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Iqbal Bano has sung select verses from Faiz's ghazal. Full ghazal and its English translation are below. The translation is from me and is, of course not perfect or anywhere close to the poetic brilliance of Faiz, but is only offered for those who don't understand Urdu and can get some idea about what Faiz is trying to say.

सभी कुछ है तेरा दिया हुआ सभी राहतें सभी कुल्फ़तें कभी सोहबतें कभी फ़ुर्क़तें कभी दूरियाँ कभी क़ुर्बतें All comforts, all hardships, everything is granted by you Moments of togetherness, separation, at times distance and intimacy

ये सुख़न जो हम ने रक़म किए ये हैं सब वरक़ तिरी याद के कोई लम्हा सुब्ह-ए-विसाल का कोई शाम-ए-हिज्र की मुद्दतें The pages that I have filled are in your memory Some moments of morning's union, some of evening's separation

जो तुम्हारी मान लें नासेहा तो रहेगा दामन-ए-दिल में क्या न किसी अदू की अदावतें न किसी सनम की मुरव्वतें What will remain in this heart if I cede your counsel Not the rage of enemy nor the kindness of love

चलो आओ तुम को दिखाएँ हम जो बचा है मक़्तल-ए-शहर में ये मज़ार अहल-ए-सफ़ा के हैं ये हैं अहल-ए-सिद्क़ की तुर्बतें Come lemme show you what remains in the blood soaked city the shrines of revered saints here, in dirt the truthful people there

मिरी जान आज का ग़म न कर कि न जाने कातिब-ए-वक़्त ने किसी अपने कल में भी भूल कर कहीं लिख रखी हों मसर्रतें Don't cry over today's agony my love maybe the writer of destinies By chance in his past has written happiness somewhere

Notice the tenderness of Faiz's words, his complaints and requests. This is not someone who does not completely believe in god. There is no sarcasm in his tone. There is no snarkiness in the complaint. Only when you believe in god so much, to an extent that you completely and unabashedly submit yourself, will you end up being disillusioned with his existence or extent of his power. It is in the moments when life pushes you to its extremities, to the limits of your being and to the verge of your strength and sustenance, in the moment when nothing appears to work or comes to your aid, you seek his intervention, you raise your hands in prayer, but no such solace comes. In those moments comes the realisation, the sense of abandonment, the apathy, more than disregard.

To believe a Faiz or Ghalib did not believe in god would be an oversimplification. They did not care enough to bother themselves about that question. Whether god existed or not ceases to matter when you're at your wits' end and you do not see any help that is on your way. The realisation that you are by yourself in this life, that you only have yourself to blame or rely on, moots that question. For even if so and so exists, to him you do not matter, your struggles do not matter, at least not enough to intervene and help. And so Faiz and Ghalib lived their lives without desiring or inventing the imaginary intervention. They simply did not bother. They instead believed in taking complete control of their life and its means. They relied on themselves and the people around them. But still, beyond their means, beyond their ability to sprout change, they hoped for help to come, but above and beyond what they could do to the best of their abilities. They did not relax and sit themselves down in prayer and wasted theirself instead; they put themselves to use by writing poetry which even today wakes up the tired and sleepy and moves them to action.

And they called him an unbeliever, an atheist, a communist and all sorts of names.

#Ghazal #Urdu #FaizAhmadFaiz #IqbalBano #Atheism #God #Pakistan #India

As per the Indian government, India is teeming with infiltrators (ghuspaithi). These illegal people have entered across India in Bihar, Jharkhand, Bengal, Kerala and so on. And they are in large numbers. They, as per the Home Minister, the Prime Minister and other important people in the Indian government, come from Bangladesh, Pakistan and elsewhere. They are, according to the Indian government again, a threat to India. Most of the problems that India faces today are because of them. I'm using the Indian government here to refer to statements or information shared by Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and other important people part of the Indian Government. After all, if the Prime Minister and Home Minister's word isn't a word from the nation itself, then whose word would be said as a word from the nation?

Infiltrators to become majority in Jharkhand in 25–30 years if unchecked: Amit Shah He also criticised the state government for “vote bank” politics and vowed that if the BJP comes to power, it would chase “each” illegal immigrant out of the state.

'Will make Bihar ghuspaithiya mukt': Amit Shah says infiltrators will be deported within 5 years from Seemanchal Amit Shah questioned whether the infiltrators should be removed from the voters' list or not, and asserted that they would have to return to their countries and would have no place in Seemanchal.

Amit Shah directs officials to identify 100 'infiltrators' in every State and deport them The Union Home Minister asked intelligence officials to continue with the targeted crackdown even if the neighbouring countries do not accept the undocumented migrants.

