TOILETS TOO TELL TALES

                            

Since the Prime Minister emphasized the need of toilets on the last Independence Day, the subject has assumed new proportions. Generally the neglected and least talked about toilet is suddenly catapulted into the vortex of national policy making. He advised the legislators both at central and state levels to spare their constituencies developmental funds for this urgent requirement so that within a year, at least all schools were provided with toilets. Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder, Sulabh Sanitation Movement, in his editorial of the sulabh india (monthly periodical/July 2014 issue) has given an apt and catchy slogan, ‘Let poo go to loo’. The Finance Minister has assured that by the 150^th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi in 2019, the country, which accounts for 60% of the defecation al fresco, will get rid of this bane, a cause, so dear to that great man.

A few days back, a team of documentary producers landed in the Sulabh International Museum of Toilets to do a story for the History Channel. They laid stress on me to give an authentic  data oriented presentation. I feel to share some of such interesting data with my friends. According to a World Bank survey, India is financially losing 5,400 crore dollars per year due to poor sanitation which mainly includes lack of toilets and clean potable water. It is understandable that insanitation leads to multiple diseases causing losses in productivity and  more expenses on medication. Till a decade back, 63% people in india resorted to open defecation. By now it has come down to 54%. Still the country has to go a long way. A Japanese minister, some years back had expressed that like defence, investment in sanitation is also necessary. An estimate has been made that every dollar spent on sanitation gives back eight times more benefits by way of improved health, decreased absenteesm  and saving on medical bills. Yet one interesting figure says that they who go for open evacuation, spend some time to search a spot with privacy and the sumtotal of that time means that he loses 2.5 days of his life per year. An official of UNICEF has recently said that if a school bus meets with an accident and twenty children die, it makes a front page news in all national dailies. However, he wondered that it causes no concern despite knowing that 1,400 children under five die every day in the world due to insanitation related diseases including diarrhoea which is generated by contaminated water. A recent survey in Bangladesh has revealed that lack of toilet and clean water are badly affecting the height of children.

So what is the tale that the toilet tells?

“ It is never late to have a toilet”.  What the toilet demands?

“Use me well and keep me clean, I will not tell what I have seen”.

  

SWARMUDRA

                                                    

The Swarmudra is a journal, published by the Raza Foundation on classical music and classical dance. It holds quarterly academic programmes, touching upon the above subjects on regular basis. In this chain, a new link was a panel discussion on a recent publication, named Sangeet Aur  Sanskriti on Aug. 23,2014 in the India International Centre. The book, authored by Mukund Lath was published by the Sangeet Natak Akademi. The gathering (100) included celebrities of the field including journalists and art critics like Dr.Ashok Vajpayi, Manjari Sinha, Udayan Vajpeyi, Shanta sarabjit Singh and Prerna Shrimali. Despite not keeping well, the wheelchair bound Syed Haider Raza also took trouble to grace the occasion for some time. The arrangement was that in order to introduce the book, Dr. Ashok Vajpayi  would raise questions and the author, present on the dias would respond.

Talking about the author, Dr Vajpayi informed that Shri Mukund Lath, born in 1939 in Calcutta, a professional versatile musicion is the disciple of vocal music doyen Pt. Jasraj. Writer of several books, he was awarded with ‘Padmashri’ in 2010.  Dr Vajpaayi expressed that at least in last 50 years, no such authentic and exhaustive book has been written on classical music and dance. Moreover, it is a trend setter in Hindi prose-writing, he argued. Since there was no trend of history writing in Indian tradition like in China and Greece, the present book would prove a great help to all types of professionals in the field of this audio-visual media. He mentioned that the book contains 17 chapters which leave no branch untouched. Dr. Vajpeyi wanted to know about the origin of ‘aalap’, ‘ragas’, ‘that’s’ etc. Shri Lath admitted that there were no literary sources to throw light on these aspects which were not possible as well. Once it is learnt that the ‘Swaras’ and ‘ragas’ were born of Shiva and Brahma, there are no further details.

After that the panellists like Manjari Sinha, Udayan Vajpeyi, Prerna Shrimali and Yatindra Mishra went in depth of the music and tried to explain the rich contribution of the author through the said book. At the end, some persons from the audience also raised their questions mostly about the waning popularity of our Classical music and dances which were adequately replied by sh. Lath. AT the end, the organizers informed the gathering that a similar function would be staged at the same venue after three months.    

