We all evolve from curious 15 year old giggling on the slight mention of "Sex" to flamboyant young women who over the years have received gyan from magazines and "experienced" friends. However, sex is a never ending topic for discussion. Just when you think you've aced it you realized that's not all there is to it. 

False information about sex is available everywhere now. In the papers, your bedroom, on the streets. If you had the same doubts and had plans of asking them out loud, here are a few less embarrassing way to dispel all doubts. 

1. Size matters: Is it a universal law that what's bigger has to be better? Do you feel the intensity of your pleasure depends on the size of his organ? Wrong. Only about 4 centimetres (external one third) of the vaginal canal contains sensory nerves for arousal and orgasms. So why waste time trying to stimulate the internal two thirds of the vaginal canal when there's not going to be any response? Focus your attention to more important matters, women! 

2. Love foods or aphrodisiacs will get you "tingly": Pigging out on oysters and strawberries to spice up your sex life? Sorry to break your bubble women, it's nothing but a placebo effect. As in, if people believe oysters and chocolate are supposed to be sexually stimulating foods, they very well might become aroused after consuming them. Aphrodisiacs have no provable affect on the libido. 

3. Men think more about sex than women: Don't blame the sex game on the men. Women think about sex as much as a man does. If you're an 18 year old with raging hormones then there are chances you might be sleeping, eating and dreaming sex. After a certain age, men and women's sexual urges mellows a bit. And it's a complete no-no to weigh out sexual prowess. To each man his own. This also doesn't mean that only men make the first move for sex. Women do too! And nothing can be more turning on for the man than a woman in control. 

4. The withdrawal method won't get you knocked up: All it takes is a tiny sperm to get you pregnant. And that can happen through pre-ejaculation also. Most pregnancies happen because of the withdrawal method. This isn't a fool proof plan so heads up! 

5. Women don't like porn: Not all women want rose petals on their bed. And not all women want to be whisked away into a gentle world of "love-making". Women enjoy pornography too. And if anyone thought only men can conjure up fantasies, then you are definitely misguided. 

6. You won't get pregnant if you have sex while menstruating: Wrong! This is a long standing myth that most people believe in. It is unlikely that a woman will get pregnant while menstruating but not impossible. Sperms can stay alive inside you for several days, especially if you have a shorter cycle. 

7. An orgasm for women is supposed to be earth shattering and if not so, you're not normal: Myth, myth and 100% myth. Some women have orgasms and don't know about it. Pelvic muscles don't contract as much for some women however after a point of arousal they do feel relaxed and content. So if he failed to "rock" your world, then don't panic. You're still very normal. 

8. Every woman has a G-spot: The alluring mystery of the G-spot. Yes, it's true every woman has a G-spot, but not every woman's G spot is an erogenous zone. So if you've been on a quest to find out the sweet spot, then you're wasting your time. Focus on the other erogenous zones. She'd be so much happier! 

9. If she doesn't make pleasure noises, then she's not enjoying the sex: Some women are vocal, some are not. This doesn't mean she's not enjoying it. Don't expect her to scream out all the time. We know it's an ego boost for you, boys. But it just doesn't work that way. Sometimes, silence is golden. 

Baby found in trash...

A newborn baby was found in a garbage bag that was apparently unloaded from an airplane that landed on Sunday, Sep 12 in Manila from the Middle East, official said.

Security officials brought the baby boy and handed over to hospital where he was examined and cleaned him up, airport officials said.

Airport nurse Kate Calvo said. "He was healthy, his vital signs were OK according to our doctors.''

Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman was enraged by such inhuman acts and asked the police to investigate over the matter and criminally charge infant's mother.

However, if the mother is not found Soliman is said to put the child into adoption centre

Prostitution in Mumbai parlours busted, 11 arrested...

Mumbai: The Crime branch on Saturday, Aug 13 busted sex rackets that were being carried out in four Beauty parlours in Bhayander West.

Acting on a complaint filed against few salons in the area, the Bhayander police launched a search. During their raid on Shringar, Diana, Glow and Lotus parlours at various locations in Indira Market, the police came across several women lending sexual favours on clients who came there seeking "massage".

The cops arrested 11 including few of the clients. The customers have been booked under sections 110 (abetment) and 112 of the IPC. The police said the Diana parlour had a branchin Borivli, which was also recently raided.

Residents of the Indira Market area had lodged a complaint with the police about the prostitution racket after they got suspicious as the parlours stayed open till late at night.

Why are you confused, Mr Kejriwal?.. any problem???

            My Grandfather, especially after he hit the 70s, used to sulk a lot. His expectations from everyone —family, friends, neighbours, even the perpetually edgy mountain hen we kept for her delicious eggs that my uncle used to suck raw after cracking a hole in it with a pin — soared with age. We all loved him and cherished his presence in our lives but, man, could he get cranky. Anna Hazare sometimes reminds me of him.

