I personally do not believe too much in special days and anniversaries including the ones that come and go in my own life. It may surprise and even shock you if I told you that although I have stepped into the wrong side of the fifties, I have never cut a birthday cake or blown a single birthday candle over all these years.

Incidentally, while birthdays and anniversaries have been very much a part of our personal lives for the past so many years, it is only over the recent past that this new tradition of earmarking a special day in the year for almost everything has crept in. And, ever since we have started doing this it is no surprise that we have been adding new special days to the now already long list. I feel that at the rate at which we are going, it will not be very long before we run out of place in the 365 day long year for all the special days we would like to observe.

International Women’s Day has come and gone as it has been doing over the recent past. But it has not gone unnoticed going by the attention it has been getting specially in our country in the form of discussions, seminars and special events connected with it even two weeks after the actual date has come and gone. If you pick up the morning paper or switch on the television, you will still find groups of scholars, socialites, activists and the ubiquitous politicians sitting at lengthy meetings and discussing at length about how the Indian woman's lot can be improved.

I simply do not understand why women’s groups are naive enough to invite politicians to these sessions. While vehemently opposing the thirty three percent reservation that is intended to be earmarked for a fifty percent population both in our Parliament and in other walks of life, they talk about how our women can be better empowered. And, while some of them, including those that hold high offices, have been guilty of committing the most shameful acts against helpless women from time to time, they talk about how life can be made safer for members of the fair sex. But I feel that all the attention this subject has been getting in our country is a sheer waste. I say this because I have been observing that despite growing awareness of women's rights, crimes against women have been seeing a sharp upswing over the recent past in our country.

No day passes without some report of some woman having been molested or murdered in the most brutal manner. Very often the perpetrators are never found, especially because they happen to be well - connected which results in deliberate destruction of the material evidence and scuttling of the cases by the investigation agencies. In the rare instance of the investigation agencies doing a meticulous and through job of pin pointing the accused, well paid defence lawyers weaken the cases on technical grounds. In the much rarer instance of the courts finally convicting the accused, our laws and legal system are so benevolent to wrong doers that the sentences only increase the anguish and frustration of the victim's families and relatives.

Of what use is our legal system when someone who is accused of either the rape or murder or both of a helpless woman gets just seven years of imprisonment with a fine of about Rs. 10,000 which is what we read of regularly as the wages of sin. How will our laws deter crimes against women when the high and mighty gets acquitted on flimsy technical grounds? All our courts and our strongest judges simply become helpless when the fines and punishments enshrined in our legal system are weak and meaningless. If crimes against women have to stop and if the position of our women has to become stronger and more dignified we have to first revamp our legal system and make it technically foolproof so that it really deters crimes against women. That is what women's groups and all right thinking people should fight for not just once a year on International Women's Day but on every single day of the year.

Fukushima Fallout:
Japan is going through a most painful and distressing time right now due to a tragic mix of the effects of nature’s fury on man made technology. While what has happened there is indeed a great tragedy both in terms of human suffering and lives lost, it should serve as a gentle wake up call for all nations of the world to reconsider nuclear options both for peaceful and martial purposes. While the rest of the world seems to be worried about how best the aftermath of the disaster can be contained, we in India seem to be eager only in making fools of ourselves. Every other Indian both literate and illiterate seems to have become a self appointed nuclear physicist going by the shameful preoccupation that we have developed for sending senseless SMS messages to one another.

Over the past few days, my mobile phone has been inundated with messages from both known and unknown people about how we can all overcome the ill effects of the radiation that we all seem destined to get in the next few days. Among the many other things that they tell us to do, the messages say that people should paint their throats with Betadine to protect their thyroid glands which seem to be especially vulnerable to the harmful effects of radiation.

Now nothing could be farther from the truth. Betadine is just an antiseptic lotion which apart from killing any bacteria on the skin will only colour your throat region a bright yellowish brown. It cannot protect you against any radiation. And, the rest of your body is no less prone to the effects of radiation than your thyroid gland which can preferentially take up radiation only if it is administered medically in a combination of iodine for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.

It is time we stopped this mass hysteria and stopped forwarding messages which make no scientific sense. If there is any real threat to us Indians I am sure our government under the guidance of our qualified nuclear scientists will tell us what we should do. Until then let us stop pushing panic buttons on our cell phones.