Founding fathers - A tale of two nations

I always loathed this. It was a kind of revulsion I would find myself in - whenever someone would use the phrase “founding fathers” in the context of India & Indian independence from the British in 1947. To call someone as the father of the nation especially for a country like India smacks of arrogance and ignorance at the same time. Come to think of it, it seems like the term is a straight lift from the USA. 

In the context of the USA, the term "founding fathers" makes a lot of sense but whereas India's, it comes across as downright nonsensical. Let me lay out the reasons for the same. First and foremost, India's recorded history, even by the account of hostile communist historians is over three to five thousand years old. Although India was declared a republic in 1950, India as a country existed for millennia and was recognized and respected by all the world powers starting from Greeks to Romans to medieval Europeans. India had trade relations with all erstwhile powers of their times - Greece, Rome, Persia, Arab world etc. 

Most historians recognize that there are seven founding fathers of the USA : George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe and Benjamin Franklin. Each one is an intellectual giant and visionary in his own right. As far as Indian case is considered, we ascribe the "father of the nation" status to 'Mahatma' Gandhi. The only common factor between Indian and American independence is that, the erstwhile colonial masters of both the countries was the same : The British. But the similarity ends there. The course both the countries took post-independence was entirely different from one another. 

For the sake of argument, I'll pick up one of the founding fathers and his well known work : John Adams & his definitive work "The Political Writings of John Adams". Watch this video on John Adams' view on finer arts.

I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.

Now, pick Gandhi and his autobiography "the story of my experiments with truth". Although I reckon, Gandhi is very honest about his personal life and he had too many virtues that he preached and embodied, some of his ideas on economy, modernization, pacifism were totally impractical if not downright ridiculous. But he had such a sway over the masses, he was deified and questioning him or his views was tantamount to sacrilege. 

Individuals and nations who would practiced non-violence must be prepared to sacrifice (nations to the last man) their all except honour.

If you compare the philosophy of John Adams with say that of a Gandhi or a Nehru, contrast couldn't be starker. On one side you'd see clarity of thought, clear articulation and vision for future but whereas on the other side all you see is mindless pacifism, emotional claptrap and obstinate linear thinking. No wonder America was destined for early freedom and greatness but whereas India was languishing in eternal tragedies - one after another. 

It's not that India lacked vision, or the sense of pragmatism or 'realpolitik'. In my assessment, if India had imbibed political philosophy and realpolitik of Kautilya as described in his seminal work Arthashastra. Although this work is at least close to 3000 years old, it has a clear and definitive views on statecraft, nation-state, finance, military strategy and strategic affairs, to name a few. It is very much contemporary. This is just one of the few prominent examples. There are quite a few alike. 

But alas, India and Indians choose to rally behind a few people who supposedly 'got us freedom' and followed their philosophy as Gospel Truth. We forgot the past and to paraphrase Santayana, those who do not remember their past are condemned to repeat their mistakes. Indian growth trajectory would have been quite different if we had better "founding fathers" with real vision and pragmatism.

Meditation on mortality & death

Most of us live through life as if we are immortals — like we have all the time in the world, with innumerable chances. But we are all mortals destined to depart one fine day. This simple truth escapes us.

Meditation on death is in fact, one of the oldest types of meditation in Buddhism — which goes by the name Maranasati Meditation. The Buddha said — “of all the footprints, that of the elephant is supreme. Similarly, of all mindfulness meditation, that on death is supreme.” Bardo Thodol or more popularly known in the west as Tibetan Book of the Dead is one of the popular works in this regard. Vajrayana branch of Buddhism has laid particular emphasis on this.

In more recent times, I think Steve Jobs said it the best in his characteristic messianic tone. In his most famous Stanford commencement address, he sums it up thus — 

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Being constantly mindful of our mortal nature is a good thing for us — It sharpens our perception of things around us, weigh-in the priorities in life, we'll have fresh perspectives and helps us to live our lives more sensibly and meaningfully. We live wantonly and carelessly when we think we'll be here forever. We'll be more careful and gentle when we know we have come here with an expiry date and when we are acutely aware of the fact that our time is limited.

Ownership issues, trophy wives and societal goal setting

The iconic diamond manufacturing group De Beers came up with their famous slogan “a diamond is forever”. Likewise, I keep seeing quotes like ‘she’s mine’ or ‘forever mine’ - and I get befuddled whenever I come across such lines.

