continuation of last blog...

This blogger is proud to be a citizen of a country that believes in the ideals of secularism and has enshrined the right to practice and propagate religion to all (this individual right is curtailed in many countries) in the constitution. The protection of minorities is an indication of evolved society and stable state. But when individuals start to blabber about secularism is when you can be sure they are looking for power and have divisive agenda. Take for instance last week a cricketer turned politician (from BJP) made an amazing statement that “Pakistan players in IPL will help India’s secular credential”. This ridiculous statement is just another example of how they try work their position, clearly the fellow seem to be keen on moving away from BJP to ‘secular party’ this is his try. It is a different matter that Pakistan is an Islamic country that is shifting quite rapidly to cruder form of religion. Associating friendliness with Pakistan to gain confidence of Indian Muslims is one of the ploy of crude and dangerous form of secularism that some power monger practice quite blatantly, it is not only an insult to common people of this country (in particular Muslims) but compromises national security. It also put severe pressure on common Muslims on the street, they have to keep proving their patriotic credential all the time, obviously these attempts at secularism alienates and divide people. This affliction to Pakistan is a strange behavior of north part of the country (in particular the Punjabi types). I recall when Gen. Mushraff visited India the ‘secular parties’ were found shamelessly vying for his audience. That the fellow is a military dictator who usurped power and pushed that unfortunate country further into chaos is nobody’s business (this fellow was also the architect of kargil that was responsible for many deaths). That India to a large extend despite poverty and related problems remains a vibrant democracy and Indian people don’t need these crude forms of symbolism of secularism too is nobody’s business. Secularism seems to be emboldening fundamentalism and some really nasty people, seriously threatening the life of common people. It has become source of power play by socio-political elite.

I recall when I was in Delhi I used to spend time with painters (they though preferred to call themselves artists), mostly mediocre and amazingly selfish but high on attitude. There was this north Indian painter fellow with whom I was once, with us was also a malayalee muslim acquaintance of mine. Now this north Indian fellow (who also considered himself as some kind of sophisticate-I guess that is one way of being liberal) found rather puzzling that this muslim doesn’t know Urdu. He told him he should know Urdu and that it is his language. It is only now that I understand the significance of this thinking. It is a step towards creating muslim symbolism, it though doesn’t matter that it leads to ghettoisation. The impetus is on assertion of misplaced rights and be divisive, if you support these you are automatically elevated as secularist. The pertinent question here is how is Urdu a language of particular community?. There are vested sections that actively pursue this and many common muslims tend to believe that Urdu is what they should learn (I met a muslim auto driver in Gujarat he mentioned that he spoke Gujarati but was being asked to speak Urdu. Take also the example of kashmiri being replaced by Urdu). This is how alienation happens (the western initiates would like to mistake it for freedom and liberty), these blatant attempts to undermine local culture and tradition creates discordant relation with larger community. I don’t really blame that north Indian painter he was only following the existing narration of secularism to further his career, in places like Delhi clinging to these can easily classify you as an activist- which can be a substitute to mediocrity, and related perks.

When I was kid used to visit my home town (in the interior of Kollam in Kerala) and spend lots of time listening to talks and occasional story telling, it was relatively big house with verandah for people to sit (now demolished as people slip into poverty). The neighbors (who happened to be Muslims) were frequent visitors to these evening talks and mostly were like extended family. Few years back when I visited this place I was told that the muslim neighbors have adopted a new lifestyle and started to wear dark dress and women rarely interact, they keep to themselves (this is also the place where muslim fundamentalism is on the rise). This is how society gets fractured. In cities and in particular in so called developed countries like Britain these are how they define freedom but in poorer societies social bonding and interaction is what keeps the society alive, these are important checks to prevent disruption, they stop prejudices and alienations to take root.

