Opinion on "The Senate Committee's Report on the CIA's Use of Torture"

Ever since "The Senate Committee's Report on the CIA's Use of Torture" has come out in the public domain there are two extreme views that I see. Those who would be saying the reports stand that torture was not required and it was extremism and compromised on humanity etc. The other's who would characteristically say the report is wrong, and it was because of the torture that many lives were saved.

I believe the truth is perhaps somewhere in between. Till now I was avoiding to write on it, but now at-least there is one expert who thinks on the same lines although they have left some questions in their article. Obviously since it seems like an American author so I wouldn't get into the details of his biases.

Now coming back, before getting into the moral questions lets try and recall what had happened. In India it was approx 9 in the evening in India when America was attacked.

It was typically a situation that was 1. Not anticipated. 2. And no one had any clue. 3. The top management, in this case the bureaucrats and the politicians who were perhaps thinking they were back in the wild wild west, where everything is my-way or the highway. And hence what followed next was more of a logical conclusion

Stratfor has perhaps got the entire thing closest to reality that most people while are calm now, were jittery then. They correctly diagnosed the problem: "The use of torture was not part of a competent intelligence effort, but a response to a massive intelligence failure."

On torture and what went wrong with US was perhaps quoted by the report as: "The problem with torture — as with other exceptional measures — is that it is useful, at best, in extraordinary situations. The problem with all such techniques in the hands of bureaucracies is that the extraordinary in due course becomes the routine, and torture as a desperate stopgap measure becomes a routine part of the intelligence interrogator's tool kit."

As far as the moral dilemma is concerned. There is a time when you don't know anything, so you get people who deliver with perhaps dubious means and then you build capability and transfer to achieve things in the right way.

This could have sound counter-intuitive and extremely grey. But we need to accept, not everything in life is in black or white. Many things are out-rightly in between.

Sharing Ideas for hiring website

People are shy of sharing ideas, I believe knowledge should always be shared. 

Recently while checking some websites for jobs I came across some ideas and shared it with one of the job site founders. I don’t know if the mail was correct or not but looking back I find it quite funny, wonder what the person at the other end thought.

Let me share the mail here.

Hi,
I will skip the formalities of introducing myself because that is irrelevant and get to my suggestions.
On the hiring side I think you should collect two set of data/response to question/
1. Are you looking for someone with the same industry experience?
2. Are you looking for people with skill set that would suit your company and bring in diversity of skill-set and perhaps lateral thinking capability?
And accordingly mark all jobs either (1) People with industry experience or (2) cross functional experience.
This will help identify HRs on what they want. People from within industry may not always get them fresh thinking but maybe the HRs don't want it. If it comes out clearly then it can be mapped to the persons field. Hence making acceptance and rejection easier.
In any domain, a job can be bracketed in between creative, operations/coordination and management. You can start the paid module where each applicant's experience is distilled into these either manually or programming and from there you can advice on best matches if the HRs are looking for cross-functional hiring.
I don't think there is any job website which looks from this perspective. If I have not been articulate enough about my suggestion but you are interested then let me know when you are in Mumbai and relatively free.
Its merely a suggestion based on my observations. Good luck!
--
Warm regards,

It was nice of the founder to actually reply that they were working on something similar. Which confirmed that I was not the only one thinking about the problem. Rather there were people who were also thinking about the solution. 

Modi. A hope for many.

Recently I came across an article where an NRI had written why he is gung-ho on India. Since I don’t have his permission to put up the entire thing, let me just put up the points on why he is so bullish:

Lets call the gentleman Mr A. So Mr A says, "There have been very few world leaders who have possessed a combination of Modi’s extraordinary vision, drive, experience, and charisma." The way he arrived at this conclusion was --

1. In the May 2014 elections, Narendra Modi won an unprecedented mandate and has completely transformed the landscape of Indian politics.
2. Narendra Modi is the first Prime Minister of India who has come to power at the national level after demonstrating proven leadership in one of the most economically vibrant states of India—Gujarat.
3. The State of Gujarat, where he was the Chief Minister (U.S. equivalent of Governor) for more than a decade, has seen unparalleled economic progress due to his success in rooting out corruption, enhancing infrastructure, and improving governance, thereby making Gujarat the most sought after state in India for not only foreign direct investment (FDI) but also for investment by mega Indian business houses such as Tatas and Ambanis.
4. Modi became the first person in India to run a Presidential-style campaign for the highest political office in the country.
5. No other leader has garnered as much support and warmth on foreign soil. More than two dozen U.S. Senators, Governors, Congressmen, and Congresswomen attended the event.
6. Mr Modi will focus on India’s three unique strengths -- (a) Democratic institutions. (b) Demographic dividend (c) Gigantic market place
7. Mr. Modi has also brought with him a clean brand of politics which has been uncommon in India. There are a large percentage of lawmakers in India who are in trouble with the law. Mr. Modi has consciously selected a trustworthy cabinet which does not include many of his own party’s stalwarts and old guard and he himself possesses an impeccable record.
8. On the centenary year of Gandhi’s return to India from South Africa, Mr. Modi has given a clarion call to all Indians living abroad to return to India and contribute to its economy
9. The Mission to Mars that India is proud of launching recently is a crown jewel in the country’s progress in science and technology. He quipped that the mission cost less than a quarter per mile to launch.

