Opinion
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| PATRIARCHY | | It is not okay uncle!! | | | | "Is it really okay to violate someone in any way, big or small? Is there anything more disgusting and unforgivable than violating the sanctity of someone's body? Why are we afraid of standing up against the perpetuators of such filthy acts? How are we capable of maintaining cordial and respectful relationships with such individuals in spite of being aware of their despicable deeds?"
Why do we deny it? Why do we accept it? Why is it so prevalent?
Molestation by a known person is widely prevalent and is somehow, unfortunately acceptable and is considered unavoidable in family structures. As a victim of this heinous act, you can cry out to your mother or husband or friend about it…. And they will all either ignore it or tell you that it is the way of life or that you need to accept it or i... |  | |
| | Human Rights | | Fashion confuses US domestic politics, connecting with an authoritarian on Kashmir | | | | "In Kashmir, Mr. Modi has ended the unholy PDP/BJP alliance opting for the iron hand behind his BJP's velvet glove. The BJP refused to extend the Ramzan ceasefire and the PDP walked away. The Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti submitted her resignation to the governor and the region will now come under direct rule of the Modi central government."
There is something charming about a first lady making media bloopers; however, one cannot say the same for those born very rich who are often obtuse to the sufferings of others.
The news reaching a crescendo this week in the US has not been the World Cup - relatively few understand the game here. No, it's been Donald Trump's cruel policy of separating children from families caught trying to cross the Mexican border without proper documentation. It... | | |
| | View from the Gallery | | History Repeats itself in Jammu & Kashmir | | | | As for Mehbooba Mufti she has paid a price for not sticking to her original stand that any alliance with BJP will cut the base of PDP in Kashmir. After all they had sought votes with a promise to keep BJP out of Jammu and Kashmir. She had opposed the tie up when her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed decided about it. Mr Sayeed was a great admirer of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayyee who had sought a solution of the Kashmir problem within the limits of "Jamhooriyat and Insaniyat".
History tends to repeat itself. This is the verdict of the common man in streets of Srinagar and Kashmir Valley. The verdict is based on what has happened in the past. All of those who stood fast with India in times of crisis were let down, says a Kashmiri journalist. It started with the first Prime Ministe... | | |
| | | Pray for me..! | | | | The gleaming white buildings are huge and spread out.
They house ninety two orphan children and an old folks home. On one side is a spacious guest house and behind are playgrounds and basket ball courts. I smile as I look at the whole campus and then glance with admiration at the man who had undertaken the whole project single handed and whom all the little homeless children he has picked up, just called 'brother'.
"Pray for me," he had said as usual, one day many years ago as he left my house.
"Why Tony?" I had asked him, that day.
"Why? What?" he had asked with some surprise.
"Why do you ask me to pray for you?"
"I ask everybody to," he said. "I ask everybody I meet to pray for a home I want to build."
"So why don't you pray to God yourself," I said. "Tell Him about the home. Tel... | | |
| | | The OHCHR report on Kashmir - II | | Will India succeed in blocking the discussions in Geneva? | | | The attempt to avoid discussions on the content is an attempt to cover up the gross misuse of the coercive state apparatus against protesting civilians during the period 2016-2018. The discussions on the content will bring out issues highlighted by the OHCHR report such as the killings of about 145 persons and a very high number of injuries. The excessive use of pellet-firing guns that have blinded or injured the eyes of civilians, largely the youth.
Government of India's response to the OHCHR report has evoked mainly two kinds of responses. Supporters of human rights within India and in other countries have called on India to act on the recommendations of the first-ever report by the United Nations on the human rights situation in Kashmir. Others, including supporters of the ruling B... | | |
| | | Ban the Dosa..! | | | | After my morning walk, I sit for an hour on my terrace garden, savoring my pot of delicious coffee. All around me I hear the sounds of birds and squirrels, as the peepul tree towering over me provides a home to them and peace for me. As I sip away, different smells start drifting up to me; that of breakfasts being prepared by loving hands. There's the aroma of aloo paratha, the whiff of an omelette, the crisp smell of a dosa, there's bacon and eggs rising somewhere, and all the pleasant odours drift up to me, and enhance the beautiful mood I am in. I feel a stillness.
And as I drift into this time of sheer tranquility, I wonder whether I've ever heard one smell cry to another, "Hey, you're intruding into my space!"
"You're smelly please tone down!"
"Stop crackling while you're frying! ... | | |
| | | The OHCHR report on Kashmir - I | | Will India succeed in blocking the discussions in Geneva? | | | India undertook to fulfill its twenty year old promise that it would ratify the UN Convention Against Torture. India, having been an active member of the UN Human Rights Council, having submitted to the UPR process on three occasions, and as a member of the Troika made recommendations to other countries for improving its human rights situation, it is strange that the government now asserts that the OHCHR report on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir is a violation of Indian sovereignty and integrity.
The United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), on June 14 published "Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Kashmir: Developments in the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir from June 2016 to April 2018". This is the first such report on Jammu a... | | |
| | | There's gold at your feet..! | | | | My father was a good, honest man with brilliant plans and ideas, but a poor businessman. Maybe there are some people who shouldn't get into business, and he was one of them, but he always felt it was the city he was doing business in that had to blame for his unsuccessful forays into making a fortune, so during my childhood we trudged from city to city with him, where he opened up his business and finally in frustration emigrated to the US, while I stayed behind.
