Vignettes from a Short Trip to India

#76 Sophist

Your post reminds me of:

``Ché alif cha, Qaf`paish wow, QOO, KaNChoo`` (you may repeat it as many times as the ``Kanchoo`` fellow did when the teacher attempted to teach this student the spellings of Chaqoo!).

Very few of the readers would understand this, but then this is meant for only those few who do succeed in understanding this.

Cheraym #75

I am sorry to hear that my post don`t make any sense to you.

If they don`t then you have taken a right decision of not reading them.

Since it is an English language board, I have to write in this.

Otherwise, I would have written in Swahili for you.

Thanks for all those kind comments. It seems that I have unconsciously plagiarised other authors (at least one known to me since my return) since any trip to a third-world country kind of begins with the trip`s beginning not being auspicious. Considering that my next visit to India is in November (this time to Delhi for another nephew`s wedding), I can take Air-India out of Chicago and I resolve to open that article with Snoopy`s (and Bulwer-Lytton`s) immortal words: ``It was a dark and stormy night.``

I typed out the article in a couple of hours while still groggy from jet lag. Any credit for the style being good obviously belongs to my not-so-lucid frame of mind. I probably am pretty bad at other times.

I am surprised that a lot of people saw subtle and not so subtle digs at Muslims. In fact, there were enough digs at India but nobody rose to the bait on the Indian side, with the lone exception of one Gandhian. I really expected to get pounded for calling Tamil Nadu a reality distortion field and for that reference to Ponnuswamy Karuppannaswamy. Perhaps the Ponnuswamys don`t read Chowk!

Regarding the performance of Muslims in the School Leavers` examinations: the oriental stream includes Sanskrit as a language and of course Hindu kids took the Sanskrit language course. But the OSLC stream has its own math, science and social studies exams and the Muslim kids didn`t seem to excel in anything except Urdu and Arabic, leaving the Hindu kids to take the top honors in all science subjects in the OSLC stream. This is not going to necessarily hurt the Muslims in their admission to professional colleges because of the quota system. But one wonders why in Tamil Nadu, with APJ Abdul Kalam (of the missile and nuclear tests fame) just being headlined two years back as the native son who made good, there was no major enthusiasm for science education among the Muslim children. One then has to wonder what the situation is like for Muslims in Bihar and UP where the general literacy rates lag behing All-India rates so badly. In fact, if Pakistan has prevented the self-ghettoization of the subcontinent`s Muslims, that alone is good enough reason for the Partition.

About the more progressive Muslims choosing not to live in their own localities, Kumbhakonam is an example of that. That school for girls is centrally located in Kumbhakonam but certainly draws girls from surrounding townships and villages. The girls probably take the regular buses (there being no yellow school buses in India). I wonder: do they wear the burqa or the hijab? Do they dress in long skirts and bodices like all other girls do in South India and are indistinguishable from the general population except perhaps for the absence of a tilak on their forehead? But one thing is sure: in conservative and tradition-bound interior Tamil Nadu, there will be no eve-teasing. The guys will get thoroughly thrashed by all and sundry if they attempt that. Even in Chennai, there are special women-only buses mainly to cater to college girls. One other thing: during the last Kumbh Mela in 1992, the Al-Ameen School would have been closed because the festival attracted an estimated 1.2 million visitors and all transport into the town was halted. But the school, I am sure, would have opened its grounds and classrooms to the visiting pilgrims to stay in. I wonder if any non-Muslims join that school; it would be interesting to find out. After all, the Hindu kids have no hesitation in going to any missionary-run schools with their Lord`s Prayer in the morning.

Regarding that Brahmin girl marrying a Nadar at the roadside temple, them being in a major city like Chennai guarantees that they would be left alone, even if ostracized by their families. A subtle hint to my North Indian friends about their treatment of such cases where the groom is likely to be flayed alive in some of the North Indian villages. Assad_K, you have to read more Indian newspapers! Even in rural Tamil Nadu, the newlyweds would only be expelled from the village but no physical harm would come to them. The farther south you come in India, the more pacific the people are. Maybe it is the heat that totally enervates the people.

Were the two Muslims who protested the Calcutta High Court judgment representative? I don`t know but for the next 10 days there were no other letters on that issue by anyone of any religion. One thing for sure though: 20 years back, a newspaper like The Hindu would not have printed a letter detailing the menstrual periods of women. That simply was not done.

