It happens only in America

One fine day last week, I woke up late as usual and did the first thing that I do everyday, pick up the newspaper. I glanced at the headline and was amazed to see what was written in large font. The day’s big news was that Barrack Obama had been awarded the Noble Peace Prize. There was a big photo of the Afro American President just below the heading. I looked at the heading and didn’t know how to react, I thought I was still in my dreams. I opened my eyes wide just to be sure that I really wasn’t imagining what was apparently in front of me. Guess what, I wasn’t asleep, the news was real alright. Then I wondered if today was the first day of April, because I am aware that the newspapers do play practical jokes on their readers on that day. Well no, if my memory served me right, I thought we were well into October. So the news was real alright, Barrack Obama was indeed chosen for the prestigious Noble Peace Prize, which many greats in the past like Mr. MK Gandhi for example were never considered worthy of.

The first thing that came to my mind was Noble? For WHAT? I thought the Noble committee considered the winner after painstaking fact finding, thorough research, serious deliberations and careful thought. Alas, how we fool ourselves with these assumptions.

Firstly, would the committee please enlighten us, what exactly impressed them to consider the President’s nomination? Is it the splendid peace keeping efforts in Iraq or the huge strides made towards ending hostilities and eventual cease fire in Afghanistan? Or is it the prevailing sensibility towards the situation in Pakistan?

Apparently according to the committee, it was his promise towards bringing world peace that overwhelmed them. It was the promises that he had made during his election rally that clinched it for him. Boy, I would have to say, the committee is pretty gullible. Didn’t their mother ever tell them, don’t take a politician’s word for it, least of all, when he is addressing a rally, for the only thing that he is interested in, is your votes and he will say whatever it takes that increases his chance of winning.

Its been nine months that he has held the highest office in US, let me ask, what has he really done in these days? Well, I will let you think over it, scratch your head all you want. If you ask me, any promise must be followed by honest actions and be accompanied with true intentions. Promise without action is just junk words spewed randomly on unsuspecting citizens. I thought empty promises on bringing world peace only won you the Miss World pageant, but Obama shows us that it could also win you Presidency, that’s about all that Obama has proved so far.

Well, lemme try my luck too, here goes. “I promise that I will bring world peace, stop all wars, prevent any from breaking out in the future, ensure that we all live as brothers, shoulder to shoulder.” Well, there goes, my intention to bring world peace has been declared to the world, how am I gonna accomplish them? I have no clue. But who cares? I am hopeful that the generous Noble Peace Prize committee would consider my promise and bestow me with the honour next year. I will book the flight tickets immediately; I have heard that if I book them in advance, I could get a huge discount. There would be a $1.5 million prize money, which I would then donate to charity and set an example, display my compassion, and hope it helps when I set out to fool my countrymen again in three years time.

The other problem with Obama is that if you criticize him, you would be branded as a racist. That’s Strange because I am a big critic of his predecessor, Dubyaman. I have called him a primate many a times, however, if you call Obama by the same name, you invite trouble. Well, I will take that as an advantage of American culture, you need to be constantly innovative, the words that you used for Dubya cant be used for Obama, you need to be more creative. I just wish Obama was too. Well, happy peace prize winning, we will all wait and see who the lucky winner is, in the next edition, in an year’s time, psst, I am also in the race.

Dream on. .

Ok. So the dream continues :-) But not so smoothly.

The day I my Thunder I a quite enthusiastic the new bike. The very next day I out the bike for a thundering ride. And that's when Raka realized how much weight he had gained over the years. And how weak he had become (this is a good ploy of pointing out weaknesses in Raka rather than myself. Helps me be more critical than if I the word 'me' rather than 'raka')

When I a kid, I to ride 4km each way to school. Now admittedly, I've not ridden a bicycle for around 15 years. But then the deterioration has been such, that the first day I not ride my thunder for even one kilometer! And when I home, I all drenched in sweat with my heart beating frantically, seemingly eager to leap out of my chest any moment.

With this embarrassing enlightenment, I've resolved to ride my thunder daily or at least 5 times a week to achieve a distance of 15 kms daily without getting tired. All this by this year end, which gives me 3 months from now.

