Lessons for Bengaluru commuters

Preach and drive

The dreaded ‘C’ word

I scour through the newspaper everyday but looks like I missed this. Until an acquaintance happened to send it to me via e-mail. I am quite surprised that this has not received sufficient media coverage.

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/dc-comment/un%E2%80%99s-caste-charter-boon-not-liability-958#comment-22993

The UN Human Rights Council had prepared a draft for “the effective elimination of discrimination based on work and descent”. And India has rejected this. India apparently does not want to have any international interference on this issue.

The article says “the UN draft proposes to equate all discrimination on the basis of caste, occupation or descent as a violation of human rights”.

So is India afraid to accept that discrimination based on caste exists in the country?

“Presumably, it is pressure from politically-strong OBCs enjoying both muscle and money power, that their representatives are standing in the way of India adopting a rational and just position in relation to the UN’s proposed principles and guidelines”.

Are the politicians going to continue playing the ‘caste’ card and ring in the votes for their personal victory?

Are people from the so-called General category going to continue to get fake SC/ST certificates to bag a college seat?

Are we going to continue to use separate utensils for our helpers at home? Are we going to continue to make these house helpers to sit on the floor when they are as human as us?

The Constitution seems to exist just for the sake of it.

What will it take for us to let go of all prejudices and treat everyone equally?

Note: I found the trailer of this documentary movie titled ‘Shit’, directed by R P Amudhan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqW1ZB_rjKg I’m unable to find the entire movie online. A very stark example under this topic. I had the privilege of viewing this film and meeting the film maker about three years ago. Please do share if anyone happens to have a copy of the entire film.

The beauty of her scars

Female mutilation has no cultural, no traditional and no religious aspect. It is a crime which seeks justice - Waris Dirie

As a girl/woman/mother/sister/daughter, the story of beautiful Waris Dirie will come as a shock to you. I had only heard about circumcision with regard to men who are Muslims. Until I read this article http://biography.jrank.org/pages/2958/Dirie-Waris.html A shocking practice carried out in Africa, putting women through misery, all in the name of religion.

Waris Dirie went on to become a super model and even featured in a James Bond movie in the ’80s. Here’s a more detailed description of her inspiring journey. A Reader’s Digest piece http://www.fgmnetwork.org/articles/Waris.html

These atrocities against women must stop.

Childhood memories IV

My neighbours were Wayne and Nikita, from an Anglo-Indian household, the Besterwich family. They were the first neighbourhood friends I had. Actually, we were friends with the entire family. They had two dogs – Bruno and Fido. One big loud fat family they were – Aunt Jennet, Uncle Besterwich, Debbie and her beautiful little angel Sasha, Petu (whose husband was a cab driver in Dubai), Sharmaine (I forgot her boyfriend’s name), Jackie and her then boyfriend Prakash (also known as Pikku). Wayne and Nikita were Sharon’s children. We used to play together all the time. I must confess I got spoilt and learnt a lot of bad things from them! Whenever someone visited them from Dubai, they would get a huge bag of chocolates. And since they did not have a refrigerator at their place, they would keep it at our place since we had one. And each time they came over to our place to take some chocolates I would get a treat too!

Whenever power went off, we would come out on to the streets and play. I remember the game Queen of Sheeba (then, I used to think it was Queen of Shiva!). The Queen would ask us to bring a certain number of things (say ten leaves, five plastic bottles, three pebbles or anything else), and we would rush off, to rummage through garbage and wherever else! Whoever brought it first was the winner! Debbie used to be the Queen most of time. She would sit on a mat outside our house or theirs and make her commands.

Sasha, Debbie’s baby was adorable. She loved coming over to our house and playing. And never wanted to go back. Every morning, when she was sitting on her red potty, she would screech, pointing towards our house, wanting to come over. Her trademark “No No Mamma, No No” would make any heart melt. We all loved her so much. Miss you, Sasha.

And it was through the Besterwiches that we (my sister and I) got our first break! Yeah, we were on television. It’s another story that we never got to see it ourselves. I don’t know how it happened but I think they knew someone who was shooting for some serial and required some children for the same. I remember I was never called for it. They asked my sister and I was just standing at the gate, watching them ready to leave in the red car. That’s when Aunty Jennet saw me and asked me also to go along. So Nikita, my sister and I played the role of orphans in an orphanage. There were no dialogues, we just had to play in the garden. It was our first and only shot at fame you can say! We met Kannada actor Abhinaya and another actor who was hearing and speech impaired. We later learnt that this was part of a serial meant to send out a social message about people with such impairments. It was to air on DD but we missed it. We watched other parts of the serial starring Abhinaya and the other actor.