tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22423496359737990312024-03-13T07:19:36.158+05:30In the Pond, On the banksIt was a childhood play.The players stand around a large circle drawn with chalk.When the referee of the game says "In the pond" the children will jump inside the circle. When he/she says "on the banks", they have to jump out.After repeating the same few times ,the referee will unexpectedly repeat in the pond..or on the banks twice.The careless will be trapped and they go out.The game goes on,just like our lives.So one has to be vigilant to be in tune with the referee at the remote end!Sriletha Pillaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15678181482497926828noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242349635973799031.post-74139526729955143472019-05-01T10:29:00.000+05:302019-05-07T07:14:17.145+05:30THE ROCK THAT WAS NOT AND OTHER STORIES<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Had our ex-CJI, Mr. Dipak Misra read "My
husband raped me", "Husband stitch" "Frigid "and other
stories in the book "THE ROCK THAT WAS NOT", <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>he wouldn't have made the alarming remark that
"</span><a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/no-need-to-make-marital-rape-an-offence-ex-cji-dipak-misra/articleshow/68785604.cms"><span style="background: white; color: #4d469c; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Marital
rape needn’t be an offence</span></a><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">", </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span lang="EN-US">I believe. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I earnestly wish and recommend all
men, irrespective of their educational and official status, read this book, for
then they can have a minimum level of understanding about<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>how a woman feels. It's not that all men are
beastly, but we have to accept that such men and ruthless<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>women<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>called mother in law and sister in law who back these men in hurting
women, do exist in our society. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
I
would like to specially appreciate the author <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Githanjali (Penname of Dr.Bharathi <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>MS, a Doctor, Sexologist and Psychotherapist
by profession) for being bold enough to choose such a challenging
subject, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a burning issue which really
exists but is connived at conveniently <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>by our society. The book is truly <span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">content rich</span><span lang="EN-US">
</span>and It explores the day to day issues in a woman's life which are
neither talked about nor discussed. Some of them fight it out, of course after
suffering <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for long and become
independent while some succumb to their ill -fate. As truly said in the introduction,
"these are the stories of resistance, protest
and transformation."<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
The translator Dr
Suneetha Rani, Professor at the centre for women's studies, Hyderabad also has
done an excellent job of converting Telugu into simple and beautiful English, enabling
an effortless reading as though <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>you are
reading in your mother tongue! As she acknowledges in the book, this surely is
her "intervention in the field of women's/feminist/ sexuality
studies."<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
I have read a
good lot of English as well as Malayalam short stories including classics so
far, but haven't ever come across this horrifying subject of sexual violence
and related miseries in our households in any of those. When you read through,
you will feel as if you are seeing somebody's life just in front of you. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of these must be true life incidents just
spiced with imagination, I guess.<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
The language conveys
easily but the subject being heavy, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it
is not an easy or light read at all. The <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>stories will haunt you, make you miserable, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>suffocate, weep and what not. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It will really be a heart breaking experience <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to realise how cruel <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>this patriarchal society is towards our fellow
women! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The societal conditioning as well
as stigma being that severe, many of these <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>women themselves choose to remain in the trap
of never ending misery, knowingly succumbing to all the atrocities towards them
silently. Malanbi of story 'Offering'<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is
such a helpless human being. Suffering, endless suffering, is that the plight
of women in an average Indian household? <br />
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">After reading the book, I have developed a
strong detest for the so called 'sacred nupital thread', because it is this
thread that gives a man the license to beastly rape a lady, if he so desires.
There are a good lot of Malayalam TV serials (Soap operas I mean) woven <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>around the theme of 'sacred'<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>nupital thread even now! <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">"The fall of man" tells us about
Darshita, who <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"could not bear the
wounds that he caused by raping her under the license of scared thread." <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you know why she chose to join gender
studies course? Just "to understand the source of her husband's authority
that gave him license to assault her." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
I too have been wondering
where the fault lies exactly, like the foetus that tells us her mother's misery
– "From six to sixty, women are being victimized by the demonic lust of
male beasts….are women 's bodies easily available commodities to fulfil men's
shameless lust? Where did the fault lie- in men's thoughts or women's
bodies?" (The swish of the world).<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">"…what he did is licensed atrocity in the
name of marriage. Marital rapes within the four walls have societal acceptance.
It's the man's right." (Frigid) <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
While the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>story 'The rock that was not' <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>exposed me to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>silicone implantation done for flat chested women,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>'Husband stitch' threw light on <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that extra stitch done in a woman's vagina <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to increase her husband's pleasure. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was terrified while reading the women's plight,
and the hardships which they had to face later. <br />
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
'My husband raped me'
ends thus " ...Satvika (hardly 17 years old) said (to the sub-Inspector)
'My husband raped me'. I (Doctor) stepped out of the room. Women, pregnant
women were waiting for me with reports in their hands and grief in their eyes."
<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
A chill ran through my
spine while reading<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>'Stone' which tells
the story of the 17 year old girl Asra who <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>was being continuously abused and raped by her
biological father from the age of 7 Years! My eyes welled up while reading the
story of Kasturi in 'Frigid' who was abused terribly by her paternal uncle and
later in life by her own husband. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here goes the musing of Tapasvi, an young
wife, from the story 'Kiss': "Did good mean just being six feet tall and
fair, having a bank job and owning a house and a car?" I could imagine how
disastrous it is when one is forced to live with a man who does 'emotional
adultery' to his wife.</div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
Each of
the 12 stories are different, and include all classes of society, rich and
poor, educated and uneducated. And it deals with only one class - the universal
class called women!<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
And I would like to thank Ratna
Books for the translation series, as otherwise I would not have been able
to read Marathi, Assamese , Telugu and other Indian language books. So also, as
an woman, I'm especially grateful <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to publishing
a series itself on feminist issues. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
book has excellent hard cover, good paper quality and printing with not a
single printer's devil to spot out. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a
reader, I feel honoured to have such a quality book, both
in appearance as well as contents. As a translator, I'm
overwhelmed to see equal importance being granted to the translator also along
with original author. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Sriletha Pillaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15678181482497926828noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242349635973799031.post-18395416020845116762017-06-14T17:32:00.001+05:302017-06-14T17:32:37.813+05:30Joseph wept<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Jayakanthan (1934-2015) is one of my favorite Tamil novelists. I
like his simple straightforward narrative styles and simple themes without twists
and turns which make readers tense. But the smooth flowing style makes you read
this small book to its last page in a
stretch. Jayakanthan magic, lemme say.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">'Joseph wept' is the
translation of his Tamil novella 'Yarukkaka Azhuthan ' which got published in
the prestigious Tamil weekly 'Anantha Vikatan' during 1960. While finishing the
novel I was all for Joseph, who taught me the greatness of forgiving. Many a times
have I felt that the act of forgiving is a form of weakness when you are too
timid to react. But in this novel, the ignorant, illiterate Joseph, who respectfully
slauted everybody a 'my Lord, ' who was considered a fool by his colleagues,
who was addressed as 'rogue-eyed', and who could not weep at all, rises to the
so called Godliness, through his simple acts. His explanations on why he
silently bore the insults, amazed me like anything. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Eventhough I had read the
Malayalam translations of his novels, I had never bothered to find out anything
about the novelist so far. My admiration knew no bounds when I happened to read
more about Jayakanthan. Quoting<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31807&articlexml=JAYAKANTHAN-1934-2015-IN-THE-COMMONERS-ERA-10042015006005" target="_blank">Hindustan times</a>,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">"</span><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">The ten-year-old boy who ran away from home to
Madras and lived in a workers' `commune' affiliated to the Communist Party of
India; the teenager who spent his days and nights among Chennai's underclass;
