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Do You Get Harassed by Strangers?

TresSugar — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:00:00 -0700

All (women) aboard! India's four largest cities recently introduced the "Ladies Special" - a commuter train for women only. The cities have found that the segregated service is needed to prevent women from being groped, pinched, and subjected to shouted insults while they commute to work.

India isn't the first country to try something like this. Last year Mexico City addressed public sexual harassment by debuting women-only buses marked with pink placards of course. And such harassment is so prevalent in Japan that there's even a word ("chikan") just for subway gropers. (And let's not forget that you don't have to be groped to be harassed; you might witness someone masturbating while you're trying to get to work on the subway!)

Knowing that you can travel in peace must be a relief for women who have been sexually harassed by strange men. Does this ever happen to you?

India Chain Claims to Be Home to Longest Ever Dosa

YumSugar — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:00:07 -0700

To be filed right next to New Delhi's record for the world's largest biryani: Sankalp, a restaurant chain based in the city of Ahmedabad, India, claims to have made the world's longest dosa.

The mammoth dosa - a crepelike South Indian specialty made from rice and black lentils - was created last Wednesday and measured in at 32 feet and 5 inches long, taking less than 40 minutes to put together. To make the behemoth, a team of 16 chefs practiced for 10 days, working to achieve the correct length by maintaining a steady temperature across the entire dosa, while handling a tawa, or hot plate, that was 35 feet long. The finished product was named "Quick Gun Murungun," the title of an upcoming movie that discusses the merits of being vegetarian.

As a lover of all things South Indian, especially dosas, this leaves me with only two questions: Was the dosa filled? And do they still need someone to eat it? What do you think of the record? Have you ever tried a dosa?

More Indian Women Casually Using Emergency Contraception

TresSugar — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:15:43 -0700

Widespread access to family planning medication can come with some negative side effects. Gynecologists in India are reporting a sharp rise in medical complications, such as excessive bleeding or incomplete abortions, due to women's casual use of over the counter emergency contraception and abortion pills. Doctors say that women commonly look up the dosages on the Internet and then buy the pills themselves, never consulting a doctor. . . until something goes wrong.

Based on anecdotal evidence from doctors and patients, women appear to be increasingly relying on these medications as their first line of contraception. One woman told the Times of India that women turn to the morning after pill because "when you’re with your boyfriend, you don’t want to use condoms." Whatever happened to the good old-fashioned daily birth control pill?

While it's important for women to have access to emergency contraception or the abortion pill, it seems like there are plenty of medical reason to avoid using it as the main form of birth control.

Source: Flickr User gregor_y

Indian Women Asked to Plow Fields Naked For Rain

TresSugar — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 06:00:00 -0700

Modern women in eastern India have been asked to participate in an ancient tradition: plowing dry fields naked with the hope that it will embarrass the weather gods and urge them to respond with a much needed monsoon.

This year, Indian farmers are worrying over a very dry start to the monsoon season and having nude women plow the fields while chanting hymns is the most trusted custom among farmers. Interestingly, only unmarried women are allowed to participate.

If I were asked to plow fields naked to help California's drought problem, you could bet that more than the weather gods would be embarrassed.

Front Page: France Celebrates Bastille Day

TresSugar — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:00:27 -0700

France held its annual military parade to mark Bastille Day, the country's national holiday. This year the parade honored India, as prime minister Manmohan Singh was in town meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. - AFP
Microsoft has plans for a free, online version of Office. - LA Times
Goldman Sachs has reported record profits. The company's net income rose to $3.4 billion last year. - Bloomberg
Sarah Palin penned an op-ed today blasting President Obama's cap-and-trade program. - Washington Post
The Episcopal Church is moving forward with a plan to end its ban on gay bishops. - NY Times

Girl-Grooming Trend on the Rise in India

BellaSugar — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:00:50 -0700

In our image-obsessed culture, girls are grooming at younger and younger ages, making youth-targeted bikini waxes and toddler beauty pageants more and more common. Now, it looks like the disturbing trend of underage grooming is impacting the youth of India, as girls, and even boys, are making stops to the salon and spa more frequently. In fact, recent marketing studies imply that the hottest Indian beauty trends involve services targeted towards teens and tweens. (As if puberty wasn't already difficult enough.)

