Tyrants in history

 

At the time, when the Modi government decimated the very existence of the Jammu & Kashmir state in one stroke, it would be obvious to the even most novice that that was just a beginning. 

 

Two years later, with the benefit of hindsight, that hardly seems to be an epiphany. Not only has the state ceased to exist, but the demographic engineering through sleights of so many hands has already proceeded to almost an irreversible level. 

 

The representation of the locals in the bureaucracy has been reduced to a bare minimum, with all plump and powerful positions occupied by the representatives of India. The Indian government has embarked on a well-thought scheme of looking across Kashmir as if people didn't exist. 

 

Every single day there are slews of bureaucratic fiats, chipping away the equities of Kashmiris without even pretending otherwise. The lack of resistance has been achieved by hoisting the plethora of fears, fear of everything, fear of job loss, fear of imprisonment, fear of privacy, fear of life. 

 

If history is any indication, even the most fearsome regimes have crumbled, and the most oppressed people have always found a way out through resilience. Those who know Kashmir and Kashmiris are aware that if there is anything in plenty, that would be the peoples' resilience.

 

One year after taking away the freedoms in Kashmir, Modi donned a dead animal on his head to slay the remnants of secularism and plurality in India through a garish foundation laying ceremony for a temple on stolen land. Only if they understood the retribution that awaited them in the form of deaths and destructions just months later.

 

Modi would do well to remember the tyrants in history and the ends that awaited them.

Death at the dance of insanity

 

Those who think Modi's boat has finally sunk and his coffin has been put into the ground might want to recall the events from his past. 

 

Those with strong recollections might recall the death, destruction, and destitution he caused and proudly presided over soon after becoming the chief minister in Gujarat. The callous and imperious manner in which he taunted hapless victims of the riots remains seared in memories. He went on to win election after election in the state and finally everywhere in India.

 

Not to forget the casual surreptitiousness with which he robbed people of their dignity and money in the name of demonetization in 2016. The Indian economy never recovered after that with complete decimation of the informal sector of businesses. He exulted on the miseries of the people begging for their own money. And for that, he was rewarded with a thumping win in the largest Indian state where a sadist monk, his alter ego, became the chief minister.

 

Perhaps, his cruelest act had been reserved for the poor village wretches, whom he turned into complete destitute within three hours. When he announced the 'strictest' lockdown globally, India had only 524 confirmed cases with COVID-19. A less insane leader would have used that time to prepare for the worst in the future. Then maniacs have no use for logic and reason. For Modi, it was the project megalomania. He had to match empty India with the developed world. Once again, he single-handedly destroyed the economy and made millions destitute. For that, he was handsomely rewarded with an election victory in Bihar. That was the place where most migrant workers returned in the aftermath of Modi's insanity. 

 

With patients gasping for breaths, dying for the lack of oxygen and hospitals, dead without a place for dignified final rites is the epitome of Modi's entire political career and persona. The fabric of the pluralistic society and liberal politics was given an open burial through the overt acts of the Modi regime. It would be foolhardy to call India still a democracy. Modi has turned India into an obscurantist country on the pyres of victims of his dance of the death.

Indulgences of liberals

Many tears have been shed at Pratap Bhanu Mehta's resignation from a so-called Indian ivy-league university in the past week or so. This morning in his weekly column for the Dawn, Jawed Naqvi had eluded a survey in the Caravan magazine on the clique of so-called liberal Indo-US academics who smoothened the edges for Modi in his run-up to power in Delhi through their approbative indulgences on Modi in the waning days of the UPA government. 

Pratap Bhanu Mehta was among those who thought that Modi's role in the 2002 pogroms in Gujarat was irrelevant to his natural place as the leader of the Indian nation. Then he was not alone in drooling at the prospect of Modi assuming the mantel. Shashi Tharoor, who couldn't do a day's proper job in the UPA government, would simply not shut up from singing paeans for Modi. Coming back to Pratap Bhanu Mehta and his brilliance, it is hard to think that he would be too small to remember Modi's role in creating and presiding over that mayhem in early spring of 2002. 

