Absence of Darkness

In wake of the brutal gang rape in Delhi and the consequent protests, the social media too flared up and we expressed our views on the matter and on all related matters. Once such meme circulating in the social media is:

"The problem is men... Men shouldn't be allowed to step out of the house after 9pm unless accompanied by his mother, sister or wife !!!" - henceforth to be referred as original phrase.

Many shared the post, some shared the thought as well though seemingly unlikely to be true. Some thought it's funny, some shared it out of concern for women, some seriously believed in it. I have something to say to those who considered this post worthy to any extent.

How would you react if I say "always satisfy your wife's jewellery needs, else she might fuck other men to get those", i.e., ALL WOMEN are potential whores. That's gross, disgusting, and would make no sense to anybody whatsoever. One might say that these words can come only from the minds of a psychopath.

Now, consider the original phrase. Doesn't that mean "ALL MEN are potential sex offenders." This too is equally gross, disgusting, in the same manner. And yet, I see morons liking and sharing this meme all over the social media. It is a proof that most people don't scratch beyond the surface when it comes to thinking and reasoning.

Both the sentences are absurd. The first one may sound funny but is equally sexist and gross as the second one. It is an irony that the same people who think this way also shout that racism is bad. What it is if not racism?

Opposite of darkness is not absence of darkness, but presence of light. There is no such thing as absence of darkness. We often fail to understand this fallacy in our logic. The irony of liberalism is that those who think they are liberal, go to such extent to oppose conservatism that they themselves become conservative of opposite color. Those who oppose superstition with blind faith in science are superstitious as well. Freedom to women doesn't mean curtailment of freedom of men.

Women who hate men are considered feminists  and the society projects an image of feminists as anti-men, men hater who vow to keep distance from men. That's an illogical perception. A women who hates men might not be interested in welfare of women (except self welfare) at all and a women interested in women's welfare might be in deep love with a man as well.

Our prejudiced society gives us molds and we try to put everybody around in one or other mold, and often end up putting ourselves in one such mold.

One can either go with those predefined molds, think, talk, and do what everybody else is doing or think for herself/himself and decide. Those who liked, shared, and loved the original post had given no thought to what it actually means.

We love outsourcing, but don't do it with "thinking."

Prejudiced You - How to test your biases

Courtesy: commons.wikimedia.org

We hate apartheid. We hate racism. We hate slavery. Or do we? We have laws in the books categorizing such behavior as illegal. This may ensure eradication of biased behavior from the social scene. However, if the seeds of discrimination are stored in our thoughts, they may grow the poisonous fruits as the rain of hatred pours.

We, the pseudo-intellectual, the so-called liberals, more often than not claim to have surpassed the boundaries of discrimination, discrimination based on gender, race, color, caste, or even nationality. We say not to have preferred one over the other under the influence of our irrational biases. It feels good to know oneself as unbiased, rational, free of prejudice. But that's the description of a super-human and very unlike us. A beautiful self deception.

Ram Must Leave - Who owns Babri Masjid and why

How far should we travel in the past to deliver justice? To what extent the injustice of the history can be undone? That was the root question of the conflict, the conflict of Babri Masjid. Unfortunately, no court could answer it.

The Logic: The claim of Ram Lalla Virajman, the Hindu group representing Lord Ram (!), over the Babri Masjid land is based on the fact that there existed a temple where the mosque stood now. They claimed the temple was devoted to Ram, which is also supposedly the birthplace of Ram, was destroyed by Mir Baki Khan around 1525 CE and a mosque was constructed on its ruins. Archeological Survey of India has testified their claim to be true to the extent that the mosque was built on ruins of a temple. However, it had no means to confirm whether it was Ram's birthplace or not (no evidence of delivery room was found nor any surgical equipment).

I dispute not their claim about the existence of the temple or Babur's attempt to promote Islam. But can this fact be enough to annihilate what is standing and revive the old structure?

Sex on the Grass

Until recently glamor in cricket meant the model/actress wives of the star cricketers present during the game. And the occasional bikini-clad fans attracting the camera. I remember the incidents when after-match discussions were centered around appearance of such beauties on the screen. Incarnation of Indian Premier League has totally changed the scene. There is glamor everywhere, from the corporate offices of the teams to the grassy grounds. One can see heartthrobs from entertainment fraternity entertaining the crowd by their mere presence.

