The Social Facets of Clothing

There was a time when clothes were worn just for covering our skin from external weather conditions. But times have since changed. The first striking feature of a person living in today’s society is the attire that he/she sports. Thanks to the developments in the apparel segment world over coupled by wide publicity, most of the people are conscious about what they are wearing. They want their character to be projected to outside world just by means of their clothing. It is no way an exaggeration to tell that the modern day’s clothing has turned out to be a testimonial of a person’s thoughts!  

Some clothes provide ‘identity’ to a person – like a Brahmin can be identified with a dhoti and ‘Yagyopaveet’ (sacred thread); police personnel, nurses, fire personnel, etc. can be identified with their respective uniforms; and, so on.  Such personnel are recognised not by their name but purely by their attire.

Fashion has invaded every noticeable industry and apparel industry, in particular, that we now see countless styling patterns in whatever we wear, right from a cap to a shoe. The choice is made by a person depending on what suites him/her the best. But this very ‘choice’ has stirred up a hornet’s nest in today’s society.  

                                          

‘Comfortability’ has a red line:

             There is a section of people that talks about the factor of ‘comfortability’, mostly as an excuse for what they are wearing. But comfortability has a definite limit in today’s society. None is living in an absolutely goon-free society. This mask of comfortability has the potential to raise the eyebrows of these goons and provoke them to cause harm to people, particularly to, female gender. Of course, whatever clothes that we wear should be comfortable on us but not at the cost of our very own precious lives.

              Here, the question of ‘gender’ arises because there exists gender based clothing and provocative clothing has a definite place in it. It is wise to refrain ourselves from picking up such clothes lest there is a trouble that one always carries in one’s pocket. Ultimately, the clothing is a necessity but not a show of obscenity!

Clothes are deceptive:

             Clothes can conceal the deceptive thoughts of a person. One cannot become a ‘gentleman’ or a ‘gentlelady’ merely by their attire. They can be ascertained only by their thoughts and actions. There are myriad of incidents where in a gentleman by dress turned out be a real villain at the end and vice versa. So, attire is not at all a parameter to judge a person’s temperament. 

                                                            

              There is also another sect of people who say, “Attire is not what matters, but it is the attitude that matters the most”. They are right until they do not cross the boundaries set by our society. This doctrine is employed by some of the globally top corporates while recruiting their employees, albeit in different forms, like conducting a personality test, stress interview, etc... In such situations, clothing is irrelevant, it is only how you project yourself with your thoughts and actions that matters.

               Clothing is among one of the ‘basic needs’ of a human. But the need should never become one’s frailty and that depends on one’s perspective and ideology of looking at things!

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The Facts of "Interpretations"

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“All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at that time is a function of   power and not truth” – F. W. Nietzsche.

It is very common to see that when a division bench in a court of law hears a case, none of the judges will deliver the same verdict. Likewise when a literary work of the past or to that matter, any literary work is reviewed by several scholars, none of their interpretations will end on the same note.

When author Jonathan Swift’s 1726 novel, “Gulliver’s Travels” was studied by author Isaac Asimov in 1980, he opined that decoding the ‘mysterious’ phrases used by Swift in his novel was a mere waste of time. When the same novel was studied in 2015 by Professor Irving Rothman, he is perceived to have decrypted the phrases used by Swift in his novel. Professor explains that the words such as “Borach Mivola”, “Hnea Yahoo” and others are wilful distortions of the Israeli language, Hebrew.

The English word “Ok” is spelt “Okay” and also as “Okie” and “Okies” (all words mean the same) in online/sms lingo. Likewise, Professor Irving Rothman has propounded that the words used by Jonathan Swift like “Mivola”, “Yahoo” and “Hnea” are deliberately twisted versions of the original Hebrew words, “Mivolim”, “YHVH”and “Ayn” respectively.

