Woooooo…the flame colored malpuas stare at you from the mesh on the vessel tempting you to no end. Before you decide to order a portion, the aroma of kebabs and biryani from the adjacent shop makes you all insatiablely hungry again… The quawalli blaring from a loudspeaker fitted just above a green satin banner with an inscription in jazzy gold Urdu text hanging over a travel agency shop on the other side of the street completely in sync with the festive atmosphere...well, this isn’t a narration from Khaled Hosseini's forthcoming novel but a picturesque scene on our very own Mohammed Ali Rd when its time to break roja a day before Eid and the feast that continues till dawn… The holy month of roja, the five times namaaz's and the feast thereafter really fascinates me…actually the glutton in me is more fascinated by the evening feasts!!
It’s sometimes difficult to digest the fact that a few people of this same community could be party to the recent heinous terrorists attacks across the country. What prompts a mind to kill innocent wives and children? How can a well educated mind be brainwashed to engineer such dangerous crimes!!
Its no rocket science…a human mind can be best brainwashed when its low and vulnerable and the people who are instrumental in making them vulnerable are none other than “we” the society as a whole. Youth from lower middle class families who are unemployed and illiterate are made to believe that its their faith and religious origins that is responsible for their plight.
For me, the SIMI, Laskhar E Toiba or the Indian Mujahideen is in the same league as the Bajrang Dal or VHP….
The motive of all the above mentioned organizations is quite simple; direct vulnerable minds to fulfill their insane ideas for personal gains and use the poor and illiterate as puppets.
The whole idea of putting up this article is to request everyone around to be more receptive towards this beautiful and culturally rich community and without viewing them with a needle of suspicion and holding hands and investigating and solving problems like terrorists attacks in a more rational and scientific way.
Also, not many of us are aware that studies have shown about 60% of the worlds Muslim population, religiously contributes 2.4% of their annual wealth to charity. Is it sheer coincidence that the navratri week and the Eid festivities fall on the same dates this year or is it a divine intervention trying to convey a message…..your guess is as good as mine!!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
15 comments:
hmm..must say its quiet intriguing and yet not beyond the grasp of even a lay person,I for one am amused about the whimsical contrast that life offers,,unoo like u mentioned bout eid and navratri ,,well sometimes Truth is stranger than what we chose to believe.Its not that people cannot see what is going wrong but yes they chose to be NUMB to it !~~
but great going ,,,nice read ;)cheers
"Terrorist are Victims who create more Victicms"
so its not that they are able to brainwash these highly educated people but just reach out to the ones who are victims..........
hey we want more about your booze blogs.............
hmm...must say twas an interesting perspective...
some corrections :D
its Roza n not Roja
and the month is Ramzan or Ramadan..
keep writing...the leftist bengali in shows its glimpse...
I agree with you on the view that not "all" muslims are terrorists. I'm a friend of Vagisha's and am writing this comment since she asked me to check out your blog. Chako, if you step back for a moment and take a look at history you would realise that all religions essentially have 1 common, overpoweringly powerful fabric - that of respect for another life form. However, did you know that it's only the Vedas that state "May all the people of the world live in peace, harmony, and prosperity"? Most other scripts state that that all believers in the God of the respective religions shall be protected.
On your view of LeT, Indian Mujahideen, Bajrang Dal, VHP being of the same coin - I'd disagree vehemently. None of the latter mentioned Hindu organisations preaches "terror". None mentions anything like a "Jihad". All that these organisations have been stating continuously since time immemorial is that India is a Hindu country and the majority have a right to frame rules that suit them most of the time while respecting the needs of the other practices. There is no "crusade" happening here. Track back and look at the major wars - no Indian (Hindu) conquest resulted in the crimes against women, destruction of other places of culture, or, in the cruel forms of torture for information.
I've been visiting East Asia a lot for the past 7 months and have been talking to the locals here. Did you know that in the majority of places, every person has a tremendous amount of respect for India and Indians? Ask me why? When I posed this question to them, they responded that in their histories, no Indian King's conquest was recorded as having a destructive purpose (yes, war itself is destruction, but that apart). Trust me, the views I have gained are not a figment of my imagination; they come from some of the most notable intellectuals in the region.
I will leave it to your questioning mind to research the facts of Persian / Afghan / Muslim invasions and the havoc they have wreaked on India.
