Fuad you don’t need to introduce yourself. Everyone (not just in
Kumaon) remembers you (fondly) and admires you for your pluck. I think
you’ve done more for India (and perhaps spent more time in India) than
many who were born here. Some may not agree with your perspective but
we all want it. It’s rare that we get a chance to reexamine
stereotypes, assumptions, who we are, and who we might be.
First a request to you and to the Group. Controversial references to
G(h)andi are best avoided. There have been precedents (such as Sasthi
Brata who in exile has now authored ‘Traitor to India.’ Another beauty
Nikki (Bedi’s) got thrown out for interviewing Brata on the air in
which he said that Gandhi was a baniya ‘b….d.'). Let’s avoid any
misinterpretation at a Raashtra level.
Second, I would like to understand why some (many?) of us want to
‘control the world.’ (as you said, “Why NO ONE is calling for an Asian
Union?
We can control the world !!!”). I do have sympathies with the
Palestine (but prefer to be neutral). Fuad you’re not ‘chicken’ and
they no longer knight you for smashing your bike head-on to play for
honor.
As your bridge partner in the final year, I remember your bidding
system for the tournaments. (For the uninitiated a bid of one-spade
signals that I have a good spade suit with over 12 points in high
cards, etc. If I have below 12-points I would usually say ‘pass’ or
‘no-bid.’). Fuad you taught me to signal 8-11 points with a ‘Pass’ and
less than 8 points with a ‘No-bid.’ And to avoid confusion as we
entered the tournament hall you said to me, “busturrd, remember Pass
is pass (like in ‘I might pass,’) but No-bid means no cards at all.
We still lost.
P.S. I would love to invite you home and you can fearlessly drive on
the Right side of the Road here. A few million Delhiites are already
chicken.
On 31-Jul-2010, at 11:00 AM, Fuad Numan wrote:
Hi All Delhi IITians....
Let me introduce myself first....
Fuad Rashed Husni AlNuman
B.Tech 1977 (Mech), M.Tech 1979 {Production & Industrial)
I was an active student of IITD, and U all shd remember that Jordanian
Student staying in Kumaon all the way!
Squash #1 & Captain all the way...
Football team & Captain who won U Gold at IIT Bombay inter IIT meet....
Got plenty of cups and awards from IITD....
Got the Roll of Honor and Freedom of the house.....
What else.. A Devil Biker and a "Chicken" player !!!
Do U all know what is that crazy game?
Its going on a bike straight against another from the opposite
direction at high speed head on... Whoever sways away to any side is
the Chicken and looser!!!
Now, lets get serious here...
I have seen India more than U all for sure.... I visited almost every
city...from Big ones to
Khajraho...Nanital...Jabalpur...Allahabad...Alighar...Kashmir...Simla...Jaipur...Bhopal...Luknow...Banares....
can keep listing to make U get the point!
I was a translator during my training at (ITI Bangalore) between
south&Noth Indians who did not know English!!
The point is that I mixed with people from diff states and
cultures...Languages...Religions....etc...
I did not meet Indians who understand the fact that the Indian
sub-continent was divided as a conspiracy and shd be united again!
U all shd understand that it was all a plot to slow down progress in
this part of the world, and Asia in general!
Right from the time of Ghandi Jee, they started this plan....
When the National movements rose up to resist the English occupation,
and started killing army men and British Land lords...
Naxalites and resistance groups used to act... aquire guns and
Bullets... Run away at night to hide in any nearby village to find
doors Open!
The British found a way to fight this back without having to push in
more troops..... Make people resist peacefully....!!!!
At that time, any one caught with a bullet only was hanged...
Suddenly, Ghandi arrives and lays down in front of the governers
motorcade..... That never stops for any reason...
It stopped for the unknown new comer... and was requested to get up
and go away....He refused...
The British guards removed him and the motorcade moved on its way.....
Later, Ghandi lays down on the railway track in a major station, and
was requested to move away, then carried away....
U all know how curious Indians are.... Get a couple of guys to stand
in a Que behind U against an open windowin C.Place,
and U'll have a long line coming behind U to wait and see what's
being given or sold out there.....
Indians were asked to resist peacefully after that and all followed
this policy...The Resistance died...
If any one Kills a British and runs away to any door step to hide, he
found closed doors asking him to stop this violance...
The British lived happily ever after..... until independance...which
was not WON...But was granted like all other coloneis all over the
world in 1947..
Thats how we lost a big part of our homeland in Palestine that time...1947...
Iraq..Syria...Jordan.... all colonies of the British and French got
independance without any Ghandi.....
So, why did Ghandi suddenly come to India from South Africa?
Why did he allow the Partition of India? He did not want it, but on
the other hand, he did not stop it..
His role was over...thats why he was killed.... No real trustworthy
investigation was made to find the motive....
Now, I want all to get my point... They wanted a weak region with
differences to hault progress...They Succeeded for long.
Now India is a big power and economy, but would be bigger and stronger
if united with Pakistan & BanglaDesh for sure...
All this is done by the west to Hault Asia...Why NO ONE is calling for
an Asian Union?
We can control the world !!!
If China, Japan, United India, The Gulf states, All Asian countries
and many more come together; we'll control the world!!!!!
