Is M F Hussain not an Indian ?

India's eminent artist M.F. Husain, who has been under legal attack from Hindu fundamentalists for his paintings of Hindu goddesses/Bharatmaata and has been living in Dubai and London, has been given Qatar nationality.......  Now he has to give up the citizenship of the land of his birth, which he has lovingly and secularly celebrated in his art covering a period of over seven decades. India does not allow dual citizenship........

Is he no more a Indian now ?



Secularists :
Many sympathisers, including politicians, artists, media, etc of Hussain  have  expressed grievances over this news. Government has even offered security to Hussain if he is willing to come back.

• Will the same Government allow the publication and selling of Salman Rushdie's "Satanic Verses" ?

• Will the so called secular society of india support if some one paints a picture(in the same manner Hussain painted) of the prophets of  all other Indian religions, including Hussain's religion, in the name of artistic freedom and creative expression ?

Many eminent and prominent elites, including The Hindu's N Ram,  often cite the example of Khazuraho temples to support the nude portrayal of Hindu gods . Why dont they understand that the opinions, approaches, attitudes, towards nude art do change from one century to another century? Shall we start projecting nudity just because once we were as nude as animals in the evolution?

• Does only certain sections of this country have sentiments and others don't ?
  

Cultural Policing :

I am neither a patron of Bajrang Dal/RSS/VHP/Sangh Parivar nor a Theist, but still i do have sentiments regarding my culture and the way i live. Both the so called secularists and the so called Hindu religion protectors are using the issue to meet their vested interests.

•   The so called Hindu religion protectors never answer to the portrayal of eroticism of Goddesses in Hindu scriptures and paintings.

• Is the issue really about Artistic freedom/Creative expression or is it  just a Vote bank politics?
• Is it fine if some Hindu artist paints the Hindu Goddesses nudely ?
• Is it all about the religious identity of the artist?
• Sir, I think Indian culture also talks about Tolerance too.

Bonding - 55 Fiction

Note:- 55 Fiction infers to fictional writings bounded to a maximum of fifty-five words.

 Bonding

 

The nine months of her painful and anxious waiting came to an end  with the delivery of a beautiful and healthy girl child......

Small and cute eyes, pink cheeks, tender fingers.....

Everyone in the family are extremely happy.....

She is relaxed now.....

After few days she left her child forever.....

She is a surrogate mother.

PS: Surrogate mothers in India cost considerably lower (about, a fourth of what they would cost in the United States). 

Savage - 55 Fiction

Note:- 55 Fiction infers to fictional writings bounded to a maximum of fifty-five words.

 Savage

Sahib proclaimed, ".......butchering, removal of rubbish and waste, leather work, cleaning latrines and sewers, and Manual scavenging .......

Your shadows and footfalls are ritually impure, polluted and contagious .......

..... No entry to wells, schools and temples and stay out of the village....

Just don't touch us.... "

Meera murmured, "Sahib, was i not untouchable when you raped me?"

Who is the Vice-president of India ???

Who is the current vice-president of India(as on Feb 18 2010)?

Bhairon Singh Shekhawat?  Naaah ?

Hey, It is not a quiz here. I have been asking this question to many people i came across since few weeks, and not surprisingly, very very few could answer. Many of them include software engineers, students, government employees, IAS aspirants(ahem!), NRIs etc. The first thing I noticed in them is that though they had the  answer somewhere in the grey areas of their busy brain and they were unable to retrieve  it from the hidden database. Some were totally blank when they faced this question.  Few of them asked/doubted whether i know the answer or not.  One of my friends felt relieved when he told me the answer after few minutes of database mining . Interestingly, few people were so obsessed with this question that they took time to find out the answer. Some of them smsed the answer after a day or two. Of course some embarrassments for civil service aspirants who chewed water and gave some lame excuses.  The most common  and first answer i got from most of them is  that our vice-president is a 'Muslim'. Am not sure how many of you are going to search in Google or Wikipedia to find the answer.

