Will I, Won't I?

Watching Obama Inaugration yesterday, almost brought tears to my eyes.
Here was the burden of America's slave-trade history, it's civil war, it's assassinations of men like Lincoln & King Jr., being lifted. A moment not only for black people to celebrate, but also for white, yellow, brown & red people.
And to watch black & white people hold up Obama banners, Change banners & jumping for joy at the ceremony, simultaneously moistened my eyes, but lifted a weight off my chest.

How am I, so totally unconnected with the race issues of America, affected in such a manner by yesterday's historic event?
I know extreme-patriot, regionalist cynics will scoff and throw pseudo-nationalist jingoism my way, like, first become Indian, then anything else. I've never limited myself within any boundaries, or conformed, and I'm not about to do it now. I'm a human being first; and I identify with human issues everywhere!

Obama too spoke of a new World order. Of inclusiveness, of handshakes, of prosperity across the World! Indicating a sea-change in spoken approach to the USA's foreign policy.

I'm wondering if I can become India's Obama... Like him, I'm of mixed ethnicity, I'm exposed to multiple cultures. Like him, I'm well-educated. And well-brought-up. And passionate (about social, national, and world causes). And Inclusive! And I look up to Lincoln & Gandhiji. And I'm good-looking as well. I'm not yet 35. And I'm a fairly good orator as well.

The only problem is that I've let myself go a bit over the past few years. I haven't paid much attention to personal grooming, physical fitness, bowel movements, and have practically abandoned all manners.
I don't think I will be able to last an entire ceremonial day without farting out loud.
If I can overcome that one fact, I think I stand a fairly good chance!
And so does everyone else like me. So there is hope for our future. The only thing is we must believe in ourselves. And be the CHANGE we want to see! Even if it is as small as not farting out loud in public!

And HOPE!!!

Hope from India & around the Globe:

• Sri Lanka kicks total ltte butt!!! And so-called brave prabhakaran on the run!
• And a compliment from the Sri Lankan Army Chief for India!
• One set of terror suspects moving closer to trial.
• Another set beginning to crumble under mounting international pressure and celebrity clamour. India's squeezing strategy seems to be working despite the usual unqualified naysayers.
• Indian Prime Minister and India's Cleanest Politician, Dr. Manmohan Singh, in continuation of his transparency in public life ethic, personally renews his driving license without much protocol.
• And moist eyes & a doffed hat to men like Karambir Singh Kang. In today's times of corporate spinelessness, men like him give us HOPE.

More against War: Guruspeak

OK. Enough ranting by us mere mortals on how to avoid war.

Let's hear what the Pundits have to say.

Thanks to CAT for the link to this wonderful piece.

And of course I derive a sense of satisfaction on discovering that my humble views on a solution-oriented approach have such illustrious proponents. Dr. Aumann, here's a fan!

Rehman rules the Globe!

HE'S DONE IT!!!

Another Indian achievement on the Global stage worth celebrating!
An achievement in the here & now!
An achievement by a soft-spoken, peace-loving Indian (as opposed to ranting pro-violence losers)!

Here's to a Genuine Winner! A Real World Beater!

Ab isko kehte hain India Shining! ;-)

Ways & Means

Everyone seems to be talking about what we can do about the terror breeding on paki soil.

While some are sane voices, very rightly saying that war isn't an option, others are given to more passion than pragmatism.

I, as is my wont, like to provide multiple solutions. Some will say, more talk than action, but regretfully, that's the way things are these days.

And here's introducing a new blogger who has the mental range to suggest this, & blog about the voices of reason from the other side as well.

Edit: And since Israel in mentioned in one of the links, does anyone have any views on what they've been doing in Palestine over the last 2 days? Over 200 killed, and I saw a picture of a bleeding child being carried away from the scene in the papers today. How different is this from terrorism?

Your views?

Hope, Horror & Humour: some links from around the Blogosphere

Hope:

1. The final results of the American Presidential race are making me beam from ear to ear. Any guesses on what my views are on Barack Obama?

