Thursday, 21 December 2017

Rukaiya's Ebike

Bought a monsoon cover for Rukaiya s ebike.

The rainy season is long past and we are into December and another six months at least for the next monsoons to begin. Then why buy it?

Well, it acts as a dust and tiny leaves cover/protector. You know the tiny ones that are like the tamarind leaves (or maybe they actually are). They fall from the trees and  lodge themselves in the  net seat cover, which is hard to clean. But that's not the only reason.

Her earlier brown coloured cover was brutally torn, ripped by some unknown person. The handicapped four wheeled vehicle itself was dragged and moved around on multiple occasions from its parking place. And I did not know who was doing it.

Then last week I happened to see from my kitchen gallery, a ground floor flat occupant of our housing society manhandling it. But before I could react to it or protest I was called by my special needs sister Rukaiya. And then later the exigencies of taking care of her 24x7 did not provide co
nducive opportunity to broach this incident 

However last Friday when I brought Rukaiya back home, I found this manhandler sitting in his parked car.  As I was parking Rukaiyas handicapped ebike he called out to me and told me - I wish you would park the vehicle a little in front...I have difficulty in turning it in reverse. I said if he brought his car into the compound in reverse he would not have to reverse his car. He mumbled about it being not feasible. I then told him that I am at home most of the day and night. If there is a problem he just has to call out to me and I would come down and do the needful.

However I complied with his request and parked  Rukaiyas ebike as to not inconvenience him. After all we live in a co-operative housing society 

I have Co operated with the Society when their technical and parking committee asked us to vacate our parking space since 1978  under our bedroom gallery of our flat  on the first floor  (then it was the sidecar scooter of my doctor brother).  This was during the paving work of the compound.  Despite it being the rainy season and despite the fact that Rukaiyas ebike was an electric, battery operated handicapped vehicle I cooperated. The ebike unsweetened suffered damage during the heavy rains due to water seepage  All in the hope that it was just a matter of days/ weeks.

But the committee had other ideas. Departing from the previous straight line parking against the compound wall they changed it to angular parking against the ground floor flats' windows 

With a triumphant look - we created two extra car parking slots a detailed pdf presentation was made justifying the change.

No thought was given to the difficulty in maneuvering the cars. The angular parking works due to sharing of open space between buildings. It works perfectly in the space between between Society s buildings Nos.3 & 4. It also works in the opens pace between our bldg no. 4 and the other bldg.no.5 because there is no compound wall there.

However, there is a compund wall halfway between the bldg no.2 and 3's open space which prevents sharing of the open space and thus prevents easy manoeuvring of cars parked on both sides. Worthy of note is that bldg. No.2 cars are parked straight one behind the other in linear fashion alongside their side of the compound wall.

Moreover the changed angular system of parking in our side of the compound open space leaves no room for Rukaiyas ebike to be transported to the two wheeler parking area in front of the bldg.

I recall my FB post of some months ago when I found Rukaiyas ebike despite the handle locked turned out from its parking space and the two wheeler of Mr.Rajesh Gandhi parked in its place. Although exigencies of Rukaiyas care prevented me from making a xomplaint I did speak to my advocate friend Mr.Harsh Desai who looked upon it as an offence under many criminal and civil laws including The Persons With Disabilities Act.

Incidentally this Mr.Rajesh Gandhi has in collusion with the housing society and many 'like minded'  persons instigated his wife Dr Ashwini Bhalerao-Gandhi to file a Suit No.174 of 2016 against my mentally challenged and physically handicapped 65 year old sister Rukaiya, my second sister Rafika Iqbal Gandhi and myself.  But today it's all free entertainment. The Life Show'.

My advocates firm M/s. Thakore Jariwala & Associates may be for all practical purposes defunct and our lawyer friend may have joined Dua Associates.... and the Suit itself may have gone into sleep mode. But as my other advocate friend said if the case comes up before an eccentric/strict judge it is quite likely that he may pass an adverse order.

This being just the tip of the iceberg without bothering much about what lies beneath I continue to strive......and evolve, hoping life will smile on Rukaiyas whilst she can still laugh.

Sunday, 10 December 2017

Rigging Polls Now Becomes So Easy

And with the kind of IT experts team the BJP has this would be so easy....press any button, vote goes to BJP.

Sad

Check out @milindkhandekar’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/milindkhandekar/status/939489689383456768?s=09

Rani Padmavatis s Jauhar - Fact or Poetic Imagination? by Sarah Hafeez

Acknowledgement
From article printed in
The Indian Express

Questions on Padmavati, triple talaq find place in BHU’s MA history paper

Rajeev Kumar Srivastava, assistant professor of Society and Culture in Medieval India at BHU, denied having set the question paper.
   
The question on Society and Culture in Medieval India read: “What do you mean by Johor tradition? Describe Rani Padmavati’s Johar in the period of Alauddin Khilji.”

PADMAVATI, the protagonist of a poem by a 16th century Sufi poet and the character at the centre of the raging controversy over the Sanjay Leela Bhansali film by the same name, features as a question in the MA second-year history paper of BHU, as does a question on triple talaq.

Students of history claimed that three weeks ago, they were asked to answer a question on “Rani Padmavati’s Johar” for 10 marks in a third semester examination. This was before questions on GST in Kautilya’s Arthshastra and globalisation as Manu’s theory featured in the BHU political science paper.

The question on Society and Culture in Medieval India read: “What do you mean by Johor tradition? Describe Rani Padmavati’s Johar in the period of Alauddin Khilji.” A student said he had studied the tradition of jauhar — a custom, as part of which, Hindu women self-immolated to avoid rape, capture and enslavement after defeat in a war — since it was in the syllabus.

But Padmavati was mentioned in passing as a matter of debate among historians in the chapter on jauhar. “We had read a small portion on Padmavati but the fact of her existence is debated among historians. Our professor stressed it as an important part only because it was in the news over the Deepika Padukone film,” an MA history student said.
Most modern historians have rejected the historicity of the Padmavati legend. Amir Khusrau, Khilji’s court poet who had accompanied him during his invasion of Chittor in 1303, did not write of any Rani Padmini or a jauhar at Chittor in his accounts of the attack, though he did refer to jauhar in his account of Alauddin’s conquest of Ranthambhore just before the Chittor campaign. Padmini first finds mention in the Padmavat, a poem written in Awadhi by 16th century Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi in 1540 — over two centuries after Khilji’s Chittor campaign.

Rajeev Kumar Srivastava, assistant professor of Society and Culture in Medieval India at BHU, denied having set the question paper.  “If Alauddin Khilji has any truth, so does Padmavati… We have been teaching the condition of women during Alauddin Khilji’s reign every year. Padmavati was taught irrespective of any political controversy brewing currently. The Babri Masjid issue is also raging, does that mean we will stop teaching Babur?” he said.
On the question on triple talaq, a student said, “There was nothing on triple talaq in our Medieval India studies syllabus. But sir held a special class on it. That is how we managed to answer the question. The class was part of a lesson on the wretched condition of women, especially Hindus, during the rule of Delhi sultans.”

Srivastava said: “If a student asks me questions on a particular topic, I have to teach him, even if it not spelt out in the syllabus in as many words. Anyone who is wise will understand or know that the problem and evil of triple talaq must have crept into society as soon as Muslim rulers invaded India. It is common sense. I am only teaching my subject that spans from 1206 to 1707. I also teach the ills of Hindu society like sati and the condition of widows.”

A former head of history department and professor of ancient Indian history, Binda Paranjape, said it was usually the subject teacher who set the paper. “Usually, the professor who teaches his area of specialisation is the one who sets the paper. The paper is then vetted by a moderation board comprising other professors. Though I am not an expert on medieval history, being the former HoD and the seniormost teacher in the history department, I have never seen such questions from medieval history being set — especially the one on (nikah) halala that has more recent origins. The moderation board should have checked these.”

