Love came and spread like blood in my veins and the skin of me,
It filled me with the Friend and completely emptied me.
The Friend has taken over all parts of my existence,
Only my name remains, as all is He. —— Amir Khosraw
Tag Archive: Delhi
I have been reading about Sarmad for a while, especially since I got know about him for the first time in Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s writings. I have a habit of reading about the Indian freedom fighters especially their writings and books they read. It offers a great insight into many forgotten people in the past of Indian history, Sarmad Kashani is one of them, a Sufi of Qadiri Order.
Maulana Azad uses Miratul Khayal by Sherkhan Lodhi and Riaz-ul-shuara by Ali Quli Valeh Daghistani to narrate Sarmad.
From many accounts which I have read of him, Sarmad is described as a Jew Trader from Iran or Persia who came to India during 5th Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan’s time for selling his items. Here he landed in Thatta province, Sind in in 1631 (Modern Day Karachi, Pakistan).
He was born in Armenian Jewish family in Kashan, Persia. His date of birth is unknown; scholars say it at 1590 CE, however some claim for a range of dates between 1590 till 1618 CE.
He resided in Iranian town of Kashan, hence getting the surname Kashani. Sarmad, I think is his Sufi name, I do not have any information about his Jewish name. He also had a Muslim name Muhammad Sa’id.
The accounts of his conversion to Islam are bit hazy, some scholars point that he had already converted in Iran before coming and some say that he converted after coming to Thatta, Sindh. There are multiple scenarios narrated.
Scenario 1
It is narrated that since Sarmad was a trader from Iran or Persia who wanted to make money, he was told by his friends about India where Persian is official language and people gave a lot of money to purchase Persian goods. It was because Mughals have given patronage to Persian culture (owing to King of Persia’s assistance to 2nd Mughal king Himayaun for recapturing Delhi).
He was informed that in India or Hindustan as it was called then, people value Sufis a lot, even the Mughal Kings listen to their opinions. As a trader he wanted to get more information about the place before he sets out to sell off his items in an unknown distant land.
Since he was Jew, he did not know about Sufism or Islam, so in order to get acquainted he read about it and got knowledge from the Islamic scholars and eventually got converted and set off for India to sell precious items.
Scenario 2
He was born a Jew and had written on Judaism in Persian. He was interested in other religions’ working. In order to get more knowledge, he read Christian teaching and got converted to Christianity and then read Sufi Islam, later converted to Islam. Finally arriving in Thatta, Sindh to sell off his precious artcraft.
Scenario 3
When Sarmad reached Thatta in Sindh, he fell in love with the local girl, but due to some unfortunate events lost every possession, including the local girl. The impact of this destructive love made him give up his clothes and worldly things. He would walk the streets of Thatta naked. In this state of absolute renunciation, Sarmad achieved the heights of spiritualism.
During this process he met Abhay Chand, who decided to become his disciple and their relationship helped soften the bruises of Sarmad’s heart. In short starting the Murshid– Murid relationship and his walk towards Sufism.
Scenario 4
This is the more vocal one, scholars say that he came to Thatta as a Jew, having knowledge of Sufism and India. His meeting with a boy named Abhay Chand led to his transformation into Sufi and conversion into Islam.
The account goes that he saw Abhay Chand (18 year old son of a rich Hindu Trader) sing in a gathering multiple times and fell in love with him. This love help him transform into a Sufi.
Now this account of love has been interpreted by many as him being homosexual (in short a sexual love) by some scholars and making him more at odds with the Orthodox Islamic scholars. Since Islamic scholars or Mullahs abhor and detest such unnatural relationships. However such homosexual relationships were found to be common in Middle East and Central Asian region, so this might have led to interpretation.
There is another viewpoint of scholars stating that this was father-son type relationship or love. This can also be called as Teacher and student relationship in Sufi way of life, Murshid– Murid relationship. Nothing of sexual nature, however since people like to put all love in sexual domains and enjoy scandalous things, Abhay Chand and Sarmad’s relationship was termed homosexual (to make fun of them in the eyes of more disapproving individuals).
It is said that Sarmad’s attachment to Abhay Chand let to his downfall, his items were all gone which he brought to sell. The ship in which he came, went back without him. The Governor of Thatta Province and Abhay Chand’s father tried to separate them, but were unsuccessful. In the end both were ostracized and asked to leave Thatta.
Note to the Reader on Abhay Chand & Sarmad relationship
I would like point here that the relationship between Murshid– Murid has always been close in Sufism, it is a spiritual relationship and not of any sexual nature. There are many examples in this regard.
Such as relationship between Amir Khusroo and his master Hazrat Nizamuddin_Auliya
Amir Khusroo sang many songs in praise of his Murshid and voiced his love for him. Khusroo died within few weeks after the death of his master and his tomb lies only forty feet away from his master.
It is said in Sufism that there is no relationship more sacred than between Teacher and student.
Many Islamic Scholars favored by the royal court of Aurangzeb and currently many orthodox Islamist in world use this relationship to tarnish the clean image of Sarmad.
