Babri ( before and after )

The verdict has come and in fact there were 2 verdicts awaited eagerly, Ramjanmabhoomi and ROBOT and both have positively surprised. It probably counts for little in RJB and counts for a lot more $$$ for SUN TV and Marans. Whatever be the judgement on whether a temple existed or not , it is bound to create a divide between the Muslims and Hindus at the political level. The people on both sides would appeal to the SC and it would take a few more years for the final judgement to come.

The masjid and the temple have brought a lot of memories of my younger days , we had a temple and mosque within a few yards from my home and both were separated by a road which ran through it. The land adjoining it was considered temple land and there were acres and acres of it . The masjid would come to life only on Fridays and during auspicious occasions of Ramzan, Bakrid. The muezzin would call the muslims of that area to assemble and it would be attended by a few 50 odd people. The area would be filled with people with white caps and they would disburse peacefully. The temple in contrast would have the suprabatham / sahasranamam in the early hours of the morning each day and some devotional numbers during auspicious festivals like Diwali, Vaikunta Ekadasi ( perumal temple of course ). Half a kilometre away used to be muslim heartland and areas called Asif Nagar , Murad Nagar where curfew was imposed as a precautionary measure though not many clashes were reported. You could see some miscreants throwing stones at policemen sometimes when curfew was relaxed. I am told that the place where we used to stay earlier was bang in the heart of Old city called Red Hills where the minority was in a majority. There was no visible sign of “the divide” and the labour class , bus drivers, fruit sellers would undoubtedly be Muslim though the consumers were predominantly Hindu in origin. School used to the again in the middle of Muslim land and in my school days at the KV Golconda and a lot many muslim classmates meant that Id was as important as Diwali especially since you would get Kheer prepared at the classmates house the next day. Tolerance was taught and practised in our school since we were part of the central govt.

College didn’t help much as BITS Pilani and made me more intolerant of the other side. However I just escaped getting delayed during Advani’s Rath Yatra at Bhopal and AP Express somehow managed to reach Delhi a few hours late luckily before the trouble started and I was back in the secure confines of the BITS Hostel. The notable event in the Indian history soon happened afterwards with the demolition of the masjid in 90s. Whether it has to be considered as a historical event is debatable to the last inch of the land involved. But after my dad picked an auspicious date to solemnize my wedding which happened to be December 6, there is no doubt whatsoever. I still love the urdu ghazals ,the irani chai and samosas which have a special place in the Hyderabadi culture.

All said and done , whether Babar demolished the temple to build the mosque or not , it is not without reason that it is called Ram Janmabhoomi and I believe that we should build the temple in the place where it is and probably build the mosque adjacent to it. Similar to what Singapore has done to solve the land dispute with Malaysia and formed a company to take care of the development , Hindus should offer the same amount of land to Muslims and construct a mosque there so that they can pray without fear. The people of Ayodhya ( hindus and muslims alike ) will benefit immensely from the economic progress that Ram brings with him in terms of tourist inflow and religious congregations and I am sure economics will prevail over religious divides in the foreseeable future as India races ahead in the economic rankings and the SENSEX breaks new highs. After all, Tirupati is one of the top tourist destinations in India and will be for a long time to come. Till then , URDU aur Hindi mein FARKH nahin, hamein urdu par FAKR hai