PM Modi has done a lot of good things (from a businessman's perspective). If I am running an MNC I think he is the best PM to have. But everything comes at a price. The only question is whether one is more interested in next 10 years or would like to look at it from a longer term perspective maybe 100 years or more and hence take steps while understanding the full consequence of their actions.

During the great depression Franklin D Roosevelt had written, "The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it; if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something." His thinking was the government needs to try something to bring growth, and FDR understood that not everything will work. And he was prepared for it.

If look at it more closely, there were two factors that supported FDRs thinking, the international laws were not as complicated nor were they as enforceable as they are today, and one could always use their military strength to deal with an unfavorable outcome. Communication modes were still developing, and the country had more resources and less people.

But our PM Modi doesn't have that edge that FDR had.

Less talked about facts

1. Though Modi is not the sole culprit, but knowing him I wouldn't be surprised if he actually weakens the court structure. It was not strong earlier nor free of corruption, but now it will be easy for politicians to corrupt it or run it on their whims and fancies. This is a major flaw that we are about to introduce.

The government has introduced two bills in Parliament on the appointment of judges of the Supreme Court and high courts. One of these is a Constitution amendment bill, which proposes that the current system of consultation with the chief justice of India and other senior judges be replaced by recommendations from a new body called the judicial appointments commission (JAC). The other bill specifies the composition of the JAC and its functions. Together, these two bills may have enabled the dilution of some of the safeguards in the current system of appointments. 

The process of judges selecting their new colleagues is sought to be modified so that the executive also has a role to play. The Constitution is being amended so that the process of "consultation" with judges is replaced by "the recommendation of the judicial appointments commission". The Constitution amendment bill also removes the proviso that requires consultation with the CJI. It adds a new Article 124A, which states that Parliament may, by law, determine the composition of the JAC, the appointment, qualification and terms of service of its chairperson and members, its functions and the manner of selection of judges.

Read more on: 
http://www.prsindia.org/theprsblog/?p=2987
http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/case-not-closed/1164724/0

2. Secondly his coming in power will dilute the environment ministry and forest ministry and get all projects cleared at central level. But effective implementation in most cases will be done by the state government. Now the government can definitely come to the aid by allowing all development to take place on the area that comes under the jurisdiction of the central government forests. Two we don’t live in the 19th century where growth is only important, sustainability is also something that we need to keep an eye on.

Through a quick series of notifications, the Union environment ministry has eased rules for mining, roads, power and irrigation projects and other industrial sectors. It has diluted a host of regulations related to environment, forest and tribal rights. 

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar had earlier done away with the requirement of public hearing for coal mines below 16 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) wishing to expand output by up to 50 per cent. This has now been extended to mines above 16 mtpa, permitting them to mine up to five mtpa more without consulting affected people.

The need for consent from gram sabhas for prospecting in forests has also been done away with. This dilutes the Forest Rights Act, which requires the consent of tribals before forest land is diverted to industrial activity.

So if there is a new drawn support for naxalites then we will just have to accept the consequences.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/nda-eases-green-rules-to-push-investments-114080700031_1.html

http://business-humanrights.org/en/india-eased-industry-regulations-may-endanger-human-rights

I don’t say what he has done is wrong, perhaps it was right but in being pro-industry don’t ravage your own population. Visit the ground and solve problems on case to case basis, in such cases there is no one size fits all approach.

3. The current tactics of polarizing to win elections is setting up a poor precedent for the future. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-29828802

And hence it is important to see how he deals with the fringe organisations like RSS, VHP, Bajrangdal etc.

1. http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-11-09/righteous-hate-returns-to-india
2. http://indianexpress.com/article/india/politics/bhavnagar-model-muslim-buys-house-cant-move-in/

Gujarat’s new compulsory reading list for government primary and secondary students doesn’t just seek to educate students on “facts” about India’s culture, history and geography. It also has its own take on science, particularly landmark inventions. 

“…America wants to take the credit for invention of stem cell research, but the truth is that India’s Dr Balkrishna Ganpat Matapurkar has already got a patent for regenerating body parts…. You would be surprised to know that this research is not new and that Dr Matapurkar was inspired by the Mahabharata. Kunti had a bright son like the sun itself. When Gandhari, who had not been able to conceive for two years, learnt of this, she underwent an abortion. From her womb a huge mass of flesh came out. (Rishi) 

Dwaipayan Vyas was called. He observed this hard mass of flesh and then he preserved it in a cold tank with specific medicines. He then divided the mass of flesh into 100 parts and kept them separately in 100 tanks full of ghee for two years. After two years, 100 Kauravas were born of it. On reading this, he (Matapurkar) realised that stem cell was not his invention. This was found in India thousands of years ago.” — Page 92-93, Tejomay Bharat 

“We know that television was invented by a priest from Scotland called John Logie Baird in 1926. But we want to take you to an even older Doordarshan… Indian rishis using their yog vidya would attain divya drishti. There is no doubt that the invention of television goes back to this… In Mahabharata, Sanjaya sitting inside a palace in Hastinapur and using his divya shakti would give a live telecast of the battle of Mahabharata… to the blind Dhritarashtra”. — Page 64

And I am not sure how PM Modi will put the foundations of technological brilliance when we are about teach such stuff to our students. Most certainly I would like to see how the Indian Diaspora explain this to their children.

