Thursday, July 9, 2015

SEXIST EMPOWERMENT VS ACTUAL EMPOWERMENT

Do not judge this to be another sexist article. Read on! (It’s just one page right? give it a chance)


This is a term a lot of people ( mostly women) use way too loosely without understanding what they actually mean, This is an article to shed light on what it actually signifies so you do not want to end up with faux empowerment , we want the real deal !

So let’s establish that I’m not all knowing but I was under the impression that empowering someone meant giving them enough power to fend and fight for oneself, making them capable of that meant empowerment , at least to me, isn’t it ? But after reading/listening/watching/getting bored a lot of female activists (sexists, rather) I stand corrected. Apparently empowerment according to them is anything but “empowerment”, In the broader sense I know the circumstances we live in are very dire and unsafe I am not taking about that , I am talking about this being the most misinterpreted word , let me give an example to elaborate

A couple go out grocery shopping, the husband is carrying all the bags, nobody panics, but if the wife is carrying all the bags, everyone loses their minds! They start judging no empowerment and all, why should the wife carry all the bags etc. This is outright sexist, people who do not respect or understand gender equality are the first ones who cry out empowerment. This needs to change and now!

Most women do not complain at all while being pampered away to royalty by parents , boyfriend , chivalrous friends etc, these are the same ones who when denied the right to go out late or a different reason,purely due to safety reasons,talk about empowerment. The privileged ones keep crying wolf so much that eats up all the media space but let’s face it, and these are not the ones who need help. Sorry to break the bubble, but daddy giving you lesser permissions and pocket money compared to your brother is not crushing your empowerment. Daddy pushing you to work harder , helping you make better career choices , sending you far for a better education , taking you to karate class-this is empowerment.

In the rural landscape, it’s a whole other story, This is where real work needs to be done, we need to focus here, not just big talk, actually do something to impact it, Because this is where daddy molests the girl, kills the girl, sells the girl, gets her married young, aborts the girl child or gets her married to someone who will end up doing the same to her. The actual empowerment here is to educate the girl child, provide equal opportunities, spread awareness make stricter laws about ill-treatment and regulate them also. I can keep on yapping but just me and my tiny article is not going to change the whole landscape anyway. But hey , If I will do something for real , I won’t publish it first , will do it without posting a story on Facebook and a picture on Instagram with an underprivileged child , when I can do it that is, Right now my priority in life is to self-empower myself , exhausted the husband’s empowerment resources for now :p

Agreed that we live in a dangerous era, and unfortunate incidents occur everywhere, no amount of precaution can guarantee safety anywhere now. All I ask is to understand the full impact of the word before using it, do not faux empowerment.

It is second nature to us to leverage the fact of being us from situations and people. I’m sure most women/girls are accustomed to acting helpless to get more help/care than actually needed without pushing themselves hard enough. I know I am making strong accusations but for someone speaking from the inside I know this for a fact, I can make up stats, pivot tables and vlookups to prove it but I’m not that extremely jobless also. So empowering oneself means pushing yourself to get work done with minimal assistance, bring up the next generation of girls to live by these.

Women need to liberate themselves from pushing their weight around or ‘zoning’ people for perks or safety or standby. How can anyone ever respect that? Empowerment means self-sustenance, brought up or powered to take decisions, built to be strong, not invincible also but a lot less vulnerable to environmental changes.  Be strong, be someone you can look upto, not someone you bitch about, We need more of the very few that exist out there who fight the odds fair and square.

More power to such Women!

Friday, June 5, 2015

TRIVIAL TRAUMA

CONTENTS:RAMBLING MODESTLY FLAUNT ACTCOCKY ACTUALCONTENT FIN.


I know I post once in a beer* , but these things take time you know and all the more cause I’m too lazy to write (frankly speaking) and I don’t like to write about “a soul-clenching beach visit” or “my insights into life that started by rearranging my bedroom” etc . A lot of people do and I’m not Mockingthem, it’s a different genre called “I need blogspace to write my diary”, well this is a different league. Now that the rambling is done, I’ll get to the next part

So the cardinal rule for any process is that you (if there is anyone reading this gibberish) never get something right at the first shot. If you do you’re not made like the rest of us earthlings you lucky _secondpartcensoredout_. All this for something “trivially terrifying” - THE RESUME! I’m sure all of you have passed through that nightmare at least once in your life, well I’m living it right now, my specifications are 1 billion/day and after gap analyzing it, the version right now is 10 light years away from what is desirable.

