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The Femme Fatale Image in Cinema

2011-11-05T02:34:00.000-07:00

Some early scientists relegated women to a category somewhere above monkeys, yet below men, and the poet Milton observed that women are "a fair defect of nature"

However these were the pseudoscientific notions about female variability and vulnerability, and were used to justify sexism and discrimination in society. Perhaps out of such frustrations rose the concept of a woman who defied her stereotypical image and donned the garb of someone who is just the opposite of the popular concept, which was more or less forced upon her. The phrase femme fatale is French for 'deadly women' and was created to project a social democratic revolt against the oppressiveness of the Victorian age, where women were constricted in a corset and pushed into claustrophobic ideologies and a shrunken introverted world. She took an avatar of a female who has been created to break men's heart and to lead herself into a sunlight world. These femme fatales are allowed to have it all; power, sexuality, femininity and wealth, but they keep hankering for love and would often face a bad end because they defied the conventions. The astonished man, who had earlier created an ideal woman from his own wishful imagination, suddenly meets someone whom he cannot control or understand. He labels her as the 'bad woman'; the woman who must die or be banished because she is not the representative of his idealistic image.

Women in Hollywood- The Femme Fatale

Disillusioned with men and frustrated of a circumscribed life, this figure of a deadly femme fatale/ vamp- emerged as a central figure in the nineteenth century and became one of the most persistent personifications of modern female. "Who is she?" was the popular query. And the enigmatic answers would be: "She is the woman who never really is what she seem to be"

She is the black widow spider who eats her mate alive; she is ungovernable, threatening to male psyche, and a woman who challenges the patriarchal culture vehemently.

The femme fatale was a frequent character in 1940s films. Rita Hayworth as The lady from Shanghai (1948) is the most enigmatic example. She embodies the overpoweringly desirable, duplicitous and sexually insatiable femme fatale, who has been represented as a symptom of male anxieties about women. She is a creature who threatens to castrate and devour her male victim. This image of a sexual, dangerous woman is the psychological expression of a man's own internal fears of sexuality, and his need to control and repress it.

The femme fatale's appearance is always explicitly sexual with long dark or blonde hair worn loose on her back, long, sensuous legs, heavy make-up, sparkling jewelry and revealing clothes, as portrayed in Sunrise (1927). She is the 'woman of city', the urban female depicting the sexual pleasures of modern metropolitan life.

She represents an open challenge to the post war consensus of women feeling fulfilled only by their roles of wife and mothers.

Two of the most powerful screen portrayal, are Barbara Stanwyck's Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity (1944) and Lana Turner's Cora Smith in The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) in which both are frustrated wives married to dull and older men.

In Hollywood, the femme fatale's most characteristic role is a nightclub singer on the fringes of the underworld. She traps her victims through seductive dances and explicit display of sexual threat. Watch Ava Gardener in The Killers (1946) playing Kitty Collins as she is first glimpsed by her victim Swede (Burt Lancaster) singing " The more I know of Love" and you will see how she comes across as the apotheosis of a mythical femininity. She is sexy and feline, and has that dreamlike sensuality about her with her sloe-shaped eyes, curvaceous cheekbones, cleft chin, and full upturned mouth. All these features exude an open sexual invitation, and she is the ultimate femme fatale here.

The femme fatale often emerges from darkness into harsh light, or dissected by both to indicate certain instability.

The Good -Bad girl

However, Hollywood found a way to bring out the femme fatale from the narrow confines of the stereotype seductress who just doesn't resort to narcissism and duplicity to have her way. The femme fatale is also the beleaguered hero's helpmate sometimes. She is often shown as supporting him and believing in his innocence, or his ability to solve the problems. The figure of the good-bad girl combines the sexual stimulation of the femme fatale with the fundamental decency of a wife or a lover. She can appear to be cynical, wayward and obsessed with money, but this stems from disillusionment with men and the frustrations of a constrained life.

Veronica Lake in The Blue Dahlia (1946) and Lauren Bacall in The Big Sleep (1946) are perfect example of the type. They are cool, terse, sexually assured and independent women, and yet remain on the hero's side. To the hero they offer a slightly mocking image and allow him to feel relaxed in their company, just like they would feel with a male companion. The good-bad girls have the masculine and feminine qualities merged together and although they appear two-faced, like the typical femme fatale, they do prove themselves to be loyal. If they cannot help the hero, they can support him and believe in his ability to solve problems. The best and most complex example of this type is Rita Hayworth in Gilda (1946)

The bad women of cinema went through a noticeable transformation over the next decades and the hideously prominent false eye lashes, hard contact lenses, huge wigs, feather gowns and shimmering two piece dresses are replaced by the more chic and contemporary get-ups. They are no more limited to being the cabaret dancers, or a gangster's moll. The fun, fearless female is played by the female protagonist now, and she has emerged as the voluptuous, deeply alluring and convincingly sexy woman who knows her mind. She is also subtle, clever, sophisticated and extremely patient, waiting for the right time to strike, just like a predator.

One of the best examples of such a woman is of Famke Janssen as Xenia Ouatappo in Golden Eye (1995).

She is like none other so far. Perceived as a classic representation of femme fatale she is the 'black widow spider' woman who devours her mate after sex. She gets her sexual satisfaction by killing unscrupulously. Watch her making love on a yatch, clad in a revealing lingerie and screaming Yes...Yes...YES!!... as she crushes the man's chest between her thighs during orgasm.

Her sadistic sexual proclivities coupled with an absolute lack of conscience make her, the deadliest femme fatale.

As Bond says in the end - "She always enjoyed a good squeeze."

Women in Indian Cinema- the image and the body

Around two decades ago Indian cinema had these stereotypical heavily made up vamps that always had a bullet shot in their heaving bosom in the end, to justify the popular notion that only 'good and pure' women deserve to get the hero. Thus the climax of a film always saw our 'demure and coy' heroine snuggling in the arms of the macho hero, while the vamp lay on the ground in a bloody pool, staring up at the hero's face with life receding out from her blue (contact lenses) eyes.

However, over the years the concept went through many changes and now we don't find these blue eyed, heavily made up and inadequately clad vamps anymore. These days the female protagonists (our heroines) have taken over from those vamps of yesteryears and have gone much ahead in wearing lesser clothes and heavier makeup; leaving the customary vamps out of work forever.

Pick up the DVD of yesteryear films and you will surprisingly find the bold and daring dance numbers that appear timeless even now. The women who played the femme fatale roles had a certain body type (read hour glass) and they were always dressed more glamorously and fashionably than the heroine. They were also the best dancers of that era.

The soft focus on the Nurturer/ Homebuilder women

The position of women in the Indian film industry was earlier fraught with ambivalence: in those early years of cinema very few women were ready to let their photographed images appear on screen and allow thousands of unknown men's eyes gaze at their pictures. Most of the women carried cultural baggage of strict religious taboos, which did not allow them to display their bodies to the public. While such taboos have broken down gradually and now girls are queuing up in hoards to take their chance in films, one cannot overlook the fact that the concept of bad girl, provocatively dressed, dangerous vamps came out of such beliefs that an ideal woman has to appear bashful, modest and should be covered from head to toe.

She must appear as the virginal daughter who is protected all her life and then given 'all intact' to her husband to become a chaste wife, whose raison d'etre is to worship her husband.

The Indian heroines played such parts to perfection and it somewhat justified their entry into the big bad world of cinema, in which they portrayed the 'Ideal Indian Woman' image to perfection, and thus affirmed that they cannot be faulted by being in films. The ideal woman was conventionally recognised as the picture of 'oppressed womanhood' and was reinstated by many female actors of the Indian cinema. The yesteryear Indian heroines played such parts to hilt, and projected the perfect antithesis to those femme fatales who tried to steal their husbands and lovers.

Here is a list of some of the bad girls having all the fun:

Demi Moore played an impressive role of a sexually frustrated boss in Disclosure (1994) who turns implacably revengeful when Michael Douglas spurns her advances.

In Fatal Attraction (1987) the script follows the tale of a one night stand turned sour and Glenn Close comes across as every married man's worst nightmare, playing the role of an obsessed lover turned psychopath. She managed the role with considerable élan. Though her role cannot be termed as the typical femme fatale, it did throw light on the stormy, mutinous side of a woman who would not compromise on anything if it comes to what she wants.

Glenn Close also played the femme fatale in Dangerous Liaison (1988), where her character Marquise De Mertenti is the deadly jealous woman plotting a heartless revenge to get even with her detractors.

In Basic Instinct (1992) Sharon Stone was the ultimate femme fatale. As Catherine Tramell, the successful novelist, she eats men for breakfast, and cuts their hearts and balls to pieces, with one leg scissoring over the other.

In Body Heat (1981) Kathleen Turner is the infamous Matty Walker, the voracious, crafty and greedy femme fatale, who is a married socialite plotting to kill her husband. Watch her in the iniquitous sex scenes with William Hurt.

In Last Seduction (1994) Linda Florentino, as Bridget Gregory is the beautiful and bright femme fatale who has everything going for her except a treacherous mind that would not stop at anything to get what she wants.

In 9 1/2 Weeks (1986) when Kim Bassinger arches her back and spreads her legs in the rain in a dark stairwell, her pouty lips and smoldering eyes are the femme fatale tools polished to perfection.

Ultraviolet (2006) was a relatively bad film, but watch Milla Jovovich as the ultimate sci-fi femme fatale. With her incredible face, hair, make-up, costume, attitude and a killer body, she is absolutely a drool worthy femme fatale in the film.

In Resident Evil (2004) she was the absolute femme fatale, and handles her weapons with deadly authority. Her menacing glare and excellent sword work are something to watch out for in this film.

Uma Thurman bristled with untamed rage, in Kill Bill (2003). Consumed with revenge she moved about like a force of nature in action scenes, and despite a subtle lack of physical grace, she handled the fights with much flair.

Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft was smart, sexy, sassy and sophisticated in Tomb Raider (2001). She was near perfect in that aggressive and physically demanding role, and despite the laughably fake breasts, she came up topper in the ultimate femme fatale role.

Pamela Lee Anderson as/in Barb Wire (1996) prevails over the baddies and gets more naked in the film than she had perhaps been in her entire life taking showers. But she managed to pull off the femme fatale role impressively.

In Blade Trinity (2004) Jessica Biel with gun is a captivating sight, and she carries off the femme fatale role with talent and matching physicality. Despite the lackluster action and some atrocious dialogues in the film, she was an enchanting sight throughout.

In Underworld (2003) Kate Beckinsale is dressed in black leather, heavy boots, and carries a no nonsense attitude and a gun, with unflinching authority. She projects an ample intensity and cold hatred with a perpetual scowl on her face, and her cold dark eyes, framed with deadly arched eyebrows give her the most effective femme fatale look.

© Nazia Mallick

Say,Sorry

2011-08-22T02:29:00.000-07:00

This is one of those words, which our mom taught us before we went to school:
Say sorry when you make a mistake. Say sorry even when you have not made a mistake because in some way it was your fault that the other person was hurt!

School was no better. The first lesson of our ‘Rapid English Reader’ book said 'It is always polite to say, 'sorry' when you hurt other's feelings or make mistakes.'

This word seeped into my subconscious so deeply that often I found myself saying sorry to inanimate objects that are not best known for their feelings, such as tables, chairs and doors if I dashed against it while walking carelessly.
I would rub my knee or the elbow and involuntarily say “Ouch! Sorry ”
But the private nursing of the wounds would always accompany a silent curse or two thrown at the cruel table or the door.

After all, the bruises remain long after the hurt has subsided.

My English teacher would say 'sorry' every time the chalk would make a screeching sound on the blackboard while she wrote on it. I remember how revolting that sound always felt. We would all cringe overtly, as if someone is scraping the insides of our brain. But somehow her saying sorry always minimized the effect. She would often turn her head and throw a smile at the class, as recompense; although it wasn’t her fault that the chalk was not feeling compatible with the blackboard!

Is Sorry necessary?

I know it is an important word. But is it necessary, especially in close relationships? And if it is essential to say ‘sorry’ then aren’t we taking umbrage in the fact that no matter what we do or say, a mere sorry can put things right?
Sometimes we might be inclined to misuse the word.

According to P.G Woodhouse: “ Never say sorry. The right kinds of people don’t expect it. The wrong kinds take mean advantage of it.”

Take for example ‘Love Story’, the best selling short novel by Eric Segal. This poignant little story had a phrase “Love means not ever having to say you are sorry”.
Later when the film came in 1970, it had a tagline on all its posters with a slight variation. “Love means never having to say you are sorry.”

Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal were the lead pair in this sentimental drama and those were the days when every red-blooded lover was chanting it as a magical mantra to their lover. I remember watching a re-run sometime during my college days and was using it with my roommates, friends, often in jest or as a light banter. Sometimes I would use it with a secret and wistful sigh, dreaming of a love like that.

To sum it up, this phrase still has its power, although with different connotations.
Personally speaking, I see the above mentioned phrase as an ‘extreme’ trust in an ‘exclusively ideal’ relationship, where two people are ‘absolutely’ sure of their faith in each other. So much so that nothing could shake up that faith. Their comfort level is abounding and their relationship is unshakably honest. They know where they stand with each other and believe that nothing they ever did would be unforgiving in the relationship.

‘Never having to say sorry’ is also the power of faith in each other’s capacity to forgive and forget or rather overlooking the discrepancies and incongruities.

But all said and done is it possible to have a relationship like that? Aren’t we all secretly defensive about our egos? One little jolt and we are ready to fall apart.
On the other hand wasn’t ‘Love Story’ a fiction?

Most skeptics would say that all love stories are fiction, and real life is different from stories.
But I am not a skeptic and I always have believed in fairy tales, as I feel that they profoundly touch upon the deepest morals and lessons of life.

On the other hand despite being critical of this word, I am not wary of saying sorry, especially when I feel that there is a need.
What I am apprehensive of is when someone expects or demands it from me!
And-That is the moment when this word loses its dignity and meaning too.
For me sorry is looking in the person’s eyes and meaning it from the depths of my heart when I utter it to them.

Sorry is when I decide with enough honesty, candour and a real commitment to fix the problem and take a personal responsibility for doing so, rather than ‘having’ to do so.

First published at Ode

Letting go...

2011-04-12T11:54:00.000-07:00

You must let it go....
You cannot erase the past; you must let it go.
You cannot change yesterday; you must accept the lessons learned.
You cannot stop time or stand still in a world racing around in circles;
you must dance with the wind and sing with the songs that are playing.
Let whatever mistakes you have made remain in the shadows of times gone by,
And let love be the answer to the mysteries of life.

~Author: Unknown

Contributed By: Faryad Rahayi

What Hindus, which Muslims?

2011-04-07T23:11:00.000-07:00

Jawed Naqvi

WHEN the World Cup final was under way in Mumbai, I was ensconced on a beautiful bajra, a traditionally bedecked boat in Varanasi, immersed in the musical genius of thumri singers of the Banaras school.

In other words, I spent much of the evening in the middle of the serene Ganga, listening to exquisite renditions of thumri, dadra and chaiti by some of the highly talented artistes in this genre.

Though they are not as well known as their gurus yet, most of the performers were disciples of the legendary Girija Devi, Begum Akhtar and Siddheshwari Devi. Girija Devi was there to revel on the magical journey that was organised by the Delhi-based V.S.K. Baithak, a major patron of music even if they are mostly partial to khayal gayaki.

This was my lucky escape from the madness that passed for cricket over the last fortnight. And I am happy that I slept through nearly all of the loud and deafening India-Pakistan match and found Girija Devi’s company to escape the final. My decision was vindicated by the turn of events.

Pakistan’s cricket icon Shahid Afridi has been rowing back and forth over his confused views about Indians and, by implication, Hindus. He has tried to deny how he disparagingly told a TV channel at home that Indians could never be as large-hearted as Pakistan’s Muslims. Why did he have to say something so contrary to his post-match comments in Mohali just a few days ago? Did he not play the Wasim Akram-led Test match that Pakistan won in Chennai when the Indians stood up to heartily applaud the winners?

In Mohali, in spite of losing the coveted match, which four of his fielders should be held accountable for, Afridi had come out as a winner with his dignity in defeat. Then he proceeded to make a hash of it back home with his wayward views about his neighbours’ cultural traits.

So which Pakistani Muslims are generous and large-hearted in Mr Afridi’s opinion? Those that prostrated in submission at the Lahore shrine of Data Ganj Baksh or those that bombed it and killed scores of worshippers there? They both are Pakistanis and, presumably, Muslims.
A high-ranking Pakistani died tending to a hapless Christian woman’s right to equal and fair justice but his killer is as popular if not more among Afridi’s fellow Pakistanis. Which Pakistani and which Muslim is Afridi’s role model?

The virus of bigotry is not new or peculiar to Pakistan. In the 1950s, mullahs of Lucknow tried to make an example of the great Urdu poet Yaas Yagana Changezi by parading him with a garland of shoes astride a donkey. Changezi’s celebrated couplet is relevant to the Hindu-Muslim discourse kicked off by Afridi’s stray remark.

What riled the mullahs was this Yagana verse:
‘Sab tere siwa kafir, aakhir iska matlab kya?
Sar phira de insa’n ka aisa khabt-i-mazhab kya?’
(Everyone is a kafir except you, does that make any sense at all?
What is it if not bigotry, that revels in your rise and other’s fall?)

Afridi, of course, is too much of a genial, fun-loving Pathan who makes a competitive, often pugnacious cricketer. It is perhaps unfair to bracket him with religious or nationalist zealotry; yet he must be accused of displaying considerable ignorance. It was naïve of him, for example, to turn a cricket ground into a prayer hall, where his team offered namaz before a grateful gaggle of TV journalists.

Can you imagine the obverse? I would dread the thought of Indian players performing a mass puja with conch shells before a match. In any case, whenever I travel by PIA I laud my luck that Indian commercial flights do not as yet take off to the recitation of Vedic shlokas.

Of course, Afridi is not alone in wearing the badge of religion and nationhood to the detriment of the sport that gave him his identity. Equally jarring was the news of Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s tonsured head, which reports said was carried out as a promised sacrifice to a deity after he lifted the World Cup.

More worrying have been news stories since the Mumbai win of his eagerness to join the Indian Territorial Army and, together with Sachin Tendulkar, their plan to fly Sukhoi warplanes as an advertisement for the Indian military.
The Indian Air Force has accorded them the rare privilege.

But what does it all signify — that sports champions are incomplete without a macho, military facet to their personality, which comes in handy in a contest against a perceived enemy. (I hear that the Chinese cricket team is all but ready to make its appearance on the international stage, what then?) In a display of nationalist rush of blood, Gautam Gambhir, a first-rate cricketer in any format of the game, spoiled it for himself. He committed his innings in Mumbai to the victims of the 26/11 carnage. Suppose a Sri Lankan cricketer had stepped forward with a similar commitment to the rout of the Tamil Tigers?

Add to this the filthy display of money power that was unique to this World Cup. India is dripping with corruption. Its hosting of the recent Commonwealth Games is less remembered for the records broken, more for the loot and plunder by the organisers. The arrival of the Indian Premier League as a private-sector initiative has only increased the involvement of tycoons and dubious money. A minister was forced to resign last year for alleged involvement with the tournament resuming this weekend. An inquiry is under way to weed out corruption in IPL.

Clearly, the fabled billion people of India, many of them starving, could not be applauding cricketers being pampered with fantastic sums of money.
The government does not have enough money to feed the poor, or send children to school, but it lavishes crazy amounts on cricketers. The vulgarity borders on criminality and comes close to the standards first set by Dawood Ibrahim and his smuggling syndicate in a Gulf state in the 1980s.

I would have loved to take Afridi along to my Banaras soirée. I would have loved to share with him Mirza Ghalib’s famous tribute in Persian to the holy city.

‘Where autumn turns into the touch of sandal On fair foreheads, Spring tide wears the sacred thread of flower waves,
And the splash of twilight is the crimson mark of Kashi’s dust on heaven’s brow.
The Kaaba of Hind; This conch blower’s dell.’

The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.
jawednaqvi@gmail.com

Sardar is the King

2011-04-04T22:33:00.000-07:00

Everyone loves Sardar jokes. But do you know that Sikhs are one of the hardest working, prosperous and diversified communities in the world!

My friend told me about the following incident which I wish to share with you. It would surely set you into thinking-the joke is on us,actually.
During the last vacation, a few friends came to Delhi . They rented a taxi for local sight-seeing. The driver was an old Sardar and boys being boys, these pals began cracking Sardarji jokes, just to tease the old man. But to their surprise, the fellow remained unperturbed.

At the end of the sight-seeing, they paid him the hire charges. The Sardar returned the change, but he gave each one of them one rupee extra and said, "Sons, since morning you have been telling Sardarji jokes. I listened to them all and let me tell you, some of them were in bad taste. Still, I don't mind because I know that you are young blood and are yet to see the world. But I have one request. I am giving you one rupee each. Give it to the first Sardar beggar that you come across in this or any other city!"

That one rupee coin is still with them. They couldn't find a single Sardar begging anywhere.

MORAL:
The secret behind their universal success is their willingness to do any job with utmost dedication and pride. A Sardar will drive a truck or set up a roadside garage or a dhaba, run a fruit juice stall, take up small time carpentry, ... but he will never beg on the streets.

Story Courtesy: Dr. Kalim Irfani

An idea gone astray

2011-04-01T22:26:00.001-07:00

NISSIM MANNATHUKKAREN

The signature of India is one of unbridgeable divide, between billion-dollar homes and millions living in slums. Without inclusive development, the idea of India will remain the privileged domain of a few, says Nissim Mannathukkaren.

Left behind by development...

On January 8, 2011, Gokul Singh Gond, of Druminia village, Madhya Pradesh, places his dead daughter Sohagvati on the back of his bicycle and pedals 10 km to the nearest district hospital for an autopsy. On the same day, cricketer Gautam Gambhir was auctioned for 2.1 million dollars for the fourth edition of IPL, the highest amount of money offered for the services of a cricketer in the history of the game. If there are two images that could capture the idea of India in the 62nd year of its republic, they are these. On the one hand, India is poised to send its business classes to take over the world when, on the other, it condemns vast sections of its citizens to subhuman existence. The signature of Indian Republic is the almost seemingly unbridgeable chasm between the worlds of the Gokul Singh Gonds and the rest. Of course, there was always contempt for the poor by the rich, but the biggest change in the post-liberalisation era is that the have-nots are not looked down upon, but they simply don't exist!

It is fascinating to see countless young Indians, especially in the West, so passionate and committed to the idea and cause of India. Keeping in with the tectonic shifts in the Indian economy in the last two decades, this generation is hardly marked by the diffidence and risk averseness of the generations who lived under
‘ Hindu growth rate'. It is also weighed down less by the psychological scars of colonialism. This is the generation that will soar and take India to its tryst with destiny.
But most curiously and painfully, it will soon dawn on one that this generation's idea of India is divested from any interest in how majority of Indians live. It does not feel that there is anything obscene in building a $1 billion home in a city in which 40 crore people live in slums.
For it, the idea of India does not extend beyond the Tatas taking over Jaguar or the nation doing well in cricket. The angst about the staging of the Commonwealth Games is not seen when millions of tons of grains rot in granaries in a nation where more than 75 percent of the population live under Rs. 20 a day. The heart that swells up with pride when the rupee got a symbol or when “Slumdog Millionaire” wins an Oscar goes cold when it actually sees a person from the slum.

No spirit left

It is the ultimate Faustian bargain in which the Indian soul has been sold comprehensively at the altar of the worship of mammon. In the Republic Plato told us that the soul consists of three parts, logos (reason), thymos (spirit) and eros (appetite) and for justice to be attained, all the three have to be in proportion.

But the idea of India in circa 2011 is overrun by reason and appetite. It does not have thymos. The spirit has gone out of it. There is nothing in the imagination of the youth that has got any semblance of idealism. That is why it falls in love with “3 Idiots”, the anthem of our times.
Here the protagonist mounts a scathing criticism of our educational system, which is nothing but a totalitarian factory for producing engineers and doctors; but his idealistic disassociation from the system is ultimately rewarded not only with the girl, but also multi-million dollars worth of patents.

Ironically, when the material underpinnings of the idea of India are falling in place, the idea itself is in danger of being stunted, for, it lacks the courage of imagination that can further enrich it. This is especially tragic considering that India has one of the youngest populations in the world.

Of course, there is still a section of the citizenry, and including the ‘generation text,' that would virulently defend the idea of India, even at the cost of their own lives. Thymos is alive and kicking in this idea of India. But such heightened love for the nation often takes a pathological turn and is mainly expressed through activities like the defence of sedition laws crafted by our colonial masters. Consider for example, a position articulated by a young and committed officer of the Indian Police Service: “The [Kashmiri] separatist cause is morally, historically, legally and tactically, against the idea of India itself...Despite the 6,000 [security personnel] dead and counting, there is no shortage of young men in India who will proudly don the uniform and continue to man the peaks and valleys of Kashmir, ready to kill and die for the idea of an indivisible India.” Here India becomes a feudal lord violently trying to prevent his long-suffering third wife from running away lest it provoke a dissension among the other two. What is shocking about this dangerous imagery — a staple feature among genocidal projects in other parts of the world — is that it has resonance among large sections of the educated middle classes.

The message is loud and clear, especially to the vast dreary hinterland where the Gokul Singh Gonds live:you might live the life of a worm in a democratic India, but you better be patriotic and sing the national anthem.
This idea of India with a gun to your head is also patriarchal. The vulgar misogynist venom spewed on Arundhati Roy shows the depravity of the idea in which patriarchy and jingoism coagulate into a toxic mix. More than her ‘anti-national' views, it is her femininity that transforms even liberal commentators into a khap panchayat.

Inequities

One could argue that ideas like secularism is thriving considering that urban India spends more on Christmas than Diwali and that malls in Delhi heralded in a white Christmas last year with snow, elves, reindeers, and trees studded with 4,00,000 Swarovski crystals! But real India will take another half a century to see Santa. Till then, the Chamars and Madigas will continue to be lynched alive for daring to wear sandals, or ride a scooter. We are still in denial that something like caste or heinous oppression based on it exists.
While the Indian state would do anything to question the equation of casteism with racism in international fora, the ‘ forward' castes among the generation text are willing to immolate themselves if there is a semblance of threat to the order decreed by Manu. Thymos, alright!

The idea of India, as it is put into practice, is built on the segregation and humiliation of large sections of its citizens on the basis of caste and colour (even if it recoils in injured innocence when the same treatment is meted out in the form of New Zealand television anchors and Australian police officers). That is why we expend reams of paper and thousands of sound bytes on the Radia affair without thinking it important to comment about Ms. Radia's jocular allusion to Mr. Raja's colour.

After 61 years of the Republic, can we name one dalit icon, in the domain of popular culture (music, arts, cinema, cricket), business, and the private sector that has captured the imagination of India? The fact that we cannot shows the horrendous record of the idea of India. But we can always comfort ourselves saying that it could be that there isn't anybody who is talented enough from among a dalit population of nearly 18 crores, large enough to constitute the sixth largest country in the world! And meanwhile we always have Karan Johar's idea of India to fall back on, the India that lives in New York and London and populated by the Khannas and Kapoors, and the Sharmas and Pandeys.

All international opinion surveys of Indians (read, the elites and middle classes) show their tremendous optimism on the economic front (even in these globally bleak times) and overwhelming confidence in a free market economy. But it would be a chimera to believe that the idea of India can be sustained by a galloping economy. This much-celebrated growth is in any case fracturing the idea of India by building oases of wealth amidst a desert of want.

Destructive path

For the past few years, I have been teaching a class on India to a group of white university students who have been fascinated by the idea of India. While some of this fascination is due to romantic notions of the East, it is also largely due to a disenchantment with the soul-sapping and environmentally destructive path of development trod by the West. Little do they know that the idea of India is hurtling down the same path.

A few months ago, Beebi Lumada, an Indian ‘housemaid', was stranded at Muscat airport, having lost her passport. After five days at the airport, she turns delusional and dies of shock. Even when India plans to send a man to the moon, it could not send a man from its own embassy to help a poor woman in distress. The idea of India in the present is one which curiously does not include most Indians. It is the idea of India without the Gokul Singh Gonds and the Beebi Lumadas. Perhaps its greatest failure is to understand why people like Binayak Sen exist and why he has been incarcerated: jinhe naaz hain hind par vo kahan hain?

Dr. Nissim Mannathukkaren is Director of Graduate Programme, International Development Studies, Dalhousie University. Email: nmannathukkaren@dal.ca.

This idea of India could not but be a monstrous perversity of the one imagined by Gandhi, Nehru, Ambedkar or Bhagat Singh. In fact India of the present has no use for them or any of the fundamental ideas put forward by them: nonviolence, secularism, social justice and a classless society. Of course, the Bhagat Singhs and Gandhis do make an appearance in the present, but defanged and domesticated, completely in sync with the shining India. Watching "Rang de Basanti" and "Munna Bhai", one would be forgiven for thinking that all that they stood for was changing society through either killing politicians or magical hugs.

Awe Aerobics for the Soul

2011-03-28T23:09:00.000-07:00

Remember, how when were little, we asked those “plausible” questions: ‘Why doesn’t the moon fall out of the sky?’- ‘Why can’t we see the ghosts?’

And then, as we grew older, the growth hormone of our inner child got stunted due to the lack of ‘awe aerobics’ and we forgot to have fun.

Wouldn’t you love to relive those days when listening to ghost stories would scare the daylight out of our lives, and just flying the kite would fill us with unbridled exhilaration?

The days when we believed in Santa Claus and stayed wide awake all night, thinking about the stocking full of goodies.
Hmmm…let’s unwrap that huge bar of chocolate and drool like a kid.
If, at this moment you are wondering what I am rambling about…then perhaps I have made my point!
The point is that we have lost our sense of wonder…and have become jaded adults. Skeptical, astringent, wary, and weighty, with too much information congesting our brain. Our unending need for speed, acquisitiveness and information has killed our wacky and freaky side. We have forgotten to guffaw and gawp. To just huddle around a fire and quietly watch the snowflakes through the window pane.
To just stand and stare, as the cliché goes!

