Ramayana

This summer, the British Library in London have been hosting a fascinating exhibition on the Indian epic, the Ramayana. Not only that, they are hosting online the 17th century illuminated manuscript which forms the centre piece of the exhibition. They have done a brilliant job, and you can and should go view it here.

I have alway been interested by the Ramayana story and its characters (Sympathy for Ravan, Translating Ramayana and Other Thoughts, Sita the Bitch, Chat-up Lines of the Ancients), but am not as familiar with the story as I would like to be, so when I visited a couple of months ago, some things struck me as unexpected. At the time I scribbled them down on a brochure, and now I jot them down here to share my ignorance and thoughts with my friends. These unexpected realisations were:

1. Rama is shown with blue skin and a moustache.

Thinking about it, Krishna is blue, and Rama and Krishna are both avtars of Vishnu, so perhaps that is not so odd. There is some logic, though I have not previously seen Rama depicted as blue-skinned. Why should Vishnu be blue though? It was Shiva who was neel-kantha or blue throated, from drinking the poison of the cosmic ocean.

The moustache thing is fascinating. From casual observation, a majority of Indian men seem to have a moustache, but in the popular depictions of Hindu Gods and Epics, only the demons, the villains seem to have moustaches, while the male Gods are depicted clean-shaven and looking somewhat androgynous. Is this perhaps only a recent innovation? I was thrilled to see a more hirsute Indian hero.

2. Why does Ravana have a donkey's head as one of his 10 heads in this image? Also, why was he shown with a donkey's head only on this manuscript page (page 38), but none of the other pages?















3. Don't you love the crazy faces of the women in the photo? One has a disturbingly wide smile, one appears to be a Zombie. But even the Zombie has found a lover. Ravana's Lanka seems a haven for those who are different, a kind of Amsterdam of its day.

4. Why are there bears (yes, they do look like boars, but the commentary said bears) fighting in Rama's army? What is the story here?


















5. Did you know monkeys come in two colours?

6. I was amused in a juvenile kind of way by the anatomical accuracy of the monkeys in the manuscripts. They all seemed to have visible male genitalia! If this casual observation was correct, this suggests that Rama's vanar-sena, or monkey army, was also exclusively male. This raises:

7. Why aren't there any female monkeys fighting? Are female monkeys not as good at fighting, and not even of some relative utility? Is war an exclusively male preserve across species? I don't know about the warrior capabilities of female monkeys, but it seems wasteful to leave them out fully!

8. This wasn't something I noticed, but rather I overheard. There were a group of serious sounding women discussing the Ramayana story. One said she was troubled as it began with a queen who controlled the king, and ended with a queen controlled by a king. This, she declared, made the Ramayana story quite problematic from a feminist perspective.

No comments!

Losers

When I was young, I did not care for Losers. I had not then realised that these were my brethren, that I was one of them, that in their pain, in the emptiness and misery of their existence I would find kinship, that sense of belonging, that feeling of understanding and being understood. The Losers, I now realise, are my people. And Loss is my intimate companion.

I came across this marvellous loser earlier this week:

How wonderfully and ridiculously tragic our fellow loser is! His song is miserable and self-pitying enough. He says some people's fate is wine, for others it's thirst. We know which one he is. He is singing about his loss, because having lost everything he cared for, the loss itself is all he has now.

But to return to the action on scene. It is clear that not only is our loser tragic and sad, he is also literally blind. Thus he does not see his lost beloved walk through the door. She hears his every word, our loser oblivious to her presence in the room (though not of her presence in the world). At the end of his song, she walks up to him. And slaps him! She accuses him of having seen her earlier, thus inadvertently revealing to us that he has lost his sight since their parting, she tells him she hates him, and storms out the door.

Our loser is left standing, hurt, lost, alone, and also despised. We sigh in pleasure at the exquisiteness of his pain, as it connects to the solitary pain of our own hearts. We can rejoice that our own suffering is so unworthy compared to his. Truly, this man is a badshah among losers, and to him we raise our literal glass of wine, because metaphorically of course ours are all empty as well.

Salut!

A-A-A on the coming revolution in Khaleejistan

As Chapati reports, they have shut down Geo TV in Dubai. The dictator in Pakistan is afraid of the media. Sheikhs in Dubai are probably afraid too, about possible political tremors in their fiefdoms. While we await the fall of the dictator in Pakistan, here’s a conversation we had some time ago.

Anthony

In Syriana, the disaffected youth from a Dubai-like place turns to Jihad. While this hasn't actually happened, could something similar happen? In next few decades, as the age of oil ends, what will happen to the millions of Desis that make up the underclass in the Gulf?

Akbar

I have never seen/heard about Desi youth in the Gulf being recruited for Jihad. So far I have only heard of the NWFP and Kashmir as recruitment centres. So, a Syriana-like situation is not happening. The only resistance in Saudi is from Shiias and Al Qaeda, who tend to be mostly Arab. Dubai or Oman is the last place I would think about recruiting.

