Today, I came across several posts condemning a case of police brutality in Tamil Nadu. It is indeed a most unfortunate incident, and the outrage against it is fully justified. What surprised me, however, is that some of my friends who are outraged by this incident are also supporters of the Armed Forces Special Powers […]
Category: Society
On the Call for Special Laws to Handle Violence at Hospitals
With the recent developments in West Bengal following incidents of violence at some hospitals, there have been calls from many quarters for newer and stronger laws specifically to deal with such cases of assault against doctors, hospitals and medical staff. I am of the opinion that such laws will not help address the problem faced […]
Diversity and Segregation in Society
I recently came across an interesting, playable, animation that showed how a small preference for individuals to be among people who are like them will result in a segregated society. The illustration has two types of polygons – squares and triangles. If each square prefers to be in a square majority area and each triangle […]
Divorce in India and in the West
There is a stark contrast in the attitude towards divorce in India and in the west. This is best understood in terms of an analogy. Consider I want to leave my job for another. I only need to let my employer know and give them an advance notice as specified in our contract. On the […]
How Feminism follows from Capitalism and Consumerism
What is generally seen as an expression of freedom and empowerment might, in reality, be a case of clever manipulation. One example that I want to bring up today is of women who are driven to seek a job and focus on their career, thereby “empowering” themselves, “breaking barriers” and “being free”. I think that this […]
The Answer that Buddha did not give Amrapali
I recently came across a post in my facebook feed, which narrated the story of Amrapali – a beautiful woman who was forced into prostitution. As per the account, when she wanted to join Buddha’s monastic order, Buddha first refused, because he was worried that her presence may distract adversely affect the monks of the order. […]
The Beauty of Arranged Marriage
I have seen several articles on the web that advise people to marry (or date) women (or men) who read, travel, code, cook, or fit other criteria depending on the writer’s own expectation. It is clear that while many of these qualities can be very desirable, none of these, alone, can account for a happy and […]
Understanding the Lesser Coverage and Attention for Women’s Sports
I don’t follow cricket. But from the posts of many friends on social media, I guess that Indian women’s cricket team has recently defeated Pakistan in some tournament. The most coverage about this event has been in terms of how it did has not got sufficient coverage or attention as a game between the men’s […]
Misguided Notion of Career in India’s IT Industry
Origin of the word career can be traced to the French word for road. Today, many young men and women in India run down this road only to find stress and exhaustion on the way, emptiness and dejection at the end. I think this has much to do with the meaning understood from this word. For […]
Fear, Patriotism, and the Fate of a Terror Suspect’s Body
Father of the terror suspect who was killed yesterday refused to accept his son’s body. Today, he has expressed apprehension that he may lose his job, being a terror suspect’s father. This makes us feel that his rejection of his son’s body would have been a decision coming from his feeling of insecurity and painfully made in […]