A new Tamil Eelam - why and why not.

Do Tamils have a legitimate right to a separate Tamil eelam?

This is the question being asked on www.judgeandjury.com which is
where tamil.co.uk will take you.

Apparently, a lot of Tamil people are still protesting in Westminster
in the UK, and a few other places, no doubt. What exactly can the UK
government do about the Sri Lankan government and its actions? And
what exactly does the UK governmeent have to do about securing a
separate "Tamil eelam", whatever that means to someone who isn't
directly in the line of fire?

First of all, who are Tamils? Most of them are Tamil speaking
migrants from the Indian land mass, many of them having left several
generations ago to many different countries. Today Tamilnadu is the
state in India that has the most number of Tamil people, but they are
Indians first, and have absolutely no political cause to subscribe to
any notion of a separate country for Tamil people, in Sri Lanka or
anywhere.

If there are any, it is our business to ask them if they are Indians
first or Tamils? If they are Indian, then they are already well
represented by Indian leadership in asking for a proper settlement
plan for all the displaced Tamil people in Sri Lanka, and should take
heart in the Rs. 500 crores that India has given the Sri Lankan
government to deal with the crisis on their hands.

It isn't as if Sri Lanka created this crisis. If the LTTE had worked
towards bringing prosperity to Tamil people instead of holding them in
impoverished and helpless conditions for so long, we wouldn't have
refugees today. We'd have people with assets simply going back home
to their sweet, secure lives.

The biggest Tamil population in the world, in India, the original home
of the language and the people speaking it, have no grouse big enough
to ask for a separate country. They are enjoying the prosperity of a
big, unified, diverse, vibrantly democratic India, and are playing
their industrious part in making India even more economically
competitive. They are highly unlikely to be swayed towards anything
revolutionary.

Tamil people living in far off countries like the UK, British Guyana,
Cyprus, the USA, and so on have, unless they're preparing to move to
Sri Lanka to live in a separate Tamil Eelam, no reason to demand
anything from anyone, leave alone their country of legal residence.
If all migrants in all countries started demanding their own country,
we can imagine the chaos. That is simply not on.

Are these protesting Tamil people ready to move en masse to this new
country they suppose they will be gifted by the government of Sri
Lanka? Very unlikely. There are Tamil people all over the world, but
the notable generations of settlers range from Malaysia to South
Africa and some former British colonies. Do they all want to move to
this new Tamil Eelam, or do they all want little Tamil Eelams in their
own countries? There is no evidence of either scenario evolving.

So, who the heck are these fools trying to raise a hue and a cry for
"Tamils", as if they're a whole different species? Logically, whoever
is kicking up this new mayhem in the media is a remnant supporter of
the LTTE. It is rather strange of them to not mention "Sri Lanka" in
their demand for a Tamil Eelam. For it isn't as if India is willing
to carve up a piece of its territory to create this new country, if
indeed, that is what they are asking for. By not mentioning Sri
Lanka, they are hoping to somehow sneak into public consciousness that
all Tamil people all over the world want a separate country. Very
cunning, but it isn't going to work.

The Sri Lankan Tamils have a predicament. For a long time, they have
either supported the LTTE or lived under its threat. If they have
supported the LTTE, they have no bloody right to demand anything,
because the LTTE is a terrorist organization. If they had lived under
threat of the LTTE, then that clearly shows the LTTE was not a
pro-Tamil welfare organization, and now that the Sri Lankans have
rescued the Tamil population from the LTTE, deserve to have their
chance of rehabilitating the victims. After all, it is their country,
and they routed the LTTE, not Tamil people fighting for their own
freedom from the oppression of the LTTE and its fat, overrated dead
leader and his dictatorial ambitions.

People of the world, beware. Let Sri Lankan Tamils not lead you into
believing that the whole Tamil speaking population of the world is
interested in a separate Tamil Eelam, whatever that means. We are
not. But if you insist on our opinion, we think the Sri Lankan
Tamils, in their lousy ability to pick a leader, and in their
economically weak condition, are in no state to run their own country.
They should get some fair rehabilitation in Sri Lanka, and be
properly assimilated into the population as Sri Lankans, not Tamils or
Sinhalese or Buddhists or Christians or Muslims. If they want an
example of how this works, all they have to do is look at India.

But for now, all you protestors, especially in wealthy countries,
please shut up and go home. It isn't as if you'd risk your butt for
anything Tamil. If you really cared, you'd sell everything you have,
leave right now, and start living in Sri Lanka, not hide in another
country.

We are not the same, people!

Yousuf Raza Gilani, the PM of Pakistan went on record a few days ago, stating that the cause of terrorism is poverty, disease and unemployment. Well how come only Pakistanis see terror as an alternative to povety, disease and unemployment? Know what we Indians do? We get a job, get ourselves to hospital or move to look for a job. We do not see our lives getting better by offering our lives to take others' lives! (How many terminally ill people would actually want to become terrorists? This Gilani is smoking something not yet sold this side of the border!)

