Gender fluidity and India

 I have been listening, watching a lot of talks around gender fluidity and I feel it's time to pen or blog it down.

So the strange thing I came across when I was graduating in year 2014 and I read a news in newspaper, a female athlete pretended to be a female while it was a male all along.

She is now banned from further participation in sports.

For me it was plain and straight thing to believe that it was such a fraud, she must have just faked it by being a little bit feminine. And I forgot about it. 

Few years later I came across a podcast by Radiolab where I got the name and whole background of the athelete in question. The athelete in question here is an Indian athelete who was Dutee Chand from Odisha.

She was banned based on a test done to confirm the gender of the athletes to avoid cross participation of atheletes among men and woman.

The test however was not a regressive practice of making woman show their private parts to doctors which was a practice during cold war to make sure female team is all female and no fraud, it wasn't even a chromosomes test where your DNA is tested for which chromosomes you have but a testosterone level test. 

A test which determines your supposedly gender based on your testosterone levels.

Being from a Indian village these accusations were confusing to Chand while she herself was raised by her parents to be a woman. 

This further story should be a national news but unfortunately my country thinks only the stuff involving money and religion are worth sharing for. 

Well Chand went to atheletes court and fought this case on basis that the test which determines these things are not accurate and one can not ban her for having higher testosterone levels. The court gave the decision against the ban and lifted the ban from her with a suggestion to federation which banned her to take a look at the methods used for determining gender. 

Why I say it's an important news? 

Because of so many things, one being my controversial opinion that why should there be two different sports category, can a woman not be better than a man at sports? 

Well study suggests there is a significant amount of difference between how a man performs and how a woman perform and that is why these two were differentiated. 

But then what about a world where we are having Transgender, Agender, Bigender would these binary norms survive? 

Will we have a gender neutral point where all our skills will be tested based on our abilities and not capped by these norms? 

Sometimes when I see around and find couples who still have this idea of who their kid is going to be or what kind of things they should do based on their cisgender. I feel the need to provide my point. Yet I am aware of the consequences that my factual points might be insulting or offensive to them. 

When I still see parents providing toys, books, songs based on this one thing which actually vilifies the different options the kids may want to try. 

In a country where same sex couples were illigal and same sex marriage is still considered illigal I wish I could express my opinion to not to put these kids in certain boxes limiting their life experiences.

A country which always had this stigma around gender other than binary genders is on verge of bringing another big change which may one day make same sex marriage legal. 

My generation was aware of the crimes, hate and disgust for this concept and also participated in it. There is a new change on horizon which is going to bring down this entire Charade of pretentious gender norms.

I argue a lot about these male vs female issues with people who are close to me or who are rather interested in listening my view point. I feel gender fluidity is on the verge of being born as a modern world's most beautiful thing.

A world where a person is not limited to certain jobs, roles, place to live or even value for their efforts. 

A world where value is assigned to skill and knowledge and not to the appearances..

A world where everyone has right to love, marry and have kids with whoever they want to. 

Dutee Chand represents that world where she has a place because of her training and skills and one can not ban her simply because she has natural chemical levels higher in her based on decided limits of unproven methods. 

Dutee who then explored her own sexuality and came out as first ever openly lesbian athelete is the epitome of this years of struggle in our country of people who had to keep the fight up to give name to their story.

This should be a news which should reach every person who is in this country so it can be aspiring to everyone to be loving, caring and supporting in a world which denies the basic rights to us.

To Dutee Chand from Odisha...

References: 

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/dutee

कोकणचा पाऊस

कोकणातला आंबा, फणस आणि माणूस जितका लोकप्रिय आहे तितकाच इथला पाऊसही आहे बरं का...

माझी या पावसाबरोबर ची ओळख म्हणजे अगदी लहानपणीची. माझ्या चिपळूणच्या आजोळच्या घरी पडवी मधुन दिसणारा धो धो कोसळणारा पाऊस म्हणजे माझी आवडती आठवण. इतका पाऊस येऊन तो आपल्या कौलारू घराच्या आत कसा बरं येत नाही असा विचार माझ्या मनात किती वेळा डोकावत असे. 

बरं ही आठवण अगदी ठराविक वेळेची कारण आमचं आजोळी जाणं हे उन्हाळ्यातच. तेव्हा सगळीकडे रखरखीत ऊन आणि उन्हाने भाजून पिवळट केशरी झालेली भाताची शेती दिसायची. 

