What is wrong with Israel?

Someone had the courage. I found this answer on Quora.

So, I've noticed that a couple of the other answers here allege that the Arab-Israeli conflict is easy to explain because the only reason it exists is that "the Arabs want to kill all the Jews."

What a load of complete and utter drivel. 

A Relatively Brief Introduction to the Arab-Israeli Conflict

In order to have even a basic understanding the Jewish-Arab conflict, and the resulting Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we have to jump back about 150 years, so bear with me.

The formation of Israel was founded in Zionism, a movement that called for the formation of a homeland for all Jews (i.e. a return to Zion) so that Jews would have a place of their own where they could avoid being persecuted. During the mid-to-late 19th century, Zionists purchased plots of land within Palestine and, after a few failed attempts at creating settlements, succeeded in prompting the First Aliyah ("rising" or "ascension") where Jews began to immigrate to Palestine in larger numbers in 1882. Initially, Zionism was seen as a radical ideology even within the Jewish community, but as anti-semitism grew in Russia and Europe, it became a much more popular notion. 

It is really important to understand the system of land ownership in Palestine at this time :

“[The Ottoman Land Code of 1858] required the registration in the name of individual owners of agricultural land, most of which had never previously been registered and which had formerly been treated according to traditional forms of land tenure, in the hill areas of Palestine generally masha’a, or communal usufruct. The new law meant that for the first time a peasant could be deprived not of title to his land, which he had rarely held before, but rather of the right to live on it, cultivate it and pass it on to his heirs, which had formerly been inalienable...Under the provisions of the 1858 law, communal rights of tenure were often ignored...Instead, members of the upper classes, adept at manipulating or circumventing the legal process, registered large areas of land as theirs...The fellahin [peasants] naturally considered the land to be theirs, and often discovered that they had ceased to be the legal owners only when the land was sold to Jewish settlers by an absentee landlord...Not only was the land being purchased; its Arab cultivators were being dispossessed and replaced by foreigners who had overt political objectives in Palestine.” (Rashid Khalidi, “Blaming The Victims,” ed. Said and Hitchens)

That is, while the process of buying this land was technically legal, it was not done by negotiation between the prospective owners and the inhabitants, but rather through negotiation with other entities who had claimed the land as theirs thanks to newly-formed legal loopholes, with the intent of selling it for a profit. 

As the number of Jewish settlers increased, Palestinians became increasingly uncomfortable with being evicted from their farms and began to consider Zionist ambitions a threat. They filed complaints with the Ottoman authorities, who consequently banned all land sales to foreigners in 1892. 

In 1903, the British government issued the Balfour Declaration, establishing the government's support for a Jewish homeland in the Palestinian mandate. By 1914, the Jewish population in Palestine had risen to over 60,000. In 1922, The League of Nations adopted the declaration and gave Britain the Palestinian mandate to use as a Jewish national home. Another 90,000 Jews immigrated to Israel between 1919 and 1926 in reaction to growing anti-semitism. 

By this point, there had been several Arab riots in reaction to the growing Jewish population, as many Palestinians were now displaced or landless due to the selling of their land by feudal landlords. These riots included the Jaffa riots, the 1929 Palestine riots, and the 1929 Hebron massacre.

Death toll in 1929: Israelis - 317, Palestinians - 203

Hitler came to power in 1933 and enacted a number of anti-semitic laws shortly thereafter, creating a wave of stateless Jewish refugees who were searching for a new home. However, Britain had recently implemented the White Paper of 1939, which had restricted the immigration of Jews into the Palestinian mandate. The Jews who did try to enter Palestine were intercepted by British authorities and imprisoned/detained. In reaction to the public backlash, Britain handed the situation off to the newly formed United Nations.

# these short paragraphs hardly do justice to the political intricacies
# of each of these conflicts, but this answer is already going to be 
# hella long anyways, so please forgive my brevity.

1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine 

Meanwhile, between 1933 and 1936, more than 164,000 Jewish immigrants had come to Palestine, bringing the total Jewish population up to 370,000 people, or 27% of the total population. By 1936, the Palestinian farmers who had been displaced by Jewish immigrants, now jobless and landless, had begun to join militant organizations. Palestinian national sentiments had also increased sharply in reaction to the Jewish nationalists now residing on their land. The militant groups comprised mostly of these displaced farmers attempted various levels of revolt over the next two years, but they ultimately failed.

