Tag: mumbai

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Event

A workshop for Muslim women

The Jamat-e-Islami Hind’s Ladies Wing organised a pre-marriage workshop for Muslim women yesterday. A pitch report of the timely event.

“The rising number of rapes and divorces (talaqs), rampant cases of dowry, unhappy marriages…all are due to lack of respect for women in society, and the lack of aims and objectives of marriages,” said Salma Baig yesterday, in a workshop aimed at pre-marriage councelling. The workshop was held for girls and women yesterday at Scholar High School, Jogeshwari, by the Ladies Wing of Jamat-e-Islami Hind.

The uniquely-designed programme was attended by more than 900 young girls and women.

“The purpose of this programme was to educate girls and women about the importance of institution of family and marriages. The present world is realising the importance of human values, and specifically values towards women. The current turmoil on different rape cases is one of its examples,” said Salma.

While enlightening audience on the importance of love, Tanveer Khanam, a participant said, “Love is within everyone as it makes a person respect and take care of others.” Another woman, Jabeen Choudhary said, “Women are not just a item for play; the world shows her as an object, which is the reason why we see deteriorated condition of women everywhere.” She added, “The existence of a woman is not to be an object of display for lusty eyes, but in living life with pride and dignity, in the Islamic way.”

This one-day programme was much appreciated as many expressed the need for more such events to boost the morale and dignity of women in society. “It’s a enlightening programme; we got to know about the importance of women in society and how to live happier lives,” said Aiman, a student, who participated in this workshop.

The programme was coordinatetd by Salma Baig, In-charge, Ladies Wing of Jamat-e-Islami Hind.

 

Categories
Trends

Mumbai drinks the most energy drinks

Bangalore and Delhi rank second and third in the country; survey reveals that more boys than girls consume energy drinks.

This is party season, and while the New Year approaches, the nation is looking for ways to stay up all night and party hard. And one way to do this is by consuming energy drinks.

But a recent Associated Chamber of Commerce (ASSOCHAM) survey reveals some staggering truths about energy drink consumption in the country. Titled ‘Increasing demand of energy drinks among youngsters’, the survey reveals that energy drink consumption has grown by 45 per cent in Mumbai, the highest growth rate anywhere in the country, followed by 42 per cent in Bangalore and 40 per cent in Delhi.

“The use of energy drinks increased with age, especially in boys, with almost 55% of 12th grade consuming energy drinks to boost their game…about 71 per cent of adolescents in urban centers of India consume energy drinks which leads to seizures, diabetic, cardiac abnormalities and behavioural disorders,” the survey reveals.

ASSOCHAM Social Development Foundation (ASDF) team conducted the survey in major states-cities of Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Haryana, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Lucknow, and interacted with around 2,500 adolescents (almost equal number of males and females) in the age group of 14-30 years. The respondents admitted that they consumed energy drinks for such promised factors as boost in energy, appearance, performance, improved immunity and overall health.

“Over 85 per cent of school and college students said, these drinks are easily available easily available in the market like retail stores, bars and pubs etc. The target buyers for energy drinks continue to be the young and working Indian population,” reveals the survey.

“Energy drinks are non-alcoholic beverages containing caffeine, guarana, glucuronolactone, taurine, ginseng, inositol, carnitine, B-vitamins, etc as main ingredients that act as stimulants. These drinks contain high levels of caffeine, which stimulates the nervous system,” said Dr BK Rao, Chairman, ASSOCHAM Health Committee.

“These drinks include high levels of sugar and up to 270 calories in each bottle – in addition to potentially harmful levels of caffeine, which has been linked to seizures, heart problems and behavioural disorders,” said Dr Rao.

“Among 82 per cent teenagers, admitted that they opt for energy drinks during exercise for ‘extra energy’, 61 per cent for ‘better hydration’ and 40 per cent as they ‘prefer the taste’. The consumption levels and situations in which people are consuming these energy drinks are worrisome,” added Dr Rao.

(Picture courtesy thinkpress.org. Picture used for representational purpose only)

Categories
Diaries

Controversy of the year

Vasant Dhoble played Bad Cop to the hilt this year, riling Mumbai citizens but gaining popularity with the anti-pub brigade.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Part 9 of the Yearender Diaries

As policing went, this was a strange year for Mumbai. Crimes against women went through the roof in 2012, but while the police showed ineptitude in preventing these crimes, there were a few notable and quick arrests within days of most of these crimes occurring. Similarly, the police had some success in nabbing certain chain-snatching gangs, house-breaking units, Nigerian drug peddlers, and Bangladeshi immigrants living in Mumbai without valid paperwork.

