I

When I was born
I was a human.
Then my parents baptised me,
Now I belonged to a religion.
I was given a birth certificate,
I became a citizen.
I was sent to church,
I was moulded into my religion.
I was sent to school,
I was moulded into a citizen.
Now I had an identity.

Now I felt love and hate.
I decided to hate -
my nation's enemies, my religion's enemies.
I want to college,
I became a graduate,
I became a professional,
Now I was superior to 'others' -
Now I had the gold and the stick.
I loathed those unlike me.
Now I owned things -
Now there was 'mine' and 'theirs'.
Meanwhile, my ego grew, so did my hatred
and the conflicts grew.
I fell in love, got married, had kids.
I baptised my kids, made them followers.
I took birth certificates for them. made them citizens.
I sent them to church, moulded them too into followers.
I sent them to school, moulded them too into citizens.
They were now thinking like me -
They too had identites now.

Then suddenly my hair started turning grey,
my eyesight diminished.
My body weakened,
my skin loosened.
I was rich, I couldn't enjoy them anymore.
Now the conflicts were riotous.
I wanted my hatred to spread.
My body no longer strong,
my mind no longer sharp.
The hatred put in me by my identity grew into a wildfire.
My body couldn't itself anymore.
The crisis weakened my mind.
I was consumed in hate and weakened in bittereness.
One day, with all that bitterness
fresh like the first black coffee of the day,
I died.

Now I am human again.
Devoid of identity - Just like when I was a baby.
I am just a human now; A dead human.
I am in peace - yet again.

Retards on the prowl

This entry has been taken from the blog 'mallu musings'. Interesting and lolz funny. This was an entry in Aug 2007. But I think the argument in this entry is even more relevant in 2008 where we have seen deeper divisions in society.

'Allowing boys and girls in school to sit on the same bench while writing their exams could cause “breakdown of morality” leading to “total sexual anarchy”. That’s not from a Taliban missive. That’s the pivot for a statewide agitation being planned by the student arm of Kerala’s largest Muslim community organisation, the Samastha Kerala Jem-Iyyathul Ulema.[Link]

I'm speechless
Posted by Kuttan at 4:42 PM '

Me too.

The Nation

So what is a nation? Why do I call myself an Indian ? How does it form a part of my identity ? Is it my primary identity ?








These are the few primary questions every citizen of India should ask himself. At this time of turbulence when the nation is under seige by anti-national forces from within and outside, this is a question that the state has to take steps to answer from each citizen's perspective.


A nation is defined, geographically, by its boundaries, international boundaries on the political maps, LoCs politically. But this falls far short of a definition of a nation. The biggest problem with a multi ethnic diverse country like India is whether it can devise a national which each and every citizen of the country can identify with. This is essentially the question which forms the essence of nationality. Would he stress his Indianness to override all other differences he has with fellow citizens ? The problems of secessionist movements have to be dealt essentially with this question in addition, of course, military solutions to protect the nation's integrity. The secessionist's crisis is the fact that he is not to identify with his ruling government, which then takes, in his mind, the form of a foreign occupation. He takes upon himself the duty to fight against the 'foreign power' at the behest of his fellow men, with whom he shares a common identity.



The challenge the Indian state finds itself faced with is to devise its multi ethnic identity. It involves a composite process of two faces. One, to inculcate the composite identity in groups that are at the periphery, to make these groups feel part of the fabric of the nation. Second, to make the 'identity group' understand that their identity is to be diluted for the greater cause of the nation, making them aware of the need to be accomadative of a more broad based view of the nation without the tints of chauvinism so exhibited by majority groups. Here, by the term 'identity group', I mean the image that comes to the mind when someone mentions the word 'Indian'. For many Indians, the image could be that of a middle aged man, brown skinned, rusty in disposition, Hindi speaking and hindu. The point of the discourse is that such an image formation is quite dangerous to the integrity of the nation. Would a Kashmiri, a muslim, an Urdu / Kashmiri speaker, quite fair in complexion be able to identify with such an image ? Would a Manipuri, with his mongoloid features, yellow skin and Imar Thar language be able to indentify with an identity ? Or for that matter, a Tamilian, with his dravidian features, and Tamil language be able to identify with this identity ?



The fact of the matter is that, the integrity of the Union is to be protected at all costs, and hence the government has to devise ways of broadening the Indian Identity. Problems of insurgency and sucessionism cannot be solved merely by the iron fist. A long lasting political solution of identity building has to be taken up at the highest level with the highest priority. Marginalised groups should be brought into the mainstream by creative solutions to the problems we are faced with now - 'should be brought into the mainstream' is not a pitch for reservations; Reservations are uncreative solutions for a problems. Reservations can make the majority groups re-emphasize their identity, with greater chauvinism, fuelled by feelings of injustice.


The present wave of political organizations subscribing to extreme ideologies can be traced to the identity crisis being faced by various groups, majority and minority. This surge of extremism, and identity emphasis by both majority and minority groups has to be stopped, if required by military means. But the long lasting solution to this problem is to re-engineer our society to the concept of a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, diverse India.

Then everyone would call himself an Indian and long to remain within the borders of his motherland, called India.

The Ulimate Hallucination

I'm search of the ultimate hallucinogen. Karmen, bring me back to life. Back to reality. Give me my hallucinogen, give me reality.