Beyond : Buddha

Long before our times he came
The Chakravartin with curly hair
Light of Asia was he called
Born to rule or liberate humanity
As would be his wont

In the life of you
Miseries of the post modern small
Looking at the light he showed
8 ways to leave your suffering
No expectations – he said
And that’s all you did

But the one question you still had
Is that, what you live for?
The samsara did have son and wife
Being the buddha was his wont
But a dead ascetic, not your middle path

Born and dead, a cycle they say
But, Go for Middle, what he said
A life of constant is deed great
Bow to him for teaching that
But, the answers blowing in the wind
Beauty greatest comes from love and pain
To be dead is kill expectations
Sinusodial of life you prefer

Casteism be not your chasm
Your pain is life and love
4,8,32 the numbers he gave
No, math didn’t stop there
You lookout for platform 9 3/4
Working to irrationalise the perfect

Honey does stay millennia 5 and half
But wisdom aged 2k might be stale
Your tale can’t be his
Its the journey of you
For you, the one who shall go, Beyond..

Beyond : Tagore

Wither not ye weary traveller of post modern
The tomes of past you knew
The shoulders you stood upon
For they, lights shining of their age
The story none told beyond him
The clarion call to “ekla cholo”
When none listens to “tor daak”

O ye weary traveller of post modern
The walk you began alone
His Metered verse shrouding you
As you reminisce journey alone
The walk solo you see nowhere
Not just the ekla walk you took
A long and Winding Road you took with few

Well ye weary traveller of post modern
You to have the strength
To start The Long Walk alone
Shall forever be the gift of bard
Its your journey that teaches
The courses to take
And folks to tag along

Now ye weary traveller of post modern
A journey can start alone
Voyage none ended alone
What you never knew
In those darkest nights
For every rock moved
You open a new light

But ye weary traveller of post modern
The journey was never done
None has yet finished the trail
Your tale can’t be his
Its the journey of you
For you, the one who shall go, Beyond…

Gandhi and his Civil Disobedience

It was the winter of 1930, almost 90 years ago. Millions of underprivileged Indians, were trying to bear the cold wave with scanty resources at hand. But the political atmosphere in India was nowhere close to being cold. Political diaspora was abuzz with excitement. Simon Commission had come and gone. under the Presidentship of Jawaharlal Nehru, tri-colour was unfurled and a call for ‘Poorna Swaraj’ was given by INC in its Lahore session in Dec’29. Britishers had done their bit in antagonising, INC had done its bit. Now, every eye in the nation, Indian and Britishers alike, was looking at just one man, and waiting for His call to action.

But the man, commonly known as Bapu, was a wily fox. He wasn’t to be moved by the emotional turmoil into a hurry despite the cajoling of a whole nation. Instead, the man, who had recently turned 60, just retired to his ashram in Sabarmati to contemplate over the _possibility of launching_ an agitation. The young nationalists not to be shut down by the Old man, decided to observe 26 January 1930 as Independence Day with a series of meetings across urban and rural India. The final push or perhaps the end of his sadhana, we will never know. At last, Gandhi sprang into action with a memorandum to Lord Irwin on 31 January. The memorandum, contained 11 points varying from Prohibitions, Right to Carry Arms, reduction of exchange ratio, tax on salt, reduction of various expenditures like military, salaries, coastal shipping rights, condemnation of political prisoners, abolition of CID.

As well intentioned and wide appealing as these demands were, none could make any sense of the demands in the times of heightened political anticipation. Looking at it in retrospect, 90 years down the line, we can easily guess what he was getting at, but at the time, it would have been a mystery to friend and foe alike. The magic of how these seemingly innocuous demands turned into a powerful pan India movement forcing the passing of Government of India Act,1935 by the British parliament, is the essence of Gandhi.