the young man who was inspired by Bharathi's vision of modernity as well as the
great tradition of Tamil poetry going back to the sangam period; and the
self-made writer who, after small beginnings in party journals, burst into the
mainstream with a string of coruscating stories in Ananda Vikatan over a period
of several years.The rest, they say ,is history ."</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><br />
</span><span style="background: white;">Joseph weeps is also a famous
biblical story, the author must have chosen the title because of that, I
presume-anybody can presume anything while reading, right? </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white;"><br />
The book is translated into English by A.A.Hakim, and was published by The
Christian Literature Society, Chennai. I do not know whether it's available in
print now. Mine is a very old copy, originally possessed by my parents</span><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="background: white;">Here is the <a href="http://entevayanaalokam.blogspot.in/2015/12/blog-post.html" target="_blank">link</a> on my write up-and not review, mind you- in
Malayalam on two of his novels, for those who are interested. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242349635973799031.post-82627446694986614282015-05-04T07:39:00.000+05:302015-05-04T07:39:05.510+05:30Phatik Chand<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Phatik Chand is a celebrated Bengali Novel, or children's novel to be precise, penned by Satyajit Ray and translated by Lila Ray. It has been translated into English by Lila Ray. It was filmed in the year 1983,the directorial debut of his only son Sandip Ray. Stills from the film are included in the book.<br />
<br />
While I started reading, I was not much impressed, but when I read on, my dislike got quickly transformed into deep 'likes', and I became all for Bablu and Harun da.What a lovely relationship is it! It reminded me of Tagore's Kabulivala and Mini.<br />
<br />
The book is widely read and reviewed , so I don't attempt to elaborate. However, let me jot down the lines from the book, as is my practise:<br />
<br />
"This earth is ours now.What's it but a ball? So are the planets all of them,Jupiter, Mars, Mercury,Venus, Saturn.They spin around the Sun and the moon spins around the earth. But they never bump into each other.Think of of it. Is there a bigger juggling act than that? Look at the night sky and you'll see what I mean.Remember this when you take these balls in your hands." Harun the juggler to Bablu.<br />
<br />
" Do you think you can't be an artist living in a big house and going to school? It's balls I juggle.You can try juggling with words,colors, with tunes!Think of that!You'll have something worth juggling with and you'll know what kind of an artist you can become."Again Harun to Bablu.<br />
<br />
I couldn't find who Lila Ray was. Initially I thought she is Satyajit Ray's wife, but his wife's name is Bijoya Ray as per wiki.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242349635973799031.post-38043629277087450792014-09-14T20:58:00.000+05:302014-09-14T20:58:19.125+05:30The Villa<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: 19px; line-height: 21.4666652679443px;">‘The Villa’ written by </span><a href="http://www.rosannaley.co.uk/" target="_blank">Rosanna Ley</a> <span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">,</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">published
in 2012 by Quercus Books, London, is the story of three women who belong to three
generations. A slightly chick lit type novel, so to say, but very
much readable and is recommended for light reading. I used to read it at
bedtime. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The author
has worked as a tutor in creative writing and has given a reading guide at the
end. The writing tips given were of course interesting and useful. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Somebody
inheriting a dilapidated but gorgeous house abroad (at Sicily) is not something
logical or believable, but it is a story, know? Out of the three women, I love
the Grandmother Flavia, the best. Of
course her daughter Tess Angel and teen aged granddaughter Ginny are also portrayed
well but Flavia is the most impressive character in the sense that she has an
identity of her own. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The only one point which I didn’t like or rather couldn’t
digest about her, is her frequent visits to her ailing old love, Peter, and that
too without letting her husband know of it. According to her, it was strictly
her personal affair and none of her husband’s business! Later, she realized that he was very much aware of it, but simply chose not to interfere at all! It
must be my Indian commonplace mind which resisted such moves, I think.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Flavia, the
“self-trained observer" as the author describes, was also ”too stubborn for
words" that she didn’t like revealing anything to her daughter about Sicily,
her native place. Instead she started narrating the story in her notebook. But
Flavia’s memoirs are fully printed in Italics and this appeared slightly
strenuous to my eyes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The author’s
description of Sicily and the life there is quite vivid. The family feuds and
the unveiling of the suspense behind the treasure is also well-drawn. Foodies
can have a lot of Italian recipes of Flavia too! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Flavia’s and
later Tess’s description of Sicilian women filled my mind with pity and
sympathy. I don’t know why but whenever I came across the words Italy, Italian,
Sicily etc Mrs.Sonia Rajiv Gandhi’s profile used to come to mind’s frame. May
be because she is the only Italian I know</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Some quotes
which I like-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">-......(Sicilian)
women mostly dressed in black and mostly bent-with a lifetime of drudgery...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> -Personally, she didn’t understand why it was
necessary to tell dozen’s of acquaintances the minutiae of one’s life...(Tess’s
thoughts about facebook)....But she knew she was in a minority”Yes, in fact
Tess reflected my own thoughts about fb!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">-The
women(of Paris) were smarter, more colourful...these women looked as if they
had some life, some purpose other than home...(Flavia’s observation at a Paris
railway station).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">-No one
prepared you for these things when you decided to have a baby. Or when-like
Tess- you were propelled into motherhood without really thinking about it at
all. No one warned you that your daughter would one day become an
adolescent-whom you would irritate beyond belief every time you so much as opened
your mouth.... But it would pass.(Tess thinking about her teenage daughter
Ginny)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">-At the end
of the day, she(Ginny)realised, although he(Ben, her boyfriend) had been her first, she had invested the virginity thing with a significance it didn’t
really have.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">-It’s easy
to let the opportunity go by. (Ginny’s Dad’s confession to her).And there’s a
point where it seems as if it might be too late. Unless you feel you can do
something...I buggered off when your mom needed me most.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">- Her God
has not given her what she wanted most in the world...And she wasn’t entirely
sure that she even believed in him anymore. But the sense of God was a comfort
to her;it seemed to give her strength.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">-She(Flavia)
was too ambitious;she had never wanted the Sicilian way of womanhood-house and
children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">-what love
really is, caring for another human being, living with them through good and the
bad,working with them, wanting to grow with them.That’s true love.Not hearts
and flowers and romantic dreams.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">-For every
recipe there is a reason. Trade, social change, the season, the weather.Food is
warmth.Food is identity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">-time when
she was struggling for life, the sort of time when revelations sometimes occur. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242349635973799031.post-33170498175649311412014-09-04T10:27:00.001+05:302014-09-04T10:29:25.591+05:30Indira Nehru Gandhi -Part VIII<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The Nehrus and Gandhis, an Indian Dynasty-<a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/08/the-nehrus-and-gandhis-indian-dynasty.html" target="_blank">Part I</a> <a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/08/the-nehrus-and-gandhis-indian-dynasty_28.html" target="_blank">Part II</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-size: 19px;"><a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/08/the-nehrus-and-gandhis-piii.html" target="_blank">Part III</a> <a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/09/the-nehrus-and-gandhis-piv.html" target="_blank">Part IV</a> <a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/09/vkkrishna-menon-part-v.html" target="_blank">Part V </a></span><span style="font-size: 19px;"><a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/09/feroze-gandhi-and-indira-nehru-part-vi.html" target="_blank">Part VI</a> </span><span style="font-size: 19px;"> <a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/09/indias-partition-part-vii.html" target="_blank">Part VII</a> </span><span style="font-size: 19px;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 19px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Indira Nehru Gandhi <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">When I read about her lonely childhood, nomadic
education due to her family’s involvement in Nationalist movements, I felt
sorry for her. When I read about her boldness, her decision to marry an
outstanding personality from a common place family, her first public meeting in
India in UP on a chilly early morning, her left without a house soon after her
reversal from power, I was all for her. But I could in no way tolerate her declaring
emergency, playing communal cards in politics, puppetting to the tunes of
Sanjay Gandhi and other numerous
sycophants and the like. Now, setting aside my likes and dislikes which
are totally irrelevant, let me quote the relevant points of the book. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Indira’s childhood
was coloured by her never-ending visits to prison to see her father and
grandfather, then her mother and she had finally spent some time inside
herself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Indira had a nomadic existence due to her circumstances,
about which her father was really concerned. It’s his guilty feeling which
turned out to be the fantastic 200 letters to his daughter on World history. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-themecolor: text2;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-themecolor: text2;">-</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Indira’s attitude to her own education was somewhat
cavalier. The constant moves from one place to another had, with the exception
of Geneva and Santhiniketan, made her feel that it was a waste of time. She
genuinely believed that she had learned more about the real world from her father’s
letters than at t Somerville College Oxford. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Her first public appearance was made at London under
the insistence of V.K.Krishna Menon, who was a Labour party activist there. She
too was a member of Labour Party for a time. She was too terrified to speak
out; And a drunk from the audience remarked “She does not speak, she squeaks.”
