I was so glad when i started my blog yesterday. I thought it'll create a storm in the virtual world. Everybody will read it, talk about it, discuss it, post comments on it... Guess i was expecting too much too soon :(
Anyways, here is my second post. And though i don't have too much to write today, i really do hope i can find enough time to write regularly. I guess I was right after all; This blog is gonna be nothing but a combination of daily diary & idle ramblings. Too bad for the potential readers :o)
Monday, July 28, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
If this makes me a feminist, so be it...
Since last many days, I have been contemplating about writing a blog of my own. Various themes have crossed my mind:
· Daily diary
· Idle ramblings
· My theories on various important issues (political & otherwise)
· My feelings (yes sweetheart, it has all got to be about me, me, me)
…and other similar random stuff.
Of course, in the long run, the blog might turn out to be combination of all the above + much more. But still, it is important to have an awesome start. I mean, first impressions may not necessarily be the last, but their importance cannot be ignored nonetheless.
First of all, something about me…more of a warning for all you potential sufferers…
I talk a lot. In fact, I am a self-confessed chatter-box. I can talk on any topic I have any slightest idea about. And I doubt if there are many topics of which I don’t even have the slightest idea.
But in spite of the fact that I talk a lot, I think a lot too. People have sometimes accused me of thinking too much. I too believe that one mustn’t think that much…it kills joy out of life. And what is life without joy & fun?
Basically I am a fun-loving person. I love making new friends, and then talking with them endlessly…get to know them… I also love travelling, eating, sleeping, day-dreaming, cracking jokes, playing pranks, laughing etc etc etc…the list, as you can see, is endless.
But there are a few topics I’m very touchy about. You mention them, and you have me all charged up with clenched fists and red eyes and all that. And it is one of these touchy topics which someone happened to make light of in my presence today evening, finally nudging me into writing my first blog. (Phew! finally the idle ramblings begin…actually they began like 2 ages back…and it seems they’ll continue for at least as many more…)
The one thing that I have never understood is that why do people have to talk about stuff that they know nothing about. Take sexual harassment for example. Ok, let me start my story from a logical beginning. My friend and I were sitting in my room, having usual arbid discussions. And like it happens with all arbid discussions, we were jumping from one topic to another. We started with discussing why it is a failure on the part of our country’s “Intelligence” that 2 serial blasts were executed successfully in 2 different cities of India in 2 consecutive days. We moved onto how India is a huge country and how things are easier said than done. We also discussed how naturally the government & media put the entire suspicion on LeT. We touched upon the need of more effective cross-border policies to discourage infiltration. I don’t remember exactly how, but suddenly we were discussing dressing sense of some people. (I know…anything!!) I mentioned how one girl in our class was wearing shorts to classes, much against the rules. My friend, who I must confess is a complete MCP (Male Chauvinist Pig), stated that there is a need by the college administration to enforce a strict dress-code for girls. From here on, the dialogue went on as follows:
Me: Why only for girls, why not for all?
My Friend: See. This is the problem. You girls give each issue a gender connotation.
Me: I’m giving it a gender connotation?
MF: Of course. You are acting like a true feminist. What dress code can be enforced for guys? It has to be for girls only.
Me: All I’m saying is that a politically correct statement must be made. The rule-book must say, “Students are not allowed to wear shorts in classes” instead of, “Girls are not allowed to wear shorts in classes.”
MF: There is no need for that. Guys anyway don’t wear shorts to classes.
At this point, I had amused exclamation marks (use your imagination) running in my head. Till date, even girls were not wearing shorts to classes. What was the guarantee that in future guys won’t break the rule either? And what was the harm in enforcing a unisex rule anyway? I asked him this.
MF: That is not the point. The problem is that you girls have to complicate everything. You have to give gender connotations when none are required. There is nothing wrong in what I am saying.
Me: but I don’t see anything wrong in what I am saying either. Both guys and girls must be given equal treatment.
Now, in our hostel, the ground floor belongs to the girls while 4 floors above it are for guys. And a few days back, an issue had risen in our hostel that both the washing machines are on the guys’ floors, which we (girls) don’t find comfortable. So one of the machines was shifted to our floor. Guys were unhappy about it because going by numbers, they had more strength and hence needed to use the machine more often than us. They said that one machine wasn’t sufficient for them, and they definitely couldn’t come to our floor to wash their clothes. Discussions/ arguments regarding the same are still on. And my dear friend used this opportunity to bring this topic up.
