Sumankumar's yak pad

The 3 Mistakes of My Life

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Thu, 15 May 2008 05:04:00 +0000

'The biggest selling English language novelist in India's history' says the cover of The 3 Mistakes of My Life, Chetan Bhagat's new novel. In the Acknowledgments page he writes, 'However, I don't want to be India's most admired writer. I just want to be India's most loved writer.' By 'admired' he meant 'respected' I think.
In the same page he starts off with 'To Shinie Antony...' and goes about listing all the people that helped him BUT he does not say what he wanted to say. It is just a list of people. Who is your editor Chetan?

I told myself that I will not start judging the book even before I read it. But I can't help it.

I don't want to talk about Bhagat's writing skills. I am even willing to forgive the lapse on page 3 of the story. He will admit himself that his prose is not something to write home about. Let's talk storytelling. His story is based in Ahmedabad. His characters talk like they are in Boston though. Where is the local flavor Chetan? Guys, even those that want to be seen as hip, don't talk like 'Sure, Ish could not make his dream of being in the Indian Cricket team real.' I know, you mean 'Ish could not realise his dream...' If someone smashes my face, I will not ask 'What's wrong with you?' I will punch him back or run away or at least scream my lungs off. But I definitely won't inquire about my attacker's state of mind.

Chetan don't be carried away by Bollywood. You probably think it is a shrewd idea to package Cricket and Religion in a tale. It is probably clever, I don't know, but to spin a tale, any tale, you need to get the basics ~~write~~ right. I want to identify with your characters. I don't expect a Gujju boy to sound like a foul-mouthed, prepubescent American. I am sure Gujju boys use a lot more 'behen chod' or 'madar chod' than 'fuck'. I hazard a guess that not many in that small town use 'dude'. My point is that I could not see the old city in Ahmedabad. The net effect was that your characters lack life and depth. They sound like Bollywood characters.

So how does one bring the local, vernacular flavor to a tale written in English? Find key phrases, ideas... hooks that will instantly make your reader relate to your story. For example, if you wrote a story based in Chennai about the same characters. You are better off writing 'Otha stop it da machan' than 'What the fuck! Stop it dude!' That's a crude example, but I hope you see my point.

Chetan you know what the three mistakes of your life are now? Don't you?

I wonder, when an American critic picks up the novel, and spots the line on page 3 'We ran out the house' what will she think about us Indian readers? All right it is a typo but dude, but what the fuck?

Here's a review by The Mint. Taneesha, learn what a possessive pronoun is first before you write shit like "Its not when New York Times describes him as the biggest selling English language author..."
Long live mediocrity!

SharePod

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Thu, 08 May 2008 09:32:00 +0000

Want to copy music from your Ipod? I know. I know. All the tracks in your Pod are renamed by Itunes. How do you copy and retain track, album, and artist names?
Simple. Get SharePod. Small footprint. Easy to use. Effective. Brilliant!

Note: SharePod needs the Microsoft .NET 2 Framework to work correctly.

Honesty Pays. And How!

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Thu, 08 May 2008 07:25:00 +0000

See for yourself

The Fall of the Sparrow

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Wed, 07 May 2008 09:30:00 +0000

A year later, however, an ornithological survey conducted by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research confirmed birdwatchers' worst fears: the sparrow population in Andhra Pradesh alone had dropped by 80 per cent, and in other states like Kerala, Gujarat and Rajasthan, it had dipped by 20 per cent, while the decline in coastal areas was as sharp as 70 to 80 per cent.

Here we go again Chennai!

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Tue, 06 May 2008 06:12:00 +0000

This time is it is the outfit that Mallika Sherawat wore during the release of Dasavatharam's music. It seems some self-proclaimed guardians of the so called Tamil culture tried lodging a complaint against Mallika. But the cops refused to accept the complaint saying it is impossible to enforce a dress-code. Oh really? Ask the students of Anna University sirs. Also see the FrontLine piece. Scary!

Now the cynic in me tells me that the cops are doing this because the Chief Minister too shared the stage with Mallika.

Let us, for a moment, think that the guardians of Tamil morality are right... then, they need to burn all the weekly Tamil magazines. I kid you not, but every magazine that's worth its name carries pictures of skimpily clad actors. Every week!