These are just samples. If you dig more, you will find an even larger number of intruders, in thousands and lakhs, roaming in India currently. People in the Indian government know the number; they also know in what states they exist. People in the national media also know about these intruders. All of this makes you wonder, how did these intruders get into India? Who facilitated their entrance? While such a question gets difficult to answer since each intruder might have followed a different path and agent to get in, the other question becomes important. Whose job is to guard our borders? Whose job is to ensure intruders don't intrude on our borders? It is the job of the Indian Army and the Home Ministry, headed by Amit Shah himself. And these repeated statements from the Home Minister reveal a startling reality. People guarding our borders, that is, the Indian armed forces, are no more following orders from the Home Ministry. They are on their own. It is they who are letting these intruders enter India. I'm not saying this thing. It is said, and inferred by the Indian government via the Prime Minister, Home Minister and even the national media.

So there are two things here. Either intruder after intruder is let in by the Indian army. Or these intruders are smarter than the Indian armed forces. These intruders who are illiterate, living on meagre incomes, going inside India to do daily wage labour are cleverer than the Indian armed forces. Essentially, Amit Shah, Modi and the entire machinery of RSS and BJP are saying that the Indian Army is incompetent. That they have failed India, that the Indian army has let in this huge influx of intruders. Given all these facts, does it make sense to even have these men holding guns at the borders? What are they drawing their salaries for? Why are we paying them if they are such failures at their jobs? What's there to take pride in these incompetent men who cannot stop poor intruders from entering our borders? And not one or two, but in such large numbers? And it has been more than ten years since the Modi government has had such reliable information about these intruders, but the Indian army has failed to find any of these enemies from other countries. Just how incompetent are our supposedly brave soldiers? I'm not raising these questions. India's Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are raising these fingers on our armed forces. And so far, at least I'm not aware of any army commander or regiment clarifying anything on these statements. Meaning? These statements by the Indian government are right, and they agree they are losers who cannot protect our borders or, and I fear to suggest this, for these are the men who brought Ram to Ayodhya, they cannot be liars, for the whole Ram's story is about the truth, Amit Shah and Modi are not lying. Those who follow the message of Ram could never lie. Modi and Shah would never resort to lies. I cannot for once imagine believing such a thing. But then again, years of Congress propaganda have made it harder to disrespect the Indian armed forces. They are a professional force we have been told again and again. It is hard to believe they would let intruders into our borders or even that such a large number could intrude under their watch.

If people who brought Ram to Ayodhya are liars, then how come Maryadapurushottam Ram, whose entire life was a message of adhering to truth, blessed and decided to come to Ayodhya on their request? How did the great seers, learned minds and devotees of Prabhu Ram allow these liars who are so far from the principles of Ram's teachings to inaugurate his abode? Has the lord Ram corrupted himself over the years? Is lord Ram now one among the supporters and cheerleaders of rape and lying? No? Meaning Modi and Shah are not the liars? I can't. I respect Prabhu Ram too much to think of Modi and Shah, soldiers who gave us Ram in Ayodhya, to be liars. That spells the other statement, the one that the Shah and Modi have been repeating without any counterclaim from the army. The Indian army is indeed an incompetent pool of men with arms. Utterly shameful that Indians are paying for their upkeep and more using their hard-earned salaries via taxes.

#NarendraModi #RSS #BJP #Aliens #migrants #refugees #India #Army #hate #propaganda

Notice in the above image how the billboard targets the investors who will buy and rent this property instead of home owners who will buy and stay in it. It promises assured returns more than what banks offer for your savings. The targets are not home-owners and families who would stay in it, but those who would buy and rent it out as an investment; it is sold as an opportunity to make money. This was not always like this.

In past, renting a house was never a business someone was in. You just ended up with extra property by virtue of your moving due to work or other reasons, and so you rented it out to someone in need. Due to this, the prices were always reasonable. The amount was not enough to make you rich, nor did the owner see it as a money-making enterprise. It was just some extra money they received, and someone made use of what was otherwise going to be an unused property. The one who stayed on rent never felt the looming existential crisis that arbitrary rent increases pose, wherein year after year, rents keep on rising, and you easily anticipate how, in just a couple of years, it would become impossible for you to continue paying this way. The path invariably leads to making you homeless. That appears to be the intent of such a system.

