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d e Oh Dear: 75% Graduates In India Are
DIBRUGARH, SATURDAY, JUNE 25
Unemployed. But Smriti Irani Has Other Worries What began as a simple Today?", even as an auditweet by Bihar's minister ence of predominantly upAshok Choudhary on Twit- per-caste Hindu men litter soon kicked-off a heated tered the comments section social media debate. in Irani's Facebook, all in Choudhary, whose tweet praise for her "empowering" addressed Irani as "dear", stance. came in for fierce criticism However, in her impasfrom Irani, who retorted to sioned stance, Irani calls out his query by pointing out the 'trolls' who are the reathe sexism in the word son women like her are sub"Dear". Irani wrote back: ject to humiliation. There's "Since when no denying did you start that Irani has addressing Sabah Kochhar had her fair women as share of 'dear', Ashokji?", adding struggles there. But the realthat she herself addressed ity of trolls is something her others with the prefix own party should account 'adaraniya'. for, given the rampant haOf course, Twitter being rassment of women on TwitTwitter, people were quick ter. Unsurprisingly, any mento point out Irani's double tion of the trolls, or 'bhakts' standards, digging up old unleashing the full force of tweets of Irani addressing saffron fury by calling others such as journalist Barkha Dutt a "randi", or Bhupendra Chaubey with Rana Ayyub an "ISIS sex 'dear' and questioning the slave" seems to have gone rhetoric of Irani's argument. amiss. The constant vitriol While sexism is rampant in that women journalists and our discourse, a "Dear" intellectuals have faced for used as a prefix isn't any- voicing even the slightest of thing new - it's used the dissent has sparked a huge world over to indicate po- debate on cyber harassliteness in formal communi- ment. Does Irani's appeal to cation. But Irani didn't stop women's empowerment inthere, as she went on to clude checking in on the post an impassioned cri- BJP's social media team, with tique on her Facebook, rape threats coming from the which went viral soon. same bhakts who praise her? The post, which has now It's time Irani realise that Ingarnered over 11K likes, and dian women aren't fighting 1000s of shares, even got for whether to be called CNN News18 to debate"Is "Dear" or "Aunty", but Smriti Irani the Strongest whether they can access Feminist Politician of India educational spaces safe for
them, hostels open to them, and jobs where their labour is valued, especially when they are doubly targetted on religious and caste lines. Indeed, she is right about taking a stand and encouraging women to "keep their heads held high", not look down. But that only happens if there's an environment where it's safe for women to speak without pushback, or even exist in the first place. What's more, in firing off her salvo, Irani gave a point-bypoint checklist of 'reforms' bought by her government. A glimpse into the list reveals, among others: "o First time ever, focused interventions to improve reading and writing levels- Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat- check o First time ever, the UGC Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal of Sexual Harassment of Women Employees and Students in HEIs to protect women employees and students- check o First time ever, a portal dedicated to Indian languages- Bharatvani-check o First time ever, collaborated effort to focus research on the development goal posts of the countryIMPRINT- check o First time ever, SAARC Declaration on Educationcheck o First time ever, Aryabhata's bust installed at UNESCO headquarters to acknowledge India's contri-
bution in mathematics and astronomy-check o First time ever, IIT fee waivers for economically weaker sections- check o First time ever, collaborations with Standford, University of Pennsylvania and MIT to strengthen HEIs in India- check o First time ever, focused effort to bring high-quality international faculty to teach in India through GIAN - check. o First time ever, a credit framework to pursue formal education and vocational training- SAMVAY- check." Impressive as these reforms may sound, the reality is eerily dismal, as only 25% graduates are employable. Even for the ever-popular STEM fields, over 80% of engineering graduates in India are unemployable. And no amount of collaborations with MIT can change the institutional hurdles put in place for Dalits, SC/ST students and women in engineering institutions. The problem isn't reservations; its's in the implantation: it's the lack of quality institutes in the very first place, and how these institutions later fail to ensure a supportive environment for some students once they do gain entry. Irani's sheer lack of accountability over the suicide of Rohith Vemula is proof that reforms on paper are piecemeal because no
