The world is at war!
The tragedy is the world does not realise it.
Today Sri Lankan Cricket team was attacked in Pakistan just as they entered the stadium where they were to play an international game against the Pakistan team.
For the past decade or so, perhaps from the year Nostradamus predicted, the world is facing its third world war. A hidden and faceless enemy has declared hostilities against all the others who are not with it. It attacks the way we live; it attacks the values we live; it attacks the freedom we live with; it attacks the very foundation of equality we have attained over centuries of struggle for all faiths, colors and sexes.
From Bali, to WTC, to Mumbai, to Lahore, there is a design. To strike fear in the hearts of the world that is not with it. To make us distrust each other. To create more polarisation and isolate people of their faith so that they swell their ranks.
There seem to be no leaders with steel and statesmanship to take on this enemy. This enemy is the very product of those leaders' policies based on short term gain.
My heart goes out to the Sri Lankan team that saw death from such close quarters and those valiant Pakistani policemen who died saving them.
Are there leaders who are willing to take charge and save us and our values?
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Choose Life .. It's Beautiful!
Choose Life .. It's Beautiful!
I hope to live forever!
I know I will have to go one day. When the time comes.
Added to the myriad ways in which God can send my invitation. is a death at the hands of a terrorist.
As terrified citizens have been expressing their fears of such an end on television news channels, I have been thinking.
What happened in the last few days defies logic. Young men who should be enjoying the wonderful gift of life at its prime, instead choose to kill and maim innocent people who have done nothing to them directly.
Not exactly bravery!
Here I am going to court a bit of controversy and perhaps the ire of my friends and countrymen.
Their way of expressing their anger may be wrong but they are brave men alright!
They are not revolutionaries - no way - revolutionaries fight the armies of the enemy and not their innocent - but brave men nevertheless!
- These young men started off from home, knowing they are not going to return home.
- They knew they will face the might of one of the best armies in the world.
- They did what they did, under a belief and faith in God. However wrong and misplaced and misguided - yet implicit.
Compare that with the other terrorist - the rioter.
A few years back thousands of them roamed the Gujarat streets. A few years back they roamed the streets of Delhi and most of North India.
What is the motivation of these men who rob, rape and kill people of a community?
But first, a similarity between the fedayeen terrorist of Mumbai or 9/11 kind and these rioter terrorists - of the Ahmedabad or Delhi kind.
- They both blame an entire community, ethnicity, faith and country for wrong doing of a few individuals.
- They both find nothing wrong with punishing an entire community, and its softest, unguarded and innocent targets, to effect their revenge.
Here the similarity ends.
The rioters that roamed the streets of Ahmedabad or Delhi, were no brave men!
They were out to kill and not to give up their lives. They returned home from the business of looting, raping and murdering at the first sign of the security forces. They roamed the streets till they had a tacit approval of their leaders - Narendra Modi and Rajiv Gandhi respectively.
The rioters are not motivated by blinding love of their religion - unlike the fedayeen - or blinding hate of the other religion. They are motivated by the opportunity of robbing the properties; raping the women and generally giving vent to their failed and frustrated lives.
So, if I were to die at the hands of a terrorist, oh Lord, give me the bullet of the brave and misled fedayeen than the machete of the cold, calculating and cowardly rioter!
Better still, oh Lord, give them both a better sense, so that they and me die of ripe old age, having enjoyed Your beautiful creation - this life!
___________________________________________________
(Watch out for part -2, my views on brave and coward men and the media and politicians and Part - 3, what should be done other than prayer.)
___________________________________________________
Would love your views on my piece above. Do you think they were brave men?
I hope to live forever!
I know I will have to go one day. When the time comes.
Added to the myriad ways in which God can send my invitation. is a death at the hands of a terrorist.
As terrified citizens have been expressing their fears of such an end on television news channels, I have been thinking.
What happened in the last few days defies logic. Young men who should be enjoying the wonderful gift of life at its prime, instead choose to kill and maim innocent people who have done nothing to them directly.
Not exactly bravery!
Here I am going to court a bit of controversy and perhaps the ire of my friends and countrymen.
Their way of expressing their anger may be wrong but they are brave men alright!
They are not revolutionaries - no way - revolutionaries fight the armies of the enemy and not their innocent - but brave men nevertheless!
