Mumbai blasts – heroes and zeroes

More than 48 hours later, Operation Tornado was almost done.

Have you been watching the news?

Let me give you the zeroes first...

Amitabh Bachchan has written something careless in his blog:

“I am ashamed to say this. As the events of the terror attack unfolded in front of me I did something for the first time and one that I had hoped never ever to be in a situation to do. I pulled out my licensed .32 revolver, loaded it and put it under my pillow.”

This, my friends, is being flaunted as the insecurity of the city-dweller. How many bodyguards does he have? What about his security? This is a wrong message being sent out to many people, including his poor fans.

How many people have licensed weapons? Isn’t he indirectly suggesting that we need to freely have access to weapons? The police force does. The army does. The commandoes do. Yet it took them two days to get rid of the terrorists, resulting in so many deaths.

His statement is most irresponsible. I am sure there are other ways for him to express how disturbed he is.


A stupid SMS message is doing the rounds:

“Where is Raj Thackeray and his ‘brave’ Sena? Tell him that 200 NSG Commandos from Delhi (South, west, east and North Indians!) have been sent to Mumbai to fight terrorists so that he can sleep peacefully. Plz forward this so that it reaches the coward bully!”

Again, we are told this shows the anger of the Mumbaikar. Please understand this. The fact that we mention where the commandos come from means we are underlining this fact ourselves.

There is no need to politicise this issue at all. If people have the courage, they should have sent out these SMS messages when his party was on a rampage and called him a terrorist.

Will we put in an appeal that next time this happens we will call in the commandoes?


Why did Narendra Modi come to Mumbai?

He was not needed. He is another state’s chief minister. By announcing a Rs 1 crore compensation to the kin of the victims he is only playing electoral politics. Then he visited Hemant Karkare’s widow. This same man, and the same BJP, had been critical of the ATS chief when he was investigating the Malegaon blasts.

I can only hope that his widow is compensated financially by the Government of India and gets due respect. The best way to preserve his memory is to continue with his work and persist with it. Let not this terror attack stop another investigation.


Why has Manmohan Singh asked the ISI chief to come to India?

Is he going to admit that Pakistan is involved, if as they say the terrorists are from Pakistan?

And what is this clubby talk about Indo-Pak relations getting mucked up? When were they good?

I do not wish to rush in with any suggestions or ideas, but one thing has to be done by both countries. Leave Kashmir alone.


Flippant soundbytes

Everyone, including media persons crouching on the ground, have been pointing at the Taj Mahal Hotel and calling it a landmark, in fact many more wonderful things. Social butterflies are being interviewed and they are weeping in their scented tissues, with full make up on, about how they were almost there, or near that hotel; some have got nostalgic memories about how they saved money as kids to eat at the Taj.

They are kosher. Not one word against this superficiality. When I did not have enough money to spend, I did not even aspire for that.

Society biggies are talking about having a citizens’ movement to curb terrorism.

Really? This is an insult to all those who risked their lives. Dealing with terrorism is not about holding hands and forming a human chain and issuing sweet-sounding statements.

Only because five-stars were targeted does not mean only the voices of the rich and famous should be heard.

Heroes...

It was not the rich and famous who were clamouring to shake hands with the NSG commandos. It was the common people from the streets. They cheered them as the operation was through.

The commandos are the brave souls.

I must mention the media persons who spent hours and hours under restricted circumstances to cover the happenings. I did not agree with some of the reportage, but they did their jobs and some rather well and with responsibility.

Mumbai’s ordinary people

For not analysing. For going back to work. There is utterly misleading talk about how for the first time this city is not back on its feet. Nonsense. Not applicable to milkmen, vegetable vendors, domestic helpers…

Mumbai, as I said that day, will survive.

Finally…

Does anyone know what the terrorists are really demanding?

Urban India is going to decide Kashmir’s fate?

The Times of India conducted a survey by Synovate India, a market research agency, among men and women in the 18 to 35 age group in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Jammu.

Here are some ‘findings’:

Should India let go of Kashmir?

No: 68%

Has Kashmir been pampered by the Centre?

Neglected: 41%

Can it ever be integrated into the mainstream?

Yes: 77%

Should India hold on to it whatever the cost?

Yes: 59%

If Kashmir secedes, it would it be…

Under greater threat: 50%

Do you see how disjointed it is?

Or just a case of “Dil ko behlaane ke liye khayal achcha hai”?

They're talkin' 'bout me...phew...

In one of those sessions where they discuss me, someone asked, “Who is Farzana Versey?” (Why are people so blah and blah about her and so forth…)

My take:

She is Nobody. I mean, she does not appear in any tangible form all that often. Therefore, she could be deemed a ghost. How do people react to ghosts? They get spooked out, or they are fascinated, or they create stories.