NAMO'S INDEPENDENCE DAY (2014) ADDRESS

                                  

During  the electioneering before the last general election, when Narendra Modi addressed a gathering in Madhya Pradesh from a dais, made in the shape of the Red Fort, many of his critics including Lalu Yadav laughed it away like a pipe dream which will never be fulfilled.  A committed Modi today addressed the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort compelling  his such bête noires to lick the dust. As usual, the budget and the I-Day address of the PM are appreciated by the Parties in the govt and castigated by the opposition leaders. I was surprised to see that a TV anchor, who turned a politician some months back knows everything about politics and has claims to teach a few lessons to NaMo. Let us see the newness in Modi’s  I-Day address.

First of all he deviated from visiting every funeral place of different political leaders. He paid his tributes to the Father of the Nation and straightway drove to the venue of the main function. He avoided the protection of a bullet-proof glass enclosure and the umbrella if it rained to give a message to the gathering that he preferred to stand like any other common man. Normally Pt. Nehru was known for making extempore speeches even from international fora. Mrs. Indira Gandhi also avoided reading any written script. After her, for the first time, it was Modi who spoke extempore. Like Bill Clinton, he had important points before him which he must be glancing occasionally, obviously to ensure that nothing was left out and the sequence of topics was maintained. Of course, by now he has proved that he is one of the finest orators in the Indian politics today. The massive crowd turnout in his meetings prove it beyond doubt. Earlier similar enchanting speaker was A.B. Vajpayee.

I had seen and heard Pt. Nehru giving I-Day speech in 1963. Since then I never heard any PM not referring to Pakistan for pinpricks on borders and claiming that the Indian army was capable of giving befitting reply. Modi did not speak anything like that. He showed his magnanimity by thanking all the previous PMs due to whose efforts India stands  boldly today. He referred to only Gandhi, Sardar Patel and L.B. Shastri for their contributions and avoided to praise others just to prove his loyalty. We hope, his this boldness, commitment and farsightedness will definitely stand him in good stead to usher in ‘achchhe din’.   

KNOW THESE SUFFERERS TOO

                                 

Earlier in a post, I had briefly mentioned about the internecine war in Iraq, spearheaded by a religious fanatic group of Sunni Muslims with the objective of capturing pro-USA  Shia govt of Iraq and either to chase away the minorities or to convert them into Islam. The main minorities are the Christians and Yazidis. I am sure, some of my pageviewers may not be aware of the Yazidis without which the problem cannot be assessed in right perspective. Yazdis are basically non-Arab and an ancient group which has roots in the old Mesopotamium civilization and came to be known as a separate religion in 1,500 BC. They believe in the authority of one God and worship that. As a result, the Muslims call them ‘devil worshippers’. It is in their fate that like the Jews, they have been subjected to harsh persecutions in different countries since olden days.

Though there is no exact head counting, but it is believed that their population may vary from 50,000 to 6,00,000 and they are scattered over iran, Iraq, Turkey, Kurdistan and Syria. Irbil, the capital of autonomous Kurdistan, is the ISIS target today as it has an American consulate and the concentration of minorities like Christians and Yazidis. The ISIS supremo has not only imposed harsh restrictions of the middle ages on womenfolk, but have also stopped minors from going to schools and they are being forced to learn martial arts. They have threatened the minorities either to get converted into Islam or pay a heavy tax (like Zazia in the Mughal India) or face the bullets.

A number of yazidis have been killed, a big section fled Irbil and the rest are hiding in foothills of Syria. The ISIS demands that the Sunni dominated areas in Iraq, Syria and Kurdistan should be given to them as a separate Islamic country with no space for the followers of other faiths. The Yazidis are Kurdish speaking people who want to just live peacefully. Despite deterrent bombings of ISIS camps by the USA, the ISIS onslaughts go on unabated. Today’s news says that they have already captured the Mosul Dam and are threatening Irbil. Things are definitely taking a dangerous turn and should cause a deep concern in the peace loving people. If this Islamic anti-Christianity, ant-Shia and anti-Yazidi  fanaticism goes on unrestricted, Iraq will be destroyed beyond any quick recovery and the already thinning Yazidi population will be extinct.      

HOTTING UP WEST ASIAN FRONT

                               

The disturbing state of affairs in Gaza and Iraq are not auguring well for the world peace. Even though Israel is ready for truce, Hamas is reluctant. Hamas does not want to give any indication of it weakness by accepting the offer of ceasefire and the request of the comity of nations to concede. Its strategy is to provoke Israel to bombard densely populated areas in Gaza killing innocent civilians and warranting international sympathy for Hamas and criticism for Israel. As a result, even the post Eid ceasefire lasted only for three days and the bloodshed is back in full form. Even the UN is failing to convince the unbending Hamas. The only hope is there that Egypt, to which belongs Gaza, may try to prevail over the Hamas desperadoes. If the war went on unabated, it is rightly feared that Israel, which devastated Hamas underground bunkers, may inflict more horrifying civilian woes.

