tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-334711332024-03-13T05:03:53.930-07:00Diplomatic MusingsAditya Prateek Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09207617380246858002noreply@blogger.comBlogger87125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-81384991190649418772022-07-29T09:58:00.001-07:002022-07-29T09:58:22.034-07:00Ambassador Bal Anand (1943-2022)<p>It is with great sorrow the family shares the sad news of the passing of Ambassador Bal Anand, who left for his heavely abode on Friday 29 July 2022.</p>
<p>For more details <a href="/p/memorial-page.html">please see Memorial Page</a></p>Aditya Prateek Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09207617380246858002noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-47806395529439629472022-04-20T04:28:00.000-07:002022-04-20T04:28:06.415-07:00In the Noble Name of My Father<p>Following is a message from me on the 44th Anniversary of the passing of Pita-ji.</p><p>In Punjabi:</p><p>ਪੂਜਨੀਕ ਪਿਆਰੇ ਪਿਤਾਜੀ ਕੇ ਨੇਕ ਨਾਮ </p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-8bAU9zJL2Y" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe></div>
<p>In English:</p><p>In the Noble Name of my Father</p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/773lXxUYqYo" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><br /></div>
<p style="text-align: center;">* * *</p>Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-46549133871932632602022-01-07T19:20:00.003-08:002022-01-07T19:28:19.832-08:00Meri Jivan Yatra, Smriti di Saraswati<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgn1brM0E0IFu7FEIEjsxYZ4PaE4xyYSVkb9bDGZ47zTR_M94Mmc0gmRnauXxI2LKVKK1jj_xLhZ9ESarKE-2c0Ly9ehFqcWndobS4AxEnfepp4ZP9AgEDP7A6pHAdIwBwHL-VRVD1_ArOx_mOI8TbMsfVbCDQFan7Fxe5lof0cIadhvehM2U0=s1076" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1076" data-original-width="933" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgn1brM0E0IFu7FEIEjsxYZ4PaE4xyYSVkb9bDGZ47zTR_M94Mmc0gmRnauXxI2LKVKK1jj_xLhZ9ESarKE-2c0Ly9ehFqcWndobS4AxEnfepp4ZP9AgEDP7A6pHAdIwBwHL-VRVD1_ArOx_mOI8TbMsfVbCDQFan7Fxe5lof0cIadhvehM2U0=w193-h223" width="193" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Available in Amazon at <br /><a href="https://tinyurl.com/4brn44rd" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/4brn44rd</a><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>I present here my latest book, my autobiography, in Punjabi language</p>
<blockquote>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">ਮੇਰੀ ਜੀਵਨ ਯਾਤਰਾ: ਸਮ੍ਰਿਤੀ ਦੀ ਸਰਸਵਤੀ</h3>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">Meri Jivan Yatra: Smriti di Saraswati</h4>
<h5 style="text-align: left;">Pilgrimage of My Life: A River of Reminiscences</h5></blockquote>
<p>Described in Amazon as</p>
<blockquote>
<p>'Meri Jivan Yatra: Smriti di Sraswati - Pilgrimage of My Life: A River of Reminiscences'; 436 Pages and 24 pages of 96 rare photos.</p>
<p>This extraordinary narration, in Punjabi, by Ambassador Bal Anand (Born 1943) chronicles his marathon journey from a small village school to nine different capitals across the continents to represent India in 14 countries.</p>
<p>This amazing tale of many an unexpected twists in author's life has been told in a gently flowing poetic prose - with ripples of humor here and there. The reader is diligently taken along to travel to various interesting places and meet many talented people and also the eminent global personalities. Author also shares with the reader his trips to famous institutions, monuments and wonderful beauties of nature in the far off locations. The author has dwelt at length on the historic background of his family of saints and classical scholars and has paid rich tributes to his inspirational teachers. He has also referred to the his pleasant personal encounters with many famous personalities in politics, literature, arts, sports, etc.</p>
<p>This autobiography - the first ever in Punjabi by an Indian Foreign Service Ambassador - is lit up on each page with anecdotes and notes of hope and cheer. The book is indeed a must read for all the Punjabi knowing persons for an enlightened overview of the cross currents of developments in India during the 75 years of Independence and even beyond.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">Video Trailer of Author's Introduction to his Book</h3>
<p>Youtube link: <a href="https://youtu.be/z9-_DPP7sQA" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/z9-_DPP7sQA</a></p>
<div align="center">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z9-_DPP7sQA" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe>
</div>
<p><b>Please note:</b> The complete video is still in post-production, and will be posted here shortly.</p>
<br/>
<p align="center">* * *</p>Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-40690490800770729692021-11-23T01:47:00.004-08:002021-11-23T01:54:35.586-08:00Indian & Armenian Women as Preservers of the Family Values - Interview with Mrs. Aradhana Anand<p><i>Published in "Hayatsk Yerevanits" (View from Yerevan), Armenian language magazine, April 2000<b></b></i></p>
<p><b> The wife of the Ambassador of India to Armenia, Mrs. Aradhana Anand, replies to the questions of our magazine.</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6_k8pzIHEtw/YZyvf3DYRjI/AAAAAAAAbEg/lO7POYdxwLYRg9BrAejtjy8ENPRVyfoBgCPcBGAsYHg/s1500/IMG_6493.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="994" data-original-width="1500" height="265" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6_k8pzIHEtw/YZyvf3DYRjI/AAAAAAAAbEg/lO7POYdxwLYRg9BrAejtjy8ENPRVyfoBgCPcBGAsYHg/w400-h265/IMG_6493.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><b><i></i></b></p>
<p><b><i>Mrs. Anand, it has been only six months that you are in Armenia, and your first impressions about our country must be still fresh - Which feeling was the most dominant one? Were you psychologically prepared for coming here and what did you know about our country?</i></b></p>
<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EXB1WozuEaU/YZyv7hPYOHI/AAAAAAAAbEo/AUBoCGF229EUQ-JwTowM9U0DwFAkpKQ9gCPcBGAsYHg/s2108/IMG_6489.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1483" data-original-width="2108" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EXB1WozuEaU/YZyv7hPYOHI/AAAAAAAAbEo/AUBoCGF229EUQ-JwTowM9U0DwFAkpKQ9gCPcBGAsYHg/s320/IMG_6489.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>My husband and myself arrived in Yerevan in the early hours of Saturday, 9<sup>th</sup> of October, last year. On way to Armenia, we had commenced our journey from New Delhi on the 7<sup>th</sup> October in the late evening and after the one night stay in Bombay, now called Mumbai, we arrived in Dubai. The connecting Armenian Airways flight was delayed by several hours. The airport of Dubai is a shoppers' paradise and we could spend our time making a few purchases and 'window shopping' but still it became a tiresome long wait to catch the flight for Yerevan. To be honest we were disappointed with the quality of the passengers' service in the plane. Though the boarding passes indicated the seat numbers, there was a lot of confusion and commotion because of "free seating". Many passengers were carrying heavy pieces of baggage making things further uncomfortable. Frankly, we were not in any way discouraged about Armenia - our long experience of many countries has convinced us that a country should not be judged by the service of its airlines - sometimes the difficulties encountered in the skies of a country are compensated by the comforts on the land with the kindness of its people! We received an affectionate welcome from the Protocol of the Government of Armenia and everything seemed all right with us. The diplomats are 'duty-bound' not to be disappointed about any place or people.<p></p>
<p>India and Armenia have indeed an ancient goodwill for each other. My husband and myself have certainly arrived in Armenia full of expectations to further strengthen the bonds of friendship and cooperation between our two countries. We had read and heard a lot about the historical relationship between India and Armenia and my husband had met the Armenian Ambassador in London, Mr. Armen Sarkyssian, former Prime Minister of the country.</p>
<p><b><i>How do you feel now when you mast have found answers to many questions, where have you already been, what has become a part of you?</i></b></p>
<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I281vAX4M8I/YZyxiE7O-JI/AAAAAAAAbFU/V-fDPns7r-M9ZE6n6z6d1IB3HmgBVTqdQCPcBGAsYHg/s1500/IMG_6490.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1001" data-original-width="1500" height="214" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I281vAX4M8I/YZyxiE7O-JI/AAAAAAAAbFU/V-fDPns7r-M9ZE6n6z6d1IB3HmgBVTqdQCPcBGAsYHg/s320/IMG_6490.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>We have not been able to travel to many places so far. We, however, drove to Lake Sevan and further to the areas of Dilijan. Despite the wind and cold, the grandeur and the beauty of the mountains was indeed overpowering. We have been to Garni and the monastery of Geghard. It was again a very interesting encounter with both History and Nature. We have visited Matenadaran, I really liked the books and the old manuscripts. We have been also to Sardarapat, Saryan House-museum. We have planned to travel a lot more in Armenia, to see places and meet people. Well, anyone living in Yerevan must make Ararat a part of one's spirit and thought process.<p></p>
<p><b><i>Whom are you making friends with, with the wives of other Ambassadors or the local Armenian women?</i></b></p>
<p>The wives of Ambassadors were the first but I have also Armenian friends. My husband and I have been able to make a lot of friends during our few months stay in Armenia. We planned to organize more cultural and social activities and the process would certainly help us in knowing more of Armenian artists, journalists, writers, academicians etc. The International Woman Association has been active in bringing together the ladies from Armenia and the international community. As for myself, I would like to know Armenian women more closely, to understand their customs, national values, etc.</p>
<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1hFyXt1kOeY/YZywP5E4whI/AAAAAAAAbEw/nBtdqPCDG9AzNRuN-_iLdEMQy3ECClrFwCPcBGAsYHg/s1500/IMG_6485.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="983" height="281" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1hFyXt1kOeY/YZywP5E4whI/AAAAAAAAbEw/nBtdqPCDG9AzNRuN-_iLdEMQy3ECClrFwCPcBGAsYHg/w185-h281/IMG_6485.JPG" width="185" /></a></div><b><i>What similarities do you find between Indian and Armenian women?</i></b><p></p>
<p>It is said that the women of different countries of the world understand each other much better than the men-folk. The subjects of the responsibilities of the family; the national traditions of food; costumes and other matters of daily life are very different. Armenia and India are ancient counties and they have traditional societies but their people are ready to welcome various positive aspects of modern life also. The most striking similarity between India and Armenia is the importance given to the family values. Both Indians and Armenians love their parents and children; they live in extended families with their grandfathers - grandmothers. You will appreciate that both in India which is such a vast country and in Armenia, tradition and modernity are coexistent. I would like to mention another important factor particular to both our countries, i.e. the rate of divorce, which is very low.</p>
<p><b><i>You may have had an opportunity to feel that Mrs. Indira Gandhi is very much loved also by Armenians. One can meet a lot of Armenian women who look very much like her, however as a personality she is inimitable. What about India? Are there any new names of women in the political lde of India?</i></b></p>
<p>Mrs. Indira Gandhi certainly became a powerful symbol of the political leadership as well as human qualities in the modern times. We are indeed touched by the loving memories, which Armenian people have of her visit here in June l976. I wish Armenian also elect women to high political positions. The women are in the forefront in all walks of life in India, thanks to the background of the freedom struggle in which women had actively participated. I am glad to mention that the girls are beating the boys in obtaining most of the top positions in higher education in India. We have women who have climbed the Everest; we have women fighter pilots, senior police officers and, of course legendary artists. The women have been provided special representations in the elected bodies at the village and the city level. The parliament is in the process of adopting a new bill which will make the one third seats of the parliament reserved for women. I may mention that the President of the International Parliamentary Union is an eminent Indian Mrs. Najma Heptullah, a lady born in a traditional Muslim family whom I had the occasion to meet during her visits to Saudi Arabia. We have also many women politicians including Sonia Gandhi.</p>
<p>The world has been recently exposed to the beautiful Indian girls. In 1994 and 1995, two Indian girls Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai won Miss Universe/Miss World crowns. The Indian women are on the march although the path still remains long and difficult.</p>
<p><b><i>Mrs. Anand, to which extent are the women's rights protected? Is it relevant to treat the problems of women separately form the general problems?</i></b></p><p>
</p><p>The Constitution of India, adopted exactly 50 years ago in 1950, on 26<sup>th</sup> of January, three years after the Independence, conferred all the rights on the women of India. In practice, there are many problems and disadvantages a girl-child has to cope with in India. Generally, the women have more problems, since they work both at home and outside. However in the field of education, many achievements have been made. The southern state of Kerala is a shining example of the progress of the woman. The women are almost at par with men in every field in this state, which has achieved 100 percent literacy. All the political parties in India are committed to implement special policies to improve the conditions of women.</p>
<p><b><i>April 7 is officially celebrated in Armenia as the Women's Day. This day they praise the women, congratulate them and wish them good luck. We would like to congratulate you, wish you all the best there is in the world, woman's real happiness, new perspectives and pleasant surprises.</i></b></p>
<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G7pHD_zPtrY/YZyxuyUMslI/AAAAAAAAbFY/iX5HlusafZMAQFMY_LwObVJbvBYuw-q2gCPcBGAsYHg/s2072/IMG_6488.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1471" data-original-width="2072" height="227" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G7pHD_zPtrY/YZyxuyUMslI/AAAAAAAAbFY/iX5HlusafZMAQFMY_LwObVJbvBYuw-q2gCPcBGAsYHg/s320/IMG_6488.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Thank you. It is interesting to point out that according to the Indian philosophy, concept of Godhood should be viewed as <i>Ardh-Nari Ishwara</i>, i.e. half-woman- half-man God. The Indian approach does not visualize conflict between man and woman; the salvation and happiness of man and woman are mutually dependent. In the context of the new millennium, I would like to see more and more women in the position of higher decision-making. The women are still persecuted in many parts of the world in the name of tradition, religion and culture. The woman has been entrusted by Nature, the task of carrying forward the very existence of life. She should not be rated weak and inferior by the selfish and arrogant among the males. Men have waged so many wars and conflicts in the world: let women come forward to wage peace and understanding among all the peoples of this planet.<p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">More links</h3><p>* The original publication - <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yDM4zgRG7DiBk9MqeOqH031EeeYvh2ri/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">PDF copy</a> :<br /></p><p></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yDM4zgRG7DiBk9MqeOqH031EeeYvh2ri/view?usp=sharing" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1501" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NfhojPH9nd8/YZy34eLACEI/AAAAAAAAbGE/0WguqKJDvW8yT3gaL7XInPWHSbTi9JXvQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/IMG_6494.jpg" width="235" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;">* * * </p><p style="text-align: left;"> </p><p></p><p></p>Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-62237238545653496422020-09-16T04:35:00.011-07:002020-09-16T04:51:23.145-07:00Swami Agnivesh - An Amazing Indian Life<p>Interestingly and intriguingly, 2020 had begun for me with an affectionate meeting at the Sahmat Cultural function on 1st Jan. with my favourite Swami ji, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnivesh" target="_blank">Swami Agnivesh</a>.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oS2doXP2Glo/X2H3ufCF5cI/AAAAAAAAZFc/4LXHFoareSwca2seG57n7sbomO6n7EW_gCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_7394.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="author with Swami Agnivesh" border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1336" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oS2doXP2Glo/X2H3ufCF5cI/AAAAAAAAZFc/4LXHFoareSwca2seG57n7sbomO6n7EW_gCLcBGAsYHQ/w418-h640/IMG_7394.JPG" title="author with Swami Agnivesh" width="418" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Author with Swami Agnivesh at Sahmat Cultural function <br />(1 January 2020)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">Coming from a liberal family of saints / scholars, I feel instinctively quite at ease with open minded Sadhus ... Fakirs. I had first seen Swami ji in 2005, presiding over an Arya Samaj meeting in Delhi. I recall how he had proposed that Nepal should be greeted on becoming a secular state. There was a loud unanimous "No, No!" by all those present and Swami ji had quietly shelved his suggestion.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Swami was a crusader for the poor and oppressed and called a spade, a spade... about all religious rituals... like Amarnath Yatra. To end the old blood feud, he had even proposed that 'derogatory' about Guru Nanak in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyarth_Prakash" target="_blank"><i>Satayarth Prakash</i></a> could be deleted... again vehemently opposed by other Arya Samajis.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">Further links and information</h3>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>BBC Hindi report... what a journey of life...<br />
<ul><li><a href="https://www.bbc.com/hindi/india-54122887" target="_blank">https://www.bbc.com/hindi/india-54122887</a></li></ul></li>
<li>A Tribute...<br />
<ul><li><a href="https://scroll.in/article/972887/agnivesh-1939-2020-the-man-who-tried-to-reclaim-the-colour-saffron-from-political-opportunists" target="_blank">https://scroll.in/article/972887/agnivesh-1939-2020-the-man-who-tried-to-reclaim-the-colour-saffron-from-political-opportunists</a></li></ul></li>
<li>Aap ki Adalat - Part-1</li><ul><li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLvwzzy25k0" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nLvwzzy25k0" width="400" youtube-src-id="nLvwzzy25k0"></iframe></a></li></ul>
<li>Aap ki Adalat - Part -2</li><ul><li><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e9szYlgSk1o" width="401" youtube-src-id="e9szYlgSk1o"></iframe></li></ul>
</ul><div style="text-align: center;">* * *</div>Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-52644756995844097362020-06-23T23:38:00.005-07:002020-06-25T20:42:47.101-07:00The Great Memories of Great-Grandfather<p style="text-align: justify;"><i>This article was contributed to the prominent diaspora website in the USA, "<a href="https://www.indiaofthepast.org/content/great-memories-great-grandfather">India of the Past</a>" in 2019</i></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">IT WAS October 2018. I realised - as if in a flash - on the night of 18th October that the next day
was the 71st anniversary of passing away of my most beloved and esteemed great-grandfather
– a unique Guru, a tactful teacher, a versatile scholar and renowned <i>Vaidya</i> of his time, Shri
Pramatmanand ji.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TCtp3v1iDmM/XvU9k7ExmeI/AAAAAAAAXWs/rc5EkPxsISUrdQRaRAlZ3fyVi53or6iGQCK4BGAsYHg/s1600/file1723.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1303" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TCtp3v1iDmM/XvU9k7ExmeI/AAAAAAAAXWs/rc5EkPxsISUrdQRaRAlZ3fyVi53or6iGQCK4BGAsYHg/s320/file1723.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">L to R: Pardadee Bhua Chetan Kaur Ji, Author, Nanee Jee <br />Bishan Kaur & Dadee Ji Dhann Kaur. c.1956<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>
<p style="text-align: justify;">As a child of about 4 years at that time, I have rather very vague - बहुत धुंदली सी - but distinct
memories of the day. I had lost my mother about a year earlier and, therefore, used to spend
more time in the loving care of my Naanee (maternal grandmother) Bishan Kaur, though my
two great-grandfathers - Giatanand ji and Pramatmanand ji, not to speak of the grandparents -
Dwarkanand ji & Dadee-maan Dhan Kaur, and the two paternal / grand paternal aunts simply
adored me.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Father, reflecting a serious demeanour and seen mostly busy doing this or that work, seemed
somewhat of a distant and forbidding figure. Perhaps, in those times, young fathers in large
joint families, were also treated by the elders at home more in terms of grown up children! And
they, in turn, might also have felt a bit shy or were not yet accustomed to be openly
affectionate towards their own children, more particularly when there were several seniors
always lurking around to do so! I was, as I have been told, a very healthy, playful and well
adorned child-ever ready to ‘play’ with anyone who was imaginative enough to attract my
attention and interest.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wQgAcVZN6pU/XvVUh7qlDdI/AAAAAAAAXXQ/2xlk_dpgrTw65CXrfUL8pa_EinyQtCpNgCK4BGAsYHg/s768/file383.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="768" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wQgAcVZN6pU/XvVUh7qlDdI/AAAAAAAAXXQ/2xlk_dpgrTw65CXrfUL8pa_EinyQtCpNgCK4BGAsYHg/s320/file383.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CpWqg2U955A/XvVUiBVq80I/AAAAAAAAXXU/xH1BcPzOETsE86biW6CHNTmsCEKYB80uACK4BGAsYHg/s768/file16749.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="768" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CpWqg2U955A/XvVUiBVq80I/AAAAAAAAXXU/xH1BcPzOETsE86biW6CHNTmsCEKYB80uACK4BGAsYHg/s320/file16749.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Author visiting the <i>Baithak</i> of his elders, <br />first time since childhood. 17 December 2006</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Baba ji Pramatmanand ji would often like to have me by his side in his <i>Baithak </i>- an all-purpose
larger room serving as <i>pustkalaya</i> (library); <i>lekhanalya</i> (room for writing books); <i>aushdhalya</i>
(room with open Almirahs with lines of bottles of medicines); <i>shishyalya</i> (teaching room),
<i>sangityalya</i> (with musical instruments lying around) and above all, the play-corner of his most
beloved great-grandson, i.e., me – the first born of the 7th generation of the known history of
the family! I was reputed to be the apple of his eyes – the fulfilment of his prayer; reputed to
have been named by him even before my birth, after the name of a legendary saint scholar of a
historic seminary of Amritsar! What an ironically tragic twist of destiny that it had taken me
more than sixty years to cross the threshold of and enter this most pious premises, once the
hallowed seat of imparting knowledge and wisdom by Vaid Bhushan Param Sant
Pramatmanand Ji, my revered great grandfather !!!</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qGVxKrkntUA/VTZjW-xZx_I/AAAAAAAABp8/AuLxqms_IG8V8IZ8AzwMkcWGcODrPejrwCK4BGAsYHg/s1601/Pind%2BDa%2BGurdwara%2Bclose%2Bup.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1186" data-original-width="1601" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qGVxKrkntUA/VTZjW-xZx_I/AAAAAAAABp8/AuLxqms_IG8V8IZ8AzwMkcWGcODrPejrwCK4BGAsYHg/s320/Pind%2BDa%2BGurdwara%2Bclose%2Bup.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Falaund Kalan<br />Shrine of Author's Ancestor - Baba Gajjan Shah Ji<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>
<p style="text-align: justify;">On the fateful day of his passing away, I had been, perhaps, specially fetched – carried mostly
on shoulders during the journey on foot by my maternal uncle, Jawala Singh from village
Jandali, of my recently deceased mother, Malkit Kaur. It was located near the historic town of
Payal, on Sirhind Canal, 7 Koh i.e., about 17 km from my parental village, Falaund Kalan.
I recall that the <i>Bawan</i> – decorated bier for funeral procession – bedecked with flowers and
buntings had in front the group of <i>Band-baja </i>musicians – Muslims professionals called from the
nearby city of Malerkotla. The silently grieving women were moving behind the men folk. I, the
<i>Jyeshath</i> - first born-great-grandson, was carried on his broad shoulders by my well-built
maternal uncle Jawala Singh. I was waving ritually the <i>Chaur</i> – fly whisk – over the bier. This
funeral procession, in a solemn tradition but not in overly sorrowful atmosphere, was symbolic
of the expression of completion of a life of fulfilment of the most respected and distinguished
elder of the family.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-THIj6NrPwAk/XvVqlTSKt5I/AAAAAAAAXYo/Yw2v9katuL8ORwGOHajB37bxF220HKBbwCK4BGAsYHg/s1055/Scan%2B3.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1055" data-original-width="769" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-THIj6NrPwAk/XvVqlTSKt5I/AAAAAAAAXYo/Yw2v9katuL8ORwGOHajB37bxF220HKBbwCK4BGAsYHg/s320/Scan%2B3.jpeg" /></a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baba Gajjan Shah Ji</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The bier had been brought into the exclusive family cremation ground near the more than
hundred-year-old <i>Samadhi </i>- mausoleum - of family patriarch Baba Gajjan Shah. My father was
being given instructions to light the pyre. Pramatmanand Ji’s had no child and my father,
Haridialnand, was his adopted grandson and the brightest <i>shishya </i>(pupil). He had been
rigorously groomed since childhood by his Guru-grandfather to be the true inheritor of his
mantle of all the multifarious scholarship and spiritual learning.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Minutes before my father was all set to light the pyre as per the ritualistic ceremonies, an army
official, Ram Singh, belonging to our extended family, happened to arrive unannounced on his
long awaited vacation after World War II. He was last known to have served in Italy. He had
been able to bring with him a camera – something quite rare in those days in any village. He
had immediately rushed to our exclusive cremation place. He politely interrupted the <i>Agni-dah </i>-
lighting the fire - ceremony for a while, and clicked a photo of the group standing by the side of
the mortal remains of the departed noble soul. I could discover the copy this small size photo in
one of the family books when browsing through them after the death of my father in April
1978. Though not very clear in details, the enlarged photo has been indeed a rare monumental
image capturing the moment – just before the mortal remains of the great soul were consigned
to flames of fire.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PY0Azzacd0I/XvRJBNgufqI/AAAAAAAAXVg/QG0xxQFuvM46tAnQ9Jqb5syuWxJWrr6ogCK4BGAsYHg/s2761/Scan%2B1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img border="0" data-original-height="2761" data-original-width="1984" height="500" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PY0Azzacd0I/XvRJBNgufqI/AAAAAAAAXVg/QG0xxQFuvM46tAnQ9Jqb5syuWxJWrr6ogCK4BGAsYHg/w360-h500/Scan%2B1.jpeg" width="360" />
</a>
</div>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Among the ten persons in the photo, I have been able to recognise eight of them. Standing left
to right- the second is Lakhmananand, a dear real nephew, then about twenty years old, who
had been born posthumously; Narain Darya, another elderly distant nephew; village headman
& a distant grandson, Basant Narain; Tara Singh, again a distant grandson; Shyamanand, an
elderly real nephew; Haridialnand, adopted grandson and chosen heir; Mahinder Dass, a distant
grandson and a learned disciple; Krishnanand, a distant grandson and a young disciple. I had
known Shri Basant Narain and Krishnanand quite well and was recipient of their great affection
and blessings.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I have some deeply distant recollections of the largely attended get together at the <i>Antim
Ardaas</i> – the last Prayer function on 9th November 1947 – marking the completion of <i>Shri Akhand
Path</i>, he uninterrupted 48 - hour recitation Shri Guru Granth Sahib. The people of the Punjab
were still under spell of great gloom over the barbaric violence in the wake of Partition of India.
Our village was part of the area of Muslim state of Malerkotla, and the rulers called ‘Nawabs’,
had been held in high esteem by the people. The Sikhs recalled with admiration and gratitude
the historic bold stand taken by Nawab Sher Mohammad Khan (1672-1712) when the two
innocent young sons of Guru Gobind Singh were bricked alive by the governor of Sirhind in
1705. The territory of Malerkotla had remained comparatively quiet during the worst killings of
Muslims in East Punjab. Sadly, the last Nawab Ahmed Ali Khan had passed away on 18th October
1947. I think that I had heard people talking to suggest that noble people like Nawab Sahib and
Pramatmanand Ji were departing this world because such noble souls cannot withstand the
barbarity, inhumanity and utter cruelty of the time!</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sGQ3GJRgN1Q/XvVW1vCttYI/AAAAAAAAXX4/sHBPP6IwwLkAS1hsApuLsmQQZe-Ajc2mgCK4BGAsYHg/s1426/Scan%2B2.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1426" data-original-width="748" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sGQ3GJRgN1Q/XvVW1vCttYI/AAAAAAAAXX4/sHBPP6IwwLkAS1hsApuLsmQQZe-Ajc2mgCK4BGAsYHg/w210-h400/Scan%2B2.jpeg" width="210" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Entry in 'Red book' of ceremonial records<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In September 2019, I was able to retrieve the old family ‘red-book’ of ceremonial records and
the various traditional financial dealings. My father had been tutored to cultivate a habit of
recording most meticulously the minutest details of the various social and religious ceremonies.
