CONFESSION OF A CRIMINAL

Latin America and the Caribbean have been cited by numerous sources to be the most dangerous regions in the world.   Studies have shown that Latin America contains the majority of the world's most dangerous cities.  Analysts attribute the reason to why the region has such an alarming crime rate and criminal culture is largely due to social and income inequality within the region. Many agree that the prison crisis will not be resolved until the gap between the rich and the poor is addressed.  But it belies the truth when we crimes are more rampant in rich commercial and industrial societies than the agricultural society of village peasants and community labors.

Presenting here a classical example of an individual’s crimes and violence of a born American of born American parents.  

Panzram, one of the worst mass murderers in American criminal history was awaiting trial for house breaking. He revealed his confession in one of his prison terms.  Panzram became a writer in prison, but in 1928 his autobiography was regarded as too horrifying to publish and had to wait more than forty years before it finally appeared in print.  The odd thing is that most of his murders were ‘motiveless’.  He used to kill out of resentment, a desire for revenge on society.  Panzram’s basic philosophy was that life is a bad joke and that most human beings are too stupid or corrupt to live.

His father, a Minnesota farmer, had deserted the family when Carl Panzram was a child.  At eleven, Carl burgled the house of a well-to-do neighbor and was sent to a reform school.  There he was a rebellious boy and was violently beaten.  The beatings only deepened the desire to avenge the injustice.  Travelling around the country on freight trains, the young Panzram was sexually violated by four vagabonds.  The experience suggested a new method of expressing his aggression.  “Whenever I met a homeless I would make him raise his hands and drop his pants.”  Panzram lived by burglary, mugging and robbing churches.  He spent a great deal of time in prison, but became a skilled escapist.

In various prisons, he became known as one of the toughest troublemakers ever encountered.  What drove him to his most violent frenzies was a sense of injustice.  Every time he was put in jail, he managed his escape by his skill of breaking the jail. He aided other prisoners to escape and sometime warden was shot dead or the jail was put on fire.

So far Panzram had been against the world, but not against himself.

One night Panzram got drunk with a pretty nurse and decided to abscond.  Recaptured after a gun battle, he was thrown into the punishment cell.  He escaped from prison again, stole a yacht, hired some sailor, took them to the stolen yacht, robbed them, committed sodomy, killed them and threw their bodies into the sea.  He then went to West Africa to work for an oil company, where he soon lost his job for committing sodomy on the table waiter.  The US Consul declined to help him and he sat down in a park ‘to think things over’.

Back in America he raped and killed three more boys, bringing his murders up to twenty.  After five years of rape, robbery and arson, Panzram was caught again in New York and sent to one of America’s toughest prisons, Dannemora.  ‘I hated everybody I saw.’ Like a stubborn child, he had decided to turn his life into a competition.  He spent his days brooding on schemes of revenge against the whole human race: how to blow up a railway tunnel with a train in it, how to poison a whole city by putting arsenic into the water supply, even how to cause a war between England and America by blowing up a British battleship in American waters.

 When a bar was discovered in his cell, Panzram received another brutal beating—perhaps the hundredth of his life.  In the basement of the jail he was subjected to a most brutal torture. It was  during this period in jail that Panzram met a young Jewish guard named Henry Lesser.  Lesser was struck by Panzram’s curious immobility and cold detachment.  Lesser was so shocked by this treatment that he sent Panzram a dollar by a trusty while he was tortured.  At first, Panzram thought it was a joke.  When he realized that it was a gesture of sympathy, his eyes filled with tears.  He told Lesser if he could get him some papers and a pencil, he would write him his life story.  This is how Panzram’s autobiography came to be written.  When Lesser read the opening pages, he was struck by the remarkable literacy and keen intelligence.  Panzram made no excuses for himself:

“If any man was a habitual criminal, I am the one.  In my lifetime I have broken every law that was ever made by both God and man. If either had made any more, I should very cheerfully have broken them also.  The mere fact that I have done these things is quite sufficient for the average person.  Very few people even consider it worthwhile to wonder why I am what I am and do what I do.  All that they think is necessary to do is to catch me, try me, convict me and send me to prison for a few years, make life miserable for me while in prison and turn me loose again.  It is like someone had a young tiger cub in a cage and then mistreated it until it got savage and bloodthirsty and then turned it loose to prey on the rest of the world … there would be a hell of a roar.  But if some people like me do the same thing to other people, then the world is surprised, shocked and offended because they get robbed, raped and killed.  They done it to me and then don’t like it when I give them the same dose they gave me.”  (An excerpt from “Killer: A Journal of Murder,” edited by Thomas E. Gaddis and James O. Long, Macmillan, 1970). 

Panzram’s confession is an attempt to justify himself to other human being.  Where others were concerned, he remained as savagely intractable as ever.

Transferred to Leavenworth Penitentiary, Panzram murdered the foreman of the working party with an iron bar and was sentenced to death.  When Panzram heard that Lesser and some other literary men, who were impressed by his autobiography, were trying to get him reprieved, he protested violently: ‘I would not reform even if the front gate was opened right now and I was given a million dollars when I stepped out.  I have no desire to do good or become good.’ In a separate letter to Henry Lesser he wrote: ‘I could not reform if I wanted to.  It has taken me all my life so far, thirty-eight years of it, to reach my present state of mind. In that time I have acquired some habits.  It took me a lifetime to form these habits, and I believe it would take more than another lifetime to break myself of these same habits even if I wanted to.’  When he stepped onto the scaffold on the morning of 11 Sept. 1930, the hangman asked him if he had anything to say.  ‘Yes, hurry it up, you bastard.  I could hang a dozen men while you’re fooling around.’  

