Another Prison System

I had never heard of OZ before, maybe because it never aired in India. The TV series ran on HBO for six seasons and ended in 2002. A few months back I sat and watched an episode on DVD with a friend of mine. I had no interest, but she insisted that I would like it. The very next day I started renting right from season one. I am currently at season three, and I am hooked. To give a brief idea of what this is about, I am quoting directly from Wikipedia. "Oz is the nickname for the Oswald State Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison of undisclosed location. Many of the plot arcs are set in Emerald City ("Em City"), an experimental unit of the prison, where the unit manager tries to emphasize rehabilitation and learning responsibility during incarceration. Emerald City is a controlled environment. There are a limited number of members of each racial and social group."

I love the series because it was ruthless and in your face. Violence, drugs, sex, murder, it was all there: all within the walls of OZ. Race is another touchy subject and it is sure to trigger something within all of us. The different races represented in OZ are the Muslims, Blacks, Aryans, Bikers, Italians, Irish, Christians, Gays and many more. Most of us have probably wondered what life would be like inside a prison. I used to believe that OZ was an exaggerated version of what goes on inside a maximum security prison. How could murder, drugs etc all happen so frequently inside the prison? Of course it's a secure facility. Any prison is, and hence it has got to be safe.

I began to get the inside picture when I started meeting a client who was in a maximum security prison for six years. Everything he said matched with what I saw in OZ. He was beaten, raped and tortured in different ways. He has seen inmates killing other inmates. He has seen prison guards killing prisoners. He has seen guards turn a blind eye when someone is being beaten or killed. Drugs do its rounds, and every group is in a race to take control. In his own words he said that the prisoners run the prison. Not in a literal sense, but in every other sense. If you ever land inside, you better be tough, or you are a dead man. One sign of weakness and they rip you apart. During one of our classes last year, we got a chance to visit the women's maximum security prison here in Indianapolis. We were given a guided tour of the facility and honestly it appeared to be like a school or college with hostels. I am pretty sure that they showed us only the pretty picture.

This got me thinking about our prison system back in India. Do we have racial groups? Do drugs pass around freely? Do inmates get mounted up their rear end? Do inmates murder each other and get away with it? Do cops turn a blind eye because they are afraid of the prisoners? I would love to say such things don't happen, but I though the same of this country too. So if it can happen here, why not there? I really feel like wanting to know more about our prison systems and how they run. Or is it another corrupt institute like most other? We of course know of all the big shot politicians who get five star treatment in prison, but what about an ordinary prisoner? How safe is he inside the walls? Would he be safer outside than inside?

If anyone who reads this has had any contact with any prison in India and knows something, please do drop a line. I don't mean those who stayed in prison, though your views get priority, but if you have ever worked in a prison or done some sort of social work with prisoners, I would love to hear what you think.

PS: Meanwhile, if you have not watched OZ, please WATCH IT.

Love Is....

One Of Those Unexplainable Things In Life

The recent post by Everyman made me think a little deep. I have probably spent half my life thinking about relationships, couples, love, blah blah and what not, but I think I might have missed the point completely somewhere along the way. LOVE, is one of those words which you find really hard to explain. Try as much as you may and each time you could come up with a different answer. That's fine because I don't think there is one right answer.

I'm sure that most of us have had preconceived ideas about what love is, or what love should be. We all probably grew up with our own fantasies of what kind of partner we want and the things we want to do with them. Ask a random man what kind of wife he wants and he might say that he wants someone who has an interest in sports, loves to watch movies, listens to music, cooks well, blah blah. These are just the basic requirements we carry. Its ok to expect but its funny how most of us could end up with someone with whom we have nothing in common. Yet, we love them to death. Strange, isn't it? I admit that I have occasionally browsed through various match making sites and dating websites. No, i wasn't looking for someone, but I have always been fascinated by the requirements of both men and women. Some of these sites match up people with similar interests and similar backgrounds. In this case you could end up with a couple who both love football, love Star Wars, love reading fiction, eating pizza and so on. I bet they could get off to a great start doing all the things they love doing together. But what happens a few months or years down the line? What happens when they have exhausted doing all that they love? Would they be lost somewhere along the way because all the while they were comfortable doing certain things that were well defined? Neither one has ever introduced the other to something new and they have probably not even considered something new. If you are doing everything you love with your partner, then what role does friends have in your life? What do you do with them?

