Writers Against Terrorism

Blackmail or Protest?

2011-08-17T23:49:00.000+05:30

India is a democracy, meaning government of the people, by the people, for the people. The people however are supporting the man who is fasting for his demand as a citizen of India, to pass a bill which he thinks will fight corruption more strongly. And this is not just his belief, but apparently this belief is backed up by thousands and thousands of citizens of India.

Why then has the government of India jailed this man? Why is non-cooperation illegal? I can understand punishing someone for doing something wrong, however punishing someone for not doing something, is that right? If the Indian Government thinks that non-cooperation is not the right way, then what is an alternate effective way to make the government realise what the people’s demands are? Do people’s right end at the end of the elections? Is democracy just a way of people to elect their new dictator?

And most importantly I fail to understand the term political blackmail in this case. If this man’s demands were for his personal benefit, thousands of citizens would not back him up. Since this is not the case I don’t understand Dr. Manmohan Singh’s words that this is a form of political blackmail.

No Mr. Prime Minister, this is a protest. I am not sure if/when the bill is finally passed, whether it will reduce any corruption. But I am sure it will at least teach some of us the important lesson that, when united as a group of people, it is possible to make a big difference just by inaction.

Also makes me wonder, if each and every one of us lose our faith in the political parties currently in India, and we all decide to not vote in the next elections, will this mean all of us will be thrown in jail?

While on the topic of voting, I would really like the option to vote for ‘none of you idiots’. And if enough people vote for ‘none of you idiots’ then re-elections should take place and the political parties should be given a chance to modify their campaigns and come up with better plans (with achievable due dates) to win over the trust of the majority citizens.

Also if a political party comes into power by promising certain changes to the society, they should be held responsible for this. If they fail to deliver by the target date, it should be possible to penalise them under the court of law.

It is about time that the public servants, start serving their real masters – the People.

Changes to the Existing Education system: some ideas

2009-04-24T19:49:00.003+05:30

I don't know if there is anyone on this forum who can influence the educational system in India, but if there are, I would be glad if they can take a look at my suggestion and see if they are any good. The following ideas are based on my own experience of studying in this country, and what I felt I missed out on.

I would like to suggest 2 extra formal subjects of study between class 5-12 in India:

1) India today. Current affairs.

News. Political/scientific/economics/any other topic which catches the fancy of the child. Each child is expected to bring in a piece of news to class and talk about it and state his opinion on it. Later a discussion about this topic can take place with the whole class.

- Encourages child to develop reading skill

- Developes his GK

- Ability to think and have an opinion with reasons

- Ability to reason with others and draw conclusions

- Increases awareness of different things going on around the child

- Encourages the child to understand his area of interest from a younger age

The teacher of this subject should also be able to help the child correlate their findings with similar situations in the past, so that the child is able to look at history as a feedback to the making of the future.
The child should be marked on:- Correctness of the news- His/her grasp or understanding of the topic- Ability to defend his point of view

2) Class of invention and innovation:

This class should encourage the child to think out of the box. To do something new. To come up with new ideas. To create something. It can be made into a fun class where each child is expected to come up with

a) A new word (with reasons ofcourse, so that they can dig up roots of word and stuff)

b) A new device (and how they plan to design it)

c) A new strategy

d) A new art form

Basically anything original, which has not been done before.Some of the lessons could be extempore (in the class topics, and make the children come with new ways of designing/doing/executing/planning it.)

The child can be marked on -originality of the idea, -it's usefulness, -it's appeal/popularity with other children in the class, -the effort taken in the development of the idea (how well thought out is the idea)

Another subject which could be better dealt with is Mathematics. The following are the modifications I would like to make to it

1) Should make the subject more visual. Sometimes we have a problem with mathematics, because it is difficult to visualise things like complex numbers, calculus etc.

2) Should give a good idea about the application and usefulness of the different mathematical tools from everyday life.

3) Should encourage use of different computer tools like matlab/mathcad and I am sure there are cheaper ones as well, which make it fun and simple for students to grasp the subject.

4) teachers should take extra effort and come up with different teaching aids to help children think of (any subject, not just) maths as a fun, easy to learn and useful subject.

And finally, the marking system should also be revised. Yes it is a competitive world and we want our next generation to be prepared for it, but at what cost? Do we want them to be little robo-lets, who spend the most important part of their lives, their childhood, memorising facts? I hope not!Why don't we have a more unbiased system which gives importance to sports and arts? Why does the student who never plays a single game, or sketches or sings or dances come first in class because he did well in his theoretical subjects? Whereas an athlete who does exceptionally well in sports, comes last in class only because he didn't score as much in other subjects? Why not make it difficult to come first as well as last in class? why not make tuition classes a thing of the past, by making learning in school easy and fun?

Hating Love

2009-02-15T19:50:00.002+05:30

The Moral Police seem to have received a strong boost this Valentine's Day. Pink chaddis notwithstanding. A brother-sister duo were beaten up in Ujjain, couples forcibly married off in some places (though I must commend the ingenuity of those sweethearts who used this as a device to overcome family opposition) and the political establishment, not unsurprisingly, made ambivalent noises.

To my mind, though, this is just another form of terrorism. The cock-a-snook-at-civil-liberties approach by rabid interest groups driving an agenda that by no means reflects the views of the majority. Confident in the belief that a spineless government in an election year will be freely subject to manipulation, and the judicial system can either be bought, subverted through political pressures, is ineffective, or - in the best case - tortuously slow even when it delivers.

True, Muthalik was behind bars as a precautionary measure on V-Day. I laud the administration that took this step. But he will be free soon, and presumably unremorseful. After all, Raj Thackeray has set a precedent demonstrating that a gaggle of goondas can dictate the course of action and the tone of employment profiling for a whole state.

This is the time for each of us to start identifying those who should - if we can help it - never be elected again. The CMs of Karnataka and Maharashtra will be on my list unless clear, specific and decisive action is taken by them on those who seek to set an extra-constitutional agenda. With either tacit support or bystander-silence from those we have elected to represent us constitutionally.

the true minority

2008-12-07T13:18:00.001+05:30

Please read here,

an extract from Dr. Gunvant B. Shah's lecture at the Darul Koran Madrasa in Jambusar, near Vadodara, Gujarat, 16th November 2008.

The Problem with Islamic Terrorism- cross posted from my blog.

2008-12-04T21:53:00.002+05:30

I am beginning to have a problem with Islamic terrorism. Don't we all? Not quite in the "they-invade-our-lands-kill-our-people-way" I mean that is heinous in itself- (And don't even for a minute think that I condone or even try to understand it). But this disliking Islamic Terror has more to do with the way that term is applied now. Very loosely. Very broadly and in a manner that encourages all those who are anti-Muslim to voice their ugliest stereotypes and innate racism- all in the name of trying to give voice to a peaceful dialog.

I am an atheist, so I have no special love for people who follow the religion of Islam- nor indeed for the Hindus, the Sikhs, the Bahai's, the Christians, the Taoists- nor the Buddhists and followers of any of the other faiths that might be there. But this lack of love is mostly for their idealogy. I do not subscribe to any and indeed the idea that people need an invisible being or beings or promises of hereafters to keep them on the straight and narrow is all very silly for me. But as human beings, I have no problems with any of them. As long as their particular blind belief is not shoved into my face and we can all live in peace and harmony and whatnot. I also find it horrible that I need to put in this disclaimer here- before I vent my feelings here.

I am beginning to have a real problem with the way, just after a terrorist strike- (the Mumbai siege is the closest one), mocking articles with "Religion of peace Strikes", or "Islamic terrorism" or even other pieces asking "moderate Muslims to speak out" begin to appear. It is irritating to hear of religious peace dialog and analysis on religious mindsets of people perpetrating these crimes. I am beginning to really get angry at how the whole issue of terrorism quickly gets sidelined in the invective poured out against "them" invisible, but at the same times acquiring the shapes of the minorities that one fears.

Because religion is not really a scary or dangerous thing. It is like a Kalashnikov- or a bomb. Basically harmless, unless used the wrong way. Maybe that analogy is not apt- religion is like nuclear power. A force that can be unleashed for good and also for evil- a force that needs to be understood. I know the evils that religious people are capable of. The misogyny, the child abuse, the abuse of power, the fleecing people of money, the creation of horror- but these are people who do these things. Not their holy books. Not their idols or prayer mats or shawls. And it is another set of people who very religiously follow the dictates of their faiths and their devotions to their invisible sky fairies and dedicate their lives to the service of their fellow beings. Again it is not the faith, but the person.

And the person is shaped by the place they are in. Buffeted by the mighty politic-cultural-economic-social winds, abraded by circumstance, molded by the pressure of the seen and unseen, felt and unfelt. Above all governed by their free will. Because the decision to pull a trigger or drop a bomb is only that- personal. Choice. Determined solely by the person alone. Exacerbated by tensions, by breeding, by education or lack of it, but in the end very personal. And rationalized in the name of religion.

Because that is what people do- try to find a nobler cause for evil doing. Religion, tradition, custom all make wonderful scapegoats. Formulated in the bronze ages in a very strange time, they have wonderfully archaic ideas- a veritable treasure trove for those who would like a roadmap for their evil. Religion on the whole is a stupid thing. And it has even stupider followers. Who do their best to justify their stupidity. And in all honesty separated from that particular religion or sect or group, these people would still be the same- in most cases. It is never the fault of that particular identity. It is the fault of the way that identity is manipulated, the way they are molded to behave in a particular way.

The problem with terrorism is that its victims are faceless and usually always innocents. The other problem is that the terrorists who perpetrate the acts are tools. The real masterminds rarely ever get caught in the line of fire. And the manipulation is done by a mere stirring up of discontent. Discontent against a group, a culture, a religion even a national identity.

And in exactly this way "Islamic terror" becomes manipulated to give rise to Hindu or Buddhist or Christian or maybe Jewish terror. Create walls, raise boundaries and break down bridges. "Terrorist rights" are scoffed at- forgotten is that at the core they are human rights. Totalitarian ideas and regimes arise- all by sampling giving human shape to the deadliest terrors of uncertainty.

Because the labeling is silly- it can also be one of several identities- Male terror thee aren't as many women terrorists- or brown terror- how many white or black people with Kalashnikov's and belt bombs do you see- or better still human terror- after all no other species carts around RDX quite like this.

The Circling Vultures- cross posted from my blog

2008-12-01T09:02:00.003+05:30

Actually there is nothing that can or will ever shake the somnolence of the “system” in India. I have felt this for a while, but now I am only more than sure of it. Of course I am referring to the Bombay bomb blasts ( hell, yes the city was named Mumbai in 1995, after another set of bomb blasts in 1993- somehow renaming and re-claiming city pride was more important that ensuring a more secure city- but I am an ordinary person , what do I know of political strategy). Well Bombay or whatever they will call it now had a spate of bomb blasts in 2002, then 2003 January, March, July, August, 2006 and finally a three day hostage drama that unfolded over a million television sets.

But of course these are always terrorist activities, unleashed to dampen the spirit of the Mumbaikars who set about rebuilding, as soon as one is over. And lately they have been joined by the Delhiites, the Hyderabadis, the citizens of Jaipur and wherever else. And in between when things have been peaceful for too long, the resilience is exercised by the communal and regional tensions that are incited in the name of an identity (which I would assume only someone very mediocre would want to associate with). And of course the outright “terrorist” activity, that of the hand grenades and bombs is put on Islamic terror, on Pakistan, on the foreign hand.

And it becomes an excellent photo-op for politicians. Because that is what they do. Attend photo-ops. Accompanied by relatives, sons, producers- after making embarrassing gaffes (though the statement, this is a ”minor” thing is not such a gaffe- considering the magnitude of what India is subject to- but I digress). With an incompetent (token woman) President- not that her predecessors have been particularly competent. And strangely shameless (what else can you call them) Home Ministers who resign probably because the foreign media starts to criticize them. And still the photo-ops continue. With regret expressing and “deepest condolences” to the families. It is an amazing tableau. And of late it has become more evident what a sham it really is.

Because the “citizen” reactions are of a very scary kind. “Those (insert religion/ region/ country here)”. “We are not buying anything from (insert country/ community/ region) because my husband said we should not support any of their business.” And so on. Just an excuse for everyone to vent out their ugliest prejudices and stereotypes in the guise of mourning the tragedy. And blame the “system”. Because Big Brother like it is omnipresent and yet, as anonymous. Also it is always “someone else’s fault” someone else’s problem- well maybe not.

What did we do to become thus. India shining, India growing, but India all the same? Why do we allow the circling vultures get closer, ever closer even as we struggle in the death throes of everything that modernity, sanity, normalcy would have us hold on to? And what did we do to deserve this?

Be Votebank. Be Heard.

2008-11-30T23:20:00.003+05:30

From past 3-4 days, I have sensed anger. Everywhere. Anger which is coupled and matched with helplessness. A feeling of being betrayed and failed by the state.

But everyone is also afraid that all these anger may be diminished in next few months and we will start living in the wait of another attack.

But now is the time, when we must resolve to make our voice heard. Make ourselves counted. In AP, everyone loves Loksatta party but it doesn't win a single seat. Because we, the members of 'civil society' don't go out to vote. In this world's largest democracy, only votebanks are counted, heard and considered. And if we have to be counted and our lives and our views respected we will have to become vote banks.

We will have to go out and vote in coming assembly and then general elections.

And that's why we have started a new online campaign: Be Votebank. Be Heard.

Download any of the logos/banners on this blog: http://shabdaarth.blogspot.com/2008/11/blog-post_30.html and put in your blog/site and spread the word. Not only this slogan spread the word about voting but also is a sarcasm on the votebank politics in this country.

You can download the images logos from these links as well:

http://iabhishek.googlepages.com/bvbh1.jpg

http://iabhishek.googlepages.com/bvbh2.jpg

http://iabhishek.googlepages.com/bvbh3.jpg

http://iabhishek.googlepages.com/bvbh_banner.jpg

http://iabhishek.googlepages.com/bvbh_small1.gif

http://iabhishek.googlepages.com/bvbh_small2.png

Let's have more say in this country is governed and let's show these politicians that they can't have us taken for granted and that our lives matter!

Remember: Army and NSG killed those who came by boat. We will have to take care of those who come by Vote!

Be Angry. Be Very Angry.

2008-11-29T15:52:00.004+05:30

The terrorists are back. Innocent people are killed. Heroes are martyred. Politicians mumble platitudes. It feels like this is never going to stop.

Not unless we take matters into our collective hands. And that means all Indians, as one. No divisions, no implicit partitions. Nothing that allows loopholes for terrorists to slip through.

First, demand accountability. File your RTI applications, petition your elected representatives. Make a nuisance of yourself until you get an answer, even if it be "I don't know" or "Nahin batayenge."

Second, use the power of the web. Communiate - thoughts, doubts, questions, ideas. Let's build a consensus on what works.

Third, fight corruption. Especially black money and processes that link to black money. That's what funds terrorists - and their accomplices who make our borders and coasts porous, our cities vulnerable, our loved ones defenceless, our brave soldiers martyrs.

Fourth, fight discrimination. Stand up and make yourself heard unless you support the new Hitlers who seek to create disunited, disjointed Us and Them sub-Indias, Hindus and Muslims, Domiciled and Inter-state Migrants, Gujjars and Meenas, Haves and Have-nots. The latter become prime targets for terrorist recruitment, and mutual distrust between groups creates grey zones in space and time that militants freely exploit.

Finally, vote. Make a choice, even if a sub-optimal one.

To fight terrorism, we must first fight corruption, communalism and casteism. Else there will always be loopholes for terrorists to slither through.

Empowerment is never given, it is always taken. Someone took our Bombay; we must now take back our India.

Another Attack, aimed at our heart

2008-11-29T12:46:00.003+05:30

I assume that the silence here on this blog against terrorism is mainly due to the disbelief that we are struck with. What is going on in Mumbai right now is beyond belief and imagination. In fact all that has happened to this country this year is also rather beyond imagination. And yet it is very true and very real. As real as the number of people dying by the minute right now. To me the real question is how was this possible? How is it, that in spite of so many terrorist attacks this year, we are not able to tighten our security system?? Is it because there are too many of us in India that we ourselves don't care how many of us are killed? I don't want to blame the government. Not because it is not responsible but because we ourselves are responsible for the government. And frankly after the PM's speech post this terror attack, I don't have much hopes. I think the ultimate responsibility is in our own hands. We need to be more cautious. More curious. In fact I would suggest being paranoid. Its not a safe world we are living in these days, so why pretend to? We need to ask questions. keep our eyes open for the least bit of suspicious thing we come across here and there. And if there is anything I want from the state, it is to take the people of the country seriously. To help us when we ask for help. Hoping that we do ask for help. Because the worst form of terror within the people of a country is helplessness and hopelessness. I want us to fight against these feelings. Together.

sarva dharma sama bhava

2008-11-12T13:54:00.001+05:30

A short interview with Dr. Gunvant B. Shah about his views on secularism. Dr. Gunvant B. Shah writes weekly columns for 'Divya Bhaskar', 'Chitralekha' and 'Navneet Samarpan'. He is a social commentator and has published several books and lectures all over the world in Gujarati.

Please read

sarva dharma samabhava

The Supply Chain for Terrorists

2008-11-03T19:07:00.008+05:30

Terrorists need 5 ingredients for creating mayhem - Madness, Machines, Method, Money and Manpower.The first starts the process; the next two can be readily obtained thanks to the power of the internet. This means that all we can influence, as citizens with fundamental and constitutional rights, are Money and Manpower.

Where Money is concerned, every individual who participates in Corruption is a contributor to terror funds. Cash paid or received in property deals and off-market stock trades pushes up property prices; it allows terror financiers to invest and cycle their profits quickly. Tax evasion usually connects to investments in property, gold and high-end capital goods, and again it is usually the underworld that benefits. How many people take a "black component" for granted when buying or selling property? Why must we? Something as simple as insisting a tax invoice when buying goods at your neighbourhood store can help check evasion. How many of us do that?

Similarly, any documents that can serve as identity or address proof obtained "through extraneous financial considerations" - such as passports, ration cards, driving licences... (the list goes on) allows and encourages loopholes in the system that a terrorist can exploit equally well, if not better.

Come next to Manpower. Every action that divides the people of the country and creates special privileges for someone will make someone else feel disadvantaged and deprived - and eventually a candidate for the recruitment machinery of the terrorists.Whether such actions be attacks on Churches, explicit and implicit Untouchability, fragmentation of society through reservations, pogroms against other citizens of India who have exercised their fundamental right to cross into and work in other states. All who perpetrate the paradigm of "Us and Them" are feeding, clothing and sheltering terror cadres. All who fail to speak up against such divisive forces are allowing new terrorists to breed, much like what happens when one fails to stamp out a solitary cockroach that can eventually be the ancestor of teeming hordes.

In a democracy, there is only one overarching way to act positively. Seek constitutional accountability and redressal. Demand clear positions from your candidates on issues. Use your vote - even if it means choosing the lesser of evils on a ballot paper.

Use the power of boycott - take positions against brands and corporates that support those who support terror. Attend shareholder meetings and ask what each company that you part-own has done to fight corruption.

Publicly - at least through blogs and petitions - question any injustice that you notice - whether the denial of a ration card to an old man in West Bengal because he is not a party member, or the unwillingness of the state machinery to decisively arrest and prosecute those who inflame passions against peaceful people having out-of-state origins.

Use the Central Vigilance Commission whistleblower option or write to the Anti-Corruption Bureau to take action against those that seek to subvert your rights and hold them to financial ransom.

At the very least, stop participating in casual conversations that place special interest groups of any sort above India as a unified entity. Else you will be partitioning India over and over and over again through your words and actions. The ripple effect of that could drive another deprived young man or abused teenage girl into the arms of insurgents. There are no Muslim terrorists, Hindu terrorists, Sikh terrorists. Terror knows no religion, yet we legitimize them by labelling them with the names of communities that were created in the name of love, peace and devotion... let's stop that right now.

By cutting corners in paying taxes, or going down the path of short term personal gains at the cost of the nation by participating in the black economy, or simply sowing the seeds of inter-group distinctions in impressionable minds, one could be facilitating the next bomb blast. Perhaps one that will strike one's own near and dear ones.

Are you a part of the terror supply chain development process, or will you stand up and pledge to fight it, starting now?

Hail Patil!

2008-09-16T11:37:00.002+05:30

Move over Shabnam Mausi and Suraiya Nayak the eunuchs who were content just being mayor or MLA. Indian home minister Shivraj Patil has done eunuchs proud by reaching to topmost echelons of Indian politics.

But eunuchs have all reasons to be upset with him since he has not revealed the fact publically till date. It is very difficult to find about sexuality of people in India and that too of a senior minister, it were his actions which gave away the secret.

However many experts on this matter do not agree to this report as they say whatever may be the personality traits of eunuchs they are assertive and not undecisive as the minister. They are deeply pained by their community members and take any act of violence against them very seriously, whereas Mr. Patil doesn't do anything except lipservice by condemning the blasts that take place regularly. If he was even a little bit concerned about lives of his countrymen there would not be serial blasts all over the country.

Few other experts say that Mr. Patil could be physically and mentally handicapped person since there is no hint of any action in whatever he does. (These experts went on to add that the fact that a mentally disabled person has reached such a top post shows that India is a disabled-friendly country.)

Whatever be the sexuality of Shivraj Patil he has won many 'nationalist' friends who call themselves fondly as 'Indian Mujahideen'. Their messages expressing love and respect for Mr. Patil can't be published here due to space constraint.

And not everyone is concerned with his sexuality as reporters in Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Delhi tell us that when they asked people about their opinion on this, they got same reply: "Shivraj Patil, fuck off!"

Eunuch Speak

This is what Shivraj Patil spoke about Delhi blasts:
1) "Whether it is Rajasthan or Gujarat, we always have intelligence information about such attacks, but we never know where and at what time the attacks may take place. We always try to stop such things."
What he meant: India is a big country and anyone can attack anywhere. I CAN'T DO ANYTHING!

2) "Let us not play politics over this issue. I am not aware of what Advani has said. He is a responsible person. We are all responsible people and should behave responsibly."
What he meant: OK, he was a better home minister. So what I will speak some gobbledygook!

3) "We should not jump to conclusions. Stringent punishment would be given to whoever is responsible for this."
What he meant: We should not jump to silly conclusions like anybody will ever be caught!

(This post was written on the night of Delhi blasts. My deepest condolences with bereaved families.)

Martyred Benazir, Shattered Hopes

2007-12-29T20:02:00.000+05:30

May Benazir Bhutto rest in peace.

In total duration of tenure, she and Rajiv Gandhi each had just about 5 years to fire popular imagination - and both died at the hands of terrorists during election rallies.

Her courage in coming home to her destiny redeemed her erratic run as the first woman head of a Muslim state - a strong willed person who had a clear vision for a democratic but US-aligned military-focused Pakistan. For her, ends justified the means - a blind eye turned to corruption by her inner circle, India-bashing in domestic and international media, a mixed record on the economy and arguably not enough in terms of human rights either. But, to be fair, she was given little time - two short terms in the shadow of a dominant military and an avaricious coterie are enough to be noticed - but not nearly enough to impact a long-term future for 165 million people.

I believe Bhutto knew that she ran a very risk by returning to Pakistan... but was willing to trade the outcome of that for martyrdom in the mistaken belief that it her blood will fertilize the soil of a new civilian Pakistan. Au contraire, what she has achieved in death is either a strengthened military establishment, with or without Musharraf - else a swift spiral into anarchy. The arson and mob mania her supporters engaged in have partly robbed the PPP of the dignity that Benazir sought to endow it with; one can only hope sanity prevails.

My limited experience of Pakistan is of a country of warm, hospitable individuals who are no different in their need for peace than ourselves across the border. No country populated with people who have poetry in their soul and respect in their blood deserves the twin dark shadows of extremism and autocracy.

Yet it is abundantly clear that the monster of terrorism in Pakistan has wrenched itself convincingly free of the Frankensteinian state machinery that created it. The merchants of mayhem no longer need the ISI to support their activities; they have attained their own critical mass and found synergies with Al-Qaeda, ironically funded - most likely - by the same US cash flows that profess to be arming the so-called War on Terror.

If there is one person who needs to rise to the occasion now, it is Mr Musharraf. What he says, does and demonstrates could make or break a nation. The world is watching.

For a more authoritative analysis of the situation, not necessarily congruent with my layman's view, please check out http://www.cfr.org/publication/15130/us_policy_after_bhutto.html?breadcrumb=%2Findex

9/11

2007-09-11T23:19:00.000+05:30

A flag was flying half-mast
This morning.
Fluttering in the grey morning
The red white and blue
Outlined against the clouds

"A nation remembers"
They echo
And remember they do
Not despair of loss
But the fierceness of pride
Hope of setting things right.

"A political ploy to dictate the world"
Oft heard judgment passed.
Intellectuals who sneered
Went as far to say
"Good now they will know"
Humanity lost
In a wave of the fashionable
Anti-America rhetoric.

Forgetting that this flag
Remembers indeed.
Remembers its people
Remembers the hurt it felt
Remembers how hope surfaced
How humanity flourished.
A battle to be fought by all.

So a flag flies half- mast
Free and Brave in the wind.

Hyderabad Bomb Blast

2007-05-18T15:46:00.000+05:30

Big bomb blast in Mecca Mosque near Charminar in Hyderabad. The death toll stands at 6 by now. 14 people are seriously injured. The timing of blast was aimed to get maximum damage as it coincided with Friday afternoon prayers, between 1.30 - 2 pm. An unexploded bomb was also found. The blast has considerable damage to this historical mosque, which is also the biggest mosque of Hyderabad.

Old Hyderabad is a Muslim dominated area dotted with Hindu population. Though police is not taking any chance, citizens of this part, mostly small businessmen, have shown a notable and worth emulating sense of communal harmony and not giving in to such divisive tactics.

Let's hope this time also, this incident is not allowed to take any political or communal overtones.
The phone numbers of Osmania Hospital where injured people have been admitted, are:
+(91) - (040) - 24600121, 24739549, 24600146, 24600122, 24600124

More details:
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/india/05_2007/blast-at-crowed-mosque-in-hyderabad-40838.html

http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/may/18blast.htm

Protest against the arrest of an art student and suspension of the dean of M S Univ - Monday, 14th May

2007-05-14T13:20:00.000+05:30

By now, you would have read, heard or seen the news of the arrest of a student, Chandra Mohan, and the suspension of the dean of Maharaja Sayajirao University's Fine Arts faculty in Baroda, Prof. Shivaji Panikker. (For those who haven't, please catch up through the press links below.)

