Of what I didn’t get

I often think it has been a stroke of great fortune to have been born in a speech community that speaks the language of Rabindranath Tagore. To those who do not follow Bangla, it is impossible to convey what Rabindranath means to us Bengalis. 

*

Our expectations from ourselves, the people around us, and from the world in general are perhaps the biggest source of unhappiness and suffering. Can we stop cataloguing what we didn’t get? Here is a free translation of a song by Rabindranath Tagore from the collection of his 157 songs known as Geetanjali (Song Offerings).

 

In the light and shades my heart

As I hear a flute being played somewhere,

My mind declines to make a list

Of what I didn’t get.

The memory of the time when I was in love

With the world keeps coming back,

In the southern breeze of many a spring

To fill my offertory basket of flowers.

Tears deep and dark

Hidden in recesses of the heart

Keep answering my prayers

In the form of even more pain.

The strings would have snapped at times

But one must take it in one’s stride

The notes fell in place precisely yet

Again and again – how can I forget?

 

 

কি পাই নি তারি হিসাব মিলাতে

মন মোর নহে রাজি ।

আজ হৃদয়ের ছায়াতে আলোতে

বাঁশরি উঠেছে বাজি ।।

ভালোবেসেছিনু এই ধরণীরে

সেই স্মৃতি মনে আসে ফিরে ফিরে,

কত বসন্তে দখিনসমীরে

ভরেছে আমারি সাজি ।।

নয়নের জল গভীর গহনে

আছে হৃদয়ের স্তরে,

বেদনার রসে গোপনে গোপনে

সাধনা সফল করে ।

মাঝে মাঝে বটে ছিঁড়েছিল তার,

তাই নিয়ে কেবা করে হাহাকার–

সুর তবু লেগেছিল বারে-বার

মনে পড়ে তাই আজি ।।

 

[Translated by me on 18 February 2021]

 

Should you be bothered about Wasim Jaffer?

Cricket is a new career option for adventurous Indian boys and Wasim Jaffar, who comes from an ordinary family, is a success story. After beginning his cricketing career for Mumbai at the age of 15, he scored 314 in his second Ranji match. Later, he moved to Vidarbha and helped them win the Ranji Trophy in 2018.

Between 2000 and 2008, Jaffar played 31 test matches for India with an average of 34.1, which is decent for an opening batsman. (Chetan Chouhan’s average was 31.6 and Krishnamachari Srikanth’s, 29.9.) He also holds the record of scoring most runs in Ranji Trophy, having played over 150 matches. In his playing days, Wasim Jaffer was considered one of the vanishing breed of “gentlemen cricketers”. He didn’t get involved in any controversy as far as I can recall.

Jaffar, who joined as the head coach for the Uttarakhand cricket team for 20-21, resigned on 09 February 2021. In his resignation letter, Jaffer had said the Cricket Association of Uttarakhand (CAU) officials had been pushing undeserving players.

After Jaffer’s resignation, CAU secretary, Mahim Verma said he had been informed by players that Jaffer had “communalised” the dressing room environment and “favoured” Muslim players. He also accused Jaffer of inviting a maulvi to the ground and thus violating the COVID-induced bio-bubble too, besides changing the team chant that hails Hanuman. So, essentially, the complaints against Jaffer are communal and unrelated to cricket. A senior national sportsman was slapped with charges after his resignation without the semblance of an enquiry and without giving him an opportunity to defend himself. This cannot be done even to an ordinary employee in the organised sector. 

After his appointment as coach, Jaffer had hand-picked three professional players – Jay Bista, Iqbal Abdullah and Samad Fallah — from outside the state to play for Uttarakhand. The state association apparently had no problem then.

Subsequent to the allegations following his resignation, Jaffer said in a virtual press conference: ‘They said I called a maulvi and offered namaaz on the ground. First of all, I didn’t call a maulvi; it was Iqbal Abdullah who called him. On Friday, we needed a maulvi to offer namaaz. Iqbal asked me, and I said yes. The practice was over and we offered namaaz inside the dressing room. This happened only twice or thrice, that too before the bio-bubble was put in place.’

He added, ‘There are allegations of me not allowing players to chant ‘Jai Hanuman Jai’. First of all, no players chanted any slogan. We have a few players who are from the Sikh community, and they used to say ‘Rani Mata Sache Darbar ki Jai’. So, I once suggested that we should have something like “Go Uttarakhand” or “Come on, Uttarakhand” instead. Like, when I used to be with Vidarbha, the team had “Come on, Vidarbha” as its slogan. And it wasn’t me who chose the slogan, it was left to the players.’

