An elephant that was pregnant died in Kerala, standing in water, last Wednesday, after she faced one of the most brutal forms of animal abuse. She ate a pineapple filled with firecracker, offered to her allegedly by some locals. The fruit exploded in her mouth, leading to the inevitable tragedy.
The incident came to light after a forest officer in northern Kerala’s Palakkad district narrated the details of the horrific death on social media.
The wild elephant had left the forest, meandering into a nearby village in search of food. As she walked on the streets, she was offered the cracker-laden pineapple by locals.
“She trusted everyone. When the pineapple she ate exploded, she must have been shocked not thinking about herself, but about the child she was going to give birth to in 18 to 20 months,” forest officer Mohan Krishnan, who was part of the Rapid Response Team to rescue the elephant, wrote on Facebook.
So powerful was the cracker explosion in her mouth that her tongue and mouth were badly injured. The elephant walked around in the village, in searing pain and in hunger. She was unable to eat anything because of her injuries.
“She didn’t harm a single human being even when she ran in searing pain in the streets of the village. She didn’t crush a single home. This is why I said, she is full of goodness,” Mr Krishnan wrote in an emotional note in Malayalam, along with photos of the elephant.
The elephant eventually walked up to the Velliyar River and stood there. Photos showed the elephant standing in the river with her mouth and truck in water, perhaps for some relief from the unbearable pain. The forest officer said she must have done this to avoid flies and other insects on her injuries.
The forest officials brought two captive elephants, who were called Surendran and Neelakanthan, to lead her out of the river. “But I think she had a sixth sense. She didn’t let us do anything,” Mohan Krishnan wrote.
After hours of attempts by the officials to rescue the elephant, she died at 4 pm on May 27, standing in water.
The elephant was taken back inside the forest in a truck, where the forest officials cremated her.
“She needs to be given the farewell she deserves. For that, we took inside the forest in a lorry. She lay there on firewood, in the land she played and grew up. The doctor who did her post-mortem told me that she was not alone. I could sense his sadness though the expression on his face was not visible due to his mask. We cremated her in a pyre there. We bowed before her and paid our last respects,” the forest officer said.
“I have so far done more than 250 postmortems of elephants alone in my more than two decades career. But this was the first time I was so moved as I could hold the foetus of the baby in my hands. Initially, none of us was aware that the elephant was pregnant. After I had seen its heart and then happened to see the amniotic fluid did I realize that it’s pregnant”, said Dr David Abraham.
Devika, a 15-year-old girl ended her life in Valanchery, Malappuram district, on June 1 allegedly because she was not able to have access to online classes.
The Class X student was missing since Monday afternoon and around 6 p.m. her charred body was found near an unoccupied house a few yards away from her home. Late in the night, police confirmed that the girl ended her life after allegedly missing the online classes on the first day of the school reopening. The girl’s parents reportedly told the police that their daughter had been upset as they did not have a smart phone and the television set was faulty.
Muslim Students’ Federation’s (MSF) protest march to the office of District Direct of Education was ended in a clash between police and activists. MSF leaders accused police force for attacking their peaceful protest in a barbaric way. There are wide criticisms and protest from different sides of the society against state government for failing the inclusionary approach in the online class project. State education ministry has demanded detailed report over incident.
A daily wage labourer, her father had no job for over two months during the lockdown, and the family was in penury. Neighbours and school friends testified that she was a brilliant student. A photo of her accepting an award for her academic brilliance was hanging on the wall of her house.
Sometimes, all that matters is to love, love everyone so that at one point of time, when you have to leave this place, regret stands apart from our way.
’23 year old teen commits suicide in Goa’. Sounds like a normal, mundane newsflash. But when you go down to the course of action that triggered this death, it starts sounding unusual. The girl was a lesbian and her family exerted continuous pressure so as to get her back to what they call, ’normal’. She was confined to isolation by her own family members hoping that her state of being a lesbian could change.
There is actually nothing, literally nothing you could call a problem in the queers.
We say the world is everyone’s home. Ironic isn’t it? When a particular juncture of society is deliberately hindered from experiencing a normal course of life, how could you say that this is everyone’s home.
The question of ‘Why’?
Being a homosexual is purely a hormonal imbalance which he/she as an individual has got nothing to do. There might be distinctions as well as dissimilarities in their actions as well as behaviour. It doesn’t really point to a fact that they really harm or dismantle the social structure or contribute to an unhealthy social culture. But when the idea of being a conservative is stranded in the traditional and cultural roots of a society, unsurprisingly we find that this particular sect of people succumb to a glitch in the attitudes they encounter from the society.
From Queer Pride, Delhi. Photo: Sreekanth Sivadasan
The curious case of Queerphobia
In short, hatred or fear towards homosexuals is queerphobia. This hatred can be an end product of various interventions ranging from religious, cultural as well as purely personal factors. We call this personal freedom to resist factors that seem to be contradictory with our own perspectives and life culture. But personal freedom stands tall for everyone. I repeat, everyone.
