The Superheroes

If Superheroes ever existed in reality, then surely they would have been like the domestic helpers in our homes. Sounds a bit funny but it isn't!
 Have you ever counted the number of times a day you call out the name of your maid for petty things? And how they always accomplish each and every task you assign without any hesitation within a fraction of second with the same enthusiasm and energy. I always wonder how these people remain so energetic and that too all 365 days of the year!

I have an obsession for cleanliness, so I clean my home on my own at least once in a week targeting the areas where the maid possibly doesn't reach out. What happens after this hunt is that I come up with a hell lot of dust bunnies from the backside of the furniture. This angers me as to why she cannot take care of these accumulating dust bunnies?

Once, our maid took a little longer on holidays, a week. Unfortunately, it was my winter vacation and I had to take the responsibility of cleaning up the house. The first day, I very enthusiastically cleaned the house covering every corner and furniture. It took about two hours to complete the whole work and I was terribly tired. The next day, I decided not to take the corners and furniture and keep it simple because it gets very tiring and that day I had to wash the utensils also. While washing the utensils, I felt a bit uneasy. Uneasy because of the leftovers on the plates. I then realised how it feels to be a servant! What she might feel about her life that she had to do all this work for all her life without any scope of improvement in the living standard. 

It had happened so many times that whenever I fell sick, my parents ask me to take leave from the college and take rest. But when these domestic helpers fall sick, they still come to work because one day leave means no food for the day.The indispensable need  of money drives them to work. The irony of the life is that the one who does the maximum physical work gets the minimum of the money. Look at the labourers, domestic helpers, peons and many of such kind!

We cannot help out monetarily each and every such person but we can surely give them respect for the work they do for us which can make them feel proud. Proud of being a helper without whom we cannot live comfortably.

Decoding ISIS

US declares ISIS the most powerful terrorist organisation of the world. Why is this group so powerful? What is its origin? What is its mandate? And what are its implications on the rest of the world? These are some of the questions that I would like to answer.

ISIS, Islamic state of Iraq and Syria, as it is known to most, is a Sunni terrorist group aimed to overthrow the rule of the President of Syria (Bashar-al-asad) who is a Shia. In Syria, Sunnis are in majority (70%-72%) and Shias are  in minority but the ruler belong to the Shia group. He has implemented policies in favour of Shias, brutally hampering Sunni's interest. Why Shias and Sunnis have stark differences is based on their notion of selection of the leader (Caliph). Shias believe that the leader should be the one among the family members of the Prophet Muhammad while Sunnis believe that the leader has nothing to do with the heredity and it depends on the capabilities of a person. ISIS want to restore a single Caliphate for the Islamic states.

This group was joined by Iraq who is always against western interference in their territory and Islamic culture, particularly because of Iraq invasion by US-UK based coalition aimed at toppling the Saddam Hussein's regime which they thought was getting powerful as it wanted to take hold of oil fields of Kuwait. Also, US believed that Iraq was responsible for attack on the world trade centre. So US pictured it as - Saddam has Weapons of mass destruction and that it requires UN permission to invade Iraq. The invasion ruined Iraq and no such weapons were found. Saddam Hussein was a Sunni ruler who are in minority in Iraq.

ISIS is expanding exponentially in terms of weaponry, territory and brutality. It aims to take over all the Islamic states.
Talking about the allegation that ISIS might be a tool for US to divide and conquer Middle East , there is no clear evidence to prove this but the manner in which US is handling the ISIS affair is surely doubtful. The aerial bombing by US has no strategy behind. But it seems like it will create more unrest which will make this organisation more powerful and organised as other groups like Alqaeda will come together . US has not completely seized finances into these groups as ISIS has taken over major oilfields and sells oil to various countries, thereby financing themselves for weaponry. Instead of sharing of governance among the different ethnic groups, US is aimed at eradicating ISIS which is a distant possibility.

Each country of the World would be affected by this turmoil directly or indirectly as everyone is dependent on Middle East for oil imports. 

From the pages of partition

Following is an excerpt from "Themes in Indian History". 

This is a real life experience of a Muslim person during the partition narrated by a Hindu.

During my visits to the History Department Library of Punjab University, Lahore, the librarian, Abdul Latif, a pious middle- aged man, would help me a lot. He would go out of his way to do my work. I found his attitude to my work so extraordinary that one day I could not help asking him, "Latif  Sahib, why do you get out of your way to help me so much?"

Latif answered " I...I mean, my father belonged to a small village in Jammu. This was a Hindu-dominated village and Hindu ruffians of the area massacred the hamlet's Muslim population in August 1947. One late afternoon, when the Hindu mob had been at its furious worst, my father discovered he was perhaps the only Muslim youth of the village left alive. He had already lost his entire family in the butchery and was looking for ways of escaping. Remembering a kind, elderly Hindu lady, a neighbour, he implored her to save him by offering him shelter at her place. The lady agreed to help my father but said, ' Son, if you hide here, they will get both of us. This is of no use. You follow me to the spot where they have piled up the dead. You lie down there as if dead and I will dump a few dead- bodies on you. Lie there among the dead through the night and run for your life towards Sailkot at the break of dawn tomorrow.'