He did the same after the passing away of Pramatmanand Ji, including the mention of the exact
amounts of various expenditures involved. He has, among many other details, recorded, “The
Most Pious 108 Sant Baba Pramatmanand Ji breathed his last at 8p.m. on Saturday, 18th
October and <i>Biwan dwara agni sanskar </i>was performed at 4p.m. Sunday, 19th October.” The
Community Feast had been arranged on 4th November. The Function of the completion of
Recitation of Granth Sahib had taken place on 9th November. The Musicians of the band for
funeral part had been paid Rupees 15 - a significant sum in those days; cost of wood for the pyre
was Rupees 23, and 64 coins of double Paisas - large sized copper coins - were thrown around
during the journey of the funeral procession! The family Guru – a dignified Bedi Sikh, a
presumed to a direct descendant of family of Guru Nanak Dev Ji - had been given a ‘<i>Dakshina</i>’
of Rupees 11!</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Then in October 2019, I also came across revealing references in Haridwar in the records of the
family Purohit - Pandits including the signatures of many elders who had gone there to immerse
the ashes of the members of the family. In 2009, we had discovered a copy of a long letter,
more than 2000 words, penned sometime in 1945 by Pramatmanand ji to his young nephew
who had joined the Army. It was about the conflict of litigation over family lands by his
maternal grandfather, and it amply revealed his anguish over the unnecessary family feud. I
have been keen to highlight his legacy of multidimensional scholarship Pramatmanand Ji,
particularly his original hand written works, in Gurmukhi script, of Ayurveda and commentaries
on the sacred texts Hindu-Sikh spiritual tradition. One big book, called ‘<i>Moattam Sahib</i>’,
contains thousands formulations of ingredients of very special Ayurveda medicines, considered
strict secrets like - present day patents. I am glad that <i>Gajjan Bilas</i>, the biography the family
patriarch authored by him in Brij-Bhasha, has been long last published.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I have been speaking to the elderly persons in the village - not many survive now - who had
personally known Pramatmanand ji. A very senior cousin who was the first in the area to do
Masters in English in 1950 - and had then joined the Indian Revenue Service - had told me
several interesting anecdotes about the scholarly Baba Ji. When asked about his education,
Baba Ji was fond of saying that he had studied in the University of Himalaya Parbat. Similarly,
when as a high school student he had once angrily spoken to Baba ji, ‘There is no Rabb-God… all
talk about Him rubbish.’ According to him, Baba Ji affectionately drew him closer to his bosom
and spoke very softly and sweetly, ”Son, first of all, one should not be full of any anger when
trying to understand any deeper and complicated problem!”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">It was my destiny to go around the world as the representative of India and have the privilege
to meet the most magnificent personalities in various fields. In an inexplicably mysterious way, I
feel that my pilgrimage on the path of particular point of view of life had indeed begun very
early - in the most ennobling lap of my great grandfather, an extraordinary saint scholar who
had devoted every second of his earthly sojourn in the love of learning the art and science of
healing- of the human mind, body and spirit!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">* * *</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-35573956890419447272020-06-20T01:19:00.016-07:002020-06-24T23:07:29.336-07:00Mahabharat in Armenian
<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ahqLlOyCwb8/XvMNaonVukI/AAAAAAAAXSA/X0m4Upc_qTgUCMTPUl-OE266i_eIkX9sQCK4BGAsYHg/s2976/Mahabharat_Armenian.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Cover of Mahabharat in Armenian" border="0" data-original-height="2976" data-original-width="2401" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ahqLlOyCwb8/XvMNaonVukI/AAAAAAAAXSA/X0m4Upc_qTgUCMTPUl-OE266i_eIkX9sQCK4BGAsYHg/w323-h400/Mahabharat_Armenian.jpeg" title="Mahabharat in Armenian Language" width="323" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Մահաբհարատա. Հնդկական էպոս<br />Mahabharat in Armenian Language (2001)<br />ISBN:99930-64-59-9</td></tr></tbody></table><i><br /></i><p></p><p><i>This edition of Mahabharat, translated into Armenian was published in 2001, by NOR-DAR publishing house sponsored by the Embassy of India in Armenia. </i></p>
<div>
<style type="text/css">
tr.diplomat1 td {
background-color: #FAF2EF; color: black;
}
tr.diplomat2 td {
background-color: #F0DDD5; color: black;
}
</style>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr class="diplomat1">
<td><b>Title</b></td><td>
</td><td><b>Մահաբհարատա. Հնդկական էպոս<br />Mahabharat. An Indian Epic</b></td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat2">
<td><b>Code</b></td><td>
</td><td>00-00005416</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat1">
<td><b>Barcode</b></td><td>
</td><td>2000000192017</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat2">
<td><b>Publisher</b></td><td>
</td><td>Нор-Дар<br />Nor-Dar</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat1">
<td><b>ISBN</b></td><td>
</td><td>99930-64-59-9</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat2">
<td><b>Language</b></td><td>
</td><td>հայերեն<br />Армянский<br />Armenian</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat1">
<td><b>Publication date</b></td><td>
</td><td>2001</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/15neEICItsRAM6o_hDXZL289uwzEjMirM/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Download PDF Extract</a></p>
<h3>Ambassador's Foreward:</h3>
<h2 align="center">An Epic of Wisdom, Beauty and Joy for Ever</h2>
<p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e-yAlHUg8xs/XvMZrax_TJI/AAAAAAAAXTY/N00tUkB2S90gcwUUaU7oYBof69FI-B4HwCK4BGAsYHg/s2809/Mahabharat_Armenian%2B5.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2809" data-original-width="2230" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e-yAlHUg8xs/XvMZrax_TJI/AAAAAAAAXTY/N00tUkB2S90gcwUUaU7oYBof69FI-B4HwCK4BGAsYHg/s320/Mahabharat_Armenian%2B5.jpeg" /></a>The Mahabharat has been hailed as a unique phenomenon in the history of human civilisation. The epic, consisting of about 220,000 illness of sublime poetry, is the longest literary work of encyclopaedic proportions which touches upon the entire range of knowledge about the heritage of the Indian people: their religion, mythology, ethics, philosophy, cosmology, law, state-craft, art of war, history, ethnology, etc. It as been said that, whatever is embodied in Mahabharat may be found elsewhere; but what is not found in this epic, it would be impossible to find anywhere else. In the context of the ancient tradition of intense cultural interaction between India and Armenia, it is indeed an occasion of fulfilment for the Embassy of India in Armenia that the celebrated annotated edition of the epic, original written in Russian for young readers by eminent Indologist Ms. Natalia Guseva is made available in Armenian language to the impressionable and discerning readers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The Armenian people are well-aware fo the tradition of epic through David of Sasun, a superb work of this literary genre. The essence of the heroic epic of Mahabharat deals with the story of the descendants of Bharata, son on King Dushyant and Shakuntala, namely the Pandavas and their cousins, the Kauravas. The greed, jealousy, anger and vanity of the Kauravas in depriving the noble Pandavas of their rights leads ultimately to a bitter and bloody war. The Kauravas are killed one by one. The Pandavas establish a rule based on Dharma, i.e. the Righteousness and Truth. The dead heroes, by the grace of Holy Vyasa, al emerge from the sacred Ganges and purged of their sins, meet in Heaven where there is no rancour or malice. The theme of ultimate peace and reconciliation represents the essence of Indian ethos.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_KUasC9c_y0/XvMZ9f9UNjI/AAAAAAAAXTg/9shkO_ORPBw0oqO_K0k5JFxYdcC9_BOuwCK4BGAsYHg/s2751/Mahabharat_Armenian%2B6.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2751" data-original-width="2232" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_KUasC9c_y0/XvMZ9f9UNjI/AAAAAAAAXTg/9shkO_ORPBw0oqO_K0k5JFxYdcC9_BOuwCK4BGAsYHg/s320/Mahabharat_Armenian%2B6.jpeg" /></a></div>The main story of Mahabharat accounts for hardly one fifth of the epic poem. It is the skilful narration and juxtaposition of the ultimate themes of Right and Wrong; Action and Contemplation; Life and Death; Friendship and Enmity; Love and Hatred, etc., which make Mahabharat the most comprehensive treatise of the eternal dilemmas of man. The metaphysical poetry of the epic takes on into the realm of soul-searching and soul-vision, expounding universal precepts and principles. Mahabharat could be called an epic of becoming, and the reader vividly witnesses the titanic heroes bringing ruin on themselves through flaws in their characters. The universal lesson is spelt by righteous Yudhishthir: “in all cases, war is evil… he who gains victory, also suffers losses”. This remains valid for all times and for all nations and individuals. The recent TV serial on the epic in India captured the imagination fo the people as an amazingly relevant interpretation and telling commentary on the contemporary themes of crucial significance.<p></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">For this edition of Mahabharat in Armenian language, the Embassy of India first and foremost, would like to express deep and gratefulness to Ms. Natalia Guseva for her spontaneous concurrence to the proposal for the translation in Armenian of her admirable work and also for her gracious gesture to contribute a forward to this edition. Ms. Guseva’s work has been ranked as a classic in its own right in telling the tale of the great epic in words of rare beauty, sublimity and simplicity. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The Embassy of India in Armenia expresses profuse thanks to Mr. Abgar Apnian, the First Secretary of the Writer’s Union of Armenia for conceptualising and implementing the project of the Armenian edition. The Embassy places on record deep appreciation of the dedicated and competent work of the translators, Mr. Nico Manukian, for his superb illustrations fo the book: his brush has surely succeeded in delineating the heroic characters of the epic in all their glory and downfall; compassion and vengeance; agony and ecstasy, etc. The Embassy is confident that the Armenian edition of Mahabharat would go a long way in further deepening and strengthening the historical and cultural bonds between India and Armenia.</p>
<p><b>Bal Anand</b><br />
<b><i>Ambassador of India to Armenia</i></b><br />(2001)</p>
<p><br /></p>
<div style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<table style="text-align: center;">
<tbody><tr>
<td><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9KwFMggn0SA/XvMWBiLxOsI/AAAAAAAAXSw/4FMzk2w6w_4VJr9QKYj0hzqGHkQsrxOYACK4BGAsYHg/s2706/Mahabharat_Armenian%2B8.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="illustrations from the book - Mahabharat in Armenian" border="0" data-original-height="2706" data-original-width="2153" height="256" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9KwFMggn0SA/XvMWBiLxOsI/AAAAAAAAXSw/4FMzk2w6w_4VJr9QKYj0hzqGHkQsrxOYACK4BGAsYHg/w204-h256/Mahabharat_Armenian%2B8.jpeg" title="illustrations from the book - Mahabharat in Armenian" width="204" /></a></td>
<td><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Oc7bTd2Xppg/XvMWGsCfjeI/AAAAAAAAXS0/8AmWo2yMUOAHoP992S003nDAt14XaMrnwCK4BGAsYHg/s2569/Mahabharat_Armenian%2B9.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="illustrations from the book - Mahabharat in Armenian" border="0" data-original-height="2569" data-original-width="2122" height="256" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Oc7bTd2Xppg/XvMWGsCfjeI/AAAAAAAAXS0/8AmWo2yMUOAHoP992S003nDAt14XaMrnwCK4BGAsYHg/w211-h256/Mahabharat_Armenian%2B9.jpeg" title="illustrations from the book - Mahabharat in Armenian" width="211" /></a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_s7MWkeTEe0/XvMWS5KlSII/AAAAAAAAXS4/MGReutRiaF8Gcnu7KO70C8pHfSRLqEa9wCK4BGAsYHg/s2539/Mahabharat_Armenian%2B1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="illustrations from the book - Mahabharat in Armenian" border="0" data-original-height="2539" data-original-width="2136" height="256" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_s7MWkeTEe0/XvMWS5KlSII/AAAAAAAAXS4/MGReutRiaF8Gcnu7KO70C8pHfSRLqEa9wCK4BGAsYHg/w215-h256/Mahabharat_Armenian%2B1.jpeg" title="illustrations from the book - Mahabharat in Armenian" width="215" /></a></td>
<td><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8LcTTXfmhqY/XvMWTPqYdPI/AAAAAAAAXS8/5wF4OJzUwYsiiHZP33wEs7i38-IZlKtsACK4BGAsYHg/s2981/Mahabharat_Armenian_backCover.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Back cover from the book - Mahabharat in Armenian" border="0" data-original-height="2981" data-original-width="2418" height="256" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8LcTTXfmhqY/XvMWTPqYdPI/AAAAAAAAXS8/5wF4OJzUwYsiiHZP33wEs7i38-IZlKtsACK4BGAsYHg/w208-h256/Mahabharat_Armenian_backCover.jpeg" title="Back cover from the book - Mahabharat in Armenian" width="208" /></a><p style="text-align: center;">Back Cover</p></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table></div>
<p><br /></p><p><br /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">* * *</p>
<p><br /></p>Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-27157356781226010362020-06-06T00:30:00.000-07:002020-06-24T01:18:43.824-07:00Guru Nanak's 550th Anniversary - International Conference in Chandigarh<p>Dear and Esteemed Colleagues,</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I presume that you might be interested in the evolving contours in the recent years of Sikhism in its scholastic, spiritual, political and cross cultural dimensions. The subject has indeed assumed significant diplomatic-strategic aspects also of the 'Pilgrimacy' and role of radical elements of the Sikh Diaspora in the context of the global celebration of 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak (April 15, 1469 - September 22, 1539) and more particularly of Pakistan's quite unexpected coming forward for the implement - at a lightning speed indeed - of the long cherished 'Sikh psychic dream' of the 'Kartarpur Corridor'.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">An institution, named interestingly, 'Centre for Research in Rural & Industrial Development (CRRID)', in Chandigarh, proclaiming its founding to Sh P.N. Haksar's inspiring motto 'ceaseless striving in search of Truth through research' hosted, co-sponsored by Govt. of Punjab and Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), an 'International Conference on Guru Nanak's Philosophy...' on 7-8 Nov 2019.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I had the pleasure to participate in this conference of eight sessions - with as many as 32 scholars / academicians making their presentations on various subjects related to the <i>Vaani</i> / teachings of Nanak - of the Seminar apart from the inaugural session with keynote address by Prof Murli Manohar Joshi & Presidential remarks by Sh M. Hamid Ansari. The valedictory session was addressed by Dr Manmohan Singh.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The deprivation of '<i>Khulle Deedaar</i> - Unrestricted Access' to the Sikh Shrines in Pakistan has been the most agonisingly experienced psycho-spiritual wound among the faithful of the dynamic community. The matter has got incorporated in the regular <i>Ardaas</i> - Prayer after every formal religious function. The words are reproduced below:</p>
<blockquote>ਸ੍ਰੀ ਨਨਕਾਣਾ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਤੇ ਹੋਰ ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਿਆਂ, ਗੁਰਧਾਮਾਂ ਦੇ ਜਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਤੋਂ ਪੰਥ ਨੂੰ ਵਿਛੋੜਿਆ ਗਿਆ ਹੈ,<br /><i>
Sree Nankaanaa Sahib tae hor Gurdvaareaan’, Gur'dhaamaan’ dae jinhaan’ thon’ Panth noon’ vichhor-eaa geaa haee</i><br />
ਖੁਲ੍ਹੇ ਦਰਸ਼ਨ ਦੀਦਾਰ ਤੇ ਸੇਵਾ ਸੰਭਾਲ ਦਾ ਦਾਨ, ਖ਼ਾਲਸਾ ਜੀ ਨੂੰ ਬਖ਼ਸ਼ੋ ॥<br /><i>
Khullhae darshan dee-daara tae sevaa san-mbhaal daa daan Khaalsa jee noon’ bakhsho.</i></blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I am taking the liberty of presenting - below - the Paper, running into about 2750 words, presented by me titled, 'Guru Nanak - Poet and prophet of Oppressed and Persecuted'. I was tempted to quote a few parts of it in this covering note - but was dissuaded by the feeling not to make it any longer - and leaving it to you to have a quick look at it - as and when you feel inclined.</p>
<!--<ul>
<li><a href="" alt="Link to PDF file">Link to download PDF file<a></li>
</ul>-->
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Guru Nanak - Poet and Prophet of Oppressed and Persecuted</h3>
<p style="text-align: center;">Bal Anand, Indian Foreign Service (Retired)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_bvV5AoN9vk/XvML5xTYToI/AAAAAAAAXRg/rbCAFo4idqE5Y0-vhXt1d7rqLOXyzttwgCK4BGAsYHg/s4096/Image%2B17-06-20%2Bat%2B11.00%2BPM.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4096" data-original-width="3134" height="256" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_bvV5AoN9vk/XvML5xTYToI/AAAAAAAAXRg/rbCAFo4idqE5Y0-vhXt1d7rqLOXyzttwgCK4BGAsYHg/w196-h256/Image%2B17-06-20%2Bat%2B11.00%2BPM.JPG" width="196" /></a></div>All those who have lived through <b>the last five centuries</b> in the mystically blessed and also terribly tormented ancient lands of <b>five rivers, and areas lying beyond the adjoining north-western regions of Bharat i.e. India</b>, have indeed been spiritually solaced and sustained by the resplendent eternal presence of Baba Guru Nanak Dev Ji (April 15, 1469 - Sept. 22, 1539 A.D.). During all these years of trials and tribulations wrought upon the people of these lands by their own innate flaws of character or inflicted upon them by the unjust rulers and rampant invaders, ‘<i>the dhuur ki Baani</i>-the deepest Divine discourse’ of the Guru conveyed in the soul stirring sublime poetry, in their own genuine tongue, has been burning bright for all to enlighten their lives.<p></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">2. When the toiling and harmony loving people of Guru Nanak’s beloved Punjab were brutally cut apart, amidst rivers of blood and tears - four centuries after his lifelong mission of healing the wounds of religious and social divides with Divine notes of harmony in knitting humanity together-I too had experienced shivers into morrow of my bones as an innocent child of four years, awkwardly awakening to the cruelest ways of the world, by the soul piercing song in my ‘maan-boli’, which seemed, as if, to convey it all to me, “<i>Nanakaane vall nuun jaandia raahiaa ve, meire Pritam nuun sandesha devin jaa… </i>O dear traveler, journeying towards <i>Nankaana</i>, please do convey the deepest cry of my soul to my beloved Guru…” I need not delve into details of those days of the most barbaric mass murders in history of humanity to which people of Punjab had been subjected when India was proclaimed to have awakened to the long awaited dawn of Independence.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">3. While speaking to you all at this moment, ladies and gentlemen, in the city beautiful, I indeed feel acutely conscious about my own odd journey of life spanning seven decades and a half, my obvious limitations to fully fathom and understand the most pious life of the great Guru. In his relentless and epochal search until his last for the ultimate truth and an eternal moral order, more pin pointedly during the last five decades since the world had celebrated the quincentenary of the self-proclaimed ‘<i>Saier</i>- songster (of Supreme Creator) and ‘<i>Neechan andar neech</i>-the lowliest among the lowliest’, one of the most extraordinary poet-prophet of humanity has ever known..</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">4. Dear Friends, please permit me to start with certain basic facts to elucidate my topic of the day. Firstly, we have to begin with an honest admission that ‘no manuscript in Guru Nanak’s own hand has survived the onslaught of time’. <a href="https://diplomat.anandweb.com/2018/01/a-tribute-to-teachers-teacher.html">Prof. Pritam Singh</a>, the painstaking scholar of manuscripts, has underlined at length how the pervasive practice of writing anything in Gurmukhi or Devanagri scripts ‘without separating different syntactical units from each other’ has posed a formidable challenge and that ‘readers needed a long period of training to read such text correctly…’ Guru Nanak had, however, most thoughtfully entrusted to his toughest tested successor, Bhai Lehna elevated to be Guru Angad, the manuscripts of his own compositions and also the writings of other likeminded saint poets collated so diligently by him during his wide spread travels and intimate discussions with several of them. A total of 974 hymns - in 19 major <i>ragas</i> i.e. melodies of Indian classical music - attributed to Guru Nanak had been later incorporated in Sri Guru Granth Sahib (SGGS) by Guru Arjan Dev Ji, when he compiled the Granth, sixty five years later. A majority of Guru Nanak’s verse creations are in the form of quatrains and in other popular verse forms - ‘the themes are ethical, philosophical, or devotional and in their totality make up the cosmic vision.’ </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">5. Guru Nanak’s composition titled <i>Japji </i>- the Holy chant - comprising of 38 <i>Pauris</i>, literally 'ladders', implying poetic stanzas, has been rightly adopted as the prayer for recitation at early dawn, known in the Sikh tradition as ‘<i>Amrit Vela</i>-the ambrosial hour’. <i>Japji</i>, opening with invocation to God, has amplified the concept of Supreme Being, with a statement on the nature of God: His uniqueness, Omnipotence, Immortality, etc. and reaffirms His being both Truth and Reality. It concludes with an assertion that knowledge of God is obtained through the grace of the Guru - an enlightened individual. The prominence of this composition has been ‘recognized as such by the Fifth guru, Arjun, when he gave it the first place in the sacred anthology.’ In essence, it is a monotheistic concept of Supreme Being, known in Sikh tradition as, ‘<i>Ek Oankar </i>- One Sole Supreme Being’. Another composition of Guru Nanak for morning recitation is <i>Asa Ki Var</i>, ‘a disquisitional poem of 24 stanzas, interspersed with <i>Slokas</i> (groups of poetic couplets); it denounces falsehood and hypocrisy in the practice of religion in society.’ The <i>Var Majh</i>; in <i>Raga Ram Kali Dakhani Onkar</i>; <i>Solahe</i> (sixteen-stanza poem) in <i>Maru Rag</i> and <i>Sidha-Ghoshti</i>, again in <i>Rag Ram Kali</i>, Guru Nanak expresses his broader thinking over philosophical and ethical issues and points out that meditation - <i>Naam Simran</i> is indeed the true Yoga. The primary purpose of all these verses has been to free the minds of the ordinary people from all types of superstitions and negative social practices.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">6. When we turn to the group of four poems, in <i>Raga Asa</i> and <i>Telang</i>, ‘expressing strong indignation of Guru Nanak over the barbarities perpetrated by the invading armies of Babur over the people of Punjab including large scale dishonour of the women-folk’, we come across a rare example of a man of prayer and meditation demonstrating a supreme courage of convictions in denouncing the tyrannical deeds of the ‘the <i>Paap ki janj</i> – marriage party - mafia of sinners coming from Kabul’. The death and destruction during the sack of Lahore for four days in the middle of January 1524 finds mention in the boastful narration in ‘<i>Babur-nama</i>’ by emperor Akbar’s grandfather and the forceful challenging counter narrative in the poems ’<i>Babar-vani</i>’ by Guru Nanak- “<i>Bavarvani phir gayi</i>… Babar’s sway has spread all around; even princes are roaming without food…” The painful plight of people is poignantly pictured by Nanak in another hymn: “O our Lord, our Creator, when there is such killing, such suffering, such pain, so much spilling of blood, so much shrieking, do You not feel pity for the poor!” Guru Nanak’s had felt deeply outraged with the indignities and cruelties piled upon helpless women and expressed their plight with the most graphic poetic images: “<i>Jini siri sohani pattian, mangi paae sandhur </i>- Women whose heads were adorned with tresses; Parting of whose hair was daubed with vermilion; Their locks are shorn with shears, their throats choked with dust… Thou art the Author of all things; Thou seest all. Strange are Thy manifestations!”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">7. Guru Nanak - the indefatigable seeker of <i>Mukti </i>- the Salvation of the soul via the pursuit in practice of an honest living following the path of Truth and Nobility - was passionately committed to justice, equality, fraternity and fair play for all. He castigated the rich and powerful for their greed and lust and indulging in atrocities against the poor - he chose to be counted with the clans and classes of Bhai Laalo, the hardworking carpenter friend and Bhai Mardana, a soul mate lifelong musician companion, who was also dubbed to be of low caste even among followers of much acclaimed equalitarian faith of Islam. Here Guru Nanak consciously moved beyond limitations of Bhakti movement and its attendant divide of <i>Nirgun</i> and <i>Sargun</i> i.e. Formless and Formal. He equivocally challenged the hypocritical orders of the day - the caste and rituals ridden Hinduism and unjust and intolerant practices of comparatively recently arrived Islam. Guru Nanak indeed echoed Kabir, “<i>Tu kehta kagad ki lekhi; mein kehta aakhan ki dekhi </i>- you speak of what is written on the paper; I speak of what I have seen with my eyes,” by proclaiming, “<i>Jiho dittha, tiho kiha </i>- I said what I saw.” The inspiration and courage of conviction for Guru Arjan for the inclusion of the verses of the several low caste saints - Kabir, Ravidas, Nama, Sadhna, Sain, etc. - in the Granth Sahib had certainly its sacred fountain source in the integrating spiritual ground so assiduously prepared by Guru Nanak. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">8. We have to understand how Guru Nanak had adopted systematic strategy to diagnose the crises of institutions of the contemporary society. He noted quite clearly how the native Hindus had become deeply demoralized and confused and were leading contradictory lives, “<i>Antar Pooja parhi kiteba sanjum Turka Bhai</i>… - inside home you worship (as Hindu), but outside you read other books to impress the Turks; Discard this hypocrisy! Devotion to Name will ensure liberation.” Though the ‘<i>Nirguna</i>’ saint poets had not hesitated to employ blatantly strong expressions to condemn caste distinctions, Nanak, in a rare poetic restraint, preferred to use touching poetic twists to ceremonial practices like the wearing of ‘<i>janeoo </i>- sacred thread’ saying, “<i>Daya Kapah, santokh soot</i>… Out of the cotton of compassion / Spin the thread of tranquility / Let continence be the knot / And virtue the twist there on. O Pandit…” Similarly, Guru Nanak sought to chastise the Muslims to follow their religion as enunciated by their saintly guides and not the sinful rulers,” <i>Musalman kahanu muskilja hoe ta Mussalman kahave / Awwal Aaoli din kar mittha musklmana mal musaave</i>… To be a Mussalman is not easy: only he who is one in reality, should make the claim. Follow first in the footsteps of the saintly; accept their bitter words as sweet… O Nanak, if he extends his mercy to all; treats all living beings as the same - himself a Mussalman he can proclaim.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">9. The most refreshing and relevant notes for his troubled times struck by Guru Nanak pertain to defending the dignity of the womenfolk and underlining biological and societal crucial role of women in the overall scheme of Nature. He condemned extolling of the orthodox Hindu cults of celibacy and renunciation and sought to elevate ‘<i>Grahisatha</i>-life of a householder’ as the noblest obligation ordained by ‘<i>Srijanhar</i>-Supreme Creator’ of the Universe. He was strongly critical of perverted notions among Muslims of treating women as slaves for indulging in animal lust. He emphasized that husband and wife are indeed created equal and that fidelity was enjoined on both. Guru Nanak pictured domestic bliss as a cherished ideal of life and marriage as the metaphor for consummation of love for the Divine. In the <i>Asa ki Var</i>, Nanak rejects the superstition of Sutak - implying that a woman giving birth to child is unclean and impure for a number of days - depending on the caste to which she belongs! In his masterly composition, Nanak says, “Impurity of the mind is greed and the impurity of the tongue is falsehood. The impurity of the eyes is to gaze upon the beauty of another man’s wife and his wealth. The impurity of the ears is to listen to the slander of others…” Nanak proclaims the eternal truth saying, “Within a woman, a man is conceived; to a woman he is engaged and married… through a woman, his future generations come… So why call her bad? From her, Kings are born.” Guru Nanak had condemned the ‘<i>Sati-pratha </i>- wife burning herself on pyre of dead husband’ - he says that it is nobler to live with pious memory of the departed loved one than embracing an unnatural quicker death.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">10. Most esteemed friends, in the pointed context of Bharat, we must finally reckon all the reformative social and spiritual movements and their eminent apostles at the altar of the fraternity and equality of people: for their totally unalloyed belief and practice in the equality and justice for the spiritually dehumanized for ages, the so called ‘<i>Shudras </i>- the untouchables’: born to be treated worse than animals according to the glorified scriptures of dubious Divine Origins. Guru Nanak’s travels far and wide for interaction with the leaned scholars of various schools of spirituality including those with humbler origins but higher thinking minds indeed represented a path breaking initiative in the spiritual annals of the world. He castigated the caste distinctions as totally false and vicious man made divides, “<i>Jaanhe jot, naa poochhe jaati </i>- recognize the godly light in all; <i>Braham binnd te sab utpati hoee, maati ek sagal samsaran </i>- The Cosmic minute created it all, the entire creation has the same element.” </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">11. Following the path lit by Guru Nanak, the assigning of place of honor to the so called low caste Bhakats and Muslim savants in the Granth has been indeed the most admirable example in the history of the holy books of the world. The truest tribute to Baba Nanak, therefore, on the 550th anniversary of his arrival will be the sincerest pledge by all for the total rejection and purging of caste from their lives in all its ugly manifestations: the Sikhism had indeed owed its origin to equality of ‘<i>Sangat in Pangat</i>’ - the pious Congregation in the queue of perfect equality: enough of preaching so far, the hour of action and practical measures beacons us all from Kartarpur! The 550th anniversary of great Guru’s auspicious arrival and 70 years, 5 months and 7 days of his gracing the planet earth indeed deserve to be celebrated by everyone in the world by reflecting over all those days of his life and 974 most precious hymns composed by him to illuminate mind and soul: they are like the shining pole stars in the arduous and complex voyage by human beings in this complex world. Guru Nanak indeed exults in concluding several of his hymns, saying, “<i>Nanak, Saier eva kahiya</i>-thus spake, Nanak, the poet” - indeed a rare example by a spiritual master to proclaim himself a bard of Almighty! Guru Nanak was a gifted reconciler of religious and cultural differences; in a way, he foresaw the plural and multicultural destiny of India. It is no surprise why Dr BR Ambedkar had deeply admired Sikhism as a great faith practicing equality and justice and an ideal option for his people oppressed and persecuted in the name of sacred scriptures. The Nanak community has to do ‘<i>Atam-manthan</i> i.e. self-scrutiny to rededicate itself to eternal values of hard work, devotion, truthful living and self-sacrifice.