January 27, 2012 Indira Acharya
The contentious issue of surrogate motherhood makes news time and again, sometimes for the obvious reason yet sometimes for the vulnerability of the cash-strapped Indian women. The issue surfaced recently when the filmy couple Amir Khan and Kiran Rao went public on having a baby boy through surrogacy.
This pregnancy “outsourcing” business seems to thrive at the lower strata of the society. The fees, in lakhs, thrown out by the foreigners and the wealthy Indians alike are irresistible for the poor for their “small yet noble service” of renting out their wombs. Everything looks hunky dory. Isn’t it?
However, a recent report of a Mumbai woman losing her womb has opened a can of worms. Having a baby through surrogacy in India is much cheaper when compared to the charges in other countries where it is considered legitimate. The process is completely banned in some countries while in some other countries, it’s an altruistic arrangement wherein couple’s friend or a relative carry the foetus as a goodwill gesture without any financial gain. But in India the Indian Council for Medical Research has set some guidelines.
The poor illiterate women are made to sign on the dotted line without having able to understand the terms. As in any other business the middlemen fleece the womb renters and expectant parents. Nobody cares to follow up the mother’s health once she delivers the baby. This is nothing but exploiting the poor in India.
Today women keep advancing the motherhood for professional reasons. A time may come where the professional couple, even if the women is capable of bearing a child, looking for a womb to implant their child. In this age of figure-consciousness and materialistic aspirations, surrogacy can turn out to be as easy as hiring a maid.
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January 5, 2012 Indira Acharya
Mumbai never sleeps hungry, so they say. It beckons the enterprising people from all parts of the country. A livelihood is ensured with sundry jobs. Perhaps, you cannot see an opportunity anywhere else in the country that you have not seen in Mumbai. The vast city throws many opportunities and it is up to you to grab it.
Meals to schools: Who hasn’t heard about the now world-famous dabbawalas of Mumbai? A unique livelihood in Mumbai. These men earn their bread by delivering the hot home-cooked food to the office goers on the dot at their lunch time. While their wide network and error-free functioning have earned them a Six Sigma, there is a parallel service albeit at an individual level.
The Mumbai bylanes in the late mornings are dotted with men and women picking up lunch boxes for school children. Some parents like to give hot meals to their children while in some other cases the lunch is dispatched once the maid finishes cooking. Men carry the bags with the multiple hooks attached to their bicycles. It looks like a moving mound of meal bags. Some women carry as many bags as they can, hung around their shoulders. Some have their own hand pushing carts. The service comes with a charge of Rs.150 to Rs.200 per month. If you count the bags, you can easily calculate their earnings. They wait outside the school gates to deliver and collect the bags.
Chai chai everywhere: Mumbai’s penchant for tea is not a secret. Major deals are struck sipping cutting chais. Catering to the tea lovers are the chaiwaalas moving on bicycles. The tea is prepared at home and filled in a can. Now they are all set to go on their beat. They cater to the shopkeepers and other businessmen at their doorstep. The teaman is at anyone’s beck and call, be it a rag picker or a student.
Car wash: When you step out from home for work in the morning you naturally expect your vehicle to match up to your speck-free attire. At your service are men with a bucket and cloth to wipe your car clean. As the work does not demand much energy even old men find the work ideal. Even others who have some other jobs later in the day are seen cleaning the cars in the mornings. Who doesn’t want to earn Rs 200-250 per month per car?
The enterprising streak comes to fore sometimes quite early. A boy in my daughter’s class offered to write notes for others. The charge fixed was Rs. 5 per page. But fortunately or unfortunately his venture did not work as he was caught soon. There was a boy in my son’s class, who would sell the free gifts he got on some junk food. Yes, you must give it for their innovativeness.
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December 19, 2011 Indira Acharya
The other day I was standing in a queue at a supermarket for the billing of my purchase. The lady in front me, a mother of two lovely little girls, had one and a half trolley full of items. I was astonished to note that about 80 per cent of the items were junk and fast foods like chocolates, biscuits, savoury items, instant noodles, pastas and cool drinks. Most probably a stock for a week to be stacked neatly in the refrigerator.
