Featured Posts

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Me Taliban

I belong to the Taliban and I am a Talib.....says who? Says Honorable Supreme Court Justice Markandey Katju.

Oh did he...I guess he must have strong valid reasons, right? Well, he does have a reason, yes.

Gosh...so you guys have infiltrated into Indian mainland, you must be a spy, right...what else would you be in India for? Hmm...I've always been in India, you see, I was born here, have been brought up here, studied here (though we hardly study in engineering colleges:D), intend to work here too if a certain IT major does not forget me...ohh n btw, I love India too but that I suppose is besides the point.


Hmm...so why did he call you a Taliban? Lemme see, I guess you practice hate, right? Hardly...love is the very fuel of life is what I believe in.

Probably, you do not support girls getting educated along with boys if at all they should get educated, right? Let's just say that one of the foremost reasons for me traveling almost one hour from Central Calcutta to the outer fringes of Southern Calcutta to attend college was the incentive of ogling at a couple of really pretty faces in Electrical '05!!!

You must be having AK 47s stashed in your locker, right? The only things that I have stashed in my locker are DVDs of movies (mostly Holly flicks) and a pack of cards...in fact, I don't think you could even call it a locker considering it doesn't have a lock:D

Ohh I suppose you deliver sermons denouncing USA and advocating killing of innocents in a high pitched tone of frenzy, right? The only time I get in a frenzy is when Maria starts smashing those one handed baseline winners:D

Damn you, then what did you do to warrant that statement from Justice Katju? I sport a beard and that's what makes me Taliban because you see according to the Hon Judge, a beard and burqa are symbols of Talibanisation of India.

It so happened that this young 16 year old guy studying in a convent school in MP started sporting a beard which he was promptly asked to shave off by the school authorities citing school regulations...the boy surprisingly went on to challenge the decision in the highest echelons of justice in the land. The petition of the boy was rejected on the grounds that the convent being a private enterprise did have authority to formulate it's own sets of rules as long as it did not go against any indispensable part of any religion and the beard was deemed not to be an indispensable part of Islam. Justice Katju then went on to say "We don't want to have Talibans in the country. Tomorrow a girl student may come and say that she wants to wear a burqa. Can we allow it?"

So keeping a beard makes me Taliban...OK, got it. BTW, Sir...is it a general rule for all and for all types of beards or does the beard have to be of a certain free flowing kind and the face has to go by a name only belonging to a certain community...you see, am curious coz I have this goatee sort of stylized beard and as for the all people thing that's just because if it's a general rule for all people then am in exalted company, right from Manmohan Singh to Amitabh Bacchan to Vijay Mallya...ohh n shucks, are we being governed by a Taliban member for the last almost 5 years...I don't think so.....I suppose it does have to be a certain kind of beard belonging to only certain people with certain sounding names that you are talking about, right?

Ohh and pray tell me Hon Sir, what is wrong if a free minded girl in a free minded country of her own free will decides to wear a Burqa, how does that Talibanise the country. Isn't it entirely a matter of individual free choice in a working democracy.

Coming to the judgment based on the fact that the private school has rights to set it's own set of rules...it should not be a problem when you want to practice secularism in it's strictest sense, that of having nothing to do with religion...it should not be a problem if you ban all religious exhibitionism...it should not be a problem if you lay down rules that every student should be in trousers and shirts, polished shoes and necktie with smartly cropped army style hair and with no other visible symbols to differentiate him in any way whatsoever from the basic class of "student of the school"...the problem however arises when there is selective stipulations on selective things for selective people...hate to be reactionary but I suppose you must also disallow tikas on the forehead, turbans on the skull and kadas on the wrist based on the basic logic of equality.

