Aamir Khan’s Satyamev Jayate

 

There are some points in life when you feel that nothing you do will ever make a change.

After living here in India for nearly three years, I’ve found myself getting to that point more often than not.

India is so beautiful and full of so many possibilities but hides so much atrocity that it breaks my heart.

India has so many other countries that she could learn from and not make the same mistakes they have.

But every time I’ve mentioned it, I hear things like:

“India is new in her freedom, she needs time.”

“These atrocity’s happen in the villages, not educated cities.”

“India isn’t like this. You can’t compare it to the decadent West.”

And then people blithely go about their lives, refusing to look around them or agitate for causes that do not directly affect them.

So, when Bear and I started seeing adverts on the TV for a new show by Aamir Khan, our first thought was…Aamir on TV? What’s this?

The advertisements were vague and mysterious. Since they were in Hindi, I wasn’t sure what was going on except that Aamir seemed impassioned. When I would ask my husband what Aamir was saying…he could only reply with “He’s talking about telling the truth, that the truth will set us free and how one shouldn’t be afraid of telling the truth.”

My question was “Telling the truth about what?”

“I don’t know…let’s wait and watch.” Was my husband’s reply.

So, we waited with baited breath until this past Sunday to see what truths Aamir was talking about.

And he took our breath away.

His new series is about the truths in India that we hide or hide from. It’s about the things that we must change. It’s about the things that we are doing to ruin our own reputations as Indians and Humans. It’s about truth…as hard and as straight forward as possible.

And it hurt to watch. But it was beautiful as well.

Aamir’s TV series is called Satyamev Jayate. It means Truth Stands Invincible.

In his series, Aamir travels India to learn what issues need to be addressed. If his first episode, Female Foeticide is any indication of his future episodes, he won’t gloss over these hard topics. He’ll shine the light of truth on the darkest corners of India’s heart.

He’ll help set us free…with truth.

In this episode about Female Foeticide, he had women on who were forced, sometimes without their knowledge or consent, to abort their female fetus. Two women testified that this happened to them not once or twice or even thrice…but countless times.

Aamir’s statistics were that every year, 10 Lakh female fetuses are aborted.

That this trend started in the 70’s with Government hospitals, that even after banning it spread to the private sector.

That Doctor’s accused and were guilty of this, have never had their licenses revoked and practice to this day.

That it is NOT the villages where this is happening, but the cities. And by educated families.

AND that a child’s sex is not determined by the Mother…but by the Father, a fact that many people are not aware of. Which explains why it’s always the Mother who is at fault for not giving a son.

So far the reception here in India to his show has been very positive and I pray that it remains this way.

No other person could carry these topics to the Indian people and have them be so received. Aamir is known for his character and activism. His celebrity allows this type of show to become greater than any other show with any other “host”.

At the end of the show, Aamir promised to write a letter to ask for harsher punishment to Doctors’ accused of doing this illegal act and asked people to text their support to the show by “signing” off their approval.

And my husband, who never sends texts to vote for anything, promptly texted “Y” for yes.

Please take a moment out of your busy schedule on Sunday’s at 11am to watch his next episode. Or perhaps watch it on YouTube or his sites link.

I’ll provide you with both here so that’s it’s easier for you. While they aren’t yet available in the states, we are hoping that they will be soon.

The show does have subtitles in English. From his site, you can view episodes in other languages of India.

Watch. Be Inspired. Be the change you want to see.

The truth will set you free.

The Website: http://satyamevjayate.in/

The Episode:

 

©2012 Gori Rajkumari

 

Pranayama Bhastrika or Kapalbhati…you’re doing it wrong.

For my first year living here in India, I was positive that the guy who lives upstairs had either bulimia or anorexia.

Every morning, for the past three years, this man would sit in his bathroom making the most horrific retching noises. It truly sounded like he just couldn’t vomit whatever was upsetting his stomach out…and so he would cough and retch and cough and HUH for a good 15 to 20 minutes.