While we are speaking on the rights of queer peoples, Indian parents are always on a rush to establish these attitudes as pseudo-cultural things. For Indians legalising of lesbian sex stands synonymous for westernisation, which was incorporated in the minds of new generations of India labelling them as deviants. Are we really encouraging western attitudes?
Court decision has helped India to trace its roots. Noted historian Harban Mukhia says one has to know India’s history to understand why the British has made gay sex illegal. The British brought their own rules to India, including the section 377 which banned homosexuality and made it a criminal act. This law was enforced by them which, however did not conform with India’s attitude towards homosexuality. It had more to do with their Christian belief system, he added. Existence of homosexual activities was acknowledged in both the ancient and medieval India. The temple sculptures, narratives and religious scriptures had much to deal with it. Mythologist Devdutt Patnaik has once explained the presence and acceptance of homosexuality in Hinduism. ‘Love was celebrated in India in every form’, he said. ‘The erotic sculptures in the temples of Khajurao, which was built between 950 and 1050 by the Chandela dynasty, 13th century Konark sun temple, Buddhist Monastic Caves at Ajanta and Ellora are depicting the existence of fluid sexuality in the Indian Society’, said Historian Rana Safvi.
Books and sculptures from medieval times also suggest that homosexuality was something that is not looked down upon, says prof. Mukhia. Alauddin Khalji’s Son, Mubarak was in a relationship with a nobleman in the court and Babur was in love with a boy named Baburi, he wrote his affection to this boy without any hesitations and fear. Transgenders were given enough recognition and were considered as divine figures during those times. This underlines the fact that they were entitled to not only religious upgradation but also social acceptance. In short India hadn’t enriched any sort of haram attitude towards any kind of love but also recognized them. India’s conservative outlook about queer sexuality was kickstarted by the British imperialistic period. Besides, the laws chartered as per the Christian principles of ‘sex is sin’ also played a key role in spreading a contempt-filled attitude towards these people.
From Queer Pride, Delhi. Photo: Sreekanth Sivadasan
In ancient Greece, homo sexual relationship between older men and young acolytes were a normal component of the teacher student relationship. Up until the 19th century, the question of who slept with whom was a matter of indifference to the law or customs. The homophobic attitudes became more of a matter of instincts in the mind of people with the interpretations of highly systematic religious books like Bible and Quran. They generally claimed that homosexuality is banned. They also pointed that it is a haram by referring to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah which seem to prohibit sex between men. ‘In which the city inhabitants demanded sexual access to the messengers sent by God to the prophet Lot/Lut. Sura. 11:83, when our (Allah) command came, we turned that city sodom upside down and rained layer upon clay on it. (The quranic story is the same as the bible version)’. Gay, bisexual, lesbian Muslims and Christians have become increasingly visible in the recent years. And many of them emerged as the prominent international queer activists. They began to gave interpretations for legitimizing homosexuality.
They often argued that we should not condemn each other that way that God himself has created diversity. They disagree with the above interpretations saying people of Lot/but were destroyed not because of the participation in the same sex acts, but because of disregarding the authority of prophets, attempting to rape the travellers etc. A stronger argument is that, like other forms of sex, homosexuality would only be bad when it comes to abuse, excess or violation of public honor. Clergy should not have the right to condemn on the responsibility of people to lead a good life, where god /Allah is the only authority Societies in Islam have recognized both erotic attraction and sexual behavior between members of the same sex. Homoereotism was realized in the form of poetry or artistic declarations of love from one man to another. Preference for homosexual was more about choice rather than identity as in modern sense.
The stories of Mahmud of Ghazni, the ruler of Ghaznavid empire and Malik Ahaz had become the illustration of power of love, ideal beloved and a model for purity in sufi literature. Thuhfathul Muhthaj of Ibnu Aajar al Haitami, a 12th century islamic book depicting the rights and space which should have to provide to the then 3rd gender people (LGBTQ community) which might be one of the first a first religious book to deal with this subject.
Whatever the legal structure on sexual activity, the positive expression of homoerectic sentiment in literature was accepted from the late 8th century. Anecdotal literature reinforces this impression of general social acceptance of the public celebration of homosexuality.
Pope Francis wholehearterdly welcomed the decision of legalising queer rights. He has repeatedly spoken about the need for catholic churches to welcome and love all people regardless of sexual orientation. The key for the church is to welcome not exclude and show mercy not condemnation. The pope has reiterated the catholic church’s teaching on homosexuality including it’s position on marriage. Yes, Jesus was the true incarnation of love. He came for the poor and embraced the marginalised, so as all prophets did. Christianity never preaches us that Jesus says no to anyone who comes in his altar seeking help and liberation.
