About Manusmriti

I had bought a copy of Manusmriti from a second hand book dealer at Pattom. Thought it would be nice to read what the fuss is all about. This book has got a very 'good' reputation in India. Routinely ridiculed and defended, it is one of the most quoted books when it comes to discrimination against women and the oppressed classes.

The book, I found, after reading a few verses, was quite boring. It essentially emphasized on the supremacy of Brahmins. Then there are a lot of do's and don'ts - most of them alright, quite a few humorous and some of them really outrageous. One of the odd ones:

"A King is as sinful as a butcher who owns 10,000 butcher shops. One should not accept anything from a king who is not right."(Ahem!)

This one really takes the cake:

"One should not look at one's wife while she eats."

And another one:

"One should never beat anyone other than one's own son or disciple." (What about daughters?)

Of course, everyone knows the more famous ones.
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The important point to note is, this book has enough good points about it too. While disparaging the book, many people forget this fact. One should take into account the good things about anything too.

In fact, I would love to read about what the Indian society was like, before Manu wrote this book. Was one's caste really decided at birth? Or was it acquired? Did woman really have a higher status in the country at any point of time? If so, what caused it? How did some women come to be educated in open defiance of Manu's instructions?

And how did Manusmriti and caste system stand the test of time for so long?

Nightmares

I am having nightmares in my sleep for the past two weeks. Terrible ones. The first one was a long story of three ghosts trying to kill my sis and me. This came in about three episodes. That was pretty exciting though I remember only parts of the show. Then my brain decided to change the channels. Right now, I watch an unknown force trying to kill a powerful lady. I am in danger,too. I have got psychic powers to tell the lady when she might be in danger. So, the lady, (I never knew such a person in real life) never lets me get out of her sight though we both are not really great chums. I play a scum character in this nightmare. In the last episode, that unknown force was following me after I had ditched the lady and was running for my life. I have no idea how this is going to end.

I found the following facts to be very interesting:
1. I think perfectly logically, almost cold-bloodedly in the dream.
2. Unlike my other nightmares, this force (and the ghosts, too) could be fooled.

Can anyone tell me why on earth I am having dreams which are episodic in nature? I don't believe in the warning crap, and would be obliged if someone can give me a rational explanation.

Nothing to do.

Days like these are characterised by an indescribable sadness that threatens to overflow my heart and drag me down to the depths of an unfathomable trench of depression. Not that I have ever sunk that deep but the threat is sometimes quite enough to pull me out of my characteristic inertia into life back again. The biggest fear in my life is that I may run out of aims. Not that I may burn out. I may get bruised, broken, but hey, what else is life for, other than falling down, getting wounded, but getting up still and keep treading on the path which you have chosen. The greatest feeling in the world is the one you have while you are working hard to attain your aim. Not even the joy you have when you succeed can match it. This is because, life suddenly feels empty once you have achieved what you have wanted. Unless you settle some other goal for yourself. Isn't it?

Whom are they fooling?

The austerity drive of the Congress is the worst gimmick in the entire political history of the country. Anyone can see through it. Do the fellows who wrote the script for this dumb drama think that we are as dumb as they are? So Mrs. G flew in cattle class and the young Prince went by train. Did anyone bother to find out what that might have actually cost the poor taxpayer?

Mr. Tharoor's comments provided some comic relief, finally. But instead of taking it in the right sense, the sycophants' association goes crazy thinking that poor Mr. T had referred to Mrs. G and the young Prince. Only the PM showed some sense. Dear PM, I request you to ask your ministers to buy a dictionary each. Don't worry about austerity. You can get a good dictionary for less than five hundred rupees; and it will save your ministers a lot of time - they wouldn't have to comment on jokes.

Mrs. G and dear Prince, if you want to retain the young India with you, don't touch Tharoor.

