Step this way, Mr Khan, you may be a terrorist

Alas, we have to face the truth - having a surname like Khan can get you in some sticky situations in the US of A, the self-declared beholder of human rights the world over. When will they learn? You can't stereotype terrorists by their name or appearance. It's common sense, if it's a real terrorist you are dealing with, he will not travel under his real name...he could be Ronald McDonald for all you know! Secondly, what makes you (yes, you paranoid airport officials!) think that he'll be wearing a salwar kameez and a scraggly beard so you can point out, 'hey! that's a terrorist!' Seriously, US needs some strict lessons in orderly conduct here. And we all know Shah Rukh Khan's case is not the first time this has happened. Dr Abdul Kalam had to face similar humiliation recently, and God knows how many countless others are made to go through this just because their surname denotes them as Muslim or they look 'suspicious'?

That's the American side of the story, but we need to seriously think about the Indian government's reaction too: there is none. I don't know whether Indians politicians suffer from a chronic inferiority complex or colonial mindset but they have the feeblest of reactions or none at all. I don't mean the government should have made a noise about SRK, but at least about Dr Kalam? Why don't we make some strong statements to show that our dignity matters? Why didn't we frisk Hillary Clinton when she was on a visit? Oops sorry! We were busy falling at her feet!

Even in the case of attacks against Indians in Australia, which is a deadly serious matter, what exactly has the Indian government done to offer security to its citizens? Nothing, except made some feeble requests to the Australian government, which is in snobbish denial of everything. What we needed here were some strong measures to ensure that our kids are safe in foreign lands. We have seen how USA protects and aids its citizens no matter where they are. If we want to be seen anywhere on the global map as a country with its own standing, we have to learn to speak out.

Three Cups of Tea: The triumph of one man's vision of peace

It's hard to believe that a person like Greg Mortensen exists today. What he has achieved by setting up hundreds of schools in war-torn and poor regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan is no mean feat. And that too, with just the determination and will to power him though. The book, Three Cups of Tea, is authored by Mortensen and David Oliver Relin and narrates how Mortensen went from being a mountaineer to a promoter of peace and goodwill.

Mortensen's story is an extraordinary one, not because of the extraordinary dreams he had but because he's actually achieved them. Staying with the people in the most isolated mountains of Pakistan, Mortensen realises how important a good education is to them. He promises the people of Korphe to build a school for them and after years of struggling and encountering all sorts of hardship, he succeeds in keeping his promise. He does this while not having a full-time job and sleeping in his car.

As you progress through the book, you realise that it is only Mortensen's compassion and his determination to do good that keeps him going. Otherwise, for a man who has no funds and is an American, it is almost impossible to win the cooperation and hearts of people in the innermost regions of Pakistan where even the government has not been able to do much.

After years of struggling and striving, Mortensen succeeds in setting up the Central Asia Institute (CAI) which exists today and has become a full-fledged organisation promoting peace through education. Mortensen's logic is that terrorism is bred when uneducated children are brainwashed by conniving fascists. A modern education is the only way to avoid this and CAI concentrates on education above all the other things it does to help the downtrodden and needy.

No book review can do justice to this book which must be read in its entirety to comprehend the full power of Mortensen's work.

Read Three Cups of Tea for sure, but also do what you can to support CAI and its noble initiatives.

Visit:
Greg Mortenson's home page

Three Cups of Tea

Central Asia Institute

The Undomestic Goddess: Time to slow down!

Reviewing a chiklit novel isn't exactly necessary because its sole purpose is to entertain you and keep you rolling with laughter. But I'm making an exception with this one...

I particularly love Sophie Kinsella's sense of humour ever since I read Confessions of a Shopaholic. I haven't read any of its sequels because I felt they would never match up to the excitement of the first one. So I picked up The Undomestic Goddess to get more of that genuine humour and particularly because the theme of this book itself is so hilarious.

Samantha Sweeting is a top notch lawyer in London. She's so busy that she literally has to remind herself to take a breath. She's addicted to her Blackberry and nothing can tear her away from work at law firm where she's spent five long years harbouring her dream of becoming a partner.

