The dead of Iwo Jima

Just saw the movie Flags of our Fathers. Quiet sentimental. World war 2. Americans conquering the island of Iwo Jima of Japan. Thousands died. Six men while raising the American flag on mount Suribachi were photographed by Joe Rosenthal. That photo became iconic of American victory and was all over American press. The six men became famous. Three of them died without even knowing that they were celebrities. The rest of the three were brought back home and were used to raise funds for the war. Ira Hyes, one of the three men was Indian. He faced anti-Native American prejudice both during and after the war. He returned to his home in Arizona, where he drank heavily and sank into poverty. He was eventually found dead in a ditch, after a heavy drinking spree. Rene Gagnon, the second also returned to his home, where he spent the rest of his life holding a series of dead-end jobs. John Bradley was the only one who apparently lived a happy life financialy after the war. He had terrible memories. He had hallucinations. He would wake up at nights from nightmares. He stashed away all of his war time memorabilia including a Navy Cross. He did not even tell anything at all about the war to his son, James Bradley who learnt the details after his fathers death and that his father had got a Navy Cross. James later wrote a book on which this movie is based.

What did they fight for? What did they get? They did not get Japan. They killed and returned and led miserable lives. A common man can never see what they saw on the island, what made them lunatics. Why do people fight? A war is the ugliest thing in the world.

The NRO: injustice, fraud

The National Reconciliation Ordinance 2007 contains seven sections most of which are an amendment of National Accountability Bureau Ordinance, 1999. Subsection 2 of section 2 says

'The Federal Government or a Provincial Government may, before the judgment is pronounced by a trial court, withdraw from the prosecution of any person including an absconding accused who is found to be falsely involved for political reasons or through political victimization in any case initiated between 1st day of January, 1986 to 12th day of October, 1999.'

Subsection 3 says

'For the purposes of exercise of powers under sub-section (2) the Federal Government and the Provincial Government may each constitute a Review Board to review the entire record of the case and furnish recommendations as to their withdrawal or otherwise.'

After reading these two provisions one must think about the role of judiciary itself. The federal and the provincial governments are being given the power to withdraw any case pending in the court if they find the accused to be falsely involved for political reasons. Now this is exactly what the role of judiciary is. Wether the accused is falsely involved or otherwise will be decided by the court and this is why the accused were tried. Why does the federal and the provincial governments have to intervene? What is the role of judiciary then? And secondly why specifically from the period of 1986 to 1999? Were people falsely involved only in this period? Before 1986 and after 1999 the crimes were genuine crimes? Then the federal and the provincial governments can constitute a Review Board to review the entire record of the case. Again this is the job of the courts. The federal and the provincial governments have more important things to do.

Section 7 says:

Withdrawal and termination of prolonged pending proceedings initiated prior to 12th October, 1999.

(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Ordinance or any other law for the time being in force, proceedings under investigation or pending in any court including a High Court and the Supreme Court of Pakistan initiated by or on a reference by the National Accountability Bureau inside or outside Pakistan, requests for mutual assistance and civil party to proceedings initiated by the Federal Government before the 12th day of October, 1999 against holders of public office stand withdrawn and terminated with immediate effect and such holders of public office shall also not be liable to any action in future as well under this Ordinance for acts having been done in good faith before the said date;
Provided that those proceedings shall not be withdrawn and terminated which relate to cases registered in connection with the cooperative societies and other financial and investment companies or in which no appeal, revision or constitutional petition has been filed against final judgment and order of the Court or in which an appellate or revisional order or an order in constitutional petition has become final or in which voluntary return or plea bargain has been accepted by the Chairman, National Accountability Bureau.

(2) No action or claim by way of suit, prosecution, complaint or other civil or criminal proceeding shall lie against the Federal, Provincial or Local Government, the National Accountability Bureau or any of their officers and functionaries for any act or thing done or intended to be done in good faith pursuant to the withdrawal and termination of cases under sub-section (1) unless they have deliberately misused authority in violation of law.

