In A Reverie

Oh world! oh life! oh times! On whose steps I climb

2012-01-25T10:44:00.000-08:00

Bachcha the cousin closeset to me died yesterday. He passed away in his

sleep in the night. Probably the best type of death you canhave. Not like some

who shit and pee in bed for months together before theydecide to leave this world.

This closes a chapterin my life. Barring another cousin I am now the seniormost

male member in my family. During the last one month itselfmy uncle and my cousin passed away. Wasit only a coincidence that both of them a few days before they died spoke to meon phone, and not for any special puropose, but just like that? Did they knowthat they were leaving this world soon? Was it some kind of premonition orsixth sense or was it just coincidental? A few months back I met an old classmate of mine Laxmi Narain Pastore in Jhansiafter more than 40 years. I remembered that he was living in Jhansi after retirement. With some effort Icould find his place, stayed with him for an hour or so. Only a couple of weekslater his daughter rang me and informed that he passed away after being indiabetic coma for a few days. I don’t know whether that should also be calledcoincidental! I cannot but remember Kabir:

माली आवत देख कर कलियाँ करेंपुकार

फूल फूल को चुन लियाकाल हमारी बारि

‘Seeing the gardener the buds cry that today he will takeaway the ones that have bloomed, and tomorrow it will be their turn.’

Or Firaq when he said:

सब मरहले हयात के तय कर के मैं फ़िराक

बैठा हुआ हूँ मौत में ताखीर देख कर मैं

‘I have covered all milestones in the world, and now I amsitting with my feet dangling in the grave as the death is delayed.’

Not that I am afraid, but yes , I certainly want that Ishould have as peaceful a death as Bachcha.

Several memories haunt me. The one I remember most vividlyis the long walk we used to have in the morning when he used to visit Ghazipr,my native place. It was from our place to Bheeta (our old farmhouse developedlovingly by my great-grandfather, and which was later sold by one of my uncles)and then on to Badrinath ka Pokhra. This last lap we used to cover running. I think this walk was about 4 km, half of iton dirt road. That reminds me of those who used to return from Dadri kaMela, in the nearby district of Ballia. If you saw a person totally coveredin dust from head to foot with clothes having the same hue and state you immediately recognized thathe was Dadri returned. Mela is interesting relic of olden days which hascontinued to this day at several places.The most famous in North India is Sonepur ka Mela . To accommodate the rush of passengerscoming by train for the Mela, the British made the longest railway platform inthe country at Sonepur railway station. It was meter guage at that time and Ihope it is broad guage now. It was a congregation of men and animals, withseveral shops which traveling salesmen used to take from place to place. Sonepuris easily the biggest cattle fair in the country where you can buy anythingfrom elephants and horses to bullocks, cows and water buffaloes. Almost all theMelas were at the harvest time, and they were basically cattle fair. The famousGwalior melastarted as a cattle fair only. It is held in December-January every year.

2012-01-21T05:38:00.000-08:00

After my retirement from agovernment job, I moved into this house in the outer extremity of the municipalcorporation of Gwaliorin 2007 summer, and in spite of curses from the better halfeveryday for choosing this place and area as my

final abode, I have neverregretted a day living here. Only this afternoon there was the rustle of leaves disturbed by the winter wind,and the constant chirping of the birds roosting in the bamboo thicket. There was pin-drop silence and the sun was in full glory giving much-needed warmth all around, and I thought I would mention it here. I have a borewell, and though the water is barelysufficient for my multifarious needs, I surrounded myself in greenery in no time. Greenerymeans insects and insects attract birds. Young trees and a full grown Tecomatree which for some unexplained reason

died, and turned into a snag, thebamboo thicket and the acacia nilotica tree in the next plot just across my boundary wall have turnedinto a readymade roost for the sparrows and bulbuls. Here is thechecklist of all the birds I have seenhere

during these years:

House crows (very rarely)
Grey hornbill
Blue green pigeon
Green pigeon
Common dove
ring dove
Spotted dove
Common mynah
Brahminy mynah
Pied mynah
Red-vented bulbul
White-cheeked bulbul (only once recently)
Coucal
Babbler
Tree pie
Drongo
Grey hornbill
Blue Rock Pigeon
Green Pigeon
Blue-tailed bee eater
Blue-cheeked bee-eater
White breasted Kingfisher
Red wattled Lapwing
Black-winged stilt
Small egret
Lesser whistling teal (one pair during the rains
when there is apond near my plot)
.Shikra
Indian robin
Magpie robin
Babbler
Koel

From here and There

2011-09-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

The Petroleum Prices

The rising petroleum prices in India is an amusing story. Earlier the prices were fixed by the government, But the exercise was not very frequent. To the best of my recollection it was 2-3 times a year. Now they have left diesel prices as being sacrosanct, with the burden falling fully on petrol and to some extent on cooking gas. Thus the burden falls directly on the consumer mainly in the urban areas. Every rise shakes up the family budget, leaving the consumer gasping for breath. Have we become a nation ruled by armchair thinkers, economists, and lawyers who not to say of having lost touch with the pulse of the nation were never aware of the ground realities, to start with? Are we going the South American way of galloping inflation? The stability of the family budget is lost for ever. It is pointless saying that the companies decide the prices baed on their own cost structure. Almost all are PSUs who cannot raise prices without the express wish of the government. God help the common man.

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Font Size Does Matter

I am on the wrong side of sixties now. My eyesight is OK, but I use reading glasses. Also in the night I feel comfortable reading in bright light, with the table lamp nearby. I have been told by one of my friends that it is the sign of onset of cataract. So far as reading material is concerned, some things really put me off. First is the printed material on the strip of medicines. The time has come when one has to see the strip carefully, check the drugs and the quantities in the combination drugs. Sometimes the brand prescribed by the physician is not readily available with the chemist you have gone to, and one has to ensure that the brand one is taking home has the same combination and in the same proportion and the drug has been manufactured by a dependable company. And here sometimes it is impossible to decipher the description printed on the medicine strip unless one uses a magnifying glass, and one does not carry such item in his pocket. Why should the drug manufacturing firms assume that nobody would read the description is beyond me.

Black on white is the easiest to read. But then a lot of magazines have now started using font the colour of which is different shades of grey. There could be two reasons for using this colour: to save on ink (doubtful), and second, if you are using a thin paper, black ink would be a no-no. Nobody sympathises with poor old owl like me who has problems. And worst, some newspapers and magazines are fond of using grey ink for highlighting the text or a box item, again making it difficult to read. I don’t know the health of the publishing house called Jaico now, but several of their publications were using small fonts crammed into the page so densely, that one was very easily put off. Oh! How much have I cursed the publishers during my young days when I saw a good book, but unreadable and undecipherable. Some mobile handset units have realized this and have come out with large letters for easy typing of qwerty. Hopefully it is realized by other consumer goods manufacturers as well. Seems some European manufactures of consumer goods have started using larger fonts for a number of their products.

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Wife in a Hospital

A few years back my wife had undergone a major surgery in one of her ears in a major medical institute run by the government. HOD had kindly agreed to do the surgery, and directed that she should be sent first thing in the morning. About 15-20 minutes before the appointed time, in walks an anesthesiologist with that long equipment called sphygmomanometer. He checks up her blood pressure and declares that it is high, she is not fit to be taken to the OT, as it was a case of elective surgery. To make matters secure, he shouted across the corridor to the duty nurse who had to take her to the OT. When I checked up with the anesthesiologist he reluctantly informed that her B.P. was only marginally high. The doctor in my opinion was making avoidable fuss. At that time my wife did not suffer from hypertension, and I thought that slightly higher blood pressure was natural for a patient who had to undergo a major surgery for first time in her life. However, the duty nurse had to comply with the instruction given. The surgeon and his assistants were inside the OT. Ultimately I spoke to another senior doctor of the Institute who probably spoke to some surgeon in the OT, and she was taken in. It is another matter that after some time a surgeon came out of the OT and gave a shout to the nurse for not sending my wife at the appointed time.

Why did the anaesthesiologist do as he did? Whether I liked it or not, I was in the VIP category. Did this fact instigate the doctor to behave so funnily? Anaesthesia is easily the most forgettable and unknown doctor in the chain of specialists who did their part in a surgery.

Another incident in the same hospital for the same procedure. In the night my wife started bleeding from the operated ear. She wanted the doctor to see her, and accordingly I went to the nurses’ station to relay the request. The duty doctor was not available , and it was within the knowledge of the nurse. First she hemmed and hawed, and later I realized that she had started behaving in the deliberately provocative manner (so that I lose temper, and then it would have been termed as another VIP tantrum?) Or was she taking it out against me for the incident in the morning when the surgeon gave a piece of his mind to the nurse on duty? Exasperated, I told the nurse that on this issue, I will not pick a fight with her, and came back. The bleeding luckily had stopped, and I decided to inform the doctor in the morning and watch the patient which in retrospect I admit was probably not the best thing to do.

So again the same mindless cussedness. I have mentioned these incidents as in a government medical institute , whatever the level and ranking of the hospital, the staff and the faculty do behave sometimes in a way which at best can be called unacceptable.

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Suburban Living

A couple of years before my retirement, I purchased a piece of land in Gwalior. I had another land in Bhopal, and was at that time not very sure where I would settle. As the luck would have it, I got some very dependable persons who could be entrusted with the job of construction of the house at Gwalior while I was away at Mumbai on a posting. This plot is a little away form the downtown area. It is a relatively large plot and I thought that I would have a blissful life here. After spending more that 4 years here I realized that things haven’t panned out as I thought they would. I can mention several reasons. First that distance from the downtown meant extra expenditure every time I had something to do in the town. The mindless and frequent increase in petrol prices in the recent years aggravated the problem. Secondly, distance from the main town meant that my friends and acquaintances found it onerous to come to my place, and my interaction with them was reduced. Thirdly no malls, multiplexes and cinema halls this side. Even for a decent shop, one had to go some distance. Fourthly, no municipal water supply and power at best erratic. The four lane highway that has been proposed has yet to travel the distance from the drawing board to the ground. Net result is that the basic convenience which one hoped for is not there. And lastly, domestic help is not available. The place is inhabited by Gujars and SC. The Gujars are well to do, and there is no question finding a domestic help there. And SC even if you do not mind, others would. So that is also not there. So those of you who are also thinking on the lines as I did, weigh the pros and cons carefully before taking the final plunge.

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The holiest of the holy

2011-08-08T04:48:00.000-07:00

The most revered places

I have been to

The other day I started wondering which are the religious places which drew maximum reverence and awe from me. Over the last four decades I have seen most of the country and half the world, and it is indeed difficult to draw a list of such places unless the list is faily large. I did a lot of sifting, and even now as I write this piece, I am choosing and discarding places I have been to. The criterion is fixed. It is neither architectural excellence, nor age of the shrine, neither grandeur nor the most difficult to reach. These are the places where I was instantly drawn to the ambience of devotion, love and respect.

The first place which comes to my mind is Kaladi, the birthplace of Adi Shankar.The Periyar (Poorna) river touching the feet of the holy place, it has a tranquility which is hard to describe, and can only be experienced. It is said that Shankar’s mother Aryamba one fainted while going in the sun to the Periyar to take bath. Shankar prayed to Lord Krishna that the river should flow near his house, and his prayer was granted. The river has Crocodile ghat adjacent to the Shrine. It is said that a crocodile once caught hold of Shankar, and only on Shankar extracting permission from his mother that he will become a sanyasi, did the crocodile release him. There are several other places in Kaladi like viz Sriramkrishna Ashram, the eight storey structure depicting the life story of Shankaracharya, but nothing to beat the calm serenity of the birthplace.

The next is the Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain. Though I had seen the

temple a number of times before, but a few years ago I landed there at

the time of Shringar. Being a high caste Brahman is looked down upon these

days, but it has its benefits sometimes. They allowed me to see the ritual

in the sanctum sactorum in an unsewn cloth covering the lower portion of

the body as is the custom in all South Indian temples. I still can’t explain

why I could not stop tears flooding out of my eyes. Such was the awe and

aura of the place and the deity. The ritual lasted almost half

an hour and I was floating in another world during that time.

The makeshift temple at Ayodhya. I am not a

staunch do-or-die Hindu, but the story of Ram heard so many

times in different forms since childhood and the Ayodhya story left an

impress on my mind so as to make this darshan a unique experience. Taking me

through the history of the place from the days of

Babar and Tulsidas right upto the present. Apart from

the shrine, the place which really moved me was the point

on the river Saryu where Ram is said to have taken

Jal Samadhi. I had gone there at the fag end of the rainy season,

and the river was in full glory.

The next that I remember are the shrines at Jagannathpuri and

Dwarka. Both have got history behind them, and both are

architecturally significant, but there is something in these places

which in the mortals we call charisma. There is an

aura in the Dwarkadhish temple which is indescribable, like the proverbial

jaggery in the mouth of the dumb (goonge ka gud bhai ). The crowd in

the Jagannath temple make it a place where you become more of a sightseer

than a devotee.

Then there is a small temple of Kanya Kumari at the land’s

end, better known as the Tri-sea Junction. The calm serenity of the place, little

known to outsiders, has a charm of its own.

The last but not the least significant is the Vishweshwar

temple, better known as the Vishwanath temple. I had a strange experience

once in the temple. A few years ago I had visited Varanasi, and I decided that

this time I will have a darshan of the deity. My friend Prahlad took leave

from his office, and after lunch we started for the temple. It was mild winter, and going

out in the sun was no longer unpleasant. Then we wanted to be at the temple at a lean period

when people prefer to have a siesta after a hearty meal. There was

hardly any crowd in the temple, and we could walk straight to the sanctum

sanctorum. There was a Bengali family

doing puja and we waited. Suddenly I found the shrine totally empty, with nobody in

except us two. Worshipping the deity when you are all alone in an important shrine

like that was a new experience to me. As if the deity was keen to have our offerings

in all exclusivity, with his time fully earmarked for us. I don’t know whether you can

feel the thrill I experienced, but I still feel that it was a

unique happening designed especially for us. Not that gold was showered on us

afterwards, or we saw a palace erected for us. The very experience was

worth it.

I considered so many other places which could find a place here, but none had the

quality or characteristics which I searched for. Of course

I haven’t been to Puttparti, the Saibaba’s shrine at Shirdi,

Kedarnath-Gangotri-Yamunotri, and Gangasagar, but

I have the good fortune to visit so many other places of religious importance. Those

who come across this blog during the course of their

surfing are welcome to pen down any moving experience they

had in a religious place.

2011-04-12T00:27:00.000-07:00

Jeene ki Raah
(Safe way to Live)

I am in the wrong side of sixties, and, therefore, I can be easily called a middle-aged person in firangi terms, and buzurg or Buddha in the native tongue. Apart from seeing every part of my body slowly losing their old suppleness, there is plenty of time now after retirement to ponder over and ruminate on all the pains, aches and several ailments that I never took notice of during the days of yore when I kept busy from morning till evening. It is only now that I have been able to appreciate the full meaning of what Nirala wrote almost three quarter of a century back:

Main akela dekhta hoon aa rahi mere divas ki sandhya bela/ adhpake hain baal mere/
(I am alone, watching the dusk of my day./ My hair has gone half-grey/).
Nirala died at 65, an age which we consider not very old now, But surely he would have started feeling the slow decline of the power and stamina of young days.

Anyway, to come back to the main theme, over the years I have gathered several tips, and tried to evolve some of my own which enables to you live safely, and with less complications over the years till you become ‘dear to God.’ There is nothing very deep about the maxims, just simple precautions to save you from any mishap. I am also adding some suggestions which I have keenly felt about, and which have not been adopted or followed by the different organisations.

1. Always keep your bathroom dry. A wet bathroom is the breeding ground for moss and fungus, making the floor slippery on which you can easily fall, cracking your skull (like one of my friends, a retired police officer, tall and heavily built), or a bone, and in old age bones take their own sweet time to join. One of my relations who had a fall in the bathroom in the night was lying un-attended till morning when it was too late. His wife was away to their son's place. Another acquaintance of mine died only a couple of days back after he had a fall in the bathroom, although he was having various other ailments. Use a wiper for the bathroom. Rubber wipers with long handle are easily available. Use it after every bath. My brother-in-law does it, and I started to appreciate it much later. Incidentally, some of the non-stick tiles available in the market are worse, as their uneven surface readily collects small quantity of water, gathering moss. And then, never try to walk tiptoe in the bathroom. You will be inviting a fall.

2. Do not tuck your socks in your shoes when you remove them. Keep them in the open. Better have a small basket for socks. This simple act will keep them smell-free and free of bacteria infestation. Generally we land up with socks which are essentially of 2 or 3 basic dark colours. In such a case tie the two of the pair loosely so that you do not have to ‘mix and match’ everytime you are going out. And when putting them in the washing machine or the hanger for drying, make sure the two of a pair of socks are put together. More than once I have seen one isolated sock lying forlornly at the bottom of the washing machine, or when you go to collect the dried clothes, you find one sock missing.

3. If you are old-fashioned enough to use a brush and shaving cream, do change the brush every 3-4 months. Better use the foam. You will save yourself from chin infection with a troublesome boil. Your tooth-brush also should be similarly changed.

4. Agreed that leather soles are the sign of a gentleman, but for everyday life please forget about leather soles. Buy shoes with non-skid soles. The more so for chappals and slippers which you carry to the bathroom as well. No slippery rubber or leather soles.

5. Elderly people may remember that their forefathers started using walking stick at an early age - in early forties and sometimes in their thirties as well. It was considered more of a fashion accessory. Of course in India one did not carry a tightly folded umbrella instead, as luckily it does not rain as often in our country. The walking stick is very useful and a big support in long walks and treks, and it so helpful for those who are in the initial stages of osteo-arthritis. Now you get decent orthpaedic sticks which are adjustable, and not as flimsy as some of the earlier ones used by nabobs and zamindars. Don’t be ashamed to use it especially when it has been recommended by your doctor. True that several young maidens will start calling you Uncle, but what difference does it make? You should not be lamenting as Keshav did a few centuries back:

Keshav kesan as kari/ Jas arihu na karahi/ Chandravadani mrigalochani/ Baba kahi kahi jahi/ (Grey hair has done to me as no enemy could have done. Lovely moon-faced and doe-eyed maidens have staaaartedcalling me Baba_ grandfather!)

7. Next, to repeat a cliché, some exercise everyday If you do yoga, or go to a yoga centre apart from a morning walk that is best. Better to go to a yoga centre. They spend about 90 minutes with you, and that length of time you probably won’t be able to devote at home. Generally the yoga centre concentrates on three themes: yogic exercises, pranayam and dhyan (or dharna which is the first step to dhyan). Yogic exercises keep all the joints of your body lubricated so that you do not get afflictions like arthritis, frozen shoulders, cervical spondylosis, lower back pain etc. Pranayam is to see that every nook and cranny of your body gets oxygen which normally gets only a measly quantity. This would mean that all parts of your body are in a normal healthy state even in old age. Of course, if you start yoga at a time when you are already suffering from some ailment, yoga can surely let you remain at the point where you have already reached, and in some cases actually curing it! And dhyan or dharna (meditation) keeps your power of concentration intact which very often deteriorates in old age. Mind you, yoga is not only for the aged but for the young also. If one starts at an early age, maybe he will be able to ward off several aches, painand maladies which he could otherwise get.

8. Next in line is driving. Many obese people later in life start suffering from sleep apnea where a person can doze off from time to time. Such persons should desist from driving. Most of the driving accidents in India happen from sleepy drivers of both small and heavy vehicles who have erratic and heavy duty hours. This is especially true for long distance taxi and truck drivers who hop from one duty to another. But sadly, the elderly are hardly aware of the hazard they are putting themselves into while driving. There is no disputing the fact that as you grow up in age, your reflexes slow down. The Air Force realizes it too well, and Group Captain and above are hardy put in active flying duty.

9. Just a piece of advice which may not be palatable to many. Never stay permanently with your children. You should have a home of your own which you can come back to after a visit to your children. Then unless and until you have sufficient property to have 3 or 4 sizeable shares, Never give away your property during your lifetime to your children, and not keep anything for you and your spouse. In any case after you and your wife, the property will be your children' so what's the hurry.

10. Lastly, keep your mind active by brain games like sudoku and bridge. You save yourself from dementia, aphasia, Alzheimer’s disease and whatever. Although I never enjoy solving a sudoku puzzle (mainly because I haven’t been able to go beyond the easy ones). And being a mediocre player of bridge who does not care to remember cards, I am a persona non grata to my partner. But I do try to be mentally active by sending you people sermons like this. Maybe this does the trick.

Some Suggestions

There are not many, except for the few where I have been holding the wrong end of the stick.

1. Have you ever tried to read the description on the strip of a medicine, or several other user’s manuals. Many a time I have used a magnifying glass to decipher. The task of reading becomes more difficult as most of the pills are packed I shiny metal packing. Why shouldn’t larger fonts be used as most of the medicines are meant for the aged whose eyesight is not as good it used to be. One of my friend reports that in most of the European countries the fonts and buttons on telephones etc. are bigger so that they can be used easily by old people. The same problem is there for mobile handsets buttons. People with thick fingers always find it difficult.

2. The second is the acute shortage of decent old age homes. Lonely old men would find it difficult to care for themselves unless they are well-off to hire help. Many a time children go away to distant lands to make a career for themselves. Most of the old age homes in India are meant for the destitutes which is good, but the time has come in India with growing life expectancy to cater for the people who can pay a reasonable amount.

