Six + Eight

An unemployed and single woman with six kids, who lives with her parents, gave birth to Octuplet. The ages of older kids vary from 7 to 2. It is simply pinnacle of irresponsibility and outrageous. How can anyone play with innocent lives?? Family and financial support are the fundamentals, humans provide to their kids. If we are talking about dogs or cats then, it may be different...

Gita

Two men in different continents at the same time were making history. Both were influenced by Bhagvad Gita and chose different ways to fight against the evil: J. Robert Oppenheimer and Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi chose the way of non-cooperation against the powerful forces of British whereas Oppenheimer thought destruction of atomic bombs can be used to control the enemies of humanity. Both were equally rignt and wrong. Gandhi's message of peace became the symbol of India's complacency and Oppenheimer's power message became the US's arrogance.

Survival Syndrome

Last night, I met with a veteran friend of my husband. He survived Vietnam War. He got one shot and lost friends but survived. He got the opportunities to visit Vietnam Memorial in past, were never able to gather enough strength to read his martyr comrades’ names on wall. Yesterday he did. He was on a business travel to D.C., before coming here, he spent hours with psychiatrist, but still he was not sure that he would make it. He hired a taxi to travel D.C. He went to memorial but was not able to leave the taxi. The taxi driver told him, “Whatever will happen, let it happen, Sir”. Finally he visited the memorial and read the names of his 19 friends who lost their lives in war. He cried like a baby there..

One of my husband’s colleagues is a native of Vietnam, who came to this country during Vietnam War. He never went back to his country. But he never felt comfortable in talking about the war. Even talks filled him with vicious feelings of the sufferings of his friends, relatives and people of his ‘country of birth’.

Two people came from same situation and had same emotions for being belonged to two different sides of the war. Psychologically, both are suffering from same syndrome ‘Survival Syndrome’. Probably every person suffers from this syndrome up to some extent. The news of terror attack on my country filled me with anger and disgust. I am relatively safer here, but most of people use the public transportation and go to crowded places for their livings. Every act of pushing back the fair sex makes me feel like someone is questioning my capability. Pictures of poor, weak and naked children realize the small gap between them and others.

Slumdog Millionaire

Grand success of Slumdog Millionaire proves that there are many people interested in Indian day to day life all around the world. However, many in India told that this movie is typical western vision of poor India. That is a typical Indian mindset what encourages to overlook the truth and live in flimsy world. The Bollywood (Indian film industry) movies show everything far from reality though the trend is little changed recently and some creative persons are coming in the industry. But the creative movies are still not widely appreciated, probably Indian people love only formula not substance. In Hollywood every year many movies related on Jews killings, gay rights and racial differences are released. But in India producers want to exploit only actresses’ bodies and jumping jack type stunt scenes. There are many tragedies and stories of hope happening in India every day. Why can't Indian movies project these sentiments to broad public? If projected in right way, I am sure stories of south can be sold in north and west in east and vice versa. Ultimately we are the world's most diverse and migrated people and each among us carries his or her unique story.

Indian Media

Anglophile Indian media always seek grace in cramming Oxford Dictionary and doing mastery on accent. Probably it makes easier for the reporters to switch to outsourced jobs, if they will be out of work. Like our government, it goes far to appease minorities. We listen frequently, attack on one person of minority but there is no one to report 1000s of similar crimes happening every day in India. No wonder Indian media has no status at International level. Chinese reporting is far superior than Indian, regardless of language hurdle. Not a single report from Indian media is shown after Mumbai terror attacks about any progress made by Indian Government (If they did!!) on CNN in US. Contrary, Pakistani journalists are worthy enough to talk about the lack of support from Indian Government and innocence of Pakistani Government.

I saw Karan Thapar’s episode with Shabana Azmi recently on Youtube. This guy called Shabana to discuss about her prospective on India’s progress on 60th anniversary of Indian Independence Day. The lady had not a single word to praise about India, all the time she made fuss about Muslim rights. Without any obligation to obey Indian Constitution, what else do Muslims want?

