"Dog in the manger"

A dog in the manger!

Though the trait is devoid of altruism and is a strange form of selfishness, disputes may arise as to which gender holds sway over that quality..

Selfishness may be a universal trait transmigrating gender, societies, culture and lands. It does not discriminate between either of the sex. man and woman can be equally selfish and equally less as well.

But the “dog in the manger” is more often women than men. I have not heard or come across a man being possessive of his son or daughter and warring with the hapless son-in-law or daughter- in-law. It is not often that we hear of a man enforcing surreptitiously or overtly an attitude that if he is denied something in life, the same must not be enjoyed by the rest, (Often in this case, the children, sons or daughters- in law).

But I have noticed this quite often in woman, irrespective of her education, social status or background, economic, religious or cultural. The very disposition have many a time mauled and ruined lives. And she enjoys it deep with in. If she dose not succeed, beware she will come back at you like “The devil woman”.

A few examples I have known .

The first protagonist is a former bureaucrat and since retired. She lost her husband quite early in life after he begot her two children. They are now grown up, employed and settled well. He hit the tavern and ruined his life, causing as far as I can understand immense difficulties to our protagonist. I would have thought that a similar life would certainly make any woman ensure that her daughters enjoy a life that is opposite to the one that visited her. However in spite of this fact, she goes great length to engineer and sustain rift and differences among her daughters and their spouses. And matters once even went up to the extent when one daughter wanted to call quits to her marriage. I’m absolutely certain that this possibility must have enlivened the older woman. Though fortunately for the couple, the mechanisations of the mother (-in law) did not succeed, the prospect of a recouped assault is always in the air.

The second example is far more vicious and of stealth. Those who know her at close quarter can vouch that she has it in her to walk astray from the flock in search of greener pastures. She thus bartered a frugal but respectable life that was easily within her grasp to wealth and power. However it was her fierce conviction that the goodness of life which was not hers or stay within her grasp must not be allowed to others. Whether it was her own siblings or outsiders she used stealth and mechanization to deny or purge. She was violently possessive, and fiercely too, be it as things as sharing a candy with her younger ones. She ensured that the icing was hers and hers only. She displayed a countenance opposite to that of the dog in the manger. i.e. she did not growl, bark like the proverbial canine when the bovines want to partake the food in the manger. She exhibited an aura of virtue, nicety and religiosity. And often the victims were misled into illusion. Systematically the plans are laid and happiness in of others was held to ransom. She has succeeded quite well with the strange trappings which only some of the female sex have.

The third specimen sample is a top secretary in the Administrative service. She takes long sabbatical when the dispensation that is voted in is not the party that she is in cahoots.. She moved into the IAS from the Foreign Service after quite a few years as diplomat abroad. In fact the story about her is not a fair advert for education and the elite Services. She has to a considerable extent made her spouse pliable. Ostracised the mother in law and the sister in law and controls the show. She displays artistic decorum and conduct in public, amongst friends and family, that it will be hard to understand that she has a distasteful side. Just see what she could do sitting in the pedestal of a senior IAS officer- they have to cooks at home, and the two women take turns in the kitchen. Our officer lady has a strange diet which is a very little boiled rice, some vegetables micro cooked and curd. She does not (or is it a medical advice, which I cannot tell) have meat in her diet. The old woman, mother- in law loves to devour meat, be it lamb, chicken or beef. And food is cooked for her separate. Strange indeed almost always when meat is cooked for the old woman it is inedible because of the high presence of salt. Tastes like having been cooked in the “Dead Sea”! The cooks were called up and given dressing down, but the story continued. The poor cooks swore on the Mother of God they were sure that salt was added for taste and nothing more. The story went on and the old woman was repeatedly denied her food. Until one day the son caught his wife sneakily dumping spoons of salt into the food prepared for his mother. Pliable he is, he did not wag a finger. And now the old woman has moved to another house.

The stereo typed mother in law and daughter-in-law are the ones who act as  irritant flies, who finds happiness and pleasure in the difficulties that they could inflict on her son(s) spouse or mother. But   the above examples are pretty unique as there is a mother-in-law, a divorcee and an educated daughter- in- law. Wonder if they  provide good advertisement to Woman hood. 

The Jack Fruit Tree

Katthukutty amma  gave deep sigh  when she was told by the peon in uniform- white trouser and tunic with white  turban and a red, & gold bordered militia barrette  that the sub collector “sar” will now see her.