The usual year-on-year rent increase for a property today is standard 10 per cent in most Indian cities and towns. That is, the owner of the property wants to make 10 per cent on his rent income per year. Even the best of banks do not offer you such steep interest on your deposits. Even the usual funds in the share market don't. That sort of increase in wealth in the share market is only possible with reckless or, more politely, well-planned investment in select stocks. And as every policy brochure will advise you that such investments come with massive risks. But in the rental business, there is no such risk. The 10 per cent is coded in agreement. Pay or vacate because there's the next person in line who otherwise would. It is not even the case that there is a deficit of housing. Many of the buildings actually are full of empty units. And they remain so because the owners have purely purchased them to rent out, as a shortcut to make money. People are no more buying houses with the intention of staying, but simply because they happen to have extra capital, unlike others, and so they have decided to exploit the needs of so many. It is pure greed that is driving rents, and what we call the housing crisis or shortage is but an orchestrated casualty to increase the wealth of already wealthy people 10 per cent at a time. At a few places, I even saw 20 per cent in agreements. It is outrageous that people are even thinking that they can ask for it.

Those who already have a house and don't need another are continuing to buy an extra house simply because they can; they happen to hold that extra wealth, and so they are making it unaffordable to those who really need the house to live in it.

And so we have people living on the streets, the scourge of homelessness is created by people who buy houses with the intention of renting and making money. It's not different from a war economy, where you create business for yourself by creating the conditions for such business to exist in the first place. If you happen to be around an apartment in the evening, then try to look at it, and you will see many empty units where no one is currently staying. In fact, there are apartments in select areas with such inflated prices that, in the 30-plus floors that each building has, almost all floors are empty. I was once out on dinner with a friend in Kharadi, Pune, where many IT companies are, and while walking post-meal, we saw these towers full of darkness and wondered if electricity had gone away, but no, that wasn't the case. In a conversation at a tea place later, which I confirmed further from a friend familiar with real estate, the flats in that gated society are way expensive than the surrounding buildings and only a few people, comprising foreigners and NRIs, stay there. And so the large number of units close to the entire tower, in some cases, are mostly unoccupied.

I understand how the whole point of luxury is to make anything exclusive to the select few, make it so expensive that it becomes inaccessible to others except the select few that you want to have access to. But many who buy these apartments to rent out and make money refuse to lend for a few thousand less and instead choose to wait forever. Last month, I was chatting with an owner of a flat who had not lent out this unit ever since the building came into existence some five-plus years ago. She is charging a 20 per cent rent increase. The amount of money she has lost for refusing to lend for few thousand less is humongous, but greed is such. She just thought the next inquirer would agree on her steep rent price.

Many might feel this is expected and give the flat-out supply-and-demand argument, but it is as clear as the “aim of capitalism is to get rid of poverty” lie that the wealthy are refusing to cede to demand simply because they can do so owing to the comfortable extra wealth they hold. By not renting out, they are not going to descend a class. They are just holding the homeless and poor by their necks and squeezing as much sweat and blood from them as they can, but also ensuring that just enough life remains in them so that they will appear to work tomorrow and do not miss out on rent payments. Just as Marx had predicted ages ago: “Wages are determined through the antagonistic struggle between capitalist and worker. Victory goes necessarily to the capitalist... The average price of wage-labour is the minimum wage, i.e., that quantum of the means of subsistence, which is absolutely requisite to keep the labourer in bare existence as a labourer... The capitalist can live longer without the worker than can the worker without the capitalist... And this is the economic constitution of our entire modern society: the working class alone produces all values. For value is only another expression for labour... But these values produced by the workers do not belong to the workers. They belong to the owners of the raw materials, machines, tools, and money, which enable them to buy the labour-power of the working class. Hence, the working class gets back only a part of the entire mass of products produced by it. And, as we have just seen, the other portion, which the capitalist class retains, and which it has to share, at most, only with the landlord class, is increasing with every new discovery and invention, while the share which falls to the working class (per capita) rises but little and very slowly, or not at all, and under certain conditions it may even fall.”

#renting #realestate #housing #rich #capitalism #marx

During one of Lucknow’s winter mornings, to be precise, not of Lucknow but kilometres away in a village on the outskirts of Lucknow, we were looking for badminton rackets.

