For the love of reading!!

Haven’t read a book in a long time. I mean a real book – the one in paper with the smell of the printed pages. It is nostalgic, it is beautiful, it is the best feeling in the world. They transport me to a different world – a world of possibilities where I can be whatever I want to be, go wherever I want to go. Yes, an ebook can do that too but for me, it does not have that magic. Turning the pages with anticipation, taking in the smell of the pages...a mobile, kindle, tab or laptop can never give me that. 

During this time of the year - when it is cold outside but warmed up by the sun during daytime, there is a smell of fog and the blooming flowers of Ber (Indian Jujube) - I miss my books more. Those school years when the exams are over and no worries about studying, the results won’t be out in another one month so no tension there and I would be sitting in the sun whole day till sun down with the novels, short stories and poetry books, that was the only time of the year when I could sit with my story books whole day and my parents won’t say a word. I would borrow books from relatives, from neighbors and voraciously gorge on them. During my B.Sc. days, I would have those days sometimes but never since I joined masters.  But still, every year as December approaches, the leaves start getting sparse in the trees, migratory birds starts flying around, the sun gets mellow, the fog starts to linger into the morning hours, all I want is to go back to those days.

On a similar but different note, I feel books make us aware – of ourselves, of others. They make us receptive, they make us listen and not just hear, see and not just stare. Books make us think about ourselves, about the world, why we are here. They give us a purpose in life. The collective intelligence of human kind is all there. It makes us evolve psychologically; inspire us to leave a legacy behind. My favorite teacher once told me, “Written words are what will be left behind you after you are gone, it will make you immortal and in the best possible way”. I got my purpose of life from the books I read. I am trying to be a better human being everyday because of the books I read. Another teacher of mine told me when I was in the 6^th standard, “A bee and a spider both take up pollens from flowers – one makes honey and one makes poison. It’s same for a book and its reader. How you interpret and use the knowledge is completely on you”. I don’t know how much scientifically correct that is, but the essence is what changed a part of me. He was a very well read man. He is unfortunately no more but what he said to me will be there forever. That is what books do. They educate us, make us live forever in our own little way. Changing the way someone looks at the world, making them better human beings is the best we can do in life. And books help us do that.

To me, being well read is a good thing. But I feel I am loosing that habit too. These days, movies and series have taken over. Some of my friends argue, “When a Harry Potter movie can be watched in three hours maximum, why waste three days on reading the book? It saves time and these days time is essence.”  Strong logic. But to me, they are fast food. They might save money and time but it’s not healthy in the long run. It creates a literary epidemic. They might give us the same moral of the story but those beautiful strings of thoughts that express those morals can never be expressed in a movie. When we imagine the written words in our minds, it is our own and always I find is much better than someone else’s imagination that they put in movies. At least, Aragorn was much more handsome in my imagination (No offense to Viggo Mortensen. He is still the best) and so was Kakababu (again, no offense to Prosenjit Chatterjee)!! And most importantly, like slow food is always good for health of the stomach for the long haul, books are good for intellectual health of the mind.

And that’s why it makes me sad to see the school going kids today so engrossed in their text books that they don’t have time to read anything else. They have much higher IQ than what I had in that age and can grasp a lot more but have no time to be philosophical. They have to continuously input data in their brains to fare well in the rat race, to be better than the others. I am not criticizing anything. I know how hard it is to make a living these days. I am more or less of the same generation and do understand how tough the competition is. But sometimes I wonder, is that all it is to life? We fight tooth and nail to be an well oiled machine. I sometimes think may be if I had spent less times reading story books and more on text books, I would have done better. But that’s not regret, just a passing thought. I had friends with very good results and were very well read. It’s all about time management and guidance. Very few people tell the kids to read a story unless it is for an assignment or is included in the syllabus. They read novels included in syllabus not to enjoy but to score better. I didn’t start reading by myself. A neighborhood grandmother of mine inspired me. She would let me borrow books from her and that’s how I started getting interested. From there I never stopped. And I would be forever grateful to her for that.

