Aqsa

“Problems are inevitable… but misery is optional”

-Anon.

Bade miyan Amitabh Bachchan needs to be reminded of one simple fact that zilch compares to a dignified old age!

“Love gives not but itself and takes not but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed for love is sufficient unto love“

-Khalil Gibran.

Finally, this year I’m ready to try new things out. After one unsuccessful attempt this year I’m open to “back ups”
Call it by chance or a plain majboori.

As Pooh always joked,

Beggars are not choosers!

Though, the back ups are good enough but I don’t know where the heck I’ll dump this passion I had for research. Let’s see where I’ll land up… the only thing that bothers me is… I have started missing those long night sessions I had with my BT books! Though I enjoy writing as well but I don’t know how will I survive without these cutely ugly viruses, miles long chains of nucleotides and that smell of formaldehyde!

Expectations make matters worse!

(Quiet a thoughtful thought, isn’t it?)

I’m trying not to let myself expect anything out of everything. But expectations are a part and parcel of human instincts and unfortunately or fortunately I still haven’t lost a few of them…

The romantic inside me wants to continue dating those good ol’ BT books!

So, till the time I’m not fixed somewhere I’ll keep my fingers crossed!

“An ambassador is an honest man sent abroad to lie for his country“

-Henry Wotton.

Cosmologist Stephen Hawking tasting weightlessness on a zero gravity flight that allowed the leading expert on gravity to briefly escape from his wheelchair.

“For most of history, Anonymous was a woman”

-Virginia Woolf.

Received this image in a forwarding mail.

Actions speak louder than words?
This ain’t some Photo Shop fantasy. Try googling with keywords: President Bush eating a cat.

After the bloodshed at Virginia Tech… a shoot out in NASA… a man intending to make the Virginia massacre look “mild�, by threatening to go on a “killing spree� in schools in Yuba city and Marysville… north of California and the US Presidential contender Republican John McCain singing, “bomb bomb bomb Iran�… I guess Americans seriously need help!

Instead of bombing others and plunging in to wars one after the other the Bush junior must spare sometime for his own electorate. The US is turning out to be a belligerent state and it is high time it should start thinking of the after-effects of war on its own countrymen if it cannot feel the pain of others!

Violence begets violence!

I have all my sympathies to the common people of the country in question, which is pointlessly being thrown into war. People want peace be it America or some third world country. No nation on the face of the earth is invincible even if it’s the biggest superpower of the world. Something or the other can create tribulations and in this case is the inner randomness in the minds of the Americana youth. Too much violence leads to hysteria, which is evident from a number of such cases that happened in America, time and again.

August 1966: Charles Whitman killed 15 people and wounded 31 at University of Texas campus in Austin.

March 1998: Two boys aged 13 and 11 killed 4 students and a teacher at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

April 1999: Two students killed 12 other students and a teacher at Columbine High school in Littleton, Colorado, before killing themselves.

January 2002: A student dismissed from Appalachian school of Law in Virginia killed the Dean, a professor and a student, wounded 3 others.

September 2006: A drifter took six female high school students hostage in Bailey, Colorado; molested them, then shot one to death and killed himself.

(Source: TOI)

I wonder what kind of a “fancy� term can be given to such issue less killings of innocents. Humanity needs empathy and compassion instead of coldness that’s dragging humanity towards annihilation.

“It’s a folly to be wise, where ignorance is bliss”

-Anon.

Stuck!
Now and always
Suffocating, helpless, desperate
Struggling to escape
To be free
To fly away
To the red planet
Away, somewhere…
Just anywhere…
All efforts… in vain
Alas!
There is a dearth of wings
Wings, strong wings
Not Daedalus’ wings
Breaking through all shackles
Tugging at those
Innumerable chains that bind
Some, thin like the charkha’s cotton thread
Broken with ease
Some like those that bind a convict
To the executioner’s chair
Impossible to break lose
Myself… writhing in pain
No matter what I do
How hard I try
I know I can’t
Destiny, fate, determine it all!
My thoughts, my actions
Deeds
All predetermined!
They stand stagnant still grubby
Rotting dead
Flee I must
I don’t know where
May be… just anywhere
Perhaps… to the red planet
Or may be in the deep dark woods
To hide inside a bush
Now and always
Depressed, disillusioned, at the doldrums I stand
Now convinced that
All is fake
Nothing exists that seems to exist
Flee I must
Away from all maladies
Somewhere
Just anywhere

-Sudipta Mukherji
(Adapted from the annual magazine “Hans� of Hans Raj College)

The fact that Muslims need reforms in each and every sphere of life is an open truth. Education being the most important one. When it comes to education, I need not give any stats to prove one simple fact that Muslims have a long way to go. Still, education for Muslims is the most politicized one. We have seen enough of drama about the minority status of the most revered educational institution for Muslims in India, i.e. the Aligarh Muslim University. In no time, questions were raised about the seat reservation in Jamia because it offers a 50% reservation for Muslims. What I fail to understand is, why only Muslim institutions?

