The Krishna Key by Ashwin Sanghi

Title: The Krishna Key

Author: Ashwin Sanghi

Price: 250

Publishers: Westland

Pages:475

Characters
Ravi Mohan Saini: An intelligent and well informed professor of history teaching at St. Stephens college, Delhi.

Priya: Saini's doctoral student.

Radhika Singh: A tough police officer, a woman who can give many men a run for their money when it comes to solving criminal cases.

Sunil Garg: Director of CBI

Taarak Vakil: An innocent rich boy victimized to kill.

Sanjay Ratnani: Priya's father and India's top criminal lawyer

Sir Khan: The don in the den.

The book begins with a mysterious murder and a History professor being framed. The murderer kills in the name of God and to be able to stop him and not let himself be wiped out, the professor along with his doctoral student set out on exposing the ancient secret of the human avatar of Krishna which is the key to unearthing the mystery behind the murders. I liked the way in which he has drawn parallels to the mythological characters and crafted a plot that is not rushing, yet very engrossing. One can say, the book is the Indian take on the Da Vinci Code, again with Hinduism playing its role to not hurt the Indian sentiments. It is less furious than the Da Vinci Code in its flow and the twists and turns in the story keep you hooked to the hatch.

What I particularly liked was the way in which  excerpts from the Mahabharata kept appearing to tell of a tale that was a fable for me till now. So also, it tells us of many strange secrets from the Indian history with realistic roles of civilizations and kings, that the history books did not delegate in detail.

The book also gives a discourse on what is good and what is bad and the importance of making the right choices in life. The comparisons between the characters and the mythological personalities make the story all the more a catch.  And without any advisory authority tells us of  how the wicked ways only lead to destruction and nothing else.

The book is a peerless pick for people who are interested in spine chilling thrillers or those who have an eye for history and mythology. Infact anyone who doesn't know the story of Mahabharata can pick it up for a peek.

A few of the flaws in the book I particularly like to point are these.

1) The usage of the word "barked" is sometimes irrelevant in telling us of the characters and what they wanted to say.

2) The author talks of a Smith and Wesson! What is Smith and Wesson for the average Indian reader? No clarifications on that.

3) On Page 245, the usage of "Dot on time for her" doesn't make sense.

4) On page 253, the usage of an extra "out" in the line fitted out with the latest audio and video equipment did not make sense.

5) On page 284, the Don smiled a smile of satisfaction. Is smiling a smile of satisfaction the correct usage?

6) On page 301, Radhika was wrongfully referred to as Priya in the last paragraph on the page.


Then there were many other places where a "would" was replaced by a "will" and present perfect became the past tense in a blink of an eye. These tiny trivialities could have been done away with, to give the readers a better piece of literature.

The book scores 3/5 points on the exhaustive exploration done to provide a whooper of a plot, and 2 points go away for the grammar errors and spelling mistakes and the giving away on the identity of the character Radhika on page 301.

Tension

Tension is the one factor that is eating up our brains and reflectively reminds me of the stubborn stains that our dirty clothes usually have at the end of a tiring day. With them being left at the mercy of the maid or the washing machine, the dirt is dusted off the fabric and our clothes come back to their old self. We may happen to wear the same dress on another day, and it may again get shamed on the seams by some other kind of a stain.

Life seems to be following the same crooked cycle of happenings. The mind sometimes, soaks up too much of tensions and worries and in a mortal moment of human fallacy blurts out on the world around you. People then may seemingly consider you an angry snob snorted in pride and might also want to break off all ties with you because of the mishap.

I belong to a class of people who can't take hypocrisy with a pinch of salt and have often landed in the most questionable of situations when it came to my closest friends and family. I have thanked my stars many times over and over again for not letting any of those beautiful relationships from being severed because of my loved ones bearing witness to my tales of tension. I've always let stress shamelessly soak into my grey cells and wasn't doing much to scrub them off, distorting my image in front of the world.

