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Let It Snow vs2
Width can expand with entry content. Layout by RayRay- Posted 1/19/2008 9:28 PM
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Pink Diamonds are a close second
Pink Diamonds give sparkle and elegance to this theme- Posted 10/20/2007 9:20 PM
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Pink fun
Different shades of pink.- Posted 9/20/2007 10:01 PM
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Tuesday, 06 October 2009
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At around noon Susie made her appearance for the first time behind the counters overseeing all the employees one after another.
Only two women but seven men folk, and all of them seemed to speak only in the local language and not in a language she could understand! Apparently all were from Minicoy! Now the picture became clearer to her than before. Being local men and women they didn’t need to come before 9:45 am. The men folk seemed to be just like brown-skinned Malayalees though with pudgy cheeks without exception. Women folk were decidedly bulky-fish?-and rather silent by temperament or not forthcoming! Susie mused,
It is said that girl babies start smiling—after a few initially abortive contortions of facial muscles no doubt-- sooner than boy babies do! Throughout their lives women folk all over the world resorted to smiles for various purposes and for getting their ways accomplished too. Why are these women not smiling? Have they been told at home in their younger years not to smile at strangers? Are they frustrated with this posting in their own place? Could it be something else?
None of the employees except Ibrahim gave her a smile of welcome or greeted her cheerfully.
Could be a cultural trait of these people-this seriousness during work!
Susie was happy to sign the tallying statements at 4:00 pm and fax the same to the Head Office.
At 4:50 pm one of the women came in with some reluctance into the Manager’s cabin and spoke in English to her:
“Good evening, Madam!”
“Yes?”
“Can I please leave now since my husband is taken ill?”
“What is your name?
“Haleema”
“Haleemabeevi?”
“Yes.”
“What’s your man’s problem? Acute or chronic?”
“Chronic. TB”
“Oh! Under treatment?”
“Yes but not becoming better!”
She could be the sole breadwinner for her household! That explains her long face!
“Your work is over for the day?”
“Yes, Madam!”
“All right but don’t make it a habit please! Who is the other woman?”
“Faseema.”
“Does she also wish to leave now?”
“No.”
“OK!(smile) Ask the Senior Accounts Manager also before you go! Inshah Allah!”
At this greeting, Haleema lighted up visibly and smiled for the first time-a happy smile.
Inshah Allah!
At 5:15 pm the bank seemed to become slowly silent with one fan whirring still.
Craning her neck out, she saw Ibrahim hard at work. A smile came to her face.
“Oh, Ibrahimkoya! You are not going home, eh?
“Well, Madam, it’s like this! I am no lowly peon myself but I have to see that everybody else’s work is perfectly in order –of course not for amount-tallying purposes—but their files have to be in place! Stray lights and fans ought never to be left whirring! Plus write a letter daily to my parents on Andrott. It is a habit of mine, Madam—to write daily letters to my parents! Before I leave for my accommodation, I never forget to do this! Look, they both dote on it arriving on time and read them repeatedly in their Empty Egg-my home!
“Do you write one letter regularly? Or do you write them together on any day and date them separately then?”
“Daily, of course—the last thing I do here before I leave-- but I send them in a pack only once a week when the ship arrives!”
“Oh! What a queer arrangement!”
“One week’s letters are enough for them to mull over discuss and read repeatedly for the rest of a month or for at least a fortnight!”
“You have no wife or child yet?
“No Madam!”
“Why? You appear to be around 30 to me!”
“32, actually! I did not feel like marrying yet!”
“Oh! Isn’t an entrenched custom that Muslims like you get wedded early in your life?”
“Many ancient customs still cling like barnacles to my community members still; and our imams call upon us to die for them but of course I understand these limitations and coolly ignore them for my peace of mind! One cannot live solely for the imams Madam!”
And he smiled a bright smile too.
Susie liked the man. Progressive mindset perhaps? Independent thinking?
“What is the language these people speak here?”
“Oh it’s Mahal, the language of the Maldives.”
“But this is not Maldives! Why can’t they learn Malayalam?”
“They cling to their ancient practice that is all! Probably no Malayalam teacher has also bothered to come here yet and tried passionately to bring them round!”
“OK! You are staying somewhere nearby, Ibrahim?”
“Yes! About half a kilometer from here!”
“I have taken up only a room above the residence of one Maitheenkoya near the Health Centre”
“I know your area, Madam! Not very good to live in silence and peace since too many women folk are there –all uniformly voluble and gossipy chatterboxes without exception!”
“Ha, ha! Women folk relax through such chatter Ibrahim! They relate to one another faster than any super glue or UHU can! But I admit that they can also turn really nasty harpies, vixens or shrews!”