The audience were in fits of laughter”, as she remembered it in a BBC
interview.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-“I just felt hungry and asked for a piece of toast. As
I was eating, Rajiv came out!I was so sorry I couldn’t finish my toast!“ said Indira
to her colleague about her first delivery.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Motilal and Jawaharlal were very short tempered, but
Indira was much controlled but. According to the author,she harboured grudges
for longer than the men.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Indira was a very bold lady as everybody knows. But
here is an incident as remembered by her son Rajiv. Indira and the two children
happened to make a train journey from Mussoorie to Delhi by train during the
communal riots of 1947. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-At a Delhi suburb, Shahdra, communal mobs were
preparing to lynch a Muslim on the platform. Indira was outraged. Her Nehru
temper became uncontrollable. Leaving her petrified sons in the train, she
jumped out of the compartment and silenced the crowd by an effective display of
oratory. The victim was saved and the train moved on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Indira’s
grooming into a political leader must have taken shape with her triple
fold duties while at Teen Murthi Bhavan, viz playing the mistress, accompanying
PM during his foreign travels, protecting Nehru from the constant demand for
interviews. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-In 1946, Pandit Govind Vallabh Pant, a senior Congress
leader, recognizing her political capacities, suggested that she should stand
for Paliament, but she turned the offer down... Later, she told everyone that
the she saw her main political task as ensuring an easy life for her father at
home. Nonetheless, she was asked to stand in for Jawaharlal at some meetings
and she did. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Such experiences gave her confidence and she accepted
pleas of Congress president U.N.Dhebar and Lal Bahadur Sasthri to contest and
thus got elected to Congress Working Committee. But she refused to be typecast
as from the Women’s department.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-All India’s leading political parties had special
sections for women, but these were in reality designed to hive women off and
keep them busy elsewhere, while men ran the ‘real thing‘. This situation
remains unaltered to this day.” 30 years have passed after T.Ali’s observation
and it is still the same, I feel! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Indira was instrumental in bringing communal forces in
Kerala into political fray to overthrow the elected Communist Govt in Kerala. Ie
Just as like Muhammadali Jinnah, she too played the Muslim card and thus the
congress made alliances with Muslim league to defeat Communists. Thus
Communists failed and Communalism won. The model was followed in other States
too making unholy alliances with communal parties and the practise follows tiil
day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-This was a classic case of pragmatism before
principles. Once it is accepted that power is to be held at all costs, then it
becomes impossible to defend any basic principle. <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Secularism remains a paper pledge and communalism walks
in through a backdoor deliberately left unlocked</span>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Yes, it so
happened that the daughter herself overthrew her father’s secular approach.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Indira was forty seven when she became a minister in
LB Sastri’s cabinet. At her age Nehru was in prison.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Subsequent to Sastri’s death, she became the PM of
India. It, of course, had not been an easy walk over. She had to face umpteen
manipulations, criticisms and opposition from the groups which were waiting to
stab her in the back, even after becoming the PM. She was well aware of the
situation and reacted to Times of India on Christmas day 1966 thus-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">“There is a question of whom the party wants and whom
the people want.“ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Congress of 1972-In a number of towns, politics became
a business, business became politics and Gangsterism overwhelmed both big
business and big politics. Political, business and criminal mafias began to
amalgamate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Soon after her reversal, Indira Gandhi had to vacate
1, Safdarjung Road. Anand Bhavan in Allahabad had been donated to the nation,
and she found herself without a house for the first time in her life. An old
family friend, Mohammed Yunus, a veteran Pathan Congressman from the frontier
province, now in Pakistan, immediately vacated his house in Willingdon Crescent
in New Delhi. Yunus was one of the few Muslims(If not the only one) who had
actually forsaken his home and moved to India in protest against the partition
of the subcontinent in 1947.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-“No, those for whom something was done, are nowhere
to be seen.”Indira to an American couple
during her Willingdon Crescent exile <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-<span style="background-color: yellow;">The constant fear of Indira Gandhi had become a
hallmark of Janata years</span>.It was the threat of Mrs.Gandhi’s return that had kept
the motley collection together.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-“They(The Janata Party) had their chance and what did
they do?They made a big mess.The people voted us back into power with big
majority.” Indira to the author. But the fact is that people were left with no
choice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">If Nehru was not in favour of dynastical rule, Indira
very much wanted to make Sanjay her “crown prince." This is precisely the reason why she insisted
Rajiv to take the place of Sanjay. And why did Sanjay become important to her?
Rajiv was away as a pilot. There was no one in her team other than Narasimha
Rao, whom she could trust. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Rajiv was needed for strictly dynastic purposes. She
felt that she needed a Nehru-Gandhi by her side. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;">There are still many interesting anecdotes and other
unknown facts in the book left unsaid in this scribbling of mine; I have developed a keen interest in Sikhism from what I read in the book; Just like Nehru, we will also be taken aback when we come to know that Mao Tsedung, who burnt all old books for 'ideological unity' had an obsession with the old emperors of China! I also joined Delhi school children in their affectionate recital of "A,B,C,D,E,F,G, Ismein nikhalay Panditji (Out of this came Panditji) on Nehru's obsession to English language!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;">I
assure that whoever decides to read the book, she/he will not have to close it
halfway! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242349635973799031.post-90228668573764419762014-09-03T22:52:00.002+05:302014-09-03T22:52:41.156+05:30India's Partition-Part VII<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent1;">The Nehrus and the Gandhis-<a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/08/the-nehrus-and-gandhis-indian-dynasty.html" target="_blank">Part I</a> <a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/08/the-nehrus-and-gandhis-indian-dynasty_28.html" target="_blank">Part II</a> <a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/08/the-nehrus-and-gandhis-piii.html" target="_blank">Part III</a> <a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/09/the-nehrus-and-gandhis-piv.html" target="_blank">Part IV</a> <a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/09/vkkrishna-menon-part-v.html" target="_blank">Part V</a> <a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/09/feroze-gandhi-and-indira-nehru-part-vi.html" target="_blank">Part VI</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;">Mohammad Ali
Jinnah, Muslim league, India’s partition and beyond</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;">:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Our views, vision and opinions will definitely change
with time, but when such changes in the attitudes of a leader takes a negative course,
it may affect the fate of a nation. Yes, the change in the attitudes of Jinnah,
the brilliant lawyer, together with the then political situation, had ultimately led to the partition of India. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> -Sarojini Naidu
had once called him “the ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity“ in 1916....Once he
had said that all the religious community could live in peace in one India.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-But now (1930’s onwards) the old ambassador had other
dreams. Now he stressed the divisions between Hindu and Islam...“The Hindus
worship the cow, “he had shouted.”We eat it.” Evil winds had begun to blow in
northern India.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-The league was a motley collection of small
landlords, would be entrepreneurs, city lawyers and bandwagon petit bourgeois.
It had been set up on a British initiative in 1906 and its founders had pledged
their unswerving loyalty to the empire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-The Muslim league leader was not a religious leader.
For him Islam was a useful weapon with which he could carve out an independent
political base for his followers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Jinnah told the Muslim peasants that in Hindu
dominated India, they would be eaten alive by the Hindu money lenders; he told
the Muslim Landlords that without British protection they would be overwhelmed
by the Hindu Capitalists; he told the Muslim Merchants and traders that they
needed a Muslim chamber of commerce or else the competition with the Hindus
would destroy them completely. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">When Nehru saw in the Viceroy Lord Linlithgow’s statement a “divide and rule” psychology, he
pleaded( a very touching letter indeed) to Jinnah not to succumb to this, but
to no avail.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Jinnah was cool and unresponsive. For him the
Congress’s difficulties were the League’s opportunities. When Gandhi appealed
to him a few months later for a united effort on behalf of India against the
British, Jinnah replied that there were two nations in India, one Hindu and one
Muslim.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The Congress ministers resigned in protest to the
Viceroy’s divide and rule policy; The League’s newspaper ‘<i>Dawn</i>’, was funded by the British during this period.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-The job of unifying India was the dream of every
nationalist. At the time when it appeared to be nearing fulfilment, the British
authorities decided to play the Muslim card.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-On 16<sup>th</sup> August 1946, 5000 people died in
Calcutta as a result of the Muslim League’s ‘Direct Action Day.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-The blood that has been spilt had made an early
reconciliation between the Muslim League and Congress impossible. The Muslim
Congress men, men of the calibre of <span style="color: #8064a2; mso-themecolor: accent4;">Abul kalam Azad</span>( a distinguished theologian and scholar who
understood more about Islam than Jinnah ever would) <span style="color: #8064a2; mso-themecolor: accent4;">Rafi Ahmed Kidwai</span> and others were, opposed to
any deals with league.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-(After partition) Abul Kalam Azad had appealed to
Delhi Muslims not to flee to Pakistan. He had spoken in chaste and simple Urdu,
appealing to the traditions of old Delhi, reminding them of Akbar’s reign,
pleading with them not to leave their homes and telling them that, he Azad,
would never leave Chandni Chowk for any so-called paradise(Pakistan).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Reluctantly and with great sadness, Gandhi and Nehru
had agreed to the partition. Very few believed that it would actually come to
true. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Even Jinnah had remained confused seeing the division
as a separation rather than a divorce. He told his friends that he still hoped
to spend some time every year in his favorite Indian city, Bombay. He had
conceived of Pakistan as a mini-India with a sizable minority of Hindus and
Sikhs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Mountbatten later recalled: Jinnah produced the
strongest arguments why these provinces-Punjab and Bengal- should not be
partitioned. He said they had national Characteristics and the partition would
be disastrous. I agreed, but I said how much more must I now feel that the same
considerations applied to portioning the whole of India....Finally he realised
that either he could have a united India
with an unpartitioned Punjab and Bengal or a divided India with a partitioned P
&B and he finally accepted the latter situation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Jinnah had brought religion into politics in an
opportunist fashion, but he alone could not be held responsible for the
debacle: he had merely taken advantage of the existing situations. Congress
could not be absolved, for it had played its part in creating the overall
situation.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 19px; text-indent: 0cm;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242349635973799031.post-64489179891794039692014-09-03T09:17:00.004+05:302014-09-03T18:01:44.148+05:30Feroze Gandhi and Indira Nehru-Part VI<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The Nehrus and the Gandhis-<a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/08/the-nehrus-and-gandhis-indian-dynasty.html" target="_blank">Part I</a> <a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/08/the-nehrus-and-gandhis-indian-dynasty_28.html" target="_blank">Part II</a> <a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/08/the-nehrus-and-gandhis-piii.html" target="_blank">Part III</a> <a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/09/the-nehrus-and-gandhis-piv.html" target="_blank">Part IV</a> <a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/09/vkkrishna-menon-part-v.html" target="_blank">Part V </a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;">Kamala was extremely fond of Feroze and she had been
instrumental in bringing him to the nationalist movement. Indira had first met
him at Allahabad when he joined the nationalist movement.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Feroze had been a great admirer of Kamala Nehru who
had inspired him by her Congress activities to join the nationalist movement.
