A Spring in chilly December

      This is a New Year gift to India, Spring  in the chilly December of  NewDelhi. I hope this onset of Spring would  spread its joy and fragrance to the other parts of India as well. Yes the December Spring  of AAP, the new political child, is  a history, a romantic revolution in India. I have not seen such a devotion, such a honesty, such a morality, such a compassion in politics.It is incredible.I heard Kejriwal speaking the other day after his swearing in ceremony, his speech was from the heart and that was really appealing.

      No other political party(even communists who vouch for the poor) in Independent India tried to shun the VIP culture of India, no other party seem to be so ethical and devoted to the cause of nation. I am pretty excited about the changes that AAP is trying to bring in Delhi. This is a real revolution in India where politicians cling on to the colonial legacy that British had left and maintain the status quo. First time in my life, I start believing in a political party, in people, in a better India.

    It takes immense courage and will power to be an Arvind Kejriwal in the rotten political scenario of India. He doesn’t have any political backing, and family legacy, no money or muscle power as it happens in Indian politics.

    A true leader is a true servant also, Arvind proved to be a true leader by his sincere desire to serve the people, by his ability to feel the pain of those who are down and unfortunate. He is a bright star in the political and social horizon of India.I pray to God to give him long life to make India a nation free from the cancer of corruption and nepotism.

    Last year Delhi had conveyed a positive message with her spirited protest against the brutal rape of a young girl, India never witnessed that kind of massive protest before. And that forced the government to implement new laws to protect women. And this year Delhi chose to vote in the true spirit of a mature democracy.

    Is this the shift of universal conscience?I do not know, but I choose to believe so. I could see many positive changes happening in India. I think India does have a moral standing over the rest of the world, this is the land of Mahatma Gandhiji, who inspired the humanity with his message of peace when the world was at war. True, sometimes Spring may arrive even in Winter.

A Tale of two India

       

     This is the story of two Indian women, one is a diplomat and the other is a domestic help. The former was arrested in USA on the complaint of the later for being under paid. I do not agree with the treatment of US towards this Diplomat, as always US is aggressive and adamant in her approach. US was defensive when someone called David shot two Pakistani’s at point blank few months back citing his diplomatic status, but this is exclusively for her citizens. I do agree that US justice system is comparatively fair, but only for her citizens, for others it can be a menace.

       Anyways, In India, it is still the semi-feudal attitude that guide an average Indian. The diplomat’s arrest was evoked quick reactions and response, but the domestic help remained unheard. I do not want to go into the details of this case, but our attitude as a civilized society is astonishing. The Diplomat represent an elite India having the means and ways to be heard, and the domestic help represent an India that is marginalized and unheard.

    Our casteist and semi feudal society do not consider manuel labour a dignified work and most of the time it is the lower caste people who do the ‘dirty works’ of upper and middle class India. We looked down on our maids,drivers and other labourers. We have thousands of cases where maids and workers are underpaid ill treated  and in a worst inhuman manner. Often they do not even be treated as a fellow human being, it is misfortune that force them to take up this jobs. We do not have a law to protect them, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are the only two states that have a law in place to protect the right of domestic help. As a Keralite, I know manuel labourers are decently paid and least exploited. But rest of India is lagging behind.

     Why we as a society fail our unfortunate children who do not have the means to have an education or a dignified life? Why we lack empathy as a society? I do not have an answer, perhaps the thriving materialism, lack of values in our whole system, and so many other trappings of modernity. Whatever it is I feel compassion is an essential quality of a human being, without that we are like a walking machine, so hollow and lifeless. Let us be more compassionate and considerate as a society.

Collective Silence of Media

  

       I was very passionate about journalism when I was a student thinking that it would be an ideal way to change the society. But having tasted the bitter-sweet pill, I realized it was just another dream of an idealist. So I do not have any such ‘utopian ideas’ now, I do understand that media is monopoly of a few elite and they do serve the interests of the rich and influential, journalist is a mere tool in their hands. Sadly, it is the reality of democratic India where media pride themselves as the fourth estate.   

       The collective silence of the media over the alleged  hit and run incident(two people alleged to have been killed in the incident) of Akash Ambani(son of Mukesh Ambani) on December seven is a perfect example how media plays into the hands of rich. No media had reported about the incident and those few reported, later removed it from their web site. This collective silence of  Media in this incident is astonishing. Besides Mukesh Ambani has got the political patronage and all the system dance according to the tune of his Empire.This is a modern era Kingdom where the King is the super rich man and everything including government is controlled by his remote. We must be ashamed about our so called ‘Democracy’.

       Media’s only concern is revenue and has been lowered to the level of just another business, so they are too scared to speak up against the rich who contribute to their revenue. In Indian context, the whole system functions in a  feudal and semi-feudal  way that too contribute to the extreme power of people like Ambani. Unfortunately we respect those who are having money and power, but look down upon poor. It is just pathetic to say the least.

        Media hardly play a constructive role in the society rather go behind glitters and glamour, and so much focused on the trivias of the rich and famous. In such  a scenario,it hardly deserve to be termed as pillar of Democracy.