I shall talk about the last…

The story begins often with a straight narration of the person who was. The words she spoke/wrote…in the course of the retelling, people add their own bits. A mythology is created around stray sentences. Mythologies are not based on context; they need not be. Now, without a context, the ghost can appear really evil.

The advantage when you create such a spook is you can give it several nuances and accuse it of double standards. This is precious. The ‘subject’ has said clearly what she believes in, she has provided her version of facts, she has not gone back on anything. Where are the double standards? And on what grounds do those making the accusations believe that their versions of the facts are right? They assume she has created ‘villains’. It is really adding Bollywood masala to a good ole ghost story.

The spectre needs that whistling wind sound, flickering candles…it also needs a ‘hook’.

This is where the other issue of elitism comes in. That is really difficult to digest. It makes even a joke attempt ‘humour’. So the ghost appears in her outsize Chanel shades. Anyone with a quarter of a brain will know that if one is to portray someone as posh, then you do not place her standing near a paanwalla asking for tambakoo. But, and this is the crucial BUT, this is the paradigm the individuals concerned are accustomed to. They probably pronounced Chanel as “Channel”, which was earlier enunciated as “Chaa-null” during the times they got excited when some aunt brought home “Chaa-null number paanch” (Chanel No.5), which is where they get to the paanwalla… “arre bhai, jaraa choona-tambakoo maarna paanch sau bees par”.

These people are now settled in the US, have done well, and are lauded for their lifestyle (which means Shaan masala sprinkled over the Brie)…they are investment bankers, software engineers. They first learned to knot their ties like salesmen; then they got to the US where they whistled at anyone with freckles imagining she was a gori.

Can you blame them if they are stuck in the groove?

Omar's orgasm

I have not spoken as an "authentic" Indian Muslim voice, but my post on Omar Abdullah has got a lot of people angry.

So I watched him on NDTV's Walk the Talk show last night.

He is speaking with a forked tongue. Did he not say something about his conscience post-Gujarat? Okay, here is is talking about how he admires Vajpayee...the same man who as prime minister did precious little and kept quiet and took up for Modi in Gujarat.

All these guys are now gushing about Omar's role in national politics. He is smiling like a cat that has licked all the cream and looks doodh ka dhula hua. Let him milk the issue dry.

Have fun. As he did in his "3-minute" orgasmic speech.
- - -

Note: For those interested, a longish extract (an encounter with the poet Ahmed Faraz) from my book is in Dawn as well as uploaded on A Journey Interrupted blog.

The pigeonhole, please

Perception is a bitch; it is also a mirror.

As a mirror it can have tremendous value. But is it often intended to? What do you do with cracked mirrors, blurred mirrors – is it necessary for one to have to see oneself in them only to prove that one is open to another point of view?

As regards the bitch, how many barks translate into a bite?

I was chortling when I read somewhere that the reviewer had done a decent job but this book ought not to have been written! It is hilarious. The review is positive. So, if someone likes what I have written and is being commended for it, then isn’t it natural that he thinks I did a good job and therefore if you like what he has to say and he likes what I have to say then you must therefore like what I have to say? You can’t say, “Hey that T-shirt looks good on you, but it should not have been a T-shirt”. Weird world.

However, let me get to the real strange stuff. Apparently, writing about the identity question is a bad thing. It is passé. Oooh, I am so outdated…everyone else has completed their journeys and I am still unable to negotiate it.

Heck, if they had then they wouldn’t be spreading themselves thin over a ‘non-issue’, would they?

But, of course, an Indian Muslim Woman seems to be causing a whole lot of anguish. An Indian Muslim Woman writing about there has got to belong there.

Apparently, the term Indian is just an add-on. Sure. Ah, yes, I hear it said that the only reason I am not there is because I don’t want to let go of my jeans and expensive coffee.

This should be enough reason to laugh in these people’s faces (faeces?). Pakistani women don’t wear jeans? You don’t get pricey coffee in that country?

These are supposed to be our global citizens. The ones who don’t even know if they have an identity. Unless being incognito counts. Straw warriors.

Make hay, honey, while my sun shines.

I got mail

When I wrote about Gorkhaland, I was aware that I did not belong and my views would be different. Therefore, to get immediate reactions is important. Here are two ways of seeing:

Dear Farzana.... I read your article in counterpunch.com..... "Will Gorkhaland Be A Reality?"... being a Gorkhali myself and coming from Darjeeling, I cannot express how much your article means to all of us. Thank you so much for writing unbiased and objectively....

Especially your last paragraph was so fitting that it brought tears to my eyes... "However, for a mountain people they ought to know that echoes resound only in your own valley."...... Our troubles and frustrations... only we can see and feel... for others... we don't even exist....

