My Musings

Musings....... Kurds The Kurds are an Iranian ethnic group native to mountainous regions of Western Asia known as Kurdistan which includes Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Northern Syria. Hence we can see that the Kurds do not have a state of their own. Estimates give their population between 30 and 45 million. Majority of Kurds belong to Sunni Islam sect but many also belong to Shia Islam, Alevism, Yazidism ( Nadia Murad fame ) Yarsanism, Zoroastrianism and Christianity. Kurds have an autonomous region in Iraq named Kurdistan region. The Kurds speak Kurdish the native language besides language of their native origin like Arabic, Persian and Turkish. The Kurdish Nationalist movement emerged after World War I with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire which had integrated the Kurds through use of force and repression. Present situation - Turkey- The Kurds have formed the Kurdistan Workers Party ( PKK) a militant organisation which fights the Turkish Government for cultural and politi...

Musings....... I happened to watch the recently released movie JOKER in a multiplex with my better half and the experience was one of a kind. I am no movie critic but am finding it hard not to write.  Being an ardent fan of Batman as a child and having watched both editions of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Night, it was with childlike curiosity that I awaited for JOKER as were millions of fans of the franchise the world over. It was not dampening that the other DC movies such as Suicide Squad or the Justice League had bombed at the box office because the trailer to Joker has something to it. Todd Philips the director has enthralled us all with his comic The Hangover trilogy , or Borat for that matter.  However with Joker, Todd Philips has elevated himself to the echelons of filmmaking. Acting in the titular role as Joker, Joaquin Phoenix has played the role of his life.  The role an actor will be remembered for life. Joker is probably what Titanic was for Leonardo DeC...

Musings....... My Gandhi....... Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi or Gandhiji, the Mahatma as he is known has always been a part of our lives. Growing up in India there will be no single person who wouldn’t have been influenced by Gandhi even in present times. From his picture in the currency notes to Gandhijis famous Talisman in our NCERT school textbooks, he remained a part of our childhood. Gandhijis talisman aside, in New Delhi where I grew up as a child, Gandhi filled our daily life as in statues in front of the Parliament House, or the Gyara Moorthi statue depicting the Dandi March/ Salt Satyagraha. Our knowledge on Gandhi evolved from our textbooks.  On how he as a child regretted lying to his parents and upheld high moral standards of truthfulness since then,  on how he as a young man ate meat to regret it immediately or sought sexual gratification and again repented.  Honesty and Truthfulness became the cornerstone of Gandhijis mantra. Then we learnt of how he ...