Dog Blogs Travel Trips

I’ve been following the global #MeToo Movement for a few years now, torn between celebrating the outpouring of sisterhood and solidarity for survivors of sexual harassment and appalled at the shame and ridicule they were being subjected to for speaking out. The #MeToo implosion in India followed a scarily similar turn of events, raging through in a brief, glorious burst of fierce feminist energy, only to wither away in legal imbroglio. The list of accused was vast and varied, from actors to artists, comedians and politicians, journalists and the judiciary, and of course, The Woke Bois [1] of the desi world. Every sector was riddled with salacious stories of the misdemeanors of men. The ones in the development sector were especially exhausting. The names of self proclaimed champions of the crusade against patriarchy cropped up repeatedly. @sanitarypanels The survivors, and their supporters, however, had a whole different drama to deal with. The initia...

Indian social media had a video go viral recently, made by some young women in Gurgaon. In the video, they’re following a middle-aged woman, demanding an apology. The older woman had earlier shamed one of them for wearing a short skirt. She then went on to tell some men in the restaurant that they should rape such women. The release of this video on social media led to all sorts of responses and raging debates, including whether the video ought to have been uploaded in the first place? Is public shaming an appropriate response when someone is misogynistic? Legal action is appropriate perhaps, and sometimes, maybe, deflecting the situation using conversation perhaps is appropriate. As per reports, the younger women did both. I remember when a random man once accosted me. This was in Calcutta, and I remember he was old, and out on his evening walk. He stopped me on the street because he wanted to inform me that it was wrong of me to smoke, because I’m a woman, and I w...

"Buddha doesn't refer to a person, but a state of mind which we all are innately equipped with. Buddha means awakening..." ~ Rinzin Dorjee , Writer & scholar, Dehradun. Vikalp Sangam is a platform for groups and individuals working on alternatives to the currently dominant model of development and governance, in various spheres of life. Its major activity is the convening of regional and thematic Confluences across India to facilitate networking of these groups. The briefing note on the ideologies of this Alternates Confluence read much like a theoretical module from my University degree! We were hosted at Prakriti Sadhana Kendra, Vidya Bhawan. Barely 15 km from the city, the Ashram is cocooned in the dry forests of the Aravallis. The crisp, cold air of Rajasthan was radically different from the lush, tropical Goa. Ninety or so social activists, healers, herbalists, teachers, trainers, farmers, khojis , feminists,...

What happens when you bring together some activists, school girls, unemployed youth and poor farmers? A revolution. A rebellion against the rules . There is hope in this world yet. As the outside world is carried away by greed, jealousy, rage and power, I have been camping in Bagaicha, Ranchi with this group of people who have lost homes, families, land and identities and are struggling to bring together their communities in a new age rebellion against the consumer world that you and I are a part of. Over days of chatting with them and finally hounding them for follow ups it began to dawn on me who I was trying to understand, to connect with. These were the people our government forgot when they were making the rules, the laws that govern our nation. There were people desperately fighting for a chance of survival, fighting for their land, their forests, their culture…for their communities. Reaching Bagaicha on the 17 th , the first thing I did was make friends with Spotty aka ‘C...

Hello and welcome back to Dog Blogs and Random Trips ! I’m starting today’s doggie topic this way coz I got a grudge against a radio channel that I’m gonna vent about. A fellow dog lover in Bangalore (Michelle Stewart) wrote in about Radio Indigo who invited someone from Koramangala Citizen Cell. This is the Namma Bengaluru Program with HS Balram hosting aired on the 19 th of November, 2011. Anyway, like all good controversy seeking pseudo journalists, HS Balram asked their delightful dog hating guest about the “Great Stray Dog Menace”. As most of you know, the southern part of India has been going ballistic about these allegedly rabid dogs which are apparently on a baby eating spree. So the wonderful and esteemed BBMP and others (check Voice of Stray Dogs on FB for full updates) have decided that annihilating the dog population in India is the way to solve the world’s problems. One of these panchayats have even got this psycho dude named Moron-gun -- oops! sorry! Mu...