Winter mornings are slow. Nobody knows or cares when the sun comes up, for people take their own sweet time to wake up. And anyway, who would dare to push one’s limb out of one’s blanket and be a victim of unforgiving cold? And what is there outside to attend to anyhow? There’s hardly any activity in the day happening, and so hardly any hunger. However, it is another matter that when you are at the dinner table and food is spread before you, the warmth of the food as it enters your mouth and the feeling of it travelling through your digestive tract is ethereal; you end up eating more than you should. It is precisely because of this that the four of us city-folks who were in the village over a function had decided to give our bodies some exercise and an excuse for us to take our bodies for strolls in the sun. However, Lucknow and its surroundings are renowned for their cuisine, including hot, brewed cups of tea and paan. Where will we find the rackets in the city? All around us were food stalls serving all kinds of food items. But we were adamant, and so we kept roaming on bikes from one end of the market to another, which in Lucknow is like playing hide-and-seek, for each road of shops has cross-roads in between which themselves have their share of crossroads, and so if you are not careful, you can keep on walking or driving endlessly. The chaat-walas know this, and you will find them with their travelling baskets full of food items appearing just when you feel hungry for a bite. Everything in Lucknow is decided upon for your convenience. By magic, whenever you need a cup of chai, you will see a shop selling chai, or a biryani will become available just when you feel like having biryani. Anyhow, we were not that kind of hungry. Or any kind of hungry, for that matter. Varieties of food at home were already overwhelming us, and so the idea of eating outside was out of the question. What was not at home were badminton rackets. And we roamed and roamed the streets while stopping in between to ask passersby where we might find one. While some gave us vague directions, many simply gave us stares. At last, someone told us about a sports shop. Whatever that was, it became our last hope. By now, we were getting resigned to the fact of any activity for our bodies and even our bodies at this point were craving for rest, a meaningful, time-tested Lucknow break.

We reached the place after a hiatus. The shop was crammed with all kinds of things, which stretched from floor to roof. There was just a narrow passage for customers to stand and interact with the shopkeeper, who was on the other side of a table that extended from the start of the shop to the end of it. We shared our mutual namastes and mentioned what we were looking for. Luckily for us, he had them. And he had multiple kinds, cheap, less cheap, costlier, and so on. We were looking for something for only a week or less, and so decided on a cheaper kind. As we were bargaining the price, an old chap entered with a basket and a container that contained one of the most appetising, mouthwatering, delicate-looking dishes. Hue of yellow, frothy to the sight, and full of mellow lingering fragrance. My companions were aware of what it was. I was seeing it for the first time. Up till then, I was not even aware of its existence or even imagined such a thing to exist, and even if I had imagined, I would think five-star hotels to churn this delicate-delicasy for a bomb of a price. The shopkeeper asked the old man to serve us each a cup of this. Yep, just like that. I had forgotten, this was Lucknow. Everybody here is interested in feeding you, especially when you are an outsider. They are utterly, unbashedly, and why should they not, proud of their place, culture and food above all. And they believe that everyone should have a taste of it. We did some yes-no-yes-no but eventually took it and oh-my-senses the taste and feel of this dish when you drop it on your tongue. Absolutely light like a feather; there’s not much for your mouth to chew or even lick. But it somehow fills your mouth on its own, effortlessly and by some witchcraft, occupies the whole of your bodily senses. I later learnt upon reaching home that it was called Makhan Malai or Nimish.

I just remembered that day and my discovery today while reading Nandita Haksar’s “The Flavours of Nationalism”, where she describes how ‘the frothy Nimish epitomises the famed culture of Lucknow. This frothy, light sweet has both nazaakat and nafaasat (delicacy/elegance and refinement/exquisiteness). This is what I learnt about it from the internet:’

Makhan Malai and Nimish have become synonymous but few know that there is a minor difference between the two. While the former originated in India using cow’s milk, the latter is an Afghani dessert in which horse’s milk was used. But the method is almost the same as in both Makhan Malai and Nimish, the mixture of milk, cream and sugar is hung in a clay pot all night under the winter sky. The peculiar freshness and lightness comes from a dollop of dew, the secret ingredient added to it by Mother Nature. Early every morning, the clay pot is taken off the peg and the mixture is blended using a mathaani (manual wooden blender), to make it frothy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX3r0h4Ecn0

“A 25-year-old Hindu man was allegedly strangled to death in Rajasthan’s Dausa district for trying to stop three men from applying colour on him during Holi celebration”. Every year on Holi, we hear news reports of molestation and non-consensual touches. Year after year these stories have become so widespread and familiar that now we have got subconsciously wired to simply ignore them and move on with our lives. “Holi hai!” (It’s Holi!) is a cry that is shouted, and like clockwork, anyone would come, apply colour to you and proceed further to the next person. Implicit in that cry is, all is well, or all goes on Holi. But in recent years, incidents of communal nature have added themselves to the long list of Holi complaints. Protecting law and order is the job of the police. A murder by a murderer can be stopped in two ways: either you control the situation such that the murderer does not get the opportunity to commit the crime, or you do the murder yourself, leaving the murderer no chance in hell to commit the crime himself. In the first act, the police protect the victim from being murdered and in the second, they protect the murderer. This is not to suggest that police forces are superhumans who can foresee all crimes and prevent them from happening. That is understandable. And precisely why, police are generally not blamed for the crime being committed. They are blamed for what they do once the crime has been committed. And what they do after the crime sets the stage for the next crime. Their actions gesture as to whether such crimes are allowed or not. 