Sarmad’s search for God blurred the lines of religion, caste and creeds drawn by the society. He wrote verse in this regard:
“Who is the lover, beloved, idol and idol-maker but you?
Who is the beloved of the Kaaba, the temple and the mosque?
Come to the garden and see the unity in the array of colours.
In all of this, who is the lover, the beloved, the flower and the thorn?”
Life after Thatta
It is said that both (Sarmad and Abhay) left for Lahore, where Sarmad wrote many verses of Rubayat, which later become famous. He stayed there for 13 years and thereafter went to Golconda in south India (Currently known as Hyderabad, Telangana, India). From there both moved to Agra and finally in 1657, they came to Delhi and settled down at the Dargah of Khawaja Harey Bharey.
Sarmad taught Abhay Chand Arabic, Persian and Jewish. He helped him translate many works from Persian to Local language of India at the time.
Life in Delhi
Sarmad reached Delhi on 1657 and in couple of years started to have a massive following. He use to reside near Delhi’s Meena Bazar (besides Jama Masjid).
During this time he came in contact to Dara Shikoh, who was eldest son of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz (Taj Mahal Couple). Dara was supposed to be crowned the next Mughal king. He was well read and had translated many texts to Persians from Indian religions. The most prominent of his translation was Upanishads. He was a devout Sufi of Qadiri order.
Fate had other plans for Dara and Sarmad, Dara’s youngest brother ‘the more radical’ Aurangzeb became the next Mughal king. Sarmad and Aurangzeb were ideological enemies, Sarmad stood for everything that Aurangzeb hated. Hence it led to many run-ins between both of them.
There are many legendary tails between Aurangzeb and Sarmad, but it can be attributed to stories people build for spirit and shape viewpoint of Sarmad and Aurangzeb’s supposed encounters.
On story goes that as Aurangzeb’s procession was passing through the streets of Delhi, he saw Sarmad sitting by the roadside. Aurangzeb ordered march to halt and demanded the mystic to cover himself. The peer or saint looked at him with wrathful eyes and said, ‘If you think I need to cover my nudity so badly, why you don’t cover me yourself ?’
When the emperor lifted the blanket lying on Sarmad’s side, he saw the bloodied heads of all the family members he had had secretly murdered. Bewildered, Aurangzeb looked at Sarmad, who said, ‘Now tell me, what should I cover — your sins or my thighs ?’
In another such story, Emperor Aurangzeb’s daughter, Princess Zebunnisa (she was eldest daughter and inspired by Sufism), saw Sarmad making clay houses on the roadside. After paying her respects, she inquired: ‘Are these for sale?’
‘Yes,’ Sarmad said, ‘I will sell them for some tobacco.’
Upon receiving the tobacco, Sarmad wrote around the border of one of the clay houses: This clay house is sold to Princess Zebunnisa for some tobacco. That night Emperor Aurangzeb saw a dream.
He was roaming around in Paradise, when he saw a beautiful palace. When he approached it, he was barred from entering it. Then he noticed that the palace had Princess Zebunnisa’s name written on it.
Pic by JoydeepHazarika
Execution
Aurangzeb ascended throne on 1658 AD and had Sarmad executed in 1661 AD, after having Dara Shikoh executed in 1659 AD.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad referred to the Pro-Aurangzeb historian Sher Khan Lodhi in his writings, who described Sarmad in his book “Miras-ul-Khyal” in the following words:” Sultan Dara had an affinity to mad people so he became friend with Sarmad.”
Maulana Azad commented: “He (Lodhi) doesn’t know that there is set of scales in which this madness would outweigh all wisdom in the world. Dara was probably fed up with the pernicious wisdom of the likes of Aurangzeb that he preferred the company of Sarmad.” Sarmad suffered the same fate as Dara.
Azad adds – “Dara Shikoh had a unique mind and temperament and all should mourn the unfortunate day when his enemies triumphed.”
The trial given to Sarmad was farce, orchestrated by the Islamic Mullahs (associated with modern day Salafis) in Aurangzeb’s court, Aurangzeb himself wanted to get rid of all those associated with his eldest brother Dara Shikoh.
Sarmad was dragged to the Qazi’s court where he was accused of defying the shariah by living naked. Sarmad had befitting replies to all of the Qazi’s accusations, and this frustrated him even more. In order to make him relent, the Mullah had Abhay Chand flogged in front of Sarmad. It is said that the whip lashed Abhay Chand’s flesh, but the pain was inflicted on Sarmad.
For the Mullah Qazi, Islam was a set of stern and inflexible laws (this is Salafi interpretation of Islam). For Sarmad, it was nothing but a message of love (Sufi Interpretation of Islam).Aurangzeb knew that public of Delhi was behind Sarmad and if he gives him execution sentence on lesser crime like nakedness or being with Abhay Chand, it will create a rebellion. Hence he instructed Mullah that Sarmad be asked to recite Kalima-e-Tayyaba.
Aurangzeb knew Sarmad never use to finish the Kalima and this would be good enough reason for apostasy or Atheism.