The realization of how much damage I was causing my mind pensively plagued with problems, came to me on a Wednesday evening, when the maid went absconding. And I was supposed to wash a shirt of mine seared in brown coffee stains and mottled by dirt. The sight of the shirt was giving me a heart attack in triplicates but for the meeting on the next day this piece of clothing would make for a perfect costume. To make it wearable I had to let a miracle happen much like the genie coming out of the bottle and making magic in the blink of an eye. The washing machine could not have done the trick since the shirt was spoiled in five or six places requiring a through rinsing and rubbing. While soaking my shirt in the detergent and the oxygen bleach and soaping in to sluice the stains, I saw the water getting coloured in brownish black hues and the piece of clothing that I achingly admired coming back to its old world charm.

Having witnessed this chemical reaction, my thoughts took for a flight of fancy. I started visualizing my mind as a piece of fabric forged by anxiety, concern and a host of other kinds of distressing emotions. Or a spider weaving a web around itself erringly trying to twist the threads.

Doesn't our mind go through the same kind of phenomenon when we bring home varied versions of misery and misgiving.? And in letting it grow in us like the weeds that deserve to be plucked and plundered, we harm ourselves to be handicapped. Much like a piece of cloth that can be scrubbed off the silly stains tarnishing its beauty, we all can relax and take out more time for our sweet selves scouring off the worrisome woes that can harm us and our loved ones.

Some people like me have often been misunderstood because of these trials and tribulations I housed in myself and unknowingly becoming a victim of controversy. Not recalling those incidents I decided to move forward in life, for sometimes I felt that those hurtful hours of discord were also a doing of the other person and I couldn't at all times hold myself guilty. But to beat tension and trauma I started following these simple tips incorporating them into my everyday life.

1) I started smiling more often and even when I did not want to paste that grin on my face, this diplomatic dame in me took over and made me whimper. Somewhere down the line, even a fake smile did me no harm and people started considering me as a person with a positive attitude. Surely, I begin my day with a smile and that has added oodles of confidence to my personality.

2) My skin specialist told me on one of my visits to her, that often when we are cloistered in confusing conflicts of mind, our breathing becomes shallow restricting the flow of oxygen needed for circulation. I have instilled breathing exercises in my daily regime of workout and walks which has done me a lot of good.

3) The best form of exercise for me is thirty minutes of walk down the lanes of our colony. Watching children play in the neighborhood parks and seeing older people plagiarizing my actions has been a wonderful sighting. I often watch birds and try discovering rarer plants along the pathway while I walk, painting pleasing pictures into the rainbow of my mind.

4)Music has been the food for my soul and no matter how tired I am, it is a doing everyday and one that happens without failure. Listening to my favourite old Bollywood classics and western music has managed to mute much of the malaise in me.

5) Having something to hope for can motivate you and help you stay focused. That kind of an activity ranges from working on my poetry manuscript to submitting to poetry journals and even participating in the Indiblogger contests. All these are activities I eagerly look forward to each and everyday of my life.

6) Do indulge in your favourite food once in a while. The thought of a binge to feed your senses and stomach can be a blissful blessing one can anticipate in the day or during the week. If stress is giving you a tough time you may also go for Ginseng.It has the ability to improve blood circulation to reduce the effects of stress, improve mental clarity and support the functions of the nervous system.

7) Going for occasional breaks and involving myself in hobbies and especially in shopping and poetry has worked as a purgative for my otherwise, stressed mind.

8) I try to not concern myself with the trivialities of life and the way people judge me. Always remember, anyone or anything troubling you is not entirely your cause of concern. Just like a clap that is always the doing of two hands, such is an argument. Do not try to interfere in others matters until they ask you to do so while always lending your shoulder for a person in need. Don't overdo an act of kindness and do not try to act like the Messiah. If something has gone wrong in the past and you have not been able to straighten it, leave it like that and move forward in life while holding your neck high.

These are few of the stress busters that have made life easier for me. That one incident of sweating it out in the bathroom to clean my shirt taught me a very important lesson in life. The lesson to "Soak No More in Tensions".

Not Whispering to Stay Free

88% of women in India resort to using ashes, newspapers, dried leaves and even husk sand during their periods, according to a report by market research group AC Nielsen called Sanitatary Protection: Every Woman's Health Right. As a result of these unhygienic practices, more than 70% of the women suffer from reproductive tract infections, increasing the risk of contracting associated cancers.