Jaffer also categorically denied that he had pushed for Muslim players.

Indian cricketing establishments have had many blemishes, but never ever was there a controversy in communal lines between an association and its coach. But then, a lot of new things have been happening in New India, like the Supreme Court granting a disputed site to those who had committed an "egregious violation of the rule of law" at the same site, or the PM laying the foundation stone of a temple, or the President of the Republic contributing to a temple construction fund.

The Hidutwa persuasion of our rulers was bound to intrude into sports sooner or later and it has happened. Uttarakhand is a BJP ruled state and for the party, everything ultimately boils down to protecting Hindus form imaginary threats from “others” like Wasim Jaffer.

Four fellow cricketers of Jaffer, Anil Kumble, Irfan Pathan, Dodda Ganesh, and Manoj Tiwari have come out openly in support of Wasim Jaffer. They too believe Jaffer is a decent man who has been wronged. Of them, only Anil Kumble is a name to reckon with, but his tweet was as anodyne as it could have been. One wonders what former cricketing greats like Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Dravid, Laxman, Ganguli, Srinath, Harbhajan, or Zaheer would like to say on the topic. Or Virendra Shwag, who was Jaffer’s opening partner in several tests. It would be reasonable to believe they understand the unfairness against Jaffer. However, it is unavoidable to infer that being a dashing athlete is no guarantee that one has a spine.

Sachin Tendulkar, the greatest Indian cricketer, exhibited the spinelessness, besides the social awareness of a jellyfish, when he tweeted an inane message – possibly under instructions from political masters he doesn’t really need – against international celebrities who asked legitimate questions about the brutal way the Indian government has been treating agitating farmers.

Let’s face two harsh truths: if you are a Muslim, Christian, or Dalit in India today, whether you are a celebrity or a nonentity, you are liable to be targeted by the saffron party and their henchmen at every turn of the road. Secondly, not many Hindus – who aren’t branded antinational by default – speak out in these toxic days despite the fact that we live in a time that can be described in Rabindranath Tagore’s words, when “justice cries alone, silently, because of crimes committed by irremediable power.”

If like me, thanks to the accident of your birth, you are not an automatic target of the bigoted and poisonous Hindutwa brigade, and yet you don’t speak out against crimes committed by irremediable power, please think: Are you a blind follower of the saffron brigade, are you a creep like Tendulkar, or are you plain scared? 

Whatever you are, Dear Reader, you are a part of the problem!

12 February 2021

26 JANUARY, FAILURE / SABOTAGE, AND LATER

Something terrible happened in Delhi on the Republic Day 2021. The farmers’ protests, which had been completely peaceful for over two months until then, got blemished by a group of hooligans who took over the Red Fort for some time, flew a Sikh religious flag under the tricolour there, and randomly clashed with police. Here is an attempt to sum up the developments in brief.

