tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-150811622024-03-14T00:03:20.543+04:00Kusum ChoppraOdds and Ends from a Lady JournoKusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.comBlogger211125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-40573956572228138442021-05-05T15:08:00.000+04:002021-05-05T15:08:56.738+04:00Age-old Patriarchy??<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">All our Puranas n mythologies are basically stories created to propagate concepts that the writers were promoting. and every subsequent re-writer gilded the previous -- the whole system elastic enough to accommodate differences and flavors to cater to different cultures, North, South, E</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">ast, West, etc.</span></p><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">So how about Our (2021) interpretations?
They said Parvati created Ganesh from her own body. </span><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Doesn't every woman fashion babies in her womb; nourished by her intake, the fetus becomes a baby in 9 months.
No Immaculate Conception -- perhaps Shivji slipped away from his boisterous pals for a romantic rendezvous. Voila! Baby boy Hua!
Could have happened?? Hai an! Did that make Shivji n Parvati first human parents?
Kya khayal hai?
Another conundrum:
That solid wall of Patriarchy of ancient times. Was it really so solid?
Why was Vidur called Daasi Putra when his father Ved Vyas also fathered Drithrashtra n Pandu too?
Why was Krishna called Devaki Nandan? His father was King Vasudev.
Was it a question of a lesser Baap or higher Ma?
</span><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></div>Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-80353272963934719022021-04-12T15:16:00.002+04:002021-04-12T15:16:50.298+04:00Where do we go? Pitralok Congames?<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is the meaning
behind Hindu last rites?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mental rifling and
Google Baba on death show <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>our ancient Vedas have lyrical hymns to Man’s
relationship with Nature, plus ways and means of dealing with it,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that were unfortunately overpowered<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>by<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brahminical
platitudes and money-making practices, but the essence has<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>survived. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The soul/Atman is
immortal. It is released at the <i>Antyeshti</i> rituals that return the body
to the five elements, air, water, fire, earth and space…denoted in the Rigveda,
section 10.16:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Burn him not up, nor
quite consume him, Agni: let not his body or his skin be scattered, O all
possessing Fire, when thou hast matured him, then send him on his way unto the
Fathers.When thou hast made him ready, all possessing Fire, then do thou give
him over to the Fathers,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he attains
unto the life that waits him, he shall become subject to the will of gods. The
Sun receive thine eye, the Wind thy <i>Prana</i> (life-principle); go, as thy
merit is, to earth or heaven. Go, if it be thy lot, unto the waters; go, make
thine home in plants with all thy members.”<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Vedic rites are amazingly
scientific yet ecofriendly. It’s amazing how eco scientific they are (let us
reclaim the word ‘scientific’ for ecology, not just the destructive socalled
Sciences) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the consumable arthi, the kapal
kriya to release the soul from the brain, followed by the disposal of the
phool/ ashes … Dust to dust returns.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Hindu
symbols to create appropriate energies, seemingly irrelevant rituals that
generate those energies: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Lighting
a lamp shows light to the soul as it exits the body; tying the big toes with a
red Molli heads the soul in the direction of Pitrlok. A turmeric line around
the body wards off negative energies that may harm the soul, possibly insects n
termites too. Cremation breaks the body-soul bond to enable the soul to move to
its new incarnation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Reams
have been written on post cremation family rituals that in modern times, boil
down to what Kinnary in my book SILVER DREAMS<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>calls “Closure”. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Closure is important for a fresh start after
death; if the family is not together for those days, ruminating, remembering,
speaking, to close the chapter, it hangs fire; for that is what brings a sense
of finish and closes that chapter.</i>”<span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The undated Vedas
composed centuries before being written, predate later scriptures promising
entry to Vishnu’s Vaikunth, Krishna’s Golka or Shiv’s Kailash for the
deserving.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But death rituals
prescribe none of those. The deceased head for Pretlok, awaiting transition to
Pitrlok, where three earlier generations of relatives await. The arrival of the
newcomer will enable the eldest to wing out to a new destiny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">So does the soul
count its karma, waiting its turn? Or head for rebirth right away?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Different schools, different answers, quite
confusing;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but closure<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in humanland, Yes. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Pitralok congame<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
guys who wrote the Ved Purans must have been a real misogynist lot.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Hey,
wait a minute; didn't the Brahmins do all that transcription,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Centuries
after the orals?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Hmmm
Brahmins? It figures.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Some
say, after the release of the soul in cremation,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
goes to Pitralok. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
enables a forefather to move to his next birth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Hey!
No instant rebirth?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Anyways,
so grandson releases grandfather, and so on. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Now
what about the women?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Does
grandma also need a grandson?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Does
it have to be her son’s son or Beti‘s son will do?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Or
a grand beti will do? Is there any mention?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">After
all in our times when one son is common,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">What
happens to Daadima, Naanima and Mausima? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Everyone
doesn’t have a son.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some have none.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">If
no grandkids, toh?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Agar
bete ki Beti hai, toh?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Agar
Beti ka beta hai toh? Uske Dada ka kya hoga?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">If
only one child releases grandpa, what about grandma?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Or
are women to remain souls floating in ether forever?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Hold
on guys. If that happens,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">What
happens to your vows of "janam janam ka Saath" <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">For
the prescribed saat janams? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">How
long should we wait for a relook at these Puranic tales <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">To
spot a clause that can be interpreted:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s
ok for a boy to kick off the next birth of one forefather<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
each girl will have to kick off at 4-5 of her foremothers <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">To
make up for the backlog of centuries.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This piece was written in the aftermath of
a mental churning and research on Hindu last rites after my
