So as expected ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ won well deserved Oscars in 8 categories including the Best Picture and Best Director (Danny Boyle) award. I had the pleasure of watching Slumdog about 2 months ago and had the most exuberant cinematic experience ever. Since then I have been recommending friends and family members to watch this awesome film and collecting gratitude’s in return

Slumdog Millionaire is a story of an under dog Jamal Malik, who grew up in the slums of Mumbai, faced tragedies at every phase of his life but his faith and destiny helped him to come out as a winner in the end. The film is based on a novel, Q&A, by the Indian writer and diplomat Vikas Swarup, and adapted by Simon Beaufoy, the British screenwriter of The Full Monty. The film has all the ingredients of a good film with the message of hope in the end that everything happens for a reason and misfortunes of the past helps you to be a better much stronger person. All you need is faith and determination.

Though the film was shot in India, has an Indian cast with background scores of AR RAHMAN and lyrics of Gulzar Sahab, but Slumdog is basically a British film of director Danny Boyle along with his non Indian crew. For Anil Kapoor fans this film is a treat as he perfectly impersonated the role of a Superstar cum Game Show host, who not only discourages our slum boy Jamal but tries to deceive him from winning the million dollar price. This role was previously offered to King Khan SRK but probably the short length and negativity of the role stopped him from playing the part in this film which later on became the most talked about film of the year.

Slumdog faced its share of controversy when Mr. Amitabh bachan in his blog , slams the Oscar winner by saying:

“If ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ projects India as Third World dirty underbelly developing nation and causes pain and disgust among nationalists and patriots, let it be known that a murky underbelly exists and thrives even in the most developed nations,” he posted.

There is hardly any movie at the Academy Awards that truly deserve the best picture of the year award but in the recent history Slumdog Millionaire and Crash are two such movies that deserve all the appreciation and awards for the originality of the plot and brilliance of its cinematic attributes.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Ever since the terrorist attacks in Mumbai the geopolitics of the IndoPak subcontinent has changed for worse. Individuals who have suffered the most are the one’s who played a good positive role in spreading peace. One big example is of Shakeel Siddqui (Pakistani standup comedian) who on Wednesday was beaten up by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena   in Mumbai. Maybe they thought Shakeel was related to Ajmal Kasab (the terrorist in Indian custody).

Not the first event of its nature after the Taj incident in the heart of Mumbai, there is a series of unfortunate and unpleasant events which followed accordingly. Back in the past when tensions between the two neighbors use to rise, Cricket diplomacy was exercised to pin down the pressure but guess what the Indian cricket team refused to tour Pakistan because of Secuirty and other concerns. Indian Sports Minister had the following to say on the refusal:

“Is it possible for one team to arrive in Mumbai and indulge in mass murder, and have another team go and play cricket in the winter afternoon sun at Lahore, immediately after,” Gill said source

My comment: Apparently there is no difference in the eyes of Gill between a Pakistani cricket team and the team of terrorists who attacked Mumbai, a very reasonable theory indeed I am hoping not all Indians are thinking on these lines or are they?

So India is no longer a safe place for Pakisani artists, though theyir Govt. is still issuing visas to them but they are definetly not providing enough security. This reminds me of the incident that took place years ago when the ghazal concert of famous ghazal singer Ghulam Ali was attack by a well known extremist Hindu organization. According to reports Pakistani channels are also facing an unannounced ban in India and in return we are still exhibiting Bollywood and the Pakistani masses still don’t feel any animosity against Indian films or TV channels which are smoothly running in cinemas and cable network.

This war raging attitude will not lead India anywhere, as India is no Israel and Pakistan is no Palestine.

Popularity: 18% [?]

A guy and his buddy were drinking beer at a bar on a Saturday night.

Guy: Hey! Did you hear some terrorists went on a rampage and killed around a 100 people in Mumbai India?

Buddy: Whatever.

Guy: What do you mean whatever? It’s all over the news.

Buddy: Five thousand people were killed in 2 days in Rwanda.

Guy: What’s Rwanda?

Buddy: My point exactly.

So a random and stupid question just popped in my head. How come a 100 people die in a busy and prosperous city and it becomes the most important thing in the world, while 1000’s die in places like Rwanda and Dafur, and nobody gives a goddamn?

A couple of lines in the newspaper and 45 second bulletin on the TV and thats that. Thats about all the attention those dirty, illetrate, sunburnt and poor people deserve. Whereas citizens of a metropolis and a commercial center, they deserve all the attention the world has to offer. So I guess one can deduce that in order to have the attention of the world, you have to be important and rich.

Which brings me to my second ridiculasly idiotic point. Why did those boys do what they did in Mumbai? Obviously they were aware that they were not going to get away with it. Obviously they knew that what they were doing will not solve any of thier problems. Either they were brain washed by elements who want to destabilaze India’s growing economy, or they were really bored and thought it might be awesome fun shooting up people on the streets. Or maybe…. just maybe they could not stand the uneven distribution of wealth, the oppression and the discrimination any more. Maybe where they grew up all they saw was poverty, desperation and hopelessness. And one day, all the anger which had been building up inside for years violently eruptes, the flames of which ask these questions as they engulf everyone in their path:

Why should they be happy and not us?

Why should they have opportunity and a future and not us?

Why should they not pay?

Indeed those gun wielding, grenade throwing, crazy bastards wanted to let the world know about their plight, their misery. All they wanted was some attention.

“Didnt nobody tell you that attention is reserved for the rich and privileged?” A sane person asked.

“Well then thats just the kind of city I am gonna shoot up.” Replied the insane as he loaded his AK-47.

Popularity: 31% [?]