           The stragglers and stray-arounds who sat uneasily and impatiently with Hazare during his Mumbai protests may just have aggravated his illness. It’s quite possible that he may not have felt so sick had the attendance been thicker and the crowd noisier. He should, of course, have been wiser and pared down his expectation from a city that largely only prostrates before train and trade. Still, that must have hurt.

As if that was not enough, our elders in the Rajya Sabha dumped the proposed Lokpal Bill into the black hole of parliamentary proceedings. Before anyone knew how exactly the tumultuous day of its debate ended, chairman Hamid Ansari suddenly got up at the stroke of midnight, said good night and left. The most painful cut, though, came when the BJP, a party Anna and his team had warmed up to and begun to depend upon to deliver on a strong anti-graft ombudsman, opened its arms to Babu Singh Kushwaha, a tainted minister of the Mayawati cabinet who was first stripped of his post and then of the BSP’s membership. 

In what must be the dumbest and most short-sighted move the BJP had made in recent times — what will it now tell those it was asking not to vote for a “corrupt” Congress? What will be its main political plank for the coming elections, now that it has proven itself to be more opportunistic and welcoming of wrongdoers than any of the UPA members— one of those who got a resounding slap across the face was Anna and his band of the faithful. No wonder Arvind Kejriwal, his confidante and Man Friday, told The Times of India that he was confused and did not know the way ahead.

              But this might just have come at the right moment for Kejriwal & Company. Confusion is not such a bad thing. It often clears cobwebs of the mind after the initial bewilderment. The BJP’s Kushwaha self-infliction will educate Anna and gang better on how to deal with India’s netas. They will learn how to weigh their words, to calibrate with caution and strategize with sense. In any case, they should have distanced themselves from the BJP-RSS— categorically and convincingly— long ago. It may not have brought in the crowds, but it would have multiplied the respect. 

And if they thought one Ramlila would bring in Ram rajya, they needed this pinch in their bottoms to wake them up. They have one great thing, though, going for them right now. It is a generation ready to rock and roll with them — a generation that holds our leaders to standards they have seen, read and heard about in the advanced world; a restless, surging population that doesn’t know the dark days of the licence raj and suffocation of India’s peculiar brand of socialism; a breed that hatched just as the economy opened up, growing up with all the advantages reforms had to offer. A youthful force that is impatient of anything that hinders their progress. And they think it is corruption. What more does Anna want? More cynically, Indians are notoriously sensitive mostly about their own interests, and the pay-per-favour system which blankets our lives these days goes against the fundamental tenets of that very awareness. 

More heartening for the Lokpal army is the fact that very few actually believe street protests compromise either our democracy or Parliament. That is a scam perpetuated by pathological contrarians with blinkers. Governments are falling on the streets now more than ever before. Forget the uprisings of the Arab world, who would have thought Russians and Israelis would swarm their cities asking for respite, change and progress. Who would have thought Burma would actually allow Aung San Suu Kyi to contest elections in an authoritarian regime hurtling so furiously towards democracy that the US says it can’t keep pace with the transformation. 

It’s a long haul, of course. For a country wrapped around the neck in red tape, corruption often is the only way to cut through it. The roadside vendor harassed by the police won’t care if his misery comes to an end with the intervention of a legislator, however sinister and devious he might me. It will also take a mountain to tear away voters from reposing faith in leaders just for being representatives of their caste, community and religion. Change won’t be easy. But when you carry a torch, you should be ready to walk through the dark.

Maya's re-election chances boosted with 7% growth...

Globally, a country is called a miracle economy if it attains 7% GDP growth. The latest member of the 7% growth club is, surprisingly, Uttar Pradesh. This should matter in the coming state election.

UP has long been regarded as incurably feudal, caste-bound and incapable of fast growth. With a population of 200 million, it has dragged down the rest of India. A standard old joke had Nehru telling Jinnah: "You can have Kashmir provided you take UP as well."

Today, politicians and journalists are analyzing UP election prospects largely in terms of caste and religious combinations. They also look at corruption charges, and Mayawati's populist proposal to divide UP into four new states. They don't think economic growth matters.

That could be an error. In the bad old days, promises of economic development were bad jokes, since the state remained an economic laggard. Far more important were caste-based and religion-based reservations in government jobs and educational establishments. Nobody knew or cared about state GDP.

Yet that proved to be a mistake in the last election in Bihar, where too growth was once viewed as an irrelevant joke. When this column broke the news in early 2010 that Bihar had suddenly started growing at 11% under Nitish Kumar, it was greeted with scorn. One grey eminence declared that the growth data were not statistically significant. However, they turned out to be electorally very significant indeed — Nitish Kumar won by a landslide in the state election later that year.

