Lord Shiva Dwells In Your Heart And Home Always!

Lord Shiva is believed to be the most powerful God in the Hindu Trinity with Brahma and Vishnu. Lord Shiva is described as a destroyer and also a recreator and transformer. He is also referred to as Mahadeva or Maheshwar—the Great God. In his benevolent form he lives like a simple householder with his family of other Hindu Gods and Goddesses and spends His time in Kailash with the simplicity of an ascetic. But when He is angry, he becomes the Destroyer in which form he can obliterate demons, impurities in human minds and even the whole world. He is everywhere like any other omnipotent and omnipresent God. You can find Him in your heart, in the environs of your home and do your prayers accordingly; and if you want to worship Him in the form of an idol you can install a Shivling or Shiva Linga, the mark or sign or symbol of Lord Shiva, in your home or visit a temple or a shrine or a place of worship even under a big tree that are found almost in every locality in India. There are even artistic priests available in the country who can come to your home, create a perfect idol of Shivling in clay and do a most gratifying Puja for you. You absolutely need not launch yourself in a journey of finding and discovering Him.

 

History is a process of evolution and change. Mother Earth keeps on changing through wars, conflicts, rivalries, reforms and recreation in an endless cycle. Mother Earth belongs to the whole of humankind, and not to any particular section of it. Since evolution has been the eternal cycle human discoveries and inventions definitely mark the progress of humankind. In modern times archaeological surveys lead to priceless discoveries of civilizations, scriptures and monuments. Such priceless assets add to our knowledge and should ideally be preserved in museums and research institutions. Such discoveries should never ever lead to disputes or quarrels over the rights of ownership as we just said Mother Earth belongs to all. Petty quarrels make Lord Shiva very angry and we’ve been watching the devastation caused by Mother Nature in the recent decades, and mind you, the Shakti or the energy of Lord Shiva’s better half Parvati or Durga or Kali gets channelized through the Lord only.

 

Throughout history many of the kings or emperors, irrespective of their religions, had either done a lot of good or did a lot of evil deeds and acts of destructions. Many invaders coming from various regions of the world ravaged and savaged our countries on many occasions leaving a trail of pain and suffering; however, the next rulers repaired again, and therefore, the process goes on. We cannot bring those to court for doing wrongs over the centuries, neither can we reward those benevolent ones in public events. But we can do indeed learn, gather knowledge and follow the good ideals.

 

We should consider ourselves very lucky to be living in a modern and digital world of today where everything is at our fingertips. We can even find our beloved gods and goddesses in our handy devices and sing or listen to prayers, either alone with oneself or with others, within them. If we find something objectionable or we disagree with something/someone we can always exchange our views openly in a peaceful and a virtually-built environment, instead of breaking out in open physical conflicts that definitely anger the divine powers, Mother Earth and Mother Nature. The best option is to go on enhancing our Gyan or wisdom rather than be vapid about it.

 

We should also shift our focus on how to further the all-round progress of our country in all fields of activity. We’ve seen how the Pandemic nearly destroyed us; how the economies have been hit; how the inflation is becoming uncontrollable; how the gas cylinder prices have shot up beyond the 1k mark and the fuel prices have crossed the 100+ mark, still rising; how the unemployment has been becoming a scourge; and what has been happening to our neighboring country Sri Lanka. We have much to ponder upon while keeping our prayers pure and within ourselves. Besides, should we go on with our relentless hunts/quests/pleas to overburden our courts that have already been reeling under extreme pressure?

The Essence Of Hanuman Chalisa And Azaan!

Hanuman Chalisa is a collection of forty verses (chalis in Hindi means the number 40) except for two Doha or couplets in the beginning and one Doha at the end, in praise of Lord Hanuman who apart from being the exemplary devotee or Bhakta of Lord Ram is also regarded as an incarnation of Shiva and so, is recognized as a God. The scripture of Hanuman Chalisa is authored by Tulsidas (1497/1532—1623), the famous Bhakti poet-saint of the 16^th century India, renowned for composing the Ramcharitmanas (Lake of the deeds of Rama), retelling of the epic Ramayana. Ramcharitmanas is a monumental poetic creation because of the fact that Tulsidas composed it in the Awadhi or Oudhi language that is taken as a dialect of Hindi and thus taking the epic to the huge arena of the common Indians; Sanskrit scriptures are understood mostly by the scholars of that language. Hanuman Chalisa is also composed in Awadhi.

