"In"sensitive Rant

Hello Readers,

Its been extremely long since I wrote anything. I had written couple of posts but really missed to post them in this space. I couldnt post them later as they dont seem relevant anymore. Anyways I do miss this space and will try to be regular.

What really motivated me to come back and write this post was the recent Beas River Tragedy at Himachal Pradesh. The students who lost their lives were being mourned by the entire country. While it is really sad to know so many lives were lost due to an unfortunate incident, I do think the media has been extremely crazy with this incident. The amount of attention given and the way it was all twisted and presented cannot be appreciated. It is certainly so tragic to the families who have lost their hopes, but it is not because of a negligent instructor or an official of the Largi dam. In any excursion trips, it is quite common that students do get over excited and tend to break rules. Breaking rules is not always safe. Incidents like this could happen. How can anyone blame others for this sort of incident. What if there was no dam and it was natural gush from the upstream who would the media blame? the instructors for not monitoring them or the college authorities for organizing a trip like that? or the parents who sent their young ones to the trip?. I may appear insensitive making these comments. But I cant agree with the media's over enthusiastic and biased reporting. Also the families, I do express my heartfelt sympathies for them but I dont think they should start blame game to make it worse. And of course the co-students of the trip and college authorities shouldnt really be biased when they judge situations like this. 

Its a river with dam upstream and there could be a sudden surge at any time. This might be unknown to the students but the flow that started coming can be clearly seen. Even in the video released revealed that the first few seconds clearly show a very low level of water and ample space for the students to escape the flood. But only until the water level rised the students did not start to make a move. This was clearly seen. How could this act be some one else's responsibility? When you are visiting a new place its a common sense fact that you need to double check your personal safety. One's personal safety cannot be responsibility of a second person. Students were not school goers but matured enough to understand what is safe and unsafe. They were just pretty excited to see natural scenic beauty of the place that they ignored the safety issues. At least the first instance of flow was not ferocious to not be escaped. It was either the delay in plan or spontaneity or sheer excitement that ruled out options for escaping. However, it was brave of some students who risked their lives to save their friends. I have been seeing Facebook posts from the students of the college posting that this was an injustice act done to their friends. I am seriously in doubt that if these students were blindly carried away by the media attention. There has to be some common sense judgement before we get into allegations and that too allegations that involve other people's lives. Those students and youngsters who blindly support this because you think its human to do so, please do give a second thought. Are you not aware of incidents where people get washed away in gushing waters and should know your limits while crossing such borders?? Are you not aware of escaping a flooding channel as soon as you realise it may rise?? Are these not common sense thoughts??? Am sorry for those students who lost lives but I wish you guys were a little more careful and alert. As a saying goes "Time and Tide wait for none"...this was nothing but unfortunate.

But what about the announcements of exgratia by the ministers?? Does that seem a valid justification for the parents? What about people who have been washed away in floods? Has the government or media been so concerned in such cases? Every now and then, we witness incidents like school kids being washed away in flooding waters of small creeks in villages, but have they been compensated for those incidents? This was a fun trip and they wantedly went beyond danger points spotting no sign of water. And unfortunately water started flowing and claimed lives. Had they been a little more alert and quick, at least another 10 people would have been alive. RIP dear youngsters. Again I may sound rude but I dont see a point why they should be compensated?

I had a discussion with one of my colleagues who worked for long in the Himachal/Uttarkand region researching the quality of soil, ground and nature of rocks etc. He opined that this region is an extremely sensitive region and is not suitable for heavy habitation. Whereas our people have ignorantly over developed it to spoil the eco-system of that region. Uttarkand floods last year was the best answer we humans could get. However, we are still going for more and more irresponsible development. While this is not completely the reason, the infrastructure development has brought in immense tourist attraction for this place, but its often ignored that there are many hidden dangers too. One such is this. Although this is not a natural disaster, this could have been avoided. 

Coming to the authorities and their negligence to inform, don't we know how well the system in those regions has functioned all these days? And how could we risk our lives trusting some unknown authorities? What happened to signals given by the locals? Why were they ignored? I think its high time we stop blaming different people for the incident and erase the negative propaganda that the media has been making. It was not anyone's fault but misfortune. My deepest condolences to families and friends who have lost their loved ones. 

Jyostna

Every Other Day

Hi Readers,

Election fever it is these days...whom do we chose is the biggest debate going on. Have you chosen the right candidate yet? I know there are too many choices in some states, but do chose with your wise instincts, do not go by caste, region, community and stupid freebies. I do have a lot to write on this topic…will soon do it.

