Meaningless Struggle!

I felt powerless, I felt insignificant, I saw him slip away and I couldn't do anything but watch...He was there, He was among us and now lives only in tales, as if he never existed.

We work hard all our life, striving hard living for others. We build it with our sweat and blood and then, its not ours. Strangers become in-charge of what belonged to us, making decisions which we might or might not have approved of.

We spent our lives trying to build assets and take ownerships, and then we die. We die and we own just the 10x3 grave and nothing else...life is just a dream and we are just characters in it.

Down with Swine Flu

Yes the news is I am the latest victim of Swine Flu and trust me it hurts. My body feels like a furnase sometimes and sometimes I feel as if I am naked in the freezing night.
Ironically I had got myself vaccinated against swine-flu (H1N1 Influenza Virus) on 14th of October 2009 and it still got me.
Apparently the human body takes about 2 weeks to develop antibodies (immunity) against the disease or sometimes it may even fail to do so. The virus might have got me before my body was ready against it. Whatever the case, my body hurts and I want to get better.

Eid Mubarak

Eid Mubarak (Blessed Eid) to everyone who is reading my blog and to the lot more who don't.
A lot of us celebrated Eid in the US today, and there are some who reasoned that it must be tomorrow, so Eid Mubarak to them too. There were Prayer venues scheduled at five places near Sterling, Virginia with four to five batches for each of them.
The timings were 7am, 8am, 9am, 10am and 11am... a lot of options indeed, to suit one and all. I took the 11am one, don't think I am lazy, it wasn't my choice :)
When I look at it, a month of fasting has gone by, a brilliant one indeed. I had lunch for the first time in over 30 days today, and does my tummy hurt or what? My poor stomach must be thinking... what the heck happened to you, first you dont show me anything for a month and then you decide to dump what ever comes handy :)

Router as a Switch

I was faced with the issue of having multiple Network Devices and just one network port.

Now there is some hardware called Y-Splitter available in the market but I didn't have the time to order that, and I think they charge a lot more money that the device is worth. A Y-Splitter makes use of the 4 unused wires out of the 8 present in a CAT 5 cable and up links 2 ports (from the link source) into 1 and then branches it off again into 2 points (at the link destination).

Illustration:-



I however wanted to use the router I already have (Secondary) besides the Gateway Modem provided by the ISP (Primary). The Idea is to provide multiple network points at the site away from the Primary without introducing a new series of IPs the the Secondary would normally generate. This way there would be two networks with different GATEWAYS and having multiple network devices in the same WorkGroup will be difficult.

To be able to do this there are a few things I needed to take care of:

1. Assign a Local IP to the Secondary from the series of the Priamary Gateway but out of the range defined in the Primary.

2. Disable the DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)Server on the secondary server so that Secondary ceases to act as a router and doesn't start allocating its own series of IPs.
If the range on the Primary is set as 10.1.10.2 to 10.1.10.100, set the Secondary Router IP to something outside this range like 10.1.10.101

3. It is important to leave the WAN (Wide Area Network) port on the Secondary unconnected.
The WAN port would normally serve to receive a connection from the outside network - Internet and then route it to other devices over the LAN (Local Area Network). We don't want the Secondary to do that.

4. Instead connect the UpLink (any LAN port) of the Primary to the UpLink port of the Secondary and then route connection to other devices from the Secondary as you would normally do.
This way the Secondary functions as a Switch rather than a Router. All devices on the network would now have IPs from the series and in the range defined on the Primary.

Illustration:-

The Rain Bomb!

It rained like I have not seen in the recent past. The balck clouds were spread out like an infantry, out there to overwhelm the clear blue sky. It was so overcast that it was soon dark, and the rain made it worse. I was driving and couldn't see any thing except the redness of the break-lights of other cars on the road. It looked like "the city in the night from an aeroplane" if you looked ahead of you, and thats all you could see. The visibility was so much reduced that I had to keep my focus on the white paint on the road meant to define the lanes. Then sometimes there would be so much water on the road that the splashing would rise like a cloud in front of you almost blinding your sight. It was very different and nevertheless it was amazing.

Anyway Ramazan from tomorrow, so got to get some sleep before I wake up early morning...very early infact...like 4:30AM :)
May the blewwings be showered like the rain feeding the thirsty earth!

Whats in a name anyway?

