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.

Justified under certain circumstances?

Three questions.

1. Can mob violence against unarmed citizens, including women and children have ‘other side’...like they might have done something to offend this mob, so they deserve this violence by them?

Can we say, mob violence against unarmed citizens can be justified under certain circumstances?

2. Do we honestly accept that the same rules must apply to everybody, including us?

Now mob violence is no longer something that happens only to other people. There is no telling what about us might offend somebody enough to want to kill us. Our language, our origins, the Gods we worship, the clothes we wear or whether we drink tea, coffee or something else, what we read, which movies we watch, what artwork we create ... do we think this is understandable ... under certain circumstances?

3. Do you think Gandhi was not entirely correct in preaching non violence?

MIP: Men In Pink

This young man I knew said he resented the luxury of ‘choice’ that women had. He loved cooking and he claimed he would have kept a great home and made a great stay-at-home-dad. He did not want a career.

Social stereotypes take away our choice to do what makes us happier and more satisfied... perhaps also content and hence better people. Creativity and talent also thrive when we are not fighting our natural abilities, just to confirm.

So when non confirming women entered the so called male bastions, men also got the opportunity to barge into fields like fashion designing, modeling, dancing, music and cooking. And much maligned beauty.

Little boys have always been obsessed with their hair and their muscles and hats and helmets, and their dad’s belts, shoes, sun glasses and after shaves. Yet one hears of the metrosexual man (e.g. David Beckham and Shahrukh Khan) being put down by those who believe he’s not macho… Maybe there is some envy in this? But the metrosexual man like most non conformists doesn’t care. He makes his own rules. He makes his own breakfast in his fancy, squeaky clean kitchen, if he wants to. He will wear pink if he likes pink. I guess he is happier.

Now come to think of it, why should men not wear pink? Traditionally, anyway, India did not have much gender-bias when it came to colours. Krishna is known to have loved a bright yellow. Pink turbans are as common as brilliant blue and outrageous orange.

Unlike in the West, Indian men were always free to show emotion, though they were not really free to shed tears the way women could. An unnecessary taboo. Because if crying was a sign of weakness, most women would be weak. We know they aren’t, not really. Vulnerable? Yes. Lacking in courage? I don’t think so. Courage has no gender. Yet sometimes we expect little boys to be born Bollywood heroes.

When we were young, my brother and I were terrified of the dark, of most insects, of reptiles and of ghost stories. I was reassured and comforted. He was criticized and lectured.
How was saying “Don’t be a girl!” going to help a child get over normal childhood fears? I was afraid of the same things but I once looked up paryayavachi (synonyms) for coward to tease him.

Years later, when my son was four, he was playing alone in his room, and he started shrieking hysterically. After many reassuring hugs he pointed at a dead bee on the bed.

I called my brother. He did remember my list.

Individual liberty lets you be you. It’s a only antidote for the unfairness of stereotypes. So are men in Pink :)