THE CASE FOR WORLDWIDE ABOLISHING Of THE ARMED FORCES AND DISMANTLING OF ARM FACTORIES

In this article, I'm not going into the genesis of the Russia-Ukraine war. Neither do I debate if 'de-Nazification' in Ukraine carries any rationality. Or Ukraine battles the Russians to save its democracy. And around in the region from the onslaught of Putin's autocracy.

But to briefly re-portray the very nature of war and the reckless role armed forces play executing the deadly and destructive aftermaths in their offences and defences operations.

In these consequences, humans behind the machines indiscriminately kill fellow human beings. In reality, they bury their consciousness before the dead gets buried. Flattening the buildings a few moments before was live with people, old and young, children and toddlers who run out for safety. They die in the rubbles as cemeteries, seriously getting hurt and crushed during the dreadful moments. Survivors become homeless and refugees. In just a few minutes, the brutalities of war create miseries and calamities that people endure for a long time.

In the deafening din of almost non-stop shelling, birds cage themselves in the safe corners of bombed and razed buildings. They look up, a battleground in the sky.

As in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, most wars get triggered by one single authority. Armed with their deadly military hardware, from fighter planes to rolling tanks delivering their gunfire, the brutal march of the combating forces opens with indiscriminate killings and destructions.

The whole scenario draws a horrible and devastating look. The war we can helplessly see live on TV screens and I-phones, a melodrama of catastrophes created with all the advanced and sophisticated artillery and machinery enacted by battle 'heroes.'

It presents the cruel nature of war. Its tragic impacts are much more severe than accomplishing the stated and symbolic aims of self-defence and the 'just' motive.

Leaders can talk and talk and talk. But with mindset commitments, there is no resolution. War becomes a necessity because there is no trust in human nature.

Humanity suffers as nations step into senseless fights, hoping that war will bring peace. It does not.

They say wars are necessary when every other option becomes impractical. True?

Instead, the statement poses a real challenge to our ordinary intelligence, considering that war is not an option either. 

Wars are crimes against humanity. The tradition of war eliminates our peace and safety irrespective of our diverse nationalities. In this commitment, the contemporary global society, to which we all belong as one humanity, must resolve to do away with the menace of war. It is a blight on humanity in this age while we collectively pride ourselves on intelligence, knowledge, and scientific achievements.

The consequential resolution demands that every nation on Earth dissolves its armed forces. No young man and woman thus ever enter the profession that is knowingly a destructive and murderous job.

The resolution in red letters also demands worldwide shut down of manufacturing factories producing weapons of mass killing and mass disastrous. With a sole focus on profit, these manufacturers supply weapons indiscriminately to both sides, the aggressor and the aggressed. The trillion-dollar war industry will collapse, but let it be, to save humankind and our environment.

The concepts of no armed forces, no manufacturing of weapons of all sorts, are not ideological, utopian, bizarre or new. Twenty-four countries globally, from Costa Rica to Ireland, already have demilitarized themselves, some of them decades ago. Nor do they have the manufacturing plants to produce all the soft and hardware contributing to the horrors of war. These wise nations present a world's role model without violent, destructive, and deadly conflicts.

Let us do it for peace to ourselves and our environment.

-by Promod Puri

 

 

 BURQA, HIJAB CUSTOM NEED REVIEW

Muslim students and teachers forced to remove their burqas and hijabs in Karnataka and other BJP-ruled states led to considerable controversy in India. Both say wearing these outfits is their fundamental right to cover their bodies the way they want or according to their social or religious customs or traditions.

Are hijab and burqas integral to Islam? Certainly not.

In some Muslim countries like Kosovo, Azerbaijan, Tunisia, and Turkey, the hijab is banned in schools, universities, and government buildings. In other Muslim countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, Brunei, Maldives and Somalia. However, in Muslim countries like Iran and Afghanistan, the hijab is required.

Despite utmost respect for individual freedoms, as long as these do not harm society, I can accept wearing the hijab, but not the entire body covering from head to toe with a burqa.

Both seem to be mandatory creation of men in the traditional patriarch societies where they curtailed women's freedoms.

And over the centuries, these dictums became the accepted norms for women to cover their bodies.

The burqa and hijab custom has created a mindset attitude among Muslim women that it is their freedom to wear these items. They seem caught up in this tradition created by men.

Muslim women sticking to the burqa-hijab custom need to rethink. These outfits are not healthy as their non-exposure denies them the essence of getting vitamin D from the sun rays, the only source that supplies the essential vitamin.

Muslim men don't wear burqa and hijab. Why this custom applies to only women?

-Promod Puri

 REMEMBERING LATA THRU SOME OF MY MOST FAV SONGS:

I belong to the generation that grew up listening to Lata Mangeshkar without missing any single day. All India Radio, Vividh Bharti and Radio Ceylon were the main channels beaming Lata's melodious voice, an inseparable part of daily life. If our radio was off, I could still listen to her songs from the neighbour's receiver.

She sure dominated music waves of film songs and captured the genre for several decades until she reached her most senior years. I enjoy Hindusthani film songs, and Lata is the main reason for this indulgence.

Lata sang over 25,000 songs composed by talented music directors like Naushad Ali, S.D.Burman, Shanker Jaikishan, O.P. Nayyar, Khayam, C. Ramchandra, Vasant Desai and many more. But it was music director Ghulam Ali Haider who first discovered the unmatched talent of Lata. And he is the one who got credited with initiating her singing career. "Ghulam Haider is truly my godfather. He was the first music director who showed complete faith in my talent", Lata once remarked about her mentor.

