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!)