Nonsense Talk IX - Porn Discussion

Around two o’clock, Abhishek cartoonist sir shared his cartoon about Porn on Facebook. After reading the cartoon, I was shocked and surprised. How can a well known cartoonist, having good understanding of our society and democracy, has little regards for a celebrated topic like porn? Porn cannot be filthy in any respect for our society and country.  On these impulses, I immediately commented on the post. The comment was:  I do not think reading or watching porn is an unhealthy habit. It is as normal, healthy and entertaining as reading cartoon. After posting, I have not even read completely the comment; I received a phone call from one of my friends. He was very furious. Furious, because cartoon was compared with porn.  I was subdued as he was talking very loudly and his voice was echoing in my room. Lest my landlord get up in the wee hours, I requested him to come online. He added all the online friends in our chat for this so called controversial topic “Porn”.


Porn cannot be dirty. Those who say it obscene do not understand it at all – one of my friends who is middle level HR Manager in a firm wrote. He further added that “in fact porn makes you ‘Purn’ i.e. complete. When you are alone, forlorn, frustrated, alienated without any girlfriend or spurned by the girlfriend who comes in your rescue? It is porn that makes you complete in college campus. This completeness does not stop at college level but it goes beyond and helps you throughout your life. One study says that senior level married manager read more porn than their junior young unmarried subordinates.”

One young friend, who recently passed out engineering from a prestigious college, brought more light on this subject. He wrote “Sir, in our college whole intake used to read ‘pure porn material’- ‘Deshi’ as well as ‘Videshi’ without any discrimination. Of course girls were bit shy to download the material from college internet so generally they used to rely on us (we boys) for it.  In our college, PA of Principal had requested us to handover all the downloaded porn material to him so that it could pass on next batch. In his opinion, it would save a fortune (in terms of internet charge) to the college.”

One of my friends, son of a retired Major, currently preparing for UPSC examination expressed his views. He wrote “This is not the story of only one college. In each and every college hostel, lodge, defense billet/ barrack, officers’ mess, Porn material is ubiquitous.  In democracy majority prevails. Porn is the choice of majority. In our country like India, where majority of population is below thirty-five, porn material must be distributed free by the state.”

One of my friends, who recently joined a famous national party and regularly upload his neatly dressed photo on FB, contributed in the chat. He said “ Bhaiya, porn has entered in our parliament and state assembly too. Our young and old MPs and MLAs want to watch porn in recess.”

“But it is wrong. Those who were caught watching porn in assembly and parliament, they were charged and given punishment”- My friend who phoned me and initiated this debate, wrote.

“Oh! Watching and reading porn material in privacy is not a crime. This is a supreme court verdict”– it was UPSC aspirant.

Yes! - one of my friend who recently joined ministry and in  the good book of a powerful and dynamic minister, wrote -  “ In fact like napping cubicles of Japan parliament, there should be porn cubicles in our country. This japan model needs to be replicated in our country with some necessary modification. You know, I could have given this suggestion to minister sahib, but the oppositions and some nuisance monger will unnecessary make an issue in coming election. That’s why I am silent.” He completed with this.

Porn topic got good attention and well deserved discussion. I was truly enlightened by the discussion and it really reinforced my belief.

After the discussion I can firmly say that -

Yes! Porn makes our country ‘Purn’ i.e. complete, full, nothing else!

Cholera and My Village ---

One hamlet of my village is suffering from cholera. Three days back one villager died of cholera. Yesterday my mother informed me about that. She was very disturbed because the patient who died was the son in law of my house maid. He was living in my village with his mother in law. One week back he had gone to nearby village to do labor work; he had food and water in the field. When he returned from the work, his stomach was upset. His condition remained the same for next day and third day, when condition deteriorated, he took some medicines prescribed by a quack. Fourth day his condition deteriorated further, he was brought to government referral hospital. But it was too late. His life could not be saved. Still many people are suffering in that hamlet.

