Aurangzeb- Man of terror or man of error?

The Mughals invaded India in 16^th century and ruled for about 2 centuries. Aurangzeb is considered to be the primary reason of their downfall, maybe that’s why he should be considered “good” but I will try to talk about him in general.

This is a general belief that he was one of the worst and the most brutal “tyrant”, who ever ruled our country. Facts? Let’s unravel them and testify.

 He is believed to be anti-Hindus or anti-Indian because of some of the reasons below,

      1)      He killed his own father and all his brothers- No, You are wrong. He never killed his father and all his brothers, but actually took over his father's throne forcefully. That's it. Aurangzeb worried too much about the economy of the system. His father, Shah Jahan had got probably really high, building structures and structures! Shah Jahan actually diverted the income for army and protective measures to build Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Jama Masjid, etc. He destroyed millions of rupees and actually depleted the “shahi khazana”. Aurangzeb acted.  But Aurangzeb wasn’t the first one to rebel against his own father. Jahangir had done that already, even Hindu Rajkumars did that, so he wasn’t the progenitor of this practice. Now Shah Jahan had many sons. Aurangzeb defeated the important princes like Dara(his son, Sulaiman too), Shuja, Murad, etc, by either deceiving them, imprisoning them or both. He captured Shah Jahan by blocking the water supply to the fort thereby forcing him to relinquish, but held him in respectable way. Shah Jahan was confined in female apartments and was taken care of by his own favourite daughter Jahanara which Shah Jahan himself wished for. And when he died due to illness, Shah Jahan was buried gracefully. After getting the throne, he even released many of his brothers whom he held as his prisoners and to make the relationship better, Aurangzeb married off his daughters to them.

     2)      He hated Hindus- Aurangzeb’s regressive policies actually give us a hint that they were anti to any Non-Muslim beliefs. The most important one being- jijyah. The tax which every non-Muslim had to pay and also it was the type of tax which would only be accepted when paid in person which used to be sometimes humiliating. But again, the purpose of jijyah wasn’t only to load financial burden on the Non-Muslims(read ‘Hindus’) or to even promote conversion to Islam. Jijyah was collected in return to the Muslim security the citizens enjoyed. It wasn’t collected from crippled, old men and women. Only healthy male individuals were supposed to pay jizyah if they didn’t join the army. If they do, without converting to Islam, they would get rebate on it. But there was hardly any instance when anyone joined the army or converted to Islam in order to escape jizyah which suggests that the amount was something which could be easily afforded amongst the middle-class men. Furthermore, the very own security was against Hindu rulers themselves. There are several instances of "Veer" Shivaji attacking the established Mughal towns and acquiring the wealth. In case if Mughal army fails to save the citizens from the attack, the full amount of jizyah paid by the citizens until then, was returned. Furthermore, it is logical to conclude that since Aurangzeb ruled for half a century, if he had wanted the Hindus to convert to Muslims, we wouldn’t be living in a Hindu-dominated country.

      3)      He hated Hindus(again)- Aurangzeb is believed to be highly bias towards the Muslims and he never allowed any Hindu in higher ranked positions. Nope, again. Few historians are of the opinion that the Hindu officials had become disloyal due to the laxity of Aurangzeb’s predecessors such that Aurangzeb actually had to adopt harsh methods to keep them on the track. Interestingly, the number of Hindu nobles employed in the court rose to a much higher value during his reign.

His policies had been very economical in nature which is sometimes why, they are highly questioned. I tried to present some points which may have been till now, misinterpreted about him. Though I cannot deny that he sent out orders to destroy temples including the famous Jagannath temple. Fact is that history is mystery, we can never know what made a god-fearing Muslim, whose religion teaches that all religions are equal, to do that. We can just contemplate the facts and rationally draw conclusions out of them.

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Religion.