Early that morning, Kathukutty Amma left home when it was still dark and had some time to go before  day break. She had to travel through the narrow path cutting across the stretches of paddy fields, and do a balancing act that she was so accustomed to across the brook over the make shift bridge that was the trunk of a coconut palm .She walked along the side of the canal that flows from the dammed river and reservoir a few kilometer upstream. She reached the road circumventing the Sreekrishna temple, when the early dawn keerthanam (hymns) was gently flowing through the loud speaker placed somewhere above on the old pea pal tree that must be rooted there for centuries ,adjacent to the temple pond. She held her right palm close to her bosom when the mesmerizing ode “kaninkanum neeran …” flowed through the loud speaker. She did the customary bow and uttered prayers for a minute standing outside the temple perimeter, before she crossed the road towards the  street light pole that displayed  a  tin sheet painted red and with white letters” BUS STOP”. The first few crows took flight from their perches on the pea pal tree and flew  in circles. An hour before that Kathukutty amma polished off  the Kanji ( rice gruel or porridge ) and the Chakka Puzhukku ( Jack fruit stew) with some chutney of Knadhari Mullaku ( hot green chili, native to Kerala). From the past many times, she knew that a visit to the Government office will not be a brief affair and she may have to as before sit in the verandah of the office till dusk awaiting the officer to consider meeting her.

“Velliamme Sar akatheku chellan paranju”, (Sir asked you to meet  in the office cabin).Katthukutty Amma was a quite surprised by the early ushering. She went in after the peon and was astonished to see a very young maiden in the chair of the sub- collector. She was told by the Collectorate staff that the former sub collector was transferred out and a new officer was in charge. But now looking at the sub collector, a young woman may be as old as her grand child if she had one surprised the old woman by no bounds. And when the peon said “sir will now meet you”, she presumed that a man would be in the chair.

The young sub collector beckoned her and reciprocated her “namasthe’ with folded hands. She asked Katthukutty amma to occupy the visitors’ chair, which the old woman declined out of anxiety and surprise in seeing the unpretentious new appointee. Besides she was uneasy seeing the powerful Circle Inspector, her neighbour and a retinue of other officials seated around the sub collector’s table. Anxious about the fate of her grievance and how this little girl would entertain her supplication, she palpitated within. More over she a poor woman was not used to being offered a seat in a government office. She was not even allowed inside the cabin or office on her many previous visits to petition. She stood behind the officials with folded hands.

The circle inspector began, “madam this old woman is my neighbour and she lives in the ten cents of land adjacent to my house. Respected madam, as you know I’m a police officer and the custodian of law. I subscribe predominant value and importance to my job and engage much of my time and effort in safe guarding the law of the land. I spent considerable time of the day and night in pursuit of my haloed duty. I ‘m faced with constant threat to my life while engaged in my duties. While I work under ever looming mortal threat while on duty, I ‘m not saved from that plight even while at home with my family. I, my wife and children besides my aged parents live in constant danger and threat from the Jack fruit tree that stands precariously on the fringe of this woman’s property. The mortal possibility of danger from the tree and or its huge branches falling upon my house is real as sunrise. I request your office to issue the order to slaughter that tree before it can put at risk the life of a sincere and honorable officer of the constabulary.”

The sub collector looked towards the Tahshildar seeking his explanation and report. He endorsed the plea of the inspector and agreed to its genuineness. The Village officer and the Revenue official were unanimous and in chorus nodded in agreement in favor of the inspector’s plea.

Kathukutty amma could not control her sob. Tears streamed down her weather beaten, skinny cheeks and she stood with flowing tears and pleading with folded palm begging for righteousness and mercy. The sub collector looked towards Kathukutty amma. More than the plight of the old woman she was harrowed by the unanimity of the officialdom in lining up against the poor hapless woman. She enquired if Kathukutty amma had something to say.

