Let us remember Bhagat Singh - today is 23rd mar

did not see any prominent coverage on any of the main sites though ... :(

Shaheedon ki chitaon par lagein ge har baras mele,

Vatan par marne vaalon ka yahee baaqi nishaan ho ga.

Like many other things they thought they* had lived for and were dying for (see part of his last petition below), like many other things they envisioned for (and in) an independent india, the above sher also, looks, in today's india, part of fiction :(.

Things have gone horribly wrong .... :(, reality has drifted so much away from the visions of perhaps the best, most humanist, most devoted, most selfless, perhaps most talented of generations of indians in known history ... :(

Excerpts from Bhagat Singh's last petition:

"... Let us declare that the state of war does exist and shall exist so long as the Indian toiling masses and the natural resources are being exploited by a handful of parasites. They may be purely British Capitalist or mixed British and Indian or even purely Indian. They may be carrying on their insidious exploitation through mixed or even on purely Indian bureaucratic apparatus. All these things make no difference ..."

Predestination or free will

The brain storming started with Nabi Baksha's call at around 11'o clock in the night. He asked a  question which has been asked / discussed by thinking minds in the past, and will be, in future. And i admit I felt elated to be considered worthy of a philosophical question. 

If God does everything, if God ki marzi ke bina patta bhi nahi hilta, then why should humans be rewarded / punished for their actions.

Every aalim, every teacher, every preacher does his/her best to convince anybody who listens to them that whatever happens, God does it. "Karne vaala Allah hai", we are nothing, we are immaterial, insignificant nobodies. Anything and everything - He has complete control over - and He does it - we don't matter. And we, the good* people believe it - it becomes our faith (irrespective of our religions).

On the other hand the same teachers teach the same people (who listen to them) to do good things, to avoid bad things - and that every thing, including the smallest and the minutest of them, is being noted by the farishtas sitting on our shoulders, good acts by the right one, and bad by the left. And in the afterlife we shall reap what we sow here. "Dunia" is just an imtehaan period - main life is the Afterlife. 

These thoughts too - become our faith.

It doesn't take the brain of an Einstein to see that the two teachings are contradictory - in fact, they oppose each other. But since we invoke one or the other depending upon the situation we happen to be in, they work. Faced with -ves of life, we blame it on our fate / destiny / "God willed so" - and satisfy ourselves. Blessed with +ves, some of us take pride in our capability, our decisions ("our free will") and feel proud, feel happy, whereas more pious amongst us attribute these positives also to God - and things continue to function.

We are clever enough [or, predestined :)] to - first use free will to try to attain our aims (studying for IIT entrance - practising day and night for sports trails - thinking of new ways to woo the women /man of our dreams ... forgetting about preDestination at this point) - and take solace into God ordained destiny if we are not successful [and our neighbours take solace into God ordained destiny if we are :)].

So, to keep living a normal life - we need not worry about the contradiction much.

But when Nabi baksha calls on an unearthly hour, and expects one to answer this question - one can no longer ignore it. Below is what we ended up discussing that night (and i must admit, this contradiction had troubled me before - many a times i used to think, ki OK! by switching from one to other we manage to live a normal life, but what is the truth? same question which bothered Nabi that night.).

As per Islam (and i m sure other religions as well), religious texts can be produced in support of either of them***. But one fact that can't be ignored is - there is a Judgment day - and where one would be answerable for one's actions. If out of the above two, predestination is the only truth, then all actions of humans in this world are predestined - and if they are, then even the afterlife of a human is predestined - which ... which doesn't sound rational. Afterlife, we have been told, will be decided based on how we conduct ourselves in this world, so afterlife can't be predestined.

So, predestination, even if it is true - is definitely not the only truth (among the above two). 

Hence "free will" does exist. The massacres / zulms carried out by Hitlers and Yazeeds and Zionists and Suhrawardys and Modis of this world originated from their free wills (otherwise no point blaming them, right). Simlilarly the saintly works of Mother Teresas and Gandhis and MLKs and Raja Ram Mohan Roys of this world can trace their origine to the willingness (free will) of these people to do good (otherwise no point praising them).

But if "free will" is correct, what happens to "whatever happens God does it. 'Karne vaala Allah hai', we are nothing, immaterial, insignificant beings. Anything and everything - He has complete control over - and He does it - we don't matter"

Actually - this is also true. We are actually nothing ... immaterial, insignificant beings. True. We act out of our free will - true - but God's will / His act can at any point, override ours. Normally it doesn't.  True, He has absolute powers over everything - but He chooses to interfere with workings of the world rarely ... So normally, things happening (good and bad) are produce of our actions, our free wills (free because God has made it free, and He can at any time influence it / change it / X** it), but he normally chooses not to.

