Gandhi in The Handmaid’s Tale

This is the most stupid article published on Chowk. This also reflects the regressive mentality and thought process of certain Pakistanis who have nothing good to do but research on finding the good and bad in the leaders who have left this world way back.

What`s the gist of this nonsense? Gandhi did not treat women equally or consider them worthy of anything? Is the purpose to tell hindus on Chowk that their leader had weird policies towards women? Is it a cover-up to hide the bad publicity Pakistan is receiving on the treatment of its women folk?

The writer needs to wake up. Regarless of what Gandhi believed in and did to his wife, all Indian women and men do not follow the same thought process. Yes, the fact that Indian Culture kicks in every other thing is very true. I detest involving culture in my life barring a few items close to my heart - saints/sufis, shawls and select poetry.

Just recently, I attended a day long seminar in Chicago where over 100 South Asian Women Leaders were present. The participants included CTOs, attorneys, magistrates, physicians, engineers, business women, educationists and technologists. There were only 9-10 muslim women in that crowd. Out of those 9-10 muslim women, only 3-4 had Pakistani background. The rest were Indian muslims. None of the participants (mainly hindu women) had any issues in terms of where they were in their respective careers.

One of the panelists was a very impressive, articulate and brilliant woman in her 40s, the CTO of Motorola - a chemical engineer by background. Despite her international engagements, she was able to attend the event on a weekend just to show her solidarity with women from her part of the world. Not only that, the woman was dressed in a very pretty turquoise eastern dress with beautifully put together matching jewelry.

In my past 10 years or so in Corporate America, I have hardly worked with ikka dukka Indians here and there but I have never attended something like this before where so many ambitious and accomplished south asian women(mostly hindus) were under one roof. Interestingly, it was evident that they believed in having the cultural affinity. This was a very different environment for me. I am not into culture shulture at all and rarely attend any cultural stuff anymore. I did not see anyone wearing anything on her forehead with any complexes on how her leader, Gandhi Jee, thought of women. I had a strong impression that majority of the women took pride in being of Indian Origin regardless of their bygone leaders’ leanings.

Based on my 1st hand experience, I am not sure where is this writer coming from? Probably, she needs more worldly exposure. Worldly exposure does not come from being a cyber activist or flipping through history books.

Come on, guys! You have taken godot and hamidm too literally. Seemingly, many Indians here are too new to Chowk to have been exposed to the duo`s posts over a period of many years.

Neither hamidm nor godot is remotely the person some of you appear to have concluded both of them to be.

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And if someone doesn`t want to respect Gandhi, so what? Perhaps people are just different, and value different things in life. That`s what diversity is all about! Don`t many of us ourselves curse the old man ten times a day? I myself never miss a chance to beat up on the dead Mr Gandhi whenever I can.

On the other hand, the Behram approach is fundamentally unethical and patently wrong. If it becomes fashionable among educated Pakistanis, it will do neither Pakistan`s moral compass nor Jinnah`s memory any good. It certainly will not promote the cause of secularism in Pakistan by half an inch. Some things work, some things just don`t.

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Beej, you are a horrible man. You left me so wishing that my grandparents and my uncle were alive. They would have given everything to see the pictures you have posted.

. . . Netaji Subhash, Sardar Patel, Pandit Nehru, Sri Rajgopalachari, Sarojani Naidu, Maulana Azad, Pandit M.M. Malviya, Abbas Tayabji, Jamnalal Bajaj, Acharya kripalani, Frontier Gandhi khan Abdul Gaffar Khan himself - what people! And with them, in their middle, Gandhi - irrational, eccentric, not the sharpest pleader around town, nor the sharpest dressed - but the one and only Bapu to everyone of them. The small, not particularly gifted man, who rose above all by rising above himself.

If his story is not an inspiration (to an Indian) then one doesn`t quite know what else would be.

Beej,

Thanks a bunch for the photos.

Godot (#575)


``..... And, yes, I`m waiting for the collision. You and I will draw the sword sooner or later. No ifs and buts about it. Let the best man win.

Pssst, I`ll let you in on a secret...Jinnah beats that half-naked fakir hands down (to that fakir`s talent!) ..... ``

With kind of your bias, and sharp divide between Indians (of all hues and color) and Pakistanis (of all hues and colors), I make the prediction:

1. you will win in pre-dominantly Pakistani audience, and shouted down in Predominantly Indian audience. Beej will will win in pre-dominantly India audience, and you will be shouted down.

and let you in on a secret:

2. Neither of you will change anyone`s mind, that could hardly define the winning.

Probably two of you won`t even agree on the rules that define winning - so ``let the best man win`` is out of question. The hatred is still too deep to see each others viewpoints.

Anil Kapuria

Re: # 614

``people wearing dhotis are idiots``

Viola!!!

Re: # 613

ok ok i get it now

based on that article i conclude that gandhi was a racist, castiest /butt ugly failed lawyer and jinnah was dressed in suit because people wearing dhotis are idiots and jinnah asked for pakistan because gandhi/congress forced him to.

Re: # 608

Netizen -

Literature and subtlety is not exactly your forte. Stay happy in your mediocrity and ignorance.

Re: # 603

``Manto and Beej have ``exposed`` him enough already!!! ``

godot dude,

don`t pull mantos leg. he just blindly loves jinnah

As I said , I dont respond to behenjees.

gujjubania:

perhaps because you lack the wherewithal to give such a response. koi baat nahiN. we`ve seen more than enough of your ``wherewithal``. :)

vaisay when you make absolutist generalizing statements with words like ``absolutely``, ``nobody``, ``everybody``, you should be able to back those up, child.

behenjee ka lekchar khat`m.

goodnight.

This guy gets dumber and dumber...

How old are you Godot , 5 ? 6 ?

595

i read that article, what i got about jinnah is:

he like to be around physically strong people because he was himself weak

he liked to dress good and wanted people around him to dress equally better

he gave rs. 100 for dinner preparation and was fine if the servants took whatever was left of it

he got a rude jolt when his daughter married a non-muslim even though he married a non-muslim

he ate little

he helped his sister (?)

also, azad was a very strong guy

did i miss anything else?

Re: # 605

Edge -

``Star``

Dude, you make me laugh!!! Okay, a dead star sucked-in by a black hole!!!

Ana...you are too `behenjee` type to elicit a response from me.

``Manto and Beej have ``exposed`` him enough already!!! ``

Yeah....neutered street dogs barking at the stars...

``Follow thy leader``

Godot......Americans are perhaps the most fervent followers of Jesus. Jesus said `love thy enemy`. However you wont find too many of his followers saying that... rather `nuke the enemy` is the popular refrain.