“Kathukutty amma leaned forward and  began sobbingly, “Ssare njan arrorum illatha niralambhayanu.Ente bhrathavineum moneum deivam nereathe kondu poi.Kooli vellaum, a plavil ninum kittunna chakka vittumanu njan annam muttathe kazhiunnathu.Deivam sahaichu a plavuil varshaam muzhuvan chakka undu. Athu oru shaliavum arkum nalkathe ente parambil nilkunnu. Oru vidhathilum njano a plavo ee emanu prayasm akoolla. Ente jevvan a vriksha manu. Athillangil ee njan um undavilla. Kunju onnu athuvare vannu nokiayal mansilakum. Athu inspector emmanu apathavum athu vettanam ennu kunju paranjal aa nimisham najan a plavu murichu mattam. Ee vaysiyodu dayavundavanam”.(Sir, I’m a poor destitute woman with no one to turn to. God took away early in life my husband and son. I live engaging in menial jobs and selling the fruit from that jack tree, which mercifully bear fruits through the year. Neither I nor the tree is of any threat to the inspector. If the tree is gone I have no means to live. I request you to please go to my place and know for yourself. If you then feel that the tree has to be cut down I will not hesitate a moment to abide. Please have mercy on this poor woman)

Hardly had Kathukutty amma ended her tale of woe and request the Tahashildra blurted out, “No, no what do you think old woman. Madam has important work and her time is invaluable to throw after your silly tree and story. She cannot be going there for inspections. Moreover your place is far away by road and through the dirty fields. You have to cut the tree immediately”.

The sub collector had a penchant to read between the lines, something she picked from her father who was himself a bureaucrat.. She glanced through the reports  on the subject that were lying on her table.All  three officials have given in their report . They all endorsed, “slaughter the tree immediately”.

The collector leaned back in her chair and said, “Amme njan adutha thingalastcha varam. Amma onnu ithu vare vannal ente car l thanne onnitchu poyi sthalam kanam” (Dear woman I will go with you next Monday to the site. You may come here in the morning and we will travel to your home in my car).

She turned towards the Tahashildar and said, “I have to conduct  a site inspection before making a decision. You may plan it for next Monday morning, first thing. You can come with us and the rest can meet us at the site”.

Kathukutty amma could not believe her ears. She felt that a tiny door has opened for her.

The following Monday, Kathukutty amma joined the sub collector and travelled back to her little land. The car stopped at the temple and then they began the arduous walk along the sides of the canal. Walking for a while the young sub collector enquired if the site was very far. Kathukuttuy amma said, “illa molle kuracthu koodi poayal mathi, oru oru mile matram,.( No dear just a little over a mile left). The young woman smiled. They went over the foot bridge through the winding path amongst the paddy field. And finally reached Kathukutty amma’s little piece of land and the villainous Jack tree. The sub collector went around the plot and was able to see at one glance that the Jack tree was away from any harm’s way and will have no bearing on the inspector’s house even if it is uprooted. It stood majestically, and in greenish splendor with fruits dotted all over its branches and trunk. The amazing fact that she saw was the tree had fruits and they virtually camouflaged the bark and the trunk! It seemed like manna for the old woman.

She had no hesitation to immediately order that the tree need not be slaughtered and also asked the Tahshildar to ensure that the inspector meted out no trouble to the old woman. As a parting gift the sub collector asked Kathukutty amma if she could buy a jack fruit. Though the old woman was hesitant to take money ,but the sub collector ensured she did.

On the way back the sub collector asked the lawyer of the inspector why such frivolous matter was pursued and the old woman harassed. The lawyer pleaded that he was acting only on the behest of his client and the Jack Fruit tree was the main subsistence provider for Kathukutty amma. The inspector planned that if he could force her to cut that tree down she will be left in the lurch and will be forced to sell the plot of land. And he could buy it for a song and enlarge his chunk of property.

This story is based on a real life incident mentioned in brief by Smt J. Lalithambika (former bureaucrat). This was one of her most vivid experience as an IAS officer!

Driving "Lessons"

The Toyota SUV (guess it was a Prado), swerved, honked and braked with arrogance, sending the Maruti 800 shuddering door to door. I was behind the little Maruti and had to literally stand on the brake pedal to avoid a collision. The driver of tiny Maruti lost his nerve and went over the median.The big car was in no mood to relent. In the meandering 6pm traffic it was certainly the big bully of the lot and was in no mood to let anyone go ahead. I made use of an opening on the left and went ahead, as I was about to pass the Toyota, I glanced in and saw a middle aged guy at  the wheel. He saw me about to go ahead and swerved to the left sending me for cover. He went ahead and I noticed him from behind showing no consideration to the pedestrians wanting go to the other side. He seemed to be a law unto himself and the traffic lights were not his concern.

I missed him somewhere further down the road and moved on my way.

Was it road rage, or just misplaced pleasure?

It is the law of Nature that the mighty devour the meek and the weak. The big dwarfs the tiny. Is it not a jungle out here? I remembered someone observe so.