These numbers are an account of how apathetic the Indian society is when it comes to women's intimate health. Of how a city bred girl like me cannot understand the wails and whines of a dame, twisting and turning in pain during mensuration and why she might have left schooling because it was the most favoured practice in her village might be the account I am trying to draw here.

Let's take a look at the numbers

A national survey conducted by AC Nielsen and NGO Plan India earlier this year found that 23% girls drop out of school after reaching puberty. Unicef, too, has reported that one in 10 girls in Africa drops out of school for the same reason. Why?

Firstly, the lack of affordable sanitary products hampers the mobility of these girls. Secondly, lack of facilities like toilets and running water which doesn't give them a place to change and dispose off the pads in safety and without being jeered, in the privacy of the school. Thirdly, the idiocrasy of the issue prevents them and society from talking about the problem. Such girls are often told by their mothers to stay at home to prevent themselves from becoming a mockery.

One man changed it all for them. A man who once saw his wife using rotten rags while she was menstruating. He says he would have never used that cloth to wipe his two wheeler which left him in a state of shock and disbelief as to how she could reconcile to the practice.? What followed was the combination of his weaving and entrepreneurial skills to make a low cost sanitary towel with waste banana tree fibre.

He has sold 643 machines to self help groups of women in more than 23 states also winning him a President's award for his innovation.

Only because this man wanted to help. Only because he was willing to discuss and openly debate about why and how we became so heedless when it comes to discussing sanitary pads, menstruation and women's intimate health.

Another initiative called Saathi by a group of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) graduates, a project to develop a machine that makes affordable sanitary napkins using natural resources. Their first machine prototype, built at MIT, is now being customized for the Indian market in collaboration with IIT Bombay and Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University. CEO of Saathi, Amrita Saigal says, "I was shocked to learn that more than 25% of rural girls/women miss up 50 days of school work a year due to lack of access to proper sanitary protection."

The Saathi napkins, costing Rs 2/pad, are made using waste banana tree fibre, but "we have designed our machine to accommodate a variety of filler material," she adds. One of the biggest problems Saathi has faced so far is "convincing older women that using sanitary pads over old clothes/rags is a good thing. We've found many mothers understand the benefits of proper sanitary pads and are willing to buy them for their girls, but are unwilling to change their habits," says Saigal. This might be due to the cost attached to buying a sanitary pad which the mothers want to save up to be utilized elsewhere and in erstwhile conditions.

It's never been easy to change centuries of beliefs, especially where women are involved. Kala Charlu, founder of Bangalore-based NGO MITU, says, "Some girls believe god has cursed them with menses. I have seen girls sit in a corner in schools because they don't have any protection. Most don't have even clean underwear. People donate clothes, but who donates underwear?"

And why go far even in a city like Delhi, sanitary pads are things sold by chemists and local kirana shops in black plastic bags especially used for this purpose. Once out of curiosity when I happened to ask a chemist about why they used such bags he shyily replied " Humein acha nahi lagta beta, khol ke dena. Koi dekh lega to tum logo ko sharam se lal peela hona padega humein nahi".

So if a man sees that label" Whisper" or "Stay Free" ogling out of a carry bag, will hell break loose on the world?

While I live in a universe, where women have taken to popping a pill to arrest the menstrual cramps and use the costliest of pads with side walls preventing leakage and sophisticated technology to convert the vaginal waste into gel, there are hundreds and thousands of women of my age and younger who do not have hygienic toilet facilities at home or school, who do not know what a sanitary pad is and have retorted to the usage of ashes, newspapers, dried leaves and even husk sand during their periods.

Who have to indulge in all sorts of strenuous labour at their households like drawing water from the well to milking the cows to cleaning and mopping during those days when girls like me do not leave the comforts of our bed sipping ginger tea and go to the aerobics classes for the Kegels exercises to bell the cat called pain and take Traxenemic acid tablets to stall a spasm.

And while the organizers of this competition are selling vagina tightening creams to the copious clan of the society a whooping 88 percent of the women in India still haven't seen and touched a sanitary pad. Irking irony, isn't it.?