The formula for writing a resume is that there is no formula. Everyone made one once upon a time and assumed that the one time it got picked was optimal, but, correct me if I’m wrong here, there are a 1000 million types of people who like a 1000 million different things, some recruiters like what others don’t . One might like detailed details, one might like it crisp, some want numbers, some want this, some want Greek and some just want to suck on your blood, you never know.

Honestly, when applying online there is a one in a million chance that it might even get seen, I personally think resumes are effective when people read them , no matter how much effort we put into it. Btw If you’re thinking I might give some hacks here, don’t be fooled, if you know any be my guest, I want to know too. Still haven’t perfected the art myself, trying a couple of tricks, will let you know if I uncover the mystery to it!

Adios future job holders!

And thus I end my longest yet post, Cheers till I get more energy and ideas to write about.

HAPPY “whatever when you read this”!!



FIN.

*blue moon 

Saturday, February 14, 2015

FLYING TIMES/WOES/NERVOUS/EXCITEDNESS/IS THAT A WORD?* / #MYWORDWORLD #MYRULES**





-------------------------------------  -EXT CHICAGO INTL  AIRPORT---------------------------------------
Okay … I promised to make this a non-personal blog but to hell with that! I am going to THE INDIA and by the most common saying “so can’t keep calm”.

39 Hours before flying to THE INDIA! (Yes, INDIA gets “THE” in my word world) I get on my domestic that has this weird connection where you travel in the opposite direction and then fly to the final destination making a different kind of round trip, as if you’re in a toy flight that runs on friction, I mean seriously OH->IL to fly back to DC?  Who does that!

I could be least bothered about that right now because I AM FLYING TO THE INDIA!!!  After two years I am going to my country to my people.As my friends and family fight to decide who will come to the airport to come get me,the whole idea that I am just hours away from such and many more of such heart-warming incidents and discussions makes me soooooo drunk in happiness.In a way the nostalgia has started to kick in already,just yesterday I woke up and it hit it that I’m days away from THE INDIA! Hence, the ARTICLE! I just couldn't shut up about it! 

 So the concept of buying things for our family with 50% or more funded from  family  escapes me,I am not a smuggler,So this trip I was richer than the average Indian student traveling, thanks to my contracting-internship(8 years experience , the whole package .. if you know what I mean!)So,(I promise this is the last So in this article) This time my riches helped me buy all the lavish stuff I wanted to gift my family,which they will yell at me for spending money on , but show off to their friends with pride that their kid got it for them from UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ( Yes , you have good observation skills,no THE for United States of America,If you did not notice it.Well ….Spoiler Alert  ...Maybe?) . 

This time , this trip I am excited  to see my mom yell at me for being such a spendthrift but I want to see the look of pride when she does that,my mom does both in parallel,she is versatile like that ! I want to see my dad marvel at the ‘posh’ amrikan stuff that we get here and not there,Waiting to see my friends going all ”no tell me I will pay it up , I will take something bigger/better later “Also,  I wait to meet all the new to-be members in the family ( that’s for the nervous part) , pray they like me.Thinking about all these makes me feel like I’m already there :p

The best of all would be to trip on my friends who are here by sharing experiences in India .. Mwahahahahahaha!!!! This trip will bring about changes of great magnitude but that’s a story for some other time !! For now yenjayyyy this article , read and re-read till I post more fun stuff in my word world !!!

----Signing off cause I'm too busy travelling to India :p ( Had to show off )

*Not for Terms and Conditions Apply
** # INTENDED FOR SARCASM BTW :P 



Saturday, May 10, 2014

The NEW YORK CITY!


One is easily mesmerized by New York City, after seeing it on Movies and TV. This might sound a little silly, but my decision to come over to the United States was influenced by this. It was after coming here that I realized that the entire country wasn’t NYC. Anyhow, one year later I finally got a chance to visit the Big Apple, the city of dreams. After seeing too much of it on TV and in the movies, I wasn’t as awestruck as I thought I would be, but nonetheless it delivers on everything it promises if not more.
Firstly, Times Square, the ginormous screens displaying advertisements 24x7 are so distracting that it’s hard to focus on the camera while taking a picture. Almost every picture we took had someone looking around gazed and awestruck. There’s something truly electric about that place. The Liberty statue was just the way it was shown a gazillion times on media. After seeing so much of it on TV, I felt a sense of déjà vu. But I would still consider it a must-visit on the NYC checklist. The ferry ride to the island is great if you ignore the long wait which precedes!
   


