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)

Capitalism - A need based development

With end of cold war and, communism proving to be defunct, capitalism was left with no rival. Yet, most of capitalizing attempts in non-western world in post cold-war scenario proved to failure at best and disaster at worst. The term failure term is subjective but looking at south-American continent, south-east Asian countries and host of African countries and Russia, capitalisms definitely failed in its attempts to lift the ‘rising economies’ to the new level. Increasing income gap in India and China its effect on their respective societies is sure to provide new case study of Capitalism. I am just praying that at least in case of these two countries capitalism should succeed because more than one-third of humanity is in peril.

Capitalism basically lets people to decide about their consumption as democracy lets people to decide their choice of government. The concept looks fairly enticing and workable. Yet, capitalism almost always ends up failing. No wonder the dissent against capitalism is growing through out the world and left wing parties are coming to the power at alarming rate.

Actually, it is not entirely capitalisms fault per se, at least not in the theory, the enforcers that is, western countries and the implementers that is, local government are both at equal fault. As in case of democracy, the forceful sowing of capitalism is a bad strategy itself. It has to grow according to the local needs, according to the local mindset, according to the local ethos and work culture. If it fails to become local then it defeats the very purpose of capitalism.

Capitalism is successful in western countries because the model developed according to the needs of the people. The theory itself developed as the demands of the people developed. Thus, the tool developed as the need was felt, and then those tools were used to build a new structure where new needs were felt. The cycle continued with each wheel of the capitalistic machine seamlessly fitting into one another forming a efficient, self-correcting economic system over the period of time.

With all such developed theories, economic models, western countries go into non-western, non-developed countries and try to apply this economics and hope for wonder. And in a sense, the wonder does happen, albeit for western countries. They are able to earn profit out of non-western countries leaving almost nothing for the natives. With no knowledge of economics, technology, no known infrastructure, no skilled labor, not skilled for modern machinery; corrupt political class, and western educated elite class that has no understanding of local environment, the capitalism is bound to fail.

The knowledge base should be home grown. The elite class that usually rules the country should understand their country more in order to rule. And most importantly, western country should give rising economies space to breath. With constant spanking by IMF and World Banks, they (western countries) are not exactly portraying capitalism in good light.

Capitalism is definitely mantra of success. But the procedure to go down the capitalistic path needs to be studied and molded according to the need. Wrong chanting of ‘mantras’ always leads to adverse effects.

India - Three Narratives

Visiting India is increasingly becoming a profound dilemma to me. In just four years I am finding myself staring at some gibberish scenario, a country that is fast becoming alien to me. Or perhaps, I am becoming alien to it. May be I am exaggerating or may be this is effect of V.S. Naipaul on me.

I think I am simultaneously living in three different narratives. First one, a booming India, an emerging economic giant and struggling geo-political power, a country critically analyzed and generally eulogized by NYT and WSJ. Being a nationalist, I feel that finally dream of billion people is becoming a reality. And in a sense it is true. But, this is a view from thousands of miles away. The discrepancies begin to appear once I go closer, that is, when I visit India.

This is second India, second narrative. India of reality. It is as if India of my dream is indeed a mirage. Dream and mirage when used together seems to be providing more devastating effect than mirage and more unrealistic effect than dream. Each visit India seems to be slipping into more chaos. No doubt there is great economic upheaval and its waves are encompassing whole India, affecting virtually every facet of social as well as individual life. But India as usual is unaware of these effects and is completely unprepared to deal with it. Prowess of political class, which is seeping through every facet of life, increasing its power and yet acting like a regressive force. A democracy that is slowly becoming mobocracy and a burgeoning middle class, instead of playing lead role in social up-lifting, busy in imitating west. The scenario seems to be comically dark and perplexing

Third narrative is more personal. It is related to my parents, my extended family and my friends. The anxiousness to come back home and frustration of dealing with situations, situations that were completely irrelevant to me before. And finally the dilemma of whether I should come back home permanently. The question should be whether I can stay and survive in India or not? This emotional turmoil is nothing short of a movie script. Thousands of questions shrouding like thorns, making me ineligible to live in India and at the same time making it impossible to live in US too.