From Queer Pride, Delhi. Photo: Sreekanth Sivadasan
For all those who marginalised LGBTQ communities by notifying the ancient stories of Sodom and Gomorrah, the same God has given different teachings through different people across different ages. Each age has different contexts. It’s all about interpreting those texts in the best way for our present. The Same God has said, ‘Love others just as you love yourselves’. Even if these religions may not support homosexuality, there are no mentions to hate such people, to treat them with contempt, to do injustice to them, to treat them as abnormal and us as normal. Marginalising them is unethical and sinful. Do remember, love others as you love yourselves, unconditionally truly and deeply.
Queerphobia and society
Behind the theatrics are often sad stories- of the sex trade and exploitation, cruel and dangerous castrations, being cast out and constantly humiliated -( New York Times, in the article about India’s LGBT community). When we look back, hardly a few social circles made whole hearted welcome to this section of queers. Education has never really affected everyone to really look upon them as complete individuals.
We still lack that particular stimulus that inspires us to make sure that we turn up to them to understand and empathise with their feelings. What we do is to marginalise them and unleash cruelties and inhuman actions against them hindering their social, economical as well as personal stability. This sole problem of social exclusion has made them devoid of better education that leads to lack of employment opportunities. As a result, they start living in the bottom of the pyramid.
From Queer Pride, Delhi. Photo: Sreekanth Sivadasan
Since schools work as typical heteronormalising institutions, these young queers find it difficult to rely on students as well as teachers to get their requirements and issues attended. During the times of adolescence, a mere spirit of inferiority complex starts to develop in their minds. This starts getting flared up as they grow up. Secondary school environment is more tedious since there is enormous peer pressure to confine themselves to the existing gender norms. Students who cannot do so are then subjected to bullying and are often reduced to subjects of ridicule. Thus, they are victims of social marginalisation. What is important is to point out the intensity of psychological conflicts that transgenders as well as transsexuals succumb to during their journey from childhood to adulthood.
The curriculum too has got hardly any mention about the issues that the queers face which also find it difficult for others to feel for them. They find no other way except to lose the will to study. Similarly, every known space of social gathering hinders the process of social exclusion of the queers. How can you expect an individual to still hold on with the hope of leading a normal life after going through all this?
When going gets tough, they switch to ways of income through sale of drugs and even prostitution or sex work thus submitting their dignity and self respect. When we, as a civilized society finds no way to consolidate their demands and accommodate them, we are not in a position to blame or look down upon them.
From Queer Pride, Delhi. Photo: Sreekanth Sivadasan
What can be done at the social level?
‘Live and let live’
Effecting a change in the attitude of the society as a whole is that we have to sort out. Public education remains the solution to trigger this mass social change. A careful revision of the curriculum from the school level has to be initiated to kickstart this process. At the same time, children are to be brought up in such a way that they learn to respect different realities and diversities of life and make sure that none is left behind yearning for love and identity. Social gatherings must cease to turn a blind eye to them and there must be ample provisions and platforms for them to speak out and express themselves. The least thing we can do is to make sure that we don’t harm them both physically and mentally. Realize that they too are a part of this world, with a set of dreams and aspirations possessing a unique and distinct identity. Do remember that social advancements happen to be a reality only when multiple perspectives are respected and channelized giving way to newer modes of social constructivism and development of progressive ideologies.
Summing up
The best step we can do is to start over right from the beginning, at least for the generations to come. It is important to ensure that the children of tomorrow are no longer the products of a conservative set up. They have to be nurtured in such a way that they are advanced in their thoughts as well as actions. It is pivotal to bring in the idea of homosexuality and transgender in the academic spaces from the high school level. Students must be made to approach them in such a way that it is not to be considered as a sin but a part of our social culture.Besides, its equally important to instil the values of equality and freedom within the minds of children to ensure that they don’t consider anyone as indifferent to the rest.
From Queer Pride, Delhi. Photo: Sreekanth Sivadasan
Organizing public education and awareness programmes too can also help to bring down the issue of queerphobia. As long as we continue to dwell inside these confined spaces of social stigma, we are never really meant to progress. Ideas of diversity and multiculturalism will prove to be ironic if the situation continues to prevail. Ensuring voting rights and political representation for the queers will also assist in addressing their issue in a broader platform. Most importantly, it is important to extend our helping hands towards them during their tough times and make sure that they are not living in a sense of stigma and prejudice.
It is not about simply letting everything go but ensure that everything is going right.
In a letter addressed to Indian Union Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah, the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) expressed serious concerns over arrests of human rights defenders in India and the broad use of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) to intimidate, harass and silence them.
The letter was sent on Friday by Marie Arena, Chair of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI), a parliamentary body that actively monitors human rights developments across the globe and publicly advocates in favour of the respect for fundamental rights.
The letter drew attention to the vagueness of UAPA where it could allow for wide discretion by the government in applying the law and it being used to silence human rights defenders.
Ms. Arena pointed out the recent arrests of Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha, Safoora Zargar, Gulfisha Fatima, Khalid Saifi, Meeran Haider, Shifa-Ur-Rehman, Dr Kafeel Khan, Asif Iqbal, and Sharjeel Imam for various advocacy activities against laws, policies and governmental actions, including the Citizenship Amendment Act to be a violation of international human rights.
