Literary Vibes - Edition CXVIX (29-July-2022) - ESSAYS, ANECDOTES & TRAVELOGUES
Title : Stairways to Heaven
(Picture courtesy Ms. Neeraja Sundar Rajan)
(S. Neeraja is a healthcare professional with a Masters in Chemical Engineering. She is multifaceted with a passion for art and Carnatic Music. She is an animal lover who cares deeply about their welfare.)
Table of Contents :: ESSAYS, ANECDOTES, TRAVELOGUES
01) Dr. Ramesh Chandra Panda
GLIMPSES OF OUR HERITAGE - WHY SHIVA IS CALLED ARDHANARISHWAR?
02) Punyasweta Mohanty
ELEPHANTS IN THE ROOM
03) Bidhu K Mohanti
EXERCISE KEEPS YOUR BRAIN YOUNG
04) Hema Ravi
THE WHAT, WHEN, WHO, HOWAND WHYOF “PROMPTS”
05) Avaya C Mohapatra
A TALE OF TWO KINGS
06) Dinesh Chandra Nayak
READING HABITS: WRITERS THEN AND NOW
07) Nitish Nivedan Barik
A LEAF FROM HISTORY
08) Pradeep Biswal
JAYANT MAHAPATRA: THE DOYEN OF POETRY
09) Jayshree M. Tripathi
THE DIPLOMATIC TRAILING SPOUSE
10) Prof. Viyatprajna Acharya, MD, PhD
AS A MAN THINKETH
11) Sheena Rath
ON THE ROAD
12) Shruti Sarma
FEAR OF GHOSTS
13) Prabhanjan K. Mishra
IN LADAKH, THE LAND OF LAMAS, JUNE 2022
14) Bidhu K Mohanti
AMARNATH YATRA - MOUNTAIN PILGRIMAGE
15) Gourang Charan Roul
A WEEK IN THE LAP OF HIMALAYAS
GLIMPSES OF OUR HERITAGE - WHY SHIVA IS CALLED ARDHANARISHWAR?
Curiosity arose in the mind to know the reasons and legends on Lord Shiva assuming the Ardhanarishvara avatar. Questions like why Shiva became half male and half female, which side of Shiva became male and female and what do they signify? Whether any other Gods have Ardhanariswar image in Hinduism? Of course, these questions perplexed me and related puranas and books gave me reasonable clarity.
The form of Ardhanari in Hinduism
In Hinduism, God is being imagined and perceived in different ways. Generally the approaches are (i) many Hindus focus upon impersonal Absolute (Brahman) which is genderless; (ii) the Shakti tradition conceives of God as a female; (iii) there are devotees of Bhakti tradition who consider Gods and their respective Goddess consorts as distinct for worship purposes; and (iv) Shaivites in general accept Ardhanareeswar avatar of Shiva which represent Shiva and Parvati together.
In Bhakti schools of thinkers indicate that the devotees worship both the genders together as the divine couple rather than a specific gender. The common separation of Shakti (Energy) and Shaktiman (Energetic) principle in God and they arrive at the conclusion that both Shakti and Shaktiman are the same; every masculine form of God has their partner female counterpart (Shakti) and without this divine energy he is sometimes viewed as the one without the essential divine power.
From the Vaishnava point of view, the divine feminine energy (Shakti) implies a divine source of energy of the masculine aspect of God, "Sita relates to Rama; Lakshmi belongs to Narayana; Radha has her Krishna." The female, in these divine pairs, is viewed as the source of energy and essence of the male form. One of the prominent features of Vaishnavism in Manipur is the worship of the two genders together. Devotees do not worship Krishna or Radha as separate, but they worship Radha-Krishna together. In India dancers of the regional folk and religious tradition follow Rasa as a feature and often the dancer portrays both Krishna and his consort Radha as non separable in the same piece of dance.
The form of Ardhanari or the incarnation of cosmic union not only enchanted the artists but also the visionaries, dancers and devotees. The Ardhanari forms of other deities (Krishna, Vishnu, Ganesha) used to be conceived and worshipped.
Ardhanarishwara or the Hermaphrodite form of Shiva has always enchanted the dancers owning to its uniqueness where a dancer can depict both male and female attributes as well as the femininity in the male form and vice-versa. However, the artist should also explore the philosophy and iconography behind this form to depict this form subtly as well as deeply. The Ardha-Nari forms of other deities are yet unexplored by the dancers. Especially, Ardha-Nari-Krishna or Ardha-Radha-Venudhar form which goes in sync with the content today presented in all classical dances. There is wide scope for dancers to study and choreograph these other Ardha-Nari forms.
Ardhanari-Ganesh : Halayudh Stotra which is of around 11th century mentions about Ganesh in Ardhanari form. A rare idol of Ardha-nari-Ganesh with twelve arms is placed in a temple at Goregaon, Raigad (Maharashtra).
Ardhanari Krishna: Krishna and Radha are always seen as emblem of sublime and the two bodies with one soul. Ardhanari-Krishna where half part of Krishna is Radha is mentioned in Puranas. Brahmavaivarta Purana mentions the form where right half is Krishna and left half is Radha. Ardha-Radha-Venudhar-Murti is a unique idol found recently at Chaul, Maharashtra which has ten arms. Its left half is of brass depicting Lord Krishna whereas right half is made of copper depicting Radha. This form is Venu-Dhar which means it is shown Krishna playing flute with two frontal normal hands of both the male and female parts.
Ardha-Nari-Vishnu: The form of Ardha-Nari-Vishnu or Ardha-Nari-Narayana are rare and mostly found in Kashmir and Nepal. Shilparatna on SriKumara mentions ARdhanari Vishnu (The united body of Vishnu and Lakshmi). A similar Ardha-Nari form of Vishnu is also depicted in Tantric texts with the name: Vaikuntha-Kamalja with left half having attributes of Vishnu and right half having attributes of Lakshmi.
Meaning of Ardhanarishvara
Next question relates to the meaning of Ardhanareeswar which is a combination of three Sanskrit words viz “Ardha,” “Nari,” and “Ishwara” which mean “half,” “woman,” and “lord,” respectively. When all these arecombined means the God whose half is woman. It is believed that the God is Lord Shiva and the woman part is His consort Goddess Parvati or Shakti. Ardhanarishwara – an androgynous form of Shiva and Parvati is considered the most special. According to several Puranas, including the Shiva Purana and the Narada Purana, if Lord Shiva wouldn’t have appeared in this form, the world would have remained deserted.
The name Ardhanarishvara means "the Lord Who is half woman." Ardhanarishvara is also known by other names like Ardhanaranari ("the half man-woman"), Ardhanarisha ("the Lord who is half woman"), Ardhanarinateshvara ("the Lord of Dance (Who is half-woman),[1][2] Parangada, Naranari ("man-woman"), Ammiappan (a Tamil Name meaning "Mother-Father"), and Ardhayuvatishvara (in Assamese, "the Lord whose half is a young woman or girl"). The Gupta-era writer Pushpadanta in his Mahimnastava refers to this form as dehardhaghatana ("Thou and She art each the half of one body"). Utpala, commenting on the Brihat Samhita, calls this form Ardha-Gaurishvara ("the Lord whose half is the fair one"; the fair one – Gauri – is an attribute of Parvati). The Vishnudharmottara Purana simply calls this form Gaurishvara ("The Lord/husband of Gauri).
Now one may wonder why many temples in India do not have exclusive and dedicated prayers to this form of Lord Shiva? In some parts of our country prayers for Ardhanareeswar continues among Shaivites. Ardhanarishvara is one of the most popular iconographic forms of Shiva and is found in most temples dedicated to Shiva all over India and South-east Asia but temples dedicated to the deity are few. A popular one is located in Thiruchengode, while five others are located in Kallakkurichi taluk, all of them in Tamil Nadu. It is believed that if unmarried men worship this form of Lord Shiva, they get a wife they desire for and live a happy married life.
References in Puranas
In Linga Purana, Vayu Purana, Vishnu Purana, Skanda Purana, Kurma Purana, and Markandeya Purana, Rudra (identified with Shiva) appears as Ardhanarishvara, emerging from Brahma's head, forehead, mouth or soul as the embodiment of Brahma's fury and frustration due to the slow pace of creation. It may be noted that there is no Ardhanarishvara among the 64 manifestations of Parashiva, the aspect of Lord Shiva, who is Absolute, beyond all human comprehension and is hence considered the Nirguna Brahman (the Supreme One, who is beyond attributes).Shiva is represented in a variety of forms: in a mood with his consort Parvati and son Skanda, as the cosmic dancer (Nataraja); as a naked ascetic; as a mendicant beggar; as a yogi; as a dalit accompanied by a dog (Bhairava); and Shiva’s female consort is known under various manifestations as Uma, Sati, Parvati, Durga, and Kali. Shiva is also sometimes paired with Shakti, the embodiment of power. He is both the great ascetic and the master of fertility, and he is the master of both poison and medicine, through his ambivalent power over snakes. As Lord of cattle (Pashupata), he is the benevolent herdsman or at times, the merciless slaughterer of the “beasts”. Although some of the combinations of roles may be explained by Shiva’s identification with earlier mythological figures, they arise primarily from a tendency in Hinduism to see complementary qualities in a single ambiguous figure.
The Linga Purana advocates the worship of Ardhanarishwara by devotees to attain union with Shiva upon dissolution of the world and thus attain salvation. The Nayanar saints of Tamil Nadu sang the hymns in praise of Ardhanariswar. While Sundarar the 8th-century Nayanar saint says that Shiva is always inseparable from Parvati; Sambandar another 7th-century Nayanar saint describes how the "eternal feminine" is not only His consort, but she is also part of Him. Manikkavacakar the 9th-century Nayanar saint describes Parvati in the role of the supreme devotee of Shiva in his hymns. He prays Ardhanarishvara several times and regards it the ultimate goal of a devotee to be united with Shiva as Parvati is in the Ardhanarishvara form. The renowned Sanskrit writer Kalidasa praises Ardhanarishvara in the invocations of his Raghuvamsa and Malavikagnimitram, and says that Shiva and Shakti are as inseparable as word and meaning.
Vagarthaviva sampriktau vagarthah pratipattaye |
Jagatah pitarau vande parvathiparameshwarau ||
– Raghuvamsha 1.1
Meaning: In this sloka, mata and pitr are compounded to get a single word pitarau. In other words, two words are combined to get one to emphasize oneness of the two (Lord Shiva and Parvati). Similarly, sampriktau means samyak priktau (properly together; inseparable). This word is to indicate the intricate blend and togetherness.
Origin of Ardhanarishvara concept
It is believed that Ardhanarishvara concept may have been inspired by Vedic literature's composite figure of Yama-Yami, the Vedic descriptions of the primordial Creator. Some also indicate and trace back the origin of the concept of Ardhanarishvara to hermaphrodite figures in both the ancient Hindu and Greek cultures. The earliest images of Ardhanarishvara date back to the Kushan era, records of which exist from the first century CE. It is believed that the iconography of Ardhanarishvara evolved and perfected during the Gupta period. A mid-first century Kushan era stela in the Mathura Museum has a half-male, half-female image, along with three other figures identified with Vishnu, Gaja Lakshmi and Kubera. The concept of Ardhanarishvara continues to be a popular iconographic form and can be found in most Shiva temples throughout India. It is believed that the early iconography of Ardhnareeshwara could have been inspired by the Vedic literature's composite figure of Yama-Yami, the combination of the primordial Creator Vishvarupa or Prajapati and Agni, the Fire God. This figure appears as a bull that is also a cow. Interestingly, the androgynous forms of Hermaphroditus and Agdistis are famous in Greek mythology as well.
The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad reveals that this androgynous form occurs as a result of Purusha splitting himself into two parts, male and female. These two halves copulate, thereby producing all life. The Shwetashwatara Upanishad also talks about Rudra, the antecedent of the Puranic Shiva, the maker of all and the root of Purusha and Prakriti (the female principle), adhering to Samkhya philosophy.
The earliest images of Ardhanarishvara show the male half as ithyphallic with an urdhvalinga and the female left having a rounded breast and holding a mirror. This is the commonest representation of Ardhanarishvara, which is also universally recognized. The right side which shows the male half with matted hair, a skull and crescent moon, while the left female side has well-combed hair decorated with pearls and flowers and wears a patra-kundala (earring). The face of Ardhanarishvara has one common third eye as well. The earliest Kushan images showed Lord Ardhanarishvara in a simple two-armed form, but later texts and sculptures depict a more complex iconography of the deity. One can also find the deity with three, sometimes even eight arms. In the case of three arms, Parvati "owns" only one of them, thereby showing her submissive, less dominant nature.
The male part of Ardhanariswar
Along the central vertical axis of Ardhanariswara male and female halves are distinctly differentiated. The right half of Ardhanariswara comprises male part and the left that of the female. A few images, created by the Shakti sect provide pre eminence to the power of the Goddess Shakti, and have reversed placement of the male and female parts.
The male half of Ardhanarisvara is the typical features of Shiva physique being very masculine. The male half wears a headdress formed of piled, matted hair called as a jata-mukuta, adorned with a crescent moon and he wears male earrings. Sometimes the jata-mukuta is adorned with serpents and the river goddess Ganga flowing through the hair. The right ear wears a nakra-kundala, sarpa-kundala ("serpent-earring") or ordinary kundala ("earring"). He has a flat pectoral muscle, a broad shoulder, and a wide waist, as well as a muscular thigh. Furthermore, the male side is ornamented with all the typical accessories of a Shiva, such as draped garments or a tiger-skin around his waist. The right side of Ardhanarisvara is covered with ashes, or else painted red to depict Shiva's Rudra aspect. Sometimes, the male eye is depicted smaller than the female one and a half-moustache is also seen. A half third eye (trinetra) is prescribed on the male side of the forehead; a full eye may also be depicted in the middle of forehead separated by both the sides or a half eye may be shown above or below Parvati's round dot. A common elliptical halo (prabhamandala/prabhavali) may be depicted behind the head; and the shape of the halo may differ on either side.
In the four-armed form, a right hand holds a parashu (axe) and another makes an abhaya mudra (gesture of reassurance), or one of the right arms is slightly bent and rests on the head of Shiva's bull mount, Nandi, while the other is held in the abhaya mudra gesture. Another configuration suggests that a right hand holds a trishula (trident) and another makes a varada mudra (gesture of blessing). Another scripture prescribes that a trishula and akshamala (rosary) are held in the two right hands. In the two-armed form, the right hand holds a kapala (skull cup) or gestures in a varada mudra. He may also hold a skull. In the Badami relief, the four-armed Ardhanarishvara plays a veena using a left and a right arm, while other male arm holds a parashu and the female one a lotus. The Shiva half has a flat masculine chest, a straight vertical chest, broader shoulder, wider waist and muscular thigh. He wears a yagnopavita (sacred thread) across the chest, which is sometimes represented as a naga-yagnopavita (a snake worn as a yagnopavita) or a string of pearls or gems. The yajnopavita may also divide the torso into its male and female halves. He wears ornaments characteristic of Shiva's iconography, including serpent ornaments.
In some North Indian images, the male half may be nude and connotes the practice of celibacy and represents the deity as "the one who stands for complete control of the senses, and for the supreme carnal renunciation" other images found in North India include full or half phallus and one testicle. However, such image is not found in South India. The clothes are usually covered in a garment (dhoti) of silk or cotton, or the skin of a tiger or deer), typically down to the knee, and held in place by a sarpa-mekhala, serpent girdle or jewellery. The right leg may be somewhat bent or straight and often rests on a lotus pedestal (padma-pitha). The whole right half is described as smeared with ashes and as terrible and red-coloured or gold or coral in appearance; however, these features are rarely depicted.
The female part of Ardhanariswar
The female half of the image is distinguished by a different hairstyle, which is either held in a braid or in a bun. Her forehead bears a half tilaka, or dot (bindi), placed beneath the third eye. Her eye is larger than Shiva's, and the left ear wears earrings designed for women called valika. On the whole, the left side is more curvaceous, with a smaller waist and fuller hip as well as a rounder, well-developed breast. Her ornamentation is greater and decidedly female, including draped silk clothing which reaches her ankles, saffron body powder, anklets, bracelets and henna colouring her left foot and hand. This half of the body is typically coloured saffron or parrot-green. The left eye is painted with black eyeliner. While the male neck is sometimes adorned with a jewelled hooded serpent, the female neck has a blue lotus matching it. The parrot may be also perched on Parvati's wrist. Her hand(s) is/are adorned with ornaments like a keyura (anklet) or kankana (bangles).
