![\"\"](\"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/surgical-strike.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In fact, in these recent years we have witnessed less of governance and more of\u00a0 distracting tactics\u00a0\u2014\u00a0surgical strikes, war cries, setting one community against the other, new names for cities and townships, un-spared even the roads!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n No matter how hard I try to view from the glass half- full angle, but just can\u2019t. As nothing seems to be going fine.\u00a0 No sudden eruption, but an ongoing decline right the summer of 2014.\u00a0 In fact, we have reached such a hopeless situation that nothing really shocks. Perhaps, in these recent years we have been witnessing too many perversions, deprivations,\u00a0human disasters.<\/p>\n In fact, soon after\u00a0the Modi government took charge, the masses awaited miracles to take off, as promised in the speeches at the political rallies, but only severe setbacks and bigger disappointments held out. Correct me if I\u2019m wrong but 2016 will be remembered as the year of \u2018notebandi\u2019 (demonetization). One of the biggest setbacks for the citizens of this country was demonetization. And in 2017, Mahatma Gandhi was \u2018removed\u2019 from the charkha and his place \u2018taken\u2019 by Narendra Modi.\u00a0Shots of Khadi Udyog\u2019s new-year calendar had hit many and public outcry followed:\u00a0Even Mahatma Gandhi not spared in these fascist times!<\/p>\n And even as the establishment continued to come up with those hollow\u00a0development slogans, anger had started spreading out. In 2017,\u00a0for the first time in the recent history of India, farmers travelled from the far flung regions; reaching New \u00a0Delhi, squatting right in the midst of the capital city, focusing on their plight\u2026Today, of course, our farmers are protesting at the Delhi borders and in several states of the country. The farmers are upset and angry with the very passage of the three Farm Bills.<\/p>\n In fact, in these recent years we have witnessed less of governance and more of\u00a0 distracting tactics\u00a0\u2014\u00a0surgical strikes, war cries, setting\u00a0 one community against the other, new names for cities and townships, un-spared even the roads!<\/p>\n The deterioration continues, with unemployment and the economic crisis overtaking everyday life. Communal violence has been accelerating as never before.<\/p>\n And in the midst of fears and apprehension, displacements have been taking place. In these recent years I have been interacting with those displaced from the rural stretches of North India. Mind you, forced shifts in the rural belts are pointers to bigger disasters. After all, when communal politics reaches rural stretches and hits the poor, it reeks of eerie build-ups. Yet, today, entire families are getting uprooted from their base! With the State standing as a mute force or as a collaborator!<\/p>\n And with hunger and deprivation on the rise, the masses do not want to hear any of those stale speeches. Enough! Only freshly made daal\u2013rotis will do. But where are those everyday survival basics? Nowhere in sight!<\/p>\n Unless civil society moves in and tries to rescue the hopeless situation, our young face a very\u00a0 bleak future. Hunger, deprivations, injustices are hitting the\u00a0 young as never\u00a0 before. With the future holding out little respite.<\/p>\n In fact, in certain regions, the so termed conflict regions, the young haven\u2019t seen a single day of peace. There\u2019s been only violence and counter violence, where locals and as well as non- locals, from all possible communities, get killed.<\/p>\n Nah,\u00a0 I am\u00a0 not going to wait till 10 December, World\u00a0 Human Rights Day, to detail the\u00a0 horrific human rights violations ongoing here, in our country , in these current times. Where the actual or the official killers are seldom caught and nailed. It\u2019s the un-official ones and those labeled \u2018sympathizers\u2019 who get hounded and\u00a0 harassed to such an extent that they sit ruined for\u00a0 generations to come.