My chawl and its people

I spent most of my life living in a 'Chawl' (चाळ in Marathi). We still have our home in our chawl and I visit it on my every India trip. For people who don't know what does word "chawl" means, let me explain it a little bit to the best of my ability, chawl is a type of setup where many houses are aligned side by side like a train (it can be one or two or maximum three-story building). They are not like row houses or condos but more like trailers stacked one adjacent to another.. By the description it doesn't look like a very comfortable or attractive place to live with family, it comes with minimum privacy but with maximum fun (at kids have a lot of fun as kids, I don't know about adults). Culture in chawl was also used to be very unique. All members knew each other very well, there were no secrets, it was very easy to know what was going on in each home, absolutely no privacy. So, whether you wanted it or not all your friends knew if you had a bad day in your home Houses were crowded but there used to be a lot of open space around to play.

I can't capture the essence of that life in words but life was filled with a lot of fun and unpredictable but interesting things. I still remember our cricket matches where both teams used to play as if it was a World Cup final to win 25 paise (Indian quarter, which is less than a US penny). Every chawl used to have their own cricket team and some were bitter rivals of each other. Matches between those teams used to be full of high tension and a lot of drama and many times ended without any result because of a dispute over some runout decision. Having your own cricket bat was a big luxury that very few kids could afford and whoever used to have it used to feel like a king and really used to get royal treatment as everyone needed that bat to play. We never had a lot of toys or any video games at that time but there were many games we used to play which never required any sophisticated equipment but were very enjoyable. Most of them are almost extinct now but I still remember all of them. Most of the kids from our chawl used to go to the same school. We used to go to school with our bikes or company-provided school bus (by a company called Vanaz, where most men from our Chawl used to work, that's why our chawl was called Vanaz Chawl). That school bus was not like the one which you see nowadays, fancy and tailormade to be a school bus. It was a regular bus but used to carry schoolchildren. It used to be really overcrowded, to get a seat on that bus one really had to fight a war and some kids used to try to ride on the running bus just to get the seat, this resulted in one tragedy where one student got crushed under the bus. That bus was called the school bus only because it used to carry school children but there was no other feature of the school bus associated with it. I am glad that I survived those years without facing any major accident. Our life there was full of a lot of good stuff at the same time so many risks, which were very serious by today's safety standards.

For a long time, we never had individual water connections for each house. There used to be common taps from where everyone (including kids) used to carry water with buckets or different vessels to their homes and store it for daily use. We used to receive water for a few hours each day so there used to be tough competition to fill all our vessels before they shut down the water supply for the day. This used to create a lot of fights, some really ugly but bitterness never used to last long, the next day again fresh challenge, new war, and new fights. These fights or arguments were so common that other people hardly used to interfere or get bothered by these, except for people who were involved in these arguments all others used to continue with their routine as if nothing strange was happening, no one used to freak out over some argument going around them, sounds so strange when I look back to those incidents now.

Eating dinner together with friends was also a common practice. Kids used to take their plates outside and sit together to eat dinner, all used to share the dishes with each other, and one used to get a taste of different types of food. Slowly as people got more money they built more rooms and we lost our veranda so this practice slowly stopped, but it was fun as long it lasted. Keeping an eye on kids used to be the job of any elder from the neighborhood not just the parents of that kid. If anyone from our neighborhood caught us doing something wrong they had full right to punish us and normally no parent used to object to this. I think this practice of collaborative parenting made our neighborhoods safe and allowed many parents to carry out their day-to-day activities without being bothered about the safety of their children. This doesn't mean our parents were not careless, they cared about us as much as present-day parents care about their kids but this system worked very efficiently back then and made their job easy.

Life back then was filled with many incidents and situations that one can not even imagine today. The world has moved on and many of those things vanished with time. I don't regret that they are gone, change is important and is required but I do remember most of those incidents fondly. I still visit my chawl and know each and every individual from my chawl personally. My chawl has also changed a lot, it's not the same as it was 20 years ago but this change is natural no one can avoid it. Maybe in the future, there won't be any chawls, maybe they don't fit in the image of a modern city, and all people might prefer to live in nice apartments or beautiful single-family homes, but my chawl, its people and days which I spent there will always remain in my memory.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)

Why the heck Modi needs US visa?

