Desperate Equality

I'm really bored of this Gender Equality (or Inequality), Gender Discrimination, Sexism, Male Chauvinism and such similar phrases, because all this doesn't really matter to me anymore (honestly, it did matter to me once upon a time  in my life, but perhaps not any more) as I face more serious issues that need my action and attention. But this series really gave me some laughs in the otherwise dull life, so I'm sharing it here..hope it would be as much entertaining to you too!

We need to descend, to more certainly ascend!

Since yesterday, I was seeing some signs which were depicting this force-play: A little dose(s) of force in counter-clockwise direction is needed so as to give a permanent clock-wise direction to the rotation of an object. Basically applying counteractive forces! It goes to say that, more often than not, one needs to descend to reach a more certain ascent. And now I see this article on Goddess Durga and Mother India which sums up so aptly, "The Present Crisis" the world is undergoing. Had I come across the same, some 10 years ago, I would not have read it in the same light, as I did now. But now, it perfectly fits my current state of awareness.

The right to die or rather the allowance to die: The life of Aruna Shanbaug, a case in point.

We all talk about freedoms and rights. And how every government and every individual must try to safeguard them. But it is in the nature of rights that they are not absolute...they are subject to reasonable restrictions in the overall general interests of people. Because sometimes rights of some encroach into rights of others. In fact one right of an individual might encroach into another right of that very individual. One aspect of a right could even contradict other aspects of the same right. There is always a fine print when it comes to interpreting anything that is generic or universal.

One such right is "The right to live". The right to live has been evolving hand in hand with human evolution. To safeguard one's own life is the basic prerogative of every living being. When there was no agriculture, people had to somehow live, so a major part of their life went into searching for and making food. So how to live for a given day formed the major part of their life. And then agriculture came in. But disease still didn't go away. There were no preventive vaccines.  Forget about preventive medicine, the medicine was not even curative. How to safeguard themselves from diseases and how to cure a disease was another important work they had to deal with. With Science, man overcame these and many other problems and he was almost about to lead a happy and a pretty long life and just then he made a U-turn where life-style and a plethora of other factors started reducing the longevity of life. Yeah, the last few generations had the luck of leading pretty long lives, in fact touching that ideal age of 100, but the generation which is currently 50 and above perhaps can't even dream of such an ambition.

But why am I talking about longevity of life now? My intention was actually to talk about the quality, NOT the quantity of life. A complete discussion that touches upon every aspect of this right, in its entire length and breadth, is impossible in the scope of this blog. In fact that is not my interest area anyway. My interest here is to emphasize that "The right to live" inherently means "The right to a decent life" and that such a right sometimes might not be realized without "The right to die". Ofcourse, the debate about Euthanasia and Passive Euthanasia is not new and there is never one right way to deal with it. The solution for such cases has always been subjective, in a sense that law has not arrived at a generic act or standard for it yet and has been taking a subjective stance so far when interpreting such cases.

The case of Aruna Shanbaug is one such case. This case had all the elements that went wrong. It was indeed a ghastly instance of rape (as per me and perhaps as per the current law too), yet it was not rape as per the law then. It was merely a sexual assault. Sodomizing a person by strangling her with a dog chain to the extent that she had to remain in a vegetative state for 42 years of 67 years of her life, IS NOT RAPE? And for God's sake, I wish I never come across generous arguments like these ("The incomplete case of Aruna Shanbaug") who shower so much of mercy on remorseless culprits. What do they expect? That culprits who have no remorse of the crime they committed, be treated with politeness, love and compassion? Bloody! Even if the culprit had remorse, how does it make any difference when he/she had already spoilt a life? Again what do they (Udaaraswabhavulu / people-generosity-personified) expect? Any person who feigns some remorse deserves remission of punishment? Again do they even realize that such a consideration leads to a society where some commit crime without any fear and some who are on the borderline of good and bad are encouraged to shift towards bad? So there is no good and bad, everything IS? It JUST IS, it just happens with or without any reason...?

Law and punishment should take their own course at the end of the day! But what irritates me is this kind of counter-punishment argument (Applying 'Om shanti shanti shanti hi' mantra on demons who would continue to commit crimes if not punished appropriately! Know what? That is uttered after the demons are slain, not before that, to stop them from being slayed!) which pops up every now and then to alter the course of law and what sort of punishment it should grant. (And don't get me started on "No Death Penalty" argument, I should better write a book on that...on why Death Penalty can never ever be erased regardless of what times we are in!)

So that definition of rape was one thing. Another thing is that, this is NOT a case where time can heal it! Aruna has been left in a Permanent Vegetative State (PVS). There is no way of getting better. Her life has gone to a point of no return. So waiting for anything (apart from her death) is pointless!