My mind wandered to the past and the recent times. Wondered how many times I have seen the same act enacted in life not by an automobile but by Man. I could recollect a few occasions when I have seen the big and the mighty vandalise the weak.

It is said that evolution is progressive and that the weak has to be the fodder of the mighty. And the cycle goes on. The mighty of the day may soon find itself the meek of the lot, on another day. It is unrelenting. That kind of Vedanta, the philosophy seemed to be an unsatisfactory explanation to acquiesce the unfairness of happenings. Certainly there is quite a lot of impropriety even in the case of that SUV. But the arrogance of the driver was only the tip of many such examples, colleague against colleague; boss against subordinates; wealthy against the less privileged; friend against friend, the list may go on. But does the audacity of the driver of that SUV have something to do with the laws of nature? I do not subscribe to that view.  Is it not something that we have all seen in real life? The power of arrogance! The incident mentioned by chance is only an allegory.

Certainly the SUV and its driver must have reached their destination with a satisfying air of steamrolling along their route. It is a fact that bigger vehicles take on the smaller ones, the passersby and honk them out of existence. I continued to feel the discomfiture that crept in while I was tailing the SUV and was witness to its brazen manoeuvres.

The disregard shown by men /women wielding the mechanical power of an automobile for the man on the street- the pedestrian and the less flamboyant vehicles, may not certainly be a rarity. The automobile is just a metaphor for the rudeness and discourtesy man shower on man. And on anything he sees as inferior or a lesser subject.

I can feel a sense of self-reproach looking back at a few instances of rudeness that I may have displayed on occasions. Isn’t rudeness an imitation of weakness?

The Counsel

“The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself”, - so said Oscar Wide.

Isn’t it quite true? How often have we been advised, eloquently and  with the imperiousness of wisdom but annoying to receive? I often wonder if it is not easy to offer advice and suggestions on matters of life rather than to apply in our lives the silver-tongued regurgitation that we give.

I have often been forced to delve into all repository of patience when people intervene with corrective suggestions and how one should conduct in certain situations and matters. Which, knowing them is quite obvious will not be applied in their lives.There may be ideal ways ,but they may not always be ideal to be applied ipso facto.

Receiving advice, suggestions and pieces of wisdom are quite wonderful matter, but the provider of such advice is not the master, the bearer of the situation that one is in. It is one thing to articulate criticism in the way a person walks, but entirely a different matter to shove one’s leg into the others footwear and then enact a perfect "cat walk’’ in life.

This does not mean that perse, advises are to considered anathema. I feel it should be left to one’s judgment and acumen to discern, to sieve the supposed wisdom that is offered and apply what is wanted.

But the annoying part is that advises are often given unsolicited and without any personal experience or knowledge of the situation, the state a person is in ,or is helplessly left to tend all by oneself. And the hardest species who descend in such situations are the ones who believe they have the antidote for all and every matters in life.

Until a few years ago, there was absolutely no interpersonal connection between members of my paternal family and myself, my sister and mother. In fact they lived deluding themselves, that we never existed and that fabulous reign of opportunism ran for a quarter century and little more. It was a few years ago that one of my cousins whom I met the last when I was little alighted from no where one morning and eulogised my mother and fervently inquired about our well being.

 Conveniently for him and the rest of the folks it was sunshine days for me, my sister and mother. During the years of hibernation of my paternal folks, there was a lot of pressure personally on me from others in the form advises that we should not bear hurt and animus for their indifference and they were the brothers , sisters, nephews and nieces of my father. There was considerable pressure (let me call it, advise) from these “Samaritans” to engage my paternal folks in the wedding of my sister. I put my foot down that it was unnecessary. And that we really did not miss them all the years we were not existent from their point of view. I was categorised as arrogant and impertinent. So be it! My logic was simple, and that sunshine day relationships are rather done without. And I did not notice us missing something vital in life.

The past story is now repeating and has visited us (I, C and our children) from another angle. And I still hold the view that, sunshine day companions are always not welcome, even be it the Sultan of Brunei himself.

It gives one the much  needed vitality!

" I've looked on many woman with lust..."

“I've looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times. God knows I will do this and forgives me”. These were the words of Jimmy Carter the former CEO of the United States.