On the otherhand, the involvement of the USA in Iraqi civil war may once again break the backbone of the region to the extent that it will take years together to limp back to an economic take off position. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is not happy with the Shia ruled and American supported regime of Iraq.Its main objective  is to create a Sunni ruled state comprising the Sunni majority areas of Iraq and Syria. With this end in view, the ISIS supremo, a hard core religious fanatic Baghdadi created a ferocious band of militia which is posing a serious threat to the armies of both the countries. In the region, they have captured a number of strategic towns and are closing in on Baghdad and Irbil which has caused a great concern in the Obama administration.

Even after three years of withdrawal of the US forces from Iraq, they are still maintaining a consulate in Irbil and a small contingent of army there. The township is under the security of Kurdish army. Obama found that the water was going above head. So on Aug 7, he signed the order for intervention. Accordingly, two fighter planes took off from a naval ship in the vicinity on Aug 8 and hit with laser bombs the ISIS militia camps, destroying their arms, ammunitions and tanks. The latest information is that even today(Aug9), the bombardment continues. The situation demands an immediate intervention in favour of peace.

New Swiss Tricks to Fleece India

                               

The lion who has tasted human blood becomes more ferocious, so goes an old saying. If we examine the attitude of the developed West towards developing Afro-Asian and Latin American countries, this saying will hundred percent come true. Since 18^th century Industrial Revolution days, when they had colonized these countries, purchased their raw materials at throw away prices and sold hem back to the original producers at a high price. Did not they force Lancashire textiles on us to finish the world famed textile industry of India including the Dacca malmal clothes. They were so  cruel that they chopped off the weaving fingers of such Indian master craftsmen to create market here for their own products. The time in last two hundred years has changed but their that exploitaing mentality stands, though with some change in the methodology.

It is a global phenomenon that when the political situation in a country becomes volatile, the affluent sections divert their earnings to the banks of safer places. This has happened mostly in newly independent countries including india. The foreign money flows to these tax havens and without any efforts, their earnings continue to mount unabated. India is one of the worst sufferers as these amounts are illegal. We virtually do not know exactly about the quantum of this huge money. Under pressure from the affected countries, they have started sharing only scant information about the particulars of such thieves. The trick is to continue delaying the process.

Of late it has come to our notice that Switzerland has evolved yet another tactic to loot or resources as they know that the secrecy about bank deposits will one day get unravelled. Now they are releasing huge mass of gold, silver and coins. Through this export, they will pay back the bank account holders without alerting the native country govts. In June 2014 alone, the Swiss export of such precious metals came to Rs.26,000 crore out of which  metals worth Rs 11,000 crore came to India. It has been estimated that 42% of this export reaches Indian shores. If left alone, this fleecing Swiss tactics will badly impoverish India. Let us wake up. 

TODAY'S IMPORTANCE

                                         

It may just be a coincidence that Aug. 04 (today) happens to be a doubly important day. While the one has religious connotations, the other pertains to the entertainment world. You cannot ignore any as both are essential for the life to thrive.

Talking about the faith, it is the last ‘somvari’ (Monday) of the Hindu month of Shravan, specially known for its connection with Lord Shiva. Every Hindu, on this day tries to worship this Lord with ‘belpatra’, aak and dhatoor flowers etc. It is said that adoration to Mahadev on this special day has qualities to fulfil  all the wishes of the devotees. It is this faith which, despite being on an official visit of Nepal, promted Narendra Modi to offer prayers in the world famous shrine of Pashupatinath in Kathmandu. There were elaborate arrangements for the peaceful worship of the Indian PM. He took about an hour to propitiate the Lord. On this occasion he offered inter alia a huge cartage of sandalwood, so dear to Shiva and a good amount of cash as well. Thus he won over the hearts of every Hindu in both the countries. I honestly wish Shiva’s boons for my FB friends.

