The World as I See it

Patriotic Music in India and the Muslim Contribution

2012-01-25T21:36:00.000+04:00

As we celebrate our 63rd Republic Day, let's take a look at some Muslim contribution to patriotic songs in India over the years. The list is not exhaustive and considers only the more popular ones.

1 'Watan ki raah mein watan ke naujawaan shaheed hon' from the Dilip Kumar starrer Shaheed (1948). Qamar Jalalabadi lyrics, sung by Mohd Rafi, to Ghulam Haider's tune is popular even after 64 years of the film's release.

2 'Ye desh hai veer jawano ka' from the movie Naya Daur (1957). Sahir Ludhianvi's lyrics sung by Rafi.

3 'Desh ka pyara' from the lesser known movie Masoom (1960). Raja Mehdi Ali Khan wrote the lyrics of this lovable children song.

4 'Sare jahan se achha' by Allama Iqbal. The immortal Urdu poem has been sung by many singers over the years, including a duet by Rafi and Asha Bhosle for Dharamputra (1961).

5 'Insaaf ki dagar pe' from the movie Ganga Jamuna. The 1961 classic had this gem penned by Shakeel Badayuni with music by Naushad.

6 'Nanha munna rahi hoon' from Mehboob's Son of India (1962). The duo of Naushad and Shakeel again behind this endearing effort.

7 'Ab tumhare hawale watan sathiyon' from the National Award winning movie Haqeeqat (1964), which remains the most definite account of war portrayal on the Indian screen. The moving lyrics by Kaifi Azmi were given a soulful rendition by Mohd Rafi. A timeless classic.

8 'Apni aazaadi ko hum' from the movie Leader (1964). Rafi, Shakeel and Naushad teams up for this winner. Dilip Kumar adds his aura to the on screen portrayal.

9 'Aye watan aye watan' from the Manoj Kumar starrer Shaheed (1965). A brilliant song by the inimitable Rafi. A personal favourite.

10 'Sandese aate hain' from Border (1997). Anu Malik provided the music for the song written by Javed Akhtar.

11 'Maa tujhe salam' from the 1997 studio album Vande Mataram by A.R. Rahman. Rahman composed the tune for Mehboob's lyrics, and then sang it with passion. It remains the most influential patriotic song of the modern era. The album sold 1.5 million copies in the releasing year in India alone. Till date it's the largest selling non-film album in India.

12 'Zindagi maut na ban jaaye' from Sarfarosh (1999). The immensely popular number from the critically acclaimed Amir Khan starrer was written by Israr Ansari.

13 'Ye jo des hai tera' from the Shahrukh Khan starrer Swades (2004). A beautifully sung and composed number by Rahman with lyrics from Javed Akhtar.

14 'Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna' by the freedom fighter Ram Prasad Bismil. The revolutionary Urdu masterpiece was brought to life by Rafi, Dey and Rajendra Mehta in Shaheed (1965). A.R. Rahman gave his touch to the lyrics, first in The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002) and backed it with a powerful rendition by Amir Khan in the cult classic Rang De Basanti (2006).

15 'Rang de basanti' from the movie Rang De Basanti. A peppy and relevant number for the youth of today. Naturally it was Rahman's music.

Asrar-ul-Haq Majaz - A Journey of Love, Hope and Nationalism

2011-12-12T14:54:00.001+04:00

Postage stamp on Majaz issued by the Govt of India

THE year was 1935. The union hall of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) was brimming with students and the atmosphere was electric. A young man in sherwani stands up. He runs his hand through his long locks, and recites his poem 'Inquilab' in his own inimitable style -

"KohsaaroN ki taraf se surkh aandhi aayegi
Ja-baja aabaadiyoN meiN aag si lag jaayegi
Aur is rang-e-shafaq meiN ba-hazaraaN aab-o taab
Jagmagaaega watan ki hurriyat ka aaftaab"

[A red storm is approaching from over the mountains
Sparking a fire in the settlements
And on this horizon, amidst a thousand tumults
Shall shine the sun of our land’s freedom] (1)

The hall reverberates with a thunderous applause. Asrar-ul-Haq Majaz was destined for greatness!

The poetic journey

Majaz poetry first made its mark in the culturally alive AMU during the early 1930s. His poems 'Noora' and 'Nazr-e-Aligarh' established him as a popular poet. The girls just loved him.

"NahiN jaanti hai, mera naam tak woh
Magar bhej deti hai paighaam tak woh
Ye paighaam aate hii rahte haiN aksar
Ki kis roz aaoge biimaar hokar"

[She doesn't even know my name
But still she writes to me
Her letters keep coming to me
"When will you fall sick and visit again?" she asks]

AMU had other great poets, like Ali Sardar Jafri, Jaan Nisar Akhtar and Jazbi, during this period, but Majaz's popularity overshadowed all his contemporaries.

Majaz finished his graduation at AMU in 1936. The same year Professor Ahmed Shah Bukhari, popularly known as 'Pitras' Bukhari, calls Majaz to Delhi. Bukhari made him join the then newly formed All India Radio as the editor of a journal. Majaz named it 'Awaaz' and managed it for a while.

Their relationship soured for some reasons and Majaz left the station.

This was also the time when the door of the married woman Majaz loved, closed on him. She was the only woman he ever loved. It left a permanent scar on his psyche. He became a compulsive drinker.

His personal grief merged with his rebel ideas. The result was 'Awara' - a masterpiece of the era.

"Shahar ki raat aur maiN naashaad-o-nakaara phiruuN
Jagmagaati jaagti saDkon pe awara phiruuN
Ghair ki basti hai kab tak dar badar maara phiruuN
Aye gham-e-dil kya karoon aye wehshat-e-dil kya karuuN"

[This nightfall in the city, and I wander aimless and sad
On the awake and glittering roads, my aimless wandering, O
How long in the alien city from door to door I go
What do I do, O sad heart, my mad heart] (2)

The poem became an anthem for the revolutionary youth of the time. The word Awara suddenly meant more than just troubled and jobless-

"Le ke ek changez ke haathon se khanjar toD duuN
Taaj par us ke damakta hai jo patthar toD duuN
Koi tode ya na toDe maiN hii baDhkar toD duuN
Ai gham-e-dil kya karoon aye wehshat-e-dil kya karuuN"

[I shall snatch the sword from Changez's hand and break it apart
The glittering stone in his crown I must hit
Some body else may or may not, but I should break it--
What do I do, O sad heart, my mad heart] (2)

Heartbroken, Majaz came back to Lucknow.

A nationalist to the core, Majaz along with his friends Ali Sardar Jafri and Sibtey Hasan, took out the progressive journal 'Naya Adab' from Lucknow . It was established with funds from the CPI in 1939 under the auspices of UPWA (Urdu Progressive Writers' Association). The journal was the most influential progressive literary monthly of the period, so much that its first three issues actually laid the theoretical foundations of the UPWA movement. (2)

Naya Adab ran for a decade. After its closure, he joined the Harding Library at Delhi as Assistant Librarian. There he collaborated with Fasihuddin Ahmed in editing the literary journal 'Adeeb'. (3)

Knowing the man

Majaz was a fragile soul, one who could be easily hurt. Being the nice guy he was, Majaz kept quiet even when friends misbehaved with him.

"Awara-va-majnu.N hii pe maukuuf nahiN kuuchh
Milne haiN abhi muujh ko Khitaab aur zyaadaa"

[They have not stopped at vagabond and rogue
More praises are on their way for me]

Majaz had a great sense of humour. Once somebody's poetry didn't go down well with him. He had this to say - "Don't worry, when your poems are translated in Urdu then people would recognise your talent." (4)

Majaz was a rebel poet. His anger against the capitalist system provided the basis for Awara and his hope for a better tomorrow, born out of the socialist ideology of the Soviet Russia, is expressed in the poem 'Khwab-e-Sehar'-

"Yeh musalsal aafaten, yeh yorishen, yeh qatal-e-aam
Aadmi kab tak rahe ohaam-e-baatil ka ghulaam
Zehn-e-insaani ne ab ohaam ke zulmaat meiN
Zindagi ki sakht toofani andheri raat meiN
Kuch nahin tau kam se kam khawab-e-sehar dekha tau hai
Jis taraf dekha na tha ab tak udhar dekha tau hai"

[Such struggle, such suffering, such heinour carnage
How long has man been to superstition a slave
Human mind has at last awakened from its heavy sleep
In the stormy night of life, in the superstitious deep
Has at last dreamt a dream of the golden dawn
Looked at last towards the East, where none before had glanced] (5)

The woman in Majaz's poetry was more than an object of beauty. He wished to see them as crusaders who could revolt against exploitation and injustice.

"Teri neechi nazar khud teri ismat ki muhafiz hai
Tu is nashtar ki tezi aazma leti to achha thaa
Teri maathe pe ye aanchal bahut hi khoob hai lekin
Tu is aaNchal se ik parcham bana leti to achha thaa"

[Your lowered gaze is itself a protector of your purity,
If you now raise your eyes and test the sharpness of it, it would be good.
The cloth covering your head is no doubt a good thing,
But if you make a flag out of it, it would be good] (6)

Majaz was also faint of heart. In the 1946 sectarian riots, Majaz saw a man being killed in Bombay and couldn't eat for three days. He ran out of the science class the first time he saw a frog on the table. The poet left science altogether after the episode.

His drinking and poetry provided him the vent to his heartbreak. Once Jigar Moradabadi asked him to quit drinking, to which Majaz replied - "You left it just once, I left it several times." (4)

Josh Malihabadi once said about Majaz, "He wants to capture the entire beauty of the world in one single glance and to drink all wine of the world in one gulp." (4)

"Is mahfil-e-kaif-o-masti me, is anjuman-e-irfaani me
Sab jaam-bakaf baithe hi rahe, hum pee bhi gaye chahlka bhi gaye"

[This gathering of fun and frolic, the erudites all around
All merely sat with the goblets, but I drank to the full]

But who could know the man more than he himself. Majaz the poet summarises the man in his poem 'Ta’arruf ' -

"Khoob pehchaan lo, asraar huuN maiN
Jins-e-ulfat kaa talabgaar huuN maiN
Ishq hee ishq hai, duniya meri
Fitna-e-aql se bezaar huuN maiN"

[Look at me, recognise me well, for I am Asrar
I seek love and longing
My world comprises love and just love
I know not the devil of the intellect] (7)

Path to self-destruction

By the early 1950s Majaz's mental faculties started deteriorating. His drinking further compounded his misery. It was sheer genius that he still managed to pen poems like, Khawab-e-Sehar, 'Shaher Nigaar', and 'Andheri Raat ka Musafir,' which reflects on his last ditch attempt to turnaround his messed up life.

His poem 'Aitraaf' was his swan song. Majaz lost hope and accepted defeat-

"Wo gudaaz-e-dil-e-marhoom kahaaN se laauN
Ab maiN wo jazba-e-maasoom kahaaN se laauN"

[That tender heart, long dead, beats no more
That innocent passion, long gone, excites no more]

In 1952 Majaz went to Calcutta with Doctor Saifuddin Kichlu to attend the All India Cultural Conference. He was just a shadow of his old self. Sardar Jafri gave him five Rupees every evening for a drink. The rest of his drinking sessions were sponsored by visitors at the bar. One day he asked for ten Rupees. When Jafri tried to reason with him he said, "Sardar you've a family, a house, and you do poetry. What do I've? Now you don't even allow me to drink!" (4)

Majaz landed in Ranchi's mental asylum the same year. The poet who never wrote a weak couplet now struggled with verses. This verse recovered from his belongings tells a lot about his mental state - "Woh regzaar-e-khayal me hai kabhi kabhi humkharaam meri." [That wasteland of thoughts is walking alongside me] (7)

The end

Jafri recalls seeing him last in the December of 1955 when he arrived in Lucknow from Bombay to attend a Student Cultural Conference. Majaz met him at Hazratganj and showered the same love and affection on his old buddy-

"Humdum yahi hai, rahguzar-e-yaar-e-khushkhiraam
Guzre haiN laakh baar isi kahkashaN se hum" *

[This slow pace, this path of bliss has been my companion
I have passed this galaxy a million times]

They then went to the conference at Baradari in Qaisarbagh together. Majaz the poet, and person, seems to come alive that night during the mushaira. He recited the following couplet several times to an eager and appreciative audience-

"Bahut mushkil hai duniya ka savarna, teri zulfoN ka pech-o-kham nahi hai
Ba-ise-sayle-ghamo-sayle-hawadis, mera sir hai ki ab bhi kham nahi hai"

[I wonder if my life gets sorted out, the way your entangled locks do
A sea of sadness surrounds me, somehow I'm standing tall]

The next day it was 4th of December. Majaz stayed with Jafri and Sahir Ludhyanvi at the hotel. Sahir bought a bottle of fine quality whisky for Majaz. He was made to promise that he won't drink in the day and won't go out with his friends. They even locked the bottle inside the almirah on Majaz's own suggestion. As if he had a premonition of things to come, Majaz told Jafri twice to spend more time with him as he seems not so sure of the future.

Jafri and Sahir reached the hotel late as they had to attend a tea party after the conference. Majaz left during their absence. They searched for him in vain.

Majaz didn't turn up for the conference on the 5th of December. At five in the evening the fears proved real. Sombody broke the news of Majaz lying faint in the Balrampur Hospital. The conference was postponed. Everybody rushed to the hospital. Majaz had an oxygen mask on him. Doctors showed little hope.

It was the result of a wild night. Majaz's friends took him to a tavern in Lalbagh where they all drank on the rooftop. One by one they all left. Majaz stayed back into the cold winter night. The next morning the owner informed the police about Majaz. He was taken to the hospital where the doctors diagnosed a brain hemorrhage and pneumonia. He was just 44.

A female fan sharing the name of his beloved sat next to him when Majaz passed away that night. The poet was at peace finally.

Majaz often reached home late or not at all. Aware of this habit his old mother used to leave his food, a packet of cigarettes, and fifty paisa, next to his bed. The rickshaw-pullers of the city, who knew Majaz well, dropped him home and took the fifty paisa coin.

That night everything changed. Majaz's mother was waiting on the floor next to his bed. Her son was coming back never to leave again.

"Ab iske baad subah hai aur subah-e-nau majaz
Hum par khatm shaam-e-ghareeban-e-Lucknow"

[Tomorrow awaits a new dawn
With me ends the darkness of Lucknow]

Like a shooting star, Majaz, in his self-destruction left behind a trail of brilliant compositions that forever illuminates the firmament of urdu poetry. Every time the students and alumni of AMU, like me, sing the university song, at their campus and elsewhere in the world, Majaz comes to life.

"Ye meraa chaman hai meraa chaman, maiN apne chaman kaa bulbul huuN
Sarshaar-e-nigaah-e-nargis huuN, paa-bastaa-e-gesuu-sumbul huuN"

[chaman: garden; bulbul: nightingale; sarshaar: overflowing, soaked; nigaah: sight; nargis: flower, Narcissus; paa-bastaa: embedded; gesuu: tresses; sumbul: a plant of sweet odour]

And so the great poet lives on, the way he always did - as the cynosure of all eyes!

* Ali Sardar Jafri used this couplet as the title song of his famous television series, Kahkashan, broadcasted on Doordarshan during the early 90s.

(Based on Ali Sardar Jafri’s account in ‘Lucknow ki Paanch Raatein’.)

NOTES

1 Kuldip Sahil, A Treasury of Urdu Poetry From Mir to Faiz: Ghazals with English Renderings (Delhi: Rajpal & Sons, 2009), 114-119.
2 Geeta Patel, Lyrical Movements, Historical Hauntings: On Gender, Colonialism, and Desire in Miraji's Urdu Poetry (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001), 111
3 Abida Samiuddin, Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Urdu Literature (New Delhi: Global Vision Publishing House, 2007), 387
4 Ali Sardar Jafri, Lucknow ki Paanch Raatein (New Delhi: Rajkamal Prakashan, 2010), 25-58
5 K. C. Kanda, Masterpieces of Patriotic Urdu poetry (Delhi: Sterlings Publishers Private Limited, 2009), 323-339
6 "Ghazal as a form of Urdu poetry in the Asian subcontinent", accessed December 5, 2011, http://www.ghazalpage.net/prose/notes/ghazal_urdu.html
7 Rakhshanda Jalil, email message to the author, December 8, 2011.

The Swallows of Kabul

2011-12-03T15:41:00.001+04:00

'THE Swallows of Kabul' is a depressing book on the life in Afghanistan post the Taliban. Unlike Khaled Hosseini, the author, writing under the pseudonym Yasmina Khadra, gives a hopeless and disturbing account of a country ravaged by war and living under the shadows of a group with extreme religious views.

Three Cups of Tea

2011-11-11T12:19:00.001+04:00

AS an ardent reader of books I've come to realise that even non-fiction carries an element of fiction to bring alive the story. The degree increases in a book of heroism like the 'Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time' by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. It's a mere coincidence that I read the book after allegations by CBS News against it.

Three Cups of Tea is the story of a mountaineer Greg Mortenson from US. His passion for mounaineering takes him to Pakistan where he gets lost after a failed attempt to climb Mount K2. He is eventually saved by the locals of the village Korphe. Their kindness in adversity moves him, and he promises to come back to build a school for them. He does return, and so starts a journey to build new schools in the remote corners of Pakistan and Afghanistan. He fights nature and orthodox locals along the way, not to forget the threats of war. This and more, makes Mortenson's story interesting to read.

Even if you consider parts of the story as made up, the book still ends up as an inspiring account of an extraordinary effort. The mere fact that Mortenson returns to keep his promise of buidling a school in a mountainous area of Pakistan is laudable. His dangerous travel to Afghanistan, as part of his mission, also highlights his committment to the cause.

There are other remarkable individuals who complete Mortenson's story. Mouzafer Ali, the porter who saved Mortenson after his fall, Haji Ali, the village headman of Korphe and the 'wisest man' Mortenson ever met, the physicist Jean Hoerni whose donation established the Central Asia Institute, which provided financial support to Mortenson, the cultivated Ghulam Parvi without whom Mortenson 'never would have accomplished anything in Pakistan,' and Syed Abbas, an influential Shia cleric who provided the religious backing for Mortenson's mission.

The book is not just a heroic tale but also highlights the importance of education, especially for girls, in the far flung corners of Asia. Read it, and you would be contributing to a noble cause.

Good Food Better Ambience

2011-10-11T14:04:00.002+04:00

MUGHAL-E-AZAM restaurant is located on the main Abu Baker Al Siddique road close to United Hypermarket in Deira, Dubai. The parking is not an issue with several public spaces on the road and also a private parking right next to the restaurant.

The restaurant has a royal look to it, in keeping with the name. The impressive all-wood entrance leads to a pretty cosy and tasteful interior. The seating has more options than many other restaurants I frequented in the past. You could take a table near the window with a view of the main road, or enjoy the sofa style round seating, or eat in one of those private wooden cabins for families.

The walls are decked with Mughal era paintings from India. Lighting is just right for a quiet meal and the slow music sounds pleasant to the ears. Most importantly the staff is friendly, courteous, and prompt.

A complementary sweet lassi in a cute little glass and papad with chutney greeted us as we went through the menu. We ordered drums of heavens, chicken tikka, sweet corn soup and fresh garden salad for the starters and murgh makhani, khadey masale ka paneer, dal tadka, shahi paneer, butter and plain naan, for the main course.

The starters took a while as we finished the delicious lassi and munched through the papads.

The soup was just ok. Drums of h Heavens capital H because it's a name as opposed to a food-type such as chicken tikka, for instance tasted nice and crispy with the rice coating. The schezwan sauce provided as a dip added to the taste. Chicken tikka was cooked well which is what I look for in grilled food.

Murgh Makhani was rich in flavour and appealed to my taste buds. Between the two paneer recipes I found the 'khadey masale ka paneer' better and a bit different in taste compared to the popular paneer dishes available in restaurants.

The salad was indeed green with lots of cucumbers and lettuce leaves besides the carrots and tomatoes.

For dessert the restaurant didn’t offer much so we could only try the

Gulab Jamun and Gajar ka Halwa. The Gulab Jamun was readymade which came as a disappointment to my wife and the Halwa was just ok.

Overall the meal was good but the ambience and the service made it special.

You can’t ask for more when at just around 200 dirhams (for four people) you are treated like kings.

The tag line of Mughal-e-Azam restaurant says "Taste of golden era." It sure provides a good one for that matter!

I would rate it 7.5 on a scale of 10.

NOTE. Reviewed in March, 2010.

An Interview With God

2011-08-30T11:30:00.002+04:00

I OFTEN wondered at the pace at which technology has progressed over the years. Humans are actually close to developing one of their own kind. God must be interested!

I met him recently to know his thoughts on human technology breaking new grounds. He sounded, well, like God!

Me: Many thanks for giving me this opportunity to interact with you in person.

God: No problem son!

Me: I see you carrying an iPhone. So God too has preferences!
God: Well I tried Nokia but it seems the company is not keeping up pace with the changing times. It's all about 'touch' and feel. I gave them too many chances. In fact, I bought the iPhone only recently.

Me: You must be kidding me. You bought the phone! I mean you own the universe.
God: Son ever heard of, "practise what you preach!"

Me: Do we see technology taking over in heaven and hell?
God: Well! I don't think we need anything in hell. It's a mess out there and I want it to continue like that. For heaven we are testing a new 4G Network. The angels are not happy flying around any more. They need instant communication.

The next-gen video chat is something that we are looking at.

Me: What about humans? We pioneered the technology. Why are we not getting any any credit in heaven!

God: We have booked a special place in heaven with 8 Mbps connectivity for all those involved with the project. If you are in a hurry to see it in person perhaps I could expedite the process after this interview.

Me: It's ok Father! (with a little discomfort) Your mere acknowledgment is good enough for me. I've heard that you are cloning the angel of death. How true is that story?
God: Technology is my current focus. Of late the efficiency of the angel of death has gone down considerably. I guess he's unable to match the multiplication rate of humans. The guy needs help. I'm looking at multiple angels to share the 'soul' exercise. Cloning is something I'm particularly interested in.

Me: What do you have you to say about the tablet explosion?
God: The rules of the game are changing. I still have doubt about its durability. You also need to carry an additional keyboard which highlight the fact that the traditional full keyboard is not going out any time soon.

Me: People like Bill Gates who were involved with several law suits during their tenure are now involved with large-scale philanthropic activities. What do you've to say about this?
God: I sent my messengers with books to guide people. Unfortunately people today are more connected to their blackberries than my books. When Bill lost a suit he was punished in this world only. When he comes back to me, he will be judged based on his excel sheet of good and bad deeds.

Me: Surely you know everything! Please tell us a little more about the future of technology?
God: I wish I could talk about this. There should be an element of surprise. Don't you think so?

All I can say is 'touch' is going to play a major role.

Me: Do you feel happy with the way technology is bringing people together?
God: Any invention is as good as its usage. It's good to see people remembering each other on special occasions, but at the same there are others who want to share their last few moments on earth. If I want I can turn the whole sky into a giant LCD with every death broadcasted live. I don't want people to die before their actual death.

Me: Google seems to have become a virtual god. It knows almost everything that people want to know. Isn't that an alarming scenario to you?
God: I've seen many gods in the past. Gods in pure flesh and blood! Google depends on several thousand human brains and electric power. It's not even self-sustaining.

It seems funny though that when I googled my name it returned 1.64 billion links and the second one read, "Does God Exist?". Now how intelligent is that!

Me: My final question. Androids are becoming more and more intelligent with every passing day. What if technology creates a real human being one day? Do you see that as a threat to your authority?
God: I can see the future my child. You can master the body not the soul! Where science ends spirituality begins.

Me: Thank you Father for all your insights.
God: Anytime son.

The Spirit of Independence

2011-08-15T14:08:00.002+04:00

I WISH I could go back in time to the dawn of 15th August 1947, and feel the first rays in an independent India. Sixty four years later we seem to have taken our independence for granted. Heroes of the freedom struggle have given way to corrupt politicians. Security has never been worse. Rising prices of commodities have affected almost every Indian. The country has produced more billionaires during the last decade than all the previous put together, but the poverty ratio has not changed. This is surely not the vision of our founding fathers!

The vibrant democracy, inspite of its shortcomings, seems to be our only saving grace. As for the rest, we need to do a little more ourselves. If Anna Hazare can take a stand against corruption, why can't we stand up to corrupt practices.

As an Indian Muslim I've had my share of highs and lows. My disappointments over the years have been few and temporary, but my hope in the country is permanent.

These voices of some of my fellow countrymen, from across the globe, strengthen my faith in this great nation.

August 15th is a very important day not only for the history of India but also as a day of freedom. There is nothing better than the feeling of being free.

To me both Mahatma Gandhi and Subhash Chandra Bose were equally important as freedom fighters. Gandhi 's policy was centred around peaceful ways whereas Bose never shied away from using force. For a complete victory we need both.

India has many states and languages, but barring a few conflicts and issues, there is so much harmony. Illiteracy seems to be the root of all evils. If we can eradicate illiteracy it would help reduce corruption, racism and poverty in our country.

If we consider the year in the context of the Independence Day then in my opinion our year should start with 15th of August. As a poet I would like to say-

'Ab ke naya saal aisa nazar aaye
Pichhle sab salon se badla sa nazar aaye

Ham ka jazba ho baaham ham sab ke
Na ho koi hadca ayodhya-o-gujarat ke jaise
Rishton ko joda jaaye sakht zanjeer se aise
Ke phir se tootkar kadi koi na bikhar jaaye'

Abrar Ulhaq, property consultant, Dubai (originally from Etah, UP)
To me August 15th is an emotional and significant day as an indian. I still remember the pride with which we re-ran the special assembly back home (after school) to keep the celebrations going. I cherished winning the elocution competition on 'the' occasion -- the once in a year event. Nothing was bigger than that!
My favourite freedom fighter is the Mahatma. The man who started it all, and the man revered by us all as 'bapu'. He is perhaps the greatest icon of leadership in this imperfect world. He took the definition of inclusive leadership closest to perfection.

As a kid I never felt any discrimination, perhaps chastity of thoughts reigned supreme. It feels strange now when people smile at you sheepishly every time India beats Pakistan. The same people get embarassed while criticising Pakistan in front of me, as if I am not an Indian. Sadly, Indian independence is more about Pakistan and less about India or the British imperialism. It appears funny though, half the country would love to migrate to London if given a chance! If only there was no partition, Muslims would have been treated as more Indian (or more patriotic).