Parvati has a well-developed, round bosom and a narrow feminine waist embellished with various religious bracelets (haras) and other ornaments, made of diamonds and other gems. She has a fuller thigh and a curvier body and hip than the male part of the icon. The torso, hip and pelvis of the female are exaggerated to emphasize the anatomical differences between the halves. Though the male private parts may be depicted, the female genitalia are never depicted and the clothes are always draped. She wears a multi-coloured or white silken garment down to her ankle and one or three girdles around her waist. The left half wears an anklet and her foot is painted red with henna. The left leg may be somewhat bent or straight, resting on a lotus pedestal. In contrast to the Shiva half, the Parvati half – smeared with saffron – is described as calm and gentle, fair and parrot-green or dark in colour. She may be draped in a sari covering her torso and legs. Several features are shared between the male and female sides. A halo often illuminates the entirety of the deity from behind Lord’s head. Sometimes the male and female halves share a third eye. In all the images of the Ardhanariswar, the navel, chest ornamentations, bracelets, anklets, neck pieces, rings, and belts are common for the male and female parts. From the Gupta period onward (320-600 C.E.), the sacred thread appears upon the deity and more often, it takes the form of a serpent and crosses the upper torso of both the male and female halves.
The Ardhanarishvara image may be endowed with two, three, or four arms, although they sometimes number as high as eight. Two-armed Ardhanarisvara images are the earliest. In these images, the deity holds the male hand in the abhaya mudra, the gesture in which the hand faces toward the onlooker with fingers straight, serving to impart fearlessness. The female hand carries either a mirror (darpana) or a blue lotus (nilotpala).
In three-armed images, two of Ardhanarisvara's arms are shown on the male side while only one is placed on the female side.
Four-armed images are usually divided at the elbows, with one male hand remaining in the abhaya mudra while the other most commonly holds a Parasu (axe) or trident. This hand also holds a rosary, sword, club, thunderbolt, skull, or noose. On four-armed images, one arm on the female half is bent and rests on Nandi the white bull Shiva's vehicle, or else is held in the kataka mudra, a gesture of intellectual engagement. These hands may also hold the water pot (Kamandalu), a mirror, the lotus flower, the veena, a drum (damaru), or a small parrot.
In sculpture, Ardhanarishvara is depicted in a number of bodily postures. The most common is the tribhanga, a posture with three mild curves: One in the head, which leans to the left, another in the torso, which leans to the right, and the third in the right leg, which leans to the right. Also recorded are the atibhanga, a posture with more pronounced curves, and the abhanga or sthanamudra, a straight posture. Sometimes the deity is seated upon a pedestal, such as the lotus (padmasana). While significant numbers of seated images of the deity can be found, they are not nearly as common as those in which she/he is standing.
The closer attention is given to the contrasting complexions of his/her halves in the modern images of the Ardhanariswar. The male half usually takes on the bluish tone typical of Shiva, while the female half is golden in colour. Parvati is often depicted in proximity to her lion vehicle, while Shiva is accompanied by Nandi the white bull. The images are often placed against the backdrop the Himalayas where Shiva meditated upon Mount Kailas. The Ganges is commonly shown flowing from Shiva's head and into the mountains.
The legends
There are legends in different Puranas. Let us go through some of those.
Shiva Puran
As per Shiva Purana, the legend goes as follows: Lord Shiva’s Ardhanarishwar avatar began after the completion of the creation of the world by Lord Brahma. Brahma, after creating the world, noticed that there was no further growth in the world. Everything remained exactly the same as he created. The number of animals, birds, humans, and insects that he created were not increasing as he had created only male beings. Seeing this, Brahma got really perplexed. He approached Lord Vishnu who realising the stagnant world asked him to do the penance before Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva was pleased with Brahma’s harsh tenacity and ordered him to create the Maithuni creation. Brahma asked Lord Shiva to explain the meaning of the Maithuni creation. Lord Shiva then took the Ardhanarishvara avatar and revealed half of his body in a feminine form. This was when the male and female parts were separated. Brahma requested the female half of Lord Shiva namely Parvati to give him a female so that his creation ‘the world’ can continue to grow. Parvati agreed to Brahma’s prayer and created a female taking powers from her body.
Skanda Purana
As per Skanda Purana, Goddess Parvati requested Lord Shiva to allow her to reside with him with their “limb-to-limb” embracing each other, thereby creating the ‘Ardhanarishwar form’ of Shiva. It tells us that when Andhaka (the demon) wanted to seize Goddess Parvati to make her his wife, it was Lord Vishnu who rescued Parvati and brought her to His abode. This was when the demon followed Goddess Parvati and she revealed her Ardhanarishvara form to him. Seeing the half-male and half-female form the demon lost interest in her and left. Seeing this form of Goddess Parvati, Lord Vishnu was amazed and could see himself in the female part of the form.
Tamil Nadu temple mythology
The Tamil temple mythology narrates that once the Gods and Sages had gathered at Lord Shiva’s abode. They paid their respects to Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. However, Bhringi, the sage, vowed to worship only Lord Shiva and ignored Goddess Parvati. Being agitated about this, Goddess Parvati cursed Bhringi to lose all his flesh and blood and reduced Bhringi to a skeleton. Bhringi in skeleton could not stand upright. So, the compassionate lord Shiva who witnessed the scene blessed the sage with a third leg for support. As her attempt to humiliate the sage failed, Goddess Parvati punished herself with austerities that pleased Lord Shiva and led him to grant her the boon of uniting with him, thereby compelling Bhringi to worship her as well, in the form of Ardhanarishwara. The sage Bhringi faked the form of a beetle and walked around only the male half, drilling a hole in the deity. Amazed by his devotion, Goddess Parvati then reconciled with the sage and blessed him
Other Puranas
In other Puranas like the Linga Purana, Vayu Purana, Vishnu Purana, Kurma Purana, and Markandeya Purana, Rudra (identified as Lord Shiva) appears as Ardhanarishwara, emerging from Brahma’s head, forehead, mouth or soul as the manifestation of Brahma’s frustration, due to the slow pace of creation.
In the oral tradition of Nath Jogis it is said that sages who visited Mount Kailas were at first horrified to find Shiva in an intimate embrace with his consort disregarding their presence. Then they realized that for Shiva to stop and pull back would be like asking the right half of the body to separate from the left half. So they saluted Shiva and visualized him as the half-woman God.
A folk tale from the hills of North India tells us that when Parvati saw Ganga on top of Shiva’s head, she was furious. How he could keep another woman on Shiva’s head when his wife sat on his lap, she wondered. To pacify Parvati, Shiva merged his body with hers. He, thus, became half a woman.
Interpretations
Ardhanariswara explains a fact of biological necessity; that is, the pairing of male and female in order to create life. The hatha yoga tradition attempts to put this noble idea into practice by focusing upon Shiva and Shakti being interdependent, undivided whole. With this in mind, the goal of the practitioner in the hatha yoga system is to achieve sustained experience of Ardhanariswara as "divine, non-dual, and androgynous." In doing so, the kundalini-Shakti can readily be drawn upward from the base on the spine to Shiva's sahasrara chakra at crown of the head. Once this yogic action is performed, Shiva and Shakti are united. The yogi can proceed to the final stage of liberation (the supreme Parashiva), which is said to be characterized by formlessness and the absence of gender.
However, some feminists have disagreed with the assertion that Ardhaniswara is the epitome of sexual unity and equality. Such critiques begin by pointing out that Ardhanariswara refers to the "lord who is half woman" as opposed to a "half-man, half-woman." This phrasing suggests the inherent male nature of the deity and privileges him with the status of "God," "lord," or "master;" Parvati meanwhile, is simply "woman" (nari). It has also been noted that the left side of the body is generally thought to be subordinate to the right in Hindu philosophy. Thus, the male right side of Ardhanariswara gains pre eminence over the female side. The said concept of liberation serves as a stepping stone which has been labelled as a male-identified variation of non-duality. As a result, Shakti's manifestation is said to be quelled entirely and so she loses her ability to act, rendering her no different from Shiva, the inactive principle. Thus, at the highest level of spiritual attainment, the female half of Ardhanariswara is subsumed into its male half, which seems incongruent with the notion of equality of the sexes that the deity symbolizes.
Ardhanarishvara represents the synthesis of masculine and feminine energies of the universe (Purusha and Prakriti) and illustrates how Shakti, the female principle of God, is inseparable from (or the same as, according to some interpretations) Shiva, the male principle of God, and vice versa. The union of these principles is exalted as the root and womb of all creation. Another view is that Ardhanarishvara is a symbol of Shiva's all-pervasive nature.
Devdutta Pattnaik a famous author of spiritual and religious books, wrote in Devlok, January 13, 2013 that “Shiva is half woman God or Ardharnareshwar (ardha-nari-ishwar). This image is often assumed to represent gender equality.” The male and female halves of the image have the representation of gender-neutral ideas. He elucidates that God, in Hindu mythology, represents human imagination that can be worshipped or not worshipped while Goddess represents nature. Human imagination needs nature but nature does not need human imagination. Hence God becomes half the Goddess but the Goddess never becomes half a God. These definitions of God and Goddess are unique to Hindu traditions, and not found in other parts of the world. They are often confused with biblical notions of God, which is an external agency outside humanity and nature. He further states that compared to the images, stories of Ardhanareshwara are relatively rare and he narrates from Linga Puran. In the beginning, a lotus bloomed. In it sat Brahma. On becoming conscious, he realized he was alone. Lonely, frightened, he wondered how he could create another being to give him company. Suddenly a vision flashed before his eyes. He saw Shiva whose right half was male and left half was female. Inspired, Brahma divided himself into two. From the right half came all things male and from the left half came all things female.
Adi Shankaracharya composed nine shlokas Ardhanariswar Stotram in narrating Shiva and Shakti together in one body. He narrates Ardhanariswar as the creator and creation representing Shiva the un-manifest and Shakti the manifest. Shiva is the formless and Shakti the formed Ardhanarishwara form also illustrates how the Shakti the female principle of God is inseparable from the male principle of God, Shiva.
The form of Ardhanari or the incarnation of cosmic union not only enchanted the artists but also the visionaries and devotees of other schools and sects. The Ardhanari forms of other deities were also conceived and worshipped although not as popular as Ardhanarishwara. Krishna, Vishnu, Ganesha are also depicted in Ardhanari form. Ardhanarishwara form of Shiv has always enchanted the dancers owning to its uniqueness where a dancer can depict both male and female attributes as well as the femininity in the male form and vice-versa. However, the artist should also explore the philosophy and iconography behind this form to depict this form subtly as well as deeply. The Ardha-Nari forms of other deities are yet unexplored by the dancers. Especially, Ardha-Nari-Krishna or Ardha-Radha-Venudhar form which goes in sync with the content today presented in all classical dances. There is wide scope for dancers to study and choreograph these other Ardha-Nari forms.
Dr. Ramesh Chandra Panda is a retired Civil Servant and former Judge in the Central Administrative Tribunal. He belongs to the 1972 batch of IAS in Tamil Nadu Cadre where he held many important assignments including long spells heading the departments of Education, Agriculture and Rural Development. He retired from the Government of India as Secretary, Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises in 2008 and worked in CAT Principal Bench in Delhi for the next five years. He is the Founder MD of OMFED. He had earned an excellent reputation as an efficient and result oriented officer during his illustrious career in civil service.
Dr. Panda lives in Bhubaneswar. A Ph. D. in Economics, he spends his time in scholarly pursuits, particularly in the fields of Spiritualism and Indian Cultural Heritage. He is a regular contributor to the Odia magazine Saswata Bharat and the English paper Economic and Political Daily.
“Fight for change? Thirst for difference? Start talking what men avoid talking about”- Toba Beta
My family’s specialty is our dinner-time conversations. The five of us talk about various things ranging from politics and religion to science and technology. Recently though, I have found it increasingly difficult to speak up even in such a protected space as my very own family.
Things are changing. The world is getting increasingly intolerant of the other person’s opinion. If you do not conform, then you become a pariah. It’s getting difficult to speak in public places, to stray away from the crowd. And maybe this is the reason many of us avoid controversial topics like the latest scandal or religion.
Recently my brother had a fight with his best friends. The fight did not even happen face to face but over social media. They were talking about a recent headlining event and opinions varied. While my brother took a more neutral view, his friends took a side that was more to the extreme right. None could tolerate the other, the event escalated and stressed out my brother so much that it took a lot of consolidation from my father to let him drop it. And that’s the thing, in the end, the solution was to simply ignore and drop such topics that might cause unrest.
While this may sound much better than starting a war, it may also mean that we are running away, avoiding topics that make us uncomfortable.
Now, coming back to my family’s dinner conversations, it wasn’t as if there was a dearth of topics but I felt bounded and gagged every time I tried to state my own opinion. I knew I could start a riot, another blame-game and for the sake of peace in the family I kept quiet. Because I did not want to be in an uncomfortable situation I let it go and just went along.
Most of us have felt like this in social situations, this need to conform even when we don’t really agree, to not state our own opinions, to not address uncomfortable topics at all. We don’t talk about suicide, depression, rape, religion, politics or even sex as much as we should. We don’t really delve into full blown conversations, afraid of making others uncomfortable with a single thought dominating all others, ‘what if they judge me?’. And herein lies our fallacy.
People are going to judge no matter what. This happens almost unconsciously. But just for a process as automatic as breathing, we stop trying to make a difference. We tend to protect ourselves from the ‘drama’ that we may cause. But its time, instead of protecting ourselves from discomfort, to face it head-on.
We learn only by stepping out of our comfort zone. Growth, after all, is uncomfortable. We are afraid of embarrassment. What if I am wrong? Am I the only one who thinks this way? Will I be making a big deal out of nothing? Such questions have stopped many of us from achieving a great deal. Imagine a world where Gandhi didn’t stand up because he would have to step out of his comfort zone. What if mother Teresa, turned the other way when she saw the pain of others? What if no one stood up for the rights of women or the LGBTQ+ community because its uncomfortable. One could go on citing such examples.
There is one quote that always helps me when I am in a situation where I am confused whether to speak up or let it be: “if there was any great lesson in life it was this: no battle was ever won by silence” by Shannon L. Adler. One must speak out if they hear casual, unjust, insensitive remarks. We must speak before we are ready to take action. To state one’s own mind is no mean feat. It takes a lot of courage to swim against the tide.
But of course, this is just one side of it. What if someone else is trying to speak their mind? Do we tolerate them? This becomes even more of an issue when the person’s opinions do not coincide with ours. If we go along we are agreeing with them, if we don’t, then we may heat things up. And often times if numbers are on our side we do just that. Why does it feel so bad, make us feel so angry when someone doesn’t believe in what we believe in? It makes us question ourselves. A tiny sliver of doubt threatens our whole belief system, our self-concept, our esteem. It makes us feel vulnerable. While vulnerability is often looked at negatively, it is in fact beautiful.
It takes a lot of courage to feel and admit that one’s feeling vulnerable. It’s not a place of defeat or weakness. Rather it is that place which results in change and creativity. It makes us stronger.
So listening and engaging in others opinions is as much a part of change as stating your own views of the world. Facing things that make us uncomfortable lets us know the whole picture. Otherwise we would end up like the six blind men with the elephant. Beautiful results arise out of healthy debates, results that help us progress, results that are much needed.
So I started talking about uncomfortable topics. At first it was awkward stating my opinions about equality, about sexual orientations and mental health. These were and still are hush-hush topics in many social settings. I faced a lot of resistance and weird looks from my family. The room would be vibrant with voices one moment and the next, it would be drop dead silent. But things have changed, slowly but surely. It’s now much more comfortable to talk about subtle sexism and menstruation even. These are topics I could never imagine talking about with my family, but once I started it was almost as if they were all waiting for someone to speak first. Now they have all started sharing about things that would be otherwise considered controversial. And yes, things do escalate and cause unrest sometimes but we make sure to listen to the other person as much as we can. At least my family has actually become my protected space practically and not just in theory.
The best part? It has done wonders for my mental health and confidence. Where I used to stutter and stammer before I don’t anymore. I am much more comfortable being myself in social settings. The doubts still lurk in the back of my mind but I take the courage and confidence that I get from my protected space and apply it there.
Personally, stepping out of my comfortable psychological space was a truly exhilarating experience. It is still a work in progress. But it makes me a better person each day and the world a better place, one day at a time.
