The Ad-bar on Facebook

The number of ad-bars on FB have increased drastically, at least I've noticed that. They tempt you, though at times they tend to be just informative.

The other day I was browsing through my FB, when a male friend happened to be by my side. There was a host of suggestive ads, mostly lingerie, bags and shoes. Everything, rather every model attracted his attention. He even asked me if I would be generous enough to open the lingerie ad for him. I was taken back. I did not know how to respond. Honestly I did not. To add to my woes, I was giving him the most saddened expression of all.

To cool it down, he further reasoned that I might be frequenting those sites and hence popped up as suggestions on my page. This just made me feel more vulnerable. It took me a lot of time, to tell him that I wont be opening it for his pleasure, and also that it is not his business to judge me or the sites that I visit. Hell, am I answerable, if I plan to not sweat it out hopping from shop to another, and instead do my lingerie shopping in the comfort of my room? Do I need to be judged? Is it not exactly right for me to be using lingerie and buy it as and when I please? Also, now with so many online sites offering lingerie as well in their catalog, has it become some kind of an easy-access soft-porn for men??? Am seriously concerned and maybe upset as well, though I would any day prefer online shopping for anything tried and tested.

Mangalsutra, Vermillion and Toe-rings

The mangalsutra, vermillion and toe-rings are most typical of many married Indian women. Something that's been celebrated through the ages.. in practice, by media and the tinsel town. Many a times have I read it and discussed among my peers as to how these would give a sense of comfort to an ever-vulnerable Indian woman.

Many a time, I have myself wanted to have these amulets. Many a time have I faked that I do possess them. Even today, I got myself a pair of toe-rings and some red bindi to help me in one of my future expeditions, wherein my being a married woman, can easily gain me some respect and security.I was even thinking of going a bit overboard with a couple of bangles. All I could get were some glass bangles, that I don't like since they break easily. The image of shattering glass bangles, sent a shudder along my spine, "Isn't it the same imagery that epitomizes a widow?"

For once, it shocked me to think how a widow would be treated by the malicious public. Does she necessarily have to shave off the hair on her head and wear only white? What will happen when the hair grows back? What'll happen when she starts wearing other "light-colored" clothes as well? Wont she look like any other unmarried damsel, given that she's been widowed at an early age? Does she have to have a suckling infant at her bosom to guarantee her security and confidence to meet the world???

Unlearning the Good Old Habits

It seems that around 18 women were gonna do just that today morning at the Alwarpet KravMaga workshop.  Slowly, we realized that there’s much more to the workshop. 

After some confusion regarding the directions to the venue, all the ladies managed to reach on time. Aishwarya, the serious organizer collected the fee and Sinu, the energetic one, distributed the special CTC badges (Gals, check ‘em out), and all were set to begin the session. The instructors Krav Maga Sriram and Satish were an enthusiastic duo, helping us get easy with the huge amount of info, techniques etc. 

Once the warm-up acts began, did we realize that we needed to unlearn  all the good old habits, beating a fellow CTCian on the hand or the head or stomping was a bit too embarrassing in the beginning. The first few kicks and punches were also perceived to be a bit awkward and to some extent, difficult for some to perform. All those discomfort vanished when the duo came to each participant with the punching bag to get a real feel. The constant reminder that being aggressive to an attacker is very much needed instilled more confidence in getting the moves right. 

The defending/attacking techniques were classified into 4 types depending on the distance between the victim and the attacker. The defending/attacking responses have to be aimed at the vulnerable parts of the body which is easily accessible and cuts the mobility of the opponent. Damaging these parts will not kill the person and hence there is no fear of any unpleasant legal ordeals for this. These parts are the eyes, nose, jaw/chin, groin and knee. The strongest parts of our body that we can use are the fingers, palm, elbow, arm, ball and heel of feet, knee and the whole leg as such. The entire body weight also can be used to one’s advantage depending on the position. 

1.      Long Distance: is when the minimum distance between the two people involved can be up to 3 ft or so, depending on the length of our legs as well.  The moves here involve the leg, raising it and hitting the knee or the groin. This can be done till the distance between the two people is reduced to that equivalent to the distance between the foot and the knee. If you need to be closer to attack, moving in a short distance too can be done. The whole thrust from the hip and the pelvic can help in delivering a better impact.

2.      Mid-Distance: is when the target is within the arm’s reach. One effective move here is to poke the eyes, leading to a sudden backing by the attacker giving further room to hit the groin and run off for help. Another possible move is to punch on the nose or the jaw/chin with the heel of the palm or fist (if it is very strong). Here also, the thrust from the hip and the pelvic can help.

3.      Short Distance: is when it starts becoming uncomfortable to the victim. This can be tackled by blows with the elbow. Again, thrust is required, this time more from the biceps and arms.