My today's trip was 1.5 kms each way, from my home to Girgaon chaupati and back. I'd to stop thrice during the entire ride to catch my breath and for my frenzied heart to normalize. After I was back home though, I couldn't even stand. I'd to lay down right on the floor! With a bit of relaxation, I a limbu pani, which brought me back to my senses.

Today's Performance: 1.5 kms each way, with three stops and total exhaustion on return.
Target for next week: Girgaon chaupati and back, non-stop, with probably a bit of exhaustion.

Lets see how I keep up. .

Bike Dream...

Raka is back to Naklistan after a long, very long time. You may notice that the last post I had posted was when I got married. So probably it was not against the ways of the world that I disappeared from the scene for month together.

I was getting somewhat restless for the past few days. My hands were itching to do something new. And that's when I came across a few biking (bicycling not motorbiking) clubs on the internet. That when the wild hog that is Raka, which was dormant for quite sometime remembered the wildness that was partially subdued by marriage!

And that how Raka bough a brand new bike (not the El Cheapo bicycle. hehehe)

So here's the charming beauty..




Will post about my first ride soon...

Raka is getting Married!!

Yeah... that's right people... Raka Naklistani is settling with a nice girl :-)

And the girl is already aware of Raka's tendency of spending half his life online. She's already proclaimed my computer as her biggest enemy. hehehe...

Nevertheless, not much change in anticipated in me... atleast not anything long term. Raka expects to continue with the absurd antics. hehehe

So lets see how it works out being a husband. LOL...

:-)

End of the Line...

Recent spate of ‘re-conversions’ to Hinduism in Orissa is what is causing a flurry in my mind right now. The manner in which tribal Indians are being tormented for their religion is not only gruesome but also against the very tenets of Hinduism.

For the sake of argument, lets keep the fact of conversion to Christianity aside for a moment. Let us assume that the Tribals in Orissa and Dalits elsewhere are indeed being mass converted to Christianity. But who has conferred the right to rape and pillage and burn the Christians? Is Religion not a matter of free will? Who are they to dictate which religion one follows?! Let me try and justify their right to decide which religion to follow or to follow any religion at all. Consider this:

Muslims, Christians and Dalits in particular (because they are fellow Hindus) are still not allowed inside many renowned Hindu temples. And I’m not talking about middle ages. I am talking about today. NOW. Many Dalits still live in ghettos outside the villages. Those who claim to be caretakers of Hindu religions have not only never contributed to upliftment of Dalits but have infact stigmatized their lives and raised hindrances in their paths to progress at all points of time. No Hindu has ever done anything for the Tribals living a life devoid of even necessities in the hinterlands of our country. What right, then these Hindu Fanatics have to ‘re-convert’ them to Hinduism. And let me point out that I’ve not even touched upon the aspect of whether these were indeed Hindus before conversion to Christianity. Tribals themselves have claimed that they are not Hindus and are nature worshippers. These claims are indeed correct since these people are the aboriginal people of India who have lived here from time immemorial and before the ‘advent’ of Vedic and later Hindu Civilization. ‘Reconversion’ of these tribal people is as good as a forced conversion to Christianity. And indeed the manner in which these people have been forced to convert by making them eat cow dung and cow urine and forcibly tonsuring their head is no less wrong than medieval times conversion of Hindus to Islam at sword point.

The major allegation made against the Christian Missionaries is about not forced conversions but conversion by enticement. It is being alleged that Christians allure the Dalits and Tribals with jobs, education, better life, money and such other enticements. Let me ask this, WHAT IS WRONG IF THESE PEOPLE CONVERT TO ANOTHER RELIGION IF IT GIVES THEM A BETTER LIFE. What has Hinduism given to them? Are you ready to give all these things to these people in misery? Are you ready to educate them? Are you ready to employ them? Are you ready to give even a fraction of your time to their upliftment? NO… No Hindu has ever done this. Considering the miniscule percentage of Christians in India, the amount of charity and social work done by them is tremendous. Every person in this country aspires to educate his children in a Convent. Large number of hospitals are run by Christians. Employment generated by these activities is much more than huge MNCs. So if the Christians devote so much of time and energy in upliftment of the downtrodden, is it not but natural for these to come close to their benefactors? Especially in light of their own fellow Hindus abhorring them by making them live outside villages, not letting them inside their temples, burning, and raping them as a matter of daily routine!

