The Tortoise and the Hare - Extended Version

One day the hare was getting bored. He decided to challenge the tortoise to a race, thinking it would be fun to tease the tortoise about how slow he was. The tortoise accepted the challenge, and on the day of the race, things happened according to the old fable. The hare slept off in his arrogance, and by the time he awoke and reached the finish line, the tortoise had already won.

The hare was extremely unhappy. He knew he was the faster animal, so the next day he challenged the tortoise again. The tortoise couldn't refuse, of course. As expected, the hare, having learnt his lesson, stuck to the race and won it.

Now the tortoise was the unhappy one, feeling that his hard work had come to nought. He challenged the hare to a third race the next day, which the hare couldn't refuse. The hare started running, thinking that the tortoise was stupid as well as slow, since he couldn't possibly win. But suddenly he was brought to a standstill, and could go no further. He had reached a deep river, and there was no bridge to cross it. He remained stumped at the riverside, while along came the tortoise, who swam across the river, reached the finish line and won the race again.

What was the outcome of this? The hare and the tortoise became friends. On land, one was the powerful one; in the water, it was the other. There wasn't any point in striving against each other.

Life's like that, too.

Story related by my favourite teacher in college.

Life Without a Camera

I'm depressed. Well, not really. I'm just unhappy about my camera. Its power supply circuit seems to have some problem, so it ain't working, and I'm sad coz of that.

May be weird, but it's justified. I love my camera. It's a very simple old model, and there are much better ones available on the market today. But I am attached to this one, because of the simple awesome pix I have taken with it. It has come with me wherever I have gone, and I have gone so snap-happy all over the place, it's hard to imagine life without it.

Sure, there's a lot of trash floating around about how the best pictures and the best memories are always in the mind, and can never be captured on a cam, and so on and so forth. Get real. We live in a material world, and I like to have something solid and real to look at, when I'm remembering an old friend or a nice trip. Taking a trip down Memory Lane is a lot simpler and a lot more lively when you have the photo to look at, of each turn and twist of the lane. Besides, it always feels good to look at th3e reminder of what you've done - the photograph taken by your camera.

My cam needs repair. Hopefully I'll be able to find a place that will repair it well enough that it stays repaired. You can't trust anyone these days.

DRDO (Disaster Reaches out and Destroys Opportunity)

I am usually lucky, but I have the worst of bad luck if it ever happens to me. I sat for a job interview with DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organization), the Indian defence technology unit, which is supposed to be a research based job, and which will take only the best, though it pays the same as any ordinary software company. I was eligible so I sat for it, and it happened to be the worst thing in terms of an interview that ever happened to me.

I had a splitting headache in the morning as soon as I woke up. Yet I couldn't cancel out on the interview, because that would be the worst thing to do in the face of the Don, the head of our Training and Placement Department. I called him and asked him if I could cancel, but he snappily asked me to get dressed, take whatever medicine I wanted and get to the interview room asap. He offered to send his car if I wanted. So with my head spinning, not having bathed, and my portfolio in pieces, I landed up for the interview.

I was not prepared for a core based interview. I hadn't sat for one before, and I had no clue of the sort of questions they liked to ask. As a result I made a fool of myself there. I couldn't answer simple basic questions that I'm supposed to know as an electrical engineer, and now I wonder whether I should be given the degree of an engineer at all. The panelists actually commented, that I was giving answers that were too generic, and I seemed more interested in electronics based subjects rather than electrical.

My Head of Department was on the panel too. That was a shock, because then it felt like a viva session, and I am bad at viva sessions. To top it all I was staring at him for the first few minutes, and I was wondering whether it was really him, or just a guy that looked like him. It was only after he spoke that I was sure, because I recognized the voice. It was embarrassing, because I gave all those horrible, generic answers and made a fool of myself right in front of my HOD. The icing on the cake came when one panelist asked me to name the subjects we were studying this semester. I flubbed even on that question, pathetic as it was. I named four of five subjects. The one I forgot was the subject that my HOD teaches.

How does one recover from a shock of this kind? I have never had such a disaster before. I have been assiduously avoiding my HOD since then, though I couldn't escape him in the classroom the next lecture after this, when he commented that he hadn't expected this from me. The story of forgetting his subject though, seems to be a hit amongst all my batchmates.