amount of fee waivers and collaborations will replace an equally dire need for offices in our educational institutions that cater to the needs and mental health of minorities. Similarly, setting up a UGC commission to look into sexual harassment needs to be matched by policy sensitising every university student to rape culture, through a systemic change in what's taught, and by whom. There's a reason American institutes of higher education are sought after, and it's not just because of focus on developing research and academia. It's also because every university has groups and societies such as a Black and Latino students' unions, centres for Gender and Sexuality, and education programs on campus rape culture and the importance of consensual sex. Today, foreign corporates slowly realise the importance of diversity and affirmative action beyond a token woman or person of colour, but India remains far behind in both the workplace and educational space. For Irani's ilk to even acknowledge the problem of anti-Muslim, anti-Dalit and anti-women sentiment seems like a distant reality, let alone setting in place spaces for these students to build community and grow. Courtesy:Youth kiawaaz
The dramatic journey of Anousheh Ansari, the first female private space explorer From the troubled Iran of the 1970s all the way to space, it has been a dramatic journey of hope and grit for Anousheh Ansari. The tech entrepreneur, engineer and the first female private space explorer in history talks to Gargi Gupta Anousheh Ansari fell in love with the stars when, as a young girl growing up in Mashhad, Iran's second largest city, she would sleep out in the open during summer. "We didn't have air-conditioning and it was cooler that way," she says. It was the 1970s, and the times were tough with the country in the midst of political turmoil
(culminating in the overthrow of the king in 1979). Anousheh's family was privileged, but even so her father lost his job and everyone around her was tense with the violence, the rioting mobs and the bombs and shootings around them. In the circumstances, the stars became a refuge for little Anousheh. "I would imagine the new worlds I could visit, the mystery of what's out there," says the intrepid
tech entrepreneur, engineer and 'space tourist', who was in Jaipur for the literature festival this past week. In 2006, she realised her dream of travelling to the stars, which made her the first female private space explorer in history and the first space traveller of Iranian descent. But the journey to the stars was anything but easy. First, there was the Islamic Revolution Anousheh vividly remembers an incident when a mob set the bank on the ground floor of the apartment they lived on fire, and started throwing stones. "I was around 12 and my sister was six.
My mother covered us with a chador and walked out - the police was out firing, the Islamic Guards were patrolling the streets. It was scary." Her family decided to migrate to the US, where they had a sponsor in Anousheh's aunt who was a resident of Virginia, but the US wasn't moved. Speaking in the context of all the recent rhetoric in the US and Europe over welcoming or restricting refugees,
Anousheh says she sat for eight-nine hours in the American embassy with her mother and sister and no one would even grant them an interview. "It took us 12 years to get the visa," she says. Settling down in the US wasn't easy either. Anousheh knew no English. "When I left Iran, I was 16 years old and in class XI. But in the US, I was admitted to class IX." Anousheh, however, was determined not to waste those academic years. "In the holidays, I went to the nearby college and attended English classes non-stop from eight in the morning to eight in the evening." The
determination paid off and she went on to study electrical engineering at George Mason University, Virginia. The chance to travel to space happened much later, when Telecom Technologies, the company she'd founded with her husband and brotherin-law after college, was sold off in a multi-million dollar deal. In 2000, the three has also contributed $10 million to set up the Ansari X Prize, which in-
vited teams anywhere in the world to build manned spaceships. The way Anousheh tells it, it seems she'd actually been working towards the deal which would give her the financial wherewithal to afford to pay her way to space. Denis Tito, an American multimillionaire, had shown the way when he paid $15 million for an eight-day sojourn on the International Space Station in 2001, travelling by the Russian aircraft Soyuz. "I heard about Tito when it happened and I thought, if nothing else, this would be my chance. I was determined to grow the business to a level where I could afford to do this," she says. But even after she'd paid up - how much is not known and Anousheh won't tell - there was the gender bias within the Russian space establishment. "My husband travelled with me on my first trip to Space City near Moscow, where I trained for nearly a year, before the launch. A Russian general met us there but he wouldn't even look at me; he'd only talk to my husband. My husband kept telling him that it wasn't he that was travelling, I was the crazy one, but it didn't make any difference." Hamid Ansari, Anousheh's husband, had always known of her fascination with space. "The joke among us was, when we took the vows was, 'until death do us part…or until I went to space.' I have always been fortunate in having people in my life who have been very supportive of my crazy ideas," she says. The training was gruelling too. "I especially hated the spinning chair, though I loved the parabolic flights where you could experience zero-gravity for about 30 seconds." Anousheh flew on the
Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station in August 2006, and stayed there for eight days doing research and writing a weblog - which made her especially famous. Among her memorable experiences in space, she says, was the sight of earth. "The spacecraft orbited the earth in 90 minutes and you could see the lights of the cities, the play of thunder and rain like a light show. The diving line between day and night never ceased to amaze me." It's been 10 years since, and Anousheh's written a book about her journey. She's also launched a company which is now working with the Tata Trust and the state government of Rajasthan to provide information and interactive services in health, education, sarkari programmes and the like via the television set in one lakh villages in India. Her engagement with space remains confined to her being a member on the boards of several companies that are in the emerging area of private space travel. As for going up to space again, she says that she doesn't have any plans yet. "But I hope to. I would go and live in space if I was given the chance. It's a very expensive endeavour. My husband tells me that you have a very expensive hobby." She's happy at the recent rapprochement between her native and adoptive countries. She's hoping that it means she can travel to meet her admirers in Iran. "I've been told that a lot of Iranian girls look up to me. I've had video conversations with some, but now I'm hoping to be back, perhaps for the 10th anniversary of my flight." Courtesy: dnaindia
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TRUTHOSOPHY Indirectly hijacking individuals in the name of spirituality! Some spiritual institutions in the state, country and all around the world, they force the followers to stay away from family and spend days and nights together at places of worships and spiritual practices! There are young women, married women, divorced women, young men,married man, etc, etc. Oh my dear great spiritual gurus and teachers, directly forcing devotees to keep away from family life and hijacking them to Ashram lives especially at night, the family lives get deeply hurt! And by disturbing the peaceful family lives of others in the pretext of spirituality,meditation, etc biggest sins are being committed to get punishments from the real God and the false promises of blessings from pretentious and fake gurus, teachers are not going to help but misguide and ruin lives. The pretentious and hypocritical spiritual gurus, teachers, they themselves came out of mother's womb and preach that those in pursuit of spiritual knowledge should not marry and avoid a family life. Perfectly illogical spiritual and moral principles against the order of Universe. Oh great Lord of Universe; spiritual gurus, teachers, ones who doesn't value the Godly law of natural propagation of lives; who doesn't have practical experience of family life, its problems and positive aspects; then how is one gonna teach spirituality and mitigate family re-
Tagam Mibang lated problems and that too when 99.99 percent of the members of humanity are organised into the unit of families. The absolutely deep spiritual knowledge and practices cannot and should not be based upon, illogical, impractical and hypothetical concepts but founded upon infallible logic and richness of practical experiences in ones life. Night time is for complete spiritual rest of body, mind and soul, but keeping the devotees especially women at nights at Ashrams, what skewed spiritual knowledge and practices are being inculcated? Why should especially the women devotees be indirectly forced to sleep at night at Ashrams if there be no ulterior immoral intentions. The perpetrators of such immoral practices in the pretext of spirituality will be blessed with strictest of punishment from the God. Is the God only available at call at Ashrams only and that too at nights only? The biggest misconception and flawed spiritual wisdom. God; this Universe, his Creation is always under the control 24×7×12× total life span; then the infinite period of afterlife. Spirituality and great enlightening path of life should not only be followed but it must strictly be shown to be followed in clean and transparent ways.