And then there are cheerleaders, giggling, hip shaking, pretty girls. Its nice relief to see some semi-nude female bodies after your eyes have gone sore tracking the tiny ball. Seems like the IPL organizers understood the human psyche pretty well. Even if you don't understand and enjoy cricket much, you can keep yourself busy looking at the pretty faces and gulping down alcohol.

The organizers of the game have made great efforts to handpick the prettiest of them around. All of them slim with flexible bodies. All of them professionals in the business of hip shaking. And all of them with shinny and fair skin. Err, I'm bit wrong here. To call them fair would be unfair. After all, they are all white-skinned Caucasian. This turns a little mysterious here. In an event which is highly Indianized and world class when it comes to the players, none of the cheerleaders are of Indian origin. What made the organizers select only white-skinned cheerleaders? They have not offered any explanations, but here are few hypotheses:

Explanation 1: There are no professional cheerleaders in India.
Justification: Is it a high-skill job that needs specific technological know how? Ain't it possible for the professional dancers and wannabe item girls to morph into cheerleaders? India has a long tradition of item girls (in cinema) and dancers. It would be difficult to believe that the IPL organizers could not find a single such dancer who could shake her hip on tunes of the ball.

Explanation 2: Indian girls would not like the skimpy outfits which are essential for cheerleaders.
Justification: Well, you gotta take a look at some Bollywood movies and music videos to verify the validity of this claim. Given the kind of skin show we encounter on television and silver screen, it is hard to accept that modesty of Indian lads would come in way of them getting into revealing clothes.

Explanation 3: TV-viewing middle class of Indian diaspora will get a punch on their morality after seeing the seduction of the brown skins.
Justification: Had that been the case, we would have been seeing exodus of middle class from multiplexes and of television radio waves from the sky. However, media viewership has increased over the years with increased nudity in contents. Nobody complains about it. In fact, the masses are saying "yeh dil mange more."

Explanation 4: Saffron politics might tag the IPL as an attack on the pavitrata of Bharatiya nari.
Justification: Now, this logic holds some value. One can never predict what can be considered as anti-national and anti-cultural (that too antient culture). Influence of a one such saffron party on the IPL head is well known. Strangely they don't have any issue with skin show on television and movies. And neither they have a problem with skin show on IPL as long as the skin is not brown.

In the end, the logic seems to circle back to the Indian preference for white skin. We are obsessed with the Caucasian race. Its the same old infatuation that started with Vasco da Gama hitting the Indian shores, long before even Indian existed.

Clarification: People with white skin might think that I've written about them or that I have some reservations about foreigners being employed in IPL. Absolutely wrong! What I'm trying to hit here is that part of Indian psyche which is boastful of their culture and at the same time, can't hide the jaw-dropping desire for everything phoren. I'm trying to hit that part of my psyche that forces me to write this in a phoren language.

Related Post: Indian Fascination About Foreign

Mera Bharat Mahan

On March 10, 2010, Sajjan Kumar and 9 other accused in 1984's Sikh massacre get bail and walk free out of Delhi High Court without even being arrested. And the security pledged was paltry Rs 50,000. The cost of 2733 lives slaughtered in 1984 is just Rs 500,000, thats Rs 183 per life!


On the other hand, Dr Binayak Sen was incarcerated for almost 1 year before he could get bail. What was his crime? Suspicion that he has connection with Maoist. Few letters supposedly written by Maoist leaders and some other article. The Government of Chhattisgarh (India) thinks that reading these letters and articles makes you criminal. What Dr Sen did in the rural villages of Chhattisgarh? Treated the tribal and poor villagers there whom government failed to provide even the basic medical facility.

It took almost one year, protest by various human right activists, and intervention of international bodies before he could be granted a bail. All this drama even though there was no evidence against him.

Now, as August 15 comes, you will roam around with a Rs 5 batch of tricolour and sing "Mera Bharat Mahan." And of course, you have to vote to change the society, change the system, just as you have done for the last 60 odd years.
Related Post: The Lesser Devils

The Lesser Devils

Government of India has stepped up its rhetoric on two fronts, towards West and East directions.

Delhi has been demanding to Islamabad that it take action on Hafiz Saeed, supposedly the mastermind of 26/11 terrorist attack in Bombay. "We have given the dossier containing all evidence against Hafiz Saeed and Pakistan is yet to take any action" shouts the minister over the microphones. "Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday criticized Pakistan for allowing Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed to make provocative anti-India statements despite New Delhi having given clear information of his role in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks." becomes the headline of Indian dailies.

