An Emperor and a Sufi

I remember reading it from both Dalrymple's and Ibn-Batuta's writings. It is about Hz Nizamuddin, but actually about Sufies, Saints.

Hz Nizamuddin lived in the era of Tughlaq, in what was then Delhi, present day's Tughlaqabad suburb south of (present day's) south delhi and just north of Mehrauli. So ... there happened some confrontation between emperor of India and the Sufi Saint, and the Sufi shifted his place to an area outside the (then) city, to what today is Hz Nizamuddin. Some other sufi (or may be he himself), told the emperor, ki, your aalishaan qila and mahel etc may not remain aabaad after sometime, but wherever the Sufi has settled, will remain so.

Dalrymple writes with astonishment (and I share it), ki surprisingly, even when Tughlaqabad is the largest and one of the most magnificient fort / fortification complex of all the cities of Delhi, it lacks prominence even on tourist's itenraries. Qutub complex, which is older than it, is a world heritage site, and rivals even the Taj in terms of no of visitors. As do Red fort and Jama masjid, which are of a much later period. Delhi is identified with these, but Tughlaqabad, not many people know about as a historically and touristically important place. On the other hand, centuries later, Hz Nizamuddin is a thriving, alive place .. almost every evening there is a mela type of atmosphere, with the narrow lanes brimming with people, visitors, beggers, shopkeepers, worshippers, pilgrims, ... people travelling thousands of miles to just to visit it, people coming to it to with shraddha, faith, with hope ...

Khair, this much, though astonishing, isn't goose-bumps-causing ..

What Dalrymple did next was, he went to Daulatabad as well, a city which Tughlaq (not sure if the same Tughlaq or some other) had shifted his capital to. And he was surprised that the fort complex there, in spite of being considered perhaps the most impenetrable of all the forts in India, a fort which attracts a lot of critical acclaim, also does not have any human population living within, or nearby it. Did the curse extended to Daultabad too - he thought ... khair, His visit to the fort about to end, and sunset approaching, he decided to take a look from the top, looking for signs of any human population, any aabaadi in the vicinity ... and he was successful, he could spot light somewhere nearby, he decided to have a look ... he had to discover the way to that place on his own .. and it took sometime, but finally he managed to reach the place. As he neared it, he realized .... guess what,

.

.

.

"voh bhi kisi sufi saint ka mazaar thhaa" ..

Alhamdulillaah ...

In an otherwise ruined surroundings of the magnificient fort, what managed to exist, was again, a Sufi shrine ...

The first time i read it, or whenever I have narrated it to people, mere rongte khare ho jaate hain ...

Ramzan mubarak ...

PS: there was one frail person in there, who, D thought, was responsible for the light / the diya, which D saw and came to know about the mazar's existence .. he asked the fellow, ki janaab, after you, perhaps this mazar would also become veeraan, with no one to do diya n all every evening. That person replied, with a belief which can only come from faith, ki

"why so?

someone else would come, just like Allah sent me after my predecessor left" ..

City of Djinns, but why did they chose Delhi

After coming to Delhi and after having traveled in the vicinity for close to a year, the answer (a partial one though) to a question I used to ask myself so many times about so many cities started to appear – why is that great cities got settled in at that particular geographical location, and not any other .. one answer which I used to give myself (which still holds good) is, wherever there were rivers, and wherever they had banks people could bank upon (comparatively flood-proof), cities got created, or rather, evolved. That also explains why most major cities (at least in south Asia) are generally on one bank of the river – cause the other bank perhaps was not bankable enough … That explains Delhi, Allahabad, Benaras, Patna, Kanpur, and numerous others (talking about medieval and pre-medieval cities here, cause once British were in, a sea-port, and not a river bank, started to derive growth of cities, and hence came into existence Calcutta, Bombay, and madras, and to some extent climate too, which accounts for Bangalore and Simla.)

But then, why it is Delhi, and not Allahabad or Benaras which had been (and is) considered heart of India, not Nagpur not Agra, all of which are more centrally located than Delhi. Kuchh to ho ga Delhi me, which is not there in any of the above mentioned cities.

