Wishing You A Happy Bloody Bakra Eid

[A day before Bakra Eid. Goats abound.]

 

[There will be blood.]

Yes folks, what you see above is blood flowing out of my neighbor's house. A sight very common on Bakra Eid in India.

I've watched goats being slaughtered on Bakra Eid (Eid ul Adha) all my life, but I never seem to get used to the bloody sight. It's not like it makes me feel queasy or anything; it's just that it always gives me a pause whenever I look at it.

And below is a video of a snake charmer. They usually visit my neighborhood on Eid. This time I made a video of it. Enjoy.

Mr. Prime Minister, Do Not Make False Promises

"Let me take this opportunity to extend an invitation to all Indian Americans and non-resident Indians who wish to return home to India in one capacity or another," Singh said at the event on the evening before he leaves Washington after being hosted by US President Barack Obama in the First State Visit of his administration. The Prime Minister further noted that Indian-Americans no longer had to make a choice about whether to work in India or America. [Source: Yahoo News]

Really? Indian-Americans no longer have to make a choice about whether to work in India or America? Have things really changed that much?

If that is the case, then why am I so regretting my choice to work in India? Why do I feel so unwanted and so under-appreciated?

Manmohan Singh wants Indian Americans and NRIs to return home.

What does he want them to return to? What is he offering them on return?

Its been two years since my return from the US and I have yet to receive anything worthwhile in comparison.

The only thing that I got on my return to this country, which by the way I value and appreciate immensely, are the people and its culture. And that's something I would have got if I were to have returned at any point of time in India's history. There is nothing special about the present.

Mr. Prime Minister, do not make false promises. Your words can end up ruining people's lives.

A word of advice to all Indian Americans and NRIs thinking of returning to India.

If you do decided to return to India; do not think for a minute that you will have the same life you had back in the States. It will be significantly different. Depending on what you're looking for and what you value more, it could be better. But believe me, it will not be the same. Do not believe in the hype. Economic and political comparisons between the two countries are overblown.

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Pandemonium at the New Noida Metro Rail Station

On Sunday before last on the 15th, just three days after the official inauguration, I had an opportunity to take a ride on the newly built Noida to Dwarka Delhi Metro Railway line.

However, my excitement and glee turned into sad disappointment really fast once I got there.

The scene at the station was not what one would expect from a ready-for-operation Metro station.

At least half of the Botanical Garden station was still under construction. Workers were still putting up exit/entry signs. Some sections were still missing glass windows; and the ones that were already installed, still had the X mark on them. Railings were covered with cardboard. An entire section on the ground floor still had tiles to be placed. And yet, the place was deemed ready for business.

When I walked into the station around three in the afternoon, the place was crowded like it was a Sunday afternoon at the New Delhi Railway station. They had four ticket counters open and all of them had queues going all the way to the stairs. There must be about 50 people in each line. It took me about 25 minutes to get my ticket.

The scene on the train was even worse. I felt like I was on a public Delhi bus. People were breathing down my neck and in my face. And by the time I reached my destination at Mandi House station in central Delhi, people were packed inside like sardines. If it weren't for the cold weather, my trip would have been really uncomfortable.

Now don't get me wrong here. I'm not criticizing the entire Delhi Metro transit system. Delhi metro is the best thing to have happened to Delhi since they forced commercial vehicles to switch over to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) from Diesel, as fuel. The air in Delhi is a lot less polluted because of it.

It's just that I think the start of the Noida line was a bit premature. They could have waited a little longer till they had everything in place.

I've heard they'll be adding more compartments/cabins/bogies or whatever you may call them to the existing ones. When they do, I'm sure travel on the Metro will get a lot comfortable and smoother.

Delhi will be a really nice place to live in once the entire planned Metro system will be completed. It's scheduled to be completed before the 2010 Commonwealth Games in October .

Getting around in the city right now is really difficult for those who don't have cars, or, can't drive on the streets of Delhi like myself.

I wasn't able to take many pictures of the place as I was running really late to the Delhi bloggers meet, which I had mentioned in an earlier post. But I did manage to take a few before I got on-board.

[Botanical Garden Metro Station in Noida]

The Sixth Annual Brass Crescent Awards (2009)

I'm glad to inform you, my loyal readers, that this blog has been nominated for the sixth annual Brass Crescent awards under the 'Best South-Asian Blog' category.

This is in fact my second time to be nominated for the Brass Crescent awards. The first time was back when the people at altmuslim.com started with these awards in 2004. I had won an honorable mention in the best blog category. And now, after five years, I again get nominated; however, now for a category I could not have qualified for back then.

Anyhow, I urge everyone reading this post to drop by at the Brass Crescent page and vote for me.