If a man like Muruganandam saw his wife and mother walking out on him for testing a sanitary towel he made (only to return and understand his cause) and face the rousing ridicule of the women around him for discussing the effectiveness of his invention. And if this man could test it on himself by collecting goat's blood from a butcher shop and treating it chemically to prevent coagulation, he wore a bladder-and-tube contraption and women's underwear for a week. His homemade uterus would release a small dose of blood whenever pressed. And then the unsatisfactory results prompting him to distribute towels for free to women and asking them to return the old ones, brought at the end of this tireless testing a breakthrough technology and a social change, then why cant we the rich and the middle class educated and living in the wealthy warmth of our four bedroom apartments do our bit to sing a song of change.

I am contributing my two paisa for the cause by buying my maid servants daughter a pack and more, whatever she needs every month to not let her miss school during those days. I think charity begins at home and maybe in the future I will be able to do much more when it comes to this cause. For now the hushed habits of changing the channel when a sanitary pad advertisement is aired to discussing such issues only amid girls and women when much of the men folk must know about it is a practice that should not have seen the light of the day considering the changing times and our evolving economy.

What can be done to bring a change?

Isn't it high time that schools start imparting education about women's intimate health below the secondary school level and not just in the biology classes. Such issues have been buried in coffins for long, since these are issues that were concerning the women, and men having been kept out of the matter turned ignorant and insensitive and started calling it a controversy.

Health initiatives organized by the government especially targeted for the lower class and rural populations to educate them about the cons of brushing the issue under the carpet.

More funds being allocated by the government to build toilets in the villages and where open defecation is a reality rarer than truth, and girls have to think twice before cleaning themselves on a period or disposing off the used pad.

More inventive ideas aimed at creating low cost sanitary pads for the poor people on the lines of Murungandam's invention and the Saathi initiative.

Brands like Stay free and Whisper can associate with the health ministry and NGO's to create low cost sanitary pads. For a starter they can allot a part of their profits in creating such economical enterprises.

Stayfree Women for Change is one such initiative which is aiming at bridging the gap between the two contrasting worlds of the 22 percent of the privileged women and the 88 percent of the marginalized class. You can also sms SUPPORT to 56677 to know more about funding a woman/girl.

Sanitary pads can be distributed in the government hospitals for free only if the government maybe willing to risk a share of their funds for the cause.

Yes maybe, take care of the sanitary pad needs of your maid servant and her daughters to begin with. A few hundred rupees spent for the cause won't burn a hold in your pocket I guess.

And lastly to not start blushing or jumping to grab the remote when a sanitary pad commercial is aired on television. In short, to not feel ashamed to talk about it.

Of Independence day and Indian women

This is the nation where nine goddesses are worshiped for nine days during Navratri.! This is the land where the feast of the assumption of St. Mary is celebrated to honor a mother and a woman. And in another street corner, a woman is stripped naked and the waste from her womb paints the town red while the authorities responsible for protecting and upholding a citizen's rights are sleeping to glory under the effect of booze and a bum too careless to move from the crippled wooden chair.

While a few days ago, the facebook culture in the country was busy tagging friends in pictures of flags and wishing each other a happy independence day presuming that it will make them the most patriotic of the people around, I was wondering about the importance of independence in the life of an Indian woman.

Are Indian women really independent.? Are these the moral values we pride ourselves in, rapes, molestation and harassment of women on an hourly basis.? Where are the laws that boast of a fair and free democracy by the people, for the people and of the people.? After the Guwahati incident we have stooped down to the lowest possible of paradigms we could go to with a paltry promise of getting buried in the earth's crust being the most homely of inglorious belittlement we can go down to. Let's examine the Guwahati incident that exposed the laxity in the law and led to the celebration of modern day patriarchy.

A mob of 20 men mocking and outraging the modesty of an incapicated teenaged girl was a prime time show we all heartlessly saw on the tele tube. While no one in the crowd of more than 100 had the audacity to stop a mob of twenty, the show was filmed on camera to be sold later to news channels for the kind of TRP even Ekta Kapoor's serials might not have managed till this day. Sexual predators are by now confident that they need not fear the law enforcement agencies — the police and the courts, says Rashme Sehgal.