Panzram became a writer in prison; but in 1928 his autobiography was regarded as too horrifying to publish and had to wait more than forty years before it finally appeared in print. 

ISRAR HASAN

17^TH AUG. 2014

Reference:  Edited “The Psychology of Self-Destruction.”  From ‘A Criminal History of Mankind’, by Colin Wilson, Pub. Granada Publishing, Great Britain, 1984.

CRIME AND CORRUPTION: CHALLENGES

  

No baby born criminal.  It is his/her surroundings—surroundings of parents and family, surroundings of neighbors, friends, schools and colleges, workplaces and marketplaces, churches and society  he/she is living in, make him/her a normal citizen or a criminal.

The “Encyclopedia of Murder”, appeared in 1961, has a section on ‘motiveless murder’.  In Nov. 1966, Robert Smith, an 18-year-old student walked into a beauty parlor in Mesa, Arizona, made five women and two children lie on the floor, and shot them all in the back of the head.  Smith was in no way a problem youngster; his relations with his parents were good and he was described as an excellent student.  He told the police: ‘I wanted to get known, to get myself a name.’   A woman walked into a California hotel room and killed a baseball player who was asleep there – and who was totally unknown to her. She explained to the police: ‘He was famous, and I knew that killing him would make me famous too.’ 

There is a basic desire in all human beings to ‘become known’ either by good deeds or evil deeds.  Every one, ordinary or extra-ordinary, feels that his/her thoughts are worthy of attention.  In fact, there is none in the world who does not secretly feel that he is worthy of attention?  One of the most basic urges in man is the urge of heroism.  And this is the human urge that we see in the pages of news media and nations’ history depicting heroic deeds of evil. We can see the urge when a child shouts his needs at the top of his voice. He does not disguise his feeling that he is the center of attention.  We can see this human trait in larger perspective when every adult indulges in endless daydreams of heroism. 

Religious scriptures and moral precepts ever since the dawn of human civilization could not reform this ugly trait of mankind.  It is beyond scope of this study to present the horrible events of the two world wars, Nanking and Rwanda massacres, Jewish holocaust in Germany, Palestinians massacres in Lebanon, Gaza and West Bank, and many many other such genocides.

There are many faces of crime and violence that vary from country to country and ages to ages. Crime and violence in developed societies, like France, Italy, Germany, England and the United States are different in nature comparing to the developing societies of Asia, Africa, Middle East, Far East and Latin America. Conduct that is lawful in one country may be criminal in another.  Abortion, once prohibited has become lawful in many countries, as has homosexual behavior  and prostitution.  Suicide and attempted suicide, once criminal, have also been removed from the scope of the criminal law in many countries. The trend generally is to increase the scope of the criminal law rather than to reduce it.   New technologies give rise to new opportunities for their abuse, which in turn give rise to legal restrictions.  The widening use of computers and cellular telephones has created the need to legislate against a variety of new abuses and frauds.  However, the crimes of murder, rape, arson and theft,  burglary and robbery are taken as crimes in most of the legal systems.

However, this study does not relate to organized crimes, like state crimes of Germany, Italy, China and Japan, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh and the sub-continent. This study relates to the exploration of the nature of crimes in the heart and mind of a person and individual. 

One of the fountain heads of all comprehensive crime is ego or egoism.  The literal meaning of ego as Merriam Webster explains is, ‘the feeling or belief that one is better, more important, more talented, etc. than others’.  In applications and practices, it is varied and mostly damaging to human society.  The history of world organized religions furnish typical examples of egoism displayed in the tussles between churches and emperors, between ulama, fuqaha and theologians, between caliphs and their courtiers, between soldiers of sword and warriors of pen.

Lust for power, property and wealth is another human trait which is creating havocs throughout the passage of civilization.  Most of the squabbles found in the fields of political, economical, religious and social fights are destined to achieve power, property or wealth.

Street crimes and corruptions in metropolitan cities of Bangkok, Tokyo, New York, Chicago, Penang, Rangoon, Karachi, Delhi, Mumbai, and Dhaka are on rise with the rise of science and technology developments.   City police in almost all of the metropolitan cities is one of the founding sources of city crimes and corruptions.  Crimes of city police run like blood-vessels in the body of civic life.

Here is a personal experience. Sometime in the month of May 1965. As soon as I reached my office in Ministry of Education, Karachi, I received an emergency call from my home to go to Nazimabad Police Station to collect the dead-body of one of my relative-boys, age 15, who had migrated from India with his family only about six months before.  He was living with his mother and two elder brothers. The news was shocking for the whole family.  Instantly, I rushed to the Police Station with one of my neighbors, a senior and experienced person; collected the dead body, brought home, and buried him after necessary formalities.  The Police Station handed us a court judgment that the boy had committed suicide in the police lockup.  Later, after few days, one of the close friends of the deceased informed us that he and his friend with some more boys of the same age, were usually picked up by local police from their playground in the evening.  They were used to break into assigned houses in dark of the night, steal valuables and deposit in the police station. They were released from the police station only after their sexual molestation without any share of the loot. Those not ready for molestation were put into lockup.  He said his friend was tortured to death because he had revolted and declared to disclose the nightly affairs of the police station to media newspaper.