Death toll in 1939: Jews/Israelis - 732, Arabs/Palestinians - 5,203

In 1947, the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine was formed to address the question of a Jewish homeland in the Palestinian mandate. On November 29th, 1947, the committee recommended the adoption of the partition plan that would divide the Palestinian mandate 55/45 in favor of the Israelis. 

1948 Palestine war 

The Arab states rejected the UN proposal, instead calling for the removal of Jewish settlers from the region. Fighting began directly after the proposal was approved. This war included the Deir Yassin massacre, in which Zionist paramilitary forces attacked an Arab village, killing between 100 and 250 civilian men, women, and children. After the war, Israel had expanded well beyond its assigned borders, now claiming 78% of the Palestinian mandate. Jordan occupied and annexed the West Bank and Egypt took control of the Gaza Strip.

On May 14th, 1948, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed Israel an established state. 

Around 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their land, many forced to leave the country altogether. Most of them, or their descendants, are still living in refugee camps today. Around 856,000 Jews were displaced from the surrounding Arab countries during this time, as well. 260,000 of them had reached Israel by 1951, and 600,000 had done so by 1972.
  
Death toll in 1948: Jews/Israelis - 7,105, Arabs/Palestinians - 15,203

In 1959, Fatah was founded by refugees in Gaza. In 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization was founded at the Arab League Summit, and Fatah joined, becoming the PLO's largest member group. 

Six-Day War 

In 1967, Israel decided that "the best defense is a good offense" and launched surprise attacks on Egyptian air-fields (in response to the mobilization of Egyptian troops due to faulty intelligence reports given to Egypt by Russia). God, politics are messy. The resulting war was fought between Israel, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from the 5th through the 10th of June. At the end of the war, Israel had seized Gaza, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula. 

Shortly after the war ended, Israel decided that it would return the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights in exchange for peace with Egypt and Syria, respectively. 

Death toll in 1967: Jews/Israelis - 8,112, Arabs/Palestinians - 36,503

War of Attrition 

Egypt wasn't as keen on the land-for-peace deal as Israel was (at least in the beginning). Hostilities between Egypt and Israel resumed in mid-July. Golda Meir, Israel's Prime Minister, decided that the proper way to go about any sort of conflict was through an "asymmetrical response", a policy that Israel seems to stand by to this day.  Hostilities continued until 1970, when a ceasefire was agreed upon.

Death toll in 1970: Jews/Israelis - 9,536, Arabs/Palestinians - 41,503

Yom Kippur War 

In 1973, Egypt and Syria led a joint offensive against Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, effectively taking the entire state by surprise. Syria worked to regain the Golan Heights while Egypt attempted to take back the Sinai Peninsula. After two days of the Arab states making steady gains, the Israeli military had organized itself enough to push back - they quickly pursued the Syrians back to pre-war lines, and then some. On the Sinai side, however, it took a week of heavy fighting to repel the Egyptians, and both sides sustained heavy casualties. Two ceasefires were attempted, the second of which, on October 25th, was successful. 

Death toll in 1973: Jews/Israelis - 12,224, Arabs/Palestinians - 60,503

1982 Lebanon War 

Remember those 700,000 displaced Palestinians? Well, there are about 6.5 million of them today, around 455,000 of which currently live in Lebanon. I'm sure those numbers were slightly smaller in 1982. (I'm having some difficulty finding exact refugee statistics for 1982, but would be overjoyed if someone could point me to them!). Anyways, the large refugee population close to the border gave the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) a decent place to operate out of.

Israel, however, was less than thrilled with the situation, particularly the political ties that had developed between the PLO and the Lebanese government. They intended instead to oust the PLO and form a peace treaty with Lebanon. To do so, Israel invaded southern Lebanon, occupied Beirut, and bombarded the PLO forces until they fled. At this time, the Israelis also facilitated that Sabra and Shatila massacre, in which Israeli guards and tanks monitored checkpoints around a camp while Phalangists killed 700 - 3,500 unarmed Palestinians and Lebanese Shiites over a 14-hour period. 

However, due to a combination of factors, Israel's intent to make peace with Lebanon fell through. Israel overstayed their welcome in Lebanon, not fully withdrawing troops until 1985; Hezbollah formed as a result.

