India Bulletin unintentionally shows us what’s wrong with India(ns)

The first night I’m home, I’m eating leftovers and reading whatever’s lying around on the dining room table. I find the May 4 issue of India Bulletin. I think, cool, let’s take a look at what’s going on in India. I find the following story:

Alright, fine. Kinda weird and crazy because YOUR SON IS NINE YEARS OLD AND MAYBE HE SHOULD LEARN TO TIE HIS SHOES WITHOUT THE HELP OF A MAID FIRST, but whatever. I roll my eyes and move on. A couple pages later, I find this: 

I flip back to the first story. Then back to the second. Back to the first. Back to the second. Afterwards, I stopped reading the paper.

These two stories were in the same paper, same issue, even took place in the same city. You can read them for yourself here. In the same city that a mother is expressing her pride at the fact that her not-quite-adolescent son can drive one of the family’s 18 cars (he gets to because it’s his birthday, by the way), a different mother is inconsolable because her five-year-old daughter is dead after being raped by a family friend.

There are a million factors that affect each of these stories – race, class, gender, culture, upbringing, geographic location. The families could be analyzed, data could be collected, books could be written. But, and I say this with the exhausted — and now angry — brain of a graduate student, maybe there is a semi-simple solution here.

Let’s all stop teaching our sons that, if they insist enough, they can have whatever the hell they want. 

Is it just me or does that make a ridiculous amount of sense?

“This is not an internship where you get people coffee.”

Such happy interns likely do not exist. (Flickr/David Boyle)

It’s internship season now, and every post on JournalismJobs and MediaBistro proudly declares that they will not be using you as a moving tray. You will be doing Real Work, like reporting things, jumping into hard news, writing front page stories, sitting in on editorial meetings and being allowed to speak. It’ll be great! You’ll be pitching stories, poring through data, getting Deep Throat to tell you all his inner secrets and winning a Pulitzer. You’ll be consuming more coffee than you deliver.

When I see that sentence, I shudder. Not because they’re lying, but because they are telling the truth.

Storytime: Bring Your Daughter To Work Day

This is the essence of me.

I was eight and a half, and I was mad. I had just woken up, my sister and my mom were gone and now I had to go to school. They had left early, so as not to trigger my rage, but I wanted to be awake when they were getting ready, so I could protest and be Very Upset about being left out of Bring Your Daughter To Work Day. My sister was ten, so she could go. I was deemed too young. I was sulky the whole day.

On making you laugh

I love, love, love making people laugh. On a first impression, if you can make someone laugh – actually laugh, not pump out a fake, obligatory chuckle at your joke about how the weather is angry or something – you’re golden. You’re in. He thinks you’re hilarious and would be a hoot to have around the office. There’s something thrilling about using your words with wit, irony, even a pun sometimes, to make someone react in a certain way. You see the joke in your mind, perfect it quickly, deliver it with the right pauses (this is key) and the right expression. You see it hit their ears, they think for an eighth of a second – not too long – and, without being able to help it, they burst out laughing. They laugh for 3-4 seconds, not just a mirthful “hm,” but a real solid burst of pleasure. The crowd roars and the stadium goes wild.

Photojournalism [One-year anniversary of Occupy Oakland crackdown]

Shake Anderson, a member of the Occupy Oakland Media group, speaks to the press on the morning of the one-year anniversary of the Oakland Police Department’s crackdown on the Occupy encampment at Frank Ogawa Plaza.

I carry a water bottle now.

Because it keeps your skin looking young. Because the doctor told me to. Because, according to my family history, I should have gotten diabetes, like, last Tuesday. Because it’s responsible.

I update my Google calendar. It keeps me organized. It trains me for a job-job. It helps me remember what time that interview is supposed to be and who I’m Skyping with this weekend.

I avoid some people. I’ve learned, painfully, that people suck.

If you had told me when I was 10, that I would be a cynical, doubtful person when I hit my 20′s, I wouldn’t have believed it. Because, you see, this isn’t who I am. This is me, but with the dust of the world on my clothes, and a hardened gaze as a shield.

I’ve learned the world, like everyone else, through experiences like sending out my 217th resume, or hate-”liking” an “I got engaged!” status on Facebook, or powering through an awkward hug with someone you once giggled through a movie with.

I’ve learned the world through watching, from the front row, a relationship whither and die, having that second cupcake and hating yourself for the next week for it, then hating yourself for caring.

I’ve learned the world through hitting an age where you yourself choose to start taking one-a-day vitamins, consciously deciding to stop buying t-shirts, finding an old diary and reading that, in your nine-year-old self’s plans, you would have met a nice, suitable guy, like, last Tuesday. I’ve learned the world through feeling someone give up on me and understanding that, this is actually what life is, and movies are just there to make you feel better about it temporarily.

I carry a water bottle now because you never know when you’ll taste salt water, realize it’s coming from your own eyes, and need to replenish your soul.

Photojournalism [The Husain residence at 5:16 p.m.]

 

“I wish finance was this fun,” and other ways to describe me.

The six-word bio is an initiative by Smith Magazine for capturing profound and clipped life stories. It is also a component of a Berkeley student’s profile that is shared throughout the Berkeley network and shown to potential employers.

It is, more importantly, an excellent way to waste a lot of time. Kind of like extreme Twitter.

This is not my writing. [Excerpts from The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand]

Cover of The Fountainhead (Flickr/Rodrigo Paoletti)

Dominique: “As a matter of fact, one can feel some respect for people when they suffer. They have a certain dignity. But have you ever looked at them when they’re enjoying themselves? That’s when you see the truth. Look at those who spend the money they’ve slaved for – at amusement parks and side shows. Look at those who’re rich and have the whole world open to them. Observe what they pick out for enjoyment. Watch them in smarter speak-easies. That’s your mankind in general. I don’t want to touch it.” (143-4)

100-year-old’s secret? Reading and eating lightly

Happy 100th birthday, Teresa!

By Nausheen Husain
nhusain@mysuburbanlife.com

Westmont resident Teresa Baker has some advice for the young people of today: read more.

That’s what the newly 100-year-old offered up with other tips last week, days after she marked her centennial birthday May 30.