If the Dalit Hindus and Tribal non-Hindus wish to change their religion that has given them nothing but misery and stigma, then no body should have a right to question them. Let alone oppose them.

It is a matter of great shame that Hindu religion is increasingly becoming intolerant towards other religions. This spread of fundamentalism is a serious cause of worry. If this is not stopped in time, there would come a time when Hindus will kill fellow Hindus, just like Islam today is ripe with internal violence amongst Shias and Sunnis. IN this respect, Hindus would be much more at risk because Hinduism does not have just two sects, but has hundred or probably thousands of subdivisions. If this fire of fundamentalism is not doused soon, the end of Hinduism is not far from the fate of Islam today, which has turned into a demon of terrorism and medieval Christianity, which was a plague for humanity.

In this respect, I now find it rather interesting that in today’s world, religion has lost its original purpose of governing the social behavior of human in a just manner. It is now time to discard the age-old concept of religion and look towards newer methods to govern the society and provide a path for progress for mankind. Its time now to throw all religions in to the gutters and frame updated new laws and practices for humanity.

Religion as a concept has outlived its beneficial life now.

Whats happening

What is happening in India nowadays? Is there a body responsible for internal security or not and if at all there is, have these people even been briefed about their responsibilities? It sure does not look so from the grim pictures that can be seen from time to time on television, newspapers and magazines. One after the other the country has been ravaged by terrorist attacks and the most disappointing thing is that there is nothing that has changed from the time of the previous blasts to the latest one. There has absolutely been nothing learned from these lapses, its as if no event no matter how gruesome in nature or sinister in plot is ever going to shake India from its eternal sleep. The toll that these have taken, their intensity and the repeatability fills the air with eerie silence.

The callous attitude of the common citizen towards there events is even more unnerving and dangerous. It just means that like always we have resigned ourselves to our fate and accept whatever carnage is heaped on us. We are champions of suffering silently and our attitude towards the suffering of others is absolute indifference and an utter lack of sympathy. I have watched the common man’s response to these events each and every time they unfold. This has always frustrated me to no bounds and this time I am absolutely pissed, so what do I do, I take it out on my keyboard and punch some words on it with the intensity of a pile driver.

Each and every time when we switch on our television and watch the ghastly pictures splashed across our screen, with BREAKING NEWS screaming from the bottom of the screen. We know that the anonymous killers who have no name or face and much less, a conscience have struck again. It hits you that another bomb blast has struck us, in the first few seconds, you frantically look for the name of the city that these lunatics have managed to breach at the same time you hope that its not Mmbai. When you find the name, you think of the people from that place, whom you know. Then you frantically look for the number of dead, which is a mind numbing thing to do and when you do manage to so, you turn silent for a while. The immediate next reaction is disbelief, how can they let this happen over and over again? You switch channels for different views and notice that the toll steeply rising.

After a while, things just cool down, you go out and find people talking about it as if all this has happened in Iraq. Everytime it’s the same nonsense about the corrupt agencies and the politicians, yet the pictures of people with blood oozing out and being carried on shoulders splash across and you wanna look away.

The next day is the usual, no change from the previous days, life goes on as usual as if nothing ever happened and that things are hunky dory. The day after, no body even talks about it, there is no news either. The media finds some thing else to talk about and all the carnage all the causalities are totally forgotten, people carry on with life like they used to.

Until one normal looking day, you very calmly and unknowingly, turn on the television and see death and destruction and blood soaked bodies screaming on the screen with BREAKING NEWS splashed across the bottom. You ask yourself unknowingly, what the hell is happening?

The below is a list of bomb attacks that have struck India in the last 10 years and the losses that they have caused.

