Nearing September 11
I received an email regarding the events on September 11. So graphic were the images, that my mind was instantly transported to that day, when I saw the towers fall, with disbelief in my mind - a feeling that persists until today- standing and walking like a zombie along Fifth Avenue.
Here is the link.
The American media juggernaut has rolled on, making sure that these people will never be forgotten. (This is a lesson for all those countries, where deaths, equally tragic in nature, are forgotten within a day, as they are allowed to enter the dreaded realm of statistics). Tragedies are best handled person by person, solutions country by country.
There are several questions that arise out of the September 11 tragedy. Why did it happen, is one that can probably never be answered in entirety.
What is shocking to see is the mileage governments around the world have derived mileage from this tragedy. America, Israel and yes, even India, I am ashamed to admit, have gone a little overboard in the "war against terror", using the events of September 11 to expose their wounds. There is no doubt that they have been victims of terror. But they do not have to use the events of September 11 as a stamp of legitimacy in their campaigns.
Does anybody even remember that innocent people with families and loved ones lost their lives on September 11? If New York has character, it is only because New Yorkers have the same. Their loss has to be noted with dignity, not as a phenomenon for generating reasons to cause more deaths.
Since this weblog seeks to follow Gandhi, let us deal with India. Since the attack on Parliament last December, Indian politicians have applied pressure on Pakistan in all diplomatic forums, which is a highly creditable way of reducing terrorism. But Gandhi says that in any situation, we must always magnify our faults, before pointing fingers at others. The same thing that Jesus said to a harsh audience before a woman or a bad stand up comic (I forget which), but only with a little more emphasis.
Is India all that blameless? Wasn’t the Kashmir valley peaceful in 1987? The Indian Congress Party rigged the elections, beat up and arrested members of the Muslim United Front. That was what sparked of the dissent.
Israel too must remember that Palestinians must have some reason to hold a grudge. They need to ask themselves the question why, instead of using September 11 as an excuse to use Palestinians as human shields. And America needs to count the countries it hasn’t bombed. It needs to apologize for supporting and creating Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban in the 1980s. This might be a very simplistic way of looking at it. But, truth be told there are fanatics out there. It is imperative that we capture the faith of the moderate people in the Islamic world, before they go the “I wont be needing my Banana Republic belt today, honey” way.
None of the people out there are perfect. And some of the people out there are intelligent. At least, the people who can do something are. And intelligent people are liable to forgive and respect people who own up and even take the effort to introspect. So, none of us should take the moral high ground. And lecture the world about good and evil, morals and table manners. Let us watch CNN only for the news. Just like the good old days.
I received an email regarding the events on September 11. So graphic were the images, that my mind was instantly transported to that day, when I saw the towers fall, with disbelief in my mind - a feeling that persists until today- standing and walking like a zombie along Fifth Avenue.
Here is the link.
The American media juggernaut has rolled on, making sure that these people will never be forgotten. (This is a lesson for all those countries, where deaths, equally tragic in nature, are forgotten within a day, as they are allowed to enter the dreaded realm of statistics). Tragedies are best handled person by person, solutions country by country.
There are several questions that arise out of the September 11 tragedy. Why did it happen, is one that can probably never be answered in entirety.
What is shocking to see is the mileage governments around the world have derived mileage from this tragedy. America, Israel and yes, even India, I am ashamed to admit, have gone a little overboard in the "war against terror", using the events of September 11 to expose their wounds. There is no doubt that they have been victims of terror. But they do not have to use the events of September 11 as a stamp of legitimacy in their campaigns.
Does anybody even remember that innocent people with families and loved ones lost their lives on September 11? If New York has character, it is only because New Yorkers have the same. Their loss has to be noted with dignity, not as a phenomenon for generating reasons to cause more deaths.
Since this weblog seeks to follow Gandhi, let us deal with India. Since the attack on Parliament last December, Indian politicians have applied pressure on Pakistan in all diplomatic forums, which is a highly creditable way of reducing terrorism. But Gandhi says that in any situation, we must always magnify our faults, before pointing fingers at others. The same thing that Jesus said to a harsh audience before a woman or a bad stand up comic (I forget which), but only with a little more emphasis.
