An open letter to women who don’t wish to get raped or molested!

Update: I guess all of you need to read the whole post to understand the point I am trying to make. You can hold your judgements about my character till that point!

Dear Modern Woman,

How come you are alive? Your parents didn’t kill you? But the facts say that every year thousands of girl children are dumped in dustbins, on roads, left in hospitals or killed alive. Maybe you are among the lucky few to have survived. I must congratulate you for that. But then, you never know in this big bad world, when disaster comes calling. If you think you can cheat death by surviving accidents or illnesses you cannot be more wrong.

Amongst our ilk, there is a huge number who are ready to rape, strip, molest and do all that and much more to women like you at the drop of a hat. And that could drive you to kill yourself or we could do the formalities ourselves. I can hear you ask as to who gave us this right. We are a nation where crimes against you are brushed under the carpet so easily that who wouldn’t be encouraged to satisfy his voyeuristic pleasures. Whether we pinch a girl’s buttocks or grab her breasts, whether we strip her clothes or grope her in public, people would be ready to join us, but no one would bother to save her. How do you expect us not to satisfy our pleasures in such a scenario?

Mediocrity has become our standard! Do we care?

The dictionary defines “Mediocrity” as something ordinary, par for the course or inferior in quality to something else. But then isn’t mediocrity a word created only by humanity? When we are taught at school during our early years, we are taught about excellence and failure. There is no middle ground for words like “Decent”, “Ok”, “Fine” etc. But then when we humans grow up, mediocrity percolates every part of our lives. Though what is considered as mediocre by some, would be considered as excellence by others.

Top 10 Indian newsmakers of 2011!

2011 has been a pretty interesting year in many terms. From the highs of India’s World Cup victory on April 2nd to the lows of the 2G scam and the death of many prominent personalities, we have seen it all. But nothing could beat Team Anna and their campaign to bring forward the Jan Lokpal Bill.

As far as the Indian industry is concerned, Infosys and Tata lost their captains to youngsters of the next generation. But Kingfisher began facing some serious turbulence in its flight of “Good Times”. “Kolaveri” and “Flash Mobs” became the buzzwords among all of us for their own reasons.

Is joining a bandwagon the best way to solve a problem?

Anna Hazare’s Jan Lokpal movement, Terrorism, News coverage on any issue by our TRP loving news channels etc. etc. – Wondering what am I talking about? How can all these things have any relation at all, right? WRONG! There is a small but very important thread which connects these things which are generally as diverse as chalk and cheese. Joining the bandwagon is often referred to as ‘copycat’ behaviour in blunt terms. But is copycat behaviour really bad? Obviously for something like the Anna Hazare movement or cricket fanaticism it shouldn’t be bad, right?

A lot of people in this world are normally jobless. Obviously jobless really doesn’t mean the people who are actually ‘Below the Poverty Line’ and don’t really have any work at all. I am referring to people who have jobs but just love to fight for a cause however good or bad it may be. And they may fight for a cause despite the fact that they may not know much about it.

Anna invited for other causes – Will the masses be interested?

Team Anna as the group including Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Kiran Bedi, Prashant and Shanti Bhushan, Santosh Hegde along with Anna Hazare among others is called achieved the unachievable or so we have been asked to believe. They were able to mobilize support for the Lokpal Bill riding high on Anna Hazare’s non violent methods. Support which was unseen and unheard of throughout the country.

An educated middle class which doesn’t vote but criticizes, doesn’t stand up and be counted by joining politics themselves but criticizes, doesn’t want to be the change it wants to see but criticizes joined this movement like never before. They were out on the streets, on Twitter, on Facebook, in company chat rooms everywhere rooting for the man himself as well as the cause he was fighting for.

If I dont support Anna Hazare’s means of protest, am I corrupt?

Anna Hazare has brought the nation together like never before. If news reports are to go by he may have just been the 3rd entity to do so. The others being Bollywood and Cricket – our two main religions. But then Anna Hazare is different. He’s here to fight against corruption. He’s here to fight against the crimes and frauds the politicians of this government as well as those of the future governments may cause. He’s here to introduce a Jan Lokpal Bill which if made into a law could well bring the end of several distinguished and prominent politicians.

How come suddenly we can’t tolerate corruption?

Corruption as we all know has been ingrained in our Indian psyche since time immemorial. Whether its simple things like paying the auto guy an extra Rs 50 just because it’s night  or complex ones like paying capitation fees running in lacs to educate our children, corruption has always been there in some form. Obviously many people wouldn’t call this corruption and say that it’s part and parcel of everyday life in India. And it’s only the ministers who are always corrupt in some form or the other.

Double Standards: Why do we have different definitions for corruption?

Anna Hazare is advocating the revolution against corruption across the country mobilizing opinion among people from all sections of the society. Everyday there are news articles and reports on TV on how one can lead the war against corruption. Suddenly corruption has become a big thing among the political circles that the politicos are running for cover wondering if this would affect their chances in the polls.

Anna Hazare’s fight against corruption! Why should you care?

Anna Hazare who? Why are all our news channels and newspapers suddenly concentrating on him throughout the day? What has he done that even the politicians don’t have the courage to face him? How dare he openly tell news channels that no politician has the right to come and sit with him on the stage?