Many of us have turned into world-weary adults who have lost their sense of marvel and the penchant for simple wonders. I do not mean to turn preachy, but it disturbs me when I listen to talks circling only around work, career and acquiring material wealth.
I am not wary of any of these; all of these are essential part of a progressive world.
But I do feel that there has to be something extra in our lives, something beyond the material world. Some elusive mindfulness added to the quality of life caught in the commercial chase.

I often get varied responses when I ask people “What do you do ‘with’ yourself the whole day?” Some raise eyebrows and say, “Work of course!”
“Well, I have a home to look after, a toddler to mind and washing, cooking, housekeeping to do.’- Notwithstanding, the look they give to me that seem to say,
‘Why? Don’t you have anything to do?’

Once, I had the temerity to rephrase my question and ask “What do you ‘for’ yourself.”
Because deep down I knew that all the answers were related to duties, professional life, work, career minding etc.
The answers were –“Well I don’t know what to say.”- “I am too tired by the end of the day to think anything for myself.”
“Ah, once a year I take a holiday.”

American author, poet and naturalist Henry David Thoreau once said: “The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning and evening. It is a little stardust caught; a segment of a rainbow which I have clutched.”

The general concept of life for most people is that unless there is some substantial or material occupation, profitable employment and maybe an apparent service to society, one is not actually “doing” anything!
For such people the idea of “doing nothing” is close to sacrilege.
My point is not about turning the ‘gainful society’ into one large group of laid back people, munching peanuts by the fire with that “all must be right with the world” kind of indolent attitude, while the kitchen sink gets piled up with dirty dishes…

I feel that the “intangible and indescribable” is what makes our inner life enriched while we continue to carry on with the external life of work and duties.
How about finding few moments to look at the ‘segment of a rainbow’ and the ‘tints of morning’?

Our outer world is like a motion picture screen of events, people and things that come and go. More often than not, the outer world is so captivating that we get trapped easily and lose our sense of wonder and childlike capacity of self- indulgent joys.

My idea is about letting the heart become a maverick, dodging into the free marshes of our imaginations, allowing the soul to roam free and gaze amazedly at the gilded waters of the sea under the setting sun. The roads are not always smooth; we all get those bumpy rides while going through this journey called life. Aligning our self with Nature, by whispering to the plant, speaking to the stars or just looking the moon will insulate us to some extent, to the roughness and turbulence of our journey.

The idea of “doing nothing” is actually an art, which once mastered will make the outer world much more fascinating and worth living. In the pursuit of ambition and power we forget to stretch out in the shade and sing songs ‘for’ ourselves.
‘Doing nothing’ once in a while and just watching the world go by quietly, will help us find that peaceful centre within us that becomes the single point of sanity in all the madness that life hands out.
Whenever there is that inevitable mental, emotional or financial stress, all you have to do is to turn inwards. Gently allow the heart to slip inside the “inner resort” of tranquility, that in-built childlike resilience that we all have, but have abandoned it in the race of life.

Aside from this, make it a point to ‘do nothing’ for just one day in your life, once a month at least. Sit silent in a room, or outside, under a tree, and be very quiet. Very languid. Feel free to be lazy. Without guilt touching you, even with a barge pole. Roll on the grass; or stretch out, let the morning sun kiss your eyelids as you slip into nothingness. Or just watch the squirrels run up the tree trunk, awe-struck like a child of four.

‘Stand and stare’ is not a cliché. It is ‘awe aerobic’ for the soul.

First posted at:
http://www.odemagazine.com/blogs/readers_blog/24548/awe_aerobics_for_the_soul

Forces of Courage

2011-03-26T22:30:00.000-07:00

10 things to learn from Japan

1. THE CALM

Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.

2. THE DIGNITY

Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture.

3. THE ABILITY

The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn’t fall.

4. THE GRACE

People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.

5. THE ORDER

No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.

6. THE SACRIFICE

Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the N-reactors. How will they ever be repaid?

7. THE TENDERNESS

Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.

8. THE TRAINING

The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.

9. THE MEDIA

They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No silly reporters. Only calm reportage.

10. THE CONSCIENCE

When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly!

Courtesy: Dr. Kalim Irfani

The Ossification of Egypt

2011-01-30T22:38:00.001-08:00

By- Jonathan Schanzer

After decades of looking to Egypt to provide stability in the Middle East, Washington finds Cairo contending with an increasingly dangerous combination of ossified leadership, Islamist violence, and disaffected minorities. From the New Year’s Eve suicide bombing at a Coptic church in Alexandria to the recent shooting of a Copt on a train in the south, Egypt is witnessing an alarming rise in violence against minorities. Depending on how much goes wrong, 2011 could be a bumpy ride.
Egypt’s disenfranchised Copts, the target of the recent bombing that killed twenty-one, are one concern. In Alexandria, the New Year’s Eve hangover brought a series of clashes between regime forces and angry Copts demanding better protection and equal rights from an indifferent government. This was not a one-off, either; in November, protests erupted after the government halted construction of a Coptic church in Giza. Copts constitute 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 80 million, and we can expect them to take to the streets in the future.
But Copts remain a low priority for President Hosni Mubarak’s regime, particularly when compared to jihadists who attack non-Muslims, regime targets and tourists as a means of weakening a government they view as too cozy with the West. The worst-case scenario is a reprise of the 1990s, when al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya went on a terror spree culminating in the 1997 Luxor attack, which killed fifty-eight foreign tourists and four Egyptians, and all but suffocated tourism for years to come.
While Egyptian intelligence has successfully squeezed the old-guard jihadists, a strange new guard may be sprouting. The hitherto-unknown Islamist group Ansar al-Sunnah al-Muhamadiya now threatens the life of former International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who is pushing to change Egypt’s stagnant political system. A November fatwa charged that ElBaradei wanted “to divide us Egyptians and the prophetic words were obvious: to kill him.”
Some Egyptians think Ansar issued its decree with a nod from the Mubarak regime. After all, the government had already barred ElBaradei from running in the November elections; the fatwa was yet another warning that his reform message was unwelcome. A week later, the popular Muslim Brotherhood and secular Wafd party announced that they would boycott Egypt’s elections after a first round plagued by fraud and violence.
While Obama administration officials expressed dismay over the Egypt’s rigged polls, one WikiLeaks cable suggests Washington is more alarmed over the ossification of the Egyptian military. Egypt’s aging officers refuse to take steps to improve their military capabilities. Moreover, they still view Israel as their primary adversary, despite three decades of peace. This paranoia permeates Egyptian society. The Egyptian Bar Association blames Israel for the Coptic-church bombing, while officials alleged an Israeli plot against Egyptian tourism after shark attacks off the coast of Sinai in December. U.S. aid—slated to increase from $2.5 to $3 billion this year—has not engendered good will, but it has also failed to steel Egypt’s resolve against a nuclear Iran. Cairo has quietly expanded financial ties with Iran through the jointly owned Misr Iran Development Bank. Mubarak also warned he would seek his own nuclear weapons if Iran obtained them, prompting the U.S. ambassador to dub Egypt a “stubborn and recalcitrant ally.”
Iran, meanwhile, has reportedly established a smuggling network among the Sinai Bedouin. Cairo has tried to halt it, but Iran has the advantage. Israel’s security services reported last week that in 2010, Iran smuggled about one thousand mortar shells, hundreds of short-range rockets, and dozens of advanced antitank missiles into the Gaza Strip.
Teetering atop this mountain of challenges is the question of political transition. Mubarak, now eighty-two years old, has been president for twenty-nine years. Though he resembles a “walking sarcophagus,” as one Egyptian observer quipped, a WikiLeaks cable suggests the ailing autocrat will rule until death.
Thereafter, drama is almost a certainty. Mubarak’s forty-seven-year-old son, Gamal, wishes to accede to the throne, but Egypt’s military elite could block his succession. Depending on how much of a vacuum ensues, the Muslim Brotherhood could also make a play for the brass ring. Other contenders include Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, and Secretary-General of the Arab League Amr Moussa.
Some or even all of this mess could play out in 2011. At best, Washington will need to recalibrate the Egyptian alliance. At worst, it’ll take an overhaul.

Jonathan Schanzer is vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He is the author of Hamas vs. Fatah: The Struggle for Palestine (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), and coauthor of Palestinian Pulse: What Policymakers Can Learn From Palestinian Social Media (FDD PRESS 2010).

The Casablanca Call for Democracy and Human Rights

2011-01-28T22:13:00.000-08:00

2,200 Arab Scholars, Politicians, and Activists Issue Appeal for Human Rights
and Democracy in the Arab World

We, the signatories to this call, as politicians, intellectuals and civil society advocates, believe that the achievement of democracy and the embodiment of human rights in the Arab world is an absolute necessity and requires a broader engagement of all citizens and political and social forces. We observe, with great concern, the dramatic and alarming backsliding of political reforms in the Arab world, due to several structural obstacles since the beginning of the new century. We hereby appeal to all parties concerned with the future of democracy - governments, civil society institutions, political organizations, trade unions, and the media - in the belief that the achievement of real and effective reforms is the responsibility of all parties.

We affirm that confronting the various obstacles that continue to prevent the achievement of a peaceful transfer of power requires the following:

1- An immediate undertaking of profound and effective political reforms that respect the rule of law and institutional integrity based on the principle of separation of powers. This must be done in accordance with the principle of peoples' sovereignty, respect for human rights and freedoms, and by confirming the ballot box as the only legitimate method of achieving a peaceful transfer of power, and ensuring the transparency of the electoral process, accepting its results, and enhancing the efforts of independent monitors in accordance with international standards;

2- Protection of an independent judiciary as a top priority for democratic change, as a prerequisite for the protection of human rights and freedoms, and as the guarantor for the supremacy of the rule of law and state institutions;

3- The immediate release of all political prisoners - numbering in the thousands in various Arab prisons - and putting an end to political trials of any kind, torture of political opponents, and the practice of kidnapping;

4- Enabling and encouraging political parties and trade unions to engage in their right to organize freely, use all available media outlets, take advantage of public funding, and be free of any interference of the state apparatus in their affairs;

5- Acknowledgment of the right of civil society organizations to perform their advocacy roles freely and effectively, having their independence and privacy duly respected, their internal affairs not disrupted, and their sources of financial support kept open and active. We call upon all Arab governments to engage with civil society organizations in real a partnerships to achieve sustainable human development and to empower women and youth to take part in the development process;

6- Guarantee of freedom of expression, free access of the media and journalists to information and news sources. The respect for the independence of journalists' syndicates and allowing them to disseminate information and opinion without censorship, and undue administrative, or judicial pressures, and the abolishment of the imprisonment penalty in cases against journalists;

7- Development of mechanisms to ensure the neutrality of state institutions and their placement in the direct service of their constituents regardless of political allegiances, and without interference in the affairs of political parties and civil society organizations;

8- Mobilization of all forces and efforts to comply with good governance, political integrity and transparency, and combating corruption as an unethical social, political, and economic phenomenon that has turned administrative corruption into a system for administering corruption. We believe this undermines development efforts, drains national resources, and threatens social peace;

9- Summoning of the private sector to play its role in the contribution to political reforms, the preservation of freedoms and to strive for social justice, affirming the strong link between development and democracy, and ensuring transparency and free and fair competition;

10- Supporting efforts to achieve national reconciliation and unity and avoid the dangers that threaten unity, and feed the sectarian, religious, ethnic, and political conflicts that destabilize Arab states and societies;

11- Appealing to democratic forces in the entire world to put pressure on their own governments to refrain from supporting non-democratic regimes in the Arab world, and from adopting double standards in their relations with Arab regimes;

12- Reaffirmation of the interconnectedness of political reform with the renewal of religious thought, which requires support for, and expansion of, the practice of ijtihad in a climate of complete freedom of thought, under democratic systems of government. Furthermore, we support the dialogue that began several years ago between Islamists and secularists at the local and regional levels and emphasize the importance of continuing such endeavors in order to provide solid ground for the protection of democracy and human rights from any political or ideological setbacks.

This email was sent by info@islam-democracy.org

Blasphemy, Religious Right and Aasia Bibi

2011-01-01T19:31:00.000-08:00

Jamiatul Ulma-i- Islam( JUI) and Jamaat-i-Islami ( JI) joined by other religious combines have, of late, arrogated themselves the exclusive right to defend Islam in a country which they grudgingly opposed tooth and nail when it was being created.
Even, Otherwise JUI and JI are doctrinally sworn adversaries and would tear each other into bits and pieces if given a free hand. The blasphemy law prohibits defiling of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) by any gestures or actions and it should be like that. The only stumbling snag is how to apply it judiciously so that it does not look discriminatory and a handy tool for revenge.
The Christians, Hindus or Jews or believers of other non-Islamic religions or denominations may not have deep or even perfunctory knowledge about the teachings of Islam because they grow up in their own religious environment that imparts to them only their faith. So an uneducated woman like Aasia Bibi from a remote village would not know how sanctified the holy book Quran is or how exalted the personage of prophet of Islam is for Muslims. A Christian and Hindu may inadvertently say something, exude such gestures or commit such acts that are decreed by the Muslim religious clerics as blasphemy and sacrilege.

It is possible that he or she may not harbor mala-fide intentions or even awareness that she or he was maligning or profaning the venerated religious personages of Islam. Should such persons not be given a preliminary warning to desist from such behavior and asked to publically profess that they did not mean any sacrilege as they had not information that their actions or utterances would be blasphemous? There is also a possibility that in such sensitive cases, the reporters of the blasphemy can deliberately pass wrong and made-up information to implicate some opponent or else for the fun of it.
Now if false evidence is produced against someone out of sheer vendetta or to settle personal score, then how to sift the falsehood from the truth. The Islamic clerics and priestly class should not close their ears and shut their eyes to the loud cries of the accused that he or she has not done such a sinful thing in the first place and if he committed then he or she was not aware that it was a sacrilege and that such an abominable act would not be repeated.
If the accused repents and pledges not to repeat that reprehensible act then such a person should be forgiven. In simple words if someone has committed such desecration even knowingly and later recants and ask for forgiveness, then in the light of the Islamic principle of tolerance such a person should be pardoned.

What about those callous Muslims that target the religious processions and kill their fellow innocent Muslims in mosques and in their worshiping places? Are they not defiling and breaching the Islamic teachings and negating the message of peace given by the messenger of Islam? It is alone a rural, backward woman Aasia that has jeopardized and undermined the whole edifice of Islam prompting the Muslim clergy of Pakistan to be up in arms against her. The amendment proposed in Pakistan’s parliament was aimed at removing the shades of false allegations and to make it foolproof n order to sentence the defilers and blasphemous individuals.
There is no objection if the religious luminaries call for countrywide strikes, agitation and hold rallies against the amendment in the blasphemy laws.

But so far why these defenders of Islam have never raised their voice against the ceaseless cases of rape, murders, child molestation, plunder of national exchequer and bad governance. They even don’t blink their eyes over the lewdness of the rulers, the loathsome feudalism, the despicable sardari Nizam, the brazen toadyism of the privileged classes for the foreign masters, the brutal system of tribalism, the savage terrorism, the monsters of unemployment, the unchecked adulteration and shortage of food and medicines, the colossal environmental filth and degradation.
They seldom held rallies against the rampant lawlessness, The bad roads, the ugly traffic, the stifling shortage of power and water, the deformed justice system, the corrupt and incompetent police system, bribery-ridden bureaucracy and similar countless issues that have crippled the progress and driven the people to the brink of miseries and abyss.
They don’t highlight the corruption and loot of the ruling cabal and the rip off by the parliamentarians, the army generals, the mercantile classes and self indulgent and greedy politicians.
It is worth recalling that way back in 1977; late ZA Bhutto had to face a similar bizarre and harrowing situation. Then the religious outfits of all shades bandied together under the slogan of Niazm-e-Mustafa. As a result of their tenacious and full throttled campaigning in tandem with the support from the army, the disgruntled politicians, the foreign powers, the Bhutto government fell.
Instead of the promised Niazam-e.Mustafa, an oppressive, bigoted Military dictatorship was imposed on Pakistan, the ruinous consequences of which this hapless country is still suffering from. These religious zealots and Islamic rabble rousers saw in the garb of the ruthless military dictator Ziaul Haq another Salahuddin Ayubi and a Marde Momin (a devout Muslim).
But factually this Mard-e- momin inflicted irreparable harm on the pristine last message of God than any heathen could have done. One should recall that those who launched that movement for revival of a system of Khilafat-I- Rashida were the forerunners of the present lot of JUI and JI. Are these people up to creating a similar mayhem in Pakistan? Are they the sole arbiters of dispensing and dictating Islam to the rest of the population that is more sincere and ardent Muslims than these acrobats? So it seems to be an action replay of 1977 religious movement. These religious stalwarts are spoilers of the stability and peace in Pakistan by using the ploy of religion.
If the government wants to make the blasphemy act more rational and reasonable so that innocent do not suffers because of the wrong, insufficient or trumped up evidence, then these upholders of Islam should rather welcome that. Such an amendment would remove some of the anomalies that render this most sacred and needed law as partisan or extreme. Moderation is the essence of Islam and any interpretation of law should be hammered out collectively by the parliament in consultation with the Islamic ideology Council in order to make it consistent with the real Islamic jurisprudence.
To be a good Muslim, let Islam should rule the minds and hearts of the Muslim faithful. Unfortunately there is uncompromising emphasis on practicing symbols and rituals. There has always remained a wide gulf between what we profess and what we do. Our religious leaders suffer from chronic symptoms of hypocrisy. They have failed to demonstrate themselves as models of Islam by personal pious conduct and strength of character.
Allama Iqbal has apportioned a part of his poetry in repudiating and denouncing the Mullah’s Islam which he has termed as a “recipe for division, dissention and chaos among the Muslims.”

Secularism is not the antithesis of any religion. It merely stands for the religious freedom that we find in many Islamic countries such as in Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, UAE and Jordan and Lebanon.

-By Saeed Qureshi.

(The writer is a Dallas-based freelance journalist and a former diplomat writing mostly on International Affairs with specific focus on Pakistan and the United States)

Book Review- Being Muslim-

2010-10-13T03:47:00.000-07:00

The ill-fated event of 9/11 where thousands of innocent persons had lost their life is the most unfortunate incident that could happen to Islamic world. It changed the world’s view of Islam and in some cases strengthened the doubts and apprehensions surrounding this faith.
The world got caught in an increasingly strong grip of “Islamophobia”, and Muslims found themselves beleaguered and persecuted all over America and rest of the continent.
This slim and succinctly written book by Haroon Siddiqui, is aimed at being an eye opener in the world of uncertainties and misgivings regarding Islam, and explains what ‘Being Muslim’ means in today’s’ hysterical times.

About ‘Being Muslim’, some say that it is a complete white wash on Muslim behaviour, and that Siddiqui has tried to justify the Muslim behaviour, while overstating the world’s narrow viewpoint about Islam.
Most of the critics say that Muslims have been too sensitive to attacks on their faith and their attitude is that of besieged followers, misguided by overstatements.
Nevertheless, Siddiqui’s book is an upfront attempt to dispel some of the injudicious allusions that ‘being’ a Muslim entails for a Muslim.

Since Siddiqui has served as the most revered editor of ‘‘The Toronto Star’, a Canadian Newspaper, and is also the past president of PEN, Canada, he has been vocal about many issues pertaining to Muslim faith and the world’s view about it. Being an Indo-Canadian, and having lived for many years in US, Siddiqui has been open to the elements, of how after 9/11 the world of a Muslim is suddenly finding itself vulnerable to many speculations regarding its credibility as a peace-loving citizen.

As a crusader of human rights in an age of terrorism and as an advocate of anti-war campaign he has called for the recognition of Cold war sates such as Macedonia and Ukraine.
He edited the editorial page of Indo-Canadian Newspaper, ‘Toronto Star Canada’, and also served as its foreign affairs analyst. The writing of ‘Being Muslim’ is one of those crusading acts to which he is accustomed, throughout his journalistic and writing career.
Without being apologetic or proselytizing about the Muslim world, this book is objective in its approach and is written without any superfluities or subjective empathy. Due to his rebellious columns in the rather notorious Star, he is often labeled as an overbearing and intimidating man. But he speaks out for Muslims with a single-minded clarity and forthrightness.
He writes this book in his characteristic outspoken style, taking up the cudgels, to fight the popular myths, though in the past he has faced much hostility for his outspoken views and has also been labeled as a “Third World Apologist”.

‘Being Muslim’ is full of information about the true doctrines of Islam and is easy to read due to its lucid and simple language. The book is targeted at children14 years, upwards and it indicates that perhaps Siddiqui is catching them young, and making them conscientious towards their religion.
He has not approached this book as a scholar of Islam, but has reported facts, bare facts; challenging the conjectures surrounding this absolutely careworn faith, with clear picture of Islamic theories.

Siddiqui doesn’t talk about Islamic history much in this book (though he does engage in the history briefly to provide adequate background for the readers to relate to the topic) and stays loyal to the current hysteria of mistrust, which is ailing the Muslims and Islam.
He writes about every controversial issues such as: Terrorism, Jihad, Hijab, War, Polygamy, Prophets Mohammed’s many wives, honor killing, female circumcision, Sharia, stoning, status and oppression of Muslim women etc. that is picked up as topic of discussions and censure regarding the image of Islam.
He also realized that Muslims are mostly responsible for the charges that they are facing in the world’s opinion of their religion. When he speaks about fanaticism he speaks to the Muslim disintegration and ghettoes mentality. He condemns both the Muslims and the Non-Muslims who have such obscurity in their beliefs about this religion.

One of the favorite topics of the world at large is the oppression of women in Islam. This book takes a look at the issues of Hijab, and the implied suppression of women by their men. Siddiqui feels that just as many other fallacies surrounding Islam, one that stands out most is the idea of women’s inferiority in Islam and the proof used to support this notion is the veil, called purdah, or hijab that most Muslim women wear, which is often seen as a sign of suppression.

There are about three million Muslim women in the United States, and they are not the archetypal oppressed women confined to home and hearth. They are highly educated professionals, lawyers, University teachers, software developers and Doctors, who have chosen to wear the veil out of their own free will. In clearing the miasma surrounding this piece of cloth, Siddiqui is contesting the prototype image of Islam and Muslim women in his book, ‘Being Muslim’, enforcing the fact that Quran in fact promotes personal freedom and education for women, and emphasizes the importance of being economically secured.

Siddiqui suggests that hijab is a power statement and symbol of modesty, as Quran says; and not of subjugation.

This book by Haroon Siddiqui is like a detailed style of candor.

Haroon Siddiqui is editorial page editor emeritus and columnist for The Toronto Star, Canada’s largest newspaper, and a director of International PEN. He’s the author of Being Muslim(Groundwood Books, 2006), which deconstructs post-9/11 politics. He was named in 2002 to the Order of Canada, the nation’s highest civilian honour, for helping to redefine the national narrative.

Ayodhya Verdict: Musings of a Now Hardened Agnostic Yoginder Sikand

2010-10-01T11:12:00.001-07:00

As neither a Hindu nor a Muslim, but, rather, now a hardened agnostic who suspects there is an invisible force behind the universe but is fully distrustful of all religions, I could not be bothered in the least if a temple or a mosque or a profane structure—or, indeed, nothing at all—is now to occupy the disputed spot in Ayodhya.

As far as I know, the force that I want to believe exists and pervades the entire universe and beyond is supremely indifferent to who the new owners of the contested spot are to be. This force knows no distinction of religion, caste, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, and so on and so forth.
For all I care, you can smear your head with ash and fall flat in front of the toy-like idols that now stand on the disputed spot and mumble mantras in incomprehensible Sanskrit, or you can don a skull-cap and bend and bow while muttering phrases in Arabic of which you understand not a word if the mosque that once stood on the spot is reconstructed. The universal force I sort of suspect exists is, I know, supremely unaffected by what you do on that measly bit of earth.

That said, I must confess that the judgment of the Allahabad High Court on the Ayodhya imbroglio struck me as deeply disturbing, to put it very mildly. Numerous critics have argued that the Court appears to have accepted the claims of Hindus who share the RSS vision of the world as normative and historically valid, and to have been guided by these possibly wholly untenable claims in making whatever decision it did. That this logic bodes ill for the future of secular democracy in India is a complete understatement.
As a friend of mine, a fellow agnostic, brilliantly expressing my own reaction to the judgment, quipped, ‘Are we now to be governed by Hindu shariah?’

At the same time, however, I must also confess my immense relief at the Court turning down the claims of the Sunni Waqf Board, not because I believe that the Board’s stance is wholly without any merit at all, but, rather, simply because had the Court favoured the Board (which is what many of my Muslim friends had rather naively expected) it would certainly have provoked Hindu hordes into unleashing yet another massive reign of terror against hapless Muslims all across the country. Had the Board been declared as the rightful owners of the contested site, rebuilding the Babri Masjid, which is what the Board has been demanding all along, would inevitably have had to entail demolishing the make-shift temple that was hurriedly set up on its ruins in 1992. And that would certainly have been at once pounced upon by Hindu fanatics as an excuse to whip up anti-Muslim violence on a scale hitherto completely unprecedented.

This is why I think the move on the part of some Muslim outfits (who never tire of falsely claiming to represent all the Muslims of India—this being as horrendous a lie as the Hindutvawadis’ claim that they speak for all Hindus)—to approach the Supreme Court for redress is, I believe, sheer idiocy.
Supposing the Supreme Court overturns the Allahabad High Court’s ruling and decides that ownership of the contested space in Ayodhya be granted entirely to the Sunni Waqf Board, as the Board hopes it will.
What then? Is it at all conceivable that the Board can actually begin building a mosque on the disputed spot, even if this—miraculously, for there can be no other way—does not involve tearing down the make-shift temple that presently stands there? The spot, the mullahs and the other ignoramuses in the Board and the Babri Masjid Action Committee must surely know, is not somewhere on the outskirts of Mecca-Medina or in the hills of Tora-Bora in Afghanistan, where the task could have been easily accomplished and no opposition would have been brooked.
I dare say that not a single of the self-styled Muslim leaders spearheading the movement for rebuilding the Babri mosque would, for all their foolhardy, rabble-rousing rhetoric, be so bold as to venture even a hundred miles from Ayodhya leading a team of zealous ‘mujahideen’ to restore the mosque even if the Supreme Court were to rule in the Board’s favour. Not one of them would, I bet, are so eager for martyrdom. The tryst with houris that they believe are promised to shaheeds can wait for a bit more, I am sure they feel.

To come back to the High Court’s judgment, although, as I said, I find it, to put it mildly, disappointing in a very fundamental sense and cannot help disagree with the logic that informs it, its recommendation that the contested space be shared by Hindus and Muslims (although disproportionately) is, I must admit, hugely compelling and entirely welcome—simply for the symbolism of it.
I have absolutely no idea as to how the two are going to arrange for this to actually happen. I suspect this will not be at all easy, particularly given the Hindutva fanatics’ dreams of constructing what they repeatedly term as a ‘ really grand temple’ on the spot, a prospect that would not exactly inspire Muslims with confidence to build, and worship in, a mosque in its shadow. But, anyhow, as far as I am concerned, as I said at the outset, while some Hindus and Muslims will continue to believe that occupying that particular piece of ground in Ayodhya and knocking their heads on it in prayer is of immense, indeed cosmic, significance, I am confident that the force that pervades everything knows otherwise.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Yoginder Sikand works with the Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion at the National Law School, Bangalore

What is the exact meaning of “mosque?” (and “temple” and “church” while we’re at it)

2010-09-25T23:56:00.000-07:00

Debate is easy, and yelling is easier. How often, however, do people examine their most basic knowledge?
Right now, the proposed construction of an Islamic worship center in relative proximity to “Ground Zero” in Manhattan is a nexus of conflict and emotion.
The missing ingredient is definition.

Let’s examine basic terms, starting with mosque.
All the variants of “mosque” in European languages go back to the Arabic masjid, “a place of worship.” But masjid derives from the Arabic sajada, “to bow down in prayer.”
Dig into the origins of “Muslim” and “Islam” and a common theme emerges: both words relate to the Arabicaslama, “to accept, surrender, or submit.”

“Church” comes from the Greek kyriake, “the Lord’s house,” with kyrios meaning “ruler” andoikia “house.”
Temple is based on the Latin templum, “a piece of ground marked or cut off for worship.” Temno in Ancient Greek is the first person verb form “I cut.”

After investigating all three terms, we are struck by a distinction between mosque and the other two terms for places of worship. Whereas the words temple and church have a fairly broad meaning and origin, mosque has a quite specific meaning. The name of the faith (Islam) the name of a member (Muslim) and the name of the place of worship (mosque) all relate directly to its main tenet, submission to God.
A possible explanation for this consistency is the unique history of Islam in relation to the two earlier abrahamitic faiths, Judaism and Christianity. Islam incorporates a specific response to Judaism and Christianity and actually includes figures such as Moses and Jesus. Also, compared to the other monotheistic religions, the texts of Islam have a clearer history of attribution, allowing for greater consistency in the terminology and expression of its concepts.

To conclude and bring our look at the Ground Zero mosque controversy full circle, let’s focus on the phrase “Ground Zero.” Before the term came to refer to the area of former World Trade Center towers, it already resonated with destruction and loss. Here are two definitions:
1.The point on the surface of the earth or water directly below, directly above, or at which an atomic or hydrogen bomb explodes.
2.Informal. The very beginning or most elementary level.
How does this information affect your reaction to Ground Zero mosque dilemma? If you have any other questions that can help bring insight to the discussion, let us know.