Any suggestion from the readers which could be added is welcome.

In the Wonderland of Medical Science and Pharmaceuticals s

2011-03-14T23:08:00.000-07:00

In the Wonderland of Medical Science and Pharmaceuticals

I do not have an expert knowledge of medical science and the various games played by its practitioners. But I have seen and experienced some funny things, and read and heard about some funny stories. No doubt they are not many. But this is for a record that I am penning them down. Maybe the person who opens this blog finds it equally interesting, and maybe just a little wiser by these small tips.

Astrology and palmistry are not science, and if they are to be called so, they can only be very inexact science. My own feeling is that the same can be said about the medical science. It is inexact in the sense that the findings and opinions and recommendations keep on changing, and not marginally, but sometimes diametrically opposite to what was the belief and understanding upto that point. A very basic example. When I was a child, running a fever meant that the patient was kept away from all kinds of solid food. Rather one was on fast for the days the fever ran. What the patient was given was liquid food and fruits only. And even the fruits were of a special kind - not banana, mangoes, lichee, chikoo and the like, but apple, grapes, pomegranates etc. Sometimes one can even suspect that this was some sort of conspiracy between medical men and fruit importers form Afghanistan and Pakistan. Those days buying these exotic fruits meant that somebody was unwell at home. Those were the days when the Stokes family had not revolutionized apple cultivation in Himachal, and the sea change in the production volume of pomegranates by introduction of Ganesh pomegranates in Maharashtra, and grapes in Andhra and Maharashtra and yet to come which brought these fruits to the middle class in our country. And when at long last the fever was down, food was given in an elaborate series of actions. It had a special name also: pathya. The patient took bath, maybe after a week or so, and he was given light food like khichdi. Siesta was not allowed, though one would expect to have a doze of drowsiness after a regular meal after a week or so. Today you can eat , only that looking to your immobility, the food intake has to be less.

By the way, have you marked how easily any and all kinds of fever these days are dubbed as viral fever. How all-encompassing the word is! And as it is, there is no cure for a viral disease. One gets well in due course for milder forms. But still you get prescription drugs for it. So also for cold for which it is said that if you don’t take any medicine you get well in 7 days, and if you take medicine it takes a week for the viral to disappear.

Have you marked how there is a substantial difference between the prices of the same formulation made by different companies under different brands? Clopigrel, a popular blood thinning pill costs about Rs.16 per tablet. The same formulation under a different brand name (Clavix) costs Rs. 6 per tablet. Another brand is for Rs.8. Once I tried to find the reason from a medical representative. One was of course understandable. For a long time India went by process patents and not by products patent. The same medicine made by another process was not covered by patent laws. This was not fair, as the company who spent a of money, time and talent on research and development of the medicine was able to recover the cost and some, and huge margins were not possible to continue for a long time. Take the case of Viagra where the Indian clone is available for about quarter the price of the foreign brand. The other reason which was told to me that of purity, whether it is 90% ,95.5% or 99%. But come to think of it, does it really matter that much so as to justify the big price difference?

Come to diabetic pills. One very popular drug (rosiglutazone) which was really effective had to be banned, as it had so many side effects, one of them adding to your bulk. After taking the medicine for almost a year, suddenly I started gaining weight, so much so that I had to discard a number of my old pants and jackets which could not be brought to my present size by my tailor. This was ultimately diagnosed by the doctor who worked in the CGHS (Central Govt. Health Scheme). Some people say that the two points where allopathy scores over other systems of medicine are surgery and antibiotics, otherwise one system is as good as the other. Add to it the fact that surgery is not the monopoly of allopathy. Sushrut was from the Indian System of Medicine.

Come to dietetics. Sometime during my childhood days a big hullabaloo was made about how iron-studded spinach is. After a few years it was sheepishly admitted by the medical community that the original calculation had one decimal point wrongly placed, with the result that iron content was shown ten times what it actually is. Egg’s yellow portion was considered full of cholesterol, so much so that in one hospital of repute as a patient I got only the white of the boiled eggs in breadkfast. Only sometime back I read somewhere that latest research shows the egg yellow to be not so bad as had been made out. Earlier guava was considered to have no food value. Now it is considered to be full of Vitamin C.

Come to antibiotics. Gradually the bacteria keeps on getting immune from one particular antibiotic. And the pharmacy industry keeps on evolving newer and wider-spectrum antibiotic. Doctors blame self-medication and overprescription of antibiotics by their own colleagues. Have you seen how expensive the newer antibiotics are?

Ram and Krishna

2011-01-29T08:49:00.000-08:00

Ram and Krishna

Portions of Ramcharitmanas I have been hearing being recited from my childhood days. My stepmother could recite the entire Sundarkand by memory_ so many times she had gone through it. Almost the entire Hindu population of Eastern UP & Bihar, whether rural or urban, swears by the Manas written by Goswami Tulsidas, a devotee of Ram. Dohas (couplet) and chhand (four line metre) of Manas are quoted in almost all the speeches and even in dialogues sometimes to prove a point. Akhand Ramayan when the entire epic is recited at one go is organized by the religious minded in almost the entire region.

In the circumstances, examine critically the character of Ram is sacrilege and blasphemy, something which the wise avoid. Maryada Purushottam could never do wrong. He had to maintain and follow the system, and if it demanded a cruel and heartless action, well, it could not be helped.

I Picked up C. Rajagopalachari’s (CR) version of Valmiki Ramayan. This is a short book which does not deviate from the main text as penned by Valmiki, though at places CR Does express his disappointment, and how other versions of Ramayan differ from it. Curiosity led me to another version of Vamiki Ramayana by Krishna Dharma. Before coming to to the character of Ram, a few things struck me which I thought I would mention. First , the total absence of any mention of Urmila (Lashman’s wife) at the time Lakshman is preparing to go with his brother to the jungle for 14 long years. Sumitra, his mother is mentioned when Lakshman comes to bid farewell, but where was Urmila at the time? Did Lakshman go without meeeting her, or is their last night together too holy to describe? Not that I am the first person to ‘discover’ it. Maithili Sharan Gupta, renowned Hindi poet, as if to atone for this omission wrote a whole epic (Saket) on Urmila.

The second striking thing is that Seeta did not conceive during the long fourteen years in the forest. Was some kind of herbal birth control method known and available to people those days? Seeta did conceive about 2 years after they came back to Ayodhya after completing the exile term.

(That sets at rest any suspicion that Love-Kush were conceived not by Ram but while she was in captivity in Lanka). The same about Draupadi during her years in the jungle and at Virat’s place. During this time her five children were staying with Subhadra, Krishna’s sister. For that matter Subhadra did not leave her brother’s place permanently to stay at Indraprastha prior to the period of exile.

Anyway, to come back to theme of Ram’s character. For this analysis, one can easily start and stop with his behaviour towards Seeta, his beloved wife. All the versions of Ramayan point out how dearly he loved her. But let us examine his behaviour after Ravan was defeated and killed. Let us see what CR’s and Krishna Dharma’s versions say.

. After Ravana was vanquished and killed, and Visbhishan crowned the king of Lanka, Ram

Asked Hanuman to carry the news to Seeta in Ashok-van. Upon Hanuman asking Sita as to what message he should carry to Ram, she said that that she was eager to be in his presence. When Hanuman gave the message to Ram, he fell in a brown study, and after some time told Hanuman to convey to Seeta to bathe and bedeck herself whereupon Seeta said that she would go as she was, but ultimately was persuaded by Hanuman to go as desired by Ram. When Sita came in Ram’s presence, Ram told her that he has done his duty as a Kshatriya in vanquishing Ravan and for Seeta she has to live alone, and as a Kshatriya he cannot take back a wife who has lived so long in a stranger’s house. Seeta was angry and asked Lakshman to bring faggots and kindle a fire. The fire was lit, and Seeta jumped into the fire requesting gods and rishis to take her as their own. Brahma and Agni and all the gods assembled there and Brahma declaring her to be of irreproachable purity, Ram accepted her as fire –proven to be pure.

Come to Scene II. Ram is reported by his courtiers about the differing views the people of his kingdom have about the purity of Seeta. Ram summons Lakshman and asks him to leave the pregnant Seeta in the forest the same day, where she will hopefully live with some sage in his ashram. For years Ram does not find out anything about her, nor about the children. When the time came for Ashwamedh, and as per the ritual followed those days, it was considered necessary for the spouse to sit alongside the husband for the yajna, he gets a statue built of the likeness of Seeta.

Scene III. The two boys who come to sing the Story of Ram during the yajna, are recognized as the sons of Ram. Seeta comes to Ayodhya , and Ram asks her to prove her purity and chastity again. That was the last straw on the camel’s back so far as Seeta’s patience was considered. She requests mother Earth to take her in a she had been given unto Janak long time back. Mother Earth obliges. And thus ends the story one of the most revered characters in Hindu religion and mythology. The only explanation CR gives for Ram’s actions is that they can be explained simply as the behaviour of a king in accordance with the customs of the times.

Then there is the story of Shambook, a Shudra who was doing penance in the forest which according to the custom in that era was reserved for Brahmans. Ram on getting to know of it and the lament of the Brahmans that this was the reason of the Brahman’s son dying, went and beheaded Shambook.

Add to it the story of the assassination of Bali for which Ram had to hide himself, because it was said that Bali could not be defeated in open duel.

Come to Krishna. Once he was convinced of the correctness of Pandava’s demand for a share in the kingdom, he adopted all means, fair and foul to destroy the Kauravas. Bhishma, Drona, Karna as well as Duryodhan were killed by unfair means. When Draupadi was stripped and nobody including the Kuru elders did anything, it was Krishna who gave here cloth to cover her modesty. Whereas Ram is devoid of all emotions and just follows the path of a correct ruler, Krishna his practical, as well as compassionate. Some say that his thousands of wives were the gopis of is adolescent days in Gokul. Whereas Ram is well-versed in the art of war and is brave, Krishna is more versatile and as battle-ready as Ram. But when the time comes, he knows how to change the tactics. When he was sick of frequent border skirmishes with Jarasandh who happened to be Kans’ brother-in-law, Krishna moved his capital to Dwarka. Another time in a battle, when he saw himself facing defeat, and capture, he ran away form the battlefield. That is why the name Ranchhod Bhagwan.

All I can say is that I am more confused now than when I started.

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Kingdoms on Auto-Pilot

2010-09-02T11:45:00.000-07:00

Mahabharat: Kingdoms on Auto- Pilot

Thre are so many doubts and puzzles that Mahabharat throws up. Here I am goig to relate something that has puzzled me for sometime now: kingdoms run by absentee rulers. Two cases come to mind which are quite glaring.

Absentee rulers are a tradition which has come down over the millennia to the 20^th century also. One hears of rulers of princely states during the British time who spent their summer in the salubrious weather of England or French reviera. Then there were rulers who spent the winter in Bombay race course. The craze was so much that many of them had their second home in Bombay. In Delhi of course every prince had a huge establishemt: Hyderabad House, Bikaner House, Patiala House. Thanks to them so many govt. offices and institutions did not have to search for a new establishment in 1947. The crown princes studied abroad, and did their schooling in elite private schools which were created for them only. Mayo College, Rajkumar Colleges, Scindia School. Some colleges had separate living accommodation for such princes who stayed with all the paraphernalia and retinue. During the absence of the ruler and the crown prince, the ministers looked after the work, some of them were honest and sincere and some not so.

Go back to Mahabharat days. Let us first decide what governance meant during those days. Realizing tax which the ruler spent either wisely or foolishly, providing security to the public by saving the kingdom from other greedy rulers, general security and making the kingdom safe for the subject that is policing function, punishing wrongdoers from robbers and thieves to murderers and trouble-creators. and creating some basic infrastructure like a few arterial roads, especially in and to and from the capital, I don’t know what other function was performed by the ruler in 2500-1500 B.C.E. For water there were as yet unpolluted rivers and streams, community and private wells: as a matter of fact all the civilizations of the world developed on the bank of some river; for sanitation, well, there were open fields which are available even now in our villages; for transport there were horses (and chariots drawn by them) and bullock carts. Cultivators sweated in the fields, traders did business in towns and a large number who went to the army maintained by the ruler, either for show or for encroaching on the neighbouring state’s land. Farmers paid taxes in kind mostly, and probably there was some sort of levy on the traders, especially when the goods entered the borders of the kingdom. But these seths had fulfilled another obligation: giving loan to the ruler for their luxurious living and harem, or for battles with the next door rulers. On top of that there was the system of Rajsuya and Ashwamedha yajna which was purely a matter of personal aggrandizement. The loan given by the trader to the ruler was mostly non-returnable, and therefore, in a way gift or lumpsum levy paid to the ruler.

Anyway the two cases I have in mind are: Krishna and Shakuni.

Krishna at a very young age (some say at 11 years) defeated and killed his maternal uncle Kansa in wrestling, and became the ruler of Mathura. Kansa had imprisoned Krishna’s parents and had killed all the six elder siblings of Krishna immediately after they were born except for Balram who was not the son of Devaki, Kansa’s sister, but of Rohini (and Vasudeo). However. Krishna’s woes did not end there. The two daughters Asti and Prapti of Jarasandh, the powerful ruler of Magadha were married to Kansa, and after his death went to their father’s place. Jarasandh attacked Mathura 18 times. The first 17 times he was defeated, thanks to Ugrasena, Kansa’s father, whom Krishna had put on the throne, and Akrur who were shrewd military strategists, helped by Vasudeo, Krishna’s father who was the crown prince. On the18th attempt Jarasandh took the help of demon Kaalyavan who created havoc in the Mathura forces. Krishna was already fed up with the frequent skirmishes with Jarasandh, and this time at the brink of defeat and capture, he left the battlefield and decided to shift his base to Dwarika where he set up a new capital. Since then, Krishna is also known by the name of Ranchhoddas. Incidentally I remember visiting a place in Gujarat which is associated with this incident and there is a temple there of Ranchhoddasji.

Now when you read Mahabharaat, Krishna is more often seen in Hastinapur, Indraprastha and later in the forest where Pandavas spent their days of exile. Before Draupadi’s marriage, he went often to Panchal to meet Panchali, his friend who is also known as Krishnaa. With all the roaming around when did he find time for governance? Or was it Balram who was looking after the affairs of the state during Krishna’s frequent absences?

Krishna avenged himself of Jarasadh when the Pandavas decided to go for Rajsuya yajna. Krishna told the Pandavas that it would be necessary for the success of the rajsuya to eliminate Jarasandh who would have refused to accept the suzerainty of the Pandavas. He also advised that it would be impossible for the Pandavas to defeat him in open battle, and therefore some covert means had to be adopted. Accordingly Krishna, Bhima and Arjun went in the guise of Brahmans and challenged Jarasandh to a wrestling match with anyone he chooses. Proud as Jarasandh was, he chose Bhima, and the match went on for 27 days without any result . On the 27^th day Krishna by slitting a glass blade in two and throwing the two pieces in separate directions told Bhima abut how he should go about. Bhima understood and tore Jarasandh from the middle, and throwing the two parts in two different directios which were joined by a demoness named Jara when he was an infant, and thereby resurrected the baby.

Shakuni’s case is really pathetic. He was the youngest son of King Suvala, King of Gandhar and therefore the brother of Gandhari who was married to Dhritarashtra. Gandhari’s astro-stars predicted that her first husband will not survive for long and it is only the second husband who had long life. When Gandhari’s marriage wa fixed with Dhritarashtra, she was first married to a goat, and then the goat was sacrificed. Thus technically, a widow she was married to Dhritarashtra. At the time Duryodhan was made the crown prince of Hastinapur, Bhima taunted him that he was the son of a widow. When Duryodhan learnt the real story, he was enraged, and attacked, defeated and imprisoned Suvala with all his 100 sons. In jail they were allowed the ration of just a fistful of rice everyday. Suval decided that as the intention of Duryodhan was to starve them all to death, the rice will be pooled and eaten by Shakuni alone who in his opinion was the cleverest of all his sons, and therefore most suitable for the throne. Ultimately everybody except Shakuni died, and Duryodhan released the sole survivor. Shakuni was devious and cunning, even though he had a good military brain he believed more in covert methods. His brain was more like that of a chess player who thinks of several steps ahead before making a move. When he was released, Shakuni decided to take revenge from Duryodhan and see to it that the entire Kuru clan was finished. But overtly he let everybody know that his goal was to get for Duryodhan the other half of his kingdom which was excised and given to Pandavas by Dhriatarashtra. Pandavas had diligently developed the jungle area into a fine city with a beautiful palace to live in. Shakuni was an expert dice player, and he had a pair of dice made out of the thigh bones of his father which always did his biding. With the loaded dice, he could manage to wrest the kingdom and all the riches from the Pandavas for Duryodhan, and thus made himself the closest to his nephew, whereas all the time in his devious mind he knew that there had to be a fratricidal fight between the two groups of the same Kuru clan which will finish all of them. Even on the side of the victor Pandavas, after the battle the survivors were the five Pandavas, Krishna, Satyaki and Yuyutsu. Nobody was left on their side to succeed Yudhishthira to the throne except the child Uttara, widow of Abhimanyu, was expecting. Shakuni went down fighting bravely, and so was his son Ulook, who were killed by Sahadev and Nakul respectivey.

Now the same question. We find Shakuni almost all the time in Hastinapur, scheming and plotting for his nephews. How did he manage his kingdom, and how was it saved from marauders and greedy neighbours? We don’t know anything, although most of his kingdom was hilly, and the population would have been small. Shakuni had another son Kalikeya, and I expect that after the battle he became the king and stayed at Gandhara, the capital of the kingdom. Shakuni’s army fought on Kaurav’s side and was completely decimated. So Kalikeya must have quickly raised another army from amongst the able-bodied subject of his.

Another question is thrown up. It is said that Mahabharat happened because of the spontaneous and foolish utterance of Draupadi that blind beget blind, after which Duryodhan took revenge on her by disrobing her in the assembly before everyone which further ensured the inevitability of war. Should it be right to say that it was actually Shakuni and not Draupadi's utterance and her subsequent insult by Duryodhan which precipitaated the great battle? Well, you decide.

Did the Yadu clan destroy itself in fratricidal fight because Krishna was not always around to exercise a firm and benevolent control over his clan and subject? That is a moot point.

Food Draupadi Cooked

2010-08-04T11:51:00.000-07:00

Food Draupadi Cooked

I have been exploring for some time as to what food was cooked during the time of Mahabharat. Or to be more exact what food did Draupadi cook for her five healthy husbands including one who was a glutton. I will tell an apocryphal story about Bhim at the end. For the present, let us explore what foodstuff was available during the period 1500-1000 BC which is the approximate period of the story of Mahabharat.

Flesh of various animals was of course available in plenty. Deer and ducks were the favourite hunt. Other birds like partridges and quails (teetar and bater) are available in plenty in the country even now so it should be available even then. Krishna was shot dead by mistake by the arrow of a professional hunter who lived on what he could get and kill in the forest in the daytime to be sold in the market later in the day. Salt was there, but probably of the mineral variety. The area now in Pakistan has salt hills. Among other condiments and spices, India has been a source of cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, pepper and turmeric in the spice trade with the west for ages, and those should have been there at that time also. But the real question which bothered me was about the cereals. Well, wheat farming spread to Asia about 4,000 BC. Simple domestic grinding stone was probably there for making wheat flour. Unleavened or non-yeasted chapati is made in India even today. Rice is native to India and has been there for 10,000 years., so are cucumbers and gourds including small Indian gourd known as parval. Among the minor millets, sorghum (jowar) is a more recent introduction to the country. . But barley (jau), bajra, kodo, kutki and saawaan should have been very much there. A vaidic writing mentions barley and rice as “two immortal sons of heaven.” Maize was developed in Mexico about 7000 years ago, but it is said that it has spread to Asia only about 5 centuries ago. Whatever be the case, parched grain was quite popular and it could have been used as a snack. Sugarcane is also a native of India. So gur or jaggery would have been there. Honey was known. Milk and milk products were there.

Goat was domesticated long time back, from the time settlements came into being in place of nomadic existence. As for deep and shallow frying, and lacing dal, chapati and rice with fragrant fat, butter and ghee (clarified butter) are milk products. The other source of oil was mustard oil which reportedly has been in the country for over 3000 years. Green peas, masoor and kesari have been in India since 1800 BC to 2000 BC. So have probably chick peas (chana) and pigeon peas (arhar). Wild tubers (kand-mool) including wild onions and fruits like muskmelon or cantaloupe were there and some green vegetables. Garlic and water melon were probably not there. Banana, a native of Malaysia, is mentioned in the Buddhist Pali writings of 6^th century BC. This also may have been there. At least Alexander took it from India in 327 BC. This could have been there during Mahabharat times. Among other fruits wild mango, wild berries (ber), and wood apple (bel or sriphal). Tamarind is a native of tropical Africa, but has come to India long long ago. It also was there probably in wild conditions, but whether its use as a souring agent was known at that time or not, I haven’t been able to find out.

So the menu is complete. The normal menu of Draupadi contained plenty of animal or bird flesh cooked with ghee or oil, rice, dal, chapati laced with butter, and the curries spiced with the basic condiments like onions, turmeric, pepper, cloves, and of course, salt. For vegetables, gourd, cucumber and tubers. For the dessert, yoghurt with honey or gur, and sweets like wheat flour mixed with gur syrup and deep fried. And kheer or payas sweetened with gur (milk pudding). Come to think of it, the menu has hardly changed over the millennia for an average Indian.