I have a rather long name if I write the whole thing:

Mirza Tajamul Baig Badakhshani! Yes I know thats pretty long name :)

I, for long now have had a few ideas about the what and where-from of the parts of my name. I can gladly admit most of my preconceptions seem to be correct. I had been curious to try and understand how I got such a name and what it means, if at all anything. I have been told stories about my forefathers having come from Persia, and then more recently from Afghanistan with the Mughals (I am not sure if we were Mughals or not).

With a little help from these stories it is pretty much easy to comprehend the origins of each of the parts of my name. Well yes, except for the part that says Tajamul, thats because it is my given name.

Although I did have a vague idea about the origins of some of the parts of my name, but I was in for some surprise. Quite recently I was made aware of a much deeper Persian connection than I had ever imagined when one of my friends from Iran wanted to know if I was from the royal family.

A few minutes back I gladly fumbled upon some literature on Wikipedia which explains my name to me, and I must admit it sounds very convinsing.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirza) : -
The title Mirza (Persian: ميرزا - Mīrzā) is used for a member of a royal family descent or a member of the highest aristocracy. The name Mirza is still in use today by members of ruling or formerly ruling princely and royal houses all over the world. The Mirza is a caste of Mughals. The Mirza title was also given to Muslim Warriors during the Mughal rule and to other noblemen loyal to the king.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baig) : -

The name Baig is derived from the Turkic word Beg or Bey, which means chieftain or chief (i.e leader/commander.) Baig was a title given to honorary members of the Barlas clan, and was used as the family name for their children. The members of the Mughal Dynasty belonged to the Barlas clans and "Baigs" were high ranking military leaders and advisors to the Mughal Royal Families. Baigs occupied the upper echelons of society in the conquered parts of South Asia.

Baig was also used as a military rank in the Ottoman Empire.

The diaspora of Baig's can be found in India/Pakistan, Iran, Central Asia, Turkey, Former Yugoslav and the Balkans. Significant immigrant populations in Canada, US, UK, Europe

For the Mughal use, the honorific title Mirza (Persian: ميرزا) was added before the given name for all the males and 'Baig' (Persian: بیگ) was added as a family name.

Historically Mirza (as the title), The Given Name, and Baig (as the surname), was the naming style for the Baigs who settled in Mughal South Asia. For example: 'Mirza Mansur Baig'.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badakhshan) : -

Badakhshan (Persian: بدخشان, Tajik: Бадахшон) is an historic region comprising parts of what is now northeastern Afghanistan and southeastern Tajikistan. The name is retained in Badakhshan Province which is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, in the far northeast of Afghanistan, and contains the Wakhan Corridor. Much of historic Badakhshan lies within Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province located in the in south-eastern part of the country. The music of Badakhshan is an important part of the region's cultural heritage.

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"All quiet on the western front" - Erich Maria Remarque

"Comrade I didn't want to kill you. If you jumped in here again, I would not do it, if you would be sensible too. But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response. It was that abstraction I stabbed. But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony-Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy? If we threw away these rifles and this uniform you could be my brother just like Kat and Albert. Take twenty years of my life, comrade and stand up-take more, for I do not know what I can even attempt to do with it now."

The American-Desi Dilemma

Its funny to see Desi Americans' accusing each other of being typical desi when they don't like a certain behaviour. Seems like they are in constant denial and persistently trying to prove something to themselves, rather than to others.

Saints and Men

I met a Muslim, a Musician, a Singer and a Dancer...It was amazing, it was just one person.
Makes me wonder if somethings we disapprove of are necessarily evil.

I Graduate Today!

I graduate from my Business School today. As much as I would have loved to join the party and celebrations, I can't. I am away many a hundred miles in another continent trying to conquer the next challenge life has thrown in my way.
There is no dark gowns, no signature caps, no photo shooting, no names being called out for me today, but still a big cheer in my mind saying "congrats!! its your day too".
I am here by myself, away from the friends and foes together, not excited or jubilent but content in my mind. I am content knowing I gave my better self to the academic year that has gone by and achieved what I worked hard for and deserved.

50 Years In and Still Undecided

" We need to come together and decide" this is what the Hurriet Conference, the seperatist political wing in Kashmir has been saying ever since it's inception.

I was dismayed to learn that no one in the Hurriet Leadership has a clue of what they want to do, or how they want to resolve the Kashmir Issue. I do not know what the personal stance of Syed Ali Shah Geelani is on the matter, but apparently he was the chief opposition to the "4 Point Solution" suggested by Parvez Musharaff, the then President of the Republic of Pakistan. Not aggreeing with someone or something is completely just, but only when you have a different opinion or a coherant solution to the same problem at hand.