elder sister died a spinster.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <span style="color: #1a1a1a;">at 75, with one ambition unfulfilled: to be Pune’s oldest lady paraglider.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p><br /><p></p>Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-79075703969153113772021-04-02T16:23:00.001+04:002021-04-02T16:32:16.730+04:00The Great Indian Son Trick<p> That fascinating Great Indian Rope trick of yore has become the Great Indian son trick... with innumerable two or more sons families. </p><div>When did medical practitioners master the art of thus catering to our current Indian craze for sons? By effectively ensuring that no daughters are born? </div><div>Accident? Or that great unspoken shame, Foeticide practised but never acknowledged? </div><div>Earlier, daughters’ names were not entered into family records, except under exceptional circumstances. Yet, our hoary literary marvels do revolve around women, aka daughters.</div><div>This thought arose during the recent updating of my family tree that threw up an interesting observation: before the advent of the two son family, for a long period, there were huge families with or without betis’ names on record. It was held that more kids were on account of high mortality, poor health, and obviously multiple marriages.</div><div>Does this health-mortality argument not stand at odds with Our Glorious pre-British past?</div><div>That era possibly had another plus: inter-communal relationships appear cordial. Pointer? The frequency with which the name “Iqbal” occurs in pre-Independence family trees, even Iqbal Devis!!</div><div id="yiv0230203981yMail_cursorElementTracker_1617365951544">Where have we gone wrong in our times in fostering present-day bitterness?</div><div id="yiv0230203981yMail_cursorElementTracker_1617365954278"><br style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /></div>Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-44865104845059582062019-12-05T15:19:00.002+04:002021-04-02T16:16:05.171+04:00Ram and Raavan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The Ramayan boasts of two strong men: Ram and Raavan. The former worshipped in North India, while Raavan is a legendary hero of modern Lanka's modern economy.<br />
<br />
Given the Ram frenzy building up, Raavan's lead role in Sri Lanka tourism, and its legendary ‘Pearl in the Ocean’ status, now needs reinforcing beyond the existing references and beliefs showcased by Lankan tourist industry.<br />
<br />
Ayodhya too needs archaeological evidence to bolster the "belief" of being the real birthplace of Lord Ram, which is not mentioned in any early text. The city boasts of numerous temples, where birthplace tag is quietly contested by some temples' attendants.<br />
<br />
Sri Lanka, a small blessed island did not take long after Independence to ring in a positive edge to its economy. But it paid a heavy price for rapid action when Buddhist vs Tamil politics mingled with international economic jousting to ring in decades of Civil Wars.<br />
<br />
Tourism flared with the famed Ramayana Trails to help revival. South and East are riddled with recreations of places connected with the epic, the grove where Sita lived, the pool where she bathed, the quarters of those who looked after her, the scorched soil of the landing site where the Pushpak vimana in which she was flown to Lanka, the battlefields, the mountain with medicinal herbs that Hanuman brought to treat Lakshman, forest trails, tunnels, riverine sites etc.<br />
These find a place in the tourist circuits, quite apart from the numerous modern resorts showing off Lanka’s natural beauty.<br />
<br />
Now the hunt for one kingpin hinges to prove that Raavan was all that Lankans believe he was: a gifted ruler of legendary greatness, wealth and knowledge, with so much learning of the Vedas and other ancient texts of knowledge that he needed ten heads to contain all of it. <br />
Lankans firmly refute the orge image painted in North India, for which his effigy is horrifically burnt every year at Dusshera when massive effigies are ceremoniously ignited. While in the South, he is being worshipped for as Lord Shiva's greatest devotee who appeased him with his mastery over the Shiv Tandav dance; who created the intricate musical instrument, the veena from his own body parts and mastered the art of playing heavenly music on it; ran an immaculate, efficient and stupendously prosperous kingdom at Lanka that he got from his stepbrother Kuber; with connects going all the way to Pataala Nagri which was across oceans in Brazil!<br />
<br />
The North reviles him as the defiler of the wife of Maryada Purshottam Ram, despite the woes of Sita, forced to clear a burning test to be respected by Ram as his wife; soon after, he exiled a pregnant Sita to satisfy the ego of a disbelieving washerman; these find no consideration in the macho Ram scenario, except in the writings of feminist writers. It is another matter that South India celebrates Raavan as a scholar and a Shiva devotee.<br />
<br />
Ironically there are also writings that indicate that perhaps Raavan was the biological father of Sita and kidnapped her to separate her from Ram, perhaps to test the virginal puppy love bred by a handsome Prince, now in deep trouble?<br />
<br />
Hence sensitive archaeology is vital before too much history is submerged under modern development projects and building activities to accommodate global interest in Sri Lanka’s vantage location in the Indian Ocean.<br />
<br />
While Lanka needs authentic archaeological proof of Raavan's legendary city, Ayodhya's war-cry for a temple at the disputed birthplace also needs that missing logical and archeological proofs beyond ancient records that only go to the earliest Buddhist times; before that, its earlier avatar, Ajodya, a major trade centre that found mention as the capital of the Ikshvaku kings.<br />
Earlier digs indicated that was abandoned around 1426 BCE; that rebuilt temples also fell into disrepair. The Buddha taught at Savatthi 58 km from Ayodhya, attracting numerous pilgrims including Fa Hien and Hieun Tsang from China. Neither mentioned it as The birthplace of Ram. The city was then called Oudh. Later it developed into a great Buddhist and trade centre for centuries, before Buddhism went out of favor in India.<br />
<br />Against the considerable archeological evidence of the places mentioned in the Mahabharat, empirical evidence of Ajodhya, Chitrakoot, Dandakaranya, Panchavati, Videha, Kosala remain elusive. Hence the need to unearth evidence to bolster arguments for the purported Birthplace, apart from “people believe”. What little is available is that which was consecrated after Tulsidas’ Ramayan, centuries later, followed by controversies actively fostered under colonial rule.<br />
<br />
When the focus shifted back to the original, the Valmiki Ramayan, scholars saw exciting hope in intriguing mentions of distinct landmarks in the four-pronged hunt for Sita in confinement after her abduction by Raavan. <br />
Closer examination revealed that most were related to sites that may possibly be out of the Subcontinent, from east to South America to west beyond West Asia, perhaps the Urals in Russia?<br />
<br />
Those studies apart, the issue at hand remains the similar concerns for archaeological proofs of the authenticity of Ram’s birthplace over which much bloodshed has happened in the recent past; and of validation of the numerous legends that question the evil mantle conferred on Raavan. These questions find resonance not only Lanka and South India, but also in other neighboring countries with Ramayan legends of their own and some of the numerous Ramayans.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-44397442011650319792019-08-23T21:01:00.003+04:002019-08-23T21:01:25.571+04:00Waah re Acche Din<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Small and medium industry decimated</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then the bottom fell out of farming<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Finally, Big Industry is keeling.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When Biscuit ji cracked<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The response:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How can glucose survive<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When India is sugar-free?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bitter tidings in the Land of Rasas.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br /></div>
Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-40299170203788758802019-08-23T19:27:00.000+04:002019-08-23T19:27:29.324+04:00From my Bedroom Window 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oftentimes waking up is accompanied by a sickening realization:
That some sleep time was devoted to a new painless suicide method.
This morning the window net went up to peer down, checking for a clear fall down so many floors to die?
Ghastly answer: NO.
Pairs of window shades at every level created enough brakes to ensure numerous broken bones, but death was doubtful. One more fail-safe method gone Phoos.
Ducking in, an intriguing sight caught my eye.
Two scantily clad tall trees stand out in the dense copse below the window, bearing scattered yellow blooms.
Close to top of a tall tree sat a baby monkey, surrounded by a gaggle of pigeons determinedly making its life miserable. Perhaps having been chased from feeding grounds by Baby's seniors, methinks.
For good ten-odd minutes, the pigeons taunted it, pecking at his back, tweaking the long hanging tail.
Baby swatted with all his energy.
At some stage wisdom, or perhaps mama's inaudible call reminded him that if his attackers had wings to change position in rotation, he could Leap.
And leap it did. Gathering strength, a huge leap landed him invisible in the dense foliage next door. Then possibly a speedy passage unseen thru the thick dark green, nary a telltale movement of a leaf. Prey vanished, the pigeons dispersed in different positions.