One of the most welcome surprises of the last decade has been the sudden acceleration of GDP in many big backward states that earlier pulled down the rest of India. The Planning Commission estimates that between 2004-05 and 2010-11, Bihar averaged 10.9% growth, Chhattisgarh 9.45%, Orissa 9.47% and Uttar Pradesh 7.01%. In three of these states — Bihar, Orissa and Chhattisgarh, the chief ministers were re-elected. Mayawati must be hoping that she can do the same, although UP lags well behind the other three in growth.

It would be quite wrong to draw any automatic connection between growth and electoral success. The DMK in Tamil Nadu and Left front in Kerala presided over rapid GDP growth too, but were voted out in state elections in 2011. Meanwhile, Assam registered miserable GDP growth, yet Tarun Gogoi was re-elected (thanks largely to his peace accord with Ulfa).

So, growth is only one of many factors. But the same can be said of caste and reservations too. After all, Uttar Pradesh has had the same caste composition for decades, yet parties of all stripes have come to power in the last two decades.

Arvind Virmani, former chief economic advisor, has created an economic model to try and explain electoral trends. This model posits that when growth of GDP per capita is faster in the last five years than the preceding five years, the incumbent will have a better chance of getting re-elected. Conversely, a worsening of the growth rate reduces re-election chances.

This model has had a reasonable, though by no means infallible, track record in the last decade. India's GDP growth slowed between 1997-98 and 2002-03 (because of the Asian financial crisis, global recession and two droughts). In consequence, three-quarters of incumbents lost elections in the early and mid-2000s. The NDA government in 2004 claimed to have created a shining India, yet per capita GDP growth during NDA's tenure was only 3.8% per year against 4.7% in the previous five years. It lost, as predicted by the model. Subsequently, per capita GDP accelerated under UPA-I. It duly won re-election in 2009. Many other incumbent governments won in states with accelerating growth.

In Uttar Pradesh, the first four years of Mayawati's rule yielded per capita GDP growth averaging 4.8% per year. This was twice as high as the 2.3% in the preceding five years (2002-07). This may not be conclusive, but is surely relevant.

Sceptics say that statistics in UP are notoriously unreliable. Few people can sense any sort of economic miracle. Industrialists complain of massive power shortages and government extortion. Road building and real estate have boomed, but corruption is massive. Mayawati has jailed many Yadav goons, but let loose her own. Brahmins who flocked to her in 2007 are now attracted to Rahul Gandhi.

These are the critical issues, say political analysts, not GDP. Maybe. But in a four-cornered contest, tiny factors can swing the vote, and growth is more than tiny. Analysts believe Mayawati is currently well behind the Samajwadi Party, with the Congress and BJP fighting for third place. But if she comes out on top —a big if—7% growth will be the clinching factor

Silver, cash amounting to Rs 90L seized in Rajkot

RAJKOT: Unaccounted cache of silver and cash worth Rs 90 lakh were seized from two Bhavnagar traders, who mysteriously disappeared after landing in Rajkot, giving rise to suspicion of abduction on Tuesday night.
According to police, they received a tip-off about the consignment of silver arriving in two cars near Aji dam and alerted the custom department.
"Both police and custom department officials located the vehicles with given descriptions and unearthed the silver cache. However, there was no sign of traders who had brought the cache, giving rise to suspicion that they were kidnapped," a police official said.
The seized cache include 70 kg silver and Rs 53 lakh cash.

Elephants destroy crops, villagers ransack forest offices...

MIDNAPORE (WB): Angry with loss of crops by a herd of elephants, villagers at Dhadika in West Midnapore district today ransacked offices of the forest department alleging that the department was not helping them.

The police said a range office, a beat office and a community hall of the forest department were ransacked by the villagers of Dhadika under Garbeta police station.

A herd of 25 elephants came to Dhadika last night and destroyed standing crops like potato, mustard, radish, cabbage and cauliflower.

Forest department sources said they had to follow procedure in such cases but the villagers wanted instant action which was not possible.

The herd, originally from the Dalma range, has come to Dhadika from Mayurjharna locality under Belpahari police station of the district, they said.

Villagers complained that another herd of elephants had damaged crops in the same village about a fortnight ago, but no compensation was given till now.

The forest department said the higher authorities had been informed about the incident.

Three forest department personnel, who had been kidnapped by the villagers, had been rescued by the police.

J&K launches website for school education..

JAMMU: The Jammu and Kashmir government has launched an official website for the state's School Education Department for better assistance and access to information regarding the education sector.

"We have launched the website of School Education Department at 'www.jkeducation.gov.in' in Jammu and Kashmir for information and assistance to people on the state's education sector," the State Education Ministry officials said.

As per a circular issued by the Ministry, information regarding government orders, seniority lists, circulars and other important official communications has already been made available on the website.

This has been done to prevent officials and general public from making unnecessary visits to the school education department for collecting petty information regarding department orders and circulars, he said.