<\/p>\n Mind you, the prime accused killer in the Lakhimpur\u00a0 Kheri\u00a0 killings couldn\u2019t really flee because of the\u00a0 tremendous \u00a0pressure put forth by the Opposition leaders and also by the farmer leaders; otherwise Ashish Mishra and his father, Ajay Mishra, who happens to be\u00a0 MOS\u00a0 Home, had come up with all possible alibis and false\u00a0 narratives for\u00a0 his son\u2019s non-involvement in those killings.<\/p>\n With this\u00a0 in the\u00a0 background it is\u00a0 no\u00a0 mathematical quiz to not\u00a0\u00a0 comprehend the\u00a0 basic crucial \u2018why\u2019\u00a0 the\u00a0 crime rate is\u00a0 on a\u00a0 huge\u00a0 high, where the\u00a0 culprits roam about freely and all too unperturbed about\u00a0 arrests.<\/p>\n \u2018Five novellas about women\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n The well-known writer and commentator, Indira Goswami, passed away exactly ten years back. Winner of India\u2019s highest literary award, the Jnanpith (2001), as well as the Sahitya Akademi Award (1983), and the Principal Prince Claus Laureate (2008), she was also an editor, poet, professor, and scholar, best known for her novels such as\u00a0The Moth Eaten Howdah of the Tusker<\/em>,\u00a0Pages Stained with Blood<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0The Man from Chinnamasta<\/em>.<\/p>\n Publishers Niyogi Books have recently launched Indira Goswami\u2019s novellas. Titled, \u2018Five Novellas About Women\u2019( translated from Assamese by Dibyajyoti\u00a0 Sarma). I am looking forward to reading this latest translated work of Indira\u00a0 Goswami, more so as I had\u00a0 met and interacted with her on several occasions.<\/p>\n This was about twenty years back, when she was teaching at the Delhi University and residing on the campus. A simply done-up, neat home with an abundance of warmth. In fact, two aspects stand out to this day, even whilst I\u2019m keying in. Her pet dog was always kept far away from guests and visitors, as she would\u00a0 tell us that she doesn\u2019t\u00a0 believe in inflicting or\u00a0 imposing her pets on visitors. No matter what time or day\u00a0 one landed at her place the dog\u00a0 wasn\u2019t\u00a0 allowed to enter the drawing room\u2026The other aspect was that\u00a0 tea and snacks and sweetmeats were served on a\u00a0 tray or platter and she would insist\u00a0 that we don\u2019t\u00a0 go back hungry from her\u00a0 home. There was something genuinely\u00a0 sincere about her and the\u00a0 minute\u00a0 one entered\u00a0 her home she would\u00a0 greet with a smile, followed by tea and snacks, and then our\u00a0 talks would go on \u2026nah, she\u00a0 wasn\u2019t\u00a0 inquisitive nor curious, but then as our talks\u00a0 would take off there\u2019d be much of the offloading. You know the conversation would go on \u2026endlessly along the outpouring strain.<\/p>\n Calling a spade a spade<\/strong><\/p>\n Do listen to what Shatrughan Sinha has to say about Aryan Khan….and\u00a0 the entire case!<\/p>\n I do make it a point to watch and hear news on NDTV.\u00a0 It is far away from the Godi media news, and so comes across as genuine and real news!<\/p>\n Just a couple of days back, watched this bold cum frank interview of Shatrughan\u00a0 Sinha with NDTV\u2019s\u00a0 Manoranjan Bharti, where the veteran actor said whatever he could say and comment on Aryan Khan and the\u00a0 drugs case and the general scenario spreading out. He said all that he could possibly say in his typical bold fearless style. No, none of the Khans would have said so much, so very openly!<\/p>\n Shatrughan Sinha does carry a personality. I had\u00a0 interviewed\u00a0 him\u00a0 just once and\u00a0 that was\u00a0 several years\u00a0 back when he was fighting elections, pitted\u00a0 against\u00a0 Rajesh Khanna for the\u00a0 New Delhi seat. I\u00a0 recall it\u00a0 was tough\u00a0 tracking down exercise but once that got over, the rest\u00a0 wasn\u2019t too difficult \u2026 it\u00a0 had\u00a0 taken me\u00a0 five\u00a0 days\u00a0 to\u00a0 find out\u00a0 where \u00a0Shatrughan Sinha\u00a0 was\u00a0 putting\u00a0 up in New Delhi and together with that, his\u00a0 contact telephone\u00a0 numbers. And\u00a0 finally\u00a0 his brother, Dr\u00a0 Lakhan\u00a0 Sinha, had\u00a0 given the\u00a0 time for the interview, at their apartment at the erstwhile controversial building, The White House ( then\u00a0 situated\u00a0 close to\u00a0 the Mandi House complex).