It should be said that I am what’s called a “Sympathetic Vomitter”. This means that if I so much as hear a retching noise, my gorge starts to rise. If I should, heaven forbid, SEE or SMELL it then for sure I’m going to hurl.

I began to be very concerned with his diet. Was he eating at the same places as us? Was I going to start vomiting every morning? Was it our WATER?

Because of the time that he did this, my husband would be dead to the world and since he sleeps on the side of the bed away from our bathroom…he never heard it. But I did. It became my regular alarm clock.

However when Bear’s work schedule changed, he began waking up earlier in the morning and one morning he was awake when Mr. Chronic Vomitter was at his sympathy vomit inducing best.

“Bear, I think Mr. Upstairs is bulimic.” I said to my husband.

“What’s bulimic mean?” he loves all these new words I teach him.

“It’s when you over eat something and then throw it up. Maybe he’s anorexic instead…”

“Why do you say that? Quizzical looks are always so cute on him.

“Dude! Do you hear him? Listen to that! He’s vomiting out his lungs up there!”

“Ohhh, does he do this every morning?” He’s starting to get the point now…HELLO Sympathy Vomitter for a wife!

“YES!” Emphatically shaking my head to prove this point.

“Oh..he’s not sick. He’s doing pranayama. Either Kapalbhati or Bhastrika. Doesn’t sound like he’s doing it right though.”

“What the HECK is THAT??? I mean, is he vomiting as a part of YOGA??? EW!”

And there started my lessons in yogic breathing techniques.

But the way Bear and his Dad do it doesn’t sound one tiny little bit like the guy upstairs. And they don’t do it for long. And they don’t do it regularly because, as Baba points out, it can be very damaging if done wrong or excessively.

So, what are Kapalbhati and Bhastrika Pranayama? Essentially, they are a part of the Hatha Yoga.

Well, first it should be said that not everyone believes that these are forms of Pranayama. Some believe that they are shuddhikriyas.

Shuddhikriyas are cleansing techniques that should only be done when needed whereas Pranayama are Yogic techniques that can be done on a daily basis.

Kapalbhati and Bhastrika Pranayama are breathing techniques. It’s basically when one sits in a lotus pose, erect and without curvature of the spine and breathe either in small quick breathes in and out of the nose (Kapalbhati) or long inhales and quick exhales through the nose (Bhastrika). They are meant to help you cleanse the nasal cavities, clear the brain and to focus. Simply put.

However, neither of these sounds likes the morning ablutions of Mr. Upstairs.

So I started to do further research.

After reading that most people do not believe that these are actually Pranayama but in fact Shuddhikriyas, I decided to do further research on Shuddhikriyas.

What I finally found was a website listing the different methods of cleansing. (You can see it here).

They are:

• Agnisardhouti
• Vamandhouti
• Kapalbhati
• Jalneti
• Nasagra Drishti

Then I researched each one and VIOLA! What Mr. Upstairs is performing is actually called Vaman Dhouti!

Here is an excerpt on the method:

The washing up of the entire track starting from the mouth to the digestive path at the beginning of the small intestines, that is mouth, esophagus, stomach etc are included in this process. One can wash one’s mouth, but in the daily routine one cannot wash the esophagus or the stomach. The impurities residing there are carried along with the food particles and are mixed in some proportion with the blood. This has adverse effects on the body. In the case of some patients, the stomach wash is affected by introducing rubber tube into the stomach. This process is done in Yoga without any external instruments, only with the physical movements of the internal organs in the body. This process of stomach wash is done with the help of dand (catheter), water or cloth. We will consider the process done with the help of water.

EW!

AND this website even goes so far to say that it should NOT be performed daily!

So what the heck Dude? Why do I have to listen to Mr. Upstairs make his retching vomiting noises every single morning for three years?

Now I’m currently thinking up a way to print this webpage off, slide it under his door and wait to see if it changes anything.