It is well establised and common sense that successful leadership doesn't just bring in a lot of authority, it also demands a mountain of responsibility. It doesn't need a University degree or a very high qualification to ahold the fact, that the first step in the hunt for something is to know what you are looking for. I feel this is where the the Hurriet Conference, as a Representative Leadership of the Kashmiri people seem to have failed. How is it possible that the Kashmiri struggle to free itself from an illegal occupying country, has gone on for as long as the history of the free Republic of India, which continues to occupy Kashmir, and yet we have not come up with a coherant solution to this problem yet.

The Hurriet Conference calls for strikes in the valley, crippling life and livelihoods, but when it come to a serious dialogue with the people who can resolve the long pending issue, they should not fall short of ideas on what to suggest and what they want.
Recently Parvez Musharaf was on record suggesting that no one in the Hurriet Conference could guide or advise him as to what the Kashmiri people want, as a result of which he came up with his "Joint Control 4 Point Formula". This formula may be completely virtual and to ideal to implement in reality but I feel it was a start.

To be able to decide what you want, you need to have imagined and dreamed of what success should look and feel. Apparently the task of shaping a solution to the Kashmir Issue never crossed the minds of the Hurriet Conference and as such we have never seen a serious blue print of a solution. I question them if they have a vision for a free Kashmir? If the answer is yes, can they present it in a coherent way that we as ordinary Kashmiris can understand an imagine, rather than empty and meaningless words.

If you do not know what you want or you can not present a demand/solution coherently, you make a joke of yourself. You not only end up sounding confusing but ridiculously confused.

Harper's Ferry

Yesterday was fun, went to Harper's Ferry, a serene and scenic spot on the intersection of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers in West Virginia. Also saw Charles Town West Virginia, named after Charles Washington, the brother of the first American president George Washington.

On my way back checked some Sports bikes. The sales agent wanted to know about the bike I already have so that he could suggest my new bike. The ones I was looking at are a 1000 c.c and the one I have is is 200 c.c, so when he asked me how many c.c's my exisiting bike is, my gentle reply was "just a little less than the one I am looking at" In the end we decided Suzuki Hayabusa is the one I deserve :)

Is STRIKES a solution?

Lets analyse the effectivenss of a STRIKE in Kashmir:
Issue: Demilitarization of the region
Strategy: None
Tactic: General Stirkes and Shutdowns

Effected population: (mostly Kashmiri's)
1. Students
2. Business owners
3. Employed People
4. Daily Workers

Now let us examine the nature in which each of these are effected:
1. Students: Loss of a day, week, month, or a year depending on the duration of the strike. Courses completed in time which goes beyond the stipulated duration. Prospects of a current or future placement for education or employment adversely effected.

2. Business Owners: Shops remain closed or even if a small percentage is open there is no business since there are no buyers or sellers.

3. Employed People: Since businesses remain closed, they don't have to go to work. Since the employer isn't making any money they don't get paid.

4. Daily Workers: Shutdown means no transport, no work and no jobs meaning no money. Now its pretty clear that the results haven't been promising so far. Lets analyse it a bit more;Students not completing their courses in the stipulated time period means that they have are handicaped when compared to their counter parts elsewhere. What this maginifies into is something more difficult to deal with and possibly hard to accept - lack of opportunties that they deserve or are worthy of. This happens equally in education and in employment, and when this happens THEY think Kashmiri's are discriminated against (sometimes true-but that doesn't make it a rule), well in fact the truth is our students might not have the same credentials (Yes friends completing your courses in time is one of them).

Lack of selling and buying opportunities for business owners doesn't just mean that they earnings are effected (and some of you don't care since they can afford it), it also means that they people they employ lose their earnings (o yes we do care for the non-so-rich). Many of these employees are parents to these unfortunately student class. So these people now don't qualify as a seperate class, but infact if you are a STUDENT your problems just compounded, your parent's hands are now a little more tied up financially than otherwise.

Daily workers - do we even know this class exists? Yes it does, these are the same people who live a day to day life, earn just enough for the hand to mouth living. Anyones who goes out everyday looking for work and is paid on a daily basis falls in this category. And now you can imagine what a day off in their lives mean....hmm you do know it.

As far as my humble opition goes, I don't think there is a strategy to what the Hurriet is doing or just trying to do, remember Strategy is long term and has to be sustainable. Given the picture I tried to paint above, how to you sustain an indefinite strike and expect people to do nothing when this tactic gives them nothing but just asks of them.