Qualification not Dress

Many time Michelle Obama's dresses and style are discussed in media. Instead of her education and devotion to family, her dresses are influencing the journalists. For any educated woman, who spent years in libraries not in beauty parlor it is insult.

Obama's Gitmo Policy

In long term, definitely Obama's policy of closing Guantanamo is great. But in current scenario, the prisoners with no proven guilty will be returned back to their countries of origin. Proving guilty is a tough task when it involves different nations. Especially Middle East and South Asian countries are highly dense populated and lack proper record keeping system. These countries have inflow of legal and illegal seasonal workers from neighboring countries. Some governments bear the international pressure but save home grown terrorists. The evicted prisoners will tell their stories of torture in these nations and local languages. This will further enhance the feeling of anti-west among fanatic and illiterate people.

Also, it is hard to convince religious fanatics through talks. Islamic terrorists are convinced that what they are doing is pious and according to the teachings of Quran. I am also not clear how to handle such people. Last year, in Texas hundreds of women and kids were taken out of FLDS church. Recently on CNN news, it was shown that all of them rejoin the family at same compound.

Reply to Miliband

To U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who recently advised India on the matter of Kashmir:

To milibandd@parliament.uk

Hi Miliband
You declared Kashmir problem behind India and Pakistan spoilt relation. But what is wrong in U.K. that 48% of Muslim population wants ‘Shariya rule’. We observed some terrorist attacks on U.K. soil too, so can you explain that??

Muslims are growing fast in every state of India. Every year millions of Bangladeshi crossed Indian border during the Monsoon. So should India give West Bengal also to Pakistan or create some more part of India to sow the future seeds of terrorism. Please acknowledge yourself about Indian history.

Thanks
A citizen of democratic country without a 'fake stamp'

Launch of a Gandhi

Recently, Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukharjee declared Rahul Gandhi’s candidacy as next Prime Minister of India. Amid the terrorism threats, global recession and warming, the launch of Rahul Gandhi’s career is the foremost important matter for ruling Congress party. The controversies of this new Indian Prince vary from false claims of graduation from top US universities to crediting Bangladesh creation to his family.

In West, most of people confuse this family to be related to Mahatma Gandhi, though unlike Mahatma, Nehru-Gandhi legacy has only one agenda - ruling on country by all the means. Historically, launching of any Gandhi’s career is a painful experience of India. Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru launched his career of Prime minister on the creation of Pakistan and Hindu- Muslim riots in 1947. Millions of people died and displaced, but Nehru got what he desired. Later signing Article 370 with the King of Kashmir is another disaster, country is still paying for. It is irony that Nehru, himself a Kashmiri Brahmin, caused the killings and departure of millions of Kashmiri Hindus.

Indira Gandhi went one step ahead of her father. After the failure of her marriage with Feroze, she concentrated only on playing political games. At least, ambitious Nehru had a vision of India and he worked for establishing IITs and SAARC, a group of countries in Indian subcontinent since he recognized the possible dangers of helping one side on other during cold war. But Indira bargained with everyone to achieve the title of first female Prime Minister of India. The death of her political opponent Lal Bahadur Shastri, then leader of Congress party and Prime Minister, in USSR strengthened her relations with USSR. Communism movements and parties in India established. To get the support of Tamil political parties she allowed them to help separatist Tamil movement in Sri Lanka. The exploitation of democracy was not only limited in the hands of Indira Gandhi, but also enjoyed by her son Sanjay and front liners of Congress party. Her political games in Punjab set the path for launch of her son Rajiv’s career and another shame on Indian history.

The arrival of Rajiv in Indian politics is opened with the blood of Hindus and Sikhs. 1984 riots were the creation of Congress politicians (Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and H.K.L. Bhagat) who cannot think beyond Gandhi family. The richest state of India suffered a lot economically and socially, in next ten years of terrorist attacks on Hindus. Sikh religion was established by Guru Gobind Singh to protect Hindus from the forceful conversion to Islam. But after 1984, the situation was exploited by Pakistani terrorist groups and ISI to threaten the Hindus once again. Rajiv Gandhi’s leadership skills were further restricted. He maintained his right to rule country by ignoring the rising of corruption and encouraging different ‘constitution’ for Muslims (Shahbano case).

