Another Mandir-Masjid

Sambhal, a small town in Moradabad district, has been declared as a district by UP chief minister Mayawati. The move, political pundits say, aims to appease and entice Muslim votes in upcoming 2012 Assembly election. While some pundits believe that it's also an effort to turn the mytholigical town (as some real pandits believe it to be the city where the Lord Vishnu will appear as Kalki avatar anytime in near future) into a town only, and hence the new town will be named Bhim Nagar as a tribute to the anti-Pandit Bhim Rao Ambedkar. My report on the aftermath of Ramzam riots in Moradabad digs into the story of Kalki avatar...Link below

http://www.sunday-guardian.com/investigation/mosque-temple-debate-turns-angry-in-pre-poll-sambhal

Al Qaeda at AMU

It's startling and annoying for those who take pride in the "Alig tag". And a much-sought after evidence for those who seek to malign the Muslim varsity. But, above it all, it exposes the evil designs of former HRD minister Arjun Singh, who otherwise feigned to be a friend of Muslims, and the stupidity of the current vice-chancellor P.K. Abdul Azis, a blockhead.

http://www.sunday-guardian.com/investigation/qaeda-link-accusations-anger-amu

Catharsis of an Alig Muslim

Muslim catharsis

Conflict Zones by Ariful Islam At a time when we are witnessing flurry of conflicts in Islamic world, Professor Ariful Islam’s Conflict Zones, a novella, helps reminisce the catharsis a Muslim, a Alig variety, has endured over the years. He chronicles the journey of protagonist, Yamin, who confronts communal flare early in his life, witnessed and participated in how the student community responds to the problem. His discussions with his contemporaries on post-partition Muslim trauma, politics, rational and dogmatic Islam help him shape a scientific viewpoint on both his country and religion. And with such a mindset and youthful aspirations, he travels to Islamic lands. First stop is Basra, where he sees that Muslims become cannon fodder to Saddam’s arrogance and Khomeini’s over-blown Islamic ambitions. Before he could become psychic, he escapes to home to only later suffer a personal ordeal after a brief romantic sojourn in Kashmir, where a conflict, with Muslims at forefront, continues to rage. His Aligarh days come back, and so do old friends. With tea cups, come fresh arguments — mullahs still hold grip on community, political leadership brings no hope, Tablighi Jamaat will ruin Muslim youth... depression. And then again life beyond Aligarh. Cairo, circa 1990s, Arabs cheat Muslims in the name of Islam. And in Benghazi, Libya, a despot is promising salvation in the name of Islamic socialism and any dissenting voice is silenced. Though Ariful Islam’s narrative ends on a pessimistic note, his book comes at a time when there seems light at the end of tunnel and the world is transfixed at new developments in the Middle East. The book’s importance also lies in the fact that very few original works in English, fiction in particular, recounts student life at AMU, its intellectual vibrance and the campus’ penchant for taking up Muslim causes. Though Conflict Zones falls short of satiating literary perfectionist, it enlightens with new perspectives on religious and historical discourse on Muslims in India.

Post-Partition migration

Hindus of Pakistan have suffered in a similar fashion as Muslims of India have done over the years after Partition. But, personally, I think that Muslims of India have demonstrated more perseverance than their unfortunate Hindu brethren to withstand the onslaught of the majority oppressors. Or perhaps Indian Muslims have the advantage of prosperous past and pedigree and more numbers than those mostly living in penury at the other side of the border. Nevertheless, both deserve empathy and encouragement.

When I met a motley group pilgrims from Sindh, Pakistan, who were staying at a derelict ashram near Majnu Ka Teela locality of Delhi, they were both enthusiastic and nervous to share their predicament. They kept on saying that they will only visit their pilgrimage sites India and if God wills they will get "asylum", without knowing that Delhi is not that hospitable to who lack in perseverance. Link below

http://www.sunday-guardian.com/news/desperate-pak-hindus-seek-asylum-delhi-silent

A fellow bard

A random take on my friend Danish Shafi's unpublished but riveting tale All Birds Left, a novella set in Old Delhi

Tales about Old Delhi are abound. Tales emanating from Old Delhi are rarity. Danish Shafi, a young hack and an old dilliwala, has ventured to unearth what happened and followed in the lives of people residing in Turkman Gate area when Sanjay Gandhi-ordered bulldozers razed down their houses during the Emergency days. “It was a ghettoised mini Pakistan,” was the government excuse behind the move and so no matter if some of ‘mini Pakistanis’ had to be maimed for that.
Zaibu, who has just gained a wife, loses his house. He escapes to real Pakistan and on return see the revenge and revolution coming via politics. His campaign bears fruit and locals get compensated by new houses. But they later feel cheated and crib about claustrophobic living in the burrows…While Zaibu’s politics doesn’t quite take off, he weaves dreams in his son Khairu’s education in a public school.
Khairu, riding on his public school English, gradually takes on the world and shapes his father’s dreams – he enters Delhi University, get employment in a famous food joint, works in an international call centre…and finally lands up in a newspaper office as a journalist and writes articles about the area. The father can’t be more proud than seeing his son’s name in print. Well, this is the most beautiful aspect of the story when a boy from old Delhi rides on the new city bandwagon and finds the new cultural milieu so palpably different and so vigorously enticing. He helps people from outside world, his colleagues, shade preoccupied notions about the place and people … But alas, destiny decides otherwise and before he could fulfil all his and his father’s ambitions, he dies all of a sudden.
One may find it hard to agree with the writer’s denouement, but it might well be an indication that people in the walled city find it too tough to come out of despair…
Though well crafted and an engrossing read, the novel lapses at places – despite starting from the Turkman Gate demolition episode, it fails to comment upon how the minorities were discriminated against by the government and what roles people like Sanjay Gandhi, Jagmohan and very local Ruksana Sultana played during Emergency; it too concisely informs about Zaibu’s political life; and lastly I personally don’t like why Khairu dies all of a sudden… a too depressing a note to end the story. But comments apart, it’s a must read for those who nurture tastebuds for stories about Dilli and Dehelvis.

Second step

First Step again

As both the cliche and wisdom goes “History repeats itself”, it stands true for me inch by inch. My last post says I was staggering befire my first-in-life entry into a lift in a newspaper office, I have stumbled down again before I could lift myself from that Sub Editor tag despite all those experience of intervening period of two years. But, ya this time I didn’t count on my instructor. (By the way, I find no one near). And I am trying on my own....

And that lust. Flickering, but afire...

First step

Dears, say cheers as I have streaded my first step into your realm. Since this is my opening, let me say something more about me and plz forgive my narcissism.
Hailing from a small town in western Utter Pradesh, north India, I have always fancied to travel to big cities, exploring life in its all hues. But when I came to Delhi two years back exploring some opportunities in any newspaper as an intern reporter, the colour of my face withered away with constant refusals and the stungs of urban ethos. But people at Hindustan Times took a pity on me and presented me a chair to work on newsdesk. When my instructor was accompanying me to the upper floor of the HT building, I innocently told him that I am stepping into a lift for the first time in my life. “Remember the first step is the most important step,” he advised. I followed him, though not in all its true spirit but it has lifted me to the level of a sub editor of a reputed newsdaily of Delhi. At the same time the flame of lust for knowledge and information (literature) has been it somewhere within. And that’s I want to keep alight.....