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/gujarat/science-lesson-from-gujarat-stem-cells-in-mahabharata-cars-in-veda/

4. His cabinet selection is poor too. Let me quote Reuters on it --

Attempted murder, waging war on the state, criminal intimidation and fraud are some of the charges on the rap sheets of ministers Prime Minister Narendra Modi appointed to the cabinet on Sunday, jarring with his pledge to clean up politics. 

Seven of 21 new ministers face prosecution, taking the total in the 66-member cabinet to almost one third, a higher proportion than before the weekend expansion. 

At least five people in the cabinet have been charged with serious offences such as rape and rioting.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/new-junior-minister-for-education-faces-charges-of-forging-his-marksheet-620584

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/police-unable-to-identify-union-minister-nihal-chands-address-to-deliver-summons/?SocialMedia

http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/11/10/india-politics-crime-idINKCN0IU1A920141110

Although the inclusion seems more political, because of what I hear from various journalist is that all powers have been centralized with the secretaries and all decisions are routed through PMO. And there is not many exceptions except for Finance Minister.

5. Things that are neither new nor surprising, but I don’t know why people talk about them.

• People of Indian Origin. If my memory serves right every new govt gives that call, especially if it’s an NDA government, good for NRI’s to take part in India’s growth story. It is standard road show. 
• Mars mission is not jewel in his crown, every government passes the rules, and scientists work on it. Maybe most people are not aware but ISRO makes profit also, as it launches number of satellite for different countries and companies.

“Globally, the space industry business turnover was $160 billion, while at Antrix it was $200 million,” said Dr.V S Hegde during July 2011 while taking over as chief of Antrixand; as quoted in a report in The Hindu newspaper.

There are so many things which run independently or go in their own routine it is best they are not given undue attention.

1. http://www.indiaspend.com/cover-story/but-indias-space-adventures-make-money-too-77331
2. http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/why-the-outcry-over-isros-mars-mission-cost-is-stupid-215627.html
3. http://www.livemint.com/Industry/wVmPLdPA759oFCHMmZYjvK/ISRO-makes-40-million-profit-out-of-W2M-satellite.html

Not all hope is lost.

It seems PM Modi wants something good for the country as well. Like when he said he wants a moratorium to all hate and violence for next 10 years on 15th Aug speech.

He has also forced bureaucrats and colleagues refraining to go out for lunches with businessmen or meeting them outside office, hence making crony capitalism a bit difficult. Everyone has been advised to stay disciplined and focused. (http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/dear-lutyens-reporters-welcome-to-the-club-114111200894_1.html)

He has given promotion to a number of capable IAS, especially to all those who had not hesitated to take on the politicians in the previous government and off-late he seems to be giving chances to his critics, his choice for Chief Economic Advisor, although I am not sure if that will always the case.

The relationship and the groundwork that PM Dr Singh had done in his 10 years on foreign relationships is being properly utilised by PM Modi since he took over charge. All the roadshows and foreign trips reflect that he is trying to capitalise on it and perhaps saying the right things (minus the part when PM Modi said "may the power be with you" while on trip to USofA)

Summing up

Therefore, it is important to not only look at only the negatives or the positives or taking myopic view. What is necessary is to acknowledge all of it and show all facets so that if the leadership is making mistakes then it is able to correct the course but if it’s a systematic exploitation then the same is noticed at the earliest. To be blinded by any one side will surely lead to exploitation and create a bubble.

Mahatma Gandhi had said, “It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.” And Albert Einstein had said, "A true genius admits that he/she knows nothing." I am not even a percent as smart as these giants were. So I could be wrong about PM Modi. Nonetheless it is too early at this stage to not be careful, small signs of trouble have also surfaced along with hope. 

Change in working style – political reporters in India

I have started falling back on my idea of writing everyday. As said earlier, I was travelling, but then agree its more of an excuse. Perhaps I could have written. Just don't know how or when. 

Off late I have had the chance to read up on certain interesting pieces and also think through some of the problems. For example. 

There was an interesting article in Business Standard on how government reporters are now finding it difficult to get information from the Lutyens. (Click here.) The author then writes about how the flow of information is very stifling on the corporate side.

The one sentence from the article that perhaps can sum up the problem when corporate stifle reporters from carrying their job would be --

"When an entire group gives up probing on a certain company altogether that results in blow ups such as Satyam and NSEL scam."

Perhaps something similar can happen with the government as well if it starts creating choking the freedom of the press. Perhaps political reporters should take a leaf from the corporate reporters' book. Now political reporters should also start reading all documents and make noise for transparency in governance.

They should perhaps think of themselves as auditors who are looking for paper trails and mismatch in the stories or some hard facts. It will increase the work load but perhaps this may be the new way of working.

Sometimes the only way of doing an interesting thing or achieving even decent result is by slogging hard. Now the time has come for journalist to show if they are in the profession because they actually like it or if it was just a coincidence and they don't like to do hard work. 

A Selfie World

After more than two years I was travelling home around a festival time. And the new trend that caught my attention was that many people were taking selfies’ and perhaps capturing their moment. Although I have no clue what that moment would be as in a selfie you rarely manage to capture anything outside your face.