I find it almost impossible to add on to his candid remark which may be universal about men. I felt comfortable reading Jimmy Carter’s comment because sometimes this unholy feeling creeps in, which will not from now on! And if any “man” chooses to deny or distance this comment as alien to his chemistry he must be “Janus – faced” and an incorrigible hypocrite. Well in a free world one can choose to be so or not and that should not bother anybody alarmingly.

“Ay, every inch a king. When I do stare, see how the subject quakes. I pardon that man’s life. What was thy cause? Adultery? Thou shalt not die. Die for adultery? No. The wren goes to’t and the small glided fly does lecher in my sight. ....”.  The bard has comforting words that certainly does not spell doom and pell –mell for those of us who see comfort in Jimmy Carter’s observation .

Could there happen to be a man amongst men who would not ever covet lustfully a woman who is not his lawful wife? 

It is also said (quote),”Passion is the evil in adultery .If a man has no opportunity of living with another man’s wife, but if it is obvious for reason that he would like to do so if he could, he is no less guilty than if he is caught in the act”. That was St. Augustine with puritanical religiosity of the early centuries.Which certainly forbade quite badly for the many who were St Augustine's contempraries as well as many of us.

The fact is that ‘coveting’ which Carter meant has to have a reciprocal action if it is not to end in a limbo. That brings us to adultery and which must have a respondents to call it so. I have not heard many women being candid as Carter was. Though disconcertingly for the prudish of the female sex, (there are still many around), the statements of Madhavikutty (Kamala Das) would be loathing. That lot among women would not even hesitate to call the late literary romanticist, Mrs. Kamala Das, lecherous and will eff and blind to damn her for bringing forth disrepute upon the female species.

Not many among women in our societies would speak openly about matters mentioned here. However it is only a common matter of logical deduction or inference that women are not a distinctly frigid species to not think as men do. It is true that social conditioning and morals laced and pickled in hypocrisy of ‘dos and don’ts’ taught while young play a dominant role in damming the rapids of biological exuberance.

It was quite some time ago and I was in casual discussion of “nothing “with an acquaintance of mine. Without deliberating, the topic of discussion moved into matters of man -woman relationship. Though we agreed that the moral fence is what pulls back the lecherous temerity in human beings, it is also precisely the matter that encourages jumping over the fence. We wondered if either of us could confidently state that these matters of moral restraints and dos and don’ts will stay in the next century. The word “adultery” may be consigned as an antediluvian word. Without any deliberate intent we moved into topics of our life before marriage and after, though we did not specifically broach on the subject of our personal adherences.She gave me the story of her friend who does not waste an opportunity to accuse her husband of misdemeanour, so that she could either be at ease with her liaisons outside or delude to feel satisfied that her acts  are tit for tat.

It was then that she did a sort of “Jimmy Carter”, when she said that she do fanatsise about other men in times of intimate moments with her husband (boyfriend), but has not found it enlivening. But she is not very fearful of maledictions from heaven or the taboos and conditoning associated with morality, because of her virtual escapades.A perfect victim for St. Augustine!

I wonder if the elements of priggish forthrightness will proscribe this post.

"Elementary and Silly"

The state of being peeved, feeling piqued, and desperately trying to hide behind any available apron from the silliness and stupidity of one’s conduct, is indeed an unpleasant state, but a fascinating display from the perspective of the onlooker. Especially when the onlooker has been made the center of the protagonist’s childish ire! The facial expression they bear when the ludicrous folly is apparent to the world is something that must be discerned at close quarter and enjoyed.In fact it does not make any sensible bearing to feel offended and angered by the puerility of the person.

I’m not referring to an oration or conduct with criminal intent. That is not the subject that I’m thinking about. This is of the absolutely childish and stupid kind, irrespective of one’s age or educational background. And it may be a harmless act or utterance, or one that has some malice sautéed.

How many such instances have some of us been through!                                                                              

I have been through some, and honestly I have had the amusing pleasure to watch at close quarter the discomfiture of the other. Saying something that had no reason to be told or doing something that was out of sync and silly, probably driven by ego and an imperious nature as also by the character of impatience towards anything and everything that is different from one’s predilection are what that sends such people into discomfiture and is overrun by the urge to hide his/her face from the glare of others. Such tribe never cease running and being grouchy .No sympathies from my position because, such conduct deserves such state of misery or discomfort. It is surprising why even erudite and the intelligent stoop and succumb into this silliness.

But do they will to accept the folly of their infantile disposition? Many may not! And that evidently tells that scholarship alone cannot be a panacea for the serious short comings in outlook and conduct. The ill luck is such people hesitate or decline to own up their folly- they apparently believe to be infallible.

