http://www.asianage.com/arts/tranquil-moments-kumaon-hills-244

http://www.asianage.com/arts/tranquil-moments-kumaon-hills-244

Poignant tales from everyday life

By Aparna Basu in Mail Today: Link: http://epaper.mailtoday.in/showtext.aspx?boxid=15440875&parentid=94236&issuedate=2552014

THE STORIES in this slim, elegantly produced volume deal with the lives of middle class urban women, a few with men and a couple of stories are of young boys, not over a period as in a novel but go into the immediate moment. The characters are portrayed so vividly that the reader feels she has actually met them in real life.

A theme in several of the stories is the suppressed feelings and unfulfilled ambitions of women in a patriarchal society where the women’s voice is not heard. A young girl is marred off to a man as her family feels that “ as a District Magistrate’s wife she will live in comfort and without care”. Her nani told her, “ Give him time. It matures like pickle, love does. She was giving him time.” She painted but her husband never bothered to even look at her painting.

“He never said anything, never complained. He never smiled either”. But how much, she asked herself. Each day is a burden with nothing to look forward to. She sat all day looking at the Ganges.

And there is Damini bhabhi who is a slave to her mother- in law, whose every need she has to attend to and, in addition, she has to put up with a foolish but honest husband. She accepts her daily drudgery as her fate. When the mother- in law dies, Damini is at last free.

“She looked away and for the first time I heard her let loose from within a chuckling of great abandonment.” She used to spend hours performing puja every day, but after her newfound freedom, she said “ what need have I of God now”. All grooms in our matrimonial want “ fair complexioned” brides.

When their daughters are dark- skinned, parents worry as to where will they find boys who will marry them.

Rita’s family is much relieved when she, who is dark- skinned, is engaged to an IPS officer. “ I had visions of a different world, a world that came to me from dog- eared National Geographic and Life magazines, lands of adventure where one wore dresses and not yards of silk spun around legs yearning to get out of their closet feet.

But how could I talk of this to a fettered world of woman, one fettered by volition… They said I was getting bad tempered, too willful.” Rita agreed to the marriage but developed a secret relationship with their servant’s son; when this is discovered the engagement with the IPS officer is called off and she is married off to a tall, thin buck- toothed widower.

We are all familiar with a character like Professor Memsahib who spends her married life looking after every small need of her husband. “ She too liked spit and polish but whenever she talked of new sofa cover or some changing in the house, he would say — shush, I am preparing a paper. Never wanted to be disturbed… He worked with his brain, and what a fine brain, nothing must disturb its equilibrium”. Often she would read his name in the newspaper about some agreement he had refuted, but if she asked him, he would say: “ You won’t understand.” She had no identity of her own; she had been just an extension of the professor sahib and even after his death continued be called Professor Memsahib.

In this story there is a small error. “ I have in front of you Rashbehari Bose,” says her husband, “ There see him in the distance… This is the man who dressed as a Pathan escaped from prison.” Does the author mean Subhas Bose who escaped from his house detention as a Pathan? Twilight is a moving story of a woman in the last years of her life, living with her son and daughter- inlaw who resent having to care for her and are waiting for her to die.

She knows this and dreams of the days gone by, her beautiful garden and her husband who brought her flowers every day. Equally evocative is the opening story of the little boy Chhotu living in filth and poverty under a Delhi flyover.

These boys make their living by collecting rags or picking pockets.

Chhotu is caught and handed over to the police who beat him mercilessly. “ The newspaper gave it in small print; death of yet another minor in police custody.” The stories are set in Indian cities and deal with situations most of us are familiar with and can relate to. There are no post- modern, post- apocalyptic settings.

The stories are written in an easy flowing language, thus making them extremely readable and enjoyable to one and all.

The reviewer is Chairperson of the National Gandhi Museum

Gurus, Gas & Indian democracy

India needs all the benevolent gurus, rishis, holy spirits of the past to smile upon Indian democracy, so we can separate it from the tissue of lies that our governments in cohorts with immoral businessmen have told us, the unseeing public,  for the last 40 years. The rampant rape and exploitation of our natural resources by the chosen few, will heap retribution from an assaulted earth. Finally the rule of Cause and Effect cannot be avoided---as you sow, so shall you reap. No act of evil goes un noticed--as they say, the wheel of universal law moves slowly, but finally none can escape it--no I am not talking about the natural gas in the KG Basin or of Reliance, but if you, the dear reader of my blog, should choose to think that, who am I to stop you?

