This was written a few years ago. Today (6 arch 2017!) when I opened the site I saw this draft and thought that it should stay. Also one would like to add a few more which are enumerated in the next blog. 

The Small pinpricks that became festering wounds 

It  would be good to recall the small pinpricks that the erstwhile government inflicted on the people in general. One is really amazed at  the insensitive and callous attitude of the people who took decisions at the top. Let us enumerate  some of them:

1. Currency Notes. The government has already stopped printing one and two rupee notes. It was expected that the withdrawn notes will be replaced by equal number of coins. However it seems the government  mints supported by imports if any were not able to meet the gap fully. Then they decided to equalise the size of the two coins. So now you  have a larger 2-rupee coin and a smaller one rupee coin,   trying unsuccessfully to fill the gap. And now it seems the govt. has stopped printing 5-rupee notes. Who took decisions       in this regard? Had they left the decision in such a lowly matter  to a Section Officer?
It was said that very soon  plastic noes will be printed, but we have yet to see them.  

2. The Cooking Gas Muddle: It would be interesting to know as to what has the government achieved by reducing the no. of unsubsidised cylinders to 6 which was increased to 9 with support from the State Govts. and ultimately the government bowing down to pressure to increase the number to 12. 

59. Rapes: An Unpalatable View

Rapes: An Unpalatable View

More than half a century ago when I was in the school, some of my class mates who either lived in  nearby  villages or because of distance, in a hostel, were married. The trademark was a shiny wrist watch. Sociologists agree that one of the reasons for child marriage in India is the lack of safety in the villages for young unmarried maidens, especially during the time of morning outings. Biologists say that man’s libido is at its peak at 18. In many gang rapes, the most violent acts have often been committed by a juvenile.

India is not like the western country where the sexual mores a little more liberal. Also there is  more free mixing of the sexes there than in India.

So is the Sharda Act the real villain? Do we have to do a rethink on the age of marriage which has now been increased?

In India the minimum legal age at marriage is 18(F)/21(M). Age of consent is 18. Statutory Rape is 15. The bill to reduce the age of consent to 16 has been vigorously opposed. Compared to India, the legal minimum age for marriage in Indonesia is 16/19, Iran 13/15, South Africa 12/14 and Turkey 14/15.  For  European countries, France 15/18, Germany 14/18, Russia 16/18, Spain 14. In the various states of US age of consent is 14 to 18 and age at marriage 16 to 18 years. In Australia the age of consent is 16, and age at marriage 18, although it can be reduced to 16 with one parent’s approval and a court order. In Britain age of consent is 16. No minimum age has been prescribed for marriage (female), and married couple allowed to have sex so long as female has reached puberty.

The average age of marriage in India and Pakistan where marriages are generally arranged by parents it 17 years, many brides are married as early as 15. My mother was married at 16, and so was my uncle’s daughter. Marriage for girls above 20 was looked at suspicion or was the result of loss of breadwinner in the family.

In spite of the marriage age fixed at 18/21 in India, how many parents or couples with ‘illegal’ marriages been actually prosecuted. News comes of mass marriages of one community or the other, sometimes even presided   over by political dignitaries, with charges of child marriages.

Looking to world figures, I think India has been a little hasty in pegging the age at marriage at 18/21. When The age of majority is 18, and voting age 16, are we justified in keeping  marriage age to be 18/21.

58.The Deluge in Uttarakhand

 THE DELUGE

My friend Rameshwar showed me this passage from Jim Corbett’s ‘The Pilgrim Road’ included in ‘The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag’. It is worthwhile quoting the para here:

‘Three days journey up the left bank of the Ganges and you  have reached the ancient capital of Garhwal, Shreenagar, an historic, religious, and trading centre  of considerable imporatance and of great beauty, nestling in a wide, open valley surrounded by high mountains. It was here, in the year 1805, that the forebears of the Garhwali soldiers who have fought so gallantly in two world wars made their last and unsuccessful stand against the Gurkha invaders, and it is a matter of great regret to the people of Garhwal that their ancient city of Sreenagar, together with the palaces of their kings, was swept away to the last stone, by the bursting of the Gohna Lake dam in 1894. This dam, caused by a landslide in the valley of the Birehi Ganga, a tributary of the Ganges, was 11,000’ wide at the base, 2000’ wide at the summit, and 900’ high, and when it burst, ten billion cubic feet of water were  released in the short space of six hours. So well was the bursting of the dam timed that, though the flood devastated the valley of the Ganges right down to Hardwar and swept away every bridge, only one family was lost, the members of which had returned to the danger-zone after having been forcibly removed from it.’

