The rape of a nation and its will

यह ५४२ ज़मींदार
जनादेश जिनके लिए वैश्या से अधिक कुछ नहीं
और संसद जिनका हरम है
बाहुबली जिनकी महफिल के साजिन्दे और पनवाडी हैं
जहाँ जनमत की अस्मत रोज़ फरोख्त होती है
कभी बाहर से और कभी भीतर के संबल के लिए
जहाँ सत्ता रोज़ अपने आशिक बदलती है
ग्राहक और दलाल रोज भूमिका बदलते हैं
इस अबला की इज्ज़त अगर बचानी है
तो इसका तिरस्कार रोकना होगा
चुनाव के नाम पर यह वेश्यागमन अगर रोकना है
तो सरकार का कर्ता सीधे और दो-टूक चुना जाना होगा
कुर्सी को द्रौपदी बनाने वालों के पाखंड का चीर हरना होगा
उन्नी के पिता ने राह पर कदम भरा है
पगड़ी पत्नी ने करकरे की बचाई है
भारत मां को इन व्याभिचारिओं के शोषण से बचाना है
तो संसद का स्वरुप ही बदलना होगा
दरिद्र को फिर से नारायण बनाना होगा

Wake up and smell the coffee!

A letter outlining a roadmap sent out by a business assciate and a friend and above all a concerned Indian: Manish Dhanuka

Dear All,

If Indian government really cares for the Indians and if it has any pride left, then this is the time to react. If USA can react and bomb Afghanistan and Pak borders in retaliation to the terror strikes in their country, India should immediately send a sortie of 50 Jet fighters and bomb all training camps of LeT and Jaish e Mohd, in PoK. I am confident that International community will understand the situation right now.

This will clearly give a message to the terror organisations also. We are willing to sacrifice more lives and we are willing to take more terror strikes but not without retaliation. This is a war like situation and the government must act. I suggest the following immediate measures to be taken by the government.

1. Air strikes on all the training camps, destroy them completely.

2. Use the technology, keep a close surveillance on the suspect locations in Pakistan through satellite surveillance.

3. Immediately incorporate an (Anti terror Security Organisation controlled by the Central Govt.) to be headed by the chosen officers from the Army, Navy and Air force. This organisation to have few hundred commandos ready at all times in all 25 major cities of India. This group to have power to order any state police officer including the commissioner of police. All CISF personnel guarding the security of Air Ports to be under the control of this organisation. The officers of this organization to be deployed in plain clothes at all key locations in major cities.

4. All Police stations in the country to have computerized central data storage mechanism, just like the ports. All intelligence data on the FIRs and reports to be easily accessible to the security forces.

Regards,

Manish Dhanuka

सौदा

यह कैसी है विडम्बना की युग बदल गए पर भीष्म को आज भी राजा के रूप में ध्रितराष्ट्र ही मिलता है युधिस्ठिर नहीं ?

तू फरजंद था , तू पाबन्द था
कर गया जो लाल करता है
हम तमाशाई हैं रो लिए अपने नसीब को
पढ़ लिए मंत्र भी हमने
फूँक दी चिता तेरी
यह रहनुमा है
देखें तेरी शहादत का ये क्या हाल करता है
फैसलों ने इसके कब्र तक पहुँचा दिया तुझे
उम्र की तेरी देखें यह क्या इस्तेमाल करता है
कटोरे की तरह तक़रीर में
या गुडिया के बाल करता है
देखें तेरी शहादत का ये क्या हाल करता है

गरज गया यहाँ बरसेगा जाने कहाँ
देखें मोहल्ले का क्या हाल करता है
देखें तेरी शहादत का ये क्या हाल करता है
तिजारत है इसकी फितरत में
अपनी नसों के पानी को रंग से लाल करता है
शहीदों और मासूमों के खून के सिक्कों से
सियासत के बाज़ार में सौदे आदतन हर बार करता है
देखें तेरी शाहदत का यह क्या हल करता है
यह रहनुमा है हमारा
अजब है वफायें अजब है प्यार इसका
देखें तेरी शहादत का हाल यह इस बार क्या करता है

Islamic Impasse

Note: Those who have read previous posts may find it a bit reptitive though it was written in a different context and to a different audience.

