Kusum Choppra

After those banners, candles, petitions,, rants and slogans,  the slog overs. What have we in hand? A death penalty. Who will locate the rapist, stand witness for death penalty, for surely the girl will be killed. Is anyone aware of the volume of studies on death penalties and their actual deterrence value? Especially when murder is cheaper than rape? What after the Ordinance? Legislation? How?  All those MPs and MLAs are hard boiled politicos, many themselves involved. What would it take to make them vote for a Bill to offer India’s females security? Did legislation work after Mathura and Nirbhaya.  Read and find out. Patriarchy has always existed; but from ‘Avuncular’ in the recent past, it has moved  Now to Rabid! The present lot of ragamuffins and their minders in Parliament will go much beyond That “ cut balonwali” stigmatisation, bolstered by the saffron ladies brigade, to stall any legislation. Now, if wishes were horses— any those ‘ek Dhaka macro’ bri...

Sunday morning the center page story of a leading paper talked about what could be a modern version of the Scorched Earth policy of yore, when retreating forces would torch villages and fields to deny resources to conquering enemy forces.  So often in our history and so dramatically by the Russians to foil Napoleon. Until sometime ago, the last villages on our borders were our Defense  Forces’  eyes and ears that reported the first signs of intrusion. In the northern areas, having at least one family member in the Forces was a matter of family honor.  Post retirement, ex servicemen, especially the lower ranks with inadequate pensions would settle in ancestral homes and till the soil for an additional living, keeping a wary eye all round their segment of Uttarakhand’s border with China, thanks to ingrained training.     Now, while State data reveals 37 attempted intrusions between  2006 - 2011, in July 2017 alone, twice! How has this hap...

Now the Kathua case has been transferred, everyone piously hopes that some semblance of justice,(?) will happen, in how much time, no one can guarantee. After all that Shor, everyone spoke to females... protect yourself, learn martial arts, carry pepper spray etc, acknowledging that family males cannot protect? Should women now turn violent, carry acid to throw in their faces or a sharp scissors for a Bobbit? Or what? What about little girls at the hands of family members? Why is no one thinking of the boys?  Why do they feel the urge to rape ... even babies? I often wonder: is this a side effect of digital India, with mobiles penetrating where health, education, or even proper roads have not.  So they, the boys have access to PORN... great inspiration! Add to that the frustration of watching girls snap up top spots in all exams, jobs, laurels, even encroaching into earlier male arenas and making good there, albeit with hard work. The male encroachment into previously f...

The guys who wrote the Ved Purans must have been a real misogynist lot. Hey, wait a minute; didn't the Brahmins do all that transcription, Centuries after their actual creation and oral traditions? Hmmm Brahmins?         It figures. Some say, after the release of the soul in cremation, It goes to Pitralok.  This enables a forefather to move to his next birth. Hey!   No instant rebirth? Anyways, so grandson releases grandfather, and so on. Now what about the women? Does grandma also need a grandson? Does it have to be her son’s son or Beti‘s son will do? Or a grand beti will do?   Is there any mention? After all in our times when one son is common, What happens to Daadima,   Naanima and   Mausima?  Everyone doesn’t have a son. Some don't have kids at all.    If no grandkids, toh? Agar bete ki Beti hai, toh? Agar Beti ka beta hai toh? Uske Dada ka kya hoga? If only one ch...

A Review by Kusum Choppra The title of Murli Melwani’s collection of short stories should have been “Against Many Skies.”       More than half the stories crisscross  India and her myriad cultures; the rest follow the ancestral trading trails beyond India’s borders trod by the hoary ancestors of a unique community, the Sindhis. I was so impressed by the perspectives the stories present that I could not   help but make brief comparisons of today’s   reality with the   layers of   literary pastry, appealling to different sensibilities, across numerous boundaries into the hearts of many readers. “ A Bar Girl.” A   touching story   woven around the life styles that both Amar Badlani and Rak have  chosen, that prevent them from stopping and evaluating their lives or asking where there are heading. For me the significant event was  Amar heading for Rak’s village, where it came home to ...

"Whistling or hissing, inviting by winking, soliciting or beckoning, writing songs with suggestive words or tunes, using amorous words, grasping and squeezing the wrist, caressing, placing a foot on the toes, touching the breasts, embracing and clinging, knocking down or forcing to lie down, assaulting while lying down , etc....."  
LIsten folks, this is not a list of the Do Nots under any modern Sexual Harassment of Women Act of our times.  SURPRISE! SURPRISE! 
 It was found by Pro. Bina Agarwal while researching India's matrilineal Garo tribe in the North East, part of an ancient oral code of "moral laws" followed by the Garos for generations.  Any of the actions mentioned were punishable if reported to the village chief. 
In our times, which is that Chief to whom women can go to report with any assurance that needful/justice would be done?