The Jihad of a Humanist

#1 temporal,
we need more sankurathris in this world``
then world would be better place to live in.constructive way to over come grief.

Urstruly #27

Indian govt. has nothing to do with Canadian case. It is the Canadian govt pursuing it. They believe more in the rule of law than Indian govt does.

If Pakistan can use nukes to prevent its disintegration so can India. You cannnot be so stupid.

I see Kashmiris, Sikhs and Sindhis at logger heads with Punjabi Muslims over water rights. It is the future.

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godot #49 if it makes you feel better, chowk never published two of my articles.

the first article i had written before 9/11 (thats how long I have been on chowk) after visiting pakistan. since i had been keeping an eye on a large madrassah for a few years, and had noticed this time that the maulvis being groomed in the madrassah were more aggressive than past years. i could almost sense the pot coming to a boil. in my article i had predicted that we were headed for a civil war within pakistan. events turned out a bit differently of course, and instead of a civil war where the maulvis tried to take over pakistan as i had feared we had the terrorist attack of 9/11 that resulted in the war on terror with the US taking the lead and musharaff jumping in line. so, in a way i think that was a prescient article anyway, since it correctly noted that the pot was reaching a boiling point. mullahs, being mullahs, overestimated their own capacity and instead of taking on pakistani society alone (where they may well have managed to take over) the idiots took on the US. so we got lucky. and that prescient article got rejected...damn!

the second article i wrote more recently on Ancient Pakistan - properly researched and everything with some new stuff that people are not generally aware off. maybe this one will get published. who knows.

hope this makes you feel better.

PS: urstruly is not responding to my posts. hope he is not offended by my poking a bit of fun at him. maybe he is. hope you are not offended at being compared to a tonga horse. maybe you are.

oh well. c`est le chowk interacts. and c`est le chowk articles...

Re: Veeresh, #48

Yes. Separating hits for an article versus its interacts would help gauge the interest in an article, and may help weed out bad writings (although it cannot prevent the author or his/her ``friends`` to keep clicking on the article to make it ``appear`` as if it is being read...but that`s besides the point).

Further, Chowk`s selection process of an article needs to be re-assessed, re-evaluated, and overhauled. The re-packaging of Chowk has done diddly to improve the quality of articles it chooses to publish. It`s not any different than fixing the dents and repainting an old car with shiny new paint and ignoring its engine. The engine remains cantankerous and dreadful.

Ref godot #46

[A complete silence to my post 36 leads me to believe that I may have spoken the truth and may have struck a chord among many...how tragic for Chowk.]

Turn in an article on the greatness of Jinnah/Mohammad Ghaznavi/Ibn Sina/... (add any number of Muslim names here and take your pick) and it will get published pronto! You have used this trick before and so has that dear boy Yasser Latif Hamdani.

Godot # 36, shall we ask chowk to place a hit-o-meter on the interacts, too?

dost-mittar:

Commendations on the wonderful account of an outstanding man who rose above the terror that nearly destroyed his life. I circulated your story among friends who were all most appreciative of your writing.

I wish Chowk writers could provide such uplifting stories every so often.

Isa Daudpota
12:20 am, 29 June 2003

HOW TRAGIC...

A complete silence to my post 36 leads me to believe that I may have spoken the truth and may have struck a chord among many...how tragic for Chowk.

Veeresh # 43

Thanks for producing Khuswant Singh`s write up. He is always refreshing.

South Asia lives in myths and myths and myths. At least the Pakistani history text books are not history but myths.

Turka is very much a part of our daily lives in Pakistan. It is that Turka that gives that ``oomph`` to the Daal.

As for that debate going downstairs on the quality and themes of Articles on Chowk:

Some people buy newspaper only to read Sports page.
Some only read the editorial.
Some read the magazine section.
Some buy magazines on technology.
Some only read erotica.
Some buy magazines on outdoor life and so on.

Chowk gives a sprinkling of all themes and tastes - which in my opinion is good.
As for the quality, if an article has a theme that I do not like, I will not read it and actually find it quite boring. I will also think that it is of a poor quality.

And Chowk is a place for exchanging views, let everyone write and enjoy and may be we need to be tolerant and encourage new writers - there are good writers and there are ordinary souls like me. After all, Chowk is not paying anything to the contributors.

So, by and large, I will say that the Chowk staff is doing a good job and Chowk is a good place to learn, interact, spend time and get entertained.

godot #48 dont worry. we shall find the finest tonga in rawalpindi for you to pull. then you can race down rajah bazaar with your head held high (as is expected from a prize racehorse) and THEN chowk editors will know what a stallion they rejected...i mean ejected. and no doubt urstruly will try to get a ride for himself, his wife, and his ten children on the tonga and will then tell the entire family to run off in different directions when they reach home, thus avoiding payment to the tonga wallah...

The truth behind aviation incidents so often gets obscured by the vividness of the tragedy. For some reason, aviation related deaths seem to bring out higher levels of group emotions, than compared to, say, marine or land.

I wonder why?

Meanwhile, for those who missed it, from today`s HT:-

History of one’s making
Khushwant Singh
June 27

Distorting history to suit the mood of the times is not an invention of Murli Manohar Joshi, the minister for education, and his pliable panel of so-called historians. It has been practised ever since people became aware of their past.

Indian scholars are not the only falsifiers of events. British historians indulged in it with equal zeal. Take, for instance, the Revolt of 1857. While the British call it the Sepoy Mutiny, Indians describe it as the First War of Independence. In fact, it was more than a mutiny of some sepoys of the forces of the East India Company. And it was by no means a war of independence waged by oppressed Indians.

