My philosophical ramblings.

My apartment complex sits right at the T-junction of Route 18 and commercial avenue. Across the Route 18 and opposite to my complex, there used to be little garden and then flows the Raritan River. If you take the aerial view (Google Maps !!) then my apartment, Route 18 and garden is sitting comfortably in the Raritan river basin. When you take right turn on Route 18, from the commercial avenue, you could actually see the basin being blasted off to make the road. But for some 100 feet or so, the blasting of hard rocks formed an elaborate design akin to the grand canyon. Obviously, on the tiny level. But it's kind of ironic to see the natures beauty in human destruction. The elaborate way the caverns formed were quite fancy in design.

During the snow, the icy water would flow through the rock caverns. And, as the temperatures drops, the water would form icicles. It was an amazing picture. With old river valley being monstrously blasted off in the past to make a way for the traffic and in the midst vehicle conundrum, you see, nature's ability not only to rejuvenate but give a designers touch even to the destruction. I always thought about taking picture of that labyrinthine design, every time I pushed it for the next time. And that ‘next time’ never came.

Even though time never stops and things disappear as quickly as they appear, we humans have tendency to believe in immortality of the surrounding. It is as if we try to freeze our mind into a time wrap. We usually hate change, for good or for bad. All though, adaptability is absolutely required for the survival, we groan, we moan, we squirm and we whine, every time something change in our life or in our surrounding. We long for the past because we believe that it was better then than the present. But in the process of painting illusion about our past enjoyments, we totally miss out the rare moments of joy in the present.

The special moments in life seems to be the gift wrapped in the irony. We need to understand this irony. Unless, we discern the reality from the mirage of disappointment and contemplate for a fraction of second about the present - by firmly being in the present - we miss the real fun. And trust me the realization of missing out the real stuff is worst.
Worst than the moments you actually missed.

This doesn't mean we shouldn't contemplate about the past. We should definitely do that. It helps us gaining the perspective about the seemingly incoherent situations in the present. But we need to adapt by not getting burdened by the past. We need to live the moment by acting in the present - well enough - to actually enjoy.

As far as the fine design on the rock caverns are concerned, they are gone for good. Recent road widening construction lead them to be blasted off permanently. I ruined the chance of taking the photograph. And, I am missing that sorely.

Confused Hindus

We Hindus have very weird notions about our own way of life. I shall say we are more confused than we think we are. When people ask us about our religion, we say we are Hindus. It’s quite strange because Puran-Itihaas or Veda doesn’t have nomenclature called Hindu. What we follow is Sanatan Dharma. And, it’s more of way of life than religion. The definition of Dharma is way different than the myopic way the term religion is defined in English or in western world. The word religion is more related to Abrahamic religion and to define our way of lie as ‘religion’ is something like confining the vast and elaborately ornate nature of Sanatan Dharma into a narrow and fanatic mindset. But it seems that living in the world designed by westerners and for westerners, we have to define ourselves as Hindus.

Going into more deep self-defining traits, we can either say that we are more ‘spiritualistic’ Hindu in philosophy i.e. absolutely non-political and non-confrontational or otherwise, try to project the nature of Hinduism as cohesive political unit more akin to deal with the contemporary challenges faced by Hinduism.

Both of the above mentioned ways are correct in certain way. Sanatan Dharma is omnibus of host of the rituals, practices, festivals across the length and breadth of Indian subcontinent and South-East Asia.

But at the same time we are under attack from the Abrahamic religion for last thousand years. And, it doesn’t help much in the modern age as their expansion continue albeit in more sophisticated way. If we want to defend ourselves from getting extinct then we need to figure out who we are and what we stand for. Are we spiritualistic and don’t actually need to defend ourselves actively? Or we need to form cohesive political unit (which we failed to form in last thousand years !) and be more aggressive about defining out culture ?

General populace is wary to define themselves as a Hindu in political sense because to do so immediately put you in the comparison with Talibans. We in India follow extremely weird form of secularism. Actually, we as Sanatan Dharmis are secular by nature but in the contemporary period secularism stands more for minority appeasement and that too at the cost of weakening of our own culture.

People who say that they are spiritualistic know very little about Sanatan Dharma. What ever they know is mostly fed to them through communists and pseudo westerner’s beaks. Obviously, what is fed to us under the guise of modernism is totally crap and biased. It’s pity that we lost the touch to Sanskrit and there by, distanced ourselves from our literature. Without the proper knowledge, these people either out rightly reject and ridicule our heritage and traditions as too ‘conservative and as ‘out of time’ or be defensive about it. They basically like to cover their timidity and pitiable brains by bull shitting about the ‘liberal’ and ‘encompassing’ nature of Sanatan Dharma. The passivity with which they detach themselves from furthering the development of Dharma is surely recipe for degradation and decay

Unfortunately, the conservative Hindu nationalist suffer from the same dementia. Their gung-ho attitude towards solving the problems faced by Hinduism borderlines the day-dreaming. The root cause is lack of knowledge too. We don’t learn the real history in our class. We can’t read out classic texts. For that we depend on English interpretations penned by a foreigner. These people stick to the traditions with literal meaning without understanding the logic and scientific base behind it. When in doubt, rather than finding the truth, these people are content in exhorting the greatness of our ancestors. There by not only insulting the greatness of our heritage but they basically seal the doors for any necessary development. Their constant efforts to fit the current volatile situation in the historical format, makes it harder for them to rejuvenate themselves for the new challenges by shaking off the burden of illustrious past.

I guess, being spiritualistic or being combative can’t be different spectrums of Hinduism. It has to be two sides of the same coin. We need knowledge about our history as well as philosophy in order to gain the strength from within. We don’t need to echo our ancestors , rather, we need to understand, re-interpret and revise the traditions according to the contemporary period. If we are keeping up with the changing times then we don’t need to be defensive about it. Our ancestors were quite advanced and most of the traditions have strong logical base. We need to be innovators in every possible sense rather than imitators.

But without such cohesive efforts that is, by either showing cockiness in ridiculing our culture or being too stubborn in regards to our traditions, our culture is surely going to decay slowly. We were saved from Islamic as well as Christian conquest by the combination of Bhakti and Shakti movements in the medieval period. If we don’t further our struggle in the modern times then there is no second chance in the nature.

Hibernation

Lately, it seems that I am running out of ideas. I mean, I do have lot of ideas but they are not materializing into a blog of a page or tow. Is it a writers block? Naah.....that's funny. Because, I ain't a writer...may be...actually, Naaah !! All I wrote is few blogs and to say I am a writer is retarded. May be a bloggger but nothing more than that. Well, I don't know but I can't write anything any more.
Ok..tooo many useless and futile words to explain nothing. But again, that's precisely is my point. I need to read more stuff for further rumination. And, for that I am going to hibernate for some time. Hopefully I will be able to emergeafter two or three weeks. Let's see if I could come up with better and brighter subjects and able to put them succinctly.

Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

p.s. - ok last sentence doesn't make much sense !! does it?

Endulkar ?

Indian cricket team was beaten convincingly by South African team in recent one day international tournament in South Africa. There is nothing new in India loosing in the foreign territory. In fact, India won extremely rarely in the bouncy pitches of South Africa, West Indies and Australia. So, I ain’t going to waste my time in talking about how India should have played and how they could win the last game. It’s pretty useless. Come next summer and we will be beaten again and the excuse will be the bouncy pitches again. I mean, for sweet mother of Moses, why can’t we make a one lousy bouncy pitch somewhere in India and let all the cricketers practice on it? But that’s too easy to do and plus, who is going to sponsor such a useful practice.

What disappointed me most was the way Tendulkar played against the south African fast bowlers. He is supposed to be the best thing that happened to cricket since Bradman retired. And, yet instead of leading by example and fulfilling his talents (and the prophecy!) he meekly surrendered himself to Pollack and Co. What is more infuriating was that none of the newspapers or cricket website minced a word against Tendulkar. He featured in none of the reason behind India’s debacle. Why? Are we biased for him? Is he still a little wunder-kid for us? Or is it is just that he is beyond the realm of mere mortals and hence, can’t be considered as reason for defeats. If that’s the case then forgive me for making such a blasphemous statement but we will be better off without Tendulkar. He ain’t making any difference as a batsman anyways, so, let’s give a chance to some talented kid and hope that he will score runs consistently or at least, when it’s needed.