Many years later he fell sick and I brought him back and asked him which was the best city for business. He looked at me smiled and said, "Your pot of gold is where you are right now Bob, there was no need for me to have moved around like I did!"
There's this other very old, famous story of David: David was a v... | | |
| | | Bhindranwale Still Lives | | | | Indian history is replete with tragedies which, when retold, suggest that the happenings could have been avoided. 'Operation Bluestar' is one of them. Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a militant, holed himself up at the Akal Takht, the highest Sikh seat, and created a state within a state. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi used the Army to silence his guns and sent tanks into the Harmandir Saheb. Whatever one may say, Bhindranwale continues to enjoy respect in the hearts of Sikhs.
I had a taste of it the other day when, unwittingly, I referred to him as a terrorist. Sikh historian Khushwant Singh could get away with the remark that Bhindranwale was a terrorist. But I could not. Although I explained that it was an off-the-cuff remark, not meant to cast any reflection on Bhindranwale, there were fur... | | |
| | | One Long, Two Short..! | | | | From my home I can hear in the distance, the trains going by, and then I hear the dreadful sound, the train hooting; one long and two short blasts. Again, one long and two short!
I know what grim tidings those hoots bring. It says the train has run over someone and the station master is being told to send a stretcher and men down the tracks and remove the body: Some poor soul who while crossing the railway tracks was hit by the train and now lies maimed, mangled and most probably dead!
And as soon as those at the station hear the distressing hoots, two helpers get up wearily and walk casually to the blood stained rusted stretcher that lies near the station master's office, pick it up, and trundle wearily down the tracks in search of whatever is left of the iron monsters ruthless devouri... | | |
| | | Possibility of global nuclear disarmament? | | | By Sandeep Pandey and Bobby Ramakant | |
| | After a hiatus in the movement for global nuclear disarmament it is heartening to note that there are some positive developments over the last couple of years. The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution for 'taking forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations' on 23 December, 2016 which culminated in the adoption of 'Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons' on 7 July, 2017, with 122 countries voting in its favour, only one voting against it and 70 not participating. International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) was awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize 'for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic human consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons.' And more rec... | | |
| | | Water at twenty feet..! | | | | A few years ago, people staying in the colony I live in, and who peep out of their windows early in the morning, wondered why I went and stared into a black hole in the ground. That black hole in the ground is no more a hole but carved into a twenty feet deep ring well!
“Water at twenty feet?” the engineer asked astounded with a sneer, “I have never seen this happen in the city and I should know, as I do contracts for the municipality!”
“Just dig!” I said gently to him, “We have not been given permission to dig a borewell, so let us try an old fashioned well”
“But sir, your colony is on a hill, hundreds of feet high!”
“Dig!” I said.
I knew if water was not struck, I would be answerable to the people for the money spent, but in my mind there was a picture, and the picture was of an an... | | |
| | | Why do soldiers still keep dying at India-Pakistan border? | | | | In 1947 India was divided by the foreign rulers by playing a game of divide and rule to which the religious fundamentalists fell prey. India and Pakistan since then have a checkered history and uneasy relationship sometimes climaxing in wars and violent conflagrations.
While the governments prefer to maintain adversarial relationship, which now sustains certain vested interests on both sides, the common people and business interests on two sides want peace. They do not want conflicts in which people die. The soldiers dying on both sides, after all, come from mostly modest middle class rural backgrounds. While the leaders can meet when they choose to, the common people do not have control over their destiny. The manner in which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stopped over in Pakistan ... | | |
| | | No grins, no smiles, no laughter..! | | | | It was a gathering in a mammoth hall, of a billion and a quarter,
There were murmurs and sharp words, but no smiles, chuckles or laughter.
"What did you do for us," they asked the people who'd gathered there,
"What did you do?" they asked to the those who sat on the chair.
"We gave you our vote, and hoped that you, would do something for us,
We were impressed by dreams you sold and all the other fuss.
You said there would be jobs and perks, for all of us today!
But looks like all we see, is unhappiness come our way!"
The representatives elected, looked their voters in the eye,
"We cannot understand," they said, "why you weep and why you cry,
We have done so much for you, if you'd only look round and see,
The roads we have renamed, in city and country!
We have looked long and h... | | |
| | | Writing and rewriting partition's afterlife | | An excerpt from The Psychological Impact of the Partition of India | | | Women and children were extensively targeted during communal rioting as mutual attrition took place on a scale never seen before. What followed was a comprehensive break with established modes of conduct and value in both public and private domains, even as the composite culture of the subcontinent seemed to implode.
Muslim refugees crowd on top a train leaving New Delhi for Pakistan, September 1947 | Image Courtesy: Hindustan Times
The moment of the Partition in 1947 was marked by unprecedented disruption of accepted norms, especially in North and Northwest India, even as at least one million people were killed and 10-15 million were forced from their homes in the biggest mass migration in history. Women and children were extensively targeted during communal rioting as mutual attriti... | | |
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