<\/p>\n And\u00a0 as I arrived\u00a0 there at the\u00a0 appointed time, I could meet Shatrughan Sinha in the\u00a0 lift itself \u2026the\u00a0 lift\u00a0 taking us upwards to the\u00a0 eleventh\u00a0 floor\u00a0 where\u00a0 his apartment was situated. And when\u00a0 the\u00a0 interview finally\u00a0 took off, it was a longish interview with our differing views\u00a0 making it\u00a0 even longer but\u00a0 it was all very civil. No, I wasn\u2019t apprehensive of\u00a0 getting thrown off from the\u00a0 eleventh floor because of\u00a0 my repeatedly questioning him for\u00a0 fighting\u00a0 on the\u00a0 BJP ticket.<\/p>\n When I had asked him why he\u2019s with\u00a0 a political party which had been\u00a0 bringing along divisions amongst the masses he said, \u201c I\u2019m not communal\u2026I don\u2019t\u00a0 believe\u00a0 who is a\u00a0 Hindu or\u00a0 who is a Musalmaan or a Christian\u2026just\u00a0 believe in Insaniyat. I have been telling my party workers to treat all communities equally.\u201d He had even gone on to detail his friendships with Muslim families in the country and elsewhere in the world.<\/p>\n And as the interview went ahead, we had arguments on the BJP\u2019s stand on the Babri Masjid and on several other sensitive issues. And even when I\u00a0 openly disagreed with his views or view-points, I knew I was interviewing a gentleman, who\u00a0 wouldn\u2019t shriek or shout or stab\u00a0 or abuse!<\/p>\n Fabindia pulls \u2018Jashn-e-Riwaaz\u2019 ad<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, the ground reality has turned so very pathetic that the popular outlet Fab India had to withdraw its ad \u2013 Jashn-e-Riwaaz!\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because some of its clients or buyers or the communal characters around, didn\u2019t quite okay the Urdu sounding Jashn-e-Riwaaz!<\/p>\n This is the dark reality of the day. So well seeped in is the communal poisoning that even a Urdu sounding word or term is phrase is not to be tolerated by the\u00a0 Right-Wing men and all those characters who are following\u00a0 them rather too blindly\u2026The stark reality of the\u00a0 day is that this \u2018connecting language\u2019, Urdu, lies crushed and deadened in the midst of the communal virus spreading out as never before.<\/p>\n Around 2005, I had met a researcher, Valerio Pietrangelo at the Jamia Millia\u00a0 Islamia. I was a visiting professor at that university and he\u00a0 was\u00a0 pursuing\u00a0 advanced\u00a0 study\u00a0 of\u00a0 Urdu and\u00a0 Arabic from the University of Rome\u00a0 and\u00a0 had travelled\u00a0 to Jamia Millia Islamia as\u00a0 part of his\u00a0 research work\u00a0 on \u2018Partition Literature in Urdu, Written\u00a0 by Women.\u2019 With\u00a0 that in the\u00a0 backdrop, I\u2019d asked\u00a0 him\u00a0 to comment on\u00a0 the Indian\u00a0 Muslims he\u2019d\u00a0 been\u00a0 meeting and also his\u00a0 comments on their\u00a0 mother tongue, Urdu. Valerio\u00a0 was forthright, “As my\u00a0 main concern has always\u00a0 been Urdu\u00a0 language and literature,\u00a0 my contact with the Muslim\u00a0 community in\u00a0 India\u00a0 has always been\u00a0 filtered\u00a0 by\u00a0 my perception\u00a0 of the language\u00a0 issue. My impression is that Muslims are in a certain sense a backward community, at least many of them. As I met Muslims, I realized how dramatically they are shifting to Hindi and other Indian languages since\u00a0 government is not promoting Urdu language and literature. I think language is an essential element of group identity, therefore, I feel that Muslim identity is threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n And\u00a0 Khushwant\u00a0\u00a0Singh minced no words, detailing the slow death of this language, \u201cUrdu\u00a0 is dying a\u00a0 slow death\u00a0 in the land where it was born and where it flourished. The number of\u00a0 students\u00a0 who take it as a subject in schools and\u00a0 colleges is dwindling\u2026Apart from\u00a0 Kashmir, where\u00a0 Urdu\u00a0 is taught from the\u00a0 primary to the post-graduate levels, in the rest\u00a0 of\u00a0 India it\u00a0 is the second or third\u00a0 language. With the passing of years it has come to\u00a0 be dubbed as\u00a0 the language of the Muslims, which is far from the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n Khushwant would recite these verses of Urdu poets Rashid and Khurshid Afsar Bisrani, focusing on the near-death of Urdu.