DIWALI'S SIGNIFICANCE, GONE?

On this eve of Diwali, my mom was lamenting about the price hike of chicken and it prompted a conversation between her and my brother and it is as follows:  My bro,"Why do we celebrate Diwali?" My mom,"To commemorate the slaying of Nargasura (demon) by Lord Krishna." My bro,"Why did Lord Krishna slay Nargasura?" My mom, now a little bit annoyed,"It's because Nargasura tortured and killed lots of people." My bro,"What do we cook and eat on Diwali morning?" My mom,"Chicken curry and idly (Indian steamed rice cakes)" My bro,"Are we any different from Nargasura? My mom,"What do you mean son?" My bro,"Lord...

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RELIGIOUS NONSENSE AS IT IS

Sir Paul McCartney of the Beatles has simple concept regarding his spirituality. God is Good with an extra 'o' and Evil is Devil with an extra 'd'.  I was reading his interview and thought that it makes perfect sense. Good (god) and evil (devil) both exist within us and our call is to promote the growth of good in us and kill the evil in us. Simple it is.  Atheists argue that gods were created by the human brain. It is nothing but a figment of mankind's imagination although aliens might have gave mankind a few starters, like some atheists believe. Extra-terrestrial intervention is perhaps more reasonable than the...

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A MESSAGE FOR YOUNG INDIAN MEN

This article contains crude language. Reader discretion is advised. Dear young Indian males,  Does this dialogue below sound familiar? "Hey, how is that girl?" prods a young Indian man to another. "She's definitely hot but I don't think she is marriage material." his friend counters. "Why do you say like that? What's wrong with her?" the young Indian man presses on curiously. "Hmm, let's just say she is a lock that has been opened by many keys. She is messed up, her ex told me. If I were you, I'll stay away from that girl." The young Indian man grouses,"It seems that are no good Indian girls nowadays. They are all...

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SORDID INDIAN MALE MENTALITY

The content below has raw descriptions. Reader discretion is advised. She was a daughter. She was a sister. She was 23. She was a medical student. She had her whole life ahead of her. But, now she is no more. Her only crime? Being a woman. That is her only crime and for that she was raped and brutalized beyond reason. She fought, battled for her life for 15 days until she breathed her last on 29th December 2012. For many of us, this is just a news; it will be forgotten in two weeks time until another similar horror story that sends shivers up our spines crop up and we will forget about it in due time as well. We have a convenient...

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A PERSPECTIVE ON ATHEISM

More and more people especially young people are rejecting religious indoctrination and the image of God nowadays. A large number of theists  perceive atheism as a religion that rejects other religions. If atheism is a religion then unemployment is a job. That’s how ill-fitting it is. The term, atheism, should not exist in the first place. It is simply an admission of the obvious. Atheists are moved by a dedication for reason. Saying that the earth is only several thousand years old and filling your petrol tank with fossil fuel formed billions of years ago in the earth’s crust defies all logic. There are no terms to describe...

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ATTENTION FACEBOOK-ING GIRLS!!

Lately, Facebook pages which highlight girls based heavily on their scant dressing sense have mushroomed in full view for the masses worldwide. Such pages' admins justify that they are teaching a lesson on how to dress and behave to these girls while calling them sluts, bitches, whores, etc. In the lame pretext of moral policing the girls, those who operate the pages allow vulgar comments and the soliciting of the mobile numbers from fans of the girls featured on such pages. And, they call this 'educating' 'vehicles' and playgirls and those girls who reveal their body publicly in Facebook. And then there are girls who provide a surplus...

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OF BEAUTY PAGEANTS AND THE DEFINITION OF BEAUTY

I was watching a recent beauty pageant and it struck me how the clarification of beauty is defined, the yardstick of what's alluring and what is not, And, it just seemed not right. The classifications of statistics of 'figure' which is perfect and desirable are liberally incorporated when beauty pageants were founded and then commercialized. And then, the girls are being 'objectified' rather than 'identified'. Beauty pageants have this particular, narrow category of what 'beauty' is. Certain statistics are considered pulchritude, others, unsightly or even grotesque. Beauty pageants never acknowledge women's individuality and...

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INDIA'S AGE OLD FETISH FOR FAIR SKIN CHALLENGED

Asian nations, particularly India has an obsession with fair skin. Dark skin is snubbed as ugly and this is overwhelmingly true for women there. Rosalyn D'Mello, a journalist based in India’s capital New Delhi, still recalls how her family and friends used to mock her because of her dark complexion when she was a young girl. "They used to call me kaali (black), ‘blacky’ and even ‘negro’ because of my dark skin," she said. "My mother was cruel about my skin shade. She wanted me to use 'Fair and Lovely'," a skin lightening cream," D’Mello said. "I don’t believe in the norm that equates beauty with skin colour." Many women in India...

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FROM BRIGHT STUDENT TO MOM AT 18

I finished my secondary school in a relatively unpopular all girls high school. When I started 8th grade, I befriended Suzy, (not her real name), a girl with dusky complexion who was a bright student and also my school mate who lived in my neighborhood. She was also my school bus mate and sure enough, in due time, we became close friends. I was a public bus virgin before high school. There were co-curricular activities in school on Saturdays and since school buses do not operate on weekends, public transportation became a means to an end for me. Suzy was my constant company during such trips to and fro school on Saturdays as well...

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