The third thing is that her family members were not ready to fight for her rights. As per the media reports, her family members were not even available to take care of her. The details on this part are not much discussed in the media, so I don't know. But what is evident is that it is a journalist, Pinky Virani, the biographer of Aruna's story, who fought for Arun's right to die peacefully. Virani's fight is definitely laudable, especially in a society which always equates humanity to taking enough care to ensure that people are alive, (doesn't matter how alive they are!), in a pro-life society where talking about death is taboo and offering a peaceful death amounts to killing and sin! I can, by all means, imagine the opposition Virani faced from all fronts.

I came across this news of Aruna's (natural and physical) death when I was in Mumbai in May, when I myself was leading my life in a vegetative way of its own*. Incidentally, owing to my ignorance, that was also the first time I read about her case. I wanted to blog about it then itself, but something stopped me. As I was browsing about the case, I saw tweets and FB posts which read "This case is a shame on India!" (I'm not on FB or Twitter, but those were the popular comments pulled out from social media into the news). I assumed that the case has seeped into the awareness of most of the people, but recent conversations with friends made me aware that wasn't the case.

I don't know if SC's Judgement was right or wrong in Aruna's case. I doubt if God cared to take any action in her case. 42 years of suffering vouches for it - God did not care enough for her! Not enough, Gods just didn't care for her, at least it seems. (Unless we invoke the theory of Karma which I hate to invoke here! It doesn't make sense! It is during such times that I feel like thrashing this whole theory into dust-bin!) But for the soulless life Aruna led, if her soul was given a voice even for a moment, I'm pretty sure, it would beg - "Kill me please!"

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*No point discussing more and more about a 'conscious vegetative existence' because nobody would understand it unless one goes through it. No point, all the more, discussing it because it does seem like I'm gradually coming out of that state ever since late August, after I gave up on all sort of materialistic pursuits. If I retreat into the phase of void (which would inevitably happen when there is some sort of "materialistic" pursuit), that is when talking about it or acting upon it, might make more sense. But since I wouldn't retreat into any materialistic pursuit until my world changes or instead I change my world, I hope I wouldn't be put to the ordeal of experiencing void once again!

The divide!

Recently, I came across an image which summarizes hundreds of words I used in one of my old posts. This illustration is from an article published in 'The Hindu' about the notorious Ashley Madison case that made it to the headlines online, last two months. A picture is truly worth a thousand words...Besides the article also crisply presents one of the ideas, which is at the heart of growing gender-divide, that I also used to repeatedly voice out in my blog: "Men don't want to give up privilege; women's roles are changing rapidly." Can a middle way not be there?

               (Illustration by Deepak Harichandan. Taken from 'The Hindu' magazine, Sep 06, 2015.)

In.....To The Journey of Infinity!!!

When I checked this link - "Good Luck Finding The End Of This Model Train Moving In An Infinite Spiral" this is what I instantly thought. "Come on! What is so complex to boast about it? It is there everywhere, it is there all around us. Is it anything more than a circle, a closed loop? In nature, when things don't know how much to grow and how long to grow, this is how they grow. This pattern is all around us! Anybody with their artistic side open, will be able to sense that there is not much of technology in it! For me, this is nothing more than a spinning train."

That is until I checked the meaning of "Ouroborus". So the author (of that one liner!) has only cited it rightly that this is an instance of Science meeting Art. Isn't it really hard to delineate these both? One cannot seperate one half of a whole from its other half. How can we separate right brain hemishphere and left brain hemisphere and function normally? It is just that during a given task, one half is more active, functional and visible than the other. But Scientists now have grown a replica of human brain itseems. If the same momentum continues, I wouldn't be surprised if in 100 years there would be brains available with selective parts and brain replacement surgeries happening as normally as Cosmetic surgeries.

Science and Art are so much interwoven that they can't be seperated how much ever one wants to seperate them. It's just that we don't see through that. My debate is never about the efficacy and ways of Science per se, it's rather about the application of Science - how we apply it. The same experiments of growing replica of human brain can be used to meet good ends, as mentioned here. But the question now is how can one restrict anything at all, that Science be used for only these purposes and not those? That is where human discretion plays a role.

Infact, forget about such a brain-replacement technology, but if we suppress the expression of right brain hemisphere and falsely believe in the superiority of left-brain activity, the humain brain itself shall evolve so in some 1000 years. Disorders like Batten disease might just be very rare occurrence (at the moment), but the suffering of that miniscule part of human population is beyond expression. Isn't this suffering a byproduct of our accelerated evolution/growth? When we look from the lens of such suffering, aren't the rest really lucky to have "very long" lives and have enough freedom to explore life? And from the perspective of a may fly, perhaps a human life is indeed infintely long! But unfortunately for the humans ourselves, life is too short to both dream and live and finally live those dreams.

