Predictive Analytics: What you need to know.

Introduction:

“Data is a precious thing and will last longer than the systems themselves.”
– Tim Berners-Lee, Inventor of the World Wide Web

Every circadian human activity generates an enormous amount of data into the chain. There has been an exponential growth in data in the last 3 years than in the past 100 years. The universe of data is predicted to grow from a mere 4.5 zettabytes to reach 165 zettabytes by 2030 creating a plethora of hidden potential in this upsurging cloud and it needs to be effectively mined to extract valuable insights.

Data Mining, a term used to sift through the troves of data to unearth useful nuggets of information that enables businesses and the general mankind to make better decisions. Data is futile without being mined and information is futile without being actionable and of business or real-life value. So how do we get from the data to insights to actions and thereby to a more data-driven future?

The prognosis for this ever-expanding data is to come up with not one but a set of powerful tools/toolkit to merge, analyze and visualize a vast amount of structured and unstructured data in a very short amount of time. This requires a powerful set of algorithms that includes AI, Machine Learning, and in some cases, Deep Learning, a strong set of natural language processing engines, and advanced graph computation, all based on distributed in-memory processing and versatile data ingestion capability from pre-built and custom data feeds.

A combination of the above, and with some humans-in-the-loop, data analytics can take a form of an Oracle with predictive and scenario generating capabilities.

Understanding Predictive Analysis :

Predictive analysis is the branch of advanced analytics that makes use of data mining, predictive modeling, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to bring together the management, information technology, and modeling business strategies to make future predictions. Data mining, text analytics, and statistics together allow users to establish predictive intelligence by uncovering patterns and relationships between the pre-existing structured data and newly fed raw and unstructured ones.

Hence, the goal is to identify the historical patterns, analyze the occurrences, and predict the future to assure a systematized environment that’s both consumer-friendly as well as beneficial to the innovators.

History of analytics :

Statistical data presentation and use of the same is not a new concept. Historians indicate that ancient Egyptians used statistical records for building pyramids. This is the same with the south Indian temple architecture or any geometrically designed religious places where analyses were based on the type of deity it is built for along with the cardinal point calculations and bent of human populations.

Analytics, or as we call it today, Data Analytics has been surviving simultaneously with us for quite some time now. The use of this powerful insight tool can be traced back to the 19th century when Frederick Winslow Taylor initiated time machine exercises or when Henry Ford measured the speed of assembly lines. Before the development of computers, US census reports would take seven years to collect, process, and generate the final report. Herman Hollerith in 1890 developed a tabulating machine that would systematically process recorded data. This device helped to complete the report in 18 months. In the late 1960s, analytics began receiving more attention when computers started serving as the major decision-making support systems. Relational Databases invented by Edgar F Codd in the 1970s, became quite popular for they allowed users to write in the Machine-understandable language called SQL by providing the advantage of data analysis on demand. But the dark side to this was the rigidness of RDBs that was not designed for unstructured data. This led to the invention of non-relational databases. By the late 1990s, the enormous flow of divergent information made working with RDBs hectic, and non-relational databases or No-SQL replaced the rigidity of SQL with smoother performance. With the growing vogue of the internet and the development of the google search engine, analytics started gaining more popularity. With the expansion of concepts like Big data, Data warehousing, the advent of the cloud, and a variety of software and hardware, Data analytics underwent a significant evolution.

“There were 5 exabytes of information created between the dawn of civilization through 2003, but that much information is now created every 2 days.”
– By Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google

Note: The disparate nature of data like images, blobs of text from conversations, chats, videos, and all kinds of multimedia only amplified with the emergence of social media, the democratization of both content consumption and creation.

Predictive analytics, an advanced form of data analytics answers the most crucial question in any mushrooming field, “ what will happen next?”.

The Predictive analytics probability models trigger from historical data, sensor data, and data-in-event evaluating specific consumer behavior and fed or unexpected global information generating a prediction within milliseconds empowering the institution implementing Predictive analytics for a market study aiming at exponential growth.

So what are the advantages now that will add to the use of predictive analysis?

Upsurging amount of data every second and diversity of data being generated.
Faster, reasonable, and better-refined computers.
Easy handling software
Tougher economic conditions and a need for competitive differentiation

How does Predictive analytics work? :

Predictive analytics has been increasingly used in many institutions as AI-powered analytics, delivers scalable logic and data visualization protocol that facilitates various organizations to design, deploy, manage, and secure reports spawned from various data sources. Here is a step-by-step process of how predictive institutionalized.

Project Definition :

Defining the project upshots, deliverables, spectra, goals, identifying the data sets which are going to be used make the core of this process.

Data acquisition:

Data acquisition, or DAQ as it is often referred to, is the process of digitizing data from the world around us so it can be displayed, analyzed, and stored in a computer. A site example is a process of measuring the temperature in a room as a digital value using a sensor such as a thermocouple. Modern data acquisition systems can include the addition of data analysis and reporting software, network connectivity, and remote control and monitoring options.

Data Mining :

Data mining involves accumulating, scrutinizing, and evaluating large blocks of information from various advents to glean meaningful patterns and trends.