“These topics are not covered in the syllabus, so students of affiliated colleges, not taught by professors at BHU campus, will face difficulties answering questions. We as teachers of history do teach the emergence of popular historical narratives, but the treatment of the subject differs from teacher to teacher, something which makes a lot of difference,” she added. History HoD Ajay Pratap could not be reached for comments.

First Published on: December 10, 2017 4:34 am

हरिवंशराय बच्चन

:

हारना तब आवश्यक हो जाता है
जब लड़ाई "अपनों" से हो !
और जीतना तब आवश्यक हो जाता है
जब लड़ाई "अपने आप " से हो ! !
मंजिले मिले , ये तो मुकद्दर की बात है
हम कोशिश ही न करे ये तो गलत बात है
किसी ने बर्फ से पूछा कि,
आप इतने ठंडे  क्यूं हो ?
बर्फ ने बडा अच्छा जवाब दिया :-
" मेरा अतीत भी पानी;
मेरा भविष्य भी पानी..."
फिर गरमी किस बात पे रखू?

Friday, 8 December 2017

Children Dying of Malnourishment in Yemen

I had pointed out this fact more than two months ago. Statistics were horrendous with a child dying every hour. It seems the situation has worsened.

It's main benefactor Saudi Arabia is dangerously aligned with the Trump administration paying it billions of dollars alongwith other Arab countries for peacekeeping in the region.

Little do they realise the anti Islamic  motives of the US which wants Jerusalem in which the Masjid al Aqsa is situated to be Israeli  capital.  Friday was the day of protest (age) for Muslims the world over.

Significantly the major protests came from Malaysia and Indonesia with Tunisia Turkey Pakistan Algeria joining in large numbers.

https://www.trtworld.com/mea/israeli-forces-kill-two-palestinians-during-clashes-over-jerusalem-13005

Wednesday, 6 December 2017

Monday, 4 December 2017

The Physiology of Pain

http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/TIoEvzuPhNjv2hOC6lAYBM/The-ride-back-home.html

That day I was at Byculla with Rukaiyas on the ebike when the muscular cramps set on me in the  abdominal area.

There was little pain but I could feel the muscles entwine one on top of the other to create a local area of dull pain.

Having studied the physiology of pain on many  occasions. I have learnt the art of reducing/removing the pain by un-entwining the muscles by consciously releasing them one by one in reverse order (backwards)  i.e. the muscle cramped last is released first then the second last and so on.

However on that particular day it wasn't working. But I did not stop and continued riding the ebike until we reached home.

Lying down I slowly managed to un-entwine and slept.

I think most people continue or even increase their pain by hoping to get out on the other side of the 'Pain-train'.

Little do they realise that this is a dead end and the only way out is to go reverse or backwards.

As you slowly un-entwine the muscles backwards one by one the pain reduces and after all the muscles are un-entwined only the nucleus pain remains which is much less.

This is not the same as being indifferent to pain. It is a conscious scientific effort to reduce physical pain.

I guess if one is clinical enough and not awash with emotions one could do the same with the pain of the heart/soul too.

Tuesday, 28 November 2017

Way To Go!

India's First Solar Panel Train!

Manufactured by ICF Chennai goes on the tracks!

Well done! ICF CHENNAI

Let's make this a norm for all trains and achieve 'solarization' of all trains by 2020!

Bitter Sweet Sugar

This is quite shocking and worthy of taking up in all forums.

It is an established fact that the liver produces all the sugar required by the human body. Then why do we need to keep taking it externally?

The sugar industry has misrepresented / concealed facts deliberately to protect their own economic interests.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/11/22/report-claims-sugar-industry-hid-connection-to-heart-disease-for-decades/?utm_term=.26b39f436fcf

Monday, 27 November 2017

Note From The Blogger

Hello to all those visiting my blog!

I am happy that certain snags which prevented upload of images in my blog posts has been resolved!

This now clears the publishing of many posts which have been pending for a while.

So happy viewing! And please do send your reactions queries. My email is 
trancework50@gmail.com

Shakir Virpurwala
@SHAKTISH

Realistic Art

Amazing realistic Art!

A lady is sleeping on the floor.
But thats not true...

It is actually a Rangoli (painting done on the ground using coloured powders)  by artist Ketan Patil

Mumbai's First AC Suburban Local

Mumbai's First Suburban Local started running  from Churchgate to Borivali yesterday i.e 27 November 2017.

This is a long awaited development and Mumbaikars hope to see all Suburban locals both on the #CentralRailway and #WesternRailway running with AC rakes soon.

Funds for Shivaji s statue would be better utilised in this project.

We also don't require Bullet trains as much as upgrading and making the present railway network more comfortable, efficient and safe.

Monday, 20 November 2017

Sunday, 19 November 2017

Dear PM Modi, Can You Answer These 13 Questions In Your Next Mann Ki Baat ?

Posted by Mrunal Mathuria in PoliticsSociety
November 13, 2017

   

To
The PMO
Shri Narendra Damodar Modi
South Block 
Raisina Hill
New Delhi – 110011.
Date: November 13, 2017

Respected Sir,

As a noble Indian citizen, I would like to share my concerns with you. I would also feel satisfied if you could address them at the earliest.

There is this one thing that I don’t understand about the RSS’ and the BJP’s ideologies and thought processes behind prioritising issues. Since I was born in 1995, I don’t get how you expect me to support you for solving the problems of the 1950s and still fight over them, even though I wasn’t even born then? I am a part of this democracy – and I want to contribute to solving problems which we Indians face on the ground, and not win a debate on who won or ditched us in the past.

We are not one of those ‘poor Indians’ who are exploited by your propaganda of diverting people’s attention from core issues on mainstream and social media. We are not one of those who will daydream about India’s glory abroad, while the situation on ground is only worsening and nothing’s being done about it.

We agree that the Congress was corrupt and that the nation gave you a chance. It is equally fair for you to say that you should be given a fair amount of time to be judged for your actions – as compared to the 60 years of the Congress. But at least be brave enough and accept that you have committed some serious and crucial mistakes in administration, rather than being staunch about it and forcibly justifying them. By singing laurels on media and crushing the criticism, you are proving yourselves to be a serious threat to our democracy.

Dear PM Modi, your claims don’t matter to me at all if you aren’t able to answer these questions which have been troubling me.

According to human psychology, there can be two possible reasons for your actions. Either you are trying really hard – and that is why you are too scared to apologise for your actions, assuming that you won’t be forgiven by Indians, or you are serving vested interests by trying to manipulate people and crushing internal criticisms.

Whatever the reason might be, you and God are the best judge for your actions. If you are a firm follower of Hinduism, you may possibly imagine the result of your actions as described in the third adhyay (chapter) of the Bhagwad Gita, in which Krishna says:

“One who restrains the senses and organs of action, but whose mind dwells on sense objects, certainly deludes himself and is called a pretender.

On the other hand, he who controls the senses by the mind and engages his active organs in works of devotion, without attachment, is by far superior.

Perform your prescribed duty, for action is better than inaction.

One who is, however, taking pleasure in the self, who is illumined in the self, who rejoices in and is satisfied with the self only, fully satiated – for him, there is no duty.

As the ignorant perform their duties with attachment to results, similarly the learned may also act, but without attachment, for the sake of leading people on the right path.

Let not the wise disrupt the minds of the ignorant who are attached to fruitive action. They should not be encouraged to refrain from work, but to engage in work in the spirit of devotion.

One who is in knowledge of the Absolute Truth, O mighty-armed, does not engage himself in the senses and sense gratification, knowing well the differences between work in devotion and work for fruitive results.

Therefore, O Arjuna, surrendering all your works unto Me, with mind intent on Me, and without desire for gain and free from egoism and lethargy, fight.

Those who, out of envy, disregard these teachings and do not practice them regularly, are to be considered bereft of all knowledge, befooled, and doomed to ignorance and bondage.”

So, leaving the question to your judgement and consciousness, I am eagerly waiting for your reply to any of my foremost concerns.

1. The path on which you are leading us – where do you see India in the next five years?

2. Why are you silent over your followers celebrating Gauri Lankesh’s murder? 

3. ‎Why are your critics facing threats to their lives?

