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.

Can you afford to have faith?

Joel and Victoria Osteen, some of the best known preachers in the USA, were on Larry King today talking about the importance of faith in times of distress. They spoke about how we shouldn't have a victim mentality and that God has a plan.

It is because people had faith in the stock market that they are in the mess they are in today. It is because they had faith in the real estate market that many are homeless and it is because banks had faith in the American economy that they gave billions of dollars in loans to unqualified buyers.

Faith asks you to believe in something beyond your control. It asks you to trust without question and trust that what you have faith in is a good thing. It is brilliant when it works in your favour, but what happens when it works againt you? That is the wake up call to really start thinking, not putting more faith where it didn't work in the first place! It is amazing how many times people who are quite successful at what they do, particularly in professions where they don't have control over the outcome of their efforts, tell you how important it is to have faith. Those that failed, you never hear from, so you never hear that faith doesn't quite work!

People who lead ordinary lives, without a shot at great riches or success of any stellar sort, often fall for the faith nonsense, thinking that it is God's will whatever comes their way, and that it is God's will whatever doesn't come their way. It is amazing how many times God's will works towards making that guy rich that actually bought the lottery ticket and how his will is limited to one ticket!

Faith is easy to sell, because it is based on fear. It is based on the fear of taking responsibility and on the fear of the rational that tells you point blank that you are nothing but a statistic, a number, and of very little significance beyond that in the larger scheme of things. Fear sells rampantly. If that fear can be shifted onto God, or something equally faith based, then we can play victim of that "higher power" and not bother to acknowledge that we are each nothing but a specimen of humanity and nothing more with a random chance of being happy or sad, successful or not, ugly or beautiful as much as dead or alive.

Those who trust knowledge, though, are much more empowered and capable. Knowledge can be sharpened, and cannot be denied. It is measurable, and it is applicable. It is acquirable and it is transferable. What a currency! If we were to have real faith in God and the power of something as magnificent as creation, I would imagine we were given brains in order to free God from having to think for us all, while we simply clung to faith in Him!

I continued to listen to Joel Olsteen and his wife Victoria, to see how deep this rut would run, just out of curiosity, since Larry King is no idiot, even while a vast majority of Americans are. He was smart enough to ask a great question about whether Joel thought being gay was a choice. The idiot actually said YES! And his wife quipped in to say it is not a perfect world but that gay people were quite actually quite nice and wonderful! What a great way of saying they want to keep their follower base secure!

So, here we have faith based people calling gay people imperfect, while hinting perhaps that heterosexual people are somehow closer to perfection and God, while stating that marriage should be between a man and a woman! Knowledge tells us today that being heterosexual or homosexual is an orientation, very much a naturally occuring thing, and if God were to play any part in this, He is by no means getting his act straight!

It's easy to talk about faith when it is working for you. When you have figured out the way to good health, a good economic status, and a routine that doesn't tire you down, it is a fantastic thing to have. When you are out there in the competition, facing an uncertain world, wanting to do better, relying on the chances you are going to take, wanting to succeed, wanting to build something out of yourself, knowledge is a much better companion.

The Wright brothers didn't get their aeroplane to fly with faith. They figured out a way to increase the pressure of air below the wings over the pressure of it above the wings. We win wars by knowing where the enemy is holed up and pounding those locations with ammunition, not by sharpening our rusty swords in the darkness till the enemy's ammunition rains on us. All of humanity's progress in the last two centuries is based on the Industrial revolution. We made more progress in these last two hundred years than we had in the two thousand years before that, only because of science and technology, not because of new religious practices.

Fools who preach faith without putting the onus on knowledge are doing a great disservice to humanity. If bad economic times are a "test" from God, then preachers are a bigger test. I wonder why God would want to test his creations so much if he was so great and perfect and omnipresent. It could very well be that God is all that, and just having fun to see what we would do in each and every situation! I would do that if I were God, but I wouldn't answer a single prayer, except maybe a child's. I would answer a child's prayer just to make it more fun for a young soul. I mean, why screw up a kid's life and fill it with despair when all he wants is a cricket bat?

It is easy to go round and round in circles when you talk about faith, because you can always say every failure is not a let down by faith, but a preparation for a greater success. I haven't heard anyone say that faith limited their success by not giving them enough "tests". In other words, we don't know a damn thing about faith, but want to twist it any which way we can to avoid talking about rational things, which can be boring and rather cruelly honest. If you become a candidate for faith, it will take you in that comforting circle of escape, round and round till you are giddy and full of it.

Faith doesn't have much to offer except a crutch when you are feeling helpless. Knowledge will tell you that statistically, it is absolutely possible, through the choices you make, that you will hit such lows once in a while, and your brain will figure out a way to evaluate the choices you have, and you will have enough of a chance to do better. When you have figured out exactly how you screwed up the last time, having more faith and taking the same route will lead you down to the same low again. You KNOW that, so this time you would take a different route and be a little more pragmatic and informed. That, my friend is knowledge, borne out by experience. That is the kind of person God would be proud of having created.

Have faith in me, I speak the truth here!