Mearl Colaco

The recent spat over frisking of an Indian diplomat in the United States was uncalled for. What difference does it make if she is a diplomat. Stop-question-and-frisk is certainly a tough policy on New Yorkers but then what is law for one is law for everyone else. What makes India’s deputy consul general, Mrs. Devyani Khobragade different? Stop and Frisk is not a regular thing in other cities in the United States but in New York City it is a policing strategy where an individual can be stopped, questioned and frisked without any warrant. The practice was enforced in New York way back in the 1990s to reduce crime rate and is still active. Many New Yorkers have expressed discontent with the law and there have been many complaints of harassment of the minority community. Besides New York’s stop-and-frisk practices has been criticized over racial profiling and privacy rights. So if Mrs. Khobragade is upset about the way she was treated, she should join these protestors and make her voi...

The Merriam dictionary defines a drone as a stingless male bee that has the role of mating with the queen and does not gather nectar or pollen. That one lucky guy who gets all the good things in life without slogging his butt. If you ask me to define a drone, I would rather describe it as that unmanned aerial vehicle loaded with arms. I would go on to say that these unmanned armed flying objects are made in particular to kill terrorists. Why me, ask anyone today what a drone is, and they would give you a completely different definition that has nothing to do with bees. However controversial the use of drones will always be, these unmanned aerial vehicles only seem to find a wider and different usage. The CEO of the largest American international electronic commerce company Amazon.com recently spoke about his fantasy to deliver packages to customers using drones. Packages that ideally took a day-or-two to reach its destination will take only 30-minutes if the company’s vision becom...

Holding an electric guitar, wearing a leather jacket and a denim trouser, a pair of leather boots to match his leather belt and hair that reaches his shoulder, this is how I visualize Iranian President Rouhani after his rock-star performance at the United Nations General Assembly 2013 (UNGA). President Rouhani goes with an agenda to UNGA to break away from sanctions imposed on his country that has almost taken a toll on the economic progress of the country and its people. Social media may not be freely used in Iran, but President Rouhani tweets every day. How strange is that? I follow Rouhani on Twitter and at least on Twitter he appears to be a peace loving and kind-hearted gentleman who wants to give peace a chance. Good for him and good for bringing peace in the troubled region. Although UNGA’s are about world leaders, it ended up becoming a stage on which President Rouhani played the lead actor. The spotlight was on him all through. President Rouhani also grabbed away the s...

  The dilemma whether to go ahead with strikes in troubled Syria or not to go is the crucial decision that world leaders are scrutinizing today. Another middle-eastern country faces the brunt of cruel and mean dictatorship. This time it is Syria. And this time the man behind the turmoil is Bashar al-Assad. The happenings in Syria reverberates similar massacres of innocent civilians in despotic regimes in Iraq, Libya and Egypt. Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. Although it is not yet proved neither reported by media due to difficulty in getting inside Syria, videos circulating around the world evidence how infants, kids and adults are frothing at mouth and suffocating from the use of chemical weapons. Do we believe these videos and conclude the actual usage of chemical weapons by the Assad’s regime or do we wait for UN inspectors to release lab results of soil samples collected on site? It's almost 2 years, 5 months, 2 weeks and 2 days since the uprising ...

I love my city Mumbai, the city where I was born and raised up. The city lives in my heart no matter where I’m in the world. The cosmopolitan culture in Mumbai has molded the way I look at things. The city has thought me to have an opinion on everything I see and feel, but at the same time to respect everyone else’s opinion. Mumbai welcomes everyone with open arms. It doesn’t take too long for a stranger to become a Mumbaikar in this city. The city grows on you. Despite the crowds, noise, potholes, traffic jams, and petty politics, I still love my city. Having said all that, the recent gang-rape incident in the maximum city has swept the floor beneath my feet. Every metropolis faces problems of urbanization. With urbanization comes crowdedness, migration, pollution, concretization, traffic jams, and lack of greenery. Mumbaikars have learnt to live with the side effects of being a metropolis and has welcomed every migrant with open arms to live her dream. But Mumbai will never tole...

What comes to your mind when you see colors? I see an artist's creative rendition on canvas. To some it means unadulterated nature. To some red means stop, yellow means caution, and green means go displayed on traffic lights. To some color symbolizes heritage, courage, patriotism, peace, truth determined on their national flag. And then there is that kind of color which divided people; that gave rise to segregation; that magnifies racism. That’s the color of the skin. I was born and brought up in Mumbai, India and have been fortunate to experience a pluralistic society in which people come from different backgrounds, traditions, cultures, religions and speak different languages. Officially there are 22 languages spoken in India and although Hindi is the national language, not everyone in India speaks the language fluently. You can hold the highest position in the executive, judiciary and legislative in India, even if you do not know to speak the national language. In India, sk...

Eleven states in the United States say “I do” to same-sex marriage. If the remaining thirty-nine states echo the same thing, the United States will become the 13th nation globally to approve same-sex marriage. Countries like the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and nine others have already legalized same-sex marriage and are leading the way for the rest of the world to follow. Well there are some nations which are debating the issue on same-sex marriage and this gives us hope that indeed it will be legally approved in these countries. What about those that ban any kind of same-sex activity in the first place. When are they going to recognize the LGBT community, and at least begin to discuss about their rights. Every nation boasts about its human rights and civil rights laws. But when we don't recognize the sexual orientation of a community, these laws are mere paralyzed words which are written to only look good on paper. Why do we have to leave the decision of a person's ...