Poor Brahmin, cow and the feast of food

It was squalor, nuclear family neglect, selfishness and the modern technological world lurking everywhere—the situation could not have been shoddier for a poor, retired Brahmin teacher Pundit Ram Prasad Sharma. It was times of distress for Pundit Ram Prasad Sharma in the month of Ramzan, a month of the feast.

However, master Ji has no option in his hut. He was not afraid of the watchful eyes China Corona Virus or Covid-19 volunteers. After the retirement, his children settled in the cities due to working requirements. Pundit Ram Prasad Sharma built a small hut under the green peepal tree in the temple, far from the materialist world. However Muslim families were managing all their festivities of Ramzan in their palatial houses unmindful of any advisory of social distancing. They were going to the local mosque for prayers without any fear.

All the shops open, every home makes amazing dishes for the Iftar fast breaker. A deep-fried khajla was their favourite and it was homemade, not bought.  "We have been chiefly having dal pakodis and some fruits, mainly dates at Iftar," told rich scrap dealer Alam. "The most important thing we get in plenty is the milk for the children. Our faith and celebrations could not be dented even under the shadow of the China Corona Virus." Shrugged Salim, a rich Maulvi.

Jawed, a rich quack, who was born in this locality, said rather arrogantly, “All talk about the risk of infection but here nobody is bothered about the rules for social distancing to care for our lives." He, further added, "The threat is bigger but we have firm faith in our Allah, that he will protect us." All were rich in the area but nobody was interested in cleanliness of the roads turned narrow lanes due to encroachments. Lanes were piled up with garbage." Manzoor a meat dealer blamed the health workers that they clean the Shiva Mandir lane, the Hindu neighbourhood, but did not come here to Zakir Nagar due to frequent beating and attacks.

The men's grievance was real. The colony is real garbage. The lane was completely drowned in the over-flowing drain. Dozens of little children run behind the kites, unmindful of the full garbage choked drain. Their parents were the least concerned about their safety. The locals, rich scrape dealers, taxi drivers were resting, undisturbed economically or psychologically due to the lockdown.  "We are not worried about anything, and we have plenty of free supplies of everything by the government, amid the encroached lanes, filth and stink of the drains," murmured Chandni Bibi. The government was giving free ration, so no need to go to work and she has all the smiles on her face through the month of Ramzan.

In the evening after the breaking of the Roza, people distribute food and fruits outside a mosque.  Every day a cow came there. Some naughty boys used to throw leftover or stale food to the cow to eat. But the cow never ate that food. A generous man gave a packet to cow to eat. However, surprisingly the cow did not eat but ran away towards the forest.

Next day, again the cow came. The naughty boys again threw leftover or stale food to the cow to eat. Again, the cow did not touch that food. Again, the same generous man gave a packet to cow to eat. However, the cow ate nothing and ran away towards the forest. This continued almost for a month.

One day, some people followed the cow. The running cow entered in a hut. Those people also entered into the hut. The cow gave that food packet to an old man, lying on a bed. The cow lifted a small bucket with her mouth and brought water to the old man from the village pond. All the people were surprised and bewildered.

They saw a bearded old man, only in skeleton lying on the bed. His legs were very thin and weak. He was wearing dirty rags.

"O baba, is the cow your's?"

"I have no cow. Shyama cow is my mother. Don't call her like this."  Said the old man.

"Baba, every day she comes to us to take food for you. She may hit somebody. Where will we get a doctor here? Please keep I tied. From, tomorrow we will send food to you." Said those men.

"Food is not the issue. I can't stop her. Although, she does not understand my language but understand my 'So many fits of hunger.' After retirement, she is my only companion. Now, she is taking care of me like my mother. I was a teacher in the village school. Now I am retired..."

They came close to the bed of the old man. They were shocked to see the old man was their teacher Pundit Ram Prasad Sharma. They were ashamed of their conduct. They could not understand this love between the cow and the old man. The old man opened the packet with his frail hands and called "Shyama….my mother! Come and eat a little food."

The cow came running inside and started licking the hand of the old man. She ate nothing. Masterji opened the packet and took out the little share of the mother cow."

"Eat mother." Asked master Ji to the cow. The cow ate bread. Masterji also started eating. He was eating slowly. All were seeing him eating. They have no word to speak...

One of them said that "We forgot that you are living in this manner. If one's teacher lives in such conditions, all his prayers are useless."

They tried to give some money to Pundit Ram Prasad Sharma. However, self-respecting master Ji refused.

"Leave it children. Give it to those who need it more than me. I have my mother Shyama to take care of me."

Those people were surprised to see Pundit Ram Prasad Sharma. Today, man is not ready to give anything to his brothers but here a cow is sacrificing everything for an old man.

“What a man Pundit Ram Prasad Sharma is?”

After that day, those Muslims started to worship that peepal tree and started offering so that Pundit Ram Prasad Sharma and his mother Shyama are not slept with 'So many fits of hunger.'

