The controversy regarding singing of Vande Mataram crops every now and then. I think it is not a controversy rather a discussion among people with no understanding of either the song or Islam. I am very clear about my singing of the song. I DO NOT and I CAN NOT sing it. I have the reason. I will explain it here.
I was reading an article this morning in Time of India about the resolution passed by the Jamiat-e-Ulema-i-Hind on the singing of this song. I just want to answer / explain to a few questions / points asked / raised there. At one point it is said that "The rival Jamiat, headed by Maulana Arshad Madani (Mehmud Madani's uncle), alleges that the resolution is part of a conspiracy to create communal tension, instigated by Americans who had met the Mehmud faction in July.". I would like to tell Mr. Madani to please stop that old trick of blaming America for all the controversies. We are wise enough to think over our issues. We are no more fools that any outside power can create some controversy and divide us. And we also are no fools to believe in people like you.
Mr Asghar Ali Engineer says "both uncle and nephew have forgotten the Jamiat's glorious tradition of participation in the freedom movement, of which Vande Mataram was an inseparable part,''. Some one has correctly answered this question by telling that we love our country, respect it, are 100% patriotic but we do not worship anybody other than Allah. Not even our mother. We do not even bow to our parents to get their blessings. It is not in our religion. We keep patriotism to our heart, and so do we keep our religion. We do not need to prove it by singing the song. Mr Asghar do not find any objection to the translation of the song as he says "I bow to my motherland, what objection can there be to doing so?". But I do find, as I do not bow to anybody other than Allah. He says "The Mughals made courtiers bow to them and perform sajda (respectfully lowering and then lifting your hand to your forehead repeatedly). Why was this not condemned as un-Islamic?". I would say that it was surely unislamic and I do not even consider the Mughals as the practising Muslims. Akbar started his own religion. Jehangir used to drink heavily. ShahJahan was busy building Taj Mahal and other magnificent buildings with public money. We Muslims do not follow kings, we follow Quran, Hadith etc. Kings do not define Islam, nor do the Sufis.
Writer Sajid Rashid says "The Deobandis consider even singing salaams to Prophet Mohammed's glory as haraam". I would ask Mr Sajid as to which salaam he is telling about. In Islam there are only two festivals, Id-ul-Fitr and Id-ul-Adha. Islam does not tell to celebrate Muharram, not even tell to celebrate Prophet Mohammed's birthday which is celebrated in India as Milad-un-Nabi. Regarding the singing of salaam to Prophet, I would say for Muslims Prophet Mohammed is the most respected and loved human. But here also, some Muslims show so much love and affection towards the Prophet that their love towards Allah fades in front of their love shown towards the Prophet. Muslims should consider that Prophet was a Messenger of Allah. We should pray to Allah and try not to go astray.
Finally I would say that I am a practising Muslim. I am a true Indian too. So I sing Jana-Gana-Mana since my childhood days. The anthem do bring goose-bumps on me. But I do not sing Vande Matram, since my school days. So do not consider me as a follower of these Fatwas also. I do my independent thinking.
As for the meanings and translation of Vande Matram, I would suggest Wikipedia and one other website.
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Games, We Played
Yesterday I was browsing through some tech-news sites and I saw an article comparing the latest gaming consoles from Sony, Nintendo & Microsoft and the latest games. In my childhood days, I remember, I used to go to a nearby video-games parlor and play games on a big TV with joysticks attached to a wooden box. One rupee per 10 minutes or you lose earlier. Every rupee was worth and valued. Sometimes I used to bring the console home for the entire night for just 20 bucks and I bet there could not be better nights than those, for a child. I did not find the mention of that console in that article, also not even a word about Contra, Mario, etc which I used to play then. The world of gaming has changed drastically since those days.
Even though I have tried my hands on PlayStation 2, XBOX 360 & Wii among the latest consoles already, every encounter has excited me like anything. These experiences have always rekindled the gaming-freak in me. Nowadays, what I see is that in the console based games Nintendo’s GameCube, Microsoft’s XBOX 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 have the largest market. The gaming industry keeps on releasing better consoles and games with the latest technologies. The graphics has improved so much that I am sure in near future we won’t be able to make a difference between the real video and the images in the games. It is said that the graphics features of PlayStation 2 are so effective that the console could be adapted for military use. See how near the games have come to the reality. Earlier we could maneuver only in the x-y coordinates. Now it is a whole world out there; you can move in any direction. Even the consoles have changed a lot. Earlier there used to be mostly two buttons plus a handle. The buttons were to either jump or fire. Now while I was playing ‘Need For Speed’ on XBOX 360 and bumped my car against an electric pole, I felt a jerk through the console. That was an awesome feeling. Once I went to my cousins’ home and there I played on Wii. The console of Wii is a wireless controller, the Wii Remote, which can be used as a handheld pointing device and can detect movement in three dimensions. I played lawn tennis. I was able to serve, hit the balls in all the ways I could imagine. It was like playing a real game, with the console.
Today’s consoles have advanced networking capabilities. The XBOX 360 has a unique feature that allows players to compete or collaborate online. I saw my cousins playing a game along with their friends online. They were talking with each others and making strategies to win. They were also having profiles on XBOX Live and were able to chat with friends. The gaming field has really come a long way.