Tariq Malik, a Dawn News reporter, was killed a week ago as he grappled with one of the criminals during a robbery attempt in Lahore's Defense area. (Dawn, 30 March 2009).  The Citizens-Police Liaison Committee came up with their data showing that car theft and cellphone snatching had actually increased by 18 and 30 per cent respectively last year.

A Pakistani serial killer, Javed Iqbal, 40 years, Lahore, murdered some 100 boys. His case attracted international attention not only because he was one of the deadliest serial killers in history but because he was sentenced to die in a manner similar to that in which he had tortured and killed his victims. Iqbal surrendered to Pakistani authorities in 1999 after confessing to 100 murders during a six-month period. According to his confession, he had lured the boys, mostly beggars and street children between the ages of 6 and 16, to his home in Lahore, where he sexually assaulted them, strangled them to death, dismembered their bodies, and disposed of the pieces in a vat of acid. Iqbal was given 100 death sentences; the court also ordered that he be executed with the same chain he used to strangle his victims and that his body be cut into 100 pieces and dissolved in acid. Before the execution could take place, however, Iqbal and a young accomplice, who also had been convicted, were found dead in their prison cells. Despite indications of foul play, their deaths were officially ruled suicides.

 The sad fact is that people are resigned to living with a high rate of crime in our cities. Citizens devise their own private arrangements for security or take other protective measures. In fact, crime has come to be accepted as commonplace.  As for the underlying reasons, these are said to be growing poverty and unemployment.  But this does not tell the full story. The involvement of young people from affluent families in such criminal activity belies conventional arguments. There is additional factor of political and religious groups resorting to crime to fund their programs.

    With the police having become dysfunctional it is not surprising that street crime is on the rise. Inefficiency and corruption within their ranks has increased as the law-enforcers have come to be used by the government to further political parties' goals. The police reforms of Pakistan introduced in 2002 were watered down by subsequent amendments and never implemented in their true spirit. If the task of reforming the police were to be taken in hand earnestly and training improved, we could see a positive impact on the crime situation.

Once, the Police caught up four Taliban militants about 15 minutes after they robbed a local bank, shooting them dead on a bridge-crossing, while driving their loot to the safety of the border regions with Afghanistan.  There is a shift in militants funding inside Pakistan.  The Taliban, al-Qaida and associated groups now relying less on cash from abroad and more on inside-country crime to get money for equipment, weapons and the expenses associated with running an insurgency. (Dawn, , Oct. 12, 2011). 

Below is a brief from Times of India, New Delhi on Crimes and Corruption.  

For the cops of south Delhi, Madangir is a hotspot for criminals. For many pickpockets, bag-lifters, bank robbers and extortionists—the resettlement colony in southeast of Delhi is both home and workstation.  Police sources say Madangir is now the playing field of at least six organized gangs. What makes them more disturbing, even sinister, is their regular use of teenagers for crime. "They are very organized. Before they are employed, the teenagers are screened by gang leaders. Many of them are on their payrolls. If someone goes to jail, the gang funds his bail, expenses in jail and also supports his family,"  says a police officer. 

The patterns of crime have changed over the years, says a well-informed inspector. "The crimes and the criminals in Madangir have evolved over the years.  Some gang leaders have moved to real estate, including settling property disputes. The lower ranks started roping in juveniles and teenagers to execute the crimes and remain "rich and relevant".  Jewelers dealing with stolen goods popped up in the area. By now, several criminals had developed links with weapons suppliers from Meerut. Sources in the crime branch say, the gangs of Madangir even have a "weapon on phone" facility where they deliver arms to any part of the city after receiving an order on phone. 

The shopkeepers in the area are fed up of these gangs. "They have become a threat to traders. A large number of street vendors shell out money to put up there stalls.

There are hundreds and thousands of such instances in the streets of Thailand, Malaysia, Kolkata, Dhaka, Delhi, Mumbai, Lahore, Karachi and many more, which replicate the scenario of crimes and corruption cited above.

Can anyone tell me how to remedy the evil-side of human character?

ISRAR HASAN

 13^TH AUG. 2014         

ISRAEL ATTACKS GAZA

:

No sooner Hamas and Fatah signed a Palestinian unity government after a series of reconciliation talks between them than a set of lethal incidents between Hamas and Israel led to the Israeli military launching ‘Operation Protective Edge’ on July 8, 2014.

Those lethal incidents included the blockade of the Gaza Strip by Israel Defense Forces, the collapse of American-sponsored peace talks, attempts by rival Palestinian factions to form a coalition government, the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers, the subsequent kidnapping and murder of a Palestinian teenager, and increased rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas militants in response to an extensive crackdown by Israeli troops on Hamas in the West Bank.[1] On 8 July 2014, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip.[2]

This operation follows a chain of events that began with the abduction of three Israeli teenagers Naftali Fraenkel (16); Gilad Shaer (16) and Eyal Yifrah (19) in the West Bank in June 2014, for which Israel blamed Hamas. No evidence of Hamas involvement has been offered by the Israeli authorities[3]   and Hamas have denied any involvement in the incident.[4]   The alleged murderers come from the Qawasameh clan which is notorious for acting against Hamas as well as Israel.[5] 

Since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, there have been periodic eruptions of violence between Israel and Hamas. Hamas launches volleys of rockets into Israel and Israeli warplanes strike targets in Gaza. This has escalated into an Israeli ground invasion twice in the past.

