lets talk about Sex baby...

how does one define 'morality'?
doesn't public morality change practically with every generation? even with every new development?


whats 'natural' and whats 'unnatural'? or the even vaguer 'NORMAL'? when you have 7 billion people on the planet, and several million ways of doing things, then what defines 'normal'?


is it 'normal' to hate someone just because they do things differently, even when what they do is not affecting anyone at all?
why is it 'normal' to look down upon half the population because they weren't born into the right family or community or gender?
how is it 'normal' to live in fear and cover up when one steps out or lie about one's family or sexual preference to protect oneself?
how is it 'normal' to conform at the point of a sword, literally being killed for not following social diktats?


just yesterday, Fali S. Nariman stood up for the rights of Homosexuals in court and stated that

things had changed so much in recent years that family planning and population control now find a place in the Constitution. “What are the petitioners moralising about? In 1860, the thoughts that prevailed were of a different kind. We live in different times. We have to move with the times.”

(the Hindu March 2, 2012)


but then, he made a statement that completely perplexes me..


"any homosexual act may be unnatural but not against the order of nature"


what IS this 'natural' and 'unnatural' in today's context anyway?
Victorian England was of the opinion that sex was simply for procreation and therefore 'unnatural sex' was the sort that did not fall within the boundaries of sex for procreation between a man and a woman. but in that era, Sex per se was not something that was 'allowed' by polite society.. it was hidden away as a 'Baser instinct' and hallowed into a sacred task between man and wife for the furtherance of the species. 


And even THEY knew that this opinion was a load of crap because Sex for pleasure existed way before some church decided to restrict pleasure for the sake of religion.
so why does today's supposedly secular modern society have such a view of sexuality? 


the same country whose population rises by the millions each week keeps sex hidden away as a taboo topic. its a 'we shall not talk about safety or informed decision making because someone somewhere decided that simply banning a topic was enough to ensure that the consequences of the action would be minimised.....


if you don't talk about it, it will go away... but that doesn't happen now, does it?


Sex for pleasure exists, Homosexuality exists, AIDS exists, the ever increasing population EXISTS because people refuse to actually deal with sexuality and safety in a rational manner 
because 'polite society' doesn't talk about it


because apparently, talking about  it makes people want to do it.. because acknowledging the existence of something will make more people "experiment with deviant behavior" and "destroy our ancient culture"




what IS this morality that they're trying to protect????

Speak now

or forever hold your tongue....

That, i suppose is the gist of a lengthy debate on freedom of expression, censorship and cyber laws that i attended today.
surrounded by several rather well known/notorious/ seriously active activist- blogger- thinkers, i was wondering where a discussion that has all the potential to disintegrate into pure intellectual- political state anti establishment rhetoric will actually go.. While for a bit it did veer into the "the state of affairs is rather depressing" mode, the end result of the conference was actually a strong resolve to involve people and evolve a strategy to ensure that cyberspace atleast remains as free as we can keep it.. Ultimately, it is upto the users of cyberspace to crate as much awareness as possible to ensure their own safety, privacy and freedom to say and write anything and everything they want...


So what IS it that a simple person sitting in some corner of the country do?

• SPEAK UP.. if there is anyone who is trying to shut down your voice, speak louder.. contact other bloggers, develop a network that will ultimately ensure that if you are unduly harassed then you have backup.
• NETWORK. create a support system. not just for yourself but also for every other person out there who is after all trying simply to be heard in this cacophonic world.
• SELF REGULATE. No one else has the right to tell you what to say or not say.. but try and stay away from deliberately insulting anyone or saying things that you would deem offensive if you were talking to friends about. it is quite strange that all discussions about censorship and regulation portray 'government' and 'corporations' as the big bad wolf threatening to huff puff and blow away our right of free speech, but ultimately MOST bloggers will self censor their own posts or comments on their blog with an eye on how their family/society/friends/ sensibilities will react. Ultimately, the government is only policing once "somebody" has deemed something offensive. Even in today's world, it is not so much the threat of the law coming down on our heads but a more sophisticated version of "Log Kya Kahenge" that governs most of one's actions.So please, avoid tension, outrage and possible lawsuits, and refrain from saying things that you wouldn't want said about you without proper proof..

oh and before i forget.. THANK YOU to the Internet Democracy Project and everyone at today's conference for the amazingly informative day 

Make Blog not War!!

sooo... THIS is what i will be doing next weekend :)

lets see how it goes

aaaannd I shall be posting more about this once the event is done.. 

lets see how well the last three years as a law student have taught me..

 MAKE BLOG NOT WAR
A Freedom of Expression Training for Bloggers
An initiative of the Internet Democracy Project

Are you a blogger and interested in deepening your understanding of Internet censorship and freedom of expression as they play out in India?
Would you like to know more about the ways in which such issues may affect you directly?
As a blogger, do you see yourself has having an important stake in the freedom of expression debate?

Then this is your chance. The Internet Democracy Project is organising a training on freedom of expression and censorship for bloggers on 25 February 2012. In the course of this day-long program, a mix of short lectures and more interactive sessions will take you through:
-        the history of censorship in India and its current status;
-        the legal framework regarding online censorship and the ways in which it may affect you;
-        debates on difficult questions such as where and how to draw the line where hate speech is concerned;
-        what to do if you are served a legal notice;
-        alternatives to censorship to fight problematic content;
and much more. Throughout the training, we will of course be paying particular attention to how all of this may affect your blog and yourself.

As the training aims to be highly interactive and will draw to a significant extent on participants’ experiences and inputs, there will be space for only fifteen select and experienced bloggers. They will be joined by four trainers: lawyer and law and tech blogger Apar Gupta; documentary film maker Bishakha Datta; literary critic, journalist and blogger Nilanjana Roy; and the Internet Democracy Project's  Anja Kovacs.

are you still here? i miss you......

What do I know of you? or us…..


Maybe my memory is playing tricks

We used to talk.. did we not??

Of everything and nothing…

or am I mistaken???

The good things and the bad,

the songs in our minds and the nightmares in our souls

Of dreams and our memories,

hopes and desires

What have we lost in all these years?

The words? The voice?

Or have we lost Us……?

Maybe I just don’t remember it right… who knows…….

you asked me how i felt last night...

so you say i'm not tough enough
and then when i am, i'm heartless
and if i change my mind, i'm frivolous
and if i don't i'm stubborn..
if i take a stand, i don't see other sides
if i do, i'm confused
so what IS it that would be right.....

wow..

so i came across this amazing story about a poem describing Radha's anger at Krishna for abandoning her...

love-sex-aur-maafi- OPEN Magazine

I'm glad that in a country full of people who so adore to protest against any piece that in an manner whatsoever criticises a God's divinity, such works exist and are being appreciated...