Some of my best friends are Muslims and Christians. I just wish there were more of them in the world and these people stood up to condemn the barbaric acts of the terrorists.
Did you read Shashi Tharoor's blog? He's a shameful excuse of an Indian.
Hi…thanks for opening up a debate on this topic..To begin with, not once on my blog did I ever mention that Hindus are good and Muslims are bad or vice versa….the point I’m trying to put across from the very beginning is that all religions as rightly mentioned by you with its respective pros n cons are rich and peaceful in their own way and none of them preach “jihad”, or any other act of violence for that matter….I personally have a very high regard for the Vedas and their applications even today in our lives….As for comparing the VHP, Bajrang Dal with the SIMI and the Lashkar E Toiba, their style of working is similar..both have insane designs which defy logic and is no justification for violence. A grave and shameful example of their deeds was the lynching to death of
Mr. Graham Staines, an innocent catholic missionary who had dedicated his life to a genuine cause and the demolition of the Babri masjid by the VHP (the demolition is still the main reference point used to brainwash vulnerable minds)...You can define them as jihad or ideology based consequences but none of the above acts of any of the above mentioned organizations had any logic…
Also, History can be interpreted in a number of ways and a war or any event that occurred about a century ago can’t be used as any justification to the current affairs. Can we today hold anything against the British and criticize the NRI’s who are today an integral to the UK’s economy to be shameful Indians because the British ruled us for well over a century??
The fact that people of East Asia and world over perceive us to be peaceful is something we as individuals of this country have built on the basis of social behavior and individual correspondence at various levels with that particular country and certainly does not have even a remote connection to history!!
I ‘m not trying endorse any religion through my blog, all I’m requesting is that we need to be more receptive to this community which is very much a part of “us”
I haven’t read Shashi Tharoor’s blog so it wouldn’t be right on my part to comment on his credentials…
Thanks for once again for your comments!!
Just to continue the thread on the militant organisations versus some others.
The LeT, Jamiya Islamiyah, Indian Mujahideen et all (of that ilk) espouse terror to achieve Islamic supremacy; something the Quran never quotes. They also state that the Quran authorises such action - a point denied time and again by the learned ones.
I'm not sure if you have stirred up discussions on the ability of an Indian to leave everything (well, almost) familiar to him and adopt the ways of his chosen country. The connection to history has been stirring. Almost everything we have today has been because of the accepted intellectual superiority that history has recorded about India and Indians. Even today, the expectation that an Indian means no harm is a widely accepted belief worldwide.
Graham Staines' lynching was a one-off. I have personally faced a situation where I was offered a fully-funded scholarship to study at Tuck School of Business should I convert to Christianity. Can this be my basis to doubt all christians? Nary a chance!
Babri Masjid (no, I do not support the act) was demolished but how many wrongs can make a right? It looks great in equations but makes little sense elsewhere. If that is the case then India can erupt in a communal war with a majority of the population seeking to demolish anything and everything because of what was done in the past (demolition of temples, massacre of Hindus, rapes of the North Indian women by the Mughal kings). One isolated act by a deranged VHP / Bajrang Dal activist does not make the organisation a terrorist organisation or a fanatical organisation.
Likewise with a community. The acts of a few always endanger the perceptions of millions; but the reality of a concerted militant organisation like the SIMI, LeT, Hizbul etc can never be accepted.
I sure hope your blog gets a few people thinking and gets the community that is a part of us to take out a massive show of strength for their country.
2 sides of a coin - I dined with a Lucknow couple tonight and they were all praise for India; at my previous home I was the tenant to a Muslim family whose patriarch said "I wish I was in Pakistan. I hate India." Yet, his family stayed at our home at the height of the BM riots.
Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Dude…that’s precisely what I’m saying…all I requested was “accepting the community as a part of us”…All the above examples mentioned by you do not hold any ground against the context of my blog. Every bible of every religion quotes peace and none of them preach violence and I have never contested that…Neither have I endorsed any particular organization, and I strongly condemn any attacks for that matter. The intention of comparing two organizations from different religions was not to keep a scorecard of the number of wrongs or rights committed by each of them but simply to drive home the point that a couple of rotten apples exists in every religion and we shouldn’t generalize a whole community for the wrong doings of a few of them.
