THIS SIDE OF NEPAL EARTHQUAKE

       According to a couplet of the Ramcharit Manas, taking about the might of God which says: maskahi karahi pahar sam … meaning that He can make a mountain our of a mosquito and vice versa. It was totally proved by the catastrophic earthquake dated April 25 of Nepal. The Dharhara Tower, though not taller than the Qutub Minar of Delhi, with a height of 203’, it was the prominent landmark of Kathmandu which was visible from long distance. It was virtually toppled/uprooted by the quake. Similarly several other temples, monuments and historical buildings were dismantled. Referring to them here does not mean ignoring the pathetic casualties and loss of property.
After the destruction of 1934 quake, Kathmandu took 70 years to rebuild into a beautiful cosmopolitan city. We are aware of the human ingenuity which tells that today or tomorrow or after several years, Kathmandu will definitely come back to normal life, but what about those precious heritage buildings and artefacts? Without them, Nepal’s history writing will be problem for the coming generation of history writers.

NEW INNINGS OF CONGRESS

                               

After the merciless thrashing at the hustings in the last parliamentary election, the Congress leaders sat together for a post-mortem of the defeat and make necessary changes to come back in power. An important and honest acknowledgement was that the continued ignorance of the majority had boomeranged.

So far, the party has not adopted any open strategy on this front, but indications are there that they mean it. In the days of Nehru, the party harvested the unstinted support of the Dalits and Muslims which saw them through for almost half a dozen of terms. Though this policy continued during Mrs Gandhi’s time also, but erosion started getting perceptible. As an astute politician, she wore the garb of socialism and trumpeted the vote catching slogan of ‘garibi hatao’. Despite the draconian Emergency, resulting in her defeat, she bounced back quickly. Later Mrs Gandhi’s as well as Rajib’s assassinations created a sympathy wave and Sonia Gandhi, in the wake of sympathy wave boldly held the fortress and brought much needed victory.

Particularly during the second stint of Dr Manmohan Singh, equations changed. Local satraps in different states like Bihar,UP, West Bengal, Odisha,Tamil Nadu etc emerged strongly and ate away Congress vote banks. Most of these local leaders played caste and community games. Even the Congress loyalist Muslims shifted their allegiance to above parties and groups.  It resulted in a decisive defeat for this oldest national party.In this light, the party has learnt a lesson hard way that no more it could afford to ignore and antagonize the majority.

If this fact is taken into account, no political observer will have any problem to decipher the sudden decision of Rahul Gandhi to turn a Sanatani. Yesterday (April 24) when the doors of Kedarnath reopened after the winter hibernation, he took trouble to trek to the shrine to be present on this sacred day. I am surprised over the undue media coverage. Rahul got so much footage that the deity as well as the holy occasion were relegated to the background and he grabbed lime-light. Even if we leave aside this point, one will agree that the trump card of the game of appeasing the majority has been put on the board.  

OTHER SIDE OF DEVELOPMENT

                                  

Normally we see dams, bridges, canals, factories, universities, communication networks so on and so forth and make our judgement whether the country is really progressing or such claims are simply hollow.  This line of thinking and then being judgemental is not wrong as the things mentioned above are well visible. But a reasonable man will tell you that certain aspects of developments are not visible but they are strong enough to be counted while making a statement in this regard.

Till the mid-2oth century, India was very poor. There was no family planning and no guarantee of maintaining a big family. The agriculture was the main source of income and that too being rain-based, was not dependable. The lack of cleanliness led to epidemics claiming large number of people not only in India but other parts of the world as well. Parents, in order to lighten their family burdens used to give their children to religious institutions. The Devdasi system of South Indian temples is known for it as the parents were impressed by godmen that donating a daughter to the temple would secure  a place for them in the heaven. Similarly, the Christian missionaries, chose to operate in farflung rural areas where they got men and women ready for conversion and use for alluring others. The wards of poor families got a reasonable living and paved the way for mass conversion. Later on, the Left extremists attracted the youth in such backward areas to bring about revolution by rooting out the capitalists.

