My name is not Khan, I am Mr KaulTarun Vijay, 22 December 2009, 08:55 AM IST
I am not Khan. My name bears a different set of four letters: K A U L.
Kaul. As those who know Indian names would understand I happened to be
born in a family which was called Hindu by others. Hence, we were
sure, we would never get a friend like KJ to make a movie on our
humiliations, and the contemptuous and forced exile from our homeland.
It's not fashionable. It's fashionable to get a Khan as a friend and
portray his agony and pains and sufferings when he is asked by a US
private to take off his shoes and show his socks. Natural and quite
justifiable that Khan must feel insulted and enraged. Enough Masala to
make a movie.
But unfortunately I am a Kaul. I am not a Khan.
Hence when my sisters and mothers were raped and killed, when
six-year-old Seema was witness to the brutal slaughtering of her
brother, mother and father with a butcher's knife by a Khan, nobody
ever came to make a movie on my agony, pain and anguish, and tears.
we look at our own selves as Kauls, we also see a macabre dance of
leaders who people Parliament. Some of them were really concerned
about us. They got the bungalows and acres of greenery and had their
portraits were worshipped by the gullible devotees of patriotism But
unfortunately I am a Kaul. I am not a Khan.
Hence when my sisters and mothers were raped and killed, when
six-year-old Seema was witness to the brutal slaughtering of her
brother, mother and father with a butcher's knife by a Khan, nobody
ever came to make a movie on my agony, pain and anguish, and tears.
No KJ would make a movie on Kashmiri Hindus. Because we are not Khans.
We are Kauls
They made reservations in schools and colleges for us. In many many
other states. But never did they try that we go back to our homes.
They have other priorities and 'love your jihadi neighborhood'
programmes. They get flabbier and flabbier with the passing of each
year, sit on sacks of sermons; issue instructions to live simply and
follow moral principles delivered by ancestors and kept in documents
treated with time-tested preservatives.They could play with me because
my name is Kaul. And not Mr Khan. I saw the trailer to this fabulous
movie, which must do good business at the box office.There was not
even a hint that terror is bad and it is worse if it is perpetuated in
the name of a religion that means Peace. Peace be upon all its
followers and all other the creatures too.So you make a movie on the
humiliation of taking off shoes to a foreign police force which has
decided not to allow another 9/11.
The humiliation of taking off the shoes and the urge to show that you
are innocent is really too deep. But what about the humiliation of
leaving your home and hearth and the world and the relatives and wife
and mother and father? And being forced to live in shabby tents, at
the mercy of nincompoop leaders encashing your misery and
bribe-seeking babus? And seeing your daughters growing up too sudden
and finding no place to hide your shame?
No KJ would ever come forward to make a movie, a telling,
spine-chilling narration on the celluloid, of five-year-old Seema, who
saw her parents and brother being slaughtered by a butcher's knife in
Doda. Because her dad was not Mr Khan. He was one Mr Kaul.
Sorry, Mr Kaul and your entire ilk. I can't help you.
It's not fashionable to side with those who are Kauls. And Rainas. And
Bhatts. Dismissively called KPs. KPs means Kashmiri Pandits. They are
a bunch of communalists. They were the agents of one Mr Jagmohan who
planned their exodus so that Khans can be blamed falsely. In fact, a
movie can be made on how these KPs conspired their own exile to give a
bad name to the loving and affectionate Khan brothers of the valley.
To voice the woes of Kauls is sinful. The right course to get counted
in the lists of the Prime Minister's banquets and the President's
parties is to announce from the roof top: hey, men and ladies, I am Mr
Khan.
The biggest apartheid the state observes is to exclude those who cry
for Kauls, wear the colours of Ayodhya, love the wisdom of the
civilisational heritage, dare to assert as Hindus in a land which is
known as Hindustan too and struggle to live with dignity as Kauls.
