Unfaithfully Yours Re: # 3

[You know what, I don`t think you are a psychoanalyst at all. ]



I second that opinion whole heartedly.

The Facticity in Fanaticism I think this a funny article therefore a joke will be in order

A murasala(letter) published in the paper lamented lack of Urdu understanding
in general and in youths in particular, then went on to praise
wonderful rendering of Urdu in K. Asif`s Mughal-e-Azam. He described
how even non traditional urdu speaking people showed great interest in
the movie and our tehzeeb. He said that recently he was watching
Mughal-e-Azam( digitally colored), there were two Bengalese sitting next to him watching
the movie with great interest At a point in the movie Jalalluddin Akbar declared,
``TakHliya!``
One of the lesser Bengali asked his companion, what is `TakHliya``.
Reprimanding him the greater Bengali said,`` You don`t know Takhliya? He is asking
for pillow, that`s `Takiya la` in short stupid.``

Is the Koran Truly Amazing?
Qu`raan may be a great book for faithfuls, it is very annoying book to non-muslims. It reminds me of Manusmriti of Hindus.

Mohammad Who?
``4. One day the woman did not throw anything on him so he knocked at her door to inquire if she is doing alright. He found out that she was ill and he did the best by taking care of her and cleaning her house. ``

Big deal!

I had an elderly neighbor I think Rashid Saheb, out-worldly very conservative, having beard and always appeared in churidaar-achkan and that typical Muslim cap. This guy and his family were syrupy and cloying in entertaining us as young couple. His wife will make something or other and send across for lunch or dinner. Quite submerged in their unsolicited generosity, my wife decided to surprise this gent for lunch one Sunday when his family was out of station. My wife put together a feast to the best of her ability. Since the idea was to surprise him, I called him without telling him about it. When Rashid Saheb came he was quite shocked to see the dinner table overflowing with assorted dishes. I grandly announced, “Rashid Saheb, you keep sending us things so we decided that least we can do is to feast you when your family is away. He didn’t say a thing. During lunch my wife observed that Rashid Saheb wasn’t eating normally, just a small piece from every thing, so she said, “It seems Rashid Saheb hasn’t liked our food”

Surprised Rashid Saheb said,

“aisii baat nahi hai. aajkal ramzaan ka maheenaa hai aur ham musalmaan din ke waqt Khaanaa nahi khaate”

I wasn’t a complete moron, had some idea of rozaa. Feeling utterly guilty I asked why didn’t he say so?
He said, “agar mere dost ko mere thoRaa sa khaa lene se khushi hoti hai to Khuda ise manzoor karega aur meri khataa mu’af kar dega”

This I call simple and clear thinking. In my eyes this guy was better than a thousand prophets.

Mohammad Who?

Since this piece is about cartoons and instead of inducing smiles it is generating fair bit of heat, I would like to mention this cartoon I saw in Mid-Day publication which severely tested my wits. There were actually two of them;

1.. This had a tall and generously endowed woman talking to a short man who bare reached up to her breasts.

Lady says with affected annoyance, ``I feel men talking more my breasts than me``
Man says indignantly, ``Nonsense Suzie, you are `both` wrong``

[I have highlighted `both` so that your wit is not tested]

2.. This had a couple with an eager looking man.

The lady is telling this attentive guy, ``The cool thing about marriage is you finally get to have extra marital sex``


[I dont know how to paste link, try this:

http://ww1.mid-day.com/diary/diary.htm]

Mohammad Who?
This argument that West is the instigator of Muslim backlash seems utterly bogus. Why else would men kill their own? The suicide bomber that killed 29 Shia Muslims in Pakistan suggests complete break down of rational thinking. There are brainwashed zombies ready to take their own life to avenge perceived injustices. Beats me, what have Shia Muslims done to deserve their wrath and of this magnitude.

I am veering round to the extremist view that every man of age 14+ years with a beard in Pakistan & Afghanistan should be caught and his beard shaved clean.

Temporary Marriage in Islam Re: # 63

zaahid sharaab peene de masjid meN baith kar
yaa woh jagah bataade jahaaN par Khudaa na ho!!!