A simultaneous all-India public protest will take place on 14th May, at 6 p.m.

The Mumbai protest wil be in front of Jehangir Art Gallery.

Those attending are requested to wear black and/or white.

For details of other protests, please see http://fineartsfacultymsu.blogspot.com/

Below these links, please read:
Hindu Sacred Art Offends Self-appointed Custodians of Hindu Culture, By Ranjit Hoskote, and an open letter from Gulammohammed Sheikh.

News links:
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070011809
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Suspended_fine_arts_teacher_Panikkar_goes_into_hiding/articleshow/2039041.cms
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/002200705121859.htm
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=2&theme=&usrsess=1&id=156119
http://www.hindu.com/2007/05/11/stories/2007051117101500.htm
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/baroda-art-controversy-intensifies/40455-3.html
http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=370961&sid=REG
http://www.saharasamay.com/samayhtml/articles.aspx?newsid=75220
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=235916
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=9cb71e3b-4392-4d4b-95bc-f9730065c67e&&Headline=MS+University+dean+suspended+in+Gujarat
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=8f2213c7-4b12-4e48-9b7c-40302cd7a968&&Headline=Vadodara+art+student+lands+in+jail

-----------

Hindu Sacred Art Offends Self-appointed Custodians of Hindu Culture
by Ranjit Hoskote

In a grimly ironic turn of events following the 9 May arrest, without a proper warrant, of Chandramohan, a final-year fine arts student at the M S University, Baroda, the self-appointed custodians of Hindu culture have now demanded the closure of an exhibition showing the vital role of the erotic in Hindu sacred art.

Earlier today, 11 May, students of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the M S University put up an exhibition of reproductions of images drawn from across 2500 years of Indian art. In a silent protest against the brutality with which their fellow student has been treated for exhibiting works that BJP and VHP activists claim are offensive and obscene, the students put up pictures of the Gudimallam Shiva, perhaps the earliest known Shiva image, which combines the lingam with an anthropomorphic form; a Kushan mukha-linga or masked lingam; Lajja-gouris from Ellora and Orissa, resplendent in their fecund nakedness; erotic statuary from Modhera, Konark and Khajuraho; as well as Raga-mala paintings from Rajasthan. All these images, among the finest produced through the centuries in the subcontinent, celebrate the sensuous and the passionate dimensions of existence – which, in the Hindu world-view, are inseparably twinned with the austere and the contemplative.

This treasure of Hindu sacred art did not win the favour of the establishment. The Pro Vice Chancellor issued a verbal request that the exhibition be closed, which the Dean of the Fine Arts Faculty, Dr Shivaji Panikkar, ignored. A written order followed, and was similarly ignored. The Pro Vice Chancellor then arrived at the venue, accompanied by some members of the Syndicate of the University. They requested Dr Panikkar to close down the exhibition, then ordered him to do so. When it became clear that the Dean would not bend to their will, they had the exhibition locked.

It appears that the champions of a resurgent Hindu identity are acutely embarrassed by the presence of the erotic at the centre of Hindu sacred art. As they may well be, for the roots of Hindutva do not lie in Hinduism. Rather, they lie in a crude mixture of German romanticism, Victorian puritanism and Nazi methodology.

What happens next? Will the champions of Hindutva go around the country destroying temple murals, breaking down monuments, and burning manuscripts and folios?

-----------

Open Letter from Gulammohammed Sheikh

Dear friends

You must have known through media reports that Chandra Mohan, a student from the Department of Graphics at the Fine Arts College in Baroda has been arrested on 9th of May 2007 for making an allegedly controversial painting depicting nude figures with some religious motifs. The arrest followed the storming of the university premises by a group of outsiders. The work in question was part of a display in the college premises for assessment by a team of examiners for a Master's degree in Fine Arts. Charged with sections 153 and 114 as well as sections 295 A and 295 B, he has been denied bail and is presently in Central Jail, Baroda.

In a civilized society any dispute on a controversial depiction or content of a work of art can be dealt with through dialogue and consultation with experts in the field rather than left to self-appointed moral police employing coersive means. In the present case, the outsiders taking law into their hands barged into the university campus without prior permission, did not consult or inform the Dean of the Faculty before disrupting the annual examinations in progress. The reports are that they returned again to abuse the Dean and threatened him with dire consequences.

Such an instance of assault on a student by outsiders in the university premises is unprecedented in the history of the Faculty of Fine Arts and must be condemned in no uncertain terms. The Fine Arts College known nationally and internationally for upholding the highest standards of creative and critical practice has also earned reputation for its firm commitment to the freedom of expression. The former authorities of the university like Smt. Hansa Mehta, the very first Vice Chancellor in the fifties up to Prof. Bhikhu Parekh in the eighties have stood by the Faculty and its ideals. The present assault seems to strike at the very ideals on which it was built by pioneering artist-academics and supported by enlightened university authorities. The present administration of the university has not initiated any action against the trespassers or applied for bail for the victimized student. The students and staff of the Fine Arts College have organized a dharna and the Acting Dean, Prof. Shivaji Panikker has planned to undertake a hunger strike in the College premises against the assault on the student and callous attitude of the university authorities. (Latest report is that the Department of Art History has been sealed and Prof Panikker has been suspended by the university authorities). A solidarity demonstration of artists, intellectuals and cultural workers from all over India is called on 14th of May at the Fine Arts College premises beginning 2 pm with an appeal to all concerned to gather there to lend their support. (Contact details below*).

As an alumnus and former teacher of the Faculty of Fine Arts, I fear these developments may imperil the working of an institution which in many ways has formed our lives; and is indeed an integral part of what we are today. I hope all other alumni and teachers as well as concerned artists and intellectuals of the country will come forward to protect it in its moment of crisis when the values it stands for are threatened.

Gulammohammed Sheikh
11th May, 2007

Venue:
Faculty of Fine Arts (or Fine Arts College),
Pushpabug, University Road, Vadodara (Baroda) 390002

Time:
2 p.m. onwards

Contact emails: Shivaji Panikker: shivji dot panikkar at gmail dot com
Deeptha Achar : deeptha dot achar at gmail dot com

Simultaneous all-India public protest (More at Indian Art News)

Date and time for all: 14th May, 6p.m .

New Delhi - Rabindra Bhavan
Mumbai - Jehangir Gallery
Vishakhapatinam - Faculty of Fine Arts, Andhra University
Cochin - Kashi Art Café
Hyderabad - Fine Arts, S N School, University of Hyderabad
Bangalore - M G Road, opposite Gandhi statue
Santiniketan - Kala Bhavan
Guwahati - Press Club

Those attending are requested to wear black and/or white.

Protest meeting on the lawns of Rabindra Bhavan, Mandi House, New Delhi on Monday, 14^th May, at 6 pm.

SAHMAT

8, Vithalbhai Patel House,

Rafi Marg,New Delhi-110001

Telephone- 23711276/ 23351424

e-mail-sahmat@ vsnl.com

12.5.2007

Artists Alert!

Dear Friends,

Even as we were holding a press conference in solidarity with M.F. Husain at the Press Club in Delhi on Tuesday, 9 May, another assault on artistic freedom took place in Baroda. A BJP leader, accompanied by the local police, entered the Faculty of Fine Arts at MS University, and attacked the work of an art student, Chandramohan, exhibited as part of the internal review process of the university. Chandramohan was arrested and is yet to be granted bail. Further, on 11 May, the university authorities closed down an exhibition of classical Indian art put up by the students and suspended the acting Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Professor Shivaji Panikkar.

We are holding a large protest meeting on the lawns of Rabindra Bhavan, Mandi House, New Delhi on Monday, 14^th May, at 6 pm.

We urge the leaders of all secular political parties to send their representatives/MPs to the protest meeting.

Please join us and extend your solidarity.

Ram Rahman, Vivan Sundaram

for SAHMAT

______________________________

____________________________________________________

Dear Friends

One has watched with anger and frustration as attacks on freedom of expression by conservative pressure groups as well as government officials have multiplied relentlessly in recent years. While the artist M.F Hussain has been subjected to a sustained hate campaign for almost a decade, because of which he now lives in exile, instances of social censorship by organizations established for the purpose of "regulating morals" have become commonplace

By now everyone is familiar with what has happened at the M.S University Baroda over the last few days. Prof Shivaji Panikkar, acting Dean and head of Art History and Aesthetics has been suspended for coming out in support of a student Chandra Mohan whose art work had been deemed "obscene" by right wing hoodlums (VHP activists to be precise) leading to the students arrest on Wednesday, 9th May 2007. This arrest was made during the annual exhibition of the art department where the student's work was on display. The student continues to remain in prison with several trumped up charges slapped against him.

The suspension was the result of an exhibition mounted by the students of the Art History department in support of Chandra Mohan that drew attention to the long tradition of erotica in Indian art. Asked by University authorities to shut down the exhibition, Prof Shivaji Panikker rightly refused to give into the order of the powers that be who were obviously not equipped with any memory of their civilization's cultural expressions and their contexts, and had no concept of the larger shape of their society along with its long tradition of heresy and dissent.

Any civil society must give space for discussion, debate and dissent, where we can be united as much by our agreements as by our disagreements. Therefore it is important that we speak up against such attempts to bowdlerize art and deny people their right to freedom of expression in an atmosphere of tolerance.

The recent events at MSU are a part of a sustained campaign by extremist elements, to gain a stranglehold over educational institutions through various tactics of intimidation in order to snuff out all but their own narrow viewpoint.

Do join the artists community on - Monday 14th May , 6.00pm at Rabindra Bhavan Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, to express your solidarity for these latest victims of "moral policing". Do inform as many people as possible about this gross act and ask them to join us

Best Wishes

Shukla Sawant

Associate Professor

School of Arts and Aesthetics

Jawaharlal Nehru University

Religious intolerance and academic hypocrisy

2007-05-14T09:12:00.000+05:30

The arrest of the art student of Baroda School of arts for having violated the sensibilities of religious fundamentalists seems to have shaken people. But I had seen the beginning of this puritanical attitude ages ago. To be more precise, the day the little dancing girl vanished from our history books.
She is a fine example of Mohenjodaro and Harappa sculptures. But today, the educational websites run by the government, while raving about this piece, do not display her photos. You can check this Vigyan Prasarak website as a proof of our academic hypocrisy.

http://www.vigyanprasar.gov.in/dream/august99/AUGUSTArticle1.htm

This sculpture from an ancient civilization says a lot about the technology of our ancestors. The dancer's jaunty little body standing in supreme confidence, the skill with which the sculptor has caught her grace and attitude are irrelevant to the learned people who fashion our textbooks. Her nudity has made her unsuitable for our eyes. And this from a land where we worship the union of Linga and Yoni !

Is she really so unacceptable? With the net connectivity can anyone monitor what images the children are viewing? On that background does the nudity of the little Dancing girl seems so terrible that she is banished from our texts and websites?

A terrible rot has set in our thinking. In past few decades this has started happening more and more frequently. When one group protests about something, the other groups, not to be left behind, come up some weirder protests. Then we have public protests over the kiss between Shetty and Gere, protests over the shooting of Mira Nair 'Water', some minor protests over Sania Mirza's short skirts, to name just a few. And along with this religious intolerance is the upsurge of pseudo religiosity which is more like cultural regression. People have become exhibitionists. It has become a fashion to wear your religious colours out in the open. Aishwarya getting married to a Papaya tree to ward off the evil effects of Mars put a stamp of respectibility to this. Now I can see young couples all over India opting for this quick fix solution.

I had seen it coming the day the little Dancing Girl was removed from the books, and I can predict where it is going too. Maybe now the artists will be commissioned to paint clothes on the nude lovers on the walls of Khajuraho temples.
There is enough religious art in India to keep a whole generation of artists in business.
-----------------------------

Cross posted on my blog- Fighting Maturity
http://soney-2.blogspot.com/

Black Day at Blacksburg

2007-04-23T16:43:00.000+05:30

Was the wanton April 16, 2007 massacre of 32 people by a warped mind on the Virginia Tech campus an act of terrorism?

I say yes.

It was an act of terrorism by those who armed him. The gun lobby which has placed commercial interests above the consequences of easy availability of arms and ammunition to unstable characters like Seung-Hui Cho (and, for that matter, Dick Cheney) has 32 more deaths on its hands but does not care.

The placement of a weapon into the hands of an indiscriminate killer was compounded by the laxity of the police, who might have averted 30 of the 32 deaths had they managed to nab Cho in the interregnum between the two rounds of shooting.

Shades of Nithari, perhaps? The NOIDA police could have saved many children by acting in time on the complaints from parents in the early days of the serial killings.

Those charged with protecting the innocent from terrorism are as culpable as the terrorists if they are found wanting in their job.

Am I being too harsh?

Ask the family and loved ones of those who died at Blacksburg.

2007-03-31T02:21:00.000+05:30

One man's revolutionary, another man's terrorist

2007-01-17T14:03:00.000+05:30

Rarely has there been a bloodless revolution; by and large, the pages of history are smeared with the disntegrated mortal remains of un-named, faceless innocent bystanders to armed conflicts between a rigid status quo and an uncertain glorious future.

If the future is the goal, is the revolution a means to that end, and terrorism a misbegotten component of revolutionary thinking?

Or have we already suspended our judgement and taken a biased position when we apply the word "terrorist" to someone who thinks of himself or herself as a soldier for freedom?

Do his ends justify his means?

Do we restrict our definition of terrorist to those who use mass murder and mayhem wantonly to spread fear, rather than those who are driven by a cause that might improve the future for more people than will be sacrificed in the struggle?

Why are there more questions than answers?

no matter the god, nothing ever changes

2006-12-19T16:59:00.000+05:30

nothing.

ever.

changes.

(RIP Castor & thanks)
.
.
.
all words and art are copyright © of cocaine jesus.

Against A Rapist In The Garb Of A Swami

2006-12-03T19:09:00.000+05:30

Terrorism, does not always have to do with blood and bloodshed. It can be equally, if not more, harsh, traumatic and horrendous, even if, bloodless.

Since the post was rather long, which is a rarity here, have provided a link.

The purpose of posting it on this blog is to invite response, through signatures or even a few words, so that the guilty are brought to book and the little girls, gifted a new life, full of peace,joy and security, as is the birthright of children.

Rangzen (Freedom)

2006-11-16T10:03:00.000+05:30

The Government’s gag order on Tenzin Tsundue (link via Desipundit ) should come as no surprise. Over the last several years, we’ve seen the ease with which institutions bend over backwards to avoid displeasing those whose sentiments are easily hurt. Think of the censor certificate row that led to Vikalp.

Of course, while it is not clear that the Chinese Government is similarly stuffed with fragile sentiments, our Government probably feels it is right to err on the side of caution.

But deportation? And to Tibet? What does that mean – to deport a Tibetan with a Resident Certificate, to a country that doesn’t exist as an independent entity? In effect, does it not mean handing over Tenzin Tundue to the Chinese Government? It seems a disproportionately severe threat to hold over someone who is only going to say, Free Tibet.

Here’s a poem of Tsundue’s:

REFUGEE

When I was born
my mother said you are a refugee.
Our tent on the roadside
smoked in the snow.

On your forehead
between your eyebrows
there is an R embossed
my teacher said.

I scratched and scrubbed,
on my forehead I found
a brash of red pain.

I have three tongues
the one that sings
is my mother tongue.

The R on my forehead
between my English and Hindi
the Tibetan tongue reads:

RANGZEN

More poems here.

But lest anyone think that Tsundue is another woolly-headed Tibetan who believes that something will happen some day that will magically solve all the problems of Tibetan refugees, this article should dispel those illusions. He says:

A general apathy over Tibet and this non-action "non-violent freedom struggle'
isslowly killing the movement. Though exotic Tibet sells in the West, there
arehardly any takers when it comes to tackling the real issue. The issue
isIndependence!

and later:

The very nature of the Tibetan problem is political, and it has to have
apolitical solution. We are grateful to India for whatever help and support
sheextended to us, but if the Tibetan problem has to be solved she should
supportthe freedom struggle.

This might help to explain India's gag order. A call to actively support the Tibetan freedom struggle, over some well-meaning arrangements they might make to facilitate a Kalachakra ceremony? Oh, no. That would be way too risky. Who knows who else might follow with calls to support their freedom struggles?

Other links:
Amardeep’s post at Sepia Mutiny
Friends Of Tibet
Pankaj Mishra’s article in NYT

2006-11-11T10:05:00.000+05:30

Alwan for the Arts & Action Wednesdays Against the War

present

POETRY (and music) FROM THE 'AXIS OF EVIL

'THU, November 16th, 2006
@ 7pm
Alwan for the Arts16 Beaver Street, Lower Manhattan
$10 suggested sliding-scale, no one turned away.
Cash BarDirections: http://www.alwanforthearts.org/directions.html

This is the season of despair, this the season of longing. This is the season of the cage and the season of the noose. But this too the season of passion, the season of compassion, the season of resistance. In an age of war, let poetry and music give voice to hope, peace, justice and love.

Come out and listen to musicians and singers, and to performers reciting iconic, classical, contemporary, and radical poetry from the Axis (and near-Axis) of Evil in the original Arabic, Persian, Korean, and Urdu along with English translations.

PERFORMERS

Poetry:

Dalia Basiouny is an Egyptian Theatre director and academic who is writing a Ph.D. on Arab American Women theatre at CUNY Grad Center and currently works for the UN Radio.

Hossam Fahr is an Egyptian writer and interpreter. He has published three collections of short stories and a novel in Egypt. His fifth book is due to come out in Cairo this month. He lives in New York with his family.

Ali Mir is the co-author of "Anthems of Resistance," a book about the Urdu poetry of the Progressive Writers' Movement.

Iraj Anvar, is the translator and editor of the ground-breaking book of the poetry of Jalal al Din Rumi, "Divani-i Shams-i Tabriz: Forty Eight Ghazals of Rumi." A leading member of the theater community in Iran until his departure in 1978, Dr. Anvar has taught for many years at NYU and has led the New York Ava Ensemble, dedicated to performing classical Persian poetry.

Sok-Min Seo was raised in Seoul, and has studied film and communications in London and New York. He is a film maker and has several short and documentary films to his credit. He is currently working at the UN department of public information.

Music:

Tareq Abboushi (Buzuq)
Taoufiq Ben Amor (Vocals, Oud, Daf)
Hedayat Shafei (Tar)

If you're in the area, do try and attend. And pass the word!

festivity

2006-10-28T00:28:00.000+05:30

tilak smeared foreheads
with white skull caps
is not an everyday sight
but this is what happens
when our eid-spirited selves
run into diwali's bright lights

Bant Singh Can Still Sing

2006-10-08T22:43:00.000+05:30

Most of us in India may have heard of Bant Singh. He is a dalit farmer from a village called Phullewal in Punjab. He's had one of the most traumatic and tragic experiences in recent times.

Bant Singh spent his time organizing farm hands in Punjab but that obviously didn't go well with the landlords. The series of ghastly acts began with his daughter getting raped by the village goons. Bant took refuge in the legal system and fortunately was able to get the perpetrators convicted. But this was just the beginning of his woes. The sympathizers of the rapists and landlords caught hold of him and battered him almost to death. The end result was that three of his limbs were chopped off. When admitted at the local district hospital, Bant Singh ran into further civic and administrative apathy and almost for three days was without any medical aid. The doctors apparently wanted some monetary consideration to treat him.

Anyway, to cut the long story short, Bant Singh is getting treated right now at Delhi's St. Stephens Hospital and the total expense to rehabilitate him, that is to provide him with prosthetic limbs would cost an upward of INR 300,000-00 (USD 6,500-00 approximately).

The Forum for Democratic Initiatives is organizing a fund raiser for him on October 15th, 2006 here in Delhi. The details of the fund raising program are given below. We'd appeal all of you, if you're in Delhi to make it for the fund raiser and contribute to Bant Singh's rehabilitation. If you're not in Delhi then please spread the word to your friends here in Delhi whom you think would be willing to attend the fund raiser and contribute to Bant Singh's relief.

Thank you and best regards,

Murtaza Danish Husain

Bant Singh Can Still Singh

Sun Oct 15, 2006 4:00 pm JNU City Centre, Near Mandi House
35, Feroze Shah Road
Delhi, Delh, India
Phone: 9868038981

Forum for Democratic Initiatives invites you to an evening of cultural performances to celebrate resistance.

Bant Singh, a Dalit singer and an agrarian worker, who continues to be defiant even after the amputation of three limbs, is currently being treated in St. Stephen’s Hospital, Delhi. The doctors are hopeful that with artificial limbs, Bant Singh will be able to walk again.

Bant Singh was assaulted by powerful landlords in Mansa, Punjab for consistently pursuing the legal battle against the rapists of his daughter and for organising the rural poor under the banner of Mazdoor Mukti Morcha (of the All India Agriculture Labour Association).

An evening of cultural performances to honour Bant Singh’s courage and defiance and to raise funds for his rehabilitation will be held on 15th October 2006 (Sunday)

venue: jnu city centre, near mandi house, 35, feroze shah road, new delhi

time: 4:00 pm

* an exhibition of photographs by raghu rai and others

* ‘video letter from bant singh’

* musical performance by rahul ram of indian ocean

* sufi songs by dhruv sangari

* bhojpuri songs by hirawal, a patna-based cultural group

* ragini and haryanvi folk songs

* akarmashi: a play based on saran kumar limbale’s story

* dastangoi: the lost art of urdu story telling by mahmood farooqui and danish husain

* protest poetry by balli singh cheema and others

* revolutionary Punjabi songs by iqbal udasi

Contributions for the programme will be directed to the ‘bant singh relief fund’

Entries are through coupons ranging from Rs. 250/- to Rs. 1,000/- For further details, coupons and contributions contact: Forum for democratic initiatives

9868038981/ 9811625577 / 9910074470/ 9810252416/ 9818416968/ 9871338943

Israel's UN attack.

2006-09-30T02:41:00.000+05:30

Reuters reports about the Israeli bombing of a UN post that led to the death of four UN peace keepers on July 25, during the brief war with Hezbollah. Here are the most interesting parts of a UN-led board of inquiry...

Israel used a precision-guided bomb to launch a direct hit on four U.N. peacekeepers
...
the board was "unable to determine why the attacks on the U.N. position were not halted, despite repeated demarches (communications) to the Israeli authorities from U.N. personnel, both in the field and in U.N. headquarters," Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement.

Interestingly, Israel has called in an "operational mistake"! How can they continue to make operational mistakes when the UN personnel kept sending them communications asking them to stop ?

Could this be then the real reason ? Excerpts...

The words of a Canadian United Nations observer written just days before he was killed in an Israeli bombing of a UN post in Lebanon are evidence Hezbollah was using the post as a "shield" to fire rockets into Israel, says a former UN commander in Bosnia.
Those words, written in an e-mail dated just nine days ago, offer a possible explanation as to why the post -- which according to UN officials was clearly marked and known to Israeli forces -- was hit by Israel on Tuesday night

Israel has taken full responsibility for the incident, but in the following manner...

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said maps of the area had been incorrect. "There was a mishap on the Israeli side where in duplication of maps, the U.N. position on the maps was not marked as it should have been and that created the tragedy,"
...

Regev said the investigation found that about 100 metres (yards) from the U.N. position there was a Hizbollah position where there was "hostile activity".

U.N. officials agreed Hizbollah guerrillas were at a base in the area as well as in a nearby prison. But they said there was no activity from the militia on July 25 and the U.N. bunker was clearly marked.

This whole incident brings to focus the problems with "peace-keeping" in volatile areas. Is it really possible for a small force of international peace keepers to be able to maintain the peace in an area where they are complete outsiders, and at times have no other option but to have tacit "understandings" with the local armed militias ? And then they get killed and reported as "collateral damage" with vague excuses as to the reasons behind their deaths.

Cross posted on : Context Switch.

The Thief of Rage 2

2006-09-30T01:41:00.000+05:30

I was brought up as a Christian. My Mother was and is a Salvationist. I learnt from an early age the bizarre rituals and unhealthy dogma that surround and make up not only the Christian faith but also the Jewish muddle and the equally odd Muslim beliefs.

"our father who art in heaven
hallowed be thy name"

Bollocks.

If it sounds as though I am either being unkind or cruel then forgive me and anyway if your faith is so easily bruised then it is not much of a faith anyway is it? I mean no great disrespect to any of these faiths who have numbered amongst them people who are my friends and my family but there is some thing creepingly disquieting and darkly ominous about all and any organised religion. Organised religion is at best an accumulation of of dead ritual, lifeless dogma and a faith that is established on fear. The Church, any church gets in the way of pure faith by placing priests and bishops sharply between the congreation and their constructed deities.

Who needs a church anyway? It is nothing more than a club for like minded individuals to gather, eat buns, drink tea and sing vile and decaying ancient songs. Far better, surely, to go direct and for that you do not need, no matter how beautiful the works of architecture, a temple, mosque or synagogue.

"you are closer to God in the garden than any where else on earth"

Why is it that throughout mans short, by natures terms but long in the count of his own, time here had to construct personified deities? As a focus or an outlet of their spiritual faith I suppose but why try to shackle god to the limited wisdom and flimsy logic of mankind in the first place?

"Those who turn to deities as intermediaries between themselves and the subtle truth are like beggars who look outside themselves for the very treasure contained within their own nature. It is only after one discovers one's own divine nature that prayer or any form of worshiping the One Universal Life can be a true and effective spiritual cultivation of the wholeness of eternal life."

Surely God is the big bang?
God is the Tsunami.
God is corruption.
God is quantum physics.
Life and death.
Random creation.
An energy force that exists within and without us.

It is patently obvious to all that in the scheme of things we play only a small part. We are subject to the same laws and rules that nature has placed upon us for all eternity. And yet we still insist upon seeking wisdoms that exist beyond those holiest of strictures.

We still insist on giving names to something that is nameless and dressing it up in mumbo jumbo when in reality it is as simple to follow and understand as ABC.

If only we had the wisdom of the ancients to look and observe the god that surrounds us in our daily lives. The rules of man conflict with the natural rule of life. Women are every bit the equal of men and yet here we are, in the twenty first century with women still bound and dressed by the interpretative machinations of men. OK, you might argue that wearing clothes that conform to a particular faith is in itself a choice of faith, and that if a women chooses to dress like that then it is up to her. You would of course be right but the fundamental flaw in that is of course that the origins of the three major western faiths are that they were all written by men during a time, less enlightened, when women were very much second class citizens.

