My Sooty Capital

Sooty Capital

1. Its about when I wanted 
2. To sleep when dusk is deep
3. Cradling the sickle moon
4. Sailing through the stars
5. Waking up to the dawn 
6. expanding a feeble glow
7. North star still shining bright 
8. And raise a hand to the sky
9. Then toil in the morning ours
10. To the Sun up high, my eyes closed
11. Sweat drenching the noon
12. Back in the meadows picking straw
13. Sauntering back home with stock
14. To settle for the cozy night roost,
15. And you called my folk poor men!

1. Its about when I wanted
2. To spend moments stretched to hours
3. Smelling velvet petals in blooms
4. Roses my cup bearers of dew
5. Drinking from the brook
6. The elixir of life gushing downstream
7. Rivulets coursing to mighty rivers
8. Dying in the sea
9. To suck the nectar
10. Nibble on the nut, gorge on the fruit
11. And graze on the chaff
12. Climb that tall tree
13. Walking on the grass to the shore
14. Soaking the waves lapping at my feet 
15. And you called my ilk idle women!

1. Its about when I wanted 
2. to hold on tight and really strong 
3. With a new born’s innocence
4. To life, oh dear life, yours and mine
5. Spinned on a delicate balance
6. In the expanse cold and dark
7. Of our seamless universe
8. Where live forms countless
9. Teem on a blue dot of dust and dust 
10. In the vast space of nothingness
11. And a lifelessness infinite
12. Your evil bestride my living planet
13. Smog engulfed a hot brown city
14. And greed befogged minds
15. You called my earth a dream utopian!

To Delhi with love

Faiza Abbasi

Ten commandments of weight loss

Ten commandments of weight loss, healthy eating and healthy living

1. Follow the principle of one unit at a time. Don't ever take a second helping of anything you decide to eat. Except vegetables don't eat two foods of the same type at one Meal. For example if you eat a simple meal of bread, meat and vegetables keep your brown rice or biryani for the next meal. And remember, no matter how far you are from the feeding of fullness you love, do not transgress the rule of one whole grain bread or roti. Thats how you practice restraint and can be successful in portion control.

2. Do eat three meals a day. Never skip a meal, specially breakfast. These are all important meals our bodies need them and if we make it feel bereft it becomes rebellion. Binging comes next. However, on some days a month or once or twice a week you can go on a detox diet or fast in whichever way suits you. But when you break your fast you must remember rule 1.

3. Maintain a gap of at least five hours between each meal of a day. This abstinence from food is a very good time to drink plenty of water and keep yourself hydrated. Sometimes, we confuse hunger for thirst. By following this rule you will respond to the need of the body appropriately.

4. You are allowed to snack between meals but only on fresh fruits and dry fruits. Actually that's how you can include fresh fruits and dry fruits in your intake. You get your omega 3 fatty acids that are good cholesterol for the essential functions from dried fruits.

5. Eat every thing in small portions. You don't know what all nutrition your body requires. Don't prohibit yourself on any of the five basic elements : fat, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals. You need them all. So never go on a diet plan that allows unlimited quantities of one but prohibitive of the other. These are unnatural and impractical and comes packaged with bad health repercussions.

6. Draw your nutrients from natural sources to the best of your abilities. For instance your requirements for fatty acids can met by eating grilled fish, boiled meat or coconut, peanuts and cashews etc. And yes fat and sweets are not those evil Satans that they look like. Only if you draw your sugars from fruits and dried fruits like raisins, figs and prunes do include them. What you can not eat though is sweets, confectionery items, chocolates and desserts.

7. You are strictly prohibited from eating refined sugars, oils and carbs. Look into your breads, burgers and pizzas before you put down your whole grain roti and chicken curry for them. Pick up that home made pitcher of butter milk instead of the canned fruit juice or carbonated drink from the supermarket. The basmati rice too, with its aleurone layer removed in the rice mill and the empty calories packet that its grain is, also falls in the category of refined carb hence a strict no.

8. Eat dinner between sunset and the deep dark nightfall. Yiu are not allowed to snack between dinner and breakfast. The best you can do all night is take rest. That's what nights are for. Say goodnight to your popcorn bag and late night movie. Some sacrifice has to be made to achieve something desired. Believe me your body needs dinner after sunset. All diurnal animals do. Ever seen the birds eating frantically before retiring to the roost? you torture your digestion with a late night heavy dinner. It interferes with sleep, repair and rejuvenation. Taking a glass of milk before going to bed is a good idea but it does not suit every one. To each its own.

9. You need six to seven hours of sleep so catch up with it any how. Go to bed early and wake up early. This will enable you to have a 10 hour eating day with meals spaxed out and ending up having an early dinner. Remember, by sleeping in the morning you are missing out on precious hours of peak body mind activity. You can always take some time for a nap or siesta during the day and have another bout of working hard and concentrating with a fresh mind.

