Reading now: Brotherhood: Dharma, Destiny, and the American Dream by Chopra

Brotherhood: Dharma, Destiny, and the American Dream by Deepak and Sanjiv Chopra, New Harvest (2013), ISBN: 9780544032101

The inspiring story of two brothers who immigrated to America from India and took very different paths to becoming world-renowned healers and teachers.
At a time when America is fiercely divided on the issue of immigration, Brotherhood tells the story of two brothers who pursued the American dream to its fullest expression. In the early 1970s, Deepak and Sanjiv Chopra joined a flood of immigrants looking to make a new life in America, a land of opportunity. Having grown up in postwar India amidst the sudden freedom of the 1947 liberation, their childhood was a blend of the exotic, the mythical, and the modern. Their father was one of the first Indians to become a Western-trained cardiologist, while their extended family maintained deep roots in ancient spiritual traditions. Brotherhood follows the Chopra brothers as one becomes a world-renowned spiritual teacher and the other rises to the top of Western medicine to become a professor at Harvard Medical School. Their story will fascinate and inspire anyone who still believes in America’s capacity to foster achievement and reward hard work.

Reviews

•        "[Brotherhood] depicts some fascinating aspects of Indian assimilation in America, and the often hilarious, touching cultural clash." —Publishers Weekly
• "An inspiring and brilliantly written memoir of two brothers taking two drastically different paths to medicine, each giving us hope that dreams can still be fulfilled in America."—Larry King
• "In Brotherhood, Deepak and Sanjiv beautifully articulate their birthright and the intoxicating and permeative influence it had on their lives as doctors and spiritual practitioners in the Western world. Through their entertaining storytelling, they thoughtfully and humorously depict how, in India, chaos and order, the ancient and modern, faith and disbelief collide to create enduring influence. I, too, discovered that you can leave India but that she never leaves you."—Jacqueline Lundquist, author and former First Lady of the U.S. Embassy, New Delhi, India
•  "A charmingly conversational tale of devotion--to each other and to the science and art of medicine." Kirkus Reviews

About the Authors:

Deepak Chopra, M.D., CEO, The Chopra Foundation, Adjunct Professor, Kellogg School of Management @ Northwestern University, and @ Columbia Business School, Columbia University, and Senior Scientist @ The Gallup Organization. www.choprafoundation.org

Sanjiv Chopra, M.D. Professor of medicine, Dean continuing education @ Harvard Medical School and the author of five books, such as, Leadership by Example and Live Better, Live Longer. www.sanjivchopra.com.

Table of Contents

 
To the Reader                                      xi
1 Sacred River                                     1  (18)
2 Blind for a Day                                  19 (12)
3 Charmed Circle                                   31 (16)
4 Lucky Sari                                       47 (10)
5 Miracles in Hiding                               57 (14)
6 Rama and Lakshmana                               71 (8)
7 Laus Deo                                         79 (14)
8 First on the Waiting List                        93 (14)
9 Innocent Bystander                               107(16)
10 Real Doctors                                    123(6)
11 Godfather Land                                  129(16)
12 First Impressions                               145(20)
13 State of the Art                                165(16)
14 A Giant in Medicine                             181(16)
15 An Obscure Light                                197(14)
16 Being and Bliss                                 211(14)
17 The Pathless Land                               225(18)
18 Soothsayer or Charlatan                         243(14)
19 Science of Life                                 257(20)
20 Finger on the Pulse                             277(12)
21 Birth Pangs                                     289(22)
22 Miraculous Cures                                311(14)
23 American Dreaming                               325(22)
24 Peak Experience                                 347(12)
Postscript                                         359(6)
Acknowledgments                                    365

 

Library of Congress Subject Headings for this record Brotherhood:

• 	Chopra, Deepak.
  	Chopra, Sanjiv.
  	Physicians --India --Autobiography.
  	Physicians --United States --Autobiography.
  	Cross-Cultural Comparison --India.
  	Cross-Cultural Comparison --United States.
  	Delivery of Health Care --India.
  	Delivery of Health Care --United States.
  	Emigrants and Immigrants --India.
  	Emigrants and Immigrants --United States.
  	Siblings --India.
  	Siblings --United States.