4. ‎Why are the farmers angry even when you have supposedly implemented various schemes for their benefit?

5. ‎Why isn’t the ease of doing business creating new business opportunities?

6. ‎Why are there so many unskilled Indians even after the initiation of Skill India?

7. ‎Why is the condition of government schools and hospitals not improving?

8. ‎Why are many middle-scale and small-scale businesses running cold or shutting down? 

9. ‎What is the mantra behind Ambani, Adani, Jay Shah and Baba Ramdev achieving tremendous profits?

10. ‎Why are we taking a loan from Japan for the bullet train project, even though black money was recovered by demonetisation?

11. Why are people still unemployed even after you have allegedly created 7 crore jobs?

12. ‎Why are people still defecating along railway tracks even when parts of India have become open-defecation free, by your own admission?

13. ‎What, according to you, is nationalism – and how should I show my love towards the country?

I hope (and believe) that I can admire your humble and responsible gesture, by reading your reply at the earliest.

Your noble Indian citizen,
Mrunal Mathuria
mathuriamrunal@gmail.com
+919967324164

The author is young social activist from Mumbai who wants to get his concerns addressed by PM Modi.

Youth Ki Awaaz is an open platform where anybody can publish. This post does not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions.

Monday, 6 November 2017

Please sign this petition

HAD ENOUGH?Over the last year, you've quietly suffered Government overreach into your personal finances like never before...But while the Politicians are busy creating new laws for you, they're exempting themselves from the same laws...It's time to demand Politicians live like the rest of us!

Every day brings new announcements about how you and all honest, tax-paying Indians must adhere to draconian new rules and regulations regarding YOUR own money.

Money you worked hard for.

Money you have saved for years.

Money you have set aside for your kids and retirement.

The purpose?

To bleed so-called 'black money' out of the system.

To your credit, you have borne it all with admirable patience.

You stood in queues for hours every day.

You felt awful as you dipped into your kids' piggy banks to meet contingencies.

You didn't question why Aadhaar should be linked to your PAN and income tax.

You took it on the chin...for 'nation building'.

That's because Mr Modi's fight against black money is to catch the big crooks. It's a good fight...and you were just doing your part. After all, the goal is to quash the black economy once and for all.

Right?

Think again...

In the fight against black money...where everything you and I do is linked to an Aadhaar number...in other words exposed to the government...there's a privileged class that's being left out.

The politicians.

More precisely, the political parties.

Here are the facts:

You and I have been getting emails and smses almost every day asking us to link our Aadhar card to our bank accounts. We have also been getting smses asking us to link our Aadhar card to our mobile numbers.

It is almost impossible to carry out any transaction with the government without an Aadhar card.

At the same time, you can still donate money to a political party anonomously.

Why is that the case?

Why can't the Aadhar card be linked to every donation made to a political party as well. What is stopping the government from doing that?

In fact, to take this argument even further, why are political parties allowed to collect donations in cash, in this day and age.

If the idea is to encourage digital transactions, why can't PM Modi and the BJP, set an example on this front and ensure that the BJP takes only digital donations.

Yes, dear reader, in the fight against black money, a key beneficiary has been left out...the 1,866 political parties.

They enjoy privileges you and I don't. It's a biased war...and we're fighting it on behalf of often corrupt political entities.

Yet no one is doing anything about it.

I am Vivek Kaul, editor of Vivek Kaul's Diary.

I have dedicated my life to taking up the issues that matter most to you and your future. Even if the issues involve the powers to be.

My only commitment is to you. Period.

That's why I have decided to call on you urgently:

Please sign this petition which requests the President of India to make issue instructions, on 8th November, the Anti-Black Money Day, that all donations made to political parties must carry an Aadhaar number.

We must sound a great cry across India to ensure that every concerned citizen gets behind this move.

It's not complicated. And we can do it very quickly if we create a huge 'buzz' on the internet with the petition.

All we need is the President of India to set this in motion.

I firmly believe that, with your help, it is possible. Please forward this message to all your friends and ask them to also pass it on. This message - and our petition - could spread like wildfire.

But we must act immediately; it is very important.

Anonymous funding of political parties is the cause, at least partially, the cause of many of this country's ails.

But a clean, transparent funding process guarantees a better polity...

So please sign this petition to request the President of India to make it mandatory to link all political donations to Aadhaar.

Then pass this message on to inform your relatives and friends of the mess we are in and encourage them to support the movement.

I will personally send the signed petition to the President of India one day before Anti-Black Money Day, this Tuesday, the 7th of November 2017.

My hope is that the President will listen to you and the thousands of our fellow countrymen who sign this petition, and announce our new initiative on Anti-Black Money Day, to wipe Black Money from politics, once and for all... and have politicians follow the same laws they make for you and I.

PETITION TO LINK POLITICAL
DONATIONS TO AADHAAR

Dear Mr. President

This Wednesday, the 8th of November 2017, marks the one year anniversary of demonetisation.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has declared the day, "Anti-Black Money Day."

What better day, then, to announce a brand new initiative to eliminate Black Money from where it does the most harm to our country: politics.

For too long, cronies have used Black Money to influence and undermine India's democracy.

It's time to lift the veil of secrecy, and let the people of India know who funds our political parties.

That's why, this Wednesday, the 8th of November 2017, I ask you to begin taking steps to make it mandatory for all political donations to be linked to Aadhaar and eliminate Black Money from politics.

Wednesday, 25 October 2017

Monday, 16 October 2017

Upliftment

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10156056159634767&id=783374766

Wednesday, 11 October 2017

My Visit To The Taj Mahal


I remember being in Agra way back in 1985 on a marketing trip. Got laid down with a  gastrointestinal problem. A good Samaritan took me to a doctor who injected some antibiotics into me.

I had to leave for Jaipur by 4 pm.
Burning with fever, still I entered the sanctum of The Taj Mabal and beheld it's beauty on a hot afternoon. 

I was alone. Could not make a detailed visit of this splendid monument to love. Nor could I see it in  moonlight.

Yet despite the burning eyes and debilitating effects of antibiotics i went and paid my respects to the lovers.

Had I left Agra without seeing the Taj Mahal I would never have forgiven myself for it

Tuesday, 10 October 2017

Cancer post of FB

In honour of my aunt and the  spirit to fight it in ways more than one.

The evils of
casteism
racism
apartheid 
inequalities of income
hunger
poverty
cruelty to animals
economic oppression

subjugation by mind control and cerebral engineering

crimes of war
and against women and children 
insensitivity and deprivation of the rights and needs of special needs challenged and autistic persons....

the homeless
The sick ...
The elderly......

and so many countless malaise afflicting  endemic civilisation like cancer - spreading and debilitating humankind

"Cancer is very invasive and destructive to our bodies, even after treatment is finished your body continues to fight with itself trying to rebuild all the damage caused by chemo and radiation. It's a long process. Please, in honour of some of your family members or friends who died or are fighting cancer, or even those who had cancer but are healed, please copy and paste on your page."

Sunday, 1 October 2017

I Could Have Been One Of The Fifty Two

In the early morning of the fateful day of the Elphinstone Bridge tragedy I was planning to travel from Mahalaxmi to Kurla by the local trains.

I was up early and Rukaiyas as usual was sleeping. Since the past week or so I was considering the visit as my 65 year old special needs sister's diapers stock was dwindling and I had finally made up my mind to buy them from a whole seller in Kurla.

I would have caught a train from Mahalaxmi and changed lines at Elphinstone- Parel station and used the same bridge to cross over at about the same time.

But I got into some household chores and got delayed and then Rukaiyas woke up
Bathed clothed and fed her.

And although I had received news of the horrific tragedy, I decided to go with Rukaiya in tow. But boarded a local train from Byculla going directly to Kurla. As we passed Parel caught a glimpse of the ill-fated bridge.

A wave of horrific grief made me shudder. A video of images of the morning's tragedy rolled across in my mind.

I Could Have Been One Of The Fifty Two who died or were injured in the morning

Sunday, 24 September 2017

"Jazak Allah OR Jazakallah Khair "?