OK, coming back to the point … Travelling around Delhi hints one towards the answer. The landscape, the scenery varies once you travel out of the city. It is true of any city, any place. But in Delhi this varies differently for different directions. I mean, you start north east from it and south west from it, the change in scenery is almost opposite. In the south west you step out of it, and you start feeling as if you are in some plateau type place, visibly lot more dry, with more dust and less greenery, you get something like a registan feeling … right once you step out … the population density pretty less, with large unpopulated tracts (which are now getting populated as industrial belts, like IMT Manesar, or as Farm Houses for the rich, ChattarPur, or as barracks for the Army (places south of MB Road, anything south west of Tughlaqabad). And you go north east, you'll find greenery everywhere, and lots n lots n lots of people, people hi people, so much so that on NH 58 or 24, even when them both are 2+2 lane roads, right up to Meerut / Hapur, you ‘d feel you still driving in city traffic. You go south east (NH2) or North west (NH1), you will get a feeling somewhere between these 2 extremes. Also, small dry registaani looking, barren hillocks start to appear in the south and south west, even before Mehrauli, and none of them on the northern side till you reach Kalka or Hardwar ...

So, it is not just people from different regions who coexist / meet in Delhi … it is the regions themselves … it is a sangam, but unlike Allahabd, not one of rivers but of geographies ... It is where the dryness effect sent by sands of Rajputana was stopped (thankfully) by the greenery of Gangatic plains descending from the Himalayas .. It is the LOC between these two great region-empires … But then, it is just a dot on the map, whereas Line of control is, well, a line :) …

Then why is Delhi at this point and not at any of the other points on this line, where (comparatively) sparsely populated dry areas in the south and great hare-bhare, alive, throbbing, brimming with population north Indian plains meet up – a line that can roughly be drawn from UP’s south eastern tip, through Delhi off course and all the way to southern border of Punjabs (both Indian and Pak).

This is because Delhi is unique in another geographical way as well … You see, when Jamuna comes out of the shadow of the Himalayas (literally and figuratively), and is old enough to make decisions on her own, it has a choice, to tributarize Satluj, or Ganga, to go drain itself in Arabian sea, or go get immersed in Bay of Bengal, to act as a drain to carry the waste material from the factories and homes of UPiets and Biharis, or that of Punjabis. Till Delhi, both sides seem to have almost equal chance, with Jamuna leaning towards one or the other at various points, just like a gal indecisive about its prospect, leaning, being kind to, giving hope to, both, but committing to neither :) *

Delhi is where it comes of age, makes up her mind, and takes a decision, preferring the human (and other) wastes of UPiets and Biharis to that of Punjus :).

Khair :) ... to pata ye chala ki Delhi is at point where the (roughly) east west line (the LOC of regions), intersects another almost equally important geographic line.

The line which starts from central Himalays and connects roughly to the Aravalis, and this line decides the flow of rivers. All the ones to its west 'd have to travel south west, towards Arabian sea. The ones to its east, would travel east of south east, to the Bay of Bengal. In fact, somewhere i had recently read, that last point of the aravalis is within what is now IIT Delhi campus ...

So, Delhi may not look in the center of the subcontinent on the map, but it is exactly where heart would have been. It is at the confluence of 4 major regions of the subcontinent, and with regions, automatically of cultures, and even (to some extent) religions.

Culture wise, in the south west, the rajputana region, ghagra choli starts from as early as Gurgaon, and in the NE (and possibly NW too, though i haven't got a chance to travel on NH1), it is salwar kameez ... colors are bright if u travel south (the movie Paheli, was right at least in this aspect), and subdued / normal in the north.

Ruskin's prose starts in the hills of Dehra and ends in Delhi, so does almost entire hindi sahitya, which starts in the hinterland of UP and Bihar in the east and Delhi forms its western border. The rasos and other veer-ras related stuff kept happening in the south west, and to a lesser extent, south east (bundelkhand) too.

Immediate north east is one of the most densely populated areas in india, and as one goes south (particularly south west), one of the most sparsely populated one (ignoring hills / jungles).

In terms of religion, immediate north west has highest percentage of Sikh population in india, immediate north east has the same for Muslims, So regions differ demographically too.

Also, in demography, in those 20 kms that takes for one to travel from Kalindi Kunj to beyond Airport, average height goes up by 3, 4 inches, and weight by 33% :)

The type of old houses one encounters also differ, with Havelies dominating the south and normal jhopris in the north.

No other city, except Istanbul, can perhaps boast to be a bigger confluence of differing regions than Delhi … and this was that answer :)

* aajkal ruskin bond parh raha hoon, thanks to Moajiz bhai and this sentence is ruskin's effect

Continuation of the post at Burqa Ban ...