Modi's then demeanor was best described by Arundhati Roy as “the then chief minister of Gujarat appeared on TV in a saffron Kurta with a slash of vermilion on his forehead, and with cold, dead eyes ordered the burnt bodies of Hindu pilgrims be brought to Ahmedabad, the capital of the state, where they were put on display for the general public to pay their respect.” Then there was that phone call where Ahsan Jaffri tried to plead for help before Modi's goons put an end to the life of Jaffri and those who had come to seek shelter considering his stature as a politician. 

But for Pratap Bhanu Mehta and his liberal friends, it was time to consider Modi's past digressions as minor aberrations to be overlooked for the presumed good days ahead. Only if Pratap Bhanu Mehta had cared to listen to those chilling audios from the days of the 2002 riots with Modi taunting the hapless victims rendered homeless by his henchmen. Or, for that matter, didn't Modi run his government thereafter as an extortionist racket? Those murders of Ishrat Jahan, Hiren Pandya, or his henchman Amit Shah being charged and arrested as a home minister under Modi. 

The world has had many times rulers that turned out to be dastardly murderous, but examples of murderers being promoted as rulers by so-called intelligentsia are not many. Don't shed tears for people who expedited the advent of Modi to power. They share the blame for the mayhem that has happened ever since. -Rajiv Kumar

Universe

There are two mysterious things in the universe. Mysterious because we don't know what those are; the one is dark energy and the other is dark matter. Of the total energy/matter in the universe, the dark energy is about 67 percent and the dark matter about 28 percent, and the rest five percent constitutes the matter that we know. Does that mean we know five percent of the universe, the answer would be absolutely not? Then how do we know that dark matter and dark energy exist?

The existence of dark matter is inferred from its gravitational effect on the movement of stars and planets within most of the galaxies and the accelerated expansion of the universe is explained by a mysterious force termed dark energy. The term universe means the observable part, which is about 92 billion light-years across, and the parts beyond that will always remain out of reach because of expansion. Now the dark matter.

Ever-since it was hypothesized, search for the particles constituting the dark matter has been ongoing, with several candidates considered and discarded. The difficulty arises because whatever constitutes the dark matter, neither emits/absorbs light nor reacts with the known matter. The latest particles under consideration as a serious candidate for the dark matter are axions and underground detectors filled with xenon are looking for hints of the existence of such particles. 

The theoretical basis for axions is based on the charge-parity-time symmetry problem of the strong nuclear force that theorists believe can be explained by the existence of an additional field whose excitation would give axions. The name itself came from a detergent as it would clean up a nagging problem. It's a matter of time before axions as the dark matter particles are either confirmed or discarded. 

Fundamentally, it's only minuscule that we know, no matter what theists and atheists tend to believe.

Galactic scales

The solar system completes one revolution around the center of the Milky Way in 230 million years and that's called one galactic year. And according to that scale:

 

The universe originated 60 galactic years ago, 14 galactic hours after that the universe became  transparent with the release of cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB).

 

Galaxies started forming 58 galactic years ago. Sun formed 22 galactic years ago and the earth 20 galactic years ago and the moon 160 galactic days after that.

 

Life on the earth started 15 galactic years ago, photosynthesis 14 galactic years ago, nucleus formation in living cells 11 galactic years ago, multicellular organisms 3 galactic years ago, plants on the land 2 galactic years ago, animals 1.5 galactic years ago, and dinosaurs went extinct 103 galactic days ago.

 

Modern humans evolved 7.5 galactic hours ago, human civilization started 27 galactic minutes ago, and an average human life is 12 galactic seconds.

 

Four galactic years from now the sun will be too hot to boil oceans and 22 galactic years from now it will have expanded to engulf the earth erasing the traces of any existence on the planet.

A derelict presidency ends in disgrace

 

A derelict President with a decrepit soul leaves office today.

 

Trump made 30,534 lies or false claims during his presidency, instituted a Muslim ban, called White Supremacists very fine people, African countries s***hole countries, remained obsequious towards dictators and tyrants while lashing out against democratic allies, refused to accept election results, incited a murderous mob to attack the capitol putting life of his own vice-president and that of members of the congress into jeopardy. 

 

He leaves as a despised person and universally acknowledged as the worst president in the history of the United States. 

 

The person replacing him, besides being complete antithesis of desiccated Trump, can quote James Joyce. Joe Biden is a humble person with full of compassion without a trace of malice.

~Rajiv Kumar