In July last month a series of rocket attacks from Gaza and in retaliation, airstrikes from Israel on Gaza has killed and devastated innumerable buildings and properties in both sides. There have been about one dozen tunnels in Gaza which were targets of Israel airstrikes. On 13 July, the Israeli military reported that more than 1300 Israeli attacks had taken place, while more than 800 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel.[6]  The next day, 14 July, Egypt announced a cease-fire initiative. The Israeli government declared acceptance for the proposal, and temporarily stopped hostilities in the morning of 15 July. However, Hamas rejected it in "its current form", as did other Palestinian factions.[7] On 16 July, Hamas and Islamic Jihad offered Israel a 10-year truce, with ten conditions, mostly centered on ending the blockade.[8]

The current conflict is the deadliest military operation to have taken place in Gaza since the Second Intifada although the exact number of deaths and percentage composed of civilians has been in dispute. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 1,499 Palestinians were killed and 8,300 were injured. Among the dead were 315 children, 166 women, and 50 elderly.[9]  According to UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as of 31 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip, over 250,000 Palestinians have been displaced of which 236,375 are taking shelter in 88 UNRWA schools. 1.8 million People are affected by a halt or reduction of the water supply,[10] 136 schools and 24 health facilities have been damaged, homes of 9,395 families have been totally destroyed or severely damaged. The destruction of Gaza’s only power plant had an immediate effect on the public health situation and reduced water and sanitation services, with hospitals becoming dependent on generators. And more than 250,000 IDPs are in need of emergency food assistance.[11]

 It was the start of a three-day truce, the best hope yet to end a 25-day-old war that has taken an enormous toll on both Palestinians and Israelis; reports Washington Post correspondent from Gaza city, Aug. 1, 2014. Hamas and Israel are blaming each other for the collapse of a 72-hour cease-fire that lasted only 90 minutes. (Reuters). On Friday, Aug.1 morning, Israeli troops were in the southern Gaza Strip preparing to destroy a Hamas tunnel. Suddenly, Palestinian militants emerged from a shaft. They included a suicide bomber, who detonated his explosive device. In the chaos, two Israeli soldiers were killed. The militants grabbed 2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin, 23, and pushed him back through the tunnel, according to the Israeli account. Within minutes, the war was back.^[12]

No matter how and when the conflict between Hamas and Israel ends, two things are certain. The first is that Israel will be able to claim a tactical victory. The second is that it will have suffered a strategic defeat.  

At the tactical level, the success of the Iron Dome missile defense system has kept Israeli casualties near zero and significantly reduced the material damage from the rockets fired from Gaza. Israel’s ground invasion, launched on Thursday, Jul. 17, will also reap rewards. Indeed, it already has: Israeli forces have exposed and destroyed several Hamas tunnels, including some that were intended to allow cross-border activity into Israel and others that facilitated the movement of goods, ammunition, and militants within Gaza itself.

 But they do not equal a strategic victory. War is the continuation of politics by other means. Wars are fought to realign politics in a way that benefits the victor and is detrimental to the loser. The more the Israeli attacks on Gaza, the more the sympathy-scorings for Hamas and endangering the peace and security of Israel. Israel is winning tactically, but losing strategically.  Hamas’ strategic objective, it seems, is to shatter Israel’s sense of normalcy.   It is not possible for Israel to exist as a flourishing and prosperous democracy under the garrisoned conditions of persistent conflict.  Many possibilities can be foreseen in the aftermath of this war.

Being hopeless of the possibility of peace, a sizeable numbers of Israeli Jews may emigrate elsewhere. Disagreements over how to handle the Palestinian problem will definitely deepen, sowing discord within Israeli Knesset and ultimately within Israeli society.  Although this type of internal confusion will not bring Israel to its knees, any erosion of Israeli power, including the people’s reluctance, may prove to be a winning for Hamas.

This new round of violence, on the other hand, has caused enormous disruption. Rockets fired from Gaza have triggered warning sirens in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Beer Sheba—all of Israel’s major cities. Those rockets, destroyed in the air by the Iron Dome missile defense system, did not kill any people thus far, but they have sent almost everyone scrambling for shelter several times a day and shattered the illusion of peace and comfort. And that is enough for Hamas.

Also, the disproportionate number of casualties in Israel and Gaza has made Israel appear, at least to many Western eyes, as the aggressor.  Israel’s retaliations, which are levelling Gaza’s unreinforced buildings and leave behind mangled bodies of kids and babies, draw media attention throughout the world. This war is not an exercise in fairness, but in the attainment of strategic objectives.

 

It has shown Israelis that, even if the Palestinians cannot kill them, they can extract a heavy strategic price. It has also raised the profile of the Palestinian cause and reinforced the perception that the Palestinians are weak victims standing against a powerful aggressor. It seems Hamas is fighting this war with Israel on a strategic U-turn by turning itself into a sacrificial lamb for the aggressor. Hamas’ infringement of the past two peace agreements and shooting their rockets from populous locations of Gaza cities translate their mind. Israel’s aggression is sure to be translated into pressure on Israel by in-house politicians and certainly by social movements in parts of the world whose objective is to isolate Israel politically and damage it through economic boycotts. 

