Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh 1956 181pg.

This is a novel that tries to show the social effect of partition of the average Indian. 18/11/24

movie of this book was released in 1998  

India before partition had a population of 400 million with an annual increase of 4 million.

Mano Majra, the fictional Indian village on the border of Pakistan, here people from all religions and sects once lived in harmony, but outside there are Moslem and Sikhs killing each other.

“Freedom is for the educated people who fought for it. We were slaves of the English, now we will be slaves of the educated Indians—or the Pakistanis” 

The District magistrate is a man in moral conflict who has probably used his power over the years with much corruption. He is washing himself like Pontius Pilate and drinking alcohol to flee guilt.  

 Iqbal is a Sikh a political agitator for workers rights but when it comes to action he does nothing. Jugga is described as a budmash, a bad man, by others but ultimately becomes a hero. 

1947 The cataclysmic events of the partition of India and creation of  Pakistan. This is a  social document on the upheaval, by a Punjabi whose family was uprooted.  Summer of 1947 was a long hot one. Riots broke out in  Calcutta and spread to Noakhali in East Bengal, Bihar and the Punjab. By the time the monsoons came a million people were dead. Rivers change their courses and moods without warning. The bridge has 18 enormous spans and a single track , express trains don't stop only the slow passenger  trains one in the morning from Lahore to Delhi and one in the evening to Lahore. The trains coming through set the times like prayers in the morning or  that of the evening meal.

Decoits killed the village money lender. Father and grandfather were decoits but they never robbed in their own village. With the monsoon Sutlej River is a grand and terrifying sight. No body in the villages knew of the British and the partition of Hindustan -Pakistan or about Gandhi or Jinna.

The police had heard of several young well to do men in peasant garb doing uplift work , some communist agents, all capable of making a lot of trouble. He claimed to be a social worker. He was asked why the English left. Everyone is welcome to his religion.

In Punjab the young men were all alike they wanted wives who were virgins' and women good at household chores. The match had to correspond to the horoscope. The press had an article on Indian ballet , movies and movie stars and  Tagore, Bengali poet, writer1861 to 1941. Rabindranath

In India the subject of sex always came up and you saw it on the billboards advertising aphrodisiacs' and cures for the bad effect of masturbation's, remedies and quacks against bareness, no people used some must incestuous  insults as here.

September things started going wrong trains were no longer punctual and ran through the night., the changed driver before going into Pakistan. A ghost train arrived from Pakistan nobody on the roof and a stench of death. People were kept away. The villages were paid for firewood and paraffin and the army burned the bodies.

Monsoon is another word for rain the Arabic means season. The winter is simple cold rain but the summer is proceeded by drought, hot and thirsty, rivers and everything dries up till the monsoon that lasts for 2 or more months is welcomes.

Hijras (Hermaphrodites')   are not Moslem or Hindu. They  were dancers singer and entertainers. Sikhs who objected to them heard their joke "Are you worried that you will stop having children because of our presence"

The Moslems were rounded up and put in a camp for their own protection but they asked "What have we got to do with Pakistan?" We have lived all our life in this village. Where on earth would a man's life depend on whether on not his foreskin was removed ?

India is constipated with a lot of Humbug. Take religion. For the  Hindu it means little besides cast and cow protection. For the Muslim circumcision's and kosher meat. Parsi  fire worship and feeding vultures. The ethics that should be the kernel of a religious code has been carefully removed.

When people go about with guns and spears you can only talk back with guns and spears.

Nooran was  pregnant with Jugga's daughter and his mother said what does a Moslem weavers daughter want with my  Sikh's peasant. son.   Malli's gang were let loose and took all goods left by the Moslems.

Now the topic of conversation was that the Sutlej river kept on going up and there were villages that had been flooded. Dead bodies were floating down that were not drowned but murdered.

With light they saw a ghost train that had arrived from Pakistan but there was no wood to burn and it was too wet. A bulldozer appeared and dug a trench that was filled with bodies. 