He made a comeback in Malaysia tournament with a blazing a hundred. Everyone went ga-ga over his return and since then, nothing! We lost Malaysia cup. We lost mini-world cup. And we are kicked like a football in South Africa and I am yet to see a single necessary knock from Tendlukar. In the mean time, Lara is scoring runs as if there is no tomorrow and Ponting is on rampage against every bowler and Yousef Yohana, well, I hate that bastard. In all the debacles, Tendulkar is the most senior player in India team ( 17 years of experience.) and yet, he failed to lead by an example. Instead, Suresh Raina who is just 19 (i.e. two years more than Tendulkar’s international career.) is taking heat for the defeat. Comically dark ! Because, that kid lost his place in the team.

I am not against Tendulkar in any way. In fact, I am his greatest fan. His talent, his hunger for runs and his commitment to the cause definitely puts him in the rarified air of greatest cricketers. But cricket is a team game and we are talking about a team that represents India and we can’t get sentimental because it’s about India’s prestige we are talking about. But deification is just part and parcel of being famous in Indian public life. Usually, a person is deified when he is close to being a liability to the public. And it becomes hard for that person to bid adieu to his public persona. He not only hurts himself in this process but cause damage to the country in one way or other. We have numerous such examples, primarily in politics. Of course, Tendulkar was deified long ago and justifiably so. But, a century in ten or eleven matches is not something we expect from him. It’s probably adds up to his incredible statistics (I am sure he doesn’t care about statistics and is more concerned about winning) but if he doesn’t score valuable 50 or 60 in must win crunch matches then for me, his talent ain’t worth for place in India team.

He is great. No doubt about it. I still see the replays of his ferocious onslaught against Australia in 97-98. And, that’s why a lot more is expected from him. He definitely did justice to his talents and filled the vacuum in 1990’s. He surely is a real hero to the young generation. His hard work, his commitment to India, his clean image and middle class attitude is something that every one should try to emulate. But I would like to see him as hero for years to come. Even after his retirement I want to see him as an inspirational figure. But if he continued to play, even after ceasing to be a factor towards India’s victories then, it may sound too harsh, but that blemish won’t go away with all the hundreds he scored in his life.

Where is God?

What is god? I am not the first person, nor the last one to ask this question. I don’t know any persuasive answer either! Apart from the philosophical jargon, I intend to connect the very concept of higher power to the reality.

My point of view is strictly Hindu philosophical based. I don’t think Son of God needs to descent on earth to tell humans ‘thou shall not steal’ nor do I believe that messenger of god can ever marry and have a child from a nine year old girl. The best definition – succinctly postulated by Shri Dr. Radhakrishnan - is there is no exact definition because it’s a supreme energy that pervades everywhere and has ability to manifest through everything. We humans –bound by the three dimensional physical world and time bound mindset – can just try to comprehend the concept in idol form. But sticking to the philosophical definition raises one important question. With supreme Shakti encompassing whole universe, is it possible for that Shakti to take care of human affairs?

To read about Islamic conquest of India was one of the most depressing experience in 24 years of my existence on the earth. The sheer inhumanness of the conquest, the extreme barbarous nature of the Islamic invaders and Islam as a religion and mindless violence it unleashed is something beyond my belief. It is also sick to see Muslim people constantly mentioning their religion as a religion of peace. It is something beyond my comprehension.

But, the more I think of genocide carried by these Muslim invaders, it raises more question in my mind about the Hindu philosophy. If there is indeed justice in this world and if there is certain higher power that looks after us then why on earth it allowed such a primitive and hideous cult lto take over half of the known world and massacre and subjugate half of its population? Where was God at that time? Too busy ? Millions of people were slaughtered mercilessly, millions of people were dehumanized and sold in the market like commodities. Thousands of temples were leveled off and host of eminent academic institution were burnt. And it was not about imposing superior structure but it was pure hunger to destroy everything that is superior and replace it with extremely primordial belief system. How did it happen? Is it just part of the cycle that society work hard to build a civilization, which then destroyed by Huns ?

If we are to question the very existence of God, then such a bloody history is more than enough to answer it in negativity.

I tried to find answers in Gita but I couldn’t find solace. It seems that in larger scheme of time such incidences are blips. In one form or another they have occurred before and will continue to occur in the future. It’s basically like building house of cards. No matter how elaborate you build the house, it falls quickly and the game begins a new.

For me it seems more of lame excuse than answering the reality. The kind of religious ferocity that emitted from Arabia doesn’t even fit our standard defintion of ‘Asura’ or 'Rakshasa. The destruction they unleashed is on such a high scale that the Hindus seems to have cocooned themselves from discussing such massacres. The wounds are too deep to heal even after thousand years. But we have to face the reality. I know 'let bygons be bygons'. But the history is repeating, albeit in smaller scale and the actors are nations states like Pakistan and Bangladesh. And in order face them we have to comprehend the loss of heritage, loss of culture and massacre of our history.We have to refurbish our definition of God, we have to rediscover them.

Tresspassers will be recruited !

The recent issue of The Economist talks about the shortage of brain power around the globe. It was an interesting read, because there is so much competition in every possible sector that I was under impression that we have more brain power than needed. But the brain power they defined is not lower level clerical (read computer skills here!) but more of middle or upper level managerial skills. And, they argued that the universities (at least in US and in Europe) are not producing ‘talented’ people but more of literate people. The most interesting thing is they argued that the corporate world even in India and China is furiously trying to get hold of talent.

The argument seems to be contradictory to the situation in India. The companies are hiring people left and right. All they need is a graduation degree and they will be happy to recruit for all sorts of jobs. With over a billion people (and millions of useless Bangladeshis!) and almost 2.7 millions graduates every year, it seems that we are too many talented people in India. But reality always throws the perception off the balance.

Talent can be defined as knowledge necessary to succeed in the current world. Thus the number of students graduating from India may sound staggering but the percentage of graduating students with relevant set of skill is tiny 11%. According to the recent report of NASSCOM, only one out of four undergraduate in India is eligible for any kind of IT job. The unemployment rate among graduates is 17%. That means, India is producing staggering number of inept graduates. Who’s fault is it? It’s definitely not students fault but rather the government is extremely incompetent in providing any sort of useful education.

As far as outsourcing is concerned, we don’t have to worry about dollars inflow for at least another decade or so. The outsourcing expenditure is going increase from current $193 Billions to $260 billions by 2009. And that’s why we see so much desperation in grabbing anyone with a degree. As the firms that are on the forefront of outsourcing business start making forays into the first division product development, the talent deficit is going to be detrimental to their growth.

By the end of year 2000, the tech bubble went bust in US. There was greate pressure on American companies to save money in downturn economy. India was like a god given gift to the American multinational firms. With English speaking working class and passion for work, India poised itself correctly to tap the out-sourcing dollars. But if we don’t build the second floor i.e. knowledge, industrial and infrastructural base on this dollar flow then we will miss the bus of 21^st century.

Cursory glance on our education system and it’s clear that road to our dream of leading 21^st century is full of pot-holes. Though primary education is provided free by the government and it’s the constitutional right of every child, the system itself is in ramshackle. The teachers are underpaid and over-stretched. More ever, the students are missing too! We don’t have standardize testing or evaluation system for the whole country. Most of the school even in the cities lacks labs for computers or physics. We don’t encourage students to participate in extra-curricular activities. Rather than learning we focus more on getting grades in the exams. I haven’t even started talking about deficiencies on high-school and college level education. It will require separate blog.

But instead of working on the development of primary and higher education, our government is busy in introducing reservation policy in every facet of civil life. The vote bank politics is turning draconian and it seems another generation of talented individuals will be gutted in its self-consuming fire.

I often get forwarded email of Mr. Manmohan Singh’s resume. There is no doubt about Mr. Singh’s brilliance or his accomplishments but sadly, he will be remembered as a Prime Minister who forced more reservation policies rather than developing our knowledge base. Last time I heard, he was setting up a committee to enforce the reservation policies in private sector.

