Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Indian Runner Fails Gender Test

This has been in the news for a few days now. Asian games are going on in Doha, Qatar. Indian runner Santhi Soundarajan won a silver medal in women's 800m event. She was stripped off her medal after she failed a "gender test".
I was not even aware that there was such a thing as a gender test in sports. I guess it makes sense considering that the events are broken down into women's and men's. The thing that bothers me most, is the insensitivity with which this was reported. Especially in a country like India, where questions like these can have a very negative effect on a person's life. Apparently
"Soundarajan appeared to have “abnormal chromosomes.” The official also said the test revealed more Y chromosomes than allowed."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16258993/
People are speculating if she had a sex-change procedure.
"Santhi, like many Indian track and field athletics, took up sport to find a secure job and escape grinding poverty.

One of five children of brick-kiln labourers in a rural village in southern Tamil Nadu state, she overcame malnutrition as a child to become a middle-distance runner.

Her family could not even afford a television and watched Santhi's Doha race at a neighbour's house."
To me that does not seem to be an environment where someone's focus was to get a gender-change procedure. She probably never went to a gynecologist or endocrinologist or even thought she had a problem.

Friday, December 15, 2006

Lakshadweep Islands

So here I was, sitting at my desk and dreaming of where I would want to go for a vacation if tickets to India were not so freakishly expensive in December. Nevertheless I decided to live vicariously thorough the all encompassing internet. Don't know why or how, but out of the blue I remembered these teeny islands off the western coast of India called Lakshadweep. So I trudge off to Wikipedia (ofcourse I don't "trudge" to wikipedia, but makes it sound more like an adventure!! Well.... this is as adventurous as I can be from the confines of this Herman Miller)
What do I find? Actually not much information, I mean after all this is one of the untouched places, like Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Unsullied beaches (unlike the rest of the coastal India), probably not teeming with tourists (no offense to Goa). Looks like most of the tourism is handled by the govt, which does not give me much confidence as to how easy it is to access the islands and how easy is it to go on vacation there. But the sheer gorgeousness of the place beckons me. Yeah one day.....