Five Smells on a Train

Train journeys in India (especially those involving a ride for over five hours, standing in a crowded, dirty stinky compartment with no place to sit, grateful for a place to stand and highly obliged for having been able to climb into the coach in the first place) are an experience that should be had at least once in a lifetime.

I travel around twice a month or so, between college and home, by train, and I have a plethora of experiences to relate. The most striking one was the latest one that I had, which was in fact, yesterday. Travelling in the rainy season can be hectic, but in the monsoon season, it is madness.

The first job is getting into the train. It ain't as simple as step inside, haul luggage, move inside. It means yell, rush forward like mad, yell, push through and clamber into the coach, yell, pull luggage inside after you (sometimes along with a friend who is unfortunately stuck somewhere behind you), yell, move inside, yell, find a place to stand (which is more likely to happen than finding a place to sit) and yell again until the train starts. In this process, you are pressed against a dozen other bodies, all of you sweating and struggling to find a foothold, hitting and being hit by luggage flying all over the place, and if you're a woman, may you be blessed. That's the first smell that will strike you as a woman, if you're entering the general compartment (the general general compartment, not the ladies special coach). The overpowering smell of masculine sweat.

The next job is finding the most comfortable position to stand in, for whatever period of time you need to stand, be it one hour or five. The best place to be is at the door of the compartment, since you can enjoy some fresh breeze, and actually sit on the footboard, if you feel like it. People often do that, sometimes for journeys as long as sixteen hours. But bless you again if you're stuck anywhere on the inside corridor between the two facing doors. Over there, the stench of the lavatory is inescapable, especially since it is overused and never flushed. The stink is often so powerful that it hits the senses almost immediately upon entering the train.

Another smell, which I have never understood, is that of fish. For some mystical reason, the general compartments always carry an overwhelming smell of fish with them. I suppose it is due to the proximity to the goods carriages, which are close by, but nevertheless, the degree of penetration of the smell is marvellous.

The fourth smell is one that is probably not noticeable to the masses of labourers and rural working force who mostly tend to use the train and it's general compartment, but if you're like me, a student who has mostly lived a smell-free life, you're likely to notice it. It's the thick and extremely heavy hair oil that is used by the rural women, for its cheapness and its ability to keep the hair straight and manageable without too much effort. It's called jameli ka tel in local dialect. There's nothing like the smell of it. All I could think of before I was able to place it was what the hell is anyone doing with rotting flowers in here. Does Rafflesia smell like this?

The fifth smell is occasional, depending on your luck. It's that of alcohol. Alcohol consumption is banned by law in this state, but in a few territories it's allowed, and of course bootlegging is one of the biggest black industries in the state. The poorer folk in particular tend to consume the locally made liquor, which is very strong, often freely adulterated with spirits that don't exclude methanol and the like, and which stinks to low hell, the odour bearing uncanny similarity with fresh puke. You need to watch out with this drink. It can work like nothing else in corroding your inner tissues, bringing on early blindness, poisoning and death. How anyone survives it is beyond me. It's called crimpy in college argot. Also called, tharra, pauaa, or just simple desi daru.

If after all this you still find any pleasure in travelling in the train, congratulations. You've just attained a higher level of tolerance for worldly evils.

My Political Stand

I took a test recently to determine my political views. For those who are interested, here is the link:

http://www.politicalcompass.org/test

I have never been too political minded. Current affairs I find boring, except for the main headlines, because some nation is always warring against another nation, or with its own people. The country's heads are always doing a salsa at top speed, while attempting to perform juggler's tricks at the same time, what with international treaties and policies to make, and the snivelling tricks of the opposition at home to deal with. I do not understand the subtle talk and cues that countries have with each other, or the underlying messages and currents of the acts and deeds that happen to or are made to happen by the leaders of the world. I need somebody to explain these things to me.

Economics I don't understand, except that the rich people are trying to get richer by making more profits, and the poorer people trying to get richer by squeezing out as much as they can using any power that they hold (for example, pay the sarkari naukar small bribes every time you want him to do something for you so that he won't make you do garba between all the various departments).