Professor Irving Rothman may or may not be correct in his study but reviews are intended to be read and not to be taken for granted until and unless supported by evidences because interpretations are always subject to change according to time as Nietzsche rightly said.

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2013 - A dismal and wretched year!

What an year it was! Simply inexplicable!!

(My) Self-Exile – Rhetoric in “सरकारी भाषा”

“...ఏ దేవి వరము నీవు చిరు నీడలేల కనులా....” (Telugu)

The Government has accepted majority of the recommendations of the Self-Reform Committee (SRC) with a caveat to consider exceptional cases on case-to-case basis.

In a bid to achieve better results and calm the jitters of the temporary imbroglio, the Centre has appointed the Self Reform Committee (SRC) under the chairmanship of RGV in the first half of the current fiscal. And within one month of its appointment, the Committee has submitted its recommendations to the Government. It has recommended imposing of a self-exile and a moratorium on all the social activities until a regulatory set-up is formulated.

Interestingly, the apex court appointed Technical Expert Committee (TEC) too has recommended a moratorium on the social activities in totality, way back in 2009.

           

          The recommendations of the SRC include: to turn a blind eye to the events happening in and around your circle; to focus only on the events which are in direct relation to your goal; to formulate a daily routine and see that you never miss out on it even for a single day; forget about meeting, contacting me is itself next to impossible; One cannot reach me either on phone or social networking websites; to incarcerate yourself in your own world where you can see only your goal and nothing else, among other things.

        

         The SRC has also noted that the ramifications of implementing its recommendations might be calamitous but the Government should be able to bellicose the fiend in its system and emerge out a winner. These stringent recommendations might be discordant to the views of the larger sections of the society but it is to be noted that there are no subterfuges to achieve your prodigious goal.

         The Government has notified that every effort shall be made to ensure that the SRC recommendations are implemented in toto.

  

“...నీ నాద స్వరం పోల వందా....” (Tamil)

Will Metro Rail ease the traffic woes?

P.S.: Published in "The Hindu", Metroplus - Hyderabad Edition - under "Voice Your Views" Column, dated 22nd July, 2013.

              The Metro Rapid Transit System in the metro cities of India caters to large benefits of the public transportation. In Hyderabad, due to rapid urbanisation over the years, its traffic has multiplied many-fold and traffic logjams have become a common sight on majority of its roads. In a step to curb those jams, the metro rail plan was envisaged and approved by the Government in 2008 but the related works have started only in 2012. The first phase of this prestigious project is tentatively scheduled to be operational by 2015. The citizens are eagerly looking forward to it as it will drastically reduce the city’s traffic congestion woes.

An Unending Debate

Disclaimer: First, read the article in the below link authored by one of the eminent professors of the nation, Ms. Usha Ramanathan. Only after reading her article, read my response.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/the-disturbing-truth-about-an-execution/article4503120.ece

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            In the wake of the recent hangings of two dreaded terrorists – Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab and Mohammad Afzal Guru – many of the eminent columnists and experts have questioned the Government’s action of executing them under wraps. Few of them had even gone to the extent of questioning the legality/morality of imposing capital punishment/death penalty bestowed to Indian Judiciary by the law of our land, Constitution! More specifically, in response to Ms. Usha Ramanathan’s “The disturbing truth about an execution”, (Editorial page, March 13, 2013) I would like to throw light on the aam aadmi’s side of this poignant or rather, an unending debate.

              “A swift trial should not be at the cost of a fair trial” - these were the words spoken by the Chief Justice of India in the wake of the horrid Delhi gang rape case. But a fair trial should not be bereft of the Capital Punishment if the nature of the crime and also of the criminal demands to (the two precedents set in the state of Punjab vs Bachchan singh case). If a capital punishment was awarded to a convict after conducting a fair trial, whether it was implemented by the Government or not should be the matter of concern rather than how it was implemented. Obviously, the Government cannot change the procedures outright in implementation of the capital punishment. 