Look what we are doing in the name of national reconciliation. It is a humiliation of the judiciary and NAB. It means the courts have been wasting their time for so long hearing those cases? And why in the first place should the cases be withdrawn and that too against holders of public office. Before october 1999 if any one was murdered, if money was laundered, if corruption was done, are we going to give liberty to people responsible of such acts that easy? We are giving freedom to the obvious beneficiary of this ordinance, the chairperson PPP against whom there are charges of corruption and money laundering in the courts of not only Pakistan but also Switzerland, Poland, France and Middle East. According to this ordinance that was all done in good faith? For a split second if we believe that they are sorry for what they did, what is the guarantee that they will not do it again? Not only this, the government has also exempted itself from any possible trouble by making another provision that no action can be made against the government for withdrawing and terminating such cases.
The minister for information confessed yerterday that it was all done on the demands of the United States. (Nawa-e-waqt) Pakistan is America's.

Salvation

(Night, Window, Moon)

Perhaps this smoke
I inhale
would heal my wound.
Perhaps this smoke
I exhale
would take away with it
the pain.
Tears my tears,
atleast you dont go;
you were my own.
I thus close my eyes.
I dont want them
to open again.
Ever.

Beauty

Ricky: "Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in."

American beauty

Ah, that is just so true. 101% case with me.

Ordinary

Theres nothing worse in life than being ordinary.

American beauty

Music and life

Nothing on earth is so well suited to make the sad merry, the merry sad, to give courage to the despairing, to make proud humble, to lessen envy and hate as music.

Martin Luther

Love, dreams and music

"I lived my most beautiful dreams to the fullest. I love and I am loved. I sing and that is my happiness. And then I thank heaven for it every day of my life."

Celine Dion, My story my dreams.


Wow!!! Shes a lucky woman :)

Dance and Love

The famous poem by Bulle Shah Teray ishq nachaya, translated by some Kartar Singh. I post it with some modifications.

Your love has made me dance like mad

Falling in love with you
Was like taking a sip of poison
Come my healer, forsaken, Im dying
Your love has made me dance like mad

The sun has set, its flush only left
Ill give my life for a glimpse of you
My fault, I came not when you bade
Your love has made me dance like mad

Dissuade me not from the path of love
Who can hold the boats on the move
Stupid, I joined the boatmen's squad
Your love has made me dance like mad

A peacock calls in the grove of passion
I see my love in Qibla and Kaaba
You asked not once after you stabbed
Your love has made me dance like mad

Bulleh Shah sits at Inayat's door
Who has dressed me in green and red
And caught me the instant I flew from the pad
Your love has made me dance like mad

Charisma of dance

Talking, writing, singing and acting are various means of expressing ones inner self. Dance is another. The rythmic movement of body synchronized with music. It is an experience, a feeling of whose like there is none. They say that dance is 'the poetry of the body'. I present in the following lines the experience of a classical dancer and he tries to explain this fact.

Spreading colours
Up and down,
Round and round
On the canvas of stage,
I do not dance;
Dance does me.

Alaap is the preparation or begining of a musical piece, done softly on the tunes of a single instrument (e.g. fulte) without percussion. In the following lines the dancer enters the stage from the side, walks slowly (indicated by the sound of ankle bells) to the centre, the only place lit dimly and performs alaap. (Rest of the stage is dark black)

I knock the door,
Another world I enter.
Slowly pacing,
I find a shelter.
My body, my soul
Merge with the music
And the amalgam as a whole,
Tries to explore that magical world.
Gone are my sorrows,
The ecstasy knows no bounds
And when my soul returns,
I am born again.

Nrita is the technical part of the dance characterised by concentric circles and intricate foot work synchronised with each and every beat of the percussion instrument. The beats get faster gradually and after reaching the climax slow down or stop suddenly

I hear someone,
Calling me.
I follow and catch her
I hold and embrace her
Together we run,
Faster and faster
Till we are one
And then
The explosion occurs
And together we stop
Suddenly
Happily
Ah! The joy
Is it heaven?
No,
Its much more than that!

Now the dancer enters the last part of the performance, the Abhinaya or the dramatic aspect of the dance. An exquisite poem/ghazal is sung. The dancer acts on it and feigns different objects.