That remark about the ecoomic output of Chennai was based on a statement in the business section of a local newspaper. That may be local boosting but the fact is that in Bombay, the textile factories in Parel have been shut down for longer than a decade now. Does anyone anymore buy that junk called the Padmini by Premier Automobiles of Bombay? Chennai has Mitsubishi, Ford, Hyundai and Daewoo, each with capacities far exceeding that of Premier Automobiles. That plus the continued investment by foreign companies in Chennai is probably why the newspaper predicted that Chennai would exceed Bombay in economic output. Of course, these things change on a daily basis as it was reported just last week that Texas Instruments has taken over an additional 200,000 sq. ft of office space in Bangalore.

About IT in Kerala, the government has announced a new software technology park in Trivandrum (I refuse to spell it as Thiruvananthapuram - it is almost like the word `banana` - I know how to spell it but I don`t know when to stop. Let us see if this helps the IT industry to grow in Kerala. Interestingly, a new software technology park was announced for Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu. Kanchipuram is famous for its silk sarees, its temples and for being the seat of one of the Sankaracharyas. The announcement was made by the Sankaracharya. I wonder if the monastery is using its funds to create this infrastructure.

That probably sums up my response. It is difficult as an author to know when to respond to comments but this might be a good time as the article has definitely reached the Archives.

Thanks, everybody!

Krashid:

Thanks for reminding or should I say that letting us know who is the real brave man here? You must be very brave that you attack people on internet relentlessly! By the way, I am not interested in your posts any more, in fact I don`t read them any more. They do not make sense most of the times any way! Since this was directly addressed to me, I had to respond. This is my last response to you, don`t even bother to write to me any more. And I withdraw the statement about your blood pressure, your personal well-being is not in my agenda.

Cheraym #

Thought you may also find interesting.

The sign of cowardice is ruthless on weak. Afraid of strong.

Y2K: Thought you may find this interesting. An independent (I hope) obeserver`s view about Bal Thackeray. Taken from rediff.com



Francois Gautier

Are Hindus cowards?

Muslims are bullies and Hindus cowards,` Mahatma

Gandhi once said. He was right -- at least about Hindus.There has been in the past 1,400 years, since the first invasions started, very few Shivajis and Rajput princes to fight the bloody rule of the Moghuls, or hardly any Rani of Jhansis to stand against the humiliating colonial yoke of the British. If a nation`s soul is measured by the courage of its children, then India is definitely doomed.

Without the Sikhs, whose bravery is unparalleled in the more recent history of India, Hindus would have even lost additional land to Muslim invaders

and there would have been infinitely more massacres of Hindus by Muslims during the first weeks of Partition.

Are Hindus more courageous since they have an independent nation?(Thanks -- not to the non-violence of Gandhi -- but to the true nationalists such as Sri Aurobindo and Tilak, who prepared the ground for the Mahatma at the beginning of the century.) Not at all. Because of Nehru`s absurd and naïve `Hindi-Chini-bhai-bhai` policy, the Indian army was shamefully routed in 1962 by the Chinese, a humiliation which rankles even today. Beijing is still able to hoodwink Indian politicians by pretending it has good

intentions, through the interviews the Chinese leaders very generously give to The Hindu newspaper (which should rightly be called the `anti-Hindu`)and Frontline (`the mouthpiece in India for the Chinese Communist party`), while quietly keeping on giving nuclear know-how to Pakistan, as well as the missiles to carry their atomic warheads to Indian cities, arm

separatists groups in the northeast and continuing to claim ArunachalPradesh or Sikkim.

Everywhere in the world, Hindus are hounded, humiliated, routed, be it in Fiji where, once more, an elected democratic government was deposed in an armed coup or in Pakistan and Bangladesh, where Muslims indulge in pogroms against Hindus every time they want to vent their hunger against

India (read Taslima Nasreen`s Lajja).

In Kashmir, the land of yogis, where Hindu sadhus and sages have meditated for 5,000 years, Hindus have been chased out of their ancestral home by death, terror and intimidation. There were 25 per cent of Hindus at the beginning of the century in the Kashmir valley… and hardly a handful today.

And how did India start the new millennium? By surrendering as a lamb goes to the slaughterhouse to a handful of terrorists who took over Flight

IC 814 from Kathmandu to Delhi, (Nepal is another small, inconsequential country, which owes its culture to India but keeps on indulging India`s

enemies, whether Pakistan or China.) India had the opportunity to storm the plane when it landed in Amritsar, at a time when the militants had not been furnished with explosives and more guns by the Taliban, but it did nothing thanks to bureaucratic bungling and sheer incapability.

And not only did this Hindu government (yes, BJP/Hindu, notCongress/secular) make an ass of itself by calling the Taliban `friendly,`

whereas all along the Taliban only helped the terrorists, but also by its weak `Gandhian` attitude, it lost any credibility in a world, where Might is the only criteria, as the US proves to us every day.