Pic by JoydeepHazarika
The Mullahs demanded that Sarmad should recite the kalimah shahada (acceptance of oneness of God), which “La Ilaha Illallah, Muhammad-ur Rasul Allah” (there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad SWT is the messenger of Allah), in order to prove that he was a true Muslim.
Sarmad refused to go beyond “La Ilaha,” which means there is no God, as he had still not found the end of his search for God. This enraged the Mullahs who awarded him death sentence. Hence, Sarmad was dragged through the streets of Delhi and promptly beheaded.
A story goes, that Sarmad emerged victorious in death. He picked up his severed head much to the fright of his executioners. Then he started to climb the stairs of the Jama Masjid, while mocking the emperor and his false men of God all the while. In his death, Sarmad had the one God, testifying to the truth of his own understanding of Islam.
At the moment he was about to enter the Jama Masjid mosque, a voice called him out from the grave of Harey Bharey and asked him to relent as he had reached the end of his journey and had united with God at last. Sarmad turned round and went to Harey Bharey’s tomb. There he was buried by the side of Harey Bharey, where they share a common Dargah today.
The curse of Sarmad fell on Aurangzeb as the Mughal Empire gradually crumbled in front of his very eyes. He did not have any peaceful day in his old life.
Legacy
Sarmad would be best described as :
a Jew who became a Christian,
a Christian who became a Muslim,
a Muslim who became a Hindu and
a Hindu who renounced everything and became an Atheist.
His refusal to recite the full Kalima-e-Tayyaba led to him being classified as Kafir and apostate, thereby making him fit to be killed in Aurangzeb’s Empire.
His Martyrdom made him a revered figure, but his tomb does not seems to have that much footfall as of Chishti order Sufis.
Sarmad will always be remembered more as the most fearless Sufi in Delhi, who challenged Emperor and his ‘bigot’ Islamist Mullahs’ interpretation of Islam.
I would like to point it here that, I being a native of Delhi, never went to his tomb. Even though I have gone to Jama Masjid area innumerable times for food and Chandani Chowk to purchase books. Infact I didn’t even know where his tomb resided, it is situated in Meena Bazaar lane. However, I must say that it was a very fulfilling experience knowing about Sarmad Kashani, a Qadiri Sufi. I have been more familiar with only Chishti Sufis. India offers you many answers on spiritual level, it is just that people are not aware of the place to look at.
References:
http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/N7FBbGjeLotufVA8sLjyUM/Delhis-Belly–The-real-naked-fakir.html
http://apnaorg.com/books/english/rubayat-sarmad/rubayat-sarmad.pdf
http://zoya-thewayofasufi.blogspot.in/2011/05/sarmad-heretic-sufi-apostate.html
http://razarumi.com/stories-of-sarmad/
http://archives.deccanchronicle.com/130904/commentary-op-ed/commentary/sarmad-shaheed-fearless-sufi
http://beyondheadlines.in/2013/05/sarmad-shaheed-the-martyr-of-love/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge6H59aabN4
http://www.gutenberg.us/articles/sarmad_kashani
http://mylikhoni.blogspot.in/2011/06/martyr-of-love.html
http://www.thedelhiwalla.com/2014/02/06/city-faith-hazrat-sarmad-shahids-dargah-near-jama-masjid/
“Although hundreds of friends
Have become my foes,
The friendship of One
Has given security to my soul.
Rejecting many I have embraced the One-
At last
I am He and He is me.” ― Sarmad Shaheed, The Rubaiyat of Sarmad
.
The winters in Delhi more so importantly in national capital region is something most north Indians look forward too. The arrival of winter in its truest sense is defined along with arrival of a certain smell which many enjoy, the smell of flowers blossoming.
Saptaparni tree in full bloom has this smell which is just calming and perfect. This however is not true for entire day, but rather sets in during the night ( usually after 6, when the dark sets in). Therefore in order to catch the smell I deliberately leave office late.
The remarkable part however is how much old men enjoy this so much.The other day when I bought some stuff from an old man ( who might be above 65 I think) and had a conversation with him about the smell and he told me about the whole Saptaparni tree. The thing which struck me most is that old people are like an ocean of knowledge and so many stories which certainly “younger” aged people may not be. The young and youth however rarely gives them chance to let it go or vent out. ( barring ANNA HAZARE ofcourse)
On a side note, speaking about this “ocean of knowledge” :
Now this is something I would say that I have seen from a personal experience. I have a friend (who if reading will understand that I am talking about him), the equation that he shares with his grandfather makes me question alot. For eg, whenever I have seen him sit next to his grandfather (which is behest of only when his grandfather has called him). The situation he shows via his body language is that he seems to be having a constipation problem (atleast that is how his face becomes) or he is under tremendous stress. Mind you now this grandfather of his is very “refined” and “all class” but somehow he is not able to speak freely in-front of him. Since he being the eldest of all the cousins , he kinda sets the standards which are followed by his young siblings. ( so you see how the others might have similar issues, emulating him).I on the other hand seem to have good rapport with his grandfather , may be because I donot shy away from speaking my mind and listening, whereas my friend here has this fear.