Bhopal: Government to ensure 25% quota under RTE in private schools

BHOPAL: Admission process under the Right to Education Act in all schools in the state capital would be monitored by specially appointed nodal officers. The schools will have to admit 25% of their seats to students hailing from the below poverty line (BPL). A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the district administration and school authorities on Tuesday.
The Rajya Siksha Kendra (RSK) under the school education department would appoint the nodal officers. These officials would supervise the admissions and ensure that admissions are made in a random manner in various schools. The nodal officers would be appointed in a couple of days.
The schools were also instructed that 25% seats should be made available to children from nursery level to standard one, wherever direct admissions are conducted. The schools can divide the number of children admitted under RTE into multiple classes but they should comprise 25% of the total strength, according to the government decision.
Commissioner of the Shiksha Kendra Ashok Barnwal also said that applications for the children from BPL sections of the society would not only be taken at the respective schools but also at the district and block education offices.
The concept of neighbourhood was explained to the school principals present at the meeting. It was also pointed out that the children from the school's neighbourhood should be the first preferred for admission. If seats are left vacant, then children from the extended neighbourhood could be considered for admission.
All admissions including the children not falling under the RTE Act would be conducted through random selection.
Collector Nikunj Shrivastava has instructed that the schools cannot discard any of the applications being filed. If any applicant is found wanting or fail to fulfill the criteria he would be communicated. Moreover any further query about the applicant can be filled in a written receipt.
It was also discussed that in case of any doubt about the validity of the below poverty line card provided by the applicant, it would be reported to the collector's office through the district education office.

Anna Effect: People take over reins of power ...

Few would have thought that the Anna Hazare-led agitation against a system that is neither accountable nor transparent, that breeds corruption, would ever reach the state it has now. One thought a full-blown confrontation would be averted. But that was not to be.

The turning point was August 15-16, when an unnerved government blundered, badly. The whole issue shifted from Lokpal Bill to whether citizens have the right to protest or not! The sea of humanity that has since converged on Delhi has pushed the government into a cul-de-sac from where there's now little room for it to escape.

What we are seeing now is no spur of the moment, intemperate outburst against a democratic system. It has been in the making for a long time. There has been enough and more warning, that people who man our administrative and government machinery have to mend their ways. The restrictions that the government imposed proved to be the last straw. Somewhere it all had to end. And, it looks like this is the beginning of the end.

What we saw on the streets of Delhi yesterday, and the unceasing overwhelming, almost reverential, support for Anna Hazare, is in fact, symbolic of the people's frustration with the system. People have lost confidence and hope in all constitutional institutions like elections, government, parliament, and even judiciary. This as much a reactive backlash as much as it's a proactive revolution.

DECLINE OF THE POLITICIAN

In a democracy, it's the politicians who hold the reins of power. And, that's why it's said that democracy is only as good as its politicians. Sadly, over time, during the past 64 years, our democracy has been eroded by its very guardians -- the politicians whom the people voted for, to run the country.

It's an open secret that many people enter politics because they know a lot of easy money can be made out there. Not surprisingly, the quality of political class deteriorated over time, and people, each time they were presented a set of leaders to vote for, had little choice. During each election, the frustration was very much evident -- the increasing demands for either an option to mark "none of the above" or the “right to recall” legislators. Indian democracy has been trampled over and converted into a free-for-all joke. 

The entire political class has now been brought to its knees. For the first time ever, the government and Parliament -- the august body people elected -- is being told what to do by the people themselves. Team Anna wants the official Lokpal Bill withdrawn, and "people's" version -- Jan Lokpal bill -- introduced and passed.

Anna, backed by the surging humanity has presented Parliament with not many options -- pass the Jan Lokpal Bill within a time-frame. The government says this is tantamount to blackmail, undemocratic, and unconstitutional. But then, who cares -- people had since long lost its faith in government, parliament, and the politicians that it comprises.

What we may see over the coming days, could be historic, seeing the buoyancy Team Anna is getting. The politicians -- who till now have been either hiding or scoring political brownie points -- will now have to come clean. For the first time, politicians have been held accountable. They will no longer be able to hoodwink people. They will have to answer quite a few tough questions. This agitation has left them with no options.

It will be interesting to see how the government wriggles out of this highly embarrassing situation, and also how the entire political class will react, now that it's clear as daylight who really holds the reins of power, the people.

Looking ahead to 2012...

If there’s one thing that I am looking forward to this year, it’s a change in our mindset. The world around us is rapidly evolving, thanks to science and technology. But our responses to many contemporary issues continue to be stereotyped and often warped by anachronistic values and judgements. Here are some areas where a break from the past would be welcome.