They have many new interesting blogs listed that you might want to check out. I haven't had a chance to visit all of them, but out of the ones I have, sliceoflemon.com is definitely worth a visit. It's a personal blog by a Lebanese American girl.

Instructions on Voting

If you don't want to, you don't have to vote for every category. Simply scroll down to the 'Best South-Asian Blog' category, click on my blog name and then scroll all the way to the bottom and enter your email address. Your vote will not be counted unless you confirm your vote by clicking on the confirmation link which you will be sent in an email.

Don't put it off for later. Vote now!

Delhi Bloggers Meet at India Gate on 15 Nov. Sunday

For those who are interested; I'll be attending the Delhi bloggers meet tomorrow afternoon at India Gate.

If any of my Delhi readers are interested, you can join me/us at the event. It is open for all. Everyone and anyone is invited.

This is going to be my second meet-up. I had attended one earlier this year during Ramadan at Jama Masjid, Old Delhi. And believe me when I say, it was a memorable experience. Hope it will be the same this time around as well.

See you there.

Details are provided below:

Date : 15th Nov’09 (Sunday)
Time : 3pm-5pm
Venue : meeting point is at India Gate (not the lawns but the gate)
Agenda: A walk from India Gate towards Rashtrapati bhawan and go as far as they let us. We explore the area, read up on it before hand and get guidance from experts – Mani & Pashim (history & architecture perspective respectively)

Bored to Death, Cut, Mad and Lonely

The HBO show 'Bored to Death' starring Jason Shwartzman and Ted Danson is among my favorite shows on TV these days. I simply love the relaxed and laid back feel of the show. And the writing ain't bad either.

On its latest episode (S1E08), Ted Danson has a line at the end of the show which made me feel good on a topic I think and fret about a lot.

Consciousness of my ignorance about life and the world is always a cause for concern with me. It can give me sleepless nights sometimes.

Why such insecurity? I don't know. But I have it.

So anyways, following is the dialogue between Jason Shawatzman and Ted Danson at the end of an interesting episode.

Jason: So, you think we learned anything tonight?

Ted: No. But that's okay. It's good to stay in the dark about things. Keeps life interesting.

That, it does.

Claude Levi-Strauss' Philosophy to Study Society is My Philosophy to Knowledge

Claude Levi-Strauss a famous french anthropologist recently passed away at the age of 100. Times-of-India had a piece on him in their Monday, November 9, 2009 paper titled, 'Astonishing Anthropologist'.

Now I had heard of the name before but I knew nothing about him besides the fact that he was a renowned anthropologist.

In the article the author talks about an interview he did with Levi-Strauss back in 1989.

On being asked to explain his methodology for studying societies and their cultures, he lays out an interesting method or philosophy to observe in order to study societies.

What makes his reply excitingly interesting and blog-worthy for me is how familiar it sounded when I read it. I use a similar approach when I analyze beliefs, ideas or habits of my own, or anyone for that matter.

However, I should make it clear, unlike Levi-Strauss, my methodology was not so well thought-out and never could I have verbalized it the way he did. For me, it was somewhat on a sub-conscious, intuitive level.

This might sound a bit boastful, but believe me, stuff like this doesn't happen often. It's not everyday you hear something you thought-of on your own (or you think, you did on your own) being uttered by a renowned intellectual who also came to a similar conclusion as you did. Granted, for a slightly different purpose, however, the philosophy is similar nonetheless.

So yeah, it's a huge boost to my ego.

Anyways, to get back to what Levi-Strauss said on his philosophy or attitude on studying societies; read the following excerpt from the said article. 

He [Levi-Strauss] explained to me with admirable clarity the nature of his anthropological endeavor. He said he had devised no hard-and-fast methodology to understand the workings of a given society. The best he could do was to grasp certain aspects of that society by relying not on history but on abstract rules that govern the interaction between man and man, man and nature, man and myth. Such rules, he said, underlie games. They are also at the heart of linguistics. It is in this sense that every society, regardless of its level of progress, can be said to be 'programmed'.


To focus tightly on these abstract rules, Levi-Strauss said, the anthropologist needed to cultivate a robust sense of detachment. He could not afford to feel 'at home'. He would always be, psychologically speaking, an amputee. At the same time, he must lay emphasis on doubt as a philosophical attitude. Doubt does not merely mean knowing that one knows nothing. It means exposing to the fullest what one knows, including one's ignorance, to the insults and denials inflicted on one's dearest ideas and habits by those ideas and habits which may contradict them to the highest degrees.

Book Review: 'The Indians' By Sudhir Kakar & Katharina Kakar

I was really looking forward to writing a review of this book.

