Purde mein rehene do, purdah na uthao?

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Remember watching the movie Veer Zaara in which this young woman overcomes all difficulties of discrimination, suppression and prejudice to get to the court room to fight her first case as an advocate? Well, it no longer remains a tale, but has now become headlines. A recent legislation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia allows their women citizens to appear in court on domestic cases and to argue cases in court. It would also permit women some marginal independence as they can fulfil some elementary legislative procedures on the grounds of their ID card alone and not a male family member’s ID. The KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) doesn’t allow its women half as much freedom that we quite take for granted.

Imagine what it would be like if we were told we couldn't travel without a father, husband or son for company. Or for that matter, even live alone in a hotel. Or that the only job we could undertake was one that allowed no contact with other people, especially men we’re not related to. Imagine being told that we couldn't drive or enter a restaurant just because we were women. Imagine requiring male guardianship even for your education, let alone employment. Imagine not allowed any interaction with the opposite sex because it was considered taboo, evil and a great unpardonable sin. 

I've heard so much about the treatment of women citizens in KSA that I can't thank my stars enough for my birth in a family that never imposed any restrictions on me, a country that has usually never deprived me of any fundamental rights or any means to a living and in an era that has granted me and thousands of other women like me the liberty and the independence that we so cherish.

Is the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports fair?

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The sweet taste of victory

I recently won the first at an inter college debate competition held here in Dubai. There were 11 teams in all from a variety of colleges and I was the only girl among all the participants. The topic for the preliminary elimination round was the same as the title of this post. By the draw of lots, I got to speak against the motion. Fortunately, it didn't conflict with my own thoughts. But the other speakers had spoken so brilliantly, that I developed cold feet and butterflies and dragonflies in my tummy.

I went to the lectern, cleared my throat in a desperate attempt to find my voice which by now had reclined deep inside my alimentary canal. I finally took one sweeping look at all the faces in the auditorium, paused at the faces of the judges and with a nod of my head, began to speak. I can't explain what happened to me, but my brain unusually reduced its processing power from 4.8GHz to 800MHz. I missed a few points that I wanted to make, blabbered something that sounded quite differently in my head and before I knew it, I had concluded my speech! As I returned to my seat, I drowned in the sinking feeling of under-performance. The aching feeling of knowing that you could have done so much better, the despicable feeling of not meeting standards you set for yourself. My colleagues from my college said I'd performed well, but it somehow didn't make a big difference to me. But I told me to trust in myself and the last minute thinking I'd done on the stage.

I patiently waited for the results to be announced. And I can't mathematically express to any degree of certainty, the ratio in which were mixed my feelings of euphoria and pleasant surprise. The subsequent rounds went off a bit better as the initial success had boosted my morale and confidence in me a bit. And of course, we brought the first prize back home. I can never adequately thank Ashutosh for being there with me throughout , the win wouldn’t have been possible without his support as a team mate - here's to him!

I've penned a near reproduction of what I'd spoken that day, just for reference.

The words that cast the magic

Muhammad Ali, the legendary American Boxer once captured the spirit of sportsmanship in very profound words when he said that Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them -- a desire, a dream, a vision.

International sports have always been a medium of international solidarity, a way of replace international conflict with a platform for friendly competition. It salutes the greatness of the human spirit. In a world where wealth and prosperity have not been distributed equally or fairly, international sports provide that superior prospect for countries to contest each other on a level playing field. Consider the types of obstacles — racial, economic, social, political, etc. — that different athletes, from the plethora of countries that participate, face in order to get to the international arena.

Increasing competition between countries, to save their national pride, has time and again propelled society's demand for excellence from its athletes and sports persons. This has caused athletes to seek alternative means to enhance their performance. In this world of instant email, instant messaging and instant coffee comes modern day science offering for those seeking an edge over one’s opponents in the form of the use of performance-enhancing drugs as a part of athletic competition. Today's athletes face an increasingly difficult choice: to use drugs to enhance performance or to accept what could amount to a competitive handicap. It is a choice, which carries significant considerations, not only ethical but also political, social, technological and economic. Should athletes be permitted to make this choice, or should society, through the medium of sports' governing bodies exercise control and strictly enforce the ban on performance enhancing drugs?