A Hostage Nation

So, Mr. Afazal Guru, mastermind behind the attack on Parliament is very close to getting clemency. The game plan is pretty clear - he will get clemency and his death penalty will be converted into life imprisonment. He will have quite and luxurious life in the jail, proudly sponsored by Indian tax-payers. And, when he is bored, he will call his colleagues in Pakistan, they will do some hijacking and stuff and force Indian government to release him from the prison. He will then start working on his job of killing innocent Indian people again.

India is a reservation nation. Lower castes have reservation preference even for promotion in the government jobs. Minorities have separate civil code and separate education system. And, now we are going to have reservation policy for terrorists too. If you happen to kill more than five hundred people then Indian policy makers will think of prosecuting you. Anything less than that is a free ride. If you are a Muslim terrorist then no matter what you do, you will have complete support of Muslim community. Ok! May be not whole Muslim community but that terrorist can surely count on political class. The 93 bomb blasts prosecution is still dragging. In the mean time we suffered at least two major bomb blasts in Mumbai and Delhi and an attack on the Parliament. We had scores of small bomb blasts around the country but let’s just forget about them. I mean, isn’t it in-humane to scold terrorist and Pakistan so much? They are humans and they have rights too!

Mr. Afazal Guru was found guilty after four years of prosecution. All though, the attack on Parliament had Pakistan’s signature all over it, our politicians made every possible attempt to clamp on prosecution. And, now when the verdict is reached and that bastard mother-fucker is designated for hanging, the political hoopla began. It’s pretty systematic. First, the Muslim boards across the countries ‘expressed’ their concern for death penalty and set the vote bank politics set into the motion. Then the Muslim politicians in the congress party began to meet Sonia Gandhi to voice their opinion against the death penalty. But the nadir was to see the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir saying that the death penalty is wrong. Recently, former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mr. Farokh Abudullha babbled that such a penalty will divide Hindu and Muslim community. And, I wonder the reason behind insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir.

I am pretty sure, had terrorist killed few Member of Parliament (I wish, they had done that!) then the situation would have been totally different. Because, politicians are extremely important specie in India. And they are the one who are holding our nation hostage. They are petty, weak, boorish, clownish, thuggish corrupt and inane. They are dividing our society in order to reap personal profit. And, they won’t mind selling our country to Pakistan. I don't see any way out of this situation, unless, voters start thinking hard.

I am not sure if Mr. Afzal guru will receive clemency or not. I sincerely trust our President. I hope, he stays on the course and do what is necessary.

Random Walk To Nowhere!

I am feeling like running in the vacuum right now. Without any external push you can’t run in the vacuum. No matter what you try to do, you ain’t going to move an inch. Similarly the more I try to do, the situation ain’t changing a bit in my life. Basically, actions without consequences. I don’t like to talk about my life. It’s not that worthy. At least not yet. In any case, there is very thin line between sharing experience and fantasizing one’s own beauty i.e. narcissism. And yet, I am trying to tread this line and catch the absolute abstractness of my life in words. From the outside, even to me, everything looks picture perfect. I graduated from prestigious university (at least, I think my university is prestigious!) and within a day or two of graduating I got the job offer in New York City. And that’s when then my seemingly attempts to swim in the thin air began.

When ever I see myself in my dreams, I find myself to be extremely slow in every motion. It is as if I want to do certain things like run but suddenly, someone is pausing my actions. Have you ever tried to play the movie before de-pausing it? The way words come out of actor’s mouth are hilarious. Now think you are actually inside the TV and someone playing you without de-pausing. And, you could speak three words per minute and trust me, it doesn’t feel good. Though, the rest of the world (I am still talking about the world in my dreams) seems to be within the laws of earthly physics, somehow I transcendent the three dimension realm of reality. I know, dreams are beyond three dimensional realm and no, I ain’t having any mystical experience. It’s just I feel frustrated and handicapped to do even mundane activities in my dream. And, this examples are to explain the way I am feeling right now. This sense of deja-vu is driving me insane because this is happening for real. Interestingly, the part of the dreams that are coming true are not the stuff I would like to experience. But irony is the essence of life.

College life provided me the structure. Exams, projects and home works etc. kept my mind focused on the objective, that, was for me, an unnecessary necessity. By the senior year, I was more than ready to enter into the working life style. But with me entering into work force it seems I am missing the college structure. The sense of desolateness caught me with surprise and I am desperately looking for the light at the end of this tunnel.

I know this is a passing phase. Perhaps, everyone goes through this ordeal and I really don’t want to sound pessimistic here. When this scenario will change, I probably won’t even remember this period. And, all these ‘sense of feelings’ will just be a space filler on my blog.

Lage Raho MunnaBhai !

Am I the only person who don’t want to see Lage Raho Munnabhai? By not watching this film, am I being dumb or by watching film, Indian society is fooling itself? The film is a box-office hit and though, I am not talking about film’s content, I am definitely enraged to see Sanjay Dutt getting kudos for the film. I am frustrated to see this guy still acting in the film industry. I am sad to see that people are actually watching his films.

The court drama related 1993 Bombay Blasts is ending in installments and looking at the verdicts so far, and Sanjay Dutt’s role in the blasts, I sincerely hope that Sanjay Dutt will be found guilty. But hope is mostly an illusion. So, let’s try to put some light on Mr. Dutt’s role in the blasts and then evaluate the probability of him actually being find guilty.

Mr. Dutt had stockpiles of AK-47 stored in his house right after Bombay riots of 1992 and just before Bombay blasts. He was a drug addict and had illicit contacts with Muslim underworld- Messer’s Dowd Ibrahim & Co. All though, Mr. Dutt wanted only one AK-47 – supposedly for his own protection - these underworld people dumped a lot more in his house. They were expecting more riots to break after the blasts and The arms and ammunition was the defense buildup by Muslim underworld to protect Muslims during the riots. The riots never happened but cops soon picked up the scent of large stockpiles of weapon in and around the Bombay. The Bombay Blast investigation was open and shut case as far as investigation is concerned, so, soon cops arrested Mr. Dutt’s. When cops showed up at his door, allegedly, he was trying to get rid of his weapons by melting them. (How ingenious!) Mr. Dutt had to spend 18 months in the custody before being bailed out by his father Mr. Sunil Dutt, Member of Parliament at that time. All these incidences are well documented. Usually, Mr. Dutt often argues that he had no clue of nefarious design of Muslim underworld. Nevertheless, the mere fact that he was in contact with traitor Muslim underworld makes him guilty of killing more than 300 innocent people. But the facts and logic is not enough for conviction, at least not according to Indian justice system. Extremely corrupt and inept, Indian justice not only lacks eyes, it lack brains too

As the prosecution of 93’ blasts dragged, Mr. Dutt got a second chance in life. His film carrier took off in late 1990’s and people soon forgot his murky past. He gave a blockbuster hit Vastav in 2000 and even won Filmfare award for his role in the film. Ironically, he played the role of an underworld don in that film. Obviously, the Indian film industry which is intrinsically connected to the Underworld, gave Mr. Dutt clean cheat. But the sad part is general populace also seems to have given him clean cheat. People are not only watching his films but also applauding for his so called acting talent. Frustratingly enough, even the city of Mumbai –which bore the brunt of Muslim terrorism – is gladly accepting Mr. Dutt as a returning Hero.

True to his real nature he continued to keep close ties with the Muslim underworld. His long conversations with Chhota Shakil were made public by cops and yet, he continued to sign films after films. His father who was member of parliament since 1980’s kept him safe from Law and cops. And when he died, Mr. Sanjay Dutt’s sister became member of parliament to save his ass. Indian press as usual biased, corrupt and inept always sided with Mr. Sanjay Dutt.

Given the extent of his influence on public mindset and his political influence through his father and now from his sister, it’s highly unlikely that he will actually be convicted for his crime. In the end of his blockbuster film Vaastav, the charected of an underworld don that Mr. Dutt played is killed by his mother. But unlike the movie, Mr. Dutt who is real life underworld lynchpin will definitely going to be Scot free.

