A smaller world is a lesser one...

When we took an auto to Alpha One mall yesterday, the auto driver did not agree to drop us at the mall, but a few hundred meters away from it, because he was supposed to take another route. (The mall is less than two kilometers from where I stay). We had no choice but to walk. And as I walked, I saw the families that lived on the pavement. Not that it was the first time I saw people living by the side of the road, especially since it is a rather common sight in Ahmedabad, but after a long long time I saw them so closely. People sleeping, camouflaged in the dust, kids playing with broken tree branches, women cooking on firewood.

And I realised that although I know for a fact that there are countless families that live by the side of roads, I hardly get to 'see' them anymore. I travel so much and so fast that I end up being concerned about just the destination (which in this case was the mall). And the speed of my journeys obscures everything that lies in the way. I look at people fleetingly. I recognise the phenomenon too and even reconnect it within my mind with what I have read, discussed and written about issues of development-induced homelessness. But then I do not retain it long enough. And once I reach the mall, I get lost in the brands and the visual merchandise and the lights.

I felt something similar when I was travelling in a passenger train from Gomoh to Gaya. Passenger trains are good eye-openers. For all those who refuse to come out of the bubble of development, need to travel by passenger trains for a reality check. When you take a car to travel a distance of a couple of hundred kilometers, you fail to observe certain things. The reason being the fact that amongst a few things that the governments nowadays do invest in, are good, wide roads.  These roads are more often than not widened and re-constructed after displacing the 'encroachers'. And you love speeding on these roads. Passenger trains, on the other hand, offer a rather different landscape both inside and outside. You stand for long hours in a crowded compartment and get ample time to observe and talk to people from different walks of life, people you would otherwise not encounter beyond them being your research subjects. Also, passenger trains tend to stop for exceedingly long periods in between stations and you are able to look into the houses and lives of people who live along the railway tracks.
It is the speed that makes all the difference in perspectives. As the speed increases, the world gets smaller and our perspectives get limited. We end up in a world that is sanitised of its 'unnecessary' complexities, a simpler world, a lesser world.

We live in awful times...or should I say shameful?

Disgusted, outraged and ashamed....

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-killing-of-a-young-boy/article4428792.ece?homepage=true

Is there a reason I should be proud of the times that I live in? Please please answer back....all those who think that we have come a long way towards 'development'...

'Buniyaad hilni chahiye'

What does it take to create an outrage of such a scale? What does it take to make the outrage prudent enough to ask deeper questions? What does it take to sustain the outrage? And what entails for it to subside?

I do not know the answers to these questions. Women have been subject to sexual violence since ages, but it took the rape and painful death of a 23 year old woman to make people leave there comfortable positions and get on to streets. Questions did not remain limited to stricter punishments for rape, people started probing into questions of how social constructs of gender have been unfair towards women and the third genders. I don't know how long the outrage would sustain. Will it subside once the rapists in the above case are hanged to death? Or will it lead to a rather populist decision of sanctioning death penalty for rape?

Either ways the problem remains. And as Dushyant Kumar wrote:

'आज ये दीवार पर्दों की तरह हिलने लगी 

शर्त लेकिन थी कि ये बुनियाद हिलनी चाहिए'
..the 'buniyaad', the bases of injustice remain intact.

I don't know whether to feel hopeful or hopeless by this outrage. I can think of it as a little something that happened as opposed to many 'nothings'. And as one of the guest speakers in a class I attended, remarked that she was surprised to see at least as many men protesting as there were women for the same cause... this definitely offers hope.
But, then once the outrage subsides then what. What do we do at our small, personal levels to keep the flame alight? Do we as mothers, sisters, daughters, friends, girlfriends, wives, resist the objectification of our identities, assert our identities as humans first? Do we as fathers, brothers, sons, friends, boyfriends, husbands, do the same?
The men who were outraged will certainly not become rapists or perpetrators of violence against women. But that addresses the problem at the surface. Everytime a father would stop and respect the fact that a daughter or a daughter-in-law is not a commodity for sale and purchase in the dowry market... Everytime a brother would stop considering his sister as his 'responsibility' or try to be her 'protector'... Everytime a son, a brother or a friend would think before casually using swear words that demean women.... Everytime a boyfriend would stop making casual remarks on the way his girlfriend looks or dresses up...Everytime a husband tries to adapt a portion of 'his' life, 'his' career, 'his' ambitions according to his partner's life and aspirations and not do so as a favour....we would move towards a change that is more fundamental and lasting.