Move from symbolism to practice
We as a nation revel in symbolism. Patriotism, purity, virtuosity, morality, non-violence... the list goes on. We throw stones at dogs and make lives of animals miserable, while at the same time worship them. We litter public places with gay abandon, even while being obsessed with purity and cleanliness when it comes to religious practices. We value, respect and honour our national flag, song and anthem; though we waste public money and resources, and destroy public property. We need to realise that national symbols, our language and traditions draw their strength from the state of our nation and our people. Patriotism is not just about standing up for Jana Gana Mana, but it’s more about contributing to our national wealth.

End, not the means
If a signboard has to be put up at a public place, hardly any thought goes into whether people can read it or not. Either it will be positioned at a wrong place, or it will be in a language very few people can read. The typical stereotyped response often heard is: “Let people learn the language and then read it!” It symbolizes our attitude to many situations, where bureaucratic procedures, traditional concepts or misplaced sense of values take precedence over convenience and comfort of the common people.

Political consensus
A cliche that is merely heard, never brought about. The American equivalent is “bipartisan approach”. They don’t merely talk about it, they actively practise it. Look at the way the anti-corruption and Lokpal debate went both in Parliament and outside. We don’t have a solution to the problem everyone is so clear about. We need to change the way politics is practised in our country, all the more because in a democracy it’s the political decision-makers who are the final authority.

Separate the private and the public
A lot of public fights in our country are about personal matters and beliefs. Be it the dress we wear or the food we eat or the language we speak or the source of strength we believe in. A number of public issues are left unattended and unresolved, because there is little time or energy left after battling personal egos. The private and the public are mixed up so badly that often policy decisions are taken based on personal whims rather than on public interest.

Move on...
Here’s an often-spoken about scene that typifies our indifference -- a suited and booted nouveau riche, while travelling in his newly acquired SUV, lowers the windshield to throw the banana peel on the road. Helen Keller said, "Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all -- the apathy of human beings."

Stages of the Family Life Cycle...

Stages of the Family Life Cycle

Stage One: Single young adults leave home

Here the emotional change is from the reliance on the family to acceptance of emotional and financial responsibility for ourselves. Second-order changes include differentiation of self in relation to family of origin. This means we neither blindly accept what our parents believe or want us to do, nor do we automatically respond negatively to their requests. Our beliefs and behaviors are now part of our own identity, though we will change and refine what we believe throughout our lives. Also, during this period we develop intimate peer relationships on a deeper level than we had previously and become finacially independent.

Stage Two: The new couple joins their families through marriage or living together

The major emotional transition during this phase is through commitment to the new system. Second-order change involves the formation of a marital system and realignment of relationships with extended families and friends that includes our spouses.

Stage Three: Families with young children

Emotionally we must now accept new members into the system. This isn't hard initially because babies come to us in sweet innocent packages that open our hearts. Unfortunately, in the middle of the night we may wonder what we've gotten ourselves into. Nevertheless, we adjust the marital system to make space for our children, juggling childrearing, financial and household tasks. Second-order change also ocurs with the realignment of relationships with extended family as it opens to include the parenting and grandparenting roles.

Stage Four: Families with adolescents

Emotional transitions are hard here for the whole family because we need to increase the flexibility of families boundaries to include children's independence and grandparents' frailities. As noted above, second-order change is required in order for the shifting of the parent-child relationship to permit adolescents to move in and out of the system. Now there is a new focus on midlife marital and career issues and the beginning shift toward joint caring for the older generation when both children and aging parents demand our attention, creating what is now called the sandwich generation.

Stage Five: Launching children and moving on

This is one of the transitions that can be most emotionally difficult for parents as they now need to accept a multitude of exits from and entries into the family system. If the choices of the children leaving the nest are compatible with the values and expectations of the parents, the transition can be relatively easy and enjoyable, especially if the parents successfully navigate their second-order changes, such as renegotiation of the marital system as a couple rather than as simply parents. Other developmental changes include development of adult-to-adult relationships between us and our grown children, inclusion of in-laws and grandchildren, and dealing with the disabilities and death of our own parents.  for what can happen when transitions in this stage become particularly bumpy.)

Stage Six: Families in later life

When Erikson discusses this stage, he focuses on how we as individuals either review our lives with acceptance and a sense of accomplishment or with bitterness and regret. A family systems approach, however, is interested in how the family as a unit responds and sees the key emotional principle as accepting the shifting of generational roles. Second-order changes require us to maintain our own interests and functioning as a couple in face of physiological decline. We shift our focus onto the middle generation (the children who are still in stage five) and support them as they launch their own children. In this process the younger generation needs to make room for the wisdom and experience of the elderly, supporting the older generation without overfunctioning for them. Other second-order change includes dealing with the loss of our spouse, siblings, and others peers and the preparation for our own death and the end of our generation.