What does this show? Affordability need not necessarily translate into good nutrition. Malnutrition happens at all levels irrespective of economic strata. The poor who struggle to have two square meals a day though are naturally devoid of any healthy eating options, one cannot rule out the fact that even their humble diet can be highly nutritious. Those a little above the line, can afford to supplement their diet once in a while. Instead of spending the amount on some healthy foods, they succumb to the temptation of junk and processed foods which of course provide an instant gratification. For that matter have you noticed the children who pester us for some loose coins always carry packets of fried items that come in different flavours, colours and brands?
Those who always can go for a healthy eating habit, as the lady I aforementioned, go for junk food. It’s not always money but sometimes ignorance that causes malnutrition. Teenaged children especially girls who are obsessed with their figures, are wary of eating most of the times and the resultant weakness, lethargy and lack of concentration affect their academic performance. You are what you eat. Today the people in the upper stratum of society eat food as medicine prescribed by dime a dozen dieticians. Eating has been reduced to a mere ritual sans any pleasure.
So what’s the solution? Schools should ban all junk foods to be brought as snacks. The children should be educated about the healthy eating habits so that they should be in a position to command what they want to eat. Schools should cajole students to keep away from junk food for a certain period of time and feel the difference and the period should be extended eventually. Thus they should be completely weaned away from unhealthy foods. Small children who look up to their teachers tend to follow the sermons of their teachers to the T. Yes, we should catch them young.
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September 24, 2011 Indira Acharya
Recently I got to watch the Kannada movie Haseena in faraway Mumbai. Acclaimed director Girish Kasaravalli has succeeded in deftly handling the subject adopted from a small story by Bhanu Mushtaq.
Haseena, a pregnant woman for the fourth time after her first three girls, personifies the grit of a self-respecting woman in the trying phase of her life. Yaqoob abandons his wife and the children in the wake of a clandestinely conducted test that reveals the sex of the unborn as female. When Haseena’s attempts to win back her rickshaw driver husband fail, she does not mind him marrying another girl in lieu of the meher she is entitled to, all the while struggling to collect enough fund to restore the vision of her blind first born. She seeks the intervention of the religious heads who unfortunately are busy saving their skin. As she mounts up the fight for justice she is subjected to a lot of cruelty by her once-loving husband. Finally she loses the girl for whose treatment she was fighting all through. Haseena rejects the alimony which she could not get when she needed it the most. She feels justice delayed is justice denied.
Though it is mainly the story of Haseena, effectively intertwined are the sufferings of the women in different strata of the community. Thanks to the scriptures misconstrued the women suffer silently. The mutavalli’s wife is a child bearing machine as sterilization is misunderstood as against the law. Even the progressive enlightened employer of Haseena who helps her in her battle is homebound, again thanks to the religion.
All the actors have done justice to their roles. The act of the blind girl, most probably from the Ramana Maharshi School for Blind, is appealing. But her death at the end appears too unrealistic. Despite the intervention of many people present at the spot how Yaqoob could kick his wife in the process killing the daughter. But overall it’s a good movie. The techniques used to narrate the story offer a serious movie watcher many more meanings than the obvious one. You would never get distracted not even for a moment.
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September 17, 2011 Indira Acharya
Here is my take on the way the Tulu is spoken by a liberal mix of Hindi by the Mumbai Tulu community!.. It appeared in today’s Udayavani.. Please read on…Hintulu
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September 9, 2011 Indira Acharya
How the cosmetic industry is selling dreams and hopes as well to the people who want to be ever green … an article of mine appeared in today’s Udayavani Kannada Daily… please read on .Mareechike
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September 7, 2011 Indira Acharya
When the hype over the annual ritual called Teachers’ Day is settling down, I was quite touched by an incident my son a fourth-standard student explained to me. In his school the students up to fourth standard (primary section) had a holiday on September 5. Only the secondary section students were the audience for the day’s function. All the teachers received a gift on the stage as their names were called out. Students were applauding and cheering for their teachers as they were handed over the gift. Good. But….The euphoria was conspicuously absent when the primary teachers went up on the dais as they did not have their real-time students on the occasion. But these very teachers had taught the older students in their primary classes. One among the hurt lot who happens to be my son’s class teacher told this to the children in her class and advised them not to forget their teachers once they pass out.
The point here is that a day has come where a teacher is requesting students not to forget her when it is the duty of every student to remember his/her teacher who played a constructive role in his/her formative years. When the students refuse to acknowledge teachers’ contribution in a short period after passing out, I wonder do all those who wax eloquent about teachers’ contribution later in life really mean what they say.
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