Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan's Blog, page 120
June 18, 2016
Today in Photo
Two years ago, we had a kitten who has now grown into a big fat cat. Look at how cute Bruno used to be, back when he was Suzie Q. This is K manhandling him by holding his paws down with his fingers to tickle his belly. Bruno still has the same expression now: who killed my father? Sometimes I call him Dukhi Singh just because of his sad snow leopard face, but let's face it, he peaked at 2 months old. #catsagram #tbt
via Instagram
June 17, 2016
Today in Photo
Sarvodaya sunset, filters turned up to high. Pretty evening from the inside of an air conditioned room looking out. #homeiswheretheheartis
via Instagram
June 16, 2016
Today in Photo
Reading Lindy West's memoir Shrill and going, "yup, yup, yup" #nowreading #250in2016 #readingchallenge #bookstagram #mrmbookclub
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June 14, 2016
Today in Photo
This morning, woke up to images of this flat. It was a crazy flat, all sorts of rooms, two closed in balconies and an outside bathroom. Crazy even that I felt a little wistful "awww" when I saw it. After Bombay, I moved to a teeny tiny annexe and then to come home to a space I could basically roller skate around in? Magic. I used to love this flat so much, all that space, all that weird layout, all for me. #tbt #homeiswheretheheartis
via Instagram
Today in Photo
Bruno and I frequently play musical chairs with the office chair in my study. As soon as I leave the room for more than 10 minutes, there he is, showing off what a no-deadline day looks like. #catsagram #bruno
via Instagram
June 12, 2016
Meet George Jetson!
I’m that person who never has cash — I don’t mean I'm broke, I just mean that at any given time, my wallet will only have an assortment of change and the occasional lonely Rs 1,000 note, which no one ever has change for. I was sold on the idea of cashless transactions long before it became an Indian government goal. However, I’m still more old school about it than my yoga teacher (who continues to bring me news from the outside world). This week, he told me how he had paid at a petrol pump using Paytm. Now, my only experience with Paytm is using it occasionally on Uber cabs. For everything else, I’ve linked my debit card and use that. But, thanks to Paytm’s recent round of investments from Chinese superpower Alibaba, they’re practically giving away money on cashback and rewards schemes. So why not jump in while the going’s good?
However, I’m not so sure India is ready for a cashless economy. Think of all the people you pay by cash. My list includes, but is not limited to: all the people we employ (housekeeper, gardener, press-walla, garbage collector), stopping at a local store to buy bread or whatever, taking the occasional auto and also buying the occasional single cigarette from a local paan shop. I can’t see myself whipping out my mobile phone to scan their bar code just for Rs 12.
Not to mention, older generations — like my grandmother for example — are used to having cash on them. They barely ever go to the bank (I doubt my grandmother has ever used an ATM in her life) and they pay everything with the wad of cash they pull out at the beginning of the month and lock up in their Godrej almirah safe. Feeling confident when all you have on you is your debit card is very much a younger gen thing.
I also recently read an article saying that thanks to the Modi government’s crack-down on black money, people were pulling out more cash than ever, because they couldn’t be taxed on it. This is an old tax-saving ploy, which everyone knows about and it’s unlikely anyone’s going to stop doing it just because it's more convenient to have your card.
Now, however, with the new unified payment interface (UPI) that’s just been rolled out, it’s going to be a lot more secure to use your mobile phone to make payments. Rather than bank details, UPI basically assigns you a code, and you use this code to make and receive payments. This takes away one more huge thing that worries people about online payments — how safe is it to leave my bank details online?
Also, a lot of residential colonies don’t have nearby handy ATMs—or if they do, they don’t work. The last neighbourhood I lived in had one ATM to service what was technically three areas and it was out of order a lot of the time. Not surprising, because according to a recent survey by the RBI, a third of India’s ATMs don’t work at all, which means you have a one in three chance of having to wander about until you find one that does. That, my friends, is a frustrating exercise. Take it from me.
Personally though, I find that when I don’t actually have physical cash, I wind up spending a lot more money. Money as a concept doesn’t really work for me, except in the vaguest way. I see numbers, I spend numbers. I have no way of knowing what those notes feel like, how weighty a certain amount of cash is meant to be in your palms, how something I do translates into bank notes. For that, I feel at a bit of a loss.
