Hazaaron Khwahishen Aisi

"huii jinase tavaqqo Khastagii kii daad paane kii

vo hamse bhii ziyaadaa Khastaa-e-teG-e-sitam nikale"

Cops bicker, woman is gangraped

A woman is gangraped while the police fought over who was responsible to stop the crime - yes, this happens only in India. One knows cops here are an apathetic lot. But this story makes me want to scream out. What is happening to us as a nation? Where are we going? Will any of those cops be held accountable for what happened to that 20-year-old woman? Does anybody really care?

I am probably being extremely finicky right now, but the last line in this story irks me - In 2007, the city saw 598 rapes, a slight improvement from 2006 (623 cases) and 2005 (658 cases). Improvement? That there are some 20-odd fewer rapes happening is an improvement? Someone please help me understand this!

WTF!

Way back in the eighties, there was this song from Desh Premee which went like this:

Jaate hai to Jao, par itna samajh lo,

thodi choodiyan pehen lo, ek ghagra silwalo

Aurat ki hifaazat jo karna paaye,

us mard ko kya kehte hai ye to batlao

Way back then as well, I hated this song and the connotations it carried with it: A woman is this delicate damsel in distress (main abla, main nari... the song goes) who had to be protected by a man; if a man doesn't act accordingly, he is as good (or as bad?) as a woman; he might as well wear bangles and sit at home! But with Amitabh "Mard" Bachchan as the hero, and the fact that this was in the eighties, one was more tolerant to these sentiments; to many it also somehow seemed more acceptable, if not appropriate.

More than twenty years later, one sees this picture, and one's blood boils. The story, of course, is disdainful to all women. Worse, you don't even have to read between the lines. The picture and the story just reveal all that the author feels and thinks: A government (made up of only men if one were to go by the picture) that doesn't act is like a woman (remember the song above?)! Women cannot be tough, competent and efficient leaders; that is a typical characteristic of all men. And if they are not tough, competent and efficient, well sorry, you got to be a woman draped in a sari! And the blurb - "We apologise to all women who may feel the elegant sari is wasted on our administrators" - is, in fact, an apology for an apology.

WTF truly. If this isn't a personal affront to all women, I don't know what is.

Related Post: Mud on one's face

Sublime

Just listen to this.



RIP, Ustad!

Shocking...

I am so angry that I really can't say anything at this point of time. I urge you to read this. The hospital has responded in the comments section., but to me it seems more like a cover up rather than a desire to do some kind of analysis on what went wrong.

The real India, anyone?

All those who protested loudly about how India was depicted negatively in the movie that is making waves all over (which I didn't think too much about, by the way), do read this.

Will this ever change? Why don't I feel too hopeful about it?

(link via Ludiwg)

A humdinger

It shouldn't have ended so incongruously, not with a double fault after the glorious tennis one witnessed.

After 5 hours and 14 minutes there shouldn't have been a loser; especially not the one with 95 winning shots. But then, the one with only 25 unforced errors couldn't be the loser either.

Just as you thought the ball couldn't be stuck any harder, the ground strokes couldn't get any better or the forehand shots any more glorious, both these men came out with something that made you sit up on your seats. Both played unbelievably, both were as relentless as the harsh Australian summer; sad that there can be only one winner. As Nadal lay down on the ground out of sheer exhaustion and relief, more than joy probably, your heart went out to the person on the other side of the net, the one beaten by the serve that didn't fail him for over five hours.

You can't actually call Nadal the winner; he just about survived Verdasco's grand assault. Isn't it a surprise that at the end of it all the world no 1 had won just one point more (193 to Verdasco's 192) than his compatriot - the single point that gave him the match?

This one, for me, is there right at the top as one of the best matches I have ever watched, along with the 2008 epic Wimbledon final between Nadal and Federer. Watch these highlights to see for yourselves.