Here I blog about my personal experiences [posting rarely]
At my tumblelog Intoxicated by possibility I blog about my opinions/likes/dislikes [posting heavily]
Living in a place where the law is blind
2 comments Published by Abhilash Ravishankar on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 at 3:47 PMI read this in CNN today:
In March 2006, the woman, then 18 and engaged to be married, and an unrelated man were abducted from a mall in Qatif, Saudi Arabia and raped by a group of seven men.
In October, the men were convicted and sentenced to between two and nine years in prison for the assault. She was convicted of violating the kingdom's strict Islamic law by not having a male guardian with her at the mall.
"From the outset, my wife was dealt with as a guilty person who committed a crime," said her 24-year-old husband. "She was not given any chance to prove her innocence or describe how she was a victim of multiple brutal rapes."
The woman has been sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison. And this is her status now:
She suffers from anemia, a blood disorder , and asthma, he said. She will have surgery next month to remove her gallbladder.
And if that wasn't enough, the judge when giving out his sentence says:
You were involved in a suspicious relationship and you deserve 200 lashes for that'
And to top it all:
The woman was originally sentenced in October 2006 to 90 lashes, but when she appealed that sentence, the court more than doubled it.
Is this remotely fair? Being in Saudi, I do know that women are generally well respected in the society. But this isn't respect. I have always maintained that rape is the worst form of brutality - worse than homicide.
Somehow, this leaves me with a very uneasy feeling.
Tumblr vs Blogger
1 comments Published by Abhilash Ravishankar on Friday, November 02, 2007 at 10:42 AMAfter blabbering about aging and lack of time and laziness and blah blah blah,
The D-day arrived yesterday with this: Tumblr v3.
IMHO, Tumblr v3 was hyped up more than what it deserved. But it certainly is a significant improvement from the earlier version. I'm happy.
But the point in question was this.
So, today after spending an hour looking around Tumblr v3 and how my life has been over the past few months, working in an oilfield, it was time to decide whether I am going to ditch this blog.
There are times when you feel a stinging feeling of nostalgia. And I got stung minutes ago, with that very feeling. However, I managed to snap out of it and think of really dumping this blog. Here's the verdict.
I realized looking at my tumblelog's archive that it is merely a collection of what I think about a lot of stuff that I hear/see/read. It is merely a collection of my opinions, my likes and my dislikes. Whereas By-Two Kaapi has been a collection of stories, of experiences.
Simple isn't it? From now on,
All my experiences continue to stay on here, in By-Two Kaapi.
All my opinions/likes/dislikes/rants move over to Intoxicated by Possibility.
And yes, I promise, I swear, Wallahi, I am not going to yap more about this!