From the distance, I had wavered between cat n monkey, until its distinctive back marking and impressive leap confirmed Monkey, agile as only a monkey can be.
</span></div>
Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-73474801169365174452019-07-30T15:21:00.001+04:002019-07-30T15:21:48.263+04:00From my Bedroom Window<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
Through my bedroom window, I look down on a giant bedroom.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
It sleeps 23 odd scattered around, singles, doubles, triples and quartets.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
Dark nights offer no glimpse that I rush to catch at daylight.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
My eyes first seek out the horizon, shuttered by rising skyscrapers</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
Monster steel and glass development symbols that slurp resources</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
To spew out fake humans with fake emotions that change with every audience,</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
Ultra right / left, ultra-modern / old fashioned, liberal / conservative, 50 / 50</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
Fulsome praise to your face, vicious criticisms behind your back.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
Ahead of the skyscrapers are swathes of variegated greens, the trees swaying majestically in the early morning breeze. Easy to pick out those with a new coat, in fresh new shades of glistening green standing out from the mature shades around.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
Then the eyes reach closer home, the terrace immediately below my eerie. There, just below my window, is an old thick-set man on his solitary string bed with two pillows. Occasionally he is joined by a young grandson, perhaps, on a smaller bed. The old man’s khatla is positioned to allow him to sleep a little late as the overhang of the adjoining room casts a long shadow screening off the early rays of the sun. Three other family members sleep well away from the old man and rise early enough to move quietly away, not to disturb the patriarch.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
Those who sleep on the northeastern corner of the terrace, diagonally opposite, are not so lucky. The first rays of the sun strike full in the face – only a young lazy boy covers his face as if challenging the rays to get through. But the battle only earns him the dubious honor of having to fold everything, stack all the beds against the wall and stacking the bedclothes on all the three beds.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
On the northwest of the terrace, across from the old man’s slumber, a foursome of beds is cooled by a handsome pedestal fan. Often I imagine them squabbling over the placement of the beds in the lee of the stairwell that offers some shade from the sun’s first rays, with one particular bed that offers an extra 10 mins of sleep before the light bores into the eyes.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
One morning I was late! Only the last bed on that western corner was occupied by the time i reached the window. A middle-aged woman came gracefully up the stairs and surveyed the terrace, now bereft of sleepers, except our late Latif. Why do the girls never sleep late? I asked myself.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
Her hair and sari were so perfectly in order, I guessed she must have already done tea, family breakfast and a little wash up before heading back up. With practiced ease, she picked up her bed and placed it horizontally against the adjoining wall that offered her family privacy from the adjoining segment of the terrace and offered the longest shaded lee against the heat. As she moved each bed, the bedclothes went onto the adjacent one, till they were all piled on the recalcitrant sleeper who was thus forced to sit up. With incredible grace and patience, the lady folded each just so, then neatly piled them up on the stacked beds. Finally, the boy got up, gathered all the pillows and marched off with them downstairs, while the mother stood up the last bed and covered the lot with an old black cover. Then with one hand, she picked up the pedestal fan to stand in a shaded corner, covering it before sweeping off downstairs.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
Only one little corner of the terrace stood empty of outdoor sleepers, a little enclosed corner with doors remained firmly shut. Four pairs of big and smaller slippers outside gave away the strength inside.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
Looking down onto a now empty terrace, I thought, morning has come the house from my Upstairs window. In that instant, loud sounds of jubilation rose. Were they from the ground floor? That I had never seen. The middle floor flats had protruding balconies which were summer bedrooms. Soon loud wails took over. I wondered what was happening for my people.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
My people?? I didn’t know them from Adam. Never even seen their faces properly with my rheumy eyes from so afar. Yet they were mine! My early morning companions for so many years now.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
The dhobi’s brother arrived to pick up the day’s ironing after a half hour’s impatient wait. ‘Where’s your brother?’</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
‘His daughter has scored above 90% in the Board results. They’ve gone to the school,’ he announced with great pride. ‘Tonight we will celebrate after work.’’</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
‘But some people were crying too. What happened?’</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
‘ A call came from the village. Bhabhi’s mother died and she’s gone to the village.’</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
The good and the bad had happened on one day amongst my people.</div>
<div class="wpcnt" style="background-color: white; color: #6d6d6d; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 13.5px; line-height: 0; text-align: center;">
<div class="wpa wpmrec" style="display: inline-block !important; max-width: 100%; min-width: 300px; position: relative; text-align: left; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px);">
<span class="wpa-about" style="border-bottom: none !important; display: block; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif !important; font-size: 10px !important; font-stretch: normal !important; font-variant-east-asian: normal !important; font-variant-numeric: normal !important; left: 0px; line-height: 1 !important; min-width: 160px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 5px;">Advertise</span></div>
</div>
</div>
Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-61002707424195297732019-07-24T15:21:00.000+04:002019-07-24T15:21:32.817+04:00Poem Stories: A Hair Story<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 7;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>July 2019</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Once upon a time<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She loved her hair<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oiled n washed n brushed<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Burnished with mehendi<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Au de naturelle<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In times of hybrid.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It flowed down her back<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Awaiting The Touch<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of a Love’s fingers<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stroking sensuously<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Through glossy bouncing tresses.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Buns n upturned beehives<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Or a chignon at the nape<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Adorned with a rose <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
C’urtsy genial g’dner<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To send off next post <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Recalcitrant Lover<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Abhorred flowers,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ignored nurtured glory.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Left, right or <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Center parting sans sindoor<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Marital symbol<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No man wears.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Awaiting The Touch, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tired of battles with dyes<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She slashed it short<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Glorying in freedom<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
From a vain old dream.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-69324729692531795632019-07-22T09:36:00.001+04:002019-07-22T09:36:51.585+04:00Two Old Women<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Two old women<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The old woman who lived in a high heeled shoe<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Had several rooms for the slaves she drove.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">When they itched to run away<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">She warned: Had Cindr’lla returned<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">She wouldn’t be a Princess<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">So they stayed and slogged.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Her old and smiling friend didn’t live in a
shoe</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">She had strange antennae, longer than any
butterfly<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Rooted in her heart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Wherever she went<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">They sniffed air to tell her<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Peace or Acrimony, Love or Rancor<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Quarrel or kisses, whatever in between<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">That would upset her very much<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Till a fairy told her<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">You were not sent to take trouble to heart<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Ruminate, but not absorb, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Say what should be said<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Issues resolve themselves<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">You were sent to smile<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Hug and spread cheer only.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-75009970367685680932019-06-30T17:20:00.000+04:002019-06-30T17:20:19.075+04:00Poem Stories<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Be Not Proud</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A long life was lived, adventures, events<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Births, marriages, failures, triumphs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Family and professional.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Life Test slipped by, you never took it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Test of Loss, Death in the face,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Holding it in your arms watching Life turn lifeless<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Succour a survivor at the moment breath left.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Nay?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Missed the Rites of passage<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To test Humanhood?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Be not proud.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-------------------<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><b>A Unique Couple</b> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">They made a unique couple, a policewoman and a