Every religion has its cruder form but they are mostly kept in check or people would try not to identify with them, they would like to evolve from these primitive world, I guess that is what happens with having education. But the virulent form of Islam seems to be having a free run (and in a strange irony sought to be portrayed as beacon of identity), the Sunni wahhabi leads this pack. This extremely intolerant and crude interpretation of religion that seeks to create an insular and intolerant world have threatened and eliminated many subtler forms of Islam that is rooted in socio cultural context of the land around the world. They have created societies with alienated individuals who are easily indoctrinated to be extreme and violent, petrodollar has helped easy inroad to poorer societies (hapless poor illiterate people are easy target, I am reminded of some brilliant Samira Makmalbaf movies on these subject). Overnight we are seeing aliens sprouting in the neighborhood. Modesty is important understanding and subtle in its practice unfortunately neither religious fundamentalists nor market have any use of these.

Of course it helps the power hungry secularist to see obnoxious burqa (the whole body cover) as religious expression, it is a symbol of male chauvinism and patriarchy is clear. First it makes women disappear from public space (apart from alienation within the society at the micro level as was pointed earlier), few centuries back most women’s movement were restricted within house premise and there was strict socio-sexual control by men. Burqa is that regressive symbol. Further one has to understand that families where these are followed rarely have other female member given a choice of not wearing these particularly in poor societies (need to add here that in the same manner a woman may not have the choice to choose outside sari in many families, but the degree patriarchy is at limited scale compared to the appalling world of burqa) it further adds to exploitation of women, clearly these are not coincidence they are part of crude world. You just have to look at the societies from which they originate, they still live in dark ages and have absolutely no idea of democracy or individual freedom (take for instance Saudis). They also don’t give any right to other religion, it is an insular world. It is the same world they carry to other countries. They are now called the Islamists. They singularly lack mindset that is needed to live in multicultural community.

West is doing a big mistake to classify it as Islamophobia. You cannot categorize a religion like that and indeed most muslims don’t identify with these primitive and extreme form of Islam as much as I will cringe being classified in the same group of hindu fundamentalist or the practitioner of primitive chauvinist form of Hinduism. West in the process is legitimizing these crude people by victimizing the whole community. Understand this crude cannot produce or practice enlightened thoughts it is highly unlikely; the next generation therefore will be further alienated thus victimized. Britain has provided all kinds of freedom for extreme forms of people (I guess it is typical British snobbish superiority complex, probably trying to teach something to the world) it has only worsened and emboldened fundamentalists and extremists. It’s difficult to tolerate fundamentalists and their way of life and so there they are now victims of intolerance!!. Is it a coincidence that most terrorists seem to have link in Britain (and not France) even the latest caught trying to bomb American plane. They seem to have ambiguous worldview until they reach Britain where it seems they get emboldened (even the Indians who were involved in suicide attack in London few years back, they wouldn’t have thought of these extreme worldview if they were in India), am I surprised?. Britain is facing problems of its own making and other countries could learn from it (and not take extreme actions like the Swiss, it victimizes the whole community because of some crude people. I do feel French have been bit too extreme). To be asked to tolerate what is extreme- that lacks propriety, that seeks to create insular world view, that justifies male chauvinism- puts severe pressure on entire population. It creates situation for extreme reactions and violence.

There is a market driven world view that religious community should try to rectify itself and outsiders shouldn’t comment (you are free to do your crap and I mine). That is humbug and worst form of irresponsible behavior. First there is nothing like single community and that within any community nobody can take any decision for all, in a democratic set up they don’t really have authority to. It gets controlled by powerful interest group within the community at the expense of silent and suffering majority, they are used as pawns in power play. Secondly they are seriously affecting my world, my life, of course I will have to take action, react. In fact I am quite angry last few years my freedom has been curtailed because of security reasons, everywhere walls are coming up, people are suspicious of each other. Everywhere I travel I am put through question I don’t like. All this because of these jihadi macaques and their exaggerated victimhood, in fact I would argue that these breed lack any tolerance to live with people who have different god or worldview, so when they have to accommodate they end up fighting. Thirdly wherein the contribution of Christians has been stupendous in terms of providing quality education (this blogger is a direct beneficiary), medical facilities as also women who actively take part in social space. In contrast I haven’t really seen much from cruder form of islam, they end up building mosques and madrasas- that teaches (mostly for their own community) matter that doesn’t give anyone employability or confidence to tackle modern world nor to live in multicultural world (some Hindu groups can be accused of the same but they haven’t created as much havoc, nor are they beacon of freedom). They haven’t really created the kind of institutions that was expected from the kind of access to fund they had. Muslim community in the northern part of the country is one of the poorest (as also the case in Africa). What have they done?