The administration in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal covered 10 mosques, including the historic Jama Masjid, with plastic and tarpaulin sheets. Why were they covered? What did the administration fear may happen? And who will make it happen? And why would those who would make it happen feel they can do it and get away from the police?

A group of Hindus celebrating Holi festivities in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, were carrying the tree trunk to the temple as per tradition but decided on a detour, ramming it into the gate of a mosque several times while also raising provocative slogans. There are several videos of the act with identifiable faces. Police have registered an FIR but I’m sure nothing will come out of this. The record of the police does not suggest otherwise. Not because the police force is incompetent and cannot identify people from video. If wanted, police can pick you based on you being part of a Whatsapp group even if you never posted any text in the same. Those are the charges against Umar Khalid — being part of a WhatsApp group  — he did not post in those groups, not to suggest posting would have made his incarceration justifiable.

Ask anyone if they are against molestation or non-consensual touching and they will say yes, they are against it. Naturally so as anyone should be. Ask them if they believe Holi as a festival warrants such touching or if touching inappropriately is part of Holi tradition, as in if this is what the festival is about like lighting lamps on Diwali is a tradition. Is molesting and touching inappropriately part of the Holi celebration? They will probably laugh and say no. That some fringe elements do it. The impression is, these are outlaw incidents. People at large do not support these incidents. You want to believe this line of thought. But think about it from a distance. What do we do when someone does something wrong? Say, how do we react when we encounter a molestation video from Metro? Or from a college? How do we react? We seek punishment, we ask for police intervention, right? We do no such thing for Holi molestation. And we do so despite there being so many videos of these crimes, year on year. Does the school, college, workplace or even homes of these men, do you think they are held accountable for their waywardness? Have you heard of any such case where someone was held accountable for inappropriately touching some woman? We don’t. We tolerate it, we accept it. Suggesting what? What do we tolerate? Pouring milk on statues is stupid but we do so, why? Because it is tradition and part of our faith. If someone was pouring fresh milk on say middle of the road, we would call him mad. But inside a temple, it is part of faith. Same for animal sacrifice, pouring alcohol on gods, dropping oil lamps in rivers, and taking dips in poopy water, we know what they are, and we react to them differently in different contexts but we also tolerate them on special days and special places. Same way, molesting, and touching whatever body part of strangers without their consent on Holi is our tradition. It is indeed part of our festival. We have accepted it in past and we continue to accept it by immediately saying, Holi Hai, this is not the regular touch needing a law to take its course but a special Holi touch, outside the purview of law and order. This is an acceptable pouring of milk on rocks. This is part of our faith, and tradition and how it is celebrated every year.

A 48-year-old Muslim man was allegedly assaulted and killed by a Hindu mob while on his way to a mosque in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao on Saturday after he resisted having colours thrown on him during Holi.

So, a group of Hindus want to play Holi with a Muslim man. They want it so badly that they — as is the tradition — force him to play Holi with them, without his consent of course. He resists, they insist, so much so that they end up killing him. Leaving apart the renowned good-intention-but-wrong-implementation, they wanted him to participate in their festival. India is a secular country where for generations most of our festivals have been shared with each other. Holi definitely is one such and these boys were only doing that. They wanted him to participate in their festival. That's not bad, it's sweet.

A Muslim youth was thrashed by members of a saffron outfit in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur town after he “tried to enter” a ‘garba, dandiya’ (dance event organised during the Navratri) event.

Here, a group of Hindus do not want Muslims to participate in their festival. On the other hand, Muslims want to carry on the famed secular traditions of shared festivals here but Hindus do not.

You then have to ask, what do the Hindus want? Why do they in one case, want Muslims to participate and in another don’t? The answer lies in the birth or definition of Hinduism.