Source: dictionary.com

VIEW: Stoning to death -Ishtiaq Ahmed

2010-09-14T05:50:00.000-07:00

The task in hand for modern Muslims is to separate the spiritual, moral and ethical message of Islam from penal laws reflecting the sensibilities of tribal society of the seventh century

Stoning to death is practised as a routine punishment for adultery in Iran and Saudi Arabia. When the Taliban ruled in Afghanistan, they too imposed it with a relish and did it with the same enthusiasm in their enclaves called Islamic emirates when they ruled in some pockets of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Swat valley.

There is no doubt that the origin of this barbaric punishment is the Old Testament of the Jews. The Jewish Torah prescribes it for a host of other offences as well. It is not mentioned in the Quran. However, all the five schools of Islamic jurisprudence — Hanafi, Shafai, Maliki and Hanbali of the Sunnis and the Ja’afri of the Shias prescribe it for adultery. On this point of law, there is complete unanimity of opinion. I believe the Khawarji school of thought adheres to it as well.

How does one explain this unanimity of opinion of all historical schools of thought and schools of jurisprudence of Muslims when it is not a law derived directly from some explicit injunction in the Quran? The reply of the traditionalists and fundamentalists would be that rajam or stoning adulterers is based on the sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH) to which all his pious successors adhered. Therefore, it becomes a part of the Islamic legal system and practice because the sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH) is the second major source of shariah.

However, in the modern period, a host of objections have been raised against stoning of adulterers, most notably by the Ahl-e-Quran school of thought. The Ahl-e-Quran argue that if the origin of an Islamic law cannot be traced to the Quran, it is not an Islamic law. The Ahl-e-Quran do not, in principle, reject the authority of sunnah, but insist that nothing can be called Islamic law unless it is categorically mentioned in the Quran. Proceeding on such an assumption, the Ahl-e-Quran deny that stoning was practised during the time of the Prophet (PBUH) and his pious successors. They allege that it came into existence during the time of the Abbasids (750-1258), when most of the hadith literature was compiled and declared authoritative. From the Ahl-e-Quran point of view, hadith literature is not authoritative and binding if there is no direct back up for it in the Quran.

There is no doubt that a considerable portion of the hadith literature is of questionable authenticity, and indeed during the Abbasid period many innovations came into being that were perhaps not present during the time of the Prophet (PBUH) and the Khulafa-e-Rashideen (Rightly Guided Successors). However, that is no foolproof argument that existing practices in the seventh century Arabia were not continued by the Muslims even if they were not mentioned in the Quran.

Let us take the religious law and practice requiring all Muslim males to be circumcised. I would very much welcome some Ahl-e-Quran protagonist showing me where it is mentioned in the Quran. The fact is that it is not mentioned anywhere in the Quran. I doubt if the Ahl-e-Quran do not adhere to circumcision on grounds that it is not mentioned in the Quran.

It is no doubt based on Jewish law and practice, which the Muslims adopted along with many other laws and practices of the Jews, Christians and pagan Arabs. More examples can be given of Muslims incorporating practices from the Jews, Christians and pagan Arabs into their legal practice and social rules. There is nothing surprising about this. Laws reflect the conditions and culture of the society in which they are formulated.

Let me turn to another major flaw in the Ahl-e-Quran mode of reasoning. The most pervasive crime against women is rape. I would challenge any Ahl-e-Quran debater to show me if it is mentioned anywhere in the Quran. It is not. The hudood laws refer to adultery based on the assumption that two married individuals voluntarily have illicit sexual intercourse, and fornication, which is illicit sexual relations between unmarried individuals. There is absolutely no concept of rape as a crime in which an unwilling individual is subjected to sexual intercourse by one or more individuals. The later jurists did innovate and introduced the notion of zina-bil-jabr and since then rape is recognised as a crime. Previously, it did not exist even as a concept.

The problem, however, is not whether stoning to death is genuinely Islamic or not and if it is mentioned in the Quran then and then only it becomes an Islamic law. Rather the much bigger moral and philosophical question is the following: can barbaric laws of any kind be justified in the modern period? Would it be appropriate to chop off the hand of a thief or the leg and arm of a robber or to lash fornicating individuals simply because such punishments are mentioned in the Quran? The Jewish Torah has set forth the most extensive list of barbaric punishments, but modern Jews have abolished them. The Christian West has its own history of barbaric punishments, but they too abandoned them. Suttee, or wife-burning, is prohibited in India though it does take place once in a while. The task in hand for modern Muslims is to separate the spiritual, moral and ethical message of Islam from penal laws reflecting the sensibilities of tribal society of the seventh century.

The well-known English journalist Robert Fisk has presented a detailed investigative report, ‘The crimewave that shames the world’ in The Independent, September 7, 2010, about so-called honour killings. Not surprisingly, the highest incidence of such crimes is in the Muslim world, though even some non-Muslim Middle Eastern minorities and Hindus in India practise it. What I found particularly shocking was that after murdering a daughter or sister, a Muslim culprit can walk away scot-free because the Islamic law of qisas (retaliation) allows heirs to pardon the criminal. Thus, other family members can pardon the offender. All such relics of barbarism have to be done away with. Already in the 19th century, Maulvi Chiragh Ali wrote that the Quran is not a book of law. Justice Munir has also advanced similar arguments. Privately, most of the educated Muslims I talk to agree with me that hudood laws, blasphemy laws and many other such laws are anachronisms that have no place in the 21st century. More such voices need to be heard in the public space.

The writer is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Stockholm University. He is also Honorary Senior Fellow of the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. He can be reached at billumian@gmail.com

Jelaluddin Rumi-The Sufi Saint

2010-09-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

"I am the servant of the Qur’an
While I am still alive.
I am the dust on the path of Muhammad,
the Chosen One."

(Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi)

"Those who swear allegiance to thee, do but swear allegiance to Allah. The hand of Allah is above their hands, so whoever violates his oath, he violates it only to his own injury. And whoever fulfills his covenant with Allah, Allah will grant him a great reward. (Qur’an 48:10)"

Sufism is the heart of Islam and that heart is full of love.
A sufi is called a fakir--someone who owns nothing, not even himself.
But in reality, he owns everything, and nothing and no one in this world owns him.

The way starts with knowledge. Under the protection of knowledge you grow to be a gentle, kind and beautiful being, as all were created to be. Then your Lord loves you, and you love Him. And whoever loves his Lord, all and everything loves him."

"Come, sweep out the chamber of your heart,
make it ready to be the home of the Beloved.
Only when your self-love leaves it,
will the Beloved enter it.
In you, without you,
He will display His beauties for all to see."

(Mahmud Shabistari)

***With Thanks from Doctor Kirfani.

Sufism

2010-08-26T00:19:00.000-07:00

Sufism is not different from the mysticism of all religions. Mysticism comes from Adam (God's peace be upon him), of monks, of hermits, and of Muhammad (God's peace be upon him). A river passes through many countries and each claims it for its own. But there is only one river.

Truth does not change. People change. People try to possess truth and keep it for themselves, keep it from others. But you cannot own the truth.

The path of Sufism is the elimination of any intermediaries between the individual and God. The goal is to act as an extension, not to be a barrier.

To be a dervish is to serve and to help others, not just to sit and pray. To be a real dervish is to lift up those who have fallen, to wipe the tears of the suffering, to caress the friendless and the orphaned.

Different people have different capacities. Some can help with their hands, others with their tongue, others with their prayers, and others with their wealth.

You can get there by yourself, but that is the hard way. Our personal goals all lead to the same end. There is only one truth. But why deny the thousands of years of experience found in religion? There is real wisdom available from so many years of seeking and trial and error.

A great mistake is to have only half a religion. That keeps you from real faith. It is a terrible mistake. Seeing someone who is only half a doctor is terribly dangerous. Someone who is half a ruler is a tyrant.

Many struggle in the maze of religion and religious differences. They are like dogs fighting over a bone, seeking their own selfish interests. The solution is to remember that there is only one Creator, who provides for all of us. The more we remember the One, the less the fighting....

God has said, "I, who cannot be contained in all the universes upon universes, fit into the heart of the believer." Now God does not actually fit into human hearts. God cannot be limited to a place. God's expressions fit into all people's hearts. We are not "part" of God, because God is indivisible. Humanity is God's creation. God's expression in our hearts is that we are God's regents, God's representatives. We are the expression, the visible example of God. And so, God's Mercy is expressed through the thoughts and actions of one person, God's Compassion through another, God's Generosity through another.

There is the essence of God and there are the attributes of God. The essence is impossible for us to understand. We can begin to understand the attributes. In fact, part of a Sufi education is to understand those attributes in yourself.

God has said, "My servants will find Me as they see Me." This does not mean if you think of god as a tree or as a mountain that God will be that tree or mountain. If you think of God as merciful, or loving, or as angry or vengeful, that is how you will find God.

It is permissible in Sufism to talk about all of God's attributes. Finally, the Sufi reaches the stage of submission, and then ceases to ask questions.

There is electricity everywhere, but if you have only three light bulbs, all you will see is those three bulbs. You have to be conscious of yourself. That is the beginning and the extent of it. Only by knowledge of yourself will you understand certain attributes. The connection to the attributes is through self-understanding. Outwardly you will find nothing.

All of creation is God's manifestation. But, as some parts of the earth receive more light than others, some people receive more light. The prophets received the most Divine light. Besides quantity there is quality. There is the question of what attributes are being manifested. Some people are manifestations of different Divine attributes. The prophets manifest all of the Divine attributes. The moon reflects the light of the sun. The sun is Truth; the moon is each prophet.

The essence of God is love and the Sufi path is a path of love. It is very difficult to describe love in words. It is like trying to describe honey to someone who has never tasted or even seen honey, who doesn't know what honey is.

Love is to see what is good and beautiful in everything. It is to learn from everything, to see the gifts of God and the generosity of God in everything. It is to be thankful for all God's bounties.

This is the first step on the road to the love of God. This is just a seed of love. In time, the seed will grow and become a tree and bear fruit. Then, whoever tastes of that fruit will know what real love is. It will be difficult for those who have tasted to tell of it to those who did not.

Love is a special pleasurable pain. Whoever has this in their heart will know the secret. They will see that everything is Truth, and that everything leads to Truth. There is nothing but Truth. In the realization of that they will be overcome. They will sink into the sea of Truth.

Whatever you taste of love, in whatever manner, in whatever degree -- it is a tiny part of Divine Love. Love between men and women is also a part of that Divine Love. But sometimes the beloved becomes a curtain between love and realization of true love. One day that curtain will lift and then the real Beloved, the real goal will appear in all Divine glory.

What is important is to have this feeling of love in your heart in whatever form and shape. It is also important that you be loved. It is easier to love than to be the beloved. If you have been in love you will certainly reach the Beloved one day.

The gifts of God often come to you from the hands of other human beings, through God's servants. And so, Divine love also expresses itself between human beings.

The sheikhs are the pourers of the wine and the dervish is the glass. Love is the wine. By the hand of the wine pourer, the glass -- the dervish -- is filled. This is the long way. Love could be offered to one by other hands. This is the short way.

Excerpts from: http://www.sufism.org/society/index.html

Image:www.ikhwanweb.com

A Muslim victim of 9/11: Build your mosque somewhere else

2010-08-08T23:07:00.000-07:00

Build your mosque somewhere else
By-Neda Bolourchi

I have no grave site to visit, no place to bring my mother her favorite yellow flowers, no spot where I can hold my weary heart close to her. All I have is Ground Zero.

On the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, I watched as terrorists slammed United Flight 175 into the South Tower of the World Trade Center, 18 minutes after their accomplices on another hijacked plane hit the North Tower. My mother was on the flight. I witnessed her murder on live television. I still cannot fully comprehend those images. In that moment, I died as well. I carry a hole in my heart that will never be filled.

From the first memorial ceremonies I attended at Ground Zero, I have always been moved by the site; it means something to be close to where my mother may be buried, it brings some peace. That is why the prospect of a mosque near Ground Zero -- or a church or a synagogue or any religious or nationalistic monument or symbol -- troubles me.

I was born in pre-revolutionary Iran. My family led a largely secular existence -- I did not attend a religious school, I never wore a headscarf -- but for us, as for anyone there, Islam was part of our heritage, our culture, our entire lives. Though I have nothing but contempt for the fanaticism that propelled the terrorists to carry out their murderous attacks on Sept. 11, I still have great respect for the faith. Yet, I worry that the construction of the Cordoba House Islamic cultural center near the World Trade Center site would not promote tolerance or understanding; I fear it would become a symbol of victory for militant Muslims around the world.

When I am asked about the people who murdered my mother, I try to hold back my anger. I try to have a more spiritual perspective. I tell myself that perhaps what happened was meant to happen -- that it was my mother's destiny to perish this way. I try to take solace in the notion that her death has forced a much-needed conversation and reevaluation of the role of religion in the Muslim community, of the duties and obligations that the faith imposes and of its impact on the non-Muslim world.

But a mosque near Ground Zero will not move this conversation forward. There were many mosques in the United States before Sept. 11; their mere existence did not bring cross-cultural understanding. The proposed center in New York may be heralded as a peace offering -- may genuinely seek to focus on "promoting integration, tolerance of difference and community cohesion through arts and culture," as its Web site declares -- but I fear that over time, it will cultivate a fundamentalist version of the Muslim faith, embracing those who share such beliefs and hating those who do not.

The Sept. 11 attacks were the product of a hateful ideology that the perpetrators were willing to die for. They believed that all non-Muslims are infidels and that the duty of Muslims is to renounce them. I am not a theologian, but I know that the men who killed my mother carried this message in their hearts and minds. Obedient and dutiful soldiers, they marched toward their promised rewards in heaven with utter disregard for the value of the human beings they killed.

I know Ground Zero is not mine alone; I must share this sanctuary with tourists, politicians, anyone who chooses to come, whatever their motivations or intentions. But a mosque nearby -- even a proposed one -- is already transforming the site from a sacred ground for reflection, so desperately needed by the families who lost loved ones, to a battleground for religious and political ideologies. So many people from different nationalities and religions were killed that day. This site should be a neutral place for all to come in peace and remember. I believe my mother would have thought so as well.

The Iranian revolution compelled my family to flee to America when I was 12 years old. Yet, just over two decades later, the militant version of our faith caught up with us on a September morning. I still identify as a Muslim. When you are born into a Muslim family, there is no way around it, no choices available: You are Muslim. I am not ashamed of my faith, but I am ashamed of what is done in its name.

On the day I left Ground Zero shortly after the tragedy, I felt that I was abandoning my mother. It was like being forced to leave the bedside of a loved one who is dying, knowing you will never see her again. But I felt the love and respect of all those around me there, and it reassured me that she was being left in good hands. Since I cannot visit New York as often as I would like, I at least want to know that my mother can rest in peace.

I do not like harboring resentment or anger, but I do not want the death of my mother -- my best friend, my hero, my strength, my love -- to become even more politicized than it already is. To the supporters of this new Islamic cultural center, I must ask: Build your ideological monument somewhere else, far from my mother's grave, and let her rest.

Neda Bolourchi lives in Los Angeles

Image: mhbt-pk.com

The tradition of Ghazal in Indian vocal music

2010-07-30T21:48:00.001-07:00

Ghazal is originally the Persian form of poetry and was originated in Iran in 10th century A.D. It grew from the Persian Qasida (meaning songs of praise), which was a panegyric written in praise of the emperor or his noblemen to later deal with the whole spectrum of human experience; though its central concern is love. Ghazal is an Arabic word, which literally means ‘talking to a woman’. Since woman is most poets’ muse and the topic of conversation is love, love with its complexity of emotions, notwithstanding the plaintive tone of unrequited desires, became the dominant theme of Ghazal.

The 18th and 19th century may be regarded as the golden period of the Urdu Ghazal, for it was during this time that the Ghazal developed and attained its high stature. This mode of poetry is also famously set to vocal music in multiple variations, including, semi classical, folk and pop forms of music.

Despite the fact that there has been a noticeable decline in the percentage of people who know the Urdu language in India, there is no dearth of Ghazal lovers here. On the contrary it has gained a considerable recognition over the recent years.

There has been a remarkable revival of interest in Ghazal, with the unmistakable rise of Indo-Pak singers performing on television and even at live concerts in India. The cultural gathering of such events and the music CDs are hugely popular, despite the barrier of language for those who are not well versed in Urdu and Persian.
Anyhow, since music speaks a universal language, nowhere is it more evident than at the musical concerts or a Mushaira ,where you could catch the Ghazal enthusiasts unfamiliar with the Urdu script, eagerly jot down their favourite verses in the language they know well, so that they could return to the experience and understand the renditions at their full import at leisure.

It is surprising to note that two decades ago Ghazal was considered the domain of older generations. Ghulam Ali , Mehdi Hasan, Farida Khanam and not to forget the ultimate Ghazal queen Begum Akhtar were the singers who sang for the retired persons and the old school gentlemen/ladies who would diligently attend Mushairas (poetry recitation) while their kids boogied to Rock and Pop at discotheques. With the progress of time and cultural globalization Ghazal is understood and accepted by the young along with the old. Inevitably, the hard rock, heavy metal and pop are still there- but a certain enjoyment has crept in the ongoing tradition of Ghazal in Indian vocal music for the young listeners too and they are not just tolerating it but listening with interest.

In India, Ghazal became popularized by Urdu language and gave birth to the talents of eminent poets like Mir Taqi Mir, Mirza Ghalib, Zauq, Sauda, Momin, Daagh Dehlvi and many more. Though these poets used generous sprinkling of Persian, Farsi and Arabic words in their poetry, their work is used freely in the vocal singing by the famous Ghazal singers of India and Pakistan such as, Jagjit Singh, Pankaj Udhas, Gulam Ali, Mehdi Hasan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Abida Parveen.
Due to the popularity of these musicians, the influence of Ghazal has spread fast, notwithstanding the dearth of Urdu-knowing people in India.

However, there are many other Indian languages such as Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Sindhi and Kashmiri that have espoused the Ghazal in their music due to its aphoristic and quotable quality.

In the 70’s when Begum Akhtar’s ‘Aye muhabbat tere anjam pe rona aya’ (the end of love makes me weep) resonated in our house, I used to wonder where exactly is the magic that my Dad eulogizes about? I found her singing boring, melancholic and almost morbid in her cries of unrequited love. But with this new tradition of Ghazal infused in the modern music, her voice and rendition has received a fresh lease of interest. I recently listened to her tracks and was truly impressed with the underlying tenderness in her famous husky voice. Whenever you mention Ghazal, Begum Akhtar stands synonymous with this tradition.

Recently, in the late 90’s when Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan sang the soulful ‘husne jaana ki taarif mumkin nahin’ (impossible it is to describe the beauty of my beloved) every young boy wanted to sing it for the object of his desire, even though the song is replete with many Urdu and Farsi words.

Many people, young and old alike, love listening to Abida Parveen, though her renditions are mainly about divine love and the Sufi form of music. Most of her lyrics are by the well known Urdu poets mentioned above and their works have got elevated from the yellowed pages of old books to become popularized with the generic crowd, posthumously by the sheer force of her stunning voice and beautiful music.
Ghazal is a source of aesthetic and intellectual delight, and with its accompanying insight into the human mind, this poetic form has become a popular tradition in Indian vocal music.
And finally, since Ghazal deals primarily with passion and love, which is exempted of barriers such as age, caste or class, it faces no threat of losing its strong appeal.

Also posted at:
http://www.indianmusiclovers.com/2010/07/30/the-tradition-of-ghazal-in-indian-vocal-music/
by Nazia Mallick
.

Save Sakineh

2010-07-15T23:06:00.000-07:00

Last week, an Iranian woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, was saved by global protests from being stoned to death.

But she may still be hanged -- and, meanwhile, execution by stoning continues. Right now fifteen more people are on death row awaiting stoning in which victims are buried up to their necks in the ground and then large rocks are thrown at their heads.

The partial reprieve of Sakineh, triggered by the call from her children for international pressure to save her life, has shown that if enough of us come together and voice our horror, we may be able to save her life, and stop stoning once and for all.
Sign the urgent petition now and send it on to everyone you know -- let's end this cruel slaughter NOW!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_stoning/?vl

Sakineh was convicted of adultery, like all the other 12 women and one of the men awaiting stoning. But her children and lawyer say she is innocent and that she did not get a fair trial -- they state her confession was forced from her and, speaking only Azerbaijani, she did not understand what was being asked of her in court.

Despite Iran's signing of a UN convention that requires the death penalty only be used for the "most serious crimes" and despite the Iranian Parliament passing a law banning stoning last year, stoning for adultery continues.

Sakineh's lawyer says the Iranian government "is afraid of Iranian public reaction and international attention" to the stoning cases. And after Turkey and Britain's Foreign Ministers spoke out against Sakineh's sentence, it was suspended.

Sakineh's brave children are leading the international campaign to save their mother and stop stoning. Massive international condemnation now could finally stop this sickening punishment. Let's join together today across the world to end this brutality. Sign the petition to save Sakineh and end stoning here:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_stoning/?vl

***Avaaz.org is a 5.5-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 13 countries on 4 continents and operates in 14 languages. Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns here, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

**To contact Avaaz, write at : www.avaaz.org/en/contact.

*"I have signed the petition. I strongly condemn this brutality against humanity and human rights."

Nazia Mallick.

Image: gocphobinhyen.com

How to find boredom's antidote

2010-07-10T03:31:00.000-07:00

Upon the windowsill of my kitchen, a rectangular patch of sunshine appears everyday.
It falls there for a particular time and drifts away when the sun changes its position on the sky. Everyday I watch the play of sunbeams and this makes me wonder, ‘why doesn’t nature get bored with the same routine everyday? Such as this patch of sunshine that arrives at the same time at the same spot, plays with my plants and moves on to shower its glory on something else.’

Have you wondered why?
The sun never says that it is bored of coming out from the east and would like to appear from the west today, or not appear at all. This is because in nature everything follows a consistent and rhythmic cycle, which is essential for maintaining regulation in the cosmos. It is just we, the human beings with all our erroneous ways, who confess to feeling bored.

It is believed that confessing to boredom means we have no inner resources. Probably, we also lack imagination because a person who is in tune with their special inner resources would never become uninterested in life. They would be too busy pursuing their art, hobbies, talent or just imagination to fall back upon, even when they would have no outer source of entertainment available to them.

Some of the social evils like, drug abuse, alcoholism, sexual addiction and even crimes are born out of boredom. In extreme cases, people even commit suicide.

We have heard the phrase-‘Boredom kills.’ But, is there a way to kill boredom?
There is. All we have to do is to salvage that little bit of us that is not bored and use it to gently charm the rest of ‘us’ back into the stream of life.

What exactly is boredom? How does it feel?

Boredom makes us feel low in energy, as if our will to get into any kind of action has been drained away and we feel unable to bring it back. For some people boredom feels as if they are in a wasteland. Everything appears colourless and dull. The body feels sluggish, the creativity begins to dissipate and thoughts become monotonous.

In harsher terms, to feel bored is a condemnation of our self.

However, it is essential that we distinguish between a genuine reaction towards something that is dull, dreary and mind numbing, and a feeling of being pressed down under a mantle of emptiness, either due to fatigue or because we have too much idle hours at disposal. The latter is the alarming situation that calls for quick solutions- not the intermittent occasions when we have to attend a family function, where we have only grandma’s friends for company and insipid food.

What is the opposite state of boredom?

The Greeks have a name for this high-energy state. It is called eros. Though this term is generally synonymous with sexual passion and there is a reason for it. Tell me, when you feel that intense attraction and the overwhelming feelings of passion towards someone, could you be feeling bored as well? Obviously not.
Thus, eros could be the polar opposite to boredom, which means connection with the energy of life. And not just in sexual terms.

In psychological vocabulary boredom is akin to apathy, which is the general lack of desire or feelings. When the boredom sets in, we lose touch with what we really feel.
Many therapists realize during sessions with the apparently depressed clients who complain about lack of enthusiasm or aspiration in their life (it doesn’t apply to those with serious depressive disorders) that they are actually suffering from mild apathy that leads to severe boredom, if left untreated.

Most of the times things become boring or dull when we begin to think that we are way beyond things, but haven’t quite moved on yet.
Here is an example: Jiya is a small town girl who has lived a major part of her life insulated from the sophisticated and developed world outside. Within the walls of her house she has lived a restrained life. One day in her life she gets a chance to explore the world beyond her geographical parameters and strict cultural definitions, and she is dazed, fascinated, perplexed- yet very excited.
But the exposure to the tinsel world lasts for a brief period and she come back to the protected walls of her small town home. She realizes what she had been missing in life so far and the things that made her happy earlier, gradually begin to lose their charm.
She longs for that glitzy world outside and the wisps of those pleasures that she had remembered to store inside her mind, tug secretly at her heart.
Hers is the situation what Leo Tolstoy had once spoken about- “boredom is the desire for desires.” Since Jiya couldn’t meet those desires she starts feeling bored with her present life. Did it happen to you lately or at some point of time?

Boredom also occurs when we deny or limit ourselves. The disappointment festers inside due to suppression and turns into boredom later on.

How to cope with boredom?

These are two things that would help you break the cycle of boredom:
· Understand the root cause. Is it your job, domestic situation, relationship or your own fears that is causing lethargy and dullness?
· Stop to introspect and do some inner work. Once the cause is known the cure become easier.

Boredom is basically being uninterested in oneself. Try to do things that boost your self-esteem. Such as:
·Being useful to someone (the smile on their face would make you feel good about yourself)
·Finding a new hobby (clichéd but very effective)
·Doing something for your own self, purely for selfish reasons and personal pleasure (but remember the 7 deadly sins don’t come under this category).

However, the above-mentioned things require effort and motion and boredom creates inertia. Thus, the biggest challenge about boredom is to break this inertia.

In order to begin with the inner work, it is essential to make a list of all your limiting habits:

·Are you suppressing any long held desire?
·Are you in conflict with any of your personal values?
·Have you felt especially bored or angry while reading this article?
·Could you relate this to something you might not want to acknowledge?

Boredom feels like it is about our present situation, which is blocked. But in reality it is the memory of past or unnecessary worry about future that is the underlying problem.
Sure there must be loads of regrets in the past and things could feel wrong, very wrong at present, due to which future also looks bleak; but is that all that is happening in your life?
Make a list again. This time of all the things that is going right. You would be shocked to see how long or rich it actually is.

Sometimes we just need to work upon shedding our infantile desire to have everything our way and we will see that life turns around for the better with this decision.
We learn to appreciate consistency and stick to things with a stable mind and calmer heart.
Remember, true antidote to boredom is commitment. This commitment could be to anything you like or love in your life- yourself, your child, a business, a creative work, a garden, or just the resolve to live life in the present, with all its uncertainties, despair and hope.
And since there is no magic formula to take you instantly to that state of being, the best possible way is to bring the changes in your attitude step by step, keeping in consideration some of the above mentioned points.

Photo by Samael Trip via flickr.

First posted at :
http://www.odemagazine.com/blogs/readers_blog/16990/how_to_find_boredom_s_antidote

The Business of Love

2010-06-29T05:22:00.000-07:00

“Life doesn’t give you the people you WANT; instead it gives you the ones you NEED: to teach you, to hurt you, to love you- to make you exactly the way you should be ”

When we find someone we feel we can connect to in some ways, we are filled with indefinable, rather vague expectations regarding that person. These expectations remain deep inside our sub consciousness, despite our apparent denial.
No matter how much we argue with ourselves that we are just testing waters, see where this new link takes us, and that we are not expecting anything at this point of time; expectations do creep during such exchanges.
The expectations that we involuntarily impose on another, due to our predetermined values. The expectation of what might follow, with a sense of eagerness and inscrutability, just the way we feel when we bring home a new book or watch a mystery film on the screen.

Secretly, we are also in a hurry to uncover the other person, like those times when one quickly reads the end of a book to know the conclusion. Perhaps there is no such harm when we do it with a book, but in the beginning of a relationship that is so detrimental. Unless we are one of those who read blurbs and the last chapter and tell the world that we have read the book;
The truth remains that we can never be the real reader unless we read it page by page.
Writing a review of a book without actually reading it is considered unethical. In the same way the book of love must be read slowly and reflectively to understand its various meaning between the lines, before we gear towards writing reviews.

Sadly, most of us are in a rush. Not knowing that interpersonal relationships vary in their degree of self-disclosure, feedback, power and respect. They vary in the extent to which people can change, question or challenge each other.
Relationships also vary in the degree to which both intimacy and sharing occur. Implying the discovery or establishment of common ground overtime, is a premature belief. A lapse that often causes damage to the budding ties.

The most common thing that happens in relationships is projection.
We like to begin with the idea/ thought that our lover shares many common traits with us. We go overboard in imagining ourselves as ‘true soul mates’ and that we were ‘made for each other’. This belief is so strong that we begin to project into them ideals that are more positive than negative.
We have been nurturing the dreams of similarity so much that when certain characteristics of the partner begin to challenge us, friction starts to develop because of perceived differences. The other person appears not to support our values and that creates disappointments and sometimes we even feel cheated in the relationship.
We fail to realize that the partner was having these dissimilarities and similarities from the very beginning and in our infatuated state we were amplifying the similarities and their significance and overlooking the inevitable dissimilarities.

When we pin someone down to a little idea, a small rule or a need, which we have, then we take away the real beauty of that person. The true beauty doesn’t arise from a rule or an idea; it arises when we just let the information stream in.

From infatuation to love, it is an arduous journey. Most relationships never cross the first stage and leave us with resentments about our partners and sometimes we are bitter with ourselves too, as we feel that we have been gullible so far. Sometimes we even feel that we have been deliberately misled by our partner and begin to punish them with anger, distance and blame.

We forget that relationships are not construed like business plans in which you have to measure it, to manage it. In business plans it becomes imperative to define expectations in terms of targets, standards and competitive requirements. But it is not viable in relationships.
Close relationships lose their essence when we try to define it too rationally.

