Killing in the name of Honor !!!

Over the last few days, I have been reading with curiosity and amusement the news of so called "honor killings" in the Northern states of India. Unfortunately it has spread its tentacles to South India. Numerous couples have been killed by the family members because the families felt that the couples have brought disgrace by falling in love and getting married outside their caste, or for that matter getting married in the same 'gotra'. The family members had the audacity in justifying their acts and in one particular instance I was horrified to know that a mother was involved in the killing of her daughter and it seems that she had no remorse for her deeds. The word which is more often we are hearing now a days is "Khap Panchayat" who are acting as so called moral police. According to me, these panchayats are nothing but a motley of people who have no work and wants to gain prominence by practicing medieval culture in the name of honor and tradition. We talk of India being a democratic country with our constitution providing us the Right to Freedom and Liberty and but looks like we don't have the right to chose our life partner? We as Indian have condemned the honor killing or "Talibanisation" of Islamic society and yet such acts are being carried out in our country. We as a country dream of being equals among the developed countries but such acts push us backward.

These so called Honor killing are social evil which according to me should be dealt with firmly and with heavy hand. Proper education,awareness and better and stricter implementation of laws protecting the human rights of the people should help in tackling the situation. It should be the responsibility of the government to see to it that laws are implemented properly but above all it is "We" who can make a difference by raising our voice against such barbaric act.

So called Swamijis!!

In the last few months, there has been lots of news involving the so called Swamijis and their scandals. I have myself seen how these people influence innocent and vulnerable people in the name of providing peace and enlightenment. Have seen how educated, smart and intelligent people are swayed by their gullible talks. These fake people with their conniving talks have made people believe that they are representatives of GOD in this earth and it is through them we can reach HIM, through them all our pains will be erased and we will get peace and tranquility and the supreme power will bestow his blessings on us. If these people are so called manifestation of HIM in this world, then why do they need to lead a life of luxury? Why cant they lead a life of austerity? It makes me wonder what is their contribution to this society, their contribution in eradicating poverty, in providing education and making this world a better place to live in? What is their contribution is erasing violence and removing hatred from people's mind? But should we blame these fake people or should we blame the followers of these people who believe in each and every word of these people as gospel truth? We all know that we are the children of the GOD and he is our parent. Do we need any medium to talk with our parent? In this world when we have any issues with our mortal parents, do we seek any outsider to mediate with them?
Then why do we need any body else to come between us and GOD ?

We all have ups and downs in our lives and during our lowest ebb, we are in a very vulnerable mental strength and sometimes we want some miracles to happen to remove the pain from our life and it is this state of our mind which is taken advantage of. We should all know that and of course it is my personal belief that it is the test of our mental strength and test of our belief in HIM.It's God's way of testing us.Moreover it is a cycle, every good phase is preceded by a bad one and vice versa.I dont think we need any body to convey our feelings to our parents. If we are thankful to GOD during our good phase, we should also accept his test with utmost humility and come out with flying colors.

After all, "Jo jeeta wohi sikandar". What say?

Women Emancipation!!!

Recently there had been lot of debates and fuss about women's reservation bill in India and we had quite a few oppositions to it and I came across one of the most interesting comment made by a politician :

"If the Women's Reservation Bill would be passed in its present form, it would help women belonging to the families of industrialists and bureaucrats, who were of the kind youths would want to whistle at."

