Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Boat capsize: 35 more bodies fished out

With the recovery of 35 more bodies, the toll in the boat capsize in Bihar’s Khagaria district rose to 56 as search continued by the National Disaster Response Force personnel to locate around 20 missing persons.

“We recovered 35 more bloated bodies from the river taking the toll in the capsize to 56,” Block Development Officer (Alauli) Satish Chandra Mishra said from the spot.

Twenty-one bodies, mostly of minors and women, were found from a country boat carrying 100 passengers which capsized in Bagmati river near Fultora ghat of Khagaria district on Monday evening.

The passengers were returning to their villages after attending a fair on Vijaya Dashami.

The bodies were recovered by the NDRF personnel, he said, adding local divers were still on the job. Some 25 passengers had swam to safety.

Khagaria Superintendent of Police Indranand Mishra said the toll might go up to 75.

Chief Minister Nitish Kuamr had ordered that search operations be intensified and announced ex-gratia of Rs 1.50 lakh to the families of each of the deceased.

What Is His Name

Ahmed Deedat | Language: English | Format: PDF | Pages: 22 | Size: 1 MB
The inimitable Ahmed Deedat here poses the question, “What is the name of God?” Using christian, jewish and Islamic sources, he strives to answer the question.
Sheikh Ahmed Hoosen Deedat was Born on the 01 July 1918 in the Surat district of India in 1918. His father emigrated to South Africa in 1927 with him. After reading a book called Izharul Haq – The Truth revealed, a book about a debate with Christian Missionaries in the then British India, Sheikh Deedat was spurred on in the direction of Dawah – Islamic Missionary Activity to halt the tide of the then Christian onslaught against Islam. Over the next four decades, he immersed himself into a host of activities. Conducting Bible classes, lectures and debates the world over. He established the first Islamic Seminary in Southern Africa to train propagators at Assalaam educational Institute – Braemar. He is the founder of the largest Islamic Dawah Organization in the world, the Islamic Propagation Center International and became its president. He delivered thousands of lectures all over the world, crossing all the continents and successfully engaging some of the biggest names in Christian evangelists in public debates. Sheikh Deedat’s debates and lectures are available all over the world in the various languages in Video and DVD format. His career in the field of Comparative Religion took him across all five continents and dialogue with the heads of the Protestant world in America. May Almighty Allah bless his soul, accept his efforts for the cause of da’wah and grant gracious patience to his loved ones during this trying time.

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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Baul Gaan: Minstrels of Mystic Melody

This is the second video blog of the series on the context of Durga Pujo and traditional Bengali Culture. The first was on Dhak can be read here.

I have been influenced by Baul gaan since the very first time I have heard a song as a kid. It was a song by Purnadas Baul, the king of Bauls -

Piriti kathaler aatha lagle pore chhare na

Golemaale golemaale piriit koro na

(Love is like sticky juice of jackfruit, it’s too sticky to get rid of

So don’t fall in love when chanced within the perplexity)

I liked the song instantly, though understood the real meaning much later in life. Years later, I got the opportunity to listen to songs of Lalon Fakir and they left me mesmerized. In today’s world of religious divide and materialistic gain, his songs spoke about basics- truth, love and human soul. His songs were like a crack in the wall of my prison, which gave me a glimpse of another world where Icould never go, but wished to. However, Lalon Fakir is a subject in himself and before me; there was another dude who liked him- Rabindranath Tagore.

Khachar vitor, ochin pakhi kemne ashe jai!
Tare dhorte paarle mono beri, ditam pakhir paay.

(Look, how the strange bird flies in and out of cage!
If I could catch, I would bind it with my mind’s fetter)

Thus sang Lalon.

Amar praner manush Achhe prane tai heri tare sakal-khane.

Achhe se noyon-taray, Alok dharay tare na haraye ogo tai heri tare Jethaye sethaye

(The man after my heart lives inside me,

That is why I see him everywhere.

In the gaze of my eye, in the sparkle of light

Oh I can never lose him –

Here, there, everywhere,

Wherever I look, he is right there for me.)

Thus wrote Tagore.

The Baul philosophy of liberal love, life and music existed much before Woodstock happened. A Baul dejects himself from all material bonding, is a wanderer and travels with travels with his Bostomi, his lifemate. It was the Baul culture that made me realize that wearing torn jeans and smoking pot doesn’t mean liberty or being ‘hippiee’, there’s a force much deeper and larger, required to unbelong and love what you love. It’s a state of mind. The biggest expression of Baul philosophy is it’s music- which is melodious, memorable and highly influential. Baul music has inspired poets at home and lyricists and musicians across the globe, time and again. Undoubtedly, Baul gaan today can be considered as one of the influential contribution to World Music. Paban Das Baul’s [Facebook page ] album with guitarist Sam Mills called Real Sugar was released in 1997 featuring the heart-wrenching plea to Khoda, Dil ki doya, he became an instant celebrity on the world music circuit. [Ref link]

Traditional Bauls are conspicuous with there saffron or golden yellow robe, rudrakhsha bands,  long beards and  hair tied up in top-knot, the single stringed Ektara, the Dugi, the ghungroo and rustic melodious voice. Some of the musical instruments used by Bauls listed below [Ref link ], are featured on the video.

Musical Instruments used by the Bauls

Image found here

Ektara – A plucked single string drone – fingers and thumb are used.

Khanjani – A tabourine without jangles. [ Remember Dylan’s ‘Hey mister tambourine man……’ ?]

Khamak – A rhythmic instrument with one or two strings attached to the head of a small drum. The strings are plucked with a plectrum and they are alternatively tightened or slackened to generate an amazing array of rhythmic and tonal variations.

Mridanga or Khol – A barrel-shaped clay drum with two heads – sort of a combination of the baya and daina of tabla as described above.

Harmonium – A small keyboard instrument with hand-worked bellows – not unlike accordian. However, these days Harmoniums are replaced by Yamaha PSR i425 Keyboard.

Mandira or Kartal – Small bell-shaped cymbals, usually used in Bhajan/ Kirtans.

Ramchaki – A pair of wooden clappers with jangles.

The lyrics of Baul songs are mystic, often cryptic with deeper spiritual meanings hidden under witty wordings. Unfortunately, because the lyrics are deeply related to simple household terms contextual to rural Bengal, it is difficult to literary translate without distorting the theme.

For example, the song featured on the video “Rattir Belay Bou Amake Baba Bolechhe” literally means’ My wife addressed me as dad at night’ is one of the famous song.

I also have the video of the Piriti Kathaler Aatha ( Love is sticky like jackfruit juice) and ‘Jamai Nangta’ (the naked son-in-law), will upload at the next best opportunity.

I should stop here, before it looks like I am writing an essay on Bauls. Let me just conclude this post by adding some facts which might help updating the general knowledge for those who think Baul Gaan is just another form of folk music  -

1. Baul Gaan is listed under Performing Arts in  UNESCO’s Asia Pacific Database on Intangible Cultural Heritage.

2. Mention of Baul culture is found in texts as old as 15th century.

3. Baul philosophy of Syncretism is a subject of philosophical research. The Baul tradition is a mysterious fusion of elements from Buddhism, Saktism (worshippers of goddess Kali – the source of all energies), Vaisnavism (worshippers of Lord Visnu) and Sufi Islam, may well have its roots in the Tantrik Buddhism of Bengal in the 9th and 10th centuries.

4. Rabindranath Tagore was deeply influenced by Baul. His speeches and writings on baul has been compiled into a Book “The Religion of a Man”. Pous Mela (the traditional Bengal version of the festival of Holi) in Shantiniketan still celebrates the festival the traditional way. His song Amar praner manush Achhe prane was a tribute to his attachment to Baul music and Lalon Fakir.

5. A Baul can perform 3 or more musical instruments (the Ektara, the Dugi, the Khanjani and the ghungroo) simultaneously while singing and dancing. [See video]

6. I have seen Bauls using hitech gadgets like Casio keyboards and electric Ektara with pick-ups and portable speakers, even when performing in Kolkata suburban local trains (Sealdah South), for money.

7. Bob Dylan is probably a Baul in disguise.

Related reads for the interested mind-

Baul – Tagore on Bauls

The Bauls of Bengal

Punadas Baul Academy

Baul- The Folk Music of Bengal

Coneix cap bona gestoria, aquí a l'Índia?

Fa ben bé un mes que em vaig posar en contacte amb la gent de l’ICEX per demanar-los informació per muntar una nova empresa a l’Índia. Encara espero una resposta que no es remeti a les informacions que ja puc trobar de forma pública a la seva web.

Com em temia, el llistat d’assessors legals indis que els vaig demanar per a la ciutat de Chennai (on tenim previst ubicar-nos) encara ha d’arribar… i molt em temo que el més calent és a l’aigüera. És la maledicció de les pimes i dels petits emprenedors: que si no tens un comitè d’empresa i uns sindicats disposats a esbroncar als polítics a la porta del Parlament (o davant del monument de Rafael Casanova, quan toca Diada), poca cosa hi tens a pelar.

I ja sé que l’ICEX no té res a veure amb el departament del conseller Huguet i, per tant, amb les esbroncades al Parlament, però és que l’experiència passada (no pròpia, però sí familiar) amb la gent del Copca tampoc va ser res de l’altre dijous. Admeto que no he donat cap oportunitat a la nova ACC1Ó, però em sembla que, si ho faig, serà en una altra estona, i no pas ara que ens hi juguem els calés i que s’ha d’anar per feina.

Al final, el bou per les banyes i avall, que fa baixada. Mentre uns ens apugen els impostos i s’omplen la boca amb ajuts a l’emprenedor i a la pime (”motor de la nostra economia”, etcètera, etcètera i més etcètera), la pime familiar de tota la vida, que és la nostra, es busca les garrofes a l’Índia gastant-se els calés en els bitllets d’avió, en els visats i en l’hotel. I, ja que som aquí… potser el director general d’aquest hotel, que naturalment és indi, ens podrà fer cinc cèntims, de com muntar una empresa a l’Índia. Potser ens podrà recomanar un assessor. Ras i curt, la gestoria de tota la vida, que no és pas tan complicat. “I a vostè, quina gestoria li porta, l’hotel?” Doncs anem per feina.