<\/p>\n Rashid\u2019s verse:\u00a0\u00a0Maangey Allah se bas itni dua hai Rashid \/<\/em><\/p>\n Main jo Urdu mein vaseeyat likhoon beta parh ley.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>(All Rashid asks\u00a0 of\u00a0 Allah\u00a0 is just\u00a0 one\u00a0 small\u00a0 gift\/\u00a0 If\u00a0 I write\u00a0 my will\u00a0 in\u00a0 Urdu,\u00a0 may\u00a0 my son\u00a0 be able to read\u00a0 it.)<\/p>\n Khurshid Afsar Bisrani\u2019s verse:\u00a0Ab Urdu kya hai ek kothey kee tawaif\u00a0 hai \/<\/em><\/p>\n Mazaa har ek leta hai,mohabbat kaun karta\u00a0 hai.<\/em><\/p>\n (What is Urdu now but a whore in a whorehouse \/ Whoever wants has fun with her, very few love her.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n In today\u2019s India, Urdu stands reduced to such lows that knowledge of Urdu cannot ensure employment; nor the basic means to survival. This treatment meted out to a language that carries the\u00a0 subtle power to heal and control emotions and much more long the strain –\u00a0A study\u00a0 conducted by the Lucknow-based\u00a0 Centre for\u00a0 Biomedical\u00a0 Researches\u00a0 (CBMR) published in an edition of\u00a0 international\u00a0 journal\u00a0 \u2018Neuroscience\u00a0 Letters\u2019 states that\u00a0 reading\u00a0 Urdu\u00a0 script\u00a0 and\u00a0 Urdu couplets\u00a0 helps\u00a0 in brain development. This report, based on\u00a0 extensive\u00a0 research,\u00a0 goes to\u00a0 prove that\u00a0 learning and reading\u00a0 Urdu\u00a0 couplets\u00a0 helps in controlling\u00a0\u00a0 emotions,\u00a0 coping\u00a0\u00a0 with\u00a0 stress, delaying\u00a0 dementia. It could also be helpful for children with learning disabilities.<\/p>\n I can say with much confidence that another positive is this\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Urdu\u00a0 couplets, dripping with romantic strains, carry the ability to distract one from the dark realities of the day.<\/p>\n Perhaps,\u00a0this particular verse of Sahir Ludhianvi relays the stark dark truth of the hypocrisy ridden times we are surviving in:<\/p>\n The same cities where once Ghalib\u2019s voice resounded<\/p>\n Now have disavowed Urdu, made it homeless<\/p>\n The day that announced the arrival of freedom<\/p>\n Also declared Urdu a cursed and treacherous language<\/p>\n The same government that once crushed a living tongue<\/p>\n Now wishes to mourn and honour the dead<\/p>\n The man you call\u00a0Ghalib was a poet of Urdu<\/p>\n Why praise Ghalib after suppressing his language.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In fact, in these recent years we have witnessed less of governance and more of\u00a0 distracting tactics\u00a0\u2014\u00a0surgical strikes, war cries, setting one community against the other, new names for cities and townships, un-spared even the roads!\u00a0 No matter how hard I try to view from the glass half- full angle, but just can\u2019t. As nothing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334437,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,36,2205],"tags":[14677,14676,14675],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334435"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334435"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":334441,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334435\/revisions\/334441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/334437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Mamoni_Raisom_Goswami_cropped.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Shatrughan-Sinha.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/121132534_fb9n_fxvkau0hjc.jpg\")
<\/p>\n