Well, aside from the fact that I feel immense black pride (despite my not being black) at this point; aside from the fact that I feel blown away by the fact that a member from among those who were considered an inferior race in America till a few decades back has today been picked to lead their country; aside from the fact that America today redeemed itself and proved that it's way ahead of us in being an amalgamated people; aside from the fact that he is of mixed race (a club I do proudly belong to) and that the fact made him acceptable instead of not-acceptable; aside from the fact that his birth-father wasn't American & that he spent some time growing up in Indonesia with his step-father, and none of that could stop him at all...!

I won't say much more as the sentiment of this truly historic moment has been captured beautifully by one of my favourite bloggers. She picks out some bits of Obama's acceptance speech that are wonderfully relevant to the India that we are today. I'll let you read it for yourself, but just one example of what will inevitably go on to become a quotable quote from Obama is:

a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and
Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.

(Reminds me of Al Gore's brilliant concession speech that I referred to in an earlier post. But this moment is about the future. About Obama.)

Indeed, like her, I too am very jealous of the Americans. When will we have a moment like this? When will our politicians talk in this refined tongue? When will they talk of unity instead of regionalism/religion? When will we redeem ourselves?

I'd also like to add this line that vindicates my faith in the power of one. One person started it all. One voice. One firm "NO". The line is from today's TOI: Rosa Parks had to sit for Martin Luther King to March. King had to march for Barack Obama to run. Obama had to run for our children to fly.

2. And in a much much smaller way, this conversation too gives me hope. Read from here onwards.

Horror:

My Maldivian brother Yaamyn, brings us this story that fills us with horror. Reading it made me shudder.

Humour:

Another blogger who is fast becoming one of my favourite reads, wrote this last month. I know it's a little late, but it made me laugh. I would like you all to find a little laughter in your day as well. Enjoy!

So what’s the way out?

OK! Enough exposes about who’s fault it all is. Let’s look at what can be done to improve the situation in Bombay & Maharashtra. These are a few of my suggestions. Please feel free to add to this list.

1. We need equally strong voices from the other side. And politicians won’t do as we’ve already seen. We need the citizenry to speak up. While a Medha Patkar is as usual one of the first to speak up, she is a lone voice.

Commenters like akki have provided links to wonderful people like Mahesh Vijapurkar, whose views deserve to be widely disseminated, read & understood. Kudos & my respects to these people.

We also desperately need the Palekars-Paranjpais-Natekars-Padukones-Tendulkars-Gavaskars-Vengsarkars-Prabhakars-Rajanikanths-Mangeshkars-Bhosales-Nikhil Wagles to speak up & be heard. They enjoy an immense support base. People all over India & Maharashtra look up to them. They’re Indias Gems! I’d urge them to speak up in the interest of keeping the people of this nation together.

Of course, they don’t have to. They haven’t done any wrong, they’re not the out on the street, bus burning type of Maharashtrians. Why should they be defensive & speak up? I understand that mindset totally. It’s the same mindset that Indian Muslims stuck to for a long time. “I’m not an extremist. Why should I be apologetic? Why should I say or do anything?” As we all saw, that because of the intense propaganda & generalized hate campaign against them, they had to abandon that stance & speak up. And I’m glad they did.

Because as Edmund Burke said: The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
And as Herr Albert Einstein himself said: The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.

Apparently education & exposure is no longer guarantees a mind free from misconceptions & bias, as yet another politician demonstrates again.

2. Now this one is bound to be controversial, but it’s one idea. If we don’t want more & more people to come into Bombay looking for livelihood & putting more strain on it’s infrastructure; stop creating more jobs in Bombay! No new jobs, no more migration!

Create jobs elsewhere. Invest elsewhere, develop other parts of the country.

