Nirbhaya or Without Fear

Over the years the rape and abuse cases in India (irrespective of geography ) have increased and what would be the reason

1. Commodification and overt sexualisation- Women have become a product to be sold and utilised. The alarming trend is today the commodification has lowered its age limit. Post Covid and influx of social media is now showing very young woman sexualising themselves. Unfortunately, revenue generated is normalising and even glorifying sexual perversion. A few days ago a girl as yound as 12-13 was selling an ointment which would remove dark spots under armpit. I am not taking sides, but we should have a serious thought on where we are heading.

2. Our mythology and religious texts which define our society has set a clear hegemony in terms of caste and gender. The reading of our religious texts haven't evolved but has gone backwards over the year. Glorifying the caste dynamics or even supressing women has impacted our thought processin a very evil way

Confining women to motherhood or and then gloorifying and sanctifying repression should not work in a modern society. So deep insode a man , a woman who moves out of these confines have to be disciplined and abuse becomes normalised

Even now the public 'feelings' or reactions to a rape are largely dependent on the social status of the accused and 'aukat' of the prepetrator

Where are our teachers

As we debate on the gruesome death of a student, unfortunately the debate goes off to politics and upcoming elections

But here are a few things we have to answer

Where are our teachers? We have one of themost developed education system, with highly payed teachers. But where are they?

Do they know their students? Are they able to stimulate them?

Learning frpm the pigs

My friend who was married off to a rich family, just after high school. She is now a proud mother of three, planning to marry off her daughter as soon as she turns 18. But I believe they’re liberal as per their standards. And I think so because thkids wear their headgear rolled up like a turban and she reposts ‘wailing Palestinian kids’ in her instagram story every other day.

Last day she puts up a post on how ‘not only pigs are unhealthy to eat but also people eating people get certain straits of pigs’. 

I asked her if her post was based on some scientific stidies?

‘But don’t your Bible says so?’

‘Every Semitic religion says the same things. It was based on the knowledge the people had at that time. Today we know pigs is healthy as any other food.’

Eating or wearing something based on you stupid belief is your choice. But claiming exclusivity and judging people who think differently based on your belief system is ridiculous

No religious text is a carta blanc. It should be treated as a point of reference

Why so sensitive

 Years ago I was travelling to our office in my scooter and I happened to hear the sweet voice of  a child and stopped my scooter over the side and listened. It happened to be elocution competition for school kids organized by a mosque and they were kind enough to let the world hear. The subject for the kids as young as 8-10 was 'Are women in Islam scuttled of freedom'. I heard the little girl opening up her speech with- We know increasing sexual abuses against women today. One reason is the dress they wear'.

 I was startled to hear this and imagine the amount of venom injected into the kids to come up with such a statement.

A few days ago the whole India and even parts of the world woke up rudely to what should be seen as the row over a piece of clothing worn by a particular community. There has been talks, discussions and debates on freedom to wear and eat. But do we see the greater picture? What are we fighting at the end of the day? Is the enemy an individual, a party or a religion?

Liberalization promised to bring us many things. Wealth, prosperity, health education, food and opportunities were some of them. The social evils in our land, including casteism, inequality, superstitions were assumed to be automatically eradicated with the onset of education. But we have seen the social indices plunging especially in India. We see rational thought process disappearing slowly from all walks of life. We have been busy giving life to mythical beings and making a larger than life image out of them. 

I remember joining a gym in here and to be welcomed by a larger than life sized image of a loin clad angry Hanuman who seems to have injected a lot of steroids. If we had walked back a few decades, we would have come across less glamorous-more of a monkey version- of Hanuman. The same applies with all religions. The mythical figures have been re-painted to suit the narrative of the privileged. As Marx said once religion is being used as a legalized opium to hide from the masses that they are being tortured and abused.

Colour of the shirt

The sleaziest pick up line for a middle aged flirt would be 'What are you wearing to Office today'

And that is what I asked her today. She was only one of the few who is kind enough to indulge my attempts at flirting with her. 

And then I remembered I was wearing a peacock green shirt. The shirt would be 7 years old this July and I remember it well because I brought it before my marriage. I was the shirt I wore on our first outing together and it so happened that we wore the same colours that day (totally unintentional)

Years had rolled by, there were many things we would not agree on, many things we had to agree because of the other.- Very romantic days and very difficult days. And like the test of time the shirt has managed to hang on to its useable life although the green has faded a bit. 