                The predominant factors to be considered in supporting my argument are - the plight of the victims, state of the judiciary and the Government’s functioning in the nation.


                 On the point mentioned by Ms. Usha that there is a violation to Article 21 [Protection of life and personal liberty] in case of Afzal Guru, I would like to question her if the Article 21 is applicable only to him and not to those victims who succumbed to the acts of such perpetrators. The plight of the victims is excruciatingly difficult to put in words. Their loss is irreplaceable and their living has largely been jeopardized due to such dastardly terror acts. For them, the best thing that can happen or the best thing they can expect from the Government is that the perpetrators of such crimes be stringently punished as per the law of the land. This was evident in the testimonies of the victims who spoke after the hanging of the above mentioned terrorists. 


Situational decisions of the Government
           
                   Ms. Usha has pointed out at the deliberate breaches in the procedures prescribed in the Jail Manual. It is to her attention that the Government is ought to serve in the best interests of a nation. It should take the call (on implementation of execution) based on the then prevailing situations and the nature of the convict. Though it has not followed all the guidelines prescribed in the Jail Manual, it is bound to follow all the procedures laid down in constitution. And there is no where mentioned in the constitution that the secret executions are ‘unconstitutional’. Going by the responses and testimonies, the Government was commended by the large sections of the society for its act of executing these terrorists. 



             On the point mentioning that the Union Home Minister has acted illegally – As a matter of fact, the minister need not respond to the Government’s action of executing terrorists but he has responded and rightly defended the Government’s act by providing a proper reason. The execution of the Rajiv Gandhi killers was stayed by a judicial bench on the grounds of inordinate delay in disposing off their mercy petitions. Though the verdict is awaited (in Bhullar’s case), until that moment i.e., as on 9th February, 2013, the Government is not at all bound to stop its current functioning forecasting the verdict of the future cases. It is only after Afzal Guru’s execution, that a bench of apex court has ordered a stay on all the executions until its judgment in Bhullar’s case is pronounced.
   

              And on point of Government tendering apology and providing reparation to the family of the terrorists, it shall be highly ignominious as such acts will only show the Government in poor light. In fact, it is the family members of the convicts, who should apologize on behalf of them to the families of the victims. These convicts of the terror acts should be unpardonable. 


The state of Indian Judiciary

             According to our rule of law, the judiciary provides an accused a fair trial. It first provides the accused, a defense counsel, then further appeals in the higher courts and only after several adjournments and deliberations, a capital punishment order is endorsed [only sections 121, 132, 194, 302, 305, 307, 364A, 396 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 shall attract death penalty]. That doesn’t end the story, for there are review petitions, clemency plea and finally a judicial review over that in case of a rejection. Also the number of executions carried out in India since 1995 till date only amount to a paltry four (Auto Shankar, Dhananjoy Chatterjee, Kasab, Afzal), whereas the death convicts number from 2007 to 2011 itself is around 435. The number rose to 476 as of February, 2013 (Source: Amnesty International). This number speaks of itself that how far the Indian Government is staying away from implementing the capital punishment and yet when it is obliging the judiciary’s orders in rarest of the rare cases, people are questioning its will. This will only reduce the crime deterrence rate in the criminals.

The Prominence of mode of teaching

The way a prescribed syllabus is taught to the students holds the key rather than the very syllabus itself. Irrespective of whether it is state board syllabus or CBSE or ICSE, all are standard ones, each differing only in the ‘complexity levels’ but not in the standards. The mode of teaching should enthuse children and stimulate their creativity quotients. In addition to it, nurturing the specific interests of a child will also help in boosting their creativity levels. This has been showcased in various films as well, Taare Zameen Par, being one of those.

For example, most of the students find history to be a boring subject on account of the innumerous time periods to be memorized but when history is taught as a subject which every Indian has to know (about one’s nation/freedom movement/culture/society), it will be impressive than ever - This infuses the interest in a child’s psyche and automatically stimulates the creativity.