On the other hand, there was Vasant Dhoble.

Dhoble (57), heading the Social Service Branch (SSB) of the Mumbai Police, made a terrific noise this year, armed with his ‘special’ brand of discipline using a hockey stick and video cameras. He conducted raids at several city hotspots this year, Cafe Zoe and Shiro being the most notable examples, while also allegedly attacking the manager of Amar Juice Centre at Juhu with a hockey stick for conducting his business after midnight.

As far as logic went, Dhoble’s was simple – “We are only enforcing the law. We have not told anybody not to enjoy the nightlife. But nobody, citizens or establishment owners, must break the law,” he said, when we spoke to him earlier this year. “And if I am to be blamed for enforcing archaic laws, what can I do? As a member of the police force, I have to lay down the laws that are framed, I cannot change the laws on my own.”

So the city’s popular night spots witnessed raids on grounds of playing loud music and disturbing the peace, DJs playing music without the licence to do so, establishments admitting more patrons than allowed to, patrons consuming alcohol without valid liquor permits, and so on. On some occasions, patrons were rounded up for questioning, and in one case, two women who were rounded up with several others after a Dhoble raid, later pressed charges for defamation. “The women were soliciting customers at the bar,” Dhoble said, even as protests erupted about the women being wrongly detained and defamed as being prostitutes.

The cop’s seemingly high moral compass – he famously said early this year that it was the police’s job to protect the young from corrupt influences such as drink and drugs – would even have been grudgingly appreciated save for the glaring blemishes on Dhoble’s career. He was suspended from service in 1989 for accepting a bribe while on a posting in Pune. Five years later, his role in a custodial death landed him with seven years in prison and a Rs 1,00,000 fine, but he got away without serving the jail sentence. Dismissed from the force that year, he was reinstated two years later. A few months later, he was also accused of being lax with an important file related with a Dawood Ibrahim investigation.

Most officers in the police force did not agree with Dhoble’s methods, especially the hockey stick he carried on most raids. When asked why he kept a hockey stick in his office, he shrugged and said, “I like to play hockey.” However, then Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik was a staunch supporter of Dhoble, who is also said to be extremely well-connected in political circles. Which was why, despite Mumbai outraging over every successive Dhoble raid, there was no reactive response from the Police or the State Government.

Before the city woke up to the cop’s antics in earnest, Dhoble even gave a few interviews in which he spoke against the youth adopting lifestyles that were against Indian culture, wearing clothes that demeaned their parents and took up habits that corrupted society, and that he would not allow the young to be “influenced” and that they must be “saved”. However, following the backlash to these comments, he quickly adopted a man-of-few-words stance, replying to reporters’ questions in practiced one-liners, not revealing details of raids conducted, and explaining in detail only the laws and sections of the law that he and his team tried to uphold.

Even as protests against him grew, especially on social media, there emerged an equally strong lobby for Dhoble. This largely comprised members of housing associations that have been campaigning for years against the nuisance caused by pubs and bars in residential areas of the city.

Then Patnaik was shunted out following the Azad Maidan riot this year, and the new Police Commissioner, Dr Satyapal Singh, wasted no time in getting Dhoble out of his SSB posting. Dhoble is now ACP of the Vakola Division.

(Picture courtesy mid-day.c0m)

‘Diaries’ is a series of stories on one theme. The Yearender Diaries seek to capture the most telling moments, happenings and people in the city this year. Look out for Trend of the Year tomorrow.

Categories
Soft Coroner

Un-justification

Prashant Shankarnarayan is stunned to discover that seemingly educated, modern Indians still have a million justifications for why rapes happen.

The situation – My colleague trying to decipher the reasons behind the Delhi rape case.

The observation – The Delhi rape case has shaken everybody who possesses even an iota of conscience. But my colleague’s reasoning for the rape shocked me as much as the news of the rape.