Golden afternoon turned to old gold evening. Both had their own soft music to the imaginatively fecund Susie. She reached home, had a bath, brewed up a hasty cup of tea and put her favorite book—The Paradises of the Planet—on the table to make use of later in the day after her rather austere supper.
From the roof of the residence, she saw the sea and heard its waves maternally lulling the silvery sands to sleep. The rhythm extended to the colors on the horizons too—with the deep crimson turning to a dull violet, and then the moon rising imperially—like a queen clad in off white--from the east—from her Kerala side! Breathing in the cool air of the early night Susie recalled those immortal lines from Dover Beach:
Come to the window, sweet is the night air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the moon meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! You hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling
At their return, up the high strand
Begin and cease then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
This ignited Susie’s imagination and made the young woman think a lot of this mystery of human existence.
Was this human life such a sorrow-sodden, tear-filled passage? Why did all these injustices and violent animal passions continue to be at play all over the globe? What was driving millions of families to break up? Was it a long chapter of pain punctuated by occasional moments of joy? Was Arnold’s an agonizing reappraisal of human life in the light of his individual experience or on the basis of human experience all through evolution?
Sadaboy India 2009 (copyright)
Saturday, 03 October 2009
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One evening in September 2007 Blotchy was relaxed in his home. Vellikoya his admirer came up at 4pm, Blotchy’s regular tea time.
Bulky went in to prepare a cup of tea for each of them.
“Velli, I saw a dream yesterday during the night in which I saw myself being swallowed by a huge whale!”
“How can that be my dear since whales never come to tropical waters? It must have you’re your physical tiredness after so much of fishing!”
“I dreamed that I went down its mucus-lined gullet and food pipe as it swallowed me, took a position inside its cavernous belly, and stayed in its stomach for many months too!”
“What a silly dream! Pooh pooh! Forget it! Whales are shy animals and never eat human beings for one thing! They consume krill and kelp may be! Secondly no man can stay inside and set up a tuna barbecue since it is a most acidic place as I have heard. You yourself are familiar with the contents of the stomachs of the many sharks and tunas we regularly kill and eviscerate before sale! So you know that it is impossible for any human being to stay in their stomachs!!”
“In case such a whale or shark comes into our waters and gets stuck in the lagoons on either side of this Andrott, what will you do, Velli?”
“I shall attack it all alone!”
“Never do that. Some marine creatures are enormously cunning and strong! So whip up enough community support and form a BISON team—B for brave, I for intelligent, S for Strong, O for Offensive Spirit and N for Neatness of Execution ! Team effort always wins, like that former British PM Winston Churchill’s V sign!”
“What was peculiar about it?”
“Of course you may know that Winston Churchill was England’s bulwark Prime minister during those life and death years of the Second World War trial by fire! His famous gesture of a victory in the War showed the two fingers raised in a V-shape while the other fingers were in a supportive position around the two! That scissors cut through paper, the latter standing for the palm down salute of Hitler!”
“The former demon of Germany?”
“Yes! Scissors has always beat paper to a pulp in human history. War is a team effort. Defeating terrorism should also be a team effort with all the people of our nation involved fully from head to toe in it! And once the guy is spotted and we have evidence, we shouldn’t let him live on as another human being too! He is a sea snake! Cut him to pieces and give those pieces to your dogs! Ahura Mazda and Ahriman in Zoroastrianism correspond to our God and Satan! This terrorist guy whether man or woman is an evil seed. Don’t let him grow and flourish!”
“OK! We shall abide by such a policy, Blotchy! Never fear! V-shape shall be our morale flag if ever a shark—I don’t subscribe to your whale theory—ever dares to come into our Andrott waters!”
On the very next day fishermen thought they saw a rapidly disappearing shark dorsal fin as they approached the Andrott shore in the afternoon with their catch!
Days of trial began for the lovely emerald island Andrott from then on.
Snowy Vellakoya was the love son of Yoosuf, a Pak trader that used to deal in carbon and copra shell. Sitting under a coconut palm on the beach sands of an afternoon in 2006, he recalled and imaginatively re-invented the whole story as it might have happened, for treasuring in his own memory since its had a sinister bend to it:
Scene 1 October 3, 1966
Warm beach sands on the northern end of the island, where the lighthouse now stood
1966 summer season. Many coconut palms tossing their heads in sprightly dance in the strong breeze from the sea.
No human to be seen anywhere around. From a hut much above the water level and somewhat inland, a young woman comes out with a basket ,checks if she’s looking acceptable enough to the others in the community, once more at her erogenous spots and then around herself to see that no man was watching her on the pry.