No doubt India has a rich history but raping of Hindu women by the Moghul rulers which is like three hundred years ago has no relevance to our outlook today…For a minute, I would like to buy your point on the historical evidence that may exists about the atrocities against the Hindu women.. But does that mean we carry on this legacy of hatred ahead!!..
You can either speak endlessly about the atrocities or various such historical criminal events or be proud of the fact that the Taj Mahal, arguable the best architectural wonder till date was built by a Muslim king which speaks volumes about our diverse culture and historical inheritance.
All said and done, I respect your opinion on the issue and do keep posting your comments as and when you want to put across a point…Thanks
Precisely! Agreed and time to move on to the next subjects of discussion. I'm happy so long as we do not get vindictive about any single organisation without a perspective on the larger picture.
hmm..well i must say one thing i believe in an Ethnocentric and nonviolent democracy,,,n I beg to differ when one of you guys said that all atrocities were vehemently brought upon our country folk only by rulers who are Persian/afghani in descent.Apparently if we are quoting History then rather quote it write to name one King Ashok..or may I say Great !! king ashok also did have a few battles fought with a lot of devastation to his credit,,so as rightly said " with greatness & Power comes great responsibility !! Spiderman ..to be specific,,on a lighter note ..lets not drift from the actual note ,,that our friend has tried to make ,,that we are all Kindred souls..Faith is a matter of chance ,,we donot ..i stress on DO NOT Choose where and how we are brought into this world. its the person that counts and his values ,,the Quran teaches u to respect women ,children and people from all sects for that matter let me enlighten you that women are to be given due respect but like anomalies and cultures men have taken over to manipulate it to serve their own selfish interest's.I am a Mohammedan/Mosey /follower of Islamic ,,call it what u want but a Liberal ,,believe that something that makes the world go round ,,goodness is as goodness does ..I rest my case ;)
Hi,
Agree with Shaz, on the whole King Ashoka thing... Groups like VHP, RSS and Bajrang Dal have always used selective history to tout certain communities.
When I say selective I mean that when they talk about Muslim rulers from the north coming down to India and waging war they forget the fact that Aryans, also came to India and waged war on the dravidas and put down a knew social order which we have come to know as the caste system.
Further they say that the Britishers brought Christianity to India and also Blame them for the spread of Christianity; little do they know the Word of God reached India before the British. and Christianity spread more because of the work of missionaries and realization of the oppressed castes that they our better off being out of a system that treats them inhumanely. (this also gave rise to Dalit Panther movements)
And on the front of Ideology, I feel really sorry for those who believe in such an ideology (be it of IM, SIMI, VHP, RSS) that promotes hatred and killing.
Also I would like to mention the VHP and RSS have existed for a longtime, they go back to pre-independence times. But mind you, never did you ever hear in history about them fighting for Independence; Still they fight for Free India to be a Hindu Rashtra.
A simple question to ask here is how can you demand something that you never helped achieve, even if you do, respect the fact that the person (Sikhs, christians, muslim...) also has an equal right to FREE India, and treat him as your own.
Regards
Alex
Guys the conversation has been heading no where and the whole debate of who is betta den whom need to end. B it moghuls, Ashoka or anybody fr dat matter, they are matter of history and the let bygones b bygones. History of all above well accepted and i think all my dear friends should be historian professors. As everybody has said be any organization, one's action of killing (barbarism) cannot justify other. And my dear learned friend if we leave one action as "one-off" so be it with all others. Where is the freedom and democracy we "boast of", gone? I would like to end it here by saying, that has been well put in the IBM Ad: "Stop Talking".
PS: If this doesn't end The Emperor might just start a Crusade. Cheers!
Alex / Shaz,
More of a response to Alex than to Shaz. If you're trying to tell me that Christianity or Islam does not have contradictions within their beliefs, I will rest my case!
Every religion has it's fair share of practices and (perceived) loopholes.
I'd like to remind the enlightened Alex that 'Word of God' has been long listed in the Vedas (6000 years before Jesus was even recorded in history). Incidentally, it helps that the Vedas are perceived to be casteist.
I am of the opinion that we are not debating equal treatment to all people from all religions. That issue is closed and from our generation we would not like to treat some of our closest friends treated as sub-standard citizens of the country. Do we agree?
Alex, I also suggest you attend a meeting of these organisations before you lay waste to the history of an organisation. I have attended mass, been in a gurudwara, and been to a mosque. Incidentally, my long hours of intense discussions with scholars from across these religions have given me a fairly good grounding of the practices across different religions.
