Tuesday, December 23, 2014

A temple to Nathuram Godse?

India is truly an amazing country. Mahatma Gandhi has been appreciated for his values of truth and non-violence all over the world. He has inspired peaceful movements in several countries. In India, he is called 'The father of the nation'.
Yet according to news reports, the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha, will be erecting a temple to Nathuram Godse, who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi on 30 January 1948. They have acquired land for this purpose in Para village, in Sidhauli, in Sitapur District of Uttar Pradesh. The urn containing Godse's ashes will be placed here and worshipped!
What is the aim of this temple? What values are being promoted here? That Godse is greater than Gandhi? That assassinations and assassins are to be honoured? And does the government have no say in this? Can anyone erect a temple anywhere to any person?
Where are we headed?

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Pope Francis--and another fake quote

On facebook and the web, this quote below is shared thousands of times. But is it correct?

'It is not necessary to believe in God to be a good person. In a way, the traditional notion of God is outdated. One can be spiritual but not religious. It is not necessary to go to church and give money — for many, nature can be a church. Some of the best people in history do not believe in God, while some of the worst deeds were done in His name.'
There is no record of Pope Francis actually saying this. He did say something about doing good whether one believed in god or not, but as far as I know, did not use the above words.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Place Mill by Barbara Softly


First published in 1962
I read this book soon after it was published, I must have been around 10 or 11 years old. Set in the English Civil War, this book became one of my favourites. The story of Kate, Nicholas, the Miller, and their conflicting loyalties during this war, was somehow gripping and haunting. At some point of time I lost the book, but the memory of it remained with me. And 50 years later, I was able to order a copy and read it again. I still think it is a great book.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

The Berlin Wall by Frederick Taylor


There was a book fair in the city recently. There were plenty of books at reduced prices. I was looking to add to my collection on world history, and managed to pick up The Berlin Wall. This book [486pages] is an account of the wall from its inception to its destruction. It analyses the politics behind its construction, and during the time it existed, and the numerous people involved. There is a chapter on the heroic escapes from East to West. The book is interesting, the wall being just one aspect of the Cold War.

Monday, September 22, 2014

Who is a Socialist? Mahatma Gandhi's concept of Socialism [1947]

In an editorial entitled, "Who Is a Socialist?" Mahatma Gandhi wrote:
"Socialism is a beautiful word and, so far as I am aware, in socialism, all the members of society are equal—none low, none high. In the individual body, the head is not high because it is the top of the body, nor are the soles of the feet low because they touch the earth. Even as members of the individual body are equal, so are the members of society. This is socialism.
"In it, the prince and the peasant, the wealthy and the poor, the employer and the employee are all on the same level. In terms of religion, there is no duality in socialism. It is all unity. Looking at society, all the world over, there is nothing but duality or plurality. Unity is conspicuous by its absence. This man is high, and that one is low, that is a Hindu, that a Muslim, third a Christian, fourth a Parsi, fifth a Sikh, sixth a Jew. Even among these there are subdivisions. In the unity of my conception, there is perfect unity in the plurality of designs.
"But, in order to reach this state, we may not look on the things philosophically and say that we need not make a move until all are converted to socialism. Without changing our life, we may go on giving addresses and forming parties and, hawk-like, seize the game when it comes our way. This is no socialism.'

Thursday, September 18, 2014

The Hero by W. H. Auden



He parried every question that they hurled:
"What did the Emperor tell you?" "Not to push."
"What is the greatest wonder of the world?"
"The bare man Nothing in the Beggar's Bush."

Some muttered: "He is cagey for effect.
A hero owes a duty to his fame.
He looks too like a grocer for respect."
Soon they slipped back into his Christian name.

The only difference that could be seen
From those who'd never risked their lives at all
Was his delight in details and routine:

For he was always glad to mow the grass,
Pour liquids from large bottles into small,
Or look at clouds through bits of coloured glass.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Autumnal Day by Rainer Maria Rilke

AUTUMNAL DAY


Lord! It is time. So great was Summer's glow:
Thy shadows lay upon the dials' faces
And o'er wide spaces let thy tempests blow.

Command to ripen the last fruits of thine,
Give to them two more burning days and press
The last sweetness into the heavy wine.

He who has now no house will ne'er build one,
Who is alone will now remain alone;
He will awake, will read, will letters write
Through the long day and in the lonely night;
And restless, solitary, he will rove
Where the leaves rustle, wind-blown, in the grove.

[I am looking for another translation I once read--the third para in this begins 'The homeless man finds it too late to build/ The lonely man will keep his loneliness' would appreciate it if anyone has this version and can send it to me]

Friday, September 5, 2014

Ten more books--The Second List.