Is India all that blameless? Wasn’t the Kashmir valley peaceful in 1987? The Indian Congress Party rigged the elections, beat up and arrested members of the Muslim United Front. That was what sparked of the dissent.
Israel too must remember that Palestinians must have some reason to hold a grudge. They need to ask themselves the question why, instead of using September 11 as an excuse to use Palestinians as human shields. And America needs to count the countries it hasn’t bombed. It needs to apologize for supporting and creating Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban in the 1980s. This might be a very simplistic way of looking at it. But, truth be told there are fanatics out there. It is imperative that we capture the faith of the moderate people in the Islamic world, before they go the “I wont be needing my Banana Republic belt today, honey” way.
None of the people out there are perfect. And some of the people out there are intelligent. At least, the people who can do something are. And intelligent people are liable to forgive and respect people who own up and even take the effort to introspect. So, none of us should take the moral high ground. And lecture the world about good and evil, morals and table manners. Let us watch CNN only for the news. Just like the good old days.
On racism
This online road to non-violence has emphasized the importance of ceaseless endeavor and music in our lives. A combination of the above must surely result in something that is worthy of these pages.
I have seen Scott Ferraro toil over his guitar and microphones that produce echoes in dark rooms. Today his CDs are for sale at Amazon and CD baby.
Also all photographs of the trip to New Orleans can be viewed here. These include shots of voodoo masks, beignets, street-cars and chilled out folks from that side of the bayou.
Now, on to another topic. A constant fear in my mind, especially when I do leave New York City is having to deal with racism. (Even though I wouldn’t be able to recognize an AK47 if it were served to me on a plate with watercress around it, a person called me a terrorist). This fear is undoubtedly a form of passive violence, which as we know is every bit as bad as a blatant act of violence. Also to run away and pretend that racism never exists is stupidity and will never lead to change. So what does one do?
One thinks of a bespectacled man, who was not very big in frame. One thinks of him being kicked out of a railway compartment in South Africa. The reason? He was dark skinned and dared to travel first class. (I too once was kicked out of a first class compartment, but I didn’t have a ticket nor money for a bribe).
Here, at last is a man who shall guide me. Who was this man?
The words form on the horizon, a bright sign on a dark sky. Gandhi!!!
Now the way this incident changed Gandhi’s life and indeed shook a couple of foundations of the British Empire is the stuff of legend. We must do our very best not to let the other person’s harsh words not reach us, hate the evil, not the evil-doer and all that good stuff. But let us step back and think for a second, as to how we should live our lives before being confronted with it.
I ran into a fellow on the street yesterday. He was from Brooklyn and originally from Sierra Leone. He was very big on the “boiling point reached and revolution” thing. Before I could ask him, if he envisioned a scenario where blood would flow down the streets of Tonkolili, he said something that took me by surprise. “I listen to country music,” he said. My eyebrows now looked like mountains in the drawings of children. “It is very positive,” he said. “Don’t conform to social pressure. I travel to the whitest parts of the country and feel white every step of the way.”
Which is really the kicker. The roots of racism are not in the offender. They lie in the offendee, if there is such a word. If you feel different, other people are going to treat you different.
India is very much a diverse country. There are people of different languages, skin color, habits and even blood groups. The point to note about India is the way people make fun of each other’s differences. I have been called “dark madrasi” for most of my life, and have called other people similar therapy inducing names. There is none of this politically correct nonsense.
Let us use the sentiment expressed above as a foundation. And indulge in some circular logic.
Would you laugh at a funeral?
If the answer to the above is, “Yes”, then let me ask you another question. Would you risk offending other people at a funeral, if you were to laugh?
The answer to this is affirmative, unless you are a member of a society that howls every full moon night. Why would people be offended, if you were to laugh? Because the matter at hand (or in most cases, the coffin) is serious.
So, by reversing the flow of thought, if only for a second: if we laugh about our differences, they cease to be serious. There exists no reason to broaden shoulders, extend fingers and raise voices, if someone makes fun of the way we are different.