Ideally, I don’t think it is upto us (or the ram sena or the taliban, or the Belgian / French govts) to decide what should be decent enough clothing for women, in Indian context or in any other. Choice should be hers and hers only. What pleases her, what comforts her, what thrills / excites (add more verbs) her, the choice should be hers only. If someone wants to go jogging fully covered in veil* let it be, and someone coming to workplace in a swimsuit – let that be too …

But apart from the above parameters (What pleases her, what comforts her, what thrills / excites (add more verbs) her) , there is another aspect, which is as important (if not more) as are life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, it is called Security.

It is said that during Sher Shah’s reign, security on the roads was asserted to be so great that “a decrepit old woman might place a basket full of gold ornaments on her head and go on a journey, and no thief or robber would come near her.”

She has as much right today (or had in other reigns), our dear old woman, to go out on a journey with a basket full of gold, but should she, and even if she is willing, even hell bent, should her family a) encourage, b) allow, c) advise against, or d) disallow her to do so. I am inclined more towards laters than formers . . . But still, what I (or ram sena or taliban or Belgian / French govts) think should not matter, but if her family goes for c or d options, do anyone has a right to criticize them? I don’t think so …

The heinousness of crime against women does not reduce or increase if it was committed against a sari / burqa / mini skirt clad one, but the (perceived) probability that such crimes would be committed does vary. And if gals (and more than them, their families) want to minimize this possibility, why should anyone object. And actually gals do that, sometimes they may go to college / workplace in a burqa / chadar, and once there, once away from the streets and comparatively secure in college / workplace, they may remove the burqa / chadar … What is the harm in that … and are gal’s families illiberal just because they are concerned about security …

Some ppl will ask, ki bhai, why should gals pay the price for a (probable / would be) crime that they didn’t commit ..

A valid point, but unfortunately that is how this imperfect world is.

Think about this present day old women, who is not allowed to (or at least, strongly discouraged from) going on a journey with a gold basket.

The aim, in both cases, is probability reduction, probability that a crime can be committed against one.

And it is not only gals, boys too are asked to avoid late night strolls by the parents / families .. tourism websites keep warning people against venturing in some particular neighborhoods at night, and for some, during day too. And it is OK. It is just that, unfortunately, the above mentioned late nights start way early, and such neighborhoods are too many (at least in north india / pak), for gals.

Also, same set of clothes, at different places / times, can provide different level of (in)security. Just like flaunting a diamond studded necklace at 11’o clock in the night is fine, if one happens to be in a white house dinner party (though with gatecrashers etc not sure about that either J), but not while taking the last Vikram home in Gurgaon, or while waiting for the bus to Hapur at a seculded Ghaziabad bus stop.

The right to be able to flaunt it (if one desires so), at both places, is the same. But will any of us feel equally comfortable doing them. I don’t think so, and it is fine … somehow, if we don’t feel comfy and don’t do something for the sake of feeling secure, it is OK, but if gal’s families think the same, it is not OK … isn’t it MCPism?

What individuals should wear, has to be the individual's choice**, and his/hers only, let all of us respect that. And off course, this choice would have an element of family's choice inbuilt it - let us respect that as well.

PS:

I am using gal’s families with gals interchangeably .. if this is illiberal, so be it .. but the question of (il)liberality, or for that matter, any question, arises only when it concerns women .. families have a say in a lot of things, and it is not seen as a problem … unless off course it concerns women … why should it be so?

What a child should wear is determined by his mom (something which prompted Ambrose Bierce to describe Sweater as “garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly” J), what a husband should wear by his wife, and (in some cases) what a wife should not wear by the husband … J - these things, even if not 100% right, are OK enough, nothing to break head over ..

When families have a say in what course one should take, what college one should go, and what sport one plays, what time one gets up, what should be one’s intake (complan or bournvita) and what shouldn’t (cigarattes / gutkha etc J), which soap one uses, which TV shows / movies / channels one may watch (and more importantly, which ones we shouldn’t), what is the harm if they have a say in what one (both boys n gals) wears ..

Individual freedom is fine, and should be argued for, but then, we generally don’t argue to make suicide legal.

I was I think 10 when my Dad got me a bicycle, and he warned me against going to MIC grounds, particularly during summer afternoons as it used to be deserted but for some “bigre hue larke” … but Adam / Eve were not the only ones to crave for forbidden fruit, and we (me and a friend, shahid, of my age/size) used to go, among a lot of other places, there as well for out bicycle practice sessions .. for a couple of days nothing happened, and we became daring enough to venture to the remotest corner of the field .. and then, one day, few boys tried to snatch the bicycle from us … somehow, our continuous screams and struggle persuaded them to abandon their pursuit.