Earthquake in the city

I was lying in my bed, resting after a really tiring day, when the bed suddenly started shaking. I jumped out of it. There was a heavy downpour outside and I thought that it might have been a really heavy lightning. Though that was odd, I didn't give much thought to it till all the FM stations started declaring that we had an earthquake in the city. As far as I read, it seems the entire city was affected. The radio stations are advising people not to panic. They are also telling the listeners what to do in case the condition gets really serious. Guess I will have to be really careful in the coming days.

Ratings

The broadcast industry is going to regulate itself - all programmes, including the ads shown in between are to be rated U, U/A and A. I believe all news shows are going to be A by default. Ditto for all the serials. Only the family welfare ministry's ads are going to get U certification. But who watches them? This is just a ploy to grab eyeballs by granting A certificate to all programmes and a roundabout way to get social acceptance for all the bitchy programmes in the teevee.

Where's the remote?

Has anybody ever checked out the 'Most Popular' section of Yahoo! India. At least 25% of the content is a month old. I am tired of still seeing the Rakhi Sawant swayamwar, Madonna's waking up etc in that page for the umpteenth time. I can't bring myself to believe that we are still reading those things. All other sites are religiously updated. This is really atrocious! Who's in charge of that page?

Congratulations to the Indian cricket team for making it to the top finally. I will worship all the team members religiously till we lose the next match. Then I'll throw banana peels at you.

Also congratulations to Vijender Singh and Pankaj Advani! Good to see some good news from sports other than the obvious one.

The most comical comment I've heard recently: 'Italians want to be like me'

No points for guessing who said it. Still, the guy remains popular!!! No wonder Obelix said:

ils sont fous, ces romains!

(They are mad, those Romans!)

And in a lighter vein

I am feeling terrible after writing three posts on really serious topics. Maybe being vegan makes you intellectual.

Yesterday I ate fish again after a long break. So feeling really happy now. (The Omega-3 fatty acid in small fishes triggers neural centres to make the eater happy, according to some research. Bah!)

Om Prakash and Rajesh, two goondas somehow involved in the Paul M George murder case have surrendered and have been remanded. Now, this fellow Om Prakash is a really handsome guy and the newspapers can't ever get enough of his photos. Last year, the same thing happened when Sabarinath, a grafter was caught. (Take the American meaning!) He looked more like a scientist than a swindler and we were treated daily to his photos.

Rajesh has the real look of a goon and so we don't see his photos much. That's sad. He should file a case against the media for discrimination.

A lady goonda (what an oxymoron!) Shobha John, merely on account of being not beautiful enough and being too shrewd has been dumped by them.The actual face of Thatha (not her actual name), a trafficker in women was not shown even once. And you talk about equality of women. This cruel, cruel world!

Amen to male chauvinism! Amen to the great Indian patriarchy!

Thought I'd stop there, but there was a really interesting article about an Innova car getting a fancy number for an abysmally small amount at an auction. Now there was also a report about a private Innova car receiving police protection as it followed a minister's car. And I am a tube light.

When the Unique ID mission really starts working (I see nothing else other than news reports and occasional intervies with Mr. NN to remind me of its existence) and if I have enough dough in my hands, will I be able to buy the number I like? Or is it going to be like the scratch coupon where you have to scratch out a shining metallic coat with a fifty paise coin of 2.0 cm diameter to get my number?

Mera number kab aayega?

Austerity (Akbar vs Auragzeb) and global warming

From now on, the Cabinet ministers will shun five star hotels, travel economy class, eat only chappati and dal, wear khadi clothes they themselves spun and will live in huts. With their Z+ security. That means we won't get budget hotel rooms to stay in anymore (Security of the ministers), no air tickets, inflation goes up and huts will become the latest fashion statement. Come on, Mr. Prime Minister, we are not bothered about any of these things. I don't care whether you stay in Taj or Ritz, I wouldn't even bother if you chartered a plane for each one of your ministers. As long as you do your work. We Indians are quite tolerant of these excesses. Remember Akbar. He had quite lavish a life, yet is called Akbar the Great whereas the poor Aurangzeb who lived on the money he earned by spinning clothes comes nowhere near. He is the villain of Indian history. Learn from history, dear fellows! We prefer an Akbar to an Aurangzeb any day. At least a vast majority of us.