- These young men started off from home, knowing they are not going to return home.
- They knew they will face the might of one of the best armies in the world.
- They did what they did, under a belief and faith in God. However wrong and misplaced and misguided - yet implicit.
Compare that with the other terrorist - the rioter.
A few years back thousands of them roamed the Gujarat streets. A few years back they roamed the streets of Delhi and most of North India.
What is the motivation of these men who rob, rape and kill people of a community?
But first, a similarity between the fedayeen terrorist of Mumbai or 9/11 kind and these rioter terrorists - of the Ahmedabad or Delhi kind.
- They both blame an entire community, ethnicity, faith and country for wrong doing of a few individuals.
- They both find nothing wrong with punishing an entire community, and its softest, unguarded and innocent targets, to effect their revenge.
Here the similarity ends.
The rioters that roamed the streets of Ahmedabad or Delhi, were no brave men!
They were out to kill and not to give up their lives. They returned home from the business of looting, raping and murdering at the first sign of the security forces. They roamed the streets till they had a tacit approval of their leaders - Narendra Modi and Rajiv Gandhi respectively.
The rioters are not motivated by blinding love of their religion - unlike the fedayeen - or blinding hate of the other religion. They are motivated by the opportunity of robbing the properties; raping the women and generally giving vent to their failed and frustrated lives.
So, if I were to die at the hands of a terrorist, oh Lord, give me the bullet of the brave and misled fedayeen than the machete of the cold, calculating and cowardly rioter!
Better still, oh Lord, give them both a better sense, so that they and me die of ripe old age, having enjoyed Your beautiful creation - this life!
___________________________________________________
(Watch out for part -2, my views on brave and coward men and the media and politicians and Part - 3, what should be done other than prayer.)
___________________________________________________
Would love your views on my piece above. Do you think they were brave men?
Whose Blood?
Whose Blood?
My country is under attack! An invisible enemy attacks my country as it does rest of the world.
No they don't attack my religion. They attack my country.
They come from across the sea in ships and speed boats - armed with latest assault rifles, loads of ammunition, hand grenades and sophisticated bombs. These 'brave men' then kill people eating in restaurants; they spray bullets on fathers, mothers and children hurrying home in trains after a long day's labour!
Some mad leaders are placing guns in the hands of crazed young men with a blood lust. If they were revolutionaries, or emissaries of a faith, or fighters of a cause, then what message are they spreading?
I know there are saner people like you and me who outnumber these mad men at least 100 to 1. However, all we are armed with instead of rifles is - our belief in an all merciful God . The only ammunition we have is our prayers.
This weapon of ours seems to take forever to work. The Lord tests our faith thus. When it does work, which it sure does, it's a far more potent weapon than theirs for it protects not only us, the victims, but it also protects them, the tormentors. It reduces their ranks not by killing but by loving.
Prayer is love and love is like a balm that soothes all wounds irrespective of whose body bleeds - the hunter's or that of the hunted.
As we pray for all the peace loving people, let us also pray for those misguided and misled who carry out this bloody carnage at the behest of their leaders, in the name of God but at the bidding of the Satan.
It's these kids who need our prayer more than us.
Some deep and blinding anguish mars the senses of these young men that they perceive some convoluted glory in killing innocent people working in offices, eating in restaurants and hurrying home in trains.
Some spellbinding indoctrination makes them give up their own lives at the peak of youth - when they should instead be enjoying the gift of youth - in fedayeen (suicide) attacks on innocent and unarmed people.
It is they who need our prayers. May the all merciful God grant them good sense and love of life - that of the others and more importantly their own. For it's not the faith in Him that they lack - on the contrary they possess more of it than you and me - it is His guidance and His path that they lack.
I must thank my flickr friends who thought of me and my country from all over the world. Some of them wrote to me worried mails, and prayed for my countrymen.
Thanks Denise! Thanks Susan! Thanks Donna!
Thank you all my friends! I know all of you who see the horror being enacted in Mumbai will be concerned and will be praying.
Mercifully none of my family and hopefully none of the people we know were directly affected by this madness.
My country is under attack! An invisible enemy attacks my country as it does rest of the world.
No they don't attack my religion. They attack my country.