I have nothing personal against it. It’s just that sometimes I find it amusing.

Some of the people on this flight were perhaps a bit over-enthusiastic and actually trying to capture all their moments; like a gentleman went on clicking pictures when his son and the wife coming from the toilet. Which sort of led me to think if I should ask the gentleman, if he was trying to capture the family’s ease of pressure or was it how they walk from loo to the seat on an airplane? But then I thought my inquisitiveness could be taken as rudeness, since I am most of the time inept in handling social conversations.

Anyways, selfie is a relatively new word in the English language. In the oxford online dictionary, selfie has been described as an informal word describing a ‘photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media.’ Though my observation is that not all selfie find their way to social media, some just are shared within family members or as display pictures for the messaging applications.

Apparently now there are also selfie competitions that are held and awards distributed like here. 

Among the various famous selfies that I managed to see in the process, the following are the best:

Most dangerous selfie ever. That happened.

Fan Thrilling. Smart move for upping popularity.

Example 1 - Beyonce

Example 2 - Pope

It is interesting to know that although selfie as word has come about and entered the usage only since 2002. Though Wikipedia says, that the first ever selfie was perhaps taken by Robert Cornelius in 1839!!! 

A haphazard plan

Hah!!! Happy Birthday to me! I think being a narcissist for a day is absolutely fine.

My observation is that people are either excited, in celebratory mood – the party makers, and then there are those who do their best to avoid the lime-light – the party evaders.  I am to some extent a party evader too.

So what do party evaders look out for? I have no clue.  The few that I know, who are also party evaders tend to introspect. They try and make sense of what are the good things that they did over the last one year. And how many mistakes they made in the year gone by. And there is some amount of planning on what to expect or plan to achieve in the next year.

This seems like a good idea. Good enough to try. Despite that I think I will not remember what all I have done nor that I will have a single clear goal for the next year. Since, my belief is that no plan ever goes according to plan, therefore, its best that we keep more than one plan and few backups as well along the way.

Last year I had made plans to read some books. To be exact I wanted to read more than 14 books during the year. At the same time I also wanted to do some courses from Coursera and one complete a course in risk management, something I had been pursuing on the side-lines. Did manage to complete parts of it here. On the office front I changed jobs and managed to write some interesting stories in the new job. 

So how should I set goals for the next year one year? This seems difficult.

Well I think reading about 12 or more books is necessary. And this time will review or write summaries of each book as well. That should make it interesting.

For quite a few years I have been wanting to learn calligraphy and voice modulation. Although at this point it looks highly unlikely but at least will do my best to cover some ground in finding out on how to learn.

Also during the year, I will do my best to read about a new subject. Maybe learn something from some friend as well or about a new industry. This should be fun.

On a serious note, I would like to get more clarity on where I should take admission for a Masters’ program. 

Completing some more additional subjects from Coursera will obviously be part of the goal. Which subjects? That is a difficult to state at this point. Although most of the courses are very flexible on a weekly basis. But I have come to realise I need to do courses where the option is to watch the videos is such that I am able to finish it in about 3 hours a week followed by a weekly or fortnightly quiz in multiple choice question format. It’s easier for me to complete and fulfil the program.

An intensive program which also requires peer valuation is difficult for me. It takes more time, although I agree it is a better way to learn. Therefore for a working professional I find it difficult.

Now let’s see if next year on the same day, how much am I able to achieve. And what are the things that I had not made plans for but did complete. 

A poor excuse!

It has been only 3 days when I made the plan of writing every day, and I have already missed one day. Although I had only set the limit of not having an excuse. The good part of being all -- jury, judge and executioner -- is that you can make the rules in way that pleases you. So I was making an excuse. Hence to compensate I am writing more about my experience. 

Shifting is a tantalizing work. Even though I had to shift merely 5 km and being bachelors we have kept things to bare minimum. Despite this it seemed like a herculean task. While we had movers and packers so they just came, packed everything and dropped it as instructed to the new location. The challenge is upon reaching. 

Since the layout of no two house is same so either you have extra-stuff or you have empty spaces in the house. In either scenario you can be innovative or completely predictable, selling or giving out stuff if you don’t have any use for it, or buying stuff based on the requirement.

The question is how do you be creative in this situation? Well I don’t have an answer to that one, since I fall in the latter category of being predictable most of the time. 

Anyways, when shifting cities always make sure to get an insurance for everything that you are transporting through couriers. 

Also make sure to change the communication address for all the financial and nonfinancial documentations which you will be receiving regularly. Prior to applying for changes you will require proof of new address. Updating address with bank is important as it may affect your credit score. Credit score is important as your credibility for bank loans are affected by this score. 

Many people tend to neglect but if you have changed location then it should also be updated on your passport as well. Another thing to remember would be to always check the electricity meter upon shifting. These are some of the primary items that I learned about to check upon shifting within the city. 

Developing a habit that I don't want!!

I am sure we all want some good skills to inculcate like thinking clearly. Being flawless in our writing. Even I would want those two. After reading and thinking through for sometime now, I have realised there is only one way to develop those two skills for someone like myself. 

