May 14: Day 1 of my fast, day 446 of our chain.

It has been a while since my last fast and feels good to take part again. While Covid concerns here are fading, it is rampant in India. Crises like these always expose the lack of humanity and competence in governments. Having the incompetence in the open is the only upside. Until then, stay safe and strong everyone.

#ChainFastingForPeace #FastingAgainstFascism #FreeSanjivBhatt #ResignAmitShah #ResignModi

May 15: Day 2 of my fast, day 447 of our chain.

I realized that the fasting pretty quickly reduces your resting heart rate by 5-10 bpm, the body adapts fast to focus on the bare necessities and so does the mind. We are often over-feeding ourselves and unlearning what it actually means to have too little of something. We have too much pomp, too many politicians just working for an image rather than substance. The irony is that we often fall for it, especially in periods of turmoil and stress as all we want is some sense of security and pride.

Hitler seduced Germany that way, with Trump and Modi, one could somewhat imagine how things must have played out in the past… let’s make sure history won’t repeat itself

#ChainFastingForPeace #FastingAgainstFascism #FreeSanjivBhatt #ResignAmitShah #ResignModi

May 16: Day 3 of my fast, day 448 of our chain.

Ugur Sahin, the CEO and co-founder of BioNTech, is technically a billionaire but hasn’t yet cashed out on his stocks at all, unlike most. Sahin is the son of Turkish immigrants who moved to Germany in 1960s. However, he lives in a modest apartment near his office, doesn’t own a car and and is known for cycling to the office. Would the world be a better place if more people follow their passion, be it for science or other fields, and not get distracted by appearances? I would think so. This is true wealth and integrity, we need more people like Sahin in companies and governments, all positions of power.

#ChainFastingForPeace #FastingAgainstFascism #FreeSanjivBhatt #ResignAmitShah #ResignModi

May 17: Day 4 of my fast, day 449 of our chain.

Approaching 450 days of continuous around the world fasting. Why fast? What does it change? Maybe more than we all realize, as it is committed solidarity beyond just words, by putting (literally) some skin in the game and going through not always pleasant periods of hunger. The powerful may not listen but some may find solace in this.

#ChainFastingForPeace #FastingAgainstFascism #FreeSanjivBhatt #ResignAmitShah #ResignModi

May 18: Day 5 of my fast, day 450 of our chain.

The last day of my fast, almost done. While the body switched to fat burning (reserves for rainy days), one wonders how people cope who don’t have reserves, who don’t know it is only temporary, who always live in fear of not only being hungry but also afraid for their lives and their dignity. Privilege makes us blind, fasting makes us more empathetic.

#ChainFastingForPeace #FastingAgainstFascism #FreeSanjivBhatt #ResignAmitShah #ResignModi

May 9: Day 1 of my fast, day 441 of our chain.

Yesterday brought news of the COVID-related death of Mahavir Narwal, the single parent of Natasha Narwal, who’s indomitable spirit and commitment to justice inspired and galvanized not only his daughter, but also all of us who came to know more of him after Natasha’s arrest under UAPA for exercising her constitutional right to dissent against the Modi Government’s NRC-CAA legislation.

Natasha was not able to see her father in spite of several pleas to be allowed to on account of his ill-health. I am heart-broken. What democratic government causes such torture to its own citizen just for expressing dissent?

One of our chain faster’s mother is currently in an ICU, struggling against COVID. I remember our little conversations about how she had to face her mother’s opposition every time she went on a fast. But she persevered, wanting to lend her voice to the farmer’s protest. The closer I got to know her, the more deeply could I see what a constant pillar of strength her mother had been as she battled the compounded barriers of a physical handicap, the gender-discrimination endemic to our patriarchal society, and the loss of a child that could have been prevented by better pediatric healthcare. I can’t imagine the sheer grit it would take me to spend even a day in her shoes. And now she has to worry about losing that one pillar of strength? Because Modi couldn’t care enough to do the one job he’s been elected to do – care for the people?!

Stories like this have become so commonplace now that people who care are numb with grief and despair. And yet, there are people, who, when reminded of their civic duty to speak up, still can’t understand what the fuss is all about. People who would much rather fight the messenger than deal with the message. People with power and privilege putting such a high premium on simple actions that would make a life-or-death difference to those in need is the most painful thing to see. Their casual cruelty is breathtaking. I desperately hope there is some light at the end of this long tunnel for us.

#ChainFastingForPeace #FastingAgainstFascism #FreeSanjivBhatt #ResignAmitShah #ResignModi

May 10: Day 2 of my fast, day 442 of our chain.

Late last night, I finally picked up the courage to send a message to another chain fasting friend whose dad has been in an ICU for the past two weeks. When she started fasting for the chain, she’d send me her messages privately, because she, a physicist (like me – yay!), was in the US working diligently as a postdoc, and didn’t want to worry her (presumably proud and doting) dad with any political messages. It broke my heart to know that her father was now lying in the ICU of a government hospital with hardly any improvements but internal bleeding due to his medications.