A disastrous event more or less ends her career as a lawyer and Samantha finds herself in the countryside at a mansion, being mistaken for a housekeeper. Samantha knows absolutely nothing about cooking, cleaning or ironing and her endeavours at fooling her already foolish employers is entertaining to the core.

Needless to say, there's a man too and this time it's a Mills&Boon type of dark, handsome, rugged hero who also happens to be the gardener.

But if you think the book's just about rolling in the grass and baking bread, think again. There is a real plot to the book as Samantha attempts to salvage her career at one point and faces some scandalizing truths.

The Undomestic Goddess is also about slowing down. In Samantha, working women will see bits of themselves trying to do too much without sparing a thought to their real dreams. With Samantha, it goes to the extreme but the lesson to be learnt is that it's good to take a break once in a while.

Kulfi hunting in Old Delhi

It was a picture of mouth-watering kulfis in the latest issue of Time Out that led me (and my better half who really hoped this was worth it!) to explore the bylanes of Old Delhi to locate the famous Kuremals kulfi wala. A metro ride to Chawri Bazaar led us to the chaotic Sita Ram market which we would have scoured up and down at least twice before being directed to one tiny bylane from among the numerous there. Walking down the isolated, though not completely empty, lane led us to the famous Kuremal's - shuttered down!


My first instinct was to call up the Time Out office and give them a piece of my mind as it was only 7.30 pm and the magazine said it was open up to 9 pm. Luckily, just opposite was the shop of Lala Dulli Chand Naresh Gupta, another renowned kulfi wala. The guy at the shop informed us that Kuremals has not been operating for a while now, and only works on special orders. What a pity!

Anyhow, we started off the thing we came for - stuffed mango kulfi. He gave us six sumptuous pieces of frozen mango filled with kesar kulfi and pistachio. It was the most unusual and amazing frozen dessert I have ever had! So much so, that in my excitement I forgot to photograph it! (As a result, I am putting up a pic of the kulfi courtesy eatanddust.wordpress.com)

We followed that by anaar kulfi (pomegranate) which was more of a gola, fruit cream (not as good as expected, a bit flavourless) and matka rabri kulfi (authentic to the core).

The shop also has faalsa kulfi, stuffed apple kulfi and litchi kulfi but we didn't try those out. Overall, the experience was good but I don't know whether I would go all the way again for it. And that's the point anyway...I wanted to visit this part of Delhi at least once...and it was worth it.

Aakriti vs Shanno

Two incidents in two schools happened recently, leading to the death of two girls. One died due to the alleged lack of medical attention and other, due to an alleged punishment that went too far. Both received due media attention but it is the first case which evoked the candlelight protests and visits from politicians.

Aakriti was a 17 year-old student of Modern school who died of an asthma attack, and her parents allege that it is the school's untimely response which killed her. The media hype was enough to have Sheila Dixit and Renuka Chowdhury visit Aakriti's parents. Now, the parents are planning to take the case to court.

On the other hand, Shanno was an 11 year-old child studying in a nondescript school who belonged to a poor family who could hardly make ends meet. She clearly died from brutal punishment at the hands of a teacher who has not even been implicated so far. No one has come to Shanno's aid, and no one is taking up her cause - forget candlelight protests. Not wanting to send her siblings to the same school, her parents have instead admitted them into an orphanage.

It's not that I blame Aakriti's parents for having the muscle to create a noise, but what happened is unfair. The poor girl's plight has no takers, except for 2-3 days that it received coverage. Her parents don't have the time or money to buy a place in media. They don't have visits from politicians to show for it. Most probably, the teacher/school authorities paid off the doctors and police to make Shanno's death look like an epileptic attack. Even if she did suffer from epilepsy, did the teacher not bring it on with her brutality? But nobody will answer these questions, because nobody's interested.

As for the other case, reports lead us to believe that the school did all it could to help Aakriti and most schools dont have a doctor on location. She was apparently ill before joining school and her parents could have taken extra precaution given her condition.

Whether it's media bias or a reflection of our own prejudiced society, we knwo how this goes. The poor man's daughter has no sympathizers but the rich man's daughter has plenty.