Tuesday 17 December 2013

[www.keralites.net] What's changed, a year after Delhi rape?

 

What's changed, a year after Delhi rape?


 
What's changed, a year after Delhi rape?

 

 
The girl died a few days later, but the emotional scar that the brutal assault on the night of December 16, 2102, left on an outraged nation is yet to heal.
The gang-rape triggered street protests, murmurs of which are still felt across the country. It also led to a fresh set of stringent laws against crimes against women.
But has the upheaval that followed the Delhi gang-rape made the capital any safer?
Showkat Shafi spoke to a cross-section of women to find out what has changed, or what remains to change:
Manta Sidhu, 30, Musician
 
From what we read in the newspapers every day, rape cases continue to be rampant. Despite the national uproar demanding security measures for women, there is no sign of implementation of such measures, no matter what the government or the police authorities might claim. If a woman is pulled into a car full of men while she walks on the road, I wonder how a women's helpline number is going to help?
The general sentiment among women in the city is that of insecurity. Everyone talks about it. Everyone tells the other to try and be safe. I, being a performing musician, have many late nights. And with most of my work based in South Delhi and, my residence being in West Delhi, I often found myself staying over at my friend's place during the nights to avoid driving across the city alone.
A few months back, I finally shifted to South Delhi. My family considered it to be the safest choice.
There have been umpteenth cases of sexual assault or rape cases during broad daylight and early evening hours. Women being asked to be home before dark is an absurd and primitive thought. There is no fear of the law, there is no fear of punishment. Until the country imposes capital punishment for rapists, there will be no fear and there will no stopping for these criminal minds.
Plainclothes policemen escort an Indian teenager (head covered with towel) after he was sentenced at a juvenile court in New Delhi August 31, 2013. The Indian teenager was sentenced to three years in ...more 
 
Reuters | Photo by REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee
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Anushka Bhartiya, 27, Journalist
 
Not much has changed in reality. Just after the incident, I could see that people were a bit cautious.
The Delhi Metro's women coaches were not flooded with men, which generally used to be the case. One could find police vans at random places too.
But this happened only for a month or so. After that, the city was back to its real self. Personally, I have experienced eve- teasing and once, there was a man who deliberately stopped at a red light just to abuse me.
These are things that have unfortunately become a regular feature in a girl's life in Delhi. The city is of course not safe in the night. You can never be sure that you are at a safe place in the city. I avoid travelling in autos after 10 pm.
I end my day quite late in the night but thanks to the cab provided by my organisation, I can afford to reach home by 11.30 pm. Otherwise, it is just impossible to step out so late.
 
Pema Tashi Pelden, 21, Law Student
Prior to the horrific gang rape incident things were still better, I would travel alone and didn't fear going out at night.
After that incident my parents back home got alarmed about the condition in Delhi, they are worried whenever I am out. I no longer go out alone. Instead I prefer travelling in a group. I am scared to go out at night.
I don't think much has changed in the last one year, in fact as long as the society is patriarchal here nothing can change.

 
Manisha Dutta, 22, student
 
Yes, women are not safe in the city, in the country, anywhere.
I don't feel safe not even in broad daylight or when there is a police station in the vicinity. I am from north-east and there is an extra baggage of discrimination that I have to bear for the place I belong to.
Right from stereotyping terms like 'chinky' to the differences in terms of language, dresses and food habits, there is sheer discrimination in which our inability to speak proficiently in Hindi, pork being in our list of diet are seen as inferiority complex.
The root of any violence begins with such discrimination and it stretches for generations.
My parents are liberal in whatsoever decisions I take, wherever I choose to go but if it comes to travelling from Delhi to my hometown by train they strictly forbid me owing to a decade-old case of harassment of a group of women from North-east while they were travelling by train.
What deeply saddens me is that the capital has come to bear the tag like 'unsafe for women' 'city of violence against women' 'rape city' due to the soaring cases of crime against women becoming prominent.
Ironically this is the same capital where thousands of young girls and women pour in from far away regions across India to receive the best of education, work in the best of places and yet at the end of the day, has to think twice before stepping out in the dark.
 
 
Inshah Malik, 28, research scholar
I may not have personally faced any but this is the point, there is an intersection of many things that comes to play when it comes to sexual violence.
For Muslim Kashmiri women, it may be sometimes Muslim identity sometimes that of being a Kashmiri or then simply a woman which may attract assaults of sexual violence.
In which case, all such acts are politically laden. 
But this politically explosive difference can sometimes also help Kashmiri Muslim women to maintain a distance that protects them from assaults that are rampant on women of Hindu structure.
Though, among Kashmiri Muslim women who choose to veil or who don't experiencing sexual violence may vary according to class and level of engagement with the structure.
 
Alpana Devi, 32, cook 

Nothing has changed in this city even after so many protests by the public and promises by the government on increasing the safety of women.
I ensure that I am back home by 6 pm because the moment it gets dark I feel unsafe to travel alone.
There have been so many times that men have passed lewd comments at me while walking on the streets or even while traveling in buses.
I guess death sentence is not the answer. These guys have to be punished and castrated.
 