A people that can think and understand is a people that that knows what it NEEDS more than just what it WANTS. Sometimes in our unquenched thirst for what we want we forget the more important thing in life - what we need. Education is what I feel we need, education doesn't just mean fancy degrees and big qualifications, it goes beyond. It is having the strength to listen to different schools of thought and have empathy.

What we are stuck in is a sheep culture, following the head-sheep without any thought or consideration. Education means the ability to question things and rate them on their merit, it is the ability o see the Right from Wrong...Yes being able to identify the RIGHT when many others don't see it yet, can be an uphill task, breaking away from the herd of sheep is like swimming upstream, but thats what makes us HUMAN I guess, and not SHEEP

4 Days 2 States and a Posh wedding

Day 1.

8 hours of British Airways hospitality from Herthrow Terminal 5 to Dulles international Airport in Washington D.C and then about an hour of standing in the Immigration Queue and moving at a snails pace. Twenty minutes drive to Fairfax county Virginia and a dinner at "Charcoal Kabaab".

Day 2. (Virginia)

Early morning wake up call at aroujnd 5 AM, a quick shower and then what seemed like an endless wait for the clock to strike 8 AM. About half and hour drive to the Reagan Airport in Washington D.C. in what was supposed to be rush hour and should have lasted more than and hour. There was little trouble finding a Day Parking spot but then we discovered it was just before our eyes. As if this wasn't exciting enough the elcetronic Kiosks for the American Airlines won't work and then the nice lady at the counter seemed to have come from history and as if it was her first time on the keyboard. She would type with one index finger and then stop for a while and then continue again as if thinking where to take her plot for her novel from there. Anyway as they say it was Just-in-Time for us to board the plane.

Day 2. (Saint Louis)

The plane landed as scheduled and to everyones surprise the bride's father was there to pick us up from the airport, what a gentleman that must be. Soon afterwards I was in one of the rooms of the Hilton Hotel, yes it was bit of a treat since I have't been in one before.

The festivities and merry making started soon. The buffet was set and women in the most coulourful silk sarees and men hoplessly trying to compete with that in their suits.

It was the night of the "Mehandi", the Bride's Maids were dressed beautifully in their yellow silk sarees with beautifully cut green borders. It was the perfect entrance for one of the prettiest brides I had seen in a long time (I haven't attended many weddings in a long time actually). The groom looked mostly lost the whole time, deceptively shy and humble as much as he was, he removed the misconceptions with a brilliant dance performance with his friends staged in front of his beloved would be. It was a great way to end the beautiful say on a fantanstic note.

Ilford – Essex (Greater London, UK)

Heading Back Home

This was long time coming almost two years now, I am finally going to the place I call home – Kashmir. I call it home for a multitude of reasons, I have spent most of the years of my life in that beautiful valley, this is where my parents live and given a choice I would want to live here.

The thought of going home is always nostalgic, it brings back a host of memories. I can almost feel the freshness of the morning air as it fills my lungs making me cold inside my body, the greens that surround me wherever I look, and most of all, the sense of belonging to my people, even those I might not have ever spoken with or known by their first names.

There is a sort of tension within me, its not stress but more like excitement, the sort that a student has just before sitting for an exam, the tension that a person feels on his first date. Though I am taking a couple of weeks of a well deserved break now, my mind is full of things to do and people to meet while I am there that the time still feels too little.

I hope to see it better than the last time I left it and hopefully recharge myself once again.

Can you do it?

Remember my last post JFDI, of course you do (if you don’t its OK). This time I decided to miss the “F”, one for the indecency of the word and second because I can do so :)

If someone has been bugging you suggesting that you can do a lot more than you think you can, don’t take it as a silly morale boosting attempt from a friend. It is that, but definitely not just that…O yes! its is true. If you really want to do something and you sincerely put in efforts towards that end, it will happen. You might not get it completely right the first time, but then you have to perfect by practice. This is were the doers differ from the dreamers. The doers don’t stop when they seem to have lost the plot, but instead keep doing it till they get it right.

Many of us don’t realize what we are capable of until we are put in a situation that demands the job of us. I remember myself attending a very popular motivational speaker’s lecture. He was suggesting the ideas that I have tried to say here, and that many people tell us everyday. These speakers cite a lot of examples of people who have done what they never seemed was possible, but then this brings up a very logical question about their percentage. Unfortunate but its a fact, for every 1 success story there must be a thousand stories of failures that we never heard about.

