JORU KA GULAM BADGES ;)

Along with a new definition for Joru Ka Gulam we had also requested for contributions for the JKG Badge Contest. We received nine entries. JKG Kislay, our Honor'ble Judge had no hope for mutton biryani (or any bribe in any other form) because we went out of our way to hide all the names from him (except one).

So please treat him now!!

And please don't forget to mention which one is your favorite and most suitable for the Reader's Choice Award.

1.

By Aritra Chatterjee :)


This badge created by Aritra Chatterjee has been chosen by our honor'ble judge, HRE JKG Kislay Chandra, as the 'Official JKG Badge'.


2.

By Freya.


JKG Kislay also loved this badge and declared it the second official JKG Badge.



3.

This badge by Solilo Don is his third choice :)

When a man says "I make hot rotis for my wife.", he might find himself being called a Joru Ka Gulam.



4.

By Freya again :)



This is the coolest looking badge for a sidebar!!


5.
By Homecooked.




Homecooked created this cute looking badge. Traditionally any man who shows affection to his wife is labelled a Joru Ka Gulam.


6.
By Vikas Gupta.

Is chosen by JKG Kislay for

JUDGES' SPECIAL MENTION AWARD

JKG Vikas Gupta II Vikas's Entry Number 3 touches upon the expectation that a woman must change her surname to her husband's when she is married A man is not expected to make any changes to his name though. Any man who does not insist upon this surname changing (sometimes even the first name is changed) risks being labelled a Joru Ka Gulam.


7.
This one is by Freya, thank you for calling him JKG-IN-CHIEF Freya :)


SRK JKG in chief

He's extremely popular amongst women, not just because he is considered hot but because he has changed the way Bollywood husbands spoke of their wives i.e. NEVER!

SRK is not a super star for nothing. He is a feminist and he is not apologetic about it. I have blogged about this here and here.


8.

This badge by Freya emphasises the belief we have that some chores are too lowly for men (so women should do them).


It's often the mothers and even wives who object to men doing these chores. So if a man says he doesn't mind doing the dishes, there's horror and embarrassment for the wife, "Did she actually let him do the dishes!!!"

When he says he loves doing the dishes?

... scandal.


9.
This badge is also created by Freya ... thank you for your contributions Freya!



It's expected of women to be devoted and 'obedient' to their husbands, if a man as much as shows affection he is declared henpecked. The best answer to any such labelling is to wear it with pride.

Which one did you like the best?!
Please choose which badge deserves the Reader's Choice Award!

TO COMMENT CLICK HERE.

Why Do Women Like Shah Rukh Khan?

Amongst a million zillion other reasons…

In an interview with Simi Garewal she asks him. (Writing from memory, there are sure to be many errors).

“You are sensitive. You respect women. You love your wife! You understand how women feel (etc) … do you think that makes you a little like a woman in some ways? …Effeminate? ”

I have no doubts that even the coolest JKGs would have been unhappy to hear this last line. We know what this question can imply. And how it can label a man in India!

(If a man is described as a woman it means, he is weak, he gossips, he quarrels, he has no muscles, he is a bad driver, he loves to make gajar ka halwa for his spouse, women do not think he is attractive, he pouts if he does not get enough attention from his spouse, he puts his family before his career, he cries easily… etc ).

So what does Shahrukh Khan say? He couldn’t possibly have started a tirade against stereotypes, (which would have been great, though!), so he takes a short cut. He gets his famous look on his face and says,

“.… to be compared to a woman is an honor. I have a lot of a woman in me.”

There was more and it got Simi Garewal her famous ‘awww’ look on her face.

Simi Garewal like many of us believes that Mamta Banerji, Kiran Bedi, my maid who dragged her neighbour off the water tanker with his hair, my other maid who has been thrown out of her house, Mayawati, my grandmother who read Ramayana every morning, Sushma Swaraj, Sonia Gandhi, Pooja Chopra’s mother can all be described very simply in one word, ‘sensitive’. And if a man is sensitive he is being ‘like a woman’.

Most people are wary of labels, because labels put an official stamp on stereotypes, but in India the biggest insult for a man is to tell him he is like a woman. Shahrukh Khan made a compliment of it. Here’s a man who shamelessly flaunts his sensitivity. Dares to show he cares. Loves his family, loves even the daughter. What’s amazing, he talks about his wife with ease, how they met, how they fell in love, and since he is sincere he epitomizes the kind of guy many Indian girls can take home to their mothers.

So how can I object to his using my blog name for a book on his life?

Solilo sent me this, Thank You Solilo!

Are We Still Friends?

Finally I have moved this blog to WORDPRESS.

To subscribe to the new blog in Reader or to receive updates in your In box, please click below.