Delhi's Statehood--for real or a gimmick?

What the TV pundits are saying is that---"Desh Chalana or Andolan Chalana dono alagh baat hain"---But AAP Protesters are replying---Is that So?

There is something reminiscent of the Salt Satyagraha as one Commentator put it on TV--the romanticism of protest---but the moot point is, he continues, where should it end?

I ask you dear reader--where do you think this should end? 

Question: Can an idealist and agitator--transform himself into an able and wily administrator? Is Congress going to be the only incarnation of the latter, and hence the only able ruler in Indian democracy? Then are we saying that AAP and Congress are two faces of the same coin--One Protests ably (AAP) which the other (Congress) no longer has the moral force to do so; the other governs ably (Congress) which the AAP finds itself ill suited for?

I don't know---only time will tell what this " dharna"  will achieve. I for one, do not believe it is a manipulated political gimmick, though without a sense of political timing, no astute politician can win, but that doesn't necessarily ascribe it to gimmickry.

There is something more churning and TV political Pundits are missing it.

Can we have a more intelligent TV media before Lok Sabha Polls

What more distinct pleasure can there be than to listen to a good TV debate on a cold winter evening. But alas our TV anchors, barring a few like Akhtar Khan of News X--don't make the grade for compelling news anchors, despite the decibels, the eye wear, the designer sarees, the curated kurtas. 

Kejriwal Debt to Civil Society

Let us not forget, or rather let not AAP forget, that their victory is based on the seeds planted by these last 2-3 decades of Civil Society efforts, NGO's, Activists, Political commentators, people who wielded pen, money, voice and might to speak out against Pollution, Population, perceived External and Internal dangers, Corruption and Ill governance, and what have you, preparing a fertile ground for this movement of IAC to take shape into a political party. I want to hear Arvind Kejriwal acknowledge that debt loudly and clearly.  

Middle Class Voice is here to Stay

What is clear to all political pundits whether Kejriwal's Party succeeds or not, that thanks to social media 2014 will see the advent of the Middle Class Voice in Indian Politics. Kejriwal has conviction and organising capacity. This is not an unexceptional quality. There will be and are others who demonstrate this in social and business entrepreneurship. They will be ready to fill in Kejriwal's shoes, were he to quit.

The traditional political parties will have to factor this in--. Even though Arun Jaitley's lone voice on Art 377 was silenced by the BJP, it was a signal to the conservatives in the party that they may have to adapt to the winds of change. So in the fear of being vanquished, they may have to banish political doublespeak.

What remains to be seen is how soon will this transformation take place. Maybe it will be hastened by their own need to survive. 

AAP--Give them a Chance

In all fairness, middle India wants to give the AAP Team a chance. the ground was fertile; sufficient numbers of the Indian population have exposure to western mores, rule and culture, to admire the material progress these cultures have made. And to want the same. AAP was a seed that fell on an already fertile soil. Change was there for the asking. AAP happened to have had the courage to take up the offer.

In the interest of all--other political parties should follow suit--give them a chance to show whether we are ready to adopt a more transparent form of politics. The traditional parties have nothing to lose but some time--If the AAP succeeds then they can adopt the same formula--if the AAP fails, then they are ready in the wings.

So whatever the outcome---its in everyone's interest to give them a chance.   

Catching the Ranikhet Express

In Search of a Narrative

My girlhood had been spent in Naini Tal, in a world typical of a north Indian colonial hill station. This world consisted of elite Anglicized boarding schools, modern hotels, horse-riding, yachting, polo tournaments and picnics. It belonged to a culture that was a fluffy pancake tossed out of a western kitchen and patted down on one that was rooted in age-old pahari traditions and the folklore of a mountainous terrain that for centuries had allowed for subsistence culture alone. Though I had schooled here, I had not really known the Kumaon hills at all. Yet, growing in me was a need to understand something apart from the pristine beauty of these hills or my own youthful memories in a boarding school. Oddly enough, it was an illness fifteen years ago, and subsequent convalescence that spurred me to seek out an excuse to be up in the hills again. To smell the sweet crisp mountain air again and to discover them anew. But i needed a reason to be there, an excuse to spend time in the hills. I was a researcher in search of a story, a writer seeking narrative--but what could it be--I did not know enough about the hills really. In my formative years, local Kumaoni history and folklore weren’t part of school curricula as that of far-off Europe such as the Crusades, Renaissance and the British Industrial Revolution were.So what did I really know about Kumaon? 

