We are nearing the end of May and the monsoon season will begin from mid June. However, everywhere you see in Mumbai, the roads are completely dug up and there seems to be no end in site! There seems to be no urgency in the road work and this digging exercise has been going on for the past several months.. Apart from causing traffic snarls, these dug up roads are posing a serious danger to the elderly and children.. Why does the road work have to be done all of a sudden only few months before the state assembly elections is a question that needs answering. Couldnt the work have begun in September last year when the rains ceased? Why is there no urgency in completing the work? It hardly takes these people a couple of days to ruin a perfectly fine stretch of road and then they take several months to relay it and concretize it.. it is more than obvious this work will not end before the onset of the monsoon which will only make the roads and traffic even more worse and hazardous.. I hope that some of the workaholic and performance oriented attitude of the new PM rubs off to the various municipal corporations and the state ministers as well.. 
India is not RAPE country!!
I get exasperated when I see the media, both Indian and international, hammering India as if it was the rape capital of the world. Women are not safe in any society and they have to be equally alert at all times whether they are in New York or in London or in Stockholm or in Delhi.
We have a sensationalist media which is required to wake up and sensitise our authorities to take steps for the protection of our citizens and at times our media does go overboard. But that does not mean that our country is full of rapists and molesters. However, it seems that the international media is painting such a picture.
What I produce below are the results of a study conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Justice , CDC, Koss, Gidycz & Wisniewski College Study, United Nations.
Research Date: 6.18.2013
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person’s consent. A person who commits an act of rape is known as a rapist. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. Victims of rape can be severely traumatized by the assault and may have difficulty functioning as well as they had been used to prior to the assault, with disruption of concentration, sleeping patterns and eating habits.
| Rape Statistics | Percent |
| Average number of rape cases reported in the US annually | 89,000 |
| Percent of women who experienced an attempted or completed rape | 16 % |
| Percent of men who experienced an attempted or completed rape | 3 % |
| Decline in rape rate since 1993 | 60 % |
| Percent of rapes that are never reported to authorities | 60 % |
| Percent of college rapes that are never reported to authorities | 95 % |
| Percent of rapes where both victim and perpetrator had been drinking | 47 % |
| College Rape Statistics | Percent |
| The following is from a study of 6,000 college students on 32 college campuses nationwide in 1987 | |
| Percent of women who reported being raped | 15 % |
| Percent of women who reported an attempted rape | 12 % |
| The following is from a CDC study of 5,000 women on 138 college campuses in 1995 | |
| Percent who reported being raped | 20 % |
| Rape Perpetrator Statistics | Percent |
| Percent of victims raped by a friend or acquaintance | 38 % |
| Percent raped by “an intimate” | 28 % |
| Percent raped by a stranger | 26 % |
| Percent raped by a relative | 7 % |
| Rape Location Statistics | Percent |
| Perpetrators home | 30.9 % |
| Victims home | 26.6 % |
| Perpetrator and victims shared home | 10.1 % |
| At a party | 7.2 % |
| In a vehicle | 7.2 % |
| Outdoors | 3.6 % |
| In a bar | 2.2 % |
| Countries With Highest Rape Rates | Rate / 100,000 |
| Lesotho | 91.6 |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 58.4 |
| Sweden | 53.2 |
| Korea | 33.7 |
| New Zealand | 30.9 |
| United States | 28.6 |
| Belgium | 26.3 |
| Zimbabwe | 25.6 |
| United Kingdom | 23.2 |
| Countries With Lowest Rape Rates | Rate / 100,000 |
| Egypt | 0.1 |
| Azerbaijan | 0.3 |
| Armenia | 0.6 |
| Syrian Arab Republic | 0.7 |
| Turkey | 1.4 |
| Sierra Leone | 1.4 |
| Canada | 1.5 |
| Ukraine | 1.9 |
| Kenya | 1.9 |
| Belarus | 2.5 |
The above study carried out by the US Department of Justice clearly shows that on the contrary, countries like USA, UK and Sweden are in the list of countries with highest number of rapes. India does not figure in that list. That does not mean that rapes do not happen in India. But that does mean that India is safer for women than USA, UK and Sweden! Digest that!
NO RESPECT FOR HON’BLE SUPREME COURT
The monied and influential people in our country show such callousness, utter disrespect and scant regard for the highest court of the country that it beggars belief!