On the same shelf:

• Rivalry and Brotherhood: Politics in the Life of Farmers in Northern India
  Dipankar Gupta
• A Navajo In India   Ancient Brotherhood
• The Brotherhood (The Brotherhood Trilogy) Tejas Desai
• Anandamath, or The Sacred Brotherhood     Bankimcandra Chatterji
• Bhakti pathway to god the way of love union with god and universal brotherhood in Hinduism and Christianity   edited by Kala Acharya. Lalita Namjoshi. Giuseppe Zanghi organized by K.L. Somaiya Bharatiya Sanskriti Peetham and the Centre for Interfaith Dialogue. Focolare Movement.
• 'Isms & 'Ologies: All the Movements, Ideologies and Doctrines That Have Shaped Our World
  Arthur Goldwag
• The Bahai movement for universal religion, brotherhood and peace : a sketch of its history and teaching      Charles Mason Remey
• Itamar makes Friends; A Children's Story Of Jewish Brotherhood      Josh Hasten
• Bridge to brotherhood : Judaism's dialogue with Christianity.      Stuart E. Rosenberg

Use The Leadership Wheel to help you lead the way – every day

Info courtesy: Stephen Abram's Lighthouse and Globe & Mail

Stephen Abram: "I found this wheel useful in thinking about and framing the leadership roles of library leaders. I found it via an articlein the Globe & Mail today, Use The Leadership Wheel to help you lead the way – every day"

On the same shelf:

Leadership Wheel: Infographic, Infogram

" ‘Great leadership is measured not by the number of people a leader manages, but by the number of people that leader inspires.’ Jessica Steele"

Rahmat Ali Daeng Mattiro (Wheels and Wheels)

Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, 1939 - 2013: A Muslim scholar and champion of interfaith cooperation

"Known for his passionate espousal of peace and interfaith understanding, Mr. Engineer's life was an example of perseverance towards the realization of a greater good... IAMC commemorates his contribution to democracy and interfaith relations as well as his courage in speaking up for the rights of the oppressed and the dispossessed," -- Asghar Ali Engineer's demise a loss for interfaith relations say Indian Americans, Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC -www.iamc.com )

"Asghar Ali Engineer, the renowned religious reformer and peace activist breathed his last on 14th May 2013 at his residence in Mumbai. Unlike most people he did not leave behind just two children but thousands of heirs to his ideology and legacy in India and other parts of the world who will carry forward his mission for a just, equal and harmonious world." [Celebrating Asghar Ali Engineer: A Tribute by Swami Agnivesh and Mazher Hussain]

Asghar Ali Engineer's Books: Sample list







Media coverage:

• Celebrating Asghar Ali Engineer, A Tribute by Swami Agnivesh and Mazher Hussain

  A soft spoken, gentle and unassuming person- always clad in a simple white kurta- pajama, Dr. Engineer had become an institution, a legend and the icon of religious reforms and communal harmony even during his life time. His extraordinary contribution to society received widespread acknowledgement and critical acclaim from across the globe and he was conferred many national and international awards including The Rights Livelihood (Alternative Nobel Prize), jointly with Swami Agnivesh (one of the author of this Tribute) in the year 2004 at Stockholm Sweden.
  
  Acknowledged as a walking encyclopedia on the Holy Quran and related Islamic literature and practices, he emerged as a leading religious reformer in the Muslim community, especially in India. Accepting the centrality and inviolability of the Holy Quran for a Muslim, he was able to revolutionise the understanding and practice of Islam by initiating reformist processes even amongst the most conservative sections of society by developing and propagating the method of Creative Interpretation that took as an operating framework the values of equality, justice and contemporary social issues and dynamics. This novel approach of reading the Holy Quran reclaimed the essence of its original teachings to demonstrate that Islam is indeed a religion of peace that emphasizes the values of equality and justice. With this method, he was also able to establish the egalitarian and progressive teaching of Islam on issues of human rights, women, marriage, respect for all religious, communal harmony etc...
  