This is his take on the Delhi rape case:

“What happened was completely wrong, but such incidents happen because of the general attitude of Delhi women. The average Delhi girl is a nymphomaniac, unlike other Indian women and hence, Delhi guys are used to getting action.” (He even gave an example about how a schoolgirl used to approach his colleague in Delhi for sex. How all that Delhi women want is sex, sex and more sex!) Hence men, who are used to an environment where they are usually guaranteed regular sex, go wild when they are deprived of it. This, in turn, affects innocent women.”

Now this is his take on the recent Mumbai rape case of a foreigner:

“Well, that too happened for a simple reason. The government shut down the dance bars. There were many men who used to throng these dance bars to satiate their lust but now that they don’t have this outlet, they are targeting any woman they come across.”

Sadly and wrongly, my colleague conveniently put the burden of rape on women, but what shocked me is the scale of reasoning. So far we have heard the usual justifications for atrocities on women; that they wear short clothes and incite men, they have no business walking alone at night, they shouldn’t have ventured in that notorious locality in the first place, and they have become too independent and hence irreverent. But this is a whole new level.

The first statement shamelessly supports rape, and the second one supports trafficking and prostitution. In this case, the Delhi rape victim was not alone and it wasn’t late at night when the incident occurred. Hence, when you can’t blame the rape victim with the usual justifications, you must blame other women in general for bringing such a fate upon themselves, right? Else blame the institution for stopping women from becoming dancing objects of lust. And just like him, many other men have their own pet justifications for the existence of rape in society. So what is this fuzzy logic?

That just because we knew about one or two promiscuous women, it gives us a right to justify an innocent girl’s heinous rape? Or just because the government shut our dance bars we have a right to feel wronged and punish innocent women for the same?

The notable part is that my colleague is a decent guy, faithful to his wife, a loving father to his daughter, and I don’t remember him ever being a letch. This is exactly why women feel helpless, because sometimes, even the most educated men with liberal upbringing nurture certain reservations about women when it comes to such extreme cases.

There were many cases of women, including reporters, being molested outside India Gate during the mass protest against rape. Not so long ago, Mumbai’s policewomen were molested and their rifles were snatched by a mob that was protesting against the Bodo atrocities on Muslims. These are just two incidents that show women’s vulnerability, which is a slap on our face.

Many a time, I feel ashamed to be an Indian but sometimes I feel ashamed to be an Indian male. In a country where even educated men who don’t hail from a feudal society harbour such notions about rape victims, then what does the future hold for us?

To finish off rape we need to stop justifying rape. Candle light protests and banning tinted glasses on buses won’t change anything. Fast track courts for rape and even imposing capital punishment will punish the rapists faster, but not necessarily end the very gory concept of rape. The sick mentality to rape a woman is a condition.

And this condition could be curbed by identifying certain symptoms. Symptoms like a father abusing his wife in front of their child, an elder brother proudly indulging in eve teasing, a mother admonishing the daughter for being harassed instead of slapping the harasser. Nipping these innocuous looking things in the bud will go a long way in tackling rape.

Rape will be curbed by imposing strict laws, but it will be neutralised only by imposing strict discipline. It’s disheartening to see how a few men go to such wild extremes to justify rape. Not that they support the rapist, but they always manage to find a reason to justify rape’s existence in society.

Why is it so difficult to know that rape has no justifications? Nay, Na, Illai, Nahin, Naahi, Illa….

Prashant Shankarnarayan is a media person who is constantly on the lookout for content and auto rickshaws in Mumbai. ‘Soft Coroner’ tries to dissect situations that look innocuous at the surface but reveal uncomfortable complexities after a thorough post mortem.

(Picture courtesy 965malls.com)

Categories
Event

Play-acting with life

College drama fest draws theme ideas from real-life incidents, political ideologies, living by adjustment and even incest. A pitch report.
by Krishnaraj Rao

Rape and violence continue to dominate the mindscape of young Mumbaikars, it seems. At the ‘Let’s Act’ drama festival held yesterday at Ravindra Natya Mandir Mini Theatre, the students of RD National College elaborately re-enacted the recent Delhi bus-rape incident, in a play titled Is This Humanity? This was one of the five plays that was selected for re-enactment in the finals of the drama festival, to be held at Sophia Auditorium on January 5, 2013.

The other teams selected for the finals were Pragati College, which enacted a humourous play Adjustment (about how one needs to make an adjustment in all spheres of life), KC College (with a play on communalism based on the Panchatantra), Mumbai University’s Department of Journalism and Communication (with The Darkest Desire, a play about incest) and Swami Vivekanand College (Wakt Nahin Hai, a balletic satire about modern living.)