I think the mentality as a whole is deeply flawed that you can “own” somebody. None can own anyone - not friends, not spouse, not even your children. Spouses, at best can be your co-travelers in this sojourn called life, but you can’t own them nor can they own you. To own someone is to reduce them to objects. Neither do we own our children for that matter - Children may come from us - still, it’s stupid of some parents to treat them as property. Not that people who use such terms understand the deeper meaning, but I think it's derogatory to even use it although one may not understand its full implications.

I guess society shares some blame in this objectification. Right from childhood, children are fed with thoughts like - you do this and this, you’ll get this kind of job and this kind of girl. This very mentality gives rise to ‘trophy wives’ and ‘trophy husbands’ (I don’t know if it exists). This is a deep malaise we are to get cured of a society. The objectification is one of the causes of rape so to say, although I concur rape is too complicated a topic to pin it on one single reason.

But some are compulsively slaves and as Voltaire quipped it’s not possible to free people from the chain they revere.

Necessary Illusions

I have always had issues with fakeness and pretentiousness – life in general and relationship in particular. Perhaps that’s the reason it endeared me with the first few movies of Kannada actor Upendra. He has multiple themes – mainly psychological – running in his movies. One of his main hypotheses is that we wear many masks in life which makes us unreal, and we weave many illusions and some illusions are necessary to get through life – many people can’t live their lives normally without the ruse called illusion. The protagonist in the movie tries to live his life as per his rules, without pretentions, without masks, facing brutal realities as they are – but fails miserably in doing so. 

His thought process goes something like this – Say, in a marriage, whether the husband loves the wife truly or not, but if the wife thinks he does, she can live happily. It works the other way too. For that matter, societies can’t function without some illusions. It can be extended to cultures and even nations. As per him, all the existence is cobweb of lies and illusions. Maybe he takes the idea too far. But he has many valid points.

To illustrate the point, I quote a scene from Terry Pratchett's Hogfather :

Susan: All right, I'm not stupid. You're saying that humans need fantasies to make life bearable.

Death: No. Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.

Susan: With tooth fairies? Hogfathers?

Death: Yes. As practice, you have to start out learning to believe the little lies.

Susan: So we can believe the big ones?

Death: Yes. Justice, mercy, duty. That sort of thing.

Susan: They're not the same at all!

Death: You think so? Then take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder and sieve it through the finest sieve and THEN show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy. And yet... you try to act as if there is some ideal order in the world. As if there is some... some rightness in the universe by which it may be judged.

Susan: But people have got to believe that, or what's the point?

Death : My point exactly

Without some of these illusions, relationships, societies may break. As ironic as it may sound, some illusions are necessary to get a grip of realities we have created or chosen for ourselves. Perhaps this is what many ancient Indian seers called 'Maaya' or the veil. Perhaps some veils and thus illusions are necessary.

Margaritas ante porcos

It is said that eyes only see what the mind is able to comprehend. The guru doesn’t appear until the disciple is ready.

There’s an anecdote of an interesting meeting between the popular anti-guru U.G. Krishnamurti, who derided everything holy & a profound yogi of recent times, Ramana Maharshi. This is from his memoirs : 

In 1939, when U.G. was 21 years of age, he went and met Sri Ramana Maharshi and asked him, "This thing called moksha [liberation], can you give it to me?" Ramana replied, "I can give it, but can you take it?" struck him like a "thunderbolt" and set him up on a relentless search for Truth that ended at the age of 49 with a totally unforeseen result.

Let me dissect this a bit. Unless one is prepared, one can’t handle the truth - the ultimate truth, that is. From a yogic standpoint, it requires a lot of preparation from an aspirant to attain the goal. It’s a lifetime of an effort. People who have gone searching for shortcuts have been beaten so badly. The symbolism of kundalini to a snake is very pertinent. Unless one knows how to handle it, one will be bitten badly and will suffer for the same.

There is one anecdote from Ancient Greece - that of philosopher Plotinus and his disciple Amelius. It’s from John Dillon’s book “Prayer and contemplation in the Neoplatonic and Sufi traditions”.