There is not much that Israel can do to change Hamas’ behavior. What Israel can do to prevent Hamas and Palestinians from capitalizing on their strategic success is to review its tactical and strategic policy that can (i) ensure its peace inside and security on its borders, (ii) enhance its commercial viability for Western nations, and (iii) maintain its internal social cohesion over the long haul. This may seem difficult, but the first two decades of Israel’s national existence does not suggest otherwise.

ISRAR HASAN

 2nd AUGUST 2014

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[1] "Israel and Hamas Trade Attacks as Tension Rises". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 July 2014 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Israe_Gaza_conflict)

[2]  "IDF's Operation "Protective Edge" Begins Against Gaza". Jewish Press. Retrieved 8 July 2014.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Israe_Gaza_conflict)

[3] Robert Tait. "Hamas kidnapping: Islamist group to blame for youths' 'kidnapping', Benjamin Netanyahu says", The Telegraph, 15 June 2014

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Israe_Gaza_conflict

[4] "Israel rounds up senior Hamas men in West Bank sweep". The Times of Israel. 15 June 2014. Retrieved 15 June 2014.

[5]Shlomi Eldar "Accused kidnappers are actually rogue Hamas branch", Al-Monitor, 29 June 2014.

[6]  "Thousands Flee Gaza Homes Under Israel Threat", Voice of America, 13 July 2014; accessed 22 July 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Israe_Gaza_conflict

[7]  "Israel and Hamas to observe brief Gaza truce". Aljazeera.com. Retrieved 22 July 2014. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Israel_Gaza_conflict)

[8]  "Report: Hamas, Islamic Jihad offer 10-year truce". Ma'an News Agency. Retrieved 28 July 2014. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Israel_Gaza_conflict)

[9] LIVE UPDATES: IDF soldier wounded in Gaza; Palestinian death toll nears 1,400 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Israel_Gaza_conflict)

[10]  "Occupied Palestinian Territory: Gaza emergency: Humanitarian Snapshot (as of 22 July 2014)". UN OCHA. 22 July 2014. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Israe_Gaza_conflict)

[11]  Gaza Emergency Situation Report. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: Occupied Palestinian Territory. 31 July 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2014. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Israel_Gaza_conflict)

[12] “Cease-fire collapses between Israel, Hamas; Israeli soldier captured.” The Washington Post, 1^st Aug. 2014, 

HOW MUCH WEALTH DO WE NEED?

Once upon a time there was a peasant named Pahom.  He used to work hard and honestly for his family, but he had no land of his own.  So he always remained as poor as the next man. 

Close to Pahom’s village there lived a lady, a small landlady who had an estate of about three hundred acres.  One winter the news got about that the lady was going to sell her land.  Pahom spoke to his wife and they put their heads together and considered how they could manage to buy it.  He collected altogether half of the purchase money.  Having done this, Pahom chose a farm of forty acres went to the lady and bought it paying half of the price in cash and half on credit.

Now Pahom had land of his own. He borrowed seed, and sowed it, and the harvest was a good one. Within a year he had managed to pay off all his debts to the lady.  So he became a landowner, plowing and sowing his own land, his heart would fill with joy.  The grass that grew and the flowers that bloomed there seemed to him unlike any that grew elsewhere.  Formerly, when he had passed by that land, it had appeared the same as any other land, but now it seemed quite different.

One day Pahom was sitting at home when a peasant, passing through the village, happened to stop over.  Pahom asked him where he came from.  The stranger answered that he came from beyond the Volga, where he had been working.  One word led to another, and the man went on to say that much land was for sale there, and many people were moving there to buy it. “Why should I suffer in this narrow hole,” Pahom thought, “if one can live so well elsewhere?”  So he sold his land and homestead and cattle, all at a profit, and moved his family to the new settlement.  Everything the peasant had told him was true, and Pahom was ten times better off than he had been. He bought plenty of arable land and pasture, and could keep as many heads of cattle as he liked.

At first, in the bustle of building and settling down, Pahom was pleased with it all, but when he got used to it he began to think that even here he was not happy and satisfied.  He wanted to till more land but he had not enough land of his own.  He started renting extra land year by year.  He might have gone on living comfortably, but he grew tired of having to rent other people’s land every year, and having to scramble to pay for it.

Then one day a passing land dealer said he was just returning from the land of Bashkirs, far away, where he had bought thirteen thousand acres of land, all for only one thousand rubles. “All one need do is to make friends with the chiefs by way of giving them gifts, and I got the land for less than two pence an acre.”

So Pahom left his family to look after the homestead and started on the journey, taking his servant with him. They stopped at a town on their way and bought a good quantity of gift items.  On and on they went until they had gone more than three hundred miles, and on the seventh day they came to a place where the Bashkirs had pitched their tents.

As soon as they saw Pahom they came out of their tents and gathered around their visitor.  Pahom took presents out of his cart and distributed them, and told them he had come to buy some land. The Bashkirs took him to their chief.  The chief listened to Pahom, and said: “Well, let it be so.  Choose whatever piece of land you like.  We have plenty of it.”

“And what will be the price?” asked Pahom.

“Our price is always the same: one thousand rubles a day.”

Pahom did not understand and asked, “A day? What measure is that? How many acres would that be?”

“We do not know how to reckon it out,” said the chief. “We sell it by the day.  As much as you can go round on your feet in a day is yours, and the price is one thousand rubles a day.”