As for when the oil runs out, well, the expats will be f..ked. They are nowhere. Those who have emigrated to the west know that’s where they will settle. People in Desh know their future is, well, either in poverty or in plenty. But people in Middle East don’t know where they belong. If they go back to Desh, they face adjustment problem, and then there is the political uncertainty. If they go West, well, they may not get visa and in any case, they will never save enough to have a comfortable lifestyle similar to what they have in Middle East.

Anthony

See this is my point. Depending on how you count it, 20 to 80% of residents in most cities in the region are expats, and many expats have spent most of the past 3 decades there. One can't seriously expect them to be evicted without tension. I suspect when the oil era ends, the political geography of the region will look very different. When the oil era ends, the current monarchies will probably be overthrown. This could happen in a number of ways.

One scenario, 'good' but very unlikely, is that there would be democratic transformation that gives expats citizenship rights. A more likely, 'bad', scenario is a series of military coups. Some young officer like Nasser will overthrow the house of Saud. But Arab nationalism is a spent force, so these young army men will have to have something else to legitimise their rule, and the support of the expats might be at a premium. The ‘ugly’ scenario, also quite likely, is radical Islam in a new incarnation. Islam is an internationalist ideology. It is very conceivable that Islamist parties with mass support, as opposed to the militants and insurgents, could rise. These parties will have huge support among Desis – for all the pictures of Bose and Bin Laden, Desis like mass parties like Congress and League.

So Akbar, the future belongs to you. In fact, you should start organising this mass party. You could become the Zulfi Bhutto of Khaleejistan. We could call you Khaleej-bandhu. When you take over, hire me as an economic advisor or something. And we'll get Amar to make movies about you.

Amar

Thank you thank you, for this great honour, for which I am fully qualified and all — after all, I have watched Triumph of the Will by Leni Riefenstahl.

First, Akbar, serene, god-like, is seen in his PIA flight high up in the air, eating PIA's delicious poached egg. We hear a divine fart of approval.

Then we see the arrival of the Qaid in the city of Dubai, where the annual party conference has been organised. There is a massive motorcade which unfortunately can't proceed slowly through the city due to suicide bombers. However, skillful cutting and chopping of camera angles shows the Neta’s motorcade sweeping through town

CUT

And crowds cheering as the statue of Saddam Hussein is first covered by US Flag then toppled over

CUT

A sea of demonstrators as far as the eye can see, waving , what is this, photos of Ayatollah Khomeini, yelling "We love...

CUT

"Akbar”

(voiceover) Death to the Shah!

CUT

Akbar, clearly standing in Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park, waving his arms to everyone.

CUT

Back to the convoy speeding through town, and a quick and awkward cut as it is seen running over an old man.

A Sub-title appears on screen: Millions of followers come our to greet their Great Leader.

On (profiling) the Hyderabadis….

Indian Hyderabadis that is –not the Pakistan side Sindhi Hyderabadis. Sindhis are too cunning and nice to be Indian. Look at Bhutto –what a nice cunning guy!!

Having spent two years of my career so far sitting next to one and interacting with 5 others on a daily basis, I have a fair idea to be able to write something on Hyderabadi ‘muslim’ men and their ways.

In short, they are the kind who perform ablution not to pray but to eat biryani or kichdi (a kind of lentil mixed with rice concoction –fed in Pakistan to the poor and constipated) depending on day of the week. Generally it is a Tuesday or it could also be a ‘ChaarShamba’ –(a weird hyderabadi word for Wednesday as opposed to the standard Urdu -budh).

Both ways the biryani begins the day and kichdi ends it. In between come the lethargy, pussy and insatiable cunning ‘pull your pant down along with your leg’ kind of jealousy –especially at workplace.

Sitting next one, I realized the importance of keeping good relations with your Mamu (maternal uncle) –especially if he is a land owning multi millionaire – note owning land is not a credit for talent –jus the bastard’s luck.

Second –as soon as you get a decent job –GET MARRIED.

Food and marriage can be such emotional issue for my Hyderabadi friends, to the point of their ego being hurt. Although a common desi understanding is that if a man hasn’t married by 33 -35, he must be gay or have a weakness.

Well for Hyderabadis, it’s all the above and it’s the exclusion from the group of friends who used to be single and biryani mates and now are married. It is the silent accusative sense of being an outcast.

And as for food, if you manage to forget to invite a friend to your wedding reception, it can mean years of kichdi situation with the friend.

With their typical high pitched nasal accent, Hyderabadis can be one trusted Pakistani loyalist. Take the 1992 cricket world cup. When Pakistan won, most of Hyderabad celebrated the win – some say at a grander scale than the Pakistanis. Who celebrated Pakistani nukes in India? Hyderabadis. Whose fission material is being used in a Hyderabadi Nuclear Plant- the one and only Pakistan’s Dr. A.Q. Khan. (facts not verified).