As Mao once said.

"women are the other half of the sky"

Homosexuality is another blind spot numbered among the many blind spots that men have created. Sex is natural. It is fun. It isn't just for procreation. It isn't just mankind that has invented the concept of "gay sex". I have seen with these humble eyes of mine two dogs, that is two boy dogs, screwing each other until their tongues lolled with pleasure. Stallions in the field copulating so hard that both myself and my children giggled our fool heads off.

Homosexuality is just another facet in the jeweled face of Tao, of nature. All love is blessed because it is a positive opposed to negative action with the only people affected by it being the people that partake of it.

And only the most warped and detestable of faiths would prevent the homosexual amongst them from preaching their pompous and perverse doctrine.

Soon it will be Christmas. A Christian festival. Right?

A festival that celebrates Christ's birth. Right?

Wrong.

It is also a far older festival than that. It is a Pagan celebration. One to break up the grey monotomy of winter and also to reaffirm that life will come again in spring.

Yuletide is not Christmas. It is something different again.

In this world we have a variety of faiths and beliefs. All of them at their roots good. All of them equal. Now is the time for people to follow their faiths and not their leaders nor the evangelists of any faith who will only destroy the garden we were given.

You see at the root of terrorism is faith. Faith perverted by man and if it means throwing out 'god' along with the bath water then the 'god' in question isn't much of a god any way is it?

THE THIEF OF RAGE (Organised Religion)

2006-09-24T22:18:00.000+05:30

Everyone has a right to believe in whatever they chose to believe in.

Everyone has a right to select and follow whatever faith they feel comfortable whether be they Muslim, Christian, Jew, Hindu, Sikh or any of the multitude of other religions that there are to chose from.
Unfortunately, with mankind being the corrupt, tribalistic bunch they are something is bound to get screwed somewhere.

Not content to simply follow their own faiths quietly and to share it with only those that ask to partake in it, they, all of 'em, go around waving the flag and beating the drum for their own secular principles.
It is like a constant game of one-up-man-ship that can only lead to more and more passionate disagreement as to who is right and to who is wrong.

One God says do it this way whilst another says do the reverse.

All organised religion is a mortally flawed concept with failed dogma and outdated rituals used to invoke fear into its followers. You won't get to heaven unless you do as we/god tells you. This argument is then followed up with a swift..it says in the Holy Book.
And who pray tell wrote the Holy Book in the first place?
God?

I do not think so.

What kind of Father rules by fear?

Not only do they all attempt to frighten their followers into submitting to their twisted vision of Gods Word they then fleece them of what little money they have so as to enrich their own coffers to enable their own insular society to flourish. The churches of all denomiations and all faiths are nothing but propaganda machines whose sole purpose is to spread the word, their word, to anyone who might have two ears and a pocket full of cash to throw their way. They all share the same vision of a world that is dominated by their own brand of God.

God, what ever your concept of God may be, is a beautiful thing. A heartbeat that drums throughout the life blood of humanity. It is the thing that lets us all know how small we are in the scheme of things but also how vitally important in the balance of creation we truly are.

Organised religion is like a mens club where people of similar thoughts go to share their beliefs. Nothing wrong with that but why try to foist it on the rest of us?

I imagine that if the man that Christians refer to as Jesus (Jesus by the way is the angliscised version of the Greek Jesu which is a variant of the Hebrew Joshua) were alive, or Mohamed, they would both cry out in horror and shame "STOP. That is NOT what we meant".

The largest cause of the warped faith of Christianity is Paul. He wasn't even a close associate of Joshua's but he highjacked the man's teachings and then mutated them to suit himself. He was a homophobic rabble rouser who jumped onto the back of a great man in an attempt to twist power away from the Jews who he despised onto the faith that he created in the name of Jesus.

Make no mistake. Joshua (Jesus) was a Jew. A man of vision and a prophet of the Jewish faith. He was not the son of God nor did he want to create a new form of religion. He may have wanted to see changes made within his own faith but he did not form Christianity as a new faith. Paul did.
And Paul was a very flawed individual.

"Jesus, a strict Jew, will have been surprised to find that he had become a reformer of the law, and the reforms allowed gentiles free access to the Jewish God. Quite different was the teaching of Paul for whom the law was unimportant and Jesus an example of the dying and resurrecting god of the east whose teachings were irrelevant.
Thus, a strict upholder of the law became a liberalizer of strict Judaism for his gentile or Hellenized followers, the early Christians. Christians then began to maintain that Jesus had been a reformer all along. He was transformed from a strictly Jewish revolutionary into a reforming universal ethical teacher. And the myth has stuck."

There are those who criticise the modern Muslim faith saying that they are too violent, too agressive, too extreme. Certainly there are sections of the Muslim faith that lean too easily and too readily to violent actions. Killing innocent people is murder in the eyes of God and suicide is an act that betrays the gift of God which is life.
But hang on a minute Christians before you start scoring points over the worlds next largest growing faith, Islam, what about the Crusades? Were they not an act of evil committed by the Christian faith? Or what about the Spanish Inquisition?

Violence is never an answer or a solution to any problem. To defend ones self is a moral right and violent defence in the face of a violent act is a natural and fair response, but to blow up or kill people in the pretence that it is on Gods behalf is a vile and pernicious lie.

God does not, never has and never will sanction or bless a violent attack.

More than half of the worlds problems are caused by organised religion.

Jihad?
Crusade?
Holy?
War?
Holy and War are not compatriots. God and The Devil don't play golf. The words do not sit comfortably together.
Warlike is what we are.
Holy is what we would like to be.

Isn't it time that we started to look elsewhere for our moral and spiritual guidance?

There are many other religions that do not treat faith as though it were an act of world dominance. Many of the other, old beliefs, all practise a compasionate and loving way of life. Not one of them ever commits acts of violence unless it is in self defence and more imprtantly they practise what they preach but do not preach to convert.

I repeat, isn't it time that we started to look elsewhere for our moral and spiritual guidance?

The Few and The Many

2006-09-23T22:00:00.000+05:30

these are the few,
the hindus,
the pagans,
the rastas,
the sikhs,
the shinto,
the buddhists,
the taoists.
these are the few that number two billion.

these are the many,
the jews
and the christians
and the muslims,
who number four billion and kill not only themselves
but also the few with their games of whose word of god is right.

why won't you listen to your singular god?
"thou shalt not kill"
why won't you practise what you preach?
"love thy neighbour"

and the few shall inherit the debris of death.

words by cocaine jesus

Vainglorious

2006-09-22T19:54:00.000+05:30

The hands have all fallen silent
Where is their thunder?
Have they not but applause for themselves?

They wait for their hubris
Coiled in laps
Thumbs twirling
While eyes meander walls
And ancient corridors
Gleaning minutia
Glazing over details

Seething teeth still chatter
Chewing on ignorant lobes
Filling traditions
With traditional ire

Tears pool about my feet
But do I even muster to walk away?
Or do I portray the martyr
Drowning in a self made spotlight
What do I know of blood?
Even that of my own
I have not seen
It fills me with dread

The sun keeps on shining
It doesn’t give a damn
For nothing we shall ever do
Will change its course.

Idle Recollection

2006-09-13T20:47:00.000+05:30

The oxygen becomes thin
So many screams
So many words
Relinquished to whispers
Some vespers
Some curses
Curled up in tight little balls
Held back in the mouth
Like sour candy
Lips pucker
Eyes squint
Lose focus
And all the while
The dead tarry in their graves
Making room
For those to come…

Babylon Burning

2006-09-07T08:07:00.000+05:30

Nthposition has come out with another copyleft chapbook of poetry.

Check it out.

And one poem:

Paradise
Ray Hsu

The garden.
The detached
leaf.
The intruders.
The theft
of our bodies. The burning
weight. The living
chance.
The cold past
the gate.
No disaster is disappointing
enough.

(crossposted on my blog)

Coffee in Times of War...

2006-08-23T17:09:00.000+05:30

Just the other day a friend asked
Have you ever tried war poetry?
War, I said, I haven’t seen one.
I was only born in seventy-one.
I’ve often seen pictures –
Oh why pictures! Even a painting
in a restaurant once –
of a Sikh General
making the Pakistanis
sign the surrender.
And then I grew up
reading lessons, history
about World War One and World War Two,
Plassey, Panipat, Waterloo,
War & Peace, The Day of Armistice,
the ancient tales of the Mahabharata,
the Muharram majlises, Karbala.

But then who needs textbooks these days?
Television brings Beirut live, like irrelevant foreplay.
And if this isn’t enough there are movies –
A Bridge too Far, Platoon, Killing Fields.

But no, I have never seen a war.
I don’t know what it means
to sit through blackouts, power outages,
to hold my breath and wait
for a bomb to detonate.
I don't know what it means
to have splinters of plastic and tin
pierce through my clothes, skin.
I don't know what it means
to lose an eye, to lose a limb.
I haven’t seen my child without her head.
I don’t know what it means
when a mother grieves for her dead.
The closest I have seen a man’s guts
split wide open was from a scene
in a movie called Saving Private Ryan.

I don’t know what it means
to run from desk to desk
in a dank office corridor
asking for compensation
for a son dead in a war.

I don’t know…

My words trailed in the wispy heat
of Delhi’s August afternoon street.

I am afraid I am not qualified enough
to write a poem on war. I am
only a struggling actor running
from one audition to another
wondering when will I
get my big break.

My friend cursed himself
for bringing this topic up,
dunked his biscuit in his coffee,
as I waved to the waiter,
May we have more of these, please!

Think about it.

2006-08-23T00:56:00.000+05:30

Got this mail few days ago. And thought of sharing it with you all.

ISRAEL -POPULATION: 7 million (less than half of Mumbai)
SIZE: Less than that of Kerala
ACT OF VIOLENCE AGAINST IT: 2 soldiers kidnapped by Hezbolla, 1 by Hamas
RETALIATORY ACTION: war on Lebanon and Gaza, 200 rockets fired the next day.

INDIA -POPULATION: 1 billion+
SIZE: 6th largest in the world
ACT OF VIOLENCE AGAINST IT: 200+ dead in Mumbai blast, 8 in Kashmir
RETALIATORY ACTION: a soft speech by PM, Salute to mumbai people, clean chitfor SIMI by UP CM MULAYAM SINGH YADAV

A train blast in Mumbai kills approximately 200 Indians and injureshundreds others. The reaction from the apparent Superpower (The greatUSA) is that India must show restraint in its actions and urges for a political solution to the Kashmir problem. On the other hand of theglobe in the same evening 6 Israeli soldiers are killed and 2captured by Islamic terrorists. Israel prepares for a full frontattack on Lebanese settlements and the same superpower says that the terrorists should be dealt with a firm and iron hand.

Is it true that just because the population of India is more than 1billion, the value of a human life in India is that much less ascompared to an American, British, Israeli or any other European life? North Korea test fires a missile and the US moves a BattleCarrier group to the Pacific Ocean !!!!!!!!!!!. The right to selfdefend should lie with every individual and country. It is high timethat all of us as patriotic Indians do not take this thing lying down and ensure that each of us in their individual capacity spread thismessage of injustice across the world.For the death of 45 British citizens in a similar bomb blast lastyear, it was a world wide tragedy on CNN, while for yesterdays event the quote on CNN was "in their fight over disputed Kashmir" the twocountries ( Pakistan & India ) should look for a political solution.

May we all ask where was the political solution when the IRA wanted a separate homeland, and closer to the date where is the politicalsolution in Iraq. Kashmir was, Kashmir is and Kashmir will continueto be an integral part of our motherland. Let us all Indians pledgenot to be governed by vested intrests in US Foreign Policy and take our own destiny in our hands.

What I also read from the above mail was a line of thought that appreciated what Israel had done to protect it's 'honour' and people's sentiments. This thought also wanted to know why is the Indian Government not wanting bodies for a tooth (a tooth for another does not work anymore!) And this mail is being passed with great motivation under the guise of patriotism and injustice. What is a little frightening is that it is considered as right, because I know the person who sent me this truly believes in what is being written here.

Because I have heard sentiments that range from 'bombing Pakistan' and 'good for Israel!' to 'why the hell is out government sitting still and doing nothing, inspite of all the evidence?' While I do believe that as writers, we should motivate our countrymen to feel for the country; and to also condemn the acts that make them inhuman, I seriously wonder how can one draw a concrete line between self-protection and counter-attack?

Media Bias: Israel vs Lebanon

2006-08-14T14:18:00.000+05:30

"Oh, please. Have a slightly longer memory than four weeks." - George Galloway, a British MP

The video.

What do you believe? A brilliant, brilliant discussion. A must, must watch. A media bias exposed.

[Credit for the link: Husain from Dubai]

Update: The YouTube version...

[Credit for directing me to the YouTube version to Ankit]

Crossposted at Mixed Bag

Cities

2006-08-11T12:33:00.000+05:30

The past is a city I've built up in the mind.
It is neither in the city out of whose grimy summer
I slipped out into the confused clamour of the world,
The city that I abandoned along with my childhood,
Nor in the city that grudgingly lets me walk its streets,
Looks askance at my outlandish shadow and mutters
Sullenly. Neither of these, but a shadow city of faces,
Of smells and private sorrows, of images disintegrating
Like old collonial bungalows in my head. And so
A rain-pungent afternoon in Bangalore becomes
the passage fare to paper boats plying on puddles
Collected in a street I no longer remember.
But I remember the puddles. And then,
The morning's newspaper launches images at me
Of yahweh's missiles imprinting their wrath
On uncomprehending children, and suddenly
I remember, through the dreams of vanished men,
The ships of the purple city, cedar scented swans
of the sea, that no longer glide up,
Phoinix like, from the living flame,
The unutterable terror of the four-pronged name.

cross-posted on Logos Incarnatus

WORD AGAINST WAR: Writers, Artists and Citizens speak against the war by Israel on Lebanon

2006-08-10T15:03:00.000+05:30

Dear Friends,

Resentment is growing all over the world against the brazen attempt by Israel to force the people of Lebanon into submission by waging a war on them. There is an urgent need for all of us to add our voice to the international opposition to the evil designs of Israel and express solidarity with the savaged people of Lebanon.

A protest meeting is being organised on 11 august,2006 at the Triveni Kala Sangam at 5pm . We request you to add your name to it and participate by reading a short anti war piece of prose or poetry.

Kindly forward it to your friends,

In solidarity,
Apoorvanand

WORD AGAINST WAR
WRITERS, ARTISTS AND CITIZENS SPEAK AGAINST THE WAR
BY ISRAEL ON LEBANON

11 AUGUST (FRIDAY), 5PM, TRIVENI KALA SANGAM, NEW DELHI

JOIN, ADD YOUR VOICE : ANTI WAR READINDS

ABHINANDITA MATHUR
ADITYA NIGAM
ALI JAVED
ANAND
APOORVANAND
ASHOK VAJPEYI
BHANU BHARATI
CHARU GUPTA
GEETANJALI SHREE
JAWED NAQVI
KEDARNATH SINGH
KHURSHEED ANWAR
KRISHNA SOBTI
KUNWAR NARAIN
K. SATCHIDANANDAN
MANGALESH DABRAL
MAX BABI
MONICA MODY
MURTAZA DANISH HUSAIN
NAMWAR SINGH
NIVEDITA MENON
SHAHID ANWAR
SHAMEEM HANAFI
SUDEEP SEN
SUDHEER CHANDRA
VISHNU KHARE
VISNHNU NAGAR
URVASHI BUTALIA
ZUBAIR RIZVI

Ceasefire Campaign

2006-08-10T14:54:00.000+05:30

Peter Griffin aka zigzackly has tipped me about this campaign. Let us join hands with them and strengthen such voices across the globe.

Thanks & best regards

http://www.ceasefirecampaign.org/

About this Campaign

Right now a tragedy is unfolding in the Middle East. Hundreds of civilians have died in the bombings in Lebanon, Israel and Palestine and the death toll is rising every day. The situation is volatile and could escalate into a catastrophic regional conflict.

Despite the bloodshed, our leaders have been slow to act. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for an immediate ceasefire and the deployment of international troops to the Israel-Lebanon border. This is the best proposal yet to stop the violence, but the US, UK and Israeli governments are opposed, and -- for it to succeed -- global leaders need to get behind it immediately.

Now is the time to act. People around the world must tell their leaders to speak out and support Kofi Annan's proposal. If we can persuade our governments to unite in demanding a ceasefire, all sides in this conflict will be pressured to stand down. Please sign this petition and ask your friends, family and colleagues to do the same.

The petition will be sent to key regional and global leaders and publicized in major newspapers in the Middle East, US and Europe. With enough signatures we can help pressure our leaders to stop the violence.

About Ceasefirecampaign.org

This campaign has been put together by a group of friends from around the world who are horrified at what is happening in the Middle East and our leaders' inaction. We come from several different countries, including Brazil, Germany, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, the UK, Canada, the US, Australia, and Indonesia. Please write to us at info@ceasefirecampaign.org! We believe that on this issue we need public pressure to get our leaders to do the right thing. The campaign is a project of Res Publica, a global civic advocacy group and a registered tax-exempt charitable organization based in New York City.

Censorship of Arab viewpoint on Indian TVs

2006-08-10T14:40:00.000+05:30

Sridala has tipped this piece to me. She was tipped by Anand of Vikalp group. I am really wondering where are we heading in terms of our foreign policy. At present I think it is neither principle based nor issue based. It is perhaps kowtowing to the US and its cronies only.

India Bans Arab TV Channels Under Pressure From Israel
Shahid Raza Burney, Arab News

BOMBAY, 6 August 2006 - In a country widely referred to as the world's largest democracy, the Indian government has succumbed to mounting Israeli pressure and ordered a nationwide ban on the broadcast of Arab television channels.

The Indian government's ban on Arab television stations is in complete contrast to the friendship that Arab countries imagine exists with their neighbor across the Arabian Sea. It seems the ban is a move to ensure that Indians do not get to see the atrocities that are presently being committed by Israel in Lebanon and the occupied territories.

Nabila Al-Bassam, a Saudi businesswoman on a trip to Bombay, told Arab News how she became exasperated at not being able to watch Arab channels at Bombay's leading five-star Oberoi Hotel. When she took up the issue with the hotel manager, she was told that Arab television channels had been banned across India.

A perplexed Al-Bassam then sent an SMS to Arab News Editor in Chief Khaled Almaeena to verify whether this was indeed the case. "Oberoi Hotel tells me that the government of India has banned all Arab TV channels. Why? I hate watching CNN and BBC," she wrote to Almaeena.

Talking to Arab News, Oberoi Hotel Manager Mohit Nirula did allude to the fact that a ban was in place. "The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has laid down certain rules. It is our duty to abide by and follow the rules of the country," he told this correspondent.

Minister of Information and Broadcasting Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi was busy in Parliament and was unavailable for comment on the issue. However, a ministry official explained why the Indian government decided to enforce the ban. The official highlighted that India enjoys close and cordial relations with Israel and the US more than any of the Arab governments.

According to another source within the government, the ban is a clear sign to all governments in the Middle East that the Israeli, American and British governments carry far more influence in India than any of the Arab governments.

Several senior Indian journalists explained that the ban was an indication that India had succumbed to Israeli pressure rather than American.

"The whole exercise is to browbeat Arabs and show them as terrorists. The government is subscribing to the absurd argument that channels like Al- Jazeera and Al-Arabiya promote hatred and encourage terrorism," they said.

Political analysts in India described the move as a game of double standard that India is playing. On the one hand India establishes friendship with the Arab world while simultaneously it joins with Israel and the US in defaming them. It seems that the pro-Israeli lobby wishes to drive a wedge between India and its time-tested Arab allies. The Indian government's present stance is in stark contrast to the late Mrs. Indira Gandhi's staunch support of the Palestinian cause.

The banning of Arabic channels is a federal government decision, done under what senior Indian journalists claim to be intense pressure from the Israeli, American and British governments.

The Indian government has been vocal in its condemnation of Israeli barbarity and has offered millions of rupees in aid to refugees in Lebanon. Arabs sympathetic to India have therefore met the news with surprise.

Many Arabs draw inspiration from India's heroic struggle against British imperialism and the Indian independence struggle is seen by Palestinians as a brilliant example of throwing out the yoke of imperialism. It is sad that 50 years after independence the world's largest democracy unfairly suppresses alternative opinion and allows itself to be dictated to by foreign powers.

The analysts believe the Indian government may have used a clause within the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, that certain channels or programs that can potentially cause damage to India's friendly relations with foreign countries can be banned, a clear violation of democratic ideals such as freedom of _expression and freedom of speech.

The response to the ban by hotel administrations across Bombay has been dismal. Chad Alberico, JW Marriott's customer care official in Washington, said: "We have reviewed your recent inquiries regarding the television offerings at our JW Marriott Bombay. We have phoned our colleagues at the hotel to discuss the matter at hand, but as it is the weekend, we will need additional time to form a complete response."

"I'm on my way home, it's the weekend and I will respond on Monday," said Shehnaz Ankelsaria from the Taj President Hotel. Annan Udeshi from The Hilton was unavailable and asked for a message to be left on her recorder. Khushnooma Kapadia of Marriott Hotel said she would get back later. Rafat Kazi from the Grand Central Sheraton said that she would answer after consulting her general manager. Puja Guleria of Sheraton Maratta said she needed time to deal with the questions. Firuza Mistry of Grand Hyatt said that she was not aware of the facts and would check and respond, and Priya Mathias of Hyatt Regency said that she would also need to check with her senior officials to comment.

Right To Information Act: The UPA Government At Its Worst

2006-08-10T00:56:00.000+05:30

When Dr. Manmohan Singh became the Prime minister of this country, I was thrilled. Well of course, there were emotional links. I had studied at the same institution where he once taught. But more than that we had a man at helm who had been closely associated with policy-making for long (so wouldn't speak from his hat; has been there, seen it and done it all), was responsible for economic liberation in this country and for once was a clean gentleman and not a politician.

However, the events of past few weeks have left me disillusioned. I am wondering what sense prevails over these gentlemen. The proposed amendments to RTI act are clearly and attempt to snuff the life out of this act. To debilitate it. A retrograde action that reminds so much of the bureaucracy's raj days. It is clearly an attempt by the Babus to save their own arses. And I fail to understand why the polity is eating out of their hands and without even a whimper accepted the proposed amendments. Well, of course the Neta ji also has his own arse to save and this cuts across party lines.

Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey are campaigning against these proposed amendments. You may click on the link below and go and register your own protest on the online petition. I am also publishing the pieces that these two wrote against these amendments in The Hindu and The Indian Express. For God's sake let's fight this stupidity cause often terror is nothing but a stupid man's knee jerk response.

Thanks & best regards

Murtaza Danish Husain

To note the noting-

People chasing the paper trail

The passage of the Indian Right to Information Act 2005 has been almost universally hailed as a landmark piece of legislation that can change the relationship of the citizen with the State. It was considered one of the most progressive RTI laws in the world, with several provisions worthy of emulation. With widespread use, it had begun to be seen by citizens groups as a ray of hope to fight corruption, inefficiency, and the arbitrary use of power, in an otherwise dark scenario.

However, just six months after the act has come into effect, the Union Cabinet has approved a set of amendments, some of which would crucially damage the scope and power of the Act. The most critical of these relate to barring the disclosure of “file notings.” Also, Cabinet papers available currently after the decision is complete, will now be barred from disclosure even after the decision is taken. As a result, the process of decision making will be kept out of the public domain, and make it far more difficult for the citizen to participate in the decision making process. But first, we need to know why the file notings are important, and understand how intrinsic it is to all information.

What is a government file, why this furor about not wanting to share file notings? To most lay persons the government file is a musty compilation of important papers. Almost all of India, even the illiterate know it .Anyone who has had anything to do with “babus”, knows the diabolical significance and power the file holds to control many peoples destiny. The government file has two parts to it. The right side, has the papers under consideration, (PUCs) and the left side has the "notings", the process through which opinions are written down, added to, and approved or disapproved.

These “notings” reflect the deliberations on the PUCs and through a series of comments arrives at decisions. As the Chief Information Commission has explained in a ruling on file notings - “Most of the discussions on the subject/matter are recorded in the note sheets and decisions are mostly based on the recording in the note sheets and even the decisions are recorded on the note sheets. These recordings are generally known as ‘file notings’.”

This trail of responsibility and accountability, is what the "babus" do not disclosed. The government now wants to amend the RTI Act , so that file notings related to most matters are under wrap. As ordinary citizens we will not have access to the reasons for decisions that affect our lives, many of which will be irreversible. The paper trail, vital to establish a chain of accountability will now be invisible. It will protect the dishonest manipulators but also give no support to honest officers whose forthright views are overruled, who have to suffer the ignonimity of being party to a bad decision they disagreed with.

Although the Cabinet decision came without warning, it has been part of a design, which is revealed by a closer examination of the consistent , extra legal efforts of the bureaucracy to keep file notings opaque.

Right through, from the period of the formulation of the Right To Information Acts, at the Centre, and in the States, the bureaucracy steadfastly fought against allowing access to file notings. This long running battle seemed to have come to an end in favour of fairly comprehensive transparency of the decision making process with the passage of the Right to Information Act 2005.

The Act defines information under Section 2(f) as, “Any material in any form, including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinion, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force”.

This is conclusive , and the law should have dictated official action. However, the Department of Personnel (DoPT) decided to use the frequently asked questions (FAQ) on its web site to override the law. In response to the question “What does information mean?” the web site quotes the whole of section 2(f) and then arbitrarily adds the words …“but does not include "file notings" [S.2(f)].”

This could have been considered a misdemeanor of some junior official while drafting an FAQ, had it not been repeated in the manuals and FAQs issued by most State Governments. These FAQs and manuals have become the bibles (at least in the matter of file notings) for officials responsible for providing information. Citizens across the country found their access to file notings allowed by law but overruled because of a departmental FAQ. Objections and reminders from citizens groups to the DoPT fell on deaf ears, and the matter was brought before the Central Information Commission in the form of an appeal. In its decision of 31^st of January 2006 in the matter of Satyapal Vs. TCIL (ICPB/A1/2006) The Commission looked at: “Whether file notings fall within the exempted class…”

The Commission held … “no file would be complete without note sheets having “file notings”. In other words, note sheets containing “file notings” are an integral part of a file. Some times, notings are made on the main file also, which obviously would be a part of the file itself. In terms of Section 2(i), a record includes a file and in terms of Section 2(j) right to information extends to accessibility to a record. Thus, a combined reading of Sections 2(f), (i)&(j) would indicate that a citizen has the right of access to a file of which the file notings are an integral part.”

