A casual conversation at a posh upscale begging-joint in maximum city ; a few days after its siege ,between our men, pappu langda(PL) and matinee show(MS) :
PL: oh dedh shaane ! dargella tha kya goli barood se ( oh halfcrack , got scared of all the firing ?) dint see you the next day here back at work? Don't you know as mumbaikars we are duty bound to do so after every terror attack ?
MS: haan bidu , that famed Mumbai spirit and all ! magar apun se nai hota ye sab ( i cant manage all that ). Saala i was scared to even open the door of my shack !
PL: wasn't your shack broken by raj bhaiya's Marathi manoos in the riots last month ? aur waise bhi, fikar nai karneka , is baar ka bomabom apun ki bambai pe nai , unki Mumbai main hua hai ( and anyways nothing to worry, this time the bombs not in our bambai but in their Mumbai )
MS: theekse samjha na be, ye sena navnirmaan sainiko ne Mumbai kabhi baant daala? ( explain properly when did the sena navnirman sainiks divide Mumbai?)
PL:kya be half ticket, ye sainik aam aadmi ke rakshak , aur kamal dhaari neta log kuch kar paate to apun ki mother india kabki akha world ki mother nai bengelli hoti?(oh dimwit! Had these sainiks, common mans protectors[congress]and the lotus holding politicos done something wudnt india have been the world leader by now?)
This division too , like most of our public works these days , has been done by our terrorist brothers from across the seas .

MS: ?????????
PL: simple hai na yaar ,didn't you see how they killed , gunned down people blasted grenades all over Mumbai , par apne ko kuch hua? Is baar ka bomb was for these rich baba log from Mumbai . not us faceless occupants of bambai.
MS:haan, i did see all that live on tv. Many goras died too. Our cst station too was attacked i heard though not many spoke of it. Barkha behen was more worried about our icon , some taj being damaged . what was that about?
PL: kaisa icon , kiska icon ?have you ever even been allowed to beg opposite to the taj hotel to call it your icon? Remember Mumbai-bana-shanghai evicted us out of our liucrative begging syndicate at the taj-colaba corridor? The division of Mumbai started then , it just got finished now. Added to that now even the cst wud be made out of bounds for us common man .
MS:oh ya ! i gues thats why mantriji said on tv that such small things keep happening in big cities. I am sure he must be aware that bhai log with guns were just completing a pending work right ?he kept his cool for the greater public good ...
PL: even if he didn't know he didn't have much choice. His bad luck this time the rich and famous died , including foreigners. It was obvious mantriji would have to leave mantralaya! No wonder he grabbed his last chance at 15 mins of fame on national tv live!
MS: hmmm, acha nowthat you seem to know so much , care to explain how different was 26/11 form jhaveri bazaar or the local train blasts?
PL: simple hai na bidu ! those were in common man's Bombay, where aam admi died. Aam admi bole to the faceless , address less who just count as heads for vote lists .so a weeks chattering is enough to forget and move on , cause not only is the common man highly fertile in increasing his numbers , he also is extremely resilent in the face of adversity.the mumbaikar is back to work the next day each time else bambai would stop. And bambai ruka, to india jhuka!aam aadmi is supposed to take it all in his stride.
MS:and this time?
PL: this time the big people are hit . all those mercedez Porsche items have died or got hurt . they would be mourned for months to come . they aren't know to be resilent like us. So their tragedy would surely be avenged. Their grief is NEWS . no wonder a sudden national "anger " and "need for change" is being felt all over mumbai now .
This ,when a hundred died that Wednesday, while thousands died a noisier unmourned death each time before ,. The terrorist bhai log touched their mumbai this time , their city . there has to be retaliation.
MS:oh to ab?
PL: well ,lots for them, not much for us ! neta log already got changed, its another matter one scoundrel replaced another.india ka image got tarnished abroad , so i hear they gonna bomb Pakistan soon . i think sau ameero ki maut hazaaroo gariibo ki maut se zyaada shor karti hai
mumbai main( death a hundred rich people makes more noise than that of thousands of poor in mumbai.) sab sunenge ab to( all would take heed now).
MS: aur apun ka kya ?
PL: apun ka kya ?we carry on in true mumbai spirit. Business is brisk these days with the newshounds all over. Take a tip, grab ure chance to be on tv too, just tell a camera guy that some one in jeans and t shirt gave u a pakistani rupee in alms on Wednesday! I got on to india tv that way in the morning! Till the next time bhai log remember to finish pending work in bambai, we can make some money . cause this time mumbai is under siege