Having said it all, the very fact that I can level criticism through any medium, albeit constructive, without fear is what india is all about.

Ahmad Mehdi, works for Ricoh India, New Delhi

The word ‘freedom’ is very significant to me and therefore the date. There is a lot of sarcasm around as to what we’ve achieved in the last 64 yrs but I would still prefer where we are than being ruled by the British.

I remember visiting Abba’s office (district courts) on this day and the ‘Jai Hind’ salutes all around.

Mahatma Gandhi as a freedom fighter stands out for me. His fight always started with his inner self and was built on the philosophy of attaining will power or controlling your ‘Nafs’.

My work gave me the opportunity to live and explore different parts of India. Its so colorful. To discover and enjoy India you need many lives. Although my religion doesn’t allow me to say this, but if I had to be reborn I prefer to be born again in some part of India.

I think Indian muslims should open their doors more and intermingle with other communities. The Ghettoization is not helping them in any way!

Amir Naqvi, works for Honeywell, Dubai (originally from Safipur, UP)
In many aspects India is still struggling with slavery, only the masters have changed. August 15th seems to be just about organising parades and distributing sweets. This day must be a guiding light for a brighter India.
Our school celebrated Independence Day by organising a parade and distributing sweets among the students. I was entrusted to not only sing a patriotic song but also to lead the parade with full police uniform.

Bhagat Singh is one name which left a deep impact on me. It could be because I've heard so much about him since childhood. But, his role in the freedom struggle indeed needs much appreciation.

I studied at 'Saraswati Sishu Mandir', an RSS backed school, so there was naturally some discrimination especially during the parades and exam marking. Beyond school it was business as usual.

I feel our culture and food stands out compared to other countries. It's only corruption which fails us. If we can remove that then there's no denying that India is great.

Dr. Mohammad Vaseem, post doctoral fellow, South Korea (originally from Mankapur, UP)

If you consider the magnitude of the achievement, August 15th is a very significant day. The relevance seems to have been lost in recent times.

I think the turning point in our freedom struggle was the Indian Mutiny of 1857. It gave hope to Indians that the Britishers could be overthrown. Revolutionaries like Chandrashekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, and Ashfaqullah Khan instilled fear in the hearts of the Britishers. By the time Gandhi came, the Britishers were already in the process of moving out plagued by their domestic problems.

I love the unity in diversity of this country. If you are in pain, the first person who comes to your help could be of any religion.

If given a chance I would remove all the current politicians, especially those above 45 years of age. We still are not fully independent! We seem to be ruled by corrupt politicians whose actions are alarmingly similar to the Britishers. The Britishers looted India and sent the loot abroad our politicians are doing the same. They stash their black money outside India.

I have personally seen the kind of talent we are losing to corruption. The day we can wipe it out would be the day we will truly be independent. One Anna Hazare cannot do it, we have to change our mindset first.

Fasih Ahmad, works for Ozonebarter, Hongkong (originally from Lucknow)
August 15th means a lot to me being an Indian and knowing the country's history.
I don't have any favourites when it comes to our freedom fighters, quite simply because I don't know what exactly each stood for.

I don't know about the rest of India but Bangalore has always been this migrant town, and now a city. I have been lucky not to have any discriminatory experience that may have left a mark.

I think democracy is the best thing about this country and poverty the worst.

Fiza Ishaq, independent researcher, Bangalore

August 15th holds a big significance in my life as it symbolizes our freedom from the suppressive British rule. One feels very proud to be an Indian, especially on this particular day.

I've fond memories of people lining up on street pavements to watch the Independance Day parade. The section displaying Indian weaponary from the parade broadcasted by Doordarshan fascinated me.

Subhash Chandra Bose is the freedom fighter I admire the most as I do not believe in Gandhian philosophy.

I like the harmony that exists between people of different religions and cultures in India. It's only the poverty, and to a certain extent, the hatred against the Muslims which saddens me.

Irfan Kazmi, works for Alhamrani Universal Co. Ltd., Saudi Arabia (originally from Lucknow)
Even though Muslims face some discrimination in India, I would want to believe this is a global phenomenon. It's quite human for one to discriminate on the basis of class, caste, religion or colour. I do feel things would have been far different under the British rule.
Subhash Chandra Bose was the real freedom fighter. Gandhi to me as a national hero was more to do with politics. The Britishers didn’t leave India because of Gandhi and his Satyagrah. They were already on their knees because of the second World War. Also, India was not a viable option for them anymore. They were concentrating on the gulf more at that point of time. Even if we do credit Gandhi for our Independence, how long would have we survived without a competent national army.

If I am not living in places like, Kashmir, the North East and Naxal affected area, I think India is one of the best places to live anywhere in the world. I only wish I could remove the 'chalta hai' attitude of our people.

Sabir Khan, accountant, Pune

I remember enjoying the extra holiday we used to get in school on this day. As a kid, August 15th looked important and I used to feel proud with the small flag in my hand and a laddoo in my mouth.

In my opinion Subhash Chandra Bose was the most impressive among the long list of people who fought for India. If he had been around, India would have been a different place.

As a Muslim I've never felt discriminated in India. But I do feel, given a demanding situation my Muslim identity may limit my chances of fighting back effectively.

The never say die attitude of the common man who works on the Indian streets, fighting daily challenges, amazes me. Inspite of their hardships they smile and dance to Bollywood tunes.

Poverty remains our biggest stumbling block. We can still fight it, though. If every MLA is entrusted with the task to move just five families out of poverty in his constituency every year, it can make a big change. He can do so by helping them find employment within their area. If society starts supporting the underprivileged, India would change for better.

If every MP is entrusted with the task to improve the living conditions of any one town/locality during his tenure by ensuring proper supply of essential amenities, it would make a big difference.

Shahnawaz Mehdi, works for Nissan Middle-East, Dubai (originally from Lucknow)
August 15th to me is freedom, some patriotic songs and a day off.
I admire Bhagat Singh the most. His idea of freedom was very original. He was the one who highlighted the difference between violence and self defense.

Glorious history of India is a matter or pride. It's the poverty which saddens me no end."

Shah Zaman Rizvi, works for Pure Gold Jewellers, Dubai (originally from Lucknow)

August 15th is important for the very fact that we achieved complete authority over our own country on the day. But it also makes me sad that we did not utilise this power appropriately. India would've been a super power had it not been the dirty politics that now runs in it's bloodstream. I hate the fact that it has spread it's tentacles to defense, health and other areas. Even the kids now know that bribery works wonders.

As a Muslim we did face issues while searching for a rental place, but I respect the wishes of the people. They have a right to rent out their house to whom they please. It's not a big deal to me.

I love our culture and the brotherhood that still exists, no matter what people say or do. I'm also in awe of the religious tolerance we are melted into. It's a perfect example of how a true human should be.

Sukaina Merchant, event planner, Dubai (originally from Mumbai)
August 15th seems to have lost its significance. Like all businesses I close my office on this day but in my view we should work more than usual instead, and help India grow.
The memories of the day are mostly from the school days. When I was in the Government college we used to get four laddoos in a pink envelope.

I feel there is nothing in India which other countries do'nt have. I just like India because I was born here. It’s my motherland!

I only wish to remove corruption from the country.

Tariq Mumtaz, IT consultant, Meerut, UP

August 15th is like the birthday of a person who is very close to heart. I remember going out for parades and flag raising ceremonies on this day.

Subhash Chandra Bose to me was a true freedom fighter.

As a Muslim I did face discrimination a few times but that didn't stop me from admiring the Indian culture.

I like the music which we are mixing up with the west. Our big problem seems to be only corruption. Take that out and India is a heaven.

Taskeen Jamali, works for Ford Motor Company, Ontario, Canada (originally from Moradabad, UP)
Being our Independence Day, August 15th automatically becomes significant.
For me Subhash Chandra Bose was a real fighter.

I think discrimination does exists in India. During the last semester of my MBA, I was told to opt out of the interview with a leading employer, which had come for the campus recruitment, as they don't hire muslims. The institue's director didn’t want me to waste my time.

I like the simplicity and diversity of my country, and wish I could wipe out communalism from this land.

Toufique Khan, works for Mashreq Bank, Abu Dhabi (originally from Bahraich, UP)

Honestly August 15th is like any other day for me except getting a public holiday. May be the true meaning of the day has been lost.

I remember the essay writing competitions we had in school and the patriotic songs and movies being played on Doordarshan that day.

Bhagat Singh and his team tops my list of freedom fighters. He carried the spirit of a great warrior. A fearless soul, an inspiration for the youth of India.

Barring a stray incident at the IGI Airport, Delhi, my Muslim identity has never been a problem for me in India.

I cherish the bond of culture and friendship between Muslims and Hindus. If I could, I would remove corruption and hate killings in India.

Urooj Ikram, homemaker, Ankara, Turkey (originally from Aligarh)
As an indian I am proud of what our fellow Indians did 64 years ago, but when I see today's leaders celebrating 15th of August ( with smug faces in crisp kurtas ), it looks like a slap in the face of this day's spirit. There is hardly any difference between them and the ones we fought against to gain our freedom.
I remember as a kid we used to bunk classes to practice the National Anthem and march past drills. Today no sweet tastes as good as those four laddoos on the morning of 15th of August.

Rani of Jhansi appeals to me as a freedom fighter. Girl power maybe!

On a personal level, I've never faced any problem in India being a Muslim. In fact, the way we are discriminated here in USA, India feels like "apni gali" (next lane).

I love the simplicity of Indians. It makes us vulnerable and gullible at times, but its priceless!

I wish I could change our system, they way it works. Corruption is not an individual's practice, it's a tree which branches out.

'Hum pe mushtarka hain ehsaan gham-e-ulfat ke (read it 'gham-e-siyaasat ke')
Itne ehsaan ki ginwaaon to ginwaa na sakoon'

Zainab Khan, homemaker, Louisiana, US (originally from Aligarh)

The significance of August 15th cannot be expressed in words. The feeling of being the citizen of a free country is enormous.

I remember celebrating it with lots of fun in school. I used to prepare a speech to be delivered during the school assembly. We looked forward to the parades, and scout and guide camps associated with the day.

To me all freedom fighter contributed towards one cause, so can't really differentiate between them. But I do admire the trio of Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah khan and Thakur Roshan Singh.

I like the famous Indian jugaad, which simplifies so many things. The talent, so readily available in every nook and corner of India and selfless love of the people amazes me.

Beaurocracy is a bane in this country. The paper work need to be abolished to at least check some corruption.

Zartab Jafri, works for IAP HR Solutions, Mumbai
I'm signing of with this couplet of the revolutionary poet Akbar Allahabadi which beautifully expresses the feelings of an Indian Muslim-

"Paamal hain magar hain sabit qadam wafa main
Hum misle-e-sang-e-dar ke is aastaan par hain"

[Though crushed, we are firm in our loyalty
We are like a rock at the threshold of our country]

Jai Hind!

If Only We Can Eat Technoloy

2011-07-25T15:38:00.007+04:00

I STILL remember the time when mobile phones first arrived in India. A bulky Sony Ericsson phone costing around Rs 10,000 was a popular cellphone choice. A decade later you could own a mobile phone by just spending Rs 500. Compare this to the prices of food items - flour costs around Rs 15 per kg and normal rice around Rs 20 per kg. Mind you these are essential commodities. The Rs 20 threshold for poverty (Below Poverty Line, BPL) in urban India looks like a joke under these circumstances. What will the poor eat if only the Planning Commission can tell!

The quality of Indian middle-class (the largest block) is improving thanks to globalization and technology. All this has come at a price though. Rapid urbanization is reducing the cultivable land in India. The land owners see easy and big money by selling land to property developers than earning through agriculture. The poor farmers are the worst sufferers. With no land most turn to other professions in order to feed their families.

Agriculture, which employs the maximum Indians, continues to depend on both mother nature and powerful land owners. No wonder the farmers are flocking bigger cities for better livelihood. Weak government policies also contribute to farmers seeking better future elsewhere for their kids.

One one hand the population is exploding and on the other hand agricultural land is shrinking. Farmer suicides is an outcome of all this imbalance. In Bundelkhand alone, some 519 farmers committed suicide during the last five months. Although the centre announced a generous Rs 7000 crore package to end this but the money rarely reaches them in full and on time.

The farmers are fighting a losing battle today. Unless we as responsible citizens of India back their cause, the future looks grim for all of us. I won't be surprised if in a few years the cost of owning a mobile phone is cheaper than a kilogram of rice. That alone should serve as an eye opener.

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

2011-07-21T16:42:00.014+04:00

THIS entire Akhtar clan is a talent powerhouse. Following in the footsteps of their illustrious parents, the brother-sister duo of Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar quickly carved a niche for themselves. Farhan matched his National Award winning film Dil Chahta Hai with the critically acclaimed (and my favourite Hrithik movie) Lakshya. Sister Zoya made an impressive directorial debut with Luck By Chance and then leapfrogs with her latest Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara.

Zoya likes her brother, who's also one of the producers of ZNMD, understands the technical side of movie making well. This gives their movies an added appeal.

Cinematography by Carlos Catalan would take your breath away like the way the locations did to the three protagonists in the movie.

Editing, like all Akhtars' movies, helps maintain the rhythm and continuity of the plot. Anand Subaya keeps the tradition alive.

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy background score soothes you and seems tailor made for the beautiful locales. Three Indian heroes singing together in their original voices should be a first. Even if they were tricked into it, they did a decent job.

Arjun (Hrithik Roshan), Imraan (Farhan Akhtar), and Kabir (Abhay Deol) look familiar young faces. They embark on a trip which leads to individual self-discoveries. It reminds you of Dil Chahta Hai but that's where the similarity ends. It's a much more mature story told with youthful zest. The three characters would surely charm their way to your hearts.

I like the way Farhan recites lines penned by his dad in the background. The climax is innovative for a change and pretty impressive too. Don't leave the theatre as the credit starts rolling, "Picture thodi rahti hai mere dost!"

Hrithik is probably the most complete star that India has ever produced. He dances like a dream, acts like a veteran, walks like a star, and looks every inch a hulk. You cast him in any role and he would bring a rare intensity to that role - ZNMD is no exception. Farhan seems to know everything. He directs, acts, sings and now writes. The entertaining dialogues of ZNMD are written by him. Farhan exudes confidence in his every act. As for Abhay, this has to be his biggest film till date. He's an accomplished actor but seems slightly marginalised by his more famous co-stars. Katrina Kaif is at ease playing the character of a diving instructor. The role suits her image and she has matched her performance with the one in New York. Kalki Koechlin as the love interest of Kabir is convincing.

ZNDB gives you a simple yet meaningful message of living life to the full. We seem to be obsessed with our electronic gadgets and social networks. What happened to the good old days of hanging out with friends! Our days now start with email and ends up with facebook. The movie not only questions this life but offers an alternate perspective. And in what resounding way!

ZNMD would surely bring Zoya Akhtar to the big league. She has raised the bar for all her future offerings. Good luck to her!

Delhi Belly

2011-07-09T10:41:00.002+04:00

AAMIR Khan showed a new side to the world with his sensitive film 'Taare Zameen Par'. Like most movies, he lately acted in, his directorial venture was also a class act. Production seemed a natural progression.

Aamir backed an entirely new genre in his latest offering Delhi Belly. The film takes the spirit of art cinema and effortlessly combines in elements of commercial movie making to produce an unapologetic bold cinema. Delhi Belly shocks and entertains at the same time.

The story revolves around the lives of three bachelors. How one small incident dramatically affects their lives is what the fun all about. There are no beeps and edits in this journey.

The opening few scenes do make you feel a little confused and uncomfortable, but gradually you get involved with the characters. The much talked about profanity is purely situational. You may feel offended if you risk watching with kids. But then, the film carries an adult certificate. There is hardly an extra character in the plot. Songs are played in bits and that keeps the movie time to less than two hours.

Imran Khan as Tashi is impressive, as always, but gets that extra footage courtesy 'mamu'. Kunaal Roy Kapur as Nitin and Vir Das as Arup come up with two restrained yet highly enjoyable acts. Together they provide the movie with its most funny moments.

Tashi's girlfriend Sonia played by Shenaz Treasurywala is in familiar territory. She looks cute. Period.

Poorna Jagannathan as Tashi's co-journalist Menaka is quite natural and plays her name in the movie rather well.

Vijay Raaz with his sheer talent has become a regular in off-beat movies. He plays the gangster quite effortlessly, especially the way he switches between ruthlessness and a dry sense of humour.

Aamir Khan being the perfectionist that he is, takes extra care with the technical side. Music by Ram Sampath may not be melodious but complements the theme well. The crisp editing by Huzefa Lokhandwala deserves special merit. Story by Akshat Verma is interesting with its numerous twists and turns. As for the lyrics, "I hate you like I Iove you" says it all.

Abhinay Deo may have missed the mark with Game but has turn it around with Delhi Belly. The movie has only characters, not heroes, and the credit goes to the director.

Delhi Belly has its share of lows. The curse words are a trifle too many for a family audience (of adults, yes). Some of the scenes are too suggestive for the regular Indian sensibilities. The joke about Santro, if it was a dig at Shahrukh (who endorses the brand), was in poor taste and so was the use of Orange juice to clean up the bowel movement.

In all fairness Delhi Belly is an entertaining roller-coaster ride, provided you understand the movie rating well. I am sure it will spawn a host of imitations.

Karbala

2011-06-22T22:50:00.016+04:00

Fatah bhi zaalim ki shikast nazar aati hai

Kya khoob sabaq Yazeed ko sikhaya Hussain Ne

Ek Imam ki bai'yat ka talabgaar haakim bahut

Haq pe khada hai kaun bataya Hussain Ne

Lashkar saikdon ke dilaate nahin hain jeet
bahattar shahadaton se bataya Hussain Ne

Kadiyal jawan ki laash uthata hai ghareeb baap

Har dard ko aankh se bahaya Hussain Ne

Khoone mazloom bah gaya Islam ki baqa me

Ab jo bhi hamara hai diya sab Hussain Ne

Zakhm

2011-06-22T22:30:00.009+04:00

Maut ki aghosh me sama raha hai koi

Mil gaya phir naya dard rooh ko meri

Kuch haseen pal jo saath guzaare the kabhi
Uski khamoshi me khamosh ab yaadein meri

Din viraan ho gaye mere aur raate jaagi'n
Kuch is tarah thahar gayi hai zindagi meri

Maqsade hayat nahin ab koi paas mere
Chand lamhon me simat rahi hai ka'yenaat meri

Sham'me ummeed to dikhate hai jalwe uske
Dhundli karte hain par ye ashq tasveer meri

Ya khuda nahin tujh se koi shikwa mujhko
Ye gham, ye zakhm, ab hain taqdeer meri

A Journey to the Heart of Islam

2011-06-18T12:02:00.004+04:00

THE first view of the area outside the holy mosque. A giant clock tower (second tallest building in the world) overshadows everything in its vicinity, sadly, even the house of God. Did Mecca really need it? That too so very close to the mosque. The towering hotels challenge the very principles of the pilgrimage. People with money can have the best view of the holy mosque. What about the white 'Ihraam', which stands for unity in simplicity!

As a Muslim you grow up prostrating in the direction of the Kaaba, five times a day. You hear stories about prayers being realised on its first sight. Naturally, you long to visit it one day. So when your plane touches Saudi Arabia, it's this very moment you are looking forward to. When you do see it, you are speechless! You feel the closest to God and that's when he answers your prayers.

Technology and spirituality merge at the Prophet's [PBUH] mosque in Medina. The beautiful pillars double as umbrellas during the day. You feel trasported to another world altogether.

The mountain of Uhud in Medina is a grim reminder of hypocrites in Islam. They fled the battlefield while the Prophet [PBUH] was alive, what to talk about the state of affairs 1400 years after him.

A mosque established by a prominent follower (Salman Farsi) of the Prophet [PBUH] in Medina is one of the last few old structures holding ground. Heritage has given way to grandness. Is this our legacy to the generations to follow!

Jannat-ul-Baqi, Medina - the final resting place of many members of the Prophet's [PBUH] family, some of his prominent followers and other Prophets [PBUT] of Islam.

Although the Saudi government is doing a fine job in safely handling millions of pilgrims every year but they need to strike a balance between modernity and care for Islamic heritage.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

2011-05-02T23:05:00.001+04:00

A WAR not only takes human lives, it affects the hearts and minds of people. The worst sufferers are the young ones. Iraq war saw some 500,000 children perish - more than that in Hioshima - and many more left behind with irreparable scars! Millions others met the same fate in Afganistan, Palestine and Africa.

'Anne Frank: The diary of a young girl' addresses the horrors of war. The story speaks for all such children in the Middle-East and elsewhere. The only difference being that Anne and her family lived as prisoners in a secret hideout whereas the Palestinians continue to live like that in their own country.

The book chronicles the daily life of a teenager against the backdrop of World War II. It spans a period of little over two years, which Anne's family along with one other spent in a 'secret annexe'.

The diary tells us how ordinary lives are transformed in extraordinary times. Books and radio suddenly become a luxury. A 'slice of liver sausage, and jam on dry bread' is a great weekly attraction. You sleep with the smell of lavatory all around. The sunshine is the last thing you would want to risk. In a nutshell you are living as ghosts.

You also get to know a young and ambitious girl who dotes on her father but fails to connect with her mother. Her mood swings from resigning to her fate, to making plans for a better post-war future. In between the only boy in the house becomes her object of desire.

Anne Frank's little book questions the futility of wars. It is also an ode to the human spirit.

Anne wished 'to go on living' even after her death, and to attain more than her mother. She loved history too. Today she is part of that history, thanks to her diary!

10 Cool Apps for iPhone

2011-04-26T14:34:00.003+04:00

After playing around with many iPhone Apps for a while now, I've found the following 10 fairly useful free Apps-

1 XE- An online currency convertor for expats and those in the financial sector.

2 Facebook- An absolute must for all the social junkies!

3 Skype- By far the best voice and video chat service on iPhone.

4 Reminder Free- Remember the dates that matter to you with this application.

5 Angry Birds- The birds may be angry but you'll end up happy playing this addictive game.

6 Twitter- Tweet on the move. Quite intuitive.

7 Bump- An innovative way to exchange contacts, photos, etc, by just bumping hands (with the phone) together.

8 BBC- Be in touch with the world with this neat yet exhaustive application.

9 Convert Units- A handy unit conversion application.

10 WordWeb- Choose the right word with this electronic dictionary.

Who Needs an iPad?

2011-04-14T12:44:00.003+04:00

APPLE'S iPhone is a revolutionary phone. I am not so sure about the company's tablet offering in the form of iPad.

One has to think twice before investing in an expensive device like the iPad. The following questions are to be answered before taking the plunge-

1 Are you a geek?
2 Do you think a netbook is not handy?
3 Does your electronics also double as fashion accessory?
4 Are you willing to shelve those extra bucks for a tablet just because of its battery life?

If the answers to above questions is a resounding 'yes' then buying an iPad make sense to you. Still it would be a good idea to compare the device with some other quality netbooks in the market today.

The biggest advantage a netbook has over tablets is the presence of a keyboard. There's no way a touchscreen can provide the ease of a physical keyboard. People may argue that Apple now provides a wireless keyboard for the iPad, but then, that's an additional accessory to take care of. Also since the netbook can be folded the display is better protected.

iPad does scores in portability (at 600g it is lighter than many netbooks), ease of use (boot up time of around 20 sec is much faster than the netbooks), and its phenomenal battery life (around 10 hours as promised by Apple).

Indian Cricket Comes of Age

2011-04-03T15:02:00.003+04:00

TEAM India defied all odds yesterday to lift the World Cup. The timing could not have been better with the country already reckoned as an economic powerhouse.

This team was playing with a self-belief that I've rarely seen before. With one of the world's most destructive bastmen (Sehwag) out for a duck on the second ball of the first over and India's greatest bastman (Sachin) going out on 18 in the sixth over, many thought it was all over. The statistics were also against India - only two teams earlier successfully chased in the finals, and there also the highest total was 241. To top it all, a host never lifted the coveted trophy. Nothing was favouring India.

Yet, India won and in what style!

They all delivered when it mattered most. Gambhir played an innings of class and maturity. Dhoni promoted himself and played with a purpose. His form returned when the team needed it desperately. The young Kohli handled well, the pressure and Malinga both. Yuvraj continued from where he left.

For the records, the maximum runs (11) were scored in the 47th over of the Indian Innings. Contrast this with the 274 that India was chasing. That summarises the run-chase for me.

It was poetic justice that the two players, playing a major role in the country's victory were at the crease when the winning run was scored.

On a lighter note, Dhoni's six would finally replace the beaten-to-death image of Kapil Dev's running catch to dismiss Richards in the 1983 cup. Well done India!

A Case of Exploding Mangoes

2011-04-02T09:40:00.008+04:00

MOHAMMED Hanif is one of those rare Pakistani writers who've worked for an Indian publication (India Today in his case). That speaks for his work!

'A case of exploding mangoes' by the same author is a fictionalised take on the last few days in office of General Zia ul-Haq.

The book talks about Zia's strange behaviour as he felt a threat to his life. Hanif's witty account of the events leading to the fatal plane crash will entertain you thoroughly.

Zia's physical description and his state of mind is a major highlight of the book. It's this part which will bring on the maximum laughs.

The book is also a satire on the Pakistani military establishment. The lack of trust between the generals in a way mirrors Zia's own reservations about his security. They all work as a team but there are ones who harbour secret ambitions of toppling Zia. It happens when a powerful army becomes the all-powerful!

Hanif also mentions the seeds of fundamentalism that the former Pakistani President sowed in the name of Islam. Zia ul-Haq made sure, 'all God's names were slowly deleted from the national memory as if a wind had swept the land and blown them away.' The 'Allah hafiz' must have replaced the customary 'Khuda hafiz' during this period. His 11 years in power changed the very fabric of Pakistani society. The religious extremism in present day Pakistan is mostly attributed to the policies of General Zia.

A case of exploding mangoes is a light-hearted book. It could be a perfect companion for those train journeys or long distance flights.