However, I finished reading this book a few weeks ago and the passage of time since then is making it difficult for me to review the book in a manner which would do justice to it.

I can't seem to clearly recall my impressions on the book after I was done reading it. I just remember that I had really liked it.

The author has a real insight into the Indian culture. I got to learn a lot from it. It is very high on my list of books I've ever read on the subject of India. It would be unfortunate if I didn't make a mention of it on this blog. It deserves to be talked about.

So instead of writing an in-depth review, I'm going to quote a few excerpts that I found interesting enough to make a note of while I was reading it. There are many I would like to cite but I'll only quote a few for it would make this post too long to read.

Before I quote the book I think it would be prudent of me to mention that although the book deals with the people of India as a whole, the author's real focus is on the north-Indian Hindu culture. So if you read something that doesn't sound quintessentially Indian, then it's simply because it pertains more to a particular section of the Indian society rather than the whole.

The Hierarchical Man

The need to be noticed , to stand out from an anonymous mass, is, of course not uniquely Indian but a part of the narcissistic heritage of all human beings. What makes this phenomenon particularly ubiquitous -- and poignant -- in India is that a person's self-worth is almost exclusively determined by the rank he (alone or as part of a family) occupies in the profoundly hierarchical nature of Indian society. If the perception of another person has first to do with gender ('Is this individual male or female?'), followed by age ('Is he/she young or old?') and by other such markers of identity, then in India the determination of relative rank ('Is this person superior or inferior to me?') remains very near the top of subconscious questions evoked in an interpersonal encounter. Indians are perhaps the world's most undemocratic people, living in the world's largest and most plural democracy.

[...] You must be 'somebody' to survive with dignity, since rank is the only substitute for money. [...] Retired judges, ex-ambassadors and other sundry officials of the Indian state who are no longer in service are never caught without calling cards prominently displaying who they once were. India is not a country for the anonymous... [pp 7,8]

Definition of an ideal leader

Authoritative but not autocratic, sometimes despotic perhaps, but generally benevolent. [pp 21]

The inner experience of caste

The preoccupation of the caste system with high and low has been associated with suffering and humiliation for several millions through the centuries. As the Marathi poet Govindraj puts it, Hindu society is made up of men 'who bow their heads to the kicks from above and who simultaneously give a kick below, never thinking to resist the one or refrain from the other.' The hierarchy is so fine tuned that even a low caste will always find another caste that is inferior to it, thus mitigating some of the narcissistic injury suffered by it at being seen as inferior. Thus for instance, 'among those lowest scavenging sections which remove night soil there is still a distinction: those who serve in private houses consider themselves higher than those who clean public latrines.' [pp 27, 28]

In my opinion, an example of this social trait can also be seen in our educational institutions. The caste like stratification among students into seniors and juniors, and the socially accepted practice of 'ragging', is nothing but a modern manifestation of the same social characteristic the author talks about.

Fair Skin

The psychological association of fair skin with everything 'clean', 'regal' and 'desirable', together with memories of being ruled by fair skinned invaders and the presumption of wealth associated with the fair skinned visitors, makes most Indians fawn over the goras ('whites'). A dark skinned African, on the other hand, will often be an object of condescension, even ridicule. Little wonder that many a gora leading an anonymous, run-of-the-mill life in his own country feels like a special 'somebody' in India, the admiring gazes and flattering tones of voice constantly feeding his self-esteem, his narcissism. [pp 37]

Hindu image of the Muslim

For many Hindus, the Muslim is powerful not only because he is united, but also because he is armed, favored by the state of India, and in times of conflict supported and even armed by Pakistan. 'Muslims have a constant supply of weapons coming from Pakistan, or maybe they are locally made. They have at least a butcher's knife because they all eat meat.

[...] It is interesting to note that generally a Hindu's self-identification as a Hindu occurs only when he talks of the Muslim; otherwise the conversations on his affiliation are more in terms of caste. A Hindu is born only when the Muslim enters the scene. Hindus cannot think of themselves as such without a simultaneous awareness of the Muslim's presence. This is not so for Muslims, who do not need Hindus for self-awareness. The presence of the Hindu may increase the Muslim's sense of his religious identity but does not constitute it. [pp 157]

Muslim image of the Hindu

Besides the inevitable attribution to the 'other' of immorality and lack of control over impulses -- a dirtiness of the soul -- Muslims also see Hindus as a cruel and cowardly people.

If a Hindu woman or child walks through the a Muslim street, the Muslim will let them go, thinking the fight is between men and should not involve women and children and the aged. A Hindu does not think like that. It is enough for him to see the other person is a Muslim before he strikes without regard for age or gender...

Hindus are cowards who can fight only when they are in a large group. [pp 159, 160]