Data Analysis :

Further, the data is analyzed, scoured, transformed, and sported to discover if it provides useful information and helps to infer.

Statistics :

This facilitates to substantiate if the outcomes, inferences, and speculations are admirable enough to go ahead and assess them using a statistical model.

Predictive Modeling:

It procures the ability to automatically build precise predictive prototypes about the future. There are also alternatives to choose the best solution with multi-model evaluation.

Predictive Model Deployment :

This provides the option to deploy the analytic results into the everyday decision-making techniques to get results, dissertations, and output by automating the conclusions based on the modeling.

Model Monitoring :

Models prepared are further tracked to regulate and check for performance congruence to ensure that the desired outcomes are amassed as anticipated.

Busting myths about Predictive analytics:

Predictive analytics are used to discern customer responses or investments, as well as promote cross-sell opportunities. These models help businesses entice, retain and boost their most profitable customers.

But it also requires investment: in your data, in infrastructure and technology, and your time. And organizations’ decisions are too often clouded with misconceptions and myths that need to be busted. Here listed are a few fallacies and their answers.

#1 “To deploy artificial intelligence, we have to invest a lot in exotic new hardware and dedicated infrastructure.”

This myth was true a few years before. But now you can start on the pre-existing infrastructure you already have and surge from there. There’s no need to make vast up-front investments.

Three falling costs make data analytics more accessible in today’s market.

The cost of data repository –An Infoworld analysis of cloud storage prices found that Amazon AWS, Microsoft, Google, and IBM have lowered their cloud prices and it will keep coming down, thanks to Moore’s Law, H/W is getting cheaper and cheaper and most of the cloud services as pay-as-you-go models – so you don’t have to invest upfront. You do your data analyses and shut down your H/W until you need it again.

The cost of using data analytics software has come down. You no longer need to buy multiple software packages to achieve your goals. And if done well, could be free of cost with the open-source utilities democratized by big tech companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

The ease of generating and consuming more data than ever before through mobile devices and Internet of Things (IoT) platforms.

Sum it up and you have an abundance of data to implement a well-planned data management technique at a much more reasonable price than ever before.

#2: “Predictive models take too long to build.”

Nope. The dawn of predictive modeling software has made the functions so incredibly efficient that most outcomes can turn out within seconds or minutes.

#3 “We don’t need advanced analytics like machine learning for our business.”

All enterprises need analytics, irrespective of their size. What’s crucial is comprehending the key business issues within your organization and analyzing how advanced analytics can help you unravel them.

#4: “Predictive models are a “black box” and can’t be validated.”

That depends on the type of institution. There are firms and counsels whose predictive models (built for their clients) fall into a “black box,” hampering the translucency of how the model was scored. But it is never the end of the world.

#5 “Data analytics is only for online companies.”

No, it’s not true as most of the frameworks to process, analyze data are based on the open stack – free for any use sans the copyright you can even build one tool yourself using some of these frameworks.

Companies like Domino’s have implemented analytics to focus on creating a trusted data foundation to support their marketing campaigns. It has transformed from a pizza restaurant to a technology company that sells pizza!

#6 “Predictive models replace human judgment.”

As much as we wish this was true, but no predictive models were ever implied to supersede the human judgment or intuition that adds to the process. The majority of the time, predictive modeling aims to enhance and broaden human aptitude in data analysis. After all, it takes a human to decide what datasets to consider and make smarter decisions.

Surpassing these myths, we can now move forward with a peek into the applications of Predictive analytics.

Applications of Predictive analysis :

Customer targeting: Dividing a customer base into groups of individuals similar in specific ways relevant to marketing, such as age, gender, interests, and spending habits enables companies to target tailored marketing messages accurately to customers who are most likely to buy their products.

Churn Prevention: By harnessing the power of big customer data sets, companies can develop predictive models that enable proactive intervention. These companies then interpret the causes of churn and take mandatory actions to retain those customers. For instance, by offering the customer a discount or an extra feature.

Cross-Sell: Application of predictive analytics investigate customers consuming rate, usage, and other aspects, leading to efficient cross sales, or selling additional products to current customers for an organization that offers multiple products.

Risk management: Predictive analytics foresees the best portfolio to maximize return in the capital aid pricing model and probabilistic hazard assessment to yield accurate visions.

Underwriting: Predictive analytics can help underwrite the numbers by anticipating the odds of illness, defaults, and bankruptcy. It can facilitate the technique of customer accession by predicting the future risk behavior of a customer using application-level data.

Financial modeling: This is done by deciphering a set of hypotheses about market behavior or envoys into numerical forecasts. These predictive models are used for benefiting the firms in decision-making procedures about investments or recoveries.

Health Care: The application of predictive analytics in the healthcare sector can infer the patients who are at the risk of developing specific ailments such as diabetes, asthma, and other lifetime illnesses. The clinical decision support systems integrate predictive analytics to benefit decision-making making at the point of care.

Fraud detection: Predictive analytics applications can find erroneous credit applications, defrauding trades both done offline and online, identity thefts, false insurance claims, Pandemic prevention, or Voter Swing Prediction (for elections).