At first these words do seem a lot of air and politically correct speech, but there is more to it than that, it is true. We were given a simple exercise and some 5 minutes to finish it. We were asked to write a short story, with the only clause that the pen wouldn’t stop before the story was done or the time for the assignment was over. It must sound as silly to you now as it did to us at that time, yes that is what first impressions do. I can tell you that no one in the audience was novelist and most hadn’t written must in the recent years of their lives except maybe business reports. The best part is that many people came up with amazingly good content and some with not so great stuff, in that short span of time. The biggest challenge is starting, giving it a go, trying it, doing it, getting out of that state of inertia of rest.

This was proved to me yet again couple of days back. I was talking to a friend about the lecture I had attended, and he decided to see if he himself could write a story if he tried. He did, not like in the exercise ,non stop and fast, but gave himself three days. He gave himself enough thought and time to put something in place and he is done. It isn’t the best piece I have read and it definitely isn’t the best piece he can write, but he did it. It isn’t about how good you can do it the first time, but believing that you can do it and then actually doing it. How many times must have the Edisons, Newtons and Picassos failed before they got it right. If you see Picasso’s earliest paintings…with out any disrespect, they don’t even deserve a second look, but look at what he got himself into as he kept going.

Ever thought about it; many of us are right handed but does that mean we can’t write with our left hand, the answer is yes we can, only if we really want to and for some if they really have to do it. You can do a lot of things, depending on how much you want it and how sincere you are in your quest.

Now there might be some of you who wouldn’t like this post, or maybe be critical of the flow of ideas, the presentation and many other things which you can think of. However my point is that I am trying to better myself…I am trying!!

Recommended Reading…

For often well critiqued and fairly analyzed articles and blogs on world affairs, from the perspective of the most targeted race (Muslims) follow the link below:

http://www.aljazeera.com/

I suggest read through Gilad Shalit story to get a reality check about “peace loving hypocrites” who have a different yard stick for their own kind.

A picture is worth a thousand words…

Some cartoons I received in my email. Worth sharing with all of you, I think.

Interesting enough, don’t you agree that these images/cartoons remind of Hitler’s Nazi and the misery of the Jewish people. Sadly they are doing what they claim was done to them, so who is the victim?

A Gaza-Palestinian museum?

By Dallas Darling

When Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazis and the Third Reich, designed and set about to build his universal city in Europe, he planned for a Museum of Jewish Culture. Situated in Prague, the museum would showcase the Jewish religion and traditions, their art and music, and their philosophy and history. In truth, though, it would be a museum of extinct ethnic peoples.

It seems that in these modern times, genocide and mass murder have become as frequent as it had in the past, if not more so. Not only did the Twentieth Century produce the killing fields of Eurasia, Uganda, Vietnam, Cambodia, Haiti, Guatemala, East Timor, Rwanda, and Yugoslavia, but so far this century has witnessed mass slaughter in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And now, there is Gaza and the Palestinians.

Refugee camps are much like museums. They consist of individuals, or groups of peoples and nationalities, that have been deported and that somehow time and progress have forgotten. “Progress” considers them “lesser” human beings. In the eyes of imperial nations, they are second class citizens. Their lives do not count for very much. Such has been how the world, including the United Nations (UN), have viewed the existence of the dispossessed Palestinians living in Gaza.

In many ways, the futuristic Gaza museum has been made possible by accomplices like the U.S. that supplies billions of dollars in arms and missiles to Israel. These weapons have been raining down and consuming Gaza day and night. The UN has as well shown itself to be a bystander in Gaza’s resistance in becoming a museum. Some Arab nations too have become ineffective. What is tragic is that it is more than about Israel, Hamas and Fatah. It is about the 1.5 million Gazans, many of them women and children, who have no choice but to live in Gaza.

The recent damage inflicted on Gaza and the Palestinians is colossal. Thousands of hospitals, schools, mosques, clinics, apartment buildings, food warehouses, and homes, have been destroyed. But I doubt if this will be included in the Gaza Museum, along with these fatality rates: 437 children, 138 women, 132 elderly men, and the more than 5,500 (2,000 are children) who were wounded. With over 50,000 left homeless and almost 500,000 without many of the basic necessities, such as water, electricity, and medicines, the victors are always very careful about what to exclude or what to leave out.

At the same time, museums, especially those established by the dominant order, almost always display a selective history and selective memory. The Qassam rockets and Hamas tunnels will be displayed, but not the pictures of the refugees of Ashkelon and Beersheba, which were driven out by the Israeli Army in 1948. Neither will the food and fuel sieges, Hamas’ democratic rise to power, or when Israel broke Hamas’ own truce, be displayed. A biased collective memory allows a nation to escape collective guilt. In rewriting history, museums of extinct peoples become easily justified.