Were the Britishers more humane and better administrators than the Indians?

Not that the warning was not there. The Commandant of a Training Centre evacuated the entire School before it was washed away the next morning. Did he have some information that the District Administration did not have?  The  overflowing of Vasukital glacier lake hs an uncanny resemblance to the  bursting of the Gohna Lake dam. June 15 was enough of a warning before the real disaster in the morning of June 16. True, the weatherman’s warning often becomes a routine, but it was there. But it is easy to have a hindsight. 

#56. When You Grow Old

Snippets from a Senior Citizen’s Life

I have a suit length which was gifted to me in a marriage. For a couple of years I have been thinking of getting it stitched. At the onset of winter this year, I asked my wife for the piece so that I could go to the tailor. She hemmed and hawed, and the net result was that I was deprived of a new suit this winter also.

Then the other day, one of my friends from another town turned up, and over a drink he told me  a funny story. His father-in-law died sometime back. A few months before his death he had got a few clothes stitched. Maybe some shirts, trousers, pyjamas. After his death when my friend’s wife saw those almost new clothes her mother exclaimed, ‘I had told him what was the point of getting more clothes now when he could pop off any day!’ I got suspicious, and asked my wife who was nearby whether that was why she did not give me the piece. Her prompt reply was that I already had too many from before , so much so that there is hardly any place left in the cupboard to keep another suit. Then Gwalior has such short winter. I hope she was being truthful.

I remember one of my colleagues whose dress sense I had always appreciated. The other day I met him in the Gymkhana. He was wearing an expensive kosa silk bushshirt. It had seen better days, and true to the nature of old clothes, the fabric had ad gone smooth and shiny, losing the typical rough kosa texture.

Should we really stop going for new clothes when you grow old?

#55. WAMAN and poor Bali

Waman and poor Bali

Everyday when I open the newspaper with trpidation that there would be news about

 increase of price of some or other commodity. And most of the days my fear

is justified. I thought I would record such news from 9 January onwards.

In the week preceding that, PM hinted at further increase in the prices of

petroleum products, and support price of foodgrains was increased.

 In the last week of December 2012, when I sent my gun licence for renewal,

I found that the State Govt. have levied processing fees of Rs. 500 for 12 bore,

Rs. 2000 for rifles and Rs. 5000 for pistol/revolver. Somebody pointed out that a person

will have  to shell out as licence fee for a pistol or revolver during his lifetime more than

the purchase price. The basic licence fee is between Rs. 50 to Rs. 150. 

this steep hike was challenged in the High Court of Madhya Pradesh, and whereas one

bench set aside the order of the government, the other upheld it. So the matter

stands as it is.

Thursday 10.1.2013

Petroleum Ministry is going to submit proposal to the cabinet that the diesel

prices be increased by one rupee per month till the loss is covered..(This was

later confirmed by the cabinet, and the price would be increased by 40 to 50

paise per month).

Friday, 11.1.2013

Jeewaji Unjversity Gwalior has increased the college and course affiliation

fees by 2 to 4 times. Ths will obviously reflect in the fees charged by the affiliated

colleges from the students.

Wednesday, 16.1.2013

1. Petrol prices increase by 40 to 50  paise per litre in some parts of the country.
2. Maruti Suzuki increase the price of their cars by about Rs. 20,000 across the board.

Thursday 17.1.2013

1. Metro prices expected to go up in Delhi.
2. Non-subsidised LPG cylinder price to go up by Rs. 47 to Rs. 1096.

Friday, 25.1.2013

Oil Ministry has proposed to the government that domestic gas prices be nearly doubled. This would push the price of gas-fired power by about Rs. 1.50 to 2 per of unit. Public transport

would also become more expensive due to cascading effect    on CNG/PNG prices.