The way Gandhi acted through the hot winter of 1929-30 to the eventual breaking of Salt Law followed by the epic Dandi march gives us more than a few lessons. Some of the points that we can learn from this bracket, I have tried to list below:

1. Timing and theatrics – Mass mobilisation is all about how you can connect with the people and Gandhi was the master at this! Congress call for Poorna Swaraj, observance of Independence Day, were symbolism of new age. But when Gandhi came, he brought his own new dimensions. A peaceful march of 400 kms through the Indian hinterland with a select band of 78 Satyagrahis from all parts and sections, was a managerial nightmare no administration would want to face. Through 24 days of walking, 10 miles a day, Satyagrahis covered a distance of 384 kms from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi, thereby giving the press, both Indian and International, enough time and material to report on the Mahatma waging war against the mighty British with a walking stick. We have had great orators who have moved millions with their call, most notably his contemporary, a certain Adolf Hitler. And yet, this man, leading a nation of 350 million towards their tryst with destiny quite literally moved them from their homes to the sea. The pot-pourri of 24 days was the perfect pressure cooker for Indian populace to unite in an all drawn battle against the British. The morning of 6th April, Gandhi just added _salt to taste_ and brought the country to boil with his _Soul Force_. Added to all this, one can only imagine, the influence he would have exercised on the multitude he met over the course of this march.

2. Planning – The 11 demands as listed by Gandhi would seem to be more of a hogwash when looked at from the lens of Poorna Swaraj. But, when seen through keener eyes of a political observer, we begin to realise the genius and ingenuity of the man. A mass movement needs the masses, goes without saying but a prolonged and sustainable movement of any sort also requires the resource base provided by the sympathetic rich, the industrialists of the day. Thus, while his concern was always the common man. But, his list also contained 3 demands specifically for the capitalists which referred to Rupee-Sterling exchange ratio, Textile protection and reservation of coastal shipping. Abolition of salt tax, reduction of land revenue were intended for the peasantry. Reduction in civil and military expenditure, abolition of CID etc were for the populace as a whole. Demand for release of political prisoners was in line with the milieu. Right to carry arms was a clarion call for self-respect. These non-political demands served the political purpose much more than any other means, With the alignment of national interests with the interests of different sections of the society, Gandhi ensured heart felt support across the spectrum. For the first time, Industrialists were in active support of the nationalists during Civil Disobedience movement. It was the Gujarati baniya buddhi which kept thinking of innovative solutions which held him in good stead through his life.

3. Autocracy – Gandhi is quite frequently blamed for being an autocrat. I am quite inclined to agree with the assessment. My way or the highway was quite often the case with him, bending nationalists, INC or the people as per his wishes. That, was perhaps a character flaw, but, it will always remain a conjecture, if, and how much successful would a less staunch Gandhi be against the British, his unflinching resolve was perhaps the greatest strength of his Satyagraha. And yet, there is one point, which manifests on a deeper understanding. Gandhi’s means were more of Highway or My way, he always gave the option to the party rather than ordering the party out of his domain. True to his training as a lawyer, his calls to action, carried an implicit contract between him and his fellow Satyagrahi and any breach would effectively be loss of trust and he would dissociate himself with the party rather than ousting them, (Netaji, might be looking at this line in a frowning sort of way!) which is what he most frequently did with Congress or most famously after Chauri Chaura.

4. Strength of Character – They say, it takes courage to stand against your enemy, but infinitely more courage is required to stand up against your own men, especially when they trust you to the extent of worship. If Gandhi was a man of masses, he also had the courage to stand up to them if they strayed from the path of right. Even this time, he was not to be lured into action due to inducement by the people and INC until he didn’t believe in the timing and efficacy of the act that he was about to initiate.

 

In the 150^th year of his birth, we might think of taking the man out from our wallets and bring him and his teachings into our lives. In a world loaded with single minded democratic autocrats, we might look at the inclusivity, the staunchness of that gentle autocrat who wielded a walking stick and frail body as his only weapon and yet, went on to tame the Shrewdest of Shrews!