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">12. To conclude, dear friends, I may kindly be pardoned for re-striking some intimately personal notes. I recall how since my early childhood, the <i>Gurpurab</i> - ‘<i>Kattak di Pooramashi</i>, <i>mela Nakane da</i>’ - falling exactly a fortnight after <i>Deepawali</i> on <i>Amavas</i>, was a soul stirring festival - commemorating not any distantly mythological event but historically well documented happening of the arrival of a godly person who had no claims to any name, fame or kingdom. My pious grandmother, with always prayers on her lips, gave me ‘<i>Gutika </i>- a sacred booklet’ to recite, as soon as I had learnt the Gurmukhi alphabet; my initiation to <i>Japji</i>, <i>Rehraas</i> and other verses of ‘<i>Nitnem</i>-daily prayer’ began during years of my profound innocence. Grandfather was also not behind the scene and tried to smarter by making me soon learn ‘<i>Hanuman Chalisa</i>’ by heart. From a sleepy village in a small state of Muslim Nawab, the family moved to a newly emerging neighbouring town in 1951. The most impressionable first writing inscribed on a wall to be read by me was on the roadside water tank of the Gurdwara meant for animals, saying: “<i>Sewa Kraee 500 Rupaye</i>, His Highness Nawab Iftikhar Ali Khan Sahib of Malerkotla”. I soon understood how Guru Nanak was indeed for all faiths and all ages; children played games, shouting, “<i>Amba Vali kothri, Anaaran Vala Vehra; Babe Nanak da Ghar Kehra?</i>” My generation has indeed grown up shaping our sensibilities about teachings of Nanak by particularly relating them to various contours during the march of the nation since the celebration of quincentenary of his birth. Incidentally, the grand success of feature film ‘<i>Nanak Naam Jahaj hai</i>’ and the regular reports of excellence of the University founded in his name in Amritsar come instantaneously to my mind.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">13. Esteemed Friends, exactly half a century after half the millennium of birth of Guru Nanak, our country and our world have indeed been witness to amazingly spectacular changes of the technological and socio-psychological kind. Humanity would seem to be confronted with more and more complicated challenges - including even the sheer survival of the human race on the only planet known so far to house humanity! Personally, I had never dreamt that I would be destined to trot the globe in the service of motherland, including 777 days of the ‘<i>Tapasya</i>-Pious Act’ of the duty in the sacred soil of the holy footprints of Nanak i.e. <i>Nankana Sahib</i>, <i>Panja Sahib</i> and 26 other ‘Guru Nanak – <i>Dhams</i>’ and in addition the birth place of Guru Ram Das; eight sacred spots associated with Guru Arjan and 12 with Guru Har Gobind were officially recorded by Govt. of Pakistan in 1962. I and my wife had the good fortune of roaming about in the streets of Dera Baba Nanak on March 12, 2012 - and were, by grace of Guru, luckier even in locating the long left home of birth of my wife in ‘Guru ki Nagri’. While we were having, via ‘<i>doourbeen</i>-telescope’, ‘<i>Darshan</i>-holy sight’ of Gurdwara Darbar Sahib of Kartarpur, we had not visualized that the realization of ‘historic dream’ was around the corner and that a new glorious destiny was awaiting Dera Baba Nanak and Kartarpur Sahib.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">14. <i>Guru piari Saadh sangat ji</i> - Guru’s beloved and blessed congregation before me, lastly, let us hope and pray that in spite of various attendant odds, the Kartarpur Corridor would indeed inaugurate many new flood-lit gates for the forcibly separated people of the land of five rivers, longing for ever to live in love, peace and prosperity for all! The ‘<i>Gurmukhs</i>’- people of Guru’s grace - indeed look forward to the time when they would also be able to roam about as free spiritedly as their Guru had in his own epoch, singing hymns composed by him for all and for eternal Time - with ‘<i>sarbatt ka bhala</i>-welfare of all’ on their lips and in mind and soul!</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">* * *</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com0Chandigarh, India30.7333148 76.77941792.4230809638211532 41.6231679 59.043548636178841 111.9356679tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-53900415172541929072020-06-01T16:00:00.000-07:002020-06-03T05:41:15.776-07:00Indian Diplomat's Wife - on Life and Time in Saudi Arabia<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-68577259-7fff-70de-214c-862284d71c4f" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(This article was published on June 29, 1992, in newspaper Riyadh Daily, Page 2, Columns 3-8)</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6c_6S6Zbb6s/XteXUI6GxOI/AAAAAAAAXFw/wahKQWZ4pm4v3xx5q-uUvJquv93x37rCgCPcBGAsYHg/s1600/Article-KSA-Indian_Diplomats_Wife_19920629_01.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="201" data-original-width="512" height="124" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6c_6S6Zbb6s/XteXUI6GxOI/AAAAAAAAXFw/wahKQWZ4pm4v3xx5q-uUvJquv93x37rCgCPcBGAsYHg/s320/Article-KSA-Indian_Diplomats_Wife_19920629_01.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<h3 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 4pt; margin-top: 16pt;">
<span style="color: #434343; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By Raina Abu Zafir (Special to Riyadh Daily)</span></h3>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">OF ALL the members of the diplomatic corps there are a large number who leave an indelible mark on the social register of the place of their posting. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Riyadh has been witness to many incoming and outgoing diplomats. There have been many whom we’ve met through these columns and have remembered long after.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mrs. Aradhana Balanand, wife of Bal Anand, Minister at the Indian Embassy in Riyadh, though outwardly reserved and soft spoken, has a warmth and codiality of personality which has endeared her to people as much as her husband. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Bal Anands will soon be leaving these shores for another posting. We wish them the best. </span></div>
</div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Please tell us something about yourself?</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VB0ihUPoHdY/XteYi4z534I/AAAAAAAAXGE/tmkpBtSieNwUeN3N7jpJZIAIRQNUaJUXQCPcBGAsYHg/s1600/Article-KSA-Indian_Diplomats_Wife_19920629_02.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="929" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VB0ihUPoHdY/XteYi4z534I/AAAAAAAAXGE/tmkpBtSieNwUeN3N7jpJZIAIRQNUaJUXQCPcBGAsYHg/s320/Article-KSA-Indian_Diplomats_Wife_19920629_02.JPG" width="184" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was born in a town situated on the River Ravi in the Punjab. As my father was an officer in the Indian Railways, I ad opportunities from the very beginning to travel with my family to the far-flung regions of India: the lush green Assam; the ancient city of Patna in Bihar; Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh; the state of Rajasthan, known for their valor its people and their colorful desert life traditions. After a brief stay in Allahabad, the city Nehrus, I came with my family to New Delhi which became my home after my marriage. The most enduring memories for me are the luxuriously long travels with my brothers and sisters by train speeding through the vast stretches of villages, cities, jungles, hills, etc. and the myriad sights of Indian people on the railway platforms.</span></div>
</div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Could you tell us about your country?</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As referred earlier, I have been fortunate to experience the amazing variety in India of the cultural traditions, social customs, food habits, languages, costumes, etc. This variety of living patterns has been shaped by the conditions of climate and the immediate environments.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have, however, noticed that strains of cultural similarity and a shared destiny have always existed among the people of India who have chosen to be united by the secular and democratic political system of independent India. The genius of Indian civilization, perhaps, lies in its ability to absorb and encompass the many cultures it has come into contact with. Many races and faiths have made their home in India and have contributed to the richness of the composite culture of the land.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Islam came to India in the century of its birth and the Islamic impact on the art, literature and architecture has been inestimable.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The prismatic beauty of the cultural traditions is best exhibited during the folk festivals and fairs which are typical to every region of India. There have been systematic efforts to preserve and nourish the popular and folk dances, arts and crafts, and songs. The means of modern mass media have certainly been a great help in this. At different places of our stay, our houses had typical local fruits, flora and fauna. I have vivid memories of the fruit-laden mango trees which we would eat to our hearts' content, inviting sometimes even sickness by overeating the delicious fruit!</span></div>
</div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How would you compare your life here to that of India?</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While thinking of the comparison between life in the Kingdom with that in India, I must say that there are many similarities between them, particularly the fact that the family is the pivot around which the life revolves. The city of Riyadh offers secure life with all the modern comforts. During my brief travels to different parts of the Kingdom, I have been impressed by the facilities available to the people. The Asir region which is so full of natural beauty. The modernization in terms of economic and industrial development in the Kingdom has indeed been impressive. The presence of a large number of Indians, including a significant sprinkling of highly qualified professionals, adds a special positive dimension of the stay of the Indian diplomats in the Kingdom.</span></div>
</div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What are your impressions of the different countries you have visited so far?</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The duties of my husband have taken us to different countries fo the world and have found each of them beautiful and lovable in its own peculiar ways. We have been posted to Iran, Maldives, Romania and Spain before our arrival in the Kingdom. We have been blessed with the kindness and generosity of friends in all these countries.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have been surprised and touched by the deep knowledge and genuine regard for the heritage of India of many friends though had never been to India. For example, in Romania, Rabindranath Tagore is the most popular poet and the students of Bucharest study Bengali and stage plays of Tagore. Similarly, the Spanish tourists love Rajasthan and the Himalayas. We continue our contacts with many friends in the countries of our previous postings and we hope to have a similar experience after our stay in the Kingdom.</span></div>
</div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What do people want to know the most of India?</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WaD42-k1AqI/XteY-D1CymI/AAAAAAAAXGM/RO0yOIfAiZ0oGb5bZOMCqIVQr2ckhPacwCPcBGAsYHg/s1600/Article-KSA-Indian_Diplomats_Wife_19920629_03.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="941" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WaD42-k1AqI/XteY-D1CymI/AAAAAAAAXGM/RO0yOIfAiZ0oGb5bZOMCqIVQr2ckhPacwCPcBGAsYHg/s320/Article-KSA-Indian_Diplomats_Wife_19920629_03.JPG" width="188" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have found that people in the various countries are keen to know about historical heritage, composite culture and the dynamic polity of India. We have also come across many scholars of Indian philosophy and literature. Indian films are very popular in most of the countries and film personalities like the late Raj Kapoor and Nargis, Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini are household names in distant lands.</span></div>
</div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What would you like them to know most of India?</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I feel that friends from other countries may try to understand more deeply that India is the home of such a large number of people with different religions, languages and distinct cultural identities but united with a passionate commitment to their all round development through democratic means. The vast progress made in the crucial sectors of agriculture, health and education, need be understood with a balanced approach. Naturally, I would like more friends from other countries to pay visit to India because the innate beauties of life in India with its pluses and minuses could only be understood when one mingles with the people of India. India has so much to present in terms of its historical, cultural and artistic heritage as well as the current achievements in various fields of human endeavors.</span></div>
</div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How would you compare the status and role of woman in your country to those of women elsewhere?</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It may be mentioned that the constitution of India has provided full and unfettered opportunities to women to excel themselves in every field of national life. In fact, women played an important role during the freedom struggle of India. I think women in India are doing quite well and compare favorably with their sisters in other countries. One has only to look at the declaration of academic results in the Indian newspapers to find how girls are beating the boys in almost all examinations. The success of the modern Indian woman, to my mind, has been her remarkable capability to strike a harmony between her chosen profession and her traditional duties at home. I must, however, add that much more remains to be done for the welfare of women in India.</span></div>
</div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do you meet many women here?</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">During my meetings with them, I have found Saudi ladies very friendly, hospitable and helpful. I had opportunities to attend a few Saudi marriages and was impressed by the spirit of gaiety and the typical traditions associated with the marriage ceremony. I think the Saudi women are doing very well to cope with the evolving environs in the Kingdom.</span></div>
</div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How do you spend your time?</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am, by nature, a home bird and I’m very happy managing the household and looking after the family. During the previous years, bringing up of our two sons was almost a full-time job. Now the younger son is with us while the elder one studies in India. We have quite a busy routine of activities with the diplomatic colleagues and local friends. There are also social and cultural events in the Indian School and the embassy.</span></div>
</div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do you have any hobbies?</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am very fond of music, particularly of the old classical tradition. We enjoy Urdu poetry which is common to all the countries of the Indian subcontinent. We have been collecting over the years cassettes of music and songs. The poetic form of Ghazal, as you know, has been imparted a special eminence by the innovative singers like Mehdi Hassan, Jagjit Singh, Gulam Ali, and a host of the new generation of singers. I have also been an avid reader of Hindi/Urdu fiction and the novels of great writers of Bengal which are available in translations.</span></div>
</div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What are your impressions about Saudi Arabia?</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have had a very comfortable and rewarding time in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The war for the liberation of Kuwait - I returned to Riyadh from India a week before the start of it - would indeed be a historical experience to remember. The city of Riyadh offers interesting opportunities for shopping and the women are compulsively drawn into this never ending game.</span></div>
</div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What do you find unique about this place?</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a unique and proud heritage of its own. The utilization of the national resources for the all round development of the country and the welfare of the people has indeed impressed me the most.</span></div>
</div>
<h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 18pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Extract from Saudi Gazette on 14 July 1992:</span></h2>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Three receptions will be held in honour of Indian Embassy minister Bal Anand and his wife as they prepare to depart the Kingdom after three years of service at the Indian mission in Riyadh. Ambassador Ishrat Aziz and his wife will host a gathering at their residence the evening of Wednesday, July 15. The following day R.O. Wallang, first secretary at the embassy, and his wife, Dr Wesline Wallang, will hold an afternoon reception to bid the Anands good-bye. And the minister himself has scheduled a farewell reception at the Anand residence on the evening of Wednesday, July 22. Anand came to the Kingdom in 1989 after working in Spain. Anand’s wife and 12-year old son, Varoon, will accompany him to Islamabad, where he has been appointed deputy high commissioner at the Indian Embassy there. His 18-year-old son, Aditya, will begin university studies in India.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Links</span></h3>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1itnP-gmxcLdKjgPJ8ITwLLlGTX_fQvTH/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">PDF file copy</a></span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: large; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">* * *</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-27192096205536636062018-07-22T08:41:00.001-07:002018-07-22T08:45:45.243-07:00An Autobiography of Global-Warrior-Poet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Professor Doctor Ved Prakash ‘Vatuk’ </b>(वेदप्रकाश 'वटुक'), an amazingly gifted poet and a multi-disciplinary scholar, has presented-on his 87th birth day, on April 13, 2018 - the fullest autobiographical account of his life and time to his global circle of readers and comrades. He has solemnly stated, "Dedicated with reverence to the pious memory of my ancestors and love to my descendants." He quotes lines from Atharava Veda to emphasize and eulogize the dire necessity - like Oxygen - of ‘Freedom from Fear’ for all living species - humans above all - during their limited sojourn on this planet. A meticulously disciplined and deeply devoted artist of ‘penning words of beauty and wisdom’, he had started this magnum opus on 11th October, 2016 - the birth day of his late scholarly brother Ramniwas Vidyarthi - and completed it on 21st November, 2017 - the date of the anniversary of death of both Ram and a sister, Shanti. The reader will have to be a brave hearted and a determined seeker to complete the ‘<i>Paath</i> - study with reverence’ of this epochal saga of Ved’s multi-challenged early life and a continuously active participation in the struggles for justice and human dignity waged by the marginalized and discriminated people in all the countries of the world. This unique literary creation requires to be studied and meditated upon as an epic of poet’s marathon run of life in his soulful lifelong search and ceaseless struggle in quest of Freedom, Equality and Justice for the human race. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We have to embark upon poet Vatuk’s ‘<i>Meri Saar Gujashat-Aap-‘hadd’ </i>(bones)<i> Beeti</i> i.e. An Account of my Life’ accepting an ugly and harsh truth that the entire history of humanity can be studied, analyzed and understood as an endless chronology of personal and collective travails of bloody conflicts and violence premised and disguised in the utterly false pretexts like race and religion but plainly paraphrased as crude and naked barbarity, loot and plunder. The wise philosophers of earlier civilizations; learned political thinkers of later centuries; the modern socio-biologists and the latest breed of behavior scientists have all made ceaseless and sincere endeavors to decode deeper underlying impulses behind the mass elimination of one group of ‘naked apes’ by another of the same species - audaciously still calling itself 'homo sapiens'! The colonial imperialism created and practiced by the various European countries during the last five centuries of the world history - in the wake of the era of discoveries of the new oceanic routes - characteristically differed from the earlier versions of the empires patched up via the tough terrains of the land routes. The subjugated countries were, in the new deal of dehumanizing discrimination amounting to enslavement, to be systematically exploited for enriching the distantly lying conquering countries. The tiny tribe from the British Isles was, perhaps, to turn out to be the cleverest of all to put together the most splendid example of this model by adopting ‘<i>nashtam-pushtam</i> i.e. destroy and nourish’ policy in the ‘legendary ancient land of glory that was India’. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The historic background of the emergence of the brand new nation named the United States of America was, however, peculiarly unprecedented: the consequence of the sectarian persecution in Europe - majority of them being Anglo Saxons - creating a vast new state. The process had been preceded by a brutal decimation of the local people and their cultures. The newly contrived state then proclaimed itself to be the first in the world to craft a Constitution adopting the high and lofty ideals of governance which were, however, adroitly confined to the few people of the Caucasian race. The inspiration for the participatory democracy had surely come from the intoxicating slogans of the French Revolution of July 1789 - Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. The Iberian colonial powers - Spain and Portugal - outsmarted others in resorting to ruthless genocidal oppression in eliminating the local populace - but having no compunctions in ‘cultivating’ their women and ‘pro-creating’ a new racial dimension; and then resorting to oppression against their own blood-product!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The dawn of the twentieth century witnessed the beginning of the determined efforts by the natives in many countries to regain their freedom from the colonial powers. The long drawn - faithfully claimed to be based on '<i>Ahimsa </i>- Nonviolence' - struggle in India waged by the Indian National Congress under the leadership of MK Gandhi - indeed set unimagined high moral standards for its followers to attain their political goals. It is in this overarched frame of reference that we have to study and examine the epochal autobiography of Ved Prakash ‘Vatuk’, a many splendored man - a versatile scholar-academic; a lifelong activist for equality and justice and above all a <i>Mahankavi </i>- a gifted prolific poet. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This essay is an attempt at a difficult literary task - a reader friendly lucid review of the mighty work of a poet-thinker, published in Four Parts of Paper Back - running into a total 1231 pages - written in masterly Hindi of the soil of Tulsi and Rahim, aptly hailed as a ‘Historic Document disguised as an Autobiography’. The life of Ved Prakash, born on April 13, 1932 in a Gaud Brahmin family, living in a small village called <i>Fazal Pur </i>- meaning, ‘Full of Blessing’, located 32 km from historic city of Meerut, in its North West, indeed embraces the heart and soul of the pulsating and evolving India as well as the tumultuous and technology driven new world of the Europe, UK and the USA. How simple boy from a small place belonging to a ‘<i>Swatantarata Senani </i>- Soldiers of Freedom’ family of very modest means managed to beg and borrow money here and there from friends and relations for the sea fare and mustered enough courage to take the plunge - at the age of 23 - into the vast unknown to cross oceans and face all the unimagined challenges of living, learning and protesting - all indeed constitute the spinal-cord of the story of our unusual hero. He had sought to brave it all with just the inherited integrity and nobility of his personal character - and the only craft he had known: to compose poetry! </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fFvO5EEbk7E/W1SVnoUFS3I/AAAAAAAAFxQ/TUqAZKDriN0VXWEG4Jf2ZxTNy31c85p8wCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_6557.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1562" data-original-width="1007" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fFvO5EEbk7E/W1SVnoUFS3I/AAAAAAAAFxQ/TUqAZKDriN0VXWEG4Jf2ZxTNy31c85p8wCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_6557.jpg" width="206" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Book 1 - भटकाव ही पथ बन गए</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
To get an introduction and broader understanding of this most truthful literary testament chronicling ‘toil, tears and triumph’ of our self-effacing hero, let us begin with a summarized over view of the <i>Aatam Katha </i>- literally, Story of the soul - I am even tempted call it ‘Vatukayan’, after the immortal Indian epic! The First Part - 67 chapters, without any headings and list of contents in the beginning, spanning 384 pages - is interestingly titled, ‘<b>Getting Stranded: It also paved Path Ways</b>’ describes, in the minutest details, the early life of Ved, son of Krishan Lal (b. 1886) and Kripi Devi who had been married, as per tradition, in their early teens. Ved - their 13th and the last issue, born on April 13, 1931 - had been preceded by the 1st born eldest brother, Sundar Lal (b. in 1906) and then the three sisters; the next seven male issues had not survived more than a couple of years. Most memorably, the saintly son, Sunder, is quoted consoling his mother, “Don’t worry, my dear Mom; like my three sisters, we will be three brothers too!” - P. 22. And Ved, most memorably, records, "As if to prove this pious prediction by the noble - in the scriptural echo - son to be correct, younger brother Ram Niwas was born, 21 years later after Sunder’s own birth and I followed four years later!" - P. 23. So deeply sadly, writes Ved with a courage of his conviction, “mother became blind after the birth of Ram - may be - because of lack of proper nursing care and had to live with the disability from age 41 till her death at 85 in 1971” - P. 30. He, however, states that lack of sight did not inhibit her life style of active routine and a fuller participation in all the affairs of the family. Ved, the <i>Shravan</i> son, proudly refers to her phenomenal memory - which the youngest son would seem to have inherited in equally ample measure! Vatuk’s love and devotion towards the two elder brothers - father had died in 1941, at the age of 55 - and the three sisters might seem to have been, as if, inspired straight from pages of Hindu scriptures. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The dedicated patriot and social servant of the strictly Gandhian creed, Sunder Lal, was arrested and imprisoned six times between 1921-42, for a longer spell during the ‘Quit India Movement’ in 1942. A son, named Onkar Dutt, was born to his wife Balwanti Devi in Oct. 1942. Ved was deeply inculcating the values of self-denial, patriotism and sacrifice for the society in the rapidly expanding joint family and in the company of many elders around who were all self-sacrificing freedom fighters. He braved with the crowd - as a child of eight - to walk a distance of 10 km on a cold day of January in 1940 to have glimpse of Neta Ji Subhas Chandra Bose. The 54th Session of the Congress in Meerut on November 23-26, 1946 was indeed the most memorable - a dream come true - a life time opportunity for ‘boy-Ved’ to have,’<i>paavan Darshan </i>- holy sight’ of the top leaders of the freedom struggle. The witty Acharya JB Kriplani impressed him. Jawaharlal was the perfect picture of grace and people simply adored him. Ved passed his Matriculation Examination in 1948 obtaining the first position in his school. He went on to complete M.A. in Sanskrit in 1954; he had obtained special distinctions in the earlier Intermediate and B.A. Examinations, displaying a distinct aptitude and high proficiency for languages. A few sadder experiences in seeking some suitable employment and increasing disappointment with the steep decline in the Gandhian-values based politics and creeping ‘<i>hera-pheris </i>- unfair practices’ in the government of the Congress Party confused him-more of it is authentically detailed in later Parts. It was, however, the sudden strong urge to go abroad and the attraction ‘to see the wide world’ overpowered his mind with the idea to go abroad. An old friend Narayan’s example of doing well in London was an added inspiration. Managing to obtain the passport after several hiccups - a tough task in those days if you could not pull some high official string - and borrowing small sums from several friends and relations to purchase the ticket for journey by sea to London, Ved has given hilarious accounts of situations because of his not having lack of basic necessities like proper clothing for such a travel and ignorance about food and other amenities in the ship - he was even uncomfortable using the flush system! Anyway, braving all the odds of all kinds, he reached London (P. 296) in the morning of November 4, 1954 - a brighter day of soft sun shine; he had in his pocket 10 shillings-equivalent to Rupees Six and a half! </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ved was guided by his friend Narayan to find his feet in the quite different life of London. He could manage to get various type of manual jobs including a stint in the mortuary to ‘care and carry’ dead bodies. He was able to find company of Indian students and enrolled himself in School of Oriental and African Studies. Soon the doors of many other eminent institutions and organizations opened for him. A chance meeting with Sylvia, an American student of Hindi, in December 1956 developed into intimacy and culminated in marriage in July 1957. They were blessed with a son, who was named Sanjay, on January 23, 1958 (To the immense delight of Ved, it was Neta Ji Subhas’s birth Day). The couple then decided to move to the USA in December 1958. The reader will be amply rewarded to study the First Part as an authentic socio-cultural documentation of the life of that period in the region of Western Uttar Pradesh. Ved’s descriptions of the various friends in London - some of them, including Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib, RS Sharma and SC Dubey, later became iconic academicians in India - and the prestigious British institutions during his four years of stay in London are indeed deeply instructive and most enjoyable.