I am pretty sure all most all the students and professionals going abroad face this daunting task of fitting themselves in an alien culture and redefining their concept of home, redefining concept of India.

I am not exactly going through this process, not yet. But I find my current situation funny because I never thought that I will ever stare at this problem.

My future is uncertain at this point and in fact I may never face this crisis. But I am just praying that my conscious will be clear of any doubt if I ever have to make any decision regarding this issue. I don’t want to become a visitor to India. How will I call India mine if I become visitor? And, I don’t want to loose one of the very few things that I feel are mine.

Pakistani Mentality

India is again having peace dialogue with Pakistan. It is sick, it is frustrating and on the top of that it is useless. You can't have peace negotiations with your enemy. Positive outcome from current peace process out of question, considering Pakistan is hell bent on destroying India. But it is impossible to teach some one who is not ready learn. As 'peaceful negotiations' is leitmotif of Indian foreign policy, banality of peace stands naked. That’s beside the point. My contention is that I disagree with the common argument amongst the dumbass Indian secularist that Pakistani people are not anti-Indian but only politicians and Army generals are the culprits. This argument is just stupid. It makes me wonder, from where did these politicians and Army Generals come from? That said, I am not saying that general Pakistani populace is bad, it’s just that generally they are anti-Indian. The reason is that their younger generation is taught to hate India.

I am ready to agree that Pakistani Army is staunch anti-Indian and they probably groom their soldiers that way. But it is interesting to study the ‘democratic’ years of Pakistan. Benzir Bhutto or Nawaaz Sharif, prime ministers of Pakistan at various times constantly harps on anti-India sentiments during their election meetings. Kargil intrusion took place when Pakistan was under democratically elected government so did 1971 Indo-Pak War. But how does generations of Pakistani society hates India? It is because they are taught that way in schools, directly and indirectly.

Curriculum of the schools usually speaks volumes about the mindset society. Effects of anti-Semitic curriculum in Germany during NAZI era are well documented. More recent example of will be curriculum in Saudi Arabia, where it teaches hatred towards practically everyone who is non-Muslim. No wonder, we have Saudi society that actively exports and finances global terrorism network. Coming back to Pakistan, we have similar curriculums in Pakistan. They teach weird form of History where their civilization dates back to Harrapan era but funny thing is that according to them Harrapans were Muslims too! Urdu is ancient that Sanskrit and Pakistan is not part of Indian sub-continent but rather part of Arabian Peninsula. They even petitioned UN to not to consider Pakistan part of Indian sub-continent. For them, barbaric invaders like Aurangzeb, Genghis Khan, and Muhammad Tughlaq etc. are heroes. (Dang! list of these bastard invaders is too long!). Their fetish of considering themselves as Arabian heritage is almost insane. (Even, Persians don’t consider themselves Arabs!) Even though, this region of subcontinent bore brunt of Islamic invasion but they see themselves not as victim but as victors. They feel that they are only legitimate voice of Muslims in sub-continent, which is just ridiculous. Such kind of curriculum and weird ideas sows seeds of superiority complex, which is fine, but that superiority is at the expense of utmost hatred towards India and perhaps towards non-Muslim world. It is easy to see that the terrorist circle that starts from Saudi Arabia ends in Pakistan.

They want to reject their past, their present is messed up and future is bleak. The political class has only one option, to continue their anti-India rhetoric. Such anti-India demagoguery not only diverts society’s attention from more pressing issues but also keeps Army busy. This politics seeped to main stream society through school curriculums. It is just pathetically inane to believe that Pakistani society loves or perhaps, indifferent towards India while Army and political class hate India.

P.S. -: May be, Pakistani don’t think that they love India. It is sheer insanity of Indian intelligentsia to believe that and propagate this putrid idea. Most of the Indian academics and press reporters, editors are communist-leftist. Their brains are highly undernourished and their rancid thinking line makes me wonder about India’s future itself.