Let's not Burden Cricket

2011-03-29T22:54:00.003+04:00

THANKS heavens that 'the game' is finally happening tomorrow. The media on either sides made sure the interest in the Indo-Pak semi-final (many already calling it the final) reaches fanatical proportions. Perhaps it makes business sense with all the big bucks coming in as advertisement revenues. ESPN-Star Sports is now charging between Rs 18-22 lakh for a ten-second ad-spot on the channel during the match. The same costed Rs 12 lakh for the quarter final matches that ended last week.

What worries me is the unnecessary pressure that builds up on the two teams as a result of these phenomenal expectations. Why can't we just talk about a good game of cricket and leave the result for the day!

Sports is a mode of entertainment and should be viewed as such. You bring in unwanted elements of hostility and the whole purpose is lost.

Also, which team in its right sense would want to lose a match! The players are always expected to play to the best of their abilities in any match and against any opponent. Team India would do the same tomorrow. Let's just pray that they win.

I'm sure the crowd in Mohali is going to witness a great game of cricket. As for the cup it's confirmed today that an Asian team would take it home, no matter who wins tomorrow.

India After Gandhi

2011-03-20T14:46:00.010+04:00

THE word 'Gandhi' in a google search results in some 40 million pages. He is a world figure and undoubtedly the best known Indian. Any study of India is incomplete without him. Ramachandra Guha acknowledges the fact by naming his book on the history of the country as "India after Gandhi: The history of the world's largest democracy".

The problem with most country specific history books written by natives, is their lack of objectivity due to the holier than thou nature of the subject. Guha skillfully manages to avoid that pitfall and comes up with an unbiased and refreshing account of India.

The book narrates events as they happened, without any emotional clout attached. Guha talks about Kashmir as effortlessly as he mentions the Indian film industry. Reading about the formation of an independent India with the accession of princely states is both interesting and informative.

If Gandhi was instrumental in getting India its independence, Nehru shaped the modern India. The book discusses in detail Nehru's role as the architect of modern India and the political dynasty he left behind. It also sheds light on his philosophy of not equipping the armed forces with the latest weapons in view of a growing Chinese threat. India paid dearly for this gross miscalculation in 1962.

His daughter, Indira Gandhi, succeeded him as the prime minister of India and had her own outlook. Mrs Gandhi's style of power politics made sure 'that Nehru's halting yet honest attempts to promote a democratic ethos in a hierarchical society were undone by his own daughter, and in decisive and dramatic ways.' The emergency and the excesses committed by her younger son Sanjay, were just a few examples of this new political era. She changed the rules of the game forever!

What impresses most about the author is his honesty in dealing with controversial subjects. He diligently handle issues like Kashmir, formation of Bangladesh, Indian troops in Sri Lanka, minorities in India, and the 'unforgiving' ideology of RSS. Guha makes sure the truth reaches you even if it means criticising certain Indian policies.

There are some notable omissions though. The Jeep scandal of 1948 involving Nehru's close friend VK Menon, working as the then High Commissioner for India in UK, finds no mention. The case was closed without a proper inquiry. Many commentrators have called it the first case of political corruption in post-independence India.

India after Gandhi is as much about hope as it is about India. The country survived the worst of communal riots, the threat of secessionist movements like those in Punjab and Nagaland, years of economic hardships and wars with neighbors. Time and again people have written off India, as the author stresses throughout the book, but everytime India came out stronger.

Guha ponders in his epilogue on why India survives. The answer comes from a renowned Pakistani journalist Ayaz Amir, "When will it dawn on us that it is not India's size, population, tourism or IT industry [that is] making us look small, but Indian democracy." The freedom to choose who leads you is India's greatest strength. It's this building block which holds the nation together.

The book, perhaps reflecting the artistic taste of the country, opens with lines of legendary urdu poet Mirza Ghalib and signs off with him.

India after Gandhi is a book of immense scholarly work. Read it to rediscover India!

The Last Emperor

2011-02-07T20:45:00.003+04:00

DILIP Kumar has acted in just 60 films but he is arguably the greatest Indian actor of any generation. His method acting skills added a whole new dimension to the craft.

Dilip Kumar's life, like his performances, is equally fascinating.

Sanjit Narwekar's biography of this actor par excellence, is aptly titled, "Dilip Kumar - The Last Emperor." A still of the actor from Mughal-e-Azam adorns the cover of the book. So much for the first impression!

The author knows his subject well for Narwekar has written and lectured on Indian cinema since 1970. He introduces Dilip Kumar through his films. The book is neatly organised on the basis of major milestones in the life of the actor.

Narwekar has beautifully captured the essence of Peshawar in the growing up years of a young Yusuf Khan, all in just six pages.

Born on the 11th of December, 1922 in Peshawar, Yusuf was the third son and fifth child of fruit merchant Sarwar Khan and Ayesha Begum. Theirs was a deeply relious family. The author tells us about the violence in the city during Khan's growing up years. This may have provided the element of authenticity to the intense roles he would go on to play.

A tragedy at home brought the family to Bombay. It was at the Wilson College of the city that his future started taking shape. He became a voracious reader and watched mostly Hollywood films. Football was one sports he excelled in. He was also an extremely shy lad.

Yusuf Khan had to drop out of college owing to a collapse in his father's business, and a sharp decline in the fortunes of the family as an outcome. He worked as an assistant manager with a military contractor in Poona for a while before joining his father in fruit trading.

It was during one of his usual business trips to Nanital that he was introduced to Devika Rani. She was on the look out for a fresh face and Khan impressed her. She gave him a three-year contract and her studio writer gave him a screen name on her suggestion. And thus was born the legend of Dilip Kumar!

The book has numerous interesting stories about the actor, such as the one where he steals cigarattes for his mentor Ashok Kumar, and once how Maulana Azad intervened on his behalf.

From the savage criticism for his role in Jwar Bhata to getting the title of 'Tragedy King' for his performance in Andaz, Narwekar chronologically builds the story of Dilip Kumar - the actor who became a major star. The author also talks about the sensitive issue of some people questioning Yusuf Khan's patriotism and the controversy over his acceptance of Nishan-e-Imtiaz, Pakistan's highest civilian award. He briefly touches on the actor's social and charitable work. The author could have shed more light on this.

The Last Emperor is a sincere effort and Narwekar has done justice to the story. Although it looks more of a homage to Dilip Kumar but then his life and his films are nothing short of awe-inspiring.

A Victorian Lucknow for Whom?

2010-12-23T16:46:00.002+04:00

LAST month during my Lucknow visit I got to know of the grand new architectural plans of CM Mayawati. She has promised the city people to bring back the Victorian flavour to Hazratganj, the retail hub of the city.

Her new fascination includes things like Victorian style benches and lamp posts and public platforms for budding artists.

I just have one small question for the CM. What about our own culture? Why do we need to revisit the British past of the city. Isn't the old buildings enough for that!

On second thoughts, having put irrelevant statues in every nook and corner of the city she's now taking her love for dead people to a new level altogether.

What can you say! People voted for her.

If citizens are sleeping why should leaders worry.

IGI's Terminal 3 Rocks!

2010-10-26T15:31:00.007+04:00

IGI's Terminal 3 is a reflection of India's growth as an economic superpower.

The stylish new terminal is a fine fusion of the traditional and the modern. It took my breath away!

The facts themselves speak volumes about the effort. IG's Terminal 3 is the world's sixth largest passenger terminal. It was built in a record 37 months, something astonishing by Indian standards as 58 government agencies were involved.

The new facility is capable of handling 34 million passengers every year (a jump of almost 25 million). It has 168 check-in counters, 95 immigration desks, over 20,000 sq meters of retail area, and a multi-layer parking that can accomodate 4300 cars. Whew!

I was particularly impressed by the carpeted floor inside the arrival and departure zones.

My only worry is the future maintenance of the terminal. I hope the people involved will show a little more sense of ownership.

Rajini the Man and the Robot

2010-10-04T12:29:00.008+04:00

RAJINIKANTH is special! He is perhaps the only star who could have guranteed a hit to the mother of all big budget ventures called Endhiran or Robot. So there are no surprises when the show starts with "Superstar Rajini" and the movie name follows.

Robot is a never before attempted sci-fi effort on the Indian screen. The sheer magnitude of the film would take your breath away. The credit must be given to Shankar the co-writer and also the director of the movie for dreaming big.

The film is about a scientist who creates an android (a robot that imitates a human being) and his vision about the immense potential of his discovery. It also highlights the issues when the machine starts to think like a man.

Rajinikanth stars both as the scientist Dr Vaseegaran and the robot Chitti. The superstar never lights a matchstick or display his trademark antics with his sunglasses during the entire film, but still leaves a mark. There is something about the man which makes him lovable.

Aishwarya Rai plays his love interest in the movie. There's not much for her to do other than add some glamour quotient. And why bother when you are paid a cool Rupees 60 million for the act. Nothing else justifies her nod to the role where she has to share space with hundred other Rajinis.

Danny Denzongpa ably fills in as the scientist who wants his inventions to make money at any cost!

The only loose performances come from the actors who play Dr Vaseegaran's assistants in the movie. The humour is poorly written and certainly not enacted well by the duo. I thought the comic sequences involving Chitti were enough for the movie.

Music by A.R. Rahman is good in parts. The songs also suffer because of the Hindi dubbing.

Cinematography by R. Rathnavelu is top-notch. The picturesque landscapes are captured beautifully in the songs.

The special effects makes Endhiran all the more special. The good thing is situations are not created to showcase them rather the effects are woven into the story. Be ready to see some of the most amazing stuff ever shown in an Indian film.

The movie could have been edited better. I felt the fight sequences were a little long.

Robot may not boast of incredible performances or a great story but it still entertains.

It certainly entertained my four year old son!

What Makes the Muslims Angry: Analysing the Causes that Foster Fundamentalism

2010-08-19T15:56:00.011+04:00

“Throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.”

Barack Obama, 44th President of USA

THE year 1979 holds special importance. It was the year that saw two significant happenings in the Muslim world. The events occurred in two states holding contrasting views on Islam but triggered by a common enemy, the US. One was the hostage crisis in the Shiite ruled Iran, which was covered quite extensively by the press, the other being the lesser known and reported uprising at Islam’s holiest shrine in Mecca, the city under the control of Sunni Muslims.

There was a fundamental difference though between the two events. The embassy takeover in Tehran was a student initiative against the US for its meddling in the country’s politics. The siege of Mecca was the rebellion of a Muslim group against the policies of the ruling family in Saudi Arabia which were influenced by the US.

The rebellion in Mecca combined with the events in neighboring Iran forever changed the equation of Muslims with the US, and the west in general.

Act I, Tehran

On November 4, 1979, some 400 Iranian students decided to stage a sit-in at the American embassy in Tehran. It was a demonstration both against the Iranian Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan’s meeting in Algiers with Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter’s National Security advisor, to discuss common security issues and the Shah’s admission to America for his cancer treatment.

The protest soon turned into a takeover of the embassy and its staff as more radical elements took over. The captives were paraded blindfolded before the world’s media.

Ayatollah Khomeni at first wanted the students to be taken out by force, but later changed his mind riding on the popular mood and supported their cause. He even denounced the embassy as a ‘nest of spies’. Con Coughlin writes how it influenced the Islamic revolution in Iran, “The American embassy siege proved to be a defining moment both for Khomeini and the Islamic revolution. Whereas previously he had sought to control the wilder excesses of the revolution, such as limiting the number of executions, now he fully embraced the concept of revolutionary action, and gave the student revolutionaries free rein to confront the negative influences of imperialism, liberalism and democracy.”[1]

The move was also initially opposed by two prominent student activists – one of them (surprisingly) was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from Tarbiat Modarres University. Both eventually joined ranks with the majority.

Although the hostage crisis was a student initiative, it found mass support in Iran because of the role US played in the past politics of the country. America helped depose the elected and popular government of Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953. Iranians never really forgave the US for it.

The embassy staff of 52 Americans was held hostage for a total of 444 days. It damaged relations between Washington and Tehran permanently.

Act II, Mecca

The Mecca uprising was the revolt of a group of Muslim extremists against their own rulers.

Juhayman ibn Saif al Uteybi, a retired corporal in the Saudi National Guard, was the chief architect of the events that unfolded in Mecca on November 20, 1979.

His role in the uprising was an outcome of the anger that has been building inside him for some time. Perhaps it’s not surprising then that his name itself means ‘Angry Face’ in Arabic.

During the mid 1970s Juhayman lived in Medina trying to model his life on the ways of the Prophet 14 centuries earlier. He was not alone.

Robert Lacey sheds light on such individuals, “Those who opted for back-to-basics called themselves Salafi, because they sought to behave as salaf, literally the pious ancestors of one of those three early generations that were mentioned with such approval by the Prophet. A group calling itself Al-Jamaa Al-Salafiya Al-Muhtasiba, “the Salafi Group That Commands Right and Forbids Wrong,” had been active in Medina for some time, and Juhayman joined it when he came to town, plugging himself into some of the Kingdom’s strongest and most ancient traditions of piety.”[2]

Medina’s Salafi Group was created around 1965.

For Juhayman, wherever he looked he could detect bida’h (any Islamic innovation). By now his rejectionist thinking found a few takers. They started referring to themselves as Al-Ikhwan (the Brothers). The word itself had a dangerous resonance with the Saudi past. It was also Juhayman’s legacy.

A confrontation with Sheikhs though resulted in the security forces running after the Ikhwan for interrogation. Juhayman was on the run.

Unable to meet his followers, Juhayman turned to the written and spoken words. His printed words (“The Letters of Juhayman”) survived and have long influenced Muslim extremists over the years.

His grievance was that al-Saud had exploited Islam to guarantee their worldly interests, and have brought evil and corruption upon the Muslims by paying allegiance to the Americans.

It was in late 1978 that Juhayman started having dreams about the Islamic Messiah – the Mahdi or rightly-guided one – who would come down to earth to correct the problems of mankind. His dreams even revealed the identity of the Mahdi as one of his own followers, Muhammad Abdullah Al-Qahtani. Juhayman soon married his sister.

This was also the time when Juhayman was ready to confront the rulers by violent means. His armed men took control of the Grand Mosque on the First day of Muharram (first Islamic month) in the Islamic year 1400, which translates to November 20, 1979.

The siege finally ended on December 4 as the last of the remaining rebels were captured by the government forces.

The bitter struggle saw 127 government soldiers perish and 450 injured. Some 117 rebels including Muhammad Abdullah were killed. Twenty six worshippers also lost their lives.

The outcome surprised even Juhayman. Yaroslav Trofimov in his definitive account of the events says, “As Juhayman was led away, one of the officers asked him again why he had desecrated the holiest shrine. The reality of utter defeat began to sink in. “If I had known it would turn out this way, I wouldn’t have done it,” Juhayman muttered in response.”[3]

It would take several months to undo the physical damage to the Grand Mosque.

The Brothers in Islam

The founder of modern Saudi Arabia Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud was ably supported by warriors from the Bedouin tribes who called themselves Al-Ikhwan. For them to support the Saudi cause was to engage in Jihad and that made them ferocious warriors.

As the empire got established the Ikhwan were told to settle down peacefully. But being the Bedouin warriors, they continued their raids suspecting their former leader to have made peace with the British.

Abdul Aziz spent more than a year in vain to strike a deal with the Ikhwan. The showdown finally came in March 1929 in the open plain of Sibillah, north of Riyadh. The Ikhwan were given one last chance to surrender but they ignored and attacked. In response Aziz’s men opened fire. Hundreds of men and their camels perished that day.

Among those who survived the onslaught was Muhammad ibn Saif al-Uteybi, father to Juhayman.

Birth of Political Islam

The siege of Mecca was the first major challenge to the ruling group in Saudi Arabia since the Ikhwan rebellion. It brought into open the rising tension between the state and its own religion.

Madawi Al-Rasheed explains, “It was vital to devise a formula for reconciling the state’s immense wealth with the austerity of Wahhabi* Islam. The incompatibility between religious dogma and royal pomp and the vulnerability of the royal family to attacks from within the ranks of the most loyal supporters (the religious establishment) shocked inside and outside observers who considered Saudi Arabia one of the most stable states in the Middle East. The constant search of the Saudi state for ways to accommodate the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ crumbled with the siege of the mosque.”[5]

It also forced the rulers to grant more powers to the ulama (Islamic scholars) and Islamic activities more political space in the early 1980s. The ulama seized the opportunity to reinforce the strict Wahhabi rules on ritual observance and moral behaviour.

It was also the beginning of a new era where the banner of Islam was unfurled for political means. Thomas Hegghammer talks about its ramifications, “However, the ‘Wahhabism’ and the ‘pan-Islamisation’ of 1980 Saudi Arabia represented two distinct processes with different causes and results. While the first was a purely domestic process promoted by the Najdi Wahhabi ulama and resulting in social conservatism, the latter had international ramifications, was promoted by the Hijaz-based organisations such as the Muslim World League (MWL) and produced political radicalism. Nevertheless, both processes left more political space for Islamist activism of all kinds. The political opportunity structure for Islamist activists – especially those seeking to mobilise people for the jihad in Afghanistan – thus became highly beneficial.”[6]

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 prompted several Islamic organisations to issue calls for jihad against the occupiers. This gave the conflict a whole new religious dimension.

Saudi involvement in Afghanistan was unprecedented and it exceeded even the assistance for the Palestinians. It also saw the Kingdom graduate from a passive and financial to an active and military approach to pan-Islamism. This was made possible by US approval, the access to Pakistani territory, and the willingness of the Afghans.

Iran, sharing its border with Afghanistan, saw this as an opportunity to increase its influence in the area. It backed the Afghan Northern Alliance, which included the Shiite Hizb-l Vahdat representing the Hazaras (a local minority Shia tribe).

The invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein forces gave another opportunity to the fundamentalists. Fearing a possible Iraqi attack on its own soil, Saudi Arabia welcomed foreign forces in 1990 to help defend the country. This was also the time when some sahwa** members began to speak out against the monarchy. Under pressure the government looked out for ways to compensate the lost credibility.

The opportunity came in the form of the Bosnian war of 1992.

Saudi was not alone in making the most of it. Iran and Sudan, too, tried to exploit the Bosnian crisis to gain regional control.

In fact Iran made good use of its long-standing links with Bosnian political leaders to provide substantial material support for the war ravaged country.

The roots of Political Islam were firmly established by now.

The Role of Wahhabism

The rigid views of Wahhabism and the patronising it received from the Saudi rulers in the past, fostered Muslim fundamentalism. The doctrine considers Muslim sects like the Shiites and the Sufis as heretics. It even inspired people like Juhayman to take up arms against the royal family.

Although Juhayman was beheaded soon after the uprising, his ideals and vision survived long after. The baton was passed on to another misguided flag-bearer of Islam, Osama Bin Laden. Like Juhayman, Osama too, had issues with Saudi ties to the US.

It came as no surprise to many that 15 of the 19 al-Qaida jihadists involved in the 9/11 attacks were from Saudi Arabia. The sad news was followed by a discovery of a huge arms cache in Riyadh and subsequent attacks on residential compounds in 2003. The terror continued in the country so much that by the December of 2004, some 176 policemen and civilians (mostly foreigners) had lost their lives.

The events showed a scary trend. The home-grown fundamentalists were turning into terrorists. The rulers of the state had to take swift and strict measures.

Dr. Sherifa Zuhur gets the point across, “Saudi Arabian officials decried al-Qa’ida’s actions in the United States, and have captured and killed operatives, arrested more than 600 suspects, forced key clerical figures to recant their radical views on television, recalled more than 1400 imams who were counselled on their divergent opinions, and took a variety of measures to diminish the financial support of terrorist organisations. The government also announced modest political reforms that began with voter registration from 2004-05, and municipal elections in 2005 which will enhance political participation.” [7]

The tentacles of the Osama factory are now reaching Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Indonesia, among others. It misses no opportunity to unleash terror on countries and people in the name of God.

The Israeli Angle

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been the stumbling block in the stability of Middle-East and a cause for Arabs to take up arms. For years now it has been the driving force behind Muslim fundamentalism across the globe.

The difficulty in resolving the issue has only frustrated the parties involved.

The sad part is those who were once the land owners are now refugees in their own land. More than 300,000 Jews immigrated to the then British Mandated Palestine between 1923 and 1938. Now compare this with the 3.5 million Palestinians displaced because of the 1948 and 1967 upheavals (500,000 alone during the Six-Day War in 1967).

Millions of Palestinians refugees are today dispersed throughout the Middle-East, many in camps in neighboring countries. They are still searching for a way to coexist with the nation that is responsible for the mess.

According to Amnesty International 2011 Report, in 2010, Israeli authorities demolished 431 structures in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a 59 per cent increase over 2009. At least 594 Palestinians – half of them children – were displaced, while more than 14,000 Palestinians were affected by demolitions of water cisterns, wells and structures relating to their livelihoods.

The Israeli military killed 1,510 Palestinians in 2006-09. Of these, 617, including 104 children aged under 18, were not taking part in any hostilities when they were killed.[16]

The Arab and Muslim worlds remain split between rejectionist forces and those willing to recognise Israel in the name of peace.

As for Israel it continues to enjoy strong support from both the Democrats and Republicans in the US. No US president ever questions the country’s so-called security needs.

Both Clinton and Bush failed to strongly take up the case of settlement expansion and certain occupation practices, which have nothing to do with security, with Israel.

Barack Obama generated so much hope in the Muslim world with his landmark speeches, but, he too couldn’t do much to help resolve the Israeli-Palestine conflict.

Flawed US policies in the past gave ample opportunities to other state actors with their own agendas. Both Syria and Saudi Arabia attempted to broker a Palestinian unity government without Washington’s help. Iran responded by strengthening its ties to Syria and Hamas, thereby increasing its influence in the region.

The Gaza blockade and the Israeli West Bank barrier have only added to the woes of Palestine. Indirectly it has fuelled the strong sentiments of the Arabs and Muslims elsewhere against the state of Israel.

Engaging the Extremists

The West over the years has followed a flawed policy of “engaging the moderates and shunning the extremists.” You ignore a person and you ignore his cause. By ignoring such individuals we harden their stand. It makes them look out for alternate ways to make their voices heard. Unfortunately, violence is one such means which makes maximum impact.

We need to condemn violence in any form. No second thoughts there! We also have to understand that killing one Osama Bin Laden would not help. Osama has become more of a symbol of resistance to the so called jihadists. You kill Osama and there are hundreds ready to take his place and promote the cause.

Occupying lands in the name of security threats will offer only temporary solutions and would strengthen the resolve of the jihadists. Incidentally it is also this angle which extremists, like Osama, relish.

In an interview given to CNN in 1997 Osama said, “If there is a message that I may send through you, then it is a message I address to the mothers of the American troops who came here with their military uniform walking proudly up and down our land while the scholars of our country are thrown in prisons. I say that this represents a blatant provocation to 1250 million Muslims. To these mothers I say if they are concerned for their sons, then let them object to the American government’s policy and to the American president. Do not let themselves be cheated by his standing before the bodies of the killed soldiers describing the freedom fighters in Saudi Arabia as terrorists. It is he who is a terrorist who pushed their sons into this for the sake of the Israeli interest.”[9]

The best way to approach them is to find their ideological mentors and engage them. A dialogue on any given day is a much better start.

This in itself is no mean task and a definite policy shift has to be exercised in the name of peace by the West.

Bridging Divides

The Muslims today are angry more than ever. But we need to separate anger from madness (of a few). Wherever the anger is justified it needs corrective measures.

1979 is history, but it could very well repeat itself. And with the power of the electronic media today the situation could be worse.

The West for its part needs to engage the Muslims more than ever before. Most importantly dialogues should be insulated from any act of violence. As we have seen in the past, the rise of Islamophobia only helps the extremists!

The US needs to rethink its policy of dictating other countries’ affairs in the name of national security. Afghanistan and Iraq are in a mess but the terror threat continues, not to mention the millions who lost their lives and the million others rendered homeless.

Sheikh Salman al-Oadah echoes the sentiments of fellow Muslims in the region, “And if the West considers September 11 as an affront to civil security in the West, then we can share with it that feeling and even the stance of rejecting attacks against civil security throughout the world. But it is important for the West to realize that civil security in the Islamic World has not seen stability for decades and a lot of the impediments to civil security have come about under the umbrella of Western policy and quite possibly due the direct actions of the West.” [10]

The once mighty British Empire also collapsed under the pressure of putting foot at too many places. You can’t win people over by occupying their lands!

The Palestine-Israel conflict is one issue that will influence any peace initiative between the Muslims and the West. For long it has been a stumbling block in the stability of the Middle East. You resolve that and half the work is done.

The US handling of this crisis also is faulty and needs serious rework. Daniel Kurtzer and Scott Lasensky stress this point, “The United States also has tried mistakenly to cherry-pick Palestinian negotiating partners, sometimes seeking to bypass more senior figures whom Washington perceives as intransigent. This approach tends to backfire; when we try to pick our winners, our diplomacy often loses.”[11]

Israel has also to be pressured into an inspection of its nuclear arsenal.

The two main players in the Middle-East, Iran and Saudi Arabia, influence most of the Muslim world today. The tension between them is a direct outcome of the desire to control the region and their different religious beliefs. This is also a sad reflection of the divide between the Muslims in general.

Saudi Arabia needs to promote more tolerance in its society. An outright rejection of beliefs not conforming to the majority is the first step in promoting hatred. Qur’an itself speaks against it. In verse 118, chapter 11, the books says, “If thy Lord had so willed, He could have made mankind one People: but they will not cease to dispute.”

There is also no denying the fact that the Saudi society is gradually changing and the new rulers must be credited for it.

The difficulty the rulers face is in striking a healthy balance between admonishing the violent opposition and co-opting those with similar views. Religious sensibilities have to be taken into due consideration before making any policy shift.

This is not an easy task as Madawi Al-Rasheed explains, “Saudi Arabia’s specific Islamic tradition, namely Wahhabi teachings, did not encourage an easy immersion in modernity in the twentieth century. From the very beginning, the ruling group stumbled across several obstacles when they introduced the most simple of technologies (for example cars, the telegraph and television among other innovations). Objections from conservative religious circles were overcome as a result of a combination of force and negotiations. Social and political change proved more problematic and could not be easily implemented without generating debates that threatened the internal stability of the country and alienated important and influential sections of society.”[5]

How successful would they be in the long run only time will tell!

The Saudis need the US support to guard themselves against a powerful neighbour in the form of Iran, something that has not gone down well with many in the Kingdom.

Iran needs to engage in dialogues rather than raising tempers with the now familiar diatribe of Ahmadinejad.

