On this 15 August

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Ideas whose time is up

Religion: We know now that earth is not flat and the sun doesn’t revolve around the earth and stuff like that. And more, like evolution and natural selection, which explains things like kindness in us. We still have unknowns and we still have unanswered questions, but those questions are more educated. Since our ignorance is not the same anymore, or our idiocy, our Gods and his prophets have to grow up to stay relevant. The morality preached by holy scriptures is grotesque, if not immoral and violent, and the revealed truth is anything but the source of truth. Classic Religion as we know is way too stupid for this era of Internet and cloning. And way too costly in terms of human life!

Organized Religion: Religion is bad enough as it is, but when it’s organized it turns into totalitarian regime, looking quite similar to Communism, Nazism etc. It eats religion hollow leaving no trace of meditation and spirituality, and makes it exact opposite to what it is supposed to be. But that’s not why it must go. Why it must go is the rise of nation-state, and the modern realities of passport, visa etc. Religion as an organizing institution has become obsolete. We are not tribal groups anymore; we are nation states now. Sometimes loyalty to religion creates confusion and conflict. Some of you might leave your country to wage jihad for ISIS. But we would like to keep crackpots out of this discussion. Nuts like you deserve a Caliphate.

Nation-State: Businessmen close down factories in their homeland and outsource jobs to foreign people to make more profit.  Employees seek opportunities in foreign firms at foreign locations and they compete against firms of their own countries. Nobody knows, let alone cares for, his neighbor and whatever happens to him. Love for your culture is out of fashion and considered retrogressive. What do you stand for, if not your cultural identity? State? That who leaves you when you are hungry and sick?  And turns back on you when you have wealth? What do you need state for – to pay tax and to fight against imaginary enemies? Patriotism is stupid, if not hypocritical, in this age of globalization. 

Marriage: Do we need love and companionship? Yes. Do we need approval from phone-and-internet relatives? No! Not in the world shaped by migration in which we live among shadows and noise. Who cares who and how many you are living with? When you don’t give a fuck to society, what do you need their approval for? Sounds bohemian? Well divorce used to sound outlandish few years back. Today it doesn’t even raise eyebrows. Because couples are breaking up all the time! The old system is falling all over the place. It’s not working! The contract between man and woman and their families must be re-written with due respect to woman’s power and other changes that are staring at us. The need for children cannot bail out this creaky system for long.

Family: Who needs family? The characters of Ayn Rand don't. Independent individuals with creative and futuristic minds can live without nonsense perpetuated in the name of tradition that's part and parcel of community life. However, men and women, especially kids, old, weak and sick people, do need family. But with modern fetish like career, success etc. occupying the focal point in our collective consciousness, people are investing less and less in their parents and children in terms of time. With increasing mobility and migration, not to mention inflated cost of living, and myriad temptations lifestyle magazines offer, raising kids is not the most exciting thing for young couples. Besides, modern women don't like their cribbing in-laws hanging around. In case oldies make themselves useful by helping with diapers, a symbiotic relation can be happily thought about. Otherwise, the changes in our attitude have shaken the very foundation of this institution. The joint family system has already collapsed. What is left now needs blood and oxygen.

On Porn Ban

Your choice is your prerogative. It's your business and yours alone.

But do understand - if you contribute to the demand, you DO support the supply. That's how the game is played. It's called economics. You cannot jerk that off.

So here it is - if you like to see that type of stuff, you DO support that type of exploitation. In fact, coming to think of it, what you do is more than mere supporting. You sponsor that.

Of course you are free to decide for yourself. Rather you are obliged to. Nobody knows enough to decide for others. At least I don't. I want to make a limited point.

Porn != loveMaking; Porn != careerOption; Porn == trafficking & violence. This is deductive, and is not a function of ignorance, denial or forgetting.

And there is a dying art of seduction.

#YourChoice.

Order! Order! Order!

Let's get this straight - courts resolve disputes and they maintain law & order; they don't give justice.

And what's justice anyway? What does it mean? With passing age, I am getting less and less certain about more and more. But I feel with reasonable confidence that Justice is arrant nonsense of a concept. It's just another human invention that has no meaning whatsoever. Just like God, it's doesn't exist!