Unlike business plans we don’t have contingency plans for a love relationship.
If it fails, it fails absolutely, because the terms and conditions of relationships are not so well defined. It is amorphous in nature and thus remains inexplicable most of the times.
The ambiguities in a slowly forming relationship are also relative to individual dynamics of the persons involved.Most of this ambiguity is understood with heart and not cold reasoning.

The only assurance to save ourselves from such painful repetitions is the decision we make, to give each other chance, time, and benefit of doubts along with clear understandings of our own values and acceptance of our partner's values.

‘True love’ and ‘ideal relationships’ then become a reality and not unattainable dreams; as we often begin to feel after repetitive failures.

There is a Greek saying, which says: “ Infatuation is an exaggeration of similarities, Resentment is an exaggeration of differences. Love is equally embracing the both.”

First published at:www.odemagazine.com/nazia
Image courtesy : photobucket.com

Who Are Moderate Muslims?

2010-06-25T23:25:00.000-07:00

In the past many Muslims were reluctant to describe themselves as being 'moderate' for fear they might be wrongly suspected of being weak in their faith. With the rise of radicalism and extremism in Islam as manifested by Al Qaeda and the Talibans, as well as the growth of ultra-conservative movements such as the Tablighi Jamaat and the Jamiat-e-Islami, it becomes necessary for us to define the parameters of what we mean when we refer to 'moderate Muslims'. Other designations such as 'liberal Muslims' or 'progressive Muslims' are, for the purpose of this discussion, considered to have the same connotations as 'moderate Muslims’.

Moderate Muslims are not a monolithic group, and many moderate Muslims will not have all the characteristics described below. But there are certain characteristics that distinguish moderate Muslims. They tend to keep religion in a private space and do not make a public display of their faith. Religion for them has a place in their lives, but it is not their whole existence. They reason things out and think for themselves, rather than depend on advice from books or from fatwas.They are guided by the spirit and ethos of the Quran. They base their thinking and behaviour on the fundamental tenets of Islam, namely the supremacy of the one and only God, His requirement that we live righteous lives and His holding us accountable for our actions. They revere Prophet Muhammad as well as Prophets Abraham, Moses and Jesus.

The values that are most meaningful to them in pursuit of a virtuous life are also derived from the Quran, namely equality, justice, tolerance, compromise, compassion and rationality.However they are not obsessed by rites, rituals and regimentation. Religion is important to them for spiritual sustenance and guidance but it does not dominate their lives. They participate fully and energetically in the rough and tumble, the competitiveness and the rat race of the temporal world. They strive to succeed in their educational and career goals, to provide well for their families' spiritual and material needs and to make their rightful contribution to the community they live in.

Moderate Muslims generally support major reforms in Sharia laws, reforms which conform to basic Quranic principles of fairness, justice, equality, compassion, common sense and human dignity, but which are also consonant with contemporaneous mores and realities.

Moderate Muslims are not likely to be supporters of burqa or niqab. Regarding some strange fatwas issued recently by some seminarians, part of the problem, in the eyes of some moderates, lies with the fact that the system puts a vast range of issues under the purview of religion, which is defined not just as a "mazhab" or religion, but as a "deen" or way of life. The focus of religion should be on spiritual and moral matters. Issues of daily living and societal affairs such as dress, appearance, diet, personal laws, working conditions, banking, political systems etc should be governed by secular or laic norms even though they will be influenced by one's traditions.In areas of public affairs, moderate Muslims support democracy and secularism. They highly value freedom of speech.

They abhor blasphemy laws, apostasy laws and heresy laws. They strongly support human rights and minority rights. They are often strong critics of the abridgement of minority rights in Muslim majority countries, e.g. the rights of non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia or of Ahmadis in Pakistan or of Tamils in Malaysia.

They have strong nationalistic allegiance to the country they live in, irrespective of whether the country is a Muslim-majority country or not.
The "Ummah" for them is an informal and nominal interconnectedness of world Muslims, characterized by empathy rather than by any tangible bonds or obligations. They do not subscribe to the idea of a future world caliphate.
They do not consider 'jihad' or holy war to be a possibility in this day and age when Islam is not threatened and Muslims are not persecuted because of their religion. Any hatred of or threats to non-believers or 'kafirs' is unacceptable to moderate Muslims who believe in peaceful co-existence with people of other faiths. Moderate Muslims shun extremism in religion as well as in politics, they condemn all acts of terrorism, condemn killing of innocent civilians, and consider suicide bombers to be mortal sinners. They do not believe bizarre conspiracy theories with regard to either 9/11, 26/11 or any similar catastrophic event.

For moderate Muslims, 'Ijtihad' (innovation) is an important tool for change.
It allows independent reasoning to reinterpret and expand on Islamic law. Ijtihad is essential to keep Islam in the vanguard of world religions.Among recent and current leaders and writers, a moderate Muslim would be averse to the teachings of Maulana Maududi, Sayyid Qutb or Zakir Naik. He is more likely to favor the writings of Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, Maulana Waris Mazhari, Chandra Muzaffar, Sultan Shahin, Ziauddin Sardar and Javed Anand.

A moderate Muslim feels comfortable and at home in a pluralistic or multi-ethnic society, and can enjoy rewarding social and collegial relations with Hindus, Christians, Jews, atheists and others.
He is able to respect the beliefs of others and does not feel the need to argue that his faith is superior to those of others.
He is able to listen with interest to the views of others. He can expound on his own beliefs with clarity and without obscurantism.

The traditional Muslim teaching is that there is only one Islam and any division of Muslims into orthodox and moderates is invalid. But there are distinct differences between the attitudes and lifestyles of the orthodox and the moderates and we should take cognisance of that fact. People in both groups should be comfortable with their own beliefs and should be able to draw sustenance from the like-minded others in their own group. But above all they should not hurl insults at members of the other group. If we cannot respect each other, we should at least tolerate each other since we do have to co-exist.

By-Ghulam Mohiyuddin, a retired physician of Indian origin.

Picture-photobucket.com

Protect your personal boundaries. Love without fear.

2010-06-18T06:34:00.000-07:00

We all value ourselves. Sometimes we don’t. Relationships are an integral part of our well being, but there are times when unknowingly we allow close relationships to impinge upon who we truly are. Love is a thing of splendor, true, but sometimes even the closest relationships could go askew and stifle us, and that is when we need to examine closely. Are we really letting ourselves go, in a literal way? Is this love or relationship adding to my value, or taking away something from my valued self?
Often there are times when we find ourselves in a Hamlet like situation “to be or not to be” read, ‘to give in or not to give in’ to some of the demands our partner makes on our inner resources.

There are times when we stop to take a look at the dilemma, fail to deny some unjust demands that are inevitably a part of close relationships and are made quite often on our inner resources.

There is: Fear: ‘I hope he/she hasn’t realized how much I care for them.’
Or ‘I am afraid of losing her/him now she/he has come to mean so much to me.’
Hope: ‘I hope this relationship will come to something…I hope the other person loves me back or it will be pretty bleak.’
Anxiety: ‘Does he/she love me?’
Pride: ‘ I must be careful not to show how much I love this person or I will be humiliated if I am refused.’

All these above-mentioned apprehensions are intrusive to who we really are. In order to save ourselves from such emotional self-abuse we must realize how valuable we are to our own self before stepping forward to be valued by another.
When we love we often take a whole lot of trash from our loved ones, something that we shouldn’t ever. Our relationship has to be an extension of our true self. If it isn’t, then what we are doing is insulting ourselves and one day or the other it would leaves us feeling bitter and empty.

Life coach Dan O’ Neil observes, “A relationship is something we undertake as an expression of ourselves, the sum of the expression is greater than we can make ourselves. When the relationship no longer serves this purpose, then it is time to bid it farewell with love and move on…Love has no needs, wants or desires, it simply is.”

The phrase “love simply is” is brief and self-explanatory.

I believe that submission and sacrifice, which most of us are guilty of doing in the name of love is okay as long as it is mutual, respected and returned. When it turns abusive that is when we find ourselves sweeping our self-esteem from the floor everyday, it is time to stop. Put up a resistance. Draw a line.
In brief, don’t let love oppress you. Bully you. Abuse you. Use you.

It helps to beware of some these unhealthy signs that may obstruct your personal boundaries and leave you feeling embittered:

·Going against personal values or rights just to please your partner.

·Letting your partner define you. For example, ‘you are nothing but…’ kind of definitions.

·Giving as much as you can for the sake of giving.

·Taking as much as you can for the sake of taking.

·Letting your partner direct your life and your emotions. Becoming an emotional slave.

·Letting your partner describe your reality. For example, ‘You know what you are?’ kind of accusations.

·Falling in love with anyone who reaches out. Watch out. You might be vulnerable to falling in love too soon.

·Falling in love with new acquaintances. Love takes time. Period. Everything else is fairy tale.

·Believing your partner can anticipate your needs. Sulking if they don’t.

·Not noticing when your partner invades your boundary. For example, demanding to know everything. Asking too many personal questions. Suspecting your integrity.

·Being sexual for your partner, not yourself. This might create a vicious cycle of undermining your true needs.

·Telling all. This doesn’t entail hiding something substantial from your partner or being dishonest. It is about keeping some part of yourself only with you. Only you.

·Not noticing when your partner displays inappropriate boundaries: Checking your private mails, handbags, and personal belongings.

·Expecting your partner to fulfill your needs automatically. You have to ask. Speak out. Express your desires truthfully.

·When you and your partner is playing mind games. Ego clashes. Defensiveness. Hurting back.

·Withholding love and slipping into cold silences. This comes under dishonesty in a relationship.

·Falling apart so that your partner will take care of you. Don’t turn them into a Shrink. Your partner is not the human equivalent of a trampoline, guaranteed to offer a safe landing and bounce you back up whenever you are down.

Begin to live in partnership with your self, and your mate, as two complete individual who share intimacy with an interconnectedness that belongs to each one of you separately, because “It takes two halves to make a whole but two wholes to make one relationship that has half a chance”.

First posted at Ode magazine:
http://www.odemagazine.com/blogs/readers_blog/14433/love_without_fear_ways_to_protect_your_personal_boundaries

Ustad Bismillah Khan Saheb-The Indian Piper

2010-04-19T01:38:00.000-07:00

Hindustani Music is the classical style of Indian music and is a tradition that has been evolving from the 12th century A.D. to this day.

The tradition of Indian classical music was born out of a cultural synthesis of several musical streams such as the ‘Vedic chant’, a custom dating back to thousands of years ago and the Persian tradition of Musiqui -e-assil, in which Musiqui (music) and assil (original) are combined to literally mean as ‘ The Original Music’.
This tradition of music is also a classic example of religious and ethical harmony, where no borders of caste or creed divide the artists. Both the South Indian and the North Indian style of classical music are the pride of Indian music culture and in both the styles there has been and still are artists who have reached the pinnacle of success, taking this genre of music to glorious heights.

While talking of Hindustani Shastriya Sangeet many great names come to mind such as Pandit Ravi Shankar, Bhimsen Joshi and Balmuralikrihsna to name a few.
One such name that is almost a household name for the lovers of Hindustani classical music is Ustad Bismillah Khan Sahib.

Born on March 21, 1916 in Dumrao (Bihar) Ustad Bismillah Khan, also known as the Shehnai Maestro, ruled the Indian Classical scene for more than eight decades and was famous all over the world for his exceptional musical talent of playing the Shehnai. It would not be an exaggeration to say that his name is almost synonymous with Shehnai.

It was Ustad Bismillah Khan who took the Shehnai, a humble pipe like musical instrument that was earlier only played in the wedding bands, to a superior stature and recognition. This particular instrument gained exceptional popularity when he played it in the All India Musical conference at Calcutta in 1937. Without doubt, Ustad Bismillah Khan has a monopoly over the Shehnai. He turned the Shehnai into an evocative instrument, capable of moving even the most discerning audiences.

Though born in a Muslim family and holding the faith of a pious Muslim, he did not restrict himself to the confines of religious boundaries. He was a devotee of Goddess Saraswati, the Hindu Goddess of wisdom and art and often played Shehnai at Hindu temples, especially the famous Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi, situated at the banks of the river Ganga.

His Shehnai Vadan cast a spell on the listeners and even today when the records of his Shehnai are played, those who have watched him play could easily conjure the image of Ustad Bismillah Khan, the irresistible pied piper with twinkling eyes and a winsome grin, holding his beloved instrument to his lips and playing to his heart’s content.
Ustad Bismillah Khan was not just a soloist who played his favourite musical instrument with marked flawlessness. He also took part in many jugalbandis (duets with two solo musicians) with many other top instrumentalists and it was no mean feat in a tradition that so prizes soloists.
In 2001, he was also awarded with the Bharat Ratna , which is the highest civilian honour in India. He had the rare honour to play on the eve of Independence Day at the Red Fort in 1947. He also performed on India’s first Republic Day celebration on 26th January 1950. In fact, India’s national television network Doordarshan still plays Ustad Bismillah Khan’s Shehnai every year on 15th August, when India celebrates the Independence Day.

Like many artists who are devoted to music and consider music as their religion, Ustad Bismillah Khan was an extremely secular person. He not just believed that music has no caste but throughout his life he also worked on spreading the message of communal peace and harmony through his music. He was a messenger of Hindu Muslim unity and like a true connoisseur made it known to the world that for him his music is the only religion he believed in.

He once had an argument with a maulana (Islamic scholar) from Iran. The maulana told him that in Islam music is considered evil and that Ustad is guilty of doing blasphemy by indulging in music and falling into the devil’s trap. To which Ustad Bismillah Khan replied with his characteristic forthrightness, “ Maulana, all I ask is that you be fair.” Then he started singing and when he finished he asked if this sounded like blasphemy to the maulana. Needless to say that the maulana was speechless. Ustad later elaborated that all he did in front of the maulana was to take Allah’s name in raag bhairav and that in his eyes was not wrong. Raag Bhairav, as the entire clan of classical music aficionado would know, is a raag that according to Hindu mythology emanated from Lord Shiva’s face. By singing Allah’s name in this raag, the Ustad was driving the point of communal harmony to the radical maulana.

When Ustad Bismillah Khan died of cardiac arrest on 21st August 2006, his body was buried along with his Shehnai in Fatemain burial ground of old Varanasi under a Neem tree, with 21 gun salutes from the Indian army.

Today’s young generation may not have much familiarity with Ustad Bismillah Khan the great Shehnai player, but it is musicians like him who have nurtured the true heritage of Indian music and have taken Hindustani Classical Music to international repute. Ustad Bismillah Khan is easily one of the pioneers of 20th century Hindustani music.

We must salute the spirit and message of musicians like these on whom the true musical culture of India thrives.
Let’s always remember Ustad’s message to the world:

“ Even if the world ends, the music will still survive.”

Also posted at: http://www.indianmusiclovers.com/2010/04/18/ustad-bismillah-khan-%E2%80%93-a-pioneer-in-hindustani-classical-music/

What you don't know about Muslims

2010-04-17T23:33:00.000-07:00

"We define our faith in our own ways, no matter what Western media and Middle Eastern mullahs tell us"
-Tasneem Jamal

By Recent articles throughout the media, including Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper, imply that Islam is an inherently violent religion. It must be true, they insist, because some Muslims carry out violence in its name. I’m not going to defend Islam here. It really needs no defending. A religion that is 1,300 years old and practiced by some 2 billion people around the world has withstood greater foes than these poorly informed journalists, columnists and letter writers.
Many North Americans, I fear, think they know a Muslim when they see one. Muslims have names like Mohammed; the men have Taliban-like beards and the women are draped in burkas. I am a Muslim woman but I am not shrouded in mystery or yards of fabric. Like many Muslims who quietly go about living their lives, I’m simply trying to ensure that the world my child lives in is safe and kind, that I have a roof over my head and food on the table and some fun once in a while.
Many Muslims like myself live and work right next to unsuspecting people in Canada and other Western nations. As a matter of fact, I work on The Globe and Mail’s news desk. (I’m one of those invisible hands at the newspaper who catches typos and writes headlines and lays out pages.)
--I don’t pull out my prayer mat at work. I don’t own one.
--I don’t pray five times a day. My relationship with my creator, with my faith, is personal and private.
--Like many Christians and Jews and Hindus, I go to my place of worship for funerals, weddings and the big holidays.
--Like many Christians and Jews and Hindus who only occasionally practise their faith, I believe I have the right to call myself a Muslim, not a moderate Muslim or a good Muslim, just a Muslim. Islam is a part of who I am, a part of what I come from. It does not define me, just as my race does not define me.
It is my religion. That’s all. I don’t wear a burka. No one in the history of my family ever has. No women in my family wear hijab. None of the men have long beards. All of the young men, in fact, are clean-shaven in the fashion of most young Canadian men. Some have names like Mohammed; many don’t.
My family, like the majority of Muslims, is not Arab. It is not even Middle Eastern.
Like most members of my family, including my parents, I drink alcohol. (My father couldn’t imagine inviting someone to his home without finding out beforehand what his or her tipple is.) I go to bars. I wear my hair short, as my mother has most of her life. I wear bikinis and tank tops and short skirts, as my mother did in her time.

We are not heretics or infidels. We are Muslims.

I live with a man, a non-Muslim man, out of wedlock. We recently had a child together. My parents and my community did not disown me as a result. In fact, only days ago my child had a bayat ceremony, a baptism-like entry into Islam. Her father and I wanted to give her a gift, not a Quran or future lessons in Arabic (I don’t know Arabic), but a much greater gift: perspective.
Because she will grow up in a predominantly Judeo-Christian society, we want her to know there are different—not better or worse, but different—ways of looking at the world, different ways of expressing its spirit and its beauty. Perspective is something that is sorely lacking in a society so ready to vilify an entire religion it knows precious little about.
Not all Muslim women are oppressed; not all Muslims go to Mecca once in their lives; and not all Muslims are violent. How absurd it feels that I have to explain this. But because of a gross vacuum of knowledge about Islam in this country (as some writers unwittingly proved in their written assaults on Islam), it must be stated, and stated often.
Neither a Globe and Mail columnist nor the Taliban nor Osama bin Laden gets to define what a Muslim is. As a Muslim, I get to define it for myself.

This is not a battle cry. It is my truth.

Tasneem Jamal is an editor at The Globe and Mail, published in Toronto. This article is reprinted with kind permission from the August 6, 2006 edition of the paper.

photo-http://picturesofmosques.blogspot.com

The Vanishing act of Esme Lennox

2010-04-09T23:04:00.000-07:00

Another book after Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, that entranced my mind, rather hit me hard.
It took me a while to absorb the horrors of this elegantly written novel. A story that seems as implausible as it is heartbreaking in its reality.
This is the story of Esme Lennox, a fiercely intelligent, unconventional and independent girl who is completely edited from the family history after one tragic act, until rediscovered by her great niece, after 60 years.
Set in 1930s, the story of Esme Lennox is inspired by the time when British children in India were separated from their colonial parents to travel to England, in order to escape from the deadly diseases of India. They were brought up by their ayahs and servants and often ended up being lonely and traumatised.
Esme Lennox had witnessed her Indian ayah Jamila and her kid brother Hugo’s death when she was a little girl, and the memories would not leave her. She grows up to be a complex and difficult child. She is quiet, aloof, suffers from occasional hallucinations and is increasingly disliked by her mother.
When sent off to ball dances that were traditionally to find a husband for herself, she would escape to a corner and read a book. James, the suitor who was supposedly her sister Kitty’s fiancé, starts liking Esme and much to her mother’s chagrin begins to spend more time with her.
At one of such dances, Esme goes through a terrible experience, and is brought home allegedly drunk. The distress of the incident triggers a hysterical reaction in her, and the family Physician declares her mad.
At 16 Esme is transported to an asylum by her family, and she spends more than 60 years of her life there.
Fright, distress, awfulness and dreadfulness are not the words that can describe the trauma of a sane person living more than half of their life in a mental asylum.
Esme is rescued by her great niece Iris and is brought home. The same home from where she was sent to the asylum.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox is a finely demonstrated novel by Maggie O’Farrell where rape, lunacy, murder, torture, hypocrisy and violent sex are narrated with a subtle and delicate touch.
Must be picked up at any cost, to experience a mesmerising book, which throws light on the shadow side of human psyche.

Muslim women could be the key to ending extremism

2010-03-30T19:49:00.000-07:00

Cambridge, Mass. – Over the past decade, Western media have repeatedly portrayed images of Muslim women as victims. We have read about the Taliban publicly beating young
women who laugh in the street; we have read about the targeted killings of professional Iraqi women – doctors, journalists, lawyers – who represent an opposing view to an extremist agenda. Americans have so often seen Muslim women as silent victims that they probably conjure picturesque images of shapeless and silent figures in bright blue burqas as synonymous with “Muslim women.”

To be sure, they are among the victims. But as the United States works with Afghan locals to develop policy, it must consider this: In order to responsibly promote democracy and support human rights within countries working toward reform, women must be included in making policy decisions.

Women are some of the greatest advocates for progressive, anti extremist agendas and to ignore their solutions would be an unfortunate mistake. If policymakers were able to identify and address the barriers to women’s participation in matters of public discourse, they would soon be able to open a new space for moderate voices.

It’s not as though women haven’t been trying to participate in such dialogue:

The Afghan Women’s Network called on NATO to include Afghan women’s perspectives in provincial reconstruction team activities in Afghanistan back in 2007.

They pointed out that women’s right to physical security and participation was being undermined, if not all together violated, because the reconstruction teams were not specifically taking women into account. International policymakers were missing out on reconstruction opportunity by not providing women the additional protection and resources they needed to travel safely to the provincial-level government meetings. Because their right to physical security was not addressed, they were unable to participate in important decision making bodies and the ideas that they could have brought to the table – thoughtful suggestions on how to fight extremism based on their own experiences – was lost.

A hallmark of women's groups, like the Afghan Women's Network, is that their thinking on the fight against extremism is strategic and long-term. Their recommendations put forward solutions that would strengthen the US and NATO forces on the ground. They have emphasized the inclusion of gender advisers, and strengthened institutional memory in reconstruction teams to create a record of what works and what fails in conflict situation like Afghanistan.

Critics will argue that culture and human rights are two different values in conflict – they will say that a liberated woman is a Western value. Others will say that we need to win the war against extremists first, and then we will address women’s issues. But if the women themselves are working hard to be heard, then that argument falls apart.

More than 200 Muslim women leaders met at the Women’s Islamic Initiative for Spirituality and Equality (WIISE) conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, last summer to discuss the underrepresentation of women. WIISE launched the Global Muslim Women’s Shura Council, an all-women’s council that will promote women’s rights within an Islamic framework.

If such work was supported internationally, women could put their effort into solving unrest in the region.

For example, WIISE has begun training Muslim women as jurists who can offer valid legal opinions and interpret religious texts on issues such as women’s equality. By training women who have the authority to provide religious interpretation they are creating a new pool of thought leaders.

When women can offer new interpretations of religious texts such as the Koran, it allows for the emergence of moderate voices and views within Muslim society.

In most cases, giving a public voice to Muslim women’s opinions is giving voice to anti extremist perspectives on Islam. Educating women to be jurists, or supporting their participation in political decision making, would not only act as leaven in societies where their ideas have traditionally been repressed, it would provide the space to help others actively challenge extremism.

If the US really wants to support Afghanistan, it should start by acting as the Afghan Women’s Network suggests and implement the policies and human rights agreements which the US has already signed, such as United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, throughout US security operations by making women equal players at all levels.

Another way to support that would be to increase the use of US female troops in the already existing Female Engagement Teams (whose mission is to engage with local Afghan women) in Afghanistan and to mobilize them consistently. That type of modeling of respect for women and show of empowerment, would dramatically improve the US ability to build positive relations with both male and female community members, and through that improve US chances at creating a more stable environment in general.

We know that Muslim women’s rights agendas vary from country to country, from conflict zone to repressive regimes. Their problems are not monolithic and require solutions appropriate to their own particular Islamic cultural, political, and social context. Policymakers working on the development and direction of funds in places like Afghanistan should draw on these women’s experience, dedication, and knowledge to increase our combined ability to come up with appropriate, culturally sensitive, and long lasting solutions to combat extremist agendas.

By- Sahana Dharmapuri.
www.csmonitor.com

photo courtesy- flickr.

Abida Parveen- The Sufi Queen.

2010-03-24T23:38:00.000-07:00

"Romanticism is God, another name for purity. It can be love towards a child, a mother, a sister, a father, whoever you see love in. In fact, the banda - the seeker - and Khuda -God-are one; it is just that they seem as two entities. And even a moment of that realization of ecstasy is enough. Once you have experienced it you will never drift away." Says Abida.

Abida Parveen, as we all know is an exceptional singer of Sufi music and is universally renowned for her Sufiyana Kalaam. Kalaam meaning ‘Talk’ in Urdu language, and in Sufi language it is generally used in the spiritual context, such as talking with God, and Sufiyana means ‘the Sufi style.’

She is loved and appreciated by young and old alike. That is perhaps one of the best parts of her singing. Her voice and her music appeals even to the young generation fed and brought up on the so-called Pop culture.
She is an international icon of Sufi music due to the sheer power of her expressive voice that touches the listeners’ emotions and reaches them on a visceral level. Even those who do not understand a word of the lyrics, find themselves tapping their feet on the rendition of her songs.

Abida sings in Persian, Punjabi, Urdu, Sindhi and Seraiki languages. She is greatly influenced by Murshid Sahebzada Mohammad Najeeb Sultan whom she considers her spiritual master, and with whom she has taken a Bay’ah (to belong completely to a spiritual master). Bay’ah is a Sufi/Islamic tradition where one takes an oath to offer oneself completely to the service of the spiritual master/guru. Many consider it as selling oneself to the master.
In December 2009 she has dedicated an album Rukh-e-Murshid as a tribute to her spiritual master Mohammad Najeeb Sultan.

Although Abida is associated most closely with the verses of the Sufi saint Shah Abdul Latif, she has also sung the verses of other Sufi saints, including Amir Khusrau, Bulleh Shah, Sachal Sarmast, Sultan Bahu, and others such as Kabir and Waris Shah.

Her genre includes:

Kafi- derived from an Arabic word Kafa which means group. Kafi is a classical form of Sufi poetry mostly in Punjabi , Sindhi and Seraiki languages. Kafi poetry is mostly themed around great romantic tales from folklore.

Ghazal- in Urdu language, Ghazal means ‘Praise of the beloved’. Often sung for the beauty of a woman and in agony of separation from the loved one. The Ghazal originated in Iran in 10th century A.D. It grew from the Persian Qasida, which again means ‘an ode to the beauty of the beloved.’ In Abida’s songs the beauty is often praised in the context of spiritual love .

Qawwali- is Sufi devotional music. It is a musical tradition that has been popular since last 700 years. It is sung very loudly and forcefully and often the lyrics contain praise for the Saints, Auliya and the Prophet.

With due respect to many other Sufi singers, I believe that Abida Parveen is the ultimate in Sufi singing. Her voice has a total breathtaking effect even when you can’t decipher the verses. Her mystical voice and the transcendental style of rendering the awe-inspiring poetry mesmerize you completely especially if you watch her performing live.

She makes you believe in the divinity of her obsession, when she moves her body to an fro, flicking her disheveled curly hair and sings: Yaar ko hamne ja ba ja dekha , kahin zahir kahin chchupa dekha . Kahin mumkin hua, kahin wajib, kahin fani kahin baqa dekha…
“I saw the beloved everywhere. Visible somewhere, and somewhere hidden. Somewhere possible, somewhere essential. The beloved annihilated and at the same time completed me.”

I can easily say that her voice forms a personal relationship with whoever listens to her. In an odd and deep way it pulls you from the crowd and you feel instantly connected with her, as if she is singing only for you!

I think that some of the credit goes to Muzzaffar Ali for promoting this genre of music since last ten years or so. By organizing the cultural platform “Jahane Khusro” every year in New Delhi, he has evoked and rekindled the passion and provided an essential visibility to Sufi music that was earlier quite disorganized and obscure in its attempt at reaching the common audience.

Abida’s album Raqse-Bismil (dance of the wounded) was first released in October 2000, and Abida’s voice and style were made popular by the lovely tracks that almost every music lover wanted to keep in their possession.

Posted at: http://www.indianmusiclovers.com/2010/03/23/abida-parveen-the-sufi-queen/

A time to humanise Islam-Ishtiaq Ahmed

2010-03-02T18:19:00.000-08:00

The barbaric, appalling beheading of Jaspal Singh — one of the three Sikhs who were taken hostage by the Taliban — has shocked decent, peace-loving people all over the world. Two versions are in circulation. One that their families failed to pay the huge ransom that the Taliban thugs had demanded; two, that the ransom was paid but the Taliban insisted that the Sikhs convert to Islam, which they refused. In both cases there is absolutely no justification for the savage treatment meted out to Jaspal Singh.

Many Sikhs, totally shattered by what has happened, have written to me to find out if this is Islam. They even wondered why we keep talking of Islam as a religion of peace. I must say I have run out of arguments but would still like to believe that Islam can also develop its humanism like all other cultures or religions have been compelled to consider by the march of time. I will come to this issue later but first a few words about Muslim attitudes and reactions are in place.

It is important to stress that Sikhs and Hindus had been living among the Pakhtuns in peace and harmony all these years until the Taliban gained ascendancy in Afghan politics and later also in the tribal belt and some other parts of the NWFP. Except for the murderous rioting of 1947, the overwhelming evidence from undivided Punjab was that the religious communities lived in peace and mutual toleration if not exactly total acceptance because of all the dogma involved. Therefore, we do have evidence to suggest that rivers of blood did not start running as soon as Islam came into contact with other religions.

