Onam, a secular festival was celebrated today.

Onam is a traditional harvest festival. It is also a secular festival, celebrated mainly in Kerala, India. Malayalees all over the world celebrated Onam today.

They sing a secular song during Onam festival.
‘Maveli nadu vaneedum kalam,
manusharellarum onnupole
amodhathode vasikkum kalam
apathangarkkumottillathanum
kallavum illa chathiyumilla
ellolamilla polivachanam
kallapparayum cherunazhiyum
kallatharangal mattonnumilla
adhikal vyadhikalonnumilla
balamaranangal kelppanilla’

‘When Maveli ruled the land,
All the people were equal.
And people were joyful and merry;
They were all free from harm.
There was neither anxiety nor sickness,
Deaths of children were unheard of,
There were no lies,
There was neither theft nor deceit,
And no one was false in speech either.
Measures and weights were right;
No one cheated or wronged his neighbor.
When Maveli ruled the land,
All the people formed one casteless races.’

A few days ago, I was invited to celebrate pookalam, the flower decoration for Onam. Those pookalams made of different flowers of different colours look so beautiful! Only Malayalees could make those. I spent wonderful time with secular Malayalees. I didn’t dance but had Sadya, the Onam food.

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I wish people of different ages, genders, races, colours, casts, cultures, ethnicities, languages, traditions, religions, sexual orientations and whatever would live together peacefully in India. Onam is a symbol of unity. Unity is so much needed in India, the most diverse country in the world. The world badly needs unity. We humans still hate and kill our fellow humans in the name of almost everything. We need to be better, don’t we?

Happy Onam everyone.

An 8-year-old girl died after being brutally raped by her 40-year-old husband on her wedding night.

Yemeni girl died after wedding night.

Yemen’s human rights minister wants child marriage outlawed after an 8-year-old girl reportedly died of internal injuries that she suffered on her wedding night. When reports emerged last week that a girl named Rawan, from the northern Yemeni town of Haradh, died a few days after being married off to a 40-year-old man, Yemenis were horrified. International outrage quickly grew, as the alleged incident highlighted once again the extremely controversial issue of child marriage in Yemen — a country where the practice is still legal. Residents of Haradh told local media outlets that Rawan’s cause of death was internal bleeding, believed to be the result of sexual intercourse that tore her uterus and other organs.

The man who raped her to death is a modern day Muhammad. Muhammad raped carefully 1400 years ago. He did not tear his child bride’s uterus and other internal organs. But in the 21st century, when the world is against child marriage, rape and violence, Yemeni man raped his child bride to death. The prophet was forgiven, the Yemeni pedophile and murderer must not be forgiven.

Yemeni human rights activists are asking the government to ban on child marriage, but the leading religious clerics are saying that restricting the age of marriage is un-Islamic. I think, whatever the Islamists say or do, the state must have a law against child marriage. Child marriage is irrational, irresponsible, idiotic, inhumane, insane and Islamic. It is always better to be un-Islamic.

Child marriage is quite common in Yemen. In 2008, 10-year-old Yemeni girl Nujood Ali went to a court and asked for a divorce from her husband. After a highly publicized trial, she was granted one. In 2010, a 12-year-old Yemeni bride died of internal bleeding three days after she was married off to an older man.

We know about Nada Al-Ahdal, the brave Yemeni child who wants education, not marriage.

Not only Nada Al-Ahdal, all Yemeni children need education, not marriage.

Muslim girls must join swim classes.

German court rules Muslim girls must join swim classes.

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A German court ruled on Wednesday that Muslim girls must take part in school swimming lessons with boys, in a landmark decision that touches on the sensitive relationship between religion and the state.

The decision by Germany’s top court for public and administrative disputes signals that the state’s constitutional obligation to educate children can take precedence over customs and practices linked to an individual’s religious beliefs.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her center-right government have sought dialogue with the country’s roughly four-millions Muslims, but have also said they must make an effort to integrate and learn German.

The Court has made a very good decision to make immigrants integrated to German society. Europe must not have sharia laws that discriminate against women. Germany, the country of equality must not accept to have a new set of laws or culture that don’t ensure equality and parity of women. If girls do not want to wear bikini, they can wear funny burkini, but they must swim. Germany is a secular state, no religious prejudices are allowed in the public schools. All students, regardless of their gender and religion, have to participate in the school curriculum.

When girls say they don’t want to swim in a pool where boys swim, they are not girls, they are just brainwashed beings with no thinking mind. They are their conservative religious parents or their madrasa teachers.

