Saturday, July 31, 2004

SPCM

A Society for Prevention of Cruelty towards Males? Give me a break. Sure, "innocent" men are being targetted by women. But exactly how many men are being targetted? Aplenty, feels the writer Nandita Puri. How many exactly? Hardly 1% of the men in India? Not even 1%. The writer knows about these women-slamming-fake-charges-on-men incidents because they get reported and are whispered about everywhere; because they are unusual cases. Or even bizarre.


Why not an SPCF? Does a man get harassed when he's travelling by suburban train late at night? How many men get (Adam)-teased? Crimes against women have always been there, and are now a quotidian activity. That's why the atrocities are not reported that much anymore. If a newspaper were to report all the cases of eve-teasing occuring in one day, in one issue, there wouldn't be space for any other news.


Just because women have an active voice in society... OK, I need to stop. Or I can go on and on like a bullet train.



Monday, July 19, 2004

Who do you trust?

My cousin is an ardent Shiv Khera fan. Today, she read an article in Outlook which said that Khera had lifted several paragraphs from another book. Whether it's true or not, her faith in his work is shattered.

Sounds silly, but she worshipped him. She said his books changed her views on life.

I didn't understand her disappointment till I realised it was like me realising that Jane Austen didn't write Pride and Prejudice.

Even if it's a matter of a few paragraphs. For all you know, even other parts of the book could have plagiarised.

You can't trust Bush, you can't trust Khera, you can't trust the media, you can't trust your auditor, so who can you trust?