Book Extract

Ashwatthama — the vengeful rishi — is still
alive and active

A chapter from Rajmohan Gandhi’s "Revenge and Reconciliation: Understanding South Asian History" published by Penguin Books, New Delhi.

SOON we will study in greater detail the place of revenge in the Mahabharata, and also what, in contrast, the Buddha offered to India, but here let us note the relevance of our times of the question, "Is Ashwatthama dead?" In several parts of our world, whether or not revenge is alive might determine whether some lives are going to be destroyed or preserved.

If Ashwatthama is alive and kicking, killings may any day occur between Hutus and Tutsis in Africa or Catholics and Protestants in Ireland, or the Shias and Sunnis in Pakistan, or the Tamils and Sinhalees in Sri Lanka or the Tangkhuls and Kukis in Manipur, or the Jats and Jatavs in western UP, or the Bhumihars and dalits in Bihar, to mention only some running vendettas.

A seed for this book was sown in my mind by the Mahabharata scenes on TV, presented first in the late 1980s. Episode after episode seemed to end with a hero or heroine vowing revenge, not merely as an immediate reaction to a horrible event, but as a well-considered, sacred and clearly spelt-out duty. A suitably gruesome manner of destroying the guilty person, and perhaps some others, was often part of a pledge; frequently, another part invoked suffering on the oath-taker’s ancestors and progeny if the oath remained unfulfilled.

That in each instance the revenge seemed to be fully deserved did not suffice to calm my mind. I marked, too, that the often cruel revenge scenes riveted, and at times thrilled, audiences.

More disturbingly, real life in India and South Asia seemed no different. In 1984, Indira Gandhi was killed by some of her guards in revenge for Operation Bluestar, which had been carried out four months ealier; to avenge Indira Gandhi’s death, within days thousands of Sikhs were killed, in many cases burnt alive.

Seven years later, Indira’s son Rajiv was blown to bits in an apparent "reply" to what, under his Premiership, the Indian armed forces had supposedly done in Sri Lanka.

Eighteen months later, in December, 1992, Ayodhya’s Babri Masjid was demolished by a mob in revenge for what the invader/ruler Babar had allegedly done 464 years earlier.

Leaders of the government of Uttar Pradesh, the state where Ayodhya lies, sat among the mob, as did national leaders of the political party to which the UP government owed allegiance. Large numbers of policemen were also present. But no one who was there seemed to try to prevent the destruction.

In the excitement of successful, even if long-delayed, revenge, a number of poor Muslims in Ayodhya were also killed.

In the following weeks, hundreds perished in riots or in police firing in Mumbai; a large majority were Muslims. The serial bomb blasts set off in Mumbai in revenge also took several hundred — mostly Hindu — lives. By this time a number of Hindu temples in Pakistan and Bangladesh had been destroyed.

Folk religion in South Asia, and the compassionate religion occasionally portrayed in popular movie — contemporary versions of the Bhakti bhajans — seem more human and reconciling than "high" or "official" varieties. Reconciliation may thus chiefly come from the common people of South Asia, those who sweat, make room and give unstintingly from a scanty shelf — from those who know pain and hardship and so wish to save others from it. It probably follows that women will outnumber men among South Asia’s reconcilers.

During the Mumbai riots in early 1993, a man in his fifties called Hamzabhai, who earned a living by selling nylon rope on a pushcart, lost a 25-year old son, who had been stabbed. Before dying, the son told Hamzabhai who the assailants were.

"Tell us the names," relatives demanded, wanting revenge. Hamzabhai refused. Some months later, at a meeting in Shillong that I also attended, Hamzabhai explained: "I did not want another father to go through what I had gone through." He could just as easily have told himself, "I’ll make another father go through what I have gone through," but Hamzabhai was receptive to grace.

Leaders of feuding ethnic groups heard Hamzabhai in Shillong and took his tale, which seemed a lantern of hope, to dark, stormy corners in the North-East. Is a man like Hamzabhai an oddity? I see him as a fresh link in an old chain of sanity and reconciliation.

Though one part of him urged revenge, Hamzabhai listened to and heeded the voice of grace. It is those who listen — to others in dialogue and also to inner inspirations of grace — who may bring healing.

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A word, finally, on Delhi, for we started this study by noting Delhi’s djinns, its great load of unrepented cruelty and unshared sorrow. In many instances, while the city’s killers gloried in their deeds, the killed were left unacknowledged and unmourned. The spirits of Delhi’s women — mothers, wives, sisters and daughters — have cried out for healing, and continue to do so.

Can Delhi’s accumulated offences be washed away? Can some atonement or penance — or some God-sent blessing or grace — expiate the guilt of centuries, and generate a breeze of forgiveness that blows away the smells of torture and revenge?

Notoriously, Delhi also suffers from physical maladies — the pollution attacking the eyes and lungs, the hazardous water, the clogged streets. "Do you know what Delhi really lacks?" a young woman, an artist, asked me in Februrary, 1977. "A river. The Yamuna has moved, and is in any case too far for most Delhiites."

Others articulate Delhi’s desperate need for greening. A frontpage piece entitled "How Green was my Delhi" in The Times of India June 21, 1999, says:

"The Moghuls were lovers of gardens, and Delhi as their capital city was lush with greenery, nourished by the waters of the Yamuna. The British maintained the tradition and the trees they planted ... are a fine legacy of the Raj. However, the explosive growth of its population, and the unplanned geographical spread of the city in the past three decades, is turning Delhi into a concrete jungle and the Yamuna into a sluggish sewer. The Delhi administration’s plan to plant lakhs of trees is therefore welcome..."

Every tree planted, or cubic foot of water conserved, is a celebration of life, a proclamation of the worth of the future, and a garden or a river may calm sad or angry hearts. Every caring act — of fellowship, considerateness, nursing, apology, forgiveness, greening or flowering — perhaps heals something of Delhi’s torment, maybe calms one of its djinns, and a healing process in Delhi might speak to all of South Asia.

Begun with a look at the sanguinary past of Delhi and Kurukshetra, this study ended with the bloodshed in Kargil. My hope that Vajpayee’s bus ride to Lahore would survive for a while as a punctuation mark in South Asia’s story seemed blasted, and why not? Why should a century, or a millennium, finish with hope, or a book with a positive ending?

Yet I cannot close on such a note. In the midst of death, life persists; in the midst of darkness, light persists. Right now, I am aware of a rain-bearing, life-giving storm outside the room where I write this, and also of a flow of heavy traffic, a flow of life, that is, or of threatened life, one should perhaps say. Newspapers this coming weekend will bulge with matrimonial ads, as they did last weekend; and this evening, as I take my constitutional, I well again hear happy laughter from children, see eagerness in teenage eyes, and watch the straight-backed "istri" couple working away at their makeshift ironing platform, as they have done, late hour after long hour, for years.

May the Good Spirit that quickens the rain and kindles the laughter, the eagerness and the dedication use willing women and men to reconcile South Asia’s ingenious, impossible and lovable inhabitants!

Secular, assimilative past beckons
by Mohinder Pal Kohli

The Making of Modern Hinduism edited by M. L. Sondhi and Madhuri Santanam Sondhi. Har-Anand Publications, New Delhi. Pages 254. Rs 250.