journalist<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">She so glamorous, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>he so stodgy<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Lugging her bag and paraphernalia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">She of the large round face, the ready smile<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Obvious makeup, that glitzy sari!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He sober in corporate shirt and a bulgy belly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Actually, it should have been the opposite<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Her hail-fellow-well-met persona ideal to niggle out<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Juicy bits from unwary tongues.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">While the stodgy gent so lent itself <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To the seniority of a Babu!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">----------<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>A Hair Story</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Once upon a time, she loved her hair<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Oiled and washed and brushed, burnished with mehndi<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Au de naturelle, in times of hybrids only.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It flowed down her back, awaiting the touch <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Of a Love’s fingers, stroking sensuously thru the
glossy tresses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Varieties of buns, upturned beehives, or a chignon at
nape<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Adorned with a rose, courtesy genial gardner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To send off next post to Recalcitrant lover<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Who ignored<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the
nurtured glory.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When fashions changed, into waves and curls<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Left, right and center partings, sans sindoor<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Marital symbol no man ever wears.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Tired of battles with bottles n awaiting the Touch,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">She slashed it short, elegant Silver<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Glorying in Freedom from a vain old dream.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">------</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> T</o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">hrough the bedroom window, I look down on a giant bedroom</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Dark nights offer no glimpse; I rush to catch at daybreak.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">My eyes first seek the horizon, shuttered by skyscrapers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Monster steel n glass symbols of slurped resources<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">To spew out fake humans, with fake emotions<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">That change with every audience, ultra-right / left<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Ultra-modern, old fashioned, liberal/conservative or 50 / 50<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Fulsome praises to your face, vicious criticisms behind the back.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">---------<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-49078079870664808202019-06-30T16:17:00.000+04:002019-06-30T16:17:23.552+04:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">A portion of a Rig Veda Hymn of Creation,
a describing the beginnings, as then believed:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">(From "The Return of the Aryans", by Dr. Bhagwan S Gidwani)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">“Then
nothingness was not, nor existence then,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Nor air nor depths, nor heavens
beyond their ken,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">What covered it? Where was it? In
whose keeping?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">In unfathomed folds, was it
cosmic water seeping?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Then there was no life, no birth, no
death<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Neither night nor day, not wind not
breath,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">At last, One sighed – a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>self-sustained Mother,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">There was that One then – and none,
none other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Then there was darkness wrapped in
darkness’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Was this unlit water, unseen, dry,
wetless?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">That One which came to be, enclosed in
naught,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Arose, who knows how, from the power of
what!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">But after all, who knows and who can
say<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Who, how, why, whence began creation’s
day?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Gods came after creation; did they not?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">So who knows truly, whence it was
wrought!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Does the First Mother herself know,
now?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Did She create, or was She created
somehow;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">She, who surveys from heavens, above us
all,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">She knows – or maybe She knows not at
all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Did She herself create the One God?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">And gladly gave Him the Creator’s Rod!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">But so refashioned Time and Space<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">That He was more and She was Less?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Did She turn future into past?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">So he came first and She was last?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">But surely, She told Him all, all!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Then how could He not know at all?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br /></div>
Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-11043648735440002672019-06-30T14:27:00.000+04:002019-06-30T14:29:23.112+04:00Faith<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; border-bottom: solid #F1F1F5 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;">
<span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Faith, I believe, is what each individual
develops for self, aside from religious and cultural, conditioning, passive or
aggressive. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our Earth is a blip in an ocean of Creations that are all moving without crashing into each other, occasional comets or falling stars apart. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;">
<span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">On our planet, developing panorama of
natural systems operate with unique precision. Most awe-inspiring is the
development of human bodies from birth to death and the way a body makes space
for an embryo and then a pulsating new life, all the way to childbirth and lactation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;">
<span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Did all these systems emerge
automatically? From nowhere? It is impossible to escape the sense
of some Power, some Essence that guides all these. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;">
<span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Perhaps that is how Faith was born.
Later usurped for power. The unearthing of deeper layers of knowledge brings
forth more and more news of the evolution of the planet we live on, split in
countries, natural and political systems and religions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;">
<span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Each one of us grows up in a religion
thanks to parents and their tedious beliefs. Not a question of
choice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I am was thus born n bred a Hindu,
learning "do good and be good" from a Vivekananda impressed
father, a monthly satyanarayan katha mother who told, I now realize severely edited stories of the Ramayan n Mahabharata, tailored for little ears.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Studied first in a Catholic, then
Methodist, Sindhi and Parsi institutions, alongside extensive
readings exploring different thought processes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It is not so difficult to accept the reality of the three religions of the Book, Judaism which is the oldest,
its offshoot Christianity and next offshoot, Islam. All three follow
laid down prescriptions, especially the fear of eternal hellfire after the day of Judgement. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">There is no such fear of hellfire in
my native Hinduism, that offers an evolutionary path, a hope of rebirth and injunctions
to do good n be good, without prescriptions of any compulsory dogma,
customs, strictures, fasts, etc; not even faith in one particular
god from the million names on offer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The unfortunate part is that: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Still, we quarrel for no rhyme or
reason, only to insist that because I follow X god, I am better than you, a follower of Y god. What happened to the faith in rebirth? </span><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">How many people are even aware that
the rebirth phenomena were at times endorsed by two non-Hindus ages ago?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Their followers papered over their
declamations of rebirth, perhaps unsuitable to respective political climates
and the aims of ambitious followers. One was Isa, aka Jesus after whom the
religion is named, based firmly on the fear of hellfire. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">And the other was a thirteenth
century Sufi, Rumi, the inspiration behind the Whirling Dervishes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-62026520959496876082019-01-16T17:08:00.000+04:002019-01-16T17:11:47.363+04:00God's Printing Errors??<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Waah, kya kahen<br />
"With the cover of the sun and the moon<br />
The earth is a beautiful book.<br />
But starvation, poverty and slavery...<br />
God, are these your sermons<br />
Or printing errors?"<br />
<br />
The power of thought so vast, Imagination to stir other minds, setting aside the gore her own lifestyle evoked and to Balance five different relationships all her life is something only achievable by an AMRITA PRITAM. </div>
Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-65375709903785456582019-01-16T16:57:00.002+04:002019-01-16T17:15:26.507+04:00That is why 2002 is important for 2019<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FFF8F6; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #757575; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Something I read last week stayed
in my mind and festered:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #757575; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FFF8F6; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #757575; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">“….why is 2002 important in 2019?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FFF8F6; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #757575; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Because it is the crucible of all
politics now in India – offering a model of domination and fear now visible
everywhere as successful politics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FFF8F6; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #757575; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">The complicity,
guilt, indifference and amnesia of the middle classes resulted in “performative
violence” – of boasting about heinous acts committed, now by the lynch mobs who
video and circulate to replay violence committed as an example?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #757575; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: #FFF8F6; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #757575; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">That is why 2002 is important.....</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FFF8F6; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #757575; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">What does that say of our society?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-75046016970138328032018-06-25T13:02:00.000+04:002018-06-25T13:02:39.130+04:00After the Ordinance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
After those banners, candles, petitions,, rants and slogans, the slog overs.<br />
What have we in hand? A death penalty. Who will locate the rapist, stand witness for death penalty, for surely the girl will be killed.<br />
Is anyone aware of the volume of studies on death penalties and their actual deterrence value? Especially when murder is cheaper than rape?<br />
What after the Ordinance? Legislation? How? All those MPs and MLAs are hard boiled politicos, many themselves involved. What would it take to make them vote for a Bill to offer India’s females security?<br />
Did legislation work after Mathura and Nirbhaya. Read and find out.<br />
Patriarchy has always existed; but from ‘Avuncular’ in the recent past, it has moved Now to Rabid!<br />
The present lot of ragamuffins and their minders in Parliament will go much beyond That “ cut balonwali” stigmatisation, bolstered by the saffron ladies brigade, to stall any legislation.<br />
Now, if wishes were horses— any those ‘ek Dhaka macro’ brigade were to shift focus from pativrata to respect at home in their door- to-door rounds, change would come up from grassroots.<br />
So where do we start from? THE HOME! <br />
The Return of the Dadi Nani brigade to inculcate into our boys what we inculcate in our girls: all those niceties of social interaction, walk, talk and wear. Make them as fearful of social ire as the fear we instill in our girls. <br />
We celebrate Rakhi when a sister ties a thread and the brother promises protection. Will the boy ‘respect’ only his own sister while sizing up others’ sister? Will he respect his sister after she’s raped? High time to teach our males that Womanhood does not exist between the legs of a Woman; and show them that respect at home, within the family circle too; ease gender divides by letting them play together whether dolls or Lego….. change the “ ladke rote nahin” to “ladke ro to sakte magar rulate nahin”.<br />
The Return of Naming and Shaming. But this time of the Rapists, their families and friends, their paanwala, garage wala, parlorwala, everybody. Some women will be hurt, mother, sister whose engagement may be broken or sent home from sasural for a Rapist Bro…. but it will make that fear of breaking the rules as real for the guys as it is today for the gals.<br />
It’s the Conditioning that matters— so rewrite the nursery rhymes and school textbooks to start gender equality hardwiring from the beginning.<br />
Are there any options?<br />
<br /></div>
Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-34040282758369100402018-06-25T12:50:00.000+04:002018-06-25T12:51:02.366+04:00IS THIS OUR SCORCHED EARTH POLICY?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 12.0pt;">Sunday morning the center page story of
a leading paper talked about what could be a modern version of the Scorched Earth
policy of yore, when retreating forces would torch villages and fields to deny
resources to conquering enemy forces. So often in our history and so dramatically by the Russians to foil Napoleon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #26282a;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Until sometime ago, the last villages
on our borders were our </span>Defense<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Forces’ eyes and ears that reported the
first signs of intrusion. In the northern areas, having at least one family
member in the Forces was a matter of family honor. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 12.0pt;">Post retirement, ex servicemen,
especially the lower ranks with inadequate pensions would settle in ancestral
homes and till the soil for an additional living, keeping a wary eye all round
their segment of Uttarakhand’s border with China, thanks to ingrained training.
Now, while State data reveals 37 attempted intrusions
between 2006 - 2011, in July 2017 alone, twice!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 12.0pt;">How has this happened? Because
most of these border villages have seen dramatic migration of populations,
leaving anywhere from one to three households left to hold fort against the
steady intrusion of forest weeds and brambles and leopards against crumbling
empty houses, fallow fields ... remaining residents, inevitably senior citizens
attached inextricably to their homes, counting days for as long as they can
manage on their own. And these include the native village of the present
Army Chief, in whose village his uncle and aunt are sole residents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #26282a;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The drastic migration has happened
because these villages have witnessed total neglect, instead of </span>succor<span style="font-size: 12pt;">. No
water connections, no power, no roads, no healthcare or education facilities
apart from everything else mean that no young person wants to stay here. And as
the older generation becomes careworn and ravaged by age related problems, they
too choose a less stressed life closer to the towns where simple facilities
like water, power, doctors n medical shops are available, and where Internet
not only keeps them abreast with the rest of the world, but also with their
children, wherever they may be. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 12.0pt;">Whatever happened the Border Area
Development Programme? It used to do pioneering work, once upon a time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 12.0pt;">Between the Census of 2011 and 2017,
734 villages have emptied totally, 565 are down to half with 28.72% of the
state’s population having left the state. Empty, unsown fields are a
sharp contrast to Himachal Pradesh next door, where horticulture, floriculture and off
season vegetable production offer stable incomes to rural populaces.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 12.0pt;">Fallow fields, deserted houses in
many of which only the locks are intact and a dwindling border population that
is beginning to live up to an ominous ancient warning heard in my youth almost 50 years
ago, about a time when “kos kos pe diya jalega”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-2530945946373356072018-05-09T15:21:00.000+04:002018-05-09T15:21:00.066+04:00What about the boys? <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Now the Kathua case has been transferred, everyone piously hopes that some semblance of justice,(?) will happen, in how much time, no one can guarantee.<br />
After all that Shor, everyone spoke to females... protect yourself, learn martial arts, carry pepper spray etc, acknowledging that family males cannot protect?<br />
Should women now turn violent, carry acid to throw in their faces or a sharp scissors for a Bobbit? Or what? What about little girls at the hands of family members?<br />
Why is no one thinking of the boys? Why do they feel the urge to rape ... even babies?<br />
I often wonder: is this a side effect of digital India, with mobiles penetrating where health, education, or even proper roads have not. So they, the boys have access to PORN... great inspiration!<br />
Add to that the frustration of watching girls snap up top spots in all exams, jobs, laurels, even encroaching into earlier male arenas and making good there, albeit with hard work.<br />
The male encroachment into previously female areas such as nursing, teaching, beauty, fashion, air hostessing has somehow not thrown up role models.<br />
Hence frustration intensified by joblessness.... ending in female deaths rising in a land already suffering from a negative sex ratio.<br />
Who is thinking soberly about these issues?</div>
Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-9176471948227219502018-03-14T12:00:00.000+04:002018-03-14T12:01:02.458+04:00Pitralok congame <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">The guys who wrote the Ved Purans must have been a
real misogynist lot.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Hey, wait a minute; didn't the Brahmins do all that
transcription, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Centuries after their actual creation and oral
traditions? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Hmmm Brahmins? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It figures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Some say, after the release of the soul in
cremation,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">It goes to Pitralok. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">This enables a forefather to move to his next
birth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Hey!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No
instant rebirth?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Anyways, so grandson releases grandfather, and so
on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Now what about the women?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Does grandma also need a grandson?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Does it have to be her son’s son or Beti‘s son will
do?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">Or a grand beti will do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is there any mention?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">After all in our times when one son is common, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">What happens to Daadima,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Naanima and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mausima? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">Everyone doesn’t have a son. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">Some don't have kids at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If no grandkids, toh?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">Agar bete ki Beti hai, toh?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">Agar Beti ka beta hai toh? Uske Dada ka kya hoga?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">If only one child releases grandpa, what about grandma?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">Or are women to remain souls floating in ether