i have always wondered how it wud feel. after the "deed" that is . i mean have always heard of people "doing it" all around me, all keep taliking and raving about how good and nice "it" feels, how wonderfulo a "deed" it can be, and how essential and basic to mankinds nature "it" is. and finally, i "did it".
as a child , i didnt know much about "it". the age of innocence just goaded me to think that all i did was wats there to do in life in thsi world, that the things i liked are the things all like. neither was the deed discussed nor thought about in the puritan and conservative household that my home is. na , its not that brahmanical in ambience , but we are brahmins nonetheless, so out of the window go taboo subjects like "the deed". so till i guess i was in college , life without it was the only life i knew! none i know of at home did it, nor were they interested in it.

though a teenage full of constant demarches to stay away from "it" added to the charm oand mystery attached to the act , i never quite had the guts to jump roght inot "it". like many other teenage fantasies fuelled by raging hormones, this "deed" too took the form of the forbidden fruit that adam was asked not to touch , but tempted nonetheless. guess i was waiting for an eve to tempt me fatally into the act ! aah, this even more made me imagine myself out there actually in the act , enjoying every single moment of it.

as teenage made way for a more hedonistic hormone-homeostasised adulthood, fresh young blood of mine took a moralistic approach to the forbidden fruit of yore, making me think that wat i didnt succumb to as a teen, neednt entice me now as a mature adult ! how wrong i was , for i forgot that after all i am aman , and men are supposed to folly at the slightest hint of temptation , especially if it is a long desired one! this period , marked by a constant fight deep inside me , about the moral pros and cons of doing the"deed" made me also rationalise the act in logical terms free from the baggae of moral evils that my upbringing had forced me to attach to the whole idea. so as i realsied that all my friends all my enemies, why for that matter everyone around me was into the act, like it was the most ntural thing to do aas a human being, iw as the one left out , with a self imposed ban on even remtely associating myself with something so demenaning and wrong to do as "the deed". unbrahmanical , i wudve surely been dipped in boiling hot oil in the court of the mighty yama.

but finally, i have given in to the temptation. the forbidden fruit has been bitten! and eve has taken control of the innocent man's future. pandora opened the box with the heavy lid of morality once again, this time to unleash god knows what ! and yama has just raised the heat under the cauldron marked for me in the after life. yes , after 25 years of living a celibate and chaste life on this eveil infested earth, i have done the deed!
i just ate my first chicen kebab roll from the college canteen!

i hope yama doesnt get too upset!

as john abraham and abhishek bacchan kissed each other with a petite pretty piggy chops looking over indulgently in dostana on screen, a very poignant realisation hit home.

 no , i aint talking of the homophobic gay bashing theme of the film . the three odd hours of the running time of dostanaconclusively divided the indian movie going populace. a new partition of the indian viewer reached its finale witht his latest offering form the brash brave bold new bollywood.

 hindia cinema , or bollywood as we ever so lovingly christened it , has gone elitist in every sense of the word. a new wave has swept thru the film industry back home. technological advancements, new legitimate money, some good talent behind th escenes, and a sharp astute pr machinery have made the standard friday release a sleek svelte affair .( never mind the fact that much of the story telling is still appalingly immateurish and unoriginal, some habits die hard).

