Who Is This Terrorist?? An answer
This post is sponsored byIn Mumbai, In India and around the world, we are shocked, confused and some of us shattered, of course. But, maybe this ignorance will unite us to search for an answer until we escape into our safer zones. Maybe that is what the terrorist wanted, for us to understand his side of the story.
At this moment I have no feeling of shock, fear or hatred, all I know is that I am deeply, terribly pained.
The terrorism story has been haunting me for the last eight or nine years. Who are the characters of the story that keep reappearing every time we are jostled by a terror attack …
The Policeman – the officer, the ground police, the commando, the army, who is expected to save us, protect us because he has chosen to do this, even though he may be paid pittance in return. His choice to be in the Security is reason enough for us to hold him responsible for our safety. Sometimes, when he can’t keep up with the expectations or out of sheer ignorance and disinterest in his work, he crosses the line too.
I feel for him and his family that supports him.
The professionals - who made their choices early on, became doctors, journalists, who know they want to make a difference then and there as soon as a crisis occurs. Of course if they don’t believe in the real purpose of their job, they are severely criticized.
The ignorant Politician – who is virtually out of touch with ‘reality’, lost in his own fool’s paradise; who feels plastering the city with billboards of martyred officers, taking a courtesy round around hospitals, being visible at funerals and his job is done. He took over from the British officers after all or blindly pursued his ambition to get a seat of power, he ‘deserves’ to be treated like a reigning monarch himself. I pity his ignorance.
The victims who have by now made peace with fear, who by now have no choice but to be prepared for anything to happen anywhere at any time …
And of course there is the Terrorist who hits out at the raw nerve of our ignorance, leaving the sensitive miserable.
So,
WHO IS THIS TERRORIST;
The survivors at the JJ government hospital in Mumbai tell me he was a good looking young man, dressed like any urban youngster and firing ruthlessly, mercilessly, firing at women, children with no hint of emotion on his face. In the same breath, they confess they can’t understand why he would do this, so animal like.
And so our ignorance hurts most when we want to know ‘The terrorist’ and look for answers, only because he chose to hurt ‘Us’. We go back to what we know about characters who picked up the gun or could have …
Gulzar tells us in Maachis that he is a pained, troubled man, who once is trapped is trapped forever. (Kirpal Singh ‘Pali’/Chandrachur Singh)
Nishikant Kamat tells us in Mumbai Meri Jaan, he could well be an ordinary man who is unfulfilled and forcibly excluded from the shimmering world that hurts him. (Thomas/Irfaan Khan)
Anurag Kashyap tells us through Black Friday, he is a man so lost, so ignorant, so gullible, that he has left with nothing but to save face after committing his crime.(Badshah Khan/Aditya Srivastava)
Subhash Ghai tells us in Black and White he is a loveless man who has not had the chance to know what life is. (Junaid/Anurag Sinha)
Rahul Dholakia’s upcoming Lamhaa, set in Kashmir, will offer an answer too.
But now we are left to decipher the reality drama that has been playing on our Television screens since Nov 26, 2008.
The face of terrorism today is Azam Amir Kasav alias Ajmal Kasab, 21, Faridkot, Punjab, Pakistan.
Some reports mention he is from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir/Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Even if he isn’t that is where he was trained.
Where on the globe is Azad Kashmir where our terrorist was ‘manufactured’?
I’ll try and tell you.
It’s the same place that was once a part of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947. Where, in 1947 soon after India’s partition, the newly formed Pakistan army, sponsored Afghani and North Western Frontier profince tribal raiders to massacre the Hindu population in an attempt to take over Kashmir by force.
It’s the same place and time where my grandfather was shot dead in front of my father’s eyes. My father grew up motivated to join and serve the Indian army for 30 years and then was de-motivated in life to give it all up to secure a better future for his daughters.
It’s the same Azad Kashmir which after the United Nations’ intervened ceasefire of India and Pakistan’s first war (1947-1949) divided from the rest of Kashmir through the Line of Control, lived as a warped zone that in decades to follow became a flourishing terrorism industry, where even our ancestral house was first a military bunker and then became a terrorist hideout.