There are unsubstantiated claims by certain countries in the Middle East of Iran’s role in their internal affairs. The country needs to put more confidence building measures in the wake of its nuclear program.

Iran is also facing some problems internally. Post election, as the events at home show, there is a growing dissatisfaction of the young population with the power the clergy enjoys. The Shah’s toppling was not possible without the student uprising. Those in charge should never forget this simple fact.

The US needs to respect the regime in Iran (whosoever) and sit with it. Surely the lessons of the past have not been learned. Stephen Kinzer endorses the view, “Today, as anti-Iran rhetoric in Washington becomes steadily more strident, it is urgent that Americans understand how disastrous the last US attack on Iran turned out to be. They might also ponder the question of what moral responsibility the United States has to Iran in the wake of this painful history.”[12]

The answer to that has the potential to change US-Iranian relations.

Barack Obama talked about a new beginning in his landmark speech given at the Cairo University in 2009, “We have a responsibility to join together on behalf of the world that we seek — a world where extremists no longer threaten our people, and American troops have come home; a world where Israelis and Palestinians are each secure in a state of their own, and nuclear energy is used for peaceful purposes; a world where governments serve their citizens, and the rights of all God’s children are respected. Those are mutual interests. That is the world we seek. But we can only achieve it together.”

The average Muslim, too, is sick and tired of seeing his faith questioned every time some extremist blow himself to pieces in the name of Allah. They also seek a new start where they are free in their lands and are judged by their own actions.

The world has seen enough violence in the name of religion and security. Let’s give peace a chance!

(Revised and updated: Oct 29, 2011)

Notes

*Members of the Wahhabi movement prefer to call themselves Muslims, or muwahhidun (those who insist on the unification of the worship of Allah) or Ahl (community of) At-Tawhid (Monotheism). The teachings of the reformer Abd Al-Wahhab are more often referred to by adherents as Salafi (“following the forefathers of Islam.”)

**Sahwa movement emerged in Saudi Arabia during the late 1960s. It was a well organised political movement that pride itself on religious orthodoxy.

1. Con Coughlin, Khomeini’s Ghost (London: Pan Macmillan, 2010), 177.
2. Robert Lacey, Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Terrorists, Modernists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia (New York: Viking Penguin, 2009), 18.
3. The Siege of Mecca: The 1979 Uprising at Islam’s Holiest Shrine by Yaroslav Trofimov (New York: Anchor Books, 2008), 214.
4. As’ad AbuKhalil, The Battle for Saudi Arabia: Royalty, Fundamentalism, and Global Power (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2004).
5. Madawi Al-Rasheed, A History of Saudi Arabia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 11.
6. Thomas Hegghammer, Jihad in Saudi Arabia: Violence and Pan-Islamism Since 1979 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 24.
7. Sherifa Zuhur, “Saudi Arabia: Islamic Threat, Political reform, and the Global War on Terror,” Strategic Studies Institute (2005), 13, accessed October 28, 2011, http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?PubID=598.
8. Noam Chomsky, Fateful Triangle: the United States, Israel, and the Palestinians (London: Pluto Press, Updated Edition, 1999).
9. “Osama bin Laden Interview – CNN,” FindLaw, accessed October 28, 2011, news.findlaw.com/cnn/docs/binladen/binladenintvw-cnn.pdf.
10. Sheikh Salman al-Oadah, “How We Can Coexist”, Islam Today, Jan 01, 2002 , accessed October 28, 2011, http://en.islamtoday.net/artshow-417-2952.htm.
11. Daniel Kurtzer and Scott Lasensky, Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East, (Washington: United States Institue of Peace, 2008), 38.
12. Stephen Kinzer, All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror, (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons), xxiii.
13. “A History of Conflict”, BBC, accessed October 28, 2011, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/middle_east/03/v3_ip_timeline/html.
14. Roland Jacquard, In the Name of Osama Bin Laden: Global Terrorism and the Bin Laden Brotherhood (USA: Duke University Press, 2002, Revised and Updated).
15. Mark Bowden, Guests of the Ayatollah: The Iran Hostage Crisis: The First Battle in America’s War with Militant Islam (New York: Grove Press, 2006).
16. “Amnesty International Annual Report 2011: The state of the world’s human rights,” Amnesty International, accessed October 28, 2011, http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/israel-occupied-palestinian-territories/report-2011#section-67-5.

Saina Nehwal Delivers on the Promises

2010-06-29T22:48:00.004+04:00

Sania Mirza may have hogged more headlines than any other female athelete in India but could not do justice to the potential she started with. Saina Nehwal on the other hand has everyone in the international badminton circuit noticing her. It's purely her badminton skills that speak for her.

She is just 20 and already a world number three player.

Saina has several firsts to her name. She is the first Indian woman to win a 4-star tournament (Phillippines Open, 2006). The first to reach the quarter finals at the Olympic Games (Beijing 2008). The first Indian to win the World Junior Badminton Championships (2008). The first Indian to win a BWF Super Series title (Indonesia Open, 2009). The first to reach the semi finals of the All-England Super Series (2010).

Saina was elected as the world's Most Promising Player by BWF in 2008. Ever since she continues to justify the honour bestows upon her.

She may not be a tall player but has the ability and the hunger to take even greater strides in her career. The number one spot included!

The young athelete has also bagged two coveted Indian awards - Arjuna Award (2009) and Padma Shri (2010). The list would surely grow.

Bravo girl!

No Food or Water for this Astonishing Yogi

2010-05-18T11:26:00.001+04:00

Prahlad Jani looks a normal Hindu Holy man. It's just that he claims to have survived on no food or water for almost 70 years!

The 83 years old Yogi from Gujarat was put under constant survellience by a team of 35 medics in India to verify his claim.

For 15 days three cameras monitored all his moves in the Sterling Hospital of Ahmedabad. There were numerous scans and tests done on him during the process.

At no point during his stay he ate or drink, or even used the washroom. The Yogi left the hospital and the team of baffled doctors on May 6.

The study was conducted by India's Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO).

How Threatening is America's Threat to Pakistan

2010-05-10T13:51:00.006+04:00

"We've made it very clear that if -- heaven-forbid -- an attack like this that we can trace back to Pakistan were to have been successful, there would be very severe consequences."---Hillary Clinton on CBS's "60 Minutes", Sunday, 9th May, 2010.

We have frequently heard statements like these coming out of the US. How 'severe' these 'consequences' could be is for anybody to guess.

Pakistan today finds itself in a mess whose roots can be traced to the regime of General Zia. The seeds of sectarian divide that Zia sowed gave an upper hand to the muslim extremists in the land. With big money and bigger players these extremists found shelters in organisations fighting for the cause of Islam in the country and beyond. How else can one justify the ease and the scale of recent attacks in the country!

Illiteracy and poverty in the tribal areas didn't help much either. The concept of Muslim brotherhood and the rewards of the hereafter was enough to pursuade many Muslims from these areas to join the radical path. The result was quite eminent. Over a period of time such organisations multiplied.

Although the country did ban 25 such organisations in 2009, many still function under new names. Find out how they manage it and you know what ills Pakistan.

With due apologies to the people of Pakistan, the web of ISI runs deep under the garb of democracy in the country. Unless Pakistan separates the two and checks the influence of the intelligence unit amongst the extremist organisations, no warning from US would serves its purpose.

And so it goes for the US to understand!

Happy Birthday Empire State!

2010-05-03T19:48:00.001+04:00

AS Burj Khalifa dons the mantle of the tallest building in the world, one's mind goes back to May 1st, 1931, when it all started.

This month the New York’s landmark Empire State Building celebrates its 79th birthday. To put it in other words, Empire State broke the 100 floors barrier 79 years back. That in itself is awe inspiring!

Located in New York, US, the famous building stands at 443.2 metres. For more than four decades it was the world's tallest building until the World Trade Center came up.

Empire State was designed from the top down and it took just over a year to build it. It was inaugurated during the great depression.

The building initially survived mainly on the visitors who flocked to the observation deck on the 86th floor. The lack of renters even led to people calling it "Empty State Building." It could only turn profitable almost two decades later.

In an ominous sign, a fighter plane crashed into the building between the 79th and 80th floors on July 28th, 1945. Fourteen people died in the accident. Miraculously elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver survived a 75 storey fall inside one of the elevators during the crash. For this she holds a Guinness World Record till date.

In a testimony to its solid construction, there was no serious structural damage to the building in the crash.

Floodlights were added to the building in 1964. The lights illuminate the top in colours suiting the occasion. The building was lit green for three days in October 2007 during the Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Fitr. It was a first!

The Empire State building houses some 1000 businesses and has its own zip code.

For me, nothing speaks more about the Empire State than the simple fact that only 14 buildings have managed to surpass it since its inauguration in 1931.

My Name is Khan and I Love the World

2010-04-26T18:19:00.128+04:00

THE US president sharing the stage with an ordinary physically challenged Indian Muslim is a defining moment in the history of Indian cinema.

For the first time an Indian film director has attempted a film of this magnitude. Karan Johar's Khan is a coming of age film in more than one ways. The movie reflects the growing stature of Indian cinema and stars like Shahrukh Khan. It talks about the global minority issue with a sincerity never seen before. And it lays the foundation for all future meaningful yet commercial cinema in India.

'My Name Is Khan' is the story of Rizwan Khan, an autistic man. He falls in love with Mandira, a hairdresser by profession and a Hindu by religion. They get married and Khan adopts Mandira's son Sameer from a previous marriage. Picture perfect!

Things change with 9/11. Something terrible happens in the Khan's household and his world falls apart. Always the one to take things on their face value, Khan sets on a journey to meet the President of the United States to sort out a domestic affair.

The journey of Khan is the soul of the movie. The world through his eyes melts your heart and moisten your eyes.

The Afro-American discrimination captured in the backdrop of hurricane Katrina was a brave new attempt. Also, for once, the depiction of Muslims was close to reality.

Karan Johar, the director, surprises you with his handling of such a sensitive subject. The production value, too, is top-notch. His earlier work pales in comparison with this big canvas effort.

Shibani Bathija's screenplay is one of the strengths of the movie. She also pens down the dialogues, which serves well in crucial scenes.

Music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy is a let down, though Noor-e-Khuda stands out. The impressive background score on the other hand, by the same team, makes it up for them.

What can one say about the lead pair! Shahrukh and Kajol would go down in history as one of the greats on-screen pairs of Hindi cinema. They share some amazing chemistry and it shows in every frame. It's no mean feat considering their first film was released in 1993.

Kajol has come up with another intense performance, something typical of her. But I do feel she overdid some emotional scenes.

For Shahrukh MNIK would serve as a milestone, more so for the challenges the character of Rizwan Khan offers. He plays the role of the autistic man to the hilt. This in itself is a considerable task when you think of Shahrukh with all his movie mannerism. The movie revolves around his character and he makes the most of this opportunity. Just when you thought 'Chak De' was his peak, he comes up with this brilliant act!

It was good to see Zarina Wahab sparkle in the brief role of Rizwan's mother. Yuvaan Makaar as Sameer was lovable. Tanay Chheda as the young Rizwan matched the senior Khan. Jimmy Shergill as Rizwan's brother puts up a sincere performance but it was his wife in the movie, played by Sonya Jehan, who was the real surprise. The lady from the Titanic Taj Mahal (pun intended) brought grace to her character. Jennifer Echols as Mama Jenny was likeable too.

Controversy or no controversy, Khan is great cinema.

Bringing Alive the Dead, Courtesy YouTube!

2010-04-25T18:35:00.002+04:00

JUST two days back YouTube celebrated its 5th anniversary. For me this video sharing site is one of Internet's great inventions.

YouTube has the power to bring back the memories of yesterday while enjoying the sights of today. What else could substitute for a video of your grandma from the past or a lost loved one.

For people like me who are so much interested in the past, there's no more fascinating resource than YouTube. Having grown up on dad's stories of Mohammad Ali in the boxing ring it was a wish come true when I first bought a DVD (with Ali's fights) from Amazon for dad. I couldn't find it in India then. Things changed in 2005 when video sharing was possible, on a never before scale, with YouTube. Today, I've seen more fights of Ali than what dad listened to on the radio.

And its not just people's video, YouTube has brought the TV to the net. That is really something!

How the video sharing site sustains its present model is what I look forward to.

Opera: The Company with a Big Heart

2010-04-19T22:07:00.004+04:00

OPERA, the browser company, was started only in 1994. Yet, in 2007 the small browser company took on the might of Microsoft. Opera filed an antitrust complaint with the EU. It urged the EU to look into Microsoft's practice of bundling IE with its popular Windows OS.

Late last year Opera won and the software giant was forced to eat humble pie. Microsoft agreed to provide a choice of browsers to its users. It was a victory for the customer in general. The browser industry would now come up with even better products as a result.

I met the CEO of Opera Software, Jon S. von Tetzchner, once in Delhi while working as an IT journalist. If my meeting with him was any indicator of the company's vision then Opera strives hard to provide customers with innovative solutions. The several awards that the company received over the years is proof of that.

The company is credited to have pioneered many browser features that we work on today, such as tabs and Speed Dial.

So it came as no surprise to me when Opera Mini was approved for iPhone and iPod touch on the App Store this month.

Mini is currently the number one iPhone app in the 22 featured Apple App Stores on the Apple's website. It's another feather in Opera's cap!

Sania Mirza and the Difficullty in Marrying a Pakistani

2010-04-04T22:43:00.007+04:00

"WITH great powers come great responsibility." This one line stayed with me after watching the movie Spiderman. And this is exactly my take on Sania Mirza's proposed marriage to Shoeb Malik.

I have no issue with Sania or Shoeb as individuals. Who they marry is their personal choice. The problem is with the broader picture. Sania Mirza is a people's champion and a sports celebrity in India. Although she won less tournaments but is constantly in news as people love her.

She has a nation rooting for her every time she plays for India. She is India's pride on the tennis court. Off the field she continues to inspire millions of young girls in her country. They admire her guts and copy her style.

Bring in India's history with Pakistan, and her marriage plans surprised many like me. I agree that people to people contact would go a long way in bridging divides. But Sania being an Indian Muslim and that too an icon has greater responsibility on her young shoulders. Top it with Shoeb own's standing as a popular Pakistani cricketer and you have a complex situation.

Which team will Sania's and Shoeb's future kids support when India and Pakistan play against each other? I hope Sania has an answer to that!

The Google Story

2010-03-14T13:37:00.015+04:00

GOOGLE today is one of the world's most recognised brands. The search engine changed the way we look for information on the web. And it took the company less than a decade to reach such heights.

'The Google Story' written by David A. Vise with Mark Malseed is an exciting account of this truly remarkable company. Google single-handedly transformed the face of Internet with its state-of-art search technology.

Reading through the pages of the book is like witnessing the phenomenal rise of a search engine giant. David Vise has put in enough reasearch into the subject and it shows in the final product.

Google was born in the computer science labs of Stanford University. Sergey Brin and Larry Page were graduate students when they first met in the spring of 1995. They struck a chord instantly.

In 1997 the duo alongwith Rajeev Motwani, a Stanford professor, developed a prototype of a search engine for the university use. It was the first time that the PageRank system (developed by Larry) was used in conjunction with the conventional search engine technology. Initially named 'BackRub' it was later rechristened 'Google' (through a spelling mistake).

As the internal project got bigger it needed more money and resources. That's when Brin and Page started approaching firms, but met with disappointments. AltaVista had apprehensions about relying on outsiders. Yahoo wanted people to spend more time on its website, something not possible with the fast and accurate results that Google promised. Ironic indeed that Yahoo's co founder David Filo advised them to start their own business.

It was late 1998 when they met their angel in Andy Bechtolsheism, a computer whiz and investor in successful start-ups. He loved the idea and readily parted with a USD 100,000 cheque. Thus Google was formed! The same year Google made it to the PC Magazine's list of Top 100 Web Sites and Search Engines.

The next big moment for the company came in 1999 when Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital invested USD 25 million in Google Inc.

Inspite of so much cash coming in from outside, the duo managed to hold on to their control in the company. They were always the technologists first and the businessmen second. It reflects in the Google tag line "Don't be evil."

Brin and Page always did things differently. So when it came to the revenue model they came up with a bright new advertising model. It involved text based targeted ads that showed as search results.

In 2000 the firm partenered with Yahoo and provided the site with Google-generated search results. It was a giant leap. By 2001 'googling' entered the American lexicon as a verb. Eric Schmidt also joined Google as Chairman (and later became the CEO) in 2001. The next year was the most exciting one for the company as it closed deals with AOL, Earthlink and Ask Jeeves. It became a force to reckon with.

Gmail came out in 2004 and courted considerable controversy because of privacy fears. The company also went public that very year.

Google works unlike any technology company in the business. The Google workplace is more relaxed and informal. The company has even allocated 20 per cent of the total time software engineers spent in the company for their own projects. It is this 20 per cent rule that saw engineers like Krishna Bharat, from India, come up with innovations like the Google News in 2002.

The Google Story is written in a way that it highlights both the history and the principles of the company.

Google is a young company with mostly young people (including the founders) working for it. This has been a big contributing factor in its phenomenal rise. David Vise has successfully captured this element in his account.

The author, like million others, seems to share a soft corner for the company. Still the book is a worthy account of the search engine giant.

A must read for anybody who has ever laid hands on computers.

The World of Instant Relationships

2010-03-08T15:51:00.005+04:00

PEOPLE seems to be in a hurry these days. The culture of fast food is catching up in other areas as well.

Reality shows promise to make you an instant celebrity. Social networking is a magic tool for many who want instant friendship. Nobody wants to send hand-written letters, even for special occasions, as there is an instant way to communicate - Email and SMS for those who don't have time for even emails.

A long friend list on Facebook has become more of a fashion statement. To top it all people have so much of time to interact online that they maintain accounts on multiple social networking sites. What about the good old 'sit and talk' times!

The human touch is gradually fading away from our everyday interactions. It's a sad truth of today.

The Wishmaker

2010-03-01T16:48:00.005+04:00

'THE Wishmaker' is a refreshing new novel from a promising young Pakistani writer named Ali Sethi.

The author has managed to capture the essense of the Pakistani society in a simple yet beautiful story. His narrative is free flowing and his characters drawn from the average middle class family of the country.

The protogonist Zaki Shirazi returns to his roots in Lahore, from US, to attend the wedding of a cousin and childhood friend Samar Api. He discovers that life has changed in the city. Also, a military general is once again at the helm of national affairs. Amidst the celeberations, he takes a journey back in time to his growing up years.

As a young boy in Lahore, Zaki witnessed the rise of Benazir Bhutto. He even attended some political protests against the military with his journalist mother.

Zaki spent the maximum time with his cousin Samar Api. With her he shared a love for Hindi films and American soaps. Samar's own life was under teh influence of the serials and films she watched. Things take a disastrous turn when Zaki supports one of Samar's romantic schemes. And this is when Zaki comes of age and starts to see things on his own.

The novel has its poignant moments in Samar's Daadi remembering her friends Amrita and Seema, and how she loose one of them in the madness of the partition.

The Wishmaker has a feel good quality going about it. It brings in a sense of nostalgia. I am sure people from the Indian sub-continent would relate well with the story.

As a debut novel its an impressive piece of work.

Looting the Dead

2010-01-20T19:34:00.004+04:00

THESE guys seems oblivious to the fact that some 200,000 fellow countrymen perished in the earthquake.

2 States - The Story of my Marriage

2010-01-20T13:42:00.006+04:00

'TWO states: The story of my marriage' is another entertaining novel from Chetan Bhagat. The author seems to know what sells in the world of books when it comes to India.

Bhagat's characters are drawn from the average middle-class families in India. Their dreams and aspirations are shared by millions. Not surprisingly it's this class that contributes the maximum to the sales of Bhagat's books.

In Two States the author has handled the serious issue of marriages in India, and that too an inter-state one. The plot involves a boy and girl from two exactly oppposite states of India. It talks about their mutual attraction and the difficulties asscoiated in taking their relationship to the next level.

The author in his own humourous way has highlighted the differences between the North and South of India. Very few would disagree with him on this.

Bhagat's colloquial style of writing makes even simple stories, such as Two States, quite entertaining to read. He has a rare ability to find humour in the most difficult of situations. It is this quality which sets him apart from many other popular novelists in India.

Go pick up a copy of Two States, it will surely lighten up your mood!

Dubai is Built on Dreams

2010-01-10T11:53:00.006+04:00

THE foreign media has long been shouting about labour treatment in Dubai unaware of the ground realities. For them Dubai is buit on slavery. I wish they could see the broader picture, one that goes beyond the boundaries of UAE.

There's always a give and take whenever money is involved. Dubai for long had the most easy entry possible for those coming from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. So you get to see people from all segments coming to Dubai for a living. And how well Dubai has rewarded these people only they can tell. People working as drivers, gardeners, plumbers, construction-site labourers, etc, have made life easy for their families back home. Remember some of these people can't even speak a word of English and may not have even gone beyond their state in their respective countries.

If they are supposedly made slaves then why are they coming back. Surely people have stories to tell. The truth is everybody wants a good life.

Dubai is built on dreams and that's how I see the whole thing. For those in any doubt speak to the labours who have worked here and made money for a better life back home.

Technology Ideas for the Future

2010-01-04T12:29:00.010+04:00

SOME of the technology ideas that I feel would materialise soon-

* TV with built-in intelligence, for example, it could emit a related aroma when a cooking programme is on or will blow air when a scene of thunderstrom is on.
* Wireless power transmission.
* Single Smart Card that will acts as licence, passport, credit card, health card, ID card, etc.
* Self sustaining robots- robots that would need minimal human intervention.
* Intelligent homes- the windows double up as LCD screens, the bed is embedded with thermal sensors which activate a built-in heater during cold weather, the refrigerator mentions the items expiring soon, etc.

In the Name of Honour

2010-01-02T22:53:00.005+04:00

THERE are books that highlight issues more than the people involved and then there are books where the individual take the centre-stage and the issue becomes secondary. Unfortunately 'In the name of honour' a true story of an Afghan rape victim, Mukhtar Mai, falls in the second category.

It's a hastily written novel, perhaps to cash in on the latest media fascination with the plight of Muslim women in Afghanistan.

The book itself is full of repetitions. Translation could be the culprit here. Mai only speaks Saraiki and so the author Marie-Therese Cuny, a French woman, takes the help of two local interpretors for her interactions with Mai. From French, Linda Coverdale translated into English.

A subject as serious as rape deserves more groundwork. The book falters badly on this front. It fails to address the real issue and reads more as a self-indulgence exercise. There are hardly any concrete figures or an experienced voice to lend credibility to Mai's outburts.

The memoir could serve well as a marketing tool for the people who back Mukhtar Mai or the social work she is involved with. I hope it's the latter!

The Inheritance of Loss

2010-01-02T21:49:00.004+04:00

'THE inheritance of loss' by Kiran Desai is a well-crafted and engaging piece of fiction.

The narrative unfolds in Kalimpong, a small hill station between Siliguri and Gangtok offering excellent views of the Mt Kanchenganga.
A retired judge resides in an isolated house looking for peace when he is joined by his orphaned granddaughter, Sai. The Judge's cook looks after her. He is also troubled by the thoughts of his only son, Biju, who's struggling in US for a permanent job and a search for a green card. Sai's equation with her teacher changes when an Indian-Nepali insurgency brings out their conflicting interests.

The writer manages to intertwines Biju's search for livelihood and his self-discovery with the Judge's journey in his difficult past. The cook is the common thread in these two separate stories.

The minor characters too stand out and that speaks for the author's detailed narrative. Her description of the local landscape is refreshing.

The novel is a good commentary on the lives of illegal immigrants and colonialism. A fine work of fiction indeed!

Justice Delayed is Justice Denied

2009-12-28T15:55:00.011+04:00

Bhopal Gas Tragedy
FACT File: Dec 3, 1984. Some 500,000 people are exposed to poisonous gases in the state capital of Madhya Pradesh, India. Between 5000-8000 people died immediately and thousands over the years from long term illness. More than 100,00 remain chronically ill in Bhopal today. The water and soil of the area is still contaminated.

Where's the justice for innocents who still suffer?

Ruchika Molestation Case
Fact File: Aug 12, 1990. A promising 14 years old tennis player, Ruchika Girhotra, is molested by the then Director General of Police Shambhu Pratap Singh Rathore in Chandigarh, Haryana. The case drags on as the molestor moves freely. Ruchika on the other hand is expelled from school (maybe because Rathore's own daughter was Ruchika's classmate), false cases filed against her father and brother Ashu, the brother goes to the the prison and is tortured, her father is suspended from his job on false charges of corruption, Ashu is released a day after her suicide, the sole witness (Ruchika's friend Aradhana) gets harassed with threatening calls, false cases filed against Aradhana's parents, her father too suspended and demoted and eventually given premature retirement.

After 19 years, 40 adjournments, more than 400 hearings, and a promotion for Rathore, the court did find him guilty but could only sentenced him to six months imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1000. Within 10 minutes he got the bail and was smiling. What about the innocent smile that was lost forever?

Babri Masjid Demolition
Fact File: Dec 6, 1992. A mosque in the city Ayodhya of Uttar Pradesh, India, is destroyed by a strong crowd of 150,000 people. The police stood a mute spectator! More than 2000 people die across India in the riots that follow.

The Justice Liberhan Commission set up by the Government of India to investigate the demolition, took 48 extensions and 17 years to submit its report. The report itself has nothing new to offer. What a waste of public money and time.

Godhra Massacre
Fact File: February, 27 2002. 58 Hindu passengers are burnt alive in a coach of Sabarmati Express in Godhra, Gujarat, by a alleged Muslim mob. In the resulting riots more than 1000 (by official estimates and 2000 by independent sources) people, mostly Muslims, are butchered. The violence is covered extensively by the Indian media.

The cases are still being probed. Only a handful of the large numbers of accused have been found guilty and punished.

No wonder there are some 30 million unresolved legal cases in India. The police-politician nexus has to be broken for the court to work freely. And until that happens the unresolved cases would only add up.

Death of an Ayatollah

2009-12-20T16:12:00.008+04:00

THE picture on the left sybolises the last years of the highly vocal and influential Shia cleric Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri who died in his sleep today in Qom, Iran. He was 87.