Perhaps highlight in yellow and underline in bold that part about NOT performing it daily.

©2012 Gori Rajkumari

Rules of Engagement

Bear has a few rules in our house concerning me.

1. If I go out on the scooter, I need to call him so he knows when I’m leaving and where I’m going.
2. When I wash my hair, I either have to blow dry it right away or not go outside/sit under a fan/sit in AC.
3. If I’m already in a bad mood, I am not allowed to read any Indian News paper as it will put me in a worse mood.

Number three is the one I have a problem with. Mostly because even if I’m in a good mood, I generally will almost always find something that either upsets me, sickens me or just plain makes me mad.

Today I found one that just made me incredulous. For all of 5 seconds and then I answered all my own questions of disbelief.

What was the article you ask?

Digging Deeper into his “road rage” in today’s Pune Mirror. You can find it here.

The break down is this.

Mr. Anna Shinde says that he owns two gunthas of land on or near the Upper Crest housing scheme which was built near the Corinthian’s Club in Pune.

Mr. Shinde further stipulates that he has never been compensated for this land by the builder or the PMC when they built a road leading to the homes. Mr. Shinde says that he has approached both on many occasions in trying to gain his compensation.

When none was provided, Mr. Shinde hired a JCB machine, went to the site and dug up a ditch at the entrance to the Upper Crest homes making it impossible for the residents to enter by car or two-wheeler.

When the residents tried to stop and complain to Mr. Shinde, he told them to take it up with the builder and the PMC for not paying him for the land use.

Even when confronted with retired and elderly people who need to be driven to their door practically, he did not relent.

PMC and the Builder both stipulate that Mr. Shinde never approached them over the ten years it took for this project to complete and that he only recently approached them without enough and proper documentation proving his ownership. Nor did Mr. Shinde have demarcation documents for his plot.

Hmmm…the plot thickens. It also, in true India news style, ends there. No information for what will be done for the poor residents. No information on the laws about this. No references to previous such occasions and their repercussions. I would love it if the Indian news would start giving that kind of information in their reports…making the public aware of the laws could go a long way in curbing this kind of behavior…but I digress, that’s an entirely different blog post I think.

Either way, my first thought was this… “What was Mr. Shinde thinking?”  (Here’s where you can insert the credulous voice).

If you’ll remember from a earlier post of mine “Wipro and Educational Initiatives Study shows troubling trend.” I had quoted this piece from the article…

Most troubling was that 67%  of students feel that it is OK not to consider another persons inconvenience if it’s not done often, if the other person does not complain or if no perceived laws are broken.

This particular quote is telling. Especially when a parent in the article was quoted with this…

Parents cannot be blamed for everything going wrong in society. It is the friends’ circle and those are who committing violence who are disturbing children. 

My argument has and will always be that children learn from what they see, hear and read.

Quite obviously Mr. Shinde is no longer a child, however his behavior exactly mimics those espoused by the 67% of children who believe that even if their actions inconvenience another person it’s of no consequence to them. As long as they don’t’ do it often.

Here’s where this logic fails. Go to Reliance on any busy shopping day. Try to keep your place in line. One person butts in front of you and you say nothing. That person is now done butting so it was a onetime occurrence for THEM. Now four more people butt in front of you. Once for them as well. Now five more butt in front of you. Also, once for them. They all had one experience while you had 10 experiences of inconvenience.

If everyone thought this way, we would all be in a world of hurt. It’s not sound logic and it shouldn’t be espoused as an excuse or reason or even something that’s allowed ONCE for anyone.

Moving on…

My second thought was this… “Why didn’t Mr. Shinde take his case to court? Or appeal to the public? Put up a hoarding? Call the local paper or news media?”

Indeed…why didn’t Mr. Shinde try to find ways other than inconveniencing the people living there? Why didn’t he think to himself “Why to punish these people who had nothing at all to do with it?”

