The War and its history!

My history book in school was replete with war heroes. 'Alexander the Great', conquered the world, I studied. 'Napolean' the French emperor who led France through many victories and conquered many parts of Europe was celebrated. We were taught resilience and never say die attitude from the hero Ghazni Mohammed. I was ten years old when the Kargil war was fought. The bare minimal memory of those days was celebrating victory in a war. We had won! The enemy was conquered, hurray!

The movie Lakshya on Kargil which I watched with so much passion never showed the lives of the many soldiers who died along the way; on the way to capturing the highest point of 'Nowhere in particular'.

I celebrated the movie. Loved it to bits. Had goosebumps when Hrithik Roshan limped to the peak and planted the Indian flag on the cliff. On that unlivable cliff!

Wars, the bloodiest wars of history had always been portrayed as the fiefdoms of courage and valour. Yet, there is another side to it. The sadder side! Strangely, war never meant destruction. No, never we learnt about the number of people Gazni killed in his conquests. Whatever happened to their families? Did they manage to rebuild the damaged houses? What happened to the widow? Did she end up living all her life wearing the sad white sarees? Were they thrown in the funeral pyre of the martyred husbands? What about the children? Did the scar of losing dads ever go away? Did they harbour the hurt of their loved ones getting killed all their lives? Ah! The sadness of war. That gory face which was never shown in our history books.

The history books were written by the Winners, said, my friend! Well, didn't the winner lose anything? Of course, India supposedly won the Kargil war. And what did we get out of it? The pride of keeping the national flag on the snowy ice-clad mountain where mankind can never live. Maybe a few goosebumps and for sure some respect among the other nations! All of these are important. Very important; but did we count the cost? The lives of many soldiers. The devastated families. Orphaned children and widowed women. Will the Paramvir chakra ever give them their lives?

Warmongering people, Count the cost! Wars can never be profitable. Not even for the winners. For there are no winners in a war.

War histories were not written by winners! History books were written by those who lost lesser comparatively.

Do we really want to be done away with casteism?

Sneha could get a 'No Caste', 'No religion' certificate! And as soon as this news came into the world of social media, the true blue activist in me woke up. So I presume she will not get admissions for her children using the quota designated to the caste. Quite brave of her, I suppose!

So how many of you believe that by doing away with the caste certificate, we can do away with casteism in its true and original form? I'm not a fool to believe that! Casteism is here till to stay till we don't let our children intermarry.

The sad reality of India is, we all are casteist. In our innermost hearts, we have the caste bias. I know for sure a few in my family had! Well, they sure have! Ah, we don't believe in casteism, they say; Yet they won't let their children get married to a person from another caste. Even if it is another caste, not from the lowest caste, they say in private. I call them the hypocritic Christian. For casteism in its true form should never have anything to do with Christ and Christianity. If any so-called follower of Christ has a caste-bias, well, rest assured they are a hypocrite. HYPOCRITE! That is how I spell it.

And so coming back to question, do we really want to do away with casteism?

I had often thought we will all one day win over the cruel world of Casteism! In the distant utopian world. But having second thoughts now. For, we need to sacrifice certain things to win over. We need to let our privileged children stand on equal grounds with those who are considered to be on a higher pedestal. Are we ready for the sacrifice? The sacrifice of letting our children fight it out without a quota! And in the process may even lose a seat which they could have got otherwise.

Well, sacrifices are not our forte anyways!

Of course, intermarriage will have to happen. And it will inevitably happen with the generational shift from the predominance of arranged marriages to the love marriages. But then, till the structural roots of the casteism in the dependence of the citizen on the completely caste-based reservation is not done away with, casteism and its ugly head will never really go away.

Yes, casteism is a much deeper problem than quota based reservation! Of course, it will take many generations for it to be completely done away with, Ture, we need a lot more interventions apart from giving simple 'No caste' certificates. And for sure, we will have to keep marriages out of casteism.

Yet, if you really think casteism is a disease, and it should be done away with, be ready to sacrifice! 

Can terrorism ever be avenged?

I felt numb reading the news that 40 young men were killed in a dastardly terror attack! Those pictures reminded me of another day in Mumbai, when the terrorists from the neighbouring country wreaked havoc. The heart felt a pain.

Like every time when India lost its Bravehearts, the media uproar started. "we need revenge", was the audible discourse. Hashtag #pulwamaavenge was trending widely. Every Indian got really riled up. And got ready for revenge.

So how to get revenge? How do you avenge a terrorist attack?

The terrorist who is ready to kill is ready to die. In fact that one man who executed the job is already dead. He was ready to die and so no point even talking about it. What next? The planners and the others involved in the logistics of the killing should be the next target. But do we know where they live? If only we had known!