For a while Asif Zardari, the so called democratically elected President of Pakistan said he doesn't "think" the terrorists who attacked Mumbai were Pakistanis. In fact, he said he doubted if they were Pakistani! How can he think and have doubts if he hasn't been presented any evidence, and why would Pakistan act to close seven terrorist training camps under US pressure if they still didn't have enough evidence of their country's involvement?

The repeated parrot squawking that comes from Islamabad is now a different shade - "You can't say the government is complicit just because the wrongdoers are Pakistani!" Well, what a change from "non-state actors" that were conjured up not too long ago! The truth is that Pakistan has been caught on its conniving backside on a sharp knife. Any which way it twists, it is going to hurt from now on.

As recently as today, the well known characters that Pakistan claimed it had under house arrest less than a week ago, are now miraculously "not in Pakistan"! Gee, we must all be idiots. Pakistan must be enjoying this game. And just before this diabolic claim, came the assertion that there is no evidence to put on trial Masood Azhar or anybody else currently being sought by India. Very dramatic indeed!

What we as Indians should realize is that Pakistanis are fundamentally different from us. Mentally, they are formed by two thirds of their post independence period under military rule. Socially, they are neither Islamic nor modern. Pakistanis in the US and the UK will act like they are very much part of the modern mainstream, but they also send money to charities that fund very illegal causes like terrorism. Somehow, Pakistanis always find a way to justify their behaviour, just like Imran Khan, the famous cricketer once said he doesn't know any fast bowler that doesn't tamper with the ball to get unnatural swing!

The lack of clarity right now in New Delhi comes from not knowing what yardstick to use to act against Pakistan. The truth is, Pakistan cannot be embarrassed. Pakistani diplomats will see anything as a victory as long as they can put on a show of some sort to postpone the next embarrassment. They are low in their approach, but cloak it with a smile as good as anybody else's. That is how they pull off their heists of complete deceit. Starting with Musharraf who projected himself as a friend of America in the war on terror, and then siphoned off a majority of the 100 million dollars he was given, to Gilani, who repeatedly says Pakistan is acting because of UN pressure, not India's, Pakistan has always placed the most conniving, shady, shadowy, slimy rascals in their top positions. In India, we simply set higher standards for we are fundamentally capable of seeing ourselves as righteous people.

There is without a doubt, an inferiority complex at play in Pakistan. Just like is so evident in Nepal. Neither country will ever be as powerful or as wealthy as India. In Nepal, strangely, there is even open animosity against India, Indians and our perceived "arrogance". It is easy for Indians to be seen as arrogant in Nepal, because we are used to better service. If we have expectations of these two countries that are much weaker than us, to be able to do even the simplest things we can do here in India, we'd be sadly mistaken.

Everything India does, Pakistan will want to copy. It has virtually nothing to contribute to the world on its own, and is forever doomed to be in India's shadow. Being an Islamic country doesn't exactly poise it for modern growth, either. But pride is a terrible alternative to incompetence, and Pakistan hasn't yet found out. Pakistan cannot take advantage of everything it gets from the world outside, like aid and weapons, and continue to act like it is a shining island of righteousness! It is bloody well answerable, no matter what it pretends to be or not be.

The responses that have come from Pakistan started with denial, matured to blabbering, and has now settled on jingoism. Gilani is trying to put up a brave face, but is a political fox, nothing more. Pakistan has no statesman the world would respect, like Manmohan Singh or Vajpayee. It has what most seedy shops have in tourist areas - a front! The real shops that offer value show up in reviews in global magazines and books. This is where India has scored heavily over Pakistan. No matter what, India has a good image worldwide, and it hasn't come upon us by accident. We have worked for our prosperity, we have worked for our place in the world by taking morally high paths in every forum.

It is the same inferiority complex that leads to the making of terrorists. They are all losers in their own minds, trying to get a slice of fame, of greatness. They just want to be noticed. Usually when they get noticed, they get killed, but that doesn't matter as long as they get noticed. This is the low mindset we are fighting against. There is no winning against this mindset. There is no changing this mindset as long as we are focussed on moving forward. Pakistan has been left far behind. They love to say that India and Pakistan have the same problems. They love to say we are the "same" people. Any association with India is really nothing but their desperate attempt to claw out of their inferior position.

We have learnt diplomacy, put in place a system that cannot be scoffed at, and despite all our failings, we have achieved enough in sixty odd years to feel pretty good about. We certainly are closer to perfection in all the stands we have taken as a nation than the USA can ever claim to be. But we should learn not to apply these diplomatic yardsticks to Pakistan. Pakistan is that yapping puppy at the heel, and it does not understand anything other than a kick to its face, and this time hard enough to knock a couple of teeth out. There are some of us who might want to kill the son of a bitch, but that may not be necessary. We can always kill it if it becomes a rabid dog.