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sDJX1HBblJk/W1SVwY75OrI/AAAAAAAAFxU/CUwKMSH1XDEpUUrVGby9Vjvqs2BY8xnSACEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_6557%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1554" data-original-width="1012" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sDJX1HBblJk/W1SVwY75OrI/AAAAAAAAFxU/CUwKMSH1XDEpUUrVGby9Vjvqs2BY8xnSACEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_6557%2B2.jpg" width="208" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Book 2 - पंचवटी के खोज में</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Second Part of the Autobiography titled, '<b>In Search Of Panchvati</b>' (The mythological Woodland in Ramayana) comprises of 40 Chapters covering 319 pages. The mingling with Silvia’s larger family - including her three married sisters, parents and grandparents - was full of interesting experiences for Ved in understanding the life styles and cultural contours in the USA. He could initially get job in a mental hospital as a nursing assistant. He also joined Boston University to learn Russian language where he also met Amiya Chakravarty - one time secretary to RN Tagore. A daughter Aruna, named after the Indian revolutionary in the Quit India Movement, was born in March, 1959. During this period, the American political scene was witnessing new developments surcharged with a different atmosphere in the wake of the Presidential election. Ved had felt drawn towards the comparatively liberal Democratic Party and the emergence of the candidature of youthful John F. Kennedy and his victory surely gladdened him. The movement for the Civil Rights of the Black people in the USA certainly attracted the Gandhian Ved. He was delighted on receiving the offer, in January 1962, to join University of Colorado as an Assistant Professor to train the Peace Corps Volunteers to be sent to India and Pakistan. He had an enjoyable and purposeful time in the job. The year 1963 brought many happy tidings for him - including birth of the fourth and the last child - named Jaidev; Sanjay’s finishing nursery class - and purchase of the First car! (P. 99). Then in September 1963, Ved was offered the position of Professor of Hindi by the University of California, Berkley. He accepted the appointment with a great enthusiasm. He was impressed by the cosmopolitan character of the larger place though he also missed the intimate intensity of life in smaller Colorado. The most shocking assassination of President John Kennedy and several policies of President Johnson - particularly the escalation of war in Vietnam - deeply disappointed Ved. He was inspired to join the various protest movements in the USA for Civil Right and world Peace. He had felt impressed by the struggle waged by Caesar Chavez for the rights of the farm laborers (Chapter 29). He had also to undertake intense personal struggle against the authorities of the University for their biased and racially discriminatory decisions. Meanwhile, Ved’s two major proposals for funding - to the Department of Education for - Text to Learn Hindi and to the American Institute for Indian Studies for a research Project in India - were approved. He resigned his position in the University of California. The stay in Berkeley had made him deeply involved as a lifelong crusader to highlight the sacrifices of the patriots of the Ghadar Movement - with the 19 year martyr Kartar Singh Sarabha in the forefront - operating from there in the Second decade of the Twentieth century. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-moAmZb08lfg/W1SVwVogjQI/AAAAAAAAFxc/SjBwJaD6PFQkHYp1QUUGT_gpC4o3d5oqwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_4910.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1561" data-original-width="993" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-moAmZb08lfg/W1SVwVogjQI/AAAAAAAAFxc/SjBwJaD6PFQkHYp1QUUGT_gpC4o3d5oqwCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_4910.JPG" width="203" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Book 3 - देश-परदेश सब बिराना है </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Third Part of the Autobiography, evocatively titled, '<b>Home-land or Distant-land: All are Desert-Waste-Lands</b>', is slightly shorter than the other three - it comprises of 24 chapters covering 272 pages. It opens with an interesting observation by Ved: "I had thought that my time in India would be spent in peace and comfort but it appears that I have not been born to lead such a life. My circumstances and ‘<i>sanskaar </i>- inherited instincts’, as if, would never permit that such a situation should ever occur." He narrates the course of events triggered by the movement started by Jai Prakash Narayan which culminated into the imposition of Emergency by PM Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975. Ved‘s dearest brother ‘<i>Poojya Agrej </i>- His Worship, the eldest’ Master Sunder Lal Ji, a pious Gandhian and a dedicated social reforms activist had also to suffer imprisonment for 19 months under inhuman conditions. Ved felt disgusted and disappointed with many of his eminent friends and he has not felt shy to name - and shame - those who had felt too timid to stand up against the suppression of fundamental rights of the people in India. The 19 month old Emergency was over and-to the utter disbelief of the world - the Congress led by Mrs. Gandhi was routed. The JP blessed newly formed Janata Party Government, however, failed miserably to come up to the expectations of the people. It collapsed under its own dead weight of quarrels, false egos and mutual back-stabbings among its degenerated old leadership - paving the path for a roaring return to power by Mrs. Indira Gandhi in 1980. Ved had, however, been shaken completely, on the eve of the 19th anniversary of his wedding on 20th July, 1976 - by a totally unexpected ‘seismic’ personal shock. Sylvia had written to him, “You will be as grievously sad to read this letter as I have been in writing it... we have reached a stage when we cannot live together...”, adding that he should speak to her lawyer on the given telephone number. Ved felt shattered; children were dazed and confused; but he did not want to fight an ugly legal case. He did not make any counter legal claims in the case and divorce was legalized on December 15, 1976. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ved had come to India for a few months in 1977 to ‘recover’ from the shattering shock of his life. He utilized various opportunities for an extensive interaction with many top politicians in the government of the Janata Party and had deeper discussions with several eminent literary figures. He was a prominent participant in early 1980 in a Conference in Mysore on ‘Indo-American Folk Lore’. This occasion provided him a very useful opportunity to explain how the western methodologies and frame work of reference unduly dominated the approaches in India to the studies of all the social sciences. He also undertook extensive study tours of the various other southern states. Meanwhile, most mysteriously, many of Ved’s friends and relations became hyper active to propose a second marriage to him with some suitable Indian lady - ‘an American <i>Daamad </i>- son-in-law’ was indeed considered a prize catch; the harbinger of an, ‘American - synonymous with Heaven - Dream come true!’ How a close old friend proposed an ‘ideal match for our broken-hearted poet’ - with an amazingly appropriate name, Kalpana! She was a very pretty woman, in her 31st year; it was mentioned that she had recently become a widow, and had two daughters. Ved’s quicker paced narration details how he was tricked to marry in an indecent haste. She turned out to a personification of all the oddities and so many intrigues and dark secrets - he mentions even her ‘big appetite for sex’!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Their roller-coast time together for eighteen month could be termed an inflammable stuff with so many deceptions on the part of the lady and even her two smaller children. The short part of Ved’s life can certainly be described as the stuff fit for producing ‘heroine-vamp-double-role’ box office hit Bollywood masala film, with location shootings in the USA! This most mysterious chapter in the life of our poet-hero still awaits the formal-final-closure - she was known to have even given birth to Ved’s son!! The third Part further extensively deals with several events in India - like the World Hindi Conference in 1983; strange twists in the lives of so many talented friends; activities of the Khalistanis and major developments in the USA including the War with Iraq over Kuwait in January 1990. He was deeply disturbed with the demolition of Babri Masjid in December 1992 and organized protests against growing communalism in India. The graduation of younger daughter Sunita with Physics and Math was a great comfort and pride for Ved, who celebrated his 60th birth day in April, 1991. Meanwhile Ved had got deeply immersed in high lighting the heritage of the Ghadar Movement by organizing regular activities not only in America and Canada but also promoting the memories of the Ghadarites in India. Incidentally, I had also got the pleasant opportunity to know him during the Ghadr Centenary Seminar organized by Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar in November, 2013. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UwCqPtWus_Y/W1SVwjOJj7I/AAAAAAAAFxY/PUUIaX8f7zIw-qbGGhfo0UHD-Yd6fjA0QCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_6558.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1558" data-original-width="1009" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UwCqPtWus_Y/W1SVwjOJj7I/AAAAAAAAFxY/PUUIaX8f7zIw-qbGGhfo0UHD-Yd6fjA0QCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_6558.jpg" width="207" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Book 4 - घर ही कारागार बन गया </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Coming to the Fourth - not yet formally called the Final - part of Autobiography, titled '<b>Home itself Turned into a Prison</b>', deals with Ved’s thoughtful account of various personal, national and world events during 1995-2015. The project of bringing a group of students from the USA for a study tour in India proved a successful experience. The birth centenary of Kartar Sarabha was celebrated in 1996 with several functions in the USA. The participants included Prof. Harish Puri of the GND University Amritsar and Prof. Jagmohan Singh (son of Shahid Bhagat Singh’s sister) of the PAU, Ludhiana - Sarabha village is situated in the neighborhood of this beloved city of Sahir. Jagmohan is a prominent human rights activist (P. 18). Ved organizes a forceful front against efforts by the Khalistanis to distort its ideals and history. He had felt outraged over the increasing divisions among Indian community into the narrow sectarian and caste based groups. He was conferred, in August 1996, the award by the Hindi Institute of the Govt. of Uttar Pradesh, for his contribution to Hindi Literature as a ‘<i>Pravasi </i>- Non-Resident-Indian author’-his friends celebrated this recognition, more than him! Ved does not mince words to express his views against the policies of the AB Vajpayee led government. He was particularly upset and dismayed over the conduct of the Nuclear Tests by the nation calling Gandhi Ji its Father. Ved has been, personally, no admirer of Atal Bihari’s oratory and considers him a hypocrite and communalist - not a statesman but a salesman. He even campaigned against him in Lucknow in the general election in 2004. He was, however, utterly disappointed by the poor organization, political strategy and the total lack of will among the opposition parties to win the confidence of the voters. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Meanwhile, the ‘terrorist’ attack - on September 11, 2001 - on the World Trade Centre, the iconic symbols of ‘America-God’s own country’ had changed overnight the entire global political atmosphere. Ved’s indignation over the series of bloodiest wars waged by the USA against innocent citizens in so many countries, Afghanistan and Iraq in particular - has found thoughtful expression in several of his poems - P.85-91. On the level of his personal life, the circumstances enabled Ved to spend more time with his younger children Jaidev and Sunita. Meanwhile, his larger and extended family in India with the grown up new generation was developing strains with signs of inevitable disintegration. His large circle of friends in the USA were keen to offer him any assistance in the eighth decade of his life. He shares many touching tales of friends and his sense of deep loss with passing away of several of them, "the vacuum in my heart had been growing bigger since the dawn of 21st century (P. 128)... sometimes I felt as if my heart was a huge graveyard and I have been cremating the memories of the soulmates in it since the age of nine years...” - P.163. Ved quotes a memorable shae’r, "Meri Qismat mein gham ‘gar itne thhe / dil bhi ya Rabb kaee diye hote!" He, however, also records that 20th of May, 2009 was one of the happiest days of his life - P.181. I was the day when the Centre for South Asian Studies, in the University of California, organized a function, 'Celebration of Life and Work of a Poet' to honor and felicitate him. Ved recalls with pride how, he had started a grim struggle against the policies of racial discriminatory and intellectual imperialism in the University, ‘The white supremacy of the intellectual empire lasting half a century had been decimated. I was proud that I had a hand in this transformation and that the first crucial move in that direction was mine.’ The year 2010 had brought various tensions for Ved emanating from the evolving relations among the grown up children of his clan in Meerut. He had, however, decided to return permanently to India, much against the advice of well-meaning friends both in Meerut and in the USA, 'you will get devalued the moment you return.' They pointed out that ‘not to be an American citizen’ was also a folly. But he expressed confidence that he would be able establish himself as an independent author and academician. After making suitable arrangements for his papers and books, he undertook the long travels by rail for ‘Farewell Round of the USA.’ Ved describes in memorable words how he returned for good into the lap of ‘Bharat Mata’ on March 29, 2011 - having departed from Meerut on October 13, 1954 (P. 211). The last Five chapters in this fourth part make an uncomfortable and painful reading with Ved getting deeply disgusted and disillusioned over the soul scorching quarrels in his clan - a la descendants of Lord Krishna - and atmosphere of increasing intolerance in the country! The Epilogue - two poems of exquisite beauty about the tragic juxtaposition of character and destiny - provide us ‘<i>virat roopa </i>- multiversal form’ of the tormented soul of our Maha Kavi.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ved Ji - the name itself indeed invokes the mythological master creator of Mahabharata - has honestly - often deeply painfully and quite bluntly chronicled the vicissitudes in the lives of several generation of his clan - and would seem consequently suffering the fate of Bhishama in Mahabharata. The reader of today might judge him harshly for his scriptural emotional attachments and failures in striking a harmony in competing relationships. He has been very fair in assessing and accepting the changing sexual and family mores in the post-2nd World War USA. The long running commentaries on the post-Independence politics in India could be adjudged more ‘poetical’ than perceptive analysis of the complex socio-economic forces. It is to his great credit that he has not been timid to spare likes of Chaudhary Charan Singh with their ‘feudal, murderous and caste prejudiced’ mind sets. He has been careful in pointing out fault lines of electoral politics since the First General elections in 1952. He has courageously underlined the all-pervasive oppression of Dalits / Adivasis by the unscrupulous upper castes. A reader more seriously interested in this uniquely Indian societal disease to go to Vatuk’s epic poetry in ‘Uttar Ram-katha’ and ‘Abhishapat Dwapar’ for profound references to the cancerous civilizational wounds inflicted by the caste divides on the destiny of India. The solitary reference to Dr B.R. Ambedkar in the Autobiography - Part1, P. 252 - might, however, appear more to be based on some hearsay - and, factually, Dr Ambedkar had resigned as Law Minister before the 1952 General Elections and he had been himself defeated, according to some accounts, by adopting unfair practices. It would seem rather paradoxical that that the authorship of both the Mahabharata and Ramayana is attributed to so called ‘Shudras’ - Ved Vyas and Valmik! One might imagine that Ved’s next poetic epic would celebrate the titanic struggle of an ‘Untouchable icon’ relevant to Today’s India. Ved has been a shrewd and intimate witness to all the amazing - alarming too - changes in human life during his own life: it has been pointed out that that the speed of changes, with the information technology in the forefront, during the last five decades has been, perhaps, more than the last five centuries, or even more! We await and pray for more sublime poetry during the days ahead from Dr. Ved Prakash Vatuk’s mighty, beautiful and justice-loving mind! </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To sum up, I may earnestly state that it has been a deep delight and great instruction for me - and my wife, Aradhana - to study this land mark Autobiography of a heroic-poet - with his character reminding us of the many of Shakespeare’s heroes - suffering with their subtle tragic flaws - hamartia - but emanating that rare ennobling fragrance of the soul. The Four Part ‘precious life blood’ of Dr Ved Prakash ‘Vatuk’ would seem to be calling for equally heroic readers to read this major work of Indian Literature to be published in 2018. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
More about Prof. Ved Prakash 'Vatuk':<br />
<ul>
<li>Kira Hall's Preface to Dr VP Vatuk writings (<a href="https://www.colorado.edu/faculty/hall-kira/sites/default/files/attached-files/hall-2007-on_life_language_and_lore_the_writings_of_ved_prakash_vatuk.pdf" target="_blank">PDF file</a>)</li>
<li>Book Review: <i>Studies in Indian Folk Tradition</i> by Dr VP Vatuk (<a href="http://asianethnology.org/downloads/ae/pdf/a577.pdf" target="_blank">PDF file</a>)</li>
<li>Videos: Poet's Justice... Vatuk reciting poetry!</li>
</ul>
<ol>
</ol>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/C0E4PIucCcU?rel=0" width="400"></iframe></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Xc1kyVn-Bl8?rel=0" width="400"></iframe></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
* * *</div>
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-29156998457443806722018-01-28T14:02:00.008-08:002020-06-28T20:37:07.389-07:00Gajnesh Sandesh - January 2018<p><i>This is Punjabi-English magazine was published on January 2018</i></p>
<p>A publication of: <br />Sant Pramatmanand Academy of Creative Excellence (SPACE)<br /><i>Sant Pramatmanand Rachnatmic Sreshta Sansthan</i></p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uMzCxfbg4ms/XvkhiaXdS5I/AAAAAAAAXbQ/FpaQdEDyTp8yG0ZilFoFlu_QdeIKrap3QCK4BGAsYHg/s1600/Gajnesh%2BSandesh%2B2018.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Cover of magazine" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1236" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uMzCxfbg4ms/XvkhiaXdS5I/AAAAAAAAXbQ/FpaQdEDyTp8yG0ZilFoFlu_QdeIKrap3QCK4BGAsYHg/s320/Gajnesh%2BSandesh%2B2018.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cover Page of Magazine<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div>
<p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1APALS12-zCRNj_A4ujB_i37dTwHckwfr/view?usp=sharing">Download PDF copy here</a></p>
<style type="text/css">
tr.diplomat1 td {
background-color: #FAF2EF; color: black;
}
tr.diplomat2 td {
background-color: #F0DDD5; color: black;
}
</style>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr><td colspan="3"><b>Contents</b></td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1">
<td>ਸੰਪਾਦਕੀ ਚਿੰਤਨ : ਪ੍ਰੇਰਣਾ ਸਰੋਤ ਤੇ ਮੂਲ ਮੰਤਵ</td>
<td>ਬਾਲ ਆਨੰਦ</td>
<td style="white-space:nowrap">2</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat2">
<td>ਇੱਕ ਇਤਿਹਾਸਕ-ਪਰਿਵਾਰਿਕ ਪੱਤਰ</td>
<td>ਵੈਦ ਭੂਸ਼ਨ ਪ੍ਰਮਾਤਮਾਨੰਦ ਜੀ</td>
<td>3</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat1">
<td>ਪੜੋਤ੍ਰੇ ਵੱਲੌੰ ਉੱਤਰ-63 ਸਾਲ ਬਾਅਦ</td>
<td>ਬਾਲ ਆਨੰਦ</td>
<td>5</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat2">
<td>ਮੇਰਾ ਪਿੰਡ 'ਫਲੌੰਡ' ਤੇ ਮੇਲਾ ਲੋਹੜੀ ਦਾ</td>
<td>ਬਾਲ ਆਨੰਦ</td>
<td>6</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat1">
<td>ਮਾਲ 2000 ਦੀ ਹਾਰਦਿਕ ਵਧਾਇ</td>
<td>ਸ਼ੰਕਰਾਨੰਦ</td>
<td>7</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat2">
<td>ਗਾਂਧੀ ਸਕੂਲ ਦੇ ਮੇਰੇ ਅਧਿਆਪਕ</td>
<td>ਡਾ. ਹਰਨੇਕ ਸਿੰਘ ਕੈਲੇ</td>
<td>8</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat1">
<td>ਸ਼ੁਭ ਕਾਮਨਾ ਸੁਮਨ ਮਾਲਾ</td>
<td>ਪ੍ਰੋ. ਕੇ. ਐਲ. ਰਤਨ</td>
<td>9</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat2">
<td>ਸ਼ੰਕਰਾਨੰਦ ਜੀ ਦੀ ਕਾਵਿ ਪ੍ਰਤਿਭਾ</td>
<td></td>
<td style="white-space:nowrap">10</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat1">
<td>ਦੋ ਗ਼ਜ਼ਲਾਂ</td>
<td>ਅਮਰਜੀਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਸਿੱਧੂ</td>
<td>10</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat2">
<td>ਸੁਥ-ਸੁਨੇਹੇ - ਪੁਸਤਕ ਰੀਵਿਊ</td>
<td>ਬਲਬੀਰ ਮਾਧੋਪੁਰੀ</td>
<td>11</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat1">
<td>ਬੀਤੇ ਨੂੰ ਆਵਾਸ਼ਾਂ - ਕ੍ਰਿਸ਼ਨ ਅਸ਼ਾਂਤ</td>
<td>ਬਾਲ ਆਨੰਦ</td>
<td>12</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat2">
<td>ਹਨੇਰੇ ਥਿ਼ਲਾ਼ਢ ਲੜਦਾ ਸ਼ਖ਼ਸ : ਐੱਸ.ਤਰਸੇਮ</td>
<td>ਕੇ.ਐਲ. ਗਰਗ</td>
<td>14</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat1">
<td>ਓਲੰਪੀਅਨ ਡਾ. ਅਜਮੇਰ ਸਿੰਘ</td>
<td>ਜਗਮੀਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਪੰਧੇਰ</td>
<td>15</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat2">
<td>I Love My 'Un-Partitioned' India</td>
<td>Rashid Latif Ansari</td>
<td>17</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat1">
<td>The Journey of My Life</td>
<td>Dr. Yogendra Pal Anand</td>
<td>19</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat2">
<td>Independence in My School</td>
<td>Dr. Jaswant Singh</td>
<td>21</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat1">
<td>Ahmedgarh - Story of a Grain Market Town</td>
<td>A.L. Jain</td>
<td>22</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat2">
<td>My Career as a Doctor</td>
<td>Dr. D.K. Batta</td>
<td>23</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat1">
<td>Expressions of Freedom - Introduction</td>
<td>Bal Anand</td>
<td>24</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat2">
<td>Revisiting School - Five Decades Later</td>
<td>Bal Anand</td>
<td>25</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat1">
<td>My Childhood in Ahmedgarh</td>
<td>Dr. K.K. Chexal</td>
<td>27</td>
</tr>
<tr class="diplomat2">
<td>A Short Profile</td>
<td>Bal Anand</td>
<td>28</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1APALS12-zCRNj_A4ujB_i37dTwHckwfr/view?usp=sharing">Download PDF copy here</a></p>
<p style="text-align:center">* * *</p>Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-39389925997661648382018-01-09T00:00:00.000-08:002018-01-09T23:44:06.941-08:00A Tribute to a Teachers' Teacher<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GcFI9T800p8/WlSqocjiV0I/AAAAAAAAFEU/vFTf_LalZ4E3cYMOO_aVdO0NJH080roTQCLcBGAs/s1600/fullsizeoutput_481d.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1103" data-original-width="793" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GcFI9T800p8/WlSqocjiV0I/AAAAAAAAFEU/vFTf_LalZ4E3cYMOO_aVdO0NJH080roTQCLcBGAs/s200/fullsizeoutput_481d.jpeg" width="143" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prof. Pritam Singh Ji</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As a life long industrious student of the various disciplines of humanities with particular focus on world literature as my post graduation; spirituality in humanity as family heritage and International Relations as my profession, I have always deemed myself as one of the most privileged disciples of Professor Pritam Singh Ji (Jan. 11, 1918 - Nov. 25, 2008), without ever attending his formal class! He had indeed become the tall human tower - a light house in Patiala - as an eminent teacher and an extraordinary, an encyclopedic, scholar of not only Punjabi language and literature but the entire range of the composite cultural and literary heritage of humanity.<br />
<br />
Prof. Pritam Singh had been an inspiration for generations of students of Punjabi literature till he breathed his last. He was one of the stalwarts among teachers who had been a witness, as a bright student with the most meager means, to the best of the 'un-partitioned' - of the Five Rivers - Punjab. For me, he signified an era - that is no more - of the most enlightening literary pursuits in Punjabi. He had come to personify a rare dedication to bring alive the glory of Punjabi, cutting across all the narrow divides of the dangerous mix of religion and politics with the mother tongue of the brave Punjabis. I was indeed singularly fortunate to be in his close contact-in the ancient Guru-Shishya tradition. He remained a 'Pole Star' of guidance for me in the matters of our deeply shared mutual interests in the global contexts of languages, literature and all the myriad faiths of the people.<br />
<br />
I vividly recall how, as a student of B.A. in the D.A.V. College Jalandhar - some time around November, 1962 - I had the first Darshan - a face to face glimps - of Professor Pritam Singh. He was presiding over an important meeting of the Kendriya Punjabi Lekhak Sabha. The meeting had soon degenerated into an uproar of noisy shouts with even the signs of clenched fists for physical fighting- between the dominant progressive writers led by the veteran Marxist S.S. Sekhon and the silver-tongued orator Comrade Jagjit Singh Anand on the one side and the promising upcoming exponents of the new-wave-experimental Poetry including Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia and Sukhpalvir Singh Hasrat. Professor Pritam Singh, impressively attired in black achkan and chooridar, reprimanded them all in chaste Punjabi, using even typically strong phrases like 'Kanwarauli, kanjarkhana, kuttekhani', etc. The eloquence, tactfulness and firmness displayed by the Professor from Patiala had the desired effect and it turned out to be a memorable session of lively discussions interspersed with sparkling and learned interventions of wit and humour by the Chair. I, an undergraduate student, had become an anonymous life long admirer of this Professor from Patiala for his radiant charm, scholarship and unshakeable belief in order and discipline.<br />
<br />
It was, however, as a student of M.A. (English) in the Government College - with no needless S.C.D. prefix then - Ludhiana, perhaps, in October 1964, that I read Balwant Gargi's pen-portrait of Professor Pritam Singh in <i>Aarsi</i>, then a popular Punjabi monthly, alas, has ceased publication since May, 2000. Gargi, in his inimitable style laced with subtle satire and humour, had referred to the rare qualities of Professor Pritam Singh as an 'obsessed' researcher of the old manuscripts of the Punjabi language and the evolution of the Gurmukhi script. Around the same time; Professor Pritam Singh had been transferred to the College as Head of the Punjabi Department.<br />
<br />
Prof. Pritam had been assigned by Principal K.S. Thapar, interestingly, to deliver lectures for all the students of the College, in the main lecture hall now named after old student Sahir, on the themes of National Integration, introduced under a scheme of Government of India in the wake of war with China. Again, Professor Pritam Singh was at his best both in oration and the subject matter. One day, I gathered enough courage to speak to him requesting him to visit my home to meet my father and have a look at various hand written old books in Gurmukhi in our family. He indeed gracefully agreed and visited our home in Ahmedgarh on Jan. 24, 1964. He had an engaging exchange of views with my father, an Ayurved practitioner and a scholar of Sanskrit and classical literature. I also arranged his meeting with my school teacher Shri Ashni Kumar, a Lahore educated reputed learned man. Professor Pritam Singh wrote to me a post-card, in English, thanking me for arranging the visit and praised my teacher as a person of, 'deep scholarship and disarming courtesy' - the last phrase was indeed an ever lasting lesson for me and made me his dedicated disciple for life.<br />
<br />
The time rolled on, I passed my M.A. in English and was delighted to achieve my dream of becoming a lecturer, first in DAV College, Jalandhar and later on Govt. College, Bathinda. It was as a lecturer in Bathinda that my contact was re-established with Professor Pritam Singh. I had to accompany another respected scholarly personality, Professor Harmandar Singh, an eminent teacher of Political Science, who had also been transferred to Bathinda, for his meeting with Professor Pritam Singh, then Principal of Government College, Faridkot. It was in November, 1968 and the time of elections to the Punjab University Senate / Syndicate. Professor Harmander Singh was upset that Principal Pritam Singh had switched to the constituency of Registered Graduates instead of the Principals, making a clash between the two great old friends inevitable. It was a mix of tension and learning for me to be a listener to the arguments between the two of my most respected Professors. After lengthy discussions, Professor Pritam Singh appeared to have convinced Professor Harmander Singh that there was sufficient space for victory for both of them in the larger constituency of the Registered Graduates. While walking with us to the Railway Station to see us off, in the 'rush of the continued arguments', he also decided to accompany us to Bathinda. We had to speak to the Guard that, in a hurry, we could not buy the tickets. Reaching Bathinda, I went to the guard to pay him the amount of tickets. Professor Pritam Singh, with a twinkle of an eye and a trade mark smile, said to the guard, "<i>Badshaho, Eh Jhoote Tan Hoon Tohadi Bakshish 'ch hi aouon dio</i> – let this swing-ride be under your kingly generosity!" The guard also laughed heartily and we came out thanking him. Around the time of the dinner, I requested Professor Pritam Singh that we should go to the nearby restaurant. He replied that he had his dinner in train when he was eating the '<i>Chholia</i>', i.e., the green-peas of grams, taken directly from the plants!<br />
<br />
There was again a long interruption in our correspondence after I joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1971 and moved to Delhi and many postings abroad. It was during my posting as the Deputy High Commissioner in the neighbouring Pakistan (September, 1992 - November, 1994) that we could resume our intense interaction, particularly in the context of the preparation <i>Punjabi Lekhak Kosh</i> – Directory of Punjabi Writers. I could contact several Punjabi writers and activists in Lahore and Islamabad to collate information for inclusion in the Directory. Prof. Pritam Singh was gracious to mention my name in the list of the persons who helped him in compiling the book which was published in 2003. Prof. Pritam Singh always replied at length to my letters regarding my observations on the shared heritage of the Punjabis and how the bond of language could be strengthened in the face of evolving complex and challenging circumstances. He had a large circle of friends and admirers in Pakistan and his deep knowledge of Persian and Urdu languages proved an immense asset as a bridge between the two Punjabs and the national and international forums..<br />
<br />
It was after reading my long letter, in Punjabi, '<i>Battan Beete Vareh dian</i> - Matters of the Year that is past', circulated in December, 1995 to my close circle of friends that he specifically directed me that I should seriously plan to write about my experiences, in Punjabi, when I am free from the burden and worries of the Service. In view of his failing eye sight, the correspondence got restricted and confined to brief and urgent e-mails. After my retirement in 2004, I availed the privilege of speaking to him more often whenever there was some matter of mutual interest. He would again remind me of the promise I had made with him to write in Punjabi. I once said, 'Sir, there is so of much high quality writings available to read, it becomes difficult to discipline oneself and find a time to write'. He smiled and retorted, 'that is the tragedy of Punjabi, Bal Anand Ji... those who should be writing, say they have no time from reading; but those who should be reading more, go on writing more and more!'</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-T8enli0pdRc/WlSqoeRGmgI/AAAAAAAAFEQ/OxdhUuuIpsgL-qpa5n0HqsTs6cnAq5pmwCEwYBhgL/s1600/fullsizeoutput_481f.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="807" height="246" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-T8enli0pdRc/WlSqoeRGmgI/AAAAAAAAFEQ/OxdhUuuIpsgL-qpa5n0HqsTs6cnAq5pmwCEwYBhgL/s400/fullsizeoutput_481f.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Meeting on Jan. 11, 1999 - 81st Birthday of Prof. Pritam Singh</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
My last meeting with Professor Pritam Singh took place in the late evening of 1st October, 2008. He appeared some what frail and time - worn but his profundity of expression, smile and laughter were indeed as intact as ever. I had presented to him '<i>Diwan-e-Hafiz</i>' brought from Iran - the 'Blue book' in the picture and my write-up in Punjabi on the popular '<i>Chhapar Fair of Punjab</i>' and my recent columns on Urdu poets and scholar A.J. Zaidi and Ahmad Faraz. We touched upon the current educational and cultural scene in Punjab and in the country. When I took leave of him, he persisted in walking with me the up to the main gate. I mentioned to him - at the door step - that Panth must think of establishing a museum of letters, with name, '<i>Zafar Namah Sahib Bhawan</i>', inviting Punjabis all over the world to donate letters on the themes of literature and culture of Punjab - to be scientifically preserved there.<br />