Sunday, 27.1.2013

1. Onion prices all over the country increase by Rs. 5 to 10 per kg.
2. Rajdhani, Doranto and Shatabdi train fares to increase by about Rs. 15 to 20

because of increase in catering charges.

A couple of points:

1. Most of the price increases have been in the petroleum products which unfortunately have a cascading effect.

2. One has serious doubts about the costing principles which require so frequent changes in the prices. Do the companies add some costs (e.g. fixed costs# which they normally should not, or at least their weightage should be much less?

3. The tendency of the said companies to effect such price increases have emboldened several other agencies to increase prices which otherwise they would have hesitated, or at least postponed, or phased/spread over a period.

#54.Of Urdu, Sanskrit and Indian Classical Music

Urdu they say is a dying language, at least in India. Very few people write in it, and the spoken Urdu is so similar to Hindi or Hindustani that it is difficult to maintain its separate  identity. Recent;y Justice Markandeya Katju (Retired) known for his caustic comments came out with a statement in a TV programme that every student should learn Hindi, Urdu, and Sanskrit upto Class VII. In principle it looks fine, but you cannot escape adding English to the list, and you burden the young mind with four languages, all belonging to Indo-European group of languages (Hope it is correct for Urdu as well). That is worrying as the students are already overloaded. They study science, bio-sciences, mathematics and geography, history, and social studies  are a must- so how do we go about it? One solution could be to include Urdu in Devnagri and not Arabic script, with difficult Urdu words which are taken from Arabic and Persian explained in simple Hindi. This is not uncommon. Most of the Urdu Shairi printed in Devnagri script follow this. And many Urdu novels too. Sometime back I read Qurraatul-ain-Hyder's Kagazi Pairhan in Devnagri script where meaning of difficult Urdu words were given in simple Hindi as footnotes, and throughly enjoyed it. Then I purchased Aag ka Darya hoping to repeat the experience, but was sorely disappointed. The translator had changed the language to Hindi, and that was murder of the book. I heard a cynical view that the only reason why Firaq is not accepted as the greatest Urdu poet after Ghalib was his religion. I frankly don't know how to react to that. I have not read Urdu literature so deeply. But all said and done, the only way Urdu can survive in this country is by bringing some fundamental changes in the teaching of Urdu. And that brings me to the need for retaining the softness of Urdu. Softening the letters as in zang and Khoon instead of jang (which would change the meaning of the word) and khoon (with no softening of kh) is the real flavour  of the language which is absent in Sanskrit. We have adopted the pronunciation of toilet and pen in its originality in Hindi so why not the soft letters of Urdu? Of course it would make it a little more difficult for the  students, but if an Englishman can adopt the softness of French with a lot of nasal accents so why can't we do it for Urdu?

Something about the teaching of Sanskrit which I have felt so strongly. Have you  ever learnt by heart the conjugation of some word, like go-went-gone, and do-did-done? So why force the student to learn the roops of some word? Natural reading would instil the correct  usage of roop  and not mechanical mugging which has made Sanskrit the most hated subject in the school syllabus. The second drawback  is the weakness   of Sanskrit teachers for joint words (sanyuktakshar).
I feel that where possible, joint words should be broken down instead to make it simpler for everybody. I remember about a postman coming to famous Bengali novelist Sharat Chandra and asking him whether he knew somebody by the name of Machchhar Chadra. Sharaat Chandra asked to show him the envelope, and after seeing it said thoroughly embarrassed that it belonged to him. The sender had used the sanyuktashar for the three words: Shrimat Sharad Chandra! 

Speaking of classical vocal and  instrumental music of India may be a little out of place here. But if our masters  concentrate more on gayaki instead of the grammar, probably more people would be attracted to it. You learn the grammar of music to  make your gayaki better, so why in concerts we should hear for a long time the grammar followed by a short spell of the real gayaki? I know that I am venturing into a heresy but that is how I always felt.

