Its Time....

It is with sadness and shame that one heard the news of the Delhi gang rape victim succumbing to her injuries. It is a time for mourning and it is a time for condolences. It is also a time of introspection. It is a time to ask ourselves why this happens again and again in our society and what can be done to make sure incidents like this are reduced, if not outright eradicated.

Without question, our laws are outdated and needs change. In a country where life imprisonment is 14 yrs and where rape is generally seen as a lesser crime we need to decide what would be an adequate deterrent to it. The current punishments have proven to be inadequate and ineffective. We need to look at increasing the term of imprisonments and include the death penalty in those rarest of the rare instances. But this is not enough. More importantly, we need to see rape equally no matter who the involved parties are. Instead of the complicated mess of a law we have right now, the crime and its punishment should be made uniform.

Like in the west, we need to have a sexual offender database and make it public. The database should be for those convicted of any sexual crime with the biggest red flags assigned to child sex molesters. In crimes like these and in a society like ours social ostracism can and will be the biggest deterrent of all.

The experiences of victims at police stations have resulted in a majority of rapes going unreported. We need to have a mechanism where the first person to talk to a victim is a qualified rape counselor. That and more women officers in the police station will bring about a dramatic change in this.

More than anything our societal attitude toward women needs to change. In our society rape is the one crime where the victim is seen to be at fault as much as the perpetrators. Women are seen as the repository of familial honor. Due to which often the victim is seen as the one dishonored rather than the perpetrator. This change is the most important and possibly the most difficult to achieve. It probably will require a more communal push than any of the other changes mentioned above.

To stop these crimes from recurring again and again, there is an overwhelming amount of change that needs to happen; in our laws, in our government policies and above all in our communities. But how many more Amanaths and Daminis do we need before we make this change. If not now, then when?

Goodbye Sachin!!! - A fan's Adieu

I was 11 when I first watched Sachin Tendulkar. I remember a couple of friends and I discussing his selection on the school bus and we were outraged at the time. We had heard of this school boy who broke a world record in school cricket. School cricket is one thing, but here is a guy who was only 4 yrs older than us who were being called up to play for the Indian team.  And trust me, at that time when you are 11, sports, tv and movies are about 90% of what goes on in your brain. So we reacted very strongly to this - we came up with juvenile variations of his name to ridicule him (“thondu-lkar” being my favorite. A variation of the Malayalam word for coconut husk) J. And he getting his nose broken in the first test only reinforced that he is no good.

Then this happened in an ODI match cut short to a friendly match due to crowd trouble and everything changed. Watching it live then, you could feel this kid was special.

Since then I followed every one of his innings and almost felt like I grew with him. The depressing tour of Australia in 1992 was when I truly became his fan. After that cricket began and ended with Tendulkar. Over my teenage years he gave many more memories. His world cup heroics, his blasts when promoted to the opening slot, his last over from the Hero cup, the desert storm innings, the heart break of Chennai. The list goes on and on. This was a time when we all held our breath when he batted. A time when winning and losing depended entirely on how he would perform. When roads were deserted when he was in the middle. When people turned off the TV when he got out. At a time when Indian cricket was mediocre, he held the flag high and made you proud to be an Indian.

Life changed in my 20's. I couldn't keep up with cricket as I used. But wherever I was, I religiously followed how he did in the previous day’s match. He got a better team (one his caliber deserved) and his style changed to that of an accumulator. Though I hated the style, it seemed to suit the team. It gave me great pleasure when he reverted back to his old style in the last 2-3 years. Now in my 30's I rarely watch any cricket. But I still look at score every day and my eyes search for Tendulkar on the scorecard first.

His departure is an inevitability that time demanded. But Cricket will not be the same without him. I can’t even imagine what it might be for him to leave behind the only things he has known to do all his life. It needed to be done. It was hard to see all the armchair pundits peck him day after day. It was like watching a debate on whether to euthanize someone you love. Mercifully he left on his own terms.

To me Tendulkar was quintessentially Indian. He was a true role model who showcased an “Indianess” in everything he did. Even his retirement announcement was by staying out of the limelight. No grand ovations, no lap of the ground and no bat salute. Hopefully, he will get all that when he retires from all forms of cricket.  For someone who made us proud to be Indian, that’s the least we can give him. Today truly is the beginning of the end of an era. Good bye Sachin.

Are We Civilized?