Are we making a bold statement here that extremists do not exist in any religion? Or, are we of the agreement
How much of history have you read apart from that listed in our warped textbooks? History has been moulded brilliantly to reflect modern day political compulsions. Hats off to the genius that accomplished. My sorrow for the people that bought it.
All said and done, as humans, do we all enjoy the right to seek fundamental rights? Undoubtedly yes. These organisations have had some of their best fighters sacrificed in the fight for Indian Independence. India minus Gandhi and Nehru would have long been a country with striking force and capability.
As for the casteist system - blame the interpreters of the system and not the system. It's like saying India is stupid; whereas Indians allowed themselves to be exploited.
War was the "duty" of the times begone; atrocities were not. Aryans did not impose the caste system on the Dravidas. It well existed before the Aryans.
I love the way you ended the statement with right to Free India and treating one as one's own. Wish we had more that thought on similar lines and did not create an atmosphere of hate.
Still hold my version - if it weren't for Gandhi or Nehru, India would very much be a developed nation and not a developing nation.
Hindu Rashtra - what is wrong? Let's look at the countries where Islam is the majority. Have they all declared themselves secular? Please let me know what you believe is the answer to this.
Does it scare us that declaration of a nation along those lines will deprive the other religions of equal rights?
By corollary are we therefore making a statement that we enjoy equal rights today? (what is promised by our politicians is different from what is practiced. Do we agree?)
Cheers
Hi wassup...
I have resisted responding to you since long as I didn't wanna upset my fun loving friend, who very well knows what a vociferous individual I am, with my own opinions; for a simple reason that he had attempted to tell us, his friends that see here is great community with a rich culture (not that other communities have a less rich culture) and only because of some misguided souls the entire community is being cornered to the wall with an eyes of suspicion. It’s like saying because there are a few bad apples, apples needs to be wiped from the face the earth, at that point he made a passing reference to certain other groups which we could rightly categorize as equally bad apple; then you come here and tell us otherwise clearly trying to get into fist fight of words or just an attempt to show off your “superior knowledge” on the subject… being faced with smart but subtle replies you resorted to cheap moves like referring your past experiences, which only you know best yourself is true or not (Come on do you expect us to believe some of that stuff like the guy who said “I wish I was in Pakistan” OR even your scholarship, dude refer me to those guys, they should sponsor my education, considering I’m a catholic… Oh I really liked the part where you landed for mass and even went to the Gurudwara. All Religious places have an out of the world thing and therefore you not only have to be physically present there but also spiritually to claim to be there.)
Let me address the points you have raised
“Hindu Rashtra - what is wrong?” --- Everything about it is wrong my friends. It takes more than Gods blessings to run a nation, a sound understanding of foreign affair and economics to name a two. Its takes more preparation for things like the recent signing of the N Deal then consulting the stars, or sprinkling holy water or even reciting verses of the Quran. (No offense is meant to any religion, only trying to make a point that religious beliefs are best ones private affair or at most amongst other fellow believers, if brought out amongst other citizens it will only create confusion, leading to hatred and even violence, that until we learn lessons of tolerance.)
“I'd like to remind the enlightened Alex that 'Word of God' has been long listed in the Vedas (6000 years before Jesus was even recorded in history). Incidentally, it helps that the Vedas are perceived to be casteist.” --- please note that Christianity according to our scriptures never began with Jesus Christ, it was there since dawn of man kind the building of earth in six days, and Adam being created, followed by Eve. My friend there is no point arguing who came first and what is true religion because none of us has a time machine to go back and verify for ourselves. Further it can always be argued that the Theory Evolution states otherwise to what the old testament says abt the world being created in six days or even any other scriptures state about how the world came into being and further this can be counter argued that time is a relative thing what may have seemed like six days to God, may be millions of years of evolution. The point that I make is, religious debate at our level is futile, where we will be just moving around in circles; Losing the essence of our religions and beliefs which we have held on to inspite of some much exposure to science which has told us otherwise on every step, all because we need a higher power that we can fall on in times of crisis (remember the saying that goes something like where science stops, prayers starts it’s work).
“How much of history have you read apart from that listed in our warped textbooks? History has been moulded brilliantly to reflect modern day political compulsions. Hats off to the genius that accomplished. My sorrow for the people that bought it.” --- Thank you for acknowledging the fact that I’m a genius. The only education I am proud of is the lesson which taught me to question, taught me that what was being taught was someone subject views, and I have a right to differ as long as I have seen all available aspects of the topic.
