Year: 2015

One of the many things I like in life is talking. I like to discuss things, dissecting events and analyzing situations. It gives me some kind of strange pleasure when there’s clarity in my mind on every way to think about an issue.

Say, there is a forward on the IM client that is obviously a hoax. The things that go through my mind include but are not limited to:

• Why is it a hoax?
• Why is it believable?
• Why do people believe in it?
• Why do people forward it?
• Why do even people who do not believe it forward it?
• Why do people who forward it not take it seriously when asked about it?

Following these thoughts to their completion makes me comfortable. It lets me classify the forward (the event) to a folder in my brain. The next time I see an event of the same kind, I know all the patterns surrounding it. And there is less need to think about it. This somehow simplifies thought.

But the first time a new kind of event occurs, I spend a lot of time thinking about it, characterizing it, judging it. Sometimes this involves talking with, arguing with people (although most people do find this annoying). But the process gives me clarity. And clarity is golden.

There are times when I see events repeat. I find it incredulously boring to talk about them when I have already gained clarity about it. That’s why I write things down. So that I can point people to my thoughts on the event. When they have a new way of looking at it, I will come back and discuss it.

Some issues have been discussed so much that any more of discussions on it would be like eating after you’ve finished a buffet dinner – nauseating.

Then there are issues about which talking is equivalent to whining. Things that can be fixed straightaway (or if not, that deserves to be attempted). Here, not doing what is logically the right action after discussion makes me nauseous. Therefore, sometimes, I shun away from the discussions altogether.

Those are the times when there’s nothing left to say. Everything left is to be done.

Each day passing, I am turning more and more a feminist. Although I abhor extremism in feminism (I do not think calling every action of a man “sexist” is the right way to achieve gender equality), I cannot overstate the importance of visualizing the routine, systematized discrimination against women based on their gender alone.

In this address to the UN as its woman ambassador, Emma Watson says how it is important for men to be participating in women empowerment programs. By alienating men from gender equality programs, we are just increasing the gender gap. Read more at HeForShe.org

Yet, that is what some feminists do – give no respect to men, attack them on whatever they do or say.

Read about the dongle joke that spiralled way out of control. 

But all these are issues of fine adjustment. There are coarse course corrections to be made in countries like India.

“India’s Daughter” is a documentary that was released today by BBC. And it shows how vulgar the mindset of many Indians are. If you watch that documentary, you get avulsed not by the guilty defending himself, but by the lawyers of the rapists trying to define the role of women in society.

And to ban that outright is worse, from the Government of India. Anyhow, I have a few mirrors at learnlearn.in/indias-daughter/#mirrors

I’ve found myself guilty of (unconsciously at times) discriminating against my female friends many times in the past. Every time it is discovered, I try to never repeat the mistake. Yet, there is so much to unlearn that I still commit new mistakes. Anyhow, I am a feminist. I know that manhood and womanhood are just two colours of human beings.