His difference with Ayatollah Khomeini on the true values of the Islamic revolution made sure that he spent the rest of his life in the city of Qom behind books. From being a student and immediate successor to Khomeini to advocating the cause of human rights in Iran, Montazeri never shied away from giving his opinions come what may. On the recent Iranian elections and its surprise outcome he has this to say-

"If Iranians cannot talk about their legitimate rights at peaceful gatherings and are instead suppressed, complexities will build up which could possibly uproot the foundations of the government, no matter how powerful."

It can only come from someone who played an important part in the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran which helped remove the Shah.

He may have died but his words will forever question any setup where people's rights are infringed.

Media Bias Towards Dubai

2009-12-06T17:06:00.009+04:00

THE ongoing Dubai crisis has once again highlighted the biased mindset of some foreign media. How else can one justify the following-

“It has absolutely destroyed confidence. Who will do business with Dubai now?” said Christopher Davidson, an expert on Gulf economics at the University of Durham. “Sheikh Mohammed was hinting for years about a full sovereign guarantee behind these developers.

"It will be very difficult for Sheik Mohammed to survive this one," said Christopher Davidson, an expert in Gulf affairs at Britain's Durham University and author of two books on the Emirates. He said Mohammed misled investors by giving them the impression he had money to back his plans."---AP, 4th Dec 2009 ("Dubai ruler's ambition helped sow seeds of crisis.")

“The international financial community, and I know this to be the case in London, won’t do business with Dubai again,” he said. It’s a really devastating scenario.”---Times Online, 5th dec 2009 (Extract taken from the article "Confidence will never retutrn in Dubai.")

"If Dubai were a film trilogy, the first would be called “Riddle of the Sands” and the second “From al-Bling to al-Broke”. The third, “Just Deserts”, looks set to run and run." ---Times Online, 6th Dec 2009 ("Dubai keeps its head in the sand.")

"With such leadership in place, can the UAE remain strong? It is more than likely Abu Dhabi doesn’t think so and will encourage change. In that case, and if as a result Dubai can be brought more fully into the fold, then its financial implosion could represent a golden opportunity for Sheikh Zayed’s dream of a solid, cohesive federation finally to be realised."---Faxts.com, 5th Dec 2009 ("Dubai and Abu Dhabi: implosion and opportunity")

It seems both funny and hard to digest that banks, as big as RBS (the UK government owns a claiming stake of 70% in the bank) and HSBC (UK's largest bank by market capitalization), were so naive in lending such big amounts without any security or guarantee.

Everybody was making money when the desert sun was shining brightly. And all hell broke loose with one announcement about a delay (not a write-off) in payment. As for the British press it got another opportunity, post the property slump, to go after Dubai.

Much of this is understandable as Dubai with its vision managed to lure investors to a desert without oil. Investors who could have very well gone to more established and mature markets.

The Young Indian Making India Proud

2009-12-05T19:01:00.003+04:00

WATCH Pranav Mistry, a research assistant at MIT, demonstrating his award winning SixthSense technology to an appreciative audience. You are making India proud kid!

Wings Of Fire - An Autobiography

2009-11-25T12:34:00.003+04:00

THE moment you think of missile, and if you are an Indian, chances are that almost always the figure of Abdul Kalam conjures up in the mind. Such is the impact of Dr Kalam on the development of missile technology in India.

Perhaps the same impact led me into buying his autobiography on my trip to India recently. Actually it was long on my list of ‘to read’ books. I’m glad now that I’ve it. Kalam’s autobiography is as inspiring as his life to the millions of Indians around the globe.

Aptly titled “Wings of Fire,” it’s written by one of Kalam’s own pupils, Arun Tiwari. Arun worked under Kalam for over a decade in the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad. How difficult the task must have been for Arun is expressed in his own words, “His (Dr Kalam) conversation was not always easy to follow, but was always fresh and stimulating. There were complexities, subtleties, and intriguing metaphors and subplots in his narrative, but gradually the unfolding of his brilliant mind took the form of a continuous discourse.” But it was all worth it in the end, “For myself (Arun), writing this book has been like a pilgrimage.” What more can one say for such a person.

Avul (great-grandfather) Pakir (grandfather) Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was born in 1931 in the island town of Rameshwaran in Tamil Nadu to a little educated boatowner. His father Jainulabdeen was a spiritual man always willing to help others. As Kalam himself said he tried throughout his life to emulate his father in his world of science and technology. Surely he must have been someone special.

“When my father came out of the mosque after the prayers, people of different religions would be sitting outside, waiting for him. Many of them offered bowls of water to my father who would dip his fingertips in them and say a prayer. This water was then carried home for invalids. I also remember people visiting our home to offer thanks after being cured. My father always smiled and asked them to thank Allah, the benevolent and merciful.”

Kalam’s mother Ashiamma was an ideal helpmate to his father. She used to feed quite a few outsiders every day.

Two other persons influenced Kalam’s boyhood, his sister’s husband Ahmed Jallaluddin and cousin Samsuddin. Kalam’s talks with Jallaluddin mostly revolved around spiritual matters. Although Jallaluddin had limited schooling because of family reasons, he always encouraged Kalam to excel in his studies.

This is what Kalam says of him –

“Incidentally, at the time I speak of, he was the only person on the entire island who could write English. He wrote letters for almost anybody in need…Jallaluddin always spoke to me about educated people, of scientific discoveries, of contemporary literature, and of the achievements of medical science. It was he who made me aware of a “brave, new world” beyond our narrow confines.”

Samsuddin was the sole distributor for newspapers in Rameswaran. Kalam worked for a while as his helper during the outbreak of Second World War in 1939.

Kalam’s beautifully sums up the influences in his early childhood –

“I inherited honesty and self-discipline from my father; from my mother, I inherited faith in goodness and deep kindness and so did my three brothers and sister. But it was the time I spent with Jallaluddin and Samsuddin that perhaps contributed most to the uniqueness of my childhood and made all the difference in my later life. The unschooled wisdom of Jallaluddin and Samsuddin was so intuitive and responsive to non-verbal messages, that I can unhesitatingly attribute my subsequently manifested creativity to their company in my childhood.”

The real step in the direction where Kalam stands today was taken when he applied for admission into the Madras Institute of Technology. He got selected but the fee of 1000 rupees was too much for his father. His sister, Zohara, had to mortgage her gold bangles and chain to see him through.

From MIT, Kalam went to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) as a trainee. He worked on engine overhauling as part of a team. Out of HAL, as a graduate aeronautical engineer, Kalam applied for both the Air Force and the Directorate of Technical Development and Production DTD&P(Air) of the Ministry of Defence. He got interview calls from both the places.

He could only finish ninth in the batch of 25 examined to select eight officers for commissioning in the Air Force. Needless to say he was terribly disappointed. On the positive side he got selected as a Senior Scientific Assistant at the DTD&P(Air). His monthly salary was Rs 250 per month in 1958.

It was his work on an indigenous hovercraft named Nandi that got him noticed. He was taken by the Indian Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) as a Rocket Engineer. Sometime in 1962 he was asked to proceed to New York, US, for a six-month training programme on sounding rocket launching techniques, at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) work centres.

He worked at Langley Research Centre (LRC) and Goddard Flight Centre (GSFC). Towards the end of his trip he went to Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island in East Coast, Virginia. This place was the base for NASA’s sounding rocket programme. Something there made him feel very proud and reading it made me too.

“Here, I saw a painting prominently displayed in the reception lobby. It depicted a battle scene with a few rockets flying in the background. A painting with this theme should be the most commonplace thing at a Flight Facility, but the painting caught my eye because the soldiers on the side launching the rockets were not white, but dark-skinned, with the racial features of people found in South Asia. One day, my curiosity got the better of me, drawing me towards the painting. It turned out to be Tipu Sultan’s army fighting the British. The painting depicted a fact forgotten in Tipu’s own country but commemorated here on the other side of the planet. I was happy to see an Indian glorified by NASA as a hero of warfare rocketry.”

Neverthless Tipu did manage to inspire a few talented Indians–

“The development of Indian rockets in the twentieth century can be seen as a revival of the eighteenth-century dream of Tipu Sultan. When Tipu Sultan was killed, the British captured more than 700 rockets and subsystems of 900 rockets in the battle of Turukhanahally in 1799…These rockets had been taken to England by William Congreve and were subjected by the British to what we call ‘reverse engineering’ today.”

Thanks mainly to efforts of people like Dr Vikram Sarabhai and Jawaharlal Nehru, rocketry was reborn in India. Prof. Sarabhai was the one who inspired Kalam to stretch himself beyond boundaries. For Kalam, he was the Mahatma Gandhi of Indian science, “generating leadership qualities in his team and inspiring them through both ideas and example.” When Prof. Sarabhi passed away on 31^st Dec 1971 it was a great personal blow to Kalam and a huge loss to Indian science.

Prof. Satish Dhawan took over as the head of ISRO. This is how Kalam saw him-

“He could hold the listener enthralled because of the logical, intellectual acumen he could bring to bear on his analysis of any subject…I found him full of optimism and compassion. Although he often judged himself harshly, with no allowances or excuses, he was generous to a fault when it came to others.”

On other person who influenced Kalam both personally and professionally was Dr Brahm Prakash.

“If Prof. Sarabhai was the creator of VSSC, Dr Brahm Prakash was the executor. He had nurtured the institution when it most needed nourishment. Dr Brahm Prakash played a very important role in shaping my leadership skills. In fact my association with him was a turning point in my life. His humility mellowed me and helped me discard my aggressive approach…He was an intellectual giant with a frail constitution; he had a childlike innocence and I always considered him a saint among scientists.”

On 18^thJuly 1980, after previous failures and issues, SLV-3 lifted off form SHAR. It was India’s first Satellite Launch Vehicle, and Kalam uttered the most important words of his life, “Mission Director calling all stations. Stand by for an important announcement. All stages performed to mission requirements. The fourth stage apogee motor has given the required velocity to put Rohini Satellite into orbit”. Minutes later he was lifted onto the shoulders of his jubilant colleagues as India became the fifth country to achieve satellite launch capability.

The very next year Kalam received the Padma Bhushan and an year later he was appointed the Director of DRDL. It was here that the ‘missile man’ we know was born, and so did his babies Prithvi, Trishul, Akash, Nag and Agni. The once abandoned Devil missile project was revisited to the delight of those once a part of it. The then PM, Mrs Indira Gandhi, too, took notice of this new development. She visited DRDL on 19^th July, 1984, the same year she was assassinated.

All the, now famous, missiles were test fired during Kalam’s stay at DRDL. A Padma Vibhushan in 1990 followed along with all the accolades.

But for an Indian, a Bharat Ratna is the peak of excellence and the greatest appreciation that he can get for his efforts. And so when the nation honoured one of its beloved scientists in 1997, Kalam’s name was forever enshrined in the annals of Indian science.

Kalam’s autobiography is a must read for all Indians. It inspires, educates, and encourages us to do things which we ‘could’ but never tried. As I always say, “The essence of life lies in facing difficulties and overcoming them with courage.” Dr Kalam stands testimony to it!

I would like to sign off with Kalam's own words–

“I will not be presumptuous enough to say that my life can be a role model for anybody; but some poor child living in an obscure place, in an underprivileged social setting may find a little solace in the way my destiny has been shaped. It could perhaps help such children liberate themselves from the bondage of their illusory backwardness and hopelessness. Irrespective of where they are right now, they should be aware that God is with them and when He is with them, who can be against them?...Let the latent fire in the heart of every Indian acquire wings, and the glory of this great country light up the sky.”

Note. This is a rather old review but posting it now on this blog.

Sir Syed Day - A Retrospection

2009-11-15T13:25:00.007+04:00

I FEEL sad to say that my first attendance at 'Sir Syed Day' (in UAE) after leaving AMU was an utter disappointment. For me it's a day to remember the great soul and find ways to fulfill his dream of Muslim upliftment.

I absolutely adore Azharuddin for what he achieved on the cricket pitch, but why do we need to invite him when there are some very senior and highly influential Aligs already working in UAE.

We desperately need to change this image of 'Sir Syed Day' as a 'Sir Syed Dinner.' Also, where is the need to host dinner in a 5 star hotel! I think the whole purpose is killed by this dinner.

If my voice can reach anywhere I've the following humble suggestions-

1 Sir Syed Day should have a Q&A with a senior working representative from AMU on the ways to improve the working of the university.

2 There should be a small form for the people attending where they should give their suggestions and the ways they can contribute to the university.

3 The representative should share important figures like the number of campus selections and the students making it to the civil services.

4 The platform should also serve as a means to help our brothers and sisters looking for a job or accomodation. I know some people may laugh but it's a serious issue for an expat anywhere.

5 I know the event is very well organised and covered by the press in Saudi Arabia but it isn't in UAE. There should be a press release. At least those who are unable to make it know what all they missed. Indirectly it would serve to build the AMU brand which has been hit hard.

6 People should be felicitated on the basis of their contributions (beyond money, although money is important too) to the alma mater. Those providing books to the library or supporting poor students deserve equally.

7 Every year there should be a mention of some prominent Aligs who made the university proud with their achievements. A brief about their life and if possible a video message from them. This should be the common factor in all the different chapters of the event across the globe.

8 There are better fillers than the archaic jokes cracked during the recent event in UAE.

That's all I can think as of now. The bottom line is, it has to be a serious business if we want to restore the high standards of this great university.

I love my university and feel sad when I see the current state of affairs.

How to Win Friends & Influence People

2009-11-12T12:33:00.003+04:00

'HOW to win friends & influence people' by Dale Carnegie is an exercise in effective public relations. Carnegie used to conduct educational courses for business and professional people. The book being reviewed is a result of his own search for a "practical, working handbook on human relations."

The book relies on real world stories, which the reader can instantly relate to. Some of the ideas and suggestions may seem natural, but the way Carnegie puts them encourages you to give it a second shot. Mind you the book was published (in 1937) when not even my father was born. The author must have influnced many other authors during all these years.

Carnegie has neatly divided his book into four broad sections viz., fundamental techniques in handling people, six ways to make people like you, how to win people to your way of thinking and how to change people without giving offense or arousing resentment. The author borrows from several others well reputed books on the same subject, and put it to good use.

To me the book is also a collection of some memorable quotes. I found these worth mentioning-

* Every act you ever performed since the day you were born was performed because you wanted something.
* Your smile is a messenger of your good will.
* The life of many a person could probably changed if only someone would make him feel important.
* Nine times out of ten, an argument ends with each of the contestants more firmly convinced than ever that he is absolutely right.

Dale Carnegie book is pure library material. It's a good read for all those who find difficulty in dealing with people. Follow the rules and you, too, would be a winner.

"The politics of hatred never succeeds"

2009-11-12T11:52:00.007+04:00

WHAT an irony that the statement above, if you believe it, is coming from the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray. Isn't he the same man whose party people beat up north Indians on the streets of Mumbai some time back! Now his men have beaten a SP legislator inside the state assembly for taking oath in Hindi.

What angers me is when such politicians are questioned about their ways they'll mention excesses in some other Indian states. The militancy in Kashmir or Assam can never justify violence in any part of India.

I guess Maharashtra has resigned itself to the kind of politics that Bal Thackeray started. Raj carries on the same legacy.

Just wonder what would happen if the other 27 Indian states follow suit. May be Raj Thackeray has some answers!

I Love You Mom

2009-10-22T22:59:00.011+04:00

Safar Ab Jitna Baaqi Hai

Bohat sardi hai --- mamma
abhi kuch dayr
mera hath mat chhore(n)!

zmastaa(n) ki hawa se kapkapaata
mere seene se laga
tu keh raha tha!

ziyada din nahi guzre
k meri goad ki garmi
tujhe aaraam deti thi
galay me mere, baahe(n) daal kar tu is tarha sota
k aksar sari sari raat meri
aik karwat me guzar jaati !

mere daaman ko pakre
ghar me titlee ki tarah se ghoomta rehta
magar phir jald hi tujh ko
parindo(n) or phoolo(n)
or phir ham-jholiyo(n) k paas se aesa bulaava aagaya
jis ko paa kar
meri ungli chura kar
tu hujoom-e-rang me khushbu ki surat mil gaya tha
phir is k baad khaabo(n) se bhara bastaa liye
school ki janib rawaana ho gaya tu
jahan phir rang or phir hafr or phir hindse
or sau tarha k khel tere muntazir the
dil lubhaate the
tere ustaad mujh se moa'tabar the
dost mujh se khoob-tar the
mujhe maloom hain
main tujh se peeche reh gaii hun
safar ab jitna baqi hain
wo bas paspaaii ka hi reh gaya hain
teri dunya me ab har pal
naye logon ki aamad hain
main be-had khaamushi se
unki jaghe(n) khaali karte jaa rahi hun
tera chehra nikharta ja raha hain
me pas-manzar me hoti jaa rahi hun

ziyada din na guzre(n) ge
mere haatho(n) ki ye dheemi haraarat
tujhe kafi nahi hogi
koi khush-lams dast-e-yaasmee(n) aa kar
gulaabi rang hiddat
tere haatho(n) me samo dega
mera dil tujh ko kho de ga
main baaqi umr
tera raasta takti rahun gi
main maa(n) hun
or meri qismat judaai hain

(Parveen Shakir - Famous Pakistani Urdu Poetess)

As much as I wanted to I didn't translate it into English. The beauty lies in its language.

Disgraceful!

2009-10-08T14:30:00.007+04:00

"This is the reason why parents don't want their children to pursue sports as a career in this country. This is why India figures nowhere in sports."---PT Usha, India's greatest female athelete.

EVERYBODY salutes the rising sun! Not even India's most famous sprinter can deny this sad, but true, fact. Her recent treatment at the Bhopal atheletics meet in Madhya Pradesh is a testimony to it.

Isn't she the same woman who is popularly called the queen of Indian track and field, and won 4 golds and 1 silver for her country at the 10th Asian Games in 1986! Her 11 medals at the Asian Games and 101 international medals make her a national treasure.

Alas! My country reserves the best of treatment to our cricketers who have won us just one world cup (50 overs) and that too in 1983. I can imagine the plight of others who are no PT Usha.

What discimination!

Guzishta Lucknow

2009-09-26T20:58:00.019+04:00

THE first name that comes up whenever a book reference is needed on the city of Lucknow is "Guzishta Lucknow." The book is a detailed historical account of the Lucknow society during the Nawabi rule by Maulana Abdul Halim Sharar. Maulana Sharar took out several magazines during his lifetime, his most famous being 'Dilgudaaz Lucknow' [ENG: Beloved Lucknow.] In that magazine Sharar wrote a series on Lucknow by the name of "Hindostan me mashriqi tamaddun ka akhri namoona" [Lucknow : The Last Phase Of An Oriental Culture.] It ran for years and was warmly received. The same was later turned into 'Guzishta Lucknow' the book.

Sharar's Urdu is reminiscent of a glorious past. A past where city of Lucknow reached its zenith in terms of its rich traditions and culture. To read Guzishta Lucknow is like walking through a city which slowly but surely outshined its elder brother - Delhi. The Nawabi patronage to arts and the difficult affairs at the Moghul Capital, Delhi, brought Lucknow into prominence. This was also the time when Persian reigned supreme at the court of Awadh. Not surprising as the Nawabs came from Iran.

The book gives you an insight into the daily lives of the Nawabs and the commoners of the city. The author has managed to capture even minor details like how the paan (beetle leaf served as a breath freshener) was served during social gatherings in his account of history.

Guzishta Lucknow is filled with countless lesser known facts and fascinating stories about yesteryear's Lucknow. The author tells us that it was actually Faizabad (a city close to Lucknow) where the Nawabi rule originated and initially flourished. Most of today's so called old city areas came up during the period of Nawab Asafi-ud-daulah. His son's Wazir Ali Khan's wedding had 1200 elephants, and the bridegroom dress was studded with Rupees 2 million worth of precious stones. Nawab Sa'adat Ali Khan was responsible for the establishment of many old markets such as Sa'adatganj, Rakaabganj, Maulviganj, Golaganj and Rastogi mohalla. He also built Motimahal. Nawab Ghayasuddin Haider started the practice of animal fighting in Lucknow. His wife on the other hand pioneered numerous new and controversial Shia practices. A cook named Muhamdoo in the period of Nawab Nasir-ud-din Haider invented the sheermaal (a popular orange coloured local bread). Nawab Amjad Ali Shah established Hazratganj and connected Lucknow and Kanpur with a road link. During his tenure, his minister Amin-ud-daulah inhabited Aminabad. Nawab Wajid Ali Shah never danced in his life as many believe.

The book is a slow read specially through the end and lacks continuity. This could have been avoided if the magazine articles were better edited and adopted. Also, the author's uninhibited love for Lucknow makes him a little biased towards Delhi in his account.

If you are from Lucknow or if history interests you then Guzishta Lucknow would be an enjoyable read. Lucknow has rarely been portrayed this lovingly.

The Metro Comes to Dubai

2009-09-08T12:42:00.005+04:00

TOMORROW Dubai would take another giant leap with the opening of the Dubai Metro. The world's second longest fully automated rail service may finally resolve Dubai traffic woes during peak hours. For the visitors to Dubai it would be a smooth and fun ride.

More than anything else the Metro will give the Dubai residents a chance to admire their city from some new windows. The view from the Sheikh Zayed track would be definitely exciting!

The five-car trains are designed to carry around 650 passengers. In addition the trains will have three classes viz., Gold, Women and Children, and Silver. The average speed of the trains will be around 45 kmph.

Safety is of prime importance in such projects and Dubai Metro is no exception. It's designed to meet international safety standards. Some 3000 CCTV cameras are installed at stations and inside the trains to ensure safety of the passengers.

Bharat Ratna for Dilip Kumar

2009-08-30T15:24:00.007+04:00

AFTER recently watching Sanghursh I could not but admire Dilip Kumar's acting abilities. More so as the film boasts two other acting greats - Balraaj Sahni and Sanjeev Kumar.

For someone who has grown up watching Amitabh Bachchan's films Dilip Kumar was a star from an older generation. I still remember the fights we had in the family over who was better - Amitabh Bachchan or Dilip Kumar. My father's generation used to dote on Yusuf saheb and we on Mr Bachchan.

During my school days I bought Amitabh Bachchan's biography. It mentioned Dilip Kumar as his favourite actor and my long standing bias towards Yusuf saheb lessened. I started watching his films.

Gradually I realised that Dilip Kumar was more than an actor - he was an institution! His methodical approach to acting made the craft look different.

The language his character speaks fluently in 'Ganga Jamuna' (a local dialect from the rural north of India) was something of a first in a mainstream Hindi movie. 'Ram Aur Shyam' can rightly be called the mother, or rather the father, of all twins-separated-at-birth Hindi films.

Dilip Kumar shared screen space with almost all the greats of Indian cinema and somehow always stood out. Perhaps the biggest testimony to his acting skills is the fact that he won his first Filfare Best Actor Award in 1954 (the same year it was incorporated) for 'Daag' and his last Filmfare Best Actor nomination for 'Saudagar' in 1992. During the years in between he managed to win 8 Filmfare Best Actor trophies, a record he still holds.

Dilip Kumar was always a big star but the actor in him was even bigger. Today Dilip Kumar is a role model for all those who dream of a acting career in Mumbai.

Apart from movies Yusuf saheb did his bit for the upliftment of Urdu language. His own chaste urdu leaves one wanting for more. He has been working tirelessly all his life towards the betterment of Indo-Pak relations. He is also known for his charity work.

Honouring such rare individuals is natural. Dilip Kumar has touched enough lives in India and abroad with his work to deserve India's highest honour. He is already a jewel of India, only the citation has to come from the Government of India.

Awards & Honours

* National Lifetime Achievement Award (2006)
* Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award (B.F.J.A. Awards, 2005)
* Nishan-e-Pakistan (1997)
* NTR National Award (1997)
* Dada Saheb Phalke Award (1994)
* Fimfare Lifetime Achievement Award (1994)
* Filmfare Best Actor (Shakti, 1983)
* Filmfare Best Actor (Ram Aur Shayam, 1968)
* Filmfare Best Actor (Leader, 1965)
* Filmfare Best Actor (Kohinoor, 1961)
* Filmfare Best Actor (Naya Daur, 1958)
* Filmfare Best Actor (Devdas, 1957)
* Filmfare Best Actor (Azaad, 1956)
* Filmfare Best Actor (Daag, 1954)

Join in the facebook campaign to honour Dilip Kumar with Bharat Ratna: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=128792135718&ref=mf

Rediscover Your Roots

2009-08-15T11:04:00.009+04:00

WHEN Rakesh Omprakash Mehra made the movie Aks it was out rightly rejected by most. Some later called it a classic that would be remembered later. So when Rang De Basanti was released there were not many expectations.

The story revolves around a British woman (played by Alice Patten) who wants to make a documentary on the Indian freedom struggle based on her grandfather's diary involving young revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh. She comes to India and with the help of an Indian friend (Soha Ali Khan) starts on her project. In the process of selecting people suited for her characters she changes the perspective of a college going fun-loving group. The film itself evolves with her documentary. Nothing sums this up better than Alice's dialogues in the movie, "Shayad ab wo jaag uthe the." [ENGLISH: Maybe they've awaken!]

The constant back and forth between the past and present reflects the struggle that the characters are going through in the film. Through his film Mehra has both managed to tackle the ills of the Indian society and given the youth of India a social commentary to ponder over.

The script of the movie holds it together. Unlike most patriotic movies the dialogues by Prasoon Joshi and Rensi D Silva don't go overboard but still have the desired effect. One stands out, "Koi bhi desh perfect nahin hota use behtar banana padta hai" [No country is perfect, it has to be made better].

Cinemotography by Binod Pradhan is top-notch.

The youthful music is in keeping with the mood of the film. The man behind it, AR Rahman, has given another memorable score. I especially like his take on Ram Prasad Bismill's famous Urdu poem 'Sarfaroshi ki tamanna' [Desire for sacrifice]. It's very original and very inspiring. It's difficult to choose between the rest of the songs and that speaks for his effort. RDB is another jewel in Rahman's crown.

The acting honours are evenly divided amongst the supporting cast. Steven Mackintosh as the jailor Mr McKinley acts with his eyes. He gives a certain respect to his character. Alice Patten as his grand-daughter is the surprise package of the film. She charms you with her sensitive portrayal and her accented Hindi.

Soha Ali Khan as Sue's friend Sonia makes full use of such an early opportunity in her career. Her character provides her ample scope to display her acting skills. She does it really well. Her on-screen chemistry with her friends is worth a mention.