Pahom was surprised.  “But in a day one can get round a large tract of land,” he excalimed.

The chief laughed.  “It will be all yours!” said he. “But there is one condition: if you don’t return on the same day to the spot whence you started, your money is lost.”

“But how am I to mark the way that I have gone?”

“Why, we shall go to any spot you like, and stay there.  You must start from that spot and make your round, taking a spade with you.  Wherever you think necessary, make a mark.  At every turning, dig a hole and pile up the turf; then afterward we will go round with a plot from hole to hole.  You may make as large a circuit as you please, but before the sun sets you must return to the place you started from.  All the land you cover will be yours.”

Pahom was delighted. It was decided to start early next morning.  Pahom lay on the bed they provided for him; but he could not sleep. He kept thinking about the land. “What a large tract I will mark off!  I can easily do thirty-five miles in a day, and within a circuit of thirty-five miles what a lot of land there will be!”

He got up early morning and went to Bashkirs.

“Its time to go to the steppe to measure the land,” he said. 

The Bashkirs rose and assembled, and the chief came too. They began drinking tea and coffee, but Pahom would not wait.  The Bashkirs got ready and they all started.  When they reached the steppe, the morning red was beginning to kindle. They ascended a hillock and dismounting from their carts and their horses, gathered in one spot. The chief came up to Pahom and stretched out his arm toward the plain. 

“See”  said he, “all this, as far as your eye can reach, is ours. You may have any part of it you like.”

Pahom’s eyes glistened: it was all virgin soil, as flat as the palm of our hand.

The chief took off his fox fur cap, placed it on the ground and said:

“This will be the mark.  Start from here and return here again.  All the land you go round shall be yours.”

Phom took out his money and put it on the cap, put on his sleeveless undercoat, put a little bag of bread into the breast of his coat, and   tying  a flask of water to his girdle, he drew up the tops of his boots, took the spade from his man, and stood ready to start.  He turned his face to the rising sun. The sun rays had hardly flashed above the horizon, before Pahom, carrying the spade over his shoulder, went down into the steppe.  He started walking neither slowly nor quickly.  After going a thousand yards he stopped, dug a hole, and placed pieces of turf on one another to make it more visible. Then he went on; and now that he had walked off his stiffness he quickened his pace.  After a while he dug another hole.

Pahom looked back.  The hillock could be distinctly seen in the sunlight, with the people on it. Pahom concluded that he had walked three miles.  It was growing warmer; he took off his undercoat, flung it across his shoulder, and went on again.  It had grown quite warm now; he looked at the sun, it was time to think of breakfast.  After breakfast he took off his boots, stuck them into his girdle, and went on. It was easy walking now.  “I will go on for another three miles,” he thought, “and then turn to the left.  This spot is so fine, that it would be a pity to lose it. The further he goes, the better the land seems.”

He went straight on for a while, and when he looked round, the hillock was scarcely visible.  “Ah,” thought Pahom, “I have gone far enough in this direction, it is time to turn.”  He stopped, dug a large hole, and heaped up pieces of turf. He drank few sips of water from his flask and then turned sharply to the left. He went on and on; the grass was high, and it was very hot.

Pahom began to grow tired: he looked at the sun and saw that it was noon.

He sat down for a while, ate some bread and drank some water and started his walk again thinking “This is no hour to rest; this is an hour to suffer and a lifetime to live.”

He went a long way in this direction also, and was about to turn to the left again, when he perceived a damp hollow: “It would be a pity to leave this piece out,” he thought. So he went on past the hollow, and dug a hole on the other side of it before he turned the corner. 

“Ah” thought Pahom, “I have made the sides too long; I must make this one shorter.”  And he went along the third side, stepping faster. He looked at the sun: it was nearly halfway to the horizon, and he had not yet done two miles of the third side of the square.  He was still ten miles from the goal.

Now Pahom decided to take his walk back to hillock he started from.  He was feeling his walk becoming difficult.  He was done up with the heat, his bare feet were cut and bruised, and his legs began to fail.  He longed to rest, but it was impossible if he meant to get back before sunset.  The sun waits for no man, and it was sinking lower and lower.

He looked toward the hillock and at the sun. He was still far from his goal and the sun was already near the rim.

Pahom walked on and on; it was very hard walking, but he went quicker and quicker.  He pressed on, but was still far from the place.  He began running, threw away his coat, his boots, his flask, and his cap, and kept only the spade which he used as a support.

“What shall I do,” he thought again.  “I have grasped too much, and ruined the whole affair.  I can’t get there before the sun sets.”  This fear made him still more breathless.  Though afraid of death, he could not stop.  He ran on and on, and drew near and heard the Bashkirs yelling and shouting to him, and their cries inflamed his heart.  He gathered his last strength and ran on.

The sun was close to the rim and cloaked in mist looked large, and red as blood.  Now, yes now, it was about to set! The sun was quite low, but he was also quite near his goal.  He could already see the people on the hillock waving their arms to hurry him up.  He could see the fox fur cap on the ground, and the chief sitting on the ground holding his sides. He took a long breath and ran up the hillock.  It was still light there.  He reached the top and saw the cap on the ground and the money on it and the chief sitting on the ground.  Pahom uttered a cry: his legs gave way beneath him, he fell forward and reached the cap with his hands.