Ignorant faithful

All people should have the wisdom to pray. God is not a fool like blind worshippers. People beat and attack the police, security personnel and health workers in the name of God and right to pray during this COVID-19 period. 

  "God has a lot of work. He has the entire world to look after. He cannot just be here in India to listen to the prayers of fools and idiots in His name and His prayers...”

"These are not ordinary days. It is a war. In a war, nobody asks anyone to stay indoors. All stay indoors by their own choice. In fact, if the house has a basement, all hide there for as long as the war persists and nobody has the courage to go out for the prayers. All forget God and the prayers.”

 During a war, nobody claims on the freedom of prayers and faith. Scary people renounce them willingly in exchange for safety and survival.

During a war, nobody cries of hunger.  All tolerate hunger and pray that you survive to eat again after the war. Nobody cries for free food, free ration, waving of house rent, school fees, and hospital bills. Nobody asks for packages to restart the industries, business or newspapers. 

During a war, nobody fights about opening your industry and business. All close their shops and industries and if one has the time and place, and run for one’s life. All pray and pray inside the mouth and heart to defeat and outlive the war so that you can return to your business that's if it has not been looted or destroyed by the enemy bombing. 

 During a war, all are thankful to Almighty-Omnipresent God for seeing another day in the land of human beings. Nobody wants to go to mosques or churches.  

 During a war, nobody is worried about your children not going to school or exams not being held on time.  All pray that the government does not forcefully recruit them as soldiers in the army to be trained in the school premises now turned military training schools and garrisons. 

 This is also a war.  This is a war without guns and bombs, a war that is without armed and dressed soldiers, a war without tanks and artilleries, a war that sans borders and countries, a war which is without leaders and commanders, a war without politics and cease-fire agreements, a  war without a control command and a war room, a war without no-fire and sacred zones.

 The enemy in this war is ruthless and without mercy. It is without any spirit of human kindness. It is indiscriminate. It has no respect and kindness for children, women, hospitals, schools or places of worship. This enemy is not interested in loot, plunder and spoils of war. It has no intention to capture territories or of regime change. It is not concerned about the wealth and the rich mineral resources below the earth. It is not even concerned about religious, ethnic or ideological supremacy. Its aspiration has nothing to do with racial superiority. It is an unseen, fleet-footed, silent and brutally powerful enemy.

 Its only agenda is the rain of death and death. It is thirst can be quenched only after turning the world into one graveyard and harvesting death. It is so powerful that nobody can plunder its bumper harvest. Without any territory, amphibious, air and sea boundaries, it has terrorized almost every nation of this world. It does not follow and convention, protocol and formation. It is a law and command in itself. One and All. This enemy is mighty China Corona Virus. Educated people and scientists call it as COVID-19 because it announced mighty destructive powers and target in the year of our Lord 2019.

We are lucky, this enemy has an Achilles' heel and it can be conquered and killed. It only requires our combined wisdom, restraint and self-control. Enemy COVID-19 cannot live and survive social and physical distancing.  It only increases and flourishes when people meet it.  It enjoys and likes to be dealt with.  It surrenders and flees in the resistance of united physical and social distancing.  It is afraid of good personal and social cleanliness and hygiene. The enemy can be killed and neutralized when people control their destiny by their own hands and sanitize them as frequently as possible.

This is a very hard time. This is not a time to cry about hunger, livelihood, business or industry like a spoilt harlot. After all, the Holy books can be read, prayed and murmured if we survive. They also tell that man shall not live only for bread alone.

“Let's obey and follow the commands of the doctors, health workers, security personnel and authorities. Let's crush the COVID-19 might. Let's apply tolerance. Let's be our brothers’ and sisters ' custodian. Very soon, our nation will reclaim our food, freedom, livelihood, business and socializing."

 In the middle of DISASTER, we understand the importance of service and the necessity of love for others including animals, birds and reptiles and don’t kill them for our food and taste. 

A fallen mindset: Freebies multiplies India Corona agony

This has become a national motto and a way of thinking. Freeloading has increased the nation’s China Corona pain and fear. Government alone cannot fight against corona. Why there are so many deaths-- deaths on roads, deaths on railway tracks, deaths of hunger, deaths of no medical aid etc during the lockdown. We did very well on the fight against Corona.

All have forgotten their duties. All are totally dependent on the central government for all the works that too all free. The state government, NGOs, activists, opposition leaders, media, minority groups etc all day in and day out blame the central government, but they themselves hardly do any work.

Free food, free ration, free transport, free economic package, waving of education fee, waving of house rent, free medical add, waving of all taxes and bill etc has become a national war cry. In this dim and noise, Covid-19 has lost or become a secondary issue. With great pride, we say: We are poor, so everything for free.

As a result of this tendency social service has become a very lucrative business in India. India has millions of NGOs. Apart from this lakhs of gurudwaras and their much-propagated langar Sewa, lakhs of madrasas, Iftikhar Sewa, church and mission services etc. However, this is different questions that even than migrant workers and labourers are not getting adequate food and ration and they are dying of so many fits of hunger.

