Some Surprises really matter!!!

I am doing DBP these days on my blog. :)

Oh I am sorry, I didn’t realize that I am on blog and there are many more people apart from SPJAINITES who might see my blog. So for non-SPJAINITES, DBP means Desperate Blog Participation and origin of this acronym is DCP (Desperate Class Participation)

DCP signifies an iterative annoying act of Division B participants of PGDM program at S.P.Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai, when the class is in progress.

Getting back to the topic....

Surprises, who doesn’t like surprises?? Everybody on this earth experiences surprises in their own way.

Congress was pleasantly surprised to see its number improving in Uttar Pradesh without any coalition. On the other hand Mr.Advani was surprised to realize that he no longer can become the prime minister of India.

Also, Narendra Modi is surprised of his US visa getting denied again and again for his heroics.

Coming to the sports, everyone was surprised to see Brazil out of FIFA World Cup 2010 at the Quarterfinal Stage and Federer crashing out of Wimbledon.

A typical Software Engineer is also surprised when his visa gets processed in spite of his long history of bench in the company.

Also a meritorious student with 90% marks is surprised to see that a mere 65% marks holder gets the birth right to study in a premier institute in the name of reservation ahead of him, where he has to pay concessional fees that too paid by Government.

Everyone experiences surprises at every stage of life. I am no exception to it.

I am forced by my nature to experience most of my life’s surprises as shocking incidents but then when life looks so monotonous and tiring, there comes some pleasant surprises.

One of the pleasant surprises that I experienced was on my birthday i.e 24^th April. I was doing my academic project with a NGO named Prayas in Little Andaman Islands of Andaman & Nicobar. I know you must have felt “the awe” feeling when I said Andamans. I along with my friends Amol, Anoop & Shubham has already spent around 30 days in Andaman by skipping breakfast, having rice along with sambhar for lunch and masala dosa for dinner. Amidst Masala Dosas, field visits, IPL matches we also experienced Earth Quake tremors along with a warning of Tsunami from the meteorological department over TV. This was in no way a pleasant surprise when you are staying in a Guest House which is just 500 meters away from the sea. The tremors passed off without Tsunami but we (atleast I) had apprehensions about our safety.

April 23^rd, 2010 – I was seriously drafting my report and hoping that there are no more tremors. Amol, Anoop & Shubham comes in with a birthday cake. Imagine a birthday cake in Little Andaman where you don’t find Chapathi but dosa and Milk is what the people there are not aware of.

I was surprised to see how they managed to get a Cake for my b’day.

I experienced a similar surprise on 14^th July 2010. We arranged a meet with a bunch of juniors who has few things like Hyderabadi Biryani, Irani Chai, Love for charminaar & Hussain Sagar as common between them and my batch mates at SPJIMR. To my surprise, I found yet another Birthday Cake which has my name on it. This was totally unpredictable since my birthday was over 4 months back.

These surprises are those that really matters to me. As a muslim, I do not believe in celebrating birthdays. Our faith is that there is a life after death and our deeds in this world will be duly rewarded in the next life. So every time my birthday comes, I feel that I am one year closer to my death and in turn to my life after death, for which I am not yet prepared.

I strongly believe in this faith yet I have no qualms of cutting a cake.I am not denying the faith but enjoying the affection that people around me show.

Reason:

When the birthday comes, not all your friends will call you and wishes you. Only few of them do. These few might not be those whom you consider close friends. They call you because you have given them a reason to associate themselves with you and they respect you for that association.

When someone brings a cake for you, it is definitely not just out of formality but because of the affection and respect that they have for you. They might not show this affection every now and then but what a friend you are if you are not able to understand that unsaid affection.

Allah has gifted me with so many people who associate with me and with whom I want to associate. I sometimes have neglected this gift because of the increased emphasis on later half of the above sentence but then you are a human being and you are destined to make mistakes and learn from it.

I am not a person with special qualities or charms. I am an ordinary person (aam admi - the mango people) who was clueless as to what he should do once he cut the cake unless someone comes forward and feeds him a small one.

Whatever be the reason that people find in me to associate with me, I pray that, that reason remain forever.

Thank you Everyone for that wonderful moment!!!

PS: Please ignore the sarcasm in the starting of blog as I am not satisfied unless I take a dig at politicians ;)

Thank you TOI for the report

Day: Sunday, 11-July-2010
Paper: Times of India (mumbai edition)
Page Number: 20

I do not have the habit of reading newspaper especially the Times of India for its myopic reporting of stories of national and human interest. Often I treated this newspaper as yet another form of soap operas that come out of Balaji Telefilms production house.
Today, I happen to lay my hand on TOI since ET & HINDU were not available due to reasons unknown. Interestingly I found an article on page number 20 of this newspaper's mumbai edition.
The heading goes this way

MEET THE MUPPIES^*

But young Muslims are increasingly upwardly mobile and embracing aspiration and achievement

ONLY 5% GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES ARE MUSLIM JUST 3% ARE IAS & IPS OFFICERS 99% HAVE MINOR JOBS IN THE RAILWAYS

I looked into the word web to find out the meaning of Muppies but it didn't help me out. So I ignored the word and an asterik besides it. The next two sentences quoted above are the matter of interest to me. Let me go through the second sentence first.