1. In 2020, the Indian government brought in three inter-connected farm laws.
2. There has been a widespread view that agriculture being a “state subject” in the Constitution of India, the centre had no business to enact these laws. Pritam Singh writes in the Wire (20 January 2021): “Since the inauguration of the Indian constitution on January 26, 1950, these three [laws] constitute the most concerted entry of the Centre into the sphere of agriculture, which was designated a state subject” in the Constitution.
3. The laws were controversial since beginning for other reasons too. Agricultural experts like P Sainath and Yogendra Yadav believe these laws will give big industrialists a free hand in agriculture, where they were barred until now. On the other hand, a few reputed economists like Dr Ashok Gulati and most TV experts (?) believe the laws will improve the farmers’ conditions and farm productivity immensely. I will not go into the merits of their arguments here, but what is beyond argument is that the laws, if implemented, will change for ever the way farmers sell their products and the farm economy in general.
4. Let me just add that while the government believes it’s a huge gift to farmers, the famers don't see the laws as a gift. On the contrary, almost all the farmers’ bodies have begun an agitation demanding repeal of the laws. It’s by far the biggest protest happening on the planet now.
5. Let’s also note that the government brought in these bills first through ordinances and then through minimal discussion in Lok Sabha and got it passed by “voice vote” in Rajya Sabha. “Voice vote” means actual votes of members will not be recorded. Members supporting will shout “Aye” and those who oppose will shout “Nay”! The Speaker of the house, whose hearing shouldn’t be questioned, will decide which side had more people. Voice vote, naturally, is taken on minor issues. Also, the ruling party and their supports do not have a majority in Rajya Sabha. So, passing such a game-changing law which is going to impact every Indian by voice vote is a mockery of parliamentary practices.
6. Lakhs of farmers have been sitting peacefully in protest against the farm laws for over two months now and have blocked major roads leading into Delhi from Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh under the leadership of an umbrella organisation: Sanyukt Kisaan Morcha or the SKM. Their protests were completely peaceful until 26 January when they brought in 96,000 tractors to the capital.
7. While the tractor marches were largely peaceful, in some areas, groups of farmers broke away from predetermined routes and attacked policemen brutally, injuring over 300 of them. The mob also took over the Red Fort for a brief while and raised some Sikh religious flags under the tricolour on the ramparts of the fort.
8. True to their wont, the mainstream media completely ignored peaceful marches on 26 January and focussed solely on the trouble makers. They also held the farmers’ leaders squarely responsible for the mayhem and what they called insult to the national flag. They ignored the fact that even the mob didn’t touch the national flag.
9. The SKM leadership condemned the trouble makers unequivocally, but also took moral responsibility for the mayhem. In my lifetime, this is the first time I have seen leaders of an agitation taking responsibility for hooligans who (mis)used protest platform.
10. Also, the SKM leadership said there was a gang of people led by one Deep Sidhu who created all the trouble at Red Fort. Interestingly, these thugs had tried to join the protest before, but they were shooed away by the SKM. Deep Sidhu and his gang had been known thugs. (Deep Sidhu is also close to the BJP and has his picture with the PM right at the PM's residence.) The Deep Sidhus had stayed put despite being cold-shouldered by SKM. Where? If you had seen the agitation site at the border from a helicopter, you would have seen this: SKM agitators camping outside the Delhi border – police barricade at the border – and the Deep Sidhu gang on the other side of the border, clearly, aided and allowed by the police within the Delhi border.
11. On 26 January, they were the first people to get off the block. They reached the Red Fort unobstructed by the police. Why were they not stopped by the Delhi Police? Your guess is as good as mine. 

The above, Dear Friends, is what I believe is a STATEMENT OF BARE FACTS. There have been 3 different kinds of reactions to these facts.

 

Firstly, the sarkar, the sarkari party, and the media that are heavily tilted towards them, from Times Now to Aaj Tak, are baying for the blood of the farm leaders. The now-famous troll army of the ruling party has threatened the most articulate farm leader, Yogendra Yadav and his family in the dirtiest possible language. (After all, this is New India, where some people who shout "Bharat Mata ki jay" also use the filthiest words against women who they consider enemies!)

 

Among those who are not enamoured to the government, some like my friend Satyajit Mitra writes: “Once you fumble, the fascist adversaries will pounce on you. The leadership of farmers movement showed their uneasiness about R-day incidents, RSS cadre and police all have come to demolish the weakened movement. Sad events are unfolding.”

 

On the other hand, a respected Bengali author and activist, Jaya Mitra has shared this picture with the following caption: “In the wind that has been blowing the rumours that the agitation is crumbling, this picture of a massive assembly on 27 January 2021 has been sent to me by one of the editors of the Trolley Times, Nav Kiran Nat” (Translation from Bangla mine.)

 

My information from a friend on the field and an NDTV report goes to the second view. My friend says, last night, the UP government, well-known for its pro-democracy credentials, switched off electricity at and removed water tankers from the Gazipur border. They even removed the toilets from the protest sites. (So much for Swatch Bharat!)

 

But despite all this, the crowd at Gazipur border has been growing. More farmers have been joining the protest site and the gathering was the biggest ever last night. He said, Rakesh Tikait, who told NDTV that he is "ready to face bullets" if needed, has the credentials and farmers love him.

 

People also remained awake last night as they expected a police crackdown.

 

So, is the farmers’ protest crumbling?

 

The answer my friend …

 

29 January 2021

Two poems by Mahamoud Darwish

 

THE WAR WILL END

 

The war will end

The leaders will shake hands

The old woman will keep waiting for her martyred son

The girl will wait for her beloved husband

And those children will wait for their hero father

 

I don’t know who sold our homeland

But I saw who paid the price

 

*

 

THE ID CARD

 

Write down:

I am an Arab.

My ID card number is 50,000.

My children: eight

And the ninth is coming after the summer.

Are you angry?

 

Write down:

I am an Arab.

I work with my toiling comrades in a quarry.

My children are eight,

And out of the rocks

I draw their bread,

Clothing and writing paper.