The letter urged that measures be taken to ‘stop impeding and criminalising the work of human rights defenders by means of overly broad national security legislation and to respect their freedoms of association and expression.’
Police personnel pelt stone at students during an anti CAA protest in Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Photo (including the featured one): Sreekanth Sivadasan
The letter reiterated the repeated calls by the United Nations for an immediate release of prisoners of conscience as part of overall efforts to contain Covid19 outbreak.
The letter encouraged India join in and implement fully the guidelines adopted by Supreme Court aiming at reducing detainee population at this difficult time, enforcing that it is a common duty and responsibility to protect human rights without discrimination.
As of today, with the biggest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases of 7,466, India overtook Turkey to become the ninth worst-affected country by coronavirus pandemic with a total of 1,65,799 confirmed cases.
Habib Jalib, was a revolutionary poet who had the tendency of being vocal in his poetry for the resistance of suppressed people. He was a left-wing activist whose activism reflected in his literature. He was the voice of common men who are the victims of class struggle and oppressive deities that have been ruling the masses of people under authoritarian captivity where silencing voices and suppression was considered canonical. Jalib never used the covering of sweetness for the bitter truth of a society that holds the reality of capitalist triumphalism, he used words that give direct tidings of revolution and resistance.
The instigator and establisher of Martial law in Pakistan, Dictator Ayub Khan was extremely criticised by Habib Jalib due to his pro-capitalist policies and unconstitutional behaviour. After a year under the military dictatorship of Ayub Khan, in a live Mushaira aired from the Rawalpindi studio of Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation, Jalib deflected from the script about the scenic beauty of the country and about the metaphysical reasons of existence. He opted to speak about the tyrannies, the problems of common men, he chose to represent the sensitive sociopolitical issues of the state. But, his defiant voice resonated off radio speakers across Pakistan. Soon after taking over the power Dictator Ayub Khan called an indirect election of an executive president through an electoral college, instead of direct democracy. Fatimah Jinnah, sister of Muhammad Ali Jinnah participated in the elections but, because of rigging and strong campaign against her she was defeated. Jalib supported Fatima Jinnah and knew the plot of this story. He openly wrote against the Dictator and his despotic acts of promulgating the constitution. For which he was imprisoned.
An Anti CAA protester holds a placard with Jalib’s poetry, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Photo: The Quint
ں بھی خائف نہیں تختۂ دار سے
میں بھی منصور ہوں کہہ دو اغیار سے
یوں ڈراتے ہو زنداں کی دیوار سے
ظلم کی بات کو جہل کی رات کو
میں نہیں مانتا میں نہیں جانتا
I am not afraid of execution,
Tell the world that I am Mansoor (Mansoor al Halaj a Sufi saint who was assassinated on the accusation of blasphemy)
Don’t scare me from your jails
The tongue of oppression, the night of ignorance
I refuse to acknowledge, I refuse to accept
-Dastoor
Jalib’s rebellious nature and outspokenness never let him sit in peace and watch the state burning into the fire of sociopolitical tyranny, ignited by Dictator Zia-ul-Haq. Who snatched the pens of progressive poets, writers, and prisoned activists. He wanted to crush the civil society by his self-made doctrine which had anti-women laws, censorship, religious bigotry, and everything that could decay the civilised progressive society. But, Habib Jalib always resisted. He marched, he wrote, he spoke, he did everything to put up his opinion and to oppose the tyranny of Dictator Zia-ul-Haq.
یہ محل سراؤں كے باسی
قاتل ہیں سبھی اپنے یارو
These people who live in palaces,
All are murderers, my comrades
-Zulmat ko Zia
He never liked the idea of using religion to legitimise military oligarchy which has been a smart way for the establishment of the state to do political engineering for their power satisfaction. Because of progressive ideology against the regressive mindset he was labeled as a rebel and was imprisoned many times. He was an iconoclast, and a Marxist-Leninist with the ideas of communism, and a member of Progressive Writers Movement and Communist Party of Pakistan, in the spirit of Mansoor Hallaj who chanted the slogan, Anal- Haq ( I’m the truth, I’m God), which had also been used by Faiz in his poem, Hum Dekhenge. Speaking of Faiz, he termed Habib jalib as the “Poet of masses.” Whereas Saadat Hasan Manto appreciated him by saying, “Jalib’s poetry has an emancipatory effect when experienced by the common man.”
Instead of shifting the focus towards romanticism and objectification of women unlike other traditional darbari poets, Jalib spoke for the rights of women. He wrote against patriarchy, which was channelized in almost every household, at institutions, on streets by religious clerics under the shadow of dictatorial figures because fusion of religion into politics was considered as an integral part of power politics. Habib Jalib supported the women’s movement protesting against dictator Zia-ul-Haq’s anti-women laws. He was once arrested and beaten up by police for reciting poetry against the rulers at a protest march by women activists towards Lahore High Court to submit an application against Zia-ul-Haq’s law declaring the woman’s evidence half of a man’s. In another incident, the Governor of West Pakistan, the Nawab of Kalabagh, invited actress Neelo to dance in front of Shah Reza Pahlavi of Iran. She refused and as a consequence the police were sent to force and bring her, which led to her to commit suicide. This incident inspired Jalib to write a poem.