A few countries and nations which have also suffered from imperialism and colonization understand. Bolivia and Venezuela have called on the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel for war crimes and the use of illegal weaponry. But those who remain in power are always the winners and are seldom brought to trial and tried for war crimes. Only the conquered are punished, as Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein found out. The morality of war and war crimes are more about military strength than that of justice.

Don’t be fooled by the ceasefire. There will be future occupations, blockades, and military interventions in Gaza, and Gaza will slowly die. In 1982, and in reference to the Israeli war in Lebanon, Meron Benvenisti, who was ordered to take extensive archives on Palestinian culture and history from the PLO’s Palestine Research Center in West Beirut, said, “This was not only to destroy them as a political or military power, but to take from them their history, to erase that because it is troublesome. This was a profound need or urge not to allow the Palestinians to be a respectable or historic movement. (1)

Israel’s assault on Gaza destroyed billions of dollars worth of buildings and infrastructure in an already impoverished territory. Economists claim that it will take five years to rebuild Gaza. The thousands killed and those still being pulled out of the rubble, including children with bullets lodged in their heads, will never again rebuild their lives. The Israeli military invasion of Gaza has sadly brought the Gazans, along with their faiths, histories, traditions, arts, and ideas, one step closer to becoming a museum. This travesty reveals that even in the 21st Century, the powerful Few still decides who lives and who dies.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has assured the world that his nation has won the Israeli-Gaza War. When peoples and nations fight each other and some become extinct, no one wins. Instead, the whole world, along with its diversity and possibilities, is at an enormous loss. And it is a great loss! Finally, militant extremists everywhere-whether they live in Israel, Gaza, the United States, or are a part of the UN, or are collaborators and suppliers in arms-must stop the insanity of violence and war. If not, not only will Gaza become a museum of extinct peoples, but the entire Earth.

-- Dallas Darling is the author of The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace, and is a writer for www.worldnews.com. You can read more of his articles at www.beverlydarling.com.

Note: (1) Stone, Ronald H. and Dana Wilbanks. The Peacemaking Struggle: Militarism and Resistance. New York, New York: University Press of America, 1985. p. 69.

Snow here…Snow there

OK here I am and the update is of the first decent snow fall of this season in London. I got out to take some pictures, unfortunately I wasn’t dressed appropriately for the job and came rushing back in.

I am not too enthusiastic to do this again at least now, so the pictures may seem a little not so good :)

No no no, its not a cage although it might look so. Just the street view at close to 10pm outside my flat.

Now that is some crafty photo shooting… look at the car and the lights…incomprehensible!!

Sheikh Abdullah-The up rooter of Kashmiriyat ?

The following is something I saw posted by a friend on a social networking website. It only made me think and ponder!

Quote:

