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.