Mentrestant, a l’oficina comercial de l’ICEX a Bombai, que fa una setmana que estan avisats de que som a l’Índia, segueixen treballant en un complex i espatarrant informe sobre el complicat món de les gestories de confiança de Chennai. En fi, que si a sobre ens haguessin d’obrir el mercat, aquests cracks, aniríem ben arreglats.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Mahseer Fishing: Grand Finale

Beautiful landscapes, wild Himalayan Golden Mahseer fishing, amazing food and the warmest, friendliest locals: could my trip get any better?  Well my third day was certainly different fishing; I didn’t get a single bite until the very late afternoon, and then I didn’t get a hookset and the fish was making her salaams and heading off back into the Ganges before I knew it.  It was little crushing, but after such an amazing day previously I had little to complain about and remained philosophical about the lost fish; it is not like my dinner or my livelihood depended on the catch, and the delicious prospect of Gajju’s heavenly creations and a giant Habano cigar by the fireside was a great comfort. My ghillie Prahlad on the other hand, who held great pride in his work, was very despondent; I must say the previous day fishing on Byas Ghat his knowledge of the river and the spots holding fish was amazing.  He would wave over to an apparently featureless part in the shallows and say, “Here, sir” and often within two or three casts I would get a bite; sadly we were not in luck today and he explained that the colour of the Ganges had changed (it looked the same to a rank amateur like me) and that it had probably rained somewhere upriver. That evening Gajju didn’t disappoint; the paneer makhani and dum aloo he turned out were quite simply, out of this world.  I smoked my consolation cigar and my spirits remained high as Ramesh regaled me with tales of trout fishing in Kashmir, something that has always been a dream for me, and the wildlife safaris the company runs from their permanent camp near the Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve. 

The following day we set out as per our usual schedule but the session was rapidly proving fruitless.  However, at one stage there was a big splash and Prahlad said he saw a large mahseer jump; this is apparently very rare and at least proof that there fish out there.  With such quiet fishing I became distracted and the rod felt heavier and heavier with each cast.  Some of the local village lads who had gathered started an impromptu game of cricket on the shore: this is, after all, India, the most cricket-mad nation on the planet.  Ramesh and Bobby from our camp joined in and I photographed them from the river.

Having had so much success with spoons the previous day, I neglected to use the other lures I had brought with me: J13 jointed Rapala floating minnow.  The morning was looking to be a fruitless one, so I thought I would try anything.  I asked Prahlad for the firetiger pattern minnow, he changed them and I waded back to my position.  The minnows have a good action but do make for more work than the spoons, and the river current was very strong.  With my second cast, I got a half-hearted bite: my hopes were up again.  Then, as I was reeling in after a couple more casts, I saw a big fish jump.  No less than ten yards away from me, a giant 70 – 80cm mahseer suddenly leapt clean out of the river and back in right before my eyes.  It was not the lazy jump of a mullet as they roll over mid-air to flop onto their backs, nor was it the startled escape response of a baitfish; just a leisurely, graceful bound that reminded me of the way dolphins jump alongside ships or dressage horses leap fences, but the mahseer was completely clean out of the water and headed dead straight upstream, no mean feat for a fish that size in that strong a current.  With that size of fish, her eyes looked very small and the scales on her back very big; and in a trip and narrative full of hyperbole this was really one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

Well with my spirits revived by such a sight I set to fishing again.  I cast pretty much in the same area as I had got the bite, and persevered.   Towards the end of the early am session, I finally got my mahseer: as the lure was a floating minnow, the fish took the bait very close to the surface and from where I was, it sounded like someone dropping a concrete slab flat into the river.  My rod jerked over and then the only noise I could hear was the bzzzz…bzzzz…bzzzzz of the drag as line went flying off my spool; it was very slightly unreal, with the violence of the strike and the speed at which the fish was running downstream.  Before I knew it Prahlad was beside me, adjusting the drag to the strength of the fish by feeling the spool with his fingertip as it kept paying out line.  “This is very big fish sir, maybe 40, 45 pounds, slowly, slowly please”.  For a terrible moment I thought I would be spooled but there was really no point in attempting to reel in, for many minutes:

There was nothing to do but wait, heart racing, until the fish had decided to slow down.  Well she did eventually, and then the fight started in earnest; the new hooks and split rings I re-fitted the minnow would surely be tested, and Prahlad’s knot-tying skill also.  You are as much fighting the very fast current of the river as the mahseer itself, and the fish was really coming to scratch; keeping my rod as upright as possible I was reeling literally, a few inches at a time.  My Japanese braid line was marked every metre, and so just looking at the movement of the line the reeling in seem to last even longer. 

By now a few of the locals who had been loafing by the river came by to watch, as did Arvind and some ghillies from another party of anglers.  But I was rather distracted by the immediate task at hand, and although it appeared I had ridden the storm of the initial run, which is apparently when most mahseer are lost, it was still very hot work.  Oblivious to everything but the fish and Prahlad’s instructions, I kept reeling but the fish decided to run again.  This time she was much weaker and I managed to contain her run to about twenty yards (compared to about a hundred yards of her first).  The reeling was getting easier although still heavy, and only occasionally did the fish put in a burst or two.  Next to come would be the tricky part: landing the beast; always an anxious time during any fishing.  With my polarised glasses on I spotted the fish very early, and the mahseer was a very large specimen; my heart leaped.  Despite being pretty much played out, the mahseer still had a lot of power and we nearly lost her as Prahlad got a hold of my line and was wading in to retrieve her, and she gave one last thrash and a struggle before falling into his clutches.  My beautiful Himalayan Golden Mahseer, a moment I will treasure for life:

The beast was released with a farewell, and there were handshakes, congratulations and smiles all around.  First off of course was to shake hands with Prahlad and thank him profusely, for without him I would never have landed such a fish, and he was beaming ear to ear. Ramesh came down to the riverside from camp to join in the fun and a photo, and the legendary ghillie Surendra also came up to shake my hand.

Compared to the southern varieties of mahseer, apparently it is quite rare to take very large Himalayan golden mahseer, although I was lucky in that it was prime season – just after the monsoon, when the fish have a wild post-spawn hunger - and I was in the best place for miles around, to catch a big one.  One angler called Vijay from our neighbouring fishing party whom I had met the day before, came over to shake hands and congratulate me, and he said that you could come to Byas Ghat for three years and not take a fish like mine.  My head was swelling every minute!  He was a very much older and distinguished gentleman, wading into the Ganges with a walking stick for support, and he said after fishing many parts of the world, including salmon in Alaska and bluewater game, he never found a rush comparable to that of catching a large Himalayan Golden Mahseer and that he came here to fish almost all his life: it turns out he knew Prahlad as a little boy starting out in angling guiding!  We said our goodbyes and headed for camp and for once, my thoughts were not on Gajju’s creations waiting for me at table, but the euphoria of my experience – my hands were still trembling long after the fish was back in the Ganges and everyone had dispersed – and a sense of gratitude and content filled me fuller than any meal would.  At least until lunchtime.

Well words can’t fully express the emotions of that catch, which turned out to be the last of my trip.  I doubt in my angling career back in Japan I will ever match the same feeling, and here in my sitting room in Tokyo smoking a cigar, just casting a glance at the reel with which I caught the fish brings back the memory of the great moment.  My only fear is that one day when I am old and feeble, I become senile and forget my Byas Ghat Golden Mahseer.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Background of the Deccan Liberation Struggle

The Deccan State was ruled by the Nizams. Under them the region which is today called Andhra Pradesh flourished and became rich and prosperous. The last Nizam Usman Ali Khan Asif Jah VII was considered the richest man on earth with a total fortune that was once $225 Billion. Primary education under the Nizams was made compulsory with the total education expenditure being about 9% while peaking at 11% for some years of their rule. They gave the Deccan region the identity it has today by building great forts, palaces, universities and parks. By far the Deccan Nation had the largest Revenue and Treasury in the entire region.

However the dream ended with the partition. In 1948 India illegally invaded the Deccan Nation in an armed action known as Operation Polo brutally massacring Muslim populations as they marched. This is where a very brutal genocide on the Muslims of Hyderabad began as they gave the right to Hindu terrorist organizations such as RSS, VHP, Arya Samaj and Bajrang Dal to slaughter Muslims anywhere. To date estimates vary claiming between 80000-200000 Muslims slaughtered. This widespread slaughter forced many to escape the barbarism to Pakistan while many were reluctant to leave their homes and families. The population of Hyderabad then was over 60% Muslim. However due to the State Sponsored Massacres it fell to about 40% which it is today. It was a sad day for Muslims but even some Hindus and Farsis saw that indeed it was a bad day for the entire region.

However India wasn’t done yet with punishing the Muslims. Anti Muslim riots sponsored by local politicians and the police became a norm where every month a few Muslims were killed.

Today India continues with its policy to punish Muslims out of its hatred for them and for their rule of over a 1000 years. Every Week Muslims within the Deccan Nation disappear. Often later they reappear as “ISI agents” or “LET terrorists” in custody of the police. Otherwise they are just killed rotting in jails. Other innocents are killed as militants in encounters a move the Indian police has learned from Kashmir. Riots have become a norm especially in Hyderabad a city once known for Hindu Muslim Unity. Unfortunately Hindu terrorist organizations have torn this unity to shreds as they murder Muslims with impunity. As a result there is great anger and rage amongst the Muslims of Hyderabad.

Furthermore Muslims still haven’t been given justice for bombings where Hindu terrorists have been involved such as the Mecca Masjid blast where initially Hyderabadi Muslims were picked up and were being framed as ISI sponsered terrorists.

The Deccan region has also been grossly over exploited with North Indian companies dominating the South. North Indians have a racist attitude towards the so called “black mallu chimps” living in the Deccan region. Rich with resources our region has become a place for them to exploit us. What the Nizam owned to generate a profit for this region has now been stolen by them.

However where there is injustice there are also those who stand for the truth and righteous. Deccan Nationalism for the past few years has been growing as a result of Indian brutality. In 2008 againstthe constant injustice suffered by the Deccan people and to tell the world of the pain of the Deccan Nation  and ensure that we gained our freedom from our invaders the Azad Deccan Movement was formed.

Though our movement raises issue of  the rights of Muslims as they are by far the people who have lost most from Operation Polo we do not present ourselves as an Islamic Movement. We also cater to the needs of the Telugu’s who’s culture has been destroyed in much the same way that Islamic culture has been destroyed. India has over 400 languages and many different cultures. India is not a nation state but a country united Hindu terrorism. Using this Hindu terrorism it occupies the lands that originally have belonged to others. We all have a unique culture and Sanskrit and Hindi should not be forced on us. As a result some Telugu Nationalists and intellectuals have also joined the movement.

A Married Woman and a Young Detective

THE MARRIED WOMAN AND THE YOUNG DETECTIVE

Fiction Short Story

By

VIKRAM KARVE

A detective always remembers his first case. Let me tell you about mine.

This happened long back – more than thirty years ago – in the 1970s – when Pune was a salubrious pensioners’ paradise – a cosy laid back friendly town where everybody knew everybody.

And let me tell you – at the time of this story – I was not even a full fledged detective – but I was just a rookie part-time amateur self-styled sleuth – studying in college – skylarking in my spare time as a private detective – masquerading as a Private Investigator for my uncle who ran a private detective agency.

