Where was the Buddha born?
MOST of us are brought up in the
belief that Gautam the Buddha was born in Lumbini in
Nepal terai. The basis of the belief was the discovery of
an Ashokan pillar dug out in Lumbini in 1896 recording
the august birth of the Master. Thirtytwo years later
another pillar was found in Kapileshwar village near
Bhubaneswar stating that the Buddha was born there. So
was the Buddha born in Nepal or inOrissa? Dr Chakra
Mahapatra in his book The Real Birth-Place of Buddha (Granth
Prakasan) stoutly maintains that the Orissan pillar is
genuine and the one found earlier in Lumbini, merely a
replica planted there for the sake of recording the event
because there was wide-spread anti-Buddhist violence in
Orissa. Unfortunately, the discovery came too late as the
Buddhist world accepted the evidence of the Lumbini
pillar as authentic. Pilgrims from across the globe visit
Lumbini for worship and hardly anyone bothers to pay
homage at Kapileshwar. Pilgrim traffic to Lumbini cannot
be now diverted towards Bhubaneswar.
However, not all Oriyas
have given up the fight to claim Buddhas
birth-place in their state. A few days ago, Dr Bharatendu
Sundar Rajguru Mohapatra, son of the Oriya historian,
came to call on me with his pretty Naga wife and son
(they have nine other children). He gave me a copy of his
fathers book and lectured to me for over an hour to
persuade me to write that his father was right and all
other historians who subscribe to Lumbini as the
birth-place completely wrong. I do not want to add
another controversy about birth-places of our religious
leaders, till after we have amicably settled the
controversy over the real birth-place of Sri Rama.
Zohra
Sehgal
Zohra is the goddess of
beauty and love after which the planet Venus is named.
Our Zohra has a beauty uniquely her own and is the most
lovable of women. Also, most versatile. No woman on the
screen holds you as spell-bound with her acting as she
does. Her full name on birth (1912) was the mouth-filling
Sahibzadi Zohra Begum Mumtaz-ullah Khan.She was one of
the seven children of a land-owning family of Rohilla
Pathans settled around Rampur. Like other families of the
same class she was brought up in Sunni Muslim traditions
five prayers a day and fasting during Ramadan.
Unlike other children
belonging to conformist families, our Zohra was a rebel
against tradition. As a girl she was a tomboy fond of
climbing trees and playing games. As she attained
puberty, she was forced to wear a burqa. She
itched to get rid of it, to meet men on equal terms and
throw off artificial restrains imposed on her. During a
vacation in Dehra Dun she saw Uday Shankar dance. His
image stayed in her mind all her life. Early in life she
wrote: "I didnt want money; I was interested
in fame, I wanted power." She did not make much
money nor acquired any power, but she earned a lot of
fame as a dancer and an actress.
With her uncle who was
closer to her than her father, she travelled all the way
across India, West Asia and Europe by car. On her return
she was once again put in a burqa and sent to
Queen Marys Girls College, Lahore, meant for
daughters of aristocratic families. Strict purdah
was observed in the institution and the few males
invited to speak there (I was one of them) were put
behind a screen.
No sooner did Zohra pass
out of Queen Marys, she shed her burqa
this time for ever and joined Uday
Shankars dance troupe. She travelled with him, his
group of dancers to Japan, West Asia, Europe and America.
It was then that she met Kameshwar Sehgal, a Hindu
belonging to the Radha Soami sect, and fell in love with
him. He was eight years younger than her. There was
initial opposition from her parents but they came round.
Although Kameshwar was willing to convert to Islam to
marry Zohra, neither she nor her parents insisted on it.
The two had a civil marriage in August 1942. Jawaharlal
Nehru was to attend the wedding reception, but he was
arrested a couple of days earlier for supporting
Gandhis Quit India Movement.
For a while the couple
worked in Uday Shankars dance institute at
Almora.When it shut down, they migrated toLahore and set
up their own Zoresh Dance Institute.
The growing communal
tension preceding the Partition of India made them feel
unwelcome. They migrated to Bombay.Zohra joined
Prithviraj Kapur. From a dancer, she turned into a stage
actress. The next 14 years the couple stayed in Bombay
and got to know many celebrities. All Kazi, Chetan and
Dev Anand, Chetans wife Uma who later married Al
Kazi, Balraj Sahni and his wife,Damyanti. They had two
children. They had the choice of being Hindu or Muslim.
For a while they accepted both, then discarded them.
Meanwhile,Zohra came to the conclusion that there should
be more to religions than dietary prohibitions against
pork or beef and opted for atheism. It is not known what
her husband felt about religion except that he was a
non-religious man.He took his own life.
Zohra had been acting on
the stage in different parts of India, including putting
up plays for jails inmates. In Ferozepore jail after
staging a play she stayed on to watch an execution.
After her husbands
death, Zohra first moved to Delhi. And then went to
London where she met Ram Gopal.When she did not get roles
as a dancer, or an actress, she took on odd jobs like
working in the India Tea Centre (she hated tea and much
preferred coffee). But it was in London she got her first
break in the films and was signed by Arthur Rank and
Merchant Ivory productions. She apepared in The Raj
Quartet, Jewel in the Crown, Tandoori Nights, My
Beautiful Laundrettee and doznes of others. Back in
Delhi, she continued her film career.
Last year she played the
leading role in Sadia Dahlvis TV serial Amma
& Family. Though in her mid-eighties and
wrinkled, she remains as animated and saucy as ever. Her
daughter, Kiran, summed her up in a few words,
"Energy, Sun, Sparkling, Shaking and Crazy."
Name
shooting
During the war with
Pakistan, Banta Singh shot many Pakistani soldiers. He
would hide behind the bushes and shout Pakistani names
like Imran Khan, Mohammed Gul, Shahbaz etc. Soldiers
bearing those would stand up to say I am here: Banta
Singh would shoot them down.
The Pakistani commander
realised that a Sardarji was killing his soldiers by
fooling them. So he decided to use Banta Singhs own
method to kill him and started calling out Sikh names
like Banta Singh, Santa Singh,Rajinder Singh etc. Banta
Singh realised that the Pakistani was using his trick.
When his name was called, he shouted back "who
called me?" The Commander got up and replied,"
I did." Banta shot him.
(Contributed by Jyotica
Sikand,Delhi)
« « «
Santa: Now India and
Pakistan have exploded five nuclear devices each, it is a
deuce, as they say in tennis.
Banta: No, it is not a
game. It is set and match to the USA.
(Contributed by Suresh
Kumar Jetli, Goraya)
All
Indians
We live in a very small
town in Midwest, where we are the only Indian family and
most of the town people are Anglo-Saxons.We were visiting
India a few years ago. After a long flight we were all
tired, when we landed at Indira Gandhi Airport in New
Delhi. My son who was then five years old was especially
tired and sleepy. We went through all the hassle of
customs, took a taxi to Kashmiri Gate Interstate Bus
Terminal.All this time he was sleeping. At bus terminal
the porters took our luggage to an area from where buses
for Chandigarh depart. As we were waiting for a bus at
the platform, my son woke up. He was surprised to see so
many people all around him. He was in a kind of shock
until all of sudden he realised that all people around us
were Indians. He pulled his moms hand and shouted:
Look mom, everybody here looks like us!" (Courtesy:
Amir Tuteja, USA)
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