It was later than midnight yesterday, Even Ram and his kindom have had gone to sleep so late after celebrating his victory by firing lights and crackers but, some elements in my close by residence never lack of joy to celebrate their day with fire crackers and literally mind blowing bombs. After requesting them politely the senseless noise was expected to be stopped in next half an hour or so but it went on forever. It wasn’t any great from me to go out bare feet, in my night clothes to tell them for the second time at quarter past five in the morning to stop firing those stupid bombs.
That was just a normal reaction which a person would give after tolerating a sleepless night but today while surveying my nephew for firing crackers, a thought crossed my mind that what kind of psychic joy do they enjoy by making this mind upsetting noise?? I am not totally opposing the idea of lighting crackers; it is merely a custom to celebrate our great history and the epic Ramayana. Paying full respect to this greatest festival of Hindus I shall ask here that at least do you know the reason behind following this custom of cracker? Why are we doing this? According to my knowledge lighting dias or splashing some lights was the idea to express your joy and the victory of Ram. Today for the sake of entertainment we can always fire some non noise producing crackers to express your joy for Diwali but for human sake what kind of celebration is that which makes your heart skip on each blasts and more over gives you tons and tons of mental stress?
I do not find any difference between those bombs which they blast in middle of the city to kill people and these one which kills the human sensibility. Let us face it; on one side we show our great concern to global warming and world peace then why crackers are not banned? Crackers are the biggest evil to our environment that’s an old chewed story all together, about the child labor involved in making of fire crackers but Its even bigger threat to the psych of children. I was wondering when I saw my 7 year old nephew and his sparkling eyes while purchasing bombs and looms. He did not keep his hand on anything else but bombs. The concept of crackers has come far away from the original concept of celebrating the victory. It has almost crossed the line and come to the expression of violence. The joy of firing bomb and running away is nothing but a cultivating seeds of violence in children. We must think twice before commenting on terrorism or world peace if we happily let our children play with these awful crackers. What are we propagating to them?? The person not liking the fire crackers will be marked as a stupid or soft hearted but what great pride is to take in enjoying this risky and burning act?
I realize that I was always the odd one out to sit inside the house while everyone else is firing the crackers and till today it has been the same for me. I do not aim to preach anything through my words here but want to suggest if we can ever have a peaceful and safe Diwali in real sense just with Rangolis, Diyas, sweets, people and do not run after these polluting, mind corrupting and pocket eating crackers??
On this note I wish all of you a very happy diwali and a new year.
Echoes from an agonized soul
Monday, November 15, 2010
Pervert? biased? anti religious? anti social?
MF Husain is is no more. Was the fabulously gifted and superbly creative painter victimised by the people of his own country
It was February 2010, when Chief Editor of Hindu Mr. N.Ram received a letter from the world renowned Indian painter MF Husain (P.S Late MF Husain) conveying that he, at the age of 95, being a painter of Indian origin is offered citizenship by Qatar. Black inked doodling on a piece of a paper became a small reflective of the secular country we live in.
The letter pinched many of us, but the one who could reflect this message was N.Ram, and it was published in ‘Newyork Times; criticizing the eviction of MF Husain
The article was bounced around the world and boiled down to nothing but creating a stronger mass of people with pseudo intellect and a complete negligence to art
Here, I would want to jot down a few points to those who hated MF Husain for any reason. Rather I would like to show them a mirror.
It would be unfair if I completely shield MF Husain from the anger all of you have towards him. Some of the arguments cannot be argued back because they are true, but I would like to suggest some points that one can look through, to check the other angle to the issue. Also there are questions to be raised
First of all, let us not behave immature and drag the countries into this circle of issue. Qatar had offered the citizenship to MF Husain was totally their side of ball game. Let us first see why such great artist had to be evicted from his own country. Any artist cannot be arrested or banned from the country for his art or just because he expressed his own thoughts; which others thought was wrong! Weren’t we ashamed of putting a legal clutches on 95 years old man and threaten him for his life? ‘MF Husain is no longer an Indian ’ the line was a point of concern. It was a sad day for India to lose such a great personality.
One shall agree that all the people who publicized their resentment for those ‘pervert’ paintings are defiantly respectful to the ethos and customs of India. They got hell angry when Husain painted Sita or Durga totally nude. Were they really intolerant to any feminine offence? Then why do we not protest against the abuses associated with woman? If Husain’s freedom of expression is named as sexuality then what kind of fantasies do the abusers hold when they use those words? Where does their respect flies for a woman when it comes to utter such pervert words which I cannot even mention here? If we talk day long about worshiping Devis and respecting their womanhood, first please stop the domestic violence and other tortures on women. Let us first remove this hypocrisy. On one hand we enjoy fair skin shows in a secret room on television and on other hand we talk about being spiritual; sexuality for us is something to hide and spirituality is to project on top. Another example, we worship the great granths of our religion but we do not respect our own ancient literature ‘Kamasutra’; in fact we see it as pornography. Can we ever remove these double standards ?
I shall not take the freedom here to criticize any one personally but I can put in a sentence that when it comes to deities we pay them respect but women in our own houses are not seen as respectfully as a Devi seen in a temple. No feelings get hurt of people when prostitution and rapes are taken for granted? Is that not an insult to womanhood?
Anyways, can anyone define the concept of nudity? I am being subjective and so is the issue. What is offensive or obscene is subjective and individual view.
What are our references to imagine our deities? With full respect to Raja Ravi Verma and his work, the question could be asked that just because the great painter Ravi Verma painted them in a Nav vaari maharashtriyan saree, with lotuses and veena they are acceptable and Husain’s paintings are absolutely not? It was Ravi Verma’s imagination of the Saraswati and Laxmi and so was Husain’s.