<br />
I penned my last letter to Professor Pritam Singh, on 24th of October, a day before his joining the company of the immortals, sending it care of his daughter Doctor Harshinder Kaur so that she might read it out to him. The Destiny of this letter was fated to be different - reaching him on the address far, far beyond his earthly abode! I salute this angel of a Teacher on his birth centenary - he indeed radiated knowledge and nobility with every word spoken by him!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
* * *</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-43694113078997669782017-03-24T23:15:00.000-07:002017-03-29T21:19:49.700-07:00Ek Sham - Ahmedgarh ke Naam<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/zPt0fL6XHm5H99dVJ8pC2nhsQ2AL0jBq1UNgo2ulM6d4JrCl7V_evThQFl1n2PJ6bAWz1TrGeBuvespPmgE3vrOsq9E7wlC_hm-OtvP5SECKvhk0r_6KUmPmNku8nk7nYblyfjeLgH1yFRlZ4tj33MA0TbmYFcoXo3ohi_YFxzr9hvog3jKlSbhgCmKrMExqmcyF22k64hROJp0zJ1Pz90iSFes-9z9Gt4b62vhzu8mLovio2Fz_RwgB_e1R8EqDA5PDPWQHDRwA3QzNY_zo0DNCUXeVy-Tvvtx9LQQaKdrao9dI_XSK8pl9HMpY9tlG3X06hM3pejFB4OIyDwTtWgSAkCE3NB2146PYr6m98EIX79dW2GnLVuoCt3eF2ty759E42ArCLyguB_pTPksdyWkd3FlPW22uOJGCM_YbzIlTXsY3ecGcP73V1fhQxdMlLc7hostVNfFxqLUxlQmpaegVkePXlk9rIEib7XOMrCCZs97U3_0ZPPDMs8ZvDtKWii1IcQ0d4JsnXSZZ8PytCD0X_q-Yq7LGn7WhbPGgc3XnOGpj0VJzXqYtxMZP25ak1RI5S8MGwvl0RnPe0QSvxlnH7AIs8PjzhT6TSWJxx3a5tKBWn4lahOXLiMTjKxTK6Xvfrg-nQQiGvvDpHtWmx28L_2sYKA1KvY-ySJcttA=w1124-h561-no" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/zPt0fL6XHm5H99dVJ8pC2nhsQ2AL0jBq1UNgo2ulM6d4JrCl7V_evThQFl1n2PJ6bAWz1TrGeBuvespPmgE3vrOsq9E7wlC_hm-OtvP5SECKvhk0r_6KUmPmNku8nk7nYblyfjeLgH1yFRlZ4tj33MA0TbmYFcoXo3ohi_YFxzr9hvog3jKlSbhgCmKrMExqmcyF22k64hROJp0zJ1Pz90iSFes-9z9Gt4b62vhzu8mLovio2Fz_RwgB_e1R8EqDA5PDPWQHDRwA3QzNY_zo0DNCUXeVy-Tvvtx9LQQaKdrao9dI_XSK8pl9HMpY9tlG3X06hM3pejFB4OIyDwTtWgSAkCE3NB2146PYr6m98EIX79dW2GnLVuoCt3eF2ty759E42ArCLyguB_pTPksdyWkd3FlPW22uOJGCM_YbzIlTXsY3ecGcP73V1fhQxdMlLc7hostVNfFxqLUxlQmpaegVkePXlk9rIEib7XOMrCCZs97U3_0ZPPDMs8ZvDtKWii1IcQ0d4JsnXSZZ8PytCD0X_q-Yq7LGn7WhbPGgc3XnOGpj0VJzXqYtxMZP25ak1RI5S8MGwvl0RnPe0QSvxlnH7AIs8PjzhT6TSWJxx3a5tKBWn4lahOXLiMTjKxTK6Xvfrg-nQQiGvvDpHtWmx28L_2sYKA1KvY-ySJcttA=w1124-h561-no" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Dear Friends,<br />
<br />
As you know, Ahmedgarh has been my beloved place of school education - May 1951-March 1959 and my home town upto July 1971...<br />
<br />
It was <a href="http://diplomat.anandweb.com/2006/08/coup-detat-in-school-by-teacher.html">Master Ashni Kumar Ji</a> (1916-1999) - my unique Guru-teacher - who was my anchor of life in Ahmedgarh till he breathed his last - on Saturday, Feb 16, 1999.<br />
<br />
I had been myself so stressed and always short of time till I setlled down in retirement in 2004... after spending more than 26 years abroad - 21 of them were consecutive, from 1982-2003!<br />
<br />
I have tried to make the best of the sun set years of life by returning - full time - to my books, rediscovering good old friends - and my love for pen and paper - rather the modern age wonder, Shriman computer-Ji!<br />
<br />
I know how the dear friends in the tri-city beautiful have been dreaming of an evening devoted to the golden memories of childhood in our beloved Mandi... a brand new town which had sprung up from no where - in the wake Rail Revolution of India in the early twentieth century.<br />
<br />
I am heartily grateful to the dream team of friends - Jawahar ji & Janak in particular - who conceptualized the event of the evening of Friday, 24th March to recreate the genuine spirit of love, innocence and affection dedicated to our beloved town. The inimitable <i>Mootki</i> - Rakesh Bhai - is indeed blessed with an abundant artistic talent and the most infectious joy in bringing to pulsating life all the beautiful memories of the sweet past...<br />
<br />
Prof. Anu Jain was the perfect compere of the event ... the memories of his most wonderful Tayas - Amrit ji Madan Faryadi ji - have been my most precious wealth.<br />
<br />
I was so glad to meet many new friends and younger friends of the new generation - <i>nasal nau</i> - who all swear by the love of Ahmedgarh!<br />
<br />
Brig JJ Singh Jagdev's family - we met after more than fifty years - is closely related to mine for four generations - it was his grandfather who was instrumental in persuading my family to shift to Ahmedgarh.<br />
<br />
Sh Gobind Thukral ji has been a dear friend, philosopher and guide since we met in my retirement... 13 years ago; Dear Ashwani Gupta put in a lot of effort in managing the event in Western Court...<br />
<br />
My sincerest thanks to all the ladies who had graced the occasion as equal & active participants... I promise to be accompanied by my 'better half' when the next such get together happens.<br />
<br />
With my greetings & best wishes to all the dear friends,<br />
<br />
Affectionately,<br />
Bal Anand<br />
<br />
PS - I am sharing three photos of the event..<br />
Hope you would share more photos/visuals of the most joyful evening<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/XmP-S64ZCuoo0DScWb_VB1UNurIiHB7s9uwb1IhatRf3LI9DrV_gap-Pfdv--BhmXImY00QzqbP0P-5Zqjuy-rehnPcrNWqcf252LJkI83ZH_ZOqj36bPEtR9udqaLfsK3R5E9nIgaDhQWh6C6xCPZ3Z3YkkZkd7BIiYJAVBd4u4ByalO2muAD7fDQ-r740Giympt_PpE8V7Gfc4MmLRMuvfwSEeDIAnT6PNpKreUbzUZpWmVlqvvLHFRPxVo1v00ZGpEfc7Z367C7t_3GaOKUQ1xNz-vVk2npHphxhtw9lGGEvSMAYnMzqA0DVDTi1Oq7O4EnXwi0ejstCulYe46xSTcIfK0jUfSO_w8Wiq74lx7FwM_tQXaO5fPcSb_MrsiL3Bt0tEQu24wxpPrZoZ2CXoVE5Esu4g30y5ZGoTdL_s_46FVF_X5zRBCeg6p42bgA122RdOiPemr-UderMyJpe03YqPmKFeJGY0aDLOHDIyU3iPp7oskygr7HCmhRNQ7NcHTIQS84EyNa3lhpmpGZylRyMXfYhCy3retxjOnWJoLdAxFheuc89waQ-HfUQmiCo1SQfq6PHEzU9jtNvieNDEzWBMXxDQIUWTfwO3hMrnuMJLtoA007kBlmeOjep9ZFDKDL7meAw03Q_rYGTulxdAv9o9CnW62HS8s8aKmg=w1111-h639-no" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/XmP-S64ZCuoo0DScWb_VB1UNurIiHB7s9uwb1IhatRf3LI9DrV_gap-Pfdv--BhmXImY00QzqbP0P-5Zqjuy-rehnPcrNWqcf252LJkI83ZH_ZOqj36bPEtR9udqaLfsK3R5E9nIgaDhQWh6C6xCPZ3Z3YkkZkd7BIiYJAVBd4u4ByalO2muAD7fDQ-r740Giympt_PpE8V7Gfc4MmLRMuvfwSEeDIAnT6PNpKreUbzUZpWmVlqvvLHFRPxVo1v00ZGpEfc7Z367C7t_3GaOKUQ1xNz-vVk2npHphxhtw9lGGEvSMAYnMzqA0DVDTi1Oq7O4EnXwi0ejstCulYe46xSTcIfK0jUfSO_w8Wiq74lx7FwM_tQXaO5fPcSb_MrsiL3Bt0tEQu24wxpPrZoZ2CXoVE5Esu4g30y5ZGoTdL_s_46FVF_X5zRBCeg6p42bgA122RdOiPemr-UderMyJpe03YqPmKFeJGY0aDLOHDIyU3iPp7oskygr7HCmhRNQ7NcHTIQS84EyNa3lhpmpGZylRyMXfYhCy3retxjOnWJoLdAxFheuc89waQ-HfUQmiCo1SQfq6PHEzU9jtNvieNDEzWBMXxDQIUWTfwO3hMrnuMJLtoA007kBlmeOjep9ZFDKDL7meAw03Q_rYGTulxdAv9o9CnW62HS8s8aKmg=w1111-h639-no" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/nSUS1yMUlCBksEcMC0HZ2LZ621juS7g4FDQp7pqAiIOpQXbFbL0jxx2d-ImYXY7fXmwaLPYbVmNHvi-ru7deTJ7hoiSvFKuHAjJILqKGzp091NgUHi8kjsT1f_WfTjSMyfONh731OILq254V_G9XRr3STVNYKg-X_QgKjAkZ8O2epNqQmrU2M8xKA3ZTe26fHYj3XTZ5RutEN9ncZHfRyypcwYfQWuseqUixfCa8sASFFHg4m2dbDRGWawgwQYePWpwLv_4v11wg22U6HtK4-6xhvAbKI2vnueVjhaGpm2oHvcgGp-EiqQmOEca1dE8YxugZ8bkHLK0RASRS7aYPx03AK19IyiHHrufO3uQLNFfK115o8qTCjDzBfqEjCozIVEXIio7o1S_f_GjNCYiyCySg8AFRqZePTDRPZH6MBk6GE-nV6Y2C6nZtJyH6C3FpcLzWGEcSRTxfuZoZo4591g_qY6P_MNcQUNY35DzfwVThQLrY_ARFVRXUPFJFwwenF7dnXoV69_onNExHSwpbLIEj5Dz6z41IIypuDFy_gH-Aa7YNxUHBr5dt9x3YKzQVnNjLDa1D5GcnTYdGRaArrIuIt_E2GO-IjJDeY9ahaaodpyjCtL-u0V68JlgC6qcVrmT_5SUwAvK96-BZd6AvEwACNVEtZTazoTc9ptwBYg=w1124-h724-no" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/nSUS1yMUlCBksEcMC0HZ2LZ621juS7g4FDQp7pqAiIOpQXbFbL0jxx2d-ImYXY7fXmwaLPYbVmNHvi-ru7deTJ7hoiSvFKuHAjJILqKGzp091NgUHi8kjsT1f_WfTjSMyfONh731OILq254V_G9XRr3STVNYKg-X_QgKjAkZ8O2epNqQmrU2M8xKA3ZTe26fHYj3XTZ5RutEN9ncZHfRyypcwYfQWuseqUixfCa8sASFFHg4m2dbDRGWawgwQYePWpwLv_4v11wg22U6HtK4-6xhvAbKI2vnueVjhaGpm2oHvcgGp-EiqQmOEca1dE8YxugZ8bkHLK0RASRS7aYPx03AK19IyiHHrufO3uQLNFfK115o8qTCjDzBfqEjCozIVEXIio7o1S_f_GjNCYiyCySg8AFRqZePTDRPZH6MBk6GE-nV6Y2C6nZtJyH6C3FpcLzWGEcSRTxfuZoZo4591g_qY6P_MNcQUNY35DzfwVThQLrY_ARFVRXUPFJFwwenF7dnXoV69_onNExHSwpbLIEj5Dz6z41IIypuDFy_gH-Aa7YNxUHBr5dt9x3YKzQVnNjLDa1D5GcnTYdGRaArrIuIt_E2GO-IjJDeY9ahaaodpyjCtL-u0V68JlgC6qcVrmT_5SUwAvK96-BZd6AvEwACNVEtZTazoTc9ptwBYg=w1124-h724-no" width="400" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com1Ahmedgarh, Punjab, India30.679561199999991 75.82434269999998830.652248699999991 75.784002199999989 30.706873699999992 75.864683199999988tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-88138756947160675392016-07-01T13:00:00.000-07:002016-09-15T00:57:55.481-07:00My Lessons of History in School<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I consider myself singularly lucky and blessed that the lessons in history - and poetry- started for me much earlier in life than for most people. I was myself, however, innocently unaware about all this at that time.<br />
<br />
To begin with, take the case of the date of my birth. It was determined as 15th November, 1943 - perhaps, a year less - at the time of my admission, in October 1949, in the District Board (soon changed to be ‘Government') Primary School of the neighboring village, located in what was still called the <i>Angrezi Ilaqa</i> (British Territory). It was a school with one <i>kutcha</i> (made of mud) room; a small court yard which had low (less than three feet high) mud wall around it; two teachers and four classes. The school had about forty students from the surrounding villages.<br />
<br />
The name of the village is Sohian, near the old town of Malaudh, about 30 Km from Ludhiana. I do recollect that the senior teacher Pandit Lachhman Dass Ji had asked my father whether he had thought for me a plan of higher education or putting me in some job soon after my matriculation. My father had replied, in a very polite but deeply determined voice, that he would like me to go for the highest possible education.<br />
<br />
I was to come to know 55 years later - a few years after my own retirement at age of 60 - that this popular but strict disciplinarian teacher who had commanded deep respect among generations of students had served in the same school for his entire teaching career!<br />
<br />
It was in this school, I had heard the couplets of the first folk poem by a senior student, Jagga Singh, praising Mahatma Gandhi to be clever enough to ‘outwit' the foxy white rulers!<br />
<br />
The white <i>Kothi</i> (mini-palace) with high walls and surrounded by the thick lines of tall trees of a Sardar (petty chief, feudal lord) called Kaka Ji of Sohian was visible from the school. It was, however, more a like a mysterious fort for us, the young students- something like the complex buildings I was to see later in the horror films. I had, however, come to know that the Young Sardar-Kaka Ji has been recruited as a <i>Poolas Kaptan</i> (Police Superintendent) by the Government of Independent India. Later in life, my efforts to meet the then octogenarian, Sardar Narinder Singh Phulka, IPS (Retd.), could not bear fruit, in spite of the fact that one of his sons-in-laws, now retired in anonymity from the IAS, had been a friend from my college days.<br />
<br />
The next historic turning point for me came in May 1951 when I was admitted in the third grade in the High School in Ahmedgarh, the nearby town. The family took some more time to shift there from the village. I felt quite at ease being exposed to a refreshing atmosphere of freedom, patriotism and nationalism surcharging this school named, soon after Independence, from Public High School to 'Mahatma Gandhi Memorial National (MGMN) High School'.<br />
<br />
The eight years of the continuous studies in the school provided me with ample opportunities to look all around far beyond the lessons in the class rooms. I must thank Master Ashni Kumar, a senior teacher of English and Social Studies who had started mentoring me right from my sixth class.<br />
<br />
The town of Ahmedgarh (named after Nawab Ahmed Ali of the tiny state of Malerkotla (1881-1947) had been founded in 1905 in the wake of the construction of the revolutionizing rail link connecting Ludhiana to the southern-eastern belt of Dhuri-Jakhal and beyond. The new look town regularly witnessed, as if it were a typical Greek city state, debates and dramas in the school which were often joined by the chaudhris (elders) of the town too.<br />
<br />
The local wings of political parties - Congress, Socialists and Jan Sangh in particular - seemed to be vigorously competing to bring their national leaders to address the people in the Gandhi Chowk, in the miniature Connaught Place of the town, proclaimed to have been planned after Montgomery! The location of the town on the cross-borders of adjacent <i>Riyasati</i> (Princely) and <i>Angrezi</i> (British) pockets of territories had made it a favorite and strategic meeting place for freedom fighters playing grim games of hide and seek after daring protests and acts of defiance including an act of loot - at gun point - of the government funds in a train robbery between Ahmedgarh and Malerkotla!<br />
<br />
In terms of history, I must refer to the tragically maddening times in the wake of Partition. My great grandfather Param Sant Vaid Bhushan Pramatma Nand Ji had passed away on October 19, 1947, a day after the death of Nawab Ahmad Ali of Malerkotla. I can vividly recall how the mourners at the <i>Bhog</i> - the last prayer - were cursing the <i>kaliyuga</i> (Evil Epoch) for the calamities befalling the nation and her noble people. I could later notice that many houses had been burnt down in my mother's village - apparently belonging to Muslims. The mosque had been quickly converted into a Gurdwara!<br />
<br />
I was luckier as a child to be spared the trauma of witnessing the scenes of murders and violence. But what about the feelings of a ten-year-old boy who was witness to his father getting critically wounded when he fell down trying to board an over packed vehicle leaving Sialkot for India? He had been left behind as dead on the road. The boy turned out to be a brilliant student and rose to the highest professional position for an engineer in India. But how would the pain of losing a father in that cruelest way ever go away - even though in retirement, he became Director of Gandhi Museum, opposite the Raj Ghat!<br />
<br />
I do remember that I was able to broadly read, when I was in the fifth class, the Golden History of India by Vishva Nath, M. A., B.T., and Jagan Nath Grover B.A., B.T., senior teachers of History, Arya High School, Ludhiana. It was a popular text book for high classes and belonged to my uncle appearing for matriculation.<br />
<br />
I remember vividly how among brief sketches of the contemporary historical personalities: Winston Churchill was described as the plain and blunt speaker; Joseph Stalin was the son of a cobbler of Georgia; De Valera was a great revolutionary freedom fighter, and so on.<br />
<br />
Among the teachers of history at school, Master Ram Kishore - in his typical <i>Poadhi</i> dialect of Punjabi - would become deeply emotional in praising Chanakaya, the great teacher and his gifted disciple Chandra Gupta Maurya. Then, he would blame all the current ills of the country on the lack of respect for the teachers! Kishori Lal Sahir would quote couplets of Persian and would turn the lesson into play - assigning the students roles of characters of history, e.g., showing Hemu getting wounded with an arrow in the eye by covering the eye of a student with the corner piece of his turban!<br />
<br />
Giani Romesh, known for punishing students with <i>Bhrind</i> - painful pinches, would often use the idiom, <i>Dushmanan de Dand Khatte kar Ditte </i>(leave a sour taste in your enemy's mouth). It was not by making them eat tamarind, but putting up a brave fight.<br />
<br />
The most reputed teacher of history / Geography and English in our school was, however, Master Ashni Kumar, a skeleton-thin person known for his razor sharp intellect and sharp satirical remarks. I was destined to be his favorite student and remain so for more than four decades till he breathed his last at a ripe old age in 1999.<br />
<br />
In the tranquility of the years of my retirement, I have endeavored to reinvigorate my interest in the history of the select historical personalities and places-particularly in the more intimate region of the Punjab. My childhood interest in Sirhind was strongly reinforced when, during my posting to Pakistan in 1993, I had to facilitate the visit for a pilgrimage to the city by Prof. S Mojaddid, a former President of the Interim Govt. of Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal - the family claims 14 generations to have been buried there! The city with a significant strategic location has the most fascinating and absorbing history of the rise and fall of its rulers. The Ambala-Ludhiana-Sirhind section of the Delhi-Lahore railway line was opened on Oct.1, 1869.<br />
<br />
Sirhind has turned a new page in its history with the recent establishment of excellent institutions of higher education including the Shri Guru Granth Sahib World University. A sort of personal history was made for me when, on 8th of November, 2011, the Acting Vice Chancellor, Dr Gurnek Singh, welcomed me to the University with a very special personal warmth and affection. He surprised me by telling me that he was my student in 1968 when I was a lecturer in the Govt. Rajindra College, Bhatinda. After the privilege of crisscrossing the continents representing India in distant alien lands, it is a very special soulful delight to rediscover the deeper eternal roots of friendship and love in the soils nearer home!<br />
<br />
The learning - and teaching - of the History of India with a balanced and dispassionate approach is a great challenge. The average individual in society rightly seems to consider the past dead and gone; and the future all day dreaming! It is, therefore, all in the present and near future which is relevant for thought and action. But our battles in the present are often fought over the different versions the past and visions of the future. When I remember the school books and the teachers, so many live images flash before my mind's eye. Alexander, the great, impressed us as students as the most mesmerizing figure of the earlier era. Ashok and Akbar seemed to define the essence of India. Whatever may his later day critics say, for most of my generation Jawaharlal Nehru certainly qualifies to be called the architect of modern India.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Epilogue</h3>
The history is continuously in the process of being re-evaluated; the state-craft is such a gigantic entity - the search for the total and un-alloyed truth in the affairs of the state would remain a noble pursuit. The pursuit of power and the greed for riches would seem to know no limits - the truth for the cash loads for votes in the Parliament House gets more and more mysterious! The Right to Information has been emerging as an interesting search-light to illuminate deeply hidden dark spots in the files of current history.<br />
<br />
Let us hope for better times ahead in terms of truthful history.<br />
<br />
References to this article<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>This article was included in the collection "<a href="http://www.indiaofthepast.org/contribute-memories/read-contributions/life-back-then/496-my-lessons-of-history-in-school" target="_blank">India of the Past</a>, Preserving memories of India and Indians"</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-59647070404341490082015-08-29T07:44:00.000-07:002020-06-24T22:37:34.789-07:00Megha Rajdootam - December 2002<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>The following magazine, Megha Rajdootam - मेघ राजदूतम् - The Cloud Envoy, Vol. 1 No. 2, was published for the High Commission of India in New Zealand in December 2002.</i><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aP6IJrEOz9o/VeG5V-rvEcI/AAAAAAAAB9Q/LWWqp3oZrX4/s1600/IMG_0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Cover Page of Megha Rajdootam, December 2002" border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aP6IJrEOz9o/VeG5V-rvEcI/AAAAAAAAB9Q/LWWqp3oZrX4/s400/IMG_0001.jpg" width="282" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cover Page of Megha Rajdootam, December 2002</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JFnokj-5s9RIcFRPrmpFV2j5Z5reVZYj/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Download Megha Rajdootam - मेघ राजदूतम् - The Cloud Envoy, December 2002 (PDF File)</a></li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Message from the High Commissioner</h3>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Opening Lines ... 'Runs' of Memories</h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
If someone is asked, 'What is the connection between cricket and a High Commissioner?', the answer would be, 'Ambassadors are called High Commissioners in the countries where cricket is a popular sport.' A similarly intriguing question for an Indian cricket fan would be, 'Who was the English cricketer to be the High Commissioner of India to Australia and New Zealand in 1950-53?' Well, the gentleman was Prince K.S. Dilipsinhji, the nephew of legendary cricketer Ranjitsinhji of Nawanagar, who had played for England against Australia.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Looking back to my early years at school, I vividly recall how the climbing of the Everest by Sherpa Tenzing and Edmund Hillary on 29<sup>th</sup> May, 1953 had been one of the most impressionable event for me. Again, it was the visit of the New Zealand cricket team to India in 1955 which opened vistas of the great game for me. I can exactly recall the tall scores made by the legendary New Zealand opener Bert Sutcliffe and the brilliant all-rounder John Reid. The headlines in the sports columns of English and Hindi dailies flash before my eyes. I do remember how the young and old in my town used to be glued to the radio sets - the running commentary was almost inaudible due to the continuously disturbing sound similar to the thunders of the monsoon clouds! The interest in the game continued to multiply, thanks to the brilliant coverage of international cricket in the Indian press.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cricket has been sought to be explained as a sport which is played much more intensely in the minds of the spectators and also its remarkable resemblance to human life. The five-day tests were indeed perceived to represent the whole range of agonies and ecstasies of a lifetime. There could always be a chance of a positive turn; one had to grab all the possible chances; the batsman had to treat every ball on its merit; the bowler had to be brave hearted and tactful enough to tempt the batsman to mistime a shot. Above all, it was always the team effort which brought victory. In the typical context in India, cricket proved a great social equalizer.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The one-day version of the game has imparted a new vigour, dynamism and an explosive character to cricket. The slogan, 'Hit out or get out!', by the fatigued and bored spectators of the five-day rituals has been finally accepted. Cricket has blossomed in the deserts of Dubai and more nations across the continents seem to be falling a prey to a game earlier described as, 'the British disease'.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It is indeed significant that India, with its formidable batting strength, arrives in New Zealand in time for the much needed practice before the World Cup championship in South Africa. The Indian 'tigers' have been notorious roaring more on the home turf - hope they maintain their recent form of displaying a highly competitive game. The two teams are expected to ensure the triumph of the game.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I and my family have decided to herald the New Year, 2003, watching the 3<sup>rd</sup> ODI in Christchurch. Let us hope, pray and dream that this match would be the pre-play of the World Cup final!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I may confess that it was the interest in Cricket ignited by the visit of the first ever Kiwi team to India that put a shy lad from a tiny town of India on a path that has taken him to the position of the High Commissioner of India to New Zealand.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The list of those to be thanked for their generous support for this publication is a tall score - NZ Cricket Inc. and NZ Museum for providing rare photographs; contributors of special messages; Prof. R. Guha and the prestigious Indian weeklies - India Today and Outlook - for authorising utilisation of the invaluable material/photos published earlier. M/s Thames have indeed experienced the pressure of an ODI in timely bringing out this issue of Megha Rajdootam.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<b>Bal Anand</b><br />
<b>High Commissioner of India to New Zealand</b><br />
<b>Concurrently accredited to Samoa, Nauru and Kiribati</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Table of Contents</h3>
<style type="text/css">
tr.diplomat1 td {
background-color: #FAF2EF; color: black;
}
tr.diplomat2 td {
background-color: #F0DDD5; color: black;
}
</style>
<br />
<table style="border: 1px solid #c0c0c0; width: 100%;">
<tbody>
<tr><td><b>Contents</b></td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Opening Lines... 'Runs' of Memory</td><td></td><td>2</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>My Cricket 'Affairs' with India</td><td>John R. Reid, O.B.E.</td><td>3</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Cricket Encounters of the Indian Kind</td><td>R. Guha</td><td>4-5</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Maharajas of Cricket</td><td>R. Guha</td><td>6</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>J.L. Nehru - A 'Complete' Cricketer</td><td></td><td>7</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>The Spirit of Cricket</td><td>Martin Snedden</td><td>8</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>The Square Rectangle</td><td>Timeri N. Murari</td><td>9</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Dev... Devil... Divinity</td><td>Syed Kirmani</td><td>10-11</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>India - New Zealand Cricket - An Overview</td><td></td><td>12-13</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>John Wright - A 'Kiwi Dronacharya'...</td><td>Don Neely, M.B.E.</td><td>14-15</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Tales and Travails of a Cricketer's Wife</td><td>Sukhi Turner</td><td>16</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>An 'Indian-Kiwi' Remembers</td><td>Dipak Patel</td><td>17</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>A Famous Kiwi Victory</td><td>Amit Paliwal</td><td>18</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>India's Best of the Century</td><td></td><td>19</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>India in New Zealand, 2002-03</td><td></td><td>20</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-70661230373997037882015-08-26T04:28:00.003-07:002020-06-24T22:55:24.558-07:00Bharat Sandesh - January 2002<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>The following magazine, <b>भारत सन्देश</b> - <b>The Indian Herald</b> - <b>ԱԶԴԱՐԱՐ ՀՆԴԿԱՍՏԱՆԻ</b> Vol. III No. 1, was published for the new Embassy of India in Armenia in January 2002.</i><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3dzUQdIG-qY/Vd1xlwYV2OI/AAAAAAAAB8g/vfR9Mn2tuzU/s1600/IMG_0001.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Cover Page of Bharat Sandesh, January 2002" border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3dzUQdIG-qY/Vd1xlwYV2OI/AAAAAAAAB8g/vfR9Mn2tuzU/s400/IMG_0001.jpg" width="301" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cover Page of Bharat Sandesh, January 2002</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RVZDztXirTSLgvy2whsM5KP0rcxySYG_/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Download भारत सन्देश - The Indian Herald - ԱԶԴԱՐԱՐ ՀՆԴԿԱՍՏԱՆԻ magazine (PDF file)</a></li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Ambassador's Page</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It is with great pleasure and satisfaction that the Embassy of India in Armenia releases the third issue of its Journal, Azdarar Handkastani, i.e. Bharat Sandesh. We have been immensely encouraged by the deep interest in and appreciative obervations on the contents and layout of the first two issues by the dignitaries and distinguished readers in Armenia and India. I may particularly quote H. H. Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians who, in his inspiring message of blessings for the last issue, pointed out that, "The word Azdarar transports us to the close of the 18th century when one of the devotees of the Armenian Church, Priest Harutiun Shmavonian, published the first ever Armenian journal with the same title in India from 1794 to 1796. We are confident that the magazine, 'Azdarar Handkastani' will become the herald of centuries-old friendship and cultural interaction between the people of two countries".</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It may be stated that the first issue released in December, 2000 underlined the various parameters of the historical friendship between India and Armenia culminating in the new epoch with the establishment of the resident diplomatic Missions in Yerevan and New Delhi. The second issue celebrated the silver jubilee of the memorable visit of friendship to Armenia in June '76 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and also the release of Armenian edition of epic Mahabharat. The present issue, while further elaborating on the landmarks of historical relations of friendship between the two countries, particularly dwells upon the various significant events of the recent past.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As regards, various manifestations of India-Armenia relations, the second session of India-Armenia Inter-Governmental Commission Meeting/Foreign Office Consultations held in Yerevan on July 25-27, 2001 has been prominently covered. A comprehensive protocol identifying specific projects of various sectors of mutual interest including information technology, seismology, pharmaceuticals, micro-enterprises, health and biomedical research, etc. while signed during this institutionalised meeting. An Agreement on Standardisation and Metrology was also concluded.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I am glad to mention that the scheme of Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) has proved a great success with 18 Armenian nominees attending various training courses in India during 2001. The Reception Function of the 10th anniversary of Independence of Armenia was celebrated was celebrated as an important event in New Delhi with the prescence of the Vice President of India and other high dignitaries. Armenian troupe of dance and music, 'Akounk' was in India in November and presented highly successful performances in Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Lastly, I would take this opportunity to mention that in March this year, the resident Embassy of India in Armenia will complete three years of its functioning. Looking back, the period has been full of such a satisfaction and pleasure for myself and the First team of my colleagues. Our tasks in Armenia have indeed been made so easier and pleasant by the deep feelings of friendship, warmth and admiration for India at all levels of the Government and people in Armenia.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Bal Anand</b></div>
<div>
<b>Ambassador of India to Armenia</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Table of Contents</h3>
<div>
<style type="text/css">
tr.diplomat1 td {
background-color: #FAF2EF; color: black;
}
tr.diplomat2 td {
background-color: #F0DDD5; color: black;
}
</style>
<table style="border: 1px solid rgb(192, 192, 192); width: 100%;">
<tbody>