“He may be the valley’s first post graduate, he may have given land to the tiller but now decades later, when near and dears of victims curse his grave and historic existence, his formal title “Lion of Kashmir” transforms into something meaningless. Had Sheikh Abdullah resisted power and not taken over as the Chief Minister and died as a freedom fighter, history of Kashmir would have been different. I ask , who really gained from the exit of Maharaja? History bears witness to the atrocious cruelties suffered in version of a democracy by the people of my land.
Regardless of Maharaja’s unpopularity among masses, The Maharaja was still the most significant figure in the dispute before 1949.He had the rights as a signer of the accession of Kashmir. His stay was substantive till all the requirements of accession were met. Maharaja’s powers were a crucial reference in deciding the future of Kashmiris. It would had negotiated the future power structure of Kashmir Unfortunately, his exit marked the gloom of evil and every hope of optimism vanished. However I should add that the the legality of a fleeing Maharaja signing the deed of accession is a suspect.However it does go to the credit of the Maharaja that he ensured that the final decision is left to the people of Kashmir. This is important because the deed was the last credible reference to people. Thereafter the conflict has revolved around table to table,land to land with a token of Kashmiris getting butchered everyday.
Sheikh Abdullah was not an elected leader by any means. His popularity was endorsed by Indians which came at a price and his advantageous purchase with Indians completely destroyed the social and political fabric of Kashmir. His political thought was not a problem for Indians. Exit of Maharaja accommodated Indian concerns because India at that time was too ignorant to grant Kashmiris full sovereignty which Maharaja had made very clear in the “deed of accession” . Maharaja was seen as an obstructer and Sheikh Abdullah facilitated his exit. Sheikh Abdullah overrated his stature by thinking that he would be able to get a fair deal with the Indians. He altered priorities regarding basic human rights of Kashmiris and he ignorantly refused to become aware of the changing circumstances through his senses which resulted in the loss of his leverage in the pertaining political machinery. So he cowardly surrendered to the Republic of India.
Sheikh Abdullah was the architect of the Delhi Agreement. This agreement was designed as a power sharing structure between Delhi and Kashmir that covered draconian points which shifted the focus from accession and self determination to the implementation of the Indian Constitution. Maharaja’s vision of quasi-sovereign state was eroded by the Delhi Agreement through Sheikh Abdullah .The end result was that he got elected unopposed which made a joke to the sanctity of democracy. It not only completely eroded and uprooted the concept of sovereignty and independence, but also created a new context rooted in exigencies of the Indian Constitution as opposed to exigencies of the terms of accession. Even if I jokingly support Sheikh Abdullah’s school of thought, it still isn’t a great substitute as it could not be substituted for the sacred right to self determination as envisaged in the UN Resolutions in accordance with the wishes of the people of Kashmir.
Sheikh Abdullah’s power of politics on the eroded terms and conditions negated what he all along fought for the agricultural class & rise of feudal system and it weakened his popularity among the people of Kashmir. If he wouldn’t had played the role of a tyrant during the 1947-1953 period, Kashmiris would had made him a legend and a champion of rights of the masses. In the event of the death of an unrelenting Sheikh Abdullah, the people of Kashmir or even Pakistan would have got a valiant role model, a political martyr. But, it was the one and only Sheikh Abdullah who played a shrewd role in transforming an internationally recognized conditional accession to a final accession with India. Alas! In the event of death of Chief Minister Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah in 1982, the people of Kashmir were deprived of a political martyr and a valorous hero who was saddled in a regrettable legacy.”

Unquote.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I do not know if I have known the man enough, to say whether Sheikh Abdullah was the Sher-e-Kashmir (Lion of Kashmir) or not. What I can say without a doubt is, that he certainly was an extraordinary man. A man who was jailed for 10 years to give up his cause, a man who chose to live to be called a Traitor by his people, rather than die, to be remembered, a Hero.

Despite the fact that we all love Dead Heroes, I do not know if his death as a hero would have brought Kashmir or the Kashmiriyat in question, any good. Choosing to return to Kashmir as the Chief Minister and not dying in the Indian Jails as the exiled Prime Minister, he choose life like many ordinary men would, and do even today. We have many living examples even today, of men (wannabe leaders of Kashmir) who served long terms in Jails for extended periods of time for Azaadi (freedom) for the motherland, only to we worn down and come out as changed men. Men who want to raise a family, enjoy the riches, and unfortunately out of the ordinary eye, sometimes are notorious for enjoying the bliss of playing both sides.

Personally I think it is a difficult position to be in. After all choosing starvation over abundance, a jail term over freedom, an honest living over overwhelming riches; it is a choice not all men can make, or at least it is something that most men can't stick their guns to. This is a path which is extremely difficult to tread on, and unfortunately there are those who start with the best intentions but are not resilient enough. They fail somewhere along the way, only to be cursed for generations to come.

I believe, if we are there to blame these men for not being who we want them to be, we should try and walk a mile in their shoes, for that would at least make us appreciate the good they did, for in part at least they deserve that.

Be the change you want to see in the World!

Ghandi

Breaking Gaza’s will: Israel’s enduring fantasy

Something I read among the heaps of public opinions and views about the plight of the Palestinians...

By Ramzy Baroud

My three-year-old son Sammy walked into my room uninvited as I sorted through another batch of fresh photos from Gaza.

I was looking for a specific image, one that would humanise Palestinians as living, breathing human beings, neither masked nor mutilated. But to no avail.

All the photos I received spoke of the reality that is Gaza today - homes, schools and civilian infrastructure bombed beyond description. All the faces were either of dead or dying people.

I paused as I reached a horrifying photo in the slideshow of a young boy and his sister huddled on a single hospital trolley waiting to be identified and buried. Their faces were darkened as if they were charcoal and their lifeless eyes were still widened with the horror that they experienced as they were burned slowly by a white phosphorus shell.

It was just then that Sammy walked into my room snooping around for a missing toy. "What is this, daddy?" he inquired.

