Chandni Parekh points us to Prajnya, a non-profit working against gender violence:

Prajnya is a Chennai-based non-profit, working on areas related to peace, justice and security.
Between 25 November and 10 December every year, Prajnya organises the 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence. Through this campaign, Prajnya looks to raise awareness of the different ways in which women in particular are vulnerable to violence, at home, at their place of work, on campuses and in public spaces.Over 16 days, Prajnya will conceptualise and organise 16 different programmes, at different locations across the city, with different partners and for different audiences.

Prajnya does this through a broad, inclusive, structural and human rights approach to gender‐based violence; by forging partnerships to create a network for action; by involving diverse audiences including educational institutions, corporate groups and civil society organisations; and by working with innovative media and programme formats.

Violence against women isn’t a private concern. It affects every single one of us at every stage of life. For this reason, the 16 Days Campaign is a collective exercise that Prajnya undertakes with their partners, their volunteers and their friends.

Please support the campaign with a donation. If you would like to volunteer or make a donation, please write to Prajnya at prajnya.16days [at] gmail [dot] com. You can also read about the planning process and give Prajnya your ideas at Prajnya 16 Days.

INDIANS ACROSS THE WORLD celebrated their independence day with dampened fervour over the past week, to salvage nationalist pride out of the economics of infection and pathology of recession. While all this was happening, two incidents caught my attention.
First, was…

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ACCORDING TO THE calendar Parsis follow, today is my birthday. It is an event only family and very close friends know about, the more popular occasion being my date of birth next weekend. Of the seven people who wished me…

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Preeti Shenoy asks if it is a man’s world?

Throughout history and right up to modern day, women have been treated as sex objects first and then everything else later. Men look at women as their ‘possession’ or ‘property’ that they have to guard and defend from other men. You might be a modern, politically correct, free thinking man, but I am sure, deep down you’d agree with what I have just stated. The first thing that a man sees when he sees a woman is how she is, physically.

“We shall disallow travel and the mingling of songs”—this line from Jeet Thayil’s poem ‘Rules for Citizens’ makes me think about the Gay Pride Parade. Because travel is of so many kinds, much of it disallowed. At this year’s Bangalore…

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I CAN SAFELY—and with some amount of pride— say that I belong to one of India’s most emancipated and socio-economically advanced communities. As a Parsi, especially one born and bred in South Bombay (most Indian Parsis live in Bombay, and…

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You developed your sense of entitlement early – at home, the boys showed up like kings at mealtimes – and the girls served them. Your mother deferred to your father even when she was right. She was loyal and cooked for him even after she found out about his mistress. It is good to be a man – everything is designed with you in mind.

NeoIndian writes a letter to the Hindu Moral Policeman who seems to relish imposing his will on everyone. I doubt any moral police will read and heed the advice but never hurts to put it out there.

AT THE PRESCHOOL that I run (where I also teach), there’s a certain action song we sing that goes like this:
Cook like mummy,
Yum, yum, yum, (repeat thrice)
Let’s have fun together!
Drive like daddy,
Knit like grandma,
Cough like grandpa….
…and by the time we…

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Woman, 40, married, and wondering,

All I know is that I am happy today. I love my husband. He has been around, tolerating me, for 14 years now. He is a reservoir of patience. And above all, he is the father of my two kids. Touch wood!

But I have my moments of resentment too. My hubby is doing well, my kids are doing well at school, my parents did well by marrying me off to him, but am I doing well enough in life? Now that’s one question I have to grapple alone with myself. Old-timers in the family will tell me that if my hubby is doing well at work and if my kids are doing well at school, then I should be doing well too in life. After all, I live for them, just like I lived for my parents before I got married. In short, I had to take permission then, and I have to take permission even now.[link]

Growing up, eh!

Tazeen is now a cynic par excellence and asks Mr. Khan how can he support independent judiciary and an alternative justice system of jirga court. Aren’t they mutually exclusive? Imran Khan apparently mistook Tazeen for Hamid Mir (although she looks nothing like the infamous Hamid Mir and does not sport a moustache) and says, “Bibi apko kuch naheen pata, main batata hoon.” (bibi, you don’t know anything, let me tell you how it all goes). Tazeen has had enough of Imran Khan and his relentless support for jirga. She intercepts and says, “But Khan Sahib, how can you support a system which institutionally excludes women and poor men from the decision making process?” Imran Khan loses it at that and lashes out at Tazeen. He is red in his face and foaming at the corners of his mouth and says, “Bibi, you stopped me in mid sentence, that’s bad tameezi (bad manners) and I don’t talk to bad tameez (ill mannered) people.[link]

I rather like this blog. It also informs us that Shahrukh Khan wears butt pads. Imagine!