Let's look into causes and 'paw'- es

Today is International Day of the Girl Child — and yes, we do need a day that actually makes us focus on issues that need attention. And yes, we’re still a country that’s existing with difficult dualities: worshipping the feminine divine (even the country is referred to in the feminine, a motherland, as opposed to a fatherland) on the one hand, and wrestling with the as-yet-disturbing female infanticide numbers on the other. A Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation 2010 report actually demonstrates that the population of young girls is falling in India, according to a recent news report. Women are way behind men on many important counts, including  education. A scary trend…so what are we going to do about it?

And yet another fashion fiesta wrapped up in the city on Tuesday. Glad to see how some designers embraced social and conservational causes. Cynics point out that for a few, these causes were mandatory, their sponsors were the ones endorsing them. But the circumstances hardly matter, what matters is that these causes are given attention, so as to elicit awareness. B-town favourite Manish Malhotra’s show backed the ‘Save the Tiger’ initiative of a cell network provider, and considering that India has only 1,411 tigers left (number of lions left even fewer, but that’s another story) any attention in support, is welcome. Especially ahead of World Wildlife Week, starting October 1.

And the debacle that is the upcoming Commonwealth Games continues to be in the eye of a storm. It is frightening, the possibility of the venue being pinpointed as a terror target, but to be at the venue, and imagine self/others becoming sitting ducks for collapsing bridges and infrastructure in the light of recent reports is inexcusable. The former might possibly be outside one’s control, the latter is the point of control. Always quick on the uptake, social networking sites are already venting views, but the SMS network is even faster. To quote a bit of (black) humour that went round the city like lightning on SMS last two days, highlighting this really disturbing national issue:

‘_________(Fill in the blank-won’t mention official’s name here) just tried to hang himself in the CWG  stadium, New Delhi… but the ceiling collapsed.’