Now I speak on this because old people both men and women have so much stories to tell you, it is a shame that not many appreciate that now days.
Coming back to the topic, the winters have special connection to north India and many enjoy it. Now the bathing is the fun part, I for one bath with cold water till the time in winter I can and have the will power to do so. Most would say that is just ridiculous but well there are some points to counter that too.
- It cools your body and mind.
- The circulation of blood is better.
- You don’t feel that cold.
- You can enjoy winters with just a shirt and trousers on.
- Be a stud (okey, that I included because I needed a 5th point 🙂 )
The things which make me like winters more is that you can actually enjoy tea or coffee ( though I like to avoid the latter). The school time was however different. In my school one had to get up at 5 am, since my school bus was there at 6 am ( which I without doubt use to ALWAYS miss and had to go to another bus stop to catch it). In schools winters were best for all kinds of stuff ( now don’t get naughty, I haven’t mentioned anything) .
People with their blazers and sweaters. Studs with just shirts on……… (they wore trousers too, just in case people might get a wrong visual) and girls well now that depended on alot on which “gang” they were in. ( plus I donot wish to talk school gossips on my blog).
The college however was more “adventurous“, since engineering rarely is “boring”. It is always a fight there. The winters were “accepted” with semester exams, which many fought hard “bravely“. Reaching the examination spot was the most awesome part of the whole day. Guys jam packed in cars studying like hell and the “driver” guy who was usually one of us, listening to the lectures. The fogs were just outrageous which usually arrived in the months of December and January. ( it has not arrived yet otherwise I would have put the pic).
The most notable part of the winters in national capital region or NCR is that evenings use to come early. At 5 pm things are dark. If you are in plains with not many building, then you in direct attack of chilly winds.
The winters have just begun………. I hope to see loads of fog and hope that one can get good pic which one could post on the blog…… WINTERS, definitely is the time to be.
Well for starters like all the fans of metallica. I was also waiting for them to come and sing at my hometown. The luck had it that they were coming to India for the first time and that too in Delhi. However, there is an old saying that somethings are too good to be true.
The concert never occurred and I for one with my friends was sitting very near to the barricade where the mess was about to begin. Therefore was witness to alot of problem and how the organizers were trying to “calm” the crowd.
This whole preparation for Metallica concert began 2 week prior to the concert date. I fail to understand that not one person thought that barricade issue must be dealt with in advance.Though this below “birds eye view” pic that a friend of my took, let one to believe that there would be no toilets too. ( But that was not the case, there were toilets)
Both my friends and I were excited as the date for the concert came near. On the very day of the concert. Like most people attending my friends took the day off. I in order to fulfill my duties at office reached the spot after lunch after performing the necessary work. In short half day. (Being in gurgaon, it was easy just like a dream but the dream did turn sour)
My friends reached the spot at 1:30 pm via delhi metro (the most convenient of the rides in and around Delhi). Upon reaching the spot they called me to reach the place where they were sitting. This whole thing was preceded by the day before buying of Metallica T-shirts from Palika Bazaar at CP. Something which we were unsuccessful in doing as there were NO Metallica T shirts left (can you imagine the madness). The T shirts of the other bands were selling like hot cakes but costing 500 to 700 Rupees ( but the cloth was on Rs 100 quality).
Anyway, Sandeep Kanwar Azrawat (also with love called BODY, since he emulates Salman Khan in physical department), the Haryanvi Rajput with a remarkable confidence and die hard spirit suggested that we should go ahead with our band Arcane deception’s T shirts as they are of better quality and reasonable price. ( arcane deception is a Band started by one our friends , so we like to call it ours, Indian mentality 🙂 )
Finally, Sandeep Kunwar Azrawat along with Mr Punia and Mr Prem were already in and sitting on the right side of the stage enjoying. When I called them they said I should go for gate no 3 for entry, this was so as most people were standing on gate no 1. With no one to tell them that gate No 3 is virtually free ( crowd management tsk…. tsk…. ).
I fought through the crowd from gate no 1 into gate no 3, in the process noticing loads of smoking (both boys and girls, gender equality guys, if a guy can die of a lung cancer why would a girl want to feel left behind, some females do feel a need to neutralize that gap for sure). Then I saw a boy trying to help a girl who got her leg cut,putting her feet on his jeans and taking care of the wound on the leg (I bet it was sure love sight for girls ).
Upon reaching the “frisking” counter, I was frisked by 10 guys some even looked at my socks but as other blogs are saying there were no metal detectors. I for one could see people smoking inside the park, so what was the other gates doing.
Well I finally reached the spot where Premchand Singh (no relation to literary giant of hindi), Sandeep Kunwar Azrawat and Captain Punia were seated. We greated each other with rowdy madness as if we were the lost brothers meeting after 20 years of civil war ( I guess once you go through the civil war at all the gates, emotions do pour out unchecked :)).