No court has ever restored a loss of a victim. Because no court can. Once a loss is made, it's made forever. You cannot undo that. You can pronounce judgements, even minimize losses, but you cannot dispense justice. Even in the best case, how can you make up for the lost time, and for the pain that one goes through while justice takes its course?

What you do with a murderer or a rapist might save his potential victims, but that has no bearing on his victim. Understand this - delayed or not, justice is always denied. When a man-eater is killed, only those who have not been eaten feel safe. That too is important - people must feel safe, for themselves and for their loved ones. It's lonely world out there - nobody should be allowed to deprive anybody of whatever little comfort or support one has. Though Justice is an esoteric concept, everyone including a child can sense injustice. And nobody accepts it. Nobody should.

Today, a terrorist will hang. Perhaps it's necessary. Yes it's necessary. Violence must be discouraged and fought against. Though Capital Punishment is cruel and medieval, I am ambivalent about its abolition simply because I don't think anybody has any right to forgive an offense made against others. It's easy to tolerate others' pain, isn't? We the People dying in 3rd world can live with only so much 1st world liabilities.

Anyway, let's leave larger issues like judicial reforms for some other day. Right now I cannot help feeling a little sad about the whole blast episode. I wish this mad cycle of violence stops and no life is ever brought to an end like this. 

Tunnel View, Yosemite National Park

and

These pics were taken on 27 June this year. My wife had planned a trip to Yosemite National Park to celebrate my birthday. Perhaps because I sprayed sunscreen into my eyes, or because of God know what, I was unable to keep my eyes open. Plus the afternoon sun was shining blindingly. Nothing was going my way. When we pulled over near Tunnel View I took out my camera merely to perform a ritual. I had no hope; I was already planning for my next trip to Yosemite.

So when I look at these pics, I wonder who took them. And how!

Minority

Minority doesn’t mean Muslims, though the words have become synonymous by mis-usage.

Here are few facts - Muslims are the 2^nd largest population in world and the fastest growing by a wide margin. In the Indian subcontinent, Muslims are almost as many as Hindus and at least ten times bigger than any other religion (Christianity for instance). And in India, they are not only the 2^nd largest but also more than all other minorities combined.

Hardly a species facing extinction! Then why Muslims are called minority?

Your guess is as good as mine. On my part, I daresay that they are the only majority in India. Let me explain.

In the context of electoral politics, politicians look to tap votes. No other group of people can influence the result of an election as Muslims. Monolithic or otherwise, they are veritable bank of votes! On the contrary, Hindus don’t see themselves as Hindus. They are loyal to their little caste affiliations. Some of them think for themselves. They too vote in blocks, but if and when they do, they vote in caste blocks. None of these caste blocks can come close to Muslims numerically. Muslims remain the largest vote bank. And that’s precisely why all political parties court them at the expense of so-called majority.

No matter what, no political party in democracy can stay in business without the blessings of majority. That's the scared law of electoral politics. In India what misleads is nomenclature - a majority is a majority even if you call it by any other name. It's fun and effective if you call it by its antonym. 

Let me not go pedantic on the technical definition of the word minority. But one would imagine that minorities are generally the people on the periphery. They are relegated outside the system and its discourse. They are not significant let alone powerful. In short, these people don’t count an awful much.

In India, people of North-East are real minorities. Leave skull-cap type identity politics, they have real integration issues in their own capital. It's hardly surprising that our politicians don’t talk too long about them. Politicians don't see enough return on investment. Their situation is pole-opposite to that of Muslims who hog the whole minority space alone, leaving nothing for real minority groups like homosexuals and transgenders and tribals etc.

Coming to think of it, the politics of India has been hijacked by two groups – Muslims and Corporates. The former has number-power and the latter has money-power. Everything else has become minority. 

Sum(Truth) = Lie

What was yesterday was true yesterday. That’s not true today anymore. What is today is true today. It won’t be true tomorrow. We live everyday life with everyday truths. These truths don’t last, nor do we. In long run, we won’t be merely dead; we'll be as if we have never been. We come into being from non-being and return into the same. Non-being or the one big being. Perhaps that’s the only truth. When this truth strikes, all other truths turn into a lie.

