The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

The Kumbh mela — a tradition that lasts
An impressive show of faith and festivity
by Katie Sahiar Dubey

"For not by reason was creation made,
And not by reason can Truth be seen"

— Sri Aurobindo

A blushing dawn turns pale at the sight of the golden globe rising majestically, cutting through the dark thin line of the horizon in the distance. The cadence of the morning chant floats in the air and sweeps across the waves of the river flowing like molten steel, moving in an enormous plastic mass. A joint prayer rises from many a heart and touches the lips of multitudinous millions assembled at the edge of the river to greet the first rays of the rising sun and take absolution through the holy waters of the Ganga and the Yamuna, at the first Maha Kumbh of the millennium 2000.

Visiting with the Prince and Princess in 1906, the British journalist, Sidney Low, has written: "Nothing more impressive, picturesque and pregnant with meaning and significance than the Kumbh mela can be witnessed in India. Until you have looked upon one of these tremendous gatherings of humanity, many aspects of Indian life and character may be hidden from you".

There is no parallel to this event anywhere in the world, both in terms of antiquity and following. It is an event of stupendous proportions. Each year the numbers visiting the mela have swelled, accidents happen, people are killed, yet, each time they come. Many of the poor in the far-flung areas of the country, begin saving months ahead to be able to make the trip to Thirthraj, the holiest of the holy, of pilgrimage sites, where the ochre waters of Mother Ganga are joined by her sister, the blue and swirling Yamuna, and a shy and invisible Saraswati. This is the Triveni Sangam.

Many millions come, not merely to bathe, but also to sit at the feet of holy men, who, on this occasion emerge from there isolation and arrive in thousands at the Kumbh. It presents the amazing spectacle of multifarious creeds and beliefs, ways of aspiration and modes of self-discipline which epitomize the truth that underlies and sustains a breathtaking diversity of faiths and precepts, doctrines and philosophies, followed by the sadhus, rishis, munis, pundits, and the people themselves.

The Kumbh is celebrated as a 'mela', a festive occasion when people rejoice that the nectar of the gods spilled at four places on earth, had not only sanctified her, but also given man the means to his salvation. It is the celebration of a cosmic event, the birth of our Mother Earth. So, along with chants, prayers, yajnas and thanksgiving, there is music, and singing and storytelling.

Storytelling is an integral part of teaching, of imparting to many millions of the unlettered the need to remain focussed upon the holiness inherent in all things. It is not given to all individuals to grasp obscure truths, but it is given to all of us to attain salvation. To return to the One in total unity by whatever means available to us. So, the great saints and mystics of our land clothed the truth in beautiful stories that the common man could grasp easily, and remain close to eternity. This singular event, the Kumbh mela is also wrapped in a story:

'The Unique ensouling all that is, seeks birth

To project the One into the endless forms on earth:

None but the wise who vision Him in their hearts

Attain the flawless bliss which never departs'

— Katha Upanishad

Sage Durvasa, having attended a conference of monarchs on earth, was venerated with a garland. Returning to the celestial realms he pondered upon who should have it, and chose Indra, the king of Devtas — the gods.

Indra received the sage and accepted the garland with appropriate humility, but, upon Durvasa's departure, gave the garland to Airavat, his elephant, to play with. Mischievous fate caused Durvasa to return, coming upon the elephant toying with the garland he flew into a rage, cursing the Devtas with mortality and the feebleness of man. Now, the Asuras, the demons, rejoiced and their king Bali declared war upon the Devtas. Fighting for their lives, the Devtas sought out Vishnu, lying upon the Primal Ocean.

The Primal Ocean, is described by our sages as a boundless stretch of hushed waters in which life lies latent. The Supreme Lord, Vishnu, lies upon the serpent, Shesh Nag, embryonic energy, afloat upon the waters in a cosmic trance yoga-nidra. When the trance broke, the One projected Himself into Many, and set the universe in motion. Now, life, once born had to be helped to grow.

Vishnu voiced a solution. He asked the Devtas to churn the milk-ocean, and drink the cream that rises out of it. This alone was the restorative to immortality. Then, the Devtas called a truce and asked the Asuras to help in churning the ocean of milk, promising them some of the nectar. The gigantic mountain Mandara was used as the churn, with the serpent Vasuki of the netherlands wrapped around as a rope to swirl it. The Devtas held the tail end and the Asuras the head end and they began to churn. Soon enough, the mountain began to sink into the ocean, and Vishnu, assuming the form of Kurma, tortoise, sank to the bottom of the ocean to provide a base for Mandara as the churning resumed. Many eons passed and Vasuki began to puff out poisonous gasses which filled the cosmos. Shiva, came to the rescue, and gathering the poison in a goblet he quaffed it off, liberating the agonised cosmos. Now, the ocean began to yield its treasures. Up came the flying hose, the milch cow, the priceless jewel, the magic moon, the sky chariot, the vibrant lyre, Laxmi the paragon of beauty, Vishvakarma the architect and finally, out splashed Dhanvantri, with a pitcher of nectar. He handed it over to Indra and the Asuras immediately demanded their share. The Devtas reneged on their word and a tussle ensued in which the Asuras gained the pitcher. Vishnu, supplicated again, donned the form of a maiden, Mohini, a wondrous beauty, and appeared in their midst, causing an uproar. So devastatingly beautiful was Mohini that the Asuras fell under her spell and handed over the pitcher of nectar to her. Mohini took the kumbh from them and handed it back to the Devatas who began to drink of it. Realising this, one of the Asuras disguised himself as a Devata and also drank of the nectar. The Sun and the Moon realised the deception and informed Vishnu, whereupon, Vishnu immediately beheaded him with his Sudarshan Chakra. But, having already drunk of the nectar, which had passed down his throat, his head ascended to heaven as Rahu while his body sank below as Ketu. Rahu and Ketu are both the sworn enemies of the Sun and the Moon for whenever they cross paths, Rahu swallows them up in an eclipse. Fortunately, as his head is separated from his body, they manage to escape through the gap after a while.