Only if they knew what a fantastic roller coaster they would be on had they moved to Pakistan.

Somehow understanding Hyderabadis enabled me to a slightly to understand the working meaning of life. It just is. That’s how things are for them and that’s how you are supposed to deal with it.

There is no life is too short, life planning, or what am I doing in this world kind chasing your tail questions. Sweet and practical –the ones who do turn out to be philosophical turn into match fixing Azharuddins. The ones who go haywire by divorcing a wife of 10+ yrs for a hot model –sensible thing to do for some or maybe carrying around a wad of cash in their cricket gear bag enabling them to buy their roommate’s watch off their wrist- simply out of whim or fancy.

When married –they are self educated in dealing with wives – one has to cajole them, negotiate persuade. You marry because you friend/class fellow 'Rizwan' married. You marry for kids, to expand the generation. All that talk about true love, mutual understanding, altruistic orientations, sacrifice, and companionship is nonsense – practical is the way to go.

And as every hyderabadi phrase to confirm understading of the above ends with - HOU!?

A-A-A on the Song of Hind

Some time ago, we wrote about songs of Hind. We didn’t cover the song of Hind — Iqbal’s Tarana-e-Hind (audio and lyrics here). We did, however, discuss the song.

Amar:

I read something by Naipaul to the effect that Iqbal never identified with Hind. I don’t really remember what Naipaul said. But here’s what I’ve been thinking.

Iqbal says: Sare Jahan se achachha Hindustan hamara, hum bulbulen hain iski yeh gulistan hamara. Generally we assume he means everyone in Hindustan. But then he also says: Aiy ab-e-rood-i-Ganga woh din hain yaad tujhko, utra tere kinare jab karavan hamara. Here he seems to be talking about Muslims specifically when he says hamara.

If one use of hamara seems to be as a Muslim, then isn't it inconsistent to interpret the other hamaras as meaning Muslims and Hindus and Christians and Buddhists and Jews and Sikhs and tribals and Zoroastrians and Jains?

But then, he does say: Mazhab nahin sikhata apas men bair rakhna, Hindi hain ham watan hai Hindustan hamara. And when he says aapas mein, it seems to imply different religions...

So my query about Ganga is, in this bit of song he seems to use hamara for Muslims, whereas other bits are supposed to be all communities. Of course Muslims are part of hamara, so it's not necessarily wrong, but I was just wondering what he was thinking.

Anthony:

I think Iqbal seems to be using a nuanced multilayered concept of identity. He has a sentence mentioning himself: Iqbal! koi mehram apna nahin jahan men Ma'loom kya kisi ko dard-i-nihan hamara. Then there is the Muslim identity in the Ganga line. And overlaying all this is the Hindi identity.

Another reading of it could mean all hamaras are referring to Muslim Hind. But when he says Hindustan hamara (hamara being Muslim Hind), he isn't suggesting Hind is no one else's (unlike the Hindutva brigade). Rather, he means Hindi Muslims are Hindis and Hindustan is their watan. That is, he rejects Muslim separatism and urges Muslims to accept a sort of Hindustan nationalism.

This reading is just as valid.

One way to decipher this is to see where the poem was originally published.

Amar:

Here is what google pulls up.

“Centenary Of Iqbal's Tarana-e-Hind
by nkdatta8839@[EMAIL PROTECTED] (nkdatta8839) Aug 20, 2004 at 06:25 PM
Mohammad Iqbal composed the poem "Tarana-e-Hind" on August 10, 1904,
and sent it to Munshi Daya Narain Nigam, editor of Zamana of Kanpur. It was published in the September issue of the journal. The following month it was published in Makhzan of Lahore, edited by Abdul Qadir “

Check this line out: Yunan-o-misr-o-Roma sab mit gaye jahan se, ab tak magar hai baqi nam-o-nishaan hamara.

Surely the reference to the surviving civilization when Greece, Rome and Egypt are destroyed refers to the recorded Desi civilization of 4500 years. And he uses hamara here, so clearly he identifies with that as well, which Naipaul and the Hindutva moan doesn't happen. There we go, this guy identifies with everyone. He is one comfortable guy. He belongs everywhere.

Anthony:

Iqbal is clearly identifying with Hind, there's no doubt about that. Naipaul and the Hindutva are clearly wrong on this (and many other) count. The question is, whether he is urging only Muslims to identify with Hind, or is his message directed at everyone.

I presume these magazines were in Urdu, with primary readership being Muslim, and thus it's probably safe to say that he is urging his fellow Muslims to accept Hindustan and reject Muslim separatism. Mind you, this doesn't make the poem sectarian by itself — non-Muslims can still identify with Hindustan just as much as anyone else.