They are out and exiled. You can see any list of honours and invites
to summits and late-evening gala parties to toast a new brand. All
that the Kauls are allowed is a space at Jantar Mantar: shout, weep
and go back to your tents after a tiring demonstration. Mr Kaul, you
have got a wrong name
A dozen KJs would fly to take you atop the glory - posts and gardens
of sympathies if you accept to wear a Khan name and love a Sunita,
Pranita, Komal or a Kamini. Well, here you have a sweetheart in
Mandira. That goes well with the story.
And you pegged the movie plot on autism.
I wept. It was too much. I wept as a father of a son who needed a
story as an Indian. Who cares for his autistic son, his relationship
with the western world, his love affair with a young sweet something
as a human, as someone whose heart goes beyond being a Hindu, a Muslim
or a proselytizing Vatican-centric aggressive soul. Not the one who
would declare in newspaper interviews: "I think I am an ambassador for
Islam". Shah Rukh is Shah Rukh, not because he is an ambassador for
Islam. If that was true, he could have found a room in Deoband. Fine
enough. But he became a heartthrob and a famousl star because he is a
great actor. He owes everything he has to Indians and not just to
Muslims. We love him not because he is some Mr Khan. We love him
because he has portrayed the dreams, aspirations, pains, anguish and
ups and downs of our daily life. As an Indian. As one of us.
If he wants to use our goodwill and love for strengthening his image
as an ambassador for Islam, will we have to think to put up an
ambassador for Hindus? That, at least to me, would be unacceptable
because I trust everyone: a Khan or a Kaul or a Singh or a Victor. Who
represents India represents us all too, including Hindus. My best
ambassadorship would be an ambassadorship for the tricolour and not
for anything else because I see my Ram and Dharma in that. I don't
think even an Amitabh or a Hritik would ever think in terms Shah Rukh
has chosen for himself. But shouldn't these big, tall, successful
Indians who wear Hindu names make a movie on why Kauls were ousted?
Why Godhra occurred in the first place? Why nobody, yes, not a single
Muslim, comes forward to take up the cause of the exiled and killed
and contemptuously marginalized Kauls whereas every Muslim complainant
would have essentially a Hindu advocate to take on Hindus as fiercely
as he can
If you are Mr Khan and found dead on the railway tracks, the entire
nation would be shaken. And he was also a Rizwan. May be just a
coincidence that our Mr Khan in the movie is also a Rizwan
Rizwan's death saw the police commissioner punished and cover stories
written by missionary writers. But if you are a Sharma or a Kaul and
happened to love an Ameena Yusuf in Srinagar, you would soon find
your corpse inside the police thana and NONE, not even a small-time
local paper would find it worthwhile to waste a column on you. No
police constable would be asked to explain how a wrongly detained
person was found dead in police custody?
I am not Khan. My name bears a different set of four letters: K A U L.
Kaul. As those who know Indian names would understand I happened to be
born in a family which was called Hindu by others. Hence, we were
sure, we would never get a friend like KJ to make a movie on our
humiliations, and the contemptuous and forced exile from our homeland.
It's not fashionable. It's fashionable to get a Khan as a friend and
portray his agony and pains and sufferings when he is asked by a US
private to take off his shoes and show his socks. Natural and quite
justifiable that Khan must feel insulted and enraged. Enough Masala to
make a movie.
Because the lover found dead inside a police thana was not Mr Khan. No
KJ would ever come forward to make a movie on 'My name is Kaul. And I
am terror-struck by Khans'.
Give me back my identity as an Indian, Mr. Khan and I would have no
problem even wearing your name and appreciating the tender love of an
autistic son.
(an article by TARUN VIJAY in THE TIMES OF INDIA.COM)
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indus-calling/entry/my-name-is-not-khan
--
--
Thanking you,
Rajesh Padmar
Vishwa Samvad Kendra- Karnataka
#75, Rangarao Road Shankarapuram,
Bengaluru. 560004
080-26606571
+91 9880621824 +91 9880621824
www.samvada.org
--
Thanking you,
Rajesh Padmar
Vishwa Samvad Kendra- Karnataka
#75, Rangarao Road Shankarapuram,
Bengaluru. 560004
080-26606571
+91 9880621824
www.samvada.org
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