Later we realized that there were Iranians also in our crowd sitting in front row. Puffing their cigarettes. Now the issue came of water. Mr Rao ( the wiseone from AMERIKA) had told me about potential situation of too much water drinking and leading situation where you leave the seat and your seat is gone. So it was decided that no intake of water till concert is over but on the other side people were throwing bottles from barricade region to friends.
The situation over our left started to boil and after repeated being asked to get up or get back their was blockade in left side of us. The sight from our side “was people hanging out of blueline buses” just to reach the destination. (an analogy ofcourse)
The white man or goraa as people around me were addressing, asked to get up and get back or else the CONCERT is not going to occur.Those of us seating retorted “concert to tera baap bhi karega”….. after all waiting there for 2 hours such threats were bit too much and then the technical staff said that get up and move to left side crowd, the dumb heads from our side obeying like puppies stood up….. then sat down after told to sit, when the instruction were only for left hand side crowd ( now you can understand the quality of communication going on between the crowd and “organizers”. This process occurred 5 to 6 times.
Eventually the one of the crew from Metallica became furious and called ” YOU BUTT Heads” move back…….. honestly it evoked laughter from our side….
Now we did realize that there would be some problem, the crew from Metallica kept on saying that no body is going get hurt. If you donot move back there would be no show. Therefore from our side we started shouting “MOVE BACK” in chorus to our fellow indians, hoping that situation would be better.
In India more crowd have been handled better in the Camps of Baba Ramdevs , Sri Sri Ravishankars ( both having huge following like rockstars because of the spiritual aspect of it) or even for that matter bollywood stars who are worshiped as gods.
In this whole process no music was played, so basically I and my friends felt like we were standing in our school assembly doing the drill for a Srgt. None the less we did find time to tell the technical staff via sign that we want music and our side was pretty much calm, so an evading response from the crew did create some uneasiness.
Then there were scenes where boyfriends were trying to protect their girlfriends from stamped, this evoked a debate among guys that “salla girlfriend ko aise concerts mein lane ka yahi lochcha rehta hai……. kudh bachcho na bachcho, inne jarur bachana padta hai”
The moment we saw a couple falling, one group sitting back near us said…… ” Goddi mein uthaa le , aur kuch na hona” …. in short pick her up in your arms that is the best solution. The lads however were more fortunate, as falling down they were enjoying and shouting the national abusive word of India to vent out frustartion ” BC……… BC……. MC…… haat… sallleee……. BC “
To fancy of Sandeep Kunwar Azrawat, he located a cow boy (atleast what he wanted to call them). He was of the opinion that cowboy dude must be unleashed onto the crowd so that things could be settled. Without doubt “cowboy dude” had a sylvester stallone type built. ( but one doubts that it would have solved the purpose)
Moving forward one could see things falling apart, as slowly equipments were being removed from stage. By 5:30 pm, it was 3 hours, without water (which we had put restrictions on ourself) and crammed space.The four of us were tired and looked for some entertainment. The fellow indians sitting in front of us were from north east and were puffing a cigarette each ( must be their way of calming down, in my view “killing themselves” ). We however did see a crowd which normally would define delhi roads, so like young men our eyes wandered.
There were a list of people such as :
- The office bunkers ( just like us)
- The Sadhu imitators ( Those have hair locks just like them)
- The newly weds ( girls with their bangles still on clinging to their husbands)
- pretty girls with their “boyfriends” (okey, that made us little bit envious)
- nerds wearing their metallica T shirts
- school boys
- college gang of boys
- “aggressive females” puffing cigarettes like they were in a hurry to catch a train
- middle aged men (hoping their dream will be realized of watching metallica play before they are too old)
- Pseudos trying to be one with crowd
- Foreigners ( white, blacks and Asians)
- Iranians ( They are of Aryan family so I thought they deserve a special mention 🙂 )
- Media people
- The local Indian security staff aka Bouncer “bhai”.
- Our seniors and college batchmates.
- Our Juniors in school and college.
- Most importantly the “technical” crew.
It was 6:00 pm when we got tired of sitting and somebody just got up from our side and so did we. After couple of minutes we saw the BUTT HEAD guy appearing again, I though that Indian organiser’s “Bhai log beth jauu” and “Bhai log peeche ho jauu, nahi toh concert nahi hone ka hai” were of no affect. Therefore they wanted to “unleash ” the weapon or “Srgt” as we called him.
To my surprise he was very calm. I think he knew that “we knew” that no concert was going to take place and things were getting hostile. Most of the equipments were removed from stage as though they were ready for a mayhem to come. Already the shouts of “LOSAR” were emerging from crowd along with “PLAY SOME MUSIC “.
Then the “Srgt” spoke…… “you see the show has been postponed for tomorrow 4 pm due to technical reasons”, in a very calm and soft voice. The moment he said that there were “Booooos” from the crowd. Understandably because of the frustration of standing for 3 hours. We were sitting, but we were exceptions as being on front we were expected to sit. ( mind you, we were there since 2:30 pm)
Then he spoke again, then just like a flash a bottle went from back side of the crowd over my head falling short of stage. The indian “organizers” sensing the mood took over the mike. Their little speech infatuated the crowd more and now there were loads of bottle flying over my head into the stage. This occurred simultaneously from both sides from my back and from my left.