To India, Pakistan does not figure in its every day considerations. Pakistanis could easily be as indifferent as India, but for some reason, it cannot. India shows up on TV, all of a sudden slicker and richer, and being touted as a superpower in the making. Pakistan cannot openly aspire to be like India. So, it is easy to cloak jealousy and envy in finding faults with India. Kashmir is a big fault, and we should thank ourselves for giving it to the Pakistanis. If we had been imperiously powerful like the USA, we can only imagine how shrivelled Pakistanis would feel. We are fast getting there and that is what is hurting Pakistan right now.

Our television invades their homes, our culture of prosperity is there at an arm's length, but they cannot taste it. They have never won a war against us, and now, our professional cricket league is something Pakistani cricketers are getting rich from! It suddenly looks as if Pakistan should love India, but understandably hating the success of India as an economic power. A feeling of impotence, inferiority and sometimes, utter despair seems to grip Pakistani leadership. This is not going to evaporate overnight. People retiring from the Pakistani military establishment are bound to support groups wanting to cause mayhem in India, self proclaimed strategic experts will not hesitate to suggest India, Israel and the USA are an anti-islamic nexus - as if this nexus would exist if we weren't fighting the same "Islamic" enemy!

Indian muslims will continue to be the confusing lot they do not understand! It was incredulous when they asked Irfan Pathan whether he would play for Pakistan, just because he is a Muslim. He immediately said, "No chance" with his infectious smile, as if to say, "What the heck are you talking about?" To Indian muslims, being muslim is a separate thing from being Indian. They are largely happy to be both, no matter what arguments they have with other extreme religious fanatics in India. The fact is, given all that has transpired in Mumbai, there has been no anti muslim reaction in India at all. This is so loudly conspicuous in its absence that Indian muslims of all economic strata would have undoubtely taken note of. Life goes on. That's the great thing about India. There is an India beyond this nonsense of terrorism.

We are superior to Pakistan in every possible way. For us it is a matter of deciding how much we want to pay to put Pakistan out of its misery. We cannot win efficiently against Pakistan until we decide how much we want to damage it. There is no way it is going to get away unscathed for its actions or inactions. But we need to get over this notion, however remote, that we can treat Pakistan as an equal. It simply isn't and will never be.

How Low Can We Go?

If there is one incident that exposes national character, or lack of it, it is an attack on our soil. The Mumbai attacks provided that, and sure enough, all the dogs are baying for blood, as if things were picture perfect before those miserable 60 hours. But come upon us it did, and in grand style. The event itself was rather gruesome, and the media coverage made a mockery of journalism in the process of presenting "exclusive" specials! How the heck can anyone be excluded in the coverage of a terror attack of national importance?

In the aftermath, in the period of self examination that dutifully follows, the saddest story is that of supposedly bulletproof vests that police personnel wore that weren't able to stop bullets. It is one thing that they carry outdated firepower, but it is an entirely shameful thing that equipment that is supposed to protect their lives fails the very purpose it is there for. Further tests have proved that bullets do indeed pass through these bullet"proof" vests.

This cannot be anything other than a case of rampant corruption, with the manufacturer in cahoots with someone making purchasing decisions within the government of Maharashtra or the government of India. This is a blot on our national character if we aren't just making money illegally, but actually selling death to our own men in uniform, cloaked in an appearance of safety. Can we go lower than this? I'm now betting we can.

The logic of the culprits must be that police don't get shot at that often, so how is anybody going to ever find out if the damn vests are bulletproof or not? The supplier should be made to wear the vests he claims are bulletproof and shot at. That would be fair enough wouldn't it? After all, he should be able to swear by his product, shouldn't he? If he starts saying his prayers as soon as he is strapped into one of his own vests, he deserves to die.

We're fighting an enemy determined to bleed us, because he doesn't have the balls to take us on face to face. There is no way Pakistan can defeat India in any scale of warfare. So, the conniving bastards have come up with ingenious schemes to beat every kind of protest India can lodge, completely absolve themselves of responsibility and have built every instrument of deniability they need to simply say, "Heck, we don't know who did this. Sorry"! And some of us are helping rogue nations like Pakistan kill our poor policemen by issuing vests to them that can't stop their bloody terrorists bullets?

Last night, close to where I live, there was a road accident. An older gentleman on a scooter ran into a dog, got thrown off his scooter and landed on his head, bleeding and going unconscious almost immediately. Of course a group of people came running to lift him up. I called 102 for an ambulance, which rang and rang till someone picked up, and before I could tell him where to send the ambulance, he was giving me two other numbers for the GH ambulance, which I was supposed to call myself. Now, what the f$#k is an emergency number provided for if it becomes a directory service in the moment of need? What is worse, nobody picked up the GH ambulance numbers! Low enough?

The poor man was moved to a bench at the side of the road in front of a tea shop of some sort. When I was busy trying to get help on the phone, one asshole starts giving out visiting cards, with the number of "his" ambulance service we could call. The son of a bitch didn't make one call from his cell phone, supposedly because I was "already calling", and never made a move to do so even after I told him I failed to reach an ambulance service calling the official number. What kind of inhuman gives out visiting cards to people at the scene of an accident trying to make a sale?