If it turns now abruptly to Plotinus, we can find from his pen or his lips scathing condemnations of what one might characterize as the ‘popular’ attitude to prayer - an attitude fully shared, it must be said, by contemporary Christians, whom he probably has in mind. First, there is his notorious response to his senior disciple Amelius, as reported by Porphyry, when Amelius invited him to accompany him on a sort of Temple-crawl, at the festival of the new moon: ‘The gods ought to come to me, not I to them’. ‘ what he meant by this exalted utterance, we could not understand and did not dare to ask’ says Porphyry. A Possible interpretation, surely, However, is that our relations with Gods should be based, Not on our going out of our way to solicit them for favors which we have not made an effort to deserve, but rather on our making ourselves ready, by the practice of spiritual exercises to receive their beneficial power. It is not the expression of impious or arrogant attitude to the gods; merely a properly Platonist one. We cannot except the gods to help us, maintains Plotinus if we are not prepared to help ourselves.

After the sacred, let’s come to the mundane: margaritas ante porcos literally translates into pearl before swine. The value of anything is apportioned by only the one who is capable of recognizing it. The entire idea of value is dependent on the beholder. This is applicable to so many things – knowledge, relationship, information, etc,.

There are two implications from this: First, we should be ready in all possible ways before wishing and realizing something; the second, we may be searching for great people but we may as well miss the great and exceptional people amongst us. 

Thoreau and the rebellious living

Thoreau lived a couple of years of his life away from the people, alone — minimalistic kind, like a hermit in the woods. Out of that experience, he was able to write “Walden”. When I heard about it the first time, I was equally stumped and impressed at the same time.

People disappoint you. That’s a given. Even the ones you think never will disappoint you. They say not to expect — that’s not possible and you know it. You should be either a real sage or a person in a comatose state to not expect anything. Relationships build expectation — in fact, relationships are built on expectations — big or small and is a continuous transaction. Over a period of time, they change. How one handles, fulfills or fails in handling or fulfilling the expectations decides what direction the relationship takes. That’s why relationships are a complicated affair.

Also, most of the people — even the ones that you love or those who love you are judgemental. There are few or if you are lucky enough a very few people who see and accept you the way you are. Mother Nature doesn't judge anyone. It embraces all. It is neither caring nor cruel, it just is. That's the beauty of nature.

Perhaps it’s a trade-off we all make — putting up with various disappointments, innumerable heartbreaks, the fakery of the so-called ‘civilized world’ just to be accepted. Then, there are various masks we don just to get along with the ways of the world. 

All of us would have our own moment of 'running away from the world' — away from the drama, heartbreaks, judgments, disappointments marooned and cocooned all by ourselves. Jiddu Krishnamurti had a very different take on this topic and it's difficult to summarize a man like Krishnamurti; So, here's what he had to say on the topic

Thoreau did not run away from the world — he had rather chosen to make a radical change in his lifestyle. He perhaps lived like what Camus said — The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

Of Paradise — Of Kashmir (Conclusion)

The journey to Pahalgam from Gulmarg is about four hours by road. One of the main stops was the one we gave in Anantnag as described in the previous post. There was one more we gave where we visited a store that sold authentic Kashmiri spices, Kesar, etc. and another store which sold the famed Kashmiri Shawls, Pashmina (authentic pashmina shawls are too expensive). 

We had our traditional 'kahwah' for the second or third time - it was prepared in 'Samovar'. Kahwah has more than ten ingredients like almonds, walnuts, saffron, cinnamon, etc.

Samovar

Kahwah

In Anantnag, our driver was conversing with some of the locals and they said that due to the increased snowfall, the vehicle movements were restricted — which meant the to and fro traffic between Kashmir and Jammu will be on alternate days. If this were true, it would definitely disturb our schedule. While the thrill-seeker in me was definitely happy that finally there was some action, I was also worried we may have to miss seeing some places.

Pahalgam was not so famous a few decades ago but of late it has acquired the attention it truly deserved. It's the starting point of the famous Amarnath Yatra. It's one of the most quaint places I've ever seen — untainted, unblemished, raw beauty. It was definitely the highlight of the entire trip.

We met a few shepherds the next morning and talked of the package details.  There are some 6-7 points of interests and two points are not possible to cover in this season of the year because of the deep snow which can be up to 10-12 feet. We were told these points couldn't be covered by ourselves and we had to take ponies. I wondered why — when I had the first glimpse of the terrain we were supposed to cover, it all made sense. 

At a point called mini-Switzerland

To say the terrain was very tough is to belittle the real danger it beholds. The ponies do a great job in a narrow, tough and slippery ground — as one wrong step on a good altitude like this can be really fatal. Your life hinges on the four hooves of a galloping beast — that is indeed intimidating and thrilling at the same time.

