Deprived of basic rights in a foreign land

“It’s Tuesday, there wont be any cops today to check,” said one man to another, goading him to carry on drinking despite having to drive back home.

So, for this guy, the absence of a cop is of higher significance than driving under the influence of alcohol.

The absence of a cop is of higher significance than being responsible for his own life and life of others on the road, needless to say, his family who might be waiting for him at home.

Ironically, in reality for his breed of highly educated, urban, upper middle class (rich), young, brash Indians, even the presence of a cop makes absolutely no impact because all they have to do is pay the cop a few hundreds and get by.

This guy is a very well educated, software engineer that has worked in the best of international companies, has travelled abroad. But chooses to live in India. This is why he loves his own country.

A lot of such Indian men I know choose to live in India/ want to get back to India in the name of patriotism and/or the cliché’ of ‘that’s the emerging market – that’s where the growth is. India is shining.’

To me at the heart of this ‘wear on my sleeve’ patriotism it is none of this.

To me, at the heart of this is to enjoy some of the basic rights and freedom that these men are deprived of in foreign countries. e.g:

• It is the ‘freedom’ to be able to bottle down as much alcohol as you wish…pay a bribe to a cop and get away on a high...
• It’s the ‘freedom’ to travel alone to hinterlands without fearing of being raped and murdered. Doing many such things that only a man can enjoy.
• It is the ‘freedom’ to be able to pinch the bottom of a woman in a bus, get some cheap thrills of it and not have any implications what so ever…
• It’s the ‘freedom’ to leach at women and/or pass lewd comments and have some fun at her expense…
• It's the 'freedom' to be under 18, brutally rape someone and be free in 3 months for being a minor 
• It’s the ‘freedom’ to return to a ‘hotel like home’ after a hard days work where some one has prepared the food, set it on the table, washed the clothes, ironed them…so these men can go back fresh for another hard day at work.
•  It is the joy of being treated like a king by the mother and in future the ‘in-laws’ for being the son and son in law respectively. 
• It is the joy of having another other gender to be called a wife who ‘provides’ and ‘serves’ – dotes on every word uttered by the man, has been taught not to ever question HIS authority.
• It's the 'freedom' that being a man, one can bully, threaten his way out of things or manage the corrupt processes where sheer arm wrestling can get things done. 
• It's the possibility to shout at a louder voice and make all the other voices shut up 
• Basically, it is the ‘freedom’ to walk, head held high in pride, pumped up chest and enjoy getting away with anything for being the superior gender. 
•  The joy of truly LIVING the ubiquitous, ‘chalta hai’ attitude, which all Indians love to hate but cannot live without.

Many of these ‘basic rights’ of Indian men are not met in western countries where over years and after many reforms and revolutions in the past, the society has become RELATIVELY tolerant to the existence of the other gender.

Who in their right frame of mind will ever want to give up on these rights and live elsewhere?

Incidentally, those that dwell on these basic rights, subscribe to them (consciously/ subconsciously) are also the ones to pretend to have a fire in their belly to change the country.

God forbid! The inferior races beware. 

(Little wonder that the inferior races try to wriggle their ways to other places eh?) 

(Recent incidents in India with respect to women's rights and a lot of discussions with various men made me write this rather sarcastic note. I do not mean to generalize. I am very fortunate that I have always had extremely open minded and supportive men around me. I continue to have them in my life. But I know there are not many like me.)