Strange but these guardians of morality do not seem to have a problem with actors baring skin in Tamil movies (which are very high on Tamil culture). Why are we being such hypocrites!

Youmint.com deletes my account finally

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:07:00 +0000

You signed up for youmint.com. Imported your contacts from gmail or Orkut and sent invites to your friends. Suddenly, your friends start screaming at you 'What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you sending the same youmint invite 10 times!' Shock laga?
I was stunned too when a few of my friends started mailing me inquiring why I was spamming them.

So I promptly wrote to all the mail ids listed in their 'contact us' page and asked them to delete my account; there is no option on youmint.com to delete your account. Somebody did call me from youmint and assured me that the spamming will stop. But it didn't. So I lost my patience and blogged about it. And, that post now comes up in the first results page on Google when you search for youmint.com or youmint.

:-) and their top boss one Mr. Ankush called and spoke to me. Today I received a mail from them saying that my a/c has been deleted. Ankush also promised to add to their FAQ list on 'how to delete my youmint account'

I'll have to admit that folks at youmint are quite serious about customer care but it'd have been better if only they had paid attention to design. That's another story.

P.S. youmint.com whois

Weekend Birding

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Sat, 03 May 2008 06:41:00 +0000

It was him! the Egret said pointing to the aquabatic Cormorant. This rather weird bird was hanging around with a family of ducks and when he was not, he was fishing in the lalbagh lake. He was careless enough to not spot a juicy water snake that swam right under his nose.

This diminutive bird of prey is supposed to be shy;at least during daytime according to popular belief. But this guy was almost shameless. He or she stared at me as I clicked away. For good measure, the bird turned so I could get a good view of the beautiful face.
More pics on my flickr space

Ubuntu Ahoy! The Wubi Revolution

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 05:34:00 +0000

Note: The points I discuss here are applicable mostly when you want to install Ubuntu alongside Windows XP (dual boot).
I was curious about a Linux Desktop OS. I have heard so much about Ubuntu. A few months earlier I did try to install it on my Windows XP box but the whole partition thing overwhelmed me; I did not want my curiosity to kill my box. So I left it at that. I recently upgraded my computer. Bid goodbye to my old, wheezing CPU (R.I.P ol' boy!) and got me self a new one (AMD 64-bit processor, Geforce motherboard with Nvidia chipset, 2 gigs of RAM, and a 250 gigs HDD). I installed XP all right and one night when I was half asleep, watching Arnab of Times Now act like a moron on steroids, a little voice in my head whispered, 'Ubuntu?' Very soon the whisper became a scream and I went online to see if things had changed since the last time I had tried to install Ubuntu on my Windows XP. Yes, things have changed! And how!

I was chatting with Arnab - no not the news chap - my geeky friend who is doing a Phd on some very geeky shit in University of Michigan, and he told me about this new Windows installer called Wubi for Ubuntu. You can install Ubuntu on Windows like you would any other executable and uninstall it from the Add/Remove Programs menu. I went 'Whaa....t the faaaaaaaaaaaaaa...k?' And, and, and I discovered that Ubuntu had packaged Wubi in its current release (8.04). So all you folks out there that want to try a Linux Desktop OS, just to get a feel of how stuff works on planet Linux, I got news for you: you don't need to worry about the tricky partioning etc anymore. Download the latest Ubuntu release ISO, follow instructions, and Voila! Your Windows PC is now a dual-boot PC. I installed it last night and I gave Ubuntu a spin. Now, I wouldn't call it the most intuitive OS for I am still struggling to set up my broadband connection on Ubuntu. But hey, I am a complete dufus when it comes to all this and even I could install Ubuntu and have it up and running. I am sure I will figure out how to get my Internet working on Ubuntu shortly.

Ubunti (with Wubi) Pros

Faster, easier Ubuntu installation: It breaks down that old barrier. More people are going to give it a try. I like the 'install and try' approach than the 'try and install' of Live CD.
No need to burn CDs. When you run Wubi, it downloads Ubuntu (around 700 MB so might take an hour or more; depends on your connection). If you don't want Wubi download, copy the latest ISO (Ubuntu 8.04) to the same folder where Wubi resides.
Does not eat up your computing resources.
You can uninstall it like any other Windows program from 'Add/Remove Programs'
No more virus.
Comes loaded with all the software you'll ever need, including OpenOffice
Seamless upgrades through the Internet.
Install add-on software that the huge Ubuntu community churns out; there is some cool stuff out there man-o!
And, it is all free of cost.