Hinduism was born or defined in the backdrop of the British census exercise. Traditionally upper-castes have held power over masses by virtue of their birth in forward castes who derive power from the books written by their forefathers and whose readership was gatekept by their clans. But as the British held provincial elections and masses started to elect Muslims as their representatives, those who enjoyed power until then using caste saw the danger new tides were bringing for them. But they were disadvantaged by numbers. They were not in the majority. The people they oppressed, the lower castes, made up the majority population. And there was bonhomie between this population and Muslims despite there being differences in their practice and faith. Upper castes wanted to create a separate identity for themselves and other people. Which other people? Those who were not Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains etc. So they started identifying themselves and these others as ‘Hindoos’. So anyone who did not identify as Muslim, Christian etc was counted as Hindoo. Initially, many upper caste elites objected to them being clubbed alongside lower castes, they were different people they argued. And they indeed were in many aspects. These people had different gods of their own and many of these gods were exclusive and were not shared. Even today, many Hindus don’t know so many gods that other Hindus pray to. It was even more widespread back then. Many of these gods were meat-eaters, and many partake in alcohol. But slowly, the othering caught on. And so the upper castes successfully created the Hindu majority, out of thin air.

The Hindu religion then is defined not as what it is but as what it is not. What is the Hindu religion? Is it a collection of people that don’t eat beef? No. Those who eat beef? No. That pray to one god? No. Collection of god? No, many don’t even know the existence of very many gods of others. Hinduism is defined the other way. It is defined by way of saying what it is not. It is not Islam, it is not the faith of Christians. And so, it and its gatekeepers, constantly try and create tensions between two sets of people. They constantly create myths and stories and WhatsApp forwards that tell their adherents how bad, terrible, scheming, monster-like people Muslims are. The fear is created to stop Hindus from interacting with Muslims. If they interact, they will start to see similarities that the two share, similar struggles and anxieties they go through; they will see through the lies and appear like a single entity of people. Just like a beef eater and beef haters call themselves and identify as a monolithic Hindu entity without flinching once, Hindus and Muslims with interaction will identify as some shared block. What will this do? Who will this shared identity harm? Whose existence depends on the support of a hostile, feared, bigoted population?

#Holi #festival #Hinduism #tradition #culture #hatecrime #women #molestation #Muslims #uttarpradesh #India

I too live by the river Our river though is not sacred It is still clean Perhaps it's the fate of sacred rivers to be dirty We too go to our river to swim We don't take dips, we swim and swim till our lungs and legs can no longer hold And we run from our river only when our mothers holler our names There are no flowers floating in our river No oil lamps float in our river too We don't even leave our dead in our river Our river is not sacred like yours We still love our river though It feeds us, it nurtures us

Do you think our river misses being sacred? Do you think your river likes being sacred?

#river #poem #poetry #sacred #ganga #mahakumbh #india

There is uproar on social media right now over the Beer biceps joke at Samay Raina's popular show India's Got Latent. Ranveer asked the guy on stage “If he had to choose between watching his parents have coitus the rest of his life or to join one time and end it, which one would he choose?”. The episode of the show is now pulled down by youtube after notice from the I&B ministry of the Indian government.

One, he has said far more objectionable things on his podcast and elsewhere that did not tip the scale for social media patrons to object. I'll revisit this point. Two, why do you think is his latest joke objectionable? And yes, I'll still call it a joke because he meant and thought it was a joke. We can then classify it as a bad joke, obscene joke etc but it is a joke nonetheless. But why was this objectionable? The premise or foundational basis of the joke is a belief that children don't like the idea of their parents having sex. The joke is built upon this belief. But why do children don't like their parents indulging in sex? I remember back in school, must be in class eight when you're introduced to reproduction. During a normal interaction with a close friend in class, I mentioned how we were all products of our parents having sex. This line might seem very innocent and obvious now but back then this was quite provoking. We had all grown up with the belief that children were the product of marriage – childbirth just happened as per god's plan or wants. Humans had no skin in this game. But our Science teacher had just told us how we were living a lie. And our parents were aware of this. My friend took offence at the implied suggestion that his parents had sex. Sex was bad, his parents were good and the idea that his good parents would indulge in awful acts of sex was beyond his imagination. Frankly, it was not a comforting thought to me either but I had made my truce by then to the existence of things I had no authority over. I just had to acclimate to their reality if I wanted to live as well, in peace.

So if you are okay with the idea that your parents also have desires and they might occasionally copulate, it's then just a joke. And the joke Ranveer cracked isn't even his original. This or versions of this joke have been around on the internet and in some standup circles for a long time now. There's a clip floating on the Internet with two people sitting across a table and the female asking this question to the male sitting across her. So Ranveer did think it was funny and so did the audience that laughed over it. But more on that later.

Coming back to the outrage part.

