Opinion
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| | Double insecurities for women survivors of communal violence | | | | The UN Security Council adopted resolution 2122, its latest and seventh resolution on women, peace and security on 18 October 2013. It highlighted the threats and human rights violations and abuses experienced by women in armed conflict and post-conflict situations, especially those belonging to vulnerable or disadvantaged communities. Although the resolution deals mostly with armed conflict and post conflict communities, the plight of women in any type of violence is much the same, irrespective of the legalese.
India has seen several spates of communal violence in the past few decades. Careful study of these violence indicates that most communal violence are carefully planned with the intent to sow permanent seeds of discontent and hatred in the community, and draw political mileage out... |  | |
| | | Beauty in dust..! | | | | Sometime back a friend of mine sent me pictures of the back windows of cars thick with dust, but sketched on the thick dust were beautiful portraits sketched by an artist. When the dust gets thick on the back window of his car, the artist, he uses it as a canvas to create temporary works of art.
A collage of wildlife decorates his car and attracts admirers wherever he goes.
Who needs a frost-covered window when you've got road dust to create a Christmas scene? Besides his finger, the artist uses traditional art tools, such as paintbrushes, and unconventional ones, like a chewed stick, to make his drawings.
He takes pride in his creations, though he knows that with one good shower, his work will just wash away.
As I looked with awe at these pictures created out of dust, I wondered how ... | | |
| | | The high and mighty | | | | The code of survival in the jungle life, with reference to the superiority of brute force or self-interest means "every man for himself," "anything goes," "might makes right," "survival of the strongest," "survival of the fittest," "kill or be killed," "dog eat dog" and "eat or be eaten". When selected stimuli are magnified to become super-normal stimuli, the effect is to give it a relative stronger appearance. This is the principle of ‘stimulus extremism’. People ‘super-normalize’ the world around them, using any means. They send out competence cues; they talk louder, speak more assertively and act brazenly (and unreasonably) to get things done at their will.
You’re standing in front of an ATM machine. Someone brazenly walks right in front of you as the previous person exits the vestibu... | | |
| | | Gorakhpur’s weather proofed women farmers | | | | Vidyawati, Koali Devi and Subhawati Devi, from Chikani village in Gorakhpur district of eastern Uttar Pradesh, are no ordinary women. They are local heroines, having saved their families from veritable starvation. These female farmers slave for longer hours than their male counterparts and they do not legally own the land they so lovingly till, yet it is they who are responsible for having converted tiny holdings into lush gardens that yield abundantly all the year round with a variety of fruits, vegetables and grains. “We are not rich like the landlords but my family has enough to eat now,” says Vidyawati, looking proudly at her flourishing ‘koirad’, or traditional vegetable garden.
Koirads’ used to be an integral part of village life in these parts during the pre-Independence era. Unfo... | | |
| | | A visit to Bangladesh | | | | WITHIN a few minutes of my arrival at Dhaka, I was in the midst of a debate whether the parliamentary elections to be held on January 5, 2014, would be fair and independent. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has constituted an all-party interim government and has even offered Begum Khalida Zia, who is her main opponent and heads the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). But Sheikh Hasina is "the problem" with Begum Khalida.
I can say after my five-day stay in Bangladesh that the polls would be fair if Khalida Zia boycotts them which look very much on the cards. Sheikh Hasina does not want to step down and looks like going to any extent to retain power. She amended the state's constitution which provided for a caretaker government, headed by the outgoing retired Supreme Court Chief justice, to s... | | |
| | | Nearly sold for a quarter..! | | | | I'd read that a religious organization who run a hostel had cancelled the booking of a delegation traveling for the Leprosy Forum on the grounds that it included 'lepers'!
Several years ago a preacher moved to Houston, Texas. Some weeks after he arrived, he had occasion to ride the bus from his home to the downtown area. When he sat down, he discovered that the driver had accidentally given him a quarter too much change.
As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, you better give the quarter back. It would be wrong to keep it. Then he thought, Oh, forget it, it's only a quarter. Who would worry about this little amount Anyway the bus company already gets too much fare; they will never miss it. Accept it as a gift from God and keep quiet.
When his stop came, he paused momentari... | | |
| | | Understanding Article 370 | | | | Those gripped by religious nationalism are unable to understand the regional-ethnic aspirations of the people. Many an ultra-nationalist of different hues also fall into this trap many times. With formation of Indian nation the integration of regions like Himachal Pradesh, North Eastern States and Jammu& Kashmir created some challenging situations. Though in all these cases the challenges were met in different ways and are even now continuing to pose some issues of serious national concerns, but those related to Kashmir require some more pressing attention. Located in a strategic geographic area of great significance, the global powers have also added their own weight behind complicating the matters in Kashmir. Kashmir remains one of the most contentious issues between the two neighbors, ... | | |
| | | Hospitals with no healing..! | | | | Many years ago doctors healed the mind of a patient and with the mind okay, half the healing was done: Today the only healed persons that walk out of some hospitals are the owners of the hospitals and the trustees. They walk out with fat wallets and more than that no sense of satisfaction that they have done any healing.