  

• The Reformist As Pacifist: Asghar Ali Engineer's Islam, By Farzana Versey CounterCurrents.org
• Uniting the nation: Asghar Ali Engineer’s struggle for preservation of plural ethos (Dr. Ram Puniyani's tribute): , By Ram Puniyani, TwoCircles.net
• Asghar Ali Engineer - His life was Gentle; and the Elements… by SYED ALI MUJTABA SYED for The Ground Report India
• Renowned Islamic scholar Asghar Ali Engineer passes away, Syed Mohammed, Times of India
• There will never be another Asghar Ali, Jyoti Punwani in Mumbai Bangalore Mirror -- Scholarly, courageous and secular, Asghar Ali Engineer spent his life combating regressive beliefs and practices while presenting a modern, humanistic interpretation of Islam
• Islamic scholar Asghar Ali Engineer dies, The Asian Age
• Renowned Islamic scholar, author and reformist Asghar Ali Engineer ... India Today
• A man of peace, Syed Muthahar Saqaf The Hindu
• Crusader against communalism, Meena Menon, The Hindu
• An obituary by ZAHIR JANMOHAMED, Kafila
• REMEMBERING DR. ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER, Prof (Dr.) Ronki Ram ambedkartimes.com

Dr. M.A. Gopinath: Obituary

Prof. Dr. Malur Aji Gopinath (M.A. Gopinath), 1940-2013.

"It is with a deep sense of shock and sorrow we inform you the sad demise of Prof. M.A. Gopinath, former Professor and Head, Documentation Research &Training Centre and Member-Secretary, Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science, on Sunday, 10th February 2013 at about 12.00 Noon following a Cardiac arrest."
Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science
Bangalore

• Former Professor and Head Documentation Research and Training Centre (DRTC) Indian Statistical Institute (ISI),
• Former Visiting Professor, North Carolina Central University, Raleigh / Durham, N.C., USA.

Publications (select list):

• Memorabilia Ranganathan by Gopinath, M.A.
• Ranganathan's Theory of facet analysis and knowledge representation by M.A. Gopinath
• 'DR. SHIYALI RAMAMRITA RANGANATHAN' in Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, ed by Allen Kent and others, Vol. 25, 1978, published by Marcel Dekkar Inc., New York. [source cited]

His books found in the Library of Congress

• Classificationist and the study of the structure and development of the universe of subjects, by A. Neelameghan. Classification research 1963-1967. Trend report (India) by M. A. Gopinath. 1967
• Prolegomena to library classification, by S. R. Ranganathan. Assisted by M. A. Gopinath. 1967
• Colon classification / by S.R. Ranganathan. 1987
• Lectures on conceptual knowledge processing / M.A. Gopinath ; prologue by S. Parthasarathy ; edited by A. Neelameghan]. 2001
• Classification research, India, 1968-1973 / by M. A. Gopinath. 1974
• Construction of depth version of Colon classification : a manual / M.A. Gopinath. 1986

