Honnasiri's Catch

Modern India swears on its Constitution, taking its history in tow. A history which had been marred by what can be termed "non-assimilative" abuse by non-native cultures along with their religions, most of which came with rulers and oppressors, who did exactly that through them. State sponsored conversion, law measures like jizya and allowance of certain things that were not allowed and accepted in Hinduism include some of their methods that took the India of the time away from its original way of living. This, being done through centuries, left behind Indians who made that them (the new culture) their way of life without stepping on others'. They're root-Indian every way, except for a small portion that may include some or all of the clothes they wear, food they eat or values they allow (among other things). English speaking but live on rasam. Western fashion but will only accept marriage with their parent's blessings... there are a gazillion of seemingly cont

In this up and coming, upwardly mobile, modern, 21st century world, 'more' is the keyword. I needn't reiterate. What that has translated into is easy, simple, less... basically more for us. Any way that we can walk in, squeeze something of its worth, claim dream/goal victory and move to the next thing. It's like a drug. You can never be satisfied. When you can only see so much juice potential in something, and it clearly doesn't meet the present self-upgraded definition of 'more', you squeeze something else - and leave the juice in that ilk to rot because it has lost its value. Even a waste disposal system for all of that is of no use to you. Why concern yourself with it? There's just one problem - there is only so much you can squeeze. If that doesn't service your snort pipe 'more' enough, you're gonna be stuck, and the bad news is that you are going to be stuck. Positive thinking makes you think you can make your own world. Dream it

Let's talk about the NRC. First, a primer. The National Register of Citizens is a list of people in Assam who are Indians citizens, leaving out those who are not, from those who are residing, or are from, the state. It is of political relevance because Assam has seen illegal immigrants from Bangladesh change the Hindu-Muslim ratio in the state. The further you probe into the history of the issue, you'll see there are many more details that will make you understand what's true, false, right and wrong about it. This article's topic just one side of the issue.  The focus of this piece is on a deeper issue: on the raw nerve it touches so callously - citizenship, otherwise called home. Most of us were never formally introduced to home, in all its forms: people, building, place and/or community . We just grew up knowing one, except for the unfortunate among us. We became it and it became us. We contribute to it like it contributed to us. We also nurture, v