दुपारी १२ च्या सुमारास चिपळूण स्थानकावरून निघालेली बस १-१.३० वाजता आमच्या गावाच्या वेशीवर थांबायची आणि तिथून १-२ किलोमीटर चा चालण्याचा प्रवास नकोसा वाटत असे.   

इतका कोरडा प्रदेश २-३ दिवसाच्या पावसाने हिरवागार कसा होत असेल बरं हे कोड कधी माझ्या लहानग्या डोक्याला सुटतच नसे. 

तिथल्या धो धो पावसाने व्हाळ भरून वाहायला लागल्यावर त्यातलं पाणी काचेसारख दिसायच आणि त्यातले लहान मासे पाय बुडवले की पायाला गुदगुल्या करत ते साफ करायचे. अलीकडे मॉल मध्ये किती तरी पैसे देऊन हेच सुख अनुभवायचा अतोनात प्रयत्न अनेक लोक करत असतात पण त्या हिरवळीतला तो अनुभव दुर्मिळच.

व्हाळातल्या कपारीत लपलेल्या कूर्ल्या म्हणजेच खेकडे पकडायला सावध नजर आणि कौशल्यच हवे. हे तिथल्या स्थानिक लोकांनी वर्षानुवर्षे अवगत केले आहे. कुर्ली पकडायला जाणे हा तिथला एक adventure sport च म्हणा ना. 

बरं व्हाळातले पाणी प्यायला वापरत का नाहीत याचं उत्तर माझ्या सारख्या घाटावरच्या मुलीला इथे राहायला लागल्यावरच कळाले. 

सिंधुदुर्गातला पाउस तर अजून विलक्षण. कधी दिवस-दिवस भर आभाळ भरून गरजणारा तर कधी हलका हलका ऊन पावसातला. 

पाऊस पडून गेला की आजूबाजूचे रस्ते हिरवेगार करणारा आणि विहिरी पाण्याने तुडुंब भरून टाकणारा.

याच पावसानंतर किती तरी विलक्षण किडे पुन्हा एकदा वार्षिक जन्म घेतात. त्यांचं आयुष्य किती फार तर फार एक दोन दिवसांच पण तरीही इकडे तिकडे उडून, दिव्याभोवती घोटाळून ते आपल्या जीवाची मुंबई करतात असं म्हणायला हरकत नाही. 

रात्रीच्या प्रवासात याच हिरवळीत लुकलुकणारे काजवे तर आकाशातल्या चांदण्यांनाही लाजवतील. 

आपला वेगळाच आवाज करून लहान मोठे बेडूक आपल्या प्रेयसीला आकर्षित करण्याचा प्रयत्न करत असतात. 

कधी कधी एक वेगळाच पाऊस पडत असतो जो न आवाज करता फक्त वाळू हातातून निसटत असल्यासारखा भुरभुरत राहतो. त्याच्या शांततेत लक्ष झाडे वाऱ्यावर डुलत शांतपणे आपली कामे करीत राहतात.

ह्याच सुरुवातीच्या पावसाने एकदा का आपापली जमीन ओलावली की नांगरणी आणि पेरणी केली जाते. त्यातून उगवलेला तरवा म्हणजे तांदळाच्या रोपांच्या पेंड्या बांधल्या जातात. नंतर च्या सातत्याने पडणाऱ्या पावसाने कोपरे भरले की मग भात लावणीची तयारी करायला बाया माणसे सरसावतात. 

कधी कधी दुपारच्या उन्हाने कोमट झालेल्या चिखलात गुडघाभर पाण्यात एक एक भाताची काडी लावून झाल्यावर त्या रांगेला बघून एखाद्यानं फुटपट्टीने मोजून लावणी केली आहे की काय असे वाटेल. 

भर पावसातही आपली इरली, घोंगडी, काठी घेऊन लोक आपलं काम करत असतात. इतकी काटक की हा पाऊस त्यांना थंडी-तापाची आठवणही होऊ देत नाही. 