Psychological hijacking and keeping devotees especially women at Ashrams at night is apparently not a healthy practice and it must be stopped immediately if any group calls themselves as truly spiritual and Godly. If not the greatest hypocrite in this world in form of a human being, it's an innate human nature that the gurus, teachers of spirituality are also gregarious human beings and needing company of other humans especially from opposite sex. And when so innately psychologically, there are best of reasons for gurus, spiritual teachers also to get marry, get company and enjoyments of family life without needing to disturb happiness of family lives of others. Rather, the spiritual pursuit and enlightening the people about it will be sanely logical, practical and truthful if, those who are propagating it are themselves taught upon by practical experiences in their life. In the long history of practices of spirituality of mankind, there has been infamous reports and instances of sexual and aghastly immoral things happening at various places of worships, so any possibilities of recurrence of such ignominious activities in the name of spirituality must be completely avoided. Because Godly spirituality must not only be followed but practised in a very clean and pious manners and then only, the true blessings of the Creator of Universe shall be earned. And there shall not be any exception to that.
A lowdown on diverse hair jewellery and trends from bygone eras teresting and rarely seen The Rajasthani borla, she adds. south Indian nethi chutti, No wonder you see an variation of this is a hair and Islamic paasa… are immense diversity of ornament called the just some of the many hair ornaments across shinka, worn by tribals in head ornaments worn by India. For instance, the Gujarat, a series of women in past eras. Islamic paasa has a heavy chains in gold or Gargi Gupta gets you the south Indian counterpart silver held together by lowdown on the diverse - talai saman - circular flat metal strips or hair jewellery and trends ornaments worn on both carved motifs of peasides of the head, signi- cocks or other animals. from bygone eras The paasa, the women's fying the sun and the The maang tika, says moon, the fashion jewellery dehair ornamale and fe- signer Shillpa Purii, and ment worn pinned to one Gargi Gupta male ener- the maatha patti have gies. come back into fashion side of the head, made a comeback Similarly, the maang tika, in the last few years. on the big screen after an embellished chain- "Everyone wants a little decades with Bajirao like ornament that cov- glitter in their hair. Mastani. In the 1950s ers the front parting, has Mostly for weddings, not and 1960s, when Muslim social dramas and historical period romances were more popular, this hair ornament favoured by royal and high-born Muslim women was a regular feature. But note how the paasa worn by Mastani immediately became a marker for her Muslim-ness? For the film's costume designer Anju Modi, who spent two years researching every little detail of what the charac- Hair adornments have always been an integral part of Indian fashion and had an immense ters would wear right diversity of hair ornaments across India (Photo: from the drape of the static.dnaindia) sari to the adornments in the hair, the paasa was a Rajasthani counterpart just for the bride, but also as much a marker of the in the borla (also called close relatives. In some times and the culture the raakhdi), which has a cases, I have even defilm is set in the 17th cen- rounded, bell-like shape. signed something that tury Peshwa court - as The south Indians have could be worn with a the distinctive sun-moon- the nethi chutti, which is Western gown." flower hair pins that a more elaborate, band- Among other traditional Kashibai wore high on like ornament embel- pieces of hair jewellery lished with red and green is the sheesh phool, her bun. gemstones. pinned on the bun, which "Hair adornments have is a variation of the always been an integral Then there is the maatha cuda-mani that Sita is part of Indian fashion, patti, an even more mentioned as wearing in and you can see it in the elaborate headpiece the Ramayana, says Ajanta caves," says comprising three golden Usha Balakrishnan, a hisModi, who visited the chains - the central one torian who specialises in over 2,000-year-old site along the parting, and the Indian jewellery. while researching the two side ones that define film. "They added to a the hair line. Several ver- The most elaborate headsions of this basic design adornment is, however, woman's beauty. are worn in different the jadai hu (also called Married women, in par- parts of India - jadai nagam) which ticular, wore the more Rajasthanis have the starts from the top of the elaborate matha pattis khaancha, which is gen- head and runs all the way and maang tikas. In our erally worn attached to to end in tassels at the tip culture, it is considered the borla; brides some- of the plait. "It is usually impolite to look directly times wear sheesh worn by brides and at a woman's face or pattis, an additional jew- elaborately carved with eyes, and the glittering elled hair band, along motifs of vines, snakes, pieces on her hair are with the khaancha in a beads and flowers," says supposed to deflect at- layered style that covers B a l a k r i s h n a n . tention from her face," the head. But a more in- Courtesy:Dnaindia