A vast majority of Indians were opposed to it and large numbers of Indians helped to suppress it. Its Muslim supporters wanted

to restore Mughal rule and bullied a reluctant Bahadur Shah Zafar to become their leader. Even the poet, Asadullah Khan Ghalib, kept a respectable distance from them. Hindus who rose in rebellion were led by their erstwhile rulers who had been ousted by the British. The credit for making 1857 the year of India’s First War of Independence goes largely to the pseudo-historian, Jawaharlal Nehru.

A bigger fabrication is about our freedom struggle. Indian historians make it out as a war between British rulers and the Indian masses led by Gandhi, Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose, Sardar Patel, Azad and other Congress leaders. It was nothing of the sort. To start with, it was inspired by Englishmen like A.O. Hume (CIC) and leaders of the Congress loyal to Queen Victoria. Tagore composed and sang Jana gana mana in honour of King George V. A majority of Congress leaders were products of British universities and Inns of Court. No sooner had they returned home, they shed their frock-coats, top hats, ties and striped trousers and took to wearing khadi kurtas and dhotis. They changed their attires, but they did not shed their British way of thinking. Far from opposing British rule tooth and nail, at times they collaborated with them as junior partners, as in Provincial Congress-led governments in 1937 and 1939.

Another myth is that Indians kicked out the British. They did nothing of the sort. The Quit India movement launched by Gandhi in August 1942 was crushed within three weeks. The British were not evicted from India; they found it increasingly difficult to rule it and decided to call it a day. Shanmukham Chetty, independent India’s first finance minister, had the correct perspective when he said, “… we have secured freedom from foreign yoke, mainly through the operation of world events, and partly through a unique act of enlightened self-abnegation on behalf of the erstwhile rulers of the country…”

Pandit Nehru’s oft-quoted ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech in Parliament in August 1947 has to be taken with a large dose of salt. He said, “At the stroke of the midnight hour, as the world sleeps, India wakes to life and freedom.” For one thing, when it is midnight in India, in half the world on the other side of the globe, it is day time and people are not sleeping. What was a day of jubilation in Delhi was a day of mourning in Punjab and Bengal which had been sliced into halves with enormous amount of bloodshed and millions rendered homeless and impoverished. However, many people had reasons to be jubilant. Those in the defence and civil services got double promotions because the British and Muslim officials had left, industrialists who had made huge profit during the war were able to buy British companies and tea estates at throwaway prices.

Indians did say good riddance to the British; they continued to send their ICS and senior defence personnel for training to England. The truth is that though there was only one Briton to more than 2,000 Indians, they were able to rule over us for 200 years because we Indians found their presence in India worth our while.

I invite the attention of educated Indians to a short article ‘The Fables of Nationalism’ by Prof Indivar Kamtekar of JNU in the India International Centre Quarterly magazine. It is truly an eye-opener, thoroughly researched, well-worded and totally free of bias. He has done a great job of debunking myths on which we have been brought up. I am not aware if he has written a history of India, but I am sure if he does so it will be well worth reading. People who live on myths of the past of their own making develop a myopic vision of the present and imperil their own future.

Taste of India

Chhownk — I don’t think this Hindi word or its Punjabi version, tarhka, has yet found entry into the Oxford English Dictionary. Words like garnishing, seasoning and tempering are not adequate. It stands for a culinary practice common all over northern India and down to the Deccan to add to the taste to lentils and vegetables. When they are ready to be served, the cook takes a ladle full of pure ghee, adds onions, garlic, asafoetida, kari patta, red chillies or other chosen spices, heats them over the fire and pours the contents on the rice, dal or subzi. It produces a loud sizzling noise and aromatic smoke. It makes a noticeable difference in the taste of food pleasing both to the tongue and the nostrils. This is done in most homes and roadside dhabas but never in fancy restaurants or five-star hotels. Why not? They have sizzlers brought in steaming with spirals of white smoke; they have flambe pudding with blue flames produced by brandy or rum. So why not chhownk, with white top-hatted chefs pouring aromatic ghee on your dal-bhaat with a touch of panache as if performing some sacred Oriental ritual.

I am told that chhownk or tarhka is not practised in Muslim homes. Can this be true?

dost-mitterji,

Yes, we do need more like Dr. Chandra in this world. However, not as an effect of a tragedy like this though.

Nand Uncle:

Thank you for the update. I had no clue about this tragedy and got to read about the aftermath. We always learn about something new from informative readings.

On Chowk`s Policies and Procedures:
(Now, this is a personal observation and does not require or demand a tit for tat response)

As a cyber ezine, Chowk should include all types of write-ups vs. focusing on one kind of thought process. As far as favoritism goes that is true in general for human nature and I do not think that Chowk is run by robots. That`s why I do not find a single writer on this ezine or for that matter on any other ezine as my all time favorite. And that`s a personal view. Sometimes, there is life in the writings; whereas on other occasions they are completely off. The best way of saving yourself from the agony is to avoid reading the stuff that`s not worth the time and effort to respond. On the same hand to each person their words mean a lot and there is a sense of ownership and territorial-ism(!) To person X his vulgar jokes may mean a everything, whereas to person Y they may serve as a mirror to person X`s pagal pun. To each their own. In general, vulgarities only reveal the disgusting personas that are not worth a second glance.

End of Discussion.

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