Alluring
Bewitching
Enchanting
Such are her ways
She commands me
Thus pass my days
I am a peacock
I am a tree
I am a sun
I am a sea
I am a thunder
I am a moon
I am a flower
In full bloom
So here I am
Thus
Immortal!

Magic

Magic....people wonder what it is. With you I know I have experienced it. There were moments when we were both so in tune with each other, connected by a force nobody can explain. That all I can sense is a feeling of true love and acceptance. Moments when a meaningful glance or a simple smile becomes more powerful than anything. Moments when we know that this is where we were ment to be. Memories for a lifetime are created in these moments. And I dont know what to call it except magic. Thanks for bringing love, magic and so many beautiful memories into my life!

Forbidden Territory

'They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much'


Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things

Tag

So heres your tag awais :)

Here are the rules:
* You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
* When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.
* At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.
* Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged.

I dont use it but Chaudhry is my surname, so Shahid becomes my middle name

S Solitude
Most of my time pased alone in childhood. I was shy...quiet, wouldnt mix up with my cousins...quiet, wouldnt play with my age fellows, quiet. I was the odd one out, didnt like sports and playing in the streets at all and people said you are arrogant (pick up the new definition fellows: if you are quiet/shy you are arrogant) But it was good. It gave me time...to think, to figure out things...to develop my inclinations. And I think that whatever I have developed into today that is largely because of the silent period I have passed. Had it been different I would have been different today. (hey but now I talk and I laugh, and I laugh and I talk :) )

H Hafeez Khan Talwandi
For opening for me the doors of a new world (finally....the long awaited) near which my aptitude took me. I remember the first day. I got unbearably excited largely because of the Tanpura. The magic which oozes out from it pierced me like some nuclear radiations and they did not have any sign board outside the door saying 'Beware of the high intensity radiations inside'. And I did well. A guy who had been learning before me wasnt given the chance to sing at a concert, I was. About me he once said a punjabi proverb (when I made some Palta (a music terminology) myself) which means roughly that if you touch a film or a drop of oil on the surface of water, it spreads out, on the other hand no matter how hard you strike leather, it doesnt expand, it shrinks even more. He said I am like oil.
Though I am still very far away from perfection and get very little time to practise but I love to, whenever I can.

A Aveda Kadevra
I have always been interested in mysterious,eccentric things. Death is intimidating and exciting for me at the same time. Having died quite a few times in my own dreams, I cannot forget the sight of my grandma departing permanently infront of me. At another time I saw near death, and it was terrible. I get to know some things before hand based on hints. Once during childhood, I learnt some simple 'magical' tricks from a book and performed them infront of my cousins. They were flabbergasted :) I believe in astrology and palmistry (yeah..most of them are fake but there are some true possessors of this knowledge) Be it the Nienty of Qudratullah Shahab or the street magics of David Blaine and David Copperfield or dr. Attya of Alakhnagri, anything odd is exciting for me and I would like to know and learn these things :)

H Hospital
Well...by that I mean the medical studies I am undertaking. Though I am in second year now but I know that half of the rest of my life would be passing in hospitals. Dissecting and tearing open dead bodies everyday, cutting away the hands, arms and legs, digging out the eyes, breaking the jaws, splitting open the skulls, snatching away the hearts, lungs and livers of the poor cadavers does affect your life somehow :)

I Inquisitiveness
I am...very much...about the things I like. Always trying to know more, the people, society, music, everything. Everything that clicks me and makes me utter 'Wow!'

D Depression
For various reasons. Foremost is faliure, be it of any kind. Then sometimes it comes without any reason, a sudden inexplicable desire to cry, to run away, to burst apart. Sometimes due to lack of knowledge about life. 'Why and from where have we come and where shall we go' like questions. Sometimes when at night I sit in my room....quiet....alone and I feel myself a nonliving object just like the lamp, the books, the bed, the chairs in my room. Sometimes they scare me. When I feel the nothingness of myself in this vast universe and then Im scared of myself so much so that I feel like crying. Sometimes bloodshed and war going on in the world and hatred brings such a feeling and its the worst feeling.


And I tag:

S Sir Jawwad
H ---
A Asad Malik
H ---
I Illusionist
D Dilshad Muneeb