The festivities of Pujo and the travails of an Indian woman!

        Aditi was enthralled with the ‘Pujo’ preparations.  Everyone seemed to be  intoxicated with the fragrance of special incense being used for Mahalaya.   Her parents were not home when  Mukherji uncle visited her.  As usual he made her sit in his lap. But, today it was little different.   The movement of his hands was not like what she was used to.  He was smiling and perhaps rubbing her thighs.  Aditi was confused.

         A few days back it was ‘Onam’.  Shree, Aditi’s childhood friend sounded equally delighted getting ready for the mass dinner they organize on auspicious occasions.  Since it was not far away and Nath uncle,  a good friend of her father, offered her to ride his scooty.  She grabbed the opportunity and chose to drive it.  After all she still was a teenager.  It was only after few minutes into the drive that she realized that Nath uncle was  sitting ‘just  too close’.  After a while he offered to train her hands at the accelerator and put his hands on hers,  while she could feel his heavy breaths on her neck.

      Paramjeet was training for the  upcoming State level athletics event. Javelin was her passion and her parents had to fight half of their relatives to send her in for this important training camp.  Her Guru Ji, the trainer,  didn’t leave any prospect unavailed to touch her  at every possible place that he could do in the name of ‘training’.

  Gulnaaz was preparing for Civil Services examinations. It was her late father’s dream to see her become an IAS officer.  In her coaching class, near Char Meenar,   boys used to fight for the seat next to her.  That was quite natural keeping in view the adolescence they were undergoing.  But it was her Shastri Sir’s left hand, that ended up landing on her shoulder,  which made her uncomfortable and eventually forced her to leave her classes midway.

  Indrayani had come to Delhi looking for a job.  Her dusky beauty got her the very first job she applied for.  Little did she know that she will have to face a new challenge everyday travelling in the famous Delhi Metro train.  A few hands brushing against her fragile frame every now and then.  A few more trying to cover as much area of her curves as they could before her destination came.

  Hemlata  had all the faith in her physiotherapist that he will help her recover from her ankle injury.  She had to visit him daily for his ‘magical touch’ at his clinic.  He had promised to prepare her before the trials for the next National Kabaddi Championship began.  It was only  after a few days that the magical touch began to extend from her calf muscles to her upper thigh, that she could fathom what treatment he actually was willing to provide her with.

        Little did know little Prajnya that the ‘bhaiya’  standing behind her was intentionally in the practice of touching her from behind in that crowded city bus.  It was only after one of the aunties gave him her piece of mind one after noon,  while he was still standing too close to her despite there  being sufficient space to maintain  some gap, that he never boarded the same bus ever again.

         Ritika was the ‘hot cake’  in her office.  Her reporting boss was her father’s age and similar respect she used to offer him.  It was only after an ‘achievers’ celebration’ that he revealed how hard he had to bargain to  fetch her this ‘Young Achievers’ Award’.  Her hand was already in his grip before she could understand what he expected in return of making her the ‘Young Achiever’.
   
          Stella wanted to start  her own ‘Rock band’.  She made a Facebook group to team up with likeminded amateur musicians in Panjim.  They all became friends gradually.  During one of the weekend practice-cum-party sessions two of her ‘pro’ friends groped and kissed her sufficiently before she could come back to her senses and scream at them to scare them enough to run away from her.

           Ambika  had joined this reputed University to study sociology, specializing in ‘women’s studies’.  She wasn’t aware of the norms of this progressive society where if you raise your voice before the high & mighty, you must be prepared to face ‘appropriate punishment’.  In her case it was gang rape by half a dozen of her seniors.  First, she could not recover  from the shock that one of her hostel friends was instrumental in getting her punished.  Secondly,  she could not report it at the ‘appropriate forum’ for the fear of few other ‘active’  friends of hers could be the target of the next assault.  God only knew what they could do next to gang rape, as they had simply ‘told’ her the next morning of the nightlong  gang rape. They didn’t warn her, they simply told her.

            Tenzin had come to Mumbai to look for a job as a model and actor.  She had the features of a goddess as her friends used to tell her.  It took time for her to know that it  was not only her beauty that would land her any good  assignments. She needed to ‘understand’  and ‘cooperate’  to survive in the ‘industry’. 

            These incidents can not be exhaustive.  These are merely a few instances, mostly hypothetical, but inspired from some real life stories of  many young girls and/or  full-bodied women  in various parts of our country.

            Today,  as Durga Puja or the Pujo or the Nav Ratri begins,  there will be a lot of news coverage from every nook & corner of the nation,  especially West Bengal.  There will be pandals all over the country, depicting Maa Kali killing the demons and in other postures.  People will throng to the pandals keeping aside all their important works.  With folded hands, vermillion  on their foreheads, chanting mantras and half closed eyes, they will seem to be praying.  But not all.  Not all will be praying with the same sense of devotion or purity of mind and deeds.  Many will be there who will perform puja and other rituals with complete dedication while inside the temple or the pandals,  but as they come out, hey will be the first to stare lecherously, pass lewd comments, touch inappropriately,   brush against women’s bodies, particularly the private parts,  willingly to ensure a touch of their private parts. 