Lately what has happened is people have dumped their thinking faculties. This is of course the result of the constant serving of content via our phones. So much so that we are never left by ourselves where we could come up with a line of thought that's ours. Call it brain rot or paralysis of thinking, this is our reality. And in this reality, we heed like a herd. If someone we follow says something is offensive then we start assembling our thoughts and comments around this supposition. If not someone we follow then it is what is being done by the majority in our group. Who's funny, what's fashionable, including what food tastes good and what food should be avoided is decided by people we follow around on the Internet. If enough people go somewhere and make videos, I have to go there too. By now I have visited so many cafes and joints that serve abominable food albeit with perfectly placed coriander leaf on top and an unnecessary line of chocolate drawn at one end of the plate. There's no hiding from it. Your friends want to go and you do.

If you have seen the clip from Samay's show then you would have noticed how people originally laughed at Ranveer's joke. Meaning? There's an audience out there that thinks he was funny there. It was later on, that someone influential on the Internet thought this was not cool, and then that became the verdict about his joke. What I'm trying to say is, that Ranveer has said far worse in past which has all been digested. And frankly, in a week or two from now, even this will be digested. If anything, this is publicity for him and his show. As he has said in past, he has no ideology or morals, he would do whatever gets eyeballs. And this one abundantly does.

Mr Modi awarded Ranveer Alhabadia the 'Disruptor of the Year Award' at a luxurious gala event. That's not all, under Modi's influencer program, several of his ministers went on his podcast to be interviewed by him. If anything Ranveer should have been booked by authorities long ago for spreading lies, misinformation and superstition. Forget about the alpha-male kind of chauvinism and dangerously veiled subtle bigotry and rape jokes he has cracked in past or the people he platformed and amplified their filth.

All said it is awful to have an FIR filed against someone for a joke. Especially in a country where we have a record of protecting rapist babas and politicians despite rape victims burning themselves in police stations or victims sitting on protests in the national capital. What are we trying to convey? Raping and molesting is fine but a bad joke is where we draw the line?

#RanveerAllahabadia #podcast #incestjoke #jokes #comedy #samayRaina

Many, especially people in Delhi, saw this coming. In a way, it is good. Or as someone mentioned, it was inevitable. Just like how it was important to defeat UPA at the height of their powers and ego trip in 2014, equally, it had become important and necessary to defeat the politics of Arvind Kejriwal. He was thinking that a mini-version of BJP's politics was the strategy to go by. He repeatedly projected himself as the better version of BJP's divisive politics – as if he could hate Muslims but continue to also provide free public services. At every step of the way in recent times, he projected himself as more religious and narrowminded than the BJP. He even avoided supporting his own Muslim legislator and rallied against admitting children of migrants in schools. Forget about his actions concerning Shaheen Bagh and CAA. And of course, he had grown hubris that he could not be defeated in Delhi and had gotten too comfortable which politicians should never be made to feel for the public's own good.

That said, it is concerning what replaces Kejriwal now and UPA then. But again, it also tells the options the public is provided. How they try to avoid the devil and how they eventually give up and choose an open devil rather than the masked monster who hides its claws.

Silver lining wise, Kejriwal is a shrewd politician, unlike Rahul and others. Despite this defeat, he in past has repeatedly shown he knows how to fight the BJP on their turf by twisting and turning the designs to suit him better. Now that he has lost his fiefdom, he has nothing more to lose or concentrate his focus on. BJP can no longer create problems in the capital and keep him engaged. Add to it, unlike the old Kejriwal, this one will have his men in the assembly and parliament who can speak and tomtom his message. If he is up to it, and in all likelihood he will be, he's going to be a hard and harsh thorn in BJP's path from here on.

Congratulations to all, we are in for good times. Politics in India is going to be a good show from now on.

P.S. It is a good time here to remember how the BJP using all sorts of powers and agencies including the courts, almost paralysed Kejriwal's government from working. At the start of his government, Kejriwal using ACB had initiated corruption investigations against Ambani and other heavyweights. Modi government to stop this, passed a fresh law pulling ACB from the control of the Delhi government. Delhi Police was already under Modi government so he was left with nothing to fight corruption and other misdoings. Later on, a new LG was appointed who would refuse to pass any bills and files Kejriwal signed including transfers of officials. Even door-to-door ration and government services were stopped. Kejriwal still found ways to work around these blockers. Then one by one his closest allies and later himself were arrested and kept behind bars. All the cases against his MLAs eventually fizzled out, and nothing could be proved in court but by the time cases could be finished and clean chit was given, his ministers would have spent years (two, three etc) in prison. While it is always hard to pinpoint why people unseat someone and crown another and many times there are always multiple reasons for how people vote, in Delhi's case, voters might just have gotten frustrated as well from this constant tussle. It's not like they could not see how Modi halted Kejriwal on each step he took.