However, there is something terribly inhuman about contemporary Muslim attitudes. There is a screaming silence from the custodians of Islam — the ulema — on the execution of Jaspal Singh, probably because he was not a Muslim. The Muslim masses have not taken to the streets in protest because they have been conditioned to protest only when something is perceived to be anti-Islam. Let some European draw a cartoon of the Prophet (PBUH) and see how we demonstrate our street power and mob fury.
However, even when Muslims kill Muslims, the ulema and the masses usually keep quiet unless someone in their own sub-sect or family is hurt. I do not remember any demonstrations in Pakistan or anywhere else in the Muslim world when Iran and Iraq waged a war against each other in the 1980s, which killed some 1.5 million boys and men. Beheadings and stoning to death are a regular occurrence in Saudi Arabia, in fact every Friday, I am told. Those given such savage treatment are Muslims from poor countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Somalia or non-Muslim workers from anywhere from Asia or Africa. Raping female servants, confiscating the papers of servants, paying them little or no wages are practices common to the larger Arab world of rich Emirates. I have never heard the Saudis or any Emirate regime execute any white man or woman, nay, even withhold their salaries that are always many times more than paid to qualified Muslims from the poorer countries. If they do, Uncle Sam knows how to admonish them. Yet, the devotion of non-Arab Muslims to the Muslim holy land is such that nobody dares say a word in criticism.

The same is true of Iran. The Iranian mullahs established their hold over a civilised and ancient people by terrorising them through the imposition of stoning to death and beheadings. Iran also allows muta or temporary marriage. I have never met any Shia who would allow his sister or daughter to contract temporary marriage. Obviously such a ‘freedom’ is only for poor women who must sell their body to make a living. I have yet to meet a Pakistani Shia — even a communist — who is critical of what goes on in Iran. Anyhow, the crimes against humanity committed by Saudi Arabia and Iran are easily accessible on the internet and all you have to do is to go to Youtube and see for yourself how these regimes punish alleged criminals.

What then is the problem? I think the problem is the same that once confronted the Europeans and others. Some 150 years ago decapitating the head was quite common. In fact, royalty was made an example. Mary Queen of Scots, the Bourbons of France and in our own South Asian context the heir-apparent to the Mughal throne, Prince Dara Shikoh’s head was amputated on the orders of his own brother and our national hero, Aurangzeb Alamgir. Hindus used to burn widows and indeed also kill in battle in a manner as was acceptable to Rajput norms — brutal and bloody.

The roots of terrorism in Islam however are deep. The murder of the Caliph Usman by fanatics and disgruntled Islamic warriors was the first expression of what was deeply gruesome within the Islamic Ummah. Remember, when the Prophet (PBUH) sent the first group of refugees into protection of a Christian King in eastern Africa, he made Hazrat Usman the leader of the delegation. The Prophet (PBUH) had four daughters with Hazrat Khadija — Zainab, Ruqqiya, Kulsoom and Fatima. Two of them, Ruqqiya and Kulsoom, were given in marriage to Hazrat Usman but both died early without leaving behind a child. Hazrat Ali was married to Bibi Fatima. Islamic fanatics, called Khwarijis, assassinated Ali. But the most infamous murder is undoubtedly that of Imam Hussain. A grandson the Prophet (PBUH) loved dearly. His head was severed by Muslims and his family was nearly wiped out without mercy.

That feud ended with the Hashemite clan of the Prophet (PBUH) tricking the Ummayyad clan of Hazrat Usman into attending a feast purported to establish truce between them. The feast ended with all but one Ummayyad chief being brutally murdered. The Hashemites celebrated the feast by making merry till late in the night while the dead bodies of the Ummayyads were lying under the tables.

It is this Islam that keeps coming back from time to time in Muslim societies. It can be directed against Muslims, even those deeply revered by their followers. So, if the Sikhs have been treated inhumanly or for that matter Daniel Pearl it is not surprising, deeply shocking as it may be because we do not see beheadings in the streets of Pakistan anymore. In Saudi Arabia and Iran they do. It is time to start accepting these facts and reflecting on how to transcend such barbarism.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

2010-02-26T03:37:00.000-08:00

Love in the time of cholera

Prospects of a love story from Gabriel Garcia Marquez would always raise the bar of curiosity many notches higher; notwithstanding the queer title.
The story appears to be a heart warming narration of the enduring powers of love told with sweetness and simplicity, but Garcia himself said in an interview: ‘You have to be careful not to fall into my trap.’
This novel is a very dense and cleverly woven story that tricks the reader into believing that it is an excessively romantic tale of obsession and longing.
But the title is used as the metaphor for love as a disease that plagues the body. And although one of the male protagonists Florentino Ariza is the obsessive lover here, he is subtly shown as someone who has a penchant for high drama, and his obsessive love is portrayed as both ridiculous and serious.
Set in the period between 1880- 1930, Love in the Time of Cholera is a love triangle of Florentino Ariza, Fermina Daza and Dr Juvenal Urbino, that spans fifty years of time period. Florentino Ariza is the lover who waits for Fermina Daza for fifty years to reclaim his unrequited love. He had fallen in love with her when she was a fifteen year old girl, and while it lasted, most of their communication was through letters only.
It was a brief, derisory affair that was abruptly ended by Fermina Daza, leaving him shattered and bitter.
Most of the novel is in flashback when Fermina was a young girl and the love interest of Florentino, with him waiting endlessly for a glimpse of her in front of her house, and writing passionate letters to her. After being dumped by Fermina, Florentino gets into a range of sexual relationships and engages in as many as 622 love affairs, but keeps yearning for Fermina Daza throughout. He could never really get over her, and approaches her after fifty years of waiting with a marriage proposal, immediately after she becomes a widow.
In this picaresque tale of unrequited love, sufferings and longings are termed noble and waiting and emotional pain is considered an essential part of love. On the other hand love is also termed as an emotional and physical disease that leaves one physically ill and mentally infirm. In Spanish language ‘colera’ also means ‘rage’ and if you read carefully, you can see that through the brilliant subtlety of narration Garcia is sending the message of repressed rage, when spurned by or ridden with the disease called love.
This novel also challenges the societal view that love is a young person’s prerogative. Florentino Ariza waited for half century to meet the object of his desire; not deterred by his disappearing hair and sagging body. The wrinkles, the flaccid flesh and even the fetid smell of old age did not repel him in finally consummating his desires, with the woman he loved for so many years.
This is a book that is full of a delectable humour, told with amazing spontaneity, which is the forte of Garcia nonetheless. Read it to discover the anatomy of passion, pandemonium, death, old age and redemption of memories.

Memories of my melancholy whores

The unmarried protagonist of this novel has just turned 90, and wants to celebrate his birthday, by spending a night of wild passion with a virgin. He has spent a lifetime sleeping with prostitutes and writing mediocre columns for the local papers.
When he sees the 14-year-old virgin, whom he calls Delgadina, naked and asleep on the brothel bed, an idea strikes him that he feels would invalidate his entire writing failures. He would write the memoir of his 90th birthday and it would essentially be the only thing he would have written of lasting value. However, the deluded declaration of sexual potency becomes a shattering realization, that he has never really experienced love in his life. What he got was a second hand emotion through paid sex, and it always was so empty.
He falls in love for the first time in his life, at the age of 90.

Well, this is Gabriel Garcia Marquez for you, the writer with more magic than realism in his books.

Some of the erotic passages of his marvelous book One Hundred Years of Solitude were cut away, in a certain country, due to its unconcealed sexual depiction. Though the book did not lose much by it, Marquez was very put out about the unfair censor.
Nevertheless, he would not be such a fabulous writer if any such thing would hold him back from his particular brand of genius.
So, the master is back after a hiatus of ten long years with all his surrealistic magnetism.
Anyone of you who has read One hundred Years of Solitude would know about the sad loveliness of that book, and would expect the same magic in this one too.
But, Memories of My Melancholic Whores would just leave you a wee bit discontented, though I would still suggest that you pick up this slim novella, and tuck it under your arms as you head for a cozy read at your favourite café.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

2010-02-21T22:45:00.000-08:00

To understand Hosseini better, I advise that you read ‘The Kite Runner’ first.
But even if you have not read him before, after reading this novel you will definitely come to know that Hosseini writes with one finger on the reader’s carotid artery. The narration of ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ produces a slowly increasing asphyxia that would leave you breathless after a few chapters.

‘The Kite Runner’ was sharp, quick and fast pain. The pain you can identify with. The pain that lingers for a while and then, subsides after some time. But, ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ is like a dull thud on the flesh that goes on relentlessly. It pounds the senses into a cold numbness, and makes you wonder if such pain, suffering and violence that are depicted in the novel, are possible for a human being to endure.

Mariam and Laila are two very strong and gritty women who fight through impossible unhappiness and sufferings. They bear their misfortunes with a stoicism that leaves you feeling empty, spaced out and disgruntled. You believe that a fiction must bring poetic justice and solace after sufferings. It should have answers to the puzzling questions that arise in the plot. However, there are no satisfying answers or righteousness for the protagonists here. Only bewildering questions.

Why do human beings turn into animals? Why do only good people suffer so much?
Why was misfortune so unrelenting towards Mariam and so uncompromising towards Laila?

Set in Afghanistan once again, this novel portrays the evils of the Taliban rule, sadism of men and anguish of the women of Afghanistan, who bear every act of violence by the men in their lives, be it a father or a husband, with mindless patience and stillness. It speaks of unspeakable physical torture and mental anguish of the besieged Afghani women, and since poverty and pride don’t go hand in hand, the repercussions are simply unbearable.
I had read this novel a couple of years ago, and recently picked up again.
Once again it has left me depressed, but one must read it to experience Khaled Hosseini’s splendid craft.

MUSLIM WOMEN AND CHANGE-Asghar Ali Engineer

2010-02-17T20:04:00.000-08:00

Mostly people think Muslim women are oppressed and forced to wear veil and confined to the four walls of their houses. This is mainly because we read every day in papers that Taliban force women into veil, burn down girls schools and always portray them wrapped completely in black cloth from head to foot. This image of Muslim women was further reinforced by the burqa controversy which erupted in France.

This image would be justified if all Muslim women followed the strict dress code propounded by Muslim theologians which was evolved in medieval ages and which they keep on justifying even today. But there is big difference in what is theologically projected and ground reality. It may not be wrong, if I venture to say, Muslim women have been defying theological code for more than a century now.

And now a century later, Muslim women have gone even further in their public achievements. It is true even today some Muslim theologians debate whether women are naqisul aql (defective reasoning power) or not but many Muslim women have superseded even Muslim men in several fields. In Saudi Arabia where women are not even permitted to drive cars, a woman became a licensed pilot and has been flying aircrafts.

Now we got news from Malyasia that Farah al-Habshi, an engineer by profession, has been appointed deputy of weapons and electrical officer in spanking new Malaysian warship KD Perak. Today she is donned in white and blue Royal Malaysian Navy uniform. What is interesting is that she also wears hijab to cover her head though not her face. She feels her hijab in no way comes in the way of performing her duties.

Maylaysia is an Islamic country and orthodox ulama exercise great deal of control over people’s lives. Recently even the Government of Malaysia chickened out when Ulama took stand that Christians in Malaysia cannot use the word Allah in their religious literature or in their newspaper. Muslim women face several problems in that country at the hands of conservative ulama in respect of family laws.

It is in the same country that a woman has been appointed naval officer on combat duty. Even in India women have not won the right to be on combat duty in navy or are not permitted to fly fighter planes or serve in combat arms. They are also not allowed seafaring in warships. Ms. Farah al-Habshi, on the other hand, recently participated in Milan naval exercise along with some other women.

Ms. Farah is also highly articulate and answered all the questions put to her by the journalists. And it is not only one example out of many. There are several other examples. Many Muslim women have excelled even in theological fields and quite independently of the traditional theologians. They have shown courage to challenge orthodox ulama. Here I can give example of Amina Wudud of USA who teaches Islamic Studies in Washington.

She believed women can lead mixed congregation in prayer and she led around 100 persons, men and women in prayer a few year ago and that too on Friday and delivered Friday khutba (sermon), quite unthinkable in traditional Muslim world. It raised storm of controversy and even Yusuf Qardawi, otherwise a moderate theologian from Qatar, wrote an article, opposing a woman leading nixed congregational prayer.

Some Kuwaiti women, elected to Kuwaiti parliament after great deal of struggle, refused to wear hijab and fought for their right to go to parliament sessions without wearing one and fought their case up to Supreme Court of Kuwait and won. Many more examples can be cited of Muslim women daring authorities for their rights.

But media, which is interested in sensationalizing issues, refuses to highlight Muslim women’s achievements and continues to portray them as submissive to traditional authorities and meekly accepting their situation. This image of Muslim women has to change and reality, which is much more complex, has to be understood.

This is not to deny that in many countries Muslim women are facing difficult problems and their liberation is not a foregone conclusion. However, it is also true that many of them are fighting and refusing to submit meekly. What gives us hope is their continued struggle and defiance of traditional authorities.

It should also be mentioned here that many ‘ulama and jurists also have realized that medieval shari’ah formulations about women cannot be enforced easily any more and some of them like Muhammad Abduh of Egypt, Maulavi Mumtaz Ali Khan of India and Maulana Umar Ahmed Usmani of Pakistan have expressed their serious reservations about traditional theological formulations on women. The determined struggle on the part of Muslim women will force many more theologians to revise their position and take Qur’an, and not medieval theology, more seriously on women issues.

Dr.Asghar Ali Engineer is a noted Islamic scholar, reformist-writer and activist.
He is internationally known for his work on liberation theology. He is also the chairperson of Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, base in Mumbai.
This centre is a group of eminent academics, social activists and prominent citizens set up to fight growing communalism in the society and to redefine the concept of secularism.

Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
Mumbai.
csss@mtnl.net.com

...and I am not a terrorist

2010-02-16T09:31:00.000-08:00

Some ninety years ago Yeats had said these memorable lines:

“… Everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”

And it stands true for most of the violence that is happening these days.
It is the misplaced passion of the worst kind of people who perpetrate such terrorism.

However, the movie “My name is Khan” with Shahrukh Khan, who plays the protagonist “Khan” is an exception in the above mentioned quote. Here it is the innocent and the best that has all the conviction to carry through the message of humanity with passionate intensity.

Khan was taught by his mother that there is no Hindu or Muslim. God has created only two types of people in this world. Good people and Bad people. And Khan memorizes this lesson by heart; he never forgets it. Guided only by his heart he sets out on a difficult journey to meet the president of USA, and tell him-
“My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist”

Since I had already heard many good reviews of this movie, today I decided to check out “My name is Khan” despite my reservations about Karan Johar films.
And I must say that KJ has made a good effort to walk away from the earlier tinsel backgrounds, excessive drama, surreal characters and extravagant display of emotions, that often appeared implausible in most of his earlier movies.
MNIK is indeed a serious piece of work with a serious message,
“All Muslims are not terrorists” despite the fact that most terrorists are Muslims.

In this film Khan suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, which is a kind of autism, and although he is supremely intelligent he is unable to express his emotions in the normal way, or I would rather say he expresses his emotions “differently”.

While watching this film it occurred to me that this person who is autistic and supposedly ‘not like us’, has a truly honest way of feeling things. Khan speaks in clear, short, simple and specific vocabulary. He experiences the world differently, follows the straight, unbroken line of his thoughts, taking care that he doesn’t falter when he is doing his chores or fall out of step when he is walking. He has a pure, innocent heart and though he cannot express love like you and I, he feels it with more intensity than perhaps you and I could ever feel.

While watching this movie, I was also wondering about those of us who do not have autism and who walk through life with an upright gait and leveled gaze unlike Khan, but don’t we have a more skewed vision about understanding life and love?
Are we, with our many complicated emotions such as hate, prejudice, religious fanaticism, religious differences, cultural bias, colour bias, ‘you, me, mine syndrome’, fundamentalism, narrow mindedness, lack of honesty, meanness, empty egos, lack of rational thinking, lack of kindness, violence etc are fit to live in this society and be called normal people?

Khan who was supposedly ‘subnormal’ followed the straight, clear line of his heart and felt just one simple emotion- love.
And Khan teaches us that in these violent times love is all we need to survive, to live, to connect and to be called a human.

It does leave you with a lump in the throat.

Kim

2010-02-15T03:50:00.000-08:00

Just found this unread book lying around in my library. Perhaps it was given as a present some years back, because I don’t remember buying it and perhaps I had saved reading it for the day when I have no bedtime read available. Last week I picked it up and found it to be a riveting novel as I went through the pages.

First published in 1901, Kim is a novel that is a journey of self-discovery and adventure, and the author Rudyard Kipling’s knowledge of India and its culture is evident in the way he has made use of the dialect and the cultural nuances of this country.

In this book, Kim is an orphan growing on the streets of Lahore, and he has special skills to respond positively to people he can look up to, and he can also ward off any negative effects that he may not wish to address. He is an intelligent and a hilarious kid who is out to discover his identity and in his journey of self-discovery, he finds many people along his way who help him change his point of views, and open him up to several influences of life. He is an entertainer par excellence and also has keen perceptions to learn the tricks of life and living. He grabs the attention of the readers, and gets into their heart, as he takes them along in his adventurous journey.

The world of Kimball O’Hara, the orphan of an Irish soldier is full of adventure and mystery. We see in chapter 1, that Kim has grown up on the streets of Lahore, and is looked after by a half cast woman, who is probably a prostitute. With his skin ‘burned black as any native’ Kim looks like a low caste Hindu street urchin, and he can neither read or write or speak English very well. He is neither fully British nor fully Indian, and his quest for a true identity remains a constant feature throughout the novel.

Rudyard Kipling being born in India has an inherent love for India, and it shows in the way he has done the characterization of Kim. His extraordinary genius is obvious in his staging the atmosphere, and the depiction of various characters.

As a novelist who faces the speculation of being an English imperialist and ‘Indophile’, both at the same time, he has managed to pull off this classic of deceit and subterfuge perfectly. The sights, smells, atmosphere, the dialects and the background din of busy bazaars throughout the narration make it more of an audiovisual kind of novel than mere narration. The novel and its characters stay in the mind for a long time after the story is finished, and one can say that it reads like an action packed thriller set in India, though there is no mention of gunfire and car chases.
The novel represents a panoramic celebration of India with all its rustic and cultural charms, and it gives a magnificent picture of the rural and urban landscapes of India.
The novel also portrays a fascinating range of native characters that are warm, generous, tolerant, spiritual and intuitive. Kim has grown up on the streets and all these people have been his friends and companions throughout his life.
There is a brandy drinking Muslim who sleeps with a prostitute, a hill woman who boasts of having a harem full of husbands. These are immensely interesting characters along with many more who are an integral part of Kim’s life and as one goes through the pages, these characters become quite familiar to the reader as well.

However, the novel has too many patronizing comments regarding the British rule in India, and Kipling’s imperialist side is apparent in passages where he implies that it was ‘right’ and ‘proper’ for Britain to own India, and rule its people.
For example, in chapter 3 there is an old soldier commenting on the Great Mutiny of 1857, and dismissing it as ‘madness’. There were many speculations by various critics that such comments are personal viewpoints of Kipling himself, rather than the protagonist and most readers would find it unpleasant and unjustified. Especially when every Indian worth his salt condemns the British rule, which plundered the country and maltreated Indians during the period of their rule.

History knows that India was called the sone ki chidiya (a golden bird) and due to this golden legacy many people from every part of the world wanted to capture this bird, such as Chengis Khan, the Mongolian, ‘The Aryans’ who came from Central Europe , The Mughals who settled down permanently in India. Alexander the Great too, came to conquer India but went back after a battle with Porus. Columbus wanted to come to India too , but instead he landed on the shores of America. Vasco da Gama from Portugal came to trade his country's goods in return for Indian species. The French came and established their colonies in India.
And lastly the British came and ruled over India for 200 years and are held responsible for the divisive policy that they left behind while going back after the plunder and rule.
Coming back to Kim, Kipling’s barbed views regarding the 1857 mutiny was distasteful to many readers as it was the first revolt of Indians against the rule of British and had claimed many lives and the Indians are exceptionally proud of this Great Indian Revolt.
Also. Kipling’s choice of Buddhism stands for much introspection, as it cannot be proclaimed as the true picture of the religious embodiment of India.
For it is a known fact that India is the land of many religions and languages with different cultural and ethical beliefs, and also has many multicultural and multi-religious norms.

The archaic English forms such as ‘hast thou eaten?’; ‘thinkest thou?” ,might jar the senses of most readers and act in the way of enjoying the story, but one can excuse Kipling’s usage of the language as an attempt to create a classic atmosphere of India of those times. He also uses local dialects and the words like, chela (student), pardesi (foreigner) , serai (inn) , annas (dime) etc. frequently to drive the point of vernacular usage by the street dwellers.

Although Kipling was born in India and has spent many years here, there still are strong indications of a biased generalization of India in the novel. In many places in the story he does sound patronizing towards the Indians and Indian culture, and it may be not accepted well by some readers.

However, Kim is a masterwork of fine literary qualities and a delightful read for all age groups.

What Americans Really Think About Muslims - Dalia Mogahed

2010-02-07T10:32:00.000-08:00

The American people and their openness to Muslim communities will in many ways determine the success of US President Barack Obama’s global engagement initiative, which he launched on his inauguration day a year ago by calling for a “new way forward” with Muslims. Change will depend in large part on how Americans think, and it is therefore crucial to understand American perceptions of Muslims and Islam.
How much do Americans know about Islam and Muslims? What characteristics define Muslims in most Americans’ minds? And, perhaps most importantly, what factors make prejudice or tolerance more likely?
A new study released last week by the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies sheds light on these questions and many more. The following is what we discovered when we interviewed a thousand representative Americans on their perceptions of several faith communities, with in-depth analysis of their perceptions of Muslims and Islam.
Americans are more likely to admit harbouring prejudice toward Muslims than any other faith community that Gallup studied. Forty-three per cent of Americans admit to having at least some prejudice toward Muslims. This is more than twice the number that expresses some prejudice toward Jews, Buddhists or Christians.
We also discovered that being prejudiced toward Jews makes a person more likely to express prejudice toward Muslims than any other factor studied. Of all the variables we looked at, from age to education to perceptions, the factor that was most strongly associated with anti-Muslim prejudice is not level of education, whether or not one knows a Muslim, or even one’s opinion of Islam, it is anti-Jewish prejudice. These results suggest that anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim sentiment are related phenomena, and that organizations fighting these social ills must work more closely together since they appear to be fighting for a common goal.
Frequent religious service attendance makes Americans half as likely to express extreme prejudice toward Muslims. For example, frequent church attendance makes someone less, not more likely to express prejudice toward Muslims. The survey also revealed that prejudice, or the lack thereof, is more strongly associated with one’s opinion of Islam than with whether or not someone personally knows a Muslim. If someone does not know a Muslim personally, it does make him or her more likely to express extreme prejudice toward the group. But, perhaps surprisingly, knowing a Muslim does not increase the likelihood of a person expressing no prejudice. What these results suggest is that knowing a Muslim may help soften extreme prejudice, but it is not enough to eliminate it.
Our survey results also tell us that American perceptions of what Muslims think are sometimes significantly different from what Muslims really do think. Roughly eight in ten Americans (81 per cent) believe that most Muslims do not value gender equality. However, according to Gallup research in Muslim-majority societies around the world, the majority of Muslims, including 85 per cent of Saudi Arabians and 89 per cent of Iranians, do believe that men and women should have equal legal rights. Despite what may seem like negative results, the polls indicate that Americans’ views of Muslims and Islam have generally improved over the past two years. Moreover, roughly seven out of ten Americans also say that greater interaction between the West and Muslim communities is more of a benefit than a threat. The majority of Egyptians, Saudis and Indonesians share this view. In fact, overall, Muslim approval of the United States and its leadership is on the rise.
Ultimately, this study demonstrates that perceptions are not permanent, which is promising. But the public needs to be educated about Muslim beliefs. For example, Americans who believe that most Muslims support equal rights between men and women are twice as likely to express no prejudice toward them, indicating that we require a greater awareness of the fact that most Muslims worldwide support gender equality. We also know from the results of the study that prejudice is not isolated to one group, creating an opportunity for greater interfaith partnership to help address this issue.
The majority of both Americans and the world’s Muslims want engagement over isolation, a process that starts at home — through greater understanding of our own perceptions.

Dalia Mogahed is Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and co-author with John Esposito of Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think (Gallup 2008). She also serves on the US President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Distributed by the Common Ground News Service.

Fashioning lies, veiling the truth- By Farida Majid

2010-02-05T00:21:00.000-08:00

As the hijab issue heats up in France and Germany, and the psychological pressure and the brainwashing of women intensifies all over the Muslim world, the feverish cry of "an attack on hijab is an assault on Islam" should be given a closer examination. Hijab, especially this modern form of the headgear that is causing the controversy in Europe, is not, and should never allowed to be, a valid symbol of Islam.
Showing how irreligious it is to claim that it is an integral part of Islam best exposes the insidious misogynist politics of worldwide hijabisation.
Of course hijab is not mandated by the Qur'an, nor is it sanctioned anywhere in the Hadith. I would like to turn to the Qur'an and discuss some of its verses, focusing on their semiotic value and rhetorical tone, hoping, thereby to prove why the hierarchical enforcement of hijab on women is not only not required by the Qur'an, but insisting that it is so constitutes a grievously sinful lie according to the Qur'an.

There are three verses in the Qur'an that deal with the women's dress issue. All of them use mild-toned language, understandably suitable for gentle suggestion or kindly advice. No amount of conflation of the language used in these verses can possibly be construed as the Quranic mandate of hijab. The word hijab itself means "curtain" and it occurs seven times in the Qur'an in a variety of nuances of meaning. Its most notable use in Sura Maryam in the sense of a "screen" occurs in the context of Mary's immaculate conception of Jesus, and the word metaphorically captures the moment of that miracle:

Commemorate Mary in the Book.
When she withdrew from her family she went to an eastern place.
And she took a screen [a curtain, or a cover] from them
And we sent our spirit to her. (19:16-17)

References to seclusion and modest dressing of women are made in Sura Ahzab (33: 32-33, 53), but they are very specifically addressed to the Prophet's younger wives, and Muslim scholars all over the world acknowledge that these advices, still mildly spoken, are not binding to the general mass of mu'mina the believing women. Only one controversial so-called "scholar" from the Indian subcontinent, the infamous father of modern Islamic fundamentalism, Abul a-la Moududi, insists that the advices in Sura Ahzab be treated as dicta for all Muslim women. He does not care that the verses in Sura Ahzab begin very clearly by the apostrophe: Ya Nisa un Nabi (O women of the Nabi, you are not like other women) Moududi wrote a series of essays in Urdu on women and "purdah" and published them in 1939. In a passionate defense of veiling of women Moududi says, "Though the veil has not been specified in the Qur'an, it is Qur'anic in spirit." Really!

Moududi's haunted house of hijab's "Qur'anic spirit" is so spooky that a precondition of entering it is a flat denial of what is actually there in the Qur'an. Such doublespeak is designed to mislead, to distort reality and to corrupt thought, and it is no wonder that Muslim religious scholars of the Indian subcontinent at the time vehemently shunned his brand of Islamism. Commenting on the manipulation of the sacred text, Rafiq Abdullah, a Muslim lawyer in London notes: "Incapable of envisaging the Qur'an as a linguistic space which contains a multiplicity of discourses (including the prophetic, legislative, eschatological, narrative, metaphysical, spiritual), Islamists choose to ignore the fact that they are interpreting a mythical past and carrying out a partial, generally decontextualised, reading of the words of God."

The loud claims made by Muslim patriarchy and their army of well-mobilized women followers that there is a thing called "Islamic dress code for women" has very feeble basis in the Qur'anic text. Religious traditions are vast, and in Islam's case, globally spread out. Traditionally Islamic legal-moral rules or mores were carefully attuned to the way the Qur'anic language communicated on the matter at hand. Hermeneutics, or the art of interpretation, requires mastering a variety of skills and knowledge in the fields of history, philosophy, law, dialectics and linguistics, besides theology. Trained religious scholars or Arabic jurists would comb the Qur'an in order to establish a graded scheme of classifying behaviour -- wajib (mandatory), mandub (recommended), mubah (permitted), makruh(disapproved), haram (forbidden), and so on. The fact that Abul a-la Moududi had no formal training as a religious scholar is evidenced by his blithe exclusion of consideration of Qur'anic texts in his pronouncements of veiling and seclusion of women. Completely insensitive to some of the beautiful sentiments expressed in the Qur'an about women, Moududi's writings exhibit brute assertions, borrowing more from the old Judeo-Christian theologies that brand woman as the original sinner and the cause for Fall of Man, than from the Islamic principles of gender equality.
The most egregious falsification occurs, ironically, in the case of the most frequently quoted verse from Sura Nur by the proponents of hijab:

Tell the believing women to lower their eyes,
Guard their private parts, and not display their charms,
Except what is apparent outwardly,
And cover their bosoms with their veils
And not to show their finery. (24:31)

Mark again the even-toned rhetoric of the language of the advice and the generality of what is being advised. Not counting the fast disappearing tribal groups of Africa, South America and elsewhere where women remain topless, women of all religions all over the world dress by covering their bosoms. "Not to show their finery" is an additional cautionary measure towards checking an individual's desire to show off superficial adornments to outsiders. But the Qur'an is not as draconian in its opinion on a woman's natural desire to adorn herself as the Muslim fundamentalists interpret this verse. In the rest of the ayat we get the idea that a sweet, youthful mu'mina can wear her finery in front of her family members and householders. Just don't stamp your feet too hard and create a jangle of noise that would make outsiders be aware of all the baubles you have on you. Pretty fair advice to impetuous youthful females given almost with a touch of grandmotherly affection.

The key to understanding the true import of this verse is the first utterance: Qul li-mu'minati yaghdhudhuna min absari hinna (Tell the believing women to lower their eyes). These words are rhetorically repeated here from the preceding verse 30: "Tell the believing men to lower their eyes . . ."