I am not saying I am a well read person. What I have read in all these years of my life might be a drop in the ocean of literary works around the world, may be less than that. But what I am trying to say is, it is a very good feeling. Every time we read a book, our mind expands a little, we know a little bit more and be a little bit better than before. Good books build bridges to unknown worlds and realms. And sometimes, they just become the best part of our lives.

Just a thought :)

Is ethics overrated?

I may still be rosy-eyed about how the world should be as opposed to what it is and live in my sweet bubble; you may call me oblivious or just stupid – but I still will think that as humans we have the moral obligation to be just and fair. Especially for those of us in academics, we should practice what we preach.

I am still new to this world of academics, writing papers in peer reviewed journals, book chapters, attending conferences – in a word, building my career. But one thing I have learned very quickly is that we can’t judge a book by its cover. Qualifications does not build character here, rather they un-build it. Everyone is busy increasing the number of their publications, very few bother about the actual brains behind those. I have been taught about the importance of ethics in courses and I have seen the same person who taught it be as unethical as he can be. I have worked my ass off on projects and then have seen people take credit for it in publications and giving me some cock and bull story for it. I have lost my sleep wondering how they sleep at night and realised that it does not matter after all. All that matters is the number of publication one has. But then again, I am still new to this world.

The problem is, it is not just my concern, it is the concern of many other students like me. We blame the system for it, we blame the moral codes of academicians in India. I pretty much believe that’s why innovation in our country is stuck. The older generation of academicians have had their share of innovative ideas and golden days but right now are busy cashing in from the brains of their students, trainees and interns while young students like us are tired of injustice and have completely stopped thinking. When I say this, I am not talking about the 1.2 billion in our country but just a few whom you can count in your fingers. But I believe the handful still matters. I matter. It is not like we are Pulitzer or Nobel or Man Booker materials but that does not stop what’s ours from being ours! 

Some might say, why don’t you protest or talk about it? It’s not that easy. We are here to build a career and you can’t live in the waters and fight with the crocodiles. Practically, sometimes the answer is just adapting to it. One might say, if you can’t fight, don’t complain. May be they are right. May be they are not.  But the more important question here is what can be done about it? I believe ethics should be a more important part of Moral Sciences course in schools to educate the kids about its importance in life; we, the young researchers can take a vow to be ethical in our future and not just run after fame. Bust most important of all, we should start practicing our own preachings. Once I read a quote by Priyavrat Thareja, “If ethics is not the engine of success, in the train of growth, it sure is a guard, with a flag, which may be green or at times red”. Unfortunately for some of our predecessors the guard has been run over. But let’s not be such reckless drivers in our future. As Nelson Mandela said, “Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great”. It’s not a liability; it’s our duty to acknowledge others. We don’t develop individually, we are better together. So let’s be great TOGETHER!!!

That's the girl in me talking...

I am a Goddess!!!

OK. Let me explain.

See, where I come from (India), women are worshipped and highly respected as mother, sister and wife. We are placed on a high pedestal and the men want us to stay there. But that’s not an easy job! We need constant protection from all the evil in the world (Nah! We are not the weapon-wielding, evil banishing Goddesses you see in Indian mythology. That won’t serve the purpose per se. It’s the pure, marvellous, unselfish, all-suffering, ever-forgiving ones I am talking about) and obviously, the men cannot rely on our ‘woman-brains’ to think for ourselves.  And so, the Indian men have taken upon themselves the herculean job of protecting the sanctity of Indian women.

One must be wondering how they carry out this job! Well, let me tell you they have performed wonderfully till now! For example, girls are not allowed to go to the neighbourhood shops alone. Why? Well, for the obvious reason that she is a girl!!! But it’s fine if she is protected and accompanied by her five year old brother or cousin. BTW, they have the full support of the mother and aunts in the family. So you see, men are taught early on in their lives the most important lesson – women need their protection. And they do their duty throughout their lives. They decide what type of clothes the girls/women should wear, whom they should go out with, what friends they should keep, what profession they should choose, and so on. Can you imagine all the time they have to put into thinking all that? 