And what happens when there is ONE man in India -- whatever his faults, quirks, or excesses -- who dares to call a spade a spade, is not afraid of

words and is ready to stand-up for his opinions? Not only, of course, is he attacked by Christians and Muslims, but he is also hounded by his own

brothers and sisters, the ``secular`` Hindus, the human rights activists, the journalists, the police, the (Congress) politicians! Are Hindus so intent to show the world that not only are they cowards but also idiots? This man, of course, is Bal Thackeray.

When Bal Thackeray said many years ago that there was no point in playing cricket against Pakistan as long as Islamabad was sending militants to kill and maim into Indian territory, he was ridiculed by the secular press as fanatic and un-sportive (and cricket is certainly not a gentleman`s game,

as the recent scandal has shown). But he was proved right, when during Kargil, India refused -- for once -- to play cricket with Pakistan.

When he says too, that since 14 centuries, Muslims always strike first against Hindus, he has another good point, for those who live in Indian

cities which have important Muslim minorities will tell you that every time there are Hindu-Muslim riots, it is the Muslims who start them, either by

attacking the police, or by provoking the Hindus.

And this is exactly what happened in Mumbai after the Ayodhya mosque was brought down by Hindu militants: Muslims, angry with the ``terrible``

affront done to Islam, started pelting the police with stones and burning shops; but unfortunately for the Muslims, they found that for once, the Hindus, under the leadership of the Shiv Sena, retaliated blow for blow -- an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth -- as the Israelis, who have been for so long at the receiving end of Muslim bullying, say so well.

It is not for us to condone violence: But how long can the Hindus be the butt of killings and persecution, be sacrificial lambs that meekly go to the slaughter house? For, in a way, Gandhi was right: Muslims are bullies, they have bullied India and they continue to bully Hindu India, as Pakistan has demonstrated by receiving a well-meaning but naïve Vajpayee at Lahore, while its soldiers were quietly invading the heights above Kargil; or as Musharraf shows by giving gullible Indian journalists pep talks about how

he wants peace with India while Islamabad is still training and arming murderous jihadis for Kashmir.

And what monstrous murder was Bal Thackeray accused of? What crime against humanity had he committed? He was accused of having written two

`inflammatory` editorials in the Shiv Sena`s mouthpiece. Editorials? Inflammatory? But did Bal Thackeray ever kill anyone? Are not the leaders of the Muslim organisation which spearheaded the recent bombing of churches in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, to sow disharmony between Christians and Hindus, still scot-free, by pretending that they

believe in secularism? Has `Tiger` Memon, who planted deadly bombs in Mumbai in 1992, ever been caught and brought to court? Are not the

Muslim organisations, which organised the bomb attacks in Coimbatore a few years back, still functioning under different names?

The truth is that there are two standards in India -- one for the Hindus and one for the Muslims. Did the ``fanatic`` Hindus who brought down the

mosque in Ayodhya (and brought shame onto secular India, according to the Indian media) kill or even injure anyone in the process? No. But Muslims do not have such qualms. When Gandhi said they were bullies, he was being very nice or very polite. For, forget about the millions of Hindus

killed during the ten centuries of Muslim invasions, probably the worst holocaust in world history; forget about the hundreds of thousands of

Hindu temples razed to the ground, whose destruction -- whatever our ``secular`` Hindus of today say -- was carefully recorded by the Muslims

themselves, because they were proud of it (see Aurangzeb`s chronicles); forget about the millions of Hindus forcibly converted to Islam and who

sadly are now rallying under a banner, a language, a scripture which have nothing to do with their own ethos and culture.

This is not to say that all Muslims are fanatics; on the contrary, many of India`s Muslims are extremely gentle and their sense of hospitality

unsurpassed. The same thing can be said about Pakistan: Pakistani politicians, for instance, are much more accessible than Indian politicians

and Pakistan has its own identity which cannot be wished away.

No, the problem is not with Muslims, whether they are Indians or Pakistanis, the problem is with Islam, which teaches Indian Muslims from an early age to look beyond their national identity to a country -- the Mecca, in Saudi Arabia -- which is not their country, to read a scripture which is not written in their own language, to espouse a way of thinking,which is inimical to their own roots and indigenous culture. Indian Muslims, have to think of themselves first as Indians and only secondly as Muslims.Muslim soldiers fighting against Pakistan in Kargil have shown the way.

Yesterday and also today, when the Muslim world feels it has been slighted in even a small measure by Hindus, these infidels who submitted

meekly to Muslim rule for ten centuries, it retaliates a hundred fold -- this is

the only way one intimidates cowards. After Ayodhya, Pakistan, with the help of Indian Muslims, planted bombs in the heart of Mumbai and killed a thousand innocent human beings, most of them, once more, Hindus.

