MUSINGS
There's a sense of disbelief-cum-outrage at the PDP-BJP merger for government formation in J&K. Nah, not just a marriage of convenience but I would label it to be a mismatched marriage that wouldn't last long. Perhaps, the PDP has dug its own grave! Though there are hundreds of unmarked graves in the Valley but this one will be well marked. With this merger, the PDP has taken one of those U-turns that the masses will find difficult to digest. No amount of explanations or those long and short speeches will settle creases or drown rebellious voices, within the PDP folds or out there.
Henceforth, you and I will find it impossible to believe any of those hollow promises laid out by political men and women. After all, till last autumn the PDP-wallahs were pointing at all possible negatives embedded in those BJP knicker-wallahs, but now starts this partner-ship. Why this bizarre togetherness? Perhaps, for funds flow from the Centre and for that supposed State-Centre rapport in the running of the so-called governance in that State.
The top brass in the PDP have been short-sighted and have bypassed the bigger issues. With that more than bruised the expectations of the electorate. I would call this merger to be a political blunder with long lasting consequences.
Latest Shocker from the Rss
In this day and age, everyday drags along outrageous utterances. The RSS seems short of ideas and with that their latest target is Mother Teresa. Questioning her selfless service... she had dedicated her entire life to serve the poor, the ailing, the dying.
Let me quote Khushwant Singh, who had interacted with Mother Teresa...
“I was asked by New York Times to do a profile of Mother Teresa for its magazine section.. I wrote to Mother Teresa seeking her permission to call on her. And having got it, spent three days with her, from early hours of the morning to late at night. Nothing in my long journalistic career has remained as sharply etched in my memory as those three days with her in Calcutta. In my little study in my villa in Kasauli, I have only two pictures of the people I admire most—Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa ...
“Before I met her face to face, I read Malcolm Muggeridge's book on Mother Teresa, Something Beautiful For God. Malcolm was a recent convert to Catholicism and prone to believe in miracles. He had gone to make a film on her for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). They first went to the Nirmal Hriday (Sacred Heart) Home for dying destitutes close to the Kalighat temple. The team took some shots of the building from outside and in its sunlit courtyard The camera crew was of the opinion that the interior was too dark and they had no artificial lights. However, since some footage was left they decided to use it for interior shots. When the film was developed the shots of the dormitories were found to be clearer than those taken in sunlight.
“The first thing I asked Mother Teresa was if this was true. She replied, ‘But of course. Such things happen all the time.' And she added with increasing intensity of voice, ‘Every day, every hour, every single minute, God manifests Himself in some miracle.' ...She narrated other miracles of the days when her organisation was little known and chronically short of cash, ‘Money has never been much of a problem,' she told me, ‘God gives through His people.' She told me that when she started her first school in the slums, she had no more than five rupees with her. But as soon as people came to know what she was doing, they brought money and other things...
“The first institution she took me to was Nirmal Hriday. It was in 1952 that the Calcutta Corporation had handed the building over to her. Orthodox Hindus were outraged. Four hundred Brahmin priests attached to the Kali temple demonstrated outside the building. 'One day I went out and spoke to them—if you want to kill me, kill me. But do not disturb the inmates. Let them die in peace.' That silenced them. Then one of the priests staggered in. He was in an advanced stage of galloping phthisis... The nuns looked after him till he died. That changed the priests' attitude towards Mother Teresa. Later, one day, another priest entered the Home, prostrated himself at Mother Teresa's feet and said: ‘For thirty years I have served the Goddess Kali in her temple. Now the Goddess stands before me.'
“Mother Teresa dropped me at the Dum Dum airport. As I was about to take leave of her, she said: ‘So?' meaning whether I had anything else to ask. 'Tell me how can you touch people with loathsome diseases like leprosy and gangrene. Aren't you revolted by people filthy with dysentery and cholera vomit?' She replied, ‘I see Jesus in every human being. I say to myself: this is hungry Jesus. This one has gangrene, dysentery and cholera. I must wash him and tend to him.'“