Summary and takeaways:

Predictive analytics and machine learning are often confused with each other but they are different disciplines.
Predictive analytics extracts information from data sets to uncover alliances, recognize patterns, predict manias, discover coalitions, etc.
It allows enterprises to foresee the future and make ethical verdicts.
The applications of predictive analytics in business intelligence can be inexplicable yet play a key role in attaining impressive goals.
These can be used across many initiatives and are a great way to boost the outcomes and predict future events to act accordingly.
Methods of predictive analysis applied to customer data can establish a holistic view of the customer.
Proper application of predictive analytics can lead to more proactive and effective retention strategies.

“Everything is going to be connected to cloud and data… All of this will be mediated by software.”
– By Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO

Stay Tuned for more..

Edit courtesy: A Shravan Kumar

Six Acres and a Third

-Fakir Mohan Senapati

“The nationalist search for the identity of a community is often preceded by a
construction of knowledge and consciousness of that identity.”

Before deciphering the actual essence of Six acres and a third by Fakir Mohan Senapati, I will try to present a brief scenario of Odisha before the British colonization.

History:

With the decline of the Mughal administration in India, Odisha came under the control of 2 extreme powers – the Nizams of Bengal and the Bhonsles of Nagpur. Where on one side the Maratha Marauders, having no intention of staying in Odisha, made it their exile land, the Nizams started sub-colonizing parts of Odisha. There was a phase in history when Odia was about to get registered as one of the dialects of Bengali.
And then started the famous event of English Colonization in Odisha.

Feudalism in Odisha:

“the insertion of India into colonialism is generally defined as a
change from semi-feudalism into capitalist subjection”

Pre-colonial Feudal system in India — Pre-Colonial Feudal System in India

Feudalism in India was characterized by a class of landlords and by a class of subject peasantry, both living in a predominantly agrarian economy marked by a decline in trade and urbanism and by a drastic reduction in metal currency.
Interestingly, these zamindars plotted day and night to devour the helpless peasants and they succeeded in their devious schemes. They are the bourgeois who grew huge by looting the proletarians out of their physical strength and property. But what happens ultimately is that these zamindars got trapped unexpectedly by a superior force, The English, men who flew swiftly and robbed the toil of their whole life. The English entered just to trade but finally mastered encroaching upon all the riches of the colony.
Not only the colonizers from the outer world but also the insiders, like the Brahmins, fed from the pond. The Brahmins without doing any physical endeavor acquired a great deal of property by simply blessing the Maratha Subedars.
When the political and economical conditions in Odisha are analyzed, it is clear that British rule came as a liberating force for many. The Indians welcomed the British rule to free themselves from their previous colonizers, the Brahmins, the Marathas, and the Mughals. It became a metaphysical compulsion for the natives to await and to accept a better superior force.

Fakir Mohan Senapati and Colonization of Odisha:

Six Acres and a Third novel was
conceived as an answer to a social need and the needs of a specific mode of production. While Fakirmohan, trying to locate the ultimate cause of such a process, transcends history and time to speculate on human nature and the workings of fate, his immediate interest concerned the fifty years of political instability.
The circumstances under which colonialism came to Odisha were peculiar. The British did not grab power from the hands of the
indigenous rulers of Odisha. For a long time, the center of power that ruled Odisha was outside Odisha, either at Nagpur or at Murshidabad, and in many circles, the coming of the British was perceived as deliverance from misrule. The insidiousness of the colonial structures of power and culture could not be perceived by the common folk who had already been reeling under oppressive and exploitative systems of rule for quite some time.

The reaction of a native in Six Acres and a Third sums up the mood of the
people:

“Oh, horse, what difference does it make to you if you are stolen by
a thief? You do not get much to eat here; you will not get much to eat there.
No matter who becomes the next master, we will remain his slaves. We must look after our own interests” (205-206).

Six Acres and a Third record the political and the economic situation immediately after the occupation of the coastal districts of Odisha by the British East India Company. It highlights the consequences of the greed of the British rulers and their attempt to impose an alien economic and land revenue system. On the one hand, the British saved the common people from the violence and extortion of Maratha marauders, but, on the other, they ruined the traditional society in such a manner that the common people were disinherited from all their traditional occupations and professions. They were tied down to just one profession, i.e., agriculture. Soon, they were even disinherited from their lands by the Bengali sub-colonizers and were reduced to the status of farmhands. While the people in common were losing the moorings in their own land, a new privileged class got consolidated. This new feudal class consisted of the Bengali officers of the Company, the landlords from Bengal, and the few manipulative Odias who used their access to British education and their proximity to power to rise economically and socially. These neo-feudal were aping their colonial masters and were much more oppressive towards the common people, at whose cost they had risen socially.

Tragedy in Satire: Six Acres and A Third:

The dehumanizing effect of colonialism can be seen in the figures of Ramachandra Mangaraj, the protagonist of Six Acres and a Third. Mangaraj’s rise and fall can only be visualized in a colonial setup. By leveling traditional hierarchies and discrediting social norms, colonialism had spawned unnatural ambitions and easy means of fulfilling them. In the absence of the social safety valves that are available in a traditional society,
Mangaraj spends his childhood in a state of uncertainty and deprivation. In the absence of traditional social and moral reprimands, he uninhibitedly pursues his design of upward mobility through unworthy means.