تو کہ ناواقفِ ادبِ غلامی ہے ابھی
رقص زنجیر پہن کر بھی کیا جاتا ہے
You are not aware of the protocol of a king’s court. Sometimes one has to dance with the chains on oneself.
-Raqs-e-Zanjeer (The dance of the chains)
Jalib beautifully crafted the voice of oppressed, tyrannical era of dictators, and the rights of women. Benazir Bhutto first lady Prime Minister of Pakistan when returned to her land from exile during the regime of Zia-ul-Haq who hanged her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Jalib wrote a poem for her bravery.
ڈرتے ہیں بندوقوں والے ایک نہتی لڑکی سے
پھیلے ھیں ھمت کے اجالے ایک نھتی لڑکی سے
The people with guns fear an unarmed girl
She is the symbol of bravery without any weapon
Habib Jalib’s poetry has the substance of theory of socialism. He opposed the prevailing socioeconomic
system of capitalism, neo-colonialism, and feudalism.
Due to his unconventional views he was declared as anti-establishment, anti-state.
کھیت وڈیروں سے لے لو
ملیں لٹیروں سے لے لو
ملک اندھیروں سے لے لو
رہے نہ کوئ عالی جاہ
Confiscate the fields from the landowners
Take away the mills from the robbers
Redeem the country from its dark hours
Off with the lordly vermin
-Pakistan ka matlab kya
On the tombstone of Habib Jalib’s grave, it is written that ‘Habib Jalib, the poet of common people.’
As we remember Jalib as a people’s poet, we can see his literature being celebrated across the globe where the struggle and resistance against power mongers have been significantly historic. He had inked about resistance movements in Egypt, Iran, Palestine, Lebanon, and Vietnam, ranging from 1950 to 1970. With the passing time his poetry became sharper and more rebellious. Habib Jalib’s refusal of acceptance of despotism, his call to resist against intimidators, his language of revolution to call out feudal, his struggle for the protection of rights of women all of this is lyrically presented in is poetry and done through marches and protests by him. Whenever he spoke and he wrote the truth, he was banned. Whenever he protested for the sufferings of people he was imprisoned. For all the woke poetry readers and leftists, Jalib is a luminous star in the galaxy of Urdu Literature..
He was awarded Nishan-i-Imtiaz and Nigar Awards by the government of Pakistan for his services in the field of literature.
A court in Delhi on Wednesday raised concerns over the Delhi Police for its investigation into the violence that rocked parts of North East Delhi in February, The Quint reported. This came amid allegations from student activists that the police have been targeting them for mobilising peaceful anti-government protests since December 2019.
“Perusal of the case diary reveals a disturbing fact,” Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana said. “The investigation seems to be targeted only towards one end. Upon enquiry from Inspector Lokesh and Anil, they have failed to point out what investigation has been carried out so far regarding the involvement of the rival faction.”
The court urged the concerned authorities to “monitor” the inquiry to “ensure a fair investigation”, according to the website.
A Man passes a police battalion after offering Juma Namaz on the first Friday after Riots in Jafarabad, North East Delhi. Photos (Including the featured one): Sreekanth Sivadasan
The judge made the observations while sending Jamia Millia Islamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha, charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, to judicial custody for 30 days. Tanha was arrested last week for the violence at Jamia on December 15 during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
The police told the court that his custody was required in the North East Delhi violence case to unearth the “entire conspiracy” and to confront him with the electronic data collected during investigation, according to PTI.
Advocate Sowjhanya Shankaran, representing Tanha, argued that he was falsely implicated in the case and had no role in the alleged criminal conspiracy. The police had claimed that he was a close associate of Umer Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Meeran Haider and Safoora Zargar who had been key organisers of the protests against the amended citizenship law. All of them have been blamed for the subsequent violence.
We are in the midst of a pandemic that has shaken almost all parts of the world. The leaders and rulers are trying day and night to contain it, the scientists and researchers are trying to find vaccines and medicines to fight it, the doctors and nurses are doing their best to care and protect the affected, all the essential employees are working to keep the supplies and volunteers and organizations are helping the poor and needy. It is the picture of a crisis in our time. But this won’t be our last crisis unless our leaders and the system learn from this and work towards creating a safe way for our world to tackle the climate and ecological crisis. We all know the current changes in our pollution levels won’t last long and the environment will be back to the pre-COVID19 normal when business as usual starts again. We have a choice – listen to the science and acknowledge the state of the climate or continue on this dangerous path.