Messages I am deeply grieved to inform that Prof M.A. Gopinath is no more. About half an hour ago he had a massive heart attack and passed away. He was an eminent scholar in the field of Library Science. May his soul rest in peace.Dr Rangashri Kishore ( Niece of Dr Gopinath). It is unfortunate and sorrowful to every professional to know about sad demise of Prof Gopinath (formerly from DRTC) today afternoon after massive heart attack, I join thousands of professional frnds around the world to condole his death and pray almighty to give peace to his soul. Prof. Laxman Rao. I am deeply saddened to hear this morning from ARD Prasad that Prof Gopinath is no more. I had known Gopi since 1969, when I joined Ranganathan as his Research Assistant. In fact, when Gopi moved to DRTC as a faculty member in 1969, I took over from him as Ranganathan's Research Assistant. It was Gopi who initiated me to Ranganathan's style of working and who helped me a lot in my initial days. We were good friends and I fondly remember Gopi and Prof Seetharama,  visiting us in Jamshedpur, when I was with XLRI, and spending two days with us. My sincere condolences to the bereaved family.  P. Jayarajan. He  was a great  human being and great teacher.   He will live for ever in the hearts of  many LIS professionals. May his soul rest in peace! Madaiah Krishnamurthy.  Great loss to library professionals.  K Visweswarappa. I am extremely sorry to hear the demise of Dr M.A.Gopinath who needs no introduction to Indian LIS professionals. Concurrent with the establishment of DRTC, Mr Gopinath joined Dr S. R. Ranganathan  as his Research Assistant, graduated from DRTC in early 70s, served as  a faculty,moved to North  Carolina University as a visiting professor,and back in Bangalore spent rest of his life. Dr Gopinath will be always remembered along with Dr SR Ranganthan as the coauthor of classic book Prolegomena to library classification. My association with Dr Gopinath dates back to 1967 when I joined DRTC as a student  and later working with him closely as the Joint Secretary of Mysore Library Association (now Karnataka State Library Association). May Dr Gopinath's  soul rest in peace. Deva B. Eswara Reddy   I really feel shocked to know about the untimely and sad demise of Prof.M.A.Gopinath.I had known Prof. Gopinath for several decades as a committed and intelligent LIS professional and had always held him in high esteem for his simplicity,intelligence and academic integrity.I still remember the academic discussion I have had with him in the Viva-voce examination for his Ph.D Thesis at Dharwar University and always felt that he was quite unique in several ways.I hereby convey my heartfelt sympathy for the family and pray that He may give them sufficient of strength to bear this irreparable loss with courage and fortitude. I also pray that the departed soul may rest in peace. Prof.P.B.Mangla  I am shocked and saddened to learn of the sudden passing away of Prof. Gopinath. An erudite scholar, a prolific author with a smiling and cheerful disposition, Prof.Gopinath will be sorely missed by the library science fraternity.My sincere condolences to the members of the bereaved family for this untimely loss. May his soul rest in peace. Prof.J.B.Subramaniam I am sorry to know about demise of Prof. GOPINATH. He was a great scholar and excellent human being.  May God grant him eternal peace. KRISHAN KUMAR I am deeply grieved and saddened to know sad demise of Prof Gopinath. Our association dates back to 1977. He has been my , inspiration,guide and mentor. It is great loss to profession as he had been a great scholar, writer, professor and great human being. P K Varma, BHEL New Dehi I am shocked to learn of the sudden passing away of Prof. Gopinath. He is great teacher, friend and philosopher. For me he is more than my father. I cant control my tears of eyes reading this news. May his sou; rest in peace. T. B. Ghosh Other sites: LIS Links

23-year Delhi rape victim dies in Singapore: Media Monitoring

For current update See News @ Google India Edition

NEWS Updates

• Gautaman Bhaskaran "Much like religion, the images on the screen, however fleeting they may be, can be as addictive as opium – to borrow a time-worn phrase. How many, many times we have seen the young and the impressionable copy the dare-devil acts they watch in movies – or even in advertisements – and how they impersonate their heroes and heroines." [source]
• Radhika Apte ‘sex tape’ proves India can’t make its peace with sex in cinema : The reason: Bikinis and sex scenes might have finally come to India, but Bollywood’s approach on women’s bodies and their sexuality remains centred around titillation. And it is an approach that continues to make money, so why bother changing it? 

• Amala Paul-Vijay Split: Why do film families want mega serial bahus? Why does marriage come with compromising a career for female actors?