Dear Reader, please remember that way back then, in good old days of the 1970s, there were no cell-phones, no PCs, no mobile cameras, handy cams or digital cameras, no modern technology gadgets, not even things like email and the internet that you take for granted today and the only method of investigation was the tried and tested good old physical surveillance where one spent hours and hours patiently shadowing and tailing your target.

“A woman wants her husband watched,” my uncle said giving me a slip of paper with a name and the room number of a well-known hotel in Pune.

“That’s all?” I asked.

“He is a businessman from Mumbai…drives down to Pune very often…at least once a week…sometimes twice…ostensibly in connection with business…but she suspects there is some hanky-panky going on…”

One week later, waiting for the client to arrive at our planned rendezvous, I sat on the balcony of Café Naaz atop Malabar Hill sipping a cup of delicious Chai and enjoying the breathtaking sunset as the Arabian Sea devoured the orange sun followed by spectacular view of the Queen’s Necklace as the lights lit up Marine Drive.

She arrived on the dot at seven and sat opposite me.

I looked at my client.  She was a Beauty, a real beauty, 35…maybe 40… must have been a stunner in her college days…I tried not to stare at her.

“Okay…Tell me,” she said, getting to the point straightaway.

I started reading from my pocket-book, “Thursday morning at ten fifteen he left his hotel room…deposited key at reception telling them that he was going for work would return in the evening…started to drive down in his car towards Deccan…picked up a female who seemed to be waiting for him…she sat next to him…and as they drove off away from the city into the countryside they seemed to be getting amorous…lovey-dovey, you know, a bit of kissing, cuddling…”

“No…No…skip the details…just tell me…is he or isn’t he…?” she interrupted me.

She seemed to be in a hurry. Maybe she was not comfortable being seen sitting with me over here and wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible.

“I think he is having an affair,” I said.

“You think…?”

“Yes…I am pretty sure…”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Well we look for three things – the three key ingredients which are required to have an affair – TIME, INCLINATION and OPPORTUNITY…”

“Time…Inclination…Opportunity…” she repeated looking quite perplexed.

“Well they certainly had the Time…they spent the whole day together in seclusion…and they certainly had the Opportunity…behind the privacy of closed doors in that lonely discreet motel hidden in the back of beyond…and as far as the Inclination part is concerned…well, the way they were behaving…I have no doubt about it….”

A smile broke out on her face.

I was flabbergasted – now tell me dear reader – what would be your reaction if you came to know that your spouse was having an affair – would you just smile…

Suddenly I remembered what my uncle had told me, so I asked the woman, “Do you wish to increase coverage?”

“Coverage…?”

“Photographs…receipts…documentary evidence…round the clock surveillance…full details….” I elaborated.

Of course all this would be handled in a professional manner by my experienced uncle and his agency…maybe he’d take me along as a learning experience.

“I don’t think so…” the woman said.

“No?” I said perplexed, “but you will require all this as evidence to establish that your husband is committing adultery…”

“Husband…? Who said he is my husband…?” she said grinning like a Cheshire cat.

“You said so…to the head of the detective agency…”

“No, I didn’t….I just told him that I wanted a man followed…”

“But we assumed…”

“A good detective shouldn’t assume things, isn’t it…?

“But then why did you want that man followed…?” I asked curious.

“Well that’s my private matter,” she said, “but since I like you, I’ll tell you…It is like this… One day, fifteen years ago, the day I completed my graduation, my parents showed me two photographs…the first photo was of the man you were following…the second photo was of the man who is now my husband.”

The woman paused for a moment, had a sip of water, and continued, “My parents told me to choose one…and I made my choice…but since then…during all these years of my married life… I was always tormented by the thought that I had made the wrong choice….now…thanks to you… I know I made the right choice!”

She took out an envelope from her purse and gave it to me. “Your fee…and there is a bonus for you too for doing such a good job…” she said and then she got up and walked away into the enveloping darkness.

Later when I opened the envelope and saw that the “bonus” was more than the fee, I wondered whether she had two envelopes in her purse, one for each eventuality.

I never forgot the cardinal lesson I learnt from this case – I never assume anything…and now…before I start a new investigation…the first thing I do is to carry out a background check of the client.

THE MARRIED WOMAN AND THE YOUNG DETECTIVE

Fiction Short Story

By

VIKRAM KARVE

Copyright © Vikram Karve 2009

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.


http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com

vikramkarve@sify.com

Uno de tantos significados

Siempre me han llamado la atención los elefantes, me parecen criaturas hermosas y sentimentales.
Creo que me empezaron verdaderamente a gustar cuando, de pequeña, me regalaron un par de zarcillos muy pequeñitos con forma de elefantes azules. Los mantuve hasta hace un año, cuando se me perdió uno y no tienen idea de lo mucho que lloré por ese minúsculo elefante. Actualmente tengo un pequeño dije de elefante en arte murano que siempre llevo conmigo en una cadena al cuello. En un futuro, que espero no sea lejano, quisiera viajar a Asia y tener a una de estos magníficos seres frente a mi (no me agrada verlos en zoológicos).

Los elefantes tienen un simbolismo bastante positivo, suelen ser referidos como seres que atraen la abundancia y la prosperidad, el éxito y la suerte.

Aquí les dejo una hermosa imagen tomada por el fotógrafo Steven Bloom.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

aren`t we reist too?

i call this racism in Indian  style, check out few facts which i have collected from various magazines like outlook, the week, India today.

  • a madurai sessions court sentences farook batcha to two years` RI in 2008 for harassing his wife so much about being dark that it drove her to suicide.
  • in 2007, IPL authorities allegedly asked two black cheerleaders of the kings XI punjab team to go back home.
  • the information and broadcasting ministry issues a notice to nimbus communications for a resist ad during the 2007 India west indies series.
  • bilyamiu ibrahim, a nigerian student at engineering college in noida, is spat at by one of his Indian senior.
  • in may 2009 a group of Iraqi student was attacked by 150 students in greater noida.
  • the delhi police issued guidelines in 2007 to students from northeast. tips including a strict no to “revealing dresses” and curbing traditional food with alian aroma like”bamboo shoots” which offends neifhbours.
  • in most of the ad films the model is shown with fair complexion, except the rediff new ad
  • dark skinned babies find few takers at adoption agencies.
  • the north esters(from Manipure)  is made to feel  alien in his country

and about the recent attacks on India students,

In 2002 there was just over 11,000 Indian students in Australia, and by 2005 this number had grown to over 27,000

see the graph below,

accourding to the youngsters of australia:

the students from india keep their let it be attitude in the australia also, causing dirt around the places where they life.

ofcource this was not done by each n every person but if some people does so, every one has to suffer. this is seen in every society since years.

ok, after the dirt incidence, the Indian students as per habits keep looking at the girls of Australia causing some girls inconvenience and  their brothers and relatives like ours in India took corresponding actions. including beating n all.

finally the students where so outnumbered the Australian that the native people fail to get admission in their countries colleges causing further unsatisfactory, plus after getting graduates the Indian took job in Australia causing unemployment fro the native people as we know a well educated Indian beats any one in world

and then the youngsters star acting and thus started the rasiste attacks in Australia.

Indus Foundation to get 35 top US Universities to India for research collaborations

For the first time in Indian history, over 30 top American Universities will visit India for research collaborations with Indian institutions and organizations. They will be participating in the Indo-American Education Summit on academic collaborations scheduled to be held during November 2009 in New Delhi (8th), Hyderabad (10th), and Bangalore (13th). The Summit is being organized by New Jersey based Indus Foundation, well established in the USA for over 14 years, having extensive contacts with several accredited American Universities withthe mission togalvanize high-impact collaborations with reputed American Universities.

The Indo-American Education Summit is a unique event which is being held in India for the first time. The Summit will be attended by University Provosts, Deans, and other officers of around 35 American Universities. Several hundred Indian Institutions and Organizations interested in collaborations are expected to participate in the Summit. It is recognized by all that collaborative research programs, graduate and post-graduate programs, twinning / transfer programs, certificate programs, distance education programs, faculty & student exchange programs, study abroad in India programs, and other academic partnerships between Indian Institutions and American Universities are extremely useful in meeting the rapidly growing educational needs in India. The motto of the Foundation is: “Educational Excellence without Borders”.

Some of the World’s leading universities that will be participating in the Summit are Tufts, Case Western, Northeastern, Florida State, Southern Illinois-Carbondale, Clarkson, Concordia (Canada), Drexel, Temple, Oregon, Rochester, Massachusetts-Boston, South Dakota Tech, Wisconsin, and Widener. Their areas for research collaboration cover a wide range including Science, Engineering, Medicine, Biotechnology, Environment, Management, and the Arts. A few of the specific fields for collaboration are: Energy, Sensors, Genomics, Nanotechnology, Supply Chains, Robotics, Biomedical Technology, Aerospace, Information Security, Telecommunications, Tissue Engineering, Environment, Urban Planning, AIDS, Terrorism, Psychology, Journalism, Music and Dance, International Law, etc. (Complete list of fields is available at http://www.indus.org/)

Mr. S.B.Anumolu, President of the Indus Foundation said that global networks have contributed significantly to the success of Silicon Valley, USA. It has been possible for the USA to benefit directly from the information technology boom in India by being connected. He said that the success of India will have to be not only from cheap labor but also from attracting global R&D activities. Recent trends indicate that USA is keen to establish connections with the new powerhouse economy of India — not only in downstream industries but also in upstream science.

Mr. Anumolu felt that an important approach to international collaboration is to invest in world-class research centers of excellence. India has a great opportunity to enter into partnerships with American universities. International research collaboration has entered an era in which networking has a direct economic significance. The Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and a good number of universities and colleges in India that have research programs can take advantage of opportunities for capacity building for research in India in collaboration with visiting American Universities.

Mr. Anumolu pointed out that with several billion dollars in annual research funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, corporate partners, and other Federal and Private Foundations, American universities are major research centers in the world. American universities are interested in working with Indian institutions and organizations to capitalize on opportunities to expand research and scholarship across all intellectual fields. This includes developing new research programs, making strategic investments to seed new research initiatives and assisting in obtaining funding from sponsors. Research collaboration between Indian institutions and American universities will be a “win, win” for all.

Interested participants in the Summit can visit http://www.indus.org/ or call Mr. Ashok at 91-9912881199 or Mr. Srinivas at/ 9908887575.

Mr S B Anumolu, President Indus Foundation

Friday, September 25, 2009

Obama, Sarkozy, Brown e la nuova Risoluzione Onu sul nucleare iraniano

(a cura di A. Terenzi)

Per commentare la minacciosa dichiarazione a tre voci che è stata pronunciata all’Onu contro l’Iran dal presidente americano Obama, dal francese Sarkozy, che ha finalmente riguadagnato la Francia su posizioni filo-israeliane, e dal cancelliere britannico Brown, adeguandosi alle posizioni più oltranziste ostili al Paese mediorientale, crediamo sia assai lucido e coerente il commento che un semplice ma documentato lettore americano ha “postato” sul blog del New York Times del 24 settembre.