It is also the same Azad Kashmir that was in 2005 furiously ravaged in an earthquake, where an uncle who survived told me, it suffered damage many times more severe than the 1947 attack.
But, this is also the AJK where men and women live, children are born, adolescents crave to see the world, create online groups on orkut.com and scream to say that they want to live. I am not surprised Azam/Ajab – our terrorist said the same after being caught alive.
But then, why does he come all the way to kill someone he doesn’t know, maybe that is precisely why. Maybe, he is an ambitious man himself hurt by his own agony and ignorance and to motivate him to strike at what to him is the ambitious face of a country he is not a part of was just waiting to happen.
And of course there are the Motivators, who I don’t know much about at this stage. For that, I look out for content like Khuda ke Liye and perspectives from like minded friends from Pakistan.
I also steer clear from the ‘protectors’ of Hindutva at this stage, who most likely are right now planning their next move. They have to be dealt with separately and strongly.
My friend from Kashmir, recommends I read Curfewed Night by Basharat Peer. I just started reading and even the first few pages leave me gripped. Here’s finally a voice that speaks out vividly for the generation that has grown up in the war torn Kashmir of the 1990s. I now understand when my friend says that it is sad to know what happened to Mumbai but people do live like that everyday in Kashmir and of course in the North East.
Today, I only hope our ignorance doesn’t stop us from taking a step towards constructive action even if it might be hearing out those who have suffered a personal loss in this tragedy and fulfilling any small need that they might have.
In the same spirit let us not deride the power of uniting and collecting in candle light vigils, prayer meetings and on online groups but without the motivation to take constructive action that too would be futile.
I am sorry to say but we live in times when we can’t afford to be ruthlessly ambitious about personal desires, we need to step back and be more sensitive. There are too many people out there watching us and getting hurt.
In these troubled times I remember Rabindranath Tagore:
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action–
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
All my love and praying for our strength,
Smriti vij
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36 Responses to “Who Is This Terrorist?? An answer”
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@ hermetic – If you think this is justification you will have to read again or i would have to write again.
Agreed he is our villain and his end is the severest punishment, DEATH but that is no reason to close your eyes and ears to his story, where he comes from and what he chooses to do. Of course that is your CHOICE.
The more he is ignored, the further he will go to make his presence felt again.
A nice article. Yes, it is true that this specific person might have a ’story’ but another might not. Given the fact that terrorism is major business, it is not about someone being frustrated and that’s why he/she has become who they have become. Remember people with degrees and jobs and good lives also end up in this business…..
Injustice is felt by almost every common man/woman in this country in one way or the other. It is how one ends up facing it or taking it that makes the difference. By letting things stagnate or not speak up when it is needed, the situation goes beyond control.
It is how as a community people decide that there is a certain limit and work together to let situation not go beyond that limit.
I understand the spirit of your article and appreciate it as well….
I just fail to understand that how motivated are these guys who stormed into mumbai..they sustained for 60 hours…I mean its madness to just think of it..Are they so motivated…feel like getting into their minds for a minute and get to know their thinking process..such motivation is unheard of or where they nder some influence of performance enhancing drugs..i fail to understand
Smriti, it is amazing that despite such a painful family history you have no bitterness. And you write a piece like this. My admiration. My salute.
We have at least the ’spirit’ to ‘bounce back’ the next week. Imagine a place where there is none. Or let me make that plural for our country: places.
As a society, the faster we figure out that we are one of the most violent ones, the better it is for us. Then, we are the most apathetic ones. No brainer that we have failed to see successive designs on our society by driven terror merchants worldwide.
Smriti – Kashmir has been unfortunate as like Assam, Bihar, Nagaland, Tripura and other such pockets in the country where the wishes of the local populance were subjugated to promote jingoistic interests of a religion, community or nation.
An overhaul of our polity is needed. We realise it but how and what to do???
Two more perspectives
Vidhu Vinodh Chopra’s Altaf (Mission Kashmir)
and
Govind Nihalani’s Farhan (Dev)
would perhaps help us answer the question a bit better
Smriti,
Thank you for sharing the Tagore poem. and reminding me… of hope.
And thank you for sharing your story.