We see his interference when a Savitry's prayers return a Satyavan back to life after his death, when a couple told by docs of their inability to have kids visits Ajmer Sharif and is blessed with one (sometimes more), when a crying baby's feet hits to the ground in the middle of one of the biggest / driest deserts of the world and produces a stream of water which, even 2000 years later, continues to supply water to millions of pilgrims througout the year, when a baby Krishna is saved from a all powerful king Kansa, when within years of Prophet's prediction, two mighty empires, byzantine and persian, come crumbling down ... and numerous other places.

And He normally doesn't interfere cause He didn't when Godhara and Gujarat took place, he doesn't in Palestine and didn't in Nazi Germany and Stalin's Russia and Taliban's Afghanistan. He normally doesn't :( - Almost never the voices of mazlooms of this world seem to be heard :( .. so He normally doesn't ... 

For all practical purposes, it can be assumed, that He doesn't.

So -- free will exists. But destiny can anytime override it. But it normally (for almost all practical purposes), doesn't.  Predestined things may or may not be exist - even if they do, its difficult to say what they are - may be death / qayamat etc ... may be not - may be some other things ... may be very few things.

Luck, is another matter ... a random number can be big or small - it is not predestined to be big or small - it just happens. That is luck. Luck is different from destiny.

For an analogy, imagine a creche ... imagine little kids in there, and an all powerful almighty (over them) supervisor. This supervisor keeps looking at the kids, keeps observing them, has sent messages to them from time to time, warning of punishment to kids who trouble other kids, and rewards for well behaved kids - She keeps watching over them all the time. If She wants, She can do anything - "uski marzi ke bina patta bhi nahi hile ga", nothing will happen if She doesn't want it to ... but She doesn't interfere - normally, that is. She sees one bully kid hitting other, that bully will get punishment as promised, but at that moment - though She could have prevented the bullying - she stays (apparentl) aloof ...

Kids live by their free will in the creche, a free will - which is given, and can be overriden, by Her - anytime.

One or two of the kids might be Her favorite (think Waliullaahs / Prophets / saints / great men&women) - and if they pray - She responds ... but normally She doesn't.

For all practical purposes, She doesn't :(.

* good - cause junk guys anyway don't listen to preachers

** XX any verb

*** religious texts are like that - can be produced, generally, for both, in fact multiple sides of any argument

PS: abhi-2 yaad aaya, even Arudhati Roy has called world "Hopelessly practical".

Bombay trip (24/25 Jan, 2009)
Intention was to walk from nariman point to malabar hill, which sukanta has done, and keeps boasting about :), "magar vo ho na sakaa ... " - spent time meeting and being with friends. Yeah, had a 2 3 hour auto ride with Kausar bhai (my very own William Dalrymple), and he showed us bangalows of Sanjay Dutt, Amitabh, Shahrukh, Naushad, and Dilip Kumar Saab. so far I considered Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad to be the poshest Indian Area visited by me, but a visit to Pali Hill changed it.
Man!!! Whattan area. I felt like I was walking in lower Manhutton, except for the tallness of the buildings there. With its unfamiliaringly clean streets, it didn't appear to be part of india.

Also visited bandra kurla complex. This is again, an amazing place. In the middle of Bombay, somehow they have built what appears to be a new city. In this part of Mumbai, one already feels like in Shanghai. Many major banks are head quartered here. Accessibilty wise, one can't have a better area, as It is in the middle of centerl and western lines, equidistant from Bandra and Kurla stations. Plus, wester and eastern both express highways also feed it.

Wonderful piece of poetry (Bahadur Shah Zafar).-
उम्रे-दराज़ मांग के लाए थे चार दिन, दो आरज़ू में कट गए दो इंतिज़ार में.
दिन ज़िंदगी के ख़त्म हुए शाम हो गई, फैला के पांव सोएंगे कुंजे मज़ार में.
कितना है बदनसीब ज़फ़र दफ़्न के लिए, दो गज़ ज़मीं भी मिल न सकी कूए-यार में.

Bijapur (4th Jan 2009) (photos at orkut)
Bijapur is unlike any other medivial indian town I have visited so far. Thought that crossed the mind was, "God!!! I haven't been to such a place before - so unique it was".

Unlike Srirangapattanam, which the British took care of destroying with such vengeance, that almost no structure of Tipu's era survive, plus - it being located in the city of Mysore, capital city of a flourishing royalty and subsequently a thriving city, grew up with times - so that there is not many things medivial about today's Srirangapattanam.

Unlike Delhi, which was never sacked and left unattended - the winners usually occupied it and kept building new cities on top of the previous ones ... Rahi sahi qasar Lutyen ne poori kar di :), so that in todays' delhi is dominated by Lutyens' structures - plus, this being capital of India saw more modernization than perhaps any other indian city (except bombay). So, though a lot of medivial structures exist - they don't dominate it, and it being capital - these structures are, mostly, well maintained.

Unlike Hyderabad where Nizamshahi outlasted even British Raj - resulting domination of more modern buildings than medieval.