Jothika fell off the radar for several years after their wedding but made a come-back through advertisements and ‘36 Vayathiniley’, the remake of the Malayalam ‘How Old Are You?’ At the audio launch of the film, however, Sivakumar was quick to stress that despite his happiness at Jothika’s return, her priorities would be ‘Family, Child, Husband, and then Cinema’. Aishwarya Rai, ever since she became part of the Bachchan family, has stayed away from doing intimate scenes. According to reports, the Bachchan family clout was enough for Karan Johar to drop a kissing scene between Ash and Ranbir Kapoor in his forthcoming film ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’.

Why Movies Must Stop Celebrating Stalking In The Name Of ‘Love’
BBC Full Documentary- 'India's Daughter' on Nirbhaya Delhi Gang Rap | banned | public review -- See also BBC site

• Actresses now object to being objectified: Vidya Balan (IANS Interview)
  
• Why We Should Use Our Outrage For Good
  Look at a 2014 study of attitudes among youth conducted across 11 major cities in India which found that the importance of “gender equality” scored the lowest. Here are a few other findings (Source: Firstpost article):
  • “52% of Young India thinks a woman’s place is in the kitchen”
  • “39% of girls and 43% of boys, agreed that women have no choice but to accept a certain degree of violence”
  • “55% women and 59% men, whether a woman wears jeans or a sari, her clothing is to blame if a man chooses to manhandle her”
  • “A whopping 43% of the men are under the impression that well, tough luck women, you had that coming, now suck it up and accept it (on sexual violence)”
• Does Bollywood normalise stalking?   --  A defence lawyer in Australia successfully claimed that his client’s aggressive pursuit of women was ‘quite normal behaviour’ for Bollywood fans. Sadly, it’s all too easy to concur
• Dressing to kill, not thrill -- Film and TV heroines seem to have finally shunned the impractical sexy dresses and slipped into something more befitting their action [see also: U2 - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me (Live)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxngIpxYLdM]
• Opinionline: Will rape protests change India?
• 5 reasons why Indian men rape South Asian Observer  

By Dinesh K. Sharma
NEW DELHI
India - rather whole of south Asia - has given the world a term called eve teasing. So why do Indian men tease eves? Why do they rape?
In a land which elevated women to the status of a goddess and gave the world its first sex treatise in the form of the Kamasutra, there are a myriad deep-rooted religious, cultural and social reasons for sexual perversion prevalent today. Sex is such a potent force which, if not channelized properly, can be destructive. In India, it has become a destructive force.
Here are five reasons why:
1:  Sex, which was well integrated with daily life in ancient India (as old rituals show), was driven underground with the advent of Islam and later Victorian British rule. We are reaping the harvest today.
2:  As mentioned above, sex was so integral to daily life that India that wife-sharing enjoyed so sort of social sanction. One brother would marry a woman and all his brothers would have sexual relations with her. That's why bhabhi (brother's wife) is the focus raunchiness in our society. This habit with Indian men has not spilled on to streets in the form of sexual attacks and rapes.
3.  Indian entertainment industry thrives on titillation and eve teasing. Not surprisingly, when you bombard young people with so much lewdness they will give vent to their sexual frustration somewhere.
4:  India today is overpopulated and cramped families leave no privacy release their pent-up sexual energy. This is more so with poor people who have no space in their family homes to indulge their sexual fantasies.
5:  Most rapes are committed by poor migrate people in big cities such as Delhi. It happens because suddenly these sexually frustrated men find anonymity and space to give vent to their fantasies.
So what is the solution? There is no solution until India becomes a sexually liberated society. But right now, sex has just been reduced to a procreative tool - a far cry from the Kamasutra.

• 10 Ridiculous Ideas About Rape That I Got From The Movies, Devishobha Ramanan, The Huffington Post
• 10 reasons why India has a sexual violence problem washingtonpost.com
•  The bizarre reasons why men rape in India Rediff.com
-- Yet at such a time, short skirts, mobile phones and Western culture are blamed for these incidents.