So we should have sent psychiatric to Taj and other places instead of NSG…
Or Or Or… maybe..He is a young man brainwashed to the extent where he believes he will go to ‘Jannat’ (where 72 beautiful virgins are waiting for him) by killing people from other religion and is used as pawn in anti-indian Political plot…
Maybe its just me!
What is the point of this write up? Are you trying to build up the allure of a troubled “good looking” terrorist, a romantic archetype for the next retarded bollywood movie??
You want to deal with “Protectors of Hindutva” strongly but indulge in a bleeding heart enquiry into who is a terrorist? Nevermind the 600lb gorilla in the room, the islamist ideology.A myth that a muslim cannot live in a secular society.
How dare this uppity Hindus create such angst in the delicate minds of these good looking terrorists. Rabindranath Tagore could write something like that because he was intellectually fearless. Ironic you would quote him while exhibiting signs of stockholm syndrome and cognitive dissonance.
@ smriti..nice article with a utopian touch..
but i have few issues with this..
1.) in developing world..injustices galore..we face it everyday..u and ur family have been severe victims of it..injustices and inequality in orissa, noth east, my home-state bihar..these guys have not found their share in Indian system..but how many of these guys come out and blow bombs in delhi, mumbai and jaipur..even next big threat like naxals attack on system ( police stations ) not on civilians. a terrorist who wantonly goes on a killing spree of non-specific innocent people is a perverted soul with no ideology for which no sympathy should be reserved despite his background..i can still understand if they came and attack symbols of establishment like police station, parliament..but this wanton killing of people..only drugged or perverted people can do this..a lot of my friends are psychiatrists..they make a clear difference between people with psychosis and psychopaths..we offer treatment for earlier..for latter jails are best places..
2) kasab..an eloquent english speaking..well educated..guy who uses lap tops n gizmos like anything..was born in faridkot, pakistan..with no connection to kashmir..free from many injustices that a developing world could offer..he trains and goes on killing spree..people say he was on performance enhancing drugs..now let me make a clear distinction..if he was drugged,indoctrinated
and he believed that fighting for jihad will lead to a place under allah..he is under a spell of psychosis..i am a doc..i will take his psychiatric history n go n treat him..but if he goes on a killing spree which is not random but with a clear fortified plan..psychiatrists dont waste their time with such psychopaths and send them to jail..M scott Peck calls these people ” people of lie “..
3) western media is crying hoarse about injustices
about injustices n insecurities faced by muslims in India..very true..it is a major cause..but as important is the cult of death that has afflicted islam..the cult which leads to muslim docs n engineers go n blow buildings n bridges instead of
helping the underprivileged in their community..
the first grievance has to be addressed by indian state..the second grievance has to be adresssed by muslim community..unless the approach is two pronged the solution is not forseeable in near future..
@ hermetic – thank you. They hate you, you hate them and let the wiping out be left to the security forces. or did you have plans to pick up the gun? think you should stick to blog comments.
no. i have no such plans about the curriculum or roses bit that you imagined.
@sarang. Thank you for you comment. we havent even skimmed the surface of his story, don’t even know about the life he lived only that when i read somewhere that he was from PoK/AJK it triggered off something personal.
agreed, speaking up is important.
@ sourav – i too dont know this but just making an attempt.
@Thank you Robindro. it means a lot.
@Indraneel..”An overhaul of our polity is needed. We realise it but how and what to do???”
I do want to find an answer to this, i am not in the right frame of mind..but i will answer it in time..i hope.
@ Faraz – Thanks for mentioning those characters.
@ Ruchi – your good wishes give me the strength to answer these comments here.
@ Kiran – actually, maybe, if someone like that was willing to risk his/her life!
@ parth – i cant answer this.
@ Indypendy – i will share the point of this article, please give me some time.
but i assure you, i have no ideas about building up any romantic archetype here. Maybe i should have used quotation marks in the write up. When i met the victims of the CST firing, this is how they described him. This is the ‘image’ they saw. The Image cannot tell us about the life this man led or his education or his mentor. it is most likely an acquired image.
vis a vis ‘Hindutva’ – i fear the retaliation, the eye-for an eye approach.
