Of Section 377 and Valentine's Day

So Valentine's Day finally ends, with happy endings for some people, and some people left saying "मैं आत्महत्या करना चाहता हूँ। " How ever it might have gone for people, their stories of love, either requited or unrequited, it was the same - girl loves boy, boy loves girl, yada yada. But amidst all the gooey stuff, not to mention the lust, we've forgotten that Valentine's Day is meant for celebrating the love that you share with your lover. When Section 377 was reimposed, it didn't just prohibit sex between people of the same genre. It meant that two people of the same gender who love each other deeply, now shy away from public displays of affection, even communication with each other. This is not only hurtful to the people concerned, it is 'against the order of nature', as gay or lesbian sex is purported to be. If two people love each other, then there is nobody who humanly has a right to separate the two. So homosexuality is against Indian culture? Then do tell that from whence some of the sculptures found in the Khajuraho temples, as well as some verses of the Kama Sutra sprung forth? Unless moral policing is stopped, ignorance is wiped clean off the slate that is India, homosexual lovers can't live without fear. And where lovers can't live without fear of death by the state, Valentine's Day is incomplete.
On a slightly unrelated note, one may quote Rabindranath Tagore:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high 

Where knowledge is free 

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments 

By narrow domestic walls 

Where words come out from the depth of truth 

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection 

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way 

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit 

Where the mind is led forward by thee 

Into ever-widening thought and action 

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake 

The father of our nation would be turning in his grave now, had something called the soul existed in the first place, and immortality of the soul would be a given. Not such a free land anymore, eh Gandhiji?

The Modi Fever

We see it everywhere, hear it everywhere. Scores of people are going crazy, chanting "Abki baar Modi sarkar (This time [we want] the Modi government)!" and posting the same on their Facebook pages and Timelines. Indeed, even our beloved Chetan Bhagat wasn't spared from this disgraceful scourge, as evidenced by the selfie he took with Narendra Modi. It seems that the entire country is ready to enter a phase of self-destruction, by voting for a cold, inconsiderate (he has no consideration for the LGBT community), calculating charlatan, who seems to have the majority of the country under his control.
  Pro-Modi people (commonly referred to as Modibots by Congress and AAP-supporters), say that Modi will bring a fresh wave of development to this country. They attempt to bolster their case by citing the example of Gujarat. Gujarat, they argue, is the most developed state of India, and this development occurred under the rule of the Modi government. As a testament to this, they say, every village in Gujarat is electrified, an amenity that most villages in India lack. They do not stop to look at the facts either. For instance the 1996 census shows that all villages in Gujarat were electrified much before Modi entered the scene. Furthermore, the aforementioned villages also have their fundamental deficiencies, such as lack of clean drinking water. BJP, Modi's party, is chock full of incorrigibly corrupt people, many of whom were involved in high-profile scams throughout the country.
  In all of this, we seem to have sidelined poor Kejriwal. He left his position as Chief Minister of New Delhi, not out of cowardice, but taking cognizance of the fact that his party had failed in its duties to the nation, and he couldn't even think of putting on a charade of ongoing development for the sake of his own comfort. His party has more qualified people, some of whom have had political experience abroad, and an AAP government formed would bring these people to the forefront.
  As a Soka Gakkai member, I'm not allowed to take part in political promotions of any kind. But I beseech my fellow countrymen not to vote for a madman with antiquated views, and without the country's best interests at heart.
P.S.: Stop it with the "Abki baar Modi sarkar" shit. It's annoying as hell. The 'Janta maaf nahi karegi' memes are hilarious, though.

End Cruelty Towards Animals

Now before some of you vegan hardliners get any ideas, I want to make one small disclaimer: This post is not about 'cruelty' towards those animals that are commonly used as food. But the ranting that I'm about to do was triggered by an outrageous incident in Noida. A pregnant female stray dog lived close to a traditional sweets shop, a halwaai ki dukaan. The bitch gave birth to a litter of pups not far from the vicinity of the shop. One day, searching for food for her pups, the lactating dog strayed a bit too close to the shop for comfort. Rather than shooing her away like a normal, civilised man would do, the shopkeeper did an abhorrent act of cruelty - he spilled hot oil over the poor dog's mouth. Writhing in pain for hours, the dog succumbed to the severe burns, and when a team of humane people brought her to the nearest vet's, she was declared dead on the spot. It is only small comfort that the pups are in good care. They'll never know their mother's love.
  Dogs are usually used as symbols of weakness or inferiority in many age-old phrases and colloquialisms. When a woman says that all men are dogs, she is clearly abusing the opposite sex. Saale ko kutte ki maut maaroonga literally means, "That bastard will die a dog's death at my hands." There was a time when dog was considered man's best friend. Man hunted animals only for food and attacked them in self-defense, only when in mortal peril of any sort. But now it seems that the sands of time have erased that inherent nature in us, and made us selfish and inconsiderate beings. Now many of us hurt and even hunt animals, not for self-defense or food, but either to satisfy the sadist within us, or for our own luxurious living. Like seriously, what the hell is wrong with today's world? Can't we learn to respect each life as it is? Can't we learn to treat the fellow beings we share this earth with, excluding those below us in the food chain with the kindness and reverence they deserve? Seriously. Just because you want to look fashionable doesn't mean that you have to buy an outrageously expensive fur coat for yourself, not only wasting your money, but also promoting the killing of innocent animals in the process! As a Buddhist and a dog lover, I was filled with outrage when I read about the Noida incident in The Times of India. Stop becoming slaves to your inner demons, people! Wake up, before the earth becomes living hell! Let us strive to make this planet a better place to live in, for all living organisms.