I also tried to evaluate my own relationship. My partner and I always knew that we were both really different but still, somewhere I believed that we might have something in common. I don't think I was able to actually come up with anything concrete. We are just poles apart. Apart from the fact that we both like Biryani, there was hardly anything else. She likes hip-hop and I like rock and metal. I like cricket and she prefers soccer. She likes reading and I don't. I love blogging and as for her its not her cup of tea. Her idea of fun is probably going out and having a blast while I prefer to sit with a friend or two and chat into the night. Her idea of going out is going shopping and my idea of going out does not exceed a movie or dinner. When she gets angry she explodes, and I shut down. She takes time to cool down after an argument, while the cooling down time for me does not go beyond 5 minutes. She can fall asleep as soon as she hits the bed while I take a long long time. She is active as soon as her eyes are open in the morning, while I need a long time in bed before I can be fully awake. She likes to dress properly even if it is stepping out to the store. I, on the other hand would go to work in a shorts and t-shirt given the choice. We come from different corners of the country. We have different cultures and traditions and even different language. Still, we love each other to death. Probably defies all logic. The list could go on, and I rather not list everything out here, least I incur someones wrath. LOL.

Everyman has hit the nail on the head and he sure knows what he wants. Cheers to that. So what if we are so different? Your partner is supposed to be everything you are not, and that way you both can complete each other. It sure is thrilling when two people are different. The exploring can get real interesting. Sure, you will come across things you don't like, but so will your partner. Get to know something new each day and wake up and begin the day with the feeling of falling in love, every single day. Wake up each day with the feeling that you are glad to be with the person you are with. All that matters is if you like being with that person or not, irrespective of what you both have in common. You will be surprised at how two opposites can be the perfect match. Ask me.

Healed

......and the world was one again. It is Good.

Analytics

Agreed this is a weird post, but let me blame it on the lack of a better topic. It has been a while since I started using Google Analytics. It doesn't really serve a great purpose except tell me which posts are the most read and so on. I don't make any revenue from the blog so Analytics is pretty much entertainment, and nothing more. I just thought that I would go through the details and see what weird/funny details I could come up with.

New vs Returning
The returning readers maintain a slight edge over the new ones. The former accounts for 54% and the new ones are a healthy 46% on an average. I pretty much know who the returning ones are, but it has got me wondering who the new ones are, and how many of them become returning over time.

Source
This would probably mean the route through which people have reached this blog. Google acts as the biggest source with 25% of the readers reaching here through the search engine. This is closely followed by Blogger and Orkut. Among my readers, the biggest gateway is none other than our very own Orange Fling, aka 3inone, with almost 8% readers, closely followed by Jimmy The Kid and Everyman. So yeah, thanks guys, for linking me up.

Location
The maximum hits come from India and to be more precise, Delhi, followed by Chennai and Bangalore. There are quite a few hits from the USA and I am not surprised because most of it would be from my own computer so I don't think that really counts.

Most Used Browser
Seems like most of my readers use Internet Explorer (58%), followed by Firefox (23%). There were few more browsers which I have never heard of before.

Average Time
The average time spent on this blog by the reader is 4 minutes and 18 seconds. The highest daily average was 7 minutes and 22 seconds, which was on June 20th.

Most Read Post
Usually the last post remains as the most hit one for a long time before it fades away, but my post on Long Distance Relationships has always stayed in the top three since it was posted. I guess there must be a lot of troubled/desperate people in long distance relationships, trying hard to find answers.

Most Searched Keyword
I think the top five keywords are all relationship related. Some of them are "long distance love", "Long distance", "My boyfriend is away", "long distance love problem" and so on. Apart from the relationship related ones, the next search was for my name, "Divyan Varghese." Now I really wonder who has been googling my name.

Absurd
Once in a while you come across really weird searches and one such search word was, believe it or not, "Mallu Breast Suck." Now where on earth did I ever post something with those keywords? Neither did I write about sucking a mallu breast, nor about a mallus breast being sucked.

Ok, that's enough already. I'm feeling bored and am beginning to think that if I have nothing to post about, maybe I just shouldn't.