In the first list of ten best books, I missed out some really important ones. Here are ten more favourites, some of which should be in List 1.
1. Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn; also The First Circle, and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by the same author.
2. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M Pirsig.
3. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.
4. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.
5. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.
6. All the plays of Henrik Ibsen.
7. The Mahabharata.
8. The Ramayana of Tulasidasa.
9. Manimekhalai
1o. The Golden Treasury [F.T. Palgrave]
[I'll add another ten soon]

Friday, August 29, 2014

The ten books I like best...

It is really not possible to reduce the books one likes to ten. But because of a request on facebook, I gave it some thought and came up with this list. The first two on the list, I can certainly reread a hundred times.
My best books
1.The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse.
2. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann.
3. Most other books by Hesse and Mann [but not Siddhartha].
4. The Morning and the Evening by Joan Williams.
5. A Multitude of Sins by J A Cuddon.
6. Dibs—in Search of Self by Virginia Axline.
7. Place Mill by Barbara Softly [a children’s book]
8. The Synthesis of Yoga by Sri Aurobindo.
9. Walden by Henry David Thoreau.
10. Europe: A History, by Norman Davies.

Friday, August 15, 2014

Sixty-seven years ago

Partition
by
W.H. Auden

Unbiased at least he was when he arrived on his mission,
Having never set eyes on the land he was called to partition
Between two peoples fanatically at odds,
With their different diets and incompatible gods.
"Time," they had briefed him in London, "is short. It's too late
For mutual reconciliation or rational debate:
The only solution now lies in separation.
The Viceroy thinks, as you will see from his letter,
That the less you are seen in his company the better,
So we've arranged to provide you with other accommodation.
We can give you four judges, two Moslem and two Hindu,
To consult with, but the final decision must rest with you."

Shut up in a lonely mansion, with police night and day
Patrolling the gardens to keep the assassins away,
He got down to work, to the task of settling the fate
Of millions. The maps at his disposal were out of date
And the Census Returns almost certainly incorrect,
But there was no time to check them, no time to inspect
Contested areas. The weather was frightfully hot,
And a bout of dysentery kept him constantly on the trot,
But in seven weeks it was done, the frontiers decided,
A continent for better or worse divided.

The next day he sailed for England, where he could quickly forget
The case, as a good lawyer must. Return he would not,
Afraid, as he told his Club, that he might get shot.

Saturday, July 26, 2014

A Storehouse of Ageless Wisdom [published in The Hindustan Times, October 30, 1994] by ROSHEN DALAL

I wrote this article in 1994---twenty years have passed, but the bookshop still exists and looks much the same. The owner, S P Chowdhuri is no more, and the shop is run by his son.


ROSHEN DALAL ON A BOOKSHOP WHERE YOU CAN BROWSE FOR AS LONG AS YOU WANT OR JUST SIT OUTSIDE AND SIP TEA WITH LIKE-MINDED SOULS.

In a corner of Shankar Market, in the centre of Delhi, all the secrets can be discovered at Piccadilly book store. Here, one can find an account of the 18 unrecorded years of Jesus’ life. According to the ‘Akashic records’ of the Gospel of the Aquarian Age, Jesus wandered through Egypt, Greece, Persia, Tibet, and India. He spoke on the banks of the Ganga and visited the Jagannath temple.

On the next shelf is the Materia Medica of Tibetan Medicine and Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson, written by Gurdjieff. There are many more books by Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, Osho, J. Krishnamurti, U. G. Krishnamurti, Chinmayananda, Gibran and a host of others writing on religion, philosophy, and the mystic world. There are packs of Tarot cards and I-Ching cards, do-it-yourself books on gem therapy and astrology and of course several versions of the ancient texts, the Upnishads, Puranas, and others.

There is a select display outside, but inside the small shop, books are piled high in stacks and thee is scarcely any place to move. But this is a place where one is free to spend as much time as one likes, to browse through books in a leisurely way, or just to sit outside drinking tea and conversing with like-minded people.

The owner, S.P. Chowdhuri, is polite, helpful and knowledgeable. He can locate books on any topic in this sphere, even if one has no idea of either title or author. I once asked about books which dealt with the relationship of the inner “chakras” and the notes of music. In a few minutes there was a heap of books before me, each of which had a few pages on the esoteric theme.

People visit this bookshop from all over the world. In fact there are invariably more foreigners than Indian visitors. The shop has been in Fodor’s Guide, the Lonely Planet’s travelers series and even in Geeta Mehta’s Karma Cola. Many visitor’s record their impression in a book kept for this purpose. By now Chowdhuri has a collection of several such visitor books and one can spend interesting hours going through the profound or often amusing comments in them. The comments are in different languages including Hindi, English, French, German, and Japanese.

Indira Gandhi often visited the shop and on the 5th of January, 1980, she wrote, “The world of books is the most fascinating and enriching to be in. What an attractive shop it is!” Other eminent visitors have been Nirmala Devi, Girilal Jain, Arun Shourie, Lama Govinda, and several well known gurus and swamis. A visitor from Holland wrote, “To find the books on Buddhist art and philosophy, I come all the way from Holland and find them here”.