Tomorrow, Pakistan might wage, with the blessing of the Muslim world,the ultimate jihad against India, which if necessary, will utilise the ultimate weapon, nuclear bombs. For has not the Koran said `Choose not thy friends among the infidels till they forsake their homes and the way of idolatry. If they return to paganism then take them whenever you find them and kill them.` (Koran, 98:51-9:5-4:89)?

Unfortunately for India, the British, when they were here, had created an intellectual elite to act as a via media between themselves and the ``natives,`` which today, thanks to the successive Congress governments, looks at its own country not by means of its own Indian eyes but through a western prism, as fashioned by the white colonisers and the missionaries. These

Brown Sahibs, these true children of Macaulay, the secular politicians, the journalists, the top bureaucrats, in fact the whole westernised cream of India, are very critical of anything Hindu. And what is even more paradoxical is that 98 per cent of them are Hindus!

It is they who, upon getting independence, have denied India its true identity and have borrowed blindly from the British education system

without trying to adapt it to the unique Indian mentality and psychology;and it is they who are refusing to accept a change of India`s education

system, which is totally Western-oriented and is churning out machines,learning by heart boring statistics which are of little usefulness in life. And what India is getting from this education is a youth which apes the West:They go to McDonald`s, thrive on MTV culture, wear the latest Klein jeans and Lacoste T-shirts, and in general are useless, rich parasites in a country which has so many talented youngsters who live in poverty.

They will grow-up like millions of other Western clones in the developing

world who wear a tie, read The New York Times and swear by liberalism and secularism to save their countries from doom. In time, they will reach

elevated positions and write books and articles which make fun of their own country, ridicule the Bal Thackerays of India and put them in jail; they

will preside over human rights committees, be ``secular`` high bureaucrats who take the wrong decisions and generally do tremendous harm to India because it has been programmed in their genes to always run down their own country.

It is said a nation has to be proud of itself to move forward and unless there is a big change in this intellectual elite, unless it is more conscious of its heritage and of India`s greatness, which has begun to happen in a small way, it is going to be very difficult for India to emerge as a real 21st century superpower.

One would be tempted to say in conclusion: `Arise ô Hindus, stop being cowards, remember that a nation requires Kshatriyas, warriors, to defend

knowledge, to protect one`s women and children, to guard one`s borders from the enemy….`

And do Indians need a Bal Thackeray to remind them of that simple truth?

The author, correspondent in South Asia for Le Figaro, France`s largest circulated daily, will release his new book Arise Ô India

(Har-Anand) on August 25.

Francois Gautier

While uncle Sophist thinks about # 70 and 71, he might even like to respond to the following black spot on our pristine white image we have tried to project and promote for ourselves in the world at great financial cost and immeasurable risk to our credibility in the eyes of the world!

Good luck uncle Sophist.

Scared Judge Dismissed Charges Against Top Hindu Mafia Boss

NEW DELHI, India, July 25, 2000 (VOA):

A judge in India`s financial capital, Bombay,

(also known as Mumbai), has dismissed charges against a

prominent right-wing politician accused of inciting

riots against Muslims, eight years ago. VOA`s Jim

Teeple reports the case has disrupted life in Bombay

in recent days and led to the resignation of a senior

government Minister.

Bal Thackery -- who has led the stridently

nationalist Shiv Sena Party for more than 30 years --

was accused of using his party newspaper to incite

riots against Muslims in Bombay in 1992 and 1993. An

estimated 800 people died in the violence.

Threats of violence by his supporters led to the

deployment of more than 60 thousand police and

paramilitary personnel in Bombay and its surrounding

areas. The threats delayed Thackery`s arrest by

more than a week. Tuesday he was escorted to court by

more than 500 police officers.

However -- in a hearing that lasted just minutes --

the case was thrown out by a local judge who ruled the

statute of limitations had expired. Thackery

called the charges against him politically motivated.

In a recent VOA interview, he denied responsibility

for the riots, saying his Shiv Sena activists merely

responded to violence by Muslim citizens following

the demolition of the Babri Masjid (mosque) by Hindu

fundamentalists in the northern city Ayodha in 1992.

THACKERY: ``We have not started the riots. What was done was

done

in retaliation - a kind of retaliation, so there is no

question of inciting anybody.``

The charges against Thackery were brought by

members of the Maharashtra state government, which is

run by The Congress Party and its local offshoot,

known as the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Following

the dismissal of the charges against their leader

Tuesday, Shiv Sena activists stormed the floor of the

state assembly, breaking microphones and furniture.

In New Delhi, Shiv Sena members of Parliament marched

to the front of the lower house, demanding dismissal

of the Maharasthra state government -- forcing

Parliament to adjourn.

