Christmas gift to Tamenglong- Haflong

Picture Credit- Mr Armstrong Pame, IAS

The image above is that of a sick patient being taken to the hospital. Carrying the sick in bamboo slings, children walking more than ten kilometers everyday just to reach their schools, elderly walking with baskets weighing more than 50 kgs on mountain slopes for hours together in leech infested forests...This is everyday reality in the North East. If you thought that India Shines, the living conditions of the people in the neglected states- The Seven Sisters of North East, can put us to global shame.

Enter a new IAS officer as Sub Divisional Magistrate, Tamenglong, Manipur. This young person wants to do something fruitful to his poor and downtrodden brethren. Introducing the first IAS Officer from Zeme- Naga tribe of Manipur- Mr. Armstrong Pame! Mr Pame is now hell bent on his dream project- the Tamenglong Haflong Road- the lifeline road of Manipur, entirely constructed by the people, of the people and for the people. This public- built road will form a tri- junction with Nagaland and Assam over the Jiri river. The total road length is 100 kms of which 70 kms have been completed so far. The work has been entirely done by public volunteers of the area who just want to see a road.

Local volunteers clearing forests for the road with their daos, pic courtesy- govinspire.com

Work was stopped midway and now it has resumed. The stretch of  20 kms is yet to be completed. The total cost per meter has been calculated as Rs. 62. If interested in donating to this noble cause, you may kindly visit the link here and click the donate here button. For any queries kindly contact 09953029135.If you can donate Rs. 31,000, a 500 meter stretch of the road could be named after you! This 90 year old man has donated his pension of Rs. 200 per month for 5 months, so that his children and grand children can use a road!

Picture Credit- Mr Armstrong Pame, IAS

You can check out this website too, an interesting initiative by my dear friend Mr. Nagarajan, IAS, District Collector, Banaskantha, Gujarat. There are many young people in the administrative services who love to reach out to the people and help them lead better lives. It is our duty as sincere citizens to support their drive. Interestingly, the pioneer of the Tamenglong Haflong road Mr. Armstrong Pame has been nominated as CNN- IBN Indian of the Year, 2012! Kindly visit this link to know more about him. You can vote for him here! 

Christmas is the season of giving and kindness. Let us make this our Christmas gift to the people by donating to this noble cause. Let us make our Christmas memorable.This is the best Christmas gift these simple and hardworking people can ever get! 

God says...to abort or not to abort?

File picture of Savita Halappanavar from Irish Times

This is one serious topic that i have been contemplating for a long time. The tragic death of Dr Savita Halappanavar in Ireland has intimidated the long burning rage. Who would have thought the Irish laws leaned heavily on religion- Christianity? The Catholic Church is anti- abortion and the Irish law is entirely based on it. The lawmakers are yet to wake from their stupor. Abortion laws differ from country to country, majority of them making it 'legal on request'. Few states require parental consent in case of minors, but in case of clinically injurious pregnancies, a request by the mother would suffice. 

God has given equal rights of life for everyone and that includes unborn fetus too. True. But does not the mother have the right to live? Why do women have to move from country to country to have an abortion done? The law forbids them from aborting their child in their homeland and so they move to other countries that permit! In case of Ireland, pregnant women travel all the way to England to abort. How convenient! The other side of the Sea permits you to abort whereas Ireland does not. And don't think the travel is easy- they won't let you leave the country if they know you are pregnant! All this in the name of protecting the religion? The country? The women? Who are we kidding?

We condole the death of Dr Savita. Her death has inspired tens of thousands in Ireland to take to the streets demanding revamp in the sections 58 and 59. There is one more dark nation that forbids abortion and we know nothing of it, not even a stub in wikipedia dares speak of it- Saudi Arabia! The Gulf nation prohibits abortions- again in the name of God! Oh God! Have mercy! There are many hushed cases of botched abortions, scores of deaths due to unethical termination of pregnancies and quacks who make a fortune out of these poor women. Those who have the money and means, travel across the border to neighboring Bahrain where it is permitted to abort a child. 