New York is renowned for its art and museums, so that was next on the checklist in spite of us not being huge “fans” of art. I must add that modern art is far from my understanding, weird even, for my taste.Moving on, The Brooklyn Bridge was beautiful, even more so than what is shown in TV, I personally feel it is underrated. Finally, any trip is incomplete without a walk in Central Park. It’s amazing how it exists in the middle of the world’s largest concrete jungle.


 So this is my tribute to NYC, which is not my favorite city anymore! Well, it used to be until it reminded me how much I missed my own city, Hyderabad!





And the ultimate New York Picture ! Couldn't get this shot for myself though :( Only Regret!


Camera : My new HTC One M8!

Saturday, July 27, 2013

A UNIQUE REWARD

OLYMPIC WIN 2014: GOLD+METEORITE
   
    Looks like Russia is going to host the coolest Olympics ever. The win in 2014 can get you something out of the world...LITERALLY! The medals for winners will have gold in combination with a METEORITE
  
    In an exclusive one day offer. The winners of February 15th will take back a reward highly rare and unique... As if winning the Olympics wasn't huge enough... An object from outer space! This is being done to mark the anniversary of the meteor strike last year. The meteorite that hit chelyabinsk on February 15, 2013, is the largest known natural object to enter our atmosphere since 1908.

    The medal design was unveiled earlier this year , the design is primarily indicative of local culture. A total of 7 sets of medals are up for grabs to the winners of the men's 1500 meter speed skating, the women's 1000 meter and men's 1500 short track, the women's cross country skiing relay, the men's 1500 short track , the women's cross-country skiing relay  the men's k-125 ski jump, the women's super giant slalom and men's skeleton events.




"we will hand out our medals to all the athletes who will win gold on that day, because both the meteorite strike and the Olympic games are the global events" 
The regional cultural minister quoted 



Friday, July 26, 2013

DRUMMING ON PAPER

NOVALIA NOVELTY

    Paper Mache is so passé now...Coming up... Printed paper that can actually create music!

    7 scientists from UK have come up with an innovation that can shake up the whole concept of playing music



THE GEEKY PART:

    Touch sensors in sync with electronic ink power the paper and a very basic electronic circuit is the back end and when the paper has been touched the music is identifies. Making use of Printed Touch technology this model is being built.

THE COOL PART:

     The drum kit poster can be treated like a 7 piece drum kit..With flexibility to create your own tunes by adding beats to existing ones. 
Two versions are being worked on- an apple link that can be interfaced with iPhone/iPad via Bluetooth to "WIRELESSly" play it and another one that transforms the poster's surface to a speaker
  
     Made with paper,card and ink and easily recyclable-the electronics module is separable from the poster.. easy to sustain ..currently the team is working on cost-effective version 

Drummers across the globe would love to get their hands on one, Im sure.





Thursday, July 18, 2013

FIGHTING FOR A CAUSE


     One of those inspiring moments in life is when you meet a bunch of young people who strive to dream beyond the paycheck..

    I am one of the fortunate few to know a few of these revolutionary minds.. Destined to make change rather than being part of the herd, I'm sure these few are part of the change that has the potential to revolutionize the whole system.

    In their early 20s , having an ambition to bring about change is quite commendable and setting it up is a herculean task and in spite of all the hurdles ,they have set up their organizations dedicated to work toward the betterment of the whole of mankind.

   Nihar Parulekar , started an NGO with a vision for wildlife conservation back in 2011 , I remember him saying he dint find a lot of corporate interested in investing in this cause , he spent from his own pocket to better the zoo premises ,  Now he has established his NGO in 5 major cities across the nation and is looking to expand, with a body of over 3000 all over India ,A lot of awards and accolades have become quite regular for this 23 year old.

   In spite of all the successes ,these individuals don’t get carried away , each rescue is special , every Sunday in spite of all their schedules, these youngsters parole the zoo premises and help sustain the quality, they even have tie ups and take care of animal protection and sometimes are responsible for new additions to the zoo.

   ARPF is a full-fledged organization now, IT has a different squads like anti poaching, zoo corps, green warriors etc that are highly active in rescue missions and conservation of the environment. The organization is tied up with the forest department, it was recently awarded for its services by STREET CAUSE , The founder Nihar Parulekar has been given an earth award for his contribution , ARPF being his brainchild.

For detailed info about their different rescues and the organization itself,
                             www.arpfindia.org

Truly Inspirational work! Proud to know such motivated people!