Writing Prompt - Mark coming to India ...

Friends, a little birdie whispered in my ears yesterday that Mark is coming to India. That we need to decide what he should know about our country, and perhaps what he shouldn't, makes the news a bit more interesting! You will ask me "Who is Mark, and why are we spending time on him?" Well, to me he is yet another foreigner who plans to visit India enamored with what Wikipedia or Youtube would have told him, or perhaps somebody whose great grand father would have written stories about this being a land of snake charmers when he was posted here in early twentieth century. I wonder whether his opinion about Indian women is drawn from his experience of sharing multiple cups of coffee with the pretty software engineer sitting in the cubicle next to him, or may be by closely following Indian women on the numerous beauty contests where they give good-to-the-ear answers to some mundane questions.

Be that as it may, I would like to spend time on answering these questions just because Mark will go back from my country as one of the many ambassadors who will tell everybody the truth on what this country is all about, based on his own first-hand experiences. And for this very reason, for every 'Yes, it is true that ...' about India, he should also know 'However, it is the same country where ...'. In short, rather than being told what India is, I would rather have him explore the country, by giving him an opportunity to observe both sides of the coin.

And this is where my words take over my thoughts ...

Yes, it is true that something abominable happened in New Delhi in the month of December last year and once again in Mumbai earlier this year. However, it is the same country where not one, not two, but eight banks and financial institutions are headed by women today and where we have woman chief ministers governing different states all over the country. Call it empowerment, call it equal opportunity ... the fact is that this is happening.

Yes, it is true that a certain state went through some communal riots between the two predominant communities a few weeks back. However, it is the same country where during natural calamities, it is these very communities who go beyond their ways and means to help each other survive nature's wrath. Be it the floods in Mumbai, or the earthquake somewhere else. I am sure Mark will be able to get so many of those stories online.

Yes, it is true that a few weeks back, a certain politician called her state a colony of India. However, it is the same country that around the same time celebrated India's Independence Day with a great amount of pride, with perhaps people from her own state participating in the festivities.

Yes, it is true that there are "empowered" sections of society in our country who think first about their rights, much before their duties and responsibilities. However, it is the same country where there are scores of examples of "not-so-empowered" sections of society who do not even think about their rights without fulfilling their duties.

Yes, it is true that many people today are getting ready to open their wallets for retail therapy, it being the festive season, and indulge themselves in all sorts of luxuries, with focus on materialistic pleasures. However, it is the same country where we see people not do these very things during certain fifteen days of the year, and spend time remembering their ancestors, in a way living in their pasts and thinking about their futures.

Yes, it is true that there are many cities in the country where you can actually collect so much water in the potholes on the roads that the water problem of the entire country can be solved. However, it is the same country where we see such engineering marvels like the railways in the Himalayas or Konkan, or whose scientists and engineers have shown their mettle in space science, nuclear physics and information technology, or for that matter, since we are talking about roads, come up with high quality infrastructure like Yamuna Expressway or Bandra-Worli Sea Link.

Yes, it is true that this is the country whose slums formed the background of a recent Oscar-winning movie. However, it is the same country that has also provided a far more enriching background to numerous authors of best-selling books like the one about the monk and his Ferrari! Please ask Thomas Friedman who told him the world is flat?

Yes, it is true that the interference of politics in sports administration of the country has led to its suspension from the Olympics movement. However, it is the same country that has given birth to numerous sportsmen and sportswomen who have made a mark in their field of choice in spite of the presence of these administrators, fighting against all odds. Mark would remember Mary Kom's interview on BBC last year.

Coming back to Mark's visit, I believe he has inadvertently chosen the best time to visit us. Be it festivals of all the major religions the country is going to celebrate, be it the dance of democracy we are going to witness in the month of November, the long-awaited retirement of Sachin and well-timed retirement of Rahul ... he will experience all the facets of the country that is India, with Indians showing all kinds of emotions to the whole world. If he wants to take back a true picture of the country, he must observe all this, and more.

With these thoughts in my mind, I sat down to write the mail to Mark, to welcome him to the land of curious contradictions and interesting conundrums, asking him for his flight details and giving him strict instructions on when exactly should he give me a 'missed call'  ...

 

P.S. Thanks Preeti for the special mention of my entry in your blog.

Protesting against rape: Are we focussing on the right issues?

There has been a growing clamor from all and sundry to have a special parliamentary session to enact new laws and strengthen existing laws on crime against women. As if that (the session) is the panacea for all ills! Although it is easy to understand the growing public outrage and impatience on the absence of political will as well as lack of stringent laws, a few concerns pop up in my mind.

To begin with, what can we practically think of achieving from a session starting, say, today? Will we be able to formulate and pass a stringent law immediately? What are the chances that the session will not end up highlighting the same old things - adjournments, walk-outs, "shaant rahiye"'s and some more - in the absence of something concrete to discuss on the "changes" and "modifications" based on thorough evaluation? It is essential for our law makers to spend sufficient time in understanding the nuances of all the proposed changes, then have a discussion in the parliament and see to it that the law does what it is supposed to do.

