Zulu Tribe

Who are Zulus?

Zulu tribe is the largest ethnic group consisting 10-11 million people residing in South Africa. Zulus believe that they are originally from Congo area, who had migrated to South of the continent in 16^th century. They speak isiZulu, which is also the official language of South Africa.

The people of this tribe believe in their creator God Nkulunkulu and practice interaction with ancestor’s spirits as their day to day ritual. They believe in sorceries and offended spirits.

Culture and Tradition

Zulus are distinctly known for their culture and tradition. They are famous for their beads work and ethnic craftsmanship. As per the Zulu culture, men are considered to be the head of the family and women have to obey their decisions. Similarly it is also said that the younger people are not supposed to look into the eyes of their elders and speak. This can be considered to be disrespect towards the elders.

For Zulus, women are valuable possessions. This is why a prospective groom has to pay a ‘lobola’ or payment to the bride’s father during marriage. The acceptance of the bride to the groom’s family is marked by slaughter of a cow.

History

Zulus are known for their historical conflict with the Britishers during 19^th century. Although Zulus once formed a powerful state, Zululand under their leader Shaka in 1816, yet years later Britishers had an upper hand and finally Zululand got absorbed into the Cape colony.

Modern Zulus

At present half of the Zulu population live in cities and engage in domestic work and the rest work in farms. Their food is based out of cattle and agriculture. The Zulu traditional beer is not only a staple food but a considerable source of nutrition. Still now, Zulus consider eating in same vessel as a gesture of friendship.

Older Zulu women wear Isicholo, a wide hat made of straw and decorated with beads. They also wear Isidwaba, a pleated skirt made of cowhide and softened by hand. Younger women sometimes decorate their 'Isidwaba' with beads, whereas older women wear it plain. Clothing for Zulu girls is mainly made of beadwork and is usually revealing.

A next door terror

The recent blasts at Mumbai has left me disturbed and dismayed. Apart from the damage and the rising death counts being flashed in the news channels, one question is continuously haunting my mind… What is the outcome of this brutality?

Barkha Dutt, the Group Editor of NDTV has been constantly discussing about what Taj Mahal Hotel means to the citizens who are born and brought up in Mumbai. But if you ask me, who have just settled in the city merely 5 years back, Taj means a symbol of identity to me. In fact, I remember the first time, when I went for a press conference to the hotel; I literally called up my family back at Kolkata boasting of the grandeur and awesome décor, which symbolizes a blend of tradition and modernism.

Even after my first visit, every time I have been to the heritage hotel of Taj, I experienced the same pride to be able to let into such a magnificent and luscious structure as that. But it is very sad that it has become a charred relic now and I honestly doubt whether Ratan Tata (as he promised publicly to restore the beauty of Taj) would be able to restore the archaic beauty of the hotel.

The last television footage revealed that as per the interrogation of one terrorist who have been caught, the entire plan was to blow up Taj Mahal Hotel, Oberoi-Trident and JW Marriot- a plot similar to blowing up JW Marriot at Pakistan. They actually wanted to create a situation similar like demolishing New York’s World Trade Center. Listening to plans like this, it gives me an immense curiosity at times to probe into the psyche of the master minds who intend to destroy all possible man made grandeur in this soil.

Forget about the master minds… I doubt what psychic capsule must be fed to the front operators, who are merely out of their teens and are responsible for such a devastating mayhem! Is it Jihad or family hostages or channelizing the inherent rage into something massively destructive? Whatever may the modus operandi of converting a youth’s brain to some averted direction, one thing is clear as the analysts have already quoted… the youth involved were highly motivated to destroy and undergo self destruction.

The NSG commandoes have recovered dry fruits and energy tablets other than arms and ammunition, which could let go the terrorists for several days with same level of energy. But here I somehow feel that more than the external aids, it is their minds which has been nourished since years to withstand and fight back in a situation like this. It is their amazing focus to destroy, which makes them battle against all odds. I simply wonder if such determination and dedication was put in a right direction, what wonders and benefits would they have brought in for mankind.

Now coming to the impact this attack has left to the minds of common men… Along with the victims, whose loss and suffering cannot be matched in any terms, it seems that entire nation has been shaken. Along with my own family, all my acquaintances had only news channels being played daily in their residences for almost 18-20 hours during these days. This time, even the kids did not threw tantrums to watch their favorite cartoon programs.

Here I would also like to appreciate the journalists, who appeared fresh even after covering the event continuously for over 55 hours. Some of them even risked their lives to bring in the latest footage from the disturbed areas. In some instances some politicians tried to make into the TV screens by visiting the venue and pelting stones at the opposition parties, yet I applaud the sensibility of the news channels who acted as per the situation and did not give them much room.

To conclude, we can only pray that the situation comes back to the control very soon. We can further hope that our Intelligence agency breaks the leftover links of the 26th November’s terror plan so that no further chain of damages is caused to the city.

Queen Bee- A Story

The ghazal was streaming into her ears like a flashlight in a dark night. The chill of the night and the scent of the fresh earth after the first shower made it so enchanting that it became sort of unbearable for her. Far off she could see the waves coming nearer to the shore and vanishing…. She could somehow relate herself to those waves who glistened with its white froth and vigour miles away but ultimately broke down into mere droplets of water against the rock.

Dimple was the darling of the crowd when she was in her college. In her blue capris and multi-coloured halter necks, she looked like a colourful bird that has just learned to fly. Her friends always suggested her that she should go for event management. After all, where on the earth can someone get more energetic person than her?

