Alyan goes to a World sans Border

         Little Alyan(drowned Syrian toddler)might have gone to a world having no borders, suffering and pain.But the pic of the still body of the little boy on  Turkish sea coast had conveyed the horrors of war and  apathy of  world in silence. The  birds fly on sky neither aware of the borders nor worried about its nationality, same applies to flies,bees and countless wild animals that do not stop at the border  fearing  deportation. Humans having a higher intelligence coupled with an evolved soul made divisions amongst ourselves with  religion,race,colour and class and segregated earth with boundaries only to scare away another human being!

         We created a world that would make us insulated   in our cocoon,                              we drew borders to keep ourselves away  from others who are less fortunate than us due to historical/geographical/ political or so many other reasons. But when we started having this national identity?The developed Europe was a battlefield once  and had meddled with all parts of the world, colonized most of the world and redrew their borders,but those nations which turned away from Syrian crisis do not even seem to have a sense of history.Millions of Europeans/Jews were displaced,murdered and fled as refugees to different part of the world during world wars. But today the refugees fleeing for life are called as ‘illegal immigrants!’ Weren’t those British who migrated  to Americas,Australia and Newzland illegal immigrants? Not to mention  the brutalities and exploitation the colonisers /migrant Europeans had inflicted on the natives in Asia, America and Africa. And Haven’t Asia and Africa contributed to the prosperity of Europe?

         Another inconvenient truth is that Europe  particularly UK and US is part of the problem of present day middle east crisis, so are Arab countries like Saudi,Qatar,Kuwait etc.Suni Saudi Arabia helped rebels to fight Assad govt(Shia) in Syria at the same time helps suppress Shia protests against Sunni regime in Shia majority Bahrain, the Shias in Bahrain are denied many rights and live in kind of ghettoes.

         For me the idea of nations itself is looking at the world with a narrow perspective, we are not owners of planet earth though we pretend to be so and nobody has the right to keep all resources for themselves, besides helping another human being  in distress or any living being for that matter is the basic duty of us humans.

          We create so many imaginary identities about nation,race and religion, but what we lack in this influx of identities is the ability to love and empathise. I wish for a world where there would be no boarders, where we could rise above narrow nationalism.

Why Iraq?

           I am deeply saddened by the complete lawlessness of Iraq, a country that was the cradle of  great civilizations.The history  lessons of  Messopotamian and Babylonian civilizations often replay in my mind while thinking of Iraq.Why Iraq was attacked repeatedly? Does history repeat itself? Iraq was a battle ground for invadors,emperors and exploiters in the past, she was brutally destroyed by army of  Chenghis Khan,later the savage emperor Timur etc, but all the time she had arisen from her ashes like a phoenix bird.

        Why Iraq? Again when we have so many dictators including US alley Saudi Arabia which was the biggest exporter of Islamic fanatism, around the world, why USA had chosen Iraq to invade? Why her population are so destined to live as victims of someone’s war? It might be an irony that middle east is birth place of enlightened souls/religions and battle field of brutal wars, look like both divine and demon co-exist in this part of the world.

       The gory stories coming out from Iraq and Syria(the part of Syria which is under control of ISIS is boardering Iraq) let me down  and make my heart sink a million times.One of my friends in Delhi who had studied in Iraq in the eighties, told me  how advanced the country was then and how educated and liberated the women were there, and computer was pretty common those days in Iraq. I do not know why it happens but looks like she has been consumed by a viscious cycle of violence. Though the perpetrators may fight for a million make up reasons, the real reason is perhaps greed, the mother of all wars. All wars are fought for power and money and I am sure this ISIS is using religion as a mask to brain wash the youth as it is the effective tool on emotionally vulnerable youth. The heads of ISIS were members of former dictator Saddam’s govt and his Bath party speak volumes about the real objective of advancing their influence on the desert land.

      There are people who quote from Quran to establish their point that it advocates murder of non believers, but as I hardly read it, I do not want to comment on that.My Muslim friend in Delhi says that a ‘True Muslim would never rape a girl/woman,’ and about the brutalities of ISIS he would say ‘Woh bilkul pagal hain(they are completely crazy) and Quran never said so’

      There were times I believed that Islam was part of the problem,perhaps it is not Islam, but dark aspect of humanity. In India people have a strong anti-Islam feeling ingrained in them due to our history of Islamic invasions and terrorism. But though India is the second largest Muslim population in the world very few Muslims here sympathise with ISIS, the reasons can be varied, ISIS seems to appeal the hardened desert people where the socio/political atmosphere are quite different, they are used to dictatorship,oppression and exploitation where as Indians are brought up in a multi cultural,mutli lingual,multi religious society and are hardly experienced dictatorship.