उन्हाळ्यात रुक्ष अशा या जमिनी पावसाळ्यात एखादा तलाव असावा तशा भरून जातात. गेल्या वर्षात इकडे तिकडे पडलेल्या प्रत्येक बी-बियाण्याला जगवतात. जंगलात ही उन्हाळ्यात लपून राहिलेल्या अळंब्या हळू हळू डोकावू लागतात आणि त्या शोधायला जाण्याची मोहीम ही सुरू होते. पावसाळ्यात पहिल्या वाफेच्या भाताबरोबर वाटप घातलेलं हे अळंबीच कालवण म्हणजे स्वर्गसुख. 

या पावसाने घराभोवती येणारे रान म्हणजे गवती सापासारख्या अनाहुत पाहुण्यांना निमंत्रण म्हणून दर वर्षी रान नडणे म्हणजे जमीन साफ करण्याचा कार्यक्रम निश्चित. 

ते चिवट रान पाऊस येईल तसे पुन्हा पुन्हा येत राहते, पण त्याला सफाचट करणारी माणसे देखील तितकीच चिकाटीची. 

कोकण आणि कोकणच्या पावसाने इथल्या माणसांना अगदी हवं ते आणि गरजे इतकं वैभव दिलं आहे. इथली संस्कृती ह्याच पावसाने समृद्ध होत आली आहे. उन्हाळ्यात लाही लाही झाल्यानंतर याच पावसाची सुखद लहर ४-५ महिने तरी जीवाला थंडावा देते. कठीण समय संपल्यानंतर येणाऱ्या समृद्धीची ग्वाही देते. 

पावसाच्या प्रेमात तर मी आधी सुद्धा होते पण शहरी भागातल्या पावसापेक्षा एक वेगळाच अनुभव देणारा कोकणचा पाऊस मात्र वेगळीच अनुभूती देऊन जातो. 

Leader of the free world

 When I started following US politics or world politics for that matter, I heard from many people who said why don't you look at your own country first. 

But I guess I was put off by the way our political parties worked, the supporters or the volunteers I was witnessing in my own country. 

As I could see many of them blinded by the mere carisma of a leader and blindly followed them into any policy, defend any reckless decisions of them in the names of brilliant foreseeable future. I stand by my side to freely say that I do follow world or American politics because I feel there is something to look up to.

The first and foremost democracy teaches us even when it's in the low, allowing us to have an opportunity to learn from their mistakes.

While my country still struggle to get over cast differences I look up to a country which no matter the opposition gives fair chance to anyone who is capable.

As I see woman claiming the places they always meant to have and it gives me hope that one day we can reach there. 

As I see a country torn apart and then united somehow to hold its utmost values. 

I saw 4 years of pain and suffering of immigrants, people of color, environmental laws being wrecked and an absolute nonsensical behaviour from a person who called himself leader of the free world. I was naive back then to think that he did not deserve that seat, now when I think about it.

I feel he did deserve it. He was there so people could know what being a xenophobic, recist and maniac can do to a beautiful country with million opportunities.

The corona came as a surprise to everyone and it was an absolute misfortune to have to deal with that on top of already sinking ship. 

I have seen last 4 years of American democracy through various angles. Right from innocent people trapped in the prison due to his policies till the water contamination laws being thrown out of the window to support the industries, from people of color being killed out in the open till the children being kept in the cages away from their parents for no mistake of their own.

I feel hopeful and optimistic about the future and I don't mean just the future of our country which is currently in ruins but I feel that we as mankind can lead a better way even through the darkest of hours. 

I see so many farmers protesting in the streets for the laws, people making noise for the release of activists, comedians and journalist, people who are courageous enough to call out the leader. I know we can win against the cruelty, lies, inhumane values and racist beliefs. 

The future belongs to the truth...

#Electionnight2

 Wow, what a wonderful day. 

Fourth day of the supercharged US elections.

I read a blog I wrote 4 years ago, disgusted by Trump winning the white House and being saddened by the reality of it. 

And today will be the day he will be voted out by the people of US democracy who made the choice of not having a person like him as their president anymore.

So many things have changed in the world in last 4 years, world witnessed a pandemic of our decade maybe, US lost many lives to the virus, people were thrown into prisons and children were separated from their parents, his reckless decisions brought out movements to end so many wrong things in our society. 

I was a college student back then and now I am married with much more political opinion than before. Now what happens in my country is also equally important and terrifying to me. My opinions are expressed whenever required and I do feel saddened by injustice in my own country. 