But her aim was different. Dimple wanted to be rich… in fact very rich. She was from a middle class family and had compromised with various things since her childhood because her family income never crossed 25 thousand a month. When she would see the designer shoes and clothes displayed at the huge malls, she would pray, “God next time when I visit this store, let not be that just for the sake of window shopping…”

Her friends called her a Queen Bee, who seemed to born for all the honey without working for it. She hardly cared for all these comments, because she knew that she at least had an aim, which none of her pals could even dream of. In spite of her high dreams, she was never snobbish or may be she never had a chance to be snobbish.

It is often said that youth is the time, when you are bound to fall in love. In Dimple’s case, her dreams never permitted her to fall in love. In her friends’ group, there was a boy called Swami, who was blindly in love with her. Swami would wait for her every morning in the college gate determined that today he would express his love. But each day came and went like the three years in college and finally it was the day of farewell.

Dimple was not unaware of all these. But somehow Swami did not fit into her dreams. After all his father was just a Manager in some Pharmaceuticals firm and he inherited just one two bedroom flat and a farm house some 156 kilometers away from the city. It was true that Swami was a bright student but yet his future was undecided.

It was during her farewell, Dimple announced to her friends that she was getting married next December to a rich NRI, called Aditya Verma.

Aditya was the Marketing Manager for a leading multinational company. Although he was just eight years older to Dimple yet people said, he had a promising future. His parents were separated just few years after his birth and he lived alone in a huge penthouse next to his father’s in Belgium. His father had his own glass business and was counted among one of the pioneer glass distributors, who made the expansions happen.

Dimple got married and went to her dreamland to live happily ever. Her life became suddenly interesting with new place, new culture and new people around. She now had her entire collections of all designer wear, which she refused to repeat in next party.

Life went on fine with all her servants to serve her and never ending personal bank balance, which her husband had gifted her during their wedding night. However among all the richness, what she lacked was a companion. Ever after she saw a relation based movie or read a nail biting novel, she longed for somebody with whom she could discuss the climax. Aditya was too much busy in his business trips and hardly had time to listen to her. When he would meet her at once fine weekend, he would rather discuss with her the latest deal his company has won and his huge contribution to it. Her society friends were too much engrossed in criticizing the latest designer who had goofed up an entire fashion show with an out of place wardrobe. Instead of the celluloid relationships they preferred to bond to new relations, which promised to elevate their status more.

Once she proposed her husband that she should start working somewhere to get rid of her boredom. At this her husband curtly replied… “Just enjoy your life baby. There are so many things to do. Go for a charity show or something. Besides you have your regular gyms and kitty parties. Why on the earth you need to work? I am anyways busy throughout the days and I don’t want your extra work commitment to come in our way, when we get time to spend with each other.”

Thus one complete year passed and Dimple started to become more and more cocooned in her shell of boredom. She refused to go to the fashion shows and parties now. In fact her husband had to almost drag her to some important family parties. When she was thus dragging her life, one day one of her society friends called Shalini called her to warn her about a forthcoming danger.

That night she waited for her husband till dawn until he turned around. He was surprised to see her sit on the staircase with her eyes red and swollen. Finally after a long and tired series of questions she asked… “Who is Norma?”

Aditya seemed to be completely cool at the question and thus explained her more coldly- “Norma is one of our new business development officers. I must say she is damn a woman and has brought us huge business with her skills!”

Dimple then asked her final question and at this Aditya answer as coldly as before, “Look darling…. I have my own circle, where you don’t stand. But it is a fact that you are my wife and I am not going to make you share this status with anybody. That’s a complete promise… Rest, such passing affairs are bound to happen and you will have to accept it.”

This was all they conversed that day. The next day was normal as if nothing happened and the following day Aditya promised that they will be going for a fortnight trip to India. Dimple was ashamed of her own callousness because she really did not feel anything. She once thought that she would go back to her parents but somehow could not gather the courage to take a step ahead.

A month later Dimple went to India with her husband. Aditya was treated as a demi-god in her house. Her neighbours stood awed at her new diamond ring and red ruby necklace. Surprisingly Aditya also acted like a perfect Son-in-law. Her parents were proud of her and her brother was all set to model her husband. She could not do anything but just to mock at the hypocrisy of the situation. Was she such a good actor, where even her mother could not discover the misery in her eyes? Or was she not in misery at all?

The night before their return to Belgium, Aditya proposed that it was time that they should start a family. At this she could say nothing but stare blankly at him. Her husband took his blank gaze as an approval and decided that they should thus start planning after they go back.

But something disturbed her. When Aditya was lying fast asleep, she went to the verandah with her little MP3 player and played her favourite ghazal by Chitra Singh, something which she had not done for more than a year now. For the first time in last one year, several things started to pop up from deep consciousness of her mind. Who was the recent other woman in Aditya’s life? Was it still Norma or somebody else? Why was she still tolerating him and was the status of being his wife all? Was not he supposed to be faithful to her? In fact, all her life this is what she has imbibed…. Then why was she tolerating this misery and why couldn’t she say everything to her parents and seek their support?

A huge wave lapped the shore breaking her chain of thoughts. Chitra Singh was now singing… “Dosto se wafa ki ummede…. Kis jamane ke aadmi tumho….” Suddenly she remembered Swami. What was he doing nowadays? She remembered his wet eyes at farewell party and how he turned down her marriage invitation. Then she remembered her lively college days and how her friends used to call her Queen Bee. All this was coupled with soothing tune of the ghazal and faint roaring sound of the sea.

Finally when the first ray of Sunlight was feeling the waves with moon still high but fade, Dimple decided that this morning would make things different in her life and she would not leave any of her questions unanswered. With this new resolution she went inside and crawled on the sofa of the bedroom. She could see Aditya deep asleep in the bed. She was convinced that she needed some rest now because next few hours will probably be the toughest ones in her life.