Rantasur's Musings

Utters and Mutters of a Asura stuck in the wrong Kaal, longing for days when humans were yummy and Apsaras abounded.

[rantasur]

The case of dowry and gender equality

We’ve all seen, or heard, or read about the ill effects of the dowry system in marriages in India. We’ve had laws against it  (The Dowry Prohibition act,1961), but the practice continues unabated and unabashed. With the education we have been handed down, we continue condemning it, without once thinking on the reason of it’s origin? How did such a thing start off? When we look around, practices like bride price also exist. Two opposite things exist in different cultures. Do any of these make sense? If they do, when do they? Rantasur is going to voice his personal take on the matter. I am the declaring the conclusion first and the reasoning next.

Conclusion: Dowry/bride price etc. makes no sense if gender equality is practiced in letter, word and spirit. Some precautions (which one may infer from the reasoning presented below), if taken, may totally do away with the practice altogether.

The reasoning follows:

If gender equality is in force, then women have equal rights to their parental inheritance. That used not to be the case in India.(This article is written in the context of Hindu laws, as it is the mostly widely practiced faith in the country). Mostly, sons would inherit the parental property. The argument cited for this was that the daughter was a part of the family of her husband. Twisted, this logic was.In such a setup, to maintain some sort of equality in inheritance, it became imperative that the daughter receives something from her parents before she became a part of her husband’s family. The mindset of people being that when the daughters would not serve them after their marriage and hence at the time of split of property at the demise of parents, since the daughter would not serving them then, she should not receive the a share of the property. The daughters would serve their parents only till the point they are not married off, and hence they should get their share (or something in lieu instead..) at the time of the marriage itself. (It sounds like compensation till end of tenure, but that is how it is).

Now lets get to a society where the daughters are pledged by law the inheritance of ancestral property at par in share with sons, whenever the inheritance is split among the heirs. The daughter would then, be joining her husband’s family with her inherited assets. This eliminates the requirement of some form of inheritance to be presented at time of marriage. There is a problem here though..When should she be able to withdraw her share of inheritance? Ideally she should be able to withdraw her share of inheritance any time she wants to after marriage. This is something difficult. The sons may refuse/ create hurdles in releasing her part or taking care of her part of the inheritance till the time she decides to withdraw her share. If this be ensured however, that she can withdraw her share at any point she decides to, this should not be a problem then. One can easily see, dowry avoids this complication altogether, by placing the daughter’s assets at her disposal for use in whatever manner and at whichever time she deems right.

The second alternative comes with it’s set of complications. (What if the sons create a legal dispute involving the inherited property later? What if they make decisions that reduce the total worth of the property? ) Dowry, instead, if not be arbitrarily demanded, is far easier to implement. A dowry which puts the to-be-married daughter on the same pedestal as the sons should be what is demanded. Nothing more, nothing less.

 Sadly, after long prevalence, this method of ensuring equality began to be abused. Greed overpowered justice, and arbitrary amounts began to be demanded. Greed is the root of all evils..and all the ill effects of dowry may be attributed to greed, mostly on the side of the bridegroom, and sometimes on the side of the bride.

[rantasur]

What could have been diamond, marred to solidified carbon!