While he called climate change a hoax, the earth withered away some more, leading to massive floods, landslides, wild fires and draughts. His stupidity did not matter to earth as the very thing he was saying caused millions around him and around the world make their mind to not to believe in the climate change. 

While he called out the white supremacy his greatest ally thousands suffered from hate and bigotry by those who wanted to feel greater than others. 

But today when people reject him and decide to choose someone else their president who is sane and normal rather than a fake , bigot clown world seems like a normal place now. It gives us energy to fight what is wrong in the world and reminds us that we choose our leaders and democracy always will survive as long as there is truth in the world. 

I saw a beautiful black indian origin woman climbing the ladder and breaking that glass ceiling that a woman can be the second most important lady in the country and she is equally capable of doing so. 

This election was memorable on many fronts and it was to remind us that tyranny and falsehood lasts in this world for such a small time while truth eventually exceeds and kindness wins. 

En route to Veganism!

 I read and watched so many articles,documentaries till the date of veganism. I was getting a good view of the reality yet the environment I was living in did not have supporting conditions for me to get vegan, neither did I have any motive to go vegan. 

But one day my husband suddenly decided that we should go vegan for all the issues that are involving animal cruelty and environmental impact. 

I did want to do this to help my health as well, I was a total cheesoholic my entire life even when I knew each bite I would take was contributing to building cough into my system. I couldn't give up my cravings even when I knew it was hurting me. 

Anyways I never really liked or fare better with milk but recently I had tried these experiments with having turmeric and milk to make it more appealing. 

We finished whatever we could from our remaining pantry and started experimenting with tea without milk. Eventually after some days we found the formula which works for us and we are still in love with this. 

It's difficult to stay away from sweets, prasad, biscuits and chocolates but since we don't really have social gatherings we rarely have these occasions where we have to tell them specifically about our eating habits. 

My in laws have been supportive so far and kind of understand our compassion while my family tried their level best to make me eat fish or meat again. 

I tried to explain them but it felt needless to explain my food choices for the rest of my life. I kind of had this weird feeling where they might force me back to the previous lifestyle maybe in later stages of my life where they feel eating this helps us have a better health. 

For now I am getting used to this because first and foremost it helps my cough situation. I have not had direct dairy intentionally in last one month and it takes away the guilt associated with it. 

The very next day when we were getting ready to go out somewhere and a calf (yes, it's pretty common here since they like the shade and coolness of parking so they sometimes come and stay here in the parking lot) stood next to me in the door and by seeing their sweet watery eyes I felt so good that I will no longer be a cruel person who takes away their food. 

I have seen this horrible practices of keeping a stuffed calf in front of the cow to make her give milk. I was scared for some time as it looked almost ghostly in the darkness and later I learnt that it's actually dead. 

I don't understand how could I be so blind to all this happening around me and still have dairy. How come I never learnt the fact that no animal can produce milk without giving birth? Why didn't I get agitated at the fact that I actually saw someone skinning a goat and still had dinner that night. 

I have been ignorant and absolutely blind to all the signals of this cruelty going around and it took me these many years to finally come face to face with this truth that I have been part of this whole intricate trap of justifying all this in the name of taste and proteins and health. 

While the only naked truth was that we were trained in this system where we find a milk and dairy meant for a calf absolutely normal. We rather promote it in the name of good health. 

I struggle to keep my cravings at a bay but we are still going strong. 

It's been almost 3 months and we do not feel like going back yet! 

This road has been bumpy but it does have its own perks like feeling absolutely fantastic about not being part of animal cruelty, not being ignorant donkey and obviously providing more attention to what we eat! 

The global lockdown for COVID-19

I heard it first when my colleague was just joking about it. I heard it later on the news and then on twitter and then saw several shows regarding this topic. 

I was super busy in my most important day and once I was through it all and watched the next day crumbling down upon us with the global crisis. 

People were scared and stopped at the places, asked not to leave their homes, wash their hands and not to stock up and not to fear and fear and stay home.

Even then people didn't listen and went on hanging out as usual and then one fine day they had to declare it as a national crisis and now everyone is waiting for the day everything will be back to normal. 

A virus which has caused havoc all around the world with its minor cold and cough and fever symptoms and enormous number of people dying because of this seems like an apocalypse. 