            It is not just about Pujo or the Nav Ratris  or any other festival.  It is about our mindsets.  It is about how we worship the Goddess inside the temples and disgrace the our own women right outside the same temples.  Why is it so?  Who is responsible?  Me or you or all of us??

             Hope it  changes this Pujo, in some considerable measure if not full,  as Maa Navdurga in her nine Avatars,  bestows her choicest blessings upon us and some courage and audacity to the women out there.

#ShubhPujo

#BhaiyaSpeaks

iPhone6 : The Status Symbol

While this part of India, which has electricity and internet connectivity,  is busy watching the launch of #iPhone6;  
and  amassing arguments to support 'why to buy one!'

#RahulBaba is brooding over the question "whether possessing an #iPhone6 will make more news or announcing that 'I don't have one' will apparently  take me closer to #AamAdmi!"

#BhaiyaSpeaks

The Hapless Case of an Award Winning Actress!!

“An award winning actress arrested for prostitution!” was the breaking news at every holy news channel and so did  read the headlines of very news paper.  “She was  caught in compromising position earlier as well in a sting operation  done by another saintly Telugu News channel!”- they claimed.   Is it about Shweta Basu Prasad, better known as Shweta Prasad?  Or  are there other subtleties involved ?

Here is a young lady whom I can recall as the sweet little girl portraying the  dual role of Chunni and Munni in Vishal Bhardwaj directed Makdee, where she worked alongside the iconic Shabana Azmi and versatile Makrand Deshpande. It was the film that earned her the ‘National Film Award for the Best Child Artist’. She was 11 years old then.  Another thread of my memory traces her as Khadija in Nagesh Kukunoor directed Iqbal where she performed the role of the younger sister to a deaf and dumb brother Iqbal, an ardent cricket fan and a fine player of the game, played by no less talented Shreyas Talpade. Here again she worked as a co-actor of  Naseeruddin Shah and Girish Karnad.  This very role, once again,  fetched her international accolades as she was awarded with the  ‘Best supporting Actress Award’  at the 5^th  Karachi International Film Festival.  Can we stoop to a level to charge her of having resorted to immodest ways to grab those roles as a 11 years old child? 

Yes,  now she is 23 by age. Yes, she is capable enough to  know and decide the nature of her acts and their repercussions as well.  Yes, she is responsible for any and every act of hers.  But is it only her who is responsible for having resorted to opt for doing it for money?  Many  would say yes. But I would prefer to implicate many others, including the State. After all a Welfare State we are;  and in a Welfare State it is for the State to provide for Social Security to every citizen.  I would also hold responsible the lechers who have seen her grow up,  who might have observed her reaching puberty and cross adolescence.  Most of whom might have waited for her to groom into a full-bodied woman.  Almost all of them invincible by sheer fact of quantum of their  not-so-hard-earned wealth.  Each of them wielding  such powers which almost all of us,  yes all of us, dream to possess at one point or another.     

Is it not the same coterie of persons who eventually became her ‘so called high profile clients’ who are also responsible for it?
Isn't it quite probable that they belong to the same group of lechers who  have been waiting for her to enter her youth?  Since they could not succeed in manipulating her enough in that tender age or could not dare to take that step to tear through her modesty that eventually they ended up using their money to make her fall prey to them?  They might have in the know of her financial and other hardships. No, I am not saying that resorting to any such practice is the only solution. But, is it only her who is at fault or other stakeholders including the Sate too are responsible to an extent.  

In this biggest democracy of ours, we have ‘first past the post system’. It implies that the candidate garnering the support of maximum number of voters shall win, which does not necessarily mean  that he has the support of more than fifty percent of the voters. A person mustering the support of merely 20-25% of the votes is declared the winner. Now you will ask "how is it relevant here?" It is. This same winner, if he fails to win in the next general elections, even then he has the divine assurance of receiving a handsome sum as pension, which increases in multiples commensurating with the number of elections a candidate wins in his entire career.

o   Is not this a primary duty of the State to arrange for the welfare of the talented artists as well?

o   Is it not in the interest of the nation if the art and culture are preserved and promoted in a holistic manner through  policy initiatives?

o   Why are such precious talents left to waste or languish in some unknown  corner?

    o   Has not history taught us that not just the nations but civilizations which failed to preserve          the art and culture of theirs could not stand the test of times and no tangible traces of them are detectable today?

Again, its not about defending the actress in news these days, rather fixing the responsibility of various stakeholders and making them answer. If we can provide pensions to politicians and other individuals like retired government servants, why can’t there be a provision for exceptional artists? Had there been a proper systemic set up to patronize artists, litterateurs etc., such cases would have been a rarity if not non-existent.