I liked the contents of this blog. Well said Ashutosh...
http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/ashutosh/1945/52732/jamia-encounter-and-muslim-identity.html
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Bangalore
well... well well... Life is busy.. have got the stuff in mind.. will hopefully put it down on the paper sometime soon... Till then there was another link that came to my mind. I had mentioned about the romantic weather of Bangalore... that has been certified in the rediff polls:
http://specials.rediff.com/getahead/2008/oct/01sld1.htm
http://specials.rediff.com/getahead/2008/oct/01sld1.htm
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Spirit and Resilience
First of all, it is sad that we have to witness blasts after blasts in India, with the Govt. not doing anything about it. It has even rejected the laws that were supposed to be approved to counter terrorism. The person, who was responsible for the homeland security, was busy changing his designer labels. He wore a green Bandhgala at 5PM. After which the blasts in Delhi took place in 20 minutes. He was seen wearing Grey Bandhgala after an hour at 6PM and wore a White suit for the press briefing at 7PM. When asked about bringing back the POTA at the time, when POTA would have possibly helped to avoid the Delhi Disaster, , all he repeated was the oft repeated statement. 'This is not the right forum to discuss this'. Well guys, Mr. Home minister wanted the people to discuss his sartorial sense (or rather the lack of it) I believe. When there were reports that Mr. Shivraj Patil was not included in the CWC meeting and was supposedly under the axe, he came forward to media and emphatically announced "I have the blessings of my party leader". Talk about sycophancy and boot licking. On the other hand Mr. Khurshid announces that his party would not allow him to have consensus with opposition on the topic of Terrorism. Man this Govt. needs to be voted out badly.
I was reading about a statement where Abhishek Bacchan was interviewed about him missing the blasts, because he cancelled an appointment at omega store in CP, Delhi. Following was the question asked to him and his reply to it.
Suhasini Haidar: Do you think it is about our resilience, because we spoke about Mumbai’s resilience. Is it about resilience or have we become a bit immune to the impacts?
Abhishek Bachchan: No I don’t think anybody can be immune to something like this. I think we, as Indians are very resilient. We are a strong nation. I don’t think despite whatever happens, its not possible to get immune to something like this. The resilience and the pride in what we do as a nation does come through in a time like this.
So my question is what defines resilience of the City or the spirit of a City as they romanticize it. Is it that the city comes right on the track the very next day as if nothing has happened the previous day? That the people go to work as usual as if there was no body dead on yesterday? So is it not the ruthlessness of the people that they do not bother about their neighbors or the co-commuters. Is it not foolishness that people don’t stop to introspect or retrospect, to see what has gone wrong? Is that a spirit of city?
Well I don’t think so. I think it is the inherent nature of the demographic & lifestyle of the city. Mr. Bacchan has lived a privileged life studying at Bombay Scottish, Aiglon College(Switzerland) and Boston university, living in an house that is guarded as a mini fortress and driving cars and women both of which turn heads. Not that he should have any qualms about them. But i would like to believe he has no or little idea of what this so called 'resilience' stems from; else i don’t think that such a statement would have been made.
It is often said that 'Fools rush in where the angels fear to tread’. I don’t think that a normal person would like to visit the haunted stations, trains and market places where the bomb blasts have taken place. A person visits this place to earn his livelihood not because he likes going thru the route. It is a compulsion more than the choice. It is because he knows that another person is willing to be present at his workplace, who could be given his job, unlike the film stars who can afford to take a day off at their whims. Any city that has struggle for survival is bound to display such an on the face attitude towards terrorist acts. The only reason that New York could not take the 9/11 attacks in its strides was because
1. The scale of the attacks
2. Americans have never experienced anything of this magnitude since Pearl Harbor and hence they were over confident of their security.
3. The struggle for survival is nowhere near that of Indian cities, which are densely populated and hence there is a lot more competition for survival.
