Reacting....

Have been reading about the Gauhati sexual assault incident (note the language – ‘sexual assault’, not ‘molestation’) in the paper lately and my heart goes out to the poor kid. I hope (against hope, I may add) that the police catch all the offenders soon and the courts speedily sentence them. I’m writing this post to express my irritation at one of the asinine, regressive, callous (ugh, I can’t find a strong enough word to express how I feel) comments that some men have made about it.

The incident is appalling, the alleged involvement of the News Live journalist is horrifying to think about, but a comment by Atanu Bhuyan, the Editor-in-Chief of News Live just takes the cake. Rather than apologizing, or expressing regret, the gentlemen chose to (attempt to) justify the incident in this unrepentant tweet, “Prostitutes form a major chunk of girls who visit bars and night clubs”.

Firstly, of course it’s not only prostitutes that go to bars and night-clubs, women from all sorts of professions do. But aside from that niggle with his data and hypothesis, I have another bone to pick.

Clearly he feels that if the girl were a prostitute, then a group of men molesting her would be fine.  Why should it be considered acceptable for a decent man to molest a prostitute when she's objecting ? A transaction that an adult woman consents to is one thing, but forcing your attention on her when she’s objecting is quite another. Raping a prostitute is as big a crime as raping anyone else. If a woman says “No”, it means “No” and it should be respected, irrespective of her profession or her status; i.e. whether she’s a prostitute, or a colleague at the organization you work at, or your friend, or your legally wedded wife, raping or molesting her is a heinous crime.  

This attitude of ‘she’s a prostitute so it’s okay’ is just another manifestation of the sickening ‘she wore revealing clothes, so she was asking for it’, or the ‘who tho badchalan aurat hai, aisi aurat ke saath yeh tho hona hi tha’ attitude. I think it’s about time we started giving prostitutes some dignity and respect, and that we banish this excuse of a woman's character / profession / attire being the reason for an attack.

By,
Zenobia

Woop ! A lazy weekend begins

Occasionally a lazy weekend reciprocates the warmth and enthusiasm with which I greet it in the morning.

On a cloudy breezy monsoon morning, what better way to have started the day than to have plonked myself in the balcony with a steaming mug of tea and a pile of newspapers ? What bliss to have a balcony in Bombay, even a tiny shoe-box sized one like mine !

With all the time in the world to go through the papers, every few sentences I took a break to gaze at the trees and bushes around and savour the shades of clean fresh green. While doing so, I kept an eye out for activity on the peepul tree nearby which plays host to a wide variety of birds apart from the omnipresent crows and pigeons that I am heartily sick of. I nodded a polite neighbourly hello to the regulars I spotted – male and female Asian koel, oriental magpie robin, red-vented bulbuls, coppersmith barbets, and some tiny brown thing with a yellow chest; but once their continued patronage of the tree was confirmed and I had greeted them, I didn’t pay much attention to them. ‘Ghar ki murgi daal baraabar’ as the saying goes, I see this bunch quite often.

The coppersmith barbet probably disapproved

of being ignored in this manner ; it’s cute in an awkwardly put-together-in-a-hurry sort of way, with a plump green body, yellow eye-ring, red beret, red bar on the chest and straggly whiskers sprouting on the sides of its beak; I guess it thought to itself, “what’s all the colour for if not to be admired, eh ?” So it perched on a branch quite close to where I was sitting and emitted this funny ‘woop’ sound just as I looked up from the paper. It’s cunning ploy succeeded in getting my attention, I’d never heard the coppersmith barbet’s call before, never thought it would sound like this either, it looks more like a cheep-er or chirrup-er than a woop-er.

Newspaper forgotten, I watched and listened carefully as the little thing hopped from branch to branch, emitting woops every few seconds. It’s quite a deep call; imagine stepping lightly on the tail of a bird with hiccups, that’s how I imagine its yelp of distress would sound. Or think of a puppy - a really tiny one, only a few days old – trying out its voice, those tiny yips and yelps they emit before they learn how to bark. Then marry that sound with the gurgle of the last bit of water as it rushes down the drain after you pull out the plug. That’s the coppersmith barbet’s woop.

It totally made my day. Like I said, sometimes you welcome a lazy day, sometimes a lazy day welcomes you.

p.s. If you’re interested, you can hear the call here. Though the bird in this link emits a more continuous call than the one I heard, maybe I heard a juvenile calling.

The link above also mentions that the ‘Coppersmith barbet’s metronomic call has been likened to a coppersmith striking metal with a hammer, I guess that’s where the bird gets its name from. This article from the Guardian confirms my hypothesis. One more mystery solved.

p.p.s None of the pics in this post were taken by me, I got them off various blogs thanks to google search.

Enjoy the weekend, folks !

:-)

Zen

An imaginary resignation letter

In case anyone’s missed the furore over the UPA’s Presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee and his  resignation (or not) from the ISI (Indian Statistical Institute), links to news articles related to the tamasha here, here, here and here.

If you’ve been following the drama online, you’ll notice that every headline just says ISI and doesn’t specify which one, the Indian Statistical Institute or the not-so-friendly-neighbour’s Intelligence Service. The latter would be an amusing possibility, wouldn’t it ? Now that would really give the BJP reason to slam the UPA for encouraging and Pranab for indulging in illegal activity. And what an amusing resignation letter it would make, this is what I'm imagining :

Dear Sir,

I have been offered a senior position in another large organization and I have decided to accept it. As it is viewed in somewhat a competitive light, my membership of this august body would be in conflict with the new role and my responsibilities therein. (Also, the wife insists that I cannot be a party to plans to destruct my own backyard, and you know how obstinate Bengali ladies can be about small details that matter to them.)

Hence I humbly request you to accept my resignation. I hope you will release me from all duties as soon as possible.

Do convey my regards to the whole team, wishing all of you well in all future endeavours. I will continue to remain in touch and hope to maintain cordial relations, though in the interests of security, all parcels and gifts may be subjected to scrutiny.

                                                I remain,

                                                                                Yours sincerely, etc. etc.

• Zen