Reading this article by Amit Ahuja, in which he describes interactions with the governmental bureacracy as transactions where the “government official involved establishes himself not as a service provider but rather as a dispenser of favours“, one is filled with acute hatred for the ubiquitous, corrupt babu and the venal politicians that make this possible. Says Ahuja […]
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for the 'culture and society' Category
In all fairness
It is an expectation in society that women must be “feminine”, i.e.; you’d better not have hair on awkward places (like your arms !!) , your eyebrows must be plucked to appear shapely and avoid the dreaded uni-brow, and you must at all costs avoid the VPL. Don’t know (or don’t care) what that is […]
Read the rest of this entry »No sex education for us. We’re Indian
Note : The edited version of this post appears on the Ultraviolet blog. India is a populous country, and I’m pretty sure the citizens of India have something to do with it. I don’t think the storks are delivering all those babies, or that they are the gift of the Gods, a la Kunti. Thus […]
Read the rest of this entry »Saving Gandhi’s legacy : hypocrisy anyone ?
See my earlier post; it is indeed the week for stupidity. I refer of course to the efforts by the Government of India to save its “national heritage”. By “national heritage” I do not mean the beautiful, ancient buildings that lie neglected (the last time I visited the Taj Mahal, there were honeycombs on the […]
Read the rest of this entry »The Congress Party and disassociation from reality
I know, I know – stupidity hath no bounds. Especially coming from India’s eminent political party which claimed credit for the Slumdog Oscar win : In an unmistakable resonance of the previous NDA government’s `India Shining’ slogan, Congress floated the idea of an `achieving India’ and listed among the milestones the Indo-US nuclear deal, Chandrayaan, […]
Read the rest of this entry »Of pink chaddis and Valentines Day
Valentine’s Day has come and gone. Muthalik was kept in preventive custody. Pink chaddis went out to the Shri Ram Sene office, as duly observed by the news channels. The pubs were bharo-ed. The Bajrang Dal and other chauvinistic outfits which would have otherwise threatened bodily harm to people found “celebrating” Valentine’s Day turned non-violent, […]
Read the rest of this entry »Mumbai horror
I wake up morning after morning, to news channel after news channel covering the same thing. Terror in Mumbai. Armed terrorists taking hostages, shooting at will. Openly, brazenly. But why the shock the surprise ? If you’ve been to India, have lived there, you know the condition of law and order there. Politicians condoning this […]
Read the rest of this entry »Palin and sexism
Earlier this week, we found out that $150000 was spent on pretty-ing up Sarah Palin. So the hockey-mom who tries to identify with the Joe-sixpacks and the common man, shops at Neiman Marcus and Saks. Nice. If I was someone contributing to the McCain-Palin campaign, I would be pretty mad right now.Yeah, you send them […]
Read the rest of this entry »A state with no teeth
In an email from my Dad yesterday, he mentioned that they weren’t venturing to the markets that day, because of the Gujjar protest in the NCR. His remarks were wry, in that he said that people are protesting to be declared backward ! Indeed the reservation policy has taken on a twist with these protests […]
Read the rest of this entry »Wanna-be skirt-chaser, anyone ?
This one strikes me the wrong way : a sport titled “skirt-chasing”. Admittedly it is for “good”, it’s about fun, it’s about involving men and women, and it’s about health. But it still feels “awkward”, keeping in mind that for me and all the women from desi backgrounds, who have experiences of not-so-altruistic skirt-chasing, molestation […]
Read the rest of this entry »