Social problems are a mixed bag of fruit. You have the rich mangoes, who genuinely try to help out the underprivileged; the sour grapes, who keep their position by trodding over the poor; the squashy bananas, who are trying to avoid being squashed and move towards a decent living; and the rotten apples, who want to feed off all the legal privileges they have, without lifting a finger. Somewhere in between you have the firm pears, who have no idea what caste or class mean, and simply want to earn enough to keep happy and comfortable.

But regardless of how much or how little I know, I have an opinion, because I have a brain that can judge the content that enters it. And whatever be your colour in this tapestry and your take on the picture as a whole, there are words to define what you believe, and categories to sort you into, so that you realize you aren't alone in what you believe. This test attempts to give you a broad generalization of what you believe, by asking some 60 odd questions and sorting you into one of four general categories depending on the answers you give: libertarian or authoritarian, leftist or rightist.

There is an economic axis, simply labelled Left to Right, or rather, Communism to Neo-Liberalism. At one extreme, you have the belief that everything to do with the market must be controlled by the state, while the other belief holds that extreme regulation is good. Everybody, depending on their belief of how the economic market should exist, ie to what extent should it be state-controlled and to what extent free, is somewhere along this scale. The other axis is the social axis, which from top to bottom is labelled Authoritarian to Libertarian (or if you like, Fascism to Anarchism). Everyone knows about Fascism, the absolute authority of the government on all social ideas. The extreme opposite is Anarchism, absolute non-interference of all policies relating to society on the part of the government.

And why do these two axes put together determine your political stand? Because, in the end, economy and society are the two single most important factors that influence a person's public life: his ability to live according to his needs and wants. And hence when you choose your government, or as a government official formulate your policy, you will do it according to whether your requirements in these spheres are met. For a more complete explanation/analysis, refer the site. This is simply how I understood the basis of the test.

I turned out to be Libertarian Leftist. What are you?

NITs With Merit

Beginning 2008-09, the rules of admission to the prestigious NITs, second only to the IITs, will change. Instead of getting admission to an NIT outside your state on the basis of your state rank, you will now get it on the basis of national rank. Which means that there is no statewise quota distribution, and students will be admitted purely on the basis of merit, ensuring that students who are higher in merit get seats, or at least better branches, than those of lower merit.

How does it work out? You see, under the previous system, 50% of the seats of an NIT were given on state rank basis to students from the same state, while the rest were distributed to the remaining states, with seats allocated to each state proportional to the population. Thus consider for example, that NIT Surat offers two seats to Assam students and four to Bengal students for a particular branch. If only one student applies from Assam, he gets that seat no matter what his rank. But if Bengal has ten students applying, only the top four get the seats, and the remaining six won't get it even if their ranks are all higher than the Assam student. If the second Assam seat is not taken, it remains unfilled, and won't even be offered to those six Bengal students.

In the new system, the 50% seats for the same NIT will remain, but the system of state quota for the remaining seats will be removed, and instead students may apply to any institute on the basis of their national rank. This means that the higher you are in merit, the wider the choice offered to you. So, the higher merit students are more likely to get a preferred branch in a preferred institute, and will not be shunted to lower preference branches simply due to state quota restrictions. Which overall means that merit is accorded more importance than it was earlier.

So what effects will this have? I had a talk with a friend and senior of mine working in Bangalore, and he highlighted a few things that hadn't occurred to me. First of all, national ranking is not evenly spread across the country's states. The higher national rankers tend to come from the north and east, because those people are generally those who appear for engineering entrance exams after dropping one or two years after school, meaning they are extremely well prepared for the exams, and tend to score higher, having the benefit of both content practice and time management practice. The entrance exam for the NITs (All India Engineering Entrance Examination, AIEEE) is taken by over one lakh students every year; the combined strength of seats offered by the NITs is a little less than one tenth that number. So if ten thousand seats are offered, and five thousand seats are given to students of the same state, and the remaining five thousand on basis of national ranking, it's natural that the bulk of the seats will go to students of the north and east (the ones who tend to score higher). Even after allowing for factors like students not going for their own NIT first, students joining the IITs or other private engineering colleges, students taking up medical school or other fields rather than engineering and the like, the proportion of students from the north will be more than students from the south.