So I encourage you all to address the elephants in the room. Talk about it. Don’t let it suffocate you. Be your own person. And you might just be the change that the world needs.
Punyasweta Mohanty is a 1st year student of MA Psychology at Utkal University. Apart from seriously pursuing her studies to build a career as a child psychologist, she is passionate about literature. Her forte is creative writing. Her articles have been published in online magazines ‘Hashtag Kalakar’ and ‘Utkalayana’. She will welcome feedback on her present article at punyasweta@gmail.com.
EXERCISE KEEPS YOUR BRAIN YOUNG
The human brain reaches adult size by the age of 10; but its wiring and its abilities continue to change through a lifetime.
After the age of 40, the brain begins to shrink in volume. Less blood flows through the brain, and hormone and neurotransmitter levels go down. Ageing leads to slowing down in some functions such as the learning of new tasks.
Learning requires the formation of new connections in the brain, a property called neuroplasticity. Your brain is a dynamic entity that is constantly remodelling itself in response to new experiences.
Some brain structures show greater plasticity and rewiring than others. Ageing affects them more extensively than others. One such structure is the hippocampus. Located between the
ears, it plays a key role in the formation and consolidation of new and lasting memories, and thus of learning and experience. It also creates mental maps of your surroundings, enabling you to find your way home.
Experiments have shown that the brains of older mice have fewer connections, called synapses, between their nerve cells and perform poorly in finding their way through mazes — indicating deficiencies in spatial learning.
MRI studies on the brains of London taxi drivers show that they have an enlarged hippocampus — the city’s roads have been ‘mapped’ in the hippocampus, and this ‘map’ readily expands as experience is gained.
Human studies in this area, however, are confounded by large differences between individuals — some “Super Agers” can even compete with much younger people in memory tests.
Brain injuries The brain’s capacity for rewiring and change is seen in the case of brain injuries resulting from trauma or from a stroke. A large number of brain cells die in such events, leading to a loss of some abilities.
Yet over time, the brain remodels itself, leading to a full or partial restoration of lost abilities. This can be accelerated by medications, stem cell therapy and psychological interventions.
The aging process is often, but not always, accompanied by cognitive decline. Along with memory, executive functions may be impaired — these include the ability to plan and the ability to perform two or more tasks simultaneously.
These changes are a consequence of a reduced ability of the brain to rewire itself, of reduced neuroplasticity. But it is possible to change behavioral and lifestyle patterns to enhance the brain’s ability to adapt, and to function like a younger brain.
Regular exercise and sensible dietary choices are key elements in keeping your brain young, as is an aptitude for learning (mastering a new language, or musical instrument).
Benefits of exercise In aging individuals, exercise reduces the risk from systemic disorders such as heart ailments and high blood pressure. Such disorders elevate the risk of dementia.
Thus, exercise reduces the risk of dementia and debilitating conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Regular exercise also helps you lose weight or at least stop gaining weight or regaining lost weight. The probability of occurrence of cancers of the lung, stomach, colon and bladder is lowered. Exercising individuals are less prone to anxiety and depression.
A significant benefit of exercise in older adults is the lowered risk of falls, and of fall-related injuries. Exercise enhances the stability of your posture, both while standing and when you are in motion, as your brain is being trained over and over to quickly respond to disturbances in your balance (Rogge et al., Neuropsychologia, 2019).
What type of exercise is better? Comparing the results from six months of aerobic endurance training (cycling indoors) with stretching/coordination training show us that in the 40-56 age group, both these activities lead to improvement in memory relative to sedentary individuals.
These activities will of course improve cardiovascular fitness, and participants in the study, who showed the most improvement in their cardiovascular fitness, also had the best improvements in memory. Reverting to lethargy and lowering one’s fitness level negates the gains in memory functions (Hötting and Röder, Neurosci. Behav. Rev, 2013).
Cognitive training, meaning exercising your brain, helps your brain to stay flexible. Combining this with physical exercise shows even better results in improving the cognitive abilities of older people.
The amount of exercise required is another question that older people may worry about.
Health and cognitive parameters in older individuals are often evaluated before and after a 10-minute routine involving some jogging and some walking, “enough to cause a mild sweat but not cause fatigue”. For those above 65, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends 30 minutes of brisk walking five or more times a week.
Bidhu K Mohanti, is an oncologist, former Professor at A.I.I.M.S., Delhi; and is presently the Director KIMS Cancer Centre, Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences(KIMS), K.I.I.T. University, Bhubaneswar 751024, India. He occasionally writes non-medical pieces in popular medium. Email: drbkmohanti@gmail.com
THE WHAT, WHEN, WHO, HOWAND WHYOF “PROMPTS”
What a prompt means and how it works
In conventional parlance, a prompt implies getting ready for action as the occasion befits, a deed executed judiciously without delay or damage to person or property. Prompt medical action during emergencies save lives, prompt measures to correct or avert errors and lead to right decisions; often, well-timed guidance serve as counsel to individuals during periods of distress.
These are many positive things that prompts can do. A fine example is the recent incident on a Go First flight that seems straight out of a thriller film. Swift action by the airline crew and timely intervention of a doctor on board saved the life of a passenger who suffered a cardiac arrest during the flight.
Humans have been associated with verbal and non-verbal prompts right from their childhood. Prompts offer the right scaffolding to infants and toddlers, which foster the growth of their physical and cognitive skills greatly. Videos often show infants reaching out for a particular food, toy and color or attempting a daring activity such as climbing, prompted by an adult. Such prompting augurs the beginning of the child’s skill-acquisition that is necessary for holistic growth.
‘Prompts’ of school days remind students and adults about punctual submissions of projects, assignments, reports and more. Students who submit their work in time satisfactorily are assets to the classroom, teachers’ pride too!
A range of technical and personal skills are developed over the years prompted by family, friends, teachers, and the society at large. For older adults who choose to be learners for life, every small prompt triggers a world of opportunities to unleash the latent potential from within.
A 78 year young grandmother who secured a college diploma was recently in the news. What prompted her to pursue a life-long passion is incredible. “If I could have done cartwheels across the stage, I would have!” (The audience did it for her!) Her words of inspiration would give confidence a host of others to dream high with their ‘eyes open.’
How they empower people at large and give power to the pen
Prompts can be a set of instructions, photographs, paintings, trigger words, phrases, sign posts, objects, sights and sounds in the environment. No matter what form and size they acquire, they are bound to entice and encourage people to unlock their hidden talent.
Small beginnings bring in a sea of changes.
The prompt for the heroic Pandava Arjuna began one dark night. While he was eating, a gust of wind blew off the lamp. He continued to eat in the darkness, and said to himself that he could become a greater archer if he practiced shooting in the dark; this, he did and emerged as the best archer and also as the favorite student of his teacher.
Triggers are not necessarily restricted to famous personalities and courageous people. Contrarily, celebrities are often from humble backgrounds, are passion-driven and self-motivated to achieve their goals. Innumerable examples of successful people can be shared about what prompted: them to do what they did, the ‘deliberate’ practices and techniques they adopted, the changes they embraced to reach their chosen destination.
Tim Berners, the British scientist is credited with inventing the World Wide Web (WWW); originally, it was developed for information-sharing among scientists in universities. “The machine is a server. Do not power it down.” What a sensation this concept is in today’s techno-savvy world that is growing at such astronomical pace day after day.
‘PROMPT!’ On seeing this word in bold, today’s social-media users would be reminded of National Poetry Writing Month poetry prompts where participants write a poem each day. Some interesting prompts of the project are: ‘Learning as we go along,’ ‘Eat your veggies,’ and ‘Song of Myself.’ Hundreds of prompts are around that attract readers and writers. Writer’s Digest, Rattle and several other websites (that includes Reflections.live) host competitions based on prompts beckoning amateur writers to discover not just the joys of writing, but also to gain validation at the end of the project. Poetry anthologies such as Metverse Muse host competitions for Sonnets, Davidian, Rondeau and other rhyming poems. Although prose poems and free verse has gained increasing popularity among transnational poets, metrical verses are still around to ignite the creative spark in a small group of writers who believe that poems ought to have rhyme and rhythm.
The road to success is a meandering path
The acronym PROMPT means Punctual Recording of Random Positive
Thoughts, which can be put to use immediately or on a later occasion. Such
random thoughts are meant to bring along good results, nonetheless, they require
much deliberation and constraint.
When the fire of creativity is ignited, there is no stopping until it completes the process. For the amateur, every creative act brings along an ‘aha’ moment at first, followed by moments of anxiety, apprehension and self-doubt. When creativity is acknowledged and awarded, it brings along euphoric moments. Being in the limelight certainly boosts the morale of the artist, which not only enhances the creative urges, also makes one a better-evolved human.
Success to achieve one’s personal goals without a thought for the other is the onset of fragmentation and destruction. Triggers of war and bloodshed in the minds of despondent or power-hungry people create a hostile environment around. It affects people mentally, emotionally, physically and otherwise, which is just not easy to describe in words. Burying oneself in sorrows and continually ruminating on such experiences thwarts growth. That said, it takes great restraint to emerge out of the cocoon and fly freely. And in this flight, it is important to watch closely the winds of change.
A Twitter handle recently published the translated version of a soldier’s letter to
his daughter.
“Don’t write about the war to me
Just answer: is there a garden near?
Do snails crawl on grass and do you hear
cicadas singing, grasshoppers flee?
In faraway lands what do they call
their cats, which names did you hear?
The thing I wanted the most is to clear
your letters from sorrow, remove it all…”
The reader is left to decide if such a prompt triggers positivity, hope and the goodness that life brings along.
Prompt corrective action helps rise out of the deepest abyss without many scars or scathe. Understanding the why, want, when and how of verbal and non-verbal cues help individuals and societies in innumerable ways. Rather than blame social media of triggering depression, loneliness and seclusion, it is better for the young and the old to embrace change in a world smitten by fluctuating economic conditions, shifting priorities and information overload that has left people more confused than ever.
One final word as caveat – Positive prompts obtained from cues all over may be
nurtured to blossom, negative thoughts better be nipped in the bud itself, as the
‘soldier’ in the war-torn region underlines:
“If someone brings a bouquet you like
Don’t tell them about scary missile strike
Instead, talk more of this life of ours….”
(This article was first published in Reflections.live)
Hema Ravi is a poet, author, reviewer, editor (Efflorescence), independent researcher and resource person for language development courses... Her writings have been featured in several online and international print journals, notable among them being Metverse Muse, Amaravati Poetic Prism, International Writers Journal (USA), Culture and Quest (ISISAR), Setu Bilingual, INNSAEI journal and Science Shore Magazine. Her write ups and poems have won prizes in competitions.
She is the author of ‘Everyday English,’ ‘Write Right Handwriting Series 1,2,3,’ co-author of Sing Along Indian Rhymes’ and ‘Everyday Hindi.’
She was a guest faculty trainer in the Virtual Communication Skills Program for the Undergraduate Students of IIT Madras in July 2021, also resource person in the National workshop 'English Language Skills for Academic Purposes at Sastra University, Kumbakonam (2019).
She was the Guest of Honor and esteemed panel member for a panel discussion with faculty members and children on the topic of Creative Writing in the Virtual U R A Writer Award Panel Discussion (Gear International School, Bengaluru in Feb. 2021)
She is the recipient of the Distinguished Writer International Award for excellence in Literature for securing the ninth place in the 7th Bharat Award, conducted by www.poesisonline.com. In addition, she has been awarded a ‘Certificate of Appreciation’ for her literary contributions by the Gujarat Sahitya Academy and Motivational Strips on the occasion of the 74th Independence Day (2020) and again. conferred with the ‘Order of Shakespeare Medal’ for her writing merit conforming to global standards.(2021)
She is the recipient of cash prizes from the Pratilipi group, having secured the fourth place in the Radio Romeo Contest (2021), the sixth place in the Retelling of Fairy Tales (2021), the first prize in the Word Cloud competition (2020) and in the Children’s Day Special Contest (2020)
She scripted, edited, and presented radio lessons on the Kalpakkam Community Radio titled 'Everyday English with Hema,' (2020) a series of lessons for learners to hone their language skills. Science Shore Magazine has been featuring her visual audios titled ‘English Errors of Indian Students.’
As event organizer of Connecting Across Borders (CAB), she has played a predominant role in organizing the International Poetry Conference on March 8, 2021, in collaboration with the CTTE College, Chennai. Earlier, in July 2020, she organized an international poetry webinar ‘Connecting Across Borders, featuring women poets from India and overseas.
A brief stint in the Central Government, then as a teacher of English and Hindi for over two decades, Hema Ravi is currently freelancer for IELTS and Communicative English. With students ranging from 4 to 70, Hema is at ease with any age group, pursues her career and passion with great ease and comfort.
As the Secretary of the Chennai Poets’ Circle, Chennai, she empowers the young and the not so young to unleash their creative potential efficiently.
The human world is full of tales and stories, one needs to explore and tell the tale. From childhood we have been hearing about kings and queens and in adolescence more of princes and princesses. Even now, in many developed European democracies there are kings and queens and princes and princesses galore, imprisoned in constitutional monarchies as show pieces of the past. We had our share too, during the pre-independence day, 565 of them who merged with the Union of India, willingly or otherwise; but carried their titles and privileges till the Privy Purse episode of 1969. So the land of kings, princes and monarchs and rajas, maharajahs, shaheenshahs finally got rid of them and replaced them with Homo politicuses. However, I have a different story to tell, the Tale of the Philosopher King vs. the Lion King.
The idea of a Philosopher King was first espoused by the Greek thinker Plato in the 5th century BCE as the most desirable dispensation for a polity. Quite surprisingly his near contemporary, Kautilya of Magadha or Taxila (of Arthashashtra fame) and who was fundamental to the rise of Chandragupta Maurya-I, too came to the same conclusion, independently—the preference for a philosopher king (Raja-Rishi—the ascetic king) to, possibly a powerful and power hungry dictator, with no regard to rajah-dharma (the principles of a king—of principled governance). When polities were emerging with smaller communities, as history tells us, there were many democracies and republics (the kings and chieftains were elected by consensus)—in Sumer , (alongside early kingdoms, constantly at war with each other), in Greek City States and the Ganas in India (in the Aryavarta or on the fringes), and also in tribal territories around the world (wherein too, chieftain dictators were not un-common).
After the 5th century BCE these self governing democracies have vanished and subsumed into larger kingdoms or empires. There are little indications that the IVC or the Harappans ever had a king which was a vast civilization, perhaps 4 times larger than the Mesopotamian or the Nile Civilization in its geographical spread and population. Even the Romans started with their successes with an elite oligarchy and then transited into unitary César. Plato died unceremoniously in a democracy. Kautilya, on the other hand, was the chief source of power, but died in the Mauryan Empire, respected and feared by every successor king and monarch of the land. But where was the Raja-Rishi—the sage king?—except the legends of king Janaka of Bideha, father to Queen Sita of the Ramayana. So why was the preference for the sage king by both Plato and Kautilya?—perhaps, for entirely different reasons. Plato lived in a democracy and mistrusted powerful strongmen, lest he turns a usurper. Never the less, he preferred someone in his own image, a good man, not a power hungry usurper. On the other hand, Kautilya lived in fragmented and warring polity and fostered to build a powerful polity, but preferred a strong ruler who united the fragmented polities into a strong empire but never the less, is bound by ethical conducts—raja dharama, duties of the king, set out by Kautilya himself in his Arthashashtra. But both suffered from idealisms of expecting a human being to be altruistic when in power.
In fact, Valmiki Ramayan, the text, perhaps contemporary of Kautilya, (post Panini period), too had the same idealism of Rama Rajya. Let us not forget, the Buddhist tenets of Dhamma (in Pl., dharma Sk., which means justice not religion, also, in the epic Mahabharata as well), the eight principles enunciated by Gautama in the 6th century BCE, too talked of an ethical order in the society. Plato lost out as an idealist, Kautlya’s idealism survived because of his pragmatism in setting out the rule book and a system of royal consecration of the king by a set of Brahmin advisors/priests, providing checks and balances to the polity—without sanctification by the elite Brahmin clergy (or the Buddhist sramons or the Jain monks), the power of the King does not get legitimacy, a ground rule emulated nearly everywhere in the Indics, even into Central Asia and the Persia (Fukuyama, The Origin of Political Order, 2011). Second, the community level polities were conserved in some form of quasi-self governing Panchayat system, which survived into medieval times, the Moghul period, the British colonialism (especially, in Mahalwari and Rayatwari areas) and into the independent India and now sanctified under the 73rd CAA in 1992. The gana (the little republics) survived the onslaughts and appropriation of the polity by the kingdoms or empires at the grass-root level, mostly within the caste groups and even within the marginalized Dalits and Janjatis (Tribes)—something, not quite attended to by social scientists. However, whichever way one sees, in one respect both Plato and Kautilya were mistaken—in the power structure of the polity the sage-king always had potentials of turning a dictator. Indeed, Kautilya as much admits to that by stating that excessive power does corrupt even the sanest of individuals. However, the larger questions remain (a) whether, the king is subject to the rules set-out by the king or the king is beyond his own rules.