My reply:

It is letters such as these that make writing about issues such as these seem worth the space we deign to occupy. When an insider can relate to how an outsider has 'sensed' her/his anguish it makes one's life, even if momentarily and captured in stark print, seem not quite so useless.

The criticism that comes with the territory seems like so much noise then.

Thank you and hope the voices do carry where it matters.

Another perspective:

Now I understand why you are NOT AN iNDIAN IN PAKISTAN RAHTER YOU REALLY ARE A PAKISTANI IN iNDIA.
YOUW WISHFUL THINKING OF WEAKENEING iNDIA THROUGH SEPERATISM WILL NEVER HAPPEN.
DREAM ON YOU TRAITOR .(NO NOT ALL MUSLIMS ARE TRAITOR -BUT YOU ARE AS ARE MANY HINDUS AND SiKHS INCLUDING THE PRESENT PRIME MINSTER manmohan singh THE MOST TREAHCEROUS OF ALL)>

My reply:

You got to be kidding if I’d reply to this.

Why the yankees must stay away from India - huh?

So after terrorist attacks and epidemics, the United States of Xenophobia has found one more warning for its citizens visiting our shores.

This time around it’s the monsoon in Mumbai and the BMC’s handling of it that have got Uncle Sam worked up.

A warning issued on Monday and posted on the website of the US consulate in Mumbai tells its citizens that the “monsoon has arrived in western India and Mumbai is experiencing the season’s storms’’. They are also reminded of the 26/7 (2005) deluge and told that it had led to a “heavy loss of life’’.

Why don’t they just stay at home? Does any country issue warnings against visiting the US due to cyclones and earthquakes and the possibility of some Arab flying planes into its most famous sites?

They are talking about open manholes…crib, crib…

How many people die in car accidents in the US?

- - -

And now we have the pretty Omar Abdullah suggesting that the government of India and the state government should work with some insurance companies to provide a cover to those foreign tourists who visit J&K.

What about Indian tourists? He mentions “some of the high-spending foreign tourists to return to Kashmir”. Not many are; most are backpackers. And Indian tourists have been travelling for some years now.

The government must indeed take care of the economy, but then it should see to it that the locals have jobs. Not everyone owns a shikara or weaves carpets.

- - -

And while we are on Kashmir, this is what a friend from the media in Srinagar wrote to me about the Afzal Guru post below:

Wonderful piece! Am trying to gather courage to reproduce it. It may invite death sentence for me by likes of Geelani, but I will try to use.

This is a Kashmiri and he is afraid of writing about someone who thinks he will be a Kashmiri shaheed. And who is he afraid of? Another Kashmiri who thinks he is a potential shaheed. And lollypop Omar can only think about the goras and their dollahs. What a pathetic state.

Diva?

He carried a large plastic bag and sat awkwardly in the chair. We were at the physiotherapist’s. I had started my sessions; he had come for consultation. It was an unusually hectic day, so there was a bit of a wait. He smiled hesitantly; I smiled back.

The doc asked her assistant, “Have you got F’s diathermy ready?”

It was not.

The gentleman narrowed his eyes. “Ah, now I know,” he said as I looked in his direction. My expression must have been quizzical. “I just heard your name…I have been wondering that you looked familiar. So, you are FV. And you disappeared seven years ago.”

“You remember the timeframe?”

“Yes, and let me tell you that you made a deep impact on many of us. I was out of college. I first read you 15 years ago…”

He rattled off a few subjects I had written about.

“This is extremely touching,” I said.

And it was. It is. In a world where you have to be a known face and your identity rests largely on which parties you attend and who you hobnob with, this was refreshing and only confirms my belief that somewhere in the ether all is not lost.

He would not have thought about me as a diva. I was not even a ‘personality’. I do not know his name and will perhaps never see him again. I merely represented a certain thought-process and manner of expression that stayed with him. Because it perhaps reflected his. That is all. And that is what I am seen as. Not a diva.

In a city like Mumbai with the background one has it is the easiest thing to be a part of hype and hoopla. Does one imagine that all those who appear in the glossies have made a dent in someone’s way of thinking or mirrored anyone’s thoughts?

This may sound like a self-congratulatory post, but it could not come at a more opportune time.

At a time when I was told, “There has got to be some reason why people say all those nasty things about you.” Why? Reminds me of the judge in the courtroom asking the rape victim whether she was dressed provocatively, the implication being that she invited such an act.

What can I say?

- - -

My friends say I do not need to defend myself. You think being ‘controversial’ is fun? Try swapping places with me for two days.