In America, the blacks are made to feel different every step of the way. By the whites. And by the black leaders. (Check out Drop Squad, a Spike Lee joint). They never feel part of an entire society and hence never avail of opportunities. This is one of the reasons, blacks in America have shorter life expectancies than poorer people in Kerala, India. There is no reason to doubt that they are victimized in today’s society, but feeling different in a “I am different and hence I am screwed” way is not a good starting point.
Desmond, the fellow from Sierra Leone, said that the key was to stand alone. He didn’t know it, but he was mirroring the words of Gandhi. What is common to Gandhi, Buddha, Jesus? They all stood alone. They believed in themselves to carry a cross, pluck some salt or sit cross legged under a pipal tree in Bihar, of all places!
Social conformity and political correctness will never be agents of change, because their very usage is grounded in actions that will keep “ringing in the old”. Let us learn to laugh at each other.
I must buy that Darth Brooks CD, if only to give him a chance.
This online road to non-violence has emphasized the importance of ceaseless endeavor and music in our lives. A combination of the above must surely result in something that is worthy of these pages.
I have seen Scott Ferraro toil over his guitar and microphones that produce echoes in dark rooms. Today his CDs are for sale at Amazon and CD baby.
Also all photographs of the trip to New Orleans can be viewed here. These include shots of voodoo masks, beignets, street-cars and chilled out folks from that side of the bayou.
Now, on to another topic. A constant fear in my mind, especially when I do leave New York City is having to deal with racism. (Even though I wouldn’t be able to recognize an AK47 if it were served to me on a plate with watercress around it, a person called me a terrorist). This fear is undoubtedly a form of passive violence, which as we know is every bit as bad as a blatant act of violence. Also to run away and pretend that racism never exists is stupidity and will never lead to change. So what does one do?
One thinks of a bespectacled man, who was not very big in frame. One thinks of him being kicked out of a railway compartment in South Africa. The reason? He was dark skinned and dared to travel first class. (I too once was kicked out of a first class compartment, but I didn’t have a ticket nor money for a bribe).
Here, at last is a man who shall guide me. Who was this man?
The words form on the horizon, a bright sign on a dark sky. Gandhi!!!
Now the way this incident changed Gandhi’s life and indeed shook a couple of foundations of the British Empire is the stuff of legend. We must do our very best not to let the other person’s harsh words not reach us, hate the evil, not the evil-doer and all that good stuff. But let us step back and think for a second, as to how we should live our lives before being confronted with it.
I ran into a fellow on the street yesterday. He was from Brooklyn and originally from Sierra Leone. He was very big on the “boiling point reached and revolution” thing. Before I could ask him, if he envisioned a scenario where blood would flow down the streets of Tonkolili, he said something that took me by surprise. “I listen to country music,” he said. My eyebrows now looked like mountains in the drawings of children. “It is very positive,” he said. “Don’t conform to social pressure. I travel to the whitest parts of the country and feel white every step of the way.”
Which is really the kicker. The roots of racism are not in the offender. They lie in the offendee, if there is such a word. If you feel different, other people are going to treat you different.
India is very much a diverse country. There are people of different languages, skin color, habits and even blood groups. The point to note about India is the way people make fun of each other’s differences. I have been called “dark madrasi” for most of my life, and have called other people similar therapy inducing names. There is none of this politically correct nonsense.
Let us use the sentiment expressed above as a foundation. And indulge in some circular logic.
Would you laugh at a funeral?
If the answer to the above is, “Yes”, then let me ask you another question. Would you risk offending other people at a funeral, if you were to laugh?
The answer to this is affirmative, unless you are a member of a society that howls every full moon night. Why would people be offended, if you were to laugh? Because the matter at hand (or in most cases, the coffin) is serious.
So, by reversing the flow of thought, if only for a second: if we laugh about our differences, they cease to be serious. There exists no reason to broaden shoulders, extend fingers and raise voices, if someone makes fun of the way we are different.
In America, the blacks are made to feel different every step of the way. By the whites. And by the black leaders. (Check out Drop Squad, a Spike Lee joint). They never feel part of an entire society and hence never avail of opportunities. This is one of the reasons, blacks in America have shorter life expectancies than poorer people in Kerala, India. There is no reason to doubt that they are victimized in today’s society, but feeling different in a “I am different and hence I am screwed” way is not a good starting point.