I have studied in a convent school...I have even attended the mass on a number of occasions and I don't think it was wrong at all..in fact, it was great. I had friends in school who sported beards, who wore turbans, who had tikas on their forehead, who had kadas on their wrist, who had crosses on a chain round their neck and we all assimilated together...we obviously believed in "Unity in Diversity". Now,, it should be either be that or it should be "Unity in Commonality" wherein everyone looks the same and is just a "student". There is no middle path and if someone follows it, it must be derided and challenged and spoken against.

Do I come across as a hard nosed and regressive propagator of burqas n beards...hell no, all am advocating is free will...all am talking against is generalizing...all am ranting against is projecting beards n burqas to be symbols of Taliban...all I am asking for is equality...all I am propagating is it should be either all or nothing.


If that makes me regressive, so be it.
If that makes me Taliban..so be it!!!

Blog Widget by LinkWithin
Digg Google Bookmarks reddit Mixx StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Buzz DesignFloat Delicious BlinkList Furl

27 eulogies: on "Me Taliban"

Anonymous said...

oh my! it was a very strong post! but I agree with what you said!! why should anyone else decide that man should be sporting a beard or not..i mean we are country of religious tolerance of solidarity of unity in diversity then why is it that we cannot get over are stone-aged idea of perceiving religion and regional differences!!

a pat on your back for writing this one..!

Rià said...

Arent there other issues which r far more serious than this!! Its weird tht our courts hav so much of time to pass such stupid judgements!!

Ur post conveys a very strong msg, tht we dont want to take any of the shit anymore and if tht means we r taliban then so be it!!

shadan said...

while i was reading the blog i was reminded of this poem i studied way back in class 11...
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high..
Where knowledge is free...
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls...
Where words come out from the depth of truth..
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection...
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit..
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake..
i guess its time that people who speak about democracy and secularism understand this poem...
after i finished reading the blog,i had a smile on my face...because even when i have gone many such experiences because of the name that i have or because i sport a beard...and guys who think the blog was shocking..wake up!!! dis is real and this happens almost everyday in our nation...hope that one day our nation wakes up to the heaven of freedom of choice..

Keshi said...

I agree totally CN! A very good post here.

Simply put, to each his own!

The day ppl realise that, thats when the whole world wud hv real PEACE!

Welldone CN!

Keshi.

Saim said...

@Kajal
no pats for me plz...it all just came out very spontaneously, am glad u agree wid me:)

Saim said...

@Ria
whts dismaying of course is tht this comes not from one of the usual suspects but 4m the highest seat of justice in the land!!!
thts what makes it even more disturbing!!!

Saim said...

@Shadan
Tagore would be squirming all right now.
of course, this sort of things get manifested in everyday life in many ways but this is so blatant!!!

Vyzz said...

hey saim...thought provoking post...it's pathetic how we as a nation are turning out. but it's people like you and me who will relly make a difference.

cheers

vyo

mixedblessings89 said...

What an idiot! In my school, though neatness was promoted (as in guys of any community were not allowed to have anything more than a stubble, or slightly longer), anyone who said they wanted to do something out of religious sentiments was never stopped.

Seriously, you'd imagine a judge to have more sense.

Jeez. I can still not believe it.

Saim said...

@Vyzz
well, dunno abt making a difference but yes am trying to make an effort 4 sure!!!

Saim said...

@Aditi
even thts perfectly fine...if u have a uniform blanket rule 4 everyone but selective rulings r whats pathetic.
the less said abt the judge the better!!!

Toon Indian said...

really well written..and I liked the satire to get the point across..India means "Unity in Diversity" let anybody say anything!!

gypsy said...

what are we driving at, i wonder...

it is so pathetic at times... but i hope it would get better only...

Anonymous said...

A very well written post. :)

I agree, secularisation does not lie in banning religious symbols - it lies in tolerating them all. :)

Saim said...

@Rat
at least thts what u hv cum 2 xpect of Muthalik n this likes but this is just beyond comprehension:(

Anonymous said...

i liked the strong and sattirical tone of the post !! kudos !!

Share The Grief, Write A Eulogy