We are always ready to become a mob, and that is good when warding off very local threats, but I didn't hear Raj Thackeray unleashing his army on the terrorrists holed up in Mumbai! In fact the son of a bitch hid himself during the entire episode, while the chief minister and his deputy both made asses of themselves and promptly got thrown out of their pompous positions! In the middle of so much nonsense, Ram Gopal Verma paid a visit to one of the "location"s along with the CM and managed to kick up another controversy.

For some strange reason NDTV thought it necessary to give Ram Gopal Verma a chance to redeem himself before his country and he did a brilliant job of putting both his feet into his mouth! Like it was somehow important to give a movie director the chance to explain his presence at the scene of a terror attack when the embers were still hot, NDTV got Srinivasan Jain, who is coyly called "Vasu" by some of his equally incompetent colleagues, to interview this clown Ram Gopal Verma. He was stupid enough to say he came to meet Ritesh, the Chief Minister's son, to narrate a story to him, and since he was leaving somewhere in a hurry, tagged along to tell him the story in the car! Some story that must have been, considering how timely this one is!

It really could have stopped short of an absolutely mayhem on TV if he didn't say he simply tagged along and suddenly, unexpectedly, they were right behind the CM at the Taj hotel, walking over the wreckage of the attacks. When "Vasu" asked Verma if he understood how people felt about him being there, the fool went on to explain how it had already been declared a safe area so he never thought he did anything wrong by being there! I really thought it wouldn't get this low, when he went one lower. He didn't even understand the question! He didn't understand that a famous commercial, glossy, masala film maker like him showing up on TV would make people feel that this matter was being handled in a frivolous matter. Neither did "Vasu" have it in him to rephrase the question so the dope could understand, nor did the dope clear his ears to hear better. It was such a sham and a shame.

Being caught with your pants down is one thing, but there was nothing to prevent Srinivasan Jain from saying, "Look, it looks bloody frivolous when someone like you shows up where people have died in a highly publicised attack which is being referred to as an attack on India, okay? So, please understand that this is not going to go down well with people who are bloody mad at the whole thing right now. This has nothing to do with "safe area" and your bloody narration of how you got dragged to the spot, get it, dopey?!" But he didn't have the words. That's how low our journalism is. Down with our politicians, their actor kids, their stupid directors, and the whole lot of incompetent nincompoops.

Like this wasn't enough already, by their own low slogan "Enough is enough", NDTV keeps quoting Aamir Khan, like he is some icon of national unity. Even Sanjay Dutt has shown up on TV to contribute his share of "I'm angry" without talking a word about how he helped the cause by buying guns from the underworld that went on to bomb Mumbai not that long ago. We can't possibly choose someone less qualified, but then that is why we are India. We love the lows!

Okay, by now, we're ready to start going up, since we feel we have hit rock bottom, right? WRONG! Mr. Naqvi, spokesperson for BJP likens people who protest with candles and flowers to terrorists! Just like that! The CM of Kerala decides to pay a visit to a martyr's father's house and gets thrown out like he should be, but curses the poor slain man's father! R R Patil, the deputy CM of Maharashtra calls the Mumbai attacks a "small incident" and loses his job.

It cannot get lower than this, but we just might make it possible.

Nationalism Misplaced

The nationalists are out in force, demanding a safer India, a stronger India, a more accountable India. The attacks in Mumbai have turned on a fervour that hasn't yet subsided. India is suddenly inflamed and angry, and want results. Our politicians are fair game, and a few heads have already rolled.

But what are our nationalists achieving now that they couldn't have fought for before a bunch of no good, gun toting terrorist pigs decided to attack Mumbai's soft targets? Surprise, surprise! By bringing out their patriotic emotions to the fore, they have given the terrorists exactly the satisfaction they would love to have - the feeling that they are fighting against an entire nation!

Imagine being part of a group that trains to kill and maim, destroy and burn - all in remote hiding places, under the tutelage of shadowy characters with no intellect to understand anything more than violence, and then suddenly being promoted to receive the attention of the world, and the reward of fighting againt a powerful "nation"! That should be a real high in their low lives. What is worse, it will induce them into a delusion of being equal to the task of fighting a nation, and spur them to greater and more spectacular attacks on an enemy that everybody knows is way too powerful, but now seems eligible for attack.

Why nationalist sentiments come out in the wake of a terrorist attack is beyond me. Attack on India? Please! These are rogues and freak murderers on the loose, causing mayhem. Should these elements really call for anything in reaction that is nationalistic? Do they deserve that exalted emotion in reaction to their ugly schemes? I don't think so, and I don't think our fashionable nationalists who woke up in Mumbai and other cities quite realize how many things there are to fight for that will actually make our lives better and make our nation progress faster.

The reason is - this kind of incident is simple enough for a lot of people to come out of their indifferent existences, and easy enough to collect groups to go let off some steam and have some impassioned conversations. The incidents we have on a daily basis that are highly anti-national like bribery, extortion, corruption, pollution, rank incompetence, rape, and murder are definitely more within touching distance of the common Indian and most certainly within the powers of politicians to fix, but these aren't "sexy" enough for our nationalists. We want bombs, fire, media attention, foreigners talking of support, comparisons to other events worldwide - spectacle! Without these, our nationalism is confined to accepting status quo as "normal". The truth is bribery, extortion, corruption, pollution, rank incompetence, rape and murder aren't bloody normal either, but they happen often enough that we have accepted them as such.