Next, students of the south actually get a better deal upon joining local colleges, or at least colleges in Chennai or Bangalore. Placements there are said to be equally good as the NITs, or at least on a comparable level. Plus, the college is much nearer home, and not much travelling is thus required. Also, they get to live within a culture that they have grown up with, and the local language is also one that they are more likely to familiar with (given the tremendous multi-linguistic tendencies). They would rather go to these private colleges, never mind the high fees and the extra donations required to be paid. These students wouldn't bother even appearing for the AIEEE. Some still would obviously, because if they do well, AIEEE allows them entry to the NITs of Surathkal, Warangal, Trichy and Calicut, which they would certainly love to join.

So what does this spell all in all for the NITs? For the near future at least, the proportion of southie students would be greatly reduced, except in the southern NITs. The northern NITs would be populated by northie students and pseudo-southies. Diversity of the campus crowd thus goes for a toss.

Nearer home, what does this spell for our own NIT Surat? Interesting college politics. With hardly any substantial southie population, the bulk of college power falls to the hands of the northies. Particularly Gujarat, UP and Bihar, and I suppose the north east as well, seeing as these people would constitute a major chunk of the crowd. In a democracy, majority always has the power (regardless of whether it is right or wrong!), and with these people playing college politics the way they have always done so far, the scene looks set for an interesting politics session. Of course, the rule will begin to be implemented only this year, so the effect will be quite moderate, but two or three years down the line, the party should be in full swing.

Canteen Chronicle

Enter the most glorious hall of all those in college. The centre of life and living. The haven of that delight called food. That wonderful meeting place for all minds. The hangout for before college hours, after college hours, in between college hours, and of course during college hours(!). The college canteen.

Axe any course or department from the college, and you axe off a few students. Axe the canteen, and you axe the lifeline of the entire college, the thread holding it all together and providing survival to all its denizens. It is truly one of the few (arguably the only) parts of the college, which truly unites the college, having something of use for anyone (except the food of course) no matter what their taste.

The studious nerd can find a quiet corner where he can sit and study his notes, all colour-coded and arranged by subject on his laptop, referencing the internet to solve doubts (thanks to Wifi). The hot model of the college meanwhile, can find an entire hall full of people to admire her new stilettos. The gang of geeks can find good space for the weekly meeting of the local chapter of Hackers United. The ubiquitous gang o’ gals meanwhile can get their own table to sit and discuss the latest gossip and ways to spread it, over lunch.

The college jokers will always arrive there, since they’ll never be lacking an interested audience waiting to be entertained. The college tomboy will always someone to show off her new sneakers to, and someone else to practice her martial skills on. The college faculty have a place to relax and rejuvenate themselves, away from the claustrophobic office spaces allotted to them. The omnipresent truants meanwhile have a place where they can feel welcome and at home, during the usual routine of truancy (which can be quite taxing!).

Truly, the canteen represents unity in diversity. Analogous to college culture, every college also has a typical canteen culture. A college with a canteen and without canteen culture has something seriously wrong with it.

The canteen is where celebrations begin, right from birthday treats all the way upto pre-graduation revelry (in the countdown to the day they leave college) including but not limited to India’s success in the latest cricket or football match. It is where news is passed on and gossip is spread, right from exam dates upto the juicier details of the faculty members’ profiles on Orkut and Facebook. It is where college traditions begin: introduction to freshers and farewell to final year seniors. It’s where students pick up a quick fix breakfast before running off to exams, and where they return for a restoring lunch, groaning after a disastrous paper.

If you want to measure the pulse of a college, you need to know its crowd. And to know that crowd, visit the canteen where that crowd hangs out. You’re sure to get a taste of a slice of the life of the people there. And, a delicious morsel it can prove itself to be.