In a country like India, where we have educational institutes run by different religious organizations like the DAV society, which is a chain of schools and colleges run by RSS, the Khalsa schools and colleges and numerous convent educational institutions. Convent schools and colleges too have a 50% reservation for Christian students. Some Convent schools in Delhi offer a seat to a non-Christian student if the family of the student agrees to bear the expenses of a Catholic child for a year. Whereas colleges under the Khalsa board give a preference to Punjabi students. Even those Punjabi students who are lagging behind academically make it to their desired courses in Khalsa. There’s virtually nothing wrong with these institutes if they give preference to students from their own community, the reason as to why only those institutes that prefer Muslims are put to test is hard to understand.
Can we have the same yard sticks please?

Time and again this issue is raised dramatically, soon acid support is gathered from all nooks and corners of India without even thinking about the rest of the minority institutions that enjoy the same status as AMU and Jamia. What’s wrong with the rationale and the conscience of those who think that everything that’s Muslim is going to prove fatal? The secular identity that India brags appears to be a distant dream when such issues are raised.

 

“We meet to create  memories, we part to preserve them”

-Anon.

Well the saying holds good for none other than the female version of Salman Rushdie. Oops! I mean Tasleema Nasreen.The lady takes offence when people in the literary circles describe her as the female version of Rushdie. But why is she taking them so seriously?Anyways, the most interesting thing about the woman is the delusion in which she thrives.

She contemplates,

“We don’t need any shariat courts; we don’t need any religious code in a democratic and secular country. What we need is a common civil code. I don’t think shariat courts are civilized, women suffer a lot under it�.

Now a million dollar question is when did she become a part of “we�? My finite knowledge tells me that she still owns a Bangladeshi passport. After the turmoil she created by her boisterous blabbering about Islam and her exile that followed, she took refuge in the land of the free and the liberals… the wild Wild West! Again, she was disowned by her phirang friends, now the poor damsel is in a fix and seeks asylum in India. After two unsuccessful attempts of urging the Indian government to grant her Indian citizenship, this is her third endeavor. I guess someone needs to remind her that she is still a Bangladeshi with no legal rights to poke her nose into matters that concern

India and Indians. She is only trying to fish in troubled waters. Her over indulgence in our internal matters will only add fuel to the flame. If she understands the depth of her own proclamation,

“I want to make the state secular and humanistic�.

Then she should stop poking her nose in something as personal and individualistic as religion. She is just cutting a sorry figure by taking advantage of the already disturbed atmosphere in India.

My only advice to the lady is to get over her childhood nightmares!

kahan aake rukne the raaste
kahan mod tha usse bhool ja
woh jo mill gaya usse yaad rakh
woh jo na mila usse bhool ja
tujhe chand banke mila tha jo
tere saahilon pe khila tha jo
woh tha ik dariya visaal ka
so utar gaya usse bhool ja
woh tere naseeb ki jo thi barishen
woh kisi aur chhatt pe utar gayi
ab toh ae dil e berehem
usse bhool ja usse bhool ja usse bhool ja

-Anon.

Nikalna khuld se Aadam ka sunte aaye hain lekin…
Bahot be aabru hoke tere kuche se hum nikle…

A few days back, it was in the news that the strongest critic of “minority appeasement” in India i.e. BJP is all set to try its luck at it.

Sounds crazy?

Yes it does.

So, in a country like India, where people play all sorts of cards there’s nothing wrong if BJP is trying to appease the minorities, in other words they are trying to appease the biggest threat to the Hindu Rashtra!

As I generally say, there’s nothing right and absolutely nothing wrong in Indian politics. After all. kharbooje ko dekh ke kharbooja rang badalta hi hai…

So BJP is using their favourite stooge or the head of the Muslim PR Department of BJP for the same. Any guesses? Anyone?

Ah! Who else can it be if its not Shabuddin the great?

