Book Review [159] : Let Me Say It Now

'Let Me Say It Now' is an autobiography of highly respected and decorated Indian Police Service Officer (now retired) Mr. Rakesh Maria Sir. During my training in SVPNPA in 2016 i saw him at lunch but was not lucky enough to interact with him. But i knew at that point of time that Kay Kay Menon did his role in the movie Black Friday made on Bombay attacks of 1993. He was cult hero.

Three main incidents or rather tragedies defined Maria's highly decorated Police career - Bombay blast and brilliant detection of conspiracy behind it, 26/11 Attacks and Sheena Bora case. Bombay blasts detection made him a great hero, 26/11 attacks and various associated insinuations reduced some sheen and the Sheena Bora case controversy applied sudden brake to his career as he himself suggests in this book.

The events surrounding 26/11 attacks forms major part of this book. The heroic sacrifice of Mumbai Police is well known and well documented. Maria  himself got overwhelmed once when he asks Ajmal Kasab to say Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Kasab says it. His attention to the minute details of planning and team management is something even very great leaders can envy. He was unfairly attacked by fellow Police Officers for his actions during 26/11 attack. He was made incharge of Control Room by CP Mumbai and he was responsible for mobilization of force on ground and co-ordination among various teams. He regrets even now that he was not on ground during those attacks. He regrets for not dying in those attacks.

He became Commissioner of Police Mumbai in 2014. During his last few weeks as CP Mumbai he was unfairly attacked by media for allegedly botching up Sheena Bora murder case. He was unceremoniously shunted from the post of CP Mumbai to DG Homeguards in Sept 2015. He retired in Jan 2017. 

He himself writes that Transfers and Postings are prerogatives of the State. There are no ill feelings. 

Overall its a very nicely written book covering various aspects of legendary Police Officer Rakesh Maria.

Highly Recommended (9/10)

Book Review [158] : Rama and Ayodhya

From my childhood i have heard and read a lot of stories about Bhagwan Ram and Krishna. Its indeed a painful experience to see one's holiest shrines topped by religious structures of another faith. Mahmud Ghazni destroyed many such great temples including Shri Krishna Temple at Mathura and Somnath Temple in Saurashtra. Since then and till the decline of Mughal empire it never stopped. Many many temples were destroyed and over those temples many Mosques were erected; Kashi, Mathura are two such prominent examples. Destruction of Mathura and Kashi Vishwanath temples are very well documented. 

Shri Ramjanmbhoomi - Babri Masjid dispute is one of the oldest running disputes over a religious place anywhere in the world. Its well known that Ayodhya is the birthplace of Bhagwan Ram but no body knows the exact location where Ramji was born. Babri Masjid was located at a place which was very sacred to Hindus and there were hardly any Muslim habitation there. Who would built such a Mosque there at a mound which is surrounded by sacred Hindu shrines. Meenakshi Jain's Rama Ayodhya answers many such questions.

The worship of Rama is not a recent phenomenon as the leftist intellectual tell us. More than 2000 years old Bhagwan Ram artifacts have been found. There are huge number of literary evidence about Bhagwan Ram. The excavation done by ASI at disputed structure revealed many artifacts and structures which can only be found in Hindu shrines/temples. The Ayodhya site had been in occupation for more than 2000 years and the last prominent temple was built by Gahadavala King. Why would Babur built a Mosque at a place which was not politically important! Delhi and Agra were more important. Ayodhya was religiously more important. Perhaps thats the answer.

A civilization that does not acknowledge the crimes committed by its vanquishers and instead  celebrates their acts is destined to enjoy infinite intellectual slavery, inferiority complex and defeatism. 

Highly Recommended book for those who want to wake up (10/10)

Book Review [157] : Amritsar - Mrs Gandhi's Last Battle

Amritsar - Mrs Gandhi's Last Battle by Mark Tully and Satish Jacob is a brilliant book on Operation Blue Star. 

Mark Tully was known to almost every news loving Indian specially in 1980s and 1990s. Operation Blue Star left a deep scar on India's soul and created a lot of bad blood between brothers - Sikhs and Hindus. How Mrs Gandhi appeased Bhinderwale and how he became a threat to her in less than a decade.  

The Golden Temple or Hari Mandir was built in the middle of Sarovar by fifth Guru Arjun Dev in 1589. Foundation stone was laid by Mian Mir from Lahore. His successor Guru Hargobind built the other shrine within Temple Complex - The Akal Takht. Ahmad Shah Abdali blew up the Golden Temple and filled the holy pool with the carcass of slaughtered cattle. Akal Takht was also razed to ground. The Temple was rebuilt later and it reached its zenith during Maharaja Ranjit Singh era. After Independence the identity politics nurtured the ground for the communal politics of Bhinderwale. The reign of terror was unleashed in Punjab and many hundred people were killed in that madness. Finally Indian Army stormed the Temple Complex on 5th June 1984 killing the extremists hiding in the Temple Complex. The Akal Takht and Golden Temple suffered damage. Indian Army suffered about 300 casualties. By 7th June the Temple Complex was sanitized. The Sikh soldiers mutinied but they were checked. The madness did not stop at this Operation. Madness caused the killing of Mrs. Gandhi. Finally Rajiv Gandhi was able to reconcile the Sikhs and the festering problem was put to an end. Its a must read book. It talks in detail about the root cause of Punjab Problem, How Mrs Gandhi failed to tackle it and in the end caused Operation Blue Star and lost her life. 