Mangaraj manipulates the loopholes in the colonial legal system quite easily and establishes himself within a new feudal order where wealth and proximity to the rulers were the only qualifications for prominence. Mangaraj pays for his unnatural ambition and upward mobility through his alienation from the community. The signs of his dehumanization can be seen in the ruination of his family and the way he
has turned his house into a virtual brothel:

“Like birds of different feathers
seeking shelter in a large tree, [women] had flocked to Mangaraj’s house.
They kept arriving and leaving; it was impossible to keep track of their
movements” (54).

Mangaraj’s monomania for property not only transforms him into a commodity but also dehumanizes the entire world around him. Fakir Mohan seems to ascertain that not only greed but also the pursuit of wealth too could cause dehumanization. The colonial economic instrument is in this sense doubly corrosive: while allowing a few to arrogate power unto them and to enrich themselves disproportionately, it plunges the majority into a state of penury and disempowerment. Extreme poverty and disempowered, Fakirmohan rightly visualized, could be a source of moral degeneration and dehumanization.

For all its comic vitality, Chha Mana Atha Guntha is a poignantly tragic novel. Senapati’s world, that of nineteenth-century Odia society, had been transformed beyond recognition by the utilitarian ideas imported through “enlightened” British civil servants. A predominantly communal-rural-oral life started disintegrating under the pressure of a body of written laws and the alien values of English education. To the British,
this form of life had come to represent an anachronism, a crude form of socialism,
paralyzing the growth of individual energies and all their consequences.
The continuation of such a state of society, they felt, was “radically inconsistent with our rule both in theory and practice.”
Chha Mana Atha Guntha can be read as a passionate and moving rejoinder to the attitudes and programs of action enshrined in these remarks. For its characters, paralyzed by the “flood-like onrush” of English civilization, the utilitarian agenda practically meant the harsh imposition of unfeeling authority.

The action of the novel concerns a series of displacements affecting owners of the land, with the nature of ownership subjected to constant definition and redefinition. To take the one central example of the zamindari of Fatepur Sarasandha, we note that it was initially in the hands of the traditional Odia military aristocracy.
Senapati uses Sanskritized Oriya, a kind of Latinate diction, in describing them, thereby establishing the link between language and a way of life. This aristocracy loses its title to the land because it fails to cope with the new utilitarian dispensation which renders its benevolent paternalism and belief in personal valor obsolete. Over time, the zamindari passes into the hands of a Muslim trader (the ruling language is now Persian), who had bought it at an auction in Calcutta. This estate is then seen passing to an upstart Odia moneylender (the protagonist of the novel). In trying to defraud a poor weaver couple of a small parcel of land, (six acres and thirty-two decimals, to be precise), this moneylender-cum-zamindar gets into trouble with the law and loses his estate to his English-educated urban lawyer.

Faced with the law-enforcing agents of a colonial state (who take down every word that is uttered), the villagers of Gobindpur lapse into incoherence and silence. These are the same people who had a little while ago shown such remarkable resilience, pluck, and resourcefulness when they made the story of Mangaraja’s crime circulate with a lightning-like rapidity through the word of mouth. The very same people cower in fear because their depositions are “pen-imprisoned” or “Kalambandh” by the investigating officer. Writing is a source of power for those like Mangaraja, the protagonist of the novel, who can effectively control it. Mangaraja can dispose of the weaver couple through, among other things, his control over the written word. In the end, however, he loses out to an even more coherent, English-speaking/writing urban lawyer (Ram Ram Lala), a more finished product of the colonial/utilitarian order, who might be compared with Bitzer of Hard Times by Dickens. The shift from Mangaraja’s Oriya to Ram Ram Lala’s legal English denotes a transition from country to the city.

Chha Manna Atha Guntha is not, however, only an elegy on the gradual disappearance of a communal-rural-oral tradition. It also vigorously mobilizes resistance to the fact-based, rational order by raiding the resources of the same tradition.

On the day of the trial of Mangaraja, everything in the courtroom has been
“Englished”, as the novelist archly remarks. English law, in this instance, has turned English, thereby completing the alienation of the native Odias from a legal system designed to give justice to the individual members of an open, competitive society. Even the novelist is obliged to step into the role of a translator here, for the court proceedings on this day are conducted entirely in the English language in deference to the British civil surgeon who is present in the courtroom to give his testimony. Thus, the entire trial becomes an awesome display of colonial might, aimed at intimidating the native witnesses into submission.
Mr. H.R. Jackson, the white judge, at one point, threatens the Oriya defense lawyer with the cancellation of his lawyer’s license if the latter does not come to the point. Coming to the point, itself a thoroughly utilitarian prescription, means, in this instance, an unquestioned and unreserved acceptance of the authority of the British civil surgeon, A.B.C.D. Douglas (the son of, as the novelist playfully remarks, E.F.G.H. Douglas).
The irreverent wordplay on the English name here is part of Senapati’s wider purpose to defeat the language of power by the power of language. Senapati’s language derives much of its power from its allusive and allegorical qualities, the two main attributes of a rich and vibrant oral tradition.

