Documentary: Sex Trafficking in South India

Prostitutes of god

Journalist Sarah Harris has made a documentary about temple prostitutes in south India -Devadasi girls are dedicated to a Hindu deity and spend their lives selling sex.

Interview by Matilda Battersby
Monday, 20 September 2010

Former Independent journalist Sarah Harris has made a documentary about India’s temple prostitutes – Devadasi are young girls who are dedicated to a Hindu deity at a young age and support their families as sex workers.

The first instalment of the four-part exclusively online documentary ‘Prostitutes of God’ goes live today on VBS.tv.

I first went to India after I left The Independent three years ago. I wanted to run away and do something really different, so I went to volunteer with a charity in southern India which rescues victims of sex trafficking.

On my very first day there I stumbled into a meeting of Devadasi prostitutes. I was told that they were temple prostitutes, but didn’t have any understanding of what that meant.

I began to research it and in February 2008 was invited to northern Karnataka, which is the centre of the tradition in India. I interviewed a few of the women and wrote an article about it for Vice magazine. But visiting them stayed with me, and I wanted to find out more. continue reading full article at The Independent.

watch Prostitutes of God

Surviving PMS

The Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) affects 80% of women according to some sources. Here’s a little hilarious video to help the dudes out there deal with the challenge. Women are more obviously connected with Nature’s rythms, so I guess my advice is: be aware of the cycles, don’t get caught up in the moods and stay cool & supportive, cause as soon as aunt Flo comes the symptoms will go away like magic! What do you girls (and guys) say?

According to Ayurveda eminence Dr David Frawley, PMS can be caused by an imbalance in any of the three doshas, although as a psychological/nervous condition, it is mainly a vata disorder. Contributing factors include poor nutrition, stress, overwork, travelling, difficulties in relationships and suppressed emotions.

In Ayurvedic Healing: a comprehensive guide, Dr Frawley explains we can distinguish three types of PMS (note that your current state doesn’t necessarily correspond with your ayurvedic constitution).
The three types of PMS are characterized by:

Vata PMS:
Anxiety, depression, insomnia, constipation, headache, severe cramping pain. Nervousness, agitation, feeling spaced out, dizziness, vertigo, possibly with ringing in the ears. Moods may shift rapidly, the person will be very hard to please and may have feelings of abandonment. The individual will complain of feeling cold, with thirst and dry skin. She may even feel like she’s dying. The period may be irregular or delayed and the flow tends to be scanty, brown or black in colour.

Pitta PMS:
Anger, irritability, proneness to argument, temper, possible violent outbursts.
Diarrhea, thirst, sweating, fever, the individual tends to feel hot (particularly in the upper part of the body). Acne or skin rashes often appear. The flow tends to come early, it is typically abundant and may have clots.

Kapha PMS:
Tiredness, feeling heavy, crying, feeling sentimental or needing to be loved. Emotional changes not as severe as in the other types. Susceptibility to colds and flu, mucus discharges will increase. Lack of appetite and possible nausea. Swelling of the breasts or accumulation of fluids beneath the skin. The period tends to be late and whitish.

If you don’t have a definite pattern, aloe gel seems to be effective for all three types of PMS (aloe is pure magic and reduces pitta, kapha and vata, whereas it doesn’t aggravate either of them!), although for a comprehensive treatment we strongly recommend that you check out this ayurvedic bible (You can read some excerpts on Amazon).

Pink is the new fierce (india)

posted by ebean

Browsing through a copy of BUST Magazine (amazing), I came across an article called “Angry in Pink” which introduced an all women vigilante group making strides in India.  The gist?  You gotta wear pink to join, you gotta fight when someone needs you, people are taking notice, these brave ladies are exacting change.  Awesome!

Although the Bust article is not available online yet, I did find this article to get you started…

http://www.hindu.com/2006/08/09/stories/2006080917840300.htm

or watch this video:

http://current.com/items/89107143_pretty-bad-ass-in-pink.htm

Who wears short shorts?

[updated 6/26/10]

Scroll about halfway down:

“WHAT TO WEAR: Tight-fitting shorts and a sleeveless top. You will not be allowed to take the exam without proper attire.”

Are they going Iyengar?  Do they want to see anatomy?  Do they want to make jumping to bakasana on sweaty arms that more challenging?  Or maybe they just want to see more legs?  Who doesn’t?…

So, what to wear?  If you like roll-down pants, try Hard Tail’s roll-down shorts.  Same thick material (won’t show your booty), same stretchy material (won’t show your booty), same roll-down (you will love).  The pair on the left looks a bit short…if you want longer, try the east-coast version.  For a list of stores click here.

Phat Buddha is a NYC based yoga clothing company that makes high quality, yet affordable wear.  Everything is that stretchy swimsuit material in vibrant colors and patterns.  Try the drawstring shorts.  For a little extra length, go east-coast.  The material is clingy, yet flexible, and thick, yet lightweight.  You’ll find Phat Buddha in many Bikram studios in NYC.

Prana, perhaps the most ethical of the bunch, makes the simple “Eve Shorts”.  I’ve never tried them, but they look pretty straight forward…Hey Prana, send us a pair and we’ll try ’em out!

Got a pair that you swear by?  Let us know!

Update 6/26/10: We’re still waiting to try a pair of the Prana shorts and really dig this Iyengar bloomer company:  Malaika Padma (especially their Puna Chic Yoga Shorts).   American Apparel is currently stocking their version (the Pique Bloomer), albeit probably not exclusively for yoga so who knows how functional they are on the mat.

When women ruled the world (or at least part of it)

Posted by Wherehaveyoubean

This historical excerpt is from a totally priceless Norwegian textbook from the 50’s on fashion and fashion history. I found it somewhere in the mountains last time I needed time away from civilization, and copied it word by word as I thought this had to be shared (although some men seem to feel… threatened by evidence like this).

A couple of millenniums of antiquity give me the freedom to reproduce this text, in which the priestess of Mallorca talks with a Greek refugee about the Hellenic male-dominated society:

She asked: “Who can this male god-father be? Fathers are instruments a woman uses because she feels like it, and to be a mother”. She laughed with disdain and shouted: “I have never heard anything like that before! This is truly brilliant… fathers! I guess the Hellenic fathers nurse their children themselves also, sow the land, pollinate the fig trees, legislate and carry out all the other female chores.”

She tramped down impatiently, and her face turned dark in anger. “It is the woman, not the man who decides. She is the hand, he always the tool. She commands, he obeys. Isn’t the woman the one who chooses and conquers the man, with her sweetness and her scent, and orders him to lie down on his back? And then she rides on top of him like a wild horse she has tamed, enjoys with him and then walks away from him like a dead body? Isn’t the woman the one who rules the den and -if any of her lovers displease her with laziness and obstinacy- warns him three times before she commands him to collect his belongings, and disappear in the men’s shelter?”