A view from the top of the Pyramid.

Meeting Dr. Shashi Tharoor during Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas, 2009.

There was a complete brouhaha during one of the sessions regarding India's youth not being participative enough in the politics of the country and their indifference to the country in general. I got a lilttle charged up and told these lines when i met Dr. Tharoor.

"Sir, since there was a lot said about us in there, i thought let me express my views regarding what we think of the government and the system in our country today. Most of the time when we look for example setters in the politics we hardly find any faces. All we see is the image of our grandfathers while we wish to see someone like us leading in there. The result is its not at all inspiring." The other point i mentioned was "Tell them to stop dividing and putting barricades on our education on the basis of caste, community and religion. One one side they tell us we are all equal and on the other they divide us."

All the while he nodded in affirmation and i realised i might have spoken after getting carried away a little, but his reply "Keep the fire burning" didnt make me feel sorry at all.

A meet to cherish!

A visit to the Tagores'..

Dec 31st, 2008. My connecting train to chennai is at 2:50 pm which left me with around 6 hours of free time. I bought a Kolkata Guide map for Rs. 25 at the Howrah Station and went on scannig for the places which could be seen in the given span of time. One name that i finally settled on was Rabindra Bharati University which also houses Rabindra Museum. And so i started for it.


The place is also known as Thakurbari in the local lingua. The building that has currently been converted into the University was once the house of Tagore Family. One look at the family chart of the Tagores' and you would understand why a house of that size was needed for a family. It was the place where the Master poet Rabindranath Thakur spent his childhood and breathed his last.


It can be reached from the Howrah station by State transport Buses or Taxis. I chose the Taxi mode so as to save maximum amount of time. It cost me Rs 70....fare enough! As you enter the gullies that leads to the university, the local Kolkatan charm oozes out from every corner of the street. Vendors frying pakodas and filtering out those Rosogullas from the Kadhai, the early morning prayers and sacred chantings from the temples, trams moving swiftly in and out of the street...India gets busy in those streets early morning !


I reached there before time as the house cum museum would open at 10:30 a.m. So i spent the time chatting with the caretakers and getting to know more about the place. The University is large and beautifully constructed. Sprawling lawns and greenery everywhere, it looked an ideal place for learning.


Finally the museum opened and i was the proud first visitor of the place. The ticket costs Rs. 10 and you cannot take any electronic device inside the premises. The whole house is divided into 3 phases. I liked Phase-I the most. Phase-II and Phase-III were actually galleries which consisted of beautiful and famous paintings and sketches of Rabindranath himself, his brother Abanindranath and other members of his family. Phase-III also had pictures of various international visits and legendary figures meeting Tagore.


Its only when you see the place you realise how simple and a traditional Indian home Rabindra Bhavan is ! No doubt the family was an affluent one in those times, still the same simplicity and charm adorns every traditional indian home no matter how rich or poor. There were a few poems hanging on the walls of some of the rooms, written by Tagore on original manuscripts. I managed to note down a few of them after borrwing a piece of paper and a pen from the guard nearby.

This particular poem hangs in his living room:

Your creation's path you have covered

With a varied net of miles

Thou Guiliful one

False belief's snare you have

Laid with skilful hands

In simple lives

With this deceit have you left a mark

On greatness;

For him kept no secret night

The path that is shown to him by your star

is the Path of his own heart

Ever lucid

Which his simple faith

Makes eternally shine

Crooked outside yet it is

Straight within

In this is his pride

Futile he is called by men

Truth he wins

In his inner heart washed

with his own light

nothing can deceive him

The last reward he carries

To his treasure house

He who has easefully borne your wile

Gets from your hands

The unwasting right to peace.

Another one from the room where he took his last breathe.

When I leave from home let this be my parting word

that what i have seen is unsurpassable.

I have tasted of the hidden honey of this lotus yonder

that expands on the ocean of light,

and thus i am blessed

Let this be my parting word

In this playhouse of infinite forms i have had my play

and here have i caught sight of him that eludes all forms

All my living body and limbs have thrilled with his touch

who is beyond touch

and if the end came

here let it come

Let this be my parting word.