Understanding Grammar Behind The word Jazakallah.
Jazaak comes from the root word Jazaa which according to the popular Arabic-English dictionary, Al-Mawrid, has two meanings that are completely opposite to eachother!
⚫Thus Jazaa can either mean reward OR punishment.
⚫So :"JazakAllah" can may either mean " May Allah reward you" or punish you, while "JazakAllah Khair" means ... " May Allah reward you with the Best / Good."
⚫So the correct way is to say Jazak Allah Khair & not just Jazak Allah. Though someone might say that the intention by saying Jazak Allah is the same like Jazak Allahu Khayran, if its so, then why not use the complete wordings as used by prophet(pbuh) and the sahabas?
which is Jazak Allahu Khayran !
⚫Jazak Allahu Khair depending on situation:
Masculine: Jazak Allahu Khair
Feminine: Jazaki Allahu Khair
Plural: Jazakum Allahu Khair.
Substitute for Jazakallah Khair is BarakAllahu Feek ( "May the blessings of Allah be upon you.").
⚫How to Reply to Those who says Jazakallahu Khair to you:
1⃣ Wa Antum Fa Jazakumullahu Khayran meaning "And you too, May Allah reward to with Khayr".
Evidence from Sunnah: Usayd ibn Hadayr (sahabi) says: I said: O Messenger of Allah ﺟﺰﺍﻙ ﺍﻟﻠﻪ ﺧﻴﺮﺍ Jazaakallahu Khayran.
The Prophet(pbuh) said: ﻭَﺃَﻧْﺘُﻢْ ﻓَﺠَﺰَﺍﻛُﻢُ ﺍﻟﻠَّﻪُ ﺧَﻴْﺮًﺍ Wa Antum Fa Jazakumullahu khayran (And you too, May Allah reward to with Khayr).
[Albaani has said that the Hadeeh is Saheeh in al-Saheeha 3096, al-Ta'leeqaatul hisaan al Saheeh ibn Hibbaan 6231].
2⃣ Wa Iyyakum (ﻭﺇﻳﺎﻛﻢ)” meaning “And goodness to you also”.
This is the one the common message used by people.
Muslims can use this phrase sometimes, and abandon it sometimes, but they must not cling to it as if it is an established Sunnah of the Messenger since there is no evidence related to it.
⚫Conclusion:
The correct sunnah is not to say thanks or shukran rather its to say Jazakallahu Khair or BarakAllahu Feek. And should be replied with Wa Antum Fa Jazakumullahu Khayran.
Lets revive this sunnah in our lives Insha Allah & motivate others to do the same.
And Allah knows best.

Thursday, 14 September 2017

My First Bus Ride Alone .....

I did my kindergarten studies in Holy Name High School near Regal cinema Mumbai. My eldest brother took me to school one day. It was one of the duties assigned to him by our father.

That day we travelled by the BEST bus to Dr Shyamaprasad Mukherjee Chowk which is a terminus near The Prince of Wales museum.

We walked a little and reached the lane leading to the school. At this corner my brother gave me 25 paise pocket money from which I bought some bubble gum.

I entered the school precincts and immediately felt amiss. It was deserted except for a security guard who came to me and said "Today the school is closed. It's a holiday. Why have you come?"

I told him  I did not know it was closed. Not losing my equanimity I firmly ensconced myself on the steps 

I started pulling out the chewing gum and stretching and rolling it back in. A few minutes passed and then the watchman came to me and indirectly suggested I should move.

"How long will you sit here."
"The school is closed" and so on.

I got up and walked to the bus terminus a little tentative and very  scared. I stood at the bus stop waiting for bus no.101

People started noticing me. Then one Gujarati elderly man asked me where I was going...why was I alone. The capped emotions suddenly welled up and I burst out sobbing with the whole story.

Thereafter I was taken care of extremely well boarding, seating embarking.... I remember buying my halfticket for the journey with the money I had. It cost  5 paise !

When I reached home everyone was pleasantly shocked. I was fussed about a great deal and given a reward too. I remember it was some money which I immediately put into my piggy bank.

I was attending the Senior Kindergarten class at Holy Name High School when this happened.  I was five then.

Monday, 11 September 2017

Origins

Worth Reading👇👇..

There is an old Hotel/Pub in Marble Arch, London , which used to have gallows adjacent to it.
Prisoners were taken to the gallows (after a fair trial of course) to be hung.

The horse-drawn dray, carting the prisoner, was accompanied by an armed guard, who would stop the dray outside the pub and ask the prisoner if he would like ''ONE LAST DRINK''.

If he said YES, it was referred to as ONE FOR THE ROAD. 
If he declined, that prisoner was ON THE WAGON.
So there you go. More bleeding history. 

They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot and then once a day it was taken and sold to the tannery.
If you had to do this to survive you were "piss poor", but worse than that were the really poor folk, who couldn't even afford to buy a pot, they "Didn't have a pot to piss in" and were the lowest of the low. 

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be in England.  Here are some facts about the 1500s: 

Most people got married in June, because they took their yearly bath in May and they still smelled pretty good by June.

However, since they were starting to smell, brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour.

Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water.
The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water,
then all the other sons and men,
then the women, and finally the children.
Last of all the babies.

By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.
Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water!"

Houses had thatched roofs, thick straw piled high, with no wood underneath.
It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof.
When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof.
Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs." 

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom, where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed.
Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence. 
The floor was dirt.. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt.
Hence the saying, "dirt poor."

The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing.
As the winter wore on they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside.
A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way.
Hence: a thresh hold.

(Getting quite an education, aren't you?) 

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight, then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while.
Hence the rhyme: ''Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot, nine days old''. 

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special.
When visitors came over they would hang up their bacon, to show off.
It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "Bring home the bacon."
They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around talking and ''chew the fat''. 

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous. 

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top,
or ''The Upper Crust''.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days.
Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial.
They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up.
Hence the custom of ''Holding a Wake''.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people, so they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house and reuse the grave.
When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realised they had been burying people alive.
So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, thread it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell.
Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift) to listen for the bell;
thus someone could be, ''Saved by the Bell'' or was considered a ''Dead Ringer''.

And that's the truth.
Now, whoever said history was boring ! ! ! 
So .. . . get out there and educate someone !!!

Sign This petition Please

https://www.change.org/p/justin-trudeau-23rd-prime-minister-of-canada-revoke-honorary-canadian-citizenship-of-aung-san-suu-kyi-state-counsellor-of-myanmar?recruiter=436581518&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=tap_basic_share&utm_term=autopublish

Sunday, 10 September 2017

The Dalai Lama Speaks after 25 days of Rohingya persecution

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/lord-buddha-would-have-helped-rohingya-muslims-dalai-lama/story-42qKgklNPX4tjYWSOx3DyN.html

Saturday, 9 September 2017

The Horrors of Myanmar

Adults were shot, babies thrown into water: Rohingya refugees recall horror of Myanmar army attack

By The Guardian

It was the fast-flowing river that doomed the inhabitants of Tula Toli.

Snaking around the remote village on three sides, the treacherous waters allowed Burmese soldiers to corner and hold people on the river’s sandy banks. Some were shot on the spot. Others drowned in the current as they tried to escape.

Zahir Ahmed made a panicked dash for the opposite bank, where he hid in thick jungle and watched his family’s last moments.

“I was right next to the water,” he recalled in an interview a week later at a refugee camp in neighbouring Bangladesh, his eyes bloodshot and his shirt stained with sweat and dirt.

Ahmed said teenagers and adults were shot with rifles, while babies and toddlers, including his youngest daughter, six-month old Hasina, were thrown into the water.

“The soldiers used rocket-propelled grenades, and they set fire to the houses with matches. Once they had gone past, I went back. All the houses were burned. In the road, I saw a dead man I recognised called Abu Shama. He had been shot in the chest. He was 85,” recalled a Rohingya man who managed to flee to Bangladesh.