John Williford, Richland, Washington, 24 settembre 2009

“(…) Nonostante la richiesta che le potenze nucleari rinuncino allo sviluppo di nuove armi, noi (Stati Uniti) abbiamo:

  1. rifiutato di ratificare il Trattato Generale per il Bando dei Testi nucleari (CTBT), originariamente creato su nostra iniziativa;
  2. ripetutamente il Congresso degli Stati Uniti ha chiesto l’approvazione ed le risorse per sviluppare nuove armi nucleari con capacità di penetrazione in profondità;
  3. abbiamo cercato di sviluppare una generazione interamente nuova di armi nucleari in sostituzione di quelle attualmente adottate.

Una simile dimostrazione di mancanza di considerazione per le restrizioni sui nuovi armamenti nucleari nell’ambito del Trattato di Non Proliferazione Nucleare (NPT) deve essere considerata in modo categorico come una politica sbagliata da rifiutare.

La coerenza nell’applicazione dell’NPT è del resto scarsa, come dimostra il caso del Brasile che è impegnato nell’arricchimento dell’uranio, nei confronti del quale l’AIEA ha meno possibilità di controllo (a causa di vincoli “di proprietà”) di quanto non gli sia permesso nel monitoraggio del programma iraniano di arricchimento dell’uranio.

Le attività dei Paesi non firmatari del Trattato, compreso Israele, sono ignorate, e facciamo finta che un arsenale, detenute da quello Stato, stimato in ben 400 ordigni nucleari non esista.

Passando a due altri Paesi non aderenti al Trattato in Asia, l’amministrazione di George W. Bush ha raggiunto un accordo sul programma nucleare dell’India col quale fornisce a questo Paese tecnologia per produrre combustibile e reattori. Nonostante vi sia nell’insieme un minimo di garanzia complessiva sull’uso civile di questi reattori, è stata assicurata all’India l’immunità per i reattori che producono materiale militare. Un elemento che apre la strada alla produzione di 50 nuove armi atomiche ogni anno.

Nonostante non vi sia un corrispondente accordo di assistenza tecnica con il Pakistan, il programma di produzione di armi fuori-legge si sviluppa qui completamente al di fuori del controllo dell’Agenzia Internazionale per l’Energia Atomica (AIEA).

La differenza di trattamento fra India e Pakistan, che restano entrambe al di fuori dell’NPT insieme ad un pugno di altri Paesi, è un’anomalia che esacerba la tensione fra questi due Paesi, creando le condizioni per una corsa agli armamenti nucleari che si diffonderà in tutta l’Asia Meridionale fino alla Cina.

La lettera e lo spirito del Trattato di non Proliferazione Nucleare risalgono al periodo del presidente Eisenhower, che stabilì il programma Atomi per la Pace. Il Trattato di Non Proliferazione Nucleare è stata la formalizzazione di un accordo mutuo tra Paesi non nucleari e potenze nucleari in base al quale, in cambio della limitazione della crescita delle armi nucleari, si otteneva l’accesso e l’assistenza per lo sviluppo di tecnologia nucleare di pace. Alcune nazioni che hanno cercato di sviluppare armi atomiche (come il Sud Africa) sono state costrette ad interrompere questi sforzi.

L’Iran ha pieno diritto, nell’ambito del Trattato di Non Proliferazione, che ha ratificato, di controllare l’intero ciclo del combustibile per energia nucleare, che include il necessario arricchimento, in percentuali ad una sola cifra (cioè inferiori al 9%). Inoltre, sottoscrivendo il Trattato, l’Iran ha diritto a ricevere assistenza per lo sviluppo di energia nucleare di pace, invece di minacce d’embargo o di bombardamento da parte di uno Stato nucleare fuorilegge che non ha sottoscritto l’NPT come Israele.

Sia la Corea del Nord che gli Stati Uniti hanno mostrato grande abilità nel sapersi muovere al di fuori dei trattati internazionali. Gli Stati Uniti, non adeguandosi all’NPT, hanno inoltre manifestato la volontà di non tenere conto degli obblighi dei trattati ancora in vigore.

L’NPT è in attesa di una revisione periodica nel 2010. L’ultimo incontro internazionale, nel 2005, fu completamente vanificato dall’amministrazione Bush che impedì al gruppo di lavoro persino di stabilire un ordine del giorno.

Abbiamo un’enorme vuoto da colmare ed è il momento di smetterla di minacciare altri Paesi, che sono assai più vicini di noi al rispetto delle regole.”

History beckons India ahead of CT clash versus Pakistan

Centurion: Ravaged by injuries and unsettled by a disappointing build up, India would seek to draw inspiration from history when they clash against arch-rivals Pakistan in their Champions Trophy opener here tomorrow.

Already missing star performers like opener Virender Sehwag and pacer Zaheer Khan, India were dealt another massive blow when middle-order mainstay Yuvraj Singh was forced to return home owing a fractured right-hand finger.

Yuvraj`s absence has left a gaping hole in the Indian line-up and it would be quite a challenge for the young Virat Kohli to step into the dashing left-hander`s shoes.

Apart from the batting and bowling, off-field rumblings have contributed no less to the disquiet in skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni`s ranks.

India`s other batting slots are also far from settled with question marks on the early rustiness of Gautam Gambhir, who was nursing a groin strain before the tournament.

Gambhir did not play in the team`s lone practice match, against New Zealand, which the team lost by a humiliating 103 runs.

Off the field, coach Gary Kirsten`s leaked vision document has both been a matter of whispers and jibes.

His advocacy of sex for better performance from cricketers is already a matter of intense scrutiny and interpretations.

Given how the team performs, this unseemly advice from the coach would continue to return in public domain of discussion.

The slow track at Centurion is not good news for India`s new-ball bowlers of whom RP Singh didn`t look at his best in the warm-up game against New Zealand.

Ishant Sharma is busy receiving advice from his seniors while Ashish Nehra has to step up his performance by a notch or two.

The likes of Dinesh Karthick and Suresh Raina have got a good opportunity to make use of Yuvraj`s absence and make their mark.

Much would be expected of them against Pakistan`s quality attack, which has a lot of variety to offer.

In the fast bowling department, Mohammad Aamer`s seamers are ably complemented by the swing of Navedul Hasan Rana. Umar Gul then lies in wait with his deadly reverse swings.

In spinners Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal, the team has tweakers who have time and again proved their mettle. It remains to be seen whether dope-tainted Mohammad Asif, who completed his one-year ban on September 22, would get a chance in the crucial match.

Pakistan`s batting, bolstered by the confirmation that regular skipper Younus Khan has recovered from a finger injury, too has improved by leaps and bounds.

Pakistan struggled against the rag-tag West Indies on Wednesday but young Umar Akmal takes tons of loads off seniors Shoaib Malik, Misbah-ul-Haq and Younus.

Akmal appears to be a genuine batting star on the rise and could prove to be India`s biggest headache in the match.

India have history on their side though as they have never been beaten by Pakistan in an ICC event.

Dhoni`s propensity to win tosses in key matches could also be critical in the day-night match.

Centurion is the venue where India last beat Pakistan in an ICC event, the 2003 World Cup. Six years on, Pakistan is keen to avenge the loss.

They sure look more settled and determined with players openly voicing a burning desire to put India on mat tomorrow.

They still would have to reckon with a legend called Sachin Tendulkar who has unfailingly come good in critical matches in recent times.

Teams: (From)

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Dinesh Karthik, Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra, Abhishek Nayar, Ashish Nehra, Yusuf Pathan, Suresh Raina, Ishant Sharma, RP Singh.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Official Release of Limited Edition of FAZER, FZ-16 and FZ-S

Yamaha Motor India launches the Limited Edition of their naked bikes FZ-S, FZ-16 and Fazer as FZ-S limited Edition, FZ-16 Limited Edition and Fazer limited Edition.

Commenting on the occasion Mr. Yukimine Tsuji, CEO, Yamaha India Motor Pvt ltd.,  said,  today, Yamaha is offering innovative designs, sporty looks and premium features across models as part of its strategy to give consumers a new thrill in biking. The limited edition of high demand model Fazer & FZ series is in line with this strategy. Also with the festive season round the corner, we expect limited editions to be an instant hit amongst biking enthusiasts”.

Talking about Yamaha’s association with John Abraham as its brand ambassador Mr. Tsuji added, “John is a passionate biker himself and fits the brand Yamaha. We are upbeat about John’s association with Yamaha and confident that it will catapult the concept of biking in India to a new level.”

The main visible change of the new Limited Edition bike is new white shade in combination of black with all new silver finish alloy wheels. These  Available in special paint scheme with white alloys and a dash of blue, only 3000 models of these special editions bikes will be produced. The Special edition FZ-16 is priced at Rs. 66,500, while the FZ-S and the Fazer special edition models are priced Rs. 68,500 and Rs. 73,500, respectively. (Ex-showroom, New Delhi).

View here FZ-S  White Version

View here FZ-16  White Version

View here FAZER  White Version

Fazer Limited Edition

FZ-S Limited Edition

FZ-16 Limited Edition

SOURCE :- Yamaha

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Kaapi Royal Coffee Announces 2010 India Origin Tour

Bangalore (September 24, 2009) – Kaapi Royale Coffee will host coffee professionals on a guided 5-day origin tour to India’s exotic Chikmagalur coffee growing region in Karnataka this January.

Availability is limited to 10 attendees, including 3 seats reserved for winners of the 2009 Kaapi Royale Challenge cup tasting competition held at the Specialty Coffee Association of America conference in Atlanta.

The event begins on Friday, January 8th in Bangalore with a welcome reception at the Bangalore Club, a grand English country club that has been one of India’s finest since being established in 1868. This centuries old institution has hosted numerous distinguished members, including Sir Winston Churchill.

After spending the evening in Bangalore, the trip will commence on Saturday morning with an organized drive Chikmagalur, stopping with tours of scenic coffee farms in the lush valleys of the Bababudangiris region, thought to be the origin of all coffee in India. Saturday evening will be spent at the colonial Kadur Club in Chikmagalur.

On Sunday, January 10th, the tour continues to Magundi in the Chikmagalur region, visiting Kaapi Royale’s award-winning Sethuraman Estate farms, arguably the world’s top grower of fine specialty Robusta coffees. Participants will take a guided walking tour of Sethuraman, nearby Arabica farms and processing facilities at the height of the bustling coffee harvest.

Monday morning will begin with a sunrise breakfast on the farm, followed by the organized cupping of numerous coffees prepared in a range of processing methods from the locations visited in previous days and many other farms from around India. That afternoon, the tour will continue to nearby tea plantations and visit exotic forests with native wildlife.

On Tuesday, January 12th the tour returns to Bangalore, stopping at ancient temples and other historic sightseeing spots, arriving back at the Bangalore Club that evening.

