Mr.Modi's speech at FICCI 2013

although possibly unintentional, but his speech was highly patronizing and never once did it budge from the stereotype roles and image of women. why call women 'maa and behene' (mothers and sisters)? do our identities depend solely upon our social/biological role?   i know, i know. many of you will say -ah, that's only a polite way of addressing you people. well, won't you take a woman's opinion into consideration over how she'd like to be addressed? or you alone will decide what the right word is for us? your 'polite' ways have become too hackneyed and come with a lot of prejudice. just call us women,already! (aurate, if you wish) that's short and easy, too!!


we are individuals first. women second. mothers and sisters somewhere down the line, if we are indeed someone's mother and a sister, that is! according to your 'polite' ways of addressing, is an infertile woman still a woman? woh to maa nahi hai?

And why tell women what their gender has done and achieved when your audience happens to be empowered women themselves? however, this is not Mr.Modi's fault. it's the women who invited a man and requested a man to talk about women's empowerment. the choice of topic beats common sense. here, women have stereotyped themselves.

however, looking beyond the words and tone, his speech was not bad. a few good points, occasionally funny. however it sounded too well rehearsed and nothing crackling new on offer. I'm saying this because I expected much more from Mr.Modi.

All in all, a good speech that could and should have been better!

Why am I so angry? No more angry posts from my side! I have felt the power of calmness just a few days ago and I want to stick with it.

Deep breath
....1..2..3...




Exhale slowly..

Hm..That feels great :) :)

posted from Bloggeroid

Believing in Beliefs? (Part 2)

It's alright to allow unproven concepts a recognition into your consciousness, unless you are feverishly defending them. I mean, why not? you are not hurting someone by believing in ghosts/spirits/past life/karma/destiny etc. When beliefs are held at an individual level, it's a perfectly harmless practice. But I am not concerned with that. I see what this kind of thinking gets projected into on a larger scale. When such fascinations, these 'beliefs' become so widespread that people who are not in the habit of thinking for themselves start believing in such concepts immutably. It's not the good part, the 'honey and roses' side of believing that concerns me. It's the bad part. The exploitation, the control over people, the money minting business and sometimes infliction of pain, injuries and even death that disturbs me.

E.g. Religion practiced in your homes is harmless, but when it spills on the streets, meddles with government procedures, that's when it becomes dangerous.

Past life is an interesting concept. It's the respite of a tired soul that has fought in-vain against the still unexplained areas of our existence. But look at the sway it holds on people! There's a whole industry that claims to introduce you to your past life to cure your present day problems.  There was a TV show on this aired a couple of years ago. Scamsters mint money feeding on people's insecurities. Someone claims to be the  reincarnation of some baba and fools take it seriously and queue up to get his blessings.

Is there any evidence to prove that such a thing exist? NO! Are these things causing a menace? YES! So, what to do about it? GET RID OF IT!!

Why is it that a skeptic like us is always so meek whereas a scmaster is always so firm on his/ her beliefs and so boastful of them? Is our duality of thought causing us to stay meek? Then I reject this duality. I speak of evidence. I firmly reject these beliefs until evidence props up. It would be nice if the proponents of such beliefs undertake serious research in these topics and I would be very happy to have been proven wrong, because it doesn't matter whether we are right or wrong, what matters is that truth gets uncovered. But till that happens, I will keep my personal crusade against this sham up and alive.

Science isn't boastful unlike beliefs. It does take into consideration a hypothesis, then works on it, tries to prove/disprove it, collects data that is statistically significant and only then accepts its own hypothesis.

Just because life seems unexplained now and we've our own ways of understanding it doesn't make us right. Our gaps in thinking make us prone to internal conflicts. What courage do we have then to stand up against a conman claiming to be the incarnation of some xyz god? We may think, "oh, it is possible. 0.0000000001% possible." (that means nothing, statistically).

Why does the need of thinking about past life and god and karma arise in the first place? Life may as well be meaningless, purposeless, we die and nobody in the universe gives a flying fish about it. No soul, no balance sheet of our good and bad deeds is kept. So why not hold onto what we know for sure till new evidences come up, no matter how bitter life appears in the process devoid of its embellishments.

By all means, do imagine, make hypotheses, try them, test them, but don't accept them unless proven. The loopholes in logic have time and again proven what a terrible harm they can bring. It's our duty to plug them, for ourselves and for the sake of this society.