10. So much about eating and not eating but the number 10 has to go to exercise and keep moving. A 30 hour walk is ideal after every meal. So you are walking for 90 minutes. Double it up with some other wirk or recreational activity. You can talk while you walk, listen to an e book or the long report with tts, that you are not able to find time to read. Also intersperse your sitting or sedentary hours with some movement. Even a ten minutes stretching and bending is enough. So get up from your seat, take a wash if you need to and get the joints moving. If you do it 9 times a day, this amounts to 90 minutes a day. You sure don't have the time to spend 3 hrs a day at the gym. Not even for 5 day workout every week. But aggregated 180 minutes thence, seems doable. Every day, wherever you go, whether the machines are around or not.

Just a little planning and prioritizing will make it easy to be delivered. After all these are the 10 commandments and they are the only ones.

To loudspeak Azaan or not

I guess every Muslim would agree that azaan on loudspeaker is not mandatory. If our non-namazi neighbors have a problem they are well within their rights to urge the law to intervene and restrict loud noise from public blaring. Some people even complain of day long migraine if awoken abruptly in the early morning hours. Out of love for followers of other religions and  cohesion in society we can only desire tolerance but not demand it forcibly.

I remember growing up in Gorakhpur in a heterogeneous locality where Hindus, Muslims and Christians lived together sharing city space. More than I remember waking up to azaan in the morning - inevitable all five times because we lived by our family mosque, I also remember listening to Anoop Jalota bhajans for about an hour before dawn. This was repeated at dusk too but not to the same effect on my heart because neither the atmosphere in the city din was clear enough to let it reach me nor was my heart dampened by the failures of the day fresh and supple to receive it. Nevertheless, I actually loved the bhajans. I still Humm the tunes. I still recall the lyrics. Even, now whenever I hear those bhajans I can't help but smile and cherish because they are reminiscent of my growing up days. The days we term as golden.

There was no question of detesting either the azaan or the bhajans because with or without them I had to wake up for a crazy science and math coaching class that began at 5 am sharp. So be it the song or the call, both were actually a respite taking my mind off the pressure of fulfilling my parents dream of becoming a doctor.

That was about me. What about the others? It was a large family of people in all age groups some of whom were suffering from diseases too, but no one ever objected or grumbled to loud noises - neither five time a day for 2 - 3 minutes nor twice a day for an hour. May be the azaan people let the bhajan people be and vice versa for the spirit of coexistence.

Moreover, there were no azaans on PA systems at the advent of Islam in 6th century Arabia. The Prophet asked his African fellow Muslim Hazrat Bilal (AS) - whom he had freed from the clutches of his dreaded slave master, to climb on a height and give the call for prayer. Still the Sabri brothers have sung out beautifully in their classic qawwali:

Arsh wale bhi sunte the jisko
Kya azaan thi azaan-e Bilali

In many western countries like UK no religious processions or rituals are allowed to create noise pollution by raising decibels including azaans. Few exceptions are there of areas like Luten where the County has given a no objection certificate taking into account the view of the citizens.

Incidentally, majority of the Luten residents are Pakistanis/Bangladeshi and they would rather love azaan than detest it. So it is a 'to each it's own' solution and Muslims in India should not consider it a threat to Islam if they are disallowed from calling for prayers on loudspeakers. In UK the  Muslim population has grown to over 15% and still counting. On Fridays the mosques are packed to capacity without loudspeaker calls for prayers.

Having said that, the point I underscore humbly before any august platform is that when the law takes its course in a secular democratic country - it should apply equally to all communities.

Undivided past

Undivided Past

Sobia is my first cousin. My father's sister's daughter. Her mother was married to her own first cousin in 1962. My grandmother's sister's son. So I have an important filial relation with her. A strong bond. We are sisters in blood. It is expected for first cousins to grow up together in a joint family. If not then to meet in family functions or every winter and summer vacations when the brothers and sisters - their moms and dads, assemble at their homes, the grandparents abode. 

Although I grew up in a joint family, I never had all this with Sobia, We met three and a half decades ago in my Grand father's house where i had the good fortune of being born and brought up, We met again only on Facebook. No, there is no family feud, no property dispute between parents or no estranged relationships between sisters in law. This is because of a feud of different kind. A much larger one in magnitude and impact.

We were both born in 1974. She in Karachi to her migrant father and mother and I in Gorakhpur to my non-political father and educated nationalist mother. When my father's sister who is Sobia's mother grew up to be on the wrong side of 20 my grandmother who had now been a single parent for 14 years became more than desperate to see her daughter settled in matrimony. Her efforts to find a suitable match for Sobia's mother were marred by the down-slide in the family's financial status which had tumbled on multiple accounts a la losing my grandfather in 1948 who left her a widow with 10 offspring in age group 35 to 4 of which eight were her own and two were from his three previous marriages (his wives had not survived each other and were taken one after another), losing rural property due to abolition of the zamindari and losing urban property to the custodian as some of her step sons had migrated to east or west Pakistan.

Those days news traveled slow. A long exchange of letters amongst various family members on both sides of the border resulted in my grand mother's nephew in Karachi offering to marry his aunt's daughter. The proposal was so tempting that no body dared to say the word Pakistan and war and Visas and borders. Though they all knew that this newly wedded bride will not have as many chances to visit her parents as any other normal bride would. 

