Filling the voids

I have completed six months at work. Since I could not find a suitable picture on the internet to describe my interpersonal progress at work, I made an amateur attempt to draw it. 

No snails were harmed in the making of this picture

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People who have fallen into their perfect niche of a career are unmistakable. The doctor in my neighbourhood clinic is one of them. He sees a good number of sickly and depressed people per day and yet in all the times I have visited, he used scribbled up diagrams to explain more about my disease, even without me asking any questions. I have only visited him when I had the flu and so far, he's drawn my throat to tell me how infected my tonsils were and another time, he drew the cycle of events that follow a flu and how we can block certain points in order to prevent progression to the next symptom! He is so cheerful, kind and even generous with recommending the number of days to stay off work. I also noticed he uses very mild and minimal medicines to treat patients. My spirits are usually up a notch when I walk out of his consultation room. Not only that, I wonder why he charges a little less than what a government clinic does.

I should send him a postcard when I move out from this neighborhood.

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A new anti-rape bill was passed in India recently. This came about in response to the horrific gang rape case in December that attracted much local and international attention. If the case didn't get so much attention, I doubt the bill would have been passed by now. It's a small victory, really, because it's going to take a while before its effectiveness shows up in the statistics - during which time more victims will pay the price. It will take even longer to change the existing attitudes of a religious and conservative culture. This is true not just in India; it happens in every culture and every society where extremist religious/patriarchal views dominate and in cultures that are alien to the concept of gender equality.

On one side of the world there are women who lead relatively safe lives with equal opportunities in career and education. And on another side of the world there are men deciding that women need a male guardian's permission to travel, or that they are born to serve as sex slaves, or they don't need an education, or that they cant drive a car, or that they should be flogged for being raped  - and these men so sure in their 'righteous' beliefs just like we are certain the sky is blue. And most women in these unfortunate parts of the world, though unhappy, have it instilled in their minds that this is indeed their fate and that there is nothing better for them in this life. Fighting for their human rights is a risky move when even the national laws don't support them.

An article that was shared by a friend of mine stated that every rapist is someone's son. It explores how parents have the opportunities to change the course of life events in a male child that may lead to a fateful decision like rape. I don't think parents bringing up sons in environments where gender equality and respect for all differences are encouraged and practiced need to worry much. It's the other parents who have a greater role to play in the lives of the sons they bring up.