Life is a zero sum game, more or less – sum total of many little truths turns out to be one little lie.  

I see the open secret that’s for all to see. The puppet has come to know that the script is playing itself out. He has come to know that he is a puppet. He has come to know that what’s being played out is a script. It is not what it looked like. It is not real.

You preened yourself in dark brown mirrors. You admired yourself in others’ eyes. You found yourself in them.

But they who were there are not here anymore. They have been withdrawn in the background. They don’t matter to you today. And those who were never in sight have appeared on the stage. They will disappear tomorrow. They will be withdrawn. By now you see the pattern. But they matter to you today. Keep playing; the play is going on.   

You didn’t know her. But she was somewhere. She came by. She kissed you and smiled. She put her head on your shoulder, and squeezed your hand while saying something warm in your ear. She melted and became one with you. Forever. Came tomorrow and she changed. And she said that you’ve changed. Doesn’t matter if you did or you didn’t. Change catches you for sure. Things fall apart in ten directions and you find out that you are eight hands short. She will turn to other side. She will walk out of love. She will have tears in her eyes. Before long, she won’t be there. You won’t know her again. Forever.

I find myself in local train. People are around me. They were not around me half an hour back. They won’t be around me in a short while. I don’t look into their eyes. I don’t smile and say hello. I don't care. In a while the train will pull over and I will step down. That’s how it is.

iBania

I understand practical choices. 

I understand why the best of Indians line up in scorching Chennai heat and fawn over consulate clerks for Visa stamping. I understand why we Indians make hundreds of rounds of "Visa Balaji" in Hyderabad. It's tad bit too much to expect a software slave to prey "Where the head is held high" to his defeated God. That's understandable.

What is not understandable is why we are so awfully proud of these choices. I stay in Bay Area these days and I might want to stay here longer and this place being a great place notwithstanding, I never for a moment felt proud about it. I don't see my moving here as me going places. Migrating is not "going places". There is no pride in Indians fleeing India. If anything, it's an admission of collective failure. It proves a colonial point that we Indians are incapable of building a system that we want to live in. And that's not at all flattering. The better ones among us should feel humiliated, not at personal level of course, but collectively.

But we loudly publish "moved to San Francisco" on Facebook. We are proud of what we should be ashamed of. We have a strange and skewed sense of pride and shame. And superficial sense of belongingness and collective. That's why our whole is much less that the sum of our parts. And that pretty much explains why we are the way we are.  

Nude vs Porn

In happier places, people have families, friends, and some board/card game with good supply of snacks and drinks. Here people have hobbies, and they invest time and money in their hobbies.

Anyway, I am here these days and I have been dabbling in photography. Like all software stenos, I too have purchased a guitar, a tennis racquet and a DSLR camera. I am deaf to chords, I can hardly get the ball cross the net and now I’m all set to prove the point in photography as well. That’ll complete the software dude trilogy.

Since my friends are far better off in their career as well as in social skills, they don’t need a hobby to pass time. That pushed me looking out in the outer space for activity partners. Finally I have found and joined few meet-up groups. I cannot travel for whatever reasons so I am stuck mostly with the indoor photography groups. Most of these groups claim to do artistic shooting. All they do is hire a model and shoot nudes.

So here I am, a loser who can’t play strings or tennis and now poised to become a pornographer. Nice!

I asked Mr. know-it-all Google to tell me when exactly a nude turns into porn, in my usual incognito mode. And he replied - a work of art tends to grip you in "aesthetic arrest" and freezes you in that moment. On the contrary, porn is more yang by nature, and draws the beholder towards the beauty (yin), or into the loo. It seems Joyce talks about this topic in his Portrait of an Artist. Well, I’ve read that book and I swear there was nothing like that. I just remember the relief I felt when I finished reading it.

Well I digress. Let me spare you what the Ancient Greeks had to say about art and porn. Let me say what I want to say.