Death toll in 1982: Jews/Israelis - 13,440, Arabs/Palestinians - 81,328

First Intifada 

The First Intifada was an unarmed, grassroots uprising that began in 1987, "as a protest against Israeli repression including extrajudicial killings, mass detentions, house demolitions, forced migrations, relocations and deportations". The protest was set off by an Israeli tank running into a row of cars containing Palestinian workers that were held up at a checkpoint. Four people died and seven more were injured - over 10,000 people attended their funerals, and demonstrations began shortly thereafter. There was widespread throwing of stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli military tanks and trucks, but no coordinated or weaponized action. 

Rabin, the Prime Minister, opted for the route of "might, power, and beatings" in reaction to the Intifada, through which 1,100+ Palestinians were killed, 241 of which were children. The First Intifada died out around 1993. 

Death toll in 1993: Jews/Israelis - 13,640, Arabs/Palestinians - 82,490

As the First Intifada was coming to a close, Rabin and the PLO had begun to engage in secret peace negotiations: the Oslo Accords. In these agreements, the PLO officially recognized Israel's right to exist and publicly denounced terrorism. Israel and Palestine began to work towards a two-state solution. On September 28th, 1995, Rabin and Arafat signed the Oslo II Accord. However, Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing Jewish radical shortly thereafter, which interrupted peace negotiations rather severely. There were attempts to reinvigorate progress towards peace for the next several years, but after the failed 2000 Camp David Summit and the subsequent rise in violence, negotiations were left by the wayside. 

Second Intifada 

The Second Intifada began at the same time the Camp David negotiations were breaking down in 2000. They were triggered, in particular, by Ariel Sharon visiting the Temple Mount, which was perceived as a provocative action by the Palestinians. This Intifada was much more violent than the last, resulting in around 5,000 Palestinian deaths and 1,100 Israeli ones.

Death toll in 2005: Jews/Israelis - 14,740, Arabs/Palestinians - 87,397

2006 Lebanon War 

I think The Onion sums up this war rather nicely: Israel Bombs Anti-Semitism Out Of Lebanon. All jokes aside, Israel decided to bomb the organization whose formation it had precipitated in the 1982 Lebanon War, and wound up killing about 1,300 Lebanese civilians. Israel still has troops stationed in Lebanon.  

Death toll in 2006: Jews/Israelis - 14,904, Arabs/Palestinians - 89,351

Gaza War 

The Gaza War was a three-week military operation from 2008-2009 where Israeli forces first bombarded and then infiltrated Gaza with the intent of decreasing the number of rocket attacks from the region. 14 Israelis were killed (4 from friendly fire), as well as 1,166 - 1,417 Palestinians.

Death toll in 2009: Jews/Israelis - 14,918, Arabs/Palestinians - 90,785

Operation Protective Edge (Summer 2014)

Israel and Gaza are launching rockets at each other because 3 Israeli teenagers were murdered, and Israel blamed Hamas. Israeli authorities have offered no evidence of Hamas involvement, and Hamas denies any knowledge of the incident. Israeli police subsequently killed 10 Palestinians in clashes as they went around re-arresting the people they had released in the latest prisoner exchange. After the funerals of the 3 Israeli teens, Jewish extremists kidnapped and murdered Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir in retaliation. 

That's just the trigger-event, though - in the long run, Israel likely decided to execute this operation to target Hamas activity in the Gaza strip. 

At least 187 Palestinians have been killed so far, 77% of whom are civilians, according to the UN. 

So, the Arab-Israeli conflict only exists because the Arabs want to kill all the Jews, huh? 

Total death toll in from 1860 to 2014: Jews/Israelis - 24,845, Arabs/Palestinians - 90,972

Geez, from these numbers, you would think the opposite was true. 

So, here's a quick visualization of what this land loss has looked like for the Palestinians since 1947:

If that's not some crazy rapid expansion, I don't know what is. 
I know I provided death tolls from before Israel's official establishment until now, but let's take a look at some of the more recent statistics, most of which are taken from B'Tselem, an Israeli organization that focuses on human rights in the occupied territories:  

For more information on the breakdown of rates and causes of death for these children, please see Katie Hoban's answer to Why does it seem that children are always the victims in conflicts between Israel and Hamas?