Employment. And how it happened to me

Employment brings satisfaction. Everyone wants to be employed. Why wouldn't they? Humans are egoistic above all else, and each wants to be able to have and maintain dignity and self-respect. In a world driven by money, being employed and earning a wage means they are able to support themselves, that their brains and their hands are able to produce something that is considered of enough value that it brings in money. Even the poorest beggar on the street would earn his keep if he could. The begging brings in pity and a corresponding lowering in self respect along with the coins. People do it if they have no other choice, but nobody would want to have to live like that, dependent on someone's pity for their survival.

Heavy funda. It's due to the recent session of on-campus recruitment carried out in my college recently. Companies come every year, analyze and interview young twenty-somethings who have just completed their third year in college and decide if they are worth placing in their company. The software companies usually come first and recruit nearly eighty percent of the total batch. I too have been recruited by one of these companies.

A couple of people put up a drop-box in the canteen, inviting people to write in their feelings and their placement experience, and what was special about it. I saw that, and then it struck me. Do I understand the implications of this? This is the first job I have been offered. This is the first time I spoke face to face with officials of a company, telling them why I think I should be employed by them to work with them, what I can do for them, what they can do for me, the first time that I tell someone that I should work for them and they should pay me for it.

The way it took place was funny too. I was suffering from viral fever two days before this company turned up for the recruitment process. Viral fever means a constant headache, loss of appetite, recurrent high fever, and a general weakness that overpowers every effort you make. I took to my bed and stayed in it for two days, swallowing medicine, bread and cheese sandwiches, and glucose drinks until I felt confident of getting up again. The medicine did help, and I was just left with a heavy head and a complete lack of appetite the day of the recruitment. Oh, I forgot. I was also left with the remnants of a rather unfortunate accident as well. A guy on a motorcycle ramming into me in a big hurry left me with bruises all over, and a rather nasty wound on my right arm. The healing took long enough, thanks to the fact that viral fever had cut my blood count by half.

But life's exciting enough. And fate likes to keep people on their toes. Which means that apart from nursing my injuries and dealing with a heavy head and general tiredness, I swallowed the last dose of medicine and gave the written test with absolutely no preparation. The amazing part is I cleared it too. This in the morning. Happy thoughts of having some time to rest before the next stage were rudely interrupted by the declaration of having that next stage immediately, which means I go to participate in group discussion in the afternoon in the same state of no food, no rest, heavy head and injury. And I clear this stage too!

Okay, so much for one day. At least now I could rest. They'd do the interview thing the next day. But no! They are such energetic people... they declared their intention of starting it in an hour. That very evening. That should give students enough time to change to formal dressing, gather their portfolio, and fill up the employment application form, in preparation for the grilling. For me, it was just enough time to swallow some fruit and an analgesic for my headache, wash my face, dress in formals, pick up my certificates and marksheets and the file they were supposed to be in, and run to the spot where they were checking and verifying students' academic records before sending them to be interviewed.

I had to hurriedly cram all my papers together and fill the form, which I botched up in my fatigue. That meant an extra procedure of ducking around the guy distributing the forms (who happened to be, that day, the senior professor in charge of all training and placement activities in my college) and get a second form out of him. He would have been really mad if he'd directly gotten to know I'd botched up the form. Then the long wait before my turn, and then actually sitting for the first serious interview of my life.

It was an HR interview and it was fun. Okay the guy wasn't smiling or anything, and I don't think he was entirely pleased with the answers I gave him, but somehow I enjoyed the process. His questions came shot after shot like gunfire, and I responded in like fashion. Then he slowed down and asked the questions that required thinking for a few seconds before answering. I bluffed answers in a couple of questions, and got away with it too. All along, I was carefully monitoring my body language and vocal expressions, as well as my eyes, so devastatingly giveaway for me.

Careful to sit the right way, so that I appeared upright and confident and yet wasn't discomfited by my elbow injury, careful to look into my interviewer's eyes but not stare, careful to moderate my voice to contain and display respect as well as self-respect, careful to express softness and yet sharpness, intelligence and yet wonder with my eyes at the appropriate moments, careful to think on my feet but not let my thoughts show in my eyes. The best part was all this came naturally to me, sitting there. I wasn't stiff when trying to control myself. The control was spontaneous, natural. I certainly wasn't stellar, but I must have done well enough, because I cleared it through to the second interview. I hadn't even attended their pre-placement presentation.