The commission went on to state: “Therefore, we are of the firm view, that, in terms of the existing provisions of the RTI Act, a citizen has the right to seek information contained in “file notings” unless the same relates to matters covered under Section 8 of the Act. Thus, the reliance of the CPIO, TCILO on the web site clarification of the Department of Personnel to deny the information on the basis that ‘file notings’ are exempted, is misplaced.”

Once again this should have concluded the matter, as the Information Commission is by law the final arbiter on matters of information. However, the Department of Personnel continued to consistently ignore the orders of the Central Information Commission. This startling sequence of events becomes clear from the very recent order of the commission dated July 13th 2006 in Pyare Lal vs the Ministry of Railway. The information commission held :

“The Commission noted with serious concern that some public authorities were denying request for inspection of file notings and supply copies thereof to the applicants despite the fact that the RTI Act, 2005 does not exempt file notings from disclosure. The reason they were citing for non-disclosure of ‘file notings’ was the information posted on the DOPT website [www.righttoinformation.gov.in] to the effect that ‘information’ did not include file notings. Thus the DOPT website was creating a lot of unnecessary and avoidable confusion in the minds of the public authorities. The Commission had written to the Department of Personnel on 26^th February, 27th March, 8th May and 26th May, 2006 for removing the restriction on ‘file notings’ from their website. The DOPT regrettably had not acted on the issue so far. The Commission hereby directs the Secretary, Ministry of Personnel & Public Grievances, in exercise of powers conferred

on it under Section 19(8) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 to remove the instruction relating to non disclosure of file notings from the website within 5 days of the issue of this order failing which the Commission shall be constrained to proceed against the Ministry of Personnel.”

This order passed by the Central Information Commission over a week ago to remove the file notings from the website has still not been complied with by the DoPT. Could this order of 13^th July have been the trigger of this sudden Cabinet decision?

Section 8 caters to the often exaggerated concern about security, secrecy and misuse of information for blackmail that have plagued and threatened the demand for transparency. It is often used as an excuse for not being transparent and accountable. As the former Union Home Secretary Dr Madhav Godbole has said in a letter of appeal written to the President of India after the Cabinet decision on the 21^st of July 06:

"The decision of GOI to amend the RTI Act is highly retrograde and would totally defeat the very purpose of the Act. In fact, making the notings on the file open to people can be the single most effective check on the rampant corruption both at the administrative and political levels. It can also strengthen the hands of officers of honesty and integrity. It is only by ensuring transparency and accountability that governance can be improved. Demystification of the working of the government is the best way to empower a common person."

Even what is permissible under the law after the amendments, will be under constant threat of denial. The recent nationwide campaign carried out by media and citizens groups in the “Drive against Bribe through the use of RTI” gave many insights into the working of the Act. One of the most revealing things was how the slightest ambiguity is used by the system to deny information.

The Government has reportedly said that it will allow access to file notings on development and social issues. This will give the bureaucracy enormous powers to selectively rule on what is or is not a development or social issue, and thereby keep even permissible information hidden. Files and records are maintained everywhere, from the Patwari and the Panchayat Sarpanch onwards. We have had Gram Sevaks refuse Panchayat information under the Rajasthan RTI Act using the exemption of national security. PIOs will now find it very convenient to turn inconvenient information into a ‘file noting’.

We know that when people asked for work from the Panchayats, even that simple demand got linked to decisions taken at the State, Central Or Cabinet level. Policy at the highest level (often the cabinet) determines what would happen in the village. This is one illustration of how cabinet notes and papers affect the lives of millions of ordinary people. Therefore, people have a right to see these papers, at least after the decision is taken.

Finally however, it is not what remains, but what has been taken away by these amendments that we must understand. The statement of Central Information Commissioner O P Khejriwal after the amendments were passed by the Cabinet sums it up succinctly : "Information minus the file notings amounts to taking the life out of the RTI Act". For the energetic and rapidly growing Right To Information movement in India, this is a major challenge to see whether we can protect this nascent fundamental democratic right from being undermined.

Aruna Roy with Nikhil Dey

Members MKSS and NCPRI,

Rajasthan

mkssrajasthan@gmail.com

Disabling the RTI Act

If the people of this country wanted to know what it would mean to have a right to information law amended as per the reported cabinet decision, questions about how this decision came about, would provide enough of an answer. How did this come about? “Secret” Who suggested it? “Secret” When was it suggested? “Secret” Who opposed it? Who supported it? What were the reasons? Was any one consulted? What was their opinion? Secret! Secret! Secret! Secret! The term used might not be ‘secret’, but that “ the information you have sought is barred from disclosure” or some other better camouflaged euphemism. The people of this country will continue to be served with policies conceived secretly, implemented without warning, and with potentially far reaching consequences on their lives. And because no one will ever know “who did it” – the guilty will get away.

All through the debate about the contents of the right to information act, the greatest weapon the babus had and used to fight it was to make secret moves, while hiding behind the garb of bureaucratic privilege. The supporters of secrecy cannot argue in an open public domain. That is why we have now been presented with a decision that will protect them in perpetuity.

At least two of the proposed amendments will permanently shield the bureaucracy from accountability, the disinfectant power of transparency and allow them to wield power in an arbitrary manner. It will also shield the corrupt, and deal a body blow to the efforts of people to fight corruption and the arbitrary exercise of power.

Both these amendments relate essentially to the process of decision making. The first one is to make file notings a category of information that can be concealed. In one stroke the bureaucracy will have managed to disable the right to information act as far as its own functioning is concerned. The second relates to barring access to cabinet notes even after the decision making process is complete- putting the decision making process of cabinet decisions into a permanent black hole.

For the Indian citizen, it is the process of decision making that is of crucial importance.

The right to information act has been widely welcomed by almost everyone except the hidden beneficiaries of secrecy. It is being used, and has begun breathe freash air into our democratic participation. There have already been unique citizens campaigns for implementation. Those who are threatened by this, have waged a relentless behind the scenes battle to reverse the flow of power to the ordinary citizen. This is a battle of democratic power to the people and ethics, in governance.

The amendments will change the act so that the decision can be revealed, the process of decision making cannot. From the slum dweller who automatically knows of the decision to demolish his home and livelihood when the bulldozer arrives at his doorstep, to the contractor who will seal his contract and approvals with the payment of his bribe the final decision is only the consequence of the fairness of the decision making process. It is not just the records of a ration shop, or the muster rolls on a work site that people across the country are asking for. It is also the policies that lead to food grain stocks being made available, or the manner in which tax payer money is being spent that matters. There are decisions being made related to health and medicines, water and power, agricultural policy and genetic engineering and governance itself, that have the potential to impact not just the lives of millions of people , but even generations of Indians. We may be on opposite sides of the fence, but do we not all have the right to know what the possible consequences of a particular decision could be, before being faced with a ‘fait accompli’.

How many Indians for instance, are aware of the details of field trials being conducted on Genetically Modified foods in India. This is no longer for food that will be consumed by cattle, but on brinjals and other foods that will be directly consumed by humans. The change in the genetic pool has the potential to change plant, animal, and human life for ever. In fact, it is time that some of the holy cows were also analysed. Transparency in the armed forces and many Defence Ministry matters including arms contracts will lead to stronger, better equipped, and more accountable armed forces. Whatever the ideological positions or arguments about privatization might be, a full presentation of facts and vigorous public debate can only lead to better decisions. Even the issue of access to answer sheets of examinations, and interview boards reportedly raised by the UPSC needs to be revisited. Marks themselves are a transparency measure. There is no reason that we cannot try and use transparency to improve the fairness of the selection and grading system. As this is being written the information commission is hearing an appeal related to the disclosure of what the President of India wrote to the Prime Minister during the Gujarat carnage. Would it not make for a better democracy if we knew of the concerns of the President of India during one of our darkest moments?

Finally, even if there were any areas that were found to have caused undue concern and put fundamental principles at stake, they could easily have been dealt with by the existing exemptions under section 8 of the act, or by adding a particular kind of information to section 8. Barring file notings is not barring a kind of information- it is barring information itself. And this move is nothing short of subterfuge against the act .

It is generally accepted that the best protection against the excesses of freedom are more and better quality freedoms. We must learn from that postulate and realize that the only solution to the problems of transparency is more and better quality information. The right to information in its current form is a result of popular struggle. It seemed as if the primary battle was to now concentrate on implementation. It now seems as if we will have to return to the battle for a decent right to information law. The powers that can be sure that they will face a relentless battle, and this time the people will be stronger than before.

Nikhil Dey and Aruna Roy

Dear Friends,

As you may know the central Cabinet has approved an amendment to prevent the right to access file notings, and are proposing to place it in the monsoon session of Parliament .

We from the NCPRI and other RTI Campaigns are forwarding you the postal address and the online sign in campaign id. Please extend your support and pass this on to friends and sympathizers.

Please collect signatures protesting against the amendment of the Right to Information Act, and send them to

The post bag addres :

RTI
Post Bag No.: 9201
Delhi 110092

You can access the petition on line at:

http://www.petitiononline.com/save_rti/

Forward these addresses to anyone who wants to join the signature campaign. We are also enclosing. We attach an article written for the Indian Express & the Hindu.

We will keep you abreast of other ways in which you can help.

Regards

Aruna Roy

--
Aruna Roy
MKSS
Village Devdungri, Post Barar
District Rajsamand 313341
Rajasthan

Telephone :02909 243254
02951-250180
01463-288246
011-26866343

Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land

2006-08-06T00:15:00.000+05:30

When we started forwarding mailers for our demonstration outside Israeli Embassy we were met with reactions laden with smugness ranging from utter ignorance to cocky arrogance and even ridiculing our efforts to protest against the killing of 55 civilians in Qana. Some of the reactions even expressed shock and goaded us for our naivety.

The most bogus argument that I keep hearing is that Israel has the right to self-defense. Well, I do not understand how could you be defending yourself on somebody else's land, which you have illegally and forcibly occupied, in contravention of all International laws and conventions, and where you have brutally repressed the local population. This documentary will perhaps make all these erudite, all-knowing, right to self-defense advocates understand as to why West Asia is the singular most issue affecting the world peace today.

What you read next is a description of this documentary. The words are not mine and are provided by Google Video.

Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pivotal documentary exposes how the foreign policy interests of American political elites--oil, and a need to have a secure military base in the region, among others--work in combination with Israeli public relations strategies to exercise a powerful influence over how news from the region is reported.

Through the voices of scholars, media critics, peace activists, religious figures, and Middle East experts, Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land carefully analyzes and explains how--through the use of language, framing and context--the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza remains hidden in the news media, and Israeli colonization of the occupied terrorities appears to be a defensive move rather than an offensive one. The documentary also explores the ways that U.S. journalists, for reasons ranging from intimidation to a lack of thorough investigation, have become complicit in carrying out Israel's PR campaign. At its core, the documentary raises questions about the ethics and role of journalism, and the relationship between media and politics.

Press release: Citizens protest Israel's brutal war against Lebanon and Gaza

2006-08-05T20:57:00.000+05:30

Citizens in New Delhi protest against Israel's war

More than 120 writers, poets, activists, journalists, lawyers, queer rights activists, communal rights activists, womens issues activists, child rights activists and other citizens held a 2-hour peaceful protest near the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi today, Saturday August 5, to demand a immediate and unconditional cease-fire in the ongoing Middle East war. The protestors condemned Israel's disproportionate war against Lebanon and Palestine, the sanction given to Israel by US and UK governments, and also the silence of the Indian government on the issue. Some present said the Indian Parliament must pass a resolution condemning the war just as th previous NDA government had passed a similar resolution with regard to Iraq war. Others criticised the Manmohan Singh government for permitting the US to influence Indian foreign policy, which they held was responsbile for India's failure to speak up in international fora on behalf of the hapless Lebanese and Palestinian people.

As the Delhi Police did not permit the protestors to stage their dharna outside the Israeli Embassy itself, the protestors occupied the traffic island at the intersection of Shahjahan Road and India Gate Outer Circle. Slogans were raised against Israel, the US, the UK and the UPA government, and in support of Lebanon and Palestine. The protestors sang songs, performed jhankis and read poems of peace. The protest was followed by a march towards the Israeli Embassy. The police did not permit the dharna to proceed beyond the UPSC building on Shahjehan Road, but after pressure from the protestors, traffic was stopped on Shahjehan Road and the road was closed so that the protestors could conduct a meeting. The Nishant Natya Manch perfomed a jhanki caricaturing Israel, Tony Blair and Manmohan Singh as stooges of George Bush. A group of queer activists sang a song of peace. Shri Khursheed Anwar of the Aman Ekta Manch addressed the crowd. And the protest ended with all protestors lying on Shahjahan Road in silence to commemorate and grieve the war dead. Shouts of 'Salim, Salam, Shalom' brought the protest to a close.

The following petition signed by more than 250 concerned citizens was handed over to the US, UK and Israeli embassies by the protestors.

THE PETITION

CITIZENS PROTEST ISRAEL'S BRUTAL WAR AGAINST LEBANON AND GAZA

Even as we condemn all acts and forms of violence in the current crisis in the Middle East, irrespective of who commits them, we have watched with horror as Israel's disproportionate use of force against the citizens of Lebanon and Palestine has increased daily and with impunity in light of sanction for Israel from the United States of America and the United Kingdom. Israel's aggression continues in open defiance of calls from the rest of the international community for an immediate cease-fire, and continues to take a heavy toll of innocent life.

Until today, the 5th of August, 900 Lebanese including 290 children had been killed and 9,00,000 Lebanese – one-third of the population – displaced in response to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah 24 days earlier. The number of Israeli dead in the conflict is 67, including 24 civilians, as Hezbollah continues to target Israel with rockets.

Despite this, on August 1, the European Union too provided implicit sanction to Israel's disproportionate actions by failing to call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. Almost immediately, Israel launched a ground invasion in southern Lebanon, involving tens of thousands of troops.

We, the undersigned, condemn this brutal targeting of unarmed civilian populations and the systematic destruction of the infrastructure of Lebanon and Gaza. We demand an immediate and unconditional cease-fire in Lebanon and in Gaza from all parties, and that the leaders of Israel, the US and the UK be tried for war crimes against the Lebanese and Palestinian people. We mourn the loss of innocent Lebanese, Palestinian and Israeli lives.

We urge groups and individuals to join in a citizen's protest against Israel's targeting of civilians which goes against all laws of war and ethics of combat.

In solidarity,

1. Aanchal Kapur, KRITI Research and Praxis
2. Aarti Sethi, editor
3. Aditya Nigam, political scientist & writer
4. Ahtushi Deshpande, travel writer
5. Ajay Bhardwaj, filmmaker
6. Aman Sethi, journalist
7. Amar Kanwar, filmmaker
8. Anand Vivek Taneja, researcher-writer
9. Aniruddha Shankar, concerned citizen
10. Anita Roy, editor
11. Anita Vasudev, writer
12. Annie Zaidi, journalist
13. Anubhav Gupta, writer
14. Anuradha Vijayakrishnan, writer
15. Aparna Sanyal
16. Apoorvanand, teacher and writer
17. Archana Dwivedi, Nirantar
18. Arka Mukhopadhyay, poet and theatre practitioner
19. Arti Sawhney
20. Ashok Vajpeyi, poet
21. Ashwin Aishwaria, artist
22. Ashwini Ailawadi, trainer
23. Bindu Menon, educator
24. Charu Soni, journalist
25. Colin Fernandes, journalist
26. Danish Husain, actor and writer
27. Devaki Khanna, student
28. Devika Prasad, human rights activist
29. Dipta Bhog, Nirantar
30. Farah Aziz, journalist
31. Farah Naqvi
32. Farida Khan, educationist
33. Gargi Sen, filmmaker
34. Gautam Bhan, activist
35. Gayatri Reddy, educator
36. George Kurian, filmmaker
37. Gita Hariharan, writer
38. Harjinder Singh Laltu, writer & scientist
39. Harpreet Anand
40. I.K. Shukla
41. I. Priya Thangarajah, student
42. Indira Pathak, activist
43. Jamaat e Islami Hind
44. Jaya Sharma, activist
45. Jeet Thayil, writer
46. Julia Dutta, journalist
47. Jyotsna Kumar,concerned citizen
48. Kanchana Natarajan, educator
49. Kaushiki Rao, concerned citizen
50. Kaveetaa Kaul writer/journalist
51. Keerti Jayaram, educationist, activist
52. Khadeeja Arif, researcher-writer
53. Khursheed Anwar, social activist
54. Kishore Kumar Singh, freelance consultant
55. Kunwar Narain, poet
56. Lesley A. Esteves, journalist
57. Madan Gopal Singh, film scholar & music composer
58. Madhu Mehra, human rights lawyer
59. Mario D'Penha, historian-activist
60. Maya Sharma, Parma
61. Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan, writer & journalist
62. Meera Samson, researcher
63. Mini Krishnan, publisher and writer (Chennai)
64. Monica Mody, writer
65. Mujtaba Farooq
66. Mushirul Hassan, Prof, Historian
67. N.K. Afandi, Dr
68. Nalini Nayak, teacher
69. Nandini Sundar
70. Nandita Das
71. Narayani Gupta, consultant INTACH
72. Naveen. T.K., law researcher
73. Nazim Khan
74. Neelima Sharma, theatre activist
75. Niharika Gupta, editor Womens Collective
76. Nini, Nirantar
77. Nishant Natya Manch, New Delhi
78. Nivedita Menon, academic & activist
79. Om Gupta, playwright
80. Ponni Arasu, activist
81. Prabhash Joshi, journalist
82. Pranav Kumar Singh, lawyer
83. Preeti Bose, poet
84. Prism, New Delhi
85. Priyanka Mukherjee, social worker
86. Pulin Nayak, economist
87. Radhika Kolluru, lawyer
88. Rajneesh Saran, freelance writer
89. Rahul Roy
90. Rama Kant Agnihotri, Prof, linguist
91. Ranjan De, filmmaker
92. S. Vinita
93. Saba Dewan
94. Samit Basu, writer
95. Saba Naqvi Bhaumik, journalist
96. Sanjay Kak, filmmaker
97. Shabnam Hashmi, social activist
98. Shakti Bhatt, editor & writer
99. Shalini Joshi, Nirantar
100. Shamsul Islam, Dr, theatre activist
101. Shivam Vij, blogger-journalist
102. Shohini Ghosh, film scholar & filmmaker
103. Shuddhabrata Sengupta, media practitioner
104. Siddharth Narrain, journalist
105. Smarth Bali, Communications Specialist
106. Sridala Swamy, writer
107. Subasri Krishnan, filmmaker
108. Sudeep Sen, writer & editor
109. Sujit Ghosh, social activist
110. Sumit Baudh, lawyer
111. Sumit Roy, filmmaker
112. Sunil Gupta, photographer
113. Susan Bertolino, writer
114. Susan M Koshy, writer
115. Tabish Khair, writer
116. Teena Gill
117. Uma Iyer
118. Vaibhav Vats, student
119. Vineeta Bal, peace activist

--
Lesley A. Esteves
Associate Editor

Outlook Traveller Getaways
Outlook Publishing (India) Pvt Ltd
AB10 Safdarjung Enclave,
New Delhi-110029
Tel: 01141650184 (direct)
01126191421, ext 317
Fax: 01126191420
Email: lesley@outlookindia.com

apni aag mein khud jal jaye,
tu aisa parwana ban ja...

CITIZENS PROTEST AGAINST ISRAEL'S DISPROPORTIONATE WAR AGAINST LEBANON AND GAZA IN NEW DELHI ON AUGUST 05, 2006

2006-08-02T21:43:00.000+05:30

CALL TO PROTEST ISRAEL'S DISPROPORTIONATE WAR AGAINST LEBANON AND GAZA

Dear friends,

We have watched with horror as Israel's disproportionate use of force
against the citizens of Lebanon and Palestine has increased daily and
with impunity in light of sanction for Israel from the United States
of America and the United Kingdom. Israel's aggression continues in
open defiance of calls from the rest of the international community
for an immediate cease-fire, and continues to take a heavy toll of
innocent life.

Until today, the 2nd of August, 850 Lebanese including 290 children
have been killed and 9,00,000 Lebanese refugees have been displaced in
response to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah 22
days ago. The number of Israeli dead in the conflict thus far is 55,
including 19 civilians, as Hezbollah continues to target Israel with
rockets.

Despite this, yesterday, the European Union too provided implicit
sanction to Israel's disproportionate actions by failing to call for
an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. Almost immediately, Israel
has launched a ground invasion in southern Lebanon, involving tens of
thousands of troops.

We, the undersigned, condemn this brutal targeting of unarmed civilian
populations and the systematic destruction of the infrastructure of
Lebanon and Gaza. We demand an immediate and unconditional cease-fire
in Lebanon and in Gaza and that the leaders of Israel, the US and the
UK be tried for war crimes against the Lebanese and Palestinian
people. We mourn the loss of innocent Lebanese, Palestinian and
Israeli lives.

We urge groups and individuals to join in a citizen's protest against
Israel's targeting of civilians which goes against all laws of war and
ethics of combat.

Do come with banners, slogans and solidarity. Please do forward widely
information about the protest on all activist lists, and to the media.

When
Saturday 5th, 11 am
Where
Israeli Embassy, 3, Aurangzeb Road

(As police do not permit protests outside the embassy, the rendezvous
point is the UPSC building)

In solidarity,

Aanchal Kapur, KRITI Research and Praxis
Aarti Sethi, editor
Aditya Nigam, political scientist & writer
Ahtushi Deshpande, travel writer
Ajay Bhardwaj, filmmaker
Aman Sethi, journalist
Amar Kanwar, filmmaker
Anand Vivek Taneja, researcher-writer
Aniruddha Shankar, concerned citizen
Anita Roy, editor
Anita Vasudev, writer
Annie Zaidi, journalist
Anubhav Gupta, writer
Anuradha Vijayakrishnan, writer
Aparna Sanyal
Apoorvanand, teacher and writer
Archana Dwivedi, Nirantar
Arka Mukhopadhyay, poet-theatre practitioner
Arti Sawhney
Ashwin Aishwaria, artist
Ashwini Ailawadi, trainer
Bindu Menon, educator
Charu Soni, journalist
Colin Fernandes, journalist
Devika Prasad, human rights activist
Dipta Bhog, Nirantar
Farah Aziz, journalist
Farah Naqvi
Farida Khan, educationist
Gargi Sen, filmmaker
Gautam Bhan, activist
Gayatri Reddy, educator
George Kurian, filmmaker
Gita Hariharan, writer
Harpreet Anand
I.K. Shukla
I. Priya Thangarajah, student
Indira Pathak, activist
Jamaat e Islami Hind
Jaya Sharma, activist
Jeet Thayil, writer
Julia Dutta, journalist
Jyotsna Kumar, concerned citizen
Kanchana Natarajan, educator
Kaushiki Rao, concerned citizen
Kaveetaa Kaul, writer/journalist
Keerti Jayaram, educationist, activist
Khadeeja Arif, researcher-writer
Khursheed Anwar, social activist
Kishore Kumar Singh, freelance consultant
Lesley A. Esteves, journalist
Madan Gopal Singh, film scholar & music composer
Madhu Mehra, human rights lawyer
Mario D'Penha, historian-activist
Maya Sharma, Parma
Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan, writer & journalist
Mini Krishnan, publisher and writer (Chennai)
Monica Mody, writer
Mujtaba Farooq
Murtaza Danish Husain, actor & writer
N.K. Afandi, Dr
Nalini Nayak, teacher
Nandini Sundar
Nandita Das
Narayani Gupta, consultant INTACH
Neelima Sharma, theatre activist
Niharika Gupta, editor Womens Collective
Nini, Nirantar
Nishant Natya Manch, New Delhi
Nivedita Menon, academic & activist
Om Gupta, playwright
Ponni Arasu, activist
Pranav Kumar Singh, lawyer
Preeti Bose, poet
Prism, New Delhi
Priyanka Mukherjee, social worker
Pulin Nayak, economist
Radhika Kolluru, lawyer
Rajneesh Saran, freelance writer
Rama Kant Agnihotri, Prof, linguist
Ranjan De, filmmaker
S. Vinita
Samit Basu, writer
Saba Naqvi Bhaumik, journalist
Sanjay Kak, filmmaker
Shabnam Hashmi, social activist
Shakti Bhatt, editor & writer
Shalini Joshi, Nirantar
Shamsul Islam, Dr, theatre activist
Shivam Vij, blogger-journalist
Shohini Ghosh, film scholar & filmmaker
Shuddhabrata Sengupta, media practitioner
Siddharth Narrain, journalist
Smarth Bali, Communications Specialist
Sridala Swamy, writer
Subasri Krishnan, filmmaker
Sudeep Sen, writer & editor
Sujit Ghosh, social activist
Sumit Baudh, lawyer
Sumit Roy, filmmaker
Sunil Gupta, photographer
Susan Bertolino, writer
Susan M Koshy, writer
Tabish Khair, writer
Teena Gill
Vaibhav Vats, student
Vineeta Bal, peace activist

no answers to photographs

2006-07-31T11:57:00.000+05:30

I look at the photograph of two Muslim men "beaten up for no reason" in the Mumbai Mirror edition of July 27, 2006. The men were beaten up in local trains in Mumbai, a few days after the bomb blasts, by angry citizens. I've looked at the photos of the people who lost their limbs, their loved ones in the bomb blasts.

I look at the photo of mothers lined up under the banner of 'Parents of Disappeared Persons' in Srinagar in the Asian Age edition of July 26, 2006. The association claims that more than 8000 people have disappeared after their reported arrest by security forces.

I look at the photo of a father with his dead child in his arms in today's edition of the Asian Age and the Mumbai Mirror. Around 25 children have been killed in Israel's last attack on Lebanon.

I look at the photos published in the newspapers, and try to imagine what life will be like for those people, after that flash. Can I, safe, untouched, unharmed, imagine the hatred, the anger, the violence festering inside those who have been maimed or bereaved?

Can our words, our pleas for rational thought assuage the grief, of Hindus or Muslims, Israelis or Palestininians, blacks or whites, who have actually suffered?

I don't have the answers. Do any of you?