Mirza Ghalib

Dam Mismanagement

``According to a Japanese report of year 2000, more than 14 million ``

.......and who are these smart Japanese!

The only valid reason for not having big Dams is lack of trust due to repeated betrayals (in India we have Mettur Dam in Karnataka the source of regular political battle between Karnataka and Tamilnadu) and proper and transparent evaluation of sociological-ecological-economic pros & cons. Unfortunately environmentalist have become some kind of Eco-terrorists. The French Warship is a case in point. India has not banned white asbestos even though white asbestos is also carcinogenic yet the there is so much of hue and cry over French war-ship being sent to India instead of bigger issue of banning white asbestos in India.

My question is; is Singapore an economic disaster? Surely a few century back it must have been like Andaman & Nicobar islands. Now you raise this question of developing these islands and be sure of a environmental storm.

Can we have middle ground please, development and maintenance of ecology..

Where are the Questioning Minds?
Somehow it is always our capacity make noise that wins an argument. Unfortunately moderates by virtue of their being moderate do not make a lot of noise and this creates an impression that they are a minority. Yogi makes an argument that Indian media creates the impression........``. Media does not create any impression. It only shows what is glaring and out of ordinary therefore newsworthy. We make impression from those images.

Ready for a Modern Pakistan? Re: # 12

Hindus are not only God obsessive but utterly gullible too. I remember sometime in nineties, Lord Ganesh and other idols drank tons of milk around the globe and this madness spread in a matter of just a few hours.

Yet I would say Hindus are not coercive in matters of religion.

Ready for a Modern Pakistan?

India`s good luck was that Nehru survived long enough to give solid foundation to democratic institutions of India while Pakistan’s tragedy was M A Jinnah died soon after independence and even bigger tragedy was Gen Zia Ul Haq`s rule of 11 years .

The Rise and Fall of Civilizations
Honestly, I am not fit to take on such a heavy-duty subject. History was always my weak point. Some time back I heard Dubya saying something very annoying on TV; in a fit of rage I wrote this piece. I guess it was published more for intensity rather than any substance.

Nevertheless there is no harm in listening to a LakaR-haaraa. In our folklore a lakarhaaraa (a woodcutter) is a metaphor for illiterate villager who sometimes spurts out earthy wisdom, therefore a few points.

1.. America is a unique nation, largely constituted of immigrants. I have no doubt about its ability to take care of itself and I am not saying that it is on a decline but it doesn’t have a long history therefore sense of belonging is not so deep. Most people have dual loyalty therefore I believe, if and when it does decline it will collapse rather than decay.

2.. Economics is not an exact science. It works mostly on perceptions of people and nations. People anticipate trends and act on that basis. In addition the response can never be accurately calibrated, we always overreact. A stock market is the best example to illustrate this. This makes economic structure very fragile. No amount of planning or resources can guarantee a long term economic stability. Unease regarding America stems from economic standpoint. The American spending splurge is financed and subsidized by trade surpluses of China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and to some extent India. These countries have heavily invested their dollar surpluses in low interest American treasury bonds, therefore they are least likely to want a run on dollar. But if there is a run on dollar for some other reason they will be first to exit, accentuating the crisis. It must not be forgotten that airline business has not yet come out of 9/11 crisis.

The Algebra of Arundhati’s Injudiciousness

Point well made, just the style is jarring. But then this is the author`s style; always combative.

Sharon’s Legacy
``all the wars that Israel unleashed against its Arab neighbours and quarries``

I thought 1967 war was initiated by Arabs

An Alternative Spelling of Eed
# 56

A lot of assumptions there. I haven’t seen an agnostic who is rabidly anti human. And no, they don’t hate God because they don’t believe there is one. Besides they are not angry, some are perhaps exasperated at irrationality of believers. On the other hand religious fanatics have killed again and again.

An Alternative Spelling of Eed
I have never understood how we can associate sacrifice with Gods. They way we assign attributes to Him, sacrifice and worship can only please Satan!