Islam means total submission to the God i.e. Allah. And, they profess that it is the only pure way to attain salvation. But apart from obvious religious reasons, I am trying to present the political usefulness of being a Muslim in contemporary period.

First, if you are a Muslim then you are certainly safe from Islamic terrorist. (not in Iraq though!) Most of the threatening warnings or messages from Islamic terrorist before or after deadly attacks usually warn Muslim people to stay out of the intended targets or affected areas. The false sense of unity that Islamic terrorists try to imbibe among Muslims throughout the world serves their purpose of creating destabilization among non-Muslims and keep tab on Muslims. With explosion of internet and media, even the educated Muslims believe in this Muslim unity. If history is any precursor then Muslims were never united. Within fifty years after Prophet Muhammad the division began in Muslim community. And, though fighting’s between Shi’s and Sunnis are known, other Islamic sects such as Sufis and Ahamadis are constantly persecuted by the rest of the Islamic communities.

Second, you are legitimately free to attack anyone with anything. You can attack US, UK, India and Israel because they are all Satan’s. In fact, you can attack every non-Muslim as each of them is a Kafir and there by a Satan. Interestingly, Islamic organization around the globe, particularly, in US boast about the ‘peaceful’ nature of Islam. But onus to prove the secular credentials and peaceful nature invariably falls on the non-Muslim community. If you are ready to accept rights of Muslims in a country that has Muslims as minorities then Islam is peaceful otherwise they can legitimately call Jihad. And, if the Muslims are in majority then unless the religious minorities are ready to forgo their religious as well as human right they are constantly under threat of persecution and forceful proselytization.

The thing is that people are afraid of Muslims because they have a billion people to create trouble and sizable of them are sprinkled in virtually every country. Vote bank politics is rampant in the countries with parliamentary democracies and Muslims in these countries use this tool to further their agenda. They usually exclude themselves from any sort of development and successfully portray themselves as victims. Also, most of the non-Muslim world seriously wants to catch up Industrialization and improve their life standard and to attain that they don’t want conflicts. All though, same can be said about majority of the Muslim population, the results are contrary to that.

It’s quite fashionable for Muslim leader around the globe to give US’s foreign policy as a reason behind current surge of Muslim fanaticism. But, WTC was attacked in 1993 even though then, US intervention in Bosnia saved scores of Muslims. Similarly, Afghanistan could defend itself from Russians only because of US’s military as well as monetary help. And, casual glance at present geo-politics and it is unmistakably clear that more Muslims are killed by their fellow Muslim brethren. Sunnis slaughtering Shi’s in Pakistan. Sunnis and Shi’s slaughtering each other in Iraq and Shi’s and Sunnis both killing Kurds in Iraq. And Arab Muslims ethnically cleansing black Muslims in Sudan. The list is disturbing and much brutal than American conquest of Iraq.

But sadly, Muslim community is fast becoming like a tumor to the world health. It seems that they don’t want to progress and they won’t allow anyone to progress either. Apart from few Islamic countries like Turkey, Indonesia and Malaysia, most of the Islamic countries are failure at best and dangerous at worst. At this point they may be able to point Oil weapon to everyone but that’s not going to last for long and the consequences after that will be horrifying.

Dumb-ass India

..But now Jamat-ud-Dawa, a charity banned by the US State Department in April, is at the center of a firestorm suggesting they were doing more than lending a needed hand. The group's leader has been placed under house arrest, and investigators in England and Pakistan are probing whether the group provided financial and logistical support to the London terror suspects, raising fears that it has an appetite for militancy on the international stage. The New York Times reported that Jamat-ud-Dawa's offices in England were said to be responsible for channeling funds for the plot, which were raised under the guise of earthquake aid. England's Sunday Mirror reported that three Britons arrested in Pakistan received substantial money transfers from several charities, totaling millions of dollars, into at least three bank accounts in Kashmir

- Christian Science Monitor in August 16^th edition.

There is strong current among Indian seculars that India should give monetary aid to Pakistan, but it is a classic case of degenerated individuals. I am writing this blog and there is news that there were series of bomb blast in Delhi. I am wondering if India end up providing money to Pakistan then India will basically finance the next set of bomb blast. All those people, who are for sending help to Pakistan, should be immediately deported to their beloved Pakistan.

- Earthquake and Politics posted by me on 29^th October

The similarity in above two reports is striking but the only glaring difference the date of publishing. I posted my blog right after India decided to give some money to Pakistan for Earthquake relief. It was absolutely certain that Pakistan would use that money to fund Mumbai bombings. It just drives me nuts to see how India is allowing Pakistan – a failed and a terrorist nation – to take the advantage of good will again and again. I just hope that more powerful earthquake jolts Pakistan and wipes of this crap from the face of the earth.

P.S. -Good job Manmohan ‘fucker’ Singh, the way you protect Indian citizen is absolutely marvelous.

Mumbai blast, inane politicans and brave citizens.

Mumbai blast came with no surprise. The modus operandi is recurring. Pakistani terrorist recruit locals, they in turn keep bags of RDX or similar material in crowded places and rest is taken care by those explosives. Even though, India is no innocent to terrorist attacks, the response to such acts is invariably useless at best and ignorant at worst. Blaming police force or intelligence is easy but they are the victims themselves. They are overstressed, under paid and carelessly man-handled by political class and constantly whipped by press. The real culprit is the political class that lacks the conviction of doing what is needed and commitment to stay on the right path. Glance at our Prime minister’s speech and it becomes certain that India will remain unprepared for next attack and the culprits of every terrorist act henceforth, will be as free as birds and citizens will be constantly under threat.

Let’s keep aside the controversy whether this attack was act by LeT or Hizb or perhaps, by Naxalites. It’s pretty useless to discuss that at this point. Almost 200 innocent people are dead and more than 500 are injured. What is important is to see the kind of response our government gives to the culprits. If these bombings are done by LeT or Hizb, then, is our government ready to declare full throttle war with Pakistan? Or at least, is our government even ready to give ultimatum to Pakistani government to hand-over Dawood Ibrahim & Co.? Forget about warning Pakistan, (Manmohan Singh don't have balls to 'warn' Pakistan) is our government ready to tackle the homegrown terrorists like Abu Azmi, SIMI, Imam of Jama Masjid, Delhi or perhaps, Deobandis? The answer is excruciatingly no. It is not humanly possible for our politicians to work for the betterment of the society. Because, if they do that then there is always danger of loosing certain vote bank. They will rather sale their country but loose their vote bank. We celebrate our democracy as a paramount ornament of modern India. Agreed that there is no option to the democracy - but with this kind of politics of appeasement - it is fast becoming a curse for the future of India.

When I was writing this blog, reports started coming indicating SIMI as a culprit. This organization was banned by government almost four years ago. Even though, the stated aim of SIMI was to destroy Hindu India and establish Islamic state of India, political parties like Samajvadi Party are on forefront to defend the organization. It’s scary considering Samajvadi Party is the ruling party of Uttar Pradesh which is the largest state of India with largest Muslim population. ‘Secular activist’ like Shabana Azmi & Co. are already up in arms and asking government to not to target Muslim community. (read it as not to touch culprits who are Muslims)

Most of the media – national and international – is constantly mentioning that Mumbaikars are brave. I feel like it is opportunistic on part of media and politicians to say that. Of course, Mumbaikars are brave and the way Mumbai functions in spite of all the troubles is worth applauds. But people in Mumbai were back on tracks immediately because they don’t have any options. They seems to have accepted the fact that the politicians can’t promise safety of citizens and media being biased end up playing in hands of politicians.

Political correctness should not come when the matter is related to national security. But the current recipe of Indian government to deal with Pakistan seems more like road to perdition. There are only two ways out of current political quagmire in India. Either, more bomb blast will force politicians to go tough on terrorist and on Pakistan. Or, Indian voters can use their voting weapon to oust these inept and anti-national politicians. The second option is better and useful.

Weird Logic !