2006-07-31T11:20:00.000+05:30

A minimalistic improvisation by Mazen Kerbaj (trumpet) and the Israeli Air Force (bombs), recorded by Mazen Kerbaj on the balcony of his flat in Beirut, on the night of 15 to 16 July 2006.

To listen to the audio, go here. Turn up the volume and push play.
Or download it (requires Real Player).

Mazen Kerbaj blogs here
BBC Report: here.

(Link credit: Harneet)

Yes, we are not happy!

2006-07-31T10:51:00.000+05:30

They say India is not happy enough. It's little neighbors like Nepal, Bangladesh and Srilanka are happier. I say what's there to be surprised?

Since 9/11 we have been told by everyone: the government, the media and self-proclaimed foreign affairs experts, that west understands India's security concerns better now that they too have been stung by terrorism. But is that really true? Do they really understand our concerns?Then why the hell don't they all force Musharraf and his gang to kick off his "Jehadi" lapdogs?

What's worse is that we can't even now claim that ISI is behind all this destruction and they have launched what they started in Kashmir in early 90s. Because everyone wants proof! And if we give proofs, address of terrorist camps and terrorist kingpins, Pakistanis respond with equal material, however absurd it may be! And when we say that these things are nonsense, they have same thing to tell us. And on international forums they can conveniently tell the world that they are cooperating with India in its war on terror. So simple!

In the recent India Today cover story, they discussed what can be our options for dealing with Pakistan. And much to our horror, we can't do anything except putting our intelligence and couter-terrorism setup in order. We will have to talk to them, blasts and killings notwithstanding!

And perhaps the blasts have come as a reminder to the security and intelligence establishment. The allegations and rumors that some of the J&K Police and Army personnel are hand in glove with terrorists have proved to be true. Senior officers are in denial mode again about ISI infilteration in the forces and that is just too bad.

Then is it surprising that we are not happy?

Children of Qana

2006-07-31T05:09:00.000+05:30

The world collapsed
around their dreams
with a whimper
in the sudden rain of fire
from the sky.

Reflected in their empty eyes,
the Silence of the world-
spineless, unconscionable.

Exploded eyeballs, splattered blood
scorched skin, limbless bodies,
strewn around like confetti.

So many lives, so many little lives
snuffed out
in an instant of insanity.

Who are the culprits?
Of this continual horror
Blood stained fingers
quickly rise to point to
everyone, no one.

Again-Banned!

2006-07-29T12:45:00.000+05:30

Whats going on? Lets hazard a guess..game of chess, or worse still, a power play Bollywood style, villain vs common man? I always suspected our politicians to have serious misgivings of their heroism, not to forget their penchant for desi flicks.

But this was, lets face it, a good twist to an otherwise, drab, monotonous, predictable action movie. So it begins with a bang, err..ban.Fury unleashed via angry posts, indications of solidarity. sticky articles, beefing up for the final take. Both sides perched precariously, t.v. channels raking in the moolah. Torn between erudition over blasts or rhetoric over the ban, literary genius reaches a crescendo.

Innumerable, interviews, articles and trp's later, the ban gets lifted. Site meters go crashing, hindsight brings forth posts of futility of exercise and cynicism of public outrage. In other words, life returns to normal on the blogosphere, with a happy ending, where good has triumphed, pro active citizen is lauded and the blogger emerged victorious stroking his whiskers at 'fait accompli'...

Ah ah..but jumping the gun leads to barrings and bannings..literally. What was mistaken as the end was in fact the Intermission point.The second half is when the villain manages a coup. The first half was the 'trial run', deviously enacted to estimate strength and modus operandi. Just when all seemed cool on the western front, another ban was let loose.This time, selectively, as if to minimise backing and support. Struck by the audaciousness of the villain, hero now caught off guard and flummoxed..

to be continued..

In the circumstances, an innovative WAT idiom a la RGV, where the ending is creative, open and contiguous, is advisable.

(Our sages {my gang of five} advise two methods to dealing with madness. Counter it in equal proportion or then recall a bollywood film replete with mutitudinous tips to meet the challenge.

Btw,the trigger for this post was the ban by Incable in Mumbai on Blogger.com yet again, under directive from DoT, as of yesterday, so said an official.

Banging ones head against a wall in frustration, not considered a viable option)

We, the people

2006-07-28T12:15:00.000+05:30

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blessed are we...!
We, who walk on two legs
Two legs to protect our ignominious groin
So that our hands can join
in worship of idolatry dysfunction
under nescient steeples...
And rise above our vacuous heads
in perspiring gatherings
to hail political pimps on scandalized pulpits
Blessed are we...!

We, who are actors
Playing heroes in ideated bedrooms
Curtaining our revolutionary impotency...
Our hands caressing breasts
of purloined pseudo-paragons
Ejaculating demented whispers
of consolation,
And dispersing them
like poisonous Rattlebox seeds
To swim and settle and germinate
in defiled uteruses

We, who shy away from the pen and sword
from hollow bellies of street children
From bits of half bodies
blown like confetti on drowsy mornings
...who sacrifice our lullabies
to songs of gun-fire
...and allow religious fascism
to gift unfinished fairy tales
to innocent children of the night.

We, who salivate at the smell
of free food dropped from helicopters
by knaves who worship
free trade capitalism.
We litter the footpaths of the nation
like crumpled paper carrying
trifling doodles
and search for our face in revolutionary poetry
on Crossword book shelves,
internet libraries,
and delectable read-meets

We should know...
that revolutionary poetry is born
in perspiration that flows inward
and fights to turn to blood
in the blind man's eye...

-©Vinod 28July2006

2006-07-25T04:14:00.000+05:30

On the face of holocausts
and earthly terrors
I vandalise & smudge these..

"Look deep
for fear in our eyes
and you shall find none

Shells shatter
houses but not homes

Fleshes scatter
but not hope

We stand benumbed
and crimson,
for the gross we have seen

come have our blood too
for its more warm
than your wine.."

My Freewheeling Mind

2006-07-24T15:36:00.000+05:30

Born and raised in Gujarat, communal riots with their tense prequels and vicious sequels are nothing new to me. Like any other Indian reading his newspaper diligently, with a tiny sting of conscience always pushing its ugly head into imagined peace and prosperity, the numbers of people injured, killed or reported missing become mind-numbing. Horrid but true, if today's journalism has achieved something with a cast iron stability it is this callousness for numbers. Whether five were killed or five thousand, arithmetic and its implications cease to affect us...

A freewheeling mind, according to my personal definition is one that does not get fettered with the irritations near at hand nor the massive preoccupations that keep us bogged down with scant regard for the clock's creeping hands... a freewheeling mind has its own whimsical agenda. Much like dreams, such idle thoughts come and go on their own will.

Often my freewheeling mind comes dwell on the tufts of green growing under a huge black shadow of a tongueless tree. The seeds of kindness are there everywhere in each human psyche, just as seeds of grass are there in almost every single inch of fertile land. What drives my memory to keep such images sharp and focused, eludes me, but I can always recall a stray incidence of huge human kindness whilst much larger bloodletting and uncalled for torture of innocents, fades in my memory.

During the late 1960s there were really vile sort of riots in Baroda, where I had seen things upclose and experienced quite a few unforeseen events. A few years later when the dust had settled, some political riot went out of hand and it took on the communal shade in hours... as usually hundreds of innocents, dirt poor and helpless, who must work and earn their daily bread or else go to bed hungry, were maimed, mauled, mutilated and murdered.

A group of likeminded university folks got together meeting regularly at the house of a lecturer who had relocated to Baroda after fifteen years in USA. He decided after days of deliberations, for there are always dissenting voices amongst the most likeminded folks who have come together, to take a goodwill trip to a hospital. We would visit the victims of the other community... I would comfort a Hindu lying in bed with grievous injuries, and he would comfort an angry young Muslim attacked for no reason.

It wasn't easy. It took not only guts and integrity and solid belief in face of the vile response we got from the relatives of the victims, their friends and neighbours, sometimes even the victims himself or herself...but it took constant reminding oneself that this was the only option. One has to face the flak and keep one's emotions under check. Anger breeds more anger, we knew, and often our fellow good Samaritans from other religions would have to intervene fearing a mini riot in the hospital ward itself. Things were sticky and things were reducing our communicating vocabularies to monosyllabic orgies. A lot of head nodding and futile wringing of hands would have to be resorted to.

After a couple of visits, even after a couple of patients in the first visit, the humane side emerged. I was nearly astounded to hear the voice of reason. Slowly like three day old kittens thrown to the alley cats, we too became a little bolder, asking hypothetical questions that seemed almost explosive.
" Would you require vengence as justice?" one of us blurted out, and I nearly fainted, " you wish to go and stab someone from 'their' side?"
The reply, always quick and firm was a resolute No.
Each one wanted to go back to his routine, earn his measly bread, be with his or her family, forgive the strangers who came to attack, and be much more friendly with their own next door neighbours who practised a different religion.

This led to more visits, even after hospital discharge of some of the badly wounded ones, to their homes. We were always moved to tears by the simplicity of these folks -their lifestyles, their thinking, their enormous lack of political ideas or bias...that really touched each one of us. We kept reading newspapers, listening to the radio [the television was not so common then] and we kept discussing with friends, but these simple folks were totally cut off, both Hindus and Muslims, from anything but their animal-filled living quarters and their courtyards full of peace.

My freewheeling mind wants a break....
so see y'all later !

(c) Max Babi 240706

“not silence but more speech”

2006-07-24T15:32:00.000+05:30

I posted this on my blog a couple of days ago. On the 22nd, to be precise.

Today’s Metro Plus (The Hindu’s supplement) has an article by Anand Shankar, in which he quotes Laurence Liang, who works with the Alternate Law Forum. Liang is quoted as saying, “You must realise that the answer to problematic speech is not silence, but more speech.”

He says this in the context of Nehru’s Amendment to Article 19 (1) (A) of the Constitution, which deals with the freedom of speech and expression; and Article 19 (2), which imposes ‘reasonable restrictions’ on free speech. He says that Nehru made this amendment to Article 19 (1) (A) to ‘deal with extreme right and left opinion’.The reason why I’ve quoted him is not to argue the Amendment, about which I know nothing. I’ve quoted him because I agree with his statement that ‘the answer to problematic speech is not silence, but more speech.’

But if only all our problems were solved so easily, with a simple agreement. This whole brouhaha about the DoT blocking websites is, in my opinion, just another minor quake in our consciousness and soon we will all settle into our very democratic apathy and be moved by nothing more than the latest cricket scores.We are rarely moved to defend free speech except where it affects us personally. So if you’re a blogger and your access to blogspot or whatever you use is blocked, you become indignant and are exercised enough to mount a protest. If you’re a filmmaker whose film has been denied a censor certificate, you gather all those who are, or might be, similarly affected and take some action.

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m all for protest. I’m all for standing up for one’s right to speak in whichever medium one chooses. I support and have supported filmmakers and bloggers alike. I would, wouldn’t I? I have been a filmmaker and now I blog.

People support causes only when they see it directly affects them. We might all be in favour of free speech in the abstract, but how many of us will get off our seats to add our voices wherever and whenever a violation of our freedoms occurs? For the most part, we react, locally, in the short term.

Not that reacting is bad. But it has to be recognised for what it is: something that loses its energy very quickly. Tomorrow the govt. will unblock its ban and this noise will subside.When people are brought together for a very limited reason, and a short-term goal is achieved, a movement loses its momentum. Nobody wants this to happen, naturally enough. With the best of intentions, the fora that were set up to communicate with people all over the world united by a common cause, become babels of differing opinions.

This also is to be expected. If we are to function in a democratic manner, everyone has to have their say and most people have a lot to say. Every decision has to be presented, debated and a consensus arrived at before any action can be taken. Often this takes months and is a very, very boring process. Mostly it involves people dashing off lengthy letters to person or persons concerned, to which a large percentage of the collective will be happy to merely append their signatures. If you are on a list, most of your mails will consist of people saying, ‘please add my name to the list’.

I am being slightly facetious here, but there is more than a grain of truth in my account of processes. This does happen.

The larger point I am making here is that immediate action is energising and romantic. Sustained protest is nothing if not tedious. There is nothing exciting about sending faxes. (I’m reminded of that Calvin and Hobbes one where Calvin’s hopes of being a superhero in our times is dashed by Hobbes, who says, “Quick! To the batfax!”)

Most people are unable to look beyond their noses; which of us acts with total conviction about what the outcome of our actions will be?Ben Sandilands’ article in The Guardian talks about Antarctica being the last frontier that fuel-hungry nations are waiting to claim and exploit. Do we care enough about this to act on it in whichever way we think best? We probably do in a well-meaning, woolly-headed way. But do we really believe that raising our voices against the governments involved will result in anything meaningful?

And how many issues will we protest? About how many things will we act so that we create a groundswell of opinion? It takes way to much effort to read enough about issues to really understand them, much less talk about them.

So, though I’m with Laurence Liang when he says ‘not silence but more speech’, I’m afraid I’m also rather sceptical about it happening any time soon.

An Uneasy Calm

2006-07-22T15:01:00.000+05:30

Like everyone else here, I too got an invitation from Dan to come and write. Frankly, the writer's block has never bothered me as yet, but even then I kept reading the posts and mentally ticking points...for days before writing a word here.

It's the writer's diarrhea that comes to my fatigued mind. When such a topic is broached, there are half a million related topics that fight very much like the poor souls of Mumbai trying to get in or get out of those claustrophobic boxes they call trains. I am likely to end up saying a lot of things that will either confuse the reader, madden him or her or cause a spurt in activity by way of comments. Hope the last mentioned one occurs.

I saw the aftermath upclose, unfortunately. Chennai to Mumbai by air is just one hour and forty minutes, a journey I postponed on 6th July and undertook it on 11th. From the airport to Versova side, a distance of no more than 8 or 9 KMs took me 3 whole hours in an auto-rickshaw -God bless the driver who agreed to come with me after 10 more had refused. The silent groups of tense young men on the road, the fatigued faces of cops tired of pushing people off the road, the hurried and harried executives walking back in the manner of a nation in exodus -but those did stop to guide anyone who enquired about buses. The buses seemed to be working frantically to repair the organisational damage caused by stoppage of trains... could not have been enough but it was attempted. Bravo BEST, I said to myself.

Young ladies walking back home or God knows where...to rendezvous points where they could get transport home or near home... it was all a crazy jumble of events that seemed pyschedelic to me. Almost surreal. Mind you I was not told of bomb blasts nor trains having been stopped. What my mind was trying to do was interpret this as a series of mini riots caused by some frustrated political party... and there are so many of them hanging about.

The auto-driver whose Hindi was beyond my grasp, blurted out finally after a KM or two that trains were off. He didn't say a word about bombs so I thought it was flooding and rain or may be power failed. After creeping and crawling like centipedes with broken legs, our vehicle reached home, not mine but my younger brother's. They blurted out the truth that I didn't want to hear.

We went to sleep in the wee hours of the morning, discussing the pros and cons and the whys and wherefores -feeling more confused than ever. The consensus was some frustrated political party must have engineered the blasts...seems almost a blasphemy to my ears but after the Gujarat pogroms, and professional doctors there telling me that political parties were paying the underworld upto one thousand rupees for a stabbing, or else how would the illiterate goons know how to apply chloroform on the tip of the knife so that the victim feels no pain? Goes home to collapse and die? After the politicization of murder in that state which is anti-India where secular credentials are concerned, anything is possible. One can pay a goon of any religion to cause a blast and he or she will do it, I have to grudgingly admit this ugly hypothesis.

I know I would get beaten black and blue if I applaud the good sense of the common man on streets of Mumbai for having restrained this time when it must have been almost logical to spill on the streets, shout slogans and force shutters of shops down... hats off to Him/Her... for the nefarious plots have been defeated. There was no backlash, no aftermath even though the blood for blood prophet from Gujarat had been invited to foment trouble.

Viva Mumbai !
India stands to learn a lot from this cosmopolitan cauldron of sheer hardwork, apt utilization of opportunity and most of all, the ability to dream on.... bollywood would have died in any other city.

Salaam Mumbai !

(c) Max Babi

Decade-nce

2006-07-21T17:21:00.000+05:30

Ten days since the blasts in Mumbai.

I received the invitation to be a part of this forum, from Dan on the 12th. On hindsight now, what emerges crystal clear is that machinations towards censorship were in place, even prior to widespread banning , which explains why, each time, registration failed to come through until yesterday.

There have been cries of 'democracy and freedom of speech under seige' and rightly so, across the board, against the unfair, arbitrary blocking of blogs, by those to who the voice of the common man seems a threat.

One wishes that this kind of alacrity had been displayed in arresting terrorists and their nefarious activities, this past decade or more. Without indulging in hyperbole, one can safely assert that thousands upon thousands of innocent lives would have been spared. The humiliating juncture of having to curb/stifle the voices of well meaning citizens would not have arisen!

That the masterminds behind this censorship have failed miserably in pre-empting , planning and execution, yet again, is plainly evident from the fact that nothing stopped me from writing and deterred you from reading the blogs supposedly banned. If terrorism be a hydra headed monster as oft repeated, then the voice of righteousness can boast of the same if not more. Despite subscribing to the wisdom of compassion, patience, tolerance generally, this is one war, it seems, which Indians are willing to fight till the end.

A seemingly innocuous visual of a dappled railway map of Mumbai, indicating the blast sites, in reality speak of a horrendous massacre,which begs to be the last of its kind in Mumbai, India and the world. In the war between Good and Evil, our scriptures decree success for Good.Its time that this truism attain reality.

The rationale behind censorship was allegedly an attempt to curb terrorist communication,seemingly ridiculous, especially considering that the bullet had long left the gun. But also how does one then understand the interception of the BBC/NEWS HAVE YOUR SAY page which dealt with Mumbal blasts??

So , in other words when POLITICAL WILL is present even a daunting task of censorship to this level is made tangible. Whilst the absence of it has nurtured/harboured/encouraged terrorists to have sway over India.. to the extent of conducting proxy warfare, as and to their whim. If the powers who be think that they are pulling wool over our eyes by pledging innocence, then they are at best deceiving themselves into believing that the public is a bunch of morons susceptible to manipulation.

It beehooves one to claim with certainty that those who could have averted the MASSACRE of the train blast were either not allowed to perform their jobs with a free hand OR that it entailed a section of elitist individuals to be embarassed by the revelations which emerge. Either way it was the commuter, man, woman, child who was found lying dead, maimed, ripped apart, on platforms and tracks.

This incident has once again proven unreservedly and beyond all doubt that statements such as 'caught off guard' and 'despite best efforts' or such like by the officials are not as jejune as they appear. It is clearly a case of the Intelligence or those responsible, not having lived up to the challenge of providing Mumbai, the city with the highest tax payers and the economic hub, the security it DESERVED.

What gains can accrue from censorship at this stage is not only a fruitless exercise to analyse but an infuriating one as well.

If anyhing, the terrorists, languishing in jails for the past 14 years, cleverly manipulating the lacunae of the Judicial system and its laxity, should be publicly flogged. Where is the justice in providing justice to those who have broken every law
with impunity and irreverence? Justice, innately connotes, that the guilty be brought to book and the innocent be avenged. How can justice apply to those who punish the innocent and serve the guilty???

India has become a laughing stock,not so much by virtue of dealing shabbily and ineffectively with the growing menace of terrorist and their activities, but more because of insiduous suggestions that warnings had gone unheeded and unchecked.A nagging doubt that this event was a phenomena which could have been snuffed out at the initial stages itself with finality.

The shaming incident of a foreigner raped in Jaipur, captured the indignation of the citizen of India who spared no effort to raise a hue and cry in demand for justice. Within 15 days, the guilty was arrested, indicted and sentenced with life.

Now juxtapose this on a scenario where those arrested for bombings of 1993, have been either freed for lack of evidence or are yet in jail, for the last 13 years, enjoying the snails pace of Indian judiciary which is adopted in cases where clout commands proceedings. Either that or the fact that the Judiciary is not as independent as averred. The Legislature,Political Officialdom has handcuffed Justice.

EXEMPLARY PUNISHMENT to the accused ( in the event of their unlikely capture, if current goings on are any indication) is the CRY of the hour. A signal needs to be sent out loud and clear to those who harbour plans of spreading carnage in India that we do not take kindly to insurgency. That heads will roll, if need be. That fighting against terrorism is of National concern, to one and all . That progress will not and cannot be stalled. If India is posited to be at the brink of an economic and progressive breakthrough, then that which has been envisaged, will occur. That an enemy will be hounded, and caught, no matter who its benefactors. That U.S.A. effectively prove its uprightness by disengaging in both double-speak and supply of arms to China and Pakistan. That Pakistan honour its promises and stop shielding terrorists w.e.f NOW!!

Because India has risen! (as this forum inherently suggests)

Farewell

2006-07-21T03:41:00.000+05:30

I held silence in my hand
Near the wells of reason
While golden sunbeams sung a dirge
To the victims of virtual reality

Where were the heroes?
Of time, fate and sad yesterdays
As soft petals of sorrow spread out
From burning bodies and twisted metal

We tried so hard to run away
From the sweet smell of death
But time seemed to stand still
Before the scepter of perfect doom

Slowly, the solemn skies closed over
And cried, long and hard, tears of farewell
A tormented wind rushed in to fill the vacuum
Left behind by beautiful dreams and eternal hope

India Blocks Blogs - Clarification from the Indian Consulate in New York

2006-07-21T02:13:00.000+05:30

I think a lot of us noticed the blocked blogs ... Sree of SAJA (South Asian Journalists Associaton) was sent this clarification by the Indian Consulate in New York, which he forwarded to all associated with SAJA. I am reproducing here the entire text:

[Quote]
Date: July 19, 2006

Reference our discussions and correspondence on the issue of blocking of blogs in India, we had taken up the matter with the authorities concerned in the Department of Telecommunications in the Government of India and the facts are as under:

A two-page write up containing extremely derogatory references to Islam and the holy prophet which had the potential to inflame religious sensitivities in India and create serious law and order problems in the country appeared in a blog facilitated by well known search engines. The matter was immediately taken note of by our CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) and the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) was informed of it. The DOT took up the matter forthwith with the search engines and instructions were also issued to all Internet providers to block the two impertinent pages. Because of a technological error, the Internet providers went beyond what was expected of them which in turn resulted in the unfortunate blocking of all blogs.

Department of Telecommunications have now clarified the issue and the error is
being rectified and it is expected that normalcy in respect of blogs will soon
be restored.

This is for your information.

A.R. Ghanashyam
Deputy Consul General, New York

[Unquote]

Smarth

Blind spots of the west...

2006-07-21T01:41:00.000+05:30

The Israel-Lebanon conflict seems to be turning really nasty, what with civilians dying on both sides of the border. While the Hezbollah may not care about Lebanese civilans dying around them , shouldn't Israel start caring about the deaths of its civilians ? This particular conflict is dangerous to international politics on so many levels, that it is scary just to start thinking about the repurcussions...

The deaths of civilians on Lebanon by Israeli-made rockets, would give rise to more anger, desperation, and worst of all, more terrorists in the region. Terrorists, who will spread out all over the world to spread their "message" of death. The deaths of Israeli citizens would cause the Tel Aviv government to order more attacks and air strikes, thus ending up in a downward spiral for the entire region, while Iran, sitting pretty, laughs its head off !

The main part of this drama is being played elsewhere...in the diplomatic back rooms of the western world, where Israel has been given an unofficial additional week to try and "finish off" the Hezbollah before they get to sit down at the negotiation table. While I do not condone the actions of a terrorist orgamiztion, I wonder at the sanity behind airstrikes into southern Lebanon...rockets do not discriminate between the terrorists and civilians. The real perpetrators of the crimes are probably far off when the rockets come down. Thus, this extra week given by the west to Israel to send in more airstrikes against southern Lebanon, is probably the worst turn for the entire issue. If the Israelis were actually sending in their infantry or special forces to take down the terrorists, then I guess the extra time is a little more understandable, but not this.

While the Hezbollah must be disarmed and made to stand down by the so-called international organizations, one must try and ensure that "collateral damage" is limited and possibly avoided.

A Certain Kind of Indian

2006-07-21T00:42:00.000+05:30

My friend, Anuvab Pal, has written this piece for a newspaper and has forwarded the same to me for posting this on our blog. I requested him to join and post it himself but I feel he is kind of shy. Anyway, here it is for you to read and comment.

Playwright and Screenwriter Anuvab Pal recounts his experiences with the Mumbai blasts and compares them to his time in New York during 9/11.

A Certain Kind of Indian

Being in New York during 9/11 and being in Mumbai on 11^th July, 2006, was very different. And also not. Some of the more harrowing (and uplifting) moments came back – the cell phones jamming; friends, enemies, well wishers et al from around the world desperately trying to get through; chaotic hospitals filled with hundreds of victims and thousands of well-meaning, confused volunteers; relatives, photos in hand, on a mad search for loved ones; photos strewn for the missing across public places; gory first-person accounts of dismemberment, media frenzy around human stories of tragedy and survival; random acts of kindness (which contrary to what Readers Digest will have you believe, is a Mumbai routine during disasters). And in homes, seated around shocking, flashing images and foolish reporting (long live Fox News , available here in 3 incarnations - NDTV, CNN-IBN and Times Now) eager discussions on a certain kind of fundamentalism (both inquisitive and accusatory).

And yet, something was different. Not from the obvious nature and form of the attacks but in how I felt about the whole thing. When I initially moved from New York, I was gregarious and curious and engaged with my environment. I would claim New York does that to you - arms you with a sense of balanced, erudite, socio-economic analysis, especially when visiting other places not like it.

As the months passed, natural expatriate processes ensued. I settled-in, lost intelligence, found logical argument absent and all argument replete with bias. I declared public transportation to be medieval, finagled a car (with driver), found most 'ordinary' people lacking in basic decorum and politesse, fashionably complained about the city's ethos at art openings drinking wine ("Mumbai trains go to and from where?", a Mumbai socialite once asked innocently about the city's commuting lifeline). I made friends with other irony-loving, complaining, foreign folk or colonial remnants and found myself comfortably enveloped in the stereotype of the Bombay, upper middle class, English-speaking elite. This meant I was haughty, feudal, dismissive (of popular Hindi speaking culture), hierarchic, rude (especially to people I perceived to be in the service classes) and totally disconnected with the everyday realities of the city.

