Nothing Sensational, but riots did make an impact on me…

My father was posted in a small town in UP. There were a large number of Muslims in that town and the way we were being brought up, we never realised any difference between the two communities. There was one difference though, my mother wouldn’t eat at our Muslim neighbour’s house. We knew the reason, she wouldn’t eat at any place where non vegetarian food was cooked in the kitchen. Our friends knew that and wouldn’t mind, uncle would comment, bhabhi ji ka to aaj fast hoga. She still doesn’t eat in the restaurants where non vegetarian food is served. Nothing to do with religion. Life was fun, we participated in their festivals and they played Holi with us. They were nice people, very civilised and sophisticated.

There were news of Hindu, Muslim riots in the city one day. Door Darshan and AIR were the only source of news other than the news papers. For a child of my age, the news of riots didn’t mean much, there were no screaming anchors and tragedies were not sensationalised.  Life for children went as usual and  curfew in the city meant we had holidays. As usual I went to the neighbours house to play. There was a sombre atmosphere in their house. Everybody in their house was safe but there was a sense of insecurity, even a child of my age( I was 10 years old ) could sense something unusual. I heard Bhaiya( my friend’s elder brother ) talking to his father, musalmaano ke saath zyadati ho rahi hai( injustice is being done to the muslims). His father replied- hum log Hindustan main gaddar kehlaye jaa rahe hain aur Pakistan main muhajir ( we are being called traitors in India and refugees in Pakistan). There was pain in his voice, I still remember that. Don’t know who started the riots, who killed whom but that was the first time I was made to realise that there was a difference between my friend and me.

Fortunately everything was normal after a few days. There were no communal or pseudo secular parties then. SP, BSP and the likes of Diggi, Mulayam, Lalloo and Togadias were not seen on TV channels poisoning young minds. The riots in Assam have brought back old memories. For the sake of the young children of India, I hope situation in Assam normalises soon and the topic of conversation changes.

Hope May Sound Illogical, But That Is All We Have….

Our sense of justice and fairness is being questioned every day and there are enough examples to prove it, Ayodhya movement, Babri demolition, Shah Bano case, Mandal agitation and Gujarat riots. Sometimes I feel that  we need  healers and peacemakers more than politicians, technocrats or economists, if we want happy faces around us.

Personally, I would like to see Saudis allowing construction of churches and mandirs in their kingdom, fundamentalists in  Pakistan sending Diwali greetings to Indians, Shiv Sainiks sending  Eid greetings to Pakistanis, Israelis and Arabs sharing meals and many more such things. Secular, atheists, people with a religious bent, all living together without being judgmental. All this is too complicated and wise men amongst us  choose the simple answers to the questions of life.

If you are an Indian, all Pakistanis are terrorists and if you are a patriotic Pakistani, you have to believe that  the whole purpose of  an Indian’s existence  is to finish everything Pakistani. Not logical but definitely simpler. Hafiz Sayyed represents Pakistanis and Bal Thackeray is the true representative of India. Forget about the Asma Jahangirs, Ansar Abbasis of Pakistan. Also forget that Jaswant Singh and LK Advani of the so called communal and right wing Indian Political party praised Jinnah publicly and in the process lost their jobs. If you are a Congress supporter, all the ills and even goodness which hurts Congress is RSS agenda and if you are a BJP supporter, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are responsible for everything which is not right in the country. Imam Bukhari the saviour of democratic institutions, simplifies everything by talking about  Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Vande Mataram, whatever the topic being discussed is irrelevant. Mayawati ji talks about anti dalit and manuwadi forces, subject is irrelevant again. Even Julian Assange could not escape being called Anti dalit. Arundhati Roy is another favourite of mine, she finds a great conspiracy in everything, including Anna’s anti corruption drive.

Masses are swung from one extreme to the other  in their assessments about what their country is supposed to be by our electronic  media and the “analysts”. The so called  saviours of faith (Saffron and green both) are allowed to spread venom. The bigger tragedy here is that we can find young college and university students in this lot, some of whom are not even living in India. They have some wonderful heroes to choose from depending on which extreme they believe in. Narendra Modi is either the infallible hero and can do no wrong or is a communal murderer who can do no right.  Nitish Kumar’s word is either Gospel truth or all that he has achieved for Bihar is because of BJPs support. Rahul Gandhi is either the Avatar who is the last hope of all Indians or is all out to ruin mother India. You have to hate somebody if you are alive and show that you have a mind of your own. Thanks to the internet these fanatics actually find an audience.

All this gives rise to hopelessness, but I believe there is always something waiting around the corner. There is no logic behind this hope but some day sense will prevail.  As the economic condition of the masses will improve, people will worry more about improving their socio economic conditions and vote bank politics will not work. Divisive politics in the name of caste, creed, religion will be redundant.

Peace or Conflict, Music knows no boundaries…

Mehdi Hassan is no more. His migration from India to Pakistan after Partition might have made him a Pakistani on paper but his voice – just like that of Jagjit Singh, Lata Mangeshkar, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and every other great artist from the sub-continent – traveled across borders and overthrew political restrictions to become  the soul of the subcontinent.

Gulzar expressed the  feelings of the fans of the common music traditions of India and Pakistan when he wrote:

Aankhon ko visa nahi lagta

Sapno ki sarhad nahi hoti

Band aankhon se roz main

Sarhad paar chala jaata hun

Milne “Mehdi Hasan se”

Sunta hun unki awaz ko chot lagi hai

Aur ghazal khamosh hai saamne baithi hui

Kaanp rahe hain honth ghazal ke

Phir bhi un aankhon ka lehja badla nahi

Jab kehte hain…

Sookh gaye hain phool kitaabon mein

Yaar “faraaz” bhi bichad gaye hain

Shayad mile woh khwabon mein

Band aankhon se aksar sarhad paar

Chala jaata hun main

Aankhon ko visa nahi lagta

Sapno ki sarhad koi nahi

- Gulzar