Atul Kulkarni, Kunal Kapoor, Sidharth, and Sharman Joshi have given career defining performances. Madhavan is a different class and has proved it again as Flight Lt. Ajay Rathod in the movie. Waheeda Rehman, Anupam Kher, Kiron Kher and Om Puri are seasoned actors who shine in their small roles.

That said it all the film belongs to Amir Khan. How Amir comes up with performances like these so often in his career is something remarkable. He makes you laugh, sing, cry and think. You can't help falling in love with the character of DJ played to absolute perfection by Amir. The scene on the dining table where DJ looks at Sue, in both surprise and admiration for her Hindi speaking abilities, shows Amir's depth of acting.

On the downside, the climax is a little far fetched but it did succeed in giving the desired impact.

Rang De Basanti is more than a film. It's an inspirational piece of visual art that every Indian should watch.

Will the US Middle-East Policy ever Change?

2009-08-04T14:24:00.007+04:00

It was funny to read about Hillary Clinton's remarks on the NBC show. She says about Iran, "We are going to do everything we can to prevent you (Iran) from getting a nuclear weapon." On Israel it's the same old rhetoric, "The US stands with you and the US believes that Israel has a right to security." What double standards!

Who is the smart lady fooling! Where was the issue of security when Israel secretly pursued its nuclear programme? No other nation had the nuclear capability in the entire middle-east then.

In spite of having the best of technology and brains, US is yet to provide a solid evidence that Iran would use its nuclear knowledge to develop nuclear weapons.

It's amazing to see how a country repeats the same old mistakes. Where are the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? They destroyed a whole country and tore its social fabric apart in the name of weapons. There's no Saddam, no weapons and if the situation continues no police force left to manage security affairs. All thanks to Al-Qaeda and other militant groups. Now the very future of Iraq is threatened.

It’s high time US stops blindly supporting Israel. Look what they did to Lebanon!

As for Iran I hope sanity is restored and the Iranians sit with the US for a decisive dialogue.

It's Not Easy to be a Journalist

2009-08-04T14:05:00.006+04:00

The recent trend of militants targeting journalists is certainly a bad omen. These brave individuals bring out the faintest of voices, at times even risking their lives. God has given us brains to decide whether the news is to be believed or just ignored.

Journalists are humans too; sometimes they fail in their reporting. But that's the difficulty associated with giving the complete picture. Still, we need to hear both sides of the stories.

In case of Taliban, there's not much good to talk about. Whatever good (ban on opium poppy cultivation) they did has been hugely overshadowed by their killings of innocent people.

If they feel the media has not been very kind to them then they should check their behaviour. Why don't they debate about their approach with other learned Islamic scholars?

Silencing the voices of reason only proves that they don't want to listen. Perhaps they forget that Islam has always promoted dialogue.

Protests in Iran

2009-06-29T14:12:00.007+04:00

The right to protest is a person's fundamental right, be it any society. It's another story that for some strange reasons the demonstrations in Iran have been restricted to the streets of Tehran. The elite of Tehran may not reflect the popular opinion.

The hype surrounding Iran's election was mostly a western media's brainchild. Ahmadinejad was a popular figure in most parts of Iran. He may not have been a clear favourite to win but his chances were better. Still that doesn't justify the government's strong arm tactics against the protesters.

Iran today is passing through a volatile phase. It has to show restraint in dealing with the west and its own people. The country needs an individual who is ready for dialogue, which which has been the founding principles of Islam. Unless you listen you won't know!

More people in Iran today favour talks with US than ever before. If Obama can accept the past mistakes and is ready to share the table, then, Iran too should rethink. But, first they need to listen to the voices from inside.

Now Buy Gold as You Buy a Pepsi

2009-06-29T12:24:00.005+04:00

Who would have thought that one day the vending machines would be dispensing gold! Well, it's happening in Germany and soon people there would be buying gold as they buy a can of soft drink. The idea really struck me as something very novel and one that's in keeping with the troubled times.

The project titled 'Gold to Go' would see ATMs dispensing gold across 500 different locations in Germany.

I guess with the sales staff gone the gold companies could offer better bargains on such sales. Beyond bargains, this is one step closer to a more automated society. And in the longer run we would be losing the charm of shopping, something associated with personal interactions and physical inspections.

My Life and Work

2009-06-01T20:04:00.005+04:00

The more I read of the current economic slump and companies going bankrupt, the more relevant I find this book by Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motors. "My life and work" is a candid autobiography of a truly great individual. How he founded and shaped Ford Motors is something that he shares in this classic.

The book documents Ford's passion for machines and his constant endeavour to manufacture better vehicles to help serve the society. His story, like all truly great stories, is fascinating to read. From a mere concept at his family farm in Michigan, Ford Motors evolved and prospered into a global car manufacturing unit under the able guidance of Henry Ford. It was a classic case of passion meeting service!

Ford's writing style is simple and one that connects well with a wider audience. The book as a whole is a masterful account of how to set up your business and the ethics that help sustain it. How very true is the author when he says, "It is the function of business to produce for consumption and not for money or speculation." The words spoken some 86 years back were so prophetic. The current economic crisis is a simple case of greed and speculation. Ford rightly defines greed as a species of nearsightedness. The book is full of such pearls of wisdom.

The great man is very forthright about his take on things. He is not one who considers all men equal, "Most certainly all men are not equal and any democratic conception which strives to make men equal is only an effort to block progress." The importance of community services is stressed throughout his book, " Money comes naturally as the result of service. And it is absolutely necessary to have money. But we do not want to forget that the end of money is not ease but the opportunity to perform more service." He finds failure as an opportunity to begin again, "What is past is useful only as it suggests ways and means for progress."

I would strongly suggest this book to all those aspiring entrepreneurs. For the rest it's an inspiring piece of work.

Firaaq - A Brave New Effort

2009-04-23T18:45:00.016+04:00

I saw Firaaq this week and was quite impressed with its realistic portrayal of the events. Nandita Das is not just a very fine actress but also an active social activist, and it shows in her directorial debut. The movie is a no-nonsense take at the horrible Gujarat riots. What makes Das' effort different is her characters. It's how her characters evolve in the aftermath of the violence that's makes the movie special.

And boy what a stellar cast! It seems you can't miss Naseruddin Shah when you are making a socially relevant film. Naseer has turned another fine performance after 'A Wednesday'. You are absolutely charmed by his character of Khan Saheb, the musician. You can feel the agony in his eyes when he realises that his city is buring with communal violence. His response to his caretaker's, "Apko is baat ka gham nahin ke musalman maara ja raha hai?" [TRANS : Don't you feel sad that Muslims are being killed?]" is the dialogue that will stay with you. He says, "Insaan insaan ko mar raha hai is baat ka gham hai Kaleem miya!" [TRANS: "Human being is killing his fellow human being that saddens me!]"

Raghuveer Yadav is a brilliant actor be it any role, Firaaq is no exception either. He could have easily played the role of Kaleem miya, Khan saheb's caretaker, in his sleep. It's a pity that the world of Hindi cinema couldn't fully utilize this tremendous talent. Ever since he charmed us in Massey Sahib almost two decades back, he's given us some amazing performances on television and in movies.

The rest of the star cast too turned in restrained but commendable performances, be it the highly talented Shahana Goswami as Munira or Tisca Chopra as Anuradha Desai. Sanjay Suri has realised early that offbeat films is where he should focus on, and so far he is doing quite well. Mohammad Samad as the little boy Mohsin fitted the role perfectly.

For me the defining moment of the movie was when Munira (wrongly) thinks that her good (Hindu) friend was there when her house was being burnt down. In one shot the director was able to highlight the mistrust that the Muslims in Gujarat developed as a result of the mindless violence.

Sanjay Suri's Sameer Shaikh speaks well for most educated Indian Muslims. Actually Das has managed to cover the majority of Muslim classes in India, and this is where she excels.

The musical score gels well with the plot and is actually quite a surprise.

Firaaq is serious cinema, one that will hit you hard.

An Attempt at Funny Urdu Poetry

2009-04-13T09:54:00.008+04:00

Watan ki Yaad

Wo bhaise ke paaye, wo bakre ki biryani
Wo pairon se latka hua ek ulta murgha
Wo talte kawabon ka fiza me mehakna
Nahin bhool sakte wo *chaapad ki sargam
Topi lagaye ek muskurata hua chehra
Wo haddiyon pe ladta hua kutton ka lashkar
Bhulaaye nahin bhool sakte hain wo manzar

Ye daulat bhi le lo ye shohrat bhi le lo
Bhale chheen lo mujse meri 4 wheel drive
Magar mujhko lauta do wo paranthon ki galiyan
Wo mere tumhaare buzurgon ki galiyan!

* Big flat knife especially used for mincing meat

AR Rahman: The Mozart of Madras

2009-04-09T15:33:00.007+04:00

THINK of the movie ‘Roja’ and its music comes instantly to the mind. The musical compositions of the movie swept the whole nation and created a star. That was also the time when many like me thought that an Indian musician has produced a truly international score. When AR Rahman followed the success of Roja with the music of Kadalan and Bombay, the genius in him was confirmed. Its 17 years since Roja but Rahman hasn’t lost his ground. He remains one of India’s finest ever music composers!

Rahman’s musical roots may be traced to his father R.K. Sekhar who was a music director himself. The highly respected singer Yesudas sang several Malayalam songs under Sekhar, something which he would repeat for his son. When Rahman created history at the Oscars, Yesudas promptly said, “Rahman makes music out of silence.”

Rahman took piano lessons at a very young age of four. Five years later, tragedy struck his home when his father passed away. Being the only son could have led to his musical career starting at just eleven. Rahman joined the legendry music director Ilayaraja's troupe as a keyboard player and also accompanied the renowned tabla player Ustad Zakir Hussain on world tours. He dropped out of school by this time.

Rahman’s finally got the opportunity to showcase his talent to a wider audience when Maniratnam met him at an awards function. Rahman was there to receive the award for the Best Ad Jingle for a coffee ad. The ace director signed him the moment he listened to his compositions. The movie was Roja and Rahman became a household name with its release. In fact the Maniratnam-Rahman duo gave movies from down South a new found respect amongst the North-Indian cinema-goers.

For me Rahman’s crowning glory was the National Award (the first by a debutant) and the recognition for the music of Roja. In 2005 Time Magazine chose it as one of the ten best soundtracks of all time. The magazine was all praise for the man behind it, “This astonishing debut work parades Rahman's gift for alchemizing outside influences until they are totally Tamil, totally Rahman.” Slumdog Millionaire took his career to a different level altogether.

We, in India, knew his talent for long and for us it was just a matter of time before the rest of the world would recognise it. Bharat Bala, producer of Vande Matram, echoed the same thoughts after Rahman’s incredible show at the Oscars, “I think his music is truly international as he is able to connect with global audiences, something which no Indian has been able to do.” For Rahman his music is the outcome of a desire to influence the young India, “I wasn't too happy with the I-don't-want-to-listen-to-it attitude of our youngsters towards film music. Why can't we get our guys to listen to our own music rather than to Michael Jackson? I didn't want us to lose the market to the West. The music had to be cool and rooted, and yet had to branch out.” The acclaimed lyrics writer Gulzaar agrees, “Rahman’s compositions are a challenge - because he is innovative and unconventional. His music talks to you and work becomes easy.”

With a Padma Shree, 4 National Awards, 25 Filmfare Awards, 1 Bafta Award, 1 Golden Globe and 2 Academy Awards most people would change in their outlook, but not Rahman. He makes sure that all his artists are given due credit. That’s why you will find the mention of his entire team on the inlay card of an album. I was once listening to the flute player (forgot the name) behind the theme music of the movie ‘Bombay’ on NDTV expressing his surprise when during a show in Dubai the crowd chanted his name. A singer on the same show talked about how he refused to sing a song for Rahman as it didn’t suit his style. A few months later Rahman approached him again for a different song and he agreed. That’s Rahman for you! He holds no grudges.

If music has given him fame it’s his religion which has gives him peace. The transition to Abdul Rahman (he later changed it to Allah Rakha on music director Naushad’s suggestion) from Dileep Kumar took place in 1988. One of his sisters fell seriously ill and all medical aid failed. That was the time when the family came in contact with a Muslim Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jeelani popularly known as Pir Qadri. He prayed for them and Rahman’s sister made a miraculous recovery. Influenced by the events the whole family converted to Islam.

An atheist once, Rahman today, is one of those rare Muslims in the film industry who have managed to strike a balance between religion and work. He never misses his five daily prayers and has been to Haj twice. To him his religion provides a base that keeps him humble, “While praying you attain a certain position, telling the lord that you are the most horrendous sinner in the world, that you must be granted forgiveness and mercy.”

Rahman has a strong belief in Sufism, “I'm a deeply spiritual person. Sufism is about love - love for a fellow human, love for humanity, and ultimately love for God.” He is an outright critic of the extreme means adopted by some Muslims. In an interview given to Arab News he goes at length offering his outlook on the Islamic teachings-

“Muslims should go to lengths to follow the basics, which say ‘be kind to your neighbours, keep smiling when you meet others, pray and do charity.’ We should serve humanity. We should not show hostility toward others, even to the followers of other faiths. This is what Islam stands for. We should present before the world a model through our behaviour, nature and presentation. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) never used his sword to spread Islam; rather he spread the religion through his virtues, behaviour, tolerance and righteousness. And this is what is needed to change today’s distorted image of Islam.”

He rubbishes the rumours that link him to fundamentalism and forced conversion, “How can it be that I provide funds for them (suspected charities), when I have received death threats from the extremist (after he sang and re-composed Vande Matram) and the state government has posted police personnel to guard my residence.” On conversion he says, “When I am not perfect myself, how can I convert others? I follow my religion, let others follow their own.”

Rahman was once asked what makes him click. He replied in all humility, “It is all the will of Allah. I just do my bit and leave the rest to Him. It is He who decides the fate of us mortals.” Sure he does!

The Three Mistakes of my Life

2009-03-09T20:03:00.005+04:00

"The Three Mistakes of my Life" is the third novel from India's new reading sensation Chetan Bhagat and to me his best effort. Bhagat needs a special mention for making India read like never before.

In his new novel Bhagat follows his usual racy style of story telling. It keeps you engaged and you feel like finishing of the novel in a few sittings.

This time Bhagat has broaden his horizons and tackles socially relevant issues. The plot is based in Gujrat (the state in India which was in the news for all the wrong reasons in 2002) and revolves around the lives of three friends. How they build their own business and how India's national obsession (read cricket) changes them as individuals is the central theme of the novel.

Bhagat is getting better with every novel. "The Three Mistakes..." like his previous novels brings joy to reading. And that is Bhagat's biggest strength!

The White Tiger

2009-03-09T17:59:00.006+04:00

The first thing that strikes you about "The White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga is the writing style. It reminded me of Mohsin Hamid's "The Reluctant Fundamentalist." The 'thinking aloud' approach adopted by Adiga is a highly effective tool and gets you involved with the character and the narrative in general.

Balram Halwai, a male servant coming from a poor background, is the protagonist of the book. How the city life corrupts him, like his master, and brings out his evil ambitions is the main theme of the novel. By inventing Balram Halwai, Adiga has managed to bring the dark side of India to the fore.

It's a well told story which manages to create the maximum impact with minimum characters! And with the Booker coming in, the maximum gain as well.

Mayada - Daughter of Iraq

2009-03-09T16:12:00.007+04:00

"Mayada - Daughter of Iraq" is a bestseller by Jean Sasson. The popularity of the book is more to do with the controversial subject than the quality of work. The book tells the story of a woman named Mayada Al Askari, coming from an influential Iraqi family, who under strange circumstances finds herself in Baladiyat Prison (Iraq's most feared prison during the regime of Saddam Hussein).

The book gives a painful account of how Mayada copes with the life in prison with other women. Her interactions with other cell inmates highlights the terrible state of affairs when Saddam was at the helm. References to Mayada's illustrious family were frequently made in the book, maybe to contrast with her treatment at the prison.

My only problem is with Mayada's own story. Why did she accept gifts from Saddam Hussein in the form of money if she was so upright? And if she feared for her life in refusing him she could have well left the country. She wrote under his patronage and had no problems with it as long as it was good for her. Truth dawned on her in the darkness of the prison. Possible but highly questionable!

If I've to sum up the novel I would say it's a depressing novel which could very well be used as a propaganda material.

The Triumph of Slumdog Millionaire

2009-02-25T11:11:00.005+04:00

A British film with an Indian soul strucks gold in America! Nothing symbolises it better than the picture above.

India has finally got it its due. It's Indian technicians today, it'll be Indian films tomorrow. As for Rahman he amazed millions of Indians with his very first score in Roja. I still remember the TV footage of "Chohti Si Aasha" from the movie. That was the first time I thought a movie from South India dwarfed Bollywood. Years later Rahman and his brand of music is entertaining not just the Indians but the rest of the world as well. After the Golden Globe and Bafta I was only hoping that he gets an Oscar. He got two (one he shares with the lyrics writer Gulzar for "Jai Ho")and that speaks for his talent.

Resul Pookutty winning for sound mixing was the real icing.

An Indian performing on stage for the Oscar ceremony, 3 Indians winning 4 trophies, a film with Indian connection gets the best picture nod and takes home 7 other trophies (only the 8th to do so), the Kodak theatre reverberates with a Hindi tune from an Indian composer - it can't get bigger than this! Jai Ho!

The right mobile for me?

2009-02-12T19:57:00.006+04:00

With more than 3 billion users worldwide, mobile phones are here to stay. And, like with all electronic devices, you buy them once and you are hooked for life. Most of us use one model for not more than three years. Either the efficiency of the phone goes down or a new offer is too good to resist. And that's why buying the right phone at the right price is all the more important!

When I bought my first touchscreen phone - O2 XDA Atom - I thought I would use it for at least 3 years. And rightly so, at 2200 UAE Dirhams in 2007 it was not cheap. Sadly it wasn't a good choice!

First, the purchase of O2 was an impulsive decision. Second, I didn't go for iMate as too many people were already carrying it. I should have bought the iMate. A colleague of mine has been using different models of the series, without any issues, for years now.

My O2 started having audio problems right after the first year of use. The screen followed suit, it turned completely white at times. Although my O2 is still working (with major irritations off course) I switched over to Nokia E71 this month. It was a surprise move as I never bought a Nokia phone, ever since I started using the cell phone a decade back. I bought it at dealer's price and so it costed me less than the market price of a little over 1500 UAE Dirhams. E71 has everything I need plus some real goodies like the Nokia Maps, Scanner and Call Manager. The net surfing is easy and the search for a hotspot is quick. It has a full keyboard and that makes typing easy. It's not a touchscreen phone, but frankly I have had enough of it with my O2. The camera is just ok but I rarely use the same in mobile phones. All in all a great business phone!

If you, too, are looking for a new phone my advice is simple-

a) Identify your usage: There's no use buying an 8 megapixels camera phone if you don't plan to share your pictures.
b) Stick to the basics: Call quality comes first and rest everything is secondary.
c) Budget is important: Why spend a fortune on a phone when you plan to retire it after a couple of years. Buy sensibly!

Indian Muslims - Where Have They Gone Wrong?

2009-01-24T12:59:00.003+04:00

I was thrilled when a friend’s father gifted me this book by Dr Rafiq Zakaria. “Indian Muslims – Where have they gone wrong?” The book is an honest attempt by a well respected individual. A congressman to the core Dr Zakaria is a staunch supporter of the principles set by Gandhiji. His dislike of Jinnah and his politics is also something you can’t miss in his work.

But before I talk about the actual book I’ve to mention the absolutely brilliant foreword by another famous Indian writer M.J. Akbar.

For those in a hurry, just the foreword would give you the essence of the book. Akbar hits the nail on the head when he ponders, “At what point in the last thousand years did Indian Muslims become a majority?” They were never in the majority even before the partition. He explains, “A minority is not a function of numbers, but a definition of empowerment. As long as Muslims felt that they were an important, and even decisive, element of the ruling group they did not feel that they were a minority.” To him the portrait of the Indian Muslims is drawn by four great Urdu poets Amir Khusrau, Mirza Ghalib, Akbar Allahabadi and Sir Muhammad Iqbal. He summarises the Indian Muslims in a beautiful couplet from Akbar Allahabadi-

“Paamal hain magar hain sabit qadam wafa main
Hum misle-e-sang-e-dar ke is aastaan par hain’’

[Though crushed, we are firm in our loyalty
We are like a rock at the threshold of our country]

The book as a whole is a scholarly work of immense importance in today’s context. Dr Zakaria raised a very important question, “Where have Indian Muslims gone wrong?” And he provides us the answer: Whenever they forget their Indian roots.

The author has explored the subject in depth. He talks about the role of Muslims in the freedom struggle of the country, Hindu-Muslim relations in pre and post partition India, the Pakistan angle, religious extremism, problems facing the Indian Muslims and the need for a change in the Muslim outlook. The worst thing that happened to Indian Muslims according to him was the partition of India, and he holds Jinnah mostly responsible for not just dividing the country but the Muslim community as well. Looking forward Dr Zakaria advices Indian Muslims to stop asking for doles and instead harness their inner strength to be self-reliant. But first they have to discard their in-built prejudices and outmoded habits.

He also calls upon the non-Muslims and Muslims alike to understand the real message of Islam. Speaking to Muslims the author is quite blunt-“They must know that long beard, short pyjama and flowing veil do not constitute the faith. The Quran clarifies that ammalus salah (good deed) is the only criterion.”

Dr Zakaria brings some interesting facts to the fore-

• The period of effective and comprehensive Muslim rule over India from the seventh to the thirteenth centuries was barely of thirty years duration.
• Shivaji’s treatment of his Muslim subjects was exemplary. He even built a mosque along with a temple in front of his palace in his capital Raigarh.
• The mosque at Ayodhya was built by a Shia Mir Baqui but was later used by the Sunnis.
• Babur’s testament that he left for his son refutes the various allegations against him. It talks about doing justice to each community, avoiding cow-slaughter, taking care of the places of worship, promoting Islam by deeds and not terror, ignoring the differences of Shia and Sunni, and promoting national integration.
• Dara Shikoh (eldest son of Shah Jahan) brought out the common features between Muslim and Hindu mystics in his Majmal-ul-Bahrayn.
• During the Mughal period the saint Mirza Mazhar Jan-i-Janan pronounced that Muslims must accept Rama and Krishna as the prophets of God, something which was highlighted by Syed Sulaiman Nadvi of Lucknow’s famous Nadwat-ul-Ulema in his Seeratun Nabi. [*]
• In 1985 a petition was filed to ban the Quran as a threat to peace and communal harmony before the Calcutta High Court. The petition was rightly dismissed as isolated passages, read out of context, cannot change the true peaceful position of the holy book.
• A sect called Nizari Ismaili pioneered the movement for terrorism. They were given ‘hashish’ from which the word ‘assasin’ was drawn.

I was particularly impressed by a Nehru’s speech delivered on the campus of my alma mater, Aligarh Muslim University. It goes something like this-“You are Muslims and I am a Hindu. We may adhere to different religious faiths or even to none, but that does not take away from that cultural inheritance that is yours as well as mine. The past holds us together, why should the present or the future divide us in spirits?...Whatever confusion the present may contain (referring to communalism), in the future, India will be a land, as in the past, of many faiths equally honoured and respected but of one national outlook – not I hope a narrow nationalism living in its own shell but rather the tolerant creative nationalism, which believing in itself and the genius of its people takes full part in the establishment of an international order.” Strong words that hold true even today!

The book is actually a collection of Dr Zakaria’s articles, written over a period of more than 50 years. Perhaps that explains the repetitions, which are a plenty! Still it could have been better edited. My other issue with Dr Zakaria is the constant mention of his own work for the upliftment of Indian Muslims and his uncalled for defence of some books he has authored. He could have written separately about them. That said the book shows a mirror to the Indian Muslims of their past and what went wrong along the way. Dr Zakaria has also written quite passionately about the ways in which the situation can be turned around.

*Pg 485-

Syed Sulaiman Nadvi says, “According to the teachings of the Prophet, it is necessary to believe that in countries such as China, Iran or India, there appeared prophets before the advent of Muhammad [PBUH]. No Muslim can really deny to the people in these lands the truth of their faiths, ascribed to the mentors venerated by them. On this basis, some ulama have described India’s Rama and Krishna as Prophets.”

Hindu Zionists behind Mumbai Attacks - Zaid Hamid

2008-12-03T17:34:00.001+04:00

I felt that a section of the Indian media acted a little immature by linking the terrorists to Pakistan even before the official word. Playing to the gallery gets you TRPs but doesn't help the greater cause. Agreed the men came from Pakistan (as shared by the government later) but the country is itself fighting the same monster. It's high time that we work together on countering this threat together rather than play the age old blame game. If Pakistan is serious we will get closer to the people who masterminded the Mumbai carnage. And for that it needs to do more than just mere assurances.

Replying to the Indian claims of the terrorists coming from Pakistan, a TV channel (News One) there has come up with its own weird conspiracy theory. I couldn't watch the entire programme as it was too far fetched to digest and in a way mocked the sacrifices of some very brave men.

The video features Zaid Hamid. Hamid is an idependent Pakistani security expert and also the founder of BrassTacks - a Pakistani Think Tank devoted to the study of regional and global political events and their influence on Pakistan. He comes from a military background having signed up as a volunteer in the Afghan war. His jihadi roots speaks for his biased opinions and weird logic. On a lighter note he is a good entertainer with his kind of imagination.

Have a look-

http://www.brasstacks.pk/brasstacks/Default.aspx?TabId=159

What can I say other than we have to shed aside our differences if we are to fight a common enemy. The electronic media needs to be more restrained in their approach. Such telecasts only fuel the fire.

It saddens me to see India's name amongst the 20 most dangerous places to visit by the UK's Telegraph. Needless to mention the millions we will lose because of tourists shying away. And we share space with Pakistan on that list. I'm sure the Pakistanis too feel the same!

Let's find solutions rather than faults!

Remembering the Mumbai Heroes

2008-11-30T17:56:00.000+04:00

The city of Mumbai is slowly recovering from the terrible shock of the Wednesday gone by. Many of the dead have been buried. Families and friends of those who lost their lives in the Mumbai siege are slowly coming to terms with the reality. The firing is over but the lives of Mumbaikers transformed forever.