They come from across the sea in ships and speed boats - armed with latest assault rifles, loads of ammunition, hand grenades and sophisticated bombs. These 'brave men' then kill people eating in restaurants; they spray bullets on fathers, mothers and children hurrying home in trains after a long day's labour!
Some mad leaders are placing guns in the hands of crazed young men with a blood lust. If they were revolutionaries, or emissaries of a faith, or fighters of a cause, then what message are they spreading?
I know there are saner people like you and me who outnumber these mad men at least 100 to 1. However, all we are armed with instead of rifles is - our belief in an all merciful God . The only ammunition we have is our prayers.
This weapon of ours seems to take forever to work. The Lord tests our faith thus. When it does work, which it sure does, it's a far more potent weapon than theirs for it protects not only us, the victims, but it also protects them, the tormentors. It reduces their ranks not by killing but by loving.
Prayer is love and love is like a balm that soothes all wounds irrespective of whose body bleeds - the hunter's or that of the hunted.
As we pray for all the peace loving people, let us also pray for those misguided and misled who carry out this bloody carnage at the behest of their leaders, in the name of God but at the bidding of the Satan.
It's these kids who need our prayer more than us.
Some deep and blinding anguish mars the senses of these young men that they perceive some convoluted glory in killing innocent people working in offices, eating in restaurants and hurrying home in trains.
Some spellbinding indoctrination makes them give up their own lives at the peak of youth - when they should instead be enjoying the gift of youth - in fedayeen (suicide) attacks on innocent and unarmed people.
It is they who need our prayers. May the all merciful God grant them good sense and love of life - that of the others and more importantly their own. For it's not the faith in Him that they lack - on the contrary they possess more of it than you and me - it is His guidance and His path that they lack.
I must thank my flickr friends who thought of me and my country from all over the world. Some of them wrote to me worried mails, and prayed for my countrymen.
Thanks Denise! Thanks Susan! Thanks Donna!
Thank you all my friends! I know all of you who see the horror being enacted in Mumbai will be concerned and will be praying.
Mercifully none of my family and hopefully none of the people we know were directly affected by this madness.
Where have the Doves gone?
A New Kind of Enemy Needs a New Response.
Hawks are hovering over my country!
My country has been slighted.
A slight it could have done little to protect itself from. For ten years, no country in the world has escaped the ignominy of seeing its hapless citizens being mowed down.
A slight it finds itself at a loss on how to deal with. No country in the world has found an appropriate response to such a slight in the last ten years.
_______________________________________________________
A mood of anger and retribution!
The people are seething with anger! Just about coming to terms with India's new power in the world order built on the two decades of economic growth and half a century of Democracy, they are demanding India flex that power.
We have seen the US in hot pursuit.
Peace has not returned to the world but its soldiers are dying in an almost Vietnam kind of situation.
Its president had to admit his unpreparedness to tackle the enemy of this scale and this invisibility.
And of course he has the distinction of being the most ridiculed Presidents of the USA ever.
In the meanwhile this hot pursuit has pushed some more gullible young men with dreams of martyrdom against the big bad enemy of their religion, into the waiting clutches of the Generals of this hidden enemy.
But the people demand a hot pursuit nevertheless. Even if we know that that only helps swell the ranks of the enemy!
To fight the Satan, we do his bidding!
_______________________________________________________
The Enemy Beckons us to Strike at him and Increase his Numbers!
The world today is like a rat infested home. A housewife knows that you do not get rid of the rats by spraying bullets. Rats will just wait in their lairs and then strike when the lights are off and everyone is asleep. In the meanwhile they would be swelling their ranks by procreating.
This rat like enemy today is using these strikes to evoke a righteous and forceful reaction from us.
This reaction alienates its kind from the world and swells its armies, but it does not kill him!
______________________________________________________
The Enemy is Taking from us Our Morale!
The fact that we are now worried that he can strike anywhere. In trains. In temples. In office buildings. In nightclubs. In parliaments. In markets. In five star hotels. Seems like it is by design. A sample of all kinds of locations that cover all strata of the society.
_________________________________________________________
The Enemy Makes us Headless and Directionless!
Till yesterday, the guerilla aimed at decapacitating its massively larger enemy by assassinating its leaders.
