Author: Saki Nama

Writer.

Ram Mandir

Yesterday was the last nail in the coffin of Nehru’s and Gandhi’s India. And Ambedkar’s constitutional India as well. It was a Hindu dream that came true. But actually, it was all about Modi’s third term.

Ram Mandir. Babir Mosque. Synecdoche selections for different communities.

A temple didn’t win.

A mosque didn’t lose.

Only Modi won.

Afterall, Modi’s legacy is going to be more suffocating than Zia’s legacy. Because Zia was not as celebrated as Indians celebrate Modi.

How cool was Ranbir in Tamasha challenging all the norms and values?

How cool was Aalia Bhatt in her feminist movies?

How cool was Ayushman Khurrana in taking up bold scripts? 

And Amitabh Bachan. How cool was he… till yesterday?

Imagine making a population of 204 million people irrelevant. Who could have done it except Modi? 204 million Muslim voters look as irrelevant as a minority that’s too minor.

But that is not just the end. South India didn’t celebrate yesterday. Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana etc. No. They stood with their liberal and secular values and didn’t celebrate yesterday. South Indians are perhaps the finest lot in the entire South Asian region.

Anyway. Does it look like Modi is coming again this year? Well, not sure. The constant radical stunts are not overused.

In the recent bi-elections of India where BJP completed a “hat-trick” was more of propaganda that they are going to win the same way in Lok Sabha. Objectively, BJP got a total of 48,133,463 votes while Congress got 49,077,907. This is a huge difference of around 1 million votes. And overall, Congress had significant improvements in votes from the last time.

So, maybe Modi isn’t coming again.

But Donald Trump is coming for sure. All he needs is judicial clearance and there is nothing stopping him. Ron DeSantis is gone. Nikki Haley will be next. And then, there will be Trump. Afterall, this is century of populism and going back to the era where things were difficult for minorities.

With Rishi Sunak in the UK, the white heads are re-thinking the world order again. One cannot get Arab nationality. The majority of Africa doesn’t welcome them. A white person cannot even dream to become a president or PM of any Asian or Arab or African country. Yet, people from these regions are populating the parliamentary benches of Europe and North America. This isn’t digestible anymore and a change in the system will be evident soon.

A lot of deviation. Like usual. But before the end, let’s applause those who didn’t join the myopic celebrations of yesterday.

Like Virat Kohli. Rohit Sharma. M. S. Dhoni. Anushka Sharma. The Bollywood didn’t stand but the Indian cricketers did. One may say that there are some Indian players taking the team ahead not only in the ground but off-field as well.

With that, let’s hope India learns from the mistakes Pakistan committed in 1970s and 1980s. Before it’s alarmingly late.

Two Divorces & A Marriage

Noise: She deserves happiness. Her ex must be a wrong number and she must have left him for good and married a man of her choice. She already suffered a lot in the past when she was accused of her behavior. So happy for her and all the women.

Someone: Hmm.

Noise: He is such a scum for leaving his wife though who left her country for him. He’s as shitty as most men. Feeling sad for his ex. She was too good for him.

Someone: Isn’t it a same story from both sides?

Noise: No. Men cheat and don’t suffer. Women don’t cheat yet they suffer.

Someone: Who do men cheat with? Eh, women!

Noise: You are defending the cheaters here.

Someone: No. Just trying to stay out of personal choices of random people.

Noise: Ok, tell me, who is to blame here?

Someone: Your ability to judge people loudly with gender bias in deeds that were committed or uncommitted by the two equally.

Noise: Now you are blaming me for speaking out loudly for the right cause.

Someone: There’s no cause except people sharing their own insecurities and dilemmas in personal happenings of other people; just to make a point that they too were right in their own past deeds.

Noise: Now you are judging me. Are you calling me the bad person in my past life?

Someone: No. Not blaming you for anything.

Noise: You are blaming me and all like me who suffered.

Someone: Usually, it’s the both sides that suffer. At least in the cities and among upper classes where suffering is not just one dimensional.

Noise: Blame everyone so that all can be sleep peacefully. Right?

Someone: No one’s to blame here except the suffocating settings of marriage, that the whole world has adopted in unison. A concept that sounds beautiful on papers yet rarely is a blessing for any.

Noise: Just because you wanted to defend a man, you targeted religion. How immoral you can be?

Someone: Morality! What would be the next stop? Blasphemy? All the way from a random marriage of two random people to this?

Noise: Just accept that you will go to any length to defend cheaters. Even if you had to go against religion.

Someone: Should I recite Shahadat now?

Noise: Perhaps you should.

Someone: Perhaps I should recite Tauz first to get rid of the demons around me.

Marriage

Before questioning someone’s marriage, you should question the institution of marriage itself. How was it formed? Why was it made? And how the world was operating before this system?

