I'm ashamed to be a man

I did not want to write about this. 

Everybody has made their point. They want the rapists to be killed, castrated, burnt, stoned to death.

What were they waiting for? Why today? Were they waiting to see how violent men can get? This is not the first time something as brutal as this has happened. Rapes happen everyday. We talk about it, we sign petitions, we go on protest marches but what can we do about it? Nothing. Because there is nothing to do. Punishment solves the problem? Do you think the victims care about that? No. 

The media and most of us are using this opportunity to be heard. Branding Delhi as the rape capital. How is that civilized? That man would have raped a woman if he was from Delhi, Madras or Varanasi. 

You suggest education. Flawed.

Where are we going wrong? Educating the men about women? Education doesn't solve anything. At least not in this country. We are taught history and science and math. And we copy from our friend during the exam. Are we sufficiently educated in math?  

You suggest spreading awareness. Flawed.

After 60 odd years of independence, 10 five-year plans and schools and colleges, men are not ashamed to pee in public. Awareness much? 

If you are reading this looking for a solution to all this please stop and carry on with your work. I am not suggesting a solution because there is none. Writing articles, updating Facebook statuses and tweeting about rape and the effects of it will not make a change. The ten men who ganged up on the girl couple of days back were the same ten men who read the newspaper article on a 5 year old being raped a week back, a 20 year old being raped 10 days back. The same men who 'liked' and shared a facebook update on saving all women who are targetted by sex thirsty animals on their way back home. A rapist is reading this now. He will be done with this article go out and rape a woman, because it is okay to destroy the life of a 5 year old kid or a 50 year old woman for the sake of his pleasure. Because it is okay. Because he is a man. Because he has a penis. That is a superpower in this wretched country. 

In this sovereign democratic secular republic country, all a girl has to do to get raped is walk home after watching a movie, in broad daylight. 

You suggest self-defense. Flawed.

When ten brutal animals gang up on one girl what amount of self-defense will help? A revolver has 6 bullets. These animals will wait for the victim to exhaust all that, then rape her. Because sex is important than another person's life. Because raping a woman is a badass act. Because the movies say so. The man who rapes a girl in a movie drives a BMW. Because lust trumps every human emotion. It is sacrilegious to use the word human in this post because the men in this country are anything but human. 

What else can be done? I don't know. Do you? No. We can hang 10 men. And 10 more rapists are born the next day. You think they are not aware of the prison sentence? No. 

I am scared. I am scared for the people around me. I am scared for my friends. I am scared for my family. I am scared because these men are widening their borders of cruelty everyday. 

I am scared.


I did not want to write about this because all that has to be written has been written. I did not want to write about this because I did not want attention. I did not want to be called an hypocrite.  I did not want to write about this because I don't know what she went through. No amount of explanation will make me realize that. I did not want to write about this because I am a man. I did not want to write about this because I am ashamed to be a man.

I am ashamed. I am ashamed to be a man. I am ashamed to be a man in this country.

Fourth world problems

So many centuries back, some knowledgeable people (who probably were the ancestors of today's knowledgeable Chennai crowd) classified people into four kinds (or varnas, for the Sanskrit-ly inclined). People those days didn't do much except praying, fighting or something like that. The four divisions were 


Kshatriyas- people who fought.
Brahmanas - people who performed scholarly activities (like reading The Hindu from top to bottom)
Vaisyas - people who bought and sold things, merchant folk.
Sudras - people who did physical labor.


Today, three of the four classifications have merged with multiple regional and religion based sects and what remains in the Brahmanas and that too only in the name. I call this group the fourth world.


I think just because they were self proclaimed scholars in the ancient times there are a million hurdles and loopholes to make sure none of the modern day citizens of the fourth world would be eligible to carry out the pursuit of knowledge. 


The fourth world is also referred to as the 'forward community' in pop culture. That's like the best irony inspired name ever. It gives tough competition to terms like relative grading, flash mob, engineering college and music director Harris Jeyaraj. 


In the mark driven educational society today, the fourth world can only sustain itself if it chooses to embrace illiteracy. I mean come on, there are so many jobs one can end up without getting a degree. 


"What is your percentage in class 10?"


"98%"


"Good. What about class 12?"


"99.5%"


"Very good, very good. Where is your community certificate?"

"I don't have one. Forward community."


"Oh."


"You should've worked hard in class 12. You are 4% short of the cut off."


"But I have 99.5% already."


"I know. But that's what the system says. The system is never wrong."


Well, the system is never wrong. No?

Okay. So, if I decide to follow my ancestors and resort to priestly professions, even they are competitive. People fight reservations, finish doctorates in posh foreign universities and once they get married, they come back to India, put their kids in PSBB, grow a pony tail and become vaaddhiyaars. So if I finish school with a meagre 98% and try getting into one such profession, I will be ineligible for that also. What should I do tell me? I think this is all a master plan to make sure nobody from the forward community remains to fight against reservation. They are aiming at a society filled with peace and harmony by waiting till all the people of the fourth world die.


Lets look at the possible jobs where there are no reservations:


1. Item dancer - best possible job. But men cannot apply because of penis and poonal.

2. Bodyguard for the dons/mafia heads - not possible because of curd rice.


3. Politician - No money, no politics. Yes money, no need of politics. Paradox.

And a few others like amateur photographer, social media expert etc. People used to become writers but these days one needs an MBA from the IIMs to become a writer. 


So to sum up one does not simply be born as a citizen of the fourth world and also expect decent education. Oh wait, you cannot control that.


Pesama naanum kalacharatha kaapatha poidlamnu iruken.

What the factorial !

Warning/Notification/WHATEVER: This post can be totally boring and one of the extremely useless 5-10 minutes you spend in your life.I do not take responsibility.I can be immensely boring at times(read as always) and can write texts that profoundly induce sleep for from a few hours to forever. Read at your own risk!

In most cases the things that can be counted do not count and the things that cannot be counted count

 said Albert Einstein,one of the greatest minds of the last century.The world today have become so materialistic and devoid of passion.In other words,the world today sucks! But there is no proof that the yesteryear world was being so passionate with whatever they were doing,but there are people who stand as examples.Today's philosophers,writers and even politicians(This was included to add humour) quote the legends of the past to have been more passionate and dedicated towards whatever they did.

Why are we regarded less passionate and dedicated? The answer,I believe,would be this.Today,most of us do things out of compulsion,survival instinct and a large crowd does certain things because others do the same.Placebo has no part nor right to decide your life.Its high time we realise this and become aware of the cheap,false pride we get in imitating others.Remember,doing something because someone else does it will never make you better than him.

The academics is being blamed everywhere.I understand that change cannot be brought about in a very short time but any visible progress will be appreciated by the like-minded.Change is the only thing that can bring about a change today.

This post is totally an outcome of me having listened to a few speeches lately that would definitely stir your very emotions if you appreciate the beauty of science and life as such.What is going on around the world in the name of education is far away from what a real valuable academic life can be.

Kids today deserve a better education.A proper childhood is what required to nurture creativity.Nobody can teach them to think.None can inject creativity.But the environment and the methodology can definitely create a better future.Passion,interest and love for what you do are the key ingredients to being successful at any level.

As said this is the toughest problem that lay.This needs more attention that global warming.

We are always far,far away from finding a solution to any problem till we have the answer at hands!

PS:I admit with not an ounce of shame that the title of the post was deliberately taken from the name of a team that participated in a competition that was attended by me recently.

PPS:If you have used the word that starts with F followed by asterisks, for a significant number of times while reading this post please do read the opening statement again.For those who did not,no words! I have found my alter ego!

Vignesh..