EVEN as German diplomat-historian Wilhelm von Pochhammer (author of "India’s Road to Nationhood") wrote about the Indian resistance to foreign marauders between 1000 AD and 1500AD, he emphasised that in times of distress and horror, in the ocean of misery, the (old Hindu) religion however revived and led to a new life. "It is true," he wrote, "that at first everything became cramped in an atmosphere of fear, numbness and isolation... and yet a new religion grew in the straitjacket which contained the nucleus of the old highly developed culture.

"Freeing herself from the inertia of history and without succumbing to the trauma of negativism, the Hindu religion, Hindu mythology and her sophisticated spiritual and psychological science have been examined and re-examined to discover her ultimate soul and destiny, and through the knowledge of buried life gone deeper into what Ira Progoff calls ‘the mystery of the heart that beats’."

We approach the past not in a state of virginity but with presuppositions and assumptions interpreting the phenomenon in a peculiar historical tradition. The 19th century "great Hindu awakening" was by and large the outburst of xenophobic sentiments. It was at the same time a period of new consciousness with which the Hindu intelligentsia made a distinction between rational and pragmatic aspect of their western education and those which were for a variety of reasons, culturally unacceptable.

It was possible to see the distinction between blindly reviving the older system and reviewing it with an eye on the contemporary needs. There was reinterpretation of the ancient texts like the Vedas, Upanishads, tantra and Tirukkural. The various experiments conducted by the reformers reflect the multiplicity and plurality of such consciousness.

The independent but complex global society into which we are evolving demands flexibility and resilience effected by "revivalism", which does not necessarily imply the restoration of ancient life style, but a conscious attempt to use chosen elements of the past for functions which were by and large secular and certainly futuristic.

The dogmatism of "modernity", rejected by western post-modernist science though triumphant in many spheres, has taken man nowhere near redemption and he is where he was at the dawn of history. From Assyrians to the Nazis, the only change in the practice of genocide is that it has become more efficient and we are keeping up with it in the Amnesty International bulletin.

The Hindu idea of oneness in multiplicity assumes relevance in the current context. Its interpretation and application need to be adopted to embrace Hindu and non-Hindu people alike, acceptable to all, flexible enough to permit inner growth and creativity in the spheres of spiritual, religious, economic, social, artistic and intellectual endeavours.

The papers in this volume discuss the heritage of Hinduism, its distinctive forms of cultural, philosophical and literary expressions. Both self-contained and thematically linked to each other, the writers maintain that devoid of self-centred postures, Hinduism contains the essential dynamic thrust in renewal of human values for a universal culture. The strength of Hinduism lies in its capacity to adopt flexibility when it is needed.

Professor Sondhi in his perceptive piece on Hinduism’s human face, bemoans the rise of theocratic trend as a dangerous development which seeks to combine the nostalgia for the lost privileges and the exploitative roles in society. A society with a human face can be built only by combating all actions and doctrines which obstruct the progressive advance of Indian society and the contemporary world.

Through the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, seers and savants changed awareness among the Hindus through the spiritually creative and humanistic attitude. Much of the Hindu reformist institutions have outlived their usefulness, allowing themselves to be pushed towards obscurantism and stressing the need to rekindle the reformist ethos to meet the contemporary problems of society. The original inspirations of the great reformers on the question of inalienable human rights have to be revived to re-establish a humane society.

The apathy of the religio-political elite in reacting to the Roop Kanwar sati incident is a pointer to the crucial difference between the conflicting forces of contemporary Hindu intelligentsia.

Contemporary Hinduism’s efforts to move beyond the historically determined functional context of hegemonic relationship between the castes may be conveniently guided by Sankara’s concept of Brahman tradition which gave due place to man’s social duties and secular aims and Aurobindo’s overview of Purusha Sukta of the Rig Veda, reflecting the cosmic order in human experience, pointing to the unrealised potential of every human being.

Unlike the westernised intellectuals driving bulldozers over traditions, denigrating Hinduism behind the smoke-screen of secular terminology and narrow-minded Hindu clerics and organisations, persons claiming to be Hindus must express themselves fearlessly on ethical and moral issues in order to win back the redemptive vision of the contemporary reformers like Rammohan Roy, Vivekananda and Aurobindo. The spirit of inquiry and self-analysis has to be revived in the background of the past. "I exercise my judgement about every scripture, including the Gita," said Gandhi not in a fit of subjective fantasy. Even Vyasa would not have claimed to know the ultimate truth.

Sondhi pleads for following the core of the Hindu concepts of the dignity of man while freeing Hinduism from the fetters of Hindu feudalism and the aggressive drives of the elites. It is through a fresh expression of love and sympathy that Hinduism can overcome its guilty conscience about those who were denied basic human rights.

In her paper "Vedantic strategy for women’s liberation", Madhuri Santanam Sondhi states that the Ramakrishna mission as transformed by Swami Vivekananda, continues to be identified as Vedantic in its preaching with a karmic extension into works of public service. But it was Ramakrishna, the semi-literate villager from Kamarpur, who gave a modern twist to the roles of sexes in spiritual quest. He married Sarda Devi of his own free will after he had embarked on his religious sadhna. She in turn promised not to entangle him in the world.

The disciple and the celibate wife cooking for him and his disciples, hidden from the eyes of the world, accessible only to women, who worshipped by her husband on the shodas puja, was for him the very embodiment of the Mother who underwent this experience with her characteristic simplicity and naturalness, though unique position accorded to her was materialised only decades after her passing away with the establishment of Sarda math, finally providing for the monastic aspirations of women, beyond Manu’s socio-religious injunctions.

It was Suresh Chandra Guha, later Swami Paramananda, initiated by Vivekananda himself, who established a sorority least bothering about the tension between him and the headquarters. He initiated his widowed niece Gyatri Devi, elevated her and other women disciples as preachers, a right for which in the Christian West women are today fighting. Paramananda was no intellectual but a self-evolved personality possessing the culture of the heart.

Gyatri Devi, a gifted and inspiring teacher, as she took over the leadership after the passing away of her master — a sole woman to have taught Vedanta in the West for more than half a century, though formal recognition is till withheld because of continuing element of orthodoxy in the organisation.

K.C. Kamalaiah discusses the Kural’s universal humanism. Tiruvalluvar’s Tamil classic comprising 1330 couplets in 133 chapters of 10 each is divided into three parts — virtue, wealth and pleasure. The work is one of the highest and purest expressions of human thought, covering the ethics of daily life, not of any particular race or people but of mankind as a whole.

In this work of wisdom unlike Manu’s, Tiruvalluvar declares that all souls are born alike and the birth does not determine superiority or inferiority. In addition to the ethics of inwardness, the Kural presents the living ethic of love characterised by nobility and good sense. It is a reliable companion to a man for leading a life of virtue beneficial to him as well as to the rest of society.

S.S. Barlingay brings out the bifocal character of contemporary Indian philosophy, maintaining the rich ancient heritage and remodelling it under the Occidental influences. Tilak, Tagore, Gandhi and Aurobindo interpreted the transcendental reality suiting the contemporary milieu, though the western humanists had influenced them along with the philosophical system of Adi Sankara.