It was pressure cooker situation there. More like a Tsunami coming your way.The crowd started to move out as we knew nothing could be done but people at the back of us and on the left of us were furious. Then like a sudden rush it began. Whoever had a bottle at their hand threw at the stage. We just watched in amazement. Sandeep Kunwar Azrawat in his intuition knew things would go bad. He suggested we move fast out of there. Then four of us moved out. In the process however we overheard people wondering as to what would happen of the tickets ? The tickets which were already thrown away, what about those guys ?
There were lots of questions whose answers “organizers” were not giving right.We kept the tickets with ourself hoping to see it next day at 4pm. It was Saturday and we lived in NCR. We were however oblivious of the fact that many people came from far places, as far as Turkey and Thailand. Moving out we did realize that right side was getting emptied out but left side ( the side near gate no 1 and 2 ) was still jam packed.
It took 2 hours for us to realize that concert was actually canceled as the news was broadcast on news channels. The most sensationalized news was obviously on a channel which shows “populous rather than popular news“, that Metallica fans create ruckus. Like always an Oxford graduate was “educating” the masses about the notorious behavior and shame it caused on India.
Honestly from a fan’s point of view it was a huge disappointment and now I have read that in Bangalore too things were not as lovely as shown. Another group of our friends went to Bangalore to see the show as they had already bought tickets for both shows.
As to Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield and Robert Trujillo. The only message I wish to deliver as a fan is
Sir, your music is remarkable and your band was formed long before I was born. In short one can say that many like me were raised on your music and look upto you. I cannot say that I can delete your music from my playlist etc ( as some may say)… because it is impossible for me to do so. Your songs and lyrics are too much entangled in my identity as such. To dissociate it would be too much.
As far as damage is concerned I wish to apologize on behalf of my fellow Indians if it caused pain to you, but on a separate note in view to those of us who grew on your music are bound to have that “spark” which may turn into a fire (if ever such unforeseen circumstances may arise) things were not handled properly and there was lots of frustration. I do not know whether you would come to India and more specifically to Delhi again. All I wish to say is that donot stop playing for next 10 years (atleast). If it means that I have come to US to watch you play, then I shall but since it will require loads of saving and travel cost (therefore the request but one will manage). I will come there none the less, because somethings Die hard.
On a lighter note, your songs which I consider my favorite are :
- Phantom Lord
- Motorbreath
- “Seek & Destroy“
- Ronnie
- Motorbreath
- Metal Militia
- “2 × 4”
- Ride the Lightning
- Master of Puppets
- “Mama Said“
- “Fade to Black“
- The Unforgiven“
- “Nothing Else Matters“
- “The Memory Remains“
- “The Unforgiven II“
- “Fuel“
- “Turn the Page“
- “St. Anger“
Now since summers have already begun in India (especially in Delhi ) and temperatures are souring 39-40 degree Celsius. I one day thought to have some butter Milk ( better known as Laasi in north India). There are two types of Laasis: sweet and sour one. If it is summer time and sun is at top, most enjoy sweet laasi as it provides respite from heat. Additionally I also though of having some Rajma chawal ( Red beans with gravy and rice). This is one of the many popular dishes in north India.
So in order to have a good food and delightful laasi which would make me happy, I ventured out in the afternoon hunting for the right spot to eat. The sun was at it best and so was the heat. Hoping that my efforts would not go wasted, I marched on. There are certain places in north India where one can find exquisite laasi’s and rajma chawal but they are few in number and scattered. So if one wishes to have same experience hoping to find the same quality then one should target food joints.
The food joints famous for such food are :
- Haldirams
- Bikanerwalla
- Rameshwar
- Gugars
- Nathuram sweets
The above mentioned joints are quite famous and one is most likely to find them in places they reside or are working. I saw Bikanerwalla so it was as good as others and I ventured in. The rice and the gravy dish was of Rs 90 and Laasi was of Rs 60 ( it was worth that amount, usually you can get cheaper than that too).
The gravy with red beans was tasty as it had the right spices in it. In India spices are a must for any gravy or dish. To be honest I went there for laasi but the dish was a double delight. The laasi had cream in it and was thick (ie heavy), it was just like curd in viscosity. It was served in a mud made glass which is a rarity in India and with cream on top, this was done to provide the traditional look to it. In regional languages the glass is known as Kullar. The joint also had many variety of sweets. From laados to kaju ki barfee (in all styles). The whole site brought water to my mouth. My eyes however were placed firmly on mango laasi.
I must say that mango laasi was not that which I expected and I concluded it is better to drink mango shake that mango laasi. None the less I try to have laasi on a daily basis as I found it just perfect. ( additionally I haven’t drunk it for a year now so was dying to have a taste of it). I am sure those who enjoy laasi would feel the same. There are various sizes of glasses to for having laasi depending upon the capacity of the drinker 🙂 , ( but that is in home or in certain food outlets, not all offer it). The experience was a good one and one wishes to go again may be in a different joint from bikanerwalle just to find out about its competition and enjoy some good LASSI !
