Where are the girls?

Are you a male engineering graduate in India? If so, you probably are a washed-up, frustrated guy who has never been ‘touched’ by a girl and for whom the Holy Grail has been wanking off at the sight of the most beautiful nymph in some porn video. Okay, that’s not the prettiest picture to paint, I know. But can you, in your heart of hearts, reject my thesis? Not really. Anyway, what can a guy do if there aren’t enough pretty faces around? I mean, it is not about sex. You know how it feels to hang out with a hundred guys all in the same boat as you. You do. It ain’t the most wonderful feeling in the world. How we yearn to spend just one blithe, merry evening in some cafe with a radiant girl, away from the dreary sea of humanity. You can never be too careful about some Sena goons ready to teach us True Indian Values, but you will take that risk, won’t you? What a sorry state of affairs.

If only more girls got through competitive exams. What was that? So girls top most board exams now, their kind pass exams better than ours and yet only the keenest eye can spot one in a tech college induction ceremony. The feminists should be up in arms. They should demand reservation for the fairer sex in our educational institutions. And let’s be fair at that: give them 50%. They are half our population after all. What better way to further empower the New Age Woman. Surely, only the Yadavs will object. You don’t think that will do, do you? Do I feel an element of doubt in you whether those seats will be filled at all? After all, it’s not Indian Culture in most of our vast country for women to be the equals of men. Sometimes I wonder where all those girls go. Are they so intellectually inferior to us guys that they cannot qualify? Somehow I find that hard to swallow. They take the arts as an afterthought. That almost makes me feel sorry for the arts. What a second-rate creature the arts should feel like, if the arts could feel. I wonder whether that women’s reservation bill in the Lok Sabha can make matters easier for us boys too. Could that much-vaunted trickledown effect of reservations make a few more engineers out of girls? Or will it be blunted by the ineluctable forces of patriarchy? It would interest me to know whether those prudish Sena hoodlums send their daughters to any engineering schools. And it would really interest me to know whether they hide their prurient selves behind this image of an incorruptible whose mission in life is to promote True Indian Values among the flock that has strayed. They are the self-anointed custodians of Indian Morality; perhaps they believe that is above the law.

You wonder now what all of that has to do with the fact that there are so few women engineering grads. I say everything. If a woman begins to think on her own, doesn’t that undercut the domination of the male in her family? Does it not take the ‘Other India’ on a path it dreads? They say educate one woman and you educate a family. The fear probably is that you educate a woman engineer and you liberate a family, and that is not something the headstrong patriarch can tolerate. Liberty was one of the basic tenets of the French revolution, which ushered democracy into the world. Perhaps what they really fear is democracy itself.

Anyway, I only hope for some chicks to enter the hallowed portals of our engineering schools. It will do the boys a great deal of good. Perhaps improve their grades too; as they say, behind every successful man is a woman. For all the Greens out there, it will save some electricity and mitigate Global Warming too, if you know what I mean. Perhaps even make the eventual arranged marriage easier to negotiate, as even acquainting themselves with their betrothed is so awkward initially for many of our brethren. And if it changes our society a little, wouldn’t that be great too?

Incredible day on the roads of Pune

I leave for office just before 3 PM every day. These are unnaturally hot days, a harbinger of what is to come. Global Warming, perhaps. Anyway, yesterday I wrapped my windcheater around me, put on my gloves and slid on the helmet in preparation for the ride, as usual. I mounted my bike and saw the dust resting on the newly-fitted leg-guard. You can’t clean up every day. So I dragged it out of the parking lot and hit the starter. The engine came to life. It’s a familiar feeling this, if you drive every day. You are so accustomed to driving the bike through the roads of Pune - which resemble more a slalom track than a smooth highway - that you can’t help your mind wandering. No sir, that won’t do, so I tell myself to concentrate. These predated days of summer are dreadful for bikers. The hot wind will certainly cause you a cold - what with the air-conditioned office awaiting - if not a sunstroke unless you cover up. But that is not all. The good citizens of this city await you in the form of the gates of the slalom course. And quite often, the gates move. It is with good reason that one should concentrate. But there are instances where even that just doesn’t do: let me tell you more.

