The Silent Majority

Don’t talk to me
of the conscience
of the silent majority

Silence isn’t a virtue
silence is complicity
silence is acquiescence
silence is
the loveless embrace
of oppression

Silence is not
mourning the blood
of the innocents
silence is a license given
to the oppressors to spill more
in your name

Revolution is never silent
guilt and shame is
surrender is
revolution is loud and raucous
unashamed and proud
not hiding in the shadows

I’ve had enough
of that silence
I’ve seen all that it hides
the mass hate
the cowardice mistaken as
civility, or open-mindedness

I’ve seen the celebrations
of the silent
ugly to the core
I’ve seen the biases
the bigotry
the supremacy
hidden behind the thin veneer of silence

I’ve seen the ugly soul of silence
the slithering snakepit
I’ve heard the blood-curdling hiss
of the silent oppressive majority

Don’t talk to me
of the conscience
of the silent majority
there is none.

शहंशाह का शामियाना

लाशोंके ढेर बाद में भी साफ़ कर लेंगे 
शहंशाह का शामियाना पहेले बना दो 
शहंशाह को धुप में घूमने के बाद 
थोड़ा आराम मिलना चाहिए 
उनके काले कपडोंवाले 
झेड प्लस प्लस सेक्युरिटीको 
पहले शहंशाह की सुरक्षा का 
इंतेज़ाम करने दो, भाई. 
जख्मी लोग कितने खुशकिस्मत है 
की शहंशाह खुद आये है 
थोड़ी और तक़लीफ़ तो सह ही लेंगे 
शहंशाह का नाम ही देश की इज़्ज़त होता हैं 
सवाल शहेंशाह से नहीं 
उनके खिलाफ षड़यंत्र रचनेवालों से पूछो 
और याद रहे 
शहंशाह के इंतज़ाम में कोई कमी न रहे 
अगर वोह हैं, तो दुनिया हैं 
छोटे मोठे हादसे तो होते रहते हैं 
कुछ कुत्ते के पिल्लै आ जाते हैं गाडी के नीचे 
शहेंशाह तो तब भी दुखी होते हैं 
तो आज सोचो उनके मन पे क्या बीत रही होगी 
बंद करो ये राजकारण 
ये लोकतंत्र  की खोकली बातें
शहंशाह का नाम देखो गूँज रहा हैं 
लाशों के बीच भी 
तुम हो कौन शहंशाह को सवाल करेने वाले?

An NRI in Bharat : A Love Story

So did I tell you about my last visit to Bharat? No? Let me tell you! It was an amazing trip. My god so much has changed in the country since I was there last time, a year back, when I came down to visit my younger brother, after our parents died of COVID due to lack of oxygen. I mean, my god! What a difference nine months make. I could see no queues in the hospitals this time. Except for one public hospital I had to pass by where the treatment is free, but you know, in the lane where my parents used to stay …  It’s a gated community, you know, just like where I live in LA, oh my god, property rates in LA are so bad. I tell you, I had to sell a kidney to buy a small one acre house, so I decided I’ll shift to Android for a while. 

Anyways, what was I saying? Yes, the gated community where my brother stays, not a single person has needed to visit one of those terrible socialist hospitals. I mean, honestly, that’s the old India. But in Bharat, there are these amazing five-star hotels that provide such a great service. What’s that? Did I say hotel? No hospitals, dear. Too bad, my parents did not get a bed there last year, but I got plastic surgery done so cheap, And dental, OMG! Like, in America, no one does dental anymore, they just can’t afford it. It’s dental or iPhone, you know. And you gotta have an iPhone. 

Yes, nine months, oh my god, what a difference. The country was called India then. All that Nehruvian legacy, leading to that terrible system which killed millions, despite everything that the great government was doing, and all the money NRIs like me kept sending! And look at it now!

I was traveling in Uber driven by a B-Tech in Computer Science from IIT Bombay, who quit his job in a multinational (no one in India wants to work for multinationals anymore, he told me) to drive Uber, and the lakhs of rupees he earns per month, he triples it with options trading, he was continuously on an app while he was driving, giving voice commands to execute trades. He told me, every Uber driver in the city is into futures and options these days. And crypto. I was so ashamed of my American counterparts. 