There are so many clashes happening around that we can play a significant role in. And the number of such clashes is likely to be the highest in a developing country, like ours (India.). A significant reason for these things is that the progressive population in a developing country is in a state of identity  crisis: They look up to what exists in the a developed nation, their aspirations are high,( their action may not match the aspirations always though), and an identification as well as their appreciation with their roots less..They are sacrificing their identity..As a matter of fact, they are neither wholly correct or wholly wrong. There is this video starring Deepika Padukone where she proclaims: my life, my choice. A lot of things are absolutely correct in the video. A few things though, are totally out of sync with wisdom and the good part of The Indian Culture..(They have in their exuberance flouted the institution of marriage, wherein their choice may lead them do it outside their marriage..Hey, all I am saying is that if you do not follow the laws of an institution you have entered, you better opt out of the institution first, and then flout it! A lack of wisdom and utter lack of self control is what you potray if you do otherwise). At the risk of being labelled a little too idealistic, i would quote Corinthians 6: 19 “Do you not know that…you are not your own?”. My life, my choices.?well not true..Your life, your words your actions have an impact on others. If you are an in a influential position where people look up to you..wisdom says that you do carry out your choice, without spoiling a thing which people value. Should WE not maintain OUR identity? And blindly copy everything that happens elsewhere? Not done people, not done. If we do not do a deep dive into things before aping them, then we are accepting things that could be ruinous too. I would stick to the same Deepika Padukone video and it making a statement that says it’s okay to be unfaithful in a marriage. The cultures which have let such choices be taken have routinely turned to Willard F. Harley Jr.’s advices..(Indians, if you go through the advices, which are available in Willard F. Harley Jr.’s authored books or on the site marriagebuilders.com.. you will see a lot of advice being similar to what your parents give!). Do not, in any name let go of the good things your land gave you, and do not commit a folly by undoing them without proper research. We aught to let women come at par, give them the same treatment we get: same rewards, same punishments. We need to acknowledge that our culture is the gold chain which is stained, not having been cleaned for a long time..Clean the stains, preserve the gold, add fresh gold links to it..Do not let it go! All of us: the men,the women have a collective responsibility towards it..It may be madly marketable when your emotions are voiced by a star, but marketing junk with the good stuff is not done! Adultery and cheating  better be not in vogue!

[rantasur]

You don't need a Jockey to be a superhero

It's good to wake up riled in the morning. The specific reason is this: 

It seems that you need USA flag-like striped undies to be a superhero. Hey jockey, the underwear requirement for being a superhero is gone. Did you not see the writing on the wall when superman went from 

to

or batman went from 

to 

See, no underwear (above their pants) required to make them a superhero! Plain and simple, you need to have guts, (and probably some powers, or..... a hell lot of money) to be a superhero. The american superheroes gave up their undies long back, they don't want to look retarded. Quite a few superheroes can manage with just a plain yard of yarn. See him ?

[rantasur]

With the heat wave rising in Delhi, this happened.

[rantasur]

Ohh I'm so fancy, i call myself a dumb nancy

Seriously, you tune in to the radio and hear this waste of a song by an oddly named artist, iggy,( wiggy, piggy ,I don't care!). The reeking narcissism and incessant show off is just made made worse by the stupidest of singing on radio these days! Check the lyrics here, keep a handful of pie ready and sling it on your laptop's, or (IF YOU TOO ARE FANCY) on your tablet's screen.

And listen to the song once to get your ears bleeding. RANT! Hell, yeah: This is Rantasur to ye. You numb my ears and i give you a righteous butt-kicking

[rantasur]

Nightmares of Vicco Vajradanti

Yeah,I know, being an Indian movie-goer, you would easily recognise this brand. Long before Amitabh Bachchan was giving polio drops and Mukesh was dying for your sins, err...i mean lung cancer, cinema going Indians  have experienced this mind numbing jingle and barrage of tasteless, novelty less ads of Vicco products which were made somewhere in late 80s and never touched again. Same ads in 1995 , same ads in 2005.(See for yourself )

 Somewhere around that time, someone in the marketing department woke up and decide to make new series of new kind of retard ads. It has been 9 years since then, those ads are still going on. Sometimes, before the movie, sometimes, between the movies. It starts suddenly. Imagine you are just watching a serious scene where somebody is dying, suddenly screen goes black and before you could snap out...WHAM ! This buck-tooth guy appears and ear-deafining jingle starts... "vicco turmeric nahin cosmetic... ". The mood, the sentiments, the ambience, all is gone ! Infact, I started keeping note of these ads, the pattern in which they appear.

VICCO AD PROMOTION PLAN PLACE : MOVIE HALL Start (screen lights up)-> Vicco Ad 1 -> Some ad -> Vicco Ad 2 -> Some polio ad ft. Bachchan Saab -> Vicco ad 1 (again) -> Mukesh dying - > Movie starts -> Intermission (or directly Vicco ad) -> Mukesh again -> Dhoom 5 trailer -> (May pop up one more vicco ad) -> Movie resumes -> If lucky enough, End of movie.