A tour fee of US$995 per individual traveler or US$1,500 per rooming pair includes hotels, meals and ground transportation originating in Bangalore. Reservations for the available seats can be guaranteed with a US$250 nonrefundable deposit; all fees are due on or before December 1, 2009.

To make your reservations or if you have any questions please contact Andrew Hetzel of Cafemakers in Hawaii at +1 (808) 990-8717.

About Kaapi Royale
Kaapi Royale Coffee of Magundi in the Chikmagalur district of Karnataka, India, exports fine Indian Arabica and Robusta coffees worldwide and is the exclusive representative of Sethuraman Estate coffees.

Sethuraman Estate is the three-time winner of “Best Robusta” in the Coffee Board of India’s Flavour of India competition and received the highest-ever rating for a Robusta coffee of 94 points from coffee reviewer Ken Davids of Coffee Review. For more information, visit http://indiancoffee.wordpress.com.

Super-Whopper Champions Trophy Preview: Group A

Group A Preview:

Teams: Pakistan, Australia, India, West Indies.

Pakistan:

Younis Khan (C), Imran Nazir, Kamran Akmal (w),S. Malik,M. Yousuf, Misbah ul Haq, Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi(1C) , Naved ul Hasan, Saeed Ajmal, Umar Gul, Mohammed Aamer, Fawad Alam, Iftikhar Anjum, Mohammed Asif,

Batting: 8/10

That Pakistan has been a mercurial team for as long as mankind has existed blah blah blah is a known fact.  They have the potential to be absolutely explosive (9) or downright atrocious (6). I’ve taken a safe bet at 8.

Opening with the ever-dangerous Akmal will probably be Imran Nazir, who’s average of 24 doesn’t reflect his potential.  A talented player , especially off the backfoot, he might find the pitches of SA to his liking, especially if Pakistan bats first. The calm presence of Malik, Younis Khan (though it’s unlikely in the first game), the very very dangerous YOusuf, and bear-hunters Afridi and Misbah rounds up a tremendous array of strokeplayers,making a case of the best around. Most of them (except Afridi) have the capability to play according to the situation. Yousuf , Misbah and Afridi are definitely amongst the most dangerous trio of finishers in world cricket.   As with all great Pak teams in the past – there is a streak of unpredictability that runs through the team. A consistant Younis Khan could be the key to keep that in check

Bowling: 7.5/10

I know, I know.  It just doesn’t seem right does it? Bear with me fans. The somewhat lower rating is simply due to 2 reasons:
There are no 2 -3 names that stand out from the awe-inspiring attack of the past.

I like Umar Gul. From a steady line-and-length bowler, he has evolved into a dangerous wicket-taker, and sometimes unplayable at the death.  If we go by pure talent, Asif would be a perfect opening bowler to partner him, but questions retain on his form for now.

Ajmal will be the key here. In his short spell at the big stage, he has proven that he has what it takes to succeed. The doosra stands out amongst his delicious and subtle variations. He has the key to flourish , and flourish big time.As strange as it sounds, Afridi is someone I fear more as an opposition in the bowling department than in the batting.
It’s the 5th and 6th option that seem slightly suspect. Iftikar Anjum’s back from the long layoff. It could otherwise be Aamer. It remains to be seen which line up the Paks settle for.

Keep an Eye on: Fawad Alam.

I was really tempted to pick Ajmal, but I am going to take a shot in the dark and say Fawad Alam. The young all-rounder has the genes and the skills to go with it. Should he find a place in a very crowded final XI, the champion’s trophy could just be his coming out party.


West Indies

FL Reifer (C), DJG Sammy, DE Bernard, TL Best, RT Crandon, TM Dowlin, ADS Fletcher, KR McClean, NO Miller, KOA Powell, DM Richards, KAJ Roach, DS Smith, GC Tonge, CAK Walton(W).

Batting : 4/10

I admit it. I don’t have much of a clue of most of their players, and it hurts me to rank the old world entertainers so low.  But for the sake of consistency and guessing I’m doing so.

Without the likes of Gayle, Bravo,Smith, Chanderpaul, Sarwan, all of whom definitely had the potential to creep up on a few teams, this line up however is going to go ahead and do what it’s supposed to do : SUCK.
Bernard , Richards , Devon smith, Fletcher have the ardous task of facing the opposition bowling for 50 overs, and putting up a big score.  The captain, Reifer , hasn’t shown any kind of form so far, and neither has Dowlin.  The best bet lies in Richards and Fletcher putting up a good partnership at the get go, and a couple of lower order batsmen pushing up the scores.

Bowling: 5/10

Though in a similar situation, I am giving the bowling 1 mark more simply because of this silly belief I have – you can have athletes as fast bowlers and somewhat manage. Adding fuel to my pathetic fire is the fact that  Tonge, Sammy, Best and Bernard didn’t do all that badly in the warm up games. The lack of a good spinner sticks out like a sore thumb, and Gayle’s fastish off spinners could have been a boon from the god’s above.
Keep an Eye on: Fletcher

As incredibly tough it was for me to right the above paragraphs, this one’s even tougher. I’m going to go with Fletcher on this. I’ve seen him play a couple of times, and I think there’s a fire waiting to be lit. I’d expect 1 impressive innings from him  ( 50+ score) in one of the games , when the others tumble around like Jacks and Jills.

Bonus Fact: There’s a player in their squad called Nikita Miller.  Now before you perverts get your hopes up , it’s a dude.

Australia

Ponting, Clarke, Bracken, Hauritz, Hilfenhaus, Ferguson, James Hopes, M Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Siddle, Haddin, Shane Watson, Tim Paine, Adam Voges, Cameron White, Brad Haddin

Batting: 8.5/10

Outside of a select band of few (Hussey, white etc) , this Aussie squad seems to have players that I just love to hate for some reason. However, take nothing away from their production, it’s simply top class.

Conventional reason tells us that they are the favourites for the cup, but a 6-1 whitewash of a pitiful English team shouldn’t be the only reason why we should all get down on our knees in front of them.

The Batting line up is pretty consistant : Watson and Paine have been opening the innings. While the talented Mr. Watson has yet to reproduce his awesome IPL 1 form in any other place in the game, Paine has really brought on the PAIN of late. Hoping to take on Gilly’s mantle, he has done well in the England series, and it remains to be seen how he does with  opposition not named England.

Ponting and Clarke form what must be the most homosexual pair on this side of the Batman-Robin realm, but there’s no doubting their incredible skills in batting.  Include Mr. Hussey in there (one of my favs) to shore up or finish.  The hitters come in the form of Cam White, Hopes, and even Johnson.

The 8.5 has been given to them not because of the explosiveness, but simply because of the length of the batting line up and consistency. Johnson is a very underrated batsman, and even Lee and Hauritz  can be counted on to contribute 10-20 crucial runs.
Bowling: 7.5/10

Australia’s bowling situation in many ways is very similar to Pakistan’s. They’ve got a couple of very good pacers  in Lee and Johnson. Bracken can be expected to be his miserly self. There’s only 1 proven spinner in the line up in Hauritz, and he’s an underrated one. Then, Australia has an assortment of bowlers to choose from to comfortably finish their 50 over quota from Watson, White, Siddle, Clarke and Hopes.  Again, the slightly higher rating is because of 2 reasons:
1. Though individually some of them might not be of the same quality of someone from , say Pakistan for example, the bowling line up too runs deep.
2. Australia have proven to be the top dog. Even though other teams are catching up, till it’s proven, I give them the benefit of doubt of reloading and performing .


Keep an Eye on:Cam White.

With a good showing in the England series, and some leg-spin to provide variety, White could be what the doctor ordered to substitute the big hitting skills of symonds.
India

Dhoni (W/C), Gambhir, Sachin, Dravid, Yuvraj, Suresh Raina, Ishant Sharma, RP singh, Nehra, Harbhajan, Karthik,Yousaf Pathan, Amit Mishra, Praveen Kumar, Nayar

Batting: 8.5/10

As ridiculously talented as the batting order looks no matter how you play it, India has had similar batting line up resembling the pinnacle of Awesomeness before, before amounting to much ado over nothing.

With the absence of Sehwag (a big , big loss, DESPITE his meek ODI record), Sachin and Gambhir open the batting.  I am just a mere human to write much about Sachin. While there is the common argument about him not performing on the really big stage, or not being the Sachin of old, the truth is that he has matured into a consistent contributor at the top, to a situation where a 35-50 score can be considered a failure for him. Something tells me that he wants to go out with a bang in 2011, and the stage for that starts with every series from here on. Gambhir is what I’d call not an over-achiever. A very good player of spin, especially, he might have been a perfect middle order bat in another day and era. Dravid shores up the No. 3 position . He hasn’t displayed anything yet of late to prove that he’s back at his best, but he hasn’t done anything to warrant a boot either. Yuvraj is the clear and present danger at 4. Raina was the toast of India (along with Rohit Sharma) after IPL 2 till he got brutally exposed against the short ball. Pathan, much like Watson can be stunningly dangerous, but has yet to consistently display his T20 form in the the 50 over format.

Rounding things off is Dhoni – who juggles himself up and down the order to his heart’s content. While it may be argued that Yuvraj and Raina might be a better fit than him at No.4 for making more of opportunities, Dhoni can still be expected to come in at No.4. Moreover,  I am really not going to argue against an average of 50.14, and a jaw-dropping 88+ when he comes in at No.4!! It can be safe to say that he might not be as explosive, but he certainly doesn’t give away his wicket easily.

The worry is that I always get the feeling before any such crucial tournaments that the key middle order players such as Yuvraj, Raina and Y.Pathan hardly get much of a bat or rhythm before the good games.
Bowling : 7/10

Zaheer Khan could have single handled added more bite and consistency to the bowling. Without his presence , what looms is an exhausted Ishant Sharma, an inconsistent Praveen Kumar, and RP singh, and Ashish Nehra.

RP on his day can be fairly handful, as can Nehra too. The thing with Nehra is that he’s injury prone. I mean not just regular shit, but he’s more prone to injury than a one legged blind nude man walking on glacier in Antartica trying not to slip or catch a cold.

Bhajji can be expected to be the only main spin option to feature in the XI, unless India surprise by including Mishra in, giving them a decent leggie threat. But with Bhajji, it’s all binary. On his day , he can be all charged up and bowl a great spell , while on others, he’s just terrible , absolutely horrific to watch, making matters worse with his pout.

Another tendency India has shown of late is their fetish to get smothered at the death overs. The main culprit of this is the lack of an experienced bowler such as Zaheer who can effectively use the old bowl. The other is trying out options such as Bhajji who tries to get too cute and bowls a shocking number of wides down the leg side in an attempt to cramp or york the batsmen.