#delhi #politics #arvindkejriwal #narendramodi #bjp #aap #elections

Mr Modi also knows whose life is more consequential and whose life is not worth too much, whose life contributes to the economy and whose not so much. Unlike leaders of the past, Modi is serious about eradicating poverty but to terminate poverty he first had to recognise the poor. Or more importantly, isolate the rich from the poor so his plans for them could be better targeted. Just like direct cash transfer and linking everything with Aadhaar, Vande Bharat trains were a step in the right direction. Rich now are driven to travel via these special trains on which the poor are not allowed. But he is smart, he didn't want to hurt their egos and lose their vote. So he did not openly say 'You are not allowed on these trains'; he simply priced their tickets such that they would never enter his Vande Bharats. And with it, his plan was in action. One by one trains started smashing into each other. There was technology to stop collisions - Kavach was present as Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav mentioned in his now-viral reel. But Vaishnav is aware of when to switch it off to save power and contribute to Modi's larger goal of population control. Kavach for Vande Bharat trains is not given in the minister's hands. It is controlled directly via Mr Modi's able hands. And that is why, except for a minor scratch to the shiny mouth of Vande Bharat, they have never had to face any blow. Efficiency is in his blood. There is nothing that he does that is short of greatness.

Leaders of the past came with their baggage of family and were at best emotional fools. None of them cared about the population explosion leaving briefly the tenure of Indira Gandhi but she was more direct and people saw through her population control measures. Modi has learnt from her mistakes. Mr Modi does not believe in trumpeting his plans or successes. Narendra Modi is a silent doer. He believes more in actions than words. And if you pay attention, you will see what all he has achieved which he rarely talks about. If you are mourning over 30 deaths, know that India's population is more than 1,458,412,491 as of now. Modi knows best, what needs to be done, when to talk to the press, when not to. Mr Modi sets his own agenda and talks on his own terms.

It's just that, we are not capable of seeing his designs. Rest assured, we are in great hands.

#NarendraModi #satire #kumbhMela #UttarPradesh #religion #trains #deaths

The battle on January 1, 1818, where the British, with just 834 infantrymen — about 500 of them from the Mahar community — and 12 officers defeated the 28,000-strong army of Peshwa Bajirao II – was one of the last battles of the Third Anglo-Maratha War, which ended the Peshwa domination.

While this would tempt many to suggest Mahars/Dalits always sided with the British – absolutely nothing wrong if they did give the conditions they were forced to live in – in truth, they were before this battle part of the Maratha army. During Shivaji’s reign, especially before Peshwas, many didn’t realise that Peshwas were not a continuation of Marathas under Shivaji but a deviation from it. One would do well here to remember how Brahmins of his dominion refused to conduct the coronation ceremony of Shivaji.

The Brahmins of Shivaji’s court refused to crown Shivaji as a king because that status was reserved for those of the Kshatriya varna (warrior class) in Hindu society. Shivaji was descended from a line of headmen of farming villages, and the Brahmins accordingly categorised him as a Maratha, not a Kshatriya. They noted that Shivaji had never had a sacred thread ceremony, and did not wear the thread, such as a kshatriya would. Shivaji summoned Gaga Bhatt, a pandit of Varanasi, who stated that he had found a genealogy proving that Shivaji was descended from the Sisodias, and thus indeed a Kshatriya, albeit one in need of the ceremonies befitting his rank. To enforce this status, Shivaji was given a sacred thread ceremony and remarried his spouses under the Vedic rites expected of a Kshatriya. However, according to historical evidence, Shivaji’s claim to Rajput, and specifically of Sisodia ancestry, may be seen as being anything from tenuous, at best, to purely inventive. The Brahmins of his dominion did not buy into these claims until Shivaji essentially paid and bought their approval. And these payments happened repeatedly leading up to his coronation. He would pay and then Brahmins would invent new excuses to refuse, and Shivaji would pay them again, all summing up to some million rupees from his treasury.

Relations between the Mahars and the Peshwas, who were Brahmins, grew strained after the death of Baji Rao I in 1740 and reached their nadir during the reign of Bajirao Rao II, who insulted the Mahar community and spurned their offer of service with his army. This caused them to side with the English against the Peshwa’s numerically superior army.

Textbooks not mentioning one or the other events from history are a favourite topic of right-wing groups in India. But notice how, although in school textbooks they mention in detail about Anglo-Maratha wars and even Peshwas, they omit the Bhima-Koregaon battle where a few Mahars defeated a large army of Peshwas ending their tyranny!