Pot belly vulnerability...

‘I want some 6 Packs, but 8 packs would be fuckin awesome!’ This seems to be the only thing left on the wish list of every tottering, unguarded, narcissistic male, including me!

The jiggling belly, once a sign of prosperity in India, is now loathed by everyone.The abdominal region has gained such obtrusive prominence in recent years, that I’m scared we might lose the curvy, bouncy belly, once and for all.

The 6 packs, once a commodity of only the beefed up men who wanted to become athletes, or even worse, Mr. Universe, is now an insatiable desire of every man. Who is responsible for such gluttonous longing?!

You could blame it on television, on attention deprived models and other celebrities, on energy bars, on commercials portraying only the chiselled men with the hottest women, you could blame it on anything under the sun actually. What remains unchanged is our frailty and our unending hunger to emulate someone else.

None of us therefore are owners of a unique identity, we are always mutating into someone else and these whom we imitate, mutate into someone else and they in turn into someone else. The vicious cycle will continue till we hit a complete 360, and then a new cycle will take over to enrapture our minds some more. I always wondered, if the Human Race was not so easily influenced by such flimsical fancies, how different our world could've been!

But then again, I have no time to waste… I need to work on my very own 6 packs….!

Anthony Palathingal

Suicide, a Crime or Freedom?

Picture this: A man/woman, decides out of free will, that his/her life is not worth living any more, that there is nothing to look up to when they wake up in the morning. There is no drive, no reason to continue in what they believe to be unceasing misery.

Worst of all, if they do fail in what could be their greatest triumph, as they see it, then apart from facing the brunt of humiliation and utter dysphoria in being unable to achieve even death, they have to face the long arm of the law. The Law does not give them the right to end their own life?

Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code says that, any person attempting to end his/her life will be chastised by the law.

Is it fair that if a human being out of free will, decides to end his/her life, if fails, should be punished by the law? Is law suggesting that if you want to end your life, make certain of your intent and capability at doing so, because if you fail, we will punish you!

Shouldn’t they be counselled instead of being punished, or in an even more liberal sense, do we even have the right to curtail a person’s actions, however harmful, on himself/herself?

Is Suicide a Crime or Freedom????

Anthony Palathingal