the advent of multiplexes add to this making a movie outing a very very ultra-glamorous event. you, me and the likes have neer had it so good. yet are we the only ones who watch the hindi film? ot by the fartherest leap of imagination. for there still exists outside the glitz and glam of the mall-multiplex, a huge chunk of an audience that still sees a hindi film at a single -screen dingy nondescript theatre .that expects a paisa-vassol entertainer of 3 hrs. that searches for a voice to speak out for its plight int he real world. that looks upto a hero who speaks their tongue ( and not hinglish ) and vanquishes the villians of their real lives , if only on reel.why do i feel that the mumbai dream machine has disowned them ?

with increasing upward mobility in a small percentage of indians and a real threat from hollywood ( in even in regional dubbed versions ) hindi films today cater exclusively to these handfull, who anyways look else where for entertainment and look down upon desi films.int he process bollywood has ceased to reflect the aspirations of those who actually made the heros and heroines demi gods on the roads. so while live-ins, gay couples, hi-flying fashion glamour worlds , futuristic sci-fi and superheor-wannabes form the crux of our stories on celluloid these past few years, hindi cinema no longer has the pan indian allure it once boasted of. the hero is a selfish rich guy, cozy in his state of the art perfect bubble ( just like much of the 200rs and up paying captive audience watching the hero) who has no idea watsoever of what life is like for the rickshaw puller whom he used to represent not so long ago. his interests concerns his everything are a world apart from the masses .

the only missing link of sorts between old and new bollywood perhaps is the heroine who still nothing mroe than an object of lust. yet even she no longer is coy about shedding clothes at the drop of a hat, alienating a considerable men with her in-ure-face sensuality.in such a case why is ti a surprise then to find the ravi kissens and manoj tiwari's take centre stage in the big league? the vacucm created by bollywood is being filled by its poor cousins from patna raipur ludhiana and the likes.as a cash rich bollywood confidently dispense off the mass viewer as an irritant , regional cinema of the commercial kind , led by the bhojpuri industry, has stpped in to provide the complete masala package in the lingo understood by and loved by the masses, depicting a life that bollywood hitherto celebrated.and with a ready audience fresh from the betrayal at the hands of hindi films, merrily has joined in th eparty at your nearest theatre hall.

but then , what happens to our good old hindi film? almost extinct i guess save a stray delightfully oldworld welcome to sajjanpur. indians , the majority that crowds outside a mall not inside it, have a new cousin in town to thealien english flick, thedesi hindi film! no matter how priyanka ties the saree , she can never be the desi girl of the common man on the road anymore.

obama has made history by winning the polls in the big apple! his win has kind of brought the dark-skinned minorities in america into the mainstream , though how different would his presidency be from bush is what only time can answer, given the fact that bush has mangled american policies beyond recognition! while the whole world is rejoicing at this groundbreaking turn of events in the land of immense opportunities, india, the superpower in themaking, is busy analysing whom can it count upon to be her own obama. well , we ape everything from americans, so we ought to have our own version of obama for sure!
now to find our own obama, we need to first understand what he represents. as an afro-american, he represents those millions of immigrants who reached american sopil in search of a better livelyhood and life, in the hope of freedom liberty and equality that amercia promised but seldom deliverd. in this respect , india is not very different. for she too has a large populace who stayed on or came hoping for equality and yet have been marginalised in teh society. by this yeardstick, looking for an indian obama would possibly yield results if we looked at our immigrant communities. first that hits my mind is sonia gandhi. an italino-indian, marginalised in herown family while ehr hubby and mom in law were alive, sidelined in her own party while kesari and co ruled the roost, and now the power behind a turbaned buffon , running the reigns of the nation by proxy thru knee jerk reactions to huge problems . in her i guess not only do we have a minority leader, we also score on the women's lib bit! but sadly i guess while obama latched on to the opportunity that life gave him, sonia missed the bus the day she sacrificed at the behest of that now famous voice of ehr inner soul.
that leaves us with the other fav immigrants down south. the tigers! tamil beacons of hope finding empathy with alomst everyone living in the indian territory of the language.savef romt he glitch that they assasinated one of our pm's, the tamil tigers stand a huge chance of giving us our own obama.(they also gave srilanka her own osama u c, they are dependable).