Conclusion:

Senapati’s novel is a realistic portrayal of colonial rule. He balances the two realities of the Western Empire. The British colonial one on the one hand oppressed, enslaved, and exploited but on the other hand, it helped. Senapati says, “Today in the nineteenth century the sciences enjoy great prestige, for
they form the basis of all progress. See, the British are white-skinned, whereas Odias are dark in complexion. This is because the former have studied the sciences, whereas the latter does not know of these”.

British shaped India through its scientific inventions, a form of government and
enlightened many people. It was the missionaries who liberated the native people from their superstitious beliefs and provided education to the downtrodden natives. This is visible in the words of Senapati, “Ask a new babu his grandfather’s father’s name and he will hem and haw, but the names of the ancestors of England’s Charles the Third will readily roll off his tongue”. The British colonial rule was truly helping India by educating the lowly and deprived society. The downtrodden, illiterate people now became ‘babus’ because they have
mastered knowledge from their colonial masters. In other words, the natives were assimilated into the colonizers’ culture. The narrator is highly ironic in his words in conveying the realities.

Senapati’s every move in the novel is a critique of colonial rule. Every minute detail mirrors the consequentialism of British colonial rule in India.

Female Genital Mutilation:

Verity of the inner world

How barbaric humans can be?

(We already have the answer to this, but here’s more.)

Now to draw your attention to something that has been growing right under our nose in society since the dawn of human civilization yet most of us weren’t aware of it, here I surface the information I gathered.

Khafz, Khatna, or circumcision isn’t something new. I always felt it was barbaric to cut the skin as useless as it might be but opposing it never went well(debatable topic). But what made me question humanity itself was the same thing happening to the other gender at an intensity beyond limits.

So here’s TW: Losing sanity or Trust in humanity.

“Haraam ki boti – The sinful clump of flesh”

FGM or Female Genital Mutilation is something I came to know about a month back. Talking about the procedure, they are of 4 types. Type 1 is where they partially or completely remove the clitoris (an organ whose central role is self-pleasure.) Type 2 is where again they partially or completely remove the clitoris, labia minora, and sometimes the labia majora. Type 3 involves the narrowing or sewing up of the Vaginal opening along with the Clitoris, Labia Minora, and Majora (called the infibulation). And Type 4 includes harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes, for example, pricking, piercing, incising, scraping, and cauterization.

Notes: 1)Deinfibulation is a surgical procedure carried out to re‐open the vaginal introitus of women living with type III female genital mutilation (FGM).

2) Reinfibulation is the procedure to narrow the vaginal opening in a woman after she has been deinfibulated (i.e. after childbirth); also known as re-suturing

So where all this started?

FGM in History:

Supposedly originated as a slave trade practice, the history of FGM leads us back to ancient Egypt where infibulated mummies were found. The practice was also implemented on female slaves in Ancient Rome, deterring recipients from coitus and subsequent pregnancy. With its widespread prevalence, a “multi-source origin” has also been proposed, claiming that FGM spread from “original cores” by merging with pre-existing initiation rituals for men and women. It is also believed that this might be a process of population control among tribes and what started as just infibulation gradually took the shape of clitoridectomy. (Not in support of either of them.)

Present-day Kenya has a history of performing a traditional act called “The Irua” of both boys and girls. It is Type 2 FGM and the girls who have not gone through this process are called Irugu and are outcasted.

Idea Behind FGM/C:

You might have guessed by now, this practice was clearly to support the patriarchy. To conserve females as marriageable properties, to ban them from indulging in adultery, to prevent them from self-pleasure activities, the process involves the chop-chop of the organ that helps in incitation and female pleasure. This whole idea is revolving around the concept of female purity.

FGM in India:

As Samina Kanchawala, the Secretary of DBWRF said (& acc. to Da’im al-Islam), this is the act of Taharat which forms the root of Islam (nowhere mentioned in Quran though). According to her, this process includes putting “just a nick” in the hood (which acc. to her is okay) that allows women to stay sane and surrender themselves to religious activities. Ugh!

Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, the spiritual leader of the Dawoodi Bohra, stated in 2016: “Religious books, written over a thousand years ago, specify the requirements for both males and females as acts of religious purity.”

So, yes “Female Genital Mutilation” is also happening in India in the Dawoodi Bohra community (ostensively one of the most educated Muslim communities), in Maharashtra, other Bohra sects including the Sulemani Bohras and the Alavi Bohras, as well as in some Sunni communities in Kerala. The Bohras are primarily traders and businessmen. In ancient times, when the men would travel to other countries, women of the house would stay behind. So to prevent these women from getting into any kind of adultery, to follow bogus traditions & to curb a girl’s sexuality, FGM was being carried out.

Barbarism Alert! :

I request you to listen to Khadija Gabla’s TedX talk to understand the intensity of female genital mutilation in the rest of the world.

On interviewing a few women from the Bohra Community, this horrible side of woman society came forward. On contrary to what the position holders say, all the victims of FGM in India had similar stories to share.