My village has seven hamlets, six hamlets are named after castes and one hamlet is named after the location. These hamlets are :- Kannaujiya tola, mishar tola, jha tola, yadav tola, chamar tola, jolha tola and basa toli. I have been observing from last ten years that every year my villagers from chamar toli and jolha toli , get infected with this disease. Sometimes this disease occurs in other hamlets too but it starts from either jolha toli or chamar toli. Reason is not very far to find. The people who reside in these hamlets are from schedule caste, most of them (almost 99%) are landless labour and their major livelihood is agricultural labour work. In rainy season, whole day they spend in others fields doing agricultural work. They eat in the field sitting on the earth and drink contaminated water which is used for irrigation. Many of them get infected either in the rainy season or just afterwards. Because of poor hygienic condition, it spreads very rapidly in that hamlet. Once one hamlet gets this disease others also follow. Every year two to three people die because of this disease, but no concrete measure has been taken so far by my villagers. Being a rural development practitioner, it hurts me.

This is not the story of my village alone. Every year , this disease affects 3-5 million people worldwide and in 2010, 1-1.3 lakhs people died because of it. According to World health organization “Cholera remains a global threat and is one of the key indicators of social development. While the disease no longer poses a threat to countries with minimum standard of hygiene, it remains a challenge to countries where access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation cannot be guaranteed. Almost every developing country faces cholera outbreak or the threat of cholera epidemic.”

This disease occurs due to poor hygiene, drinking of contaminated water and consumption of food contaminated by feces of infected person. This disease can be prevented if a society maintains hygienic environment. Awareness about the disease, its prevention and other information should be given to the villagers through community based organizations. Hope, situation will improve in coming years and there will be no casualty from this disease in my village and other places.


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Ramanuj Dubey 

Crime against Women and Our Indian Police

We must have seen many times in Bollyhood movies where a helpless girl is caught by the rowdy mob, Hooligans try to grab the girl, molest the girl and then in the nick of time somebody ( Most of the time ,The Hero ) comes into the picture and rescue the modesty of the girl. We cheer, we clap and we blow the whistle and feel a positive character by supporting the hero for his bravery and rescuing act.

This cliché bollyhood reel scene was real in front of a bar on Guwahati-Shillong Road on the night of 10th July. A girl was molested by around twenty people in a busy area and no one was there to rescue. The girl was trying to fight but she was helpless before the jeering mob. Some were actively participating in molesting the girl; others were playing the part of spectators. Interesting part of this story was, media personnel were too present at the scene but instead of helping the girl, they were capturing the scene. No one came forward to save the modesty of girl, No one even tried to help the girl. Police were informed about the incident and after the information they took 30 minutes to reach at the crime spot. When Director General of Police, Assam asked about the delayed action, His comment was: police is not like an "ATM machine" which can be present at the crime scene the moment one inserts a card in the machine. Such insensitive and condemnable reaction from a senior police officer shows that how police forces take these incidents lightly. Media personnel can be considered lesser villain because at least they captured the incident and brought strong evidence against the culprits. But those who were spectators are as villain as molesters.

We have seen that, in recent past, crime against women increased substantially. According to Nation Crime Records Bureau‘s report, Crime in India – 2011, Chapter five, A total of 2, 28,650 incidents of crime against women were reported in the country during the year 2011 as compared to 2,13,585 incidences in the year 2010 recording an increase of 7.1% during the year 2011. These crimes have continuously increased during 2007 -2011 with 1,85,312 cases in the year 2007, 1,95,856 cases in the year 2008, 2,03,804 cases in the year 2009 and 2,13,585 cases in the year 2010 and 2,28,650 cases in the year 2011. West Bengal with 7.5% share of country’s population has accounted for nearly 12.7% of total crime against women by reporting 29,133 cases. Andhra Pradesh, accounting for nearly 7.0% of the country’s population, has accounted for 12.4% of total crimes against women in the country by reporting 28,246 cases in the year 2011. Incidents of Molestation in the country (42,968 cases in 2011) have increased by 5.8% over the previous year (40,613 cases). Madhya Pradesh has reported the highest incidence (6,665) amounting to 15.5% of total such incidences. Kerala has reported the highest crime rate (11.2) in molestation as compared to the National average of 3.6. The National average of rate of crime against women is 18.9 whereas in Assam, it is 38.9, which is quite high. The rate of crime against women means number of crime against women per one lakh population.