Ubunti (with Wubi) Cons

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=481219&highlight=catch

All right, that's all I had. If you wanted a stable, no-nonsense OS that did not cost too much (read 'nothing') and one that offers an amazing array of software for your productivity and entertainment; and you wanted to kick Windows through that window. This is it. Repeat after slowly, U-B-U-N-T-U. Yeah, that's right mate, Ubuntu.

Cartoon wants animated characters instead of cheerleaders

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:43:00 +0000

Siddharam Mhetre, Minister of State for Home and guardian of Indian morality has called the cheerleaders of IPL 'absolutely obscene'. He also suggested that they use 'animated' characters in the place of cheerleaders. Why didn't anyone think of it? Didn't you all know that you are going to offend a few cartoons in this country when you brought those lovely girls to cheerlead?
Mr. Mhetre also said:
[quote]"We live in India where womanhood is worshipped. How can anything obscene like this can be allowed?" he asked. Mhetyre wondered why the organisers require "semi- nude" women to entertain people at cricket matches.[/quote] Oh gee! Really? Aren't you from the same party that watched in glee as rabid mobs slaughtered pregnant women in Gujrat?

Sharukh said: "What's wrong with cheerleaders? I am also a family person, I do not see anything negative in it," Yeah, I am sure Karan won't mind the cheerleaders. As long as they are women. Hee hee.

Featured in HT

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:27:00 +0000

Kribs referred my name to Riddi of Hindustan Times and yours truly was featured last Sunday. There are some minor copy discrepancies between the Mumbai and Delhi editions. The screenshot of the Mumbai print edition is what you see here:
Thanks Kribs! Others featured in the article are Kribs, Akshay Mahajan, and Gautam Ghosh.
P.S. When will the media guys learn to link?! No link. No love!

Oh Priyanka!

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:17:00 +0000

Priyanka Gandhi, daughter of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, says she has met a woman serving a jail term for her father's assassination.

Why would she tell the Press now is what a cynic would ask, but I love her so, all I say is 'Heh!'

No entry for educated dogs

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 05:34:00 +0000

There is this song in the Tamil movie Pudupettai, whose lyrics 'Padicha naaye ulla varaadhey' translate to 'No entry for educated dogs'. Thank you Selva Raghavan! And, I have heard our so called elders vent out their ire against a non-conforming person by saying 'padicha thimiru!' (arrogant that he/she is educated). Human nature?

For most of us getting a post-graduation berth in an IIT or IIM or AIIMS is impossible, but there are those that work hard and are blessed with a better IQ, who make the cut. So most of us would just love to trash the guys from IIMs. 'Oh this guy is supposed to be an IIM guy and gaawd, he is such a dud!' or 'IIT guys are arrogant and they lead a cocooned life.' or 'All IIT guys are gay.' You know? Yes, yes you are right. Sour grapes. But our governments have found a way to make you and me (if we belong to one of the the OBCs) enter the hallowed precincts of IIT or IIM, without having worry too much about our score and rank: yessir, Quota it is. But, these is some hope:

Three judges in the five-judge bench � Justices Arijit Pasayat, C K Thakker and Dalveer Bhandari � were of the view that graduation should be the cut off limit for availing quota benefits. Source: ET

Did I say there is hope? But we also have Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss, our Health Minister.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been pushing the Health Ministry to set up private medical colleges, but his plea has fallen on deaf ears. For the past eight months, Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss has failed to get the Medical Council of India change the laws that will help private sector enter the field of medical education.(via CNN-IBN)

Our honorable Health Minister, instead of attracting private participation in health education, chooses to tax the doctors of this land with a three year mandatory rural service (or three lacs in lieu of the rural service). If this mandatory service becomes a reality, it changes nothing for health care in rural areas: we'll end up with a disgruntled doc with only a steth for equipment in a PHC. The infrastructure is pathetic in government hospitals in metros, leave alone rural areas.

Quite a few of my doctor friends, who passed out recently out of MBBS, have opted to study masters in the USA; I noticed a marked increase in the percentage of doctors going abroad. And why not? What is the point of staying back and getting raped by successive populist governments?

