Goa Is Not For BRICS Summit

By Manuwant Choudhary

I've  never been to Goa but this has nothing to do with me not being a beach person.

Yet when I watch the news and Goa these days its all about  not so great politicians and their arms deals.

Goa is about sun, sand and sea and definitely not about more nukes, missiles and terror !

So I just switch off !

A former Portuguese colony Goa is pretty and some 4 lakh tourists visit each year but this is less than in Bihar (although they may be spending more and staying longer).

The little bit I know about Goa is from my friend late Sauvik Chakraverti's blog The Antidote (now shut).

He would write some great stuff from Goa.

Like he would write against the indiscriminate mining in Goa, "Thank God I am a writer and I am not some guy digging dirt somewhere."

Or he would talk about where there should be  a road or a bridge to shorten distances.

And he would write about freedom.

Yet, Goa's peace has also been disturbed in recent years.

So has its image.

                                                       First, when Sarah Keeling, a British teen, was raped and murdered.

And after years of court cases, all the accused have been set free.

Recently, Monika Ghurde, India's famous perfumer, was raped and murdered in her apartment.

A former apartment guard has been arrested.

Law and order is a prime concern, unfortunately governments spend all their time elsewhere.

Like India's defence minister Manohar Parrikar is credited with first supporting Narendra Modi as Prime Minister.

In return he is India's defence minister.

And now he says he is India's best dressed defence minister. (He wears a crushed half-shirt with baggy trousers and chappals !)

What about Babu Jagjivan Ram and Mulayam Singh Yadav in dhoti? I thought dhoti's are Indian and dignified.

In Parrikar's Goa, governments spend money on booklets on what tourists should wear and what they should not, like they must not ride a bike topless (in English and Russian).

Wonder, what booklet they gave Putin !

Just an after thought. What if Peru instead of Brazil was a member of this new club, what would it be called - PRICS .....

India's Great Depression

By Manuwant Choudhary

These days everyone is so depressed...Deepika Padukone, Karan Johar and even Barkha Dutt.

But in all the TV interviews its been hard, really hard to get to the bottom of it.

It goes on and on....so I searched the net to get some reasons.

And what I found were only fan support for Deepika.

Why not? She has had five back to back super-hit films.

Is success the cause ?

I've enjoyed her films and she comes across as a happy and fit person.

She is a great actor.

Or is it love and the break-ups?

Im sure she has been through that enough of times already?

Not for Ranbir Kapoor, definitely.

Those tears look too beautiful.

And then she launched a Foundation "Live, Love & Laugh".

She forgot one word - CRY.

 Karan Johar, the handsome producer/director, host, now even he is depressed.

I've enjoyed watching his celebrity interviews...how easily they open up to him, sitting on a couch, drinking Coffee with Karan !

Even my old friend Saif Ali Khan smiles on his shows, not once getting angry or violent !

As a reporter in Bombay I've not been so lucky especially with actresses and models !

They would just clam-up.

The only exception being Nikki Bedi.

She would go into her kitchen and get those endless cups of coffee and little heart biscuits while our photographer  was like inside her closet..making her get into those minis as many times as they wanted. She was such a sport.

Until, of course she giggled at some Gandhi comment on her Nkki Tonight show and Gandhians forced her to leave India.

I felt sad.

I think its alright to feel depressed.

We all do.

The reasons may vary.

Like Khushwant Singh writes, "Its tragic that a clean man like Manmohan Singh loses an election while Phoolan Devi wins."

"Chargesheeted politicians like L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi continue to hold office. The situation is really pathetic; it cannot get worse. I drown my sorrow in a glass of whisky every evening..."

In these good times (acche din) even markets are depressed.

 My reason for being depressed - Narendra Modi is India's Prime Minister.

But living in Bihar Nitish Kumar denies me even the whisky to drown my sorrows...

Hindu Leaders, Not Jinnah First Proposed the Partition of India

                                          In Mourning - By Satish Gujral

By Manuwant Choudhary

For three months now the state of Jammu & Kashmir is in a lockdown.

The PDP-BJP government in Kashmir twiddle their thumbs.

Almost on a daily basis there are reports of either a terror attack or cross-border firing and casualties that come with it.

Most of India regard Mohammed Ali Jinnah as the villain of the piece, someone solely responsible for the partition of India.

A video on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) website mentions how RSS carried out relief work during partition.

It also mentions that Gandhiji even attended some of their sessions and that they were wrongly blamed for his assassination.

The video highlights the greatness of its Hindu leaders in nation building.

Just yesterday the Prime Minister paid a similar tribute to Deendayal Upadhyay (founder of Jana Sangh, the party that preceded the BJP), "A nations army must be powerful only then can the nation be powerful."

It doesn't surprise me why Gandhiji, a great practitioner of Hinduism, never became an RSS member.

A.G. Noorani writes in detail in Frontline how it was Hindu leaders who first proposed the Partition of India. http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl1826/18260810.htm

And Khushwant Singh in his book - Absolute Khuswant - writes about his pain at leaving Lahore.

"In fact, Jinnah, who was very close to my father. had told him that I could stay in Lahore and he'd also told my father that he'd make me a judge at the Lahore High Court."

"In India long before Jinnah came up with the two nation theory, it was people like Keshav Baliram Hegdewar, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lajpat Rai and V.D. Savarkar who had come up with the Hindu nation theory. Lajpat Rai had even drawn a map of divided India, dividing the country into two parts along religious lines. It was a botched-up surgical operation."

"India's arms were chopped off without any anaesthesia and streams of blood flooded the land of the five rivers known as Punjab."