3. Revive the Gandhian approach: We need more & more people to use Gandhian means of protest instead of the madness that is making India an increasingly unsafe place to live in. I read somewhere recently that the terrorist is a disgruntled nationalist, one who is at a total loss as to what options he has left to save his nation. Let more & more people know that they way is Sarvodaya & Satyagrah. Medha Patkar, Baba Amte & Anna Hazare are not enough. We need a huge mass of humanity speaking the language of peaceful means of protest! THAT habit is our only hope that will save us from people resorting to violence.

4. Educate the aforesaid politicians on World affairs. They’re all stuck up in state & nation issues. If they were more tuned in to World Affairs (or even HBO where I picked it up from!!!), these excerpts from Al Gore’s concession (to Dubya) speech would’ve hit home:

While we yet hold and do not yield our opposing beliefs, there is a higher duty
than the one we owe to political party. This is America and we put country
before party. We will stand together behind our new president…
… As for the battle that ends tonight, I do believe as my father once said, that no matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well as victory to shape the soul and
let the glory out.

Can our politicians not learn to put Country before Party? As far as I can see Gore Sr. was right. Al Gore may have been spared the ignominy that Dubya had to bear… of being called America’s stupidest Prez, among other things. Instead he will always be remembered as a Nobel Peace Prize Winner.

Thank you and good night, and God bless India. :-)

Musings on China

I haven't been fond of China ever since the Tiananmen Square massacre.
1962 happened before I was born & I only read about it later. Anyway I felt more anger at ourselves for losing that war rather then at the aggressors. This inward anger thing is strange.
Then I read about their invasion of Tibet. And I read stories of the Iron Curtain.
By this time I was sure I didn't like them, but since Tiananmen Square I have totally despised them.

I've joined in when people have called them commie bastards and have begrudged every success that they've been able to notch up in the economic arena. I have celebrated the one thing that we are better than them at, the BPO industry, although I don't know for how long we'll stay ahead, knowing them...
Their censoring of the press has rankled too.

When they won the Olympic bid, I wasn't too happy at the fact that they've stolen yet another march over us.
When there were protests in Tibet & in India over the Olympic torch, I felt happy. I was glad that someone else felt bad & was expressing themselves.
Now of course I feel bad that the world at large is recognizing this rogue country as a superpower.
I feel glad though that India is now being put on the same platform economically & geo-politically as them. And we have Dr. Manmohan Singh to thank for that! This man deserves a Bharat Ratna for the things he's done for India. I think posterity will give it to him. If I have my way I will!

I am glad that we're not seen as a rogue country the way they are & for that I am glad that extremists are not in power in our country. Events like gujarat & orissa are the Tiananmen Square equivalent in the eyes of the international community. Somehow we've escaped being viewed like them. Is it because we've majorly been neither rightist nor leftist but centrist?

Is there a lesson in this for us? Should we actively continue to toe the centrist, moderate line & consciously, aggressively avoid leaning over to either extreme? I think so.

Coming back to China, one must give them credit for what they've achieved.
Although, more research & opinions are required on the means & the quality of their output.
Their means I'm certain haven't been all good & their quality of goods has been a joke for quite some time.
I do hope the international community can find a way to put pressure on China to improve their human rights record. Maybe putting aside profit considerations for some time will help?

Citizens for Peace

Most regular bloggers & blog readers will know of Citizens for Peace.

Theirs is an honest, earnest attempt to use the resources at their disposal to give the peace-loving Indian a voice in these days of violence & madness.
Their site is loaded with essays & comments from modern day intellectuals and if you choose to visit them you will have lots to read.
I have linked to them in the past, and I should more often.

Here are two of their latest offerings:
http://citizensforpeace.in/blog/2008/08/27/why-shoot-the-messenger/
http://citizensforpeace.in/blog/2008/08/27/growing-up-plural-in-a-singular-world/

In the first one Ms. Azmi very eloquently takes on her detractors (unfortunately the mainstream media didn't carry this essay). An excerpt: "In the same interview that has become the subject of such mud-slinging, I have also stated that the Indian Muslim feels safer in India than elsewhere because he has a stake and a space in the country’s democracy...... That the time has come for Muslims to stop looking at themselves only as victims and do some soul-searching on the need for reform within the community. Why then does only one remark get pulled out of the interview and become the subject of such acrimony?"