വിങ്ങിപ്പൊട്ടുന്ന രഹസ്യങ്ങൾ

പത്താംക്ലാസ്. ഞാൻ വലിയ മോശമില്ലാതെ പഠിക്കും. എന്നാലും കൂടെയുള്ള കൂട്ടുകാരികളുടെ മക്കൾ ടൂഷന് പോകുന്ന കണ്ട് എൻ്റെ അമ്മ എന്നെയും ഉന്തി തള്ളി വിട്ടു. ടൂഷൻ മണ്ടന്മാമാർക്കാകാണെന്ന് മനസ്സിൽ ഉള്ളത് കൊണ്ട് മടിച്ചിട്ടാണ് ഞാനവിടെ പോയത്

തിരുവനന്തപുരത്ത് വളരെ പേര് കേട്ട അദ്ധ്യായാപകൻ. വളരെ കർക്കഷക്കാരനാണെങ്കിലും കളിയും ചിരിയുമായി ട്യൂഷൻ താമസിയാതെ രസകരമായി മാറി.

അങ്ങനെ ഒരു ദിവസം എൻ്റെ അടുത്ത ഒരു കൂട്ടുകാരൻ വല്ലാതെ വിഷമിച്ചിചിരിക്കുന്നു. ചോദിച്ചിട്ട് ഒന്നും പറയുന്നുമില്ല. വീട്ടിൽ എന്തെങ്കിലും പ്രശ്നമാവുമെന്ന് ഊഹിച്ചു. രണ്ട് ദിവസം ആയിട്ടും സങ്കടം മാറുന്നില്ല. ഒരിക്കൽ ഒറ്റയ്ക്ക് കിട്ടിയപ്പോ ഞാനവനോട് ചോദിച്ചു

അവൻ എന്നെ ഒഴിഞ്ഞ സ്ഥലത്ത് മാറ്റി നിർത്തി സത്യം ചെയ്യിച്ചു. വേറെ ആരോടും പറയില്ല എന്ന്.

'എടാ രണ്ട് ദിവസം മുന്നേ ട്യൂഷൻ ക്ലാസിൻ്റെ മുകളിലത്തെ നിലയിൽ കയറിയപ്പോ സാറും നമ്മടെ ക്ലാസിലെ പെൺക്കുട്ടിയും ചുമ്പിക്കുന്ന ഞാൻ കണ്ടു.' ഇവൻ അവിടെ വരുമെന്ന് പ്രതീക്ഷിക്കാത്ത സാറും Desp ആയി. കർക്കശക്കാരനായ സാറ് അവൻ്റ കാല് പിടിച്ചു. പക്ഷേ പാവം, രണ്ട് ദിവസമായി ആ രഹസ്യം ഉള്ളിൽ കിടന്ന് വിങ്ങി പൊട്ടുവായിരുന്നു.

അങ്ങനെ എന്നോട് പറഞ്ഞ് ആ വിങ്ങലിൽ നിന്ന് മോചനം നേടി

Malayalam Movie Review - Aarkkariyam

 

What decides the moral compass of a man? How far will he go to compromise that compass to protect the things he values the most? And how does he justify his actions at the end of the day.

When you start out the journey of life, good and evil or right and wrong are laid out in black and white. The border line separating them gets hazy as life goes on and in the end you learn that the thing that matters most is your survival.

 

So what happens when someone standing on the wrong side of your morality is someone you love? Where will your priorities lie? This seems to be the predicament of Roy, the protagonist of the movie ‘Aarkkariyaam’ (Translated as Who knows?) Roy, who himself is going through a tough patch in his business) is startled to learn a hard truth about his father-in-law. The story moves on from that point to journey of Roy to reach a point of decision.

Roy is portrayed as an ordinary businessman caught in hard times of the pandemic. He uses goodwill of his friend, who cheats his company to arrange temporary funds for Roy. Roy travels to Kerala along with his wife to her house in Pala and the story evolves from there. The pace of the story evolves leisurely  and smoothly until the story turns on its head with a sudden twist.

The characters are unraveled at its own beautiful pace, which is rather unseen in movies these days. The character of Roy caught in a  moral dilemma, when he himself is trying to salvage the wrongs he has done, his wife moving away from a previous, abusive relationship and a father seeking a closure in the mysterious will of God’. Added to all the tensions is the life thrown off the rails thanks to the pandemic.

The casting and art work is exemplary. The actors have also done a fabulous work but I found Biju Menon to be a little laboring in his act as a old man. It is a matter of contention that our ‘superstars’ are rather reluctant to reinvent themselves. This role could have been aced by one of them. The success of the movie in times of pandemic shows that hardwork pays off.