And what was vanvaas or exile which the Pandavas had to undergo after losing in the gamble where the dice were loaded, courtesy Shakuni? Even now in the tribal areas of Central India, forest adjoins the habitation, so Pandavas must have gone a little away from the habitation, in the forest area, maybe in the fringe and not very deep inside.

It is interesting to remember that the Portuguese brought to India potato, tomato, cauliflower, tobacco and surprise of surprise, red chillies. Another surprise item which has probably been brought by the Europeans to India is pumpkin, which is a native of South and Central America. Good old days in the conservative Brahman family of ours, if you ate vegetables like cauliflower and tomatoes, you had to do penance. This included some rituals including eating a small amount of cow dung. Most priests were satisfied if you touched it with your lips! One story that my uncle (bless his soul) used to relate of his young days was that of a kinsman who had to undergo such penance in the presence of a priest, and as the priest was also a kinsman, after the penance when they went to his house people saw the same vegetables being cooked at his home. Soybean as a source of edible oil came to India only after independence and sunflower even later.

Now the joke. It is said that a sage gave a blessing to Bhim that Bhim will eat and Shakuni will shit. Once Bhim ate an entire tree. Imagine the distress Shakuni was in next morning!

Mahabharat: The Greatest Tragedy Ever Quilled

2010-08-04T11:00:00.000-07:00

Mahabharat: The Greatest Tragedy Ever Quilled

People talk of Greek tragedies. After reading and reading for 65 years I have come to the conclusion that there is no greater tragedy written in the history of mankind than our own Mahabharat. Nor was there any story ever told of more epic dimensions. Let us get down to the barest outlines. The characters are human, vibrant, and full of foibles. Not as weak as they are in Ramayan as they are all idealistic in the latter. Anyway my idea is not to compare the two great epics but to talk about Mahabharat. Do you know that in Indian homes womenfolk were not supposed to read Mahabharat. They were of course supposed to know Sunderkand of Tulsi's Ramcharitmanas by heart. This was about Sita in Ashokvan in the captivity of Ravan. The reason was simple. All the women in Mahabharat are amoral and independent: Ganga killed her seven children by drowning, Kunti had 4 children born out of wedlock, Draupadi had five husbands, and Krishna had a harem to beat any Mogul empereor. Draupadi was proud and insulting, and she paid for it by being stripped in front of everybody and ultimately rescued by Krishna, and she in turn never combed her hair till she washed her hair with the blood of the person who dared disrobe her. This was done for Draupadi by Bhima, but she had her heart on Arjun as compared to all his brothers. Which conservative household in India would like their daughters and daughters-in-law to go through such stories and get ideas? And the end of the story. The battle of Kurukshetra lasted for 18 days. Kauravas started with 11 akshauhini and Pandavas with 7. Each akshauhini is a chaturangini force consisting of charioteers, horsemen, elephants and foot soldiers. The total comes to a mind-boggling 2,18,700 in an akshauhini (if you include mahouts and chariot drivers the figure comes to 2,62,440) and the total of Kaurav and Pandav forces to be a mind-boggling figure of about 47 lakh. This is obviously an exaggerated figure, and has to be discounted. My own guess is that they started with armies of 75 and 50 thousand. But at the end of eighteen days you were left with only a handful. The one hundred Kauravas were finished, all the army on both sides almost completely wiped out, and Draupadi's five children (by five respective husbands) treacherously killed by Ashwatthama. And the Pandavas. Ultimately Abhimanyu's wife begets a child who was born dead and was brought to life by Krishna (blue baby?). Parikshit. Come to the ancestors. In their last days Kunti, Dhritrashtra and company started living deep in the forests, and then one day they all perished in the jungle fire. Pandavas perished on the way to don't know where in the Himalayas. Only Yudhishthira stayed alive, and went to golok which means he died some time later, though peacefully. And the worst was to come to Krishna. His clan fought among themselves and perished. At that time the sea rose in height and submerged the kingdom (it is proved now by undersea archaeological remains) which Krishna had built so assiduously over the years away from Mathura where he was troubled by the frequent incursions by Jarasandh. He entrusted his womenfolk to Arjun. On to way to a safe hideout, the caravan was attacked by bandits. Arjun was confident that he could beat back the entire horde by his famous Gandiva. But lo and behold, he couldn't even string his bow. And almost half of the ladies were looted away right in front of his eyes. And Krishna: forlorn, dejected, alone was sitting under a tree where he was killed by the arrow of a professional hunter. After the Pandavas left for Himalayas the throne went to Parikshit who it seems was killed by snake bite. Not true because he was probably killed by Nag tribals. And his son Janmejaya had a Nag-yagya, which would mean that he hunted and killed whichever member of Naag community he found. I remember, in Chhota Nagpur area of Bihar (now Jharkhand) there are some Nagvanshi Kshatriya who were landlords and minor ruling princes. To sum up, whenever I think of Mahabharat, it fills me with sadness and sometimes moves me to tears. Which tragedy can equal this great epic of ours? To end the story on a farcical note. To think that Devilals and Chautalas are the descendants of the same Kauravas and Pandavas!

(This was originally published in the e-magazine SAWF)

The Mahabharat War Widows

2010-08-03T10:02:00.000-07:00

The Mahabharat War Widows

The battle of Mahabharat lasted for 18 days. The Pandavas had seven akshauhini and the Kauravas 11 akshauhini army. An akshuhini is a chaturangini army consisiting of 21870 chariots, equal number of elephants, 65610 horse-mounted warriors, and 1,09,350 infantry (in the proportion of 1:1: 3:5). According to this, the Kaurvas had about 24 lakh and Pandavas about 15.31 lakh, totaling almost 40 lakh soldiers. I don’t believe that such large number gathered at ‘Dharmkshetre Kurukshetre’. My best guess is about 75 thousand and 50 thousand. It was 1500 B.C. and conceiving such large number of warriors in Aryavarta is an absurdity. The total population of Aryavarta at that time should not be more than 5-6 lakh.

2. The entire armies were annihilated. It is interesting to note that on the Pandava’s side, the survivors, apart from five Pandavas were Krishna, Satyaki and Yuyutsu, and on the Kaurva’s side Kripacharya, Kritavarma, and Ashwatthama. The total comes to 11!

3. The Yadava clan in Dwarka fought among themselves, and whole clan was wiped out (Remember the Nepalese royalty which was assassinated en bloc at one go by the heir apparent himself!). Krishna entrusted the ladies of Dwarka (including his own consorts) to Arjun to take them safely to Indraprastha. On the way the group was resting at a place. Some robbers came and tried to forcibly take away the womenfolk.. Arjun challenged them, and tried to string his bow Gandiva. He could not, he was too old weak to string his famous bow. And in front of Arjun’s eyes, the robbers took away almost half of the women accompanying him. The balance could anyhow reach Indraprastha. The point I am making is that a very large number of widows gathered at Indraprastha, and also at the various small principalities spread throughout Aryavarta. What happened to them? There is a brief mention in Mahabharat that after the battle was over, Yudhishthira ordered proper cremation of dead soldiers. One does not know what would have happened to a large number of those maimed, as it is mentioned that the total force on both the sides perished, which is very improbable. About widows, there is mention that Yudhishthira ordered that they should be looked after properly. What actually happened to them? Polygamy was prevalent, and many would have become wives to the already married. What about the older women. There must have been created a large force of ladies whose status was no better than that of slaves.

4. The other point that has bothered me is the logistics during the time of the battle. The armies came from different places, some near some far. I have tried to place the various principalities to their locations in Aryavarta. It is an approximate and imperfect exercise, and I am open to correction.

Kamboj:Pakistan

Gandhara: Afghanistan. Gandhari and his brother Shakuni came from here.

Madra, Kekay, Sindhu: Pakistan, mainly in the Indus valley.

Dwarka, Avanti, Saurashtra: Gujarat

Kosala:M.P.

Matsya: Rajasthan

Panchal: Bihar. Draupadi came from here. That is why she is known as Panchali.

Vatsa: Bundelkand in U.P.?

Chedi: Northern M.P.

Kashi: Eastern U.P.

Kosala: North-central U.P. (Faizabad )

Mall, Magadha: Bihar.

Anga: Bengal.

It must have taken them week to 10 days to reach Kurukshetra (in modern Haryana). Even after the armies reached the battleground, a few days were spent in arranging the armies (sort of dress rehearsal). So the provision had to be arranged for about a month. It is not out of place to mention here that one of the main reasons the Marathas lost the Third Battle of Panipat was that the Afghans blocked their supply lines, and they were forced to fight or face the rebellion among their own people.

5. Each army which reached Kurukshetra must have carried a lot of provision with them. I don’t know where did such large gathering of fighting forces got the firewood. And then there was forage for the horses of horsemen and chariots. Sadly the numbers in the armies depleted very quickly during the battle, and proportionately, the need for provision as well as firewood.

Don't Miss This Rainy Season

2010-08-02T23:40:00.000-07:00

Every year lakhs of trees are planted in the month of July as part of Van Mahotsav, but the results have never been encouraging, the mortality bring more than 90%. Obviously we need some other measures to plant more trees. I am told that in Chamoli district (Uttarakhand) when a bride goes to the husband’s place after marriage, she plants a tree in her father’s place, and it is the responsibility of her parents and brothers to maintain that plant. This is an imaginative way to add one more tree to the environs.

Several pretexts can be found to plant trees. At a number of places Smriti vans have been developed where a person can plant a tree in the memory of his near and dear ones who are no more. He has to give a small amount to the organisation for meeting the cost of the plant and the upkeep of the tree, at least till it is big enough to fend for itself. Elsewhere in this blogsite, I have added a small write-up on Nakshatra Van where some trees have been associated wirh the birth Nakshatra of the person and it is concerned auspicious and beneficial for the person to plant a tree of the variety. This can be done collectively as well, and Nakshatra Van can be developed with plants earmarked for the 27 stars, (http://anandkbhatt.blogspot.com/2009/4/blog-post_08.html). At another place I have added a write-up listing trees suitable for planting in Central India/ Gwalior (http://anandkbhatt.blogspot.com/2009/07/some-beautiful-trees-for-central-india.html).

Recently in Dainik Bhaskar, Pt. Pushkar Raj has listed trees according to Rashis of Hindu astrlogy (not Nakshatrs). The list as given by him is as follows:

Mesh and Sinha: kadamba and ashuplalak ashok (Probably he means Polyalthis longifolia, as the tree is also known by the name Ashupal).
Vrishabh and Tula: Yagyiya or Brahmavriksha or Palash (Butea monosperma).
Mithun and Dhanu: Ashupalak
Karka, Makar and Kumbh: Gamhiri (He probably means Gamhar_Gmelina arborea) or Sriparni (Is it Bael_ Aegele marmelos?)
Vrishchik and Kanya: Mango
Meen: Vatvriksha_ Ficus benghalensis

He has also mentioned that in Shivadharma Purana (5/118-121) it is said that the Shiv Garden should be beautified with:

–Mango

-Bilva (Bael or Aegle marmelos)

-Chameli ( Jasminum grandiflorum or J. officinale)

- Vijai

- - Rajark (Could be aak_Callotropsis gigantea)

- -Karvir

- -Kamal (lotus)

- Kuljak

- -Punnag

- -Nag

- -Bakul (Maulshri)

- -Ashok (Saraca asoca)

- Utpal

- _Champa (Michelia champak). Could also mean Plumeria.

- -Kadli (Banana)

- -Hemguthap

Panditji has used Sanskrit words. I have tried to mention the common devnagri names wherever I knew. I will welcome if for other names somebody helps out.

I have been searching for a list of non-browsable trees for a long time. Up to now I have found the following trees belonging to the category:

Karanj ( Pongammia pinnata)

Teak (Tectona grandis)

Laxmi Taru (Simaroba glauca)

Chiraul (Haloptelea integrifolia)

Kanair_Thevetia bush

With roaming cattle the bane of our towns and even cities, these could be tried. I would welcome addition from any body in the list.

So, plant a sapling this rainy season. You will be happy to see it grow. What does it matter if it is not within the homestead, but around your house, in some park or roadside! And remember, please see it through. You will have to water it for 2 years, especially during summer. Good luck.

A Page from My Young Days

2010-07-19T22:19:00.000-07:00

WHEN I FAILED

In my own mofussil town, I was considered to be a brilliant student, bordering on genius. I completed schooling (10+2), and throughout I topped the class, with good ranks in the State in both High School and Intermediate exams. So when I landed in the University for the undergraduate degree course, I had a pretty high opinion of myself.

2. Throughout the summer vacation, I was of two minds whether to go for science stream, or change over to arts stream which attracted me because of my love for literature. Then I had started hating Physics, as I considered it a little boring and too taxing. In some topics, due to lack of guidance, my weakness was apparent. As in numericals. The teachers never taught it, and once my Chemistry teacher advised me that I should do the numericals on my own, which I did only as a formality, as the advice I got was at the fag end of the session when the final exams were near. Similarly for Physics, I hardly practised the numericals which was necessary to get a modicum of confidence to solve any type of questions in the final exam. Here probably one can say something in favour of the coaching classes. In my time about half a century ago, there were no coaching classes or tutorials. Some students did go for private tuitions – but it was expensive, and good students looked down upon the practice. Yes, sometimes one did go to some favourite teacher for sorting out some difficult topics, but as I remember, it was more so upto 10th class. After that one was largely on one’s own.

3. But in retrospect I find that the level of teaching those days was fairly high. Teachers came to the class, and did justice to the allotted forty five minutes. I still remember having rainy days in 11th class for a full week, and after that the Maths teacher (Ram Bali Pande) took extra class one Sunday in the month of July itself. Coming to Science vs. Arts, I had almost decided to go for the arts stream, but at the eleventh hour, I changed my mind due to the advice of a teacher who expressed his concern that getting first division was difficult in Arts, and that way Science stream would be better. Those days in the Arts stream, in the entire University there were only a few first class in the final exam, and the number rarely exceeded single digit.

4, The saga of my admission in the Allahabad University is also an interesting story. I was staying at Ghazipur, and Allahabad was a mere 123 miles away. The admission form of the University used to cost one rupee only, and was easily available from the University counter. My Uncle gave me just twelve rupees to go to Allahabad, stay with his uncle (and therefore my grandfather), fill up the form at the university, and come back. The railway ticket was 3 or 4 rupees, and I was supposed to use bus for going to the university. My grandfather’s abode was at Daryaganj, not very far from the destination station of Allahabad City. But in any case the money was much less than was required. The train was in the night, an my Grandmother realizing that I will run short of money gave me a few one rupee coins which she had kept in her Puja room. And so ‘the Chhora Ganga kinare wala’ started his journey. There was a minor mishap at the destination station of Allahabad City. I had a friend traveling with me, so keeping the luggage in the waiting room where I intended to take bath before I went to my Grandfather’s place, I went out of the gate to see him off surrendering the railway ticket. When ultimately I came to the gate bag and baggage, the TC at the gate insisted for the ticket which I had already surrendered. I tried to explain, but in vain, and he wanted to collect fine and fare charges which would have been devastating looking to my financial reserve. We argued back and forth and ultimately I was rescued by another colleague of the TC who persuaded his colleague not to take any action. Anyway, I reached my grandfather’s place, and from their to the University to fill up the form for admission to B.Sc. (PCM). But I still had my doubts, and so on the next day went and filled up another form for Arts stream. I had to get a hostel also, and I did not have a clue as to which hostel I should apply to. In the sultry July heat of Allahabad, I suddenly saw the gate of Muir Hostel with a discreet marble plate at the gate mentioning the name. Well, I went to the office. The clerk asked me about my marks, and assured me that I would have no problem in finding a seat in the hostel. I filled up the form . My comedown from the high pedestal started from there itself. I casually asked the clerk as to what was the highest marks obtained among the applicants to the hostel. He informed that it was 440 (out of 500), and that boy (Anil Kumar) was expected to top. I had secured a measly 376 in comparison. Anyway mission accomplished, I came back to Ghazipur to wait for the admission card, which did come in due course by ordinary post both for Science and Arts streams. However, for Arts stream, they had given me some stupid combination which had Geography as one of the subjects. That resolved all my doubts about sticking to the Science stream. In the meantime, the hostel admission also came, and I was probably asked to report there on 15 July. I started by the morning train on the 14th, and reached Allahabad by the afternoon. For the train journey I thought that shorts would be more comfortable, and I landed at the hostel in long khaki shorts and white shirt (typical RSS style). I got down from the rickshaw and was looking for the hostel attendant to take my luggage to the allotted room (Room 54, a double seated room—a fresher got only a double-seated room in Muir Hostel). Right at the entry to hostel building, I met another fresher student who had come a day earlier. He was horrified to see me in shorts, and asked me to change over to trousers immediately. I did not like his curt tone but did change over as told.

5. Next day there was the formality of an interview in which both the Warden and the Superintendent of the Hostel asked you questions before you were asked to deposit the fees.

6. The evening I landed in the hostel, I got the second jolt to my ego. I met another fresher, one Kamla Prasad Pande from Jaunpur I think. I asked him about the marks obtained by him. 396, twenty more than I had secured. Then I thought that at least in Mathematics I would score over him as I had got 98%. He said 100. I was completely deflated, like a balloon pricked.

7. Hostel ragging started the next day, and it continued for the entire session. I was told that after the students came back from the Dashera holidays, things would become normal. Hardly. Farshi (accosting in the typical Mogul style), and asking humiliating questions were the norm. The freshers got dirty or amusing titles. One of the freshers who had stood 3rd in the Arts stream was given the title ‘Ramu ki Chuhia’. He had a thin voice, with strong Western UP accent, and many a time he was asked to repeat his title in his shrill voice, to the amusement of everybody. There was no ‘Dada’ among the freshers in ‘3 idiots’ style. A question asked from almost every fresher was ‘Are you a boy or a girl’. Many kept mum. When I was asked this question, I undid the top few buttons of my trousers, and my punishment for this cheekiness was fifty ‘faarshis’. The incident gave me quite a notoriety, although I had no intention of going all the way in stripping. However, everyday for 2-3 days some hefty senior used to come and give me a shout. I was a weak, thin boy, having a severe case of acne during those days. Anyway, telling you about the college ragging is not the objective of this blog. But those days, physical violence was a no-no. The worst and the extreme was pillowing, where some of the nastier seniors hit the fresher with pillows. On the academic front what had happened to me was that suddenly I was a nobody from being a top student. It was bad for the ego, but worse, it took away the will to do well, to excel. On top of that, I started taking things easy.

8. Maths was OK, but the significant point was that the entire morning was used up in solving the sums of algebra, integral and differential calculus, and I hardly could get time in the morning to attend to other subjects.

9. Chemistry again was OK, but it was Physics which really got my goat. Heat was taught by Prof. Rajendra Singh (of RSS fame). He was a good teacher. Murli Manohar Joshi was also on the staff of Physics dept. but he did not teach us. Even those days (1958) they kept themselves busy in RSS activities. Some students were attracted to the organization, but to the credit of the two, there never was any attempt on their part to their proselytize any of their students. Things, however, were very different in Optics and practicals. Optics teacher had only a few months to go before retirement, and he used his own formulae to explain the topics. This was not found in any book. He was not a bad teacher but if you missed a few steps of the analysis or you missed a class, damage was permanent. Photocopied handouts were absent then, they came only a few decades later. But the worst part was yet to come. After his retirement, the subject was entrusted to a fresh M.Sc., and he made a complete mess of the subject. He had poor command over the language, and his knowledge of the subject was at best mediocre. The result was an unintelligible torture of 45 minutes. After a couple of weeks students used to leave the class after attendance, and I was often one of them. I should have normally read the subject from a book, and in worst case scenario mugged the portion which I did not understand, but I did not do that. The only book available in the market on the subject explained the concept cursorily followed by long formulae which had to be mastered. My classmates did that, but I don’t know how I gave up completely. One of my classmates of school days Arun was bad in Mathematics, and much later in life he admitted to me that one of the three papers of Maths he left completely blank in the final exam (12th). Arun changed over too Arts and joined Lucknow University from where he joined the Air Force. Something similar to what happened to Arun in Maths happened to me in Optics paper when the final exam came. I had studied the subject all through the night, and when I went to the examination hall, got the question paper and got down to attempt the few questions that I knew from the previous night’s study, I found that my mind was complete blank. I was so confused that I could hardly attempt any of the questions, and left them after writing the introduction, without analyzing any of them.

10. Physics practical was another story. There were a few prescribed experiments, and for each experiment, there was only one set of equipments in the lab. Thus most of the students did the practicals of the subject they had not studied in the theory class and so what done was only mechanical, without understanding fully the essence and objective of practical exercise. I don’t think that the situation is any different now in our colleges. Theory and practical subjects do not go simultaneously at the undergraduate level, and I don’t think that for any practical, large number of sets would be available so that the students do the experiment of the subject they have already been taught in the theory classes. Again it needed application on the part of the student, in the sense that before doing the practical the theory chapter has to be studied and understood in a general way so that what you do in the practical class does not go over your head, and you are generally aware of the principles behind that experiment. But as I mentioned, I had already given up, and did not bother to work hard. I whiled away my time in gossiping, roaming about, seeing movies and generally kept myself away from one of the three subjects which were the components of course.