Ask Indian Peace Keeping Force that operated against the LTTE in Sri Lanka. The LTTE snipers would take out the leader of our troops and then run down the confused troops. This kept happenig till our troops learnt to protect their leaders by making them wear uniforms similar to theirs and by keeping them in the midst of the formation rather than at the head of it.
Today's enemy is far savvier! He kills our leadership not our leaders.
Can you see the pattern?
The democratically elected President of the most powerful nation in the world, today looking like a shadow of his former self. A country that elected him less than four years ago, laughing and jeering at him.
Aren't our leaders facing the same fate today?
This enemy's snipers are not its riflemen but its propagandists!
I wonder how many derogatory SMSs, blogs and emails floating around today, seen as public sentiment by our television, are generated by the propaganda modules of the enemy!
The pattern is clear. The motive is very clear. We know who gains when leaders get eliminated. Do we still doubt who the culprit is?
_______________________________________________________
May be the enemy won't succeed. May be we can get better leaders?
Most dangerously, SMS, blogs and emails are now asking for the Army to move in and take over the country. Such fine soldiers, who have this image of impeccable honesty, should be able to protect our country and govern it better.
The messages are not only inviting or wishing for military rule but also provoking the men in uniform.
Look, how the politicians insult the soldiers! Look they can't even treat the mothers, a powerful word in India, of the slain soldiers properly! The TV channels then promptly get mothers of martyrs on television and speak against the politician.
The news channels show with glee the shameful incident of the father of a slain army officer throwing out the chief minister of his state from his house. The chief minister had come to offer condolences. One can pardon the act of the aggrieved father, but one can not extol this as a virtue of behavior. His son was a role model, not this act of the father.
Our TV channels go on regardless. They represent people's mood. People want change? Or do they? Or does someone else stoke the flames and guides the fire in a direction of their choice? Are the TV channels unwittingly playing in the hands of the enemy's information machine?
___________________________________________________
The Enemy Brings us Down from the High Ground!
Physical higher ground in conventional warfare gives disproportionate advantage to its occupant. We have had that moral higher ground due to our resilient democracy and human rights.
How much would be enough for some power-hungry or emotional (or both) General to roll his tanks and take over the country?
Our neighbors envy our democracy. They lose faith of their biggest ally, the US, because we have it, they don't.
There is a concept of force-equaliser in warfare. Do their propaganda modules aim for that? Would any enemy not?
Citizens of my country; media of my country; leaders of my country; security forces of my country - beware of this new enemy. Beware of his new warfare. A warfare with same objecives - kill leaders, bring down morale, equalise numbers, equalise ground - the weapons are different - the way of 'Kautilya' - disinformation.
____________________________________________
So what do we do now?
First of all what we do not do.
Let us not counter this warfare with missiles and tanks.
Let us not fall for the timer bombs of disinformation, aimed at 'assassinating' our leaders.
Let us not divide ourselves. Politicians versus citizens. Army vs police. Agencies blaming each other for lapses. Communities of people suspecting each other. The enemy has struck all of us - but in a way that divides us.
Let us not do what the enemy wants us to do!
Let us not let the hawks take over our skies!
______________________________________
(Watch out for "What we Should Do Other than Pray")
Hawks are hovering over my country!
My country has been slighted.
A slight it could have done little to protect itself from. For ten years, no country in the world has escaped the ignominy of seeing its hapless citizens being mowed down.
A slight it finds itself at a loss on how to deal with. No country in the world has found an appropriate response to such a slight in the last ten years.
_______________________________________________________
A mood of anger and retribution!
The people are seething with anger! Just about coming to terms with India's new power in the world order built on the two decades of economic growth and half a century of Democracy, they are demanding India flex that power.
We have seen the US in hot pursuit.
Peace has not returned to the world but its soldiers are dying in an almost Vietnam kind of situation.
Its president had to admit his unpreparedness to tackle the enemy of this scale and this invisibility.
And of course he has the distinction of being the most ridiculed Presidents of the USA ever.
In the meanwhile this hot pursuit has pushed some more gullible young men with dreams of martyrdom against the big bad enemy of their religion, into the waiting clutches of the Generals of this hidden enemy.
But the people demand a hot pursuit nevertheless. Even if we know that that only helps swell the ranks of the enemy!