The philosophical renaissance has emerged in the area of rediscovery and reinterpretation. Dr K.L. Daftari, a mathematician and astronomer, challenged the interpretation of Sankara. Coming in contact with Russell and Moore, with Sartre and Heidegger, with Wittgenstein and Ryle, with Carnap, Stevenson and Ayer, today’s Indian philosophers are faced with the problems of modern realism, logical positivism, linguistic analysis, the theory of probability, pure logic and philosophy of science. But how many of them are really qualified to interpret the ancient philosophy in the absence of their contact with the original texts?

Reviewing the 19th century Indian renaissance, Utpal Chattopdhaya asserts that Sanskrit studies in the 19th century helped in analysing the ancient texts from a new angle derived from western education and that saved us from being totally swept away by the impact of western civilisation. What classical Europe did to the 15th century Europe was done by modern Europe in the 19th century India and not by ancient India. What Greek and Latin did to the 15th century Europe was done for the 19th century India by English and not by Sanskrit.

A.C. Bose explains "rita" (eternal law, dharma) and "satya" (truth, reality) as the two cardinal and fundamental values enshrined in the Vedas which find a detailed application in man’s life, forming the two leading forces in society — the intellectual and the ruling and fighting power. The Vedas prescribe only the defensive fight, free from malice.

The statements of western orientalists regarding the Aryan invasion of India are largely misleading, which are indicative of their wrong translation of the text. Through the hymns and prayers the Vedas voice man’s demands on the world for health and longevity, physical strength, freedom from want, freedom from fear, and happiness in life, becoming pure and bright and purifying (suddhah, saucayah, parkah). Armed with the purifying culture, the Vedas call for sharing peace and serene bliss and what lies beyond, relating to peace of man and to peace of flora and fauna and the peace of water.

Professor N.G.S. Kini’s incisive analysis of humanising social conflict in India helps us understand its nature in contemporary Indian setting. The clash of new groups with counter-elites with fundamentally different views on secularism, identity of a tribe, region, language, race or caste, cannot be solved with the Gandhian technique of "heart warming" satyagraha or with a rational use of violence or the often used cliche of economic development or ruthless liquidation of primordial groups and loyalties. It can only be through the construction of a civil order by liquidating parochialism, transcending all primordial loyalties and rejecting all interests which impede the working of civil society.

Madhuri S. Sondhi discusses the paradox of peace based on the views of philosopher Basant Kumar Mallik (1879-1958) who rejected the definition of peace as the mere absence of war. The conflicts could be solved through the conciliation of macro-civilisation groups and religions, and by examining the non-absolute nature of the traditional value system. Ekam sad vipra bahuda vadanti could be realised through participation in international, inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue, comparative studies of religions and by promoting socio-economic environment to make up the matrix of peace.

Professor K Swaminathan places Gandhi as the interface between Hinduism and other religions without suggesting any comparison with the prophets of other religions as Toynbee did. Gandhi endeavoured to cleanse politics and remained pure. Doubtless he was great, but Hinduism was much greater. He brought about great and necessary reforms in his religion; he owed much more to it than the religion to him.

Hinduism acknowledges no human founder and needs for its survival no political reorganisation. Sanatan Dharma is a self-perpetuating, self-rejuvenating tree rooted in the soil, renewing itself again and again through the masses, saints and rishis. This Hindu mystique, as Zimmerman says, has to be understood before one sets out to analyse and criticise it. It lives also in the culture of the masses who have escaped the blight of the so-called education.

Lack of culture produced in the first decade of last century Aurobindo the terrorist and in the fifth decade Nathuram Godse. The heroic attempts being made even in the contemporary milieu to revive a form of Hinduism would destroy its flexibility and versatility and fit it with the teeth for an encounter with semitic religions.

The apostle of peace and ahimsa, Gandhi was not entirely original. Raichand Bhai sent to him in South Africa "Mumukshu prakarna" of Yoga Vashistha, which convinced him that activism and social concern were not exclusively Christian virtues. The rishi had taught Rama how ceaseless action and critical analysis purify and strengthen the mind. He took the vow of celibacy and poverty and worked for the downtrodden irrespective of their religion. He followed the modalities of religion — vertical moksha and horizontal dharna, bound up and shaping the life of the community, nourishing culture, interweaving and reinforcing each other. The idea of India, therefore, is to Gandhi not some vague and abstract political system but a return of Rama Rajya, in the sense of return to ultimate Indian values of dharma which is Sanatan because it is uniquely dynamic. He had the vision of Vivekananda of daridra narayan seva. There lay the spiritual regeneration of India.

He disputed the claims of Christian missionaries of belonging to an exclusive religion and conversion as the deadliest poison that ever sapped the fountain of truth and insisted on not mutual tolerance among religions, but equal respect for all — a very ancient maxim of the Hindus which can go a long way in ensuring peace and harmony among conflicting concepts.

In a companion essay "Gandhi and invigoration of Indian society", Professor Karandikar comments that Gandhi only carried forth the basic Hindu tradition of assimilation of rival philosophies, which has been going on in Hindi society for ages. To convert the view expressed by him at different periods and in different circumstances into a philosophy called Gandhism is a blunder which the so-called Gandhites have been committing. Essentially a non-conformist, he was capable of taking the most unpopular decision and had the supreme courage of admitting them. Guided by this Hindu non-conformist idea, he showed the way to invigorate Indian society.

Ajit Mookerjee’s explanation of the earliest Indian art forms depicting the life of the people are filled with warmth and deep philosophic speculations rooted in the spiritual values. V.S. Agrawala pays homage to Ananda Coomaraswamy, who illumined Indian culture, art and Sanskriti and whose approach to Indian art was rooted in the Indian tradition with his knowledge of art, literature and philosophy of the West.

The essays, attempted as they are by experts, reflect the time-tested weltanschung, or the brahm bhavna, the universal aspect of Hinduism. Its secularism has stood the test of reason corroborated by experience. The process of assimilation and reconciliation of divergent and convergent views have sustained it through the ages, and these values have continually examined and re-interpreted in the changing context without any claims or orthodoxy and dogmatism.

Why then get agitated over "Fire" and "Water" and other controversies? Why then ask for borrowed Arcadian secular dreams, when solutions within the essence of our culture are available. Our intellectuals have the enormous capacity to feel frustrated as they seem to be isolated from the collective consciousness. Yet we have no ready-made answers. Which Gods do we worship (kasmai devayah havishah vidhema?) Our exploration should not cease. Maybe we reach the end we started from.

Infatuated with, yes, Shobha De
by R.P. Chaddah

Ripples: Poems by Chetana Vaishnavi. International Research Institute, New Delhi. Rs 70.

The Making of a Goddess — Poems by Devajit Bhuyan. Spectrum Publications, New Delhi. Rs 60.

THE two collections under review are from the pen of writers who belong to non-literary disciplines in their professional capacities. Chetana Vaishnavi is a doctor and Devajit Bhuyan is an electrical engineer in the far-off state of Assam.

"Ripples", a collection of 100 poems, is almost a sequel to her earlier collection "Reflections" because it touches on the same theme of sorrow, grief, pain, separation, disillusionment in different tones and tenor. The very few poems about hope, happiness and love are outnumbered by the ones which convey the sorrow-sadness syndrome.

Like W.B. Yeats’ "Sad shepherd, whom sorrow named his friend", she seeks solace in every happy flora and fauna and also in God’s piety. The pressure of reality and a brush with reality is too disturbing for her. Hopes and aspirations mingle with despair and dreams. The poet is drugged on loneliness and dejection and quite a good number of poems are like postcards from the past.