11. Thus in the final exam, failure was looming large but still I went through the motion of appearing in all the papers. The last paper was Physics practical. The experiment was allotted to the candidate by a lottery system, there were two or three experiments written on top of the answer books kept face down on the table, and the student had to draw one. I was allotted an experiment which I had not done in the class, though it was not very difficult and I could have attempted it. I thought over it. This would bring me only marginal marks. And Optics I was going to fail, so there was no point in continuing with the practical exam. As for Maths and Chemistry, I had done tolerably well, but not brillantly. I informed the incharge teacher. He was sympathetic and tried to persuade me to complete, But I had made up my mind that there was no point in continuing, and leaving this paper was an escape route, in the sense that I could always say that I ‘dropped’, instead of failing.

12. Much later in life I was doing a post-graduate course in Development Economics in a British university. It was a regular course, and they believed in teaching economics through mathematics. I was much wiser then, not a teenager. I had a limited background in Maths, having dome only 10+2 in the subject. Some subjects where a lot of Mathematics was used were beyond me. I could manage to find a way out. On the subject I found some books in the library where it was explained and analysed in not so difficult (read mathematical) way. I did not have any difficulty in passing the exam, though I had to put in a lot of labour.

13. What happened after my drop could be anticipated. Humiliation for me, and consternation on the part of teachers and erstwhile classmates who had gone to colleges and universities elsewhere. My father who was in the village was positively nasty in letter he wrote to my uncle (I was staying in our ancestral home with my uncle). I was at a point in my life when it was difficult to take a decision as to the future course of action. My scholarship was going to be frozen, and for highter studies at least a minimum of resources were required. My father would have been too happy if I had joined a bank in Calcutta which was an easy proposition because of a relation who worked there. Banks were nationalized much later. He wanted me to support him for a few years, which meant putting my ambitions in cold storage for a few years, which would have completely broken me. One of my uncles had the tasteless suggestion of my seeking a job as a primary school teacher..

14. Ultimately I realized that it was only I who had to take a decision. I also realized that some sort of compromise would have to be made. I went to one of my old teachers Mr Subedar Mishra who had a soft corner for me and requested him to arrange a tuition for me. I decided that I would join the local Degree College which had started functioning only a couple of years back, and which had only arts stream. I informed my Uncle who was happy to see that I could reach a decision which under the circumstances was the best ppppossible. That I had to work hard what with a tuition to do was expected. I did well in the new College, got back my scholarship, and went again to the same University proved mainly to myself that I had not lost my basic touch.

15. The year’s experience was traumatic and it left a permanent mark on my psyche. Even now after more than half a century, I sometimes dream that the exams are near, I have hardly read anything in Physics, and am thinking of going to the market and getting help books on the subject which would allow me to get through. Thank god this experience of a blank mind in the examination hall happened at a relatively early stage in life so that later in life I was more cautious. I remember with sadness and disgust the remark of my younger uncle that I should seek a primary teacher’s job. And I also remember the quiet understanding and support I got from my Uncle and my old teacher who helped me get over the temporary setback.

16. Another incident which I still remember is related to my father. After that vituperative letter after my failure, we were not in touch with each other. When in B.A. Part I, I had a good result, I thought that I would inform my him. I wrote a postcard in handwritten italics without mentioning my name. My father thought that the letter was written by one of my cousins who was at Calcutta and who was a dullard. In reality he had failed that year, and when he got the congratulatory letter from my father, he politely informed him of his result and guessed that it must be me who had informed him. Net result was that he was wild and wrote me a postcard using the choicest abuses. It was sent on my home address, and was a matter of amusement to everybody. I also took it lightly, thank God!

17. One lesson I got, though I fully realised it much later that you cannot be at the top always. At some point in life, you find people who are smarter and more intelligent than you and most importantly are willing to work for more hours than you are used to. They could be more successful than you are, and you have to accept the place you deserve, it could be one in the crowd.

18. Why this childish account of something which is significant only for me? Maybe somebody who is passing through the same stage and upheaval as I did learns something!

Gotra System in Modern Context

2010-05-30T00:42:00.000-07:00

Hindu Gotra System

Media been giving wide coverage to the Khap Panchayats and their unreasonably rigid and inflexible stand on the question of same gotra marriages.

What What is gotra and how did it come about? It was the Brahmins who first tried to classify themselves according to gotra. This later on got extended to other varnas (Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra)) as well. To understand the concept, let us confine to gotra system in Brahmins. Each gotra takes the name of a famous rishi or sage, who was the patrilineal forebear of the clan. The original rishis after whom the gotras were named were eight in number namely Angiras, Atri, Gautam, Kashyapa, Bhrigu, Vashishtha, Kutsa and Bharadvaj. Gotras were further subdivided into ganas and sub ganas. Another concept is that of Pravars or Pravar Rishis who were 3 or 5 most excellent sages belonging to that gotra. Each Brahmin was known by his gotra, pravar, sutra and shakha. Thus introducing himself one has to say “I am XYZ of Srivatsa gotra of Apstamba sutra, of Tathiriya shakha of Yajurved, of the five Pravars named Bhargava, Chyavan, Aapnavan, Aurva and Jamdagnya.” (Example taken from Wikipedia).

While the gotras were initially classified under eight rishis, pravars were classified under seven rishis named Agastya, Angiras, Atri, Bhrigu, Kashyapa, Vashishtha and Vishwamitra.

Marriage between close relations increases the chances of congenital birth defects through an increase in the frequency of homozygots. A case in point is the Habsburg lip which by intermarriages was aggravated to the point that Charles II of Spain could not even properly chew his food. Even during those olden days in India, our ancestors were aware of the deleterious effect on progeny of marriage between close relatives. With a small population those belonging to the same gotra generally were related either closely or remotely either from the paternal side or the maternal side. And therefore, sagotra marriage or marriage within the same gotra was prohibited. It was a simple way of keeping the younger members of your family healthy both physically and mentally, so that he is fit to work in the fields, or fight in a battle, or work as a priest (I am talking of all the varnas together).As the population increased so did the number of gotras. Jamdagni descended (and got separated ) from Bhrigu, and so did Gautam and Bharadwaj from Angiras. Some other sages formed their own gotra. But then the number count stopped. At the last count there were about 119 gotras. No separate gotra for Ramtirth, Dayanand, Ramkrishna, Vivekanand or Ambedkar.

Later some types of relaxation were made for marriage between relatives, mainly for property considerations. Like South Indian Hindu society allowed marriage to maternal uncle’s daughter, or paternal aunt’s daughter., But marriage to father’s brother’s daughter was not allowed, as they belonged to the same gotra in the patrilineal society. (cross cousins vs, parallel cousins). With the increase in population, a short cut was evolved which allowed sagotra marriage by the maternal uncle adopting the bride. In matrilineal society of Kerala, the type of marriages allowed in patrilineal society was not allowed, as the gotra descended from the mother’s side.

So are the Khap Panchayats justified in taking an aggressive and sometimes violent stand against same gotra marriages? They have now extended their demand to ban same village marriage as well on the argument that generally the villages were originally settled by one extended family only. I do not think that the Khap are justified in taking this reactionary stand. It is a throwback to the times not by a few centuries but a few millennia., distorting the meaning of a good system for reasons which are beyond understanding. When the population of the entire country (India+Pakistan) was less than a crore during the days of Mahabharat, banning marriages in the same gotra had some justification, but it is hardly justified for a burgeoning Hindu population of about 900 million and which is still growing.

Some Poisonous Plants of India_ A Sequel

2010-05-11T07:07:00.000-07:00

Thevetia peruviana

callotropsis gigantea

Dieffenbachia

Acacia concinna_shikakai

Euphorbia Tirucalli

Added on Tuesday 11 May ‘10

Some more information on poisonous plants around us.

It is said that Madar milk (calotropsis gigantea) mixed with mother’s milk was used for infanticide during olden days. (My impression upto now was that Madar or Aak is not poisonous.)

Thevetia peruviana was used the same way. These plants are toxic to most vertebrates as they contain cardiac glycosides. Many cases of intentional and accidental poisoning of humans are known. A few bird species are however known to feed on them without any ill effects. One man's food is another man's poison!

Acacia concinna (Shikakai) which is used all over the country for its cleaning quality, especially for hair where it also acts as a detangler, is used in Bengal as a fish poison. The plant parts used for the powder are the bark, leaves or pods. The bark contains high levels of saponins which act as foaming agent. The saponins, apart from potent marine toxin has also spermicidal effect against human semen.

Of the two more plants which have come to my notice, the first is Diffenbachia. It is a very common potted plant seen in homes and offices all over the country. It is also a dangerous plant if the leaves are taken internally. The tongue gets thickened combined awith intense pain and a child can can choke to death in a minute or so with an adult taking about 15 minutes. Its sap if it goes in the eye can cause blindness.

More than quarter century ago when my daughter was a toddler the local civil surgeon had come to my official residence, saw a potted plant and advised me to immediately have it uprooted and burnt. He said that its sap if it goes in the eye can cause blindness. Today I searched for it in Bose's book . It is EUPHORBIA TIRUCALLI. Bose has written in the description that "it is extremely poisonous."

Most of the plants that I have mentioned in my blog are common household plants found in many home gardens. Poison is not difficult to find! Human life is so precious, but with nature strewn poisonous herbs all around it is so easy to poison somebody or to get poisoned himself.

Note: Some material is based on Wikipedia free encyclopedia.

Acacia

2010-05-10T10:56:00.000-07:00

Prsosopis juliflora......Vilaiti keekar

Acacia melanoxylon
Acacia mangium

Acacia tortilis

Acacia auriculiformis

Acacia Sengal

. Acacia catechu......... .Kattha,Khair

Acacia nilotica flower

Acacia nilotica in flower
(Picture credit Wikipedia, Blackwood image from the google search engine)

The Story of Babool

One hears about and sees babool all around in our country, but never know anything beyond the basic facts about the plant. I started my search on the net and some of the interesting facts I came to know for the first time. Acacia is a genus of trees and shrubs which has about 1300 species, about 960 native to Australia and the rest to the tropical and warm-temperate regions of Africa, South Asia and the Americas. In such a large group, obviously some would be good and useful to the human kind, and some of their cousins not so . A reputed quasi-religious organization of India has given a list of 3 no-no plants which are: Acacia, mangium and nilgiri. Mangium is Acacia mangium, an invasive but useful plant. Nilgiri is Eucalyptus, and it is admitted now openly or otherwise that its transpiration rate is high, and lowers the water level. But to condemn Acacia as a genus would not be fair. Some varieties are useful, and have been so for millenniums. Let us think about at least the prominent among them.

Acacia nilotica is our native babool. I am fond of it because it is the favourite of birds, as they find it safe for perching, roosting and nesting because of its large thorns. You can sometimes see a colony of baya nests hanging on it , and many a tree of this variety reverberate with the chirping of various birds like house sparrows, prinia, bulbul and other smaller birds. Its wood is used in villages for agricultural implements, and other minor furniture, and interior villages also use it for protecting trees from kettle during the first few years.

After delivery, the mother is given heavy protein in the form of sweets made of nuts, and dry fruits. Also included is laddoo made of gum and sugar which they say thickens the milk. Well, gum in the earlier days was collected from so many trees, but the best gum was obtained from Gum Arabic (Acacia Senegal). From the name it is clear that it is a native of Africa. It is found in West Africa from Senegal to Nigeria. Acacia arabica (a synonym of Acacia nilotica) tree is the gum Arabic of India, and gives gum of inferior quality. To add to the paradox, A.nilotica has become a species of serious concern in Australia as it is currently invasive in nature there.

What is Indian food without paan (betel leaf). Paan is laced with kattha and slaked lime. Betel nut, scented matter, and scented tobacco (for those who like it) are added to it to make it more tasty. Kattha is made from boiling the stem of Acacia catechu which generally grows wild in Indian forests and is jealously guarded by the forest officials. The tree is allowed to be cut only after it attains maturity.

Acacia melanoxylon (Blackwood) is a highly valued temperate acacia species. It is a native to Tasmania, South Africa and Chile. It can go upto 45 metres in height, and is used in construction and furniture making.

Acacia mearnsii (Black Wattle) is also an important temperate acacia.

Acacia modesta (Phulai) is a native of West Pakistan, Afghanistan and India (Punjab and U.P.). Wood is hard and durable, and is used in the villages for cane crushers, Persian wheels and other agricultural implements.

Acacia tortilis (Israeli babool) is the dominant tree of many Savannah communities. It grows wild in Sinai desert. Flowers are highly aromatic, and it can tolerate extreme arid condition. It is also known as Umbrella Thorn and is a staple browse for camels and goats. One tree gives 14 to 18 kgs of pods and leaves in the year. It is a Biblical tree, and it is believed that its wood was used for the Ark of the Tabernacle. This tree has been recommended for the reclamation of Rajasthan deserts, and I think it is an excellent idea.

Sweet acacia (A. farnesiana, Needle bush) is a weedy plant. Its roasted pods are used in sweet and sour dishes. Flowers are processed through distillation to produce a perfume called cassia. It is considered a serious weed in Fiji and parts of Australia.

Acacia planifrons (Umbrella thorn) is a native of southern part of India and Srilanka. Apart from its wood, there is not much to say about this specie.

Now we come to the more controversial species. The first is Acacia mangium. It can go up to 30 meters. It is a native of Australia (Queensland), Molluccan islands, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. Large scale plantations have been developed in Indonesia and Malaysia. However, it is invasive in the sense that it replaces the local trees. In Tamilnadu the Forest department is cutting these trees. A. mangium is a fast growing species with numerous seeds and therefore it outperforms other trees. Each tree produces a kilogram of seed per year which is about 80,000 to 110,000 seeds. The result is that it stifles the growth of the native trees and disturbs the ecological balance. The tree has been found invasive in Sabah, Africa and Melville Island in Australia. The plus point of the specie is that it has rapid growth, and is tolerant of very poor soils. It can go upto 30 meters, 15m and 40 cm girth in 3 years and 23 metres in 9 years. Wood chips are used as paper pulp, and timber is used for building and furniture. A hybrid of A. mangium and A. auriculiformis has been found to be more vigorous and has better timber.

Leucaena leucocephala (Acacia palida), a native of Australia, was brought to India with much fanfare. It is an excellent proteinous fodder, and Indira Gandhi was so impressed with the plant that she said that it should not be called kuabaool' but subabool and the name stuck. It is a spindly tree and is easily spread by seeds grown in abundance. It spreads quickly in clumps in surrounding areas and it is difficult to get rid of.

Acacia auriculiformis (Earpod Wattle) is another variety which has recently been introduced in India. It is non-browsable and fast growing, and therefore liked by the Forest department. It is leguminous. It was used as an ornamental plant in Florida , but was found to have invaded pinelands, scrub and hammocks in South Florida, and thereby, displacing native vegetation and threatening to shade out rare plants. Its use as an ornamental plant has also been restricted because of the litter it produces. Overall, in spite of some good points, I do not think it is worth encouraging by the Forest as well as Horticulture departments.

A species which is often mistaken for acacia is Prosopis juliflora. This is a thorny shrub or small tree, native of Mexico, South America and the Caribbean. There was a time when for the reclamation of Chambal ravines near Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh its seed was sprayed by helicopter. The programme succeeded in the sense that it got established in the ravines but it also spread to the nearby areas. Soon it was found to be highly invasive in nature. It spreads on its own. Birds do not like the tree because it is so dense that it is unsuitable for roosting and nesting. In a study conducted in Kenya where it was imported, it was found to be not beneficial to the herders as it stifles the favoured grasses in spite of its being a source of livestock fodder in pods. It was found to be invasive into cropfields, grazing areas and wetlands which are useful for dry season grazing. Apart from the fuelwood use and fencing in a basic way, it was not found to have much use. On the whole, another useless plant.

The perception of the people about the invasive species is influenced by how they weigh their benefits against the harmful effects. The invasive plants have some good points but it is better to be cautious before introducing them to a new area. The invasive plants mentioned above have more minus points. The native varieties are always better. We have several instances of exotic plants brought to India with much hope and hype, or for their beauty, and have been found to have more harmful effects. Water hyacinth, lantana, ipomoea, parthenium, eucalyptus are all exotic, and they have had negative influence on our ecological balance. On the other hand, potato, tomato, cauliflower, green chillies, tobacco and sorghum are all exotic plants. So are apple and grapes (from the olden times).

Some Home Truths

2010-05-10T04:46:00.000-07:00

Some Home Truths!

Man is nearest to pigs.. No Sir, not to simians. Here is the proof: (a) it is human insulin which most of the diabetics take now. But some time back it was beyond the reach of many patients, and they used pig insulin. (b) The experiment which is going on in transplanting pancreatic cells of other animals is primarily concentrating on pig cells. (c) When our own Dr. Barooah tried to transplant animal heart into human body, he used pig heart. Need any more convincing? When a young lady whom you have teased gets exasperated she screams, “Mr. Smith, you are a p-e-e-e g”!

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Man is by specie a vegetarian. Good old days in the school one of our teachers had told us a story. Once there was a jungle fire, and a deer was burnt. A man saw it and out of curiosity he put his finger inside the flesh. It was hot, and the instinctive reaction was to put the finger in the mouth. And he liked the taste. Then started mutton eating and especially cooked meat. But whether prior to this he ate raw meat, or only fruits and roots? That is a moot point. But those who follow Jainism firmly believe that man is structurally made to be a vegetarian: (a) Our teeth are like herbivores and not like carnivores to hold the kill, puncture its neck and tear it. (b) We suck water like a deer and not lap it like a tiger (c) monkeys and apes are vegetarian (so is pig!). In any case if homo sapiens first came into existence (or evolved) in Africa, this might be true. Later climatic compulsions of colder regions made them carnivores. (Sorry, I don’t carry a brief for veggies).

******************** ***************** *********

Will a day come when we will understand the language of the animals and birds? My own impression is that enough attention has not been given to this problem otherwise it was nothing very difficult to break. But yes, they have very limited vocabulary. The cry of the birds, the gibber of the monkeys and the frightened call of the deer when they get to know that a tiger is on the prowl are known to everybody. Some birds are cleverer than others. Crows. They may have a larger vocabulary. Have you seen the gregariousness of the crow when even for a small amount of eatables they would call all their brethren nearby to share it. On the other hand even if there is a dead elephant and a lone dog he would snarl if another one comes.. But no, wild dogs do hunt in a group. But probably for the selfish reason that for a lone dog it may not be possible to kill. Coming back to language of animals, in a dairy farm in Chhattisgarh I have seen cows being called by the number allotted to them, and they do respond. Even tribals and primitive societies have a limited vocabulary. Uncomplicated life and the absence of complex emotions and thoughts. Indo-European group of languages have probably the richest vocabulary than any other languages spoken in the world.

Some Good Times

2010-04-12T10:31:00.000-07:00

The Most Satisfying Moments of My Life

I was a young Sub-Divisional Officer in a place which still had some unreachable areas where no SDO had ever visited. Jashpur was a hilly area more a part of adjoining state of Bihar than the then Madhya Pradesh. It was early seventies and I had some funds in the local body under my charge. With some additional money from a government scheme I decided to make 50 school buildings. I had visited each and every selected village, selected the site, sometimes stayed over when the overseer put the layout. It was not necessary, but it gave me satisfaction.

In one village, there was a pucca well which was made under some government scheme. Next to it was a piece of land which was ideal for the school, and I homed in on it. I casually inquired whether the well was being used by the villagers. It was a pointless question, as the well looked deserted.

“Sir, the well water is not used”. I was curious,”Why?”

“The water is bitter”. The village had another common well, and that seemed to be just enough.

“Anyway, the water seems good enough for construction purposes, and we will build the school here.”

Those days the school building construction was a little prolonged affair. It was drawing to summer, and the first thing was to make clay bricks which needed quite some water, and fire a kiln with coal which was carried from outside. Coal area was nearby in Bihar. Cement had to be carried, but all other building material was local: country tiles, timber and doors and windows made by the local carpenter. I closely monitored this scheme which was close to my heart, and a few months later I did go to the same village again to watch the progress. The school was on the verge of completion. The well nearby had proved handy. I saw another

thing which raised my curiosity. I saw some village belles drawing water from the well.

“What are they taking water for?”

“For household purposes”was the reply. Then somebody who was present during my last visit explained,”Sir, as a large quantity of water was drawn for brick making and for construction purposes, whatever impurity was there in the water was removed, and now the villagers have started using the water.”

So obviously the water was polluted by some wild plant or maybe some dead animal, and there was nothing wrong with the water. Unintentionally I had brought the well back to life.

I was Collector at Durg which is now in Chhattisgarh. In the lean season every year, the landless and marginal and small cultivators need some job as there are no agricultural operations going at that time. There were not many regular labour- intensive employment generating schemes at that time. But there was a provision in the Scarcity Manual under which an area could be declared scarcity-affected and work could be taken up under orders of the Collector. This became a regular feature in that part of the State. Even now there is a substantial migration of labour during summer from Chhattisgarh to other more prosperous states. I hasten to add that sometimes there was a genuine scarcity and works were needed to sustain the village folk. Now it was a one of those years. I had gone to a block headquarters for a normal visit which a Collector is supposed to do, and also to check scarcity works going on in the area.

The Agriculture Extension Officer came to me and was explaining about a loan scheme which he had diligently prepared in consultation with a local bank for deepening a couple of ponds for the benefit of the fishermen who had the contract for the fishing rights over them. It was a good scheme, and the AEO was sincere. I checked up the status of the village. It was in the list of scarcity affected areas.