The Merchant of India and his Friendly Nemesis

While growing up, I used to be fascinated about the three Vijays of Indian Cricket, namely, Vijay Merchant, Vijay Hazare and Vijay Manjrekar, drawing parallels with three Ws in my mind. As I grew up, I realised, while Mr. Manjrekar was the better batsman in his family, the other two Vijays were in different class, both in terms of age, as well as batting class and averages.

There are a lot of things, that can be told about the two Vijays, not least Cricket with Vijay Merchant or Mr. Hazare who breached the Don’s defence twice, a feat not many bowlers achieved, leave aside, the person being one of the two best batsmen in the team. But today, the story is different. Merchant is the Indian Numero Uno, the batsman with the highest First Class average after who else but the Don, he was the founder of Mumbai School of Khadoos Batsmanship, a tradition modified only with the arrival of a curly-haired teenager more than 5 decades later. While the biggest tragedy for Indian Cricket according to Merchant was that Hazare (a Test batting average only .07 lower than Merchant) couldn’t be the finest Indian batsman due to captaincy load.

The batting rivalry of the Don Bradman and Wally Hammond is well-known to the cricket literati, their Ashes rivalries where eventually the Don would prevail over Hammond besting Don’s previous efforts. Similar story-line developed in a similar time frame on the grounds of India, most famously in the matches between Bombay and Maharashtra (Baroda later).

The run race for the highest individual innings by an Indian between the two Prima Donnas began in 1941-42. Merchant’s innings of 242(3) for Hindus against Muslims in Bombay Pentangular was the highest score by an Indian till date. A record, duly broken by Hazare in the very next season with a score of 248 in the same championship against the same opponents, for “The Rest” against Muslims.

The next year, the final match featured, Merchant’s Hindus versus Hazare’s The Rest. Hindus batted first, with Merchant yet again breaking the record with a 250 in the team score. Not to be outdone by the other Vijay, Mr. Hazare scored a mammoth 309 out of a team total of 387, a 300 run partnership with his tailender brother scoring 266 out of them. Thus becoming the first Indian triple centurion.

Final saga of the story again came from the Merchant, scoring a 359* almost a week later, settling the debate for one last time. Hazare although scored another 316 but couldn’t best Vijay Merchant, the Indian Numero Uno.

कहानी मिर्ची की

दुनिया में दर्दनाक अनुभवों की कमी तो नहीं है पर जब कोई अनजाने आपको एक तीखी मिर्ची खिला दे, जिस असीम आनंद की प्राप्ति उस समय होती है, उसका वर्णन संस्कारी शब्दों में करना थोड़ा मुश्किल हो जाता है। मिर्ची नाम से ही अपनी सी लगती है, ऐसा लगता है, और मसाले जिनके लिए भारत का दक्षिणी भाग प्रसिद्ध है, मिर्ची भी उन्ही की विरासत होगी और फिर बाकी मसलों की तरह यूरोपियों ने मिर्ची का स्वाद भी हमारे घाटों पे चखा होगा । पर बड़े आश्चर्य की बात है, कि भारत में मिर्ची का इतिहास कुछ 500 साल ही पुराना है। 15 वीं सदी के अंत में, वास्को डि गामा और उनके साथियों ने ही पहली बार हमारी जीभ जलाई थी। मिर्ची के बारे में ऐसी ही कुछ अनोखी बातें मुझे एपिक टीवी चैनल के एक शो से पता चलीं जो मैं अपनी (बहुत ही कमज़ोर) याददाश्त और विकिपीडिआ एवं अन्य स्रोतों (मुख्यत:) की सहायता से, एकत्रिक करके अपने जैसे कुछ और जिज्ञासु मित्रों के साथ बाँट रहा हूँ।

