[Reader-list] Fwd: HIV and male circumcision

[Taha Mehmood]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Lalit Ambardar <lalitambardar at hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 9:22 PM
Subject: RE: [Reader-list] HIV and male circumcision
To: 2tahamehmood at googlemail.com, Pawan Durani <pawan.durani at gmail.com>
Cc: "reader-list at sarai.net" <reader-list at sarai.net>, tapasrayx at gmail.com


Dear Taha,



Your story about ‘Ramesh’ & ‘Arif’ makes a poignant reading. It is a
tragedy that communal riots continue to haunt us. Let us hope & pray
that there aren’t any anymore.



 But it is also a fact that for every ‘Arif’ there have been ‘Rameshs’
too. And victims did not always undergo any circumcision test. You
mentioned Gujarat. Well if the aftermath was so horrible so was the
instigation –the burning of so many ‘Rameshs’ in the train at Godhra &
mind it there was no penispection before the train was singed.



And what do you have to say about the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri
Hindu Pandits in Kashmir? Remember there were no riots there- there
was no instigation. Yet so many ‘Rameshs’ were selectively targeted &
murdered in cold blood not with the daggers but with sophisticated
arms like AK47s & pistols. The fear psychosis after hundreds were
butchered lead to the surviving ‘Rameshs’ flee their homes & hearths.
No, no voter lists were used for any identification purpose nor were
any penispections carried out. The whole process of ethnic cleansing
was so meticulously planned & executed.

Identification tools do not necessarily matter.

Regards

LA

Ps: will someone change the subject line, it is so misleading -if the
original article was about just the 'sex' the following comments
aren't about HIV either.

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> Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:34:21 +0100
> From: 2tahamehmood at googlemail.com
> To: pawan.durani at gmail.com
> CC: reader-list at sarai.net; tapasrayx at gmail.com
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] HIV and male circumcision
>
> Dear Tapas, Dear Pawan and Dear All
>
> I think we just have to wait for a year before hopefully we will all
> have our UID numbers then perhaps rioters too will become more
> sophisticated. If these days RSS and VHP and BJP and SS goons go
> around an area carrying voter lists, as evidenced by systematic
> butchering of Mussalmaaans in Gujarat then later perhaps, they could
> be more precise by zoning in on fingerprints, area codes and what not.
> They might just ask for your thumb print and tally it on a machine
> before driving that sword down your throat. After all multi-purposes
> will have other benefits too.
>
> But to complicate the this argument let me tell you guys a real story.
>
> A cousin of mine from Ahmedabad once told his story of being a victim
> of riots. This happened during the Advani rath yatra time. He was
> traveling from Delhi to Ahmedabad that day.
>
> Just when he left the rail way station he realized that riots are
> happening in the city. There were no taxis or auto-rickshaws, so he
> started walking in the hope that he might come across some people be
> it Hindus or Muslims and they might give me a lift to his place. He,
> by the way, didn't look 'Muslim' at all. He was clean shaven with
> urban looks and all. He could pass off as anyone. He was smart and
> suave and confident.
>
> By and by he crossed an area where came across a group of men who were
> hiding behind the entrance of a gully.
>
> They accosted him but he couldn't make out who they were either. For
> they were too, like him, clean shaven and without any visible mark of
> identification. So they asked him what his name was, so he said that
> his name was Ramesh, thinking that they were Hindus.
>
> Hearing this one of them drew a sword, 'Hindu hai sala'! They were
> Muslims. He thanked God and told them he was a brother like them too.
> They asked him to open his pants and show them his circumcision mark.
> Now here's the interesting bit because my cousin had never cared to go
> for a circumcision.
>
> He opened his pants, people saw his uncircumcised penis and thrust a
> sword in his belly with a nara-e-takbir accompanying the action. He
> let out a scream Ya Allah! That somehow made them realize that he was
> a Muslim. People do not wear any mask when they are in danger of their
> lives, it seems.
>
> They asked his name again and he told them that it was Arif. They took
> him to a hospital where the doctor initially refuse to treat him after
> getting to know that his name was Arif, it was only after examining
> his uncircumcised penis that the doctor was convinced that he was
> indeed Ramesh and treated him.
>
> What happened to Arif was unfortunate but it was also terribly funny
> too, in a way. The madness and social nervousness around identity was
> all apparent. I think with the coming up of ID cards there must be
> systematic and equitable distribution of personal information amongst
> both Muslim and Hindu rioters. For it would be depressing to come
> across an Arif like case again. On the other hand I think as long as
> we in India are going to make a big fuss about who we are then there's
> definitely going to be someone who will be laughing all the way to a
> bank somewhere.
>
> Warm regards
>
> Taha
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