(The girls of age 7 to 16 are mostly the victims of FGM). Their mother allures them to buy gifts and chocolates and take them to a dingy place (allegedly in Bheendi Bazaar). An old woman, that resembles the description of a “Dai Maa” or a midwife, prepares the set by heating the blade on a stove or a lamp. The girl is then pinned down on a flat surface, and Dai cuts the part with the heated blade in no time. And the girl is left with excruciating pain for a long time. The circumcisers or midwives are generally older women who perform the act with or without anesthesia. But in communities where the male barber has assumed the role of health worker he will perform FGM too.

Did you notice something? There aren’t many men involved in the entire process. A clear case of “a woman can be a woman’s direst enemy”, all the cases involved the mother taking her little girl to perform such an act. And I don’t even blame them completely for they are the victims themselves without even realizing it.

Effects of FGM in Women: Health complications:

By far there have been no reported health benefits of FGM (though a few supporters claim it to be a part of female hygiene). Most of the cases reported had long-term health hazards.

Immediate complications can include severe pain, hemorrhage, genital tissue swelling, fever, trauma, or tetanus.

The long-term complications include painful urination, bacterial vaginosis, painful menstruations, Dyspareunia or painful intercourse, and painful delivery.

Legal Proceedings and campaigns:

(Female Genital Mutilation has been recognized as an act against Humanity by both UNICEF and WHO.)

The world’s first known campaign against FGM was carried out in 1920 in Egypt.

The Egyptian government banned infibulation in 1959 but allowed partial clitoridectomy if parents requested it. By 2007, Egypt had completely banned FGM followed by Australia, Iran, Iraq. Kenya had specific laws against FGM in 2001, New Zealand and Norway in 1995, South Africa in 2003, and the UK in 1985.

November 2011, the first online petition against Khafz was filed by Bohra women.

In February 2016, two NGOs “Sahiyo” and “We Speak Out” launched a campaign against FGM called “Each One Reach One”.

By 10th December 2016, a group of Bohra women submitted a petition against FGM in India to India’s Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi. By May 2017, Maneka Gandhi announced to take the necessary steps to stop FGM in India. In September 2017, for the first time “FGM in India” issue was presented at the United Nations Human Rights Council. But in December 2017, the Ministry of Women and Child Development(India) reported zero official data on FGM in India.

In November 2019, SCI announced that FGM is a seminal issue and to be discussed alongside other women’s issues. As of now, there are no specific laws against FGM in India. It apparently is generally criminalized by the 1860 Indian Penal Code, 1973 Criminal Procedure Code, and 2012 POCSO Act (But no specific laws).

The Silver Lining:

1. In 2012, the UN General Assembly designated February 6th as the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, to amplify and direct the efforts on the elimination of this practice.

2. Since the UNICEF/UNFPA program was established in 2008, 13 countries have passed national legislation banning FGM.

3. In 1997, WHO issued a joint statement against the practice of FGM together with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

4. In 2018, WHO launched a clinical handbook on FGM to improve the knowledge, attitudes, and skills of health care providers in preventing and managing the complications of FGM.

5.Organizations like EndFGM, We Speak Out and Sahiyo are aimed at irradiating FGM for good by reaching out to people, educating the mass and standing against this brutal belief.

Art, Literature, and FGM:

1. FORWARD(Artists Unite to End FGM) is a network of socially conscious artists committed to ending female genital mutilation (FGM), child marriage, and all violence against African women and girls.

2. Yasser Nazmy, a UI/UX Designer, designed a set of posters on traditional FGM as a part of his GD project.

3. Shinaakht is a short film, starring Raju Kher, based on Circumcision which challenges Male Gentile Mutilation (MGM) and Female Gentile Mutilation (FGM) as per Islamic Law.

4. Other movies like Jaha’s Promise, Dunia, and Desert Flower are based on female genital mutilation spread around the world and women fighting against it.

5. Here is a set of books that are based on Female Genital Mutilation, its history, and ongoing struggles.

*Among the Maasai: a Memoir – Author: Juliet Cutler

* Saving Safa: Rescuing A Little Girl from FGM – Author: Waris Dirie

*Cut Flowers – Author: Aneeta Prem

*Do They Hear You When You Cry – Author: Fauziya Kassindja

*Desert Flower by Waris Dirie

*Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Conclusion:

There isn’t any yet. It’s an ongoing fight against the brutal tradition. And we have not yet arrived at any conclusions. But I hope to find words, someday, to conjure up into a beautiful sentence that says, “We(together) terminated this vicious act for good”.

Added here a set of links that would help you get clean facts about FGM. Feel free to discuss it anytime.

31 US States Now Have Laws Against Female Genital Cutting, But Government Will Not Appeal in the Federal Michigan Case

https://www.unicef.org/stories/what-you-need-know-about-female-genital-mutilation

https://reproductive-health-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12978-019-0817-3

http://yavuztellioglu.blogspot.com/2015/06/female-genital-mutilation-fgm-also.html?m=1

Mythos: The Greek myths retold

What’s common between Greek and Hindu myths? Zeus and Indra, Icarus and Sampati, Hermes and Narada, Trojan War and Ramayan, even the concept of gay, transgender, or impotent Gods. And the difference? We got Gods and became blind, they got Gods and opened their eyes. We don’t even question their actions and they never saw them as just and merciful and dared to challenge their authority. Gods can be really weird with their own logic that doesn’t apply to us nor would they want to(if present). And Stephen Fry perfectly understands this brutal queerness of Greek Gods like the birth of Aphrodite( I wouldn’t get into the ball cutting part as that can be a spoiler).