Shukracharaya, the mentor of the Asuras, advised them to attack the Devtas again, while Brihaspati, the consellor of the Devtas, instigated Jayant, Indra's son to flee with the Kumbh. In this endeavour the Sun and the Moon rendered all assistance.

The Skanda Puran talks of a flight that lasted 12 days. During his passage back to Indralok, some of the nectar spilled over at four places on earth — in the Ganga, at Hardwar and Prayag, in the Sipra at Ujjain and in the Godavari at Nasik, sanctifying these places for all time to come. Various versions of the story exist in various texts. It also finds mention in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, but essentially it remains the same.

Jayant took 12 days to complete his journey back to Indralok, during which time the Moon watched over the pitcher and prevented it from spilling over, the Sun prevented fragmentation and Brihaspati — Jupiter — guided Jayant back to the safety of Paradise.

Twelve days of the gods correspond to 12 years of man, and therefore the Kumbh mela is celebrated every three years at each of these places in turn, returning to each after every 12 years, but, the one at Prayag is termed the Maha Kumbh because the planet Jupiter after his 12 years' journey through the zodiac, returns to Aquarius, the Kumbh Rasi, while the Sun and the Moon are in Aries. This is the planetary configuration the original event was supposed to have.

Essentially, the Kumbh mela is an esoteric event, revealing deep meanings on the psychic and spiritual levels, through symbols used by man since the dawn of thought broke out of its slumber. The world as we know it is indeed derived from a higher one — the abode of Truth — Sadanam Ritasya — as the Veda says, though it be a degraded form. The Kumbh represents the whole universe, with Vishnu at its mouth, Shiva at the neck, Mother Goddess in the centre, Brahma at the root, and the mountains, rivers, oceans and all other creations at the base along with all the Vedas.

In the microcosm the Kumbh lies in the body, between the eyes, waiting for the divinity within, to defeat the ego, and drink of the nectar of divine bliss. The Devtas are divinity with us, and the Asuras, the I-ego. There is war within us too.

By concentrating the mind, ruled by the Moon, under the guidance and wisdom of Jupiter, we rise to the light of the Sun.

At the subtle level we carry both the Kumbh and the Treveni Sangam — meeting of the three rivers — within us. The Ganga and the Yamuna are represented by the Moon — Ida Nadi; and the Sun — Pingala Nadi, which are channels within the subtle body system conducting the flow of Prana, or life energies. They lie plaited together on either side of the spine, which is the Susumna Nadi, corresponding to the mythical Saraswati. The Susumna is our connection to the unmanifest.

Situated at certain stations along the spine are the seven chakras — subtle centres, each the seat of a virtue that has to be fully cultivated en route to enlightenment. Thus, the ocean of self-knowledge has to be churned, and Mother Kundalini roused from her slumber. On awakening, she travels upwards through the Susumna Nadi, lighting up the charkas as she shoots through the Susumna to meet the other two nadis at Treveni within at the Ajana chakra, between the eyes, dipping into the pitcher of nectar and flooding the body with wave upon wave of ecstasy. Kundalini is the serpent energy lying coiled within us, at the base of the spine in the mooladhara chakra, dormant until awakened through self-realisation.

The mythical third eye — the Anjna chakra — has its correspondence in the physical world as the pineal gland. A gland of enormous importance in the body, it controls all other secretions and regulates life from the moment of birth, to growth, maturity, and death. In a very real sense it is our third eye, which sees without sight, for it does not sense light but receives nerve signals that originate in the retina of the eyes.

The conjunction of the planets that occur during the Kumbh, causing a cosmic shower of nectar in the universe, is also responsible for the hyper secretions that occur in the glandular body. "The stream of amrit in which the ego bathes ia a grandular substance, a secretion of the pineal and pituitary within which we wash the stains of sin," we are told.

Planatery conjunctions, also affect water physically, and these are the times laid down for the snaans, the very purpose of the Kumbh mela. These are the times when beneficial cosmic currents over the earth are the strongest. The first being Paush Purnima, the last full moon of the winter season, the second, Makar Sankranti, when the Sun enters Capricorn, Mauni Amavasya, the new moon of saints day, on which the sadhus, rishis and monastic orders are given bathing priority. Basant Panchami, the fifth day of the waxing moon, considered the coming of spring, Magh Purnima, the first full moon of the spring season, she looms large and showers brilliance over the two rivers, Mahashivratri, the Night of Shiva, who has held Ganga in his locks and prevented her force from destroying the earth.