Most of the points looked they were straight from some fairy tale; A few of them were touted to be akin to Switzerland — not an unfair comparison at all. It's picturesque, bewitchingly charming. The beauty of Pahalgam is hard to encapsulate in words — it takes your breath away, both metaphorically and literally — it casts a strong spell on you and will take a long time to come out of it - better, you don't want to come out of it. It has to be in your must-see list when you visit Kashmir. It is totally worth it. 

Snowfall in front of our hotel

The next morning we caught the first glimpse of the snowfall and we were ecstatic but the happiness was short-lived as we were told the roadways were all blocked between Kashmir and Jammu due to severe snowfall and the only way available for us was to fly from Srinagar to Jammu. We had to book flights fast; we did book for the next morning for a premium price as there was no way out. 

We left the same day to Srinagar (we were supposed to travel to Katra per original schedule). The travel agents didn't help us in any way for the alternative arrangement. We had to look for the new hotel in Srinagar. Our driver helped us with this — we got a good hotel for a decent price. Since this was near his place, he insisted that we came to his home and had food. We couldn't refuse and we did oblige. 

Our driver cum manager, Ghulam Nabi

Ghulam Nabi's home was on a street not much far from the hotel we stayed in. He had two daughters and two sons. One of the daughters was a chatterbox and really kept us hooked and entertained by her animated talks describing her family and life in general in Srinagar. His son also engaged us with a lot of humor and wit; he had a pro-Pakistani bent and it became apparent after a while. The father and daughter's opinion, in contrast, was neutral. The talks covered life in general, politics, history, the exodus of pandits, etc. Considering there were two ladies in the group, I had decided from the beginning of the trip that I would not give out my opinions which I was sure would get us into trouble. So, I basically listened to whatever they had to spell out.

No matter what opinions they had, their hospitality was top-class. Knowing we were all vegetarians, they took the trouble of going to market, getting paneer and cooking for us. They did not let us go and insisted we have dinner too. Their warmth defeated us and we stayed back for dinner as well. They genuinely showed a lot of care, love, and affection toward us which all of us will cherish for a long time. 

The next morning, we left for Jammu from Srinagar as we bid adieu to Ghulam Nabi. The flight was postponed at least thrice due to bad weather and we reached Katra very late in the evening. We had our flight to Bangalore the next day — that left us very little wiggle room for any change in the plan or relaxation. 

Katra was different — "assalam ul alaikum" was replaced by "Jai Mata Di" everywhere. Jai Mata Di seemed like the ubiquitous word permeating all of Katra. Jammu seemed like more densely populated place than Kashmir. Our new driver was an old Punjabi Sardar who loved to listen to new-school Punjabi Hip-hop. He told us if we have to stick to the schedule and also do darshan of Vaishnodevi, we had no option but to skip sleep that night and start climbing the hill that very night itself.

Ponies here were bigger than those available in Pahalgam

The trek to the peak of the hill is about 12k.m. We took ponies to reach the top and decided to get down by walk. It was uphill and our decision to take ponies to climb instead of going by walk was right. It took some 3 odd hours to reach the top and we could do the darshan of Devi at around 3 a.m. peacefully.

The atmosphere throughout the uphill climb was electrifying, to say the least — many people, younger and the older alike were — climbing the hill which seemed effortless, with "Jai Mata Di" on their lips and steadfast devotion for the divine in their hearts. It's almost a wonder how faith and devotion move people. It can make them do the most beautiful of things in the world that make you feel proud to be human and also on the downside, the most horrific of things that make you squirm in disgust that you are one among the appalling species. 

We stuck to our decision of climbing down the hill by walk. The task at hand was arduous and daunting. Increase in pain with each passing step, deprived sleep made the 12k.m walk a formidable one than it already was — it took five odd hours and a lot of patience, energy to complete the walk. At some point in time, I was so tired that I was dozing off even while walking. It took some grit and a dash of determination to breathe a sigh of relief after reaching the foothills. 

The next day, at the Katra airport we learned that due to heavy snowfall, all the flights flying to and from Srinagar were canceled indefinitely. We thanked our stars as we narrowly escaped being stuck in Srinagar for an indefinite time. We flew back with all those memories we would love to treasure for a long time to come. On the whole, Kashmir is a wonderful place to visit - for the romanticists and adventurers alike - it has something for all. 

Of Paradise — Of Kashmir (Part 2)

The next morning, as per the plan we left for Gulmarg, perhaps the most popular winter sports destination in Kashmir and one of the most popular destinations in India. The snow-clad mountains of inner Himalayas welcomed us - it's an impressive sight.