On the other hand, I’m all about rewards, so I might just sign up for this cashless boom after all.
(A version of this appeared as my column on mydigitalfc.com)
However, I’m not so sure India is ready for a cashless economy. Think of all the people you pay by cash. My list includes, but is not limited to: all the people we employ (housekeeper, gardener, press-walla, garbage collector), stopping at a local store to buy bread or whatever, taking the occasional auto and also buying the occasional single cigarette from a local paan shop. I can’t see myself whipping out my mobile phone to scan their bar code just for Rs 12.
Not to mention, older generations — like my grandmother for example — are used to having cash on them. They barely ever go to the bank (I doubt my grandmother has ever used an ATM in her life) and they pay everything with the wad of cash they pull out at the beginning of the month and lock up in their Godrej almirah safe. Feeling confident when all you have on you is your debit card is very much a younger gen thing.
I also recently read an article saying that thanks to the Modi government’s crack-down on black money, people were pulling out more cash than ever, because they couldn’t be taxed on it. This is an old tax-saving ploy, which everyone knows about and it’s unlikely anyone’s going to stop doing it just because it's more convenient to have your card.
Now, however, with the new unified payment interface (UPI) that’s just been rolled out, it’s going to be a lot more secure to use your mobile phone to make payments. Rather than bank details, UPI basically assigns you a code, and you use this code to make and receive payments. This takes away one more huge thing that worries people about online payments — how safe is it to leave my bank details online?
Also, a lot of residential colonies don’t have nearby handy ATMs—or if they do, they don’t work. The last neighbourhood I lived in had one ATM to service what was technically three areas and it was out of order a lot of the time. Not surprising, because according to a recent survey by the RBI, a third of India’s ATMs don’t work at all, which means you have a one in three chance of having to wander about until you find one that does. That, my friends, is a frustrating exercise. Take it from me.
Personally though, I find that when I don’t actually have physical cash, I wind up spending a lot more money. Money as a concept doesn’t really work for me, except in the vaguest way. I see numbers, I spend numbers. I have no way of knowing what those notes feel like, how weighty a certain amount of cash is meant to be in your palms, how something I do translates into bank notes. For that, I feel at a bit of a loss.
On the other hand, I’m all about rewards, so I might just sign up for this cashless boom after all.
(A version of this appeared as my column on mydigitalfc.com)
June 11, 2016
Today in Photo
Last night with this doofus, my friend's Weimaraner "puppy" Maya. She's extremely good looking and at the same time, bears a strong resemblance to a goat. When I was little, I was so fascinated by dog breeds, I learned all their names (and can still trot them out to wonder and surprise) so I used to play a sort of dog breed bingo to see how many I could spot. Maya is my first Weimaraner, so pleased to be able to check off that box. Here she is having her tummy tickled. #weimaranersofinstagram
via Instagram
Today in Photo
This gorgeous YA fantasy trilogy has made my weekend. Luckily I only just discovered it when all three books are out. Magic meets deep Russian folk tales. This is the first one and I'm on book three already. Pictured here with my trusty mason jar of iced coffee and the beautiful Good Earth tray our friends gave us as a housewarming present. #nowreading #250in2016 #readingchallenge #bookstagram #mrmbookclub
via Instagram
June 10, 2016
Today in Photo
Good morning! Sitting out on balcony where there was a lovely breeze five seconds ago (now gone) and admiring this little potted garden my mother made me. This is her new hobby so she's always looking for pretty bowls to grow green things in. #delhidiary #balconygarden
via Instagram
Nope. Nada. Nyet. Nahin.
Forgiving powerful men is something people do very easily the world over. I’m thinking about this because of a recent column that came out about Tarun Tejpal suggesting that it’s time the public let bygones be bygones. (Real quote: “No doubt Tejpal had (note the past tense here as if we're already done with it) committed a grave error. One that pricked the bubble of his public image and gave his detractors ammunition to destroy him, but was there really need for such a vociferous dragging through the coals?”)