Culture of Silence

Tarun Tejpal is a classic example of hypocritical India where we preach something and practice just the opposite. Here is a man who claims to be the voice of the voiceless tries to silence the female colleague by character assassination to protect his ‘reputation’. Indian patriarchal mind- set considers woman as a property of man, thus character assassination works so well in a society that blames the victim. Blaming the victim and the concept of the ‘purity’ of a woman solely based on her body bring in a ‘culture of silence’ in the society regarding sexual crimes. Most of the times even girl’s family discourages her from speaking up fearing ill reputation.

 It  is shocking to realize that how a man is so focused on sex that made him stoop to the level to misbehave  even  with  his daughter’s best friend.  When we speak of sexual crimes, we attribute it to lack of education, and the uneducated and uncivilized men from lower strata of society are targeted. We conveniently forget the shallow treatment and exploitation of women by the sophisticated elite.

I appreciate the young journalist who dared to take on a high profile and well connected person like Tejpal despite the ‘culture of silence’ prevails here. In this profession, a woman has to be four times smarter than a man to be considered equal to him, unfortunately women have to face lot of sexual prejudices in media houses also.  Men of power and money think that it is their prerogative to treat women as they want. I think it is every woman’s duty to support this young girl for her fight for justice.

 Unfortunately the family of the men always support their rapist husband/father/brother  etc, whereas I doubt whether the men would support their females in such contextI mean when a women commit any serious crime). Most  disturbing example is  Ruchika  molestation case where the culprit  Rathod’s wife  was his advocate in the case. As a woman I couldn’t digest the fact that a woman appeared for his molester husband whose heinous actions   forced a teenager to commit suicide.I hope,if the women folks in family come out against their male partner’s misbehavior, things may change for the better.

Black is Beautiful

     Actor Nandita Das pioneers a new cause  by batting for the dark skinned girls in a fair-skin obsessed society. Besides a talented actor-director, Nandita is one of the best brains and a gem of a person. She greatly deserves appreciation for taking up this cause. Dark skin is not considered beautiful and women are biased based on their skin colour. Light skinned girls are favoured in the glamour industry and marriage market in India.  My little niece often complains how she is let down by her teachers and other students due to her skin colour despite being an  intelligent and talented girl. As a light skinned south Indian, I am often asked  ‘Keralites are dark skinned, why are you light skinned.' Once a North Indian businessman in Chennai embarrassed me with his  extreme racial prejudice, he has gone to the extend of saying that he avoids being friends with black people there.

      I have been asked few times by western men about our preference of light skinned girls in the film-model industry, but it is the same in Hollywood as well. Despite being an immigrant country, having different ethnic community,most of the Hollywood  actress’ are white European origin girls. Even today white race cannot escape from the superiority complex and brown-black race from inferiority complex.

   Anyways, obsession to fair skin is not exclusively Indian , rest of the world has its contribution too. In Macleodganj, Tibetan girls are the highest consumers of whitening creams (It is strange because they are light skinned people). When  

I had gone to TCV(Tibetan Childrens Village) to meet a Tibetan student,I was surprised to see her mother gifting a 13 year old girl whitening creams.To my advice against whitening creams especially on tender skin , she retorted that many girls use it there. I heard light skinned Chinese origin girls are preferred in Thai glamour industry. Japan,Korea etc also have their share of colour prejudices.

     There must be an attitudinal shift to appreciate black skin and understand it is not colour of skin that decides one’s looks. And in a look-obsessed world, we must go beyond the skin to appreciate real beauty.

Why men rape?

Once my Swiss friend Mat Berthod had narrated an experience that shocked him. He is a regular in India, in one of his visits to Kovalam,Kerala,he went to a poor family where the man of the house was resting on the only bed they had while the woman was lying on a mat on the floor. It might be a normal sight for us and many of us do not feel anything unusual about this. But my friend told me it is very impolite to make your woman sleep on the floor while you are sleeping on bed.That day I thought about the status of women in our family, of course family is a mirror to our society.True, we must learn to respect women from our family. Why men rape? This question arise a thousand times in my mind while seeing all the sexual violence around me. Is this lack of respect for women?male aggression? Lust? lack of self-respect,Perversion? All together?I am not able find an answer though I feel lack of respect for women is the main reason of rape and other violence against women. When you respect women you cease to view her as an object for your entertainment or a piece of meat. People all over India is demanding death sentence to rapists, though punishment is important,I think to root out a crime we must know the cause, otherwise it is like applying pain killers for pain, the pain would retrieve. Rape is a heinous crime not only the body, but soul too is assaulted here. Our culture doesn’t respect women,often they suffer silently at the hands of an abusive husband.Beating a woman is very normal in our culture and many times it is used as a weapon to silence women. . Change must begin from within about the way women are treated and the kind of values we give to our children. India is very much patriarchal where a girl is considered a liability and a boy is considered an asset purely due to financial reasons. So that female is considered inferior and male child is pampered especially by the mother. Besides our society is too conservative even to accept a healthy friendship between a boy and girl, and often create a ‘Berlin wall’ between them. There is no sex education in schools or colleges and women are looked as commodities and men treat them as if they are made for their entertainment, modern day main stream films, advts etc also promote this concept of ‘commodification’ of a woman’s body,obviously to feast the male eye’s on. Last, but not least is the social stigma attached to rape, so that many cases go unreported. It is not the rapist, but the victim who is alienated from society by our medieaval mentality. Society must support emotionally and socially the victim