moving on in our search , its highly recommended that in view of indian vastness and diversity, we include many others in the probable lists of obamas. this needs us to look at the other side that obama himself embodies. a minority enslaved and the recieving end if deep seated racial hatred , he has to overcome many odds to reach the white house. so should an indian sc/st/obc not be equated with him? we dont kill for race, we kill in the name of caste. and so we have the likes of kanshiram (had he known obama wud dothis he wudve postponed his demise am sure) , and now mayawati fit the bill this way. rich now, poor yesterday, illitrate then the same now, powerless then , powerfull to the point of arrogance today, and a woman. what more does india want in her answer to the black american prez?!
a muslim pm did anyone say ? now tat i think wud be a very interesting scenario. for undoubtedly muslims are a minority that has been much neglected in the nation. but who woudl have the couraget o accept this? whih political outfit would actually publicly accept that muslims were taken for a ride by them and a\do ammends by iomplying the sacchar committee report? none! and so its next to immpossible for us to dream of a muslim obama. not only this , obama himself once in teh hot seat would develop the hatered that white hosue has for islam sooner than later. and we being strategic "partners" we cant have a muslim head of state!
that leaves just one name in my mind who can eb india's answer to obama!! and tat is rakhi sawant! she was poor, marginalised( all indian women are per se ), illiterate(she still is), oppressed( on account of her well-endowed assets) , jeered, ridiculed (out of sheer jelousy ) and ofcourse a controversial past ( tats our indian pre requisite to make to the natons top office). and whats more , we win femeinst brownie points for having both a lady prez and a lady pm ( now wudnt tat be awesome, both together watching balaji serials while the nation goes to dogs? am sure the jobless prez of ours must be looking forward to this). yeah i am sure rakhi is the IT girl( in other terms too) . india need not look too far for her own obama! albiet we should now call her obami!

i write this with a heavy heart. as i type these sad words, an eracomes to an end. a vrey integral part of my life, for the past 8 yrs,has come to an end. and as is with most partings, its a heavy hurtthats left in my mind as i bid good bye to this very cherished thing,for ever.

yes dear frends, the daily soap kahani ghar ghar ki , has ended. thelast episode was aired tonight at ten pm. the time that was synonymousfor me with teh serial for the past 8 years , will no longer be thesame for me.

it all began 8 years back in 1999, wen i was in tenth , and star pluswas still a new hindi channel , with some basic nonsense in the nameof programming gluing ever faithfulls like me to the idiot box. and incame the adds, a diya burning, and two hands rshing to hold it as awind blows past the burning diya in front of a ram idol. 

and stunnedwas my mum , like millions other houswives were, with the sheerbrillinace of the idea and concept of wathcing the daily bickering ofsaas - bahu on national television. so started a relation , rishta intele-speak, tat lasted for 8 long years.parvati , om , trishna, and the rest became like family to us. theybecame names that were taken in the smae breath as those of closerelatives, as if we lived with them each and every moment of ourlives. talk shows , news , gossip, parvati and her saas were all over.

an epitome of sita, of durga and the real indian stree, she ruled trpsfor like forever. in the process, taking the form of goddess laxmi forstar plus and ekta kapoor , that master mind behind the serials withk's all over them.

it was magical , characters died, got reborn , died again and resurfaced like a pheonix from ahses. men , for once were reduced tomere caricatures silently watching their ladies wage wars in thekitchen. scheming , smart, witty villanous ladies all, who knew how toavenge their sindoor and do paisa vasool justice to the dowries theygave before marrying their respective useless hubbies! women-power wasat its peak , if only on television.

and now , its all come to an end. many were seen rejoicing here, forsome ti was like diwali came a lil earlier this year ( last heard theall indian dukhiyaari-pati-andolan has called of fits fasting andannounced a national celebration in all its city branches in thecountry)but for many it is a serious loss that i guess will never becompensated for. 

ten pm each nite from monay thru friday will never bethe same again.may parvati find peace in her after life.

