Marriage Registration in India

The Supreme Court of India, on 25th October 2007, came out with a landmark judgement that all marriages, irrespective of religion must be registered. The IBN Live report whose text version is on yahoo news, says:

Marriages may be made in heaven but they will have to be registered right
here on earth says the Supreme Court and your religion does not matter.

The court has also asked states to notify the procedure for registration of
marriage as well as appoint an officer to register all marriages in that state.

Lawyer Wasim Qadri says, “There is problem in society that people have
denied their marriages when in litigation.”

This is exactly the problem that can arise if a marriage is not registered. Evidence like photographs, marriage videos, people present at the wedding cannot be airtight proof that the wedding has taken place. If that be the case, every couple married on television had better be declared as husband and wife.

As far as cases related to the 'married couple' moving to a distant place are concerned, there have been/could be instances where the woman (in most of the cases) is harassed, or in worst cases are put through trials and tribulations that Arathi undergoes in the movie Nagarahaavu.

In effect, the registration process just does this - it legally safeguards the union and prevents exploitation. Why do you think property is registered? Why are patents filed - to register an invention isn't it?

But, trust the great-ones to oppose it.

“We think they should not be made compulsory because they are a religious affair
as far as Muslim personal law is concerned and to say that marriages not
registered are null and void is against the very concept of Muslim personal law.
Our appeal to the honorary court to the state and central government the
registration should not be made compulsory.”

If one were to visit the website of this organisation, the introduction section provides an insight behind the raison d'être for such opposition -

All India Muslim Personal Law Board was established at a time when then
Government of India was trying to subvert Shariah law applicable to Indian
Muslims through parallel legislation.Adoption Bill had been tabled in the
Parliament. Mr. H.R.Gokhle, then Union Law Minister had termed this Bill as the
first step towards Uniform Civil Code. Ulema, leaders and various Muslim
organisations successfully convinced the Indian Muslim community that the risk
of losing applicability of Shariah laws was real and concerted move by the
community was needed to defeat the conspiracy.

Their aims and objects (sic) section also rants about the primary aim being the promotion of Muslim personal law.

Fine, as an individual, every Muslim everyone has a right to the fundamental rights enshrined in the Indian Constitution, the right to follow Islamic customs, marry as per the customs prevalent in Islam etc.

But, one must remember that rights are always accompanied by duties. And one such duty is to obey the rule of the land. In addition, the law is not infringing on the rights of the Muslims at all. All that it asks for is to comply with a national ruling for the betterment of society. And may I remind the members of the AIMPLB that Muslims too are part of Indian society?

So, kindly stop such nakra-naatak-baazi and please start promoting the concept of marriage registrations.

India:Australia::Pallavas:Chalukyas?

The Chalukyas of Vatapi (Badami) and the Pallavas were two of some 'N' dynasties to rule the Indian sub-continent upto say, 1857; which I consider to be the period of the beginning of single-entity rule in India.

The Chalukyan king Pulikesi II, during my school days, was a sort of hated figure for me, for the simple reason that he stopped Harshavardhana's (whose name sounds infinitely sexier than Pulikesi) advance on the banks of the Narmada. But Immadi Pulikeshi by himself is the greatest ruler of the Chalukyan empire. Imagine, fighting a civil war to regain the throne, annexing territories, building up a vast army, laying siege to the city of Kanchipuram and at the end of it all having an empire stretching from the Narmada to the Kaveri is no mean achievement.

The Pallavas too had their heroes. King Mahendra Varman, his son Mamallan (of the Mahabalipuram fame) and of course their star commander Paranjothi.

The see saw cross generation battles between the two dynasties have been very well documented. Supposedly, the best literature in this area can be found in Kalki Krishnamurthi's Sivakamiyin Sapatham. Of course, the book is in Tamil, but you can find a partial English translation here. And just to clarify, the book is written from the Pallavan point of view. There is no doubting who the villains of the novel are - the Chalukyas. I would love to find a book written from the Chalukyan point of view.

Is there any parallel to this rivalry? I think so: the Indo-Australian battle for cricket supremacy is one such. Let me trace a chronology -

1. Allan Border led Australia kick Azhar led India's a*%& during the 1992 tour of Australia.

2. Sachin Tendulkar led India beat Mark Taylor led Australia in a one off test and knock them out of the Titan Cup.

3. Mohammad Azharuddin led India beat Mark Taylor led Australia in a 1997-98 3 test series in India

4. Steve Waugh led Australia blank Sachin Tendulkar led India in the 1999 down-under series

5. Saurav Ganguly led India stop the Steve Waugh led Australian juggernaut in the 'VVS Laxman-Matthew Hayden-Harbhajan Singh' series in 2001

6. Ganguly led India draw a hard fought series against Steve Waugh's Australia - in Australia.

7. Gilchrist-Ponting led Australia win back the Border Gavaskar trophy against a Ganguly-Dravid led India.

8. Ponting led Australia demolish Mahendra Dhoni led India 4-2 in a one day series.

The next series is India's tour of Australia in December. Is this the time for Dhoni to don the mantle of a Narasimha Pallavan?

Hopefully he should. But I feel for Dravid, he has never got a complete series against the Australians. Time to reconsider resignation from the test captaincy?

Paradigm shift anyone?

I'm currently reading this book called "The Tyranny of Numbers" by David Boyle. This book is a delight for a qualitative person like me who doesn't like the way numbers are being abused. Collecting data, furiously searching for patterns in them, drawing conclusions from the data are exercises which I generally take up when there is no other option to put my word across.