Thackery`s Shiv Sena Party, (a private Hindu Army), is a

member of India`s

governing coalition. Saturday, India`s Law Minister -

a Shiv Sena supporter - was forced to resign after he

called on the Hindu-Indian national government to intervene

to

prevent Thackery`s arrest.

kgeorge #70,

Agree with you. Crime is crime, and has no ethnicity or national boundaries. Isn`t it appalling and shameful that after fifty-two years of freedom things like female foeticide and `stove burnings` are going on almost with impunity and utter neglect by the society as well as the by governments after governments. If the society hides behind poverty, illeteracy and the likes, not only it is condoning but displaying hypocricy. The doctor complains about it but how you think these unborn-gender-identifications are carried out without the profession. The Indian Medical Associations, I am sure, know who carry out these procedures, and they can, if they sincerely believe in it, put a stop to them. I think the world financial agencies should ask countries like India, which have laws to show but no teeth and will to enforce, to bring an end to these scourges in their country before loaning any aid. If everything fails, money talks, you know!

Kant...

Even if one life is lost unnecessarily in a society it is a matter of shame for it.

That Pakistan has developed a rather fashionable tradition of ``Honour killing`` should make its head go down in shame for decades till it rids itself of this morally reprehensible mental malaise.

India`s camp-stoves have been exploding with five times the frequency of the ``honour killing`` of Pakistan for decades now. Although my Indian brethern have, with shameless self-righteous rage raised the question about the honour-killers going free with impunity, for this heinous crime of murder, they have never in return, answered the ``obverse/reverse`` of this situation in India. Their shameless skirting around the answering of the question of law`s absence in its application in these dowry-related murders is a million times more reprehensible in view of India`s public and International statements of the superiority of its culture and society.

And, now this. Not only in India, this practice has been going on, through radio and newspaper advertisement in North America; over the ``border``. India has had found itself in the limelight since last 15-20 years on this account in all the media of mass communication in North America.

In my entire life, I have never run into a more vitriolic anti-Pakistani Indian than the Sophist. I have, therefore, decided to reproduce this news item here to see if he demonstrates even an iota of humanity, civility and moral and ethical courage to acknowledge it, let alone denounce it. At worst it should be philosophically instructive, if not hilarious to see his sophistry attribute this savagery, to Pakistani honour-killers, the scum of the earth as they indeed are, or to the Jehadis (whoever they are), or other Pakistanis. After all, he couldn`t have wasted all his time here distributing money to proht jis, or shed perspiration in the closenes to pwiter agni. Or, reading and comparing the relative merit of Hindu and Muslim students in 101 district examination results! Or, maybe that`s all he did.



BBC - Tuesday, 11 July, 2000

India`s Unwanted Girls

[Photo: Poverty and social pressure are said to be responsible for the problem]

By Jyotsna Singh in Delhi

The methods adopted to kill unwanted children in India are often cold-blooded and cruel.

The ritual is performed by a family member or a professional killer, by swaddling a new-born in a wet cloth or simply giving her a spoonful of paddy grain with milk.

It simply cuts her tender throat, suffocating her to death.

At times, the mother is forced to hire a sweeper for a small sum of 25 rupees (50 cents) to dispose of the child by simply poisoning the baby with the latex of the calitropis plant, or holding her so close to a table that she cannot breath.

[Photo: Female foeticide is affecting the sex ratio in Tamil Nadu]

The problem spreads across the country. Health officials in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu have identified three districts - Dharmapuri, Salem and Madurai - as problem areas.

In Dharmapuri alone, close to 1,300 children are killed every year, while Salem comes second with over 1,000 such killings.

Availability of sex determination tests like amniocentesis and ultrasound seem to have increased the problem further.

Cruel Death

Last week the body of a new-born girl child was exhumed from a village in Paparapatti in the Dharmapuri district in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Authorities say they arrested the father of the child along with another man, following complaints from the local villagers that the two had killed the unwanted child. An investigation into the case is continuing.

Dharmapuri tops the list of areas with the highest number of cases of female infanticide and cases like these are not rare.

Reports say that the practice is widely prevalent in the interiors of Tamil Nadu and is adversely affecting the sex ratio.

Government officials put the number of cases of female infanticide in Tamil Nadu at 3,000 each year.

But they say there is very little evidence to allow direct administrative action.

Getting data for female infanticide is even harder.

Medical termination of pregnancy is legal in India and it is nearly impossible to ascertain whether the abortion followed an ultrasound test to detect the sex of the foetus.

Decline of Women

Activists working in the area say the practice of female infanticide is particularly rampant among the Kallar community.

They say that the community valued its female population until the early years of the 20th century.

However, after the green revolution brought agricultural prosperity, men assumed greater role in the economic process and women were made subservient.