Amar:

While I agree these magazines were probably in Urdu, I don't think we have any reason to think he is focussing on Muslims. He wrote in Urdu, so he published in Urdu magazines. Why would he be appealing to Muslims any more than to Sikhs or Hindus? I have seen plenty of old timers, Sikh and Hindu, who were familiar with Urdu (one relative was still subscribing to Urdu papers in Delhi in the 1980s, another who was English principal made a hobby of doing Urdu crosswords), and the editor of the first magazine also seems to have been Hindu.

Anthony:

You're right. Urdu was used more widely than Hindi 100 years ago and his readership probably included as many non-Muslims as Muslims. Okay then, he was definitely endorsing Hindustan nationalism — so Naipaulian Hintdutva types are wrong. Even the most sectarian interpretation of this is championing Hind.

Akbar:

Yeah man, championing Hind, even if it means fantasizing a rule over Nepali-Tibetan glaciers: Parbat woh sab se uncha hamsaya aasmaan ka, woh santari hamara, woh pasban hamara.

A-A have a deep discussion

Brothers A-A-A are children of hegira. Parts of our families moved from one part of Desh to another when different parts fell apart during the tumultuous 1970s, and before that, the 1940s. Our parents left Desh for work. And now, the time has come for one of them to make a choice: return to Desh in search of a home that they may not recognise, or stay in a land that they do not recognise as home.

Reflecting this, Amar noted: Strange is the life of the exile and the emigrant.

From this, the following conversation ensued.

Anthony: Ah, but it is the sedentary life that is an aberration when you consider the history of humanity. We are a roaming species.

Amar: We were a roaming species. And when we stopped roaming, that was when we progressed spectacularly, that was when civilisation was born. The years of roaming were lost years.

Anthony: We stopped roaming, developed agriculture and formed a civilisation which was the exploitation of many by a few. Sedentary peoples were less healthy than their pastoral nomadic neighbours. Agricultural civilizations produced priests and royal classes that built pyramids and monuments on the back of hardworking and hungry peasant, who was was worse off than his hunter-gatherer cousin. Real spectacular progress came in the more recent times, when we started roaming again. It started when a new civilization, based on the elegant faith of a nomadic people, allowed migration from one end of the known world to the other, trading ideas and commodities. It gathered pace when their rivals ventured to the unknowns beyond the oceans. The prosperity of today's cities on the hill, promised lands and new Jerusalems are all built by the roaming folks, the exile and the immigrant. This is true in Queens, New York and Southall, London, and it is true in the slums of Mumbai and Nairobi. It is the years of cultivating rice in swamps that were lost years!

Amar: A new civilisation based on the elegant faith of a nomadic people? You overlook that a recurring consequence of people venturing away from home in last five hundred years has been wars, imperialism, colonialism, vicious exploitation of others. Two world wars in the last century were also the result of people wanting to move to new places.

Anthony: Wars and invasion of others' territory didn't exactly begin in the last 500 years. Troops of chimpanzees and baboons fight wars of attrition, remember that scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey? Folks in PNG highland have a higher probability of meeting a violent death in the hands of a stranger than anywhere else in the world. And as for exploitation, well vicious exploitation of others begun with agriculture. Slavery, serfdom, caste system – that's exploitation. Yes people moving around causes problem. But for the millions exploited in the farms around the world, migration is the only root to salvation.

Amar: And when they find salvation, don't they settle down?

Anthony: I wouldn’t know, as I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.

A-A talk Exoplanetary Life

Anthony
Man, this Super Earth stuff is really cool. It’s about 20 light years away. Let’s say that in a hundred year or so we build one of them gravity drives that can travel at 10 per cent of the speed of light. That will take about 200 years to get to this planet. Presumably people will live longer in a century. But I don’t think we will live two centuries. Hmm, presumably hibernation is the key. Of course, we should re-direct the SETI effort to see if there’s anyone on that rock.

Amar
All this search for extra-terrestrial life strikes me as silly. We human don't even like each other, can't live together in peace, are full of prejudices against those think or look or behave differently As for other forms of life, they signify nothing to us, we kill them at our pleasure. So why are we going around looking for alien life forms? If they are dumber than us, then do we want to go poke them with a stick, or barbeque them, or train them to be our slaves? We don't want to help our fellow humans or 'earthlings', why would we want to help them?

And if they are cleverer than us, does it get even more insane? If the behaviour of our own advanced human civilisations is any guide, they will either exploit us for profit, or destroy and kill us. Imagine if an ant decided to pay you a visit wanting to get to know you better. Squash!, and serve us right too.

Ghanoodghi aka Lethargy

-The great feeling one gets after a heavy lunch. It’s the moments before siesta. The muscles relax, and you wish it wasn’t a working day today. But work beckons after lunch at home. As I drive, the muscles want to stretch. In the background Rang dey Basanti – soundtrack plays. Madhushree singing- a slow nice sad song –Tu bin bataye. Oh man!! do I have to go to work.!!?

