Malcolm Little to Malcolm X

I went to Prithvi theater few days back with a friend. Just could not resist myself from visiting a bookstall in the premises. Actually it was a month end and was running low on cash. I knew I would get tempted so was very nervous. I also felt to ask my friend to buy for me something but I am an introvert kind of a person. I could not ask him. In fact, to avoid any purchase I went out of the store for some time. Then again went in.

Guess what i found? The Autobiography of Malcom X, as told to Alex Haley. I had heard so much about the book from an another book nerd friend. He always used to talk about the book and also recited many lines and paragraphs from the book. I had tried searching the book in my regular stores and secondhand bookstalls also but didn't get it. Unexpectedly I found it there. So bought it and started reading with lot of curiosity.

Its amazing to read it. I need not discuss who Malcom X was but his conversion from Christianity to Islam was very interesting part of the book so far. I personally do not believe in any religion but after reading the book reached to my same old conclusion. Men create new religions or sects to overcome suppression, injustice and many inhumanities committed in the earlier one. But the new one also goes in the same way of the previous.

Malcom X was a negro by origin and paid a heavy price of life in his initial years. Elijah Muhammad changed his entire life and showed him path of Islam. For the blacks that time in America, it was definitely a way out of the white world. It gave them different identity and forced them to think out of 'white'.

I must share some of his thoughts here. He talked so much immensely about oppression of black race. How it was cut from its origins in South Africa through a slave business. Their condition was worst than the animals. He asks a question somewhere, (sorry I could not find the exact quote) 'how can a God (Jesus Christ) of black men be white?' This also made me to think, he was correct. The origin, the history, the real names, skills of the black men were forced to forget and given them an identity as a 'nigger'.

Converting to Islam was a life changing experience for him and may be for many black people looking for their real identity. But a lot of stories and mythologies were created to convince people to convert into Islam against the whites. The stories were very ridiculous but I must give a credit to them for elevating lives of the people. I think that's the beauty of religion though I many times hate its existence in human life. It is destroyer at the same time saviour.

But I was really astonished to read lot of things about circumstances of the blacks in America. in my visit to the country I had observed this that the situation may be changing slowly but still the blacks are doing the low-dignity jobs everywhere like the backward castes people in India.

The friend who took me to the bookstore said the gist of the book is simple, white men cannot be good because being good to others is not in his favour. He said the same thing is applied to Brahmin caste here. Evidently he is true.

But in the beginning of the book there are lot of funny things I should have shared them earlier. Anyways I will try to post it soon. One more thing I must mention that during my America visit I went to the state of Nebraska and travelled from Omaha to Lincoln. I talked with many people there, journalists, lawyers, bankers. They talked about the speciality of the state in all the sense. None of them forgot to mention the great industrialist Warren Buffett who was born in the capital of the state, Omaha and stays there. But they conveniently forgot to say that Malcolm X was also born in the same capital city.

Child Soilder

"We had been in the village for only a few minutes when the rebels attacked again. They didn't want to give up the village easily. We looked at each other sitting around the fire and angrily changed our magazines and went out to get rid of attackers for good. We fought them throughout the night and the following day. None of us wanted to give up the village to other, but in the end we killed most of the rebels and captured a few more. The others ran away into the cold and rainy forest. We were so angry with the prisoners that we didn't shoot them but, rather, decided to punish them severely. "It will be a waste of bullets to shoot them," the lieutenant said.

So we gave them shovels and demanded, at gunpoint, that they dig their own graves. We sat under the huts smoking marijuana and watched them dig in the rain. Each time they slowed down, we would shoot around them and they would resume digging faster. When they were done digging, we tied them and stabbed their legs with bayonets. Some of them screamed, and we laughed an kicked them to shut them up.

We then rolled each man into his hole and covered him with the wet mud. All of them were frightened , and they tried to get up and out of the hole as we pushed the dirt back to them, but when they saw the tips of our guns pointed into the hole, they lay back and watched us with their pale sad eyes. They fought under the soil with all their might. I heard them groan underneath as they fought for air. Gradually, they gave up, and we walked away. "At least they are buried," one of the soldiers said, and we laughed. I smiled a bit again as we walked back to the fire to warm ourselves. "

This is a true story of a soldier Ishmael Beah who was just 13 years old when he committed the merciless act. Unrest in Sierra Leone was forced Ishmael to join Army to survive and get food. He had already lost his entire family in inter conflicts and wanted to save himself from rebels.

'A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of A Boy Soilder', This is assumed to be the first memoirs of the boy soldier out of three lakh child soldiers the world has today. Hopped-up on drugs, wielding AK-47s and killing people on the orders by senior soldiers is what these children do in more than thirty conflicts prone countries.

Before knowing the world around him, Ishmael sees lot of violence and gets pool into it for survival. I remember seeing movie 'Blood Diamond' has similar story that how children were exploited to get diamonds.

Such stories are not only terrible but they leave a permanent impact on the child's mind. Like in the book, when Ishmael gets into better company, he could not accept it initially. He has to hide his past life from others and gets frequent migraines.

Children are very vulnerable in the society and therefore they are the easy target. They have been used, abused, beaten up and killed for political gain. How to stop this is the big question.

I am missing him!

I think I am missing him. This is not the first time that I am missing someone like this. But still he is special and I am missing his each and every word, the moments we spent together, my sleepless nights after his meeting and his unending stories.

For last few days we were away from each other, at least 800 kms. Otherwise also he is thousands of miles away from me. But I always feel his presence when I am at home. I keep listen to him quietly. He takes me for the World tour from Afghanistan to Iran, Iraq, the places I would like to visit searching his footsteps. Slowly, I start feeling sleepy but he doesn't stop, just goes on and on. I close my eyes and sleep in his lap feeling his body moments. Till morning he sits besides me.

