THE END OF THE ULTIMATE IN SELF-LESSNESS

Why surrogacy is the future of man and why its just a matter of time before we clone. I wrote sometime back that men & women need to be equal. While this is of course immediately beneficial to women, in the bigger picture, it benefits both women & men. No man can live without women even homosexuals; after all we dont spend all our time in the bedroom any couple, married or otherwise, will tell you that! Even in a male dominated world, men cannot be entirely oblivious to the plight of women because they were born of their mothers, have wives, sisters, daughters & women friends, neighbours, cousins, aunts, grandmothers, etc. Even the most cold -hearted man cannot but have a soft spot for at least one of these women who will make up a part of his world. And even if he doesnt mind other women getting the short end of the social stick, he does mind it when a woman he cares about is a victim of social in-equality. This vague inequality can range from the abhorrent dowry burnings where a bride is burnt alive by her husband & his relatives for money (suspicious stove bursts or gas cylinder explosions), the mind-numbing honor killings where a woman is hunted down & killed by her own relatives, usually her brother & often her father because she marries someone whom they disapprove of, to a woman getting whistled at on the streets. When I say words like dowry deaths & honour killings it seems clichd because they are common terms that have been bandied about in the media for years now. The reality rarely hits us. Its always those people, never us; until it does hit you. And it does. I dont know anyone who hasnt suffered from a serious gender based problem. Most people, however, react by indulging in cover ups & forcing people around them to look away from the huge lump under their rug. If only they would clean the mess up instead. After all, if only they bothered to look, they would see lumps under all the rugs everywhere around them. No point saying I got my lump much later, they & thm had it for years, or my lump is smaller than yours. What are you waiting for? The dirt under your rug to grow to the size of your friends? Isnt that a bit pathetic if you really think about it? Since my intention isnt to sell you rugs & carpets, let me draw your attention back to what I do want to sell you the thought that equality between men & women ultimately benefit men too. Yes, we all live in a male dominated society from Afghanistan to the U.S of A. Just because the levels are grossly disturbing in Afghanistan & terribly better in the U.S is no reason to crow. Let us all remember that between two bads- read blacks and women, Americans chose a Black over a woman as their the first ever President. No small matter this, especially as Blacks were also allowed the right to vote first before women were yes, in that same US of A, Land of the Free blah blah blah. So who are we kidding here? I fail to speak for the condition of Afghani women because we all know they dont have it good and I do not want a suffering porn show here. So far, Ive tried to establish that : 1) women are not equal to men anywhere in the world, 2) that women ought to be equal to men &

3) that it benefits men, when women are equal to men, that its a win win situation. Do you know any human being man or woman, who sits back & lets someone or everyone walk all over them forever? And be un-insane? I know only one & he was called Jesus. Please dont look for Him, Hes not around. He left some time back to save us from a one way trip to hell. This means that, while it is good to want to take all the injustices done to you with a smile on your angelic face, you will fail, because it is IMPOSSIBLE. It is against the very grain of human nature. Our psychology simply doesnt allow us this treasure. Its not there in our D.N.A because man (and woman of course), is basically an animal. Over a couple of centuries, after eating & killing anything & everything that came our way, by the power of our intellect, we are now lording it over the top of the food chain even as I speak. This food security has given us the luxury to think. That of course doesnt change who we are. So, simply put, as a normal human, when a woman is ill treated, she finds a way using her intellect to get back. Why dont men understand this simple fact? Men have more muscle, are stronger & so rule? Ha! Ha! What happened to the original muscle master? Most lions today need to be saved! A lucky few sit on stools & loop the loop quite literally, while a much weaker, less muscular man calls the shots. Know any man whose doing the loop the loops? Now, thats an easy one there are tonnes of them. In fact the only way I can avoid these circus animals is to close my eyes cause everytime I open my peeps, I see one. Statistics, a womans best friend, also tell me that women live longer than men & that women have brains that are larger than mens. Recently, Beyonce gave birth to a baby girl. Soon after, our very own Kiran Rao, better known as Mrs.Amir Khan, gave birth to a son. Both have one thing in common, other than money & fame surrogacy. Sure, Beyonce can scream herself Blue ( pun intended) in the face saying whatever she wants, but she aint fooling me. It was a surrogate who delivered her baby alright. What was the need for all the sheets of cover in the hospital, the vehicles and her appearing and disappearing tummy? Kiran Rao of course, issued a polite statement saying hers was done via surrogacy. She gave some reason no one was interested in or believed in. (Yes I know she had a miscarriage. I even know that Amir took her post miscarriage to the South of France to recuperate. Did you didnt know that?) Amir admittedly is not a patch on Jay Z & Jay Z who did come up from the hood, is quite the catch. He is not an un-attractive superstar like Snoop Dogg, but is a billionaire who could resist the considerable charms of a Rihanna for his babes Beyonce, not exactly a pushover either. In this equal relationship, Beyonce, the woman, managed to not only keep a loyal partner & a husband, but also got him to agree to surrogacy. Wealthy, popular & successful as Jay Z & Beyonce are, I certainly do not think their reproductive choices should be of extra concern to the rest of us except that it is! While I am not interested in their technique of bringing a child into this world per se, I am interested in the social meaning behind it. All rich people have achieved material success. In a world of limited resources where we all want the same limited things, the rich have managed to secure a larger share of these resources than the others. For example, theres a