Water is a plastic element, absorbing vibrations and electromagnetic radiation, which effect a molecular change in its structure. The cosmo-biological effect of the planets during the important bathing days of the Kumbh are due to an increase in the electromagnetic radiations and charged particles from the Sun and the Moon. Transiting planets, and the concentrated vibrational chants of millions of people create a highly charged atmosphere. The river water absorbs this vibration and stores it as memory 'bits' over an extended period of time. Such water can overwrite the health-effects in living systems, similar to homoeopathic medicine effecting biochemical and physiological change in the human body, enhancing the faith of millions in the curative powers of a bath in the sangam on these occasions.

Of all the religious beliefs that men cherish in India, perhaps the most Indian — that is the one which obtains in no other clime but ours, is the die-hard faith of ours in the sacredness of our rivers. Among these, stands out the peerless Ganga.

‘Deep purity canst thou attain

When thou comest to bathe again and again

In the Ganga: But when thou will meet,

The sages havened at His feet,

Their presence shall deliver thee,

In a flash from all impurity'

— Canto 1 Bhagavat

The congregation of sadhus that assembles at the mela, is in obedience to the word of the Guru, Adi Shankaracharya, who in the 9th century A.D. gave the mela its final shape. This was time when wave after wave of Muslim invasions swept the country and thousands of Hindus were converted to Islam by the power of the sword. The charismatic Shankaracharya then established the four 'maths' across the length and breadth of the country. In each of these centres he created, with the express purpose of preserving Hindu traditions, ten orders — dasami. Each order had a leader who was to guide the sadhus under his care and inspire the populace around. They were enjoined upon to assemble regularly at the Kumbh mela with a twofold purpose, that of maintaining contact with the rest of the sadhus across the country and exchanging religious news as well as giving a show of strength and solidarity in their religious beliefs to the invaders. This was also an opportunity to make contact with the local populace and reinforce their faith.

The sadhus who flock to the mela are of various sects. The Urdhwavahus, whose bodies are emaciated by fasting and austerities; who allow an arm to grow limp and useless through disuse, or stand meditating for hours in the ice-cold water of the Ganga, their eyes focussed on the sun. There are the Nagas who live stark naked at all times, their bodies smeared with ash, the Parivrajakas who tinkle bells all day, the Maunis, who have taken a vow of silence, the Shirshasanis who stand all 24 hours and sleep with their heads against a vertical pole, or meditate standing on their heads; Avadhutas, who follow no formal discipline; Mandaleshwaras, who are the heads of Ashrams or Akharas, and others who lead normal but simple and holy lives, giving off their knowledge to those who desire it.

Sadhus are venerated, deeply respected, and looked after. Generosity prevails towards the holy men for they are the keepers of the faith — faith that has held millions together over countless eons of changing fortunes and perishing culture, in a bond of unshakable tradition that persists to this very day. It is said that Ganga one day complained to the Lord Shiva and said, "So many people come to bathe and cleanse themselves in my waters. Will their dirt not pollute me? Who will cleanse me?" The Lord replied, "You will cleanse the people who bathe in you, but the sadhus who bathe in your waters will cleanse you.

Hacking for defence and offence
by Rakshat Puri

A thief might be set to catch a thief only because he knows all the tricks of the trade. He is familiar with the methods and responses of those engaged in thievery, with their ways of treating clues, releasing red herrings, putting away loot, dissuading suspicion, outwitting and throwing baying hounds off the scent. Sophistication in thievery and other kinds of crime leads and inevitably gives direction and degree to sophisticated development in criminal investigation. The honest investigator has to learn thieving to catch a thief.

The latest sophistication in crime involves the criminal’s recourse to computer-use. Cyber-crime is the order of the day. The cyber-thief breaks into and alters the Web sites he attempts to tamper with or delete or acquire data in banks’ database systems, in military databases, or elsewhere such as in large commercial and other organisations, including railways and airlines. He uses his techno-skill to ferret out passwords and open “locks” for this purpose. The jargon-word given for describing this process is “hacking”.

Most instances of hacking reported so far have been, relatively speaking, in the nature of pranks. They have begun to come frequently to interfere with Web sites for political propaganda. For example, not too long ago, some “pranksters” were reported to have attempted pro-Pakistani propaganda insertions in some official Indian databases and Web sites. More recently, such hackers have come to the fringes of sensitive, security databases.

Hacking can — and is soon likely to — assume dangerous proportions. At the least, imagine terrorists tampering with schedules and directives in a country’s military headquarters for their dastardly purpose. Or tampering with schedules and directives for such a purpose in an airlines office or headquarters. Or — probably one of the worst scenarios — break somewhere into the nuclear schedules and data structure.