Please read & pass on. Do spread the good word. :-)
And since this is a very relevant topic these days, here's Malavika Sanghvi on Kashmir.

A First for this Blog...!

In my various flights around the blogosphere, I met more vultures than doves flying around, more blind bats than wise owls.

Only recently did I serendipitously bump into someone who has the same pro-peace, proequality, humanist approach that I've had; the same well informed keen intellect & the same passion for fairness & justice to argue an unfair allegation as ardently as I do!

I've done the best thing I could do in the circumstances; add him as a contributor to this blog.

Ladies & Gentlemen, please welcome Yaamyn!!!

***APPLAUSE!!!***

Perceptive, Insightful, Discerning...

are all adjectives that I will attribute to myself henceforth.

Of the recommendations that I had made here, one was about the liberals using the media to get the truth out, to send positive messages out to the unknowing world at large.
And HERE is vindication that I was on the right track!!!
Read up about how Alyque Padamsee's brilliant brain is being put to nobler use than it had ever before!
Read about how people like Madni, Padamsee & Javed Anand exist. Rejoice at what they stand for & represent!
Read up about how it's to be done!

Demise of the Union...?

Looks like it. Unless all this has been going on for ages & I've just woken up to the news!

Take a look at some of the news over the last 2 weeks:

1. Amarnath Yatra Politics. Yes, politics. There's no other word to describe it. My friend has already blogged about it very accurately here.
2. Naxals getting stronger in Orrisa!
3. bal-t saying he's proud of an H-bomb!
4. The deplorable rise & rise of hindutva!
5. The deplorable rise & rise of Muslim fundamentalists!
6. Sikhs on the streets with swords among other transgressions!
And if you want to go a few months back...
7. Marathis on the streets bullying their fellow-countrymen!

So what is happening to the average Indian? Is he no longer an Indian? Is he Hindu/Muslim/Sikh/Marathi/gujarati/"whatever jazz" first these days? Is the Union of India finally breaking up?
Are "outside forces" causing India to come apart?
Or are "inside forces" causing India to fall apart?
Have we always been like this? Apart for the few years that Gandhiji led us as one in our freedom struggle?

Thoughts solicited from the moderate, centrist.

4 Movie Recommendations

I'm fairly picky about the movies that I watch & even pickier about the ones I like. Any regular reader of this blog will vouch for that. I am recommending 4 movies today for mass consumption. Movies that should probably be made mandatory viewing in India. Just like Sir Attenborough's Oscar winning classic has!

There is no order here, neither chronological, nor preferential.

Aamir:
A thriller worthy of Hollywood. The film starts off fairly innocuously and from there a series of events hurl the protagonist by the same name deeper & deeper into a web of conspiracy & deceit.
The film keeps the viewer feeling edgy all the time, due to the slowly unfolding nature of the subject, the mystery that refuses to unravel, and mainly due to the superb execution of the plot by the director!
Bombay has been grittily shot, realistic, teeming, buzzing, filthy. The glimpses bring memories of the city back to anyone who's stayed there for any decent length of time.
So, brilliant camerawork supports a great plot, a capable cast, and gives us a gritty, gripping thriller that stays with us even after we leave the movie theatre. Surely one of the best made thrillers to come out of India ever!

Dharm:
I haven't seen the movie yet, but my wife has & thinks it should be on a compulsory watchlist for all Indians, specially those who've gone over to the conservative side.