 

As we mentioned Hanuman Chalisa is a collection of forty chaupais (four-line-stanza verses) or devotional hymns or stotra in praise of Lord Hanuman. The verses describe the half-monkey God Hanuman as a staunch Bhakta of Lord Ram, a man of strength, courage and wisdom and a man without desire. As most citizens of the world know that Hanuman is one of the central characters of Ramayana, he is always in the service of Rama and doing everything possible for him to eradicate evil without expecting rewards. He is also regarded in India as a deity of Sankat Mochan, that is recuing humans from all crises and obstacles. Reciting Hanuman Chalisa is believed to help humans to overcome all such obstacles, realize one’s wishes and progressing in the path to liberation from all adversities or afflictions, finally achieving Moksha.

 

The Hanuman Chalisa booklet, apart from being readable to all knowing the Devanagari script are available in various Indian languages plus the numerous music albums. One CD sung by the reputed Indian singer Hariharan has reportedly achieved more than 2 billion views. Millions of Indians recite the Chalisa daily, anytime or any number of times they desire, at homes and even while on the move. The easily recognizable booklet in Awadhi is there in our home too. My wife reads it whenever she feels the need, almost daily at least once. And she sits in seclusion to read it, and reads it silently so that it does not disturb me or others present, irrespective of we being believers or non-believers. At times she reads it silently, sitting in the car as I drive on peacefully.  

 

The basic mantra about hymns or stotra or mantra is that the recitation of these means a prayer and a prayer done in the mind is said to be the best as it helps the praying person concentrate and visualize his/her favorite deity. In fact, it amounts to meditation which is very much recommended in our stress-filled times and it opens the road to spiritualism. Of course, all people may not or are not spiritually inclined and they want the reverberations of the hymns influence and inspire them. No issues here too. They can very easily recite it aloud at homes or even while in public transport, and they can also listen to loud recorded recitations or singing in their music systems within their four walls or even inside any temple that holds such prayers. The fact of the matter is that reciting Hanuman Chalisa is absolutely a personal choice, open to all willing ones, and therefore, it doesn’t at all need public amplification.

 

The Islamic custom of the Adhan (in Arabic) or Azaan (in many other languages) is slightly different. The Azaan is in fact means an announcement to call the devotees to the prayers to be held in the minarets or in the mosques. Not deterred by the Sunni and Shia differences over the practice, the muezzin or the person who makes the announcement recites the Islamic call to prayers. The ritual of Adhan has been in practice since the times of Prophet Muhammad (570 AD—632 AD) who approximately at the age of forty got his first revelation from God and that led to him to finally found the Islamic religion based on one God or monotheism, combining all the teachings of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other prophets. Prophet Muhammad, believed to be the last prophet sent by God, transformed the whole of Arabia religiously, socially and even economically through his preaching. The verses of his revelations received from God led to the compilation and creation of Quran, the finest scripture in Arabic.

 

Prayers, thus, were central to the Prophet’s preaching and teachings in order to attract more and more followers. Azaan started as a response; it is not clear if he himself started this or appointed his main follower to start making the calls. Anyway, to catch the attention of the followers and inspire them to come to the prayers Prophet Muhammad needed public announcements. The loudspeakers came only in the first part of the 20^th century. Of course, other mechanical devices like the bells, the drums and the horns were available; but Muhammad preferred only to use his own strong voice or the voice of the muezzin for that purpose.

 

However, when the loudspeakers were invented in the 1930s the Muslim countries started using those and fitted the devices in the minarets and the mosques, mostly as a show of strength of their faith rather than devotion. It is believed that Azaan or prayers need to be done five times a day for devout Muslim, and thus in many countries including the Muslim-majority ones the loudspeakers slowly started becoming a nuisance in terms of noise pollution. Over the decades we’ve seen restrictions imposed on the use of loudspeakers and the imposition of decibel limits becoming a common practice in may countries including Saudi Arabia.

 

 In India the loudspeakers for Azaan began to be used only from the 1970s and as the country’s Constitution had declared India as a socialist secular democratic republic all religious practices, festivals and rituals have been allowed in all their ritualistic grandeur. But in the past decade we’ve seen selective protests fueled obviously by the growth of aggressive majority nationalism and fundamentalism of various forms. The present controversy raging, unfortunately, throughout the country is nothing but practices of religion-based politics and growing intolerance—one making the other more and more intolerant in a vicious circle.