With a straight face I asked, “Have you thought of taking the work under the scarcity programme?”

The AEO was taken unawares. He hadn’t imagined that it could be taken up fully with the government funds without any burden to the fishermen’s society. Ultimately I sanctioned a small amount of probably 25 to 30 thuosand for each after going through the normal procedure of obtaining the estimates, and sanctioning the amount from the district headquartes. My timely visit to the village saved the fishermen from avoidable indebtedness.

***************** ****************** ******

In another area a lift irrigation scheme which was handed over to a cooperative society of the villagers for running and maintenance was at that time neglected and became non-functional because of lack of contribution from the members. And there were paddy crops nearby which were dying because of lack of water. To say the least I was amazed. I asked the local AEO to see that the LIS started working, and assured the power dues from the scarcity funds. The connection was originally terminated for that reason only. The scheme could restart. The credit goes mainly to the AEO who did all the spadework and running around. I haven’t been able to understand the psyche of the villagers who allowed it to go to the seed. It may have been a plentiful year when water was in plenty.

Inside and Outside

2010-04-12T05:22:00.000-07:00

The Most Embarrassing Moments of my Life.

I was an undergraduate student in my late teens. I had come home during summer vacations. I got a call from the college for the summer camp of N.C.C. The first step was to get washed all the khaki uniforms that was issued to me. Well, I gave them to the neighbouring washerman - our regular family washerman used to stay a few miles away. The washerman returned the washed uniforms a few days later. I found a pair of trousers short. He assured that he will check and asked me to come the next day.
Next day I went. He stated that he had checked and it was not there. I gave him a piece of my mind and insisted that I will see all the washed and pressed clothes that he had. Well, he took me there and I saw his entire stack one by one. The trousers was not there. I cursed my bad luck and came back. As a parting shot the washerman told me more in distress than anger that it was for the first time that anybody went to check his entire stock. It haunted me and even now I remember it with shame and embarrassment as a few days after when I was leaving for the camp, I opened my trunk. Well, the trousers was there, duly washed and pressed. That must have been the reason why I did not give it the washerman in the first instance. Needless to say that as a young man I was too proud to go and apologize to the washer man.

This experience of mine came in good stead much later in life. One day my wife lost her gold Kada (bracelet). She searched and searched and couldn’t find it. And the suspicion fell on the maid-servant. My wife consulted one of her friends who was a police officer’s wife. She advised her to report to police, and they would be able to do the job. I asked my wife to wait for a day more, search once more in the various nooks and crannies, and if even then she was not able to find it, she could take recourse to police. I asked her to remove the mattresses on the double bed. The bed was also moved, and lo and behold, the kada was lying on top of the trunk which was just under the bed. It seems that the board on the bed had a gap and the bracelet had slipped from there to the top of the trunk!

*** *** *** ***

It was my first charge as the Sub-Divisional Officer in a small town of 10,000. Being in charge of a subdivision some 200 km away from the district headquarters, I was asked to do flag hoisting at a college and a school on the republic day. It was the college first. I reached on the ground dot at 8.30 as scheduled. The parade-in-charge looked at me with a puzzled look. I could not make out what it was, and I was also puzzled. Next was the school, which was after a sufficient gap of time. I reached the school The old Principal had an irritated look on his face. I was again perplexed.
I could discover the reason only in the evening when I found from my transistor (sorry, TV had not come to India till then) that the old wrist watch was wearing from my student days was exactly 10 minutes slow. How it had happened I just don’t know, but the fact was that I was late by 10 minutes in functions where punctuality is still observed. Well, from the next month’s salary I changed the watch.

A funny incident of similar nature had occurred when I was Collector of a district on leave vacancy. This was the flag hoisting by a minister in the district headquarters. After the flag hoisting and at the time of the national anthem there was some trouble from a section of students in a corner. Well, the anthem was over in 52 seconds. Now the shouting was clearer: ‘jhanda ulta hai’. Yes the flag was upside down, with green at the top. The poor minister had mistakenly pulled the wrong string. Let us not blame him . It must be the police constable who handed him the wrong end of the string. We all being near the flag could not see it so easily but it was clearly visible from a distance. Neeeedless to say, the flag was hastily brought down and put back the right way up.

Another incident relating to flag hoisting on republic day happened at another district when I was the Collector, and again some Minister who had to do the flag hoisting. Just a minor hitch, nothing serious, though if I club the three incidents together I must consider 2+6=8, the date, to be my unlucky number. The previous day we had done the rehearsal. A young police officer was entrusted with the job of escorting the Minister to the parade ground. The time taken by him from the circuit house to the parade ground was duly noted by him. The Minister was to reach at the spot sharp at 9 am. Myself, the District Superintendent of Police and the young officer (I am deliberately not naming him- he has just retired at a fairly high level) had synchronised our watches. The next morning I and SP reached the spot well in time. Suddenly we found the Minister’s car coming in about 3-4 minutes ahead of the schedule. We were non-plussed, and at the spur of the moment decided to go ahead with the programme even though a few moments before time. I remember the SP was wild on the young officer and it was with difficulty that he could control himself in front of the Minister and everybody else including the large gathering. Later we tried to find out why the young officer had brought the Minister early. His explanation was that in the night he had synchronised his watch with the radio, probably hoping that we would also do the same. Any way he did not inform any of us either in the night or in the morning. Now I think his watch must have been the winding or the self-winding type, and would have stopped for sometime and on finding it out he synchronised it with the radio. There’s many a slip between the cup and the lip!

** *** *** *** **

A few years ago I had gone to a hill resort in an English-speaking country. No names. We had to go by ropeway to the top of a peak. There was a music shop with cassettes and cd’s. I don’t know much of classical music whether Indian or European, but sweet tunes can be enjoyed even by an ignoramus like me. I did buy a couple of cd’s there which were in a separate carry bag. An hour or so later when I was elsewhere I put my hand in the tweed jacket I was wearing. Suddenly I felt something hard in my pocket. My firangi host was with me. I was in jitters. I could guess what had happened. Unconsciously I had put a cassette in my pocket, without realising that it was there. I had not paid for it. Had it been sensitised then I would have had it. I thought of confessing to my foreign friend, but then the thought arose of all the ensuing complications and the fall in his esteem for me. After a long debate with my conscience I decided to keep mum. Even after more than two decades of the incident, it rankles, and puts me to shame. Not that at that time I was not used to foreign lands. I had stayed in a firang land for 14 months to get a degree. I can only say that I don’t know how this unconscious act happened. I at that time suddenly remembered an old incident involving Indian film star Nargis. The incident happened later with Rekha I think, another film actor. They must have got enough money to be on a buying spree, and it is understandable that they also unconsciously pocketed a pair of socks or some such thing for which they had every intention of paying. But the thought that I could have been caught still fills me with trepidation.

** ** *** *** **

Indian Festivals: A Viewpoint

2010-04-11T21:04:00.000-07:00

Festivals- Indian Style

Muslims slaughter a whole goat for Id-uz-zuha (Bakrid or Qurbani), and eat kebabs and sewai (vermicelli and milk pudding) on the occasion of Id-ul-Fitr. Christians have turkey on Christmas day which is almost ten times the size of a gawthi murghi (local fowl). And Hindus f-a-s-t during festivals. It is true for Ram Navmi, Janmashtami, Shivratri, Durga Puja and also for the Festival of Lights, which generally falls in end October-November. On this day, people are supposed to fast for the day, worship the Goddess of Wealth, Lakshmi, in the evening and then partake food. I frankly don’t know why fasting is so closely associated with the rites and rituals of Hindu religion. Why, even the bride is supposed to fast on the day of her marriage, what to say of Teej and Karva Chauth when fasting is more rigorous. The other fad intricately linked with our religion (and fasting) is turning veggie on certain days. Tuesday most of North India turns vegetarian. During Navratri (nine days before Dashera), people keep fast, some do not take salt even and those who don’t fast are emotionally blackmailed by their wives to be strict veggie during those nine days. And when our pandits were not satisfied with nine days of fasting during Dashera, they discovered another Navratri before Ram Navmi, the birth anniversary of Ram (one of the trinity of the most revered forms of God (Ram, Krishna and Shiva). Another nine days of fasting and/or vegetarianism. Panditji will counter with the remark: ‘What about Muslims who fast during the entire thirty days of the month of Ramzan?’ ‘But my dear Sri Watson, they take two meals during the day, Sehri in the morning and Iftaar in the evening. Anyway, to dilute what I said before, during our childhood days, we looked forward to such fasting festivals to eat something different for the everyday routine. Potato, sago, nuts, milk pudding with makhana (popped lotus seeds), banana and all kinds of fruits, and loaf made of dried waternut and kuttu flour. Thus some of the laity does have a gastronomic gala time, It is the religiose who have to suffer. Suffering, tapasya (penance),, and sanyam (abstemiousness) are intrinsically linked with Hinduism and Jainism.

They say that Rakshabandhan is a festival of the Brahman (the thinkers, advisors and teachers), Dashera of the Kshatriya (the warriors), Diwali for the Vaishya (the business class) and Holi for the Shudra (slaves and those who did menial work). Kshatriyas do shastra puja (weapon worship) on Dashera day. When my father was killed by a petty dacoit in his village, I started shastra puja on the Dashera day despite being born in a Brahman family. My wife is horrified. In spite of being a Kayastha, she keeps fast on Thursdays, and another three days in the week are vegetarian for her. Needless to say, the remaining three days are festive for her, and that gastronomic delight gives its share to poor me as well.

In most of North India, crackers start bursting from about 5 p.m. almost continuously on the Diwali day, and keep on and on till about 11 p.m. when it subsides a little. My wife’s cousin is so sound allergic that he runs away from Mumbai on that day. My nastiest thought on such blunderbussing is that it would be easy to shoot somebody on Diwali day without anybody getting wiser.

Crackers bring accidents, and during my childhood and even young days, it was a routine for me to get burnt on diwali, though, touch wood, everytime it was nothing serious. During my civil services examination more than three and a half decades ago, I burnt my right hand (mercifully not seriously), and for a few days after that I was in jitters. Thank God my writing hand was absolutely fit on the day of the next paper.

One good custom is to clean and whitewash your house just before Diwali. The geo-climatic reason is not far to seek. October-November is the end of rainy season in India, and the right time to do some cleaning and printing.

A phenomenon which I have been observing for a few decades is the confusion on the exact date of some of the festivals. So some people observe it one day, and some on the next. My feeling is that it is a confusion deliberately created by the pandits who let you perform the puja and other religious rites. If you have the same festival on two successive dates, a pandit can visit more homes. Muslims also have confusion about the exact date of the two Ids, but that is firmed up when you see the moon, and there is no duplication of dates.

So enjoy your Diwali sweets, kheer-pudi, and the variety of fried goodies which many of the ladies still prepare with love and care in north Indian homes. Happy Diwali!

Double Standards

2010-04-11T01:31:00.000-07:00

Double Standards

Strange are the ways of the Anglo Saxons. If you go by what you read in the novels, magazines and the page 3 people, the Americans and The English have the most liberal attitude to sex and various kinds of liaison: teenage, premarital, postmarital, and unisexual. The sale of contraceptives add the right of even teenagers to it. The percentage of divorcees are, if I am not mistaken, between one third to two-fifth of the total population. For some divorce is at the drop of a hat, something which probably they undergo to legitimise the relationship for the duration it lasts but most probably to legitimise the children which they may beget during that time period. You read in the newsmagazines about single mothers and teenage pregnancies. Sometime back the result of a survey done in U.S. and England was published. It was by an organisation called RSCG Worldwide. It found that 59% of Britons thought it normal for a thirty something to have had 10 or more lovers before getting married. In US, the percentage was 49%. 11% Britons thought extra marital affairs in which nobody gets hurt is acceptable. In US it was lower at 9%.

But when it comes to politicians, they use the time machine to go back to Victorian morality. Poor Clinton! What he did could be only a minor indiscretion for a lesser mortal. Remember some British star? I cannot recall his name, who had a short release (like the Indian long distance truck driver) in a park I think. There are any number of examples. John Profumo is probably the oldest example. The French are more liberal- remember Mitterand? And now there are the Prime Ministers of France and Italy! And so are Indians have also shown tolerance or indifference to sexual transgressions by the political . But come to Anglo Saxons, and they do not tolerate any transgression, however trivial, at least in the politicians. Funnily, the rich are exempted. So are the royalty, and the star players like the cricketer from Australia or the basketball player from the US.. It is only when it comes to who will sit on the throne that suddenly the standards change. The latest is about the English coach. Teacher or a coach exploiting a pupil has to be viewed seriously, no doubt about it. But a coach having relationship with a secretary- how does it affect his performance in the workplace that is, the football field?

What is the reason for such psyche? Why this dichotomy? Does anybody have a

rational explanation?

Nirakh sakhi, yeh khanjan phir aaye

2010-04-10T04:16:00.000-07:00

Painted Partridge

White wagtail

Surkhab

Hill mynah

Indian vulture

Peregrine falcon

Hawk cuckoo or Brainfever bird

Shoveller

Pariah kite

Greater flamingoes

bar-headed geese in flight

flamingoes in flight

greater adjutant stork

bar-headed geese

Bat (no bird, but a mammal)

Heeraman tota

Koel

Flamingoes

Pied crested cuckoo

Lesser adjutant stork

(photo credit: Self, Wikipedia, birdsofbombay)

The Birds in Poetry and of Yore

When you read a poem, hear a song, go through some mythological story
Or the distress call of some environmentalist mentioning one bird or the other, are you able to picture the bird immediately? BNHS or Sanctuary does not give Hindi version every time they mention a bird, and sometimes even though you know the bird, you don’t place it properly. I faced the same problem till about a decade back. Over some time what I could learn and guess, I am sharing with you.

‘Nirakh sakhi, ye khanjan phir aaye’ (lo, my friend, these khanjans have come again). This is Sumitra during her years of separation from Lakshman when he accompanied his brother Ram during his exile. Khanjan is wagtail, mainly yellow wagtail which is a winter visitor found near water bodies.

Another bird is chatak. ‘Chatak khada chonch khole hai/samput khole seep khadi hai/main apna ghat liye khada hoon/apni apni hame padi hai’ (they are all waiting for the rains-chatak with open beak, pearl oyster opening the lips, and the poet with a pitcher). Chatak is pied crested cuckoo which is the harbinger of rains. It is sighted in northern and central parts of India just before the monsoons. It is a migrant from Africa, and it is said that monsoon winds help it to cross from one continent to the other. That is why its coming means that the rains are not far behind.

Two other birds of the same family are koel, our most famous song bird. Kokila used to be one of the more popular east Indian first names. Koel puts her eggs in in the nest of crows. Wonder what happens to the legendary cleverness of crow in this matter. The other is Papiha (brain fever bird). ‘Papiha re-e-e? mere piya se kahio jaaye’ (O papiha, please convey my message to my loved one). This bird is vocal during summer. It has a shrill cry, repeated 5-6 times, rising in crescendo. In English it sounds like ‘brain-fever-brain-fever.’ In Hindi as if ‘Pee-kahan?’ (where is my beloved). And in Marathi ‘paos aala’ (the rains have come)!

Bird sound resembling Hindi words; another example is Painted Partridge (kala teetar), a favourite of the shikaris. Its call resembles ‘subhan teri kudrat’ or ‘Ramchandra-Dash-rath’ depending on what your affinities are!

Cheel. The floating, gliding pariah kite. There is a proverb by Ghagh: ‘dhele upar cheel jo bole/gali gali main pani dole’ (if a kite gives a call perching on an unbroken round of soil, it means heavy rains). The U.P.Government at one time got research done on such weather forecasts(=indications) in the sayings of Ghagh. Most of them did not pass the test.

Associated scavenger bird is vulture (giddh). In Hindi those having keen sight or insight are called having giddh-drishti. For hunting, a vulture has to have keen eyesight. Both cheel and giddh you find hovering over a cadaver. What was Jatayu, the huge bird that tried to save Sita when she was being kidnapped by Ravan? It must be one of the larger varieties of our predators. It could be Imperial Eagle, but my best guess is Tawny Eagle, as it is more easily found in the southern part of the country.

One need not mention the ubiquitous house crow, another scavenger bird living near human habitations. I have a sneaking suspicion that Bombay has the highest crow population in the world (as Delhi of simians, both meant literally). Had Laxman painted the crow in all its moods if he was located elsewhere? Cawing of crow near the verandah is supposed to bring some guest. ‘Mori atariya pe kaga bole/mora jiya dole/koi aa raha hai’ (Crow is calling from top of the house, my heart is full of joy, someone is coming). Most birds start their song in the morning, however you can hear the crows in the night also, apart from bats which are not birds but mammals.

Vishnu’s carrier is Garuda. Location wise, adjutant stork foots the bill. A huge bird, larger than vulture, strong flier, martial in walk. Or It could also be one of the eagles.

During my childhood days the footpath booksellers invariably had a copy of ‘Kissa tota-myna’. Well, these two are the most famous mimic birds in the country. The tota here is Alexandrine parakeet (better known as Heeeraman in Hindi), and the myna here is not the abundant Indian Myna but Hill Myna (pahadi myna). Heeraman is easily the most beautiful cage bird, large, with long tail, having red patch on the shoulder, and ring on the neck. The hill myna is slightly larger than our common myna, with trade mark orange yellow wattles on the head. They say Heeraman talks best when kept alone in the cage. Hill myna is delicate, a prized cage bird before the advent of Manekaji.

Ravi Varma had made an exact replica of swan in his paintings. The hans in Hindu mythology and Sanskrit poetry is probably bar-headed goose, a winter migratory. and not the large swan we see in zoos and abroad. The neer kshir vivek rajhans which has the legendary quality of separating water from milk is according to many our own flamingo which has got colonies in Kutch. Yes, the legend is partly true. Flamingo’s bill is adapted for filter feeding. Upper bill is thin and flat which acts like a lid to the lower bill which is like a trough. Both have comb like structure which acts as a strainer. It feeds in shallow water, scrapes the muddy bottom, churned up mud is collected in the hollow beak and strained with the help of thick tongue and the comb-like structure (lamellae). Shoveller, another migratory duck, has the same quality of separating food from muck.

And lastly, the first Sanskrit poet (adi kavi) Valmiki uttered his first shlok when a hunter killed male bird of the pair of Kraunch. ‘Ma nishad pratishthatvam gatah shasti sama yatkraunch mithunadekam vadhi kamamohitam’ (You have killed one of a happy couple, may you not yourself live long). This was when he was on his way to take bath in river Tamasa. My best guess is that Kraunch is brahminy duck (surkhab). A large brown migratory duck always found in pair, and sometimes in a flock. Seems it has been a favourite hunting bird for ages. Edible quality of a meat depends on what it eats. Ask a lion or tiger. They always go for herbivores, and not touch other carnivores like jackals. That way, the cannibals had very poor taste!

SOME INSIGHTS

2010-04-09T21:42:00.000-07:00

(This series of 3-4 collections of my reminiscences I had written some time back. I thought bringing it to Blogs will bring it more permanency than keeping them in the hard disk where they might get corrupted. Hope you will like them.)

Some Insights

I had my school education in a town in U.P. which had a sizeable Muslim population. A number of students in the school were Muslim. While going to the loo, a number of them picked up a clay ball or a small piece of soft stone with absorbent quality. Some of my classmates used to sneer at this practice. Later when I was in a district with significant Muslim population, the Mayor told me that clogging of public toilets was one of the problems they faced in their upkeep, primarily because of this reason. This practice has obviously come from the dry parched Arab countries. If you have come out of the dry summer heat of noon time in the northern part of the country where you had profuse perspiration, you will know the rationale behind it. In the loo the urine will have a dark yellowish colour. Now in the white apparel of the Arabs, the stain would be very visible. The chances of getting the stain is more with circumcision. Incidentally circumcision also has the same hygienic reason in a desert country.

The same is the explantion for the practice of wajoo which the Muslims do before namaz. The shape of the vessel used (which is called gadua) with long, narrow and curved outlet stem ensures that minimum water is used.

* * * * * *

It was only a few decades back that joint families existed, warts and all. In large houses there used to be a room well inside which was used by the new mothers. This was used by the number of daughters-in-law and daughters who came to parental home for delivery. It used to be occupied as such for major part of the year. In Hindi it was called sauri. Not many members were allowed in, only those who were really needed. Men were especially excluded. Also at least for six days mother and the new-born were untouchables. In retrospect I realise that it was the ancient version of a sterile ward. Excluding men who had to go out and could easily be the carriers of infection is also understandable.

One looked forward to all the sweets made of dry fruits and gum which were made for the new mother. A simple case of heavy protein supplementation for the mother to recoup the loss.

The reason behind isolating the lady having period and not allowing her to participate in the daily domestic chores in a joint family is only to give rest to the lady during that period. Although the poor ladies of yore hardly had any of these after she weaned away one child and became pregnant again. Remember Taj Biwi?

* * * * *

During my school days, much was made of the foolish Indian farmer who instead of using cow dung as manure used it as fuel, especially slow fire for warmth during the winter, and in the kitchen for various purposes. Typical colonial mentality! The dried cowdung cake used a lot of agricultural waste which was utilised for good purpose. And nobody gives credit to the poor Indian farmer for the amount of wood, forest and bio-diversity saved by using this simple substitute for fuel wood.

* * * * *

Ho Chi Minh had once started a movement in his country which he named ‘Eat well-cooked food and drink boiled water.’ With a typical Keralite food, the water you get is warm and has a lot of herbs in it. It is yellowish in colour. And Keralites have the lowest death rate in the country.