The Message:
Needlessly controversial, banned in many parts, this is a film in the tradition of the Ten Commandments & Ben-Hur, only not that dramatic. It is a representation of facts around the origin of Islam, only more reserved.
The film is a must watch for anyone seeking to dispel any popularly held notions about Islam, for anyone seeking answers about the religion and what it's message is.
Starring Anthony Quinn as Hamza, the warrior uncle of Prophet Mohammad, the rest of the star cast is a bunch of unknown (to us) names. The cast really isn't that important as will be clear when you watch the movie; the movie focuses on the history and the origins of Islam & The Message.
Watch it if you are desirious of developing any know-how about the religion at all.

The idiotic ulemas of the sub-continent and a few other people have made a very poor remake of the film called Al-Risalah. A totally unnecessary butchering of the original. Avoid it & go for the original "The Message. You local pirated DVD wala should be able to get you a good copy. Make sure you ask for a totally unedited one! One never knows these days!

Khuda Kay Liye:
Much talked about, much less seen movie. Although, without a doubt a syllabus recommended, compulsory viewing movie! So important is it's message!
The brilliance of the film is in it's theme, the characters essayed rather well by the cast (that includes our Naseer in a small but very crucial cameo), and to some degree the plot. I know many fans of the movie will disagree, but this is my opinion. Don't get me wrong. It's a good movie. A very important modern work! But the style is somewhat documentary. Not that that shold be a negative for any movie, but I'm a little biased towards Hollywood's style of movie-making. It's brilliant in patches, but stops just short of being overall brilliant!

The songs are quite a rage I hear. I'm not humming them yet, so I will reserve comment on that bit. The cast is good, the theme is brilliant. The movie succeeds in getting it's very worthy message across.

A word of caution here: DO NOT PICK UP PIRATED COPIES OF THIS MOVIE. I have heard that certain conservative elements have edited out the secular maulana's (played by Naseer) very crucial very enlightening speech towards the end!
Go to Planet M, pick up the original CD's from there. BETTER STILL, pick up an original DVD if possible as the subtitles will make it easy to understand the otherwise difficult Urdu.

A half-Muslim's view on how Muslims should be percieved

I'm half-Muslim. The other half is Hindu. While there were no overt attempts in the house to make me choose between either religion, there was exposure to both. Outside of the home, you didn't meet many Muslims and therefore the exposure outside the home was primarily Hindu. And thankfully we grew up celebrating all festivals in the house, and had Christian teachers in school, so there was an ample dose of Christianity thrown in.

I was raised by my Mother on Amar Chitra Kathas. (Uncle Pai therefore shares some of the blame for how I've turned out.) I read comics on Jesus Christ, Rama, Krishna, Hanuman, Buddha, Mahavir Jain, Guru Nanak, Kabir, Agastya, Ghatotkach and a truckload on Hindu mythology. I read loads about India's history, her invasions, her home grown kings, and Amar Chitra Kathas always presented an unbiased, usually positive viewpoint, the kind that kids should be exposed to.

I grew up accustomed to people marvelling at my knowledge of "Hindu" mythology, and other religions. I also grew up practically unaware of what Islam was about. Since my family didn't pay much attention to it, I was only aware of who the "heroes" of Islam were: The Prophet, Hazrat Ali & his martyred sons Imam Hasan & Imam Husain, and their clan.

As I grew older, I met more Muslims, relatives who didn't have the advantage of a Western education, who were amazed at how little I knew about Islam. They tried to impress upon me, how good the religion was, what it said etc. Unfortunately, I was in my teens & rebellious, saying emphatic NO's to everything. Also, these people were not exactly the best of teachers.

Thankfully my Grandfather was an erudite, liberal scholar. And his daughter, my Mother had learnt her Islam from him. So she chose to teach me about the progressiveness of Islam. I found that my Grandfather's interpretations of the religion were radically different from what the common Muslim knew & believed. My Mother taught me all about the history of the region where the religion originated and linked it to why certain things were expressed in a certain way in Islam. It made much more sense that way. Simple things like this: Islam considers Moses an earlier Prophet of Islam and his teachings are incorporated in the Quran. So "Thou shalt not kill" is an integral part of Islam.