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When this commonwealth was about to start many doubted whether it will even begin or get scrapped. I must confess that I was one of them. Mr kalmadi’s “spectacular” handling of things certainly brought India great many criticism and condemnation of the participating countries.
In the end it was left to none other than our chief minister Mrs Shiela Dikshit to get the job done which even involved getting games village ready. More so she became the target of foreign media especially the notorious Paula Henery ( oh did I spell that right…?).
Now the real weight of expectation was on Indian athletes and oh my, did they comply .India finished second in the over all tally with a staggering 101 medals in which there were 38 gold medals , 27 silver medals and 36 bronze medals.
Wrestling won us many medals 19 of the 21 events that they participated in and here to sushil Kumar dominated getting his gold by knocking out his opponent. Upon wining he went to Rahul Gandhi to get thank him for watching his match. In all domination of wrestling was supreme. The girls also didn’t do anything wrong, the sisters Babita and Geeta Phogat from haryana won silver and gold respectively. Their story was of remarkable success where their father had to fight off the sarcasms of the village when he decided that his daughters will play wrestling.
Following are the medals in wrestling
Gold 10
Silver 5
Bronze 4
The winners are as follows :
Gold
- Ravinder Singh : Wrestling Men’s Greco-Roman 60 kg
- Anil Kumar : Wrestling Men’s Greco-Roman 96 kg
- Sanjay Kumar : WrestlingMen’s Greco-Roman 74 kg
- Geeta Singh Phogat : Wrestling Women’s freestyle 55 kg
- Alka Tomar : Wrestling Women’s freestyle 59 kg
- Anita Tomar : Wrestling Women’s freestyle 67 kg
- Rajender Kumar: Wrestling Men’s Greco-Roman 55 kg
- Narsingh Pancham Yadav : Wrestling Men’s freestyle 74 kg
- Yogeshwar Dutt: Wrestling Men’s freestyle 60 kg
- Sushil Kumar : Wrestling Men’s freestyle 66 kg
Silver
- Manoj Kumar : Wrestling Men’s Greco-Roman 84 kg
- Nirmala Devi : Wrestling Women’s freestyle 48 kg
- Babita Kumari : Wrestling Women’s freestyle 51 kg
- Anuj Kumar : Wrestling Men’s freestyle 84 kg
- Joginder Kumar : Wrestling Men’s freestyle 120 kg
Bronze
- Sunil Kumar: Wrestling Men’s Greco-Roman 66 kg
- Dharmender Dalal : Wrestling Men’s Greco-Roman 120 kg
- Suman Kundu: Wrestling Women’s freestyle 63kg
- Anil Kumar : Wrestling Men’s freestyle 55 kg
Then the excepted events of shooting too did not disappoint by performing brilliantly. The shooters especially Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang won us many gold . Gagan Narang in particular won 4 gold medal heights individual tally, it must be rewarding for him to win so many medals in his own nation and hopefully his disappointment of not winning the Rajiv Gandhi khel ratna will be diminished, now as government will certainly honour him for his contribution.
The medal tally for shooting was :
GOLD 14
SILVER 11
BRONZE 5
The winner from shooting were :
GOLD
- Abhinav Bindra & Gagan Narang: Shooting Men’s 10m Air Rifle (Pairs)
- Anisa Sayyed & Rahi Sarnobat: Shooting Women’s 25m Pistol (Pairs)
- Anisa Sayyed: Shooting Women’s 25m Pistol (Single)
- Omkar Singh : Shooting Men’s 50m Pistol Individual
- Gagan Narang: Shooting Men’s 10m Air Rifle Individual
- Vijay Kumar & Gurpreet Singh : Shooting Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol (Pairs)
- Omkar Singh & Gurpreet Singh: Shooting Men’s 10m Air Pistol (Pairs)
- Omkar Singh : Shooting Men’s 10m Air Pistol (Singles)
- Gagan Narang & Imran Hassan Khan : Shooting Men’s 50m Air Rifle 3 Position (Pairs)
- Vijay Kumar : Shooting Men’s 25m Rapid Fire pistol Individual
- Vijay Kumar & Harpreet Singh: Shooting Men’s 25m centre fire pistol (Pairs)
- Gagan Narang : Shooting Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Pos Individual
- Harpreet Singh : Shooting Men’s 25m centre fire pistol Individual
- Heena Sidhu & Annu Raj Singh :Shooting Women’s 10m Air Pistol (Pairs)
SILVER
- Omkar Singh & Deepak Sharma : Shooting Men’s 50m Pistol (Pairs)
- Tejaswini Sawant & Lajjakumari Gauswami: Shooting Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions(Pairs)
- Rahi Sarnobat: Shooting Women’s 25m Pistol (Single)
- Abhinav Bindra : Shooting Men’s 10m Air Rifle (Singles)
- Asher Noria & Ronjan Sodhi: Shooting Men’s Double trap (Pairs)
- Ronjan Sodhi : Shooting Men’s Double trap Individual
- Manavjit Singh Sandhu & Mansher Singh : Shooting Men’s Trap (Pairs)
- Vijay Kumar : Shooting Men’s 25m centre fire pistol Individual
- Tejaswini Sawant : Shooting Women’s 50m Rifle Prone (Singles)
- Samresh Jung & Chandrasekhar Chaudhary : Shooting Men’s 25m Standard Pistol (Pairs)
- Heena Sidhu : Shooting Women’s 10m Air Pistol (Singles)
BRONZE
- Gurpreet Singh: Shooting Men’s 25m rapid fire pistol Individual
- Suma Shirur & Kavita Yadav: Shooting Women’s 10 m Air Rifle (Pairs)
- Manavjit Singh Sandhu: Shooting Men’s Trap Individual
- Samresh Jung: Shooting Men’s 25m Standard Pistol Singles
- Tejaswini Sawant & Meena Kumari : Shooting Women’s 50 metre rifle prone pairs
In all shooting did not disappoint and wrestling became the new power house.This performance will certainly improve interest of Individuals in shooting and wrestling. Though wrestling can boast itself to be a cost-effective sport but certainly shooting would require enormous amount of money for ammunition and training.