He cried as he described seeing his wife and children die, meticulously naming and counting them on both hands until he ran out of fingers.

More than 160,000 of Myanmar’s 1.1 million ethnic Rohingya minority have fled to Bangladesh, bringing with them stories that they say describe ethnic cleansing.

During interviews with more than a dozen Rohingya from Tula Toli, the Guardian was told of what appeared to be devastating carnage as Myanmar’s armed forces swept through the village on 30 August and allegedly murdered scores of people.

Those who escaped fled to the hills in the west to make the three-day trek to Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh. The rest were buried in a mass grave, villagers said.

Myanmar, where the majority of people are Buddhist, has blocked access to the area, meaning the Guardian cannot independently corroborate the villagers’ accounts.

Many of the interviews were conducted separately over two days, however, and the villagers confirmed details of each other’s statements without prompting.

The story of Tula Toli, while horrific, is not unique. The army, in retribution for guerrilla-style ambushes on 25 August by an emergent Rohingya militant group, has led a huge counteroffensive across northern Rakhine state.

Many Rohingya had already escaped. Communal clashes with Buddhists in Rakhine prompted 140,000 Rohingya to leave their homes in 2012. Thousands have since died either at sea or in brutal jungle camps run by people smugglers.

A United Nations report released this year detailed what happened to those that stayed. The report described mass killings and gang rapes by the armed forces in actions that “very likely” amounted to crimes against humanity.

The current wave of violence is the worst so far, and rights groups have said it could constitute a final campaign to rid Myanmar of the Rohingya. Satellites have recorded images of whole villages burnt to the ground.

All UN aid work in the conflict area has been blocked . Aung San Suu Kyi’s administration, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has said it is fighting “extremist terrorists” who are burning their own villages. Accounts of cruel sectarian attacks by Rohingya militants on Hindus and Buddhists in Rakhine have also surfaced. Around 26,000 non-Muslims have been displaced in the violence.

The subsistence farmers of Tula Toli, who spent their lives growing rice and chillies, said there were no militants in their village when the army attacked.

“Their leader had two stars on his shoulder. He told us: ‘Rumours are being spread around by people in the village that soldiers have been killing people in Rakhine. But you should all keep farming and fishing. The one thing we ask is that if you see soldiers, you don’t run away. If you run, we will shoot.’

“After the speech, the soldiers went from house to house. They were with [local Rakhine Buddhists] and took everything they could find that was valuable: gold, cash, clothes, potatoes and rice. They smashed up houses of three or four people they said had been spreading rumours. They were looking for fighters. The Buddhists had told them about fighters, but there were none there.”

A day before the attack, people from a village across the river called Dual Toli swam over to escape the army. More than 10 died in the river, according to Petam Ali, who sheltered some of the displaced in his family home. They watched their village burn from across the river.

At 3.30am the next day, Ali heard shooting but was not sure of the direction.

“I live on the north side of the village and the army had crossed the river further north and were marching down. I left my family to run out to the jungle to try and spot the soldiers. We waited until 8am and then they moved in, wearing dark green clothes. All of them were on foot.

“I ran back to get my family, but we were too rushed and my grandmother was too old to run. From the forest, we watched them burn our house. It was the first in Tula Toli to be burned.”

Ali’s home, an eight-bedroom wooden structure that he built with his three brothers for 16 members of their extended family, went up in flames fast. Its roof was covered in straw and leaves.

“The soldiers used rocket-propelled grenades, and they set fire to the houses with matches. Once they had gone past, I went back. All the houses were burned. In the road, I saw a dead man I recognised called Abu Shama. He had been shot in the chest. He was 85.”

In the ruins of his house, Ali saw the singed and decapitated corpse of his grandmother. “Her name was Rukeya Banu. She was 75. When I returned to the jungle, I described the whole incident to the rest. They burst into tears. We walked for three days.”.......(incomplete)

The Most Persecuted Minority of The World

http://m.timesofindia.com/world/rest-of-world/myanmars-rohingya-muslims-stateless-persecuted-and-fleeing/articleshow/60408545.cms?utm_source=toiiphoneapp&utm_medium=Facebook&utm_campaign=show

Lyrics with English translation of song Mujh se pehli si muhabbat mere mehboob na maang

Song name - Mujh se pehli si muhabbat mere mehboob na maang
Poet - Poet: Faiz Ahmed Faiz
Artist – Noor Jahan
Movie – Qaidi

Lyrics with English translation of song Mujh se pehli si muhabbat mere mehboob na maang

English translation of the song Mujh se pehli si muhabbat mere mehboob na maang is in Red Color

Lyrics -

Mujh se pehli si muhabbat mere mehboob na maang
Oh my love don’t ask me for the love I once gave you
Mujh se pehli si muhabbat mere mehboob na maang
Oh my love don’t ask me for the love I once gave you

Mujh se pehli si muhabbat mere mehboob na maang
Oh my love don’t ask me for the love I once gave you

Mujh se pehli si muhabbat mere mehboob na maang
Oh my love don’t ask me for the love I once gave you

Maine samjha tha ke tu hai to darakhshaan hai hayaat
I thought that life will shine eternally one me only if I had you

Tera gham hai to gham-e-dahar ka jhagdaa  kya hai
I had your sorrows then the sorrow fights of this world mean nothing to me

Teri surat se hai aalam mein baharon ko sabaat
Spring becomes long lasting in this world only because of your face

Teri aankhon ke sivaa duniya mein rakkha kya hai
Except your eyes nothing is there in this world to see

Teri aankhon ke sivaa duniya mein rakkha kya hai
Except your eyes nothing is there in this world to see

Tu  jo mil jaye to taqdeer  nigoon ho jaye
If I found you my fate would bow before me

Yoon na thaa maine faqat chaahaa thaa yoon  ho jaye
This was not how I wanted, wished  to happen

Mujh se pehli si muhabbat mere mehboob na maang
Oh my love  don’t ask me for the love I once gave you

Mujh se pehli si muhabbat mere mehboob na maang
Oh my love  don’t ask me for the love I once gave you

aur bhii dukh hain zamaane mein mohabbat ke sivaa
Not only grief of love the world  is full of other sorrows, heartaches

raahaten aur bhi vasl ki raahat ke sivaa
There is happiness other than the joy of union

Anaginat sadiyon ke taariq bahimanaa talism
The dark magic of uncountable dark years

Resham-o-atlas-o-kamKhwaab mein bunwaye hue
Woven in satin, silk and brocade

Jaa-ba-jaa biktey hue koochaa-o-bazaar mein jism
In every lane bodies flesh is  sold in market

Khaak mein lithade huye, khoon mein nahalaaye huye
Covered in dust, bathed in blood

Jism nikale huye amaraaz ke tannuuron se
Bodies retrived from the furnace of diseases

Piip behti hui galte hue naasooron se
Pus  discharge flowing from their rotten ulcers

Laut jaati hai udhar ko bhi nazar, kya keeje
What can I do sometimes my eyes look in that direction also

Ab bhi dilkash hai tera husn magar kya ki jiye
Even now your beauty is magical tantalizing but what can be done

Ab bhi dilkash hai tera husn magar kya ki jiye
Even now your beauty is magical tantalizing but what can be done

Aur bhi dukh hain  zamaane mein mohabbat ke dukh ke sivaa
Not only grief of love the world  is full of other sorrows, heartaches

Rahatein aur bhi hain wasl ki raahat ke sivaa
There is happiness other than the joy of union 

Mujhse pehli si mohabbat mere mehboob na maang
Oh my love  don’t ask me for the love I once gave you

Mujhse pehli si mohabbat mere mehboob na maang
Oh my love  don’t ask me for the love I once gave you

Meaning of words –

1-
darakhshaan – means bright ,shining pearl like

2-
Hayaat means life  it can be spelled as Hyatt also

Wednesday, 30 August 2017

EidulAdha Mubarak

Rukaiyas my handicapped sister hobbles round the house as her left leg has become two inches shorter when she was operated twice  for a left femur fracture five years ago.

I used to go out to guy essentials but now am fearful of doing so.