She looks up to heaven, stretches her hands up to it for mercy of some kind, sheds a few hot drops of tears, uses a corner of her dress to remove the marks of her weeping, and hastily walks down towards the beach, a good 500 meters off to the south from where she stayed.
On the way she sees a bearded man sitting all alone looking at a huge ship like vessel with many sails furled up but out in the sea. The man smiles and greets her warmly.
“Assalamu Alaikum, dear young woman!
“Wa alaikum Assalamu, Sir!”
Snowy felt sure she might have smiled too in joy at being greeted.
“I am Yoosuf, Pakistani trader in copra and coconut shell .I have just landed here and am resting! I did see a few fishermen now! You are really honest-looking people!”
“Oh, yes Sir! We are!”
“Where are you going to, pretty maid? It’s a damn hot day for summer, you know!”
“Well, I am going to the beach to see if the fishermen have arrived from the open sea with their catch. I thought of buying some fish!”
“Could you cook something for me for tonight, please? Actually I shall get all the copra I want by this evening, but favorable winds will rouse themselves up only during the day time, so I can go off only tomorrow morning! And I’ve nowhere to stay!”
“How is it possible, Sir, even if I wished to? You see, Sir, I am living alone in a hut up there! What will my neighbors say? Oh, no! I wish, nevertheless, that I could help you out with this problem!”
“Why are you staying alone, dear maid? Don’t you like humanity?”
“It has nothing to do with whether I love mankind or hate them! Of course I like most people if they are decent towards me! But I am a widow, not yet re-married to anyone and probably unwanted by anyone too since I am past 27!I have been leading such a lonely existence after my hubby Hanifkoya died last year after seven years of fruitless married life!”
“Oh! What a pity! I wish I too could help you but I am all new to this island and its people! Perhaps I can think on my way back that at least one person from this island knows who I happen to be!”
“Oh, yes! Ha ha! Is it the first time you are coming this way, Janab Yoosuf?”
“Certainly, dear woman! Normally my itinerary takes me only to the Konkan and Malabar coasts! I buy some copra shells, cotton clothes,hookahs and coconut oil there for sale elsewhere. You can call me a maritime merchant of sorts, a Sinbad the Sailor!”
“How come then that you knew about these islands and us?”
“Someone in Calicut told me about these islands. And yours was the first island I saw from the north in the distance! Oh, there are other islands also scattered on this sea! I never knew that! Thank you a million times!”
“Yes, there are 36 islands, but one has been given over to the birds of the world. Millions of them live there to lay eggs and bring up new generations. Ha, ha!”
“So I see that you love the world of Nature! Excellent! Every port I call at, I see those biped humans destroying nature with a vengeance as if they have declared a vendetta against the trees, the animals, the birds and even the sun and the sea! Of course, the sea has her victories as that tsunami of 2004! Did its tidal waves reach here?”
“No! An unseen hand seems to be shielding us from harm!”
“Must be the stern Hand of Allah! That same force is screening me from danger on the murderous waters! That ship you see out there in the sea is named Jawahara! She has been my only companion for more than 7 years now!”
“Are you an expert at sailing in strong wind and capricious and whimsical weather?”
“I am not expert at sailing myself but my Jawahara takes me along to some shore or other, may be even those where the inhabitants speak a language unfamiliar to me .I know Malayalam since I come to Malabar coast regularly; that’s why I am speaking to you in that tongue! Ha,ha!”
“Of course we speak Malayalam! But we also understand Jeseri, and Mahal! Don’t you ever wish to go back to your home nation Pakistan?”
“No! I have but painful memories and reminiscences about my country even after all these years of her parturition from this country and political independence from the British! Actually all my paternal and maternal relatives are on this side of Wagah border, in India! My Bappa Umaid and Umma Ameena died heartbroken because of that forcible ‘Partition pain’! My wife Mumtaz died soon —that is, three years—after our nikah or wedding about 17 years ago. She did give me a child but it also died of some whooping cough! I never felt like marrying again! My heart died within me and I felt thoroughly stoic and cynical! Thus in despair I set out on my life on the waters!”
“I do feel much pity for you dear Janab! But please excuse me for today and let me hurry! Inshah Allah, Janab!”
“Inshah Allah! Do you come out of home only at around this time, dear lady? May I ask you by which name you are known as?”
“Oh, my name is not much attractive—Jubaila!”
“Oh, no, it reminds me of the breeze on the sea on a spring day morning! Jubaila! What an exciting name to call a pretty girl by!”
“Thank you, Sir, for your compliment! I’ve thought I am much too fat for being called a girl! Yes, sir! I have some or other chores at my hut too to finish in the forenoon—drying fish for sale, making small mats for prayer out of pandanus leaves, cooking my lunch and supper at one go and washing clothes for my neighbors for money!!”