Even though it was off-season, Gulmarg was pretty much crowded - Amongst all the other places we visited in Kashmir, we found Gulmarg to be most commercialized and most expensive. It hosts an array of activities like Gondola ride, skiing, sledding(sledge-riding), snow-biking, snowboarding, heli-skiing, etc. 

We took the Gondola ride - there are two stages: During summer, as snow wouldn't be easily visible, people go to the second stage. As we went in peak winter, that was not necessary. Hence, we settled for the first stage. For all the snow-activities, you'd need special jackets, boots, etc. which we had taken well before on rent. 

Trying Skiing

We went skiing for some time. I realized it's not as easy as it seems. It takes a while even to adjust to the skiing boots to go a few feets forward. After skiing, we went for sledding - where you sit behind the man in control of the small vehicle called 'sled'. This is for climbing down from the mountain and it is seemingly a little dangerous. At least two of us had a few small injuries but the experience when you climb down is totally worth it. Adrenaline rush guaranteed. 

The next two main destinations remaining were Pahalgam and Katra. It would take just over 4 hours by road from Gulmarg to reach Pahalgam. On the way, we had to pass by Anantnag district. There's the famed Martand Mattan temple dedicated to Sun. It is one among the many temples destroyed by Islamic iconoclast Sikandar Butshikan. What we get to see now is not the original temple but not-so-great reconstruction and ruins.

The entrance of the temple

A lot of CRPF personnel deployed for security

Kashmir was once the center of high learning where refined philosophy of Kashmir Shaivism originated, which gave birth to a polymath like Abhinava Gupta, scholars like Kalhana. But the state in which Kashmir is now is a sad tale.  

That was a digression. In the next and concluding part, we'll visit Pahalgam and then travel to Jammu.

Of Paradise — Of Kashmir (Part 1)

The mighty white mountains, the fiery chinars, the picturesque landscape convinced me that it's no overstatement to liken Kashmir with paradise. The image of Kashmir that conjures up is perhaps of the valley that is constantly troubled, disturbed, dangerous, which is in a persistent state of embroilment. The imagery is not entirely untrue - but it's only half a story. The other half is known only if you witness it first hand. 

There are a lot of places in India and outside which have fascinated me and kindled my curiosity in multiple ways. If I were to prepare a bucket-list of the same, it would be close to impossible to cover all in one lifetime. Kashmir was not on the list. We decided on Kashmir because of the suggestion from my friend and his wife - it was the coldest season in Kashmir and none of us four had witnessed snowfall made the suggestion all the more appealing.

The semi-frozen Nagin Lake

We visited Kashmir in a season called "Chilai Kalan", starting from December 21 and ending on January 30 - it's regarded as the harshest winter period in the valley. Our itinerary consisted of Srinagar, Gulmarg, Pahalgam, and Katra. We wanted Sonmarg to be added but due to heavy snowfall, it remained closed in the period we traveled. 

It is said that the first mention of Kashmir was in Mahabharata (Sabha Parva to be precise) and Patanjali's Mahabhasya - Kashmira is the name of Goddess Durga/Uma. There's also a version that says the name is from Rishi Kashyapa. But it's not as ancient as Mahabharatha or Mahabhasya. That's a tiny bit of info on the etymology on Kashmir.  

The first stop was in Srinagar and it was for two nights. Since we always wanted to stay in a boathouse, we booked one night in the boathouse and another in a hotel. The chilling weather of -5°C of Srinagar welcomed us. The lowest temperature I had ever seen thus far was 2°C. It was thrilling and equally difficult to go on a boat; as it was challenging to row because of subzero temperature,  most of the lake was transformed into ice. We had our boathouse in Nagin Lake.

We were welcomed to this magnificent view

The next day went into city tour which was quite exhaustive - Shalimar Bagh (Mogul Garden), Hazrat Bal, Shankaracharya Hill, and of course we took the famous Shikhara ride in Dal Lake. Shalimar Bagh or Nishanth bagh would look exquisite during the months of June/July we were told. There are basically two best seasons to visit Kashmir - December, for the fresh snowfall; June, for the valley, will be covered with lush green - that would be a sight to behold. 