Write everyday!!! A better idea would be to aim to write about 500 words. No excuse, maybe give yourself a break on Sunday but that's about it. It also requires building some sense of routine for few years at least so that it becomes second nature. 

While its easy to talk about, there would inevitably be some challenges as well. The perception of challenge will change from person to person. I think, there would be two challenges that I will have to grapple with: the effort of typing everyday and pushing it to 500 words and the second would be of ideas. 

My solution would be that I will write before leaving for office early in the morning either after I wake up or just before I go to sleep in  the night. Although sometimes I may not write 500 words, but I guess that is ok to start with, as long as I do put up the effort to write something everyday. For the second challenge there are two or three possible solutions. First I also write my opinion of what ever has been there in the media. The second solution would be to write what happened the previous day or that day, this will depend upon the activity level or third write on some topic based on suggestion of my friends, and other acquaintances. In fact if you are reading this and dont know me yet, then even you can ask me to write on some particular subject or facet of life. Feel free to leave your comment.

Well now that I have stated the aim and the challenge in it as well, let's see how far this goes. Today being the first day, I plan to use this as my first piece as part of the plan.  

Message Exchanges -- Untitled-1

Given below is the link of an article that a friend had posted.

http://qz.com/178362/india-crosses-the-moral-line-of-no-return-if-narendra-modi-becomes-prime-minister/

And this was my additional comment on it.

SZ: Unfortunately. Getting ahead on Fear and Hate is easier than doing it the right way.

And this was the subsequent comment of another person that started the entire conversation, which some may find interesting.

DM Whom you want to be?

1. Farmer =

2. Farmers Wife =

3. Farmers Son =

4. The Mongoose =

5. The Cobra =

Match those characters with a suitable options....

You, Common People, Politicians, India's Future, Narendra Modi, Media, Confusion, Corruption, Inflation, Rahul Gandhi, greedy people, opportunist, Economy or you can put your own word.

Before that, read the story!!!!!!

Once, there lived a farmer and his wife. They had a little son. The farmer had a petmongoose. The little boy and the mongoose were fond of each other. They were good playmates.

One day the farmer was busy at his fields. The farmer's wife had left to the market. The little boy was fast asleep in a cradle. The mongoose was lying down near the cradle.

A cobra somehow got into the house and it was nearing the little boy. The mongoose sniffed the snake and jumped up. He fought with the cobra. The cobra began to attack. There was a fierce fight between the cobra and the mongoose. The mongoose finally bit and killed the cobra.

The mongoose saw the farmer's wife returning from market. He ran happily towards her to greet her. She saw blood around the mouth and paws of the mongoose. The farmer's wife mistook that the mongoose had attacked her son.

The farmer's wife took a long stick and gave heavy blows on the mongoose and then ran into the house. She was shocked to see a dead cobra lying on the floor near her son. Now she realised her mistake.

SZ: So I assume the meaning of the story would be something like Wife is the voter. Son is the economy. Mongoose is Modi and Cobra are Muslims.

DM: It's upto u (Shoaib)..........what u want to choose!

It's reflects your perception about the matter.

You are supporting Modi or not it's pointless.

The moral of the story is don't land into any conclusion from outside.

SZ: Oh I don't deal with perception (Dear DM). I deal with probabilities and likelihood in real life. There was nothing wrong with the column, but when you put up a story, it seems like a nice way to avoid the tough question on choices. So I extrapolated one possible meaning that you wouldn't want to consider or like, making the same point, as you wrote - "don't land into any conclusion from outside."

The truth is you don't need to be involved but just be near a riot/war/huge-fight (a fight when someone dies) to know things. Be so near that you can know not the stories through other people but hear them directly from the horses mouth. The ones who are still alive by matter of chance or the ones who killed or the ones who lost someone there. If you don't know and if you haven't seen, don't compare with cliche stories, you can argue on an ideology but don't compare realities to stories. Reality is very different.

My understanding is you have never seen or been near to a riot but if I am wrong, which I certainly can be, please share your insight and what you have seen or heard and how near were you.

If not then next time when you hear of a riot, I suggest you go there. meet people, talk with them. Don't argue, don't tell them about fairytale stories, just listen and observe. Give time and then see them again, with time will come perspective and they will tell you things as a matter of fact in words devoid of emotion but words that will send chills down your spine. This time it would be different than the time when emotions were high, that I can assure you. Talk to them in different places - sometimes at their house, sometimes where they have tea, sometimes over dinner, sometimes when they would read a piece of news. In that case you wouldn't conclude from outside.

DM "I will never forget the hand till my death"

This is the comment of my mom about an incident which took place in her life more than half a century ago.

The moral story which I put up, its my nephew's 1st Standard Text book story (moral story). It carries a simple message for those toddlers that "don't land into any conclusion from outside" which is applicable to us as well & why I put up that story you come to know at the end of it.

Dear Shoaib, The incident which I am going to tell you it don't deal with probabilities and likelihood; it's all about perception of an Individual who directly suffered the fate. A single incident can be interpreted differently by me, you, mom, Zeeba or someone else & also the significance of that incident will differ from person to person based on their perception about the context.

Based on your reply I can assume that you never directly faced that kind of situation, only heard about it (directly from the horses mouth) but I did; or to be accurate my mom did.

If I wouldn't have faced those situation then my answer would have been a biased answer.