My friend had to drop everything here in the US and fly back at a short notice because there was no one else to take care of him. And there she is now, unsafe in her own country, surrounded by the worst chaos imaginable, praying for her father’s health, fearing the worst, uncertain of her own health and well-being, vulnerable to religious hostility at any moment.

I know what she works on, and in any other country, a person like her would be regarded as a matter of national pride. Where others would have been angry and frustrated, she simply asks me to remember her in my prayers. When I speak of my shame and despair and helplessness, she assures me we are brothers and sisters of the same motherland. She hopes for God to grant her detractors better sense. She says forgiveness is the best thing God has asked us to give, before leaving to feed her father.

How does one find such grace in such impossibly trying situations? I don’t know, but I count myself incredibly lucky to witness it through my brilliant friend.

#ChainFastingForPeace #FastingAgainstFascism #FreeSanjivBhatt #ResignAmitShah #ResignModi

May 11: Day 3 of my fast, day 443 of our chain.

For the first time in my now 10 rounds of fasting, I’m feeling achy and exhausted. I guess I underestimated the physical toll of engaging with family members who support Modi. And it doesn’t help much that this is one of the busiest times of the year at work. I’ll just repost what occurred to me in the shower today, which I think is fundamental to our struggle against fascism:

Fascism is a fundamentally lazy ideology whose premise is to ensure that the majority in power can feel good without doing good. Like all things to which laziness is central, fascism and its supporters are parasitic beings that end up devastating whatever legacy sustained them in the first place.

#ChainFastingForPeace #FastingAgainstFascism #FreeSanjivBhatt #ResignAmitShah #ResignModi

May 12: Day 4 of my fast, day 444 of our chain.

How can the ambitious, business-oriented, go-getting middle class of India still not find any words to express the slightest criticism of Modi, even though they rarely held back against the likes of Trump, regardless of where they live?

In the first year under Modi, I felt they were misguided to support a mass-murderer who brought along baggage in the form of the notorious Amit Shah as Home Minister. But there was still not much I could argue against their hopes of progress and prosperity.

Then started Modi’s onslaught against the Reserve Bank of India as one of the first non-partisan institutions he started hollowing out, driving out RBI Chief Raghuram Rajan in spite of his stellar performance, and replacing him with fellow-Gujarati and Ambani relative Urjit Patel. Within just two months of Raghuram Rajan’s ouster, Modi announced Demonetization. India’s billowing economy took a hard hit, and within less than half a year of this, unemployment in India was at a 45-year high. Millions who could rise from the clutches of poverty under the INC were pushed right back into it.

Instead of offering relief, the Modi Government seemed intent on sucking the poor dry – imposing a GST that taxed essential items like soap and washing detergents at 18% and 28%, respectively, but gold at the lowest rate of 5%, levying the some of the highest fuel costs in the world when the price of crude was at an all-time low. Soon his most stellar economic and policy advisors like Deepak Parekh, Arvind Panagariya, and Arvind Subramanian.

In the famous Sen-Bhagwati debate, Sen seems to be getting the upper hand after all the Modi supporter’s disparagement of him. Under Modi, India remains as poor as ever, as hungry as ever, only India’s billionaires are getting richer than ever. Hand in hand with the unprecedented levels of Hindu religious violence and polarization. The richest Indians are leaving India in scrores, not to speak of willful defaulters like Nirav Modi and others. Our banking sector is in a shambles, with no trust left after frauds like the PMC bank leaving thousands of ordinary people robbed of their lifelong savings.

Modi has blazed a trail of mismanagement and ineptitude, which can barely be hidden anymore under his hyperbolic platitudes and disastrously expensive image management. After his mismanagement of the Covid pandemic, Modi is going to be a permanent blot on the reputation of all Indians, and especially Gujaratis, for years to come.

For the life of me, I can’t understand what middle-class India still needs to snap out of Modi’s spell and to start vocally distancing themselves from him. You might have supported him for giving you another’s share of cake, but can’t you see there will soon be no cake left to share at all?

#ChainFastingForPeace #FastingAgainstFascism #FreeSanjivBhatt #ResignAmitShah #ResignModi

May 13: Day 5 of my fast, day 445 of our chain.

Fake news travels faster than the truth, with devastating consequences for all of us. To avoid falling prey to all the lies and gaslighting, the first thing we can do is give up our hankering for “feeling good“ at all costs and start embracing inconvenient truths.

Just like we have reached a stage in our evolution where we need to consciously resist our innate temptation for sugary and fatty foods to be able to maintain our physical health, so do we need to check our proclivity to cling to our cherished delusions by ignoring all evidence to the contrary.

Once we get a little practice in (and maybe also learn to temper our snap judgements with empathy and compassion), we might realize that embracing facts isn’t that hard or earth-shattering, really.

https://www.pbs.org/…/false-news-travels-6-times-faster…

#ChainFastingForPeace #FastingAgainstFascism #FreeSanjivBhatt #ResignAmitShah #ResignModi