So what happened next in the fifty year marriage of this aunt of mine was that she was hardly there at our Gorakhpur home for any festivals or weddings, none of her five children were born under her mother's care - which is the usual custom specially for the first born - (I was born at my nani's house and my children were born at theirs), and neither could any one from her paternal and maternal family be by her side to console her when her husband died young nor could she come to see her mother or elder sister one last time at their death beds.

The dread with the words of Pakistan, war, visa and border intensified.

We made all attempts to keep in touch. By exchange of handwritten snail mail letters, gifts whenever possible and sending wedding invitation cards and wedding albums. The invitations were sent without any expectations of being honored. They were more of a piece of information than a wedding invitation and some times reached the recipient much after even the honeymoon was over.

Nevertheless, the most awaited parcel was that of photo albums. They came mostly with some traveling family member or friend whose baggage of travails was also to be discerned with. Each picture on a 3X5 photographic plate neatly arranged on a modest picture album or stacked in a sturdy envelope. They were held by everyone in turns. first seen from the front, then from the back for the who's who hand scribbled in Urdu. Usually the reference point was an uncle or an aunt who was popular enough to be recognized by all or who was grown up enough at the time of migration. Every ardent observer followed the same steps. First giving the cursory looks to the faces on the front, then reading the info on  the back and again turning to the front for a closer observation. Matching the colors of dresses and height and gender and the left or right position. In these pictures backgrounds and places were never important. The faces were. Because they were one of our own. Because we shared the same blood. Because we wanted our spatial segregation not to matter.

One can guess, that this must be happening with the albums we sent to the other side of the border. Pictures of family events had to be in sets of two. The other one on the Pakistan shelf of my father's closely guarded steel closet from Godrej. One leisurely holiday afternoon the family got together to mark the who's who on the back side of the picture plates. Someone with a good Urdu handwriting was preferred to do the job but care had to taken in phrasing and rephrasing the info so as to avoid confusions for the onlookers. They were in a distant land, a foreign country moreover a nation with acrimonious status but they were our own people. They had a right to be affected and draw a conclusion if for instance the lady in a brown sari at my engagement was my husband's mother or his aunt. And they had a right to know. We were obliged to share because we wanted time and distances not to bury our blood relation.

So this sister of my father, after her wedding in 1962, was taking her own sweet time settling in her new life and could not lift her head to think of coming to her mother's house when the 1965 war broke. She was held up and meanwhile had a couple of children all of whom no body back home could see. However, longing for the whiff of home air and giving a feel of the same to her children she tried hard and came for the first time seven years after her marriage. I remember seeing her first in 1979 with her five children. She had tried hard after the Visa sanctions during the 1971 Bangladesh War and secured passage. In this war we had lost many relatives in the transfer from east to west Pakistan. That is another story, to be told later.

Sobia and I were both four years old and found a playmate in each other as soon as we met bleary eyed in the wee hours of the morning that they arrived. The whole compound of houses which belonged to relatives only, had stayed up the night waiting for them to reach. The train they took from Delhi to Gorakhpur was late as usual and the menfolk had stood at the railway platform waiting patiently. I had been hearing so much of Sobia from everyone that I was almost waiting only for her as if she was coming alone.  Probably the elders had expected that due to same age-group we will gel together.

They were right. We clicked immediately. Our initial inhibition was shed as soon as the crying stopped. Yes crying. My grandmother had long since taken to the habit of crying at the very mention of this daughter of hers who was married in Pakistan for the sheer pain of separation. It was written in her face that she longed to see her much more often. So instead of the anticipated cheer and mirth at meeting loved ones, when our elders met after this long in such a situation, they held each other tight, locked up in close embraces, buried their heads in each others shoulders and cried. The cliche 'tears of happiness' does not imply here. These were tears of another kind. They signified pent up tensions, fears, agony, longing and relief. But also an impending parting very soon as this meeting of a month or two depended on the visa duration.

Days flew by. Sobia and I ran on the plains, rolled in the mud and giggled endlessly. Together we ate and drank and slept and played pranks. We did all those things otherwise forbidden, had Sobia not been such a precious guests. She was told all the stories anyone knew in the family, the family folklore was transferred to her and the basic Mohammedan-oriental values of our clan were imparted to her. She was shown the old black and white albums with my grand father's pictures. Attempts were made to let all this sound sacred to her. She could recognise many faces in  these old albums of pre partition era. These were our relatives, who were now living as muhajirs in Pakistan. 

Like us she was also climbing trees to grab the freshest fruit possible. We taught her to vie for the guava half eaten by the parakeets as they knew better which ones are sweeter. Like us she was also dead scared of entering the cellar in the back yard where dry fuel wood was stored as we believed in rumours of the djinns making them their abode.  Like us she was also spending all her time in the large courtyard occupying the central place in the main house of my father where there were a world of activities to perform in all seasons and at all times. 

