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Tuesday, December 30, 2014

The Indian Muslim

If Wikipedia is to be believed Islam is the fastest growing religion in India. India is already home to around 180-200 million Muslims approximately, which is around 16-18 percent of the total population of India. Off the world Muslim population, Indian Muslims would rank in the first three. Does this Muslim community follow Islam as it was taught by the holly prophet is another point of debate. But what we can be assured is that, the above mentioned quanta of human beings carry Muslim names and tick Islam in the check box for religion in their passports, identity card or ration cards.
So what is the real problem Indian Muslims are facing today? Is it the forced conversions those have been making headlines off late, Is it the various political groups taking unwanted advantage of the plight of certain sections of the Muslim community, Is it the names those pop up on news channels after a series of blasts have happened, Is it the love jihad that the media had invented few years back after few men with Muslim names married women of other religions, Is it the uneducated “Maulana’s” making random fatwa for political gains Or is it the stereo typed Muslim images that have been portrayed by the Indian film Industry at large. The questions are many, and finding a solution to it is difficult considering the range of problems and the size of the population.
We are living in times where the world Muslims at large has been facing some serious issues. Every war on terror as put by the western media mostly controlled by the Zionists has been targeted on people with Muslim names. The question as to whether their claims are true or false is subjected to various permutation and combination of credibility issues. But this does have an effect on the Indian Muslims and it cannot be neglected.
Nobody wants to believe what the Muslim community says or does while Islam in itself means peace. Information is distorted, news has been fabricated, and truth is in the hiding. Nobody living on earth today can keep his hand on his heart and say what news channels show is pure truth and fabrication of news hasn't happened. The same news is shown with different perspectives that two persons would read the same piece of news and conclude on two different levels of assertions.
We are indeed living in troubled waters, air turbulence's and social unrest. The way a Muslim in Kerala would react to an issue is not the same way a Muslim in U.P, Bihar or Delhi would react. The difference being the level of education attained. Kerala has always been the Indian representative in the Middle east; the birth place of Islam. The Malabar region of Kerala has always been connected to Middle East through trade from very ancient times. Probably that is the reason why you would find the Malabar Muslims more inclined to Pan Arabic/ Islamic Culture.
The Muslims in the rest of India predominantly have come through the Mughals or other emperors who invaded the northern part of India. Probably that is the reason you find the Islamic beliefs in northern India distorted and hence a common Muslim is less educated in Islamic beliefs and teachings. This indeed is a problem as people do not know to read and understand the Quran as it is and depends largely on random Clergies who themselves are half educated about what they preach.
It’s impossible to discuss the problems faced by Indian Muslims in today’s changing communal environment in an article. But one of the best ways to improve the situation would be to educate the Indian Muslims about what Islam is in actuality. If every Islamic organization in the country takes up the task of educating Muslims in an area alone, it would be much simpler to live as a Muslim in India. It is easier said than done, but one step towards it would mean one step towards goodness. Who knows in future India can control the world Muslim matters at large. Middle east is anyway turning its head off true Islam.

T.R.K

Friday, April 11, 2014

The Jack Strap - Story of My Last Under Wear

Caution: The following write up contains below the belt terms like "underwear" "boxer" "straps". Hence considering the complexities involved with public morality these days, you might want to quit reading this now and turn on to twinkle. Others who wish to continue reading may do so at their own risk, please do not disclose it with parents, should you do so, the awkward moments to follow is urs. Oops! I meant yours.

Between 2008 and 2010, when my teenage had abruptly left me and youth was yet to pick me up from the lanes of kennet lane, Egmore, Chennai. I had let few fancies grow in me. One of them was the possession of branded under wears. I still do not have any clue to the growth of this particular fantasy in me, Jithin and I had a photo shoot to woo few on the list, by showing of the strap of "jockey" above the belt and that probably took few years to leave me.

In a year from then I had bought almost all the costly brands available in the Chennai market, original of course. Brands from Jockey to Van Husen made my basket. Branded underwear was some kind of a pride, with me Azad too shifted his under wear preferences, while Rameez still stuck to his Saudi road side brand Al-Aisha, later only to find it from Munavvar that the same brand was found in the bus stands of Kerala. The only two brands I missed out were Calvin Klein and Dolce & Gabbana. D&G was the one SRK wore, that he showed off while cheering for KKR in the IPL matches. I couldn't find both in Chennai when i shopped.

One another reason for the huge possession of under wears were the length between two cloth washing episodes. Normally it was once a fortnight, but with the kind of innovations I had around me, a week more never gave me any glitch. Siraj had once even introduced me to an economic method of wearing under wear using the "A side" and "B side", just in case i ran out of under wears. But thanks to all those under wears that i had bought over a period of time, i never had to resort to the A side and B side technique.

By the mid 2010, my stipend pay cheques had started soaring, the recession was almost outdone in the capital markets and i had decided to use my money wisely. Zaheer send me an invitation to Mangalore for his sister's engagement which I found difficult to turn down. In the month of July when the Individual IT returns were nearing the dead line I couldn't afford to take a two day leave. To rejoin work on Monday, i had to fly back to Chennai on Sunday eve from Mangalore. The official arrival at Chennai was scheduled at 9.30 pm. But the King Fisher flight schedule had different plans that night, so they dropped us at Bangalore and would later fly us to Chennai late in the night by 1am. They did provide for a compromise dinner and cab home from the airport in Chennai.

By the time things were settled i found my self in the company of  a Chennai based business man, who was talking to me about smoking grass while we ate our not so good Veg dinner at the Bangalore airport. Later we decided to take a walk around the duty free as the time moved very slow that night. To my surprise and more to my amusement, I found the Calvin Klein under wears on sale there! Oh boy, it was very tempting, I had wanted to buy one of those for quite sometime, but then I had also decided to use money wisely, specifically on standing instructions from Sadia.

There I was, stuck in two minds, on one side was CK, on the other side was the economist in me. With a bit of guilt and greed i put forward my hand and took out a box of CK that had flat 50% off. Till that date, I had herd about various types of under wears, but that was the first time I read Jack Strap on an under wear box. That made me feel triumphant as none of my friends had bought a Jack Strap underwear before/ That was it, i forgot about the economy and savings, i pulled out one box of my size and walked for billing.

The business man gave a weird smile seeing me with the box, what no body buys an under wear from duty free I thought to myself. At the counter, the two ladies looked at each and giggled, I was furious at their orthodox shyness on seeing underwear for men. That night, i reached late to hostel and as a result I had to miss my 9.30 break fast. I was trying to dress up in a hurry and then decided to wear the new CK to work. Its always good to be fresh beginning of the week.

I hurriedly took out the box of CK, unpacked it, put my left leg in, and then the right leg only to find my back exposed without a piece of cloth! I took the box and turned to its back side to find the back part of d underwear model smiling at me. All those lady giggles, the weird smile told me a lot of stories about the impression I made in their minds. That was the last time i bought an underwear, ever since then i started putting my trust on boxers alone.

PS: Under wears can cause you irritation, Switch to boxers, the benefits are plenty. ( If you know what I mean :P )

T.R.K