Should prostitution be legalised?

Prostitution is rightly called the oldest profession. Since the time human beings started living in communities, various kings / governments / leaders have tried to banish it - using all powers at their disposal - but at best, have succeeded in just "sweeping it under the carpet". What is so repulsive about this commercial activity that brings out the worst hypocricy inside us?

[1] Can it be banned? : I don't think we even need to discuss this. It has survived every legislation and instead of diminishing in magnitude, has actually prospered. Since it is closely related to basic human instincts, laws are bound to prove ineffective. Have we been able to , for example, ban sale and consumption of alcohol in Wardha district? An administrative ban on prostitution is just not implementable - period!

[2] Does this profession morally corrupt the society? : Since every town and city in India has a "red light area", this question is superfluous. If you think closely, very little of the corruption that we have imbibed in our life-style could be attributed to this profession. Some of our movies would have a far more corrupting influence and we don't seem to be overtly worried about them. 'Strong family ties' is one of the main pillars of our culture. I don't think it is so weak for us to get unduly worried. Do we decide not to send our children (say for higher education and greener pastures thereafter) to the WEST (where there is immensely more "social - gender -mixing") just because we are afraid that the society there will corrupt their morals?

[3] Does the profession exploit the poor and the uneducated? : Well, there are parallels and we don't seem to be worried much about them. Are we not trying to tackle the problem of "child labour" which seems to affect a similar segment of people? And oh yes, what about freedom to convert from one religion to another? Isn't this a problem restricted to the downtrodden? Has anyone approached you (educated and financially well off) to market their religion? So if we don't seem to mind people selling their souls why should we be so worried about some deciding to sell their bodies. If prostitution is legalised, forcible induction of nubile girls (who have been lured with other promises) will actually come down because it will be easier to detect and punish people who perpetrate such crimes. The traditional image of a heartless pimp (as projected by Bollywood movies) will actually improve. Legalising prostitution will remove the veil of secrecy (because so much hanky panky goes on in this vocation) and actually help the players involved.

[4] What about the fear of spreading AIDS? : By legalising this profession, we will be able to tackle this problem far more effectively. Every commercial sex worker (CSW) will have to possess a renewable valid licence. Appointed medical experts will actually be able to ensure that AIDS does not spread.

[5] Will recognising this trade be a blot on our conservative culture? : We look down upon (a) consumption of alcohol; (b) eating of non veg food; (c) smoking and (d) infidelity in marriage - as the worst that a person can do to tarnish the image of our conservative culture. All our epics are replete with multiple examples of all these alleged vices. By arguing on these lines, can we not be accused of selective amnesia?

Friends, I am all for giving this trade a legitimate status. The advantages far outweigh the minuses. Imagine CSWs getting loans to spruce up their place of business, being included in government national health care schemes, enjoying provident fund and other benefits, enjoying some schemes that will educate their लावारिस children and in general being able to hold their head higher than what they can presently do.

I predict that the number of commercial sex workers will actually come down once these changes are brought about. Now isn't that what we want to happen?

Do Blessings (आशीर्वाद) or Prayers (प्रार्थना) really work?

The mildest form of blessing is the casual "good morning" that we utter when we meet someone and I guess the strongest one is the traditional अष्ट पुत्र सौभाग्यवती भव् (May you beget eight sons and may your husband be alive) given to a newly married woman. Do you think that these or other blessings would come true just because they have been uttered in sincerity and goodwill by the giver?

There is no doubt that the giver of blessings is your well wisher but does he or she possess some power (it will have to be supernatural) to determine your future? If this was so, why would we have ever worked hard to achieve our objectives? It is obvious that receiving blessings makes us feel good so we readily convince ourselves that they are indeed going to come true. There are some amongst us who hanker after "blessings" - they would go out of their way (a visit to Shirdi or Tirupati?) to receive them in the mistaken belief that this act will somehow ensure success in their venture. There are others who get addicted to this process and keep seeking opportunities to ask for blessings - for nothing in particular (If you don't know where to go how will you ever reach there?). You must remember that projects succeed because of your thoroughness and hard work and they fail because you goofed up somewhere. Blessings only make you "feel good".