To me, as a wannabe photographer, nudity seems like a loud fart in a corporate boardroom while the CEO is announcing something really important. The fart punctures the solemn balloon of civilization. In a flash it shows us what we are – animals with live orifices. The sheer contrast with the designer decor triggers humor and laughter. That’s the moment when the speaker is pitted against the f almighty fart and it’s subversive powers. And if he is able to retain the mental space of his audience, or reclaim it without losing time, and reduces the fart in just another background noise, he can consider himself a good speaker.   


Apology for that scatological detour. I realize it was not necessary. I should mind my language.

The point is, a good photo is a good photo, with or without tee-tees. The twins are liable to distract the viewer and monopolize his interest. Your job is to show these twins artfully so that viewers see the heart and soul of the subject and don’t run for privacy. If you could do it, you are the Joyce of photography, if you know what I mean.

Easier said than done though. The third part of trilogy is in the making.

Bhakt

Hindu-bashing is the only thing that brings both Blue (Left) and Red (Right) together, especially in media and academia (starting from schools). This Hinduphobia not only shapes Western minds from impressionable age but also influences international politics and policy-making, and affects the position of an ordinary Hindu in increasingly multicultural society he lives in. He is a soft target everywhere for everybody, like a meaty bird that cannot fly. Worse, he is delegitimized and demonized before he is slaughtered. And there is no place for him to go!

Last month an elderly Hindu gentleman was assaulted by none other than police and before a single murmur of protest from the ever-apologetic hey-Sam-I-am-not-really-a-Hindu-but-a-wannabe-let-me-kiss-your-ass diaspora could be heard, the left-liberal voices loudly forewarned that this incident is expected to be exploited by Hindu right-wing fundamentalists! That was wicked but clever! Now keep your mouth shut or prove them right. No matter what, you retards fell in their trap!

There was a time when even Jews and Muslims too were discriminated against by the Right. But they have a sense of organization. They understood the rules of the game, organized themselves, found sympathy from the Left, and got the syllabus sanitized. Hindus are doomed to not understand anything from their history of holocausts. And as they say, history doesn’t repeat but it does rhyme time to time. Become a sheep and a shepherd will turn up from somewhere; or a butcher!

Have a look at the predominant narrative in mainstream media – Hindus are Aryan invaders who conquered and subjugated the native Indians – Dravidians – and terrorized them with ritualistic Vedic violence despite repeated efforts by Buddha, Mughals and British to civilize them. Hinduism is a degenerate caste-based system of idol worship (including idols of animals, even phallus) and other medieval practices like widow burning and child marriages. It’s responsible for economic backwardness, ecological damage, and relentless offenses against religious minorities, women, dalits etc. In short, if India has to develop and modernize, Hinduism has to be defeated.

If you found that outlandish, you are ready for a shock. That was plain vanilla. It gets hardcore fantastic with Wendy D, and even she is as mainstream and credible as anyone could be. 

I don’t intend to respond to this charge sheet here. I'm not sure if I need to. However, our own narrative has been prepared, answers are being articulated, questions are being asked, and the overall process of intellectual decolonization has belatedly but thankfully begun*. The frontline might be pushed into their territory. And that’s shaking the status quo in its roots, rocking chairs and bottoms sitting on those chairs for years. These Nehruvian bottoms don’t want to budge from their position of unchallenged monarchy and the power that followed. But the elephant is in the room, and it looks mad. Now what does the progressive mob do? The easiest way to win a debate without doing anything is to call names. So the name-calling has been started on war footage.

Hindu Fascist! Hindu Fundamentalist!

By the way these bottoms know neither Fascism nor Fundamentals of Hinduism.

The latest in the cuss-series is “Bhakt”, as if it’s a cuss word. And it indeed is for the MacBastard commies. It’s apparent that they know nothing about Bhakti, or Bhakti Movement, or Bhakti Yoga. To them they are not at all important.

Given their mental make-up, they are likely to confuse Bhakti with Faith, which is understandable given their Western sensibilities. And faith implies blindness, uncritical and unconditional submission. Well commies, here is the news - Bhakti is not faith. Put it simply – it’s another form of Love; like poetry is another form of expression. And it is meant to solve a specific problem in the spiritual quest. I am going to heed Jesus and won’t cast my pearls here. Read chapter 2 of Gita if you want to fill up your tank so that your tap stops blowing air.