Now, as hopeless we women are, we continuously make their job harder! We want to work, we want to have fun at parties, we want to wear short dresses, and what not (and that too when men are trying so hard to maintain our Goddess status! Isn’t it just outrageous?). So the men have to come out with new ways to keep us in line. Recently I was told by a very educated person that all the rapes and sexual assaults on women in our country are very much justified. Shell shocked? No, that was not my response! See, he explained it to me in fair details as I am going to do now. Well, it starts with Mother Nature. She made us women physically incapable of doing anything by ourselves. Can we work in construction? No. Can we go run a corporate house? No. Can we earn a living for ourselves? No. Can we do grocery shopping for the house? No. Pay the bills, drive a car, go out of the house after sunset? No, no and NO! Still, despite the best efforts of men, many women do so, right? Actually, as it turns out, men regret that very much as they want every woman to be inside the house leading a comfortable and protected life. 

But whimsical women!! So, men have to stare at their body, grope them and objectify them if they go out in broad daylight to creep them out of coming out of the house at all. Eve-teasing has the same motive. And rapes! Many respected personalities of the country have made that clear already. ‘Have you ever heard of a respectable woman getting raped?’ Also, a video by AIB titled ‘It’s your fault, Ladies” starring actor Kalki Koechlin and VJ Juhi Pandey explain in details how rapes are women’s fault. As the educated man mentioned above explains, a girl going out at night partying has no right complaining about rape if that happens to her. If a girl is partying late in the evening or if she drinks, she deserves to get raped (but it is OK to go to a party with husband or brother). And is not that what she does every day in the first place? How else do you party?? Rape is not an assault; it’s a correctional measure in India for those inglorious women who do not understand their position in the society. And yeah, women should stop complaining about rapes when they happen. As the man asks, (actually, most men have the same question it turns out) why don’t women rape men instead? Then probably the men will stop. Well the answer is we can’t. We are not physically strong enough to do that. And just because we can’t do something, there is no reason to complain about those who can. That’s just so immature!! So, women should stop whining and comply. And on the same note, when a woman is not ashamed of herself after such an incident, takes it in her stride just like she would have done if she was bitten by a stray dog instead, she has no right to complain because that means she enjoyed it!! (I don’t get the logic here but that’s not the guy’s fault! After all I have a woman’s brain, right?). When such incidents happen to a child or a 70 years old woman, they have good reasons then too. It’s just that I forgot to ask. Again, a woman’s brain. Phew!!

What happens when women are allowed to think for themselves? Well, India will become like American and European countries! Yeah..that’s it. Why, this isn't a good enough reason for you? Have you seen the way women live in those countries? They wear whatever they want, do whatever job they want, marry whoever they like, literally divorce when they are not compatible with their spouse, the children do not live with their parents their whole life (that’s despicable and totally women’s fault I am telling you!!) - in a nut shell they live their life!! That’s not Goddess-ly at all. Have you seen the women decently covered from head to toe, silently doing the bidding of the male members of the households, not going to schools or colleges or working and earning for that matter to challenge the authority of the male heads – that should be the ideal image of a woman!! And believe me, many Indian men are working very hard to achieve that goal.

So, this brings me to my first sentence. I am a Goddess. I have been the woman who listens, and the best part, never complains!! That was all I could do to make their job easier. The men in our lives (father, brothers, husband, uncles, neighbours, moral police, etc.) work their asses off (pardon my French) to protect us and keep us in our 'pedestal'. They don’t want us to come down and toil hard to achieve our dreams but to be comfortable and depend on them for all we want. But then again, haven’t they done enough? I think the least we can do to thank them for their hard work of last hundreds of years is to now reverse our positions and put them in that respected place and give them the same comfort that they have provided us with.

Is that too much to ask?