Apparently Indians don’t get sexual harassment training at IIT. The Washington Times reports on this growing public concern:

For example, we have many Indians who say, “Can I make a move?” when they mean they would like to take leave of someone. But if that is uttered in the US, to a lady, it could be taken for a sexual request,” says Dholakia.

That’s not funny. When I use that line women usually just walk away from me. I have always wondered why.

Savitha Nayak and Sunil Dholakia, who train employees of multinational corporations in soft skills such as dealing with conflict, negotiating and communicating, say they have added the basic dos and don’ts of interacting with the opposite sex to their curriculum.

Someone sign me up.

India NewEngland sheds light upon an issue that links a partticular immigration status to domestic abuse:

The study’s author, Boston University School of Public Health Professor Anita Raj, says current U.S. immigration policies preventing women on spousal visas from working and self-petitioning for change of status may constitute human-rights violations.

“H-4B visa holders are legal residents of the U.S. who are being denied the right to work and the right to self-petition for legal permanent residency in the U.S.,” Raj said. “These policies violate basic human rights and must be changed for the U.S. to demonstrate a commitment to eliminating policies that increase women’s risk for violence.”

The study, released this month, determines that abusive husbands use immigration-related abuse – threats of deportation, refusal to file for change of visa status and withholding of immigration paperwork – to exert extraordinary personal and economic control over their partners.

There seems to be so many immigration loopholes that can be exploited in unconcionable ways. Since this one affects the South Asian community, I thought I’d point it out.

“I don’t want to imply that if you’re on an H-4 visa, you’re going to be abused,” Raj said. “If you are in an abusive relationship and you are on an H-4 visa, you are at so much greater vulnernability for abuse.”

Leslye Orloff, director of the Immigrant Woman Program at the women’s right organization Legal Momentum, is leading a national effort to secure legal protections for immigrant victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking.

Orloff said Raj’s research proves for the first time that it’s not just U.S. citizens or permanent residents who use control over a partner’s immigration status to lock their victims in abusive marriages.

No, that is not the name of my newest novel. You think childbirth is painful? Imagine passing stones through your tear ducts. From The Independent:

A 15-year-old girl called Savitri been admitted to hospital suffering from tiny stones that emerge from the corners of her eyes. Doctors say they have never seen anything like it, and they cannot explain it.

At the girl’s village in Jharkhand, they have two explanations. Either she is possessed by an evil spirit, or she is an incarnation of a goddess. But for Savitri, the condition is anything but a blessing. Before the stones emerge, she suffers from excruciating pain in her head. Tiny stones emerge from her ears, nose and mouth as well.

There are verses in the bible that fortell events like this in the End Days. With Nov. 2nd fast approacing, I am afraid.

Savitri and her family are desperate for a cure. Her bedside at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Science has been overrun by reporters, but the family say no one has been able to offer medical help.

Where is Dr. Sanjay Gupta with his house calls when you need him?

Manish already posted about the assassination of notorious bandit Veerappan, but I thought I’d follow up by telling SM readers about this article from the BBC, which discusses how a “leading” South Indian human rights group is unhappy with the tactics employed in exterminating the dacoit.

…the killing could have been avoided, according to the human rights group, People’s Watch.

Its head, Henry Tiphagne, asked in an interview with the BBC Tamil Service: “Why could the 100 armed police officers who surrounded Veerappan not have forced him to surrender or simply wounded him?”

Veerappan had many times told journalists how he had bribed police and politicians, and had made clear he would give details if he was ever tried.

Mr Tiphagne said, with Veerappan’s death, the allegations of his links to leading figures in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka could not be examined.

After gazing at that picture, what I want to know is, what happened to his meesha (moustache)? Am I looking at an insult added to (final) injury?

I SWEAR its not a rat. From NBC10:

Her name is “Tiny.” How tiny is she? A mere 7.2 inches long.

If Guinness authorities confirm the measurement next week, she could be confirmed as the world’s smallest dog.

The dog is owned by an Indian couple, both doctors, who filed for the record after looking at a Web site that showed a 7.4 inch Chihuahua from Slovakia as the world’s smallest dog.

Dog lover’s can view a clip of Tiny here. Personally I would have named her “Killer” or “Cujo.” Continue reading →

Abdullah Mehsud, a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner released by the U.S., turned right around and kidnapped two Chinese engineers in Pakistan:

The former prisoners include Abdullah Mehsud, accused by Pakistani authorities of overseeing the recent kidnapping of two Chinese engineers, one of whom was killed. On Friday, Pakistani soldiers began a massive search for Mehsud, 28, who returned to Pakistan in March after about two years’ detention at Guantanamo. Pakistan officials said he has forged ties with al Qaeda since then.

This blunder reminds me of the 1999 incident when India released three Kashmiri militants in exchange for hostages on a hijacked Indian Airlines jet, IC-814. One of the men released, Maulana Masood Azhar, then masterminded the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament which brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war.

Sick, sick, sickening:

Driven by acute poverty, a mother in Orissa sold her 20-day-old daughter to a neighbour for Rs 600 (about $13), media reports in Bhubaneswar said on Friday.

Kusum Majhi, 27, of Palisipada village in Kalahandi district, hit by drought and famine several times over the past decade, sold her second child to Dhanu Naik, a middle-aged labourer on Thursday, the Oriya daily Samaja reported.

…Kusum and her mother Sebati, 60, searched for a buyer in the village over the past few days, and Dhanu Naik showed interest in buying the child for Rs 600, the newspaper said.

…The sale of the baby was formally executed on Thursday in the presence of several other villagers, with Naik and Kusum submitting a document to the village council to avoid “future legal complications”, the report said.

How is this POSSIBLY legal?? 🙁