Wow..here goes the news, three dumb ass terrorists hanged themselves in Guantanamo and media is going nuts over the incidence. United Nation wants the prison to be closed and so does the host of ‘human rights’ organizations. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Afghanistan asked US to release their citizens from the prison. Wait a minute! Aren’t we talking about terrorists here? These three terrorists tried to kill Americans. Their motive is not limited to kill Americans but they want to kill every non-Muslim. Their objective is to make the whole world Muslim and for that they will behead everyone. But when they publicly behead people, it seems that human rights activist, the UN and E.U. thinks that it’s the terrorist’s god given right. It is written in Koran that you have to behead your enemy. Every non-Muslim is their enemy. So by beheading them, they are not violating human rights but fulfilling scripture.

If you capture them, if you keep them in secluded jails then it is gross abuse of humanity. How can we treat terrorist like that? My suggestion is to send all UN officials and human rights activist to Iraq and enjoy the pleasantries with terrorist. The mawkish idea of Humanity that UN, human rights activist and E. U. professes makes me puke. If they really care so much then where the hell they were when Khmer rouge massacred one third of Cambodia’s population?; Rwandans killing one million of their own population?; Russian gulags in last 50 years? How about Mao’s Cultural Revolution that wiped out at least million people off earth? How about Idi Amin killing incessantly in Uganda?

But I guess that’s fine. All these massacres were done with good intentions. In fact, even terrorist have good intention. But Americans - naaah! They are imperialist bastards. They want to rule the world with capitalism. Strange logic!

I am in no way justifying American war. Iraq war is more about oil and economy than about freedom. But America is a sole superpower right now and these knucklehead Islamic terrorist punched them in the guts really bad. So, expect the backlash! America has all rights to round up suspected terrorist and put them in the jail. I wish they put all Saudis and Pakistanis in the Guantanamo too.

The leitmotif of human rights that E.U. and UN professes lacks conviction because E.U. is grappling with the Islamic problem in its backyard and the laws they are coming up to counter this problem puts E.U. in more gaucherie situation. And about UN, well, words of a failed institution are as useless as the institution itself.

My Writing II

Writing is not an easy task for me. Specially, when I have to write in English. I was decently good writer in my mother tongue but it is unfortunate that in India, it is seen as a sign of backwardness to write in one’s own mother tongue. Observing my writing, I realize that sometimes it carries an impression of the material I am reading. For instance, if I am reading Dr. Radhakrishnan, my writing tend to be more flowery, more explanatory with long sentences. If I am reading Naipaul then my writing will be a bit sarcastic, usually dark and of course with long sentences. I guess, these long sentences is a British style. In any case, I don’t attend iota of intellectuality and lucidity of Dr. Radhakrishnan or fluency of self-expression of Naipaul. Even with their impression I distinctively remain an amateur writer.

I was sad when I realized this. Does that mean I am not original? Does that mean I won’t be a good writer ever because I don’t have my own style? I don’t know. My expression is unique in a way because they are amalgamation of various readings and activities I do or intend do. All though my thoughts are original, I would not dare to suggest that they are first of its kind. They echo a certain rational. They follow certain logical thinking line. I rarely write about my personal life and usually focus on world affairs. So through writing, rather than concentrating on eloquence of language, I attempt to get my thoughts across the board.

Whenever I try to write on certain topic, numerous thoughts, facts, viewpoints suddenly start gushing in my mind. It becomes impossible task even to start. Because, most of the world affairs are interconnected and when people fail to understand the correlation, either I feel dumb with my rhetoric’s or feel frustrated at lack of understanding.

I guess writer has to decide his intended audience and then make sure that his writing style will attract them. I can’t write a romantic story because I can’t describe beauty vividly. But, what I can do, is to write about current affairs either in inflammatory style or in more relaxed and yet suggestive way. Today’s media usually presents on the one side of the spectrum. I try to present the other spectrum by writing between the lines. I hope I will get better in it.

I H S K (I Hate Salman Khan)

‘Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me’

This saying is so apt when discussing Salman Khans issue. Yesterday I was watching his interview on some desi channel here in US and he was confidently telling the interviewer how he is innocent and how he is framed. He seemed to be catching up with his lost glory. And, I kept wondering whether Indian press is retarded or Indian people are retarded.

We have taped phone conversation of Salman Khan with underworld don but he is still making movies. He killed an endangered specie and convicted for that crime and yet he is making movies. As if killing an animal wasn’t enough for him, for the love of sweet mother of Moses, he rammed his SUV on pavement in inebriated state and killed a pavement dweller. And, not only he making movies, he is doing entertainment shows in US. Holy Cow! He just fooled everyone at least thrice.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice – well, you can’t fool me twice. I am already a fool.

how can he do this? More than that, how can Indian people allow him to do all this shitty stuff ? Either he is smart and have high contacts (like underworld don!) or Indian people are too dumb that they believe when he says that ‘I am innocent’. I think it’s both. He is smart and Indian people are dumb. I wonder whether Amir Khan knows about Salman Khan or he just overlooking him because he is his fellow Muslim brethren.

The reason why Salman is so confident of getting away with anything is because he knows that there are host of other people who got away with their misdeeds. Sanjay Dutta for example, had stockpile of AK-47 and cops have hours of conversation between him and Chhota Shakil. And yet, he got away. We have photographs of Anil Kapoor, Anju Manhendroo, Mahesh Bhatta etc. posing with Dawood Ibrahim. (For those who forgot – Dawood Ibrahim is main culprit behind Bombay Blasts in 1992) Such list goes on and I haven’t even started to talk about our politicians.

To stay within the law is increasingly getting hard in India. To break the law is easy because one, our laws, judiciary system is a joke and our judges are bunch of corrupt jokers. If you have enough money or if you are politician then you can pretty much rape anyone, kill anyone and steal millions of rupees. You will still be as pure as mineral water and as holy as Ganges water.

I don’t see any end to this anarchy. Even if magically we have an elaborate and perfectly working law system then these criminals will still get away because lawmakers and judges are part of the same society that has messed up concepts about what is right and what is wrong . If Salman had killed a person in inebriated then that’s a felony and no one should justify his act. If Sanjay Dutta is in regular contact with people responsible for Mumbai bomb blast then he is a traitor. But for this to happen, society should vehemently ask for justice.

Indian society lacks conviction and more than that it lacks desire to seek justice. Chalata hai attitude can be seen in everything that India does as a nation and hence to expect honest returns is almost impossible. Onus is on Indian society to punish people like Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt. Judiciary is just an arm of society and it is unfair to expect judiciary to work when society itself is in deep mess.

Selected Writings of S. Radhakrishnan

On Christianity -:

When righteousness is practiced, not for its own sake but because it is the will of God, it is practiced with a fervor and a fanaticism that are sometimes ungodly. When the well of God is known, we feel driven to pass it on and think it intolerable that it should be disobeyed. ‘The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?’ While such a belief gives definiteness, conviction and urgency to the ethical message, which no abstract logic could give, it at the same time shuts the door against all change and progress.

The Jew first invented the myth that only one religion could be true. As they, however, conceived themselves to be the ‘Chosen People’, they did not feel a mission to convert the whole world. The Jews gave to Christianity an ethical passion and a sense of superiority; the Greeks gave the vague aspirations and mysteries of the spirit a logical form , a dogmatic setting; the Romans with their practical bent and love of organization helped to institutionalize the religion. Their desire for world dominion transformed the simple faith of Jesus into a fiercely proselytizing creed. After the time of Constantine, authorities , clerical and secular, displayed systematic intolerance towards other forms of religious belief, taking shelter under the words ‘He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me, sacctereth’.