It is not too soon therefore that the government departments generally have turned to prepare themselves for countering hackers. True, the Uttar Pradesh police is not exactly an inspiring example of cyber-dependent working. Fifteen years after computers were introduced in the police headquarters at Lucknow and Noida in a pilot project, only some 10 per cent are said to be in use. No one apparently is aware of what happened to the rest. But all Government departments are not made of the same stuff.

Reports say now that from this academic year the army’s Military Intelligence Training School and Depot proposes to introduce officer trainees to the ways of the hacker. Expertise from the private sector is to be harnessed for the purpose. The commandant of the Training School and Depot, Major-General S. T. Manimala, is quoted saying that “computers are a major source of information leakage”. The two-way implication is that, on the one hand, enemy hacking has to be countered — with the enemy’s own medicine, expert counter-hacking. On the other, hacking might profitably be used for acquiring enemy intelligence.

The army’s decision has not come suddenly. It came in the wake of “jehaadi” terrorist and other hackers who launched “attacks” on Indian Web sites. Indian experts attempted to counter in a defensive way but were not decisively successful. Learning to counter effectively and gainfully the enemy’s hacking probes and ventures will presumably be the beginning of learning to wage a serious and full-fledged cyber-war. With the coming of computer networking, of Web sites, of hacker attacks et al, the complexion of future wars will, it is pointed out, change almost unrecognisably — sooner than later. It was not for nothing that former US President Bill Clinton expressed repeatedly anxiety about the uses to which palm-tops and hand-held computers might be put.

Not only the army’s Military Intelligence Training School and Depot but also some other Government investigative agencies are moving into counter-hacker training. The CBI is not far behind. The CBI and the Maharashtra Police recently arranged a Cyber crime conference at Mumbai in which attention was directed in a major way to cyber-terrorism and to the increasing instances of Internet assaults. After this, it is reported three more regional conferences on the subject are to be held — at Chandigarh, Kolkata and Chennai. The CBI-Maharashtra conference was attended by delegates from, among other places, Goa, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

CBI Director R. K. Raghavan is reported to have said India was “the 12th country (to have introduced) the Information Technology Act last year, which deals with e-commerce and cyber crime. . . . We are in touch with the Interpol and the FBI in America for latest updates on cyber policing. . . . Gangsters (here) are also using chat sites to communicate with other criminals”. According to one of the leading daily, “about five to six Indian Web sites are hacked almost daily”.

The paper quoted Joint CBI Director (Economic Offences Wing) Neeraj Kumar as saying they had found “through cyber patrolling” that cases of hacking “are rampant in India and certain terrorist outfits have been involved in breaking into sensitive Government sites”. The Special Investigative Cell officer in the CBI, Loknath Behera, was reported saying that the “Web sites of BARC, Parliament, VSNL and even Zee TV have been hacked in the recent past by certain cyber terrorist outfits. In fact the recent shoot-out by Lashkar-e-Toiba at the Red Fort was entirely planned using e-mail, which is not as easy to trace as mobile phone calls”.

It may not be out of place to recall here the example of the major “fundamentalist” terrorist organisation, Lashkar-e-Toiba, based in and operating from Pakistan, which has its own Web site, markazdawa.org. The Web site shows “Jehaadi Times” (in Urdu) and “Islamic Network of News” (in English). The site is intended to spread Islamist propaganda. (“Islamist” is not synonymous with Islamic. Islamic would denote genuine Islamic religion.) The Web site provides clear enough indication of its aims in Jammu-Kashmir and elsewhere. The Lashkar-e-Toiba is but one example of a cyber-savvy, “religion”-asserting terrorist organization.

Indeed, the advance internationally that computer hacking and cyber crime have already made became evident in not only the world hacking contest sponsored by e-Week magazine in Boston, but also in the stiff competition that participants faced. On one side, as described in reports, were representatives of the Argus Systems Group, makers of a computer security item called PitBull which they claimed was impenetrable. On the other, sat expert hackers trying to break into the PitBull system for a prize of $50,000. Hacking contests have taken place also previously — for presumably the same purpose: a computer security product maker proving the efficacy of his product. But not in the way of the Boston contest.

The contest to break into PitBull, organized by e-Week and Argus Systems Group, might be seen as indicative indirectly of endeavour to sophisticate investigation for meeting sophisticated cyber-crime. Some information and analysis of the item, PitBull, and others of its kind in the cyber-field

today, and analysis also of the way that contests such as the one in Boston go, may not be without relevance for the army, CBI and other agencies in India.

(Asia Features)

What is business?
by Shyam Ratna Gupta

AN American truism — not necessarily true in all situations of today — is what government's business is business. An Indian saying is that if government takes to business, the system of good governance will collapse.

What is business? The rubric is used indiscriminately in current information technology: Is it marks economy? Or social market economy? Or fair trade among equal partners? Could business and market in the myriad centres around the globe with the constant, second-to-second flux in demand and supply of services and commodities, even the rules and regulations rooted in are derived from ethical and moral laws?

Famous ancient or pre-historic times to the dawn of the 21st century, all transactions would unequally be termed as unfair and unequal because of the curse of greed, speed and insanity in the prevalent social milieu.