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Sex segregation is a harmful notion that reinforces a sexual hierarchy in society. No one should accept sex segregation in the name of religions that are based on fables and ancient mythology.

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How to stop rape

Four men likely to be sentenced to hang for gang-rape and murder of 23-year-old woman on bus in Delhi last year.

I think, we will not be able to stop rape by executing all the rapists in the world. Rape will be continued until we abolish patriarchy, and make a macho-culture and misogyny free world.

In the meantime, we can try our best to educate men to understand that rape is a crime, and they must not rape. Almost all men already know that rape is a crime. It is not very difficult for them to stop rape. They can do it only if they want.

Kidero must resign

Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero slapped women’s representative Rachel Shebesh and quickly forgot that he slapped her.

The misogynist Governor is so proud of himself, he has slapped a woman, and it is so insignificant incidence in his life that he does not even need to remember. His misogynist supporters ask him not to apologize for his crime and urge him to slap her twice if she comes again.

Sane women and men from all over the world should demand for the resignation anf punishment of Kidero. It is dangerous if you allow a filthy misogynist to stay in the office. If Governments are anti-women, public will be anti-women. Misogyny is contagious. Misogynists are always anti-democracy, anti-human rights, anti-free speech.
For the sake of humanity it is urgently necessary to replace misogynists with feminist men or women.

My day with monkeys

I bought dozens of bananas and went to Dalhousie road in Delhi. Lots of beautiful, elegant, intelligent monkeys ran towards me to get bananas. I tried to distribute bananas among them in equal shares. But it was impossible to make them stand in a queue. I did not want alpha males to snatch bananas from oppressed monkeys.

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They love bananas. Wish I could feed them everyday. But the traffic police around the road was not happy with me, they asked me to stop feeding monkeys. I didn’t know that it was illegal to feed monkeys on the road. Why should love and care be illegal? They don’t find food in the jungle, so they came to the city. Why shouldn’t we feed them when there is almost no traffic and they are very hungry!

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He is eating one, protecting another.

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He got 3 bananas. But his hands are not free. So he is peeling the banana with his mouth. They are smarter than me.

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Taliban killed a Bengali woman.

I personally knew Sushmita Banerjee. She came to my home to tell her stories when I lived in Kolkata in 2004-2007. She told me many horror stories of her life– how she a Bengali woman married an Afghan and how she escaped from Afghanistan, came back to Kolkata, wrote her memoir, and became popular overnight.

I was really shocked when I heard that Sushmita was shot dead by the Taliban in Afghanistan. I have no idea why she went to Afghanistan. Her decision of going back to that country was no doubt wrong. Was that for love? Love kills women.

Sushmita escaped the Taliban in 1995. This year she returned to Afghanistan, the country which was supposed to be better now, and started working as a health assistence at a local hospital. After months of working quite peacefully, Sushmta had to die. The Taliban came to her husband’s house at night, tied up her husband and others, dragged her out of the house and killed her! Do the Taliban need to tie up others when they kill one? May be they need. Or maybe they don’t. Maybe someone from her in-laws informed the Taliban that Sushmita, the ‘immoral woman’, who fled husband’s house and wrote bad about them was there, maybe those men knew about her deeds and whereabouts from other sources. Or they were angry with her because she worked outside home and gave vaccines. Polio activists get killed in those areas. Maybe she did not wear her burqa properly. I can’t stop thinking of her.

I do not know about the conspiracy behind killing Sushmita, but I know why she was killed. She was killed, no matter by whom, the Taliban or not, because of patriarchy , misogyny and religion.

Prayer doesn’t work, and you know it, Mr. Pope!

Pope announced a day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria.

Francis is asking people to join him next weekend in a day of fasting for peace in Syria. Francis invited people of all faiths to join him Saturday evening in St. Peter’s Square to invoke the “gift” of peace for Syria, the rest of the Middle East and worldwide where there is conflict. Declaring “no more war,” Francis spoke to tens of thousands of people gathered in the square on Sunday. He says the “world needs to see gestures of peace and hear words of peace.” He says that only dialogue, and not armed intervention, can end Syria’s civil war. The five-hour-long prayer vigil in the square Saturday will last until midnight.

Mr. Pope, I believe you know very well that prayer and fasting do not work. Could you show any evidence of a successful prayer or fasting? I don’t think you will be able to show anything. Why don’t you cancel your stupid prayer program and try to motivate warmongers to stop war? You guys always fool around. For once, just stop it.