So let us imagine they live in the neighbouring country. And we get ready to do another surgical strike! or a war! The soldiers, sadly the very same group which had lost its friends, will be sent again. Deep into the war-torn territories. The territory of bloodthirsty warmongers. Is it safe to do that? What guarantee will we have that not one of ours will not be killed again? Or at least the guarantee that we will kill only the planners of this gruesome attack without any other innocent life lost.

And even if there is the remote possibility of everything going on perfectly and we killed only those who planned and executed this gruesome attack; What next? Another group will come! And we will be avenging another attack.

And lest we forget, we(both us and the neighbours) are nuclear countries. One wrong move and we would end up fighting nuclear wars destroying a million lives.

So where do we start? Can we just leave this incident aside?

Nope! The terrorist who executed the plan was a young boy who lived and worked in Kashmir(India) for most of his life. We had done something terribly wrong to have made another young man take this route. We will go to the root of this as a problem and solve it. Let not another young Kashmiri boy take this route.

And before everything else, this is a huge intelligence failure. Do a thorough study; Plug in the gaps. 40Kg of bombs brought in to the country without our notice is a shame. It cannot have happened without involving locals. Catch hold of them and punish them! India cannot afford another terror module developing inside our territory.

And seal the porous borders! I understand it is very very difficult. But do we have a choice?

The only way to avenge terrorism is to prevent them from entering the territory again and not let our people enter the terrorist gangs. 

Nationalism, An idea that needs reflection

Nationalism is the hot topic in India today! So much that there are certificates of nationalism being given to people. Like, 'Anti Nationals', 'Nationalists' etc. So I decided to have a deeper look at the term nationalism

A simple google search on nationalism gives the following definition "Identification with one's own nation and support for its interest, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations"

So, identifying with one's own nation is a part of nationalism! Of course, I identify with my nation's interest. I want the best for the people of my country and the country as a whole. Does that make me a nationalist? But, my idea of nations interest is different from my friend's! In fact, we are polar opposites and yet both of us want the best for our country. So where do we stand?

I think secularism is good, he feels secularism is abused; both in the interest of the nation! I feel socialism has a role, he believes capitalism should be overarching; both in the interest of the nation. Does that make one of us 'Anti National'?

No! I believe, 99% of people living in any country want the best for their country. Of course, they have their own ideas about what is best for the country. Some even believe, living within their country is detrimental for their group of people. That is their belief. It is the role of the nation-state to show that they belong and overcome their negative feelings towards their country. Rather than giving negative 'Anti-national' certificates.

And the second part of the definition says that the support for one country should be the detriment of the interests of other nations!

Well, in a complex globalized world, it is difficult for countries to grow on their own! A stable neighbour, which is doing well is always beneficial for the country. We cannot and should not wish for the detriment of another country. It just does not work that way.

So, Nationalism is good! Thinking about the interest of a country and its people is obviously a good thing. But that does not mean, my way is the only way for the country to become better and everybody else who has different ideas have different intentions.

And finally, nationalism is a deep concept of living together in a diverse country happily and making sure everybody in the country grow up together. Let us not belittle nationalism by shoving it into small bottles like singing patriotic songs and standing still for the national anthem.

Nationalism is an idea that needs a serious rethinking in this world of namesake nationalists.

The blood is on you India!

This was all she had! This little girl was quietly picking stones from the little rice she had. She looked numb. I don't know what was going through her mind. I walked past her. The next home, the next plastic sheet; A dead body kept there. One young girl, slightly older than this one in the picture sat next to the body; crying silently. I walked past her too. To the next home and to the one after that and then to another. The so-called homes.

35000 of these people in one camp. Seven  camps! They had sought refuge in the neighbouring state of Tripura after the state they lived in Mizoram had sent them out. The refugee camps had been organized along the godforsaken Jamui hills bordering Mizoram and Tripura. Organized? Sorry, these people have just settled down along the hills.

As I walked back to the vehicle, questions throbbed my mind! Where do they go for toilets? Food? Where do they bury the dead? Is there a way to teach the children there? What if somebody falls sick? Do they have enough clothes to wear? What if it rains? And it poured usually in that area. Sadly just before I went a fire ravaged the camp. Where did they go to hide from fire? The govt promised Rs.5/- (0.01$) per day per person, of which only a petty few got em.

It has been 21 years since the refugee camp started. Nearly eight years since I went visiting. They still exist. The state of Mizoram doesn't want them. Neither does Tripura.

When I read today that Indian government has sent back a few Rohingya refugees to Myanmar and fearing repatriation many are migrating to the safety of Bangladesh, I got reminded of my short stint in that refugee camp.