My grandmother tried to treat Sobia and her siblings with all the delicacies in her repertoire. We were invited to numerous Dawats (banquets) in the city and we too hosted quite a few. Gifts big and small were laden over my aunt. She was also approached with requests for carrying parcels to Karachi from people whose relatives lived there. Some parents and children and some siblings had been parted from each other in the after math of partition and wanted to keep the connections alive with these small exchanges of gifts. They were being in educated about the family tree. They were being introduced to all the relatives. 'Look beta, this baji is your mother's such and such' or this bhaijan is your mother's such and such'. She abided by every 'Inhe Salam kariye beta'. How much she could absorb of the complex relationships was no body's guess as she had just opened her eyes to the world of her maternal family.

Lo and behold. Before she could process what she was being told and before she could crystallize the knowledge imparted, that day arrived for which there were hushed talks. It was a fine morning and usual too except that my father was taking the six of them - his Pakistani guests to the local police station. Just as they had reported their arrival in Gorakhpur, they had to report their departure too. From the Indian Embassy in Pakistan they had come on a Visa of one city only. All relatives in cities in the vicinity had come to see them. My aunt and her children had remained in the city like captives. Now that she was leaving with her five minor children, she had to give an undertaking at the Police station that she will leave the city today, go no where else except the port of dis-embarkment that is Delhi and that she will leave the country as soon as she reaches there.

The crying was replaced by wailing. As she left with another five pair of glistening eyes, no one knew when will we see these people again. 

I never met Sobia again. An occasional picture of hers told something about her. She had to wear salwar kameez and a neatly folded and pinned dupatta for her school dress in grade IX. While I continued with my skirt and blouse in the all girls convent my parents sent me to. I could see she grew up to be shorter stubbier and stout which made her look older in her plain Jane haircut. I could wear my hair short and feathery despite some conservative family members' objections but I did not care. Then we saw each other's wedding photographs. Her groom wore a salwar and peshawari with his sherwani. Mine was in a simpler Aligarhi Pajama and Jaipur Nagra with an M. Hasan Sherwani. He makeup was more garish, jewelry heavier and Gharara more stylish. I hated heavy make up, hid my jewelry and was casual about my Gharara.

We were growing up and growing apart.

Though my aunt did make a few visits after that 1978 visit, but none with her five children. The first visit was after a gap of 22 years. A lot had changed in these two decades. She came alone and to avoid the fanfare, did not inform many people. I had relocated to Aligarh by that time and specially went to Gorakhpur to see her.  It had been over a decade since my grand mother's death but she slept in her bed, in her verandah and often we heard soft sobs. She was braver this time and came to Lucknow with me. On her return when she came to Delhi, I went to receive her there and put up with her at my uncle's place. This time we took her around. She was enthralled to see the Raisina Hill, India Gate and Rashtrapati Bhavan. Tried to compare with Islamabad but could not. We helped her board the Samjhauta Express at Purani Dehli Railway station. I did not ask much for Sobia. We were off each other's radars by now.

My aunt's third visit in my living memory was a few years ago. She came to see her home, her birth place and her folks once before she thought her end comes. This time I could not see her as I was abroad but took her details from everyone back home. She was old, frail and kind of demented. She had come bequeath her portion in my grand father's property to my father. According to Indian Law she had lost her claim to her inheritance at the choice of being a Pakistani. But according to Islamic Law, nationality did not matter. Her right to her dukhtari was protected. My father offered the more practical way of paying for her portion. She accepted. 

Her end was not as close as she deemed it to be. She is living an octagenarian with her children in Karachi. Although more demented, she calls my father and mother in those short spans that she is in control of her memory. I don't have her number and she never calls me but I keep hearing of her from my parents. She seems too tired of her struggles alone. In foreign land she has brought up five children without her husband and could never ask for help from her family. No one says that, but everyone knows that we will never again be able to see her. She has almost lost the desire to take up arduous travels and we are too engrossed with our lives to go to the godforsaken country to see an ailing old aunt who takes pride in her collection of saris in Pakistan.

So this summer vacation of 2016 when I went to Gorakhpur on a routine exercise of taking my children to my parents house, I posted a picture of my house because my father had the names of my sister and me too engraved on the granite name plate outside our gate, with the caption that 'as many as we can build, there can be many houses at addresses round the world, but only one house where you can come back to your roots', I was surprised when one Sobia Ayaz commented that she remembers the amrood, djinn wali kothri and angan of this house. Who on Facebook could know the innards of my house inside out without my ever posting them? I took no time in checking and it took no time in revealing that this was Sobia, the sister I never had. Our common friends were our relatives and the next moment we were Facebook friends too.