Coming to today's post, I am confused, worried and scared to start writing on this topic. My heart trembles before I open the news to read, before I step out of the home, and whenever I have to travel alone. As we hear more and more incidents about the assaults, rapes, molestations, abuses against women, the question of safety arises every now and then. The pain that comes through all this is hard to bear. Though we aren’t related, we aren’t there to witness it directly; still the news shakes and leaves us numb. We tend to become over careful, too alert, too doubtful and worry too much about safety. It is a shame to a country like ours which has had a culture of respecting or treating women like Goddesses and where there are sayings like "Yatra naryastu pujyante ramante tatra Devata" is now in the clutches of those few rascals. Why should the country bow down to such mean men? Why are we unable to stop these incidents once for all? There are so many debates, talk shows, opinion polls, law amendments, discussions, campaigns, and protests about violence against women. But was there any difference? Why do these men not fear any punishment? Are they too bold to commit any sort of crimes? Or are they immune to the judiciary? Or are they too rich to buy the system? I have a million questions to ask them. 

All these days we have been asking the victims about their trauma or about the incident or their future plans etc., why should we even bother the victim? Sympathizing and reminding the incident is also another sort of crime in my opinion. The society in a way is compelling her to remember the incident always. Calling them ‘rape victim’ until they breathe their last is a sort of an embarrassment to them. One of the NGO founders who works for women's welfare has said that it is the society which injures the victim more than the rapist in many cases. We as a society are trying to keep the talk go on so that she never forgets what has happened to her and she weeps every other night about the incident.  When these incidents happen, we always start judging the victim....as in why she was there at that hour, why she was alone, why she was with a boyfriend, why she had boarded a private bus, why she took a cab....the questions are endless. But, have we ever thought, in spite of all the precautions, worst things do happen in public?

The sinners aren't ashamed of groping or molesting or abusing women in public, why would they be afraid of raping in private? Groping has become so common that even women got over it. This statement might seem harsh but how many of us are fighting it back when we are groped at a public place? There are many women who don't want to fuss about it and they think it’s an embarrassment to fight it back. As long as we shut ourselves down, the abuse keeps happening.

On the other hand, why are we not evicting the sinners from the society? Why should they be masked when they are arrested? What do they have to hide? They should be publicized so that the society knows who the criminals are. There is no point in masking neither their identities nor their faces. Even if they escape the punishment, the society should be able to punish them by discriminating them against their basic rights just as the way we have been doing with the victims. The TV shows have also been biased in this aspect, because the focus is always on the victim and not on the criminal. The very renowned show Satyamev Jayate’s recent episode has done a lot of research from the victim's end but not from the criminal's end. While I do appreciate their efforts to bring out many facts, I think given the resources the team has, it would have been easier for them to approach the criminals and understand their mindset. I know it may appear stupid when I say that. But, the way to stop these atrocities is to understand the root cause of the problem and try to eliminate it as much as possible. Very few researchers have done a study on this aspect. However, I have to contradict my own statement here because the current scenario doesn’t allow us and sit back and think upon the causes. It’s high time to act against them. I was wondering why our law won’t implement stringent and harshest punishments such as castration and amputation. Because, the rate of crime against women has escalated in such a waythat, many outsiders starting seeing India as a rape capital. The country which was famous for its great culture and tradition is now famous for worst reasons. Where are we heading?

As Gandhiji said, "it is real freedom to a country when women can walk fearlessly in public at the stroke of midnight hour", I do think it is true. Lot of mid 80s and 90s movies have quoted this but we only din’t care about it then as much as we do now. And we are no way close to that sort of freedom.  It’s high time for the society to start seeing the other side of the coin. Stop pointing fingers at the victim. Let her forget what had happened or at least let it confine to her nightmares, let us all do not add to her trauma. Next time you come across someone like that, do not express your sympathies nor express your anger against the crime. Behave as if nothing had happened with her. I have written earlier that it’s important to cleanse the roots before protesting against these incidents. But the growing incidents insist me to change my mind. Now I want to ask why we don’t implement the barbarous punishments to curb the violence.  Just as a tumor which can kill the body if not got ridden, mean men who commit such acts should also be got ridden from the society as soon as possible so as to send a strong warning to those who intend to take the aftermath easy. I don’t want to read these incidents every other day. If I have to say a strong prayer, I would ask this violence to be stopped forever!!!

Cheers

Jyostna