Whether the so-called Modi Bhakts are critical of Modi or not need no rhetoric. The proof of pudding lies there on social media for everyone to see. Following yours truly would be edifying in this matter.

Dear commies, this is your last chance to keep peace. Let’s have an open environment for fair intellectual exchange. Let’s have free and fair debate in pursuit of nothing but truth. Let a student have equal exposure to all the versions. Let him weigh all the evidences to make up his own mind, because the process of concluding is as important as the conclusion itself, if not more. Let’s stop indoctrination.

Otherwise, let us assure you – Bhakti will show its Shakti. Hindus are rising after a thousand years of colonization, not by ritualistic Vedic violence but by making positive contribution in this world, and they are not going to live like Dhimmi anymore. If that hurts you, I am not sorry. 

*Read Rearming Hinduism – Vamsee Juluri and Breaking India – Rajiv Malhotra & Aravindan Neelakandan

Gita: Not Harf-e-Aakhir

Premchand, in the preface of his Karbala, urges Hindus to read about Islam. That's funny because Hindus don't read much. And I am talking about the creme de la creme of them who are nothing but degree-holding clerks. It's another matter that these smug dudes have opinion about everything.

One of these progressive dude butted in sometime back claiming that both Koran and Gita urge to fight. At the same time these universal equalizers maintain that all religions teach peace and everybody loves peace etc. I am least interested in wasting a single word on these overweight retards anymore. But I do want to contrast Gita with that death manual, because the comparison is stupid at the first place.

This post is not going to be a theological in nature. There are experts for that. I will talk about something else.

The first thing that struck me about Gita is this - in the context of Mahabharata, Gita just happens to happen. Krishna and Arjun were friends for years, and they were not very far from each other. But Krishna never preached him. In fact, Krishna never preached anyone in the whole epic. Gita is not a sermon; it's just an answer to a question, and this answer is given only to him who asks the question. Not before, not elsewhere, not to anyone else! Krishna might not have said a word otherwise. And that's remarkable.

Coming to warmongering, the language of Gita is unmistakably contextual not only to the story but also to the specific situation in the story. And that must not be overlooked in its interpretations because it's a specific answer to a specific question instead of a general sermon by a prophet. It's entirely another matter that the philosophy of Gita has been proved to transcend contexts like nothing else.

Also, Gita highlights the importance of seeking and asking questions and reasoning as per the age old traditions of the Upanishads, which is the defining characteristic of Dharma (or Hinduism). On the other hand, that death manual is nothing but a series of unsolicited sermons that's forced upon all and sundry. It has nothing to do with seeking and asking questions. In fact, it positively forbids questions and demands absolute faith and complete submission without any hint of a doubt. And that too from everybody, everywhere, all the time! 

The second thing about Gita that makes the comparison look what it is - silly - is the fact that your faith or lack of faith in Gita and/or Krishna has no bearing on your Dharma. You stay a Hindu even if you know nothing about Gita. You stay a Hindu even if you accept Gita in parts. You stay a Hindu even if you reject Gita completely.

Here are some facts that must be understood. Hindus are not people of any book or followers of any prophet. They have no commandments or dogma. They need not worship God let alone idols. There is no concept of unbelievers or hell. Nobody asks them to evangelize/proselytize or wage holy wars. And if someone does, they are free to ignore. There is nothing conditional or organized in Dharma which is mistaken as just another religion for lack of corresponding idea in the West. What Hindus share in common is a tradition of quest, a legacy of scientific pursuit of spirit, and a profound ignorance about themselves. That's why they are bullied by brutes.

Anyway, unless it's factually wrong and misleading, we Hindus are least scared of criticism, even rejection, no matter how severe it is. But reject a single verse of that manual and you reject the touchy-feely prophet and his fear-based death cult. You turn guilty of apostasy, which is an unforgivable crime punishable by death. 

Need I contrast anymore?

Monotheism --> Totalitarianism and Violence

One is often disturbed by widespread violence that is raging in the world. Our history, though abridged and sanitized, is soaked in blood. And one wants this violence to stop once and for all. But wishful thinking is non-thinking.