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/wordpress/QiZq

My new address is

http://indianhomemaker.wordpress.com/

Please do visit!!
:)

You'd like to move to Wordpress too? Read all about how easy I found moving was - and also feel free to ask any questions here :)

Moving From Blogspot to Wordpress

When I started blogging last January, I had created two blogs, one in Blogger, one in Word Press. Both with the same name. Somehow the blogger blog was where the first few posts were published, and then it went on to become an online home :)

Life changed. The world became blog tinted. The Word Press Blog was abandoned. Blogger had me blogaddicted :)

I guess this was because Blogger is easier to use.

Recently when Solilo and Chirag convinced Indyeah, and Indyeah convinced Hitchwriter and Hitchwriter convinced Ordinary Guy and OG convinced Smitha - maybe not in that exact sequence ;) I did not need any convincing :) Roop, Nimmy, Nita, Charakan, Reflections and many other blogging friends had complained that they were finding it difficult to comment, specially from their cell phones. And then I read this helpful post by Destination Infinity where he mentions how he has two blogs one on Blogger and another one on Word Press and he updates both with the same content.

Everybody said Word Press is better than Blogger but I didn't like the idea of leaving behind older content, specially all the discussions and comments. When I read that the content from the first blog, with all the comments, could be imported with one click of a button, to a new blog, the decision was made.

It turned out to be the easiest thing to do. After consulting Hitchwiter, Ajit, Chirag, Destination Infinity and Solilo (THANK YOU!) a copy of all the Blogspot blog content- all posts and all comments were easily imported to the Word Press Blog.

One difficulty was the header from the first blog could not be used for the new blog (size difference). Creating a new one sounds like a lot of fun, so no problem there either.

Copying the blogroll is easy if we follow Chirag's tips in this post. (I am yet to do this.)

I am yet to sort all the categories, and try all the exciting options available in Word Press, this is my first post on WP, (Started writing it on Blogspot, imported to WP - yes 142 drafts were imported too!)

How does Word Press compare with Blogspot?

1. Word Press is great for comments threading , comments editing, moderating, replying to comments.

2. Writing posts is easier too, with an extra interesting option of strike through :) I always wanted this. There are many other features too. Still enjoying the surprises :) It's as good as using Microsoft Word.

3. Then there are BLOG STATS .

Blog stats look like this. (This means we do not need widgets like Feedjit, Live Traffic Feed in WP, but I read somewhere that these widgets can be added to Word Press too)
Blog Stats Summary Tables

Total views: 49

Busiest day: 24 — Monday, April 6, 2009

Views today: 24
Totals

Posts: 216 (imported from Blogger)

Comments: 9,750 (imported from Blogger)

Categories: 255

Tags: 0

4. You can also see Referrers and Search Engine Terms the same way.

5. Categories are another feature that make it easier for blog readers to look for what interest them. Like I found some readers were interested in reading only Family posts or only Gender related posts, Blog Spot does not have Categories - and I missed that.

6. Word press also lets you choose who can see your blog, in case you wish to have a blog for just your family, or a group of like minded people you have that option!

7. I think what might be easier in Blog Spot is it is easier to use and decorate :) You can add a wider range of fun widgets.

8. The ease of importing, the the excitement of redecorating a new home are tempting, but the biggest charm that Word Press has is the ease of replying to comments. Blogging is interactive, and being able to respond to comments was important for me.

Do you think this move will be good idea?

What would Taliban say to Juno?

Note: The same post also available at http://indianhomemaker.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/what-would-taliban-say-to-juno/

This video can be very disturbing.





"Please stop it," she begs, alternately whimpering or screaming in pain with each blow to the backside. "Either kill me or stop it now."

A video showing a teenage girl being flogged by Taliban fighters has emerged from the Swat Valley in Pakistan... The two-minute video, shot using a mobile phone, shows a burka-clad woman face down on the ground. Two men hold her arms and feet while a third, a black-turbaned fighter with a flowing beard, whips her repeatedly.For being sen with a man.

The girl in the video is 17, same age as a girl studying in class XII. How old is that? Girls at 17 are giggling and gossiping about which boys they think are cute, and if the giggling is reciprocated maybe they go out. Sometimes without the parents’ knowledge. They might bunk school or college, maybe deceive the 'authorities' and ruin their future either by neglecting school work, or by getting into ‘serious trouble’, and since we do not live 'abroad' they cannot hope to have the baby and find her loving adoptive parents like Juno could.

(If you have not seen the movie yet, please do.)

There are chances of their being put in a situation where they take their own lives, because we believe that for girls there is no life after dishonour. Nothing happens to the boy.

Without getting into how wrong or how unacceptable it is for a girl to behave so immorally or irresponsibly, I wonder if WE have the moral right to have such control over another human life and body, for any reason, even for ‘ her own good’?

And then how is it good for her that she can be beaten in pubs, flogged in public, or offered the option of marrying her rapist.

How is it good for her that we have created a society where another rapist declared the victim ‘too used’ to marry his son.

We have made so much of a girl’s virginity and her reputation, that she will not be able to tell if the rapist is not a stranger, but her own father? Malayalidoc, a doctor in Kerala, wrote a post about incest leading to AIDS here. And we see how we have enough control over her life to decide if she is better dead.