Ethics of Indianism and Oxbridge: True tales fro the age of Judaism to Oxford-Cambridge lore may be cited in the context of business and market economy. In a prosperous Hebrew town, a woman bought a length of cloth from a draper for a dress. The draper measured the material, calculated the cost, prepared the cash voucher and after receiving the payment closed the trade transactions. By mistake, the woman left her wallet on the counter and after ascertaining the cost of material she returned to the draper to pick up her wallet she had forgotten on the counter. She opened the wallet any only found that there had been no difference from it.

In the ensuring dialogue, the draper-woman exchanged, the following views on business ethics and morality: " Well, I find that all my money was intact in my wallet though it was not locked, but you charged me three times more for the material I brought than in the adjoining shop}.

“Well, personally I am honest but not so in business which is always equated with dishonesty, deceit and dishonourable intentions”.

If the woman had gone to consumer court to complain about being overcharged for the length of material, she would be told that trade and transactions, unequal though it was, had been cleared as a “social contract” and she had to be more wary next time!

A couple of years ago, an Egyptian tycoon, a Mughal among business circles, approached Oxford University; dating back to the 15th Century and adhering to Adam Smith's “Theory of Morality” in economics, to donate a large fund to establish a college for education in business management. Since opinion was divided on the project, the Oxford dons were invited to vote for or against the munificence of the Egyptian tycoon. Prior to the polling date, an eminent economist and academic contributed an article to the newspapers, which was published widely, that a degree in business management aimed at teaching the recipient how to show profit of US $ 50,000 by deceit and deception, if required, in six months!. The Egyptian's offer was turned down by the Oxford dons.

But an Institute for Business Management is now functioning Cambridge, the breeding ground for Leftist spies and the playing field for punks, gays and impecunous scholars. In the US, as well as some European countries, centres and institutions of pseudo-academic pretensions “sell” diplomats and degrees. Should education today broaden intellectual horizons, encircle the mind and based on ethics and morality, honesty and integrity? Or be solely utilitarian and rooted in shady deals?

Economics, including business, commerce, trade and money, are not a dismal science they are the highways to equitable, all-round prospects of world society.

Tongue-tickling bhelpuri
by Khushwant Singh

A GOOD way to begin the New Year is by reading a good book: one that leaves its taste over the twelve months that follow. I was lucky to find one: The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri (Bloombury). I had read only the first chapter when I got an invitation from David Davidar of Viking-Penguin for its launch with the author reading some passages from the book. I was eager to see what he looked like and how he deported himself. His name indicated he was a Punjabi. He turned out to be one. He was born and brought up in Mumbai and is currently Professor of Mathematics in the University of Maryland (USA). Short, cropped hair and somewhat ascetic looking, like a Brahmachari from a gurukul. Also very humble: when I asked him to autograph my copy, he looked abashed. In confusion he misspelt my name. He will have to get used to fame and big money. His first venture into writing has made him a millionaire. He is working on two more novels. In the short conversation we had before he went on the dais, I found he was deep into Bollywood movies. When I said I found them appalling and had not seen one for some years, he replied, “You may find them appalling but they are the staple emotional diet of the Indian middle class.” He is right. Anyone writing of middle-class Mumbaikars cannot ignore their obsession with Hindi films and music.

Suri’s hovel is located in a fourstoreyed building in Mumbai. The top floor is occupied by a lonely widower who is forever playing a disc which was his dead wife’s favourite. Below him lives a Muslim couple, the Jalals, and their teen-age son Salim. Then there are the Asranis with their school-going daughter Kavita, ambitious of becoming a film heroine. Beneath them are the Pathaks who share a kitchen with the Asranis and suspect each other of cheating each other. However the main character is Vishnu who sleeps on the landing, is usually drunk and has a liaison with a prostitute. Residents of the block give him food, tea and medicines because he is dying. Ahmed Jalal considers himself the second Emperor Akbar, fired with a mission to unite all Indian religions in new version of Din-i-illahi with Vishnu as the god and he his messiah. Then there is a group of women who bring them bottles of milk from the booth and dabbas for the solitary widower, a paanwalla and cigarette wallahs. It is a compact little group which lives in comparative harmony till Kavita Asrani after having said “Yes” to an arranged marriage, elopes with Salim. And ditches him half-way because she can’t stand travelling in a cramme second-class compartment in a train going to Jhansi. Meanwhile, communal passions build up in the block of flats. What’s the Muslim Chhokra doing to a Hindu Devi, running with her in the darkness of the night? A Hindu mob armed with lathis breaks into the Jalal’s flat and clobbers Mrs Jalal. Her husband tries to climb up to the widower’s balcony, dangles in the air for as long as he can hold out, then falls to the ground, breaking both legs. He lands in the hospital with his almost-dead wife. The story ends with Kavita playing the role of a wronged heroine while being interrogated by the police.

Manil Suri is undoubtedly a gifted writer who will go very far. All his characters come alive; as does his Mumbai from Colaba, Churchgate, Chowpatty, Kamatipura to Bandra and Kandivili. He has a rare sense of the ludicrous and the erotic; he can be both funny and sensuous at the same time. In addition to all this he knows Hindu mythology and the popular superstitions Hindus share with Muslims. What more does a novelist need? The only flaw in the otherwise highly-readable novel is that Suri pads it with unnecessary detail to give it a saleable size and seems to be at his wits’ end by the time it concludes.