Bar none, both sexes are asked to ghadhadha or cast down the gaze or glance. It is not hard to recognize this gesture, universal and utterly human, as the outwardly visible physical manifestation of a mental activity. Modesty, then, resides in the mind.
All other external accouterments suggested by the Qur'an are subservient to this inner, mental activity that is further reinforced by the adverbial clause: min absari. The verbal, absar comes from basira meaning "the ability of having the power of mental perception, discernment, clear thinking" etc. Therefore, the clause min absari appended to the "lowering gaze" action should mean that we are asked by the Qur'an to divert our gaze from what is before our eyes and turn inward to our inner discernment and fine-tune our moral judgments about what is decent and what is not. To construct a stricture of enforced superficial outward garb (the burkha or the hijab) out of this mild language of the Qur'an is a travesty, and an insult to the deep moral and intellectual message of the Qur'an on developing our inner sense of humility.

As in Sura Nur (30 and 31), all the advice for modesty to women can be shown to have its counterpart advice to men elsewhere in the Qur'an. Further illustrating the difference in meaning the rhetorical thrust of the language in the Qur'an can make, I would like to cite a verse from Sura Luqman that is meant exclusively for men to observe modesty in their conduct and demeanor. The tone of the language here is definitely more strident than the one that addressed women in either Sura Nur or Sura Ahzab about modest dressing:

Do not hold men in contempt,
And do not walk with hauteur on the earth.
Verily God does not like the proud and boastful.
Be moderate in your bearing, and keep your voice low
Surely the most repulsive voice is that of the donkey. (31:18-19)

Imagine if it was required for all Muslim men to walk around in all their waking hours with a device fitted around their neck that measured the decibel of their voice, and an ear-piercing alarm setting off alerting family members, co-workers and neighbors every time the voice reached the level of a braying donkey! How about men wearing a "macho prevention meter" around their waist? Or, how about a shackle around their ankle to curb their "proud and boastful" bearing? The Qur'anic language is clear and unambiguous about its admonitions. The genuinely pious and spiritually well formed men of old were mindful of such Qur'anic moral guidance.
In the guise of leading us back to an imagined and presupposed "purer" Islam, the modern fundamentalists, like Moududi, invent concepts that actually divert unsuspecting believers from the path of true devotion and traditional piety. Even though they appear to renounce the modern world's secular culture, they inhabit its material and technical realms and exploit them to the hilt. Moududi's writings are translated in 40 different languages and vigorously disseminated through the internet. We must grapple with this odd quality of modernity of their movement, and not regard them as "old fashioned" conservatives, or simply "backward" looking in their religious views. They do not blink at the idea of brazenly misinterpreting the Holy Qur'an and manipulating the sacred scripture to fit those ideologically driven concepts about religion. Insisting on hijab as a paradigmatic self-definition of Islam is one such concept. Saying the Qur'an mandates it is a lie. Saying Allah will punish a Muslim woman who commits the sin of not wearing a hijab is an outrageous lie. I leave you to ponder the words and their rhetorical thrust in the following verse from Sura Hud:

Who is more wicked than the one who fashions lies about God?
Such men shall be arraigned before their Lord,
And the witnesses (angels) will testify:
"These are those who imputed lies to God."
Beware! The scourge of God will fall on the unjust. (11:18)

Farida Majid is a poet, scholar and literary translator, living and teaching in New York City, USA.

Thirty ways to add more life to your years

2010-02-01T23:12:00.000-08:00

Deep down we all wish to live a rich and enlightened life and that is why we make those resolutions every year, for greater biological efficiency, less disease, increased finances, successful career, and an increasingly better quality of life. It is still not too late. Only a month has passed and there are eleven glorious months left to turn a new leaf, open a new chapter or just quietly revel in the sudden newness of your life.
You can still make your decisions about how you can add more life to your years.

Here is a good list of some wise suggestions to enhance the quality of your life on day-to-day basis. I hope they will bring much sweetness and a tremendous change in your outlook towards life.

·Great love and great achievement involve great risk. Take the risk anyway.

·When you love someone, love them deeply and passionately. You might get hurt, but it is the only way to live life fully.

·Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship. Make amends immediately.

·When you realize you have made a mistake, hurt someone’s feelings, take immediate steps to correct it. Ask forgiveness.

·Keep your arms open to change, but don’t let go of your personal values.

·Talk slowly, but think quickly. Rationally.

·Quiet the voice in your head that says ‘I can’t do this.’

·Don’t quit, no matter what. Confucius said, ‘everything comes to those who wait.’

·Always live in a radiating possibility; become part of life’s song.

·Make conscious effort to change at least one negative attitude in your personality everyday. Surprise yourself.

·If you must fight, do it in a fair manner. Without calling/dropping names.

·Avoid judging people by their relatives. Accept them for who they are.

·When someone asks you a question that you wish to avoid answering, smile and ask, “Why do you want to know?”

·Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

·Spend some time alone. It has great potential to recharge your energies.

·Try to live a good and honorable life because when you get older and reflect upon it, you’ll get to enjoy it a second time.

·Marry the man/woman with whom you love to talk with. As you get older, the conversations will essentially become a more important feature, in your life with each other.

·Be kind to the environment for your own sake. Avoid litter, plastic, defacing walls and natural surroundings.

·Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.

·Once a year plan to go to someplace you have never been before. It rejuvenates you like no other.

·When you are having disagreements with loved ones, deal with the current problem. Never rake up the past.

·When you lose out on something, don’t lose the lesson.

·The best relationship is the one when your love for one another is greater than your need for one another.

·When you say, ‘I love you’ mean it.

·When you hug someone, open your heart. Do it with love.

·Make eye contact. Look people in the eye softly when you speak to them. Try it and see the difference.

·Your character is your destiny. Build your character.

·Sometimes, not getting what you want is actually a blessing in disguise. Always look at the blessing.

·Take serious care of your health. Health indeed is wealth, not a cliché.

·Live life like it is your last day on the earth. King size.

Posted at:http://www.odemagazine.com/blogs/readers_blog/14108/thirty_ways_to_add_more_life_to_your_years

The healing power of touch

2010-01-20T03:24:00.000-08:00

Touch is the first sensation we feel when we come into this world. A child’s mental, emotional and physical well-being initially depends a lot on a tender touch. Doctors insist on a newborn baby being placed immediately on the mother’s bosom to feel her heartbeat and to experience the gentle touch of her arms around the body. This helps the child gain a profound sense of security and it later helps in developing their self-esteem, as an adult.

Touch is a very important sensation for human beings to gain a sense of healthy emotional responses later in life. Every child learns the sensation of love and tenderness first with his mother’s touch. Even plants and animals respond to touch. They grow well, feel nurtured and cared for when they are touched. We bring animals into our homes and call them pet. The word pet is all about petting, touching, indulging and caring.

Touch is the nourishment for our soul. Touch releases the endorphins in the brain and essentially helps us feel good.
Ever wondered how a quiet touch conveys a lot to a grieving person than many words of solace? Personally speaking, I feel absolutely at loss with words when I come across a grieving person. I feel that how could words, no matter how right they are, calm the heart torn asunder with grief? However, I have found on few occasions that just placing a quiet hand on the shoulder or gently caressing the hand of a person broken down with emotional pain, calm the sobs to a great extent. It sends across the silent message that you care and empathize with them in their pain. I have experienced that they almost always become quiet in their wailings and give in to a more healthy response of shedding quiet tears. And Psychologists say that to give yourself the permission to cry heartily is to bless your body with the benediction of healing. When a person is frozen with grief and shock, a touch brings on the healing response. They begin to cry, and it lifts them off the dry rocks of their sudden distress.

Touch calms anger, grief and aggression. It brings on healthy tears, stops unchecked and hysterical tears and helps a person gain a balanced perspective on many difficult situations. No words are required when touch is used to convey messages of compassion.
It is observed that more often than not those who are acting hysterical respond to a quiet touch. Though, generally speaking, we as people stay away from such a person. Feeling that they might react violently, but unless a person is medically declared a psychotic, most aggression changes into quietness with a gentle touch.

We all are inherently programmed to receive and give touch to each other. Without touch, relationships fail to blossom, not just among lovers, but between parent and child too. We all know how a crying child responds instantaneously to the touch of his mother and becomes quiet immediately. How we are told to hug our children to help them grow into emotionally healthy and caring persons in life. Most failing marriages lack the right touches and need a right touch to set it right!

Often when Psychoanalysts talk about troubled childhood and children having grown up with baggages that are at times too hard a burden to carry for their inner world, it is about the lack of proper nurturing and touching as children. Often neglected by a distant father and unloving mother the boys grow up without love and affection for a woman and are unable to commit fully to other relationships in their lives later.
Without getting into the convoluted discussion of troubled childhood and its impact on an adult, lets just sum it up and say that it is the lack of touch, hug and caress in the childhood that creates an intense sense of separateness in a child and they grow up feeling a deeply disturbing loneliness almost all through their lives.

Mother Teresa discovered the power of touch when she said that more than hunger, poverty and physical suffering it is the lack of love, which make people die everyday. She used to touch the lepers and bathe their wounds with her own hands.
It is hard to be Mother Teresa as she was a noble soul, but we could all realize the power of touch and just give it out freely to our fellow human beings only to share with all humanity the feelings of brotherhood and equality.
Let’s, begin from home. Let’s just reach out and hug our child or our parent today, and watch that sunny beam spread on their faces, to warm the cockles of our own heart. Go touch.

Posted at:
http://www.odemagazine.com/blogs/readers_blog/13878/the_healing_power_of_touch

Reclaiming our true self

2010-01-06T20:24:00.000-08:00

I asked myself one day, ‘If I had to write an autobiography now, what would be missing from it? What are the things I will need to get done before it takes shape?’

I could hear the sounds of childhood’s supple feet, feather light steps of teenage years, and then the sluggish footsteps of approaching years. The school days, college days, parents, marriage, children, parenting, emotional issues, career planning, separation, break ups, meaningful relationships, meaningless relationships, quarter life crisis.

All this is fine, I pondered. Everyone writes about them in an autobiography. I would also wish to rise like an apparition from the deep sea of oblivion and write an autobiography, to tell the world, ‘look at me, here I am.’ But what are those unaccomplished tasks, unclaimed parts of me that I have still not been aware of?

I thought, let me seize this moment of revelation to do a kind of internal self-therapy. Psychologists believe that this type of deep soul searching may help us focus better on our outer life. It has a deep impact on the way we function in our day-to-day life, often without realizing it.

There were some interesting questions that I came up with, when I was doing this soul searching and I would like to share them with you. I hope you would be able to identify with them and come up with some soul satisfying answers of your own to get in touch with your true inner self.

These are the questions that I asked myself.

* What is more important for me, memories or dreams? Because memories push us back and dreams take us forward, and with this conscious choice I could bring a tremendous change in my life.

* Am I living my life for an audience? In what ways should I be more true to myself, despite what other people expect from me?

* What recurring patterns cause me pain or discomfort. How could I change my behaviour or lifestyle to avoid repeating them?

* What are the unfinished things in my life that I should walk away from now? I felt that sometimes it is better to make room for new dreams if old ones have been pending for too long.

* If I took my ten year old self to lunch today, what would she think of me? Would she identify with the person that I have become in the last thirty-four years?

* Do I still have that eagerness, joyfulness and optimism that I had at the age of ten?

* What must I do about people I have hurt, disappointed and have let down in my life, so far?

* What do I expect now from people who have hurt, disappointed and have let me down?

* Am I ready to heal the damaged relationships, or is it time to move on?

* Am I as healthy as I want to be? What must I do to be physically and mentally as healthy as I want to be?

* How would I act and look at the age of sixty? Would I be called ‘a nasty old cow’ or an ‘elegant, poised and gracious person’?

* What must I do now, what must I know now that I don’t know now, to not turn into somebody ‘extremely avoidable’ when I reach my ripe old age?

* How do I want to love and be loved? What is my true definition of a satisfying relationship, marriage or love -affair?

* What is stopping me from finding that?

* When I set my goals today, do I clearly see them coming to fruition in the future? Or am I blocking it subconsciously, due to my suppressed fears?

* What am I doing everyday to improve the quality of my life, to contribute to my environment and do my bit for the society?

The answers to some of our internal questions may provide insight into how fully are we able to trust and like ourselves. They offer an evaluation of what our intimate relationships really offer us. The deep reflections also illuminate the destructive patterns that play themselves out in our lives and stop us from reaching our maximum potential. We can find answers that can lead us to a realization of our inner most emotional needs and true goals. How to realize all our dreams and objectives, and the ideas about how to fulfill them. It takes us to a place where we know how to find opportunities for self-growth and grow to be a better, happier and more aware individual.

Posted at:
http://www.odemagazine.com/blogs/readers_blog/13742/reclaiming_our_true_self

Invisible Man

2009-12-23T19:02:00.000-08:00

Who doesn't fantasize about being invisible? Yeah? Me too!

At least for some days or just few hours. The reasons could be many, voyeuristic to name at least one.This is human mind.

The ‘Invisible Man’, by Ralph Ellison, is one of the finest example of allegorically defining a human mind. The narrator who tells the story in first person is someone who doesn’t wish to be seen by others.
He claims that he is ‘invisible’ because no one actually wishes to know his true reality and thus his invisibility is not physical but rather metaphorical, and is a result of others' refusal to see his true nature.
I feel that the author’s omission in giving a name to his protagonist is also a kind of symbol, which is used in order to affirm the theme of ‘invisibility’ in this novel. As human beings we are generally recognized by our names, and it construes a major part of our personality. A man without a name is unknown, unrecognizable and figuratively ‘invisible’ to another human being. Ellison uses this ploy with expertise in this novel.
The protagonist of Invisible Man is the narrator who is a young man and lives in the time period of sometime between the 1920s and 1930. He lives underground, hiding from the world. He has gone into hiding to write the story of his life, and tell the world about his invisibility.
There is a deep seated apprehension in his mind of him being discriminated due to his black color. His grandparents were freed slaves and his grandfather taught their family the lessons of meekness and humbleness towards the white men, in order to live peacefully amongst them. However on his deathbed all his bitterness pours forth and he confesses to be using this ploy to survive peacefully under the domination of white men. He teaches them to be as docile as possible, and to kill them softly by always saying yes to them. The narrator accedes to his grandfather’s advice, and lives a quiet life without dissenting to the white men. He does receive praises from the white men, but he also feels the treachery of being so submissive to the general tyranny of white men towards the black people.
The narrator is a talented public speaker who had once delivered a speech at his high school gradation, enforcing submission and humility as solution for the progression of Black Americans. Impressed by his views, the town arranges to invite him one day, to deliver a speech to a group of distinguished white men.
When he gets up to deliver his speech, it is disrupted by the audience who ignores his spoken words and insults him by making him explain himself, when he mistakenly says “social equality” instead of “social responsibility”.
The angry crowd of white men demands a clarification, and he humbly apologizes for his 'faux pas'. Here it is another example of his thoughts and views being ignored and brushed aside as inconsequential.
I think this incident affirms the narrator’s idea of being 'invisible' allegorically.
After the speech those men reward him with a briefcase containing a scholarship to a prestigious black college. However, the award also comes along with a humiliation as the narrator is asked, or rather forced to fight in a “battle royal”, in which he has to fight a group of black men who are all blindfolded. However, he loses the last round.
After the fight the blindfolds are removed and the white men force the youths to pick up gold coins and few crumpled bills scattered over a rug. The youths scramble over each other to pick up the coins, only to find that the rug had an electric current running through it. This is the white men’s idea of humiliating the black men.
Perhaps the blindfold was symbolic to the idea of the narrator being under the impression that the white men would be treating them with honor and compassion if they acquiesce to them. In my eyes, the removal of the blindfolds were figuratively telling the narrator that he is still a black man who would be treated with discrimination.
Written during the period of communist hysteria and McCarthyism, Ellison had his black hero tricked by his so called Communist duplicity. The book devotes far more space to this one thing that it does to any other injustices visited upon the hero by whites. “The hero’s invisibility is not a matter of being seen,” says Ellison, “ but a refusal to run the risk of his own humanity, which involves guilt.
This is not an attack upon white society! It is what the hero refuses to do in each section which leads to further action. He must assert and achieve his own humanity; he cannot run with the pack and do this—this is the reason for all reversals”.
At the end of the novel when the narrator is pushed into a hole, he is shown to feel more comfortable that what he felt outside in the world amongst respectable white people.
Personally I feel that the black hole was a refuge for the narrator, something, which he couldn’t find in the bright and the so-called highly regarded society.

Ellison’s novel has captured the true essence of a Black man’s gloomy life. His rich and brilliantly inventive theme and characterization has created a story that is unmatched in its portrayal of a Negro’s inner tribulations and surface jauntiness.
Grab it if you can.
Such a revealing invisibility this is of "those times".

Play Review - Radio Golf

2009-12-12T23:55:00.000-08:00

Radio Golf is a riveting and richly textured drama with excellent production and a first rate cast. The story is about today’s world and has some extremely skillful acting by Harry Lennix and Tonya Pinkins, who play the lead pair with persevering skill and sensitivity, in their Broadway performance.

Written by August Wilson, a Pulitzer Prize wining American Playwright, it is one of the ten plays on the African American experience in the 20th century in US, and was chosen as the best American play, and nominated as the ‘Distinguished Production of a Play.’
It opened on May 8th 2005, on Tuesday at Bond 45. Directed by Kenny Leon, it was a rage with the audience from the opening night itself.
Radio Golf has the story of a successful entrepreneur, who aspires to become the first Black Mayor of the city, but somehow the inevitable past catches up and he finds himself in a difficult situation, much of which turns out to be his own doing.
Set in Pittsburgh, Radio Gulf is bursting with energy and humor, and it is hard not to feel the pull at the heartstrings while watching it unfold.
The play ends up with an outstanding aria about the way the Blacks are perceived in the American society.

The author August Wilson was born in April 27, 1945 in Pennsylvania and was the fourth of six children of his German baker father, and an African American mother. As a child Wilson had encountered many racial hostility, when bricks were thrown through the window of his house. He went through many experiences that perhaps provided the fodder for all his plays on racial prejudices. He married three times.
Wilson received many honorary degrees, including an honorary Doctor of Humanities from the University of Pittsburgh where he also served as a member of the University’s Board of Trustees from 1992 to 1995.
Radio Golf is perceived as the best in his ten play series on the African American experience. Wilson has proved once again that he is America’s most insightful playwright, when it comes to spinning a dramatic story, with life size characters. His characteristic wisdom and humor is once again proven through this play.

Unfortunately it proved to be the last play by August Wilson as he died on October 2, 2005, in the same year when his play was receiving raving reviews.
Just 14 days after his death, on October 16, 2005, the Virginia Theater in New York’s Broadway theater district was renamed the August Wilson Theater. This is the first theater to bear the name of an African American.

His birthday April 27th, is named August Wilson Day by the city of New York.

In Wilson’s own words that he wrote in one of his famous plays, ‘Fences’:
“Death ain’t nothing but a fastball on the outside corner.” (Fences).

August Wilson has proved himself a writer par excellence, that fell victim to the fast ball of death, and was ousted from the field rather untimely.

Understanding Catharsis

2009-11-21T22:12:00.000-08:00

As human beings one predictably looks for a palliative when hurt or struck by a tragedy. While pain and hurt is instant and seeks immediate relief, tragedy is different as its effect is slow, brutal, and long lasting. A person seeking relief from a tragedy would invariably look for a catharsis, which is akin to riddance of emotions.
Catharsis happens when pent up emotions and feelings are metaphorically sluiced out by another incident or action of similar nature. The experience of catharsis is meant to make a person feel calm and refreshed. When personal pain is confronted by pain experienced by another person, one feels a sort of connection, and this in turn makes the personal tragedy seem less intense.
Many a time it happens that a song, a piece of poignant poetry, a film scene, or watching an opera makes one weep, and the act of weeping swills out the inner turmoil. It often feels as if something is flushing out the miasma of one’s soul.
Such an experience is the catharsis that the Greek philosopher, Aristotle, speaks about in his work Poetics. He explains the exact effect an audience would have while watching a touching rendition of a drama or opera, and the release of pent up feelings.
The effect, he believes, is often similar to the flow of menstrual fluid, or any reproductive material. Such an act of catharsis has the power to becalm a person after the experience of release through tears or any other way of expression.
However, catharsis cannot be termed as cleansing or purification of a person’s inner being. It is more like purgation. It is the emotional breakdown that lets loose the repressed feelings stuck somewhere in the gut or chest, and brings about a kind of release, but not relief of a permanent kind. Catharsis was used as a purely medical term, like purging of bowels, and any drug used as a laxative was called cathartic.
Aristotle gave a different connotation in Poetics. He says the human soul is purged of its excessive passions through catharsis. Since this work was largely in response to Plato’s claim that poetry makes a man hysterical and uncontrolled, Aristotle responded by saying that poetry helps a man to become less emotional by providing a periodic and healthy outlet to their feelings.
In psychotherapy, where therapy is provided to people suffering from mental ailment and trauma, psychoanalysts use the method of talking and expressing of emotions as catharsis. People suffering from deep mental trauma or grief are provided a professionally congenial atmosphere where they can speak about their inner turmoil while a psychoanalyst listens with uninterrupted silence and trained compassion.
Catharsis is quite pleasurable because it involves a feeling of astonishment and a state of trance where the person experiencing it, while watching a tragedy, thinks there are others who are the recipient of even greater tragedy than him. One feels an emptying of feelings and resolving of raging emotions by the end of it all.
In the Greek mythologies they believe that a person’s fate and personal flaws bring on the tragedy, and no amount of prevention can let a man escape his fate.
This brings to mind two tragic plays - Hamlet and Oedipus Rex.
Oedipus Rex comes to his tragic fate by unintentionally marrying his own mother and falls victim to the tragedies prophesied by the oracle. He was looking for catharsis when he took out his own eyes with his sword.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is another classic example, though the concept of catharsis varies from Oedipus Rex, according to the extent of their tragedies. Hamlet is the victim of his own tragic flaw, and falls prey to the consequences arising out of it. Hamlet’s tragic flaw is that he spends too much time pondering an action before taking it.
“To be or not to be” (Shakespeare, Hamlet) is the famous quote that often defined him, and he could not prevent his tragic downfall due to this flaw in his character. When he finally decides to kill Claudius, who is the killer of his father, he watches him praying and decides to wait. The next time he gets the chance he takes it, but by that time it is too late. By killing Claudius, Hamlet is seeking revenge, and the act of revenge is the subconscious catharsis that he is looking for.
The audience experiences catharsis when Claudius is killed. As the murder came much later in the play due to Hamlet’s indecisiveness, the true character of Claudius as the evil king become obvious.
If Hamlet had killed Claudius in the beginning when he had his first chance, then it would have come across as another son avenging his father’s death. But the catharsis occurred when the king Claudius is shown as an evil person responsible for death of others and who would continue to cause harm if allowed to live. The revenge of Hamlet becomes a secondary thing, and the killing of a malevolent man becomes the primary cause, which the audience applauds.
It is proclaimed that tragedy teaches endurance and perseverance in the face of calamities. It also expands the boundaries of experiences in life.

Also posted at: http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/understanding-catharsis/

Kurt Vonnegut- Retaining Our Humanity

2009-11-12T21:52:00.001-08:00

Some would say that his writings are creepy, but the fact is that Kurt Vonnegut wrote beautiful, bizarre and horrifying novels replete with dark humor, and that set him apart as a unique writer. His book "Slaughterhouse-Five" appeared on the list of Time magazine’s 100 all time best English language novels since 1923.

Written in 1969, this novel is considered a classic and is also known as one of his best works. The satirical essence of the novel is portrayed by the repetitive phrase, “so it goes” which Vonnegut uses to describe death and dying; whether it is of man, animal or the bubbles of champagne. He uses it to downplay the fact of ‘mortality’; making it sound humorous and routine. This novel explores the idea of fate, freewill and illogical nature of human beings.

Vonnegut uses time travel as the plot device to portray human conditions from an unusual perspective. He was a prisoner in the Battle of Bulge in December 1944; in Dresden, Germany as a battalion scout. He was among the few survivors that were taken as prisoners to a slaughterhouse during the war and he worked in a meat-locker under this slaughterhouse, making diet supplements for pregnant women.

In this amazing book Vonnegut combines science fiction elements along with human conditions in the aftermath of the Dresden bombing, to drive the point. He believes that no matter how distressing the situation of a man is; he has the power to create his own reality through the sheer power of imagination.

The fiction runs parallel to the story of Vonnegut’s own transition from the depressing years of 1930’s, which was also the period when ‘The Great Depression’ occurred, to a well to do existence that followed.

Essentially, the most important point that Vonnegut wanted to make was that no matter what happens, we should retain our humanity.

Conquering fear

2009-10-13T07:46:00.000-07:00

The major clothing and accessory company Nike, made ‘Just do it’ a motto for their brand promotion, created a business empire out of it and are still laughing all the way to the bank!
There is no doubt that it makes a wonderful copy. It has that zingy feeling of boldness when said aloud.
Many times we also use it in our normal talks ‘Okay, just do it dude…just do it mate… come on, just do it!’

However, we say it unthinkingly. We want to believe in it because it feels good to do so. When it comes to actually applying it, we step back. We hold on to the fear of putting our thought into action. ‘What if it goes wrong? What if I fail? What if I am unable to come out of it?’

These two words ‘what if’ rules our life. Fear always feels like this. Something is wrong. Something is going to be wrong. There is a fear of failure, fear of success, fear of publishing, fear of fame, fear of loss, fear of losing all that we have, fear of change, fear of letting go.

I don’t know about you, but I am often filled with fear about more things than I would care to admit. To mention few, there is a fear of losing my health and the fear of losing my loved ones. I have often struggled with the fear of letting my work go public, notwithstanding the fear of rejection and putting it all out in public glare, my inner emotions, thoughts, beliefs and qualms.
Most of the times when I put my work on public pages, I feel like a boxer in the fighting ring. Putting myself out there for blows of criticism and to be knocked down by rejection.

Sometimes I get these blows and it knocks me down, but I have discovered that the rewards are also many. The kindred feeling of connecting to so many people with my words and living an enlightened life is worth conquering all my fears.
I have learnt that it is the working, living and accepting of the fear that helps us to conquer it. We just cannot wish the fear away.
What is fear? In its most basic form, fear is about existence. The fact that we exist makes many demands on us and it is quite fearful. The feeling of fear is very physical in nature. It can include: a pounding heartbeat, a hollow feeling in the pit of the stomach, sensations of shakiness, sweatiness and sometimes a severe headache.

Fear of life shows up in many ways. One form of fear is when a person refuses to commit to anything in life and goes on seeking new beginnings. Another type of fear involves undertaking dangerous activities such as fast driving, drug abuse, reckless sex and excessive drinking. The feelings of fear are transformed into seeking thrills and constant highs.

On the other hand there are some who take no risk in life and prefer to live a constricted and insipid life. ‘Safety first’ becomes their maxim and they never get to live life to its maximum capacity. The fear makes them a detainee of their own narrow vision.
They are afraid to marry, to fall in love, to leave a dead marriage, to have children, to try a new job.
A strictly conventional, well mapped out path is what they seek to fight their fears...

Read full article here:
http://www.odemagazine.com/blogs/readers_blog/11162/three_ways_to_conquer_your_fear

The Jungle

2009-09-26T09:27:00.000-07:00

Book Review

When Upton Sinclair wrote this book, he stirred not only the hearts but also the guts of many readers. Some say it induced nausea along with emotions; however more nausea for some, notwithstanding the sensation it caused with its unique theme and portrayal.
The author himself had lived a life of abject poverty and had written this novel in a tarpaper shack in Princeton Town ship, while struggling with his own scarcity.

This novel is based upon the research he had done on the meat packing industry of Chicago Stockyards, and had filled the pages with revolting details, knowing little that this novel would one day turn into a great American bestseller.
Written during the period of 1906, this book was dropped like a bomb on an astounded audience. With its daring revelations its effect was first of its kind on a rather complacent world which never thought about what it ate day after day until Upton brought to them all packaged from the meat centers.

No reader could remain unaffected after reading about how dead rats were shoveled into sausage grinding machines. How diseased cows were slaughtered and packed off to cities for consumption.
He unapologetically wrote how pouring filth and guts were swept off the floor and packaged as potted ham, and the inspectors were bribed and forced to look the other way, when all this were happening right under their noses.

While reading this novel it begins to appear that Upton Sinclair was setting forth an armchair animal rights agitation, by revealing all the sordid details of the wrongdoings at meat packing centers.

Facing five rejections was not a reason to deter Sinclair as he had come to Chicago with intentions of writing this novel.
He is said to have declared that he had arrived to write a “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” of the labor movement.
The novel was first published in a serialized form in a newspaper.
Later a publishing house Doubleday, Page and Company published the first edition of this novel on 28th February 1906.

It was immediately considered a best seller due to its candid depiction of the exploitation of women and children and wretched working conditions at the meatpacking center. This novel also created quite a stir in the sales department of the American meat consumption. The foreign sales of American meat dropped drastically and it became hard for the government to calm public outrage.

Sinclair describes in detail how the pressures of working in a capitalist society affects the people and how their moral degradation is often catalyzed by these pressures.
The progression of the novel witnesses the struggles of the family as they hold jobs and means to stay alive and how they succumb to the demands of the capitalist society.
They fall prey to their moral degradation, as they fight facing the cruel world of working conditions in the Chicago stockyards.
The tragedies that follow the family are at once morbid and pathetic.
This creates a heart stirring story and also leaves the reader with a morose helplessness.
I don't mean to make you feel sick, but after reading this novel I was off meat for two weeks!!

Frankenstein- Mary Shelly

2009-09-12T07:18:00.000-07:00

Is a monster born or made?

Mary Shelly’s novel,Frankenstein is an allegorical novel that raises many issues plaguing the modern world.