4.      Close Distance: is when it gets all too awkward and disturbing. There might also be no room for horizontal attacks and we need to use the vertical movements. These involve stomping the toes of the attacker with our heels, hitting the groin, keeping the palm in a lateral position and hitting the chin with the heel of the palm.  

Further, some general defensive movements were also taught.

1.      Defending on being pulled by the hair from the front: involves, stopping further pressure by the point of contact with both the palms, bowing down and then cutting the palms across the attacker’s hand in a diagonal fashion.

2.      Defending on being pulled by the hair from the back: involves, stopping further pressure by yielding along the direction of the pull, although keeping the face away from the attacker’s knees or palm, and when you are low enough, hit at the groin.

3.      When the wrist is being held tight with one hand of attacker: distract the attacker by poking in the eye and immediately move in the elbow of your own hand towards the attacker’s to break free.

4.      When the wrist is being held tight with one hand of attacker: put the free hand over the immobile hand through between the attacker’s both hands, and simultaneously pull back with your body weight and step in with the elbow of the free hand directed towards the attacker.

5.      When being thrust against a wall and being choked: Hold your own one ear with the opposite hand from behind the head and move the face inwards.

6.      When the attacker comes too close from behind: Stomp and hit around the position of the floating ribs with the elbow.

7.      When being attacked in the rape position: Use the leg near to the attacker to push him and gain space n between. Now, using this leg as a leverage point, hold him in position and hit him with the other leg at the groin. 

In all these cases, it is very important to use the extra thrust from the hip, pelvic, shoulder and arms. All these parts give mass to the punches and kicks. Also, it is necessary to complete each move into the attacker’s body giving more velocity to the moves. The product of these would be a very effective momentum in each blow, with all due respect to the good old school Physics. 

Further tips were given as to how to include simple Krav Maga movements into the regular exercises, so that it would not get boring and to shorten the response time of the reflexes.

At the end of the session we saw all women leaving more confident about their own levels of aggression if they encounter any uncomfortable situations. A booklet on Personal Safety too was given to help the participants. 

N.B. This is a summary of the basic techniques taught at the first session of Krav Maga, organized by the Women’s Forum, Chennai Trekking Club. This would be useful for participants to refresh the details taught in the class. This may not be much useful for the people who did not attend, but can surely give them a feel on how it was, so that they can join the further sessions.

An overdose of research...

As I was writing and re-writing my thesis, fiddling with the mineral water bottle, seemed to be my only distraction. (Internet stops working at 12 and there are 2 more hours to 5am when internet would resume). Presence of green algae (my subject of research) had been growing in the water cans and not wanting to have them beyond my lab time, I had decided to buy mineral water bottles.

Back to my fiddling with the bottle, did I realize that it seemed to have an unnecessary extra amount of plastic in the form of the band proudly proclaiming out the brand name. I decided to delve further into the colourful band on the transparent bottle, since I needed a very important info regarding the date of manufacturing. I wanted to make sure that my sense of consumer awareness be satiated. I know that most people would never go about bothering the expiry/manufacturing date on a mineral water bottle, when all they care would be for a "seemingly hygiene" gulp.

Given my joblessness, and the time of the day, I decided to read further through the ad-band. It had the name of the brand, a refreshing hi-def picture of water splashing against itself, address of the manufacturing unit, expiry date, volume, ISI certification, batch number, warning to crush the bottle after use (of which I had made a personal mental note), some nutritional info and finally the processes which this water has gone through. I was wondering as to how many consumers would be knowing these details and how many would ever care to. Then it dawned on me that I very well understand these processes and the nutritional info: a deadly combination for my own senses.


It mentioned ozonization and addition of minerals like magnesium and potassium and I know not what else. These two together rang a knell in my head. Ozone, metals and water under the excess of temperature, pressure etc. are the best combo to generate free radicals and other reactive oxygen species (ROS) which can have severe detrimental effects to human body. Almost all the new range of oral and topical medicines run with the tagline that they are loaded with antioxidants to tackle the ROS that might harm their potential customers. OMG!!! so much is going on against ROS and here we are being given  ROS to drink, neatly packaged and pricey. This just seems outrageous!!!


I know, some of you who work with ROS would prefer to differ on this saying that ROS need not be  generated and if at all generated, have a very short life-time; but think of it. What if all the temperature variations and pressure that they are subjected to lead to some chain reactions and keep them going on till it reaches your hands???

Bottomline: we might be carrying a potential disaster, misinterpreting it to be an elixir

P.S. this should not bother anyone who has no clue of ROS and is expected to be a funny read for those who think they know ROS. This could very well be the product of my mind feasting over my thesis, that has only ROS and stress for the "n"th time.

Let's not turn a blind eye to this...