Corruption, Lokpal and the IAS brotherhood... 20

2

          There is an IAS officer in the state that I live in. In 2003, he disappeared without informing his bosses. For five years there was no trace of him, officially that is. Everybody knew that he was in the US. The government (read his colleagues in the IAS) was kind enough to persist with his ‘service’ and merely mark him "AWOL" (absent without leave). Then one day in 2008 he showed up. The government made motions of asking him why he was missing from service but he provided some answers that would put the mythological Shravan Kumar to shame (that his father in law who lived in a different city in India was unwell and he was tending to his medical needs all this while!). “Satisfied” with these answers, the government took back the officer. Of course, anywhere in the private sector he would have lost his job within a few weeks of his absconding. But this is not the end of the story. On December 31, 2011, that is, over the weekend, the officer retired on attaining the age of superannuation. To make his exit smooth, the government (read other IAS babus) on the last day of his service closed an inquiry pertaining to some alleged wrongdoing by him long ago. If the file had not been closed the gentleman would not have got his pension. A typical case of the government being one of IAS officers, by IAS officers and for IAS officers?

 

Read on. In the same state an IAS officer has been named in an FIR for a major case filed by the CBI as accused number 1. The case relates to loss of hundreds of crores to the exchequer. There are many other accused including “unknown some” in the FIR. But the CBI has gone ahead and arrested these unknown some and even as they are spending time behind bars, this IAS gentleman is very much in his office. Of course, I am not saying that the officer is guilty, but the fact is that he is accused number 1. Incidentally the gentleman is the principal secretary, department of home of the state government and nobody thought it fit to at least shift him to a less important post pending the FIR. What sort of signal does the public get when the accused No. 1 in a major case of corruption continues to function as the principal secretary, department of home? But as I said this is a case of a government of IAS officers, by IAS officers and for IAS officers. This is the biggest brotherhood in the country but yet the Lokpal Bill thrust by Anna Hazare and acquiesced in by the Union government concentrates more on bringing in the 55 lakh Group C and D employees under the ambit of the proposed ombudsman. This is only going to add to the burden of the Lokpal’s machinery and will result in an enormous burden on the exchequer, while the big fish will continue to flourish.

You want to hear more stories? There is an upcoming golf club in this city. A decade or so ago, golfers keen to pursue their game went and met the chief secretary asking him for land. The chief secretary said that it was fine but asked for a concession, senior government officers (read mostly IAS officers) must be allowed to become members of the club at nominal rates and they should also have a say in the management of the club (never forget even if they do not know the g of golf). So a decade later, while genuine golfers pay Rs 7.5 lakhs for a lifetime membership, the IAS brotherhood pays peanuts: Rs15,000 for the membership that brings along with it other club facilities for socializing, eating and drinking. More concessions are given to these superbabus: they were allowed to pass over the membership to not only their kin but also third parties for a nominal fee (opening up scope for black marketeering?). The story has not ended. Now that the club is growing bigger, the superbabus want to increase the number of memberships for them. At present, there are 200 babu members but more joining the ranks of babudom they are demanding 100 more.

I guess that the golfers can do nothing to resist this because the premises of the club is adjacent to a 500-year-old historical fort that is under the charge of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). The golf greens has now started encroaching on the premises of the fort. But the ASI is silent. Why? Possibly this is because both the ASI director general and his boss the secretary, department of culture, are IAS officers. The story doing the rounds is that the latter is a golfer but it is quite possible that the duo at Delhi are not even aware of these violations. The funniest thing is that the government of India (GOI) is now sending (or has recently sent) a proposal to Unesco so that the fort and its premises can be declared a heritage site. Perhaps for these superbabus, golf greens is an example of the type of heritage that must be protected in this country.

These are a few examples of wrongdoing perpetrated by the IAS brotherhood that I have seen in this city. There are many other examples too numerous to be recounted. I am sure there are equally potent one in other states. I am quite convinced by what I see around that a large number of IAS officers are rank corrupt, though an equally large number are honest to the core. The really corrupt ones have made tens of crores. And for the information of the ilk of Baba Ramdev, this money is not kept in Swiss Banks. It is deployed to buy land and to run benami businesses. Everybody knows the names of corrupt IAS officers but nothing can be done to them. Many of them move around as if they are paragons of virtue. Anna Hazare and his team instead of concentrating on that elusive Lokpal Bill that focuses on 55 lakh small employees should think about how to tackle the big fish. For this is required an understanding of what makes these big babus corrupt.