Recent news about 65 MPs (members of parliament) who wrote a letter to US President Mr. Barack Obama requesting him not to grant a US visa to Gujarat chief minister (CM) Mr. Narendra Modi caught my attention. I was interested in the logic behind these people's requests and why they think is US visa is so important for Modi or for any person of his stature. The copy of the letter which is circulating in media with signatures on it looks very genuine. So, if we believe the contents of this letter then their major emphasis is on the 2002 Godhra riots, and because the MPs believe that Modi was responsible for those riots the US government should not allow him to enter their own country. 

The letter paints a picture of Gujarat as a most horrible place in India where minorities are butchered and raped daily. These people don't even realize that they are talking about one of the state in their own country. They consider Modi an anti-social and dangerous person, based on his human rights record they want the US to prevent his entry, but they are fine with his presence in their own country (that too as CM). If they believe and have solid proof about Modi's crimes then why is he free even in India? If his crimes are so serious and there is enough evidence about it, then he should be in jail. Why a person who these 65 lawmakers think is so dangerous and antisocial is roaming free in their own country? If they want the US to ban his entry, then why don't they criminally prosecute him in India? Do they think that in India criminals can stay, they can even rule, it's all fine, but they should not enter the US? Many questions like these should be asked to these 65 people and they should provide satisfactory answers to them or resign from their posts.

Having political or ideological differences is one thing, those differences can be debated, and discussed in civilized manure but to plead for another country to act on your behalf is a pathetic display of immaturity. I didn't expect this from these people. Another question is, why the hell does Modi need a US visa? He is the chief minister of one of the states of India, he is a democratically elected leader and holding that office for more than a decade. He can talk with anyone anywhere in the world without physically visiting that place, recent developments in communication technology have given every one of us that power and capability. So even if he wants to talk with the Indian community in the US he doesn't need to visit the US physically, he can do it right from his office in Gujarat. So, why the hell he need that visa? If US companies want to invest in Gujarat they will automatically invite him and arrange a visa for him. I am sure then there will be no question about human rights violations and other things when business and money are involved.

No government in this world has an absolutely clean record of human rights. Every country is involved somewhere directly or indirectly where human rights violations, either in their own country or on foreign soil. No one can claim high moral ground at least on this aspect alone. These people should fight against Modi politically based on valid and rational points, challenge him, and question him but please don't play a dirty game like this. I have only one request to all these people, please stop this circus and talk about more serious issues. I am sure India has many of them, whether Modi or anyone else gets any visa or not is not a big deal. We have much bigger issues to address and I expect these intelligent MPs to think about that rather than thinking about how they get some cheap media publicity.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Links:
1. 64 MPs urged Obama to keep visa ban for Modi
2. BJP wants US visa for Modi
2. Massive controversy breaks out over MPs' letter to Obama on Modi visa
3. Controversy breaks out over MPs letter on Modi visa

History - be careful while reading it

History was not one of my favorite subjects in school. I didn't like the way it was taught and tested in schools. It did put too much emphasis on remembering the names, dates, and other insignificant details of the incidents rather than understanding the analyzing the significance of those events. Eventually, I met people in my life who reintroduced this subject to me in a much more interesting way and then I started reading books to understand more about some past events,. Now I love to read history and like to read accounts from different sides. One can find many historical accounts, either written by experts (after thorough research) or by witnesses (who were involved in some way in those incidents). Many of these reports are sometimes contradictory to each other, some glorifying the incident while others criticizing it. If we see such contradictory accounts, which one to believe? Which one is true? This is a very important question and there is no easy answer to this. My approach is to read as much as you can from all sides and then decide for yourself. 