Going East, the office bearers and the media alike have been barking at the highest pitch of their voice, claiming that Australian government has done very little or nothing to protect the people of Indian origin from racial attacks. I do not know how racist the attacks are in reality, but certainly the Indian government seems to be quite concerned about the well being of Indian nationals and people of Indian origin.

In the purview of the events and rhetoric by India that followed, it would be worth to dig the Indian government's emotions and actions a little bit. One would not be surprised to find that all that glitters is thin foil of aluminum and beneath lies the darkness of dead and decayed emotions, infested by inaction and reluctance.

Government of India does not feel ashamed to ask other nations to take action even though it has hardly done anything to bestow justice to the people of its own land who have been gunned down and buried in the same soil. Hardly anybody has been grilled for anti-Sikh riot of 1984 even after 26 long years. On the roads of democratic India, 2733 throats were slit in 1984 and so far, only 13 have been found guilty!

Most recently (Feb 2010), one of the accused, Sajjan Kumar, associated with ruling Congress Party of India, was issued a non-bailable warrant in connection with 1984 riots. He escaped miraculously from being arrested (is that possible without favors?) and the immediate next day, was granted bail by High Court. All of this seemed to be part of a movie, planned in advance.

Many accused, of great political stature, still continue to enjoy the breath of freedom in an air-conditioned ministerial office, holding posts of national importance. Yet many others high rankers have never been named in the dusting files of the case, who need no introduction to the Sikh child born decades after the incident.

Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya and the riots that followed in 1992 were no different. 2000 lives were sacrificed in this holy city, staining the bank of Sarayu in blood. We still see the masterminds of the act waving hands, shouting speeches, winning elections, and ruling the land. The complete attack was video filmed and surprisingly that evidence falls short to prove anything in the court of law.

Then it was Godhra, Gujarat, in 2002. Two compartments of train filled with Hindu pilgrims were burnt alive, strong smell of roasting flesh filled the air. What followed were retaliatory attacks on Muslims spearheaded by .... um, I guess you know who. 1106 humans were butchered in a state where it is illegal to slaughter cattle. People were charred to ball of flesh, throats ripped off, minor girls rapped, wombs torn apart. And still after 8 years of 365 days each, still, still you find "Honorable" prefixed to those names, names which should have been replaced by a number given to the jail inmates.

Bombay has seen the racial abuse of South Indian restaurant owners when Marathi right-wing leaders could not tolerate growing population of South Indians in the city. And Mumbai saw the same being done with North Indian laborers. People speaking languages different from Marathi were beaten black and white, their property stolen and destroyed. Rights of the citizens were reduced to sobbing and blaming their fate. Now a days, very few individuals in Mumbai have the right to decide what to say, what to do, what to wear, and whether to make love or not. Life had been held hostage time and again by the saffron captor. And the state government, even though ideologically diagonal to the saffron brigade, has no courage to take even baby steps towards epicenter of hate. Its an irony that in this country, the law-breakers are the ones who promise that rule of law will prevail if they are chosen as the representative.

Christian community has felt the nervousness of existence in this country as minority. They and their dwellings have been burnt alike in Orissa. Places of worship destroyed and civilian rights diminished in Karnataka. Weren't these acts of racism, the same racism that inspired attacks and killings of Indians in Australia?

May be Hafiz Saeed's political and religious importance in Pakistan is similar to that of bosses of saffron brigade in India. If India cannot arrest and prosecute prominent Indian leaders for the crimes committed in India, how can Pakistan touch Hafiz Saeed for 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. Hafiz Saeed may be the reason for death of 209 Indians, but what of those who were responsible for genocide of thousands and thousands of Indians.

If India cannot check on racism in Maharashtra, Karnataka, or Orissa, then how can it dictate to Australia about safety of Indians there. Racial abuse in Australia can be counted, but same cannot be said about Maharashtra, Karnataka, or Orissa. The incidents in India vastly outnumber those in Australia.

But the answers of the questions asked are hardly coming. Is anybody listening? Is anybody even interested in seeing home bread and home fed terrorists prosecuted? If the nation cannot protect its citizens and provide them justice on its own land, then it has very little right to ask for justice on the foreign land.