Few days earlier. Results were to be announced anytime. Tensed, is the word too small to describe our situations. Every classmate of mine were worried and at the same time anxious about the results, scribbling through the college website and every now and then checking mail. It was around that time when I noticed something strange about my friend’s whatsapp dp.

It was a picture of Lord Shiva carrying a “damru” with one palm towards the screen. I laughed off. The reason was obvious. I took a screenshot of it and teased him about it. He said keeping that dp was “lucky”. I didn’t understand the logic. In fact I never do.

I don’t fully know what religion is but at the very least, it isn’t about keeping a God’s photo as YOUR display picture only around the time of results.

Hinduism very passionately includes worshiping of stones and cows, keeping widows in seclusion and hatred, marrying with a tree or fuck whatsoever. One fine day when we were to visit Tryambhakeshwar, a one of the 12 “Jyotirlings” of Lord Shiva. For those who don’t know, Lord Shiva, one of the trinity is supposed to reside in 12 places all over the India.

“Why did he chose ONLY India to cast his presence if he is the sin destroyer of the entire WORLD? Moreover why do all Hindu Gods chose only India to take birth?” asked my rational Uncle.

The question very appropriately, in itself, answers many other questions. Indian Gods were born only in India. Japanese Gods were only in Japan. Ahh well, Christians are a bit universal for the matter. If even, we were to think that they all were incarnations of the same single creature why did they advertised different ways to reach God?

They didn’t advertise anything. The different people requires different sets of rules, hence the different religions. Period.

Sati was banned by Britishers. Did the whole world die? No. Following this, how many more traditions can we remove by enforcing a law? Think about it. The biggest proof of blind faiths being illogical, irrelevant and ineffective is that they are followed in different styles in different lands. We consider crossing of a black cat a bad omen while some finds it lucky. Ohh wait, that just now reminded me of the origin of the “black cat crossing bad omen logic”.

Once upon a time, very long back, kings, businessmen who had to travel across cities even in nights faced a very inadvertent trouble in their bullock carts. Bulls when crossing deep forests, when encountered with a black cat turns horrified at the sight. It’s because the eyes of a black cat glows bright in dark which leads bulls to frighten. After the discovery of this fact, it was suggested that the travellers’ should rest for a while when their carts get crossed by a black cat. News spread carrying along with it several masala’s and result is something which is evident at present.

But still I don’t intend to hurt any of the sentiments. If this is what keeps you a human, it’s fine. If you believe that throwing a polythene full of flowers in to running water will bring you fortunes  it’s fine. It at least brings you hope. But do think of what your actions actually result to. Water contamination. But I say, it’s fine. Remember the film PK? It cleverly portrays how religious beliefs brings a lot of positive hope in your heart and a will to fight this world. “Somebody is there to protect me. I have done my job to make him happy, and now it’s his turn.” This thought itself is miraculous in everyday life, to keep you “going”.

There is a very popular story about a business man. He was having a bad time, his company was in huge debts and the trade wasn’t going well. He was thinking of every possible way to prevent his company to go bankrupt but couldn’t. One day he was walking alone a road distressed as usually, decided to sit on a bench, it was then an old man approached him and seeing his bad mood asked what the matter was. The businessman narrated his helpless situation. The old man seeing the man extremely sad took out a cheque and handed him over saying that the man can return the money in one year and will meet him at the same place then and went, The businessman was shocked at the gesture but was even more shocked when he saw the cheque. It was from Warren Buffet and the sum was 1 billion dollars! He was overjoyed. Now all his problems were solved, but suddenly his conscience struck him. As a man with self-respect he couldn’y just accept the favour. He decided to not just withdraw the money but to keep it for future security. He decided to simply forget about the cheque and concentrate on the business. He tried hard, made better deals, assured client satisfaction, soon in less than six months. He had kept the cheque safely all this while and eagerly waited for the day to come when he could return the cheque just as it was. Finally, the day came and he saw the same old man sitting on the bench but as soon as he started to move towards him, a middle-aged woman came and started to pull Warren Buffet from his sleeves! He got anxious and asked the woman who see was and how could he behave like this to such a personality?! The woman just gave him a grim look and told him that he is no special, he was just his father who is a mental patient and just roam about calling himself Warren Buffet!