It is the competition and the hardship that produces people to beat this fear and go through the haunted places. So in all i would say that circumstances and the struggle are the main reason for people to go on with their jobs and take bombings in strides without waiting for an introspection. Bravery is not lack of fear, but refusing to submit to it. So in all I would say that people present in the cities where the bombing took place (and that includes almost every major Indian city) are brave, but not because it is an inherent quality and it would be a wrong statement to say we are resilient as a nation, but because of the times and circumstances that we live in (or rather we have ourselves created for ourselves to live in, by irresponsible voting).
God give strength to the people to withstand the loss of their near and dear ones. May the deceased's souls reset in peace.
I was reading about a statement where Abhishek Bacchan was interviewed about him missing the blasts, because he cancelled an appointment at omega store in CP, Delhi. Following was the question asked to him and his reply to it.
Suhasini Haidar: Do you think it is about our resilience, because we spoke about Mumbai’s resilience. Is it about resilience or have we become a bit immune to the impacts?
Abhishek Bachchan: No I don’t think anybody can be immune to something like this. I think we, as Indians are very resilient. We are a strong nation. I don’t think despite whatever happens, its not possible to get immune to something like this. The resilience and the pride in what we do as a nation does come through in a time like this.
So my question is what defines resilience of the City or the spirit of a City as they romanticize it. Is it that the city comes right on the track the very next day as if nothing has happened the previous day? That the people go to work as usual as if there was no body dead on yesterday? So is it not the ruthlessness of the people that they do not bother about their neighbors or the co-commuters. Is it not foolishness that people don’t stop to introspect or retrospect, to see what has gone wrong? Is that a spirit of city?
Well I don’t think so. I think it is the inherent nature of the demographic & lifestyle of the city. Mr. Bacchan has lived a privileged life studying at Bombay Scottish, Aiglon College(Switzerland) and Boston university, living in an house that is guarded as a mini fortress and driving cars and women both of which turn heads. Not that he should have any qualms about them. But i would like to believe he has no or little idea of what this so called 'resilience' stems from; else i don’t think that such a statement would have been made.
It is often said that 'Fools rush in where the angels fear to tread’. I don’t think that a normal person would like to visit the haunted stations, trains and market places where the bomb blasts have taken place. A person visits this place to earn his livelihood not because he likes going thru the route. It is a compulsion more than the choice. It is because he knows that another person is willing to be present at his workplace, who could be given his job, unlike the film stars who can afford to take a day off at their whims. Any city that has struggle for survival is bound to display such an on the face attitude towards terrorist acts. The only reason that New York could not take the 9/11 attacks in its strides was because
1. The scale of the attacks
2. Americans have never experienced anything of this magnitude since Pearl Harbor and hence they were over confident of their security.
3. The struggle for survival is nowhere near that of Indian cities, which are densely populated and hence there is a lot more competition for survival.
It is the competition and the hardship that produces people to beat this fear and go through the haunted places. So in all i would say that circumstances and the struggle are the main reason for people to go on with their jobs and take bombings in strides without waiting for an introspection. Bravery is not lack of fear, but refusing to submit to it. So in all I would say that people present in the cities where the bombing took place (and that includes almost every major Indian city) are brave, but not because it is an inherent quality and it would be a wrong statement to say we are resilient as a nation, but because of the times and circumstances that we live in (or rather we have ourselves created for ourselves to live in, by irresponsible voting).
God give strength to the people to withstand the loss of their near and dear ones. May the deceased's souls reset in peace.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Bomb lasts
Hey Fellas, This is my first crack at blogging. So please bear with me and constructive criticism is greatly valued.
This was written in the aftermath of bomb blasts in Ahmedabad and Bangalore. I have delayed the posting of the same blog since I believed that I had lost way while writing this piece. But after assurances provided by some of my friends, I am posting it.