Thinking about it, it’s apparent that one of the major reasons behind violence has been the belief that truth is singular. Consequently, one version becomes gospel or the last word and the rest becomes untruth, evil, and worth fighting against. You cannot have a truly plural society with a singular truth. Tolerance is tense by its definition.

All Abrahamic religions believe that there is one and only one God and that God happens to be their God. Other God or other Gods and their worshippers deserve to be fought against. That’s the very fundamental, not mere fringe, of their faith, and of their culture. This belief not only justifies aggression but also makes a virtue out of it. You get the moral license to intrude, in the name of evangelism or jihad. 

The singularity of truth is seen in non-theological Western constructs like Communism that demands nothing less than complete revolution. No wonder the rise of communism is accompanied by complete destruction and countless deaths. It hates everything lock stock and barrel, and allies with all anti-national and counter-cultural forces to meet its delusional and misleading ends. No wonder commies are pally with jihadi terrorists and evangelists in India and elsewhere.

In short, war is the logical conclusion of monotheism and subsequent political systems. Monotheism is religious monopoly, and totalitarian by its very nature, manifested in inquisition, jihad, communism, capitalism, fascism etc. Only polytheistic societies could foster a worldview mature enough to welcome individualism and plurality. Only polytheistic societies could have peace, if they are not destroyed by monotheistic fanatics. All gods, invisible or visible, should be allowed to live in heaven with all their followers and unfollowers on earth in peace.

The bottom-line is this – one must never intrude into other's house. Your freedom ends where his nose begins, even if his nose is unsightly. And this is true not just physically. “No God but our God” is a seed of violence. Nothing decent could come out of it. It’s medieval and it must be relegated to the nearest garbage bin where it belongs.

We must remember that non-violence is the only sensible macro-political strategy in an age when technology could amplify madness to infernal levels.

For MacBastards

Many people claim that India was Made in England. India as we know today never existed before 1947 and wouldn’t have existed without the Independence of India Act.

I have problems with this nonsense. Two reasons, at least. 

First, these morons are confused between nation and nation-state. They cannot comprehend the concept of nation and differentiate it from nation-state. Their imagination doesn't go beyond boundaries and custom offices. As if nations never existed before nation-states. Such idiocy is common among those who believe in the singularity of truth – all nations must conform to one gold (or global, which is euphemism for Western) standard definition. Better believe their singular God or burn in hell! Doesn't matter if the word “India” has been in usage even before the world was found to be round, when or even before England was in its diapers! Perhaps the India Marco Polo and many others referred to in their travelogues existed on Mars. “East India Company”? Mahabharata? Well, it might have referred to something else, because India didn't exist then, right? India was a figment of world's imagination, a ghost. Well, I rest my case.

Second, these slavish bootlickers don’t miss any chance to lick boots of their imperial masters. They are dream poodles of Macaulay, these clerks who can get the work done but cannot think. In fact, they have no idea what thinking means. Get a pack of popcorn and ask them what thinking feels like. Out of syllabus for them. These walking colonies are actually thankful to Brit bastards for railways! Oh yeah, they brought it for you! And Gandhi freed Pakistan and Indians have iPhones because India is an American colony.

Look you commie douchebag - here is a sad joke, see if you can even understand.

In 1492, Columbus discovered America.

wannabeing

Change is the only constant in the changing world. We change around us, and within us. Without change, there would be no concept of consciousness. In short, we pretty much know what change is.

So there is no point talking about it. I want to explore another word – growth – because A. it’s an everyday currency and B. it’s tricky, especially since it’s liable to be confused with wannabeing.

So how does a wannabe know that he is just wannabeing and not growing? Well, a wannabe wouldn’t care in the first place. Others have no confusion anyway. How does it matter then! Leave it.

The Taste of Sweet

Sweet has two tastes, at least. It tastes one way to those who get to eat it.  And it tastes quite differently to those who don’t get to eat it. It might have another taste for those who are fed or overfed against their wishes, and we can talk about aftertaste etc. but let’s not get too technical about it.

