my new crush

I discovered this really good singer named Hemachandra [who is a south Indian might I add], while searching for Nahin Samne [a very good song from the Hindi movie Taal] on www.youtube.com.

I started listening to him sing his renditions of many different Hindi songs, and though not all of them are perfect, his voice is very good and he definitely nails some of the songs. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdE-jX3U4rA - Hai Rama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9lxdfkP4Dw - Ramta Jogi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT1y7f2ehpg - Tere Mere Beech [don't mind the random clips of him sleeping and shaving and stuff...not sure what the purpose of that is!]

and the response:

here is a friend's response and my comment to it with regards to my last post:

http://www.bohemianstate.com/?p=849

I never said feminism was a bad thing. I don't have anything against those who are feminists. Different people choose to deal with situations, problems, and opinions in different ways. I choose to handle it so that I am arguing for myself, not for my whole gender. Some people choose to speak for all women. If you want to do that, I'm not going to say that it's wrong to do so. But I'd rather do things for myself, fight for myself, and handle situations on my own than to have someone else do that for me. That is all my point was, and I hope that I am finally making myself clear.

clarification

I think I need to clarify something that came up as a result of my previous post. I am by NO means a feminist. I don't spend my whole life fighting for women's rights. I think that those women who are capable of it, will find a way to come up on the corporate ladder or any other ladder they feel the need to "conquer". I don't believe in feminism whatsoever. I am not say that all males are male chauvenistic pigs either. I am just saying that some men's views are entirely ridiculous.

A comment was made on my last post that men such as the one I talked about are not worth dealing with. I absolutely agree. Unfortunately, the situation I was in forced me to talk to this man. I had no choice. I cannot go further into what the situation was, but I assure you I had no choice but to talk to him because I had to work with him to work towards reaching a compromise/final outcome to a certain problem at hand. I know though, that it is almost impossible to make a grown man understand his views may not be favorable or "morally" right, or whatever it is, because what has been learned and instilled in his brain over so many years is not going to change just because one person talks to him and tells him the way he thinks is not the "right" way to think. There are so many things I just said that probably need disclaimers labelled all over them, but I'm not in the mood to sit and type those out. Hopefully, you all get the jist of what I'm trying to say.

But basically, I wanted to make it clear that I am not a feminist, and I don't think all males are chauvenists.

men can be ridiculous...well, at least some of them

It's been a busy week. Last weekend was wonderful. My little cousin, Gayathri, came and spent the weekend with me. We definitely had a lot of fun. However, I don't recommend seeing The Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest, though if you are anything like me, you won't pay too much attention to those recommendations and you'll watch it for yourself. [But seriously, it's a waste of 10 bucks in my opinion. Dinner at Taco Bell would have been more rewarding for me. Even Pizza Bella.]

So I was placed in an interesting situation this past week, during which I had first-hand experience with a man who believes with all his heart that women are entirely incapable of anything, and are only good for one thing. Sex. I was shocked out of my mind at how seriously he believed in this. I admit, there are very stupid women in the world. But to be fair, there are equally stupid men. This man honestly believed that women should not have a voice whatsoever, and should obey him [or any man for that matter] when told what to do. She should be willing to have sex with him as and when he wants. And frankly speaking, she is, and I use his words, "good for being nothing but a whore". He told me that he should not have to listen to what I have to say, but rather, I should listen to him. If he wants to have sex with me, I should drop everything that instant and go "please" him. He told me personally that I am good for being nothing but a whore, and that nobody should give me the chance to be anything else. Yes, people like this actually do exist, and yes, he used almost these exact same words.

I'll be honest. I think a lot of the women I encounter act far too ditzy. I am not sure if it is intentional [some think it's cute], or if they really are that ditzy, but I know that I don't have patience for it. I need more practical, down-to-earth, reasonable people to communicate with. However, I don't think it's fair to say that women, even the ditzy ones, are good for only sex. It's demeaning and very insulting.

It's hard for me to comment much on the matter, but I don't believe I have to either. I think it's fairly obvious what I would feel or think about the situation. Because of the environment I was in during the situation, I was very level-headed [at least, I believe I was], and reacted as best as I could to his comments. The end result: he actually stopped making such statements and listened to what I had to say. I think that's pretty good, considering he's someone who doesn't think women deserve to be heard.

I'm interested to know if any other people have been in a situation in which they encountered people such as the man I described above. Let me know!

back in Troy

I always want the truth, especially from those who are closest to me. But sometimes, I feel like the truth will eventually [if not right now] hurt me more than if I had not known it at all. I suppose I might as well know the truth from the beginning so it will hurt less [assuming I'll find out the truth at some point on my own anyway, in a way I would rather not have found out]...

I sound like I'm trying too hard to convince myself, don't I?

Anyway, I am back in Troy and fairly settled in. There are some things around the apartment that maintanance is working on [they were in here while I was at work today], but otherwise, it's decent. Too big for my tastes, but I have a mother who insists on making too many compromises, and therefore in order to get some personal satisfaction, I have to give into what she wants at times. And because she wanted me to have a bigger apartment, I have it.

It's somewhat odd being in Troy [in an area other than the main RPI campus] and doing something other than going to school, doing pointless homework assignments, and studying for mundane exams [or shall I say, cram the night before and help increase my record of all-nighters?]

All right. Time to get some work done.

biological or inherited?

Over the past couple of years, the idea that males are more likely to be homosexual as a result of having older brothers has been tossed around. However, I have never thought much of this theory due to the fact that personally, all the male homosexual friends and acquaintances I have are either the only child, are the oldest out of all their siblings, or have all sisters! So even if there is an iota of truth to the “older brother” theory, it does not explain homosexuality amongst all males.Recently, a Canadian study is revealing that perhaps homosexuality is due to more biological reasons than social reasons [ref: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5120004.stm]. I have heard people say this too – that people “inherit” their homosexuality. But there needs to be proof of this, right? Well, here’s a synopsis of the news article I have linked to this entry:

Professor Anthony Bogaert from Brock University in Ontario, Canada revealed after conducting a study, that the idea of homosexuality related to having older brothers only exists when the brothers are from the same mother, and not if the brothers have been adopted or are half-brothers [have the same father, but not the same mother]. He suggested that a woman’s body may see the male fetus as “foreign”, prompting an immune reaction and creating antibodies which may affect the developing male brain. Scientists from Michigan State University said: "These data strengthen the notion that the common denominator between biological brothers, the mother, provides a prenatal environment that fosters homosexuality in her younger sons."

However, this study still doesn’t provide sufficient “proof” which satisfies me in showing that male homosexuality is biological. It also fails to show why an only child, older sons, sons with only female siblings, as well as female homosexuals are sexually-oriented in this fashion.

So in the end of all of this, as far as I'm concerned, we are no more knowledgeable in the reasons of homosexuality now than we were before. There are still those homosexuals who say they inherited their sexual orientation, and there are still those who say they chose to be gay. I wonder if there will ever be significant proof one way or the other.