The monotony in statements that come out of Mumbai's residents in massive numbers is numbing. Everybody wants to stand united, everybody thinks this is not just an attack on Mumbai, and everybody thinks our politicians are responsible. We all know our politicians have never been responsible. The rest of the world has sung the same tune, that they must stand shoulder to shoulder with India in this hour of crisis. So, we stand shoulder to shoulder and do what? Watch over the dead bodies? Give the terrorists more to cheer about?

The worst insult to Mother India was Sanjay Dutt on TV saying he was angry! Isn't this the son of a thrice born b&^%h who bought weapons from the underworld? And now, suddenly he is a nationalist? I am all for reformation, and I am proud of this rank idiot for shedding some of his stupidity over the years, but has he earned the right to talk for a nation? Come on, India. Surely we can do better than this.

How about the crisis of character that we have all been marinated in? From the fools who ignore no smoking signs, to the politician who sneers and sniggers when cornered with a straight question, from the trader who demands a price well above maximum retail price to the teacher who doesn't know his subject, we know we have failed as a nation and are decaying on the inside faster than we are shining on the outside. Do we really need a tea company telling us to wake up and vote, when we should be lynching the rascals we voted for the last time who haven't delivered anything they were supposed to?

We have been dumbed down, and we are loving it. We are coccooned in the constant barrage of hype and commercialism that tells us we are doing great when we are not. Being sensitive about our country is not a good substitute for being ignorant and indifferent about what we should be doing as citizens. We are being led like sheep by the "system" that allows a few people to take advantage of weaknesses, loopholes, and distractions, all leading to enormous gain, while the welfare of the nation is systematically destroyed.

The "bulletproof" vests supplied to the men in uniform at the Chatrapati Shivaji Station allowed bullets to pass through them. That is how some of our "heroes" died. Further investigation on dummies with the same vests ended up with smashed dummies - categorically showing that these vests did not do the job they were supposed to! Shouldn't this be big on TV? What a symbolic example of how India has been let down for many, many years and exploited and raped and pillaged by our own selfish people. This won't make news because we don't have the conscience to think of this as being important or sexy enough to be nationalistic.

On the ground, the reality is that we have a failure on many fronts. We were not a great nation to start with and we are not getting there in a hurry. A great nation has people who do their duty as citizens, on all fronts, at all times, not just people who wake up when politically attractive. A great nation does not put up with mediocre performance. A great nation has conscientious people, with a highly developed sense of duty and compassion. We do not have any of the above, and most Indians I know would never put the cause of the nation above a cause of personal betterment. A great nation would never have bowed to the will of hijackers and turned over prisoners to secure the release of an aeroplane and its passengers. India did. So, what the bloody hell are we suddenly so nationalistic about? It really took a bunch of terrorists to wake us up? We should be ashamed of that very fact.

The Hindu Terrorist.

The dreaded Hindu Terrorist is here at last. It is not so much a new arrival of a phenomenon, but an acknowledgment that is beyond denial now.

Soon after the Babri Masjid destruction, I felt violated by an act of terror. One of my country's monuments had been destroyed, and even without the other incidents this act triggered in the years to come, I maintain that this was a singularly ugly act of terror against India. It was also significant for the clear evidence of the Hindu terrorist.

I had heated arguments with people who claimed in all their well meaning stupidity that these were people trying to correct an historic wrong, and that there was originally a temple in the site where the mosque had been built. Now, as far as I am concerned, I am an Indian citizen, and my country was born on the 15th of August 1947, and on that day, if it was a mosque, then it is my country's mosque, and I am proud of it. I don't care about what existed before for that may be part of the legacy of the Indian land, it certainly is not part of the Indian nation's history.

The greatest argument I had was with a group of people who interrupted a cricket game I was playing in to ask for donations, ostensibly to build the Ram Janm Bhoomi temple on that very spot. I flatly refused, but they proceeded to give themselves an iota of respectability by saying they were from the Indian Institute of Science. This got me furious. I asked them why when they had the gall to claim respectability by belonging to the INDIAN Institute of Science, how could they support the destruction of an INDIAN monument in the name of Hinduism?

To me, these people were supporters of terror, and should have been thrown behind bars for even attempting such an audacious task. India is a secular country, and we signed up for our constitution, which reaches well above a God concept and bows only to a Truth concept. We are way more secular than any other nation has ever even imagined itself to be. Religion and faith all have their places in our country, but more than anything, our respect of our principles of tolerance and acceptance should and will rule supreme.