• February 14, 1998 - Coimbatore bombings, 46 deaths.
• October 1, 2001 - Terrorists attack Jammu-Kashmir assembly complex, killing about 35.
• December 13, 2001 - Attack on the parliament complex in New Delhi, 7 deaths.
• September 24, 2002 - Terrorists attack the Akshardham temple in Gujarat, killing 31.
• March 13, 2003 - A terrorist bomb attack on a commuter train in Mumbai kills 11 people.^[6]
• May 14, 2003 - Terrorists attack an army camp near Jammu, killing more than 30, including women and children.
• August 25, 2003 - Simultaneous car bombs in Mumbai kill about 52.
• August 15, 2004 - Bomb explodes in Assam, killing 16 people, mostly school children.
• Jaunpur train bombing – 2005, 13 died and 50 injured.
• July 5, 2005 - Shri Ram Janmabhoomi attack in Ayodhya
• October 29, 2005 - Three powerful serial blasts in New Delhi at different places just two days before Hindu festival Deepawali^[7]. About 70 people died in this incident.
• March 7, 2006 - At least 21 people killed in three synchronized terrorist attacks in Varanasi in Shri Sankatmochan Mandir and Varanasi Cantonment Railway Station.
• July 11, 2006 - At least 200 people killed in a series of 7 train bombing during the evening rush hour near Mumbai.
• September 8, 2006 - at least 37 people killed and 125 injured in a series of bomb blasts in the vicinity of a mosque in Malegaon, Maharashtra
• Samjhauta Express bombings - 18 February 2007, 68 dead and 50 injured.
• May 18, 2007 - at least 13 people were killed, including 4 killed by the Indian police in the rioting that followed, in the bombing at Mecca Masjid, Hyderabad that took place during the Friday prayers.
• August 25, 2007 - at least 42 people were killed in two blasts in Hyderabad's Lumbini park and a restaurant. The police reportedly managed to find and defuse another bomb in the same area.
• May 13, 2008 - at least 63 were killed in 9 bomb blasts along 6 areas in Jaipur.
• July 25, 2008 - at least 2 were killed and 20 injured in 8 low intensity bomb blasts in Bangalore.
• July 26, 2008 - at least 29 were killed and over 110 injured in 17 serial bomb blasts in Ahmedabad.
• September 13, 2008 - at least 21 were killed and over 110 injured in 5 bomb blasts in Dehli markets. The toll continues to rise.

• To date, at least 768 people have been killed in terror strikes in India since 1998.

• This does not include the Indian embassy bombing in Kabul on July 7, 2008, which killed 58 with over 158 injured. This is the biggest attack on India outside Indian soil.

I noticed one grim detail from the above, the frequency of the attacks have increased alarmingly since the attack on the parliament on 13^th December 2001, which happened a few months after 9/11. Its as if the entire world scenario has changed after that. The above drives home the point that India is a soft state. It shows just how easily attacks on Indian soil have been carried out with unnerving frequency and one wonders what prevents them from striking bigger targets in the future.

India needs to be more vigilant so as to prevent such attacks in the future and whatever needs to be done to ensure this, must be done.

Thing of the past

Hey all you history buffs. i am gonna talk something about history after a long time.

what we all read in school about history is that there were prehistoric settlements in india dating back to 70,000 BC. chee, thats a long way back. maybe our jackal was a young man then.

however, civilized history of india as was taught to us in schools began with indus valley civilization way back in 3200 BC. this civilization lasted a few thousand years until its decline and eventual collapse in 1700 BC. when we studied, the history of india, it was taught to us that it began from 3200 BC.

however, archaeological excavations done in Pakistan, post independence have unearthed a older civilization which could be considered to be advanced as compared to the others cultures that existed during that time. the name of that particular civilization is called mehrgarh as it has been discovered in and around a village by the same name in the province of baluchistan in the young country of pakistan.

mehrgarh lies on the "Kachi” plain of Balochistan, Pakistan, and is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming (wheat and barley) and herding (cattle, sheep and goats) in South Asia.

