Doodh-Pak

Doodh-pak is a sweet. But it is synonymous with an institution pervasive in the society I grew up in.

For a 6-year old their elder brothers and sisters are like gods. They are infinitely more capable and they make you feel safe. But like gods they are not always there. And very much like gods, they like to play with other people like themselves, instead of spending all their time thinking about you.

And thus the 6-year-old sits on the fence or the boundary and watch the games the gods play. Pakada-pakadi (Tag?), Thappo (hide and seek), Nargoliyu (see footnotes), Cricket, and what not.

The six year old watches the gods play and completely immerses himself in the excitement, forgets his physical reality... And then in happens, a mere human wants to rise and join the ranks of the gods!

"I want to play! I want to play!"

"Hey! He is too young, he will not be able to catch anyone. No no we can't let you play!" interjects a more pragmatic and meritocratic god.

"Come on! Let him play, he will not get in anyone's way," a more generous (likely female) deity defends.

"Okay, you are doodh-pak. Listen everyone this one is doodh-pak. Okay? Let's continue our game."

And there it is! Explained and understood.


Doodh-pak is a player in training. They play like everyone else, almost. If everyone is running they run. If everyone is running away from someone they also run away from that person. They learn what the gods were doing, the laws of the universe, but safe in their doodh-pak shield. They are not chased too often. They are allowed to get tagged many times before they have to be the dav (it). And when they are the dav, it is not for too long: organically, one of the more pious and generous deities will alleviate them of their burden and they can start running around free!

Much later they will realise Doodh-pak is childhood itself, the sweet growing up.






Nargoliyu: A game played in two teams. It begins with one person of a team will hit a pile of 7 rocks with a ball. Then the players of this team (A) will have to put the pile of rocks back in order while the other team (B) try to catch the ball and throw the balls at the A team. Anyone from A team who is hit with the ball is dead in fact they are not allowed to to touch the ball at all.

Judicial Juggling: The Case of Exploding Flowers

For a very long time, I suffered the illusion that USA has very little or no corruption. Compared to India the context I am most familiar with, of course, it is very different scale, but it seems the USA has interesting internalised and legal methods of corruption. Most often this corruption is in favor of large corporations.

Lobbying is a very popular example. And large political donations. But that is the institution of democratic legislative branch, flawed everywhere. But when instances come from the judiciary, it makes me sit up and take notice.

As a disclaimer I am not a student of the law, and my commentary is nothing more than a reflection.




There is a provision in the judiciary of the US called the Rational Basis Test.

The level of judicial review for determining the constitutionality of a federal or state statute that does not implicate either a fundamental right or a suspect classification under the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. When a court concludes that there is no fundamental liberty interest or suspect classification at stake, the law is presumed to be Constitutional unless it fails the rational basis test.

Source: http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/rational_basis_test



In its face it seems a very smart idea, why change status-quo unless it is impeding a fundamental right or constitution? It is great not to have excess laws and lawsuits, right? But in practice this law means that as soon as someone challenges the status quo, the judges and the representatives of the government put their heads together and try to figure out a way to make the existing law pass the Rational Basis Test. And the instances of how brashly and indelicately this is done will illuminate why I was moved to write about it. One instance, the only one I will discuss here, on top of my list of absurd, is the case of Louisiana Florists.

The source I am quoting here has a serious conflict of interest as they represent the firm that challenged the status quo, but I think they make a coherent case.


I will summarize the case here paraphrasing the source:

Louisiana is the only state in the nation to require florists to obtain a government-issued license before they may create and sell floral arrangements.  In order to comply with the law, aspiring florists must take a test (sounds worse than Asia) judged by their future competition—licensed florists. The law makes it very difficult for new entrepreneurs to work as retail florists and gives existing florists protection form from new competition.

When this law was challenges by unlicensed florists, the judges and the lobbyists of  licensed florists and government officials put their heads together and found a way to sustain this law by finding a way to make it pass the rational basis test. They came up with an incredible (and I do not use this word lightly) defense: The unlicensed florists arranging flowers pose threat to public safety!


Again, individuals who want to be florists need to pass a written and practical test, conducted by their competitors, to become florists because the arrangement of flowers presents a threat of danger to public.

The curious case of exploding flowers.

Read more here:
http://www.ij.org/freeing-louisiana-florists-licensing-law-is-blooming-nonsense
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/03/florist_licensing_requirement.html

Or listen:
http://cato.ramp.com/m/audio/34499291/the-right-to-earn-a-living.htm

Pic-credit:
http://www.booooooom.com/2009/05/12/ori-gersht-photography/