The police while failing in its duties by following a "prevention is better than cure" policy, brought one news journalist who spent the next thirty minutes filming this girl pleading with her assaulters till an elderly man played the saviour.

Guwahati-based Nandita Konwar, of Women Power Connect who has followed this assault case very closely is surprised at just how many counts the local cops played false. The local police chief, when asked why the police failed to rescue the teenager, said, “the police is not an ATM machine dispensing instant justice.”

The police on its part and from peaking pressure by the CM Tarun Gogoi (who thought that such incidents should not happen in public again while doing them behind closed doors would have made it easier for him to indulge in a Pontious Pilate act) did their job with a few arrests being made with the main accused guilelessly declaring it on national television that the young girl was drunk and needed a lesson in morality just shows how deeply the parasite of patriarchy has bitten the people of this nation. Much like it happens in the Taliban land, where women are killed for being disobedient and the crowd jeers and excitedly celebrates the weakness of a woman with applauding amusement. Women have no reason to celebrate Independence day in a country to where surveys rank its treatment of women as being better only than Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The result is there for everyone to see. The National Crimes Record Bureau informs us that rape is the fastest growing crime in India and has seen an exponential 600 per cent explosion from 1971 followed by kidnapping (again, largely women victims) which has seen an over 350 per cent increase.

Brinda Karat, member of the CPI(M) Politburo admits that crimes against women are on the rise and one of the main reasons for this is 'the low rates of conviction'.

“People seem to believe they can get away with these crimes. The appearance of women in public life is something that our patriarchal India is coming to terms with,” she said.

“Take the case of the recent khap panchayat in Asara village in Baghpat which had issued a diktat that women must cover their heads when they leave home, they have imposed a complete ban on love marriages and disallowed mobile phones for girls while only women above the age of 40 years should be allowed to venture out of house for work.”

Why has the political class declined to hit hard at this kind of a diktat.?

Rather, the Samajwadi party leader and minority affairs minister Azam Khan issued a statement saying there was nothing wrong if a 'group of villagers come together to express their opinion'.

Meanwhile, in a cliff hanger show of solidarity, women from three UP villages in Muzaffarnagar district have vowed to 'burn their jeans and tops and to dress much more judiciously'. The India where even women are themselves not aware of what their rights are and how thanklessly a patriarchal society is twisting these women to fit them into their whims and fancies is just too hard to accept.? I wonder whether I should call these women free.?

Khap panchayats have joined hands at a crucial juncture but for what.? To put young girls on display as show pieces in the arranged marriage market. But Naresh Tikait, president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union and chief of the Baliyan khap panchayat insists their diktats are not anti-woman.

“We also oppose the dowry system and female foeticide but that is not being highlighted. Instead the decision we take for orderliness in the society in accordance with our traditions are dubbed as ‘taliban’.”

Do they really oppose the female foeticide practice existing in their society that has prompted to smuggle and sell brides from places like Kerala to such hell holes with a slanted sex ratio flaunting the dominance of boys.

Akhila Shivdas of the Centre for Advocacy and Research believes the rumblings in these khap panchayats have been triggered by the release of a recent study of the Population Council of India that found that rate of premarital sex as higher amongst girls than boys.

Girls, according to the study, are also willing to indulge in risky sex without using contraceptives. Police believe the attitude of the younger generation of girls has undergone a sea change.

The collapsing of law and-order ( chain snatchings - seven within two hours one day in Mumbai apart from rape, molestation and its daughter called eve-teasing on the roads, buses and suburban trains) has seen some supporters of the hockey stick wielding controversial assistant commissioner of police Vasant Dhoble in his efforts to control drugs and prostitution in Mumbai’s parties and bars. Will moral policing of the order of the Taliban bring down the crime rates.?

Women activist Sujata Madhok attributes the increasing crime rate in the city to the migration of population coming from the villages.

“There are no social restraints (in our cities) and the obsession with national security and VIP security has forced the police to move away from their traditional duties of looking after law-and-order.”