The second interview was the next morning, and it was a technical abilities interview. It didn't really go too well. My interviewer was done with me in ten minutes, and I myself was not satisfied with my answers. The one simple question he'd asked me to solve, I botched the logic of it. I didn't think I'd make it, so after another futile attempt to rejuvenate my appetite (really, loss of appetite is dangerous. You won't feel like eating, so you won't eat, and you won't get the strength so necessary for you to actually recover from what you're suffering), I returned to my hostel to sleep. Strangely enough, I cleared the second interview too, because a couple of hours later I was roused by frantic phone calls and messages, telling me I had cleared it and been selected, placed, employed, and I should get there as soon as possible. Not that it really helped me to get there; it was nothing but a set of thank-you-for-your-nice-hospitality speeches and advice for the future with the company and so on and so forth. I returned after this to sleep peacefully again.

Employed. It feels great. Of course, the actual employment, and working and pay package and all comes after a year, when I actually graduate and join the company, but it still does feel good to think that I'm employed. That someone talked to me and actually thought me good enough to work for them and be paid by them. It ain't that easy to convince someone to do that, no matter how good you may be.

An Equal Society

Someone recently gave an article for the college newsletter. It was a very basic article about how girls are not treated on par with guys on campus, and how irritating it is to be made to conform to restrictive policies with little or no sensible justification.

This got me thinking. Women have equal rights under the law and everything. But does anyone in this country really understand the concept of equality? As in equality between men and women? They think they do, and they feel we are really progressing in issues like women's liberation and so forth. The sad truth is that even in a college housing two thousand people on a campus of two and a half hundred acres, I have found hardly two people truly understand it, and practise it as well.

This can be analyzed by taking several little individual examples. Think about clothing and dressing. Men can roam about naked and women scream in embarrassment. Any sign of extra skin on a woman, forget being naked, and the men stare around, lewdly happy. In both cases, it's the woman whose 'chastity' 'stands at risk'.

Certain things are stereotyped as typically masculine or feminine. Very prominent in this list are clothes. Men's clothing with appropriate styling (I mean jeans and t-shirts) is now a part of the woman's wardrobe, but feminine styles of clothing are still common, and for some reason those are considered more 'appealing' than the masculine derived styles. No objection there, but that doesn't mean that a woman should be judged on the basis of her wardrobe. Worse than the judging is the discrimination a woman faces for being anything that's not typically feminine, be it clothes or anything else. I remember this movie that was extremely popular ten years back. I had liked it too at that time, but later I realized how it portrays what I'm talking about. The main female protagonist is a tomboy and like all humans, falls in love, but her love goes unrequited as long as she remains a tomboy. To put it in the words of a leading critic, her love is returned only when she resurfaces, "sarified and narified".

The ideology associated with this is also stereotyped, biased towards men. A statement I made today to a group of people and the response I received illustrates this perfectly. The topic under discussion was a recent beach trip we had taken, and one guy was describing somewhat merrily how I had stared at him and his abs when he had taken off his shirt to wash up. I retaliated saying that if it was okay for men to stare at women and their figures, there's no harm done if a woman looks at a man. Men will stare at women no matter what they wear or don't wear, so what's wrong if it happens vice versa? Everyone protested loudly at this, girls and guys both, and I only succeeded in furthering my reputation as being somewhat more forward in behaviour compared to the other girls who live on campus.

Next, take issues like boozing, fagging or doping. Some people associate a sort of morality (rather a lack of it) with these activities, and call them vice. I'm no stranger to the thought, since I myself once used to subscribe to it. And no issue with it; everyone is entitled to their own view. It's pretty normal for women to indulge in them the world over. Focus only on the two thousand people who live on my campus, since that's the model of the country I'm out to live in. Any woman in this college, who drinks alcohol and openly admits to it, is considered forward by any standards, in the eyes of the college public. Find out that she smokes or dopes, and she rises even 'higher' in estimation. For some strange reason, people consider it more of a vice when a woman indulges in any of these activities, than when a man does so. It's even more shocking to hear people say that it's okay or unavoidable in case of men, but that it's wrong for women.