7500 BC यानी कि आज से 9500 साल पहले से हमारे दक्षिण अमरीकी मित्र मिर्ची का लुत्फ़ उठा रहे हैं। 4500 BC में दक्षिण अमेरिका में इसकी खेती शुरू हुई, लगबघ उसी समय जब हमने चावल उगाना शुरू किया। सन 1492 में कोलम्बस जब भारत की खोज में निकला था, तब उसका एक लक्ष्य काली मिर्च (जिसको ब्लैक गोल्ड कहा जाता था) तक पहुँचने का दूसरा रास्ता ढूंढना था। वो जब अमेरिकी महाद्वीप में पहुंचा तो उसकी मुलाकात मिर्ची से हुई। वहां की स्थानीय भाषा में इसे चिली कहा जाता था, तो रेड इंडियंस की तरह ही पैप्पर की तलाश में मिली चिली का नाम चिली पैप्पर रख दिया। उसके बाद मिर्ची ने दुनिया के कोने कोने तक सफर किया और अब दुनिया की अमूमन हर पाक शैली में इसकी मौजूदगी है। मिर्ची को हमारे भारत की आबो-हवा और हम भारतीयों की मेहमान नवाज़ी इतनी रास आयी कि , आज के समय में भारत मिर्ची का सबसे बड़ा उत्पादक एवं निर्यातक है।

अब मिर्ची का ज़िक्र होते में ज़ेहन में पहला सवाल यही आता है कि दुनिया में सबसे तीखी मिर्ची कौनसी होती और, वो कितनी तीखी होगी? मिर्ची की तीव्रता मापने के लिए स्कोविल्ल स्केल का इस्तेमाल किया जाता है। इस स्केल में चीनी की उस मात्रा को नापा जाता है जिसको मिलाने से इस मिर्ची का तीखापन ख़त्म हो जाये। इस स्केल में सबसे तीखी मिर्ची, अमेरिका की “कैरोलिना रीपर” मानी जाती है जिसका तीखापन 22,00,000 SHU नापा गया है। भारत की सबसे तीखी मिर्ची “भूत ज़लकीया” की तीव्रता 15,80,000 SHU नापी गयी है।

इस पोस्ट का अंत मैं कुछ दिलचस्प मिर्चियों के साथ करता हूँ..

कश्मीरी मिर्च – नाम से ही साफ़ है की ये कश्मीर में होती है , पर इसकी सबसे मज़ेदार बात ये है की ये मिर्ची बस नाम की है , इसकी तीव्रता बस लगबगाह 4000 -5000 तक होती है, इसलिए कश्मीरी खान पान में इसका प्रयोग तीखेपन की जगह ज़ायके के लिए होता है।

गुंटूर मिर्च – आंध्रा के तीखे खाना का राज़ ये गुँटूरी मिर्च है। यह भारत से निर्यात होने वाली मिर्ची में 30% हिस्सा गुंटूर मिर्च का है। इसकी तीव्रता 50,000 -1,00,000 SHU तक होती है।

मुंडू मिर्च – आंध्रा और तमिल क्षेत्रों में उगाई जाने वाली ये मिर्ची अपने आकार की वजह से अत्यंत दिलचस्प है। अन्य मिर्चियों की तरह लम्बी और पतली होने की जगह यह मिर्ची गोलाकार होती है। इस मिर्ची का प्रयोग भी तीव्रता की जगह ज़ायके के लिए होता है। मैंने ऐसी गोल मिर्च नहीं देखी पर मेरे आंध्र-तमिल दोस्त ज़रूर खुशनसीब हैं।

Historical T20 XI

Last few months, since the preparation to World T20 cup began with India’s T20 series down under. We have had too much of T20 cricket to be able to actually digest and when you can’t digest properly, you either shit or vomit, me I hope do a little better in the following lines… This underlying is the result of me having too much of T20. A list of players, who played before T20 age but could have been more than a handful in the shortest version. We can only think, fantasise and romanticise but watching this team play a T20 would have been a mouth-watering, eye blinding sight.

I restricted the list taking the God standard, only the people who started and mostly (finished) their careers before Sachin were considered for the compilation.