The games of political parties already stand ruthlessly exposed. No Indian citizen's glee or disappointment with a political system should reflect negatively upon that person's contribution to the nation's ethos. Our ethos is one of knowledge, progress, truth, justice and compassion. No piece of history that took place before the 15th of August 1947 should put any responsibility upon any of our citizens to correct today, and no piece of legislation that came into existence after this date can be ignored without showing disrespect to the India we have today.

The presence of Islamic terror in India is a well documented fact and continues to be on our radar. What we now have is irrefutable proof that the Hindu terrorist exists. Political parties will run helter skelter to distance themselves from these elements, no doubt, and that is to be expected, for our politicians are rats in the majority. We have saffron clad, politically active public personalities involved in bombing that has claimed Indian lives. For parties like the VHP and the BJP, who love to claim that there is no Hindu terror, this is a clear "Shut up, thank you". The biggest alarm bells for us are indeed the involvement of military personnel, particularly those of officer ranks, in acts of terror in the exact fashion of Islamic terror - bombs!

On TV yesterday, I was puzzled by the expression used to describe a certain "militia in support of the government" in Congo. I would think this means the military of the country - wearing a national uniform, working in tandem with the government, officially entrusted with the job of protecting it from external threats. For some reason, this sounds like a group of armed people with no official sanction, but still supporting the government in a multi party, multi faceted clusterf^%k! If our military is fighting terror officially and unofficially causing it, where do we stand?

The loss of faith in our institutions would cause our nation to bleed a lot worse than any terror attack. We already do not have any faith in our police. We definitely do not have any faith in our politicians, except for the top few. We used to have faith in the military, but now, that is under severe test. Nothing short of hanging the guilty will do to restore some of this faith. But knowing our country fully well, this will probably get dragged into a long drawn affair, and end in a nebulous status quo that neither answers the question nor dismisses it. That is the India we are used to - a sluggish, unclear, directionless, chaotic mass that defies all logic and intelligence.

The Hindu terrorist could not have stated its existence at a worse time, but better late than never, and definitely it is never too early to show up if you exist. It is clear the Hindu terrorist has arrived. Using positions within respected institutions, with plenty of sanctuary in political ranks, Hindu terrorism is unlikely to give up and fade away, now that there is no reason to hide any more. We aren't just interested in rewriting the history of our monuments, we would like to bomb India as well, just like the Islamic terrorists we hate!

What could be the agenda of the Hindu terrorist? What hate could they possibly direct towards us Indian people? The scariest enemy is one whose motive is unknown. In comparison, the Islamic terrorist is fairly clear in its stupidity. We do not know the Hindu terrorist, except that he could be wearing a Lieutenant Colonel's uniform. The sanctity of no Indian institution lies above suspicion now. The culprits shouldn't just be brought to book, they should be roasted over a slow fire in public and killed mercilessly, since human rights should not and cannot apply to people who do not behave like humans and threaten the very existence of other humans.

Expect more chaos. Expect this to become a test of national character. Expect us to fail that test by not even beginning to answer it. Expect us to not feel bad about that either. Expect us to write another confusing chapter in our chequered political history that will baffle people for years to come. Expect our media to never get deep into this matter for it threatens to become too politically sensitive. Expect great lip service from our politicians. Expect India to treat this as just another incident and not like a tip of an unknown iceberg that looms just below the water level.

The Great American Dream Plan.

Watching TV, I never thought I would be allowed such a new insight into the world Americans live in - advanced, yet worried. Intensely planned, brilliantly executed, and yet brittle and no more resilient than less touted ways of life.

You see, it is all about "the plan". Americans have a plan for everything. When that new airport design works brilliantly, it should surprise nobody, for they really thought about it. God bless the geniuses this country produces. The creative juices that flow into the cleverness of all the little things that work well are a joy to behold, unlike for instance, our Indian bank tellers who are much slower after they got computers and money counting machines!

Americans are excellent when it comes to embracing something new, and hence their engineering codes and standards are updated once every six months, whereas ours in India haven't been updated even once since independence. When this something new works neatly into the overall "plan" of things, Americans are happy, like with the fabulous iPhone, but if this something new is not part of a plan, they are completely messed up, like with Sept 11th and now, this financial crisis.

It isn't so much the matter how good this plan is, as long as there is a plan! What a strangely conditioned bunch of people! Now it makes some sense to me how they can be so overwhelmed by this phenomenon new to them called "terrorism". It isn't as if they have anything to be mortally afraid of Osama Bin Laden. But there is something inherently fluid about the man and his methods that Americans are really scared of.

That's why they went to war against Iraq - to let off some steam, but in a war they could "plan" for. You can't feel very good trying your high tech weapons against the ideology of your enemy, against his nebulous network of arms suppliers, against the prowess of his religious calling - all that is too complex and takes too much time. Americans needed some immediate action, and for that you need to knock out buildings, set fire to a few targets from far away, and move ships and troops. Afghanistan and its border with Pakistan are notoriously difficult areas to put up this kind of a show. Even the fake WMD claims were nicely accommodated into this planning mentality, which wouldn't have worked very well in rag tag mountain and cave territory where embedded reporters would have been ill at ease showing the American army as a chaotic bunch. That is the last thing Americans would want to see - their fine men and women of the armed forces in a clueless situation.