Previously it used to be the foeticide, infanticide, dowry and sati; depending on the subject's age
Now it is the ever-increasing pity, moral-policing, blame-game and accusation, from the so-expected competent authorities and forces; and even the age does not matter

Either ways, we are soon to see a "better half" of the human population making it to the endangered/extinction list....

Re-discovery...

Finally, after a very long break I've decided to come back to my blogging.
As a first step, I published some old, unfinished posts, thought they still remain unfinished or irrelevant. As the next step, I've drastically reduced my activities on social networking site. Special thanks for that goes to Mr. A, my best friend who made a small change to my settings and did it all too naturally. He decided to make all my FB posts visible just to himself and never told me of this. To further make it fool-proof he suddenly started liking or commenting my posts. Thus, he made me believe that no one liked to see me active on FB. It hurt me a lot initially, since like most of us, I've also been thriving on my daily dose of FB profile-acceptance. The lack of it shattered me.

Soon I lost interest in FB and also in people who accumulated all the likes and comments. I decided to be my old self again. Decided to connect with people beyond the virtual world. Aha, now I've got a bigger problem, connecting with people became difficult, as I am naturally an introvert. I was reminded of the huge efforts that I used to take to talk with people around me. I had to re-start that process.

So, here once I started putting in the effort, some long-lost friends and acquaintances seemed to re-appear. Good sign, I thought. My efforts were being answered. I realized that I had been spending too much of time ancipating what would happen to mine as well as other friends' posts day in and out. Now, am spared of all thse worries. Am getting to know what people around who are not-so-connected to the LAN cables are doing and this reminded me of blogging and documenting my other interests.

So, I vow to begin with this. Am never gonna look back. At least one post per day, till all those long-forgotten ones get finished.

Mullaperiyaar

The issue regarding the mullaperiyar dam has been in prominence since a very long time. All these while, it was mostly the politicians, the technical experts or the farmers and other people directly linked to it, was practically concerned about this. The recent earthquakes and the survey reports published widely in the media have spread the seriousness that it may assume to the general public far away from mullaperiyar.

Me too, a general public staying outside Kerala, would've never bothered unless the disaster struck, had it not been for the social networking sites. The sheer thought of such a disaster sent a chill down my spine. I was determined to do my every bit to help avert the danger. I did not know where to begin nor what to do. After reading many related articles, I came to a solution, which I had shared through the social networking site, facebook.

Undefeated SITA

The abode of purity

Tested and tried by fire;

Seven times and over,

Still nothing to declare:

But ye, am not the Sita, the defeated one of eternity,

Of times to come, For generations to speak.

I had my share of lust, passion and heart-breaks.

I'm never imprisoned by any society's gaze,

I lay bare and open, the blue sky above me;

Nothing to care; Am in no despair.

Am content, ten times over more,

For within my reach is the next one more.

Days come 'n' go,

My bosom's wanton and it cries

For not want of comrades, but lack of solace.

Oh solitude, leave me no more!!!

I want to rest my head on thine lap.

Of yonder days, when I had to gaze,

The shyness and crimson in my bosom

It gave me immense pleasure to dream

Of lying in another blossom

With a man of name and fame and game.

I’m taken back to the present

The presents of my body play before me

They bring me peace, calm and purpose,

But nay, I don’t want to be bothered.

Let me make peace with the past and present,

And with each decision that I chose to resent.

My children, I’ll tend for you; a decision

I ought to meet; but it will only be for a while

And then, you too go to my past, one that I call a treason.

The bitterness, it’s killing me; or am I alive anymore?

Can I think or act or express – the reality of yore

It hits me again and again and again – a new way every time.

I think,  I dream, and I act to protect

My children, who bring in sense and make me intense

It’s calm that I need to preserve,

For I cannot perish anymore.

Rise, fall, but rise again, every now and then

For myself, my past and my future and all that is in between.

I see a glimmer, a shimmer, a ray

On every dark robe that I wore till now

Of promises made and kept and failed,

Yes, everything had a reason and more

I too have, to make peace, move on, conquer and live on to tell my lore

I am the Sita, who had a ‘maryada Ram” by her side

Right before birth, till just before now

Every Sita has her struggle, has her Ram till the end;

Unless she chose to see that she is never anyone’s “maryada”

She can make her own “maryada”, she is the mother, the creator

Unleash her potential and bring a new set of traditions

It is hers to show the way and guide

Each Ram that is drowned

In the eternal conflict between tradition and loss.

Her’s to rebel and make the path hard for Ram

Her’s to be subtle and let Ram discover for himself

No, there is no right or wrong in creating new traditions

The subtlest, the rebellious, the inspiring and less daring ones stay

Stay to aped, imitated, debated, criticised, accepted, and again aped

Then, she can choose to keep guiding and making new paths

Or let Ram drive the chariot of tradition, of future, of hope

But, me, my Sita, let me guide my “maryada”, let me be my guru and guide.