The second sentence says, only 5% govt employees are muslims, 3% are IAS, IPS officers. Considering that Muslims constitute 15-17% of Indian population and are growing steadily in number, the above figures are shocking.
In quest of reasons that led to such a sorrow situation of Indian Muslims, I bumped into a Sachar Committe Report of 2006 which was tabled in Lok Sabha. I am not sure what happened to it after it was submitted, but there are some interesting findings.

1. 25 per cent of Muslim children in the 6-14 year age group have either never attended school or have dropped out.

2. Drop out rates among Muslims are higher at the level of primary, middle and higher secondary.

3. Only 3% of Muslim children among the school going age go to Madarsas. Still the media calls few cities "Atankgarh".

4. The average amount of bank loan disbursed to the Muslims is 2/3 of the amount disbursed to other minorities. In some cases it is half.

5. The presence of Muslims has been found to be only 3% in the IAS, 1.8% in the IFS and 4% in the IPS.

6. There are about 5 lakh registered Wakfs with 6 lakh acre land and Rs 6,000 crore book value. But the gross income from all these properties is only 163 crores i.e. 2.7%.

Reasons for such a state:

1. Majority of Indian Muslims constitute lower strata of society who are either self employed or work at a very low level. Their income levels doesn't help them get past of couple of meals per day. If that is the case, how can they think of sending their children to school?

2. Muslims who work as butchers, rickshaw pullers, masons, cobblers, barbers etc are considered in General Category where as non-muslims belonging to similar profession are considered SC, ST, BC and they enjoy the benefits of reservation provided to them.

3. Those muslims who are successful Engineers, Doctors, lawyers etc try to distance themselves from words like Islam, Terrorism, Madrasas, Fatwa, Fundamentalism etc. No one comes forward to clarify the doubts that the entire world associates with these words. In turn, these
people are jeopardizing the future of all those poor muslims who are fighting for their survival.

4. Now comes our esteemed politicians. Whenever I think of Muslim politicians, I remember role of a muslim politician played in the movie DEV. In the movie, post riot, he discourages muslims to file a complaint in PS stating reasons of pride, self respect. In turn he misleads them for his selfish motives. Similar is the case with real time politicians.

For eg, Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen of Hyderabad is approx 4 decade old party has been winning consistently from this constituency but there are no developments. The roads and traffic around Charminar is still chaotic. Old City still gets water once in two days. The drainage system overflows with a marginal rain. Still people vote for them because they were told that if MIM doesn't win, BJP will win.

5. Majority of Wakf properties are sold to Corporates and Land Mafia and so they are not able to benefit muslims. It is alleged that some of the wakf properties of Hyderabad in Gachibowli were given to Infosys, ISB, Wipro and Microsoft. A case was in progress in AP high Court when
heard last.

Amidst all these disturbing incidents, it is refreshing to see these kind of articles which focus on the positive side of Indian Muslims. Such articles also clear the air showing that Indian Muslims wants to break out of the stereotypes that they were forced into and want to be part of inclusive growth that India is witnessing. The attitudinal change that has come in the muslim youth is very nominal. A lot more needs to be done without compromising on the basics of Islam.

Finally, my name is Mohammed Khalid and I am an Indian Muslim.
JAI HIND

Better late than never

I created my blog way back in 2007 but never posted anything. Frankly, I never felt a need to post anything. After almost 3 years, I felt that there should be a medium to reach out to the larger audience and communicate with them. For the past few years, I have been thinking about the state of Indian Muslims and wanted to do something for their welfare. I might not be able to bring a drastic change in the perceptions of non-muslims about Islam and its followers in India but I am sure that I will be able to communicate the feelings of many Indian Muslims. Now a thought might struck you as to why I want to do this now. There is a reason to it. Some time back I saw a video where Maulana Madani, a Rajya Sabha MP gave a fitting reply to Miya Musharraf when he visited India and put forward a view of Indian Muslims rather than Muslims. Off late I realized that there are hardly anyone who communicates the feelings of Indian Muslims on a national platform. Everyone just wants to tap the roughly 18-20 Crore votes every 5 years and there are no concrete promises. Some call this act minority appeasement and some give it the name of Minority Welfare and sets up a ministry without substantial vision.

Moreover, the TV channels conduct panel discussions involving celebs like Shabana Azmi, Javed Akhtar, Najma Heptullah who are in no way representative of 20 Crore muslims in India.
There has to be someone who is Indian as well as a muslim not by virtue of his name but by his deeds, to speak his/her mind out. There are quite a few people like Dr.Zakir Naik who fits the bill but we need many more educated Indian Muslims to stop being selfish and stand up for the community and in turn for the country.

This thought motivated me to start posting something relevant and reach out to as many people as possible.

Insha-Allah, I succeed in my attempt.