Guest Article: Now or Never

My response to the Mumbai attacks on my blog has not been the fastest - part of the reason lies in the fact that it happened right when the Thanksgiving holidays started. However, the biggest reason is time it took for the enormity of the situation to sink in - I am still short of adjectives to summarize my feelings about the incident.

On Wednesday evening, I had decided that I will wait until the whole episode gets over to write on my blog. 60 hours later - by the time the Taj Mahal was finally flushed out of now infamous Sea Rats - I was looking to talk someone who was either involved in the incident or had gone to see ground zero himself. I spoke to a close friend from Mumbai for more than 2.5 hours this afternoon during the drive back from Pittsburgh. He reminded me how both of us had walked in front of both the Taj and the Oberoi at 4 AM while I was in the city in October. He had just returned from the candle light vigil in Mumbai, was disgusted with the politicians and the overall system's (lack of) response and of course, heartbroken to see his city's much talked about resilience taking a hit. Once back home, he scribbled some lines on his first blog entry ever (quoted below).

I just think that today this space belongs to the people of Mumbai and the rest of India, all the innocent people killed to terrorism, all the brave men who took the bullet to keep the rest of us safe and to the HOPE of people reading this article - HOPE that this too shall NOT pass and concrete action is taken to bring the merchants of death to justice.

Jai Hind.

*************************************************************************************

24 hours after the terror attack on Mumbai, while the people of this country have not yet fathomed the loss they have suffered, its really shameful to see that politicians have started playing the blame game. There is always time for politics and this is certainly not the time. These are tough times for everyone and we as a nation need to provide a united front and take actions to make sure that the people of this country never fall victim to such acts of evil. The common man already has many challenges and difficulties he needs to face and worrying about the safety of his loved ones is one thing he could do without. The people of this country want and deserve to walk its motherland without fear.

In the past 12 months the country has been a victim to more than 6 terror attacks. The questions everyone wants to ask the leaders of this nations are - Why have we been a victim of so many attacks? Why has nothing been done after the first few attacks, and many more? I know its too late to raise these questions and no matter what the answer is the present is not going to change but the answers are required so that we can move ahead with resolution. This is the time to investigate and learn from what has passed, make the right conclusions and implement the right system so that incidents like these never happen in the future and even if they do we are better equipped to tackle them quickly. I fear if we do not act now India is heading towards a certain doom.

*************************************************************************************

ps: I thought this article paints a decent picture of both the history and traditional greviances of Muslims in both undivided and divided India.

Our Politicians Fiddle as Innocents Die

Maharashtra Home Minister does a Sharukh Khan(who in DDLJ famously told Kajol "Arre Senorita, bade bade shehron mein choti choti baatein hoti rehti hai")

Farewell Kumble the Jumbo

Indian Diaries: Kullu Dussehra

Location: Kullu Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India

Date: Oct 9, 2008

Occasion: The Hindu festival of Dussehra

The famed week-long Kullu Dussehra is one of main festivals of Himachal Pradesh, which has maintained its unique identity over the years and is celebrated in an entirely different way. This festival is different in the sense that this commences when Dussehra festivities come to a close in the rest of the country. Another unique feature of the Kullu Dussehra is that it does not conclude with the burning of the effigies of demon-king, Ravana, his brother Kumbhkarana and son, Meghnath.

The Kullu valley is known as the ''Valley of Gods'' as on the occasion of the Dussehra here about 20 Gods and Goddesses of the valley converge at the venue of the celebrations here. The divine ambience gives a feeling of heaven on the earth. Dussehra at Kullu commences on the tenth day of the rising moon, on ''Vijay Dashmi'' itself and continues for seven days. The history of Kullu Dussehra dates back to the 17th century when the local king, Jagat Singh installed an idol of Raghunathji on his throne as a mark of penance. After this, Raghunathji came to be known as the ruling deity of the valley.

It is said besides the 20 Gods and Goddesses of the Kullu valley, a total of about 200 deities converge on Kullu for this unusual festival to pay homage to lord Raghunath. On the first day, the idol of Lord Raghunath saddled on a decorated chariot is pulled by ropes from its fixed place, that is a temple and taken to Dhalpur Grounds to mark the commencement of the Dussehra cerebrations. In attendance during the rope pulling ceremony are some of the other local deities 'seated' on colorful palanquins.

The locals here consider the pulling ceremony as very sacred. This ceremony gradually takes the shape of a procession as more and more worshippers join in to get their hands on the ropes to pull the diety. During the week-long celebrations, gods and goddesses are invoked and paraded around this town every morning and evening. The congregation of different deities in a unique feature of the Kullu Dussehra.

On the concluding day, the chariot of lord Raghunath is taken to the banks of the Beas river and in the deity’s presence a pile of wood and grass is set on fire, to symbolize the burning of Ravanas Lanka. Thereafter lord Raghunath is taken back to his temple and Dussehra festivities come to an end.

(Text source here)