Beauty queens

I have known a lot of beautiful women of whom only two bothered to pit their good looks against other girls of their age. And won. One was the late Persis Khambata who made her mark as an actress playing a stellar role in Startrek and the other was Anjana Kuthiala. Others I knew only from their photographs which appeared in the papers. With the exception of Sushmita Sen who is evidently very bright and Aishwarya Rai whom I give the benefit of doubt regarding her IQ, the rest I found singularly uninteresting: Bimbos without much brains. Who wants to befriend a beautiful doll?

One afternoon one walked into my room accompanied by her mother and D. N. Chaudhary, crusading to eradicate blindness in Himachal Pradesh. She was Ritu Upadhyay, Chicago-born daughter of Uttaranchali parents who migrated to the United States. Ritu is certainly no bimbo. She is a working journalist on the staff of Time magazine and now lives in New York. She was on one of her two-yearly visits to India to refresh her roots. Though she has lived all her 23 years in America, she speaks Hindi and Kumaoni fluently. So strong is the pull of the country that she has decided to marry an Indian if she can find a suitable boy.

What was charming about Ritu is that she had no intentions of entering in a beauty contest but was persuaded to represent Illinois because the chosen candidate was not available. And she is Miss India Worldwide 2001.

D.N. Chaudhary has ‘adopted’ her as his daughter-cum-helper in his campaign. She has donated her eyes and is persuading others to do the same to help restore vision to those who cannot get eye-donors — the same as Aishwarya Rai is doing in Mumbai. Ritu has no desire to enter the films or the model world; she finds all the fulfilment she needs in journalism.

I am fine thank you

There is nothing the matter with me

I’m as healthy as I can be

I have arthritis in both my knees

And when I talk, I talk with a wheeze

My pulse is weak and my blood is thin

But I’m awfully well for the shape I’m in.

My real problem is my “get up and go”

Got up and went, but before going

He winked and whispered in my ear

Don’t tell people some of the places

You and I have been to.

Arch support I have for my feet

Or I wouldn’t be able to walk in the street

Sleep is denied to me, night after night

But every morning I find I’m all right

My memory is failing; my head is in a spin

But I’m awfully well for the shape I’m in

Old age is golden, I’ve heard it said

But sometimes I wonder as I get into bed

With my ears in a drawer, my teeth in a cup

My eyes on the table until I wake up

Ere sleep comes o’er me, I say to myself

“Is there anything else I should lay on the shelf?

I come down in the morning and dust off my wits

Pick up the paper and read the ‘obits’

If my name is still missing, I know I’m not dead

So I have a good breakfast and go back to bed.

The moral is this, as this tale I unfold

That for you and me who are growing old

It’s better to say, “I’m fine” with a grin

Than let folks know the real shape I’m in.

— Anonymous

Legends in their lifetime
by Harihar Swarup

BOTH Ustad Bismillah Khan and Lata Mangeshkar, recipients of the Bharat Ratna, have become legends in their lifetime. Both have become synonym of melody; both have achieved divinity in music; both transcend in the realm of spirituality as the rhythm of their notes fill the air. The power of music, it is said, can bring rain and apply a healing touch to ailing persons. Both Bismillah Khan and Lata have attained that level of perfection and, are aptly described by their admirers as “saint singers”. Khan Sahib’s guide and philosopher was his “Mamu” (maternal uncle), who played shehnai at Varanasi’s Vishwanath temple while Lata’s guru was his father, Dina Nath Mangeshkar. Honouring them with the highest award of the land is the best decision that the present government could have taken; it has been widely welcomed.

Though both come from different backgrounds, their life-long pursuit has been the same — music. Both are in the evening of their lives — Khan Sahib is 85 while Lata is 71. Bismillah Khan was born in a princely state of Bihar and his ancestors were court musicians. Lata was born in distant Maharashtra but she too belongs to a family of accomplished musicians. Both are household names in India and their achievements are well known, barring some little known facets of their towering personality.

As a child Bismillah Khan was not interested in studies. While other children of his age group studied at home, he would sneak out and play marbles or play on his Mamu’s shehnai. The Mamu, Ali Bux ‘Vilayatu’, recognised the talent in his nephew and used to say that Bismillah would one day become a maestro. In various interviews Khan Sahib had given, from time to time, he fondly recalled: “Mamu used to do riyaz (practice) at the temple of Balaji for eighteen years. He told me to do the same thing. I would begin my riyaz at the mandir at 7 p.m. and end at 11 p.m.”

Khan Sahib reminisces: “After a year and a half Mamu told me if you see anything don’t talk about it. One night as I was playing deep in mediation, I smelled something. It was an indescribable scent, something like sandalwood and jasmine. I thought it was the aroma of the Ganges but the scent got more powerful. When I opened my eyes, there was Balaji standing right next to me, exactly as he is pictured. My door was locked from inside; nobody was allowed to enter when I did my riyaz. He said ‘play my son’ but I was sweating. I stopped playing”. When young Bismillah, out of anguish, told the experience to his Mamu, he slapped him because he had asked him not to talk about anything that might happen.