Some argue that the choice should be left to the athletes in order to respect their individual choice above any ethical considerations. Others choose to ban performance-enhancing drugs with the intention of protecting the athlete against the potentially harmful consequences of his or her own actions. Athletes who are caught using illegal drugs are often exposed through the media and negatively discriminated against by the sporting community. The result is that the athlete faces a double bind conflict: he or she is pressured to produce superhuman performance, yet must remain ethically human while preparing for them. The ramifications of cheating in sport are numerous and all negative in nature. Beyond the negative aspect which cheating in sports presents, are dangerous physiological and psychological side effects, which the athlete faces when using performance enhancing drugs such as anabolic and androgenic steroids.

If performance enhancing drugs were permitted in all sports competitions, contend purveyors of the drug ban, it would no longer be a factor of competitive advantage as each athlete would have an equal opportunity to make use of PEDs. They argue that drug use is one advantage among many, such as access to superior coaching or training facilities that athletes may or may not have at their disposal to sharpen their competitive edge. The fact that all athletes are not starting with the same set of advantages discredits the notion that a “level playing field” can somehow be restored if drugs are eliminated. According to this view, performance-enhancing drugs are simply making up for an athlete’s natural deficiencies or quality of training. Not only would this make athletes increasingly dependent upon performance-enhancing drugs to help them produce higher quality results than what s/he is capable of delivering naturally. But, more importantly what they fail to assess is that the athletes would have to become virtual guinea pigs in the hands of biotechnological advancement in order to remain competitive. And because athletes regularly take larger doses of steroids and other drugs than medical patients, the long term health effects of such drug use remain largely unknown. Health reports from some athletes exposed to performance-enhancing drugs offer more than adequate reason for caution.

Performance-enhancing drugs have subverted this ideal of sportsmanship in two distinct ways.

1. First, many athletes have abandoned self-restraint in this regard, resulting in a crisis of conduct

2. Second, the scientization of the athlete, either through drugs or other biotechniques, also involves a crisis of identity. To what extent can the emotional experience of competition be truly shared with an athlete who has transformed himself with drugs? Once the athlete has abandoned self-restraint, drug testing becomes the sole guarantor of the ‘integrity’ of sport.”

Sports authorities and fans have come to understand that biotechnology would inevitably provide athletes with an endless array of pharmaceutical enhancements. Controls have had to be placed on doping in order to prevent sports from becoming a science laboratory where the human spirit played second fiddle to pills and injections and man is pitched against technology.

Athletes are making more money in today’s society and they often feel the continual pressure to produce for the fans leading them to long-term addiction. Corporations the world over pour in pots and pots of money over the training and victories of the athletes. Athletes today are brand ambassadors, of not just their sports fraternity or their country, but of multinational enterprises. The use of performance enhancing drugs thus isn’t restricted to being just a reflection of the athlete’s decision but of the organisation s/he represents as well. And the victory isn’t restricted to just the gold medal but expands to include millions of quids. Allowing the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports would make it a high-risk-high-returns venture inviting inevitable power play, gambling and bookie-business.

But far more reaching is its impact on our future generations. Many of these athletes are role models to younger athletes and influence decisions on how to overcome their own obstacles. There are many examples of athlete’s using Performance-Enhancing Drugs, as they find themselves trying to break records. The generations of today and tomorrow shape themselves on the ideals of myriad sports persons who are regarded as icons of endurance. But with athletes setting examples of blatant drug (ab)use, what message would be sent out to the youth, the pillars of our societies, our nations and our future. Would we want to waste our future generations to the lame exploits of biotechnological insanity.

At the heart of anti-drug use in sport debates, lies the theory that drugs sabotage the true intention of sport. The continuing saga of drug use in sport is not only unethical but also negatively impacts the athlete and the entire sporting community.

Vegetable Biryani in the microwave

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Recent merger

I recently merged all my 3 blogs and transferred the admin privileges to my new ID. It made more sense to me this way – because it wasn’t getting easy to manage 3 blogs. So now, even my articles on cooking will be posted on this blog itself rather than on my other blog, What’s cooking? I’ll see if I can add the tags to all the food related articles so it should make navigation more blogger-friendly.

