Thursday, December 22, 2011

India-A Conglomerate of child producing factories



Sounds harsh…very harsh indeed. But it’s a fact, a blot which no detergent making companies can claim to erase. It can be, only if we take the case out in streets like the famous ‘Dhobi-ghaats’ in Mumbai. It has to be a current matter on everyone’s lips. Then, perhaps we can come up with some solution. And when I talk of a solution, don’t treat me like one with godly powers as the only way we can up with a solution in this case is by elimination substitution kind of method. There’s no direct formula. We have to derive it in the process of solution-making as many a time, instead of dealing with the superlatives, we have to deal with  good and better, bad and worse!

With India’s population of 1.21 billion, we represent almost 17% of world’s population at a mere 2.4% of the world's land area. Population of UP almost equals to that of Brazil!

The main culprit as we all know is poverty, which is the consequence of illiteracy and corruption. And how does poverty inflect such injury on our society? Well, poor families who are not part of the main economy consider their family members as potential economic assets. Each family member contributes something to their household incomes.Wait, lets take a pause and apply reverse gear.
There are many  poor families who don’t wish to have an army of offspring. They have it only due to illiteracy, society norms, religion and less focus on these issues by our government (In fact Iran is the only country where mandatory contraceptive courses are required for both males and females before a marriage license can be obtained!).
They are either out of reach of contraceptives or are hesitant in using them. So what happens is that in order to increase the household income, they make each member responsible to feed themselves. And so arise the issues like child-labor, high school drop-out rate etc. But this is the story of poor families without enough opportunities even to make ends meet.

What about us? The better educated people we claim to be, what are we doing to help curb the problem of population. The growth rate of population in rural and urban areas in last decade was 12.18% and 31.80% respectively. The stark difference is due to migration and Us. We better-offs still aspire to cultivate at least two children.

Social problems have attracted our attention only when it satisfies our ego or when it entertains us. We delve into so called problems of the need of daughters of our and other families to get married soon and to get married in the same caste and sub-caste and sub-sub-caste. And if there is any out-of-caste marriage, then how to deal with ‘The Problem’ becomes the problem. But population growth is not an issue. What becomes the issue instead is couples cosying up in public parks. And then sprouts periodically, the ludicrous ‘Operation Majnu’, where a police woman perhaps driven by schadenfreude, hounds a couple in a park and makes the men do sit-ups causing immense chagrin to the couple and grabbing the grinning media reporters’ attention which again shoots the TRPs of the concerned channel viewed by the ‘Concerned Us’.

What is the problem? I think the problem is that even our middle class and the high class ends don’t know what the real problem is. They still motivate young people of their and others' families, to produce offspring as soon as possible and two children is a must! Adoption and abortion are far-fetched terms. ‘Condoms’ is a word that people still shy of uttering in public (even in their rooms!). But they are not shy of having three children. They are shy of talking about sex. They are not shy of doing it but despise the topic of the outcomes of their ‘deeds’!!
They are shy of displaying even hints of basic sexual affection like kissing and hugging in public but they don’t think once before relieving their bladder in public places or performing honor killing or having loud personal conversations in public places. The otherwise shy aunts are not shy of showing off their huge unclothed potbellies while draped in ‘sarees’(Indian traditional wear). But they are definitely against the western outfits worn by females.

We are hypocrites. The whole mankind is hypocrite. But where do we draw the line? We say, “We’re proud to be Indians”. But sadly we no more identify the ‘Indianness’ or even fail to define the same. Nevertheless we’re proud of being a country of entrepreneurs. We’ve established the factories that produce the beloved children, 'Our Future’ !





You also may like to watch this documentary about kartavya, an NGO..


image source: http://www.overpopulation.org/rabbit-cartoon.html, http://filipspagnoli.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/some-more-population-growth-nonsense-from-india/

Monday, December 5, 2011

THAT FAVORITE Tee…..WHICH BROUGHT ME IMMENSE Glee…..


I’m sure that all of you must have had a lucky t-shirt or a favorite jeans and also you must have faced the brunt of caustic remarks from your mom (or your folks) regarding the innumerable times  you wore that dress while being made to  count almost all the occasions you dogmatically represented yourself in that dress!
And still at the end of it, you, possessed by the soul or as we say the feel of that dress, would keep wearing the dress as if trying to fulfill the cause of the may-be-now-withered dress.
The worse part is we start expecting others too to appreciate that dress which they obviously have ceased to do, which in turn makes us acrimonious towards those innocent people(innocent, in this particular scenario only!!)
We become scornful towards all those people who don’t shower our dress, not just us, with appreciation.
We start mitigating that childish furor by reasoning that definitely, ‘those’ people are not trendy and do not have a good taste in fashion ….
"what do they know about fashion??..!!!..huh…if by rarest chance,
 Somehow my dress is sent to Milan..
They would consider it once they give my dress a mere glance
and would price it high under a famous brand…!!!"
I remember once, a two year old favorite t-shirt of mine (which actually resembled a t-shirt worn by my favorite actress in one of her movies) met with an accident in ‘Holi’ (the festival of colors in India). The stubborn colors that were used to make merry in the festival  got cantankerous and attacked my peace-loving white t-shirt hung out in the balcony,…..at first my mom was happy while I cursed my neighbor whom those menacingly playful colors belonged to…..  but then my little’s heart agony reached my mom and soon she decided to wash it..& my t-shirt fought  bravely and came out healthy as before…!!
 In no time, the tee contained me and I was obviously elated. I had won along with my t-shirt, but something had changed. It was like a pyrrhic victory.. I had fought more than needed..

The next day as I held my t-shirt in my hand, I observed that it had gone old and though its aura still tried to cling onto me, I realized its weakened grip now and that the time had come to bid farewell to it.
“Mom I think I should not wear it anymore; you were right about it...see if u can donate it to someone….”, my mom baffled by my sudden transmogrification, gave a smile not really flashed to alleviate my pain but in final relief; albeit it felt better..

 I still miss that t-shirt  that used to proudly exhibit itself, wrapped on me, to its then  little world….!!!!!!
So do you guys have or ever had such unreasonable  nexus with one of your clothes…..?? As I said earlier, I think you must have had…!!!