Something more about politics. Japan is going to have a new Prime Minister, Mr. Yukio Hatoyama. He belongs to the Democratic Party of Japan, which will come into power in the later half of this month. His party beat the Liberal Democrats which had been ruling the country for an astounding 54 years. The PM-elect promises to cut Japan's greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent by around 2020 from 1990 levels.

What is our government doing? Global warming and greenhouse gases are not problems that are going to affect the people who created them alone. The entire humanity is at stake. Why does Indian and Chinese governments make such a hell of a noise when we are asked to cut down emissions. Yes, it is true that we have low per capita emission but our contribution in destroying this rock we call home in galactic parlance is becoming too significant to be ignored. India contributes about 5% of the global greenhouse emissions, according to the data compiled in 1994. We have come a long way since then. So our contribution naturally should be quite larger than the original 5% now. We need to be careful now.

The global warming is not going to spare India out of sheer benevolence. We are going to be affected too, most probably more than many other countries as we have a large section of our population who are so poor that they can't afford two square meals a day. A majority of the population work in agriculture and related industries. And global warming is going to hit farming very, very hard. Our food production is going to go down but the population will increase (unless the Centre takes a cue from the TN government and gives everyone TVs. ;-) ). And in spite of the fact that agriculture is now becoming a backup engine for the economy (Services:54%, industrial:29% and agriculture:17%) we will go down without a fight if the farming sector is hit too hard.

So what do we do? The thing is we are starting industries anyway and most of them, for the sake of reducing the initial investment required, go for outdated (read more polluting) technology than the new (read less polluting). We need our government to take steps to ensure that the entrepreneurs and the industrialists find the latter more profitable than the former. Companies like Suzlon must be promoted by giving them more incentives. The government after all has a duty to its citizens - if not anything else, we must at least have clean air to breathe and tolerably clean water to drink. Legislation for placing the industries under a tighter rein will have to brought in some day. The outdated factories will have to be scrapped then. So why not build them to be more efficient and less polluting, even if it costs a little more dough in the beginning?

We will have to make amends one day. Why not start doing it right away so that the transition will be less of a problem for everyone? It will pay rich dividends in the long run. China is already taking steps to curb its pollution level. We will have a real advantage in the long run if we start now. Our emissions are only a quarter of China's.

We will be doing our poor brethren a favour. It is common knowledge that the poor in India are subsidising the emissions of the upper and the middle classes. We owe it to the nation and its people.

Of hotel suites and food crises

Mr. S.M.Krishna and Mr. Tharoor, both from the MEA were asked to vacate their five star suites. While Mr. Tharoor claims to have paid the bill from his own pocket, we have no such comment from Mr. Krishna.

I do not bother whether they stay in five star suites or in the guest houses. At the rate at which Chinese influence is growing, I don't think they will be ministers for long. I hope I will see one really good external affairs minister before I die. This is one of my greatest wishes: India puts someone with a real idea of how the things are in the MEA.

Our dear old Prime Minister says we need not worry about the food crisis - we have plenty of food in the FCI godowns. Yes, we have thousands of tonnes of rotting rice and wheat grains in the godowns. But of what use that is, when the poor do not have enough money to buy the food? Hunger in India is now not due to scarcity of food - it is due to abject poverty of a vast section of people. The prices of food items have shot up meteorically in the past couple of months. What is the government doing? Other than banning export of some food items according to its whims and fancies, nothing has been done. Or I have been sleeping. I just wish we had a general election every four years. Or the right to recall the elected representatives.

I wouldn't blame the Ministry of Agriculture. It is doing a lot of work, at least in paper. Their plans read more like a kindergarten student's daydreams than anything that can be realised. Unless farmers are made aware of the schemes that benefit them, unless they are given the freedom to decide the crop they want to cultivate in their land, we cannot hope to maintain our buffer stocks forever. The FCI is not an Akshayapathra. Nor are our farmers magicians who can pull rabbits out of empty hats.