forever? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">Hold on guys. If that happens, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">What happens to the guys’ vows of "janam janam
ka Saath" For the prescribed saat janams?<u style="text-underline: #0F5DC6;">
<o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="text-underline: #0F5DC6;"><span style="font-family: "arial";">How long should we wait
for a relook at these Puranic tales </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="text-underline: #0F5DC6;"><span style="font-family: "arial";">To spot a clause that <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>can be interpreted:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="text-underline: #0F5DC6;"><span style="font-family: "arial";">It’s ok for a boy to kick
off the next birth of one forefather<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">But each girl will have to kick off at 4-5 of her foremothers </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">To make up
for the backlog of centuries.<span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><i>This piece was written in the aftermath of a mental churning and research on Hindu last rites after attending the funeral of my elder sister who died a spinster.</i></span></div>
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Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-60051132953994123842018-03-09T18:51:00.001+04:002018-03-09T18:51:42.570+04:00Ladders Against the Sky by Murli Melwani <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">A Review by Kusum Choppra<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">The title of Murli Melwani’s collection
of short stories should have been “Against Many Skies.”<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>More than half the stories crisscross India and her
myriad cultures; the rest follow the ancestral trading trails beyond India’s
borders trod by the hoary ancestors of a unique community, the Sindhis.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">I was so impressed by the perspectives
the stories present that I could not<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>help but make brief comparisons of today’s<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>reality with the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>layers of </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 13pt; text-align: justify;">literary
pastry, appealling to different sensibilities, across numerous boundaries into
the hearts of many readers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; text-align: left;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 817.0pt;" width="817">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">“ A Bar Girl.” A<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>touching story <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>woven around the
life styles that both Amar <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Badlani and Rak have chosen, that prevent them from
stopping and evaluating <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">their lives or asking where there are heading. For me the
significant event <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">was Amar heading for Rak’s village, where it came
home to him that his <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">estrangement from his family had its roots in his<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>working life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">His damage control efforts lead him to finance<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rak’s nursing education and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">make overtures to his kids and grandkids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did he succeed?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">The young Jimmy Ramnani, In ”Writing a Fairy
Tale,” had literary aspirations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">But the attraction of money and the ties to family led him
into a comfortable life <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">that distracted him from his dream. In Carmen, the wife of
one his bigger<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>buyers, he found a
kindred spirit who revived the dormant literary aspect of <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">his personality. However, when push came to shove, money
does very often edge<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">out emotions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Call
him a nice and warm human being but a calculating one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">As a kid in Jakarta, I remember seeing and hearing about
Sindhi men with local <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">wives. People talked disparagingly about them. But then
that’s life, you take the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">sour with the sweet and turn it into <i>bhel</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sentiments echoed same community <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">wives, with the “Mei Mard hu” attitude<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in “The Mexican Girl Friend” and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">“Hong Kong Here I Come” quite forcefully. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">The feelings and unhappiness of the women<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in their life matters little to both
men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Ego justifies coldness to a wife selected <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>with such clinical calculation from the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">arranged marriage market. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">There are comic mini dramas of the arrange marriage
arenas<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in “The <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Bhorwani Marriage”; while<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Requital,” apart from the refreshing atmosphere <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">of the North East, reminds the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>reader of the universality of being a
Chicken <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Head, young men, who steal the customers and data bases of
bosses who gave <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">them that start in life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Perhaps the story with the most empathy for mingling of
communities was <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">“Water on a Hot Plate.” The narrative flows with events,
meaningful conversations, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">memories, touching on classic dilemmas of expatriates. In
this case an element of <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">poignancy is added by the fact that the chief concern of
the older characters<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is about the loss of
their unique culture with its blend of Hindu, Islamic and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Sikh traditions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>While Gen Next had other weighty concerns.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 13pt;">“Sunday with Mary” is typical middle class life and
yet it is atypical. How</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">many couples take that trouble to ferret out that little
space in a hard existence <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">for each other and organize the day and week around it? Six
days of spoken <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">and unspoken bickering? These are the marriages that
survive all the odds and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">there plenty of them around.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">“ Shiva’s Winds,” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is
about those who challenge the elements; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">why the seasonal laborers trek to higher altitudes,
the vagaries of weather, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">and finally the baby who conquers the elements while adults
don’t.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">What is different about the “Inner Light”story is that the brainwashing
of a young <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">kid practically from birth! As gory as those reality
shows featuring children, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">put them through such terrible wringers by parents, for
those 15 minutes of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">fame on the idiot box.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">“The Shrine” is yet another take on sati, after Padmavati,
this time for a lover <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">where the husband failed to ignite.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Not one, but four stories draw focus on our innate refusal
to accept each other, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">zeroing in on and shows our biases against background,
economic status, caste, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">region, or religion. Why do we insist on creating and
drawing lines instead of <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">dissolving them when we do<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>have a hoary history of merging n mingling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Who decreed that death by fire was the punishment for
stealing two brass <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">tumblers?
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">I love the irreverent as in “Waiting for Leander
Paes, Sania Mirza or Somdev <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Dev-Varman.” It speaks up, while examining the players’
personalities via <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">their playing styles, and mastering it's master!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Let me confess. As a post-Partition Sindhi, these
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">absorbing, until one day one realized - so this is
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Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-66418103710956034932018-03-06T11:00:00.001+04:002018-03-06T11:04:12.141+04:00An Ancient Matrilineal Code<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #535353;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Whistling or hissing, inviting by
winking, soliciting or beckoning, writing songs with suggestive words or tunes,
using amorous words, grasping and squeezing the wrist, caressing, placing a
foot on the toes, touching the breasts, embracing and clinging, knocking down
or forcing to lie down, assaulting while lying down , etc....."</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #535353;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
LIsten
folks, this is not a list of the Do Nots under any modern Sexual Harassment of
Women Act of our times. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #535353;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">SURPRISE! SURPRISE!
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #535353;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was found by Pro. Bina Agarwal
while researching India's matrilineal Garo tribe in the North East, part of an
ancient oral code of "moral laws" followed by the Garos for
generations. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #535353;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Any of the actions mentioned were punishable if reported to the
village chief.