I was traveling to Gwalior, where I had to sell some land my father had bought as an investment. I couldn’t get business class booking. They told me, the airlines, that everybody wants to travel in business class now, so seats are not available. Last time I traveled, the business class was empty. India! But in Bharat, it’s impossible to get business class tickets on domestic airlines. I even tried to offer twice the fare, to a nineteen year old guy with business class seat, as I waited in the lounge, but he said he had to take a meeting with clients – his gomutra beer idea got funded via Shark Tank India, and his company, Sanskari Beers is going public soon –  first thing after landing, and he could not spend two hours in cattle class (you know, cattle, gomutra, reminds him of business too much), before that, so sorry! In India, a year back, I could have got an old businessman in the business class to trade a seat for a couple of twenty dollar bills on the ticket price, I tell you. But not in Bharat!

And OMG, have you seen the mental health scene here? I mean back in India, everyone was stressed. No one would celebrate anything, they were so busy with earning money in a socialist India. But now, everyone is celebrating all the festivals. And that’s why India has no mental health problem! I talked to so many people from the gated community, and no one has ever visited a therapist, forget a psychiatrist. They told me that family functions and meditation cures all mental issues, and in India no one needs therapists. I talked to a couple of therapists, they were ready to talk for hours. Not like in the US where they just show you the clock when your time’s up. They had no business!

When I go back – and I don’t want to, I mean who’d want to leave such a great place, with IIT Bombay B-techs driving Uber, and cooks who have done a PhD in microbiology? But unfortunately, I have to be in the US to be able to send dollars back home – I’m going to connect everyone struggling with mental health there with Sadguru. I mean how cool is he? Dancing and riding motorcycles, and curing depression with a laugh! Only possible in Bharat! 

And did I tell you, there is no house-help in Bharat? Everyone just uses apps and someone comes and takes care of everything. Daily new cook (masters in microbiology, minimum), new driver (who is into F&O), new house-cleaner (those few unfortunate who couldn’t win Shark Tank funding), new nanny (child psychology major), you can even book a person by the minute, to load a dishwasher, or to change diapers of a baby! Unlike India, where house-help needed to be paid a fixed sum, it’s pay-per-use. No use, no pay! And all of these service personnel are into F&O in their spare time, to it’s not like they would prefer a steady job with a fixed pay! My brother’s kid’s app nanny taught the kid how to trade! Now he has a portfolio better than mine. And he’s six!

I’m really proud of all my NRI counterparts who are staying outside Bharat (shouldn’t we be called NRBs, like Non Resident Bhartiyas?), missing on all the great things Bharat has to offer. You stay in terrible homes, without all the apps for taking care of your things, and no celebrations, so that you can send money back to the motherland! Such selfless service. But you should go back to Bharat more often to enjoy all the great things on offer thanks to your money! And write threads about it so that more of us know what they are missing. JSR! 

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Picture Credit (Featured Image): Pranshu Sharma on Unsplash

(Marathi) Ur-fascism

उंबेर्तो इको आणि ur-fascism (व्यवच्छेदक फॅसिझम)

इटलीचे प्रसिद्ध लेखक, उंबेर्तो इको, हे त्यांच्या मध्ययुगीन रहस्यकथांसाठी ओळखले जातात. पण मुळात ते प्राध्यापक. युनिव्हर्सिटी ऑफ बोलोंगा इथे सिमियॉटिकस् अशा एका काहीश्या obscure विषयाचे अभ्यासक आणि प्राध्यापक म्हणून त्यांची बहुतांशी कारकीर्द झाली, आणि त्यांचे बरेच लिखाण खरे तर त्याच विषयावर आहे. त्यांची “फोकालट्स पेन्डूलम” किंवा “द नेम ऑफ द रोझ” अशी गाजलेली पुस्तकेही एका अर्थाने सिमियॉटिकस् वर आधारित. 

तर हे सिमियॉटिकस् म्हणजे नेमेके काय? मराठी मध्ये खरे तर मला शब्द नाही सापडला. पण आपण त्याला प्रतीकांचे किंवा चिन्हांचे विज्ञान म्हणूया. किंवा अभ्यास. 