Way back, when I was roaming on the streets of Bangalore, with Bangalore at its beautiful best in the evening with an over cast sky and all the splendid greenery, I regretted being single and not having a partner in such a romantic weather. But there was a bigger regret than that; it allowed me to have a look at an interesting article(oxymoron: I regret coming across an interesting article). It was 2004, and a congress led government had replaced NDA at the centre against all odds & my expectations (You must have known by now that I really don’t like congress. Worry not, after a couple of blogs it will get worse). It was then that I came across a newspaper ‘Tehelka’. I still remember the headlines, “Casteless Sonia and Classless Communists will save India”. I don’t think I need to mention that the weekly was unabashedly a leftist and a “secular” (or as I call it pseudo-secular) newspaper. The article mentioned that people were reading too much into the sensex, Forex and the FDI that was on high in India. Do I need to mention more about the sycophancy of the magazine ?
Coming back to 2008, bomblasts in both my beloved cities of Bangalore and then Ahmedabad. Don’t know whether the Government is trying to protect the common man (with the common man’s hand being it’s symbol) from the terrorists or the other way round (as in the case of Afzal Guru). Called up folks and friends in both the places and inquired if everyone was ok. Again cursed the UPA govt. which thinks that security in India is a joke. After a couple of days thought of having a look at tehelka, whether it had to still bash Mr. Modi for maintaining the communal harmony and protecting the minorities (Well another thing that I don’t understand over here is 1. Do these white collared media people think that the people other than the minorities are vicious devils, who are in prowl of the minorities? 2. If they account for some rights in the country ( a place where they are supposedly believed to be a majority) and if their lives have any values in the eyes of NGOs ?). So I checked out the page, there was one interesting article written by Miss. Teesta Setalvad. Miss Setalvad is born and brought up in Mumbai, and will be best remembered for her battle for and against Zaheera Shaikh. She is very interested in the state and the people residing in Gujarat. Not that I mind it, I would have rather appreciated it if it was not for her jaundiced and biased view of Gujarat and gujaratis (Gujaratis used here with reference to people residing in Gujarat). The full article can be found at the following address
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main40.asp?filename=Ne090808somegood.asp
There were couple of things that caught my eye.
1. She believes that we gujaratis have abandoned the values of Justice, acknowledgement and forgiveness. I think the communal harmony prevailing in Gujarat is the greatest testimony that we (Gujaratis) have maintained peace. I would have liked to know what would have happened in Countries like Isreal or USA if there would have been 50 odd bomblasts in two of it’s main cities in the space of 48 hours.
2. Furthermore she believes that we don’t want lasting peace. I would like to draw her attention to the fact that 2002 riots have been before 6 years and if anything, there was lasting damage to Gujaratis(I don’t classify them as ‘minorities’ or ‘majorities’). So anybody in their right senses would not want the rehash of 2002 Godhra riots. If Miss. Setalwaad still believes that Gujaratis do not want communal harmony and peace, I believe that she is assuming that we are incapable of deciding what is good for ourselves.
3. Also she mentions that Mr. Modi had maintained peace and harmony in Gujarat because there was a national response for peace. Well I would like to add, that I have doctor friends whose seniors passed away in the explosions in the hospitals in Ahmedabad and still they were working round the clock dutifully to serve the victims, irrespective or their caste and creed. This was because Guajarati’s wanted lasting peace and not because there was national pressure on us.
Well, Looks like this can go on and on. Recently I saw the movie ‘A Wednesday’. There was an interesting dialogue in the end, when the inspector asks Naseeruddin Shah whether he was killing the terrorists if any of his relative had died in the Mumbai Tran blasts, to which Naseeruddin Shah replies “Though none of my have died, but I do not want to wait till they died at the hands of terrorists”. Let me post this else it might take another two months to post it.
Later,
Karan.
This was written in the aftermath of bomb blasts in Ahmedabad and Bangalore. I have delayed the posting of the same blog since I believed that I had lost way while writing this piece. But after assurances provided by some of my friends, I am posting it.