Marriages in my part of the country were performed mostly during summer. A custom of a typically agrarian society. Marriages were solemnised after the harvesting season was over: people had money and spare time. At the bride’s place there were two types of feasts; kachcha khana and pucca khana. The latter was for large gathering- it consisted of puri, kachaudi and boiled spicy vegetables which had been on the fire for some time. A very scientific way of saving the food from infection. The kachcha khana was for a limited number of people- people who had come in the marriage procession of the groom- a much smaller number. It was also called bhatwaan as rice and dal were served- the food was more homely and mainly cooked by ladies of the household..

And now medical scientists have discovered that fresh coriander leaves have a lot of disinfectant qualities- particularly effective against salmonella- the main cause of food poisoning all over the world. Remember that the grandmother used coriander leaves in all the curries including dal. Agreed that she thought that it was mainly for fragrance and garnishing. But were our ancestors aware of its medical qualities as well?

Another custom for which I haven’t been able to find a solid reason is bathing with warm water even during summer. This practice is prevalent in entire Goa and probably most part of the Konkan coastal region. I can think of only that it is used to soften the hard water. Another reason could be that in the coastal region this could be one of the ways to save you from arthritis. My osteo-arthritis flared up after spending my 2-year tenure in Mumbai, after that I had to go for a knee transplant.

******************** ******************************* *********

In the north, especially in eastern U.P. and Bihar, swings are tied on trees only during the rainy season: sawan ke jhoole pade. And swings at home are most prevalent in the coastal regions of the country. You need breeze to dry out your sweat during hot and humid climate of these areas and during the rainy season in northern India, and it is easier to be get it on a swing than to wave a hand fan.

I probably don’t have to explain the reason behind the immersion of Durga, Kali, Saraswati and Ganesh idols after 10 days. Thousands are spent on the idols. Well, where do you keep them after the festivities are over? The practice adopted is the simplest solution.

** ** ** ** ** **

Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. You don’t hear it anymore: children burn the midnight oil, especially during the exam time. Those days it was the best way to utilise to the maximum the light of the day for working. In my village where I used to go during summer vacations which included the beginning of the monsoons, the ploughmen started their work at dawn, and had a siesta during the hottest part of the day. So is the case with the labourers who do the earthwork on the road and the rural tanks both new and for desilting.

** ** ** ** ** **

Westerners use toilet paper (where are the environmentalists?), and look down upon the Indians who use water. However, Indians use left hand for it , whereas for all other functions, especially eating, they use right hand. An excellent way not to allow E-coli to pass into your food. That could be the reason why left-handedness was frowned upon earlier. You may not find any epic warrior or archer of Ancient India who was a lefty. You have started seeing lefties only now, probably due to western influence, and it is mostly fond in the upper bracket of the society. In the lower strata you hardly come across one.

When I was at Bastar for 2 years, I was told that hill abujhmarias, a primitive tribe living in the hills who are opening up to civilization only now did not wash after defecating. And probably the first thing that our extension officers taught them was to clean their b***** after the act. I understood the reason much later when I had already moved out of Bastar. Being a dry hilly area, they had very few sources of water, small natural ponds and pools being the main source. And they did not want to pollute that water.

** ** ** ** ** **

India must be having the largest number of vegans in the world. Europeans are mostly non-vegetarian. So are the tribals of India, and natives of Africa and South America who live in or very near the forests. In a cold European country with snow and ice for many months, there is no alternative to eating flesh. And the fertile river valleys of India are so full of edible greens. They say that Air India survives because they only know what true Indian vegetarianism is. Hats off to Gujaratis! And see how Bengal criss-crossed by rivers and dotted with village ponds have Brahmins eating fish. Tell it to Namboodiris, Aiyars and Ayangars! God’s own country is lush green. And they have a large number of meat-eating population which means in this case fish–eating. You are enchanted even when your plane is losing height to land. And they have plenty of root crop also (tapioca).

** ** ** ** **

“Nilambuj shyamal komalangam, sitasamaropit vambhagam” and “gore nand, jasoda gori, tum kat syam sarir”. Two most important deities of Hindus Ram and Krishna are depicted as dark-skinned. Krishna is even called Ghanshyam: dark as black cloud. And I am not aware of any Siva stuti which mentions him as light-skinned. Both Sita and Radha are light-skinned. Were the most important deities of Hindu religion shown as dark-skinned so that they are more acceptable to the Dravidians? My guess is yes.

** ** ** **

Yagyopavit used be one of the important rites in the life cycle of a man of high caste in India. One of the photographs that Jawaharlal Nehru included in his autobiography was of the occasion of his yagyopavit. I think this was a crossover from the stage when you switch to wearing clothes than remaining nude. Lifting the sacred thread at the time of going to the loo is symbolic of removing clothes when you go for the act of little finger or more (compare it to the Muslim habit of carrying an absorbent stone to the urinal- both have hygienic reason behind them).

*** *** *** *** *** ***

There is no English equivalent for the Hindi word ‘jootha’. Hindu hygiene generally demands that you should avoid drinking or eating out of the vessel which has been touched by the mouth or lips of somebody else. South Indians go to the further extreme of drinking without touching the vessel containing the liquid. And for eating, to the extent possible use disposable banana leaves. Have you seen the typical metal coffee cup (now mainly steel) which has edges which curve outside? You drink coffee by tilting your slightly upwards. You can see English westerns where those adventurers and the heroes drank out of the same bottle without even wiping the neck. Muslims have the tradition of eating out of the same plate. You might have looked cynically at this practice, but can you say the same after AIDS has been discovered?

*** *** *** *** ***

For a normal man (or woman) who is slightly overweight, who likes his food, has a sweet tooth, and isn’t in the habit of regular exercises, although he does walk for miles and hours when on trips or tours, age knocks on his door gently. First at the age of forty, your doctor tells you that you suffer from hypertension. You start taking some mild drug for it. And start doing some sort of exercise. At forty five you start having backache and the doctor tells you some exercises which strengthen the back and abdominal muscles so that your spine has to take lesser load. Same for reducing weight which he says is the root cause of all the evil. At fifty you have hit your shin against your bed and you find that the wound is not healing on its own as it used to do earlier. You again go to the doctor and he asks you to go for some blood test, and you are diagnosed with what they fondly call adult onset diabetes (Type II). You have to regulate your diet and possibly take some oral medicine. The gastronomic delights are gone for ever. Reduce weight. Well, life goes on. At the age of 58 or 59 you suddenly discover that while waking your knees pain a little bit. You don’t care. Go to hell, how many medicines you keep on adding to your daily diet? I forgot, in the meantime you started taking a regular dose of some vitamin and beta carotene. Well, you can’t hide away form your bodily degeneration. The knee pain worsens, and the doctor first says it is wear and tear, but later say that it is osteo-arthritis. If you are bold and adventurous you go for a knee surgery. And then the doctor advised you to do some exercises to strengthen your thigh muscles so that your knees take less load. And advise you that if you use a walking stick, it will save your good knee for some time. And I will not mention the unmentionable fact of falling testosterone level. And at the ripe old age of 60, wisdom dawns on you. Regular exercise, strengthening back muscles, strengthening thigh muscles, regulated diet, no excesses. Why did somebody not tell you these things in your formative years? When probably you could have taken steps to see that these things never happened. And didn’t our father and grandfather started using the walking stick at forty?

Let us admit, man was not supposed to live beyond the age of 60 at the max. It is the modern medicine which is keeping us alive beyond that age, but at a cost, and at a much reduced level of activity. Good old days we had four ashrams in life, brahmacharya, grihastha, vanprastha and sanyas. The third stage meant that you lived like a hermit even while living in the joint family. And if you are unlucky to go beyond the age of 75, God help you. You were supposed to leave the domestic bliss, and live in the forests and wait fo the day when the yamadoots appear to take you away.

*** *** *** *** ***

Are you aware of Sharda Act? That your daughter cannot be married before the age of 18? Well bring it to the typical Indian rural context. The daughter is married as soon as she attains puberty. That could be 15-16. She might be married even at an earlier age, and then there is gauna which is distressingly being called second marriage. It is when after a few years she finally goes to her father-in-law’s place. In the lonely environs of the village when men are working in the fields, and where the womenfolk have to go to the sugarcane or arhar fields to ease themselves, the problem of keeping the chastity of the unmarried daughter secure is a real problem for the parents. And especially when the (unbroken) hymen is embedded so deeply in the minds of the Indian male.

The Story of Vishwapratap

2010-04-01T22:06:00.000-07:00

Those Were the (Ugly) Days

This story was told to me by my great grandmother (Mother of my maternal grandfather). So the basic facts of the story are probably true. However, if a story is repeated a hundred times, there come a lot of embellishments and exaggerations. The story teller keeps on refining his or her narration with every repetition. Add to it that at many paces I have used my imagination where there was a factual gap. Also part of the story I heard from so many other sources.

Ek tha Raja. Well, not exactly a raja. He was the younger son of a minor Prince who ruled over an area which is now in Jharkhand. He had two sons, and the younger one is whom we are describing here. The story of the birth of the two brothers is equally interesting, so it is worth diverting for some moments from the main story.

The prince was childless. I don’t know why the ruling prices of so many States in India were sterile or impotent. Scindias of Gwalior had a long tradition of adopted sons ascending the throne, and the story is repeated at so many big and small states in India. Well, the Prince was getting on in age, and his brother realising that his son willl inherit the throne started treating the Prince lightly, and interfering in the affairs of the state which of course the Prince did not like. With the advice of his Senior Maharani he searched among his minions, and found that wives of two of them were carrying, one was a Kshatriya, a minister of his, and the other was his barber. He had a pact with them, and declared that two of his wives were pregnant. His brother did not believe him, and arranged for the check-up of the two queens by a lady doctor (a lady gynaecologist) who was given a bagful of money to toe the line of the Prince. Ultimately, the two ladies deliverd, at the interval of a few hours. Barber’s wife who was attached to the younger Maharani delivered first, and the high-caste Rajput lady attached to the Senior Maharani delivered later. The barber’s son inherited the throne, and the younger one known as the Maharajkumar was given a few hundred villages for his maintenance, as was the tradition in the family. After some time his mother persuaded him to leave the palace of his elder brother, and built up a garhi about 50-60 kms away and lived there with as much pomp and show as his brother.

In time he married. The girl’s father had two more daughters and he requested the Maharajkumar (Vishwapratap) that he should take them as well as his wives, and he happily obliged. So far, so good.. Vishwapratap had a number of sons most of whom were cross-eyed, a trait inherited from Vishwapratap. There was no doubt about the paternity! Apart from this defect, Vishwapraatp was tall, fair, handsome young man with light grey eyes which none of his sons inherited, unfortunately.

But the ruling princes, and even minor princes and zamindars of those days were not satisfied with legal wives, whatever their number. Remember ‘Saheb, Biwi aur Ghulam’? They had concubines, apart from casual one night prostitutes. Concubines or keeps was the accepted practice even during my childhood days. Many big zamindars had two families, one legal and the other of the concubine, and the offsprings of the latter were more or less accepted in the society, though considered inferior to the true-blood nobility. I remember some of these zamindars having a foray in politics, and the fact of their having two families never came in the way of their success in the election, and if they lost, this was certainly not the factor which affected them negatively. Similarly, the e professional prostitutes also had children, the parentage of some of them known, and of some not known. They certainly enjoyed a lower status in the society. In the area where I was brought up, they were known ‘bhaduas’, a derogatory term not used in their presence. I remember once one such boy tried to be friends with me, and I responded favourably, innocent of all the nuances of the society during those days. One day A Brahman friend of mine scolded me and advised me to keep away form such scum of society. Why go so far to the middle of the last century when not many years ago, when a French President died, there were two families of his present at the cremation. Today we have Heads and Chief Executives of countries who merrily divorce and then marry a model, and one hears all the juicy stories about the doings of the First Lady. In nature, there are several species that are polygamous- black buck and baya weaver immediately come to mind. In the olden days the mortality among men was much more than for women. Nobody has mentioned what happened to the widows of 18 akshauhini of the army of the Mahabaharat battle who perished. Many could have been sati, but the lot remained back in the society. Ravan’s wife was taken over by his brother Vibhishan when he ascended. Sugriva’s wife who was forcibly taken away by Bali and when he was killed by Ram she returned to the original husband. Anyway Vishwapratap came to know of a beautiful Brahman girl who had just attained puberty and was staying with her father and younger sister, the mother had passed away a few years back, and the father had not remarried. It was out of question to persuade the father to marry her off to the Maharajkumar. It was an inconceivable match, Brahman girl marrying a Kshatriya several years her senior. So Viswapratap waited for a suitable opportunity, and such opportunity presented itself soon enough. He came to know that the father had gone to an adjacent town for a few days probably to search for a suitable match for the elder daughter, and the daughters were alone in the house. He sent one of his trusted Brahman minions who went to the girls and told them that their father had called them over to the town he had gone to. Naturally it had to be both the girls, otherwise it would have brought suspicion. The girls were thrilled at the prospect of journey by train and visit to a nearby town (it was the beginning of the twentieth century). And so the two young ladies landed at Vishwapratap’s place. The story was sad, as it had to be. Women were no better than cattle those days, and even a great religious poet Tulsidas considered them deserving a beating. The elder sister did not take food for a few days, but ultimately she realized that it was not possible for her to get out of this prison. Vidhwapratap had some some sort of ceremony performed and took both the girls as his wives. What my great grandmother used to tell that every night when Vishwapratap went to see the elder sister, at the time of leaving would ask her whether she still wanted to go back to her father. And till the end she said the same yes. An enraged Vishwapratap responded with beating her, and the story was repeated on and on. The The elder sisiter had a son who unfortunately did not survive long. Maybe he did not get enough care and attention from his mother. The younger one had a son who survived. His father arranged for his proper education, and engaged an English tutor for him, the best that could be given those days. More about him later.

The story of Vishwapratap did not end happily. Some mineral was discovered in the villages which were given to him for maintenance. When the elder brother came to know of it, he laid claim over it, and both the brothers fought a bitter legal battle over the rights to it. Vishwapratap won from the High Court, and the Prince took it to the Privy Council for final appeal. This meant engaging an expensive lawyer, and sending him by ship to England which cost money. The lawyer had to be away from his regular legal practice for months together foregoing his earnings for the period, and had to be adequately compensated. Vishwapratap lost the case in the House of Lords, and went almost bankrupt, and his estate came under court of wards which gave him limited allowance.

I was told that when Vishwapraaatap won the case in the State High Court, he was advised by his senior lawyer to go for a compromise with his brother, and as he was the winner of this round, the lawyer was confident that the elder brother would come round for an agreement. Vishwapratap reacted in his typical thakuraiti style by being thoroughly enraged, so much so that he e asked the lawyer to make himself scarce in his presence. Had he agreed to the advice given by his lawyer, the story would have been different.

The father of the two hapless girls came home and found the house locked, and the daughters missing. By and by he came to know of the full story. He fretted and fumed, shed the tear of the weak and helpless, but could not do much beyond the impotent rage which he felt. He also knew that even if he was able to rescue the girls, it was impossible to find a match for them, and so he spent the rest of his life ruing the day he left the two daughters on their own.

I don’t know how Vishwapratap’s end came. These princelings never enjoyed long life due to their style of living, and he died not at a ripe old age. The eldest son of Vishwapratap inherited the villages after the death of his father, and the other brothers got some villages for their maintencance in accordance with their chronological hierarchy. The Younger sister’s son (Durga Prasad) got 3 villages. I heard weird stories about the cruelty and barbaric ways of this son. He was reportedly given tigress milk to make him fearless and bold. I did not believe it, and questioned the storyteller as to how the tigress milk could be procured. I was given a plausible explanation. I was told that sometimes the tigress while suckling her cubs chose a large stony place. Some milk got spilled, and this was later collected (or scraped) by the tribals in a dona (leaf cup) and brought to the Maharajkumar for his children. Both the mothers were living with Durga Prasad. The elder sister did not live very long. Probably died in her fifties, pining away for her native place. Durga Prasad got married to the daughter of a reputed lawyer, who unfortunately bore him only one daughter. Out of frustration he regularly beat her, and his mother as well, stripped and put red ants over their naked body, including the most delicate parts and turned them out of the house regularly. The poor ladies had to wrap themselves in gunny cloth with the covert help of the domestic help, and lived in the forest till they were rescued after Durga Prasd relented. He also regularly beat up his tenants, for some reason or the other, he had to find an excuse.

Durga Prasad’s story goes even further. Once his wife went to her father’s place. Her brother had to go to jail for a few years during the independence movement, leaving behind four young daughters. Durga Prasad repeatedly called his wife back, but she was not keen to leave the young nieces, and kept on procrastinating. Durga Prasad was wild with fury, and married a local girl of 14 when he was 40. In his hasty decision, desire for getting a son must have been in his mind. Children he did get from his second wife, not one, not two, but five. And all were daughters. Man proposes and God disposes. But he did marry off all his daughters one by one during his lifetime, though the matches were not upto his status. Give credit to the old tradition and sense of duty of Rajputs! The land was there to sell off to pay for the marriages. He passed away, old and diabetic, and if not in penury, in not very happy circumstances.

I do not guarantee that the story teller was entirely correct in her narration, but the basic facts cannot be denied. Why I penned this down is because there are very few people left of those olden days who had the opportunity to see and hear those incidents and who have the will and desire to tell it for the present generation of IT and mobile phones.

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Shankar's Story

2010-03-10T23:02:00.000-08:00

Shankar’s Story

(This is only partially based on real life incidents. I have added a lot from my imagination which may or may not be true. So it is more in the nature of fiction.)

I had known Shankar for a very long time. He was no friend of mine—the age difference was too much for it—almost two decades. I remember him as a dashing young man when as a child I saw with awe girls falling over him. He was in a media, and such people are easy to attract people of both sexes in the hope of getting some exposure. But it was only later that I realized that though womanizing was more or less a habit with him, he was honest in his profession, sincere , talented, hardworking and surprise of surprise, honest. There are several degrees of honesty—some stop at small favours, drinks and nice dinners thrown in, using government vehicle for personal use, and even not hesitating to ask his acquaintances for the favour; but these people stop at taking gifts, even at festival times, not to talk of actual greenbacks. Shankar was such a person. I had seen his family grumbling when he returned Diwali or Holi gifts which is very normal in the corporate world.

That reminds me of a colleague of mine who in his young days was posted as Sub Divisional Magistrate in some godforsaken place in a godforsaken state. Once a contractor came and presented to him a new year diary. This young officer lost his temper. ‘Arent you ashamed of yourself, giving a diary free!’ The contractor was flabbergasted—‘Sir, it is only a diary, nothing inside it!’ This was told to me by the same officer some years later with amusement over his innocence during the early days in service. But on the whole he remained straight throughout life. I remember that he stayed at Delhi for a few months after his tenure was over—you are allowed upto eight months by the government for medical or educational reasons. At that time he used to borrow magazines from me as I used to get them from my library which subscribed to all sorts of magazines and journals. But here also he hardly got any rewards for his straightforwardness. He had an only child who had some problem with one of his legs, and had to undergo a number of surgeries to rectify the defect. His wife was diagnosed with tumour in the brain, which unfortunately turned out to be malignant, and she died a few years later. Son ultimately got into IIM, and must be having a good job somewhere. However, sons never stay yours. After marriage they are part of another nuclear family where you don’t fit anywhere. I never heard anything spectacular about this officer while he was in job, and he must have retired when the time came.

Anyway, to come baack to Shankar. He did get his due promotions in time, which in government amounts to nothing much in monetary terms, at least during those days. He had a large family—four daughters and four sons from two wives, It is a long story how he had two wives. I heard it not directly from him and so it may or may not be true. He had a sister and his father was a school teacher. The caste they belonged to had the pernicious custom of big dowry for girls which sometimes the parents could not afford. One hears of Bengali Brahman girls married off to much older men often a widower where there was no dowry. This is the story of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Bengal. It is strange that in India where the sex ratio is always against women, there should have been such a custom. One shudders to think of the dreadful life the widows had. Many landed in the ashrams of Vrindavan. There was a deliberate attempt to make them ugly so that they are not able to attract anybody, either in the household or outside. Anyway, shankar’s sisiter had to be married, and in an age-old practice the father went around searching for a suitable match. One son’s father put a strange condition—there should be a mutual marriage of his daughter to Shankar, and in turn Shankar’s sister will be married to his bride’s brother. I do not how Shankar was persuaded, but ultimately he landed with a semi-literate, very plain-looking wife. There was hardly anything but sex between husband and wife, which resulted in regular birth of children. When Shankar married the second lady, pretty in a way, educated and an excellent singer who used to appear in radio programmes regularly, any normal girl should have refused, but it did not happen that way. It seems that her father, a widower, had fancied some lady and wanted to marry her, and did not want a young girl at home by some strange twisted logic. And from the second wife, Shankar again had four children—two sons and two daughters. Worst Shankar’s sister became a widow, with a son who for some years stayed with him, and so Shankar had to raise a family of nine children. Educating the children and marrying off the eldest son and three daughters one after the other, resulted in wiping off all his savings, and in addition had to draw heavily from the provident fund which is actually deduction from one’s own salary with a good interest thrown in by the government.