We have the Huge land... Food...the Oil...The Technology...The
Manpower, which is an assit if U employ it!
We can dictate our terms and control trade and be stronger than all
Unions around the Globe.... Right?
When India resolves to use an official language for all states beside
the local ones, many things get straight there,
But we are now talking about an ASIAN UNION .....how about that?
I hope that I did not interupt Yr debate without a brain storming
issue that matters to our Asia...Our Future...
With Best Wishes...........
Fu'ad Nu'man
To:
IITDBatch1979@yahoogroups.com From:
bala@imsc.res.in Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:35:41 +0530
Subject: Re: [IITDBatch1979] Fw: Why India needs Narendra Modi?
Hi
I have to say that I find myself wincing everytime I read some of
this communal stereotyping that I see in some of these mails!
eg "bengali brain is no less than any Tamil Brahmin one or a Mumbai
one" or
" Mumbai may believe Fiat set up shop in Maratha-land because Marathas
are better workers"
"Bible Belt" (In India???)
What's going on here? Is there a conspiracy among the NRI IIT-ians to
undermine the concept of India as a nation?!!
Here's a counterpoint (some fresh air!) that I came across:
A wonderful way of looking at India's pluralistic diversity!
BY : G.V.DASARATHI
(GV Dasarathi is director of a software products development company)
This when I was born 46 years ago.
I was born to Tamil speaking parents,
my father had a dark skin and my mother a light one.
My ayah was a light-skinned woman from UP who spoke Hindi.
We lived in a thickly forested area in Jharkhand,
where the majority of the population was dark-skinned
tribal people who spoke a language called Ho.
On my trips out of home I saw people wearing all kinds
of attire -- from sadhus wearing nothing at all,
to the locals who went topless, to women in burqas.
Most of the guests in our home spoke English.
We were Hindu, my ayah was Muslim, and the tribals
were either Christian or Animists who worshiped trees,
animals or the spirits of their forefathers.
People around me had all kinds of food habits.
Some ate only vegetables, some did not eat cattle,
some did not eat pigs, some ate anything including
rats and monitor lizards.
Our small mining community celebrated festivals
of all religions with equal gusto.
We lived in the middle of an almost virgin forest
that was home to a huge variety of wild animals
that included elephants, bears and deer.
The animals added to the fun and the unpredictability
of life by occasionally walking into our tiny community
of 10 houses (sometimes into them).
This was my small introduction to the enormous diversity
of this wonderful land. Even as an infant I was listening to
people of different colours and facial features speaking four
languages, of four religions, dressing in different ways, and
eating a variety of food.
These must have been the lessons that I learned ;
anyone looking like a human was a human, irrespective of
skin colour or features; humans worshiped all sorts of gods,
wore all sorts of clothing, ate all kinds of food, and spoke all
kinds of languages.
As I grew up, my father's company transferred him every
two or three years through about half the states in India.
I saw the rest of India. I learned that Indians believe in far
more gods than the four that I was introduced to as an infant.
I learned that each state has three or four different regions.
People in each of these regions speak different languages or
dialects and may not even understand the other dialects in
their own state. Each region eats a different kind of food,
wears different clothing, is culturally very different,
and looks very different geographically.
Today, nobody can convince me that I am superior to
someone else because of my religion, skin colour or language.
The diversity that I experienced, accepted and enjoyed as an
infant is not unique to me. Every Indian experiences this --
only the details differ. I believe that this is what makes us the
most tolerant country in the world. I enjoy our diversity so
much that I cannot even think of living in one of those countries
where everything is homogeneous -- everybody looks the same,
eats the same food, believes in the same religion.
Think of countries like the Netherlands, Germany, Japan,
Sweden... hundreds of them.
Yes, the diversity occasionally makes us kill each other,
usually over different religions or sub-religions.
This is tragic and should never happen, but look at it this way:
Sunnis, Buddhists, Roman Catholics, Sikhs, Bohras,
Digambar Jains, Parsis, Khurmis, Iyers, Agarwals, Nairs,
Syrian Christians, Shias, Shwetambar Jains, Jews, Ismailis,
Seventh Day Adventists, Bishnois and a whole lot of other
groups live together in India.
In Britain and Yemen two sects of the same religion were
killing each other for decades.
In Lebanon, people from two religions have been killing each other.
The US and South Africa have seen huge problems over two skin colours.
In Canada it's over two languages.
As an Indian, I laugh at these silly reasons for their conflicts --
two religions, two colours, two languages.
I feel like saying "Hey guys, try Digamber Jain, Gujarati-speaking,
pyjama-kurta-
wearing herbivore co-existing with Syrian Christian,
Malayalam-speaking, mundu-wearing carnivore".
Where would we be if we had been as intolerant as them?
I believe that the religious intolerance that we are seeing now
is confined to a small percentage of us, and that in the long run
we have the sense to not take our differences too seriously,
to acknowledge that the whole lot of us are a wonderful amalgam
of different races, religions and cultures.
I can never be a global citizen. Contrary to the advice that
any stockbroker would give, I've invested all my emotional
stocks in this company called India, because I'm sure that
the value of these stocks can only go up.
Not because of the amount of steel, armaments and textiles
we can make, but because we know how to live together.