An amazing evening 

This evening, I made one of the best turned out recipes of my tenure in Dubai – Vegetable Biryani. I painstakingly procured all the ingredients from City Super market, Mohideen and Auchan ensuring that I had the best vegetables and rice for it. Took me really long – I started at around 6:30 and was done by 8pm. But I think, if you have a more powerful microwave and a skilled hand at chopping vegetables, you’d be better off.

Ikshu had joined me for dinner. And despite being a compulsive non-vegetarian, he thoroughly enjoyed the biryani. Well, that’s what he made me believe! Pooja and Santosh also tasted it and they too said that it had turned out well. But don't just fall for the image insert because I lifted  this one from the internet (I know its bad manners). Next time on, I'll remember to click a pic to post it with the article. You can try to make this preparation (I’ve given the recipe below) and do let me know how it turns out! I hope you enjoy it as much as we all did.

I'll continue posting these 'bachelor' cooking recipes for anyone who loves to try his/ hand at the wonderful art of cooking.

À la prochaine!

Recipe

Ingredients

•    Oil, about 3 tbsp.

•    Jeera (cumin seeds), about 1 tsp.

•    Potatoes, 2 large ones, diced 

•    Onions, 1 large one, julienne cut

•    Tomatoes, 1 medium sized one, chopped

•    Capsicum, half, diced

•    Mixed frozen vegetables, about 100g

•    Yoghurt, about 200g

•    Chillies, about 2 long ones, chopped

•    Turmeric, about a quarter of a tsp.

•    Garam masala, about 1 tsp.

•    Chilli powder, about 1 tbsp.

•    Biryani masala, about 1 heaped tbsp.

•    Ginger garlic paste, half tsp.

•    Coriander leaves, to garnish

•    Salt, as per taste

Method

1.    In the meanwhile, heat the oil in another bowl

2.    When it’s hot enough, add the jeera and let it splutter (yes, it does splutter in the microwave too)

3.    Add in half of the spices - the turmeric powder, chilli powder, garam masala, biryani masala and the ginger garlic paste

4.    Add the potatoes and allow it to cook till it’s about 70% done

5.    Add in all the vegetables and microwave-sauté it till it’s about nearly done

6.    Add the remainder of the spices

7.    Mix the yoghurt with the vegetables till they are well coated with the spices and yoghurt

8.    Cook the rice separately

9.    Add the rice with the vegetables along with an appropriate amount of salt

10.    Add in the green chillies and mix well

11.    Microwave for about 5 minutes

12.    Garnish with Coriander leaves and serve!

(Phir) Mile Sur Mera Tumhara

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We've had a remake of the old mile sur mera tumhara. The videos are up on youtube (links given here : 1998 Video | 2010 Video). Each is good in its own way. I especially liked the use of instruments in the new one. Here're a few of the other thoughts that crossed my mind when I watched the two videos

• Amitabh is one lucky old man to be in both the videos - to still be so much in demand. I
• 'd have liked to see the kids of the stars who were casted in the old video to have been casted in the new one. Like Sharmila Tagore was in the old one, the new one could have roped Saif in (and I'm not just saying it for his hot-bod!!), Esha could have been casted in the new one where Hemamalini was in the old one, etc.
• Unlike the old one, the new one has given Goa no airtime. In the old one was Mario Miranda, in this one? There could have been Remo or the football clubs or something else. But the lack of representation of Goa was a disappointment.
• The old one included both Tulu and Kannada in a unique combination; I'd have liked to see that in the new one too.
• Besides, we have transformed a million colours since 1988 - bringing with it new achievements and new issues. The new video could have done some justice to that. Especially on the achievements front. One saving grace, of course, was the Taj, Mumbai in the beginning of the video, representing 26/11. 
• The new video has tried to ape the old one in a few ways and has tried to reinvent itself in others, but it ends up being a celebration of urban progress and westernisation than anything else.

