A land to call our own

"Khoon mein tere mitti , mitti mein tere khoon" - I cannot shake these lines from my head. That's a snatch from a popular Hindi song "The soil is in your blood and your blood is in the soil" .

This is August of 2019.  Amit Shah , the home minister of India, has announced the revocation of Article 370, which gave a special status to Jammu and Kashmir.  Kashmir is under the most severe of clampdowns, we get news only in tiny bits . Assam is on edge . Waiting for the NRC to be published. What will be the fate of those left out of the list?  "Khoon mein tere mitti , mitti mein tere khoon" 

We are far away from these sensitive border areas. But even  deep down South , there's an all pervading sense of fear. Social media is awash with rumours of an impending national NRC.Muslims talk in hushed tones. "What if there's an NRC in the whole of India?  Do we have enough documents ?"  "Khoon mein tere mitti , mitti mein tere khoon" 

We have nothing but Indian blood in us.  My parents , their parents, and their parents , peering back into the grey mists of time and centuries gone by. Indians, all.  Or Hindustani . Or Deccani. Sons and daughters of the soil . "Khoon mein tere mitti , mitti mein tere khoon" 

I can  easily prove my lineage if it comes to that. But what of the teemimg millions who have no proof ? Is this how the Holocaust started ?  "Khoon mein tere mitti , mitti mein tere khoon" 

My mind keeps darting to Assam and Kashmir.  How many will be rendered stateless by this plundering, evil mongering regime ? I fear for my kids.  I am getting their passports in order.  The unfairness of this constricts my chest. And unbidden , my mind  repeats  "Khoon mein tere mitti , mitti mein tere khoon"  . 

We have a right too , an absolute right to live in this land. And so  do my fellow Muslims , just as much as any other Indian. We belong here . This land is our land too.

The flowers are blooming , the birds are chirping.It seems like all's right with the world , only it isn't . And the sadness tugging at my heart refuses to go away......

Losing ,longing, hoping...

It is the September of '96. A girl walks beside her father ,quietly apprehensive about the approaching interview. She's almost eighteen and she has been waiting for this day for a long time now. In fact , she's been waiting for this since first grade. And today , she will finally know whether she is getting into the college of her choice . She's confident , though. She knows that she could have done much better in the entrance test but deep down inside there's a feeling that she cannot possibly lose now. She was much too bright to be a loser.....

The counsellor is a kindly old man. For the first time , students would be allotted seats based on a computerised system. The girl is almost giddy now with nervousness and excitement.Will she ? Won't she? After what seems like an interminable wait , the girl and her father are called for their turn. And then all hell breaks loose. All the best seats in the best colleges are already taken... How could this be happening to her ? She , who always got what she wanted , settling for second best ? This was unreal , this couldn't really be happening..

The cousellor is kind. He points out that there are some paid seats still available in the college of her choice. But the girl shakes her head , she knows her father cannot afford the fee. The counselllor suggests that they go to the college and talk it over with the Dean of Admissions. The girl is almost inconsolable. She had set her heart on that .....

Her father leads her out and drives her to the college. She is barely aware of the beautiful day outside. She's shattered , still trying to come to terms with the fact that all the effort of the last few years had been wasted. The car comes to a stop under a beautiful , colonial style verandah. The girl drags herself outside , still unable to shake off her sense of misery. And then the beauty of the place hits her. It has just stopped raining and the entire verandah is filled with the lush green of rain washed ferns and palms. Everywhere she turns , there are plants and flowers growing... She glances back at the winding driveway. Even that is breathtakingly beautiful. And disappointment strikes her again ,for she would not be studying here. Instead ,she would slog away at some dusty little college on the outskirts of the city...

Her father gently leads her inside. She notices a grand marble stairway on her right , like something out of a fairytale. They make their way towards the Dean's office , only to realise that it's after college hours. Somebody takes pity on the girl's state and tells them that the list , the all important admission list , has  been posted on the bulletin board .

The bulletin board is out in the passage to the courtyard. Father and daughter walk slowly to the  board. She's already swallowing tears of disappointment. And then , miracle of miracles- her name is on the list , right near the top too , and for a free seat..... She is ecstatic...

 And thereby hangs another tale - but that's for another day!

iphone , Jobs and musings

I have never owned an iPhone or an iPad or even a tiny iPod.Then why does Jobs' death affect me so much ? I find myself reading about his life and innovations everyday. After all that reading , here is my two penny's worth:

1. He was a true marketing genius - of course ! Otherwise who on earth would buy the iPad ? Think of it - it's pretty useless , does nothing which an ordinary laptop cannot do and is much smaller....nobody wanted a tablet PC till the iPad was released and then everyone wanted one. Hats off to Jobs , he created a demand where none had existed before and with something which contributed zilch to any advancement in computing. A true genius !