I was at a hospital this morning in South Mumbai, a hospital where a distraught wife looked at a bill of over sixteen hundred thousand rupees. Her husband lay in the ICU brain dead. She had brought him to the hospital as he had complained of exhaustion. She had no idea that this small trip would be a journey now into near poverty. Nobody in the hospital had counseled her about finances; she had watched bills piling up helplessly and now looked at a bill which would put h... | | |
| | | Political noises and the hollow shell of Article 370 | | | | "I say with all respect to our Constitution that it just does not matter what your Constitution says; if the people of Kashmir do not want it, it will not go there. Because what is the alternative? The alternative is compulsion and coercion..." (Selected works of Jawaharlal Nehru, Vol. 18, p. 418).
The 'accession' of Jammu & Kashmir with India on 26th October only happened for three subjects; defense, foreign affairs and communications. Article 370 (originally put as Article 306 A) was agreed upon by teams led by Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah after five months of discussions, and most of these discussions kept in mind the UN resolutions and the international nature of Kashmir dispute. Keeping in view India's international obligations (and promises) for a settlement on Kashmir, the... | | |
| | | Guarding our gods..! | | | | As thousands of devotees throng temples,mosques and churches placed under a thick blanket of security in view of the general threat perception two beggars sat down together to count their earnings: "I don't understand," said the first beggar.
"What?" asked the second.
"How people come to temples, churches and mosques to pray!"
"And why shouldn't they?" asked the second.
"What is it they pray for brother?" asked the first as he stopped his counting and looked hard at his colleague.
"Well.." said his friend.
"For safety?"
"Of course, yes for safety, yes, yes for safety," said the second beggar happy his friend had answered his own question and not made him do the thinking on so philosophical a subject, "Of course safety, safety of course!"
"And they think their various gods will kee... | | |
| | BETWEEN THE LINE | | Retirement of a hawk | | | | Pakistan army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani's announcement to retire on November 29 was a lead story in his country's media. Some newspapers had bannered it.
Opposition leader Syed Khurshid Shah welcomed the statement. In fact, there has been relief all over including in India that Kayani had announced his exit.
This was primarily because Kayani was considered an ambitious general. Moreover, it was believed that there might be another coup because such has been the practice in the past. But fortunately, Kayani had come out in the open on what his plans were. "I am grateful to the political leadership and the nation for reposing their trust in me and Pakistan army this important juncture of our national history. However, I share the general opinion that institutions and traditions are stro... | | |
| | | It can't be done..! | | | | We all seem to be born with an inner voice that tells us 'it can't be done!' Maybe it's not the same inner voice that told Sonia Gandhi she shouldn't be prime minister but this one goes on cautioning us to be little sissies in life, constantly telling us how the odds are against us and we should just give up.
In order to get anything done we have to silence that self-critical voice. It is the primary barrier to our changing our lives for the better. That's why once it's out of the way we can truly begin our journey of changing old habits, a new career or learning a new language.
But as long as we have this voice in our heads telling us why we can't do something then we will never make as much progress as we are truly capable of.
When that voice is out of our lives, or at least silence... | | |
| | | Media and the market forces | | | | 'When told to bend, they chose to crawl,' BJP patriarch Advani famously said referring to Indian media's far from stellar role during the Emergency. Because of its very nature, the fourth estate has always had an uneasy relationship with power--too cozy for comfort at times and confrontational at others.
Increasingly, you see journalists, after long proximity to power, end up developing delusions of their own grandeur. Seems absolute power doesn't merely corrupt the powerful; it also corrupts those around them.
Not long ago this used to be a noble profession attracting the brightest and the boldest. Those were men and women who were inspired by high values and higher ideals and believed in building a better, more just world. They didn't shy away from reporting reality and speaking tru... | | |
| | | Life's like that..! | | | | Very often I see a child or maybe an adult rushing home from school or work, eyes all aglow, "I've done well in my exam!" shouts the child to his parents, "I've got a fantastic order today!" says the man to his wife and they both stare with disappointment with reaction they get, "You're supposed to do well anyway!" say the parents to the child, "Hope this order covers our rent!" sniffs wife to husband.
There was a hunter who came into the possession of a special bird dog. The dog was the only one of its kind, because it could walk on water. One day he invited a friend to go hunting with him so that he could show off his prized possession. After some time, they shot a few ducks, which fell into the river. The man ordered his dog to run and fetch the birds. The dog ran on the water to fetc... | | |
| | COLUMN | | Trinamool's Victory Run In The Cities | | Dire warning for the Left | | | The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress has emerged triumphant in the just-held municipal elections in West Bengal, and reduced the Left Front to insignificance. The TMC's victory run, from the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the 2011 Assembly elections and rural panchayat polls last July, has established it as Bengal's pre-eminent party, ahead of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM).
The CPM-the world's second-largest Communist party, next in membership only to the Chinese party-now stands humbled in a state it ruled for an uninterrupted 34 years. This fourth successive defeat in Bengal confronts the Left Front, including the CPM, Communist Party of India, Revolutionary Socialist Party and Forward Block, with an unprecedentedly grim challenge.
Unless the Left addresses its ideologi... | | |
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