In one case, you have a self proclaimed nationalist who claims to be a fierce supporter of the cause of India but whose multi million dollar set up is completely shady. When he tried to con our securities regulator, he was pulled up by the Supreme Court. Then he dared to take even the Supreme Court lightly and thought he will get away. The Supreme Court looked at his antics and was forced to issue an arrest warrant against this man. But this man had the audacity to even twist the arrest warrant and lodged himself in a government guest house as a five start guest getting seven star treatment. Being mightily upset with his behavior the Supreme Court decided it was time to show him who was the boss and straight away got him sent to Tihar Jail to enjoy the company of murderers and rapists! He has now been granted bail but at a whopping surety of Rs. 10,000 crores! Lets see how he arranges that..
In another case, we have a man who is the chief of the most powerful sports body in its sport (cricket) in India and abroad, who is having an obvious conflict of interest, whose nephew is accused of match fixing and betting and against whom the Supreme Court has made damning comments like:
“Mr Srinivasan should step down or else we’ll be forced to pass an order.”
“How did he stay on despite all the allegations? His staying on is nauseating for cricket.”
“If there has to be a fair and dispassionate enquiry, Mr. Srinivasan must step down.”
Unfortunately, we have incorrigible persons in our country who neither care for the country nor for its courts and the person referred to above is despite such severe criticism from the highest court of our country, tightly holding on to his chair.. Well, he wont be able to hang on to it for long as its just a matter of days and his days are most definitely numbered!
These are just two glaring examples, which show the extent to which people in our country can go to have their own way simply because they are influential people and have money bags.. This kind of conduct is setting bad examples for vulnerable minds who think this behavior and conduct will get them good publicity and so what if they are caught!
The Supreme Court is thankfully taking a tough stand to send out a strong message that enough is enough! Hopefully it will serve as a strong deterrent.. Only time will tell!
Clueless Actors standing for upcoming elections
Clueless Actors standing for upcoming elections
It is election season in India with 1.2 billion people preparing themselves to vote and elect a new government in the next two and half months. Several kinds of candidates are pitching themselves in. Some of them are smart and some of them not so smart. I came across this very interesting article about an actress who is standing for elections. Her answers display either her level of honesty & simplicity or downright dimwittedness.. The readers can judge for themselves..
TV NEWS IS JUNK!!
Does anyone else feel this or it is only me?? I mean you switch on a news channel and you hope to get news updates. But instead you have news anchors indulging in screaming matches with their guests.. Gone are the days when you had a news reader who would for half an hour read out the news of the day to you. Instead now we have every news channel in India, conducting debates and more debates and still more debates!! I mean seriously, guys.. I just want to know what is happening in the country.. I do not want to know what Mr. A thinks about Mr. B and I definitely do not care about your own views!
I had never imagined that the best news channel would turn out to be good old Doordarshan where you still have the old style news reader doling out the days news.. You switch on to any other channel, be it english or hindi or regional, they are all in a TRP rating war with eachother.. Arnab Goswami of Times Now leads the pack! I mean, he believes that majority of viewers are deaf or definitely hard of hearing and he further believes that he is propagating the thoughts of the 1.2 billion Indians.. Arnab – India wants to know why do you shout so much!! These channels should call themselves infotainment channels and not news channels. There is only drama and masala. They forget that their primary purpose is news which is non existent!
And please news channels – Every item does not fall in the category of Breaking News.. This phrase is reserved for a news that is such that it can have major ramifications.. An actor getting injured, or a naked politician or a self styled crusader writing a letter is not breaking news..
BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera are head and shoulders above the Indian news channels when it comes to the art of news reporting. The Indian news channels need to take some hard lessons from these channels and not resort to 24/7 tabloid and sensationalist journalism!
What if cars didnt have horns?
When one travels abroad, one instantly finds that there is a lot of peace and quiet. This is mainly because one doesnt get to hear the incessant honking of the cars which is the norm in Indian roads. In fact, in countries like Spain, France, USA, if a car honks, then there is a cause for concern. However, in our lovely country, the attitude is the exact opposite. If we do not honk then there is a cause for concern. We believe that the car in front of us or the people in front of us are prime category idiots and who need to be constantly reminded that they need to get a move on! we do not care whether we are in front of a hospital or a court, if we have to express ourselves in any way, then we
have to honk and how!! we are not satisfied with the horns provided by the car companies who do their best to ensure we are well within the permissible decibel levels, so we go and get our horns replaced by huge blow horns which can scare the living daylights out of anyone! if we could just restrain ourselves and discipline ourselves into honking only when really necessary instead of reflex and needless honking, it would go a long way in reducing the cacophony of sound which is prevalent all over on the indian roads..
Irresponsibly Indian 