“Inshah Allah! You are also as enterprising as I am! And you have managed to live alone all these years too! Great! It needs real guts! I shall then sleep right here, dear Jubaila, on the warm beach sands for this night—my first night on this Andrott Island! I shall see you tomorrow morning before I go away, OK?”
“OK! But shall I tell one of my relative to accommodate you somewhere? On Andrott we have no lodges for any visitor, and we usually accommodate them with ourselves if needed!”
“Is the beach not safe enough? Will any mustachioed and heavily armed pirates come here at night to cook their midnight supper of goat flesh and prepare their next assault plan?”
“Oh, no!”
“Then you may tell your relatives! Thank you, O Allah! I am sitting right here for the time being but I am tired and feel like sleeping! When you are alone on your boat out in the sea, you can’t sleep like a log at any time, however moonlit the starry night happens to be and whatever poetic excitement the dark waters of the sea gives you! Death is your constant companion and can appear to you in multifarious avatars---fang, triangular and serrated shark teeth, sea snakes that come up along with the fish from the waters just to have a taste of you, tempests, thunder bursts, lightning that rips through your mast as if it is matchstick,pirates and many more! See, I don’t wish to frighten you, sweet and charming Jubaila!”
Sadaboy India (Copyright 2009)
Friday, 02 October 2009
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One of Basheer’s bosom friends on the island was Vellikoya. They went to sea together in their boat early in the morning every day too.
One day Velli—as Blotchy used to call him—discussed an important issue with him—the terrorism mess in this world.
“Blotchy, this world is bristling with terrorists. Our faith got a bad name in the West as a result. What causes a terrorist mindset?”
“It must be dissatisfaction with oneself! I am ashamed to think they are Muslims at all since our faith does not call upon us to resort to heinous tactics to show our protest. If ever I saw a terrorist face to face, I would never let him live on or escape but kill him outright since he is such a shame to our sacred Ahmadiya Islam faith!”
“Of course most terrorists are not of our peace-loving faith too! They are either Sunnis or Shias I guess!”
“Whichever sect they may belong to, they ought to be done away with by us and other Muslims themselves here just as butchers kill chicken and cattle today with a halal approach and a soft Bismillah whispered into their ears before we slit their throats wide enough for their spirit to escape!”
“Perhaps they are planning something like that even now somewhere India I suspect, Blotchy!”
“What makes you think so all of a sudden?”
“There was a newspaper report yesterday that some young men who have been recruited by Lashkar-e-Toiba have recruited other Malayalees for this work and are sending them to far corners of the country to sow destruction!”
“Let them come I say! The black-tipped and white-tipped sharks and tunas of Lakshadweep are waiting for their flesh!”
“You are a famous speaker! So will you please alert our young fishermen on the beach against this new threat from Kerala side?”
“Oh, yes! With pleasure! It’ll be a sterling service to Allah!”
“Today?”
“Yes, this very day! See Velli, all over India people are rather alert about this!”
“Shall we go to the beach area?”
“Oh yes! Let’s go together! Wait till I put on my shirt!”
On the Rehmath Village beach, about 30 feet away from Rafi Road, Blotchy addressed the young and middle-aged fishermen—about 60 of them-- as follows;
“Assalamu Alaikum!”
“Wa alaikum Assalamu,Basheerkoya!”
“Dear brothers in Islam! Please bring your wives along now or tell your wives tonight itself what I am going to tell you now!”
“With pleasure, Blotchy!”
Some youngsters went to their homes while others waited eagerly to hear him. He had been with some of them in the morning in their hunt for marlin from t he open sea. They had had a good catch of that beaked fish and had made a kill with trading the lot also!
Blotchy said,
“A recent news report informed me that terrorist org-”
“Who are terrorists, please?”
“They are mostly Muslims determined to kill everyone else so that they can live with their anarchyand their demon heroes!”
“My Allah! Who has authorized them to undertake such nefarious activitiesand worship demons as gods?”
“Many dozens of mushroom organizations in Pakistan—Snowy’s paternal nation—are active in bringing about death and destruction even in Muslim mosques in that country! They bomb innocent people shopping in a market, small children going to or returning innocently from their schools, and the faithful deeply immersed in their namaz!
“My Allah! These malcontents are worse than the white sharks of the sea! We must harpoon them behind their fifth gill, I guess!”
“It is possible that one such guy may come over here. It is also likely that he may pose as another person-say a Hindu teacher from the mainland to consult us! Be alert, dear brothers! When our ships arrive, aren’t you the people that go to the ships to bring the visitors and our islanders here?”