Believing in Beliefs? (Part 2)

It's alright to allow unproven concepts a recognition into your consciousness, unless you are feverishly defending them. I mean, why not? you are not hurting someone by believing in ghosts/spirits/past life/karma/destiny etc. When beliefs are held at an individual level, it's a perfectly harmless practice. But I am not concerned with that. I see what this kind of thinking gets projected into on a larger scale. When such fascinations, these 'beliefs' become so widespread that people who are not in the habit of thinking for themselves start believing in such concepts immutably. It's not the good part, the 'honey and roses' side of believing that concerns me. It's the bad part. The exploitation, the control over people, the money minting business and sometimes infliction of pain, injuries and even death that disturbs me.

E.g. Religion practiced in your homes is harmless, but when it spills on the streets, meddles with government procedures, that's when it becomes dangerous.

Past life is an interesting concept. It's the respite of a tired soul that has fought in-vain against the still unexplained areas of our existence. But look at the sway it holds on people! There's a whole industry that claims to introduce you to your past life to cure your present day problems.  There was a TV show on this aired a couple of years ago. Scamsters mint money feeding on people's insecurities. Someone claims to be the  reincarnation of some baba and fools take it seriously and queue up to get his blessings.

Is there any evidence to prove that such a thing exist? NO! Are these things causing a menace? YES! So, what to do about it? GET RID OF IT!!

Why is it that a skeptic like us is always so meek whereas a scmaster is always so firm on his/ her beliefs and so boastful of them? Is our duality of thought causing us to stay meek? Then I reject this duality. I speak of evidence. I firmly reject these beliefs until evidence props up. It would be nice if the proponents of such beliefs undertake serious research in these topics and I would be very happy to have been proven wrong, because it doesn't matter whether we are right or wrong, what matters is that truth gets uncovered. But till that happens, I will keep my personal crusade against this sham up and alive.

Science isn't boastful unlike beliefs. It does take into consideration a hypothesis, then works on it, tries to prove/disprove it, collects data that is statistically significant and only then accepts its own hypothesis.

Just because life seems unexplained now and we've our own ways of understanding it doesn't make us right. Our gaps in thinking make us prone to internal conflicts. What courage do we have then to stand up against a conman claiming to be the incarnation of some xyz god? We may think, "oh, it is possible. 0.0000000001% possible." (that means nothing, statistically).

Why does the need of thinking about past life and god and karma arise in the first place? Life may as well be meaningless, purposeless, we die and nobody in the universe gives a flying fish about it. No soul, no balance sheet of our good and bad deeds is kept. So why not hold onto what we know for sure till new evidences come up, no matter how bitter life appears in the process devoid of its embellishments.

By all means, do imagine, make hypotheses, try them, test them, but don't accept them unless proven. The loopholes in logic have time and again proven what a terrible harm they can bring. It's our duty to plug them, for ourselves and for the sake of this society.

Hurt Sentiments? (Part 1)

So, some xyz person hurts your social/religious/cultural/moral/economic/financial/......(fill in the blanks)..... sentiments that gets you angry. Very, very angry!

What do you do? You demand their persecution. Worse, you hurt that man/woman physically because they said something that you didn't want to hear.

YOU ULTIMATE DOUCHE!! YOU INSECURE, UNDEMOCRATIC, EGOTISTIC, SELFISH, POOR EXCUSE FOR A HUMAN BEING!!!!!


You outcast a painter for drawing things that offended your religious sentiments? You order fatwa on a writer and openly threaten him with impunity because he wrote something that somehow offended your god? You arrest bloggers because they wrote something against people's 'beliefs'? You spit hatred on people who don't have a sexual orientation that the majority has? You instantly call a skimpily dressed woman all kinds of expletives because she is dressed in a way that offends your 'culture'? You mercilessly beat up couples in the street, in the gardens for kissing because kissing in open is 'immoral'? You throw a cartoonist in jail for drawing stuff to vent his anger against the corrupt government? You threaten a teenage girl because she did not keep respect of the man whom you revered? You vandalize shops for not using regional language script? You spread regionalism in a democratic country where every individual has the right to move freely to any part of their country? You kill young men and women in love because they threw away the caste shackles which again offended your sentiments?

Please. Give me a break! If your sentiments are hurt, go see a psychiatrist. Please take a break from work to recuperate and nurse your hurt feeling. But if you are going to deny people their fundamental rights because they did things that offended your sentiments, then you are the most despicable animal of this planet.

.....to be continued