Wednesday, December 30, 2009
2009-The year
It was the year the unthinkable happened.The Congress beat predictions to return to the Centre, Ramalinga Raju shook our faith in corporates, the Maoists got deadlier and Team India jumped to the top of the Tests. IT was the year the banks laid an egg, MPs' expenses were laid bare, and Michael Jaclson was laid to rest.It was the year in which 'Abusive' Celebrities' like Shiney Ahuja,Suchitra Krishnamoorthy ,TV actress Urvashi Dholakia, singer Adnan Sami and Vinod Kambli's wife Anderea came to light.It was an year where Acts of discipline, corporal punishment, subversive experiments claim young lives,a year in which Goa was more famous for serial murders and rapes than beaches.Year 2009 saw worldwide more than 208 countries reporting laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1.History was recreated as Barack Obama was elected the 1st African-American president of the United States.....With all this 2010 i welcome
2009-The year
It was the year the unthinkable happened.The Congress beat predictions to return to the Centre, Ramalinga Raju shook our faith in corporates, the Maoists got deadlier and Team India jumped to the top of the Tests. IT was the year the banks laid an egg, MPs' expenses were laid bare, and Michael Jaclson was laid to rest.It was the year in which 'Abusive' Celebrities' like Shiney Ahuja,Suchitra Krishnamoorthy ,TV actress Urvashi Dholakia, singer Adnan Sami and Vinod Kambli's wife Anderea came to light.It was an year where Acts of discipline, corporal punishment, subversive experiments claim young lives,a year in which Goa was more famous for serial murders and rapes than beaches.Year 2009 saw worldwide more than 208 countries reporting laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1.History was recreated as Barack Obama was elected the 1st African-American president of the United States.....With all this 2010 i welcome
Saturday, March 14, 2009
How SAFE are we as we see yet another Internation Women's Day pass by......
As we cross another IWD on 9th Mar, i am forced to think, are women liberated in India, are we safe and moreover than anything are we living in a cultured society.If yes, then why is it that women are always assaulted either mentally or sexuality by the very men who are there to protect them.Why is it that the very protecting hands turn to harm them.The first news that i woke up to on 9th March was of my domestic help being brutally beaten up by her drunk husband.Our very surrounding make hundreds of questions popping in my brain.As i recall the Mumbai hooligan act in which a woman was attacked by a group of men on new year eve,i am forced to rethink about our society.When our very own foundation is weak, the roots are not strong, then how can we even think of constructing a tall building. Are we besides anything else even civilized.
Half of the world's population is discriminated against because of their gender. To be born as a woman implies being a second class citizen. Two-thirds of the planet's illiterate are women and girls; a half-million women die every year while pregnant or giving birth; two-thirds of the children who are not going to school are girls; more women suffer from HIV/AIDS than men; women work two-thirds of the total work hours, but only receive one-third of the income; 70 percent of women live in poverty. These statistics clearly indicate that we are still far from reaching gender equality. Women continue to suffer serious violations of their rights.
AND WE SAY WE ARE LIBERATED.........................
Violence against women is becoming increasingly visible in our country. Many say that actually the incidents of violence are not increasing, it is only that we are seeing more of them because of higher reporting. Without going into debate into whether violence is increasing or remains the same, it can be said without a doubt that it remains at a very high level. Fortunately the struggles of the women’s movement have been able to bring the debate on violence against women out into the public arena and we can now add the term “unacceptable” to qualify the high level of violence in our society.
Much of the violence against women takes place in private, at home, behind closed doors and within the family. Dowry murders, domestic violence, deprivation and discrimination against girls and sex selective abortions are witness to the high incidence of violence against women within the family. Incidents like the two reported above provide just a glimpse of the violence that takes place in public places. Add to this the violence against women that takes place in state institutions like the police station and the hospital or sterilisation camps and you have a mind boggling variety and overwhelming incidence of violence that women are actually subjected to.
While violence against women is experienced wholly by women, men remain very important players in the equation. It is convenient to label it a women’s issue and then look the other way. The usual righteous excuses - 'I treat my daughters and sons equally'; 'I do not beat my wife and so it does not concern me', etc. are too short-sighted. As fathers, brothers, husbands, friends, and even as members of society at large, men contribute to this situation not only as perpetrators and silent sympathizers but also as passive if not cynical observers. If violence against women is unacceptable and it has to come down this situation must change. Men - in the family and in society - must start owning responsibility for the change. Men as husbands, fathers and brothers must start by examining and changing their own behavior towards other members of their family. And the men who remained silent observers all this while must change into active protesters.