What they are doing is spreading poison around the world. They are trying to destroy subtler world I know. I cannot even imagine in this increasingly crude world we live any muslim family would name their child Geeta (the name of my muslim neighbor in trivandrum, I got along with her younger sis quite well so much so I used to spend most of my free time at their home!). This is the world I would fiercely defend and would not allow secularist and fundamentalists to work out their share. It need to be added here that elite muslims have had a freak out time at the expense of common muslims. They have positioned themselves as symbolism for common muslim, so any matter wherein anyone has to work their secular credentials they just have to feed these pretentious people. It is therefore in their interest that fundamentalism grows since it hugely benefits them. This the reason why polygamy, burqa and all forms of crap are dumped onto common people as part of freedom, in a world where words like freedom is increasingly making no much sense. People then get caught in wrong place of no fault of theirs and become what they call hate victims.

Everybody loves a good communal riot and secularists: A cynic’s perspective

Communal riots are culmination of mistrust and prejudices that are created within communities, this could be religious or caste based or ethnicity. Understandably not many are much bothered about what leads to these situations this is something that is left for common people to negotiate or deal. Rich sections are rarely affected by communal riots or any form of social disruption (sometimes they do get inconvenienced though, and they create biggest hooplas over smallest of discomfort). A communal riot itself present lots of possibilities depending on which community is involved and how many get killed. People get killed for no reason of theirs all the time and in all the place but that is nobody's business…death need to have possibilities of exploitations among living and yes we don’t know the religion of people who die in the street do we?.

So undoubtedly the best possible situation for elite section in this country is when Muslims are victims there are peace marches, seminars, movies, songs and so on, it has also has international possibilities. They are the first ones to set shops around these tragedies. Some have made successful career out of these miseries. These people don’t have much impact on common people, and they will never face the situations which the common people find themselves in, some do make valiant attempts to understand but vicarious is always vicarious. Importantly why are we really bothered about these people to come and understand us?. They are no saviors; they only try work out their little life. Their life is least threatened and yes they are not going to miss their lunch for anyone. For us these are jokes that get repeated every time, and every time there are new gainers over the dead bodies and miseries of common people. Indeed the clever breed is least bothered about victims apart from what they can accrue, their aim being to showcase themselves to the bigger world, where appreciations are shared over nice talks (I scratch you scratch me world). A world that most of us don’t really much understand although quite ironically it is supposed to be about us.

Common people don’t really understand secularism or these big talks on tolerance. There are some serious issues that they have to face daily and every moment. Disruption means monetary loss, loss means further misery. So why would anyone indulge in anything that will lead to misery?. Isn’t that simplest thing to understand?. So why does riots happen?. There have been tons of articles and books written on these matters. Whatever the argument this blogger is very clear that poorer people will never instigate these, it just doesn’t make any sense to them. Riots kill common people, it gives them untold misery. So clearly it is engineered by people who stand to gain. And as I see it there are two distinct groups who feed from these miseries. One is the city based elitist secularists, also referred to as liberals (a word I came across only recently and haven’t really understood, but I gather it is a common reference point in West) and another is fundamentalist of all variety, also referred to as conservatives. Both of them always stand to gain and they come from same strata, they have their own theories (experience though is meant for common people) to justify themselves. These two groups feed on each other at the expense of common people. They exchange vicious attacks on each other. Some even lack basic decency, all crudeness justified from their own perspective- some for secular reason others for fundamentalist agenda. For a common man they don’t look much different nor do they affect him much atleast till its killing time. Many in media has made the situation precarious with competitive exaggerations (positive side is that active media does bring out the culprit, but that is after the riots, after people have been killed, property looted. Frankly like any other common people I am not really bothered about what happens after riots, indeed we want to forget and get on with our life with whatever is left without getting into anymore trouble. People with money and time can do the postmortem, write essays and score secular or non secular points. It doesn’t really affect common people).