The idealism of Rama Rajya demanded the King’s submission to rules—even under Kautilya’s schemata the king shall be treated as exception—the concept of sovereign immunity adopted into modern constitutional democracies. (b)The second is whether the fragmented ganas (the democratic republics) are organized enough to defend themselves against more organized empires? To an extent, the mobile Hittites (2500 archer charioteers) held back the might of 50,000 strong Pharaoh Ramses-II’s army in mid-15th century BCE and so too the Greek Republics; the overwhelming might of the Persian Empire of Xerxes’ in the 5th century BCE was soundly defeated (last battles of Mycale 479 BCE and Byzantium in 478 BCE). But these were exceptions than the rule. The demise of the democratic republics for over 1500 years till there revival in the American War of Independence and the French Revolution in the end of the 18th century are testaments to the inherent weaknesses of all democracies. However, the philosopher king remained much on paper, until the time a reincarnated democracy in modern times put a seal of paper-tigers on the kings and monarchs, at least for a time being—giving birth to the elected philosopher kings (!)
Enter the Pride Lands of Mufasa (Brenda Chapman). The treachery of Scar, the usurper committed against the (philosopher) King Mufasa and his murder by guile. Simba the inheritor flees into exile. Finally, Simba returns strong with the help of shaman Rafiki, defeats the usurper Scar and was consecrated as King by Rafiki—all is well in the Pride Land. A story of a good king, the usurper and the final return of the rightful inheritor restores peace and tranquility and order in the Pride Land (The Lion King story).
In either of the cases, people did not matter, they are subjects—subjects of rule by the king. Only the elite intermediaries like the Brahmin clergy or Rafiki (the Ape priest) provide the legitimacy to the King, to establish by the power over his land. They are expected to rule by law accepted by the intermediary class irrespective of the will of the people—subjects. The former represents idealism of the elite intermediaries like Plato or Kautilya—the latter idealism too but woven within a matter of inheritance with a usurper (of power) lurking around the corner, all the time—therefore, a vigilant king and his vigilantes.
Euphemistically, we replay the two kings in our own realities—the philosopher king sanctified by a clergy and now accused being a usurper and the Simba struggling, supported by a clan of hereditary Rafikis for a comeback to power. The rule makers have changed colour to legislators and the judiciary in blow hot-blow cold equations and a whole clan of free loaders from either of the kingdoms sing Hakuna Matata!!!
Avaya C Mohapatra is a Retired Professor, Served North Eastern Hill University, Shillong (July 1976- September, 2017). He is a freelancer in academic writing and a blogger (acmohapatra.blogspot.com). He can be reached via email: acmohapatradr@gmail.com.
READING HABITS: WRITERS THEN AND NOW
PART-I: OHH, THOSE LAID BACK TIMES!
It has become an oft repeated cliché in literary circles, meetings and conferences to bemoan dwindling readership of literature. The general refrain is that books do not sell in the market. This may be creating some frustration in the new generation of writers. After all, it is natural for a writer to crave for viewers’ attention. One can easily empathise with such feelings, when a writer says reading habits have shifted course. But is it correct at all?
Books are being published; it’s natural to conclude they are being sold. The equation between books and readers being what it is; there need to be readers, if we discount Albert Camus’s rather famous observation, “ History shows that the less people read, the more books they buy”. It was meant to be a sarcastic comment about the intellectual snobs of the day. Surmises relating to present day reading habits may be misplaced due to a confusion about books being the only- or, primary- source of reading materials. Every living hour we are now being bombarded with new reading materials. Each day, we are coming across stimulating posts in the social media like the Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter and many more. Internet has opened up a vast library of unimaginable size. Encyclopaedias have become redundant. Classics and all kinds of new publications are now increasingly available in the e-format through devices like ‘Kindle’, for example, which can hold hundreds and thousands of books of all shapes and sizes. These provide absolute ease of reading at a fraction of the earlier cost., changing the traditional concepts of libraries. As if e-books were not enough, there is a new format called Audio books, where someone in the manner of our long lost granny, can read our favourite stories, recite poems directly to our ear buds – in the manner of lullabies- while we go about living our daily lives, lying on a bed, or making a long tedious journey. Physical books have ceased to be our only source of reading materials and the trend is going to be much more pronounced in future. Publications of new books may soon reach us through live streaming in a technology driven world. Physical books may have nostalgic value for old timers but they may vanish. But, whatever may be the likely scenario there appears to be no reason to conclude that reading habits are going down, or there won’t be readers. The modern generation may be leading a hectic life, but it cannot be treated as either less productive or less stimulating than that of earlier ones.
It has to be admitted that our attention spans are reducing, getting shorter by the day. Gone are the days of the heavy classics. Gone are days of big, fat novels of the acclaimed masters who took you on an epic journey, when on arriving at the epilogue the reader suffered an inevitable sense of loss at losing a close friend with whom he traversed a long distance. “ If a book is well written, I always find it too short”- this observation is attributed to Jane Austen, and who has the heart to disagree ? Yet, these days the reader gets filled up with trepidation at viewing any book that is long and heavy.
Now, what has really changed! In the aftermath of the renaissance and in the backdrop of rising literacy in Europe and, subsequently elsewhere including colonised lands of India, there was a craze for books, particularly novels, which could not be easily satiated. Publishing was expensive business and even authors like famous Bronte sisters had to face initial periods of rejections by publishing houses. Partly in this backdrop literary journals had appeared as an alternate platform. During this golden period of novels authors- now considered masters in their respective fields- like Charles Dickens(1818-1870), Marcel Proust(1871-1922), Leo Tolstoy(1828-1910), Fyodor Dostoevsky(1821-1881), and many, many others, produced prodigious novels that demanded a lot of time. They were much like, yet vastly different from, today’s TV serials which hook the audience through unending episodes. The novels of the masters – mentioned above for illustration- were written in weekly or monthly instalments, sometimes over years with subplots galore, and moved in a long meandering course. Readers eagerly awaited the next episode. An analogy with the Web Series contents available over OTT platforms ought, however, to be treated as more appropriate for the simple reason of these classics being structurally more cohesive than the soap operas aired as TV serials.
Publishing was tough and expensive business for many. English was having a bigger readership, but even so, journals were good business sense. Publishing in vernacular, particularly in India must have been tougher. This had led our own Fakir Mohan Senapati to write his novel “Chamaan Athaguntha”(Six Acres and A Half) in a literary journal called ‘Utkal Sahitya’ during the period starting Oct’1897 onwards. The journal publishing was quite successful and the story of Ram Chandra Mangaraj was eagerly followed by many readers in the hinterland. There is a hilarious anecdote as described in the historical novel “Desha Kala Patra” (English translation titled “A Time Elsewhere”) by the eminent author Sri J P Das, how some villagers from the hinterland had travelled all the way to Cuttack Collectorate to watch the trial of the fictional hero of Fakir Mohan’s novel on a murder charge. The writing skills of Fakir Mohan Senapati as serialised in the journal had obviously managed to obliterate the borders between fiction and reality. The medium of publication had brought the drama alive in an unprecedented manner across geographical and educational barriers. Initial publication in a journal had created the right hype ensuring futures success of the book. Both the mediums complemented each other. Thus one successful author created market for another nascent author when published in the same issue. So, a Dostoevsky classic could also ensure readership for a young Anton Chekov trying to find his moorings, when both were presented together. It was a win-win situation to many amidst adverse circumstances. The laid back style of storytelling fitted those times. Hard bound books were more for the rich, (paper books appeared in the horizon much later) catering to the pastimes of the well-hilled housewives burdened with lazy afternoons.
PART II- WRITING STYLE OF THE CHANGING TIMES
These are undoubtedly hectic times. We have jobs to do, families to maintain, and a large number of social acquaintances spread over the world to manage. Internet has broken many barriers, but has also simultaneously increased our mental horizons. We can now communicate with a much wider populace. Vast quantities of literature of all kinds are available on the flick of a button, and most of them are free. Music stands democratised. Gone are the days when only the rich could afford to enjoy good music, either through live concerts or through records. Add to this the mind boggling varieties and quantities of visual contents available on the internet. These include news feeds, travelogues, interviews, movies, web series contents. These show every prospect of being soon available in virtual reality mode with the advent of artificial intelligence and high speed internet. All of them vie for our attention and their share of time slots. They all have inherent potential, for facilitating growth of our persona, in which ever field of activities we may find ourselves in. Is it any wonder that we suffer from something called Attention Deficiency Syndrome? The competition for our fragmented attention spans getting fiercer each moment, it is natural to expect a different writing style appropriate to the demands of the age- short, crisp and direct.
The search for brevity, and more brevity in literary compositions can, of course, be taken to extremely hilarious consequences. A poet named Strickland Gillilan (American, early 20th century) claimed to have written the shortest poem possible with barely two words titled “Lines on the antiquity of Microbes” or, Fleas. The poem reads in full: “Adam/Had’em”. The most famous short poem in English is, however, written by Ezra Pound in two lines, titled “In A Station of The Metro”(1913) totalling 14(fourteen) words:
“The apparition of these faces in the crowd, Petals on a wet, black bough.”
There was an attempt to write a short story in 6(six) words only; comprising, “For sale/ Baby shoes, not used”, which is supposed to have won the celebrated author, Ernest Hemingway, a bet of 10(ten) dollars. At the other end of the spectrum – certainly not the extreme- there’s Vikram Seth’s “A Suitable Boy”, a novel of modern times, which at 1488 pages can be treated as stupendous, awe inspiring. Those who have finished it justifiably earn regards. But, again Vikram Seth’s tome pales into insignificance before Marcel Proust’s monumental “Remembrance of Things Past: Or In Search of Lost Times”, touted as the world’s longest novel till date at 4215 pages, published in 7(seven) volumes over a period of 14 years. There have been many others at second or third places, but the record is held by Proust. “Life is short, but Proust is long”- someone has rightly quipped somewhere.
Sheer length is not material, and may, in fact, be a deterrent for the present times. Lay readers might have observed a mushrooming of writers of short stories and poets in last few decades. This may be in tune with the tempo of modern times. Short stories are not simply about length. They offer smaller vignettes as compared with the comparatively much larger canvasses of novels. The style of a great master like O’Henry - or, for that matter, Maupassant, or Anton Chekov and others- is remarkable for this brevity and crispness of expression. Most of his stories, including classics like ‘The Gift of The Magi’, “After Twenty Years” are so tightly woven and so carefully constructed that not a single word is felt to be redundant. Take away one, and the whole edifice crumbles, like that of a brick archway.
With growth in civilization, with rising consciousness and aspirations of the times, many have a story to tell, a poem to share, or, at least an idea to communicate to the wide, wide, world. But most did not get an appropriate opportunity so far. Technology driven present times have opened up new vistas for them. This may be an area for serious research, but there are reasons to believe writers have mushroomed in every language contributing to each and every genre of writing. The authors are available across geographical and cultural divides. Time may erase some of their footprints, but who can tell? Some foot prints may survive. Earlier we thought diamonds have to be big with perfect cuts to draw value. But, these days the concept has changed creating a niche market for smaller stones. And smaller ones can outshine the bigger ones with the right audience at hand.
PART III: MORE MAY NOT BE MERRIER: WHEN TO DRAW THE LINES!
Essentially, as hinted earlier, angst of new age writers about dwindling readerships may be based on a myth. The issue should not be equated with less sale of books, closure of book shops, or lack of hype in the minds of the lay public. Some writers may be attracting some blames themselves by continuing with a laid back style that suited to earlier parts of their careers, or continuing to be prolific without realizing that they are getting repetitive, and predictable in story after story. Earlier success may blind one to notice one’s own creative decline. They are happy with the cheques the new oublications entail. There are glorious exceptions, too, of authors retaining readers who become addicts for life.
In this context Leo Tolstoy demands a special mention. This colossus of Russian and world literature(1828-1910) had a writing career spanning almost 60 years. In course of his long career, Tolstoy never for once ceased to evolve as a person. He went through intense inner turmoil, self doubts, moral and spiritual dilemmas contributing to his evolution as an individual and also as an author. Never for once he remained static or moribund with his mental faculties. Tolstoy who wrote ‘War and Peace’(1867), or even ‘Anna Karenina’(1878) was not the same Tolstoy who wrote the fanatically religious “The Kingdom of God Is Within You” in 1894. Tolstoy who turned his back on earlier achievements; who abandoned his estate and his family; who ceased believing in private property; who handed over his powers of attorney to his wife in 1883, and later continued the process further by renouncing his copy rights and properties in 1891; was all along a complex persona who constantly changed in his inner core. We cannot also ignore that Tolstoy who became practically a saint in his later life and had gone to profoundly influence Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi- into becoming a Mahatma(saint)- was a philanderer and led a dissolute life in his youth. He had the temerity to admit of his shenanigans to his future wife, Sofya Andreyevna, then a 18 y/o, while proposing marriage. We can recount a young Mohandas Gandhi admitting his stealing of family silver before his father. But, of course, the former had to be much more courageous, because he risked everything, even losing his wife, a young princess he had fallen in love with. While undergoing his spiritual journey he had the temerity to admit all his earlier escapades. In the later part of his life, Tolstoy practically became a monk, turned vegetarian and roamed the countryside in smocks- ordinary dresses worn by labourers- but all the while he retained his mental faculties and spiritual glow. How could such an author not remain fresh till his last? An artist like that is unique and defies all odds. A writer like that can communicate with all and sundry and keep them enthused till the very end. He avoided imprisonment in an ivory tower, in a physical as well as metaphorical sense.
Agreed, this can not be universally applied as an essential attribute. But authors are sensitive human beings with flair for communicating. With success their souls are likely to get placid in advanced age, and they may attain peace with the world. Peace and placidity are rarely conducive to creativity. There is nothing to change when there is nothing to fight with-whether outside systems, or inner demons. Consequently, the writers at the height of their successful career, may lose the earlier appeal of freshness to some extent. Some senior poets become abstruse and esoteric beyond comprehension. It’s not simply a question of chronological age, either. Many mature authors retain freshness till the end while we may find relatively younger ones getting repetitive after attaining a burst of initial success. Being loquacious cannot always be treated as being creative.
It may not, therefore, come as a surprise to note that great authors are sometimes remembered for just one or two books. A few authors have written only one, or maximum two, books, whether novels, or books of poetry, during their entire lifetime, but nevertheless, the same has ensured their immortality. A brief look at few such one book wonders:
a) Harriet Beacher Stowe(1811-1896): Her only novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, was published in 1858, but it had the capacity to move the conscience of an entire nation against prevalent slavery. The book sold 3,00,000 copies in just 3(three) months and was so influential that when President Abraham Lincoln, met Stowe in 1862, he, reportedly exclaimed, “So, this is the little lady who made this big war!”
b) Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949): “Gone with the Wind” is her only legacy. A tempestuous love story set amid the raging fires of American Civil War, it celebrates the values of Liberty imported from the North with the old world charm of the South. A great unifier of divergent cultures and universal values. Mitchel never wrote again to the consternation of her innumerable readers.
c) J.D.Salinger (1919-2010): “The Catcher in the Rye”(1951) features a typical teenager as the protagonist and his rite de passage that every serious student of literature still falls in love with. While most authors crave for fame Salinger disliked being in the public glare. It remains his only work, but what a milestone in the annals of literature!
d) Harper Lee (1926-2016): Her novel, “To Kill A Mocking Bird”(1960), is a tour de force, earning the author a Pulitzer prize in 1961 itself. Basically a human drama involving two motherless children growing in the deep South America and fighting childhood demons including racial prejudices of an outside world. Technically, this was not her only work, since towards the last years of her life, when Lee had already turned senile, a sequel, titled “Go, Set a Watchman” was published in 2016 by the author’s literary executioners. The sequel is generally considered to be a major disappointment, and it failed to rise up to her earlier standards. She is, for practical purposes, still considered to be a one book wonder.
e) Sylvia Path (1932-1963): She lived for 31 years and her single book of poetry, “The Bell Jar”, was published in the last year of her life, i.e.1963. Even before bidding adieu to her short tortured life, she managed to have a bridge with the humanity with this single book. “I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead/I lift my lids and all dead is born again/ I think I made you up inside my mind”.
f) Emily Bronte(1818-1848): She died young at the age of 30, just one year after the publication of her only novel “Wuthering Heights”. Considered to be an all time classic, the manuscript was originally rejected by London publishers. Yet, nothing could stand on the way and the novel achieved iconic status. The village of Howorth, where the Bronte sisters grew up, is now believed to have become a tourist attraction.
g) There may me more authors in every language across barriers who have produced little, avoided limelight, and yet managed to leave their footprints carved in stone. There ought to be more examples for a serious researcher. Barrister Govinda Ch Das, (1929-2008) who wrote “Amabasyar Chandra” in Odia had managed to put an entire generation of young people on fire. There have been authors whose outputs were not much, may be extremely low, who died early, and who avoided limelight even after getting awards. And yet, they are immortal. Quantity is not everything.
