The Environment Pledge (it's about time)

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change being held in Paris this year from November 30 – Dec 11 has an overarching goal : to limit the rising temperature worldwide to “not more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels." I am sure considering the level of political participation and interest - after all 150 world leaders are present at the conference, there will be some concrete directives that will come through the process. 

However, I feel that until each and every educated and earning member of the society or a income-generating household does not contribute to the process and make climate change a bottom up rather than a top down approach, not much can be achieved. Considering the number of flights we take everywhere, the electricity we expend, the garbage we generate, the paper we print and buy and waste, the plastic we don’t recycle, the list is exhausting and long. I thus pledge myself to living a more conscious life – a life which does not waste resources unnecessarily, thinks before using any resource, recycles, and encourages others to do so. For a scary analysis from WWF see this link - WWF Footprint. After answering a series of questions it will tell you how many planets do we need if everyone with “your” lifestyle lives on earth. My answer: 3.94. Scary I know. You can sign up to reduce your footprint. After which you get regular tips on how to reduce your footprint – such as buying locally produced food, walk rather than use car or public transport, etc; 

So here is my Pledge:

 1. Stop printing paper and encourage others to avoid this as well. Being a professor I always encourage my students to submit documents electronically. However a lot of administrative and bureaucratic work required prints, signs, scans, more prints and postage. This needs to be eliminated. Use digital signatures to start with. I think a LOT more can be done in this domain. 

 2. Walk or take a cycle: Less reliance on cabs, taxis, and other forms of transport. Difficult? Yes. Doable? I hope so! 

 3. Stop buying from companies that use too much packaging materials. Or reach out to companies that use too much packaging material to suggest a change. (Amazon are you listening?)

4. Recycle 

5. Use energy efficient electrical equipment, appliances and lights. And turn them off when not in use! 

6. Don’t buy bottled water. Note to self; Order a BRITA Jug. 

All Photos: Mudra Mukesh

7. Limit air travel (this is going to be the most difficult to do! Just look how pretty this Lake is! Which I had to get to on a plane. Obviously. New cycle goals perhaps?) 

Well, God Speed to me then!

Do you have any suggestions for reducing your environment footprint? 

Minority Report

Painting by Kalyani Vani

According to the 2011 Indian census there are 623 million males and 586 million females in India. That offers a very messed up sex ratio of 940 females to 1000 males. As the story goes, the reason for this is mainly female feticide and infanticide. It’s sad that a girl starts experiencing discrimination before her birth in India. Yes, there are some other countries where is there is a pronounced preference for male child (mainly in Asia) but this account is focused on India in particular.
There are a large facets of life where women
in India face obstacles, the explicit instances being of course feticide, rape, bride burning, acid attacks, sexual harassment on the street – known as eve teasing or molestation, and dowry to name a few. However there are certain forms of conditioning that make women susceptible as well. Worse yet, many women themselves perpetuate such conditioning. The expectation that women should dress in a certain way to not attract attention from men, to keep the mens “libido” in check, since the onus of that lies on the woman doesn’t it? (Sarcasm alert!). To make sure she is obedient, servile to her parents and later to her husband – women who speak up are often dubbed as “out of control”, or “fast”. A married woman is expected to cook and clean, fast for the longevity of her husband, adopt her in-laws as her own parents, whilst not expecting her husband to do any of the above. If a woman is more educated than her husband she is constantly expected to manage his ego and expectations with tact. Having said all of this, women should be “cool” and “easy going” as well.. A woman who likes to have “fun” but also respect Indian traditions and religious mores. A woman who can get drunk in a bar but then be praying at the temple the next day as well. And if she is only at one end of the said spectrum? No that won’t fly. A woman who only likes drinking – nope she isn’t “homely” enough and a woman who only wants to visit temples? Nope, she isn’t fun enough. And needless to say, women try and fill up this expectation to the best of their ability without stopping to think about their individual wants and needs. I am not admonishing those who wish to do either, or both, only highlighting that perhaps thinking about what we want rather than doing what is expected and building our self-perception based on that should be avoided. First think then act, rather than the other way around.


We hear about the rights of the minorities, we debate about having an inclusive social policy, and a government that supports holistic development, not favouring any religious groups. While the number of men and women in India is different by 35 million (men in excess of women, 2011 Census), definitely considering the limited freedom and human rights enjoyed by women, they should be considered a minority group. Let us use a simple example to prove this. The various social ills that exist in the society that work to making the overall position of women in the society worse are roughly as follows:


Female Feticide
Eve teasing
Bride Burning
Dowry
Rape
Glass Ceiling
Unequal Pay for Equal Work
Conditioning/Social Expectation



This list is in no way exhaustive and can be expanded easily. However for the sake of argument, I will assume these 7 issues deprive women of freedom, human rights and reduce their overall social, political and economic well-being in the society. If I assume that each of these 7 issues reduces the equality of women to men in the society by 5% each:

So we have

7 x 5 % = 0.35;

If the number of women is X then (X – 0.35 X) would give us the net equivalent number of women factoring in the rights and freedom available.