With media and its simplistic version to life (of course there are exception but rare) world gets divided into two easy compartments the good and bad, or this view versus that view. I understand this strict world view also originates in western subconscious of God and Satan that is fed to them for centuries this has found its way through globalized market into our homes. The black and white world, either you are with us or with them (note communism, another of western import, plays on the same parameter). This is the world that is easy to understand, it also is the world the seculars and fundamentalist have positioned themselves quite nicely, so whatever happens it gets divided between them. Market media is therefore left with the simple task of providing a platform for apportioning the dividends, and also help constantly deepening the divisions in the name of discussion, in the name of assertion of freedom. So a secular party will remain secular whatever crap it does within that framework and fundamentalist will have to be pushed further and further even if they would like to be secular or mend their ways- that will make secular defunct, and so Madani will be condemned forever and BJP will be chastised for whatever it does. It is a self sustaining situation, it is a different matter though that these put common people in perilous situation. There is nothing like good people bad people there are situations some people exploit and there are people who are exploited, sometimes killed. Its about opportunities.

Post Script: this blog was written after an incident few weeks back. Here I was on my two-wheeler and this lady slips and fall in the traffic (nothing much happened to her), she happened to wear a burqa (meaning the fully covered one worn by very few muslim women in this part of the world), and instead of feeling sympathy for her situation I found myself cringing, a feeling of revulsion towards her came over for me, now this feeling is something I have increasingly observed among people towards this attire and the world view it represent. Suddenly I found myself appalled by my thoughts, looking at a suffering human not as human but as representation, as an object. This is exactly where prejudices get born, dehumanization begins.

(This blog is not over and will be continued further, will take some time to work out. I will like to explore how symbolism reduces common people to caricatures and help the powerful, as also what instigates divisive mindset…well something on that line. It should help me understand myself and the society better!!)

Passing away of an era...

Jyoti Basu belonged to that era of leaders who were tempered by Gandhian values that defined most leaders post independence. The crudeness in politics all around the country (in particular the new breed of communist leaders in Kerala and Bengal pose serious threat, it is no wonder CPI-M is no longer a national party). This death represent passing of an era that had great leaders who carried the values and ideals of freedom struggle, whom the society has started to miss quite terribly.

Post script: Communists will do well to understand that private need to be kept away from public, private matters of people include their understanding on religio-spiritual matters they seek to negotiate life. Questions can be only be asked if it impacts or influences policy decisions. Also the limitations of copying what is essentially alien system need to be understood and put in perspective of Indian society. Being religious is not essentially being communal nor it means being anti proletariat (if society can really be classified that way!). This narrow interpretations and rigid posturing need be reevaluated to the contemporary reality. Otherwise this will open doors to opportunist politicians who have no qualms in accepting crassness of market, we have seen enough in Bengal. A new breed of nasty 'leaders' (basically therivu chatambis) are readying in Kerala.

When moon start munching sun...

