Clean delhi

The Delhi State government has asked other states to 'take back' its beggars because they want a clean and sanitised Delhi for the commonwealth eyes. I think for such a statement the central government should hold the Delhi government culpable for promoting regionalism and working against national integrity. The cause of concern is not whether beggary is a crime, a racket, the concern here is that a state government can differentiate and label people as outsiders officially...When did the Indian constitution guarantee dual citizenship? When did migration become illegal? And when did the Delhi government get a sanction to turn its back on a section of people living in the city, earning a livelihood and in dire need of shelter, food and other basic rights. Is the Delhi government not responsible for the 'beggars' here? And when did beauty become such an important value to India, a country which is known for its chaotic cities and lifestyle....and is a healthy and clean Delhi one devoid of the poor? Is that how we are going to make it a millennium city, by turning out its citizens?

Bal Thackeray maybe vocal with his hatred and parochialism but what about such hidden plans?

Human Dignity vrs Dietary patterns

Officially disgusted..and tired of this daily bullshit I have to face in la la land. How do you fight stupidity? How do you argue against the absurd?
I did not sign up for a discussion on the food habits of my field team..I don't want to prove that they can or cannot survive a full day meeting without lunch. Where do the officials at la la Land get the right to even decide what and when the field team should eat? Where the f**k is human dignity? These f****s can spend thousands a day on fruits, drinks, fish fingers for their 'officers" and they crib about providing a meal for 20 people who have been sitting and listening to lectures for 8 whole hours. The point is not whether the field team can bring their own lunches or whether their dietary pattern includes lunch...the point is that officers at la la land have no compunction spending hours and hours discussing such demeaning issues and call it cost cutting and then go ahead and have booze parties, fruit breaks and absurd salary packages for individuals who don't know a field from a farm. The point is that they don't ever read or bother about their website which even a 5 year old child with rudimentary English speaking skills could trash..the point is that I am going through a cultural shock of gargantuan proportions.

And they want to move into Rights Based Based approach...they wouldn't recognise human rights and dignity if it bit them in their unmentionables

Am I an Atheist?

Recently someone asked me if i was an atheist. I do not know if i fall into that term. Anyone who does not believe in God is an atheist. What is God? Established religions have been trying to get into the semantics of that for centuries..I wouldn't want to get into all that. Its frankly a waste of time and energy. If being an atheist means I do not believe in any of these definitions of God, then maybe I am. Religions, their rituals and their priests literally give me the shivers. Here is a large body of rules which justifies certain individuals being feared, fed, revered without doing an ounce of work. It tells all the poor and the wretched to be happy with their lot and not challenge authority. It also tells us to be bigots and intolerant, coz if our truth is the universal truth then there really is no space for anything else..is there? It defines normal and forces everyone to conform.
Religions sell grace, blessings, absolution, good health, children and most of all paradise. Only no one is allowed to criticise the advertisement or you might just start a religious riot where everything from severing of limbs, gang rapes to outright murder is justified...after all what are a few losses in this great journey to understand God
I don't want to understand God...and as for all the good things religion and their Gods supposedly teach us, take a deep breath and read the fine print twice with your eyes and brains wide open. Values like kindness, honesty, courage, love, forgiveness have existed since humankind originated..no one has a monopoly over them...they come to everyone naturally, since the day we are born....our dominant values just cover these up and regulate their degree. As for the murderers and rapists and thieves...they make the maximum use of religion!
So I would rather stay in this zone where things are undefined and a lot less holy!

Culture and Chain mails

Culture is just another ploy to make people conform to a dominant ideology, be it the culture of an organisation or the culture of a country.
Multi cultural organisations are the best place to work. In la la land there is an overflow of Punjus...i love Punjus..individually.. but large doses 8 hrs a day is a bit too much for my delicate senses. Intell land had an overflow of Oriyas..again individually they are good but as a group of 20 or 30 they become a lobby. Such lobbies inadvertently tend to become exclusive, controlling and damaging to the whole organisation. Regionalism starts playing a strong role in promotions, incentives, recognition in the office.
It also hampers free flow of ideas, information and innovation. In short very soon the organisation becomes static and patriarchal, coz any form of regionalism becomes protectionist and patronising which is very damaging for women workers.
Mallu lobbies are the worst...they are all of the above and also the worst gossip mongers... they love cooking up romantic liaisons between people, are extremely patriarchal and look down upon people from all other regions, calling them 'cultureless'. And if one works in an organisation with more than 30% Christian Mallu population then only God can save your mail box from jamming up...these god fearing people believe in spreading the word of god through chain mails. So if you want to save a child dying of leucoderma in Africa or see the profile of Virgin Mary appear magically on your desktop you need to send the mail to 50 other unsuspecting non-Christians.
Imagine what would have been the outreach of Christianity if St.Paul had Internet.
So all in all I prefer to be a culture less human being!

Intellectual invasion!

Why is all women's problem, purdah, child marriage blamed on Islamic invasion of India? Its like before the Muslims came we had a golden age of gender equity and equality. and why is Mughal invasion termed as an Islamic invasion? What was Alexander's invasion then..Hellenic? And why do we forget the Turks, slave dynasty, the Arab merchants in the south ? If it was the threat of invasions and marauders that forced the gender sensitive men into securing their wives and daughters behind purdah and child marriage, then why start with Mughals...i think we should start with the Aryans and tribes from central Europe. And was Ravan a Mughal..or for that matter Ram
I seriously think that it is time some upper caste, upper class, upper middle class pseudo intellectual women and men (upper is used for the lack of a better word) stop working and theorising the oppression of women. They've done enough damage!

racist jokes

The citizens of la la land laugh at racist jokes from their king. How appalling! The king very proudly states that all Indians are bad at keeping secrets, we are blabber mouthed rustics. Imagine my horror! The excuse being that the king is from the land of Big Mac burgers...and we raise a hue and cry over jade goody...if we are anything, it is hypocritical!

Name plates and time bubbles

I am bored off writing about La La land, nothing changes here, its a time bubble floating in a parallel universe. So I am going to write about something else..

Recently during a field trip I noticed houses with name plates saying Verma, Ajay sahu, Amit watts, B.R Poonia, Parashar. It was like in these houses women didn't exist. A being from another planet would assume that the colony was populated only by men (coz beings from this planet automatically assume that in a family everyone melts into the all benign patriarch whose name adorns hallways and nameplates). While pondering on this is I also realised that a lot of women are fighting over keeping their maiden names after marriage. Do we realise that we are fighting to keep one man's name over another? How many of us fight to strike of our surnames completely? Then again gendered names in itself is a point of discussion!

That's was a lot for me to handle in a cab..so i went to sleep!