St. Andrew’s Chorus, which re-enacted the Mumbai 7/11 serial train blasts, and St. Xavier’s College, which enacted the Greek tragedy of Achilles, provided some extremely kinetic and memorable scenes.

The entire approach was minimalistic, with emphasis on creativity and powerful acting rather than lavish sets. The only stage sets available were two 1.5 feet levels, two nine inch levels, and some tables and chairs. All the work was done by the students themselves, without help from professionals.

This drama competition is organised by Helen O’Grady International, in benefit of ADAPT (formerly, the Spastic Society of India). Helen O’Grady’s Youth Theater workshops are enabling students to express themselves creatively.

 

Categories
Do

A basket and a girl’s first great moments

‘Girl Gift Basket’ celebrates the birth of the girl child; you too can replicate the idea and take it forward.
by The Diarist | thediarist@themetrognome.in

Let’s face it, we really didn’t need Aamir Khan and his TV show Satyameva Jayate to tell us that the sex ratio in our country is  skewed in favour of boys. But it also took Aamir Khan and his TV show to focus the spotlight on an issue that has taken centrestage in our collective consciousness, especially in the light of recent events.

Girls are raped. Girls are killed at birth. Girls are given a secondary upbringing as compared to their brothers. And till society considers girls a burden on the family’s resources, girls will continue to be short-changed, sometimes by their own parents.

This is where the Girl Gift Basket comes in.

The Girl Gift Basket is a project kickstarted this month in Mumbai, in which a team from Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), an advertising firm, goes to partner hospitals in the city to distribute free gift baskets to mothers of girl children. Speaking to The Metrognome, Russell Barrett, Managing Partner BBH, says, “This project was part of a BBH Worldwide brief, where the idea was to do something good, famously.” He adds, “We are an ad agency, not an NGO, so we are able to put out the word on something pretty quickly. But for this project, simply putting the idea out there is not enough – we want it to be replicated all over the country.”

At the core of the idea is the thought of celebrating the girl child, and to help minimise the gender bais. “So many mothers are extremely disappointed to give birth to girls. A new mother is at her most vulnerable, and at that point, to have somebody come in and gift her a basket – it changes the vibe in the ward. People have been so moved to receive the baskets,” Russell says.

As part of the project, a team from the agency goes to hospitals’ maternity wards and gifts a previously put together pink basket of goodies for both the girl child and her mother. “The team hands out the baskets and sometimes explain to the mother how to use the products inside. Doctors and nurses also pitch in during the interaction,” Russell says. The agency has partnered with its current and ex-clients for the products, which includes body lotions, diapers, soft toys and hair oil, among other things.

The idea took over two months to execute. “We brainstormed on what the baskets should contain. We obviously couldn’t charge for the baskets, and there could be no perishable products inside. Plus, we needed to set a timeframe on getting the project started. But those we approached for help helped us a lot. We contacted hospitals, got the required permissions, and our dedicated team of six got the baskets organised, besides working out delivery schedules.”

Russell comments on the dedication of the team that is currently working on the project. “We have to get this work done without sacrificing our work at the agency,” he says. “But the team is extremely committed – they plan the distribution work in the early mornings, before office starts, or during their lunch breaks, or after work. I’ve even seen them work Saturdays and Sundays on this.” He says the biggest high for the firm has been in watching the team return after a round of distribution. “They’re so charged up, so filled with a sense of achievement. That’s driving them to continue.”

Thus far, the agency has generated funds for 500 baskets. “Our target is 500 baskets, and we’re hoping the idea really takes off by then. For those who want to replicate the idea, we’ve put up a downloadable kit on our website. The kit contains the letter for the hospital and ideas for the basket, among other things,” Russell says.

“It’s not about what we’re doing, it’s about taking it forward. The great thing is that help is pouring in. We realise it’s a very miniscule step, but if we can even plant a small thought in a young mother’s head, tell her, ‘See, it’s great to have a daughter, you even got gifted for it!’, it is a chance for us to do good at a very early stage in that child’s life. We’re hoping this project will start a fresh, positive conversation on girl children altogether,” he explains.

For details on how to get involved with the Girl Gift Basket and for a list of partner hospitals, look up www.girlgiftbasket.com.

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