You find me quoting Rabindranath Tagore ironic – i cannot help it.
’stockholm syndrome and cognitive dissonance.’ –
i don’t have the vocabulary to understand this. could you describe.
I bring this up here because i believe here is a space to discuss, if i were at the site of the tragedy i dont think the thought would cross my mind at that point.
@ anupam – i will answer you but the cyber cafe is shutting down right now..some time please
@hermetic…
1.if u really have balls(sorry for the gross quotient), then storm into the cell in which he is kept and kill that terrorist instead of all the blabbering.
2.next time read an article more carefully and there is this thing called “inferential”,look out for that word in the dictionary.
3.the head has been placed before the mouth in ur anatomy,USE IT.
4.try to visit any of those “Islamic schools”
that you mentioned before commenting on them.
5.in the first roll-call of death issued by J.J. Hospital, the name next to mr. hemant karkare was mastan qureshi.
6.try to be motivated enough(like those terrorists)to wipe this (influenced)hostility inside you and it will be a better world to live in.
@anupam…
couldn’t agree with u more!!
the moment a person kills someone, he is out of any religion!!especially Islam, the Qur’an clearly mentions it.
Someone feeling the pinch when i quote “Islamic schools which breed terrorists ”
“try to visit any of those “Islamic schools”
I guess you have done that and here you certify.
@ahmad -the context was where these terrorists come from and the root cause is those madrasas(Islamic school) across border and there is sympathy for these elements in India too. (out of context- have you ever seen anyone celebrating India lose to pakistan in Cricket, i have seen these people distributing sweets)
I have hatred and hostility for anti national elements who are bleeding this country, if that is wrong as per you i can live with that.
@kiran- the psychiatrist should actually see the author here who is in some parallel/filmi world.
@smriti- i appreciate your concern with these terrorists, may be apart from your filmi gyan you should have suggested your solution to end these violent acts
u have seen them distribute sweets..ha ha..
i’ve bitched with them for the better part of my 23 yr old life because i grew up in an anti-Indian neighborhood of Allahabad. i do not have any soft corner for any madarsa or a religious institution for that matter of fact!!
ur modern terrorist wears branded clothes,uses gizmos,speaks fluent english,has the capacity to take on 15 of our NSG commandos!!making Islamic institutions scapegoats has become a fashion yaar!!
its just that go and c London for urself before writing abt it especially on a site that calls itself passionforcinema!!
also anti-national elements aren’t only from those madarrsas…u might as well come across a few where the national anthem is being sung…
@ Smriti Thanks for your post and patience repling to the comments,you have articulated some of my thoughts.
@ hermetic -Which proactive country do you find having success ,The root cause I feel is not the school’s,they appear to be only a symptom of the problem. The vulnerability,injustice and the feeling of persecution seems to be the root cause.
@anupam -The attacks on the places you mention would not have got them the media they are getting. There are groups who are able to exploit the vulnerability to in doctrine someone not directly affected. I agree on the two pronged approach ,thou where do you see the political and social will to make it happen,we are reactive and seem to be worried about day to day survival and finding issues with the world rather than accept our challenges.
Someone above mentioned that “The vulnerability,injustice and the feeling of persecution seems to be the root cause.”. If you see that the terrorist this time attacked a Jewish Center which I think is symbolic. Indeed I dont think it is a random choice because nobody cares in Mumbai about the Jewish Center and I am hearing it for the first time and as an terrorist you would like to aim at something which will hurt the most. Now why a terrorist from Pakistan attack Jewish Center. You might think that his only cause is for Kashmir. Jews have only one connection with the terrorist, Palestine which Israel has forcefully occupied. Anyway there is a sense of injustice that is felt by these terrorist for what is happening in Palestine. And it seems to me very absurd to take revenge for someone whom you dont know but just have the same religion but it seems this is what it is. So the root cause may be injustice but what is flowing as an undercurrent is religion. Infact these terrorist were victims of their own religion. They destroyed their beautiful life. But alas they snatched the same beauty from many others.
Note that I may be wrong in making all these connection from Pakistan to Palestine but so much hatred I have seen that I think that this is true. If not people can tell me why they attacked a place virtually unknown to me.
