Sparks

Police jeep....
a blind witness
that sees many injustices
Police van....
a deaf approver
that hears many screams
School bus....
a foster mother
that bears labour pain
Ambulance....
a dedicated nurse
that serves outside ward

To Nandisengupta

My opinion is that: Anyone can post any articles with analytical depth. No subject is spared under the Sun. However, religious matter is always vulnerable. It will slip into a communal strife, if it is not handled with equanimity. We are not in the same environment as we were in the earlier days. I remember my teachers always invoked our sense of humour by mocking some mythological characters as part of their teaching skills. It gave some innocent relaxations while we were getting bored with the continuous study materials. To be perfectly frank, they were Hindu teachers and most of the characters they linked were from Hindu mythology.



Although I have nothing to do with any religions, I respect all religions only for the sake of harmony in the world. And I sternly reject all types of religious fanaticism and superstitions for the sake of my liberal mind. Such nutrition is, I think, essential for liberal society which carves out broad minded people. Our world should not get into the tentacles of fundamentalism. I can caricature some characters in Indian mythology to a great extent, but I am not able to do with other religious characters. So I always leave the unwanted arguments in the religious subjects. We can do so many other things if we utilize the word COMPROMISE in the real sense. We need civilized nations in the world.



Our technology is so advanced that even the Sun God does not know when our missiles reach his proximity (take it as good sense of humour). But the saus-bahu syndrome and the dowry system have no solutions yet. How can we claim that we are in the booming when such incidents make blot on our conscience? I expect from you, Nandita, a powerful blog in this regard. This is a cancer in our society. Sita is a great symbol of Indian woman. Sita even faced an ordeal with fire. How many sisters live with such fires, and how many sisters go up in flames every now and then?

Veto Power

If the world leaders sincerely put their efforts to remove the veto power, that will be a great achievement in the world of democracy. If this one problem, problem? Yes it is a problem, is solved, some of the long standing issues will automatically come to an end. More often the United Nations gives the impression that it is a mere publishing house under the ownership of the United States, which keeps on issuing new editions of resolution. Veto power is, in my view, a mockery to democratic credentials we preach every now and then. The veto power actually violates article 1 to 30 of the UN. I had once requested Mr. Tharoor when he was the candidate for the post of UNGS to clarify whether he could justify to his duty as long as the big 5 wield the veto power. We have to live in the real world was his reply. Same question I had put up with some of my friends who post comments along with me on the Washington post, New York Times, BBC, ABC, the Independent, the Guardian etc. Many were, all of them from the US and the UK, opposed to the undemocratic system of the veto power. I think it is a subject that should come in the focus of world arena.

Love Has No Bar

Scene one:

Qaiz (Majnu) wandering in the desert
faints,
Juliet brings a jar of water
from the nearest oasis
and sprinkles it on his face;
He opens his eyes,
she holds him in her arms

Scene two:

Laila comes from the other side
and glances around the desert;
Depressed, she flicks the mobile,
Romeo comes on a rescue plane
and airlifts her

Scene three:

I enter into the Vrindavan
Where the great musician resides,
Composing evergreen melodies
for Qaiz, Juliet, Laila and Romeo
He smiles at me as if he knows
the scenes one and two:
idiot Devdas is still in the BAR,
when will he understand
that love has no bar?

Madhavikutty

My story
As told by you
Delves into the infinite;
Hisses at the serpent temple
Aroma of the literary scent
Vanished into the oblivion;
In the lamp of love
Kindle some desires still
Up above the sensual feels;
Tales & poems fold hands
To pay tribute to the golden hand
Yet, the pomegranate tree blooms….

(Acrostic of MADHAVIKUTTY)

Free Talk

To inject the illiterate minds with prejudices is the main feature of terrorism. But the life blood of terrorism has always been money. With money, terrorism can hire anyone as its CEO. As long as poverty and avarice are in the world, money plays a key role. So the subject of terrorism should not get any lame excuses under the pretext of poverty. This is not the universal problem of the rich and the poor.