Because when I am out of the house she goes into every room and  tries to remove articles kept on shelves and in the process hurts herself when she falls.
She does not even tell me that she has been hurt when I come back.

I come to know of her injuries only when I clean her up. I cry. She sees that I am pained to see the blood clotting or inflammation. I cry......she doesn't bathe very often. Earlier she used to bathe four or five times in a day now maybe once or twice. Maybe she doesn't want me to cry seeing her injuries.

Today is EidulAdha. We wish everyone a very happy and pious EidulAdha!

Three weeks ago my advocate friend Zulfiqar Jariwala on request had brought us some goats payable and chicken mince. But last week it got over. I called him but he was out on a raintrek

This week the rains played havoc. We managed with whatever we could. Milk.tea.biscuits.bread.jam.butter. egg.and whatever was in the refrigerator.

We have no domestic support services. I manage all the household chores . I need help.

Last EidulAdha Shabbir Jariwala had brought cooked maleeda  and biryani home. This year.......

Shakir Virpurwala
3/10The Hajiali Municipal Officers CHS Ltd.
Keshavrao Khadye Marg x lane
Near lala Lajpatrai College Mumbai 400034
Alternate mob no. 8898041648

Saturday, 19 August 2017

An unfinished book by Suchitra Vijayan (Literary Review in The Hindu)

Rana Ayyub’s Gujarat Files raises some important questions that require further investigation, understanding and analysis

In 2010, Rana Ayyub, then working for news magazine Tehelka, spent eight months undercover in Gujarat pretending to be Maithili Tyagi, a filmmaker. Ayyub conducted a sting operation and met with bureaucrats and senior police officers who had held key positions in the State between 2001 and 2010. Her book, Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up, contains previously unpublished transcripts from the sting operation that Tehelkawithheld from publication. Ayyub offered tapes of these to various media and publishing houses, who, she states, refused to publish its contents. Till the writing of this review, the tapes themselves remain untested by forensic labs.

The transcripts presented in the book chronicle the violence that preceded the consolidation of power in Narendra Modi’s Gujarat in the aftermath of the anti-Muslim pogrom in 2002, and the numerous encounter deaths that took place between 2002 and 2006. The book tries to pinpoint the role of the bureaucracy and the police who, it shows, through their complicity, tacit collusion, and silence, drove forward with lethal precision and ideological radicalisation the policies of lawlessness.

Rajan Priyadarshi, Director-General of the Anti-Terrorism Squad in Gujarat in 2007, is quoted as saying: “… Amit Shah, he never used to believe in human rights. He used to tell us that I don’t believe in these human rights commissions. And now look at this, the courts have given him bail too.” Priyadarshi’s comments and their implications raise serious questions about the nature of power, politics, corruption and the use of unconstitutional violence by the State. If these transcripts are validated, they could present serious legal and ethical repercussions about Shah’s use of the State police force as his personal assassination squad and the bureaucracy as his fief.

The cornerstones of democracy demand that the State, its leadership, bureaucracy, and police force, occupy no position greater than the law and the people it is obligated to serve. Writing the dissenting judgment in Olmstead v. the United States, Justice Brandeis stated what has come to embody the fundamental relationship between State and society and the consequences of the abuse of law for the ends of State ideology: “In a government of laws, the existence of the government will be imperilled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.”

Ms. Ayyub’s book corroborates many of the findings from the 12 May 2010 SIT report ordered by the Supreme Court of India, but does not provide new evidence.

There are, however, two important questions the book raises that require further investigation, understanding, and analysis. First, Ayyub points to the use and co-optation of Dalit officers like Priyadarshi and others belonging to lower castes, such as D. Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian, Amin, and Parmar, as agents of state violence and articulates the policy of “use and abandon”. In a candid moment, Priyadarshi is quoted as saying, “I mean a Dalit officer can be asked to commit cold-blooded murder because he (apparently) has no self-respect, no ideals. Upper castes in the Gujarat police are the ones in (everyone’s) good books.”

These insights, if explored from the perspective of the sociology of the state, can help us better understand how mechanisms of co-optation often turn members of marginalised communities, even when they become stakeholders in state power, into objects of their own subjugation.

Second, towards the end of the book, Maharashtra police officer Daya Nayak, the encounter specialist eulogised by Bollywood, tells Ayyub, “The biggest political murder in the country (…), had happened in Gujarat, that of Haren Pandya, Modi’s arch rival.” Pandya, former Home Minister of Gujarat, was murdered in 2003. All the accused in the case were acquitted by the Gujarat High Court eight years later, and the court concluded the CBI had “botched up and blinkered” its investigation.

Later in the chapter, Y.A. Shaikh, the first investigating officer in the Pandya murder, tells Ayyub, “You know this Haren Pandya case is like a volcano. Once the truth is out, Modi will go home. He will be jailed, not go home. He will be in prison.”

Soon after this conversation, the chapter ends abruptly raising more questions. After 13 years, there are still no answers and the pursuit of justice remains elusive for the Pandya family and the thousands who perished then.

Gujarat under Modi and his ally Shah has witnessed a terrible mutation in state and civil society. To characterise the violence in Gujarat as either the anarchy of the mob or the recurring outbursts of ancient hatreds is intellectually dishonest, and historically and analytically incorrect. Similarly, labelling police and bureaucratic complicity as a “few bad apples” is a gross refusal to acknowledge the regimes of impunity that have been cultivated by the State for its means and ends. Instead, we need to understand how such an elaborate system of control has been perfected and put in place.

We are in need of a narrator, an interlocutor, and a fearless voice that can articulate the transforming nature of society and state. It is precisely here that Ayyub’s book could have been the intervention; that answered and explained some of these questions. But Gujarat Files, as it is today, is an unfinished book, waiting for an editor who can rethink its narrative, challenge the structure, and strengthen its arguments. The transcripts by themselves are just unfinished conversations, waiting for context and analysis.

×

Suchitra Vijayan is a New York-based barrister, political analyst and writer. She is currently working on her first book on the making of India’s political borders.

Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up; Rana Ayyub, Rs. 295.

https://scroll.in/article/808702/how-rana-ayyub-had-to-become-maithili-tyagi-for-her-investigations-in-gujarat

A Chinese Poet’s Unusual Path From Isolated Farm Life to Celebrity

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/world/asia/china-poet-yu-xiuhua.html?emc=edit_th_20170819&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=54261738&referer=

Yu Xiuhua in the farmhouse in Hengdian where she grew up and began writing the passionate poetry that has caused a sensation in China.
Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times
By KIKI ZHAO
August 18, 2017

HENGDIAN, China — The woman who has become one of China’s most-read poets — even hailed as its Emily Dickinson — spent most of her 41 years in a brick farmhouse tucked away behind trees and surrounded by wheat fields.

Most days she would limp down a dirt lane to a pond to feed the fish. She cut grass, grasping a sickle with hands that did not always obey her, to feed her rabbits. In the shade near the house she wrote at a low table, struggling to control her shaking body — a symptom of the cerebral palsy that she has lived with since she was born in this village in the central province of Hubei.

Then, in 2014, her life changed.

    “Across China, everything is happening: volcanoes erupting, rivers running dry, prisoners and exiles are abandoned, elk and red-crowned cranes are under fire.

    I brave a hail of bullets to sleep with you. I compress countless dark nights into one dawn to sleep with you.”

That year, Yu Xiuhua posted these lines from her poem “Crossing More Than Half of China to Sleep With You” on her blog and created a sensation. Her poems were discovered by Liu Nian, an editor at Poetry, a leading Chinese literary journal. Mr. Liu wrote about her and reprinted some of her works, and by February 2015 two volumes of her poetry had been published: “In Such a Staggering World” and “Moonlight Drops on My Left Hand.” The latter became the best-selling book of poetry in China in 30 years.

Swarms of journalists descended on her farmhouse, eager to see for themselves the disabled peasant woman who wrote of erotic longing with such startling vividness. She was appointed deputy chairwoman of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles in the nearby city of Zhongxiang. Mr. Liu invited Ms. Yu to a poetry reading at Renmin University of China in Beijing, where she was interviewed by People’s Daily, CCTV and other national news outlets.