<tr><td><b>Contents</b></td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Message</td><td>H.E. Mr Vartan Oskanian</td><td>4</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Ambassador's Page</td><td></td><td>5</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Civilisations Never Clash</td><td>President K.R. Narayanan</td><td>6-7</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>A Vision for South Asia</td><td>P.M. A.B. Vajpayee</td><td>8-9</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Sarmad - an Armenian Sufi Poet of India</td><td>S.S. Hameed</td><td>10-11</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>India-Armenia Relations: Milestones</td><td>Manish Prabhat</td><td>12</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Events and Activities</td><td></td><td>14</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Highest Astronomical Obervatory</td><td>R. Rao</td><td>15</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Milk Miracle in India</td><td>Dr. V. Kurien</td><td>16-17</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Nobel for Naipaul</td><td>Madhu R. Sekher</td><td>18</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Land of Ancestors</td><td>V.S. Naipaul</td><td>19</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Modern Indian Agriculture</td><td>T.M. Chishti</td><td>20-21</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>In Tune with Father's Melody</td><td>N.K. Sareen</td><td>22-23</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Indian Review</td><td></td><td>24</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Events and Activities</td><td></td><td>25</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>India-Armenia Meeting in Yerevan</td><td></td><td>26</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>India in 1700<sup>th</sup> Anniversary of Christianity in Armenia</td><td></td><td>27</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Events of Armenia in India</td><td></td><td>28</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>Armenian Section</b></td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Armenia celebrates in India; ՀԱՅԿԱԿԱՆ ՏՈՆԱԿԱՏԱՐՈՒԹՅՈՒՆՆԵՐ ՀՆԴԿԱՍՏԱՆՈԷՄ</td><td></td><td>29</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>A Vision of Armenia in Madras; ԵՐԱԶԱՆՔՆԵՐՆ ԻՐԱԿԱՆԱՆՈՒՆ ԵՆ.</td><td>David Zenian</td><td>30-31</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Armenians at Home in India; «ՀՆԴԿԱՍՏԱՆԸ ՄԻՇՏ ԷԼ ՀԱՅԵՐԻՍ ՀԱՄԱՐ ԲԱՐԵԿԱՄ ԵՎ ՀԱՐԱՁԱՏ ԵՐԿՒՐ Ւ»</td><td>Sergei Yeritsian, MP</td><td>32-33</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Nutan - a Complete Actress; ՆՈԻՏԱՆԸ - ԱՆԶՈՒԳԱԿԱՆ ԴԵՐԱՍԱՆՈՒՀԻ</td><td>B.M. Malhotra</td><td>34-35</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>India-Armenia Meeting in Yerevan</td><td></td><td>36</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>When Dreams Dance; ԵՐԲ ՑԱՆԿՈՒԹՅՈՒՆՆ ԻՐԱԿԱՆԱՆՈՒՄ Է...</td><td>Naira Shovgaryan</td><td>37</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Centuries of Friendship; ԴԱՐԱՎՈՐ ԲԱՐԵԿԱՄՈՒԹՅՈՒՆԸ ՆՈՐ ՔԱՌՈՒՂԻՆԵՐՈՒՄ</td><td></td><td>38</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Events and Activities</td><td></td><td>39</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>An Evening of India in Yerevan</td><td></td><td>40</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Release of Mahabharat in Armenian; ՀԱՅԱՍՏԱՆԻ ՄԷՋ ԼՈՅՍ ՏԵՍԱՒ «ՄԱՀԱՊՀԱՐԱՏԱ» ԷՊՈՍԸ</td><td></td><td>41</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Women of India and Armenia; ԱՐԵՎԵԼՔԻ ԵՎ ԱՐԵՎՄՈՒՏՔԻ ԻԴԵԱԼԱԿԱՆ ՀԱՄԱԴՐՈՒԹՅՈՒՆԸ</td><td></td><td>42-43</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Gauhar Jan - Armenian Legend in India; ԻՄ ԱՆՈՒՆՆ Է ԳՈՀԱՐ ՋԱՆ</td><td>Pran Neville</td><td>44</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>Hindi Section</b></td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Ambassador's Page; राजदूत का पृष्ठ</td><td></td><td>45</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Gurudutt - A Talented Film Maker; गुरूदत्त - समर्पित और अतिसंवेदनशील फिल्मकार</td><td>B.M. Malhotra</td><td>46-47</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Urdu - A Language of Love and Tolerance; उर्दू - प्रेम और सहिष्णुता की भाषा</td><td>K.K. Khullar</td><td>48</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Gems of Urdu Poetry; उर्दू शायरी के रत्न</td><td></td><td>49</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Review - A Remarkable Repository of Ancient Texts; समीक्षा - प्राचीन ग्रंथों का एक उल्लेखनीय कोश</td><td>Hargulaal</td><td>50</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div>
<br /><br /><br /></div>
</div>Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-8078369057233392662015-08-25T07:08:00.000-07:002020-06-24T22:40:16.564-07:00Megha Rajdootham - August 2003<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>The following magazine, Megha Rajdootam - मेघ राजदूतम् - The Cloud Envoy, Vol. 2 No. 1, was published for the High Commission of India in New Zealand in August 2003.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uiNria0SOOk/Vdxan2uGz4I/AAAAAAAAB8A/JjTWSXPS0Vs/s1600/IMG_0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Cover Page of Megha Rajdootam, August 2003" border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uiNria0SOOk/Vdxan2uGz4I/AAAAAAAAB8A/JjTWSXPS0Vs/s400/IMG_0001.jpg" width="280" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cover Page of Megha Rajdootam, August 2003</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WNRA5lwgsQFzHapbLZtSwI3Yso4cYsXj/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Download Megha Rajdootam - मेघ राजदूतम् - The Cloud Envoy, August 2003 magazine (PDF File)</a></li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Message from the High Commissioner</h3>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
On Anniversary of Megha Rajdootam (August 2003)</h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It was with so much of circumspection verging on trepidation that this High Commission had ventured, on the last Independence Day Function, to bring out its maiden publication, Megha Rajdootam. The appreciative responses of esteemed readers have convinced us that the effort was worth undertaking.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The issue in your hands further dwells on the 'high' theme of the Himalaya to mark the Golden Jubilee of the First Ascent to Everest. The official visit of friendship to India by Sir Edmund and Lady June Hillary from May 20-22, 2003 indeed occasioned a festival of Himalayas.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The First Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in New Delhi on January 9-11, 2003 dealt with all aspects of the linkages of Indians abroad with Mother India. The material on this seminal subject would be of great interest to the Indian community, in the context of the institutionalization of the Divas as an annual event.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Recalling the activities of India-New Zealand friendship, I am glad to mention that Te Papa, National Museum of New Zealand, with fulsome involvement of the Indian Community, has put up a high quality exhibition, 'Indian Wedding'. We are privileged to devote a page in colour to this special event. Similarly, the Asia 2000 Foundation has adopted the festival of Diwali to be celebrated on a national scale. As if in a logical sequence, Ram Lila troupe of Shri Ram Bharatiya Kala Kendra, New Delhi is performing the epic drama in New Zealand this August/September.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A delegation of 23 members of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council/Assembly, led by Hon'ble K.N. Tripathi, Speaker visited New Zealand in October 2002. Admiral Madhavendra Singh, Chief of Indian Navy, was in New Zealand in November 2002. Hon'ble K.R. Rana, Minister of Textiles paid official visit to New Zealand in April 2003. There have been important visits from New Zealand also including that of Hon'ble Peter Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Forestry. Though the performance of the Indian cricket team in New Zealand turned out to be grossly below expectations, the Indian Tigers fought back and roared in the World Cup of this game of glorious uncertainties.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
New Zealand has become a popular destination for location shooting by Bollywood film makers. Christchurch, Queenstown and the scenic places of South Island have become familiar to millions of Indian cine-goers. We are sure to hear soon about possible joint ventures among the global dream merchants like Peter Jackson and Sanjay Leela Bhansali!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To quote figures, India and New Zealand interestingly settled on a balanced trade figure for the first time ever at $192 million each between July 2001 and June 2002. India has emerged as an important resource country of skilled professionals for New Zealand. The sector of Information Technology holds promise for both sides. More Indian students are choosing New Zealand for quality education.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I have enjoyed my innings of 64 'over-weeks' to contribute to the scoreboard of India-New Zealand cooperation. I thank my colleagues for their valuable support towards realizing the goals of the High Commission.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Finally, in the context of this issue, I place on record my gratefulness to my distinguished friends - Judge Anand Satyanand, Prof. W.H. McLeod and Prof. Theo Roy - for their contribution of articles. The High Commission is grateful to the prestigious Indian weeklies 'India Today' and 'Outlook' for the permission to utilize their material and photographs. Similarly, thanks are due to the Hindi monthly 'Aajkal'. To Sir Edmund Hillary, words would not suffice to fathom our deepest gratitude, 'highest' inspiration and fullest access to photos from 'A View from the Summit'. I thank Indian Mountaineering Foundation for photos of Sir Edmund Hillary's latest visit to India. Thanks are, of course, due to M/s Thames Publications Ltd,. for quality and timely printing of this third issue of Megha Rajdootam, under the usual stresses and strains that go with the realization of such a creative endeavour.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Bal Anand</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>High Commissioner of India to New Zealand</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Concurrently accredited to Samoa, Nauru and Kiribati</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
Megha Rajdootam, August 2003 - Table of Contents</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<style type="text/css">
tr.diplomat1 td {
background-color: #FAF2EF; color: black;
}
tr.diplomat2 td {
background-color: #F0DDD5; color: black;
}
</style>
<br />
<table style="border: 1px solid #c0c0c0; width: 100%;">
<tbody>
<tr><td><b>Contents</b></td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>More on Megha Rajdootam</td><td></td><td>2</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Vision for 2020</td><td>Dr A.P.J. Kalam</td><td>3-4</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Ever-Evolving Canvas of India</td><td>A.B. Vajpayee</td><td>6-7</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>India and the Diaspora</td><td>Yashwant Sinha</td><td>8-9</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Kailash - the Ultimate Himalayan Pilgrimage</td><td>T.S. Tirumurti</td><td>10-11</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>First Ascent of Mt. Everest</td><td>A.B. Vajpayee</td><td>12</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Welcome to India, Sir Edmund!</td><td></td><td>13</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Celebrating Indian Marriage</td><td></td><td>14</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>At 'Home' among Friends</td><td></td><td>15</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>India, More I Seek, More I Find</td><td>Vinod Khanna</td><td>16-17</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Truth - a Tangled Web</td><td>Shiv K. Kumar</td><td>18-19</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Punjab - Discovering Faith in History</td><td>W.H. McLeod, D.Litt.</td><td>20-21</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Garden of Delights - Lucknow</td><td>Prof. Theo Roy</td><td>22-23</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Reflections on India's Independence</td><td>Anand Satyanand</td><td>24</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Independence Day, 2002</td><td></td><td>25</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Events in Pictures</td><td></td><td>26</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Glimpses of Indian Cricket Stars</td><td></td><td>27</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Meetings - Exploring more Co-operation with India</td><td></td><td>28</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>In the Shadow of a Superpower</td><td>Manu Joseph & Sandipan Deb</td><td>29-30</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Devdas - Mystique of Tragic Love</td><td>B.M. Malhotra</td><td>31-33</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Esteemed Readers Write</td><td></td><td>34-35</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Books in a Nut-Shell</td><td></td><td>36-37</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Twinning of Art</td><td>Hemant Sareen</td><td>38</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>The Pathfinders</td><td></td><td>39</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Institutions of the Community</td><td></td><td>40</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Export-Import Policy 2003-4</td><td>Arun Jaitley</td><td>41-42</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>New Zealand Seismic Technology for India</td><td></td><td>43</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Tender Notes</td><td>Child Poets</td><td>44</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>Hindi Section</b></td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Indians Abroad; प्राक्कथन</td><td>J.C. Sharma; जे.सी. शर्मा</td><td>45</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Everest - An Eternal Challenge; कई ग्लेशियरों से उभरता विशाल पिरामिडीय आकार एवरेस्ट को अव्दितीय भव्यता प्रदान करता है</td><td>Suman Dubey; सुमन दुबे</td><td>46</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Let's Lit the Lamps Again; अटल जी की काव्य वानगी</td><td>A.B. Vajpayee; अटल बिहारी वाजपेयी</td><td>47</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>The Buddhist Heritage of Indian Art; भारतीय कला के प्रेरणा पुरुष</td><td>J. Chandrikesh; जगदीश चंद्रिकेश</td><td>48-49</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>Earth, How Beautiful! इतनी तो प्यारी लगती है धरती</td><td>R.S. Prajapati; रविंद्र स्वप्निल प्रजापति</td><td>50</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat2"><td>Epitome of a Folk Song; एक लोकगीत का उपसंहार</td><td>Prakash Manu; प्रकाश मनु</td><td>51</td></tr>
<tr class="diplomat1"><td>A Distant Dawn - Poetry of Sahir Ludhianvi; सुबह का इंतजार कौन करे - साहिर लुधयानवी की शायरी</td><td>R.S. Tiwari; राधेश्याम तिवारी </td><td>52</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-42648710550147500882015-07-31T23:12:00.000-07:002015-07-31T23:14:06.004-07:00Missile Man - No more! May he rest in eternal peace<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IwYiXs1xpVE/VbxhCo3lEaI/AAAAAAAAB38/FvB54XPPmKI/s1600/dr_apj_abdul_kalam_wallpapers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IwYiXs1xpVE/VbxhCo3lEaI/AAAAAAAAB38/FvB54XPPmKI/s320/dr_apj_abdul_kalam_wallpapers.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The finest product of the Syncretistic Culture of India.<br />
<br />
I had firstly heard of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam some time in 1981 from my school time friend Dr CR Jagga who had then joined the Dept. of Chemistry, IIT Delhi.<br />
<br />
After listening to Dr Kalam at some conference, Dr Jagga was enthusiastically talking to me about this amazingly simple soul scientist - with a saintly serenity and a total dedication to his mission of missile technology...<br />
<br />
Dr Jagga - then 36+ had been simply mesmerised by an 'indefinable' magnetic charm of this 'gentleness personified' magician!<br />
<br />
I had the privilege of '<i>Darshan</i>' of this <i>Maharishi</i> of <i>Vigyan</i> from close proximity at the Republic Day reception in honour of President Putin in 2007.<br />
<br />
At that reception I had also been privileged to talk to Marshal of Air Force Arjan Singh. Marshal had called his wife to talk to me when I had said, "Sir, on meeting you I feel as if I have met an incarnation of Arjuna of Mahabharat!"<br />
<br />
I was also delighted to meet former Olympic hockey captain Zafar Iqbal & Swami Agnivesh the reception.<br />
<br />
Long live an India of Kalam, Arjan, Zafar & Agnivesh !<br />
<br />
I am glad that my letters of credentials as High Commissioner to Kiribati & Samoa - while resident in New Zealand - had been issued under President Kalam's signature.<br />
<br />
I have the pleasure to attach a copy of the document<br />
<br />
Salam to Kalam of India !!!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wSjnSjUwy_c/VbxgulO9sBI/AAAAAAAAB30/iqGd0S78cAk/s1600/APj%2BKalam0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Credentials signed by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam" border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wSjnSjUwy_c/VbxgulO9sBI/AAAAAAAAB30/iqGd0S78cAk/s320/APj%2BKalam0001.jpg" title="Credentials signed by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam" width="202" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credentials signed by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Links<br />
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-33713769" target="_blank">BBC News: India state funeral for former president APJ Abdul Kalam</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.abdulkalam.nic.in/profile.html">http://www.abdulkalam.nic.in/profile.html</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._P._J._Abdul_Kalam" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-68523493302611242992015-07-02T03:00:00.000-07:002015-07-24T00:05:59.277-07:00A Life Enshrined as a Pilgrimage of Love<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>This article was published in the July 2015 edition of Identity magazine.</i><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MDEACVrYIyI/VbHMo0TlkoI/AAAAAAAAB2E/AJMxzaMzxiA/s1600/FL29_SATCHI_AMRITA_1648857g.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MDEACVrYIyI/VbHMo0TlkoI/AAAAAAAAB2E/AJMxzaMzxiA/s320/FL29_SATCHI_AMRITA_1648857g.jpg" width="231" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Amrita Pritam</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
An enigmatically popular and proverbially ‘pretty-petite-poet’ of the partition-poisoned five rivers of the historic Punjab, Amrita Pritam - b. Aug. 31, 1919; d. Oct. 31, 2005 - had indeed enjoyed a larger than life image as one of the most prominent literary personalities of modern India. She was widely recognised as a pioneer, powerful and an authentic voice of feminine protest in expressing the horrors of the Partition of her beloved Punjab and the eternally atrocious gender discriminations in the globally patriarchal social orders.<br />
<br />
She had subtly succeeded in cultivating and nourishing a significant constituency of readers and a large circle of influential individuals surpassing divides of languages and national boundaries. She had been conferred the most sought after honours including the Padma Vibhushan and the membership of Rajya Sabha, not to speak of Jnanpith Award and dozens of honorary Doctorates and other prestigious distinctions in India and abroad. She had indeed been deservedly hailed to have lived her life to the fullest as the ‘grand lady of letters’ - on her own terms - both in her literary accomplishments and the ultimate fulfilment of her socially unconventional love.<br />
<br />
And, yet there were deeper perceptions among both her ardent admirers and determined detractors of an apparently vast void in her life. It was something of the agonisingly soulful kind - her wounded and bleeding feminine destiny and an unfathomable anguish over implied disapproval of her way of life among her dearest and nearest. Amrita’s life could certainly be categorised as the ‘mysteriously volcanic and an eerie dreamy stuff’ of which strange tales of romance, triumph and tragedy are made of. Her enormously large literary output - 21 anthologies of poetry, 10 collections of short stories and, surprisingly, 25 novels, not to speak of three titles of autobiographical writings, have all been hugely interpreted in terms of their excruciatingly experienced personal emotional overtones.<br />
<br />
Amrita had indeed played a uniquely inspirational role for decades in spotting and grooming so many budding and promising Punjabi writers, providing them the forum of her popular monthly <i>Nagmani</i> - Serpent’s Jewel. <i>The Punjabi Lekhak Kosh</i>, 2003 - A Directory of Punjabi Writers, edited by the venerable scholar Prof Pritam Singh - has more than three pages of the entries of her writings in original Punjabi and translations in dozens of Indian and foreign languages.. Her abode for decades - K-25, Hauz Khas, New Delhi - had remained an extraordinary literary pilgrimage till her last for her dedicated readers, fraternity of writers, fellow travellers, sisters in sorrow - from India and abroad - and plain ‘<i>Darshanarthis</i> - the onlookers of her magnetically pretty looks!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rXhbN1s2aPw/VbHb3LCt3AI/AAAAAAAAB2U/UCjVnxIT748/s1600/lead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rXhbN1s2aPw/VbHb3LCt3AI/AAAAAAAAB2U/UCjVnxIT748/s200/lead.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
I do vividly recall how, as an elementary school - child, I had chanced to read her poem - a pretty picture of her adorning it - in a Punjabi monthly ‘Veer Bhumi’, sometime in 1950. Then for a several years in the mid-1950s, her measured and soft voice as an anchor of the 15 minutes program in Punjabi on All India Radio, Delhi had become captivatingly familiar, as if in uniting the two sparring, grieving and singing Punjabs. It was, however, on 22nd November 1970 that there was an opportunity for me to listen to her live. It was during the <i>Mushaira</i> of the Golden Jubilee of my college - Govt. College, Ludhiana - Sahir’s own proud alma mater.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QcdNLybPA74/VbHeRMnh9cI/AAAAAAAAB2k/nw2fAYgCvFc/s1600/sahir-ludhianavi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QcdNLybPA74/VbHeRMnh9cI/AAAAAAAAB2k/nw2fAYgCvFc/s1600/sahir-ludhianavi.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sahir Ludhianvi<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Mushaira, compered by the legendary Kunwar Mohinder Singh Bedi, had started on a note of an absolute disaster of ‘Band-o-bast’. The restrictive arrangements of entry tickets had crumbled in no time in total chaos. Anyway, the huge and roaring audience, by then more in a rebellious mood to hoot than to listen, had consolation of having glimpses of shining star poets like Jan Nisar Akhtar, Mohan Singh and Amrita Pritam doing the empty ritual of recitation of their poems. Even Shiv Kumar Batalavi, the prince among new poets, had to be cajoled to recite her poem after an initial hooting. However, Sahir - the ‘old- boy-hero’ of the College in 1930s - had mesmerised all with his poem titled, ‘<i>Ae Nai Nasl </i>- O, New Generation’, dedicated to Principal Pritam Singh and addressed to all the past and present students. Sahir was indeed at his magical best when he poetically pierced into the hearts of the Ludhianvi audience with the lines:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Naam mera jahan jahan pahuncha / saath pahuncha hai iss dyaar ka naam.<br />Main yahan mezban bhi, mehman bhi / app jo chahen dijie mujhe naam.<br />Nazar karta hun in fizaon ko / apna dil, apni rooh, apna kalaam...<br />Kal jahan main tha, aaj tun hain vahan / Ai, Naee nassl! Tujh ko mera Salaam!</i></blockquote>
<br />
My golden College of that day, now named after ‘old-boy-scientist’ Satish Chandra Dhawan and with the main Hall named after Sahir, is struggling to breathe - and survive to celebrate its Centenary due in 2020! <br />
<br />
My ‘real and historic’ Amrita moment was, however, destined to be on August 31, 1992, just on the eve of my departure for Pakistan, as India’s Deputy High Commissioner. <a href="http://diplomat.anandweb.com/2010/10/vintage-voice-in-punjabi-poetry.html">Pandit Krishan Ashant</a>, the poet-philosopher turned <i>Jyotishcharya</i> - astrologer - an intimate good old friend of my family had kindly taken me and my wife Aradhana to pay a respectful courtesy call on her. I had asked Amrita about some Pakistani writers whom I might meet. She had mentioned a few names including some of women friends based in Lahore and short story writers Mansha Yaad and Mazhar Khan who was Director of the popular Pakistani Folk Art Museum, Virsa. Imroz, an incarnation of serenity and sincerity, was around and had kindly served us the famously mandatory magical tea. We had felt privileged that we had the good luck to preserve forever the precious memory of <i>Mulaaqat</i> with an iconic figure, a veritable literary queen of her time!<br />
<br />
The love legend of Amrita, particularly her self-confessed decades-long passionate attraction for Sahir, has been one of the most written about and celebrated affair in the popular literary imagination in India. The year 1960, according to Amrita’s own account, was the saddest time of her life. She mentions how the report in the ‘Blitz’ about ‘a new flame of love in life of Sahir’ had totally devastated her, plunging her into dark despair. This development had, perhaps, as if in a rebound, made it possible for Amrita to attach her destiny of ‘life-lasting-soulful-love’ with the younger painter friend, Inderjit. He was soon assigned the metaphorically popular name, ‘Imroz’ - the Persian word meaning ‘today’. This unique ‘undefined’ partnership of ‘understanding’ lasting more than 45 years proved to be the most intensely enduring for the mutual esteem, affection and awesomely creative in terms of Amrita’s literary output and picture perfect of ‘made-for-each-other-soul-mates’. Such supposedly ‘idyllic’ life would only be waiting to be sung and celebrated about, not only in sweet, sentimental and eulogistic notes but also to be written about in a plaintive and poetic mix of fiction and reality. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://www.unistarbooks.com/fiction/4163-eh-janam-tumhare-lekhe.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QCxhing0Tlg/VbHIqZhuXKI/AAAAAAAAB1w/bR-UMro8UOc/s320/eh-janam-tumhare-lekhe-2.jpg" width="211" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.unistarbooks.com/fiction/4163-eh-janam-tumhare-lekhe.html" target="_blank">Ek Janam Tumhare Lekhe</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The lives of writers and artists have indeed been a source of immense fascination everywhere - not only for readers and audience but also for fellow writers and critics and commentators. In the case of writers, ‘aside from their works, there are even autobiographies, letters, diaries, and memoirs of those who knew them best... others have taken it a step further, painting a portrait of a literary genius through those who knew him / her best’. Enters here, Gurbachan Singh Bhullar (b. 1937), an eminent short story writer, editor, and columnist, Sahit Academy Awardee in 2005, with roots in Malwa region of Punjab. He had been an alert insider in the various forums of the Punjabi writers since arrival in the capital in 1967 to work in the Soviet Information Department. He would have been privy to all the literary intrigues, factional feuds, scramble for awards and personal rivalries that always plague the atmosphere of community of writers and artists everywhere. He enjoys reputation as one of the select writers in Punjabi who are well read in literature of other languages and are painstakingly diligent in paying attention to the most appropriate vocabulary and idiom in Punjabi. It is indeed very interesting how my most favourite short storywriter and columnist decided to be a novelist. Please permit me to quote from his own 11-pages declaration, ‘How and Why I wrote the novel, <i><a href="http://www.unistarbooks.com/fiction/4163-eh-janam-tumhare-lekhe.html" target="_blank">Eh Janam Tumhare Lekhe</a></i> - This Life I lay at thy Feet’:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“18 of March 2014 was my 77th birth day... this juncture of life can often make a person sad, even frightened... but I had felt full of enthusiasm. I had conceived the woof and warp of my maiden novel and had started designing, naturally, the flowers and petals and even the thorns... Friends had often advised, ‘A short story writer attains perfection only by writing a novel... you have plenty of stories and experiences of social life and an appropriate idiom to tell them, you must write a novel’.”</blockquote>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EVLsIuDtBik/VbHJV17WlyI/AAAAAAAAB14/Xhxhy8CYXCs/s1600/eh-janam-tumhare-lekhe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EVLsIuDtBik/VbHJV17WlyI/AAAAAAAAB14/Xhxhy8CYXCs/s200/eh-janam-tumhare-lekhe.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gurbachan S Bhullar</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Bhullar quotes at length many foreign writers and critics to highlight the subtle points of crafts of short story and the novel. He cites examples from the narrative traditions of epics of India and folk tales of love and how human life revolves around Arth — subsistence, Kaam - sexuality and Dharam - morality. The four word title of the novel, according to Bhullar, was decided at the very beginning. It is taken from the hymn of celebrated Dali poet Bhagat Ravidas in the Granth Sahib, “Bahut Janam bichhure the Madho, eh janam tumhare lekhe - Separated since several births, O lord, this birth is solely dedicated to thee”. How the characters of the novel would stand up to the test of this dictum of total surrender was going to be challenge for the novelist. Bhullar asserts that there are no conventional individual hero or heroine in the novel: the moral restraints prescribed by society at large and their clash with the feminine way of thinking about freedom constitute the crux of the thematic world of this novel.<br />
<br />
The protagonist of the novel is Jagdeep - a poet, does not pose much of a difficulty to be identifiable as Amrita Pritam. It is also, interestingly, the name of a character in her novel, ‘Ek Savaal - A Question’ who has a shade of Amrita in losing her mother an early age. The names of poet Mohan Singh (1905-1978) and Sahir Ludhianvi (1921-1980) have been retained in the novel along with the use of their select poetry. To keep the fictional façade of Jagdeep intact, Bhullar has composed some poems himself and used some of the verses of Sukhvinder Amrit (B. 1963). The other characters - easily recognised among the ‘who is who’ of all the prominent friends - some turned foes - and relations of Amrita. They have been assigned meaningful names: Imroz as Inderjit-Charanjit-Navrang; her husband Pritam Singh becomes Gurmukh Singh; Bhapa Pritam Singh of Navyug Press is named Harprit Singh ‘Hiteshi’; Balwant Gargi is Kulwant Bani; Devinder (of AIR) as Harvinder, etc. The chapters about Editor of ‘Shamma’- name in novel ’Chiragh’- provide enjoyable comic and witty relief in enlarging character of Imroz’s earlier life. The cover design by artist Satwant Singh Sumail is indeed attractive in symbolising the theme of the novel - the feminine flutters for freedom of choices and the social constraints of moral behaviour.<br />
<br />
It is after gap of many years that I have been able to read a novel in Punjabi running into exactly 400 pages. I had been presented the signed copy - ‘with intimate affection’ of the novel by Gurbachan Ji on March 16 and could finish it at my enjoyable pace on April 11, 2015. The seventeen parts of the novel, further subdivided into 3 / 4 chapters in each, make an engrossing reading with the ebb and flow events of a real life legend. Necessary liberties of the fictional kind have been taken here and there as required to enhance an atmosphere of verisimilitude. We get introduced to a gallery of unforgettable characters, majority of them ‘recreated’ after the real life dignitaries of Punjabi community of Delhi who had been closer to Jagdeep-Amrita!? - the protagonist of the novel. Since my first arrival in Delhi on June 16, 1969 and then 16 years - 11 of them consecutively now - of stay in Delhi, I have been witness to a procession of passing away of the pre-partition generation of so many distinguished Punjabis. They had been instrumental in shaping the contours of Punjabi literature and culture. The mindless violence for decades in Punjab; the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi and the consequently continuously ‘shrinking’ role of the present truncated Punjab in the national life has posed serious new challenges to the traditionally imagined values of Punjabi literature and culture. Amrita, a purely Punjabi phenomenon, had passed away proclaiming herself, perhaps, as more popular ‘original author of Hindi’!<br />
<br />