So, this writer seems to suggest that if we don’t find the root cause and make the terrorist mend his ways there is no end to terrorism.Very true indeed,and I salute your noble intentions.But how do we achieve this highly utopian and idealistic pursuit?we have to be realistic in curbing such attacks.
Also I think people are forgetting the economic angle.The fidayeen are paid a handsome amount to put their lives on the line,I heard.
Very nice article, Right from the time I heard about this “terrorist” nabbed by police, I am seeing all the comments on killing this person. Thankfully , I can see someone’s comments that shows my ideas too. All you guys who think that since we all are low, loveless and feel depressed in our lives, it is not justified to attack someone have to grow up. You need to know what part of the worls he comes from and you cannot compare his life with yours. You life might have been going through phases of lovelessness or depair, you might have at leat one person who at the least took sme care for you, you have heard music, watched movies and in a way became a person as a result of observing and learning good and bad experiences in normal world. Look at the world from this kid’s , I would rather not say him terrorist,he is such a pitiable soul. I am not underestimating and am painladen with the misery the attack has caused to everyone and people have lost thier loved ones in a split second. But, at the same time, this person and 1000s of kasavs are breeding in a area laden with extremists . They are born and brainwashed. even his own father had sold him to have a mere 1.5 lakh , there is a world where people commit major crimes for one meal.. you have to know that. There is a world out there.. and they do not know what life is.. how much beautiful life is, how it feels to be appreciated, how it feels to be loved.. seriusly I am crying right now, God has made so much disparity in the world.. Here we are in the comforts of our homes cribbing about biscuits or economy slowdown.. while still watching movies and maybe making holiday plans .. and here these people are .. who are forced to think that Jihad is ultimate thing.. remember during 11th and 12th class , how our parents used to ask us ” study hard” n your life wud be gud forever, those are the formative years of someones life that make deep impact .. and I am imagining how ignorant this kid would have been attending madrassas and thinking jihad wud make his life.. Its pitiable.. he needs to be taken care of in the sense that he needs to realize that he has done mistakes.. he should be feeling guilt, he should be having regrets.. for killing innocents.. Once he realises , we are successful in making a person normal, 1000s of kasavs should be liberated from being influenced forcibly into twisted idealogies..The area he is from it is learnt that as soon as a son is born, the jihadi leaders start perserting parents to send the kids to them for making their army or else they threaten to kill them all.. this is horrible…How could you guys compare your lives to this guys or for that matter any poor guys life.. We should hit the root cause of terror.. I just pray to God to give some strength to not to send thier kids to such institutions..
@ Shruti
Is he the only person in the world, suffering a lowly, pitiable life?
Tibetans for years have been supressed by the Chinese Govt, facing brutal torture, their culture has been destroyed, and today they are living like slaves in their own land.
Why is that i have not seen Tibetans flying planes into some Shanghai high rise or Beijing’s Forbidden City?
Kashmiri Pundits have been forced out of their homes, their families massacred in front of their eyes, many of them living in refugee camps in miserable conditions.
And yet to date i have not seen a Kashmiri Pandit suicide bomber killing himself and others in Lal Chowk.
And would you be willing to extend your analogy to a person involved in “Hindu Terrorism”, after all he might have seen his parents or near ones die in a bomb blast.
If you are taking victimhood as an excuse for some one to commit horrendous crimes, then you are stepping into a vast grey area, because there have been victims all around the world in Tibet, Darfur, Rwanda and not all of them are using it as an excuse to blow up others.
@Shruti If somebody is coming to your home and attaching you trying to kill everyone in the family would you be thinking the same way about the intruders after u escape…
There should be no justification or second thoughts for these kind of people….
I just wonder how we could forget the loss of so many people who lost there life’s and many injured and think in this way
@ Shruti
Terrorism is like a disease for which we don’t seem to have a cure at the moment and a person who is affected with this disease is terrorist. You can try to cure the person but when you don’t have the medicine at THE MOMENT and when because of the person hundreds others are dying and the only option left is to kill the terrorist to save others, what can one do?