To lure them with mod cons and better life is another one. To fetch them with 72 Houris in the Heaven is believed to be one more. If some modern messengers of God are bestowed on illiterate minds, it is the result. It was reported that Ajmal was given lavish treats soon after his return to home after completion of training to kill Indians. It was a shining proof a tribe still living in the medieval age with blood thirst of innocent and defenseless people. This is sheer exploitation. And the remote controllers get the life blood – MONEY – from the vested interest for that.

The world lacks principled politics. Power mongers design some monsters at times and pass on to the vested interests. The other so-called decent democracies will keep a criminal silence or render indirect support or show their weaknesses or servitude towards it. Such monsters will later grow up and will eat peace of mind from one side to other. The peace favourite common people from all countries well understand this.

Most of the leaders in Pakistan have always been nurturing a hate India policy to stay in power since partition. That is why Pak government cannot allocate much time for its internal affairs. As long as Indo-Pak relations should not be kept out of religious spectrum, Pakistan will suffer a lot and is not able to reach any solutions for the burning issues like terrorism. Also, Pakistan more often misses the chances to mend the fences with its neighbors so that India can stop the cross border terrorism. Since religion is misused by vested interest in Pakistan, the government cannot get out of the tentacles immediately. All peace loving people unequivocally urge terrorism is the greatest menace of our time. And the brains and hands that work behind terror attacks belong to those who have no claim to call themselves human beings. Those who bring death to innocent people could not have had human emotions.

However, it is wrong to argue that there is good terrorism and bad terrorism and that it is OK for one party to indulge in it while it is immoral for another. The previous US govt. had committed the worst crimes of terrorism under the pretext of war on terrorism. As we can see, those actions have not defeated terrorism. Instead, they have bred and encouraged more terrorism.

Equally responsible for the growth of terrorism has been the silence of many of our Muslim scholars and institutions. There should be no lukewarm attitude toward such crimes. They must condemn in no uncertain terms the heinous crimes that holders of Muslim names commit in the name of Islam. Evil will not go away by itself, it has to be driven away by iron fist.
The misguided souls who fell sympathy for the terrorists because they claim to champion causes dear to Muslims must learn from the experience of these past years that terrorists will never achieve any goal. History is witness that they suffer humiliating setbacks. That was inevitable because what they set out to do is create fear. That rouses public anger, which no force on earth can defeat. It is high time for both the governments and the opposition to wake up to make a united strategy to eradicate this menace.

(Part or full of this letter was published by a number of major international news papers and news websites, that include: Arab News, the Saudi Gazette, the Gulf News, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the India Today, the Indian Express, the Hindustan Times, The News, The Guardian, UK Telegraph, Deccan Chronicle, Deccan Herald, the Times of India, Pioneer Daily, Reuter, the News Week, ABC, BBC, CBS, CNN, CNN IBN live, Asianet, Zee News and many other blogs by prominent writers and columnists that include: Larry King, Mitchell(US state dept website) etc.)

Bhopal

Believe it, people here take care of the polluted water
How can they hold breath, till filtering the whole city?
On the air, still there is toxic methyl isocyanate,
Poison Plant stores tones of chemical waste and
A range of diseases from blindness to cancer;
Law & Justice seem to be the first victim of the tragedy here.

(Acrostic of BHOPAL)

In Sharp Contrast

During the Gulf war, I was one of those who stayed with my company in the Kingdom. The management had taken all security measures for us. And they provided us with gas masks, too. One day an official from the US Embassy called our chief accountant and advised him to collect a gas mask from the embassy for his wife, who is of US origin.

Since she had already been provided a mask by the company, she had not availed it from the embassy. Later we came to know this: When the embassy people matched the number of masks against the US citizens residing in the Kingdom, they found somebody had not collected the mask. They checked the records and found the wife of our chief accountant was one of them. This is how America and other Western nations take of care of their citizens!

And India? Bhopal gas tragedy tells us everything we need to know, doesn’t it?