Lest take the example of our own epic Ramayana. When Sita was rescued from Lanka and returned to Ayodhya, what was Ram’s reaction? For him Sita did not come back pure; indeed he suspected her and almost imagined her on Ravan’s bed. May be Ram imagined the same picture of Sita which Husain tried to put on a canvas. This is purely an arbitrary thought but, it could be Husain’s intention to show Sita through Ram’s eyes. There can be thousand interpretations and who are we to decide the correct one?
Art is a result of one’s imagination; one cannot have a control over thoughts. When Husain exhibited those paintings, people who protested him and made his exile from this country actually chose to go and see the exhibition. No one was forced or dragged to see them nor were they telecast on a national TV. Now who can swear what was going on in the minds of people while watching those paintings? Very well said that nudity is in the eyes of the spectator.... what if he had kept all the paintings in his bedroom and never exhibited them?
The point has it that Husain had never painted any of Muslim deity nude but just to defend that argument, If Husain compulsory had to paint Muhammad nude to be accepted back in his own country then that’s a very childish argument we are putting across.
Not chewing the same old question again asking if he was a true Indian or Not..The only question that arises here is that, why did we oppose Husain so much? Just because he painted Indian Goddesses nude or because he is a Muslim and he did?
Thank you
Dhwani Dalal
It was February 2010, when Chief Editor of Hindu Mr. N.Ram received a letter from the world renowned Indian painter MF Husain (P.S Late MF Husain) conveying that he, at the age of 95, being a painter of Indian origin is offered citizenship by Qatar. Black inked doodling on a piece of a paper became a small reflective of the secular country we live in.
The letter pinched many of us, but the one who could reflect this message was N.Ram, and it was published in ‘Newyork Times; criticizing the eviction of MF Husain
The article was bounced around the world and boiled down to nothing but creating a stronger mass of people with pseudo intellect and a complete negligence to art
Here, I would want to jot down a few points to those who hated MF Husain for any reason. Rather I would like to show them a mirror.
It would be unfair if I completely shield MF Husain from the anger all of you have towards him. Some of the arguments cannot be argued back because they are true, but I would like to suggest some points that one can look through, to check the other angle to the issue. Also there are questions to be raised
First of all, let us not behave immature and drag the countries into this circle of issue. Qatar had offered the citizenship to MF Husain was totally their side of ball game. Let us first see why such great artist had to be evicted from his own country. Any artist cannot be arrested or banned from the country for his art or just because he expressed his own thoughts; which others thought was wrong! Weren’t we ashamed of putting a legal clutches on 95 years old man and threaten him for his life? ‘MF Husain is no longer an Indian ’ the line was a point of concern. It was a sad day for India to lose such a great personality.
One shall agree that all the people who publicized their resentment for those ‘pervert’ paintings are defiantly respectful to the ethos and customs of India. They got hell angry when Husain painted Sita or Durga totally nude. Were they really intolerant to any feminine offence? Then why do we not protest against the abuses associated with woman? If Husain’s freedom of expression is named as sexuality then what kind of fantasies do the abusers hold when they use those words? Where does their respect flies for a woman when it comes to utter such pervert words which I cannot even mention here? If we talk day long about worshiping Devis and respecting their womanhood, first please stop the domestic violence and other tortures on women. Let us first remove this hypocrisy. On one hand we enjoy fair skin shows in a secret room on television and on other hand we talk about being spiritual; sexuality for us is something to hide and spirituality is to project on top. Another example, we worship the great granths of our religion but we do not respect our own ancient literature ‘Kamasutra’; in fact we see it as pornography. Can we ever remove these double standards ?
I shall not take the freedom here to criticize any one personally but I can put in a sentence that when it comes to deities we pay them respect but women in our own houses are not seen as respectfully as a Devi seen in a temple. No feelings get hurt of people when prostitution and rapes are taken for granted? Is that not an insult to womanhood?
Anyways, can anyone define the concept of nudity? I am being subjective and so is the issue. What is offensive or obscene is subjective and individual view.
What are our references to imagine our deities? With full respect to Raja Ravi Verma and his work, the question could be asked that just because the great painter Ravi Verma painted them in a Nav vaari maharashtriyan saree, with lotuses and veena they are acceptable and Husain’s paintings are absolutely not? It was Ravi Verma’s imagination of the Saraswati and Laxmi and so was Husain’s.
Lest take the example of our own epic Ramayana. When Sita was rescued from Lanka and returned to Ayodhya, what was Ram’s reaction? For him Sita did not come back pure; indeed he suspected her and almost imagined her on Ravan’s bed. May be Ram imagined the same picture of Sita which Husain tried to put on a canvas. This is purely an arbitrary thought but, it could be Husain’s intention to show Sita through Ram’s eyes. There can be thousand interpretations and who are we to decide the correct one?
Art is a result of one’s imagination; one cannot have a control over thoughts. When Husain exhibited those paintings, people who protested him and made his exile from this country actually chose to go and see the exhibition. No one was forced or dragged to see them nor were they telecast on a national TV. Now who can swear what was going on in the minds of people while watching those paintings? Very well said that nudity is in the eyes of the spectator.... what if he had kept all the paintings in his bedroom and never exhibited them?
The point has it that Husain had never painted any of Muslim deity nude but just to defend that argument, If Husain compulsory had to paint Muhammad nude to be accepted back in his own country then that’s a very childish argument we are putting across.
Not chewing the same old question again asking if he was a true Indian or Not..The only question that arises here is that, why did we oppose Husain so much? Just because he painted Indian Goddesses nude or because he is a Muslim and he did?
Thank you
Dhwani Dalal
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