The major problem that I face while reading most of these books or articles is that many times they are very biased, the views and opinions clearly take sides. There are neutral accounts also but very often they are not popular because people like to see clear heroes and villains in every story and often neutral accounts don't project clear heroes and villains so they fail to impress most readers. I see this contrast when I review what I learned in school about the Indian freedom struggle. All those lessons glorified all actions of Indians, the armed struggle of 1857 was presented in such a way that as a kid I was under the impression that all autocracies were only committed by British troops and all rebels were very honest and fair in dealing with their enemies. But when I read some books (for example a recent book which I read, Gandhi Churchill by Arthur Herman) that talk about the same mutiny but from a totally different perspective. I learned about each and every massacre committed by British troops but I never knew about the Bibighar massacre. I was surprised when I read about it. I am sure it was omitted purposely from our textbooks. I am sure one can find totally different views about the Pearl Harbor attack, or the atomic bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki if we read Japanese and American opinions. When there are totally different views about the same incident, it is not easy to decide who is right and who is wrong.  

I think rulers (kings in the past and governments now) always feel the need to present history in a biased way to infuse patriotism in people. They want more heroes from our past and from our lineage so that we feel proud about our history and buy the argument that the past was more glorious than the present. But I always wanted to know both sides. Mahabharat taught me that there is no absolute right or wrong in this world, everything is relative, and it depends on which side you are standing. I have no shame or hesitation in accepting some dark spots in Indian history. They are also part of our history. They belong to us as much as many other glorious things that we mention proudly. I am not selective in my acceptance or denial. This helps me to learn and grow intellectually. I always tell my kids that before forming any opinion about anything try to know all sides, and be prepared to change that opinion if any contradictory information is received as nothing is permanent.

Reading is good, it improves our knowledge and sharpens our minds. I always try to read diverse opinions and try to get neutral opinions or at least views from both sides. It helps to balance my own views. If we look at history only through the eyes of winners, losers will be always villains, if we read only from the loser's perspective we will always feel winners didn't play a fair game. Our vision will be clouded depending on which side we are looking at, our job is to make it as much less clouded as possible. 

History is a very engaging and mesmerizing subject, and it has the potential to teach us a lot, at the same time if we are not careful then it can also fill us with a lot of negative emotions and hatred against each other. We need to be very careful about how we interpret the historical events. We need to make sure that we have all the required information before forming any opinion about any country or community. There are already enough conflicts around us we definitely don't need any more of them. Always remember, history is past so don't allow it to ruin our present and destroy our future. If we are careful about all these things then history is an amazing subject.

Thanks for reading and please share your opinion on this subject.

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)

Racial profiling - a very common mistake

Recently I read about George Zimmerman's trial and reactions to his acquittal from murder charges for killing Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African American high school student. This incident of fatal shooting took place on February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, USA. The trial attracted a lot of media attention and the verdict to acquit Zimmerman resulted in a lot of protests and controversy. All this happened because many believe there is a racial aspect involved in this case. Many people think that Zimmerman got suspicious about Martin because of his skin color which subsequently resulted in an unfortunate incident of fatal shooting. I am surprised if this is true even though it will be impossible to prove it legally.

Racial profiling (I am using this as a general term where we try to label certain groups with certain characteristics) is a very common mistake many of us make consciously or unconsciously. I see that happening around me all the time. Actually, the issue of racial profiling is more complicated than it looks. I am not going to go into any historical accounts or produce any actual data (sometimes numbers don't give the actual picture) but want to say something based on my own personal experience in the US as well as in India. In India even though there is no issue of race, the issue is about caste, in both cases the mindset is the same, one race or caste feels superior to another.