I think the one of the most enlightening comparisons in these deaths is that three times as many Palestinian children have been run down by Israeli vehicles as Israeli children have been killed in Palestinian rocket attacks.

Israel is wreaking havoc on Palestine, and on top of the deaths and injuries, Palestine is suffering other consequences too:

Who's providing the cash for all of this? We are. Or, America is, at least - we provide Israel with $8.5 million a day in military aid. 

TL;DR - An Even Briefer Introduction to the Arab-Israeli Conflict

When people don't know much about the Arab-Israeli conflict, I see a lot of sympathy directed at both sides, à la "Oh my god, it's so terrible that people do these things to each other. Why can't we all just be friends?" and they're right: it is terrible that this conflict has been going on for such a long time, and it is terrible that it is continuing today. However, we need to take a step back from the "everything is terrible" standpoint and think about this conflict a little more critically.  

When we look at Israel today, we are looking at a nation formed from refugees, who is now creating refugees instead. I believe that Israel has a right to exist (within '67 borders) - I just don't think Israel has the right to crush Palestine into the dust because they're so enamored with the concept of asymmetrical warfare. The whole "I'll shoot twelve of your children for every one of mine" (the ratio of Palestinian:Israeli children killed) just isn't a philosophy I can get behind. I hope you feel the same.

So, to sum things up, The Israeli-Arab conflict is a long, complicated hodgepodge of land struggles, assassinations, nationalism, signed treaties, broken treaties, rocket launchers, and a whole number of other things, and I hope my little spiel helped you gain a better understanding of Israeli history and international relations in the Middle East as a whole. 

#FreePalestine

Tale of ducks and hattricks

I know the reason why we don't win lot of medals in Olympics. I live in Bangalore, a city 2000 kilometers away from my home Kolkata. I am here to earn money (and respect too) on weekdays and guess what I do during weekends? I play cricket. No others sports, no football, no badminton, no gymnastics and no swimming and this is the case with the other 20 odd people with whom I play cricket. Most of them barring a few are from Kolkata (or nearby areas).

For us abnormal is normal, imbalanced is balanced and everything is cricket. We might play “Home run battle” and “2048” in our smart phones and would spent hours to contemplate our performance to get better on the ground which would definitely take up the extra 2 hours after midnight but bats and balls (not to forget wickets) are the weapons we chose to hold in our hands every Saturday morning.

I like to read books and love to write. I write this blog for a very few people, first is of course me and then comes my friends. I am not the one to be compared to a normal blogger. While they type away every day, I wait for something to really amuse me, I write from the comfort of my home. I procrastinate for no particular reason. As a result, despite the best efforts of blogger.com, it is harder for me to discuss, share, and learn from each other. What follows then are some lessons that I have learned, often the hard way. They may not all be universally applicable but, for better or worse, they are the distilled knowledge of my few years practicing this craft.

My # of page views have fallen, I have not written in many months. The joy that I used to get when I get to know that people are visiting my page had vanished. And I wanted it back, I wanted that happiness, that eagerness to check every midnight how many have visited my blog to revisit me. I had to choose something as a topic to write, I chose cricket, because I enjoy it.

While writing this I had to picture my audience, I knew not many of my readers are avid cricket fan, not many of them would go on till the end, but few would, the interested ones would enjoy while the others would smile thinking of me as a crazy, incorrigible fellow.

As I write this, the 1st qualifier match between KKR (my favorite IPL team) and KXIP in Kolkata has been postponed to the next day, I am warm and comfy (it rained a few hours ago) at my home without thinking of what to do in office tomorrow, Narendra Modi is the new prime minister of India and I don’t have to hear Sidhu shouting in the TV,

"Mujhe pasand nahi ladai,
Mujhe pasand aata hai romance,
Lungi dance, Lungi dance
Lungi dance, Lungi dance"

But who cares, I am now going to talk about the cricket without ads, without any commentaries, without any previews. But yes we do have sledges, the fights, the anger, our after match reviews, we do host our own show 'match ka mujrim kaun', showers praises and accolades. 

The constant cycle of death and resurrection plays out in our team's results too. We die some day with a duck in our name, only to find ourself waking up again on next Saturday with new vigor to improve the average. The team boasting of full of top class batsman may fall for a score as low as 50 in 12 overs while bowler who can get hit for 26 runs in an over might take a hattrick.