So we have;

The number of actual women in India = 586 mn – 586 mn x 0.35 = 331 mn.


These assumptions and calculations basically are a simplified way of demonstrating that the social norms in a society can reduce the women population to half – for example, if there is no safety for women or rampant sexual harassment you will see less women in workforce which will translate to fewer women in social, economic and political domains. The idea is not to say that a woman is reduced in half, but rather her voice is curtailed due to the lack representation in various spheres, subjugation, conditioning and other patriarchal motives.

While the world average pay gap is 24% and Indian figure is similar (The Progress of the World’s Women 2015-2016 report, and http://www.movehub.com/blog/global-gender-pay-gap-map), what is important is the narrative that prevents women from joining the work force ( 27% workforce pariticpation in 2012, UN gender Statistics and http://qz.com/238484/indias-record-in-womens-participation-in-the-workforce-is-depressing/)

To begin with, girls are always indoctrinated in being able to do housework, be nurturing, and are socialised into adopting the role of a caregiver and nurturer by virtue of being married eventually. Yes, studies and professional education is encouraged, but it is usually done to substantiate the womans credentials for attracting a potentially well-educated and economically endowed groom, or not at all (whereby you see family's dwindling interest in their daughters career paths). It is expected and acceptable for women to sacrifice her job, and pay, if the need may arise, to relocate near her husband. Now someon emay add that if she were to do this willingly, making a choice, and not out of coercion, can we still make the same argument? Yes, we can. The process of conditioning works like magic here. How is one to know what is right/wrong if the lens used to evaluate that right/wrong is broken? Another way to put it, if you are not endowed with skills to evaluate a certain issue because said issue is always a given – a constant, how would you know what is the converse of the issue at hand? If all I see when growing up are women cooking, cleaning, quitting their jobs to stay at home, being subservient, how am I to have any other metric for evaluating or doing otherwise even?

Let me perhaps conclude, if it is possible to bring such a discussion to a conclusion or a fruition – by saying that it is time for women to speak up. It has been too long that the identity of a woman, and her narratives as an individual have been secondary,secondary to her role as a daughter, wife, mother. But it time now for women to first understand and accept themselves as more than just people fulfilling a socially constructed concept (that of gender norms and expectations). .

It is time for the voices of women to be heard, for a new discourse laden with inquisitiveness and independence, and not just with words that have been heard before.

Twitopia

In the quiet of the night 

as the moon shines bright

I lay here, with love

thinking of what lies ahead

promises, dreams 

I glance over, look to you

your face glowing in the light

as you gaze intently,

browsing through my Twitter feed.

Corrosion and Crumbling

Something pinches, I can’t tell you what

It scratches my insides in the gentlest of ways

is it corrosion of decay or crumbling of incomplete structures?

It sounds like a machete in a distance, a buzz of a bee in the room

It is replete with repetition, and has an innocence of the unknown

It thuds sometimes, bringing me to a standstill, for just a second not more

Then it leaves me just as shyly it had come in,

Leaving me with the echo of its existence, the vestiges of its itch.

Thoughts on Mortality

Mortality is embedded firmly in our lives, we are all born with expiration dates, in fact, a finite life is the essence of human existence. Yet perhaps at certain points of a certain healthy, thriving life, it is the most denied eventuality.

Humans have the gift of being aware of their mortality, the fact that they someday will return to dust, and one would think that would guide our time here on earth but in few instances does this arise. Yes, adages have dictated, “Live everyday like it were your last” or even “Carpe diem” which hint at the obvious but how often do we actually think about our own mortality?

But this is the thing, we live like we have all the time in the world to accomplish everything we have planned, find the perfect partner, the most coveted house, the ideal job, else defer happiness if we have a crappy job for we can always work hard now in throes of unhappiness and cash in on it in the future. Is the fact that we refuse to acknowledge our mortality, an indication of us being over optimistic about our life spans or just denial — a coping mechanism? Perhaps a bit of both.
There are times when we are reminded of how fragile we are. The death of loved ones serves as this reminder. It makes us realise how helpless we truly are at the hands of the universe. We hold on to grudges, inflate our egos at the cost of others, seek redemption, justice, when wronged, often over things that may seem trivial when viewed, juxtaposed with death. I can understand where the defence mechanism comes from—where we are deluded to believe the perpetual continuity of our lives and those of others. And it makes sense; we need to protect ourselves, for constant reminder of impending doom may not make for very spirited lives. Nonetheless, if we could channelize only a part of this realisation to make ourselves better humans— forgiving, kinder, less judgmental and follow our passion and dreams during the finite time we have, perhaps the acknowledgment of our mortality could be the biggest gift we could give ourselves.