When I was in India, I heard many things like how Muslims are not as patriotic as Hindus, how a particular caste doesn't deserve a white-collar job, or how people from some particular caste are not as intelligent (or brave or clean or honest one can use any criteria here) compared to people from so called upper caste and many things like this. The list can become very long if I include everything that I heard. People still say these things very casually without any regret or guilt. I also didn't feel any strange when I heard these things as a kid as this was discussed very openly and without any reservations, and very often as a kid when you hear these things again and again many times you start believing that they are true. Sometimes there are a few incidents that make you think that maybe whatever people around you are saying about others is true. We don't even understand when this habit of profiling people, that is judging people based on their religion, race, caste, or nationality is incorporated in our mindset. Even when I came to the US I found that there are very subtle currents of prejudice against some races. It's not very open here but one can feel that it's there. Some areas in every city or town are considered good neighborhoods and some are bad, one can easily look at ethnic groups living in those areas and understand that there is a strong racial connection to this labeling. Actually, the crime rate and other things that make some areas less safe than others are because of the economic condition of people living in those areas, not because of their race or nationality. People don't want to analyze the real problem they just see the symptoms and form their opinions based on crude observations.

Many times because of some historical social aspects (like years of suppression and negligence) people from certain castes (in India) or races (in the US and other countries) are deprived of good education and equal opportunities therefore they struggle economically which can sometimes lead to a high crime rate (due to the resulting poverty). But to blame it on their caste or race is unfair and wrong. Criminals are found in every society and ethnic group, there is no logic behind labeling a particular race or caste more criminal than another. But in reality, no one wants to think about these problems so seriously, most take the easier path of racial profiling. They label certain races or castes as good, and intelligent and some as criminals, not so intelligent or incompetent (many people do the same thing about gender also). Most of these people pass this flawed thinking to their kids, so even before kids know the world outside their home they are prejudiced about which people are good and which are bad, who are their own people (same caste, religion, race, or nationality) and who are others, so this vicious cycle continues.

I guess we all do some kind of people profiling at some stage. Some accept and some don't. The worst thing is that some don't even see anything wrong in doing this. I would be lying if I said that I have not done it myself and I am not at all proud of this, it doesn't really matter whether I did it intentionally or unintentionally. Society and our inner circle (friends and relatives) play a very big role in this. Many times we tend to follow their thinking, but when I saw the world through my own eyes removing all those prejudices and biases, then I realized how wrong I was. This was one of the important turning points of my life when I left that habit for good. We have progressed so much in science and technology, and we know many things about which our ancestors had no clue, but even today racial profiling is very common. People judge others based on their nationality, religion, or race. Many stand-up comedians love to make fun of people from particular races or nationalities and they are still very popular. I know that one should not take these things seriously, they are only for entertainment purposes but still, I don't like race or community-based jokes.

We all know that racial profiling is wrong. We don't like it when someone does it to us, but somehow many of us don't see anything wrong in doing it knowingly or unknowingly to others. Most of the time people do this without having proper knowledge about that race, religion, or country. Every culture is different, they all have some good and some bad aspects, no one is perfect, we all are humans with good and bad qualities. Our skin color, nationality, or race is just one part of our personality, we are much more than that so we should stop judging each other based on color, religion, or anything else. We all are humans and let's treat each other as humans.

Thanks for reading and please share your views about this topic. 

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)

Links:
1. After Zimmerman verdict, can nation heal racial rift?
2. Shooting of Trayvon Martin
3. A Perspective On George Zimmerman That Every Person Should Hear

Autobiography of a Yogi - a huge disappointment

This book is supposed to be an autobiography of the very celebrated Guru Paramahansa Yogananda. He is supposed to be one of the first Indian Gurus who traveled to the West to spread awareness about Hinduism and Yoga. It seems he introduced many Westerners to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga through his lectures and books. I read a lot of good things about this book and this book was mentioned even in the biography of Steve Jobs as one of the reasons he visited India. I was very interested in reading this book and finally got a chance to read it when it was available from the Kindle store on Amazon. I was really excited to get this book and it started really well but after a few chapters, I started seeing where this book was going, and my doubt became reality when slowly Yogananda started mentioning all the so-called miracles that he claimed that he personally witnessed in his life. The book is full of descriptions of the supernatural powers of his Gurus and some other people.