Despite all the theatrics, people have no love neither for the people in need or for the nation. All are busy in making fast bucks by hook or by crooks like Pulitzer Prize or Magsaysay Award.

We won’t change. We have enough money and resources but no money for the needy. People are governments, all are poor. Even state governments don’t want to do anything. All are passing the buck like the media and activists. Hence we can’t carry out a lockdown like western democracies. Lockdown brings hardships to the people. The economy is more important than lives.

We find it fitting to blame the Coronavirus and the central government for our current miseries but if we don’t want to admit that the lockdown hit us harder because we are dependent on the government.

And we are poor and dependent not because of Covit-18 in 2020, but for all that, we have been doing nothing for the last seven decades. We have played appeasement and misplaced secular politics; misplaced socialism turned caste quota system and chased after India’s entrepreneurial thrust with a butcher’s knife, grabbing whatever we can grab out of it. It is a fact that India is poor because we are proud of being poor and backward.

It’s true; we almost have no shame and guilt for being poor and backward because we habituated for freebies and free-loading. Our new ages of ethics or value systems are at the root of this crisis. There are economists and activists who are encouraging this sickness. Now, it is the time to expose the obsolete, foolhardy and suicidal politics and system that are keeping our nation backwards and poor.

The origin of our existing values lies in Indian secular and vote-bank politics. They have divided the society. Now being rich, meritorious, hardworking and successful are bad. Earning money is bad. A good and comfortable life is bad. People who consume and drink are bad. People who change new phones, new cars, new air conditioners, new clothes, are bad. People who go abroad are bad. Strangulate them by taxes. It is the mindset of we Indians that they are all crooks and black money hoarders.

Simple life, proud of extracting caste and religious benefits like reservations and quotas, freebies and freeloading, total dependency on the government to take care of everything for free, jobs of a Sarkari babu, connections with politicians and cult heads like Maulana Saad or Zakir Naik etc, these are the things we think is good.

With this mindset, we are totally dependent on governments. We love government jobs, government interference, sick and slow judiciary, caste and religious reservation and schemes, a nation and the society can never prosper. We don’t celebrate merit, creativity or nationalism but we celebrate poverty, backwardness and freeloading.

The current lockdown has exposed us, what we did wrong, not just during corona time, but in the decades preceding it. People are jealous of seeing rich, successful and meritorious but don’t feel bad when they see poor, hungry labourers, and beggars. They are not disturbed to see migrant hungry labourers walking for hundreds or thousands of miles with little kids on their heads.

It is the government control, corrupt bureaucracy, corrupt the judiciary, and money minting charities which are killing the people and development.

They simply kill innovation, wealth creation and scare foreign investors to flee to other countries and India is left with poor hungry people. 

Nobody will come to India to make her livable. India herself has to grab the opportunities and merit. The world will not care about us and it will move on. India and Indians have to change and make it attractive in the post-COVID era. It can be possible when we change our mindset, which then is suitable in our wealth-creating pursuit.

We have to believe it “It was appalling to be so poor and backward that we couldn’t tackle an epidemic of a disease with distinction.” We can foolishly shout: Money is not everything in life, but we have to admit that it is very important – for everyone and for a nation.

In the post-corona time, there will be a total mess in the economy and employment. This is true to the entire world. But it can also create new opportunities for these migrant workers. They can start their own business in their villages and town, in the field of vegetable, fruit, dairy, animal husbandry, scrap, agriculture, skilled jobs etc.

It is talked that industry and business want to move out of China. So we must attract them with positive reforms in the field of bureaucracy and judiciary, else new investment will only be a dream.

Corona has taught us many lessons about personal hygiene, cleanliness, discipline, and patience. Apart from this, we must stop the hollow slogans like freebies, social justice and secularism but invest in public health, hospitals, medical education and medical facilities and strengthening the police force.

The biggest lesson is to de-congest the big cities, state capitols, and district headquarters. Develop villages and small towns to stop this migration to cities. All the new industries and offices should be opened only in villages and small town. We must stop criticizing the governments and depending on the governments for everything from the free toilet and free food to free transport to free health care.

Shun the tendency of profiteering, mainly during a disaster. Purge the mindset that a nation is only to feed the poor and backwards and give them every comfort perennially. We have to purify our mindset and priorities. Our goal should be to make India rich and powerful.

The Innocents Abroad

Dr.Y.K.Sharma

Deptt.of English

Paper Code-12037612- Travel Writing,

B.A.(Hons.)-IV Sem.

‘The Innocents Abroad’, or ‘The New Pilgrims Progress’ is a travel book by famous American author Mark Twain published in 1869 which humorously records and describes what Twain called his "Great Pleasure Excursion" on board the chartered vessel ‘Quaker City’ (formerly USS Quaker City) through Europe and the Holy Land with a group of American travelers in 1867. It was the best-selling of Twain's works during his lifetime, as well as one of the best-selling travel books of all time

Analysis

Innocents Abroad presents itself as an usual travel book based on an actual voyage in a retired Civil War ship (the USS Quaker City). The expedition was billed as a Holy Land expedition, with numerous stops and side trips along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, notably, it can be divided into four parts:

1-      train excursion from Marseille to Paris for the 1867 Paris Exhibition during the reign of Napoleon III and the Second French Empire,  

2-      journey through the Papal States to Rome,

3-      side trip through the Black Sea to Odessa,

4-      Culminating in an excursion through the Holy Land.