My concern is not the answer but the reason for missing the answer. Is it because of the scarce media attention vice-president gets ? Is it because that he is just a symbolic head of some legislative body? Is it because of the happening factor that every bit of data is readily available for us in just few clicks ? Is it the name of the vice-president which is quite uncommon to remember? Is it because of the word 'vice' which means sub ordinate?  Is it because of our life style and changing attitudes ? Is it because of the diminishing trend towards the static data?  Is it because that we will  know about him in future when he becomes President of India, probably. May be, i guess, it is quite common and natural to ignore vice-presidents, irrespective of the period we live in.

Am not going to draw any conclusions from this question. I know that it doesn't matter whether we know the answer or not. The most embarrassing moment can be when a kid will pose this question to us. This post is an attempt to create an opportunity to know more about the vice president of India, who is quite multi faceted academician and intellectual. He is really a Wise-President.What made me to write this post is the sentence i came across which was quoted by the current Vice-president of India.

"No citizen is apolitical; as a citizen, by definition, has to take interest in public affairs."

By the way, have you googled or wikipeded for the answer?

PS: To know his name as well as about him, click

1. http://vicepresidentofindia.nic.in/profile.asp

Fire - 55 Fiction

Note:- 55 Fiction infers to fictional writings bounded to a maximum of fifty-five words.

 

Fire

It was raining.....

She was anxiously waiting for a bus on a deserted road.....

He saw her with a desire.....

He scanned her from top to bottom.....

His senses were ignited by the flavours and aromas of her appealing appearance in the most beautiful  way .....

He approached her and killed her.....

He was a cannibal.

PS : 1. The fire of HCL inside a stomach doesn't know fiction.
        2. This is a GREEN Post

Resonance - 55 Fiction

Note:- 55 Fiction infers to fictional writings bounded to a maximum of fifty-five words.

Resonance

Shekar met his best friends, Sreenu and Venkat, after three  years. He gave them a grand treat at Ohri's. After dinner, he paid the bill and gave 1000 rupees as a tip to the bearer . Venkat  asked, "Hey Shekar, isn't it the tip quite heavy ?".  No, I did the same job when i was in US. 

What If...

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 7; the seventh edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

I am standing in front of a mirror, a mirror of reflective transparency, cruel honesty and naked confessions . I am standing in front of the mirror without masks. We often wear masks to satisfy societal obligations and expectations ..... in the name of Morality ..... and we call it as LIFE. Many unprocessed  and unrefined  thoughts have started streaming out of my brain strata. Is it brain or mind ?  I am  standing in front of the mirror with closed eyes, but still i could sense  the  image reflection. Questions with answers and without answers are popping out, one by one. Can I do erase the imprints of social programming ? What if I really confess.What If I .... ?

Me :  I don’t think I took right decisions. I  just took decisions and made them right.

Mirror : No one can make decisions right. We can just keep on making them till they turn out right.

Me : Were all the failures happened due to lack of work or hard work? Are both the same?

Mirror : Work is to achieve what you want and hard work is when you  don’t enjoy the process. Had you worked much harder?

Me : Why do i try to avoid Failure every time?

Mirror : Because failure makes you feel guilty of the knowledge you already have.

Me : Why do I hate Failure so much? Why Hate? 

Mirror :  Isn't it HATE an emotion which makes you put time, energy and effort towards something which should be just ignored. 

  

Me :  Philosophies made me to think/rethink and thoughts made me to philosophize. Am i becoming philosophical? Am i a tool in the hands of many philosophies?

Mirror : After all Philosophy is a theory and strategy should be your   very own individual way of twisting and turning it to suit your specific practicalities, rather than succumbing to the philosophical and moral obligations. Practically, philosophy can be and should be used to mainly psyche others and sometimes yourself that even your wrong things are also right.

Me : I have come across people, including me, who say everything about philosophy but achieved nothing.