The damage however had been done by then. I knew my family was different, but the image of the common Muslim in my mind was this: They're Islam obsessed. All they seemed to talk about was religion. If ever another topic came up, the answers were sought in Islam. And that bothered me. Until I realized that all over the World, people seek answers & direction from their religion. Why then did it seem to me that Muslims were more religions focused than other religious groups? That is something I am looking for an answer to.

With all the World attention on Islam & all the hate that spews out in blog forums & on the roads sometimes against it, I've been wondering if there is anything Muslims can do to clear the air. Here are some of the things that I think Muslims should/should not do:

• Educated, liberal Muslims should use media to clear the air about what the religion stands for. It should showcase the lives of Muslims like themselves using TV, papers, novels, films whatever i available. The common non-Muslim deserves to know what Islam really stands for. They must undo the damage that the conservatives have caused. A PR exercise is desperately needed.


• Muslim majority countries like Iran should lay off minorities like the Bahais. Educated Muslims should actively condemn Iran when it does something like this. Countries like Saudi Arabia should allow freedom of religious expression in their countries. Unless they're content to be knows as a hardline, conservative state. I as an educated, liberal, half-Muslim would be the first to condemn religious states!


• The Shia-Sunni divide needs to be bridged. This is easier said than done, but if the differences are irreconcilable, they should at least lay off each other. And guys like zakir naik should be condemned publicly if they mouth any hate.

Notice that I am not just saying "educated". I am saying "educated, liberal". There is a difference and that is the section in whose hands the image of Muslims worldwide lies today.

• The media doesn't seem to be helping on it's own. So there should be an active involvement with the media, a partnership that showcases the attitudes of people like Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Farooque Shaikh, the bin laden niece who made a magazine cover in America. People like Dinara Safina, Marat Safin, Sania Mirza & their parents.

I intend to do my two bits. This way while I can & more if I can later.

My mini-mission going forward is to impress upon each uber-conservative Muslim I come across, the importance of being as modern & liberal. And how it's important for their community to come across as that, if they're to contribute to solving the problems that face them today. I'm aware that most of them will take it as personal criticism & will react just the way I did as a teenager, but I must sow the seeds of the idea in their mind.

If you agree dear readers, please help me do the same. Please speak to every hardliner you come across & tell them to live their life as they would like their religion to be perceived. If they want to be viewed as progressive, educated, liberal, loving & peaceful, then they must be that themselves. Do spread the good word.

Another not so bad day...

29th May 2008:
News headlines again... Not so bad at all. Fairly encouraging.

The first one that caught my eye saddened my a whole lot. The Indian Express reported an MP minister as having said: "give quotas to beggars who seek it", in response to the recent and ongoing reservation stir. In 21st century India, caste is alive & kicking! Read here.
They say every dark cloud has a silver lining: The fact that it was a bjp minister who said it, in the presence of the bjp CM of Madhya Pradesh is news to take heart from. The more confident & aggressive these people get, the more they expose themselves. Slowly but surely, the country will seem them for who they are & this ugly daag will disappear from the face of Indian political consciousness. For that day, I pray.

Nitish Katara's murderers, Vikas Yadav & Vishal Yadav convicted, despite being well connected! A victory of the Indian judicial system! It gladdens the heart to know that you could be a politician's son, but you cannot get away with murder in this country. All this celebration is a little premature. We still have to ensure that the perpetrators of the 2002 Gujarat riots and the 1984 Anti-Sikh riots are brought to justice. We still have to ensure that bal t & raj t are brought to justice. We still need answers to who killed Syed Modi & why is he still roaming free?
This will do very well for a start though. It's a message for us never to back down from demanding justice, to keep at it until we get justice! I hope every Indian is getting this message.

Nepal becomes a republic. Welcome to the secular republic fold people. You have great responsibility and great challenges ahead of you. All the best. May you succeed!