“Yes”
“You Muneer, you keep an account of the many young men coming here from today onwards. Keep them under observation, night or day. Dear brothers, ask for your wives’ cooperation in this matter! We are of Ahmadiya stock, a minority, and so they may want to eliminate us!”
“Who?”
“Sunnis or Shias”
“Bah! I know what to do with them! Seat them on a harpoon till its tip juts through their throats before talking to them!”
“Please ask your mothers going to market to be watchful of any strange faces in the place and whether such youngsters come in long flowing dresses”
“Why
“A deadly weapon like an assault rifle can be concealed there! Or any parcel in any plastic bag!It can be a deadly bomb!”
“My Allah! All right, Basheer! What shall we do when se see such a fellow on our island?”
“Don’t take the law into your hands but tell me first! I shall talk to the fellow and gauge if he repents. We that much of our famed decency to him! Keep one of your sharpest knives in prime condition with you in a sheath in the meantime in case the man tries to shoot us to death!”
“Will he dare to do that?”
“Oh, yes, he will! Without the least compunction too! He has been trained at one of the camps in Pakistan’s terror factory—the whole rogue nation is one huge factory and college for churning out terrorists and the most dangerous men on this planet! Who knows if Snowy’s Bappa(=father) is alive now in the wake of this demonization there?”
“Oh, my Allah!”
“Do you know of 9/11?”
“We have heard of some catastrophic destruction by terrorists on a pair of buildings in far away America. Is that this 9/11 you are speaking of?”
“Yes! They rammed a plane loaded with some 300 hapless passengers and 50000 liters of fuel into the World Trade Centre buildings in New York, killing over 3000 really brilliant and talented people, from all over the world. Our Muslim community became suspect no 1 in that way to the nations in the West. OK! I have told you! Keep a vigil! Who can help me form a vigilante group here on Andrott? We can go from house to house and warn the women folk as a group against this tribe of Hottentots and Vandals. We have to visit all the islands too according to a present programme without any prejudice to our routine fishing! Velli, please make a list of the islands we ought to visit on a priority basis, won’t you?!”
“Why not do this during the month of Ramadan? It is just 5 days away!”
“Oh, yes! Thank you! Youngsters that are interested in forming such a defense wall on this island may join me!”
One of the school teachers from Andrott LP School—she was Miss Anna Kurien from the mainland—could be seen going towards her home on foot. Blotchy went up and invited her to come for a moment to the beach.
When she came down with a smile, Blotchy said to her,
“Madam! I am Basheerkoya! Would you please tell me if any stranger has visited your school and got introduced to your pupils?
“Oh yes! One youngster named Ali Bhai, who claims to be a B.Ed student from the mainland, on Andrott for a survey of some kind, has visited us. He played with the kids too!”
“How is he in appearance?
“Youngster---younger than I am—having a stubbled beard, expensive shirt and watch but having a strange look in his eyes with glazed eyes, and cell phone contacts to many others on the mainland. And his cell phone is bigger than the ones we get here with a long retractable antenna. Perhaps a satellite receiver, as I have heard!”
“The kind of satellite receiver used by terrorists in Kashmir?”
“Possibly, yes!”
“Thank you, Anna Kurien Madam! Please be careful about that fellow first of all! Don’t let him play with the innocent pupils! He is sure to use them as bomb carriers!”
“My Jesus! Shall I alert the headmistress about this possibility?”
“Oh yes! May the Almighty God save you and your pupils, Madam! We are fishermen and need to think in depth immediately about how to deal with this same threat. Thank you on behalf of this population!”
“Thank you, Basheer!”
When the teacher had gone, Blotchy turned back to his people.
“Dear brothers, please know that the virus I warned you about is already here. Like the HIV changing shape in a protean manner, he may claim to be anyone else also—, B.Ed student on a survey, teacher on vacation, doctor on leave, cousin of someone, anyone! But we cannot let him go! Will you be alert about this Ali Bhai fellow?”
“He is staying in the shed outside and behind my house, Blotchy on a rent of Rs 100 per day! I shall put a phone receiver under his table without his knowing about it at all! He is almost absent throughout the day time and mostly on the beach on the north side near Snowy’s lovely house and comes around 9.30 pm or so!”
“A wonderful idea! But that’s not enough! You must bring me a copy of what he says when he closes his bedroom doors! Many such cadres –”
“Cadres? What is that?”
“Troops of such dangerous young people!”
“They have sneaked into India through a 50 feet fence with a load of dangerous weapons. Maybe this terrorist is an arch leader---a namak-haraam himaar Beelzebub—among them! So take down what he says and then let’s have a mini meeting at my home –you know house No 1 on the other side of Rafi Road and under that huge tree within a week!”