The intention here is not to belittle any author who is happy with public recognition. Rather it is for those who fail to get recognition from either the public or critics during their lifetime. A writer who failed to find a publisher for his poignant short stories, or, a writer who, when he was lying bedridden along with his wife with a bout of Corona decided to distribute his books practically free in an attempt to make a bridge with the world makes us think. After all, publishers can fail, as can Award committees in multiple scenarios, to recognize the worth of a book. In time. They can collectively fail through grave errors of judgement. Poets written off as of no consequence have many times proven the critics wrong. Truth can remain hidden, undiscovered. Desperate attempts to catch readers’ attention can also prove to be ludicrous. Is it not better for a writer to be philosophic for a while when faced with apathy, or when beset with doubts about his springs of creativity? Then again the writer ought to be the best judge of the situation. A lay reader can only offer a perspective with absolute humility, neither advice, nor any sort of final word to the acknowledged masters.
Dinesh Chandra Nayak (b 1952) is a Post Graduate in English Literature from Utkal University, Vani Vihar. He entered the State Civil Service in Odisha and held many important positions before retiring in 2010. His present pastimes include reading, titles like "Joy Of Laziness" among others. Although he did not earlier feel any spring of creativity strongly, LiteraryVibes has inspired him to "try to burst forth in geysers". He hopes the transformation of the dying ember into a new life will lead to a creative splendour. LV wishes him the very best in this new journey.
On August 8, 1942, the All India Congress Committee (AICC)—the central decision-making assembly of the INC— at a session in Bombay unanimously passed a resolution calling the British to Quit India forthwith . It was a demand for complete independence from British Raj. .It approved "the launching of mass struggle on non-violent lines on a wider possible scale under the leadership of Gandhi ". It is said that the Quit India Movement that followed this resolution was the most significant challenge to the British rule since the Great Rebellion of 1857.
In a stirring speech at Gowalia Tank, Bombay, Gandhi told his supporters “There is a mantra, a short one, that I give you. You imprint it on your heart and let every breath of yours give an expression to it. The mantra is ‘do or die.’” He urged the masses to act as an independent nation, and to follow nonviolent civil disobedience.
It was agreed and ordered by the Congress Committee to carry out non violent campaign. But if the leader was arrested and not present to lead, the common folks would carry it forward,each and every individual as a satyagrahi. The movement captured the imagination of the people who were ready to make all sacrifices . “Every one of you should from this moment onwards, consider yourself a free man or woman and act as if you are free ..We shall do or die”, Gandhi had reiterated
British Government trying to crush the rebellion arrested all big guns including Gandhi . However the movement would gain an unprecedented momentum which would be difficult to control immediately on the part of the British. It was also the time when the British were engaged in the second world war . On hearing about news of the arrest of their leaders ,thousands of people had thronged the streets, they came out in thousands to protest .
The Queen of the Quit India Movement :
Just before the dawn of the fateful night of passing the resolution ,a police official had handed over an arrest warrant to Asaf Ali, a barrister and a Gandhian fighter .Aruna Asaf Ali ,his wife and activist accompanied him to the railway station, where she accidentally met Maulana Azad .Maulana was supposed to address a mass rally at Gowali Tank Maidan (August Kranti Maidan ).in Bombay , but now under arrest. On an impulse, Aruna Asaf Ali made up her mind to stand in for Maulana Azad. However , the meeting was declared illegal and the police ordered people to vacate the ground within two minutes. Without waisting a single minute Aruna quickly climbed onto the stage and in a furry ,she unfurled the Indian flag and shouted authoritatively ," Britishers ,Quit India ".This marked practically the launching of the movement. The police fired upon the assembly at the session. Aruna has been dubbed the Heroine of the 1942 movement for her courage and bravery in the face of danger. In her later years she was called Grand Old Lady of the Independence movement .
She was arrested on the spot. Complete haratals were observed in various parts of India and peaceful processions were taken out across the country . The British reacted to the slogan of Quit India not only with lathi charge but also bullets and pellets .
It may not be out of place to say that Aruna Asaf Ali has been later honoured with many awards and recognitions : International Lenin Peace Prize for the year 1964 , the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1991, the Padma Vibhushan in her lifetime in 1992, and finally the highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, posthumously in 1997. In 1998, a stamp commemorating her was issued. Aruna Asaf Ali Marg in New Delhi was named in her honour. All India Minorities Front distributes the Dr Aruna Asaf Ali Sadbhawana Award annually.
Despite the absence of direct leadership, spontaneous protests and demonstrations were held all over the country, as an expression of the desire of India's youth to achieve independence. .
Gandhi Buri , a martyr of the movement :
Gandhi Buri in Bengali translates to the old lady Gandhi and it refers to Matangini Hazra, of Tamluk of the then Mednapur district of Bengal during the Gandhian era.
Matangini Hazra was an ardent Gandhian,had joined the freedom struggle after being inspired by Mahatma himself. She had participated in the civil disobedience movement and was arrested for breaking the salt law .She had rendered humanitarian work in nursing small pox and leprosies patients sin the villages.
Like Gandhi,the fragile body of Matangini could not deter her from taking active roles in the freedom struggle. She was also a local voice against the British misrule and atrocities. The frail woman had participated in the abolition of the Chowkidari tax- a tax enforced on villagers by the British to fund a small local group of policemen to be used as spies against the villagers.
Born in 1870 in Hogla village located under the jurisdiction of Tamluk Police station in Medinapore, Matangini Maity (Maity her original family title) , could not even pursue early education due to her penury. The abject poverty compelled her to become a child bride (with a 60 year old as husband) and a mother of a young son. She returned to her village when she was 18 years old, widowed, and childless.
Hazra then began building her own establishment in her paternal village and spent most of her time spinning Khadi, helping old and diseased around in the village. At that point, little did she or anybody know that how her future would pen her as an unsung women hero of freedom struggle and history would record it in golden letters.
On September 29,1942 Matangini madam led around six thousand protesters, mostly women, to besiege the Tamluk police station. The police tried to stop the procession, citing Sec. 144 of IPC. But the defiant Hazra stepped forward, appealing to the policemen not to take recourse to firing . But in return, she was shot at arm but kept moving forward with the flag held high.
The next bullet was fired, and it hit her in the forehead claiming her life. Later her body was found lying in the pool of blood, holding the flag high, unsoiled.
And the Brave Young Martyrs of 1942
On 11th August 1942, three days after the Quit India Movement was launched , over 6,000 students marched to the gates of the erstwhile Patna Secretariat to bring down the Union Jack and hoist Indian flag. District Magistrate W G Archer, with the help of the Bristish Military Police had tried to stop the students from reaching the Secretariat When Archer found that his force was disproportionately outnumbered , he decided to open fire.
When the Bihar Military Police and the Rajputs (Indian blood was flowing in their veins) did not follow the command, Archer decided to use the loyalty of the Gurkhas against the students. The Gurkhas did not fire on the crowd directly. Their shots were measured .They wanted to kill the one carrying the flag.
But the spirit of these young men were such that when one flag-bearer was gunned down, he passed the flag on to his companion. The companion too was fallen to the ground by the bullets. As one repost says , “Like flies they fell, one after the other.”By the time the gunshots stopped, seven young souls were on the ground, martyred in the name of the flag they wanted to hoist atop the Secretariat.
The students were unarmed. This Gandhian mutiny, spearheaded by students no older than 16 or 17, have immortalised the protest .
One paying visit to Patna can see the life-size bronze statues of these seven men, dressed in dhoti-kurtas ,with the quintessential Gandhi topi, facing the Old Patna Secretariat, a symbol of the event that transpired some 80 years ago.
The seven students were later identified as: (1) Umakant Prasad Sinha (Raman Ji) – Ram Mohan Roy Seminary, Class IX, Narendrapur, Saran; (2)Ramanand Singh – Ram Mohan Roy Seminary, Class IX, Sahadat Nagar, Patna (3)Satish Prasad Jha – Patna Collegiate School, Class X, Khadahara, Bhagalpur (4)Jagatpati Kumar – Bihar National College, Second year, Kharati, Aurangabad (5)Devipada Choudhry – Miller High English School, Class IX, Silhat, Jamalpur (6)Rajendra Singh – Patna High English School, Class X, Banwari Chak, Saran (7)Ramgovind Singh – Punpun High English School, Class IX, Dasharatha, Patna
In another notable event ,on September 20, 1942, Tileswari a twelve year girl along with a mrityu vahini — a kind of suicide squad — had marched towards the police station in Dhekiajuli to unfurl the Tricolour . Fifteen people were killed in the shooting that day . Many people do not know about the supreme sacrifice that a 12-year old girl made during the Quit India movement for the country . Today ,if Tileswari would have lived ,she would have been 92 . September 20 is observed in the Dhekiajuli town in Sonitpur district of Assam as Martyrs’ Day.
Another important fact to be noted is that as many of the top leaders of Congress were behind the bars , many women filled the gap, though not openly .They took on crucial roles independently by going into hiding and organizing and leading activities from underground. They printed and organized the distribution of leaflets, collected money, and even provided safe houses to Congress leaders working from the underground. Women also organized prayer meetings and marches, and hoisted nationalist flags.
Gandhi’s clarion call of “Do or Die” had spread across nook and corner of the country like wild fire. There were many a martyrdoms and sacrifices in different parts. It may not be possible to recount them all. But during this Azadi Ka Amrit Mahostav ,let us pay our tribute to them all ,who suffered or perished in the course of the entire freedom struggle.
( Facts compiled from differrent sources )
Mr Nitish Nivedan Barik,who hails from Cuttack,Odisha is a young IT professional working as a Senior Developer with Accenture at Bangalore
JAYANT MAHAPATRA: THE DOYEN OF POETRY
I first heard of Jayant Mahapatra when he bagged the Central Sahitya Akademi award for his poetry collection ‘Relationship’ in 1981. Everyone was taken by surprise. He was the first Indian English poet to receive this coveted award. A professor of Physics turned poet he had by then gotten international recognition but he was hardly known in the home state since he used to write in English. No mwonder his poetry revolves around Odisha, its history, topography, myth and myriad cultural milieu.
Cuttack remains his favourite place on earth although he has travelled far and wide across the globe. Kathjodi and Mahanadi inspire him a lot in his poetic journey over the years. The black pagoda Konark, the golden beach of Puri, Lord Jagannath, the Kalinga War, Dhauli and river Daya reverberate in his poems. The holocaust of the great famine in 1866 that devastated Odisha haunted his mind with a sense of loss and disillusionment. One of his forefathers changed his faith in the face of starvation and death during those fateful days.
He was a latecomer in literature starting writing poetry hesitantly in his forties. Hailing from a Mofussil town like Cuttack in Odisha he was ignored by the intellectual poets and editors of Mumbai and Delhi during the initial days but once his poems got published in some prestigious international journals like Hudson Review he got noticed by the elite literary circles in the home turf. His unique style of narration and unusual themes earned him a distinct place in the poetry world. His poems speak of human relationships entangled in love and loss, memories of the past and fleeting reflections of time like waves on the seashore. His unbridled love for his soil and genuine feelings for the common men make him a true poet with compassion.
I came in contact with this genius in the early eighties when I was serving in All India Radio, Cuttack. One of my colleagues and close friends Shri Dipak Samantrai, himself a poet and photographer, introduced me to him. He is one of his close confidants to date.
Both of us used to visit his famous single-storied house in Tinikonia Bagicha in the heart of the town surrounded by trees and got entertained with his ever-endearing smile and small jokes over tea and snacks served by his affable wife whom we addressed as Mausi out of love and affection. Alas, she’s no more. Every time we meet he will ask me whetheran I could find a sweetheart for me or else it’s impossible to be a poet. Whenever I said no he would dismiss me as a poet. Once Dipak broke the news that I qualified for his test and then he burst into a big laugh and congratulated me. Much water has flown in the river Mahanadi since then. After I left Cuttack’s meeting with him became occasional.
Eleven years ago he has lost his son and Mausi left him early now he is leading a lonely life in the same house which was once humming in bliss and beauty. With falling health and age-related problems he is having a difficult time at present. Nevertheless, his house is always considered a place of pilgrimage for young poets and poetry lovers. Most of his contemporaries in the Indian English literary landscape are no more and he is now the grand old man of Indian English Poetry. Although he was senior to my father in age he always behaves like a friend.
I admire his sense of humour and childlike simplicity. There are thousands of fans and followers like me around the world who love him and respect him as a poet and as a person as well. Age never ripened for him and he is still young in the heart in his nineties. He very often says that love is the essence of literature and that love never ends with one person in life. He is a true lover of life and literature.
He not only writes poetry but more importantly lives the life of a poet. He has dozens of poetry collections both in English and Odia and many of his poems have been published in international journals. All the awards bestowed upon him including Padmashri can never measure the poet in him and he is much above everything. He is a soulful poet who has never betrayed his heart.
His literary journey is not confined to writing poetry in English. He is a translator and editor of repute. He was associated with many literary journals as editor of their poetry page and finally, he edited and published ‘Chandrabhaga’, a journal dedicated to poetry which got instant recognition in international spheres.
Some years back he delved into writing poems in his mother tongue Odia and left an imprint with his impressive style. Recently, I had a few hours in his company in a literary seminar and I presented him a shawl as a token of honour on that occasion. When I told him that he may use it in the next winter his reply was he is not sure whether he will survive till then. It brought tears to my eyes.
Pray God he crosses hundred years of life and remains an inspiration for all of us for many more years!
Mr. Pradeep Biswal is a bilingual poet writing both in Odia and English. His poems are widely anthologized. He is also an editor and translator of repute. A retired IAS Officer, Mr. Biswal presently holds the position of Member, Odisha Real Estate Regulatory Authority and stays with his family at Bhubaneswar. Views are Personal
THE DIPLOMATIC TRAILING SPOUSE
For the last 30 years I have been a part of the ‘Indian Foreign Service Family’, but a small link in a massive chain of strength that spans continents. I deliberately say ‘small’, as I was a non-working diplomatic spouse and did not directly contribute to the function of the mission. How do others view us as we embark on our travels to distant lands? Our children are wrenched from their friends, extended families and comforting environs. Yet they brave all odds and sett le into their new routines at a new school, with dignity and deserve our commendations. How many of us have sat and cried for hours, after the children are off to school and the husband has left for the chancery and we are on our own, in a new residence? We have to make it ‘home’ too, for our children, yet keep a ‘representational area’, with new local staff?
We enter countries, and then often take precedence over the local Indians or people of Indian origin at the banquet tables of the host country’s president or prime minister or even the foreign minister, the more senior our husbands become? Then, plan our tables for the local dignitaries, visiting VIPs and diplomatic colleagues and others. How we are rated for our hosting of National Days? My heart beats a hundred times faster as each Independence Day and Republic Day approaches, hoping the chosen menu will suit everyone from back home….north, south, east and west, northeast and northwest too - fellow Indian citizens. They always come first.
Sleepless nights, heart aflutter, wondering if the catered food will be enough for the numberless guests that may or may not arrive, for the early morning flag-hoisting. We are informed: “There were 350/1600 guests last year”, the figures vary from country to country, so we order an extra 100 plates, just in case. There is gravy, dry, veg, non-veg, cuisine from across the nation, juice galore, mineral water and masala chai.