And if I had been fresh in my stay of India, my thoughts and frustrations would have ended there.

However, living here now for three years I can now answer these questions with ease.

1. Because he would have been inconvenienced (see number two).
2. Because the court system here is atrocious and sluggish, taking years to give him any justice.
3. Because the public might not have cared to help, they would have been unconcerned…it’s not their problem so why should they bother?
4. Because harassing other’s gets better and faster results.
5. Because one person yelling is insignificant next to many yelling.
6. Because the rules of engagement in India are different then what I grew up with.

And really, I hate that each and every one of these answers is true.

Mr. Shinde or anyone for that matter, should be able to get due diligence here. They should be able to get the public concerned when it could be them in his shoes, the community should work together for the betterment of all.

But most times, that just isn’t the case. Mostly, people are more concerned with their own sphere of life and the only time they have for looking out for other’s is when it’s taking an interest in whatever society stigma they may be involved with.

It may be a long time coming till anyone can get the swift justice that they deserve. Good or bad.

In the mean time, we’ll open up the paper in the morning to read about some new action someone has taken to get their own brand of justice.

And soon…Bear is going to start a new rule

1. No reading Indian Papers. Full stop.

©2012 Gori Rajkumari

Wipro and Educational Initiatives Study shows troubling trend.

No man is an island

No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as a manor of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. ~John Donne

Literary education is of no value, if it is not able to build up a sound character. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.  Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.  I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

I read an article in yesterday’s Pune Mirror which was troubling to say the least. You can find the piece here: “…if these are the prejudices young minds nurture.”

According to a recent study by Wipro and Educational Initiatives, Indian children are becoming more at risk for prejudices which could greatly reduce India’s ability to move forward as a whole Community. Approximately 23,000 children from Stds IV, VI and VIII from 89 schools across the country were surveyed and the results are staggering.

Simply put, our youth is demonstrating traits like gender bias, cultural and religious intolerance, and civic irresponsibility. So what were the findings?

 

Disagreements: About 30% of children surveyed said that they wanted to have the last word in an argument, felt uncomfortable with opposing points of view. Another 30% said they were aggressive when arguing, saw no problems with this behavior and did not feel it affected others.

Girl Students: Approximately 40 – 43% of students surveyed felt that education for girls was not as important as her responsibility towards the family.  About 15% of STD VIII felt that girl children were a burden to their family. For STD IV children most felt that both boys and girls were equally capable.

Immigrants: Nearly 60% of students were unwilling to accept ‘outsiders’ from other states as they felt these people do not conform to local traditions, steal away jobs and are a source of communal disagreements.

Disabled:  As many as 70 – 80% of students across the different class levels feel that the disabled are burdensome, unhappy and not good at studies. Although older students were more inclined to accept these kinds of students. There also was a shocking lack of knowledge about HIV.

Slow Starters: It was found that until STD VIII, Indian students are below the International standards. It was noted that students learn by rote  and this was why it wasn’t until later that most students began answering questions correctly.

Civic Sense: Younger students seem to have a better rate for civic responsibility than older students. It was found that as a child get’s older, they tend to have less personal responsibility and will repeat undesirable deeds that they see other’s performing.  Most troubling was that 67%  of students feel that it is OK not to consider another persons inconvenience if it’s not done often, if the other person does not complain or if no perceived laws are broken.

But, perhaps most troubling of all (for me personally) was a quote at the end of the piece by a Parent.

Parents cannot be blamed for everything going wrong in society. It is the friends’ circle and those are who committing violence who are disturbing children. 

I found this statement most telling of all and likely to explain the problems our children face. If she cannot even recognize that it is the duty of every parent to make sure that not only THEIR child is behaving but also their friends then what is our Country coming to? When one adult is too afraid to tell any child when something they are doing in a public space is wrong, that child will only have the experiences of his/her parent who may have no problems with the bad behavior or may exhibit themselves.