This wonderful attitude helped me conclude that I had very little in common with average Mumbaikars – a rude, savage, illiterate, superstitious, caste-ridden, trading people. I despised things claiming to be the highlights of the place - I didn't like the romanticism with the underworld, I found dance bars and the women in them, dirty; I hated Bollywood movies; didn't read the drivel passed off as journalism in local English dailies; wasn't aware of books in local Indian languages; discovered the ideas in the local theatre to be about a 100 years behind; found Indian TV dramas laughably melodramatic and distrusted anything said to me by a fat man with a moustache using bad grammar and worse syntax (that's about 10 million people).

Clearly I had much more in common with those suffering during 9/11. After all, I watched Meet The Press with Tim Russert with gravity and belief, discussed Charlie Rose guests at West Village dinners, loved the movies of Woody Allen, devoured the novels of Philip Roth, read the New Yorker religiously. I often thought my life was Sienfeld-ian, and that New York, the cosmopolitan mix of everything, home to Mira Nair and Opus Dei, was the greatest city in the world. Like many middle class Indian immigrants, I was a self-proclaimed "democrat" because I enjoyed Clinton's articulation and because most people in Manhattan were (an immigrant's first need, over food and oxygen, is fitting in). Surely, I was more like them. A dignified, graceful educated people mourning when it was time to do so, like a dignified graceful educated people.

On 9/11, when people died, the survivors quoted poets and writers I knew. People experienced a range of mature emotions I could understand, funeral proceedings I could appreciate and would myself partake in. Everyone functioned on a higher level of intelligence - we were clever together. Surely this must be home, I thought. I was moved by moments that were expected to move and saddened by sad moments and felt and mourned. There was an assumed shared aesthetic, regardless of an actual union. At some distance and experienced alone but shared nevertheless, however cerebral.

Then I saw Mumbai and the death and blood and twisted metal. Constant footage of the kind of people I had decided to dislike, some dying, many helping. I saw scores of people near railway stations throwing open their homes for relief and shelter, thousands of low-income housewives with water along the major streets, handing them to people in cars (the same elite who scoff them). I saw thousands of Muslim men at the end of the day's prayers rushing (at the risk of arrest) to help the wounded and dead, even though the police had declared the railway tracks as cordoned-off zones. I heard from a tea vendor who lives on $2 a day deciding to run around all night serving tea to the distressed at the distinct possibility of devastating his lifelong business. I saw penniless students skipping critical examinations and cooking to feed people who couldn't get home to the suburbs. I saw beggars and homeless people carrying the wounded to hospital. I saw people who hadn't eaten for days delivering hot food to the injured. I saw people who had no business and no position to give anything, give and give more. Then, I cried. Simultaneously, I discovered this thing called a gut instinct. For years I had displayed an almost stoic, near-Scandinavian sense of restraint. I was secretly proud of this almost Western value of emotional stillness. I had never cried at any set back in my life, I had never cried at a loss of a family member. I had never cried during 9/11. But here I was, a temporary resident of a city I hate, watching a TV channel I hate, watching people I hate (and share nothing in common with), crying inexplicably for the first time and feeling the saddest moment I have ever felt.

I wondered later if this is what nationality meant. This gut instinct. A reaction wholly from the heart and free of the head. One that (no matter how many books I had read or commonalities I had shared or sophisticated opinions I had formed with a wonderful, literate, accepting nation), could come only with watching the suffering of one's own people. Whoever and wherever they may be, however different they may be.

Somehow, on 7/11 (as the media here, in some bizarre and silly correlation to the US, calls it) there is something higher at work; much more intrinsic, more knowledgeable, much more tuned into the pulse of this city. Something much angrier at India's economic boom (Lashkar E Toiba, the Kashmiri militant wing, has denied involvement) and equally conscious of the affluence and education of those that might take a first class train along the western line.

Some may say that the first class is easiest to get on with an explosive-filled suitcase but I would still argue that with those eight bomb blasts on 11 ^th July a demographic was being targeted, as much as mass casualty. That demographic being the architects of modern India. Young bankers, salesmen, software engineers, print journalists, TV actors, call-center employees, web designers, ad film makers et al. I am not suggesting that these people are being targeted as individuals. The idea that they stand for is being targeted. The idea of an affluent, educated, young, skilled workforce that is the backbone of India's economic transformation

It was also about killing a certain kind of people that might send a message to certain other kinds of people like them. Perhaps this isn't true in terms of individualistic specifics but if one was to generalize, from Dadar to Borivali, all the stations at that hour carry the commuting milieu that could be the perfect representative sample (and explanation) of India's rise. A consumer class of ambitious, literate, work-driven, under-45, set of men and women with disposable income. The new middle class as the papers keep saying. Many rent, many are breaking traditional notions (and real estate frameworks) of joint family systems, many refuse arranged marriages, many are single. Many are immigrants (increasingly from around the world).

As the (new and rapidly expanding) real estate that lines and surrounds these stations suggest, they are people who are changing the very nature of India's social ethos and thereby the nature of the city that houses them. Bandra, Khar, Santa Cruz, Andheri, Borivili are constantly evolving and advancing townships and the people who live in them are constantly evolving and advancing economically and intellectually as well. Lots of young couples live there. One can tell by civic amenities, restaurants, malls etc that keep popping up in these suburbs. The idea of south Bombay being the nerve center of the city is recently dead and city-dwellers have known this. This is information about the underlying trend within a city's pulse - recent news, often changing within a day, road gossip, stuff you overhear at bars or dinners or the Midday rag or from drivers and dabbawallahs (Mumbai's famous food delivery men).

Clearly these people who put these bombs stayed here long enough to understand trends and to feel Mumbai almost as a 20-year resident would. Could it be that these killers factored it in while planning? These bombs are much more than just a strike at the heart of Mumbai's suburbs; they are a strike at the heart of a new India. An India a lot of people under 40 are trying to create, an India their parents never knew or expected. An India busy with new corporations, new ethics and skilled labor, free of cheap religious strife or ignorant feudalism. An India with young love and unlimited energy, free of nonsense casteism and ignorant racism. A melting pot of bureaucracy-free achievement, hard work, entrepreneurial innovation and new, relentless dreams. Whoever did this, doesn't like where India is going, as a young, hopeful, confident, people.

It seems by getting on those trains the day after the attacks these same young hopeful people, (who perhaps can afford to miss a day's work though most companies recorded 90% attendance), collectively seemed to say, "Hell with you - we've got a materialistic, capitalist fun country to build because we're real tired of the old socialist one. Take your bombs and keep exploding them, we've got cell phones to buy, girls to date, malls to shop in and job interviews with multinationals which will triple our salaries. No matter what the you do Mr. Terrorist Person, we'll be out and about - the new India is here and you can't stop us".

Anuvab Pal is a playwright of Indian origin based in New York City. He is currently living in Mumbai for a year working on the production of 2 Independent films he has scripted.

Where now is the fervor?

2006-07-20T17:37:00.000+05:30

Where now is the fervor?
Does the smoke appear less striking,
Less black against azure horizons?

From afar I see the smoke
It billows night into the day
It cleaves the sky
Coalescing with that of other fires
An amalgamation of animus
Holding ransom the sun

I witness in despair
The world become the oil fields of Kuwait
Black pillars suspended by acrid skies
Children strewn like confetti
Homes and lives turned to rubble

And all I do is write
Whisper against roar of machines
And wonder
If throwing a stone will make a difference

It is difficult to not fall prey to anger
When it hunts the tall grass
The air sweet with the smell of blood
Summoning the primal
Why resist natural inclinations

They won't stop while I breathe
Till my flash is gnashed between their teeth
Or I am one
Of them

Light does not destroy the dark
It merely brushes to the side
Finding corners
Only darkness consumes darkness

What good to crush the cockroach
When for each
A hundred more infest the walls
Except for the pleasure
Of crushing
That taste of bile as teeth grit

I feel myself descend the staircase morose
I wade into seething
My supposed values trail behind me
Clamoring cans on a string
Beckoning me
As they
One by one
Fall off
Fading into deep waters

Ban Bane

2006-07-20T01:22:00.000+05:30

The question which most of my blogger buddies and friends who know that I blog, ask is: doesn't the government understand that this ban on blogs is a serious contravention of our Fundamental Right to Freedom?! Evidently, the answer is not. This is the third straight day of the ban on blogger and other blog-engines in India, and the Delhi government is still to come out with a proper statement. The government still insists that only 20 or so 'religiously extremist' blogs have been censored, while the ground reality is a total blanket ban.

So what's with these jokers?

Time to look into the mirror. I've been the goody-goody guy for as long as I can remember. The only time I seriously broke the law was when I was in a car speeding along the East-Coast Road outside Chennai, drunk like a fish, and doing some pretty bad (on hindsight) making-out in the backseat. So I got scared when the police pulled us over then. Today, it's different. Today, there's outrage. And honestly speaking, it still hasn't sunk in completely. I was arguing with a friend yesterday when he suggested that blogs were banned and that's why I couldn't access mine - I told him, it was idiotic to think of that drivel in India - and barely five minutes later I had to eat crow.

They say that mainstream media has been following up on the Blog Ban. Well, evidently, they haven't had that big an effect. Maybe, when push comes to shove, they look at the statistics: as far as population figures go, how much do bloggers actually compromise, anyway? And in looking at the numbers, that's where they slip up and fail to realise that they've compromised on the Fundamental Rights for all. The way I express my fundamental right may be different and more advanced technologically than the method adopted by a voter from a village in North Bihar... but my rights are no less important, no less sacrosanct than his. And that's something that the mainstream media seems to have forgotten in its tame coverage of the blog ban, and something that the government doesn't seem to care about at all, in this age of Reservation.

There are more kinds of terrorism than just bombs in a train.

Mumbai, Mayhem & T.S. Eliot

2006-07-19T15:57:00.000+05:30

Last night I read Eliot.
These are strange times to read him
and more to discuss him with a friend at Marriott
as we sip wine and eat lamb-steak,
expostulate (that’s a big word) against double-speak,
heresy, hypocrisy, a bureaucrat’s bid to block blogs,
America’s complacency, Israel’s capacity to bamboozle, shock.
My friend chuckles, he’s recently been to Tel Aviv,
is well acquainted with Israel’s potential for mischief.
And then, my friend burps, sighs,
“Aren’t we lucky to be alive?”
But then when were the trains our aspirations in rush hour drives?
We’re probably waiting for the Metro
for us to shift to public transport,
aspire then for a workplace
between Versova and Ghatkopar.

(…the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table…)*

The conversation shifts to extra-marital affairs, orthopedic surgery –
Professor Matuknath Chaudhary’s love discourses for his paramour Julie.
(I think Matuknath has balls
to turn his life into a brawl
and stand for what he believes
while the news channels gloat at this sleaze.)
But it is politically correct to take pot-shots
at him and I further it with parental duty, guilt.
I talk about my mother’s rheumatism, her knee…
Why is it that women suffer more from arthritis?
Has there been a medical research on this?
My friend shrugs, I don’t know though my mother also suffers from it.

(We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!)**

The bill is paid. We step out in the early morning rush.

(Half-past two,
The street-lamp said,
“Remark the cat which flattens itself in the gutter,
Slips out its tongue
And devours a morsel of rancid butter.”)***

I am grateful to my friend, and
he says thank you for that rib-tickling performance.
This is the best we can offer to each other –
Moments like bric-a-brac, friendship as a tag –
A mathematician and a stand-up comedian.

I stand smugly satisfied at this sight.
The rain assumes the muggy Mumbai night…

(Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh;
The worlds revolve like ancient women
Gathering fuel in vacant lots.)****

Notes:
*From T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”
**From T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men.”
***From T.S. Eliot’s “Rhapsody on A Windy Night.”
****From T.S. Eliot’s “Preludes.”

Bypassing the ISP firewalls

2006-07-18T09:41:00.000+05:30

I am appalled at the depths to which the government of this country is sinking in order to curb freedom of speech. The Sri Krishna Commission Report is allowed to gather dust by labelling it classified. Fanaa and Da Vinci Code get “banned” in certain states in the country. Now, less than a week since the Mumbai train bomb blasts, ISP’s across the country are confirming that according to a DoT directive they are banning sites hosted on Blogger, Yahoo Geocities and Typepad – all mainstays of the country’s blogging population. The reason is probably the horrified reaction that the people have expressed through their weblogs.

What Mr. Manmohan Singh and his pathetic excuse for a government have failed to realise is that geeks rule the world today. Any attempts to play Big Brother will be ruthlessly routed.

If you wish to read a weblog hosted on any of the above mentioned sites, use any of the numerous proxy services available. My personal favourite is http://www.shysurfer.com. Simply open this site, and enter the url of the website you want to view and submit.

If you do not have continuous internet access you can have the weblogs emailed to you via www.web2mail.com. Open your email application or web-based email website. Compose a new email and address it to www@web2mail.com. In the subject enter the url of the website you want to view and send. The email body can be left blank.

The url for Writers Against Terrorism is http://writersagainstterrorism.blogspot.com. If you think that people may not remember the url to your blog and wish to you have it listed for reference please leave a comment here. I'll be glad to be of help.

Partners in Failure

2006-07-17T20:15:00.000+05:30

After the initial frenzy, media has settled in finding facts and more importantly the people who should take the blame.

Hindustan Times (Big Story,Sunday,16th July) accused National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan for letting the good work done by his predecessors, Brijesh Mishra and Late J.N. Dixit (who left us when we needed him most!). Earlier Times Of India had reported that Maharashtra Government did not do the neccessary follow up of the central intelligence operations which aborted attack on RSS Headquarters in Nagpur and led to recovery of cache of arms in Ahmednagar. It said that Government has been using the state intelligence for spying the opposition's moves and the units have got very less time, personnel and motivation to locate and neutralize the umpteen sleeper cells ready to strike. Indian Express too expressed more or less similar sentiments.

But what was most worrisome for me, was the BJP deciding to play hate card. You don't need to
be Sherlock Holmes to understand motive behind Narendra Modi being brought in Mumbai. Almost all my news feeds in Live.com have been screaming that police and intelligence agencies were on the edge due to Modi's rally and hence increased chances of communal tensions and riots. I don't want to go in the warp of Godhara and its aftermaths but really by encouraging communal divide Modi and his counterparts in other parties have given terrorists precisely what their bosses in Pakistan had prayed for. And they might even have got unexpected friends like U.P. Chief Minister!

Maybe heads will roll in the intelligence and security establishments. Narayanan might go, Maharashtra and other states may have their intelligence and security measures beefed up, but what about these politicians? Who will make them accountable?

Terrified Of The Aftermath

2006-07-17T12:59:00.000+05:30

The evening the blasts took place, I sent frantic text messages to friends in Bombay. Most replied as soon as they could and said they were fine. One friend said he was all right, but was ‘terrified of the aftermath’.

I didn’t say this to him because he was clearly distraught, but I thought to myself cynically, that there would be no aftermath. Naturally not – Bombay had to display its famous resilience and it did.

But it takes a different degree of cynicism to know that though the aftermath did not take the form of riots, there is one and we see it all around us. After all, we’ve got used to institutionalised pogroms; we know which slums the cops will visit first. We’ve got used to segregating ourselves into our own little ghettoes. (After December 1992, when I was house hunting in Bombay, I was shown one unlovely flat on the ground floor with an open drain running sluggishly outside and a kitchen that doesn’t bear talking about. The broker enthusiastically extolling its virtues, pointed out to me that here there were only Hindus. “Not one single Muslim here, madam.”) We’ve got used to eyeing each other with suspicion and muted hostility. In the 60’s it was the Tamilians, then Muslims, now North Indians (and Muslims; I think we can take that as read). Everywhere we see enemies.

The aftermath of a terrorist attack is all around us, no matter how easily we appear to have recovered.

The most horrific thing about an act of terror is that you can only react. I’ve been trying to think of ways in which we could avoid or prepare for a future attack and I’ve come to the sad conclusion that there are none. Everything that one could possibly do is a reaction to violence with not strength enough or conviction enough behind it to remove the cause of it.

What could we do? Provide more security? Great. But where would we provide it? Have we accounted for every possible place the terrorists could have thought of? How much security is enough, so that we do not cross over the line from protection to invasion of privacy? How many of our freedoms will we willingly forego so that we might be safe?

We know where the camps are, people say. Bomb the bastards. Smoke them out. Like the US did in Afghanistan and Iraq, no doubt.

The trouble is, to destroy your enemy, you have to become like him. And then who will you destroy?

Introspection at a time when everyone is clamouring for action and results might seem self-indulgent. But I don’t see a way around it. How does one respond to terrorism except after the fact of it? And how does that help?

I don’t know. But I’m beginning to see how terrifying the aftermath is.

The Value of Human Life in Islam

2006-07-17T09:44:00.000+05:30

I was once fortunate to hear Maulana Syed Kalb-e-Sadiq, Senior Vice-President of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, at a Shia congregation. The Maulana was speaking on Jehad and terrorism. I do not recall much of his speech except a portion where he expatiated upon the idea of human life in Islam. He said that the most important aspect of a Muslim life is to believe in the principles of Islam and the articles of faith. For a Shia these will translate into the roots of religion and the branches of religion. (You'd find the explanation to these on the same Wikepedia link that I gave for the principles of Islam and the articles of faith.)

Now let's take an example of a devout Muslim, the Maulana said, who follows these principles to the last word. Let's say this man is preparing to go for Haj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, and has his passport with a valid visa and his plane ticket in his pocket. He has money that he has kept aside for religious alms in his pocket, is fasting as it is the month of Ramadhan and decides to offer Namaaz, the daily prayer, at the banks of Gomti river. As he begins offering his namaaz he hears a splash in the river and a shout for help from a man drowning in the river. Let's say this man drowning is Bal Thackeray. Clearly, a man whom any average muslim does not see as a friend. Now what should this devout Muslim do? Should he abdicate his mandatory religious duties to save a man whom he sees as his foe or should he just carry on with his prayers and let Bal Thackeray drown thinking this must be some stroke of luck: The Divine Will?

No, the Maulana insisted. It is mandatory (read religious duty) for this devout Muslim to break his namaaz, jump in the river and break his fast, let his passport, plane ticket and money get wasted and save Bal Thackeray from drowning. This is what the value of human life in Islam is. I wonder Maulana why your words don't reach these self-proclaimed Jehadis who won't flinch from placing a bomb in a rush-hour train and blow to pieces few hundred innocent citizens. May be the Muslim Ulemas (read clerics) like Maulana Kalb-e-Sadiq need to use the mass media more effectively to propogate their words.

Amitava & I and The Demons We Fight...

2006-07-17T00:14:00.000+05:30

I wrote this piece long back but I feel some of it has relevance today. I am cross-posting this from my blog. If it interests you, you may read the rest here.

The relevant section is as follows,

I remember in one of the articles that Amitava wrote, he mentions it in his latest book ‘Husband of a Fanatic’ too, he reminisces his interaction with a Pakistani taxi driver. The driver said something about Americans, though not being Muslims, practice Islamic teachings in their social and civil behavior more. They give fair wages. I recall my mother echoing same sentiments after her first visit to the US though she didn’t speak about fair wages specifically. My apologies if I have hurt the sensibilities of non-Muslim readers. The idea is not to monopolize civil behavior as Islamic but understand our perceived realities. What I realized when I read about the taxi driver and heard my mother was how contact between diverse set of people change their perceived realities about each other. Prolonged non-contact leads us to look for stories elsewhere and we fall prey to media, stereotypes and our self-created demons. We construct our realities not on first hand experience but on heresy. And thus the enemy loses his or her face. The enemy becomes a perpetual demonic entity epitomizing everything evil that we are not. It becomes easier to hate the enemy, to fight him, to decimate him once he loses the face. In Amitava’s words we have a textbook enemy at hand. Easy to comprehend and perpetuate hatred against. And once this has been achieved even if textbook enemy surfaces as a face in real life, it is easier to ram a cricket stump up her vagina or chop off his body in six pieces even when he is dead. It becomes easier to lob a bomb in a shanty settlement as people sleep or walk in to a worship place and fire indiscriminately. (For details read Amitava’s first-hand reports in his book ‘Husband of A Fanatic’)

A friend chuckled and said one of the reviews said Amitava has overdone it this time. He is playing it to the galleries. No madam! Amitava has not overdone it this time. He is only highlighting the imminent danger if we do not fight this hate factory churning out textbook enemies. He is only giving a face to the enemy, making him or her more human through his personal interactions and in the process perhaps exorcising the ghost of textbook enemy. The demon is this ability of ours to create stereotypical enemies of chimerical proportions. Let us make the enemy more human. Perhaps, we will have fewer reasons to hate then.

So, Amitava and I finally meet. I sit through the book release listening intently to whatever is being spoken. One constant observation by many readers was Amitava’s intimate writing style. How he shifts from a general commentary on a political or a literary issue to a personal experience thus vacillating between an essay and a memoir. Readers found it hard to classify his work. Is it an essay, a personal memoir or may be part fiction? I could feel their discomfort. And I amusedly wondered why such an issue over his writing style. Why this urge, instinct, imminent need to classify, categorize, catalogue one’s work? A writer only speaks his or her mind whether it is a hard-hitting analysis or a personal experience or a fictitious tale. He or she knows no barriers. He or she will transcend them, flow lucidly through genres, keep writing till the myriads of emotions welled inside flow out as words on paper. This urge to classify is similar to our primal instinct to seek security, to draw the unknown in to the known. This insistence to adhere to the known, to conventions, to the practiced is a reflection of how we have become a stickler for nomenclature, systems, dogma, etc. We ought to be somebody – an essayist, a novelist, a critic, a Muslim, a Hindu, a South Asian, an American – any of this but how can we assume plural identities. And the moment we do this there is a violation. It is the same instinct that engenders an appetite to create textbook enemies. A writer strives to fight this. He or she strives for a borderless world where our identities don’t define us, our humanity does.

Murtaza Danish Husain

September 18, 2004
New Delhi

Blogspots Blocked By Some Service Providers in India

2006-07-16T23:34:00.000+05:30

Just when we thought we have a blog going we’re faced with this irritant hurdle of censorship. Many here in India have not been able to access any site with the trail blogspot.com for last three days. Initially, I thought it was particular to me till I reached the Google help thread and found there are many who’re suffering. One person on the thread even claims that her service provider confirms a government diktat to block sites with the trail blogspot.com. These might be used by terrorists to communicate. But this is preposterous. There are hundred other ways of communicating on Internet. I wonder how many of them will be blogging and surely blogger.com is not the only service that provides you with blogging facility.

Further, Neha Vishwanathan is keeping a tab on this. You may check out the progress here. I wonder, is there a way we can make our voices reach the Indian government and the blogger admin? Any suggestions?

Cheers

Aftermath

2006-07-16T22:23:00.000+05:30

Today is the 5th day after the blast. A lot has happened since then. Night of 11th passed when people came out providing succor to those who were left stranded in the streets. They distributed food and water, opened up their homes, offices, colleges for people to rest in, queued to donate blood, provided help to those who were making rounds of the hospitals/railway stations to find information about their loved one. In the hour of crisis, they did what came naturally – acted in a humane way.

The next morning people were back to work, kids were back to school and the markets, the streets, the railway of Mumbai was back in business. A display of the 'never say die' spirit of Mumbaikars? Or was it simply that there is no other way of being? Work had to be done, money had to be earned, classes had to be attended – and one needed to travel to accomplish all this. So they were back to the crime spot, taking the very trains in which a few hundred had lost lives just a few hours ago. They clamped their mouth shut to prevent any screams from shattering the bauble of normalcy at display. And they calmed their fears, hoping to reach home safely and live another day.

Along came TV channels and their psychedelic interviews with people from all walks of life. Numerous forums sprung up condemning the act of terrorism, the terrorists in general, the dictators who unleashed mayhem to make a point, the leaders who thought they knew what was right and what was wrong and pushed countries to war. A lot of words have been generated; a lot of heat has been built up – BUT TO WHAT GOOD?

Will things change by carping about them? Will they change by holding others to blame? Will our leaders become responsible by creating a noise about their acts of irresponsibility? I don't think so. If we are really serious about wanting to see a change in the current scenario, if things have to change then we need to become part of the process that brings about change. We need to become active and create a country that we would like to live in. We need to define such an India and then see what we can do to make sure that it becomes so. Rather than raging, I'd rather be part of a group that gets down to making a difference in this lifetime.

Enough of waiting for me. I have dreams. I want to see India which is generous, strong, ambitious, humble, full of vitality, spiritual, responsible to it's citizens, the world and the universe; India which has a responsible leadership that it's citizens and world looks up to; India where people dream beautiful dreams and find support to make these dreams become reality; India which uses it's strength with discretion and intelligence; India which has faith in itself and inspires the same faith in others. I'd rather spend my energy creating a brilliant shinning India. Utopian dreams? Till they aren't achieved they might appear so to a few but they can be achieved or at least I can work towards making it come true.

And if we are not ready to take the responsibility to bring about a change, if we are not ready to act so that we create living conditions to our liking, it's time to keep our mouth shut! Either we learn this time and act or accept that someone or the other would kick us where it hurts - again and again.

Well, I am going to make this dream come true. I am going to create an India that I want to live in!

Surviving the New World

2006-07-16T16:06:00.000+05:30

At the latest, confusion reigns in the circus that is Indian politics and TV news TRPs are shooting beyond all glass ceilings. Sounds like any other day in our country, doesn't it? But it isn't any other day. At the time of writing, it has been only 75 hours since a terrorist attack caused the death of close to 200 and injury to over 700 innocent people in Mumbai. Yet, apart from that horrific statistic, nothing in the lives around me are reminiscent of such a tragedy.

Is this indifference gradually killing Mumbai?

Every tragedy Mumbai faces (and our city has been through quite a few in the years gone by) throws up a bone to chew on while we avert our eyes from the dead and dying. This time the pet contention is the merit of Mumbai's resilience.

Much has been said about it on every media possible, so let's not convolute the issue further. The Oxford dictionary defines 'resilience' as the ability to recover quickly from difficult situations. Mumbai, as a city, is resilient in numbers. When 200 people die in train blasts, 200 more will arrive the next day to take their place in the trains. This is not surprising, neither is it really commendable. It is just a logical statistical fact. To say that the people of Mumbai are resilient, we would have to compare the resilience shown by those who sat at home on Tuesday and saw the tragedy unfold on their television sets with those of the families who lost their loved ones. It will be an unfair and impossible comparison. When people boarded the trains on Wednesday, it was not a testament to resilience as much as it was a comment on our overpopulated over-competitive world that could, put quite simply, care less for their expendable lives.

