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SIGNS OF THE TIMES
By Humra Quraishi. Dated: 3/5/2022 3:02:39 PM
*Is attack on Ukraine a war or terrorism of different sorts?
A Ukrainian soldier patrolling the front lines in December. Tensions between Ukraine and Russia have been simmering since 2014. Credit...Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times
“The polished and also the un-polished speeches of the world leaders haven’t come to the rescue of the people of Ukraine, who are braving it out there…trying to withstand the military might of Russia. Tell me, what would one say to what’s happening in and around Ukraine, where hundreds of innocent civilians have already perished in just about a week?”
Isn’t this war, terrorism of a certain definite sorts!
What happens when a mighty nation intrudes into a smaller nation, using military might, killing and terrorizing civilians, destroying all possible infrastructure!
One could term this war, Russia’s invasion into Ukraine, as military unleash of the unprecedented kinds. One could also term this as terrorism. After all, the citizens of Ukraine are terrorized! Hundreds rendered homeless, orphaned, wounded or killed!
All these killings and destruction under the watchful gaze of the world, in this ‘developed’ day and age when hundreds of peace forums and unity platforms are supposedly out there but of no use at all to protect the human form!
The polished and also the un-polished speeches of the world leaders haven’t come to the rescue of the people of Ukraine, who are braving it out there…trying to withstand the military might of Russia. Tell me, what would one say to what’s happening in and around Ukraine, where hundreds of innocent civilians have already perished in just about a week?
It’s about time we expand the definition of the very term, terrorism. We ought to go beyond the hackneyed definitions or for that matter using, rather misusing, the very term terrorism only in the context of a particular community; for the arrest and detention and harassment of Muslim men in the name of terrorism!
No, we are not inclined to go somewhat beyond, and question and query. Take the very definition of terrorists and terrorism towards a broader perspective. After all, terrorism comes in various hues, camouflaged and concealed in those various garbs. Haven’t we witnessed that in the past, country after country has been intruded into by the sheer military might of the bigger nations equipped with the most dangerous military weapons and tactics and expansionist designs. Using all sorts of alibis to intrude, attack, destroy and then put their own chosen lot as dictator- rulers, to further the havoc on the people and their lands.
I recall, several years back, one late evening as I reached the stretch near the Aravali hostel of IIT Delhi, I was taken aback to see on that cold December evening Professor V.K. Tripathi, who was then teaching Physics at IIT Delhi, sitting on a faded piece of cloth, discussing with the students and research scholars, the growing polarization and terrorism. Connecting or inter-linking the two—polarization and terrorism. Mind you, not talking about terrorism in one of those hyped political or biased terms, but as he’d put across, “For resisting terror, it is vital that we understand terror in all its forms and take up responsible roles… when we talk of terrorism we forget to mention its origins, dimensions and those big international level political players.”
Today we Indians could be sitting thousands of miles away from the war devastated Ukraine but all those war cries and those photographs and shots of destruction are affecting us. War is war! It destroys just about everything. It destroys even the minutest trace of faith in any of the so-called world leaders and their lofty political promises to save humanity! Where are they and where are the safety mechanism! Why can’t the war be somehow halted, a ceasefire announced now and immediately, before many more humans are deadened!
Also, in the midst of all these war cries, whatever happened to the politicians’ cries to combat the Corona virus at any cost! Where are the dos and don’ts and those no-fly zones, together with the no-intrusion zones! Surely the Corona virus couldn’t have been as lethal as the military might, out to devastate and destroy hundreds of lives!
WITH THE PASSING AWAY OF ZAIN NADELLA, I’M REMINDED OF HIS MATERNAL GRANDPARENTS …TAKING YOU TO THE 90s.
As soon as news came in of the passing away of Zain Nadella, 25-year old son of the Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, nostalgia gripped. It was in the 90s, when I was residing on New Delhi’s Pandara Road and then later on the Shahjahan Road, that just across, on the Humayun Road, resided senior bureaucrat, K R Venugopal. He was then with the PMO. Both he and his wife Lakshmi came across as warm and friendly so we visited their home on several occasions. And what I remember to this day that it was a very neat, tidy home; and though everything seemed simple and just the basics but well organized and all too spruced up. They were hospitable and each time served us South Indian snacks.
I’d also met Venugopal’s daughter Anupama. Very attractive, with a long plait, she came across as confident and well read. Soon came the announcement of her marriage to Satya Nadella, son of Bukkapuram Nadella Yugandhar. In fact, Yugandhar was also in the IAS and around that time also posted in New Delhi, and if I’m not mistaken he was a batch mate of K R Venugopal.
Venugopal and his wife continued to keep in touch with me, wished me not just on every Eid but even on other festivals and occasions and after he’d retired and with that shifted from New Delhi to their home state and city, they’d built their home in Hyderabad but kept travelling very frequently to the US, to be with their daughter Anupama and her husband, Satya, and the three grandchildren.