As my bike scythed through the inflammable atmosphere, my eyes darted around intently, on the lookout for potential dangers. The road seemed quite empty for the time. I was quarter of the distance through to the office and was going at 50 KMPH or so. There was this one guy loitering around at the left corner of the road, about 20 feet ahead of me when I noticed him. Suddenly, he decides to take a stroll down the park. Now, this is not a one-way street. If you want to cross from left to right, that is your right. But shouldn’t you watch what’s coming from your near end first rather than turning your head to the other side of the road? This guy obviously did not think so. He was so focused on the traffic from the other side as he fulfilled our date with each other that he wouldn’t hear my frantic horn. Well, 5 feet away from him, I knew we were destined to have our hasty rendezvous. Only, the how of it was in my hands. Go hard on the throttle and he crashes into your side. You are sent into a deadly spin. So that is not an option. To tell you a bit about physics though, a bike going at 50 will not stop within 20 feet even if you apply the rear and front brakes in perfect synchronization. But you do reduce the impact by slowing down and losing momentum. Realizing all this, I must have started braking a little after I saw him. So I brace myself while this guy, apparently unmindful of this aspect of the world, walks on blithely. As I near him, I reflexively turn the handlebar left ever so slightly to avoid, well, breaking his knee perhaps. He collides with the right side of my front wheel and the right leg-guard. The rear view mirror is almost dislodged. The bike still has momentum and the engine is revving. In a blur, my left foot is on the ground as I become the jockey trying to rein in this unruly horse. Fortunately, I can bring it to a stop without falling. Then I look around in the daze characteristic of the aftermath of a road accident. I saw it coming, but it still knocks the wind out of me for 2-3 seconds. Then I see that the dunce is on his feet and there’s no lasting damage to him. I survey myself and see that the corner of the left sock I’m wearing under my floaters has been ripped off. There is a little bleeding at the end of the toenail. But that apart, I’m ok. My bike too has survived, only that rear-view mirror needs to be fixed. I want to check on that fool, but he has staggered away, probably aware of his blunder. I just stare at the people around stupidly for a few seconds. If one believed in God, he would perhaps have said a silent prayer. But what else now for me but to shake my head, curse and complete the journey. I have gone through what I have only heard of. Riding on the slalom track will never be the same again.

I sometimes have this debate with my friends about which city has the worst traffic and road sense. Inevitably, Pune is among the top in this list. People break signals and rules for fun here. It is probably the dizzy change the city has undergone in the last few years. Many of the migrants are unaware of how to live in a city. And the old guard takes everything for granted, given the lax enforcement. But I will never know which of these that guy was.

Thoughts on Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment

Anyone having read Crime and Punishment cannot but be left with their head spinning. This story of a young man, ideologically driven by radical ideas, who commits a crime he does not consider one and yet finds his conscience tormenting him until he can either atone for his sin or end his life, can be a cathartic experience. The novel is a psychological study, a detective thriller and a foray into the philosophy of life itself. It is by turns, gripping, horrifying, saddening, and in the end through a reaffirmation of faith in life, it is also revitalizing. Raskolnikov is an intelligent man, proud and even egoistic, but is beset with poverty as he studies at university, and has fantastic notions of his intellectual superiority, probably a result of new theories he has learnt in St.Petersburg. His desire to improve the lot of his mother and sister coupled with a visceral need to prove his own superiority to himself brings him through a convoluted logic, to commit a murder which he despises inwardly. He has a theory that men are divided into two kinds: one who simply live and others who control the living. The latter provide the law but to them the law does not apply. They are men who make the world in their images. Raskolnikov is obsessed with Napolean and constantly asks himself what Napolean would have done in his place. His oppressive and cramped surroundings further contort his thoughts and contribute to the murder of an old hag who, in his view, is of no use to anyone and only causes suffering to others. His idea is to murder her and take her money so that he can start on a completely different life wherein he can benefit mankind and in the process, expiate for the murder, if it were necessary to do so. He finds no logical flaw in his reasoning as he believes completely in his theory and wishes to establish himself as one of the law-givers. Yet, he cannot commit the crime boldly as he wanted to. His dithering leads him to torment himself as he perceives himself as a coward for his inability to carry out his plans without moral repugnance. For a man of obvious intellectual ability, his refusal to tame his ego proves to be his undoing. His conscience excoriates him every moment whereas his mind tells him that he has failed in his endeavour. How does he stop this mental agony? 