The Illusion of "Perfection" - Recited Verse

Mind your own damn... Never mind. Just shut up.

The society loves to wreak it's wrath on others. Honestly, it loves it when everyone conforms but hates it if there is a deviation. 

There are many deviations according to the society - unmarried women, children who don't do well at school, men who don't have steady employment, married women who don't have kids, same sex couples, divorced folks etc; I would say this exists only in India but that's far from the truth. World over, the society frowns at these anomalies with some level of intensity. Ofcourse the extent of societal discomfort varies but it exists none the less. 

I have been married two years now, and don't understand what the fuss is about. It hasn't changed my life, I live like I did, I behave like I always did, albeit I have some psychological security which is quite a myth anyway, to ameliorate the insecure demons in my head. But that's about it. 

In my head I'm the same but in the mind of others I am now a "married women" and that brings with it a plethora of behavioral and physical changes. Well, obviously I don't endorse this line of thought as you may have inferred. 

I have been in a long distance relationship for six years now, and we have made it work somehow. No one cared honestly when I did not live with my boyfriend in the same city or within close reach before we got married but suddenly, as I found myself married one day I realized everyone is gunning for us to live together. Go team Mudra! 

I have things to do, so does my husband and while it's not ideal this arrangement of living across continents , we know what is best for us. Ofcourse I don't expect the collective conscience of the society to change for me, but what I can do is tell it to mind it's own affairs. But some days, my peace and calm is ruptured when I hear this conversation for the 100th time.

Concerned Member of society (CMS): Where is your husband?

Me: In London

CMS: oh, are you going there? / you have left him alone! /oh, poor you. Shouldn't you be together. 

Me: fake smile/ clever repartee/ or a kill me now expression. 

Neither here nor there. Ergo, nowhere.

Having lived in 6 countries and moving to the seventh now, I often feel that perhaps I will always remain an outsider. Sure, I love the experience in these foreign lands and the cultural soy sauce that accompanies the concoction, but I do sometimes crave for the familiarity of home. Home being India. Home being where you are not looked at curiously for your skin color, your accent or your culinary taste. Home, where you are accepted for who you are. 

This is however an illusion and nothing more.   Anytime I need a reality check I think about applying for a visa for any country while in India. I have had strange requests from agents and VFS- no objection certificate from my husband- which prompted me to change my status to single on the visa application, to a letter stating why I am not returning to India on departing from a certain Schengen country. Answer being: since I am going to UK to take up employment. But clearly that's not good enough. Either because of my nationality or some profiling formula- I am not eligible to travel at whim. And should I want to, every agent involved in the process will frown their eyebrows and look at me with eyes riddles with curiosity and a degree of frustration. "But you have to come back to India!"

I understand basic checks for issuing a visa but I don't understand the increasingly skeptical eye that every visa applicant must be scrutinized with by the embassy employees. I don't think I have been asked for a no objection certificate or such a detailed letter when applying for visas outside india. Why is it that we are faced with such cynical and skeptical scrutiny? Ok, I might know the answer to this one. I might not fit the description of a typical traveller going to Europe or Hong Kong all by herself at that, which could raise eyebrows. But still. One would think that once someone has developed a certain travel profile or some credentials by virtue of education and a clean record, this would not happen. 

Reasons I am beginning to adore London

1. Tea is available everywhere all the time. One English breakfast please. 

2. The food is amazing. You can walk into a restaurant and be amazed, even if you haven't checked its reviews or ratings on trip advisor

3. The tube is clean and efficient. Love the plush seating on some lines. 

4. Peoples propensity for being polite appeals to my innate apologetic nature. No longer do I feel sorry for saying too many sorrys. 

5. There is history everywhere.

6. Prince George.

7. It's a melting pot of culture. In little under two days I have had interesting conversations with a guy from Jamaica planning to open a restaurant serving West Indian food in Goa and a Sri Lankan who speaks Tamil and had many insights on the political situation in his country. 

8. Miss selfridge, top shop, Hamleys, boots, marks and spencer candy

9. Landmark hotel. Enough said. 

10. A city on the banks of a river has a charm to it. Budapest, Prague, Banaras, Frankfurt, and of course London.

2015

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May we be resolute

In our conviction,

Strong in our severance

Of the weight that binds us.

May we love with abandon,

And without conditions.

Loving to love,

and not to receive.

May we be kind and gentle,

not only to others

but to ourselves.

May we nourish our souls

with adventure, and peace.

May we find in our hearts

to find the forgiveness,

that deserve to set free

the cobwebs of the past.

May we be true,

first to ourselves,

and then to others.

And may we rise each day

with humility and grace.