Losing faith of our own!
Humra Quraishi
We are talking of bullet trains
when even our slow moving
trains have begun de-railing. This
year hundreds were killed in
train accidents, not to overlook
the latest tragedy at Mumbai's
Elphinstone station.
We are talking of smart cities when those
traditionally structured ones are getting submerged
and flooded. Whoever could have ever imagined that
cities like Chennai, Mumbai , Srinagar or even the
suburbs of New Delhi would get flooded to such an
extent that homes would get washed away and boats
and swimsuits need of the hour.
All those speeches of our development seem so
hollow, as un –developed we stand. It wouldn't be
amiss to say that never before, perhaps, not even in
the dark ages, there'd been such horrifying sexual
attacks on our boys and girls. Perversions of the
worst kind are on, as developed we claim to be!
Development is not about some make- believe
graphs …development is when the young can look
forward to a better tomorrow and not sit in fear of
getting lathi charged. What took place right on the
campus of Benaras Hindu University was nothing but
anarchy.
Taj Mahal
Mind you, one can pick up a thousand brooms and
swish – swash dust from here to there but till the
political mahaul is not cleansed nothing is going to
work. We call ourselves a secular lot but today's
rulers are wrecking even that notion! Hit and lynched
are not just human forms but even monumental
structures are not spared. The latest coming from
Uttar Pradesh sarkar are the heap of questions raised on the very original and upkeep of the Taj Mahal! The
world famous wonder which earns the State exchequer crores is also not
spared by the Yogi government
of the day!
One can announce economic and relief packages
for the affected areas but where's the trickle-down
effect? Do these benefit the people or are they only
for effect? Why aren't the recommendations made by
the various committees moving, towards the masses?
This brings me to ask: why the recommendations
made by the Yashwant Sinha led delegation to the
Kashmir Valley not implemented?
Farooq Ahmad Dar
Yashwant Sinha visited the Valley in the autumn of
2016 and then again in 2017, along with members of
the civil society organisation--Concerned Citizens
Group (CCG). This group had come up with
recommendations to dilute the crisis but nothing
came up .
Aren't we to be blamed for that loss of faith of the
Kashmiris? This brings me to write the latest news
reports more than indicate that the Kashmiri shawl
weaver, Farooq Ahmad Dar, who was tied to a military
jeep and used as human shield during the by-polls in
Srinagar on April 9, was telling the truth – he is no
terrorist but a law abiding citizen. The police
investigation report confirms that Dar was speaking
the truth: he had cast his vote at a polling booth in
his native village before he was picked up by the
army, tied to their vehicle, used as a 'human
shield…kept under wrongful confinement.'
We didn't even bother to hear him out, even when
he was crying out –'I'm no stone- pelter, nor a
terrorist or militant. I went to cast my vote yet they
tied me to their jeep and didn't trust me, didn't
believe me!'
Listening to classical strains
Begum Akhtar
If this murky political
mahaul hits, there is no better
option than to sit listening to
those classical strains and
verse of the bygones. And on
the late Begum Akhtar's
birthday on 7 October, I did
exactly that. Listened to this
celebrated classical singer's
renderings. And though much
has been written about her
passion for Urdu poetry, her
yearnings, those emotional
lows in her life which, perhaps ,
manifested in those renderings, yet there still exists
a certain romantic aura. Just mention the very name
Begum Akhtar, who was also known as Akhtari Bai
Faizabadi, and an entire range of images hover
around…
Years before I could get to hear her at one of
her concerts, I'd heard her name from an absolutely
unexpected source: In my parent's home in Lucknow,
an ageing person used to come selling lemons,
ginger, green chillies and cucumbers. All stuffed in a
huge bag which would be hung on his stooping
shoulders. And before throwing them on the floor
,he'd exclaim, 'Akhtaria ke Bagh ke hain!' It was
part and parcel of those rumours doing the rounds
that this man belonging to an erstwhile well- todo
family had lost his balance after being dumped
by Begum Akhtar. He couldn't take the strain; he
lost not just his balance and also his home and
family and was reduced to selling this mundane Selling all this along with
chanting that one-liner:
Akhtaria ke bagh ke hain !
She, of course, finally
married Lucknow's leading
barrister Ishtiaq Ahmad
Abbasi, who is said to have
fallen in love with her after
hearing her at one of the local
mehfils. Their marriage took
place after much opposition
from Abbasi's clan; after all, he
was defying traditions.
I'm not too sure whether the
marriage actually a 'happy' one because as several of
her husband's relatives offloaded to me that Begum
Akhtar was a person with strong likes and dislikes
and also she loved to live in style – wore expensive
saris and jewellery, lived a lavish lifestyle which at
times was far beyond her means. To quote her
husband's niece, late Rafia Husain –
'Its Abbasi sahib, who had to sacrifice at a lot for
this marriage , including his career. A known fact
that he could not be made a Judge as he was
married to a former courtesan .Then , he gave in to
her at other stages of their lives ; for instance , when
she used to travel outside Lucknow for concerts ,
she did not want him to accompany her. With that he
used to stay back in Lucknow. And though he was
extremely lonely but never openly complained and
nor ever fought with her. After her death he was so
devastated its hard to describe. He lived a very lonely
life and died ten years after her death.'
Brutally in this
Capital city !
Ali Sardar Jafri
Yes, thinking of that blissful period in our very
recent history where poets Ali Sardar Jafri and Sahir
Ludhianvi wrote verse after verse in solidarity with
the Africans:
These lines of Ali Sardar Jafri written in 1960s relay
much bonding between Indians
and Africans - 'This African, my
brother /Picks flowers, in forest
after forest / My brother, whose
feet are red /Red as roses.'
Sahir Ludhianvi
Also these lines of Sahir
Ludhianvi, written when Patrice
Lumumba, the first prime
minister of Congo, also a staunch anti-imperialist was deposed from office and
then murdered, –'Tyranny has no
caste, no community, no status
nor dignity/ Tyranny is simply
tyranny, from its beginning to its
end /Blood however is blood, it
becomes a hundred things
/Shapes that cannot be
obliterated /Flames that can never be extinguished
/Chants that can never be suppressed.'
Look where we stand reduced to in these
'developed' times, where we leave no opportunity to
hit and hound foreigners and even refugees trying to
survive in our midst.