Being Rahul Dahiya

I watched this movie recently after a long time. Last time, I watched, it was way back when DD One used to thrust movies in our face every Sunday. And we had to watch them. I did not appreciate it much as a kid. It was different experience, this time, though. This movie shows all the evils of Indian society directed towards women. Most of these are not only still existing but sadly, thriving. Notably, 1. Female child is not allowed to go to school. 2. Adultery by husband is acceptable. 3. Dowry is expected and accepted like a birth-right. 4. Physical and verbal violence against women is a way of life. 5. Women are subject to eve-teasing. 6. If a girl loves a boy, she can expect to be beaten mercilessly by her father if he sees them together. 7. If a couple doesn't have a child, the women is simply branded 'infertile'. 8. If a couple does have a child and it is not a boy, then the women is made aware of her 'guilt'. 9. Worst of all, a woman’s ...

I have to share this letter which Salman Rushdie wrote to a Chief Rabbi who denounced Rushdie's book 'The Satanic Verses'. ------------------------------------------------------- Dear Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits, I have visited at least one college in which young Jewish men were being taught, rigorously and judiciously, the principles and practices of judicious and rigorous thought. Theirs were some of the most impressive and honed young minds I have ever encountered and I know they would understand the danger and impropriety of making false moral equivalences. It is a shame that a man they might look to as a leader has become neglectful of the proper process of the mind. “Both Mr. Rushdie and the Ayatollah have abused freedom of speech,” you say. Thus a novel which, love it or hate it, is in the opinion of at least a few critics and judges a serious work of art is equated with a naked call for murder. This ought to be denounced as a self-evidently ridiculous r...

The LAN/DC++ in IIT KGP was indeed a beacon of hope and entertainment amid the wilderness surrounding the institute. The fact that the institute is situated in the poorest district in India, nothwithstanding. The institute was actually a jail in the British Raj. That accounted for the eerie ambience. The place was gloomy in the mornings. The mornings felt like evenings really. Among the few good things was the general interaction with "bright" people from all over India. There was so much knowledge flowing everywhere. And then there was the LAN. The biggest misfortune of our batch was that we stayed in the then newly built MMM Hall - SD Sharma block which did not have LAN for the first whole semester. Only in second semester, did we get the LAN. I remember the first day when I installed DC++ in my old-school clunky desktop. All of us went berserk downloading whatever we could find. And by the end of the week all of the computers were infected by virus! Well most of them. I w...

The monkey jumped upon me. At first, it was right on my head, then turned and clasped my back. I was shaking violently but it did not budge. Finally it did jump away. The monkey was off my back and I woke up. It was a short but strange dream. Last Saturday started with me waking up from this peculiar dream. The day was to become more peculiar to say the least. I had a dentist’s appointment to get two of my wisdom teeth extracted. Two of them had been giving trouble occasionally and I decided 2012 will be the year to bid goodbye to them. I was bit helped my some of my colleagues who had underwent similar procedures. But a surgery involving anesthesia is always tricky! Naturally I was anxious. The dentist’s assistant offered a movie-list to me. I could choose one which she said I could “enjoy” while the surgeon went about pulling my teeth off. Well, I did choose my favorite “Being John Malkovich” assuming I will just get myself deep in to the movie and won’t care what the surgeon was doi...