There will be some that will argue that doctors 'must' serve. I agree, but if you want them to serve you, make life easy for them. Don't take a knife called quota and ram them where the sun don't shine. Give them better infrastructure so they can serve, instead of wasting the tax payer's money on schemes like a free color fucking TV to the voters!

What we do, by introducing quota for higher education (instead of stopping it at the graduate level) is this: we send a message 'It is okay to be mediocre'. God save my country. Please. Make all the dogs that want to go to the USA, stay back. Happy Selva? No? But of course!

DO NOT Sign up for Youmint.com

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 07:43:00 +0000

Do so at your own risk. They make indiatimes look like an angel when it comes to spamming you and your contacts (from Orkut, Gmail, etc). Repeat after me, "I Will not sign up for youmint.com" Don't tell me I didn't warn you. Even if you received an invite from me, ignore it. They have been spamming all my contacts.

The hunt for the Bison - 1

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:58:00 +0000

"My uncle saw the Bison. Mother promise!" Prabhu said. I stared at him for a good minute and said, "Let's go camp then. Tonight?" The late winter morning had a deceiving chill to it. Prabhu pulled his hands into his sweater sleeves and shook his head and said "Not today. Probably next Sunday?"
He was two years junior to me and was still considered a kid: he was in 7th class after all. So were Suri and Viju. But they all showed a maturity that defied their age: they lied like their lives depended on it. We stood outside the door of Anita Tutorials, the education hub of Durga colony. It drew teachers from all across Chittoor and was absolutely hopeless when it came to punctuality, for all the teachers were final year college students from the PVKN Arts college and none of them ever came on time.
We were waiting for Suresh (Suresh sir to be precise), our psychotic science tutor. I was sure that this piece of news about the Bison would excite him. I was sure he'd go camping with us to the hills around Iruvaram, Prabhu's village. Iruvaram was on the Bangalore by-pass, a quiet, insignificant settlement away from the buzz of the Chittoor town. Facing Iruvaram, on the other side of the by-pass were the hills and the arid home of the Bison. A part of me wanted to buy the Bison story. I mean it was so romantic and exciting but the other side of me refused to buy it: what will the Bison survive on? There was absolutely no vegetation other than the Cactus with the plum red fruit or those long thorny shrubs with thick trunks; we used to cut the trunk, dry it, and use it for flotation while learning how to swim in the irrigation wells. I was quite certain that the Bison can't reach the leaves or fruit of the occasional Palm that dotted the area. If the Bison did exist, why was it alone? How did it get here in the first place and why? I had read about the man eating tigers: I knew these were old tigers that were looking for easy prey and that was why they moved closer to human settlements. But why the Bison? It is a herbivore? Right? The story just didn't stick. But I did not share my apprehensions with Suri and Viju. I wanted to go camp, Bison or not. (...to be contd)

Birding in IIT and Vedanthangal

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:14:00 +0000

Spotted Owlet, Vedanthangal

Spotted this guy in Vedanthangal. I saw him perched on a bush close to the water body but he flew away before I could get a shot at him. Minutes later, he appeared magically out of thin air, very close to me, as I was climbing down the observation tower. Love this guy!

Purple Sunbird, Vedanthangal

Small Blue Kingfisher, IIT Chennai

R.I.P Raghuvaran

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:11:00 +0000

It is not often that an actor like Raghuvaran comes by and captures the imagination of a generation of movie fans. He was a breath of fresh air: in a landscape that was dominated by stereotypes and in a time when exaggeration was the norm. He didn't have the wannabe-flamboyance of Kamal Hassan or the in-your-face antics of Rajinikanth. Nor did he belong to the old school of Sivaji Ganesan. He charted a new path called subtlety. Though most of us didn't understand what it was then, we were enchanted by this tall, lanky actor who for once appeared like a real person on the otherwise regressive Tamil screen.

Take for example, his role of a troubled father of a dying child in Manirathnam's Anjali. It was a stunning performance to say the least. However, he was better known for his villain roles. I choose not pick any but I can't help talk about Bhavani in Ram Gopal Verma's Shiva (Telugu). Raghuvaran was mind-blowing as the bad guy in it. He shed the baggage of generations of stereotypes and blazed new trails as a bad guy.