1. DG Bradman – He would score daddy hundreds, he would score them at as fast a clip to with the usual shots and he would score them in every innings. The fact that Kohli’s IPL run could be as close as anything we could have seen to the Don, makes you wish. If Only we could have seen his scores in IPL!
2. Barry Richards – It’s almost impossible to find a cricket ‘What if’ XI with his name not being in a serious contention, all that for a Total of 508 Test runs could seem weird and unfair on some accounts but then Barry was magic cricketified. He once played an entire innings off the outside edge of the bat just for the fun of it. 9 centuries before lunch on day 1 do no harm to his T20 credentials.
3. IVA Richards – The Universe Boss might be left scurrying if the real swag ever came into play in the T20 cricket. The original blaster could make the huge Australian grounds look like Chinnaswamy with his power hitting if he would have ever come to it. He bullied, brutalised, lorded and owned the bowlers all around the globe. The fact that his record of fastest century in Test Cricket stood the test until Jayasuriya bettered it in ODIs make him the most demanded player for T20s
4. Graeme Pollock – Judging by the Bradman Gold Standard, he is statistically the Silver of World Cricket, an average of 60.97 puts him next only to the Don in Test Cricket. His batting seems to be an amazing perfection of batting style of the two modern left handed boundary hitters, Yuvraj’s timing and Warner’s power and placement and yet more than the sum of both.
5. Garry Sobers – Bradman might be the best batsmen ever and forever, but a bigger cricketer is yet to set foot on cricket grounds across the globe than Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers. He held the record for highest individual innings for 40 years, most career runs for almost 10 years at an average higher than anyone who has scored in excess of 7500 a full 400bps higher than the God, he bowled left arm medium pace, left arm orthodox, left arm chinaman and was the 6^th highest wicket taker when he retired. Variety is perhaps the biggest call in T20 cricket and this guy defined variety.
6. Ian Botham – He was the ultimate prototype for a T20 bowler. Play hard, Party hard, he would have been the ultimate mercenary T20 player plying his trade in different parts of the world. Bowling fast and hitting far without any concern for reputation or situation, he would turn a test match by virtue of his batting or bowling alone, taking a T20 by the cuff of its throat would have been child’s play for Botham.
7. Imran Khan -Batting average of 40, Bowling average of 19 in the later parts of his career. His reverse swing would have been the biggest asset in the slam bang fest. With Imran Khan also comes the charismatic, Inspring, Uniting leader that any team of such amazingly talented individuals would need.
8. Alan Knott –  By almost all records, Alan Knott is considered arguably the best wicketkeeper in International Cricket.  5 Test centuries and 30 Half centuries don’t do much harm to the batting reputation of a keeper who played in the 60s n 70s. Best wicketkeeper might be an arguable opinion but best Wicketkeeper-batsmen before the date of 5 November 1999 might not be as easy to find.
9. Erapalli Prasanna – The off spinner and leg spinner is the one thing you’d desire when you have such talent pool. The very few times when spin had such major an influence before the arrival of flummoxing the batsmen with spin and drift as in T20 was when the Indian Quartet brought teams down with the help of Sunil Gavaskar to take the shine off. Prasanna as the Off Spinner is as canny as any representative you’ll get from the group.
10. Sydney Barnes – He was fast, he was nasty, he didn’t like giving runs, he liked collecting scalps in heaps. Sydney Barnes was a leg cutter more than a spinner, making cricinfo term him as medium pace. He could be better understood as a mix of Warne and Kumble with the pace of Shahid Afridi. His fast pace might make him an easier target in some views. But you didn’t target Barnes, he devoured you!
11. Malcolm Marshall   – A fast bowler who can snare wickets at the top with his mean fast bowling is as much an asset for you in T20s as it is desired in Test Match Cricket. Malcolm Marshall is perhaps the best of the WI fast bowling battery. He possessed a mean bouncer which could shock people not attempting to hoick every delivery out of the ground. In T20 cricket, he would have felled many a batsmen trying to smash him out of the ground.