 

We had earlier argued that chanting Hanuman Chalisa silently or loudly is a personal choice with nothing to do with public announcements. We can express similar feelings about Azaan too. In modern digital times, it’s just not possible for the educated and working Muslims to offer prayers five times a day, that too at a public place of worship. In whole of my service career, I’ve seen my Muslim colleagues and friends offering Namaz only on the Friday afternoons, at the mosque nearby or in office itself, silently. I’ve also seen numerous passengers in train journeys doing Namaz quietly, putting a piece of cloth on the floor in-between the berths, without disturbing anyone. Therefore, I’d say Azaan or Namaz or any kind of Islamic prayers are getting increasingly influenced by personal choices. To call it anti-Islamic would be another form of fundamentalist intolerance.

 

You are right when you object to the noise of the loudspeakers, particularly keeping in mind the differently abled and the patients in general. But you cannot be selective about your protests or you cannot try to right a wrong with another wrong. If you ask, righteously so, for a ban on the loudspeakers in public places to prevent noise pollution which is indeed a growing menace it has to be a blanket ban, covering all kinds of religious-cultural events/festivals/rituals taking place twelve month a year in our country. And, you hardly hear religious chanting of hymns or stotra on the mikes, you only hear film songs and even disco songs so that the devoteescan dance too.

 

This kind of hypocrisy and the growing politicization cum commercialization of religions must stop. High time to adopt a new modern religion of making the religion a matter of personal choice; preferably in the innermost corners of your excellent and powerful mind or within the four-walls of your homes or within the four-walls of any place of worship. The Pandemic nearly accomplished this; but unfortunately, humankind hates to learn from even disasters.

Bollywood Is Not A Unified Whole!

Bollywood is actually a misnomer. In true subservience to Hollywood this name was coined since the Indian Film (Hindi) Industry was located in Bombay—which ceased to be so long back and Mumbai took over. Therefore, if at all, this industry should be called Mullywood! Anyway, Bollywood consists of a vast assortment of producers, directors, actors, music directors, lyricists, singers, production managers, spot boys and a huge lot of technicians in various categories ranging from cinematography to post-production labs. Basically all these people are individuals and thus all have right to their own opinions. Difference of opinions has been a celebrated hallmark of democracy—particularly in the largest democracy called India. If this democratic right of having one’s own opinion is universal why Bollywood be an exception? We cannot jump to the conclusion, as many self-motivated individuals engaged in media or politics often do, that ‘Bollywood is divided’.

That the righteous difference of opinion applies equally to Bollywood is made amply clear by the mind-boggling types of movies being churned out by this industry over the decades. Every producer or director has his/her own way of approach to filmmaking, own concepts or ideas and own intellectual types or standards. Likewise, all actors or singers or technicians have their own forms of expression that may be termed as excellent or poor. Else why would this industry make movies like ‘Pistolwali’ or ‘Hunterwali’ and also ‘Mother India’, ‘Sholay’, ‘Black’, ‘Neerja’ and so on over the decades? Grading of A or B or C for movies has been too apparent all the time. If some desperate souls still try to ‘unite’ Bollywood based on the celebrated ‘masala formula’ (an unholy but deliberate mix of entertainment ingredients) of Hindi films, they must admit now that the formula has come to a natural death quite some time back as the evolving audiences of the country saw through it. Therefore, it is almost surely established that Bollywood has difference of opinions within and this has nothing to do as the industry being ‘divisive’.

There is thus absolutely no problem if someone in Bollywood supported the continuance of Pakistan actors in Bollywood films and some opposed it, if someone even slammed the Prime Minister of the country and if some rallied with the government. The problem lies elsewhere.

There are always opportunity seekers, particularly from some sections of the media and politics sectors, waiting for every kind of expression, and thanks to social media opinions are now never private. The celebrities enjoy huge fan following and so their tweets go viral if the concerned tweets are controversial. The opportunists take full advantage of this and try manufacturing ‘mass ‘opinions’ thus contributing to the on-going tirade of labelling the whole country as ‘divisive’ ‘intolerant’ or ‘propagandist’. The currently popular term of ‘polarisation’ is also an off-shoot of this, particularly nurtured by some sections of the media not realising that in the process they are getting polarised and losing the principles of objectivity or neutrality. This ridiculous tirade to misinterpret ‘difference of opinion’ has led to even categorisation or sub-categorisations of universally accepted terms like ‘patriotism’ or ‘nationalism’. True anti-nationals are relishing this new-found chance.