So Mr. Shahbuddin is the new head of the “minority wing of BJP”. He claims that BJP has the highest number of karyakartas working in a minority wing. Ahaan, even I agree to him on this one. Certainly BJP has the highest number of karyakartas dedicated to a specific minority but the fact is they are not working to uplift the minorities!

Mr. Rajnath singh made a tall claim of resolving the ayodhya issue….”peacefully”

After demolishing Babri masjid… shaking the entire Muslim population in India from its very roots… killing innocents in the riots that followed… deepening the ridge between hindus and muslims… and isolating the muslim population from the mainstream population… they are talking of resorting to non violence!

But, nothing can be as dramatic as the statement by Naqwi, another one of his kind in BJPs goodie bag. In one revelation, Naqwi claimed that “he is not proud of what his party did to Babri”.

Very touching… indeed!

BJP claims that congress uses Muslims as a votebank, well all parties do! But BJP aint innocent either, they use the majority as a votebank. Now when their trump card is not working for them, they are looking for back ups.

BJPs victory in Bihar might have given them some hope in the otherwise hopeless Muslims in India

It appears to be some kinda joke to me… but when UP elections are round the corner these guys have all the reasons to be Politically [in]correct.

Now lets see in BJPs dictionary what the definition of “peace and non violence” is..

The way Muslims and Islam is handled by the media the world over is simply commendable!

As they say,

“All Muslims are not terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims�

These people very cleverly ignore the red brigade, the ETA, the PKK, irgun, kach, IRA and the recent ones being LTTE, ULFA, Maoists, babbar khalsa, bajrang dal and the naxalites.

Terrorism is simply a destructive ideology. They can use anything and everything to achieve their goals but not even once in the history of mankind, terrorism was associated with any religion the way it has been associated with Islam. So much so that today, Islam is taken to be synonymous to terrorism.

The saffron brigade in India uses religion too; to achieve their political ambitions but no one links terrorism with Hinduism, the religion they claim to follow!

Even I, don’t associate saffron terror with Hinduism, it’s simply insane to taint a religion because a wild mob quenches its thirst of human blood in a vulgar show of communalism.

Millions of people lost their lives in the war of terror waged by the empire. But who cares!

A Muslim’s life has a cheaper MRP than the lives of his counterparts.

This is the picture in Iraq…

“Of the total 655,000 estimated “excess deaths,” 601,000 resulted from violence and the rest from disease and other causes, according to the study. This is about 500 unexpected violent deaths per day throughout the country.â€?

“The Department of Defense always regrets the loss of any innocent life in Iraq or anywhere else,” said Lt. Col. Mark Ballesteros. “The coalition takes enormous precautions to prevent civilian deaths and injuries.”

I was more than agitated when I read this article published by BBC, which is known as the fairer of the fair in terms of media reporting.

I guess, BBC needs to read this.

“The right of minorities to live in the country as equals was increasingly undermined by both state and non-state actors, despite it being clearly asserted in the Constitution. Religious minorities, particularly Muslims, were increasingly targeted for abuse. In Gujarat, Muslims were victims of massacres allegedly masterminded by nationalist groups with the connivance of state agencies. New and stringent security legislation, which gives wide powers of arrest and detention to the police, was misused to target political dissent in areas of armed conflict and elsewhere. Human rights defenders were frequently harassed by state and private actors, and their activities labelled as “anti-national�. The criminal justice system remained extremely slow, under-resourced and difficult to access for people from socially and economically marginalized sections of society, including lower castes and women. Security agencies continued to enjoy virtual impunity for past abuses, thanks to specific provisions contained in security legislation and to political protection. International human rights monitors, including UN independent experts and international human rights organizations, were de facto denied access to areas of armed conflict and were granted only very limited access to the rest of the country.�

May be, this one as well.

The country who was shouting in one voice “release Sarabjeet Singh� hindus and Muslims alike, changed its tone hypocritically when the fate of Afzal Guru was being written by the supreme court of India. Sarabjeet Singh allegedly exploded a bomb in Pakistan. In other words, a terrorist for Pakistan who allegedly claimed innocent lives there. People cried on top of their voices, if Pakistan won’t spare Sarabjeet Singh on humanitarian grounds then India should shun all the diplomatic ties with Pakistan! Surprisingly, Pakistan delayed his “phassi�. And when, Afzal’s case was being considered, people started shouting, in the same vigor… “Hang him without delay!�

Without even knowing, that he is a surrendered militant. Here’s Arundhati Roy’s take on Afzal. We are not asking to spare a terrorist. We are only asking to make sure if he’s a terrorist or not!