Meanwhile, lobbying for the post of AP Chief Minister continues. After seeing the rest of the contenders, I am finding it quite tempting to support the son's cause. Ah! That my country has reached this state!

The latest from the saga of RSS-BJP love story:

VHP has finally realised that the BJP leader Mr. L.K. Advani used the Ram Mandir issue for his political gain. (Did this jagaran come out of chinthan and manthan after the election?) This thunderbolt of a realisation belongs to the same category as the one someone named Siddhartha had some millenia ago. Now we need an emperor to sponsor a stupa to mark the spot where the VHP attained this knowledge. Unfortunately, Mayawati is no longer allied with BJP. Otherwise, she could have easily built one along with her statues.

Now Mr. Singhal, how about contacting Mr. Modi?

A boring life

My life is progressing from being boring to being mega boring. There is no news worth reading in the newspapers. They are becoming so predictable that I can predict the news for the next week. I have stopped watching TV as I find that daydreaming is a more interesting option.

And thanks to the zoology professor at the academy, I am developing a small aversion to meat. Thankfully, he doesn't talk much about fish; I do not know how I will ever live without it. I will have to start thinking about bunking the zoology classes. Otherwise, I stand the huge risk of losing my 'personality'.

Well, in spite of all the opinions I have expressed till now, I find some interesting news articles like:

As usual, we are keeping quiet though China is grabbing our land. (I don't understand why China has to do this. Reminds me of the biblical tale of David and Bethsheba.) Mr. Krishna has even said that Sino-Indian border is among the most peaceful borders in the world. Yeah, we'll sleep on that. For now. Till another Kargil-like scenario comes up. But if it is going to be against China, you know which side to bet on, right?

Then there is the great Indian family drama about finding the successor to YSR. The way in which the MLAs finally turned up to retake their oaths as ministers was hilarious. I do not know how everything is going to turn out. Truth, as Mark Twain said, is more of a stranger than fiction. In the same way, Andhra politics is stranger than Hindi serials. (Heard Ramalinga Raju had a cardiac arrest. Why?)

Another case of faking of 'encounter death' from Gujrat. I have now decided to put no limit to my imagination when it comes to 'How atrocious police can be?' They kill innocent human beings for getting promotion, huh? These fellows ought to be shot at sight.

Our dear old Prime Minister has suddenly found out to his shock that the rate of conviction in cases of atrocities against SCs and STs is abysmally low. It seems that I read more newspaper articles than him about the matter.

About BJP. I do not know where to begin. It now looks like a China shop run over by a very very active bull. First it was Advani, then came Jaswant Singh with many small volcanic eruptions in between. The Vasundhara Raje episode makes particularly fascinating reading. Somebody ought to make a serial or a movie out of it. (Writing a book and getting it banned by a state government too is a good idea.) I forget who the current player is.

But the most comical of all is the investigation of the Paul M George murder case by the Kerala police. Someone has already started making a movie on it. You should read the actual newspaper reports to see how hilariously bizzare the investigation is. The latest episode was the revelation of a blacksmith that the murder weapon seized from the house of one of the suspects in the case was made by him at the behest of a Police officer. When asked to comment on it, someone from the department said that such tricks were routine as the murderers often destroy the weapons used!

I find that life is not so boring, after all!

G.P of death

It was a tragic news I found on the net after abstaining from it for a day: YSR's chopper had crashed. I believe that he was a great politician (when compared to the rest) who did a lot of good things for the poor in Andhra. In fact I was glad that the number of suicides in the Telengana region was coming down finally. The newspaper reports, though quite rare, made heart-wrenching stories. So YSR's death was, for me, a tragedy.

Still, looking at the newspaper reports now, "124 people die due to YSR's death", I feel quite ashamed. The newspapers are going quite overboard. And they have the nerve to report such absurdities too!

And then there is the succession battle. I personally feel that his son should not be made the CM. He should prove himself at first. This politics of dynasties is wearing my patience away(though I never understand why others are not getting tired of it!)