Twain narrated his experiences, observations and critiques of the various aspects of culture and society which he encountered on the journey, in a very serious manner. Many of his observations draw a contrast between his own experiences and the often grandiose accounts in contemporary travelogues, which were regarded in their own time as indispensable aids for traveling in the region. In particular, he lampooned William Cowper Prime’s Tent Life in the Holy Land for its overly sentimental prose and its often violent encounters with native inhabitants. Twain also made light of his fellow travelers and the natives of the countries and regions that he visited, as well as his own expectations and reactions.

Themes

A major theme of the book is that of the conflict between history and the modern world. Twain continually encounters petty profiteering and trivializations of history as he journeys, as well as a strange emphasis placed on particular past events. He is outraged, puzzled, or bored by each encounter. One example can be found in the sequence during which the boat has stopped at Gibraltar. On shore, the narrator encounters seemingly dozens of people intent on regaling him, and everyone else, with a bland and pointless tale concerning how a particular hill nearby acquired its name, heedless of the fact that the tale is, indeed, mild, pointless, and entirely too repetitive.

Another example may be found in the discussion of the story of Abelard and Heloise, where the skeptical American deconstructs the story and comes to the conclusion that far too much fuss has been made about the two lovers. Only, when the ship reaches areas of the world that do not exploit for profit or bore passers-by with inexplicable interest in their history, such as the passage dealing with the ship's time at the Canary Islands, is this attitude not found in the text.

Illustration (1855): "We reached Mount Tabor… safely, we never saw a human being on the whole route ... We climbed the steep path to its summit, through breezy glades of thorn and oak. The view presented from its highest peak was almost beautiful. Below, was the broad, level plain of Esdraelon, checkered with fields like a chess-board, and full as smooth and level, seemingly; dotted about its borders with white, compact villages, and faintly penciled, far and near, with the curving lines of roads and trails." Mark Twain, 1867

This reaction to those who profit from the past is found, in an equivocal and unsure balance with reverence, in Twain's experiences in the Holy Land. The narrator reacts here, not only to the exploitation of the past and the unreasoning (to the American eye of the time) adherence to old ways, but also to the profanation of religious history. Many of his illusions are shattered, including his discovery that the nations described in the Old Testament could easily fit inside many American states and counties, and that the "kings" of those nations might very well have ruled over fewer people than could be found in some small towns. Disillusioned, he writes, “If all the poetry and nonsense that have been discharged upon the fountains and the bland scenery of this region were collected in a book, it would make a most valuable volume to burn.”

In his equivocal reaction to the religious history the narrator encounters may be magnified by the prejudices of the time, as the United States was still primarily a Protestant nation at that point. The Catholic Church, in particular, receives a considerable amount of attention from the narrator, specifically its institutionalized nature. This is particularly apparent in the section of the book dealing with Italy, where the poverty of the lay population and the relative affluence of the church are contrasted.

Summary

In 1867, the San Francisco Alta Californian assigned its 31-year-old reporter Mark Twain to cover a steamboat pleasure trip to the Mediterranean. Twain’s account of the trip was published in 1869 as ‘The Innocents Abroad’, or ‘The New Pilgrim’s Progress’. The book would become the most popular and bestselling work of Twain’s career, acclaimed by both critics and readers. Twain’s travelogue chronicles a voyage through Europe and the ‘Holy Land’ attended by a group of over 60 American men and women from 15 different states. Combining seriousness and his trademark humor, Twain describes the various sights and people they encounter as well as making observations about the society, history, religion, and other aspects of the ‘Old World’.

The book’s subtitle, ‘The New Pilgrim’s Progress’, is an allusion to John Bunyan’s classic allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress. Twain views his devoutly Christian fellow travelers as “pilgrims” in search of their spiritual roots. At the same time, these travelers are from the New World, the land of progress, efficiency, and technology. Reflecting the viewpoint of the New World, Twain turns a critical eye on the culture and institutions of Europe and the Middle East. He is both admiring of and skeptical of this culture—skeptical of the reverence shown to certain artists of the past, for example, while admiring some “old master” paintings. Twain finds much of the romantic prose written about the Old World to be at variance with reality, and he misses no chance to shatter illusions about this.

Much of the humor of the book comes from cultural misunderstandings, including the clash between liberal 19th-century ideas and the more traditional ways of life that prevail in the Old World. While a fervent believer in democracy, Twain admires certain monarchs whom he considers effective leaders. In matters of religion, Twain represents an American Protestant viewpoint critical of the power of the priesthood and certain traditional religious practices. He is dispirited by the tendency of the Old World to profit on its history, as shown in such practices as accumulating spurious religious relics for display.

