Tuesday 15 January 2013

Sadz haz it

It being me.
No, I don't want to talk about it.
I just want to be.
I will be okay in a bit.

Don't wait, don't prod.
It's okay to be sad
It is not that odd.
Don't you feel bad.

Yes, it is us I am thinking about
Yes, I am pondering
Yes, I do have a doubt
Yes, it is a bit unflattering.

Not everything works
It doesn't have to
We all have our quirks
Don't make much ado

It is not an adieu
No, not yet
I don't want to rue
So don't fret.

But, sadz haz it
It being me
Because I see it
A day that it will be.

Wednesday 9 January 2013

Brrrr...

I feel this way every morning:

Calvin and Hobbes
Source: http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2013/01/07
Hate cold mornings.

Tuesday 8 January 2013

Self righteousness of Rapist

Those are the words ringing in my mind after reading IHM's post and subsequently Sohaila's account. Self righteousness of rapist! It's outrageous, shocking, shameful and yet so true. Those are the words I have been searching for so long but couldn't put my finger on it.

According to these self righteous rapists, rape is justified if
- woman is wearing, which according to rapists, police and judges, inappropriate (who decides what is appropriate or inappropriate),
- woman is in company of a male friend,
- woman is out after sun down,
- woman is smoking or drinking.
-  or some other excuse that is in some way inappropriate behaviour for a woman, again, according to the rapists, police or judges.

Oh, I forgot the politicians.

And of course whenever this happens, Sita is given as an example. The great culture is put somewhere in the spotlight. And on this stage they make rapist look like a hero, a self righteous man who was doing the right thing by teaching women like these a lesson. In all their haste of protecting our great culture and hence the rapist, they forget few crucial points. Let me elaborate on them.

Why do we always focus so much on poor Sita. Let's give her a break and focus on, oh I don't know, Radha. We do have her statutes in our temples, don't we? She is also part of our great culture, isn't she? So why can't we, women of India, aspire to be like her? She had a boyfriend, didn't she? She had sex before marriage. She actually never married her boyfriend. She was never punished for either of those offences and yet you choose to punish us for just being with a man? Why is that it is allowed  for men in our society to behave like Krishan but expect women to behave like Sita? I think you are mixing your mythologies here, aren't you? (Just to be clear, Krishan never raped anyone but he did harassed quite a few women. Am not a big fan of him. In my opinion, he was a jerk)

Now let's talk about Indian culture. When you talk about protecting the great culture of ours, I am not sure which culture you are referring to. You see culture by definition is an ever-changing entity. I gather, from your great speeches about our great culture that you refer to a culture of some unspecified past but it is never made clear which era are you referring to when you say that we need to preserve our culture. Is it the Vedic period you are talking about? In that case, you should visit Khujraho some time and you would be shocked by the culture of that era. Or are you referring to the Mughal/British period? But aren't you the one who talk about ill effects of westernisation? You will be again surprised to know that both Mughals and British were westerners. If it is okay for us to adopt that western-influenced culture then why is it so evil to do so now?

My last point is directed towards the police, judges and the politicians of our country who take an oath to uphold the Constitution of India. Can you please tell me where in the Constitution of India is it written that woman is supposed to dress in a certain way? If its not in the Constitution, how can you judge woman based on that? Why is acceptable to bring it up during a legal proceeding? How can you make legal decisions based on something that is not even in the Constitution? Uphold the law and not your personal beliefs. If you can't follow the law, you should excuse yourself from the position.

Saturday 5 January 2013

New Year Resolution

Instead of making a long list of things I would like to do this year, I have decided to have only one new year resolution this year which is,

Do It Now. 

I think I will be able to do a lot of things that I want to do if I follow this one rule. So instead of making a to-do list for the year, I have one simple rule to follow. I will let you know by the end of the year how it worked out...

Wednesday 2 January 2013

Its over!

The twelve days of holidays, that is. Its over. Today was the first day of office. Grrrrr....

[source]
Okay, I admit it. I am, and have never been, a morning person but I especially hate Monday mornings (who doesn't? If you don't: I hate you too). Today was the king of Monday mornings, even though it wasn't Monday today. It was the morning after the Christmas break! Add to that one and a half hour of commute to work. Well let's just say that if you had bump into me today morning, you would have met the queen of all grumpies. Okay, may be that was a bit of exaggeration since, according to me, the real queen of all grumpies is Aunty Acid. Still, I could have been a princess or something. 

Anyway, I somehow reached the office and switched on the laptop. Had a panic attack for about 15 minutes in which I was desperately trying to remember my password. Why, oh why, do we need to change the passwords every 90 days. How many passwords can a person remember? Don't answer that. 

Once the laptop was booted, I sat blankly in front of it for another 15 minutes. I was trying to remember the purpose of my being there. Seriously, I had no recollection of any thing nor any idea what was I supposed to do next. So I started by opening the outlook hoping to waste away my morning in reading through my unread mails (evil genius plan!). Guess what, no one works during the Christmas break. There were three unread mails in my inbox. Two of them were automated mails. I took my time to read them.

I was once again staring at my screen with no idea what to do next. "Morning Tuhina". And my manager was standing behind me. Nice. Thankfully, he didn't ask me about my plans for the day. Guess he must be in the same pickle as me.

I started again. This time going through my task list and trying to figure out what I meant by those abbreviations and words that I so confidently once wrote. Basically, I was trying to relearn my job. A job I have been doing for past few years now. A job I am good at. A job that I love. And I had no clue what it is that I do, why I love it so and how the hell do I do it!

I somehow made it till lunch. After lunch, it was basically a game of watching the clock tick away the hours. Thus ended my first official day of 2013. Its official now: Break time is over.