I quickly realized I would have to look beyond the worlds that I had inhabited thus far and bypass all that I had been previously familiar with. I would have to also ignore the colonial traditions that had been slow to wear off in the first few decades after India’s independence and look for what had long lain beneath. This involved observing the underpinnings in the life of the ubiquitous pahari seen at every other bend of the hill road. Wearing a black topi and a black jacket, a black umbrella tucked under his arm, and a saffron and rice tilak encrusted on his forehead, he could be spotted sitting on his haunches smoking a bidi, or on a bench at a chai shop. All I knew was that he was part of the industrious workforce of the U.P. plains, meeting his family’s needs by sending money orders back home. Almost till the 1980’s, every government office in Uttar Pradesh had a Kumaoni clerk, every dhabha, a Kumaoni chotu and every hostel, guest house, institution or office, a guard called Bahadur as the Nepalis who came to the plains via the routes of Kali Kumaon were called. Little more was then known.

Catching the Ranikhet Express from Old Delhi Station, as I had once caught the Kathgodam Express from Lucknow, with a steam engine decorated with painted ‘Homeward Bounds’ made by school boarders, I plummeted straight to the last railhead of Kathgodam. The train has always been an overnighter, broad gauge or narrow gauge, since the early years of colonial rule when it stopped at Lal Kuan. You fell asleep in the summer heat and dust of the plains only to wake up to spy that compelling sight of the mountains in the distance in the morning. In a short story I had once written called ‘Coming Home’, I had described just such a train journey:

It was early morning by the time the train drew in. Before dawn broke he would be at the window. He would gaze out of the heavy iron bars of the old first-class compartment, ready to catch the first rays of light as they pushed back the charcoal of the night sky. The smell of soot hit his nostrils and flecks got into his eyes, but he fluttered his eyelids and thrust his face as far out as he could to feel the fine fresh wind blowing against him. He would look closely at the landscape to see if he could spot distant hills, afraid the train might have been cheating on him and all the while pulling in the opposite direction……….

At Kathgodam, a choice awaited me; buses and taxis plying to Naini Tal, Bhim Tal, Almora, Kausani, Pithoragarh….where was I headed? And who could my travelling companion be? Someone I could spar with or unburden my fledgling thoughts upon?

Dolly & the Hospital

So Dolly took her maid to Kailash Hospital. It was a factory dedicated to the health of its customers—pay the money, be a good customer, come for a cold and cough, keep paying for consultancy, keep paying for medicines, keep paying, keeping the doctor happy. 

Nation Fracturing--and a Cynical Media

Arnab Goswami--lacks basic broadcasting ettquette

I miss the Arnab of NDTV days--I for one was an admirer then--but now his decibels just get louder and the content more specious. It seems he has decided what he wants each presenter to say--and woe if they don't. Tonite Shazia Imli didn't have a chance--he put her through the mincer for daring to challenge him---" Why are you smiling Shazia? Am I making you nervous?" Hey what kind of professional anchor talk is that. No personal comments Mr Goswami, especially not with a woman on your show--or did the Times TV people not know basic broadcasting ettiquete? Should I stop watching Times TV just because I long for an international standard TV anchor. 

Lal Batti ke bina Minister

Capitalism ke zamane mein aur gandhigir? Bina Lal Batti Minister kyon bane? Yeh kab tak chalega.

Most people who go into the hurly burly of politics are driven also by an egotistical drive.
All the Roman pomp accompanies it--you don't go by public bus, you wield power, you live in a bungalow, you have stylish drawing rooms and blooming gardens, you have servants and foreign travel----Of course you must work harder than anyone else. Can the Indian polity muster enough "volunteers" who want to get into this game and not enjoy the plums of office? Even the American President stays at the White House.

But Gandhi ji received dignatories at his ashram in a white dhoti.  But it didn't make him less powerful.    

No old wine in new bottles--but time for a Naya Daur.

Kejriwal's party has given a platform to the urban and lower middle classes who had no  `voice'. Social Media has translated this `faceless--voiceless mass' that political parties had earlier ignored into an avalanche that even Kejriwal perhaps doesn't know how to manage. A behemoth has been unleashed--and all are running scared.

Here is a space for those who have  no `political lineage' to find their voices in the other established parties, much the same as BJP did provide an open platform in 1990.