Someone remarked a few years ago as we sat down after all the guests had left one such function: “All the spouses should be awarded golden brooches when their husbands retire - fashioned into two samosas and two gulab jamuns, for remembrance of their hard work!”
I was not amused.
I have yet to skilfully master the art of answering the following query without a pause: “So, what did you do?”
Let me pay tribute here to the pioneer women of our service. These women followed their husbands without question, to new posts and missions, even risking their lives at times. One such incident related to us at a meeting involved reminisces of camping for the night after hours on horseback through hard terrain, only to find out the next morning that they were pitched on the edge of a ravine! Our trivial complaints about delayed flights pale in comparison! What hardships they endured - what dedication and devotion they manifested. They gave of their lives unstintingly. These are memories I carried with me through dificult postings in distant lands.
(H.E. Shiv Shankar Menon, India’s High Commissioner for Sri Lanka, Smt. Mohini Menon, Deputy High Commissioner Sibabrata Tripathi,Smt. Jayshree Tripathi, Defence Adviser Ghan Shyam Sondur,Smt. Medha Sondur with a distinguished Guest on Republic Day,India House, Colombo)
A book written by the wife of an overseas colleague used the term ‘Diplomatic Baggage’ to describe the accompanying spouses, quite a rough take on us! Are our lives worthwhile, in this fast-paced modern world where women are making their mark across the seas, with salaries that make you gasp for breath? A former college classmate of mine is a senior judge of a High Court in India, another heads the overseas division of her company in the USA, yet another is a chief editor, a chief publisher, the principal of college….the list is endless.
How will I recall the Indian Foreign Service in the years to come? Th e camaraderie, the spirit of mischief as we, as younger wives grumbled about the making of 2000 samosas and gulab jamuns or our aching feet, standing from 6 am till 9 pm at various charity bazaars, for the annual international women’s organisations? Raising funds? Or vowing never to ask for help when we were senior wives and regretting not being able to muster up the courage to do so, in such a position, given the different times we lived in and the undiplomatic comments we may be forced to hear!
Instead, I paused to relive the fascinating images that captured my spirit when I felt down about not being someone in my own right. How else could I have travelled the world and yet retained the spirit of my country with me?
Time freezes in the kaleidoscope of past images, of river-rafting in Nepal, volunteering at the paralympics in South Korea, skiing (with not much success) in Finland, learning to dance the Baile in Panama, watching the Chhau dancers from Odisha enthral audiences in Colombo, as they appreciated a dance form similar to theirs. The make-up process of the Kathakali troupe was another fascinating experience for the public in Panama.
I can still feel the sense of unease regarding the airport being closed down in Antananarivo, a few days before we were to arrive there and the crisis that ensued later for some months or my disbelief at standing on the shore of the River Nile thinking how calm the water seemed, despite the fiery negotiations on water rights?
Or the sadness that lingers, for I still mourn the death of good people we once knew, assassinated for their beliefs. Then I recall the lighter moments! One wet, dreary afternoon overseas, I watched an ‘Etiquette Expert’ on a television programme declare that it is quite all right to eat the following with your fingers: Artichoke (pull away the leaf, dip in sauce, scrape flesh off base of leaf with the top of your teeth, discard leaf), Asparagus, Bacon, Bread (must be broken, never cut), Cookies, Corn on the Cob, Fast Foods, Hors d’ Oeuvres, Canapés, Crudites, Sandwiches, Small Fruits, even berries with stems… and to leave napkin neatly to the right of the dinner plate (no re-folding) at the end of a meal, after gentle dabbing my lips ……. a far cry from the sorisa macchhajhola with rice that can only be eaten, relished rather, with one’s fingers at home!
That I should never look too tired, too bored, too hungry, too angry, or slouch in my chair, to keep social conversations short; avoid talking about topics that evoke opinions or emotions, namely religion, politics, money; that I shouldn’t interrupt anyone’s speech or help finish their sentences…
That I should never put my purse, evening bag on the table or retouch my lipstick or settle my hair, and remember to send a handwritten ‘thank you’ note within 24 hours.
On a serious note, customs do differ the world over and it can be nonplussing for a new wife or spouse to encounter the intricacies of a formal Western ‘sit-down’ dinner with strange vegetables, though such formality is becoming redundant.
What can a new spouse do when planning her/his first representational dinner? What do the terms of attire have to do with the food to be served: Formal/Informal/Casual? (I have come across ‘Optional’ too, but then, at age 45 and after 15 years in the diplomatic world, nothing fazed me!). Why does she/he hesitate to call the Head of Mission’s spouse? Or the other spouses, with whom she/he has yet to form a rapport with? If formal dinners were not the norm in a person’s home, one cannot blame the little things that may be inadvertently overlooked by the novice.
Of course, a husband and wife team effort would be laudable, but diplomats rarely have the time to indulge in this pastime - of casting a memorable and different Indian menu. Or maybe they do nowadays? It would be interesting to know. An acquaintance from the West once confessed to agonising for three days over a formal menu, for a dinner with local dignitaries.
I often have too.
Then the question of which wines to serve with Indian food, (must we? moot point) to complement all the tarkaris, makhanis, mughlai, handi, kadhai, tawa dishes etc and bhajas and chutneys and pulses, the pickles… quite a difi cult task if you have always been vegetarian and never had a drink in your life.
(H.E. Sibabrata Tripathi, India’s High Commissioner for Kenya and Smt.Jayshree Tripathi, at the University of Nairobi on Gandhi Jayanti - also celebrated as the UN International Day of Non-Violence)
The intricacies of the bouquet of each definite French wine, or the easy spirit of the young-bodied California (my memories flash unbidden to our very own and very sweet princess, which was available only in Goa three decades ago). I have tasted other Indian wines since then, the Sula and Grover labels come to mind, and I must commend a Goan ‘sparkling wine’, even if it was initially accepted as a ‘tolerable table wine’ by the French!
Now, onto the ‘Art of Conversing’.
A while ago, browsing the web I came across this interesting article written
under the pseudonym, Vita Urbis: “….Grace is pleased to be back home in Canada for a while. Truth be told, she found the last posting a bit trying, what with the oppressive heat and the flies and the servants you could never really rely on to prepare food properly or hygienically. She had to supervise constantly. Sometimes she actually had to do things herself….”
Grace was ever mindful of Rule Number One in the Diplomatic Spouses’ Guide to Living Abroad: Be charming and never, ever, utter a single word about anything. Not a word. About anything.
Grace has been a Diplomatic Wife Extraordinaire for 40 years and has the ability to rise gamely (smile always-at the ready) to whatever demanding occasion his career with External, as she still insists on calling it, has thrown her way.
Not only can she whip up a gourmet dinner for 12 at an hour’s notice (our cooking takes much longer, especially due to the number or variety of dishes we generally tend to serve), is a part of fund-raising galas, the Diplomatic Spouses’ Association, and a real sport, as her friends point out and if anyone can measure out her life in sterling silver coffee spoons, she can (The Ottawa Citizen May 17th 1999).
Familiar thoughts, the world over!
We diplomatic spouses are a global phenomenon, the ‘observers’ in contrast to our diplomatic spouses, the ‘actors’ in the world of contemporary diplomacy. Consider this, Professor Petr Skalink, Czech anthropologist and diplomat, in his article entitled Anthropology of Diplomacy: A New Sub-field, talks of a group of anthropologists with experience in diplomacy who were to discuss “… their fascinating experiences in a coveted profession clouded in myth and ritual. How diplomats treat people in their host country, how they relate among themselves as members of a Corps Diplomatique, how they work and live together in an embassy and how (do) they cooperate with their Home Ministry”.
There is not much emphasis on the spouses, called the ‘observers’ and children, an area of accompanying ‘family’ that is both sensitive and fraught with complications. These can arise from, say, the need to work, to continue a career or do research, as well as take into account the children’s schooling, their psychological well-being, after being continuously uprooted and taken away from friends and relatives. We do not have ‘in-house’ counsellors. Teenagers would rather listen to someone else’s mother or father. Family counsellors are necessary to cope with the tremendous pressures children face daily in this day and age. Times are different. Not everyone can cope. Yet we are an integral part of the ‘Mission Family’.
We as a ‘family’ have grown and every step has been a learning experience. More and more women are now able to live and work overseas mainly due to the efforts of the earlier nurturers and leaders. They have shown the way to manage a life of great responsibility. It is this that makes it all worthwhile.
Still, a question hovers in my mind - will all the people I have met over three decades reduce me to samosas and gulab jamuns or tandoori chicken with butter naan?!!
Seriously though, I do hope they will recall my support in their times of need, during a family bereavement or a child’s christening or a special prayer session. I hope they will have appreciated my helping hand at one of their functions, my speech composed to complement their activity of the year. Will they recall the time I have spent visiting hospitals with hampers for the babies born on Independence Day, my volunteering hours and hours for charity work that often leaves one drained, both emotionally and physically?
(Spouses of Heads of Mission (SHOM) at India House, Nairobi, wearing traditional sarees. SHOM was founded in Kenya by Smt. Jayshree Tripathi)
Will my local staff recall my frustration at their careless handling of our crystal (serious matter) or losing my dinner napkins (trivial)? Or my listening to their hopes and aspirations and helping out with some significant contribution before we departed, to help them and their children?
We have to keep abreast with globalisation and changing trends. We need to modify our styles of representation without losing our identities. It is this very individuality that will temper and enhance whatever new norms we accept. There is no question of aping other nations. We are fortunate to be able to draw from our expansive standard cultural traditions and complement them in our unique ways. That will be the true hallmark of ‘Spouse Diplomacy’ of the future. It is the people, all the languages, the religions, even the colours, the richness and diversity of our nation that forms the very strength of our service. No matter where we are, the tricolour will always bring tears to the eyes, as we listen to the strains of the national anthem or just watch it flutter in the breeze, in an alien land. Diplomacy has changed drastically in the last decade. New internal rules have come into place too.
Many of the ‘gen-next’ are wary of marrying into the Indian Foreign Service, as they are intent on rising in their own careers. However, accompanying spouses nowadays may work, with permission, in varied professions. They have many opportunities to study, learn new languages, volunteer at schools and charitable organisations, travel into realms once only read about and discover the heritage of new cultures.
Thirteen months into retirement now – in reflection of the decades gone by, I hope people will choose to remember me for my undivided attention, as I listened to their words. Yes, that would please me!
(The Diplomatic Trailing Spouse first appeared in The Diplomatist's 20th Anniversary issue, 2016)
Jayshree Misra Tripathi has been a consultant, educator and examiner in English Language and Literature, for the Diploma of the International Baccalaureate Organization. She worked in print media in the late ’70s and ’80s in India. Having lived in diverse cultures for over thirty years with her late husband, a career diplomat in the Indian Civil Service, her short fiction and narrative verse dwell upon journeys through the diaspora, highlighting women's 'voices' and cross-cultural conversations.
Prof. Viyatprajna Acharya, MD, PhD
“As a man thinketh so he becomes”.
This PhD degree has a long story behind. When I qualified for both Engineering & Medical with good ranks by virtue of which I could have got admission in NIT Rourkela or SCBMC&H my father asked me to choose the easier path out of the 2... “Do Engineering, get a degree in just 4 years, get a job and enjoy your life.”
But I preferred medical stream. A very silly reason...I had seen my father toiling very hard to obtain his PhD degree at 40 years age and then use his DR designation with pride.
I said, “In just 4.5 years I'll put Dr before my name.”
In my heart within there was always another reason...to take the untrodden path...and I never regretted my decision till date. Next to my maternal uncle, me and my hubby have been family docs to both side families.
MD or MS degree after MBBS has been almost mandatory in our fraternity. Hence MD degree made me Dr(square).
So, what made me go for the 3rd DR?
Even though we the Medical qualifiers were called cream of the society (only 230 gen seats leaving out quota, chhota, bandhukfuta as we named the SC/ST/Handicapped/Defence quota) , not to offend anyone.
Our poor Universities never conducted a convocation to award the precious degrees that we acquired with so much sweat and hard work! Forget about info regarding gold medals or best graduates, if we get to see the result sheet it would be our good fortune. After knowing pass or fail the result sheet will vanish somewhere. Even we were unaware of our class rankings.
When I saw my sister receiving her MS degree at UIC, Chicago and our MBBS students in private Medical Colleges receiving their MBBS degrees in the cap and robe I used to wince within. I had missed two such chances of donning the robe????.
Since I was doing continual research projects, my hubby Dr Sudhir Kumar Panigrahi suggested me to extend my efforts a little more to obtain a proper degree alongside some original research being done for the nation.
That small extension of effort of course took 6.5 years, burning night oils for months together, carrying the burden everywhere, so many other difficulties....but by divine force, my guide Prof Dr Bishamber Dass Toora's constant tug, hubby's constant push, parents' constant support and blessings finally the D-day arrived and I robed for receiving the doctorate degree for Medical Biochemistry.
Now a Dr (cube).
I must also thank Dr K Sugendran, who guided me through the first half of the work. There are so many seen and unseen hands behind this feat whom I thank from core of my heart.
All throughout my Gurudev has guided and showered me with His blessings which had been my strength all throughout.
One desire has been fulfilled......?
Dr. Viyatprajna Acharya is a Professor of Biochemistry at KIMS Medical College, who writes trilingually in Odia, English and Hindi. She is an art lover and her write-ups are basically bent towards social reforms.
Do car drives give you a feeling of enthusiasm,a sense of excitement,boost your happiness, give you new ideas,do colourful pictures flash in front of your eyes.... green lush mountains, flowing rivers, pebbles of various colours and shapes, rustle of leaves,wild mountain flowers,picnics, carrying homemade food and beverages to sip along the long journey.
I personally have always cherished long drives, within the city or outskirts,it can be so soothing, relaxing and refreshing under the blue sky and nature almost hugging you and welcoming you with open only what frightens me most is the speeding of heavy vehicles that many a times block the beautiful scenery which forces you to slow down.
Love exploring new places, have an inquisitive and a creative bend of mind.Long drives can enrich you both mentally and physically.Its even more enjoyable when you are surrounded by your own family and friends.The journey is even more enjoyable when you have some good music ???????? playing on the car stereo.
I think I'm one of those who would quit anything to be able to go for a road trip.Have never really enjoyed flights nor train journeys.Look forward to the feel of fresh air kissing your cheeks and making them cherubic.The sight of fresh colourful blossoms brightens up my spirits to face difficult challenges in life and March ahead to never give up.
What excites me even more is to plan my outfit for the drive, well of course blue jeans always trendy with a comfortable loose long kurta and some simple accessories to match with.Have always treasured fabrics,weaves from different parts of India,a country so rich in culture and heritage.Dark bright colours always boost your mood but of course depending on the weather.
Have always given more importance to simple pleasures of life over anything else.
Little did i know in life that my son Rahul, now twenty four years and Autistic,my only child,non verbal and a visual thinker adores this activity.In fact since he was a kid,he has enjoyed his rides.We would go shopping together, over the weekends he would love to go along with his parents for mall walking and he would be rewarded with his choice of food.He has always preferred to wear smart shirts and dash a bit of his favourite perfume ,make sure his mommy is wearing kajal,her oxidised ear rings and of course her purse and last but not the least,he makes sure he's got the hold of the car keys.
Car drives for my son are a regular routine now,he gets it as a reward for his morning and evening walks.We have hardly stepped out last two and half years due to covid.
Hushkoo our pet dog ???? adores Rahul from the bottom of his heart and very well understands that he has a problem.He has been with us for five years now.His concern for my son is unimaginable, absolutely beyond words.Many a times I wonder if my parents are back through him.His pawfection is just heart melting.He has now further decided to accompany my son,in fact he cajoles Rahul, nudges him to go for drives.Hushkoo obediently sits behind his Rahul Bhaiya saying..."don't worry I'm there,my pawfection for you forever.Such is the bond between the two non- verbals, both having a sharp road sense.
Have you planned your next road trip?
Sheena Rath is a post graduate in Spanish Language from Jawaharlal Nehru University Delhi, later on a Scholarship went for higher studies to the University of Valladolid Spain. A mother of an Autistic boy, ran a Special School by the name La Casa for 11 years for Autistic and underprivileged children. La Casa now is an outreach centre for social causes(special children, underprivileged children and families, women's health and hygiene, cancer patients, save environment) and charity work.