MF: You girls always do that. On the one hand you talk about equality, and on the other, you take unfair advantage of your being girls. If you believe in equality so much then why did you get the washing machine shifted to your floor? You also know that going by number logic, the machines must be on 1st and 3rd floor so that everybody has equal approachability.
Me: I agree that logically speaking the machines should be on 1st and 3rd floor. But yaar, we have a hard time washing our clothes on your floors. The other day when I went up to wash my clothes, there were these guys in the corridor, who were totally drunk. I didn’t feel comfortable.
MF: see, you cannot bring this up. If you are talking about equality, you have to keep this topic aside.
This was all I needed to hear. I got all flared up. I gave him a hard stare and said this is not an issue to be “kept aside”. But he insisted that if we “supported” equality, we must do it completely and not hide behind the garb of sexual harassment every time.
Hide behind the garb! That is what guys think we do? They believe it is unreal! And that, when they themselves are guilty of doing it. How many times have their butts been pinched while they were window-shopping? How many of them have been groped in buses and trains? Do they have any idea how shocking, humiliating, embarrassing it is? Do they realize how it makes us feel every time something like this happens to us? Are they not aware of the fact that absolutely every girl has gone through a hundred traumas of different levels. Yes, I repeat, absolutely every girl. Some of us, from when were too young to understand what it meant. I can’t forget how horrified I was when 20-somethings pinched the nipples on my 8 year old body in that crowded market. Every face, every smell, every shop, every corridor is forever printed on my mind. And even now, when I think of it 18 years later, I’m filled with disgust and hatred for those two guys. I only hope they are dead and rotting in hell.
And he says we must keep this issue aside and then talk about equality. He says we are hypocrites to have separate seats on buses for women. He says we don’t have the guts to stand up against it and fight it.
I’ll see who he thinks must stand up against whom when his wife and daughter are being groped and rubbed on roads and public transports. And I’ll see how easily he lets go when a tattooed fat man breathes down his neck and kisses him against his wishes.
Till date, I used to think there are two categories of bad men:
1. The ones who do bad things
2. The ones who think bad things
I used to think that the rest, who don’t fall in any of the above two categories, though very few in number, are good. But today I realized that they are bad too. And what category do they fall under?
3. The ones who don’t care
· Daily diary
· Idle ramblings
· My theories on various important issues (political & otherwise)
· My feelings (yes sweetheart, it has all got to be about me, me, me)
…and other similar random stuff.
Of course, in the long run, the blog might turn out to be combination of all the above + much more. But still, it is important to have an awesome start. I mean, first impressions may not necessarily be the last, but their importance cannot be ignored nonetheless.
First of all, something about me…more of a warning for all you potential sufferers…
I talk a lot. In fact, I am a self-confessed chatter-box. I can talk on any topic I have any slightest idea about. And I doubt if there are many topics of which I don’t even have the slightest idea.
But in spite of the fact that I talk a lot, I think a lot too. People have sometimes accused me of thinking too much. I too believe that one mustn’t think that much…it kills joy out of life. And what is life without joy & fun?
Basically I am a fun-loving person. I love making new friends, and then talking with them endlessly…get to know them… I also love travelling, eating, sleeping, day-dreaming, cracking jokes, playing pranks, laughing etc etc etc…the list, as you can see, is endless.
But there are a few topics I’m very touchy about. You mention them, and you have me all charged up with clenched fists and red eyes and all that. And it is one of these touchy topics which someone happened to make light of in my presence today evening, finally nudging me into writing my first blog. (Phew! finally the idle ramblings begin…actually they began like 2 ages back…and it seems they’ll continue for at least as many more…)
The one thing that I have never understood is that why do people have to talk about stuff that they know nothing about. Take sexual harassment for example. Ok, let me start my story from a logical beginning. My friend and I were sitting in my room, having usual arbid discussions. And like it happens with all arbid discussions, we were jumping from one topic to another. We started with discussing why it is a failure on the part of our country’s “Intelligence” that 2 serial blasts were executed successfully in 2 different cities of India in 2 consecutive days. We moved onto how India is a huge country and how things are easier said than done. We also discussed how naturally the government & media put the entire suspicion on LeT. We touched upon the need of more effective cross-border policies to discourage infiltration. I don’t remember exactly how, but suddenly we were discussing dressing sense of some people. (I know…anything!!) I mentioned how one girl in our class was wearing shorts to classes, much against the rules. My friend, who I must confess is a complete MCP (Male Chauvinist Pig), stated that there is a need by the college administration to enforce a strict dress-code for girls. From here on, the dialogue went on as follows:
Me: Why only for girls, why not for all?