All in all, I think it’s a good effort, the collaborative efforts of a number of artists. Perhaps measuring it with the yard stick of the earlier video is  unjust and unfair.  There is no doubt  in the universal truth that music binds people. And our country can just never have too many songs to sing together.

Jai hind.

A Free Country. Indeed?

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The world around us

The Freedom House has recently published its ‘Map of freedom 2009’. As per the findings, both political rights and civil liberties have suffered around the world for the fourth consecutive year in 2009. This signifies the longest uninterrupted period of decline since the report was first published. Here’re the facts for us to reflect upon:

• Electoral democracies dropped in number from 119 to 116, the lowest in the last 15 years or so.
• Half a dozen countries have been demoted: Lesotho has been reduced to ‘partly free’ while Gabon, Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan and Kyrgyzstan have descended into the ‘not free’ category.
• Over a third of the world’s population still live in countries that have been deemed as ‘not free’ and not very surprisingly, over half of them come from behind the Great Wall of China.
• In the Middle East and North Africa 70% of countries are not free. This includes UAE, where I live, though Dubai may give one a feeling of considerable warmth.

On the brighter side, though freedom was on the ascent in 16 countries, notably in the Balkans, where Kosovo is partly free and the Black Mountain of the Adriatic Sea, Montenegro, is now considered free. Singapore, received a downward trend arrow due to the politically motivated handling of defamation cases, which cast doubt on judicial independence. Not surprising at all. I remember interviewing Singaporean citizens about the health facilities in S’pore and Singaporean establishments about HR practices and they just wouldn’t be read to say a thing about the government for fear of being turned in! Like they say, Singapore is a fine city, there is a fine for most things! UK continues to remain ‘free’, not surprising at all again. That country gives its people so much space and independence that I just fell in love with it since I first put foot on its concrete (well, I can’t say soil, there hardly is any soil exposed!) some four years ago.

Incredible, its India

But closer home, India has been marked as a ‘free’ state on the map. But is it really ‘free’? If so then how do our citizens exercise their civic freedom? On the same day as the publishing of the Freedom report, the national newspapers in India read ‘moral police against advertising lingerie’ with activists being offended by the display of women's lingerie on the mannequins in shops, calling it ‘obscene’. Perhaps the country has been rid of other problems such as corruption and theft that these purveyors of culture must now turn to more ‘engaging’ problems such as women’s undergarments?


This is a country that shelters about half-a-billion sexually repressed men. While they prevent their women from exposing anything over the knee, they remain immersed in watching porn and patronising dance bars and other places I consider demeaning to even mention. Such double standards. If obscene ads will not be allowed in Madhya Pradesh, will the Government demolish the Khajuraho temples too? Will they stoop to serving the same fate that was met out to the Buddhas of Bamyan? One of the most astounding forms of ancient sculpture and Hindu culture, the Khajuraho temples, are a tribute to the most beautiful gift of God – the union of a man and his woman. Isn’t this a part of Indian culture? Aren’t these the same temples that help MPSTDC and Incredible India earn revenues and forex from throngs of tourists? The pseudo Taliban that patrols the shops in an attempt to protect a culture, doesn’t even know let alone understand and respect what our culture is about. In a country plagued by more serious issues to tackle, isn’t this surreal. All this in the state that figures in the top ten list of sex crimes in the country. Perhaps it is this ground reality that the state governments would be much better off addressing. So much for Indian culture.

I can understand that attitudes towards sex remain conservative by western standards, particularly in rural and provincial areas. But removal of condom ads for reasons that they are ‘against family values’? What poignant irony given that this is a country with the largest population. Proliferation is so much a part of the Indian culture that not only do we have the largest growing human population but also the largest cattle population, the largest pig population and the largest goat population. Gimme a break. We might be free from colonial rule, free from oppression and free from slavery to superstition. But are we free only superficially? Will our children live in a better country or will they too be troubled by the same problems? How long before our country comes out of the closet and sees the light of day, the light of knowledge?