I remember watching him on TV as Madan interviewed him a few months (or a year back?) and as the interview was concluding something in me told me that Raghuvaran was not going to come back like I wanted him to. I hope he finds peace at least after he has crossed over to another world. Or maybe he was one of those that needed pain to thrive, hurt to survive, and misery to exult. Raghu, I pray that you find what you've been looking for, for far too long. May you rest, in peace or otherwise.

P.S. In a display of shoddy journalism, the media couldn't even get Raghuvaran's age right. Some say it is 49 and some 60. Sad!

Birds of Chennai

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 08:32:00 +0000

White Throated Munia @ Nanmangalam Reserve Forest

Got this elegant bird in Adyar Poonga on Greenways road in Chennai. I was waiting for him to get out of a tree but I gave up. As I stood up to move away, he relented and posed for me by perching on the fence. This bird is supposed to bring rain upon its arrival. (I don't know why I think it is a 'he'.)

See more birds of Chennai

Tickell's flowerpecker

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 12:24:00 +0000

Went birding in the Hebbal lake and fell in love with the place: it is an avian paradise. I love the place more so because an amateur birder/photographer too can get some decent shots. I hope I got the bird's ID right. If not, do correct me people. See more pics from the Hebbal birding trip.

Love me or hate me...

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 06:30:00 +0000

Do not miss the sub-titles.

Chennai Cops At It Again

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 04:50:00 +0000

"There won't be any unnecessary poking into human relationships...normal relationships would not be disturbed," he told reporters when asked whether any special measures would be in force for the Valentine's day in the city to prevent any untoward incidents.

(Via Sify)
That was the Police Commissioner of Chennai Mr. Kumaran being generous. Despite so many pressing, critical issues that plague the city, Chennai's top cop finds it worthy to talk to the press about moral policing on a day when young people want to celebrate love as they know it. So how will he ensure if a couple is married or not? Non-Hindu girls do not wear Mangalsutr sir. Um, are you asking us to carry copies of our marriage certificates? That makes sense, doesn't it? I think he deserves a medal for this. Thank you sir! If not for you we would degenerate and disintegrate into immoral pieces of trash.

Aside: Check this line from the Sify piece. Hilarious:

If Kumaran enforces his diktat, it may be couples who are not in wedlock and display their affection a little too openly who may be under the watchful eyes of police tomorrow, a day when lovers are in gay abandon.

Yawn!

Purple Moore Hen

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 10:54:00 +0000

Shot this pretty girl (I thin it is a girl) in Lalbagh. Shrieks like a maniac at intruders. More birds of Lalbagh @ Flickr.

Kalyani 2

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 06:45:00 +0000

Much better recording quality. Used my PC line-in from my keyboard Yamaha E 403. Still trying to figure out getting the midi file out of the instrument. The software that came with the keyboard sucks! Anyway, hope you like this version.

Download as MP3

Kalyani

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:24:00 +0000

Yeah, recorded it straight off the keyboard using a headphone mic. So obviously the audio is bad and has a lot of ambient noise. But I want to bounce it off you and hear from you on what you think about the piece. It is pretty catchy and all but can do with some layering. I want some help in recording it too so if you have any expertise (no I am not talking of doing it in a studio, just my comp and keyboard) let me know. Also, if any of you is an exponent of Carnatic vocals, let me know, I need to add some vocals too. Ok, hope you like it.
Listen to Kalyani

My new baby

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 05:22:00 +0000

This is my new baby.

Poor Indian Woman

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 04:56:00 +0000

When I was in sixth standard, I was going home from school in the bus. I sat next to a girl, my class mate. I really didn't understand then the scornful expression on my friends' faces. The next day one of them said, 'How could you sit next to her?' When I asked 'Why the hell not?' He said, 'They are girls!' That's how deep rooted the discrimination is around here. We just don't want to accept our women as our equals. Now, if one wants to treat the opposite sex as an adversary I am fine with it. Well, some men (most men) just won't get it. But I have a serious problem with men attacking the dignity of women. Especially when those men are educated and have blue collar jobs. The recent Juhu case is so shocking to you and me because the media went ballistic on it. Some people went 'Oh what a shame on Mumbai! I always thought it was a safe city!' or 'It will never happen in Bangalore or Chennai.' Even I went with the latter statement for a while but reality bit and here I am. Why do we some of us Indians, despite being taught to worship women, go about raping, molesting, and killing our girls? Why do most of us think that if a girl wears a sleeveless top, she is 'easy'? Why do quite of few us boys have serious problems with reporting to a woman boss? Why are we Indian men so repressed?