        There is conflict of interest the way USA/West deal with other part of world, actually what on earth made US believe that installing a Shia regime in Sunni majority Iraq would end the problem where Sunni-Shia fight is as old as Islamic history. Now US leaves Iraq to  their fate after having messed up with the country, perhaps with a relief that enemy is not in their backyard.

       World seems very insane, often we fail to ask relevant questions as who weaponises ISIS? Who makes and sells these weapons?Who finance them?Like those who use weapons those who make and sell are equally responsible for making this world a bad place. I may sound an idealist, but  why do we need huge weapons if not promote war and destruction?So we  all  either directly or indirectly are responsible in one way or other to this sorry state of planet earth.

         Having said that,I really hope some sane voice from Islam would come forward to save their young from falling prey of the viscious designs of ISIS and my prayers for Iraq(and Syria) to rise from her ashes with all her past glories and prosperity.

Dilemma of Little Hearts

       ‘He is our Sharukh Khan, he wants to become a Bollywood actor’, said one of  the school boys whom I got acquainted with during my idle walks at Delhi’s Caunaut Place, pointing at the Sharukhan look alike boy among them. He had smiled  through his glittering eyes when I told him that I would like to see him on big screen one day. Yet the boys didn’t seem confident about their dream, when I asked about their school they were so reluctant to name it rather put it this way, ‘We study in a bad school’,  upon my persuation they told me that they study in a government school and  were so weak in English.

       This boys represent an India that is under confident and disadvantaged in job market in an opportunity-starving country due to their lack of English language skill. I can connect to the dilemma of the boys well as I was a product of a government school where my medium of education was Malayalam(my mother tongue).There was no English medium school in my village at that time, so that I had studied in a government school and passed out my secondary school with little or no English language skill.And  it was a Himalayan task for me to understand the lessons at the next level of my education where medium of education was English and I was terribly under confident.

          English is the new aristocracy in India and  unfortunately class-conscious Bollywood industry  requires convent educated actors and actresses though Hindi is the language, they would prefer to tutor an English speaking person in Hindi than experimenting with a Hindi speaking(non English speaking) girl/boy, obviously talent is the last thing on their mind.Most of the Bollywood actress’ are city bred middle or upper middle class girls who have the right English  accent to join the elite club of celebrities, though  actors like Irfan Khan,Nawayuddin Siddiqui etc are  certain exception to this rule.

       English fetches respect in India, and more opportunity in the job market, but a great majority cannot afford education in private English medium schools, thus our education institutions produce two kinds of citizens, privileged and less privileged or to put it another way, English medium educated and non English medium educated, the latter definitely is lacking resources and confidence. The commercialization of education with the mushrooming  private schools, has  negatively impacted public schools with its standard fallen a new low,when Nehru had built IITs, he  was completely ignorant of the necessity of improving primary education, so our public schools are at the mercy of a corrupt system.

       We ceIebrate mediocre in every field including art and literature in our over enthusiasm for English and really gifted language writers are sidelined or not appreciated enough. My English professor Vishnu Narayanan Namboothiri in Brennen College,Talassery(Kerala) is a renowned Malayalam poet, on being asked why he writes in Malayalam, he said that he can express his heart’s deeper feelings only in his mother tongue. Perhaps  great creation or innovations are possible only in one’s mother tongue. There is a view going around  as to why \developing countries are so and developed countries are so, because all the developed countries educate in their mother tongue, but developing countries in Asia ,Africa,South-central America educate in a foreign language. This argument may or may not be right, yet there is some ‘method’ in this argument. I’m not against English, but we must understand that English is just another language having a wider reach, yet that doesn’t make it superior to other languages and it is through our mother tongue that we communicate to our heart, and it is the door to one’s culture.

Tribute to a Beautiful Mind

   “Death is a clown having no sense about the scene.” renowned Malayalam writer MT Vasudevan Nair’s character says in one of his novels.The demise of Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam reminds me of this words. I am deeply saddened by his death and all I could manage was tears rolling down from my cheeks at the departure of a beautiful mind.I was never felt so sad about anybody’s death, even of my grand parents who were the closest family members of mine who had left the world already. Dr.Kalam  was the brightest star in the horizon of modern India who ignited millions of minds with his child-like curiosity,simplicity and a wealth of knowledge.              