To fight the Satan, we do his bidding!
_______________________________________________________
The Enemy Beckons us to Strike at him and Increase his Numbers!
The world today is like a rat infested home. A housewife knows that you do not get rid of the rats by spraying bullets. Rats will just wait in their lairs and then strike when the lights are off and everyone is asleep. In the meanwhile they would be swelling their ranks by procreating.
This rat like enemy today is using these strikes to evoke a righteous and forceful reaction from us.
This reaction alienates its kind from the world and swells its armies, but it does not kill him!
______________________________________________________
The Enemy is Taking from us Our Morale!
The fact that we are now worried that he can strike anywhere. In trains. In temples. In office buildings. In nightclubs. In parliaments. In markets. In five star hotels. Seems like it is by design. A sample of all kinds of locations that cover all strata of the society.
_________________________________________________________
The Enemy Makes us Headless and Directionless!
Till yesterday, the guerilla aimed at decapacitating its massively larger enemy by assassinating its leaders.
Ask Indian Peace Keeping Force that operated against the LTTE in Sri Lanka. The LTTE snipers would take out the leader of our troops and then run down the confused troops. This kept happenig till our troops learnt to protect their leaders by making them wear uniforms similar to theirs and by keeping them in the midst of the formation rather than at the head of it.
Today's enemy is far savvier! He kills our leadership not our leaders.
Can you see the pattern?
The democratically elected President of the most powerful nation in the world, today looking like a shadow of his former self. A country that elected him less than four years ago, laughing and jeering at him.
Aren't our leaders facing the same fate today?
This enemy's snipers are not its riflemen but its propagandists!
I wonder how many derogatory SMSs, blogs and emails floating around today, seen as public sentiment by our television, are generated by the propaganda modules of the enemy!
The pattern is clear. The motive is very clear. We know who gains when leaders get eliminated. Do we still doubt who the culprit is?
_______________________________________________________
May be the enemy won't succeed. May be we can get better leaders?
Most dangerously, SMS, blogs and emails are now asking for the Army to move in and take over the country. Such fine soldiers, who have this image of impeccable honesty, should be able to protect our country and govern it better.
The messages are not only inviting or wishing for military rule but also provoking the men in uniform.
Look, how the politicians insult the soldiers! Look they can't even treat the mothers, a powerful word in India, of the slain soldiers properly! The TV channels then promptly get mothers of martyrs on television and speak against the politician.
The news channels show with glee the shameful incident of the father of a slain army officer throwing out the chief minister of his state from his house. The chief minister had come to offer condolences. One can pardon the act of the aggrieved father, but one can not extol this as a virtue of behavior. His son was a role model, not this act of the father.
Our TV channels go on regardless. They represent people's mood. People want change? Or do they? Or does someone else stoke the flames and guides the fire in a direction of their choice? Are the TV channels unwittingly playing in the hands of the enemy's information machine?
___________________________________________________
The Enemy Brings us Down from the High Ground!
Physical higher ground in conventional warfare gives disproportionate advantage to its occupant. We have had that moral higher ground due to our resilient democracy and human rights.
How much would be enough for some power-hungry or emotional (or both) General to roll his tanks and take over the country?
Our neighbors envy our democracy. They lose faith of their biggest ally, the US, because we have it, they don't.
There is a concept of force-equaliser in warfare. Do their propaganda modules aim for that? Would any enemy not?
Citizens of my country; media of my country; leaders of my country; security forces of my country - beware of this new enemy. Beware of his new warfare. A warfare with same objecives - kill leaders, bring down morale, equalise numbers, equalise ground - the weapons are different - the way of 'Kautilya' - disinformation.
____________________________________________
So what do we do now?
First of all what we do not do.
Let us not counter this warfare with missiles and tanks.
Let us not fall for the timer bombs of disinformation, aimed at 'assassinating' our leaders.
Let us not divide ourselves. Politicians versus citizens. Army vs police. Agencies blaming each other for lapses. Communities of people suspecting each other. The enemy has struck all of us - but in a way that divides us.
Let us not do what the enemy wants us to do!
Let us not let the hawks take over our skies!
______________________________________
(Watch out for "What we Should Do Other than Pray")
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