It’s sad that at the end of the day it is a human killing other human but till a medicine is found, the patient needs to be executed.
And if we start negotiating with everyone without any strong reason, then each person shall have his or her own country.
And life is unfair to everyone in one way or the other. Accept that some people suffer too much but that DOES NOT give them any right to kill INNOCENT lives.
Now that some time has passed since i wrote this and by now Azam Amir Kasav’s story thanks to the
interrogation of the mumbai police is being told through news reports. Through him the police want to reach out to the ‘root cause’. Through American (read ecomomic pressure} Pakistani leadership has been forced to take action. They have raided the LeT camp and caught the Lashkar commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi or so they say, and the scene of action as expected is Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.
American security of course have their eyes on the terror factories and maybe its just a
matter of time for a full fledged crackdown, war – if what we’re living through is no
less. More bloodshed, more displacement, maybe not into India the way our family came to
build a life from scratch with no government compensation whatsoever but this time into
Pakistan. i don’t know.
The Solutions
Of course, we need answers, thats the point. And if no one gives me the answer what i can i do, right? well, I am no God to answer your questions, i am just an ordinary citizen who
wants answers too but then aren’t we all?
what I can tell you is what I feel because at this stage in life that is the most honest answer I can give.
Of course we need an ‘overhaul of polity’ but we need to give space to all kinds of approach..just like the indian freedom struggle had several heroes with different approaches.. Gandhi, Bhagat Singh, Bose – were all diferent people and each fought their own battles their way.
The end of violence is More violence.
To me it is clear that the terrorist caught has to Die. Anyone who kills other than for self defence has to die. In his case, there is too much clear evidence against him for a ‘fair trial’. The interrogators are doing their job.
The Police forces/Security forces – another overhaul here. We depend on these individuals
for our security and more often than not they are taken for granted.
Did you read that report about faulty bulletproof jackets : http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/mumbaiterrorstrike/Story.aspx?ID=NEWEN20080075019&type=News
Another Overhaul. I want someone like Kiran Bedi to be given charge again, to be taken seriously. To train, administer and of course control excesses. sounds fancy in words but this is what i want. don’t u ?
But more than anything I want our generation at least to be sympathetic towards the innocent and not spread more hate.
Isn’t that the purpose of a police force, judicial system to protect the innocent,
Otherwise instead of spewing your hate on blogs you would pick up the gun, take the law in your own hands, kill and then die your own death.
Now i’ll tell you why i wrote the blog.
I wrote this for the innocent caught in the crossfire of Hate. For someone who may have nothing to do with the PoK but is Kashmiri, for someone who may have nothing to do with Kashmir but is Indian with roots there. For someone who is Muslim in India but not Kashmiri. For someone
who might have happened to study in a Madrassa in India and had a genuine well meaning true
teacher. And for that teacher. For every innocent who will be looked at with hate and fear because of someone else’s ignorance.
I wrote this here, not as a bleeding heart enquiry but to share knowledge especially when I
watched the news with a group of 20 something working women in mumbai and they asked about
Pakistan occupied Kashmir, they thought all of Kashmir is PoK! Well this is what we get
when history is suppressed, people like us left explaning that we are not refugees from the
Punjab partition and that India and Pakistan fought their first war in 1947!
And obviously to the ignorant I would seem a person living in a parallel world…just turn
the mirror towards yourself and god will tell you who lives in a parallel fake world after
all!
I also wrote this, because in times like these when you don’t know who your enemy is emotions of fear and hate abound.
I Know, because i met those who survived and heard their stories.
I wrote this because if anyone reading this wants to vent out their hate and anger, they could do it here.
And of course, I wrote this for myself because no one else would write it for me. and I
thank you for taking the time to comment.
A special thanks to you Heretic, your comments compel me to think and take action so if you
have the time do send in your hate mail to me directly.
My father spent most of his life protecting this country and maybe I should also spend my
life writing and answering comments on such blogs while i could instead be having lunch at
the Taj..oops..maybe not anymore!