One just hopes irrespective of the conditions, Indians will find a way and keep this performance alive and see a different side of sports which is nothing similar to cricket.
One can never understand that all people stereotype jats to be from haryana. If an individual is jat then he is suppose to be from haryana.Jat people are people who habituate all across sub-continent : Pakistan Punjab, Indian Punjab, rajasthan, Uttar pradesh, Delhi and haryana ( in recent times all across the globe)
Though it seems as though people associate jat from haryana only.
jat in haryana : 26% of population.
Anybody who speaks haryanvi is not jat because 74% of the population is non-jat ie not belonging to this community in haryana.
Some individuals in order to show there macho behavior do tend to say that they are jat but they may not be, this gives bad name to community as people think them as goons and ruckus creators.These individuals misguide others for self serving purposes…..
MYTHS and Stereotypes about jats :
- Haryanvi speaking (Really, all people who speak Haryanvi are not Jats).
- Beats wife on a daily basis
- drunkard
- cheap and high on sexual energy
- goon and has war-mongering nature
- Belongs to Haryana
- buffoon
- Resistant to change
- chauvinistic
- Uneducated
- An army man ( when educated)
- corrupt
- power wielder
- Makes Jat female suffer.
- Too strict
- Doesn`t understands love.
- Bullock cart owner
- Farmer
- Bus conductor or owner
- Wants only a Government job
- Politically sound
- a JAT (ie has a lot of mental problems)
- Not polite
- Unworthy of talking to “educated and classy” females.
- Will ruin the life of educated Jat girl. (so she should elope with some non-jat guy, especially if she is beautiful and sexy, after all she needs to find “true love“)
- Will beat the hell out of you.
- Aggressive
- Not business oriented
- self obsessed
- Low worker class
- big land-lords
- Doesn`t have polished education but only minimal.
- Women are like Mallika Sehrawat or idealize her.
- Non- Muslims ( HEER – RANJHA ,Muslim jats and Liaquat ali khan, first prime-minister of pakistan)
- Smug
- Chaudhary surname people
- Cattle people
- Jats are biased for each other.
- Angry people
- Not good in mathematics
- Unsophisticated cheapster
- There are no jat psychologist
- Models
- Gets offended easily
- Authoritarian
- Loud
- Women are feminist and men are chauvinist
- Dumb
- smokers and druggist
- Not from Royalty ( Maharaja Ranjit Singh, King of Punjab and Maharaja Surajmal, kIng of Bharatpur)
- Racist
- Dolly Bindra is a JAT (Bindra is akhatri, don’t know why she doesn’t owns it up and is misguiding people. It is another case of brashful people claiming to be jats and giving bad name to community)
and many more, these are the ones which I remember at this point of time………….
Some stereotypes within jats :
Uttar Pradesh jat : Politician
Rajasthan Jat : sufferer n weak
Punjab Jat : Too powerful, rich , ultra-orthodox
Haryana Jat : Buffoon, Ultra orthodox, power seeker
Delhi Jat : Non-existent, landlords, only source of income rents and buses.
etc…………………… etc…………………………………. etc………………………………..
to help u ease off :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jat
http://www.jatland.com/forums/showthread.php?p=95749
http://www.jatland.com/home/Haryana#Jats_in_Haryana
http://www.haryana-online.com/People/people.htm
http://www.india-forums.com/tellybuzz/article.asp?id=3962
http://www.j4jat.com/jat_modeling/index.php
http://www.realbollywood.com/news/2009/04/ekta-chaudhary-miss-india.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waltercallens/3182971952/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Jat
PS: DO NOT SHOOT the messenger .. !!!!!!
INQUISITION 