Vicco is a brand on decline for ages, with overly priced products and poor advertising campaigns and strong competitors. (See here ) Yet, no one is able to snatch the movie hall advertising slot from it, or is it like, nobody wants to. There is some mystery to it. It is not like Vicco products are in great demand, atleast in Indian urban cities. There are more chances of finding a Vicco ad in your nearby cinema hall than finding a Vicco product in a nearby store.

Note to Vicco fans : I know you would fight that the products are great and sell really well in International market (mostly African nations), but ask them to show their ads in those nations, rather than shoving them in our asses every time we go out to see Wolverine popping out his claws. 

[rantasur]

Bad fiction

Recently stumbled upon this bad fiction competition by http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/ where one has to write an intro to a novel as cliched as "it was dark and stormy night" (attributed to the author Edward Bulwer-Lytton, hence the name of the competition).

Hence, getting high and inspired at the same time here is my attempt at writing a short bad narration.

It was a dark and stormy sight I could see from my shell. There has been a lot of hustle and bustle lately. The whole field looked like as if death had been dancing there. Bodies over bodies of my fellow protozoans lay dead as the army of antidotes kept coming and coming. My host landlord cell had already told me of this. He has seen these fights enough in his whole 30 human-days life cycle to predict when the next wave is coming. It is ironic that this cells with life cycle much lesser than mine has already seen 7 generations of my brothers and sisters getting wiped out. Those antidotes are mercenaries, they don't distinguish between a warrior and a civilian. A lady feeding her child is as dangerous to them as a enemy soldier sprinting with its weapon. But it hardly matters anyways, we , protozoans, don't have any biological distinction of male and female. We developed these concepts on our own in order to build a society with defined roles for one. A protozoa has to ,by mandate, act like a woman for 5 human-days. I guess, the role itself marks a shift in behavior of them as many of them start beautification and engulf themselves in thoughts of prince charming, though they mate every day with different male of the kind, they still live in their fantasy of that one prince. I guess, coming back to male form breaks this notion when the death stares at you right in the eyeballs.

The ground has already started shaking, the next wave is coming. I must prepare myself one last time. No paracetamol-shit can decide the end of life, but me. War, here I come!

- Srini Rajkumar, Protozoa for life

[rantasur]

The Great Indian Timepass

We as Indians have a great importance of time pass. Earlier rulers of Mughal era used to enjoy Tansens or Anarkalis for timepass, nawabs used to play chess and British used to hunt down Bengal tigers when not sucking the tax collected from drought-hit state. Our politicians, too, have a knack of timepass. Whenever bored, they bring down the ghanta (big big bell like one at The Great Ben) of secular politics.  If it is part of our kulcha (read culture in americanised NRI accent), why would the great middle class remain left behind ?

The golden 80s-90s

Growing up in a middle-middle class family courtesy  Nehruvian economics, I studied my parents as the most generic examples of Indian middle class; as generic as frequently mentioned Sharmaji whom we instantly imagine up like a balding fragile guy in his 50s. Maybe a result of Laxman’s  cartoons[*] or Anupam Kher’s character in Khosla ka Ghosla.  Indian parents of 90s or maybe before too, loved watching Sunday morning TV as timepass .Now whether it is Rangoli or Chitrahaar (more of primetime slot) , Ramayana, Sri Krishna, Mahabharata  etc etc. With the advent of cable TV, nothing much changed, only more number of channels with their own Rangolis and Har-har-Mahadevs. This is for the good times of electricity when TV would be switched ON. During the more familiar power cuts, somebody would twist ear of a Chinese radio and

FM would start playing announcer’s voice (there were no RJs back then). FM was home to melodious songs of the past requested by the listeners. Strangely they used to announce ALL the people (and their relatives) who had requested the song resulting in next 5 minutes  of holy chant of Monu Kumar, Sonu Kumar, Chanda Rani, Gudiya, Raju, Pintu aur  pappu types names flowing out of the cursed thing.

Not everyone would stick to radio. Some would indulge in quick games of ludo, chess or carom board or maybe cards (in more liberal homes , in my home cards mean gambling). Going out was a strict no-no except for occasional trips to Shahrukh khan movies or Jumbo circus. Restaurant food used to be frowned upon. Your mother’s still alive would be the reply from Mom if asked about dining out. Morning and evening  park stroll, or even a small family outing in the city park  were other anti-boredom moves. Foreign trips were for movie stars and “honest” politicians only. For a common man with sarkari naukri ‘s dull work,  uneventful life and burden of raising a family, marrying daughter to non-bahu burning families etc. , these timepasses were the only escapades. 

