An ode (Bob Dylan's Song)

Blowin' In The Wind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ced8o50G9kg

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

How many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

This song I dedicate to the victims of the terror attack in Mumbai, to the secrurity men, to everyone affected by this episode. Hope people get the meaning of this song and give a thought to what Bob Dylan wrote longtime ago. This song is used in this context time and again, but do anyone really care.

My Playlist in Jango

This is one of the coolest online radios, do explore for getting the maximum results.

www.Jango.com - Internet Radio

The orgy of violence in Mumbai

The entire drama enfolded in the Taj, the Oberoi, the Nariman House and the rest of Mumbai has left me shell shocked and angry. I am angry with the system, the politicians, the media and the sheer intelligence failure. From the day of the event I am in front of this machine and slept very few hours in this entire episode of mindless terror.

It is not that I am a very patriotic Indian or an affected person, but these events happened the very vicinity of where I used to live in Mumbai longtime back and I felt violated and outraged. I used to frequent Leopold Cafe and the Taj and I am an ex-employee of the Taj, not in Mumbai but in Ooty. So the tragedy was very personal to me. These areas where the terrorists struck were the heart and soul of Bombay. The seafront, the old streets with cobbled pavements and those wonderful roadside cafes...

I would blame the entire event on the sheer lack of vision and intelligence on the part of the Government of India and the hoodwinking tactics of the present government. This threat perception was always there, the govt should have taken this seriously when the explosion happened in the Marriot Hotel in Islamabad and the should have given adequate security to these places. This was expected, but not of this magnitude of mayhem.

What would the police do when they just have archaic .303 rifles and lathies to fight a very well equipped and motivated bunch of terrorists. And what was their number 10 of them. Shame on the government.

There was a real lack of coordination, the NSG comes after nine hours of the attack and a lot can happen in nine hours. The heroic ATS chief went to take out the terrorists personally. The entire Mumbai police underestimated the capabilities of the motivated bunch. By the time the reinforcements came in, the terrorists took the time to position themselves and create maximum damage. The NSG comes in BEST buses and this was a shame. If they had landed in the Mumbai airport, they should have taken to the spot on helicopters and got into action without much delay. The terrorist had by then got the maximum upper hand and achieved what they set forth to do.

After the prolonged fight the only outcome was the media could generate all the TRPs and the readership count. What was the end result, nine terrorists dead, 16 odd service men dead and 195 innocent people dead.

After the 9/11 incident, has there been any attack in the US soil? None. That is the commitment they have and they were relentless in their pursuit to stop terror in their soil. How many more incidents should happen in India to get the machinery moving.

The shameless Times of India published that the readership and the number of visitors to their website has increased many fold and I wrote to them that do not gloat on the achievement and the NDTV was belting out the entire drama 24x7 and this is what I wrote to them, With my complete address...

"I feel that the media is just a vulture feeding on the remains. Stop creating panic, anger and false emotions on each and every event unfolding. You people are putting words in peoples' mouth and getting the desired effect of all these. Your sense of sympathy and false anger is just to create TRPs and you have no sense of dignity. You have to report facts as facts and call a spade a spade. This is like a movie orchestrated live. Ask Barrka Dutt to go to sleep and stop this entire breast beating. Regardless of any incident the police, the army and now the case of NSG has been doing their duty. This media will celebrate and glorify these brave men and start complaining about their highhandedness and start criticizing their vulnerability to accept bribes in few days from now. You are the scourge of this country and the bane of this country. I really feel outraged by the false sense of concern and the drama enacted there in the middle.

I know you will never publish this letter nor give a reply and I do not care a damn."

I wanted to write to the CNN IBN as well, but I thought what is the use these vultures will still continue on feeding the dead.

This was a reaction of my friend whom I spoke to when I saw her status message...

me: Hi xx :)
You seem to be depressed.

xxxx: yes..about the terror attacks

me: oh yeah I am just watching it

xxxx: religion is the worst mistake humans ever made

10:47 me: I was up till 4 am

xxxx: it does not help me in my day to day life

me: yeah true

xxxx: how does it matter if all are the same religion?

me: yeah true

things are very tough nowadays

I am utterly flabbergasted and angry

10:48 This is the result of total lack of intelligence

and the entire police were distracted

with other issues

10:49 xxxx: it is a sad state of affairs

me: true

xxxx: we need to pull up our socks and do something

we just cant talk

i am willing to do anything now

me: yeah

xxxx: only thing that stops me is that i would not want my family to be affected

me: yeah hey take it differently

10:50 it is affecting everyone

but it is tough to do something about it

there are people working on that and these terrorists have no religion and they are just beasts

10:51 xxxx: no...

me: Hey take care and be put at where you are

xxxx: it is religion that turns them into beasts

10:52 they don't have money

so religious leaders take that as a plus

and leer them

so they do anything for money to provide for their family

it is better to adopt the christian way

pay ppl to convert

rather than terrorise to convert

me: this issue is much deeper

I get your point of view

I am really being pessimistic and the events like this is going to occur repeatedly unless the intelligence is fortified, the police force is upgraded with latest guns, proper communication and advance threat perception mechanism put in force.