Indian Films High on Sexualisation of Women: UN Report

Yoshita Singh | United Nations | Sep 23, 2014

India tops the chart in showing attractive women in its movies and as much as 35 per cent of these female characters are shown with some nudity, finds a first-ever UN sponsored global study of female characters in popular films across the world.
The study, commissioned by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, with support from UN Women and The Rockefeller Foundation, reveals deep-seated discrimination, pervasive stereotyping, sexualisation of women and their underrepresentation in powerful roles by the international film industry.
Indian films, the study finds, have a significantly higher prevalence of sexualisation of female characters and the movies score low in depicting women in significant speaking roles and as engineers and scientists.
While women represent nearly half of the world's population, less than one third of all speaking characters in films are female and UK-US collaborations and Indian films are at the bottom of the pack.
Both, the American/British hybrid films (23.6 per cent) and Indian films (24.9 per cent) show female characters in less than one-quarter of all speaking roles. Even the frontrunners (UK, Brazil and South Korea) feature female characters in 35.9-38 per cent of all speaking roles on screen.

Thanks for the crassness: An open letter to Honey Singh from a parent Sandipan Sharma, Hindustan Times   July 21, 2014 

Shot in the dark: Actress unhappy of beau's closeness to a starlet - mid-day.com

 Rape Cases Hushed Up In India: U.S. Lawmakers Told

Website Article Sparks Protests in Assam Outlook India   Nov 09 03:54am -- A website article on an alleged 'Assam Rape Festival' has sparked widespread protests in Assam for denigrating the image of the state  -- See also: ‘Assam Rape Fest’ triggers row-  The Times of India  - An American news satire website's play of words and comment on the security of women in India, and particularly in Assam, has evoked sharp criticism from netizens

Why Women are Sometimes Responsible for 'Rape'

Jasmine: Depicting rape scenes on celluloid justified? Maitreyee Boruah, TNN | Jul 21, 2013,

Reaction to gang rape shows India isn't as 'backward' as US, Alaska Dispatch March 15, 2013

Siddiqui: Ending India’s culture of silence on rape, Toronto Star, January 16, 2013 They May Never Know Her Name. Given name of the Indian medical student, trainee physiotherapist, a victim:
>>> Google lights up a candle to honour the Delhi braveheart
>>> President Pranab Mukherjee called her a "true hero";
>>> In Memory of The Unknown Citizen by Shuddhabrata Sengupta @ Kafila, Run from the big media
>>> Nirbhaya (the symbolic name given to the girl by The Times of India);
>>> Delhi gang-rape victim given symbolic name 'Damini' (seen on a banner, is a symbolic name given to the victim, taken from a Bollywood film of the same name about a woman's fight against society for justice for a rape victim);
>>> Amanat (“treasure”); whose gang rape triggered mass protests ... was first trapped in the name of love and friendship and then raped...leading to her death...
>>> Demand for revealing her name grows, The Hindu, Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar -- but there is a legal issue: "Under Section 228A of the Indian Penal Code, disclosure of a rape victim’s name is punishable with a two-year jail and a fine."

The six criminals who have been charged for the murder are listed @ Wikipedia:
Ram Singh, the bus driver, and his brother, Mukesh Singh, were both arrested in Rajasthan; Vinay Sharma, an assistant gym instructor, was arrested in Delhi, as was Pawan Gupta, a fruit seller; Raju, a minor, and native of Uttar Pradesh was arrested by the police at Anand Vihar terminal in Delhi; and Akshay Thakur, a man who had gone to Delhi seeking work, who was arrested in Aurangabad in Bihar.

23-year Delhi rape victim dies in Singapore: Media Monitoring

For current update See News @ Google India Edition

NEWS Updates

•  7 Ways Bollywood Is Contributing To Rape Culture In India
• AIB takes an honest look at how Bollywood has enabled harassment over the years. All India Bakchod
•  Amala Paul-Vijay Split: Why do film families want mega serial bahus? Why does marriage come with compromising a career for female actors?

