Religion and Morals Aren't Tied Together

On various occasions I have spoken out against the various evils that plague our society. Be it the prejudices against various ethnic groups inhabiting our country, or the unnecessary and pointless segregation of humans on the basis of caste. I wrote against the actions of a certain hard-core Hindu organisation that beat up women in the name of ‘Bharatiya Sanskriti’. I wrote about the monstrosities that women face every day in our country and around the world.

This time, I dared to question the actions of an evil, vile organisation spouted from the very depths of hell. This said organisation recently threatened to carry out a most Ungodly act in the name of God.

276. That is the number of girls that was abducted from a school in Nigeria on 14^th April, 2014. The terrorist organisation called Boko Haram invaded the school premises, overpowered the security forces, and forcefully took the girls before disappearing into the nearby forested areas bordering Cameroon.

‘Boko Haram’ literally translates to “Western education is sin”. The organisation is of the belief that women ought to restrict themselves to being cooped up in the kitchen, doing household chores, rather than doing meaningless stuff like getting an education, reading and writing, having a life, or daring to even think of being considered as humans. Women are commodities like household items or at best livestock. Having such ideas is totally ‘haraam’!!

Even recently, the group has carried out several attacks and killed thousands of innocent people at schools, churches, government buildings and police stations.

The fate of 223 girls still hang in the balance. The leader of the Islamist militant group, Abubakar Shekau, dared to release a video on 5^th May, 2014. In the video, he proudly announces that he plans to sell the girls in the flesh market.

Would you want to know what he says in the name of the Almighty?

“I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah… There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women.”

This is what he does in the name of Allah. He is a pimp and a terrorist, nothing more than that.

Here ends my account of the situation that has engulfed the country in the past few weeks.

Now I turn to another aspect that I wish to address.

I had posted about this on my Facebook page. Sadly, that backfired. The reason for that was that the incident happened to coincide with another, much more important tragedy. Yes, you read that right. There’s a classification of tragedies as well, based on where they occur. If you remember, around that time, a Korean ferry had capsized in the sea, killing several people. Many went missing. But since South Korea is a very important strategic ally, given the problem child North Korea, and Nigeria is… well… not that important, naturally more coverage was given by the media to the former.

I was told to shut up and not speak ill of the religion. I clarified my stand, stating that I am not against any religion, only against those who claim to be the flag bearers and ‘thekedaars’ of their respective religions. I even posted a link of the news article. I was promptly told to not believe everything I read. It can be misleading. Why then, I wonder, should people believe everything they read in the religious texts? Can’t that be misleading?

This is the state of affairs. We don’t know what is happening in the world. We don’t know what a few individuals are doing in the name of religion. We are either unaware, or choose to be silent on the atrocities people commit in the name of religion, yet lose not a minute in silencing those who dare to question these wrongs.

Even though I do believe in a higher power, it does not cloud my judgement of right and wrong. I believe that God, whether you call him Krishna, Christ, Allah, Yahweh or Ahura Mazda, is a benevolent God, who, as far as I believe, certainly doesn’t sanction selling women as commodities. This is my parting thought to those who were so irked by my statement.

“You do not need religion to have morals. If you can’t determine right from wrong, then you lack empathy, not religion.”

Grammar, Thou Art A Dying Relic

Language. It’s the most powerful tool. It’s what we use to communicate. Communicate our ideas, our feelings, and our needs. And every language needs grammar.

If language is a machine, grammar is the instruction manual to make it run efficiently. But somehow, we may have started to think that grammar’s not all that important.

SMS. Short Message Service. As much as a boon that it has been for speedy communication, the curses that it has put on us are way bigger.

Let’s talk about Tenosynovitis for a bit. It’s the inflammation of the thumbs you get from excessive texting. But that is curable. What I really want to talk about is a disease, a curse that is way more ingrained in us than we can even begin to imagine.

I’m talking about the ‘SMS lingo’, the ‘#YOLO Syndrome’.

Across the world, teachers who correct answer sheets after the exams have come across words and sentences that don’t even make sense.

Case in point:

For most of us, it’s not a big deal. They can read the above text with ease. The rest of us however, fail abysmally at it.

I admit, I was one of them. I too had initially used the SMS lingo with élan initially, when I got my first cell phone. But eventually, good sense hit me. I find it rather difficult to read the shortened and modified and improvised texts now.

The problems with this trend, as has been already exhibited partly, are diverse. This list is my attempt to enumerate a few important ones among them:

1)    It ruins your language. You simply cannot expect to be efficient at switching between the SMS lingo and normal language.

