Obama's Hanuman, Hillary's hanky, McCain's nickel

I don’t know how the US presidential candidate would have reacted to a headline like Barack Obama seeks Hanuman’s blessings in race for White House!

It is gratifying to know that it isn’t only the ‘underdeveloped’ or ‘developing’ countries that are mired in superstition. Here is a list of the luck liaisons the various Amercian candidates carry or wear and my attempt to deconstruct what they could possibly mean:

Barack Obama

The bracelet belonging to an American soldier deployed in Iraq = I support the war in Iraq and this is at least in part my version of patriotism.

Gambler’s lucky chit = Trying to convey that he will take big risks based on past wins; nothing new.

Tiny monkey god (said to be Hanuman) = Will be a loyalist to those he considers his own, believes in saving a woman’s honour and is to be trusted; would have worked better as second-in-command.

Madonna and child = Besides religious connotations, might be a moralist, and believes that the baby and bathwater are a woman’s domain. The male is only a part of an immaculate conception.

John McCain

A lucky penny = Every penny counts, so prudent in terms of wealth management.

A lucky nickel = No macro outlook; it is the economy, stupid.

A lucky sweater = Likes things to be close to him; believes in staying warm and prefers to stick to things that have already been knitted. He won’t run after wool balls.

A lucky hotel room in New Hampshire = Would visit new things and places only if there is an assurance of steadfastness and familiarity.

Hillary Clinton (tends to keep things others have given her - no, not a stained dress)

A lucky coin = heads or tails, she don’t know.

A lucky handkerchief that a woman in Texas gave to her that she sometimes keeps in her pocket = No tissues needed for those well-timed tears.

A lucky bracelet = Conveying femininity; would be hands-on but with embellishment.

Why is Afzal Guru rooting for Advani?

Afzal Guru is under pressure. Psychological and of some other kind. Yes, go ahead and accuse me of harbouring one more conspiracy theory. The man who has been convicted for the attack on Parliament (although he was not part of the actual act) now wants L.K.Advani to become prime minister so that he can get a death sentence in peace!

Hum kya ghaas kha rahe hai? Who the hell is fooling whom? I am no fan of the Congress party but clemency decisions are not taken with great speed – and not by the PM but the President. There are several factors that have to be taken into account. Afzal is cribbing about three years – what about the undertrials, little kids, old men, who have been arrested on fake charges (sometimes not even that courtesy was extended; they were just hauled up) who are waiting for justice for years?

“I really wish LK Advani becomes India's next prime minister as he is the only one who can take a decision and hang me. At least my pain and daily suffering would ease then.”

Yes, and what about those of us who will not be hanged? What about the possibility of India finally giving up the pretence of being a democracy, which it has been steadfastly before the early 90s? A man who watches a mosque being demolished as though he is a spectator of some epic film (he love movies, does he not?) will be in power. Give his speech at the Red Fort. What will he tell us? Does he have any manifesto other than building a temple?

“I have also requested that till the time they (government) take a decision, they shift me to a Kashmir jail.”

Why? A prison is a prison. And he has himself noted, “I only asked for pardon to stop millions of Kashmiri people hitting the streets. If I am hanged, I would take it as a sacrifice towards the people of Kashmir.”

Being in Kashmir would only exacerbate the issue and there is still time for Advani to become PM.

Now let me elaborate a bit on what I imagine are the undercurrents (how I love the word).

Afzal asks to be shifted to Kashmir. There is pressure on Ghulam Nabi Azad. Congress gets even more jittery. The National Conference which happily slept with the NDA will start making noises, like the Omar boy did when the lady Prez held a gun and smiled. NC will start preparing for an alliance with the BJP. Position on top.

Now if Afzal does get the death penalty, then he asked for it and in fact Advani was the right man to convey him towards that ‘release’.

If his mercy petition is heeded to, then it will be a coup for the saffron brigade. Look, how large-hearted we are.

Afzal will then sit in some prison and pen songs for them. He will become an example of the reformed jihadi.

Afzal is reading India wins freedom by Maulana Azad about the country's independence movement. Sweet. Ironical too. The Kashmiris would not quite get it, the Kashmiris who he is fighting for.

Human rights activists have been really pursuing his case and I personally feel this is a big blow to their work. Some of us played a lesser role, but we did raise our voices to bring to light various aspects of the case.

There is too much politics going on now, and even terrorists are learning to play it. Sad.

Afzal Guru’s son has been named Ghalib. I assume it is after the poet who said:

nuktaacheen hai gham-e-dil usako sunaaye na bane
kya bane baat jahaan baat banaaye na bane

Birgit beyond the Prelude

Wagner wanted to convey the motifs of longing, yearning, the gaze, Tristan, Tristan’s suffering, grief, sorrow, love potion, desire, magic, anguish of Tristan, death potion, Tristan and Isolde.

As the music starts and the story unfolds you will find that it is all about men and the trophies they collect.

