"Go Corona Go", The Perils Of Drunken Driving And Patriarchy's New Lows
In the April edition of It Happens Only In India: menstruation taboos, a ritual to get rid of coronavirus and drunken-driving shenanigans
illustration by Raju Epuri
Recently, patriarchy sunk to a new low. Swami Krushnaswarup Dasji, a religious leader Gujarat sermonized that menstruating women, who cook for their husbands are cursed to be reborn as “bitches”. As for the men who dare eat the “polluted” food, they can look forward to being reincarnated as bovines. Dasji claimed, he was simply invoking the shastras. The aforementioned cleric is associated with the Swaminarayan Temple, which runs a college in Bhuj. The administration of the same institution that was in the news, earlier this year, for forcing over 60 women to remove their undergarments to check if they were menstruating. Why? The hostel had a rule that women on their period were forbidden to eat their meals with the other residents, which is equal parts revolting and ridiculous.
Source: The Hindu
***
The price for drunken driving can be high, but this one was a whopper. Rishabh Arora, a stockbroker from Noida, was driving back from Saturday night partying. He stopped by the road at Noida’s Sector 90, alighted from his BMW car to relieve himself quickly, hoping that no one would notice. The next thing he knew was some miscreants had zoomed off with his luxury vehicle.The car belonged to Arora’s brother-in-law,who still has a 40 lakh rupees loan on it. His misfortune aside, was Arora booked for drunk driving? The answer is no. Deputy Commissioner of Police, Central Noida, Harish Chander told the Press Trust of India (PTI), “The priority is to recover the BMW and ensure arrest of the culprits.” Though Arora claimed that a gun was involved in the carjacking, the police seemed a bit skeptical of his account as he, according to them, was “highly drunk”. Is it too much to expect that drunken drivers and those who target them stay off the road?
Source: indiatoday.in
With a pandemic raging around us, you would think that our elected representatives would disseminate correct information and ensure shutting down gibberish regarding this public health emergency. Well, that’s not what happened. On the contrary, the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Ramdas Athawale, in the presence of the Chinese Consul General, Tang Guocai, decided to huddle up in a circle at Mumbai’s Gateway of India and chant “Go, Corona, go”. This was at a prayer meet, organized to stop the spread of the pandemic in China. Athawale’s chant was met with suitable derision and disbelief but has now gone viral through some catchy remixes and Tik-Tok videos.