Do you know how many trainloads of Sikhs and Hindus have come over ?How many massacres' have taken place in Rawalpindi , Gujranwala and Sheikhupura. This young army officer organized that they kill the Moslems on the train to Pakistan and they must show that they are men

A rope had been put across the rail line on the bridge it would have been like a knife cutting people on to of the train.  The young tall man(Jugga ?) started cutting it and some one shot at him to stop him, just as the train arrived he cut though the last strand and fell down with the rope under the train.

Who by Fire by Matti Friedman 196 pg 2022

  How Leonard Cohens music developed as a result of his experience in the 1973 Yom Kippur War in Israel.   27/10/24

Leonard Cohen had played at the Wight Festival which  had an audience greater than that of Woodstock.  He was 39 and the press had reported news of his retirement as he saw himself as a has-been. He also saw himself as a great pacifist but his songs So Long Marianne and Suzanne were well known.

It is not necessary to know about Spain's civil war to know about Picasso's Guernica.  People don't realize that Beethoven 5th Symphony was composed amid the Napoleonic Wars. Leonard Cohen concert tour of Israel during the 1973 war, left hardly any recordings, but has lived on in history by word of mouth.  That terrible month of October 1973 has become linked with Leonard Cohen. The war is sometimes referred to as the War Of Atonement.

Israel Airforce that was supposed to win the war, was instead crippled by new Soviet missiles. There were 2,600 fatalities and Israel became a different country afterwards. The country became less confident , less united and more introspective after the war.  One of the oddest aspect about this tour was that Leonard never mentioned it afterwards. What made this tour exceptional was the audiences. He played for them knowing his music might be the last thing they heard. Most of the soldiers did not speak English but poetry can communicate before it is understood.

Many Israelis at the time, if asked where are your parents from replied the "holocaust."

The work of the poetess Rachel of the old pioneers of the 1920 and died of tuberculosis. Her poetry was much loved even though it was sad and cynical.

Yom Kippur fell on October 5th in 1973 on that day a prayer  is said "who by water and who by fire" The symbolism is violent and memorable and we remember the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. Nobody  heard the Naila service of the story of Jonah that concluded the service as if it lasted for another 3 weeks.

At Sharm el Sheik there were reports that the radar station and its soldiers had been captured by Egyptian commandoes. The Egyptians had rocketed the base but no enemy soldiers had arrived only Israeli soldiers sent to recapture it had fought with Israeli's there till they realized. Nobody talked about this for the next 30 years.

  Aged 13 Leonard a Cohen had his barmitvah under the Hebrew name of the priest Eliezer. (in Hebrew = God Helps)

 Leonard Cohen had been living on the island of Hydra. He had learned Greek and had written a novel there. He had escaped Montreal the London. He had be busy escaping and was attracted to the cheap living and warm weather and had a girlfriend Suzanne and his first kid a son Adam. Another  Suzanne was a dancer in Montreal. He had spent years in a Buddist Monestary at Mt Baldy in California.  "He though that the only culture worth anything came from loyalty to a language , group , place. Only Nationalism produces art" 

 When the war broke out it was not easy to reach Israel as many Israelis were trying to get home to their reserve units. There were priority list to serve in tanks and hospitals.  Leonard had thought he would volunteer to work on a kibbutz where help was needed. Many volunteers had done so in 1967 when soldiers were called to the front.

He considered Israel his myth home and arrived in Tel Aviv a small Mediterranean City founded in 1909. Almost everybody over 30 had escaped Europe or the Arab world. Writers and artist hung out at the Cafes Casit , California or Pinati. 

1972  he had played in Israel after a troubled touring year and it hadn't gone well for him.

Now in Tel Aviv he met Matti Kaspi considered one of Israel's best musicians at the time who wanted him to come and sing to the troops but Leonard felt his songs were too melancholy and would get soldiers depressed.

The music in Israel at the time was accordion heave and the 1973 war killed that genre. In 1948 Shoshana Damari's "Last Battle" was a hit it was about the Faluja Pocket and was the last battle for 7 soldiers who were killed.

The airforce was hemorrhaging planes and pilots at a shocking rate and this was hidden from the public.  None of the artists knew how bad things were and what they were getting themselves into.

Israeli songs had come from the same source as her weapons. So when weapons came from the Czechs the inspiration of communist and Russian tunes came. Later all the artist that mattered were visiting Paris and Piaf and Moustaki songs came while Israel got French Mirages. The French chose the Arabs over the Jews and weapons started coming from America with Rock and Roll.Chocolate Menta , Mastic was a 3 women group in very prominent at this time.