Since the 1970`s the female population began to decline. Killing of female foetuses has only added to the problem though selective abortion is a crime under the Indian law.

As part of its preventive measures the government has tried to compulsorily register all pregnancies and follow them up.

But that is a daunting task for a village health nurse, who sometimes has to cover a population of 5,000.

Activists and non-governmental organisations say a strong campaign against the issue may be the only immediate answer.



BBC - Thursday, 4 May, 2000

Plea to Save Girl Babies

Cultural traditions favouring boys over girls die hard

By Helen Sewell of the BBC science unit

Doctors in India are calling for international help to prevent two million abortions they say are carried out each year because the unborn babies are female.

Terminating a pregnancy purely because of the sex of a child is illegal in India.

But many mothers want boys not girls, and the Indian Medical Association says the law is almost impossible to uphold.

[Photo: The law is almost impossible to enforce]

In some sections of Indian society, having daughters is less acceptable than having sons. Dr. V. Parameshvara, a former president of the Indian

Medical Association, says intrinsically women have a lower status in India than men.

He says girls can bring economic and social burdens to a family, and rather than bring children into the world to be ill-treated by a patriarchal society, expectant mothers prefer to abort their female babies.

The proportion of females to males in India has been going down since the beginning of the 20th century, with up to 50m fewer women in the population than expected.

In recent years, the ratio has dropped dramatically.

Dr Parameshvara says there has been a long-standing tradition in some circles of killing girl babies just after birth.

But because technology now allows mothers to know the sex of their child before it is born, terminations have become widespread.

Dr Parameshvara claims that a law introduced specifically to prevent abortions because of the sex of the unborn child is being ignored throughout the country.

The Indian Medical Association is urging international colleagues at the World Medical Association to support a campaign against female feticide and female infanticide to rid India of what it calls ``this social evil``.

kgeorge@chennai.com

This piece being safely headed for the archives, the coast seems clear for an attack of nostalgia for which gymno`s mention of Jebamony and the roadside temple are mostly responsible :-).

Genesis of a roadside temple.

Begins with a happy healthy peepul tree minding its own business at a `chauraaha` or crossroads.

By-and-by it acquires some kumkum and chandan marks on its trunk at `bowing` height.

By-and-by there appears a upright stone with kumkum and chandan marks signifying a deity placed at the same bowing height

By-and-by there appears another flat stone in front of the upright one as a small platform for flower offerings and a tiny lamp.

By-and-by the stone deity is replaced with a carved image

By-and-by there appears a tiny roofed house about 2 *2 *2 ft with door and lock to protect the carved image and tiny lamp from the elements

By-and-by the front platform becomes a large pukka cement and brick one with a bigger lamp, and may encircle the tree.

By-and-by the tiny roofed house becomes a larger brick and cement sanctum sanctorum the size of big dolls` house with the beginnings of a gopuram-style roof with a flag on top.

By-and-by the surroundings are walled into a tiny courtyard with iron fencing and a tall standing lamp within

By-and-by a large neon sign with a long explanatory name for the temple is suspended from the roof

By-and-by a yearly festival is celebrated for a day or two to commomerate the temple`s anniversary with colorful lights all over the tree, all-day music from loudpeakers and special prayers

By-and-by the festival grows in popularity and now there is weeklong dance and drama, with local folk arts, a openair latenight movie, a fair with stalls, a procession on the last day with a caprisoned elephant brought in specially for the occasion. The loudspeakers now speak for a week instead of two days, local delegations come to your house well in advance to request cash donations and your daily help plays hookey to attend the festivities, which are likely to coincide with your yearly boards :-)

The outside architecture of the temple now gets embellished with the sculpture of an additional colorful mythological figure or two every year. The caprisoned elephant may be required to be a tuskered one as years go by. By now one may say the temple has `arrived`, though given the inevitability of the whole thing, thats not really saying much, it was going to happen anyway in this yug or the next:-).

Pl. to notice, nature lovers, the peepul tree has been happy and healthy all the while, no sweat :-), its just that it takes a village or a panchayat subdivision to appreciate a peepul tree. Only a long action (many years) camera is missing. Now excuse me while I go browse those interesting stalls and watch the elephant-in-waiting swishing his trunk while polishing off a huge pile of coconut palm leaves.

PS: Just for general perspective, the 2-3 examples of `evolution` in my personal experience coexisted with the many-times-a-day muezzin call and a Protestant and a Catholic church all within stone`s throw distance :-).

