Noteworthy

Dear cricket fans,

First let me apologize for the dismal performance of the team at the World Cup. We take full responsibility of the defeat. We understand your frustration at the team’s exit in the first round and especially at the loss to Bangladesh but you see we had no option. The loss to Bangladesh was planned because the Indian Government struck a deal with the Bangladesh that if it allows its team to lose this match then the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants,spread across length and breadth of India, would be accepted back. Plus there was lot of pressure from the ICC to make Bangladesh win as it has been so many years since it was granted test status.

The loss to Sri Lanka was to ensure that Bangladesh qualify for the super 8. We understand the humiliation at losing to Bangladesh but imagine the economic advantage that India stands to gain after these immigrants are taken back. We are patriots and we believe in sacrifice of our beloved things for the betterment of the country as a whole. Actually the government was really concerned about the human rights violation of these immigrants stationed in West Bengal, especially after Nandigram incident, so our PM made special request to the team to leave their private desires and sacrifice for the good of the country.

We also have some good news for you all. World Cup 2011 has been awarded to India! It will be a Indo-Pak final at the Eden Gardens. (The official sale of tickets begin in 2010 but you can book in advance through our back channel). Just to avenge the setback to our egos, India will play Bangladesh in Dhaka and defeat it by a margin of 200+ runs.

We are highly committed in making the World Cup win in 2011 genuine, so here is the masterplan-

1. Sachin will stay till 2011. We are planning to burden him again with the captaincy.

2. Rakhi Sawant will be our team ambassador. With her bouncers, she is incharge of ensuring the defeat of the mighty Australians. We might also hire Mallika Sherawat to handle other teams.

3. Ads which were made for the world cup 2007 will be regularly shown to the team so as to keep their morale high.

4. Saurav Ganguly will be our new physiotherapist. This is to ensure that there are no protest rallies in West Bengal and the communist continue their support to the central government.

5. Other details like the coach and team composition will be decided will time. We are looking at the option of Nayan Mongia taking charge as the coach of the team. No more foreign coaches as they keep creating feud among different regions of the country. We want a desi coach who understands the Indian psyche. Plus we are really running short of cash because of early world cup exit, the government has promised to compensate but it will take a minimum 5 years for the government to accumulate the huge loss we have incurred, so an internal coach will suit our bill.

Till 2011 keep watching cricket! Please be our support in these times of distress. Lets share this sadness so as to console each other. In the meantime feel free to show off your skills

Yours and only yours,

The BCCI.

Picture for the TOI

Part 1 and Part 2

As far as I can remember the news about the Godhra incident starting flashing in the morning of February 27th. It was a period when the news channels were slowly coming up. Aaj Tak was growing great guns and so were Star News and Zee News. Doordarshan, government run channel, was pushed to the background by the private channels so that meant there were no censors in the news items. It was left to the discretion of the dudes from US/UK to decide what’s best for us. Aaj Tak got all the publicity because it was marketed as India’s own channel. So our own Aaj Tak started flashing images from the train carnage uncensored. The blame was put on Muslims as they fell to the taunts of the returning Kar Sewaks and eventually burnt the train. My first reaction to the news was my utter shock at this inhuman punishment meted out after slightest of provocations. Even though independent fact finding teams have refuted this earlier claim and label it is a part of larger conspiracy of the state government, I am not getting into conspiracy theories.

We still had the same BPL TV but had shifted to Hazaribagh. I was 19 and was busy preparing for IIT-JEE. My brother had his final exams starting in few days so we couldn’t have taken the risk for an excursion. Most surprisingly my paranoid mom was totally not concerned about the gravity of the situation; she just rubbished the news as yet another case of religious fundamentalism by the Muslims. Situation had changed by 2002 as Muslim terrorism was on rise, it had moved out of Kashmir and such incidents were on the rise. I think this could have been the reason for her not reacting as she did during Barbri Masjid demolition. No one anticipated the kind of barbarism that was to follow.