“But suppose he kills us all and goes away within this week itself!”
“Advance our meeting buy three days! Come, come let me think of a fool-proof strategy, dear brothers! A net of such fine knots that he can’t escape alive from us!”
Blotchy, when he came back to his house and told Bulky of the arrangements he had initiated, felt absolutely relaxed about this imaginary Damocles’ equally imaginary sword hanging over Andrott in the fresh-as-fresh-can-be air.
SADABOY India (copyright 2009)
Thursday, 01 October 2009
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Golden afternoon turned to old gold evening. Both had their own soft music to the imaginatively fecund Susie. She reached home, had a bath, brewed up a hasty cup of tea and put her favorite book—The Paradises of the Planet—on the table to make use of later in the day after her rather austere supper.
From the roof of the residence, she saw the sea and heard its waves maternally lulling the silvery sands to sleep. The rhythm extended to the colors on the horizons too—with the deep crimson turning to a dull violet, and then the moon rising imperially—like a queen clad in off white--from the east—from her Kerala side! Breathing in the cool air of the early night Susie recalled those immortal lines from Dover Beach:
Come to the window, sweet is the night air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the moon meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! You hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling
At their return, up the high strand
Begin and cease then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
This ignited Susie’s imagination and made the young woman think a lot of this mystery of human existence.
Was this human life such a sorrow-sodden, tear-filled passage? Why did all these injustices and violent animal passions continue to be at play all over the globe? What was driving millions of families to break up? Was it a long chapter of pain punctuated by occasional moments of joy? Was Arnold’s an agonizing reappraisal of human life in the light of his individual experience or on the basis of human experience all through evolution?
Chapter 4
Blotchy’s Program
Venue:Jamaa’ath,Malappuram. Date: January 4, 2007. Topic: Islamic Banking
Speaker: Basheerkoya from Andrott Island , Lakshadweep Archipelago.
“Assalamu Alaikum!I decided to dedicate my life to bringing about some changes in the banking practices among us since many Muslim households are getting ruined by today’s banking side effects! All over Lakshadweep we take loans mainly for buying boats or equipping them and so we don’t have such a debt trap as many of my friends on the mainland have gotten themselves into!”
(Smiles from the listeners)
“You are right!”
“I don’t claim Islamic banking to be perfect in every way since it is pretty ancient—12th century-but it is a viable alternative that our community can try out! Based on Islamic economics, which insisted on discriminating between the good services and the bad services, and Shariah laws, Islamic Banking-which for convenience we may abbreviate as IB-- prohibits the payment of interest fees for lending of money for specific terms. Usury per se—the kind of thing I am told Shylock practiced in Shakespeare’s play-- is viewed as sin. Investing in a business or service contrary to Islamic ethics principles—such as lending money for a pig farm-- is haraam or forbidden according to IB. You see the core principle is piggybacking ethics to banking practices we are familiar with! Swine are dirty animals and so Islam which celebrates personal cleanliness at all times is allergic to it. Commercial banking encourages profit making at any cost on the contrary!”
“But is today’s banking derived from IB?”
“Yes! Even during the 8th century period—Islam’s Golden Age extended for four centuries after that—a proto-capitalism and free markets existed and got developed for smoothening people’s lives. The first term I used here comprised lending and receiving of money with or without some consideration depending on individuals but it was neither a standard practice nor widely prevalent too. Dinar was the stable and high value currency at the time in the Caliphate. So it was accepted for circulation purposes too! Early banks owed their 13th century experiments with cash in Europe based on this Arab contribution!”
“What is meant by the terms mufawada and mudaraba please?”
“Ah! I am lucky enough to have an educated audience today! Maasha Allah!”
“Maasha Allah!”, the audience readily joined in.
“Mufawada refers to a partnership of some kind. This can be between both the Bank manager himself and the loan beneficiary after a loan or between two third party individuals with the approval of the money lending bank. But only for the production of a useful item or for a good socially uplifting service! There can be many partners in a mufawada, but mudaraba is a limited partnership legally valid for a time only. For instance a waqf or trust is a mudawafa.The accumulation of funds for constructing a mosque—Nama al-mal—is a mudaraba.”
“Do we have IB institutions today?”
“Yes. It became popular only in late 20th century partly because the Caliphate disappeared and the Islamic ambitions suffered some jolts and also due to many other historical reasons. Today we do have IB in Europe and the US. Private and semi-private institutions within the Muslim community are benefiting from such ethical policies forgetting their needs fulfilled.”
Which services available today are rendered through IB, please?’