#53. To Name or Not to Name

'Agle janam mohe bitiya na kije'. This is  how Ameeran (Umrao Jan) felt when she went to her village after maybe two decades. The recent molestation of a young girl followed by merciless and brutal beating which brought spontaneous rage and reaction 
from the public  brought the government to a standstill. One can now imagine how the French Revolution or the recent 1942 movement in India happened.
However, a very silly topic has drawn passions. One Minister twitted that her name be made  public now, and everybody had something to say. I say, why not. What is the harm? With or without the parents consent. And the     parents have already stated that they would not mind if the new  Act (or amendment) is named after her. Although  it was quickly followed by the Home Ministry saying that any government Act cannot be named after somebody. Well, only partly true. Nobody remembers the Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929 by that name. Everybody calls it the Sharda Act after Rai Bahadur Harbilas Sarda who initiated the bill. Similarly the Supreme Court Directives on the Sexual Harassment  of Women in Workplace  is better known as Vishakha case after the organisation which took the case to the Apex court. Now whether any amendment or addition to the IPC or CrPC can be named after the Braveheart is hardly a moot point.

#11. Of Birds

Sunbird has long curved beak which is idea for sucking honey out of tubular flowers. Tecomea is one such flower. This morning I was able to capture a sunbird frolicking and sucking nectar on a Tecoma bush.

Smaller birds perch and roost on trees which are safe from predators. They could be thorny (like babool) or high up from the ground (like bamboo). I hope you will enjoy the snaps.

#52. Petrol vs. Diesel and LPG: Food for Thought

The government has been merrily granting permission  to petroleum companies to peg  petroleum  prices to the current prices prevailing in the world market. I remember that when petroleum prices were controlled by the government and were in the category of administered prices,the government raised the prices once or twice in the year, and that also invited criticism from the media and the people who had to bear the additional burden, that is the consumer. Now  the prices increase every few weeks, Yes, it decreases also,, but the decreases are much smaller than the increases. And the price rise is generally restricted to petrol and LPG. Diesel is often left untouched or the price  increase there is much smaller. The argument given is that diesel price rise would lead to all round price increase because the railway uses diesel, the road transport  
uses it , and so also the agricultural machinery. Petrol is used by the affluent, and so its price rise affects only a limited percentage of population which is able to absorb the shock. 

Now who uses petrol? The two wheelers, three wheelers and the four wheelers. The villager uses two wheelers, though the cream of it, the urban middle class in their bikes, and the lower middle class in the mopeds and low-powered bikes. Four wheel owners use petrol but most cars in the cheaper brackets are driven by the typical urban middle class who is just a shade better off. So the myth explodes. It is not black and white: the rich use petrol and the poor diesel or the products they use have a component of diesel in the transport therof. No Sir, petrol is used by the typical middle class. 

About LPG the ceiling of 6 cylinders per annum suffers from the wrong assumption that a family uses on the average 6 cylinders per year, any use beyond that can be made more expensive. However, an aerage family in India uses one cylinder for 25 to 30 days. No wonder some State governments realised this and quickly added another 3 cylinders to the limit. Print media does publish the consoling news sometimes that this ceiling may be raised by the central govt. However , we have not heard anything. The other problem is the harassment of the gas connection holder by compulsory deposit of KYC at the distributor's office under the threat that supply of cylinders will not be resumed till they are so deposited by a certain date. Why couldn't this e done at the time the cylinder is delivered at home? Or, at least the form could be given at that time which could be sent back by the customer by post or courier?