10 and 18+ are different, I understand, but parent’s (family’s) right to advice (and kid’s duty to listen to it) does not become zero as soon as one touches 18, or 21, or 50 …

So, I see nothing wrong of an individual's choice of clothing is partly based on the wishes of her / his family. But I see 100% wrong when people having no connection with the individual start to try to force their choice / their moral code on others ...

* Yeah, there could be security issues … but anyway, most of the places have separate sec-check counters for men and women and they are both frisked anyway. Rahi bat disguise ki, at places where such checks are not there, toh we’ll ve to ban Santa Claus, fancy dress parties, and to extent santa singhs and banta singhs too. But still, I agree with Sambaran Da, wherever security is an issue, ban fully covered burqa.

** in 99% of the cases, excluding 1% for some eccentric individuals ..

Burqa ban in EU ... unfortunate, against liberty, against freedom.

It sounds like a step towards chinification / talibanization .. where what one can wear / say is controlled by the govt. EU is slipping towards selective liberty (which supports the Danish cartoonist but is against a women covering itself) ... but still, it is light years ahead of other parts of the world.

The idea of muslim countries opposing it does nt make much sense to me. After all, western women and men, when in arab countries, have to adhere to "some" dress code.

won't forget you ...

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 ...
  

Well done, and thank you, America

Finally, the world got to see something it had hoped for, but till some months back, never actually expected. We are lucky to have seen history in the making. As British PM Gordon Brown put it with an eloquence which matches Obama's, "This is a moment that will live in history as long as history books are written". And as I write this, Nehru's amar words echo in my head: "... a moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends ... ".*

Who could have thought that MLK's dream, of an America where one would be judged "not by the color of their skin but the content of their character" would be realized within the lifetime of some of the people who heard that speech of his, live.

Who could have thought that just two decades back, South Africa had a racist government, and it had had a man, a black one, in jail for ~28 years . Well, the world changed, and Nelson Mandela was released, and then went on to lead his nation, and within his lifetime would see Americans elect an african american their prez - who could ve thought it :). Another giant leap for mankind, Isn't it, Mr Armstrong :).

Who would have thought, that people advocating universal peace, people trying to do things for the benefit of all (not a particular caste, creed, race, class, religion or even nation), people good to the level approaching angels (at least in what they speak :)), people committed to humanism above anything else, could become, not only saints (think Gandhi, Mother Teresa), but presidents too, and of the US too, and despite the color of their skin.

Forget the saintly qualities, (which we thought made possibility of political success zero), the possibility that such an intelligent, thoughtful, sincere, capable man could get elected to a high profile political office in today's world - sounded too optimistic (Capable guys generally are selected, not elected, think our IAS guys and MPs).

But well done, and thank you, America - for proving otherwise.

And thank you Mr Obama.

You taught us that politics need not necessarily be divisive. That it is possible to attain popularity without dividing people in sets and then fueling hate in the minds of the majority against the minorties (think Hitler, and Sangh parivar, and Jinnah, or even commies which pit one "class" against another). In fact, in last century Obama is perhaps the only leader to generate this much euphoria without using HATE as a weapon, the other, to some extent** is JFK (skipping Gandhi here, though he did not fuel hate against any group, Indians, whom he led, already had one - the British).

You taught us that there was another way politics could be done, another way elections could be fought, and won. You invented this style.

You gave the world possibly the only revolution which was not "against" something.

It has been one of the tragedies of the world, that it needs one set of talents to try to make things better for the people (of the state / nation / world), and different ones to get elected to an office which 'd empower one to do so. You showed that these two sets of talents are not always mutually exclusive.

World (well, most of it) feels grateful to you for these (among other things). Right after the results became known, Guardian wrote, "London was damp and murky at 6am GMT today, just as it was at 6am yesterday. And yet, according to just about every news website, the world is a different place."

That world would be a changed place was after this election was known - but there was more to it, on the result of this election depended whether it would be a bitter place or a better one.

Thanks to (51%) America, it is the latter.