"I asked my father to change my name"  Leonard just wrote this song and was trying it out on an audience, many of whom had changed Jewish names associated with the Diaspora and helplessness to new Hebrew ones.  Matti Caspi's father from Serbia's name was Agrentero (silver) "Lover lover lover come back to me"  is more like a prayer or in Song of Songs. "And Shield against the enemy" is also like a prayer invoking a shield is what a Cohen does.

Leonard's mother was a native Russian speaker, and must have sung to him some Russian songs.

A year of 2 later when this song was released the words were changed and the part identifying with Israel was gone. On stage he would tell the audience that the song was for both sides.

 In the Vietnam war the songs the  American troops loved were about loneliness and yearning.  Johnny Cash and his wife were in Vietnam in 1969 even though the war was so unpopular.

Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach was attracting  Jews to Judaism in the 70s from hippy, drug  taking types. Was Leonard coming back to his tribe?

Troops were being taken to the Sinai on DC 3 Dakotas and the entertainers went with them. Where even though the public had not been informed of the army's failure it was clear from here. None of Leonard's notes indicate if he knew where he was, just "the dessert".  Raising  morale to soldiers that had seen true and awful things about the world.

The song Susanne was played the most as  everyone  knew it, as it was circulating in Hebrew by Gidi Koren, but later on the Hebrew version was forgotten. That Leonard slept on the floor and ate  combat rations with everyone else meant a lot to the troops.

Some soldiers after the war felt a sort of emptiness went back to old time religion including Uri Zohar a very famous actor, singer , comedian. Yom Kippur day is the only day of the year that Israel roads are empty and it allowed the army to deploy quickly.

Leonard said I sing serious songs on stage because I couldn't do it any other way. Now a serious person who has seen war.  

In 1948 at Israel's birth when soldiers fought they thought there would  be one war only  and that's it. Soldiers in war don't want to hear songs about war or battle anthem. Leonard's songs were precisely what was called for under the circumstances, and it came across in a language they didn't understand. Soldiers aren't mental patients but sometimes are not far from that. Sleep is the only way to block out what is going on.

Danny Kaye and the French Jewish singer Enrico Marcias were far more famous than Leonard.

Father and son's were both fighting. Some who fought in 1948 were still fighting. They crossed the Suez into Africa and were near a base called Fa'id.  Yaffa Yarkoni famous for ballads from 1948 was there on the front line.

An Egyptian plane was shot down and the pilot was handed over to the interrogators and the parachute was taken to be used as a tent. The band was now flown across to Africa in a helicopter. Nobody remember that he arrived but he was just there. The guitar case had chalked on it Matti as it was Matti Caspi's. Leonard arrived in Israel without a guitar.

Israel was feeling isolated as Europe would not allow over flights of weapons. Leonard arrived in Sharm el Sheik on 20 Oct mentioned in a postcard sent by Ruti.

 Lu Yehi (would that it were)by Noami Shemer an anthem and loved song of the war , almost a prayer. This song gave people the right to cry. It was based on Let it be a song by Paul McCartney.

Leonard Cohens songs were an acquired taste in America almost to the end of his life however in France they were popular.

Once the fighting ended and the politicians took over Leonard said "I'm out" and he rarely mentioned the war afterwards. Attitudes to Israel were changing. Winning which Israel had done at great cost makes people less sympathetic. A year later Leonard  had a 2nd son with Suzanne name Lorca.

Nathan Cohen fought in the Great War and was one of the first Jews to become an officer he died when his son Leonard was 9

After  1973 Israel's music seen went in Leonard's direction away from the collective to the individual soul.  Leonard wrote other albums inspired by his experience in 1974  New Skin for old Ceremomy. Later Halaluyah became one of the most widely song songs. The Yom Kippur War is a turning point and a major event in the life of Leonard Cohen.