I do not beg for charity at your door

Nor do I grovel

At your doorstep tiles.

Does that anger you?

 

Write down:

I am an Arab,

A name without a title,

Patient in a country where everything

Lives on flared-up anger.

My roots…

Took firm hold before the birth of time,

Before the beginning of the ages,

Before the cypress and olives,

Before the growth of pastures.

My father… of the people of the plough,

Not of noble masters.

My grandfather, a peasant

Of no prominent lineage,

Taught me pride of self before reading of books.

My house is a watchman’s hut

Of sticks and reed.

Does my status satisfy you?

I am a name without a title

 

Write down:

I am an Arab.

Hair coal-black,

Eyes brown,

My distinguishing feature:

On my head a koufiyah topped by the igal,

And my palms, rough as stone,

Scratch anyone who touches them.

My address:

An unarmed village—forgotten—

Whose streets are nameless,

And all its men are in the field and quarry.

Are you angry?

 

Write down:

I am an Arab

Robbed of my ancestors’ vineyards

And of the land cultivated

By me and all my children.

Nothing is left for us and my grandchildren

Except these rocks…

Will your government take them too, as reported?

Therefore,

Write at the top of page one:

I do not hate people,

I do not assault anyone,

But … if I get hungry,

I eat the flesh of my usurper.

Beware … beware … of my hunger,

And of my anger.

 

[At the age of 24, on 1 May 1965, when a young Darwish read his poem “Identity Card” to a crowd in a Nazareth cinema, there was a tumultuous response. Within days, the poem spread throughout the country and the Arab world.]

*

Mahmoud Darwish (1941–2008) was the unofficial Palestinian National Poet in his lifetime. He wrote about the anguish of being uprooted and of exile.

Born in a family of land owners in 1941, he was taught to read by his grandfather as is mother was illiterate. When he was seven, Israeli forces attacked his village al-Birwa and razed it to the ground to prevent its inhabitants from returning. Darwish’s family fled to Lebanon. A year later, they returned to a different place in Israel. Darwish attended high school and eventually moved to Haifa, the third largest city in Israel.

He published his first book of poetry, WINGLESS BIRDS at the age of 19. He initially published his poems in the literary periodical of the Israeli Communist Party, eventually becoming its editor. Later, he was assistant editor of a literary periodical published by the Israeli Workers Party.

Darwish left Israel in 1970 to study in the Soviet Union for a year, before moving to Egypt and Lebanon. When he joined the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1973, he was banned from returning to Israel. But in 1995, Darwish was allowed to settle in Ramallah, a major Palestinian city on the West Bank, where he said it felt living in exile.

After the Six-Day-War of 1967, when Eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank were annexed by Israel, Darwish, “as a Palestinian poet of the Resistance committed himself to the ... objective of nurturing the vision of defeat and disaster, so much so that it would ‘gnaw at the hearts’ of the future generations.”

A central theme in Darwish's poetry is the concept of homeland. The poet Naomi Shihab Nye wrote Darwish “is the essential breath of the Palestinian people, the eloquent witness of exile and belonging ...”

Over his lifetime, Darwish published eight books of prose and over 30 volumes of poetry and, including the FEWER ROSES and OTHER BARBARIANS WILL COME. His work has been published in 20 languages.

Darwish said Arthur Rimbaud and Allen Ginsberg were his literary influences. He also admired the Hebrew poet Yehuda Amichai, but described his poetry as a “challenge to me, because we write about the same place. He wants to use the landscape and history for his own benefit, based on my destroyed identity. So we have a competition: who is the owner of the language of this land? Who loves it more? Who writes it better?”

Mahmoud Darwish died in 2008 at the age of 67, after a heart surgery in Houston, Texas.

His funeral was attended by the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, thousands of people, and several left-wing Israeli parliament members. After the ceremony, thousands of followers joined the cortege on the way to the Palestinian Palace of Culture, where Mahmoud Darwish was laid to rest.

On 5 October 2008, the International Literature Festival Berlin held a worldwide reading in memory of Mahmoud Darwish.

[The picture of Mahamoud Darwish and the poem THE ID CARD is from Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, November-December 2017 issue, which is available at https://www.wrmea.org/017-november-december/id-card-by-mahmoud-darwish-a-translation-and-commentary.html.

The poem THE WAR WILL END is from a twitter feed of Fakrh-e-Alam, a Pakistani pilot, singer, songwriter, and actor.

Information on Mahamoud Darwish is from the Wikipedia and other sources.]

23 January 2021