The novel opens with a backdrop of Arctic Circle, and a lone man traveling alone in the freezing cold. The man is Victor Frankenstein, and the man who spots him is the captain of the ship Walton, who is facing a snag in his ship while traveling through the ice bound region. Symbolically it transmits a predicament of Captain Walton and Victor’s tale of warped passion. His perverted brutality drives him to tamper with alchemy and science, and he sets about to create a living creature, hoping to be a god.
He uses his knowledge of the means by which inanimate objects could be infused with life. In such an experiment lies his desire to be the creator of a marvel, never done by any man before. He was also compelled by his ever curious mind and his desire to experiment with the concepts of life and death, natural science and alchemy, that was the reason of his bizarre experimentation.
He picked up body parts from slaughterhouses and although he intended the creation to be beautiful, he fails in putting together the right kind of mechanism to apply.
The result is a grotesque looking monster that repels him enormously the moment he sets his sight on it.
He rejects, tries to ward off the contact with his creation, and runs away from him.
The monster that he created was a harmless creature initially, but turned into a fiend when thwarted by Victor.

“I saw the dull yellow eyes of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs” (Frankenstein, pg. 15).
The fact of the matter is that when Victor Frankenstein created his ‘Creature’, little did he know that this harmless looking creature is going to turn into his nemesis!
He was a man possessed by the desire to create something that would put him at par with a godlike stature, and despite being reprimanded by his professor had gone ahead with his curious researches.
By running away from his own creation, and metaphorically his own child, he sets in motion a chain reaction that gradually destroys his life forever.
Instead of reaching out lovingly as a mother would have done, and touching his ‘child’, Victor Frankenstein runs out from the room, completely disgusted with the abnormality and grotesque appearance of his creation.
When the Creature tries to follow him, Victor Frankenstein runs away in horror, and in the process sends across an involuntary message, that he is abandoning his child completely.

Victor did not pay much attention to the fact whether he actually wished his creature to exist. He randomly chose the limbs and other body parts and did not take enough care to create something with much emphasis on normality of appearance and structure.
He did not spend enough time upon making the body parts small, and the Creature took gigantic shape, and became almost 8 feet tall. He did not spare much thought at the Creature’s capability of living amongst normal human beings, and did not give much attention to its appearance. The Creature turned into a monster, which was so repulsive in its looks, that Victor, its own creator could not bear to look at.

He even at one instance wishes that the Creature were dead. The desire to see his creation dead is the saddest part in any creator’s life, and is often termed as a greatest tragedy.
The tragedy happens to both the creator and his creation, as the Monster that Victor had created turns nasty and destructive.
From the moment of its birth the Creature is abused, abandoned, and rejected by its symbolic parent and creator, Victor. The story of its life becomes the classic case of an abused becoming the abuser. The Creature turns into a murderer and destroyer of his own creator, following the heightened sense of rejection and a deeply traumatic alienation from the one source from where he could have hoped to find acceptance and affection.

There is an instance in the book, where he even begs Victor to create a woman, a mate for him, so that he feels less lonely.

“ Why do we, any of us, all of us- really want? The perfect relationship; the perfect man; the perfect woman?” (Verhaeghe, Love in a Time of Loneliness)

Perhaps the increasing need of a relationship and loneliness captured his heart, which he was not able to understand or control, and it turned him into a monster.

The nature and nurture theory come into being here, when it is believed that a man’s nature is molded and shaped more by his environment, that it is his ‘nurturing’ than his ‘nature’ that is basically a combination of genetic factors.

These are perhaps the lessons brought forward in Frankenstein.

Just like the Monster created by Frankenstein, every one of us is carrying bits and pieces of human parts that are not all perfect. We are all made of little patches and pieces that are often mismatched.

What I learn from this book is this-Perfection is a myth.

This myth is lived by the Monster in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein.

Finding happiness through simplicity

2009-09-09T07:47:00.000-07:00

I believe in a ‘beautiful and useful’ policy. Meaning, a thing has to be either beautiful or useful, if it is neither then I just throw it away! Ten times out of ten I have discovered that I never regret trashing them.

The trash in our life includes old clothes, old utensils, old cosmetics, old electronics which doesn’t work, old shoes that hurt and bite, old towels that scratch more than absorb the dampness of our body, tennis balls that have lost their bounce, golf balls with dings, rusty tools, rusty relationships, rusty emotions, old angers, old hostilities, old newspapers, old lovers who still hurt, negative emotions, ghosts of boyfriends/girlfriends past!
Yep, all in the same breath.

Create space. Clean up the clutter. Throw the junk. Just do it.

Most of the time we cling to certain things and people due to our inherent reluctance to let go of things easily, due to our fear of having regrets and also due to some sentimental reasons. That old pair of mismatched socks kept in hope of finding the other pair someday during one of those spring cleanings, never actually meets its mate. Or that faded T-shirt that we never wear but can’t let go, because it has some sentimental value; all these add clutter to our spaces.

The junks in our lives are not just the old newspapers, broken toys, non-working tools, and potato peels.
One of the biggest clutters in our life is negative emotion like hopelessness, depression, rancor, pessimism and unwholesome relationships and they are mostly interconnected.
That old toothbrush left by your ex-live in partner, is adding to your misery without you knowing it. Every morning when you wake up to brush your teeth, you look at that toothbrush and are filled with remorse and sadness because you loved him/her once. Well, the relationship was good as long as it lasted, but now it is as frayed at the edges as the toothbrush he/she left behind. Throw it away; it is neither beautiful, nor useful!

Clinging to non working relationships causes another kind of clutter. We are all guilty of holding on to bad and dysfunctional relationships at some point or the other, in hopes of ‘changing’ the person one day. It doesn’t happen and we make ourselves unhappier, day-by-day. This sort of relationship is a clutter.

Then there are some unwholesome social contacts that sap our energy, add no value to our life and often draw out the worst in us. The term ‘bad vibes’ that we so often use in our vocabulary to describe someone’s presence are a fact and not just a fancy expression. There are subtle changes in the atmosphere and we feel it in our own bodies when such elements are around. We subconsciously compress our lips, clench our fists and become tense. Especially, when they pile on, interfere and criticize us unfairly. Such interactions are like a leech sucking our emotional blood, and they leave us feeling depleted.
There is no law that says you have to give time and energy to people you don’t like, or who aren’t good for you. You don’t have to be rude, but be clear and honest with these people.
By ‘junking’ such contacts we create harmony in our lives.

Sometimes it happens that even people we care about can clutter our life with their needs, problems and expectations. If there are friends and loved ones who clutter your emotional space so that you feel you don’t have enough time and energy left to pursue other things you wish to do, or if you are unable to have enough ‘alone times’ due to their constant company then please set limits. For yourself and them. Focus on quality than quantity, and explain to them nicely that you need some time to yourself...

Read Full article here:
http://www.odemagazine.com/blogs/readers_blog/10046/finding_happiness_through_simplicity

The Wanderer

2009-09-04T02:17:00.000-07:00

I met him at the crossroads, a man with but a cloak and a staff , and a veil of pain upon his face. And we greeted one another, and I said to him, "Come to my house and be my guest."

And he came...

We all sat together at the board and we were happy with the man for there was a silence and a mystery in him.
And after supper we gathered to the fire and I asked him about his wanderings.

He told us many a tale that night and also the next day, but what I now record was born out of the bitterness of his days though he himself was kindly, and these tales are of the dust and the patience of his road.

And when he left us after three days we did not feel that a guest had departed but rather that one of us was still out in the garden and had not yet come in.

The wanderer-Kahlil Gibran

The Dream- Weeping willows

2009-08-26T23:46:00.000-07:00

The yellow car stopped at the entrance of my house and someone opened the passenger’s door without stepping out. I saw the glimpse of a brown hand, cuff of a spotless white sleeve and gold cuff links with insignia of dragons embossed on it.
I waved a goodbye to them and with joyful strides set out towards the waiting car. My haversack felt empty as I laid it on the back seat. Hollowed and pulpy, as if I have dropped everything on the way. I pressed on the black leather in panic and heard a whoosh of air escaping from the half open zipper. He smiled at me and said nothing.

I looked back at them, for one last glimpse and final wave, but there was no house, no door. I saw a row of weeping willows, yellowing in the autumn sun. Beyond that was a mossy, black wall and they were sitting on it.
Laughing, jeering faces. Their lips made a perfect ‘O’ and they waved their arms at me wildly, in unison. Go…just go!

The road ahead was wet and gray, undulating like a writhing, black snake. The walls at both side of the road was broken down and painted with a parched yellow color. Suddenly it rose, higher and higher as the car sped on the empty road.
‘Will we reach on time?’ I asked his rigid profile.
‘We will reach.’ His voice was ricocheting against the whirr of the engine.

I tried to hold on to the edges of my seat but there was water everywhere. No safety belt, just water. Rippling, raging, rising waves and my hands just scoured at the angry bubbles without holding on to anything. The sharp and cold currents were gnawing at my fingers and I found my side of the car caving slowly into a sidewalk quagmire.
I looked at him and he was still looking ahead. Moving the steering wheel furiously, with one hand. ‘Stop.’ I said but I didn’t hear my voice. I said it again but the sound did not come out. My lips moved, gasping for air, like the mouth of a fish left out on the dry shingles. No sound came out, still.
I reached over to shake him, pull out the key from ignition, but he was not there. The seat was empty. The car had stopped and it was sinking into the squishy ground at my side. I opened the door of the car and swam through the yellow waters of a muddy river.
The sun was beating down, scorching my skin, as I looked up at the dry vacant sky. The yellowing walls at the side of the road were turning into willows again, and I ran on the hot, dry tarmac. My feet were hurting as it hit the concrete surface. He was chasing me now. His gold cuff links glinting in the sharp sun rays as he waved at me to stop.

I ran and ran and getting inside a bathroom locked myself in.
The bathroom was freshly painted in bright pink color and a white plastic bucket was put upside down on the floor. He was sitting on the bucket removing his cuff links.
‘I can’t seem to get rid of these.’ He spoke to me and I nodded.

First posted at: http://annandaledreamgazetteonline.blogspot.com/search/label/Nazia Mallick

P.S: Thanks to Lynn Behrendt, for sharing my dream.
Also at:www.tempestlashedhorizon.blogspot.com

Managing anger...

2009-08-22T03:02:00.000-07:00

Our mom told us to control our anger, asserting that anger is ‘not a very nice emotion’.

If we are depressed or sullenly hostile it was overlooked, but showing anger is considered the shameful thing and I grew up thinking that if we express anger then we are not a ‘polite’ and ‘well-bred’ person.

Anger management is an art; as Aristotle said many years ago- “To be angry with the right person to the right extent and at the right moment and with the right object and in the right way- that is not easy.”

As a growing girl I was tutored by my mother to avoid displaying emotions like laughing loudly, jumping up in joy and showing aggression of any kind in public. I was discouraged to act on my feelings and let it all hang out.
Be a Lady. I was told.
Even the school where I studied was a convent run by Irish nuns and we girls were expected to act poised, and in control all the time.

Perhaps I missed the point somewhere in all this ‘Jane Erye-ish’ disciplining, and did not learn how to deal with my anger. Instead of ‘managing’ it I began to ‘suppress’ it.
I was at one time absolutely unqualified in handling my anger. When I felt angry or was at the receiving end of anger I had no clue what to do, except become absolutely quiet, seethe secretly, bottle it up and then let it dissipate with time. The best I could do was to burst into angry tears and that made the matters worse.

I had to cope with plenty of difficulties due to this trait and it not only hurt me but my family too.

Later I realized that there is a delicate balance between emotional literacy and repression of powerful feelings, and I learned to manage my anger in a better way, without repressing it.

During this learning phase, one interesting thing that I discovered was this: if we are frightened of our anger then we lose control of it. By acknowledging it, we are taking responsibility for its expression and we learn to have some control over how we express it.

I closely knew a man who had this problem of uncontrollable anger. He would smash things up at slightest pretext. Fly into rage if the waiter at a restaurant took extra time in serving him. He would beat up even a policeman who would dare to cross his path and would often land into deep troubles due to this behavior. But when he is not angry, he is an exceptionally warm, generous and caring person, and I used to feel extremely sorry about him being misunderstood and avoided by others, due to his setback.

Once he confessed that when he feels angry, a black curtain falls before his eyes and he feels detached and separated from his true self, caught by some unbridled force.
I had dealt with my own anger, though it was dissimilar in expression. And I shared my anger problem with him, with an example from the film ‘Anger Management’ that portrays this condition effectively.

There is a dialogue in the film, when Jack Nicholson tells Adam Sandler, “ Explosive is the type of individual you see screaming at the cashier for not taking his coupon. Implosive is the cashier who remains quiet day after day and then finally shoots everyone in the store.”

I told him that my anger problem was not...

Read more here:

http://www.odemagazine.com/blogs/readers_blog/9313/managing_anger_the_right_way_10_ways_to_gain_control

12 Angry Men

2009-08-19T09:48:00.000-07:00

First released in 1957, this film directed by Sidney Lumet, is a gripping drama based on a murder case that is fought by a team of 12 jurors.

The defendant is a young Puerto Rican teenager who is facing a trial for the alleged murder of his father. This young teenager is shown only briefly in the beginning, and for rest of the time the audience perceives the defendant only through the descriptions given by the 12 jurors during their discussions. This perception gradually and imperceptibly changes during the course of the film.

This film is a powerful representation of the trial by jury system, which has an engrossing cross examination by 12 jurors who are appointed, or rather entrusted
with the power to send a young teenager to the electric chair.

The juror team is an all white panel of middle aged, middle class men in whose hands
the life and future of an uneducated and poor boy is lying.
The film has a socio-psychological bend to it that confirms to the audience that each and every juror has a personal revelation to make as the insults and outbursts fill the courtroom. The scared teenager stands facing the American Judicial system with all its ostensible infallibility and supposedly unbiased approach and is at the mercy of the 12 Angry Men with some of their verdicts being overly personal and exaggerated .
As you got through the film it becomes obvious that the judicial system can be quite dangerous if left in hands of people whose decision making abilities are doubtful due to their personal prejudices, indifference, biases,unpredictable anger , variable judgments, ignorance and fears .
Such a group of juries can only lead to a tainted justice in what seems like an open and shut case of murder, but in reality is a matter of life and death for a young teenager.

As the one of the promotional poster of this film said:

“ Life is in their hands- Death is on their minds. It explodes like 12 sticks of dynamite.”

The 12 Angry Men do explode like dynamite as the film gains momentum towards its
Climax. Locked in a small claustrophobic room on a hot summer day, they forget the real issue and air their deep seated prejudices by being angry and getting out of focus. Fortunately one rebellious juror had some reasonable doubts and he votes “ not guilty” at the start of the discussions and quite persistently he forces the other men to reconsider the rather unsteady case which was going against the defendant.
In this film the entire build up of tension comes from the gestures and body language of the jurors , from their personality conflicts, dialogues and from a slowly unfolding drama. There is no action or flashback in the film, and the
entire film is shot mainly in a stuffy room where the 12 angry men live out
their personality quirks, personal opinions and their fragmented sense of justice.

This film is thin on content but has created a masterpiece by a stylized photography and some sensible editing.It is more about a defenseless young man who is facing death for an alleged crime. The film comes up with the racial discrimination angle, on the basis of colour and class that reveals how so many death row convictions are often based on false evidences.

This compelling film quite provocatively examines the twelve men’s deep seated
personal prejudices and racial biases, as they argue among themselves about the
murder trial.

I thoroughly enjoyed this sepia scented film that I could get hold of, courtesy a friend who is a film aficionado and has a huge collection of old and rare films.

If you love good cinema and riveting dramas then you would surely like to get hold of the DVD and lose yourself into this tale of murder and nail biting frustrations of a warped judiciary.

Being Mallick

2009-08-12T22:11:00.000-07:00

I am often asked about my surname, since it follows a Muslim first name.
Let me tell you (anyone who is interested in knowing) that there are many "Mallicks" in India and they belong to different communities other than Muslims.
But the spelling of the surname differ. Mainly it is written as 'Malik' in other communities.
Not that I believe in belonging to any community that is based on caste or religion but just to provide a vital information, I would like to write down the history of "Mallicks" who are Muslims and they belong to the royal lineage,of Ibrahim Mallick Baya .

The Mallicks were so paranoid about their blood line getting 'mixed' with other castes and becoming 'impure' that for years they married only amongst those with a 'Mallick' title. The marriages happened between cousins only, so that the royal bloodline remains safe. But later on with other progress this practice is dropped and even Mallicks are marrying in other communities now.
In my family itself there are many inter caste, inter religion and even inter nationality marriages.

Here is a brief history of Mallicks:

Mallicks are descendants of Ibrahim Mallick Baya or Bayyo, who was an eminent military general and a famous Sufi/ Saint of the 14th Century A.D. He was the 7th descendant of Syed Abdul Qadir Jilani (Rahmatullah Allaih, RA). He conquered the state of Bihar(India) and was appointed Governor of Bihar by Sultan Mohammad son of Tughlaq. He was given the coveted title of "Mallick" by the Sultan and became famous as "Mallick Biya".
On account of this honor, his descendants carried this title and today 600 years later are still distinctly connected with him and recognized as the Mallicks of Bihar. At the time of Sultan Mohammad Tughlaq (1290 AD-1351 AD), General, Syed Ibrahim, selected for Bihar to maintain Law and order. After a fierce battle, the Raja was killed and his army was defeated. The conquest of Bihar was a remarkable achievement, and on this occasion, the Sultan conferred upon Syed Ibrahim the title of “Madarul Mulk Mallick Saif wa Daulat” The tomb of Syed Ibrahim is located in Biharsharif, at the hilltop of Pir Pahari.
The tomb is strange structures of a rare quality of bricks, which have survived the ravages of time and the harsh devastation of climate for the last 600 years.
After 600 years, the structure stands as if it were built in the recent decade. Besides Mallick Biya’s tomb, there are 10 graves of his sons and grandson inside the dome.
The descendants of the eight children of Mallick Biya multiplied over 600 years and constituted a significant portion of the Muslim Community in Bihar (India).

The motto of Mallicks:

LET THE BEST HAPPEN IN YOUR LIFE, LET THE BEST GUIDE YOU, LET THE BEST SERVE YOU, LET THE BEST TEAM BACK YOU !!

Courtesy: Mallick Baya Web Network yahoo groups.

Coping with rejection-Empower yourself with an optimistic outlook

2009-08-04T09:36:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine told me once that she was ‘dumped’ by her lover of four years through an indifferent email. Needless to say she felt acutely defenseless at that time and had plummeted into the so-called depths of despair, but after a decent mourning period now she feels like the one who has had the ‘good riddance’.
‘You know Nazia’ She jovially confessed, ‘Some lovers live happily ‘ever’ after, some live happily ‘even’ after!’
A carefree laughter accompanied this brave declaration of hers and I could not help but marvel at the vibrant and positive outlook she has developed to something as downbeat and heartbreaking as rejection.

Fundamentally speaking, rejection is the ending of a relationship, a dream or a hope, and it often is the most dreadful moment of our lives. Most of the time we are in partial denial of its existence until it hits us suddenly with a force and catches us unawares.
Rejection comes in many forms. We feel rejected when we don’t get a job we badly wanted, a seat in a particular college, a house we had set our heart and dreams on, or a lover we were deeply in love with has decided to walk away.
The doomed announcement of rejection may come in a letter, email, or a fax, written out in black and white. Or maybe it was hinted rather catastrophically, during a telephone conversation.
Unlike my friend who turned it around later to call being dumped as the ‘best gift’ from her callous lover, most of us do feel the agony of rejection for quite a long time and it does slowly and surely seep into our psyche to leave us feeling washed up, deserted, and high and dry...

Read more here:
http://www.odemagazine.com/blogs/readers_blog/9153/coping_with_rejection_empower_yourself_with_an_optimistic_outlook

Saying it with silence

2009-06-05T21:06:00.000-07:00

There was this very beautiful line that I read in Orhan Pamuk’s novel,‘My Name is Red’. He wrote about a blind man watching the snowfall and smiling to himself.
That line stayed with me for a long, long time. How could a blind man watch the snow?
I pondered. I know that when the sight is taken away, the other senses become sharper. The blind man must have felt the cold air around him with the tiny snowflakes brushing his cheek; he must have caught a puffy, wet ball in his hand and had felt it melt in his palms. But did he hear the snow falling?
Somehow I believe that he actually listened to the snowfall, more than he felt it. He must have listened to the silence of the falling snow. He listened, because he was silent inside, in his own wonderful and special way.

Often silence makes people uncomfortable, accustomed as they are to the noise and commotion of the world, but silence is all about coming home to ourselves.
When we sit in silence we relax and slip into an exquisite nothingness. We look within and drop our opinionated mind and learn to feel everything around us more deeply.
When the incessant chatter of the mind stops and we let the quietness around submerge us, something sacred is born within.

Nietzsche said that our greatest experiences are our quietest moments...
Read more here: http://www.odemagazine.com/blogs/readers_blog/7789/saying_it_with_silence

A Docu Drama on Sharia Law

2009-06-04T02:35:00.000-07:00

Presenting the film Hilla

In the current battles of warped views and atmosphere of ‘Islamophobia’ I would like to present a crusader who has taken up the cause of clearing the miasma of radicalism in Islam:
Mr. Hasan Mahmud, Director of Sharia Law, Muslim Canadian Congress, Canada. He is a liberal Islamic theologian, writer and playwright who is also a sensitive activist for women’s rights and has been active towards dispelling the myths surrounding many infamous Sharia Laws in Islam.

He has been contributing extensively towards this cause by his writing and has delivered many speeches on Sharia laws in many conferences, seminars and Educational institutes in Asia, Europe, Canada and USA. He has authored books like ‘Islam and Sharia’ and has made deeply moving and ‘eye opening’ documentary movies such as “Hilla” and Docu-drama on Sharia Law – “Law and Justice” and has produced several DVDS on different Sharia-issues including, Apostasy.
He has brought into light how the infamous Triple Talak (Divorce) in Muslims is touted as more of a slander on Islam than a reasonable law, without understanding its true meaning and context.
To those who are not aware of this Sharia Law, the Triple Talak is supposedly the law, which says that a Muslim man has to just pronounce ‘I divorce you’ three times to his wife and he is a free man!
Whereas in Quran, the holy book of Islam, this law has many conditions and legalities attached to it, which the so-called Islamic scholars have conveniently glossed over to assert their patriarchal autonomy.
Many Muslims have not challenged this law, because the fact is that Muslims have been too sensitive to attacks on their faith and their attitude is that of besieged followers, misguided by overstatements.
Mr. Mahmud has raised his voice against the insensitive Triple Talak in his film ‘Hilla’ and has shown how a woman has to go through severe mental trauma and humiliation when this system is forced on her.
In the film Hilla he has handled the inciting subject of Muslim divorce with peaceful discussions and has proved without being confrontational, how this Sharia Law is anti-Islamic and how it has been abused over the centuries. Watching this film would provide a sense of security to the many oppressed Muslim women, as it is made with an exceptional sensitivity towards a woman’s emotional predicaments in such situations. Since I dislike to use this word ‘moderate’ Muslim because I feel that it is antithesis to what I am trying to project here, I would just call this post a small contribution from a Muslim, as an effort to throw light on some of the dark and misconstrued issues in Sharia Laws and to spread the voice of reason and sanity amongst this current hysteria of distrust, which is ailing the Muslims and Islam.
This educative film, provides an exceptional clarity on an obscure practice, like Triple Talak.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B0305803702E7AE7

Kamala Das Breaks Free

2009-05-31T21:28:00.000-07:00

Kamala Das, a distinguished poet, writer, rebel, and litterateur, of English and Malayalam language was a woman whom I admired extensively.
Today when I read this news about her death, I am feeling a loss that is hard to explain.

She was an exceptionally talented writer whom I admired so much that I had this secret desire to meet her one-day just to breathe the same air with her. Her poetry reminded me of the same pathos as that of Sylvia Plath.

She was one of those writers whom I grew up admiring and trying to emulate. The voice in her writings always spoke back to me.

As a writer, she loved to ruffle feathers of the uber-conservative fundamentals of society and always stood against male domination and double standards with a defiant and coherent voice.

Through her writings she came across as one of the most honest and unpretentious woman who understood and laid bare the subconscious desires of a woman, her secret pining, her sexual dissatisfaction and the loss of identity in a relationship with a man without laying claim to feminist posturing.

Her autobiography ‘My Story’ created a storm of controversies due to its sexually explicit content, the candid declaration of sexual dissatisfaction in her marriage and the search for true love with other men. For the mediocre mind and the hypocrite Indian society the eroticism was hard to stomach. She was much ahead of her times being a non-conformist in the 70s and having daringly stood up against the lame regulations of a society that loved to put its women in straight jackets.

My heart is heavy today. An extraordinarily gifted poet, short story writer and woman, is no more now.

“Until I found you
I wrote verse, drew pictures,
And went out with friends
Now that I love you,
Curled like an old mongrel,
My life lies content in you.”
- Kamala Das-

What is the truth of Islam?

2009-05-28T12:17:00.000-07:00

I have always maintained that one needs to ‘Unlearn’ more about Islam, than ‘Learn’ about it, as there are more prevalent conjectures about Islam than any real knowledge of its basic tenets.

Most people from different countries have their own version and interpretations of their cultures, but Islam is the only religion, which experiences a unanimously iniquitous perception about its doctrines due to lack of information.
Islam is understood only through evolving in it, and as one goes through the studies, one comes across the true meanings and sensitivities of this religion.

For a Muslim what the Qur’anic scriptures say is the only Islam they must believe in, but it has been maligned and quoted so much out of context that the factual voice has been lost in the crescendo of prejudiced debates. Basically it is an irrefutable ignorance about the true teachings of Islam that has become the foremost reason why it appears so unacceptable to the xenophobic world.

On the other hand the onus also lies on many Muslims who do not understand their own religion properly, and set a bad example by misusing the teachings.

I believe that there are no quick fixes in understanding the concept of being Muslim, and tolerance and open mindedness is the only salvage against such misconceptions; but tolerance is hard to come by and the crusaders have faced more censure than any patient hearing.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

2009-05-27T05:23:00.000-07:00

The ill-fated event of 9/11 where thousands of innocent persons lost their lives is one of the most unfortunate incidents in the Islamic world.

It changed the world's view of Islam and in some cases, strengthened the doubts and apprehensions surrounding it.
This lucidly written fictitious account by Mohsin Hamid makes for easy reading. However, the discerning reader will see beyond the fiction and realize that the book is part history and part polemics.

Firmly marooned in the wounded realities of the post 9/11 worlds, it explores the growing distress between Islam and the West.
For the world, and especially for the West, the most prevalent image of Islam is of fanaticism, brutality, hatred and disorder. Stemming partly from a lack of information and partly from bad press, Islam is probably the most dangerously misunderstood religion in the world.
In Hamid’s book, this image is tersely captured, when the world finds itself in an increasingly strong grip of Islamophobia, and Muslims find themselves beleaguered and persecuted in the aftermath.
The reluctant fundamentalist is Changez; a Princeton- educated Pakistani youth, who has a high paying job in America. He is the product of an American university, earning a lucrative American salary, and infatuated with an American woman. He loves America.

But his sweet American Dream turns into a bitter nightmare in the wake of September 11 attack, and he contritely confesses that a part of him “desired to see America harmed.”
The buoyant and carefree world around him overturns when he switches on the TV one day and watches the horrible terrorist attack on the Twin Towers. He discovers that his inner voice is in conflict with his non fundamental beliefs. Like many Muslim youth, who are in search of a dream in gigantic America, he finds himself caught in the perfidious currents of the East-West conflict.
He feels inside him a transformation that comes with a niggling sympathy for the attackers; almost ‘reluctantly’, he finds himself turning into an America bashing radical.
Mohsin Hamid goes deep into the psyche of fundamentalism and the simmering anger towards supercilious America and its insufferable interference in Vietnam, Middle East and Afghanistan.

The narrative is a monologue between Changez and an unidentified American, who is his sole listener.
“I turned on the television and saw what at first I took to be a film. But as I continued to watch, I realized that it was not fiction but news. I stared as one – and then the other – of the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Centre collapsed. And then I smiled. Yes, despicable as it may sound, my initial reaction was to be pleased”. (Pg. 72).
Check the, ‘smiled’. This single word captures both the ruefulness and the wrath of the protagonist. Changez is caught in the intricacies of hatred, liberalism and loyalty to his own faith. His earlier free thinking attitude was becoming venomous; clinging around his subtly judicious nature like poison ivy; and he finally succumbs to the inevitable fundamentalism.
There are little strokes of softer emotions, which are interspersed in the chapters where Changez’s one-sided love with a beautiful American girl Erica remains unrequited and leaves him troubled and disenchanted.
The storyline is engaging and easy on the mind, written with constrained guile and a unique narration technique.