What was it which made the business man to come back on track? Hope. Hope that there was something he could use as his last resort if anything goes even worse. His self-respect and courage made him try his best to not actually use it. This is what religion brings to one’s life. As long as it brings hope to you, it is legitimate for you to perform religious actions. We cannot stop you from doing something which doesn’t harm living beings, but sadly your actions does. (Aquatic animals)

But there’s a hack. Pay your taxes regularly so that water you just spoiled gets cleaned up. It’s gonna be cleaned up anyway. Pay for roads to be cleaned where you kept a coconut and a “lal chundhi”. Rituals say you to keep it, not to protect it and make sure to make it last till eternity. But once again I’ll tell you, this all stuff isn’t necessary. They are to religion what add-ons are to your browser. “Extras” To make your experience complete.

But, I don’t really hate religion. It’s something which keeps these monsters civilized. Yes. We are monsters who are simply trained to be civilised. Otherwise there are tribals who eat each others. If we would look closely into some rituals, we will find them necessary for the overall stability of the world. They were meticulously planned on to implement. Stories which Hinduism teaches, no doubt contains lessons which are pure genius. We should respect them. We should follow them. My parents say, “how can someone create stories so intimidating, so consequential, so real?”

“What?” I say, “don’t you watch movies, TV series? The fictional stories they say, aren’t they simply spectacular with so much of variety and fresh content every week? “

Then there is no reason to doubt the ability of our ancestors to woo stories especially when they were supposed to inculcate values not only in their present but also the future generation. Maybe there was no one with an elephant face with two wives and still no children(Why?) It’s always funny to ask, why isn’t there any progress to Gods and their families?

We spill milk in lakhs of litres on a stone, to make our day good not realizing that if we would have donated it, that same one glass of milk could have actually made somebody’s day good. They, in very specific manner what is termed as “defense”, say that science hasn’t yet found many answers. Yes, but that doesn’t mean you will roam around following some manuscripts written over thousand years ago. Science has answers now, to those questions which were considered “unanswerable” earlier. Predicting disasters, curing mental diseases(do I really need to tell what religious people have an opinion about this?) and many things which were considered to be in the religious domain.

But,

If we should not believe in religion, what should make us in control?

First of all, you should consider yourself extremely lucky that you were given a life or may be your parents had a beautiful night that date. But, err you still are lucky. Furthermore, you have two legs, two arms, two eyes, a mouth, two ears and a caring parents who shower their love to you. A mom who destroys her own youth to make yours better. Omg, you are complete! And mind you, you are still lucky enough to have these bare minimum.

Second step, follow your religion. Yes, be aware of what it actually is. Read every books. I am telling you Bhagwad Gita. Ramayana and Mahabharata are epic. Not just because they are called “epic”, but they actually are. If the customs and beliefs satisfies your thoughts, follow it. But don’t fall prey to blind faith. Cross examine everything but remember again, some things really take time to fully understand. But if not, try another or may be nothing.

So you decided to follow nothing? Chill, it’s not a sin but wait you are already above this stuff. You just saved a lot of precious time of your life. Now you are supposed to not think of Gods but think of your future generation yet to come. You are now responsible to make your world worth living for others. The world given to you is beautiful and you are here to make it even more beautiful. O live in present to the fullest rather than shedding tears on the past. Many of times we cry over our past for which we could actually do nothing about. It was probably bound to happen, think it this way. Don’t remind yourselves that you did a mistake, instead pledge a vow that you will never do it again. Don’t think about what will happen in your future, instead strive for ways to improve it. Don’t worry too much about making the right choices. Nobody knows what is the right decision to make, life’s all about making a decision and then trying to justify it to be right enough. Never give up, it takes years for one to become an overnight success.