(p.s: for the severly addicted, star utsav is still running the reruns of the series, and  om  still has to get his third rebirth in the serial there, )

its time. the days are numbered. the clocks ticking faster since a week now, rushing to complete the cycles so that day turns to night and the day again, in a maddening haste. soon it will be the fatefull morning. full of anticipation and anxiety, i shall turn 25. silver jubilee of my existance on planet earth. 25 years of irritating troubling enjoying celebrating crying nagging survival , in the quest for greatness and unadultrated bliss. so ? bdays come and go ud say ha?!well , the first doctrine on the path to immortal glory , is to take ureself and things attatched to therein dead seriously. so considering the potential greatness waiting to embrace moi, its justified to take the event of my birth to the next ultimate level of recognition.( sadly not many share my views on this, yet all great men were opposed severely in their times. the world will know ! but i shal not be around no??!!).
so getting back to some seriou business, the main differentiating factor ( geek-phrase number 223)between this day and ht eothers that have gone past, is that i turn old . yes the law of nature makes it imperitive for all to age with the years (except madhuri dixit . stop sniggering and concentrate on the more pressing issue on hand .)turning 25 suddnely gives me the jeepie-creepies. i shall form now on be expected to be mature, smart, intelligent, and grown up. in short, lifes all f****d up from now on dude!!!
so out goes all the fun in life. the signs are showing already. last month on a pre-bday shopping spree , i was adviced not to get too funky wid styles, tone down the colour palate to 'dignify my 25' (whatever that meant!) . a new set of regulations and rules wud now on be governing my existance in the grab of protocols for a matured life. i hate rules and i hate this new phase of life!! i am not ready to grow up. period .
is being 25 really so bad? taking stock of life so far, as i have always maintianed, i am content! if the next moment is my last , i wudnt turn into a ghost from a RGV film out to quench some unfulfilled thirst or desire. save the longing to meet lady M, i have had a fulfiling life. mor eimportantly if lifes gonna be as dumb and unexciting as it is being made out to be form now on, i sincerely pray i dont live to see it !! naah, i dont think so! i guess some instincts never die out. you cant take out silliness and downright obnoxious behaviour from me. thats what defines me. the whackiness, the quriky , moronic streak and the flamboyance of a 5 yr old showing off his new toy, is the core essence of being me! and no amount of age , advice or bdays can ever take that away from me. so all those who are ready to mutate me into a grown up serious educated posh human fool, stay away. this cookie aint gonna crumble that way !!
ooops! another days gone contemplating what lies in store for post-bday life! the clocks ticking even faster , the days becoming night in a hurry, and its time! hope i have a happy birthday !!

indian civilization , has for long prided in itself for being the torchbearer of philosophy and knowledge in human race.since time immemorial ( a very very indian addition to the british lingua franca, this phrase too is loaded with philosophy!) we have been the leading intellectual think tank , spouting immense divine knowledge in the most mundane of our daily existances. as the rest of the ignorant world goes from one developmental milestone to another, we indians rest assured in the fact that one fine day , they will all turn to us for nirvana, till then we bid our time , and reinvent ways and means to keep alive this sprit of reaching out to the unknown , the eternal , the meaning of life !

as time has passed , though philosophy has remained much the same, the people preaching it , and in rare cases practicing it has changed .and who else to take on this onerous task of preserving our heritage than our very own bollywood??!! the symbol of everything tats remotely indian! so here we are , in the 21st century , wer our ages old streak of introspection and intellectual munching , is well preserved and honed by our very own hindi films! how did u ask?? ( u sure u live in india??? i hear even the moronic americans see the inner meaning in our films these days! get an appointment with the doc ;like now!! ) well read on to find out! 

sample this ,,,,,,,,,  one two three, one two three,duniya main aana hai freeduniya se jaana hai free, dekh tamasha duniya ka free!! three simple lines , in modern hinglish ( come on we all speak it , yet dont know wat it is actually called !! ) and what great thought lie burried deep in it! can nayhting else espouse the notion of boundry-less world , free of material desire and clashes therein, more simply than this? innane as it may sound ( we tend to cater to the lowest common denominator in our films u c), it puts across such a heavy idea in such an effortless manner! can the speilbergs , mel gibsons match this ?? 