In our times, which is that Chief to whom women can go to
report with any assurance that needful/justice would be done?</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-52862203016622034962018-02-14T15:32:00.002+04:002018-02-14T15:33:58.114+04:00Caste: better times and regress<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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For those who slept through history, some happy
memories of Progress: seeing our grandmas enjoy a ripe old age, from radio to
TV, color TV, STD booths, then Internet and mobiles. Now Aadhar. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Gadgets came along with grain surpluses, milk and
eggs; goodies like Metro, Autobahn, IIM, IIT, AIMMS,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>low cost airlines, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now Made in China has replaced made in
India, which only assembles. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Our educated masses of young people have caste
certificates, speak broken English, have no job skills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lakhs of science students know all about some
branch of science, but nothing of the humanities through which to glimpse at
humanity. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Bas degree hai, mere paas naukri kyon nahi hai?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Usko kyon diya? Mujhe kyon nahi?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Boom, boom, boom .. unemployment figures
zoom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is rioting and stone throwing<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as easy and profitable<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as selling pakoras?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Earlier educated classes, even collegians talked and
debated, exchanged notes in a civilized fashion, not with plunged daggers and
lynching. We celebrated all festivals, ours and others too.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
That was the bedrock of democracy we grew up with; not
as it stares us in the face now, and nor the Oligarchy of Time Immemorial when
only landed people of certain castes were allowed to vote.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Manusmruti was Ancient death knell of democracy,
gender, any other justice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many
have actually read the whole?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It not
only lists different types of marriages, sons, but also rules for divorce!!! <o:p></o:p></div>
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So divorce is also an Ancient Tradition of ours?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Consider:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the
Vedas spoke of 4 : Brahmin Kshtriya Vaisha, Sudra.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even early travellers in ancient times<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>like Huan Tsang mentioned 4;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>ditto Alburni ,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>with not more than 40 mixed castes, related
by blood.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Cut to the British: they counted 2378 main castes, 43
races, numerous subcastes, and a 1891 list of 1156 subcastes of Chamars alone!!
Divide and Rule!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Aadhaar was perhaps conceived as a counterpart of the
Social Security number that citizens of the US and some other countries
have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Has anyone examined those models,
how they were implemented and how they operate?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Like Nazis with deadlines?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why
are those without Aadhar cards denied rations from PDS shops?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When someone dies….<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>who will acknowledge the shame of starvation
to TV channels?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And mysteriously slit
open sacks of dal and rice find their way into a back room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Who is fooling whom here?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-24230055821966648262018-02-14T15:28:00.000+04:002018-02-14T15:36:54.849+04:00A Toast to the Man who put India center stage as the largest democracy in the world<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It’s neither May nor November, yet suddenly Jawarharlal
Nehru is being recalled. Perhaps memories triggered by the calumny poured
over him and his descendants.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Why forget the Other PMs of India, Lal Bahadur Shastri
– the short man with a long shadow,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Gulzarilal Nanda, I K Gujral, Morarji Desai – first Gujju PM, Charan
Singh, V P Singh, Chandrashekhar – once reputed to be in the kitchen cabinet
now on the other side of the fence, Deve Gowda – first PM aghast at Davos, Atal
Bihari Vajpayee, Narasimha Rao—who actually began solid economics reforms and
Manmohan Singh?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only names with
recall are Indira, Rajiv, and Namo & Co.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Nehru was very much a man of his times, when socialism
was on its way up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His successors veered
towards License Raj, chucked out in phases by Narasimha Rao …. now seeking a
new Nom d’Plume. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Democratic enough to listen, plead, cajole, bully,
bargain to maintain the unity of democratic India, earned Nehru kudos as a
leading globally respected leader of his times – <i>without resort to gimmickry of
first names and jaddo ki jhappies.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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Perhaps his achievement was possible because of his acknowledgement
of the talents of colleagues to best effect; Ambedkar’s steering of the
Constitution, Sardar’s uniting of the Princes, Nehru’s pushing forward,
building consensuses, and free democratic elections that wielded India into a
modern democratic India, that would not have been possible on Gandhian policies
alone. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<o:p>A Toast to the Man who put India center stage as the largest democracy in the world!! </o:p></div>
</div>
Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-6903087106960224892018-01-11T16:24:00.001+04:002018-01-11T16:24:11.521+04:00A little book explains a vast religion: Hinduism:Path of Ancient Wisdom By Dr.Hiro Badlani<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">In an era of untrammelled
attacks on traditional religious beliefs from a forceful Hindutva and Islam,
Dr. Hiro Badlani has performed signal service to Hindu youth diaspora, in unraveling
facets and percepts, as they evolved over millennia to our times.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Today, the young generations
of the substantial Indians scattered around the world do need a versatile
introduction to the richness of their own religion: away from the old mumbo
jumbo to an understanding of how its evolution over millennia allows adapting
and synthesizing to a technological future, while abiding by ancient creeds of
tolerance and kindness, and adapting to whichever corner of the globe they are
in, to ensure the peace and harmony that made India a great nation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Dr. Badlani’s research
reveals a wealth of information and archives of the most ancient religion,
preserved not only all over India, but also institutions scattered at different
foreign locales, that have preserved manuscripts, even some digital formats
from various schools of thought including the remarkable Kashmiri Shaivite philosophy,
reckoned outstanding in many ways, with its startling modernism: accepting the
reality of the world but adding that the world is a “play of consciousness”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The book traces philosophies
and thought flows, from the earliest Vedic culture and heavy ritualism that
culminated in the germination of Jainism and Buddhism, to sidestep the stifling
emphasis on Brahminism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both stress on
less dogmatic approaches to problems, with room for differences of opinions,
reminiscent of the older Vedic free flow of ideas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The Vedas spoke of one
Supreme Divine, “One alone exists; sages call by various names…”,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>manifested and worshipped in the various gods
of Nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Interesting to note that “Supreme
Being” in the Constitution of the USA replaced the word “God”, after hearing
pleas quoting the above from the Rig Veda.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The later Upanishads led the
way to more internal spiritual realization. Short readable chapters trace
evolution of an abstract Supreme God, to the Brahma, Vishnu Mahesh trinity with
all their human faces and avatars, including Buddha and Jesus Christ…Kalki on a
white charger yet to arrive, akin to Persian, Jewish, Christian, Tibetan,
native American and some Central Asian cultures too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The unique features of
Hinduism cover Karma: as you sow, so shall you reap; punarjanam: i.e.