Chinar Trees in Mogul Garden

The heavily guarded temple on Shankaracharya Hill - the entrance

We had a fantastic driver cum manager who went by name Ghulam Nabi - who guided us well and helped us to keep the schedule right. The version of Kashmir's history that he gave was interesting and later I found it was a prevailing opinion that a lot of Kashmiris loathed staying either with India or Pakistan for they preferred a separate country. I was to contest this view many times during the similar discussion in the future days of our stay, as I knew it was not accurate - But I detested from airing any opinion. 

Dal Lake

As all of us were vegetarians, we were not sure how good the food will be. Although the vast majority of the food is non-vegetarian as we expected, there were plenty of vegetarian options to our surprise and all were tasty. 

After our two nights stay in Srinagar, it was time to leave for Gulmarg which is around 60 K.M from Srinagar. We said final bye (which was not to be) to Srinagar and left for Gulmarg the next morning. 

The solitude of life

I’ve been a loner all my life. Mostly. I grew up as a single kid - I never yearned or wished for a sibling. I had a limited number of friends. I did and do enjoy a good company but I wouldn’t be depressed if I’m not surrounded by people for a long time. I’ll be fine. That's the way I was wired I guess - although there is a considerable change, I admit. 

One of the statements I read and found appealing - "After a while everything changes - beauty seems plain, love becomes stale, happiness degenerates into boredom. Until you realize that beauty, love, and happiness are all waves within your own soul, you're forever condemned to an unending search".

If you see life, there is solitude - perhaps an inherent one to it; that no one - not your parents, your children, your spouse, your best of friends can share your subjective experience with. There’s empathy - but even that, wouldn’t go a long way with respect to subjective experience you have in life as a whole.

Also, nobody or nothing can 'complete' you - not your partner, your job, your achievements or whatever the latest fad. We are condemned in this unending search. You are always alone on this journey. The sooner we realize the better it is. If we truly realize this, the very realization is liberating.

Book Review – 26/11 Unforgiven

It’s a story of rage, retribution, justice and more than that, the torment of a common man who yearns for vengeance for his personal loss – it’s a chance for every Indian to live that vicarious dream he would have fantasized at some point or the other when the government, its elected representatives, a few fellow Indians, and all other possible institutions fail him.

The story is a fictionalized account of what happened during and after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. The overall facts like Pakistan’s involvement in the attacks, Hafeez Saeed, Kasab issue, India’s reaction, etc. have all been kept intact but a fictionalized story is woven around the narrative that all of us know of. 

Vikram Maheshwari, the protagonist is a successful entrepreneur and a son of a military veteran of 1971 war, happens to be with his wife and their only daughter in the famous Taj hotel on the fateful night of 26th November 2008. A handful of terrorists from Pakistan launch attacks at multiple places of Mumbai and take the city hostage. They kill Vikram’s wife and daughter and while Vikram himself escapes very narrowly. 

Vikram’s whole world comes crashing down – the only two people he loved the most in the world have been killed mercilessly in cold blood for no mistake of theirs. He hopes the government would take avenge the loss of 170+ of its people – any strong and proud nation would wreak revenge, not seek justice – as per Vikram. But the lily-livered actions of the government of the day boggles him, bothers him. The candle marches by the peace brigade, the ‘spirit of Mumbai’, the romanticizing of being victims, and the whole city going about its business as usual, makes his blood boil. 

He refuses to be the victim and decides to take things into his own hands. He is doubly convinced that trusting the government to pay back Pakistan in its own coin is futile. He teams up with his ex-employee Farzana and her terrorist brother Zakir who has links with a prominent Islamic terrorist organization of India. Through Zakir, he learns the masterminds behind the 26/11 attacks and makes a detailed plan to kill them.

ACP Ajay Dixit comes to know of Vikram’s plans to kill the mastermind of 26/11 attacks who also happens to be the high commissioner of Pakistan! This ensures a cat and mouse game between ACP Dixit and Vikram. Whether or not Vikram becomes successful in his mission, what happens to Farzana, and Zakir forms the next part of the story. 

Manish Jaitly who also happens to be an ex-military officer has produced a gripping story in the form of 26/11 unforgiven. His contempt for the campaigns like “Aman ki Aasha”, the bizarre theory and the government’s tacit support of linking of the Mumbai attacks with RSS, an overall laxity in the government's response have been pronounced in the attitude of the protagonist, Vikram Maheshwari.

The book excels in weaving a gripping tale with a fast pace but may lack in the in-depth character development of important characters of the narrative. But as mentioned before, the reader gets the vicarious sense of justice which seems so elusive in the real world, where the state is filled with a multitude of pusillanimous men masquerading as pacifists.