We often "pray" to an Almighty power (now you have got to be religious to do this because the existence of such an almighty power has never been demonstrated under neutral conditions) for success, wealth, happiness, even 'rains' and many times for the defeat of our enemies (though these enemies are creations of the same almighty power). We must have prayed thousands of time in our life but have you ever statistically calculated the rate of success of our prayers? In your business, would you choose a media for your next advertisement before analysing the enquiries that the last one generated? It is obvious that we pray more for our own satisfaction (at having done our best) than really achieving success in whatever we are requesting the Almighty power to do for us. So brain washed are we that if inspite of our sincere prayers, things do not happen as intended, we never blame the Almighty ( Henry Kissinger once famously said "the advantage of being a celebrity speaker is that even when you are boring the audience to death, they feel it is their fault).

Blessings and prayers do give us a sense of calmness and composure (मनः शांती) which eventually leads to better performance but we must understand that they could generate a false sense of security. For adults, I would strongly recommend meditation (ध्यान) which generates the same kind of mental strength without the side effects.

WHAT IF THIS REALLY HAPPENS?

I am a fan of Jules Verne, the famous writer of science fiction. If you read his books (written about 100 years ago), you will be spooked at how close his imagination was to the way things have turned out to be. So this week, I decided to let my imagination soar into the realm of what looks impossible, today!

I would be happy to receive inputs from all of you about many implications of these wild thoughts - if they were to really come true, some day. Don't think logically - let the dreamer inside you take over.

What if men could become pregnant?

• It would be a boon to working couples. They could take turns at getting pregnant so that their careers did not suffer.
• This could be the magical breakthrough to achieve genuine gender equality.
• Men would also be afraid of getting raped by a woman. They will be back home before it is too dark.
• Will fathers become as loving (as todays mothers are) towards their offsprings?

What if we had "thought controlled" devices?

• Imagine, you just have to look at your cellphone and remember your friend's telephone number and presto... it reads your mind and starts dialling.
• Doctors have been telling us that our brain works on minute electrical impulses so we require some genius to amplify those micro voltages and then make normal electronic devices (like the cell phone) work.
• Indian Airforce would love it. In modern dogfights between two sophisticated "fighter planes" it is really a question of which pilot presses the button and releases the missile first - "technology" decides everything thereafter. The missile could now be released, the moment the thought of doing so gets formed in the pilot's brain.
• I could connect a LCD projector to my brain and project on screen, the view of river Thames which I can clearly recall from my last visit to London.

What if "memory" could be transplanted from one brain to another?

• We routinely transfer data from one CD to another so what's the difference here? We could now produce thousands of "CV Ramans" and "Einsteins".
• Colleges and entrance examinations would no longer be necessary. Imagine downloading, say the entire MBBS syllabus, into the brain of the person interested in becoming a doctor. Spending years to study for a degree would be a thing of the past. Colleges would only have Ph.D. students doing research on hitherto unknown aspects of a subject.

What if doctors could remove the brain and keep it functional, even after a persons' death?The brain of a Nobel laureate in say Physics could continue grappling and solving complicated problems in Physics, long after the person has passed away. I remember having read somewhere that this is really being researched.

What if politicians start behaving honestly?

I think I am now really letting my imagination get the better of me. This has neither happened in the past nor will happen in the future (न भूतो न भविष्यति )

Do you agree with your religion's philosophy??

Do you know the philosophical tenets of your religion and more importantly, do you agree with them?? Or do you just take pride (गर्व से कहो ...) in being a Hindu (or Muslim, or Christian, or Sikh, or Parsi) knowing fully well that it was a mere statistical accident that you got born in this family of yours. Now don't confuse rituals with philosophy. For example, reciting shlokas and worshipping (सत्य नारायण की पूजा) in the prescribed manner does not make you a better Hindu. Have you ever tried to find out what makes your religion, philosophically different from others?

Let us make a beginning. Let's identify the main principles of Hinduism and I would request my friends from other religions to inform us "bullet points" of what their religion's philosophy is!

1. Rebirth: (पुनर्जन्म): A person is reborn, depending on his deeds of the previous birth. The highest form of birth is as a human being but as a mark of punishment for your bad deeds, you could get reborn as a cocroach or a dog or whatever...