All this talk of change can sound unrealistic and unattainable, but in fact is not so. Small experiments along similar lines have already started in different corners of India. These seek to involve men in the efforts to reduce violence against women, and they have been started by ordinary people. In some places there are teachers who discuss these issues with their students, in others professionals from different walks of life have formed groups to fight violence and abuse, there are film-makers who have started exploring the issue through their own medium, and a state-wide network of men has been started in one place to stop violence against women. These are very important efforts but at the same time these are very small.
The need of the hour is for all concerned and sensitive men to realize that violence against women is an unacceptable aspect of our society and that all must join in such efforts to stop it.
Half of the world's population is discriminated against because of their gender. To be born as a woman implies being a second class citizen. Two-thirds of the planet's illiterate are women and girls; a half-million women die every year while pregnant or giving birth; two-thirds of the children who are not going to school are girls; more women suffer from HIV/AIDS than men; women work two-thirds of the total work hours, but only receive one-third of the income; 70 percent of women live in poverty. These statistics clearly indicate that we are still far from reaching gender equality. Women continue to suffer serious violations of their rights.
AND WE SAY WE ARE LIBERATED.........................
Violence against women is becoming increasingly visible in our country. Many say that actually the incidents of violence are not increasing, it is only that we are seeing more of them because of higher reporting. Without going into debate into whether violence is increasing or remains the same, it can be said without a doubt that it remains at a very high level. Fortunately the struggles of the women’s movement have been able to bring the debate on violence against women out into the public arena and we can now add the term “unacceptable” to qualify the high level of violence in our society.
Much of the violence against women takes place in private, at home, behind closed doors and within the family. Dowry murders, domestic violence, deprivation and discrimination against girls and sex selective abortions are witness to the high incidence of violence against women within the family. Incidents like the two reported above provide just a glimpse of the violence that takes place in public places. Add to this the violence against women that takes place in state institutions like the police station and the hospital or sterilisation camps and you have a mind boggling variety and overwhelming incidence of violence that women are actually subjected to.
While violence against women is experienced wholly by women, men remain very important players in the equation. It is convenient to label it a women’s issue and then look the other way. The usual righteous excuses - 'I treat my daughters and sons equally'; 'I do not beat my wife and so it does not concern me', etc. are too short-sighted. As fathers, brothers, husbands, friends, and even as members of society at large, men contribute to this situation not only as perpetrators and silent sympathizers but also as passive if not cynical observers. If violence against women is unacceptable and it has to come down this situation must change. Men - in the family and in society - must start owning responsibility for the change. Men as husbands, fathers and brothers must start by examining and changing their own behavior towards other members of their family. And the men who remained silent observers all this while must change into active protesters.
All this talk of change can sound unrealistic and unattainable, but in fact is not so. Small experiments along similar lines have already started in different corners of India. These seek to involve men in the efforts to reduce violence against women, and they have been started by ordinary people. In some places there are teachers who discuss these issues with their students, in others professionals from different walks of life have formed groups to fight violence and abuse, there are film-makers who have started exploring the issue through their own medium, and a state-wide network of men has been started in one place to stop violence against women. These are very important efforts but at the same time these are very small.
The need of the hour is for all concerned and sensitive men to realize that violence against women is an unacceptable aspect of our society and that all must join in such efforts to stop it.
The latest Harakare done on me
Fear is a very small word, of just 4 alphabets yet so big.Everyone gets scared at some time in life however one needs to overcome it.Once done, suddenly the 4 letter word actually seems like a 4 letter word.That's what happened with me.The day i was admitted in the hospital, i was scared.The very thought of operation was like some unknown danger that lay ahead.Time passed and so did the night, slowly and slowly.As i lay on the hospital bed, i could smell the strange peculiar smell that was around me, slowly i drifted into another world of dreams and then i was brought back to this world by the sister.To my horror, the dreaded morning had come.I was to go for the operation and my heart sank at the thought of it.I changed into the hospital gown and sat on the hospital bed to be taken to the operation theatre.The strange surrounding seemed familiar as i was venturing into another strange surrounding.I was dropped to the Operation Theatre by my mother who was trying to ease me to the utmost.As i entered the OT, i suddenly felt like the hens who were being taken for being butchered.I could sense their feeling as i was feeling the same.As i waited for my turn, i had a strange feeling of running away in which my good sense prevailed and i did not.The last i remembered was the lights getting blurr, my eyes droopy as i lay down with the panel of docs. beside me.I woke up to find myself as a new person.
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