoulders.

To have earned a bachelors degree from St. Stephens College, Delhi (where he was also President of the College Union), two masters degrees and a PhD by the tender age of 22, were the stepping stones in the making of a man who would go on to be the best-selling prize-winning author of 10 fiction and non-fiction books.

Transition

Imagine this: you work in one place for 30 years of your life. That was your first place of work and has remained your only identity for the entirety of your adult life. Suddenly, you transition into new surroundings, encounter new colleagues (some with contrasting approaches and opinions) and a distinctly different working culture. It would take a few months to adjust to the new environment, a short while to get your bearings, right?

Shashi Tharoor worked for the United Nations for 29 years. It was his first place of work and until now, his only. Shouldn’t we have afforded him some time to settle into the system and understand the environment he now finds himself in?

His relationship with the media has been contrary to what I expected. At the United Nations, I recall with fondness how the press and media adored him. He was elevated to the second-highest rank in the UN system by Kofi Annan because of his mastery of the external communications of the organisation. Contrast that to the present day where you know a new month has started because Shashi Tharoor is in the news.

The Person

Jacob Joseph forfeited a lucrative career in the United Arab Emirates and stepped in to be a driving force as we geared up the 2009 campaign to Parliament. When Shashi Tharoor became an MP and the MP became a Minister, he understandably offered Jacob the position of Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in New Delhi. That Jacob accepted the offer, relocated his family and home and rolled up his sleeves to face the Indian bureaucratic system speaks volumes about the belief and faith those around him have in Shashi Tharoor.

But for arguments sake, let’s be disparaging here. Jacob is from the Minister’s home state of Kerala, so he could be excused for looking up to his MP and now Minister of State for External Affairs. The same though cannot be said for Sandeep Chakravorty.

Sandeep – a career officer – requested a special transfer to be able to work with the dynamic and charismatic Shashi Tharoor as his Private Secretary. Sandeep certainly isn’t from Kerala.  I have spent quality time with both of them and am privileged to call them both friends. But outside of our friendship, I have seen the passion and drive that they have for what they do and the man they work with, a warmth and affection I have seen equally reciprocated by the Minister himself. Shouldn’t this be the winning solution we celebrate as ideal and try to replicate across the Ministries of the Government of India?

As for the Minister himself, Shashi Tharoor doesn’t just wear the Indian flag pinned to his heart on his bandhgala. He is a true and proud Indian who sacrificed a sizeable salary and all the luxuries in the world to make a difference to India. The same man who never accepted British citizenship, despite the fact that he was born there.

What does Shashi Tharoor mean to India?

For starters, he has spent 29 years building relationships with foreign leaders. These leaders are now instantly nearer and dearer friends of India. Not only does he share personal friendships with them, he converses with them in diction and an oratory prowess far superior to any Indian politician I have encountered in my short life.  And if you thought his English parlance is refined, the man speaks impeccable French (I am apparently fluent and cannot keep up with him). So his conversations with francophone leaders are of a more warm and personal nature.

India has spent years courting a relationship with the United States, but Shashi Tharoor and his counterpart Hilary Clinton go back to the days of her husband’s presidency when she was First Lady and he was Under-Secretary- General of the United Nations.

If nothing else, we finally have a Minister we can be proud to present to the world. A man of great sophistication, elegance & poise and yet enough embedded in his ‘Great Indian Mind’ to converse intellectually for hours on any topic whatsoever.

I remember the first time I was to travel with him, we met for a briefing in his New York office at United Nations Headquarters. Alan Jarus, his then Personal Assistant made it clear to me that, “this is a man who believes in packing 80 seconds into every minute”. So many years later, whether it was hustling around his South Block office, frantically catching up on mail, messages and tweets from the car or hurriedly packing at home for an official travel engagement, I saw the same Shashi Tharoor packing 80 seconds into every minute. I think you would be hard pressed to find a Minister quite like that in India today.

Shashi Tharoor’s return to India after a distinguished and celebrated career – which culminated at the helm of the United Nations – should have served as a motivator for Indians around the world to repatriate their dexterity to build an India for the future. Instead, the message we continue to send out is that India remains a club with great exclusivity and closed doors.

Who is Shashi Tharoor? To me; friend, mentor and one of the greatest leaders and thinkers India has ever produced. A man we should encourage, support and send out to the world to represent us. For a man who believes that “India has always mattered”, to him and who would now, “like to matter to India”, his passion, devotion and commitment should be made the example, not the exception.

The author is Chief Executive of Iktara World and Executive Chairman of the Young Leaders Organisation. Shiraz Gidwani is a citizen of India residing in Dubai. He is also the author of ‘Apna Indian Awakening’, and frequent op-eds and columns.

Sex and Spirituality

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Celibacy seems to the fundamental requirement of anyone aspiring to be a Godman or a GodMata. This is such an impossible requirement – perhaps its been put there so that the person who attains it actually becomes a saint?