He had been in and out of Anand Bhavan, ready to do whatever work was needed
for Kamala, and he had visited her regularly in Europe when she was dying. It
was obvious that he had fallen in love with her Indu, and Kamala strongly
approved, despite the fact he was not a Hindu, but a Parsi.......Jawaharlal was
not particularly keen on the young man, though not for religious reasons. He
had no real reason for his disapproval, except a father’s natural caution and
over-protectiveness towards his daughter’s first suitor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Indira’s friendship with Feroze had grown in Britain.
He was a face from home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Indira said yes to Feroze’s proposal on the steps of
Montmartre at Paris. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">- “I don’t like Feroze, but I love him.”-Indira’s
confession to her friends.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-There was a certain class difference between them. She
came from a wealthy urban background; He was from a petit bourgeois family. His
sister Tehmina was a personal assistant to a school inspectress. Feroze never
attempted to hide his origins, nor was he ashamed of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Even though both Indira’s aunts had married outside
Kashmiri Brahmin sect and two of her cousins got married to Muslim & Jew,
there was no disapproval from the family. But when it came to Indira, there was
strong objection from her aunts and family. The only one reason was that Feroze
came from a lower social class. But her granny, Kamala’s mother had no
objections. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">When Nehru tried to gently dissuade Indira from this
marriage, her indignant reply was that shortage of money didn’t matter as their
politics were similar!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">As mentioned elsewhere, Gandhiji and Nehru had to
issue public letters on why they supported the Hindu-Parsi marriage. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-DO NOT HURRY BACK.LIVE IN BEAUTY WHILE YOU MAY”.
Nehru’s telegram to Indira during her honeymoon at Kashmir. But it didn’t last long due to quit India movement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">In London Feroze had worked with Indian communists to
fight with fascism and unemployment. But during 1942, the communists favoured
the British, to defend Soviet Union from Hitler’s attack. It seemed that the
defence of Russia became more important to communists than India’s freedom. As
a result, many including Feroze broke up with them. Both Feroze and Indira
supported Nehru’s analysis of the
situation that free India would fight against Hitler alongside Britain and USSR
.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Jawaharlal, Vijayaleksmi, Feroze & Indira,were
among the one lakh nationalists who were arrested during the quit India
movement.The shortest term was for Indira- 9 months and she was released on
health grounds. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Personal matters took a secondary place ( to them).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Mother Indira did her duties perfectly well without
entrusting her sons to servants. But since they were settled at Lucknow and she
had to commute between Delhi and Lucknow quite frequently that finally she
decided to settle at Delhi with her father, who was virtually left alone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Why did Indira decide to go back to her father?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Feroze was caring, but too much of an extrovert, and
she felt that he could manage for himself far more easily than her
father....She respected her father’s politics. She was helping the country’s
foremost politician, who also happened to be the Prime Minister. The thought of
him on his own at Delhi, dependant simply on civil servants, without any love
or family life was unbearable to her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">After Gandhiji’s assassination, -she was convinced
that her father needed her more than ever before.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">So that
explains everything, it was not because he wanted to break up with Feroze. But
the decision definitely hurt Feroze. But he could understand that she had no
choice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Jawaharlal always treated Feroze correctly, but there
was an unspoken tension between the two men.....Feroze could never relax in the
great man’s presence (to which Indira couldn’t do much).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Jawaharlal’s domestic style was very much coloured by
Harrow and Cambridge. His table manners were exquisite, didn’t talk during his
meals and he hated vulgarity in any form. Feroze’s eating habits were by
contrast loud and he had an enormous reserve of off-colour jokes. He found the
atmosphere at Teen Murthi house stifling and his visits decreased.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Indira was caught in crossfire between the two men.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Feroze contested election and won at Rae Bareily.
Instead of settling at PM’s house, he accepted a small bungalow provided to MP.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-At a Congress gathering, Nehru, with Indira sitting
next to him on the dias, rebuked the delegates who had brought along their
entire families. Feroze, who was seated amongst the delegates, remarked in a
very loud voice: “<i>I</i> did not bring <i>my </i>wife!”
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Feroze was very much against overthrowing the elected
communist Govt in Kerala-of course under the auspices of his wife- and he
sharply denounced the leadership for this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Feroze was a progressive Congress man, strongly
committed to the state sector, and an able and effective Member of Parliament.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">It was a time when corruption was beginning to grow
and Feroze uncovered a corruption scandal which led to a public inquiry and
finally to the resignation of Finance Minister K.K.Krishnamachari, a favourite
of Nehru. Result was that Feroze became extremely popular throughout the
country. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Feroze suffered his second heart attack in 1960 while
Indira was in Kerala. She rushed back to Feroze and sat by him all night. He
died early morning. He was only 48 then.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">- Indira was shattered. She had neglected Feroze in
the belief that that they had their lives ahead of them and that after
Jawaharlal died, she and Feroze would be alone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-“It upset my whole being for years, he was very, very ill and I should have expected that
he would die. However, it was not just a mental shock, but it was as though
somebody had cut me into two.”-Indira on Feroze’s death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Thousands of people had spontaneously lined up the
route of his funeral and their grief was real.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Feroze had never sunk to the level of an ordinary
politician. That was the reason for his popularity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">If he had not died that early, India’s political fate would
have been different from what it is now, I believe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242349635973799031.post-65134314400625300692014-09-02T08:03:00.001+05:302019-12-15T05:53:22.430+05:30V.K.Krishna Menon-Part V<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The Nehrus and the Gandhis- <a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/08/the-nehrus-and-gandhis-indian-dynasty.html" target="_blank">Part I</a>: <a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/08/the-nehrus-and-gandhis-indian-dynasty_28.html" target="_blank">Part II</a>: <a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/08/the-nehrus-and-gandhis-piii.html" target="_blank">Part III</a>: <a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/09/the-nehrus-and-gandhis-piv.html" target="_blank">Part IV</a></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
(Thanks to Google for the picture) </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Nehru met him
first at London. The veteran leftist was the founder of anti colonial India League
and the inspirer of Pelican books.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-He had influenced many English people against
colonialism, among them Edwina Mountbatten.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Nehru and Menon had retained a close personal
friendship.” The PM Nehru had to remove Menon from his defence ministership due
to external pressures, but their friendship remained unchallenged. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-He had been virtually hero worshipped by Feroze
Gandhi.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Krishna Menon described the scene in the room where
Nehru’s body was lying ready to be taken away for cremation thus-</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">“The moment his last breath was drawn, the issue
arose. None of these people who professed loyalty to him, who came from his
state, in whose interests he has sometimes disregarded people like me just to
keep the pace, none of them had the decency to keep their mouth shut until he
was cremated. Around his body........were these people, sitting around
discussing the matter (the succession), not discussing seriously- I am using
the word ‘discussing' as a euphemism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">He was a veteran in Constitutional </span><span style="font-size: 19px;">practice also</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> and was
against appointing Mr. G. Nanda by the President, after Nehru’s demise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-“It was unconstitutional. That is the worst thing
that would have been done. Even the president to exercise his emergency power
would have been more constitutional, in my opinion. Or they should have called
an emergency meeting of the Parliamentary Party or the Party Executive and
there would have been no objection.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-The most important feature of this South Indian
politician was his intellect, his outspokenness and his unshakeable honesty. Menon
always kept aloof from petty squabbles, inner-party intrigues and the power
struggles of the local and national party machines. He despised that side of
politics. Nor did he suffer from an overpowering personal ambition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-If he had so desired, he could have played the part
of Brutus to Jawaharlal’s Caesar. There were people who would happily have
handed him the knife, but he rudely rebuffed any such suggestions. He was,
above all, a man of principle, and this was already becoming an extremely rare
quality in Congress circles.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Indira was also very close to him, but that was not a
reason for him to refrain from criticizing her when he felt that her policies were
going wrong. He thundered at her in the Vietnam issue and she was forced to
correct her stand. To weaken Indira, Congress leadership denied
him a party seat!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Certain Congress leaders were more interested in
designating a successor to Indira, than
winning the elections. Menon had warned them as follows–<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-“The choice of a PM is never a vocal issue at
election time in a Parliamentary democracy.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I have read that the concept of Sainik schools was
his, that he was rated as the 2<sup>nd</sup> most influential man of Indian
politics by Time magazine, that he delivered 7-8 hours non-stop speech on Kashmir at UN
etc. Yes, just like Feroze Gandhi, I too admire him, hero worship him and want
to read more on him. He had very close association with Nehru and Indira, but
never exploited it for selfish motives. Yes, he is the role model of a
Politician, Constitution expert, a true friend and what not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">We had planned to visit the famous Janakikkadu eco