I expressed my happiness at reconnecting through the house where we had lived like sisters some 35 years ago. She was awestruck by my memory. I referred to the Urdu couplet:

Yaad e maze aaab hai ya rap
Koi chheen le mugh se hafzah mera

(The memories of the past are torturing me My Lord
Could some one take away my power of retention)


I said to her that 'these memories of the past are a torture now, still I do not ask God to take away my power of retention'. (yeh yaad e maazi hi to azaab hai, magar main hafzah chain jane ki due bhi nahi karti. She said she remembers very and I stimulated her with hailing the am rood ka bagh, lakri wali kothri and angan which are all still the same. She will find them where she had left in the same coordinates and more or less the same condition. Only thing that has changed is our people. The elderly have died, our elders have become elderly and we are grown ups. Now our children are doing all those things we did. (Sirf kuchh buzurg nahin rahe, kuchh bare buzurg ho gaye our hum bare ho gaye. Ab who saw kuchh jo hum karate the, hammer bache kart hain).  


Both of us are of the opinion that she should come to Gorakhpur with her children to trace her origins, her roots and build a sense of belonging lest the bloodline diminishes. But we both know that will probably never be.  


   

Saree paradise of the South :pothys

When I first went to Pothys in Madurai - anyone in Tamil Nadu would swear by its collection of saris and the stupendous shoppers experience it gives - I had no idea what all a sari shop can be. After all the north Indian woman is always inferior to her South Indian sister when it comes to loyalism and panache for saris. Yes, it is the national dress of India but we in the north give it up more easily for the more casual and comfortable salary kameez or the trousers and tees these days. But our dusky sisters down the Vindhyas have held Forte doing all the house hold chores in the elegantly draped 6 yards of sheer creativity. Even the smart madras girl plying between workplace and home is seen deftly hopping in and out of busses, squeezing through the inconvenience of green autos and rushing across red lights in her neat plates, set pallu on her bosom fragrance wafting from the fresh veni pinned on to her thick black braided mane overflowing probably from a head that's supposed to be brainier too.

My hosts in Madurai, teachers from a women's degree college in the pristine Hills on the outskirts of the temple tiwn, showed off the mind blowing variety of saris at Pothys as probably I would show of the Taj mahal to her when she visits Agra. They put an extra stress on S when they said S-I-L-K and I could only pop my eyes out at the pleasant fabric. That is where I came to know about the longer sari worn by women in puja which is probably 9 yards. In fact I picked it up for my collection but am yet to wear it. I could not get over that visit to Pothys as I was short on time and also lacked the financial planning for a serious purchase.

Belonging to the land of the Ganga and Jamuna I had grown up listening about the must have Benarasi saris in every woman's trusseau. In fact my parents and in laws were kind enough to have ticked this box for me two decades ago but I was uninitiated to the status of a kanjiveram sari in an Indian woman's collection. My hosts told me that they called it Pattu and every one of them had these proud possessions.

So the after a few months when I planned to come to Chennai on an official visit to the hundred year old New College on Peter's Road in Royapettah locality I had made a silent prayer to be able to have the time and circumstances to finally lay my hands upon a Kanjiveram. When I told my host in Chennai about my interest in textile and ethnic fabric he nodded to his wife talking on Tamil of which I could only fathom the word - Pothys! He said it is an ocean of saris.

When I did reach the largest Chennai showroom in Chennai - yes, my hostess said there are countless branches of Pothys in Chennai, I did agree it is an unfathomable ocean even if I had spared the entire evening for buying my first kanjiveram. It is kanchipuram as they display it there and it has many names - vasundhara pattu, samudrika pattu and parampara pattu are just a few of them. There I learnt that Saana is also a name of a type of silk - so far I had seen only tussar, jute, matka and raw silk, no wonder that they were all there at the classified counters of Pothys. The counters are not only classified according to the type of sari they offer but also the range of price. If there are a zillion colors on earth I am sure they were all there and if you have a lifetime of wearing and buying saris the days will be short to wear them all.

Every nook of the 7 floor showroom was bustling with customers yet there was no chaos. For this the credit goes to fine management at the showrooms. Large king size mirrors every where, courteous salesmen all wearing the Chandan tika on forehead and a strictly no bargain policy give a smooth shopping experience. Every one at Pothys seems to be knowing the right thing to do in minimum words.  Cash counters are numerous on all floors, one separate section for packaging is there and some men are constantly engaged in tying knots to the silk threads that hang loose after a customer has bought the sari and the blouse has been separated from the distance end. All this with very little words and too much precision so that there is never a mix up. They display on mannequins is attractive and the salesmen are quick to fold and re  stack the unfurled saris after a customer has made a selection. Imagine they have young girls employed only to help the customer drape the sari round her and assess how it would look on wearing.

That is not all, Pothys is a complete sari solution. They have umpteen designer blouses, fancy tassles, buttons, embellishments and laces to decorate the blouses and all matching petticoats in all colors and sizes possible. If you like their stitched version it all for you but if you are like me, looking for a more bespoke version, please select from the thousands of spools of running fabric in the basement.

They try to make shopping every inch a pleasure. You are greeted with veni sellers outside so you can walk in with a handful of fragrant Jasmine. They have traditional flower arrangements with rose petals in scented water standing in huge stone hauz where there are cushioned stools for the tired husband while the wife just can't have enough of Pothys. Also for children to be busy and not disturb moma while she is on the prowl getting spoiled by the choice at Pothys there black wooden elephant statues decorated with gold armor to amuse the kid. The little one smiles when daddy clicks his picture with this majestic object.