I am staying in my in laws town which is closer to a Village and on a weekday when roads seems to be empty it feels as if the zombies have taken over the world. 

My day starts with news about coronavirus and it ends with the news about coronavirus. I read and confirm and keep myself away from the rumours by fact checking everything we see in the news, tweets and what not.

Who knew a common cough , cold would cause entire world to collapse into an abyss.

Cities in lockdown and people not able to meet the communities to avoid spreading this anymore isn't less than any horror movie where we are scared of going out in the open. 

Stock markets keep crashing down every single day, daily wedge workers worried about their next meal, rich and mediocre stocking food and essentials because of the fear of starving in upcoming days. 

My husband said maybe it gave people opportunity to look back on our lives and think how we should be changing ourselves. It gave us a chance to take a break and try to figure out a more better way out there.

In all this shipwreck our environment surely flourished with the less pollution on roads, air and water. 

People could see that not going as per the clock might not be that difficult as thought before and we can still slow down for the greater good. 

Well the economy and the world is still suffering from all of its effects and we certainly will take a lot of time to overcome it, but as they say we have the courage and strength to overcome anything that potentially puts a obstacle in our paths. 

I just wish it will be over soon and we will still be able to recover from its effects as early as we can learning the new lessons this solitude taught us. We can come up with new ways to coexist and reverse the damage done with our actions and live a life of less than more. 

The Future of Genomics and the future

My mother has gray eyes, and so does her two sisters. Her father had gray eyes but my uncles have brown eyes. 

One of my cousin (female) who recently had a baby boy has gray eyes and so did my other cousin (male) had a baby girl who has hazel eyes. 

My obsession with different colored eyes started when I realised my mother has different color eyes but I don't. Neither does my sister. 

And then I came to conclusion that its totally irrelevant but then with some examples it was pretty certain that eye colors may get transferred in cross gender generations. 

So even if today someone gave me choice to choose my offsprings eye color, I would take it. No questions asked. 

But what if someone asked me to make my kid brilliant as Einstein with gene editing, would I do that? 

I am asking all these irrelevant questions because I just finished a 4 part series about genomics and the future of gene technology and it makes me wonder as I lay back and look across the sky , what will be that world when my kids are born. 

The series starts with the mention of CRISPER  a gene editing technology which can alter your genes with simple procedures and create wondrous results. 

I had heard a podcast about this technique just few months back and to be honest it just felt a long gone thing for me. 

But as I watch the benefits and horrors this technology showcased in front of us, I am rather confused about my opinion right now. 

We see a kid struggling to see, we see him crying because his genetic impaired vision creates great difficulties between his dreams of being an astronaut. 

We see another young man who is trying to find a cure to his HIV. 

We see couples who are struggling to have kids and the other who just wish to have blue eyes babies together. 

We see the actual demonstration of procedures to entirely irradiate an entire species such as mosquitos, rats and mice. 

I see a lot of judgement and backlash against the technology which can potentially be threatening to our own species while I feel happy that the kid was genuinely happy that now his dreams were no longer genetically bound . 

If I hear and know in and outs of this technology sitting at one end of the world I no longer doubt myself that soon I will be meeting parents who are okay with this stuff used for the benefit of their kids. Couples who wish to make their babies more stronger, capable and healthy. 

 

I also get a strange feeling whether in a world of genetically modifying people, the babies who were born naturally will be treated differently. How will you then decide who wins and who loose in this world because it's everyone who has the same level of opportunity. 

I feel whether in attempts to eradicate some species we will walk this slippery slope and end up loosing more than we ought to gain. 

In the series there was a line as new Zealand went through a hottest summer in the centuries and that ended up breeding too many rats , which in turn ate the diversed birds such extent that they needed a genetically engineered solution for their problem. 

If we look at the world's weather right now, everything seems to be going haywire and I can see that when the rain in my place just doesn't stop even after the mansoon is over. 

The hurricanes and so many natural calamities wreck in every single part of the world. If this is to happen due to global warming and climate change then the solutions provided are going to be evolutionary and extreme. 

Whenever I would watch any world ending movies or news my father would say he has seen the same thing in his adulthood and it would give me an assurance that I am going to tell the same thing to my kids. But then I wonder does the ending of world ever ends like in movies? Or do we all just push through the worse of it every generation and call it survival...