On Self-Discovery –:

The process of self-discovery is not the result of intellectual analysis but of the attainment of a human integrity reached by a complete mastery over nature. The old faith is mere reason that we will act properly if we think rightly is not true. Mere knowledge is of the nature of a decoration, an exhibit with no roots. It does not free the mind. In the Chandogya Upanishad Narada confesses that all his scriptural learning has not taught him the the true nature of the self, and in the same Upanishad, Svetaketu, in spite of his study of the scriptures for the prescribed period, is said to be merely conceited and not well instructed. Spiritual attainment is not the perfection of the intellectual man but an energy pouring into it from beyond it, vivifying it. The Katha Upanishad Says: ‘As the self existent pierced the openings of the senses outward, one looks outward, not within himself. A certain thoughtful person, seeking immortality, turned the eye inward and saw the self. It is seeing with the spiritual eye the pure in heart, who have overcome the passions of greed and envy, hatred and suspicion, that is here insisted on. This is the fulfillment of man’s life, where every aspect of his being is raised to its highest point, where all the senses gather, the whole mind leaps forward and realized in one quivering instant such things as cannot be easily expressed,. Though it is beyond the word of tongue or concept of mind, the longing and love of the soul, its desire and anxiety, its seeking and thinking, are filled with the highest spirit. This state of being or awareness to which man could attain is the meaning of human life. It is religion, and not mere argument about it, that is the ultimate authority for one’s ideas of God and life. God is not an intellectual idea or a moral principle, but the deepest consciousness from whom ideas and rules derive. He is not a logical construction but the perceived reality present in each of us and giving to each of us the reality we posses. We are saved not by creeds but the jnyana (knowledge) or spiritual wisdom. This is the result of the remaking of man. Logical knowledge is comparable to a finger which points to the object and disappears when the object is seen. True knowledge is awareness, a perception of the identity with the supreme, a clear-sighted intuition, a dawning of insight into the which logic infers and scriptures teach. An austere life turns knowledge into wisdom, a pundit into a prophet.

( Eastern Religions & Western Thoughts , published by Oxford India Paperbacks)

The real culprits

Who is responsible for recent criminal overture of Indian government in implementing inane affirmative policy in every facet of Indian social life? Indian government, NO! Sonia Gandhi – No, she is clearly working on Vatican’s instructions. She wants to divide Hindu populace further into pieces and then ‘harvest’ the crop. This may sound like conspiracy theory. But if you closely recently published Vatican doctrine on Asia and statements made by Pope John Paul II then even dumb person can join the dots. Arjun Singh – No, he is Sonia’s dog and he has to lick her feet. The real culprit is India’s voters, specially, young population.

All these protests and hunger strikes – as expected – turned out to be utterly useless. Government still implemented this absurd policy. You can’t beat Vatican, Sonia Gandhi and Indian government at the same time. What we could have done was to vote responsibly. But we didn’t do that. We voted Congress party and for such a wonderful decision, it is time to reap the fruits. I am not saying that people should have voted BJP to the power but thinking rationally, who was better choice between BJP and Congress? Why? Because BJP’s top brass were all non-corrupt and they never did anything that would divide India and jeopardize her future. We replaced them with anti-Indian people like Mani Shankar Aiyar and communist party. We elected blood sucking leeches like Arjun Singh and king of all these bastards – our beloved, Manmohan Singh. We can’t have more inept, more corrupt and morally repulsive bunch of politicians than current Indian government.

The general apathy of young population towards election is simple reason behind this fiasco. If Congress never uttered about these reservation policies in their Election manifesto before last general election then they simply can’t implement these policies. But they still did it, because they know people will continue to vote them irrespective of how much they backtrack India’s growth. India has fastest growing young population in the world. We have more young people than population of Europe and still, government was able to implement a policy that is hugely unpopular in young generation. They did it because they know that they will get away with this and they will be able to form government again as our young population won’t participate enough in coming elections.

Kudos to all the students who battled death in hunger strikes and who battled with cops in morcha’s but such measures were too late to do any good. We have a real chance to show our strength in coming general election. Let’s see how we use the most threatening weapon in democracy – our vote.

India in future

I wonder what British imperialist would think of India today. Will they be sad to see that the country they divided geographically and socially is still standing? Or, Will they be ecstatic to see that their policy of dividing India into tiniest possible pieces is aggressively persuaded by Indian policymakers, lawmakers and politicians in post-independence period? I guess, they will be happy to see current state of India and it won’t be long before they start partying as our ‘democratically’ elected politician finish dividing Indian society thoroughly. I am almost heart broken to write this but the way India is proceeding right now, it is clearly courting disaster and bleak future.

This sad story began with Mr. Gandhi, our numero uno leader of independence movement. The biggest blunder he did is to force Mr. Nehru as our first prime-minister. We have Kashmir problem, a legacy, perhaps, first gift of Mr. Nehru to India. Actually, to his credit he did great job in fostering scientific and industrial growth in initial years and his choice of socialism was certainly one of the best decision. But he made sure that he leaves India with another legacy, heavy defeat in India-China war. Plus, he legendry forced policy of Secularism is creating havoc in modern India by failing to unite India as a nation and destroying India as a civilization. We can’t say that he started Muslim appeasement policies but his weird notion about secularism certainly set up the stage for future congress leaders to stretch secularism to an absurd level. The next in line, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, was extremely ambitious and that increasingly fuelled her quest for the power. She did wonderful job as a political leader in 1971 war with Pakistan but to avenge her good deeds she made sure that she leaves India with institutionalized corruption and reignite the ‘divide and rule’ policy. When India needed gradual shift to liberal economy but Mrs. Gandhi was so busy in keeping her power absolute by making sure no state government in Indian state is ruled by non-Congress government that it was almost improbable for her to pay attention to economy.

During Mrs. Gandhi’s era, Congress party turned into personal fiefdom of Gandhi clan. Rampant corruption in Congress gave stimuli to regional parties and though, we can say that regional parties gave option to the population, the problem with regional parties was that they were myopic and concerned about their home state more than about India. These parties seems to be programmed to cling to the power at all cost and they had no ability to think on larger scale.. And, all though Congress was firmly in power till 1995, the gradual decline of congress and failure of BJP to fill up the shoes increased the power of regional parties. The minority governments that formed in post 1988 (after Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated) were more concerned about sticking to the power by all means, even if they had to dived India further on the basis of caste.

With such a roller-coaster past, the future looks more rickety. The recent overture of central government to introduce inane policy of affirmative action in virtually every facet of Indian social life is not a nadir of political ineptness but rather culmination of long process, during which our political class established a sinecure and yet powerful place for themselves. They grew more selfish, with absolutely no regard towards India’s future they became obtuse to the extend of being anti-national. All these problem can be taken care of if India remain democracy. But it is fast becoming a mobocracy i.e. rule of mob not of consensus. The general populace is increasingly oozing lassitude and turning their back at the predatory political class. And obviously, this helps our useless politicians enormously.

The infrastructure is in shambles, judiciary system is a pure joke and a detestable political class, I don’t see any bright dawn on the horizon, but rather long bleak night.

Riots revisited.

Here we are, Back to square one. We have another riot in Vadodara Gujrat. The press is up in arms, the central government is trying to attain political mileage and Mr. Modi- chief minister of Gujrat is probably preparing himself for another crucifixion. Last time I wrote a blog about communal riots I predicted that another set of riots are around the corner. In fact India had quite a few of them but Gujrat stands a special case. Supposedly ‘worst’ case of communal riots took place in Gujrat in 2002 and it was all BJP’s fault, all Mr. Modi’s fault perhaps, all Hindus fault. Right there - these so called secularist and primarily Indian press (which I believe is most phony and useless in the world. Probably, worst than Saudi Arabia! Bunch of retarded, degenerated and malnourished brains covering sensitive issues. For example, Shekhar Gupta, Dilip Padgaokar, Vir Sanghavi and our esteemed Pranoy Roy!) generalize riots in such a way that it makes me wonder whether organ called brain is missing among these journalist.

Let’s try to see riots through different prism. I am ready to accept that Mr. Modi is current Hitler and Gujrat is ‘laboratory’ of NAZI’s. Also, Hindu’s are most fanatic religion in the world bent of destroying peaceful minorities in India. Now let’s move to our beloved Muslim community of India. They are the victims here and they are living under constant threat of Hindu fundamentalism. There was an article published in Indian Express. According to that article (the article was on a survey conducted by Government of India) percentage of Muslim people finishing 12^th grade is lowest among all. This ration slips further when we talk about rural area. The story is same for percentage of Muslim people graduating with a degree. In fact, in completely different sphere, percentage of Muslim farmers using tractors is drastically lower than their Hindu counterpart. Why is it like that? Is it a deep Hindu conspiracy? I doubt that. Because, percentage of Muslim people getting loans from private sector as well as from government extremely low compared to their Hindu counterparts. It is almost impossible for private sector, government sector as well NGO’s to come together and conspire against Muslim community.