Living in college broadens your horizons to infinite limits. You are exposed to a wider world, different ideas, different possibilities. You question this world and its rules and add your own opinion to it. And your morals and principles undergo the most drastic restructuring possible, because of such wide exposure. You get to meet so many different people, across the entire spectrum of mindset and mentality. Their company, their ideas add their influence. This being the case, it really shocks me to still know of people making statements like "Girls shouldn't compete with boys". And that came straight from one of the guys of my own college: a person who has studied in the same class as me right from my freshman year.

Consider security. Amongst crimes that are specifically targeted at women, rape is one of the nastiest and most serious. Sexual harassment is the more generic term for it, including with it everything from lewd comments and stares, upto rape. What is people's solution to this problem, apart from laws? "Don't wear provoking clothes."

Again, it's the woman who has to bear the brunt of it. Why did she get raped? Because she was wearing 'provoking' clothes and men are such beasts that they can't (and won't bother to) refrain from helping themselves to what seems a most delicious treat. So, rather than teach men that it's wrong for them to treat women like objects of pleasure, they want to teach women to be more submissive.

What does security mean? According to the chauvinists, a woman is well protected if she stays inside the house after dark, which is when she is most threatened. So to keep her safe, cage her up after dark! This is enforced by both spoken and unspoken rules everywhere. Why did she get raped? "Because she went out of the house after dark. She was asking for trouble. She deserved it."

A group of friends had a party recently. The majority were men, but there were a fair number of women as well. The party was on till late night but the women were required by rules to return strictly by a certain time. They did. The men were also required to do the same, but they didn't bother and returned well after curfew. Of course they received a yelling.

Note a few facts about this. First, the guys only got a yelling from their supervisor. Had it been the girls who were late, they'd have got a yelling, a fine imposed as punishment, and a good deal of character sludging. Next, the guys were found complaining the next day. "If it's ten-thirty for the girls, it can certainly be much later for the guys." Why should it? Why at all? I took issue with the guy who spoke the sentence, and who also happens to be a close acquaintance of mine. His defence was that girls should not stay out late, since safety could then become a problem.

That's my point exactly. Safety should not have to be a problem in the first place. It's a knotty issue, on the borderline of the realms of freedom and equality. For goodness' sake, the world is supposed to move towards equality. Not just equality of laws. I mean equality ingrained as a quality of behaviour. I mean absence of discrimination, and absence of this attitude of chauvinistic high-handedness. In all essential social terms, equality needs to become a mindset, a part of one's natural thinking. A woman should be free to walk the roads alone at night. Not just free under the law. But free from fear of being raped, from fear of being ostracized, from the persecution caused by social backbiting, from chauvinistic nastiness that's totally uncalled for. Free, and equal.

And apart from having this equality, a girl should assert her right to this equality. She needs to be strong enough to know and recognize injustice and fight it. Unfortunately, centuries of downtrodden existence have brought in a mentality of dogged submissiveness in women. Those few who fight, find themselves speaking in a land of deaf people. Like I do.

It's not an easy task. It's one thing to impose a set of rules that must be obeyed, but how do you change the mindset of an entire generation of people, let alone three generations coexisting together, who have all grown up thinking in the way of their forefathers? How do you get people to see and accept the rationality of those laws and rules? One person alone can't do anything against an army of people who together form society. But individual people waging on the war can set a precedent, which more people from coming generations can take up and follow. That is how slow and silent revolutions in social norms have come about. And that is my hope, that I too may learn, and thus teach, and play my part in this revolution.

How to flash through seven places in eighteen days

Somebody once travelled around the world in eighty days. I did something better. I travelled seven places in eighteen days and managed to do some sight-seeing and family-bonding as well as a great deal of joy-sharing as well in those eighteen days. How did I do it?

1. Spent the first day and most of the next morning watching the Konkan coast from the window of a train. Reading why school teachers are like sumo wrestlers, why drug dealers live in their mothers' homes, why crime rates fell in the United States in the nineties, and how exactly, with statistical proof, does parental care affect children. And listening to Incubus alongside.
   
