The villagers living within the wildlife sanctuaries area in Himachal Pradesh face “law stick” on one hand and the wrath of wildlife animals, such as monkeys and wild boars, on the other. As a result, forests department has undertaken a move to rationalize over 32 wildlife sanctuaries of the state taking out all villages from them “for betterment of both wildlife and the nearby village communities”.

WAY OUT: Rationalisation of forests will benefit both villagers and wildlife.

Her cartoons are “colourful products” and try to mirror the “dark and the grotesque” of today’s society. Her punchline may lack the sharpness of veterans, but Meena Kashyap is a promising cartoonist from the hills of Himachal. Her “cartoon-victims” are politicians, negligent doctors, teachers, bureaucrats, commission agents, pollution, corruption- in fact everything that is “gloomy” around us.

Meena, a practicing lawyer at Shimla, recently showcased an exhibition of her “cartoons and greetings cards” sponsored by the department of art language and culture and organized by Mandavya Kala Manch at Gandhi Bhawan in Mandi town.

The exhibition attracted visitors, including artists and children, from the region. The talented lawyer always wanted to be a cartoonist, right from her school days. Her thoughts always found expression in her cartoons, topics ranging from the current burning issues, environmental problem to corruption at high places. But the legal eagles such as the judges and advocates, always managed to escape her sardonic sense— perhaps she is amongst them!

Meena has to her credit creation of over 600 cartoons and has showcased them in her three exhibitions since 2003. Inaugurated by the Chief Justice of HP High court, her first exhibition was displayed at Shimla in December, 2003. The second exhibition came up at HP state museum in May, 2005. Her third exhibition was held at Solan in June, 2006.

Her meek countenance belies her persona. Though candid to admit that even her profession like others has its pitfalls. “I do make cartoons of advocates and judges… but then each profession has its limitations,” she quipped, when asked as to why her cartoons do not figure advocates and judges in her selection.

Meena created a range of greeting cards attracting the attention of children and youngsters. “Cartoons and greetings are sweet and funny, I liked them a lot,” said Manushi, a local student. Visitors had a word of praise for the crusader as, they felt, the topics selected brought up the burning issues in the open.

Negligence of doctors, exploitation of farmers by commission agents, menace of stray dogs in Shimla town, pollution of the glaciers, rivers filthy portable water etc were some of the highlights of the exhibition.

“Her cartoons touch upon every aspect of social life and are a satire on politics and politicians. It is the best way to convey a message in both satirical and humorous way,” added one of the visitors.

The strict guidelines to observe model code of conduct by election commission and little interest of the people in Hamirpur byelection, has made this election a quite affair.

While posters and bunting put up in abundance, which used to give a festive look during the elections, is not too many this time, even loudspeakers making noisy announcements are quite few. Most of the election-enthusiasts are also keeping a low profile and not coming in large number.

Attendance in public meetings of political leaders is also thin.

Frequent election, one after another, during the past few months have not only tired the workers of political parties, even common voter is showing little interest in Hamirpur byelection polling which would take place on May 22.

The people of Hamirpur parliamentary constituency also look somewhat tired since this is the third election which they are facing in a span of one year. Hamirpur seat had fallen vacant in 2007 when Suresh Chandel, MP, elected from here was unseated from the parliament after allegedly being ‘caught in cash for query scam’. In the byelection held in June 2007, Prem Kumar Dhumal was elected, who later resigned from the parliament to retain the assembly seat after becoming Chief Minister of Himachal.

Since the present MP elected from here would have a short term of only eight to ten months with the general election for the parliament scheduled in early 2009, this factor has also contributed in making this election lackluster.

It’s only the presence of Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, whose son Anurag Thakur is contesting as BJP candidate, which is drawing some attention.

However, BJP leaders seeking coveted posts in the government are “definitely toiling and sweating” to improve their bio-data and prove their loyalty to Chief Minister here.

It is Lord Raghunath (Rama) who rules the Kullu Valley. The crowned king in flesh and blood is his Charibardar, i.e. he who carries the scepter. The ideal idol king lives in a temple at Sultanpur (see photograph) with his veiled consort. I was lucky this time that I could have darshan of Sita Mata, the thumb-length deity that sat by the side of Lord Rama when he had performed Ashwamedha Yagya in Ayodhya.