In all her work there is a memory, whether it be an emotion felt, a moment of truth or just the bitter-sweet remembrance of something not quite forgotten, that is the memory of some particular hurts and insults.

"Happiness so fast does go but sorrow lingers/to surround us with woe."

or,

"To greet there’s only a frown/ And my hopes in despair drown." In some poems there is a bit of optimism, which in the next moment comes under the sway of sorrow and grief. "I wish pleasure after pleasure/Should kill my life’s foes ("Sorrows and Woes").

"And not only that/Cut their throats like a razor."

And she herself admits in the introduction, happiness, unlike sorrow, is a visiting guest in her poetic oeuvre. An air of disquiet surrounds the heart-felt poems which she embellishes with the use of a rhyme scheme, the only poetic device which she uses with deft care. The unease which lies beneath the surface of an apparently placid middle class social mores, is presented in harsh plain tones which consciously eschews overtones.

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"The Making of a Goddess" is a collection of 50 poems on the completion of 50 years of age of the famous model-editor-columnist-novelist Shobha De. According to the blurb, the idea seems to have emanated in the corridors of a hospital where the poet might have been convalescing after a bout of illness or attending on a sick relative, who knows? It seems that in order to overcome his loneliness, he has written poems addressed to Shobha De, and his fascination for her makes him reject Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren (the celluloid goddesses of the 60s) and our very own Madhuri Dixit.

"Yes, Madhuri can be painted/Not Shobha the eternal/Feel it in the soul/Enjoy it with the third eye."

Further on, in another poem he says: "Life is like Shobha De/Brain beauty and values/Good forever."

De is also the harbinger of change, not only in the mind and soul of the poet but also in the course of history.Wow!

The poet even pleads with the Lord and says that if he wishes to make another world sans everything — sun, moon, butterflies, rainbows: "But don’t make another world/Without a feminine called Shobha De."

In "The singularity" he makes Mother Teresa, Madhuri Dixit and Madonna the epitome of love, beauty and sex but he sees in De the making of a goddess (the collection gets its title from this poem) to "extinguish the thirst of mankind." The poet is so smitten with the persona of Shobha De that all his dreams and fantasies have only that end in view. I don’t think that the poet has ever met De in person and from afar he is able to see the eternal light in her eyes and smile, and feels that "her beauty and brain alone can quench the thirst/and extinguish the fire for ever/of a 21st century gentleman."

First he is against "cloning" because "it will be like a copycat/ We want more Shobha De’s/As natural as she is. "But the scientist in him informs him that science can clone her, but can’t explain life, emotions and a "femininity like you." In his heightened hyperbole he thinks, "Shobha De is born only once/And not everyday like sunrise."

An enjoyable anthology which everyone must read to know the gravity of infatuation with one’s subject. (De might not be aware of it.)

The writer’s middle name is mediocre
by Priyanka Punia

Scenes from an Executive Life by Anurag Mathur. Penguin India, New Delhi. Pages 207. Rs 200.

MOST upcoming Indian writers writing in English seem to reach their creative zenith in their first novel itself. Thematically, they run out of ideas by the time their next novel comes out.

It happened with Upamanyu Chatterjee whose "English August" was adapted into a film but his "Last Burden" fell flat. Arundhati Roy has yet to come up with another best-seller.

The same is the case with Anurag Mathur whose splendid in-your-face humour so evident in "The Inscrutable Americans" finds no place, even marginally, in this "hilarious" novel. Those who have read "The Inscrutable Americans" will be disappointed with his "Scenes from an Executive Life" which has practically no elements of humour. Where the earlier novel tickled the reader to laughter from the first page itself and continued to do so till the very end, the latter fails to even sustain the reader’s interest for a while.

The novel’s focus is on the microscopic world of Gambhir Kumar, a marketing executive in Y. Corpn., who is paranoid about losing his lucrative job and worse still his massive company bungalow in New Delhi’s posh Paradise Gardens.

Bored Draupadi, Gambhir Kumar’s wife for 15 years, predictably so, has no compunctions about having frequent affairs outside her marriage. They are "still married for the reason that their friends were still married". Draupadi would happily divorce her husband if only she could find "just three couples who were much happier than us and had been married as long as we have been".

Strangely though, she is sensitive to her husband’s emotional need for her and her fly-by-night lovers come only second to him.

Gambhir Kumar suspects his wife, who was "more of a habit than a sentiment", of infidelity but doesn’t want to disturb his convenient domestic set-up through a confrontation.

The first twist in the novel comes around when he is made to head the unglamorous toothpicks and tissue division after the human resource development department of the corporation is closed down. That is when office politics begin with devious Mad Mukul, managing director, and his blue-eyed boys Himmat and Singhal are bent upon ensuring and planning Gambhir Kumar’s unceremonious and disgraceful exit from the company.

To keep his job, Gambhir has to prove his marketing skills to boost the sale of toothpicks as never before and outwit his foes.

The second twist comes when he finds himself terribly taken with and head over heals in lust with Kapila, a young overawed trainee from the Mumbai branch of the office. A rollicking affair follows as Kapila is only too eager to do his bidding.

His passion gets the better of his caution and only in the end does he realise that the entire affair was stage-managed by his rivals. By then things are way beyond his control and he is left homeless as well as jobless.

Like the story line, the characterisation too is drab and unimaginative. The characters are not drawn up well. None of the minor characters are even remotely appealing.

Gambhir Kumar’s children, like other characters, are mere half portraits and appear only once in the novel. The reference to their presence is simply to give some semblance to Gambhir and Draupadi’s family life.

"Scenes from an Executive Life" is a mediocre novel by not-so- mediocre a writer.

A centenary celebrated differently
Off the Shelf
by V. N. Datta

TO mark the tercentenary of the Khalsa, the Punjabi University, Patiala, brought out a number of publications in English and Punjabi. Virginia Wolfe once spoke of "the fear which attacks the recorder of centenaries lest he should find himself measuring a diminishing spectre and forces to foretell its approaching dissolution". Usually centenaries become occasions for extravagant adulation of past events and personalities elicit only perfuntory compliment.

How do we define the Khalsa? Bertrand Russell has pointed out that there are two ways of making definitions: one is verbal and the other is ostensive, which is to frequently hear the word when the object which it denotes is present. The word Khalsa is significant and indicates forms of thought and action moulded through centuries of historical experience of interaction of multiple political, social and oppressive forces. Every vibrant society develops its tradition and culture, and in this context the Khalsa has be seen opening up vital issues which develop into a sense of systematic signification.

The word Khalsa in original Arabic denoted the land which was cultivated by the crown without any interference by the jagirdars or tribute-paying chieftains. In the case of Sikhism "Khalsa" came to mean "chosen people" who were directly linked with the kingdom of Guru Gobind Singh, and that there was no intervening agency. Guru Gobind Singh said the Khalsa is his own image and that he himself resides among the Khalsa. This reinforcing identity remains intact as long as the Khalsa retains its distinct identity.