Read this book as a part of #folkloredecember with @whatsshwereading and I wish I would have heard the audiobook first as reading the book and listening to Stephen Fry are two different experiences. I heard it yesterday after Swetha’s reco. So I will talk about the good and bad aspects of the reading part.

The title tag, “Greek Myths retold”, can be misleading. It’s not retelling, it’s what we already know and have been among us for quite some time. He talks about a small group of Gods that doesn’t include the bigger ones just like talking about Mahabharata and excluding Bharata and Shantanu. (But I understand that I have to read the next book.) If you are someone new to Greek mythology, you need to gather your knowledge before hopping on to Fry’s space. Relying on it for everything is like relying on modern retellings of Mahabharata for actual incidental information. It’s hard to impress with a retelling to someone who has gone through the actual scripts. At times I found the writing chaotic and started missing the ” who’s who” with so many elements romping all around the book. I started losing the track of it and had to go back and forth.

But would I recommend it? Yes! Read it for Fry, his wit, his wicked humor & his absolute love for this subject. Fry was unusually delicate about Gay Gods and his pleasing way of characterizing things kept me hooked up.

Fry absolutely has a grip over his love for language. He shows us how these myths gave us our modern-day expressions and how strong an impact they have on us. As you go deeper you realize that his goal was not to interpret or clarify things rather only to tell them, breathing new life into these well-known characters and making stories outright funny.

He has added notes littered all around for you to catch them. These are the soul of the book.

I loved Fry’s vibrant aura and would love to dig into more of his works before coming to any conclusions about my relationship with him. I recommend hearing the audiobook first for Fry made it irresistible.

Watch out, Mr. Neil Gaiman! I may fall for Mr.Fry

And Mr. Stephen Fry, you and I have one more date!

~~For more bookish contents and small talks,~~

Follow me on my Instagram handles,

@utkirtana and @puniija

I am within you!

“You are beautiful the way you are. Gifted. Complete. You do not need anyone to tell you your worth. You need not pay attention to your friends. They are technically not your friends if they do not appreciate you. They are just using you to their benefit because you are extremely sensitive and benevolent. You will not be happy unless you get rid of them. You are just confusing yourself around them. A perfect relationship is a myth. It’s all in your head.”

I just convinced someone that he/she is worthless without actually uttering any such words. I am a “Gaslighter”.

I am charismatic, mysterious & hard to read. I get under your skin like a crawling creature, get stuck to your pulses, and control your every emotion, my way. I abuse people to the limit where they question their sanity and the trauma they experience is severe. But you know what, they can’t blame me for they know not what just they went through. And by the time they realize it, they might have no spine to fight them. I resemble a “Bostrichidae” who turns a beautiful piece of art into powder. Where do I reside? In your minds and souls, even when I am no more I continue to live with you, within you.

I trivialize you, brush off your concerns, divert your mind, discredit you for your attainments and make you believe that you are making up everything and all these facades never really happened.

Then how can you identify me? I am omnipresent. I am in your movies, in your books, within your family, among your friends, and within you. Every time you become vulnerable and question yourself, you fuel me up and I rise. I am invincible.

Can you identify me in your popular reads?

🤡 “Grown” by Tiffany A Jackson- I am your Korey to your Enchanted.

🤡”Before I Go To Sleep” by SJ Watson: I am Ben to your Christine.

🤡”A Splendid Ruin” by Megan Chance: Trust me I am more May Kimble than her cousin.

🤡”The Girl on the Train” by Paula Hawkins: I am Tom to your Rachael.

🤡”Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn: I am Amy to everyone who reads me.

#qotd : Ahh! Do you really think you can fight me? Show me how!

The Chronicles of Carnatic Provinces // Bookish Santa

||| आत्मदीपः भव ||

Home To 9 UNESCO World Heritage Sites and the most number of Ayurvedic schools in the world, the south Deccan realm has furthermore given us some of the world’s most exotic literary adventures. From Manimekalai by Chitalai Chathanar to Thirukural by Thiruvalluvar or Andhra Maha Bharatamu by Tikkana, Eranna, and Nannaya, their literary traditions go back to the time of initial human civilization boom almost 2000 years ago.

These wonders were passed on to emerging generations by the majesties of different cultures who took the charge to inscribe them into different forms. Some adapted them into their traditional observances and others added them to their scholastic curriculums. Nevertheless, our tribal or royal lineages of different sections bore the burden of not letting the history lose its certainty in a completely new world for as long as possible.

However, since the arrival of new political and structural changes, the lineages themselves started falling off and the fear of losing our identity stood in front of us as a shattered mirage to haunt us for eternity. And then miraculously came forward our new age Indian authors to document as much sap they could extract as possible from the roots of their ancestries.

And I take this opportunity to list some of my personal favorites from each section of South India which we call today the states and territories. These are not just historical pieces, they are journeys down the memory lanes of some of the most unique historical events inscribed by our prominent authors in their magnificent artworks.