You must be full of questions, probably more than Arnab Goswami. The Nation wants to know which team? What cricket? Who took hattrick? Okay, okay, enough of riddles.

This team which I am going to talk about is full of studs known as Rockerzzz. Yes, we have a name (and we have a jersey too). And this team consist of more than 24 players (wow!). I won't shy away mentioning the players name but keep in mind to add word bhai after you pronounce their name because I do so as they are senior to me but I would avoid writing it again and again.

Well, it started one day, Shaimir (don't forget to add the word bhai) called me up one day, "Tanzeel, you play cricket right? Can you come over to our place this Saturday morning. We play every week and thought you could be a worthy addition." Well, that was flattery and it was followed by barrage of thoughts , "Cricket!?!?!? mann me laddu phuta?", "Saturday!?!?? that is my sleeping day (yes I sleep till mid-day on Saturdays)", "Okay then I will go for this week and will think about it next week, probably miss it next week". Little did I know that it is going to addictive, people in the ground are going to mesmerize me. They will use their willow to make me their slave (don't take it seriously).

1st Saturday morning: Back in my home city, the biggest ground, the Maidan is just 3 kms. away. We used to get up and reach the field in 10 minutes. But here, to reach the ground at 6.30 AM I had to get up at 5 AM. 23 kms. is the distance that I needed to travel that Saturday. When I reached the ground, I was given a warm welcome (probably it was my first day and I came from very far). I knew several faces but I couldn't recognize the other. Remembering names on the first day is difficult but two of them Kashif and Naushad (add double bhai to these names) were easier to memorize because they were captain and because they kept on motivating their players and/or because they were married :P and because they made me feel at home.

Rockerzzz!!!

While I was on my way back home, I had already been added to the whatsapp group. Discussion on the completed match was full on, everyone praising each other. Names were still difficult to remember but I got to know from the conversation that there is a top class allrounder named Afsal with full of variations in bowling, there is this proper batsman in Faisal and Anjani, hard hitter in Afzal, Ehtesham and Iqbal, a bowler difficult to hit in Farooq and Shaimir, a fielder worth giving a title of eagle in Imtiaz, etc. I felt happy inside me and thought it's a good start.

It's difficult to pick a batsman or a bowler from people like us. All of us are allrounders and that's what makes our team unique. No matter how you chose a team, how imbalance it might look on paper but on the field the matches will be close. I was once part of a team who defended 70 odd runs in 12 overs but couldn't defend 120+ in 12 overs.

A six would invite everyone from batting team to come on the ground to congratulate the batsman, while small error in the field placement would prompt the company of Tausif, Kashif and Shaimir to get together to discuss for 5 minutes how to place the field and another 5 minutes to discuss how not to waste these 5 minutes next time. A hattrick too would invite everyone to get their photo together.

Anil with his team after the hattrick

Buland with his team after the hattrick

While we have fielders like Farooq, Tausif and Imtiaz in our arsenal who would not let the ball pass through if it is in their zone, on the other hand we have Faisal and Ehtesham who if drops the catch and stops the ball from going to the boundary is considered an achievement. The batting team shouts, "Make it two" whenever they see the ball running away towards them, the batsman feel comfortable if they have played a lofty shot and these players are getting under it. But their batting covers up their fielding and their efforts are well appreciated. I remember Ehtesham taking a difficult catch for Anil to complete a hattrick. This catch was not easy as it was high up in the air and he had to run backwards to get under it. Faisal is a responsive player, he can make a target of 120 look easy but sometimes fail to chase 70, because like I told you he is a responsive player, he only respond only when his captain reminds him to wake up and start hitting the ball, other wise a perfect opener any captain would love to have him in the team.

We have orange cones (the ones used by players during their drills) that we keep on the boundaries. We had to keep that at the farthest distance possible because the boundaries were affecting the run up of Affaque. He asks, "Shoaib AKhter, who?" There are stories making rounds these days that Affaque missed his schooling because while he could complete his run up, the school got over.

Nobody carries responsibilities on the shoulder better than Misbah. Once he hit a six, everyone knows that a responsibility had been carried out. A hattrick and getting hit for 26 runs is in the name of Buland. I hope he won't mind having two records of totally opposite in nature. The Shaun Pollock of our team Omar Farooq have never let his team down, taking wickets when required, hitting sixes when needed, took a hattrick once.