I remember me having a handheld LCD video game from Nintendo, GameBoy. I have put its picture here. In this game, Mario must climb a building while avoiding barrels. The player must trigger a lever on the upper screen, activating a hook, which Mario must then jump and catch. If the player succeeds, a peg will be removed and Mario will return to the starting point, but if the player does not, Mario will fall to the ground and lose a life. Removing all available pegs in this manner will cause Donkey Kong's platform to collapse, and he will fall to the ground. Though it was a simple game, it was a kind of life for me and playing it was my best past-time. Later I got a few more hand-held games, however it was an Atari’s console which was my first TV based game. All its games were arcade type. 
After the Atari, I graduated to play Contra, Mario, Super Contra, Super Mario, Road Fighter, etc. I don’t know how many 1 rupee coins had been pushed inside those console boxes by me. I don’t know how many hours I had spent in those parlors. But one thing I can say for sure that I really really enjoyed those days and I still remember them.
Later on, during the college days, I did not have the privilege of buying gaming consoles. Like many others, I started playing computer games. There were many interesting games like the one where we had to handle a helicopter with mouse buttons. There was one very nice pool game. We room-mates used to make records for others to break and then again break those. For me the best and the most deeply engrossing game was ‘Need For Speed 5’. I even went to the finals of the college NFS contest. Some of my friends were mad about games like IGI, Counter Strike, Max Payne, etc.
Those were the days when, at least, I enjoyed my life the most. Every stage of game was a new day of life. Every win used to give a sense of accomplishment. Every moment spent playing was savored. Now, it’s a rat-race. No fun, no sense of accomplishment and thus no life. I made a change to this. I tried changing my life. I downloaded a free version of Mario. I now play it whenever I get free time, or you can say I try finding time to play it. I enjoy, not actually by playing it, but by somehow getting back to those days. Now no one can say “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”.
Even though I have tried my hands on PlayStation 2, XBOX 360 & Wii among the latest consoles already, every encounter has excited me like anything. These experiences have always rekindled the gaming-freak in me. Nowadays, what I see is that in the console based games Nintendo’s GameCube, Microsoft’s XBOX 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 have the largest market. The gaming industry keeps on releasing better consoles and games with the latest technologies. The graphics has improved so much that I am sure in near future we won’t be able to make a difference between the real video and the images in the games. It is said that the graphics features of PlayStation 2 are so effective that the console could be adapted for military use. See how near the games have come to the reality. Earlier we could maneuver only in the x-y coordinates. Now it is a whole world out there; you can move in any direction. Even the consoles have changed a lot. Earlier there used to be mostly two buttons plus a handle. The buttons were to either jump or fire. Now while I was playing ‘Need For Speed’ on XBOX 360 and bumped my car against an electric pole, I felt a jerk through the console. That was an awesome feeling. Once I went to my cousins’ home and there I played on Wii. The console of Wii is a wireless controller, the Wii Remote, which can be used as a handheld pointing device and can detect movement in three dimensions. I played lawn tennis. I was able to serve, hit the balls in all the ways I could imagine. It was like playing a real game, with the console.
Today’s consoles have advanced networking capabilities. The XBOX 360 has a unique feature that allows players to compete or collaborate online. I saw my cousins playing a game along with their friends online. They were talking with each others and making strategies to win. They were also having profiles on XBOX Live and were able to chat with friends. The gaming field has really come a long way.
I remember me having a handheld LCD video game from Nintendo, GameBoy. I have put its picture here. In this game, Mario must climb a building while avoiding barrels. The player must trigger a lever on the upper screen, activating a hook, which Mario must then jump and catch. If the player succeeds, a peg will be removed and Mario will return to the starting point, but if the player does not, Mario will fall to the ground and lose a life. Removing all available pegs in this manner will cause Donkey Kong's platform to collapse, and he will fall to the ground. Though it was a simple game, it was a kind of life for me and playing it was my best past-time. Later I got a few more hand-held games, however it was an Atari’s console which was my first TV based game. All its games were arcade type. 
After the Atari, I graduated to play Contra, Mario, Super Contra, Super Mario, Road Fighter, etc. I don’t know how many 1 rupee coins had been pushed inside those console boxes by me. I don’t know how many hours I had spent in those parlors. But one thing I can say for sure that I really really enjoyed those days and I still remember them.Later on, during the college days, I did not have the privilege of buying gaming consoles. Like many others, I started playing computer games. There were many interesting games like the one where we had to handle a helicopter with mouse buttons. There was one very nice pool game. We room-mates used to make records for others to break and then again break those. For me the best and the most deeply engrossing game was ‘Need For Speed 5’. I even went to the finals of the college NFS contest. Some of my friends were mad about games like IGI, Counter Strike, Max Payne, etc.
Those were the days when, at least, I enjoyed my life the most. Every stage of game was a new day of life. Every win used to give a sense of accomplishment. Every moment spent playing was savored. Now, it’s a rat-race. No fun, no sense of accomplishment and thus no life. I made a change to this. I tried changing my life. I downloaded a free version of Mario. I now play it whenever I get free time, or you can say I try finding time to play it. I enjoy, not actually by playing it, but by somehow getting back to those days. Now no one can say “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”.
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