The matter has, of late taken a complete turn. With the growing education, financial betterment and other such modern facilities, even the wards of the poor have started thinking otherwise as a better world waits for them. Now instead of being a nun, they prefer a government job. Only three days back, a curch father was expressing before the press that the number of ladies volunteering to become nuns was going down all over the world. He said that Kerala, providing the largest number of nuns has registered almost 70-75% drop. Exactly in the same fashion, a Naxalite leader of Andhra Pradesh told the press that due to a large number of surrender by their men to the authorities, the party was badly hit over the dwindling cadre. It is a fact that leading a forest life for years together is very difficult and partymen start suffering from boredome. The pressure from the security agencies makes their life further painful. Moreover, enjoyable objects available in the open society like residential house, mobile, TV, Photography, computer and other consumer goods attract them. To cap these all, the govt is offering good jobs to them who eschew arms and surrender. It does not stop here only. Even in J&K, the anti-national outfits are not getting required number of local youth. So Pakistan recruits terrorists in Arab countries and sends them to India. They are aware that the local educated youth are interested in career and chances of more and more Malala Yusufjai coming up are growing fast.

If adjudged from this angle, we may take sigh of relief that the other side of developmental activities are equally shining. The nation can feel proud of these indirect benefits.

THE MYTSTERY OF UNIVERSE

                                      

Once again the great collider machine, placed in a tunnel of 27km long on the Franco-Swiss border, supposed to be the biggest experiment by man, is on for the second time to further unfold the mystery of universe. It was launched in 2010 amid a false propaganda that this highly risky experiment might bring dooms   day on earth. Some eighty eminent scientists of the world, dedicated to this ambitious project proved that those were nothing more than a kite fly.

They went ahead successfully and could discover the God particle, of which most of the objects of this world are made. The machine was closed in 2013 for necessary repairs and innovations so that it was ready for the next big stride.

The task of knowing how this universe started is not an easy job. Once the scientists found out the God’s particle, in that leg, they are in for still more complicated exercises. In this phase, when the collider hits the particles as per the charted programme, the collision at -237 degree C. will reveal facts related to the theory of Big Bang, Dark Matter and Black Hole.

The big bang theory does not literally mean that there was a huge explosion. It is based on the theory that at the beginning, all energies and atoms were encapsuled in a zero/dot. They were expanding inside. They kept on expanding and going away in different directions, resulting in the creation visible to us. The second search is for dark matter. In the scientific field it is believed that it is this unknown matter which gives mass/weight to any object. Its unravelling, therefore, is bound to usher in a great revolution in the field of scientific knowledge.

 Most  of the existing dependable theories, will either prove wrong or deficient. The next step will be to reveal the truth about black hole. It is a great magnetic centre (though presently imaginary) to which everything including light is attracted. Its proper discloser may also open such new chapters in scientific history that our traditional knowledge may undergo sea change.

So far the man foundd himself baffled whenever he faced a question as to how this world started. Some believde it to be the result of the Providential will. Others held that in course of time nature itself shaped the world. Thinkers, philosophers, saints and scientists have been thus expounding their theories. If everything went on perfectly on chartered line, the day will not be far away when we shall get a final scientific explanation and the imaginary theorists will turn reticent similarly as the Moon-Victory silenced the poets and godmen.  

SULABH SANITATION MOVEMENT

                                               

What is history? What is revolution? While talking about history, we also refer to the least known forest people and the period, may be thousands of years, is categorized as proto- history. But to be more precise, in simple words and without going to jargons, we can safely say that the chronological account of human civilization is history. In that long story, whenever the human society, peacefully or otherwise made a remarkable deviation from the beaten track for its betterment,  it was acclaimed as a revolution. These drastic changes could be political, religious, economic or on any other plane. In this backdrop, for last over four decades, what Sulabh has been endeavouring on sanitational and social firmament of India is adjudged as a special chapter in our history, virtually a complete revolution. Mulkraj Anand had said that what Abraham Lincoln had done for the black in USA, Dr Bindeshwar Pathak is doing for a similar neglected lot india. He called them both great redeemers.