This is the time to pray for the deceased souls and a time to remember the brave people who saved others. Some of those brave men are lucky to be alive today, othere were not so lucky.

Hemant Karkare- The moment the ATS chief heard of the attack he took his constable's helmet, wore a bullet proof jacket, took a service revolver, and headed straight to face the terrorists. This one act summarise the brave man who never shied from his duty under any sort of circumstances. The 58 year old IPS officer was well informed and a vociferous reader as shared by Hassan Ghafoor, the Commisioner of Mumbai police, on NDTV.

Though his death is in no way related to the Sadhvi Pragnya case but he did receieve death threats in connection with the same. A man of few words when questioned about the death threats to his life, he just gave a smile. The smile will live on as the brave man's name will.

Ashok Kamte- A product of St Xavier's College, Bombay, he was the additional commissioner of Mumbai Police. Kamte also served in the United Nations peace-keeping police force. He also represented the country at the junior power-lifting championship in Peru in 1978. During the communal riots in Karad, Maharashtra, he himself led the police lathicharge. He was again in the midst of action on the fateful wednesday, 26th November 2008, only to die in the line of duty.

Vijay Salaskar- The encounter specialist who reportedly killed around 75 dreaded criminal was heading the anti-extortion wing of the crime branch. He joined the police force as a sub inspector. He once said in an interview, "In a shootout, no one has time for niceties. Either you kill or you get killed. I am plain lucky to still be alive." He was until this wednesday.

Salaskar yearned for recognition and official acclaim during his life. He got it all but a trifle too late.

Karambir Singh Kang- The general manager of Taj Mahal Hotel lost everything in the hotel he worked for. His wife and two sons aged 14 and 5 perished as a result of asphyxiation in the hotel. Inspite of all this he stayed back to help those stuck in the hotel.

CST railway staff- The scene at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus could have been even more dreadful had it not been the proactiveness of the railway staff. The staff at the inquiry desk used the public address system repeatedly to warn people from using the front gate, and instead use the last gate. They were lucky enough to survive the bullets.

Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan- An NSG commando, Unnikrishnan was an alumnus of the National Defence Academy. He was the only son of an ISRO official. Coming from the Bihar regiment to the NSG, his sacrifice should also give Mr Raj Thakery a reason for some serious introspection on his policies.

Gajender Singh- A hawaldar with the NSG, Singh also lost his life fighting the terrorists. He was a member of NSG's 51 Special Action Group.

Mumbai Fire brigade- The firemen of Mumbai had to brave both fire and bullets to rescue lives, something they never experienced before. Their services were even used by the NSG commandoes to gain access to the Taj hotel.

The list is not exhaustive. There are many others whose names don't figure but their sacrifice is equally commendable.

Tears for Mumbai!

2008-11-28T10:34:00.000+04:00

I saw the news of the Mumbai firing and thought it was one of those stray attacks. Being a working day we switched off the TV set a little early. As we were planning to go to bed, I got a call from a friend. It's only when I listened to him that I understood the sheer scale of the attack. I came downstairs immediately to swtich on the TV once again.

Sad but the images were true. My country was in flames again. But this time it was different. Terrorists came in boats carrying explosives and ammunition that they used at will. No timer bombs in this attack were used, just rifles and grenades. And what places to choose - Taj and Oberoi Trident hotels, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Santa Cruz airport, Cafe Leopold, Metro Adlabs multiplex, police headquarters, couple of hospitals and a dockyard. All centres of late night activity. The sheer audacity of the attack makes it all the more terrifying. The agenda seems to be to target the foreigners and the elite class. 'Deccan Mujahideen' is more like a coverup, the bigger picture could be entirely different.

Whatever the case maybe, the people of India and our foreign guests lost their lives!

It has now become imperative as citizens of India to report any suspected activity to the police immediately. Just yesterday I was hearing a caller on a Dubai radio station mentioning some people who carried some food stuff a day before the attack to the Taj hotel, and how his manager doubted them. I fail to understand why is he mentioning it now, why didn't he report it to the police then? As long as our own home is safe we think everything is allright. My anger is directed to such people also.

Let's not come up with any wild theories at this juncture. It's an attack on the people of India, plain and simple! As for those who want to terrorise this peaceful land, like I always say, "May the curse of Allah be upon you." You have succeeded today but nothing lasts for ever. The sacrifice of our policemen won't go waste. Wait till we catch you!

The New Team India

2008-11-24T12:47:00.000+04:00

Indian cricket has rarely seen so much of talent. Who would have thought that Irfan Pathan has to sit out to give another promising youngster a chance. The Indian cricket today is brimming with confident and aggresive players. Much of the credit goes to controversy's favourite boy - Sourav Ganguly!

The 2002 memorable Natwest final saw Sourav removing his shirt, as he stood in the player's balcony, to celebrate an outstanding Indian win. It was a refreshingly new sight. An Indian captain ready to give it back two folds - a watershed moment in the history of Indian cricket! The gesture sybolises the end of a timid India and the birth of a hungry-for-more pack of cricketers.

Ganguly has retired but his legacy lives on. As he himself said, he sees a lot of him in Dhoni. Although I still feel Dhoni is very lucky in that everything clicks for him. But then even even luck favours the brave. Either way the lord has been very kind to him and so the sun shines brightly on the Indian cricket.

Zaheer's second coming is lethal, Harbhajan can test the best of opposition with his turn and his resolute batting, Sehwag and Yuvraj can butcher any bowling attack, Tendulkar has still some runs left in him, Ishant is a tremendous potential, Yusuf can change equations with his batting lower down the order, and a captain who has everything going for him - what more can we ask for!

This current Indian line up has the potential to beat Australia in Australia. And should we win a test series there, it would leave little doubt as to which is the greatest indian cricket team ever. I know one thing for sure, that day is not far off!

An Open Letter to Mr Hope Obama

2008-11-13T14:03:00.000+04:00

Dear Mr Obama,

Your election has been the most followed event in recent memory. I for one did support you right from the time of your nomination.

You are an inspirational speaker and a leader who could be trusted. It was a pleasure listening to your public speeches during the campaign, and your victory speech was a fitting ode to an extraordinary election. Everything worked for you in this election. You had the best funded campaign of any US Presidential candidate ever, and a strong group of loyal supporters worked for you passionately. The natural tool of change in any country, the youth, was on your side and it was their record turnout to vote that changed the equations in several states. You've a great family, and like you, they stood the test of times.

Naturally you won!

And now that you've won comes the serious part, how to put things back on track and all that you promised! The people have given 'change' a chance by electing you, please don't disappoint them. The world is passing through difficult economic times and the US, being the most powerful nation in the world, is looked upon to sort things out. You are their hope Mr President!

The foreign policy of your country has been a disaster during the last two terms of Mr Bush. It was a major election issue during your campaign as well. Your victory has shown that people agree with you. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been a failure. You've to stop them sooner or later. With a tumbling US economy I don't see the logic to fund such operations. Please use that money to put your economy back on track. And if even then you have money to spare, please feed those hungry souls in Africa and elsewhere.

"Winning the hearts and minds of people," has been the most overused phrase by your country in its war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Do you seriously think you can win over people by occupying their lands? It's like the Palestinians thanking Israel for powering Gaza's only power plant providing electricity after occupying their land for more than half a century now. The sooner your troops move out of those areas the better it would be for the countries involved and the rest of the world. Rather than finding the source of poison (read Osama) why not dilute it! Make friends with the Arab world, not slaves. I know it's a tall order but if hope can bring a black President to US, it can certainly help you overcome these obstacles.

Five years is not a long period to change the world but it can surely lead to a better start.

Wishing you all the best in your endeavours,
Inam Abidi

A Beautiful Little Prayer

2008-10-19T11:28:00.001+04:00

In Urdu

Lap pe aati hai dua ban ke tamanna meri
Zindagi shamma ki surat ho Khudaya meri

Door duniya ka mere dam se andhera ho jaaye
Har jagah mere chamakne se ujala ho jaaye

Ho mere dam se yun hi mere watan ki zeenat
Jis tarah phool se hoti hai chaman ki zeenat

Zindagi ho meri parwaane ki surat ya rab
Ilm ki shamma se ho mujhko mohabbat ya rab

Ho mera kaam ghareebon ki himayat karna
Dardmandon se Zaeefon se mohabbat karna

Mere Allah buraee se bachana mujhko
Nek jo rah ho us rah pe chalana mujhko

English Translation

My wish comes as a prayer to my lips
Make me live like a candle my lord

And help remove the darkness of this world
As I brighten it up with my inner light

My efforts should add to the beauty of my country
Like a flower adorns the garden

May I live like the moth my lord
In love with the candle of knowledge

I should champion the cause of the downtrodden
And love the old and those in pain

My lord protect me from going astray
And guide me along the right path!

Sir Muhammad Iqbal's popular poem caught my attention when I was preparing for the entrance test of AMU for Minto Circle. It's been more than two decades but it has stayed with me ever since. No wonder India's best known school, the Doon School, selected it as one of its 3 school songs.

Is there a more beautiful prayer?

Farewell Mr Newman!

2008-09-28T13:46:00.000+04:00

The first time I heard of Paul Newman was in an article on Oscars. It talked about how his performance in 'The Verdict' as an alchoholic lawyer was tipped for best actor (Oscars 1982) only to loose in the end to a certain Ben Kingsley for his role in Gandhi as Mahatma Gandhi. A role which Sunny Deol played rather well in the Bollywood film 'Damini'.

Newman was a phenomenal actor and his 8 best actor Oscar nominations speak volumes about the actor. It's another story that his nominations rarely converted into actual trophies. He did win one finally in 1986 for his role in the Tom Cruise starrer 'The Color of Money'. His greatest quality that a journalist on BBC spoke of today, was to reinvent himself and be relevant to the times. This can be easily made out from the fact that he received his first academy nomination for best actor in 1958 for 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' and the last nomination for best supporting actor in 2002, forty-four years later, for 'Road to Perdition'.

As for me he will forever be the Butch Cassidy of the 1969 classic western 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'. The moment his name comes up my mind goes back to that one favourite scene from the movie where he's riding a cycle with a girl and the beautiful number 'Raindrops falling on my head' playing in the background.

Thank you Mr Newman for the smiles that you brought to moviegoers like me from around the world. We will miss you!

Bilal Ahmad - The Unheard Voice of Indian Muslims

2008-08-31T17:54:00.000+04:00

As I was discussing with a Hindu friend the state of affairs in India today she suggested that I should convey to the Muslim community that terrorism would soon be an organised crime, and also sent me a link to an interesting cover story in Mumbai Mirror. She was right in a sense - it has already become one!

I will not be used by terrorists

The Indian Mujahideen’s terror mail minutes before the A’bad blasts spoke of Kandivali resident Bilal Ahmad being assaulted on a local train. Horrified at being thus used, Bilal says he doesn’t want anyone taking revenge on his behalf

Posted On Saturday, August 30, 2008
Jyoti Punwani

The Indian Mujahideen may want to use him as the poster boy in their retaliatory terror campaign, but 21-year-old Mumbaikar, Bilal Ahmad, a student of Madarsa Meraj-ul-Uloom, at Cheetah Camp, vehemently shrugs off his victim tag.

On July 3, the day the Vishwa Hindu Parishad had called for a bandh over the Amarnath issue, Bilal was returning home to Kandivali with two of his friends on the local train when they were picked on by a mob of roughly 20 people as the train drew out of Jogeshwari station. While two of his friends managed to jump off the slow moving train, Bilal was cornered. He was pushed around, roughed up, called a "musalman terrorist," and forced to chant Jai Shree Ram. His friends' bags which they had left behind in their hurry to jump off were thrown out of the train. When the train pulled into Goregaon station Bilal's assailants jumped off and managed to escape.

Bilal's harassment on the train led to much concern within the community and then became one of the points mentioned by the Indian Mujahideen in the email circulated minutes before the Ahmedabad blasts and the one which was linked to Kenneth Haywood. The email mentioned the incident and warned of the "ill consequences" following "troubles faced by the Madrasa students in Mumbai Western Railways (sic)."

Horrified at being thus appropriated by propagators of terror, Bilal, who continues to travel by the local train, says: "We don't want anyone taking revenge on our behalf. Islam prohibits us from taking the law in our own hands. It's the government's responsibility to punish the culprits, not the public's. So even if we see the men who attacked us, we will inform the police."

Read More

The story in the news item is nothing new. The problem arise when we start castigating an entire community based on the actions of a few fools (read terrorists). First it was the 'pro Pakistan' tag that my father's generation had to live with and now this new media obsession - 'Islamic terrorists.' Enough has been said and written about the two. What we really need is to kill the mindset and not just terrorists. If the politicians are serious there are ways to address this menace.

India has the third largest Muslim population in the world and we are still considered a minority in India. That doesn't mean that the poor (they could be Hindus as well) should not be given provisions. I've personally visited many Muslims areas in several cities of India. Part of the problem arise from the ghetto mentality and part from the attitude of the authorities. Most of the times a Muslim area would always be considered last when it comes to providing the basic facilities. As for the ghetto culture, it started because of the increasing discrimnation when it comes to housing. More people shy away from renting or selling houses to Muslims than ever. I've had a couple of experiences myself.

India needs to bring Muslims in the mainstream, not by giving quotas but by recognising them as an integral part of the social fabric of India. Don't wait for another blast or riot to start a dialogue. Let respected preachers from the Muslim community come forward and answer non-Muslims, and also clear their stand on the violence in the name of Islam. Encourage building of more schools in the Muslim areas, free land or a quick recognition by the government would go a long way in building bridges. The media and government on its part should approach the sensitive issue with caution. A terrorist has only one religion and that's terrorism. You link him up with a religion and you are glorifying his cause. Let's not be fooled by his understanding of Islam.

And so in these difficult times we need to highlight and appreciate people like Bilal Ahmad. There are many more Bilals in this great country. Sounds too idealistic and optimistic but Gandhiji started on a similar note against a collosal opponent. Sixty-six years later the opponent has graduated into a foe (terrorism) and we need to put all our strength together as Indians.

Note. Hazrat Bilal was a freed slave who patiently endured several hardships during the early years of Islam and gave Islam's first call for prayers (azaan). Ahmad is another name for the Holy Prophet [PBUH], also meaning "highly praised." Bilal Ahmad stood true to his name!

Rock On - It sure Rocks!

2008-08-31T15:45:00.000+04:00

These are interesting times for the Indian cinema. Producers are willing to bank on projects which were untouchable few years back. 'Rock On' is one such movie.

It's probably India's first movie based on a rock group. The director Abhishek Kapoor may not be a successful actor but he has a bright future ahead in direction. He could have easily gone overboard with such a script but held on and the effort shows. The camera work also needs a lot of credit for the overall look and feel.

The movie, clearly inspired by the cult 'Dil Chahta Hai', is a realistic portrayal of 4 talented rock musicians. It's about the music that binds them and the issues in their separate lives. The trailers may have been promoting Farhan Akhtar but almost the entire star cast has put up a spirited show. Arjun Rampal is finally getting some meaty roles and is doing full justice to them. Of the rest I was particuarly impressed by Shahana Goswami who plays Rampal's wife. The pain and frustrations of her character shows in her performance. As for Farhan, he is a talented bloke. First direction, and now he both acts and sing. Everything seems to come naturally to him.

Music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is fresh and gels with the movie. Overall a novel effort, in tune with the times. I enjoyed it and am sure the multiplexes would have repeat audiences.

Just one complaint, the lyrics of the songs could have been better.

One Night at the Call Centre

2008-08-24T11:40:00.000+04:00

Books are addictive! I'm glad I've this one adiction still left in me. This week I finished reading 'One Night at the Call Centre' by the hugely popular Indian writer Chetan Bhagat. Like his first book, 'Five Point Someone,' this one too is youth oriented. And since youth make the most noise it's no surprise that Bhagat's novels sell like hot cakes in India. His writings may not create ripples in the literary circles but have generated enough interest in the art of traditional reading (read books) in India.

In his second novel he has taken up a subject that the call centre generation would instantly relate to. It's the story of an eventful night at a call centre, as the name suggests. How the lives of a group of friends change with one call is what the plot is all about.

Bhagat's style of writing suits the young (or the young at heart). It's mostly in the form of friendly chat between the characters or the narrator talking to himself. And he does bring a smile to your face as you relive those golden days gone by. Nostalgia sells, isn't it?

Somehow Bhagat picks up his characters from the crowd, ordinary people we could all relate to. Maybe that's where his strength lies and that's what make him stands apart. We do need writers like him. They help you graduate to the next level. And that's why their efforts should be appreciated.

Pick up a copy of 'One Night at the Call Centre' today and chances are you would like to read it through the night. I certainly did!

A Thousand Splendid Suns

2008-08-20T15:28:00.003+04:00

Those who have read 'The Kite Runner' will agree with me on the exceptional storytelling abilities of Khaled Hosseini. In 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' Hosseini does a role reversal. This time it's a female protogonist, rather two of them. If 'The Kite Runner' was about finding peace outside Afghanistan, 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' is all about finding hope in a war ravaged country.

The beauty of Hosseini's writing lies in his characters. Although both his books are different, still their characters are a lot similar. They all look real! The Amir of 'The Kite Runner' is now Laila and Hasan's place is taken over by Maryam. The characters, like in the previous book, show their inner strength in difficult times. And it's this style of story writing which sets Hosseini apart from the league.

As I started reading the novel I thought 'The Kite Runner' was better. It's only when the narrative starts to unfold, in the typical 'Hosseini' way, that you realise it's another classic in the making. Set against the backdrop of a country constantly at war (first the war-lords against the Soviets and then against each other), it revolves around the lives of two women. How the constantly changing political situation brings both uncertainty and hope in their lives. And how two ordinary women display exemplary courage is what it's all about. Anything more and I'm spilling the beans here.

There are times when you feel like giving reading a break, so powerful are the emotions generated by the novel. I did shed a few tears during 'The Kite Runner' and 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' was no exception either. The author has left no stone unturned in highlighting the plight of women in a Taliban governed Afghanistan.

You could actually feel the pain and suffering that Laila and Maryam go through, both, during the times of the Soviets and when Taliban took over. But inspite of all the difficulties around there's always an undercurrent of hope in Hosseini's writing, and it shows in his charaters. That's something you can always expect from an Afghan!

Khaled Hosseini's new book is an ode to the undying spirit of the people of Afghanistan in general and women in particular. This one too, like its predecessor, is not going off the shelf any time soon.

Crossover SUVs are here to stay

2008-08-17T11:01:00.000+04:00

The recent economy slump and the record oil prices have affected all the major industries in general and the transportation industry in particular. The rate at which the petrol and diesel prices have increased for the consumers lately has made sure that fewer cars are on the road.

These are ominous signs for the car industry. They need to do some serious thinking. Gone are the days of those heavy duty car engines roaring away. And it's not just the price of the gas but also the damage they do to the environment. Just imagine a car powered by a 5.8 litre engine plying on the road with only the driver. Isn't it an environmental crime!

Well, the good news is that most car manufacturers have introduced more eco friendly models. I've seen the new model of the bestselling Toyota Landcruiser in Dubai. It's smaller and lighter compared to previous models. The market is flodded with a new segment of crossovers. Almost all the top-selling brands have something to offer in this segment. Surely, that's where the future lies. It gives you the comfort of a car and the capabilities of a 4-wheel drive.

One such vehicle is the Hyundai Veracruz. For some strange reasons, Hyundai was always stuck at the lower rung in the Middle-East car market. Things changed to a certain extent with the launch of Hyundai Tuscan. At around 50k UAE Dirhams it's a great bargain for those going for a 4-wheel drive. In fact my interest in a 4-wheel drive started with this vehicle. I test drove it as well as Hyundai Santa Fe. The power and comfort is obvious in Santa Fe. It's a great vehicle and at a great price.

Hyundai Veracruz is Hyundai's maiden foray in the luxury 4-wheel drive market. And the company hasn't disappointed! Take a test drive and chances are you'll mostly agree with me.

For me the big vehicles with engine sizes in excess of 5 Litre would be a rarity very soon. And that's why brighter times are ahead for companies like Hyundai.

We did it finally!

2008-08-11T10:02:00.000+04:00

As an Indian one of the most beautiful sights is to see the tricolour unfurl with the national anthem playing in the background. And for it to happen at the Olympics when the whole world is watching is exceptional!

As cool and composed Abhinav Bindra climbed the podium today to receive a gold medal for his stunning performance in the 10m rifle shoot, he made a nation proud. It took us 28 years to receive another gold and the first individual one. But it was all worth it in the end. It made me emotional just hearing the national anthem played again at the Olympics.

I hope it inspires the rest of the Indian contingent too. As for Abhinav he has already marked his name in the annals of Indian sports as the first sportsman to win an individual gold for India. Bravo Abhinav!

Their Prayers left Unanswered

2008-08-07T10:22:00.000+04:00

I offer my heartfelt condolenses to the families and friends of those who lost their lives in the recent Nainadevi temple stampede. This is not the first occurance and certainly not the last one if the authorities don't take stricter measures. Agreed handling a large number of pilgrims is always a problem but the flow can be regulated with smaller groups at a time.

The site of small children and women as they lay dead with flowers strewn around will stay a long time in memory.

The Naina Devi temple is situated on a hill top in Bilaspur District of Himachal Pradesh in India. And so even in slightly bad weather reaching the temple has its risk. This is not the first time that the temple has been in news for the wrong reasons. Way back in 1981 more than 50 people lost their lives in a similar stampede.

These are the times when you question your devotion but so are the ways of God almighty!

We can take solace in the following beautiful lines-

"Tumhara kya gaya jo tum rote ho
Tum kya laaye the jo tumne kho diya
Tumne kya paida kiya jo nasht ho gaya
Tumne jo liya yahan se liya
Jo diya yahan par diya
Jo aaj tumhara hai
Kal kisi aur ka tha
Parso aur ka ho jayega
Parivartan sansaar ka niyam hai"

"What have you lost that you cry
What did you bring that you loose
What did you produce that has been destroyed
Whatever you have earned, you earned in this life
Whatever you gave is in this world only
What's with you today
Was with someone else yesterday
And will be with somebody else tomorrow
Nothing is permanent but change"

---Taken from Bhagwat Geeta

The World can't Afford another War

2008-07-16T11:58:00.000+04:00

As the world waits with bated breath about Iran's fate amidst the nuclear controversy, there's lot at stake. Although, it's highly unlikely that Israel will attack Iran given its strategic location (read Strait of Hormuz) and military capability. In case Israel does attack Iran, then the US would be surely dragged into the war. And if the current state of US economy is any indicator opening a third front could send the country into a recession.

Analyse this-US car sales hit a 15 year low in June, oil prices have shot to a record USD 144 a barrel, the omnipresent Starbucks has announced a closure of 600 of its stores, the US Dollar is no more a favoured currency, the burden of a failed Iraq war is beginning to show, the country is still reeeling under the mortgage and credit crisis. A war at this stage would be suicidal for the US. And a bleeding US economy won't be good news for the rest of the world. These are troubled times and so a peaceful resolution to the Iran issue is in the global interest.

The so called 'axis of evil' has already weaken with one member graduating into a friend. The big question is, "How willing is Iran to give up its rights in the wake of a 'nuclear armed' Israel feeling 'threatened?'

What's wrong with Abhijeet and Sunidhi Chauhan?

2008-07-16T11:12:00.000+04:00

I got a chance to hear Abhijeet's absolutely deplorable comments about Atif Aslam on a television reality show. I've always been a fan of Abhijeet's voice but his attitude was something questionable. I guess he is more frustrated by the fact that the songs going out to Atif Aslam should have come his way. How else can you expect something like this-

"It's a shame that you guys (referring to the participants) get nothing and off-tune singers (obvious reference to Atif Aslam) who rely on good music and technology to better their voices have all the good luck. Singing such songs is a disgrace both to me as well as the show."

This, and a little more, was Abhijeet's response when a participant sang Atif's megahit song "O Jaane Jaan." My only regret is the way Abhijeet put it. There are more civilised ways of communicating your frustrations. Himesh did something similar when he said that R D Burman also had a nasal voice. Look where he is now!

If reality shows stoop to such low levels of publicity then the future doesn't look promising.

And Abhijeet is not alone. Sunidhi Chauhan considers Atif to be the most over rated singer and says, "he can't sing." She said it on IBN Live in an interview.

Both Sunidhi and Abhijeet forgot one basic thing - 'why are the people loving him if he can't sing?' For sure you can't enjoy something you don't like. Abhijeet may be a better singer than Atif but that's no reason to say that Atif can't sing! I like his voice and so do many of my friends. Period!

The Indo-US Nuclear Deal and some Sane Voices

2008-07-15T16:01:00.000+04:00

The Indo-US nuclear deal has generated a lot of media interest and political upheaval in India. As I surfed through web pages dedicated to the deal, there were some expert opinions worth sharing. But first a quick quick roundup of the deal-

1. India agrees to allow inspectors from IAEA to access its civilian nuclear program. India has promised to keep all future (and many exisiting) civilian thermal and breeder reactors under the IAEA safeguards.

2. India agrees to continue halting its nuclear weapon testing and commits to increased security of its nuclear arsenals.

3. US companies will be allowed to build nuclear reactors in India.

4. India works with US towards negotiating the Fissile Material CutOff Treaty, which calls for banning the production of fissile material for weapons purposes, with the US.

And now the comments-

"The bilateral agreement signed in August 2007, arising from the deal but yet to be approved by the US Congress, allows nuclear trade between the two parties and "also, where appropriate, trade between third countries and either party of items obligated to the other party." The trade is envisaged in nuclear material or fuel, related technology and equipment. The trade in fuel, which is uranium, can only tie India and its energy program to an international cartel, notorious for its price manipulation practices. Representatives of the uranium producers of Canada, Australia, France, South Africa and the UK formed a secret cartel after confabulations in Paris in 1972. This led to the great uranium scam soon in the US, with Westinghouse House Electric becoming a victim of the cartel. The company, the largest US manufacturer of reactors, signed contracts to supply cheap uranium to utilities which bought its reactors and failed because of that cartel's price-fixing practices, standing to lose billions in the bargain. The cartel got away with the connivance of the governments of the five countries as well as the US."

"The cartel's exposure did not change its conduct. The price of this precious metal, better known in the market in the powdered product called yellowcake, has always remained viciously volatile. Over the past five years, the international spot price of uranium has spiraled faster than that of crude oil, with its price now hovering six times above its long-term average of $10 a pound."