Experts have been raising the alarm about the impacts of climate change and global warming since the 1970s. As our greenhouse emissions keep increasing, the risk of the climate crisis is getting worse and worse. There have been too many conferences and discussions with global leaders – from the Stockholm convention to the Paris agreement and recently, COP25. But we still lag when it comes to action. Some leaders continue to deny the facts of climate science and big businesses continue to burn fossil fuels and pollute unabated. Consequently, we are experiencing an array of extreme weather events and threats ranging from increased hurricanes, floods, droughts, rising temperatures, heat waves, wild fires, water crisis, hazardous air quality, mass extinction of biodiversity, locust crisis etc.
The adverse impacts of ecological destruction are not limited to environmental harms. It threatens the public health, including physical and mental health, of populations. Climatic change causes allergies, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, heat-related and water-borne diseases, vector-borne and nutritional diseases, trauma, mental health disorders and many more adverse health outcomes. According to recent research, people living in polluted areas have a higher risk of death due to COVID19. About 2 million people die every year due to air pollution in India. Increasing deforestation makes it easier zoonotic diseases to spread from animals to humans due to intervention in wildlife habitats. If we do not take action, we will see more viruses and diseases spreading across the world from animals.
The pandemic hit the poor most critically – people who lack of access to safe water, those whose living conditions makes it hard to wash their hands or to maintain physical distancing, communities devastated by unemployment where families are unable to afford food. Similarly, the climate crisis exacerbates inequality. It makes lives harder for poor communities who contributed the least to the climate crisis. India is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change and the burden disproportionately falls on farmers and the poor.
The climate crisis is likely to create millions of climate refugees from India and across the South Asian region. Poor communities don’t have the resources to protect themselves from air pollution with air purifiers and protective masks, they don’t have the privilege of having air-conditioned homes or shelter to protect them from the extreme heat of summers. The heat wave last year killed a hundred people in Delhi itself. Millions lose their homes and savings in every hurricane and flood.
Stopping the climate crisis is not merely about protecting our environment – it is about protecting people around the world from suffering the impacts of a humanitarian and planetary crisis. All the climate change impacts we experience today are the result of an increase of around 1.2-degree celsius in global average temperature from preindustrial level. Continuing to increase levels of emissions means the impacts will be much graver than what we experience today. We must make transformative shifts in policies and our systems to avoid the apocalyptic crisis. With every passing year of climate inaction, we head into a more dangerous future.
Whatever the shape of economic recoveries that we expect from the current crisis, the world must learn the fragility in our system and work towards building a new world safer from pandemics and climate crisis based on justice and equity. The economy cannot be an excuse to ignore environmental norms and increased emissions. The clock is ticking for the climate and this crisis threatens our existence. We must fight every crisis.
Ramadan meant being home. It meant spending more time with family. It meant visiting relatives’ houses for iftars (evening meal consumed to break the fast), having friends and family over, who savoured my mother’s food. They showered her with love and attention, and she loved every ounce of it. Every year before Ramadan would be approaching, my mother would give us a little talk, on how we should try being a little closer to Allah through our prayers and fasts, and be better humans. Like little lambs, we heard her, squirmed amongst ourselves, because I think we wondered aren’t we good humans already? Then, we’d run back to our distractions, and I would see my mother contemplating something. I never understood what she was thinking.
My uncle had a beautiful tradition. He would take his entire family and us to Mohammed Ali Road one night. We would spend the entire time doing Sehri (meal consumed early in the morning before fasting) eating from different restaurants. Shalimar for its falooda was a must, then we would find some Malpua in a corner of the streets until we heard the fajrazaan (early morning prayers) and couldn’t eat anymore. As we left the crowded and bustling streets of Byculla, Bombay would change. The drive back home was quiet. We would look outside the windows, absorbing a quiet Bombay that we wouldn’t ever see otherwise. These nightly trips would be a way to enter my mother’s childhood spent in her Bombay that was changing every day. It felt like an ode to my grandparents who had spent many beautiful moments on this side of Bombay which we would never see, but during this time of Ramadan, the streets moved back into time. They were more inviting and equal and loving.
Photo: Ghania SiddiquePhoto: Ghania Siddique
As I spent 6 years away from home, I struggled to understand how I could have some semblance of the feeling Ramadan gave me at home. I never came close to it, until I found a renewed meaning and sense of belonging during my time at Jamia. I wanted so many more Ramadans and iftars and prayers in Delhi. Matia Mahal at Jama Masjid reminded me of Mohammed Ali road. I would find my way back home for Eid each year, reviving the age-old customs of making ‘Sheer’ (dessert) and ‘channe’ (chick peas) for the many guests that would visit us through the day. So much of Ramadan meant people and family for us because the busy city life didn’t allow for so much socializing and leisure. My mother struggled to hold onto the chords of a Muslim household in a city where she was born and brought up, that had shaped her, yet she was struggling to recognise it right now. It was changing meaning each year as here children were growing up and moving out.
