Published on Substack on 8-Mar-23 -  https://utopiankerala.substack.com/p/what-we-should-do-instead-of-celebrating Another Women's Day and there is no dearth of wishes and messages for women. I believe this is not helping anyone. We should do something else. Let me try listing a few things that anyone who is reading this can do. What women should be doing? Open a sole bank account, if you don't have one. It should not be a joint account with your spouse. You should be operating the card, cheque, internet banking, etc and not your spouse. This is the first step towards financial freedom. Start driving a car. It is not enough that you have a driving licence. If you don't have a licence, get one. If it is within your means buy a car in your name. This will give you the freedom to go places. Read a newspaper daily, including the editorials. Keep an appetite to know what is happening in society, economy, politics and sports. This will make you an interesting human with whom peop

Published on Substack on 30-Jan-23 -  https://utopiankerala.substack.com/p/flowers-fall-men-do-not A cousin was sharing the other day that she gets teased by Malayali men in the streets of England. Our brothers have migrated but without leaving their habits from Kerala. Vayanottam  (ogling at others from the street side) is a pastime for men in Kerala. From very casual  vayanottam  to stalking, men enjoy doing this mostly in their dhotis. Every morning I get to see a few men in my village who does this when other men and women are rushing to their workplace. It is not that these men do not have any work. They must be back from early morning rubber tapping, about to start their farming activities, or just starting the day with morning paper and tea. Given a chance they are back at the  kavala  (junction) for  vayanottam . They also do pass comments on themselves and others. Occasionally it will be loud enough for everyone to hear. Their most common subjects would be women and other men

Published on Substack on 17-Jan-23 -  https://utopiankerala.substack.com/p/28-leave-our-girls-alone Today's front page news on Malayala Manorama got me thinking about the times and the world we live in. Menstrual leave is being considered at every University in Kerala. As if women start menstruating when they do higher studies and stop when they graduate. Not long ago, I had a chance to look at a study done by a doctor among adolescent girls in a government-aided high school. One of the most important revelations was that many girls skip school during menstruation. Yes, they go through unbearable pain but that was not the reason for them skipping school. The school lacks good toilets for them to use. Girls cannot access toilets as they want. They do not have access to napkins and using clothes make their life difficult at school. Providing leaves to menstruating girls is not helping their cause. Leave them alone. They do not need such sympathy. Let the focus be on the infrastructur