The ying and yang are at play; Driving at a speed of 120km/hour and listening to slow sad song is what I called perfect harmony between opposites. The sad and the glad; The slow and the fast; Apollonian v Dionysian; The rational sad song v the irrational speed of the driver; The post-Paratha & Lassi lunch fermentation in my tummy v the pangs of a love lost.

People forget that; with happiness comes sadness, with life comes death, with logic comes irrationality, with love comes hate, but what is the opposite of God, the Ungod? But God is unseen then what is seen?

When the eyelids droop for siesta; when the neck feels drained of energy. And you wish a massage was at hand. The caress of a lover; and that unforgettable hand in hand.

The smell of her hair, the scent of her body –as Al Pacino says in ‘Scent of a woman’ :

Women! What can you say? Who made 'em? God must have been a fuckin' genius. The hair... They say the hair is everything, you know. Have you ever buried your nose in a mountain of curls... just wanted to go to sleep forever? Or lips... and when they touched, yours were like... that first swallow of wine... after you just crossed the desert. Tits. Hoo-ah! Big ones, little ones, nipples staring right out at ya, like secret searchlights. Mmm. Legs. I don't care if they're Greek columns... or secondhand Steinways. What's between 'em... passport to heaven. I need a drink. Yes, Mr Sims, there's only two syllables in this whole wide world worth hearing: pussy. Hah! Are you listenin' to me, son? I'm givin' ya pearls here.
Source: IMDB.com

…………..and then you have made a circular motion with your index finger pointing towards the head, thinking ‘this guy is a crazy wanker’. Somebody’s desi father or mother happens to read this and tsks tsks to her/himself ‘ poor guy needs to get married, bechara!!’. Marriage is an excellent solution to a man’s freedom.

:- )

Sat Sariakal, Salam Namastey and Allahspeed to all.

On the ANZAC Day

Every year, on 25 April, they observe the ANZAC Day in the Down Under. I have never really understood this holiday. What happened on 25 April that needs to be commemorated? On that day in 1915, troops of the Australia and New Zealand Armed Corp — the ANZACs — landed in the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey to fight the Ottoman Empire. The battle went horribly for the ANZACs. The Turkish forces were stationed on hill tops, and hundreds of ANZACs died attempting to land. More details of the Battle of Gallipoli can be found in this font of all wisdoms. For us, it is suffice to note that the Aussies and Kiwis suffered terrible losses here.

So why commemorate these losses? When I asked around, I was told that it’s the spirit of fighting on, and not so much the loss, that is commemorated. Another argument I’ve heard is that this was the first time people of these shores shared a major historic event together — so the day has a place in these countries’ national identity. Finally, it is argued that this day marks the sacrifice of those who fell for their countries.

I don’t find the first two arguments all that convincing. Isn’t there anything other than a terrible loss of precious lives in a conflict thousands of miles away to mark these countries’ national identities or spirit of fighting on? As for honouring the sacrifices of dead soldiers, what were Australia and New Zealand doing fighting the Ottomans anyway? Actually, for that matter, what are Australians doing in Iraq anyway?

As it happens, there is another battle, much closer to Australia, that marks the spirit of fighting on, where those who died did die defending their country and that should have a place in the country’s national psyche. I’m talking about the Kokoda Track campaign.
I think there ought to be a national holiday to mark this campaign.

This holiday, sometime in July or August, would make a lot more sense than the ANZAC Day holiday. You see, there are already many holidays in the beginning of the year. Especially with the four day long Easter break that usually falls in April, there isn’t really all that much need for another day off in April. Between the Queen’s Birthday in June and the Labour Day in October, however, there aren’t any holidays. So bring on a Kokoda holiday in July I say. Or alternatively, there could be a Victory Day holiday in August marking the end of the World War II.

The libertarians would argue that why have state sanctioned holidays at all. Why not just allow people to trade their holidays? Why not indeed. Harvard’s Alberto Alesina and Ed Glaeser provide an argument for state sanctioned holidays. They argue that people get more out of their holidays when their friends and families are also on holiday. Left to a decentralised market, there is no guarantee that everyone could be on break at the same time. This co-ordination failure is avoided when the government makes everyone take a holiday on certain dates. You can read more here.

Boffin talk

Boffin 1: I need a cool name for my blog.

Me: What will you blog on?

Boffin 1: Travel stuff.

Boffin 2: You should have something to do with econometrics.

Me: How about random walk?

Boffin 1: Random walk, yeah, but I think I have a drift.

Boffin 2: Random walk with a drift, yeah I like that.

Boffin 3: That’s too long for a name.

Boffin 2: How about co-integrated.

Me: Is there a co-blogger?

Boffin 1: No, just me.

Boffin 3: So it has to be spurious.

Me: That doesn’t make any sense.

Boffin 1: I like spurious.

Boffin 2: I think random walk with a drift describes me.

Boffin 3: I’m definitely non-stationary.

Me: I think I’m trend stationary.