2. Salvation: (मोक्ष): Everyone should aspire to behave so well in a particular birth that he / she gets out of this cycle of rebirth. You would have then achieved the final salvation. Rebirth is thus a "reward - punishment" mechanism.


3. Principle of non - duality (अद्वैत ): Hindu philosophy postulates that everything in this world is a part of the same entity; it even extends this logic by stating that the "creator" (निर्माता ) and the "creations" (निर्मिती) are one & the same thing. According to this tenet, there is thus no point in hating others - they are really a part of yourself - does the right hand ever hate the left hand??


4. Destiny (नसीब): Our destinies are pre-written by the creator and we are mere pawns on a chessboard playing out our life as decreed by HIM (GOD is always a male). Is this why we Hindus are a laid back lot, convinced that we can't change what is pre-ordained for us?


5. Extreme Tolerance: Hinduism should really be a delight to all modernists who value their independence above everything else - [a] it admits that their could be other paths leading to GOD; [b] it gives complete liberty to its followers to choose any GOD of his/her choice & their are many to choose from; [c] it does not have strict dress or appearance codes; [d] it allows you to use your own methods of worship; [e] it does not want to 'market' itself and spread amongst those who do not belong to its fold; [f] it is so liberal that it even sanctions atheism as a legitimate pursuit.


6. Living life "fully": It decrees that the four life stages viz ब्रह्मचर्य (before marriage) , गृहस्ताश्रम (married life and raising a family), वानप्रस्थाश्रम ( delegation of authority to children and spending time in contemplation) and finally संन्यास (detatchement from family and renunciation of worldly pleasures), have different objectives and need to be lived and enjoyed fully and robustly.


7. Fully concentrating on the process of achieving your objectives without excessive botheration about the end result: This is the famous teaching of Bhagwadgita (कर्मण्ये वा धिकार्स्ये माँ फले तू कदाचन). A person is called upon to perform different duties in different life stages and these thoughts should really be his guiding principles.

Now this is what Hinduism stands for. Truthfully, I would personally agree to only 5, 6 & 7 of the above. Next time I am filling up a form which asks me to state my religion, I should honestly write 40% Hindu (3 upon 7).

I eagerly await similar inputs for other religions.

Purity Rings - the latest FAD

I am amazed (& that's an understatement) at this latest obsession that seems to have caught on in the western countries. Times of India reported a few weeks ago that youngsters in the west (read USA) are now flaunting PURITY RINGS (पवित्रता की अंगूठियां) worn on their fingers (thank GOD for that) as a confirmation of their virginity and also their intention to guard it zealously until they found a suitable life partner. Now I thought India had a copyright on that philosophy. I had heard of chastity belts being used by kings in the olden days when they went to war and wanted their wives to remain faithful during their long absence - but this concept of purity rings just took my breath away.

How did such a thought take root in a society that is so obsessed with SEX? The average age of boys having their first sexual experience in these nations is 12. Fidelity in marriage is ordained by the church but looked upon as an un-necessary burden diluting personal freedom. Anyone who has not used the back seat of a car for their "aaahs and ooohs" during a date, is considered positively backward. Here the biggest worry of a mother of teenage daughters is about the efficacy of the pill that she mixed in her daughters milk, before she went on her date. One night stands are as normal as drinking a glass of water when you are thirsty. While we in India are aping all this in the name of modernity and self liberation, how can our role models ditch us like this and be so prudish and oh .. so backward??

I see two reasons for this चमत्कार.

1. Elementary economics tells us that the price (and perceived value) of an entitiy that is abundantly available goes down. Private consensual SEX is indeed abundantly available in the West since their are no taboos like in the East. This self denial like सोमवार का उपवास will surely elevate the status of the act and that of the (non) doer.
2. The more likely cause is the fear of AIDS. Having a single partner, making sacrifices for him (like preserving ones virginity) have therefore gained a lot of importance.

These days, I scan Times of India every day for a report that writes about how करवा चौथ has become a rage in America and how married women are actually praying to have the same husband in the next seven births (I know Christianity does not approve of this पर ज़रा मेरी भावनाओं को समझो). I am worried though that by the time this happens, Indian mothers of teenage daughters would be fretting about the quality of the pill they put in her Bourn vita before she left for a date.