To the Mullahs, particularly diehard Shias, whom music is ‘haraam’ (taboo), Khan Sahib’s reply is “if music is ‘haraam’, then why has it reached such heights? Why does music make me soar towards heaven? The religion of music is one; all other are different. I tell Mullahs, this is the only ‘haqeeqat’ (reality). This is my world. My Namaaz is the seven ‘suddh’ and five ‘komal’ surs”. Long back in an interview to India Today, Bismillah Khan recalled that once on his visit to Iran he had an argument with some Shia Maulvis. They were all well-versed in their subjects and were making several effective arguments about the reasons why music ought to be damned. At first I was left speechless. Then I closed my eyes and began to sing Raga Bhairav: “Allah-hee... Allah-hee... Allah-hee....I continued to raise the pitch. When I opened my eyes and I asked them: “Is this haraam? I am calling the God. I am thinking of Him; I am searching for Him. Why do you call my search haraam?”. The Maulvis had no answer.

Khan Sahib’s house in Varanasi in Sarai Harha locality is an example of simplicity; scantily furnished with creaky benches, the living room also serves as the guest room. He does not like flying and travels frequently by train with his troupe, sometime in a second class compartment. His mode of transport in Varanasi has been the cycle rickshaw. Bismillah Khan was barely 20 when he appeared on the centrestage of Indian music like a shining star. The occasion was the All-India Music Conference in Kolkata and the year was 1937. He changed the concept of the shehnai, meant for weddings and religious functions, to higher echelon of instrumental music.

In 1945 a voice rose like a meteor and in the coming years cast its spell on the sub-continent. The voice was of Lata Mangeshkar, a slender teenager who had left her first footprint on a Bollywood music scene dominated by the legendary Shamshad Begum. More than half a century later, that voice, seductive as ever, still reigns supreme despite coming up of two generations of music talents. The nightingale remains firmly seated on her throne.

Late Mangeshkar’s biography, penned by Raju Bharatan is, perhaps, the most readable book ever produced on her. The account — how Lata made a debut in the film world — is worth reproducing. “Lata was first exposed to the dizzy dazzle of Dilip Kumar on a local train, way back in 1947. “Yeh nayi ladki hai, achcha gaati hai” (This is a new girl, she sings well) is how Anil Biswas paraphrased Lata to Dilip. When Dilip was told that Lata was a Maharashtrian, the Pathan in him reacted from the gut. ‘Inka ek problem hota hai’, Dilip said of the Maharashtrian Lata: ‘Inke gaane mein daal-bhaat ki boo aati hai”.

Stung in the tongue with which she was going to win over the world, Lata, the future honeybee, from that very day, sat down to lessons in Urdu from a Maulvi — Shafi — worked ultra-hard, from that pungent point, to “achieve clarity and proper direction” in Urdu language, made for dialogue delivery by Dilip Kumar. Says Raju Bharatan: “At the first opportunity she got to tender a duet with him; she so outsang Dilip Kumar that he realised sharply that the little Maharashtrian girl, of whom he was once ‘daal-bhaat’ dismissively, had, in her singing, mastered the Urdu diction to a point where even Dilip Kumar was ‘easy meat’ for her.”

Sonia's dip into controversy

PHOTOGRAPHERS took positions and television cameramen zoomed in their lens as the Congress President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, arrived at Prayag to take a dip in the confluence of the Ganga, Jamuna and the mythical Saraswati. Their excitement didn't last long as Mrs Sonia Gandhi did not take the plunge and confined herself to taking a symbolic bath. A disappointed photographer on his return to the Capital remarked that what could have turned out to be the picture of the decade turned out to be a dull frame. It may have made for a dull picture but the symbolic dip generated more than its share of interest.

For one, the Congress claimed that Mrs Sonia Gandhi's presence at the Kumbh Mela had showed that the holy event was not the sole property of the so-called Hindutva forces. Political observers also said that Sonia's presence at the world's largest gathering of human beings would take the Congress far in the next UP elections. As for the critics, they also had their say on the event. Friend turned foe and now President of the Nationalist Congress Party, Mr Sharad Pawar, said her dip in the holy waters of the Sangam would not wash her sins in backing the ‘‘corrupt and discredited’’ Laloo-Rabri regime in Bihar.

Special commentary

The Ministry of Defence (MoD), which is responsible for the production of the commentary for the Republic Day parade, put in an extra bit of effort this year to make it more crispy and interesting. Apparently monotony had creeped into the commentary for the parade over the years.

This year the Directorate of Public Relations (DPR), Defence brought in a special person on contract to write a ‘‘crispy’’ piece. This ‘‘special person’’, although retired some years ago from the same directorate, was responsible for overseeing the contents of the commentary which the Additional PIO (Defence) used to do earlier. This despite the fact that not only are PIB officials specially deputed for writing the commentary but the three services also provide additional men to help clear the additional work. The PROs of the three services in South Block are put on the job and PROs from other regions are also called in to assist on these special days.

