Hyderabad citizens protest against Badaun rape case; demand ‘Never again’ action plan for safety of women

 

On 10^th January, Sunday, some concerned citizens gathered at Dharna Chowk, Indira Park to protest against the rape of the 50 year old Anganwadi worker in Badaun, Uttar Pradesh. They also demanded that the government should come up with an action plan that is foolproof, one that prevents atrocities against women so that Never gain can any atrocity take place against any girl or woman.

On January 3^rd the rape incident of the Anganwadi worker, a mother of 5 children was raped when she had gone to the temple in Badaun city of Uttar Pradesh, by the temple priest and 2 of his aides. She was brutally assaulted which reminded the nation of the same tortuous rape and death of Nirbhaya.

What outraged the members protesting the rape were the statements issued by the member of the National commission for Women (NCW).

“Every time a Nirbhaya or a Disha happens; authorities come up with blame on women or with technological solutions such as cc TV camera or even offer women to carry pepper spray, but don’t have a 'never again' action plan to prevent assault on women, no action plan on how to handle the male gaze, male morals, male conduct, male thought!” said Dr Lubna Sarwath, one of the protestors.

 

The protest was a unique one as it was not called by any one organization or individuals – it was a call few individuals took and decided a mutual date to gather and protest. Organsiations like United Citizens Forum (UCF) joined the protest adding momentum to the protest.   

The National president of UCF said, “Serious heinous crimes of Rapes, Gang Rapes and Murders in the country are going on. Kathua, Unnao, Hathras, Veterinary Doctor in Hyderabad and now the 50 years old woman from Badaun. So we want to register our protest against the Rapes, Gang Rapes and Murders of women all across our country which has shamed its citizens. The heinous crime recently happened in Badaun, UP, adding to the increasing numbers of rapes taking place in just Uttar Pradesh alone making it the rape capital of India.” 

Sharifa Siddiqui, another protestor said, “It is so appalling that even after 73 years of Independence, crimes against women have not stopped.  The perpetrators get away most of the times and this culture of impunity encourages them to commit more crimes. Not only are the culprits allowed to go free but they are also rewarded.” 

After some time of protesting, the police personnel arrived asking the protestors to leave citing that permission needs to be taken even for a few minutes of protest (this protest was just for an hour) even if it is without any mike or tent.

But one lone protestor, Dr Lubna held her ground, while the others folded their banners. Said Lubna, when the police insisted that she pack up too, “Can’t one person stand quietly and silently protest? I am very sad and pained at the state of affairs and want to protest on my own even if the others leave.”

The question the protestors asked was, “Rapes can happen anywhere, anytime but people should take permission to protest against it. Is it right?”

“Police insisted that we take permission to stage even a silent protest. We objected strongly as this protest was against the perpetrators who, if left un-arrested and not sent to jail, this could happen to women in any house” said Maqbool Mateen.

“Another problem Police created was about placards “ India Shamed” they refused to understand the meaning of “ India shamed “ and said you guys are saying shame on India and we are ashamed to be Indians; because only Muslims especially Muslim women have participated and they thought this slogan was anti national” he added explaining the attitude of Hyderabad police.

Shiba Minai, another activist who was present at the protest said, “ In Hong Kong people gather on weekend in large numbers to protest against anything they want to protest. They have some torch in their hands which they flash as a sign of protest and they all come with faces covered even before covid, express their protest and leave. Even in other countries that are democratic, if you see the police are on the periphery, while the people are protesting against any policy or whatever. They don’t hound the protestors like they do here in India.”

 “After hearing about the case of the woman being raped at 50, we now feel that none of us are safe anymore. We fear going out even after reaching an advanced age” shared another woman protestor.

The protestors demanded that an action plan to make laws that ensure that women and girls are safe all the times at all the places without having to fear of getting raped.

 Watch the video here:

 

DIY - making water candles

 Making water candles is pretty easy. These candles do not need wax. They look pleasing to the eye and are something different from the usual decorative items we use at home. 

Great to decorate your house during parties. 

Here are the items you would need if you are interested in making them:

1. Glass bowls/ glasses ( any number as per the number of candles you want to make)

2. Water 

3. Colours - food colours, watercolours

4. Decorative items such as beads, broken earrings, sequins, clips, glitter, flowers - either fresh or plastic

5. Essential oil or any perfume or fragrance 

6. Wicks - cotton wicks 

7. Thick polythene or plastic 

8. Scissors and a matchbox

9. Oil - preferably cooking oil

Method:

place the items such as colourful stones, beads etc in the glass and pour water up to 80% to 85%. Add glitter or sequins in the water. Add some colour and essential oil a few drops. 

Now cut the polythene or plastic of old bottles or even plastic lids in a circular shape as per the diameter of the glass or bowl. Make a small hole in the centre and insert the wick in the hole. 

Apply some oil to the top portion of the wick. Before placing the wick in the container pour some oil so that a layer is formed. The quantity of oil you pour decides the time for the candle to burn. If you pour 4-5 tablespoons then you can expect the candle to burn for an hour or even more. 