A-A-A returns

Amar may or may not be travelling, Akbar may or may not be depressed, and Anthony may or may not be in love — but the technical reasons that caused our hiatus over the past few weeks have now been resolved, and we have returned from the armpit of the world (where there is no electricity, let alone internet). Amar has posted, and will continue to post, his peripatetic exploits. And Akbar has presented another edishon of garajti khabrein. Allow me to revisit my 2006 predictions.

Of the 10 predictions, the last one was that many of the predictions would be wrong. It turns out that only one of the predictions was outright wrong: Democrats did win the mid-terms. A few cases were partially correct. Ponting scored a lot of runs, but Tendulkar didn’t do much, and India did win in the Caribbean. Economists’ governments fared well in Desh, but Mrs Zia completed her term. Arrest of top Al Qaeda operatives or a rise in protectionism didn’t turn out to be a major news items. And neither of the remakes mentioned made to the silver screen last year, though the one we didn't mention did. Of the ones that turned out to be correct, calling Brazil’s World Cup performance right was the most satisfying.

Right, that was 2006. What about 2007? Let’s start with the easy ones: Iraq and the economy.

• Iraq will continue to be a violent place, but American troops won’t be withdrawn in any significant numbers.
• World economy will continue to enjoy robust, albeit moderating, growth.

What about politics and economy closer to home?

• Desi economies will continue to grow at a historically rapid pace, and economists’ governments (now there is one even in Bangladesh) will usher some needed reforms.

Enough of the boring stuff. What about sports and movies?

• Scorsese will continue to be the major filmmaker since Robert Altman to have never won the Best Director Oscar.
• Australia will win the World Cup, but India will shake them at the end of the year.

And on personal note, A-A-A will continue to be travelling/depressed/in love.

"Iqbal", Koi Mahram Apna Nahin Jahaan Mein
Maalum Kya Kisi Ko Dard-e-Nihaan Hamaara

We Do Not Have A Confidant In The World, "Iqbal"
No-one Knows What Sorrows Lurk Within Our Heart

- Mohammad Iqbal, translation from here

What we talked about five years ago

This post records the conversations we had before and after the attacks. Akbar did not participate in the conversation — no, he wasn’t involved in any illegal activity. Yes, Aruna does talk that way. And I am not a member of the Bush Administration even though I thought Saddam Hussein was the villain.

Conversation before the attacks

Shambhu: I believe Yasmin, Anthony, myself and Amar were sitting having our usual enlightened conversations. Somehow the conversation turned to which would make a better pet - a dog or a fish. I was just making the point that one of the possible uses of canines (which I assure you I do not think about - really) maybe an intimate companionship which a fish would be hard pressed to match. After all a fish is not a mammal. That would be just plain weird. And logistically implausible. I imagine.

Amar: Yes. I have received an email called 20 reasons why dogs are better than women. It amazed me.

Anthony: Dude, I used to think concubine is a Chinese vegetable when I was a kid.

Yasmin: Meanwhile, I lost $30 for Agassi. 7-6, 6-7,6-7,6-7. I mean he had 4 tie breaks in the last set. Should have won it.

Anthony: Agassi didn't have 4 tie breaks in the last set. He was down 6-2. Sampras had 4 match points. Agassi broke 3 of them, but then sampras took the 4th one, winning 7-5.

Yasmin: As little as I know about tennis I am sure it was 7-6 in the fourth set, leading to the conclusion that you don’t know Jack about tennis either. I guess we still like to watch though and put money on the players and shit.

Anthony: No dude, if you followed the match you’d know that the 4th set was tied 6-6. Hence the tie breaker. Rule of tie breaker is that whoever gets 7 points 1st win, unless it’s 6-6, then you have to win by a difference of 2 points to break the tie.

Conversation after the attacks

Amar: On behalf of myself, and the rest of us. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK !!!!! Now what?

Yasmin: Now expecting invasion of Afghanistan. By Monday or even earlier.

Anthony: Of course the media is blaming Bin Laden, but I think it’s Iraq.

Amar: I don't think a govt would take the risk.

Anthony: On the contrary, I think a rogue state is a very logical suspect. The sheer sophistication of this operation means that you’d need a large and well financed network. Only a state can finance this. Taleban is not a real state. I doubt if they have the capabilities to launch a direct assault on the US. Iran is under a reformist regime, North Korea and Libya are trying to mend fences, Cuba – even more unlikely. As sherlock holmes would say “eliminate the impossibilities, and whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the answer”. I also think it is way too large for Osama. I say iraq – they have the motive, they have resources, they want revenge man. They must have been plotting this for a while.

Yasmin: I think Anthony has a good pick of Iraq trying to hit back. That is I would say even more likely than Osama. Osama hasn’t got the resources. Iraq has resources. Plus Bush and Colin Powell are back in town, so may be it’s time to hit back.