As I write this with smiling face and happy mind, Obama's words from a youtube video are echoing in my head, from the speech he gave after winning the Iowa caucus ["... I know how hard it is. It comes with little sleep, little pay and a lot of sacrifice. There are days of disappointment. But sometimes, just sometimes, there are nights like this, a night that, years from now, when we've made the changes we believe in, when more families can afford to see a doctor, when our
children inherit a planet that's a little cleaner and safer, when the world sees America differently, and America sees itself as a nation less divided and more united, you'll be able to look back with pride and say that this was the moment when it all began ... " Obama, after Winning Iowa Caucus, January 2008], how prophetic ... amazing :).

Well, not everything is +ve to take from this election result.
1) 48% of Americans opposed Obama, and though he'll be "their prez too", the fact remains that a dream candidate like Obama also couldn't garner support of almost half of US population.
2) Big part of the credit for his win is being given to the bad state of economy - which implies that apparently Obama's talent wasn't enough. It needed financial crisis of the century to move some of the voters to him - though this is only speculation, so nothing to break head over :).

* Guardian calls it end of an " American era that few will mourn" :)
** i m not sure how much JFK was loved (or not loved) by the african americans

London Gazette description of Great Fire of London
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/London-gazette.gif

This document dates to, hold ur breaths [but not long enough to suffocate and die :)], 1666 :).

When in india Shahjahan was still alive, and Aurangzeb was busy solidifying his hold on power, when Delhi had just (few years back) added Laal Qila and Jama Masjid to its skyline (and landline :)), and Agra the Taj, the brits had a newspaper ** :).

** having been first published on 7 November 1665. - from Wikipedia, this too.

IQ distribution across countries (as per an study by Dr Lynn)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7e/IQ_by_Country.png

Some interesting bits ("As per this study"):

1. Poor French - they are < UK, Germany, and even Italy :).
2. Surprisingly, norway and denmark dont figure in the top group.
3. and Italy does :). I did nt know that baking pizzas improved IQ.
4. Israel is part of the second group - may be cause it is country's average, of all inhabitants (all ethnic groups).
   
5. Same for India - because of multi-ethnicity of its population, is clubbed in third group (not in second, or first).

Some definitions I love:

1. Mom: Maan voh hai, jo hamein yeh ehsaas dilati hai ki ham kitne achche hain, hamse achcha koi hai hi nahi - Karan Johar (KKHH)
2. Love: bina tere koi dilkash nazara ham na dekhein ge - from song in movie Zaher
3. Childhood: ... those early amorphous years of life, when memory had only just begun, when life was full of Beginnings and no Ends, and everything was Forever ... - Arundhati Roy
4. Death: ... Doobti nabzon mein jab dard ko neend aane lage ... Jism jab khatm ho aur rooh ko jab saans aaye ... - from movie Anand
5. Life: Everything I've learnt about life I can sum up in three words: it goes on. - Robert Frost
   

Few ShadkamIsms:

1. Introvert: Somebody who has more communities than friends in his / her orkut profile.
2. Success = (1 + hard work)*luck; // which implies that with zero hard work but extra ordinary luck, one would succeed. But vice versa, it becomes zero :(.
3. Shadkamurphy's law: If any human being (whites, japs, and to some extent bongs excluded), can do some thing bad, some thing wrong to other human being(s), (s)he will.
4. Perception, is reality. [no influence from1984]
5. Andhvishwas, is religion. [no influence from 1984]
6. When a human being utters the word "nation", at best he is referring to his community (race / caste / class / religion based), and at worst him/her and the immediate family. This is true of the subcontinent in particular. Rare are people who from their heart mean all inhabitants of the nation, when they utter this word (salute to such ppl).
7. Good things should never wait. Something u feel u can do to make ur / other's life better - Do it immediately. Procrastination in such things a crime.
8. Good Intentions without power and willingness to carry em out means ZERO.
9. Those who suffer emotional pain . . . . deserve so (11/11/09).
10. One of the biggest happiness you can feel is seeing your loved ones happy, and it graduates to THE BIGGEST ONE, if you were the reason for it (17 Nov 09).
11. 
    

Amazing ...

Guys and (specially) Gals,

http://home.earthlink.net/~twoeyesmagazine/issue2/sultana.htm

Read the above story ... i just finished, and still am kind of trembling with excitement ... feminism, sci-fi or sheer intelligence, and all of it from a lady born in Bengal of 1880 - who "was not allowed to attend school, or even to learn Bengali or English, to prevent contamination from non-Muslim ideas" [http://www.sdnpbd.org/sdi/international_days/Rokeya/index.html ] ...
She started learning English only after her marriage, and "wrote Sultana's Dream [the story in the above link] in 1905 to test her proficiency in English"

I am not only astonished at her talent but also because today is the first time I read about her / her work.