Kalpana Sharma writes in her excellent piece, in The Hindu Sunday Magazine:

The real issue that we must grapple with when such incidents occur has a name; it is "patriarchy". It includes the inability of men to accept that women have rights, that they are human beings, that they should be left alone, that they have a right to occupy space in the public arena.

I agree with her but she doesn't offer her thoughts on why some men find it hard to accept that women are human beings and not mere objects that a man can possess. Think about it, in a family run by a working couple, it is the woman that is expected to cook, wash, and take care of the kids after performing her duties at the office. We just take it for granted. Probably most women do too. And, if the husband tells his buddies that he helps her out in the kitchen or babysits while she is at work, he is likely to be ridiculed as an uxorious idiot. I think women should set the record straight and start settling scores: tell your man that he's got to pull his weight at home. Show the finger if need be woman!
I think it has to do with the pseudo morality that plagues our society. In our towns and villages thousands of boys are right now listening to someone telling them that a woman should not lift her head when she walks or a woman's true calling lies in serving her husband and his entire kandhan. Right in now in some small town a rape victim is asking the rapist to marry her. So deep rooted is this discrimination that it is almost impossible for the average Indian male to lose the indoctrination or its effects. Most of us discriminate without even realising it! When I asked one of my software engineer friends what kind of a job his wife-to-be would take up post marriage, he shot back without batting an eye-lid, 'What job? She has the kitchen and she has to raise my kids. That should keep her busy for a lifetime.' The she in question was studying MBA then. I am positive she is using her business school lessons in her elaborate kitchen. I am a chauvinist too at some level I think. I come from a small town where a girl clad in jeans was called a whore. No matter how far I have broadened my perspective and expanded my horizons, I can't look you in the eye and say I don't discriminate. I probably do without realising it. So girls if I ever had said or done anything that offended I am sorry.
Now, the other thing is in all those small towns and villages right now, a movie hall is playing a sleazy movie that has 'bits' Right now there is a college kid sitting in that movie hall (and probably his father in the back row who doesn't know his son is watching the movie). No I am not saying it is right or wrong. All I am saying is if so many men want to watch such movies, we should allow it. Make it legal I mean. Men over 18 can buy permits to watch such movies. But I know I am barking up the wrong tree. We as a society are so sexually repressed and that coupled with our condescending, patronizing, and chauvinistic attitude towards women, we make it seem that it is ok for a guy to feel a girl up in the bus. Or slap her bottom on M.G. Road. That's what boys do, right? Every one of my women friends have a story from their school time or college time. And each one of those stories reeks of the repression of the Indian male. We as a society with our holier than thou, prude outlooks are right now perpetrating a crime against a woman. How do we stop it? I don't know. Probably we should make fornication legal? If two mutually consenting adults decide to do it, you and I have no right or say in that matter. But does it work that way? Nope. But what is possible is we could stop blaming the girls for wearing what they like. Our cops can really stop harassing boys and girls dating. And, women in politics can really shut up and not holler about how Indian women can't have premarital sex.

Now, don't mistake me. There's no magic weapon to eradicate rape. There will always be that psychopath lurking in the dark corners and deserted alleys. There will always be that lecherous old man that will molest our girls. There will always be that demented mind. What I am really worried about is some of my educated, software engineers friends assaulting women. I am worried about mobs sexually assaulting women in our towns. Let me draw a parallel for you: if a terrorist goes about killing innocent people, well, that's bad. But if, like it happened in Gujrat, if lay people come together and go about slaughtering innocent people, we have a serious problem on our hands. That is why what happened in Mumbai should be dealt with severely and we should make an example of the guilty and tell people that such atrocities will not be tolerated.

Finally, after all my ranting, if I ever wanted this post to achieve something, it is this: I want you to think about it. Are we treating our women well? Are we giving them the respect that they so deserve? No, I am not asking you to be the epitome of chivalry. No sir. All I am asking you is before you spew the venom about a colleague or some girl you know and go about judging her, try to think for five seconds before you fire away. That's a start. A worthy start if you will.