“Most of them like cheques, promissory notes, bills of exchange, and transactional accounts! Please keep in mind that organizational enterprises independent of the State also flourished well in those days because our religion is based on mutual brotherhood! Start-up companies were assisted to come up not only by the whole community but by the banker himself directly or indirectly since retrieval of the loans would be all the easy then! Ha, ha! Not like today where the baker lends money to Mr A and then starts sharpening his knife, waiting for the day when he can start exploring his chest cavity with memos and SARFAESI ACT 2002!”
“Ha, ha!”
“Why was dinar accepted as the standard currency?”
“Because it was solid gold! Gold and silver were the benchmark currencies. They defined the value of all other materials being trades. Three could be no sense or meaning in charging interest to the benchmark itself. Thus no interest at all was charged for them. The principle involved is ex natura sina, as any lawyer among you can easily understand!”
“Could you kindly enlighten us about scenarios where interest could be charged legally?”
“Interest could be charge for loans involving (a)currencies based on guarantees by a government to honor the stated value—most paper currencies that is—and (b)copper coins—since copper was not a benchmark material! Look! They had their logic and explanation for what they practiced! Weight, for instance, was the basic criterion for benchmark items!”
“Where was the first IB institution established?”
“Ahmed Elnagger set up the fist Islamic bank at Mit Ghamr in Egypt in 1963.By 1967 9 such banks came up”
“Could you please explain the IB concept of loan please?”
“With pleasure! All vehicle loans get processed in a particular manner; this involves insisting on strict collateral security and selling the item at a higher than market price to the borrower and then retrieving the amount. Suppose Mr. A wants to buy a car. The bank buys the car and lends it to him at a profit. However the fact that it is profit for the bank cannot be made explicit; to get around this ban, the bank charges no penalty for late payment of installments! Registration of the car is made in the name of the buyer, however! This practice is known as mura baba”
“For which items ought no Islamic banks to lend money?”
“For socially detrimental or unhygienic items like pork rearing, gambling casinos and setting up liquor shops including bars!”
“Let me take down the summary if what you said, Sir!”
“Figh al-Muamalat (=Islamic principles of transaction) determine all IB practices which can be epitomized as sharing of profit (mudha raba)and loss and prohibition of unearned money (riba) on the other. The first bank in Egypt merged into Nasir Social Bank in 1972.Islamic Development Bank came up three years later. In the same year Dubai Islamic Bank was set up too. IB institutions are multiplying at 10-15% per year. In 51 nations we have IB services available through 300+ institutions as of today.250 mutual funds comply with these IB principles. World Islamic Banking Conference takes place at Bahrain every year.”
“Thank you, Mr Basheer. Inshah Allah!’”
In this manner, Blotchy Basheer conducted 8 class sessions from January till 30 May 2007 at Edakkad, Tellicherry, Calicut, Ramanattukara, Chelari, Ponnani, Kumaranallur and Kochi. By this time many write-ups about this man had come up in the vernacular newspapers. The TV audiences, irrespective their stickiness to other channels, invariably waited for programs by him, just like the eager readers that waited outside the press that printed Pickwick papers.
From June 1 till December 13, when he died in tragic circumstances, his edifying sessions were at Kochi, Cannanore, Dharmadam, Koduvally, Kodungallor and Kochi.
SADABOY INDIA (Copyright 2009)
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
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9:45am
Pattering feet and steps coming up from outside. Whispers. The sound of chairs and stools being moved to comfortable positions. The sound of fans being switched on. Whirring sound.
9:55am
Sound of male and female voices in another language –customers?—and greetings in that strange tongue too. A soft hubbub.
10:00am
Work started as usual.
Susie felt that her presence might not be required for some minutes till customers with investment plans arrived; or it might well be those potential term deposit people having fat deposits in pots or cauldrons back home, and they not knowing what to do with the amounts; prospective loan applicants having secret doubts whether they were really eligible for a loan for the amount they needed.
10:26 am
Susie found two men and a woman coming into her room, followed by—wonder of wonders!--none other than Ibrahimkoya. The latter was equally surprised and tried to beat a hasty retreat, but she welcomed all the four warmly with a smile and a gesture to sit down.
Ibrahimkoya said,
“Good morning Madam, once again!
“Good morning Ibrahim!
“Please forgive me for the contretemps that occurred this mor-“
“Oh, forget it! Of course it was a shock to me this dawn but it happens often in such far off places and I was at fault too for not having with me enough short change! Thank you for explaining all this to me in a language I can relate well to!
“I didn’t know you were my Manager!”
“Well, I also didn’t know. Two cases of individual ignorance cancel each other nicely you know!”
“I know that but still…”
“OK ! Of what service could I be to you all? Ibrahim, you may translate what they are saying?