Both BJP & AAP have one thing in common--an opportune agenda that suits the mood of the times. The difference lies in their history. BJP did not begin on a clean slate for the RSS platform had been around for a century before it gave it  a political voice. But Kejriwal's Party is rising from a clean slate.

Congress has to look at the BJP's graph in the last 23 years to see where it can go---a real challenger to the established political system.Clearly this is not an overnight sensation---it was and has been simmering all along. Unless the lessons are learnt, there is no way of knowing where public opinion may go. But could it end Culottes verses Sans culottes. Take heed o venerable ones--Old wine in new bottles will not do.

In Rhythm with the Universe--remembering Gandhi

The time has come to remember Mahatma Gandhi. To make the India he dreamed about. 

Has the time come for the earth to heal itself? For us to propel the forces of reason into motion so we can be one with the Universe?

Power for the sake of self aggrandizement is not a true quest. You will be forgotten sooner than you think. with a blink of an eye, once life extinguishes, all that you think makes you special, will disappear, and as the old adage goes, the good you do alone lives on.

Purity of intent is the most potent driving force. Political power that is garnered and harnessed for the good of all, the common cause, can and will move mountains.

Let's give a chance to all who put this as their central mission. Intellect, charisma, qualifications, muscle, money power, sab sadak pe reh jayega agar dil saccha nahin hain.

Maybe the time has come to propel into public life, all who wish to fight for the rights of the common man.
Maybe it needs all of us to push this to happen.Hum sab ko kandha lagana hain.      

Kudos to Rahul for straight talk

India wants the rule of Dharma---the power of youth and volunteerism demonstrated just that. The old style of politics will not do. We have thousands turning out at Jan Sabhas---I am certainly proud that Rahul for one does not say " Who Kejriwal?". Kejriwal is just a face and voice for what lakhs of young Indians are thinking. They want to participate--they want to be heard--as in the time of Gandhi Nehru when we were fighting the British. Its time for nation building not nation fracturing--to say that this 120 year old party cannot  become the voice of the people is absurd.   

Hay Ram--remembering the Mahatma

Hay ! Ram

The name of Ram gives me immense power.

For self reliance the name of Ram and his kind grace are the ultimate means.

Listening to Ramayan recitation is the foundation of my passion for Ram. I believe that the Ramayan  written by Tulsidas is the best epic of devotional path.

India of my dreams – I shall work for an India in which the poorest shall feel that is their country, in whose making they have an effective voice, an India in which there shall be no high class and low class of people; an India in which all communities shall live in perfect harmony. There can be no room in such an India for the curse of untouchability, or the curse of intoxicating drinks and drugs. Women will enjoy the same rights as men. We shall be at peace with all the rest of the world. This is the India of my dreams.

This is an edited extract from Gandhi: Essential Writings ( OUP), complied and edited by Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

Cloudy mind Vs Clear mind

Dear all of you who choose to read my blog,

Bear with me as today I divert from my usual topics and write about something else.

The mind is like crystal clear water, pure, still and deep. Thoughts that arise from this quality of mind rise fast to the surface. But how do we cultivate such a mind. How do we slice through the irrelevant accrual around it? The cloudy veils that dull perception, that deflect pure sincere thought?

Meditation helps one focus on what is essential to well--being, and what is mired in greed, selfishness, personal aggrandizement, anger and so on.

Buddhist chanting " Nam Myo Hon Renge Kyon" advocated in Nicheren Diashonin's " Buddhism in Daily life is a technique to uncover this pure mind.

Chanting unleashes one's ichinen and creates the reality we truly desire.

To understand ichinen and " nam myo ho renge kyo" please visit the Soka Gakkai website. Be firm in your resolve to be happy and you will. 

Diplomatic Row or more?

So its all about the 4500 dollars? I don't think so. Theories are flying fast and hard. Asylum for a maid on the basis of traficking? There must be at least 400 odd cases of such a nature--so why did they act just in this case only? Another theory has it that the husband of the maid--was a US informer in India---god knows who he was answerable to--some say DEA---and this was a set up, to get him into the US on certain charges----so its all a big drama much in the John le Carre style---that the real reason for this lies elsewhere and the Dy Consul General is just fodder for a bigger ......

Of course there are ways to retaliate--- the homosexual staffers in the US Embassy could be subjected to the Supreme Court ruling in accordance to Indian laws!

But finally why this was done---becomes a bigger and bigger mystery. 

Family Legacy

Family Legacy: A Kashmiri Pandit Daughter Looks Back By Manju Kak---Kashmir Times