Some like to write the nuggets of their own philosophy, for instance, “If you are hungry, this is the best place to fill yourself. Dine, be filled, then you may become empty”, or “To be known to oneself is to read the books and throw them away”. Another happily recorded, “Each man I marry, I’ll spend his fortune here”. But Chidananda – of the Shivananda Ashram simply wrote, “God bless this bookshop”.

This unique book store was gifted to the present owner by his elder brother in 1957, and is the oldest book store in Shankar Market. Now Chowdhuri and his son run it. “I look for quality not quantity” says Chowdhuri. He is not referring to the books, where he has both quality and quantity, but to the visitors to his shop.

He does not cater to the readers of pulp fiction, fast-paced best sellers, or popular magazines. All his visitors are drawn there by a search for something, for truth or whatever one may call it. With his regular customers, Chowdhuri develops a personal relationship and many spend more time with him discussing life and philosophy. When I visited his shop after an absence of nine years, I was immediately recognized and offered a cup of tea.

Even if you come fifty years later”, he said, “and I am here, I’ll know you”. At that moment one had a vision of time standing still. While new technologies multiply in this world and people rush to keep pace with change, there is, in the middle of all this, a peaceful unhurried corner, where people still search, as some have always done, for ageless wisdom.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

List of Sherpas killed or miising on Everest, 18 April 2014

Mingma Nuru Sherpa: NBC Everest Expedition

Dorji Sherpa: NBC Everest Expedition

Ang Tshiri Sherpa: AAI Everest Expedition 2014

Nima Sherpa: AAI Everest Expedition 2014

Phurba Ongyal Sherpa: AC Everest expedition 2014

Lakpa Tenjing Sherpa: AC Everest Expedition 2014

Chhiring Ongchu Sherpa: AC Everest Expedition 2014

Dorjee Khatri: Adventurist Everest Expedition 2014

Then Dorjee Sherpa: Adventurist Everest Expedition 2014

Phur Temba Sherpa: Adventurist Everest Expedition 2014

Pasang Karma Sherpa: Jagged Globe Everest Expedition 2014

Asman Tamang: Himalayan Ecstasy Khotse Expedition 2014

Tenzing Chottar Sherpa: AAI Everest Expedition 2014

Ankaji Sherpa: Everest Chinese Dream Expedition 2014

PemTenji Sherpa: Everest Chinese Dream Expedition 2014

Aash Bahadur Gurung: Everest Chinese Dream Expedition 2014

[source: Wikipedia]


Friday, April 18, 2014

extract from Auguries of Innocence, by William Blake

A robin redbreast in a cage
Puts all heaven in a rage.

A dove-house fill'd with doves and pigeons
Shudders hell thro' all its regions.
A dog starv'd at his master's gate
Predicts the ruin of the state.

A horse misused upon the road
Calls to heaven for human blood.
Each outcry of the hunted hare
A fibre from the brain does tear.

A skylark wounded in the wing,
A cherubim does cease to sing.
The game-cock clipt and arm'd for fight
Does the rising sun affright.

Every wolf's and lion's howl
Raises from hell a human soul.

The wild deer, wand'ring here and there,
Keeps the human soul from care.
The lamb misus'd breeds public strife,
And yet forgives the butcher's knife.

The bat that flits at close of eve
Has left the brain that won't believe.
The owl that calls upon the night
Speaks the unbeliever's fright.

He who shall hurt the little wren
Shall never be belov'd by men.
He who the ox to wrath has mov'd
Shall never be by woman lov'd.

The wanton boy that kills the fly
Shall feel the spider's enmity.
He who torments the chafer's sprite
Weaves a bower in endless night.

The caterpillar on the leaf
Repeats to thee thy mother's grief.
Kill not the moth nor butterfly,
For the last judgement draweth nigh.

He who shall train the horse to war
Shall never pass the polar bar.
The beggar's dog and widow's cat,
Feed them and thou wilt grow fat.

The gnat that sings his summer's song
Poison gets from slander's tongue.
The poison of the snake and newt
Is the sweat of envy's foot.

The poison of the honey bee
Is the artist's jealousy.

The prince's robes and beggar's rags
Are toadstools on the miser's bags.
A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.

It is right it should be so;
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.

Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine.
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Kedarnath

The Kedarnath temple in Uttarakhand will reopen in May. But the region has still not recovered from the devastation caused by the floods and rain in 2013, when much of the temple was buried in silt. A new documentary, 'The Ones Left Behind', focuses on the widows who lost their husbands in the disaster.Produced by Kartikeya Sharma, it was recently screened at the Chennai International Short Film Festival, and won a 'special mention' award.