Yet Twain does not hesitate to critique his fellow Americans as well, including their chauvinism and ignorance of the customs of other countries. Thus, The Innocents Abroad is a double-edged sword. Twain also questions many of the conventions of tourism, such as cramming too much sightseeing into a short time frame. At times Twain is fatigued by the trip and by the physically trying circumstances they must undergo. At other times, Twain finds the landmarks they visit to be thrilling and rewarding. Overall, Twain’s experiences reflect those of anyone who has traveled for an extended period in unfamiliar territory.

Originating as a series of letters sent by Twain to newspapers during the trip, ‘The Innocents Abroad’ consists of 61 chapters and a Conclusion. At journey’s end, Twain realizes that the true value of travel does not become clear until we return home and have time to reflect on it, sifting out the bad experiences and stressing the good ones. The Innocents Abroad proved that Twain’s brand of humor and candor resonated with the American public, and it would establish his reputation and tremendous popularity as an author.

ये मंज़र भी गुज़र जायेगा

गुज़र जायेगा ये मंज़र  भी,

ये खौफ भी, ये सन्नाटा भी।

मुश्किल डगर है, मुश्किल वक्त है,  

पर विश्वास रख, सब गुज़र जायेगा।

सांसें चलतीं रहीं,

तो आ जायेगा फिर सब कुछ।

मौत बरपा रही है, एक अनसुना कहर,

रात काली और डरावनी हो रही है,

लोग रातें गुज़ार रहे हैं,

दहलीज पर, अपनों के इंतजार मे,

और कुछ दहलीज छुने के लिये,

तड़्प रहे हैं, भटक रहे हैं,

बियावान-डरावनी सड़्को पर्।

सब डरे, सहमे चुप बैठै हैं।

पर भरोसा रख,

दुनिया बनाने वाले पर,

ये खौफ भी गुज़र जायेगा और वक्त भी।

वीरान सड‌कें,

सुने बाज़ार,

बियावान मोहल्ले,

बच्चों का इंतजार करते स्कूल,

बस कुछ डरे-भटके कदमों की आहट,

चारॉ तरफ मंज़र, एक खौफनाक कहर का,

हर शक्स हैरान और परेशान।

ये कौनसा कहर,

दुनिया को डराने आया।

ना समझ है ये,

इंसानॉ से टकराने आया,

काली-बियावान रात गवाह है,

ये खौफ भी, खौफ खा जायेगा।

हौसला बनाये रख ऐ इंसान!

सब्र खो गया है, टुटा नहीं,

ये लम्हा भी सुलझ जायेगा,

और ये खौफ भी हार जायेगा। 

और एक नया सवेरा भी आ जायेगा।

 

शुक्रकर भगवान का

शुक्रकर भगवान का,

कि तू है घर-परिवार के साथ्।

देख उस अभागे को,

जो भटक रहा है, सुनसान सड़्क पर।

कहीं घर की दहलीज नसीब नहीं,

किसी को आखिरी लम्हॉं में,

बेटा भटक रहा है बियाबान सड़्कों पर,                           

और बाप दफन हो रहा है लावारिस, कब्र में।

शुक्र है, चुल्हा तेरा जल रहा है,

तू सुबह सहरी, रात में इफ्तहार,

भोग रहा है।

कहीं एक राहगीर भी रह गया है,

जो एक रोटी के लिये तड़्प रहा है।

क्यों हो रहा है उतावला,

ईद पर गले मिलने के लिये,

सोच उस अभागी कायनात का,

जो बच्चों को देखे बिना ही,

कह गया दुनिया को अलविदा।

अब तू किसी भ्रम में ना रहना,

ना ऊपर वाला तेरे को बचा पायेगा,

और ना नीचे वाला कुछ कर पायेगा,

इंसानों की इबादत पर हंस कर बोला वो,

अपने पापों को मुझ पर ना धोया कर,

अपने कर्मों को तू खुद देखा कर्। 

Secularism and Hindu-phobia

India is a secular nation. Constitutionally all are equal. There will be no discrimination based on religion. However, in the real system, the majority community, Hindus are brutally abused and trolled by all, especially by the left-wingers, minorities, especially by Muslims and Christians.

Ever since the right-wing party BJP came to power, the narrative of Indian politics changed. The main agenda of this new winner BJP is to end the Hindus persecution by the minorities and secular groups and stop the minority appeasement. Due to these ideological changes, Hindus became the brutal targets of attacks by the anti-BJP forces.

Minorities' persecution of Hindus in India will never be discussed in the mainstream global media. They illegally and forcefully are displacing the Hindus. Males are killed or kidnapped; the girls and women are raped and forcibly converted. Even the police are afraid to help the victims. Media never reports such incidents and political parties open their mouth, for the fear of losing the minorities' votes.