The success of Pothys has many more factors behind. Clean rest rooms on each floor, large glass capsule elevators landing on the water work in the ground floor and tea, coffee and cold drink stalls where unlimited supply is maintained regardless of whether you are buying or not, are just a few of them.

Thank you for the wonderful experience pothy. Appreciate your sincerity, Innovation and rooted culture.

Hate mongering about Kashmir on social media: is it enough?

It fascinates how liberals respond to trolling on social media specially about Kashmir when soldiers die in militant attacks. Kashmir is, has been since 1947 and will forever be a disputed territory between India and Pakistan - unless sincere, mature and mindful moves are made by politicians of both countries as well as J&K to resolve the Kashmir issue. A living testimony to this is that a part of Kashmir is not under Indian control and no one has ever done anything to bring it back despite some wars with Pakistan.

Anyone who contests this by saying that Kashmir is an integral part of India needs to read history better. Un-fortunately, non-partisan and dispassionate analysis of historical works on Kashmir exists in English and the Bhakts have still a long way to go before they master English. Moreover, where do they have the time to do some serious reading when the motives of their demagogues are being served by jingoist comments, bantering on social media and chest beating in 'paan ki dukan' chhap un-parliamentary language full of low innuendo, double entender and even unsavory hurling of abuses.

Needless to say that the vested interests focus on securing the vote banks by dividing a sentimental nation on lines of religion and region. They may not have learnt English from the British but have learnt their policy very well.

I wonder what does this 'bharat Mata ki jai' crowd closing fists in the air envision as a final refrain to the vicious cycle of killings in Kashmir? Any sane individual is equally pained at the martyrdom of an innocent Indian soldier just as much as at the brutal killing of a 15 year old Kashmiri civilian succumbing to pellet gun injuries. Neither the army covered under AFSPA is parsimonious nor the common Kashmiris' patience with three decades of armed occupation of their streets, muhallahs and bazaars is unquestionable. Both are human and weak in the flesh.

So will a genocide in the valley give Kashmir back to India without any claim of separatism and militancy? Or an invasion of the PoK to facilitate a reunion between Kashmiris on both sides of LoC? Or a carpet bombing of all four states of Pakistan - a nuclear power, to achieve the utopia of Akhand Bharat?

Does it all come without a cost? The Indian armed forces are fighting a battle in Kashmir and in any battle there is loss on both sides. 100,000 Kashmiris and  100s of security personnel have died in the blood bath of militancy and native Kashmiri Pandits have been displaced - to the avail of no national good. Ghetto like settlements for Kashmiri Pandit families is all that the government is promising them after years of exile. Don't they deserve better in their own homeland?

So will the bhakts now start enrolling for the army leaving their cushy corporate chairs? Will all the Indian American Modi fans cheering for  him at the Central Park in New York city come back to India and fight with Pakistan? Will all the politicians now go to the border without their Z security covers and pick up the gun in the holy war?

Difficult to answer eh?

OK give me just one objective answer. It's easy. How Many Indian politicians' sons are in the Indian army, navy or air force? How many of their daughters are married to captains and generals?

It takes a law like the RTI to get that sort of data and it was not gifted to the nation by the RSS but by liberals in the Civil society who understand the nuances of public good and the plight of the Indian masses. Meanwhile consider this: infighting suits them -  politicians on both sides, so that they enjoy life and keep the public consciousness diverted from the real issues.

If a well read journo, thinking film actor, or a condescending writer is worried about intolerance, killing of stone pelting civilians and beef vigilantes it's worth more than a mock or a scorn by an anonymous coward on social media who will not even reveal his true identity and location. Liberals have an Idea of the past, they have not swallowed the sugar coated bitter pills of hate campaigns given by political hate mongers and they are concerned about the future of their beloved nation. They are Patriots if not nationalists.

Liberal journalists are not journalists like Arnab Goswami who merely sit in studios and pass verdicts high on the  singular merit of decibel. They are highly educated and active liberal Indians who travel across the length and breadth of their country to intermingle with its mind boggling diversity of peoples and understand their view point.

Liberal actors are not actors like Gajendra Chauhan who after dishing out flops over flops become jesters for the ruling government and occupy positions of power they do not deserve by any claim to contributions for the performing arts. They are hardworking self made artists who have the caliber of raising millions of rupees in aid funds for relief of tsunami hit people when they move a leg in a charity concert.

Liberal writers and scholars are not like Chetan Bhagat who are reduced to writing paeans for the king after having wasted public funds over their subsidized education in world class IITs and IIMs. They are writers and intellectuals with a heart and mind brave enough to follow their dreams of changing the world with the power of their pen. They bring international awards and accolades. They bring respect to country.

Yes, the Kashmir issue is complex. It needs a multi layered treatment too. Simplistic 'do or die' rhetoric, us Vs them jingoism, heroic nationalism and shifting the blame conveniently to the other - read punching bag (Pakistan) in this case, is unfortunately what is signified by hate mongering on social media. But even more troubling is the fact that this proposes no durable and long-lasting solutions in near future.  Hitler had his fiery speeches laced with such identity based inspirations for ovsrzealots to Nazi Germany. Rest is history.