I am more of someone who argues based on emotions, abstracts, gut feeling, sixth sense etc. It may sound out of place in this world, but data is what I do not like, give me date anytime over that!!! :-)

Mr.Quantitative, will surely disagree with me on this!! Check this, this, this and this.

I also do understand the limitations of my approach with the growing size of organisations, parameters, inputs, viewpoints etc. Hence numbers are a way of life; no escape. Period.

Anyway, the book had a couple of superb points which I am just scribbling over here.

1.

The best recruitment policy focuses on the individual job and the individual
applicant and the best educational policy focuses on the individual student.

My view: Yes. But as the size of the organisation grows is there enough time and enough patience to run through things qualitatively? How would for instance a company like TCS with such a large workforce try to see if every individual fits in with their system? They certainly are justified in sticking to their policy of looking at a particular set of people rather than how each individual in that set should be.

2. This is a lovely statement because there has been an incident wherein the mechanisms of my class election were supposed to work in the manner described below. Let me clarify very clearly that what is said about John Vasconcellos DOES NOT REFLECT ON THE GUYS INVOLVED IN THE COLLEGE INCIDENT. Both are good friends of mine and are great chaps in their own right. Clarification provided, see the statement.

"In fact, he had such low self-esteem, that he lost the first election he ever
fought, for eighth grade president, by one vote. His own"

Touché.....................

Glenn Mcgrath strikes again....

.... or rather the entities from whom he derives his nick-name, the pigeons strike again. They are a real pest, let me tell you. Upto last month they were good neighbours; I let them roost and they never crossed the boundaries of my window.

The last week was an exercise in detection. Every evening, my toilet kit, deo and vicks bottle used to lie on the floor. I used to blame the easterlies, the westerlies and what not for their toppling over. I have even spent hours trying to analyse how the wind could have come in at such a bent angle and still manage to topple over stuff which is kept quite far away from the edge of the shelf.

Monday proved to be the 'eureka' day. It was early in the morning and I was about to leave for my gym, and I accidentaly managed to peek into my bedroom to look for a pair of socks when I had the shock of my life. Two bloody pigeons were hovering dangerously close to my after-shave bottle. The bastards had come in so silently; the sort of silence that would make stealth fighters proud.

My life has turned topsy-turvy. I was the proud advocate of not sealing off the space meant for the air conditioning unit in the name of fresh air. These bloody birds have made me seal the space with newspapers!!! Cheap as it may sound, this is a temporary measure until I get a screen window installed.

Bhagyashree might have sung

"Kabootar ja ja ja, Kabootar ja ja ja
Pehli pyaar ki pehli chitti, saajan ko de aa"

But my song is

"Kabootar ja ja ja, kabootar ja ja ja
Chitti to chodo, Pyaar karne waali bhi nahin
Bas mere ghar khaali kar ke chala ja"

Anyone with ideas on how to drive away pigeons please leave your suggestions in the comments section.

Chatpat Churumuri

Churumuri is a lovely blog with a Mysore connection. If you are wondering what Churumuri exactly means, check this out. Satiated your stomach? Now, read this to know what the online Churumuri is.

The way the blogs are written here are simply superb!! I love to just keep going through this blog again and again. I would suggest that you read the entries in this series of articles and in case you are able to make out who is being referred to, just smile and keep the name to yourself. Why would you want to point out someone directly when the folks at Churumuri are doing it in a subtle manner!!

This recent entry on the recent political crisis in Karnataka is a gem. Just imagine the creativity in linking this crisis to the morning-after crisis. And also observe the way the original advertisement is tweaked to give us the "maa-ji" CM's face. Awesome fun!!!

Talking about i-pills, check out this article by Rashmi. She sums up the potential misuse of this pill by the following phrase:

It would be terrible if young people decide to adopt the convenient route: Condom nahi hai? Koi baat nahin - you can always use the i-Pill. So let's go
ahead anyways.

Hopefully the young people being referred to should realise that i-pill does not protect against AIDS, syphilis etc

Back to Kannada naadu now. This sort of KLPD is happening for the second time with the BJP. The earlier KLPD giver was Behenji Mayawati!! Irrespective of how crooked politicians are, this sort of cheating takes the cake. And such instances can be summarised by some phrases like:

1. Suryange torchaa (Shine a torch to the sun?)

2. Neenu chaape kelage tooridare naanu rangoli kelage toortini (if you can slip under the carpet, i can slip under the 'rangoli'; now, beat that!!)

The BJP bufoons should have documented this formula of power sharing before the government formation and got it SIGNED in PUBLIC. There is nothing to substitute the legal validity of the written word. I just fail to understand how such simple formalities can escape notice in the mad thirst for power.

In case they end up in a similar situation the next time, they should sign the agreement; then maybe take up the first chance themselves and then when their turn comes to hand-over, they should hand over power WITHOUT fail. Not only would this showcase them as meticulous and street smart, but would also give them the tag of honesty, something which is not in the possession of any party.

Deve Gowda might be smirking now; but I wish from the blackest portions of my heart (and in case there are none I shall paint a large portion with that colour) that the Janata Dal ('Secular') is thrashed in the hustings, even in Gowda's home territory. People of Karnataka, we need more Tejaswini Srirameshs.

For the Kannada speaking AND the Electrically inclined

AND being the operative word, these phrases would mean greater fun if your logical output for the above condition is 1; else you may have to request translation which would rob you of the fun part.

1. Shunta = Shaata connected in shunt

2. Sirisha = Shaata connected in series

3. Shatki Diode = A diode made by the principle of shaata tunneling