In the Ramayana, an ancient Hindu scripture, even when the evil Ravana abducts Lord Rama’s wife Sita, her abductor treats her with respect. But thousands of years after the scripture was written, we are still seeing women in India treated with a profound disrespect of their dignity.
A couple of weeks ago, I watched a Marathi film called “Balak Palak” (Children and Parents). A new crop of film-makers is portraying the burgeoning Indian middle class with its own set of problems and “Balak Palak” is no different. Director Ravi Jadhav chronicles the lives of four school students and their first encounter with adult literature and how it alters their friendship.
Elections make for responsive and accountable governments, or so goes the truism. But can they also achieve the opposite — that is, encourage complacency, even callousness, among elected representatives? Last month's headlines from India and China present a disquieting contrast between elected and unelected governments for anyone committed to democratic politics.
Despite increased media scrutiny of violence against women after the Dec. 16 gang rape case, such incidents continue to be reported in and around New Delhi — now holder of the infamous title, “India’s rape capital.” It’s unfair to expect women to no longer step outside their homes, but it’s best to be prepared. Carry pepper spray. Take a self-defence course. Learn kickboxing or Krav Maga.
San Francisco: As a co-founder of Narika, a Bay Area-based helpline for South Asian victims of domestic violence, I have come across many incidents of sexual assault against women in my community. It happens with numbing regularity. But few things have struck a chord in me as powerfully as the news of the 23-year-old, female medical student’s brutal gangrape on a Delhi bus 16 December by six drunken men.
So perhaps at last India has woken up to the daily abuse that its girls and women face. Sunday night’s horrific rape where a 23-year-old woman was beaten and gang-raped on a bus as it drove through the streets of New Delhi has rightly outraged the entire nation.
Saman Khan is back with a bang. In “Dabangg 2” Super cop Chulbul Pandey, aka Robinhood Pandey is seen with more power and punch as he zooms in mid-air to bash up goons, goes head-to-head against an-about-to-be re-elected politician, and speaks in calculated sentences. And the truth is there’s no point resisting him. “Dabangg 2” begins with Chulbul Pandey moving to Kanpur.
Has anyone been watching The Mindy Project, that sitcom produced by Mindy Kaling? I have. And I absolutely love it. For years I complained about why Indian Americans were stereotyped in sitcoms and movies and why Indian Americans didn't make stuff that showed how utterly un-stereotypical they are. Seems somebody heard or acted to change things.
It’s the million-dollar question, and not only here in the U.K. Jacintha Saldanha — one of the nurses taken in by the prank phone call to the hospital where Catherine, duchess of Cambridge, was being treated for acute morning sickness — killed herself early Friday. And we are all left scratching our heads. Why did she do it? Of course, the first thing we all wonder is about her mental stability.
Don't let anyone tell you that SMS is dying! It's the only common medium among the 6 billion mobile-phone users on this planet after voice calls. They sent 8 trillion text messages last year. Two out of three users use SMS. SMS, which in 20 years grew to become central to mobile telephony, does have competition from instant-message apps and services such as BlackBerry Messenger and WhatsApp.
I finally finished reading the “Fifty Shades of Grey” trilogy and liked the story. Honestly, I never would have read it were it not for the controversy and hype surrounding it.