First published at Chillibreeze :
http://www.chillibreeze.com/articles_various/the-Reluctant-Fundamentalist.asp

Being Muslim, Indian and Woman

2009-05-22T08:41:00.000-07:00

I don’t intend to use this site to write research papers on the subjects of Islam and its tenets; in fact I am trying to learn about this faith myself and figure out why it is so maligned.
Since my quest , I have experienced that every explanation regarding Islam and Muslim women is just glossed over or treated with subtle disbelief. It is so frustrating and sad that despite being a liberal and scientifically accurate religion, Islam has suffered so much misinterpretation due to the universal hate propaganda.
Today the target and victim are nearly always Muslim women, because their true status is ‘lost in translation’ and the mayhem, which is caused by years of old prejudices.
But the fact is that women are the soft target in every culture and religion of this world and not just Islam.
In fact it is quite shocking but true that in India the practice of killing a girl child is still prevalent in many remote villages and certain tribes, especially in Haryana and Rajasthan.
In some families a girl child is immediately drowned in a pot of boiling milk as soon as she is born, resulting in quick death.
Even in urban classes such killings are done by way of female infanticide and female feoticide.
Sex determination tests are still carried out in the upper middle class society, albeit secretly.
Even in the modern India, a boy is still considered a ‘god sent’ gift, who would carry the family name forward, be the bread winner and take care of the family in times of need and old age, and would also bring ‘salvation’ to the soul of his father after he is dead, as it’s a son who would light the funeral pyre.
On the other hand, a girl is seen as someone who will ruin the financial status of a family and would bring shame if she were not married off at the ‘right age.’
Sad but true, India tops the list as far as illegal abortion and female infanticide are concerned in the WORLD. According to UNICEF, 40 to 50 million girls have gone missing in India since 1901- Missing because they were not allowed to be born, or if born, murdered immediately thereafter.
Another startling statistic suggest that in spite of being SAARC “decade for the girl child”, out of the 1.2 Crore girls born in India every year, 30 Lakhs do not live to celebrate their 15th birthday.
I have been taking part in few one to one discussions regarding Islam and its apparent radical image and have been trying my best to dispel some of the myths regarding the status of women in Islam and how the projected image is so different from what the Quran says.
With the hype surrounding the status of women in Islam, it is extremely hard to convince the 'cynics' that the Muslim culture and status of Muslim women represented today is not the true Islamic law.
In fact it was with the advent of Islam that women gained infinite rights and their status was raised; but when the Islamic scholars began to implement cultural practices and imperceptibly began to change certain norms, the decline of Muslim women began.
Earlier the Muslim women were enjoying a status of dignity and nobility, but things began to deteriorate not just with women but Islam also slipped into backwaters.Muslim themselves started to lose their mark of identity and stagnation began to set in their society.
Today Muslim women are more or less in a deplorable condition and are deprived of their right and opportunities, much like their oppressed counterparts in rest of the world especially developing countries like India.
However, not just Islam, but in the conservative society of India, women of all religion are targeted because unfortunately the system is still patriarchal, where a man has an upper hand and where women have to still bow to the man’s wish. He can be the father, husband, brother, son or the in-laws.
Or the society at large.

Singh Is King!

2009-05-17T01:00:00.000-07:00

Yes indeed, Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India, is the undisputable King!

This diminutive, humble, soft-spoken and intensely gentle man with softly twinkling and kind eyes, and a tender smile on his lips, has shown the world how good things come in small packages.
Decades after Pt. Jawaharlal Lal Nehru (the first Prime Minister of India) he is the only Prime Minister, to be elected for the second term consecutively, and with such clear and sweepingly large majority of votes that it has astounded even the skeptics!
He has created history.
His victory denotes that people of India have kicked out the divisive, vitriolic, wicked and communal minded Politicians out of the National Politics (hopefully) forever.
They have proved that they no longer believe in the politics of Hate, Politics of Religion, Politics of Caste and Politics of Genocide.

They have sent a strong message that they are no longer interested in the outdated ‘Mandir/Masjid' issues, and the medieval ‘Hindutva’ ideologies.

A common Indian wants to look forward, feel secure and he wants to have a home, a roof over his head, rather than a ‘Ram Mandir’.

He wants good governance, good job, good education, financial security and a clean, transparent, credible, and peaceful government who believes in progress of the Nation and its citizens.

I just hope that the Congress don’t become smug and arrogant with this mammoth and commendable victory and continue to deliver what they promised with humility and thankfulness, as the citizens of India have put great faith in their capability and integrity.

While the music still goes on

2009-05-13T10:38:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest musicians of Western Classics, Johann Sebastian Bach (21st March 1685--28th July 1750) lived on a humble salary and unsanitary living and appalling, working conditions.
It is so hard to believe that this was the fate of one of the greatest musicians of western classic music.

Unfortunately, as long as he was alive, he struggled to make ends meet and could ever get the appreciation he deserved.

He worked as a curator in St. Thomas Church in Leipzig and his duties included the writing of music for churches and playing the organ. He also taught Latin and music to a class of boys. His regimen was severe and taxing and he was continuously at odds with his employers. The church rector Johann August Ernestin treated him badly and subjected him to continuous humiliation. On several occasions, the congregation did not comprehend the greatness of his musical conceptions.

In fact when he first played his ‘Passion according to St. Mathews’ at his church in 1729, no one understood it and it was even dismissed as an ‘opera comedy’.
However, even a partial blindness and adverse atmosphere could not arrest his creative output that was prodigious.
He wrote so much that it is said, “If a copyist sat down to transcribe all his work then it would take 70 years to complete.”
After his death a bundle of his cantatas was sold for forty dollars and some of the manuscripts of his solo sonatas were used by the local shopkeepers to use it as the wrap for their wares!
The plates of the ‘art of Fugue’ were sold off as metal.

Unbelievably, this incredible genius got his recognition after 75 years of his death.
But as long a he was alive he struggled to make ends meet and could ever get the appreciation he deserved.
When he died he was buried in an undefined grave but after 144 years of his death, his coffin was recovered from an unidentified grave and he was buried again within the Church.

Beloved-Toni Morrison

2009-05-10T01:38:00.000-07:00

Just finished reading this mind boggling book Beloved by Toni Morrison!

For all those who have read her before , liked her style and have missed out on this book, I must say that this one is highly recommended. .

Beloved won the Pulitzer Prize in the year 1992, and proved to be a masterpiece on the theme of slavery and retribution.

It is interesting to note how Morrison has used structure in the narration of Beloved .

This novel has many symbols and metaphorical allusions that are woven intricately into the narration, speaking about pain and inner trauma with a simplicity that is puzzling and yet comes across as a stroke of genius, even for the most discerning reader.

The protagonists of Beloved are all damaged persons who are struggling with their painful pasts. Sethe, the central figure and the most significant protagonist of Beloved says, “ I will never run from another thing on this earth”.
She says this to prove her mettle, her courage under fire. Throughout the novel she is escaping from her past, denying and running away from the painful memories. When she says that she will never run away from another thing, she is subconsciously bringing all of it back by trying to dull her ache and guilt of what she did to her daughter many years ago.

Sethe is a confused mother who had tried to prove her love by murdering her daughter. She does so to save her from slavery and exploitation.
Toni Morrison uses Sethe as her alibi, and builds a structure of guilt, pain, mental trauma, forgetfulness and a terrible secret around her.
Sethe is the one who has ‘rememory’ of the past, which has painful associations of rape and murder. Sethe tries to beat her past by trying to deny its impact. The advent of ‘Beloved’ is also the symbolism of a dreadful past catching up with Sethe sooner or later.

The past comes back in the form of her dead child; the child whom she had murdered in her past, and it makes its demands on her present.
The unreasonable behaviour of ‘Beloved’ is also used by Morrison as a structure, to base her story on retribution and trauma of the protagonist, who is perpetually running away from her past and denying its appalling force on her conscience all the time.

Quite assiduously, Morrison uses another structure to show retribution and poetic justice for the crime done by Sethe, by introducing the young woman Beloved as the lost and murdered daughter of Sethe.

Beloved is almost cruel in her demands and in creating havoc in Sethe’s life. She seduces and sleeps with Paul D, who is Sethe’s boyfriend, and demands all the time for her desires to be fulfilled.

“Beloved ate up Sethe’s life, took it, swelled up with it, and grew taller on it. And the older woman yielded it up without a murmur.”
This is quoted to prove Beloved as the symbolic devourer, ( as it says , “Swelled up with it” ) who had no scruples in keeping Sethe on her toes and destroying her gradually.
“Without a murmur” is symbolic of a repenting mother who stops at nothing to make up for the past crime.
“Sethe was trying to make up for the handsaw; Beloved was making her pay for it.”
Here the handsaw is used literally as Sethe had used a handsaw to kill Beloved, when she was a little girl.

Her return is the allegorical guilt taking hold of a guilty heart.

Reminds me of Lady Macbeth and her symbolic hand washing, to rid herself of the metaphorical blood on her hands!
Morrison uses the word "rememory" in the novel, to tell us that memories don’t go away, past is ever much a part of our present and we have to sooner or later deal with it.

Raqs-e-Bismil (Dance of the wounded)

2009-04-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

Uska mukh ek jot hai, ghunghat hai sansaar, ghunghat mein woh chhup gaya munkh par aanchal dal...

“Her face is like the dazzling light, and when she hid it behind a veil, my world darkened over…”

Zahid ne mera hosle imaan nahin dekha, rukh per teri zulphon ko pareshan nahin dekha...
Har hal me bas pesh nazar hai wahi surat...
Maine kabhi rue shabe hijran nahin dekha..
Aye thhe sabhi tarah ke jalwe mere aage...maine magar aye deedaiye hairan nahin dekha...
Kya kya hua hangame junoon ,yeh nahin maaloom..
Kuch hosh jo aya to gariban nahin dekha...

Translation:
‘The Preacher does not realise the fervor of my faith, as he has not witnessed that pretty face… half visible from the clouds of those dark tresses. I would never experience the pain of separation as I can see her face night and day…right before my eyes… Such beautiful visions passed me by… but I have eyes only for her, my beloved! And I am not aware of any sermonizing, except my own madness in loving her. Oblivious of my torment, my torn clothes and my muddy feet I go tilling for one tiny glimpse of her …’ ----------------------------------------

With due respect to many other Sufi singers, I believe that Abida Parveen is the ultimate in Sufi singing. Although she is associated mostly with the verses of the Sufi saint Shah Abdul Latif, she has also sung the verses of other Sufi saints, including Amir Khusrau, Bulleh Shah, Sachal Sarmast, Sultan Bahu, and others such as Kabir and Waris Shah.

It was at the annual concert “Jahane Khusru” organised by Muzzaffar Ali at Humayun’s Tomb New Delhi, when I first saw her giving a Live performance. Right under a beautiful starry sky, with a balmy night breeze touching the skin, the flickering light of hundreds of candles glimmering at the podium and her voice bringing on the goose bumps…
Abida speaks of Ishq- which is the highest form of love. It is being one with the Divine. The beloved.

While singing Abida goes into a trance, swathed in her flowing robes, eyes closed, raising her hands towards the sky, and rendering the absolutely divine verses in her soulful voice... The high and deep tenor and the low, subtle pauses in her vocal renditions are absolutely matchless. Her voice I can say forms a private relationship with whoever listens to her. In an odd and deep way it pulls you from the crowd and you feel instantly connected, as if she is singing only for you! I tried to 'roughly translate' one of the beautiful tracks in this album. (above)
But nothing can beat the true beauty of the original verses, if you understand the language. This poem or Nazm as it is called in Urdu, is transcendental in its definition. The words are a mixture of Urdu, Hindi and Persian. Since Urdu is my mother tongue I have a fair command over this language, and I understand a little bit of Persian that was taught to me by my mother who was proficient in this language. Hence this attempt…

Do try to find this particular track Raqs-e-Bismil…. and enjoy listening to many other mesmerising verses!

Rumi

2009-04-12T13:51:00.000-07:00

"Out beyond ideas of wrong doing
and rightdoing,
There is a field.
I will meet you there."
-Rumi

Moulana Jallaledin Mohamad Rumi, the great mystic poet was born on 30th September 1207, on the far eastern edge of Persian Empire in Balkh in modern day Afghanistan. Rumi was brought up in an atmosphere of love, stability and intellectual richness. He became a renowned scholar and religious leader by the age of 36 and met Shams of Tabriz a man who changed Rumi’s life forever. Shams Tabriz was a wandering Mystique, a Dervish; a highly exalted Sufi who was walking the spiritual path of Love. Rumi turns into his disciple and with time becomes so devoted that he relinquishes everything for Shams. Both of them recognized in each other the ideal they were searching for all their lives.
Shams encouraged Rumi to give up his teachings and follow the path of divine Love through music, dance and ultimately poetry.
Their relationship had raised many eyebrows during those times and there were lot of speculations regarding the nature of their deep bond. Eventually the disagreeable behaviour of the people around them left Shams no choice but to abandon Rumi and disappear without a trace. Unable to bear the pain of his adored friend’s separation Rumi goes into seclusion and refuses to see anyone. In order to deal with the agony of separation Rumi begins to express his longings and sufferings in poetry. His devotees became so exasperated by his pinings that they admit it is better to let them be together than never to see Rumi again.
Finally Rumi and Shams reunite and immerse themselves in music and Sema ,the dance of whirling dervish.

“Dear heart, where do you find the courage
to seek the Beloved
When you know he has annihilated so many like you before?
I do not care, said my heart,
My only wish is to become one with the Beloved.”

“I cannot sleep in your presence
in your absence, tears prevent me.
You watch me my beloved
on each sleepless night and
Only you can see the difference.”

“I am happy tonight,
united with the Beloved.
Free from the pain of separation,
I whirl and dance with the Beloved.
I tell my heart, 'Do not worry,
the key to morning I've thrown away'...”

“With love you don't bargain
there, the choice is not yours.
Love is a mirror, it reflects
only your essence,
If you have the courage
to look in its face.”

“ When I die,
lay my corpse to rest,
but do not be at all surprised
if His kiss on my lips
brings me back to life.”

RUMI

Does Islam Encourage Polygamy?

2009-04-10T01:27:00.000-07:00

What are a Muslim woman’s rights when her husband takes more than one wife? No other religion has been under so much censure than Islam. Polygamy is one of the many fallacies, for which Islamic law is often under a scanner and is presumably considered as a Muslim woman’s subjugation and mental torture .

The misleading notion purveyed to society in general that Islam encourages polygamy and that every Muslim man must have four wives was in fact a legally controlled law, in which adultery is a severely punishable crime.

The controversy surrounding Polygamy is warped,as happens with many laws of Islam. In fact the right to take up more than one wife has many clauses and conditions, to protect the rights of a married woman.

Islamic History reveals that polygamy was widely practiced in Arabia, and many other countries. In Arab tribes, a man had many wives and concubines. A number of prophets mentioned in the Jewish Torah and the Old Testament had more than one wife.

It was recognized as a man having stronger biological needs and demands and the women’s status is lowered by being a concubine for a man with her having no considerable rights or claims over him as a woman. Islam had put polygamy into a straight jacket by allowing a man to take more than one wife, provided he is capable of loving all of them equally, with equal rights to his property and her children also sharing equal rights over the inheritance. If he is unable to do so, then he must opt for monogamy.

Polygamy, considered as oppression for a Muslim woman, is no longer common for various good reasons.

During older times it was the accepted norm because most wives were not taken for their sexual attraction or youth, but they were usually mothers of six children who were left with little or no support during wars.

During the battle of Uhud, in which quite many Muslims were martyred, leaving a number of women widows and small children orphans, the injunction to take them as wives was made in order to do justice to women who were left unescorted and could have fallen prey to male exploitation and poverty. It was believed that a man marrying such a woman even though he has a wife would give honor and security to the woman. These marriages were not based on lust or sexual needs, but due to the need of circumstances. Another condition where more than one marriage is allowed is a situation where a wife is unable to do her conjugal duties. In such cases, Islam permits a man to take another wife, as adultery and sex outside marriage in not permissible in Islam.

Under the Sharia Law, his wife and children can continue to have their rights on him, and a woman and her children would not be left high and dry.

By giving divorce rights to man and as well as woman, Islam provides the Muslim woman a safety valve of a legal divorce to disengage herself from what she may consider an unhappy union with an abusive husband. Islam’s divorce law, as detailed in the books of the school of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) is fair and equitable to both the estranged husband and wife.

If a Muslim husband, who has the plurality of wives defaults in dealing with them justly and neglects one of them, then a Muslim woman has a right to move the court to get maintenance from her husband.

The impression that every Muslim man in a Muslim country has many wives is a fallacy. In some Muslim countries, such as Tunisia and Turkey; the law has instituted monogamy for men. In quite a few Muslim countries, such as Pakistan, Syria, Iraq and Morocco , restrictions have been imposed on Muslim men for having more than one wife.

He is required to take the court’s permission to do it.

In pre-Independence India, although Muslims were allowed to have more than one wife, today this practice is as obsolete as Polyandry, the practice where a woman marries more than one man.

As the reference in the ancient Hindu epic Mahabharata mentions, Draupadi marries the five brothers and at that time it was not considered polyandry but an accepted way of life for her.

However, in modern times such practices are no more prevalent. The famous Muslim jurist, Late Syed Ameer Ali, in his book ‘The Spirit of Islam’ (1992), wrote that 95 out of every Muslim men is practicing monogamy. In Populous Muslim majority, Bangladesh and Indonesia, the incidence of polygamous marriages is not as large as some critics of Islam claim The Sharia helps women in Islam enjoy many rights and benefits, and it is increasingly becoming obvious that Islamic laws which are in the favour of Muslim woman is often glossed over or is spoken about ‘out of context’ so as to make it appear ambiguous.

The prevalent patriarchy in society overshadows the rights of a Muslim woman and presents a narrow tunnel view of the entire doctrines.

In Islam men and women have equal rights and it is considered a sin if a man tries to suppress a woman’s rights. Last but not the least let’s mention here that anyone taking up cudgels for Islam and Muslim women is termed as a ‘Muslim Apologist’.

Thus, many women are completely under obligation of taking things lying down and look the other way, while their own rights are being tampered upon.“ It was not God who wronged them, but they wronged their own souls.” (Quran, 30:9)

Wonder- Full Tonight

2009-04-08T01:21:00.000-07:00

A night at seaside revealed to me, splendors of ‘the ordinary joys’.
It looked mysterious in its calm, and then suddenly it surged towards me, with an eager welcome. Involuntarily I stepped back, my clothes wet with the quick spray. Seeing my reluctance the white surfs just rolled away, looking like the wavering lines of folded snow, and the wet sands clung to my bare feet. I felt this sharp desire to run across the beach, feel the moist salty air on my face, and roll on the wet sands. I wanted to make sand castles and suck upon the ice candy like a five year old once again. As I watched in wonder the rise and fall of waves under a shimmering moonlit night…the sheer beauty of it brought a sudden wetness to my eyes. I looked around surreptitiously. There were too many people around me, the beach was dazzling with brightly lit eating joints and looked populated by the seasonal derelicts, vibrant youngsters and noisy children …some couples were strolling on the beach, holding hands with an air of self conscious intimacy about them.
My young friend was standing by my side with a bored expression.’ Look at this…’ we both spoke at the same time…I wanted her to see the sheet of liquid silver beating down on the undulating waves… She screwed her face at the crushed cartons of juices, empty coconut shells, soiled paper plates, and twisted tissues scattered all around. ‘This place stinks…’ she looked around in disgust. I looked at the sea, apologetically…it roared and a spray hit me once again. I licked the salt from my lips.

Perhaps I am the odd one. I reflected. Perhaps it is wiser to feel sorry about the filth and destruction of a beautiful beach than gushing over the moonlit waves….

I looked again at the rolling waves. It moved with such abundance, such liberty… Gosh! It’s been such a long time since I have felt such a sense of total freedom, since I have exclaimed at a rainbow with wonder. It’s been such a long time since I have stopped playing the role of soi-distant sophisticate and laughed at some silly joke with careless abandon.
I have forgotten to love the tiny miracles of my inner child.
I looked sadly at my companion. Her frown had deepened and she suggested that we rush back to our hotel. I insisted that we walk on the beach. I wanted to savor the moist and salty night air a bit more. To feel cradled by the mildly crashing waves
My affinity with the sea was growing stronger, and the act of just standing and looking at the dark shimmering waters felt like meditation. I was beginning to feel the tranquil seep inside me…felt the winnowed effervescence washing away the dustiness of misgivings and remorse I had collected over the months. Oh to be washed clean….and feel light as air. To be able to do as one feels, give in to the pure delight of impulses, like those whimsical waves, and to be like a child once more….
The sea was tugging at my heartstrings…
‘Look.’ A touch on my arm. I looked at my young friend, expecting the bored look. She was showing me the large drop of water on her palm. Another one fell on the tip of my nose. It had started to rain. There was a smile on her face. Within minutes the moon hid behind the dark clouds and the drops turned into pour. People around us started to run for cover.
‘Let’s stay on the beach.’ She said suddenly. Her eyes gleaming now, at the thought of getting drenched.
Pure, simple delight of rain!
At last…someone else has found a miracle too... no matter how tiny it is. The idea of walking on the beach under a pouring night sky was magical. We had our faces up to the sky and I opened my mouth, sticking out my tongue to capture the crazy drops. It tasted of soil and salt. Within seconds it was raining. But the downpour was quick and lasted for few minutes only. Our clothes had large wet patches, our hair turned sticky and moist. We wiped our faces with our palms and looking at each other, burst into a silly laughter!

‘Tonight…’ I thought. ‘When I go to my hotel room I’ll admire once again the tiny petals of that flower in the vase’.
I just recalled that it curled so prettily at its center.

Invisible scars

2009-04-04T05:43:00.000-07:00

Sometime ago I did a feature on Emotional Abuse for a magazine, and it was interesting to know that this kind of abuse is known by few and understood by even fewer persons.
Everyone knows what an abuse entails but generally it is the physical variety that is more popularly recognized. Most people live with behaviours that uses control, subjugation, intimidation, manipulation and coercion without knowing that they are being subjected to emotional abuse.
Emotional abuse is when someone is hurting you without touching you. For example, withholding love and praise, neglecting the needs, being indifferent, passing unjust criticisms, throwing verbal abuse, defining your 'reality' always, showing discouragement; all these come under emotional abuse.
In fewer words, one can say that it is the systematic wearing down of an individual’s self-worth, their trust in their own perceptions, and their self-confidence.
Another interesting factor is that often the victims of emotional abuse blame themselves for the abuse and quite paradoxically cling to the abuser for support. Emotional abuse victims become so convinced about their worthlessness that they stay in abusive situations, believing that they have nowhere else to go.

Watch out, you are being abused emotionally if you are going through these experiences:

Someone is constantly berating, belittling, criticizing and intimidating you under guise of “guidance”, “teaching” or “advice”.

He/she is making unreasonable demands on your time, emotions and resources.
He/she demands constant attention from you.

No matter how much you give, you are always accused of being “ungiving” by that person.

He/ she is offering excessive “help” to you and offering to “solve” every problem of yours, questioning, analyzing and using “ You are stupid” and “I know best” tones with you.

Hurting deliberately, withdrawing emotionally and giving the “silent treatment” to punish you.

Overruling your viewpoints always.

Resorting to threats to control your decisions.

Playing upon your fear, guilt, compassion and values to get what they want.
Threats to end relationships and pressing fears of desertion onto you.

Invalidating all your reactions by saying, “Oh, you are too sensitive”.

Minimizing all your efforts of good gestures.

Shouting and screaming at you on slightest pretext.

Manipulating, name calling, making hostile jokes upon you.

Saying things like, “You are useless”, “You are a waste of space”, and “You are going nowhere”.

www.takecareonline.org/emotional_abuse.htm

How to create magic in your life

2009-01-12T19:25:00.000-08:00

The New Year has arrived.
It’s time to snuggle and cuddle. To make new wishes; to renew, recharge, refresh and revise. It’s that time of the year once again, when every one of us look forward to at least some changes in our lives. We make resolutions that we will lose weight, learn at least one new skill, worry less, exercise more, control our anger and kiss fewer frogs…
With the advent of a new year, new hopes are born, and we secretly wish that this year magic would happen; our life would improve, we will have more money, more success, better career, new house.
We hope that in this New Year we will finally find our true love, and meet our soul mate.
Finish writing that book. Start a new business. We look forward to new beginnings.
We do all this, at the start of every NEW YEAR.
These prototype wishes have a certain magic to it, despite the fact that as the month meanders towards its end, the crispness of such wishes start to wilt under the dampening routines of life. Come February and we find that our life is more or less still lying into the same cut and paste monotony of last year.
Did I mention magic? Yes, I did in the paragraphs above.
Magic is something we all secretly wait for, no matter how hard-bitten and cynical we become as the passing years vanquishes our spirit. We hope that somehow, something or someone will arrive and turn that magic wand and our life will flip over.
But what we don’t know is that we all have the powers to create magic in our lives.
To create magic we need to do two things.
a) Believe in magic
b) Be the magician of our life and bluff our way through life’s inevitable difficulties.
We must know that the New Year is not a Genie that will bring us all that we have secretly been wishing for. We need to get inside that bottle and be that Genie ourselves.
How?
I would like to share with you my own personal formula that I have devised this year to create that magic in my life.
These are the set of ‘decisions’ I have made to create magic in my life. See if you can relate to some of these.

Magic number One:
I have decided that I will not make any resolutions. Yes I will not make resolutions.
I will make ‘decisions’. When we make resolutions we send a message to our subconscious self that something needs to be fixed there and involuntarily the brain gets into a defensive and procrastinating mode. If I ‘decide’ to do something then I send a powerful signal to my subconscious that I mean business!

Magic number Two:
I will use my words for power. I have learnt that there are three words that really steal away the power of performance from our personal dictionary. These words are: Could, Should, Would. I have realized that people use these words when there is no ‘intent’ and ‘commitment’ in their sayings. I am guilty of using them many times in my past when I wanted to slither away from a situation. This year I ‘will’ create magic by using ‘can’, ‘will’ and ‘do’ in my vocabulary more often.

Magic number Three:
I will eat right. The old adage ‘Breakfast like a King’ has more meaning than we care to admit. I have been guilty of skipping breakfast quite frequently and as a result when my blood sugar fell down I used to gorge on chocolates and caffeine to feel energetic and felt depressed that I am not losing weight despite skipping breakfast!
Well, breakfast is the best meal we can give not just to our body but to our soul too. Start your day with a hearty and healthy breakfast and see how your energy levels go up.

Magic number Four:
I will be more positive. Life is inevitably hell and heaven both. To create heaven when are going through hell requires magic. From heartbreak, to career set backs to financial muddle, we all need this magic to help us sail through the messes. What makes me positive is practicing patience. I have learnt that everything gets right in the end. Being patient is being positive.
I will practice more patience this year.

Magic number Five:
I have decided that I will pull out at least one day out of the week when I will switch off my phone, will not read the newspaper or watch the news channel. Well, I know that being a die-hard ‘news and phone hater’ it is easy for me to say this, and I do realise that it is difficult for many of you out there to do so. However, this is my personal ‘detoxification formula’ to stay away from ‘negative emissions’.

Magic number Six:
Love. Love makes us a nicer person. It makes us feel complete. I believe that between birth and death there is just one meaningful happening and that is love. We may gather money, prestige, and power but if we miss on love, we miss on life.
Love can be philanthropic, altruistic or romantic. Pick up your own mould and see how your life transforms. This year decide to fall in love and be in love. Love is the greatest magic of them all.

http://www.odemagazine.com/blogs/readers_blog/4322/become_a_magician

http://www.tempestlashedhorizon.blogspot.com/

The Butterfly

2008-12-24T20:44:00.000-08:00

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole.
The man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small shrivelled wings.
The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened!
In fact the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shrivelled wings. It never was able to fly.

The restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we would have been.
We would never fly!

The Power of Unsaid

2008-12-04T00:40:00.000-08:00

Would you sugarcoat your words?
When conversing with one another we try to project truth but how often is the bitter truth disguised as what they say, “ sugar coated pills?”
In a direct conversation, the energies are fully conscious, regenerative and articulate, but there is a set of laws that contributes to the archetypal structure of talks.
These set of laws are about being polite, being discreet, politically correct (in some circumstances) and being diplomatic in one’s speech.
For example if I need to say something unpleasant to someone I would use the “ indirect speech” such as “ I think we must ‘reconsider’ our relationship, it is hurting both of us.”
Rather than “I have stopped loving you, and I want you out from my life.”
When I imagine myself at the receiving end of both the ways, I know which one I would prefer!
Steven Pinker, a Harvard Psychologist writes in his article “Words Don’t Mean What They Mean” that people don’t talk, but they lay lines on each other and often speak in disguised manner so as to be safe in projecting themselves, and also be understood in the right manner.
Not all conversations can be direct and have the desired effect.
Can I go up to a man whom I found very good-looking and say “ I find you very attractive. Would you like to take me to bed?” Even if deep down in my heart I feel like doing just that, I would first strike a conversation, by talking about the weather and then if by reading his body language I find positive cues, I would compliment him on his tie or the color of his shirt.
To go further…I would first wait for things to move forward in the desired way.
As Steven Pinker says, “Whenever you speak to someone, you are presuming the two of you have a certain degree of familiarity- which your words might alter. So every sentence has to do two things at once: convey message and continue to negotiate that relationship.”
There is also a certain power and astuteness in using the “indirect speech”.
I look at the process of speech as sort of a classical music rehearsal, where one wrong note would require me as a conductor to stop and address the problem.
Now think the same wrong note as occurring during a public performance.
Anyone hearing it would wince, or even walk out, because in classical recital a wrong note is considered a violation.
In the same way if I say whatever comes to my mind and it strikes a wrong note with the listener, then the outcome might be unpleasant.
Although we do not like vagueness in people’s speech, we are also not ready to hear truth. There is truth in what one calls “Linguistic Dance” where people often resort to innuendos when talking about sex.
So an invitation to coffee is actually an invitation to sex as shown in an episode of Sienfeld, the popular soap on American television. Another instance is in the movie “Tootsie” where Dustin Hoffman tries a direct line of speech on an actress by telling her that he would like to make love to her and she throws a glass of wine in his face and storms away.
I believe that indirect Speech has the power to convey the message in a way that does not hurt the feelings or sensibilities of others, and also drives a point.
If you don’t agree with this notion, then would you like to try a line on a girl you fancied and tell her that you would love to make love to her? Or for that matter offer a bribe directly to a policeman who has just stuck a parking ticket to your windscreen?
Another example of indirect speech is the way a poet in his works uses the method of indirect speech. This method adds to the abstract imagery of the poem. The indirect speech is also disguised as the power of the unsaid in romantic allusions.

Say for example a sonnet by Gwendolyn B. Bennett the African American writer, where she uses the method indirect speech in conveying to her beloved the true feelings of her heart.
She speaks about the unsaid that is conveyed through the sudden tears in the beloved’s eyes.
“ But dearer far than all surmise
Are sudden teardrops in your eyes ”
These last lines truly evoke a transcendental feeling in the mind of a reader and it creates the desired effect of the beauty of all that is ‘unsaid in words’.
Would mere words be more effective than these silent and sudden tears in a beloved’s eyes?