Located near the Bolan Pass, to the west of the Indus River valley and between the present-day Pakistani cities of Quetta, Kalat and Sibi, Mehrgarh was discovered in 1974 by an archaeological team directed by French archaeologist Jean-François Jarrige, and was excavated continuously between 1974 and 1986.

this discovery as mentioned is pretty recent. there are evidences of advanced techniques of farming being practiced which sets it apart from its contemporaries of that time.

we always studied in history that the Mesopotamian civilization was the oldest civilization in the world, starting around 3600 BC. The Egyptian civilization was next which started around 3300 BC. Next were the Indian and Chinese civilizations starting around 3200 BC and 3000 BC respectively.

However, in the light of the new evidence, don’t we think the above should be revised, considering that mehrgarh has been discribed as an advanced civilization and culture. Well, I know there are other known tribes that were located in other parts of the world and are also thought to be civilized and which are thought to have preceded the meso civilization. But there is no conclusive evidence to back these. There has been no strong evidence to say that these cultures were civilized, there is only speculation, though mind you, there is no question on the existence of these cultures, the question is merely that whether these were indeed civilized or not.

While we ponder and debate on this aspect, there is one more thing I would like to raise. In the light of this new evidence, shouldn’t mehrgarh civilization be included in the Indian history books. Even if there are questions regarding how advanced they really were, there can quite clearly be no questions about their very existence. Hence, these deserve to find their names in the history books.

Well for those not so familiar with history, if you are pondering over the question that if mehrgarh was unearthed in baluchistan, a Pakistani province, then how can it be called Indian history, shouldn’t it be called Pakistani history and hence lead to the conclusion that Pakistan dates back to 7000 BC? Well, what I got to say to you guys is, the first take a note of the fact that Pakistan as a nation was born in 1947, though it existed in the minds of its creators some 15 years earlier than that. Before 1947, there was no country on the world map ever by the name of Pakistan. Hence what ever happened in Pakistan Punjab or sindh and other provinces of Pakistan before 1947 is a happening on Indian soil, as it was India then. Hence, there is no question that mehrgarh was an Indian civilization.

Well that’s the comfort of being an Indian history buff, anything that happens in paki soil and dates before 1947 is a happening on Indian soil. However, paki rats will then claim that the taj mahal, red fort, qutub minar, charminar etc are Pakistani creations as they were built by sub continental muslim kings and Pakistan is a sub-continental muslim country. Where they are making is mistake is that they are laying their claim on anything that is remotely related to muslim architecture as theirs, totally forgetting the fact that Pakistan maybe an Islamic nation, however India is a secular country, not a hindu country as many seem to assume. It is the third biggest muslim country in the world if we go by the number of muslims living in it, forget the fact that the hindus outnumber them by one to 10. lol. Hence, the taj is very much Indian, though the pakis wish shahjahan’s capital was near Lahore and he built the taj on their soil, but sorry folks, he built it near his capital in agra, miles away from you guys. And on the same lines, harappa and mohanjodaro are Indian.

The mehrgarh civilization ultimately disappeared and was then replaced by the Indus valley civilization around 3200 BC, making bharat varsh a very old civilization.

The other aspect that could be pondered upon is, what kind of religion did there people practice. What were the customs and traditions during that time. There is enough to read about the religion practiced by the Indus valley people. It seems it was very close to Hinduism as some of their deities resemble some hindu deities. They worshipped earth, wind, water, sky and fire, very similar to hindus, especially the ancient ones. Hence there is evidence that the religion practiced there was close to Hinduism though not the same. For those who don’t know, the Indus valley civilization precedes Hinduism, which was born around 1700 BC through intermixing of Aryans and the natives of the land.

Hence, it would be really interesting to unearth what kind of religion did these people practice, as this civilization would really predate Hinduism. The questions that I am asking is was it close to Hinduism just like Indus valley or was it very different. It would answer my questions about the religion practiced by the people of this land before the oldest surviving religion in the world was born, which is one of the questions that have always intrigued me. Well, I guess more research needs to be done to answer these questions. Well there are more answers to be got yet. However, considering the situation in that country at the moment, it seems it will take some time before more intricate research could be done as no foreigner would like to travel to that country at the moment and I don’t think a body like the paki archeological survey exists. We know a lot about the religion practiced in specific countries before the advent of Christianity and islam in the world, but we know very little about the kind of religion that was practiced in India before the advent of Hinduism, though I know that Hinduism was not born on a particular day, it was something that gradually developed and became a part of peoples lives.