I write everything in the past tense, because Mumbai like any other big city is outgrowing its capacity, and isn’t the same as it was yesterday. The past year has been a struggle to slow down and find monotonies. Just so that I could find ways to identify with people and a routine. I haven’t found one. Just when I was learning to understand my rhythm, the lockdown happened. And Mumbai came to a standstill. It astonishes me to see the city so quiet. I find myself breathing a sigh of relief because there is less noise and some space to think. And as Ramazan graced us in the middle of this dilemma, it changed its meaning and significance for me.
Photo: Ghania SiddiquePhoto: Ghania Siddique
A beautiful Dhikr (remembrance) by Shaykh Hasan Ali with words ‘la illaha illallah’ plays in the background as I sit to write this down. My mother asks my sister to close the house door. What if the volume is too loud and may disturb the neighbours? We live in a Marathi dominated cosmopolitan colony. Tall buildings surround us on one end. On the other, we see blue tarpaulin covered chawls stretching so far wide, that it’s difficult to say where they end. I paint a very quintessential image of Mumbai. Building after chawl, and chawl after building- like a domino, the city spreads far wide.
In the middle of this chaos, there are many rats, squiggling, and pestering the streets. They dance on the streets until the persons empowered by the state to enforce the law (police), come with their lathis, show some tricks, and scare the rats away.
Photo: Ghania SiddiquePhoto: Ghania Siddique
Injustice and fallacies around the world and India bring to surface Mumbai’s inadequacies. For a city miserably affected by the virus, it came to a halt only for the few who could afford to rest in peace. We came across many migrant labourers who didn’t have jobs anymore. They couldn’t pay their daily rent or support their school children’s fees. Many people who we came across at the beginning of our ration distribution work, have gone back home. Some men from Jharkhand left on foot, while an auto wala who would help us distribute ration for longer distances- packed his bags and left with his family to go back to UP (Uttar Pradesh) in his auto. He messaged a few days back saying, ‘I’ve reached home. I feel great’. An entire community of Bengali Muslims from Bandra East has been struggling to leave for the past two weeks. A resident of Bandra told us that people have packed their bags. They’re waiting when they will get the one phone call from the police, and they can be off and about to their homes. Every trip that we make to Bandra East makes us realise that this entire ghetto will empty soon.
Photo: Ghania Siddique
Mumbai changed in its meaning and appearance to me this Ramadan. There is a lot of noise in some ‘ilaaqas’ (ghetto). Children have changed their games from cricket to collecting Jamun (a fruit). They make sherbet out of it, sell it for some money, and give their parents some share of it. Men want to return homes to their wives in the village. People were happy that Ramadan happened right now because they would eat less. Many fear what the rains will bring with them. The smell in the air is changing. Many will be walking home nonetheless. Many will celebrate Eid nonetheless.
Outstation Students of Mount Carmel College notified to come 21 days in advance to undergo compulsory institutional quarantine before commencement of examination on 1st July 2020 by college authorities in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
With Covid19 wreaking havoc across most sectors in the country, many parents and students worried that institutional quarantine would take a financial and mental toll on them. Students rely on residential accommodation on campus as well as Pgs near their college. They live on a shared based accommodation, where social distancing is not viable.
T.N. Prathapan, Member of Parliament has written to Dr. SR. Aparna, principal of the college, requesting to revisit the college’s decision on the date of conducting examination and institutional quarantine. He said, “The instruction to outstation students to institutional quarantine themselves after reaching Bengaluru at their own risk and expense is impractical. Even after lifting or easing restriction around lockdown in the country, interstate travel has a potentially high risk of transmission of the virus.”
An updated interstate traveler quarantine mandate released by Karnataka state government asks for a 7 day institutional quarantine for people from high-risk States, and 14-day home quarantine for those from low-risk States.
With over 6,500 new cases, the Covid tally in India rose to 1,25,101 on Saturday morning, with as many as 3,720 fatalities. The high risk states are: Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh.
Every country, every city has its individual way of welcoming the most holy and the most awaited month in the Islamic calendar. Delhi is no different. People here are more thrilled to get together and break their fasts than actually fasting. There is something about the month of Ramadan that keeps you on your toes, your lips moving with Allah (S.W.T.)’s dhikr (remembrance), and your heart wholesome, throughout. Being a period of not only fasting but of “refrain” altogether, the Muslims try to the best of their abilities to abstain from all immoral behaviour, and impure or unkind thoughts. We pray as much as we can, recite Qur’an as much as we can, and engage in as many good deeds as possible. Afterall, the reward for every good deed is 70 times more and nothing pleases Allah (S.W.T.) more than watching His most precious creation being grateful to Him and asking Him for everything it needs.
The streets of Zakir Nagar, Okhla, and Chandni Chowk are bustling with fasting Muslims, waiting in queues to get their packets of jalebis, pakoras, and samosas. Badaam (almond) milk is a special demand in many homes. The fruit vendors are extra ecstatic considering all their products are sold in no time because fruit chaat is a must at every iftaar table (dastarkhwan). Mangoes, bananas, apples, watermelons, melons, kiwis, guavas; you name it and its neatly cut in a bowl, cool and waiting to be taken bites of. Mosques are illuminating with fairy lights, studying and inviting Muslims to come inside and pray. You will see each type of date (khajoor) inside the refrigerators of Muslim households.
