While I was away... 2014!

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Good job, folks! [292/365]

Rapists have been really busy in the past week.
On the heels of news of an alleged gang-rape, comes another incident of a gang of men who barged into the house of women who worked as bar-girls in Bangalore. As if the piling mounts of garbage was not raising stink enough, we are now getting the monikor of the Rape capital of the South.

Now, normally I would be outraged that women are still getting raped but I reserve my comments here. I hate to be the party-popper but when I was dating, we never ever went anywhere I thought was remotely unsafe for my girlfriend.
The guy in this case had only met the girl a few weeks earlier and they were already going on 'jolly rides'? WOW!
And what were they doing in a deserted area that is a designated forest at that time of the night? Not picking daisies, I hope.
What kind of a boyfriend would leave his girl in the hands of their abductors alone?
The girl had barely any physical wound on her body. Remarkable because- the spot where she says she was raped had broken glass pieces and thorns strewn all over. No trace of semen or sexual injury on her privates. So either the girl had an incredible resilient body that was puncture/injury proof or she was raped while she was suspended in the air by bunch of men who wore condoms and 'did it' gently. Ripley's Believe it or Not!
The victim also reported that her attackers returned all the loot that her boyfriend handed over, helped her climb over a 7 ft wall, and also gave her some auto fare (Rs10?!) to reach her hostel.
I know what you're thinking. What kinda disrepute are they trying to bring to rapists? This is going to set an unhealthy precedent to rapists everywhere. 

So while I was still pondering on the repercussion this incident could have on our society, I read another ghastly article in the news.
Mothers pushing their daughters to prostitution is not new. We've had such shining examples in this blog already, but this was positively ghastly.
I know parents who won't let their daughters step out after 6pm because they fear she won't be able to fend off rapes. But these daughters grow up to become mothers who won't know how to equip their children with the tools to defend themselves in an age when women are expected to be as progressive as men. The parents don't expect their sons to turn into sexual predators so it's okay to be out late night, party and have girl friends. 

While I won't call myself a women's rights activist, I find it amusing that men feel threatened by a confident woman. But weak women have made rapes a wonderful way to settle scores. In the NLSUI student's allegation of gang-rape, there is a strong possibility that the woman just wanted to get the men in trouble and not the other way round.
Pascal, our favorite Frenchman was let out on bail after his wife's change-a-day testimonies and inconclusive medical reports exohonarated him. But I recall how the media pounced on the news as soon as it broke out. The wife was portrayed as the model for all mothers everywhere. While we still don't know the truth of what really happened at the home that day, we do know that Pascal never raped the child. So then, who did it?

In India, you are held guilty the moment you are accused. We won't let the justice system work because we are the judge, the jury and the executioner.

Mamata, stop reading! [106/365]

source: cartoonexhibition.blogspot.com

Mamata has always been a massive pain in the ass.
Actually she is a human equivalent of the Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

She kicked the Tatas and the Commies out of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal.
The nation rejoiced and mourned, depending on who you asked.

Under her rule, and in the last couple of weeks, the slide downwards has been quicker and more pronounced.
The farmers and the intellectuals, her constituents and the only reason why she came to power after decades of uninterrupted commie rule, have suddenly started having that bad after-taste. Did we make a mistake?

Ruling from the State she shot down plans made by the Centre and got her way every time.
She started on a path of riding the state of all her predecessor's footprint.
And her plans have ranged from the bizarre to the truly 'out of her mind'.
Coloring the state and the capital city of Kolkata blue and changing the name of the state from West Bengal to 'Paschimbanga' clearly shows how the lady is out of touch with reality.

While much of her antics didn't really create a furor with the intelligentsia some of her recent diktats, like the instruction to state run libraries to stop subscribing to certain newspapers not loyal to her party (read 'her'), jailing people who forward cartoons that lampoon her, and now barring her party workers from marrying anyone from the commies, are really making them squeamish. What is she thinking?

Mamata. Why don't you focus all your spinster energy into getting progress, industries and hope back into a state that has been battered for decades and while you are at it, you must really do something about that massive human trafficking that goes on under your nose.

While I can understand why politicians would want to sanitize their territory, what I can barely believe is how the voters react to this. Some do it to prove a point, some to undo 'grave injustice' and others to just divert public attention from a more obvious rot within the system.

But all Mamata is really doing now is giving the opposition ammunition to fire back.

From the Cradle to the Grave [74/365]

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) was the scene of one of the most gripping stories of pain, tragedy, malice, human trafficking, prostitution and human compassion played out in recent decades.

On 18th January, 2012, baby Falak (literally 'sky') was brought in with severe injuries to her skull, broken arms, cheeks branded with a iron and human bite marks all over her body. That the injuries were inconsistent with the explanation that the 15 year old who claimed to be her mother, who herself was a victim of trafficking and abuse, cannot dull the trauma that the two year old baby Falak would've gone through.

In the weeks since she was admitted, she has survived five major surgeries and many near fatal moments. She was even the most favored orphan available for adoption across India and abroad.

But on the 15th of March, just when things appeared to be looking up, she suffered a massive cardiac arrest and passed away. In her sleep.

Following massive media wrath and public outrage, ten people have been arrested and in the months and years to come, we will slowly but surely get to see how such atrocity could've have happened on a human being so young. However this is also a sign of a larger malignant tumor in the Indian society. In a country where female infanticide is still prevalent, this was bound to happen.

Our parents hate girl children. The high cost of raising a girl, getting her married off and the prospect that this entails a massive dowry makes most Indian couple choose to 'nip the plant at the bud' itself. Boys are better. They will study harder, get better jobs and bring in lots of dowry. The odds are stacked against the ordinary girl even before the ninth month.

While some can find comfort that baby Falak has finally left a cruel world for a better one, I wonder if the perpetrators of this crime will ever pay enough.

Rest in Peace, dear Falak.

Sex, Lies and Deception

2004-November: The Rape Trade from Claudio von Planta on Vimeo.

my take:

Thoroughly surprised how the chief of the police, chose to justify prostitution and sex trafficking as a necessary tool to control the urges of the frustrated Indian male, who in his words would otherwise choose to rape and mollest the modesty of 'good' women. 

Who in this damned world gave him the right to label women?

Nonetheless, though this video does not show anything that we already don't know, we do see the nexus between the cops, the politicians and sex traffickers at work here.

Let's face it, trafficking is a epidemic of epic proportions and we are not bothered. Well, not until someone dear and near to you got trapped in it.