The watch hands showed 2 pm and my train was to whistle off in an hour. I started off with the vivid images and the sweet Rabindra sangeet still floating in my mind.

Poets of India....Harivansha Rai Bacchan

Long before the surname became a metaphor for the bollywood actor Amitabh Bacchan, it was very well known in the literary circle of India. It was Harivansha Rai Bacchan.

From my childhood onwards i have had a great amount of liking for poems. I remember sitting in that kerosene lamp and reading the poems in our textbooks loud with rhythm and a peculiar back and forth motion of the torso. You can still find school kids doing their lessons in the similar way back in the Indian villages. Anyway describing those experiences will take up another blog. I would just paste some of the poems that i really like and admire by Mr. Bacchan.

कोशिश करने वालों की

लहरों से डर कर नौका पार नहीं होती,कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती।
नन्हीं चींटी जब दाना लेकर चलती है,चढ़ती दीवारों पर, सौ बार फिसलती है।मन का विश्वास रगों में साहस भरता है,चढ़कर गिरना, गिरकर चढ़ना न अखरता है।आख़िर उसकी मेहनत बेकार नहीं होती,कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती।

डुबकियां सिंधु में गोताखोर लगाता है,जा जा कर खाली हाथ लौटकर आता है।मिलते नहीं सहज ही मोती गहरे पानी में,बढ़ता दुगना उत्साह इसी हैरानी में।मुट्ठी उसकी खाली हर बार नहीं होती,कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती।

असफलता एक चुनौती है, इसे स्वीकार करो,क्या कमी रह गई, देखो और सुधार करो।जब तक न सफल हो, नींद चैन को त्यागो तुम,संघर्ष का मैदान छोड़ कर मत भागो तुम।कुछ किये बिना ही जय जय कार नहीं होती,कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती।

पथ की पहचान

पूर्व चलने के बटोही, बाट की पहचान कर ले
पुस्तकों में है नहींछापी गई इसकी कहानीहाल इसका ग्यात होताहै ना औरों की ज़बानी
अनगिनत राही गयेइस राह से उनका पता क्यापर गये कुछ लोग इस परछोड पैरों की निशानी
यह निशानी मूक हो करभी बहुत कुछ बोलती हैखोल इसका अर्थ पंथीपंथ का अनुमान कर ले
पूर्व चलने के बटोही, बाट की पहचान कर ले

यह बुरा है या कि अच्छाव्यर्थ दिन इस पर बितानाअब असंभव छोड यह पथदूसरे पर पग बढाना
तू इसे अच्छा समझयात्रा सरल इससे बनेगीसोच मत केवल तुझे हीयह पडा मन में बिठाना
हर सफ़ल पंथी यहीविश्वास ले इस पर बढा हैतू इसी पर आज अपनेचित्त का अवधान कर ले
पूर्व चलने के बटोही, बाट की पहचान कर ले

है अनिश्चित किस जगह परसरित, गिरी, गहवर मिलेंगेहै अनिश्चित किस जगह परबाग बन सुंदर मिलेंगे
किस जगह यात्रा खत्महो जाएगी यह भी अनिश्चितहै अनिश्चित कब सुमन कबकंटकों के शर मिलेंगे
कौन सहसा छूट जाएंगेंमिलेंगे कौन सहसाआ पडे कुछ भी रुकेगातु न ऐसी आन कर ले

कोई पार नदी के गाता

भंग निशा की नीरवता कर इस देहाती गाने का स्वर

ककड़ी के खेतों से उठ कर,

आता जमुना पर लहराता

कोई पार नदी के गाता

होंगे भाई बंधु निकट ही

कभी सोचते होंगे यह भी

इस तट पर भी बैठा कोई,

उसकी तानों से सुख पाता

कोई पार नदी के गाता

आज न जाने क्यों होता मन

सुन कर यह एकाकी गायन

सदा इसे मैं सुनता रहता,

सदा इसे यह गाता

कोई पार नदी के गाता

It's beautiful how these poems say so much in so few words. They say 'jahan na pahunche ravi, wahan pahunche kavi' meaning even the places where sun rays cannot reach a poet's mind can.