In an unpretentious and insightful monograph "The Khalsa" Prithpal Singh Kapur and Dharam Singh present a lucid and straightforward historical account of the origin and evaluation of the Khalsa through various stages. The central theme is that the creation of the Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh was a logical consummation and realisation of the spiritual doctrine of the idea of the ideal man preached by the visionary Guru Nank. The Khalsa was intended to be a body of intrepid people pledged to ensure the victory of dharma over evil.

Guru Gobind Singh had suffered greatly because of the execution of Guru Teg Bahadur, his father, in 1675 and the murder of his four sons. The impact of these tragic events made him a man of flint and iron. He had an acute sense of the occasion, felt the need of the hour, and rose to the challenge to fight aggression, injustice and social evils. Fired by passionate zeal to resist the recurring onslaughts of aggression by the ruling Mughals and their allies, he prepared a careful plan to combine the power of religious faith with positive action, which bequeathed an enduring legacy to the country and changed its destiny. The idea was to change the mindset. He sought to free his followers from social barriers and political constraints. He indeed heralded a new era in northern India.

The authors focus on Guru Gobind Singh’s creation of the Khalsa on Baisakhi day in 1699 at Anandpur Sahib and its significance. The founding of the Khalsa was not an event or birth of an ideology, but a mission, a crusade, and most important by a new culture of high moral values simplified for the common people to grasp and practise to rejuvenate society in order to build a strong political and social order based on principles of equality.

It was not as if Guru Gobind Singh had a dream which he translated into reality. He had mediated over his experiences and chartered a course not as an ascetic or recluse but as a practical man of great sagacity. The authors emphasise that there is in the Sikh tradition a healthy regard for the material world, which a man cannot escape from. Guru Gobind Singh abolished personal guruship, conferred it on the Guru Granth Sahib and submerged himself in the brotherhood of the Khalsa.

In one chapter "The Khalsa in Hindu perception", the authors repudiate the notion of devi worship attributed to Guru Gobind Singh which was against the principles of the Sikh gospel. They also treat as false the view that Sikkhism had emerged out of the bhakti movement. They maintain that Hindu historians have exaggerated the political influence of the Khalsa to the neglect of its spiritual content which purified society.

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"Creation of the Khalsa: Fulfilment of Guru Nanak’s Mission" ably edited by Shiv Kumar Gupta contains scholarly articles by specialists in Sikh studies, which deal with the social, political and philosophical importance of the Khalsa. A collective work, this study is as usual uneven. "Foundation of the Khalsa" by Faujan Singh, first published in 1971, dwells on how and why the Khalsa was set up, what impact it made on the social, political and economic life of the people and how the Khalsa was transformed into a commonwealth.

In his article "The order of the Khalsa", Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia brings out the significance of the Khalsa as a vehicle of the divine spirit in world history. S.K. Bajaj, in "The Khalsa — an interpretation", deals with the religious foundation and military discipline as an integral part of the Sikh order. Shiv Kumar Gupta in "Creation of the Khalsa", presents the historic base of the Khalsa, and the political and moral standards that evolved from it.

Gurbachan Singh Nayyar in another article on the same theme emphasises that the creation of the Khalsa was a move to wage "dharma yudh". By selecting keywords and their usage, Sukhdial Singh in the "Creation of Khalsa" illustrates the purpose and dimension of the Khalsa. Words and their meanings reflect the process of historical development, an aspect usually ignored by historians, and this suggests a new line of enquiry in explaining the unique institutions of Sikhism. Harpreet Kaur offers a brief account of Guru Gobind Singh’s relations with Aurangzeb.

In "The concept of suffering in Literature and Sikhism", G.S. Sandhu and Parminder Kaur analyse the corporate aspect of the Khalsa brotherhood. Dr Bhagat Singh’s lucid exposition, "Transformation through Sikhism" highlights how the Khalsa shaped the social and political life in Punjab. He shows how Maharaja Ranjit Singh stuck tenaciously to the basic tenets of the Khalsa in his mode of governance. Shayamla Bhatia in "Chief Khalsa Dewan" argues that despite its conservatism, the ChiefKhalsa Dewan brought politics to a stage where it could move forward.

The use of Sunder Singh Majithia papers in Teen Murti would have added valuable material to this study. Jagjiwan Mohan Walia in "The Role of the Sikhs in the national movement" offers a synoptic survey of the Sikh participation in India’s struggle for freedom.

The Tenth Guru: this is what Aurobindo wrote

THE greatest gift of the Sikhs to the nation is their firm-rooted Guru bhava. In the midst of the diadem of Sikh culture like a ring of Kohinoors stands this cluster of mighty Gurus. Really, the intense and solid line of spiritual power, which Guru Nanak founded in the heart of the Sikh sub-nation, is unexampled in any history of any nation. Sikh history rings throughout with the glorious war cry — "Sri Wahuguru ji ki fateh." That history is a splendid record of the heroic careers of the great Gurus. Nowhere else do we find or hear of any such brilliant record of a whole nation growing round one central chain of spiritual personalities, with unabated faith and unfaltering consecration from its day of start up to the present day.

That which had its beginning in Nanak and Angad and flowered in Hargovind and Teg Bahadur, came to some sort of a crowning culmination in the tenth Guru Gobind Singh. Nanak initiated the Sikhs in the fire of spirituality. Guru Teg Bahadur died with the name on his lips — the very emblem of heroic leadership but he died without resistance, a true satyagrahi. Guru Gobind Singh, the militant churchman, clasped the sword himself and transformed a race of udasis into a race of fiery Kshatriyas, whose swordblades clashed more than once at the gates of Delhi and shook the Mughal empire to its foundations. Here again is a burning truth of history, which never wearies to be told. What exasperated the Sikhs, the Mahrattas, even the loyal Rajputs whom Akbar had literally wedded to the throne? It was the ruthless soldier-statesman Aurangzeb whose blind and reckless policy sowed the seeds which were left to be reaped by Shivaji in the south and Guru Gobind Singh in the north. Or else, there would have been no necessity of the peace-loving children of that Indian province being turned as if by a miracle into a nation of armed soldiers. It is not always the people that were responsible.

That was a glorious chapter in our national history when Guru Gobind Singh called five souls from the multitude and breathed fire of faith into them. That was the beginning of the Panth — the mighty soldiery, that became a power. That immortal flame never left the Sikh heart. It grew mightily splendid when the Guru’s two heroic lads defied an insulting Mughal officer and were sacrificed to his wrath, being inhumanly buried alive. They died with not a single scar of fear in their countenance — young lions whose last words on the lips were the national cry of faith — the word of Guru Teg Bahadur was once more immortalised in another baptism of blood. The Sikh nation was made a solid rock over the suffocated corpses of the brave sons of Guru Gobind Singh. That was Gobind Guru’s undying gift to his people — the blood of martyrdom of his dearer selves — dearer than his own self.

At peace in forest, terrified in the jungle
Punjabi Literature
by Jaspal Singh

JAGTAR is one of the most politically conscious poets of Punjabi.He was talked about even in the mid-sixties and was known by his pen name Jagtar "Papiha". He dropped the last name in course of time. During those days he was a teacher in a village in Doaba.

In early seventies he joined Panjab University to do his masters in Punjabi literature and became a serious student of Pakistani Punjabi writing. His stint in the university paid off and Jagtar became a college lecturer teaching at the Government College, Hoshiarpur, for most of his life.