Swasti Pachauri, 29, professional

Incidents of crime against women from the rural areas have received attention in the press and mainstream media post the Delhi gang-rape.
These issues were generally ignored till a while back and there was minimal rural reportage on issues pertaining to gender rights. However, post December 16th, 2012 - debates on gender violence, women rights, gender identity politics and issues of socio-economic relevance such as wage disparities between men and women in the informal sectors - have seen participatory dialogue from across spectrums.
Additionally, I feel owing to stronger legislations, civil action in the public sphere and a far more evolving, conscious youth have together resulted in more sensitive and empathetic attitudes towards women lately.
Even if this is a restricted sample â€" I would still see it as a welcoming characteristic redefining gender equations, respect and dignity towards women.
Almost every woman would have faced instances such as these. I feel post December 16th and the more recent cases, women from all across the globe stand united on issues pertaining to sexual abuse.
More so, many women now have garnered the strength to report such incidents and underscore the importance of bringing to light - not just the injustices done, but also the politics underlying such patriarchal social structures thereby highlighting, that women no longer want to remain silent but speak out loud.
I usually am well guarded when it comes to commuting alone in the night or day. For my own self -defense I carry my own safety kits. Because I have a travelling job, I keep all important numbers with me say local police official's numbers etc.
However, my most reliable weapon in instances such as these is my instant reaction i.e. to face things head on. I have realised this really scares off miscreants and help you emerge a confident, a far stronger individual.

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[www.keralites.net] 28 Lessons of Life

 

Have you ever had an epiphany? One of those "a-ha" moments where something just clicks for you? Maybe it's something you've been struggling with for a long time, or maybe it was a piece of advice you learned from a friend. Whatever the source of our insight, it's these moments that bring us to a deeper understanding of our world. The better understanding we have of life, the more we live in the truth.

Below are 33 of the most powerful lessons I encourage you to share yours with us by leaving a comment below. =)

 

  1. Often those who aren't the easiest to love are the ones who need it the most.
     
  2. Seeing children play can make even the bluest day brighter.
     
  3. Money is not the root of all evil, fear is.
     
  4. The secret to happiness is the acceptance of yourself.
     
  5. Happiness is not based on external status, it is an internal state.
     
  6. Money can't make me happy, but self-sufficiency gives me the freedom to share myself creatively, without worrying about how I'm going to pay the bills.
     
  7. Every man has a right to choose his own destiny.
     
  8. The path is the way. You define your own path.
  9. Follow your gut, you'll thank yourself later.
     
  10. Remember what your mother taught you, it came from the most sacred place of love that exists.
     
  11. Never let an argument last, never hold a grudge, it will make your heart heavy.
     
  12. Forgive those that have yet to do you wrong, and you won't have to worry about it should the time come.
     
  13. Be grateful for this moment, it is all there is.
     
  14. The source of most of your frustrations and anxiety are the result of living in the future, or the past.
     
  15. Spend time alone with yourself every day.
     
  16. Always go with yourself, never against yourself.
     
  17. You have to be your own best friend.
     
  18. If you don't like what someone else says to you, you can walk away. But if you don't like what you say to yourself, you can't walk away. Therefore, if you're going to be with yourself all the time, you might as well be nice to yourself.
     
  19. The truth shall indeed set you free.
     
  20. Lies only exist if we believe in them.
     
  21. Even the most fundamental beliefs about reality are not true in themselves. Our thinking makes them true in our experience.
     
  22. Your thoughts create reality.
     
  23. The biggest lie is the lie of your imperfection.
     
  24. Being kind is more important than being right.
     
  25. Your heart is your best compass.
     
  26. Cherish those that you love, you never know if you'll see them again.
     
  27. Your beliefs are a filter for your reality.
     
  28. Love is the supreme expression of life, it is the essence and ground of all creation
     

 


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[www.keralites.net] Excel: Extracting text with FIND and MID Functions

 

Data analysis begins with usable data, and that means every piece organized nicely into its own field where we can count, sort and otherwise test it out.

What if you get a spreadsheet where the pieces of data are all packed in one field? Say, something like this (which I cobbled together from Major League Baseball data in honor of the Nationals' first playoff appearance):

NAME: Sean Burnett POS: RP AGE: 30 WT: 200 BORN: Dunedin, FL SALARY: 2350000 NAME: Tyler Clippard POS: RP AGE: 27 WT: 200 BORN: Lexington, KY SALARY: 1650000 NAME: Ross Detwiler POS: SP AGE: 26 WT: 174 BORN: St. Louis, MO SALARY: 485000 NAME: Christian Garcia POS: RP AGE: 27 WT: 215 BORN: Miami, FL SALARY: N/A NAME: Gio Gonzalez POS: SP AGE: 27 WT: 205 BORN: Hialeah, FL SALARY: 3335000 NAME: Mike Gonzalez POS: RP AGE: 34 WT: 215 BORN: Robstown, TX SALARY: N/A NAME: Ryan Mattheus POS: RP AGE: 28 WT: 215 BORN: Sacramento, CA SALARY: 481000 NAME: Craig Stammen POS: RP AGE: 28 WT: 200 BORN: Coldwater, OH SALARY: 485000 NAME: Drew Storen POS: RP AGE: 25 WT: 180 BORN: Indianapolis, IN SALARY: 498750 NAME: Jordan Zimmermann POS: SP AGE: 26 WT: 218 BORN: Auburndale, WI SALARY: 2300000

Let's say you want to extract the city of each player's birth into a separate field. The varying length of each player's name means the birth place isn't always in the same position in the string, so a typical text-to-columns operation won't work. So, how to do it?