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I'm accepting and expecting constructive creative criticism.

Indian Fascination About Foreign

While traveling back from Hampi, I encountered something that is much talked about and is already known, the Indians' fascination about foreigners. I found few Indian co-passengers dying to talk to few foreigners who were sitting next. The Indian guy was desperate to help and guide those 2 German ladies even without their intention to ask for any advice. This transported me to thinking mode asking why Indians are so fascinated about foreigners, foreign goods/brands, people living abroad, and almost everything foreign as if their shit smell better than ours.

On discussion, one of my friend suggested "it is because we give too much importance to fair skin color." In media or marriage, fair skin color is preferred and probably this is what explains Indians' fascination. But I say, this may be not be the complete truth and limited to females, because I've never seen any excessively fair local guy being treated like outsiders, not even to slightest extent. Moreover, in media and in marriages, many a times tall, dark, and handsome is the way to go.

Another friend suggested, since most Indians won't be able to visit other countries and hence, by talking and being friendly with foreigners, they want to get a feel of the land beyond seas. If this is true, then Indians must be as inquisitive to people of African origin as they are to Caucasians. Unfortunately, that does not hold.

Finally, a third friend suggested that "the persons who had willingly worked under British domination, had tried to ape them so much that they passed on the habit to their offspring." This seems to hold some truth but does not justify the fact that this phenomenon involves the whole India diaspora not just those who worked under British.

Another more general conclusion, "foreigners pay triple than an India and they don't bargain." That may be true for most foreigners and explains much of the hotels' and business owners' preference for customers with a Visa. But what I'm referring here is more generalized "thrill" associated with foreign in Indian psyche.

My conclusion: In Indian subcontinent, there exists cast system which has been hereditary for the past hundreds of years if not thousands. Hence, membership of a particular jati is by birth and what a member of that jati does for living is pretty much predefined. The Kshatriyas were kings and warriors, the Brahmins were teachers, scholars and priests, the Vaishyas were traders, and Shudras were agriculturists, service providers, and some artisan groups. This hierarchy was and is not just for division of work but also for defining social status, the facilities available to a cast, and to what extent a person was oppressed by members of higher casts. Also, Mughals too became part of this hierarchy after their invasion. Under such conditions, it is pretty much clear that proximity to higher cast had obvious advantages.

Even if social conditions were not at all bad for lower casts, getting closer to people who are considered superior is certainly advantageous and this behavior is somehow embedded in human psyche. Sometime there are direct benefits of this association, like if you know a film star, you may get a break in movies. More often, there are indirect benefits, like if you know a film star, you get better treatment by your friends and neighbors. Now, what would you do when you find a film star sitting next to you? Start a conversation as soon as possible!!! Isn't it? At least that's what our subconscious directs us to do. This explains why would people in somewhat egalitarian societies would still want to get associated with outsiders who give the appearance of superiority.

In India, Caucasian foreigners dominated for some 200 years and had the physical features similar to or even better than Aryans, the probable ancestors of Kshatriyas and the characters of ancient scriptures/epic, e.g. Ram, Arjun, etc. The physical features and dominance over Indian soil gave an impression that Caucasians belong to the higher end of the cast hierarchy. So, the point is Caucasian foreigners were and are considered elite, noble. And hence, the obvious follows, Indians jump to get associated with them since that is what their subconscious tells, "get closer to higher cast."

The aftermath: Now, we Indians have accepted the fact consciously or unconsciously that there are loads of benefits of being associated with higher class and/or giving the feel of association by way of imitating their mannerism which among other things heightens the status in society.

And the consequence:

1. Many Indians have abandoned their native language and speak English which has also become unofficially official language of independent India (which could not free itself from the foreign language) to be used in parliament.

2. Indians have abandoned their attire (I have never wore a dhoti) .

3. Indians often like to be called by an foreign-sounding name instead of their original names, such as Viky instead of Vikram, Sandy instead of Saundarya.

4. Indians read far more books in English than in other regional languages which is reflected by the meagre number of books published in regional languages and their skimpy price compared to English ones demonstrate that no one is ready to pay more for them.

5. Also, if you notice you will find that foreignm movies are rated much higher than similar regional movies by the newspapers/magazines.

There are numerous such examples which show our preference for foreign and we still take pride in so called Indian culture. Boy! We look so much like Kshatriyas now.