Sadhana

Temporal:

Thanks for the link to ``abhi to main jawaan hoon``. Enjoyed the Urdu, the Real Audio, the English. It took me back to my childhood in Delhi and the Urdu-ized culture I grew up in the 60s to 80s. Unfortunately, that culture is being overrun by Sanskritized Hindi. I feel happy to know Urdu is safe at least in Pakistan and hopefully will survive in India. When Mallika Pukhraj came to India in the 1980s, my parents generation became nostalgic for the old days. It is tragic how our history is getting allocated - this to Pakistan, that to India. koi idhar, koi udhar.

cheraym:

There is a site maintained by Nita - a labour of love really where she has organised ghazals and nazms ---at http://www.urdupoetry.com

Here is a sneak of your favourite:


abhii to mai.n javaan huu.N
Hafeez Jullundhary






abhii to mai.n javaan huu.N


havaa bhi Khushagavaar hai, gulo.n pe bhii nikhaar hai
tarannume.n hazaar hai.n, bahaar purbahaar hai
kahaa.N chaalaa hai saaqiyaa, idhar to lauT idhar to aa
are ye dekhataa hai kyaa, uThaa subuu, subuu uThaa


subuu uThaa piyaalaa bhar, piyaalaa bhar ke de idhar
chaman kii simt kar nazar, samaa.N to dekh beKhabar
vo kaalii-kaalii badaliyaa.N, ufaq pe ho ga_ii ayaa.N
vo ik hajuum-e-maikashaa.N, hai suu-e-maikadaa ravaa.N
ye kyaa gumaa.N hai badagumaa.N, samajh na mujhako naatavaa.N
Khayaal-e-zohd abhii kahaa.N - abhi to mai.n javaan huu.N


[Kush_gavaar=enjoyable; tarannum=song; purbahaar=in full bloom;]
[subuu=wine-goblet; simt=directiontowards; ufaq=horizon;]
[ayaa.N=expressed, evident; hajuum (hujuum)=crowd;]
[naatavaa.N=helpless, weakling, powerless;]


ibaadato.n kaa zikr hai, nijaat kii bhii fikr hai
junuun hai sabaab kaa, Khayaal hai azaab kaa
magar suno to shaiKh jii, ajiib shai hai.n aap bhii
bhalaa shabaab-o-aashiqii, alag hue bhii hai.n kabhii


hasiin jalavaarez ho.n, adaae.N fitanaaKhez ho.n
havaae.N itrabez ho.n, to shauq kyuu.N na tez ho.n
nigaarahaa-e-fitanaagar koi idhar, koi udhar
ubhaarate ho aish par, to kyaa kare koii bashar
chalo jii qissaa muKhtasar, tumhaaraa nuktaa-e-nazar
durust hai to ho, magar - abhi to mai.n javaan huu.N


[nijaat=chhuTakaaraa, freedom; junuun=madness, infatuation;]
[sabaab=desert (?), azaab=troubles;]
[jalavaarez=present; fitanaaKez=destructive, deadly;]
[itrabez=fragrant; nigaarahaa -e -fitanagar=`adaa` of the destructive person;]
[ashar=control; muKhtasar=complete, finished;]


na Gam kashuud-o-bast kaa, bala.nd kaa na past kaa
na buud kaa na hast kaa, na vaadaa-e-alast kaa
ummiid aur yaas gum, havaas gum qayaas gum
nazar se aas-paas gum, hamaa bajuz gilaas gum


na may me.n kuchh kamii rahe, qadaa se hamadamii rahe
nishast ye jamii rahe, yahii hamaahamii rahe
vo raag chhe.D mutaribaa, tarab-fizaa alam-rubaa
asar sadaa-e-saaz kaa, jigar me.n aag de lagaa
har iklab pe ho sadaa na haath rok saaqiiyaa
pilaae jaa pilaae jaa, pilaae jaa pilaae jaa


abhii to mai.n javaan huu.N


[bala.nd=strong, explicit, clearly evident; past=implicit;]
buud=future; hast=the past; ummiid=hope, yaas=wish, desire;]
[bajuz=without; kadaa=wine-glass; alamrubaa=world alluring;]


ye gasht kohasaar kii, ye sair juu-e-vaar kii
ye bulbulo.n ke chahachahe, yeh gul_ruKho.n ke qahqahe
kisii se mel ho gayaa, to ra.nj-o-fikr kho gayaa
kabhii jo vaqt so gayaa, ye ha.Ns gayaa vo ro gayaa


ye ishq kii kahaaniyaa.N, ye ras bharii javaaniyaa.N
udhar se meharabaaniyaa.N, idhar se lantaraaniyaa.N
ye aasamaan ye zamii.n, nazzaraahaa-e dilanashii.n
unhe.n hayaat aafarii.n, bhalaa mai.n chho.D doo.N yahii.n
hai maut is qadar qarii.n, mujhe na aayegaa yaqii.n
nahii.n nahii.n abhii nahii.n, nahii.n nahii.n abhii nahii.n


abhi to mai.n javaan huu.N


[kohasaar=veeraanaa; nazzaaraahaa=pl. of nazaaraa;]
[lantaraaniyaa.n=tempting invitations; dilanashii.n=heart-pleasing;]
[aafarii.n=mubaarak; barii.n=palpable, tangible;]




You can read an English translation of this nazm, as well as hear the nazms sung by Mallika Pukhraj in Real/Audio/AU format at this site: Nazm for December . Thanks to Kashif who maintains the site.

