Mountain of light

The Mumbai bomb blasts were a nasty jolt. I was checking the web for the Srinagar blasts trying to find information about a relative who is in Srinagar for her honeymoon and then the websites picked up one blast after another in Mumbai. My first thought that these blasts were all connected to each other. My heartfelt condolences to the victims and their families. This is indeed an Intelligence failure as has been made out by most experts.

But I also think this has been an Intelligence failure of the nation at large and that includes you and me. While our country has been waging a low intensity battle in Kashmir, you and me have gone about our lives as if nothing has happened. We have gone about our lives as if such things only happen in Kashmir and they are sort of restricted to that part of the country and it will never affect us. In that spirit, we have also never bothered to question the government on what exactly it is doing to solve the Kashmir problem.

This problem has been making headlines for about 50 years now and I can’t remember this being a talking point in a single general election. It does not affect us until we see bomb blasts affect our near and dear ones and then we get all angry and want to wage a war against our western neighbour. It is very easy to blame an issue on Pakistan, but I like to ask my government on what it is doing to prevent this tragedy from happening again? We are a hugely successful economy and taking the right steps forward to claim our rightful place in the league of nations, we have an ancient civilization, rich culture, oh and also we have nuclear weapons etc. But how can we let this problem fester for more than 50 years and then allow it to take innocent lives of people who are far away from the root of the problem.

What have those poor commuters, who travel like cattle in peak hour local train, got to do with the Kashmir issue? How can the Prime Minister just turn up in Mumbai and blame Pakistan for supporting terrorism? Is it so easy, just blaming a neighbour and your job is done? What would we do tomorrow if Maoists blow up a train and kill 200 people? Who will we blame? Chairman Mao? China? Keeping in the spirit of symbolism, secretary level talks between India and Pakistan have been called off and the Indian government will try and put pressure on the Pakistan government to stop aiding terrorists. Like the government controls these terrorists, like terrorism ever stops like this?

We the people of this country, the “wheels of the economy” need to come up with a solution. The politicians have failed us and will continue to fail us.

So the World Cup is over and Italy won. What a match to cap an amazing tournament. It would have been no fun if the finals had happened without any drama. All the matches have had their share of drama with the fans adding more spice to it. Just when you thought that the final would be a tame end, Zidane decided to head butt the Italian defender. The only other head butt I saw in the tournament was in the Portugal Vs Netherlands match, where Luis Figo head butted a Dutch player (I forget who) and got away with it. I think Zidane probably thought he could get away with it too.

 

I wonder what made Zidane head butt Materazzi. I mean what could Materazzi have said that Zidane may not have heard hundreds of times before on and off the football pitch. In most countries, if you are an immigrant you have your share of racist slurs. I think that Zidane was trying to make a point and a no better stage than the World cup and that too in Germany that has had more than its share of racial abuses. Also he was the tallest player in stature in between both sides and he is already being compared to Pele and Maradona. Maybe he was trying to say that he would not take any more of the nonsense. I hope that he would one day come out with his side of the story.  I know there is a story. I just know it.  But I think the reason we want to hear it is different from the reason why he wants to tell it.

 

On a separate note, with the world cup being over I am having withdrawal symptoms. It is something else to sit in front of the telly every evening with some chilled beer and scream my lungs out at every goal. So what if India is not playing, so what if we are ranked below the armpits of Africa! This game belongs to me as much it does to Zidane, it gives me as much pleasure watching the game, as I am sure it does to someone playing it. I cannot agree with Svami Vivekananda more when he says:

“ You will be nearer to Heaven through football than through the study of Bhagwat Gita”

They have been two interesting stories in the media recently that have caught my attention more than the others. First is the Shiva lingam in Amarnath and how the lingam this year is an artificially made one and the other one is a Kannada actress of yesteryears claiming to have somehow entered the sanctum sanctorum of the Ayappa temple in Sabarimala. Lord Ayappa is a bachelor God and as per the temple authorities, if the actress indeed managed to do what she is claiming then the temple’s sanctity has been spoilt and it will have to be cleaned.

 

What is happening one may ask? As per my limited understanding of the Hindu mythology, these are sure shot signs of the Kali Yuga, when spirituality and morality degenerates considerably and attains new lows. I mean look around us and Kali Yuga is all pervasive. Our rulers are taxing us unfairly (FBT anyone?), people are stressed out by their jobs and are looking to go to retreats to escape their work (Ananda Spa?), relationships are breaking up all around me, people are getting intoxicated to alcoholic drinks (to the King of good times) etc. Increasingly as I read about it, if this is not Kali Yuga then nothing else is. This Yuga will only end when an Avatar will arrive on a white horse (ok a white Ferrari) and save the world.

 

So, I thought to myself who in the current crop are potential avatars. Two people come to my mind immediately. My top candidate is George Bush who wants to save the world even when his own country’s Supreme Court tells him his military tribunals in Guantanamo Bay are illegal. He just wants to save his people, as simple as that. There is Rahul Gandhi, although not in the same league yet as George Bush. But he still wants to save the about to be most populous nation of the world. He is so committed to his goal that he even refused the Prime Minister’s position when he was 25 years old. Apparently, a divine voice told him that even Avatars have a minimum age limit, and it is certainly higher than 25. Therefore, he is biding his time and keeping his mouth shut until his destiny finally embraces him. There are ofcourse a whole bunch of other people – politicians, rockstars, billionaires, religious heads etc and the thing with them is that sometimes I feel that they think that saving themselves is equivalent to saving the world. So I can never be sure whether they are actions are towards the general good or towards boosting their own PR image.

 

My personal take on this whole issue is that I do not agree that the entire humanity is going through Kali Yuga. Each one of us has our own Yugas and we need to deal with them at our own personal levels. My Kali Yuga is different from yours and I will be in it shorter or longer than yours, depending on how I deal with it.