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I was not aware that the Sikhs had any connection with the Jains in their history. Their religions have very little in common. Jainism is basically atheistic with a rigid ethical code, requiring respect for all forms of life. Jains are strict vegetarians and Spartan, and they extol the virtue of starving oneself to death to achieve moksha (salvation). Sikhism, on the other hand, believes in one God, its Ten Gurus and its scriptures, the Granth Sahib. It calls upon its followers to work hard, share ones earnings and lead a fulfilled life. Most Sikhs are meat eaters and decry vegetarians as daal khorey (lentil eaters). Nevertheless, there were some eminent Jains who admired the Sikh Gurus and came to their help in difficult times.
I am beholden to Mahender Kumar Mast of Panchkula for information on the subject. When Guru Tegh Bahadar was on his preaching mission in East India, he and his family were invited to stay in his haveli in Patna by Salaas Rai Johri. While he went on to Bengal and Assam, his family stayed in the haveli in Patna. In his hukamnamas sent from Assam, Guru Sahib referred to Patna as Guru-ka-Ghar home of the Guru. Thereafter, Saalas Rai donated half of his haveli to build Gurdwara Janam Sthaan because Guru Gobind Singh was born there. On the other half he built Shvetamber Jain Temple both share a common wall. Dewan Todar Mal was an Oswal Jain who rose to become a Dewan in the court of Nawab Wazir Khan of Sirhind. When the Nawab had Guru Gobind Singhs two younger sons put to death, it was Todar Mal who conveyed the sad news to their grandmother who died of shock and had the three bodies cremated with religious rites. On the site of the cremation at Fatehgarh Sahib, now stands Gurdwara Jyoti Sarup. A large hall of this gurdwara honours the builder by being named after him Dewan Todar Mal Jain Yadgari Hall. Stapler mania I suffer from a mild disease that I can only describe as stapler allergy. No sooner do I get a letter which has had staplers punched in it, my temperature begins to rise. At times I am tempted to throw it in the grate, which I use as a wastepaper basket in summer and a fireplace during cold winter evenings. I hold my hand lest the envelope contains a cheque. Since some envelopes have many staplers punched on them, I have to be very careful in opening such letters as more than once I cut my fingers, and have drops of blood oozing out of them. It appears stapler fixation is peculiar to Indians. I receive quite a lot of foreign mail. Not one country, not even Pakistan or Bangladesh, suffers from the fetish of punching staplers in their letters because they are not at all necessary. We Indians continue to indulge in this pointless exercise without giving it a second thought. Government departments, industrial houses, banks, down to the humblest citizens, believe that a letter is not safe unless it has been stapled. It is time we cure ourselves of this disease. Gum seals an envelope effectively. BJPs wonderful songs LK Advani Dost dost na raha; AB Vajpayee Sajan re jhoot mat bolo; Jaswant Singh Mere dushman tu meri dosti ko tarse; Rajnath Singh Jayen to jayen kahan; Mohan Bhagwat Aanewale ko aana hoga, jaanewale ko jaana hoga; Yashwant Sinha Yeh mera prem patr padh kar; Arun Shourie Likhey jo khat tujhey; Sushma Swaraj Aap ki nazron ney samjha; Arun Jaitley Tere mere sapne ab ek rang hain; Ananth Kumar Jo tum ko ho pasand; Venkaiah Naidu Hamey tum se pyar kitna; Murli Manohar Joshi Abhi to main jawan hoon; Brajesh Mishra Woh bhooli daastaan lo phir yaad aa gayi. (Contributed by KJS Ahluwalia, Amritsar) Best recipe An old tea-planter was a hard drinker.
His hobby was cooking. He used to prepare some chicken items very tasty
and delicious. One of his young colleagues took some recipes from his
senior, which were neatly typed. Leafing through the pages, he found
that each recipe started out in the same fashion: "First, pour
three to four dollops of whiskey into the cook" (Contributed by
Reeten Ganguly, Tezpur). |
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