Many so-called intellectuals think that corruption in the IAS can be controlled by increase their salaries to a sufficiently high level. They point to the ICS officers of the British times who were honest. But they miss the main point. The ICS officers were honest because they had no elected government to report to. Today’s politician coming up all the way through the grind for a five year term wants to break even or make profits to try to get elected for a new term. So he does illegal things and forces the superbabus to toe his line. But the superbabus of IAS can resist: because theirs is an almost lifetime employment till the age of superannuation. Nobody can sack them or throw them out of employment. The maximum that can be done is to be transferred to positions that have no scope for work and therefore corruption. But so used they have become to good life that many of them have started collaborating with the netas. It is this corruption and wrongdoing of IAS babus that has to be curbed first. This is what Anna an his team and in fact all of us should concentrate on instead of trying to nab that traffic constable who takes Rs 50 to look the other way as you jump the signals.

Don't come back to Gulf, Iran warns US carrier; oil prices jump above $101...

TEHRAN: Iran's army chief on Tuesday warned an American aircraft carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf in Tehran's latest tough rhetoric over the strategic waterway, part of a feud with the United States over new sanctions that has sparked a jump in oil prices. Gen. Ataollah Salehi spoke as a 10-day Iranian naval exercise ended near the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf. Iranian officials have said the drill aimed to show that Iran could close the vital oil passage, as it has threatened to do if the United States enacts strong new sanctions over Iran's nuclear program.

The strait, leading into the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea, is the only possible route for tankers transporting crude from the oil-rich states of the Persian Gulf to markets. A sixth of the world's oil exports passes through it every day.

Oil prices rose to over $101 a barrel on Tuesday amid concerns that rising tensions between Western powers and Iran could lead to crude supply disruptions. By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for February delivery was up $2.67 to $101.50 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The jump came a day after Iran test-fired a surface-to-surface cruise missile as part of the maneuvers, prompting Iran's navy chief to boast that the strait is "completely under our control."

Salehi's warning for the US aircraft carrier not to come back seemed aimed at further depicting the strait and the Gulf as under Iran's domination, though there was little way to enforce his warning without military action. The strait is divided between Iran and Oman's territorial waters, and international law requires them to allow free passage through it.

"We recommend to the American warship that passed through the Strait of Hormuz and went to Gulf of Oman not to return to the Persian Gulf," Salehi was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.

He said Iran's enemies have understood the message of the naval exercises, saying, "We have no plan to begin any irrational act but we are ready against any threat."

The aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis and another vessel exited the Gulf through the Hormuz Strait a week ago, after a visit to Dubai's Jebel Ali port, according to the US Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet. The Fleet did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Salehi's warning.

Iran's sabre-rattling over the strait and the Gulf has come in response to US preparations to impose tough new sanctions that would ban dealings with Iran's Central Bank. That would deeply hurt Iran's oil exports since most countries and companies use the bank to conduct purchases of Iranian crude. Iran relies on oil revenues for around 80 per cent of its budget, meaning a cut-off would be devastating to its already weakening economy.

President Barack Obama has signed the sanctions into law but has not yet enacted them. The sanctions would be the strongest yet by the US, aimed at forcing Tehran to back of its nuclear program, which many in the West say is intended to produce a nuclear weapon. Iran denies the claim, saying its program is peaceful.

French foreign minister Alain Juppe said on Tuesday that is country wants Europe to agree on similar sanctions against Iran by Jan 30 to show its determination to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. He told the French television station i>TELE that there is "no doubt" that Iran is continuing with plans to build a bomb.

Iran's naval maneuvers took place over a 1,250-mile (2,000-kilometer) stretch of water beyond the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, as well as parts of the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, according to Iranian officials.

A leading Iranian lawmaker said on Sunday the maneuvers served as practice for closing the strait if the West enacts sanctions blocking Iranian oil sales. Top Iranian officials made the same threat last week.

The Hit Man’s Dilemma (lite)

The Hit Man’s Dilemma (lite)

“Don’t take this personal, it’s just business”

My essay is about the tension between the impersonal conditions of social life and the persons who inevitably carry it out. This relationship is poorly understood, perhaps never more than now, when the difference between individual citizens and business corporations operating on a scale larger than some countries has become obscured. My starting point is a legendary remark made in a movie by a professional killer to his victim, “Don’t take this personal, it’s just business.” But, according to my favorite American dictionary, a “person” is “a living human being” and what could be more personal than taking his life? Perhaps the hit man is referring to his own attitude, not to the effect. Killing people is a matter of routine for him, a “business”. Why should business be impersonal and, if it is, how can that be reconciled with the person who practices it?

Ideas are impersonal, human life is not. So, at one level, the issue is the relative priority to be accorded to life and ideas. Because the encounter is live and therefore already personal, the hit man has to warn his victim (and perhaps himself) not to take it so. It would seem that the personal and the impersonal are hard to separate in practice. Our language and culture contain the ongoing history of this attempt to separate social life into two distinct spheres. This is the core of capitalism’s moral economy; and gangster movies offer a vicarious opportunity to relive its contradictions.