Highly Recommended (9/10).

Book Review [156] : The Last Girl - Nadia Murad

This Diwali the US President Donald Trump did a great favour to entire Human Civilization by vaporizing the most dreaded Terrorist and evil incarnate Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Ask any Yazidi you will understand the gravity of the crimes committed by this evil person. It was a strange coincident that i happened to finish 'The Last Girl' by Nadia Murad on that very day. Nadia Murad is a brave Yazidi girl. She like many thousand Yazidis was subjected to most horrific war crimes including gang-rape and sex slavery. Her family was gunned down and thrown in ditch like many thousand Yazidis in August of 2014. She was awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 2018. 'The Last Girl' is not only her story but story of all Yazidis.

Yazidis

Yazidis are 1 million strong endogamous community native of northern Iraq in Ninveh region. Yazidi religion is different from Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism. Yazidis consider Tauwsi Malek a Peacock Angel that connects them to the God. They also believe in reincarnation theory. Their holy shrines are located in Lalish valley. Their priestly caste is called Shaikhs. They call their holy shrines - Temple. They also believe that all Kurds were originally Yazidis but converted to Islam in last few centuries. Yazidis suffered Pogroms 73 times in their history.

The Last Girl

This is an account of Nadia Murad. She writes in detail how ISIS captured her village Kocho in northern Iraq. How all men and old women were gunned down and how young women were sexually abused and sold in slavery as Sabbiya as per the ISIS version of Islam. Yazidis were not considered people of the Book hence they deserved either conversion or total annihilation. Christians were given safe passage to safer places as they were people of the book. Nadia Murad family was massacred, she was sold in sex slavery. She was brave and she managed to escape with help from God. In this book she writes that its better to die than to live as sex slave. Many times she thought of committing suicide but she did not get that chance. 

The Jauhar of Padmavati echoed in my mind. I often wonder about our country's so called liberals and intellectuals. When Padmavati movie came many of them criticized action of Queen Padmavati in that movie they all said that it was better to go to Alauddin Khilji than committing Jauhar. No one is and no one can become a greater feminist than Nadia Murad and she preferred death over becoming sex slave. 

Its hard to believe that people can commit such horrific crimes in the name of religion. The Sunni Muslim neighbours did not help Yazidis and many turned Yazidis to ISIS. Though one Sunni family helped Nadia Murad but it was too late by then. About 5000 Yazidis were massacred about 10,000 were enslaved and others managed to escape. This was the brutality of ISIS supported by Sunni Muslims in the name of religion.

When Ab Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in an US raid, the prominent liberal newspaper The Washington Post published his obituary as:

I don't have any words to express. Perhaps the people of The Washington Post should have read about Yazidis. Calling Baghdadi an 'austere religious scholar' is like adding insult to the injuries suffered by Yazidis and other victims.

This is a great book and everyone should read it.  

Highly Recommended (10/10).

Book Review [155] : The Darkening Age - Catherine Nixey

In the book 'The Darkening Age' written by Catherine Nixey (born to Christian Monk and Nun parents), the writer talks about complete annihilation of classical Greco-Roman civilization by the Christian order over a period of 200 years. The glorious Greco-Roman civilization is now called a Pagan civilization and almost all contemporary historians celebrated the destruction of classical civilization. Every temple was destroyed, the great Parthenon was destroyed, the great Idols were first mutilated and then burned before great mass of applauding Christians. The great Mathematician Hypatia was murdered brutally in broad day light in Alexandria in 415 AD. In 315 AD Christianity was declared the religion of Empire by Emperor Constantine. By end of 4th century almost all temples and symbols of Pagan religion were destroyed. Millions of books were burned and millions were overwritten. All the early Christian saints including St. Augustine called old Pagan religion as demonic and it deserved complete destruction. The great saints of contemporary Christianity led the zealot followers and publicly destroyed 'Pagan' Temples and libraries. The famous Roman baths were condemned and so were the free spirit of Romans. The Homosexuality was considered sin and was out-rightly banned. 

Idols of Aphrodite, Athena, Zeus, Apollo etc were mutilated and some were even baptized with cross on their heads. 

History is written by conquerors and conquered people have no say in it. We don't know how 'Pagans' and their philosophers fought back. Their stories are not known and possibly lost for ever. In todays era there are hardly any Pagan left. The liberal and tolerant Polytheistic Greco-Roman religion was completely vaporized by the violent intolerance of Monotheism and this Monotheism did not take any prisoner. It was a complete takeover. Though Polytheistic religion lost politically and theologically the cultural mores were hard to die. The Western civilization ( almost completely Christian now) celebrates - the heroism of Pagan Alexander, Julius Caesar etc, - the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Cicero etc - the ancient architecture and art of that period, the Olympics etc. This is the ultimate victory of Pagan Europe. 

The story of encounter of Pagan Europe with Christianity is pretty similar to our own encounter with Arabs and Turks. Perhaps someone will write on this with same audacity and clarity. 

Highly Recommended Book (10/10)