In Y. Pathan, Yuvi, Raina, Sachin (and Sehwag when he was around), India had the option of some fairly decent part timers, but somehow, I feel that they haven’t been properly utilized. Sachin of course isn’t the same with the ball as he was before, but I feel Yuvi and Raina have to be pushed a lot more into taking their bowling seriously and used accordingly. Pathan can be an effective option to try something different at the beginning (t20 exp). As is Raina , with his unique, stop-before-drop action.

In all, till they show us something, I think 7/10 is a fair rating.


Keep an Eye on: Nehra.

Though there are a bunch of batsmen to choose from, I’m going to go with Nehra. He has done it in South Africa in the past, and though he’s not the same threat as he was before, he still can surprise. If fit, and if selected in the final XI (both are big IFs), expect him to be the 2 for 40 odd kind of guy in the games.

सूचना का अधिकार अौर NGO :: एक विश्लेषण

(यह लेख उन लोगों के लिये है जो कि सूचना के अधिकार तथा ब्युरोक्रेटिक एकाउंटेबिलिटी के लिये गंभीर हैं।   यदि अाप इस श्रेणी में अाते हैं तो इसे पढ़े अन्यथा इसे कतई ही ना पढ़ें अौर मुझे क्षमा करने की कृपा करें।)

मेरा निवेदन है कि विभिन्न व्यक्तिगत अौर संस्थागत अाग्रहों को परे रख कर इस लेख को समझने का तथा परिष्कृत करने का प्रयास किया जाये, ताकि अभी भी जो सम्भावनायें शेष हैं उनको सहेज कर इस कानून को मजबूत किया जाये।   यह लेख उत्तरी भारत के बड़ी जनसंख्या वाले हिन्दी भाषी प्रदेशों के ऊपर अाधारित है।  RTI  का कानून एक अवसर था जिससे कि भारत की अाम जनता के हाथ में कुछ ठोस ताकत पहुंच सकती थी फिर धीरे-धीरे कालान्तर में एक बड़ा वास्तविक जनान्दोलन सरकारों की अाम जनता के प्रति जवाबदेही सुनिश्चित करने की दिशा में खड़ा किया जा सकता था।   कारण जो भी रहा हो किंतु कांग्रेस की सरकार ने सूचना का अधिकार कानून लागू किया।  यदि कानून को ध्यान से देखा जाये तो यही लगता है कि कानून को दिखावटी रूप में नहीं बनाया गया।  यह कानून भारतीय संविधान के उन चंद कानूनों मे से एक था जिनसे भारत में लोकतंत्र के मूल्यों की संभावना बनती दिखती थी।   भारत में राजनीति दलों अौर अफसरशाही ने कभी खुद को अाम जानता के प्रति जिम्मेदार नही माना  उल्टे जनता को अपना गुलाम मानते अा रहे हैं।    इसलिये कांग्रेस पार्टी इस कानून के लिये धन्यवाद की पात्र है।   यह कानून अाम अादमी के लिये उसकी अपनी जरुरतों के लिये बना था।  मुझे अाज तक समझ नही अाया कि इस कानून को भारत की वास्तविक अाजादी के रुप में क्यों देखा जाने लगा?   यह एक ऐसा कानून है जो कि अाम अादमी की प्रताड़ना कुछ कम कर सकने में मदद कर सकता है, इससे अधिक अपेक्षा इस कानून से नहीं की जा सकती है।   अाम अादमी को सरकारी कार्यालायों में जाकर धक्के खाने की, अपमान झेलने की तथा बार-बार चक्कर लगाने जैसी प्रताड़नाअों से कुछ अाराम इस कानून से मिल सकता है।   यह कानून कोई बहुत बड़ा या बहुत मजबूत कानून नही है जो कि व्यवस्था को ही बदल डालने की हिम्मत रखता हो।   व्यवस्था तो तब बदलती है जब अाम समाज उठ खड़ा होता है बदलाव के लिये वह भी स्वतः स्फूर्ति के साथ।

मेरा मानना है कि सिर्फ कानून बनाने से सामाजिक परिवर्तन नहीं हुअा करते क्योकि जो सत्ता कानून बनाती है वही सत्ता अपने हितों के लिये कानून को बदल भी सकती है।   चूंकि भारत के सामाजिक क्षेत्र में वास्तविक जनशक्ति रखने वाले लोग नहीं हैं इसलिये दिन प्रतिदिन अफसरशाही व सत्ता तंत्र अौर अधिक गैर जवाबदेह तथा बेलगाम होते जा रहे हैं।    मैं उन अगंभीर अौर सतही लोगों की बात नहीं कर रहा जो कि फंड/ ग्रांट्स के दम पर धरना प्रदर्शन करने के लिये कुछ लोगों की भीड़ जमा करके मीडिया में बने रहने या सामाजिक ग्लैमर का भोग करने के लिये किसी ना किसी मुद्दे की खोज में लगे रहते हैं अौर हल्ला गुल्ला करते रहते हैं अौर खुद को जनशक्ति के रूप में प्रदर्शित करने के भ्रम को बनाये रखने में लगे रहते हैं।   तो यदि इन लोगों के द्वारा बनाये भ्रम से अलग होकर देखा जाये तो एक अति भयावह बात साफ मालूम देती है कि भारत में वास्तविक जमीनी अौर दूरदर्शी स्वतः स्फूर्त जनान्दोलनों का अभाव है जो कि पूरी व्यवस्था को बदलने के लिये उत्पन्न हुये हों।     अाजादी के बाद से साल दर साल भारतीय अाम अादमी अौर अाम समाज अौर कमजोर ही हुअा है अौर भारतीय व्यवस्था तंत्र अौर अधिक अमानवीय, असामाजिक तथा गैर जवाबदेह ही होता जा रहा है।   ऐसी कमजोर हालत में  RTI जैसे कानून को जिस गंभीरता अौर दूरदर्शिता से संभालते अौर मजबूत करते जाने की अहम जरूरत थी,  जिससे कि समय के साथ साथ धीरे धीरे इसी कानून से अौर भी बड़े तरीके विकसित करके सत्ता तंत्रों को अाम समाज के प्रति जिम्मेदार बनने को विवश करके लोकतंत्र अौर स्वतंत्रता के मूल्यों को संविधान के पन्नों में छापते रहने की बजाय यथार्थ जमीनी धरातल में जीवंत उतार कर ले अाया जाता।    यदि अफसरशाही सूचना का अधिकार कानून को हतोत्साहित करती है तो यह कोई बड़ी बात नही क्योकि अाजादी के बाद से ही अफसरशाही ने जरुरत से अधिक अधिकार पाये अौर खुद को अाम जनता का मालिक माना अौर जनता को गुलाम, तो यदि अाज अाम जनता उनसे कुछ पूछे तो यह बात अफसरशाही को कैसे बर्दाश्त होगी।   यदि नेता व अफसर लोग इस कानून को नुकसान पहुंचाते हैं या हतोत्साहित करते हैं तो यह कोई अचरज वाली बात नहीं क्योकि अाम जनता को मजबूत ना होने देना अौर खुद को अाम जनता का मालिक बनाये रखने के लिये हथकंडे अपनाना तो इन लोगों के मूल चरित्र में है।   हमको तो यह देखना है कि हमारे बीच से  कोई क्षति तो नही हो रही है इस कानून को।   चार वर्ष का समय पर्याप्त समयावधि होती है,   इसलिये यह मूल्यांकन करने की जरुरत है कि पिछले चार सालों में इस कानून के नाम पर क्या हुअा !!    RTI जो कि एक सहज प्रक्रिया होनी चाहिये थी, धीरे-धीरे कठिन प्रक्रिया होती जा रही है।  क्यों होती जा रही हैं, अाईये कुछ इन कारणों को भी समझने का प्रयास करें।

भारत में कुछ ऐसे बड़े सामाजिक लोग हैं  जिन्होनें RTI के नाम पर लाखों-करोड़ों रुपये प्रति वर्ष पाये हैं अौर अभी भी पा रहे हैं साथ ही मीडिया के ग्लैमर का मजा लगातार लेते अा रहे हैं, विदेश घूम फिर रहे हैं।  कुल जमा योग यह कि इन लोगों ने हर प्रकार का सहयोग प्राप्त किया।  तो इन लोगों से इतनी सामाजिक इमानदारी की अपेक्षा तो की ही जा सकती है कि वे लोग अपने भीतर झांक के देखें कि वास्तव में उन्होनें RTI को मजबूत किया है या कमजोर।     वास्तव में सूचना के अधिकार कानून को पूरा खिलने के पहले ही इन प्रतिष्ठित सामाजिक लोगों ने बेजान बना दिया है, ये वही लोग हैं जिन्होने अपने अापको भारत के सामाजिक क्षेत्र में मसीहाअों के रूप में स्थापित कर रखा है।   ये लोग कितना भी हल्ला मचायें अौर सरकार को गलियायें किन्तु इस सच को झुठलाया नहीं जाया सकता कि कांग्रेस ने RTI का कानून लागू करने की इच्छा शक्ति दिखायी थी।    समय के साथ RTI कानून की दुर्गति से यह अंदाजा तो लग ही गया है कि करोड़ों रुपये हर साल का फंड पाने वाले अौर ऐनकेन प्रकारेण मीडिया की सुर्खियों में बने रहने वाले इन सामाजिक  मसीहाअों की वास्तविक समझ कितनी है।   मैं अमूमन इन लोगों को भारतीय सामाजिक क्षेत्र का कारपोरेट कहता हूं।
RTI के विकास के नाम पर तो इनमें से कुछ ने तो अपनी संस्थाअों को बाकायदा प्रोफेशनल कंपनियों की तरह चला रखा है, करोड़ों रुपये का प्रपोजल बनाते हैं RTI में काम करने के लिये,  वेतनभोगी कर्मचारी रखते हैं जो कि RTI लगाते हैं अौर तंख्वाह पाते हैं, इन वेतनभोगी लोगों के बाकायदा स्थानांतरण होते हैं।   इन लोगों से अाप पूछें RTI के बारे में तो इतनी रिपोर्टें अापको बता देंगें कि अापको ऐसा प्रतीत होने लगता है कि जहां भी ये लोग काम कर रहे हैं वहां पर सब कुछ RTI मय हो गया है अौर स्वराज की स्थापना हो गयी है।    यह लोग अापको बतायेंगें कि कैसे इन लोगों ने RTI लगाकर अौर दबाव बनाकर गरीबी की रेखा के नीचे वाले कार्ड बनवा दिये, कैसे पासपोर्ट बनवा दिया, कैसे भ्रष्टाचार बिलकुल खतम करवा दिया, इसी तरह के अौर भी बातें अापको बतायेगें।