The word terrorism is not new for me or my countrymen. Being an ally of USA on “War on Terror”, Pakistan has been subjected to never ending series of violence that is not completely home grown but exported from its neighboring countries and the Middle EastUSA. Because one way or the other Pakistani dies, whether it’s Waziristan where US air strikes hit civilian women and children or Karachi where a freshly brain washed 17 year old blows himself off in public. Majority of the innocent people who gave their lives because of terrorism are Pakistanis. (We all are aware of the involvement of the agencies as well). But a very few Pakistani supported this so called war arrangement made between Musharraf and USA.

When two Pakistanis will talk about terrorism they will either blame the Govt. for their Pro American policies or they will hold religious extremism which has no support in the masses responsible. Osama Bin Ladin is a Saudi national. Zahwari who is alleged for many suicide attacks in Pakistan is an Egyptian national. Similarly many Uzbiks, Tajiks, Chechian nationals are involved in terrorists activities. But how many times Pakistani PM came on the tele shooting baseless allegations and warning these countries to stop exporting terrorism? Because happily or bitterly we all have accepted the fact that terrorism is a global phenomenon and who ever has engineered (or getting all the benefits) from this New World Order – (Post 9/11) we Pakistanis are on the receiving side.

Now where did we go wrong?

* Democracy

a)     Soviet War in Afghanistan: US puppet in Pakistan and our dictator Zia went out of the way to support USA in the first Afghan war. His lame ass excuse was RELIGION.  He implanted the seeds of religious extremism, sectarianism, AK- 47 culture etc.

b)     US-Nato aided War in Afghanistan: US puppet in Pakistan and dictator Musharraf went out of the way to support USA in the present going Afghan war. His lame ass excuse was “Enlighten Moderation”.

It’s amazing how one dictator negates the policy of another dictator but serving the interest and policies of the same Boss. But this is not the topic of today’s discussion. We all are shocked and touched by the tragic events in MUMBAI that killed 150 or more innocents and destroyed the lives of millions who were associated to them one way or the other. We Pakistanis can relate because our life is more then equally effected and is on stake like any Indian who finds itself insecure or terrorized.

But why from day one, when the operation was in progress. Indian media, Government officials started blaming and accusing Pakistan for the whole thing. It clearly indicates the fact that if somebody in India is even hit by a water balloon, Pakistan/ICI will be hold responsible for it. Because we are MUSLIMS + Pakistanis, so go on blame the easy targets, Indian Janta/Public will buy it anyway. With elections around the corner Congress needs to show some retaliation to cover up the loop holes in their system. If they will blame the Indian Muslims; there goes the minority vote So let the villains be Muslims but link them with the infamous neighbors.The did the same in Samjhota Express incidence and we know how it turned out to be

I don’t see no other logical reason because Indians rite now are making anything but sense. They don’t want to buy the fact that there are elements in India that are frustrated, lead a life style which is unimaginably lowest among every other Indian ethnic community and yes I am talking about the Muslims in India that is the largest minority in Bharat and their suffering is twice of the total Indian population.

Some years back a Rajinder Sachar Committee was appointed by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India. This high level committee was setup for preparation of a report on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community of India. Summary of the main points are as follows:

Some points in the reports are:

* In the field of literacy the Committee has found that the rate among Muslims is very much below than the national average. The gap between Muslims and the general average is greater in urban areas and women. 25 per cent of children of Muslim parents in the 6-14 year age group have either never attended school or have dropped out.

* Muslim parents are not averse to mainstream education or to send their children to affordable Government schools. The access to government schools for children of Muslim parents is limited.

* Bidi workers, tailors and mechanics need to be provided with social safety nets and social security. The participation of Muslims in the professional and managerial cadre is low.

* The average amount of bank loan disbursed to the Muslims is 2/3 of the amount disbursed to other minorities. In some cases it is half. The Reserve Bank of India’s efforts to extend banking and credit facilities under the Prime Minister’s 15-point programme of 1983 has mainly benefited other minorities marginalizing Muslims.

* There is a clear and significant inverse association between the proportion of the Muslim population and the availability of educational infrastructure in small villages. Muslim concentration villages are not well served with pucca approach roads and local bus stops.

* Substantially larger proportion of the Muslim households in urban areas are in the less than Rs.500 expenditure bracket.

* The presence of Muslims has been found to be only 3% in the IAS, 1.8% in the IFS and 4% in the IPS.

* Muslim community has a representation of only 4.5% in Indian Railways while 98.7% of them are positioned at lower levels. Representation of Muslims is very low in the Universities and in Banks. Their share in police constables is only 6%, in health 4.4%, in transport 6.5%.

* For the Maulana Azad Education Foundation to be effective the corpus fund needs to be increased to 1000 crores. Total allocation in the four years 2002 to 2006 for Madarsa Modernization Scheme is 106 crores. The information regarding the Scheme has not adequately percolated down. Even if the share of Muslims in elected bodies is low they and other under represented segments can be involved in the decision making process through innovative mechanisms.

* Most of the variables indicate that Muslim-OBCs are significantly deprived in comparison to Hindu-OBCs. The work participation rate (WPR) shows the presence of a sharp difference between Hindu-OBCs (67%) and the Muslims. The share of Muslim-OBCs in government/ PSU jobs is much lower than Hindu-OBCs.

* There are about 5 lakh registered Wakfs with 600,000 acres (2,400 km²) land and Rs 6,000 crore book value.

You can read the total report here.

So if the so called Dakkan Mujahadin is blaming the Indian Govt for their short comings what do we have to do with all this? We are going though a rough patch, what benefit Pakistan would get after destroying the on going peace process with India? The last thing we need is picking a fight which can lead to Nuclear War.

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