2009 Leonard found that his manager had stolen his saving and did a tour where he found he had reached fame and filled stadiums around the world. By then Israel had abandoned the kibbutz and collective ideal and were more like Cohen. They had always considered him a kind of Israeli. Tickets for his show in Tel Aviv were sold out on line in minutes and the stadium of 50, 000 was filled. To be politically correct he announced a concert in Ramallah but this fell away when there were calls to boycott it.

This concert went down as one of the best ever held. Many of the audience remembered him from the war. In the encore he raised his hands parted his finger and said the 15 words in  Hebrew of Birkat ha Cohanim. (A prayer that only Cohens "priests" say)

Today sometimes the prayer "Who by Water" is sang in synagogues to Leonard's Tune.

1934 to 2016. Died aged 82 and was buried with his family in Montreal. In retrospect he was considered a writer of Religious songs.

The Siege: by Ben Macintyre 2024 379pg

A six- Day hostage Crisis and the Daring Special Forces operation that shocked the world.  30/10/24

The Iranian Embassy is a building on Princess Gate, Kensington. London overlooking Hyde Park build in 1849. former residents include Joseph Chamberlain and Field Marshal Douglas Haig.

1979 with the Islamic Revolution and the Pahlavi Dynasty was replaced by Khomeini. So Ambassador Radji followed the king into exile and Dr Gholam Ali Afrouz took over. He made the Embassy Islamic austere, no parties, no alcohol, the Rolls was replaced by a ordinary vehicle etc. 

1980 May  PC Lock  a armed policeman stood outside the Iranian embassy but had just moved in to drink his coffee. Thinking it was an middle eastern student till he saw the rifle. He pressed his emergency button and Scotland Yard was alerted.  31 people were in the embassy. Afrouz jumped out the window was badly hurt and the gunmen pulled him back in.

 Rebecca West the famous author aged 88 lived opposite and was watching and started making notes on what was happening. Later was evacuated till the siege was over. In the end she wrote an article on her birds eye view of what she saw and this was the last article she published before she died in 1983.

The Khomeini's regime had taken 91 Arabs in Iranian Arabstan prisoners  and this  Martyr Muhylddin Al Nassar group had taken the Embassy to get them released. The British  police didn't understand the issue. To them there was the pro Shah or pro Khomeini protesters.

1925 Resa Shah Palavi took power with British backing tried replacing  Persian in the minority areas of Arabic, Turkic and other languages. This province was Arabstan or Ahwas but was renamed Khuzestan the Persian term. Independent it could have been a gulf state like Kuwait or Qatar and it posseted most of Iran's oil. Arabs thought that the end of the Shah and the Khomeini's promise would get Arabstan it rights.  Many from Arabstan fled to Iraq where they were trained to undermine the Khomeini regime. The Islamic State ignored the 4,500,000 Arabs.

1975  Ramirez Sanchez or Carlos the Jackal led a group of pro- Palestinians militants in an assault on the OPED meeting in Vienna. With a large ransom for the Palestinian cause were flown out to Libya. Carlos organized this London attack but did not take part in it.

General Abdul Razzaq al-Naif who was the former Iraqi PM  and was deposed by Saddam Hussein. He was assassinated  in London as he left the Intercontinental Hotel in 1978.

1979 In Teheran the US embassy was taken hostage and this gave President Carter a problem. The American attempt with Delta Force to liberate these hostages had failed as 3 of the 8 helicopter were crippled before reaching the rendezvous.

In 1972 the Black September had seized the Israeli athletes in Munich and a disaster followed resulting in all the hostages and most of the terrorists killed. This resulted in the  British SAS training on how to deal with this type of thing.

With the siege the police now put a negotiator to help try gather information of the personalities motivation and intention as well as weapons' hopes and fear of the hostage takers. 3 Iranian captives were press officers and 2 British journalist as well. The terrorist wanted recognition of free Arabstan. Though they claimed to be suicidal fanatics they had invested in expensive watches and bracelets and that contradicted this.

Douglas Hurd was foreign minister. Thatcher had left little to  negotiate with. Professor John Gunn of forensic psychiatry was an expert on criminal behavior.

The Ayatollah government in Iran had declared that the Iranian diplomats were prepared to become martyrs for the Islamic State cause.

Being held hostage can cause or exacerbate and number of health issues.

