Once we had a lovely discussion on my wall about those dreams you get after a beloved person dies. Their presence is vivid & you feel them as if they were still alive. One of my friends said she thought of them as ‘visitations’ from her beloved father. I’ve been having those visitations from Geraldine Kreitz, my friend on FB & in real life who died just a few weeks ago. I wake up feeling her presence but then when I come on FB I realize that she in fact has really passed away. Those nighttime visitations which so many of you have about your husbands, moms, dads, & other beloved are a blessing. You realize that grief & loss never really go away but time just moves on anyway. The good part is that you keep them in your heart forever until we all meet again on the star we all came from.

Kashmiri friends: a friend who has been invited to a wedding in Kashmir asks if foreigners are being allowed into the country during the lockdown. Is there a preferable way for her to travel if foreigners are allowed? Will she be required to declare fealty to the Hindu gods Modi & Shah?

“Prayers with Muslims of Delhi who are facing Islamophobic Hindutva mobs along with highly communalised police force just because they are demanding the equal citizenship rights, dignity and justice.

Kejriwal is an emerging soft Hindutva icon, so it is futile to expect anything from him apart from passing the buck.

This “both sides” bullshit propounded by some journos is a hypocritical device to deny the elephant in the room: hatred against Muslims has become mainstream in India and is an existential threat to them.

There are stories though of Hindus in some areas protecting their Muslim brothers and taking out joint peace marches which fills one with hope, however bleak, about the future of humanity in this region. More such efforts need to be made and encouraged.

It is not the time of equating victims with aggressors, it is time to stand for the oppressed especially if you belong to the majority community. One hopes and prays that the designs of hate mongers come to naught and humanity lives another day. Aameen.”

–Kashmiri Mir Laieeq

Kashmir brothers & sisters: unlike Trump, we do not see you as a ‘thorn in our sides’. We see your struggle for self-determination as one of the most important in the world, as a struggle that is leading humanity against the barbarisms of our times. We stand with you against Trump & Modi who both impugn you as terrorists & are honored to stand with you until you have triumphed. Which you certainly will.

#history #repeats #itself

#india #caa #muslimgenocide

By Mir Suhail Qadiri

Modi in his upward facing dirty dog asana. The political art of Mir Suhail Qadiri.

For Trump to say ‘there are two sides to every story’ in referring to India’s occupation & lockdown of Kashmir is an abomination. Every & any attempt by Pakistan to force US mediations on the Kashmiris should be rejected with contempt. What can only come out of it will be a carbon copy of what the US via Trump & Kushner just handed to the Palestinians.

“Please stop calling it “riots”. It gives a false impression of equality. It is a genocide. It is a pogrom. It is a massacre. Of Muslims by Hindus.”

–tweeted by علي@OpusOfAli

“Kashmir has been a thorn in a lot of people’s sides for a long time. There are two sides to every story.”

–Trump at a press conference in India today offering to mediate on Kashmir

No trade deal between India & the US came out of Trump’s visit, possibly because investors are cautious in a time of rising fascism. But Trump & Modi did announce a $3-billion military defense deal as part of the US-India alliance to counter Chinese influence in the Southeast Asia region.

At the prompting of Pakistan, Trump is still talking about mediating between Pakistan & India over Kashmir while impugning Kashmiris as terrorists. How many times does it have to be said that Kashmir is a struggle for self-determination to which Kashmiri voices are central? It is not a territorial dispute between India & Kashmir to which Kashmiris are just a fly on the wall.

This grotesque wall painting was done as part of a beautification project for Trump’s visit in the city of Ahmedabad.

(Photo from Reuters)