Desmond, the fellow from Sierra Leone, said that the key was to stand alone. He didn’t know it, but he was mirroring the words of Gandhi. What is common to Gandhi, Buddha, Jesus? They all stood alone. They believed in themselves to carry a cross, pluck some salt or sit cross legged under a pipal tree in Bihar, of all places!
Social conformity and political correctness will never be agents of change, because their very usage is grounded in actions that will keep “ringing in the old”. Let us learn to laugh at each other.
I must buy that Darth Brooks CD, if only to give him a chance.
I woke up from a dream, but I found my toothbrush
Today’s weblog in the form of a letter
Dear Mahatma,
I am back from my vacation in that city of sin they call New Orleans. You know about the bubble that grows comfortably around you in the course of a vacation? It keeps the very thought of a morning commute far away from you. Sometimes they don’t last very long. Mine burst in the streetcar well before I got into the return flight. Don’t crease those lines on your forehead. There is no cause for worry. I learnt many good things from the vacation.
I know Gandhiji that you don’t believe I am very, very serious about incorporating your values in my life. Other people have asked, “Why does this person keep talking about the values of non violence and ceaseless karma, and not even have the common courtesy to update his blog when on a pleasure cruise?” True, I guess. I have a long way to go before I can aspire to be like you even in small ways.
A valid reason for not updating the blog while being hedonistic and all might be that these beignets are so good and very tasty. They are covered with so much sugar that first my black shirt turned white. It was only when I began to turn white, I stopped eating. More on this later.
I meant to ask this at the very beginning, but trust all is well with the world. As you can see expression of this wish is purely a superficial gesture and I am being formal and polite. E.g. a peasant in Zimbabwe might disagree with these sentiments of everything being fine and dandy. And one does not have to confine oneself to Mr. Mugabe’s backyard to see that this is a completely nonsensical falsehood. Take the case of my battered soul. It is in shreds and can be sold for making coconut chutney. But, I have glimpsed into the near past and come up with some conclusions:
1. Beignets are tasty: It is not wrong to eat them in America, where neighboring communities (all that one can realistically hope to serve) are relatively well-to-do, but to eat them in poorer parts of India can be frowned upon and to eat them in places like Malawi is a positive sin. Moderation, the path of the middle way, is strongly advocated in such matters.
2. World peace is possible. Peace of cake. How can anything be impossible, when planes are taking off and landing off every second? If mankind could achieve that, they can do anything. Gandhiji, I doubt if you have ever had the good fortune of boarding a plane. Do ask for a window seat so that all sights are visible. It is a giant animal of steel, carborundum, fiber glass and glass. I bet to myself every time that there is no conceivable way it can take off. But it does take off and hover in the sky, making circles around some vagrant strand of breeze that make the most boring city in the world look like its out of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. If you think it can’t get any better than the take off and the lovely clouds that carry tales and rain from one town to another, then wait for the landing. Out of the entire city it picks out one small strip. It approaches it confidently. Not for a second does it waver. In fact, in San Francisco and LaGuardia it flies very close to the water. But waver, it does not. It just lands perfectly on a thin white line drawn in the middle of a thin, smooth runway.
Incredible. Don’t give me that science mumbo jumbo and try to explain it away. It is a victory of imagination, desire and will. I want my life to be like this airplane. Shut out all external distractions and focus on doing the best you can. A pilot does not fly over Coney Island, if he doesn’t have to, just because he likes hot dogs or mermaids. He is like Arjuna, blindfolded, aiming with a sharp arrow, at the revolving fish, knowing that if he misses, it will cause grievous injury to somebody else’s head or his toe.
Distractions can be friends. They can even be people you love. Non violence is truly the art of standing alone. Wish them away. For didn’t the Buddha say, “Don’t suffer the company of fools willingly”. By fools, he meant more than:
a) a harmlessly deranged person or one lacking in common powers of understanding b) one with a marked propensity or fondness for something.
A fool could also be a meremaid. Or a hot dog (for more reasons than ending up in a bun).
One can be in a dream all your life. Or one can wake up. Don't be scared. The toothbrush is exactly where you left it.
Do you agree?
Sincerely….