Autonomy to a unified Kashmir, delinked with Laddakh and Jammu under a confederacy with the sharing of the triumvirate - India, Pakistan and Kashmir is what C  Raja Gopalachari had proposed in the 1950s. This famous 'Raja ji formla' ironically is buried in the annals of history as it serves no one's vested interest and promises a win win situation. Had Nehru, Gandhi, Ambedkar and Sheikh Abdullah lived together and longer this may have been achieved.

Anyhow, Manmohan Singh regime did achieve some years of cease fire and peace in the valley by his vision of a 21st century SAARC in which borders would become meaningless.

Sadly, post July 2016 in NaMo's India we have receded 10 steps backwards. The past of wars, penury and suffering may again become our present if we fail to learn from the past.

Today Kashmir is not about settling scores. It's about moving on with as little baggage of history as possible.

Many hues of the green learning spaces at AMU

The Many Hues of the Green Learning Spaces at AMU

By

Faiza Abbasi

A lot can happen in a garden, lawn, woods or just some scrub wilderness. Imagination

knows no bounds when the receptive minds of inquisitive students, scholars and teachers look out from a classroom, lab or library opening to greenery. More rewarding is a reflective walk or an informal rendezvous in the green learning spaces of the Aligarh Muslim University. 

Ensconced in the over one thousand acre of the sprawling AMU campus, its heritage buildings and state-of-the-art educational facilities stand tall. What sets it apart from the rest of the city is the vastness of space and plain featureless land between concrete monoliths; where nature finds a playground and the academic community a respite to reflect and grow.

It is neither a Shanti Niketan with most activities in the open nor a Mughal Garden regimented enough for entry timings enforcing a closure for most days of the year. The AMU campus is a happy mix of nature in its myriad manifestations. From the difficult to pronounce botanical names like Casuarina equisitifolia and Erythrina vareigata painted on square tin plates nailed to the trees, to the indigenous varieties like babool and khejri, the AMU grounds have it all to soothe the soul. 

Herbal and medicinal plant cultivation of the Ajmal Khan Tibbiya College for their Dawakhana and the Botanical Gardens of the AMU Fort and the Prince of Wales Botanical Laboratory known as the Botany Dept., have exotics owing their existence to the careful plant breeders. In the manicured lawns of the Gulistan-e Syed, VC's and PVC's Lodges the hedge heights are meticulously calculated to golden proportions and flowerbed distances are measured to precision. The slightly unkempt gardenia of the Faculties, Offices and Halls of residence boast of some ornamental plants, occasional patches of bushy overgrowth and countless mighty trees having stood the test of time. 

April and May in north-India are notorious for the heat and the scorching sun but one look at the skyline of the main University road suggests that the sun has just entered the spring equinox. The bare lifeless branches of the trees during fall are replaced with green foliage and flowers of all colours. The many Gulmohar trees near the Arts Faculty are adorned with their red flowers and Amaltas trees lower their branches with yellow bells creating the famed golden showers. Complete with the lilac and purple crowns of the Jacaranda it actually signifies fertility, growth and life much needed for an academic institution.

With this first burst of summer, the Duck Pond at the T-junction Park, where the main road bifurcates towards the Engineering Faculty and Computer Centre is on the verge of drying up but the blooms rupture colours. Early morning and evening walkers are greeted on the side-walks lined with seasonal plants. One can cast a gaze beyond the lawns and the timber stands near the Education Department and almost touch the clustered flowers in the hanging inflorescence of the tall Fishtail Palms on both the sides of the road.

This is also when the moths and butterflies feast in the orchards of the AMU Fort and the bees are busy drinking up the blossoms. Be it Holi, the festival of colours or the solar new year celebrated as nauroz by sprinkling petals, communities with roots in peasantry, the world over indulge in festivities marking the joys and prosperity of a new harvest. A riot of colours in the expanses inundated with flowers - petunias, cosmos, marigold, sweet peas, pansies, calendulas, asters, verbenas, nasturtiums, geraniums and what not; near the Dental College, Bab-e Syed and the Victoria Gate Nursery are just in time to party with spring.

Students sipping a late evening tea outside the kiosks near the Training Placement Cell and Canteen make merry, chat, poke fun at and swear in pollen laded air. The crisp freshness of each breath invigorates discussions and revitalizes ambitions for success in future. The stark white jasmines emanate fragrance for the moths to pollinate them but their aroma gladdening the nostrils, fills romanticism in the scholarly life of the young people who will forever be enchanted with the memories of their pleasant days at Aligarh. 

Here, a team of writers, speakers, actors, singers, debaters and musicians of the various co-curricular clubs of Cultural Educational Centre surcharged with the creative energies straight out of the Kennedy Hall may stumble upon a group of students huddled around their plant Taxonomy Professor studying the buttress roots of the line of Arjuna trees outside the Maulana Azad Central Library.

