om sweet home

missing my home :-( ...... pics, thanks to my amma for maintaining the garden , and thanks to my cousin for the snaps ! click on the pics to see them enlarged

On the lighter side

Thanks "M" for sending me this funny video....

Talking about videos, thanks to reader "GS" for sending me this link to Modi's Chennai (English) speech videos - http://youtube.com/view_play_list?p=4F48C269FAE491D3

He raises some very interesting points - especially about the defeatist attitude.... and though he may not be the best in English, he has over all managed a good job..

But indeed, his Hindi speeches continue to be a class apart .. see the one's where he addresses the NRI crowd via satellite http://youtube.com/watch?v=ylx7m59N454&feature=related .. Only thing I did not like abt the video is the background studio setting !! :)

akbar jo thaa

अक्बर् जो था !!

At the outset, let me clarify that this is more about Akbar "the great" than the good or bads of the recent bollywood movie starring Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai

In my school history texts, just like any other kid in India would have, I too studied about "Akbar-the-great", the proponent of Hindu-Muslim-bhai-bhai ( spoofed as goat-butcher-bhai-bhai in "Hey Ram" movie - a freudian slip from Kamala Haasan ?) .... and as example of his "reaching out to the Hindus" was given the example of his marrying Rajput women ....

Interestingly as I used to read my text books at home, my mother - by no means a hindutva person, and who used to vote for Muslim League candidate simply because they had an alliance with Kaaangress - used to say .. " Oh well, Akbar, all he did in the name of Hindu-Muslim alliance was enjoy marrying Hindu women "

That was one of those incidents where I have to admit that "knowledge from ancestors" or even intuitions are sometimes more factual than bookish knowledge.. for indeed, contrary to what the pseudo secularists may want us to believe , Akbar DID NOT allow his formerly Hindu - wife to remain a "kaafir".....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariam-uz-Zamani

Mariam-uz-Zamani née Hira Kunwari (born October 1, 1542), was a Rajput princess and was the eldest daughter of Raja BharMal, Raja of Amber, India. She was the wife of the Mughal emperor Akbar, and the mother of emperor Jahangir.

.......For the purpose of marrying Akbar she was converted to Islam and was rechristened Mariam-uz-Zamani after marriage. The Mosque of Mariyam Zamani Begum in Lahore, Pakistan was built in her honour. She has been also referred to as "Jodha Bai" or "Jodhabai" in modern times, although she was never actually known as Jodha Bai during her lifetime.

So is Jodhaa Akbar or Mariam Akbar more apt ? Indeed, the latter name does not play well with the pseudo secularists nor with the Islamic underworld that funds bollywood.. So there you go.....

Also, the same wikipedia article mentions

a similar sounding name "Jodh Bai" is addressed to Princess Manmati of Jodhpur, the wife of Jahangir and mother of emperor Shahjahan

Its clear that yet another Hindu Princess was married into the Moghul family and her son too continued to be a slave warrior of Allah rather than being a Hindu .. How about the lady herself - i.e "Jodh Bai" ? was she converted ? well, I could not find an explicit mention of that ( I did not search much, may be readers can help) , but the wikipedia entry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Manmati

gives her name as Princess Manmati, Taj Bibi Bilqis Makani Begum Sahiba Jodh Bai

So leave it to ur imagination ..... I guess at that time the Quranic injunction that a Muslim HAS to convert the non-Muslim into an Allah's slave warrior before marrying him/her was kept more faithfully.. Only recently has that rule been relaxed to a perhaps modified form of Al-Taqiyya
( read- compromise if it helps in the long term) by which its okay if the non-Muslim converts after marriage to the Muslim or in the worst case if he/she refuses to, atleast as long the kids remain slave warriors of Allah

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post script: whenever I used "wife of Moghul emperor" , I assumed that readers have the maturity and knowledge to understand that I mean "one of the wives" !! Some estimates say Akbar had 300 wives.. many of whom were Hindus... errrrrr formerly Hindus

how shall I title this ?

Down the valley and along the creek
Found a bird that could sing and speak
"About life I sing in my favorite tunes
And at times I even bring fortunes"

"Lovely that would be, O li'l bird,
Lonely I have been, away from the herd
Give me a line or two on dreams
Save me a thought on what it means"

"Dreams are wings and at times when one
Feels all day that life has no fun
Hold fast to them for if they die
Life is a bird that cannot fly"

"Words so wise my dear friend
Seems to me you are timely sent
What do you do if it moves farther,
That which you hoped is almost there ?"

"Get you will" said the bird with a smile
"It may take you still a little while
Till then with will and imagination

You can be close enough even in separation"