The recent event in Delhi has prompted me to question our nature as a society and a country.  The details of the crime were shocking in its nature and chilling in its brutality. It makes one want to question the very notion of living in a civilized world. Are we?

It was appalling that the perpetuators took it upon themselves to “punish” a 20 yr old by beating her with an iron before gang raping her and throwing her half naked on to the side of the road from a moving bus. And what might her ‘crime’ be; she went to a movie late night with a boy.  That she fought back when these animals began to harass her and her friend.  I wonder if even cavemen thought this way.

The reason for someone doing this may be varied. From alcoholism to mental instability to basic criminality. You can even say economic factors contributed to this crime. But to me the issue is more deep rooted than that. This is not the first incident that we have heard recently coming out of our country. It’s not going to be the last. This one has gained such significance only because the sheer brutality of it is unprecedented.
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I believe one of the best yardsticks of a civilized society is in how we treat our women.  So long as our wives are bullied and beaten into submission, we are not civilized. So long as we do feticide of our daughters we are not civilized. So long as our sisters cannot go out in the night without fearing their safety or being harassed, we definitely are not civilized.

We can debate about what the ideal punishment is for these animals. I have heard death penalty, social ostracizing and life imprisonments. But what punishment will make up for the trauma she has suffered. What will be justice if, heaven forbids, she succumbs to her injuries and passes away. Society is the biggest loser here as it will lose a medical student, someone who was getting trained to save lives.  Mind you, I am not saying that these brutes are to be left alone.  They should be brought to justice before a law that I believe is too lenient and not enough of a deterrent to crimes like these. But that’s a topic for another day.

For a country that gave the world Kamasutra and Khajurao temple we seem to have very weird notion of morality and culture. That notwithstanding, why are groups or individuals enforcing their sense of morality on others. We are a country based on tolerance. Be it for each other’s views, religion, caste or sex, we Indians are supposed to at least be tolerant of each other’s beliefs and way of life.  Sadly I see this basic tenant of our “Indianness” eroding slowly away in all walks of life. Until we get back to that we do not have any right to be referred to as civilized. 

Guns and Angels of America

I was thinking of my first blog to be something about America. The country I have been living in for the past 6 years. I wanted to say how great this country is where liberty and freedom of speech is valued and allowed more than any other country in the world, including my own in recent times. Where the people enjoy the true meaning of freedom and enjoy the benefits of free enterprise every day.  Where I have experienced a lot less prejudice than I did during my days in the Middle East.

But today, I have to talk about an uglier and a darker side of this great nation.  A place where a mad man can go into that most innocent of places, an elementary school, and shoot down 20 angels. A country where it’s more difficult for a 20 year old to get a drink than it is to get his hands on a semi-automatic assault rifle. As a human being, I am saddened by the loss of these innocent lives. As a parent, I am fearful of what tomorrow holds for my children.

The second amendment of the constitution of the United States states-

“A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

Let me highlight the phrase “well regulated” here, and let the readers decide for themselves what it means.

Due to historical, cultural and constitutional reasons, I realize that it will be difficult, nigh impossible to eradicate guns from American lives. But surely nobody would disagree that those who buy and possess arms and ammunition must be held accountable and responsible for the power they yield in their hands. Be it a parent, who lets something this dangerous get into the hands of his/her child or a dealer who gets it into the hands of a known criminal or the laws that allow a person with a history of mental instability to get access to fire arms, should be held equally accountable.

Regulate the issue of guns so that weapons that can shoot 100 rounds in minutes are not within the grasp of anybody. This may not solve everything but it would certainly reduce the occurrence of such incidents. A small price to pay if we can still have those lost 20 angels in our midst. 

Back to Blogging

6 years ago I was introduced to blogging by my brother-in-law. Had a lot of fun then writing about random stuff. Then a combination of life, work and overall laziness interfered and I quit it for a long time. Lately I have been feeling the urge to put down my thoughts in writing once again. In the time frame since I quit, I have seen blogging evolve into vast social networks and micro blogging. In most cases these seem to be adequate enough to express one's views and thoughts. But I also felt that it is kind of restrictive as you have to condense you expressions in too few a words. I felt that you sometimes lose the emotion and intent behind what you are trying to say in this condensing.

So here goes...and hopefully I will be posting things regularly and even more importantly somebody will be crazy enough to spend a little bit of their valuable time to read the crap I am putting out. Wish me luck.