“To a Muslim Assalam to a Hindu Ram Ram”

The other day I was humming, ‘Kehena hi kya’, and that’s when my dad asked me if I had watched Bombay, I said no.

But after watching a few videos with Arwind swami in them, I knew I had to watch Bombay.

It started off just as I expected with a soft love story of two people from different religions, who eventually ended up eloping and naming their twin boys Kamal and Kabir, almost five, and both have been raised not sticking to one religion.

 But the film took turns that I did not expect whatsoever.

The movie shows a huge part of the Babri masjid protests that happened in Bombay.

The riots, the fights, the shootings, the blasts, the innocent lives lost, and whatnot.

The beautiful thing is, not just the movie itself but also the actors who played the roles,

 A typical brahmin father Narayan Pillai was played by a Muslim actor – Nassar.

A proper Muslim father Basheer was played by a brahmin – Rajakrishnamurti (Kitty).

Shaila Bano – Born and bought up in a typical muslim family was played by Manisha Koirala who is a brahmin.

The legendary Maniratram – the eyes (director) of the film, a proper Brahmin. The ears of the film, a Muslim – A.R Rehman.

What’s more beautiful than that?

But the sad part is, Bombay is a film that was released in 1995, it’s been 26 years since – the Babri masjid was just an excuse for us to whip our weapons out. Today if not the Ram mandir then Kashmir, then cow slaughtering or even something as simple as a cricket match between Pakistan and India.

The fight started years before my great- grandparents were born, 

Generations have seen us fight against each other until we ripped the land apart and claimed it for ourselves.

There is a scene in Bombay (2:05:08) when one of the twins gets lost in the riot and a transgender woman takes him into her house to save him from the riots, and then he asks “what does being Hindu or Muslim mean? Why are they fighting?”

Just like she didn’t know how to answer that I don’t know either. Is it pride? Is it ego? I don’t know.

But what I know is that I want the future generation to see these fights and riots only as history.

                                      

“The culture of this soil is alike and same,

whom should I name whom should I blame,

for the walls we built for the wars we fought.

Were shortsightedness and narrow minded thought.

These are questions to be answered in the future,

Nobody could divide our ancient culture,

Music of Khusro and message of Nizam,

To a Muslim Assalam to a Hindu Ram Ram.”

Akhtar Jawad

what is independence without you?

Recently I got a school assignment to talk about the army and its determination as a part of our independence week celebration.

So I called up one of my family friend ,who’s dad was army officer now 87 and retired , and as I was talking ,thatagaru said and I quote “ To be very honest , it wasn’t hard being at the border , but the hardest part was the vacation; when I came home and  every time I came home my two little kids didn’t look so little anymore and even though it felt good being at the border throughout the year , it was only hurtful when I had to leave family after vacation” 

He laughed when I asked him if he was ever scared of losing his life. And replied “the only thing I was scared of is what my family and my little children would do if I was gone , but maybe that’s what army is , it never gives you the time to think about yourself “

After the talk with him , I realised that its not as easy as it sounds to be on the border , its not easy to wake up everyday not knowing if you will still breathe as the day evolves.

The Indian Army looks out for us while putting their lives at stake ,From when we got Independence till 2013 about 23,000 soldiers lost their lives while protecting ours. 

And the fact that we are all here today at this very moment , doing what we are doing , despite all the non state actors out there is itself proof that their determination can determine our lives. 

JAI HIND!

adventures in punjab

PUNJAB

As my school generally come up with crazy ideas , this time they named it oak venture and took my class to Punjab where each student , stayed with an other students family in Punjab for six days . This was a new thing for me, like I went on vacations with the school but , never lived with a local family .

It all began with a bang ! A garland in my neck and a tika on my forehead !
I mean I had to be the luckiest, to have a family that took care of me like their own child, the family I lived with has showed me immense love , affection and care , that I could never , ever forget that I have another beautiful family living in Punjab.


I lived in a village named “Manana” , It had all the local punjabi village atmosphere and fields all around , with tiny roads and beautiful sunsets . During the time I went the family was celebrating a pooja , for health and happiness, it was a three day ceremony , where a book from the Gurudwara comes home and the gurus read it a loud , in their tradition everyone has to cover their head , the men had paddies and the women had to cover their hair with a duppata or a scarf.

A few days before the pooja me and Divjot ( host child) went to the gurudwara , she was very kind and had explained me the entire history of sikhs .where I found amazing point of views and things that we probably don’t even know about.

The Kada that the sikhis wear is not just a religious thing , it is an iron bangle that energises your body so you become harmless .

While at the school with friends , me and a few others tried on some panjabi parandhas and pagdies .
We also visited the Golden temple in Amritsar, where we had our lunch which is called Lahore at the temple .
We also felt and drank the holy water of the lake , the lake is holy because the gurus have dipped in the water .
Later on we visited the Jallianwala Bagh , where we saw the welll that the Indians jumped into to protect themselves from the British . We also saw the bullet marks on the walls , and the bushes that were carved into the shape of the British shooters .
We also visited a government school in kanpur , where we saw the extremely talented kids , who also presented us a dance before we left , in the school visit we met the sarpanch of the village and got a chance to ask them a few questions, we as well spoke it the local people and the teachers of that school, the best part of Khanpur was our tractor ride into the fields , they left us out in the fields where we ( mostly me ) got a little too exited and got a shoe stuck n the mud .
Even though it was amazing .

Soon after we came to the school to perform our Panjabi dance , which we learnt in Mohali , with that we had an open mic session, where they asked us a few questions and we had to answer them based on how we felt .

My school just gave me an amazing opportunity to build new relations , and I really thank my school for that 🙂

over all it was an amazing experience , where I learnt a lot of new things , and built amazing relations !