Surrender Not Bannerjee

The pages of History which I go through
One of the biggest gain I find
The joy of marvel, the awe of being humbled
When I get to meet the giants of past

One such super cool, Bearded Suave Rockstar
One whose speeches India first heard
Was our dear old Surendranath Bannerjee
Or as I like to call him, SNB

Raja Rammohan Roy,the first modern Indian
Nehru might after all be the first independent one
But, my dear friends, talk of the Indian who was first free
The one who stood as Indian, our SNB was the one

Surrender Not Banerjee was what the British would call him
A fan of Mazzini, Garibaldi, the first Indian ICS
This was the man who scared Hume
And thus we got our own Congress

He was the one who started mutinies and won them too
Fought and won the post of ICS once
Until they couldn’t but dismiss on whim
And thus was born the first radical

Buried in the pages of Moderatism
The free Indian got blown by Tilak
The Rashtraguru faded into oblivion
But not before he had made the mark

Years countless have passed since your birth
Almost a century since your death
And yet this one son of your nation
And a lover of your extremism

Shall always remember you
The one with poise but too the swag to push it up
The one who started it all for us..
The one great grandfather we all forgot

Il Risorgimento

Lets talk of a unification great
Of an empire that once was supreme
Lay sprawling in the dust
The nation of Italians which once was foremost

A king sagacious, A statesman peerless
A dreamy Revolutionary and A hero of two worlds
Emmanuel , Cavour, Mazzini, Garibaldi
Four names I hope Italians still do adore

Sardinia was to be the core of it all
State of Emmanuel with the guile of Cavour
Became the shining light of Italy
A leader to all, the guiding force

Napolean,the other one came to the rescue
Nationalist at heart,a carbonari he once was
Melted away at the plight of a nation old
At Plombiers he vowed, To deliver the birth

Won the war Napolean did for Italy
But stopped short of the desired victory
Lombardy they got from the clutches of tyrants
But the fratello Venetian lay still under the foreign yoke.

Parma, Modena, Bologna, Tuscany then
People all stood up in the name of their nation great
The British bulldog came to Cavours help
Keeping Austrians at the bay and Napolean could just watch and wonder

Turn of the two Sicilies it was next
Up in arms they stood against the Bourbon French
Cavour, hand tied due to the Catholic effect
Brought along the sword of Italy to fight the battle rest

Expedition of the Thousand rode across the kingdoms
Garibaldi and the Red Shirts won the piece missing
The kingdom of Italy thence was made
Emmanuel the King, through a republican sword.

Rome still with the Pope, Austria lorded the Venice
Bismarck,the Champion provided opportunities two great
Snatched Venice from the enemy Austrian
Drove Napolean’s armies away from Rome

King Emmanuel never the fool
Death of Cavour couldn’t deter
Fall of 70 he made Rome his own
When Cadorna crossed the Papal frontiers

Garibaldi tending his field in Caprera, Cavour in his grave gone
Mazzini the scholar lost, King Emmanuel who wore the crown
Four men who made the Italy
Could finally that day, have taken rest

Nero’s Remorse

(Famous painting, Remorse of Nero by John William Waterhouse, which got me into writing this)

She was the Empress, She was Augusta
She was my mother, She gave me birth
I am the Caesar, I’m the will
And it was her blood that law demanded

She had to be killed
She was the treacherous
She looked to usurp the Caesar
That bloody woman shall never be calm

Claudius, she killed with, The Food of God
My turn could have come again
Britannicus was her next cog in wheel
The cat could never be tamed

I wanted it a peaceful tale
I arranged for her to go the Gods
If only she could have sunk in the Nemi lake
I had it all arranged nice and calm

She the treacherous, still ran away
Dare again she disobey the Caesar great
Had no choice, no words left
I had to kill her, by the hand

For never shall a citizen be above empire
Never shall a conspirator be left alive
No eyes that look at throne shall ever be spared
For above you all, lies the Caesar

She were to be executed as the order decried
She was my mother, who gave me birth
Yet all along in front of court, cried the ungainly wretch
“Smite my womb, that produced the son abominable”