Hope some of u guys would have known her before reading this post ...

Shadkam Islam
http://shadkam.islam.googlepages.com/
http://shadkamislam.blogspot.com/
http://shadkam19.blogspot.com/

A "really" Happy Independence Day

According to The Guardian, “India is the best place in the world to be born right now”. Somewhere else in the British press, they were busy celebrating "the arrival of a golden (Indian) age".

OK, let us come out of our anglophilistic [or, westophillistic would be more appropriate :)] mindsets (which makes us respect an Amartya sen, only when and once they have been recognized by the west). So even if we ignore what Guardian commented - we know that India is now THE HAPPENING THING, indicated by numerous things which our medias, both electronic and print, have been enlightening us about all these days preceding the independence day and beyond.

But not only that - We, I, can also feel it as an individual. Parents of most of us would perhaps had never dreamt that we would be sitting in AC offices, doing nothing [most of the time :)], earning paid vacations to Europe / US [and if u r in TCS, Uruguay / Nicaragua and may be arctic / antarctic, and may be moon too :)], (some of us) would earn so much money in a month that it took the parents a lifetime to save, would fly, would drive cars [and other than ambassadors / premier padminis / marutis :) ].

So many factors combined to give us this lifestyle, this progress, this 'giant leap in human development index' - like technological advancements (mobile and internet come immediately to mind), but these revolution in technology had thrown an opportunity to the entire world - not just India.

The reason why Indians could tap it, where as most of the rest of the developing world could not, or being more correct, politically and otherwise, why India could tap it more than the rest of the world, is - we had few people, few visionaries, which rest of the world did not. This blog entry, on 60th ID of India, is a tribute to those people.
Here they are:

Nehru

Praising him now a days is one of the most politically incorrect things in here (unfortunately). But it was his vision of what he called 'the temples of modern India', which created, among other things, the IITs, perhaps our most valuable & respected brand name in US (and the developed world) today. I need not waste time, yours and mine, commenting upon the IITs :), but let me share a conversation I had with an American colleague outside our office building (somewhere north of DC), where I was waiting for a friend and he was taking a smoking break - we started talking casually and he was curious about where I graduated from. Upon me mentioning one of the IITs*, his comment was: "O man, IITs!!! ppl who don't get admission there come here and study at MIT" - [M for Massachusetts, not for Manipal, mind u :)]

Rajiv Gandhi

His name here may be surprising to most of u. Cause almost nothing has been written about his visions (or, whatever has been written, got over shadowed by bofors / shahbano / shilanyas etc ). Anyway, i think it was 1986, when i read an interview he gave to some kids (i think on the occasion of 14th nov), for a children's hindi monthly called Parag. At that time, very few things (toffees, biscuits, summer vacations and daadi's stories) made sense, and this interview was definitely not one of them. It was not till i finished BE and joined Wipro and till terms like information revolution started appearing in the media, and grew familiar to me, and to most of India, that i recalled one of his comments from that interview.
Rajiv to kids: "aap logon ne parha ho ga ki qareeb 200 saal pahle duniya mein ek audyogik kranti aayee thhee. par ham us mein peeche rah gaye the. Dunia me ek aur kraanti aane vaali hai, 'soochna kranti', aur is baar hamein peeche nahi rahna hai."
And then he went on to mention that he was working towards bringing computer technology to India - so that this time India wont fall behind.

Apparently, it hasn't.
Thanks to him, (and i m sure many others too).

Also, he added, with things like these, he wanted to take India to 21st century ...
How prophetic words, and whatta vision ...
It is his vision that we (particularly the IT people) are living today.

Narsimha Rao / Manmoahn singh

The architects of economic liberalization that swept (and continues to seep) India (well, at least the urban middle class and beyond), off its feet, catapulted it to the forefront of world stage. Somehow, i feel this jodi was not given the credit that it deserved, neither in India, nor in the world. This jodi was to India what Deng was to china, and perhaps more - cause unlike Deng, they were working in a democracy. While Deng is universally recognized as the man who put China in the big league, this jodi is not as much recognized as it deserved to be (it is just my observation, and it may be wrong - i hope i am)

PS: Read India as "urban India" - for, unfortunately, rural India, like most of the rest of the world, could not tap this opportunity in such a big way - which should be and is a cause of concern, but let us celebrate what we have achieved, instead of feeling guilty over what we should have but not - achieved. Also, the still existing poverty in rural (and urban as well) India, and other things associated with it, are not 'because of the progress of Urban Middle class India' - it is indifferent of it. And though indifference is questionable and should be corrected, it is not objectionable - i guess.