Yes, You truly reflected the facts & I totally agree with you but I also want to highlight that you overlooked few important aspects of it; like PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) & it's effect on human behaviour (Perception), snow-ball effect, devil's horn effect, fading effect bias, uncontrolled contributing factors etc. When you are dealing with a sensitive issues like riot/war/death then you need to consider all the aspects of real life, not a generic view of an incident.

I researched about it long time back; currently don't have any reference but if you are really interested to know then you need to spend weeks or even months while researching to come to a conclusion.

The truth is 'reality is stranger than friction'.

Few Related Articles

http://www.niu.edu/.../publications/walkerskowronski2009.pdf

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_memory_biases

If you have time read it.

A brief background about us. I am from West Bengal; 2nd largest concentration of Muslim Population in India (wikipedia). I am Bengali; my grand parents & my father immigrated from East-Pakistan or currently Bangladesh during partition (1947). That time a large amount of Bengali's didn't immigrated from East-Pakistan immediately, they stayed back because they loved their home land & also they don't want to lost all their resources (house, land, shop etc). My mom's family was one of them.

Though they were the minority ethnic group in East-Pakisthan/Bangladesh but they were happy. My mom's father was a post master & her uncle was one of the renowned Doctors in East-Pakisthan/Bangladesh. It was a joint family & they stayed together in a very big house. That time they were one of the wealthy family in that town with lots of land, a store, a nice doctors chamber & few cows. My mom's uncle had thousands of loyal follower that time & everyone respects them very much. Everything was fine for next 15yr with some minor problem. From late 1963 to early 1964 the situation in that area started to get intense (Ref:http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_East-Pakistan_riots) but then also it didn't escalated into an alarming level. Though that period Hindus were banned to wear shoes, use umbrellas, ride a rickshaw or can't sell their property but because of their reputation in the town/mohalla no one objected. Even they felt safe in that area. According to my mom testimony, her uncle used to quote "this is the safest place; we feel very safe & secured here". But one night during 1964 riot a group of people came to their house (out of which few are family friend) killed her uncle without giving him a moment to react; kill his newly wedded pregnant wife; killed my mom's elder brother & tried to kill everyone else. My Grand Father took my mom (that time she was only 8yrs old) with him accompanied by her elder sister (12yr) & her young brother (6yr) & fled through the back door in the middle of a night (around 2am) with the help of their servant (Ponchu Da). They have to left that place bare footed without a single penny in their pocket.

Luckily my grandmother was out of town & she survived. Later they came to know that they also killed their loyal servant (Ponchu Da). They walked whole night though the jungle with a scare in their mind that someone is following them!

In the early morning with the help of a person they reached the India boarder. Even the help provided by the stranger is not free of cost, my grand dad have to give him his gold chain in return. While returning to India my mom saw a truck, full of death body (I don't need to say who they are) out of which one hand was hanging outside the truck. The blood soaked hand struck the 8yr old girl so badly the it still hunts her.

In my first line I referred that hand.....

Now forget about everything; Modi, mongoose, cobra, you, me, your religion, my religion everything.......

Just think yourself a 8yr old girl who lost her elder brother, uncle & aunt (who are equivalent to her mother & father) just few hours back & in the morning she saw the most horrible seen in her life.

Mr. Shoaib, can u please shed light about the probability or the likelihood of her emotion trauma caused by this incident!

& also can you please answer some of her unanswered questions.

1. Why they killed my brother(13yrs)? What he did?

2. My uncle saved thousands of life but why they killed him who saved their life?

3. Why my uncles childhood friend (who also studied with him) was among the killers?

4. Why they killed my innocent aunt or our servant?

She didn't get the acceptable answer & because of that her perception totally changed about a particular community!

Is she right or wrong?

Who will decide?

Till now, it's half of the story! Waiting for your response. After your response I will clarify my stands & will finish the story.

SZ: She would be biased in all likelihood and would live those scars. And since you grew up perhaps you too would be completely biased, and in either case I cant contest with words because its difficult to change experience with words. But perhaps if and when the time comes will try to create an example so that your view changes. And I am sorry for the losses in your family.

For your questions there are no answers except that people who did that were wrong and unfortunately no human being tried helping your elders. If your mother believes in God of whatever sort, she should reserve those questions for that supreme being.

But to assume that only you or your mother have been traumatized is also wrong. My father was a little lucky, his friends struck him at the right places (during Ranchi Riots 1967) just that they were doctor's hand and not a butcher's so the cut was not deep enough to kill him instantly. And then luck favored him and Brigadier arrived at the hospital, since RMCH is near the cantonment area. Had the army people been 15 min late probably I wouldn't be responding today. The guy who struck first was his school friend who had come to visit them in college. Why he did he do that? There is no logical answer. And this entire attempt to wipe out some 34 Muslim boys was done in the presence of police unit that was deployed in the campus so that no untoward incident takes place.

Throughout his life after that, he could never open a bottle with his right hand, because when the senior staff of the college found him their immediate concern was to save his life and to work with all casualty that was coming in. No one looked into his fractured thumb. The hit on his head ensured that the vision from his left eye became nearly nil, so despite being a book lover and a veracious reader he had to remain content with only one eye.