My Friend: See. This is the problem. You girls give each issue a gender connotation.
Me: I’m giving it a gender connotation?
MF: Of course. You are acting like a true feminist. What dress code can be enforced for guys? It has to be for girls only.
Me: All I’m saying is that a politically correct statement must be made. The rule-book must say, “Students are not allowed to wear shorts in classes” instead of, “Girls are not allowed to wear shorts in classes.”
MF: There is no need for that. Guys anyway don’t wear shorts to classes.
At this point, I had amused exclamation marks (use your imagination) running in my head. Till date, even girls were not wearing shorts to classes. What was the guarantee that in future guys won’t break the rule either? And what was the harm in enforcing a unisex rule anyway? I asked him this.
MF: That is not the point. The problem is that you girls have to complicate everything. You have to give gender connotations when none are required. There is nothing wrong in what I am saying.
Me: but I don’t see anything wrong in what I am saying either. Both guys and girls must be given equal treatment.
Now, in our hostel, the ground floor belongs to the girls while 4 floors above it are for guys. And a few days back, an issue had risen in our hostel that both the washing machines are on the guys’ floors, which we (girls) don’t find comfortable. So one of the machines was shifted to our floor. Guys were unhappy about it because going by numbers, they had more strength and hence needed to use the machine more often than us. They said that one machine wasn’t sufficient for them, and they definitely couldn’t come to our floor to wash their clothes. Discussions/ arguments regarding the same are still on. And my dear friend used this opportunity to bring this topic up.
MF: You girls always do that. On the one hand you talk about equality, and on the other, you take unfair advantage of your being girls. If you believe in equality so much then why did you get the washing machine shifted to your floor? You also know that going by number logic, the machines must be on 1st and 3rd floor so that everybody has equal approachability.
Me: I agree that logically speaking the machines should be on 1st and 3rd floor. But yaar, we have a hard time washing our clothes on your floors. The other day when I went up to wash my clothes, there were these guys in the corridor, who were totally drunk. I didn’t feel comfortable.
MF: see, you cannot bring this up. If you are talking about equality, you have to keep this topic aside.
This was all I needed to hear. I got all flared up. I gave him a hard stare and said this is not an issue to be “kept aside”. But he insisted that if we “supported” equality, we must do it completely and not hide behind the garb of sexual harassment every time.
Hide behind the garb! That is what guys think we do? They believe it is unreal! And that, when they themselves are guilty of doing it. How many times have their butts been pinched while they were window-shopping? How many of them have been groped in buses and trains? Do they have any idea how shocking, humiliating, embarrassing it is? Do they realize how it makes us feel every time something like this happens to us? Are they not aware of the fact that absolutely every girl has gone through a hundred traumas of different levels. Yes, I repeat, absolutely every girl. Some of us, from when were too young to understand what it meant. I can’t forget how horrified I was when 20-somethings pinched the nipples on my 8 year old body in that crowded market. Every face, every smell, every shop, every corridor is forever printed on my mind. And even now, when I think of it 18 years later, I’m filled with disgust and hatred for those two guys. I only hope they are dead and rotting in hell.
And he says we must keep this issue aside and then talk about equality. He says we are hypocrites to have separate seats on buses for women. He says we don’t have the guts to stand up against it and fight it.
I’ll see who he thinks must stand up against whom when his wife and daughter are being groped and rubbed on roads and public transports. And I’ll see how easily he lets go when a tattooed fat man breathes down his neck and kisses him against his wishes.
Till date, I used to think there are two categories of bad men:
1. The ones who do bad things
2. The ones who think bad things
I used to think that the rest, who don’t fall in any of the above two categories, though very few in number, are good. But today I realized that they are bad too. And what category do they fall under?
3. The ones who don’t care
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