Tristan and Isolde

A short transcript of the opera:

A young sailor’s voice is heard, singing about an Irish girl he has left ashore. Isolde hears the words and feels insulted, thinking that the sailor is mocking her. She is being conveyed from Ireland to marry the King of Cornwall on the ship of Tristan, the king’s nephew. She begins to rage and her maid Brangaene tries to comfort her without success. When Isolde cries out for fresh air Brangaene opens the curtains enclosing her pavilion. Tristan can be seen deep in thought, looking out to sea. Watching him, Isolde mutters the words, “Chosen for me and lost to me.” She instructs her maid to summon Tristan to her.

Brangaene attempts to do as her mistress wishes but is courteously rebuffed by Tristan. He will not go before Isolde. He is merely conducting her to Cornwall to become the bride of his uncle. His companion, Kurwenal interjects with information that makes clear that Tristan and Isolde have had previous dealings. Kurwenal tells the crew the story of Tristan’s combat with Lord Morold of Ireland over the issue of tribute between Cornwall and Ireland. Morold was Isolde’s intended husband. Tristan killed him and sent Morold’s head back to Ireland, to Isolde, in place of the tribute he had demanded in Ireland’s name.

Brangaene returns to informs her of Tristan’s words. Isolde, who has heard Kurwenal, bitterly states that she has now become the tribute sent from Ireland to Cornwall. With a furious rush upward in the orchestra, Isolde begins a long monologue, giving more information about the past and why her state of mind is so turbulent. This monologue is occasionally presented in the concert hall entitled, “Isolde’s Narration to Brangaene,” or, “Isolde’s Narrative and Curse.” The narration begins using a fragment of a motif from the Prelude. Isolde relates how a small boat carrying a very sick man called Tantris drifted onto the Irish coast seeking the healing arts of the Princess Isolde. After healing the man she realized that he was the one who had killed Morold and his name was not Tantris, but Tristan! She wanted to kill him, to avenge Morold’s death, but when she held the sword over him she could not strike. He had looked into her eyes and it stayed her hand. She nursed him, she protected him, and now how does he repay her? He takes her from Ireland as a token, as a price to be paid to Cornwall, as a wife to his uncle, the old king! Her narration becomes more frenzied as she relates the story, the music reflecting a motif called “Isolde’s anger.” The narration culminates with Isolde’s wild curse on Tristan and a call for vengeance and death - death for them both!

Singer: Birgit Nilson, Swedish soprano

Allah in an Islamic Society?

Why the Need to Spread the Message of Allah in an Islamic Society?
The Tablighi Jamaat Movement
By FARZANA VERSEY
Counterpunch, June 4, 2008

(The following is an extract from the recently-released book A Journey Interrupted: Being Indian in Pakistan, Harper Collins-India.)

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I cannot publish the excerpt here, but it is available at the CP website (click title of article).

Will not be able to respond to any posts on the specific contents of the extract or book and would not encourage them here, if you don't mind. However, I felt the need to share them...do remember that an extract is about one aspect; I had a limit of 1000-word permitted by the publishers.

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For the readers in the US who have been inquiring, it does not look proper for me to give links, but there are a couple of online portals shipping. My friends in San Jose got the copies within a week of ordering from one of them.

Dis n Dat

There is a stupid ad being aired these days for Surf washing powder.

The scene is a wedding. A white kid is eating like the rest with his hands from a banana leaf, balling the rice and then wiping his hands on his white kurta. His parents arrive and look shocked. The South Indian lady sitting next him convinces them, “Indian eating with hand, washing with hand…”

But even Indian kids do not go spreading the curry with those hands on their clothes. I find it demeaning. One, it is targeting a community, two, a country. If foreign kids are so adept at using cutlery, then they would have the sense not to rub their hands on clothes. But do not forget that firang kids – and adults – do not remove their shoes and place their shod feet on tables and sofas without a care.

So stop making us look stupid. This ad is an Indian one for an Indian product. Whoever is in charge of it must be given some lessons as to how to respect ourselves. If we don’t, then no one will.

We only seem to complain about sexually explicit or regressive ads. What is more regressive than to make a society look like something from the back of beyond? You want to treat the guest like god, at least don’t make us look like buffoons.

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Actor Sanjay Dutt wants to enter politics, contest elections...

From the constituency that his father represented; his sister Priya won from there the last time. Priya had been involved with their father Sunil Dutt’s official work and did accompany him on his padayatras. Is that qualification enough? In politics, it would seem so. However, at least she had some convictions and that came through.

Sanjay Dutt, irrespective of his innocence or otherwise in the bomb blasts case, still has to appear in court. One would say there are countless criminals who contest elections. They do. They are big-time guys who are there because they are the mai-baap of several people, much as we’d like to deny it. Sanjay should stay out of this.

I am surprised he wants to jump in now. His reason? “My father has done social work all his life. Why shouldn’t I too do the same as a social servant? Why should I be deprived of an opportunity?’’

The problem is that most ‘servants’ in power end up becoming the bosses. And philanthropy, for which both his parents were known, does not need a political designation.

He has said that the Congress would give both his sister and him tickets. By now the Samajwadi Party has already offered him one. I won’t be surprised if the Shiv Sena does so too. After all, Bal Thackeray did call him a good boy or some such thing.