When Bollywood biggie Karan Johar expresses himself, his mode of expression may well be controversial, he does so from a practically business point of view as the release of his film has been caught up in the melee. Maybe he preferred that mode of expression to avoid hounding from the opportunists. And, it is woefully wrong to label him as ‘giving in to the so-called ultra-something forces’ thanks to misinterpretation by the ever vigilant opportunists. If fact, every individual or association or company is guided by certain interests, and nobody could be so selfless as to defy one’s own interests on this planet. This ‘self-interest’ is also universal and often this also leads to ‘difference of opinion’ which is again lapped up by the waiting opportunists.

At the macro level the ‘self-interest’ leads to ‘vested interests’, and in India the sway and the clout of the vested interests can never be denied—at every level of activity and existence. In the present fluid situation it is hazardous to express one’s opinion—for or against or anything. However, for nonentities or non-celebrities there is not much fear of being labelled something. Therefore, at least at an analytical or argumentative level, this writer would like to suggest that the overwhelming power-play of the vested interests got severely affected by the change of government in 2014, and so, since then every effort has been made to hold the government responsible for anything under the sun. This is, of course, open ended and not mutually exclusive.

Coming back to our basic subject, Bollywood has only difference of opinion and the industry is not divided or ‘divisive’. If it has problems presently, these can be solved too. 

Food Harmony In North Eastern India!

In the Paleolithic age humans survived on edible plants and hunting of wild animals. They lived in small groups, made rough stone weapons and killed animals for food. The use of fire in the Lower Paleolithic age revolutionized the act of eating as they began to cook their foods finding wonderful ways of having vegetable dishes or mixing vegetables with meat. The survival instinct of eating got gradually replaced by the gourmet approach. The point to note here is that vegetarian and non-vegetarian ways of eating existed on planet earth since pre-historic times. - Please Click to See more Here:  

(This article was first featured in newskarnataka.com's print publication 'Karnataka Today' Volume 1, Issue 1) 

India: What Is This Intolerance Noise All About?

It has been there all the time—maybe sporadic in the past, but consistent in the last few years. We encounter intolerance at every step of our existence. At home, the random husband does not tolerate certain aspects of his wife’s personality while the random wife does not tolerate certain ways of her husband—this is excluding the serious concerns of infidelity or disloyalty. In-laws are hardly tolerated by many particularly in matters relating to money. Children do not tolerate parental ‘advice’. Step out of home and it is worse. Everybody out there is just obsessed of surging ahead of others—does not matter even if it involves pushing or thrashing. Vehicle drivers grimace bitterly at pedestrians for their supposed ‘indulgence’ on the road while the pedestrians lash out at the drivers for their supposed ‘monopoly’ over the roads. Why road rage cases are increasing all the time? Root cause of this is only intolerance. If you only brush against a car in a genuine case of accident without causing any damage you still run the risk of getting even killed. With easy access to weapons some youths shoot at the slightest pretext. And rising crimes against women? Root cause is again intolerance. A male dominated society cannot tolerate the sight of the empowered women. In workplaces many bosses never tolerate subordinates getting credit.

Such pent-up intolerance levels get channelized and organized along caste, linguistic, sociopolitical, religious and regional lines. Any such community then becomes the master to decide what hurts them or what is objectionable which leads to assaults on creative arts—books, movies, paintings or anything. For such communities the political parties come more as ‘ideologies’, and for them any political party coming to power means coming into power of an ideology rather than a provider of governance. In a society bitten into by corruption and nepotism intolerant groups have their way to a large extent for any government any time. History records how effectively a government has handled this menace at any given period.

And what about some of the intelligentsia who are giving up their public awards in protest against intolerance? Why have they noticed this phenomenon only now? It has been a fashion with many of the intellectuals to show off their anti-establishment stance while openly vying for all kinds of favors like cheap flats under special housing quotas, nominations, appointments and even awards. Some of them understand that getting an award allows them hog the limelight only for a short time and therefore perhaps they find it convenient to return the awards for even more attention and limelight. Some ‘experts’ feel that the present government has polarized the society, but intolerance has already done that. And, even the intelligentsia is getting polarized hopelessly into two distinct sections—one for returning and the other for not returning. Intellectuals—authors, artistes, filmmakers and all—have the power of the pen or the glamour to influence the hapless masses. So, why have they not considered making  even a belated campaign against intolerance trying to find out the root causes of the evil. For them, the ‘wing’ culture is so very important. Having a ‘left-wing’ leaning or being a downright ‘leftist’ is the heavenly thing inspiring them to look at all other ‘wings’ as dirty bourgeois entities, and this has a very important bearing on what they have demonstrated at the present juncture.