I have no problem with him believing that his Gurus were phenomenal human beings and had some exceptional qualities. Many people are exceptionally talented and naturally gifted, but to claim that they had some supernatural powers and attribute so many miracles to them doesn't make any sense. All this looks like a very cheap publicity stunt. Some of the miracles mentioned in the book are, predicting consistently future events, curing sick or even dead, making people sick just to make them realize the power of their god, producing babies by blessings, being present at two places at the same time, claiming that some of them never age and are 100s or even 1000s of years old, etc (the list is too long). I don't think there is any need for these types of stories (that too so many of them) in a nonfiction book. I can understand these things if they are mentioned in a fiction book or as dream sequences in a nonfiction book but we all know that these things are not possible in reality, sometimes somethings might click by chance (like future prediction) but most other supernatural claims are impossible to prove because they really don't happen. I think Yogananda was not aware that in the future science will make so much progress that many things written in his book will be exposed. I was still looking for some interesting stuff in this crowd of miracles but found very little that was useful. 

Especially one should read his conversation with his Guru Yukteshwar when his guru comes and visits him after his (Guru's) death. It seems Yogananda had the unique ability to visit dead people in person. I wonder why he felt sad when they died as this should not have made any difference to him. If he knew that he could meet these people whenever both of them (the dead person and Yogananda) want then why worry whether the person is dead or alive? In this conversation they talk about some "astral world" or "Hiranya loka" and all they describe is like scene from some fictional movie. It's somewhat funny but mostly sounds like some child talking about Candy Land, trying his best to put all his imagination to work but honestly, I was not expecting to read such things in the autobiography of a celebrated yogi. He tells us in his book why his guru was so fond of him, it seems his guru wanted to have a son (and not a daughter, these so-called spiritual masters also failed to lift themselves above the social norms of that time) so that he can teach his son all vedik and other spiritual knowledge, but he couldn't produce his own son, which is again a big surprise as the book mentioned that he gave blessings to others which resulted in children of whatever gender he desired. As the guru didn't have his own son when Yogananda came to him, his desire (to have a son) was fulfilled.

There is no doubt that Yogananda must have been a very popular spiritual leader of his time. In this book, he recounts his meetings with famous personalities like Ravindranath Thakur (Tagore) and Mahatma Gandhi. Another interesting aspect is he never talks anything about the independence movement of India or any problems faced by Indians because of British rule even though his entire life in India was spent during the British Raj. I wonder how he didn't find any problem with foreign rule in his own country. Freedom movement of India was at its peak during that time but he didn't bother to mention anything about it in this book. I don't expect to read about the freedom movement in any spiritual book but definitely expect some mentions in an autobiography of a person who was there when such an important historical event was happening. I think the autobiography of any person no matter how self-centered he or she is should say something about other important events happening around them.

The only chapter that was interesting to read and was without any miracles mentioned in it was related to his stay at Gandi's ashram in Wardha. The chapter is a nice break from the heavy dose of supernatural things happening in the book. There is nothing like a person with bleeding eyes, or a person surviving without any food or water for 40 years, etc. so this chapter is a nice relief. I enjoyed reading this part of the book, but apart from this, this book was a huge disappointment for me.

Yogananda's main aim was to attract the Western population (especially people from North America) to his philosophy that's why I think he strategically praised Jesus so many times in his book. He conveniently ignored similar personalities from other religions (like Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, etc.). This book, also like many other books belonging to many cult movements, is a self-praising story written by Yogananda, especially for his devotees. I am sure they all love it and worship it as a holy book or scripture but for me, it was very disappointing and boring. There are a few good lines or good paragraphs here and there but in general, there is so much junk that you even forget when was the last you read any meaningful line which can teach you something new. Maybe I expected too much.

Thanks for reading and please share your views about this topic. 