2)      It may be misunderstood. We all know the joke about a mother writing ‘LOL’ after messaging about the death of a relative to her son. She thought it meant ‘Lots of Love’.

3)      It gives a negative impression. Do not use this kind of language with people of importance, and expect to be in their good books. It instantly gives them an impression of insincerity.

4)    Most people find it difficult to spell even common words like ‘tomorrow’ after constantly typing it as ‘2moro’.

Even though it might seem a trivial matter at this stage, the repercussions later in life could be catastrophic. Imagine sending an email to the CEO of a top notch multinational, and you goof up by typing the same ‘SMS lingo’ you use with friends. I assure you he/she won’t be very impressed.

So here it is that I conclude by saying that you can’t change yourself overnight. Even though you may not intend it to or think that it can, but it still will hamper your communication in ways you can neither imagine nor like.

Along The Way, We Lost Direction Somewhere

Years ago, maybe close to a decade back, when I was in school, our Hindi teacher was discussing a story we had in our course. My memory about the time has faded, but I do remember that it had something to do with dacoits in medieval India, i.e. around 15^th century.Our teacher said that during those days, even criminals had certain ethics and morals. No warrior would hit another when they were unaware or fallen. Even a hardened criminal, whose profession it was to loot people for money, would never assault a woman.

 There was this one anecdote, where a widow was travelling in a palanquin through a forest. As was always the case, the palanquin bearers found their way blocked. The dacoits gradually emerged from the shadows. Seeing that they had unknowingly blocked the way of a widow, they apologized profusely and let the procession go. Please note that this was the 15^th century. Being a widow in those days was a huge deal. The woman had her ornaments taken away, had only a white sari to wear, had her head shaved, and could never dream of ever getting married or having a life. The sati system was quite prevalent those days. Those who chose not to give up their lives on the funeral pyre of their husband led a life of misery. Even the dacoits knew not to add to her woes.

But then, in the span of around half a millennium, something happened. 

The land where Durga, a goddess, was worshiped became the land where women began to be used and thrown away like a perishable item. It became a fad to have 10 girlfriends. If you didn't  you were not cool enough. Making MMS's is another fad, the trend taking pace with the DPS MMS case, and then again with the spate of car gang-rapes in Surat in 2009.

According to September 2012 statistics, a woman is raped in India every 20 minutes. This is only as per the ‘official’ data. This brings India to the 3^rd position on the shameful list. In Kashmir and some north eastern states more than 200 0 women have been raped, but are not registered. Why? The army is the culprit.

As per 2011 statistics, Madhya Pradesh tops the list of reported rapes at 3406 during the year. Delhi city is rape capital of India with four hundred fifty three rapes which were reported in 2010. It is around 1.8 times more than rape cases reported in Mumbai during the same year. Nagaland has lowest rape crimes with 23 cases being reported in 2010.

The problem with rape, according to analysts, is not that the woman is physically violated. It is with the idea that the rapist carries. Women are not supposed to be out in the open after dark. They are not supposed to dress in a particular way, not supposed to drink or be with the ones they love. In short, not have a life. They feel they are punishing the woman for violating and flouting these rules.

The idea is shared by various religious and political leaders as well. RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat is of the opinion that rape happens in ‘India’, not ‘Bharat’. By that, he clearly pointed out that women in cities, who wear western clothes, and follow a westernized way of living, are more susceptible to rape. A study by Mrinal Satish, faculty member of National Law University, Delhi, acts as a tight slap on his face. He has used the court data and observes that 75% of rape cases take place in rural India. His observations are based on the cases reported in Criminal Law Journal from 1983 to 2009.

The recent gang rape case, that occurred in Delhi on 16 December, 2012, has revealed the ugly face of India to the world. No concrete action has been taken yet. Police are still more concerned about a 17 year old juvenile, and how he couldn't be held responsible for his heinous actions. Being gang-raped by five men is a different thing. Having an iron rod rammed up your uterus, so badly that it damages your intestines and painfully kills you is a different story altogether. If that wasn't enough, even after she and her friend had endured the ordeal, and lying naked on the road, none came forward to help them. It just shows the levels of moral degradation we have reached.

The incident has generated international coverage and was condemned by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, who called on the Government of India and the Government of Delhi "to do everything in their power to take up radical reforms, ensure justice and reach out with robust public services to make women’s lives more safe and secure". Public protests took place in Delhi, where thousands of protesters clashed with security forces. Similar protests took place in major cities throughout the country. But then again, we are talking about India. Here criminals are given Z category security. Common people can rot on the roads.