Sheena has received 2 Awards for her work with Autistic children on Teachers Day. An Artist, a writer, a social worker, a linguist and a singer (not by profession)
(Illustrated by Shruti Sarma)
Since childhood, I have been very interested towards the paranormal, magical beings, scary stories etc. When I was a child I was very fond of listening to stories but I was not half as interested until it was a ghost story. Every day I would ask my mom and dad to tell me a story and when they asked what kind of story I would love to listen, I would reply “ Bhootor xaadhu kowa “ ( Tell me a ghost story). It had become an every day matter and finally my parents ran out of stories. So from then on, they started buying me story books. Every time my mom or dad went to the market, I used to say “ Mor karone bhootor xaadhu kitaap ekhon aniba” ( Bring a ghost storybook for me). I also used to ask my relatives to tell me ghost stories. So dear readers, by now you must have realized how fond I was of ghost stories.
This incident happened with me when I was eight years old. Me and my mom visited my cousin’s place. We planned to stay there for a few days. I was only eight years old and my two cousins were around twenty- five years old. I used to tell them, “ Dada/ba, mok eta bhootor xaadhu kowa” ( Brother/sister, tell me a ghost story). They too used to tell me ghost stories and I used to enjoy them a lot.
One day, my cousin brought a DVD for me and told me that it was a computer application which I would really love a lot. He installed the application in his desktop which was placed at the side of his bed, near the wall. It was covered properly with towels ( as seen in Indian household desktops), completely dust free and in very good condition. It was navy blue in colour. He loved his PC a lot and all three of us used to sit down together and watch movies on his PC. So after clicking on the newly displayed icon he said, “ Haare! mor computer tut bhoote dhorile niki ? “ ( Hey! is my computer haunted? )
I remember,the app icon was a small picture of a green coloured Frankenstein. But I did not know about Frankenstein untill I was ten so I ignored it. When he said this I felt a bit uncomfortable and said to him, “ Eh! Tumi mok ene bhoi khuwaisa dia “ ( Eh! You are just trying to scare me. I won’t fall for your trick) . Then suddenly, a scary high pitched female scream came out of his computer and the following line, ‘ YOUR COMPUTER IS HAUNTED !!!! ‘ started to write on their own on his MS Word screen in black font, multiple times. Also the DVD drive started opening and closing on its own. During those days, people were not so used to technology, computers, internet etc. and all that was happening was too much for an eight year old to handle. I did not scream but I was frozen with fear and my face went pale. Seeing my condition my cousin comforted me saying, “ Arreh! Eitu matro application tu he!! Asol koi bhoote dhora nai tu. Ei application tu enekoie bonua hoise. “ ( Hey relax! It’s just the app, not a real ghost. The app has been programmed in this manner).
At that time I was bit relaxed and later we had our dinner and went to sleep. It was a winter night and I was sleeping beside my mom with blankets over us. The application thing was still going on in my mind. I was lying on the bed thinking all this then just like that I raised my head to see a tall, slender, dark shadow standing near my bed motionlessly. I was so terrified after seeing that thing that I couldn’t even scream or speakout. Then I started to sweat profusely on that January winter night. The next morning I told this thing to my mom and she scolded me for not waking her up at that time when I saw the dark shadow. She told me to wake her up immediately the next time if I see any such thing. That night, my mom held me tightly close to her when we were sleeping and since that night, I never saw anything like that. May be that was just an imagination of the subconscious mind of an eight year old or may be a real paranormal encounter, I don’t know.
But dear readers, I still love to read ghost stories….. … .. ..
Shruti Sarma is currently an MBBS student of IMS and SUM hospital, Bhubaneswar. She is from Guwahati, Assam and is also an artist, a Sattriya dancer and a writer. She completed her schooling from Delhi Public School, Guwahati and her higher secondary studies from Sai Vikash Junior college, Guwahati. She has also been awarded the Mofizuddin Ahmed Hazarika Literary Award in 2016 for the best junior Assamese author.
IN LADAKH, THE LAND OF LAMAS, JUNE 2022
(the rugged bald hilly landscape of Ladakh, such terrains spread in all directions.)
It was a leisurely post-lunch afternoon in our Mumbai flat. While fiddling with the idea of stretching the frozen limbs after the house arrest of 2020 and 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic, wife accidentally came across a video shot in YouTube taken on the way from Manali to Leh, the capital of Ladakh. I noticed that even the next day she was secretly watching other videos on Ladakh.
I saw a star-burst in her eyes though she watched the videos silently. She seemed to be struck with the ‘thunderbolt’, as say the Italians for being struck with love at the first sight, an intense attraction. The drift, the vibes and the flush on her face said it all. I also had a side peek at the videos, and made up my mind to give her the treat.
I took her by surprise, “Let’s go on a Ladakh tour. I have a long-harbored wish to see Ladakh.” She howled back, “It is a silly idea, especially for a sedentary man like you. The height and thin air produce various health hazards including vertigo and breathlessness. You have intermittent vertigo and I suffer from breathlessness after exertions. A lot of walking and climbing involved also.”
When I put down my foot for Ladakh, she agreed. I saw the rare glint of excessive love in her eyes, that burst only on special occasions, an endangered species of emotion in the terrain of long married familiarity.
The nitty-gritty attended to, in a group of twenty-eight and a manager of our travel company we boarded our flight at Mumbai airport and landed at Leh, the capital of Ladakh. A crisp cold morning, shivering at six degrees Celsius at 6 am, stood outside the aircraft to greet us.
A soft crimson Sun was at our attendance hanging low on the hill-line that rose high on all sides into a copper sulphate crystal blue sky, patches of white puff clouds thrown in. The suave group manager put us into waiting Innova cars, four each, and we speeded off to our hotel having a lovely sing-song name, “Lha Ling Kha”. Our Innova-owner-cum-driver was Mr. Tsering Angchok, a middle-aged Ladakhi graduate with good communicative skill, a responsible family man from Leh.
One Chaudhury couple and Mr. Angchok along with the Innova, we were informed, would be our companions till the end of the nine-day tour through Ladakh. Our group moved everywhere in a caravan of seven Innova cars. Mr. Angchok, the gentle and patient driver, drove us around and kept me in rapt attention with a running a commentary about the areas we passed: places, villages and towns; the people and their social traits; the peculiarity of the landscape and its flora and fauna.
(Khardunga La by the clear road)
Our night halts were at Leh town, Hunder village of Nubra Valley, by the Pangong lake, and in Kargil town. We stayed the nights in nice hotels except in Pangong where we lived a night in a tent by the lake in numbing chill.
On our way between these night halts, we kept vising various sites of tourist attraction like Buddhist monasteries, gompas (Buddhist shrines), hill passes, bald and snow-clad mountain terrains, apple and apricot orchards, a few villages bordering Pakistan like Turtuk. I would avoid the details of our travel, rather dwell upon what got sedimented into memory.
ALONG THE ROAD
Ladakh was almost a country-size bald mountainous terrain. Giant bald hills of rocks, mud and sand, peculiarly devoid of any vegetation, not even grass, sat cheek by jowl. They created a contiguous wave of mountains extending in all the directions. Watching it from a height, a still snapshot of the vast stretch of a wavy light brown and gray corrugated sheet, spread end to end, frozen in time.
The hills of sinuous and sullen grandeur, if not taken in totality, but in pairs at a time; they would uncannily resemble a young woman’s shapely pair of bare breasts, gaunt and resenting its disrobing. The mountains were believed to be the eternal sentinels of that Land of Lamas.
The monotony of bald mountains of rock-mud-and-sand flanks was broken every fifty to seventy kilometers when sudden clumps of green vegetation with little biscuit houses poked heads from the clefts among the bald mountains. Approaching closure, the clumps revealed as narrow flat valleys ensconced in the cusps formed by hills. Those crucibles held life forms: humans, flora and fauna. Like oases in a vast cold and bald desert.
Ladakh would receive little rain fall in its monsoon months, July-September, insufficient even to wet the dry lips of its gorges, canyons and ravines. But regular snowfalls at its mountain tops that melted in the sun during the day, flowed down as rivulets to feed the human settlements in the little valleys and the flora and fauna.
The towns like Leh, Diskit and Kargil or the sparse number of villages of Ladakh sprawled in such mountain clefts and underbellies. Ladakh would remain pleasantly cold and accessible during six months of a year, March to August. Tourists would throng Ladakh during those these six months. People would have their main cash inflow from these tourists.
(pangong lake)
The rest of the year, the terrain would be extremely cold, almost sterile and inaccessible to the tourists with snow clogged roads. Hotels would close down and people and the domestic animals like yaks, buffalos, cows, horses, mules, asses, camels, lambs and goats would go indoors to stay warm and alive though the icy months. The fuel, food and animal fodder were stocked for the six cold months.
People farmed wheat, mustard, radish, cauli flower, cabbages, ladies’ fingers, melons, lime etc. The produce was not plenty but enough for the frugal needs of the people. The people, we noticed, were a happy-go-lucky stock. They kept a ready smile that broke out like the lively sunshine every second minute. The people we met at random during our tour in markets, at the wheels of vehicles, selling goods or just absorbed in their own business were friendly, warm and helpful.
The birds were a rare sight. We never left bed to a bird cry as in our Mumbai flat. In only a few occasions we met solitary magpies, black neck herons, sparrows, pigeons and only once a single brooding raven. The birds, whatever might be their reasons, hardly made sounds.
Life appeared harsh in Ladakh. The population was thin and could not provide the work force for the developmental work, main being building, widening and maintaining the roads. So, migrant labor force from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh ad Bengal flocked to Ladakh. Wages were better compared to the rest of India, we learnt from r. Angchok.
LEH AND KARGIL TOWNS
The locals called them cities, but they were only townships, with well laid out little markets along narrow undulated streets and lanes, usual to the hill stations in India. Leh lay at a height of 11500 ft and Kargil at 9000 ft. Both the hill stations were kind of guarded on all sides with high-rising mountain ranges.
The towns were neat, as if just swept and moped. We never saw a garbage accumulation as it would be a common site along the roads in Mumbai, hats off to the local Municipality. The cleaning staff must be doing their magical bit when the towns slept. Invisibility of the police was another magical aspect. We never saw any police personnel in busy markets or streets controlling the traffic or people, but things ran smoothly.
More than half of Leh and Kargil were jammed with hotels and sacks, packed to their gills with tourists when we visited there. The narrow roads could precariously accommodate two passing vehicles. But the drivers, uttering no words or hooting no horns, managed to cross or overtake one another. It was the same in all through the Ladakh tour including village lanes, highways, streets or mountain passes. Discipline, understanding and mutual accommodation appeared to be the watchword in Ladakh.
The merchandise that the shops sold were of Ladakhi, Tibetan and Kashmiri origin, predominantly woolen clothing. The shops also sold various cherries, berries, local or acquired. The deseeded sweet, fleshy and dried local apricot was delicious. Local vegetables like beetroots, leafy salad greens, succulent radishes, carrots and fresh cauliflowers dominated the vegetable market.
(Snapshot of a part of Leh from a hill top)
THE YAK DANCE
At ‘Lha Ling Kha’, our hotel in Leh, a folk group was invited to enthrall us with their local performance. Men and women in their traditional colorful costumes and head gears danced to the rhythm of local varieties of a Dholak, a pair of Rattlers and a Clarinet.
The dancers, male and female, sang their folk lyrics in lilting voices rhyming with their dance steps and movements. The music, melody of the songs and sinuously agile dance movements seemed superior to any folk performance I had enjoyed earlier. Of course, being an ordinary viewer and not an expert, my liking might be absolutely personal.
The most enthralling performance was by a yak. Yak is a cattle variety unique to Himalayan regions. In one of the performances, a big yak joined the dancers, caming out of the green room with dance movements along with human performers. It danced better than any of the accompanying artists.
Besides its perfect foot work, movements and curvaceous swinging of the large body, the yak spiced its performance with mock mischiefs. It looked at children with naughty side glances, allowing them to pat its hairy pelt by coming very close to them and then swinging its head and horns with a tease to make children laugh, and then dancing away. All the naughty and mischievous acts were well oiled movements never breaking a beat of the group’s dance rhythm.
After a while the Yak pretended to be tired and rested on its hunches on the dance floor while performers of the next dance numbers danced around it. But the Yak never lay idle. Its head, body and tell kept rhythmically moving through out until it got up to some cue and joined the middle position of a parting group from the dance floor that was the hotel’s courtyard with apple and apricot trees. Like the rest of the artists it kept bowing in style to our claps of applaud.
We knew it was a stuffed yak skin with two humans dancing inside it to give the life-like effect. But it looked so real, lively and the two insiders were so perfectly hidden that the illusion was more than real.
(poplars around Leh)
SANGAM
On our way out of Leh we met Indus (Sindhu) river in her infancy, hardly a small hill brook. It flew clear blue and thin. While driving along a road that ran side by side with the Indus, we came to SANGAM, the confluence, where another hill stream Zanskar merged into the kid river Indus. Zanskar’s muddy water merged with the clear blue stream of Indus, making Indus develop a new color. The merger of the two separate waters slowly churning into one another was a reflection of a true marriage, union of two bodies and two souls.
(
Sangam where Zanskar river joins Indus river as its first tributary. Zanskar muddy and Indus looks clear blue.)
NUBRA VALLEY VIA KHARDUNG LA PASS
The ribbon like road that went out of Leh to its north meandering up various hills gaining height until it reached the Khardung La Pass located at a dizzying height of 18500 ft. The pass was one of the highest motorable roads in the world. The whole area was covered with soft snow, shoes digging deep into it. The road was however kept clear of the snow.
Numbing and chilling wind froze faces and all exposed areas of our bodies. Most of our group suffered more or less a bit of breathlessness because of the thin air. There was nothing except a small army check post and a ramshackle washroom. Snow covered every inch of the ground except the road. High rise mountains with snow-covered peaks stood guard all around. The break about ten minutes seemed like hours in that numbing terrain.
We proceeded from the Khardung La pass, downhill along the ribbon road to Nubra Valley, a division of Leh district, at a height of around 10000 ft. We skirted around Diskit, its official headquarters, and went to a hilltop to see a huge statue of Maitreya. Nubra Valley boasted with another name, Dumra, the valley of flowers. Along village lanes or streams we found pink and yellow wild rose bushes and other wild flowers exploding with bright colors.
MAITREYA
Maitreya has been described as the next avatar of Goutam Buddha, as ordained by Buddhist lore. The future avatar of Buddha, in his handsome statuesque stance, sat on the hilltop exposed to the vagaries of weather, shining in the noon sun with the bright resplendence of Buddhist regalia. The statue was spotlessly unscathed by the climatic maladies or bird droppings. He sat in a meditative posture, an epitome of peace and compassion.
(Maitreya)
HUNDER
It was a small village, exceptionally full of trees, a relief to the surrounding baldness of the land. It was around twenty kilometers from Diskit town, the headquarters of Nubra Valley Division, sprinkled with a few hotels and congested with countless camping sites with tents for adventure loving tourists. We spent two nights at Hunder Resort, a small hotel and saw the area around.
BACTRIAN CAMEL RIDES IN A COLD DESERT
Throughout Ladakh had many mountains of loose sand. They appeared to be gigantic sand dunes. The flowing sand from these huge dunes have made sandy desert lands and the area was the home of the unique two-humped Bactrian camels. We were taken to one such desert land where we had the Bactrian camel rides. Though the ride was hazardous for my unaccustomed spine, yet I took the once-in-lifetime experience to loot the pleasure.
Nubra Valley gave us better exposure to the flora, fauna, the beauty of mountain formations. Mountains exhibited geometric lines and designs that could measure kilometers in length and width in various shapes. They appeared like geometric figures drawn by the hands of giant sizes. We were wonderstruck with these geometrical shapes and modern-art like formations on sand sculpted by none other than the melting snow and the wind as explained by Mr. Angchok.
While moving out of Nubra Valley towards Pangong lake, we had an experience of a buried road block caused by a landslide. We also experienced the astute handling of the hazardous situation by the Ladakhi authorities and how they resolved it with alacrity. We were notified sufficiently in advance of the road block and our cars stopped.
Our drivers and the manager with our consent took a longer detour through very hazardous roads. Though we got information about the removal of the road block, we had already progressed far along the long and hazardous route.
We had to travel around extra seventy kilometers of a roughhewn narrow path. But it was only a ledge hacked out of the loose mountain-faces for building a road. With a leaning mountain wall rising to dizzying heights on one side and a deep gorge gaping at us from below on the other, our cars moved along them carefully and precariously like patient tortoise.