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)

Links:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobiography_of_a_Yogi
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramahansa_Yogananda

Today's kids inspire me a lot

Normally it's the parents' job to inspire their kids, motivate them, and help them to remain focused to perform their tasks successfully. I try my best to fulfill this responsibility, but many times it happens that my kids give me a lot of inspiration and courage to improve as a parent or mentor. I know that every parent loves their kids and likes to do their best to make them a better person in their own way and I am no different. The only difference is I am equally involved in this journey along with them. I am learning along with them and trying to get better. No one gave me any set rules or guidelines for parenting, and I didn't look for any. Actually, I didn't want to use the same rules and restrictions that were imposed on me while growing up. I thought those rules and restrictions were too authoritarian, where parents (or elders) have full control over the child's life and the child is the last person to decide what he or she wants to do in his/her life. I did not want to do this with my kids. I don't have any social or family pressure here in the US, I don't think it matters that much but I think being in the US definitely helped me to follow my own way of parenting.

I am enjoying my journey of parenthood along with my kids. I think most parents will agree that parenting is not an easy job. There is no written manual that can guide us to become a good parent. There are so many books and online articles that can help people figure out how to take care of infants and how to deal with certain issues of kids but they are helpful only to a certain extent. After all, every child is unique and special so parents need to figure out what works best for each child. No book can tell that, even two siblings react differently to the same situation or instructions, so, forget about following some book or manual for parenting, we are dealing with humans, not robots. At times parenting can be very stressful and frustrating but at the same time, it can be a lot of fun. It depends on how we want to look at it. Once we become parents we tend to look at things differently. Most of us forget everything we did as kids. Parents tend to forget all their mistakes, pranks, and confusion. They expect that their kids should not or are not allowed to do the same things. They expect their kids to be ideal human beings. Nothing wrong with having such expectations but some go too far that they want to engineer their kid the way they want, just like building a robot, but don't care what that kid wants. I know that many times kids are not mature enough to decide what they want to do in their life but that doesn't mean their opinion should not be considered at all. After all, it's their life. As far as I am concerned I never forget what I went through when I was their age. I always take into consideration that perspective, and because of this, I understand their frustrations, failures, pressures, confusion, anger, dismissive attitude, and problems. I very often remember my own childhood days when there is some disagreement between us. I agree that times have changed and today it's a totally different world for kids but still the problems are more or less the same. This journey is like a roller coaster ride very rewarding many times and a little frustrating sometimes but this is true for any journey and that's what makes them interesting and enjoyable.

Today's kids live in a much more technologically advanced era than their parents. This gives them a lot of advantages as well as poses many new challenges in front of them. Not only kids but their parents also face so many new challenges in this new technology-controlled era. Both need each other's help and support to face these challenges. So, it needs teamwork to face this challenge and that's what I try to do in my home. My kids learn something from me (at least that's what I think) and I also learn many things from them. I don't know how much I inspire them but I get inspired by them a lot. Actually, I see many kids around me who do so many inspiring things, they all amaze me with their talent, knowledge, and enthusiasm. I am talking here about my kids in particular just because I spend more time with them compared to any other kid. No doubt that experience matters a lot and the younger generation should benefit from the elders around them, at the same time elders can learn a lot from young people around them. Learning and sharing is more fun when it's a two-way process because the one-way process often gets boring and sometimes condescending. Thanks to all the kids around me, please keep up the good work. 

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)

We need gender unbiased harassment laws

The recent case of the suicide of actress Jiah Khan and the subsequent happenings created a lot of stir in media and social networks. There were a few posts criticizing the way the case was handled and also some people believe that there was an attempt to accuse a man (in this case someone named Suraj Pancholi, her boyfriend) of her suicide. Many also feel that some of the laws like dowry law or sexual harassment laws are heavily biased toward women and they often misuse them to blackmail men and their families. Some of these posts take the familiar route of accusing the victim of her actions and feeling sympathy with the accused. In this case Jiah, no doubt is responsible for what she did but it's also necessary to investigate what made her take this step. This case is an ideal example of our attitude towards these types of problems. Some people want to blame men for whatever wrong happens with women and some people always want to blame women's behavior for whatever wrong happens to them, these two polarized groups always fight with each other. We see somewhat similar attitudes when people try to accuse victims in most rape cases and blame their dress or behavior for a crime committed against them, by doing this they are not helping to solve this problem but they are making things more complicated.