इन लोगों को 3000-15000 रुपया महीना या अौर भी अधिक तन्ख्वाह मिलती है RTI के काम के लिये,  पेपर, लिफाफा तथा डाक टिकट का खर्चा बिल दिखाने पर अलग से मिलता है।  भारत की बहुसंख्य जनता के अधिकतर काम  100 से 500 रुपये की घूस रूपी सुविधाशुल्क देने से बन जातें हैं,  एक पासपोर्ट 1000 से 3000 रुपये की घूस से बन जाता है।    यदि विभिन्न प्रकार के कामों की अौसत घूस  300  रुपये भी मान ली जाये, तो प्रश्न यह खड़ा होता है कि क्या 3000 महीना पाने वाला हर महीना 10 काम करवा देता है RTI लगा कर या 15000 पाने वाला हर महीना 50 काम करवा देता है?   यदि मान लिया जाये कि करवा भी देते हैं तब भी बात वही हुयी कि  काम करवाने में सुविधा-खर्चा उतना ही अाया अौर सुविधा खर्च अपरोक्ष रुप से देना ही पड़ा, क्योकि बाकी खर्चे जैसे पेपर, पेन, लिफाफा, डाकटिकट इत्यादि किस्म के मामूली खर्चे या तो अावेदक झेलता है या बिल लगाने पर अलग से पेमेँट होता है RTI के काम के लिये नियुक्त वेतनभोगी व्यक्ति को।    प्रश्न यह भी खड़ा होता है कि हर महीने इतने गरीब अावेदक क्या सच में ही लाइन लगा कर इन लोगों के पास अाते हैं?  RTI के कानून के अाधार पर एक महीना से दो महीना तक विभिन्न चरणों में लगता है उत्तर पाने में, समस्या का हल कब होगा या नहीं होगा या कैसे होगा यह बात निश्चित नहीं, जबकि घूस देने से तो काम होने की गारंटी रहती है।    प्रश्न यह भी खड़ा होता है क्या RTI का कानून NGOs में रोजगार पैदा करने के लिये बनाया गया था या अाम अादमी को मजबूत करने के लिये बनाया गया था?      लाखों-करोड़ों रुपये का फंड मिलता रहे इसलिये समय समय पर कोई भी छोटा या बड़ा मुद्दा बना कर धरना प्रदर्शन करना या सेमिनार जैसा कुछ कर देना या प्रेस कान्फेरेन्स कर देना जैसा कुछ करके दिखाते रहते हैं जिससे कि यह लगता रहे कि RTI कानून को मजबूत करने के लिये संघर्ष जारी है, अब चूंकि वेतनभोगी लोगों को वेतन इन्ही बड़े सामाजिक लोगों के ही जुगाड़ों से मिलता है इसलिये कोई अाये या ना अाये किंतु वेतनभोगी लोग अौर भविष्य में वेतनभोगी बनने की लालसा वाले लोग तो जरूर ही पहूंच जाते हैं।    तो इस तरह के तरीकों से बड़े फंड का जुगाड़ भले ही बनता हो, कुछ पुरस्कारों का जुगाड़ बन जाता हो, मीडिया के ग्लैमर का भी अानंद लिया जा सकता हो, किंतु जमीनी यथार्थ में तो अाम अादमी अौर सुचना का अधिकार दोनों ही अौर कमजोर होते जाते हैं।

अब कुछ जीवंत उदाहरणों को भी समझने का प्रयास किया जाये।   उत्तर प्रदेश के एक बड़े सामाजिक सेलेब्रिटी  जिनको कि RTI के कामों का बड़ा पुरोधा माना जाता है अौर इनको अमेरिका के भारतीय मूल के लोगों से करोड़ों रुपये का फंड RTI के कामों के लिये दिया जा रहा है। यह महोदय RTI के लिये इतने प्रतिष्ठित हैं कि जिसके उपर हाथ रख देते हैं उसको RTI का विशेषज्ञ मान लिया जाता है, जिसको कह देते हैं उसको खराब अौर भ्रष्ट मान लिया जाता है।  इन्ही सेलेब्रिटी महोदय के कुछ मुख्य कार्यकर्ता लोगों ने ग्राम स्तर के तथा ब्लाक स्तर के जन प्रतिनिधियों से इस बात पर पैसे लेने शुरु किये कि ये लोग उन लोगों पर RTI नही लगायेगें।    इन सामाजिक सेलीब्रिटी महोदय ने खुद की सूडो इमानदारी व सूडो पारदर्शिता दिखाते हुये खुद अपने ही कार्यकर्ताअों के उपर खुद ही लेख लिख कर पाकसाफ साबित करने का प्रयास किया, लेख भी कुछ इस प्रकार की शैली से लिखे गये कि लेख पढ़ने से ऐसा लगता है कि जैसे इन सेलेब्रिटी महोदय का कार्यकर्ताअों से कोई संबंध नही है बल्कि इनकी खोजी पत्रकारिता की देन है।   इन्ही सेलिब्रिटी महोदय ने अपने एक चहेते कार्यकर्ता को एक बड़े जिले में RTI के काम करने वाले के रूप में कैसे स्थापित किया इसको भी देखा जाये,  इन महोदय नें उस जिले में खूब प्रेस कान्फरेन्सेस की ंअौर अपने चहेते को मीडिया में स्थापित किया, एक छोटे से धरने को कोरिया देश के एक अखबार में छपवाया, ताकि क्षेत्रीय प्रशासन अौर अाम अादमी को लगे कि इनके चहेते जी बहुत बड़े अादमी हैं इसलिये यदि वह RTI लगायें तो डरा जाये अौर RTI का जवाब दिया जाये।  कुछ लोगों को RTI के कामों के लिये वेतनभोगी कर्मचारी भी बनाया गया, जिनका कि प्रयोग धरना प्रदर्शन अौर प्रेस कान्फेरेन्सेस अादि करने में किया जाता है।    हो सकता हो इस प्रकार की चोचले बाजियों से फंड का जुगाड़ या खुद को महापुरुष सिद्ध करके पुरस्कारों की लॅाबिंग का जुगाड़ बनता हो, किंतु अाम अादमी अौर अाम समाज को मजबूत नही हो पाता।  क्योकि अाम अादमी के पास कोई तंख्वाह नही होती, कोई सेलेब्रिटी पीछे नहीं होता, कोई रिश्तेदार विदेश नहीं में रहता जिससे कि छोटी बात को बहुत बड़ी बात बना कर किसी विदेशी अखबार में छपवाया जा सके।   यही कारण है कि इतने विश्वास, इतने संसाधन, धन तथा मानवीय संसाधनों का प्रयोग करने के बावजूद ये लोग RTI को अाम अादमी के लिये मजबूत क्यों नही कर पाये।      इन्हीं महोदय के एक अौर चहेते कार्यकर्ता हैं जिनका कि लगभग दो साल पहले मुझसे यह कहना था वह भी बहुत अाक्रामक बहस के रूप में कि उन्होनें RTI लगाकर वाराणसी को अादर्श जिला बना दिया है।    लगभग दो साल पहले उनका दावा था कि अब वाराणसी में स्वराज अा चुका है अौर यह उनकी मेहनत के कारण हुअा है।   बहुत ही अासानी से समझा जा सकता है कि यह बात किसी अाम अादमी के मुंह से नही निकल रही थी बल्कि एक चतुर व मंझे हुये NGO अौर फंड के तंत्र के खिलाड़ी के मुंह से निकल रही थी, इन सज्जन के लिये जमीनी यथार्थ महत्वपूर्ण नहीं था बल्कि इनके द्वारा खर्च किये जाने वाले लाखों करोड़ों रुपये सालाना  के फंड का जस्टीफिकेशन अधिक महत्वपूर्ण था।    सुनते हैं कि इनको RTI के लिये मिलने वाले पुरस्कारों के लिये इनके फंडरों द्वारा इनका नाम अागे बड़ाया जा रहा है।    ये तो कुछ उदाहरण हैं, ऐसे उदाहरणों से देश भरा पड़ा हुअा है।

इन सब बातों से RTI कमजोर हुअा है अौर वे लोग बहुत हतोत्साहित हुये हैं जिन्होनें RTI को पैसे कमाने या मीडिया के ग्लैमर का मजा लेने या फंड का जुगाड़ नहीं माना अौर एक अाम अादमी की हैसियत से RTI को मजबूत करने का प्रयास करते अा रहे हैं।

NGO जगत के बड़े प्रोफेशनल लोगों तथा इनके वेतनभोगी लोगों के कारण RTI कानून कैसे कमजोर होता जा रहा है, अाईये इस पर चर्चा किया जाये।    इन लोगों के कारण सूचना का अधिकार एक बड़ा हव्वा बन गया है, अाम अादमी सोचने लगा है कि सूचना का अधिकार लगाने के लिये धरना करना, प्रदर्शन करना, प्रेस कान्फेरेन्स करना या किसी बड़े अादमी का बैकअप होना बहुत जरूरी है।  जिन लोगों को तन्ख्वाहें मिलती हैं तथा मीडिया का ग्लैमर का भोग लगाने को मिलता हो, वे लोग यह क्यों चाहेगे कि सूचना का अधिकार कानून अाम अादमी के लिये सहज उपलब्ध हो जाये।   चूंकि पिछले चार सालों में अधिकतर अावेदन इन जैसे वेतनभोगी व सामाजिक प्रोफेशनल लोगों के द्वारा ही दिये गये हैं इसलिये यह मानकर कि सभी लोग RTI के विशेषज्ञ हो चुके हैं, फार्म भरने जैसे नियम बनाकर या अावेदन फीस बढ़ाने का काम सरकारी विभागों द्रारा किया जा रहा है।   भारत की जनसंख्या का बहुत बड़ा भाग ऐसा है जो कि लिखना पढ़ना नही जानता है तो फार्म भरने की बात सुनकर ही कांपने लगते हैं, फार्म भरने की प्रक्रिया होने से अधिकारियों को बैठे बिठाये अावेदन को निरस्त करने का अधिकार मिल जाता है क्योकि फार्म सही तरीके से नही भरा गया।  कुछ राज्य सरकारें सूचना के अधिकार को कमजोर करना चाहती हैं तो फिर हो हल्ला मचाया जाता है, किंतु क्या कभी इन अति प्रतिष्ठित सामाजिक सेलेब्रिटियों द्वारा खुद का अोढ़ी हुयी सूडो ईमानदारी से ऊपर ऊठ कर मूल्यांकन किया जाता है कि इस कानून को कमजोर करने में उनका अपना खुद का कितना हाथ है?