P.S. I had promised to be the sponge on this trip, soaking up information along with calories. Tomorrow we shall deal with voodoo, then creole and cajun cuisine in relation to a people's history. Then the frightening countdown to the first anniversary of September 11. For, have people learnt that violence begets violence? And has somebody remembered to revoke Osama's driver's license?
Today’s weblog in the form of a letter
Dear Mahatma,
I am back from my vacation in that city of sin they call New Orleans. You know about the bubble that grows comfortably around you in the course of a vacation? It keeps the very thought of a morning commute far away from you. Sometimes they don’t last very long. Mine burst in the streetcar well before I got into the return flight. Don’t crease those lines on your forehead. There is no cause for worry. I learnt many good things from the vacation.
I know Gandhiji that you don’t believe I am very, very serious about incorporating your values in my life. Other people have asked, “Why does this person keep talking about the values of non violence and ceaseless karma, and not even have the common courtesy to update his blog when on a pleasure cruise?” True, I guess. I have a long way to go before I can aspire to be like you even in small ways.
A valid reason for not updating the blog while being hedonistic and all might be that these beignets are so good and very tasty. They are covered with so much sugar that first my black shirt turned white. It was only when I began to turn white, I stopped eating. More on this later.
I meant to ask this at the very beginning, but trust all is well with the world. As you can see expression of this wish is purely a superficial gesture and I am being formal and polite. E.g. a peasant in Zimbabwe might disagree with these sentiments of everything being fine and dandy. And one does not have to confine oneself to Mr. Mugabe’s backyard to see that this is a completely nonsensical falsehood. Take the case of my battered soul. It is in shreds and can be sold for making coconut chutney. But, I have glimpsed into the near past and come up with some conclusions:
1. Beignets are tasty: It is not wrong to eat them in America, where neighboring communities (all that one can realistically hope to serve) are relatively well-to-do, but to eat them in poorer parts of India can be frowned upon and to eat them in places like Malawi is a positive sin. Moderation, the path of the middle way, is strongly advocated in such matters.
2. World peace is possible. Peace of cake. How can anything be impossible, when planes are taking off and landing off every second? If mankind could achieve that, they can do anything. Gandhiji, I doubt if you have ever had the good fortune of boarding a plane. Do ask for a window seat so that all sights are visible. It is a giant animal of steel, carborundum, fiber glass and glass. I bet to myself every time that there is no conceivable way it can take off. But it does take off and hover in the sky, making circles around some vagrant strand of breeze that make the most boring city in the world look like its out of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. If you think it can’t get any better than the take off and the lovely clouds that carry tales and rain from one town to another, then wait for the landing. Out of the entire city it picks out one small strip. It approaches it confidently. Not for a second does it waver. In fact, in San Francisco and LaGuardia it flies very close to the water. But waver, it does not. It just lands perfectly on a thin white line drawn in the middle of a thin, smooth runway.
Incredible. Don’t give me that science mumbo jumbo and try to explain it away. It is a victory of imagination, desire and will. I want my life to be like this airplane. Shut out all external distractions and focus on doing the best you can. A pilot does not fly over Coney Island, if he doesn’t have to, just because he likes hot dogs or mermaids. He is like Arjuna, blindfolded, aiming with a sharp arrow, at the revolving fish, knowing that if he misses, it will cause grievous injury to somebody else’s head or his toe.
Distractions can be friends. They can even be people you love. Non violence is truly the art of standing alone. Wish them away. For didn’t the Buddha say, “Don’t suffer the company of fools willingly”. By fools, he meant more than:
a) a harmlessly deranged person or one lacking in common powers of understanding b) one with a marked propensity or fondness for something.
A fool could also be a meremaid. Or a hot dog (for more reasons than ending up in a bun).
One can be in a dream all your life. Or one can wake up. Don't be scared. The toothbrush is exactly where you left it.
Do you agree?
Sincerely….
P.S. I had promised to be the sponge on this trip, soaking up information along with calories. Tomorrow we shall deal with voodoo, then creole and cajun cuisine in relation to a people's history. Then the frightening countdown to the first anniversary of September 11. For, have people learnt that violence begets violence? And has somebody remembered to revoke Osama's driver's license?
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