Despite this incident my father never differentiated among his friends based on religion and he never asked me to do so either. Rather what he taught us (his children) was there would be some bad people and some good, don't judge them on religion or caste or creed. And look through events understand what happened? Why it happened? Who benefited? And how the common person on the road (you and me), we lose out in a struggle for power, ideology and money where we have no stake.

We too have lost friends and families to riots. But then we have also seen incidents of hope. Bhagalpur riots 1967 we lost some very close family friends. Then in 1989 riots Bhagalpur was really bad and that is when one of our family friend's tenant did what few would have done. Rioters came and asked the tenants (hindus) to come outside the house, there were offered to shift everything to a different house on the same road, and then all owners (muslims) were locked inside and the house was set on fire and rioters left. Somehow most of the people managed to escape but they had hidden two children and in trying to run they actually left them. The tenants son entered the burning house saved the two children. And everyone left Bhagalpur overnight, the price of saving lives for the tenant too was to leave the house and the city. They all shifted to Patna.

And similarly there are many incidents where individuals have put their foot down to save lives, across regions, across religions in times of madness. I can understand how your mother would feel contemptuous, so does my mother - she lost her cousin in Benares riots of 1972, and nearly lost the man she was to marry in Ranchi riots.

Some one will have to rise up to the occasion and do what is right and if we can remove our biases for a moment we all know when we are right and when we are wrong. I don't know how to explain, well I hope you can understand.

DM: You are right, people should have reacted the way your father did. The lack of consciousness, lack of logical thinking is the main problem not a particular community or people.

Let's finish my story first then u will understand everything......

I told you before, every incident can be perceived differently by different individual. My mom developed a grudge or hatred about a particular community.

Is she right? Obviously not.

People mind alway tend to generalise every incident.

Here comes the concept called "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable" by Nicolas Taleb's. People generalising the incident based on their comfort level or suitability or mental satisfaction.

Now, comes the analytical part.

You know Shoaib, you were partially right, I have grown up by listing all those stories & become biased. I assumed/perceived that all the Muslims are bad because I also didn't get the acceptable answer. I started to felt that those people who can kill a child, a pregnant women & a person who saved their life several time they must be bad & evil people.

So I generalised my thinking & developed a barrier between me & all the other Muslim friends. In school I don't even have a single Muslim friend because of the perception.

In class-XI I started developing friendship with Abdul (My first Muslim friend). We studied in a same school & also in a same coaching centre. In few months we become good friends. Then a stereotype warning came from my family, don't mix with Abdul. I tried to convince then that he is good, he is different, he is not like others but one statement from my mother drained all my effort & I hit a concrete wall.

I am just quoting her sentence "you friendship with Abdul is less than a year old; my uncles childhood friend didn't hesitate to kill him after 30yrs of friendship; then who are you?"

That time I was determine to prove her wrong but I didn't have the answers of her questions!

Then I started my research about the incident.

Do you know what I found?

"The reality is stranger than fiction"

My uncle was the topper in school & college but his childhood friend was far behind in term of results, reputation, assets etc. when my mom's uncle Used to attend patients in his private chamber his childhood friend used to spent leisure time in his chamber while appreciating his achievements.

But the reality was different; he developed ego & envy against him. Here comes the concept called the snowball effect. It's was developed over the time, not in a single day. He was also an doctor but overshadowed by my mom's uncles reputation. He dreamed to practicing like him but it never materialised in reality. After so many years the opportunity came in his way to eliminate his competitor & fulfil his sleeping desire. The person only took the opportunity of riots to fulfil his grudge & takeover their moveable or non-moveable assets without a criminal proceeding or any negative publicity which can't be possible in other way. This type of greedy, selfish, self-centric attitude didn't signify any religion like Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian. Those type of people doesn't belongs to any ethnic group, they comes under only in one category which is criminals. It happens with me, it happened with you & also to others. This type of people was there in the past, is there in the present, will be there in the future. It's upto you which color you want to put in. This incident happening every day everywhere.

Some are defining it as political, some defining it as a communal & some defining it as a cultural (honour killing) issue.

Whom you want to blame for the losses is upto you. You can blame your destiny or the god or the country or the government or the minister or a particular community.

Here the main question......Can you control it? It's impossible to control human mind or evil thinking. The incident which occurred in her life cannot be controlled from outside.

Here the contributing factor is not religion nor political or cultural. It's a criminal intent (uncontrolled contributing factor) done under the shadow of communal riots.

Just talk with those people who have lost their life in riots, u will find all of them have lost their home, assets or other belongings. What you thing those people who is executing the riots is doing it for ideology? If you think so then you are the biggest fool I have ever mate. Yes exceptions are there but I can guarantee that most of the people would have different intension.

But in reality convincing the sufferer about the real issue is very tough. Even if they understand everything then also a unconscious negative feeling will be there at the back of there mind. It's like a time bomb; u need a spark to re-ignite it. In that context you were right, a good leader need to secure that kind of incident should not happen but for him it will be difficult to control those criminal minds to stop exploiting the issues like riots, ethnicity or something else for their personal gain. I believe except a criminal mind nothing exist in this world which can influence a person to kill his/her childhood best friend or a child. Whatever is the reason can you kill you childhood best friend or a child in any circumstances?

I don't think so.....A sound human being can't do it any circumstances.