So Happy Independence Day guys (and gals) - and salute to those who are responsible for the most of the "Happy" part of the above greeting.

Shadkam Islam
http://shadkam.islam.googlepages.com/
http://shadkamislam.blogspot.com/
http://shadkam19.blogspot.com/

* though my college became an IIT after my passing out - i took the liberty to not to bother him with all those details :)

Searched, to my pleasant surprise, could find clippings from Chanakya ... Listen to / watch this one [aisi hindi na dekhi thhee na suni thhee] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7V0w9u1CsI

Apart from being hindi mind-twister,
it would be nostalgic for some of us (who were old enough to have watched chanakya on DD those days), and prehistory for some of us ... but either ways, it would be nice :) ...

Weekly Updates
Over the weekend i happened to go to Luthra's den ... and though I had been there before and was expecting it to be as messy as Ashu Gupta's hair - I got a cultural shock still - it was as full of electronic items - most of em stale (seem to be no longer in use) as a govt primary school toilet in UP is of, well :), s.h.i.t :) [stale condition applies, here also, in its entirety :)], and as guy's minds are full of, well :), gals [stale condition does not apply here :)], and as Anurag's mind(?)* is of wipro policies / politics / quarterly results ...

i found, apart from the regular stuff of 5 laptops (4 of them so dusty ki they look straight out of harappa / mohan-jo-daro :), a LCD TV, a home theater system, 3 professional class cameras, and numerous others which i, owing to my not so great knowledge of gadgets, can not name, all crammed into a space u get by combining a dozen janitor's closets together [volume wise, crammedness wise, gandagi-wise, and otherwise :)], - a brand new 30 inch LCD monitor :), on the kitchen slab, near the sink, placed on top of some dirty vessels, tilted but not falling, just like the leaning tower of PISA ... :)

Here went the conversation:-

An Astonished Me (will be called AAMe. though abbreviation, my bong friends will feel at home) :Luthra, y did u need to get this one bhai, u already have this 36 inch TV, and all the lappies have got their own monitors ...
Luthra: [silence for 10 secs]

Arshad Miyan : Array, zaroorat ki kyaa baat hai ... mil raha thhaa ... le aaaye :):)

AAme : But y have kept it on the kitchen slab, so near to the sink, and on top of toBeWashed vessels ... maid will certainly maanjofy it if she finds it there ... :)

Luthra: [once again the same answer, silence :) for 15 secs]

Arshad Miyan : Array, bhai ... kaheen aur tab rakhein ge jab 'kaheen aur' jagah ho gi ... :)

Anurag / Ashu / gydec25, commento!!

Also happened to finish Dan Brown's this weekend, and life is again back to the normal aimless phase - till Dan Brown comes up with his next novel ... :), that is.
Nepolean is rumored to have not understood the meaning of fear for first 9 years of his life ... something similar occurred while reading Angles and Daemons - i did not know what a thriller is - before reading it ... :) Jabardast che ... maza aa gaya ... I liked it even more than Da Vinci code - and the other Deception Point, is also at the same level as A&D. Guys .... read em.

* before girija puts it there, let me only do it

http://shadkam.islam.googlepages.com/
http://shadkamislam.blogspot.com/
http://shadkam19.blogspot.com/

Surprising ... isn't it. While growing up DD was something like a punching bag to us ... and it appeared that nothing in DD was good ... but believe me - today after accidentally finding one of em and then searching / finding and listening to the others - i ended up getting a feeling Jagjit Singh has no nicely voiced thru "ye daulat bhi le lo, ye shohrat bhi le lo"

Njoy ... and if u have time [which is something none of us, the software engineers / managers can claim to not to have :)], do let me know ur feelings about em ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7OkWpfTz1U [mile sur mera tumhara]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBbSbCczYeM [bharat ek khoj]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpT3TqsNqBY [ek anek ekta]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9RVgTX55vo [jungle-2 pata chala hai]

--
Shadkam Islam
http://shadkam.islam.googlepages.com/
http://shadkamislam.blogspot.com/
http://shadkam19.blogspot.com/