Today, the people of Mumbai (as with the rest of the world) have largely been desensitized by constant media exposure of random acts of violence. We are gradually losing the essential quality that makes us human - that of empathy (amidst an abundance of sympathy). When we compare the lifestyle of Mumbai to a rat-race, we should also acknowledge what that makes of us, the people. We have become animals - constantly racing toward some finish line or the other. In the larger socio-economic machinery that we move through, we have reduced ourselves to replaceable bits and pieces. It is heart-breaking (albeit cynical) to point out that the city of Mumbai will not miss the 200 who lost their lives.

That said, the media cannot be unequivocally blamed for turning viewers into heartless zombies - they are there to report facts. If violence is a fact, it is their responsibility to report it. As a conscientious audience and as a part of the world population, it is important to keep this fact in mind. The world today IS a world of violence. We cannot escape it. Somehow, while we went on about our daily lives, a new world has emerged. It is a world of unpredictable chaos.

As US soldiers panicked under guerrilla warfare in Vietnam, the world today quakes under this new form of warfare - terrorism. However, we have not been able to move away from conventional methods of combating this situation and if we do not wake up to the challenge soon, we too will crumble under its threat as the US did in Vietnam. The new world of chaos needs to be met with a new approach to combat and survival.

It needs to be understood that terrorist attacks cannot be given a face. While we instinctively bay for blood when hurt, we must understand that in the case of terrorism it is not a person or a group of people that are to blame. Terrorism has its roots in hatred, illiteracy and poverty. When we punish a person or ban a group involved in a terrorist attack, we do no more than lynch one head of the hydra that is terrorism. A new head is born before we are even done dealing our brand of justice. We cannot stamp out terrorism by killing terrorist leaders. There will always be newer ones to take their place. We cannot stop terrorism by banning or arresting terrorist groups - other groups will emerge to replace and avenge them.

The war against terrorism cannot be waged by armed forces. It cannot be won by weapons. We cannot fight on their turf. We must understand it and supersede it. All conflicts beings clashes of differences, we must work at resolving the differences that lead to terrorism. Terrorists cannot be terrorized. Violence will only beget more violence and the rift between the perennial 'Us and Them' will continue to widen with innocent blood to pay. We must combat the elements that bring about terrorist acts by spreading awareness, providing education and bettering the economic standards for citizens of the world - it is the lack of these very facilities that breed the manpower behind every terrorist attack. Sounds quite utopian, doesn't it? How can we expect the entire world to turn Gandhian? Yet, Gandhi was a man with utopian principles. Not meaning to split hairs and question the Indo-Pak divide that we still suffer from, the man with utopian principles did win his fight and inspire others like Martin Luther King Jr to win theirs.

Yet, the government of India (should I also point to the US?) will not pay heed to the principles they export in the image of the 'Father of the Nation'. We are instead led on a wild goose chase across countries and communities to find the people behind the attack. Eventually a few arrests will be made to appease the bloodthirsty public, a few bans will be imposed, countries, communities and people will be blamed. Soon, we will forget this ever happened - till another terrorist strike wakes the media to dredge up statistics of this tragedy as they do now with the '93 attack. The dead will enter the books as numbers and the numbers will pile on till the entire world implodes with violence one fateful day that no one will be around to record.

It saddens me to see that the Tuesday attack is being used as an excuse to delay peace procedures with our neighbouring nation when it should be more of a reason to speed things up. Selfish, jingoistic patriot politics can be done without in the new world. In the new world, we stand united or we die. To combat terrorism is to combat hatred. It requires dissolving boundaries. There cannot be a country against terrorism. There can only be a united world against terrorism.

In the new world, we are responsible and should be held accountable for the overall development of all countries and people. That is the only way to combat terrorism. Yet, the priority remains fixed on discovering which people, group and community perpetrated the Tuesday attacks. Should these villainous people be allowed to go free, then? No. Justice must be handed out. Innocent blood has been spilt and the murderers must be found and adequately punished as decreed by law. However, this cannot be championed as a solution to terrorism. It is not even anywhere in the right direction. The sooner the citizens of Mumbai, India (and, subsequently, the world) learn to make the difference between justice, revenge and the solution to terrorism, the better are our chances of surviving in the new world.

What steps has the government taken to combat terrorism? What steps has the government taken to ensure the safety of the citizens? Is it enough to install a few CCTV cameras at four railway stations? Or is it a futile knee-jerk reaction meant to pacify the easily distracted citizens of Mumbai? Will the terrorists attack the trains again? Or, will they target some other sector next? What if they target malls and multiplexes? How difficult would it be to leave a package unattended inside a department store? What if they were to attack hospitals? What if they attacked schools? Or housing complexes? Is the government really taking honest steps to ensure our safety? And, I reiterate, is it really doing anything to combat terrorism?

Or is it dangling a carrot of revenge, quick-fix safety and temporary patchwork on terrorist activities to appease the general public?

In the new world, I wake up every morning to the reality that I may lose my life today. It is a reality that must be embraced and logically considered. I may lose family and friends. They might lose me. And what then? Will all be forgotten once the perpetrators are caught? If I die of a terrorist attack, I would much rather the government spends its resources on making sure my family and others live to see a safer day tomorrow. What else could be of greater importance?

Yet, the prospect for such reaction by the government looks bleak. Vested interests, ignorance and egoistic differences of opinions run cracks through the government we have elected as it also divides us, rendering both governments and citizens ineffective. We cannot afford to look up to our elected godfathers for help anymore. They are only as much flesh and blood as we are. The emergence of the new world demands accountability of every one of us as citizens for our own safety. We are responsible for our own future. To survive the new world we need to become proactive citizens.

The key to proactive citizenry lies in proactive empathy. What we do or do not affects the entire population, as it does us individually. Citizen initiatives like the mumbaihelp blog as well as the compassion displayed by the people at and around the blast sites on Tuesday are sterling examples of proactive citizenry. These acts of empathy can serve as motivation to snowball an outpouring of human compassion that can overcome any obstacle thrown at us. However, these sparks of humanity are pocketed, reactionary and largely quick to expire. In the new world, proactive citizenry must be a permanent condition.

A proactive citizen is responsible for the safety of the entire world. If the world we live in is secure, so are we. Citizen initiatives must be undertaken to ensure the safety of our homes, offices and modes of transport. We, the citizens, must come forward to pursue and spread awareness of a world view. We must actively work at providing education and employment to all. Our compassion toward others must not only be present at all times but be aggressively employed against all odds.

Proactive citizens are also, finally, responsible for their own safety. If we secure the world for ourselves, we secure the world for others. Since as far back as I can remember, railway officials have insisted on the citizens' responsibility to ensure safe travel. How many of those safety norms have we flouted and how many have we seen flouted without protest? How many of us really keep a look out for abandoned packages and how many of us bother to inform authorities when we see one? The new world demands a proactive vigilance. Ever since the BEST bomb incident, I have always pushed a foot beneath my seat to check for planted parcels when travelling by bus. I call this a healthy paranoia. We have nothing to lose by it except for a complacent sense of well being that we, frankly, can do without.

The next time a tragedy like this occurs, we will have no one to blame but ourselves.

The war against terror can only have one victory - peace. This war has already begun and, whether you like it or not, we are all soldiers in this war. If we are to survive this war, we must wake up to our responsibilities as soldiers of peace. It is not an easy task. We have been wronged, you and I, in so many ways. It is not easy to forget those scars. Yet, if we want to score victories for the world, we must start on a clean slate. We cannot walk into the future with one foot in the past. This is a new world. This is a new war. We must shed our civilian skins and be reborn as soldiers of humanity. We must become proactive citizens of the world.

It is not an impossible feat. It will be difficult. It will be painful. Yet, it is not impossible.

I dream of a day when we can live without the shadow of mortal fear upon us. There is a long way to go yet. That day will not dawn on us while we sleep. We must wake up. Wake up and question your animosity. Wake up and question your apathy. Wake up and question your helplessness.

I urge you. Wake up. Wake up to the reality of the new world. Wake up before it is too late.

To Speak

2006-07-16T14:29:00.000+05:30

This post is an extension of the previous post by Dan. To clarify, the poet he menions there is me, and the poem in question is this, which drew this comment. I'm overwhelmded by the way Dan has come to my defence. Thanks, Dan. You've eloquently made your point about virtual terrorism, and you're absolutley right. Like I said in our correspondence, I was shaken by that strange comment. I would normally not have paid much attention to something like that, but this blog is different from a personal blog, and we all realize that there is a stated purpose behind any writing we put up here. Literary this blog might be, but given the import of what brought it about, each word put up here must have the gravity of chiselmarks on granite. And so, I did for a moment falter and question myself- did I anger someone who perhaps had been too close to the brink of the madness that day, and to whom it might have seemed facetious? And that let me take another long, hard look at the 'poem'. I do not know whether it qualifies as 'poetry', if there are any yardsticks for passing that judgement. But I do know that those words were wrenched out of my, in a blinding madenning stomach churning motion, even as the darkness closed around me. What darkness?, it may be asked. After all, I was sitting here in the comfort of this far-flung city, so far away from that grisly rite of passage. But we do not live in the flesh alone. And to live in times like these, to see that paegant of death in a procession of image after insensate image on one's television screen, is to begin to lose one's tenuous grip on sanity. Yes, I was pretentious- I was pretending to hold on to sanity in a world which has forgotten the meaning of that word- I was trying to claw it off from the clouds. As I said in that piece, words are such frail, fragile things, and when so many lie maimed and mutilated, to rattle of words might seem like mental masturbation. But we are made by words, o anonymous commenter, and they are the flickering screen through which we look out at the world of the exterior. Do not forget that behind the deafening blasts, behind the faces masked in hatred, lie words- words of bigotry, words of intolerance, words of blind, hideous malice. And to counter them, it is important that we also counter with those same fragile weapons- because when flesh and bone decay and are translated back to the elements from which their syllables were formed, words still remain as echoes of lost songs. I may not be able to do much, but I can still speak, and to speak is to begin the process of reaffirmation.
Regards,
Arka

Virtual Terrorism

2006-07-16T13:53:00.000+05:30

I hate the idea of moderation. It is a direct manifestation of censorship and at once a statement that people need to be regulated. But then why must we regulate anyone?

Speech like any other act wishes responsibility. Vitriolic assertions, blame-games, mud-slinging, name-calling; all that may make great fiction and high-pitched drama but I guess is uncalled for at a forum where we’re trying to put our heads together and speak against a genuine menace that plagues most of our societies. I am sure there must be a dignified way of protesting, opposing a certain idea that displeases us. Why must we abandon civility just because we wish to drive a point home? Do two wrongs make one wrong right? May be in our simple primary school mathematics but I guess not when rights are usurped and infringed upon. I can understand if you find a poem “rubbish”. Substantiate it. Speak your mind out and give a solid critique as to why you feel the poem is rubbish but what makes you say “pretentious ass”? Do you know the poet? And if you do so then perhaps you should take it up with him personally and not berate him on a public forum. I can understand your genuine outburst and anger against terrorism but what is the need to mock at someone’s pedigree or taunt him for his age. These acts defeat the very purpose of initiating a forum like this and distract us from the purpose of churning out a meaningful, well-thought out response to terrorism and other such bane. It might make for a great blog reading, may give voyeuristic thrills to some and to use the television jargon may enhance the blog’s TRP but I don’t think all who’re here came with any such intention.

Let’s not lose perspective. Feel free to comment and speak your mind against anything, which you feel is worthy of your opposition, but please let’s just do that in a more dignified manner. You’d be surprised how people may respond and even flex their viewpoints if you could argue out logically with them.

Though I’ve been using Internet close to a decade now, I woke up very late to the fact that I can use the same for showcasing my writings and expressing opinions: last two years to be precise. The first time I got an adverse comment on my writing, it was very demoralizing. I was dejected, lost confidence and almost felt like giving it up. But then for one adverse comment there would be many encouraging my writing too. I also found the worst were the ones, which were posted under anonymity. They were mean, derisive, mocking, almost humiliating. Over a period, I realized most such comments were posted with mal intentions and didn’t really have any literary value in them. Slowly, I conditioned myself to ignore them. But today I feel there is a parallel. Have you ever noticed that most anonymous comments are extremist, vitriolic, abusive and filled with hatred? Isn’t that the way the anonymous bombers operate? I call this virtual terrorism. Please do not adopt the ways of those whom we intend to oppose.

Thanks.

Questions the mind asks.

2006-07-16T00:11:00.000+05:30

1. Eyewitnesses claim there were at least 200 people dead per station. If we think this figure too high and consider even half the amount of dead (knowing it to be a traffic-heavy time), the overall figure should be 700. If we still think this figure impossibly high and consider only about 50 people per station as entire bogies were blown up and people on the station died too, then too the figure comes to 350. The official figure being announced is near to 200 people. How?

2. Where were the police? There's always some official, especially at Bandra station rounding up 'hafta' from rickshaw drivers... traffic police too, especially at peak hours like this. So where were they till an hour after the blasts?

3. Is Pasricha's claim that politicians are involved, true? Is that why he is being asked to shut up?

4. 'Apparently' the police were informed in advance that the blasts were to take place. Was that why they arrived an hour late?

5. Intelligence sources are 'pretty sure' that the SIMI is involved in these attacks. This being 'confirmed' by the Home Ministry. Then how come the leader of SIMI is being given a clean chit from one of the politicians (Mulayam Singh Yadav- a chief minister, no less) and a political party like Samajwadi? (ps: Do the samajwadi people even understand the meaning of their party name?)

6. This again leads tracks to Dawood. Why is it so difficult to catch/kill the guy, when he is present for filmy functions of Bollywood, and vice versa?

7. How come, that in any terrorist attack, all across the globe, there is never a celebrity or politician killed?

All the above questions need factual and true answers... who's going to give them?

Who's responsible?

2006-07-15T20:21:00.000+05:30

A friend of mine told me "It's the Muslims who are responsible for the blasts, we should teach them a lesson".

That sounded about right, so I picked up my trusty machete and set out to avenge the deaths of my innocent countrymen.

I went and confronted Khan Sahib , who owned a small shop in the neighborhood.

Me: "It's you Muslims who are responsible for the blasts, I have come to teach you all a lesson."

KS: "I had nothing to do with the blasts, you cannot hold me responsible for everybody who shares my religion."

Me: "Don't you share their ideology? Don't you support them?"

KS: "No, how did you assume that I do? I don't support anybody who commits or incites violence."

Me: "If you don't support them, why don't you speak out against them?"

KS: "These fundamentalists are dangerous people, I am afraid to mess with them. I have a family, a business. I know I am not a hero, that I am not doing the brave thing, but does that mean I am one of them?"

Me: "But isn't Islam a militant religion, isn't it dangerous to let it grow?"

KS: "Find somebody else to debate that with. All that matters is that I am not militant."

As I stepped out from Khan Sahib's shop, I realized that I had nowhere to go next, that each one of the Muslims I knew was no more responsible for the blasts than I was.

I still want to punish those who did it, so I decided to go back and ask my friend: "It might have been Muslims that did it, but specifically which ones?"

The Blasted Heath

2006-07-15T09:30:00.000+05:30

What are words?
Twisted lipmarks upon wind
Fractured, fractalled orchids of the mind
That strange, shadow-illumined place.
What are words? What good?
What good the blue dance of light
In the Kreutzer, as Perlmann's fingers shape it?
What good the vanishing arc of sun over the western sea?
What good the smell of tea, the tinkling chords of spoon
Upon porcelain? What good, what good?
What good the endless evenings of aloneness
What good the search for a permanent address
In city after city, in the mind's wilderness?
What good the debates over Foucault, What good
Swiss chocolates, what good glenfiddich?
What good Prithvi and Nandan? Passolini? What good?
When this terrible ecstasy breathes its vapours into
The fabric of the evening, and joins the dots
Of abscence in the sky:
Karbaala, Jerusalem, New York, Delhi, London, Mumbai, Mumbai...
Howl howl howl howl howl
Amidst the bitter waters of this evening of silence,
Amidst this littany of loss,
Amidst this perverse ceremony of bewilderment
This frayed ritual of forced forgetting, in endless encores
Howl howl howl howl howl
The fables of memory
Stifled in the throats of the
Ghosts that whirl in the dustspecks
Amongst dawnlances of sun, in
The planar intersections
Of the city beneath whose skin
All the shadow cities of the mind
Have taken root
Howl howl howl howl howl
Out dreams from the
Throats of a thousand lost
Generations, smear them upon the sky
For we, pale, dream-forged beings,
Spasms of light in this weary universe-
We are made and unmade by love.

Mumbai, Mon Amour

2006-07-15T09:18:00.000+05:30

Every time something happens to Mumbai the city, I get double vision. A feeling that all of this has happened before and will happen again and again, time out of mind. And when this happens, I can’t hep but think of Resnais’ Hiroshima, Mon Amour.

It’s an unusual film for the way in which so much of it is in voice over. Nowhere else does the interior monologue (in a screenplay by novelist and filmmaker Marguerite Duras) emphasise the way in which the inner life is separated from the outer, and the dangers of such a separation. If memory is fundamental to the way in which the mind functions – and an interior monologue is nothing but a door opened into the workings of the mind – then the deliberate rejection of memory is the way in which the external life is lived.

In Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Emmanuele Riva is in Hiroshima years after the war is over, to make a film and has an affair with Eiji Okada during the course of which memories of her dead German lover during the war, in Nevers, are evoked.

But Hiroshima is much more than a love story; at the heart of the film is the paradox of necessary memory and the dangers of forgetting. We need to remember the past and keep its horrors before us so that we do not repeat our mistakes. But to remember such horrors paralyses us. We have to forget to be able to live and thus we condemn ourselves to repeat our mistakes.

And why this film is on my mind is, of course, because of the serial blasts in Mumbai. Every few years, some crisis, some act of terror draws to our attention this necessary forgetting that made living possible after the last time. How else would the city function, if it was frozen in fear? How would anyone climb on another train, take a bus or sit in another theatre? We forget because we have to. And so we relive these horrors every once in a while. So it goes.

PS: When I first saw the film, I made extensive notes because the voice over was poetic and true and I wanted to remember everything. I knew if I didn't write it down, I would forget. It is exquisitely ironic, therefore, that 13 years later, when I want to quote from those notes, I can't find the book in which I wrote down practically the entire monologue word for word.

PPS: Rajit Hoskote’s op-ed, Resilience is good, but amnesia is fatal in The Hindu (I don't have a link) yesterday suggests that we ought to, instead of dusting ourselves off and carrying on, memorialise or archive our past so that we do not forget.

Mumbai ought to take the important symbolic step of enshrining the collective
spirit that shines through in times of crisis, by holding an architecture
competition for a monument to those who have died in the weave of riots, pogroms
and terrorist strikes since the early 1990s. it would also help to establish a
city museum that renders tribute to those moments of collective suffering when
Mumbai’s spirit has been tested and its best people have shown themselves at
their best.

Now, I don’t know about architecture competitions and I’m inclined to lean towards the general mood of ‘if I hear another word about the Mumbaikar’s spirit I will scream’ that is prevalent on this blog. But I do think that we need to have a place that will help us remember.

The malady of expressing one's opinion

2006-07-15T04:06:00.000+05:30

Someone had started a thread on another network with a mail forward that spoke of how resilient Mumbai-people are, as a means of getting us to appreciate their courage, their spirit to survivie. It was also a means to convey the enormity of the tragedy that has struck us.

But we did not let it be. Seeing, understanding( a bunch of people who write and express emotion so well, are also deeply in touch with feelings unexpressed and motivations unspoken of- I am assuming) the intentions behind the post, we proceed to analyze it. Just as we would another literary piece.( I actually am surprised someone did not point out the sms-ese evident in the forward)

Now of course one may argue with a "this is a literary network, the grammar and composition should indeed be meticulous" but events like this do call for a little stretching of the rules. and it is not even a stretching of the rules. Because it is about feeling at a raw level, a collective consciousness of sorts.

But no, we proceed to first reply to the post, or ponder on the political correctness of the piece... and then to comment and re-comment on idea threads that grew out of it- totally forgetting the original intent.

Healthy discussion - and a creative one like the one that ensued, is extremely entertaining, even commendable - but for something that is light hearted to start with, not in the face of tragedy. In that light it just seems totally inane and a desire to be heard at all costs . Of as dubious taste as "Apart from your husband's death Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play"

So I wonder, are we slowly becoming totally desensitized to something that should impact us as a mass of humanity on the whole, and let the fact that we want to express our opinions overpower it completely? Because we do not realize there is a time for everything. Is it of paramount priority to be heard - and is that more urgent that expressing solidarity? What happens in this case- that we hold forth on how plastic wrapping for medicines is dangerous for the environment, over the deathbed of a cancer patient( I am sorry, the analogy is a little too extreme, but in my opinion, the "lively discussion" that ensued is similar). just because the one second in which the "I" is not served is wasted? Is that what our feelings and deep rooted sensitivity, that we so keenly express through our original work here are about? Is that indeed what our education is about?

Questions need to be answered

2006-07-15T00:36:00.000+05:30

Post current bomb blast in Mumbai, I saw one of my house-mates opening his inbox and having a look at the different pictures of the bomb-blast sent to him in a forwarded mail. An activity, which in usual circumstances would have gone unnoticed by me...but this time it really got on my nerves! I mean, is that all that we are going to do about this, confirm if our family is well, and then next day send forwards about the incident...just imagine, thousands of individuals spending their time the day after the bomb-blast sending useless forwards, gaping at the pictures with shock, remarking how awful it is...and there it is over...the spirit of Mumbai it seems is in the fact that the people show no trace of reaction to what ever disturbances that have been introduced! while at some level it makes sense to get back to regular life as soon as possible, without giving the 'terrorist' the pleasure of seeing the city crumble, however some reaction, some actions need to be taken on behalf of the people, yes as a revolt against the injustice.

Media itself, makes incidents like this more of an entertainment matrial, than awareness and information spreading..and then the people go about spreading just that! I can understand the curiosity, the want for information, the empathy and the sympathy... yes all of that, but somehow I think, that is just not enough. There is got to be more than just this much that you can do.

Some questions in my head from quite some time now...

Who benefits out of all this chaos and bloodshed? The so called 'terrorists'? Terrorist is a vague term, I think we need to identify these terrorists... not just the known ones (like all those different terrorist groups) but the ones in disguise! How does one identify the terrorists? Well, that's the key question, but we need to really answer plenty of other question before getting to the root of this.

India's root problem? Population (could be poverty-so called, illiteracy rate, corruption...but since these are all in a loop, I have decided to take a starting point) Is there any course in the Indian Universities for the study of population, specialisation in population science, mathematics of population handling? There may be, but how many of the top and brilliant students of each school or univerity go for such a course?? And why would they go? When the government does not support such study, advertise their importance, or make them known to the people?After all, you can do IT Engineering and become a silly copy-paste-program-modifier and earn thrice as much as a a person struggling to study statistics with a mere Bsc. degree or political science in an even-less-sought-after-field, Arts. (With due respect to IT engineers, I know a lot of people who do interesting stuff there, but unfortunately I also know a whole bunch of them who are just wasting their time-brain-potential there, and then I feel really bad.) I mean dont we all know that engineering, medicine and now the hottest one MBA etc. are the money-making fields? Is it possible that every topper of every school or university shows an inclination for such fields only?? I dont think this is possible without any pre-bias. What sort of a balance or diversity do we achieve by this? (And then we are made to write essays in class 3 or 4 about India, Unity in Diversity! And we were made to believe stupid lies and rubbish, some time or the other! Where is the unity? what sort of diversity? Someone should explain better.)

Which effectively brings me to the point, has some one been seriously looking at the education system of the country? Has some one (who can qualify as the right person, but by whose standard, I have no clue) inspect the text books, and identify what is missing in them?
When I learnt history in school, no one ever mentioned anything about the 'chaos theory' to me. About changes in the past, affecting the future events to a much greater scale...I have learnt history as a boring story of the past and not as some meaningful input for the prediction and hence the prevention of the future calamities which could perhaps have been forseen! I am sure I would have taken more interest in the subject then. Another interesting fact, teachers. How many students willingly go for the teaching line? By the standard of most of my teachers in Engineering college, I would say only those who did not find another job...which does not make them the best teachers... in fact far from that!

There are plently of other such things, which need to be looked into in detail, like the fact that the intelligent (or the so called educated people of the city)who refrain from voting or taking any political interest, who are happily indifferent to what is happening, as long as their family is untouched, and so on...

Just like the past events have shaped up the present, our every today is shaping our future. It may be in our hands still, to make the individual difference, and hence contribute to a collective movement in the events to come. But I think it is very important to have a direction. If all of us are going to move in different random directions, there is going to be no resultant movement, hence I think the idea of coming over a platform to discuss such issues, and see what we can do 'together' is quite important. And thankyou Dan for taking the initiative. I hope this will not just be a discussion forum, but will graduate onto being a place to take descisions and acting on them.

Every question does have an answer, in fact some times more than just one, we just need to look harder for them, think harder on them. What do you think?

Dissecting Bomb Blasts

2006-07-14T20:43:00.000+05:30

It feels like deja vu again. It was London last year, Madrid two years ago, and a few days ago it was Bombay's turn to suffer a series of bomb blasts in its mass transit 'local' train service. The same thoughts of disgust, revulsion, shock and anger that occupied our thoughts exactly a year and two ago seem to be making a return visit. It feels so insanely unnatural because, somehow, we feel, it shouldn't happen this way. These barbaric acts of terror seem to be, according to our misguided impression, the preserve of some bygone era or a regular feature of some hell-hole of a failed and/ or a failing state.

All that is fine but what does one do if such acts of terror seem to happen in places we least expect. Like our cities, for instance. Modern cities that, we believe, are supposedly immune to primal rage. Situations such as these shatter our comfort zone, and increase our vulnerability and sense of mortality. It makes us realise that we are not superhuman creatures at all, and that the savage beast dwells within us and is cleverly concealed by our designer clothes and saville row suits.

However, that's something for sociologists and anthropologists to figure out but, as for me, I am quite keen to know what goes in the mind of terrorists who plant such bombs in crowded places. I'm sure it requires some depraved genius to devise such an attack on civilian targets because a rational mind will not and cannot develop such a terrorising scheme. Maybe I'm wrong in making such an assumption. Rational minds, after all, have, in the past, developed nuclear bombs, planned wars, spread dangerous rumours and hatched conspiracies that it would seem quite natural for even a rational mind to plan such an attack.