Let me revisit Ramayana and share with my readers that when Rama had returned from Lanka after defeating Ravana and was ruling Ayodhya, a common man got skeptic about the character of Sita because she had lived in Lanka as captive of Ravana, so Lord Rama decided to send her in exile where she stayed in the hermitage (present Champaran, Bihar) of sage Valmiki. Lord Rama, in Ayodhya, decided to perform Ashwamaedha Yagya (or was it Rajsuya Yagya?) to proclaim supremacy among all other kings and princes. This Yagya is, generally, performed with his spouse by the side of the performer. As Sita was away, her idol was kept by the side of Lord Rama, which, presently, is in the temple of Lord Raghunath at Kullu. Why is the idol so small? A board in the temple declares that an authentic idol has to be thumb-length, light-weight and should stay veiled because then only it represents the soul (living being) of the person – veiled, because a human’s soul is invisible. She sheds her veil to take a bath and gives darshan to the onlookers in the mornings. I got no written or published word on this story except that in the temple-board that mentions Ashwamedha Yagya.

Raghunathji venerated in Ayodhya, however, supposed to have arrived at Kullu through the efforts of Damodar Dass of Suket. Hutchison and Vogel write in History of The Punjab Hill States that Damodar knew the supernatural skill of gutka-sidh – keeping a ball in the mouth to become invisible. He waited in Ayodhya ‘for the opportunity to carry-off the image.’ When he secured this about six inch tall image, he used ‘gutka-sidh’ and reached Hardwar. An attendant at Ayodhya-temple, who also knew that skill, followed him and found Damodar worshipping it. When challenged with the theft, Damodar said that the god willed to go to Raja Jagat Singh of Kullu, “If I do not speak the truth, take the god back, if you can.” Hearing this, the Ayodhya Brahmin unsuccessfully tried to lift the idol whereas Damodar ‘raised it with one hand’. The former returned blank to Ayodhya; the latter came to Kullu and gave the idol to the Raja who offered his gaddi to Raghunathji and became his vice-regent by establishing a temple adjacent to his palace at Sultanpur in 1660, the year when Kullu Dussehra is said to have started.

Why it is that Raghunathji had to come from Ayodhya to rule Kullu also called Kulantapeetha - the end of habitable world - or Kulut? Raja Jagat Singh (1637-1672) was going to Manikaran on pilgrimage and was misinformed that a brahmin Durga Dutt of Tipri has a patha (about a kilo and a half) of pearls with him. The Raja wished to have the pearls and to accomplish it; the courtiers started pestering the brahmin. He announced he himself would give pearls to the Raja on his return. The Raja returned and when nearing the hut, the brahmin set fire to it and perished with family. Remorseful Raja started having hallucinations – worms in food, blood in water and leprosy in fingers. His health decayed. He approached Krishndass Payohari, a siddh of Vishnu Sampradaya at Jhiri, who gave him an idol of Narsimha, a reincarnation of Vishnu, to be worshipped and advised him to bring Raghunathji from Ayodhya. The blessings of both Narsimha (half man; half lion) and Raghunathji undid his curse.

Damodar was rewarded with 84 coolie loads of goods and a temple at Bhuin village for bringing the idol-king of Kullu from Ayodhya.

As the ever-increasing number of private companies in the telecom sector vie for expanding their networks, main roads in the “queen of hills” take a pounding. Roads are dug up for laying the optical fibre cable (OFC) every other month, causing much inconvenience not only to the residents, but also to the tourists. Earlier, it was only the public sector BSNL but over the past eight years, six private players have made entry in the state. These days the roads in Kusumpti, Chhota Shimla and New Shimla area have been ripped open for laying the cables by the Vodaphone company. More digging is in offing as the Reliance Company has also deposited money with the public works department for the purpose.

Being the peak tourist season, it is not the ideal time for such activity, which, invariably creates traffic hurdles in the city plagued with traffic jams. Besides motorists, the pedestrians also suffer due to dusty conditions in the otherwise salubrious hill environment. The heaps of debris piled up along the roads standout like eyesores.

The public works department has all these years failed to come up with a solution to this problem. The frequent ordeal could be avoided by proper planning and fixing a specific period, preferably just before the tarring season, for laying cables, pipelines and all other activities which require digging of roads. The officials maintain that they try to delay matters to avoid frequent and untimely digging but that does not always help as they have no option but to grant permission once the money is deposited.

Government is trying to provide water through water tankers and tractors to the hard areas where water scarcity is predominant in the district of Bilaspur in the state. In this regard, approx Rs 1 crore is going to be spent in duration of just two months on tankers or tractors. People on the other hand are still dissatisfied. Instead of spending so much, can’t the government device new methods so that there is a permanent solution to the water problem?

Nothing is impossible, new schemes can be augmented. The need is to trigger the IPH department.