Let me start out by saying that I am from a minority religion too, an Indian citizen,describe myself as a hindu in my passport, grew up immersed in Hindu mythology and discovered my religion later . enjoy sufi and islamic devotional music and have had friends in all religions and any other denominations that you can think of all my life and see no conflict in any of these identities. In fact these are not conflicts at all since I am an Indian, just as you are at the very core of your being. A proud one at that.
Yet the muslim community in India today finds itself, between a rock and a hard place.
This is because of the rabble and its rousers in each family,society,community or nation.
Mouthing ideological platitudes as we have been, since the hypocrisy of Indian politics institutionalized itself thanks to the congress culture and its lack of inner democracy which pervades the consciousness or the DNA of the politics of our country.
.This is a leadership failure at all levels, the family, society. community and national. And much as i dread to say this - it must be said that the leadership in the Muslim community - social, political,religious have all failed muslims miserably. And I am perhaps preaching to the choir here a bit, as your are obviously progressively minded people who visit or contribute to this site.
I have also no reason to believe that most of the Indian muslim bretheren are any different from me since they grew up where I did and were also part of my cultural consciousness.
The leadership at all fronts has failed. One significant domain of leadership that I have deliberately not discussed so far is the personal leadership domain.
And this is the only domain where each one of us can be the change instead of demanding the change and guaranteeing failure by the nature of the exercise.
The first step to change is recognizing the problem.
The second is accepting it - i.e. getting out of denial mode.
A large majority of us fail at the first step, a larger part of the remainder fail at the second step.
The third step is contemplation - a few of us are able to do this dispassionately rising above our conditioning.
The rest is easy once you have come this far, the popular myth of finding it hard to find the motivation just ceases to hold water when one has come this far.
A wise man perhaps Einstein observed - The significant problems of today cannot be solved using the thinking that created it - i'd go further and say that trying to solve the significant problems of the day by the existing thinking (i say thinking, not wisdom) is the definition of lunacy.
These are universal laws of life and could be defied only at ones own peril - one could be unhappy about gravitation and jump out of the nearest window in defiance - the results need no explanation.
So how is this relevant to the current situation?
Let us walk together and map it onto this current impasse and its deadly results.
I believe that all muslims that are rational in their thinking will agree that the muslim community today finds itself generally stereotyped in the worst possible manner. This stereotyping stymies the progressive forces and the very key to the deadlock. While raving and ranting about it is an option but the fact is that some muslims have made large contributions to the formation of this stereotype globally. This venom within would need to be indentified and antidotes be made a part of personal lives of those of us who care.
Let me also say that every individual,society and community generally craves and strives for what we can loosely call success.
It is a universal desire and so the laws of success are universal.
Again let me risk being a bit preachy - but let the faint of heart and spirit stop at this point, as they may not be able to stomach what follows as it involves personal change, that we never want to bring about unless forced by self interest.
I think we are at such a point in time now.
The origins, goals and motivations of this outrage in Mumbai are quite evident now.
If there is any doubt in any mind on this planet on the fruit of ignorance, hatred and spiritual bankruptcy are, they need their head examined.
That said, the outcome of one's life is clearly a sum total of choices we make at every step in our lives. This however is not so obvious to those who covet visible success or its spoils without having the stomach or susbtance for what that takes.
For every terrorist or wastrel who justifies his acts in pursuit of vengeance is just a weakling who wishes to take the easy way out, trying to bargain a price for what he covets.
That is the essential difference between the Salaskars',Karakres', Kamptes', Gajendra Singhs', Karambir Kangs' and Sandeep Unnikrishans' and the countless others who shall remain nameless and faceless in our consciousness on one hand and the Azam Amir Kasavs' and his ilk of the world.
In our need to look compassionate and socially responsible we seem to try to defy these natural laws of life. In our eagerness to be liked we seem to be over-eager to hand out fishes and loaves to those and create a mentality of covetousness and create a belief that it is indeed righteous to to be so.
What could be further from the truth about the forces of life.
It is a delinquency in our roles as leaders, as we lead our siblings,children, colleagues,societies or indeed nations, if we lead ourselves or others to believe otherwise.
Sympathy is a substance liable to abuse like any other and in fact is the most rampantly absued
of all opiates.
So let us purge ourselves of the guilt that is distributed so liberally by all and sundry who pose as the wronged most often, when all they are doing is venting greed devoid of any intelligence -cognitive, emotional or spiritual- at all.
Compassion, Humility and empathy are great virtues that all of must possess and pusrsue in greater measure, as we pursue greater success and make progress but let no one use this as an arm to twist behind our backs and hold entire nations and world to ransom.
Let us not reward incompetent and stunted leaders with negotiated settlements to buy peace but lead them to paths that teach these essential and if that means not sparing the rod so be it.
Let us not be delinquent in our responsibility towards the ones that we lead and those who choose to be in our care by letting our knees buckle and take easy ways out at any step or take cover under the fuselage of superficial debates that will now erupt and be fuelled by these men-of-words-and-little-else who lead us today in all domains.