Isn’t it strange that almost all civilizations and religions adopted marriage by default – with a little this and that? Why?

How people lived otherwise? Were there more matrilineal societies?

In the end, wasn’t it the element of jealousy that formed an institution to bestow property kinda laws on people and their sexualities? Particularly women!

If your answer is all about procreation and children then what if the state takes the position of a father – as Plato said? It had. And it has.

Education, health, monthly payments to mothers and similar other services by the state can defuse your arguments for marriage. See Scandinavia. The state owns its children more than a father.

By the way, don’t get into answers where marriage is confused with parenthood. Parenthood was always there. Marriage wasn’t. Even today in certain tribes, marriage is not known.

Now, that would be a long post. Maybe some other day with some insights from Bertrand Russell.

But before that, you must read the last post about 1799 which you people have intentionally or unintentionally ignored.

1799

One of the most happening years in human history was the year ‘1799’.

That was the time when French Revolution ended even though King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette were murdered in 1793 and Maximilian Robespierre – one of the architects of the revolution – was killed in 1794. The revolution was against the House of Burbon and took no mercy on any ‘traitor’.

Napoleon Bonaparte took over in 1799 through a coup d’état and ruled till 1814. French Revolution ended up with a jump from one monarchy to another. But that was not just that. It was also the foundation of feminism and women rights apart from democracy, freedom, and equality.

Ironically, Napoleon’s monarchy ended with restoration of the House of Bourbon with Louis XVIII becoming the king again. Funny? He was thrown again in the July Revolution of 1830. Then came the Republic. Then came Napoleon III. Then Republic again. So, on and on. It was a century of all kinds of political seasons for French people.

That was a deviation. Now back to 1799.

Just when Napoleon was taking over France, Mysore was falling. Tipu Sultan was defeated and killed in 1799 in the Siege of Seringapatam by the East India Company. After Haider Ali, Tipu Sultan took over, but he was in consistent external threats from the beginning.

An English Governor General weakened the Mysore rule gradually with major and minor blows and through constraining the state. That Governor General was not finally able to defeat Tipu Sultan in the siege but that General was the one who did the damage. Will tell you about him in a bit.  

With the Fall of Mysore, the entire Subcontinent was taken over by Britain – except one region.

General Lord Cornwallis took the final blow of defeat in America in 1781. He surrendered in Yorktown to George Washington. American foundation was completed after 5 years to July 4th, 1776. That same general went back to England. He served in other countries and was finally sent to India.

And that was the same Governor General Lord Cornwallis of Bengal who weakened Tipu Sultan over the years. See! How history is connected. From America to England to the Tiger of Mysore.

Well, back to 1799.

After Mysore, the entire Subcontinent was under Britain. Except Punjab.

Sikhs had a strong force of powerful men. In the west were Pathans and in the East were English. But Sikhs didn’t succumb to any of them. In 1799, Ranjit Singh captured Lahore and became the Maharaja of Punjab and Kashmir. The western boundary of his empire was almost exactly as today’s Durand Line. It’s not controversial really.

Ranjit Singh ruled for 40 years, and his rule is considered as one of the finest times in history of Punjab.

So, we have 1799 with Napoleon Bonaparte, Lord Cornwallis, Tipu Sultan and Ranjit Singh so far. George Washington died in 1799, so he does not matter.

Another interesting aspect behind all this is that if French Monarchy wouldn’t have been in trouble during the 1780s and 1790s, it was assumed that Tipu Sultan could have been rescued by the French against the English. But that did not happen as French were busy in their own internal mess.

Imagine, Napoleon Bonaparte coming all the way from France to Egypt (which he did) to Persia to India and finally to Mysore to stand with another tiger of his time. Two Tigers. Would have been a historical drama of its kind.

We think of world as a global city today with the internet, 24/7 news, televisions, social media and stuff. But it was not as isolated as you may think of. See, how cool was 1799 – though it was all about war and blood. No peace.

Almost forgot. If there wouldn’t have been Napoleon, there wouldn’t have been “War and Peace” of Leo Tolstoy. So, at least from literary point of view: the mess was justified.

Similarly, if England wouldn’t have been an island, they wouldn’t have made ships in such numbers. That would have led to less voyages. No voyages to the deep south and unseen world. No such adventures mean no Darwin on one of the voyages to the south of Latin America. Hence, no Theory of Evolution would have been there.

Or – for instance – if Constantinople wouldn’t have been conquered by Sultan Muhammad Fateh in 1453 and Byzantine Empire could have lived some more countries, then the land passage from Europe to Asia would have survived for Europeans.

In that case, ship industry and sea voyages wouldn’t have flourished; then Columbus wouldn’t have founded America in 1492 and natives of that land could have lived some more centuries without being annihilated.

