meetdheeraj

[meetdheeraj]

My aunt was told that she should not take up the jobs she was qualified for because her in-laws would like her to stay home and serve them food. The question is, to what extent are these the actual preferences of the husband or his family and to what extent is it just the socially appropriate thing to do? In a remarkable experiment published in the ultra-prestigious American Economic Review, Leonardo Bursztyn, Alessandra L. González and David Yanagizawa-Drott show data that a vast majority of younger Saudi men are comfortable with their wives working but think they would face social censure if they actually went through with this decision. The authors informed a random sample of 250 young men that the views of others actually lined up with theirs and found that the wives of those so informed were much more likely to interview for jobs in the next few months.

- Abhijit Banerjee (Nobel Laureate) in Chhaunk

[meetdheeraj]

Gig worker is a euphemism for slave labor in India. Elsewhere in world gig worker is one who does 3 or 4 hour extra work for extra money apart from their regular job. In India a delivery partner as they're called to save companies from giving them employee benefits work for 16 or so hours.

[meetdheeraj]

Gig worker is a euphemism for slave labor in India. Elsewhere in world gig worker is one who does 3 or 4 hour extra work for extra money apart from their regular job. In India a delivery partner as they're called to save companies from giving them employee benefits work for 16 or so hours.

[meetdheeraj]

Old Goa, what Portuguese called Velha Goa and what oldies call pornem Goy was established by the Bijapur Sultanate in the 15th century AD. And later made capital and developed as metropolis by Portuguese. If you simply walk around looking at majestic structures that still stand, some fully and some in ruins, you can feel the grandeur of architecture and can imagine and feel what it must have been in those times. At its peak it was known as the "Rome of the East" for its opulent churches and convents and this continued until the plague happened and then it got abandoned. Portuguese shifted their capital to Panaji then...

St Francis Xavier was a Spanish Jesuit missionary who arrived in Goa in 1542. He died in 1552 on Sancian Island, off the coast of Guangdong province in China. His relics are enshrined in the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa.

Locally St Francis is regarded as the "Goencho Saib (Protector of Goa)". Recently a BJP member took offence to this. While demanding for the DNA test of his relics, Velingkar had said that the saint could not be called “Goencho Saib (Protector of Goa)”. People resisted of course...

[meetdheeraj]

As India-Pakistan relations deterioted further you might have noticed more and more international media reporting from Pakistan controlled Kashmir and through point-of-view of Pakistan which Indians saw as disproportionately favoring Pakistan.

This is wrong reading.

This 'biased' coverage is not due to their bias but because unlike Pakistan, India under Modi has stopped international media from visiting Indian controlled Kashmir. So Indian point of view or Indian side of story is just not getting out. Indian media is allowed to visit Kashmir (only mainland media, media in Kashmir is nuzzled by and large). But you know how this media popularly called godi media reports.

[meetdheeraj]

What exactly does this mean? You may recall that in 1989, the Ram Janambhoomi movement was in full swing, with processions from all over India converging on the site of the Babri Masjid with consecrated bricks to lay the foundations of a temple to the Hindu god Ram. Three years later, the Babri Masjid was demolished by the same radicals and, last year, Indian Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the new and massive Ram mandir.

Spearheaded by extremist groups like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, many of the 1989 marches deliberately went through Muslim areas. In Bhagalpur, this planned provocation ended in a series of massacres in which over 900 Muslims were killed, amounting to some 93 per cent of the total casualties. As per Indian media reports at the time, the bodies of at least 100 of these were buried in a mass grave over which cauliflowers were planted to hide the atrocity. The Bhagalpur Riots Inquiry Commission found local administration guilty of “in­­competence and in­­difference”, and singled out superintendent K.S. Trivedi as “wholly responsible for the riots that oc­­curred”. Trivedi was transferred but then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi revoked that decision under pressure from the BJP and VHP. You know, the same people basically running India these days.