“Ah, that’s a fine fellow!” exclaimed the chief.  “He has gained much land!”

Pahom’s servant came running up and tried to raise him up, but he saw that blood was flowing from his mouth.  Pahom was dead!

The Bashkirs clicked their tongues to show their pity and sorrow.

His servant picked up the spade and dug a grave long enough for Pahom to lie in there, and buried him in it.  Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed and got it.

Note:    This story by Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), was written in 1886. This is a                      marvelous metaphor for the needs of our life be set on definite boundaries of our own appetites.

ISRAR HASAN

30 JULY 2014

HASAN OF BASRA

 HASAN OF BASRA

Hasan al-Basri was a jewel merchant, born in Medina (642AD/21AH) and died at Basra  (728AD/110AH). He was called Hasan of the Pearls.  He used to trade in Byzantium with generals and ministers of Caesar in precious stones, pearls and gold souvenirs.  On one occasion, going to Byzantium he called on the prime minister and conversed with him for a while.

“We will go to a certain place,” the minister told him, “if you are agreeable.”

“It is upto you”, Hasan replied.  “I agree.”

So the minister commanded a horse to be brought for Hasan also. He mounted with the minister, and they set out.  When they reached the desert, Hasan saw a tent of Byzantine brocade, fastened with ropes of silk and golden pegs, set firm in the ground. He stood to one side.  Then a mighty army,  all dressed in the outfit of war, came out; they circled the tent, said a few words, and departed.  Philosophers and scholars to the number of nigh four hundred arrived on the scene;  they circled the tent, said a few words, and departed.  After that three hundred illumined elders with white beards approached the tent, circled it, said a few words, and departed.  Thereafter more than two hundred moon-fair maidens, each bearing a plate of gold and silver and sprecious stones, circled the tent, said a few words, and departed.

Hasan, being astonished and filled with wonder, asked himself what this might be.

“When we alighted,” Hasan said, “I asked the minister.  He said that the Caesar had a son of unsurpassable beauty, perfect in all the branches of learning and unrivalled in the arena of manly prowess.  His father loved him with all his heart.”

Suddenly he fell ill—so Hasan related on the authority of the minister.  All the skilled physicians proved powerless to cure him.  Finally he died,  and was buried in that tent in front of us. Once every year people come out to visit the mausoleum in the tent.  First an immense army circles the tent, and they say: “O prince, if this circumstance that has befallen thee had come about in war, we would have all sacrificed our lives for thee, to ransom thee back.  But the circumstance that has befallen thee is at the hand of one against whom we cannot fight, whom we cannot challenge.” This they say and then return.

The philosophers and the scholars come forward, and say:  “This circumstance has been brought about by one against whom we cannot do anything by meansof lerning and philosophy, science and sophistry.  For all the philosophers of the world are powerless bfore him, and all the learned are ignorant beside his knowledge.  Otherwise we would have contrived devices and spoken words which all in creation could not have withstood.” This they said and then return.

Next the venerable elders advance, and say: :O prince, if this circumstance that has befallen thee could have been set right by the intercession of elders, we would all have interceded with humble petitions, and would not have abandoned theee there.  But this circumstance has been brought upon thee by one against whom no mortal man’s intercession profits anything.”  This they say and depart.

Now the moon-fair maidens with their plates of gold and precious stones advance, circle the mausoleum and say: “Son of Caesar, if this circumstance that has befallen thee could have been set right by wealth and beauty, we would have sacrificed ourselves and given great moneys and would not have abandoned thee.  But this circumstance has been brought upon thee by one on whom wealth and beauty have no effect.” This they say, and return.

Then Caesar himself with his chief minister enters the tent, and says: “O eye and lamp of thy father, O fruit of the heart of thy father, O dearest beloved of thy father, what is in thy father’s hand to perform?  Thy father brought a might army, he brought philosophers and scholars, intercessors and advisers, beautiful maidens, wealth and all manner of luxuries; and he came himself.  If all this could have been of avail, they father, with all this apparatus, this army and retinue, this luxury and wealth and treasure, is powerless.  Peace be upon you, till next year!”  This the Caesar says and returns.

These words of the minister so affected Hasan that he was beside himself.  At once he made arrangements to return.  Coming back to Basra, he took an oath never to laugh again in this world, till his ultimate destiny became clear to him.  He flung himself into all manner of devotions and austerities, such that no man in his time could exceed that discipline. He became one of the most renowned mystics of his time.

Source: Muslim Saints and Mystics: Episodes from ‘Tadhkirat al-Auliya’ (Memorial of the Saints) by Farid al-Din Attar; translated by A.J. Arberry.

ISRAR HASAN

1 JULY 2014

Email:  ihasanfaq@yahoo.com

BUDDHA AND THE GIRL

There lived a young girl named Kisa Gotami (“Kisa” means the lean one, nicknamed because of her thinness), in the life-time of Gotama Buddha.  Kisa got married and in due course had a son. In the matrifocal society of the times, her status within the family immediately rose.  Unfortunately, her son died when he was just old enough to run about, leaving her distraught and broken with grief. Kisa Gotami placed the dead body of the child on her shoulder and went house to house asking for medicine to revive her son. People said she has gone mad.  One sympathetic villager sent her to the Buddha as the only person who might be able to help her.  Buddha promised to revive her son through a ritual, the performance of which required a handful of mustard seeds—but the seeds had to come from a house where no one had ever died.  Kisa Gotami ran to the village, knocking every door of the houses.  But she could not find any house in which no one had ever died.  In this way Buddha made her realize that mortality was an inevitable feature of the human condition, that even a Lazarus (a Bible character), once raised from the dead, had to die again.  She cremated the dead child, came back to the Buddha, and asked to be ordained. The verses she uttered upon attaining enlightenment are part of the Buddha canon. Later, Buddhism applied this principle of “skillful means” not just to individuals, but to whole cultures in different parts of the world.