Mention has also to be made of the ‘commentators’ featured on news channels on raging debates on intolerance for being so intolerant of the others opinion—talking over each other, fingering, gesticulating and plain shouting. This is the inevitable result of a polarized society not due to government but to intolerance.

One theory is also gaining ground all the time behind this facade of ‘protesting intolerance’. That is, visionary Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been emerging as the greatest challenge for the future prospects of all national or regional political parties. His inclusive developmental schemes, Digital India initiative, his innovative direct talk with the people and his spectacularly palpable impact on foreign soil are all set to take India to a never-before level, and this is bound to secure the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in power for many more years to come. Therefore, all opposition political parties are trying to come together by hook or by crook and to continue with an obstructionist strategy from the floors of Parliament to the streets. At this moment this theory cannot be dismissed easily. Perhaps Narendra Modi could not have happened to India at a better and more crucial juncture than this.

If we are not tolerant we cannot blame the government for that, we have only ourselves to blame. However, with a strong Prime Minister at the helm of a strong nation we can definitely hope for the best.

Murder Of Arunachal Student: North East Brutalized In The Capital Again!

When students from our country face racial attacks in Australia or in the US, India put up an ‘Indian’ front against racism. When our officers like Devyani Khobragade is discriminated against and prosecuted in USA India put up a united and heated opposition. There is nothing wrong in that, in fact it is good and positive. However, when it comes to living within India we transform into racial or regional or linguistic or religiously chauvinistic animals and tear at each other in sheer intolerance or hate or feelings of racial superiority or whatever you may call it. In a country that boast of having unity in diversity we ourselves give our politicians avenues to exploit us and politicize every related issue possible under the sun.

The so-called mainstream ‘Indians’ can very easily find out whether the person they confront belongs to the North East or any other isolated part of the country. They just need to have a look on the appearance and need to hear just one word uttered in Hindi—our national language that creates more problems than integration. If those ‘Indians’ turn out to be traders or transporters or overwhelming locals they tend to make fun or to exploit their ‘victims’ at the slightest opportunity. It is unfortunate that such bullying mentality is found even in the North East where the so-called superior and educated plains people always tend to look down upon the tribal communities and try to exploit them out of an inexplicable sense of neglect and hatred. North Eastern India is geographically isolated from rest of India and people here look distinctly different owing to their different ethnic origins. Combined with this the appalling ignorance in rest of India about this region makes these people objects of fun and ridicule often bordering on hatred or racism. There have often been incidents of harassment and discrimination against North East students all over the country with the capital taking the lead.

A teen-aged student from Arunachal Pradesh, Nido Taniam, visited a shop in Delhi on Wednesday. Shopkeepers and on-lookers made fun of his looks and allegedly his hair style. When Nido protested he was brutally beaten up. Delhi police appeared on the scene and instead of arresting the culprits forced out a compromise almost at the expense of the student. Next morning Nido was found dead, apparently from injuries sustained. Even then a FIR was registered only on Friday and as per reports today Delhi police have arrested three suspects. Nido’s body was flown today to Arunachal Pradesh where his father is a Congress legislator and a full postmortem report was awaited. Delhi police and all ‘Indian’ leaders or politicians vehemently denied any trace of racism involved.

North East students today took out protests in the capital demanding justice for Nido and end of racism and discrimination against North Eastern students and people. Delhi’s ‘common-man-on-the-street’ Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal recently took on the Delhi police for totally wrong reasons as his own law minister violated the law involving raids against women. Now when the right reason is there to take on Delhi police he preferred only to order a magisterial inquiry into the gruesome incident. Of course, some of his ministers did a verbal service of criticizing Delhi police for their usual delay and highhandedness. Maybe the hyped common man is only that kind of an ‘Indian’.

We demand full justice for all North Eastern students in India, particularly in the capital. We extend full support to North East Students Union on their movement for justice. End racism within India first and then look outside. Allow them to feel and live like proud Indians too.

Politics: A Day Of Historical Acts!