I H A B ( I hate Amitabh Bacchan)

In the list of celebrities I hate most, I am adding Mr. Amitabh Bacchan. He worked incessantly in last five years or so to achieve this honor. I love him as an actor. His movies in late 70’s and early 80’s were phenomenal. And interestingly, if he gets good director he can still deliver stupendous performance. Sadly currently, it is almost impossible to find good directors. We celebrate pitiable creatures like Karan Johar as great directors. But issue about directors is a digression here.

The reason behind Amitabh Bacchan getting on my nerves is over exposure. He is virtually present in every Hindi movie. Like an omnipotent god! If he is not acting then he always makes sure that he thrusts his voice as a narrator. No matter who is the director or who are the actors, this guy jumps in any wagon, even if that wagon is destined to crash. Recently I saw him in a movie with this kid of 23. That kid was pathetic in every sense and the movie was of perfect garbage quality and it left me wondering why the hell Mr. Amitabh Bacchan is wasting his hard earned glory and reputation in old age. Not only movies but he is ready to market all kinds of products. He is even advertising Emami, a sun-screen lotion. Hello! you grow beard Mr. Bacchan!

People are considered as wise when turn 60. Instead acting like a wise man and bowing out with high honors, or perhaps, pursuing his livelihood with grace, he is behaving like a child, laying hands on everything. Please Mr. Bacchan, don’t make fool of your self.

Also, how on earth he gets roles on so many movies? This dearth of talent in Hindi movies really worries me. The way Hindi film industry is churning out high quality (that means costly) crap for last five years or so justifies Mr. Bacchans presence in the industry or perhaps, vice versa.

Indian Education System

I wanted to write about Indian education system for long. I am a cross over product of this system, making me eligible to comment on it. But I was in dilemma whether to talk on this topic or not. If I make a favorable comment on it, then people ask me that why the hell did you leave India for US education? If I make some unpleasant comment about it then I become foreign educated person who always is critical of their country. But one of my friends just sent me an interesting article about Indian education and I decided to take a shot.

Obviously, I am not going to make a favorable comment about the Indian education structure. But I am not comparing it with American education system either. I intend to focus solely on Indian education system.

The Indian education system is borrowed from Britain. We were ruled by them so it is obvious that they will force their education on us. But the problem is that even after gaining independence from them we continue to follow their system. I am not saying we should overhaul the system completely. But tailoring it for the Indian society will be a welcomed effort. Lately, changing the curriculum has become a political play ground, making it impossible to improve it further. But, the real question is, why did it become a political play ground? I think putrid idea of secularism among the Indians is actually becoming a cancerous growth encompassing virtually every facet of social structure. People don't realize that and in any case, making any statement against Western style education instantly places in the bracket of Hindu fundamentalism.

Indian education system emphasize on Science and Math. We do have reputed law and science institutions but generally, stress is on engineering or medical practices. The rigidity of the system is quite evident when right after 12th grade students are asked to make tough choices. I am not suggesting that we should change the system according to US style where medical education begins only after completing a bachelors degree, wasting precious three or four years. But students in India certainly deserve propitious conditions to grow. The division should be only medical and non-medical. Once you choose non-medical stream, after a year or so, students should be free to choose between economics or engineering or they should be able to even opt for literature. Such flexibility will help students to pick a line that suits them most but at the same time streams other than engineering and medical will gain importance too.

The other area I would like to press emphasis on is to introduce Indian education to Indian students. It sounds bizarre but the irony is quite evident when you see India's official name being India, nomenclature of British. When I was in India I had no clue about Indian philosophy, Indian medicine, Indian theology or Indian justice system. India was a developed country before Islamic invasions and we maintained our knowledge till the British invaders came. Not that we lost our knowledge but very little progress was made during the British era. Reason: they systematically suppressed our values. We were forced to get accustomed to alien law system and alien social system. And, all though the shortfall of these systems are quite evident, we still cling to it with our lives, refusing to change it according to changing time and according to Indian mind set.

I do not intend to make detailed comment on current educational system because that will require much more space. The recent hoopla about India dominating world worries me because it is not feasible for IITs and IIMs carrying progress on their backs. We need to have overall development, something that is unique, something that is by our people and for our people. For that we have to develop strong educational base exclusively focused on India and by India.