In dodo's head

Being an active element in the social media world of tweets and facebook and all that has meant constantly bumping into constant debates about right, wrong, acceptable and not acceptable. The recent one being the 'Oh lord, Hollywood celebs are wearing the bindis. Tsk tsk how dare they.. so offensive' debacle.  Maybe it's because of the assimilated background that I grew up in, the exposure I got from coming in contact with diverse people, but I fail to understand what the big debate is about.. The bindi, in its traditional form, as far as I know, is limited to the red dot kind, signifying marriage and thus being strictly a Hindu custom. But when the decorative forms have been used by people of all walks of life, all religions even in India,  what is the big deal in people of other countries doing so? Isnt it a form of appreciation towards our rich culture and heritage? Cultural appropriation they say? This particular paragraph in a blog post on the issue got me sayin...

I want to feel whole again, Feel the rush of the tumultuous sea Beneath my feet. Feel the boom of the fireworks, Oh how they explode in the sky above. How often do we really feel though. As the wise ones say, We merely exist, One day to another. To pursue all things trivial. There are days like this, When I do not see myself anymore. When all I see is merely a cover, Hollow and empty.

Found myself today in a strange frame of mind, reminiscing about the days gone by, and the memories which seem to get hazy as more days go by.. Technology is such a brilliant and indispensable thing. Facebook messages, gtalk chats, even phone messages.. All a log of conversations you had or didn't have.. Makes the growing distance between people even more blatant.. You know, time has that painful power.. Of healing the pain, and worsening it too, all at the same time.. I find myself, time and again, missing people.. Those who are not in my life anymore.. Those who drifted apart from as we grew up.. Sometimes I wish I could go back to the days when things were different, so that I could cherish the bond we had back then even more.. So that I could show them just how much they meant to me.. Sometimes I wish I could have them now, with me, so that I could have more memories with them.. So that I would not have to rack my brain to remember what they looked like, how they spoke, ho...

There's great positivity in the academic circle over the potential of India when it comes to growth, with the most respected ones harping on and on about the potential that lies in the country. Maybe it's the fact that I hail from a godforsaken state where all the fruits of economic growth disappear into the pockets of the wealthiest; or that I studied development studies in a leftist oriented college.. I have great scepticism about the translation of this much talked about potential into actual ground level development.. I read a rather compelling article by Thomas Friedman in which he compared India with China and Egypt. According to him, India enjoys the advantage of having a strong civil society and she would beat the other two with ease if she were to rectify the issues of governance and corruption, and convert her 560 million strong youth population to what he calls a demographic dividend . Getting this 'Demographic dividend', it seems entails the provision of ...

We live in a world today, where atrocities committed against women are a daily feature in newspapers.. a society where now every girl has to be warned about the big bad world who spares none.. Reading these hair raising accounts of the turmoils faced by women in different parts of the country arises in me a fear.. a fear of what lies in store for a nation which has lost its respect for its women, whose institutions have failed to deliver much needed justice against those who infringe on the rights of others to live and whose leaders have remained silent spectators to the crimes which have become daily occurrences in our streets.. In a country such as this, where lies our sense of security.. is there any place that remains which we can call our safe haven.. where we do not have to live in fear.. When will the humans in us awaken, when will we rise as one voice, when will the heros emerge... And when will we be able to roam the streets of our nation deserting the bleak fear that captu...

There's a sense of frustration, an anguish, A sense of justice undelivered, Several wrongs not made right, And mostly of voices unheard. Pages of the newspaper reveal the angered masses, asking for a retaliation, for a show of solidarity from the side of the government. Let down. Let down is what they are. Votes. Votes is what they answer to, Not the screams of anger, Not the cries of the victims. Not the alarms that ring, Signalling the pre-eminent end of humanity.

..and once again the country is awoken from its slow slumber, to utter helpless cries over the atrocious crimes committed on a girl of only twenty three. While newspaper pages are filled with individuals and organisations crying foul and demanding justice and the restoration of safety, I cannot help but believe the solution surely lies in a structural change in society. Surely the spike in advice from loved ones to be careful about our safety, to not step out after sunset, etc are helpful enough in protecting ourselves from these monstrous men devoid of humanity.. however, curing their minds and imbibing a sense of humane feeling in our populations would be a rather instrument of safety in our streets.