no highbrow jargons for us please! we like our sermons served spicy hot and simple! the heroine cries out choli ke peeche kya hai ( let the perverted minds think wat they want , they shall repay for it in hell!!!), the whole nation burns the night oil discussing the underlying meaning in the loaded question.love and its myraid forms get compared to natures many facets in dilli ki sardi ( pyaar tera dilli ki sardi ,). 

edutainment runs in our blood, and so we teach our kids to be careful of environmental phenomena like lightnings in style ,in verse! ( baabuji zara dheere chalo , bijli khadi yahan bijli khadi ).virtues of ciggerette smoking get promulgated thru gyrations nonstop( beedi jaliale . padosi ke chuhle se aag laile!) geography is fun when remixed ( mian aayi hun u.p bihar lootne),u name it and we have it. whats more , we have created a special genre to immortalise this special artform, enshrining ancient wisdom in aheady cocktail of modern entertainment and economics , calling it The Item Number ( seriously , we need a guiness entry for the largest new words coined in english ).

so while the ignorant mind would jus be able to see a scantily clad gilr wet in rain ( or wine , depending on the budget of the film) , gyrating to a racy tune, the actual enlightened indian mind wud be able to reach out to the hidden meaning , grasp the message , and imbibe in the sermon all in a span of a 3 min item song.and bowing down to the dictum of eqaulity of women in all walks of life, item songs serve as an employment source for many an aspiring ladies, enabling them to serve the cause of the betterment of the MANkind ( bless their souls).

 so here we are , searching the answers to lifes toughest questions , expressing the mental ruminations creatively for arts sake! thank god for bollywood , indians can rest assured of a long long future , as they say , till time immemorial yet again!

hey there
me backs with a review after long. y u asks? coz moi didnt find anything worth reviewing in bollywood of late! with madhuri back to her domicile , me sadbhootnas! lolz
well finally i seem to have broken the vow of movie-celibacy and i was right in the theatre to watch bhoothnath.
starring big b and a new kid on the block , this is a summer kiddos stuff on offer from bollywood.
to be frank , i expected it to be a stupid sentimental stash of nonsense where the mom over acts the kid over acts and as always big b over acts.! sur[prisingly , i was surprised!! and how!! bhoothnath is fun , and fun while it is on.
the story line is simple, a ghost , played with elan by amitabh, doesnt like anyone living in his erstwhile mortal home, and in come shahrukh juhi and their son into the house. th eghost tries scaring th ekid out of hte house , instead the kid befriends the ghost and starts a lovely friendship that transcends age and lo behold ! even death and after life!! trouble is not far behind , in the form of amitabh's son who wants to break the house and make a resort. is the house broken ? i leave that fro you to discover.
amitabh and the child artist share an amazing onscreen chemistry, that forms the backbone of the film. the child is adorable, naughty and real treat , while amitabh as the ghost is equally amusing. the music of hte film is a plus, making for some nice tunes and enhancing the fun quotient. the sorry song in amitabhs baritone specially stays with you long after u leave the multiplex.( an apt follow up to maa from tzp). vishal shekhar ar efast prooving to be a dependable duo. special mention should be made for the special effects that add to the fun. juhi is great as the comic mum, while srk doesnt do much ( whats with that ponytail one wonders though ??)
all in all , bhoothnath is a treat for the kids as well as the adults( the melodramatic last half is interesting if not for the cringing climax , but hey all films have flaws!). go see it on a lazy hot sunday afternoon , and pep up ure spirits ! literally!!

Madhuri Dixit in Koffee With Karan

One of the strangest things if rind hard pressed to explain in life, is Pain. Physical, mental, emotional, whatever form it may be in, I don’t quite find words to put it down in. Pain, is weird, comes in many forms, and comes when u least want and expect it. But so do most other things in life. So then, what makes pain stand out?

For one, pain is not bittersweet, like happiness or love is. You feel pain, you cry out , period. You are not any day happy with the sensation, and never do you welcome it. Pain is always, well, ,,, painful. Now that’s another one of life’s big mysteries for me!! Does, then, nothing among the gamut of emotions that we feel, have anything in common with pain?