“It is Afzal’s story that gives us a glimpse into what life is really like in the Kashmir Valley. It’s only in the Noddy Book version we read about in our newspapers that Security Forces battle Militants and innocent Kashmiris are caught in the cross-fire. In the adult version, Kashmir is a valley awash with militants, renegades, security forces, double-crossers, informers, spooks, blackmailers, blackmailees, extortionists, spies, both Indian and Pakistani intelligence agencies, human rights activists, NGOs and unimaginable amounts of unaccounted-for money and weapons.â€?

I don’t remember even a single time when a criminal who happens to be a follower of Hinduism or Christianity or any other faith for that matter was caught, and his religion was the first thing that was mentioned unlike the case with the so called “Islamic terrorists�. It’s pretty disgusting when terrorists are given a community name like that of kashmiris. No religion is criminal in its purest form. The adulterators make it corrupt. So, does that mean the religion or the community in itself is corrupt?

It’s always easy to put the blame on someone without even realizing its pros and cons. We Muslims are a family of around 1.4 billion now; irresponsible is such a small word to define the negligence of the media!

Amillia taylor, born at just 21 weeks and six days. She weighed 280 g and measued 240 cm.

Ah that’s my fav quote! It seems the Irani officials understand its depth!

Those who are wondering what the hell m I talking of…well I’m talking of the “women-only-island� in Iran.

That will be a treat for me and my likes that need a break from an otherwise predominantly “man’s world�.

“All the transport, restaurants and facilities on the island – on gigantic Oroumiyeh Lake close to the Turkish border – will be staffed only by women. The initiative has even been cleared by the supreme leader Ayatollah khameini’s provincial representative.�

(TOI report, Thursday, 2007-02-22)

I’m pretty excited with the very idea of having such an island. After all, I haven’t forgotten the comfort the GCR (girl’s common room) in my college. Guys always wanted a sneak peak and like aalu (a friend of mine, I called her aalu… even though she’s exactly the opposite of an aalu!) Joked,

Boys will be boys…

And girls will be fun!

We always had a good time in the GCR.

Wonder how the world will look like if all dames are marooned at that island!

This one’s surely a bad idea for the men folk. But for me… it’s a perfect place to go out on a honeymoon with…myself!

 

A woman cries beside her son in a hospital, after he was wounded in a bomb attack, in Baghdad, February 20, 2007. A car bomb exploded near a petrol station in the southern Saidiya district of Baghdad, killing five people and wounding 11, police said.

Ah! That’s how things are!

Whenever a bomb blasted on Indian soil, Thackerey and his gang took no time to accuse Pakistan. And now, when Pakistan played the same blame game…. Thackerey’s having a tough time digesting it!

“There was no hand of any Hindu groups behind the Samjhauta Express bombings. It is an irresponsible statement by the Pakistan media,’ Thackeray said at a news conference here Wednesday.â€?

What Thackerey fails to acknowledge is, here the so called “hindu extremist� organizations are being blamed. So, is Thackerey taking up the new role as the speaker of the “hindu fanatics� in India?

Or may be he considers himself one!

“India should have no dealing with Pakistan as long as President Pervez Musharraf is at the helm of affairs in the neighbouring country.�

He is again forgetting that it was in Indian soil that Pakistani civilians lost their lives! How come Parvez Musharraf is responsible for a security lapse in India?

I agree that it’s not a time for conjecture. But the same rule applies to Thackerey as well! Where was his conscience when he blamed Pakistan straightway after the Mumbai blasts?

I guess he needs his million dollar advice in the same way those Pakistani officials do.

This is the news I found in the famous Pakistani daily, Dawn.

“After the twin blasts, Singh smashed through a steel door and an emergency hatch of one of the two blazing carriages and helped five or six passengers get out,â€? Police Inspector-General Sharad Kumar said. “He kept pushing out people from the coach despite being on fire himself … and finally flames overwhelmed him.â€?

 

The most important thing these politicians tend to ignore is innocent people are dying on both the sides.

I guess we had enough of this crap!

We need to develop tolerance if we want to be tolerated!

“Heads Lost” carnival revellers group carry representations of the heads of George Bush and Osama bin Laden (L) while performing during the traditional parade in Ovar, northern Portugal, February 18, 2007. REUTERS/Jose Manuel Ribeiro.