Ubaidullah Pandit (عبيدالله پنڈت)

Before defining what rumour is, isn’t it more important to know what it does? Once let loose, it proliferates more quickly than a virus. It causes more harm than a trillion or more bacteria harbouring your body. Its history of destruction is no less lethal than the great epidemics. In 2005, 950 people died because of a rumour. I would be grateful if you take it on yourself to research and know more about its sources and details. It will be part of learning, an antibody to every rumour invasion in you.  We can approach rumour from different angles so as to see every side of its ugliness: epistemological side, social and societal side, and ethical side. Let me begin with knowledge. The classical definition of knowledge is that it’s a justified true belief (JTB). Now going by the definition of rumour as “unverified information statements in circulation that arise in contexts of ambiguity, danger, or potential threat and that function to help people make sense and manage risk. (D...

When Jacob was on his deathbed he had recourse to many a metaphor which he used to bless and curse his immediate progeny. The whole of Chapter 49 is devoted to that. On this Christmas Eve I finished reading the Book of Genesis. It ends with the death of Joseph at 110. His father Jacob had died at 147. Like his father, he directs his sons that his human remains be taken to Machpelah. As I segue into slavery of Exodus, it’s immediately made known that as long as Joseph and a few generations after him lived, the descendants of Jacob lived peacefully in the land of Egypt. The trouble began with the change in political setup of the region. It happens. It did then. It does now. Many a thing changed with the BJP’s coming to power in 2014. The airs in the country changed their directions. Ever since they've been blowing as if a huge monster is fluttering its right wing, which is the only one left of him.

Today is the last day of the year 2019. It's coming to a close. My entries will change a little from tomorrow. 2019 will become 2020 and will remain so for the coming 365 days. But, no, it’s going to be a leap year with 366 days. My daily Bible reading has taken me out of Egypt. It did today. Passover just passed over, but I need to understand the yeastless bread symbolism. Israelites are told to observe this as a ritual from 14th to 21st of Avi, a 7-day observance period in the first month of the Israelite year. I'm yet to make any resolution for 2020. What should be my New Year’s resolution? Perhaps I first need to get myself an attractively bound diary. The present one doesn’t do. I've heard that a beautiful diary and a high-quality fountain pen help and inspire you to write more and write more beautifully. I may not afford the fountain pen yet, but I think I should get a diary. As to the year 2019, it leaves me with a package of memories. In the year I became a law grad...

Some things seem static, Only a morsel of a modicum matures. But the love between you and me grows As the green trees with foliage like tresses. Your name reveals waters from the sky, Mine will ever serve nourishing sprinkles To the tree of our love ever growing Up to the heavens above and life below. My Srinagar is halved here like the burnt Dilli there. In these days of sickness, may the garden of our love Spread the seeds of life like the clocks of dandelion. To Tanzeel Khan New Delhi