Not too long ago, Bear told some children in our complex to stop hitting cars with sticks and cricket bats. When he asked where they lived, they lied to him. So, he gained the assistance of a guard who knew the boys and had also attempted to get them to stop this behavior (later learned that he always had these issues with these two young men) and he accompanied us and the boys to their homes. Bear and the Guard tried to tell the Mother of one of the boys what had happened and that he had asked them to stop and that they lied about who they were. Her response? “Who are you to tell my child what to do? My child can play outside! My child does not lie! You go now!”

Those boys continue to be a nuisance here in this complex….except when they see Bear or myself outside. Then they behave.

Why? Because they know they cannot get away with that kind of behavior in front of us. But what of the parent? What of other adults outside who blithely walk past or sit and watch? Don’t they care where our youth are heading with this kind of behavior? Don’t they understand that we are a community bound together and will someday have to rely on the future generations?

Is it not all our duty to help make sure that our children understand their roles within our community and Country?

What are you thoughts on this? Should we only take care of our “own” or watch out for all others?

©  2012 Gori Rajkumari

World Stray Animal Day April 4th, 2012!

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”. Mahatma Gandhi

April 4th, 2012 is World Stray Animal Day!

The Ambassador is Cesar Millan also known as the Dog Whisperer! To hear more on what Cesar has to say about being given the wonderful post of World Stray Dog Ambassador, please go here. He has a lovely video posted and a heartfelt written newsletter explaining why this topic is so near and dear to his heart.

For me personally, this day means a lot. Since moving to India, I was faced with the extreme hardship of the Indian Pariah Dog. A truly beautiful, resourceful and noble animal that is taken for granted and left on the streets. Too many people in India are now buying “status” dogs like Golden Retrievers or Rottweilers or German Shepherds or Pugs without understanding the needs of these dogs and completely forgetting the beauty of their own pariah dogs.

The WSD had this to say about the Indian Pariah…

The Indian Pariah Dog is an ancient breed related to the spitz family and the Australian Dingo. Its origin dates back 12,000 to 15,000 years – older than any other breed. Since it is not commercially bred or recognised, it has long been relegated to a second-class position in the canine world. However in recent years it has been steadily gaining in popularity as a house pet.

Pariahs are friendly, highly intelligent and adaptable, not to mention good-looking and well-proportioned. They are very alert and naturally good watchdogs. They are usually healthy and sturdy, and particularly hardy in our sweltering tropical climate.

Having known our own Pariah Society dogs for three years now, I can attest to their healthy, sturdy, intelligent and loyal character.

Nothing makes Bear and I more happy than a day spent with the Society dogs, walking, petting and giving treats for a perfectly executed “sit”, “stay”, “down”, “paw”. They are so eager to please that they learn all these things quickly and remember them since we first taught them 2 1/2 years ago.

Won’t you please consider adopting one of our country’s loyal dogs? They’re waiting for you….right outside your front door.

© 2012 Gori Rajkumari

Comedy Central has made it to India!

 

Got Tata Sky? Then check for channel 218! That’s right! You’ve got Comedy Central!

It’s finally arrived in India!

24 Hours just chock full of 30 Rock, ‘Allo ‘Allo!, Fawlty Towers, Goodness Gracious Me, Hope & Faith, Happily Divorced, Popcorn TV, Punk’d, Reno 911!, Saturday Night Live, Seinfeld, South Park, That ’70s Show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Kumars at No. 42, The Office, The Wonder Years, and Yo Momma!!

I’ve even seen some signs that they might be adding *Mash! Oh frabulous day!

The hardest parts? That every 5 words out of Eric Cartman’s mouth are *silenced* out and that they put that silly Comedy Central logo over Kitty’s face when she smokes because Red’s mother is coming to visit.

The Best part? Duh! The Daily Show with Jon Stewart!!!

Otherwise, its pure fun and I’m super happy to have yet another channel to enjoy!

© 2012 Gori Rajkumari