This and that..

Indrani Ghose commented that we are back to slave trade and that brought to my mind the human trading that still exists in our modern civilization. The trading of grooms. Earlier it was the beauty of the girl that set the price but now the credentials of the bride doesn’t matter at all. Let her be beautiful, educated or whatever, only the groom matters. In Kerala, I think a Doctor (with specialization and not MBBS) still fetches the highest price. The only reason why some are willing to spend half a crore or more to secure admission to a medical college. But in the Middle East it works the other way round. The groom needs to pay for the bride which should bring solace to those in India!



The dowry system in India still remains the greatest evil to marriage. As it is, there is a growing hatred towards marriage from the current generation and some of them prefer to have live-in relationships instead. With the increase in income, they can afford to move out from their own family and live a life they deem is comfortable. I am not saying that marriage is all roses and honey, not when I sometimes feel like Jack the Ripper in my mind, ripping the head of you know who? But it is the best one for now, unless one believes that a planet like K-Pax really exists. I am sure some of you remember the movie starred by Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges. Prot, the man who claims to have come from K-Pax says that they don’t have marriages in K-Pax. They all belong to one big society or planet. One may father a child but it does not belong to him since the child will be brought up by everyone. It may sound great, but Prot himself points out that at K-Pax no one misses anyone. I guess marriage and later a family is all about looking out for each other. A baby sitting facility can never do the same job of a parent, how much strong the commitment is. In a family, you have your parents and your siblings to look out for you and care for you. You have that unique sense of belonging which only a family set up can give you. To get this and more if it requires a license from the society, then it is worth it. But the current society which includes me doesn’t have the patience to try out this system which has survived for centuries.

This also brings to my mind the growing impatience with child rearing. I know of many couples who have aborted their babies since they were either not ready or they have a first one and the second came sooner. They don’t mind spending their money on themselves but spending on their child becomes a burden.

Talking of abortion takes me yet again to female foeticide and I appreciate the effort done by Roop Rai at Unchaahi: the Unwanted .

Education is what we need against this evil.

Going.. Going.. GONE

Auctioning can be traced as far back as 500 B.C.[1] According to ancient Greek scribes, the more generally accepted auction occurred first in Babylon in 500 B.C. During this period, auctions were held annually, and women were sold on the condition of marriage. It was considered illegal to allow a daughter to be sold outside the auction method. Women with “beauty” engendered higher bidding, women without “beauty” had to pay a dowry to be accepted into the auction, and thus the price would be negative.

That was long way back and now instead of women we have the Cricketers!

MUMBAI: India's charismatic one-day captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Wednesday emerged as the hottest property in world cricket after being sold out for a staggering USD 1.5 million dollars (Rs 6 crore) in a landmark auction which marked the beginning of a lucrative new era in cricket.

Who is in whose kitty

MUMBAI: The Indian Premier League auction that was held in Mumbai on Wednesday had its list of surprises with the Chennai Superkings looking the most formidable team. The following is the list of players that have been selected by the different franchisees

Jaipur: Shane Warne (US$ 450,000), Graeme Smith (US$ 475,000), Younis Khan (US$ 225,000), Kamran Akmal (US$ 150,000), Yusuf Pathan (US$ 475,000), Mohammad Kaif (US$ 675,000), Munaf Patel (US$ 275,000)

Chennai: MS Dhoni (US$ 1.5 million), Muttiah Muralitharan (US$ 600,00), Matthew Hayden (US$ 375,000), Jacob Oram (US$ 675,000), Stephen Fleming (US$ 350,000), Parthiv Patel (US$ 325,000), Joginder Sharma (US$ 225,000), Albie Morkel (US$ 675,000), Suresh Raina (US$ 650,000), Makhaya Ntini (US$ 200,000)

Talk about being global! Now who do the viewers support? Well.. we have only taken away the countries, but we still have the States don’t we? If our own State is not there, maybe we shall settle for a particular player. So now my friend Raj cannot be happy as yet. He is against citizenships and dreams of a borderless world.


Maybe we have roped in players from all around the world but we shall still shackle them. After all, is there any fun if we don’t?