Old habits die hard, don’t they? Or they may not. The onus of moving on will be on those of us who may not want to be as silly as the other. 

And it is true that when such person does something silly and of which he/she may be ashamed of, he/she always will declare that it is his/her duty.

Columbus, Osama and the Star of David

I posted some portions of this as my comment on a Blog post that came up on the killing of Osama bin Laden.

The fact that the USA is more often “the villain of the piece”, is a known matter and I’m certain acknowledged by the USA as well. Please go through the Nobel lecture of the British author Harold Pinter to know more about specific cases where the USA displayed hypocrisy, and criminal acts.

Osama like India’s Bhindrenwale was the creation of the State. If Mrs. Gandhi and the pliable joker Zail Singh cultivated and nurtured Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindrenwale, successive governments in the USA did the act on Osama.

It has been the US policy of playing dirty in any third world or developing country if it feels that the government of the country has a policy of "equidistant".During the era of the cold war they did that under the guise of hunting communism under every bed.And after the fall of the iron-curtain they have a vital tool in Islamic exteremism  and the subject that has been at their heart since Christopher Columbus landed in the New World- "trade and usurping native resources".Though the Soviet Union (former) showed no qualms in playing dirty in countries that did not toe its line, one could understand that, because the so called communist in the former Soviet Union did not swear by values and principles of democracy and human rights. Fair play was not in their lexicon. But the USA, a country that spirits in calling itself the “new world’, the beacon of freedom and democracy- mauling societies and governments in poor third world is a paradox and symbol of decadence and hypocrisy that has eaten into its system.

Remember, the USA is a country built on sweat and tears of immigrants from diverse national background, who journeyed across the Atlantic. But also understand that it was the forefathers of some of those immigrants who ventured into the New World in the schooner “Santa Maria” from far flung Spain and thence began the systematic depravation and annihilation of the meek and the less powerful. The very same policy is continued since the last years of the 15 Th century, but in various other forms.

As long as the World does not exercise the will and the courage to designate a fair deal for the Palestinians who live as refugees in their own land,.men like Osama bin Laden will usurp the Palestinian cause and showcase it as injustice perpetrated on the Muslims of the world. The irony is that men like bin Laden do not care a hoot for the Palestinians and their cause. And in the same vein neither the Fatah nor the Hamas are interested in cahoots with the terror groups of bin Laden and the likes.  These terror groups like the Al Qaeda, Jaissemohammedh, and LET etc have only one agenda and that is the proselytization and cultivation of  perverted religious philosophies,bigotry and fanaticism.Finally a medieval and archaic Caliphate to invoke the manna from above! Issues like the Palestinian cause is  only an opportunistic tool in their ulterior venture.

If Muslims all over have a grievance that can be addressed by the world community, the US and the West in particular, it is the creation of a democratic Palestinian State, but, also ensuring that it accepts the necessity and the inevitability of coexistence with Israel. And rest of the grievances, injustices, and atrocities if any on Muslims elsewhere are often the making of the Muslim themselves. When Muslims – Shiites and Sunnis vie to extinguishing the other, when the Ahmedias and other schools of Islamic faith are hounded, when bigotry and obscurantism is pedaled by religious schools called madrasas, when medieval laws are inflicted on the hapless, when education is relegated to the background and when women are seen as instruments and trivia, then certainly its is the core problem within the community and that the making of the community itself. Why has not a Bin Laden come forward to tackle the dirt  and scum that has incised within Islam and Muslims like limpets? Why is it that as often said the majority of the Muslims are moderate and silent? They are silent and in my opinion pliable too, else men like Osama will not be able to hypnotize and brain wash young men and women to blow themselves into oblivion at the promise of a paradise full of fornicating women and men, of pleasure and spirit, but manifestly from where   nobody has yet come back to write a travelogue.

The misfortune of today is that even people amongst us  who laud and swear upon acceptance of dissimilar views and dissent as a civilized way of living, turn out to be extremely volatile and incapable of accepting a divergent view or opinion. Even in them lurks the bin Laden intolerance and extremism. And they engage not in discussion, debate or negotiation, but in playing spoiled, (the Blogdom has ample examples).Is not that a form of extremism?  

Extremism and intolerance in any form and guise is harmful. If there are two forms of extremism and madness in this world today that can perennially threaten the existence of man kind it is the fanaticism of Islam and Zionism.

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