The police set up in the School of Needlework a museum where to protect the object smoking is forbidden . It is  difficult to control a siege with fidgety, nicotine deprived people nipping out for a smoke, so they moved to the Montessori Centre. They now had to obtain recent photos and build up a file of the terrorists as well as the hostages.  By chance this embassy was the most defensible building in London as it had been given bullet proof glass and had been reinforced..

M16 and the Foreign Office had concluded correctly that Saddam Hussein was behind this attack and openly supported the Arab Liberation Movement in Iran. The weapons smuggled in to kill General Abdu Razzag wl Naif in 1978 had come in under diplomatic cover. Hussein thugs with Palestinian Allies. The terrorists demand was that 91 Arab political  prisoners in Iran's jails be released.

One death of a hostage leave room for a relatively peaceful solution 2 shows a dangerous trend.

Margret Thatcher stated that if things go horribly wrong then she  would take the blame and not the soldiers.

300 Khomeini supporter protested in London, shouting " Death to President Carter"

The Iranian government declared that their London  embassy staff were prepared to die as martyr and go directly to heaven for Iran and would not negotiate with the terrorists.  Martyrdom is central to Shia Islam. Kurt Waldheim was secretary general of UN and called for restraint.  

The SAS had been based in Ireland and had fought the IRA there and Lord Louis Mountbatten the Queens cousin was assassinated  there in 1979 in the period of troubles 1968 to 1998.

 Stockholm Syndrome where the hostages empathize with their captors and goals. Lima Syndrome where the abductors form warm feeling for those they have captured and begun to question their own aims. The gunmen wanted to write slogans on the walls of the rooms and it led to an argument with the Embassy staff. This siege was a proxy war between Iraq and Iran and no Arab countries wanted to get embroiled in it.

Under the Khomeini Regime the embassy women had to wear scarves by now they had removed them.

The police thought that if women police were used they could get a better deal if they had to drive  the terrorist ta an airport, women have a softer and gentler approach.  Women had not been used since WW2 under Churchills Special Operations that deployed women in Nazi occupied Europe.

1970  El Al flight Leila Khaled tried to highjack was arrested on landing in London and put in jail but released in a hostage  exchange.

Planes flying to Heathrow were rerouted over this Kensington embassy so that the could drill listening devises into the walls during the noise. Before they attacked the SAS had plans of the embassy building and almost knew  where each hostage  and the terrorists were. BBC kept reporting that a diplomatic solution was still being sought. Some of the terrorists' were keen to give up as they had made their point and if nobody was killed were told they would hardly spend time in jail. 

1980 Josip Broz Tito   the President of Yugoslavia died while this was on.

This saw the largest gathering of news reporters since the Queens coronation in 1953

Three TV stations viewed what looked like a catastrophe unfolding. The building was rocked by an explosion. The first breaking news event broadcast alive on every British TV channel.  After the hostages arrived at the back it was unclear how many survived some were injured. 2 hostages had died. One killed by the terrorists. The SAS operation had been a complete and dramatic success and Margaret Thatcher breathed a sign of relief. William Whitelaw realized that Margaret had taken on an immense burden and responsibility. Operation Nimrod had lasted just 11 minutes. Named after the biblical warlike hunter.

The embassy siege changed the way the world saw the SAS , Margaret Thatcher and terrorism. She was iron willed , uncompromising and decisive and had sent a signal every where that they could not expect deals. This was a crime committed on British soil.  The SAS moved away behind the building and were taken away in a closed vehicle and not interviewed by the press. The 19mm parabellum bullet comes from the Latin saying Si vis pacem para bellum." If you seek peace prepare for war". Some of the soldiers, paratroopers had seen service in Cyprus , Borneo, Libya, Malta and Middle East.

1982 The Argentine junta invaded the Falklands.  The SAS was now part of  Mrs. Thatcher's Army  and sent to fight against Argentina.

The Iranian Government thanked Britain for liberating its diplomats but refused to release the American hostages, in Teheran. The attack on the embassy was an attempt by Sandam Hussein to destabilize Iran and the Iran, Iraq war erupted in Sept 1980.

1982 one of Abu Nidal group attempted to assassinator Israeli Ambassador Shlomo  Argov and this led to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon to root out PLO terrorists.