tourism project, donated to the State by his sister Janaki, but it’s yet to
take place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242349635973799031.post-27007994570910815682014-09-01T22:50:00.000+05:302014-09-01T22:50:30.939+05:30The Nehru's and The Gandhis -PIV<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
Nehru-Nehru-Nehru</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/08/the-nehrus-and-gandhis-indian-dynasty.html" target="_blank">Part I link</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/08/the-nehrus-and-gandhis-indian-dynasty_28.html" target="_blank">Part II link</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/08/the-nehrus-and-gandhis-piii.html" target="_blank">Part III link</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">It must be Jawahar Lal’s voracious reading habits
and keen interest in world politics which had </span><span style="font-size: 19px;">molded</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> him into a Statesman with
a cosmopolitan outlook. He was a die-hard rationalist all through his life and had never, never compromised on this
aspect till his death. Yes, that is conviction. Here is a conversation between
Nehru and Kastur Ba.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> “God preserve
you”- told <i>Ba</i> affectionately when she
came to know that Nehru’s arrest was in the offing. “Where is he <i>Ba</i>? He seems to be permanently asleep,”
was his answer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-He remained a firm atheist to the end, regarding
religious communalism as a cancer that needed to be erased from India.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">How many people had to stake their fortunes and lives
during the independence struggle? When India gained independence, Nehru was 57. He had to spend long, long years of his life and youth in
British prison.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 19px;">-He constantly thought of what prison life was doing to friendships and family life and wondered how they would all see each other when he was finally released.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 19px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 19px;">In an epilogue to his autobiography, he wrote about his years in prison thus-</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">“The years I have spent in prison! Sitting alone,
wrapped in my thoughts, how many seasons I have seen go by, following one
another into oblivion!...How many yesterdays of my youth lie buried here; and
sometimes I see the ghosts of these dead yesterdays rise up, bringing poignant
memories, and whispering to me, ’was it worthwhile?’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">It seems Nehru was very much
indecisive in many cases as Subhash Bose had once remarked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-“When a crisis comes, you often do not succeed in
making up your mind one way or the other-with the result that to the public you
appear as if you are riding two horses.“</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Nehru himself refused to nominate a successor as he
felt it was none of his business. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-He pointed to the example Britain of the 1950’s when
Churchill had appointed Eden as the ‘crown prince’ long before he retired. Eden,
said Nehru, was one of the worst PM’s Britain had ever had in its long history.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Was Nehru keen on a dynastical rule? </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;">Just like the author, I believe ‘No’, from what I have
read.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">In 1957 Indira was elected to the Central Election
Committee, getting more votes than Nehru himself and after two years she was
elected President of the Congress party. “I’m sure my father didn’t like it”
was Indira’s response. But Nehru’s opposite faction headed by Morarji Desai
assumed Nehru had pulled strings for Indira.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Whatever the truth, one thing is clear. Neither side
was happy at the notion that a dynasty was being formed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-“Not while I am Prime Minsiter“-Nehru’s response when
certain ministers and numerous sycophants wanted Indira to be a member of
Government.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Kamaraj and four others- Syndicate- started discussing
about a successor to Nehru. He was well aware of it and was contemptuous
towards this powerful combination of regional power-brokers. As the author doubts,”
would a man hell-bent on obtaining succession for his daughter, as his enemies
alleged, have treated the kingmakers of the future in such a cavalier fashion
?” No, never.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">If he really wished Indira to be his successor, “the
evidence would not have been lacking,” as correctly opined by the author. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">N<span style="color: #1f497d; mso-themecolor: text2;">ehru
and Congress Party</span>: He had observed that the congress sessions were
nothing more than a social gathering of like-minded friends- “A fashionable
society! Spare-time amusement for armchair politicians!” - was what he remarked
to his father after attending the 1912 session of congress. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">-In reality, Nehru was deeply concerned at the
faction-fighting and corruption that began to </span><span style="font-size: 19px;">characterize</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> the Congress Party
during the last few years of his life. Many leaders were totally obsessed with
positions and power. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-themecolor: text2;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-themecolor: text2;">Nehru the
historian: </span><span style="font-size: medium;">It was during 1925 that the
archaeologists discovered the remnants of a very old pre-Vedic </span><span style="font-size: 19px;">civilization</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> at
Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro (Mound of the Dead) while the British were
constructing the Lahore to Multan railway line.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Nehru stood silently on a mound near Mohenjo-Daro ad
studied the ruins. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">-The long and complex evolution of India had started during Millennium BC. It had been </span><span style="font-size: 19px;">colored</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> by repeated conquests and displacements
which had formed the variegated landscape of the country. Was this history of
strife last coming to an end? Nehru did not stop about thinking about these
matters. Later, in prison for the last time, he gave all these, a shape in his </span><i style="font-size: 14pt;">Discovery of India</i><span style="font-size: medium;">. </span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent1;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent1;">Nehru and
Communalism:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent1;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent1;"> -</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">and he
said unequivocally that communalism, be it Hindu or Muslim, was vice exploited
by perverted minds:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-The British, of course made use of communal
polarisations, and even helped to provoke them, but these divisions, alias had
deeper roots.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Hindus of various castes, denominations and classes
represented an overwhelming majority in India(1936). Their religious leaders
clearly stated that majority rule meant Hindu rule, something that had not
existed in the subcontinent for several centuries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">According to the author, Nehru was shocked by the
communalist moves (More details under head Jinnah) by Jinnah and his Muslim
league and he became increasingly hostile to the league. He had to finally
accept the fact the league’s influence could not be defeated as long as
Congress was controlled by men like Vallabhai Patel, Rajendra Prasad and
G.D.Birla. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">However in the 1937 elections, 90% of the Muslim Pathans
of the North West frontier province chose to vote for Gandhi and not the
league! “In the aftermath of these victories, Nehru sat back, for a while, and
rejoiced.” Me too rejoiced while going through this!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-“I will not tolerate Muslims being slaughtered as if
they were animals”-Nehru to his Home Minister Vallabhai Patel, “who was a
traditional Hindu, susceptible to communalism, hostile to Nehru, and a protégé
of Gandhi.” Gandhiji also reprimanded Patel against this in strong language.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;">Nehru on Bhagat
Singh</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> after visiting him in prison-
“Bhagat Singh had an attractive, intellectual face, remarkably calm and peaceful.
There seemed to be no anger in it.” Any mention about the patriot still fills
my eyes with tears. For those who know Malayalam just go through this link, a
poem on him which will make you weep!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent1;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent1;">Nehru and Subhash
Chandra Bose: </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> -What interested Nehru was
that Bose had succeeded in uniting the Indians: the INA had included Muslims,
Sikhs ad the Hindus who had forgotten their religious differences..... when the
British authorities decide to try the INA men for high treason, Nehru became a
lawyer again and defended them in open court.....</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Bose was killed in a plane crash in 1945....Jawarlal
had not ageed with Bose, but he never doubted his patriotism. He had regarded
Bose as childish, very impressionable, but also deeply sensitive and burning
with a nationalist fervour.he opposed all attempts to blacken his name and , in
this, was supported by Gandhi and Abul
Kalam Azad. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-themecolor: text2;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-themecolor: text2;">Nehru and Patel</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">:-There were a number of quarrels between him and
Vallabhai Patel, the veteran power broker, leader of the Congress right and not
averse to using communalism when it suited to his interests.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242349635973799031.post-63696164906185721362014-08-29T07:36:00.000+05:302014-09-01T12:30:01.172+05:30The Nehrus and the Gandhis-PIII<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Nehru and Kamala<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/08/the-nehrus-and-gandhis-indian-dynasty.html" target="_blank">Part-I</a> link<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/08/the-nehrus-and-gandhis-indian-dynasty_28.html" target="_blank">Part-II</a> link<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Nehru held a very modern outlook about marriage, as is
evident from the letter to his mother Swarupa Rani, from Harrow – <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">“There should be no marriage without mutual love. I
consider it a crime and a ruination of one’s life, if one has to marry merely
for the sake of creating children.” But finally, he had to succumb to the
family/social pressures and marry the beautiful Kamala Kaul. Yes, as the author
says, it was a marriage of convenience!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Even though I do value Nehru very much and I could
sense his internal torment in marrying against his wish, I wonder how he could
forget that Kamala was in no way responsible for it. So I couldn’t easily
digest that she had to remain a neglected wife most of her life. His autobiography
contains only two lines about his marriage, says the author. The elite, modern, luxurious Anand Bhavan was
in no way different from any ordinary Indian household when it came to the
in-law problems. Kamala was not at all happy in her husband’s household.