Iraq also turned out to be a clueless situation, but at every step of getting there, there was a plan. There were presidential speeches, there was media coverage, there was a clarion call for action! Then there were constant updates, up until the infamous era of beheadings. That was a clever one by the Al Sadr gang. Those rascals knew exactly what kind of below the belt blow the Americans couldn't take. They knew what truth Americans would be most uncomfortable with, and sure enough, once the heads started rolling, white people's sense of the value of a human life came sharply into focus, even though they hardly cared when thousands died in cluster bombs they dropped from far away.

See, a cluster bomb is an evil thing, but there is something fully planned about its design, the way a plane carries it, instructions are given by seemingly respectable people in military uniforms, and promises a sterile and sometimes even spectacular display as it completes its evil duty. But it doesn't look evil! It looks like a nicely planned scientific journey gone horribly right! But a beheading, even though done one at a time, is gruesome to the white American culture. It makes them sick, and they are repulsed by the sight of a human head separated from the rest of the body. All of a sudden, Moqtada Al Sadr and his men are a bunch of "savages", while the son of a bitch who dropped the cluster bomb that killed thousands more of unconnected civilians probably got a medal for his meritorious effort of pushing a button from the safety of his plane flying thousands of feet above the ground. But if it took so much effort to make a random killing machine so antiseptic in its presentation, it must be a "good" thing, that can defend our freedoms and values and our way of life.

American weapons seem to be particularly good at defending American freedoms and American values and the American way of life. I wonder if cluster bombing Wall Street will fix the financial crisis right now and do something to restore faith in the American way of life. In the least, the illicit narcotics trade seems to be the safest investment anywhere in the world, but the Americans are spending millions to stop this and have caused the creation of several druglord billions! Is it hard to get your hands on any banned substance in any part of America? Not at all! Go figure!

For a while now, I have wondered how you can be the most powerful nation on the planet and the most scared, ill informed bunch of sore, loser idiots at the same time. It is because they have been brought up on this diet of result-is-proportional-to-effort. The American Dream is itself quite a well defined three bedroom house, father, mother, two children, two cars and a dog! Is this a dream? Come on! And there are fools who believe people go to America to have just this? What is so great about it? Ah, now! See, this is something you can plan for! Your daughter snorting coke at fourteen, your son shooting his classmates, and you being sued by your neighbour for being bitten by your dog - these are not part of anybody's dream, but in reality should be part of some parents' planning!

Osama Bin Laden represents such an enormous threat to this way of life, not because he wants to rape American women and kill their dogs and feed dope to their children, but because in his world nobody is really bothered by day to day chaos. His world doesn't depend on that pin point control of events and there is no particular end result without which his tribe won't go to sleep peacefully.

That's why Islamic terrorism doesn't do anything more than irritate Indians. Radical Islam trying to inject chaos into an Indian's life is the joke of the century. Indians already have enough chaos and not only do they ignore it, they revel in it. They have partnered it, danced with it, and go to bed with it all the bloody time! This pesky business of being hit by bombs and bloodshed is rather annoying, but India is not likely to be threatened by anything being thrown out of gear.

Even in American storytelling, even in crime, planning is everything, all the way from The Day of the Jackal to Oceans Thirteen, it is all about the precision of the attack. If someone is two seconds off, it is too dangerous! I wonder how many assassins can really pull the trigger under that kind of pressure and still hit the right target. It isn't as if the madman strapped with explosive running into a bunch of people is any less effective, but to Americans, the act of killing through precision and science is always more fascinating and respectable. Islamic terrorism flies in the face of this fascination, and that's the real reason Americans hate this new adversary!

For some strange reason, Americans thought there was going to be another attack on Sept 11th, 2002! There was no intelligence, just millions poured into being "safe" on that particular day. This to me is the retarded blind belief in the spectacle of precision and the blinder belief that their enemy was likely to be like them! Osama Bin Laden really doesn't have to have the resources to call upon this kind of precision in his warfare. He has to plan to carry out something that will not be easy to detect, and that's pretty much it. If one day doesn't work out, his men will simply do it the next time they see an opportunity. If they can't do it, they will do something else. Usually their plans work because there aren't too many geniuses involved and split second precision is not needed even when displayed in a series of bombs going off in a city.

Americans on the other hand, plan so far ahead, that their banks lent fifty times their worth, believing the housing bubble would keep on expanding, and all the financial geniuses who were brought up on that diet constantly fed into that myth in a methodical frenzy that ate up all logic, and sure enough all the planning went to the toilet as soon as reality showed up.

As funny as it may seem, Islamic banking is completely insulated from the kind of mess that Wall Street finds itself in!

Trying to terrorize India? Who's doing it?

So terrorists struck again. What's new? More people died. Yes, so? Political parties are screaming at each other, playing the blame game. What the heck's new with that either?

In the middle of this rather repetitive chaos, now we have the media really taking up the cause of us being TERRORIZED. Frankly, I am not terrorized by some lunatic group bombing our cities. I am yet to come across anyone in India so terrified of "terrorists" that they are willing to change one thing about the way they lead their lives.