Anthony: Proportionate response – if you were to invade Afghanistan, how would you do it?
Few tomahawks wouldn’t do. What are we talking about here – commando raid to capture Osama? Iraq – that would be easier. Total invasion. Desert storm 2.

Aruna: I know I’m not much of a talker but the gravity of the situation/occasion calls for some contribution. I can’t make any enlightened comments but do believe that bin Laden was quite capable of carrying out the act. He is reportedly a billionaire and although that might be an exaggeration he is most certainly a millionaire. The operation as such doesn’t seem to have required a great deal of financing. There seems no reason/outlet for any unbridled monetary investment, as one would require say in the purchase of a bomb/s or the raw material required in manufacturing one that could cause so much destruction. The amount of fuel the air-planes were carrying along with the obviously fast trajectory provided for more ammunition than any terrorist could even dream of. It appears that the hijackers used knives and box cutters to gain control over the pilots, cabin-crew and passengers. Plastic knives none-the-less. The largest investment is time (for the planning and organisation) and the fact remains that bin Laden has been pretty sombre since the American Embassy bombing in Africa. I don’t think the Americans will retaliate until they can prove who exactly the culprit is. Doing otherwise would simply mean too much international condemnation, but once they do know, God help them.

Amar: I will bet it's not the Iraqi regime. Any takers?

Anthony: Logistics, planning, co-ordination, indoctrination, security work — it seems all too much for an individual. Sure Osama may be part of the picture, but it is too early to rule a state out

Shambhu: Yes, the US has interfered in the affairs of many countries and many of its own actions are highly provocative. Yes, the blockade imposed upon Iraq is harsh and unjust. But the recent tragedy was an attack on civilians and was savage, without mercy and without honor. Many US actions abroad have dubious and murky undertones but the question is - when you think of any of the major powers - which fare any better? I can't remember the US conducting such a large operation aimed SOLELY at civilians and which was without any military objective. US actions have been fueled by greed, arrogance and insensitivity. Not HATE. They will be now.

Amar: I can't help but wonder how different it would all have been if only steve seagal had been in one of the planes with a beautiful air stewardess to help him.

Yasmin: I prefer Harrison Ford.

Anthony: If this was a Clancy novel then Jack Ryan would be nuking Baghdad and Mr Clarke would secretly get into Kabul and arrest Osama.

After this, the conversation reached the quality of the first topic above. Plus ca change.

Shamsur Rahman, arguably the most important poet writing in Bangla in the past 50 years, passed away today. His most well known poem, Freedom, was written during Bangladesh's Liberation War. He thought freedom was poems and songs, waving unkempt hair, radicals marching, peasant’s smile, a girl swimming, dialogues over tea, father’s prayer mat, mother’s white sari and lover’s black hair. I hope he has found his freedom.

Heat

Amar: Damn it, why do the women in this city look so damn fine to myeyes? The air is heavy with lust I tell you. The nights of othersmust be filled with sexual depravities and pleasurable wrongdoings. What is this association between heat and lust?

This is what an old Frenchman said about this:

The heat of the climate can be so excessive that the body there will beabsolutely without strength. So, prostration will pass even to the spirit; no curiosity, no noble enterprise, no generous sentiment; inclinations will all be passive there; laziness there willbe happiness.

Hmmm… Rushdie articulates much better:

What grows best in the heat: cane-sugar, the coconut palm, certain millets… (given water) tea and rice. But the tropical summer grows stranger fruit as well – the exotic flowers of the imagination blossom… What else grows in heat: passion, desire… … Heat, gnawing at the mind’s division between fantasy and reality… What grows best in the heat: fantasy, unreason, lust.

Turning the clock back

The Israeli army has vowed to turn the clock back 20 years for Lebanon. I turn back the clock over two decades myself, and here record how my own thought over this conflict has evolved in this time.

One of my earliest political memories is a special edition of Bangladeshi variety show Jodi kichu mone na koren (If you don’t mind) marking the massacres in Sabra and Shatila. I recollect clearly the images of tanks entering rubbles, and young men waving their AK-47s defiantly. Israelis were, of course, the bad guys.

That was in 1982. My second brush with the conflict came nearly a decade later in the form of history books at a Firangi school. GCE A Level texts portrayed Israelis as stoic pioneers taming a wild frontier. Israel was an oasis of liberty in a desert of despotism. Its victory in the Six Days War was a study in an underdog beating the odds. Israelis became the good eyes.

A few years and more serious history books at the university later I changed my mind. I came to think that, like Partition, the creation of Israel was one of the biggest historical mistakes committed in the 20th century. But I also thought that like Pakistan (the only other state created on the basis of a religion), Israel is a reality, and its existence ought not be undone. This was the mid-1990s. Arafat and Rabin were shaking hands and sharing a Nobel. It seemed that I was not the only one thinking a two-state solution would end the conflict.