Results come late

Checked this article- "An entire generation sacrificed..." - just now. As for me, it's a must-read for all of us.

Results happen late. It's not only about parents' sacrifice, I think that's the way of human evolution. Look into the c(o)urse of freedom struggles of any country. We see that struggles and sacrifices are done by some generations and results are borne by the later.

Look into the way "Caste System" evolved in India. Many generations suffered in the name of division of labour and theory of Karma. Countless poignant stories buried deep, complete breach of human rights, but such abuse never acknowledged. A couple works (they do the work "bestowed" by their caste) for a large family of say 10, for a whole year and all they get is a bag of paddy. Nobody to blame except the ignorance of that couple who think it is their kharma (no it's not karma! As harsh as it might sound, I feel bonded labour is better coz atleast the owners say it out that they are exploiting them, on the other end this kind of exploitation through caste is what people in Telugu say - "Gharana Mosam") And then something churns in the stomachs of those oppressed classes and some rebellions spring up. And then there are reservations now in jobs and academics. And then the upper castes experience the other end of the table. Again they end up suffering. (But now surprisingly I don't see any rebellions there - rebellion enough to question and change the system. Perhaps they are finding other avenues because the world is getting bigger and bigger, so maybe they are digging other roads to opportunities.) Look into the Slave Trade, the oppression of Blacks, oppression of Aboriginals...the list is long! Another one that comes to my mind is - the erstwhile extreme male domination in upper castes. So to say, the situation of women in lower castes was better in this particular context. The fruits of Women's emancipation that the current day women are enjoying are majorly due to the struggle of upper caste women of previous generations.

For many, life doesn't seem fair. They feel why should they pay the price for the deeds of their past generations. But often they forget that they are also reaping the fruits of the past. Good or bad, we ought to bear the repercussions of the collective past, because we are not individuals isolated in prisms of individual universes. Infact, life might not really be fair sometimes...it cannot be fair all the time. But one's efforts, I believe, can never go waste. Maybe, they might not live to see it, but they will surely become part of the flow of life and are bound to trigger some effect in one way or the other. When it comes to freedom struggles especially, I'd believe that those who suffered would have definitely been born again to enjoy the freedom they earnt. But, I know, I know, nobody would ever rebel with an intention that - "Oh I will be born again in some time, so let me struggle now". Reading that thought itself sounds so funny. The struggle then is purely the result of impulses and fervour shaped up by the forces of their own times. So what I'm trying to say is, if we can look beyond the human life, Karma actually normalizes everything.

Recently, my friend Kresimir wrote to me about Karma, "The result of our actions is not always clearly visible because of our ability to forget past events. But fortunately Karma works on all timespans.....The amplitude of destruction is very time related. A small swing quickly swings back, but a long one takes its time. Those who have destroyed most may not live to experience the force of Karma but through their children. Those bent on destruction destroy everything, their family not excluded. They live to see their children broken and lost, on the exactly opposite end of their pyramid. Fortunately, same is true for those who create and organize most :)"  I really liked that! Sometimes the amplitude of Karma is so high that it takes time for it to swing back to us. For me, this idea sums up all the debate of life's fairness towards an individual.

Anyway, keeping aside the Karma theory, if one lives to reap the fruits of their own work, that's good, even if that's late. If we are reaping the fruits (or venom) of the past, we do not have its participants to express our gratitude (or vent out our frustration on). But if we are lucky enough to realize that we are reaping the fruits of our parents' hard work - the hard work of our very own parents - then let's be wise enough to acknowledge it loud and clear - WE REALLY OWE IT TO THEM.

Dad's Art

Now that I have introduced Dad's voice to you, I must introduce to you another of his artistic talents - Portrayal Art.

Singing is a mere hobby for him, which he perhaps pushed deep into the back of his head somewhere. He was never serious about it. Infact he is never serious about nurturing his Art either. But as a child, I did see him spare some time for Art. I mean atleast he tried to continue it in his free time.

Here are some snapshots of the same:

The first two and the last one were sketched even before I was born. There's a small story associated with the first one. Itseems my Dad's friend liked it so much that he insisted that the piece be sent to NTR. So Dad made 2 copies of it and sent the same to NTR. NTR signed on one of them and sent it back to the address from where it came. And that was Dad's friend's address.

You must be wondering what happened to the last one. That framed piece used to be there on one of the walls of our old house. During the reconstruction, in the transit and all it became part of a bundle of luggage and the mice chew a piece of it :-). I think we unearthed it after I came back from Sweden in 2008.

I have some ideas for Dad's Art during his post-retirement period. Should see how it goes :-)