shortage of money around, & everyone wants it. It is the rich who manage to get more of it than the others. The human mind automatically aspires to be these people. Those who have no money want money. They try their best to have it and 90% fail. These 90% admire and look upto the 10% because they got what they failed to get. So even if they pretend that they do not look upto them, they do they read about them, try to look like them, and even live like them as much as they can. The rich also represent what man would do if he could. I always say that poverty is a binding factor. In other words, I may not do anything bad because I dont have the money to do bad. But what would I do if I did have the money? In a way, looking at the rich gives us a peek into ourselves. The clothes we wear describes a social cycle we are little aware of. The rich have money, & wear the latest fashions first Custom made, one of a kind couture. We cannot afford to wear these custom made clothes, so we wait for the same designer to come out with his Ready to wear Pret collection. The same couture outfit is modified to a more wearable design, with cheaper fabric and is sold in the regular sizes S, M, L. Most of us in the developing countries, find even these clothes much too expensive, & so wait for imitations of the Pret clothes to come out Something Bangkok is famous for. They look exactly the same!! And for those who still cant afford this imitation stuff, the local tailor sprung up. Young people everywhere clutch pictures of their favourite clothes and make their tailor stitch it as best he can. At the bottom of the rung are those who wait for said people to sell or donate these used clothes. This then is how fashion trends percolate down to all of us & this also explains how Karl Lagerfield and Donna Karen dictate fashions from Paris & New York to the by lanes of Rio & Shanghai, the gallis of Bombay. The clothes we wear are a take of a take of their designs. Why is it difficult to see that this is exactly what happens in our lives too? We emulate superstars. They all have something we dont. Most have looks that we adore, many have charms and the x factor that we love, some are funny & some are intelligent (slim pickings in this corner). Either ways, the fact that we do copy them is a fact, just as advertising is. This tiny fact runs a not so tiny trillion dollar industry. Why else would Pepsi pay a Britney Spears millions to drink Pepsi? Or LOreal, Aishwarya Rai to close her eyes and stroke her admittedly luscious hair? Because when I see a dull bottle of Pepsi, its no longer dull, when I suddenly envision a hot & happening, cool star like Britney drinking it. And hey presto, I feel like drinking Pepsi! Ditto Aishwarya. When I see a white plastic bottle of LOreal, the word Buy doesnt jump to my mind. The image of Aishwarya that gorgeous woman, softly stroking her considerably lustrous hair does. And just in case I forget, there are a few helpful reminders around wall sized posters and even neon lights that flash her beautiful face all night. Hmmm Now I must buy that bottle. As selfishness escalates, men say, sorry I understand its human nature etc etc, but I want an un pregnant woman or a woman whose never had a child at all. I want a firm, fit body. And we have yet another single mother for society to pick on. So what exactly did attractive lady get for sacrificing her body for 9 excruciating months and putting up with the worst pain known to mankind? Not only zilch, but the added bonus of social ridicule. Shes a single mother! Now why on earth would a smart human want that? True, she wants

a baby, but its also true that she doesnt want to be the one to sacrifice her body, time and career in an equal relationship. Youre selfish, so Im selfish is how it goes. So, she pays someone to have her baby. This is the end of the ultimate selfless act Pregnancy. His sperm, her egg inside a willing, well paid woman and the couple become genuine new parents, no loss to either couple. This is justice, modern style. I know that when surrogacy reaches its peak, only the poor will be seen pregnant. Pregnancy will be a thing of the past for rich women. As I said earlier, the rich always have all the options first. They choose, and other people follow. Today, the rich have started using this method. Therefore, its just a matter of decades before the others do. And when they do, it will become normal, regular stuff. I can just visualize us, then, great grandmothers saying, in our times, we never heard of such things. A problem will arise however, when the lowest level of the human pyramid the poor refuse to be surrogates anymore, or when the quality of surrogates fall. Or alternatively, when the poorest want to indulge in surrogacy themselves. They cant pay someone higher up in the social ladder, so an impasse is reached. The rich at this time in all probability will tentatively venture into cloning. They dont want their babies to be born in increasingly suspicious wombs that are not perfectly healthy, that have bred too many times etc etc. The biggest celebrities at this time, will then have a hush hush cloned baby & soon another celebrity will & before you know it, everyone will have cloned babies. This is a natural conclusion to survival. This is also the price that man will have to pay for being selfish. Women will realize sooner or later that they are being taken for a ride & as normal humans, will find a way to survive. Why should a woman have to choose between a child & a career? Even if she chooses a child, theres no guarantee that her co-parent will stand by her forever. In fact, as per statistics, its very likely that he will leave her for greener pastures. So, is the woman being smart by sacrificing her career for a child only to end up jobless & hungry with the added burden of feeding an extra mouth? Today I see a lot of women unmarried or childless because they choose the security of a career, regular food & shelter over a no guarantees, career-less future as a married mother. A study of the human mind tells me that women will want more very soon. This, while logical, also saddens. Are we not all team humans where we all understand & help each other, compensate for each others weaknesses, & find a way to compensate women for their contributions in propagating mankind instead of setting her career & education back by 2 years because she is giving birth? I dont think what we see today is justice. Robert Edwards pioneered the worlds first test tube baby Louise in 1978, was hounded as the devils agent & lived in misery for years until understanding increased, & he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 2010 instead. Surrogacy may shock us now, but will become acceptable eventually. Rewind to my first few lines Isnt it better to do the right thing & just genuinely try to make men & women equal? Really?