Motilal was the only one who loved, supported and defended her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Vijayalakshmi(Nehru’s sister), was particularly nasty
to the young sister in law. She mocked Kamala’s unfamiliarity with the Western
style of Motilal’s household; teased her maliciously because of her
unsophisticated ways and constantly told tales about the young woman’s blunders
to all and sundry. Kamala felt the torment much more because her husband rarely
defended her against her detractors. If Jawaharlal, instead of listening to the
inane prattling of Vijayalakshmi, had made it clear that he was not interested
in her prejudiced gossip, Kamala would have been a lot happier.” Yes, there
lies the point. Well said T.Ali, it is the root of the problem in most Indian
families and not only in the Nehru household!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The daughter Indira’s words on Kamala-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-When my father (Nehru) wanted to join Gandhiji and to
change the whole way of life, to change our luxurious living, to give up his
legal practice, the whole family was against it. It was only my mother’s courageous
and persistent support and encouragement which enabled him to take the big step
which made such a big difference not only to our family, but to the history of
modern India. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-By now, Kamala had become involved in congress
politics and was regularly attending meetings and participating in processions.
This was the happiest phase of her life. She felt free, independent ad
committed to a cause. All the petty squabbles and insults at Anand Bhavan
seemed trivial by comparison.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Ever since Kamala had become involved in politics and ‘come out’, so to speak, she and Nehru had been close friends. Her companionship had become important. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Kamala died peacefully in February 1936, while Indira
was at Somerville College, Oxford and just when Nehru’s “An
Autobiography”-which was reprinted nine times that year itself!- was going to
press. It was Kamala who pushed him to find a publisher for his book, and
settle Indira in a university.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">His memoirs on Kamala published in another book ran
thus:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> “She was
bubbling over with gaiety and frankness before those she knew and liked.....she
stuck to her instinctive likes and dislikes. There was no guile in her. If she
disliked a person, it was obvious, and she made no attempt to hide the fact. Even
if she had tried to do so, she would probably not have succeeded.” Yes, I have
no doubts that the guileless, lovely, Kamala was an adorable personality. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;">T.Ali’s book has not only enhanced my respect and love
towards Nehru, but also made me a fan of Kamala, and Feroze Gandhi too! I’m
thankful to the author for throwing light on the lovely Kamala’s wonderful
personality.</span></div>
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242349635973799031.post-92093040196848681792014-08-28T12:23:00.000+05:302014-08-28T12:23:17.830+05:30The Nehrus and Gandhis, an Indian Dynasty-PII<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 19px;">Gandhiji and Nehruji</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 19px;">Part II</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://inthepondonthebanks.blogspot.in/2014/08/the-nehrus-and-gandhis-indian-dynasty.html" target="_blank">PartI</a> link.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-themecolor: text2;">Gandhiji</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">: In the short
prologue to the book, the author states that Mahatma Gandhi was “cunning and
foxy”-to which I do not concur.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-The great man was a ruthless politician. He had a
fixed notion as to how independence should be won and he would tolerate nothing
that stood in the way of that. For Gandhi, right from the beginning, a
negotiated settlement for British withdrawal was the only possible exit route.
This meant a peaceful transition to independence”.These words made me feel
that Gandhiji was the reincarnation of Chanakya or Machiavelli! <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Gandhi was not so much a peasant as a fox. He was an
extremely shrewd and intelligent political leader.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Gandhi began to idealise the prehistory of Hinduism,
in which it is impossible to disentangle facts from mythology.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">- Gandhi increasingly appeared to be a mongrel
offspring of Victorian liberalism and Indian mysticism.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Gandhi became a decisive link between the old and new
India, between the peasants and the colonial state, between Jawaharlal Nehru
and India’s strongest capitalist class. He was the man who held the whole act
together. It would have been impossible to find another like him. He took the
village to the metropolis and in the process became the country’s leading power
broker.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent1;">Gandhi vs Nehru</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-The confrontation between Gandhi and Nehru was in
fact the confrontation between tradition and modernism. The difference of
opinion between the two was sharp, but at the end Nehru always succumbed to the
Great man. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-the difference between Nehru and Gandhi, these 2
giants of India’s Nationalist movement couldn’t have been greater. The first
was a Kashmiri Brahmin who discarded every religious inhibition. The older man
was a Gujerathi Bania (trading caste) who had toyed with doubt, but then
re-embraced orthodoxy. Nehru, a product of Harrow and Cambridge, was tempered
by his lengthy stays in numerous British prisons; Gandhiji was a product largely of Hindu India, but had
learnt politics thru his South African
experiences. Gandhiji regarded religion as a crucial to everyday
existence. Nehru saw it as India’s deadliest enemy, containing the seeds of
destruction.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-Unlike Gandhi, Nehru did not believe that men and
women should exercise strict sexual self-discipline and he had publicly
attacked Gandhi on these questions in sharp language.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-How Nehru cursed the caste system? Gandhi had denounced the absurd practices of
the system and its taboos, but never challenged the caste division as a whole.
Nehru frequently did, arguing that it was a distorted, degenerate reflection of
Hinduisms prehistory.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">'It’s dangerous to be too good' was the Great Bernard
Shaw’s response on the news of Gandhiji’s assassination (This is not from the
book-it’s my general knowledge</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">).
Since Nehru’s emotional speech, with tears in his eyes, after the assassination
of Gandhiji is very much available in
net, I don’t intend to requote it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-With Gandhiji’s death, there was no one left whom Nehru
regarded as superior, whose reprimands and advice he could accept. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">To be continued- Nehru and Kamala</span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242349635973799031.post-72969744803942516662014-08-24T20:01:00.001+05:302014-09-02T19:33:02.040+05:30The Nehrus and The Gandhis-An Indian Dynasty<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CvgXKxg76rM/U_n0sW-s44I/AAAAAAAAAC8/TiKjZ-gAiis/s1600/IMG-20140824-WA0000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CvgXKxg76rM/U_n0sW-s44I/AAAAAAAAAC8/TiKjZ-gAiis/s1600/IMG-20140824-WA0000.jpg" height="320" width="244" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 19px;">PART-I</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">The 300 page book penned by Tariq Ali and first
published in 1985 with an introduction by Salman Rushdie, is of course a
historical rendering worth reading. The author has covered a time span of 95
years, 1889 to 1984, to be precise; Or in other words, from the birth of
Jawahar Lal to the ‘reign’ of his grandson Rajiv Gandhi. That is, it doesn’t
cover Rajiv’s assassination, Sonia taking over the helm of affairs and later
sharing it with her son Rahul. And recently the channels have reported that
Priyanka is going to assume charge of the Congress party! She has denied it anyway;
Good heavens, long live the dynasty! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">At the outset, let me say that the name of the book
sounded a little misnomer, at least to me who still consider ‘Gandhi’ as
Mahatma Gandhi . The author might have named thus considering the patriarchal
heresy of Rajiv Gandhi as son of Feroze Gandhi.