May be the reason is that Muslim community don’t want to get involved in mainstream. They have separate civil law. They want separate education system so they could study in Maddarasaas. It is not hard to join these dots and form a picture of current state of Muslim community in India. If India is moving ahead and a community is extremely stubborn to the point of being obstacle then it is easy to understand majority communities’ antipathy towards them. But saying such things is almost taboo in print & news media as well as in political arena. Such issues are never discussed in public sphere. Anyone talking about these issues (for example, problem of family planning in Muslim community) is quickly derogated as right wing Hindu fundamentalist. But even though there is no discussion in public arena, general populace do discuss these issues privately.

If Muslim community wants special treatment then they are getting it in every possible way.

Coming back to the riots - it is not a new phenomenon and it is not confined to Gujrat either. First riots were recorded in 1761. We had worst riots in Mumbai, in Bhivandi etc. The discussion about riots is extremely biased. For example when it comes to discussing riots in Gujrat in 2002, no one discusses the burning of 59 Hindus in Godhra. Press and politician conveniently sweeps that issue aside by blaming few miscreants for such a gruesome act. In fact they go to the length of blaming RSS for burning train and then starting riots. (One theory is that those people locked themselves in and then burnt the bogie from inside!) But Godhra has almost 30% Muslim population and it is perhaps, most riot prone area in Gujrat. It was under curfew for six months during 1947 partition riots. Plus, during 2002 Gujrat riots number of Hindus killed in riots were almost equal to number of Muslim killed. All these facts and circumstances are never mentioned in ‘main-stream’ press. And, even if they are mentioned they go unnoticed.

We need to have unbiased discussion in press about all these issues. What I see is that our press fast turning into American press. They want to cover issues with no discussion or meditation on it. Sadly, such a hypocrisy on Press’s part (I don’t expect anything from Indian politicians) sets the stage for another set of riots. I don’t intend to suggest that riots are good in any way. But we are not trying to solve the real problem here. Post riots - the blame game starts after that and we are back to square one.

The Hindu Matrix

“Fate is merely a device used to exploit the masses by convincing them of the inevitability of their station in life. I spit on fate.” – Karl Marx

I don’t see fate as a conspiracy theory of elite class to exploit masses. But, at the same time, I don’t exactly believe that everything is decided by higher power and we are just mortal pawns. If we don’t believe in fate (not in Marxist way!) then does that mean that we have choice of doing what we want to do? Or, what we perceive as a choice is in fact a pathway that leads us down our destiny- something which is already decided. If we go by Judeo-Christian philosophy - and I don’t intend to make generalizing statement here- then we do not have a choice. All we can do is to trust the ‘God’ and wait for him to come down and save us. But, if we go by Hindu philosophy then we do have choice and to perfect our choice we have rebirths. In short, fate is something we build over the course of numerous births. If we say that we do have choice to decide our future then why do we get this chance to choose? We know that we rarely achieve what we really want to achieve then that basically proves that not everything is in our hand. Suppose, even if we achieve what we intended to then what happens after that?

Another troublesome question that arises if we believe in ‘choice theory’ is that it nullifies the purpose of ‘God’ as a separate entity. If we have chances of perfecting our choice then what is the need of savior? Why do we need savior? It’s a bit confusing.

I believe in rebirths. One, because, it is closely related to the choice concept I am trying discuss. And, second, I do so because I believe accountability is essence of nature. It is almost like Math. If the sum doesn’t add up then you are in trouble. During our lifetime we are responsible for everything we do. There is always cause and its effect. And, if this is so, then, why this primary concept of accountability would change after life? Why someone from upstairs will help us and save us from going to hell. (I don’t believe in heaven or hell either!) We are responsible for our fate and all though, destiny plays some part, that undecided part or destiny is influenced by our own decision in prior births. Right from our birth, till death we have specific time and resources to move up in the ladder. So, at the end of the life if we make good choices then we move a step closer to the ‘God’ or the ultimate energy, as I would like to say.

This topic is very subjective and it becomes murkier once we enter into realm of religion. My beliefs are based on Hindu philosophy. There may be defects in it as this is very amateur attempt to understand concept of Karma. So, comments on this topic are most welcome.

Gandhi - Post Script

I want to add few more things about the issue I raised in my last blog. Am I defaming Gandhi ji in my last blog? I dare not do so. He was truly a great spirit but, at the same time as an Indian, I have right to take critical approach of his public life. He was the most powerful leader in 1940’s. He could have shaped things in much better way. But, he got entangled into his inner conflict of becoming a saint and a political leader at the same time. This proved to be detrimental to the quest of independence movement.

I am not comparing Gandhi ji with any of the post-independence leaders. He was too great for such comparison. Nehru was inept for prime ministerial position. At least, for first Prime Minister position. But, we had people like Patel. They were conveniently side lined by Gandhi ji himself. Also, historians and media always say that Gandhi ji valiantly fought British Empire and single handedly gave India independence. Though, first part of him fighting valiantly is true in a way and his charisma and ability to mobilize people was remarkable, we can’t say that he was incomparable. We had people like Lokmanya Tilak, Veer Savarkar, and Shri Aurobindo to name few, who were exceptionally brilliant and courageous nationalist. It is too convenient to label them radical nationalist and put them aside. We can say that there were definite differences in opinions but that does not mean that one was better than other.

Sadly, Gandhi ji would certainly object the attempts of making prophet out of him. By 1940, Congress was synonym to Gandhi ji. And after independence, Gandhi ji himself said that Congress should be immediately dissolved, otherwise, people will soon despise Congress. He probably sensed the decadence in Congress or perhaps, he realized that Congress will deitify him for politics. In any case, Gandhi was killed not by bullets but by Congress. Congress in post-Nehru era soon became one family rule, a corrupt party with no ideology.

I object the idea of making god out of Gandhi. He was a human being, not exactly brilliant but an honest person who knew his limitations and worked hard to overcome them. His principle of ‘Satyagraha’ though stretched too far, was fairly successful after 1920’s. We should try to imitate his courage and learn his honesties. Making him God, in a way, actually, defames him and at the same time it doesn’t help us either.

Gandhi

Writing anything about Gandhi is not easy. You have to confirm to strict code of conduct. Failing to do so instantly qualify you to for the membership of right wing Hindu fanatic and perhaps, as a Gandhi killer. You either eulogies Gandhi or you don’t write about him. There is no room for criticizing him. This process of making prophet out of him has cost India dearly. His naïve political moves that dealt with future of India, his weird inner voices and constant struggle to achieve sainthood lead to untold misery on the nation that he is usually credited of giving independence to. First, he was not the sole reason of Indian independence and second he was not saint by any mean. His aim was political independence of India from clutches of British empire and you can’t achieve something political and at the same time profess sainthood. I think it was more of need of the civilization, a defenseless and timid civilization, a civilization seemingly bereft of fighting and aggressive spirit, a civilization that was in search of itself, to make Gandhi its hero. But, I don’t intend to discuss Gandhi and his political moves in India’s independence struggle here. To his credit, he was one of the most influential figures that stood for Bharat as a civilization rather than as a nation. And of course, he was non-corrupt, he was patriotic to the highest extent and he understood the nerve of the nation.

I happened to read the accounts of his sexual experiments in last stages of his life. Towards the end of independence struggle, Gandhi decided to test his Brahmacharya. He started sharing bed with young women that too, naked. His grand-niece Manuben and Abhaben, his personal physician Sushila Nayyar were chief character of this episode. He said “Without Brahmacharya the satyagrahi will have no luster; no inner strength to stand unarmed against the whole world….his strength will fail hi at the right moment” May be his right but the point here is not whether his contention right or not but whether his actions on the eve of independence were making any sense or not.

Sex is utterly private matter in Indian society and in any case Gandhi was not involved in any sexual acts either. According to Manuben, Abhaben and Sushila Nayyar, Gandhi never touched them or behaved with them in any wrong way. That means he was successful in his experiments, he was a true Brahmachari. Then, why is it necessary to comment in his private life, his experiments to test limits of Brahmacharya? The answer is simple. Millions of people were ghastly uprooted, million or so were to loose their lives in most gruesome manner and in the midst of largest forced human migration in human history, most powerful leader at that time was indulging in self-gratification.