This is secular-democratic India. Read any newspaper, Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp comment. They are filled with the abuses for Hindus. The supporters of Prime Minister Modi are trolled as 'bhakts' or andh-bhakts (blind devotees). 'Bhakt' is a term used for Hindu devotees. RSS is a Hindu organization. Its workers and supporters are abused as 'Sanghi' or 'chaddi' (underwear).  Hindus worship cows and address as 'mother.' On this aspect, Hindus are trolled and abused as cow urine drinkers. Hindus religious processions are called as lynching mobs. Even in some universities extremist groups frequently organizes 'beef party' by slaughtering the cow publicly to harass the Hindus.

Saffron colour is a pious colour for Hindus and they wear clothes of this colour during religious activities. But they are also mocked as 'bhagva' or saffron terrorists. Hindu groups are trolled as Hindus vigilantes, Hindu terrorists etc. Hindus are also abused as 'Manuvadi' or 'Brahminvadi.'

Not only this, but Hindus saints are also always defamed and abused in a very vulgar manner. Famous Hindu saints like Bana Ramdev, Acharya Bal Krishna, Sadguru, Nirmal Baba, Radhey Ma, Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, Aasa Ram Bapu, Swami Nityanand, Baba Ram Rahim etc are harassed and trolled without any reason. In some cases, they are framed in false cases.

Same is the story with the Hindu scriptures. Hindu scriptures like the Ramayana, the Gita, the Mahabharata, the Manusmriti, and the Purans etc are mocked and trolled. In some cases, they are even burnt by some extremist groups. Even in some universities, this burning of Hindu scriptures is an annual affair.

There has recently been a sharp increase in incidents of Muslims creating problems during Hindu festivals, Hindu religious processions, attacks on Temples, desecration of Deities, and large-scale, provocative cow slaughter.

The persecution of Hindus does not stop here. Even police officers who are on the forefront of eliminating terrorists and gangsters are framed in the false cases and suspended from the jobs and in some cases they are jailed for years, thus ruining their lives and careers. In this category police officers like Pradeep Sharma, Daya Naik, Ravindra Angre, D G Vanzara, P C Pande, R.K. Pandian, NK Amin, Vipul Aggarwal, Dinesh MN, D.S. Rathod, Colonel S.K.Purohit etc can be placed. The lives and careers of these bright officers were ruined because they eliminated the anti-national gangs and terrorists.

Judiciary is also targeted by these elements. Even ex-Chief Justice of India Justice Ranjan Gogoi and his bench was also targeted and trolled because he delivered a judgment in favour of the construction of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya. Judges who acquainted or dismissed cases against PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are also targeted by these secularists, leftists, Islamists and missionaries.

Media houses and the journalists who do not toe the line of these secular extremists groups are also brutally trolled as 'Godi media', 'darbari media', 'paid media' or 'bhakt media'. Although these trolls and abusers blame others for all the sins in real life they are the real sinners. They do not respect other's freedom of speech but for them want unlimited freedom. They want others' to be secular and inclusive but always support the radicalization and intolerance of minorities and left outfits.

Reservations and quotas for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward Castes (OBCs) and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) are granted by the Constitution of India. But minority institutions, madrasas, Waqf Boards, etc do not give reservations to these groups. They always oppose reservations and representations to these poor and backward groups.

Agitations of Hindus are also crushed very ruthlessly by the authorities and the judiciary. At Rampur Tiraha, UP, dozens of agitationists demanding the formation of Uttrakhand state were brutally killed and women raped around a few years back. In Ayodhya, many Hindu saints and Ram devotees were killed in police firing. In Mathura, dozens of followers of a Hindu saint Ram Sewak Yadav were killed over encroachment of a public garden but no action was taken against the Shaheen Bagh squatters who encroached upon roads for months. In Haryana, dozens of followers of Baba Ram Rahim were killed when they opposed his arrest. Dozens of Jat agitators were also killed for demanding job reservation. There are so many examples of such types of repressions.

These anti-Hindu outfits are also very kind to the illegal intruders from Bangladesh and Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar. All support them but nobody is worried about the Kashmir Hindu refugees. Even judiciary refused to listen to them. They are crossing the border illegally and violently. They have changed the demography of Bengal, Assam, Kashmir and North-East states. These intruders are becoming channels for unlawful activities (arms, drugs, and sexual slavery). This is not found in the Western mainstream media—or even in the Indian media, which has turned a blind eye to this ongoing tragedy because they are, afraid powerful left and Islamic groups.

For example, Islamic extremists attacked the office of a popular newspaper, 'The Statesman' in Kolkata, in reprisal for a mere replica of an article, critical to Islamic extremism, the Indian press remained silent. The editor and publisher of the newspaper were arrested for hurting Muslim feelings but no action was taken against the criminals.

All are afraid of taking a stand against the minority and left extremism in India and about anti-Hindu persecution in his homeland. This persecution of Hindus in India is nothing new. Over 1000 years, millions of Hindus were slaughtered by Muslims and British. Many thousands of Hindus were massacred in Calcutta only in 1947. Anti-Hindu riots and mind-set is still prevalent. Hindus are specifically targeted out because they are considered an impediment in the implementation of their agenda.