उंबेर्तो इको जन्माला आले तेंव्हा इटली मध्ये फॅसिझम (परत याला एक शब्द नाही मराठी मध्ये: आक्रमक राष्ट्रवाद, हुकूमशाही, अधिकारवाद, वगैरे सगळंच आले यात) फोफावत होता. त्यांनी तो खूप जवळून बघितला. बऱ्याच नंतर त्यांनी या विषयावर एक लेख लिहिला: “ur-fascism”. अर्थात – “व्यवच्छेदक फॅसिझम”. मला वाटते की हा लेखपण इको यांच्या सिमियॉटिकस्च्या अभ्यासातून आलेला असावा. कारण इथे प्रा. इको हे फॅसिझमची १४ लक्षणे किंवा खरे तर चिन्हे देतात, जेणेकरून ज्यांना फॅसिझमच्या इतिहासाची फारशी माहिती नाही त्यांनाही फॅसिझमची एक आगाऊ सावध लागावी. हा लेख मराठी मध्ये प्रसिद्ध झाला का हे मला माहीत नाही. पण आपल्या देशात आजकाल जे काही चालू आहे, ते बघता, हा लेख प्रत्येक भारतीय भाषे मध्ये भाषांतरीत करून व्हाट्सअप वर तरी किंबहुना पसरवला पाहिजे, असे माझे वैयक्तिक (आणि अल्पसंख्याकं) मत आहे. त्यासाठीच हा प्रयास. 

तर ही कोणती चिन्हे आहेत फॅसिझमची प्रो. इको यांच्या मते?

१. परंपरावाद / परंपरेची पूजा: “प्रत्येक फॅसिस्ट चळवळीमध्ये परंपरावादी लेखक कायम अग्रेसर असतात”

२. आधुनिकतावादाचा बहिष्कार: “आधुनिकतावाद (आणि युरोपिअन enlightenment) हा एक तर्हेची ऱ्हासाची सुरुवात मानली जाणे. प्रत्येक फॅसिस्ट चळवळ ही तर्कवादाच्या विरुद्ध असते आणि व्यवच्छेदक फॅसिझम म्हणजे अतर्क्यवाद असे म्हणणे चुकीचे नाही होणार.”

३. काहीतरी करण्यासाठी करणे: “सिद्धांतवादाचे खोडीकरण कसे करणार? तर कार्य — मग ते काहीही असो, कसेही असो, त्याचा विचारही ना करता  — कसे श्रेष्ठ, आणि सुंदर असा गैरप्रचार, आणि अर्थात ‘विचार कसे नपुंसक’ अशी त्याची दुसरी बाजू आलीच”

४. मतभेद म्हणजे देशद्रोह: “सारासार विचार म्हणजे फरक करता येणे, आणि फरक करता येणे हे एक तर्हेने आधुनिकतावादाचे प्रतीक. आधुनिक समाजात शास्त्रज्ञ समुदाय हा कायम मतभेदांकडे ज्ञान वाढवण्याचा मार्ग म्हणून सकारात्मकतेने बघतो. फॅसिस्ट्स आणि आधुनिकतावाद यांचा एकंदरीतच ३६ चा आकडा असतो.”

५. विविधतेची भीती: “फॅसिस्ट किंवा अगदीच नवं-फॅसिस्ट चळवळ सगळ्यात आधी ‘बाहेरच्यांच्या’ विरोधी आवाहन चालू करते. आपण विरुद्ध ते. व्यवच्छेदक फॅसिझम हे अगदी मुळापासूनच भेदभावी आहे (रंगभेद, जातीभेद, धर्मभेद)”

६. सामाजिक नैराश्याला आवाहन: “ऐतिहासिक फॅसिझम चे एक अगदी खास वैशिष्ट म्हणजे मध्यमवर्गीयांच्या नैराश्याचा वापर – त्या वर्गाच्या आर्थिक संकटाचा, किंवा राजकीय अवहेलनाचा, आणि ‘खालील’ समाजाच्या दबावाच्या भितीचा फायदा घेणे”

७. राजकीय कटाच्या कल्पनेने पछाडलेले असणे: “व्यवच्छेदक फॅसिझमच्या मानशास्त्राच्या मुळाशी एक ‘राजकीय कटाचे’ obsession असते. त्यात पण ‘आंतरराष्ट्रीय कट’. व्यवच्छेदक फॅसिझमच्या समर्थनकांमध्ये कायम एक तर्हेचा ‘वेढले गेल्याची’ भावना रुजवलेली असावी लागते.”

८. शत्रू हा ताकतवर आणि कमकुवत दोन्ही असतो: “प्रभावी वक्तृत्वाचा वापर करून लोकांचे लक्ष बदलवत राहून, शत्रू कधी खूप ताकतवर असतो तर कधी खूप कमकुवत!”