More pictures at photo blog

Recalling Gandhiji

Few months back I was reading Guy De Maupassant, a consummate French writer. He is such a natural writer that sentences just streamed out, it seems with not much effort. He brings brilliance out of ordinary, some places he reminds you of Edgar Alan Poe. I was reading this story Beside a Dead Man, it was about a man sitting vigil for philosopher Schopenhauer and an incident, now this story was stuck in my head and I ended up writing Gandhi was not killed few days back. Need to add here the incident of being invited to hotel is based on a true happening. When I was in first year of college we four or five guys used to go to kovalam beach quite regularly, once we were sitting around an elderly foreigner invited us to his room for beer!.

This story is of course dedicated to sacred memory of Mahatma Gandhi. He was a great man. But if I were alive in 1920s and 30s I would have definitely preferred shanti niketan over sevagram (and yes only for few months…I gather I have a problem sticking around a place for too long!!), Tagore was an amazing man and I found the contradictions between him and Gandhi in his favor. But Gandhiji had immense hold over people and he understood human nature, society and value of non violence- at its practical and spiritual level. It is a mistake to compare people, it is an ugly venture. Comfort of retrospect makes it worst.
Care is also taken in this story not to put words on Gandhi that is not his.

One of the worst earthquake in Haiti

Nothing idiotic !!

This blogger happen to see Hindi movie 3 Idiots in the theatre while I was traveling few days back. It’s been ages since I have been to theaters. Last time I went to a theatre was to watch Guru while I was in Madurai. Unfortunately the theater had bedbugs, few minutes into movie I was all scratching. Mani Ratnam’s creative world was battling ferocious bugs, and I was vacillating between vicious attacks on my sensitive self and vista of Aishwarya dancing in rain on Rehman’s incredible song. It again was the age old mind over matter situation, won decisively by the latter this time when I was startled by a rat scrambling through my legs. I did catch up with the rest of movie on TV, the only hitch being saw the first half in Tamil rest in Hindi!!. Need to add watching movie on TV is quite a bad experience, with so many dumb obnoxious ads spoiling fun. It gets really crude when you switch on for cricket match, there is lack of basic decency. I guess when you are salivating for money these small issues don’t matter. Incidentally the richest “sporting body” couldn’t even get few feet of ground ready for match that too in the capital of the country. Any other set of people would have said “we will show what it means to be the richest, we will create the best sporting facility that the world could offer. A state of art stadium the world has not seen”. But not these small timers they will clutch on to the suck and back bite, when it comes to Delhi these behavior are an art itself, it is envied. It is a matter of shame, even to watch the match in the stadium can be such a bad experience. BCCI has become a syndicate to make money by few.

Enough of crap, so I was saying I saw 3 idiots (I didn’t realize it was last day of the year, crackers later signaled it’s a new year!!. Why it has to be noisy I never could understand, and yes I always find myself on the noisy side of the world). I liked the movie the story has things we all identify with, stupendous success of the movie is a testament to it. Not denying that there are some ‘filmy’ situations…but that only makes it endearing. Rajkumar Hirani is a good director I loved the Munnabhai series. Wonder what the controversy was for, Chetan Bhagat is immensely popular writer among youngsters. Aamir Khan is an amazing actor (all other actors did well in the movie, I thought the actor who played the principal -Boman Irani, was excellent). I recall seeing 'QSQT' when it was released!. Over the years he has given some wonderful movies, I prefer his funny movies that were hugely popular like Andaz apna apna, Ishq as also others like Dil hai ki manta nahi, Rangela, Jo jeeta wohi sikander, lagaan and so on. I also caught up with Gajini few months back on TV (done well but found it bit too violent). And yes Tare Zameen Par was a great movie with some amazing songs, one of the best. I also find innovative ways he market his movies interesting.

Denying the dead

We deny the dead their existence
in the absences, we deny them
in our hopes too.
Negating them into vague memories
or thoughts that suit us.

Couldn’t be that
they wait for us in the corner
just as we saw them
in moments of joy, in their best dress
thinking what we are thinking
dreaming our own dreams…

(dedicated to Sugathakumari teacher for more on this visit my birds blog)

Welcoming a new year celebrating biodiversity

More pictures in photo blog