The tension of raising nine children and support to his first wife who mercifully did not stay with him brought him early hypertensionhen he was in his early forties. Though he had memdication for that, ultimately it had to have a prey somewhere. Some part of the body had to have a permanent damage, and in his case it was his kidneys. By this time he had lost all the interest in life, and the desire to live. And when a person loses the will to live, then things are on a fast downslide. He was living in a metro where dialysis facility was available. He also had medical coverage as a pensioner, but then he had to have somebody to escort him, which unfortunately nobody in his family was willing to. His son was in a job, and he hardly had time. The daughter lazy with dreams of getting rich quick but without the necessary qualification for it, nor money to start a business and thrive. Wife was never trained to do such things herself—a typical helpless sort of woman who needed somebody else to do the job for her when out of home. Medical coverage in the government means a lot of formality to go through, and here nobody had the patience to do that. Son took him a few times for dialysis done privately on payment, which could also have worked provided there was enough money to see through the lifetime of treatment.

One day I heard that Shankar died. Well, with total kidney failure it had to happen sooner or later, but I was not expecting the death to be so near and was taken by surprise, apart from the grief death of person you know for long brings.

Later I heard a horrific story as to how his end came. Dialysis costs money, and it came from his kitty, the post-retirement fund that he got from the government like provident fund, gratuity, leave encashment etc. Younger daughter was unmarried and it was assumed that her marriage expenses would come from the same pool. One day the daughter gave vent to her feelings that all the money large part of which was meant to have gone for her marriage was being dipped into on a regular basis, and very soon nothing would be left for her. It is so easy to apply blindly the laws of a joint Hindu family to self acquired property which has no such strings attached. All the shouting happened within the hearing of the poor old man. I am still puzzled how things could not have been organized in a more systematic way so that regular dialysis could be given to him under the government coverage. Plain laziness and lethargy on the part of the family and the absence of the will to live on the part of the patient. And dialysis was a painful procedure to undergo. Worse, Shankar was never the same mentally after he was on dialysis. He used to be in a daze and his mental faculty was much less alert. He ultimately decided to stop going for the procedure which meant a painful and sure death, and it happened.

Shankar’s death churned my mind, and I realized that in your old age nobody can chaperon you all the time to places you have to go whether for medical reasons or otherwise, and you have to fend for yourself. Unless you are a wealthy person with a lot of sidekicks around. The other painful thought that came to my mind was that modern medicine can extend your life to a certain point, and after that probably it is much better to find a way to end one’s life. This is the done thing, and one should not be too shocked to realize it. You withdraw the life support system after a certain point when all hope is lost. Ram iin his old age took Jal Samadhi. Kunti, Dhritarashtra and Gandhari after the battle of Mahabharat went to live in the forest where they perished in a jungle fire. Pandavas went to the Himalayas where they died one after another. And as late as in the twentieth century Vinoba Bhave refused to live. Is euthanasia the correct solution in so many cases? Opinions differ.

My Dalliance with Astrology- Why I gave up

2009-07-30T10:22:00.000-07:00

My Dalliance with Astrology

1. If you ask me whether I believe in astrology, I would not be able to give a clear reply. I will probably hem and haw, and say that astrology is certainly not a science, and that the art of astrology needs a lot of practice and intuition. And patience. Also there are many more fake astrologers than the genuine, and those who are genuine do not trumpet their knowledge. I have heard strange stories of predictions coming out true years after at the time when it was predicted to happen. Simultaneously I was also told of the devastation the Jatak forebore in the intervening years. I frankly don’t know whether it is a good idea to know about your future, especially when the astrologers take sadistic delight to mention the bad things in future as read by them and not mention or make only a passing reference to the happy events and time that are also slated.

2. It was in 1987 that I thought that I should know something of Hindu astrology, and I went about it in a serious way. I purchased scores of books from the shops and those that were not available there I ordered by post. Courier was a thing of the future, and so were e-mails, multi-city cheques and online payment, so one had to be patient after ordering the books. Things are easy now when you can order books on line and make payment also that way. Some on-line booksellers give delivery within 3 working days.

3. To come back to the main story, I started reading the books, and spent most of my working hours with them. I don’t remember how I got this free time to stay at home. Probably I had taken leave or it was the fag-end of a medical leave for a road accident I suffered.

4. I learnt how to draw a horoscope with the help of birth data and Lahiri’s book of charts. This thing also has become easy now as there are any number of softwares available on the net by which you can draw anybody’s horoscope and take a print-out of that. Gradually I reached a point where I coud venture some predictions. I do not remember but my sister-in-law says that I correctly predicted that she would be married to an air force officer. I might have made several other predictions about others also, but I always hesitated in telling the truth when it came to bad things in the horoscope. My reasoning was this: astrology is an inexact science, I am not a professional,and so the chances of a prediction being incorrect is significant, and therefore, it is not advisable to be forthright about bad things in life. So I saw horoscope very selectively and tried to tell the Jataka bad things in as roundabout fashion as I could. The last straw on camel’s back was in Mumbai. My wife told a few of her friends about my being able to read horoscopes, and I suddenly got a number of horoscopes for viewing, mostly of unmarried girls or of married ladies who were not pulling on well with their spouses.

5. One friend of my wife was keen to know as to when her daughter would be married. I saw the horoscope and (correctly) predicted that she should be married latest by November next, and told my wife accordingly. I don’t know what my wife heard, but she seems to have told her friend that the her daughter would not be married by November next.. As it happened, she got married a few months later, and after that the mother stopped talking to my wife. My wife told me about it, and I replied that she had asked for it.

6. Another of my friends wanted to know something about the future of his daughter who was not pulling on well with her husband’s relatives. I saw her horoscope, found nothing wrong in it, and told my friend accordingly. To my surprise, instead of being relieved, he was not very happy to hear this. This must have come from previous encounters with astrologers who tell bad things and then try to extract money for some puja purportedly performed to pacify the malefic grahas.

7. My wife once brought the chart of a young unmarried girl. What I could read was nothing happy, and told my wife that I will have to study the chart further to arrive at some definite conclusion. After a few days when she asked again, I told her that presently what I could read was not very happy, and I needed to confirm it before telling it to the parents. I procrastinated once more, and in disgust she took back the horoscope.

8. Another incident was about a rich lady. I saw her horoscope and thought that some bad traits in her personality which I was seeing should be told to her personally. So I rang her up and started telling her what I had to. After hearing me for some time she rudely asked me that she would ring up after some time. Needless to sayshe never called back. I felt thoroughly humiliated.

9. A good friend of mine who is a chartered accountant once told me that some astrologer had told him that his son has Kala Sarpa Yog (KSY), and requested me to check up. Just a short background. KSY is not mentioned in classical Hindu Astrological treatises, and it has probably come from the tantrics. Second, two types of KSY are distinguished. One, Anuloma where all the planets move towards Rahu. This type is less likely to give trouble than the other, and Second, viloma where all planets move towards Ketu which can give prosperity but will give trouble side by side.

10. The other important point to note is that the Yoga is formed even if there are planets in the same house with Rahu or Ketu or both, so long as these planets are within the nodal axis by degree position. (The two paras above are based on ‘Light on Life, an Introduction to the Astrology of India’ by Defouw and Svoboda).

11. I found that the KSY in the chart of my good friend’s son is of the Anuloma type and therefore, not harmful. I told him so, and also told him that the erlier astrologer was either mistaken in the details, or he deliberately created a scare when it was not there. Similar thing happened very recently. My sister-in-law is very fond of going to astrologers, and she had obtained from my wife the birth details of my entire family. Place, date and time suffice to make a horoscope on the computer. She also has the habit of immediately passing on any bad news to her sister. One afternoon she informed my wife that my son has KSY, and it needs some remedy, in other words, elaborate puja costing a few thousand rupees. I had never seen my son’s horoscope carefully, at least for the presence of KSY. Prima facie it appeared that the astrologer from Allahabad was correct. Then I checked more thoroughly, took a print-out of the horoscope myself, and discovered that both Rahu and Ketu were not alone in their houses, but had the company of one graha each. When I checked the degrees of all four, I found that the two grahas conjoint with Rahu and Ketu are well outside the nodal axis by degree positions. Therefore, no KSY.

12. Then there is Kuja (Manga/Mars) Dosh. Considered bad for the girl, and it is said that she should marry a mangalik boy only. The real problem is that in a girl’s chart, Kuja dosh exists if Mars is in any of the 7 houses out of 12. To me, this looks absurd. Of course, there are ifs and buts, but I do not believe that God is so unkind as to make the odds for a girl being Mangali more than 50%.

13. To that friend of mine whose son was or was not having KSY, I once told of some minor blemish either in his or his son’s chart. His prompt query was:’What is the remedy then?’ Meaning what puja or other rituals could be performed to mitigate the malefic effect of the graha. I flatly told him that I had not studied that branch of astrology. That also made clear to me what other astrologers generally do.

14. This leads to the larger question of the utility of astrology to the Jataka. If something is going to happen to a person, and that is what astrology has indicated, then he should probably be equipped by the same ‘’science’ to deal with it. The solutions suggested by Jyotish are vey routine and basic, like offering oil and other indicated things to some tree, or some mantra chanted everyday for a number of weeks or months. But are they enough to avert or mitigate the effects of of the crisis? One colleague of mine dabbled in astrology and died a premature death of cardiac arrest. I don’t think he had any inkling of the impending death. A couple of years before, he had made a switch from the government to a pubic sector undertaking (PSU). Had he known of this important event, he probably would have stuck to the government.

15. And so Sri Anand K. decided to say good-bye to astrology, horoscopes, grahas and houses. Unfortunately, practising astrology is not like cycling or swimming that you remember throughout your life. If astrology is not practised for a long time, you tend to forget even the basics.

Some Beautiful Trees for Central India with GWALIOR in mind

2009-07-24T02:55:00.000-07:00

I have made some notes for a write-up titled ‘Beautiful Trees for Central India with Gwalior in Mind’. Comments are welcome. Main reference books are by Pradeep Krishan, Bose and Chaudhury and Shakti Sinha.

1. Maulsari…….Mimusops elengi

WITHSTANDS WATERLOGGING

Tolerates shade. Also known as Bakul. A favourite of Gurudev Ravindranath Thakur.

Likes warm and moist climate, but found suitable for hot and dry climes as well

Propagation by SEEDS

2. Ficus benghalensis var. Krishnae….Krishna peepal

Curiosity value

Medium sized tree

3. Ficus elastica…Indian rubber tree

Native to NE India where it can grow as high as a 16 storey building.

Original source of natural rubber, later replaced by Para rubber from Brazil

30% of pottedd plants in US are Indian rubber plant.

Propagation: CUTTINGS or AIR LAYERING

4. Pilkhan or Pakad..Ficus virens

Strangler

Avenue tree, wind breaker

5. Peepal and Bargad ….Ficus religiosa and ficus benghalensis

Oldest peepal at Anuradhapur (Srilanka) where a branch of Mahabodhivriksha of Gaya was taken by Ashok’s son in 288 BC. So now this tree is more than 2000 years old.

As the tree in Gaya died, a branch from the Anuradhapur tree was planted which prospered.

Peepal and bargad considered female and male, and it is said that plating the two together brings good luck to you.

6. Kanju or Chilbil…Holoptela integriiifolia

Large tree.

Prop.: SEEDS

7. *Nyctanthus arbor-tristis….Parijat/harsingar

WITHSTANDS WATERLOGGING

SEEDS

Four trees in Hindu mythology have been variously described as KALPAVRIKSHA, namely Parijat, Mandar (Erythrina), ficus benghalensis, kadamba.

Paarijat and Mandar came out of sea when it was churned by the gods and demons. Parijat was taken by Krishna for his wife Satyabhama. Then Rukmini insisted on having a similar tree and so Mandar was also taken by Krishna.

8. Indian Coral Tree…..Erythrina variegata

A delicate tree. Very few specimen can be seen in Gwalior. Mohite’s garden had a few, but have been destroyed by insects, possibly termites. One of the trees known as Kalpavriksha.

9. *Lagerstroemia speciosa

Small tree

WITHSTANDS WATERLOGGING

SEEDS

*Lagerstroemia thorrelli

Smaller bushy tree

SEEDS

*L. indica …crepe myrtle

Bush

CUTTINGS

10.Neolamarckia cadamba…Kadamba

SEEDS

Native of humid climate of NE, but found adapted to Gwalior climate. Some good specimen at the Tourism Institute.

11.*Mitragyna parviflora….Kaim

Probably the real kadamba tree associated with Krishna as it is native of Mathura-Vrindavan region.

12.Acacia auriculiformis, Earpod wattle….vilayati keekar

Quick growing, small tree. Has bottlebrush like spikes of yellow flowers.

13.Syzigium nervosum….Rai Jamun

Ripens in Ashadh (June). Lush green large tree.

14.Mussanda

Bush, only pink variety thrives in Gwalior. Not white or red. Likes semi-shade

15.Silkworm mulberry …Monis alba

A darling of birds because of its fruit.

16.Phalsa

Small dep purple to black berries which are liked by birds.

17.Khirni…Manilkara hexandra

A tall beautiful tree. Edible fruit. Rootstock used for grafting of chikoo.

18.Mahua….Madhuca longifolia var. latifolia

Fast growing, evergreen.

‘Arguably the most valuable of Indian trees’. Flower edible, tribals in the interir eat it as well as distill a liquor from it. Also used by modern distilleries.

19.Maharukh….Ailanthus excelsa

Grows even in towns on its own. Nice tall tree.

20.Artocarpus heterophyllus…..Kathal

An evergreen tree.

My first posting as SDO was at Jashpurnagar where some ex-ruler had found the virtues of this tree, and got planted Kathal all over the state The result was that wherever there was marriage at district or divisional headquarters at an officer's place, large quantity of big kathals were sent by the subordinates, effecting a big saving for the senior.

21.Baheda…Terminalia bellirica

A local tree. Grows easily.

22.Kanak champa…Pterospermum acerifolium

Beautiful tree. Large atractive leaves. Flowers fragrant, keep their fragrance long after drying.

SEEDS

23.Weeping bottlebrush…callistemon citrinus

SEEDS, CUTTINGS, AIR LAYERS.

Crimson bottlebrush…C. pollandi

Smaller tree 3-4 metres.

SEEDS, CUTTINGS, AIR LAYERING.

24.*Bauhinia variegate

Purple flowers fill the trees

SEEDS

**Bauhinia X Blakeana

The best of bauhinias.Large, deep purple flowers. Developed from an isolated tree found in Hong Kong.

Only vegetative propagation possible. CUTTINGS

Bauhinia pupurea

SEEDS

*Bauhinia variegate ‘Candida’

White.

SEEDS

Bauhinia acuminata

Bush. White flowers.

SEEDS, CUTTINGS.

Pruning once a year is good for the plant.

B. galpinii

Creeper, orange coloured flowers. Likes milder climate.

SEEDS. AIR LAYERING.

B. tomentosa

Bush. Yellow flowers.

Almost all the varieties of Bauhinias suit Gwalior climate to the T. A pleasant flower which has not been used much.

25.Butea monosperma, Flame of the Forest….Palash

Frost hardy, drought resistant, TOLERANT TO SALINITY.

SEEDS

26. **Tecoma goudichaudi/castanifolia…flowers in bunches

Tecoma stans…flowers singly

Small tree or large bush. Easily grown. Grows fast. Flowers the next year, almost through the year. Ideal for Gwalior.

Needs yearly pruning to keep the tree in shape.

SUSCEPTIBLE TO WATERLOGGING.

27. Adansonia digitata, Baobab tree.

Huge tree, lives for maybe 3000 years. Unusually thick trunk at the bottom. Tree reputedly carries 500 liters of water in the trunk. A desert tree brought from Africa by the Portuguese. No specimen in Gwalior, but Indore Residency compound has at least 10 of them which should be more than 100 years old.

27.**Floss Silk Tree. Chorisia speciosa.

Small tree. Introduced in Delhi on a large scale in 1950s. One of the most beautiful flowering tree which is covered with flowers at a time when there are hardly any garden flowers blooming (October). A white variety is also there. Initially the tree looks like Kapok and is spiny as well which however falls off later. Must try in Gwalior. Single specimen planted doing well.

SEEDS SOWN DURING RAINY SEASON.

28. Semal, Bombax ceiba

Large tree. Flowers profusely. Much liked by birds.

29.Wild almond, Sterculia foetida.

Large tree. Pretty copper-cloured leaves before fall.

30.*Calliandra

Bush, with nice red or pink fluffy flowers. Long and curved billed nectar-eating birds

(sunbird) like the flowers.

31.**Tabebuia argentea (yellow)

T. avallandae (Dark pink)

One of the most beautiful flowering trees. Suited for Gwalior climate. Small tree. Specimen found on the road divider from Padav to Phoolbagh, courtesy an industrialist. A couple of good trees in the Tourism Institute.

32.**Polyalthia longifolia ….Ashok

Stately shady tree.

**P. longifolia ‘Pendula’, Mast tree

Gets deshaped if the mast to allowed to grow unchecked. It is prudent to cut them at the top after they attain a certain height.

**P. augustifolia…Same as P. longifolia, but a smaller tree.

Ashok tree is ideally suited for Gwalior climate. Hundreds of trees can be found in the town, most being Mast trees. Some old specimen can be found in the old High Court building. They must be more than a century old. Some mast trees in the Samadhi of Hardaul in Orchha could easily be 200 years or more.

**Should not be confused with Seeta Ashok which is associated with Sita who spent her captivity under Saraca asoca. This is another beautiful tree which likes semi shade, and has bunches of beautiful orange-red flowers.

33.**Cassia fistula….Amaltas

One of the most beautiful native flowering tree. The tree however is nothing to look at, and has to be given support to save it from being twisted. It is drought tolerant, and CATTLE REPELLENT, and therefore can be tried in open areas as well. Strongly recommended for Gwalor.

SEEDS. In the wild the long fruit does not open on its own, and jackals, bears, pigs and monkeys help in propagation by eating its flesh and passing the seeds in the excreta. In the nurseries the pod is to be broken manually, and the seed soaked in water overnight.

34.Cassia javanica

Flowers in bunches. Large tree. Tree has to be protected from hot dry winds. Better to plant it with trees which can shield it. Dislikes transplantation. Therefore sow in situ or in polythene bags.

*Cassia nodosa

Suitable for saline tract

SEEDS should be rubbed against a rough surface to help germination.

One good specimen at ‘Saket’ on Gandhi Road.

35.Spathodea campanulata

Suitable for tropical and sub-tropical climate.

SEEDS, CUTTINGS, ROOT SUCKERS.

36. Alstonia scholaris…Saptaparni

DOES NOT TOLERATE WATERLOGGING

Likes moist and warm climate, but has been found growing well in Gwalior. An avenue of Saptaparni can be seen in the Tourism Insitute (IITTM). Has a tendency to send shoots from the bottom of the trunk which should be removed to keep the tree in shape. A beautiful shady tree.

37. Plumeria

One of the best flowering trees for Gwalior. Needs less water and grows very well in inferior soils. Also known as Frangipani or Temple Champa. Plumeria rubra can be bicolour, triclour or deep pink. Forma acutifolia is white/cream with yellow centre, whereas lutea is is like acutifolia but with more gold at the base of the petals. From a distance this variety looks all yellow-gold. In all these varieties the five petals are overlapping, whereas in P. obtusa (white frangipani) the petals are narrow and not overlapping. The flowers are white with yellow throat. Also whereas the leaves of P. rubra are pointed, that of white frangipani are rounded at the tip.

Some foreign nurseries advertise scores of colours. Even the net gives hundreds of colours. See the link:

http://images.google.co.in/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&um=1&q=plumeria&sa=N&start=360&ndsp=20

This tree is eminently suited for Gwalior climate. Gwalior has any number of specimen. Mohite’s garden has white variety. Pawar has a light pink variety, whereas Bapuna has the deep pink variety.

Propagation by CUTTINGS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Recommended

**Highly recommended

Sequel to the History of a Linguistic Minority

2009-07-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

The History of a Linguistic Minority (SEQUEL).

This is a natural sequel to my earlier monograph. However, this write-up is at a more personal level, and is the story of a few families. Business houses come and go. Thre are very few business families who could retain their wealth after a few generations. Similarly these migrated families also had their ups and downs. Some were rich by the sheer dint of labour, intelligence and application, some by chance, by gifts from wealthier men and familes, and some by dubious means like association with the Pindaris. Many could not have goddess Lakshmi with them for more than a few generations. Some were wastrels or spendthrift, and some lost it by sinking of ships and economic depression.

2. One wealthy family of Ghazipur (not related to us) had sugar business. He was known as Sugar King. He once sent two shiploads of sugar to England. Both the ships were either lost in storm , or taken over btes, and they just disappeared on the high seas. Poor man died bankrupt and heart-broken. His son owned the local power house which a few years after independence was taken over by the government. He had a large ancestral house in the downtown area, with a huge red gate so that the market was known as Lal Darwaza. The mansion was minimally maintained.

3. The mention about the power house above reminds me of my first posting as SDO at a place called Jashpurnagar (now in Chhattisgarh). God knows why ‘pur’ and ‘nagar’ both are added to the name of the town! In such cases you have to remember the Great Bard who said ‘what’s there in a name’. On an altitude of about 2500’, and therefore a mild climate. A tribal belt, with a lot to do for a civil servant, but if one wanted to take things easy, that was also possible. Anyway, it had a power house which was owned by the local ex-ruler, and during my time, the electric line of State Electricity Board could be extended to the town. Yes, the earlier power house was nothing more than a medium sized diesel generator which ran from 6 pm to 11 pm. After that one had to depend on the old dependable hurricane. I was a regular user of hurricane lantern. I was a bachelor then, and fond of reading. Now I cannot read without the help of a bright light or table lamp.