#51. Chambal Gharial Sanctuary and Sand Mining

I am a keen bird watcher, and try to visit Chambal river every year (see my blog on Chambal Cruise).  Chambal has good sand, although in Gwalior the best sand comes from the river Sindh, a tributary of Chambal (or Yamuna) which has a confluence with it at Pachnada. Chambal has a confluence with Yamuna at Bhare and then at about 10 km ahead in Pachnada Yamuna meets Sindh, the latter before that  has confluence with Kuari and Pahuj rivers a short distance away.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Coming back to sand, there is Chambal Gharial Sanctuary which is in about  435 km length of the Chambal in M.P. The Sanctuary has about 18 km upstream, and  further 142 km. downstream in Rajasthan . There are several stretches in 435 km of M.P. where Rajasthan and U.P. are on the other bank.  Fishing and mining are restricted in the entire length. After the sad incident where a young police officer was run over by a tractor trolley laden with sand, the Forest, Revenue and the Police depts. have become strict on the mining activity of sand mafia. Sand is an essential ingredient in building construction, and the price of sand has shot up to about Rs. 4000 per trolley (100 cft) which is about twice of what it was about a couple of years back. Sand mining is restricted in the Sanctuary as it will destroy the eggs of gharial and turtles which normally lay their eggs in the sand, and cover it up . The intentions are holy, and every year significant number of gharial and turtle eggs are taken out by the Sanctuary officials,  hatched in the incubators, reared for a few months and released in the water.

However, I am told that the gharial and the turtle lay their eggs in certain specified stretches of  the river which are about 16-17, and of which 6-7 are major. Nadigaon, Barotha, Dangbasai, Tighri-Rithora, Pureni, Daljitpura, Barenda, Kaner, Mahua, Bijora, Chilonga and Gyanpura are some of the nesting sites, from what  I could gather.  So restricting mining in a  limited area which I don’t think will be more than 15-20 km will serve the purpose of aquatic reptile conservation and the balance stretch can be thrown open for sand mining. It is reasonable to presume that such action would substantially reduce the price of sand prevailing in Gwalior-Chambal divisions.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

#50. Further on Bhang, Ganja, Charas etc.

Further on Ganja, Bhang, Charas etc.

Times of India of 11 November 2012 has given detailed information  on the subject.

 Cannabis indica leaves, buds and flowers give what are commonly known as bhang, hashish (charas),

And marijuana (grass or ganja), also known as pot, weed, hash etc. Two American

states, Washington and Colorado, have decided to  legalize recreational use of

marijuana(ganja). 19 US states have already  legalized marijuana for medical

purposes. India for millennia  have used them for recreational purposes, but

succumbing to US pressure in 1985 enacted the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic

Substances Act which clubs marijuana, hashish and bhang with hard drugs like

smack, heroin, cocaine, and crack, and banned them all. This poorly thought out act

has led to corruption and harassment of ordinary people.  It is also thought that this act has has pushed the entire trade from peddling grass to smack, and worse to higher profits, and creating a real drug problem which was not there  earlier. A respectable opposition leader  who has been a Minister in the Union government served (diluted) opium water to the guests who came for a marriage ceremony at his place. The matter did not get worse that it was soon discovered that

what was done was a customarily done thing in that part of the country. Whereas I am not

carrying a brief for opium as it is addictive, but certainly for cannabis products as they

are neither addictive nor harmful. Tetrahydrocannabino and cannabidiol affect certain brain regions causing relaxation, introspection,lowering of worry and leads to hunger and sleep. The effect reportedly lasts for 2 to 3 hours if it is smoked (charas and ganja) and upto 24 hours if ingested (bhang). It is also the third most consumed recreational drug after alcohol and  tobacco.

Marijuana has been found to have positive effects in diseases like migraine, multiple sclerosis, asthma, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, alcoholism, insomnia glaucoma, and obsessive compulsive disorder.   

Please do not be misled into thinking that the large scale use of bhang during Holi  or  the bhang which is sold by almost all the thandai-sellers in Varanasi is illegal. NDPS Act 1985 excludes leaves and seeds of cannabis from the ambit of illegality. Thus even for hashish and marijuana, if it is proved that it is made from leaves and seeds of the plant, it will not attract the penal provisons of the Act. It can be said however, that for the Narcotics

Control Board or the local police it is  difficult to prove the use of buds and flowers as the plant  grows wild in many parts of the country, especially the terai region of the Himalayas. In both Dehradun and Darbhanga I have seen it growing wild in open lands. 

TOI report has also given three lists: the first of those countries that have decriminalized, and relaxed either partially or fully the use of cannabis products. This contains Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Iran, Israel, Mexico, Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Uruguay, Venezuela and the United States (?). The second list is of States which still have cannabis in the illegal category. These are, Austria, Bulgaria, China, Cuba, Denmark, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand and Sweden. The third list is of  the countries where the use is illegal, but infringement  tolerated, viz, Egypt, Finland, Italy, Jamaica, INDIA, Norway, Pakistan, Russia, Sri Lanka, and UK.