Though Sonia Gandhi, wife of Rajiv is not able to achieve the right of ruling on country because of her foreign origin, she got the exclusive rights to decide the future of Congress and India indirectly. Her candidacy for the post of Prime Minister suffered the opposition within Congress and from other parties. Apparently Sonia Gandhi’s next move is to secure the position for her son who suffered serious failures in his education and serious career. Political career for Gandhi family comes natural and without any effort, since Indians are being told from last 60 years that India’s freedom is possible only with the last name of ‘Gandhi’. Recent communal dispute among Hindus and Christians from Congress ruled Orissa led Supreme Court to remind state government about its fundamental duty of protecting citizens. But if Congress party has ever followed that, millions of Indian lives could have been saved. Orissa state government has no interest in either stopping the conflicts or encouraging the economical growth of state. Rahul’s comments such as “If anyone from the Gandhi-Nehru family had been active in politics then, the Babri Masjid would not have fallen" indicates another foul play of Gandhi family to launch a new ‘King of India’.

Religious Harmony

The discussion on headgears turn interesting when some people agree that there should be no religion- an incredible and justifying solution, though far away from reality. And also why only to blame religion- don’t we differentiate each other on the basis of color, gender, economic class, countries, continents and many more. The problem is human greed and lust of power- a tribal manifestation of kill and die, what makes us to think only from one aspect. We tend to think if A is not B, either A is superior to B or vice versa.

Most of Indian religions (Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism) started as spiritual movements and address the social issues in those times. Though I am Hindu, but not sure how this oldest civilization or religion started? Some of us are book followers (Veda, Gita, Upanishads and Ramayana), some love chanting and some are happy with rituals. Different people offer different theories of Indigenous Aryans or invader Aryans or existence of Aryans. I seriously doubt that Hinduism has anything to do with Aryans manipulation. Both groups South Indians (Dravidians) and North Indians worship same Gods and chant Mantras written in Sanskrit. Buddhism and Jainism revised the concepts of ‘Karma’ and meditation of Gita, above than rituals. With his command on both sword and spirituality, Guru Gobind Singh gave Sikhism a new identity while saving Hindus against forceful conversion to Islam during the rule of Aurangzeb. All of these religions rely on the spirituality of the soul or self, exist in everyone and achievable by everyone.

Think about all the existing religions from the year of origin to next five thousand years (Though I doubt, we will survive so long if we continue in the same ways). Which religion is or will be free from the taboo rituals and internal divisions? People attach feelings with the book covers, idols, places or dress codes instead of the essence and tend to forget wisdom of saints and charismatic figures.

Public Safety and Liberty

Some people have raised questions regarding headdress or religious symbols in different reports. The controversy started from Georgia when allegedly a Muslim woman were not allowed in court because she was wearing a scarf. Some reports mentioned that she refused to undergo proper checks, required to enter in court. Regardless of being judgemental here, my first and foremost concern here is public safety and liberty. Government is allowed to check any dress, behavior which is suspicious. Someday ago in Europe a female Taliban militant was caught who was traveling to Belgium. If authority there does not bother to see under the Burka, she might be left uncaught. I am an immigrant from India, the country claims itself secular. Why terrorist attacks are common here- since authorities hardly dare to mess up with the religious groups. Even if they try a little, echoes in parliament, riots on streets and damage of public property are common phenomena. In world's most densely populated country, population control measures can not be strongly advocated since some religions think it works against their Gods' wish. Which God feels happy to see hungry children? Neighboring nations try to split country again and again based on religions. Marriages and women freedom laws are applicable to only religions which like the constitution- yes 'like it or don't mind it'. Politicians do nothing but divide for votes. We simply can not afford such a mess here. Liberty of people can only last if people will behave in mature way. Liberty is not a gift but an award won through wars and freedom struggle. Rather than seeing themsleves as a religious entity we need to see ourselves as responsible global citizens- those follow the rules of coexistence and humanity.