In her death, my memories go back to her ever luminous gems. The list is endless, but several songs have itched permanent residency in the musical sockets of my flashback mind. My favourite list of Lata's classics is quite long, but here are some of them: Aye ga aane wala, yeh zindagi usi ki hai, tum na zane iss Jahan mein kho gaye, Rasik balma, Hothon Main Aisi Baat, Aaj Phir Jeene Ki Tamanna, Chup gaya koi re, dekho who chand chupke karta hai kaya ishare, Kahan le chale ho bata do mussafir. Besides Hindi-Urdu songs, Lata sang in all the languages of India.

Lata has gone into eternal sleep, but the song she left behind, which is another of my fav, is a lullaby in the Dogri/Pahari language:

tu malla tu,lok panan thikrian, badam panne tu.

• Promod Puri

 (A Satire)

IN CANADA:

I want to imbibe and enjoy absolute freedoms in the land of “the true North strong and free.” In these freedoms, I don’t want any mandatory restrictions. I want to drive my car without any speed limits, 10 km to 250 km or more per hr. on the highways or in the city. If I injure or kill anybody that is my right. I hate restrictive traffic signs, “no stopping,” “no parking,” etc. These pose bumps to my freedom to move. I want the liberty to have guns and the right to be racist.

I want absolute freedom in “the land of North strong and free.”

-Promod Puri

WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE WORLD!

Today's world is in turmoil, violent, disturbed, depressing and daunting.

Although we can say, it is an era of peace with fewer wars or battles compared to most known world history. But never-ending combats and conflicts dot all across the globe.

The largest of the world's hotspots show concentration in Africa and Asia, with territorial disputes and civil wars. And most of them are within the boundaries of each country for political reasons or regional freedoms based on ethnic disparities or discriminations.

From Afghanistan to Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya and a few more, Myanmar and Kashmir, including occasional skirmishes between India and Pakistan, the everlasting fights between Israel and Palestinians, the world presents an agitated and vicious scenario that seems to be eternal.

We see violent political instability in Iraq and Lebanon, Burkina Faso, Boko Haram in Nigeria, the civil war in the Tigray region of Ethiopia and Islamist militancy in Pakistan. The American continent has its share, too, with the mad surge of far-Right extremism in the USA, the criminal violence in Mexico, and the political instability in Venezuela. Is Cuba peaceful facing record unemployment and extreme food shortages while the protests and dissent are clipped the moment these emerge?

Brewing in this global conflict pot is the power showdown over Ukraine between Russia and NATO, led by the United States.

The global spread of civil battles and conflicts, with no end in sight, is not only confined to bombing and shelling, killings and destruction of properties but results in extreme hardships for the people. The refugee crisis escalates along with starvation and disease, where millions have died over the years. Sanctions could leave more Afghans dead, including children, Afghanistan is an example of the 20 years of fighting between Taliban and American forces.

-by Promod Puri   

 

 GETTING INVOLVED WITH MINDFULNESS

Staying in an environment exclusively reserved for the self leads towards an experience called mindfulness.

Residing in this environment are the present moments connected to what one is doing, cohering internally with one's own body and mind while keeping an absolute awareness of breath's inhale and exhale flow.

Mindfulness is the idea of being present within yourself at the moment while the world's traffic of events moves on.

It is a practice of being intensely aware of what the person is sensing and feeling in a moment, without interpretation or judgement.

Based on ancient Buddhist practice, it was popularised in the mid-'70s by Thich Nhat Hanh, a world-renowned monk from Vietnam who died on January 21, 2022, at the age of 95.

In his book "You Are Here,"  introducing the concept of mindfulness, he emphasized what we're experiencing in our bodies and minds at any given moment and not dwell in the past or think of the future.

He stressed the awareness of the breath by repeating internally, "I'm breathing in; this is an in-breath. I'm breathing out; this is an out-breath."

According to Hann, peace, happiness, joy, and true love get realized only in the present moment.

Mindfulness slightly deviates from meditation that it can be practised anytime, with closed or opened eyes, without any guru-given mind-focussing mantra. Or even when engaged in routine chores like doing dishes. The idea is to focus on the activity and be fully present. Another example is exercising on a treadmill or bike.   

Living in the present and being involved within does not mean disengagement with the world. Instead, mindfulness with total concentration still keeps the people connected with the surroundings that do not disturb them.

The subtility of mindfulness rests on the essential human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we're doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what's going on around us.

-by Promod Puri

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 MOTHER INDIA:

She is a symbol of Mother India, fighting for the poor, fighting for the Dalits, fighting for justice, fighting for human rights, fighting for the voice of dissent.

In all these concurrent battles, she got caught up in the web of sweeping “anti-terror” laws that landed her in prison.

After spending three arduous years in a Maharashtra jail, Sudha Bharadwaj was released on bail early last month in a trial. The government accused her of participation in the infamous 2018 Bhima Koregaon case.

(Bhima-Koregaon is a small village in the Pune district of Maharashtra, linked with a crucial facet of Maratha history. On January 1 each year, members of India’s marginalized Dalit community gather at Bhima-Koregaon to mark a battle in 1818. The Dalits sided with the British colonial army to defeat Hindu upper-caste Peshwa rulers.)

While personally facing the ordeal of prison life in its most downgrading and inhumane environment, she helped and fought for fellow prisoners facing dire situations, especially during this ongoing Corona pandemic.

Sudha Bharadwaj, 60, is a committed activist.

For the last three decades, she got herself actively involved in struggling for the landless and extremely poor against their eviction and exploitation in the mineral-rich state of Chhattisgarh.

Sudha Bharadwaj was born in Boston, USA, to well-known academic parents.

She gave up her US citizenship to dedicate her life to work for tribals in Chhattisgarh and for the Dalit cause. With a law degree and as a professor at the National Law School in Delhi, she decided to use her credentials and dedicate her life to securing dignity and justice for the most disadvantaged section of the Indian population.

-Promod Puri