Our India police are completely inadequate, inept, inefficient and insensitive in dealing with crime against women. In many cases, it has been seen that when a victim goes to police station to complain, instead of getting help from the police, she is re-victimised by them. Indian police forces are male dominated where women police are only 2.9 %. (Total police force – 15, 76,697, Women police – 45,886). There are many police station where there are no women police force and male police who are posted there; they lack proper skill to address the problems of victim. Recently, a gender related case had caught the attention of the nation. This was the case of Pinky Pramanik, an athlete from West Bengal who was falsely implicated by her live-in partner. Without ascertaining the gender of Pinky Pramanik, male police came to arrest her and they behaved very rudely and vulgarly during her arrest. The picture of her arrest is given below; please see the hands of the police personal who are left to the athlete.









Need not to say, the above picture shows the inhumane and ill-mannered face of Indian police. Indian police will have to more humane and polite while dealing with crime against women. They will not only have to catch the culprits but also they will have to show empathy with the victims so that Victims can lead the life fear –free and with dignity. Police force will have to improve the gender ratio and they must be given specific training (behavioural reforms and attitudinal changes at individual and institutional basis) to deal with women related crime adroitly.


It has been seen that molestation is never considered as a serious crime. A woman faces molestation / eve teasing at every place, at school/college/ work place, bus/train/ public transport, club/ party and even in home. A girl, right from the beginning is taught to underplay the instances of eve teasing and molestation. Until unless the molestation does not become glaring, we the people try to ignore it. Sometimes, some people have wrong notion that women enjoy eve teasing and mild molestation. The shame and lack of vociferous protest due to fear or other reason encourages the spirits of molesters. It is imperative that women must protest the eve teasing and molestation at first instance. The model example of protest is Rupan Deol Bajaj, who was modestly molested (Patted at her posterior in intoxicated state) by K.P. S.Gill, who was a senior police officer then. She fought a case against him and finally won. Another famous molestation case was Ruchika Garhotra case, in that she was molested by then Inspector general of Police, Haryana, S.P.S.Rathore. She and her family were continuously harassed by the Rathore and police force. It was completely a case of power abuse which resulted in the suicide of Ruchika. Even though she did not live to see the justice but her father continued fighting against him in the court and finally got the delayed justice.


Above examples show that the only way to overcome the trauma of molestation is to fight against it. We must take a vow that we must adopt a zero tolerance against eve teasing, molestation and other crimes against women. We must fight against such evils from heart and soul for a better and gender discrimination free India.



References :-
1. Crime in India, 2011, Chapter 5, Crime against Women (http://ncrb.gov.in/)
2. Indian Police: An Introductory and Statistical Overview (http://bprd.nic.in/writereaddata/linkimages/1645442204-Volume%201.pdf)

3. Photos downloaded from Internet .



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Ramanuj Dubey

Solo "Uski Maa"

Solo :- "Uski Maa "
Writer :- Pandey Bechan Sharma 'Ugra'
Direction & Acting :- Ramanuj Dubey

Solo "Uski Maa"