Isn’t it time these laat sahibs just stopped behaving like constituencies in a democracy are their baap ki jaagir?

PS: Even Bakhtawar Bhutto-Zardari (or however she writes her name) wants to carry forward her mother’s good work; she said so from Dubai.

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Have been inundated with promos of the new game show Dus Ka Dum with Salman Khan as host.

It is looking absolutely disgusting. I know that teasers tend to use sensational shots, but questions about suhaag raat don’t quite wash. Then Salman is coming up with crudities like “Maa ka doodh piya hai…aur jo baap ka doodh..” He also performs that vulgar dance with the dupatta between the legs.

I had been critical of Shahrukh Khan’s Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain? I have subsequently watched a few episodes and I must say that he has kept it on an even keel. There is ad-libbing, but I suppose nothing works these days without it.

This is not a comparison just yet. But I felt I must revisit my words and since my opinion has altered a bit convey so.

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End note: Inmates at a Queensland prison in Australia have been using condoms to flavour milk.

Nazia Hasan or Begum Akhtar - who is a legend?

Does a tragic and untimely death make a person a legend? Why do we use words so carelessly? I clearly recall Nazia Hassan and her voice. She died young and it is truly nice to know that her parents have set up a foundation in her memory to promote causes that were dear to her. In the report she is referred to as a “singing legend”.

She had a fan following and was most certainly talented, but we need to keep in mind that beyond the skills, she did not reach the core of hearts. Perhaps it was the songs – they were more of the Boom Boom variety…but like any pop diva her shelf life would have been restricted. Death unfortunately has catapulted her into a hall of fame.

Here she is in a mellower mood:

Sun, mere mehboob sun - Nazia Hassan



Comparisons, as everyone tells us, are odious. So, I shall refrain. But if you want legend, then watch this:

Aaye kuchch abr kuchch charaag aaye - Begum Akhtar

The police state in a stalemate

Maverick: The police state in a stalemate
By Farzana Versey
Covert column, June 1-15

A slum-dweller bent with age watched as the cop poked the lathi into the course cloth of his hut. Looking at the torn shreds later, he told me, “Every policeman must be shot dead.”

Next day there was a picture in the papers. A profile shot of a cop. The belly in khaki hung over the waist belt. The caption read: ‘Policemen ordered to keep fit’.

For what? To beat up that little man? To torture an innocent they have arrested only because of his caste or religious label and they need to fill their achievement registers?

Policemen too die in the course of duty; sometimes they commit suicide. Instead of examining the reasons, they are ordered to do yoga and stress management to reduce risk of mortality. But hard work kills no one; it is the petty politicking, the demands on the conscience that can take a toll. The honest few feel claustrophobic.

The policemen’s lobby comes out with explanations. The weapons are substandard. The force is inadequate to deal with mobs. Yet, the top guys use guest houses to relax in while riots rage a few kilometres away. Does anyone want us to believe that those who were shooting innocents in bylanes by standing on the roofs of houses, who provided no help to victims taking their own family members and friends to hospitals in carts, who demanded to watch television while they were ‘protecting’ the citizens, who joined forces with the goons are victims of misrepresentation?

They say the media fans disputes. It is this same media that is invited to turn up for a pre-planned reality TV version of encounter killings. Even as the cult of the supercop as a national asset, while being convicted for a misdemeanour himself, is given a pedestal from where he can twirl his silvery moustache, underworld gangsters rule in jail. They conduct their businesses on mobile phones and manage to procure women within the precincts where ‘justice has prevailed’? Arun Gawli quite relished his prison years and was more afraid of rival gangs.

A top cop had then told me, “I ask young criminals how many people they have killed and they say, ‘Saab kaun yaad rakhta hai?’”

Since the real lawbreakers are not afraid of them, the only way the police can assert itself is by arresting innocents. How many have an understanding of the common citizen’s needs? Most of them are deployed for security duty to look after the saabs and memsaabs.

Salman Khan’s police bodyguard went missing at the time of his deposition in court for the case where one person was killed and four injured when they came under his Land Cruiser. The cop was dismissed from the police force for his disappearance. Shockingly, no move was made to trace him. Isn’t it the duty of the cops not to lose such important evidence? What kind of system is this where a key witness, a cop at that, can vanish and reappear at will? The police knew where his family lived and in fact they had admitted him into a hospital earlier. How many such eyewitnesses get away because the cops are busy looking the other way?

Is it because private security agencies have now become the norm? Do they “complement and supplement the police force” as the cop told me? The private guys are better paid; the police don’t like that. The cops have a position; the private personnel feel insecure.

When it comes to the crunch, the crime has to be registered at a police station. We cannot encourage people to take the law into their own hands.

We are not looking for a user-friendly constabulary. We want people we can respect because they respect our rights – to property, to life, to self-esteem.

It is demeaning to see many of them being feted in the glossies for attending parties. It is even worse to watch a tough man in uniform walking behind a starlet known for her cleavage, which he is presumably in charge of protecting.