For immigrants and those who have no means, an abortion pill can cost you up to 2000 Saudi Riyals in the black market. There are physicists who stealthily distribute them and there are women who flee the country bleeding profusely after  botched abortions. I know of women who were forced to return back to India to have abortions done. Is it not funny we let the Church and Mosques determine the birth or death of a child or that of a mother? It is sheer irony that the religions that respect the life of a child dispose the importance of the life of a mother. 

It is high time we set rules and laws on our conscience than some religious laws rule us. But then that is how we have been brought up- to submit to the whims and fancies of the religion and the so called virtues it professes. I sincerely wish the Irish Government wakes up to the Savita tragedy and amends its laws. As for Saudi Arabia, all i can do is feel sorry for the women, including the expats lodged there...

Thank Heavens, the Indian Abortion laws, the 1971 Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act still holds good, the clauses are clear and the law categorically states that husband has no right over his wife who chooses to terminate her pregnancy on her own. In case of minors, consent of a guardian is sufficient for an abortion. Though sex selective abortions mar the erstwhile women friendly laws, i feel safe and protected in a democratic nation, than the women of the liberated Ireland or conservative Saudi Arabia.

Good sex Bad sex...the Bhatt way!

" Saving yourself for that someone special is like having a car and deciding to drive only on the last day of February of a leap year. Sounds bizarre? Hell, it is bizarre!"- Words of wisdom from Mr Vikram Bhatt- the maker of horror movies. Hell, he'd rather stick to making those horror movies. Or this article in Times dated Nov 11 might be a new script for his fresh Raaz dark horror movie!

Popping the cherry is any person's personal freedom, we do agree and accept. What is done in the confines of four walls between two consenting adults is none of our business. But when horror movie directors jump the gun in advising our teens that "good sex" is important, we have a serious problem here. And it sucks when you say " I am for the test drive", Mr Bhatt. Really not funny. I am not some old aged aunt confined to a concrete jungle of cleaning and house keeping. We are young, we love sex- good one that and we cherish our partner. Everyone loves sex, yes, why not? If someone says they detest it, either they are mentally or physically deranged. It is the 'hit and run' part that keeps me worrying.

Saving oneself for the special someone is an 'option' these days, not a 'rule'. When you say there is 'nothing dirty, nothing sinful, nothing to be guilty about' it shocks me. I am not into moral policing, sir. But if this is the advice you would be giving to the younger ones, i wonder if you are advocating promiscuity. The hell you are not. Carrying a 'guilt' package is unnerving as you say. So what would be a better choice- abstinence or obliviousness? If i had a head on my shoulders, it would be obviously abstinence, Mr Bhatt. 

"When it comes to sex, someone, somewhere in the time gone by decided to regulate an individual's life socially, and we are still suffering"- golden words. Only because of the regulations we are living as social animals, not our Simian cousins on tree tops. Unmindful sex and unwanted children had to be regulated if we were to be a civilized society, Sir. And so do we have an institution called marriage. And then there is something we call 'love'. Or does that really exist amidst all this hullabaloo of premarital sex and consensual sex?

Premarital sex is rampant, accepted. But when there are eminent people like you saying- " If you want to have premarital sex, by all means, have it without a tinge of remorse or guilt", it sucks big time. Preferably save this piece of advise to your daughter or son! Not to everyone else.

Nobody wants to live a life with 'bad sex' so you say, but nobody wants sex with random people in tandem to identify the 'best sex partner'. 'Bad sex' can be rectified with a few visits to a sexologist, but not 'bad piece of s***' you give us as advise. It would be better if you stick to writing ghost stories, Mr Bhatt. They are far better than your newspaper columns. The next time i see the name Vikram Bhatt, it would give me the shivers- not those nerve wracking orgasms as you may think- spooky scary ones;)

To read the full article of Mr Bhatt that gave me the shattering orgasms(!), please click the link.