The hot winds during the day do not just bring dust and particles of white sandy soil called Reh in the vernacular for which Aligarh is even documented in the Colonial Gazetteers. Small black cotton seeds frayed up in soft white filaments from the Semul (red silk cotton tree), aromatic Baur (mango flowers) from the orchards near the Sir Syed Nursery not destined to be ripe mangoes in summers, and the winged chilbil (nut of Indian elm tree), light as feather travel afar on the wafting breeze. 

The guava and jujube trees in the Naqvi Park and the University farm lend their fruit to humans be it the contractor of the harvest or the gangs of marauding local children dodging the sleepy watchman. Come summer-monsoon and a fresh offering of mangoes and jamuns in the stretch between the Art Gallery and the Geology Dept. is the bone of contention between the rightful owners and the intruders.

Not that these green spaces of flora come with no surprises from the fauna. The age old Nullah near the Allama Iqbal Hall can spring up a white-breasted water hen walking in the reeds. A massive roosting phenomenon can be observed on any setting day at the electric wires near the railway line behind Habib Hall. The Hariyal (Yellow Legged Green Pigeon) fabled for its inability to feed on the ground is seen foraging in hundreds on the Mulberry trees of the Chemistry Department lawns. The Eucalyptus and Ashoka trees planted for cover are a nesting site for the Pariah kites and Mynas.

Camouflaged in the high but dense crowns of the thickets with intermingling dhak (Butea monosperma), sheesham (Delbergia sissoo) and neem (Azadirachta indica) trees the Grey hornbill makes a swift but suave flight gliding from one cover to another. A close look reveals its long kinked neck and bright eyes shining through the brown sticks. The Koel sings sweet through the morning and the Faakhta (Laughing Dove) laughs on the desolation of the day. Sunset is marked by the cackling flocks of egrets returning to nests. Rubbing shoulders with its winged mates on the trees is the tiny squirrel, often darting on the roads, grabbing a fallen fig to nibble at after climbing back with agility, to its cosy comfort of the twig high up.

While the girls hostels in Abdullah, Sarojini Naidu and Indira Gandhi Halls are specially frequented by our closest primates - the menacing rhesus monkeys, whose squeals are responded to by the frenzied shrieks of the inmates, animal encounters also leave happy memories. The last minute exam preparations in the early mornings are carried out in the open to avoid the other room-mates busy with usual make-up and music. It is considered auspicious for the candidates' performance to spot a peafowl. Though, its long meoooow call is a regular haunting memory for every inhabitant of the hostel from day one. On a luckier overcast day, one might see the peacock in a nuptial dance raising its pheasant tail to display its male fitness to a lek of peahens around.

Towards the outer periphery of the campus where the humble gardeners pay less attention, rough country has a better chance to prosper. Moving towards the Faculties of Law and Agriculture across the railway crossing near the Begum Sultan Jahan Hall a jackal might be seen sneaking through the fence in the dark or a monitor lizard may be discovered stupefied by sunlight trying to scale a wall using its firm grip. The calm and peaceful residential colony around the J.N. Medical College, one day throws a spectacle of a checkered keel-back snake stiff with stress under the attention of the selfie-mongers unaware of its venom-free fangs, on the other a mongoose emerges from the undergrowth entering a drain to reach its burrow. 

In summers and monsoon as darkness lowers its pall, the lapwing lets out a shrill call from the sporadic shallow pools and there are torch flies emitting light from their sooty bodies in the secondary scrub vegetation around the Viqarul Mulk Hall. During winters most of this animal life is hibernating but the AMU community comprising staff and students is often out soaking in the sun, smelling the roses and swivelling with the sunflowers. Shadows lengthen on the salubrious lawns glistening in the winter sun as it traverses the sky concluding a short cold day.

Asrarul Haq Majaz appropriately termed the AMU a chaman (Garden) for its bulbuls (aka students) when he penned the Tarana (Anthem) for the University during his hostel days. Walking barefoot in the pristine lawns of the Founder’s Residence which houses books on and by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and his personal belongings; feeling the soft velvet grass under the feet - sometimes oozing dew, sometimes damp under the gentle drizzles of the sprinkler irrigators; the background is lit up by warm glows of floodlights on the newly constructed red brick structure of the K A Nizami Centre for Quranic Studies in fine medieval architecture; and the Quranic promise of a paradise with gardens beneath which rivers flow, comes alive.

To the gardens of AMU a humble tribute from a learner in the words of Urdu poet Andaleeb Shadani:

            Shafaq, dhanuk, mehtaab, ghaTaen, taare, naghme, bijli, phool

            Us daaman mein kya kya kuchh hai, woh daman haath mein aye to

شفق،دھنک،مہتاب،گھٹایئں،تارے ، نغمے،بجلی ،پھول

اس دامن میں کیا کیا کچھ ہے،وہ دامن ہاتھ میں آئے تو

            (Evening twilight, rainbow, moon, clouds, stars, songs, light, flowers

            What all is there in that hem, may that hem come in the reach of hands)