A visit to the French Colony of India

Shuru ho ja mamu

Last Friday Aditya had come from Bangalore to visit. The idea of Pondicherry struck my mind all of a sudden. I wanted to visit that place since the day I landed in Chennai along with some other similar beautiful and historic ones. So, the next day Saturday morning we were seen standing on the Bus-stop at Thiruvanmiyur (that’s a place in Chennai). Locating the stop for Pondicherry was a little challenging considering, there were bunches of people waiting for the buses every few feet apart, and that looked like many stops lined together. Obviously we were confused where exactly the bus will stop. Nevertheless, soon a bus approached and to our surprise, it was overcrowded. We had thought the buses going to Pondy would be luxurious and we would easily get a place to place our bums on. Adventurous as we are, we thought to get in the bus anyway. It was a different matter that we could no longer bear the crowd inside and had to get down at Kalpakkam (IGCAR is located there) for changing the bus. It was again a different matter when the next bus we got into was crowded as well (although the packing fraction was less) and finally we had to go standing. The only savior was the road from Chennai to Pondicherry that is the East-Coast Road (ECR) which runs parallel to the coast of Bay-of-Bengal. The scenes were awesome along the way.

*khatey jao khatey jao*

Padharo

After around 3 hours of travel put altogether, we had reached the town of Puducherry. The town had a typical feel of a coastal one. I remembered the towns of Goa which looked more or less similar except the language spoken. According to the plan, we thought of visiting these places in order: Auroville, Aurobindo Ashram, Backwaters and a few beaches if time permitted. But before that we had to stuff ourselves like pigs. The food by the way is great and worth the money in Puducherry. Having done that, it was time to see the French town of India.

Auroville

The road to Aurovile crossed the Puducherry Township and various colonies consisting of huts, which you could term as villages. To set the context about Auroville:

"Auroville - or the ‘City of Dawn’ - was conceived as a place of research into the ideal of human unity by the Mother, the spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo. The idea is to build a futuristic city where people of goodwill can live together in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. Auroville came into existence in 1968. Its Charter says, “To live in Auroville one must be a willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness”, and describes it as “belonging to nobody in particular, but to humanity as a whole”; as a place “of constant progress”; and as “a bridge between the past and the future”.

The description of the place itself is as mystic and holy as its aura. The striking thing of Auroville is that out of the 2000 odd population around two-thirds are non-Indians. The settlements are known by names like Grace, Certitude, Fraternity, Fertile and Transformation. Some inputs for GRE aspirants there!
At the centre of the township is ‘Matrimandir’.

“The central Matrimandir, which is not a temple but a place for individual silent concentration, is set in an area of 62 acres at the centre of the emerging township, and is seen as “a symbol of the Divine’s answer to man’s aspiration for perfection. Union with the divine manifesting in a progressive human unity. During the inauguration ceremony of Auroville on 28th February 1968, soil from 124 countries was placed in a lotus-shaped urn and mixed to symbolize universal oneness. This urn is today sited at the centre of an Amphitheatre in the Matrimandir Gardens. The Matrimandir’s 12-sided white marble Inner Chamber has a 70 cms diameter optical-quality glass globe at its centre, onto which a shaft of sunlight is focused by way of a roof-mounted heliostat. The light falling on the globe acts as a focal aid to concentration”

An important point to be noted here is, if you would like to see Matrimandir from inside you will have to take permission a couple of days in advance. We, obviously not aware of the fact were depreived of the experience.