"SIMI faction at helm of all-India terror network": DNA.
Great! Step in the right direction. We know at least which organization was responsible for the terror attacks. So the next step is to curb all activities of this faction! Make it's very existence difficult. Apprehend it's terrorists. And then talk to the terrorists who comprise this network. Ask them what they have against India. If they have any valid arguments, we must fix them immediately, so that we don't have any more organizations like this rising.

For Infosys, growth will take place ‘outside Pune’
The mns has hopefully shot itself in the foot. Instead of giving a boost to employment in Maharashtra, they've managed to send jobs away from Pune! GREAT! I am always the happiest when people like raj fuck up! FANTASTIC News! Suffer buggers suffer!

And here's what a right-winger in power is capable of. Indian's, I've been saying it for very long and I'll say it again... BEWARE!
Hopefully Bush will be brought to justice for his misdemeanours. If not civil/criminal justice, maybe divine justice; but I'd be glad to see him suffer in some form!

That's it for now.

Unaware of Human Rights Violations?

A recent discussion here left me searching Google for Amnesty International articles on Human Rights violations (specially wrt to "Hindus") in Bangladesh & Pakistan. Google readily threw up many Bangladesh links (but no Pakistan links, although I'd have expected more of those!) & I went through some of these, surprised at how this had eluded well-informed old me for so long!

So for everyone who wants to be better informed vis a vis Human Rights Violations worldwide, please subscribe to Amnesty's e-zine here.
And for those who want to contribute in a small way, you can take their survey here.

One thing that is still unclear is how these truly deplorable human rights violations are being referred to as "ethnic cleansing". When exactly did that happen?

Another time, another country, another martyr...

This was supposed to go up on the Mutiny, but their editors seem a trifle busy at the moment (with more contributors than they can handle!).

I sometimes wonder why we don't celebrate World Martyrs. We speak in glowing terms about Gandhiji (and we should!); there was recently a post on Bhagat Singh (and a well deserved one!). There was a wonderful live-blogging experiment to commemorate the martyrs in India's first war of Independence!

If this is so because the Mutiny intends to focus only on issues that concern India & Indians, maybe I have my answer; but the kind of people that started & run the Mutiny, and my conversations with them, makes me believe that they don't intend to limit the remit of the Mutiny to only what happens in India.

So again, are only our martyrs deserving of remembrance? Not to me. Those kind souls who have been reading my comments, posts and blog will know that national boundaries, concepts of race, birth, origin etc. mean nothing to me. So here's remembering one of the world's foremost men, on the day he was martyred.

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 to April 15, 1865):

Anyone who has read anything about the man cannot help being inspired by Lincoln. He was a colossus who strode through the consciousness of the American public then & continues to inspire thousands more today. (Thankfully, no imbecile can blame this on Macaulay!). He is remembered primarily for his abolishment of slavery in America, (and as it often happens to people who fight for equal rights for the underdog) for being the first American President to be assassinated. He is remembered for his leadership during the Civil War, despite his thorough dislike of of the ills of war. Quite a contrast from his trigger happy current day counterparts. One can't even speak of them in the same breath!

I present a few links that will give an insight into the mind of a man of strong values, a leader of men who fought when the cause was right, a man who believed in the equality of man irrespective of colour, region (among other bullshit) etc., and a man of immense humility:

Lincoln's letter to the Headmaster of the school his son went to.

Lincoln's letter to a lady who lost her sons in the Civil War. What other man would do/has done something like this?

Not many people know that Abe was not formally schooled as a young boy. He educated himself & went on to qualify as a lawyer. Not many people know that he single-handedly & successfully defended himself against a band of robbers once. The attack left a telltale scar that is visible in his photos. Not many people are aware that he had a string of failures (as a lawyer, as a businessman, as a Vice-Presidential candidate) before he finally made it as President, and the most respected President in America's history ever! Very few people realize that often it takes time to realize one's true potential, but when one does...

Don't we too need a leader like him that does away with the differences in our society? Even at the cost of a civil war? Maybe not, then again maybe...