Here is the list of volumes and their creators each according to their origins. Happy reading:

• Elegant and Belletristic, Kerala :

**“The Ivory Throne: Chronicles of the House of Travancore**
**by Manu S. Pillai”**

Think of the “History” period in your classroom, the classes about old and modern world history. Boring, right? Now imagine how your classes would have been if your teacher would have told you about the badass women who tie up their hair into a bun to fight their battles and then come back home to do their manicures. Amusing?

So was our book on the last ruling queen of Travancore, Sethu Lakshmi Bayi. Perhaps a rare book on such a brilliant historical subject written in a way that felt like a completely fictional story. At least one history book where some megalomaniacs dudes aren’t fighting a nugatory battle for some insane boundary crossover. An absolutely witty yet insightful read for history haters. This book is exceptional. Try it.

• Ritualistically elegant Tamil Nadu:

**“The Prince Who Became a Monk & Other Stories from Tamil Literature**
**By M. L. Thangappa”**

The author of one of the five great epics of Sangam literature, the most cherished, Silapaddhikaram Ilango Adigal was in fact a prince. He was the brother of the most celebrated Chera king of 3rd Century CE, Senguttuvan. Ilango Adigal chose to become a monk and then the history follows. But this particular book talks about 35 different stories along with the one about the prince, beautifully translated by M.L. Thangappa. Each story is extracted from a lost tradition of Tamil culture that dates back to 2000 years old India.

• Magnificient and Alluring Karnataka

***Splendours of Royal Mysore***
***Book by Vikram Sampath***

Chronological account of 600-year-old Wodeyar dynasty of Mysore. The author has covered the entire history of Mysore in great detail. From the golden era of the Wodeyar dynasty to the rise and fall of Tipu Sultan and Haider Ali. The return of Wodeyars and the complex character of Tipu Sultan.
The rule of benevolent British commissioners like Mark Cubbon and Bowring has been described and their contributions have been mentioned. The efforts of Mummadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar to get back his kingdom, how he redeemed himself. Vikram Sampath has left no stones unturned to go deep into the history of Kannadigas.

• Spirituous and Artistic Andhra Pradesh :

***The untold Charminar: Writings on Hyderabad***
***by Syeda Imam***

Such an eclectic collection of mostly personal articles, memoirs, and analyses on the grand city of Hyderabad. From Narendra Luther’s “Hyderabad through Foreign Eyes” to Sarojini Naidu’s “Letters too tell stories” which tenaciously unfurls the loss she felt after the death of the 6th Nizam. This book has a detailed account of Hyderabad’s most exclusive tales.

• Fierce and Fiesty Telangana :

**The Kolams of Adilabad in Telangana: A Sociocultural Milieu**
**By D**. Yashwant Rao

A perfect literary contribution to the socio-cultural environ of the rudimentary clans living in the Adilabad district of Telangana. The author has conscientiously carried out the work and brought out the life, living conditions, and cultural styles of the Kolams. Survey, documentation, and presentation are highly comprehending. If you still wonder about the history of newly formed Telangana, this is something you need to add to your reading list.

• Naturesque Prison, Andamans :

**The Tale of My Exile By Barin*dra Kumar Ghosh***

Yet again a witty account of a person who was sentenced to death in 1909 in the Alipore Bomb Case later being commuted to life imprisonment in Alipore jail. A humorous description of the hard life of deprivation and humiliation by the prison authorities, written himself by Barindra Kumar Ghosh, the younger brother of Sri Aurobindo Ghosh.

• Nicobar Niches :

**Nicobar Islands: in natures kingdom**
**By Tilak Ranjan Bera**

I was quite happy to read a book on Nicobarese people that isn’t just a travel blog. A systematic presentation of colonial settlement, historical events, unexplored and unknown Isles, human surveillance, and post-Tsunami managements. A lot has been told about the language, culture, and traditions of the people of Nicobar. If you aren’t really fond of travel guides and seek something more, this is your entity.

• Serene and Sublime Lakshadweep:

**The Muslim Tribes of Lakshadweep Islands**
**By Makhan Jha**

A short and quick read on the cultural and social structure of the people on the Lakshadweep Islands. The caste structure, hierarchical structure, and history of colonization, all have been included in this anthropological appraisal of island ecology and cultural perceptions.

• De toute beauté Puducherry:

***Beyond the Boulevards***
***by Aditi Sriram***

A book about pure love for one of India’s most beautiful and culturally diverse territory. The elegant use of metaphors, embroiderical detailing of minute scenes, diverse representation across social classes and cultural groups shows the author’s pure love and dedication for the unique history of Pondicherry. Pick it up to experience the beauty of the city along with the author herself.

These recommendations are just a drop from the entire ocean. There are tons of such marvels that add to the Indian literature and history. Human civilization has been telling its own story through the pens of our beloved authors and only God knows what other wonders we are yet to encounter.

Signing off in the hope to add some more in my next article. Any suggestions are welcomed. Till then you can find the proposed books at

https://www.bookishsanta.com/

Use the code “UTKIRTANA” for that extra 10% discount.

Introduction:

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Verity of the inner world

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