Answer: yes, yes there is a need, because even though there are people who call him out (rightly!) for being a sexual harasser, there are others who defend the man and claim that it wasn't his fault, he couldn't help it, how was he to know she wouldn't enjoy it? Because apparently, the concept of listening when someone says, “No” is not something people are familiar with. And so, I reiterate again and again, when I am at dinner parties and having polite conversation with people who sometimes make this argument, “Even if someone is buck naked in front of you and even if you've been engaged sexually in the past, when someone says no, you listen to what they're saying at face value.”
Coincidentally, the same week Tejpal shot back into public discussion, the victim of a rapist from Stanford posted an open letter to him addressed to the judge objecting to his short jail time (the judge felt that going to jail for too long would be harmful for the rapist). Buzzfeed picked it up and ran it and over the past week, I have seen it be shared over and over again. It has words of rage, words of despair and words of ultimately being resigned to the system. In another news article about the same case, the rapist's father said something along the lines of “why is he being punished for 20 minutes of action.” Women all over the world collectively laid their heads down on their desks and cried.
It smacks of the same thing as the Tejpal-grave-error statement. Why, people ask all the time, is someone being punished when that someone is actually a Really Nice Guy In Real Life and Didn't Mean It and Have You Thought About The Character Of The Girl Involved? Powerful men have access to the media, and especially in a country like India, the slight fact of a rape charge can easily be brushed aside against all the other things the person has to contribute to the world.
Take the case of former TERI head RK Pachauri, for instance. Not only did he have some powerful supporters in the country, but he also gave a full length, extremely sympathetic interview to The Guardian, where he went on about his poor health and also how his computer had totally been hacked, which is why all the loving emails from him to his victim.
Tejpal meanwhile has been out on bail, after serving seven months in jail, says a blog on Huffington Post, and the trial has not even begun, over two years later. Looks like his past-tense grave error is going to be forgiven and forgotten after all. But what do you expect? Woody Allen was accused of paedophilia and he’s still one of the best-loved directors in Hollywood. It’s the way the cookie crumbles, and none of it is on the victim's side.
(A version of this appeared in mydigitalfc.com as my weekly column)
(Some ideas here inspired by Kian's excellent article on the rapid rehabilitation of powerful men.)
Answer: yes, yes there is a need, because even though there are people who call him out (rightly!) for being a sexual harasser, there are others who defend the man and claim that it wasn't his fault, he couldn't help it, how was he to know she wouldn't enjoy it? Because apparently, the concept of listening when someone says, “No” is not something people are familiar with. And so, I reiterate again and again, when I am at dinner parties and having polite conversation with people who sometimes make this argument, “Even if someone is buck naked in front of you and even if you've been engaged sexually in the past, when someone says no, you listen to what they're saying at face value.”
Coincidentally, the same week Tejpal shot back into public discussion, the victim of a rapist from Stanford posted an open letter to him addressed to the judge objecting to his short jail time (the judge felt that going to jail for too long would be harmful for the rapist). Buzzfeed picked it up and ran it and over the past week, I have seen it be shared over and over again. It has words of rage, words of despair and words of ultimately being resigned to the system. In another news article about the same case, the rapist's father said something along the lines of “why is he being punished for 20 minutes of action.” Women all over the world collectively laid their heads down on their desks and cried.
It smacks of the same thing as the Tejpal-grave-error statement. Why, people ask all the time, is someone being punished when that someone is actually a Really Nice Guy In Real Life and Didn't Mean It and Have You Thought About The Character Of The Girl Involved? Powerful men have access to the media, and especially in a country like India, the slight fact of a rape charge can easily be brushed aside against all the other things the person has to contribute to the world.
Take the case of former TERI head RK Pachauri, for instance. Not only did he have some powerful supporters in the country, but he also gave a full length, extremely sympathetic interview to The Guardian, where he went on about his poor health and also how his computer had totally been hacked, which is why all the loving emails from him to his victim.
Tejpal meanwhile has been out on bail, after serving seven months in jail, says a blog on Huffington Post, and the trial has not even begun, over two years later. Looks like his past-tense grave error is going to be forgiven and forgotten after all. But what do you expect? Woody Allen was accused of paedophilia and he’s still one of the best-loved directors in Hollywood. It’s the way the cookie crumbles, and none of it is on the victim's side.
(A version of this appeared in mydigitalfc.com as my weekly column)
(Some ideas here inspired by Kian's excellent article on the rapid rehabilitation of powerful men.)
