Seeing Things

Rape is a reflection of an attitude. An attitude that stems from a belief system that puts women in second place simply because they are the physically weaker sex. It is this attitude that ensures that many men, even in equal societies, always remember deep down that the "fragile-sex" is all independent and free-spirited BECAUSE men are allowing it. It is this belief system that makes people uneasy about seeing women actually equal (or overtake) men in thought, independence, and action. It is none other than this familiar attitude that magnifies itself in some men to feel no shame about using something as lame as brute force to break a woman's spirit. The root cause of rape is an attitude. The attitude needs to change. How? I don't know.

For those of you who don't know what kheer kodom is, I recommend you put in on your to-do-before-i-die checklist or at least on the to-do-if-i-visit-a-bengali-sweet-shop checklist. Yes. Kheer Kodom is a sweet. but no ordinary sweet mind you. Its a sweet that feels like a drop of heaven has been placed in your mouth. I am getting all poetic about Kheer Kodom today because it was distributed in my office. The office super boss had a baby so as is tradition in India, he got sweets distributed. And as I took a bite of this endless-desire of a sweet, I remembered my very first encounter with it, about 7 years ago. I immediately felt the urge to tell the story to my colleague. Then to another colleague. Who cut me short to tell me that she knew my "kheer kodom" story. She said I told it to her a few months back the last time someone mentioned the sweet during random lunch-time chat. I had no memory of this, so to convince me she narrated my own story back to me in a bit of...

This post could well be about all the men who came into my life and broke my heart. But this post is actually about the dogs in my life. I have never had a pet dog of my own. I am yet to experience what its like to get a little pup, train it in human manners, teach it tricks and watch it grow. Despite this, a few dogs have touched my life. I have decided to dedicate a post to them. I will go in chronological order. The dog that taught me that you ought to love dogs was Zulu. A black labrador. He belonged to my first cousins. Zulu was tied every time guests came home because people are scared of dogs.This was ironic because all he wanted was to be your friend. As if being denied the opportunity was not enough, he had to deal with being tied up. The tragedy of it all, naturally made him upset and caused him to bark the house down. Causing the guests to justify their fear. I was one such guest. Zulu pointed his barking towards me and that just scared me to death. I was only a little ...

I have been meaning to write about this for a few months now. Ever since I got back from my 9 day trip to London, to be precise. But something or the other always came up. Anyway, this is better than never right? :) If I ever made a list of the 10 best days of my life, one of the days from my trip to London would surely be on it. I t was the first time I made a holiday trip all on my own. So, it was just me and my thoughts in London.  Needless to say there was a lot of talking that went on in my head between me and my many alter-egoes. I was mostly very happy. Euphoric. As if i had been injected with a stimulant. London worked as a happiness drug for me because everything makes sense in London. Let me talk about public transport for instance: a  shining example of common sense at work There is information available at every such location where logically a traveler would feel the need for it. Not only is there a map of the area installed outside every tu...

Simplified definitions of Karma include 'what goes around comes around' and 'jaisi karni, waisi bharni' (meaning: as you sow, so you reap) We love stories that illustrate Karma. Such as stories about someone who cheats his brother to gain sole ownership of a huge business empire only to eventually end up a leper in some incognito alley or a story about the helpless old father who is abandoned by his kids but after a few years of suffering, suddenly chances upon fame and success and thereupon gets the opportunity to ignore his kids in return OR better still be the magnanimous forgiver. This idea of there being a system in place, of cosmic justice seems to makes sense but does it also reflect on fact? Often, when we encounter news of terrible tragedy befalling individuals, families or countries, I hear people exclaim "why them?!! they don't deserve this." I also notice that this does not lead to them questioning the concept of Karma. They are content ...

Even in the undignified, lowly act of begging, the beggars in Mumbai bring in the dignified act of applying thought. They constantly invent creative strategies to maximize earnings. Some of them are pure artists. And when a tactic completely loses impact they re-invent. In the matter of giving alms, I am like almost everyone else. I sometime bother to dig into my coin pouch and pull out a coin to place in their bowl or hand. I don't bother at other times. It is totally random. I think it depends on my moods. When i am irritated, I nod my head. When I am in a good mood, I become generous. There are times when I am really hoping for something good to happen, then too I get generous - hoping, that in some cosmic way, my generosity to the beggar would convert into a generosity towards me by the forces. One school of thought says that giving money to beggars encourages begging and that it prevents these people from looking for jobs. I never got that honestly. I don't think beggars c...

The Mumbai local train ticket-checkers have a very clever method of operation. I can't think of a better name for the method other than 'randomness'. On no, don't get fooled by the simplicity of the term. This is actually a very clever method. By ensuring that they don't fall into any pattern, they make it impossible for passengers to predict with enough accuracy whether or not there will be a ticket-check at a given time at a given station or in a given train bogey etc. There is only one certainty that I have arrived at. The ticket checkers don't check during peak hours. Standing in the way of the ocean of people moving chaotically at a micro level but at a macro level, synchronously in one great mass, could be life-endangering. Now, that wouldn't be worth the fine collections. (pun intended) So, often when regular passengers see that they have not been asked for tickets in like weeks, to save time rather than money, some choose to travel ticketless. It is...