In all probabilities, a rational mind would measure the number of corpses in terms of psychological impact instead of looking at it in purely emotional terms and seeing only 'loss of human lives'. In fact, if some historians and commentators are to be believed, Hitler and Stalin were all rational creatures who 'thought' through their genocide and planned their ethnic cleansing operations quite clinically and methodically.

In anycase, that's them and they lived in a different time and era, but what does one have to say about our mass-transit bombers? How do they operate anyway? What rationale do they have in wreaking havoc on civilian lives?

I wish one could come up with a suitable answer that would seek some justification for this horror but I find it increasingly hard to do so. It just seems so inhuman that some people would actually believe that killing innocent lives will serve their political or whatever agenda. I am sure they have friends and families of their own, and are aware that death creates loss and gives rise to an empty void that can never be filled. I mean, I'm sure they know what it feels like to see loved ones perish, and so how could they just lose their sense of empathy and perform the very thing they are, probably, upset about?

I'm sure the terrorists have some genuine grievances that are making them behave in such a horrible manner, but it makes me wonder if this particular grievance is really worth all this trouble and misery. If it is making its supporters behave like savages, then, perhaps, they need to re-evaluate their priorities, strategies and, if need be, question the grievance, too. In my opinion, no grievance or cause or ideology is that sacred that its violation should demand the loss of innocent lives. If its proponents believe this to be the case, then, they are seriously misguided and must not expect any sympathy or support from fellow humans.

Such terrorist activity, in my opinion, is quite self-defeating and counter-productive because it makes it hard for anyone to take their 'cause' very seriously. No one is ever going to believe that a mass murderer has something important to say, and the same goes with these bombers. No one will ever take their cause seriously and it will, eventually, die an ignominous death. Sad. Very sad, because it completely destroys the possibility of dialogue and communication, and the benefits of possible reconciliation it might produce. It ends any hope for peace, and scuttles any chances for happiness and joy.

I wish I could understand why terrorists do what they do, but I doubt if it will ever make sense. And I don't think it is meant to make sense anyway because some things, however hard we try, can never be understood. It's the way things are, and will remain. But I do hope there is, at least, a fear of God that would make these terrorists think twice before embarking on their 'projects'. Am not sure if it will help, but, at least, it will be a beginning of major changes. And hopefully, a re-think of strategies and priorities. If that happens, then, it will definitely be worth celebrating, and let's pray that that will happen. Someday, soon.

I Drink to the Dead

2006-07-14T17:16:00.000+05:30

I drink to the dead
To drown my sorrows
I drink to the dead
To squelch the pain
I drink to the dead
As I am bewildered
I drink to the dead

I drink to the dead
To fuel indignation
I drink to the dead
To seethe my anger
I drink to the dead
Because I have no one to kill
I drink to the dead

I drink to the dead
Because I feel inadequate
I drink to the dead
Because I don't know what to do
I drink to the dead
It’s the only difference I can feel
I drink to the dead

I drink to the dead
To wash away their faces
I drink to the dead
To wash them all away like sticks down the Godavari
I drink to the dead
Because there are too many
Too many
I drink to the dead

I drink to the dead
Because I am a fool
Finding excuses
To be ineffective

Perhaps it is time

To put down my drink

Frothing at the mouth a bit. Incoherently at that.

2006-07-14T15:56:00.000+05:30

Indomitable. Unquenchable. The Spirit of Mumbai. [cue violins]

Enough already. You're making me throw up.

A city is a place. A geography. Like a state. Or a country. A municipal ward. A neighbourhood. Boundaries we create. We. Human beings. People.

Tell me, the stuff you saw the other day, the stuff you lived through, tell me now, did it seem all soft-edged and romantic?

Don't get me wrong. I'm awed, choked up, by the heroism. By the struggle against the odds. My heart breaks when I see the pain, the grief. But that's human beings being the best that they can in the face of other human beings being complete evil bastards. It's just the good in all of us showing through. Ain't got nothing to do with the geography. If it did, hey, there's enough heroism to see on a day to day basis on your way to work. If it did come down to the city, why aren't we crying everytime we see babies play in the muck besides the railway lines? Why aren't we breaking down when we watch a legless human being drag himself from car to car at traffic signals asking for money? Why aren't we frigging appalled and stung into action by children working for a living?

Stray thought. So you're pissed off about the TV channels shoving gore on to prime time. Or you're upset about the invasion of privacy. Oh you're disgusted about the way they're promoting themselves on the coat-tails of suffering. Tell me now, they're just showing a different aspect of that same spirit that we love to call the Spirit of Mumbai. They're Getting Down To Business. They're making the most of whatever opportunities life throws their way. They're seeking a share of your viewing time because that't their business. It's the same reason why you took a train to work on Wednesday. Because you must. Or lose out.

Another stray thought. I was exchanging SMSes with a friend. She asked about some Sri Lankan lads I know. She mentioned that one of her friends had been blown up at the Elephant Pass a little while ago. Over there in the "Emerald Isle," they've been getting it in the neck so long it's a part of life for them. You must talk to Morquendi sometime. Anyway.

My friend—the one who I started out the previous paragraph with not the Lankans—said, wouldn't it be great if this was the last of it for the year? Wouldn't it be nice if we had a a year's global armistice? A year without wars, terrorism, bombs, fighting?

A year, I said, A Year? Why not Peace In Our Lifetime? (I talk like that sometimes, In Capitalised Words.) The odds are better for a year, she said.

Is that what we're down to? Hoping for a few months of peace? Oh the humanity.

Oh, and that's a phrase I found reverbrating in my head the last couple of days. I looked it up, but I'm still not clear what it actually means. I'll give you Nilanjana's take instead. It says it better: I don't know what it means, but I know exactly what he meant.

Where was I?

Oh yes. The Spirit of Mumbai. We'll hear a lot of this in the weeks to come. How brave we are. How we never say die. (Tell that to the poor sods who got blown up.) Me? If I had my druthers, I'd prefer that we didn't have to prove ourselves in this way every few years.

Man. I really shouldn't write when I'm angry and depressed at the same time. It gets me into deep shit.

I'd better stop.

Cross-posted here. You can swear at me there if you prefer.

To Respond

2006-07-14T12:06:00.000+05:30

Soon after the shock of the bomb blasts in Bombay sunk in, everyone was asking, what would India's response be? Would we mass our troops along the border in a threatening manner as we did after the Parliament attack or simply issue a dire empty threat again? Would be be implusive and bomb Pakistan to stone age or pressure the United States to rein in its pet? Manmohan Singh delievered a staid address that has been panned by critics. It was a contrast to Bush's We Will Smoke'em Out. The fact that the Prime Minister had to read out a 3 minute typed address displays insincerity and lack of motivation to respond strongly.

Amit was fearful that the Shiv Sena might exploit this situation to inflame passions and do exactly what the terrorists intended - create an atmosphere of terror and instability. Frankly, you couldn't blame the Sena. Ask any man on the street who has bloodied and mangled bodies on their way to the hospital and he would have a similar reaction. These days the Gandhian philosophy of turning the other cheek is synonmous for cowardice. That said, I am still not in favor of inciting violence. If you pop up Israel's example of extracting an eye for an eye each time they are hit with violence, the current episode of strikes against Lebanon being a prime example, I'll only say that they have been doing so for ages and the issue still remains unresolved.

Much was also said about Bombay's resilient spirit, like we always do after the rains shut down the city. But as SWB says, we cannot always tout that as our saving grace. Such resilience may in turn be mistaken for apathy, which can also be the case in a bustling city like Bombay. Atanu asks a pertinent question and shares a pertinent speech:

A General Talks to His Army

“Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country. Men, all this stuff you’ve heard about America not wanting to fight, wanting to stay out of the war, is a lot of horse dung. Americans traditionally love to fight. ALL REAL Americans, love the sting of battle. When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble shooter, the fastest runner, the big league ball players, the toughest boxers.

Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time. I wouldn’t give a hoot in Hell for a man who lost and laughed. That’s why Americans have never lost and will never lose a war. Because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans. Now, an army is a team. It lives, eats, sleeps, fights as a team. This individuality stuff is a bunch of crap.

The bilious bastards, who wrote that stuff about individuality for the Saturday Evening Post, don’t know anything more about real battle than they do about fornicating. Now we have the finest food and equipment, the best spirit, and the best men in the world.

My God, I actually pity those poor bastards we’re going up against. My God, I do. We’re not just going to shoot the bastards, we’re going to cut out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We’re going to murder those lousy Hun bastards by the bushel. Now some of you boys, I know, are wondering whether or not you’ll chicken out under fire. Don’t worry about it. I can assure you that you’ll all do your duty. The Nazis are the enemy. Wade into them. Spill their blood, shoot them in the belly. When you put your hand into a bunch of goo, that a moment before was your best friends face, you’ll know what to do. Now there’s another thing I want you to remember. I don’t want to get any messages saying that we are holding our position. We’re not holding anything, we’ll let the Hun do that. We are advancing constantly, and we’re not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy. We’re going to hold onto him by the nose, and we’re going to kick him in the ass. We’re going to kick the hell out of him all the time, and we’re going to go through him like crap through a goose. Now, there’s one thing that you men will be able to say when you get back home, and you may thank God for it. Thirty years from now when you’re sitting around your fireside with your grandson on your knee, and he asks you, “What did you do in the great World War Two?” You won’t have to say, “Well, I shoveled shit in Louisiana.” Alright now, you sons of bitches, you know how I feel. Oh! . . . I will be proud to lead you wonderful guys into battle anytime, anywhere. That’s all.”

General George S. Patton, Jr.
3rd Army speech

England, 31 May 1944
6th Armored Division

This is a typical American reaction and in our present circumstances, we would be likely to identify with it. But remember that George Bush closely identifies with such a philosophy and is roundly hated for just that. Atanu, I believe writes on the lack of an aggressive spirit among Indians. We are more likely to accept things as they are and move on with our life rather than plan out an elaborate response. Is it a desirable trait? In other situations, I might think so but if done over and over again, it just doesn't come off as tolerance.

Don't give me the cliched "Lets attack them and bomb the hell out" solution. In today's changed world where a nuclear bomb makes thousand tanks redundant, let me know if you have an appropriate response that India can make; not just to assure its citizenry but also to send out a strong message that would act as a deterrent. I don't think there is one in sight yet but doesn't hurt to try to think of one, does it?

Cross Posted on Nerve Endings Firing Away

Can the War against terrorism ever be won?

2006-07-14T12:05:00.000+05:30

Mahesh says: Lets take Thackeray and Dawood on.

And is that a solution or is it just a creative outlet for the rage we all feel.

Isn’t it foolish to assume that with the two of them not around, we will be able to live in peace again. Will Al Qaeda end with bin Laden? Did organized crime end with Al Capone? However, I agree that we need to shed our need to be the politically correct Mr Nice Guys. Its time to take the gloves off. We need the Prime Minister to tell Dawood that we are coming to get him. We need to stop playing by the rules. We need to send a few hitmen and get the man – no matter where he is hiding. World opinion be damned. We need to get Balasaheb and his goons any which way we can. And then do the same with their replacements. But let us not kid ourselves into believing that our troubles will end with the two of them. And lets face it – the War against terror can NOT be won. You take one terrorist out, 5 will be ready to replace him. We are too large a target. We might stave them off 99 times but they are sure to succeed atleast once. And for them and for their purpose that once is enough. And that’s the scary bit. But lets ensure that the price they’ll have to pay for that one success will make them think again before they try another similar stunt.

Allergic to "limping back to normalcy"

2006-07-14T11:57:00.000+05:30

Although I salute the much-touted Mumbaikar spirit, I’m getting sick of seeing the phrase “limping back to normalcy” in the papers every two months. Why is it that Mumbai has to limit itself to limping back all the time, when we have the potential to be running? We always seem to be recovering from riots, floods, and bombs. We always seem to be running our little individual lives around these ego-massaging events orchestrated or mismanaged by the big boys in the city: Mr. Thackeray, Mr. Ibrahim, the great BMC, and the current hot topic, the LeT.

I have been at the receiving end of the warmth and generosity of the average Mumbai-ite, and have been grateful to no end. I’ve done my bit by offering the same to anyone who needs help in times like these. I’ve had my share of wondering what has happened to the lives, houses and families of my siblings, friends, relatives and colleagues, as has everyone else I know. And we’re all tired of it. But what do we do the next day? We get up, go to work, travel by train, watch the rain anxiously in case water levels are rising, and try to limp back to normalcy. The tragedy of a few days ago becomes a topic of much discussion, but that’s all it remains. The thing is, I know when I do it, its not strength, its not determination to show terrorists that we can move on; it’s the need to get to work, meet that deadline, and collect that paycheck. It’s the same thing that drives all of us at the end of the day.

So, my point is, why are we glorifying the spirit and the resilience of our city, when it’s the same spirit that is allowing us all to feel like martyrs and leave it at that? Our Press avidly covers human interest stories after any disaster, which is fair enough, considering that it might actually work in thawing our numbed sensitivity to tragedy but that works as a reactive measure, when NGOs and compensation come in to help. What kind of proactive measures are we taking? Nothing. There’s no point waiting for the authorities, because we have proof every day of the effective measures they talk about taking. Maybe its time we take matters into our own hands.

If we spent all that newspaper space in questioning the motives and characters of the big boys, if we worked up some feelings of indignation in the public, I think we’d be a force to reckon with. Or are we worried that we might find the said newspaper office torched or ransacked the next day by the saffron Vaanar Sena?

Lets make ourselves useful!

2006-07-14T09:29:00.000+05:30

All our posts (including my earlier one) have been talking about how outraged, hurt, angry, pissed off, sad...we all are. About how things should have been, who should have behaved how and what the authorities, citizens, respective members of various religions should have talked or done. So much so that we sound like a bunch of self-imposed loud mouths who are taking on the members of this group rather than issues.

Quite frankly, I for one (don't know about you) do not want to know whom to blame. Some terrible things have happened to our cities and country... and some are still happening. No way of saying they won't be repeated.

So what now?

Can we, as a forum, get together and list out possible solutions for the immediate future and also give some thoughts for the long term betterment of this country?...Ideas that can be collected and maybe passed on to the respective authorities for implementation.

Thackeray and Dawood take on Mumbai. Let's take them on.

2006-07-13T23:51:00.000+05:30

I am angry as hell. Can we do something about the two thugs who are screwing with our city?

One, our very own Hindu Nazi, Bal Thackeray decides to put on a show of strength by getting his ragtag Shiv Sainiks to burn down a few buses, torch a few Muslims and shut shops in our city on Sunday. Acts of carefully-planned violence supposedly in the name of “spontaneous emotion” over the defacement of some inconsequential statue of his wife in some inconsequential part of town.

Acts planned to impress the shopkeepers who had increasingly stopped paying “protection money” to the Thackeray family-run political party, the Shiv Sena – and to assert, somewhat impotently and unconvincingly - that old man with senile mind and rag-tag coterie still ruled Mumbai.

And what do we do? Nothing. We adjust our shopping schedules, our Sunday outings with our families, and go back to our lives, ignoring the man and his actions like one would shrug off an annoying but occasionally persistent flea.

Phone and travel records seem to indicate that two days later, our other home-grown thug, Dawood Ibrahim, now hiding in Pakistan behind the pajamas of tinpot dictator Musharraf, gets some Islamic militants to plant 7 bombs in our local trains and kill more than 200 people. A response not coincidentally timed to contradict Thackeray’s “I rule Mumbai” with a louder “Nope dude, you don’t.”

And what do we do? Not very much again – other than to bring out our hearts and repair the damage as we best can. We crowd hospitals till they say they have more blood than they need, we line the streets offering food and water to people walking home, we invite strangers to spend the night in our offices and homes till the public transport gets back into action.

You know what – I’m tired of turning the other cheek to these two jokers.

I’m sick of just doing what we Mumbaikars are supposed to do so well – what our supposed "Mumbai Spirit" is all about – which is to not be affected, to do nothing, to go on with life, to accept this as just another annoyance of living in Mumbai, like our small apartments, our potholed roads and our real estate prices.

Yes - just getting on with our own lives is probably the best long-term message we can give anybody. Just like we did after the 1993 riots – another Dawood-Thackeray showdown. Just like we did after every single idiot Shiv Sena rasta roko, after every single stupid bomb in our temples and trains. We showed that it didn’t turn us into quivering scaredy-pots, into trembling sissies. We just dealt with it and went on.

The point is, this lesson of “do what you will, we’ll ignore you” would work on a thinking thug who cared for what we thought. But these two aren’t after terrorizing us. They’re doing the “mine’s-bigger-than-yours” with each other, using our corpses as measuring tapes. We’re not critical to either of them. We’re just collateral damage.

I propose that we’re way too tolerant of these two small-time warlords. And in the interest of solving these annoyances, like we’re finally solving our roads and highways and flyover problems, I suggest we go after these two. Let’s take them out.

Let’s learn from the Americans and the Israelis. And let’s use tactics that we perfected ourselves.

Yes, I know Dawood’s squirreled away in Pakistan. I posit that he’s far easier to locate than an Osama Bin Laden in that country – being somewhat identifiable by his attendant accessories of women, wine, cellphones and Japanese sport-utility vehicles – habits a wiser Osama does without. How difficult would it be to do one of those surgical strikes – cruise missile anybody – and put him out?

I do think that asked politely – and especially if we promise to buy some overpriced arms from them after the fact, both Israel and America would volunteer some expertise in this regard. It would solve a lot of issues, not the least the usage of drug money to fund weapons for Kashmir militants, Musharraf’s kowtowing to the ISI, the Bollywood film-funding problem and lots of other grouses many countries face. No one would miss the man, other than the odd failed Bollywood starlet or two.

So let’s do it.

Thackeray is a knottier problem. Laser-guided munitions wouldn’t be an appropriate solution – and simply voting him out of power in the state didn’t work either – the man now uses street-gang power in place of an electoral mandate.

But we have a deadlier weapon – our tax sleuths. Remember, Al Capone was brought down for income tax evasion. So was many an Indian political career. Go after the failed cartoonist – and his failed cartoonist son – and find out where exactly the latter got the US$100 million to bid for land in Lower Parel. Where did Papa get the money for his Japanese SUVs, for his real estate holdings, his Italian shades, his club in the suburbs, his Swiss watches?

Bring him down. On the slightest excuse. Go after him legally. With as much firepower as we can muster. Be relentless. You’ll see that he’ll run out of friends very soon.

It’ll be much more fun, much more rewarding – and much better PR, in fact – than trying to bring down Amitabh Bachchan. That man has legitimate sources of income. This man writes bad grammar in a failing newspaper.

There’s so much I need to do – and I can’t take this crap any more. Perhaps it’s the 21^st century, perhaps I’m not the super-patient Indian man I was brought up to be. I can’t take this waste of time, waste of life, waste of emotion any more.

And I sense this under-swell in others around me. We’re not happy to stand by and watch, like perhaps our parents were.

Let’s go after them.

When Thackeray and Dawood took on Mumbai now – as they did before – Mumbai won.

And when they take us on again, we’ll win again, give or take a few lives they don’t care about.

And we’ll win yet again. And again. And again.

But you know what – let’s not give them another chance to go after us.

Let’s go after them. Really. Shut them down once and for all.

Enough is enough.

The famous bouncer

2006-07-13T23:09:00.000+05:30

Over the past couple of days, I’ve read countless stories about the spirit of the Mumbaiker. Bur something a colleague of mine yesterday, really made me think. She said that the fact that she was back on the trains the next day did not reflect courage, but the fact that she had no choice. As the compartments began filling up again by late evening, I wondered whether the city’s resilience was giving the bureaucracy an easy way out.

Last year, after 26/7 we were too bedraggled and traumatized to react, so even when the roads continued to flatten tyres for the next few months, we failed to exercise our right to information. This year it was different. Following a two-day spell of heavy rain, it became clear that our tax moneys had probably bought the BMC flat screen TVs, and the authorities were flooded with questions they found difficult to answer. Maybe that’s a precedent for what needs to happen after Terrible Tuesday. I and millions of people want to know what really happened and what are you going to do to make sure it doesn’t again?

Going off on a tangent I must devote a para to the city’s public relations executives. They seemed to have bounced back the fastest. At our newspaper, it was business as usual as a Red Bull PR called to ask why her story about their cheerleading squad hadn’t been carried. In an attempt to ‘restore normalcy’ many agencies failed to cancel launch parties that day. One even asked, “But what does the blast have to do with Features?”

If one were to go by newspaper reports, the city’s celebs seem to have experienced the tragedy vicariously and somehow been more affected than the victims themselves. Barring some do-gooders, others like Preity Zinta didn’t think twice before stating that she was unable to sleep that night. Don’t worry Ms Zinta, you weren’t the only one not sleeping.

Resilience, amnesia and apathy

2006-07-13T21:28:00.000+05:30

Much is being said about the legendary resilience of Mumbaikars. It is true too. But I think it is time to stop saluting that resilience and think about ways to make them remember this event, keep their eyes wide open.

Public memory is very short. Mixed with the much-saluted resilience is amnesia and apathy. Nose to grindstone attitude of Mumbai’s working class means that life will go on as usual, until the next round of blasts.

Local train is truly Mumbai’s lifeline. The sheer number of people that gather in stations at rush hour makes it impossible for any security measures to work. On the other hand, this sheer number itself can be utilized to keep vigil, only if they are constantly reminded of the consequence of looking the other way.

How to keep the commuters always alert? I have an idea. The coaches that were mangled in the blasts could be used for this. Repair them just enough so that they can be attached to the trains, just behind the engine. Not for people to travel in, but as a daily reminder of the very real threat of terrorism.

It may seem grim. But those thousands of pairs of alert eyes will be quite a deterrent to the terrorist.

Tros in July

2006-07-13T17:29:00.000+05:30

It was in the script, perhaps
Dardanos, after all, meant 'burn';
And now the wailing ghost of Tros
Trudges the July afternoon,
When a writhing stench of loss
Lies about the half-dead year.
His eyes scan the wilderness
Now the haunt of ash and fear,
Where the Dardanian gate was,
Where once stood the topless towers.

Why?

2006-07-13T17:13:00.000+05:30

Why does everything I am reading everywhere, on the recent blasts, or on terrorism, are laced through with a spoken or mute assumption that terrorist equals muslim?

Why does my educated, 'well exposed', metropolitan, non-traditional friend refer to a certain kid as 'that muslim boy'?

Why does even celebrity-hood, even today, even now (especially now) not protect someone from that fatal flaw: he was born a muslim?

I can almost hear the answers that would have been thrown back at me had I said this out loud to almost anyone I know; and I cringe at the thought that we still could think like this.

Securalists disqualified

2006-07-13T16:53:00.000+05:30

When I reacted to the news in Somalia the other day, about a new Islamic law by which people will be killed if they do not pray five times a day, I sparked off many responses across several boards. One question that kept cropping up was that is a non-practicing Muslim qualified to reclaim Islam from fundamentalists.

Secularism has always been suspect in the eyes of people who practice religions in their traditional forms. Criticisms made by secularists are considered irrelevant because they belong to people who are "outside the faith".

But in a true secular state, faith ought to be a private and personal matter. Our constitution claims to be secular, but in practice, of course, it is anything but. Birth registration certificates, school admission forms, college entrance examinations, marriage certificates, ration cards, passport applications, and personal laws all have religion, caste and community identification as
mandatory. We must be grateful that we are not a fundamentalist state, and yet, this contradiction in practice creates a major fault line in the functioning of the country, leaving it vulnerable to communal tensions, and the hijacking of religion by politicians and priests.

In the case of fundamentalists, political priests, become the sole interpreters of religious laws. But when religious issues affect me as a woman, as a mother, as a citizen, affect my daily life, my physical security, my choices in life - from school, locality, work timings, dress codes, love life to marriage partner, then practicing or non-practicing, I think I have a right to question and comment.

A few days ago, I translated Prof. Gunvant Shah's lecture, "Islam means". Please read it. This lecture was addressed to a gathering of Muslim students and priests at a madarassa in Gujarat.

A search for the truth

2006-07-13T12:06:00.000+05:30

A blog post from a friend's blog.

I’ve spoken to several people since July 11 and can’t help notice the anguish that creeps through their voice when they speak about our government’s inability to stop terror strikes on our soil. Why is it that the largest democracy, heralded as a world power by many, isn’t able to protect its citizens? When the United States was attacked in 2001, President Bush came down hard upon the terrorist organisations and the nations which were suspected to harbour them – to the point of launching a full scale war in coalition with some of the strongest armies in the world. Why then can’t India perform such a feat against a country that it knows is responsible for several terror attacks in the past?

Our search for the answer begins on the premise that that the minority community feels insecure in India which political parties look to exploit.

Over the years I have seen the BJP and Shiv Sena combine champion the Hindutva cause. L. K. Advani has openly incited Hindus to bring down the Babri Masjid. Bal Thackarey used Saamna to encourage his party workers to launch offensives on Muslims during the riots of 1992-93. And in spite of the findings of the Sri Krishna Commission, the perpetrators of this violence are going scot-free. In such a situation, the insecurity that the community feels is not unfounded.

The problem is further aggravated by more politicians, who portray themselves as benefactors of the downtrodden. Parallels are drawn between the Hindus in Pakistan with the Muslims in India. The message that Muslim youth receive is that India is not their home and any act of violence that they help perpetrate upon its citizens will show their loyalty to their own motherland. Enter the LeT or Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, and their steady supply of weapons, explosives and training camps. These organisations fuel their terror operations on this sentiment.

In this vitriolic political scenario we bring in a government composed of a rickety coalition of parties with conflicting ideology. The Opposition is looking for every opportunity to criticize the ruling coalition and bring its government to a grinding halt – the country be damned, we want our seats back. And we expect this government to lead the country into an offensive war? Against a country which a sizeable segment of the population considers their true homeland? That is wishful thinking at best and ridiculous misunderstanding of the political situation of India at worst.

All I can say to conclude is that India will never launch a war on terrorism unless its citizens unite in their opinion of what they call their homeland. And the power to do that lies with the citizens themselves.

1. Always treat your communal neighbours the way you would want to be treated.
2. Boycott media mouthpieces which carry a communal twist to their reporting.
3. Speak up against wrongdoings by politicians, whether they are against the majority or minority community.
4. Teach your children about the equality of religions and communities at an early age.
5. Never violate human rights in an attempt to seek justice for wrongdoings.

- Pranav

http://www.pranavnegandhi.com/notadesigner/