If you somehow haven’t connected the dots yet, the posting of cauliflowers is in fact a not-so-coded call to massacre Muslims. This is the second time in the last few months this murderous meme has made the rounds. When the movie Chhaava was released, cherry-picking events from the life of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj to inflame anti-Muslim sentiments in true modern Bollywood style, riots took place in Nagpur with the VHP and Bajrang Dal intent upon demolishing the tomb of Mughal ruler Aurangzeb. Here we saw the cauliflower being repeatedly used as well, and with a lot less ambiguity than now.

One account even posted that this time the killers should “have a target … like a minimum of 2-3” Muslims to kill. The tweet to which this was a reply has over 15,000 likes. And that, ladies and gentlemen is how the groundwork for genocide is laid.

- Zarrar Khuhro, Filth and Fury

[meetdheeraj]

Govts in Tamilnadu, Bengal, Kerala, Delhi etc were clearly and humongously voted in by people of those respective states. Union govt in Delhi through the office of governor and by use of other union agencies has consistently paralysed governance in these states by sitting on bills passed by state assemblies and even university posts have remained vacant because governor won't sign on appointments. LG in Delhi when AAP was in power would regularly travel to localities and give bites to media about water not coming out of taps etc. It's not like water is flowing now but he no more travels to any localities since BJP came to power in Delhi. It's not his job to travel to localities and check taps.

Union govt under Modi has been immensely partisan and anti-India, anti-people and by extension anti democratic by eating away at people's mandate. It's high time we break up powers of union govt and decentralise those powers in interest of federalism.

[meetdheeraj]

We say we are proud of our army only when we are at war for a reason. We want them to feel good and okay about dying over failure of us doing better as citizens.

Remember wars are failure of politicians failing at real politics and citizens not holding them accountable.

[meetdheeraj]

We say we are proud of our army only when we are at war for a reason. We want them to feel good and okay about dying over failure of us doing better as citizens.

Remember wars are failure of politicians failing at real politics and citizens not holding them accountable.

[meetdheeraj]

Indian govt and its media are again peddling lies. In time even these would be unmasked but it'll be late by then.

For context, after Pulwama in the escalation between India and Pakistan, India claimed to have shot down a Pakistani F-16, but these claim was not backed by any evidence. Media propagated this as is without asking evidence from govt.

United States defence officials later found that no F-16 aircraft was missing from PAF's inventory. These F-16 are US made. Meanwhile India had to admit it lost one MiG-21 in the skirmish, and missing pilot was claimed by Pakistan to be in its custody.

Another major failure occurred for India when Air defences at the Srinagar airbase shot down the IAF's own Mi-17V-5 helicopter. All six personnel on board were killed, as was a civilian on ground. IAF did not make this public until the votes were counted in the 2019 general election. Same election in which Modi asked votes on Pulwama attack.

Source: The Balakot Misdirection, Caravan March 2025 issue.

[meetdheeraj]

Another Terror Attack: How Many Deaths Will It Take For Modi, Shah & Co To Stop Milking Hate?

Pragya Singh Thakur, prime accused in 2008 Malegaon blasts that killed 6 and injured 100 was elected to parliament by Modi-Shah-RSS’s BJP. People who did not condemn her felicitation are now condemning the recent attack in Pahalgam. Militants who killed 26 people in India’s Kashmir region, separated the men from the women and children and asked the men their names before shooting them at close…

[meetdheeraj]

What are your morals, what does your upbringing, education and conscience say about someone burning alive a father and his two sons (10 and 6 year old) sleeping inside their vehicle?

Does it matter who they were? Maybe the father was a dacoit, maybe drug peddler. Does that make the burning alive okay for you?

Father was Graham Stuart Staines, 58, an Australian Christian missionary working with victims of leprosy.

The three had woken up when the flames leapt from their vehicles. Dara Singh, a Bajrang Dal activist and his cohort used their long, stout lathis to push them back into the fire, till they died.

Does your religious teaching, whatever that is, allows to be okay with such a crime? Or does your upbringing says burning a family alive is not a crime at all?

His wife, Gladys, suppressing her unfathomable pain and anguish told television reporters, “I forgive those who have killed my husband and my two sons.” But it is not for the State to forgive, or forget, one who commits a murder so foul.