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For further reading:

The Freedom House is an independent watchdog organization that supports the expansion of freedom around the world. Freedom House supports democratic change, monitors freedom, and advocates for democracy and human rights. Freedom is possible only in democratic political systems in which the governments are accountable to their own people; the rule of law prevails; and freedoms of expression, association, and belief, as well as respect for the rights of minorities and women, are guaranteed. Freedom ultimately depends on the actions of committed and courageous men and women. We support nonviolent civic initiatives in societies where freedom is denied or under threat and we stand in opposition to ideas and forces that challenge the right of all people to be free. Freedom House functions as a catalyst for freedom, democracy and the rule of law through its analysis, advocacy and action.

I’m feeling lucky @ Tiananmen Square

A tale of misadventure in a strange marriage

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Change of heart : google.cn

Google was mesmerised by China’s rapidly expanding internet market. This was well over 4 years ago. But China, till then, had kept Google at arm’s length by intermittently blocking Google.com and making even that intermittent access snail slow. Baidu wooed and dominated the Chinese market, laughing (at Google) on its way to the bank. Google courted China with a pruned and ‘more decent’ version of its search engine. Apparently, it must have thought to itself that better something than nothing at all. Throwing caution to the wind, it set forth to milk the Chinese cow.

The elders met, the horoscopes were matched and the marriage was fixed. Was it meant to last? Or was it just mAdSense? Google penetrated the Chinese search engine market with a view of being the leading search engine in China in the long haul. Now, it announces its threat to review the future of the relationship and possibly pull out of the Chinese search engine market. It has cited infection by the plague of hackers and woes of the ‘finger-on-the-lip’ policy to have agonised it. Even Uncle (Sam) Obama had obliquely deplored the Comstockery, when he toured the country in November. But China wouldn’t listen. Eventually pushing Google to separate the master bed, or maybe even, leave the bedroom for good.

China is no cow; it’s a fire breathing dragon. Google risks scathing its private parts.

China: being the nasty in-law

Why? Check this out :

• China blocked Youtube when it hosted some videos of Chinese law-enforcers brutally beating Tibetan monks.
• China banned access to Picassa shortly after.
• China wouldn’t let anyone access Blogger from its communist land
• China made a huge hue and cry about violations of copyrights in its Google Books venture
• China is also said to have made “highly sophisticated and targeted attack” on its corporate computer systems “originating from China” in December.

But Google isn’t the only one in the sorrow-ship

• China pretended to open its arms to these sites in the build-up to the Beijing Olympics in August 2008 as it tried to project a more open and liberal image to foreign delegates and visitors. But no sooner did the lights go off at the stadium, that restrictions have been amplified to unprecedented levels
• China has prevented the masses from any access to the world wide web, forget any access to uncensored news, in the regions afflicted by ethnic disturbances.
• China met Twitter and Facebook with the same cold hostility.
• China wouldn’t hear a word against itself and proceeded to block leading international newspapers such as the Guardian, the New York Times, even the Economist, for days at length.

Google would perhaps be among the first of the big brands and heavy weights to openly attribute its withdrawal to the lack of freedom of expression. While Silicon valley praises Google for taking some guts to make such bold statements, the White House pats Google’s back assuring its (Washington’s) support. Even if standing up against China is part of its long-term interests, there is no discounting the fact that Google has ‘the balls’ to walk away from the world’s largest potential market.

A broken family?

We must remember, though, that such direct finger-pointing isn’t going to do down very well with China. Even while it buries news articles about Google’s threat, it seeks to portray the entire event as a hollow gimmick and a narrow commercial dispute rather than a pressing political one. It even shies away from taking Google’s name directly reminiscent of rural Indian women refusing to take their husband’s name.

• What about the future?
• Will about the 700 or so people whose families earn their daily bread because of Google?
• Will the backlash lead China to impose a Great Wall on all Google services and block it in its entirety?
• What about the sale of Google’s merchandise?
• What about the Google android and its younger sibling that is still in the womb?
• Will they do well in the renminbi markets?

In all probability, the Beijing may not vent the fire of their anger directly on Google because of increasing public sentiment of sympathy among the Chinese netizens for Google’s spasm on censorship, among other reasons. Beinjing may instead choose to turn the fire elsewhere by stirring up a little nationalist and (the suppressed) anti-American sentiment on another front (Taiwan?).