To stop all this, the Indian government should stop the illegal intruders from Bangladesh and force the return of these intruders; to ban madrassas and polygamy; to enforce Uniform Civil Code, a single standard of law and education; Uniform Civil Code, and to arrest and prosecute known Islamic extremist and mafia dons and terrorists. Indian media should be honest to report on the anti-Hindu atrocities and to address the issue of religious racism. Madrasas funding by Islamic and Wahabi nations must be banned. This is not the battle against Muslim persecution but it is a much larger battle for the safety of the Hindus.

The nation of Freebies lovers

The entire world is in the grip of China Corona Virus or COVID-19. India is also not an exception. But in India priorities are absolutely strange. In these hard times, the leaders, media, intellectuals and the people are engrossed with their agenda. Fight against COVID-19 seems to be the secondary. 
For everybody, the prime concern is freebies and freeloading. Everybody is interested to grab the maximum benefit during this period. Muslims have a different agenda. They are more worried about their Ramazan, daily azan and opening of mosques. One can see their prime concern for these religious activities throughout the country.
Everyone is totally dependent on government like beggars for freebies and freeloading. Labourers, migrants, poor, Muslims, industrialists, media houses etc all want packages, money, house rent and tuition fee waving, free food, free ration, free medical facilities, free transportation and whatnot. Total perversion. 
Nobody is paying any attention to the doctors, medical facilities, medical research, medical staff security, medical equipment and supplies, old pensioners, farmers and villagers etc. The China Corona Virus has also brought with him the sick mentality of freebies and freeloading, moral perversion and corruption.
People have lost all shame even in freeloading and free packages. This is not a fight against China Corona Virus or Covid-19 but this fight has taken U-Turn for freebies, freeloading and free and non-refundable packages. Even the pension and salaries of the government employees are been cut and wasted on these freebies and freeloading.
Here an example will be highly appropriate. The UP government asked landlords, not to charge rent from tenants. But behind this order, rich and affluent tenants who even own cars are not paying rents. This is very wrong and will bring a bad name to the government in its fight against COVID-19. Most of the house owners have to repay bank loans. This is very immoral and wrong. Already tenants are a big headache to the owners. This will further arm them to create more troubles. All the good work being done by the government will be overshadowed by the wrong deeds of these elements. The government and the authorities should be asked to book such rogue and lawless tenants.
Gandhi says modern education develops and increases lust and greed. This is the best example of that fall. Macaulay and Marx have ruined the Indian education. Therefore nothing better is expected from the educated groups. Indian values and culture are not being imbibed by the Indian young generation in their effort to Americanize themselves. They are just "American Brand Corrupted DNA", (ABCD). The fall out can be felt in every walk of life. India has become a Republic of Beggars.
The lockdown has increased the clamour for fiscal packages to bail out easily and quickly in the name of vulnerable sections. All are provoking them for packages. Nobody is educating them about the dangers of the virus for the people.  But the price of one of the harshest lockdowns anywhere has pressed and affected every section. It is for the safety of all.

It is specifically this facet which motivated a call from the government to private firms to five all the salaries and benefits to the employees without any cut. But governments are guilty of cutting the salaries and allowances of their employees. Even the pensioners are facing this burnt of unkindest cut. But on the other hand, some are getting monetary packages and others are getting free ration and free food. But still, all are cribbing because of inherent tendencies of easy money and freebies. India needs a strong moral education to work hard to supplement the fight against the COVID-19.
This freebies mentality has already frozen the banks. They don't have a clear idea of how to come out of this mess. The longer the restrictions on activity, the greater the demands will be for freebies and fiscal packages and their subsequent adverse impact on economic growth. This will also shrink the output of this year if business and mobility restrictions stay till end-July.
This will be catastrophic for the nation and the people as it will push back millions of Indians not to work and look only for government largess. People should start working. They can go back to agriculture and farming. Poor people can involve themselves in such business where investment is very little, like vegetable and fruit vendors. This way they can raise their income and be part of the system in a positive way. This lethargy will encourage the foreign firms to control the supply chain which will further push the poor people to the margin. The need now is for a lucid and broad road map for the slackening of restrictions to help these people to stand on their feet instead of waiting for free packages. 

Alternative Realities: Love in the Lives of Muslim Women

Dr.Y.K.Sharma

Deptt.of English

Paper Code-12037612- Travel Writing,

B.A.(Hons.)-IV Sem.

Critical Analysis: Alternative Realities: Love in the Lives of Muslim Women

By NIGHAT M GANDHI

BORN in Bangladesh, brought up in Pakistan and now living in India, Nighat M Gandhi, a Muslim by birth and upbringing seems uniquely placed to unveil the secrecy shrouding the central theme of  Alternative Realities. That she, a practising Buddhist, is married to an Indian Hindu also explains to some extent the ease with which she brings the twin benefits of distance and involvement to her subject ~ "Muslim women and sexuality" in the context of "restrictions placed on their freedoms within the framework of their culture". It is, however, how she has woven her own story into the interconnected strands of her several narratives and revealed how the travels she undertook and the people she met in quest of her material has expanded the spaces in her heart, that transform this work into a rare fusion of feminist critique, memoir, introspection and travelogue.