Refugee camps are the biggest crimes a state can inflict on a human being. And if a state refuses people even a place in such refugee camps, and in fact repatriates, those who have sought refuge, that I think is the lowest a state can stoop down to. And sadly, my country is traversing that path.

India, the blood is on you!

Secularism - Time the world takes a clear look at it again!

So I had this big argument with a well-meaning longtime friend on secularism, which has brought me to this week's idea that changed the world!

Since this is a very controversial topic, I tread carefully and define my terms first. When I use the term 'Church', it means the religious institutions of all religions! And when I use the term religion, it means a particular system of faith or worship. I understand there are people who consider their religion a way of life or a personal relationship! I'm not getting into that. For me, religion is a system of faith. Period!

For a long time the world was ruled by religious orders, and by that I mean, the church had control over the government. So the clergy of the church decided on the taxes, the trade etc. But this did not survive the modern era and with the advent of the 'Nation states' in its current form, it was decided to keep church and religion away from power and politics. And rightly so!

So there are two forms of secularism. The first is such that the functions of political officials are performed in a way which invokes no religion. Under this model of secularism, the political officials perform their function without invoking any religion, irrespective of their personal belief or the belief of the majority population of that state. Simply put, church and religion are kept separately. This is the negative form of secularism. The other positive form of secularism is that the state will support all religion equally. So the state is supposed to give equal respect to all religion or to protect all religions equally.

Now, where do we stand?

Secularism in its true form is a misnomer! Since man is innately biased, we ascribe to our own belief system, and when in power it is almost impossible to let your belief system not impress on your work. Agreed!

That said, any country which subjugates any religion should never be called secular. Simply put, any law passed by a secular country cannot and should not discriminate a religion.

Is it good for the world to be secular? As a deep Christian(If I can say so myself) in my heart, I sincerely believe it is good for the world to move towards secularism. When laws are made against one group of people, it will end up creating resentment in that group! And resentment is never a good feeling. And eventually will end up creating more harm than good.

And what do we do as individuals?

Man, as I said earlier, is innately biased. The society which we grew up in, will definitely influence the human heart. And that will reflect in our actions and our belief system. In spite of that, I as a human being have no right to treat another individual as an inferior, for his belief system. I have no right of violence/abuse/misdemeanour on any individual, coz his beliefs are different!

It's time the world takes a clearer look at secularism again! A non-secular pluralistic world will be chaos. 

Altruism to the lost generation!

I'm a child of altruism; I was born in a hospital in a remote village built by Altruists from a foreign land. Lived the first two decades of my life in another hospital campus built by people without any self-interest. I have travelled to remote corners of my country, to almost all of the 29 states. Many places in the God-forsaken North East and the considered BIMARU (Sick) states. Places where livelihood is still very primitive. Where transport and electricity are still unheard of! And have seen health workers sweat it out, just so that the poor living there could access care. I once walked a few kilometres in a jungle with a man to see one patient. One Patient!  And some of the best years of my life were lived in the campus built by the greatest of them all. Dr Ida Scudder who built the biggest medical college in India which has trained and sent thousands of health workers across the globe, just because she saw three young women dying without access to health care.

Almost all of them are altruists! Altruism? Selflessness is the word. Where self-interest is the last thing in their dictionary. They lived for the world. For the people. And many times for a God they loved and trusted. 

What happened to their childhood dream of becoming rich? Didn't they have crushes living in faraway places? How about educating their children? Weren't they ambitious professionally? Of course yes! A big YES! They were humans too. Yet they sacrificed everything at the altar of altruism. Self-interest was killed for the sake of the love of helping the world be a better place. 

So what happened now? Why suddenly this article? 

When my sister spoke passionately about the loss of piety in these hospitals now I became a little numb! Is this true? Am I the generation which has lost that sense of love and responsibility towards the world? Is it true that this generation boasts of a bigger ego, a bloated self, more interested in them and theirs than the previous and those before them? Is it true that the word altruism is being lost to the world? 

Sadly yes! Sometimes numbers don't lie. And statistically many of these great hospitals in the remotest areas of my country are being closed down for want of people! Many are gasping and are on its last breaths including the one which birthed me. Capitalism for all its facilities and securities, sadly have made us inward looking. 

So what do we do now? Close down all those institutions, lament about the lack of selfless people in this generation and write blogs?

This generation needs to show off! We want to tell the world we are stars. We tweet our views. We Instagram our happiness. We facebook our travelogue. We blog to showcase our writing skills. We want the world to know we care more than we actually care.  

Is there a way to show altruists as heroes to this generation? Can the generation's egos be stoked to live up to those great people? Are there ways to make working in these places social media worthy stories? And more importantly, is there a way to balance selflessness with gratifying the basic necessities of my generation? 

For altruism has to be marketed to the lost generation!