2. Spent the afternoon of the second day lazing idly in the garden of a little house in a tiny village.
   
3. Spent the third day roaming with family on the beaches nearby. And took some beautiful pictures all the way.
   
4. Spent most of the fourth in a six hour bus journey from the village to another little town, escorted by a favourite cousin, and was met by a whole host of cousins, aunts and uncles who hadn't seen me in three years.
   
5. Spent the fifth day in a grand birthday session, the first time I celebrated my birthday with my dad's people. Starting with furious session of midnight callers, a visit to the temple in the morning after bathing (normal for some but astounding for those who know I'm a stubborn atheist. But some things have to be done to please people too, at times), a humongous lunch in which I stuffed myself so full I could have gone the entire month without eating, and a surprise birthday party, which included amongst other wild whacky unexpected things: me wearing a saree for it (again, some things have to be done to please people), a green birthday cake (incidentally, the same colour and flavour I had for my first birthday), two weeks' worth of newspapers shredded to bits as confetti, lollipops and a bright pink squeeze toy as part of the gifts package, me lighting with a cigarette lighter the same candles that I blew out on my cake, and a special photo session with my paternal relatives surrounding me on all sides. Could I have asked for anything more?
6. Spent the sixth day visiting my dad's sisters. Everywhere I go, I'm treated like a little princess.
   
7. Spent the seventh day visiting more relatives. And also found the means to see the college where my dad studied as a youngster of my age.
   
8. Spent the eighth and ninth days in one of the most dynamic cities one could hope to live in. And found out that my cousin sister, who so staunchly disapproved of all notions of falling in love and things of that sort, was seeing someone. And it's a serious relationship with indications of being something really, really long term. The guy is seriously good, too. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a younger brother or cousin who I could hit on. :P
9. Spent the tenth and eleventh days in the house of a gentleman who was earlier a professor in an IIT, and now Professor Emeritus in the university where he served as Principal and Dean for so many years now. And finally understood some aspects of my stickier subjects from him. I happen to have taken the same course of study he did in his college days.
10. Spent the next six days in my grandfather's house. In a suburb in another huge city. And what days those were. Spent the first day sleeping all day and waking up to wish everyone festive greetings for the holiday season.
    
11. Spent the next day with a family of cousins, in their house that cost them ten millions to build, with a garden that gave life to every seed thrown into it, and an approach road that for five kilometers (no less) threatened to shake the traveller off his vehicle, as though traversing that road were a crime of the highest order.
    
12. Spent a lazy day playing games. Then received the terrifying news of the execution of the last step of a regular series of torturous college events. During the reception of which I received the even more horrendous news of the assassination of one of the most powerful leaders of a neighbouring country - a woman who had once been the Premier of her country, against all odds and opposed to all kinds of perverted forces. She fell to their cowardly yet ruthless attack.
    
13. Spent the fourth day roaming around one of the busiest sections of Chennai. A street so full of people it's a crime for a vehicle to be driven there. Wondered yet again, for the umpteenth time, how so many gold and jewelry shops manage to set up such huge mall-sized shopping complexes next door to one another and still maintain business that sustains them. Ditto for the silks, the vessels, the clothes and the sweets. Bought a complete set of newspapers on the way back, which contained altogether four puzzles of a particular game that I favour. And all four puzzles a very hard level! Broke my brains trying to solve them :( Finally managed one out of four.
    
14. Spent the next day with my mother's friend from her own hostel days. A bright dynamic lady who doesn't deserve all the crap that she's going through right now. The best was hearing her and my mom come alive again as though they were young twenty-somethings, yet with all their experience and maturity to back them up and protect them. A close second was hearing all the naughty things my mom did in her younger days, and which she so routinely scolds me for doing myself! And managed to get a second puzzle at night.
    
15. Spent the day packing. And still trying to solve those damned puzzles. I think I overdosed myself. And I discovered one more messaging partner.
    
16. Spent the morning in the flight back home. Solved one more damn puzzle in the morning right before the flight left. Surfed the net the rest of the day at home.
    

And all along I discovered a new joy in travelling and meeting people, especially those who love you, and how important it is to keep up those links. Everyone needs something special to keep their minds occupied, and sometimes, it's just as well that you be the source, rather than the seeker, of that something special.