Jothika fell off the radar for several years after their wedding but made a come-back through advertisements and ‘36 Vayathiniley’, the remake of the Malayalam ‘How Old Are You?’ At the audio launch of the film, however, Sivakumar was quick to stress that despite his happiness at Jothika’s return, her priorities would be ‘Family, Child, Husband, and then Cinema’. Aishwarya Rai, ever since she became part of the Bachchan family, has stayed away from doing intimate scenes. According to reports, the Bachchan family clout was enough for Karan Johar to drop a kissing scene between Ash and Ranbir Kapoor in his forthcoming film ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’. SEE ALSO: Private lives of Indian (Mumbai) stars

Why Movies Must Stop Celebrating Stalking In The Name Of ‘Love’
BBC Full Documentary- 'India's Daughter' on Nirbhaya Delhi Gang Rap | banned | public review -- See also BBC site

• Actresses now object to being objectified: Vidya Balan (IANS Interview)
• What is Bollywood’s role in changing Indian attitudes to women?
• 
  
• Why We Should Use Our Outrage For Good
  Look at a 2014 study of attitudes among youth conducted across 11 major cities in India which found that the importance of “gender equality” scored the lowest. Here are a few other findings (Source: Firstpost article):
  • “52% of Young India thinks a woman’s place is in the kitchen”
  • “39% of girls and 43% of boys, agreed that women have no choice but to accept a certain degree of violence”
  • “55% women and 59% men, whether a woman wears jeans or a sari, her clothing is to blame if a man chooses to manhandle her”
  • “A whopping 43% of the men are under the impression that well, tough luck women, you had that coming, now suck it up and accept it (on sexual violence)”
• Does Bollywood normalise stalking?   --  A defence lawyer in Australia successfully claimed that his client’s aggressive pursuit of women was ‘quite normal behaviour’ for Bollywood fans. Sadly, it’s all too easy to concur
• Dressing to kill, not thrill -- Film and TV heroines seem to have finally shunned the impractical sexy dresses and slipped into something more befitting their action [see also: U2 - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me (Live)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxngIpxYLdM]
• Opinionline: Will rape protests change India?
• 5 reasons why Indian men rape South Asian Observer  

By Dinesh K. Sharma
NEW DELHI
India - rather whole of south Asia - has given the world a term called eve teasing. So why do Indian men tease eves? Why do they rape?
In a land which elevated women to the status of a goddess and gave the world its first sex treatise in the form of the Kamasutra, there are a myriad deep-rooted religious, cultural and social reasons for sexual perversion prevalent today. Sex is such a potent force which, if not channelized properly, can be destructive. In India, it has become a destructive force.
Here are five reasons why:
1:  Sex, which was well integrated with daily life in ancient India (as old rituals show), was driven underground with the advent of Islam and later Victorian British rule. We are reaping the harvest today.
2:  As mentioned above, sex was so integral to daily life that India that wife-sharing enjoyed so sort of social sanction. One brother would marry a woman and all his brothers would have sexual relations with her. That's why bhabhi (brother's wife) is the focus raunchiness in our society. This habit with Indian men has not spilled on to streets in the form of sexual attacks and rapes.
3.  Indian entertainment industry thrives on titillation and eve teasing. Not surprisingly, when you bombard young people with so much lewdness they will give vent to their sexual frustration somewhere.
4:  India today is overpopulated and cramped families leave no privacy release their pent-up sexual energy. This is more so with poor people who have no space in their family homes to indulge their sexual fantasies.
5:  Most rapes are committed by poor migrate people in big cities such as Delhi. It happens because suddenly these sexually frustrated men find anonymity and space to give vent to their fantasies.
So what is the solution? There is no solution until India becomes a sexually liberated society. But right now, sex has just been reduced to a procreative tool - a far cry from the Kamasutra.