And one last thing,

If you are a religious person, don’t think every atheist got a license to kill.

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Nepal Earthquakes and Indian Media.

A Nepali Friend of Mine-"I pity you."
Me-"Eh? Why?"
Friend-"That's because you had been tolerating your media since years when we couldn't even for a                   week."

The conversation is just as shameful as any conversation can get.

 An earthquake of 7.9 Richter scale hit Nepal. It's the magnitude which can destroy a civilization and what's more horrifying is the fact that it really did. Some were busy dealing with there customers in their shops, some were roaming out in the markets, some were having a sweet nap on their bed, which was only then it happened which took away lives of many. The pain, we know of our Nepali brothers and sisters is simply unimaginable. I can't really empathize with them as I don't know what it is like to lose your loved ones in a natural or well, absolutely sudden disaster, but I am sure it hurts.

It hurts to have your only hope die. It hurts to see your son/husband in a cloth enveloped in a rectangular box after devoting entire life to him. It hurts to realize that the one you loved the most is never going to come back to you. Some might be living a happy life with his girlfriend. Some must be already married and their kids might be waiting for their daddy who left driving to the office to come back home and bring them gifts as he daily promises to. Some might be having a old mother who now have no one to care for.

Amidst this chaos, what we saw is an absolute quick help from India. Actually the first flight which went for rescue and to provide aid was even before the Nepal officials globally pursued for help. What's even more spectacular that for the first time ever, it was seen that our Indian government was on literally a "mission" and worked like an entire complete team.

10 NDRF(National Disaster Response Force) teams were dispatched. Their code name for the operation was "Operation Maitri." Indian Army sent a 2-star officer Major General JS Sandhu to oversee the Indian rescue efforts. Army also sent a Rapid Aero Medical team in Kathmandu. Indian Airforce sent two MI-17 choppers, two C-17 Globemaster,one C-130J Super Hercules,and one IL-76 on rescue operation. IAF personnel rescued many Indians stranded in Nepal. Indian Embassy issued emergency helpline numbers. The debris flows in to the water and make it poisonous hence Suresh Prabhu, the present Rail minister  sent 1 lakh Rail Neer bottles. Further, the ministry runs 2 Special Trains between Janakpur in Nepal & JaiNagar in INDIA for Rescue and Relief Operation. Power Minister Piyush Goyal offered to send technicians and engineers to restore Power Grid at Nepal. All calls made from BSNL to Nepal were charged at local fees for 3 days. 

Is this not looking like a whole "team" with several working sectors working together to accmplish a mission? And who can forget that famous Sushma Swaraj's response to a tweet who asked help for finding her father in Nepal?

Many non-governmental organizations too were ready for help, especially telecom companies. Many volunteers offered help to Nepal. Sikh bodies offered "langar" to the victims. Also Baba Ramdev was in Nepal at that time. Instead of running to safety, he chose to stay back there and help the victims. His volunteers donated blood, offered food, drinking water and shelter in his Yoga shibir tent. His organization is planning to adopt all the children turned orphans in the earthquake.

With all this being said, there was yet another body of Indian origin which was working "actively". Well this unnatural pun struck me in a very natural way.

Indian Media.

At the first day, twitter is trending with hashtags :Thank You PM" and "Thank You India, two days later, the trend changed to "GoHomeIndianMedia."(The number was more than 100,000.)

Why?

Their aggressive presence all over the country and making a coverage of the incident, what it looked  like a biased one. Their attitude was looking patriotic when they only seemed to cover the help done by Indian relief forces but which was kind of digestable. Every country has their own media which obviously will show cast the news related to their own-selves. But what was more to come was some extremely intolerable  behavior and insensitive inhumane actions which pissed off the masses to a great extent and let them go with this twitter trend. Their titles of the "exclusive" shows were very distracting with a huge Modi poster aside some small girls crying with a quote saying, "Tere dukh ab mere". I mean seriously, what the?