Gurbachan Ji had brought to my attention on November 15, 2014 his masterly article on Amrita Pritam published in the September-December issue of prestigious Punjabi quarterly, ‘HUN’ (Now) dwelling on the touching theme of ‘The Triple Death Tragedy’ of the ‘Priestess of Love’ in Punjabi literature. Apart from the natural death after a protracted sickness and a long confinement to bed, her abode of ‘love-nest’ so artistically adorned by ‘love mate’ Imroz was soon got torn apart brick by brick by Amrita’s ‘emotionally-conflicted’ son - he had once questioned his mother if he was indeed the ‘biological’ son of Sahir! He was mercilessly murdered on September 20, 2012 in shady circumstances in the mean world of Bollywood. I did not know at all - nor could imagine - that this article was a subtle precursor - curtain raiser - to Bhullar’s ambitious maiden novel on the eternal theme of human conflict: the fate of femininity fluttering for freedom against the gravitational forces of patriarchal social order. She was born as the only child of a reclusive and religious couple and married at sixteen in a closely related orthodox Khatri Sikh family. Amrita, according to Khushwant Singh, “was a pretty girl with almond shaped eyes, fine features... petite... barely five feet tall... she became the toast of Punjabi literary circles (of Lahore), largely because of her stunning good looks... Ode to Warish Shah was her defining work. Much of the rest was sheer atmosphere”.<br />
<br />
To quote from Bhullar’s elucidatory article, Amrita had once put, in her peculiarly poetic way, “In all, I have had one and a half love affairs - one with Sahir and half with Jeeti... but his half is equal to Sahir’s one full!” Amrita had written, in Punjabi, her autobiography - rather disjointed chapters - titled ‘Raseedi Ticket - Revenue Stamp’ in 1976 - which has run into a dozen editions - three after her passing away. The Hindi editions might be even more. The translation in English - apparently a hurried and poor job - by Krishna Gorowara may still be quoted, “Imroz is six years my junior... God grants too brief (a) period of youth to one and all; to me He has, in His greatness, granted two! Mine petered off; Imroz’s came on! After fourteen years... I have no regrets about the path chosen by us”. Further, Amrita says that “Imroz’s personality is like the flow of a river uncontrolled by locks and sluices... a relationship with him can last only so long as there is nothing to bind it. Unfortunately, in life there is not much natural freedom. There is society and there is the law... My suffering is the lesser truth when weighed against the greater truth of happiness of life with him...”<br />
<br />
Bhullar has proclaimed in the blurb of his novel-in its 2nd edition within six months of the 1st - exactly a similar dilemma with the heroine representing “feminine-way-of- thinking, the centrality of which is the longing, the desire and an attempt to live a life according to the dictates - full freedom - of her mind”. He further adds that, “the feminine thought process, in majority of the cases, gets reconciled to the 'circumscribing limits' accepting them as 'Destiny' and suppressing the urge to 'fly' - but in stray cases there are revolts too...According to science, the astronauts, who break the sphere of the gravity of the planet earth, undergo a process of powerful effects on their body and mind, Whether, according to psycho-processes, the women who dare break the circle of 'social gravity' also undergo a similar transformation of their bodies and mind, is the moot point of this novel”.<br />
<br />
Long, long ago, while studying for my post-graduation in English literature, I had immensely enjoyed the recommended slim book, ‘Aspects of the Novel’ by EM Forster. Originally published in 1927, it has remained my favourite book till today. Discussing at length the aspects of Story, People, Plot, Fantasy/ Prophecy, Pattern / Rhythm, the Nobel novelist elaborates on the themes of birth, food, sleep /dreams, love / marriage and death as the essential elements of the structure and craft of novel. Forster points out that love and marriage - the most defining event of human destiny turns out to be the most unpredictable development. The modern science has been hugely impacting our entire approach to love and sex but the scientists are still wondering to know, ‘what fosters long-term attachment... what, really, is this thing called true Love.’ The much used – rather abused - terms like romance, attraction, bonding, passion would seem to defy all reason and logic - that is the unique beauty, as well as the inexplicable tragedy in as many cases, in every culture and civilization.<br />
<br />
In 2019, the literary and academic institutions in India would be gearing up to celebrate the birth centenary of Amrita Pritam. Bhullar’s novel has lit up the first candle for a really enlightening revaluation of the literary output of this dear daughter of Punjab. The debates would need be as broad based as the human reason and imagination can be stretched in the multidimensional contexts of the era she had belonged.<br />
<br />
Blessed with Punjabi as my mother tongue, I may conclude quoting the following lines of Amrita - they have been my favourite since I took the first fearful and hesitant step into the imagination of my youth:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Pher tainun yaad keeta, agg nuun chumian asan;<br />Ishq piala zehar da, ik ghutt phir mangia asan …</i><br />Your memory has descended on me again, and I have kissed the flame;<br />I have asked for a sip again, out of the goblet of poison of love! </blockquote>
<br />
<br />
</div>
Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-36270243477653946262015-04-06T20:25:00.000-07:002019-06-08T19:22:42.488-07:00Interview with Shri Diwanaji<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: left;">
This interview was recorded on September 2007, during the <a href="http://diplomat.anandweb.com/2010/01/folk-fair-mela-of-chhapaar-mythology.html">Chhapar Fair</a>, by eminent film maker Shri Ajay Bhardwaj. Shri Deewana, born June 15, 1922 in Maherna, has narrated his life story - a great footballer, singer, dramatist, freedom fighter, social activist. He was imprisoned in Malerkotla, Layallpore, Ludhiana knew names of all friends, police officials, satyagraha movements; had met Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose and worked closely with JP, Lohia, Narender Deva, Parwardhan, Aruna Asaf Ali and other socialist leaders; resorted to hunger strike for twelve days in 1954 for an elected management for School.<br /> </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
He could still sing old patriotic songs and self composed poems. He played role of Lachhmana in Ramleela where he used to get actually fainted. He was also offered the role of Sher Dil Dakoo in the film Bhabhi.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />Tek Chand Deewana is a human monument of Ahmedgarh.</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="248" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Mws0PeSFW20?rel=0" width="440"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
Author's family with Shri Diwanaji, 1994<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nb8MuPOdwsM/XPxo28E8PnI/AAAAAAAAVcQ/uOQL0JZYnR8Dy4bQFSE1vt60Fi4WMXt_wCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_2415.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1086" data-original-width="1566" height="276" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nb8MuPOdwsM/XPxo28E8PnI/AAAAAAAAVcQ/uOQL0JZYnR8Dy4bQFSE1vt60Fi4WMXt_wCLcBGAs/s400/IMG_2415.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Author and family with Shri Diwanaji, 20-11-1994</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-46380999422094619202015-03-01T17:35:00.002-08:002015-03-01T17:37:15.312-08:00A Pilgrimage in the World of Books<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I27SAQzM-jw/VPO1FP-R5DI/AAAAAAAABkw/YJiG3RMDfzw/s1600/world%2Bbook.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I27SAQzM-jw/VPO1FP-R5DI/AAAAAAAABkw/YJiG3RMDfzw/s1600/world%2Bbook.png" height="84" width="320" /></a></div>
The most perplexing process of the biological evolution of our universe and the fascinating history of the amazing emergence of humanity as the interpreter of all its subtle complexities can now be substantially, if not wholly, comprehended - thanks to the all the accumulated knowledge preserved in the books of the world. No wonder, the metaphor of ‘Book’ is often invoked to describe the entire gamut of our existence – yet to be completely perused and fully understood! The eminent author Jorge Luis Borges has rightly remarked that he had always imagined that Paradise would be a kind of mighty Creator’s most magnificent Library!!<br />
<br />
The various types of book fairs in the countries of world indeed personify the noblest facet of a nation in the modern epoch. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_Book_Fair" target="_blank">Frankfurt Book Fair</a> (FBF), with a claim to a more than five hundred year old tradition, has become over the recent years the largest annual global book event. It is indeed the best tribute to our largely open democratic polity since independence and the mass education as one of the top priority of the state that India has emerged as one of the largest book publishing countries, the third largest - after the USA and the UK - among the publishers in English. To quote the words of President Pranav Mukherjee at the inauguration of the New Delhi World Book Fair (NDWBF) in 2014,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“An international book fair of this magnitude is one of the best manifestations of India’s liberal, democratic, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and secular society where competing ideas and ideologies have equal space. These values constitute the essence of India... Book fairs such as this should remind us that our history and traditions have always celebrated the ‘argumentative’ Indian and not the ‘intolerant’ Indian.”</blockquote>
<br />
The 23rd <a href="http://www.newdelhiworldbookfair.gov.in/" target="_blank">NDWBF - 2015</a>, held from February 14 to 22 in the popular Pragati Maidan, was inaugurated by the Minister for Human Resource Development, Ms Smriti Zubin Irani. She underlined that,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Government changes but not a nation’s culture or civilization.”</blockquote>
<br />
She welcomed Singapore as the Guest of Honour country and Korea as the Focus country for this year’s fair. Suryodaya: the Emerging Voices from the North East was declared the theme and, ‘Books open the Mind’ was adopted as the slogan of the Fair 2015. It was mentioned that the Fair was spread over 35,000 square meters with more than 1000 Indian publishers and 31 foreign participants. The metro connection to Pragati Maidan has resulted in the much greater increase in the footfalls at the fair.<br />
<br />
When I try to look as far back as the memory can travel, so many sweet and strange tales of buying of books flash before the mind’s eye. Interestingly, my dearest and most enduring friend has been a librarian by profession. We had met in Government College, Bathinda in 1968 and the he joined ministry of Defence Library on May 3, 1969 - the day President Zakir Hussain had suddenly passed away resulting in closure of all government offices. We had visited the First International Book Fair - March 18 to April 4, 1972 - in the newly laid out Pragati Maidan. After long spells of stay abroad, it was indeed deeply nostalgic for me to revisit the various NDWBF since return to Delhi in 2004. I have enjoyed attending several interactive sessions with the authors during the release of their books and picking up books of Urdu poetry in Devanagri editions and standard publications of references like Jan Nisar Akhtar edited celebrated two volume of poetry of love of motherland titled ‘Hindustan Hamara.’ It is a great solace for lovers of books that the <a href="http://sahitya-akademi.gov.in/" target="_blank">Sahitya Academy</a>, <a href="http://www.nbtindia.gov.in/" target="_blank">National Book Trust</a> and <a href="http://www.publicationsdivision.nic.in/" target="_blank">Publication Division</a> continue publishing quality works of literature and knowledge and making them available at a reasonable price.<br />
<br />
The literature for the children and the new age learning materials including the audio-visual kind have acquired an increasing importance and have also presented new opportunities and challenges. The illustrated reading materials are also gaining a new market and momentum. The books in their new e-format avatar and their on-line marketing have been becoming more and more popular. The book industry has to be creative and innovative to rise to be compatible with the new horizons of technology. It is brave new world of learning and acquiring necessary skills.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hOsd79-DeKU/VPO-GtrGqSI/AAAAAAAABlI/nHP8EaEzwIc/s1600/Release%2Bof%2BMuhim.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hOsd79-DeKU/VPO-GtrGqSI/AAAAAAAABlI/nHP8EaEzwIc/s1600/Release%2Bof%2BMuhim.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Book Release - <i>Muhim</i> by Dr Sitesh Alok</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
For me personally, the NDWBF-2015 turned out to be particularly memorable for the release of two new books by two esteemed new friends. An anthology of stories in Hindi titled, <i>Muhim</i>, by Dr Sitesh Alok was released on 17th February by the two eminent scholar-critics, Dr Prabhakar Shrotriya and Dr Kamal Kishore Goenka. The book is dedicated to the memory of late Nirmal Verma and late Manohar Shyam Joshi. Introducing the book, Shri Sushil Siddarath mentioned how the bold themes of complex changes sweeping the society have tackled in an appropriate style by the gifted writer. Terming some of the stories with the daring new themes as Classics in their own right, Dr Goenka recalled the controversies generated in their time by the stories like, <i>Kafan </i>- the Shroud - and <i>Karbala</i> by Prem Chand. Dr Sitesh Alok, elaborated on the background of long story in the book - the title of it, i.e. Muhim - he explained the underlying socio-economic roots of the ‘attraction’ of the idea of ‘Jihad’ and the other stories dwelling on the challenging themes of declining social and moral codes and changing roles of women.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--wbzSFAgYQQ/VPO9qD5w3NI/AAAAAAAABlA/2zqEeTZmALg/s1600/Denied%2Bby%2BAllah.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--wbzSFAgYQQ/VPO9qD5w3NI/AAAAAAAABlA/2zqEeTZmALg/s1600/Denied%2Bby%2BAllah.jpg" height="200" width="130" /></a></div>
The second book release function and discussion attended by me related to, ‘<i>Denied by God</i>’ by Noor Zaheer, versatile author–activist. To quote, “The book mirrors the stories and indignity of the women whom even Allah seems to have denied justice and a life of dignity.” The book narrates the real life stories of women who have laid bare their bleak past and the humiliation brought through Halala, Muta’h, Triple Talaq and Khula. The book discusses medieval laws, sexist bias and maintenance of tradition and conventions in name of religion. The book questions the adherence to archaic laws and propagation of patriarchy in a country that professes a democratic society and guarantees justice and equality to all its citizens. There was a lively - even heated at some moments - discussion with able presentations by panellists including Shahira Naim, Smita Mishra and S. Mobin Zehra and participation by the two Muslim clerics, Islamic research scholars and the young people in the audience. It became clear that the woman emancipation has to go a long way with obscurantists in each religion fighting, hopefully their last desperate battle. Noor who has earlier authored, ‘<i>My God is a Woman</i>’ and her comrades in arms are confident that time and tide are on their side.<br />
<br />
As someone born a great-grand-child of an extraordinary saint-scholar and brought up in environs where books were worshipped above everything else, I cannot imagine myself breathing away from the sight of something to read about... I fully share what was proclaimed by 'deewana-e-ilm' - someone mad after learning -<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of mind, books are humanity in print... until we invent telepathy, books are our best choice for understanding humanity and the universe around it.”</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-14981106776497262872014-10-11T18:49:00.000-07:002020-06-25T16:56:48.433-07:00My Father - An Essay in an Autobiography<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-08nloqo0heY/VTZgCjnCeDI/AAAAAAAABpU/HZsBZmeqWw4/s1600/Pitaji%2Bwriting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-08nloqo0heY/VTZgCjnCeDI/AAAAAAAABpU/HZsBZmeqWw4/s1600/Pitaji%2Bwriting.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pita Ji Writing... Another Har Dyal - Born to be <br />
an Extraordinary Scholar-Physician. About 1954.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
He was born, according to an authentic written record in the family, on Monday, August 30, 1920. He was the first born - the <i>Jayeshatha Saputtar </i>- of his parents. The various conversations among the elders of the family which included my two most loving great grandfathers and an adorably talkative great grand-aunt, called <i>Bhua Ji</i> by the entire village, often innocently overheard by me as a child of four-five years, had confirmed this to me. They mentioned that his father Dwarka Nand and his grandfather Giata Nand were also the first born of their parents. And So Am I - his son, now 71+ years according to the date of birth in the Matriculation Certificate, and so are our eldest son, Aditya and our six year old grandson, Antariksh!</div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s2">Pray, don’t misread this opening statement in any overtone of machismo or a parade of any gender bias - it is but a humble mention of the facts of my family tree. My father was named Har Dayal Nand by his Guru-grandfather Vaidya Bhushan, Kaviraj Pramatma Nand Ji (d. October 19, 1947), the most renowned scholar and Ayurvedic physician of his era. The name might have been inspired by the popular perception prevailing in those years of Har Dayal (Later famous with the prefix ‘Lala’, though he was a ‘Mathur’), the legendary scholarly genius with a miraculous memory. According to the lore in the family, Baba Pramatma Nand Ji had also selected my name, even before my birth! That story could wait till the time when I write about myself! This piece of narration is dedicated solely to the sublime, sweet and sour memories of my father, “Shri Haridial Nand alias Haridial Singh Vaid, Ayurved Rattan, Ayurved Manishi, Gold Medallist, Proprietor, Shri Gajnesh Ayurvedic Aushdhalaya, Ahmedgarh.” A uniquely engaging conversationalist with all the old world wonderful charm of a philosopher-physician, he was destined to fade away, like many extraordinarily gifted persons, including his name sake Har Dayal, in despair and deprivation on April 19, 1978 - at the age of 57 years, 7 months and 19 days! I had sent him my first - and fatefully the last - birth day greetings card from Tehran promising to ‘fulfil all your dreams and expectations of Me!’ I am reminded of the soulful moment in 1955 in my school when he had, pointing at the youthful Deputy Commissioner S.D. Bhambri (I.A.S. 1950) of Sangrur, that, “in independent India now such young persons who are bright in studies and succeed in competitive examinations will the real rulers of the country!” A dream had been planted in my mind and soul! </span></div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s2"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VkYdZVJzNYE/VTZiqbNFuqI/AAAAAAAABpw/NLLSlfTpYZ8/s1600/Pita%2BJi%2Bwith%2Bsitar0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VkYdZVJzNYE/VTZiqbNFuqI/AAAAAAAABpw/NLLSlfTpYZ8/s1600/Pita%2BJi%2Bwith%2Bsitar0001.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">L to R: Channa (Major Charanjit Singh Jagdev), Pita Ji, Jangi (Brigadier Jagjit Singh Jagdev) Children are sons of Pita ji's friend Air Force Official Randhir Singh who had taken this photo. About 1954.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="s2">It will be noted that my Father, if alive, would have been 94 this month. I feel uniquely luckier to meet Ambassador V.M.M. Nair, going fine at 95+ years and the I.C.S. batch of 1942, during the walk-and-talk in our residential complex. Ashwani Kumar I.P., the film-hero-type-super-Cop and for many years Mr Hockey of India, is exactly of the age of my father. Kumar is known to be fully alert and moves around actively, though confined to a wheel chair. I feel quite convinced that my father had all the ability to qualify for the I.C.S. if the family had the right exposure and guidance to educate him in the British system of education. He was, however, tutored totally at home in all the traditional learning of Sanskrit classics, <i>Ayurveda</i>, <i>Kavya Shastra</i> - Prosody, <i>Sangit Shastra</i> - Musicology interpretative religious studies, including the modern ideologies of Gurmat, Arya Samaj and new wave ideas of Swami Shivananda and Sri Aurobindo. He was trained to be a good horse rider - I remember once riding behind him on a journey to my mother’s village - and also a champion chess player!</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s2"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s2">Father was most rigorously trained, in the Gurukul-style dawn to dusk routine, for more than two decades to be a perfect calligrapher in both Gurmukhi and Devanagri scripts. Professor Bachittar Singh I.R.S., his 12 years junior beloved nephew who had become the first Post-Graduate in English in the area in 1950, confirmed to me, “Chacha Ji was known to be very bright but was equally naughty too… Baba Ji (Pramatma Nand) used to tie a rope to his one leg so that he did not stray away during the day long lessons!” No Wonder, that no scholar could discern any shade of difference in the ‘pearls-like’ handwritings of Guru Pramatma Nand and disciple Har Dayal Nand in the various voluminous works ‘penned’ jointly by them! Well versed in music, he had become the most sought after <i>Pathi</i> - reciter - of Granth Sahib - in the far and wide area. The circle of his influential Sikh admirers persuaded him to become an <i>Amritdhari</i> - baptised Sikh - on July 26, 1947. I vaguely remember how he had suddenly stopped sharing ‘hookah’ with grand-father Giata Nand Ji and had also adopted an attire of the Sikh tradition. </span></div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s2"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s2">As per the custom and practice of the time, Father’s marriage had been arranged at an age of about twenty years. There is, however, no written reference in the family of the date and year of marriage. The conversations in the family have revealed that my mother, though not formally educated, was a very talented and hardworking lady. She had a great passion for all type of knitting including making the large size carpets and <i>durries</i>, many of which had remained in use for decades since her passing away. Though I have never been clearly told about it, She is understood to have died sometime in early 1946 due to complications after a delivery. It has been further understood that my father was deeply depressed over her demise and had tried to seek solace for some time wandering in the guise of a sadhu. My grandmother, a deeply pious lady with prayers on her lips all the time, was the most worried soul in the family about the remarriage of her son who had become a widower at the age of less than 26 years. And strangely at the same time, she would often narrate to me the stories of ‘Dhroon-Dhruv’ Bhakat, Pooran Bhakat and other noble children who had been maltreated by their step-mothers! Finally, after many efforts and a go-between role by a highly respected relation, Babu Ji Patram Singh, the second marriage of my father was solemnised on March 9, 1953 in the village of Pawala, near Rajpura in a large family of ex-service men. </span></div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s2"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s2">It must be mentioned that Father had been pushed to take up many responsibilities at a much younger age in the multi-generation joint family because of a long drawn civil litigation over the properties. The deaths of the saintly elders - Pramatma Nand ji on Oct 19, 1947 and Giata Nand Ji on August 20, 1951 - altogether altered the circumstances of the larger clan - <i>khandaan</i>. The family had started shifting to Ahmedgarh, initially for the education of my uncle - and I also joined the school there in May 1951 in the 3</span><span class="s3"><sup>rd</sup></span><span class="s2"> grade. Father, making a break from the family tradition, set up there “Shri Gajnesh Ayurvedic & Unani Aushdhalaya”, to begin with, in partnership with Shri Lal Chand Jai, a friend and registered Hakim of the Unani System. Soon Father started his independent practice and was able to rent a shop and a residence located in close proximity - at a rent of Rs. Ten for each of the two! Ch. Vivekanand Koshal, a well to do and progressive minded land lord, was very kind and respectful towards my Father for his learning and wisdom.</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s2"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wST5f71F4k4/VTZgaCfok3I/AAAAAAAABpc/34dmWxryw9U/s1600/file16376.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wST5f71F4k4/VTZgaCfok3I/AAAAAAAABpc/34dmWxryw9U/s1600/file16376.jpg" width="163" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pitaji as Pradhan Mantri i.e., General Secretary of the PEPSU Vaid Mandal. Holding the welcome address at the state level conference, March 9, 1952. Behind - Police Inspector Dharam Chand, City In charge Ahmedgarh.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="s2">Having not studied in any formal school system, Father was extra keen to obtain the recognised qualifications as an Ayurvedic practitioner. He, therefore appeared privately for the examination conducted Ayurved Vidyapeeth, Allahabad. To his great surprise, he was declared ‘<i>Pratham, Sarv Pratham </i>- First Class, First’’ in the ‘Ayurved Bhishak Examination’ held in 1952. He was awarded a Gold Medal by the Govt. of the PEPSU, then headed by S. Gian Singh Rarewala, declaring, “A Sikh Tops the Examination of Sanskrit.” He had actively involved himself in organising the Vaid Mandal movement in the state and worked tirelessly for the registration of Vaidyas under the new legislation. On the basis of his newly obtained qualifications, he was able him to get a job in 1955 as Vaidya in Govt. Ayurvedic Dispensaries and served on a small salary of those days for more than a decade. Then he resigned to resume his practice in the wake of deterioration in his father’s health. He started contributing articles, with references from the handwritten books of the family like the one interestingly named ‘Mohtam Sahib’ and the rare works in the Gurmukhi script, to the prestigious journals of Ayurveda including ‘Dhanvantri’, ‘Sachittar Ayurved’, ‘Ayurved Mahasammelam Patrika’, etc. He participated regularly in the national Conferences on Ayurveda; I witnessed one such ‘Sammelan’ at Vithal Bhai Patel Bhawan in New Delhi in December 1974. </span></div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s2"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s2">Father, apart from his multifarious scholarship, had remarkable abilities for organisational matters and dealing with the governmental machinery. He enjoyed genuine friendships with activists of all political parties. He was at his best in the company of ‘<i>Sants</i> and <i>Mahants </i>- saints and abbots’ of great spiritual learning who were also quite wealthy and socially influential. It was a great privilege for me to enjoy listening discretely to their learned discourses. Father was quite clear and keen that I must excel in modern education. He seemed, of course, intuitively aware that I had my own path to traverse and avail the new opportunities in independent India. There was, to admit honestly, an unavoidable and unbridgeable generational gap between us; the back-breaking burdens of the family accumulated from his second marriage vitiated and soured the emotional bond between us. His health, with early signs of high blood pressure, had started deteriorating sharply with heart and diabetic conditions. He must have been fully aware of all his ailments and had started looking much older at the age fifty.</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s2"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YQytM97HFUA/VTZh7j9yZpI/AAAAAAAABpo/E42W170C9M4/s1600/Milni%2B002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YQytM97HFUA/VTZh7j9yZpI/AAAAAAAABpo/E42W170C9M4/s1600/Milni%2B002.jpg" width="216" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Author's Father and Father-in-law <br />
at his wedding, Aug 12, 1973</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="s2">I think that the occasion of my marriage in August 1973 was the most fulfilling moment for him. The <i>Akhand-path</i> to celebrate the birth of his grandson on the Lohri of 1975 with Tikka Kuldeep Singh Bedi, a descendant of the Sikh Gurus, reciting the Granth Sahib was his greatest - and sadly the last - moment of celebration. He and my father-in-law Shri Nand Lal Ramdasia, had become very close friends and the latter’s sudden death in a suspicious medical accident-reaction to penicillin injection - on December 4, 1977 left my father completely shattered person. His own demise within a period of less than five months was a big double shock for me but it was no surprise. While taking leave of him at the railway station of Ahmedgarh on 17</span><span class="s3"><sup>th</sup></span><span class="s2"> January, 1978, I had an eerie and foreboding feeling that it was, perhaps, my last glimpse of him. I could piercingly fathom from his face and foresee in his eyes that light of his life might be fading fast. </span></div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s2"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qGVxKrkntUA/VTZjW-xZx_I/AAAAAAAABp4/-4IQSAWICM0/s1600/Pind%2BDa%2BGurdwara%2Bclose%2Bup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qGVxKrkntUA/VTZjW-xZx_I/AAAAAAAABp4/-4IQSAWICM0/s1600/Pind%2BDa%2BGurdwara%2Bclose%2Bup.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shrine of Author's Ancestor - Baba Gajjan Shah Ji</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="s2">On the 19</span><span class="s3"><sup>th</sup></span><span class="s2"> of April this year - the 36</span><span class="s3"><sup>th</sup></span><span class="s2"> death anniversary of Father - I chose to make a pilgrimage to the more than 170 year old shrine of the family patriarch Baba Gajjan Shah Ji in in our native village of Falaund Kalan. After prayers, I spent some time with Manohar, a childhood play-mate who had lost his eyesight at the age of five years in an attack small pox. I requested Manohar to recite again my favourite <i>Kabbit</i> - fast rhymed poem with profuse alliteration - of Sant Gulab Das - and I have noted it this time. Then I chanced to come across there an older person; walked across to him and introduced myself in the name of my ‘Vaid’ Father. He immediately extended his arms and embraced me tightly saying, “I am Shah Nawaz Khan and I am now more than eighty years old. Your father Vaid Har Dayal Ji had saved my life sixty years ago when I was almost dying of persistent dysentery… he was the best Vaid of his time in the area!” I surprised him by telling him that I do remember having seen his father, Rattu Khan, a tall fellow who used to graze the goats of the village! And standing a few steps away from the sacred soil of the cremation of six generations of forefathers, I could not control the incessant and profuse flow of the tears of pride in my eyes, in the most pious memory my Father! </span></div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s2"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<h4>
References to this article</h4>
<ul>
<li>This article was included in the collection "<a href="http://www.indiaofthepast.org/content/pitaji-%E2%80%93-unschooled-learned-man" target="_blank">India of the Past</a>, Preserving memories of India and Indians"</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s2"><br /></span>
<span class="s2"><br /></span>
<span class="s2"><br /></span></div>
</div>
Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-20957627182651834642014-06-30T22:54:00.000-07:002017-04-13T22:55:52.378-07:00The Great ‘Babu-cracy’ of India - Origin, Changes and Challenges of Today<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The word ‘babu’ has a bona fide entry in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (COED); I have the Fourth impression 2006 of the Eleventh edition, 2004, First Published in 1911. The meaning reads: <i>a respectful title or form of address for a man; an office worker - Origin from Hindi, lit. Father</i>. The ‘Babu-cracy’ - i.e. bureaucracy, to be exact, had its formal beginnings in India, in its current connotation, in 1765 when the British East India Company had first organised a cadre of civil servants with the sole objective of assisting to collect revenues from the people of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa under the right granted by the Mughal emperor. This dual role of the Company as trader and ruler continued till 1833 when it succeed in acquiring control over extensive territories all over India. The Company, in its new role as ruler, soon recognised the need for a bureaucracy devoted exclusively to administration, unburdened by any responsibility for trading operations.<br /><br />To quote the veteran bureaucrat Dr PC Alexander, </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“In 1853, the Company accepted the most distinctive feature of the Covenanted Civil Service of India which became the Indian Civil Service (ICS) after India came under the direct rule of the British Crown in 1858.” </div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The process of selection through competitive examination and the most magical nomenclature ‘Indian Civil Service’ - hailed by historians as the ‘ Heaven Born Service’ and ’Steel Frame of India’ - had been given by the special Indian Civil Service Act of 1861. The history of the ICS and its ‘reincarnation’ as Indian Administrative Service since independence indeed represents transformation of India as a modern democratic polity with all the ups and downs in the life of the nation.<br /><br />Both Prime Minster Jawaharlal Nehru and Deputy Prime Minister cum Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai devoted an extraordinary attention to reassure and reorient the ICS and also to guide the Service towards the new goals of the independent nation. Nehru and Patel along with Dr BR Ambedkar were instrumental in putting in place the constitutional and related institutional frame work for the security and neutrality of newly designed All India Services - with the Indian Administrative Services at the top of the pyramid - and the other Central Services. To quote Patel,</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“…you will not have a united India if you do not have a good all India service which has the independence to speak out its mind, which has a sense of security… The constitution is meant to be worked out by a ring of Service which will keep the country intact.” </div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The grateful bureaucracy of India has adopted the day of the address by Sardar Patel to the All India Services Training College, Delhi on 21st April 1947 as the ‘Civil Services Day of India’ since 2006, quoting Patel’s masterly exhortation to the civil servants to be always mindful of their, “dignity, integrity, incorruptibility and impartiality.” <br /><br />The Nehru era - glowing with the higher values of the freedom struggle- witnessed a very fruitful flowering of the trust and collaboration between the well-meaning and patriotic political leadership and the gifted and competent top brass bureaucracy. There were shining examples of the efficient execution of many a visionary schemes for the development of the country and the welfare of the masses. The ‘steel frame of the ICS’ was indeed skillfully tempered to serve the requirements of the ‘sovereign (later amended to include socialist, secular too) democratic republic’ - in the making. How the stresses and strains of the party politics since 1969 and a good bye to the higher pursuit of “not power at any price but service at any cost’ have been adversely affecting all walks of national life - including the highest rungs of bureaucracy - need not be narrated at length. The manner in which the competence, integrity and impartiality of the top civil service has been continuously compromised, blatantly in the states under the rule of the rapacious local leadership, makes a sordid saga of the great betrayal of the people who put them into the seat of political and administrative power. The corruption at the political and bureaucratic level has indeed corroded the national psyche and endangered our survival as an independent state.<br /><br />The Election Commission of India has been once again recipient of the great applause and admiration of the world for conducting the gigantic task of enabling the largest electorate of humanity to exercise their most precious right to vote in a free and fair manner. Comparatively on a different – quiet and sober-note the Union Public Commission of India had also declared the results on 13th of June of the Civil Services Examination 2013. The UPSC, it may be mind boggling to know, has selected during the last six decades nearly a quarter of a million candidates after examining over 46 million! This year, a total of 1,122 candidates were declared to have qualified one of the toughest three tier examinations so meticulously devised and spaced out over twelve months to select the brightest of the youth of the country for the most demanding and prestigious positions in the service of the state. The allure of the IAS seems to have become the most irresistible national obsession; it is rated far superior over all the other options of careers: the best are prepared to spend their best years chasing the civil services dream. It was reported that some 5,36,506 candidates had applied for the preliminary exam of the Civil Services in 2012. The mushrooming of civil services coaching centres / academies in the two localities of the capital of the country attract hundreds of thousands of civil services aspirants from far and wide in the country. They camp there ‘to try, try again, and again… and again till their respective limits of age or the chances get exhausted’. <br /><br />It is said that India has the most elaborate - rather the most forbidding and intimidating - systems of examinations but, perhaps, not one credible system of education. The education system meant primarily to qualitatively improve life of the people of the country, millions of them being marginalised in society, has been, of course, continuously subjected to various processes of reforms. The new trends in higher education have also been amply reflected over the years in the UPSC’s agenda of reforms. Chairman of the UPSC Professor DP Agrawal has underlined that the changes in the pattern of Civil Services have to be ‘consistent with the need for selecting the right kind of persons from a huge pool consisting of multiple languages, creeds, culture and communities.’ It is indeed quite baffling for the former civil servants like myself, now a senior citizen of 70+ years, how in the changed times in India, the serious policy issues like the syllabi of the Civil Service Exam; issue of age limit; the number of chances, etc., have become causes for public protests by the aspirant candidates. And the government of India has created precedents that such protests and demonstrations in the capital can be effective in getting rules amended! Is the country marching towards the ‘Street- smart Civil Services Examination’?<br /><br />The All India Services including the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service, Indian Forest and the entire range of various Central Civil Services including the Bharati Videsh Seva - the Indian Foreign (Diplomatic) service - have a unique role in keeping the country going forward and unified as visualised by the founding fathers of India’s federal structure under the Constitution. The upright, efficient, experienced, duty conscious and fair minded civil servants are an invaluable asset of any nation, more so in a developing democracy like India with the millions of the deprived reposing their faith in them for justice and a fair deal. The old usage of ‘mai-baap’ - the paternal officer for the district officer - remains relevant even now in the rural areas of India where the vast majority of the dispossessed, discriminated and oppressed live. An honest and helpful civil servant is indeed the best creation of any political dispensation - and, perhaps, divinity too. Those interested in making money and lusting for power may think of doing any other thing but must not ever think of a career in civil service.<br /><br />I am tempted to look back, as far as the deepest recesses of my memories go, towards all my days, weeks, months and years of my own service and memories of so many extraordinary colleagues in the Indian Foreign Service- I had joined w.e.f. from 11th of July, 1971- and the IAS / other Central Services. By a strange coincidence, there is a get together of the ‘Batch-71’ on this very date in July in New Delhi. I look forward to meeting many colleagues of the IAS / other Services since we parted company in November ’71 after the common Foundation Course National Academy, Mussourie! Among the distinguished batch mates, Shri SY Qureshi, formerly Chief Election Commissioner, remains in the media focus as an author-commentator. Shri Madhukar Gupta and VK Duggal distinguished themselves as Home Secretaries. Shri PL Punia had the rare distinction of being Principal Secretary, respectively, to both Maya Vati and Mulayam Singh and later became an MP on the Congress. He is still in position as Chairman of the National Scheduled Caste Commission with the BJP nudging him to quit. I also remember those batch mates who died in accidental and unnatural deaths in the prime / peak of their careers including Shri Gian Chand Gill whose parents were still sanitary workers in Malerkotla. The UP cadre had a strange case of a wife killing her IAS husband for infidelity; suicide by a DGP rank officer and currently an imprisonment for four years for corruption of a former Chief Secretary of the state. The involvement of senior civil servants of all the prestigious services on a larger scale in the recent years has indeed been a disturbing tendency. <br /><br />The media has reported in some detail about the two and half hour inter active meeting taken by PM Narendra Modi on 4th of June with the 77 Secretaries of the Government of India. It was underlined that such a meeting has taken place after more than eight years -<i> kya top Civil services ke achhe din aa gaye hain !</i>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-27609754567799604012014-06-09T01:15:00.000-07:002014-09-02T04:01:43.071-07:00Kabir - the Visionary poet and Revolutionary Reformer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div>
<i>This article was first published in the monthly magazine <a href="http://www.identityindia.org/" target="_blank">Identity</a>, in the June 2014 issue.</i><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kNajEhVe7-c/U5VZwAHsppI/AAAAAAAABKk/Ox3bEzxYNWk/s1600/kabir_stamp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kNajEhVe7-c/U5VZwAHsppI/AAAAAAAABKk/Ox3bEzxYNWk/s1600/kabir_stamp.jpg" height="200" width="171" /></a></div>
<b>Kabir</b> - the low caste Julaha, weaver - a bona fide ‘Korie’ voter in the current context of the mythological Brahmanical city of Benares a.k.a. Varanasi - has indeed witnessed a remarkable up-gradation of his stature during the last century. He has been hailed as a valiant saint-poet, a distinctly rebellious voice of a social reformer and a Messianic icon for the oppressed people of his epoch. He has been increasingly recognised as ‘a dare devil spiritual ideologue’ for displaying a rare courage of convictions and as an all-embracing poetic genius in hitting as hard as he could at the hypocritical, irrational and unjust practices of both the moribund Hinduism and aggressive Islam. Kabir has been hailed for his masterly magisterial pronouncements employing the most effective instrument of poetic satire. He certainly lifted the level of his saintly sermons to a refreshingly redefined realm - far beyond the prevalent traditions of Bhakti-Sufi School of <i>Nirguna</i> - Formless, Monotheistic - devotional movement.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The exact details relating to the life of Kabir have remained shrouded in uncertainties, as per the splendid ancient Indian traditions of ‘<i>Smiriti</i>/<i>Shruti</i> - remembered/received’, implying mainly the orally transmitted accounts. Kabir’s hymns had, of course, started getting transcribed more than a hundred year after his passing away. It has now been broadly agreed upon by the Kabirian scholars that this most extraordinary saint-poet had his earthly sojourn sometime around 1440 to 1518 A.D. The earliest account of Kabir has been recorded in a poetic work called <i>Bhaktamal</i> - ‘A Garland of Devotees’ compiled in C.1585 by Nabhadas who refers to him in a single stanza,<br />
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
“Never did Kabir accept /<br />
Distinction of caste ... Religion devoid of love /<br />
is heresy, he declared.”</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Many of the compiler-commentators and Kabir’s sectarian followers called Kabir-<i>panthies</i> have been busy weaving a halo around him that has gradually obliterated the original lustre and subtly distorted his pristine precepts leading again into ritualistic Brahmanic folds. Anantdas in <i>Parichai</i> - an introduction (C.1595); Priyadas in his commentary on Bhakatamal and Mukund Kavi in <i>Kabir Chrit</i> (1645) reconfirm him as a Muslim weaver living in Kashi but without any comment on stories about his birth. Saint Guru Ravidas, a contemporary of Kabir, according to some sources says,<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“He whose ancestors slaughtered cows ... attained such height that he is revered in all three worlds” - <i>Adi Granth, Malar</i>, p.1203. </blockquote>
<br />
As an inquisitive and compassionate child of his loving parents, Kabir is alluded to be keenly inclined towards learning at an early age. But how could a poor and low caste fellow fulfil his yearning for knowledge in a hierarchical society driven by the scripturally ordained caste system of the Hindus? There is a strong traditional evidence suggesting that Ramanand, a relatively liberal Vaishnavite saint, had grudgingly taken Kabir under his wings and the two together sought to realise the higher Truth. The single hymn of Ramanand included in the Adi Granth proclaims,<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Where need I go, for within my home I have been dyed in the divine hue... The Lord pervades all, says Ramanand...” - <i>Raag Basant</i>, p.1195.</blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The incorporation of Kabir’s 532 verses in 16 <i>Ragas</i> - melodies - the third largest in number after the compiler Guru Arjan (2312 verses in 30 melodies) and the Guru Nanak (869 verses in 17 melodies) in the <i>Adi Granth</i>, compiled in 1604 A.D., was indeed the most significant authentication with far reaching spiritual consequences for positioning of Kabir. The tradition confirms that Guru Nanak had met Kabir on several occasions for detailed spiritual discourses. It is further believed that Guru Nanak could have been the first to get Kabir’s verses transcribed and passed on the manuscripts to his successors. According to Giani Gurdit Singh, Kabir’s contribution as an inspired saint poet indeed stands apart not only in terms of the output but also for the versatility of themes indicating his own inner development with the excruciating experiences of his long life. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There are anecdotal references that Kabir had to face the wrath Delhi ruler Sikandar Lodi (1489-1517) in the wake of complaints against him by the Muslim Qazis and the Brahmin priests. Kabir’s poetry, therefore, appear to be directly addressed to listeners - of any religion or caste - with the trade mark, <i>Kahai Kabir, suno Bhai sadhu</i> - Kabir says, “Listen, O brother monk!” The passion packed and cryptic couplets engage the audience to wake up and peek within - “Kabir pounds away with questions, prods with riddles, stirs with challenges, shocks with insults, disorients with feints.” Kabir is indeed unique among the Bhakti poets in overwhelming us with his mastery of the vocative - “Pandit... let me know how to destroy transiency... You, Mr Qazi, who told you to swing the knife?” The impact of Kabir’s pithy poetic sayings must have been profound on the people crushed as they were in the crude formalism of the two competing mainstream religious divides. To quote Kshiti Mohan Sen, a scholar of Bengali Renaissance, “Kabir’s superior spiritual achievements came to have a sovereign influence on the people... his influence, direct or indirect, on all liberal movements that occurred in medieval times after him is uncommonly deep.” Since the last quarter of the eighteenth century, the western scholars, in their pursuit of study of Indian religious traditions and spiritual literature, had started taking a serious notice of Kabir’s remarkable hold on the common folk of the land; they hailed him as one of the greatest mystics and religious reformers in India. Swami Dayanand, however, remained adamantly hostile to all the leading lights of the liberal Bhakti movement describing Kabir - and Nanak too - as illiterate commoner, “Pandits refused to teach Sanskrit to this low caste weaver... <i>Tab oot pattaang bhasha bana kar julahe aadi neech logon ko samjhane laga</i> - then he started teaching low caste weavers, using crude and unbecoming language...” - Satyarath Prakash, 60th Edition, July 2005. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rabinder Nath Tagore’s anthology of the translation of 100 hymns of Kabir, published in 1917, with a comprehensive introduction by eminent Irish mystic-pacifist Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), opened the flood gates of Kabirian studies in the major vernaculars and European languages. The foreign scholars – cum missionaries were ‘clean bowled’ by the weaver-poet from Kashi and, in their enthusiasm, hailed him as ‘the Indian Luther’. The work in English of scholars like G.H. Westcott - Kabir and Kabir Panth, 1907 and the French researcher charlotte Vaudeville stating, “Kabir prefigured Tyagraja and Tagore and could even be considered the Gandhi of medieval times”, resulted in inspiring many more to undertake in depth studies on Kabir. Among the publications in Hindi, mention must be made of the monumental <i>Kabir Granthavali</i> series edited by Shyam Sundar Dass, Mataprasad Gupta, Parasnath Tiwari and many other eminent scholars. There were several editions published under the Bijak title. As regards the recent classic literary studies of Kabir, the writings of Dr Gobind Trugunayat, Acharya Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Acharya Parshuram Chaturvedi and Dr Ram Kumar Verma have indeed made path breaking contribution. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The more recent interpretative studies of Kabir’s life and writings have dwelt more emphatically on his seminal relevance as poet-thinker-fighter for social justice; freedom of conscience; secular values in life; peace, understanding and welfare of all. Kabir’s sublime couplets underlining the nobility of character; kind behaviour; honest living and fellow feeling effortlessly pierce deeper into the soul. Kabir’s frontal attack on the most callous caste system has make him an icon of the new age Dalit assertion. The writers and artists with progressive outlook and activists of secular forums have been amazingly innovative in rediscovering and reclaiming Kabir. We are also witnessing fiercely scholarly debates among outstanding Kabirians like Dr Purushottam Agarwal and Dr Dharamveer. Meanwhile the galaxy of the uniquely talented artists like theatre actor Shekhar Sen with mesmerising musical mono-act play; film-maker-singer Shabnam Virmani with her folk troupe of Prahlad Singh Tipanya and classical masters like Kumar Gandhrav - not to speak of so many popular singers including legends like Lata and Jagjit - have all made Kabir ‘a very, very cool guy’ for the 21st century among the young and old not only in India but globally. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I was indeed the most blessed as a child to be amply introduced to the <i>Dohe</i> - couplets of ‘<i>Kabir Julaha</i>’ - and many an interesting anecdotes about him - by my grandmother even before I joined the school. And then it was in the summer of 1956: I had just been promoted to sixth class. The film <i>Bhagat Kabir</i> ‘arrived’ in our tiny market town of Ahmedgarh - to be screened in the make-shift small Sundar Theatre. I sought my grandmother’s permission to go to cinema to see this film about Kabir - her idol saint. I assured her that I had my own savings to buy the ticket - costing a few annas. “Cinema, film, no, not at all!” was the firmly reply by my grandma. “But, Dadee Ji, it is about Bhagat Kabir... you have been teaching me his Bani and telling his stories?” She remained unmoved, “No, no; these film makers must have made it something quite different containing dirty and vulgar things - ‘<i>gandi aur Kharab baaten</i>’ - about the saint and adding their own strange songs and dances - ‘<i>Bure naach, gaane.</i>’ I had no choice - how could I ever dare to defy my most loving and pious grandmother! </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To conclude: just to check references about Kabir in the google search, I put the subject, ‘Films and documentaries on Kabir’ - and, look, behold... there are 34,70, 000 results in 62 seconds! The weaver poet of Benares has indeed gone global - and soul of my grandma would seem to approve and applaud it!!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I do earnestly hope and pray that people of Kabir’s own land would be heartily attuned with his soulful hymns of fraternity of humanity! He was never so compellingly relevant for India of Today, Tomorrow and the Day After!!!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
* * *</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Song from the movie <i>Mahatma Kabir</i> (1954)</div>
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/GhfhzLOEwpQ" width="420"></iframe><br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33471133.post-71133619196747061632014-02-21T04:05:00.000-08:002014-02-21T05:51:38.007-08:00Celebrating Sunshine: Spirit of Punjabiyat<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s1"><i>This article was published in the monthly magazine <a href="http://identityindia.org/" target="_blank">Identity</a>, in the February 2014 issue. </i></span><br />
<span class="s1"><br /></span>
<span class="s1">In an honest endeavour to ‘rediscover’ India and ‘regain’ my deeply umbilical roots with Punjab in the silver years of retirement since 2004, after spending 26 summers abroad, I have been assiduously making efforts to attune myself with the manifestations of literature and culture in my adopted home city of Delhi. The mythological and historic heart of Hindustan - from Indraprasatha to Lutyen’s New Delhi - could be interpreted as both an aggregation of hundreds of typically ancient villages and also a fast evolving cosmopolitan metropolis. Always keen to nourish my most cherished memories of early childhood enjoyed in smaller villages and education in a national school in a newly founded (in 1905) grain market town and later moving to Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Bathinda for education and short stint as lecturer in College, I remain in heart, soul and mind a quintessential Punjabi who has been luckier to live in Pakistani Punjab too. This strongly surcharged ‘Punjabi Identity’ - so apparent but also often elusive like a mirage - well harmonised with the happier citizenship of the world, has indeed found for me a partial but substantial fulfilment in my association with two staunchly secular and forward looking Punjabi literary and cultural forums in Delhi - Bhai Vir Singh Sahit Sadan and Punjabi Sahit Sabha.</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s1">It was my childhood poet-hero Pandit <a href="http://diplomat.anandweb.com/2010/10/vintage-voice-in-punjabi-poetry.html">Krishan Ashant</a> who had firstly told me in 2005 about an annual open get together of writers and enthusiasts of Punjabi literature. Christened as ‘<i>Dupp di Mehfil</i> - A Merriment under the Sunshine’, the function was conceived and imaginatively implemented by the grand old gentleman of Punjabi printing and publishing, ‘<i>Bhapa Ji</i>’ Pritam Singh. The day chosen was to be Sunday falling after Lohri - the typical Punjabi folk festival heralding the beginning of the end of the severity of cold winter and an astronomical ascendance of Sun on its journey of the northern hemisphere. Bhapa Ji, gracious as ever for any cause of promoting Punjabi, offered his Navyug farm house in Mehroli to be the venue for this unique experience. Started in 1994, the event has been acquiring more and more popularity, participation and prestige, thanks to the dedicated team of office bearers of Punjabi Sahit Sabha and soulful commitment of Dr Renuka Singh, academician daughter of Bhapa ji. </span></div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s1">Adoringly addressed as ‘Bhapa Ji’ - dear elder brother - by generations of budding as well as established authors of Punjabi and his large circle of admirers including cultivated readers, Pritam Singh (b.1914 d.2005), was a remarkable self-made perfect gentleman who remained synonymous for five decades with the high quality Punjabi printing and publishing house - Navyug Prakashan - located in Chandani Chowk, the heart of historic Delhi. Amarjit Chandan has rightly said, “His life is arguably the history of Punjabi printing, journalism and publishing in the twentieth century.” <i>Aarsee</i> - Looking Glass - the literary monthly in Punjabi started by him in April 1958 indeed faithfully reflected his cherished ideals of beauty in nobility of creative writing till he decided to call it a day after issue of June 2000 when he might have felt, at the age of 86, that he could not physically cope with keeping up the high standards he had set for himself. The humility, sweetness, discipline and determination characterised this gentle colossus who indeed played a sterling role in ushering in a new era - <i>Navyug</i> - in Punjabi literary renaissance and thereby dressing and healing the devastating wounds inflicted by the catastrophe of the Partition of Punjab.</span></div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TjnQr4A7HLs/UwdAXzt7wYI/AAAAAAAAA-0/Xe8uC0kT_mA/s1600/Dhupp+Mehfil0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TjnQr4A7HLs/UwdAXzt7wYI/AAAAAAAAA-0/Xe8uC0kT_mA/s1600/Dhupp+Mehfil0001.jpg" height="261" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr Jaspal Singh, VC Punjabi University releasing <i>Sukh Sunehe</i>,</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Dhupp di Mehfil - 2014</b> on 19th January indeed turned out to be the most well attended and the sunniest in atmosphere - <i>Surya Devta</i> played to be so kind and munificent on just that one day. Interestingly, the year happens to be the birth centenary of Janak - god father - of this festival - the beloved Bhapa Ji. President of Sahit Sabha, Gulzar Singh Sandhu, conducted the function in his authoritatively disciplinarian tone to ensure that program clicks according to clock. It opened with the old honey folk songs, including one on Pooran Bhagat, by the group led by Ninder Ghungianvi. Ashok Arora, a lawyer turned motivational speaker, seemed at a loss for words in Punjabi. He distributed a video CD of a documentary film dealing with the turmoil in the minds of the youth in the wake of the ‘Nirbhay’ tragedy in the capital. Dr Bhagwan Josh, a distinguished academic in the JNU, spoke about the angelic character of Bhapa Ji as brought out in his book, recently released by the National Book Trust. It were the scenes - with direction and songs, in his deeply melodious voice, by eminent theatre professional Wariam Mast - from Balwant Gargi’s celebrated play <i>Kanak di Balli</i> which impressed and mesmerised the large audience. My generation has strong reason to feel nostalgic about that golden era of Punjabi literature in the fifties of last century - before petty and vicious politics in Punjab on the false pretext of language resulted in further tearing apart and blowing away Punjabiyat. </div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t0bHfd8r8XE/Uwc_0VjzQII/AAAAAAAAA-s/_4T6oxlb36E/s1600/Kuldip_Nayar_Award.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t0bHfd8r8XE/Uwc_0VjzQII/AAAAAAAAA-s/_4T6oxlb36E/s1600/Kuldip_Nayar_Award.jpg" height="210" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar being honoured with a special award</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s1">The function was utilised to honour six Punjabis for the valuable contribution by each of them to the cause of Punjabi language and Punjabiyat. It comprised an impressive plaque of the Sahit Sabha and cheque for </span><span style="text-align: left;">₹</span>50,000. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuldip_Nayar" target="_blank">Shri Kuldip Nayar</a><b>,</b> the nonagenarian journalist and crusader-commentator on problems of Punjab who has recently penned his maiden novel in Punjabi, received a big applause. The list of others who were honoured included eminent poet scholar Dr JS Neki; Secretary of Punjabi Academy, Delhi, Dr Ravel Singh; historian Dr HS Chawla; Dr Baldev Singh Badhan of National Book Trust and UK based Punjabi author and activist Ranjit Dheer. Dr Renuka Singh, chairperson of the Sabha was honoured with mementos of Baba Farid and the long services of Piara Singh (b.1923) to Sabha were also recognised. Howsoever deserving such awards might be, the peculiarity of all the prizes and honours bestowed on writers and activists of Punjabi have also their share of side effects. A number of books published in 2014 were also released by the VC Punjabi University, Patiala Dr Jaspal Singh who gracefully presided over the function without inflicting any speech on the audience, apparently interested more in meeting new and old friends, all knit by the deeper but often neglected bond of mother tongue.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZWF_BpPzqYQ/UwdZnLWDObI/AAAAAAAAA_I/xHYPAMLYx2E/s1600/Dhupp_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZWF_BpPzqYQ/UwdZnLWDObI/AAAAAAAAA_I/xHYPAMLYx2E/s1600/Dhupp_001.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr Jaspal Singh releasing the book by eminent theatre artist Wariam Mast</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s1">‘Dhupp di Mehfil’ has certainly carved a place of its own in the calendar of the Punjabi literary community not only in the capital city but also globally. It is indeed astonishing how a white-Khadi clad simple person with devotion to the tongue of his mother could single handedly do so much for it. I am reminded of the prophetic and spontaneous dialogue with novelist Nanak Singh recorded by Balraj Sahni soon after the formation of ‘little Punjab’ with ‘officially’ proclaimed Punjabi language, “Balraj Bhapa, two evils are sucking our society like leeches - one is communalism and second is petty politics… '<i>sooba-prasati</i>' - provincialism is a deadly new evil… we had better a stronger and larger Punjab… till there was no exclusive Punjabi speaking state, Punjabi was faring much better… Punjabi was never promoted by political leaders, it were persons like Varis Shah, Qadir Yaar, Bhai Vir Singh…” I may emphatically add, “A person like Bhapa Ji Pritam Singh”</span></div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s1">Our world is witnessing an unprecedented epochal era - a revolution as never before - in the domain of human communication. All human expressions are being subjected to mightily challenging situation - presenting both the vast opportunities and posing serious dangers. The Punjabis have been the greatest survivors; they have risen again and again from dire adversity to great prosperity. As one them who was indeed luckier in this life to be taught and groomed by the best of ‘the un-partitioned’ minds of Punjab and having seen this wider world, I do hope that Punjabis would seek their destiny beyond the narrow confines and divides of creed, caste and community - as so nobly and beautifully enunciated by Baba Nanak, more than half a millennium ago! </span></div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
</div>
Bal Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162321235490379536noreply@blogger.com0