He is actually an intelligent man. Of course, he does not need my certificate, the whole world would agree with me. I am the stupid person realised it late. He articulates things whenever we meet. He has lot of knowledge about the World and has a presentation skill also.

These are not only things I like about him. What I like most are his views. They are very much anti-establishment and against imperialist powers. He has gained that authority to speak against his own country, England and the superpower America. He is no more a citizen of any country, father, lover or anyone but an individual in true sense.

There are many such things that brought me so near to him and now he is a part of my life. I don't want to end the relation so early with him but want to cherish it.

More I miss him more I would go close to him and communicate with him. But I don't want
him to stop, he should go on and on and on....

Hmmm I think I need to meet him tonight where I left him last, page no 298 of The Great War For Civilisation by Robert Fisk.

Things Fall Apart

I just finished reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian author. The book is based on the South African tribal culture, which is on the verge to change and people's dilemma over accepting the new World.

It portrays life of the tribal people, their happiness, sorrows, rituals, beliefs and gods. Everything seems fine and normal with the people but change is inevitable in life. That change comes in the form of Christian missionaries.

The villagers are confused over resisting or embracing the Christianity. It is difficult to suddenly abandon their culture and take on the new unknown one. Some of the them are excited about the
Christianity and its modern look while others are adamant to leave their roots easily.

Though, I am not in favour of any religion, I liked the technique used by missionaries to show the tribals that their Gods do not exist. But the same formula can be implemented to show that the God otherwise also does not exist. It is very interesting to know.

All the tribes have their evil forests, which are preserved by the community. Missionaries come to the villages and build church and other institutions on the same land. They challenge the God of the
tribesmen that if he really exists then he would stop them. Poor villagers keep waiting that their God would punish the missionaries for the blasphemous act. They wait for few days and months but nothing happens and that raises question in the minds of tribesmen about their God.

The incident leads to the curiosity about Christianity among the people and some prefer conversion. In initial stage, the clan's outcasts people get converted and embrace Christian values which give them more elevated status than the original.

The missionaries with their modern technologies and thoughts create threat to the age old methods of farming, harvesting, building, and cooking. The methods, once necessary for the life, are now,
dispensable.

The title of the book which has been taken from W B Yeats's poem "The Second Coming" is very expressive.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

Death for Life

I have been reading William Dalrymple’s new book Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India. It is based on real stories of nine people in search of piece, divine and sometimes giving up materialistic world.

A first story is about a nun of Jain religion. She gives away all her life with the belief that all attachments bring sufferings and finally embraces Sallekhana- fast to death.

Her life talks about all sacrifice, control of emotions, pain, sufferings to take new life. “When the body withers completely, the soul will take a new one, like a hermit crab finding a new shell. For soul will not wither, and in rebirth you simply exchange your torn and old clothes for a smart new suit,” she says.

After reading the entire story I have failed to understand the philosophy of the religion. It goes against the basic theory of human birth. We are born to live and death is the ultimate reality.

Why one has to forcefully push oneself to death when we are born to live the life. Living is the basic instinct of human being. All the discoveries and inventions in human history may be good or bad came from this instinct.

Now the second half part of the philosophy, which says the death is only for the body but the soul gets rebirth. It means you have greed to get another body. So, to get a new body, you torture the earlier body by giving up food, pulling hair, refusing to wear proper clothes etc.

I wonder why these contradictions in the theory are not being raised by the followers.

A Foreign Correspondent

Some people are born to do some jobs, this is what I have concluded from the initial few pages of a book by Rober Fisk : The Great War for Civilisation. I am zapped by reading few hundred pages of the book. Fisk was born to work as a foreign correspondent. He has been working in Middle East for more than 30 years and settled in Beirut now. He was one of the three journalists who interviewed Osama Bin Laden before 9/11. Fisk has a great understanding of issues in Middle East and his stand has been always anti-imperialists.

The preface of the book is very inspiring. He says 'I suppose, in the end, we journalists try- or should try- to be first impartial witness to history. If we have any reason for our existence, the least must be our ability to report history as it happens so that no one can say: 'We didn't know- no one told us'.

I think all the journalist should adopt this attitude, at least I will. I have finished just few hundred pages of the 1200 of the fat book. But they just kept me engaged that I never felt like keeping the book aside. The opening of the book is with his first encounter with Bin Laden. First interview is not very descriptive but the second is.

After reading Osama's version over US invasion in Afghanistan and some other Muslim countries, I was amazed. Osama's some of the arguments against US sound logical but the way he has adopted to fight against the US are wrong.

In today's modern world, one cannot win a war in the name of religion. There has to be a direction to the war, which would be beneficial to oppressed. But people like Osama have no ideologue and no logic to their war. The question which always disturbs me is how long this battle between Christianity and Islam would go, killing crore of innocent lives.

I think to find out my answer, Fisk's book would definitely provide me some background and details of root cause of today's scenario.

Too boring...

I have been reading former BJP leader Jaswant Singh's autobiographical work A Call To Honour for more than 10 days. It is too boring and unnecessary lengthy. I don't even feel like reading it further but I want to read about Kandahar plan hijack case. I need to bear the book for may be one more day. I should finish it tonight.


But after this experience, I am not going to read his new book, Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence, which created lot of controversy and as a result he was expelled from the party. I completely agree that everyone has personal opinion and Singh expressed it through the book. However, forgetting the main culprit of the partition Lord Mountbatten, BJP again opened a fire against Jinnah, Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel.

The boring text is also affecting my life. I have started feeling very dull and without any enthusiasm. I think I should finish it fast.