Our efforts need to focus on ensuring that we do not come out with a half-cooked solution like so many of us opined about the Government's version of Lokpal bill. How much time did we spend in having discussions between civil society representatives and the Government on Lokpal, before the former started blaming the latter for using time wasting tactics? Much more than the time spent in a special parliament session, right? Then, why this hurry? People may question the "spending time" argument by asking what has happened to the Lokpal bill. But many of us agree that it is in a cold storage (not exactly, but still not up there in every body's priorities) now because we could not focus and prioritize. Let's not politicize the case. There's a need to focus and prioritize, and from our experience, let's do it right the first time. Getting emotional on this issue is something our country can not afford.

Isn’t it true that more than absence of stringent laws, we have a problem of effective enforcement of the laws? Yes, it is important to have stringent laws that act as a deterrent. But all of us will agree that it is equally important for the laws to be feasible and enforceable. It is all the more important to ensure that the loopholes in the existing laws need to be plugged and at the same time, due stress needs to be given to the fact that any new law needs to be made safe from misuse. We do not want the watchdog to be kept busy with frivolous charges from people and agencies who all of a sudden feel empowered. Empowerment is good, whereas misuse of the same is criminal. And we can vouch for that from our past experiences on many ground-breaking and radical changes in the laws.

Taking a case in point ... so many people are proposing chemical castration of the accused as one of the punishments. From the look of it, it definitely seems to be an obvious choice - hit where it hurts the most, period! But just yesterday, I came to know how ineffective that measure might turn out to be. For the punishment to have a longer term effect, the procedure needs to be repeated every three months or so (have heard different frequencies from different "experts"), and would require regular observation of the convicts. Bottom line – it is not a one-time solution. Moreover, the experience of having chemical castration as a deterrent has had mixed success around the world. Do we still want to have this as a punishment? Somebody rightly said, severity of the punishment is not as important as the assurance that the punishment will be delivered.

All the protests today focus on one set of victims. With due respect to the current incident (and similar other incidents) and the fact that today the gender at the receiving end is the one in focus, doesn't the law need to think about the other gender as well? Do we need to face something like this gaining importance in the future? With the number of loopholes present in the current system on similar issues, it makes sense to focus on this aspect. Or else we will end up formulating ineffective laws which in a distant future will lead to protests by some other aggrieved parties. Given the enormity of the situation today, this is of course not a priority, but some thing that needs to be addressed.

Civil society representatives raised their concerns during the Lokpal debate that can we expect the same people to make tough laws against corruption, who have multiple corruption cases against themselves? Will the civil society raise their voice on similar lines this time as well? With many representatives from our political class exhibiting scant respect to the gravity of the situation by making shameful comments, are we right in expecting them to come with pertinent solutions, without the involvement from you and me? Let us all shun skepticism and send our suggestions to the committee headed by Justice Verma.

Among the many reasons given by commentators on the high number of rape cases in our country, one reason that finds a frequent mention is that the topic continues being a taboo in our society, and that there is no constructive debate across the spectrum. People belonging to a particular section of society are blamed for the malaise … I am sorry, cases we are witnessing on a daily basis suggest otherwise. New Year parties in five-star hotels are attended by rich and highly educated people. We have seen and heard top performers in the society discriminating against girl child. At the same time, I have been a witness to an incident where my next door neighbor (can safely assume that he is well educated) was correcting his daughter when she was singing a song that has been attracting a lot of controversy around degrading women. Let's face it - the problem cuts across all sections of society.

Why does it take occurrence of such a heinous crime for us to question, say, our films which are supposed to be a social barometer? Why do these thoughts suddenly become more acceptable today and were called anti-modern yesterday? Why do we not question the stark difference in the ratio of security personnel to common man vis-a-vis the ratio of security personnel to VIPs and VVIPs? Why wasn't this questioned earlier? Why not increase the scope of reforms to include this and avoid this? Why does this follow-up happen only when a similar crime is committed, and not as a part of a regular accountability test? Wouldn't the amount of time and energy we have spent in expressing our grief and support, and the seriousness with which we have challenged the intentions of authorities, be henceforth put to a good use in fighting the bully committing the crime in front of us when today most of us just turn our head or press the accelerator harder?

Making and enforcing stringent laws is just one aspect of the solution. With the target of this heinous act being girls as young as a few months, I believe the issue is as much at the psychological level as at the physical level. The issue is more in the brain than down there ... between the two shoulders and not between the two legs. And hence, the solution also needs to span across the two levels. Along with strict laws and their enforcement, we also need a change in attitude. It is sad to see that even in these times, we have reports on quacks and superstitions being responsible for rapes. What the society lacks is compassion for fellow individuals and recognition of the individual responsibility towards the betterment of society, towards the general uplift of quality of life for everyone, and not only self. There are enough people in the society who are capable of interpreting empowerment in their own unique way, and end up making a mockery of the existence of others around them. It needs to be understood that individual good can not sustain for long without general good. And this is something where you and me can contribute by spending time in explaining the correlation between the two "goods" to our kids. We need to stop telling our crying sons that do not cry like a girl, and at the same time need to stop telling our daughters that do not play car racing games like a boy.

In the end, going a bit tangentially, why don’t the political parties say – “We have wasted enough time of the parliament staging walk-outs on one hand and not listening to the opposition parties points of view on the other. Let’s have special sessions to discuss and pass key reform bills so that the economy gets a much needed kick-start.” Going a step ahead, why do we question only the age-old rape laws? Why not use this platform to force a review of all the antiquated laws? Isn't it time for a greater revolution?