The answer lies in two very handy Excel functions: FIND and MID.

FIND locates characters you specify and returns its numeric place in the string.

MID returns X characters from a string beginning at a location X you specify.

For example, we can locate the position where each city name begins by using FIND to locate the string "BORN:" in each cell. The city name itself always starts six characters after the position of that string, so we add six to the result:

=FIND("BORN:",A2)+6

In the first row above, the functions returns 50. In the second row, 52. We'll feed that value to the MID function as the starting point for our extraction.

MID takes three arguments: Text or cell, position to start, number of characters to return. So, we use the above FIND function as the second argument and, for now, extract 10 characters:

=MID(A2,FIND("BORN:",A2)+6,10)

That gets us part of the way there. We're starting in the right spot, but 10 characters isn't always the length of the city and state, so it leads to choppy results:

Dunedin, F Lexington, St. Louis, Miami, FL  Hialeah, F Robstown,  Sacramento Coldwater, Indianapol Auburndale

What we need to do is tell MID the exact number of characters to return each time even though the length of the city varies. We can figure this out using FIND again.

The city name is always followed by the word "SALARY". So, if we search for the position of that word and subtract the position of "BORN," we'll get the length of what's between the two. The ultimate formula looks like spaghetti but works just fine:

=MID(A2,FIND("BORN:",A2)+6,(FIND("SALARY",A2)-(FIND("BORN:",A2)+6)))

Used on the example text, it returns:

Dunedin, FL  Lexington, KY  St. Louis, MO  Miami, FL  Hialeah, FL  Robstown, TX  Sacramento, CA  Coldwater, OH  Indianapolis, IN  Auburndale, WI

That's it. Fairly handy and further proof that Excel is a versatile part of the data journalists' tool kit.

  • If the substring is on the right side of the data, use the RIGHT function to extract it.
  • If the substring is on the left side of the data, use the LEFT function to extract it.
  • If the substring has unwanted characters on both sides of the desired data, use the MID function to extract it.
Source: AnthonyDeBarros

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[www.keralites.net] Sonal Mehta she did a PhD, becoming the first visually challenged ( retinitis pigmentosa ) woman at Gujarat University to do so

 

Sonal Mehta she did a PhD, becoming the first visually challenged woman at Gujarat University to do so.  'Everyone suffers from some handicap... You have to surge on'.
When she was 14, Sonal Mehta was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa. By 15 she had lost all her vision.
That very year, she appeared for the all-important Class 10 SSC examinations and scored 82 per cent.

Two years later, she came ninth in her Class 12 HSC examinations.

She has never looked back ever since.

This is the inspirational story you should be taking lessons from.

Sonal Mehta is visually challenged.


She has been that way for a little over 25 years now. For 20 of those years she has been a teacher in English at the Government Polytechnic For Girls in Ahmedabad.
She likes to see her condition as a 'state of being' and not a handicap.

"People like me, who have a physical handicap, cannot afford to be psychologically handicapped as well. You have to surge on."

'I may not be a medical doctor but I still have a 'doctor' before my name'

In Class 12, she stood ninth in the Boards and went on to graduate in English Language and Literature with a First Class score, complete her Masters and then her MPhil where she topped the class before completing her doctoral thesis on the female characters in the works of R K Narayan.

Along the way, she also topped the Gujarat State Public Commission examinations for the post of a lecturer in English at the Government Polytechnic College in Ahmedabad.

For 15 years she commuted between Gandhinagar, her maternal home and Ahmedabad, a distance of about 30 km by bus.
Please read her full story in the link below.

http://www.rediff.com/getahead/slide-show/slide-show-1-achievers-sonal-mehta-is-gujarat-univs-first-female-visually-challenged-phd/20131217.htm#1

 
Ravi
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[www.keralites.net] Life Is An Advent Season !!!

 

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Life Is an Advent Season...
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Life is a constant Advent season:
we are continually waiting to become,
to discover, to complete, to fulfill.
Hope, struggle, fear, expectation and fulfillment
are all part of our Advent experience
.

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The world is not as just, not as loving,
not as whole as we know it can and should be.
But the coming of Christ and his presence among us
-as one of us- give us reason to live in hope:
that light will shatter the darkness, that we
can be liberated from our fears and prejudices,
that we are never alone or abandoned.

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May this Advent season be a time
for bringing hope, transformation and
fulfillment into the Advent of our lives
.
~Apple Seeds~


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May God Bless You, Your Family and
Your Friends the Way He Has Blessed Us
.
Joseph, Poh, Mabeline, Isaac, Mandy and Jacob Tan

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Listen to the beautiful audio attachment
"In The Garden" by Elvis Presley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSU_nCYvOeU
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