ISRAR HASAN

13 JULY 2014

ONCE UPON A TIME

 There was a King and a beautiful queen.  The story starts as usual with a King and a Queen. But this is a true story of the king, Ramendra Narayan Rai, the 2^nd Kumar of a tiny kingdom Bhawal  (now Gazipur/Tangail region of Bangladesh) who lived with his queen in the Kingdom of Bhawal some time at the end of Nineteenth century.  

Eventually, the beautiful queen fell in love with the king' s physician, that developed into a serious affair. The lovers decided to kill the king by poisoning him. The opportunity came soon. During the summer the royal family decided to go on a vacation to the hill-resort of Darjeeling, a quiet, cool and pleasant resort city that was also the summer capital of British Magistrate of Bihar.

 Arsenic, which is odorless and tasteless was mixed with the king's tea. The king became very sick, with typical vomiting diarrhea and dehydration. The physician examined the patient and declared it to be Cholera. Arsenic poisoning mimics cholera; and cholera was a very feared disease at that time. This scared the visitors and even attendants and they tried to stay away as far as possible.

Soon the king became lethargic/dehydrated and almost pulseless. The doctor declared him dead and ordered funeral arrangements. He was to be cremated; the pyre was readied. But suddenly the sky turned dark and a thunderstorm struck.  Pouring rain, thunder began; but the Queen  and the doctor did not want to cancel the funeral. They pushed some people to take the body to the riverside and start a fire using gasoline and what not.

It was a night of thunder and lightening and there was Cholera infested body,....the hindus were superstitious about ghosts and their taboos....they took the body to the pyre under threats, but were in no mood to go thru with the cremation. As water flooded the area, mud-slides came down the hills....they threw the body into the river, came running back and declared that they have cremated the body.

They royal family believed and did not argue.  Next day as the weather cleared, they returned to the kingdom of Bhawal and declared that the king had died of Cholera in Darjeeling (in 1909) and needed a successor.  

The British Magistrate who was assigned to the kingdom, picked a seven year old nephew of the king and put him on the throne, under the guardianship of the Queen. But somehow this magistrate had some suspicion about the king's sudden demise, and he noted his suspicion in his report to the English authorities. The Empire did not think any further investigation was necessary since there was no plaintiff.

Eventually, the king did not die. He had been deeply unconscious and dehydrated. Fortunately for him, the rain and the floods washed his body and he swallowed large amount of water. He was washed down by the landslide flooding waters, somewhere down the river. He lay in the sand shore for hours or days.

A group of Hindu monks were travelling; one of them spotted his body. They came, picked him up, found that he was breathing and was trying to wake up. They carried him to their temple. They nursed him and fed him and he gradually recovered. But he had total amnesia. He couldnot remember his name, who he was or what he was doing there. The monks questioned him again and again but he couldnot remember anything at all. They finally told him, he could stay at the temple/monastery and become a monk.

The king remained.....they gave him a name and monk's clothes. Days passed, months passed, years passed.  The monks used to walk to different villages preaching their religion.  Almost 12 years later, this group of monks were passing thru the kingdom of Bhawal.  As the king walked in front of the palace , suddenly he looked at the sculpture of the lion at the gate, and he screamed. Memory came back to him. He began screaming at the top of his voice : this is my palace; this is my kingdom, this is Bhawal, this is my kingdom. Every body was awe struck. The palace guards came out and pushed the monks away.

But now he knew who he was. He came back to the monastery and started telling the story. He went to the bazaar in Bhawal and looked up some old-timers, and some of them began recognizing him.

Of course, the royal family disagreed....the old queen dismissed it as hogwash, and nonsense. The British magistrate had changed and he was a different guy. He could not be of any help. The royal family became irritated with this bazaar gossip, and sent out their guards to kick this "lunatic" out of the area; they threatened to kill him.

But the then British Magistrate smelled something fishy. He began looking at the old files and came across a notation that his predecessor Magistrate had made about the suspicious nature of the king's death and disappearance. He called the monks to his office and advised them to file a law-suit in the Calcutta High Court.

This became a high sensation. Newspapers published stories after stories. Finally, the case went into trial in 1921--22. This was a high profile trial. Witnesses were called by both sides. Arguments were flying. Tempers were rising. Finally the king/monk took the stand. After describing several personal things and what went on in the palace, he took a deep breath and said, I will describe something on my wife's body. On her inner thigh, on the right side, there is 3" long birthmark. Nobody but her parents or her husband would know this. The Court ordered a medical examiner to examine the queen, and she testified that it was exactly as described.

The defendants still fought....the privy council of King George  the 5th, convened a special session in London. They examined all the papers and said whatever the Calcutta High Court decides will be abiding. The court gave verdict for the king....restored him his kingdom......the old queen and the physician were given life sentences. The king entered his kingdom victorious.

ISRAR HASAN

16 JUNE 2014