I rushed to click past the horrific image, only to find myself introducing a no less shocking one. Fretfully, I turned the monitor off, then turned to my son as he stood puzzled. His eyes sparkled inquisitively as he tried to make sense of what he had just seen.

He needed to know about these kids whose little bodies had been burned beyond recognition.

"Where are their mummies and daddies? Why are they all so smoky all the time?"

I explained to him that they are Palestinians, that they were hurting "just a little" and that their "mummies and daddies will be right back."

The reality is that these children and thousands like them in Gaza have experienced the most profound pain, a pain that we may never in our lives comprehend.

"I think that Gaza is now being used as a test laboratory for new weapons," Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor who had recently returned from Gaza told reporters in Oslo.

"This is a new generation of very powerful small explosives that detonates with extreme power and dissipates its power within a range of five to 10 metres

"We have not seen the casualties affected directly by the bomb, because they are normally torn to pieces and do not survive, but we have seen a number of very brutal amputations."

The dreadful weapons are known as dense inert metal explosives (DIME), "an experimental kind of explosive" but only one of several new weapons that Israel has been using in Gaza, the world's most densely populated regions.

Israel could not possibly have found a better place to experiment with DIME or the use of white phosphorus in civilian areas than Gaza.

The hapless inhabitants of the strip have been disowned. The power of the media, political coercion, intimidation and manipulation have demonised this imprisoned nation fighting for its life in the tiny spaces left of its land.

No wonder Israel refused to allow foreign journalists into the tiny enclave and brazenly bombed the remaining international presence in Gaza.

As long as there are no witnesses to the war crimes committed in Gaza, Israel is confident that it can sell a fabricated story to the world that it is, as always, the victim, one that has been terrorised and, strangely enough, demonised as well.

The Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on January 15.

"Livni said that these were hard times for Israel, but that the government was forced to act in Gaza in order to protect Israeli citizens.

"She stated that Gaza was ruled by a terrorist regime and that Israel must carry on a dialogue with moderate sources while simultaneously fighting terror."

The same peculiar message was conveyed by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as he declared his one-sided ceasefire on January 17.

Never mind that the "terrorist regime" was democratically elected and had honoured a ceasefire agreement with Israel for six months, receiving nothing in return but a lethal siege interrupted by an occasional round of death and destruction.

Livni is not as perceptive and shrewd as the US media fantasises. Blunt-speaking Ehud Barak and stiff-faced Mark Regev are not convincing men of wisdom. Their logic is bizarre and wouldn't stand the test of reason.

But they have unfettered access to the media, where they are hardly challenged by journalists who know well that protecting one's citizens doesn't require the violation of international and humanitarian laws, targeting medical workers, sniper fire at children and demolishing homes with entire families holed up inside. Securing your borders doesn't require imprisoning and starving your neighbours and turning their homes to smoking heaps of rubble.

Olmert wants to "break the will" of Hamas, i.e. the Palestinians, since the Hamas government was elected and backed by the majority of the Palestinian people.

Isn't 60 years of suffering and survival enough to convince Olmert that the will of the Palestinians cannot be broken? How many heaps of wreckage and mutilated bodies will be enough to convince the prime minister that those who fight for their freedom will either be free or will die trying?

Far-right politician Avigdor Lieberman, a rising star in Israel, is not yet convinced. He thinks that more can be done to "secure" his country, which was established in 1948 on the ruins of destroyed Palestinian towns and villages. He has a plan.

"We must continue to fight Hamas just like the United States did with the Japanese in World War II," said the head of ultra-nationalist opposition party Yisrael Beitenu.

A selective reader of history, Lieberman could only think of the 1945 atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. But something else happened during those years that Lieberman carefully omitted. It's called the Holocaust, a term that many are increasingly using to describe the Israeli massacres in the Gaza Strip.

It is strange that conventional Israeli wisdom still dictates that "the Arabs understand only the language of force." If that were true, then they would have conceded their rights after the first massacre in 1948. But, following more than 60 years filled with massacres new and old, they continue to resist.

"Freedom or death," is the popular Palestinian mantra. These are not simply words, but a rule by which Palestinians live and die. Gaza is the proof and Israeli leaders are yet to understand.

My son persisted. "Why are Palestinians so smoky all the time, Daddy?"

"When you grow up, you'll understand."

-- Ramzy Baroud is a Palestinian-American author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His work has been published in numerous newspapers and journals worldwide, including the Washington Post, Japan Times, Al Ahram Weekly and Lemonde Diplomatique. His latest book is The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle (Pluto Press, London). Read more about him on his website: RamzyBaroud.net.