The answers he finds in the novel reveal Dostoevsky’s beliefs in life. The novel was influenced by Dostoevsky’s personal experiences and his eventual acceptance of a conservative and religious philosophy. As a young man, Dostoevsky described himself as a “dreamer.” He became a literary sensation at the age of 24 and came to participate in many liberal intellectual organizations of the time. Strangely enough, he went on to support the very institution of the Tsar that had imprisoned him for 5 years and caused him the immense suffering, but it only proves how influential those prison years were in shaping his thought. He abandoned the reactionary tendencies of his early youth in favour of a more sedate worldview which recognized that human nature could not change suddenly and drastically to facilitate the various kinds of utopia that revolutionaries and theorists in the Russia of then dreamed of. Though most characters in the novel are timeless since they essentially symbolize ideas, their reality is born out of the reality of the land they inhabit where Russian Nihilism and Utilitarianism threatened to take root. Dostoevsky portrayed major characters as men believing in some form of these theories and imaginatively brought them into the aggrieved and sometimes despicable state they reached in their lives by such beliefs. The novel primarily dealt with this specific issue; but its relevance has not diminished a bit as the genius of Dostoevsky created a vision which still finds echoes in world we inhabit. Apart from this philosophical aspect of the novel driven by social realities of the Russia of the 1860s, it is as thrilling a murder mystery as any in the way the detective Porfiry Petrovich psyches out Raskolnikov, having nothing but an indelible intuition to lead him to identify the latter as the murderer. The passages where they duel with each other knowing that their words can work both ways are the stuff of genius. Though it is unconventional in that the murderer is always known, it is enthralling to read whether or not Raskolnikov will submit to the legal law which acts as the bulwark of the moral code by which society lives. Another striking feature is the religious angle explored by Dostoevsky. The idea that suffering is necessary to become a better person appears many times and is responsible for the eventual transformation of Raskolnikov. Dostoevsky became an orthodox Christian after his travails, and his experiences are clearly mirrored in the narrative. However his religious view is less ecclesiastical and more in tune with the moral code and precepts that early Christianity taught. Indeed he parodies the practice of mediation by a priest when a Christian asks forgiveness on his deathbed. Perhaps the notions of fate and circumstance playing a huge role in the novel – where crucial events are attributed to simple chance – are also religious in nature. Eventually, the masterful telling of this epic tale, coupled with his profound insights into human nature make it a fascinating read, one of the best novels of all time.

Freedom of expression and human progress

The freedom to express novel and unconventional ideas has been under threat for all of human history. In the arts and sciences as in human society, people expressing radical views have been persecuted by those who are threatened by this expression. As human civilization evolved through the Middle Ages, human societies – particularly Europe – introduced enlightened and liberal values into this discourse. It cannot be a coincidence that the rapidity with which human life has improved in general in the past 150 years has been accompanied with greater tolerance of such ideas and it is the western world which has most reaped the benefits by espousing these ideals first. Galileo was persecuted by the Church but his idea remained an inspiration for all those that came after him. Countless other thinkers, artists and men/women of science have contributed their bit by making similar bold assertions which also encountered resistance. If these ideas were not given their due, human civilization would have stagnated. Every generation has people who question the old and bring in the new because human society is far from perfect today and probably will be for long. The democracies of today have built upon this legacy of the pioneering nations. They enshrine the freedom of expression as one of the most valuable rights of any human being.

If a human being differs from a greater majority on a point of great concern to the latter, should his right to articulate his view be taken away and should he be persecuted even in today’s democracies? Does not that human being have the right to believe in his view and also to express it freely even if it may cause great grief to others because they cannot countenance such a possibility? Radical thought may not be the absolute truth but so long as the thinker has no malice towards any living person or group of people and has expressed his idea in his conviction of being right, he/she should not be persecuted for having done so. Change in human society is never welcomed in with a red carpet; it is much resisted at first. Such ideas tend to have their germination in the arts before they are expressed publicly. Since certain forms of art are beyond the understanding of those who do not appreciate the nature of those arts, it is imperative that the discussion of these ideas is open-minded and restrained so as to understand their significance. Democracies must ensure that people have such reasoned debates and that if two sides disagree, they at least agree on the terms of disagreement. It is vital to ensure such discourse for the progress of humankind.