With the recent scandals being widely reported in the newspaper, I once again started reading up on the subject. I read up a lot about it in my teens and tweens. I once, in my teens actually walked into an ashram and disturbed two holy ladies of a rather strict spiritual sect indulging in lesbian sex. Dont ask!!! And no – it did not scar me for life. I thought that they were human too and found this entirely natural. We are sexual beings and I do not think that God would damn us for indulging in sex. If he/she hated it so much, we would not have been sexual beings any way. Two young women (barely 20 or so) , on the spiritual path with no male company (forbidden) sought some solace with each other … it did not diminish them in my eye. I found it sad and poignant.

“Continence, My child, is the sacrifice asked by the Father. You cannot divide yourselves; there must be a full dedication to the will of God.” – Our Lady, March 24, 1974

Oh really? I have always thought otherwise. If you trap or control anything natural – it lashes out and breaks through with redoubled ferocity. In this case … sexual forces, which when naturally released, bring forth life, de-stress us and bring us closer to the loved one … becomes perverted. It is much like water which stays fresh and healthy only when it flows. If it is in a stagnant pool, it rots and the stink is intolerable to bear.

This is what child abusers in the garb of priesthood have shown us. This is what we learn from Nithyanand Swami’s infamous and sleazy agreement

“Volunteer understands that these activities (tantra sex) could be physically and mentally challenging, and may involve nudity, access to visual images, graphic visual depictions, and descriptions of nudity and sexual activity, close physical proximity and intimacy, verbal and written descriptions and audio sounds of a sexually oriented, and erotic nature, etc.

… and it was mandatory for his devotees to sign this. And many of them must have signed it too. This is not sex in its natural form – it is perversion.

Animals are a guide here. Animals do not watch or read porn. They do not go rape little animals – and will not do stuff like torture other animals for sexual pleasure. In fact they would not hunt or have sex for sport. When the time is right – they do it and get on with life.

I have also come upon stupid misconceptions like “Seminal Loss takes away energy from the body”. This was told to me by a very educated person with all seriousness. Wrong thing to say to me. I am prepared to argue about it – and have read a whole lot of research material that disproves it. Needless to say – the gentleman and me are not on talking terms anymore. I really shattered his illusions. For his sake I hope he grew up somewhat ….

After the death of my brother, I took to meditation. In fact meditation is one thing that kept me going when everything in my life turned topsy turvy. I found that going deep into meditation made you really get intense sexual dreams. This is the bald truth. In fact for most people on the path to spirituality have discovered it. Do click the link and read before sending me hate mails and trolling my blog please.

These days we are bombarded with titillating sexual images and messages – the TV, ads, songs … and the audio visual stimuli can overload the senses of anyone – more so the person who is trying to overcome it.

I really think that celibacy, like other misconceptions like “The Earth is flat or we would have fallen off” and “The Sun rotates round the Earth” etc etc should be thrown into the dustbin.

General update – translation – I just wanna chat

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First of all, I know I know, the blog seems colourless compared to my blog in the yesteryears.  Kya karen, my blog design had a trojan.  I hung on to it for dear life …. but had to discard it.  You guys would have abandoned me on the wayside, and I love you all and want you guys to visit and comment.  So adieu fancy blog design.  I have shed bitter tears, implored on Godji to curse all virus and other meanos.

But I have a very big axe to grind with Godji.

I’ll tell you why

1. Mayawati got that humongous thousand rupee notes garland on her birthday today, worth 15 crore or something.  Well, I had a birthday a couple of weeks ago.  I did not get even a marigold ka haar, let alone the thousand ke note ka haar.  Kyon bhai??  Simply not happening.  What has Mayawati got that I dont?  No – dont answer that!  It was a rhetorical question.

2. Another axe to grind with Godji ~  seems like all the Godmen in this country have a hot and happening sex life.  We dont :(   This is not fair.  I mean I can understand if yogis have a rocking sex life.  They eat right, exercise so their libido has to be up. ;)   What about these Godmen?  I mean just telling people to pray and meditate and dishing out commonsense and feel good mantras and gyan should not be reason for them to have all the money, the adulation and all that sex.  Aur ab this malaise is international.  We have swamijis here and priests abroad.  Kya ho raha hai.  They are having fun, bad sort of fun, sometimes evil, sometimes kinky, and here we have dull and drab lives.  Godji kuch toh socho!!!

3. Godji, my third point ~ Mera pretty pretty blog design.  Damn trojans killed it.  They effin ate it up.  Sob!!!  I am teaching myself HTML and weird stuff so that I can design me a nice header.  I am fifty years old dammit and the grey cells are not as agile as I wish they were.  Okay, I’ll behave…..  Sorry about that ;)     I am such a ham!  I simply cant resist turning the senti stuff on.  Actually I love the challenge.  I assure you, I will make me a header that is nice.  Godji help me please.

4. I have just had to refuse 6 people who wanted to help me save taxes/give me loans/issue me credit cars.  Darn!  At least there are folk out there who think I am rich.  Godji kya kartey ho yaar?  Mujhko style de diya, without the substance.  Simple hai, make me as rich as I apparently appear.

Sigh I have vented.  Now I shall go back to HTML, PHP and other sundry alphabets that will help me personalise this blog design.  Nice talking to you Godji and nice talking to you dear reader.

See ya

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

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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.