He has written poetry copiously but has made a name for himself as a composer of ghazals. Since he is good in Urdu, he has introduced Urdu ghazal norms in Punjabi.

Once he started a public debate with Sadhu Singh Hamdard on the form and content of ghazal in Punjabi. Recently he won the coveted Sahitya Academy Award and joined the select group of illustrious Punjabi writers.

A few weeks ago he was elected president of Kendari Punjabi Lekhak Sabha, the largest association of Punjabi writers in India.

His latest collection of 79 ghazals "Akhan Walian Pairhan" (Deepak Publishers, Jalandhar) appeared in 1999 which once again establishes him as one of the outstanding ghazalgos in Punjabi.

With a laconic comment on the historical process, he says:"Jinha ne mitti nu raundia si, jinha ne mitti te zulam keete Mai khak hunde oh taaj vekha, mai/khak hunde oh takhat vekhe." (I have seen kings and potentates turning to dust who had ruthlessly ravaged the earth and wreacked havoc on it.)

With this warning to the people at the helm of affairs, the poet tries to understand the imperceptible decaying process in humans and other inanimate things. He says: "Je sheesha pee gia hai naksh mere hauli hauli/daboke mainu pani usda vi tan mar gia hai." (The mirror has sapped my facial features over a time, though it has lost its own power to reflect in the process.)

The poet believes that dark forces are no doubt very powerful and manipulative, yet a small element of goodness can beat it. He says, "Hanera belagama, tund vi gustakh vi si par/Hawa bhar ik tathina maat us nu kar gia hai." (There was oppressive darkness all around but a tiny glowworm vanquished it.)

Snapped human relations create a vacuum which takes a long time to fill. Sometimes they leave a permanent scar and some people never become normal after a tragic departure. "Aise tut ke rishte uljhe pher kadi no suljhe/Tere pichhon jiwan vich na phir tarteeb rahi."(Life is in complete disarray after you left and the network of relations is a shambles.)

The poet does not lose optimism.He maintains:"Talwaran dian dharan utte, phul lahu de mehke/Maktal vich vi phullan di rut barhi kareeb rahi."(Blood bloomed like flowers on the sharp edge of the sword; spring was not far behind even in the slaughter house.) The poet keeps his cool in the most adverse circumstances where his tormentor is ready to strike, since he thinks his cause is just and any suffering is a sacrifice for nobler issues governing life, nature and society.

He avers, "Barha hi katalan ne katalgar vich jashan karna si/Je meri akh’ch ik vi atthru chehre te dar hun da." (The executioner would have celebrated in the slaughter house itself had there been signs of fear on my face and tears in my eyes.)

His comments on present-day criminalisation of society and politics are worth noting. "Main van chon niklia tan rastian vich ugg pia jangal/Eh jangal da guzar mainu na hun vahishi bana deve." (When I came out of the forest, I found jungle everywhere. I am afraid it may make me a brute.) The poet here makes a fine distinction between forest (van) and jungle (jangal), one is a benevolent natural growth and the other an expanse of brutal lawlessness engulfing the entire fabric of socio-political culture in the country. When a former close friend visits the town after a long time, the poet describes it thus:"Eh kaun aia, nagar vich mehkian galian te rah jage/Eh sutte zakham, visari dastan na murh jaga deve."(Who is visiting the town that every street is filled with fragrance.It may reopen old wounds, breathe life into forgotten legends.)

The poet curses both light and darkness because both can frustrate his plans. "Hai dushman chanini meri, te dushman hai hanera vi/Bane divaar ik rah di, te ik rasta bhula deve."(Both moonlight and darkness are my enemies.The former becomes a hindrance in the realisation of my designs and the latter may lead me astray.)

Death haunts the poet but he tries to visualise it as a transformation from a state of waking to sleeping. He says:"Dosti te dushmani de silsile sabh torh ke/Ik na ik din ghook son jawanga mitti orhke."(Snapping relations with all friends and foes, I’ll be deeply asleep under a mud blanket.)

The persistent decadent social system torments the poet.He is not delighted with the so-called development that has not mitigated the sufferings of the people.He says, "Kade neela, kade chitta, kade sawa tan aia hai/Jo auna chahida si oh kade na inqlab aia." (We have seen blue, white and green revolutions but the revolution we longed for has evaded us.) A very common process of division of families and countries and its aftermath is presented by the poet in a couplet, "Takseem tan buri nahi par is de fal sarup/Nafrat da beej ghar nu hai malba bana gia." (There have been divisions in families but the seeds of hatred sown in its wake have reduced the house into rubble.)

The relationship of heart and eyes has been crisply brought out in this couplet, "Ohde dil teek pujjan da si usdi akh ch hi rasta/ki mushkil is je usne ik nazar hi vekhia hunda." (The path to her heart lay through her eyes.What was the problem in her casting a glance at me?)

The 1984 events in Amritsar have been presented with all the tragic paradoxes of the situation. The poet avers: "Aje rahan’ch ghore hinkde apne sipahian de / Hari Mandar duale ne khare apne hi lashkar vi." (The neighing horses of our soldiers are still on their way, though our own troops have laid a siege of the Golden Temple.) Similarly the demolition of the Babri Masjid is also commented upon in the following couplet. "Barha khush en tun masjid dhah ke apne Ram Raj ander/Samajh sakda tun kash apna te us Babar da antar vi." (You are overjoyed over the demolition of the mosque during your Ram Rajya.Only if you could understand the difference between you and Babar.)

A couplet about recent Punjab terrorism succinctly presents the horrible times.The poet says: "Gharan de chehrian utte ibarat kar gai dehshat/Heneri na kade aisi suni si na kadi vekhi."(The terror inscribed its name on the walls of many houses.Such a devastating storm has never been seen nor heard of.)

The poet pays tribute to the legendary folk heroine Heer thus: "Heer di dargah hai mere lai hajj da makaam/Is lai satkaar mere dil ’ch sare Jhang da hai."(The tomb of Heer is my Mecca. That is why I worship the entire land of Jhang.)The aging process and the journey through the turmoil of life is presented in these lines. "Umar di si pairh chehre te, safar di gard vi/Is lai sheeshe ne ki surat miri pehchanini si."(The tell-tale signs of age and the dust during life’s journey covered the face. That is why the mirror failed to recognise me.)

The present atmosphere of deceit and trickery is underlined in these lines, "Sabh apne apne daa te san so mai chupp hi bhali jati/Eh basti fandkan di hai, oh chirian da sudargar si." (Everybody was a trickster here so I kept a low profile. It is a colony of bird-catchers who trap and sell sparrows.)

In poem after poem the poet tries to expose wickedness and evil in life. Socio-political corruption and aberrations in the system are sharply commented upon. One is advised to hold on to oneself even during the most gloomy times. He says, "Tu pahile hi chharatte nal kiyon eni sahim gaion/Aje bijli karhkani hai aje mausam ne varna hai." (You are frightened by the first drizzle of the season. The thunder storm is yet to break out in all its fury.) Sometime people are fooled by a fraudster for the time being. The poet brings out such phenomena by using an appropriate image. He says, "Ki faslan da banega hai khabar chirian nu ho chukki/eh rakhwala nahi faslan da eh lakarh da darna hai." (What will be the fate of the standing crop now, the birds have come to know that "he" is a scarecrow, not a watchman.)