Several of the anecdotes about her "unplanned, impossible journeys" provide, in fact, its more interesting moments, for they involved forays into dangerous, often forbidden terrain, including a village "close to the Taliban belt" and a transgenders' colony in Sind, Pakistan. As a woman alone, she had to exercise caution, although that didn't save her from being mugged in Karachi. As an individual from what she has described earlier as a "culturally cross-pollinated background", she was also compelled to resort to deception. In Ahmedabad, for example, which serves as the backdrop for her closing chapter, "Ocean of Possibilities", Gandhi was constrained by the fear that haunts Gujarati Muslims since the communal riots of 2002 to use the Hindu name her in-laws had given her.

Despite these issues, the author appears to have responded to much of what she encountered with an open mind, a receptive heart and the courage of her convictions. These qualities illuminate the book through its different moods and moments which she deftly balances, using to advantage her keen insight into people and situations, her fine sense of irony and a prose style that can lend itself to terror or humour, hope or despair with ease. Consider, for example, the chain-snatching incident in Karachi ("Love Is a Spiritual Experience"), a hilarious, if scary episode, straight from the theatre of the absurd, pitting Gandhi, the target, against the most unlikely of thugs: a bike-borne Maulvi and his burqa-clad accomplice. Then contrast it with the poignancy of "152, Sirajudaula Road", the chapter where the author&'s nostalgia-driven search for her childhood home in Chittagong ends in tears at the discovery that it has metamorphosed into paint and welding shop.

While the book is replete with such moments, some dwell, among other things, on Gandhi&'s love of Urdu poetry, her description of her visits to Sufi shrines or her views on the hijab, the Muslim woman&'s headscarf.  Here, as in the final chapter, where there is a noticeable slackening of momentum, we find ourselves silently urging her to move on.

What the author truly excels at are her portraits of Muslim women ~ the book's raison d'être ~ from different cross-sections of society in the three countries that serve as her beat. While presenting their perspectives on life and love with the empathy they deserve as members of the same marginalized sisterhood to which she claims allegiance, she is careful not to romanticise her subjects. Among the more unusual of the individuals featured is Nisho, a transgender living in Mirpur Khas village ("Rakhi Sawant of Sind"), whose eternal regret is her inability to bear children by the married man she loves, a lack that will forever deny her the stability of wedded bliss. "There comes a time even in the life of a  hijra," she says wistfully, " when she wants to settle down…" Then there is the educated, Karachi-based lesbian couple, Nusrat and QT  ("Siraat-e-Mustaqeem ~ The Straight Path"). Their belief that "for oddities like us", one "can create room in this culture", where women&'s voices are so effectively stifled that even love between women is written about by male poets, casts a new light on women&'s freedoms in a conservative Islamic country.

 Gandhi does not confine her interactions to the niche elements of Muslim society. Consider, for instance, her inclusion of the affluent, educated Mahmuda, Bangladesh's first woman ambassador ("Love, War and Widows"). Still grieving for her beloved first husband who was picked up by Pakistani soldiers during the country's war of liberation and never seen again, this "war widow" dismisses her current marriage to an allegedly promiscuous man as "ll lies and lies". Yet, as the author had revealed in Ghalib at Dusk, her critically acclaimed anthology of short stories, the feminist in her is never unfair to the men who feature in her narratives, allowing them a voice as well. Consequently, the perspective Gandhi offers on Mahmuda's much-denigrated second husband projects him as less of a villain than his wife had made him out to be. Some of the cameos of the men who appear in her book are sketched with respect, even affection.

The author's sense of fair play and honesty do not falter either when she turns the spotlight on herself. In "The Works", she recounts how her ostensibly liberal Muslim father turned against her when she shared with him her dreams of marrying the Indian Hindu she had met in the US. Tricked into returning to Karachi, Gandhi found herself a virtual prisoner in her own home. She describes the months before she escapes to London with the help of a friend as the "most devastating" in her life. "Precious wealth bled out of me: self-confidence, faith, trust, belief, love for the family," she writes, but concludes, "I'm still proud of what I did." Considering all she endured, the irony of her situation today is that 24 years after that flight from her parental home and marriage to the man of her choice, of whom she writes with tenderness, she must confess, "I'm no longer as enamoured by the institution of marriage," because it does not "benefit both partners equally".

That the author can acknowledge these mixed feelings, yet revel in those moments from the past when she chose to steer her course in life, reveals the strange dualities we are often forced to come to terms with. And the unflinching candour and quiet dignity with which she relates her story, excavating memories suffused with hurt, anger and feelings of betrayal, contribute to its dramatic impact and make it stand out as the most compelling of her narratives of desire and pain and loss. By choosing to open the book with her own experience of love as a Muslim woman, Gandhi leads by example, convincing us that there are few more eligible than her to help her silenced sisters find their voice.