Ten thousand Pakistani Muslims ready for holy war against India.

KARACHI, July 21 (AFP) -

Thousands of Pakistanis called for holy war against India here Friday as extremist leader Maulana Masood Azhar dramatically ended months of silence after his release from an Indian jail.

``Ten thousand have joined us and are ready to give their lives in the name of Islam,`` said Azhar in a speech at a mosque in this southern port city.

Police were deployed around the mosque as Azhar whipped thousands of people attending Friday prayers into a fury against India, blamed here for gross human rights abuses against Muslims in its zone of Kashmir.

``India is killing thousands of innocent Mulsims in Kashmir but they cannot stop the jihad (holy war). Tomorrow I may be killed but the struggle will continue,`` said Azhar, who was released from an Indian jail late last year as part of a deal with hijackers of an Indian Airlines plane.

Pakistani authorities, wary of the country`s growing reputation as a haven for Islamic extremists, have tried to muzzle the fiery orator since his release in late December after almost six years in Indian prisons.

Mosque administrators said police had tried to prevent his speech Friday but were flatly told that ``Muslim leaders cannot be stopped in an Islamic country.``

Azhar is the leader of the militant fundamentalist group Jaish-e-Mohammad, which he created in April after quitting the Harkatul Mujahadeen, an organisation blamed for several terrorist attacks and kidnappings.

His brother was allegedly one of five armed Muslim hijackers who seized the Indian Airlines plane on Christmas Eve last year and forced it on a terrifying journey across South Asia and the Gulf to Afghanistan.

One of the hostages was killed but another 160 were freed after almost a week at an Afghan airport, when India agreed to release Azhar and two other Muslim militants.

The five hijackers were allowed to escape and are widely believed to be in Pakistan.

A Muslim insurgency in India-controlled Kashmir has claimed some 25,000 lives since 1989.

Temporal, thanks once again. I just visited the ``Proud Pakistani Board`` and came across one reply from Asim which sounded so much like mine. I also must admit that I read your reply first(for most of the submissions) before I read the original article for effective utilzation of my time. I also must admit that I am addicted to Chowk. Hope this is not going to make a big dent in my annual appraisal form which is due just now! So long!

Re:SameerJB#47

Thanks for considering me in the list of smart Indians. However, I would rather be in the list of smart desis. Both India and Pakistan have a lot of resources and gifted people. Contrary to popular opinion, I believe that we desis have the genius for economic development. After all, we were known as the ``sone ki chidiya``. We can easily recreate that. Therefore, both India and Pakistan have the potential to be great nations, not for the sake of opposing each other, but in order to realize their God given potential. However there are a few obstacles.

Firstly, there must be an open, free market economy. We desis do very well individually rather than in teams. So our mindset is well suited for the capitalist setup. Secondly we must encourage a liberal, broad-minded and tolerant mindset. The subcontinent`s history shows that whenever a leader promoted tolerance and liberal thought, whether it was Ashoka, Sher Shah Suri or Akbar, the country prospered beyond our wildest dreams. Conversely whenever narrow minded rulers showed up, the subcontinent`s unity was lost. This should be remembered by all the prospective Taliban and Sangh Parivar folks. Thirdly we must settle this India-Pakistan conflict. I think everyone on both sides realize that it is just ridiculous yet we continue in this mode. There should be a creative compromise on Kashmir and then we should get moving on building our respective nations. Therefore we need a subcontinental reconciliation. The first step in that is hindu-muslim reconciliation in India and eventually an Indo-Pak reconciliation. However, this reconciliation should respect and possibly celebrate the ideological differences between the two faiths. In the same manner, Indo-Pak reconciliation should respect the ideological frontier between the two nation while emphasising the shared aspects of our nations.

cheraym #62:

You are welcome!

I recall a couple of audio kiosks in the Indian bazaar section of your city near a cute little green mosque about ten twelve years ago. If you enquire about the tapes I am sure you will find it there.

I have been told there are also sites on the net from where you can download old goodies. (Can someone more proficient help?) If all else fails, let me know I have it in my collection.

And yes, Sameer is wonderful.

love,

t