We all had our eyes fixed to the TV set as that was the only source of news. As news of mob rioting started to come in, my parents started showing signs of concern. The nearest Muslim dominated area was a couple of miles away and this was decided to be our abode if riots break out in our locality. We lived in a central government maintained colony as my father occupied a high position in the central electricity department. We were so intermingled with our neighbours that any such reaction could never  have been imagined in the wildest our dreams. We used to visit each other’s place on Holi and Eids. We had so many invitations on Holi/Diwali that my father used to have a tough time managing his commitments. Everyone from our driver to housemaid, who were all hindus, were already a part of our lives. Our old driver ‘Muni Singh’ was much more than a driver to us. He was the driver who drove my mom to the nearest hospital, which was 100 kms away!, when this ‘sensitive boy’ came to this earth. Could he come now to burn us alive?

We were overwhelmed by the response we got from our neighbours (there were just 3 muslim families in the colony). We were assured of our security in case rioters take to the streets. Hooligans were already preparing for a treat but the elders calmed them down. Its usually the junk of the society who takes to rioting; people who are jobless as this offers them a perfect opportunity to vent out their anger. Ever wonder why women suffer the most? Its because those perverts get an opportunity to convert their sexual fantasies to reality. Who is going to stop them and particularly when the state police is with them.

And then the inevitable happened. An ex-MP of congress, Ehsan Jaferry, was burnt alive with his family. His wife and other members survived because they managed to hide. This came as a big shock to us and definitely a cause of worry as we were also in a similar position as they were in. I really can’t think of the reason because of which we decided to stay back. May be because of assurances and the fact that riots didn’t start in our town. Thankfully there were no major incidents of riots elsewhere in the country. This image to the left was the most highlighted at that time. He is a tailor who ran away from Ahmedabad to Calcutta. This image was shot in Calcutta but notice the fear in his eyes and expectedly so! There were men being burned live in front of women and children. Women being raped in front of their children. I cannot even imagine the kind of mental trauma it would have generated in my mind.

The riots lasted nearly a month. TV images of ground realities melted our hearts. My hatred for the Sangh Parivar grew beyond bounds. I never spoke out a word against them to my friends but still the tension during the talks was apparent. A fanatic even called once to express his pleasure at Muslims being butchered, he termed that as revenge. All these incidents left me with no hope of surviving in this country. The child within me was dead long back and I was about to kill the youth in me. If Muslims in India are destined to this then there is no point in whining to the government. Can’t we have our own army? Why are those morons at the OIC quiet? The repeated riots have shown that the Indian government can’t protect us. India was slowly becoming alien to me. All these cynicism at just being a spectator to the riots on TV, imagine how prejudiced someone actually effected would be!

The last part of this series will talk about this prejudiced mindset among Hindu and Muslim youth.

My immature mind was already corrupted by this communal feeling. I often wondered if we too will meet the same fate as other Muslims who perished in the riots. My mother lost her cousin in the Bengali-Bihari riots in Bangladesh. She told me that her cousin could save her daughter as she hid her below her saari who was later rescued by the police. At least I now have a hiding place in case of emergency!

The demographics are completely different in Bihar, my home state. Biharis are completely against Bengalis and this animosity has triggered riots several times. Basically this animosity is fueled by lack of education among local Biharis, which leads to unemployment among the locals, and thus Bengali, being highly educated, dominate the job market.

Even though some of my best friends in school happen to be Hindus, I never talked to them about this controversial issue. I even thought that they, being children and definitely not as sensitive as me, would pay no heed to these frivolous, in their eyes, happenings around them. The period between 1992 and 2002 has been peaceful as no major riot broke out in the country. There few minor incidents; I was in my hometown Biharshareef. We were returning from Friday prayer and suddenly we could see stones flying all around us, we were under attack from the local Hindus who were angry at some political issue. It was scary. Few stones even hit me but we were still running. Within few minutes there was cross-pelting of the stones from the Muslims and things were then even. Police soon dropped in, thanks to Laloo’s able administration as far as containment of riots are concerned, to bring the situation under control. Such sporadic incidents plagued the country for years before 2002.