An interesting experience that I would like to narrate goes something like this.
While I and Aditya were taking a stroll in the lawns of Auroville I saw a cute kid walking along with his parents. The family was from some European country the name of which I forgot unfortunately. Anyway, the important thing here is that kid was really charming and his cute innocence totally captured my attention. I felt like taking that kid in my ‘godi’ but as he was with his parents I did not get a chance to do so. After some time the kid stopped looking for something while his parents continued moving away from him. The kid was alone and I was right behind the kid. Obviously, I took him and raised him up, holding his arms. Now all of a sudden that cute smile vanished and the kid turned all red. As if that was not sufficient he started shrieking violently. I was totally confused and didn’t know what to do next. I tried putting him back on the grounds. But he refused to stand on his feet and landed on his knees. His shorts came out in the process. In short there was total mess. Now the guy who seemed to be his father noticed and started coming towards us. He looked a total body builder and I guessed I was in some serious trouble there. Fortunately he was polite and mentioned something regarding the kid being skeptical to strangers while I mentally calculated my chances of landing in the hospital.
Well, a tragedy was averted there and I promised myself never to fall for cute kids and mess with them.

Aurobindo Ashram

“The Sri Aurobindo Ashram located on rue de la Marine, is one of the most well known and wealthiest ashrams in India, with devotees from India and all over the world flocking to it for spiritual salvation. Its spiritual tenets represent a synthesis of yoga and modern science. It is open to the public daily between 08-1200 hrs and 1400-1800 hrs. Children below 3 years of age are not allowed into the ashram and photography is allowed only with permission of the ashram authorities.

The Ashram was set up in 1926 by Sri Aurobindo Ghose, one of India’s greatest philosopher-poets, who originally came to Pondy to escape persecution by the British. It was after arriving in puducherry, that he was drawn into the spiritual realm and discovered the power of yoga. His philosophy deeply rooted in yoga and his writings inspired a number of followers.

One of them was a Parisian mystic, painter and musician called Mirra Alfassa, who was so inspired by his philosophy that she stayed on in puducherry and was instrumental in establishment of the ashram. After Aurobindo’s death in 1950, the running of the Ashram was entrusted to his chief disciple and companion, Mirra Alfassa, (also known as ‘The Mother’). The idea of Auroville or the “City of Down” was conceived by ‘The Mother’. She died in 1973 at the age of 93.”

Other than these two most famous places we managed to land at some beaches. Promenade was one of them.

Promenade

*The Mahatma with his disciple*

“The 1.5 km long promenade running along the beach is the pride of Puducherry. There one can relax or take a stroll at any time of the day. On the sea front are several land marks. The War memorial cold and dispassionate throbbing the memory of last dreams, the statue of Joan of Arc blazing an inspiration, the heritage town hall, the statue of Mahatma Gandhi standing tall, Dupleix statue, old light house, the remains of the old pier, the old customs house, speak the splendor of the by-gone era. The well furnished tourist information centre is situated in esthetically heritage building facing the sea to cater to the need of visiting tourists.”

*Beauty of soul expressed via colours*

The best thing I liked about Promenade was that all the administrative offices were located along the beach. I wondered how it would feel to be the Governor of the Territory and staying in the Governor House someday.
The journey to Pondicherry ended after seeing all these places and fortunately we got a State Transport bus back to Chennai, and yes we finally got to park ourselves on those cushioned seats which we craved for while coming.

The coast looked more serene and beautiful in that orange-grey aura of the evening and I gazed out through the windows and wished the ride would never end.

PS: The italicized information has been taken from the official website of Pondicherry-Tourism.

The Beginning

The idea of this blog was born just a few hours ago. A lot has been happening and changing outside lately. Various information and misinformations have been provoking me to think. And thinking i have been.
This blog aims at documenting my experiences, my memories, my opininons, my dreams for, my ideas and my continuing journey into knowing my motherland called INDIA. I plan to make this blog an educative and a colourful experience with glimpses of India in whose glory and strength many of us believe in.
I read today somewhere "pessimistic persons are always the spectators and never participators" and i would like to be an optimistic no matter what.
Call it nationalistic, call it blind faith, call it a mere blog i care not....!!