"In January 2005, seven months before the deal was struck, a sharp rise in uranium prices was predicted. The uranium market, experts agreed, had become a classic "seller's market."

"The prediction proved right. Between 2004 and 2007, the spot price of uranium more than quadrupled. According to an assessment made in June 2008, the nuclear construction program in India and China is likely to result in a 58 percent uranium price rebound. Such price fluctuations are not what exactly the doctor would order for a developing economy."
---J. Sri Raman, freelance journalist and a peace activist

"Rather than integrating India into the nonproliferation mainstream, the proposed deal would set a risky double standard that would shatter the delicate bargain upon which the global nonproliferation regime is based."

"In addition, by increasing India's capability to produce nuclear weapons, the deal will exacerbate an already perilous nuclear arms race in South Asia, because Pakistan is likely to respond by expanding its own nuclear capability."

"The Bush administration's desire to complete the deal before it leaves office cannot be allowed to come to fruition at the expense of key U.S. nonproliferation objectives. The deal should be left to the next administration and the next Congress, where, we hope, its numerous shortcomings will be remedied."
---Leonor Tomero, Director of Nonproliferation, Centre for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, Washington

“I do not share his (Manmohan Singh) view that this deal is so important to India that it is worth sacrificing everything for. But I do not dispute that his view stems from his conception of national interest."

"And I think he is playing this all wrong."

"He is coming off as a man who is prepared to martyr his party at the altar of his own beliefs while he heads off to some high-minded retirement.” ---Vir Sanghvi, editorial director, Hindustan Times

"On balance, the India-US nuclear deal as proposed is the much-needed recipe to regenerate our nuclear establishment that is stifling under present international regulations. If the status quo is allowed to prevail, our ambitious plan for nuclear power will not only remain a pipedream but even the status quo will become unsustainable as Indian nuclear fuel sources are limited and of inferior quality that make it more costly."
---Indrajeet Rai, Zee News

"For Singh, who like many Indians sees China as much a rival and potential danger as an opportunity, a strengthened relationship with Washington is the natural route to security."

"Bush's offer is extraordinarily generous. India will be quietly recognized as a nuclear weapons power, its past sins of defiance of the international non-proliferation regimes will be consigned to diplomatic amnesia."

"India is only being asked to put its civilian nuclear reactors -- not its weapons program -- under international regulation. In return, Washington says it will back India in negotiating a special deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Suppliers Group."
---Jonathan Manthorphe, Vancouver Sun

"We need a supply of uranium till our thorium reactors are ready. The pact will help us."
---Abdul Kalam, Financial Express

"The nuclear power generation (NPG) is currently about 3% of total power generation in the country and with this agreement which will involve transfer of technology, as well as continuity of fuel(Uranium) the share of NPG will go to about 6 -7% by 2020 by importing 12 Reactors probably from the West with a total capacity of 12,000 MW."

"It will be a turn key operation about which India has always had bad experience. Turn key operations in the power sector have historically never generated in-house expertise..."

"There is no need to put such a great emphasis on nuclear energy as if the country's future depended on it. We need to build good expertise in all aspects of power by focusing on modern technological aspects as well as investing in alternative energy sources. The nuclear aspect of the deal can wait but the greater technological cooperation between the countries must be given priority."
---M A Pai, Professor Emeritus, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Univ of Illinois

Jaane Tu... and the New Khan on the Block

2008-07-13T12:14:00.000+04:00

So after much efforts I did manage to see Amir Khan productions' much awaited 'Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na'. I expected it to be a good film and sure it was. One of the main reason for its success is the talented scriptwriter Abbas Tyrewala who both wrote and directed the movie. It could have been the usual affair had it not been the the script and some fine performances.

The movie looks fresh with some new faces. I liked the idea of the flash backs as part of a long friendly chat. Nothing goes overboard in the movie, not even the characters with gray shades. In fact Ayaz Khan as Sushant Modi (Genelia's fiance in the movie) looks cool and does an impressive act. So does Genelia Dsouza as Aditi. Although I wonder if she is really a star material. Naseeruddin Shah shows his class even though he was limited to a picture frame. The chemistry between the main characters strikes you. Ratna Pathak as Imran's mother is in familiar territory. It's a pity that Bollywood could never tap her acting potential as much as the television did.

Music by Rehman gives that extra pep. I loved the Rashid Ali rendered "Kabhi Kabhi Aditi" and "Kahin to Hogi woh duniya." Like most Rehman songs these two also grow on you gradually. The musician has a knack for discovering young talent. First Naresh Iyer, brought through Channel V's 'Super Singer' reality show, mesmerised the nation with his "Roobaroo", and now Rashid Ali. Watch out for this kid!

And finally the new Khan! Imran Khan has surely arrived. There's a certain vulnerability about him which adds to his character in the movie. He gives an effortless yet strong performance, which reminds me of his illustrious uncle in QSQT. His expressive eyes communicates a lot more. Imran Khan may not raise the noise levels in theatres like what a Shahrukh or Salman Khan did more than a decade back, but, he has made his mark on Bollywood.

The only weak link was the climax and the character of Aditi's brother, played rather well by Smita Patil's son Prateik Babbar. I felt he could have been given some more screen space instead of the cameos by Arbaaz Khan and Sohail Khan.

Overall a nice fun movie which is fortunately not your run-of-the-mill kind of college romance. Go for it just for old times sake!

Salalah - City of the Prophets

2008-06-23T16:44:00.003+04:00

The first time I heard of Salalah was through a friend of mine in Dubai who, like me, is very found of exploring new places. When I saw the pictures of the place I was quite impressed with the greenery. Think of Middle East and images of desert and the date palm trees comes instantly to the mind. Salalah looked different with its virgin beaches, coconut and banana trees, and some stunning views of waterfalls. That was how I made up my mind to go to Salalah.

The wait was finally over when I visited the place with my family early this month!

The city strikes you the moment you land at the airport. The airport itself is small but green. The mountains in the distant background adds to the beauty. The weather even in June was pleasant. UAE by this time is scorching with temperatures in the mid 40s (degree celcius). I took some pictures outside before we went in for the Visa formalities. It was late afternoon.

Unlike UAE, Oman is more grounded in its traditions and the use of Arabic language. It's not easy to communicate in English when you are in Oman. The formalities took a while even when there were passengers from one flight only. The Dubai airport has probably spoiled us when it comes to time efficiency.

After buying some riyals we hired a taxi to take us to 'Haffa House' hotel. It is an old hotel. The pretty impressive Arabic architecture inside tells you that the owners must have quite a vision. Unfortunately the vision will be lost soon if the sub-standard maintenance continues!

After a shower we went out for an evening stroll. There was one place in my mind that I was eager to see ever since the plan to Salalah was conceived - the resting place of the Prophet Umran [PBUH]. Prophet Umran or Imran [PBUH] was the father of Mariyam (biblical Virgin Mary) mother of the Prophet Isa [PBUH] (biblical Jesus). It was my good luck that his tomb was a minute walk from our hotel.

There are no words to describe the feeling when you see something like this. I mean a sinner like me is standing inside the tomb of a Prophet after whom there's a whole chapter in Qur'an (Chapter 3, Surah Aal-E-Imran or 'The Family of Imran'). I was a little overwhelmed by the sight. The grave was nothing like what I was used to - it was thirty metres long! I had seen the picture but seeing something in person is a whole new experience. There was a small mosque and a park surrounding the tomb. The entire place was serene, something entirely different from the atmosphere at Hazrat Nizamuddin and other shrines in India. There was just one person sitting and reciting Qur'an. It could also be because of the time of the year. Normally visitors throng Salalah during the Khareef season when it rains, which was just a month away.

I recited Surah Fatiha (the first chapter of Qur'an) for the blessed soul. My wife could only visit the place on the third and final day of our visit.

There was another landmark nearby, of a different kind though - Lulu (arabic for pearl) Hypermarket. The name may not ring a bell for those not living in the Middle East. It's a chain of super/hyper markets across the Gulf run by this year (India's) Padma Shri awardee UAE-based Yusuf Ali. I think it was the only big retail outlet of the area.

We stopped by a restaurant for a bite. Oman in my opinion offers the best food. You could try any of their dishes (non-veg off course), they all taste good. We had a grilled chicken sandwich and fresh avocado juice. It was all very delicious!

From there we took a cab for the old Haffa market, which is a small traditional market for perfumes. For us it was a welcome change from the big, glamorous, and freezing cold malls of Dubai. There was not much to buy anyway. The Chinese seems to have taken over the local handicraft as well. Even the 'Khanjar' or the Omani dagger sold in the souvenir shop read 'made in China'. We spent some time at the Haffa beach. I was looking for the local tea but the language barrier made sure that we had a cup of regular tea which tasted even worse.

It was a long hectic day. By the time we reached our hotel the two of us were exhausted, but our son was still raring to go. The dinner was a quite affair at the hotel restaurant itself. I can't recall the name of the Omani dish that I ordered, but it was made of minced mutton mixed with vegetables having a half-fried egg on top. It was a local favourite and rightly so! A much needed sleep followed.

Day two started with a nice buffet style breakfast at the hotel before we hired a taxi for the whole day. Since we arrived in Salalah before the start of the Khareef season we could only see the spots which would become waterfalls in the days ahead. The caves in such spots are pretty cool and serve as nice picnic spots. The roads were in complete harmony with the nature. You could see camels roam around freely every now and then, the trees too lined the roads in patches. We could just imagine how green and pretty the place would become when it rains.

Our next stop was the tomb of another Prophet, Ayub [PBUH](biblical Job). In the Muslim world there are two names that come up immediately when the word 'patience' is mentioned, one is Husain Ibne Ali (grandson of Prophet Mohammad [PBUH]) and the other is Prophet Ayub [PBUH](a descendant of the Prophet Ibrahim [PBUH]). He was a very rich man before thieves attacked his big farm, killed many of his servants, and ran away with his cattle. After some time the roof of his house gave in, resulting in the death of many of his family members. A few years later a skin disease caused ulcers on his face and hands. His sores were full of worms. It is said that when any of those worms fell down he used to pick them up and put them back inside. Even his wife under the influence of Iblees (Satan) left him. But he remain patient and never lost his faith in God. He was finally rewarded for it. Allah cured him and restored his old status.

The tomb was located at a small hill with gardens surrounding it. The weather there was quite pleasant with strong, cool winds blowing! We stayed for a while before heading off to Mughsail beach. There was another tomb, of Salem bin Ahmed bin Arabia, which we visited on the way.

Mughsail is a popular beach of the region. It is well known for its blowholes. Blowhole is actually a cavity formed in the ground at the inland end of a sea cave through which water gushes through, reaching several metres in height. It is a spectacular sight, one that has to be seen to be believed. The area had some stunning cave formations. The temperatures dropped below the caves. A small wooden bridge connects you to the blowholes side of the beach. The blowholes were covered by strong mesh like iron frames. The water comes out in the form of a spray from such holes. My wife had a lot of fun but my son got scared with the noise of the waves. We had to leave the place early against our wishes.

Our lunch was a typical Omani affair at a restaurant located at the foot of the staircase leading to the ground. The chicken piece put in as a whole in the biryani was unlike anything that I ate before. It was all very delicious. We offered our prayers at a nearby mosque before heading back to the city centre.

I wanted to see the Al Baleed Archaeological Park but we couldn't go in because of the timings. Al Baleed was mentioned by Ibn Battuta in the 13th century as one of the important Omani harbours trading in Arabian gold, frankincense, horses and other goods to India. Today, it is the only one excavated and turned into an archaeological park.

We stopped for some fresh coconut drink at a local fruit shop. The shops lining around the road had banana and coconut trees in the background. It looked like a scene straight from a village in Kerala, India.

The last spot of the day was Al Baleed beach. As the name suggests it was close to the park. Compared to the adjacent Haffa beach it was cleaner and quieter. The coconut trees provide a nice resting place. The Omani beaches are strikingly very natural with little or no commercial development. The maddening race for development has yet to hit Oman. Perhaps that makes it a very peaceful place to live in. After an hour or so at the beach we left for the hotel. We had to leave Mohammad, the taxi driver, as well. He was a well mannered soft spoken guy who worked at the Airport Police department. Driving the taxi was his part-time job.

Our last dinner in Salalah was at a nice restaurant on the Al-Salam Street.

Day three started a bit early. This was also to be the last day of our visit. We checked out of the hotel after breakfast, and waited for Mohammad. He was a bit late. Since my wife couldn't go to the Prophet Umran's [PBUH] tomb, she did that day. There's another spot close to the tomb, it has a rock containing the footprints of Prophet Saleh's [PBUH] camel before it was killed.

Prophet Saleh or Salih [PBUH] was known for his wisdom, purity and goodness and had been greatly respected by his people before Allah's revelation came to him. Most of them did not believe him and tried to put him off by asking him to perform a miracle if he was a true messenger of God. It was to let a unique she camel issue from the mountains. The almighty granted him this miracle and a huge, unique, she camel appeared from the direction of the mountain. Yet most of them didn't believe in him. They started plotting to kill the camel. Three days after they finally killed it against the Prophet's warning, a severe earthquake destroyed the entire city and its habitants. Those who believed in the message of Saleh (PBUH), were saved because they had left the place. The story finds a mention in the Qur'an as well.

We couldn't visit the Prophet Saleh's [PBUH] and the Prophet Hud's [PBUH] tombs due to lack of time. Both were at a fair distance from Salalah.

From the camel spot Mohammad took us to a nice green spot which had water flowing through it. It was a good 30-40 kms from Salalah city. The spot had a cave as well. There were quite a few teenagers bathing and having fun in the water. We took our lunch at a nice restaurant in the main city on our way to the airport. Muhammad the taxi guy was kind enough to escort us to the main departure area.

We took off from the Salalah airport only to expect the hustle and bustle of a city called Dubai.

Musandam Diary

2008-06-08T15:23:00.002+04:00

IT WAS in October 2006 that I visited Musandam in Oman with family.

Musandam became the obvious choice for two reasons-a) It was very close to the UAE border, b) You get a Visa on arrival if you hold a valid UAE resident Visa. I did the hotel booking through Khasab Tours & Travels some 15 days before our schedule departure during the Eid holidays.

Musandam, like Muscat, is a governorate of Oman. It is separated from the rest of Oman by the UAE. Its strategic location gives it partial control (along with Iran) of the Strait of Hormuz. Khasab is the local capital of the peninsula.

We went by road with a friend's family. Our journey started at around seven in the morning. It was a fun-filled ride. We got a chance to see the red dunes while nearing Ras al-Khaimah on the Emirates road. As we near the Oman border the sea turned green and the real mountainous stretch started.

Our first stop was at the UAE-Oman border post. It was a rather frustrating wait with the long queue of cars moving at a snail's pace. It's better to leave Dubai around noon to avoid the morning rush during holidays. That would give you enough time to visit Musandam and come back in case you don't want to stay overnight.

The Visa costed us UAE Dirhams 20 per person. Our two hours ordeal ended and we headed off to Musandam.

We drove through some breakthrough views of the mountains and the sea on the left. The highway itself was very neat and smooth. Driving on such stretches is always a pleasure. Sadly I couldn't lay my hands on the wheels during the whole trip.

It took us a little over 2 hours (excluding the delay at the border) to reach Musandam from Al Barha in Dubai. The journey could have been shorter had it not been my friend's brand new car; we never exceeded the 100 kmph mark on the dashboard.

We reached our hotel at around noon. The road leading to the hotel apartments was rough. But, the location was picturesque with the mountains in the background. As if we were destined to wait everywhere, this time for some 30 minutes for the key to our apartment. The apartment was a well-equipped, nice and cozy little place. But not much rest was in store for us as the driver for mountain safari was ready to take us around.

After a quick shower and lunch we sat in his vehicle for an adventurous 4-wheel drive experience. It was very thrilling and all of us enjoyed every bit of it. We stopped only to take pictures from spots providing some rare view of the mountains and the sea. Amidst the evening dust we drove back to our apartment for some much needed rest and a cup of refreshing tea.

Going out for dinner was a chance to see the city centre and the local market. We had our meal under a clear moonlight sky. Back at the apartment, we watched a little television before retiring to our separate rooms. It marked the end of a long and tiring day!

Day two was more relaxing and the one most anticipated. We were booked for the day on a traditional dhow cruise in the sea. Having taken the breakfast we headed to the harbour where some boats and small ships were resting. The dhow was waiting for us. One more family from Dubai joined us in.

Everybody was brimming with the excitement of a possible encounter with the dolphins. The dhow had a small sonar device to attract the dolphins. And they did come - in abundance! We saw a number of dolphins as we went farther into the sea. At one particular spot, near one shore, there were some 6-7 dolphins making a lot of noise. It was a moment to cherish and one for some pictures. Seeing the dolphins in their natural habitat is a rare and wonderful sight.

The dhow had chicken biryani for lunch. The surroundings made it all the more special. Even chickpea would taste like biryani in such settings!

Later my friend and I took a swim near a shore. I could actually see the shells and pebbles lying on the bottom through my goggles, so clear was the sea water.

By four in the evening we were heading back to the main shore.

At the apartment it was the usual evening tea and some rest before we went out for some site seeing. After a delicious Arabic dinner at one of the better looking restaurants we came back to the comfort of our hotel. The sad realisation that our trip was coming to an end was finally settling down on everybody. We chatted late into the night only to wake up late the next morning.

Day three saw our final breakfast at the hotel restaurant. We checked out of the apartment at around eleven-thirty.

The ride back to Dubai was full of memories of two beautiful days gone by. We stopped for a while at a small and lonely stretch of beach. The water was all green and sand glistening in the bright sun. The ladies had gala time playing with the sea waves.

The immigration formality at the Oman-UAE border was a breeze this time. In less than an hour the tranquility of Musandam gave way to the noise of contruction and heavy traffic as we entered Dubai.

The Kite Runner

2008-06-03T10:28:00.000+04:00

There are writers and there are good storytellers. But, seldom you find a writer who is also a good storyteller. Khaled Hosseini is that rare breed of writers. With ‘The Kite Runner’ he has created a masterpiece, one that will move even the stone-hearted. The book has been on the New York Times bestseller list for over two years now and translated into 42 different languages. Unfortunately it took a while to lay my hands on a copy.

The plot revolves around Afghanistan, Pakistan and the US. The novel is a touching account of a friendship that goes beyond tribe and colour. The story of Amir the Pashtun flying kites with Hassan the Hazara, whom he ultimately betrays in a different way. It is the story of a war-torned region that forced many Afghans to leave behind their life earnings to move out of the country. It is also the story of a country’s stunning transformation from one that revelled in kite flying tournaments to one that flogged women in public if not modestly dressed. Hosseini has woven stories within the story to make it an entertaining read. His characters breathe life. At times you could actually feel the story as it happens.

The book also touches upon the plight of the hazara tribes in Afghanistan. How they are looked upon as lowly creatures by their own fellow countrymen. The coming of Taliban spelt doom for this tribe and Hosseini minced no words in highlighting this.

The author captures a rare beauty of Afghanistan as seen by his protogonist Amir. And why not, Hosseini was born in Kabul but the poilitical situation forced his family to seek asylum in US. It’s his longing for the Afghanistan of his childhood that reflects in his writing.

“The streets glistened with fresh snow and the sky was a blameless blue. Snow blanketed every rooftop and weighed on the branches of the stunted mulberry trees that lined our street. Over-night, snow had nudged its way into every crack and gutter.”

‘The Kite Runner’ is all about the pain of leaving one’s homeland, rediscovering our true selves, and a hope for a better tomorrow. The message is simple, ‘it’s never too late to start!’

And there’s no way you can’t but admire Khalid Hosseini as a storyteller. Read it!

The Royal Champions

2008-06-02T12:33:00.001+04:00

So the fairytale continued in the IPL finals! The most inexpensive team turned out to be the side with a lot of character and talent.

Shane Warne showed once again what a cricketer he is. It was his leadership skills which inspired the Rajasthan Royals and turned the tide in it's favour. There were some individual performances that stood out. Shane Watson produced an amazing all round effort throughout the tournament, his 472 runs and 17 wickets bear testimony to the fact. And one player finally come of age with some extrordinary hitting of the cricket ball, Yusuf Pathan! Long living under the shadows of his more famous younger brother, Yusuf, finally caught a nation's imagination during the inaugral IPL. His 15 innings produced 435 runs at a strike rate of 179, and included 25 6s and 43 4s. The selectors, too, were impressed. Selected for the national squad he's destined to be a great one-day player.

As for the losing side, Mahendra Singh Dhoni should have some words of praise for his opponents rather than talk about his team failures in all three playing departments during the cup ceremony. At this level, and with such huge investments there's no excuse for failure. His side was beaten by an inspired and talented opposition.

City of Cranes

2008-05-26T12:02:00.001+04:00

A 2006 report in Gulf News said that Dubai has some 30,000 construction cranes, which is 24 per cent of the world's total. I wonder what would be the new figures given the maddening pace of construction in this part of the world.

Almost every immigrant in Dubai has a story to share, ranging from, "dry bushes beyond the Trade Centre on the Sheikh Zayed road" to "a handfull of restaurants in the city." Mind you all these stories are coming from people who have been in Dubai for not more than 15 years. This speaks a lot about the development of this port city. Dubai is increasingly finding favours with the business community around the world.

But everything comes at a price! The population too is on the rise and seems to be directionaly proportional to the cranes in the city. I heard on the radio some time back that 800 new residents are settling down in Dubai every day. No wonder the land prices and rentals are skyrocketing. What surprises me is that inspite of having so many hotels, there are times when it's hard to find a decent room for guests. As for the traffic here, the lesser said the better. It took me 3 hours once to reach Ajman from my place in Springs. In the name of construction, either the roads are digged open and so closed for the public or there are diversions because of flyovers coming up.

But, inspite of all these problems it's a beautiful city. No wonder some 200 nationalities are living here peacefully. The sheikhs have a vision and they are surely moving (or rather running) towards it. So until the goal is met the cranes will adorn the skyline of Dubai.

Not the Amitabh Bachchan I Admire

2008-05-15T10:31:00.002+04:00

I heard a wise man saying,"The dogs keep barking but the elephant just walks away." Of late Mr Bachchan seems to have completely gone over-board with his replies to every Tom, Dick and Harry.

There was a time when silence was golden for both Mr Bachchan and his ardent fans. And it was his performance on screen which silenced his detractors. That Amitabh seems to have been eclipsed by a new age (MTV friendly) version of the superstar. The often demi-god status that Mr Bachchan enjoys is not just because of his films but his behaviour off-screen as well. As he lay fighting for his life during that terrible accident on the sets of coolie, the whole of India was praying for a man they both loved and admired. I was certainly one of those!

The equations changed for a while during his brief but controversial stint in politics on a friend's (Rajiv Gandhi) request. It was Congress then. He had to work hard to win back the trust of both his voters and some of his loyal fans. Amitabh publicily declared not to try his luck in politics again.

Unfortunately, he's doing it all over again. Jaya Bachchan has joined Samajwadi Party, he himself promotes the party indirectly in various poll campaigns, his son got an award from the SP led UP government, and his dauther opened an school in UP on a land purchased during SP's tenure. But the thing that most bothers me is his new found urge to reply each and everybody, as if promoting 'hajmola' (an Ayurvedic digestive medicine from Hamdard) wasn't enough!

Needless to say I'm pretty disappointed with his current showing. Amitabh Bachchab doesn't need a blog to reply to criticism now. He has nothing to prove after spending 40 glorius years in the industry. Perhaps Mr Bachchan should take a lesson or two on ageing gracefully from Yusuf Saheb!

Girls Of Riyadh

2008-05-08T12:11:00.002+04:00

'Girls of Riyadh' is a novel by a young Saudi women Rajaa Alsanea. The novel created quite a noise here in the Middle East. For me it was a chance reading. A friend of mine gave it to me even as I had several lying at home, waiting to be read.

Well to start with, the novel may not be a great piece of literature but has its own strengths. The writer took a rather bold subject (more for the society she talks about) and handled it rather well. Her style of writing will especially appeal to the younger net savvy lot of which she herself is a part. The chapters are short and written in form of emails, something which makes for easier reading and also serve as effective bookmarks.

The story revolves around four girls who in a way represent a different section of the Saudi society. It's about the dreams of young women in a conservative society, role of women in a male dominated Islamic country, and the freedom to choose your own destiny. Sadeem Al-Horaimli, Gamrah Al-Qusmanji, Lamees Jeddawi, and Mashael Al-Abdulrahman (or Michelle) are the seldom unheard voices of a deeply religious nation. The novel talks freely of the girls' trials and tribulations in the matters of love and marriage. Their own friendship forms the core of the novel.

Alsanea surely has stirred up the hornest's nest with her view of the Saudi society, no wonder the book was promptly banned in the country. But she has done some service to her kind with this effort. This is what she wants her readers to see, "...little by little some of these women (in Saudi Arabia) are beginning to carve out their own way - not the Western way, but one that keeps what is good about the values of our religion and culture, while allowing for reform." And hers is a voice of reason too!

On a rather different note, the novel for some reason reminded me of Chetan Bhagat's style. Although he is a far better writer.

Being a first time effort from a 25 years old author, "Girls of Riyadh" is worth a read. I especially liked the chapter dealing with the classification of human populations based on different factors. As for it being a bestseller in the Middle East, it's more to do with the subject.

The Prophet's Biography

2008-04-24T10:27:00.001+04:00

This should have been the post before 'The Last Moghul.' Anyway, I finished reading Ibn Hesham's "The Prophet's Biography" couple of months back. It is a revised and abridged version of the earliest work on the subject by Mohammad Ibn Ishaq Al Matlabi.

Ibn Ishaq was born in Medina (85H) and died at Baghdad (152H). He composed his biography during the time of the Abbasid caliph Abu Jaafar Al Mansour (136-150H). There is an interesting story behind the origin of the book. When Ibn Ishaq met Mansour, the caliph asked him to write a valuable book for his son and crown prince Al Mahdi. Ibn Ishaq went and composed a biography of the holy Prophet [PBUH].

Ibn Ishaq's book has long been known among Muslim scientists as Ibn Hesham's biography, because it was he who revised and cited it. Abdul Malek Ibn Hesham Al Hemiari was born in Basra and died at Foustat, Egypt (218H).