Last year saw the release of a documentary about her, “Still Tomorrow,” by the filmmaker Fan Jian, and the publication of another volume of poetry, “We Forget That We Loved.” This year she left China for the first time, appearing at Stanford and other American universities for film showings and seminars.

“I think Yu Xiuhua is China’s Emily Dickinson: extraordinary imagination and a striking power with language,” Shen Rui, a professor at Morehouse College in Atlanta specializing in Chinese literature and feminism, wrote in the preface to “Moonlight Drops on My Left Hand.”

For the record, Ms. Yu says she dislikes being compared with Dickinson, whom she has never read. In fact, her grounding in world literature is somewhat lacking, she said on a recent afternoon at her home in Hengdian.

Before she began writing poetry in her late 20s, she said, “I rarely read literature. I only started to read more famous works on my mobile phone after 2006. But I knew how to write before I read.”

“I like writing poems, because they’re simple and don’t have many words,” she said, speaking haltingly as her mouth twitched. “This suits me because I’m lazy.”

She now lives with her father in a newly built two-story house, a short walk from their old farmhouse. A recent village renovation razed most of the old buildings and moved residents into new housing, but her family home has been preserved as a tribute to a local celebrity.

She shrugs off the fame and the labels usually applied to her as a writer: female, peasant, disabled. She claims to be indifferent to readers’ reactions.

“Writing poems means facing myself, first and foremost, not facing others,” she said. “It’s to express myself. It’s other people’s business whether they respond to my poems. It has nothing to do with me.”
Ms. Yu said of life after her divorce: “This is my best time. I feel great.” She is still scathingly self-critical, though. “I’m really ugly,” she said, “so I can’t find a boyfriend.”
Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times

And they have responded. In her “Crossing More Than Half of China to Sleep With You,” she goes on to say:

    “There is little difference between me sleeping with you, and you sleeping with me.

    It’s no more than a collision of two bodies, composing a force under which the flowers blossom.”

The poem was widely discussed online, with some condemning it as lewd, while others praised it for channeling the feminist voice of a woman taking the initiative to “sleep with” others.

“Her poems, among contemporary Chinese poems, are like putting a murderer among a group of respectable ladies,” wrote Mr. Liu, the Poetry editor. “Everybody else wears fancy clothes, puts on makeup and perfume and readers can’t see a single bead of sweat. But hers are full of smoke and fire — and mud and landslides. Her words are stained with blood.”

Born in 1976 in Hengdian, Ms. Yu never finished high school. At 19 she married a construction worker 12 years older, in a wedding arranged by her parents, who were concerned that she would never be able to care for herself. At 27, she began writing poetry.

“I needed to do something to keep my spirit up,” she said. “Each day, I wrote one or two poems, and I felt I had accomplished something.”

Many of her writings centered on life in her village. In a poem about the wheat her father grew, she wrote: “Your happiness is the brown wheat hull, your pain the white wheat core.”

And often she writes about love and its turmoils. From her poem “I Am Not Alone”:

    “I believe what he has with others is love. It’s only with me that it’s not.”

Mr. Fan, the filmmaker, said: “You can read in her poems that she has to suppress her desires. She longs for it, but she’s afraid. She’s never really experienced true love.”

Ms. Yu concedes her marriage was not successful. “I was too young and didn’t understand it,” she said. “I didn’t love him. He didn’t love me. Our characters weren’t at all compatible.”

For years, she wanted a divorce, but her husband refused. One factor, she said, was that her husband, who often lived far from home as a migrant worker, had nowhere else to return to.

Last year, after Ms. Yu received about $90,000 in royalties from her books, she bought a house for him, and the two divorced. Their son attends a university in Wuhan, Hebei’s capital.

“My mother wasn’t happy at first, but she was all right later, because she saw I was really happy,” Ms. Yu said. Not long afterward, her mother died of cancer.

Ms. Yu said of life after her divorce: “This is my best time. I feel great.” She is still scathingly self-critical, though.

“I’m really ugly,” she said, “so I can’t find a boyfriend.”

For the moment, she has her poems.

“What is poetry?” she wrote in an epilogue to “Moonlight.” “I don’t know and can’t tell. It’s when my heart roars, it emerges like a newborn. It’s like a crutch when one walks unsteadily in this unsteady world. Only when I write poetry do I feel complete, at peace and content.”

Tang Yucheng contributed research from Beijing.

Friday, 18 August 2017

70÷ Children Die : Saviours Suspended : Guilty Sit Tight

https://thelogicalindian.com/news/cm-yogi-adityanath-responsible-for-gorakhpur-deaths/

Wednesday, 16 August 2017

Please Sign and Save Jaipur s Elephants

http://action.petaindia.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=111&ea.campaign.id=73615&utm_campaign=0717%20jaipur%20elephants%20alert&utm_source=PETAIndia%20Facebook&utm_medium=Promo

Winds of Destruction or Change

Here is a quote from Nelson Mandela's 1994 autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom" 

"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."

How truly relevant are these  words today! In an India where religious bigotry has become a political weapon to unleash mob violence, fear, rape killings of the minorities - Muslims, dalits and others. Nelson Mandela's words  embolden us to strive to overcome the devolving elements and strive for higher goals.

At this time my father's oft used quote comes to mind:

"Physician, heal thyself" (first)

But more on that in my next blog post

Tuesday, 15 August 2017

New India

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=488931731472349&id=100010665783536

This is so distressing and   disturbing. Kind of nightmarish. Can't stop thinking about it.

Closest I can remember is an experience I had when i was in school. My uncle had expired in Arnala off Virar and i had accompanied my father to the funeral.

I do not exactly remember where we started from. But I do remember it was late in the night.

There were just a handful of janaza  (coffin) bearers. And my father father shouldered one corner of it. I too shouldered it but was barred because I was too short.

I kept pace beside my father, every now and then offering to help. But he'd refuse.

The funeral procession sloshed through muddy pathways and marshy fields.

I could hear my father panting as he bore one end of the coffin. His feet and pants were covered knee-deep with mud as his feet sank in the soft ground many times as he struggled to keep balance.

It was the rainy season. We must have walked for almost two hours before we reached the kabrastan  (burial ground) of our community.

With great grief my father bid adieu to his elder brother who had brought him to Mumbai and laid him to rest finally.

Friday, 11 August 2017

Stadium Restaurant Experience Revisited

Six hours ago Rukaiyas and i were at the road behind the GPO where a string of stalls outside CST offer various consumables including a Rice plate or thali for Rs 40 one of her favourites.
There is a xerox stall next to the meal joint where I stopped her ebike. But the owner of the Xerox stall took objection and asked us to remove the vehicle from front of his shop. I moved it a little ahead and then asked the meal joint  person to serve Rukaiya her thali.  But again he too had started packing it and gave it to us as 'parcel'. I told him she would need a paper plate. And so he directed us to the next shop. It was a cigarette stall. I approached him and asked for a paper plate. He said Rs.3 is the cost. As I was removing a Rs.5 coin I asked him if the paper plate was thick
Suddenly he said he didn't have any to sell asking us to move on.
I was angry and I told him that he told me the price and I had removed the money and now he was displaying arrogance and a former of 'untouchability' towards a senior citizens & handicapped  person. I told him that this would be reported in the media. Sensing my determination he pointed to the paper plates hanging a little on the side which I hadn't noticed. I told him that if it takes a media threat for him to be correct in his behaviour  it was very deplorable and this does not condone his earlier contemptuous attitude towards us. I was utterly disgusted and even left the food parcel (which I had paid for) with the meal joint owner saying we would not eat the food where the attitude of the people was one of contempt. We'd rather go hungry. He could give the food away to some poor needy person.
We moved away on the ebike. I was toying with the idea of calling the police as I circled the GPO and came back there again. I found to my surprise the place outside the Xerox stall filled with people eating food on stools. I remarked loudly that people can have meals sitting in front of this xerox stalls sitting on stools, but a handicapped person cannot have a meal sitting on her handicapped vehicle. And the owner of the Xerox stall had no face to even look me in the eye.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10155875854759767&id=783374766 