We know that the peace process failed. That it would fail became clear by the beginning of the current decade. Around that time, I befriended a lot of people from the region. Discussions of that time frequently blamed Israeli intransigence for the failure of the peace process. Did the Palestinians not give up 78% of historical Palestine? If Israelis can, rightfully, seek compensation for the gold stolen by the Nazis, why should the Palestinian refugees not be compensated for the lost land?

But is Israeli intransigence unexpected? And by the same token, is Arab recalcitrance something that should surprise us? I argue here that it is not in rational interest of either party to seek peace. The land in contention is of the Bible, but I think the end will be that of Mahabharata. Wars apparently have no victors, only survivors. This war, I think, won’t even have them.

That’s what I think. I am of course just a taxi driver. You can read other ideas here.

the hopeless struggle

The rationale and logic of human struggle fascinates me. Most bizarre of all is the knowingly futile struggle, where there is no hope or illusion of redemption or success. What motivates man to continue in such circumstances? I have failed to offer any explanation in the past, though I have occasionally stared at moths and wondered. The Russians have a saying - to the success of our hopeless task! Perhaps I need to ask one of them to explain.

Instead, I have been reading Thomas Mann's Death in Venice in recent days. The summary on the back cover was what caught my eye, and it has the following to say about the central character and his story: "His pitiful pursuit of the object of his affection and its inevitable and pathetic climax are told here..."

The inevitable and pathetic climax, it is obvious from the title, is death. This seems quite consistent, for example, with the case of the moths.

I have been listening to music too. I recently discovered Na to caravan ki talaash hai (lyrics: the incomparable Sahir Ludhianvi). Here, a male and female singer sing two differing perspectives of the world. The latter is more intriguing. The male version is hopeful. But the woman's opening words are:

Mere na muraad junoon ka, hai ilaaj koyee to maut hai
For my hopeless passions, if there's any cure, it's death

Death seems well accepted as the inevitable climax by all hopeless strugglers. Indeed, they seem to aspire to little else. But death is inevitable for all, both hopeful and hopeless. Perhaps the difference is merely that for the hopeful, it is an unwelcome interruption, but for us hopeless, it is the awaited conclusion.

The moth

It was not my intention to write anything, but a moth just fell on my head. I brushed it away, and it lay on the floor for a minute, before it started to move again. And then it flew straight back up to the lights on the ceiling, hovering and flittering around them like a compulsive-neurotic.

In classical urdu poetry, and I expect persian and other regional and desi languages too, the moth is a metaphor for the romantic, the lover. The light or flame that is the object of the moth's attentions [affections] represents the beloved. The moth is drawn to the flame the way a lover is to his beloved, but ultimately both the flame and the beloved are unattainable, and the ultimate fate of those who draw too close is to be consumed and destroyed by their own obsession. What compels a moth to hurtle to his own doom, of his own accord heading closer and closer to a fire that will destroy him? Who can explain this fatal attraction, this headlong plunge towards one's own destruction?

Lata sings in the song Aayega Aanewala of a lover's longing for her lost beloved. Here, the flame is absent, but even then there is a reference to the metaphor of the moth and the flame. The pain of the lover is described thus: deepak bagair kaise, parvane jal rahe hain? There is no flame, yet why do the moths still burn?

Meanwhile my moth has better sense than most. He has abandoned the light and is now cooling his passions in a corner of the room. Not all moths are as foolish as lovers.

Result of Post Mortem

As I read my good friend Amar's Post mortem, I could only think of the following verses


Insaan ki khwaish ki koyee intihaa nahin
Do gaz zameen chahiye, do gaz kafan ke bad.


There is no end to the desire of man
after two yards of (burial) cloth,
he wants two yards of land*


* All credit to Son of amar for translation. He dropped his ongoing work of translating Quran in madrassah and spent a year translating these two lines for me. Thank you Son of Amar.

post mortem

Disclaimer: There is no need for alarm. There is no intention for this post to require actioning in the immediate or near future, it is simply a declaration of wishes in respect of an inevitable and unpredictable event which there is no harm in being prepared for.

When I am dead, I do not wish to be burned/cremated - I do not like the idea of such extreme heat. I do not wish to join the bone collections of the christian graveyard or the muslim kabristan - they do not seem cheerful places. I do not want to be chopped up in pieces and fed to the birds - I admire the efficiency, but I don't like knives. I don't like the idea of being permanently drowned either, so don't leave me underwater. It is not reasonable to expect permanent repose in an urban environment, where one's presence would be an inconvenience to the living, until the body was inevitably disposed of in a waste heap.

Instead, please dispose of my body, to the extent it is practical and possible, in accordance with this rubai by Omar Khayyam:

Ah, with the Grape my fading Life provide,
And wash my Body whence the Life has died,
And in a Windingsheet of Vine-leaf wrapt,
So bury me by some sweet Garden-side.

Ideally near a river, and where a cool breeze blows, where it doesn't get too hot in the summer and where the rain is pleasant and enjoyable.