Afsal is known for his allround abilities. No one can bowl as fast as he could and not as slow as he could, when he comes to bat he changes the equation in the matter of 2 overs. Shaimir comes close to him in competition. Tausif, the hulk, nobody dare hit towards him, there's a legend that he hit Suraj for 5 sixes in an over. Suraj is kinda sorta Piyush Chawla, on his day he can take 5 wickets and score brisk runs while on his off days he might get belted for 5 sixes in an over.

Afzal once took his team to a commanding position, scored a fifty in just under 5 overs. I have never seen someone hit so cleanly. Reyaz definitely took his place when Afzal was took leave for his marriage. Rehan took a step further, his bowling added extra feathers to his cap. Scoring 3 sixes and a four in an over is no mean task, catching inches before boundary ropes is neither and getting angrier is also not an easy job. For Rehan, the angrier the merrier, hahaha. When it comes to catching no one comes closer to Imtiaz, Shaimir might have taken a diving catch at the boundary but Imtiaz took a one handed catch while running and covering a lot of distance in the ground.

A bowler rarely noticed is Rakib da. The bowler from Bengal could have gotten a chance had Ganguly not preferred Dinda so much. But thankfully there's Tausif who manages him so well.

Ameen, the local boy. It's his city in which we are playing, credit goes to him for letting us play. Thankfully he only deceives the batsman with his slower balls. Few additions to the team; Amjad aka Vicky, Sajid, Sumit and Mehran are doing pretty decent. They have played some eye catching performance adding beautiful feather to the colorful wings of Rockerzzz.

Kashif and Naushad are the ones who brought everyone together. Our manager is Salman because he occasionally comes to play. They are the mastermind for this. So, if anything goes wrong you know whom to contact.

how not to take a catch, circled in red

A selfie went horribly wrong

We once took part in the tournament and that's how the name Rockerzz came up.

Before I finish off, i have few questions to ask you:

Have you watched cricket more than you have played?
a) Yes, b) No
Write your answers on a papyrus scroll, then bury them in a hole in the ground. Winners will be notified in approximately 2,000 years' time.

What is the meaning of life, please? Does it have something to do with cricket?
I give you the answer as beautifully explained by Andrew Zaltzman, "Life is a journey towards ultimate understanding of the nature of existence and reality. And, since we now have illuminating stumps, that journey is now complete."

White shirt among the sea of colors

Bangalore being surrounded by hills, the temparature seems constant throughout the year. People enjoy when they are in Bangalore. The weather is pleasant; helps u concentrate and work for more number of hours. There is another added advantage of living in Bangalore which I only realise when there is too much pressure of work. The city lies towards south Karnataka. Just a 100 kms away is the state of Tamil Nadu. The beautiful & natural state of Kerela is also not far. People here just have to make their mind and they will be in the lap of nature enjoying the peace and beauty. Kerela always fascinated me with their hills, backwaters, coffee estates, palm trees, etc. I have always wondered what do these have to offer. Do they really provide the serenity, the voices unheard or the splashes of the sea which only the person who has experienced it will be able to explain. Last year I got a chance to visit Ooty, Munar, Coorg and other places. But there are things untold but better understood that "behta paani nirmala", you want more when u tasted it good. I too wanted it again but work didn't permit me to get out of the clutches. It isn't that I am unsatissfied with my work or my manager is a red guy with horns. It's just that is in my nature to explore. Allah granted me my wish and here I was ready to attend a marriage in Trivandrum. Yes, I would be visiting Kerela again. This time to attend a south Indian wedding, a wedding of a simple but extraordinary man, my senior in office. A person whom I look upto for inspiration on how to handle work. He teaches me (without himself knowing) how to keep patience. Yes, he has been gifted with one of the most important gifts of life from Allah (swt). And when I got to know that he is getting married there were 3 things which didn't stop me to accept his invitation: 1) first south indian wedding, 2) a wonderful teacher's marriage and 3) Kerela

