Prakash Shenoy's Diary

पाकिस्तानमध्ये लष्कर-राजकारणी आणि दहशतवादी संघटनांच्या घुसळणीतून काय घडत आहे, हे जाणून घेणे भारतासाठी अत्यावश्यक ठरते. मात्र इस्लाम, त्यांचा अर्थ लावणारे घटक, त्यांच्या परस्परांत टकरा, आंतरराष्ट्रीय पवित्र्यांचे परिणाम अशा प्रवाहांचीही नीट माहिती आपल्याकडे करून घेतली जात नाही. मुख्य धाराच नीट माहीत नाहीत, मग बारीकसारीक तपशील कोण पाहणार? मात्र पाकव्याप्त काश्मीरचा अफगाण सीमाप्रदेश, त्याचे सात विभाग, तिथला भूगोल, टोळ्या, आर्थिक-भौतिक मागासलेपण-त्यातून पाय रोवण्यास दहशतवाद्यांना अनुकूल भूमी याची विलक्षण तपशिलात जाऊन माहिती पाकिस्तानी पत्रकार इम्तियाज गुल यांनी गोळा केली. स्वत:चा जीव अनेकदा धोक्यात घालून पायी हिंडणे, भेटीगाठी, एखादा धागा पकडून त्या संघटनेच्या नेत्याला भेटणे, मिळालेली माहिती विवेकाने तपासणे, त्याआधारे आणखी तपशील असा हा विस्मयकारी प्रवास आहे. त्याचेच प्रत्यंतर रेखा देशपांडे अनुवादित ‘अल कायदाचे धागेदोरे’ हे पुस्तक वाचताना येतो. अल कायदा, तालिबान वहाबी इस्लाम, दहशतवाद, आयएसआय... आदी शब्दमालिका भारतात उच्चारली म्हणजे, अशिक्षित सामान्य जनांपासून वर्तमानपत्रांचे

Every country has its reallife version of the fictional mafioso Vito Corleone. Dawood Hasan Ibrahim Kaskar is not as charismatic as Mario Puzo’s enduring creation, but he does display a Corleone-esque tendency to vapourise all his enemies. Ibrahim has featured in so many movies that it is safe to attribute a sub-genre to him. S Hussain Zaidi’s new book Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia already has a cinematic connection: ten of its 63 chapters will be used in the screenplay of the forthcoming Sanjay Gupta movie Shootout at Wadala, about the murder in 1982 of Manya Surve, who reportedly killed Ibrahim’s brother Subir Kaskar. “Dawood was always known to be unforgiving,” Zaidi writes about the mobster, who ordered the hit. “He decided to avenge his brother’s killing and eliminate each and every person involved in the murder. He had no personal enmity with Manya… But Manya will have to pay for this, Dawood swore.” Replace Manya’s name with any other and Ibra

Gandhi's nonviolent struggles in South Africa and India had already brought him to such a level of notoriety, adulation, and controversy that when asked to write an autobiography midway through his career, he took it as an opportunity to explain himself. Although accepting of his status as a great innovator in the struggle against racism, violence, and, just then, colonialism, Gandhi feared that enthusiasm for his ideas tended to exceed a deeper understanding. He says that he was after truth rooted in devotion to God and attributed the turning points, successes, and challenges in his life to the will of God. His attempts to get closer to this divine power led him to seek purity through simple living, dietary practices (he called himself a fruitarian), celibacy, and ahimsa, a life without violence. It is in this sense that he calls his book The Story of My Experiments with Truth, offering it also as a reference for those who would follow in his footsteps. A reader ex