The City of Delhi - Unity in diversity

"The way to silence religious disputes is to take no notice of them ." Thomas Jefferson

I am just another average student in the cultural diversity of India. In this nation of religious racism, i was born among the general class and apart from a few reservation quotas i never suffered any harm.My parents aren't orthodox but they had a few misconceptions/irrational fears which they never could justify to me.

Anyhow, I was at my house usual stuff going on. I was bored to the height and it had been 11 days since my holidays had started and i didn't go out. So i finally decided to take my bike out and go out to Delhi.I didn't have any clue as to what i was going to do,maybe chill out at a cafe so i took my camera and bob dylan biography which i got as a birthday gift.On way i saw an old monument , a forgotten one.It clicked my mind that i could visit some of the heritage sights i was wanting to for a while now and since i had my camera with me it was the perfect opportunity.

The first destination was the Red Fort. Beautifully fortified place built by Shah Jahan in the 17th century. The happier feeling ... i wasn't seeing it on 'doordarshan' the national channel of India in a republic day parade.I thought of going inside but instead saw the ticket counter from outside and i decided against it. I needed a secluded place.Now this was the entrance to a somewhat modern Delhi. Hence, came my second destination , the Old Fort or the 'Puraana Qila' built by the Pandavas somewhat 5000 years back. The ASI has proves that make the fort as old as 1000 BC. It was later conquered by Sher Shah Suri by defeating Humayun of the mughal dynasty in 1540 A.D.

As I entered the fort, it somewhat amused me. There was no security check. The govt. didn't bother. It had been a while since i was riding my bike and the delhi's heat is a real bitch. I was all sweaty and all and as i entered i saw an old muslim guy sitting beside the well. There was nobody inside. Now came the feelings of mixed emotions. It obviously was a muslim area and as it is India is having clashes over the temples and mosques in Ayodhya the birth place of Lord Ram and we never knew when the riots would break open. Anyhow, the person looked at me and called me over. He asks,"paani piyega ?" (you want some water). I was pleased but thanks to my parents i had superstitions building up. A muslim is offering me water,he might have mixed some things in it. he could poison me,kidnap me and every irrational fear that can grew in one's mind if he saw an unfamiliar face. I dedcided to put those back and i affirmed. He took me to a nearby well and told me,"This is the oldest one in the entire city that still has drinkable water". I felt excited. I never drew water from a well. He looked at me. I did the same. He grinned and replied,"just drop the bucket in the well , shake it a few times and pull it out". I complied. It was fine doing it and pulling an entire bucket sure cost me some strength. I began to pour water in the jugs and he stopped me. He said don't pour it right now. He washed the jug thoroughly and began pouring it. I saw the jug and he again smiled. He took a sip to reassure me that its safe and quite drinkable. I looked at the jug. The water seemed crystal clear and pure. I took the sip. I shit you not guys, the water was the purest and at the most comfortable temperature that i'd ever sipped. The person said ,"son, all of your sins have been washed away. All of your diseases have been cured. Allah has been guarding this well for over 600 years now.You my son have been blessed by Allah".Saying this he went out of the courtyard and inside the mosque to have his lunch.

I stood there wondering.Although the last line seemed somewhat cliched, hearing it from a muslim common man surely affected me. I went over to the person and asked his name. He replied,"what'll good will that do you. Take it with you. My name is Irfan Mohammad". I thanked him for his compliance and asked where do you live ... his response,"i have no children. I stay here. This fort is my home." I was touched and amazed. thinking it from another perspective , he stays in the fort who was ruled by Pandavas,Humayun and Sher Shah Suri. And now him. I requested him for a picture and he smiled,"No one has ever stood beside me , and you want to take a picture. Go ahead. Whatever pleases you". I did my work. I took a bow and thanked him again. I was exiting and then he called me again,"Son. Do return this photograph whenever you feel like coming next." I promised him so. And i am going to.




Irfan Mohammad



The Well that served the kingdom of Sher Shah Suri.

The Commonwealth Scenario

The media played its role well enough as puppets of the govt. The government "robbed" us as the common man has always been saying. A lot has been said and done and now finally comes the moment when the commonwealth games have been opened by the prince of wales.

The opening ceremony sure as hell came to us as a surprise , well certainly to me. I have been living in Shimla for an year now completely cut off from Delhi and since the whole commonwealth has hit the newspapers all i have been hearing about is the broken bridges, poor management, floods, dengue fever etc etc. In short basically that the commonwealth has brought nothing by misery to the people of Delhi and so to speak India. Well since i had no clue of whatsoever was going on there, i believed so (i read less of newspapers as i have issues of belonging to the capital region and regard the TOI chandigarh as a shit newspaper). Taking this viewpoint, I made my judgement that commonwealth was going to be crappy and it was a shame for India that knowing it was going to happen since the last 5 years they couldn't come up with a decent manner to manage the games. Obviously metro was a huge success but you gotta take other aspects in mind too.  

I returned back to my house the day before and i saw a glimpse of the Jawahar Lal Nehru stadium and i was a little awestruck by the beauty of it,specially to me it was something new to see in the capital of India. Similar reactions of my friends who were sitting beside me. The next day i logged onto facebook and saw a numerous updates on facebook about what the media hid from us and how beautifully everything was organized. And today when the opening ceremony begun (i'll be honest i just saw the opening acts and got bored) a certain pride in me awake that i had been a child and made notions on what i just saw without taking the whole account into view. The way our culture got promoted at the stadium was simply amazing and at that point I realized that the media of our country has grew so much on the pessimistic side that it has stopped publishing anything that may be good for the viewers of the nation. Mr Chetan Bhagat in his "prestigious" article told the citizens to ban the commonwealth as the govt. looted us and that we should show to the world that the indian citizens are highly disgusted by the corrupt govt. that resides within this nation. In short telling us to make a mockery out of ourselves and tell the world to take Indians for a ride as it has always been the case.

Anyhow ,The whole issue about the govt being corrupt is somehow beyond my thinking capabilities (anyone being highly intellectual to see through the budgets of the commonwealth can feel free to contradict me) and if the commonwealth did some good to the city or not is quite debatable. What the primary issue is how long will we see only the bad stuff about our nation. How long will the headlines concern about the issues relating to the poor management of the govt.,killing of people continue to terrorize the indian society. I have my full sympathy towards the victims of the terrorist killings but i am sure even they would like to see some action rather than some words printed about them on a 2 rs newspaper. We need something for the greater good of the society. We need something positive for us to look upon and i guess that'll be the day when we realize on our own that there is a lot of development going on in this country rather than hearing it from someone whose thought process atleast i never understand.

Facebook Freaks

10 years from now ... i'll be telling my kids(i hope) how a thing called facebook was "in" during my days, what it does , how we used to like each others pictures , comments on them , used to describe our likings and disliking on a frickin' webpage,playing stupid pointless games with people all over the world etc etc and even they would think how gay was my generation.

Seriously think about it , its holiday time.  There are a lot of productive things to do inside (i take into consideration that our ass might get burned if we step outside - yes i am from New Delhi)  our houses but instead we just get our lazy asses down to our computers and open the damn addictive website and waste time over it. It's messed me up till an extent that i am spending my saturday night eve doing facebook and writing a blog on it.

oh shit .. i now realize how empty my life is .