• 10 Ridiculous Ideas About Rape That I Got From The Movies, Devishobha Ramanan, The Huffington Post
• 10 reasons why India has a sexual violence problem washingtonpost.com
•  The bizarre reasons why men rape in India Rediff.com
-- Yet at such a time, short skirts, mobile phones and Western culture are blamed for these incidents.

Indian Films High on Sexualisation of Women: UN Report

Yoshita Singh | United Nations | Sep 23, 2014

India tops the chart in showing attractive women in its movies and as much as 35 per cent of these female characters are shown with some nudity, finds a first-ever UN sponsored global study of female characters in popular films across the world.
The study, commissioned by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, with support from UN Women and The Rockefeller Foundation, reveals deep-seated discrimination, pervasive stereotyping, sexualisation of women and their underrepresentation in powerful roles by the international film industry.
Indian films, the study finds, have a significantly higher prevalence of sexualisation of female characters and the movies score low in depicting women in significant speaking roles and as engineers and scientists.
While women represent nearly half of the world's population, less than one third of all speaking characters in films are female and UK-US collaborations and Indian films are at the bottom of the pack.
Both, the American/British hybrid films (23.6 per cent) and Indian films (24.9 per cent) show female characters in less than one-quarter of all speaking roles. Even the frontrunners (UK, Brazil and South Korea) feature female characters in 35.9-38 per cent of all speaking roles on screen.

Thanks for the crassness: An open letter to Honey Singh from a parent Sandipan Sharma, Hindustan Times   July 21, 2014 

Shot in the dark: Actress unhappy of beau's closeness to a starlet - mid-day.com

 Rape Cases Hushed Up In India: U.S. Lawmakers Told

Website Article Sparks Protests in Assam Outlook India   Nov 09 03:54am -- A website article on an alleged 'Assam Rape Festival' has sparked widespread protests in Assam for denigrating the image of the state  -- See also: ‘Assam Rape Fest’ triggers row-  The Times of India  - An American news satire website's play of words and comment on the security of women in India, and particularly in Assam, has evoked sharp criticism from netizens

Why Women are Sometimes Responsible for 'Rape'

Jasmine: Depicting rape scenes on celluloid justified? Maitreyee Boruah, TNN | Jul 21, 2013,

Reaction to gang rape shows India isn't as 'backward' as US, Alaska Dispatch March 15, 2013

Siddiqui: Ending India’s culture of silence on rape, Toronto Star, January 16, 2013 They May Never Know Her Name. Given name of the Indian medical student, trainee physiotherapist, a victim:
>>> Google lights up a candle to honour the Delhi braveheart
>>> President Pranab Mukherjee called her a "true hero";
>>> In Memory of The Unknown Citizen by Shuddhabrata Sengupta @ Kafila, Run from the big media
>>> Nirbhaya (the symbolic name given to the girl by The Times of India);
>>> Delhi gang-rape victim given symbolic name 'Damini' (seen on a banner, is a symbolic name given to the victim, taken from a Bollywood film of the same name about a woman's fight against society for justice for a rape victim);
>>> Amanat (“treasure”); whose gang rape triggered mass protests ... was first trapped in the name of love and friendship and then raped...leading to her death...
>>> Demand for revealing her name grows, The Hindu, Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar -- but there is a legal issue: "Under Section 228A of the Indian Penal Code, disclosure of a rape victim’s name is punishable with a two-year jail and a fine."

The six criminals who have been charged for the murder are listed @ Wikipedia:
Ram Singh, the bus driver, and his brother, Mukesh Singh, were both arrested in Rajasthan; Vinay Sharma, an assistant gym instructor, was arrested in Delhi, as was Pawan Gupta, a fruit seller; Raju, a minor, and native of Uttar Pradesh was arrested by the police at Anand Vihar terminal in Delhi; and Akshay Thakur, a man who had gone to Delhi seeking work, who was arrested in Aurangabad in Bihar.