Go through the experience of having your column taken off without the courtesy of being informed after 11 years of hard work. Go through the abuse I have gone through only for voicing certain views by people who remain largely anonymous. Go through times when you are threatened with physical assault. Go through the mental torture of watching all the effort of so many words and so much passion you feel for them being pinned down and destroyed with a single sentence or phrase. Go through the time when you watch people who genuinely support your views being dismissed as “lapdogs” and “bootlickers”; it demeans them and you because it tries to nullify everything.

These people can surround themselves with their fawning cliques even if they have nothing to show; I cannot get a bit of appreciation for the work I have done without someone hitting out at me even at this superficial level. It isn’t just unknown and insecure characters on websites and public platforms. I am talking about people who care.

For the past couple of weeks I have written a few times about these feelings. I am not worried about all this damaging my pride or self-esteem. I am concerned that I should not lose this thing called trust and to see caring as a sly strategy.

No. It won’t happen. I have patience and belief.

- - -

kiije na das me.n baiTh kar aapas kii baat chiit
pahu.Nchegii das hazaar jagaah das kii baat chiit

kab tak rahe.n Khaamosh ke zaahir se aap kii
ham ne bahut sunii kas-o-naakas kii baat chiit

muddat ke baad hazarat-e-naaseh karam kiyaa
farmaa_iiye mizaaj-e-muqaddas kii baat chiit

par tark-e-ishq ke liye izhaar kuchh na ho
mai.n kyaa karuu.N nahii.n ye mere bas kii baat chiit

kyaa yaad aa gayaa hai "Zafar" panjaa-e-nigaar
kuchh ho rahii hai band-o-muKhammas kii baat chiit

- Bahadur Shah Zafar

- - -

The last two segments have been added on Jan 4, 10 am

Did something happen here?

“Above all things, never be afraid. The enemy who forces you to retreat is himself afraid of you at that very moment.” Andre Maurois

I feel like telling this to those who spend a considerable amount of time challenging me, Muslims and “Pakis” (as though we are all one) to answer their silly queries.

Since they are in such a celebratory mood because we “cowards” did not take up their ‘challenge’, I may as well laud them.

Hail thee, for before thy might, the cauterised, chastised, circumcised “false” and fecund Muslims were breathing the fresh air away from the taunts…it doth surprise us that those of you who look into feeble minds so feeble yourselves be…what vile thoughts sit within you as you intone the same things? Like whiners! Like whiners!

My furrowed brow now seeks to know how you might fare on the couch yourself…what would your minds reveal about you as you shout, “Katlus”, “Jihadis”, and a chorus repeats it after you…

Aye, by my troth I say, this be sheer projection…shout it aloud, utter it again and again, for only then will you be free of the agony that assails you.
- - -

My apologies to those who have had to put up with some ‘reactions’ here. It is unfortunate that on the day I last posted I did not look at the comments. After that I did not get online at all. Now, as I read them, I have no response except pity. Pity that the person is most likely an expat who has forfeited his Indian passport and cannot accept the fact that a person of a certain community does not fit into his stereotype. Pity that he has to try to write bad English, mixing up Caps and small letters only so as not to be identifiable. Had I not been a sympathetic person, I would have laughed at the juvenile attempt. Is it fear that my so-called jihadi comrades will run after him?

On another note, a Muslim friend, yes friend, had told me a couple of months ago that I should find a Hindu rabble-rouser to keep me happy. I guess there are lots of potential happiness-givers. That is also the reason I will not permit groups to be bracketed, any group.

I might add here that I stand by whatever I have written thus far in my career. Every single word. If a few people do not know how to read and choose stray sentences to justify their agenda, I have nothing to say. Okay, I feel pity.

Elsewhere, before I had left, someone had challenged me saying that as a professional journalist I was answerable to her. I am not. These people will not dare to ask any other professional journalist and only when it suits them I become a professional journalist; otherwise, they ask, “Oh, is she one?” Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.

Someone else said, “Oh, she had written something on Gandhi and keeps rehashing it.” Yup. I do. At least I use my own work as my source of research; others use it, so why can’t I? It is my prerogative.

And, what I write is my opinion. I am not saying there was a fire and so many people died. I am wondering why there was a fire and how it could possibly have occurred. It is conjecture based on certain facts. I have the right to state that. So, no one has any business to ask me to provide evidence for what I think. When I state something, I start out believing in it. When you believe in something you think that it is right…that is the basis of belief. If you do not agree, then the onus is on you to provide me with information or a reasoning to prove me wrong and yourself right. Get that very clear.

This is not specific to what has happened here in the past few days.

I have removed the comments of those responding to something. The reason being that I do not intend to stop anonymous posting only due to the actions of one character, and right now I cannot moderate; the person does not deserve any attention, which is being sought; it will now look really silly to see the said person blabbering away into nothingness. I can only request the regulars here to desist from responding to such posts.

Thank you to those who wrote to me; I understand your hurt and wish it wasn’t quite like this.