Confessions of the Damned: Section 377 and India

The following confession (which is purely fictional) provides much of the background for the point that I'm trying to get across:

Hi, I'm Ramesh. I'm a teen, like many of you here. I've been interested in girls since my childhood. When I hit puberty, my raging hormones turned me into a horny, hopeless pervert, who was always turned down by girls. I took to a not-so-prevalent practice in my school: masturbation. This one day I read something about gay rights, and I was intrigued. Once I was at my good friend Suresh's place, really in the mood for some sexual stimulation. I shut the door and started masturbating right in front of him! He was really cute, and he turned me on for some reason. I went home fighting with myself, trying to control my emotions and my hormones. Finally, later that day when he showed me his dick, I coerced him to let me give him a blowjob. It felt so special, some sort of magic! Unknown to both of us, the fate of our damned community was being decided. In 2009, finally one High Court overturned Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). We were both overjoyed! Of course, I was still struggling with my sexuality as well as my morbid preoccupation with big-breasted females. Over time, I started fantasising about some of my other peers too, since my sadistic partner and I were not able to meet so frequently anymore. It felt so wrong, and yet it helped me when I was masturbating. And then the 2013 Supreme Court ruling came, and my entire world was shattered. All this while I had hidden my sexual orientation from everyone around me, furtively having sex in private. But this new ruling meant that I could be persecuted at any time for something that I had so gotten used to. The Supreme Court contends that under Section 337, anyone caught having sex 'against the laws of nature', will be sentenced to imprisonment for who knows how many years. It puts homosexuality on the same footing as bestiality. My partner grew cold to my sexual advances. Over time, our relationship became a dysfunctional one. My gay fantasies had been thrown into the drain and my sexual frustration has since been bottling up. I don't know what to do.

Like our friend Ramesh, many members of the LGBT community, throughout India, were disheartened by the Supreme Court's ruling. Countless review petitions were signed, but to no avail, but the Supreme Court remains cold. If you're a homosexual, bisexual or transgendered, then by their criteria, you don't have the right to lead a normal life. This is totally wrong and even politically incorrect. For one thing, some of the most gifted minds that ever took birth on this earth have been homosexuals. The great and multitalented Leonardo Da Vinci  was gay. The late mathematician Alan Turing was also a homosexual. Even our beloved actor Neil Patrick Harris is one. By imprisoning such individuals, our country is potentially throwing away a great human resource. Second, love, inherently is not a crime. A democratic government does not have the right to dictate whom to love and whom not to. I know some of you might not agree with me, but I know this: Several champions of gay rights will rise up with me against this oppressive ruling. If my words moved you, I have succeeded in my mission. If not, I guess I'm just not a good orator. Däsvidänia.

'Dobby Is A Free Elf'

So, the other day I had to bring cottage cheese (yet again) from the Milk Bar. I asked the shopkeeper to give me Rs. 60 worth of cottage cheese. Ek pau paneer laa be, he said to his shop assistant irritably, referring to India's quintessential local unit, the 'pau'. The disgruntled assistant brought some of the stuff, but even I could discern that it wasn't one pau. The shopkeeper looked at his assistant, as though enraged. Slapping him hard across the face, he said something that sounded like Yeh ek pau hota hai bhench**? Tune theek se nahi sunaa? Maalik ki baat theek se nahi sunni hoti, haanh? Translation? Well, here is a rough approximation: "Is this one pau, you brothel-born? Didn't you hear me? Is it not your duty to listen to your master?" The shopkeeper considered the assistant his slave! The assistant responded in a manner that would put Kreacher the house elf to shame.
Nearly a century after Lincoln's efforts to abolish slavery in the United States, modern slavery exists in this form in India. Many times the victims do nothing to mollify their situation. And shockingly, many times the victims are little children! I ask you, are these workers, indentured labourers and domestic helps not human beings? Do they not deserve equal treatment? To conclude, I would like to restate the title. "Dobby is a free elf!"

Dried Tears of A Destitute Child

Earlier this afternoon, when I was returning from my chemistry tuition (and a failed attempt to get the contact details of the maiden who has stolen my heart), I was to run an errand at The Milk Bar. After making my purchase of cottage cheese, I saw a little boy in rags, of no more than nine years of age, around whom was draped what looked like an oddly shaped baby monkey. I could swear it was the same nocturnal beggar kid whom my friends had shoved aside, laughing all the while at some hitherto inappropriate joke. Such was the condition of the duo, that I was moved to give the little begging youth a ten rupee note. Paise nahi chahiye. Kuchh khilaa do meri chhoti behan ko, he said. He wanted to buy something to eat for his baby sister (whom I had on casual sight assumed to be a monkey), who looked like she hadn't eaten in days! Feeling somewhat sheepish, I told him that there weren't much things that could be bought for the little child wrapped around his arms. After much deliberation I just told him to buy something for his little sister. It was then that guilt took hold of me, even as I bought a thirty rupee bottle of Appy Fizz and shamelessly drained one-third of it. I felt even more guilty when I found that I could have bought him a samosa or two, so that his little sister could get atleast some solid food.
This is not a new problem in India; more than half our population lives below the poverty line, but seeing it so rampant, in broad daylight, moves one to tears. Little babies who haven't even learnt to speak, are starving to death! Nobody seems to care about this pandemic of poverty. Indeed, most people view this problem in a mocking light. Had I given my ice cream sandwich to the little kid last night, I might have run the risk of becoming the laughing stock of the group! Even our politicians are doing next to nothing about it. Indeed, the only other people who seem to be concerned about it, are the bestelling author Chetan Bhagat, and our very own Aamir Khan sir, who has launched a focussed movement against malnutrition. So next time you have a bit of money to spare, forgo the afterdrinks snacks, and buy a destitute child some food. You will have made a lot of difference in his or her life.