I left home after my 10th for a better school, which meant I had to live alone away from home for the first time in my life. And there I met a Hindu family which I will remember all my life for the care and affection they bestowed on me. I hate to categorize people based on their religion but as I am dealing with this cancer then I have to, sorry about that. One night few RSS workers came to my room, unaware that I am a Muslim, to distribute pamphlets for one of their gatherings in the city. I quietly listened to them and even let them paste one of their banners on the window pane. I wasn’t scared but wondered how they would have reacted if I told them that I am a Muslim. In the morning I saw uncle scrubbing off the banner from the window pane. My respect grew multi-folds for him. During my 2 years of stay there, I was known by the name ‘sunny’ and not my real name for obvious reasons.

I always tried to put aside this communal feeling and the tense atmosphere I was growing under because it would have further caused prejudice in my mind.  At times I used to feel victimized at being a Muslim in India. But those scars of 1992 were erased, at least from my mind, in the coming years. 

I will next talk about the Gujarat riots.

Winter was about to set it but the climate around Tube factory in Jamshedpur was still warm. I was playing with my brother on the veranda when mom called us inside. Doors were shut and all windows closed even though it was still not cold outside. We were pushed to the living room where Doordarshan was broadcasting news. It was quite unusual for DD to broadcast news in the evening but I soon found out why. Babri Masjid was being attacked my Kar Sewaks with unconfirmed reports that it has already been demolished. Even though at that age, 9 years, no one gives a damn about politics but I was born sensitive so was infuriated at a Masjid being demolished. Even though I didn’t know the names of RSS/VHP/BJP leaders but their continuous venomous speeches had made me realise that that they are ‘bad people’, at least for the Muslims (Fortunately Shahi Imam Bukhari was not a media darling at that time).

Everyone’s eyes were fixed to the BPL TV which we bought few months ago. We had the extra ordinary comfort of electricity supply for 24X7 free as my father is in the central electricity department but still that day extra care was taken to shut the lights off in other rooms. 4 of us were sitting in the room with my father looking through the Railway schedule. Finally news dropped in at around 8 in the night that Babri Masjid has been brought down. DD even showed images from the site where Kar Sewaks were on the top of the dome with their weapons, few ‘bad leaders’ claiming victory for Hindus and also calling it just a beginning. So that meant even the Mosque in Kashi and Benras were under threat.

My mom then told us that we are leaving for Puri tomorrow morning. We lived in area where these Kar Sewaks could easily walk in our house and take that BPL TV. Plus my mom told us later that the area on the other side of the Tube factory was cleansed of Muslim population in riots of 1979. Next day reports came in of riots breaking out in many parts of country. My school was closed so that meant I didn’t have to make excuses when it reopens. We left for Puri in the evening only to return back when the riots in the other parts of the country have calmed down. Why Puri? Well its a city of temples and there are few local Muslims! We had a nice trip roaming from one temple to another in the city tour sponsored by hotel we checked into. Our BPL TV was still there and things returned to normalcy in few weeks.

Being a sensitive child I learned a lot from the experience-

1. Names like Honey and Sunny don’t reveal one’s religion (this is what we were called on the trip to Puri)

2. There is someone called Mr. Togadia who hates Muslims more than he would have hated his girl friend after being ditched by her.

3. Muslims aren’t safe in India. They can be killed at will. Women can be made to lose there purity and most horrifically even the child in the womb of a pregnant women isn’t safe.

4. People can go to any extreme to impose their ideology on non-believers.

5. Congress cannot protect the rights of Muslims. (Late Shri P V Narshima Rao is soon to be a hated man among Muslims. No one celebrated when he died but no one expressed his sympathies either)

6. Muslims in India are aliens as we came to India via the lineage of Babar and hence our cleansing is as prerequisite as was that of the British to establish India as a world power to reckon with.

7. We have 60 or so Muslim nations so why do need India to live!

I slowly started feeling grown up. Suddenly the whole world seemed to be an entirely different place to me, it was now divided into compartments of Hindus and Muslims. Even though nothing happened at school but I occasionally heard conversations, of seniors, in which the riots were being discussed. I never said a word when I used to hear someone’s happiness at the Babri Masjid being destroyed but just swallowed this bitter pill without disturbing the lines on my face.

To be continued….

[Inspired by the movie 'Black Friday', review here ]