“As for the casteist system - blame the interpreters of the system and not the system. It's like saying India is stupid; whereas Indians allowed themselves to be exploited.” --- I was referencing to an ancient time caste system which had the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishas and Shudras… I understand that till here everything was fine and it was just about setting a social order for smooth functioning; but the problem came when few selfish men started their own belief of caste is something you need to be born in (I believe hymns from the Rig Veda suggest that caste is not decided by birth)… Then there were individuals who went past this belief and has inter caste marriages, they began to be called chandalas, I believe they formed most of the dalit community being ousted for disobeying this hierarchy that didn’t give them breathing space. Now in Free India, they had a right to choose and they choose religions that didn’t discriminate like Buddhism and Christianity; Mind you this was the very learned Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkars idea and a great one that I salute. My point was just to remind you great people like Dr. Ambedkar could never have been enticed by your alledged means of conversion, they have a mind and are very capable of Making an informed decision. I know this family which lives in a hut next to my chawl, they have received a lot of help from our church, which has lead the man of this house hold the quit drinking, and start up a business of selling peanuts in the market, his daughter goes to a decent school now (not the municipal school) they even received ration when this guy was ill; and he didn’t have to convert and hasn’t converted. Why go that far to my neighbours, my family is an example, my grandfathers and great grandfathers never received any monetory gains from accepting Christianity in place of Hinduism, that they were born in. Look what I have done, gone into a debate on the caste system and religion which are like a black hole, a call to go around in circles, I feel sorry for mentioning it especially when my initial point was to let you know there are more reasons for conversion, than just cheap enticement. Further just for argument sake I allege that groups like the bajrang dal are the one doing the forcefully conversion (reconversion) or what they call shudi; after all they are the ones with the weapons.
“Aryans did not impose the caste system on the Dravidas. It well existed before the Aryans.” --- Dude seriously, where did you, get this from. It has always been the Aryans who have tried to preach supremacy of theirs over others, take the e.g. of Hitler. And now don’t tell me Hitler is out of context, Aryans have come from the north (Europe). But Arguing about these without us being history scholars is quite childish.
“India minus Gandhi and Nehru would have long been a country with striking force and capability… if it weren't for Gandhi or Nehru, India would very much be a developed nation and not a developing nation.” --- Though I am not one that full agrees with what Gandhi has done… I still feel that if Gandhi would have pushed for Vallabbhai Patel to be PM instead of Mr. Nehru… things could have been different. But that said I don’t believe that a single mistake is bigger than all the right that one has done through out his life. There are a few things that we may not like these leaders but we have no right to belittle them and irresponsibly say that things would have been better… who is to say that neither I nor you have lived in those times or faced the compulsions that they came across. They made some decisions that didn’t go down well, but should we forget the ones that did. If you want know how developed we would be hadn’t it been for them, just make a list of things they have done and just imagine India without them. To give you a Head Start, 1. Satyagraha preached by Gandhi, how much also u would like to deny, has been India’s advertisement for what kinda Peace loving people they are. 2. The Mixed Economy System, this one you may not know, during the cold war Russia and US were trying to get newly formed nations like ours to follow their styles of economies Communist and Capitalist respectively. But India along with a few others decided to take a new approach with the best of both worlds where you had insulation for the poorest of the poor and also space for free enterprise to flourish.
To sum up… We don’t agree on most things other than the part where you accept I’m a genius, and to prove ourselves we can argue and counter argue leading to nothing other than a bad taste in our mouth, hence I declare that we agree to disagree and end this debate here… if for some reason you feel otherwise and wanna cry about it, I would appreciate you do that here at my space, because I know that Bombi, won’t quite appreciate it cause that’s just beating his purpose for the Blog Post as explained in the start of this comment…
i must say ur damn gud coz ur really blessed wid d power of playing wid d words such a beutiful description n a v gud msg 2 all keep it up its damn gud
there has to be balance..."you know u r happy only wen u knw how it is to be sad...u knw someone is good once ya experience bad...dere is a balance which has to be maintained...i guess...
but..~just a thought~ how do u know u r alive till d time u r dead....huh...~dunno..a sudden thought~
Post a Comment