The appointment of this gentleman on contract has raised many an eyebrow and the question being asked is what additional input would this retired official provide which the Additional PIO could not? After all, there is not much change in the content over the years which needed the setting of this precedent. Incidentally, the person in question is said to be close to the Additional PIO (Defence) and was also brought into the directorate on the occasion of Independence Day last year to help the staff there.

Bold assertion

India's recent test-firing of the Agni II missile has pleased all those who wanted the country to boldly assert her prowess in the light of heavy weaponisation in the neighbourhood. Coming as it did during the visit of senior Chinese leader Li Peng, many saw the timing as more than mere coincidence. For it was China which had conducted its biggest nuclear test during the Indian President's visit to Beijing.

Legacy logic

Mrs Sonia Gandhi may be known as the Congress President to the educated classes in the urban areas, to the rural masses she remains the ‘‘bahu’’ of the Nehru-Gandhi family. Lakhs of people who had converged into a rally in a backward Chattisgarh village recently were not there to listen to the Congress President. They were there to see and hear the ‘‘bahu’’. From the time her helicopter was spotted to the time it left the venue, the crowd was in a state of excitement. Every time Mrs Gandhi waved her hand, people cheered. The loudest applause came when she referred to the welfare schemes launched in the name of Indira Gandhi on her birthday by the new State Government. Legacy, it seems, has its own logic.

Cable war

Residents of the Capital during the past few days have been witness to a major war between the satellite channels. Majority areas in Delhi have not been able to watch the channels being beamed by the Star TV network. The reason: Siti Cable which has a major control over the cable distribution in the city and is owned by none other than the promoters of Zee TV, are not ready to give Star TV network a hefty raise in the amount being presently charged by it to provide the signals for the channels. As a result majority of Delhi's residents have not been able to watch their favourite programmes being aired by the Star TV network. This includes the highly favourite, ‘‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’’.

One wonders whether Zee TV has thought of this hard way to defeat the popularity of ‘‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’’, which it failed so miserably in doing through its ‘‘Sawaal Dus Crore Ka’’.

Red or violet, the tape matters

The systemic red tape just refuses to disappear in India. Even if it camouflages itself in garishly attractive hues to conceal its infamous characteristics. The release of the 16th Power Survey was a case in point. The Union Power Minister, Mr Suresh Prabhu, struggled hard to cut through the violet tape anchoring the jazzy wrap-up covering the report, so much so that even scissors could not make much headway. A visibly embarrassed Mr Prabhu, after finally breaking through the tape, noted that this was perhaps a manifestation of the traits of red-tapism, which is often held to be the root of many pitfalls in the country's economic reforms programme. Yes, Mr Minister, complexion at best can be skin deep but features are buried within.

Bedouin Jaswant

It was more than diplomacy that enabled External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh to strike an instant rapport with the leadership in Saudi Arabia during his recent visit to Riyadh. The Saudi leadership felt that Mr Jaswant Singh was one amongst them. His counterpart in Saudi Arabia compared Mr jaswant Singh to a Bedouin saying like a nomadic Arab of the desert the Indian Minister also hailed from the desert State of Rajasthan.

(Contributed by Satish Misra, T.V.Lakshminarayan, Girija Shankar Kaura, Prashant Sood, Gaurav Choudhury and P. N. Andley)

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

Everyone has his strong points as well as his weak points and everyone is liable to error. If you make it a points and everyone is liable to error. If you make it a point to pick holes in another's work, you will develop a very bad habit in course of time and begin to find fault with activities of the activities of the purest type. The result will be that you will grow miserable yourself, and will make others miserable. Instead of this if you cultivate the habit of observing only the good points of others your outlook will assume a native character. The brightness of your mind will increase. You will get peace. From this habit of observing only the good points of others and see how you feel.

*****

Do not probe others errors, forget them if you observe them, appreciate from the bottom of your heart their good motive, industry and devotion to work, and try to discover the good points in their work. Make yourself virtuous and good.

*****

It is the impurity of your own mind that is mainly responsible for bringing to your notice only the dark side of other's character. Make your own mind faultless and you will find that the number of sinners in this world is very much reduced.

*****

Cultivate the habit of observing your own faults, examine the weaknesses of your heart very critically and you will realise that your heart is full of impurities; then you will hardly find any time to detect the faults of others.

— Hanumanprasad Poddar, Wavelets of Bliss

*****

Judge not, that ye be not judged.

For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

Or how wilt thou say to thy brother,

Let me pull out the mote out of Thine eyes;

and behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cost out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

— The Gospel According to St. Matthew, chapter 7:1-5

*****

One may build fortresses and seek the protection

of a myriad hosts;

When strikes the All-Death, he would be saved not.

One may write out a myriad Yantras

repeat a myriad mantras:

Save for God man has no other refuge.

*****

They whose name resounded through all continents,

And who, with the power of arms, snatched

the rule of the earth,

They performed a myriad yagnas, and gathered much praise,

But those mighty ones too were conquered

by the all-powerful Time.

— Guru Gobind Singh, Vachitra Natak, Bhuyang Prayat Chhand, 61, 66, 68; Rasaval Chhand, 71-72, 75