Present times

Fast forward 15 years, completing first decade of new millennia, the parents have grown older inching each day towards senior citizenship. The kids who fed on Rasna,right choice pepsi, just Mohabbat [*], baba sehgal, indi-pop and MTv are now the new parents. So what has changed for all of them:  the new old and the old old?

The old old: Old parents

For the old old, things haven’t changed drastically. The best means of timepass is still TV, now with DTH and 300+ channels. But still the genre of programmes remain the same. They still watch and make grandkids watch bhakti serials. Now that they even have live telecast of revered Tirth and pilgrims so that stare continuously at their beloved god and not missing even a moment’s aashirwaad.  The much beloved family soap operas have decided to move from urban landscape to traditional household of Bihar and Rajasthan but basic plot points like remarrying 10 times, rebirth, plastic surgery etc remain untouched. The male old old now have choices of news channels to devour everything from Diggy remarks to Shahrukh’s dance and discuss it with old pals “how the system is corrupt and desh ka kuch nahin ho sakta”. 

The new old : New parents i.e. youngsters of late 80s and 90s

The new old i.e. the new parents have diverted totally from path of their parents. Their timepass its logic and its means are radically different from their parents.  Probably the boom of economy and high paying IT industry and low community interaction has resulted this but that rant for some other day.  They have new avenues of time pass like foreign trips and much glamored world tour (only  considered if travelling pockets of US, Europe and East Asian ports and islands. No Africa?? No Latin America), trying out expensive restaurants and adventure trips (thank you Tata Safari, Bolero ads of 2000s aajkal sabhi koi toofani karte hain) and almost ritualistic  weekend Multiplex movie. Now their timepass extent is determined by THE GREAT 2 BHK POLICY.

THE GREAT 2 BHK POLICY.

It is actually, the better place your 2BHK is, the less are your timepass options are. Everything from foreign trip to adventure sports to expensive restaurants depends on your 2bhk’s status. If status’s high then you are paying higher EMI and won’t be able to afford more luxuries. But for those paying less or yet to realiase the 2bhk dream, possibilities are endless.

Reminiscent of the old Sunil babu ad. Those asian paints guys knew the future.

The more affluent ones with kids knowing only one language (i.e. English), go for Salsa classes. The rest opt for lazy weekends at home or nearest multiplex watching EVERY GOD-DAMN MOVIE and then reviewing it on their facebook page as not good, just one time watch. That brings us to the new timepass, Social media which is Facebook+ Twitter+Whatsapp+ Blogging + DSLR.

People goto restaurants to check-in to facebook or upload the pic using their new smartphone (about which they know barely 10% but good status symbol). Foreign trips to concerts all are connected with the desire to tell others how cool it was through updates. They are earning more so spending more. Since they are spending more hence they are working hard to earn more. The cycle continues !

The life’s gone, it is now a showcase with someone’s selfies and pictures of food with 112 likes. It is not like people don’t have hobbies but mostly it turns out to be DSLR. I am not saying hobby is photography , hobby is DSLR. Take a picture of some shit, edit crappily in photoshop that shit and upload it. Repeat this process for 100+ photographs every week and push friends to like it. Ask about other hobbies, they aren’t there. Ask out political opinion, other than copied lines of news, there isn’t any. General Knowledge, Nope. Defense minister of India ? No idea, Bebo ? Arrey, Kareena Kapoor. THANK YOU PEOPLE.  This lack of creativity has left people high and dry. And this is just the new parents who already have a lot to handle (boss baby bhk ). Imagine the bachelors and the scene turns even more interesting. 

This is how the scene of timepassing has changed in India. No more ludo or carom nights, no more get together on power cuts (no more powercuts in tier 1 cities). No opinion on anything, no stroll in park (new fad is called gymming), nothing left of the parents. It is not you or them,  even I, the author is down the same sinkhole and is unlikely to come out on his  own.

[rantasur]

Yakku Pitaji ! - Kroor Singh