If there is a bomb blast and people die, it irritates us, it angers us, and it hurts us to some extent, but it hardly terrorizes. Even the victims themselves, who talk to us often on TV, with bloody wounds and some even screaming in pain aren't terrorized. They want justice and they are sad, really sad and broken by what happened to them or their loved ones, but they're hardly terrorized.

In other words, terror simply doesn't work against us.

The great United States of America on the other hand, went limp after Sept 11th. It was as if the end of the earth had descended upon them. There was panic and uneasiness. A war was declared! People started examining who they were. The government started a new Department of Homeland Security, and gave sweeping powers to a lot of people who had never seen an "act of terror" before.

To this day, American people talk about a post 9/11 "world"! The poor ignorant arrogance of it all! The event occupied their consciousness in one shot (well, two, actually), and nothing has been "back to normal" since! It fundamentally changed the way they live. In my opinion, that's precisely how you let terrorists win! And Americans are such sore losers - this, we all know too well.

India will never allow any terrorist or his stupid organization such a victory. For a variety of reasons, this is just so, but mostly because we just cannot afford to. From the lunch box carrier in Mumbai to the cobbler in Chennai, we have not the luxury of changing the way we live just because there was a loud bang somewhere and people died. It just doesn't scare us, because we don't live in mortal fear of change like the Americans do. To the Americans, there is the great, big "American Dream" that they cannot afford to wake up from. To us there is only Incredible India! and she is always wide awake, staring us in the face.

Our media is suddenly agog with feverish energy about this new "wave of terror". Where is the terror? When we don't see terror, it's hard to see the wave. But more and more we see our TV channels aping the American media, trumpeting every single thing as something really "big". This is not the Indian way of doing things, but we can put up with it to some extent. The part that makes me real mad is when the 11th of July bombings in Mumbai were referred to as the Seven Eleven bombings, just so it rhymes with Nine Eleven. Now, if you have lived in the USA, there would be other connotations that jump to your mind, but even otherwise, putting the month before the day is what makes me real mad. To ape someone that much is akin to suddenly start using miles and pounds and fahrenheit! We don't have to turn into "brownies" just to please the American taste! Enough.

Quietly, this is all becoming a test of character for us. We will quietly approve and disapprove of things around us, and we will find out what we are made of, individually and collectively. We will evolve, not merely change. That is the Indian way. We will adapt, not just fight. This is what we are good at. We won't stop every bombing, and we won't kill every "terrorist", but we will emerge victorious by outlasting them, and there won't be anything to declare. When we have crawled out of thousands of years of history, we know this is all part of a cycle and nothing more.

But there is this itch now, in a globalized world, of having to DO something all the time, or suffer the insecurity of being seen as incapable. Bombing the wrong country is not something to choose because of this itch. The Americans did. And they are paying a high price for their stupidity. Nothing against poor Iraqi people, but I hope this quagmire lasts a couple of generations, so that Americans constantly feel like they are doing something, lest they start something freshly stupid.

Aha! But they have started on something freshly brilliant, and it is about seven years late. It's quite amazing how India offered all assistance to the USA immediately after Sept 11th, to join forces with us and to strike inside Afghanistan and Pakistan on the way. We had information and imagery to provide the Americans with rich, high value targets. But, America politely refused, joined hands with our neighbourhood thug in uniform, Mushy, and won our everlasting mistrust. GW and his bunch of republican idiots are worth less than a lump of manure when it comes to tackling a crisis of these proportions.

Now, it just so happens that Musharraf is not that bright of a guy and he often mistakes his cunning for his intelligence. Clearly he doesn't have enough of either resource and America's patience has worn thin. This is good, for now the American military has orders to attack ground targets inside Pakistan, Pakistan's military has orders to shoot at the American military, and the rag tag militants essentially hate the American military and mistrust the Pakistani military! Brilliant! How much more fun can this be strategically for India? Let's not miss the irony of the militants trained to attack targets inside India suddenly finding lots of targets in their own backyard!

Truly the two retards in this game - Mushy's Pakistan and Dubya's America, deserve each other. They are going to drag others in with them, but whoever goes down on that quadrant, it isn't India. We are busy needling Pakistan even more by becoming closer to Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai is cool and has a brain, too. We should definitely go through with the nuclear future for our power generation and leave Pakistan behind economically. All good and sweet and economical and rich revenge for screwing with us. If "terror" can be so rewarding, why would we want to wage a war against it?

On a serious note, these bombings and killings are something we should snuff out. But it won't happen through any trigger happy reactions. We have professionals working on it, and we will get there. We once had a food crisis in India. Then came Mr. C. Subramaniam and his "Green Revolution". Today we have a food surplus. We didn't copy anybody else's "war on hunger". But, we overcame a problem that threatened to wipe out most of India. We have overcome a lot in the last sixty years, and there's nothing to indicate we won't do that in the years to come. But, let's do this our way.