2. He raised the drool factor of everyday , ordinary gadgets. Even I ( the one of the passive , tech un-savvy , untrendy and homely gadget fame ) drool over the Macbook. WoW! How can anybody make a laptop that good-looking ? Every time I see one , I drool all over it and then get back to my ancient , Compaq workhorse notebook. Sheesh , do I love the looks. Hats off to Steve Jobs , who created beauty out of unsightly plastic and metal .

So now we come to the question , can anyone live in today's world without an Apple product ? Yes! I am a living example :

My phone : A rundown basic Nokia without even a camera
Music Player : None ( Yes, I am that boring)
Computer : A 3 year old Compaq notebook and a zillion year old desktop ( which I am using right now to write this . I think I told you already - I am ANCIENT )
Tablet : None
GPS : None


Pssst: My husband has an iPhone which we use as a GPS and invariably get ourselves lost :)

A sense of belonging...

There is something to be said for continuity. I live barely a mile away from where I grew up and went to school. My grandparents live right around the corner as do my in laws . My children play in the same park that I loved as a child. My parents still live in the same street , a stone's throw away from my high school. I love the sense of belonging , the feeling of contentment this gives me, that my children are making memories for themselves where I made my best loved ones.

Oh no , I am not your typical frog in the well who knows only his immediate surroundings and so loves only that. I left home at the age of twenty one , moving first to Bangalore then across the proverbial seven seas to seek my fortune. I made friends , learnt to live alone and work. I travelled quite frequently and got to see a lot .


But after I came back , I realised how much I had missed my favorite places and my favorite people. And I promised myself, Insha Allah , I'd never make my home anywhere else. I once read somewhere ,"Home is where the heart is" and my heart is right here in Hyderabad.....

Our Peepal tree

We live right opposite a big Peepal tree. I can see it from my kitchen when I am cooking and we have a wonderful view of it from our living room. My kids and I spend hours in the balcony looking at the tree and the various birds and animals who have made it their home.

There is an eagle's nest , high up . We actually saw the mother eagle feed her babies - my son loved looking through his binoculars. And then there are innumerable squirrels , always hurrying somewhere. And yesterday , there was a big flock of mynas. Several crows and koels also inhabit its huge branches.

The balcony is my kids' favorite lunch spot - the Peepal is our jungle and the balcony a shady glade !!!

It shed its leaves last week .Indian trees don't wait till fall for shedding- basically because we don't have a fall :)) It stood stark and naked.

And then , yesterday , the Peepal stood covered in fresh , translucent green. It had sprouted new leaves in less than a couple of days.

The leaves are a wonderful color right now , a shiny light green and almost transparent. Everyday , they'll change color , almost dramatically in fact. In a week or so , they will turn a dark shade of green and remain that way till the tree renews itself again next year.....

Summer's here !!

It's officially summer here in Hyderabad. But nobody seems to have told the rain clouds . It's been raining so heavily for the last couple of days , it's just like the monsoon.

The coolers which had just been taken out in anticipation of another long , dry summer are back in storage. Perhaps we may need them after a week , but right now , it's really cool and pleasant.

Not that I don't like summer . When I was a kid , summer was the best season of the year . It was the time of our annual school holidays. Long lazy days lounging in my grandma's verandah, sleeping under the stars at night.......

As far as I can remember , we always slept on the terrace in the summer. It was my job to cool down the hot rooftop by pouring buckets of water on it. Right after sunset , I would climb up to the roof and diligently start watering . Ah , the smell , it was heavenly !!! The cool water on the hot baked roof rose up in steam with the most wonderful aroma , I can almost smell it right now.

Even when we moved to different houses , we always made sure that we had access to the terrace for our summer nights. The cool breeze and the whispering trees were a lullaby to tired bodies . And the beautiful starry sky provided hours of entertainment .......

We continued our tradition of sleeping out till I moved away to the US . And when I came back , I found that Hyderabad had been transformed from a sleepy city to a bustling metropolis where everyone lived in apartment blocks. Gone were my beloved houses with rooftop access. Everywhere they have been replaced with multi-storied blocks of flats.

It's been years since I went to sleep under the stars , but when summer approaches , my heart still longs for that simple pleasure....... If only wishes were horses......................