India needs a separate law to deal with sexual harassment and assault. Bailable offences against sexual harassment and molestation and even heinous atrocities like rape have in no way tried to bring the perpetrator to book. Some of the archaic laws of the land that were exclusively designed to make the women weaker in case of a mishap have been made bailable with a bond of surety in cash that can free the culprit.

Introducing new laws (With no granting of bail) alone is not the answer, their implementation in reality is the key to a safer India. The streets of our cities need to be patrolled with greater strictness in order to secure the women both physically and emotionally, today and in the future, with deployment of women police to look into matters concerning the women and their safety. The helpline numbers should work at the drop of a hat to help women in need and not harass them further with speeding action for the disposal of a case (Special courts for hearing of rape and molestation cases can be an alternative), as opposed to the present times when it takes ages for a victim to get justice.

Numbers say it all

* 2,61,000 cases of crimes against women, including sexual harassment, cruelty by husband/his relatives, kidnapping, human trafficking last year.

* 42,968 cases of molestation of women last year.

* 873% rise in rape cases between 1953 and 2011.

* 22 minutes - A case of rape every 22 minutes

* 58 minutes - A case of bride burnt for dowry every 58 minutes

On second thoughts Rinzu says,

I don't think an Indian woman can call herself free, since there has been an 873 percent rise in rapes since 1953, that being the time we freed ourselves from the shackles of the British and weren't this educated and finacially sound . The numbers say that the society in those days was not this sexually repressed as it is now. While evils like sati are a thing of the past now, we have newer evils like sexual harassment and the lesser of the devil, eve teasing to hound on women like us.

After a case of harassment, most of the dodgy police men have the 8 pm rule and "no short skirt" law to pass with very little scope for speedy and fair justice to save the victim from being decried. Where are we heading towards.? To a new low that will make our culturally rich society as cut throat as the Taliban. I stopped celebrating "Independence day" since the time a gang of goons had tried to molest me while I was in my third year of graduation.

My wings just couldn't fly from that day and, on any day, I come home before 8 pm and wear modest clothing to avoid another eventuality dogging my destiny, for trusting the limping arm of the law to protect me would be an act of adventure I will always regret for.

Defining Surnames for Malayali Women

One of my cousins recently married and added her husband's surname to the surnames of her father and our grandmother, which already follow her name. Although this is a common practice of Malayali Christians, her decision has made me question why people add names to express identity and respect. Like many women, my cousin is socially obliged to show public appreciation for her husband and new family, but I want to explore the other motives that underlie her decision.

Read more at http://e-feminist.com/home/2012/8/15/defining-surnames-for-malayali-women.html

Powerless Superpower!

The country that is being touted as the super power of the future saw a red letter day in its history when 300 million people of Northern India were afflicted by a power outage that lasted for more than 15 hours, scripting in golden letters the worst blackout of the decade. And I was a witness to the event when this saga was being scrolled!

The Northern Grid that collapsed supplies electricity to Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.

The bolt from the blue hit the water distribution system and Metro services with the operations at the Airport largely remaining unaffected due to the diesel generating back up system. A total of roughly 35,669 MW power had been affected due to the failure in the northern grid and the power for emergency services was restored on a priority basis by taking loans from western and eastern regions as well as Bhutan.

At 2 am a blinding black out gave way to what I thought could have been a usual summer siesta that the power usually took in the hot humid days of July.! The morning was a shocker with the radio jockey telling the city in a sadistic somberness that the northern grid had failed and much of the northern Indian sub-continent will have to live through the ordeal as a changeless choice. I wondered if this was the run to the aspirations of being a super power, where even a stray pet could plunge millions to darkness.

Some astonishing facts baring the truth about the powerless promises we are often handed out before an election as a pamphlet of ambitious manifestos.

An Ode To the Copycat

It is a cheap bargain for them

hijacking your high

they love the glare and gold

and ween to be worshipped

apathy airs their sleep

in the abortive barrens of

hubristic hopes,

they sully the word

with their stale sterotype

squaring slogans to shame

fame, fortune and fervor

are their coveted cravings

like daughters of joy.