After my finding I shared my view with parents & created a solid stand point. They are 100% convinced or not I am not sure but atleast they don't have any problem with my friends & don't shows the stereotype attitude.

Hope for the best......

Regards

DM

SZ: Your analysis is mostly correct.

Criminal intent can be checked if the law is based on the concept of 'Justice' and the implementers have decided to do so. Mostly if I have come to understand correctly, then in a 50 year history of someone trying to achieve a just kingdom/society/nation then for about 5-10 years the society actually would witness a phase where criminal intent is completely checked and there is peace overall. After that either border wars will start or something will go wrong with society because a new leader will be born. Since inciting is very easy, may not work with you and I, but in general giving a speech with negativity and raising the tempo is easy and for quick success leaders often employ this.

Now well I may be foolish, but then 'to believe' one has to take a leap of faith and that is the essence of most religion. I think we are in agreement that most people do not think analytically, if that assumption is correct, then maybe we can also come to a common agreement that most people do not analyses their religion and the leap of faith could be in the wrong direction. Now that is seed of ideological criminal intent (example: Elements of Taliban in Pakistan (the ones who only kill innocents), perpetrators of Malegaon blasts and Mecca Masjid (hyderabad) blasts , KKK (in US) etc.)

You know the cases against such people should be made under criminal offense rather than terrorism or any other part of law. But the truth is that the foot soldiers in such organizations actually have 'weird' belief system. Maybe the leaders of such organization are more analytical and hence outright criminals but on grassroots its belief -- driven by idealogy.

My observation, so far, has been that all criminal activity has a reason -- money, power, lust/jealousy, revenge, mental instability or ideology. At least till now I have not come across a case which cannot be compartmentalized in one of these categories. Assuming its only one would be wrong.

I maybe wrong, one can always be wrong but that is the structure that I follow so far. If you have better insight then do share.

[p.s. since you read, understand and perhaps follow Taleb to Gladwell. check out Robert Shiller's - 'irrational exuberance' and Karl Marx]

And it end here

.... taking it forward ...

Recently through a FaceBook post I came across this interesting piece by Aftab Ahmed. 

To give you a small summary, he has correctly interpreted the concept of 'halal' and 'haram' income and its usage and then he has put up his view on the Babri-Masjid why it doesn't matter, and yet it matters. 

Although he is partially correct that, "Any big or small event where even it seemed remotely that they are being man-handled they (Muslims) erupt." But the truth is its slightly more complicated. 

There is a vision of India. It is of a democratic and multi-cultural country with no single religion being the state's religion -- Nehru's version of India. And that religion should be practiced in the house in a religious place etc. In short religion and state are different. These are people who call themselves 'secular'  and they believe in being diverse. 

Now there is another vision for India. This calls for a single country with homogeneity, as thought by RSS. It has some contradictions but we will not get into it as of now. In this thought process, religion has a very important role, which to an extent is the seed of the conflict.  Watch this video for more clarity on the type of ideology they propagate.

And if anyone is actually interested then they must read the speeches, books, etc. written by M. S. Golwalkar, the second "Sarsanghchalak" (Supreme chief) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. (wiki link).

If that seems like a lot of work then you can read: "TERRIFYING VISION — M.S. Golwalkar, the RSS and India" by Jyotirmaya Sharma. The work is quite scholarly, sometimes dry but worthy of reading for anyone who wants to understand why the Babri-Masjid is more of a Nehru's vs Gowalkar's vision of India. All normal people irrespective of being a Hindu, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Tribal, religions will only be pawns in this ideological game.

p.s. I think Gandhiji and Swami Viekanand too would have sided with Nehru. But then I have not read much of their work and would love to see some light being shown on them.

Book Review -- Death of Dreams: A terrorist's tale by Aditya Sinha

There are many books on Kashmir. But nearly all books are written by people who have some kind of bias, ideological, national or political. This is the sole reason why when we see a certain tone of message being constantly repeated throughout the book. Facts are used to paint a black & white picture. The truth is far from it, as always!

Most individuals tend up grow in certain way. We are at an age where we are protected by parents to an age where we want freedom to hang out with friends and dream endlessly about forging the dreams into reality.

Death of dreams is perhaps one of the few books which catches the entire story of J&K from a Kashmiri's perspective. It’s about a boy who grew up around Srinagar. The story is the journey of a boy named Firdous's story was no different except that in trying to achieve his dream, he grew and understood how lack of leadership and politics for personal gains has made the dreams into nightmare.

It marks his entire journey of what led him to join the terrorist organisation? His discovery of short-sighted and selfish politicians in India. An ISI who in the name of caring about people of Kashmir have one single aim, make India Unstable. Irrespective of what they say openly, they have no intentions of looking into the benefit of the people.  How he got captured by the Indian Military and then the role of select officers of Indian military whose questions made him think of the choices he made.

It also highlights the different point of time when hurriyat had a mass following and when JKLF had a say in the state. The strengths and flaws of the organisations, and how they lost the plot.

This book has captured the atrocities that the people had to suffer at the hands of everyone including terrorists and the collateral damage at the hands of the army.

For anyone who has interest in the history of Jammu & Kashmir, Death of Dreams: A terrorist's tale by Aditya Sinha is a must read.