"War broke out between Muslims on one side and Hindus and Sikhs on the other. It was not like other wars where armed men battle each other, but one in which one side, armed with swords, knives and staves, slew the other, unarmed and unresisting.

"Over ten million were uprooted from their homes...a million killed in cold blood and almost overnight Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs became sworn enemies."

Khushwant Singh was himself present outside the Indian Parliament when Nehru gave his midnight speech...outside they were all chanting Bharat Mata Ki Jai.

He writes, "Mahatma Gandhi did not take any part in the independence celebrations. He remained quiet and went on a fast."

Gandhiji told his secretary Pyarelal, "I find myself alone...but let it not be said that Gandhi was a party to India's vivisection."

Let us not forget that it is this history of India that has propelled a Narendra Modi as Prime Minister, seeds that were sown long ago...before India's birth.

Its still midnight here and no dawn yet in Pakistan...

(The Partition Project - A group of citizen historians are recording events from the Partition of India by interviewing people who lived through it and it will be released in 2017.)

My Father Would Have Loved MS Dhoni

By Manuwant Choudhary

My father would have loved MS Dhoni, not because his `Untold Story'  earned 85 crores, but because Mahendra Singh Dhoni represents the India of my fathers dreams.

India as a sporting nation not a bickering one.

Like Dhoni my father was a footballer - a goalkeeper !

From the bits and pieces I recall...he played for the Benares Hindu University.

In college when his friends would be going to watch a Waheeda Rehman film, my father would be in shorts heading either to the football field or to play tennis.

Once and only once a friend of his managed to force him for a film...and he landed up at the cinema hall in shorts and football boots and a tennis racket!

He also loved being in the NCC (National Cadet Corps) and after University he wanted to join the Indian army..he did get a call letter but the family didn't let him.

Many years later he would roar, "Had I joined the Indian army I would have been a Brigadier or a General !"

But his passion was sports.

When he completed his graduation from BHU my grandfather sent his Munshiji (Manager) to check the results.

The Munishji started checking for his name in the list from top..and it was a long list...so my father told him, "Munshiji neeche se dekhiyega naam jaldi mil jayega" (Munshiji check from below you will get the name fast !)

And there it was...a pass with a third division...and nearly at the bottom !

My father would often tell us this story while my mom would try to keep him quiet, she would say he was too easy on his children. He never hankered after marks and saved our day when we did not do so well.

After BHU he joined the Bihar University only to play football...taking the university football team all over India.

In fact he kept playing right until 1970 when he fractured a collar bone.

But my father never bragged about his achievements.

As a school student in Darjeeling in the eighties I sensed his humility first hand.

We used to  always stay at the New Elgin Hotel.

And I think it was October..the Football Gold Cup tournament was on..

It was raining heavily as we got into the hotel lobby.

My father was in his usual crumpled kurta-pyjama as if just from a train journey.

No one would have bothered to be even know him

Just then a voice rings out loud and clear , "Arre Choudhary !"

My father turned and a man in blue track suit came and hugged him with joy..they were meeting after almost 30 years !

The man in the tracksuit was legendary Indian footballer PK Banerjee.

The hotel lobby was crowded with men in tracksuits..the East Bengal team.

PK Banerjee, their coach then, introduced each one of them to my father as if my father was Jawaharlal Nehru..

As the players shook hands with my father, PK told them "Choudhary was among the best goalkeepers in India".

My father laughed, "PK thats why we lost 16-0 to you and Calcutta University !"

PK, "Choudhary, but thats not entirely true...from Bihar University you were the only one playing...you must have saved dozens of goals that day in Jaipur ! How well you played !"

PK had gone on to play for India in 85 games scoring 65 goals !

And one of the first recipients of Arjuna Award...

Later PK became a coach for various clubs and the Indian team.

My father never liked cricket that much but when television came to India I would often find my father watching cricket in black and white..and inquiring about the score.

I have never cared for sports that much and so I nearly failed my journalism test when I put rugby above cricket....

Or when my editor Behram Contractor asked me to meet some Australian cricket
coach..it was like my toughest assignment.

But many years later I see their point.

I watched Dhoni with interest....not for cricket but his story and I salute his grit and determination...a role model for Indians.

But what lingers on forever is a small part in the film - Dhoni's first girlfriend Priyanka Jha.

Why The Dalai Lama Visits Mosques !

The Dalai Lama in his own style visits Mosques in Laddhak before visiting the Buddhist Monasteries...listen to his talk..its his way to fight terrorism...perhaps his is the only way to do it...through a message of love and peace (not surgical strikes). He also speaks against the exclusivity of religions...even Puri's Hindu temple did not allow his entry.

My Surgical Strikes !

By Manuwant Choudhary

The Operation srtarted at 2 am.

Under cover of darkness I picked him up from his launch pad...

And then I peeled into him.

Slowly at first..then faster.

Using surgical precision.

He was green in color.

The only thing in my mind was how good he would taste.

As the knife sliced into him...I could feel my country's joy.

The knife glistened in the moonlight.

As I went about my job.

I had to be careful so there are no casualties on our side.

We are all `buddies' after all.

This is not for the meek-hearted.

If you get  captured then you must have strayed across...

I cut him into two first, then four..then smaller bits and pieces.

I like them small.

My hands were gory.

But i went on...

The hunger in my belly...for my country.

What a feast !

My chest size went from 25 inches to 55 inches !

A secret video is filmed for the record.

Its daybreak so I return to bed.

No you got it all wrong....I was no Bihari jawan in PoK.

My surgical strikes were on Karachi Mangoes.

They call em Langda (Lame) (available in Patna for Rs.300 per kilo)

Amanda Shires - My Piece Of Land