I am closing discussion from my side on this topic unless something compels me to continue,
right now i need to get back to work and earn the money that allows me to access the
internet…you know like some people say, THE REAL WORLD!
love and strength,
smriti
robindro, since you were generous in your praise i have to acknowledge that i did not grow up wanting to write a piece like this but I was fortunate to meet exceptional teachers at the same age when say, someone like Kasav happened to meet a ‘teacher’ who gave him the Gun.
But now i write this out of my own choice.
My father’s views however, based on his life and experience are different and important at a time like this.
You can read them here;
http://reportmysignal.blogspot.com/2008/12/can-we-still-trust-pakistan.html
http://www.cscsarchive.org/MediaArchive/audience.nsf/(docid)/2011895E13A7FF6A65256941003050C5?openDocument
Hhhahaha/// Read “heretic” as “Hermetic” ..whew! You should atleast have the courage to type your own name..dont you think?
Smriti, your father’s views are understandable in the context of his life — what he has seen, his tragic personal loss, his army background with its concrete, precise realities. But it is how you think, the way you have learnt to think side by side with your father’s thinking, I feel that is ultimately the key. The young generation has to simply refuse the inheritance of bitterness. It doesn’t mean forgetting things, but remembering them yet not letting them overwhelm you. Discord plus discord is simply more discord. Unending.
Smriti, more than your peice, i really enjoyed reading your rejoinder to the warmongers. It is simply astounding how prone we are to forgetting lessons from history, that cycles of retribution have always ended in destruction of the other and the self. And why should it be surprising that we do not understand these lessons? Throughout our school lives, and i especially speak for my generation, the social sciences are taught with disinterest at best and disdain at worst, with history=boring. A whole generation fed on such drivel shall be nothing if not socially disengaged. What bothers me tremendously, and is deeply unfortunate, that a huge lot of the anger that has been spewing lately has come from this same stock, a stock of young ‘uns comfotable in their prosperous coocoons, otherwise disengaged with society and its problesm, who suddenly wake up from their stupor and take the battle to the street with cacophonous jingoism, and beleive that this screeching, five day exhibition is a revolution. I beleive this is particularly a problem of the middle class. In no way do i believe that peaceful protests ought not to be held. What terrifies me though is the hatred as seen in slogans on placards. Also, i wish those who come out on the streets at this time would also do their tuppence for the country on a daily basis, instead of restricting their talk and anger when such catastrophes occur. And also, doing their tuppence on a daily basis does not imply merely heading to work in one of the more resurgent industries in India, followed up by fake US acknowldgement of how India is a rising economic and superpower.
There has to be a lot more introspection and empathy in the approach of every single individual. Its not that i do not get angry, but i allow it to pass and let reason pevail lest i do something that’ll harm more than heal. Plus, there is also a time for tough action, but that can certianly involve pressure on the government to ensure that our security agencies work better, rather that repalcing an electing governemnt with the military. Look at what that did to neighbours to Pakistan and Bangladesh.
That is why, your one article is worth a thousand cries for war. And once again…
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high,
Where knowledge is free,
…………………..
Into that heaven of freedom my Father,
Let my country awake.
Smriti
A good research work.some places ,names ,and organisations are listed below for analysis by the readers;
MAZOOR AZAR, MUSHARAFF ,MULAYAM(and like minded politicians and their cronies),MANMOHAN SINGH, MAYAWATI ,MODI.
MEHROULI. MALEGAON ,MUMBAI ,MAHARASHTRA .MECCA MASJID ,MUZAFFERABAD.
MILITANTS ,MADRASSAS ,MUSLIMS ,MUSJID ,MINORITIES ,MAJORITY ,MUJAHIDS ,MAHAJIRS .These are either for terrorism or against terrorism.our knowledgeable public who is who and does not need any prompting. now is the time for all good men and women to come fwd to raise their voice against all who they think are on the side of terror outfits for their personal greed of cash and kind. one thing is certain no insurgency or terrorism can take place without help from the LOCALS .These elements need to be eliminated sooner the better. good luck
@hermetic – i observe you have taken off your comments from this post. i sincerely hope i did not hurt you, i didn’t intend to and i understand yours was an emotional outburst much like my blog post. do write in to me at smritivij.alive@gmail.com if you so wish.
my best wishes.