Mumbai Meeting Pre-release summary

Summary and salient milestones of the Mumbai meet will be posted soon here in this post itself, so check back by tomorrow Evening by 5 P.M to read more at this same link (will be adding those details as a link here, in this same post itself).

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, and then they fight you, then you win- Mahatma Gandhi.

SIF-Mumbai as a group was in the first two stages as mentioned above, from the time we started as a small group around 2 years back. Examples: 1) Times and Hindustan Times and various other media who we had requested for putting a small ‘news item’ announcing about the Mumbai seminar + meeting in their respective "Today's Events" section, totally ignored us (and may have laughed at our request from the comfort of their offices) –Result, No news came in the dailies (except in one Marathi paper, thanks to a dedicated member’s efforts). 2) When a member tried to get the meeting covered, by using his personal contacts with a reporter in a TV channel, he was told that the TV channel won't be interested in reporting such an event, since they will be fearing an onslaught of rebuke slander from women’s lobby- may be the guys was timid and didn’t even check with his Channel in the first place, but this is not an isolated reaction towards a group of harassed men in media

But despite the apathy from media, the Mumbai Meeting was a worthwhile effort, we could 1) Get volunteers for forming and running an NGO- 20 odd willing members by the show-of-hands way. We will decide on the structure(this would either have a prominent women presence, or an “all woman wing”, all this will be brainstormed when the volunteers meet or chat on a later date) and procedures to actually commission this NGO when we meet together in a small group of volunteers(out of the 20 members who have showed their willingness) 2) Could get a crowd of 40 plus(and a few representatives of the media like All India Radio, Asian Age and UNA) for the first time in a meeting, this should be enough to set the ball rolling in the times to come.


Summary will be Posted here soon, as mentioned before. But my assessment about the first issue to be addressed, to get SIF-mumbai members ‘self-enabled’, is that they need to be brought to a more calm and composed state of mind(since many were appearing very stressed, wary, dejected and harried, in their speech and general outlook, etc.).

So I would request the motivational and mind control experts in our group to post articles and other resources , which will help our members to acquire a better and positive frame of mind, so that they can actually think clear and solve their issues with a problem-solving approach. If anyone deoesn’t have this attitude, and just starts to run from pillar to post, out of frustration & pulling their own hair out while doing so, it’s a tell tale sign of impending failure- “Jo Dar gaya, who Mar gaya” as Gabbar singh said years back… its so true.

Friends, this is the only issue u need to consciously address, and after you address this issue of unnecessary and worthless fear and anxiety, you can have a smooth cruise with your legal issues(since we have all the data you would need to fight any possible 498a scenario- we, in SIF, have collective wisdom of more than 1000 man days in Law related to 498a/dowry cases, considering at least 20-30 members(at any give day) browsing the net and acquiring knowledge from other legal sources about how to fight misuse of 498a cases, for an average of 1 hour for 2-3 years till now(After SIF yahoogroup was formed). If you tap into to the collective wisdom of SIF group and then use your own judgment and ratify the emerging ideas with your lawyer, I don’t know why anything would go wrong.

But for all this a composed frame of mind is essential, and you need to control ur mind from being ruthless on yourselves, draining a lot of positive energy out of your system- I say this, because this is the major aspect I always find lacking in any new victim(just as I was 3 years back- but I had strong emotional support from my parents which bailed me out from depression and negativity quick enough- I hope the same for all of you).

For alleviating this lacuna in your confidence, we need to organize more meetings which first addresses stress and mind control techniques(like Yoga, morning/evening walks, or just even shopping(works better than any, for some J ), do whatever you get happiness and peace from, but just don’t stay depressed and stressful- since this negativity hampers your inherent ability to think and hence defend or stand up for your rights.

So pick up your wits and start making amends, with your own mind first.