९. शांततावाद म्हणजे शत्रू बरोबर तह/करार: “व्यवच्छेदक फॅसिझममध्ये आयुश्यात संघर्ष नसून संघर्ष हेच आयुष्य असते”

१०. कमजोर लोकांचा तिरस्कार: “कुठल्याही प्रतिगामी चळवळीमध्ये एक तर्हेने  उच्चभ्रूंचे महत्वाचे स्थान असते”

११. प्रत्येक व्यक्तीला वीर बनवण्यासाठी प्रशिक्षण: “व्यवच्छेदक फॅसिझममध्ये वीरत्व हे प्रमाण असते. आणि विरत्व म्हणजे इथे बलिदान. मरणपंत”

१२. पौरुषत्व आणि शस्त्रपूजा: “पौरुषत्व म्हणजे स्त्रियांना खाली लेखणे, कुठल्याही चाकोरीबाहेरील लैंगिक क्रिया/सवयी/अभिव्यक्तीबद्दल असहिष्णुता आणि त्यांचा जाहीर धिक्कार — मग ती समलैंगिकता असो किंवा अविवाहीत राहणे असो”

१३.  निवडक पॉप्युलिसम: “आपल्या भविष्यात काही निवडक लोकांच्या भावनिक प्रतिक्रिया दूरदर्शन किंवा इंटरनेट या माध्यमातून ‘प्रातिनिधिक’ बनवल्या जातील, आणि ‘लोकप्रिय’ ठरवल्या जातील.”

१४. व्यवच्छेदक फॅसिझम शासकीय, संदिग्ध भाषेत संवाद साधते: “नाझी/फॅसिस्ट शालेय पुस्तकांमध्ये कायम अतिशय संकुचित शब्दकोश, मर्यादित आणि अगदी बाळभोध भाषाशैली वापरली गेली आहे, जेणेकरून मुले चिकित्सामक विचार करायला शिकू नयेत”

प्रा. इको यांनी हा लेख १९९५ मध्ये लिहिला. त्यामुळे “भारत विरोधी” असा (मुद्दा नं ४) यावर थेट आरोप तरी नाही करता येणार. आता या १४ लक्षणांतील किती तुम्हाला सध्या दिसत आहे हा तुमच्या वैयक्तिक अनुभव आणि वाचनाचा भाग. पण व्यवच्छेदक फॅसिझमच्या खुणा म्हणा किंवा लक्षणे म्हणा, किंवा अगदी प्रतीके म्हणा, प्रा. इको ह्यांचा हा प्रांत — शेवटी ते एक सिमियॉटिकस् या क्षेत्रातील दिग्गज. त्या खुणांकडे बघायचे की नाही, हा ज्याचा त्याचा प्रश्ण. पण त्यांच्याकडे दुर्लक्ष करून फॅसिझमचे येणे लांबणार मुळीच नाही, किंवा आलेले फॅसिझम थांबणार मुळीच नाही. उलटे त्याला खतपाणीच मिळेल. आणि त्याला जो तो वैयक्तिक रित्या वेगवेगळ्या पातळीवर जबाबदार असेल. इतकंच झालं! 

माझे मराठी आता इतकेही चांगले नाही आहे. पण हा माझा प्रयत्न. तुम्हाला इंग्रजी मध्ये वाचायचे असेल तर मग हा पूर्ण लेखच वाचा: 

Click to access eco_ur-fascism.pdf

किंवा मग openculture  वरील हे सार वाचा — ज्याचा मी भाषांतरासाठी वापर केला आहे. 

Umberto Eco Makes a List of the 14 Common Features of Fascism

आणि आवडले, किंवा महत्वाचे वाटले, तर करा फॉरवर्ड व्हाट्सऍप वरती. 

The Curse of Wisdom

Our collective epitaphs will read:
they played a fiddle
as their world was burning

Two decades is what separates
us from them
those with a starry-eyed worldview
still not consumed
by pervasive cynicism

They don’t have
the hindsight benefit
of two extra decades …
they still believe
in revolution

We worry
about tax rates,
the temperature of the wine
and whether it’s dry enough
or too dry,
and if the maid
will come on time tomorrow
and traffic en-route work …

We taste ennui often
and even that is now mundane
it’s the side effect
of our pervasive cynicism

Revolutions,
we know
kill their best,
and even if they succeed
in toppling a regime,
they rarely bring in
the promised alternative
the void is filled
by the worst of those
who survive the revolution

So we’re weary
of revolutions,
and we look at those
who do not have the hindsight
of two decades,
but we cannot remember
the days
when we thought
just like them

Yes
two decades later
most of those
ready to throw their lives
at the altar of revolution
will be worrying
about taxes, and
choice of schools for the kids
and insurance payments

But today,
they are on the road
today, they believe
they need to fight
for that future
that, or a different one
it does not matter
but today they want to fight
for a world
we have lost hope
of ever seeing …

In the end
we all deserve
the epitaphs
we get.