I have recently read Gandhiji’s great
grandson Anand Gokani mentioned as
‘Gandhi kin’. Yes, what it definitely counts is whether the dissent is maternal
or paternal!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">The book, a truthful –that’s what I felt-compilation
of political as well as personal lives of the Nehru Family, is very much
readable and not at all drab. It is a very fascinating 95 year long journey
through the annals of Indian history and partly world history. The story of a
family turning out to be that of a great nation! ‘The Parties’ and ‘The Politicians’, are also
listed for easy reference.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">This is simply my scribbling on the book, ie, a review is not in my purview. The quotes from
the book are either given as " " or thus -. Let the book speak for itself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">The Nehrus were the descendants of Raj Kaul who was
relocated to Allhabad from Kashmir. “The immigrant from Kashmir was provided
with land and house adjoining a canal. The Urdu word for canal is <i>nehar</i> .” Thus the one’s from the canal
came to be known as Neharis and later on
Nehru’s. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Some word meanings- Allahabad- City of God: Pakisthan-Land
of the pure: Motilal-Red pearl: Jawaharlal -precious stone; And the word Gandhi
literally meant grocer!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 14pt;">Why did the British deny mass education to Indians?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">-The British consciously decided not to alter the rural landscape of India. To do so, they believed would rapidly create the conditions for their own removal from the region. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">-They denied mass education and as Lord Macaulay desired, they created a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions they govern. Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals and in intellect.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">There are many anecdotes in the book, which none of us might have come across in our history lessons.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Nehru, Feroze,
Indira, Subhash Chandra Bose and the like were referred to as the left wing
sympathizers within Congress! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: -18pt;"> After the Chauri
Chaura incident, 3 congress volunteers who were poor peasants, were arrested
and hanged after trial. They have never
appeared in the Congress list of martyrs. Neither Gandhi nor Congress working
committee shed tears on their behalf.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Gandhi had refused
to plead Bhagath Singh’s case-(the book answers the question why).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> General Dyer,
responsible for the massacre in Jallianwalla Bagh, and Nehru happened to travel
together in the same compartment, on a trip to Delhi from Amritsar! Nehru
himself has recorded it in his autobiography.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">-The butcher of Jallianwallah Bagh and the future
Prime Minister of India travelling, even sleeping, in the same compartment was
history’s more grotesque ironies”, says the author. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: -18pt;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: -18pt;">Nehru women had
participated in the remembrance week held
for the martyrs of Jallianwala Bagh. Nehru
was in prison.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">-At the head of the demonstration, which was illegal, there
was a frail old woman dresses in white .She was batton- charged by the police
and received several blows to the head, until a police officer recognized her,
lifted her from the ground, put in her in a car and drove home. The woman was
SWARUP RANI(Nehru’s mother).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Other ironies-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Nehru offered
huge sums to the royal families of the erstwhile Princely States to integrate
with the Indian Union. His daughter cut down all these privileges
during 1971.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">In 1947, the Delhi Muslims who lost all their fortunes
and relatives stayed back in Delhi without fleeing to Pak honouring the requests
by Abul Kalam Azad and Nehru. But after 29 years, Nehru’s grandson, watched by
his daughter rendered them homeless-(The Turkman Gate incident). </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Nehru had left strict instructions in his will that he he was not to be given a religious funeral.But his daughter raised a religious funeral for him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> In November 1937
the ‘Calcutta Modern Review’ published an anonymous article which argued that
men like Nehru, were endangering democracy. “...In spite of his brave talk , Jawaharlal
is obviously tired and stale.....Let us not spoil him by too much adulation and
praise....” It run thus and surely did create a furore. That anonymous letter
was written by none other than Nehru himself!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Nehru’s “An Autobiography”-
was reprinted nine times in the year of publishing itself!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Nehru and Gandhi
had to release press statements-that is public explanations- as to why
Feroze-Indira marriage was endorsed!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">-India’s two most important political leaders had been
compelled, at a politically critical moment, to expend part of their energy on
justifying the decision of two people to marry each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Feroze once
questioned Nehru on some security bungle and ultimately the PM Nehru had to
apologize to the MP Feroze in Parliament.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-size: 14pt;">Quotes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">-The Ganga is a liquid history of India.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">-Family life has traditionally been seen as a refuge
from the pain and cold of the world that lies outside..The bruises inflicted
are often invisible. Even when the actual pain has gone, the suppressed anger
can stay with the victim for the rest of his life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;">-“Ever changing, yet ever the same”- by Nehru. This
was my favourite quote once but what I had in mind was “ever changing, ever
flowing, yet ever the same Ganga”. No, it was wrong. The quote was on Moon,
Nehru’s only companion in prison. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">-His(Nehru’s)
parents and his wife were now all dead; his link with the past was
broken. He decided it was time to strengthen his links with the future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">-“A little more slowly, Mr.Nehru,” he (Viceroy Lord
Linlithgrow) said with sarcasm."My slow Anglo-Saxan mind cannot keep pace with
your quick intellect."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;">-Our educated community is not a cultured community, but
a community of qualified candidates-Rabindranatha Tagore</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">-“How did you manage
to so wonderfully isolate yourself from the people, in such a short
space of time? ”Nehru, to Congress leaders of Kerala after they lost the </span><span style="font-size: 19px; text-indent: 0cm;">1957 elections</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> to communists.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0cm;">-that he (Nehru) was happiest when attacked by the
right for being “soft on socialism and communalism” and by the left for being
“an agent of capitalism and reaction." That, he would say, “makes me feel I’m
on the right course."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">-Never do anything in secret or anything that you wish
to hide. For the desire to hide anything means you are afraid, and fear is a
bad thing and unworthy of you....Nehru to Indira in the first of his 200
letters from prison.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">-“Little did we guess, that we would never see his
wide toothless smile again, nor feel the glow of protection”-Indira on Gandhiji’s
assassination.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">-"We never hated you personally"-Indira to Churchill at
London when he was amazed that a man(Nehru) the British had locked up for many
years seemed to harbor no ill will. Churchill’s answer was "But I did, I did."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">-Morarji Desai was an oddball even in the fad-ridden
world of Hinduism <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">To be continued-M.K.Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru PII<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242349635973799031.post-23499053161522399692014-07-25T21:35:00.000+05:302014-07-25T21:56:48.807+05:30Siddhartha <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eRHgYvfu0eo/U9Igxm736nI/AAAAAAAAD-4/epwQpFc5K_I/s1600/sidhartha.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eRHgYvfu0eo/U9Igxm736nI/AAAAAAAAD-4/epwQpFc5K_I/s1600/sidhartha.jpg" height="320" width="199" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">The novel originally written in German language by Hermann Hesse during the year 1922 had
been translated and published into English by many. The one I read was
published by Maple press, Noida, but it doesn’t mention the translator’s name.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">I had heard and read a lot about the book far back, but couldn’t get a
chance to read until recently. Even though late in reading, it was an
enthralling experience. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"><br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">If the original Siddhartha opted to renounce worldly life to become
Gautama Buddha, the enlightened, it was vice versa for this Siddhartha, who is
a contemporary of Gautama Buddha. The young Siddhartha renounced his so called
spiritual entity and chose to live with Kamala, a courtesan, who prompted him
to amass wealth for a comfortable and luxurious worldly life. The highly
intelligent Siddhartha could do it with ease. But after sometime, he chose to abandon
his *‘Garhasthya’ to seek fulfilment and finally attained it but not from any
guru but a simple ferry man Vasudeva and the river which he used to ferry. </span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Siddhartha’s journey
through life symbolises the Hindu belief to attain fulfilment through the four
aims or rather stages of life, viz Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. He practised
Dharma or righteousness during his childhood and youth, Artha and Kama during
his life with Kamala, and finally attained Moksha during his old age.I have
always loved the concept of Vanaprastha(embracing the forest) after
Grihasthashram, though it is very difficult to be practised for one who is
entangled in human ties.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Siddhartha’s father
had no difficulty in raising his son as a righteous young man, but Siddhartha
himself failed miserably in bringing up his only son properly after Kamala’s
death. The boy-again Siddhartha named after his father-raised by his mother in
the absence of his Dad had become a spoilt brat who abused his Dad like
anything and one day he ran away from his Dad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">The relationship
between Vasudeva <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and Siddartha, is worth mentioning. An ignorant lay man turned out to be an intellectual’s spiritual
guide, so to say!. So impressive is Vasudeva’s and later Siddhartha’s fondness
towards the river, which ultimately symbolizes mother nature herself.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">What I understand from
the book is that life should be a proper blend of spirituality as well as worldly
pleasures. Denying either of this totally or </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">indulging in any one state alone will not satisfy your inner self;</span> Or else
Siddhartha would not have left his early spiritual life of youth; Or else he
would not have fled from Kamala and the luxurious life he led with her. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">I feel that spirituality is something above and of course very different from devotion;It has nothing to do with chanting of prayers, pilgrimages and the like.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Hermann Hesse is the grandson of Dr.Hermann Gundert who had well known Kerala connections. </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Now certain quotes from the book:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Siddhartha to Govinda:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> "What is meditation? What is leaving one's body?What is fasting?What is holding one's breath?It is fleeing from one's self, it is a short escape of the agony of being a self, it is a brief numbing of the senses against the pain and pointlessness of life."</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">"We find comfort, we find numbness, we learn feats to deceive others.But the most important thing, the path of paths, we will not find."</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Siddhartha to Budha, mentioned in the book as Gotama/the exalted one:</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">"O, exalted one, no body will obtain salvation by means of teachings.You will not be able to convey to anybody, O, venerable one, in words and through teachings what has happened to you in the hour of enlightenment! "</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">You can read more