“Madam, that’s why I’ve, came along with them! I am the invariable translator here because our Managers are mostly from either Kerala or other North Indian States! And I know adequate English to get by! Most of my colleagues here are not confident enough to communicate in English. But I felt a little awed on seeing you here of all places!”
He spoke to the Minicoy people rapidly in a strange lingo and they seemed to relax and smile at him. They admitted that they could not speak Malayalam.
“Madam, shall I stand in this corner and translate what they are saying in Malayalam so you understand their case well?
“OK! Don’t waste time! Go ahead please! OK, translate for them!”
It turned out that the persons wished to have a term deposit for only a single year to begin with since their child would get wedded within that time.
Susie asked Ibrahim to guide the persons in filling up the relevant applications intelligently and once that was done, she ratified it too without any fuss.
The day was punctuated till 2 am with such activities.
At around noon Susie made her appearance for the first time behind the counters overseeing all the employees one after another.
Only two women but seven men folk, and all of them seemed to speak only in the local language and not in a language she could understand! Apparently all were from Minicoy! Now the picture became clearer to her than before. Being local men and women they didn’t need to come before 9:45 am. The men folk seemed to be just like brown-skinned Malayalees though with pudgy cheeks without exception. Women folk were decidedly bulky-fish?-and rather silent by temperament or not forthcoming! Susie mused,
It is said that girl babies start smiling—after a few initially abortive contortions of facial muscles no doubt-- sooner than boy babies do! Throughout their lives women folk all over the world resorted to smiles for various purposes and for getting their ways accomplished too. Why are these women not smiling? Have they been told at home in their younger years not to smile at strangers? Are they frustrated with this posting in their own place? Could it be something else?
None of the employees except Ibrahim gave her a smile of welcome or greeted her cheerfully.
Could be a cultural trait of these people-this seriousness during work!
Susie was happy to sign the tallying statements at 4:00 pm and fax the same to the Head Office.
At 4:50 pm one of the women came in with some reluctance into the Manager’s cabin and spoke in English to her:
“Good evening, Madam!”
“Yes?”
“Can I please leave now since my husband is taken ill?”
“What is your name?
“Haleema”
“Haleemabeevi?”
“Yes.”
“What’s your man’s problem? Acute or chronic?”
“Chronic. TB”
“Oh! Under treatment?”
“Yes but not becoming better!”
She could be the sole breadwinner for her household! That explains her long face!
“Your work is over for the day?”
“Yes, Madam!”
“All right but don’t make it a habit please! Who is the other woman?”
“Faseema.”
“Does she also wish to leave now?”
“No.”
“OK!(smile) Ask the Senior Accounts Manager also before you go! Inshah Allah!”
At this greeting, Haleema lighted up visibly and smiled for the first time-a happy smile.
Inshah Allah!
At 5:15 pm the bank seemed to become slowly silent with one fan whirring still.
Craning her neck out, she saw Ibrahim hard at work. A smile came to her face.
“Oh, Ibrahimkoya! You are not going home, eh?
“Well, Madam, it’s like this! I am no lowly peon myself but I have to see that everybody else’s work is perfectly in order –of course not for amount-tallying purposes—but their files have to be in place! Stray lights and fans ought never to be left whirring! Plus write a letter daily to my parents on Andrott. It is a habit of mine, Madam—to write daily letters to my parents! Before I leave for my accommodation, I never forget to do this! Look, they both dote on it arriving on time and read them repeatedly in their Empty Egg-my home!
“Do you write one letter regularly? Or do you write them together on any day and date them separately then?”
“Daily, of course—the last thing I do here before I leave-- but I send them in a pack only once a week when the ship arrives!”
“Oh! What a queer arrangement!”
“One week’s letters are enough for them to mull over discuss and read repeatedly for the rest of a month or for at least a fortnight!”
“You have no wife or child yet?
“No Madam!”
“Why? You appear to be around 30 to me!”
“32, actually! I did not feel like marrying yet!”
“Oh! Isn’t an entrenched custom that Muslims like you get wedded early in your life?”
“Many ancient customs still cling like barnacles to my community members still; and our imams call upon us to die for them but of course I understand these limitations and coolly ignore them for my peace of mind! One cannot live solely for the imams Madam!”
And he smiled a bright smile too.
Susie liked the man. Progressive mindset perhaps? Independent thinking?
“What is the language these people speak here?”
“Oh it’s Mahal, the language of the Maldives.”
“But this is not Maldives! Why can’t they learn Malayalam?”
“They cling to their ancient practice that is all! Probably no Malayalam teacher has also bothered to come here yet and tried passionately to bring them round!”
“OK! You are staying somewhere nearby, Ibrahim?”
“Yes! About half a kilometer from here!”
Sadaboy India (Copyright 2008)
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