As the dagger, struck the wound
In front of these eyes, her gift divine
As the woman most strong lay down in dust
She the woman most beautiful, bore it with a sigh

Years dozen have come and gone
Since that fateful night in Rome.
Justice was served,the treacherous was killed
Justice was served,a mother was lost

I could never kill the empress
How could I banish the woman great
The arm of justice had it made and done
For above you all, lies the Caesar

[Background]

My (almost correct) historically retelling of the remorse of Roman Emperor, Nero on his act of getting his mother, Agrippina killed. Agrippina is one of the devious n famous women in Roman history described as ‘ruthless, ambitious, violent and domineering’ by various historians. She had incestuous relations with her brother (who was Emperor Caligula) gaining almost empirical powers during his reign, married her uncle Emperor Claudius, whom she then killed to bring her son, Nero to power. Only to be plotting against him as well, as he started drifting off from her influence and trying to supplant him with Britannicus, son of Claudius.

As wiki lists out, her list of victims is not too small. And yet getting her killed for his own safety, was an event her son, rued all his life.

Admiring Wrong people

While I was growing up, I had read / listened a quote, quite a few times. I am not sure about the origins of the quote, a part of my brain says, it could have been the gyaan doled out by Gautam Buddha, other part says, it’s a basic tenet of Hindu Religion, while the other part of my brain says, it could have been just a general quote uttered by some unknown person, in some unknown text at some unknown time which has persevered through some pages of history. The quote says a very simple thing
“Hate the wrong, not the wrong-doer” or to say in hindi
“घ्रणा पाप से करो पापी से नहीं  “
Many years from then, I have no interest/affinity left for religions, hinduism or buddhism, but this one line has always stayed with me. One of the things I like to abide by in my life.

This, whole background, can be understood as continuation of my earlier post. The reason I can’t hate Hitler, the reason I can’t hate Godse, the reason I can’t hate Saddam or Osama. I will until the day of my death condemn the actions of these man and will argue for long hours with someone who doesn’t consider  these men’s actions wrong, or who appreciates/support their actions (again, not all actions, but my reader would be sufficiently intelligent and aware to decipher which actions I am talking of).

Yet, leave aside Hitler (who I have always been appreciative of in some sense). You ask me to hate the person Osama or you ask me to perhaps kill such a person if they are under my power (which would be a very fitting solution in eyes of many). I shall pull my hands back and strongly disagree with you.  Although I might not have problem with a court of law awarding them death penalty, as it the duty of the court to punish the guilty for their actions.This is one of the points of meeting of my mathematical/scientific philosophies and the humanitarian/historical ideas. I have always been a strong believer in the concept of duality, which in my opinion is one of the very basic fundamentals this universe/existence is based on.

Applying that scientific funda to humans/history is where I (just for myself) exonerate these wrong people from eternal hatred on my side. I consider a person and his actions as the two components of a single unit, which although can’t be separated from each other and shall always define each other. But, it is always possible to analyse the two different components of that unit individually which is, where you will find the support for all these ‘individuals’. Because leaving aside the actions of these people, they are humans, who have some ideas (talking about the ones different from their actions), who have done some deeds, who have achieved something in their life. Who might have been a success, who might have been examples to the future generations to achieve (preferably something else) in their lives.

All these arguments might seem fantasy words to the people who have suffered at the hands of such tyrants, and they have my heart-felt apologies. I will always like to such criminals meted out their deserved punishments. But I, myself would like to follow this funda of not overlooking the good/impressive qualities these ‘Wrong people’ have! Some people hate Nehru for the division of India, the loss of POK and many such things, some people might kill Jinnah for his actions which were instrumental in the partition of India, which resulted in such a horrendous blood bath and separated brothers on either side of the border.

And, as long as I have the belief in the concept of duality, I can always be found admiring a Gandhi, a Hitler, an Osama (perhaps, haven’t found anything very impressive in him yet) and mentioning them all in one single line with some respect, some disregard, some curiosity.