Mirror: Philosophy is about understanding achievement and it does not necessarily make you achieve. You can study a snake’s agility, behaviour and the nature of its poison but you can’t become the snake. 

Me : So, philosophy is a rich man’s time pass.

Mirror: I would say that it is an intelligent man’s time pass and a foolish man’s time out.

Me : Is my rationalistic, agnostic and anthropological approach towards this world making me out of the rat race?

Mirror : Hallucination if found in an individual level is called mental disorder and if found on mass level is called Religion/Consumerism and finally leads to rat race.

Me : Ignorance is a polite word for dumbness and arrogance is a harsh word for intellect.  So, being Ignorant will work in this arrogant world . What say ?

Mirror:  Ignorance is not knowing, dumbness is knowing and not understanding, arrogance is not caring about knowing and intellect is knowing your ignorance. 

Me : Mirror, am i seeking motivation through you ?

Mirror : The real reason of motivation comes from the guilt of being unworthy.

  I would say it comes from a fear of being unworthy.

Me : A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity and an optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty. Isn't it too idealistic?

Mirror : And an inbetweenist like you sees a difficult opportunity as an opportunistic difficulty. Hahaha... :)

Me : I am totally in chaos regarding my social relations(real and virtual) these days...

Mirror : You are not obligated to someone who likes you. You are  obligated to whom you like.  Think again.

Me : Then again, why don't people understand me  properly ?

Mirror : It’s not their business to understand you. It’s your business to make them understand. 

Me : Sometimes I feel like running away from this Information/ Knowledge obsessed world. Life has become more uncertain.

Mirror : Knowledge is a threat to the body and ignorance is a threat to the mind. A mixture of innocence and danger always creates more terror mainly because of the unexpectedness. That’s the reason most horror films feature women and children as ghosts.

Me : Why I am confused so much these days?

Mirror : That’s because thoughts arise from rational thinking and deeds many times are triggered by emotions and the result of those deeds will again influence the thoughts and thus the cycle of contradictions will keep continuing which will appear as yours and hence more inconsistencies.

Me : Why is belief in Ghosts called superstition and belief in God called faith? 

Mirror : That’s because superstition can be done away with but lack of faith can tear up the very fabric of both you and the society you live in. 

Me : Mostly you have responded when you are negated or when something of brilliance is said and you ignore both praise and abuse.

Mirror: That’s because praise and abuse don’t matter in the larger scheme of things whereas the earlier two add to both  knowledge and thinking.  

Me : But Mirror, aren't you selfish? Your answers reflect so.

Mirror : That’s because I want to live my life completely on my own terms and that’s an ultimate act of selfishness in the purest of its forms. 

Me : Experiencing things through your thought process always makes me believe that there is no absolute truth.

Mirror: Yes. That’s because there’s absolutely no absolute truth. 

Me : All this crap is just  to ask you one Question. What is Success? How can  i become successful?

Mirror : Success is for others and being successful is for yourself.

Me : What if I don't agree with you?

Mirror : Nothing happens except your life goes on with the flavours of Hypocrisy and self deception .

Me : Is it true....?

Mirror : Yes, absolutely true . 

Me : But you said, " There is no absolute truth".

Mirror : Truth is absolute – you just have to arrive at the right evidence with the right interpretation. 

Me : Mirrorrrr.......You are sick.

Mirror : Yes, because I am your imagination .

 Finally when i opened my eyes, there is nothing, neither the mirror nor the image, except some ambiguous answers. Somehow, still, i could sense the mirror.What if ..... ?

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Existence - 55 Fiction

Note:- 55 Fiction infers to fictional writings bounded to a maximum of fifty-five words.

Existence

He is been lying beside his wife, day and night, since nine days without food. He can hardly move his body. The only thing which keeps him alive is a water bottle . He didnt give up. He has got only two things, his dead wife and Hope, under the rubble of an earthquake hit building.

PS1: An estimated three million people were affected by the earthquake in Haiti.

PS2: I thank Nethra for  motivating me to comeback with a 55ier :)