साजिश

साजिश 

एक आवारा शब्द 

जो कहीं भी तैरता दिख सकता है 

इधर भी , उधर भी 

इनकी हंसी में भी 

उनके रुदन में भी 

हमारे मन में भी 

और तुम्हारे मन में भी 

हर तरफ ही 

साजिश 

अख़बार या सरकार की तरह होता है 

साजिश का हकीकत इतना सतही नहीं होता 

साजिश का भी एक साजिश होता है 

साजिश के अंदर भी एक साजिश 

जिसमे ताकत होती है 

अच्छे बुरे सब  को शामिल  करने का
ठीक उसी तरह 

जिस  तरह सरकार या अख़बार 

तैयार कर लेता है दलालों का एक  फ़ौज 

दूर से दीखता हुआ साजिश 

दरअसल एक समाज है 

हर एक का अपना अपना खटराग है 

लेकिन साजिश तो है 

जो बनता है , बिगड़ता है 

बिगाड़ता भी है 

और हर एक साजिश से बिगड़ता समाज 

ढूढँता रहता है मानव का उत्थान -पतन 

और फिर जुट जाता है 

एक नई साजिश में ---

रामानुज  दुबे 

NONSENSE TALK VIII..............

All is not well in our democracy. We are living in that age where talking about poor and their rights, talking about genuine problems, talking against feudal forces and government considered as blasphemous.  Every government and all political parties are claiming high that they are the only savior of the poor. If you do not believe it, just see the face book account of all of them. All the accounts are colored with development works, inclusive growth and striving for real democracy. But what these political parties and their political bosses are claiming on public sites, are they really concerned about these issues, I have doubts.

We have been listening right from the childhood that in democracy we the people are supreme. We are the integral part of democracy, we elect the government and we decide the fate of the country. Appears cool as cucumber! If we are really powerful, if we are really so important in the democratic process then why some of us are living a squalid, wretched, subdued and fearful life? Why almost one third population of our country is leading a life less than human? Why a large number of our fellow countrymen still do not feel a part of pristine and progressive democracy?

Now question arises, whether our country is on the path of development or deterioration? If our country is on the path of development, then whose development it has been doing? Every government boasts about a lot of development plans, programmes and schemes but at the end of the day what kind of achievement these development processes are bringing to the poor; this is the matter of speculation.

Ask any government about development and you will be bombarded by statistics. How much these numbers/ statistics are true, it is always a matter of debate. Recently I had a lengthy discussion on this subject with one of my friends. Being a petty officer in state government, my friend thought, it was his natural duty to defend the government. In fact, he was defending his miniscule sincere development work. My intention was not to upset him but at the same I did not want him to shy away from the realities. His discussion was full of numbers and statistics. Government gave this much thousands houses free under IAY scheme ,that much crores were given  as wages under NREGS, that much lakhs families getting subsidized ration under PDS and that much jobs are generated for the poor. He kept on eulogizing free education and health services in the state.  . When he exhausted with all details and data, then I asked him some questions:-

Ø  Do the poor have voice?

Ø  Do they believe in the system?

Ø  Are they real beneficiary of the government scheme?

Ø  What is the standard of the services provided by the state for the poor?

Ø  Does government ensure the dignified life to the poor?

All the government programmes on the paper appear quite attractive and path breaking. All poverty alleviation programmes talk about empowerment of poor, giving them a voice and sense of worth but why the same programmes fail to translate on the ground. How disturbing it looks when we read the news that a wage earners hand was chopped off because he was unable to pay 300 rupees to moneylender and when he goes to police station, Superintendent of police says it a concocted story. In such a feudalistic system where the victims are not heard properly then how people will believe in the system? How shocking it is, when a teenager poor girl is raped in the running train and when she complains, the head of the state blames to opposition to defame the government. How much faith that girl will have in the elected representative? How shameful it is when a large number of farmers and the poor commit suicide and the state try to put blame on victims rather than owing the responsibilities of murders.  When such incidents occur at that time all the statistics, all the numbers appear fraud, misleading and utter nonsense.

A very noxious trend is developing in our democracy, if you are a poor, government will dole out some life saving necessities but you are not expected to speak, you are not expected to weep, you are not expected to whine and you are not expected to complain. What you are expected to do is to be gentle, docile, meek and suffer the humility meted out by the system. As you are poor, you are expected to live like a poor. Do not question the authority, do not speak up, just shut up and accept the situation.

Kudos to our democracy! Kudos to our feudal system!

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Ramanuj Dubey