This entire event has left me frustrated, angry and impotent. I am going to leave this post without any conclusive end because this really has no real end, I mean the mindless terror.

Please see my earlier post in this blog, where I put my response to an article criticizing the Indian Police and their highhandedness in the bombing investigations...

Friday, 3 October, 2008

In response to the article Indians Question Police Response

This is in response to the article - India Police Say They Hold 9 From Hindu Terrorist Cell. With my contact details

Dear Sir,

This is in response to the article in The New York Times - India Police Say They Hold 9 From Hindu Terrorist Cell

I appreciate the fact that this article was a well researched one. But there are many other factors associated with this issue. If you take the picture in reality, most of the Hindus in this country distrust the largest minority in India and there can be elements in the larger community who are as capable of creating mayhem...

But as a whole the Hindu community is very tolerant to the other minorities. As the West respects the majority community and the Israelis think they have to support and defend their community, the Hindus have the right to defend themselves. When you have a major party in India who appeases and follow pseudo-secular idealism, it is natural for the extreme right wing to retaliate.

This issue did not start very recently, this was from the days of Indian Independence and that was the reason Gandhi was assassinated. This concept of tolerance or rather I would call pluralism was propagated with a very selfish intent. I support the views of Gopal Godse, who was the brother of Nathuram Godse...

"His Principle of Peace Was Bogus"

That is true.

You cannot stop someone from attaining immortality, but the means to that state should be in concordance with human nature. This Gandhi propagated the term Secular. This is the most vulgar word I would find in my Lexicon. This country does not need some salvation from the caste system, it needs tolerance by both the largest communities. The Muslims in India should participate in the legislature, the executive and the judiciary, to instill a degree of confidence and trust.

This report carried that the accused Colonel was studying Chinese, but he was doing a course on the Arabic language.

I would call this as a cheap journalism to hood wink the West for personal gains.

I would request you do a through research before acting on the Issue.

I would rather have an identity than being Secular or invisible.

Thanks,
Sastha Prakash.

A Cobbler in Ooty

Last week I had been to Ooty, my hometown and a place that cannot be surpassed by any other. They say it has become congested and polluted, but to me it remains still a beautiful place with the air crisp to the extent that it hurts your lungs when you take a deep breath, green and cold. Winter has set in early there and weather was good to have drink beside the fireplace.

When I was there I had to repair my leather slippers, I gave it to the nearest cobbler. He was a old man and had very meager tools and essentials. He took sometime to repair them and did a very good job. I asked him what was the charges and he asked me to give four rupees, I was surprised and I was ready to give that old man about Rs.15/- and I offered him Rs.10/- and asked him to have some tea. He staunchly refused to take the tip and was adamant in giving me back the change. I reluctantly took the change and thanked him for the nice job.

Back to my friend's place I told him the whole episode and he told me the most improbable story of that old man...

This man lives with his sister and both of them happened to be single and they have a small place to live and this man makes enough money to buy rice (Rs.10), some vegetables (Rs.10/-) and the most funniest part (to me) was he needs Rs.12 for a small of brandy everyday. He never takes more money from people and gets angry if offered more than what he had asked.

The summary of this story is that there are some people who are happy with what little they have and their needs are so little. I found this man so interesting that I was wondering if the greed, the want for material things or creating wealth has never crossed his mind or did he resign to this lowly existence. But I concluded both has happened and he had the courage to accept his limitations and lead a quiet life. This incident made me think a lot and it struck a cord in me with a short story I read long back, I am not sure of the title or the author. But the gist of the story is like this...

There was an excellent German cobbler in London, who used to make handmade shoes which lasts for a longtime that the author found not much need for repair or go for a new one frequently. Then came the factory made shoes and the demand for the protagonist's shoes came down. The cobbler did not believe in the factory made shoes and did not accept the change. He insisted on making his own shoes to be sold in his shop. The things took for a worse turn and this cobbler died of hunger and poverty, which the author come to know very late to do anything.

In both the stories I could find a common link and that is what I call INTEGRITY and courage to go on with one's convictions.

It reminds me of Balzac's quote...

"Conviction brings a silent, indefinable beauty into faces made of the commonest human clay."

This is what I felt then and I thought courage is the foundation of integrity.

But I got confused again, I heard nothing but change is permanent. Oh my confusions goes on and on.