In the last few years, there have been some laws introduced in many countries to curb the number of cases related to sexual harassment. Mainly these laws are designed to protect women's rights and deliver justice if there is a crime committed against them. Some laws are purposely made very strict to make sure that perpetrators of these crimes don't make use of loopholes to escape the punishment. At the same time, we also see that some of these laws can be misused, so there seems to be a two-fold problem here. We need very strict laws to control crime against women but at the same time, we need to make sure that there is no misuse of these laws. Another important point is that it would be a big mistake to assume that only women are sexually harassed or physically assaulted, these crimes are also committed against males, so we must have gender-unbiased harassment laws. This will provide protection to both genders from any harassment crimes against them and also reduce the feeling that some laws are very biased towards a particular gender. There is no doubt that we need these laws but also they need to be unbiased, crime committed against women is as bad as crime committed against men. Victims need justice and proper support to deal with these situations. Our social structure is such that currently women are more prone or vulnerable to these incidents that's why we see most of these laws designed particularly to protect them. It is the responsibility of lawmakers to make sure that laws related to sexual harassment and torture (like dowry) are gender unbiased so that all people feel that they are not unfairly targeted or neglected purposely. Path to seek justice and protection should be offered to all and its availability should not be based on a person's gender, religion, caste, or something else.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)

Kedarnath calamity, warning from God?

The recent tragedy in Uttarakhand has resulted in the loss of many lives as well as severe property damage. It resulted in a lot of physical as well as emotional damage to many people and their families. I read some articles on Facebook where some so-called Swamis or Yogis are posting ridiculous comments about this tragedy. Nowadays these types of articles show up after almost any tragedy like this. They all have a similar tone, they all blame the deterioration of human values and humans drifting away from God (that too only the God of their own religion) as the main reasons for such disaster. They claim that this tragedy is a warning from God to all those who don't believe in him, are drifting away from him, or are not too sincere in following his directions. Apart from the insensitive nature of these comments, they surprise me with their poor logic and fanatic tone, I also wonder how these people can be so senseless to grab such a tragic incident to advertise their product.

Most of these disasters are either human-made (mass shootings, accidents) or natural calamities (like hurricanes, flash floods, earthquakes, etc.). All these result in heavy loss of human life and property. Whenever anything like this happens it's sad and shocking. Most of us feel sympathy towards victims of these incidents no matter where they happen. However, some people manage to look at these events in a totally ridiculous way and use it to propagate their religion or cult. For them, any tragic incident is a golden opportunity to remind everyone about the authority of their God. They do this despite knowing that many people who suffer in these incidents are very religious (some of these incidents happen at so-called holy places), but still, they go ahead with their argument shamelessly with all the knowledge and awareness that they are insulting victims and hurting survives of these tragedies. I have no objection to their attempts to advertise their God and religion, they have full right to sell their product and do marketing for it but to use such incidents for this purpose is very pathetic and insensitive. I also know that not all religious organizations do these things but most of the time they fail to criticize these types of comments in strong words.

I feel very bad after reading these types of posts. Recently it happened after the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting incident and now after this Uttarakhand tragedy. Some of these natural disasters do want to give some warning to us about our abuse of nature and its resources but they are not from any God or superpower. In many cases, it's human error or lack of proper planning that results in massive loss of human life and property damage. We need to analyze the incident, figure out where things went wrong, and make sure that those mistakes never happen again. If all of us think that it was God's will to destroy property and kill people and nothing can be done to prevent this (other than praying) then we are inviting many more disasters like this and after every disaster, we will be looking at the sky for possible answers. We need to make use of all technology that is available to us and make a reliable system of disaster prevention and management. If we miss lessons from such disasters and opportunities to improve that can help us to improve, we are missing a chance to prevent such massive losses in the future. I hope rather than blaming destiny we rectify our mistakes and be better prepared next time because every human life is important. So, please think about it. Are these tragedies a warning from God or nature or a result of our own mismanagement, and poor policies?

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)

Links:
1. Faith shaken? Pilgrims say they won't return