One Amul Ad You’ll Never See on Billboards

Hitler Reacts to Tendulkar’s 100th Ton Mania

Hitler is angry with Indians, and Mumbaikars in particular, for ignoring Pawar incident a day before and watching test match instead for Tendulkars (missed) hundred.

Already posted to twitter and FB. Posting to blog for ‘completeness’. ;-). All feedback appreciated, as usual. Share, if you feel like it.

 

 

The Dream Merchants

In the nineties India started liberalizing, or so the history books will say. The economic liberalization — forced by the foreign reserves situation or not — is supposed to have started then. In the small towns of India, though, the only liberalization that we saw in the nineties was the liberalization of media (yes, for a brief period, it was more liberal than today, in terms of censoring or lack of it). The satellite TV arrived in India, and with that, India (or Indians) suddenly had a window to the world. Before that there was, the iconic, The World This Week — with its last segment, ‘The News Makers’, that served most Indians their weekly glimpse at the world at large. But with the cable TV, the world entered Indian houses in the earnest.

Back to liberalization. In my engineering days, the debate was about liberalization, and how it could end up destroying Indian economy, making us slaves of the West again. The most frequent topics of the Group Discussions that were a hurdle to the coveted jobs, and MBA admissions, were two back then: the brain drain, the economic liberalization. But the actual liberalization was yet to reach we the people. We the people satisfied ourselves with dreams — the dreams sold by the dream merchants.

Zee TV, one of the first Indian channels on the cable TV had this program called The Dream Merchants. Among other things it showcased the best advertisements in the world. It’s curious how dreams were sold back then. We could not even aspire to buy any of the things being sold to other people by those ads. Not just because we did not have money. We sure did not. But even if we were to have it, the things themselves were not sold here. Yet. Instead, we were sold the dreams. Those who bought them, had to leave India to take the delivery. Most did not even understand the ads. We did not know the language. But that was a minor problem. Bigger problem was that we did not have the language. We did not have access to the cultural capital that went into the making of that language – visual or otherwise. And so we marvelled at the incomprehensible. The way, in Hollywood movies, African tribal is shown marveling at the magical machines of the West.

Two decades have passed. Now we don’t worry about brain drain so much, or at all. More importantly, now we have the cultural capital, we have the language (hell, we are the language — the ads have changed to accommodate the cultural capital of the East). We have the monies (yes, not just money), some of us; many of us, even. The tables have turned. Now we’re the merchant’s dream. No one sells us dreams any longer. They sell us goods. In plenty. We buy them. In plenty.

I was a staunch capitalist; not surprising, for someone who revered Ayn Rand once. Today, I don’t know where I stand. Staunch capitalists are in constant fight with the idealist within them (so must be staunch socialists). For years, I believed that choice was what was keeping us from better things. Today, with all the choice, when people seem to choose the soap operas, and the inane pulp of Bollywood and Hollywood, the music whose only fame to claim is being recent, lifestyle that’s unsustainable, ideas that are indistinguishable from the banal, diet that’s killing us; it’s hard to pretend to believe in the freedom of choice as the answer to everything, or anything.

Liberalism was doomed the day it had to be qualified as economic liberalism. It was free, but free like a bull left to roam around with no idea of what was worth mowing down, and what was worth harvesting. The illusive marriage of economic right and social left, never seems to find a date. And left free to do whatever they want to do, people do whatever they want to do. It’s not a pretty picture.

I wish they start selling the dreams all over again, those dream merchants. I wish we could go back and reinvent a right that’s centered on left, a bit. I wish we could choose differently, as Indians. As humanity. But we’re obsessed with the idea of choice, not with what we do with it.

I wish dream merchants will sell us a dream that tells us that all this chaos is a precursor to something else. But they’re busy selling us goods. And we’re busy buying them.

Not Honour, Your Honour

In past few days two Supreme Court statements got me thinking. First was when SC asked the center to “legalize prostitutions [as] they can’t curb it” (link). Right steps, wrong justification?

I mean, by that logic, we should legalize female foeticide, terrorism, dowry related killings/tourture, domestic violence — basically all major crime.