The question is – which taste is the right taste of sweet? And who can describe it – one who got to eat it or one who didn’t? Or both?

The taste of one sweet might be different from the taste of another sweet. But the taste of sweetlessness doesn’t change; sweetlessness tastes the same no matter what the sweet is. The taste of want and unfulfillment is the same.

The question comes back – could the taste of unfulfilled desire (to eat sweet) be one of the valid tastes (of sweet)?

Alas! One knows the price; other knows the value.

99C

By the time I understand, it changes. No matter how much I try to catch up, I find myself lagging. I don't ever arrive, and I don't even give up and relax. I keep shifting from one position of stupidity to another. 

I am in dark. I know that I don't know enough. At the same time, I also feel that I know much more than I would like to. I would rather not know things that I know, for they are painful and useless. I was supposed to be stupid, I turned myself into a cynic.

But I cannot go back. Time takes no U-turns. It pokes me from behind and pushes me forward. I have to keep running, hoping for some magic or miracle. After all, beyond a point, you cannot heat water; it turns into stream and flies away. Away from your cruel contraptions.

Halal

Arabia, about 1500 years back. Mohammed and his followers were in do-or-die conflict with rest of the population. 

The war, as usual, was being fought at every level, in every corner, including the market. This is what this post is about. This post is about economic terrorism.

Near about 99% population would have been non-vegetarian in the deserts of Arabia in the times of Mohammed. And food and animal farming would have been one of the predominant sectors of the economy. 

Given that, if one managed to capture the supply side of the food industry, the production of meat, he would pretty much capture the economy by the scruff of its neck. 

The question was how to effect this economic coup. How do you make your people take the war to their home and hearth, without being ugly naked about it? Let's devise a strategy that sounds convincing; let's Allah reveal something technical this time.

And lo! you have halal, which means that the animal will be slaughtered only in the name of Muslim God by chanting Allah-o-Akbar, implying that only Ummah would control the production of meat and dominate the food industry. Halal is a certificate not just to stamp food or even its means of production but the people who could produce it - what's allowed (or halal) to be consumed could only be produced by those who are allowed to perform the necessary ritual. Others could shut their shop and go home.

In other words, halal is nothing but an economic sanction on non-Muslims in order to establish a monopoly in food market. It means nothing else! Rest is smokescreen. It was genius of an innovation, evil but effective. Combine this with jizya (tax for protection), and you wreak a veritable holocaust on kuffar or dhimmis, without spilling a single drop of blood.

The only question now is - how important is understanding halal today in the globalized economy? Well, I would rather you reach your own conclusion. But when one steps into a Nepalese restaurant in downtown San Francisco and reads "We Serve Halal Meat Only", one cannot help but wonder.

Media

BREAKING NEWS:

Israeli Jew militants bombed a Berlin shopping mall. 42 dead, more than 100 critically injured. 

A Japanese school-bus driver opened gunfire, shouting "Buddha is Great", killing more than 50 school-kids in downtown Chicago.

Recent beheadings of kidnapped British cricketers - Hindu group "Tat Twam Asi" owns responsibility. 

CONCLUSION:

Speak after me - terror has no religion. Islam has nothing to do with terror.

Breaking Up

Somewhere on Planet Earth. Sometime.

Primal Dark Night. Bright Stars. Sporadic swoosh of Cold Dry Wind. Silence.

Bang! I hear door of the world being slammed on my face. I turn back and walk away. I walk away and turn back. I pause. I reflect. I stand out, outside the periphery, under the starry umbrella, gazing at the world, which looks like a gigantic space station - a huge spread of negative space with lighted airplane windows clustered and scattered. Perhaps I am dreaming. The whole world seems alien to me.

Today, we break up. I stand out, alone.

I am pronounced guilty in the hearing. I am not even hearing.  I am wondering if I could care any less.

This is the first day of my remaining years. Yes, that matters, that alone. There is darkness and no signposts, just a star in the sky, that alone. 