Those who were/are in favor of the bill said that it is a step forward towards emancipation of the women. All these comments in for/against made me thinking. I am not a feminist but am truly in favor of equal rights for man/woman..in fact I believe that every living being in this world should be treated equally irrespective of color, creed, gender, nationality etc. Will the bill really help in emancipation of women? We are in the 21st century and are we really emancipated? Even today, women are looked down upon and we have cases of female infanticide, hear/see violence against women every other day. Woman across all sections of the society are victims of abuse, either directly or indirectly. Yeah violence doesn't mean physical one, I believe that mental torture is the biggest violence and the most cruel one.With gradual healing, signs of physical abuse can be healed but what about the mental ones. It might take years to become alright and yet a person might not be. What an irony !! In India, we pray to goddess for peace, prosperity and power and yet we abuse the female form. My family has always treated me as an equal and they have never considered me less than anybody and have fulfilled all my wishes/demands and I must say that I am lucky in that. But yet I have been a victim myself, though indirectly and sometimes it has taken a toll on my self-esteem and pride but lucky me that I have always overcome them and have come out of them in flying colors. The funny part is that it's not my family but outsiders who have tried to make me understand that am a gal and I should behave/act in a certain way.A couple of funny incidences which comes to my mind happened during my engineering days. One of them happened in my 1st year, a senior guy became my so called elder brother and gave me lectures on how should I study and why must I not go out of the hostel in the evenings and blah blah. Come to think of it, the guy who was lecturing me himself used to make passes at gals. Oh! yeah,the funny part which I am facing now. My family is searching groom for me and one of the questions/conditions,whatever that is being put forth before me is that I should quit my job after marriage to look after the family. Sometimes I laugh at these comments but yeah it makes me wonder that I spent 20 years of my life in school and college to get the best of education and then it took me around 10 years to reach the position where I am and how can somebody ask me to quit it in a jiffy? How can somebody else take decision on my behalf? Am I not mature enough to take my own decision on how best I can handle my professional and personal life? Well,not all people are like that but yeah majority of them are. Will increasing the number of women in parliament/legislative assemblies help in reducing all these issues? Yeah agreed more women participation means more voices will be raised to discuss or highlight the plight of women but will it help in resolving /reducing them? I am being optimistic and do hope and sincerely pray that this bill starts a silent revolution.

However, I believe that the icing in the cake will be a positive change in the mentality of the people and they started looking upon the women folk as equals and not as some kind of object.

Give me some sunshine!!

"Give me some sunshine"--This song from 3-Idiots reminds me of my days in Nagpur. In fact,it sums of my days in Nagpur. Nagpur--the best years of my life. I learnt a lot during those years of my stay. I came on my own there. It is so funny that I find so much similarity with that song. Quite true, before every result, I will be praying to God to help me in clearing my papers. The longer it took for the results to come out, the more feverent used to be my prayer. Luckily for me, I learnt how to crack the exams by the time I reached my 4th year. It's true that I wanted to flunk in my 1st year so that my parents will call me back home :)..I never wanted to be an engineer. I wanted to go to JNU to study literature. More than Shelly, Keats and Wordsworth and Lord Byron, I was fascinated by JNU - rather blue Jeans, khadi kurta and kolhapuri chappals :). But alas,my dreams of joining JNU remained a dream only.Now, when I look back I have no regrets. I always and still feel that whatever I studied--rather mugged during those days are kind of useless to me. The Engineering Drawing, Engineering Mechanics, control systems ....hmm...never used anything of them to practice after I came out of college. If I am granted one wish, I would certainly love to go back to my college days in Nagpur. Well, would love break rules, bunk classes, spend long hours with my college gang in the tea stall..which we used to call "Tapri" and then on the spur on the moment go out for dinner with the whole gang and make some one pay by making him/her "Bakra"...But also would like to revisit the books and try to make use of the stuffs practically...

Give me some sunshine
Give me some rain
Give me another chance
I wanna grow up once again

Beginning of a new Decade !!!

It's the 2nd day of this year. It just dawned upon me that besides being the beginning of a new year, it is also the starting of a new decade. The last decade has shaped my life considerably.What I am and where I am,the foundation was laid in the beginning of the previous decade. There is some one else other than me which has seen so many ups and down, infact, looks like we both grew together in the last ten years, and that some one is my country "India".India is counted among the emerging economies. Lot of things have improved. We have better roads, better infrastructure and better living conditions than it was before yet we cannot ignore the fact that India lies in its villages. There are thousand of villages which still doesnt have the most basic facilities. If we need to make India numero uno, we need to take care of these villages. I think the popular adage "Roti, kapda aur Makaan" still holds true.

I am sure that in the coming years, both of us will strengthen our place in this beautiful world.

Chakde India !!