     Death is perhaps the only truth(or ultimate one at that) that none can avoid or outlive despite our glorious scientific advancement, none could find anything closer to defeat death and none will ever. It is a reality and we all are walking towards to that reality in each day of our life. And I am sure death is not the end of a life; it is the disappearance of our physical body and not the soul that would go back to its eternal abode leaving the temporary one here on earth. Still as a human being who is hold in the limitations of physical body, I cannot help but mourn about the demise of loved ones and people of impeccable quality and integrity like Dr.Kalam.

     I do not know Dr. Kalam personally and I never have seen him in person though he is someone I dearly remembers and someone I really would have liked to meet in person. I had deep love and respect for Kalam and in his demise I feel like somebody close to my heart has been gone away and it pains me to think that I would never see or hear him in person, an irreparable loss to humanity and planet earth. I will always miss him like millions of   others around the world.

       What makes him so precious?It is not  his success or achievements that make him a great soul but his values and principles in life, the fact that he remained a simple and honest person despite all his material achievements. And it was not easy for a boy from a humble beginning to become the most inspiring personality of modern India. He was an inspiration to millions of souls and would enlighten the generations to come with his inspiring personality  and actions.

Daughters and Sons

       Indians get very defensive when others point out our problems, perhaps we are not used to criticism, or we do take ourselves very seriously. Whatever it is, ‘India’s Daughter’ diverts the issue of rape to the issue of a foreign lady attacking India though she herself admitted that admiration and respect to India brought her her here.

     Rape is a universal issue, but unlike developed countries, most of the crime related to sexual abuse is not even reported here, let alone pursuing a case due to the social stigma attached to it, there are even cases where women had to compromise by receiving money due to financial and social limitations to engage into a long legal battle, sometimes even fearing a backlash from the accused. Again the ‘re rape’ at police station and court is humiliating and below the dignity of any human being.

       The pervert attitude of the rapist and the defence lawyer in the documentary is a mirror to our society that doesn’t have any respect for women. Even in big cities like Delhi women are tortured for giving birth to girl child, a boy is received with sweets whereas a girl is received with tears in many homes irrespective social/financial status.

     Women are considered suborninate not equal to men and public places are completely occupied by men.In my village whenever I would go to a local library, men would stare at my as if I was an alien and  in restaurants, they would look at you as if women do not have not hunger, so that not supposed to eat out.I recall an incident when my friends in my journalism class and I had gone to Steven Spielberg’s film, we were groped by few men at the theater premise amidst the crowd, when protested, they asked us why we were there on the releasing day of the film?Another time during the show of Mira Nair’s controversial film ‘Kamasutra’, we had been forced to leave the theater midway by unruly men who  targeted us with abuses, vulgour language and gestures as we were the only girls there(the unwritten law is that even if it is girl’s nudity, a descent woman would not watch that). Groping and misbehaving are common in public transports in India, so that women have to be alert all the time while traveling. Many times Indian women live in the fear of getting raped, so that we have to get into the safety of our home if it gets dark.

        I am sure those men never have seen their fathers respecting their mothers, or never have been educated about respecting women. In schools and colleges, we get information, not real education (that is another matter of discussion I do not want to elaborate on that now) besides real education begins at home where many times parents fail their children. I recall the incident where a sub inspector father beats up his adult daughter in Bangalore street for an alleged relationship and her teacher mother too support the father. How can our women live in dignity when such people as protectors of law and engineers of youth are around us?How  our children would learn to respect woman with such ignorant people?

      To root out an illness  one must know the cause, punishing the criminal is important, yet it is like modern medicine treating the symptoms of the illness, it may creep in again. We must go deeper to understand the cause of this disease called rape, and must treat the cause ie try to change the mind- set of the society and educate the men to respect women. There are some rapists who are men of low self esteem, financially and educationally backward and they do believe that they do not have anything to ‘lose’ in the act, but there are other men who are powerful and influential who think they can get away with this crime.Instead of treating children as properties parents must inculcate values in children, schools,universities etc., should continue this value based education  to build a modern and civilized society where women are respected. It may not happen in one day, but at least we must begin now.