PANGONG LAKE
Throughout that dangerous stretch, we sat in nail biting apprehension for hours on end through the countless twists and turns, rises and falls. The journey appeared like an eternity. But our fear vanished when we had a glimpse of the much-awaited Pangong Lake from a hilltop.
It was a pool of crystal-clear emerald blue mercury reposing majestically in the late afternoon sun. The giant crucible formed in the cusp of bald mountains wearing icecaps. The lake sprawled between India and China, we were told, stretching for more than a hundred and thirty kilometers, at a height of 14500 ft.
It was a chilly evening we reached the lake side. We had missed the appointed hour of our tryst with the lake, the early afternoon, when the lake usually wore its most resplendent best, parts of it turning dazzling blue, green, pink, lavender etc. But alas, we had missed that for the land-slide onto our regular road.
We also couldn’t manage to stay till the early afternoon the next day as the next lined up itinerary, hotel reservations and tourist attractions on the way awaited us.
It was an unforgettable experience, with lots of thrill and a bit of romantic apprehension at almost sub-zero temperature. After spending our most chilling night with sub-zero temperature in a tent by the lake side, with hours of teeth chattering and numbing experience, we did our proper meeting with the lake the next morning.
In the soft sun, we gulped with our eyes Pangong lake’s breathtaking beauty hungrily. The lake had no birds, no fish, no boating arrangement, and in spite of its magnetic charm, its water was brackish. After spending an hour by the lake side, we left Pangong early without waiting for the lake’s color display.
LADAKH PALACE AND THE SHANTI STUPA
The day before our early morning flight back to Mumbai, we spent in and around Leh town. After breakfast we rode to Santi Stupa, built on a hilltop by the Japanese Buddhists. A large Buddhist stupa on the outskirt of Leh. There was a gompa (temple for Gautam Buddha) in a large yard a few feet below the Shanti Stupa summit.
(Buddha with his acolytes in the gompa at the Santi Stupa.)
The golden Buddha in all his regalia sat on a decorated pedestal along with his acolytes. I spent quite some time in Buddha’s company alone and experienced a few most peaceful and unperturbed moments of my life. Most tourists ignored the gompa in preference to the stupa, hardly realizing that real tranquility reposed there quietly in that earthen lamp-lit sanctum.
From there we went visiting the abandoned palace of Ladakh kings of 17th and 18th century located on another hilltop at another outskirt of Leh. It appeared not only abandoned but totally gleaned of all its royal grandeur. The walls looked bare, drab and colorless. A few later-day Buddhist sketches covered certain walls. Rest of this last day at Leh was spent in marketing, buying small gifts for anyone who mattered to us back at Mumbai.
(Dedicated to Mr. Tsering Angchok, a citizen of Leh)
Prabhanjan K. Mishra is a poet/ story writer/translator/literary critic, living in Mumbai, India. The publishers - Rupa & Co. and Allied Publishers Pvt Ltd have published his three books of poems – VIGIL (1993), LIPS OF A CANYON (2000), and LITMUS (2005). His poems have been widely anthologized in fourteen different volumes of anthology by publishers, such as – Rupa & Co, Virgo Publication, Penguin Books, Adhayan Publishers and Distributors, Panchabati Publications, Authorspress, Poetrywala, Prakriti Foundation, Hidden Book Press, Penguin Ananda, Sahitya Akademi etc. over the period spanning over 1993 to 2020. Awards won - Vineet Gupta Memorial Poetry Award, JIWE Poetry Prize. Former president of Poetry Circle (Mumbai), former editor of this poet-association’s poetry journal POIESIS. He edited a book of short stories by the iconic Odia writer in English translation – FROM THE MASTER’s LOOM, VINTAGE STORIES OF FAKIRMOHAN SENAPATI. He is widely published in literary magazines; lately in Kavya Bharati, Literary Vibes, Our Poetry Archives (OPA) and Spillwords.
AMARNATH YATRA - MOUNTAIN PILGRIMAGE
Under clear skies, over 4,890 pilgrims headed for the Amarnath cave temple in Kashmir on June 30, becoming the first batch to trek to the temple situated at an altitude of 3,657 metres in the Himalayas after a long gap. The yatra had been cut short in 2019, days ahead of the Centre’s move to end J&K’s special status on August 5, 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic led to its cancellation in 2021 and 2022.
The traditional trekking route from Pahalgam in south Kashmir is the toughest. Pilgrims are advised to stay at the Nunwan base camp in Pahalgam for a night to acclimatise themselves with the weather and altitude.
Pilgrims drive from the Nunwan camp and stop at Chandanwari to start the over 30-km trek. The toughest pass is the Mahagunas Pass at an altitude of 4,276 metres. Most pilgrims stay at Sheshnag for a night before heading for “darshan”.
The less-steep Baltal route in Ganderbal district of central Kashmir was opened in 1999 to ease pressure on Pahalgam. Pilgrims trek 14 km and returned in a day to Baltal.
This year, the yatra saw the first helicopter service between Srinagar and the temple. This helped many pilgrims avoid driving through volatile pockets in south and central Kashmir and complete “darshan” in one day. The biggest worry for the J&K administration and security agencies was the intelligence inputs about likely militant attacks.
Over 60,000 pilgrims have already visited the temple. But on July 8, a localised heavy downpour led to flash floods that caused many deaths and washed away tents, community kitchens and kiosks. With the weather improving, the pilgrimage is likely to resume and will conclude on August 11, Raksha Bandhan day.
Bidhu K Mohanti, is an oncologist, former Professor at A.I.I.M.S., Delhi; and is presently the Director KIMS Cancer Centre, Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences(KIMS), K.I.I.T. University, Bhubaneswar 751024, India. He occasionally writes non-medical pieces in popular medium. Email: drbkmohanti@gmail.com
A WEEK IN THE LAP OF HIMALAYAS
On one hot and sultry morning in June, I wake up as usual early but did not want to carry on with my daily routine-morning walk. I was sitting in my balcony alone with a hot cup of tea and it struck to my mind –why not take a break from this worldly routine and all hustle and bustle of city and escape to the cool mountains .Mountains - Dhauladhar and Himalayas were calling. Our confinement to the close home environ –a fallout o f Covid -19 protocol was monotonous ,drab and boring almost for long two years , had impacted our psychic which needed healing touch. We needed a change and Sensing our uneasiness in the mid of summer , our children had secretly collaborated to chalk out a travel itinerary to send us towards the cool mountain ranges ,so that we can celebrate our 43 anniversary at the hill stations at Dalhousie and Dharmasala in Himachal Pradesh-a mountainous province famous for its popular hill-stations and picturesque Himalayan landscapes.
As per travel plan we took a Vistara flight from Bhubaneswar to Amritsar via New Delhi and arrived at Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport, Amritsar by 3 pm. A Punjabi driver, with his Toyota sedan A.C., was in wait at the exit gate and drove us to our pre booked hotel in front of the Golden Temple , Amritsar. After a memorable stay for two days, we left for Dalhousie at a distance of 197km –a favorite haunt for family vacations, in Himachal Pradesh. The small serpentine mountainous road from Pathankot to Dalhousie passing through Dhauladhar mountain range offers panoramic views and opportunities to capture the enchantingly river valleys ,natural landscape and pine clad valleys in our cameras and mobiles .The scenic beauty of the fast flowing river Ravi arrested by a multipurpose river dam offers the passers by most spectacular views to relish with .After two hours cautious drive our driver cum guide pulled the brake at parking lot of our destination –the hill station Dalhousie-The Nesta Elements , located in one of the most spectacular areas , Panchpula ,Balera Road,Dalhousie in the afternoon.
DALHOUSIE
The tiny tinsel town founded in 1854, by the British was a summer resort and retreat for the British officials during the British Raj. The beauty of the area and the pleasant climate enticed the British Governor General Lord Dalhousie so much so that, the town is named after him. History of Dalhousie enumerated an array of events that started taking place in the 1800s. After the Sikh war, the state of Punjab came under the dominion of the British in the year 1849. Lt. Col. Naipier , the chief engineer of Punjab, who first spotted this beautiful spot in the Chamba valley in 1850 inclined to develop it as a hill-station. It was in the year 1854 that Sir Donald Mcleod , the then Lt. Governor of Punjab suggested that this place be named after the famous Viceroy of British India- Lord Dalhousie. Since then the mountain town of Dalhousie maintained a steady pace and slowly developed as a well –developed pristine hill town and assumed the sobriquet- Queen of hill-stations. Dalhousie is located in Chamba district at an elevation of more than 6400 feet above sea level. It treat its visitors with breathtaking views of the majestic snow capped Pir Panjal mountain range, Sach Pass and Pangi Valley. The hotels amidst the plunging pine –clad valleys and mountain ranges, in the heart of Himalayas, provides the visitors with serenity which makes them feel one with nature.
Our hotel –The Nesta Elements-provided us a deck side room in the 4th floor, facing the Pine-clad hill housing the school area , which offered a nice valley view of the pine-clad hills up to the hill top Mount School, along with a number of residential international schools located in that area. The famous DPS (Dalhousie Public School) -with a multilayer big campus with a high rise mast on which the National Tricolor fly proudly competing with the tall Pine foliage is the center of attraction. Added to these attractions, just beyond D.P.S on the Khajjiar road in Dalhousie , there is a small but beautifully maintained park –Beeji’s Park dedicated to all the mothers inaugurated on 15th oct.2016 by Admiral Sunil Lamba, Chief of Naval Staff with a motto ‘God Can’t be everywhere so He created Mothers’. A full size fighter jet with all ammunitions, tank and armed vehicles, are the main attractions to draw the tourist’s attention. The enchanting pine clad hill views - capable enough to refresh your mind and rejuvenate your soul for sure.
KHAJJIAR
Khajiiar lies on a small plateau 25 km from Dalhousie, with a small stream-fed lake in the middle that has been covered with weeds. Settled in a picturesque setting amid Himalayas, it is one of the most visited places in Dalhousie. Snuggled amid a thick cover of deodar and pine trees with the snow capped Himalayas in the backdrop, Khajjiar is a delightful picnic spot. It is about 6500 ft above the sea level in the foothills of the Dhauladhar range of western Himalayas . We were mesmerized by the captivating beauty of the meadows and the ongoing adventure sports activities like horse riding, zorbing, paragliding by the children and young visitors. We just walked and explored the blessed environment and rested for a while on the wood log and enjoyed the ongoing sports. As it has a rare combination of treat-ecosystems-lake, pasture, and forest; It has been named as ‘Switzerland in India’. After a satisfying detour to Khajjiar , we called it a day and returned to our cozy resorts- the Nesta Element .
DHARAMSHALA.
The third leg of our tour –a 117km drive in the serpentine mountain road to Dharmashala took nearly 3 hours. Driving through the road fraught with avalanche and the visible sight of mauling impact of last year’s cloud burst and landslides were spine chilling but challenging one. As there was a drizzle at the start of our journey from Dalhousie , we were apprehensive about possible cloudburst as that area has experienced the impact of last year’s pre monsoon casualties. But each turn of the zigzag route unfolding stunning views of the mountain ranges and the green meadows and valleys distracted our attention from the vestigial remnant of last year’s landslides. When we reached Sahapur town it was almost 2pm and we took our sumptuous lunch in a Punjabi Dhaba . While approaching Dharmashala –at a distance of 20km, we could view the Majestic Snow capped Dhauladhar range gloriously spreading its white wings over the horizon-a viewer’s sheer delight.
Situated at an average altitude of 1475 meters above the sea level ,Dharmashala lies on the scenic stretch of land of Kangra valley making tourist spellbound for its spectacular beauty ,often cited as the “Little Lasha of India”. Dharamshala is popularly known as the holy residence of the exiled Tibetan monk Dalai lama. The city of Dharamshala is divided into two distinct divisions –the lower division is Dharamshala and the upper division is known as Mcleod Ganj. Blessed with spectacular scenes of nature, the calm and serene hill stations proudly boast strong influences with many quaint old monasteries located here. With the backdrop of the breathtaking Dhauladhar range, Dharamshala is one of the most tranquil destinations in north India where we could realize the perfect amalagamation of natural beauty and cultural tapestry. Surrounded by thick deodar, cedar trees and snow capped peaks which decorate the landscape quaint city is visited by thousands of tourist to beat the summer blues.
DHARAMSHALA CRICKET STADIUM
Our first stop was at the gate of Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, one of the most beautiful grounds at a high altitude -1475 meters, in the world. The panoramic cricket stadium with the snow capped Dhauladhar offers an enchanting and everlasting view to the visitors. The stadium has been a host to several International and IPL matches. After a short visit to the stadium gallery and taking few shots, we proceeded to Mcleod Ganj –a ten minutes drive.
MCLEOD GANJ
Nestled amidst majestic hills and lush greenery, Mcleod Ganj is famous for being home to the world-renowned Tibetan Spiritual leader the 14th Dalai Lama. Mcleod Ganj was named after Sir Donald Friell Mcleod , a Lieutenant Governor of Punjab. During the British rule in India ,the town was a hill station where the British spent hot summers, and by 1855 two civilian settlements Mcleod Ganj and Forsyth Ganj were vibrant with activities .Lord Elgin ,the British Viceroy of India(1862-63) liked the area so much that at one point of time he suggested it be made the summer capital of India. He died at Dharamshala while on a tour there on 20,Nov.1863 ,and lies buried at the St. John in the wilderness church at Forsyth Ganj, just below Mcleod Ganj. While driving towards the Dalai Lama Temple, we halted for few minutes to stroll in the wilderness to visit St. John Church; the ancient Anglican church built in 1852 .We could locate the memorial built by Lady Elgin in honor of her husband in the cemetery behind the church.
Incidentally, the summer house of Lord Elgin, became part of the private estate of Lala Basheshar Nath of Lahore and was acquired by the Govt. of India to house the official residence of the Dalai Lama. In March 1959, Tenzin Gyatso ,the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India after a failed uprising in Tibet against the Chinese Communist Party. The Indian Govt. offered him refuge in Dharamshala, where he set up the Govt. of Tibet in exile in 1960,while Mcleod Ganj became his official residence and also home to several Buddhist monasteries and thousands of Tibetan refugees. Over the years , Mcleod Ganja evolved into an important tourist and pilgrimage destination.
DALAI LAMA TEMPLE
The most important site in the town of Mcleod Ganj is Tugglagkhang –THE Dalai Lama temple. We drove through the narrow street lined with shops of various accessories run by the Tibetans up to the Dalai Lama temple parkings. Putting our masks we entered the temple. It is a huge temple ,and statues of Shakyamuni, Avalokiteswar,and Padmasamhava –the 2nd important person after Buddha who hailed from the Lalitgiri Odisha ,are worshipped . This is the largest Tibetan Temple outside Tibet containing some beautiful statues and thangkas ,as well as a Kalachakra temple with beautiful murals. After passing few hours in the tranquil of the monastery, we left for a visit to the nearby Tibetan market for purchase of some exotic gift items for friends.
Other Buddhist and Tibetan sites in Mcleod Ganj include the Namagyal Monastry,the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives,Karampa Temple and Norbilingka Institute to mention which we failed to visit due to heavy rain in the afternoon. We called it a day and returned to our hotel –BobsnBarley and to have a delightful 360 degree view of the city and Dhauladhar range from the spectacular Roof Terrace while enjoying a world –class selection of food and drink.
As we have to catch the next day Vistara flight from Amritsar at 3 pm, and to cover a distance of 201km, giving instruction to awake us early and to settle our bills, we retired to bed early. We left early in the morning with complimentary breakfast boxes to enjoy en route Amritsar. Thanks to our driver cum guide Suraj Singhji for dropping us at the Amritsar Airport much before the departure time .Our dates with the hill-stations came to an end as we embarked on our home ward journey –our mind loaded with unforgettable experience and sweet memories via New Delhi and reached at Bhubaneswar by 9pm .
Gouranga Charan Roul (gcroul.roul@gmail.com) : The author, after completing post graduate studies in political science from Utkal University, Odisha in 1975, worked as a senior intelligence sleuth in the department of Customs, Central Excise & Service Tax and retired as senior superintendent. As a staunch association activist, he used to hold chief executive posts either as General Secretary or President of All India Central Excise Gazetted Executive Officer's Association, Odisha for 20 years. Presently in the capacity of President of Retired Central Excise Gazetted Executive Officer's Association, Odisha, coordinating the social welfare schemes of the Association. Being a voracious reader, taking keen interest in the history of India, Africa, Europe and America. In his globe tottering spree, widely travelled America and Africa. At times contributing articles to various magazines.
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