The poet feels that his poems are a poor substitute for the needs of the people. He says, "Aje jhugian ’ch bhukhan bastian vich lok nange ne/kise is haal vich ki merian nazma nu karna hai."(Half-clad people are starving in shanties.What use are my poems to them?)

Jagtar uses many traditional and innovative symbols and images in his poems. His favourite image is martyr. Hence sword, slaughter house and executioner appear in many ghazals.Other metaphors are from the world of solid matter like stone, rock, hills, glass and mirror.The process of decay, rot and aging distresses the poet.Jungle and wilderness also occur in their various manifestations.Desert, river and ocean are the other metaphors that catch the fancy of the poet. Most of his images pertain to decadence and degeneration which is indicative of the decline of the system. But the poet retains his faint optimism like most other progressive poets even in these days of despair.

Another self-help primer
by P. D. Shastri

Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins. A Fireside Book by Simon and Schuster, New York and London. Pages 538. $ 12.

THE title cover says, "National Best Seller; over a million copies sold." The author’s previous work "Unlimited Powers" was also a best seller and was translated into 13 languages. The author became a millionaire at the age of 24 (he is 32 now). He is an extraordinarily successful entrepreneur and has floated nine companies. More than one million people have touched undreamed of financial heights thanks to him.

An ordinary person hardly uses about 25 per cent of his energies and capabilities. If he were to use 40 or 50 per cent of those, he would become a hero and a great man. The tragedy of man’s life is that most people die without using their capacities to the full. The title calls upon everyone to awaken the giant within.

Man being an image of God has unlimited potentialities. He could perform miracles. Our dominant genius inside is like a sleeping tiger; even a rat may insult a sleeping tiger but the tiger when awake is the king of the forest and master of all that he surveys.

Each person has within him unsuspected powers and unlimited possibilities which, if developed, could conquer the world. The title cover says, "How to take immediate control of your mental, emotional, physical and financial destiny."

Giant goals produce giant motivations and giant results; goals guides you beyond your limits to the world of unlimited power.

Napoleon said that the word impossible is found only in the dictionary of fools. Our author too never accepted that something is impossible for man. Champions are those who constantly improve themselves and perform at the peak levels. The writer refers to an athlete who ran over 1000 miles in 11 days, 9 hours, beating the old record. Reason? Iron will, constant effort and firm determination. This book’s philosophy can make heroes of all of us — mediocre persons.

In India, such a metamorphosis or revolution in life has been created by rishis and sages. The oustanding example is of Valmiki, a Shudra, a bandit and a criminal, whom a great guru changed into the greatest of all maharishis, whose pioneering work the Ramayana gave birth to thousands of Ramayanas in many Indian and Asian languages.

In the USA they depend on solid research, technological, scientific and psychological innovations. The results too are not spiritual or moral but measured in terms of dollars. The author says a salesman’s income rose from $ 2000 a month to $ 12000 in just six months and another entrepreneur had his income jump to $ 3 million and so on.

According to the author, there is nothing which training cannot help accomplish; it can turn bad morals turn good and lift man to an angel. Above all, it can raise men of ordinary means and fame to famous millionaires and well-known business magnates. It has been a source of enormous power and inspiration to millions. It teaches how to exploit your potential

Some of the chapter headings are "Dreams of destiny", "Pathway to power", "The force that shapes your life". "Change your limiting beliefs; create in you a vision" (where there is no vision, people perish), "You first dream great — dreams change a man’s values if you want to change his life", "Climb high, climb far — if your goal is the sky, aim at the star."

When one feels discomfort, boredom, impatience and embarrassment, these are signals that something in life is not quite correct.

Man is not the creation of circumstances or destiny; he can make them.

The writer gives examples of Gandhi, Lincoln, Helen Keller (the blind women who was also deaf and dumb and yet made a name in the world), Einstein and others.

Take a firm decision about what to do and what not to do. Do not change them but be flexible in your approach. Challenges in life shape our lives, more than anything else. If you face bad time, say this too shall pass. Nothing in life has any meaning except the meaning that you attach to it.

You should make a radical change in your life and begin in a small way. It begins as an invisible thread; add another filament and yet another, till it becomes a strong cable, which circumstances cannot break.

Create your own blueprint for life. Do not blindly copy some great person. Every person is an island to be tackled differently.

One resolute person can change the world. You may be that person to leave your footprint on the sands of time even to find a mention in history. Archimedes said, "Give me a lever long enough and a prop to stand upon and I can singlehanded-ly lift the globe."

It is not the questions that you ask which are important; more important are the ones that you do not ask. God’s delays are not God’s denials.

People are more often moved to action by the heart (emotions) than by cold reason. We have some 3,000 emotions. In a week we experience about a dozen.

One must strive to achieve his ultimate destiny. Determination is the wake up call to irresistible human will that can carry all before it.

The most empowering rule is to enjoy yourself; keep feeling happy, no matter what happens. Cheerfulness is the royal road to success, a melancholy and weeping nature means courting failure and disaster.

Miss your meal but don’t miss reading some inspiring book (your scripture or guide book) at least for 10 minutes a day.

The worst is the feeling of helplessness and personal uselessness in life.

A man’s character is his guardian angel. Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation.

A man found $ 35,000 in a bag which was the life’s savings of an old woman. He returned it to the owner and refused to take credit, publicity or be filmed. It was a case of goodness for goodness sake.

People will do more to avoid pain than to gain pleasure.If our happiness depends on something that we cannot control, we will experience pain. We make habits and habits make us. Things will not change, we have to change and adjust so that our life leads from pain to pleasure.

German philosopher Schaupenhauer (the greatest among the western admirers of the Upanishads) says: "New truth is first ridiculed, then it is violently opposed; then it is tolerated and, finally, it is accepted as self-evident."

Don’t allow programming of the past to control your present and the future. Re-invent yourself.

The author says all prophets like Christ, the Buddha, Muhammad and Confucius used metaphors to drive home the truth which they preached. For instance, Christ told fishermen to be fishermen of men. Another, two bullets are pointed at your son’s head; one is alcohol, and the other drugs. Life is a test; you either win the first place or nothing.

The author scatters life-giving jewels and diamonds almost on every page to inspire us. The epithets that rise to our mind are grand, sublime, magnificent.

His writings are more useful than pleasant or inviting reading (a thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want), as, say, in the case of Shiv Khera and Deepak Chopra, two other US-based best sellers.

The printing part leaves something to be desired — it should have been more attractive. Reading such a tough matter produces sleepiness, boredom. Experts tell us that this boredom and sleepiness are the protests of our enemy within at our attempt to improve ourselves. Frustration is your friend; brainstorm it to get great results.

The author concedes as much. He says, "Less than 10 per cent who buy this book read past the first chapter". That means that over 90 per cent don’t read beyond the first chapter.

The psychological complexities, analyses and questionings may be beyond a commonman’s ken, certainly beyond his practicability.

Do not be discouraged by the obstacles and setbacks; they bring out the best in you. The word crisis when written in Chinese is composed of two characters representing danger and opportunity.

The last words of the book are a quotation. "Some day after we have mastered the winds, the waves and the gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. Then for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire."