My father agreed to the proposal. Off they went to that spot, father lay on the ground and the old lady dumped a number of bodies on him. An hour or so later a group of armed Hindu hoodlums appeared. One of them yelled, 'Any life left in anybody?' and the others started, with their crude staffs and guns, to feel any trace of life in that heap. Somebody shouted, " There is a wrist watch on that body!" and hit my father's finger with the butt of his rifle. Father used to tell how difficult it was for him to keep his outstretched palm, beneath the watch he was wearing, so utterly still. Somehow he succeded for a few seconds until one of them said ' Oh, it's only a watch. Come let us leave, it is getting dark.' Fortunately, for Abbaji, they left and my father lay there in the wretchedness the whole night, literally running for his life at the first hint of light. He did not stop until he reached Sailkot."

" I help you because that Hindu mai helped my father. I am simply returning my father's karz, his debt". 

Partition was a painful experience for all. I fail to understand how those who had lived more or less harmoniously for generations inflicted so much violence on each other. 

67/70

67/70, I think it is the best way to put it and easiest way for anyone to guess it! Yes, I am talking about AAP's landslide victory in the Delhi Assembly polls. This verdict came as a surprize to all:

 To BJP, the most, who were conferred  the highest share in the exit polls. So, this low(3seats) was more a shock rather than a surprize.

To Congress, atleast they would not have expected a Zero.

To AAP, they would not have imagined above fifty. 

To Indians from other states, who were carried away by the Modi wave.

To Delhiites, that they all thought the same.

Well, why I call this as a surprise is, because of the persistent Modi wave across the country, it was quite obvious to see the same result in Delhi as well. Here we need to understand what changed the Delhi's political dynamics.

First and foremost, the deliberate delay in conducting Delhi polls even after continuous reminders from the SC proved a strategic mistake of BJP. This delay which was supposed to enrich the BJP hegemony over Delhi actually gave immense time to AAP to reestablish itself. 

Second, BJP's campaigning was centered around giving ratings to Kejriwal's act of resigning ("bhagoda") rather than on the local issues. AAP tactfully took advantage of it and began its campaigning with an apology for the resignation and concentrated on the local issues.

Third, when the 49 days of AAP were compared with the performance of BJP so far, people found that BJP can only make noise with no effective measures for implementation and AAP , on the other hand, atleast had brought down their electricity bills in 49 days. This thought got a boost when AAP presented the white paper along with its manifesto.

Indeed, AAP's landslide victory has demarcated a new turn in Indian politics, submerging the national parties. It has changed the perception of politics among the youth. It is seen as a great inspiration for the regional parties. It has also initiated a new way of campaigning like human banners, auto rickshaw posters and Flash mob which are cost effective and innovative. 

Although, great challenges lie in front of AAP, significantly, support from the centre in accomplishing their target.

Good luck to AAP!

Indo-Pak Cricket War

"Indo-Pak", a word that creates a lot of buzz among masses whenever associated with cricket.

With the announcement of an India vs Pakistan match, the sense of enthusiasm that instills among the Indians and Pakistanis is undoubtedly different and stronger than even a world cup final match between India and some other country. On the day of the match, from a teenager to a senior citizen, every eye is glued to the TV set. This is the charm of the Indo-Pak match!

But have you ever pondered as to why do we get so much involved in this match? What do we achieve from this?

What I mean to say is that it is so logical that even if we lose, nobody from Pakistan is going to come and humiliate us nor do we remain in touch with them that such that it will affect our life in anyway.

I know if our country wins, it would be a matter of pride but why do we associate it with an anti-Pakistan feeling and where does this feeling go when India plays against some other country say, England, who ruled us for 200 years?

Why is it that Pakistan is so obsessed with Kashmir (which was never its territory) and not with Bangladesh (which was erstwhile "East Pakistan")? I think the Kashmir-dispute is more of an ego conflict rather than a land conflict.

I know Kashmir is still a reason of rift between the two countries but it is meant to be dealt on the border, not on the cricket ground.

Sometimes this patriotism can lead to some violent consequences because this has a slippery slope, people have no control over their feelings of Indo-Pak turning into a Hindu-Muslim rage.

Imagine a locality where Hindus and Muslims coexist. After Pakistan wins the match, there is some discussion in the locality and two persons from these ethnic groups slip into a verbal argument over the performance of the Indian team and the Muslim person takes the side of the winning team i.e. Pakistan. Now, this has the potential of erupting riots in that area.

I'm not asking you to shed your enthusiasm for the match but just want you to focus it on winning and not on defeating Pakistan on the grounds of humiliation. We should move ahead of this cheap patriotism and make our coming generations free from these prejudices.

A Ramp to death

Out of the total number of people who die unnaturally, a major proportion comes from road accidents.
I am sure this logistic is not something that you might have come across for the first time but the irony is that we have never taken it seriously. But why?
What bothers me is that people don't want their own safety, something absolutely absurd!
Most of the accidents I inspected, had the following causes-
First, "NEGLIGENCE"- either of the two involved in the accident. Now the question is why people are negligent? Because they are never asked to be alert. Tell me how many of us, when started to learn to drive, were introduced to roads as a serious element? Apart from explaining the traffic rules, it is never inculcated in us to follow them in every circumstance. And just stating it as an instruction does not serve the purpose.The backdrop against the instruction also needs to be explained, like if you drive at the wrong side, how difficult it will be for the person coming at a high speed to balance a sudden encounter.

Second, the teenagers think of roads as a "RAMP" to showcase their automobiles, flaunting their speed and beautiful faces, impressing the crowd who would not even notice the person who is driving. Why do they risk their life for such an immaterial and illogical happiness? I know peer-pressure is profound but not unavoidable if the person is smart enough to distinguish between what is right and what is not.

I blame it on the upbringing. If they were made aware of the consequences of even one wrong move on the road, they would have been more alert while driving.