Anna Hazare Breaking His Fast

Fight against corruption in India got the long sought after boost as Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament, passed the Lokpal Bill today afternoon. The Anti Corruption ombudsman Bill or the Lokpal Bill has almost become an Act pending the President's nod. Anna Hazare, the crusader against corruption, has given up his 7-day long fast and his followers at his native village Ralegan Siddhi and all over the country are celebrating. After disastrous defeats in four assembly elections the Congress led UPA Government has something now to draw inspiration from. Maybe it was already inspired by the certainty of it as the Government countered the US in a telling manner following the most peculiar case of Devyani Khobragade. A diplomat humiliated, and a lady harassed and insulted by American cops. Thanks to the sheer absurdity the conspiracy theory is gaining ground in India. A big apology from Uncle Sam is what the whole of India want now.

One more historical Act from Nagpur. The Maharashtra Legislative Council has passed the Anti Superstition and Black Magic Bill late tonight. The contentious Bill has been debated for over 15 years without getting passed into a law and the brutal murder of Narendra Dabholkar in August this year forced the state Government to act and act fast. The lower house of the Maharashtra Legislature had already passed it with a voice vote on Friday, the 13th of December leaving the opposition political parties a lot red faced. They alleged that the Government passed it in a hurry without giving enough time for discussion. However the progressive spirit of Maharashtra finally won. The state Government assured that the Act will not hurt religious sentiments of any community and will only strive to prevent evil practices or rituals ranging from human sacrifice to frauds looting people in the name of divinity. Now Maharashtra becomes the first Indian state to have an anti Superstition or anti Black Magic Act.

Mumbai’s Shame! Three Arrested In Photo Journalist Gangrape!

When the national capital along with its northern allies lead the way in torturing, maiming, raping and murdering women of all possible age-groups how could the financial capital be far behind! A city boasting of being safe for women over the years has lost this tag forever as crimes against women, intimidation and murder of liberals and all kinds of mafia related shootouts increase ominously. On a more sinister note this could just be the reflection of what is going all around the country. Like the nosediving value of the Indian rupee all values of the society are plummeting to all-time lows. Greed, lust, corruption, violence, intolerance, chauvinism, perversion etc are becoming the new parameters of modern life. Why? Because, our political parties and leaders need to contest and win the General Elections-2014. Because, to achieve that goal they need to have a hopelessly divided and morally defunct society. Because, they have to impose a new ‘governance’ on us for the same ‘noble’ objectives. Our Warning:  If things are allowed to continue this way till the elections whichever political party finally manages to win will have a ruined country to rule over, plunder over and finish it all over again.

Media took the lead in building a national movement following the horrific Delhi Gangrape. Now in Mumbai the degenerated male animals decided to hit the media itself. A 22-year-old photo journalist was gangraped in the campus of an abandoned textile mill right in the heart of the city on Thursday evening. She was doing a photo shoot there for her magazine along with her male friend.  Five male animals surrounded them in the desolate area. While two of them tied up her friend the other three took turns to abuse, torture and humiliate her with no help coming from anywhere. In fact, Mumbai is littered with such abandoned textile mill campuses where only the main entrance is normally guarded and activities inside are only the occasional film and television serial shoots. Nobody in power seemed to have bothered about these veritable traps. The five animals even walked up the victims to the nearby local railway station and left them there threatening the girl that if she approached police the mobile video would be released in public. The girl was admitted in a city hospital and FIR was registered by midnight.

Outraged journalists, women activists and citizens poured into the streets on Friday organizing protest rallies and marches. Angry sentiments again pierced the whole wounded country. Fortunately, Mumbai Police swung into swift action identifying and releasing sketches of all five accused. Three accused have been arrested till today evening. However, the questions regarding justice remain as disturbing as ever despite the movement that forced the Government of India to initiate new rape laws granting capital punishment in rarest of rare cases of rape-murder.

While we all want strong laws to put fear into the minds or rapists some say awarding capital punishment would egg on prospective rapists to kill the victims in a way to eradicate all possible evidence. Some say there should be instant justice like castration or public parade, but in such cases too the rapist is likely to turn into a vengeful and dangerous killer afterwards. How fast the fast-track courts are going to be is also yet to be seen. Juvenile justice is one more vexing issue. The moot point is that police or laws cannot control greed or lust or perversion, and for that society must change from within. Male humans of the society must take and exercise absolute control of the male animals.

Reports say that the brutalized photo journalist is a braveheart fighting it out spiritedly in hospital and demanding strong punishment to all who ruined her life. We pray for her immediate recovery and expect her to lead the movement from the front.  Ensuring respect and safety for women.