Reportedly, a large number of Media personnel occupied the space in Indian rescue helicopters. Or to frame it differently, they occupied a seat where bag full of food could be placed. They occupied a place where one more victim could be rescued. If we were to follow a tweet from a Nepali witness, 5-7 media people were in each IAF rescue helicopter.

Now seriously, what was the point for every Indian channel to go and capture the incident? Was there a competition which was being held? Even local state news channels went there to report. Why were they all hell bent on increasing their TRP's on somebody's mourning's?

The most absurd thing was to observe them reporting about places where Indian relief still hasn't
reached. Ohh, come on, If you can reach places where Indian aid still hasn't reached yet, can't you just yourselves provide aid to them? You won't believe this, the media personnel actually went on car by road when the tremors were still occurring. What was all the fuss about everyone going to report the incident? Only if they could be as brave for reporting what's true and authentic.

The way they were reporting was as if the victims weren't real people at all and were shooting an intense drama about how tough life is after an earthquake. We know the people are badly hurt there, we know that many are still stuck beneath buildings, we know that many of them lost their family members in the incident but making it as an over-hyped "show"? Adding ridiculous animations and crying imagery backed by extraordinary sound effects isn't something tolerable. People needed your help, not your extraordinary video editing skills. They broadcasted about how people in Nepal were fighting for foods, but they couldn't carry some by themselves. Are you not human before a media person?

Is asking a woman who lost her only child in the earth quake, "how do you feel?" repeatedly is reporting? There are some more incidents which seriously make us go "facepalm". 

1)They used touching photos to portray the Nepal earthquake which were not real. Many original photo owners appeared and alleged that they were actually, from a different incident(the famous photo from the Mediterranean Sea incident is an excellent example) which Indian media shamelessly claimed to be the 2015 earthquake's.

2) The Indian Reporters shouted and shared physical blows with Indian army men when they tried to stop them from entering "Restricted areas". Reports even claim that they even fought with Nepal security upon being asked merely their ID-cards at Pokhra airport. "Who are you to stop us?", thus only adding hindrances to the relief team. 

3) They don't miss any opportunity to gather views on their own channel. And we all know criticizing against Pakistan? Well the views just got quadrupled. One such incident was them reporting and making a "sensationalist" news about Pakistan sending beef to the victims and thereby,according to them, hurting the sentiments of Nepali nationalists. Look who's talking. Later on, it got revealed that it was a propaganda brain stormed by them. It was not actually beef, but packets of "beef masala" and the product was just barely a mixture of ingredients that makes the meat tasty. Pakistan just sent whatever they had in their emergency relief programs.What were Indian media expecting Pakistan to do? To wait for their companies to manufacture food packets with vegetarian labels on them in this emergency? Also, they didn't mention anything about those hundreds of tents which well, Paksitan provided.

4) A friend of mine who is an eye witness to the very incident says, "They went to the spot where one building had collapsed. They clicked four pictures from the different angles of the same building and reported four buildings to have fallen." How stupid. 

5) Their over hyped portrayal. Instead of informing which part received worse tremors(there were exceptions), they were as if Nepal had been deprived from the existence already. If they had a chance, they would even remove the name from the globe and hold a panel discussion on it. Thankfully, conditions have started to recover. Water and electricity is back. There is no infections and several shops have opened up.

Here is an hilarious take of a Quora user on their attitude-

"

Reporter : what did you do after you felt the tremors ?

Victim : I started running out. (Obviously no one would dance Gangnam style after feeling the tremors)
Reporter : Did you get hurt?
Victim : Yes, a lot. ( Reporter, can't you see his bleeding nose? )
Reporter :  where are you going right now?Victim : I am going to hospital. ( No, he is going to Nokia showroom with his bleeding nose to buy  Nokia 2323 which has torch and FM )      "

The Indian media is on the pedastal that no one probably can ever limit them. Whatever they do is right, whatever they report is right, whatever the measures they adopt are right. This arrogant attitude of somebody is very questionable. One whose job was to merely report things is now actually forming their own opinions about it. 