Gladys Staines is still involved in Odisha, the new name of the state. Her surviving child, a daughter, is now a medical doctor in Australia. They had not accompanied Graham to his visit to the villages that fateful day.

Should he be released over "good behavior" -whatever that means - or not is another matter. But what does it tell you about the community that garlands such a person? What exactly are they celebrating? Remember months ago they had similarly welcomed Bilkis's rapists. These are not ordinary people from his neighbourhood but people from religious groups. What have they found in religion that gives them strength to do these things? And more importantly, what part of religion makes you stay silent over such instances done in your religion's name? Is it that there's religious sanction for such violence and these welcomings? Or that your religion doesn't teach you courage to speak against these evils?

[meetdheeraj]

In literary works completed centuries earlier, such as the Ramayana and Raghuvamsa, Ravana is depicted as sacrificing his heads to Brahma, the Creator, in return for magical powers. Yet in literature composed a few centuries after the Krishneshvara was excavated, such as the Shiva Purana of eleventh-twelfth-century Varanasi, they narrated a tale of Ravana sacrificing his heads to obtain powers from Shiva instead, making him out to be an ideal Shaiva devotee.

- Anirudh Kanisetti, Lords of The Deccan

[meetdheeraj]

In literary works completed centuries earlier, such as the Ramayana and Raghuvamsa, Ravana is depicted as sacrificing his heads to Brahma, the Creator, in return for magical powers. Yet in literature composed a few centuries after the Krishneshvara was excavated, such as the Shiva Purana of eleventh-twelfth-century Varanasi, they narrated a tale of Ravana sacrificing his heads to obtain powers from Shiva instead, making him out to be an ideal Shaiva devotee.

- Anirudh Kanisetti, Lords of The Deccan

[meetdheeraj]

Scandal Meets Celebration: Why Do We Cheer On Holi for What We Criticize Year Round?

The trail of incidents that are usually termed horrible on other days but have come to be accepted, tolerated, forgiven and forgotten in the name of the Holi tradition every year. “A 25-year-old Hindu man was allegedly strangled to death in Rajasthan’s Dausa district for trying to stop three men from applying colour on him during Holi celebration”. Every year on Holi, there are news reports of…

[meetdheeraj]

People constantly complaining why Bollywood no more creates good movies like old gems - art requires freedom, openness and courage.

Kunal Kamra is one of our finest comic. Look what is being done to venue after his show. You know what happens to movie makers too well. It's not about people being goons but the incompetence of state and people leading from front. These are not ordinary people or usual goons - the usual goons don't fear the state nor do they have state protection - the old mafia is long gone. Current crop of goons derive their courage from politicians in power. The guy who is seen vandalising is the same guy who then went to police station and filed FIR against Kamra. He has no fear and Mumbai police has no balls to act against him. Why? Because police knows who is to be protected and who is to be acted against. Mr Modi comes to cut ribbons even for a two station underdeveloped metro in Mumbai and Pune, do you not think if he wanted he can control these elements? He won't. Because there was joke on him too. These are fragile men who have never been loved enough.

About openness. The old Bollywood dialogues were written in the language that people speak daily - Hindustani - mix of Hindi and Urdu. Because we are on a cultural project to make everything Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan - we now write alien dialogues that people cannot relate with. Even stories aren't real because writing about reality invites violence.

Rang De Basanti, that old gem is in theaters now. Again. Go watch it. And ponder how it would be impossible to make it today. Think why.

[meetdheeraj]

Too many homes buying bikes and expensive phones but won't buy a washing machine. If one day govt mandated laundry to be exclusively men's task then next day all houses would have fully automatic machines. Even if they have to sell their flashy phones or bikes...

You want a bike because you don't want to walk ten minutes or take a bus. It wastes your time. Discomforts you to travel in bus. But this saved time and comfort is never used to wash dishes. You want to relax. Take a break. You know how much time and energy it takes to wash a bucket full of clothes?

The idea that in India women - mothers, sisters, wives - are idolised or romanticised is a cover. Cover to extract cheap labor. But the cost saved through women's labor don't go into her benefit either.