It is here the progressive islam proponents can choose to carry the can forward.
The temptation to let the "others" change first is rather inviting and we succumb to it often,
Let me repeat - The significant problems of today cannot be solved using the thinking that created it .

क्या जीतोगे तुम?

क्या जीतोगे तुम हमसे?
कैसे जीतोगे तुम उस राष्ट्र से
जिस मां की बेटियाँ जनती हैं
सलस्कर, कामते, करकरे
गजेन्द्र, संदीप, करमबीर
और वे जो उत्सर्ग करते हैं अनाम ही
और गिने भी नहीं जाते
जो अपने और पराये का भी नहीं करते भेद
तुम क्या उजाडोगे उस मां की कोख
तुम दशानन सही
कैसे लडोगे सत्व को पूजने वाली सभ्यता से
यह नहीं है धर्म की लड़ाई
जिसका तुम ढोल बजाते रहते हो
तुम बस थक गए हो और तुममे नहीं है आग वो
जो भीख से ले जाए तुम्हे श्री की ओर
कटोरों पे बसर करने वाले हो तुम कर्म से अजनबी
वासना और वांछा को पूजने वालों
तुम्हारा कोई राष्ट्र नहीं,कोई समाज नहीं हो सकता
न तुम किसी समाज को कुछ दे सकते हो
कहाँ है शक्ति तुममे कुछ देने या पाने की

Of self and selflesness

The origins, goals and motivations of this outrage in Mumbai are quite evident now.
If there is any doubt in any mind on this planet on the fruit of ignorance, hatred and spiritual bankruptcy are, they need their head examined.
That said, the outcome of one's life is clearly a sum total of choices we make at every step in our lives. This however is not so obvious to those who covet visible success or its spoils without having the stomach or susbtance for what that takes.
For every terrorist or wastrel who justifies his acts in pursuit of vengeance is just a weakling who wishes to take the easy way out, trying to bargain a price for what he covets.
That is the essential difference between the Salaskars',Karakres', Kamptes', Gajendra Singhs', Karambir Kangs' and Sandeep Unnikrishans' and the countless others who shall remain nameless and faceless in our consciousness on one hand and the Azam Amir Kasavs' and his ilk of the world.
In our need to look compassionate and socially responsible we seem to try to defy these natural laws of life. In our eagerness to be liked we seem to be over-eager to hand out fishes and loaves to those and create a mentality of covetousness and create a belief that it is indeed righteous to to be so.
What could be further from the truth about the forces of life.
It is a delinquency in our roles as leaders, as we lead our siblings,children, colleagues,societies or indeed nations, if we lead ourselves or others to believe otherwise.
Sympathy is a substance liable to abuse like any other and in fact is the most rampantly absued
of all opiates.
So let us purge ourselves of the guilt that is distributed so liberally by all and sundry who pose as the wronged most often, when all they are doing is venting greed devoid of any intelligence -cognitive, emotional or spiritual- at all.
Compassion, Humility and empathy are great virtues that all of must possess and pusrsue in greater measure, as we pursue greater success and make progress but let no one use this as an arm to twist behind our backs and hold entire nations and world to ransom.
Let us not reward incompetent and stunted leaders with negotiated settlements to buy peace but lead them to paths that teach these essential and if that means not sparing the rod so be it.
Let us not be delinquent in our responsibility towards the ones that we lead and those who choose to be in our care by letting our knees buckle and take easy ways out at any step or take cover under the fuselage of superficial debates that will now erupt and be fuelled by these men-of-words-and-little-else.