Then what Bijapur is like?
It is like a medieval Pompeii, except that there was no volcano. After the Adilshahs were defeated in 1686 - it was (like Pompeii) left to itself (it seems), none of its subsequent rulers, Nizams, Marathas, British showing any major interest in it ...

The end result is, once there, one not just feels in space to it, but also in time - from 21 century to medivial age :). A classic example of what Obama was refering to when he mentioned forgotten corners of the world" :). Well, itna bhi nahi :).

Anyway, here is the diary:

• Boarded the train at Ypur (3 Jan, Sat, eve): Kausar bhai asked Sukanta to bring Mishti, and took the responsibility of getting food, chicken and all the other mouth watering stuff, so that Sukanta's expectations were set sky high. Once the train started moving, he asked Sukanta, Dada u brought mishti or not ... how many varieties, three, then OK, cause I forgot to get chicken. Anwar interrupted, sssala har kaam gadbad-sadbad rahta hai ... Kausar bhai countered back: sssale, marein bhi hameeen, qabr bhi ham hi khodein, kafan bhi ham hi silein, aur ja kar let jayein??? And their humorous noke-jhonk went on - in the process making me and our other co passengers laugh, and making Sukanta equally angry and frustrated. Khair, after nok-jhonk, Kausar bhai asked Sukanta, dada mishti nikalo, bhook lagi hai ... and we all served ourselves with a couple of pieces each, and then only realized that Sukanta was still firing on all cylinders :) ... consuming mishti (and alu burji) like there is no tomorrow :) ... and stopped only when he had exhausted the supply :) .. apprently Sukanta had taken the joke of Kausar bhai not having brought food too seriously - and in the process forgotten that in train as well as stations one can buy food at runtime :) and failing that, one can skip a dinner w/o much problem :).
• Got up in Solapur (Sun morning): K was already up and running (literally) as full of energy as he always is while on a trip. He got all of us vada-pao, to which I developed immense liking, and have been since then wondering why is it not available in bangalore. After solapur the train was almost empty, till a baba ji came with his flute and started singing. He had only one arm. We gave him some money, and started talking to him. He sat with us, and shared his story. He was a truck driver, and in an accident had lost his right arm. Then he learnt how to play a flute, and memorized (well, to some extent) songs, and began to make a living this way. He claimed to be 80 plus - and said ki he did not shed even one tear when the doc told him about amputation of his arm. "Har haal mein khush rahne ka", he said. (Meeting and talking to him was an experience - people managing to remain happy, even in the face of impossible odds). We were joined by another person shortly - it was a enuch - and he may have been familiar with the old singer - so when he saw him talking to us, he came and joined the talk. For the first time in my life i realized that enuchsare capable of talking just like other human beings. Upon being asked what we were doing in the train - Kausar bhai told that we are from govt and writing a book about people :), and that we'll mention them as well in the book. The old man was visibly happy - but the enuch started looking worried. Then he said, saab, "mera naam mat likhna please - mere rozi roti chali jaye gi" ... Even when train reached Bijapur and we paid them some more money and went out of train the enuch was still shouting - "saab please naam mat dena mera" :)

In Bijapur: Booked a tonga (cab, as Sherlock Holmes would call it :)) for full day. It would be a package-tour, i thought. we had seen Gol Gumbaj when we were in the train itself. Its boundary almost touches the station. Anyway, the gate is about 1 km from station gate, where the tonga-vala first took us. Once you climb up inside the tomb - and get out on the inside balcony just below the inverted half-globe, the feeling is amazing ... just amazing. Sound echos, it is said, 11 times here. And anything one speaks, its like speaking in a microphone / loud-speaker set. Real good experience. Later he took us to other tourist attractions - details of which can be looked over the net :).

Things interesting:

• We happened to meet a young goggle seller, who from his appearance, his light colored skin and height, gave the impression of not being a local. When asked, he told ki "their family had come from Iran along with the badshaahs". While we were talking, a brother / cousin joined him - and they talked to each other, the language they used caught my attention. Later I asked him, was it persian - and lo, it was indeed persian :). Man!!! centuries later, the language is still preserved - so much so that it is their primary language :) ... though he was speaking hindi / urdu also with equal ease. It was then that I realized that during our small conversation, when he had to address somebody with honour, he used "Aga" - the word I know as the one used by Persian speaking characters in Khaled Hossaini's books :) ... Wasn't it astonishing :).
• The tallest structure of medivial times - Hyder Burj, from where city and outsides could be watched - we were told, has 72 steps. Kausar bhai pointed out a possible relation with number people in Karbala. The biggest cannon of the medivial world, Malik-e-Maidan, also has names of Ahl-al-bayt carved on it.
• For the first time in our (4 of us) lives, we got both forward and return reservation for the same coach, same set of berths :). We were chatting over this co-incidence when we boarded the train on return jouney - and was almost shocked to find the same uncle sleeping on the berth next to ours, in the same pose as he was when we left the train in the morning - we were shocked and grew apprehensive about him - but then perhaps seeing us he got up and sat :) ... Hfff ...