Well life does, and if ypou come to it , so does love. All three are inevitable, a par of the course of being alive. All define the experience of being human, the idea of humaneness. All are essential for growing up into a sound living being. And like love and life, pain too is universal. But while love and life are so vividly defined explained and understood, what makes us grapple so unsuccessfully with pain?

May be the reason is that we shirk off pain. Like love, happiness, is welcome, pain isn’t. While we rejoice and revel in the throes of the former two, the latter evokes sadness, tears and more of, pain!! Does that help in understanding pain better? Does avoiding pain, take us any closer to eradicating it from our lives? It certainly doesn’t, and therein lays our answer to actually lightening pain.

Acceptance is the key word,. Pain is the other side of happiness. It is as commonplace, as cyclic and as rhythmic as the rising and setting of the sun. So then why fear it? Revile it? Everything in life is beautiful, so is pain. All we need to do is look at it through the right pair of shades.

Having said this, am in now in a position to define pain? But then, I also do not possess the capacity to define mothers love, a friends trust, a partners knowing comforting smile, a teachers assuring nod, neither can i define the feeling of seeing your new born smile at you, nor can i define th satisfaction of quenching the thirst of a parched throat with that eternal elixir called water. Guess then, some things in life are best left undefined, yet are to be experienced, savoured and cherished nonetheless. And yes , Pain is sure one among them !!

Life and death are two sides of the same coin. both share a common inevitability , an uneasy certainity that one will follow the other. but the similarities end there, or rather in todays world , we make them end there.
while life throws up both good and bad on our platter , detah seems to obsolve one of all ills and crimes he / she might have committed in a lifetime. death has this strange quality of painting , in one single stroke , an entire dismally lead, ineffective, and tainted life , with hues of white sacred purity. this is especially true when the deceased embraces th eother world at the hands of an assasin. take benazir for instance!
a daughter of a slain leader, benazir was one of the firat women to lead an islamic country. she was heroic in he rdefiance of the fundamentalist forces in her home country, in th emanner in which she handled her family and politics (much of which was murky ) deftly.being educated, forward thinking, out of a burqa , and standing shoulder to shoulder with men in an islamic country is no mean feat , and benazir deserves to be a role model for women acroos the subjugated and backword muslim world.
yet, was benazir really all that she is being made out to be posthomously? the western media has called her hte matyr of democracy, the daughter of the east ( in her own words), was benazir really a pathbreaking leader statesman that pakistan produced?
at the cost of speaking ill of the deceased, benazir, for most part of her public life,was an unextraordinary and ineffective premier.
her prime ministership ( for breif spells each time) smacked of inefficinecy on her part. terror outfits aided by the establishment in pakistan flourished right under her nose, while she did nothing to counter the growing clout of th emillitary on the pakistani state.
corruption was at an all time high , lawlessness ruled ht eroost, relations with india were at the lowest ebb . and pakistan was still in an economic mess ( not that it ever was in an upward mode).
even out of power benazir did not show the gut or the intent to fight a dictator in her country. instead she chose asafe life of exile , in dubai , waiting to rrturn only after she had a pact ready with the very person who was responsible for the mess pakistan is in today. her return , is now being hailed as the last hope for pakistans democratic future. but till her detah she had shied away from addressing the actuall issues that leaders like nawaaz sharif have been raising all along. neither was a free judiciary on he radar , nor was a unbiased beurocracy her need. she showed an uncanny desperation to get back to power , even at the cost of mending ways with the dictator.
given this , its unsettling to see the the world is heaping praise on her after her tragic death , forgetting , and in effect forgiving her for all that she contributed to the downfall of pakistan. her death has no doubt deepend the crisis in our neighbouring state, but benazir was not the solution to the chaos that pakistan is todya. she certainly was a part of the cancer that has seeped into the pakistani democratic system.
but , i guess , as they say , a death died well is far important than a life less lived.!may allah rest hersoul in peace!!