In this revolutionary saga, April 13,2015 will go down with a momentous event when the Sulabh, in an ambitious programme, celebrated the birth anniversary (though one day in advance) of Babasaheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, the messiah of the Dalits. The event was participated by the erstwhile scavengers whom Sulabh liberated from their demeaning profession some years ago and through appropriate vocational training made them financially self-reliant. Some two dozen Sanskrit pundits from Varanasi had also come specially to be a witness of this memorable event. The best part of this programme was the community feeding in which all including some central ministers took food together. The crowd was surprised to see Smt. Usha Chaumar, liberated Valmiki, sitting by the side of Shri Rajnath Singh, Home Minister and taking food together.Dr Ambedkar had enumerated some points for the eradication of untouchability including the need of all sitting together and taking food. Gandhi also had emphasized this necessity repeatedly. Today, the dreams of these two great sons of India could be given a practical shape by the Sulabh Founder, Dr Bindeshwar Pathak.

In the jampacked Mavlankar Hall today, while inaugurating the function, Sh Rajnath Singh, without mincing any words, called it the most historic moment of his life when the liberated Valmiki women fed him sweets. He admiited that there must be a providential hand in inspiring Dr Pathak to take up this great work. He said that delivering long lectures on removing untouchability and doing some thing on the ground were two different cups of tea. On that yardstick, he held, Dr Pathak’s contribution was matchless. The Minister also did not forget to congratulate Smt Amola Pathak, frankly acknowledging that without her services and sacrifices, her husband could not have achieved the height on which he proudly stands today.

The participants in general and the Sulabh family members in particular felt proud of what unprecedented they were witnessing today. Other dignitaies like S/Sh.Jagdambika Pal, Lari Azad, Udit Raj, Suresh Neerav etc who also graced the occasion, showered their high appreciations for the sanitaional and social services rendered by the Sulabh for the neglected sections of the society including Valmikis and Widows. We know that it is a social revolution and has to be slow, but it is by far intended to bring about drastic changes in long run in our ecological and social fabrics.

LONG LIVE SULABH REVOLUTION!!!    

FAMINE IN REVERSE ORDER

              Since last March, men like me and specially who have to run this country are feeling badly perturbed over the untimely wet weather. When there is no rain, it is famine (anavrishti) whereas if there is excess of rains (Ativrishti) and that too untimely, it is again a famine though wet. March and April are months when particularly in north India, it is harvesting season for wheat, mustard, gram and many such other grains, cash crops and fruits. It, at the same time, does not augur well for the upcoming mango crop as well.
Whenever the kisans lose paddy crop due to lack of adequate rains, floods or some other reasons, they do not lose heart and hope to recover their economic loss through good ‘rabbi’ crop. They put their whole energy and resources in sowing wheat and other such seasonal grains. Normally, when floods wash away paddy crops, the land gets added nourishment which paves the way for bumper rabbi crop. In the background of this high expectation, when the crop, ready for harvesting is destroyed through natural calamities including unseasonal rains, it come as a bolt from the blue for the farming communities. The kisan who had taken loan for raising crop and was hopeful that a good harvest would enable him to repay the loan and get married his daughter, found the jolt unbearable and started committing suicide. It has come as a great challenge for the government.
On the other hand J&K which had torrential rains and unprecedented floods in last Sept. has unfortunately found itself in the midst of the same miseries once again. The flood waters have not only inundated and devastated the standing crops but also entered into the residences of the local people. The affected families either went on the roof or were shifted to safer places. The govt agencies from the state as well as the Centre are evacuating grief stricken people.
Though the Centre has announced all possible helps for the suffering people, but we understand that it is not easy to handle such a gigantic task. The govt of Madhya Pradesh has already announced packages for the compensation money for damaged crops including fruits. Centre has, to start with given 200 crore to J&K. Similar compensations are being assessed and arranged for the suffering kisans of Punjab, Haryana. Gujarat, HP and UP.
The rescue and compensations are not enough to save the situation. The govt will have to go in deep to trace the root causes of such calamities. So far knowledgeable people hold the view that these calamities are man- made. Our trifling with the nature is visiting the human society as  calamitous reprisings. It needs to be sorted out on international level. In case if the necessary preventive steps are not taken, the human society will have to remain ready to encounter more and more such devastations.