And India wouldn’t have been taken over by sea route, but through land. Forces coming from the west. Passing through Afghanistan. And leading all the way to Lahore and Delhi. In that case, Calcutta and Bombay could have been villages for a very long time as these cities were developed by those foreigners who landed there back in those days of Mughal Empire. And Mughals were after all Mongols.

Enough!

Let this be “Concise History of the World: What Happened and What Could Have Happened”.

Imagine Balochs

If they are treating them—vulnerable women and children—this way in Islamabad, imagine how they treat them back in Balochistan.

Imagine a loved one who is lost, missing, without a trace, and the whereabouts are not being registered. Police not helping. District administration not helping. As if the person never ever existed. Or as if you speak in a language that no one understands.

Imagine, after all the failures, you reach the capital only to be treated like insects—water showers, threats, police raids, no media coverage.

Imagine getting missed in pursuit of your missing loved ones.

This winter is harsh. There’s been no sun since mid-December. It’s probably the harshest winter passing through the country. Blankets feel useless. And then there are people who left their homes in this same winter, marched all across the country to reach the capital, now sitting on roads, sleeping on pavements for days in and days out… For nothing.

Imagine the suffering with another layer of suffering and suffering becoming cliche itself. Overused. Overemphasized.

And then imagine again: if they treat them this way in Islamabad, how would they have treated them back in Balochistan.

بات

یہ دیس ہمارا ہے نا؟

ہم بات کر سکتے ہیں۔

لیکن ہم بات نہیں کر سکتے۔

اور ہم بات کر بھی نہیں رہے۔

مجھے بات کرنی ہی نہیں ہے۔

نہیں۔

میں نہیں مرا۔

وہ مرا ہے۔

میں نہیں جلا۔

وہ جلا ہے۔

میں نہیں ٹوٹا۔

وہ ٹوٹا ہے۔

اس نے تعلق نہیں توڑا۔

میں نے توڑا۔

یہ جوتے کے تسمے سے بندھا دیس

یہ دیس میرا ہے نا؟

میں بات کر سکتا ہوں۔

لیکن میں بات نہیں کر رہا۔

مجھے بات کرنی ہی نہیں ہے۔

Donkey

He was 22 when she came into this world. That was his time to get what he wanted to get. The whole world. With a grip of his charm and smile. And he did.

Anyway, meaning being, she was zero when he was 22. Though zero came in 2018.

Back to chronology. He was 26 when he had his breakthrough. She was 4 then.

He was 30 when he stamped himself over a billion hearts. She was 8 then.

He was 35 when he visited Egypt and made his shirt more memorable than the Pyramids. She was 13 then.

A twist: He was 35 when he had an affair with a principal’s daughter. That principal was 58 at that time. Today, he is 58 but he is still in university and the principal has… well, the principal doesn’t matter because he retired.

He was 44 when he proved he wasn’t a terrorist. She was 22 and growing.

And then he became Dorian Gray.

Remember that curious case of Dorian Gray? No, not Benjamin Button. Dorian of Oscar Wilde. He stopped aging and the mirror got all the wrinkles. So, like Dorian, he also stopped aging. But she didn’t.

Now, she’s 36. He’s 58 – but considering the Dorian’s way of aging – he is 44. Stuck. And the two are together sharing as a couple. For you, it can be a difference of 22 but for him, it’s a difference of 8. Since she’s aging and he’s not, both will be 44 after 8 years.

This will be the story of Donkey. Inside sources. Could be wrong. Apologies.

The Fall

Autumn descends.
The fall.
November falls.
December rises.
Less sunshine.
More coldness.
In talks. In walks.
In memories. In contact.
That’s usual because it’s outside.
There is another fall.
Beyond November and December.
A fall that’s inside.
And cannot be seen among the fallen leaves.
But can be felt underfoot while walking on them.
In a dark park.
In solitude.
The fall.
That never falls.
Never has a falling.
Even when Spring arrives.

Homelessness

I make homes.
I destroy homes too.
But I have my home.
My comfort zone.

And while sitting in my zone.
With all the accessories around me.
Mine. Defined by me. Me, defined by them.
Like your bed.
And the bedsheet.
And the attached bath.
And the hanging towel.
And the entire yours.
The entire you.
In the comfort zone.
It’s your home.

It’s your home.
It’s my home.
We own our homes.
This way or that, we own.
Taken for granted or snatched…
Owned.

So,
I have my home.
My comfort zone.
Mine, defined by me.
Me, defined by the furniture.
I feel homelessness.

I don’t feel homelessness for all those who sleep on footpaths.
No. Don’t take me wrong.
I don’t feel for homes in Gaza. They are already demolished.
Not for Iraq.
Or Yemen.
Or Syria.
Or Libya.
Or Ukraine.
Or the whole Africa.

I feel homelessness.
In my home.
In my comfort zone.
Around products, defined by me.
Around me, defined by my consumerism.
I feel homelessness.