4. To come back to the stories. One Tukoji Pant was bequeathed a jagir at Bhandara by the Peshwa for showing great valour during the battle with Tipu Sultan. Thus he was a minor Sardar. His son was Kashinath Rao. It seems that for the Third Battle of Panipat, all 84 Sardars were asked by the Peshwa to go to the battle. In the battle 36 Sardars laid down their lives, and 18 decided not to return to their homeland out of shame and embarrassment. They felt dishonoured with their names tarnished. They dispersed to various places in the North: Pants of Rajawali went to Almora. Govind Vallabh Pant was a scion of that family. Vinchuks went to Kashipur, Aptes to Faizabad, Newalkars to Jhansi, Prabhune to Bithur etc. Kashinath went to Kashi (Varanasi), threw his sward and other weapons in the river (Ganga). He was about to throw his Rajmudra (Ring) as well, but a Brahman who was performing his sandhya saw his action, and chided him not to throw away the ring as it was the state property. He said that let the Brahmans decide where it would be kept in safe custody. It was decided later by a group of Brahmans that the ring would be kept in the custody of Pt. Waman Rao Shastri till Kashinath took it back to Bhandara. Kashinath was financed by Waman Rao for opening his hundi business which thrived. Kashinath was 32 years of age when he came to Varanasi. Three years after WamanRao died. The vidwat samaj asked Kashinath to marry his daughter. The marriage was performed and the mudra was brought back by the bride Manorama. The family tree as told to me by Prahlad Rao who also told me this story was: Kashinath- Vishwanath- Venkatesh Rao- Madhavji- Narayanji- Bhalchadra-Kashinath-Prahladrao who has two sons Anand and Saurabh. Anand has a son now named Kartik. I cannot vouch for the veracity of the story, but PRB may not be all incorrect, leave aside some embellishments.

5. One brother of Vishwanath, Shivanji did some embezzlement and he was banished from Varanasi and sent to Ghazipur. He was given some settlement. He had two sons Gopal Lal and Lalgopal Lal. Gopalji’s son Lallu was my youngest uncle’s contemporary. Later Bhalchandra had a younger brother Sakharam. During the earthquake of circa 1870, their mother fell off from the fourth floor in the courtyard about 40' below and died. Sakharam got stuck between two stones, and was later sent to Calcutta (now Kolkata) for wet nursing. He grew up there, and was the more dominant of the two brothers. He started the business of coalfields and shipping and incurred huge losses. Bhalchandra, as the story goes, went to his father (Narayanji) during the initial days when the business was started and expressed his apprehensions. However, Narayanji’s reply was that Lakshmi stays in a family for seven generations, after which she goes elsewhere; the cycle for his family was over and he could not do much. Bhalchadra got disgusted and joined Shaw Wallace as a Purchase Officer ( He had studied upto Intermediate). Prahlad told me that when he was born his was a typical low middle class family, with all the property gone. As for Narayanji and Sakharam, the house was sold on the order of Court of Wards. Narayanji could not bear the shock, and died six days after the house was sold. Before his death he admitted that had he got the partition done, at least all that would not have happened.

6. In Biharsharif, there were four zamindar families. Yogu was our contemporary, who died very recently. He was alone in the house, with his very old invalid mother who even now is counting her last days. In the night he slipped badly in bathroom, was unconscious, wounded his skull, and by the time help could arrive in the morning he was already dead. Death comes to you in so many ways! Yogu’s great-grandfather Nandram was a low graduate, and he was working with a barrister in Calcutta. There he came in contact with Suchantis, the Jain Seths of Pawapuri. Pawapuri has an important Jain shrine which had 700 villages donated by the disciples. The affairs of these villages were in complete mess. Nandram worked on it and divided the lot into 32 trusts and got them registered. For this work he was gifted 11 villages and became a mid-sized zamindar.He had two daughters: Kesar and Kasturi. Kesar was married to Jitendraji who was a court writer at Allahabad High Court. His son was an Advocate and later became a deputy Advocate General. One of his sons became a Judge in Allahabad high court. I remember an interesting episode. My uncle wanted his daughter to be married to the eldest grandson of Jitendraji. At that time his son was also a widower. Jitendraji’s reply was that his first priority was the marriage of his son and only after that he would think of his grandsons. My cousin was a pretty girl and she did not have any difficulty in getting another match. The other daughter Kasturi was married to Lakshmikant, a meek hen-pecked husband. Kasturi was maniacal about cleanliness. I have observed that cleanliness is a fetish. Some are fussy about personal hygiene, some about their surroundings, and some are about clothes. Well, this lady had a fetish about fecal dirtiness. She used to carry a bucket of water to the loo, and when she came out of that, used to sprinkle the ground ahead of her with whatever water was left. Naturally the clothes she wore to the loo were discarded for washing. This practice was quite prevalent among several Brahman families up to the generation just above me. The reason probably has to be found in the filth of the dry latrine which people had at their home at that time. And if somebody had upset stomach in the family, you had it.

7. My grandmother used to cook food for herself and the family during the dayafter takeing bath and wearing a silk sri which I don’t know for how many years she had been using. It ad faded and had become a dirty brown colour after after years of washing daily and then tolerating heat and smoke. Yes, nobody was allowed inside the kitchen when shen was coking. In retrospect, it wass a very hygiening practice. My grandmother had been a widow for such a long time that all her good colourful saris might have been taken away by her daughters and other relations. In any case as a widow she was not allowerd to wear brightly coloured sarees She always wore white, and and she found male dhotis to be most comfortable and light to her body. I remember her to be a shortish fair lady, with a sharp nose, and beautiful clear eyes, but she looke much older that her age between 65 and 70 years. She couldn’t have been more that 50 kg, but had clear, baritone voice. I remember one of my classmates was sitting wih me in the outer room which we called baithaka. At that time Dadi wass talking to someone in the family and my friend was surprised to hear such clear voice form a frail old lady. With four grown-up sons who were all eaarnign,though not substantial, she did not have a bad life. She came from the Upasni family of Chunar. After the untimely death of my elder Kaki Usha (of small pox) her small daughter was raisesd by her, and when I was studying at Ghazipur staying with my uncles, I also got the same affection from hef, though the plave of my cousin Ruby was very special in her heart.

8. The other group at Biharsharif were the Pathaks who had the zamindari of about 12 villages. Post-mutiny there were four brothers. One of them Keshavdeo Pathak was a Hindi and Sanskrit scholar, and wrote an authoritative Hindi grammar book. Another brother Manmohan Pathak (=Bhatt) moved to Calcutta where he got enrolled in the Presidency College. He haad mastered English, Hindi, Persian, Urdu and Bangla. Pathaks were from Baglan tehsil in Nashik and they spoke Ahirani. Manmohan Pathak has sort of rags to riches story. Once the Ruler of Burdwan Lakshmipati Singh Bahadur was going from Kulti to Diamond Harbour, and was camping somewhere in between. Here he got a letter from an English officer. He did not know English, and sent his men to find a man who could read the letter to him. One landed on Manmohan Pathak and wanted to know whether he could read out a letter in English meant for the Ruler. Pathak said yes, but he could come only after he completes his sandhya puja. After some time he presented himself to the Raja who had become fairly impatient by now. Pathak explained the letter to him and on his request drafted a reply for the Englishman. The Raja was suitably impressed, and he made Pathak Wazir-e-Khas of Burdwan His son Gadadhar worked with Barrister P.R.Das. The King of Burdwan gave Manmohan zamindari of 17-18 villages which was about 3000 acres of land. Gadadhar Bhatt was childless, and after much puja and anushthan he got a son at the age of 58 (Aniruddh Bhatt). Gadadhar died when Aniruddh was 14-15 years of age. There were now 7-8 villages left after clearing the land revenue etc. Aniruddh and the sons of a lady who used to look after Gadadhar's household started the business of coal and cement, and made their money during the Second World War. He earned a lot of mney from a number of brick kilns that he ran. During the famous Bengal famine, Aniruddh donated 200 bags of cereals to the government and duly earned a lot of praise from the British. This story about Manohan does look like a fairy tale, but such things do happen, though not to everybody.

9. the Upasnis of Biharsharif had a big zamindari. Jaidev Upasni was a wastrel and exhausted all his money. The daughter of my grandfather’s cousin (Sadhram) was married to the younger brother of Jaidev (Kewalram). The story goes that Kewalram got interested in Pari siddhi( winning a fairy, that is, a beautiful lady) and was in the grip of a Muslim mentor which so disgusted the family that Sarla’s brother Baleshwar who was a law graduate working as Sub-Registrar got the property partitioned, and extracted Rs, 1.25 lakh form Jaidev for Sarla and Kewalram’s two children Sadashiv and Sushma. Baleshwar then admitted the two in the Ewing Christian College, Allahabad and also admitted them in the hostel. Sarla started staying with his father at Ghazipur where they had a house with a huge compound almost adjacent to our house.

10. My grandfather died when he was in his thirties. During his lifetime he got children every two years with clockwork regularity. During his lifetime he had three daughters and three sons. In addition, one son had died in infancy of plague. Even after his death the clock did not stop, and my youngest uncle was born posthumously. Their uncle was working as Chief Boiler Inspector of UP and he supported the family for umpteen number of years. But as it happens with large families with hardly any source of income except a number of houses in Ghazipur which fetched a paltry sum of rent, they largely fended for themselves. My father and elder uncle dropped out after high school. The second uncle failed in class VII, and after that never went back to school . There were people who advised him that he should follow the footsteps of his grandfather and become a vaidya He did start learning ayurved, I have seen his handwritten notes on ayurved lying at home during my childhood days, but my uncle seems to have lost interest or heart midway. Maybe he did not have the intellectual capacity to absorb the details of ayurvedic science, Who knows? It never occurred to me to ask him or anybody else in the family as to why the tradition of my great-grandfather was not continued. My grandfather from what I have heard was a gentleman-at-large, and his father had left him enough property and money to last a lifetime. My father was sent to Calcutta for B.Sc., but it seems that the race tracks had more attraction for him than the text-books, and whatever money he got for college fees and pocket money etc was wasted on betting on this stallion or that filly. He stayed with his elder sister, the mother of Bachcha, cousin and good friend of mine. He and Prahlad are the main sources on which this write-up is based. Probably if I go to Varanasi or Biharsharif, I would get somebody who could give me some more information. The trouble with the elders in my own family was that they were all reticent about themselves and their community.

10. During the early days of independence, my father did get some good government jobs, but later lack of a college degree always came in his way. Ultimately he got disgusted, and started farming some land which he and the brothers had purchased in Jharkhand , courtesy my maternal grandfather. Later he was killed by dacoits in the village. My eldeast uncle got trained in cloth cutting and tailoring and opened a shop in Ghazipur which he continued with for almost two decades. Later he got a chance in the Ordnance Clothing Factory at a middle level, and died in harness at the Military Hospital, Delhi. Here in spite of his widow getting family pension and my uncle leaving behind comfortable sum of money, two of the three sons could not do much The second son is a medical practitioner, and has opened his private hospital in Varanasi, being ably assisted in his work by his doctor wife. He has been helping his two brothers off and on whenever there is need.

11. My second uncle did odd business in quick succession. He sold the farmhouse so lovingly developed by Saligram, my great-grandfather, purchased a flour mill which did well for a few years, but then the profits dwindled, the machinery became old, and he never knew the idea of creating a depreciation fund. Ultimately, his wife did a teachers’ training course, and got a job in a government girls’ school from where she retired a few years back. In the meantime my uncle became bed-ridden and died after a few years. They had three sons and a daughter. Daughter is married, and the sons are earning their living.

12. My youngest uncle did his graduation for Varanasi, and then started a bank job at Calcutta hoping that he would save enough money to complete his PG. He lived with the same old sister in Calcutta, and after a year or so, came back to Ghazipur to get admitted for his M.Sc. degree. My second uncle was getting married, and he gave his hard-earned money for the marriage, hoping that it wold be treated as loan, and not gift, which did not happen. Ultimately he did complete his post-graduation when he was in his thirties. After some time he got selected for a Class II job in the Consolidation Dept. of UP Govt. In the meantime, an under-developed country of south-east Asia offered him a job in their topography dept. He spent more than a decade there, but later the local government decided to keep a local man on the sensitive post he was holding. He came back to India, got a job in JNU, completed his Ph.D. and retired a few years ago from a Reader-level post. He is the only surviving uncle, relatively healthy and a little whimsical.

12A. Our leaders who foght for our indipendence had a charisma by which they could easily attract the youth. In 1939 Subhas Bose made his separate party (Forward Bloc) and was touring different places to attract people to his party. He had come to Ghazipur and stayed with us for a short while, and had lunch there. This visit of Netaji hurt the chances of my father and elder uncle who were both recommended by the district Magistrate (DM) for King's Commission. Prior to that my father dabbled with some revolutionary groups, It seems that a revolver stolen from the DM's place was kept in our house. There was a search conducted, and my grandfather's cousin's widow had hidden the revolver in her sari and threw it in a well some distance. The police seems to have connive at it. Later another DM who was an Irish had recommended my father and uncle for King's Commission in spite of knowing it. My uncle says that being an Irish, he was a little symapathetic to the Indian independence movement.
Anyway, after the DM's recommendation, the CID sent a detailed report to the government about our association with Subhash, and later a regret letter had come which I had seen lying somewhere in the house.

13. Let us now come to a more interesting story. In the beginning I have mentioned Sadashiv and Sushma. Sadashiv was a colourful personality. He had a brilliant mind, a beautiful handwriting both in Hindi and English, and when he wanted wrote a flowery language in either. It is not known how his path got twisted. He believed in having a good life. Probably the same genes that dominated Jaidev became preponderant in him . He spent lavishly in his student life, he knew that his mother had enough money to support him, and he was the only son, pampered and spoilt. He could not complete his graduation. He had a way with ladies, and they fell for him right and left. He was of Napoleonic height, fair and pleasant looking, though he could not be called handsome. But had a kind of magnetism. He was mealy mouthed and very patient with the ladies who bared their soul to him. Ultimately his uncle Baleshwar put his foot down , got him admitted for a diploma in Mechanical Engineering at Gorakhpur, and started giving him the bare minimum allowance to cover his fees and living expenses. But he had a leeway. Intelligent as he was, he won a scholarship and could indulge in his activities, though on a much reduced scale. He got a job in the Irrigation Dept. of UP govt. You would think that the story would end there. No sir, much more water had to flow under the bridge, to twist a proverb. In the department he was involved in some unauthorised sale of departmental store. He was in hiding for a few years, got married to a very inconspicuous looking girl, and ultimately got caught when he was working in a unit in Calcutta. He was behind bars for more than a couple of years. After he was released, he was roaming around for some time, then got a job at Maduadih near Varanasi in an engineering unit and retired from there. His wife died, and he spent his last days with his adopted daughter at a small town in M.P. where he died. I saw him during that time. Old age had shrunk his bones and he looked shorter than before, below 5’. But otherwise healthy, and dressed well.

14. Here was a man who could achieve anything if he was serious in life. He could be an I.C.S., a renowned literateur, or a brilliant engineer. But he wasted his talent. Incidentally, all the stories above about our family points to the fact that for a child, you need the firm presence of father, who could bring them back on the right track if there was any deviation.

15. Sadashiv used to write short stories under the pen name Shanti Upasni, and at least some of them were published in magazines like ‘Manohar Kahaniyan’. I remember one story which he showed to me at manuscript stage. It was about a wealthy man gone bankrupt who allowed his pet falcon to eat his own flesh. He said that he had Jaidev in mind when he wrote that story. At that time I was hardly interested in Jaidev and was not aware of him and his exploits. At one time Sadashiv and my second uncle were very close, and lots of letters used to go to and fro. My uncle must be deriving vicarious pleasure from the various exploits and adventures of Sadashiv. They had nicknames for each other. Thus my uncle was Tenny and I forget the nickname of Sadashiv. When my father was working for army recruitment at Namkum (Near Ranchi) he had a pup which he called Tenny, I frankly don’t know why. Needless to say, my uncle was not amused. Years later at the dinner (or lunch) he casually mentioned how hurt and annoyed he felt. At Namkum, my uncle had come and stayed with us for sometime. I vaguely remeber him a thickset moustachioed man thoroughly rustic. I also remember that even during his later life in Varanasi, Mannu Kaka(Sadashiv) used 7o’clock razor blade only once. My uncle had told him not to throw them as he used to do earlier, an whenever he went to Varanasi, he used to bring 2-3 packs which were good enough for a few months. I remember one story which my second uncle told about himself. Once when he was in his late teens, he went to the court to be a witness in some land dispute case. The lawyer wanted him to say that he was 111 or 12 years of age. When in the court , the lawyer for the opposition asked for his age and upon his saying 11-12, he sarcastically asked: ‘And how about the moustache and the beard then.’ Pat came the reply from my uncle that it was Pitra paksh (the fortnight dedicated to your ancestors when you don’t shave your beard and moustache for the period). My uncle told that even the Judge had a hearty laugh at this reply.

16. There was another Sadashiv Upasni based at Varanasi. He was a good singer of Thumri, and whenever he went to his relations the girls requested him to sing, and he generally obliged them by reeling off 10-20 film songs. He used a thali (a metal plate used for taking food: it could be of brass or bronze, but now it is mostly of stainless steel) for percussion. He married a Bengali girl, was a junior officer in State Bank of India, and was in demand in his region for thumri. He sang for the radio as well. I remember once when I was a student at Allahabad University, he had come to the hostel in my absence, and left his Allahabad address where he was staying. I had gone to the chowk, and while returning I decided to drop in at his place which was not very far from my hostel. On the way back I had taken from a shop on hire a couple of Hindi pornographic books which were clandestinely available all over. There was a bulge in my trousers pocket. Sadashiv was curious to know what it was. I said books. He wanted to see them. I said they are on Economics, a fairly dry subject of which I was a student. He still wanted to see the books. I frankly did not know what to say. Ultimately I told him to let it go and I didn’t think it necessary to show the books, or something like that. Needless to say he was taken aback. I stayed for another 5-10 minutes and then went back. But all this introduction about Sadashiv is for his father Sanyasi Ramchandra Upasni.

17. Ramchandra did Acharya in Vedas, and taught Sanskrit in Queen’s College, Varanasi. He was married to the daughter of Rajaram Joshi of Chunar who has been mentioned elsewhere in the write-up. He was revered in several akhadas, and one Baba Parmarthgir of Anrohi akhada (Fyzabad district) held him in great regard. His first wife died and he married a second time from whom he got three sons and two daughters (Sadashiv was the youngest). At one time Acharya Ramchandra thought that he would be able to succeed Parmarthgir as Akhada Pramukh. He became a sanyasi. However, somehow his being married leaked, and he was denied the throne. There was protracted litigation in which Ramchandra was supported by his father-in-law Rajaram Joshi. The story goes that in the court Ramchadra was asked to take out his turban and show whether he had the choti (Tuft of hair at the back of skull). Well, he had, and the sanyasis do not have it. Ultimately Ramchandra lost the case.

18. The fourth family of Biharsharif was of Umanath Bhatt. He was a successful lawyer of his area. His brother A.C. Bhatt rose to be the General Manager of the Bank of Behar.

19. As for Chunar, Rajaram, Dayaram and Kriparam were brothers and being the eldest Rajaram was the karta and controlled the property. Rajaram had two sons Vijayram and Parashram. Vijairam fathered Usha my late aunt who died early of small pox, and Vishnu who is alive. He has also contributed to this monograph;

20. The other family of Chunar was of Vidyadhar Upasni. It is said that in 1890 he went to Hyderabad where he was given contract of some work of Nizam, and he came back in 1920-21 after earning about four lakh rupees. Vidyadhar had Ramkant, Radhakant and Lakshmikant (Mohan) as his sons. My grandmother was the daughter of Srikant Upasni, brother of Vidyadhar Upasni. Srikant Upasni was a railway contractor at Secunderabad, and later came to Chunar to settle down. He got established a College at Chunar where he became its founder-manager. He had only one daughter. My grandmother once told me that during his late teens my father had gone to his grandfather, and requested him to settle something in the name of his daughter, otherwise after his death legally all the property would go to his brother’s family. Srikant did not take any action immediately, but assured my father that he would do something. My father came back to Ghazipur, and after a few days ( or weeks) Srikant died and all his property went to his brother’s family. Remember the case of Vijaylaxmi Pandit?

21. Why have I done this exercise? I thought that it is time that somebody records it for the benefit of the posterity of this group, because after our generation dies, there would hardly be anybody who can remember these old stories. I admit that sometimes in details I have not been entirely frank and I have not shown some warts which I am sure would have hurt some people if I did. I don’t know whether I have done the correct thing or not, but I don’t want curses and abuses piled on me. I can also add that all the stories are based on hearsay. It is something like the Grandmother’s Tales meant for young children, but not that young! There could be some incidents which may not be fully true, or exaggerated. Well, whatever, this and the first part are a recorded account which was the aim. Any correction of suggestion are welcome. To repeat, I am grateful to Prahlad Rao Bhandari, Sushil Kumar Bhatt (Bachcha), Vishnu Joshi and Dr. Ashok Bhatt for their contribution.