Terror and its tenuous explanations

Terror has an uncanny knack for spouting as many experts as bullets.
Therein perhaps is its success - it brings attention to every individual's thoughts no matter how far fetched or lame.
Take for example this article titled "Indian Muslims in Crisis" (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1862650,00.html) authored by Aryn Baker in Time magazine.
Quote
The disparities between Muslims, which make up 13.4% of the population, and India's Hindu population, which hovers around 80%, are striking. There are exceptions, of course, but generally speaking Muslim Indians have shorter life spans, worse health, lower literacy levels, and lower-paying jobs.
Unquote
The author or the sources that are alluded to, and the muslims that are referred to, have clearly either not visited parts of Bihar, Orissa and several other Indian states or chose to ignore the fact that a larger than 13.4% slice of Indian population of Non Muslims ive in the kind of grinding poverty with all ist corollaries that would make the existence of the muslims referred to, seem like the lap of luxury - yet they havent taken to guns or killed others or resorted to ethnic cleansing. For what is it if not etnic cleansing that is happening in the Jammu Valley of the Indian Kashmir?
Thomas Edison that great American and indeed exemplary human , did not invent any WMD nor did he seem to need to kill people inspite of coming from a relatively under priviledged section of society.
He chose to do other things like inventing the light bulb or electrical energy instead - he shook the earth too, a bit differently though.
Why is it that qualities that we deem desirable in an individual are so diepensable when we talk of societies or communiaties or even mobs? Why are our expectations suddenly so much lower?

Why do we take it upon ourselves to pander to this entitlement mentality?
Why do we analyse these issues on a communal or race based metric instead of the individual and his choices?
Aren't all of the most inspiring success stories based on an individual beating circumstance?
Who said life was fair or had to be fair? The human race would have achieved nought if life were indeed just and fair all the time.
Socialism should have been our ideal instead if this was right and yet capitalism is what we preach ad nauseaum , ad infinitum.
The mental pciture seems to be one of a child with folded arms and "please me" smugness.
The modern day parents seem to suffer from this same syndrome - a result of excessive politically corrrect ideas that we adopt to look more correct than the next guy annd end up pandering our children silly.
Except that it isnt anyone's brief to please anyone else.
Can anyone really help someome who doesn't want to help himself -but just covets and covets more?
Whatever is wrong with old fashioned striving or is that considered dysfunctional now?
and then this priceless gem

which I quote

Retribution was swift, and though Pandey was a Hindu, it was the subcontinent's Muslims, whose Mughal King nominally held power in Delhi, who bore the brunt of British rage. The remnants of the Mughal Empire were dismantled, and five hundred years of Muslim supremacy on the subcontinent was brought to a halt.

Muslim society in India collapsed. The British imposed English as the official language. The impact was cataclysmic. Muslims went from near 100% literacy to 20% within a half-century. The country's educated Muslim élite was effectively blocked from administrative jobs in the government. Between 1858 and 1878, only 57 out of 3,100 graduates of Calcutta University — then the center of South Asian education — were Muslim. While discrimination by both Hindus and the British played a role, it was as if the whole of Muslim society had retreated to lick its collective wounds.

Unquote

So what did the muslim society expect? Should the british have handed over the reigns to them when they left - did the british lease India from the Moghuls or did the moghuls loose it to the British? Petulance!
Could you in today's world keep your job if you refused to learn how to use a PC and the Internet when they made thier debut at work ?
Breathtaking examples of "please me"
Why do we allow people or communities to lay the guilt of their failure and deprivation at our doors when it is borne out of their intransigence that is dragging them down?
Muslims just seems to be topical - but the same realities underly all minority-majority, deprived-priviledged conflicts in families, societies communities and indeed the world.
Let us stop feeling obliged to apologising for other's sins of omission out of political correctness.