Saturday, 22 July 2017

Sikkim standoff: Why China is challenging India now






Sikkim standoff: Why China is challenging India now

Not only is India militarily not in a position to challenge China now, the direction the BJP is taking the country undermines India’s capabilities as a power and leaves it in no position to deter China’s aggression for years to come.

opinion Updated: Jul 20, 2017 18:51 IST
Sushil Aaron
India and China have been engaged in a military standoff since early June in the Sikkim sector over the construction of a road by the Chinese army in disputed territory, which is also claimed by Bhutan.
India and China have been engaged in a military standoff since early June in the Sikkim sector over the construction of a road by the Chinese army in disputed territory, which is also claimed by Bhutan. (AFP file)
The India-China military standoff near Sikkim continues. The rhetoric from both sides is very revealing of their states of mind. India is adopting a conciliatory tone and China an uncompromising one. India will be “patient and peaceful” in dealing with its neighbours says the Narendra Modi government, commentators emphasise Delhi’s moderation and maturity. China insists that withdrawal of Indian troops from Doklam is a precondition for dialogue. Chinese experts are not mincing words. Victor Gao, a former diplomat and once an interpreter for Deng Xiaoping, has said that any other country in China’s situation of seeing foreign (Indian) soldiers on its territory would send troops to drive them out. He says the longer India keeps troops in Doklam the more likely a military confrontation is.
The reaction in Indian media to the standoff with China is markedly different from what tensions with Pakistan usually provoke. Television channels are not dishing out angry hashtags about Beijing as they usually do about Islamabad’s misdemeanours. The Indian establishment clearly wants to avoid a confrontation. In Delhi’s muted reaction and Beijing’s belligerence there is perhaps a tacit acknowledgment in both capitals that the reason China is being aggressive is because India now is the weakest it has been for years.
China wants to symbolically establish dominance in Asia and it has chosen a moment when the contours of India’s path to decline are fairly well-established, three years into Modi’s rule. This is the lesson that Delhi should take away from this standoff, that not only is India militarily not in a position to challenge China now (short of a nuclear exchange), the direction that the BJP is taking the country undermines India’s capabilities as a power and leaves it in no position to resist China’s belligerence in the years to come. This is the time to starkly assess India’s situation, let go of the positive spin the BJP government puts out, and see India how its adversaries would.

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This may be a counterintuitive argument to make because India certainly has some impressive attributes: a large youthful population, a formidable military machine with nuclear weapons, a sizeable middle class and elite to keep foreign companies interested for years and, like any happening power, it hosts several business and think-tank conferences. China is evidently not daunted by this because some indicators of India’s power make for grim reading.
India’s vulnerabilities are manifest in four areas. The first is in the economy, where India has recently seen a series of self-inflicted wounds. India has had a weak investment climate for years owing to regulatory bottlenecks and because its banks are saddled with bad loans. Demonetisation was needlessly introduced in an already difficult situation and it brought cities to a standstill for weeks on end and compounded an agrarian distress by simply short-circuiting billions of transactions in rural India and disrupting supply chains. Growth slowed to 6.1% in the last quarter, one economist believes it may have permanently damaged the country’s informal sector. After demonetisation came changed rules for cattle slaughter which essentially constitute a form of trade war against Muslim entrepreneurs, Dalits and the meat export industry at large. The subsequent introduction of GST has bred widespread confusion; one businessman simply warns that “small traders will die”.
Alongside the effects of recent decision-making India has a jobs crisis, an education crisis and a skills crisis. PM Modi promised 100 million manufacturing jobs by 2022; around 135,000 materialised in eight sectors in 2015--far shorter of the 12 million that reportedly enter the workforce each year. The government has simply abandoned the goal of training 500 million Indians as part of its Skill India plans. The education sector looks almost irredeemable. A committee appointed by the ministry of human resource development has conceded that “large segments of the education sector…face a serious crisis of credibility in terms of the quality of education which they provide, as well as the worth of the degrees which they confer on students.” There are simply too many bad teachers in government schools, many of whom get their jobs through patronage or corruption. Students are not failed in schools and colleges for political reasons--since parents would be angry if governments provided their children bad education to begin with and then failed them. India thus has millions of youth with college degrees often lacking foundational skills let alone employable ones.

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If challenges in the economy, education and skills weren’t enough there is now an active attack on India’s social cohesion, the one thing that held the country together despite all its problems. BJP rule has seen a spike in hate speech directed at Muslims that has led to their targeting and lynching. The Indian Muslim is being constantly represented as a hate figure with a view to snap the possibility of an associational life between Hindus and Muslims. All this corrodes social life and undermines economic productivity - a divided and fear-ridden country is hardly in a position to pool its energies and talents to tackle present and future challenges.
Several other fissures have come to the surface since 2014. In addition to intensifying Hindu-Muslim strife, there is the North-South divide which we are increasingly seeing because of the NDA’s attempts to impose the Hindi language. There is continuing conflict in Kashmir and great restiveness among different social groups elsewhere: Patels and Dalits in Gujarat, Rajputs in Rajasthan, and farmers in various states, including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
Not only is society beyond polarised by identity politics, the Modi government is also instinctively anti-intellectual and waging a war against knowledge, particularly targeting the liberal arts and social sciences. There is not a single variety of independent intellectual endeavour that is potentially not under threat in India now either by regulation, censorship or physical intimidation - be it a play, film, comedy sketches, documentaries, political discussions in universities or academic publications.
This is a disturbing trend with real implications because the Modi government is letting its antipathy toward liberal intellectuals undermine the transmission of social science knowledge in India - which is indispensable for a society to understand itself and the world. The problem here is two-fold. Progressive intellectuals dominate the social science scene in India, perhaps not in number but in the standing they have in their disciplines. On the contrary, there is no credible right-wing intellectual ecosystem in India--in that one can scarcely find historians or sociologists sympathetic to the BJP who are capable of being published by university presses, the gold standard of academic publishing. Rather than treat progressive intellectuals as a national resource, the BJP government is hell bent on marginalising them, thereby threatening to snuff out forms of knowledge that have developed with some difficulty over the decades. If India is struggling with its quality of education to begin with, it makes little sense to undercut whatever little intellectual capital it has. The Modi government may well note that in the US a few years ago around 58-66 percent of social science professors identified themselves as liberals, only 5-8 percent as conservative. Liberal intellectuals are often critical of America and yet its governments do not interfere in academic life as universities advance knowledge and ultimately America’s cultural power.
The real source of India’s weakness at the moment is that the Modi government is concentrating its energies on achieving political and ideological dominance, rather than addressing the country’s glaring deficits. Politics of polarisation has taken precedence over governmental efforts to facilitate cooperation among citizens that can yield productive outcomes. All regimes in big powers aim to increase power, but they strive for excellence as well (in the hope of compensating for weaknesses). In India we are, for most part, seeing the former without much evidence of support for the latter. The Chinese Communist Party is, on the contrary, unflinching about exercising political control but is pushing the country towards new frontiers. It wants to introduce 100,000 industrial robots every year and plans on having 150 robots in operation for every 10,000 employees by 2020. It is making major investments in artificial intelligence; this year an international conference of AI researchers in the US had to be rescheduled because Chinese delegates could not attend as it clashed with the Chinese New Year. China takes social science seriously too and is making strenuous efforts to get Western academics to teach and undertake research projects in China, through initiatives such as the Thousand Talent and Thousand Foreign Experts programmes.
India, by contrast, is grappling with basic issues of social order, the rule of law - and constrictions on the life of the mind. The military standoff with China is an important opportunity to take a hard look at its own realities and see how they stack up against the priorities of other countries. If the Modi government does not change course now, the gap between India and China will increase in the future and give Beijing more reason to continue bullying India.
(Views expressed are personal. The writer tweets as @SushilAaron)