It was the first week of January but surprisingly I was told to take warm clothes. I did as I was told. Accompanying me were my office collegues, viz. Sirisha, Nishant, Shreyansh and Pooja. Pooja was benovelant enough to provide her big house as our place of stay for those two days. Her parents were caring enough as we had full meals and no trouble at all. The house was huge but the lane leading to the house was narrow. It tested the experience of drivers. And to my surprise they were good enough as they not only negotiated the narrow lane but also the 40° slide road which I thought would be impossible. Nevertheless we had Saturday to ourselves as the wedding ceremony was on Sunday. We had booked a cab and the cabbie looked very experienced. The way he brought the vehicle into the road was remarkable. He was a man of short height, a round face on which he had a typical Mallu style beard, an old golden watch on his hand gave me a sign that time is very important to him. His beard reminded me of my uncle who is very strict and responsible. Seeing him as our driver and guide I totally got into submission mode, agreed to myself that we all would be in safe hands. My assumptions were totally justified after we were back home tired but enjoyable day. We visited two places that day; 1) Poovar and 2) Kovalam beach.
A beach is a beach nothing new about that. Kovalam had a lighthouse which was new to me. There were many foreigners which was also new. The beach indeed was beautiful but before that we went to Poovar. The journey through the magrove forest was made to look very adventourous. The owner of the boat told us that the place would look like how it was shown in the first part of the movie Anaconda. Excitement fell into us. We thought that we are onto some scary stuff, but then we thought we will see whatever comes. The forest looked forest, too many trees, birds chirping around. From time to time we saw some cats passing around. Flying birds would try their luck to catch a fish or two by diving into the water. The forest was on both side of the bank and we had to keep looking left and right to be aware of the situations we do not know. The boat took around 45 mins to take us to a place known as Golden beach, the place where the river met the Arabian sea. It wasn't crowded, the beach had its own charm, fresh water meeting the endless sea. I wasn't able find the line where the sea met the sky. I always wanted to see that. It was mesmerising. Those two hours of time spent gave us some hundreds of photographs. While on the way to Kovalam beach we stopped for our afternoon meal. The restaurant was full of people and to my surprise not a single of them belonged to southern part of India except Pooja. All of them were excitingly joking around in Hindi. The restaurant's owner too looked indifferent. It looked like I was in Delhi. I wanted to be in Kerela and there I was, wanting to leave the place as soon as possible but we had demands of our stomach and had to fullfill that. Nevertheless the tiresome yet exciting day ended with Sherlock being watched over and over again by our group. Pooja skipped it because she got busy preparing dinner for us, Nishant too avoided it because he had some beautiful voices to hear.

We woke up next day for the most important day of Arun. I don't know why I never wanted this day to come. Probably because life is a bag containing a lot of things and you never want to let go good things. And to think that after today there won't be any such things happening again. There will be better things there will be worse but not the same things to give that feeling again.
I heard that the groom would be wearing white shirt so to give him company i too wore a white kurta. I had a misconception that southies are not that fair probably due to the climate. How wrong I was when I saw some real pretty faces at the ceremony. The ceremony was short. Within half an hour the bride and the groom was pronounced husband and wife. Of all the colorful dresses the white shirt of the groom was clearly visible from the distance where I was sitting. It reminded how simple a wedding should be. No dhoom dhaam, no extravagance, no show offs, no wastage of money, just relatives, friends and food. And with the word food it reminds me of the paysam and kheer I had there. The never ending types of kheer they provided me was simply fascinating. Although it was difficult to comprehend a wedding without meat, I had to agree that there are certain things in life which I would enjoy in its original form. And so was the wedding of South India. A banana leaf as a plate, boiled white rice, different types and colors of vegetables the name of which I never heard of, the shape of which I have never seen. But it was truly enjoyable. To me, a food is a food, if it is capable of filling your stomach and agreed and accepted by my belief it is considered to be eaten. The curd rice looked good but it was the sweets which won me over. There was a white couple seated in front of us, probably friends of bride. They had tough time in deciding how to eat each of the food provided by a line of dozens of kitchen men. More than eating they were spending their time in taking photographs of the delecacies. We enjoyed our food, with our stomach full we took time in getting up our seats.
We grabbed an oppurtuniy to get the attention of Arun again. Congratulated him again, this time infront of the camera as a proof ;-) .We bid him goodbye and wished him a happy married life ahead, wished him to be as awesome as ever. Walking outside the gate I looked back again, saw the couple accepting wishes and praises and gifts graciosuly. I strode out of the hall room, saw that Pooja already had her car ready waiting for me near the main gate.