reincarnation; moksha i.e. salvation and avatarkaran: incarnation samsara, the
eternal cycle of birth- death; so that turning the mind towards<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>virtue and divinity mitigates past sins and
errors, for spiritual knowledge gained in one life does not vanish but flows
into the next life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Hindu philosophy,
death is part of an immortal life journey or mahaprasthama -- An interlude in
the passage of the soul, neither to be feared nor prematurely enticed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Badlani exposes a ‘modern’
nonviolent Jainism, with emphasis on animal rights, wildlife preservation and
eco. issues; while Buddhism inaugurated global interfaith movement with the dictat
disallowing anyone from saying anything derogatory to any other ….. Oh, would
we learn that in today’s world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Describing temples as the
homes of God where Hindus and non Hindus came seek solace and peace, the writer
emphasizes free flow of ideas and philosophies, over centuries through
innumerable acharyas, from Adi Shankaracharya through Guru Nanak and bhakts
enjoining a breakdown of the caste folds and Ista Dev, meaning personal gods, to
Vivekananda and numerous godmen discourses. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">This readable little book,
with its reasonable explanations and brief catch-all coverage could become a
valuable go-to for young Hindus, in the diaspora, and at home for seekers in
Gen Next India too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-16001530156530109542017-07-22T10:44:00.000+04:002017-07-22T10:44:00.865+04:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">J A Y A <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">This is a little known but very ancient poem, believed to be the precursor of the Mahabharat. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">The poem, sung at bards at courts, recounting </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 115%;"> a king overcoming his rival kinsmen; wandering minstrels sung the tales far and wide for the
people, ala Luv Kush.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 115%;">The various
singers were banded under the name ‘Sutas’, often illegitimate offspring of
Kshtriyas who performed several courtly duties, including charioteers and
bards.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Jaya is believed to be the
forerunner of the Mahabharata and its wide ranging tales of the Kurus; along
with the Ramayana, it spawned the Puranas i.e. tales of the various dynasties
and everything to do with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dr. S V
Ketkar called this Sauta literature, composed, preserved and sung by the Sutas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">This literature had a more
ritualistic counterpart that Ketkar called the Mantra literature that focused
on hymns, rituals, sacrifices, philosophical and esoteric discourses; later even
grammar and philosophy, religious literature that was in the hands of the
priestly Brahmins.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Subsequently, Sauta
literature also passed into the hands of a Brahman Bhrigu clan, which is
believed to have interpolated their own valorous stories. But scholars of the
Mahabharata are able to identify those interpolations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Our today’s Mahabharat was
recounted by several narrators.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where,
you would ask, is<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ved Vyas, the Mahabharat’s creator, eye
witness and participant? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Dr. Irawati Karve reveals
that Vyas told his stories to his disciples, possibly on the basis of that
earlier Jaya. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Mahabharat backstory
reveals Vyas as Krishna (dark) Dvaipayana (born on an island); <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">chiranjiv i.e. very long lived.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was also credited with editing and putting
into order the hymns of the Rigveda, Atharvavda and Yayurveda.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">As a ‘Vyas’ i.e. an
‘arranger, a man who throws together’, could it be that he took the Jaya story
as told by different bands of Sutas with subsequent additions and rearranged
them into the wide-ranging epic we know today?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Vyas was also a participant of
that story, inducted by his mother, Satyavati, the wife of Shantanu to perform
niyoga with her childless daughter-in-laws to beget Kuru heirs, after Bhishma
refused to oblige.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Heirs to the throne
were all important to stave off the greedy eyes of avaricious kings, eying both
the empty Kuru throne and widowed princesses. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The tragedy was that
Satyavati did not prepare her bahus for the Niyoga, not did Vyas make himself
less alarming. The young bhabhis were expecting their handsome jethji (Bhisma);
instead in walks a fearsome smelly man with fearful eyes and a long scraggly
beard.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Terrified out of their wits,
one closed her eyes to shut out the sight. Her child Drithrashtra was
sightless. The other paled in fright and her Pandu was born a pale<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>impotent albino. Only the lusty maid produced
a healthy, wise Vidur, cursed to always be the Other, despite his mental
prowess.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Modern bards?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why, the advertising fraternity that sells
nonexistent qualities; British historians who rewrote histories to suit that
Nation of Shopkeepers; Rajput bards sung of valor, not <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>repeated sellouts to settle internal quarrels!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15081162.post-67442171894908721712017-07-22T10:36:00.001+04:002017-07-22T10:36:28.912+04:00WORD OF GOD?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Some years ago, Dan Browne’s Da Vinci Code captured the imagination of
the world in its print and cinematic versions, opening a whole new range of
thought in popular minds to the teachings handed down about Jesus Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Now the Sana’a Code, under study since discovery from Yemen’s National
Museum over five decades ago, holds out similar promise of possibly revealing
the earliest versions of the teachings of the Prophet himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Recent hardening of stands in Islam has suspended earlier dialogues
between the various schools of thought. Hence the excitement over the unveiling
of the Sana’a Quran to serve as a reminder that open, yet respectful
conversation is possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some experts
opine that if written from a firsthand account within 15 years from his death,
this may become doubly precious as THE words of God, for 3 Judiac religions; despite
the over writing on this palimpsest, common practice for ancient recycling of expensive
parchment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Radiocarbon dating after painstaking salvage from age losses and onslaughts
of insects, mice and mold, revealed an age close to the Prophet, around 578 to
668 CE. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Defying death several times, the sacks full of manuscripts were finally sorted
and studied with state-of-art digital tools for reconstruction by the Corpus
Coranicum, <span style="color: #2f2f2f;">a project of the Berlin-Brandenburg
Academy of Humanities and Sciences at Potsdam – each character retraced by
hand, sometimes using ultraviolet imaging to render the washed-away lower text
visible.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: #2f2f2f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The hope is that this Code will reveal not only the words
of God, but also the world in which those words were born and first gained
meaning; from the study of ancient Islamic manuscripts, the varying ways they
are read, and their relationship with religious texts in Syriac, Hebrew and
Greek traditions, possibly familiar to the peoples of those times. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: #2f2f2f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“The Quran did not arise in a vacuum,” says Michael Marx,
research director at the Corpus Coranicum, “it has a history. Part of that
history lies in Christian and Rabbinic traditions” – perhaps even testimony
that the Arabia of Muhammad’s times saw lively debates over Christian, Judaic,
pre-Islamic monotheistic and pagan traditions, as borne out by word usages
familiar to Hebrew, Christian and Islamic readers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2f2f2f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Scholars point out that unlike the neat schisms in religions
in our times, in earlier times, “boundaries between beliefs were not so neat” –
witness the merging of so many festivals in India.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: #2f2f2f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In Mecca itself, the heartland of Islam, claims David
Kiltz, a Corpus Coranicum scholar, both traders and pilgrims would have dealt
with a Babel, including pagans, Jews, Nestorian Christians, even Zoroastrians,
converging from different parts of the then known world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: #2f2f2f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This is borne out by French scholar Christopher Robin’s
revelation that around 380 CE, the Himyar kingdom, south Yemen to Riyadh, converted
to a hybrid Judaism to ward off Ethiopian / Byzantine Christians and Persian
Zoroastrians!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #2f2f2f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Anything suggesting a rapprochement would auger well for
Mankind, would it not? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Kusum Chopprahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608707101740166467noreply@blogger.com0