Ramzan photos: From India to Indonesia

The first photograph is from Kashmir: A young man offering Namaz under the tree on the roadside in the outskirts of Sri Nagar.

I really liked this Yasin Dar photo. Just seeing the photo one can feel the peace he must be experiencing in the ibaadat.

Mannequins in the second photo have their heads covered, in accordance with the local culture.

The photograph is from a shop in Jakarta [Indonesia]. Jameel Ahmed reads the Holy Quran in his shop in Hyderabad.

He sells Islamic texts and other religious literature. That's a familiar scene in any walled City.


The last is the photo from America. Iftaar in a Muslim house where families of expatriate Muslims from Asia and other parts, break their fast.

The Holy month Ramzan, as we say in Urdu, (many prefer saying Ramadan) is now coming to an end. And Id is round the corner.

I am not sure still about what am I going to do--going home or just being here and taking a day's off on Id!

Defiled by Dalit's touch, Muslims perform Hindu man's last rites

'Defiled' by a Dalit's touch, the relatives of Rameshwar refused to cremate him. For three days the body kept lying in wait for the funeral.

At last, Muslims in the town (Khandwa) that is yet to recover from the recent riot, came forward to perform the last rites of the elderly man. Rameshwar's kin said that they could not perform his last rites because Dalits ('sweepers') had touched it.
And if somebody touches a 'polluted' body, he also gets polluted, said the community leader. For getting cleansed the person then has to embark on a pilgrimage.

Also, the community fines such people who touch a 'defiled' body. Rameshwar, a Gond, had died in a road accident on September 29.

On Gandhi Jayanti, the body was still waiting for funeral. Despite administration trying hard to convince his family members to perform the funeral, nobody was willing to do it. Muslims decided to come forward. The local Muslim society leader Ahmad Patel offered to cremate as per the Sanatan traditions.

However, the deceased's family insisted that he should be buried. (There is custom in several Hindu communities to bury their dead). And the Muslims conducted the last rites. All this happened in Khandwa town in Madhya Pradesh, which had witnessed a communal clash only recently and the normaly hadn't returned completely in the town.

The Iftaar season & Kashmiri Pundits host after 19 yrs

After a period of 19 years, an iftaar was hosted by a Kashmiri Pundit at Kralkhud in Habba Kadal (Sri Nagar).

The State president of Lok Janashakti Party Sanjay Saraf had organised the iftaar. Lok Janshakti's national chief Ram Vilas Paswan also attended it.

It's a healthy sign, surely for the Valley. Meanwhile, outside the Valley, iftars are being organised all over the country. The BJP leaders are also hosting iftaars. Though these are often political , there is a social imortance of these iftaars also.

The gesture goes down well with the other community. Many Hindus and people belonging to other religions organise the iftars just as a sort of goodwill gensture for fellow Muslim traders, workers et al.

On the left is photograph of Lalu Prasad Yadav, at an Iftaar in Patna. Meanwhile, after several years the Rashtrapati Bhawan organised an Iftaar. All these years when APJ Abdul Kalam was in President's House, no iftaar was held. The new Prez Pratibha Patil has hosted one recently.

Rizwanur's death: A tragic Hindu-Muslim love story in Kolkata

Priyanka, a millionaire's daughter, and Rizwanur Rahman fell in love and got married.

From her palatial house in Salt Lake, she came to the humble two-room house in a lower middle class to live with his family but their happiness barely lasted a month.

The police started harassing him. Rizwan was warned to let his wife go back to her house.

He was rounded up, kept in detention and later his body was found on the railway tracks. And this hasn't happened in Ahmedabad or Meerut, but in the City of Tagore.

Two adults who love each other and want to live together can't be separated but here they were not only in love but also married. Still, the police not only played 'moral guardians' to separate the mismatch marriage: Rich-Poor & Hindu-Muslim wedlock.

Several top officials of Kolkata police allegedly colluded to try to separate them and put pressure on Rizwan even as he was seeking legal support and the help of human rights groups. West Bengal, especially Calcutta, is known to have an enlightened society compared to other Indian cities and it is a place where ordinary people and the middle-class does react.

There is outrage in Kolkata. Social organisations and citizens have taken up the issue. Inquiries have been ordered but that's just a way to divert attention. Stern action must be taken against the police officers who harassed Rizwanul and Priyanka, the daughter of Ashok Todi who is Chairman of Lux hosiery.

The State and police have no business to interfere in the lives of people and stop people in love from marrying. We have enough of such killings in this country and it's time for us to raise our voice strongly at all forums to ensure that lovebirds don't have to fear for their lives in this country.

Going by WB Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's statement that guilty policemen would not be spared and his admission that the case has many angles including money power, communal and social issues.

Rizwan, the 30-year-old graphic designer is no more. He has lost his life for love and at least we can hope that justice would be done. [Photo: Rizwan and Priyanka]

American Arrogance Vs Ahmedinejad: Insulting Iran prez at Columbia University

The discourteous reception given to the Iran president at the Columbia University where he was invited and the reaction of mainstream newspapers, has showed sections of American intelligentsia and their press in poor light.

Firstly, if they didn't like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, they shouldn't have invited him for lecture at the University. And when he arrived there, the University president Lee Bollinger introduced the Iranian leader as 'a petty and cruel dictator' to the audience.

Bollinger's reportedly aggressive tone and the words he chose to describe Ahmadinejad were distasteful and beyond all civilised norms. If that was not enough, the newspaper reports reflected the feeling of concern that Bollinger's unwarranted aggression may help Ahmadinejad, who remained composed and reacted in a dignified way, earn brownie points.

Bollinger didn't stop at this and further said, When you come to a place like this it makes you simply ridiculous' and 'You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated'. The president of a leading University must know that you can't grow in stature by belittling somebody, especially your guest.

And when Ahmadinejad replied to a question on holocaust by saying that why should Palestinians pay for whatever happened in Europe, the audience applauded him. However, the newspapers were quick to write that 'they were a bunch of anti-Semites'. What a joke!

And what are they--Zionist stooges, those on the payroll of pro-Israel lobby! (I haven't used the Jew word yet). If Ahmadinejad is a dictator, what about American president? Who is responsible for killing millions in Iraq by telling the world blatant lies about Saddam Hussein's 'weapons of mass destruction'.

Israel can disregard all UN resolutions but US foreign policy remains oblivious to everything. Anyway. I read many articles in American press online and there was a feeling of regret that maybe the insult thrown at him could bring more popularity and sympathy to Mahmoud Ahmadinijad [and more support to him back home]. Such is the American loyalty to the cause of Israel!

Do Americans have the right to take any moral high-ground, especially after the Iraq fiasco?
I am no fan of Ahmedjinejad but American arrogance perhaps need men like him, who can make them uncomfortable. And that's why a website report said, 'Ahmedinijad, the winner in the battle of nerves at Columbia university'.

[Photos on the top: Ahmadinejad on the left, Lee Bollinger on the right and the view of students on the campus listening to Iranian president on a big screen.]