Considering that about 119 to 224 million of adult world population (2.6 to 5 per cent)  use cannabis, it is high time that India also  comes in the first category, especially when even the US which pressurized India to enact the Act is also veering round to relaxing the penal provisions against cannabis products. Bam Bhole!

#49. The Height of Naivete

The height of naivete

After the petroleum prices in India became a joke having been reduced to the level of vegetable prices, now was the turn of the railway fares. .Our venerable CEO and  his VP (Railways) do not seem to be aware of the jocular saying: ‘zor ka dhakka

dhire se’. True that fares had not been increased by the earlier Ministers for the last 9 years, and there was a genuine need for increasing that, the hike could well have been spread over a span of 2-3 years. Why it didn’t strike them is a little surprising.

And I think nobody  wanted a low profile sincere minister like Mr.Trivedi to be the martyr to the cause. Was PM  not aware of the fit the mercurial lady will have by this once-and-for-all attempted hike to deliver railways of all the trouble it is in? And when passenger fares constitute only  a small percentage of the railway revenues.

Life goes on and this will also be soon forgotten. Long live Indian democracy. 

#48. Oh world! oh life! oh times! On whose steps I climb

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

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

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

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

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

माली आवत  देख कर कलियाँ करें पुकार 

फूल फूल को चुन लिया काल हमारी बारि

‘Seeing the gardener the buds cry that today he will take away 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 am sitting with my feet dangling in the grave as the death is delayed.’

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

Several memories haunt me. The one I remember most vividly is 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 developed lovingly 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 it on dirt road. That reminds me of those who used to return from Dadri ka Mela, in the nearby district of Ballia. If you saw a person totally covered in dust from head to foot with clothes having the same  hue and state you immediately recognized that he was Dadri returned. Mela is interesting relic of olden days which has continued to   this day at several places. The most famous  in North India is Sonepur ka Mela . To accommodate the rush of passengers coming by train for the Mela, the British made the longest railway platform in the country at Sonepur railway station. It was meter guage at that time and I hope it is broad guage now. It was a congregation of men and animals, with several shops which traveling salesmen used to take from place to place. Sonepur is easily the biggest cattle fair in the country where you can buy anything from elephants and horses to bullocks, cows and water buffaloes. Almost all the Melas were at the harvest time, and they were basically cattle fair. The famous Gwalior mela started as a cattle fair only. It is held in December-January every year.

#47. Suburban Living and the Birds

After my retirement from a government job, I moved into this house in the outer extremity of the municipal corporation of Gwalior in 2007 summer, and in spite of curses from the better half everyday for choosing this place and area as my

final abode, I have never regretted 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 barely sufficient for my multifarious needs, I surrounded myself in greenery in no time. Greenery means insects and insects attract birds. Young trees and a full grown Tecoma tree which for some unexplained reason

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

during these years:

1. House crows (very rarely)
2. Grey hornbill
3. Blue green pigeon
4. Green pigeon
5. Common dove
6. ring dove
7. Spotted dove
8. Common  mynah
9. Brahminy mynah
10. Pied mynah
11. Red-vented bulbul
12. White-cheeked bulbul (only once recently)
13. Coucal
14. Babbler
15. Tree pie
16. Drongo
17. Grey hornbill
18. Blue Rock Pigeon
19. Green Pigeon
20. Blue-tailed  bee eater
21. Blue-cheeked bee-eater
22. White breasted Kingfisher
23. Red wattled Lapwing
24. Black-winged stilt
25. Small egret
26. Lesser whistling teal (one pair during the rains
27. when there is a pond near my plot)
28. .Shikra
29. Indian robin
30. Magpie robin
31. Babbler
32. Koel

#46. From here and There

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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#45. The holiest of the holy

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.

#44. Safe Way to Live

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.

#43. In the Wonderland of Medical Science and Pharmaceuticals s

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?