The day also happens to be the birth anniversary of Bollywood icon, late Kishore Kumar. According to me, the Indian filmworld has yet to produce a greater multi-faceted talent. We have yet to see a better singer than Md Rafi. Naushad is yet to be paralleled in music composition. Has anybody so far superseded Salim-Javed in the field of script writing? Similarly, Sahir Ludhiyanvi, Hasrat Jaipuri, Shailendra and Gulzar are superb lyricists. There are similar other celibrities in other fields of the celluloid world. But whom you will name having all these qualitie at one places? Of course none else than Kishore Kumar. He had been a singing hero from the very beginning but towards the last phase of his career, as a singer, he gained such a height that even the most established competitors of the time were relegated to penury in lack of work. There was a comedy film named Jhumroo, produced by him in late fifties. The credit for everything in that film goes to this great artist. I wish unending peace for his departed soul.   

ONE TONGUE AND THIRTYTWO TEETH

                               

Eversince the Jewish state of Israel was created in 1948, the country has been facing stiff and repeated onslaughts from the surrounding Islamic countries, bent upon uprooting this new-born country. The Muslims of West Asia believe that the Western powers had forcefully settled the Jews from different parts of the world there by disturbing the Muslims. So they  have been waging an unending war to wipe out Israel from the world map. Different terrorist groups like Al Fatheh, Hizbollah, Hamas etc are not allowing Israel to exist peacefully. Do you know how this small state has been braving these odds ?

Israel is surrounded by 22 Muslim countries. These countries occupy 640 times more land than Israel. Similarly populationwise also the Jewish state is precariously placed as the ratio works out to 1:50. There were occasions when all of them unitedly attacked Israel and instead of nailing Israel, countries like Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Palestine lost land to the enemy. This is so despite the fact that Israel does not maintain a regular army. Instead, the population at large including either sex is imparted intensive military training and whenever situation demanded, the government conscripted the required number of fighting forces.

By maintaining a close rapport with the USA and other European NATO countries, Israel maintains a marked superiority in the field of arms and ammunitions of the latest grade. So they are in a position of avoiding land skirmishes and strategically bombard the enemy locations and thus avoid casualties. In 1967 war, the aircrafts of Egypt were destroyed while parked on their air bases. This broke the backbone of the enemy. The huge Sinii peninsula of Egypt was occupied by the Israelites. Moreover, they do not believe in weaknead policies and unfailingly cause deterrent harm to the enemies. This has happened on all occasions in past including the present one with the Hamas in Gaza strip. As a result, the enemies think several times before becoming aggressive which has kept Israel alive and kicking so far. Is it a lesson for some other countries also suffering from religious terrorism and political extremism?

DAYA KRISHNA MEMORIAL LECTURE

                               

The second Daya Krishna Memorial Lecture was organized under the auspices of The Raza  Foundation on the evening of July 31^st , 2014 in the India International Centre, New Delhi. Dr. Ashok Vajpeyi, IAS(Retd.) presided. Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, President, Centre for  Policy Research was there to give his talk on the subject, “Indian Intellectual History: Between Tradition and Truth”. In the small gathering of the elite thinkers and literateurs were included Shri T.N. Chaturvedi, former Governor of Puducherry and Smt.  Mrinal Pandey, famous electronic media journalist and a known Hindi writer. Sulabh was represented by S/Shri Bageshwar Jha and Debu Chatterjee.

Dr. Vajpeyi informed the gathering about the multi-faceted activities being carrird out by The Raza Foundation including series of annual memorial lectures pertaining to several celebrities of different fields of creativity. He also briefly apprised the gathering about some important programmes of the Foundation in coming months of the running year. Dr. Vajpaye also threw light on the towering and scholarly personality of late Daya Krishna. He recalled how as an aspirant poet in his student life he would go to Dayaji for guidance. He touched upon the brilliant academic career and a number of standard publications of Dr. Mehta also.

Dr. Mehta, in his given theme based talk also highlighted the scholarship of Daya Krishna. He expressed that in his idea he had a picture of an ideal teacher and Daya Krishna fitted in it so well that he had not seen a better teacher in all respects anywhere in the world. Dr Mehta said that in the West, Indian philosophy was being criticized for not going beyond spirituality. They wondered how Indian philosophers just ignored the material aspect which is a reality. Daya Krishna was the first person who seriously thought over this state of affairs and tried to give a new interpretation so that one would like to take interest in this discipline. He agreed that most of our heritage books including the Rigveda had hardly anything useful for the common man. He referred to different schools of Indian philosophy and its doyens like Shankar, Ramanuj,Charwak, Kabir, Aurvindo so on and so forth and a number of Western thinkers to explain the need of bringing lofty philosophical Indian ideas to the door of the common man like other branches of humanities.

The programme concluded with a lively question-answer session in which half a dozen participants including me participated. I felt honoured when in appreciation of my question, Sh. T.N. Chaturvedi, in the row in front of me took a 90 degree turn and gave a charming smile to me.