Our international image has hit an all time low. I wonder how hard it is going to hit the tourism sector. If Indian citizens themselves don’t feel safe, why should foreigners feel any different? Remember the Scarlett Keeling case in Goa? Remember how her mother was harassed? Being called a gypsy, tramp, prostitute, and what not.

I personally, wouldn't want my mother, wife and other females to live in such a country. And I certainly would not want my daughter to grow up in a country where she can be sexually assaulted even as a baby. Is there enough time to change the nation before that? My hopes are low, but I sincerely wish to be proved wrong.

Do We Really Need A Formula One??

It's been quite a while since the grandly organised Formula One (hereby referred to as F1) got over, right here in India. It was a grand affair, and a big success, no doubt. It'll bring in cartloads of investments to India, that is for sure. F1 is a popular, a hugely popular sport around the world. Bernie Ecclestone, the F1 boss, is considered a god in many quarters, for giving the world a status sport other than derby or golf.

But a few points make me believe that we are speeding in the wrong direction.
Here's why...

The Indian leg of the F1 was an event watched by millions around the world. However, have we given a thought to the fact that billions more couldn't care less about it? Agreed, it's a really massive thing. The amount of money it involves, makes it a really big affair. But my main point of contention is this? What if the amount of money spent on building this entire Budh International Circuit, and organising this Grand Prix, was spent somewhere else? Human development, to be precise??

India is developing country. With 1.3 billion stomachs to feed, it is the second most populous nation after China, and one of the densely populated nations of the world. We don't fare much on the Human Development Index either (134 among 187). Keeping these parameters in mind, here's what I ask. Are we really, as a nation, well- placed enough to organise an event this big for a small section of the society, when majority of the others can't even afford a decent car??

Here's another point of view.
We have all heard of global warming. What exactly is it?
Global warming is the phenomenon where greenhouse gases from combustion of fossil fuels produces greenhouse gases, which allow insolation (incoming solar radiation) to enter the earth's atmosphere, but not escape, thus heating it up.
Sorry for the science FAQ, but it's better to hand out some trivia before continuing, right?? Anyways, the point is that the vehicles we drive everyday burn these very fossil fuels to run. The result being that everyday, a lot more amount of these greenhouse gases are being added to the atmosphere than can be offset by the vegetation, which after all, is limited, thanks to deforestation. Add to that competitive racing events like F1, MotoGP etc, and what do you have? A ready made doomsday recipe..  Need I also mention that all the fuel reserves of the world might end within this century? So unless we find any other suitable alternative soon enough, we might see that possibility happen sooner, maybe 50 years... That's pretty soon eh? In this scenario, can we really afford an F1, where thousands of gallons of fuel are used up in a single day??

Now, fuel is not the only resource used here, is it? What of the tonnes of metal used to produce the cars? Now as we know we have the largest constitution in the world with the largest number of non- followers, naturally, child labour, though 'illegal', is still utilised. And mining is no exception. How is it that people in slums don't have a metal sheet over their heads, but there is enough metal to race around race- tracks??

My suggestion for this? Preposterous as though it may sound, my proposal is that we put on hold all such events like this, only till the time we have a self sustainable economy and a truly renewable source of energy with which to drive cars...

Now again, as I said earlier. F1 will bring in loads of FDI. But at what price? Workers dying before they even reach middle age, thanks to various diseases acquired through exposure to radioactive or harmful minerals; depleted natural resources; not enough food to feed the needy and not enough material to house them. Is that really economic development? Is FDI enough to raise a nation to greater heights??? I beg to differ.

Cricketer or God???

I guess I'm a bit late with this... but posting anyway...
There has been a little bit of controversy, about a certain Pakistani cricketer, who wrote in his book that a certain Indian batsman feared his bowling. Now the said batsman has chosen to keep mum on the entire issue.

But wait... we are in India! Here we worship our cricketers and our actors. Build temples for them.
Well... as you might have guessed, the batsman is none other than Sachin Tendulkar. So what if he dindeed was uncomfortable with the deliveries of one of the world's fastest bowlers?? What if he does have an Achilles Heel?? He is only a goddamn human!!!! Why can't we Indians let go of our obsession with celebrities??

On second thoughts... we don't always do that, do we?? What if they lose a couple of matches? Or make a few ummm.... controversial statements?? Well.. we burn their effigies, their poster, throw stones at their homes, vandalize their walls, burn buses (as if we hope to find them hitchhiking a ride on one of those)...

Come to think of it, that's in our nature. Isn't it always like that?? We tend to idolise people in their good times, and are after their bloods when they are... well... going through a bad phase...