Way back, when I was roaming on the streets of Bangalore, with Bangalore at its beautiful best in the evening with an over cast sky and all the splendid greenery, I regretted being single and not having a partner in such a romantic weather. But there was a bigger regret than that; it allowed me to have a look at an interesting article(oxymoron: I regret coming across an interesting article). It was 2004, and a congress led government had replaced NDA at the centre against all odds & my expectations (You must have known by now that I really don’t like congress. Worry not, after a couple of blogs it will get worse). It was then that I came across a newspaper ‘Tehelka’. I still remember the headlines, “Casteless Sonia and Classless Communists will save India”. I don’t think I need to mention that the weekly was unabashedly a leftist and a “secular” (or as I call it pseudo-secular) newspaper. The article mentioned that people were reading too much into the sensex, Forex and the FDI that was on high in India. Do I need to mention more about the sycophancy of the magazine ?
Coming back to 2008, bomblasts in both my beloved cities of Bangalore and then Ahmedabad. Don’t know whether the Government is trying to protect the common man (with the common man’s hand being it’s symbol) from the terrorists or the other way round (as in the case of Afzal Guru). Called up folks and friends in both the places and inquired if everyone was ok. Again cursed the UPA govt. which thinks that security in India is a joke. After a couple of days thought of having a look at tehelka, whether it had to still bash Mr. Modi for maintaining the communal harmony and protecting the minorities (Well another thing that I don’t understand over here is 1. Do these white collared media people think that the people other than the minorities are vicious devils, who are in prowl of the minorities? 2. If they account for some rights in the country ( a place where they are supposedly believed to be a majority) and if their lives have any values in the eyes of NGOs ?). So I checked out the page, there was one interesting article written by Miss. Teesta Setalvad. Miss Setalvad is born and brought up in Mumbai, and will be best remembered for her battle for and against Zaheera Shaikh. She is very interested in the state and the people residing in Gujarat. Not that I mind it, I would have rather appreciated it if it was not for her jaundiced and biased view of Gujarat and gujaratis (Gujaratis used here with reference to people residing in Gujarat). The full article can be found at the following address
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main40.asp?filename=Ne090808somegood.asp
There were couple of things that caught my eye.
1. She believes that we gujaratis have abandoned the values of Justice, acknowledgement and forgiveness. I think the communal harmony prevailing in Gujarat is the greatest testimony that we (Gujaratis) have maintained peace. I would have liked to know what would have happened in Countries like Isreal or USA if there would have been 50 odd bomblasts in two of it’s main cities in the space of 48 hours.
2. Furthermore she believes that we don’t want lasting peace. I would like to draw her attention to the fact that 2002 riots have been before 6 years and if anything, there was lasting damage to Gujaratis(I don’t classify them as ‘minorities’ or ‘majorities’). So anybody in their right senses would not want the rehash of 2002 Godhra riots. If Miss. Setalwaad still believes that Gujaratis do not want communal harmony and peace, I believe that she is assuming that we are incapable of deciding what is good for ourselves.
3. Also she mentions that Mr. Modi had maintained peace and harmony in Gujarat because there was a national response for peace. Well I would like to add, that I have doctor friends whose seniors passed away in the explosions in the hospitals in Ahmedabad and still they were working round the clock dutifully to serve the victims, irrespective or their caste and creed. This was because Guajarati’s wanted lasting peace and not because there was national pressure on us.
Well, Looks like this can go on and on. Recently I saw the movie ‘A Wednesday’. There was an interesting dialogue in the end, when the inspector asks Naseeruddin Shah whether he was killing the terrorists if any of his relative had died in the Mumbai Tran blasts, to which Naseeruddin Shah replies “Though none of my have died, but I do not want to wait till they died at the hands of terrorists”. Let me post this else it might take another two months to post it.
Later,
Karan.
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