Now place the wick inserted in the circular plastic in the glass and light the wick. 

Likewise repeat with different colours and different decorative items such as beads, flowers, showpieces, even small plastic fish to make it appear as if the fish are swimming in the water. 

Place the water candles at strategic places in the room. As the candle burns your room is filled with fragrance. 

Tips: The more oil you pour the longer the candles burn. 

         Use edible oil if you want to avoid odours of other oils

Watch the video below for more details:

Super senior gamers

 If you think seniors don’t play games, you are wrong. And if you think if they do play game son their mobiles and computers and those are mostly solitaire, chess, tile games, word games..you are just partially right because now the grandparents are playing what their grandchildren are playing.. yes games like elder scrolls, counter strike, PubG, etc..meet 7 super seniors who are gamers and whose popularity is increasing by the day:

1.  1.   Silver Snipers – a team of  5 players who are in the ages of 60 to 80 from Sweden. They participated in the dream hack 2017. The game they play ‘ counter srtike’. The team includes three males and two females. The youngest player, Monica is 62 years old Betil, 81 years-old

2     2. Grey Gunners – 5 players team from Finland, play counter strike. Have participated in Dream hack Paris games week, Euro gamer, Kari ‘Rock’ Walden, 77 years, Marcu ‘Mac 10’, 73 years, Ulla ‘General Ulla’, 70 years, Yrjo ‘Ice’Warma, 70 yrs, Harry ‘Dirty Harry, 71 years also pay counter strike.

 3.     Grandpa gaming, 72.8K subscribers on youtube, the 66-Year-Old Former Navy Diver And Cancer-Surviving Grandpa Dominating ‘Apex Legends’. Armored Warfare, Battlefield, Doom, The Division, Fallout 4, League of Legends, The Witcher 3, World of Tanks, and World of Warships. Lives in St Peters, USA.

 4.     83-year-old Yang Binglin is a complete core gamer in Longchang City, Sichuan Province, his games are shown on a Chinese platform called Weibo and other short video platforms watched by thousands daily.

 5.     Shirley Curry,  84 years lives in Virginia and plays Elderly Scrolls. She live streams her games and has more than 700000 ( 7 lakhs)  followers on youtube. Bethesda Softworks, which publishes “The Elder Scrolls” series, even announced in March that Curry would be immortalized as a character in an upcoming game.

 

 6.     Audrey Buchanan, 88-year-old, plays animal crossing, Pennsylvania on her 3d console. She has played more than 4000 hours. Her grandson works for a gaming company called Nintendo and Animal crossing is one of their games.

 

7.   7.  90, Hamako Mori is officially the world's oldest gaming YouTuber, according to Guinness World Records, May 2020. Her particular favourite is Grand Theft Auto V.

Gamer for 39 years and counting. She has 323K subscribers on her YouTube channel and is known as Gaming grandma.

 

If you are a senior citizen and are curious about the games the young ones play…pick up a smartphone and download a smart game. Or if you have a senior family member, encourage them to play games to keep them occupied and their mind active. 

Watch the video here:

Humanity wins - Muslim youth save lives of Hindu brothers

Mahaboobnagar: Muhammed Sufiyan Ali received a call from Muhammed Aijaz in the dead of night on 29^th July at 1.30 that 2 the youth had met with a road accident and were lying on the road unattended.

So Sufiyan, Aijaz a social worker and a few friends rushed to the spot and saw two youth who were driving a motorbike had hit the road divider and collapsed with severe injuries that looked like multiple fractures and blood all around.

 They called up the ambulance services but there were none; tried to find an auto or cab but could not. Fortunately, they spotted a push card nearby and used the same to take the youth to the Government hospital. And even at the hospital, there were no ward boys to take the patients to the emergency ward. So the same samaritans took the injured boys in the casualty. 

Two lives were saved because they believed that saving even one life is equal to saving the entire humanity - as per the holy Quran. 

We need more such people who look beyond religion, caste, creed and class. Such people are the ones who reinforce your belief in goodness and make you think the world is not really that bad a place one tends to think when incidents of Hindus lynching Muslims come across.

Long live Humanity!

Watch the video ..

Farewell my friend! May you rest in peace

Beneath the blue sky,

In the dark soil, you have gone under, 

To rest forever

Rest then, my friend, in eternal peace. 

This is a tribute to one of my oldest Best friend forever (BFF), Ravinder or Ravi as he was called by everyone. 

Our friendship goes back to those days when we were in college in the 90s. When we enrolled for the karate class in Raichur, he was already a brown belt. But that dint stop him from befriending us - the only 2 girls in the class of 30 boys. 

After a month when we were learning the kicks and punches, he was tutoring us on the instructions of the Master.  In this group of juniors were 2 other boys. And as we practised every evening our friendship also grew. We became a group of 5 friends and the talk of the other boys in the class and the cause of annoyance of the Master. 

But did we care? After the class, we stopped at a bakery to have some snacks and then peddled our way to a common point where the roads parted and took the roads to our homes. 