The race to highest TRP never stops. It had already shattered dreams of many, destroyed many's deserved fame.What is required is proper education. But aren't the reporters already educated? But I think, this is not enough. What is still left is to educate them how to report different issues. Yeah there is a difference in every kind of incidents and media personnel needs to consider the sensitivity of the fact too.It's the time where the ever questioning Indian Media to introspect their own selves, reform their rules and policies, try to act in a more responsible way and come back as a better "media".



On a side note, the greatest irony was that this twitter trend thrived on the World Press day.

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Do school marks really matter?

Well it's long time since I have ever written anything here. My exams just got over this week and I feel like writing.

I was just scribbling through my quora feeds where I stumbled upon a very commonly asked question demanding a rather obligatory responses,
"Do school marks really matter?"

Well, all the front seaters would stand on their high moral horses and would probably reply yes while others will nod. Ohh come on, we all know they don't. They don't really matter unless you are getting admitted in to colleges, the frontiers for your career. In that case, they do.

It really matters whether you were one who liked to sink into the heavy books or just troll around and enjoy your life. Either way, we all just get what we  "deserve". Well, the one who decides what we actually deserve are the ones who haven't even met us any time and all what they have to actually "judge" you is your marks. Hence they matter.

But the questioner must not be obviously satisfied with this which is why he asked the question. We all will just presume that the most appropriate and a rational answer with a broad perspective will be "No, the school marks don't matter and will never will. "

But we are so limited to our imaginations that we doubt even our own intellect.

You were wrong. I was wrong. It was only when I realized this was when I read this amazing answer.

"Let's say you go to a gym and work hard. At the end of workout, you would be profusely sweating and your muscles would be aching a lot. If we equate school to a gym, that sweat is the marks you scored. 

What is important is not the sweat itself [which is just salt water] but what you did to get the sweating. If you are doing the right way, the sweat indicates that you might be developing endurance and strength in your body. In short, it is that endurance and strength that matters in the gym, which we cannot see and thus use sweat as a proxy. 

In the same way, it is your knowledge and reasoning skills you acquire in school that is ultimately important. Unfortunately, we don't have an easy way of seeing that and thus use examinations and marks as proxies [we are slowly developing better proxies both at the gym and at schools]. 

Just as you can fake sweat [stand near the heater, spray water on yourself, be afraid of something] you can absolutely fake marks without building the mental strength. Many do so. However, sooner or later they end up in courses and careers that they hate. And other times you might not sweat at all [the gym could have been cool] but still might be building the strength.

See your marks just like the sweat. It is useless by itself, but if you are honest to yourself it might indicate that you are developing the knowledge and skills needed for the world. Also, marks might indicate developing only one aspect of endurance. You should also get on to Olympiad and other things that you are passionate about. The school should be the place where you explore yourself and passionately do stuff you care about and equally passionately do stuff that you don't like, but will help in the future."

Very few human are capable of drawing such a wonderful inferences from everyday examples and this man(Balaji Viswanath) is among them. It was a pleasure reading.

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The AIB Knockout is DOWN!!

I will have to really say thanks all those Samaritans who downloaded the video into their devices because the videos are no longer available!


Whose roast it was? Arjun Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Karan Johar and the panelists THEMSELVES! Who got offended? Our politicians and "aam janta". The very good "aam janta" who finds it OKAY to be profane in their daily life, even Marriage Functions aka in PUBLIC but  surely find the same abusive content which were raised after too many warnings and that too for charity to be offensive as hell. Bloody Double standards!

I stand against this. Do you? Please do read Youthconnect's response to the incident.

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