That perhaps is the single greatest favor we would be doing such participants of pity-poor-me fraternities.

शीशे का घर है तेरा

कर दिया तुमने शंखनाद और जयघोष
और ललकार भी दिया है तुमने
हे शकुनी और दुर्योधन
इस बार ध्रितराष्ट्र की आंख भी तो है खुली
हमें तो है सदियों से महाभारत का अभ्यास
प्रार्थना कर की रामायण मेरे हाथ से फिसल न जाए
तांडव मेरा थामे नहीं थमेगा किसीसे
जो माथे का तिलक तीसरा नेत्र बन गया
तेरे द्रोन के पास तो आंख भी एक कम है
तेरी कब्र शायद देख भी न पाए फातिहा पढने को

Mumbai,Mayhem,

कनक कनक ते मादकता अधिकाय....
जो अब भी तुमहरा खून नहीं खौलता तो वो पानी है
थक नहीं जाते तुम औरों के उत्सर्ग की फसल काटके अपने वंश का खलिहान भरते भरते ?
कैसे हो तुम रहनुमा कि मां तुम्हारी लजा गयी
जब वोह रंग गया उसकी छाती
अतिथिओं और बंधुओं के खून से
कन्दाहर से मुंबई की राह वो तै कर गए
और तुम बस शब्दों के जाल उधेड़ते बुनते रहे
शरणागत की रक्षा में प्राणों का सहर्ष तज जाते थे तुम्हारे ही अपने
पर बीज तुम्हारे स्वार्थ के अक्षय पात्र में रख छोडे हैं तुमने
भूल गए तुम कि राम भी यहीं जन्मा था और राजधर्म की भेंट सर्वस्व कर गया
तुम वहीँ हर ऋतू में नए मित्र ढूँढ लेते हो
धर्म और भद्रता का यह कैसा पाखंड है कि
अंतहीन है तुम्हारे मूल्यों की करवटें
और तुम अपने सपूतों के बलिदान को रुपयों में तोल देते हो हर बार
मुआयनों में जीवन का मुआवजा बाँट जाते हो
यह कैसी है तुम्हारी आत्मा
बोझ नहीं जिस पर भाई के रक्त की नदी में स्नान से भी होता
शर्म आती है मुझे की हमारी जननी एक है
भूख तुम्हारी अबूझ है मुझे ,कि संतान की चिता पर भी सेक लेते हो तुम अपनी रोटियां
कैसा है भोला मेरा भाई जो तुम्हे सौंप देता है अपना मुस्तकबिल हर बार
कैसें हैं वोह सपूत जो रामायण पढ़े हैं
और फ़र्ज़ जान कर तुम्हारी शिखंडियों को अपना अतिथि स्वीकार लेते हैं
याचक नहीं समझ लेना जो उसने
श्रद्धा के फूल रख दिए तुम्हारे दामन में
यह बस एक मौका है
जान अपनी तुम्हारे ईमान के हवाले कर के वो जो तुम्हे दे गये
अब न माँगना अपने भाई से उसके सब्र का इम्तिहान
या उसकी सादा दिली का सबूत
अब कुछ है नहीं खो देने या पा जाने को उसके पास
स्वाभिमान और सम्मान ही का है मूल उसका
आजादियों और सरहदों का छलावा अब नहीं निगलेंगे यह लोग
और उतना नहीं है ओज तुझमे
सत्व कि परीक्षा जो इस मासूम की ले सके
आँख मिलाएगा, तो जल जाएगा तू
मां के दूध का क़र्ज़ अब अदा कर
बहुत हो गया चूहे बिल्ली का खेल अब
अब और जब्त की उम्मीद न कर
क्योंकि तेरी न सही निर्लज्ज,
यह मेरी मां का दामन है जो आज भीग गया