Parole (or Prison Break)

I died

Yesterday

Or day before

I don’t remember

I lied

In leisure

Life oozed out

In moody slowness

Red, it was

The color of pain

The color of anxiety

The color of bondage

Silky smoke
Spiraling poetry
Like solemn tunes

For last communion

Ordinary Gandhi

Your surname is Gandhi. Can you, dear reader, relate to this situation? Can you even imagine?

Let's look at the crux of it - you have all the wealth of this world, and power. And everything else, in excess. You cannot have more, though you can do as much as you want. Will you work? What will you do? What would be your motivation?

Don't read any further before answering these questions.

Consider yourself lucky, dear reader, that you don't have to answer the Sphinx/Yaksha. For you, these questions are optional. You went ahead to read further.

At this point, let me take back my words. You don't have everything, let alone in excess. The Sakya prince was not a moron to have left his kingdom if princes have everything.

Coming to think of it, princes are often deprived of the most common, but most vital, things in life. They have company even if they want solitude, but do they have friends? Can they trust their friends? Can you have friends without trust? Can they loose themselves to simple pleasures without getting themselves high? Who is not an addict, by the way?

Ditto for love. Can he have simple joy of being loved, admired and accepted? How does he make sure if she loves him? All of them swear they do. Pause for a moment. This is not an ordinary loss. This is massive! Is that why he runs away to faraway lands to find some semblance of love, just like his father did? Does that make him a philanderer? 

Could you be any different? 

I think that there are two type of people - anonymous and celebrity; and as a rule of thumb each side needs much more imagination and sympathy than they usually have to make any sensible comment about the other.

The man in question, in my opinion, is not perfect. Far from it. But none of us is. He is an ordinary man stuck in an extraordinary situation, like a deer in the headlights. He should just run away, to find his love, and his motivation. But how many of us do, just because we should? We keep hanging around; so does he.

Coexistence

Doctor: Your report has arrived. You have cancer.

Patient: Not sure if I wanted to know, though I had suspected something like that.

Doctor: We might have to go for surgery.

Patient: That will be costly, isn’t?

Doctor: Less costly than all other options, or the only other option.

Patient: Sure we cannot coexist - cancer and I? I believe in coexistence.

Doctor: Cancer doesn’t.

Patient: May be my cancer is different.
Doctor: God bless you.

Corporate Mockroach

One mockroach

Catching up with another

In a frantic mockroach race

Of directionless dissatisfaction

Ever busy

Going nowhere

Running on treadmill
Burning damp with perspiration

Make in India

And here arrives
Another life

Another soul

Another little pit

This little pit would grow

Into a sea of desire

A cornucopia of dearth

A million wants

His hunger

Slaughterhouses

His needs (or greed)

Draughts, traffic, and inflation

Forgotten in chaos
Or procrastinated in haste
A million orphaned wants
Lie cold on the compromise way

But what this fuss is all about?

Multiply - Matrix needs cells
Wars need voters, if not heroes
Just be useful to somebody

The Prophet of Desert

There is no god
That's not My own
That doesn't speak My words
Prostrate on My only begotten god

The past was distortion

The future will be blasphemy

Let the infidel clock tick away to glory

I break the nib that sentenced your destiny

Submit to Me
The way I approve
Defeat, and enjoy the defeated
Slay, but ritually, as per My law

I circumcise, I shroud

I herd My flock in line

Having sermoned unsolicited 

I take no questions, only offense

Have faith in me, since

My faithful eggs break not

And if they did, they had no faith
Mashallah! Heads you lose tails I win

Interview

Your CV

Your paper self

Your better half

Lying on the table

Will you be able to

Match your metaphor

With convincing conviction

That’s the question

But why fret, why despair

Rest assured, my friend

If you are not juicy

Someone is not hungry

And it helps to remember

No matter what happens

You will be misjudged
One way or the other

Perfume

August evening

Rain beating against the roof

In monophonic monotony

Of meditative noise

Widowed Monsoon

Clouds dangle heavily

From a teary canopy

Of far-spreading melancholy

Out in the cold

Steaming cup of coffee

Gazing into nothingness

Hearing echoes of imagination

All of a sudden

Out of nowhere

A gust of wind flies by

Leaving a smell behind

Like a thunderbolt

In primitive darkness

Revealing you
In my arms, almost