At the heart of our public culture lies an impenetrable confusion of people, things and ideas. We no longer know how to act or in what context of mutual interdependence. The feminists were right to insist that the personal is political. The political too is often necessarily personal. But, if we relied on persons alone to make society, we would be back to feudalism or its modern equivalent, criminal mafias. There must be impersonal institutions that, at least in principle, work for everyone, regardless of who they are or who they know. We have never been more conscious of ourselves as unique personalities; yet the impersonal engines of society lie far beyond our grasp. What place is there for the humanity of individual persons in the dehumanized social frameworks we live by? This is the hit man’s dilemma and it is ours too.

The politics, pragmatics and promise of money

The politics, pragmatics and promise of money

Edited extracts from a recorded conversation between Keith Hart and Bill Maurer
Marina Del Rey.

KH: There are quite profound similarities and differences between us. My version of the dialectic is that, if we want the quite significant differences to remain under control, we have to establish a framework of sameness to start with, because I really think that we’re very different in style. So I would like to start by trying to establish how some of the questions that we’re posing are the same or similar, how we came to invest so much in the study of money as anthropologists.
BM: There is one similarity that struck me in reading all your work in advance of this meeting. Both of us refuse, as you put it, to demonize money. There’s no reason why it can’t be remade anew by us for some other ends. I’ve been very frustrated by the anthropological literature. It often presents a familiar story: capitalism comes to town and then all of a sudden all that is solid melts into air; things fall apart. It’s the end of the world. And we know what happens: the story is written as if we already know the end of it: dispossession, exploitation, wealth will flow up and so on. On the one hand, yes, that’s what happens. But on the other hand, if we say that it is what always happens when there is the kind of monetization or commoditization associated with “capitalism,” then we’re never going to see the unintended effects of it when they are right in front of our noses.

Neither man nor woman - HIJRA

I just finished reading a fascinating book called Neither Man Nor Woman: the Hijras of India by Serena Nanda (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing 1990, ISBN 0-534-12204-3). 

For those of you who may not have heard of them, the hijras are a group of people in India who constitute a third gender category, considered by themselves and by others to be neither men nor women. The term "hijra" is often translated as "eunuch" and the archetypal hijra is raised as a man and undergoes ritual removal of the genitals to become a hijra. However, as Nanda shows, many hijras come from other sexually ambiguous backgrounds: they may be born intersexed, be born male or female and fail to develop fully at puberty, or be males who choose to live as hijras without ever undergoing the castration procedure. The cultural category "hijra" appears to be a magnet for a variety of sexual and gender conditions: ambiguous sexual anatomy, impotence, infertility, homosexuality, and others which may not have an analogue in Western cultures. 

The traditional role of hijras in Indian society is to sing and dance at weddings and ceremonies surrounding the birth of a boy. They dress as women and their performances include comic parodies of the manners and body language of women. They are believed to have special powers to ward off or expose impotence and infertility. Hijras constitute a sect within Hinduism, worshipping Bahuchara, an aspect of the Hindu mother goddess, but many hijras come from Muslim backgrounds and/or consider themselves Muslims. Their status in Hindu society is ambivalent: although they are revered for their special powers, they are also feared, in part because they may use extortion-like methods the exercise their right to perform and earn their fees. The typical threat is to cause a scandal at a public function by exposing their altered genitals. They have the reputation of recruiting new hijras by kidnapping and emasculating boys, although Nanda found no evidence that this is true. 

Not all hijras also earn their living as performers. Other common hijra occupations include begging and prostitution. The sexuality of hijras is another area of seeming paradox: hijras claim the religious status of sannyasis or ascetics, having taken the extreme step of removing their genitalia. Nevertheless many hijras work as prostitutes, many have non-hijra men as husbands, and many seem to be attracted to hijra life after becoming homosexually active in adolescence. 

Nanda's book is a very readable anthropological monograph. After background chapters on the culture, religion and biological status of hijras, she treats us to four separate portraits of individual hijras. Then she sums up with an intercultural comparison of hijras with other alternative gender roles including the berdache of native North America and the transsexuals of modern Western societies. One intriguing point is that although many societies accept the ambiguity of gender by institutionalizing a third gender role, Western society seems quite fixated on the concept that every human being is either male or female. Even homosexuals and transsexuals in Western society are considered to be firmly of one gender or the other, transsexuals in particular being required to assert their complete identification with their non-birth gender before being considered for surgery. The idea that individuals could have mixed or alternative gender identities, although common in many cultures, is quite foreign to the West. 

I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in sexuality, anthropology or India.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

WITH THE BEGINNING OF THIS YEAR…
MAY YOU AND I BRING THE CHANGE THAT WE WANT…
WITH LOT OF AWARENESS AND MAGNIFICENT KNOWLEDGE…
WE WILL MAKE THE WORLD THE BETTER PLACE…
ONCE AGAIN A HAPPY NEW YEAR…. AMD WISHES FOR THE YEAR AHEAD…