Working mothers in schools!
by Kavita Soni-Sharma

Working Mothers: Role Conflict and Adjustments (Publications on Women Studies in honour of Dr C. Parvathamma) by Itishree Padhi Acharya. Reliance Publishing House, New Delhi. Pages 149. Rs 195.

IN this money-minded world it is fair to complain about costs and prices. For a book costing more than one rupee per page this is a very costly book. Especially so when the only thing interesting in the book is its title.

Produced as a dissertation in one of the departments of social anthropology, the book carries all the paraphernalia of academic theses from Indian universities.Half-baked, ill-thought out problematique, unreadable, jargon-ridden, presentation followed by a shoddy bibliography and 15 ineffective and redundant case studies which do not even illustrate the points made in the dissertation. Parsons, Merton and Nadel provide the sociological paradigm for analysis while Alva Myrdal’s much cited (but now out of date) arguments about the distinction between women’s role at home and at work provide the basis for structuring this study.

It is full of tables and charts which neither explain the accompanying text nor provide any insight into the ongoing argument. The non-academic reader would also find the classifictions used quite offensive if not outright meaningless. Thus in one of the tables people above the age of 50 are mentioned as "old".

The field of study for this book is Berhampur in Orissa. Interestingly, while the location of Berhampur vis-a-vis Madras (sic) (664 miles) and Calcutta (325 miles) is given, the author fails to mention that it is in Orissa. Such small oversights might not attract attention had the author presented any new or interesting insight into the world of working mothers. As things stand, the book comes up with suggestions which would raise the hackles of many, more so since the suggestions are made in the form of assertions rather than well-argued positions.

By "working women" the author especially means "school teachers". However, nowhere in her book does she say how studying such a specific segment of society would provide insight into the world of working women in general. Nor does she seem aware of the bias that might creep into her conclusions as a consequence of such a small sample (269). Consequently her conclusions too remain hackneyed without providing any insight into the world of working women, their problems and aspirations or even the role conflicts that they might experience at work and home.

To enable the potential reader of this book to form her/his own conclusions about the book, here is a brief list of prescriptions provided in this slim volume:

l "The wife by virtue of her employment and economic independence, should not attempt to establish superiority over the husband and make undue demands on him."

l "Women who have a job outside.... encounter problems which too often result in overstrain and prevent them from having equal chances with men in the field of employment."

l "Neither is it desirable that a woman should spend her maximum time in looking after the house and children to prove her womanhood while a man should spend most of his time and energy in career building, proving his manhood."

In short, one can only say that this book was best left unpublished.

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Nurturing Nature: Women at theCentre of Natural and social regeneration edited by Chhaya Datar, Earth Care Books, Bombay. Pages 149, price not stated.

thisbeautifully produced volume brings together some of the papers presented at the Indian Association of Women’s Studies at Jaipur in 1995. The various papers examine the idea of "development" (with a capital D) in its various forms and end up providing prescriptions for an alternate, more equitable world.

Chhaya Datar’s paper discusses the nature of "development" as it is defined by the government, foreign funding agencies and various NGOs and the relationship between this "development" idea and the manner in which women could take out the harsh sting from developmental activities. Focussing on her field experience in watershed management, Datar suggests that one of the ways of creating a more caring paradigm for development would be to have a new focus for communities. That the village community should not be considered a model community any more but rather effort should be made to have a community focussed on a small eco-system or micro-watershed. She goes on to argue that neither the right to work nor the right to have food is important for the community vis-a-vis the state. Instead people should demand that the state loosen its monopoly over natural resources and that people should have a share in the common property resources of a community.

In an interesting argument Swatija Manorama and Chayanika Shah insist that existing models of development are based on a presumption that human beings are essentially competitive creatures who fight for scarce resources.The truth, they argue, is otherwise. Humans can be trained to cooperate and that, they insist, would lead to resources being more equally distributed; for, in the end there is plenitude of resources. A similar point is made by the celebrated hydorogist K.R. Datye, S. A. Dabholkar and Subodh Wagle in their papers. They insist that it is only through cooperation that the best possible use of world resources is possible. Otherwise there will always be a shortage of various items and consequently conflicts and inequalities.

Seema Kulkarni in her paper shares her experiences of implementing the ideas that have been suggested in the Datye and Dabholkar papers.Focussed on the employment guarantee scheme of the Maharashtra government, Kulkarni talks of the manner in which one village was able to organise a cooperative society for water management. An important offshoot of this programme was that women, especially the landless, began to control water resources and this resulted in their general empowerment within local society.

The arguments presented in this book emerge from the experience of these authors of working in the field for many years for bringing about social change. None of them has been arguing for a return to some pristine natural stage of existence before the current social corruption set in. And they all have been significantly influential in their own small area of operation, in bringing about social change. Their experiences, therefore, are worth reading if only to learn how one dedicated set of people could work for making their society better.

Rushdie’s heir has no lustre
by Ratna Raman

The Blue Bedspread by R.K. Jha. Picador, India. Pages 228. Rs 195.

THE Blue Bedspread" had been stretched out, laundered, aired and put away since it made its appearance, first through media hype and then in hardcover in 1999. This year it may well have been cut up into duster-rags as is the wont of much (ab)used linen, had it not been awarded the best first book for the Commonwealth Writers Prize.

With this felicitation, Raj Kamal Jha shares centre-spread with Salman Rushdie (current winner of the best book prize), his literary mentor and father figure who has spawned Jha’s older siblings, Ghosh, Chatterjee, Roy, et al, writers of the Indian novel in English in its effervescent avatar since the eighties.

Reading the repertoire of laudatory blurbs framing the Picador paperback edition and the salutary silencing effect that a public award creates, one wonders if any space is left at all for that wary animal — the hard-nosed critic. Can this person be heard at all above the cacophony of cash and cheers and flashing photobulbs?

Jha, it must be acknowledged, has a more than moderate grasp of the nuances of language and considerable skill in creating surrealistic pictures of angst and anonymity in the post-modern city.

The book is structured in six parts, which are further subdivided into arbitrary alignments, zeugmatically collating innumerable objects, facets, features and textures of urban India. These range from albino cockroaches and small change to landlords, abortions, power cuts, noisy neighbours, public transport, domestic violence, maternity wards, religious festivals, murder, cinema, cremation grounds, babies and pigeons. Yet evocative and poignant as each of these vignettes tries to be, they add up to very little, least of all, a novel experience.

The interstices within which domestic violence and exotic copulation between father, mother, brother and sister is set in motion with in-laws, others and visitors do not make a first story. Nor a first rate one. To cut the story short (was it not how it all began anyway?), the (Roy) introduction of incest or the (Roy)petitive use of poetic prose to create a sense of cadence and continuity does not work this second time.

Brother on the death of sister claims that he is the father of the one-day-old-child and parodies the role of the mother, tricking little baby into believing that spoonfuls of milk issuing from the location of his chest is the real stuff.

Unwittingly Jha provides the metaphor for his failed technique. There is no substitute for mother’s milk. Style and packaging can never be a replacement for fluid, fecund creativity. There is a literal and a metaphorical need for a mother, both for the baby and its creator.

All the baubles, tracery, trinkets, shapes and colours that Rushdie collected to make his kaleidoscope of Indian experience in dazzling designs and patterns have been spun out by his heirs in myriad patterns and combinations. The patterns are now beginning to lose their from and lustre. It is perhaps time to put in new mirrors.