about the book, of course in a more sophisticated language <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhartha_%28novel%29">here</a> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in wiki.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">*<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashrama_%28stage%29">Four stages of life</a></span></div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242349635973799031.post-27065660567407590372010-08-02T20:04:00.002+05:302014-07-25T20:19:53.288+05:30The 3 mistakes of my life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Author-Chetan bhagat<br />
Publisher-Rupa<br />
Price-Rs:95/-(You will get 20% discount if you are lucky.I bought all his 4 books together and got the discount).<br />
<br />
At the outset, let me make it clear that neither am I a voracious reader nor a literary critic to attempt a book review, that too on one of India’s best sellers. And I don’t have sufficient language skills required for a critic. But the down to earth theme and narrating style prompts me to !<br />
<br />
The novel revolves around three young friends Govind, Ishaan and Omi living in Belrampur, Ahmedabad, Gujrat, the state of businessmen.. Reading the book was a real big experience, so to say. Very lively , characters from middle class families. I was all for Govind until his second mistake, which I found difficult to digest, may be because I am a girl’s mother! Even his suicide attempt could not win my sympathy! Forgetting the dislikes let me bring out the likes.<br />
<br />
1.The simple language- It definitely is written in the language of the masses without using high handed jargons. It makes you feel that the characters are living in your immediate neighborhood and you know them all.<br />
<br />
2.Depth of friendship- I am all for the strong bond of true friendships where one emotionally supports, corrects and extends all sorts of help as and when required without being sought by her/his friend. The book shows you the beauty of friendship and the emotional trauma through which one goes at the point of breaking up.<br />
<br />
3.Positive energy-It shows how an ordinary Indian can achieve his goals by simply using available resources in and around his/her place. Govind planned his business observing that cricket and badminton are the popular games in Belrampur. Moreover, Ishan was the top cricketer during his school days and G counted on utilizing his skills by starting training sessions for students. The sports goods shop amassed profit as he planned.<br />
<br />
4.Intricacies of relationships-between dad-son(Ishaan and his dad), uncle- nephew(Omi and his uncle ) ,friend’s sister transforming to girl friend, friends turning foes ,the intimacy developed between Ishaan and the little boy Ali etc etc. The efforts, the trio put in under the leadership of Ish to rescue Ali from hindu fanaticism consequent to Godra incident was terrific. The riot stricken Ahmedabad was horrifying to read.<br />
<br />
5.Vision –It gives what India is now and what India should be.<br />
<br />
I liked Govind most ,because of his clear-cut ambition and the flawless planned efforts to achieve the same. He is a perfect professional who does not mix up profession with sentiments. I have noticed the absence of this professionalism among us . We are adepts at spicing each and everything with sentiments even in pure official matters at workplace, of course, according to me. Things have changed a lot, I admit, among the newer generation.<br />
<br />
Ishaan, Omi ,Ali, his dad, all are real life characters. Vidya , Omi’s sister is representative of the typical new age fearless Indian girls. But the doubt of illicit pregnancy scares her too! But I love Vidya inspite of her impulsive behaviour!<br />
<br />
More quotes from the book ,in case anybody wishes to read further.<br />
<br />
Listen to what the agnostic Govind, who tells the story-<br />
<br />
“I was never good with emotional stuff.I love maths, I love logic and those subjects have no place for emotion”<br />
<br />
“My love for business began when I first started tuitions. It was amazing to see money build up. With money came not only things like coolers and sofas but also the most important stuff-respect. Shopkeepers no longer avoided us, relatives re-invented us to weddings and our landlord’s visit did not throw us into turmoil. And then there was the thrill-I was making money, not earning it under some boss or getting a handout.”<br />
<br />
“I don’t want to be an Engineer, mom. My heart is in business”.<br />
<br />
“I hate a display of emotion more than emotion itself”<br />
<br />
“people called me Mr. Accounts, greedy, miser, anything”<br />
“I am no Mr. Nice and I hate people who are not focused.”<br />
<br />
“if Ish’s passion was cricket and my passion was business, was Omi’s passion religion? or may be like most people he was confused and trying to find his passion. And unlike us, who never took him seriously, Parekh-Ji gave him a sense of purpose and importance.”<br />
<br />
Ali’s dad, on Hindu Muslim fights (The words which haunt me always)<br />
<br />
“Male chimpanzees of the same pack fight violently with each other-for food, females, whatever. However after the fight, they go through a strange ritual. They kiss each other on the lips. The point is, this ritual was created by nature. To make sure the fight gets resolved and the pack stays together. In fact any long-term relationship requires this”<br />
<br />
“Yes, take any husband and wife. They will fight, and hurt each other emotionally. However later they will make up, with hugs, presents or kind understanding words. These reconciliatory mechanisms are essential. The problem in Hindu-Muslim rivalry is not that that one is right and the other is wrong. It is that there are no reconciliatory mechanisms.”<br />
<br />
Ish-“The young generation in India from the 60’s to the 80’s is the worst India ever had.These 30 years are an embarrassment for India...My point is, that the clueless sixties to eighties generation is now old, and running the country”.<br />
<br />
The discussion among the 3 friends really throws insight into the present state of affairs of our country.<br />
<br />
Omi & Govind-(at Australia where the trio took Ali for training cricket at their own initiative)<br />
<br />
Omi-“There is an unspoken rule among Indian men and you broke it........You don’t hit upon your best friend’s sister. You just don’t. It’s against protocol.”<br />
<br />
G-“protocol? What’s this, the army? And I didn’t hit on her. She hit upon me”<br />
<br />
O-“But you let her hit upon you. You let her”<br />
<br />
G-“well, it wasn’t exactly like being hit. It didn’t hurt. It felt good”(But I never felt good- I was thinking of Vidya's fiture and the plight of her innocent parents)<br />
<br />
Australian cricketer Fred who is training Ali-“ If I don’t break their ( cricket practicing kids) pride, they will stay hoons for the rest of their life. Sportsmen aren’t movie stars, mate. Even though your country treats them like that!”<br />
<br />
Little Ali on being asked to be an Aussie(Australian citizen) for better coaching and facilities-“It’s ok, if I don’t become a player, but it’s not ok if I’m not an Indian” ( I hugged Ali and kissed him on his forehead!)<br />
<br />
“Don’t get so sentimental about politics. Emotional speeches are fine, but in your mind always think straight” Parek-Ji’s lecture to Bittoo mama, Omi’s uncle.<br />
<br />
“Who you are, what do you want verse what people expect of you. And how to keep what you want without pissing off people too much.Life is an optimization problem, with tons of variables and constraints.” G to Vidya during a tuition class<br />
<br />
Vidya to Govind at ATHIRA campus lawn-“why, why is it so unfair? Why do only I have to deal with this? why can’t you get pregnant at the same time?”<br />
<br />
the P-word which freaks men out-Pregnancy<br />
the A word- abortion ...<br />
<br />
And stopping for the time being or else I”ll copy the whole book! It has become too long. But you always have the freedom to skip, don’t you?</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242349635973799031.post-56610776343592747962009-12-16T08:22:00.001+05:302009-12-16T08:22:56.088+05:30TIT BITS<div align="left">These are the jottings from one of my old literary notebooks. But , who said, seems to have been overlooked in most cases..... </div><div align="left"> “..January 2nd is the day when most people find that it is easier to break a resolution than a habbit.”<br /> <br />“ To handle yourself, use your head; To handle others use your heart ”.<br /><br />“Ideas should be received like guests-in a friendly way;but with the reservation that they are not to tyrannize their host!”<br /><br />“Two things indicate weakness-to be silent when it is proper to speak and to speak when it is proper to be silent.”- Persian Proverb<br /><br />"When a man with money meets a man with experience, the man with experience gets the money and the man with money gets experience."</div><div align="left"><br />“ He has a right to criticize who has a heart to help”-Lincoln</div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left">"Criticism should be malice towards none and charity towards all"-Lincoln<br /> </div><div align="left">A sentence with all the 26 alphabets-<br />“Quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog!”<br /><br />“Silence is deep as eternity ; Speech is shallow as time.”-Carlyle<br /><br />“Some books are to be tasted, others are to be followed, and some few to be chewed and digested”-Bacon<br /><br />“Some men are great because their associates are little”-Johnson<br /><br />“Begin not with a programme, but with a deed”-Florence Nightingale</div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"><br /> "One who knows not that he knows not is a fool, neglect him<br />One who knows that he knows not is humble, teach him<br />One who knows not that he knows is innocent<br />On who knows that he knows is wise, follow him"<br /><br />"Everyone wants to be wanted."<br /><br /><br /><br /> </div>Sriletha Pillaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15678181482497926828noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242349635973799031.post-78299407780632231002009-08-28T23:50:00.002+05:302009-08-31T13:31:43.402+05:30Neither Materialistic Nor Spiritual.......Yes, now I’m on the road to spirituality! But that doesn’t indicate the least that we were too materialistic till now.<br /><br />In fact we were and are leading a very simple life .We had professional degrees, held good offices in tune with our times, and we had everything to act big if so desired by us .But costly dresses, make up and luxurious living never allured us. It was not at all our style, so to say. We were quite contented too. Live and let live was our motto. We never interfered with other’s beliefs and we didn’t permit others to intervene in ours. A very silent and peaceful way of living. Very much sincere, dedicated and bound to duty to the extent of work holism at times. So did we take up our house hold duties and responsibilities as well.<br /><br /><br />But when we look back, we do realize one thing....We were not at all spiritual!!!. We were following a path in between materialism and spirituality. As the mistress of the house, I am to be blamed for that. I never used to light up the sandhyadeepam (the lamp lit in the evenings at hindu homes), offer prayers to God, go to temples, and observe rituals like vrathams (penance) for the betterment of family. We have read all the sacred books right from childhood days. But the reading had nothing to do with Bhakthi or religion. Any Indian should read these irrespective of his religion caste etc etc as rightly said by many learned people.<br /><br />Similarly, we have visited many famous temples, stood wonderstruck before the huge structures........admiring the sculptors.......Praying to the lords inside the temple were the most unimportant part then....... But now I realize God must have smiled sympathetically at us who, got trapped in the external luxuries and failed miserably to find him/her inside the sanctum sanctorum .It was just like going to meet our Parents and enjoying the luxuries of the house without paying any attention to them! i.e. simply forgetting the very purpose of the visit.<br /><br />Now I am experimenting.... But it is really hard.....had we been spiritual earlier, I'm sure we could have improved the quality of our lives and helped to make this place a better place to live.. The word spirituality itself has varied meanings.......<br /><br />Late realisation in life.....Anyway better late than never!!!Sriletha Pillaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15678181482497926828noreply@blogger.com4