Every home, every family has its unique Ramadan routine that its members follow. Be it the grandparents or the children, the hysteria that lives in the hearts of every person who fasts is inconceivable. It begins right after the sighting of the Ramadan moon and stays until you wake up on the morning of Eid. It’s the kind of feeling that makes you feel grateful when you start counting all the blessings that you have in your life and leaves you overwhelmed. This feeling makes you giddy when you think of what you will be having for iftaar, the kind that makes your eyes tear up when you sit on the prayer mat and give Allah (S.W.T.) the list of your most desired wishes. Ramadan is that time of the year when you are your most vulnerable with Allah (S.W.T.). You are at peace with what you have and what you are.
The story of Ramadan in the Naseem House is as special as any other. It has been like that since my grandfather’s childhood days. As I write this, I recall my daddu telling us kids about how he used to run to his friends’ and relatives’ places at the sighting of the moon and wish them, “Ramadan Mubarak”. I vividly remember him telling us how he used to sleep for the most part of the day, for which he had to face the wrath of his father. He used to have a bath with ice-cold water, and helped his mother in the kitchen after feeling a tonne of guilt slide down his throat right to his heart watching his brothers do so. His favourite dish on the table would be chane ki daal which he loves to this day. Ghee ki roti is something he loved back in the day and is fond of even today, and so my mother makes it at his special request. My grandfather told us how he used to go for the morning prayers (fajr) to the mosque after sehri, post which he used to go for a walk with his friends. Speaking of prayers, when offering taraweeh at the mosque, being the mischievous kid he was, he played around and chatted, only to land in trouble (again).
Iftar in Jama Masjid, Delhi. Photo: Muhammed Shabil (Featured image is also by Shabil)
I cannot forget the look on his face as he filled us in with his (some very vague) memories of his childhood and this auspicious month; he had a smile that was unlike any other I’d seen on him before. His eyes were looking into the distance as if searching for something very dear to him that he had lost. That made me realize how precious these 30 days really are, and the level doesn’t differentiate between a teenager or an old person.
Heritage. When I think of heritage, I not only consider the tangible aspects of it. The memories, traditions, practices, stories etc. that we pass on from one generation to the next also constitute heritage. The reason I mentioned this term is because from the 1950’s till today, not much has changed in this house. I’ve often given a thought to the fact that my grandparents’ likes and dislikes are very similar to those of my siblings and I. The famous chane ki daal that daddu so loves is my brother’s favourite. The kind of fruit chaat that my grandmother has been making all her life is the one thing I can never say no to. I can have this for all three meals of the day without complaining (and I don’t like to share my bowl with anyone, either). And mind you, this isn’t the kind of fruit chaat that you find in chaat corners/shops, this is a different kind and the recipe…nevermind that (like I said, I don’t share!)
In the present Nasim House, we make an iftaari menu which is basically the wish list of every single member. We fight over who will set the table and who will pick up the dirty dishes. Another bickering is over whose choice of lemonade will be made, in addition to the already exiting one over who will cut the fruits. Tricks are played on one another just to have that last sip of peach iced-tea. We brag about the crispy aloo ki tikki we made when our sibling’s bread rolls fail to impress everyone. We offer taraweeh together followed by a chai (tea) session which is the highlight of the day. Maggi and wafers often make a special appearance and win hearts, obviously.
Ramadan in Delhi is one of the best times of the year. You will see people with grins on their faces all the time. Iftaaris are exchanged among immediate relatives, iftaari parties are hosted, YouTube becomes the head chef for men and kids, new clothes are stitched and worn, hands are up in the air in prayer, smiles are the most broad and brightest, eyes are the most watery when asking Allah (S.W.T.) for forgiveness, and going all the way to Jama Masjid for sehri is the cherry on top the cake. We are more delighted for and during Ramadan than we are for any other annual event or festival.
This year, however, has been different. Mosques remained shut, standing in silence, looking at the passers-by, yearning for someone to come inside and offer namaz. The air that surrounds them has been heavy and uncomfortable all month. Covid-19 prevented any exchanges and parties. We could neither go to our Nani’s place nor could we get our favourite Japanese samosas from the heart of the city, Delhi 06. The streets of Chandni Chowk stood deserted, shop shutters were down, no kids were running on the roads, pushing rickshaw pullers and falling and laughing. Tandoors were covered, sweet shops were quiet, no hustle was seen in front of the paan shops, even birds have been chirruping awfully less.It has been quiet; it has been odd and unsettling. We’re witnessing our history books come to life. The only sound to be heard was that of humans praying to God. Besides, that’s all we can really do; pray.
Here’s hoping you readers are safe and healthy. Take care.