"Young children should not use beauty products at all, because their immune system is not fully developed," dermatologist Ajita Bagai told Mint. On the beauty industry side, however, some salon professionals would argue that body wraps on 11 year olds and minifacials using natural products on preteens are all right. But when it comes to the practice of juvenile primping, just how young is too young, and what is deemed appropriate by the medical side? Find out some guidelines from doctors interviewed in this article

Oh Snap! It's Finally OK to Be Gay in India

TresSugar — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:00:00 -0700

While gay Americans fight for marriage rights, gay people in India are just winning the right to be homosexual. Today the high court in New Delhi overruled colonial-era legislation that criminalized homosexuality. Britain decriminalized homosexual acts in 1967, but its former colonies, including Malaysia, Singapore, and Zimbabwe still have strict laws against homosexual relations.

To see more photos of people celebrating, read more.

View 10 Photos ›

Indian Colleges Blame Jeans For Sexual Harassment

TresSugar — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:00:00 -0700

Female university students in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh can no longer wear jeans or any other Western clothes to school. It's all for their own protection, of course - officials say that expelling women who dress like this is "the only way to stop crime against women."

If the schools really wanted to stop sexual harassment, they should probably go after the men who perpetrate it. The backwards logic makes me think this rule is really about preserving conservative values against the invasion of western culture, and I might be right: Hindu extremist groups have increasingly protested phenomena like women drinking in bars or publicly displaying affection.

Regardless of the motivation, the stated logic behind this rule - that men cannot control their actions and it's somehow a woman's fault if she is a target of sexual abuse - is nothing new or unique to India.
Source

Father of Slumdog Star Denies Putting Daughter Up For Sale

TresSugar — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 09:00:00 -0700

The father of Slumdog Millionaire star Rubina Ali has denied putting his daughter up for adoption (or, as the rest of the world says, "sale") to the BBC.

Over the weekend, UK paper News of the World reported he was asking £200,000 (nearly $300,000) for his 9-year-old daughter. I'd like to say it wasn't as sinister as it sounds, but, basically, it was.

Allegedly, it started innocently enough. A Middle Eastern family moved by Rubina's story offered to adopt her, you know, like Madonna does (their words). While this was pretty presumptuous, at least it was well-intentioned: they wanted her to escape the Mumbai ghetto. But the offer sowed an idea into her father's head, and now he's looking to reap bigger rewards.

News of the World reporters contacted Rubina's uncle, telling him they worked for a wealthy sheik in Dubai. (He speaks English on her father's behalf and agreed to meet them.) While her uncle said they were concerned - or "interested" - in the girl's future, he did not ask for the sheik's name, intentions, or background.

"We can discuss everything about this deal when we meet," he said. "There's a lot of interest in Rubina, she's become very famous."

Source

Slumdog Makers Start Fund For Child Poverty in Mumbai

TresSugar — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:00:00 -0700

The makers of Slumdog Millionaire have set up a fund of almost $1 million to support child poverty programs in Mumbai, India. Those behind the Oscar-winning film, which made more than $400 million worldwide, have been accused of exploiting the people who live in Mumbai's slums for their own gain.

While the child actors from the movie got to travel to Hollywood for the Oscars, neighbors cheered them on in their hometown slums. Those images revealed overwhelming joy, but also the poverty that would await the adorable stars when the magic was over.

Aware of this heartbreaking reality, the filmmakers set up private trust funds and bought new homes for Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, the two child actors who lived in the slums.

But two happy endings weren't enough for those who considered the film poverty porn, or a film that exploits the misery of millions for the enjoyment of a privileged audience. To see what some Mumbai residents thought about all this, read more.

Residents of the slums were among those who considered the film exploitative. Many poor Indians protested outside actors' homes, calling the movie and the term "slumdog" offensive.

The new fund may silence critics, but it could also be considered unsubstantial compared to the overall profits reaped by the film. Then again, do these filmmakers have any obligation to address the problem of poverty in India?

Source