Ask any of Punjabi, Sindhi or Bengali who bore the brunt of partition, whether he is interested in Gandhis’ experiments and answer will be no. Because India didn’t need saint at that time, India needed people like Sardar Patel. It was clear to British policy makers that they are going to loose their empire. And true to their bastard behavior, they wanted to make sure that the area they are leaving behind is in utter mess. Muslim leaders provided them great opportunity to divide India and Britishers grabbed that opportunity with both hands. In the hindsight we can say that partition was better for India but the way it happed, the grief it caused, is way beyond words. We can say that our political leadership was inept to deal with partition but it is easier to say that in hindsight and in reality, I guess, no one expected partition to be this bloody. But, Gandhi, instead of behaving like a political leader, was trying hard to become saint. Naipaul correctly puts that “He became his own admirer”

This essay may sound a bit abstract and without any coherent conclusion. But I believe that during that period he should have concentrated more on India than himself. India was lucky enough that there were people like Mr. Patel; otherwise, there wouldn’t have been any India.

Mission of Mr. Gandhi was to cleanse the humanity of its violent nature. And all though that sounds like a noble mission, fanaticism in that mission defeated its very purpose. I am sure he was heart broken due to partition but it was not enough to bring back millions of lives back. Through his passivity he involuntarily end up participating in one of the most gruesome chapter of humanity.

P.S. – For records, Gandhi never denied about these experiments. He used to discuss his feelings with every one and wrote extensively about this issue in his diary. His forthrightness in such taboo issue is commendable.

Meri Hindi Aur Mein |

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I L S G ( I Love Saurav Ganguly)

I am not first person to write about Ganguly and certainly not last. At the same time, I am not in majority when I say that I love Ganguly but I won’t be in the minority either. Strange as it may sound but I believe that Ganugly saga is a test of Indian mentality, questioning their abhorrence towards brashness, aggressiveness and their timidity. It will show who do we, as Indians, want to be in the future?

Love him or hate him, one has to agree that Ganguly was a great one-day player and certainly a great captain. His record in one-days is unbeatable and his commitment towards his team is unquestionable. I am kind of biased towards lefty batsmen. That is why I like Lara more than Tendulkar and for me the joy of watching Ganguly rampaging through oppositions bowling line-up is incomparable.

May be I am reading too much between the lines but the brashness, arrogance and aggressiveness of Ganguly certainly mirrors the youth spirit. His naked shirt waving stint in England, best possible answer to the country that whines like a new born baby when then come to India. His ‘waiting’ tactics against Steve Waugh and Co. is a best possible to Australians who sledge against us because they feel being Australians makes them superior to us. Such examples are numerous and his captaincy record certainly proves that this arrogance backed with professionalism lead India to dizzying heights, comparable to 1983 Indian team. For me the best part of his captainship was his unwavering support to his team mates. If it were not Ganguly then Mr. Dravid was well on his way out in 2000. Same thing applies to Harbhajan Singh too. Because of Ganguly, we have such a array of young talent in the team. He bought and nurtured players like Yuvraj Singh, Virendra Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Mahendra Dhoni, Irfan Pathan and the list just goes on. When they came to team they felt that someone is looking out for them and ready to support them come high and low. Such camaraderie and unity rare in India team in recent past certainly helped team in winning against everyone and virtually everywhere.

But, Ganugly is not related to Cricket only. Cricket is the biggest sport in India and though, national game of India is Hockey, the sheer number of Cricket players in domestic circuit are probably more than Hockey fans. So, captain of Indian Cricket team is more than the leader of 11 gentleman playing on the field, he is more than just a good cricketer, he is more of leading Indian youth aspiration. He has to win every time because he is leading Indian pride. Indian youth carries emotions on their wrist. They are talking about world domination. And even though China is giving stiff competition and the ‘colossus’ US is still very much on the stage, the amazing success of IT sector seems to be cementing the belief that 21st century belongs to India. But, this confidence is completely absent in Indian political class as they are too busy in filling their bank accounts and perhaps, saving their ass. So, whether one likes cricket or not, it is the most gentlemanly way for Indian youth to express themselves and perhaps, get the feeling of superiority.

I don’t want to imply that Ganguly was unblemished. I don’t want to say that he should be in the team if he was performing badly. But the treatment given to him when he was still successful in his captaincy is certainly not a good precedence of treating our heroes. We need heroes. We need honest, hard working and perhaps, a bit cocky people to lead us. We definitely need integrity and talent but not the timidity of Dravid. Dravid is certainly a great player and my prove to be good captain in the future too but he seems to be carry colonial burden and as Gavaskar said earlier, as long as we carry this colonial burden we won’t be winners.

P.S. "What had upset Ganguly most was Chappell's comments in the interview given to the newspaper that the Kolkata stalwart wanted to cling on to the India captaincy for financial reasons."

I H S K

coming soon !!

Guess, who is next on my Hate list?

Bonfire of Creeds

First, I thought the issue is not worth the attention. Second, I thought it will die down in short time as it is too ludicrous to even think about it. And even though I still think that it is a non-issue, the reaction to it, the reaction to the cartoon of Muhammad is taking demonic shape and spreading like plague epidemic. For me, there are two questions, two central issues and I am trying to figure them out through political as well as non-political prism. First, are there any other paintings of Muhammad before this cartoon controversy? And, is it legitimate for Muslim world to demonstrate so vehemently and perhaps, so violently?

That said, even if we consider current demonstration more of political agenda, I believe that there is definitive underlying tendency in Muslim world to be angry, to be angry at everything that is non-Islamic. They completely disregard the minorities if they are in majority and if they are in minority then they make sure that they get more rights than majority. Basically, there is no equality when they have to deal with non-Muslim world.

Coming back to the two central questions, surprisingly, answer to the first question is empathetically yes. Just google the word Prophet Muhammad and you will see quite a few old paintings of Prophet Muhammad. If you don’t trust google then there is a 16^th century miniature by Sultan Muhammad-Nur Bokharai, shows Muhammad riding Buraq, a horse with face of beautiful woman, on his way to Jerusalem for his M’eraj, i.e. on his journey towards heaven. There is a painting showing Archanger Gabriel guiding Muhammad into medina. There is a 17^th century Isfahan miniature depicting the prophet with his favorite kitten, Hurairah. There is a 19^th Century painting by Kamaleddin Behzad’s miniature showing Muhammad contemplating a rose produced by a drop of sweat that fell from his face. There is a painting “Massacre of Prophets family” shows Muhammad watching as his grandson Hussein is put to death by Umayyad in Karbala. There is a 18^th century painting that shows Muhammad and his seven followers and 19^th century painting by Kamal ul-Mulk’s portrait of Muhammad showing the prophet holding the Koran in one hand while with index finger of other hand he points to the Oneness of God.

These paintings are drawn by Muslims throughout the history of Islam and across the Muslim world. They can found at various museums within the Muslim world. If this is not enough, there are many busts of Muhammad by contemporary Iranian and Arabian sculptors. U. S. Supreme court hosts a bust of Prophet, where he is honored as one of the great ‘law givers’ of mankind.

So, do they have right to protest violently? Or in fact, do they have rights to protest at all? Well, they do have right to protest, reason or no reason. But, this issue is more complicated than just violent protest. It shows the insecure mentality of leadership in Islamic world, political as well as religious. Curiously, the cartoons became a major controversy only after Organization of Islamic Committees meeting at Mecca in December. It started as usually by Saudi Arabia, who, in their attempt to out score fundamentalist (fundamentalist against fundamentalist!) recalled their ambassador from Denmark. Syria followed the suit. The agitation began systematically through out middle-east only after that. These events are in too chronological order to dismiss them as an instant reaction. May be, Islamic leadership is feeling heat from Western countries in their democratic drive and perhaps, general populace is inclining towards democratic mode of government. If that is the case then such protest are not only in vain but also painting the Muslim community in bad light.

(Historical information is courtesy of Wall Street Journal)