To conclude, I would like to say that, I personally like a few others, know a great deal about what happened in India since modern humans started inhibiting this land. I know about the action that this land has seen and the invaders that have come and gone, the Settlers who have come in from far corners of the world, about the experience that its people have had throughout the times. The intermixing and blending that has happened through out the years. But what also intrigues me is where this land and its inhabitants are headed. Will this land become an economic power house that it was in the past. That is for science fiction writers I guess considering the inflation that has set upon this country.

Another song......

hi guys... again, bus commuting is bringing a lot of things inside of me to the outside.... here's another piece I typed on my cell phone, while traveling...

Chronically radical

Yeah, it’s hot - His body stinks and burns in the furnace
Broke his life - Hung himself and his face bore a grimace
Fuck it all up - Ran out of the will to live and give a tough fight

The asshole hung himself instead – Put up his hand in the air and gave it all up
Eye for an eye – Get that fucking corpse out of my sight

You gave it up – But I ain’t gonna follow suit, ain’t no coward
Will take up arms – Repay tooth and nail for every wrong done

This society is all fucked up – Some radical changes are required
Yeah, come with me – Stop living that easy life in the bedroom now

Look what’s happening – Rich are getting richer and poor hanging up, wholesale
This has gotta stop now – Else I’m gonna cut you in to tiny little pieces

Take advantage – And see how I fuck your life and make it a living hell
You spread blood all around – But if you don’t stop now, yours will be included

This Degenerate... Stinking mass opinion... Don’t Don’t Don’t count me in
I ain’t your beast of burden – Break the blast furnace

No more hang-ups, only shoot-up – The river’s now gonna flow backwards
Time for a change – Do it yourself else I’m gonna force it on you

And then you’ll repent – Regret why you were born in the first place

Chill the furnace – Ask for your rights and if you’re denied don’t lie low
Ask but don’t beg – They’re your rights and not alms in the begging bowl

Equality... Freedom... Democracy...
Yeah, you’re entitled – So don’t hang-up but shoot-up

This is a fucking miserable place for the honest lot like you
Sometimes rights need to be fought for and snatched from

That’s alright...
Don’t hang-up... but shoot-up...

Yeah, don’t fucking redefine hang-up – I prefer that word for the phone
I’ve become chronically radical – That’s enough now.

Come Home Al...

I was traveling to office this morning in the bus. The weather was somewhat gloomy and like the moody asshole that I am, the gloom took over; I'd been listening to Nirvana continuously for a few days now, even as i traveled in the bus to office. So the rock blues had already started to take me over from the Unplugged. And with this gloom, I found it hard to resist penning down something on paper. So here's what I wrote this morning, in a writing that was so illegible that it took much effort for me to read even my own hand. I'm glad that you don't have to go through the eye straining and the guess work that goes with it... :-)
So here's what I wrote..... VERBATIM. Its called, "Come Home Al"....... :-)

Come Home Al…

Pink nails, black eyes,
Swallow me, take my sight;

Weather’s nasty, Dark clouds overhead,
Dyed hair, nature decepted;

Move on, look outta the window,
Men fall, raise an eyebrow;

Fluids flow, take a dip,
The alligator smiles, says how bout a sip;

Al and Me, sit across,
Pink nails, gator claws;

Wassup gator, swallow deer,
I’ll take Vodka, can’t swallow dear;

Claw me Al, swallow me,
Break bones - enter dream;

Go back in time, its dark now,
Pink nails, gator claws;

Hey mom, look Kurt is screaming,
I’m coming home, I was dreaming…

Mobile blogging. . . !

Well, you know wat? Wen life slows down to a grind, it really becomes terribly boring to even stay alive. . Not dat my life is not eventful. . Just that nothing i'd like to remember for the rest of my life is happening. . So i'm senselessly downloading stupid softwares for my mobile phone and computer. . And thats when i found how easy it is to blog from my phone. . I think its cool. .

Sent from my phone using trutap