India. My India today.

Ha ha ha.. We are all still alive.

Well, the news is that the world hasn't changed a lot overnight. Thank god for that. The snow in the balcony is still there, our dear victim of the monstrosity of the Delhi gang-rape is still alive with people supporting her and still calling for death for the rapists. And yes of course, which should be done - which should teach all rapists a lesson for now. And, all mothers in India to raise their sons a little better rather than "kuchh bhi karo, meri monu ko kuch nahi honi chahiye" ("Do anything, I don't want anything happening to my Monu.")

My heart goes out to that poor girl and millions of other girls who have been raped and have been denied justice. To quote No One Killed Jessica "Justice delayed is justice denied." I read an article a couple days back, about how quickly Delhi police have acted in this case arresting the rapists. Well, kudos to the cops. And also, I noted how interesting it was to see that the judiciary was also taking an active interest in questioning the cops when they thought the reports needed to have much more detail. Kudos to the judiciary too.

Why do we have rapes happening in such alarming frequency in India? I would think that rapes might have been a lot less in the times when man roamed naked. Ask people in India, even the educated would try to say that it's a woman's clothing that provokes one to rape. Answer this - if your sister dressed herself in a so called provocative dress, would you rape her or would you allow another man to rape/leer/pass lewd comments at her? So, now, dressing provocatively is a cause for rape?

We always tell our girls at home to dress properly and not to stay out late. Has anyone ever not told/not been told behave properly with a girl? Food for thought.

Spare a thought for all those martyrs whose sacrifices to win freedom seems all in vain today. Spare a thought for all those soldiers guarding our borders, sacrificing family life just to ensure that we can sleep in peace. That too seems to be in vain. All of them made/make such sacrifices each day and I feel ashamed that we are a country which calls itself a civil society, where there is nothing civil. Rape of a country. India is crying and bleeding, will there be hands to wipe the tears and stop the bleeding?

And sad how the world's largest democracy treats its peacefully protesting citizens. Lathi charging and tear gassing. Truly sad. Looks more like a throwback to the British era rather than of Gandhi's dream of a free India where Indians will be respected and treated with respect in their own land. The common man being treated like criminals, while criminals get all amenities possible.

A tour to the heartland of terror

It all started on that fine day, May 21st. We boarded the flight from Chennai to New Delhi. A few hours later, bang- no, no.. no gunshots, don't worry. We landed in Delhi and then in the next 1 hour, we had to rush to catch the connecting flight to Srinagar. Pitiful, the flight duration from Delhi to Srinagar wasn't even as long as the transit time.

Finally, we landed in Srinagar. Before landing, I must say, it truly was a breathtaking view of the valley. No wonder, both countries are vying for that piece of land. Once I landed, all that I could see was army fatigues all over the place. Till that point of time, I didn't know that there were so many army personnel in Kashmir.

A short while later, I found out something that shocked me. The army had blocked out all prepaid signals. Ugh.. Oh no, I cant communicate things to people back home. However, there was some respite, since dad's phone would work as it is post-paid. Then finally we reached our boat house, Chinar. A very beautiful boat house. There was Hussain bhai, the caretaker, who took good care of us for the next 2 days of our stay in the boathouse.

I asked the caretaker "Are there any terrorist attacks happening here?". "No. nothing of that sort really. Srinagar's a very peaceful place." "Is the army presence always this much?"
"Yes. " "Despite of such heavy army presence, how do terrorists manage to attack?" I asked. He couldn't answer that. I'm sure no Kashmiri can answer that question.

Then came the romantic shikara ride. Pitiful, 3 couples (read- my mum and dad, 2 aunts and their husbands) over 50+ enjoying themselves amidst 3 guys who are 20+ years old. Oh, how we wished we had the company of our someone special.

The dal lake is a shopping complex in itself. Boats carrying merchandise everywhere. And there was this boat house where all the ladies settled down to buy sarees. We went in at around 6 pm and it was still light at 8 pm. 2 hours by all means is very very quick work by the ladies. Hats off.

Finally, we came back to the Chinar, to have dinner and doze. That was day 1 in Kashmir.

(pic- a shot of the dal lake from the Chinar)