The other 3 were Nasreen, Faiz and Javeed. 

We were all in different educational institutes so the evening was the only time we met and after 2 hours of rigorous training, we religiously stopped at the bakery. 

When it was time for our first test, Ravi coached us with the katas, kicks and punches as the test would be taken by the Grand Master. 

So it was with each day our friendship grew. And maybe each one of us had a crush on each other turn by turn but no one ever confessed. And am glad we dint because by the time we graduated we had outgrown all those puppy feelings. 

After the orange belt, we stopped learning karate and Ravi never got his black belt because we had a fall out with the Master who wanted to control us even outside the class. 

Ours was a small town and people did not have much to talk about. so a group of 5 youngsters with 2 girls and that too Muslim girls was something the people liked to talk about. The Master also dint like us being together either.  

It did not matter to him that one of us, Nasreen had won the state level championship trophy giving him something to be proud for the first time ever since he had begun his karate school. 

So we would meet only on someone's birthday in one of the few hotels that were in the town back then. But meeting on January 1st every year was mandatory. It was like a ritual for us. We had our get together on 1st January of every year.

But that too stopped when we all shifted to different cities growing up, settling down with careers, partners, so on and so forth. 

We were in touch through phone calls but not very frequently. But once the era of mobile phones started it was great. Now we dint have to go to telephone booths to make calls. 

Ravi was living with his mother and sisters after his father died and his marriage was a disaster because he had dared to marry a girl from the dominant caste. The girl's parents rich upper-caste landlords forcibly broke the marriage which lasted just a few months. And Ravi never re-married despite being handsome and son of an Ex MLA with large properties. 

He wasted his youth, did not even take up any occupation. He was satisfied living on whatever income the properties of his parents fetched. 

With time he developed culinary skills and could cook even biryani. He cooked for the entire family for all the 3 times.  He no longer had friends except myself and Faiz. Maybe one or 2 from his school who later connected with him during the reunions. Our group of 5 had also split as people change with time. 

He called me up at least once a week and always complained that I never called him and that it was always he who is calling me. And I would promise to call him next time. But before I could call he would call me. 

Two weeks back he called me and said he had watched the Hindi movie ' Gulabo Sitabo' and that the climax of the movie disturbed him so much he could not sleep for 3 days as he was constantly thinking about it. He asked me to watch the movie and tell him my opinion. 

I intended to watch it one of these days and call him to tell my opinion. But I never got to see the movie due to time constraints.  But I am going to take time to watch it now soon but I will never be able to give him my feedback. 

Whenever he called he would give me tips on taking care of my old mother from his experience of having looked after his grandmother. 

With the pandemic around, he would joke saying don't save, enjoy, eat and make merry. 

He wanted to come to Hyderabad for a long time and wanted me to treat him to Hyderabadi Biryani. But he never could make it but had assured he would come once COVID goes away for good. But now he will never come. And I will never be able to treat him to Hyderabadi biryani now just like I will never be able to call him to tell about Gulabo Sitabo. 

But just before the pandemic started he had gone on a 'yatra' to several temples across India with some travel agency which had all senior citizens in it. But he said he enjoyed their company and the seniors were also happy because they had someone younger than them in the group to help them around with things which they could not do. 

He shared all his sorrows with me and from my voice detected if I was sad. It was a long friendship of 30 years a time when religion was sacred and not a communal weapon. 

He did not use Whatsapp.   But today evening on an instinct I saw his status by chance. And was surprised to see his picture with the words RIP and today's date 3rd July. I thought he is playing a prank and when his mother answered the phone I realised it was the truth. His sister had used his phone to keep that status so all his contacts would know. 

Will miss you always, Ravi. Rest in peace now that everything that troubled you is left behind. But you went too soon and sudden. You have gone but your memories will stay. And with this blog of mine, I pay tribute to you, my dear friend. This blog will immortalise you even when I am no more..the blog will remain posted on the internet. 

Fare you well, friend.  

Taramati Baradari

Many months back after our rock walk at Narsingi, we visited the Taramati Baradari which in on the way. Took a small video from my phone.

Regular photography with cameras is not allowed there as the place is let out for shootings for weddings for hefty sums.

This used to be an inn for travellers and Taramati used to sing for the travellers. And her voice was carried by the wind till the Golconda fort in the nights when she sang where the prince could hear her. The fort is just 2 kmts away from the Baradari.

The prince enamoured by her mesmerising voice fell in love with her and named the place after her.

This is one tale. Another is that Taramati had a sister named Prememati and both were patronised by Abdullah Qutub Shah. The sisters were supposed to be excellent dancers and danced on ropes tied between their pavilion and the balcony of the King.

Well to me the former seems somewhat believable but dancing on the ropes from the pavilion and the fort ....the height is too much and so it the distance even if it is 2 kmts.

As for the acoustics of the baradari it could be possible because we have seen this technology at the Golkonda fort where once claps at the entrance and the sound is heard atop the fort. This was a method of communication back then..

Enjoy the video..it is a small clip..but that's all I could manage

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