[Reader-list] she is a living child: 2009

[indersalim]

http://sheisalivingchild.blogspot.com



Dear All

Happy New Year.

But how to say it ?  As an artist, just to be one amongst all of us, I
usually try to do an image or so during such occasions, but the Artist
of the year, I believe,  is Muntazer Al-Zaidi, and the image of the
year is  'A Shoe on Bush Image'. He has millions of admirers all over
the world, and he has certainly given us a new symbol, which is not
only new but significant in many ways. Terrorists need to learn what a
simple, spontaneous throwing of a shoe can achieve a hundred bomb
blasts can't even dream about. In the present political scenario, the
politicians too need to realize that how unwanted they have become.

But that was 2008. In 2009, most of the world's sad and grim realities
will simply refuse to go away, and this is where 'anger' if any, has
to express thoughtfully, perhaps more creatively. This I am reminding
to myself as well, since we all know that a large part of the enemy is
'within'.

I am thinking of Ajmal Kasab, the lone Mumbai terrorist arrested, and
I ask myself, who is he ?  Before we demand his nationality, we
perhaps need to know if he is a human being in the first place?  The
answer is a big NO,  but ah, if he had ever met Muntazer sahib of
Iraq, things would have been different, both for him and for all of
us. Unfortunately, in absence of master artist like  Muntazer  Al
Zaidi  there is no dearth of so called masters who brain-wash these
young energetic and sincere minds to create ugliness. It is all sad.
Now, we have to read in  the morning newspapers, 'War Hysteria'
between India and Pakistan. So, not only Pakistan refuses to hand over
the list of such individuals, but has found Taliban's support timely.
The same Taliban who have imposed restriction for Education to Girls
in Swat Valley. Now how to question India's Defence Minister who said
that to tackle 'terrorism' 'all the options' are open. That indeed
includes 'War'. So, even those Pakistani minds who detested Kasab
immediately after the Mumbai carnage, repainted there opinions with
Patriotic colours. Here, a Mumbai politician, like Bal Thackery openly
praise Indira Gandhi for the 1971 divide of Pakistan , and not only
demands a repetition of that act, but a public execution of this young
boy named Kasab. Now, how  this 'free for all' situation is helping an
average individual, whether living in India or in Pakistan?

There is lot to write about such events, but  I believe it is better
to listen more than to speak without thought.

Few days back I happened to listen wonderful Malalai  Joya,  Former
Member of the Parliament ( Wolesi Jirga ) invited by Amnesty India
international. Besides her social work and first hand experience of
Afghanistan, she told the following outside the auditorium: One day
she was travelling in Train in Madrid and a man almost fell in love
with her, who asked for her visiting card, which she gave him. The
same one she gave me or everybody else, but moments later he returned
her the card with a request to return his card. The reason is that he
was an Israeli, and he feared his own intelligence. We all laughed.
Her email is mj at malalaijoya.com  please convey her new year greetings.

At the  Amnesty meet, the other artist of the year at French Alliance
Auditorium was Ghazi Hussein of Palestine.  He performed his poem
'next visit' which  shook everybody in the audience. He was arrested
by Israeli police at the young age of 17 and was tortured for 29
months in the prison.  He told many terrible tales from his experience
from Prison, and gave me his collection of poems. The performed poem
is here under:

Next Visit

Mother, next visit bring me logic with no lies,
Smuggle me freedom in your eyes,
Or a language that has been understood
Because I am confused in which language I should cry.

Mother, next visit bring me hope
Ask the full hidden moon how I can cope,
In this darkness where the tide of oppression runs so hig
I am like a fledging without food, without wings to fly.

Mother, my cell is small than my size
My body like a question mark, a river on a map,
Completely dry.
Mother, prison has made me less than myself
Each day more than once I die.
( Ghazi Hussein translated from Arabic by Allison  Davis . Email
<ghazi at communityinfosource.org.uk>)

Back in Delhi, these days I  am working with few homeless families
living under a Metro Station. One such man living there is named
Bashir and his son-in-law is named Deepak.  Unlike Inder Salim, they
don't carry a secular agenda on their fragile shoulders, but the
situation is so grim that religious identity is hardly of any
significance. They have to struggle for every meal,  and every night
they live under their make shift tents which police dismantles every
now and then. They usually buy cheap butcher's waste, such as chicken
fleece, their feet and heads, to cook with fallen twigs.  They make
balloons for children and sell for their daily survival. I saw their
children playing with dust, but not for some earthy growth but to end
up as anything, may be future terrorists, or drug traffickers, or
thieves or anything terrible?

On this new year eve I share some of the images of these children
living in Delhi.
Yes, from here, there is  no way to convey them Happy New Year, but,
please click


http://sheisalivingchild.blogspot.com

and

http://childrenofmotherearthcome.blogspot.com

with love and regards

inder salim


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http://indersalim.livejournal.com