Don’t get me wrong. I do not subscribe to a view that prostitution is a crime. I would strongly welcome legalization of prostitution on more principled grounds: activities between consenting adults should be outside the control of state, when no one’s rights are violated. What needs to be tackled are the ‘coercive’ aspects of the trade: minors/adults forced into the trade, or held in it against their wishes, the unholy nexus between pimps and police, the harassment of the sex workers, denying them basic human rights, and so on.

Of course, the matter of weather the plight of commercial sex workers would change post legalization is another matter altogether. And, it’s for others to comment (those who know the ground realities better). But that’s a digression.

So back to the other (and more important) SC commentary while converting Death sentence of Dilip Tiwari, also upheld by the Bombay High Court, into a life sentence:

“[Outside caste marraige] is held as the family’s defeat. At times, [elder brother] has to suffer taunts and snide remarks even from persons who really have no business to poke their nose into the affairs of the family. Dilip, therefore, must have been a prey of the so-called insult which his younger sister had imposed upon his family and that must have been in his mind for seven long months” (link)

Again, I’m ambivalent on the issue of capital punshiment (or to be truthful — I’m against it). But, what I cannot understand, is the differntiation that is made here, on grounds that the person may have ‘suffered taunts’.

Let’s put that in context. Let’s say a person is being taunted in society, because his wife did not bring in enough dowry, or that she hasn’t been able to deliver a male child (as happens routinely in our society). Now this person gets angry, and does what: beats/tortures his wife, or sends her back to her parents, or even kills her and her parents, and young siblings. Will anyone reduce the severity of punishment in such cases? Of course, not! And why? For the simple reason, that aggression is legally tolerated only against the one who’s tormenting, not those who are innocent.

If Dilip, in the moment of rage, had killed, even brutally, those who ‘had no business to poke their nose into the affairs of the family’, sure, he might be considered for ‘temporary insanity‘ plea, and get a reduced sentence. But a gruesome (as noted even by the Court), and pre-meditated murder (there were two people assisting him) of those, who’re basically innocent, apart from the crime of going against ‘genuine caste considerations‘ (sic!). They didn’t even spare a 13 year old kid, for God’s sake …

It gets worse, if that’s possible:

“It has come in evidence that the mother of Dilip tried to lure back Sushma and so did her other married sister Kalpana who actually went to meet Sushma in her college. Those efforts paid no dividend. Instead, Sushma kept attending the college, thereby openly mixing with the society. This must have added insult to the injury felt by the family members and more particularly, accused Dilip,” the bench said.

Instead Sushma kept openly mixing with the society! What was she supposed to do? Sit in a remote corner of house where no one sees or talks to her? Is this Supreme Court? Injury felt by … If I feel injured because the female I love doesn’t respond to me, and then I see her openly roaming with someone else, I go and kill her brutally, and him too, will I be spared the noose because of my ‘perceived injury’? This is seriously screwed, coming from the Apex court, no less!

It’s a verdict that belongs to middle ages, especially the justification. That it should apply to urban crime, in the twenty-first century, under the pretext of ‘caste considerations’ (read: bigorty, racism) hardly gives me hope. That it comes from the apex court — the last standing bastion of justice in this land — makes me despondant, and sad.

The message that’s gone out is this: honour killing are somehow less abhorrent that other dastardly acts of killing. That totally idiotic notions of caste superiority ingrained in our society are somehow a licence to kill, and that those who use that licence to kill will be spared the highest punishment, because they’re seen as victims of the social ideology. That those who do not have either the courage to confront aggressor or think beyond social norms, can go and kill those who’re the real victims (of those norms). That they’re are somehow to be seen as more human, than they are.

No, your honour — it’s just killing. There is no honour there.

PS: As an aside, those who harp on ‘uniform civil code‘ every once in a while, will they condemn this complete negation of criminal law for a twisted logic that triumphs the ‘community law’? Or will they let the ‘pinko-liberals’ beat the dead horse, and watch from sideline with a smug, indifferent expression, as always? When people’s right to life is being trivialized and ridiculed in the name of archiach community ‘conciousness’, the debate over ‘civil code’ turns meaningless.

Happiness Is The State of Mind

Happiness is the state of mind, and body?

[A road-roller driver waiting patiently, in the mid-afternoon sun, for the people laying the tar. It would look as if he’s sitting in a reclining chair in the back garden, on a nice breezy evening]

the road roller guy