लेख के अंत में एक गंभीर घटना का उल्लेख करना चाहता हूं।   तकरीबन 3 साल पहले मुझे IIT Bombay में कुछ अधिक पढ़े लिखे लोगों ने इस बात पर RTI पर शैलेष गांधी जी के सेमिनार में घुसने से रोक दिया था क्योकि मेरा यह कहना था कि सूचना का अधिकार एक सहयोगी अौर अपूर्ण कानून है, बाद में इस शर्त में घुसने दिया था कि यदि शैलेष जी कहेंगे तो भी मैं कुछ नहीं बोलुंगा बाकी लोगों को सक्रिय भागीदारी करनी थी किंतु मुझे केवल सुनना था।   शैलेष जी ने अपनी बात की शुरुअात ही इस बात से की थी कि भारत के लोगों को अाजादी के समय स्वराज नहीं मिला था किंतु इस कानून के अाने से हमें स्वराज मिल गया है अौर हम सभी को स्वराज का अानंद लेना चाहिये।   मैं पूरे सेमिनार में कुछ नहीं बोला था किंतु मैं उनकी स्वराज वाली बात से सहमत नहीं था।   अाज वही शैलेष जी जो कि RTI कानून को स्वराज का अाना कहते थे, अाज खुद सूचना अायोग के सर्वोच्च पदों में से अासीन है, तो अाज मैं उनसे पूछना चाहुंगा कि क्या सच में ही RTI कानून बनने से अाम समाज स्वराज का भोग कर रहा है?   यदि शैलेष जी कहेंगें कि अाम अादमी स्वराज का अानंद ले रहा है, तो मैं यह समझूंगा कि उनको भारतीय अाम अादमी कि जमीनी हकीकत की ठोस जानकारी नहीं है, हो सकता है कि शैलेष जी को स्वराज मिल चुका हो किंतु असली भारत तो अभी भी असली अाजादी की बाट जोह रहा है जो कि दिन प्रतिदिन अौर भी दूर होती जा रही है।

भारत की जनसंख्या के बहुत बड़े भाग ने Internet के प्रयोग की बात तो दूर कभी Computer नहीं देखा है।  जो बहुत छोटा भाग Internet का प्रयोग भी करता है उसका भी बहुत ही छोटा भाग ऐसा है जो कि Internet में क्रान्तिकारिता की बात करता है, इनमें से भी अधिकतर लोग वे हैं जो कि ऊंचे वेतन देने वाली बहुराष्ट्रीय कंपनियों में नौकरी करते हैं।  तो इस अानलाईन क्रान्तिकारिता में कितनी ठोस व यथार्थ दम हो सकता है असली भारत के सामाजिक परिवर्तन के लिये इसका अांकलन सहजता से किया जा सकता है। इस बिंदु को समाप्त करने के पहले यह भी बताना चाहता हूं कि मुझे कोई ताज्जुब नही हुअा था कि सूचना के अधिकार के सेमिनार में एक अादमी को बोलने से मना किया गया था, किंतु यह अनुमान जरुर ही हो गया था कि भारतीय समाज का ऊंची डिग्री धारी अौर MNC में नौकरी करने वाला युवा वर्ग यही सोचता है कि समाज को समझना व सामाजिक परिवर्तन से बहुत अधिक कठिन है किताबी सवालों को हल करके डिग्री पाना अौर अधिक पैसे की नौकरी करना।   यही सोच इस वर्ग के अंदर अहंकार अौर भ्रम पैदा करती है कि वे ही सबसे बेहतर समझते हैं अौर उनके पैसों के दम पर ही सामाजिक बदलाव संभव है।    इस वर्ग के कुछ लोग घर बैठे क्रान्तिकारी बनने के लिये भले ही Internet में Online Groups में कुछ लिखा पढ़ी करना शुरु कर दिये कि यह कानून बहुत अच्छा है वास्तविक अाजादी दिलाने वाला है वगैरह वगैरह, किंतु इनमें से कितने लोगों ने खुद कितनी गंभीरता से RTI का प्रयोग किया है जबकि इस कानून का प्रयोग घर बैठे कोई भी कर सकता है,  यह बहुत ही अावश्यक प्रश्न है।  बहुत लोग कहीं से Forward हुयी मेल पाकर उसी को फिर अागे Forward करने को ही बहुत बड़ी क्रान्तिकारिता के रूप में लेते हैं या अाजकल अानलाईन पिटीशन्स रूपी क्रान्तिकारी होने अौर सक्रिय जागरूक होने का नया फैशन चला है तो उसमें अपना नाम लिख कर लोग खुद को क्रान्तिकारी या सक्रिय होने का शौक पूरा कर लेते हैं अौर अंदर के अहंकार को पोषित कर लेते हैं।  अब ई-मेल्स कब तक अौर कितनी बार फारवर्ड की जा सकती हैं, कितनी वेबसाइट्स में अानलाईन पिटीशन बनाये जा सकते हैं?  तो इस प्रकार की क्रान्तिकारिता जो कि कुछ समय तक RTI के कानून के लिये हुयी अौर समय के साथ धीरे-धीरे खतम भी हो गयी।   अब कुछ नये मुद्दे अा गये हैं अानलाईन क्रान्तिकारिता के बाजार में, कुछ समय बाद कुछ अौर नये मुद्दे अायेंगें, लोग क्रान्तिकारी बनते रहेंगे अौर भारत की अधिकतर अाबादी शोषण अौर गुलामी भोगती रहेगी।  यही नियति बन चुकी है अब भारत के अाम अादमी अौर अाम समाज की।  जय़ हिंद।

लेखक-
विवेक उमराव ग्लेंडेनिंग
सितम्बर 2009

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Peace marchers start in world's most peaceful country

LOWER HUTT-WOMAN Juanita McKenzie gets ready for a 90-day peace march around the world.

As one of about 25 Kiwis, the mother of five will join in the World March for Peace and Non-violence and start on October 2, 2009, at Wellington Railway Station.

She plans to to fly to Australia, India, Asia, Russia, Europe, the USA to finish her trip then in the Andes in South America.

According to stuff.co.nz, Wellington has been chosen as starting point because of New Zealand’s anti-nuclear stance and peaceful image.

On the WMPN website, New Zealand is even labelled as “the most peaceful nation on earth“. This staement is based on the Global Peace Index-table released by the Vision of Humanity organisations.

Global Peace Index - World Map

Different colours represent how peaceful the countries are (map: Vision of Humaity)

Alyn Ware, March Coordinator for New Zealand: “With the World March we celebrate the successful examples, in our communities and worldwide, of violence prevention, conflict resolution, cross-cultural understanding, bringing hope and inspiration for the future.”

The starting date and meeting point of the March has not been chosen out of the blue:

The anniversary of Gandhi’s birth is also the International Day of Non-Violence and therefore the Gandhi statue at the front of the Wellington Railway Station is a perfect starting point.

- read the whole story on stuff.co.nz

- view the Global Peace Index table here

- visit New Zealand’s website for the World March

Monday, September 21, 2009

Car Lovers

All car lovers try a mortgage in the history or origin of car company, how it began, focused, at which and why. But much own to give the impression at one liking the names of car companies? In a multitude of cases, the authors suffer discovered the car of the organization gave the and cr of so business. However, there are a level of car corporations in the world, whose names are derived out of supplies otherwise. Let’s see out the origin of the names of car companies.

Auckland Car Rental

Twits, tweets and false economies in India’s silly season

In Britain it’s known as the ”silly season”, when large numbers of news-makers are on holiday and the media follows silly and often embarrassing stories of little importance. I’ve never heard the phrase used here in India, but it’s certainly been the silly season for the last week or two, with a media feeding frenzy focusing on a twittish tweet by a over self-confident and inexperienced ministerial tweeter, and on a load of false economies foisted on unwilling ministers by Pranab Mukherjee, the finance minister, and the ruling Gandhi dynasty.

Let’s deal with the tweets first. When author Shashi Tharoor, the United Nation’s communications chief, failed to get himself promoted last year to the secretary general’s job, he retreated to India and his long-forgotten home state of Kerala where he successfully became an MP in April’s general election. Even though he had absolutely no experience of Indian politics, he was immediately made a minister of state in the Ministry of External Affairs and became a much publicised tweeter, telling his followers – there are now 197,778 of them (click here) – his frequently irreverent thoughts.

His ministerial bungalow was not ready when he was appointed in May, so he stayed in Delhi’s upmarket Taj Mahal hotel while, coincidentally, the new foreign minister S.M.Krishna, stayed for the same reason in a suite in the even more expensive ITC Maurya ($400-$2,000 walk-in rates for suites).

Two weeks ago, Mukherjee suggested – and announced he had done so – that they should move out of their hotels, even though they said they were paying for themselves (presumably with hefty discounts). They both did move, Tharoor into a no doubt very comfortable Indian Navy guest house, after protesting he had needed the Taj for its “gym and some privacy”.

Mukherjee then lectured the cabinet on austerity economies that ministers should introduce at a time when many parts of India are suffering a serious drought. There are precedents for governments calling for austerity measures during earlier droughts, and Mukherjee – presumably backed by Sonia Gandhi who heads the Congress Party – may have been trying to assert the sort of central authority that former prime minister Indira Gandhi, Sonia’s mother-in-law, used to exert years ago.

That leads me to a thought that perhaps the most significant – and under-reported – point to have arisen from all this is the authority that Mukherjee has over his fellow-ministers. He spoke, and his colleagues fell in line, some quietly and others after complaining a little. He has for years been regarded as the government’s leading politician and problem-solver, and he now seems to carry more personal clout than Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, whose edicts are always on target but rarely lead to action.

Mukherjee got some grumblings – Sharad Pawar, the agriculture minister, is reported to have said he was too large to fit in an economy seat. But Ministers quickly scuttled to airline economy seats or switched to trains, and flew abroad on regular flights instead of taking government planes. Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul, who is a general secretary in the party, did so too – Rahul to a train that was stoned by some youths and generated additional expenditure on special security protection.

The irrepressible Tharoor however couldn’t resist replying, when asked by a tweeter how he was travelling, “in cattle-class out of solidarity with all our holy cows”.

Well, cows are regarded as holy in India but that does not mean people like to be told they travel cattle-class, and uproar broke out with sanctimonious allegations that his remarks were “not in tune with the party (Congress) culture”. It looked as though he might have to resign – I reckon he should have offered to do so, but maybe he feared it would be accepted and he’d be jobless again. Anyway, the row now seems to have blown over, and he’s been tweeting responsibly from Liberia, where he has been on an official visit.

But the economies are false, as was a suggestion by Sonia Gandhi last month that party MPs and officials should donate 20% of their salaries to drought-relief. It made a good headline, and some donations may have been made, but most will surely have been recouped in the way that public figures usually supplement their incomes.

This morning the Indian Express is reporting that the prime minister has told government departments to stop tapping corporations they control for freebies that range from cars, air fares and hotels to mobile phones and laptop computers.  This is something that ministers and bureaucrats have done for years, tapping corporations for personal and family luxuries as well as work-related items.

The prime minister is again on target with a sensible idea, but he has apparently been trying to enforce this since May and has only just got cabinet secretariat support. Let’s see what happens – and how long it all lasts.

Female Sacred Sources of Empowerment

Female Sacred Sources of Empowerment: Indian Hindu Women Full of Strength and Power Since Time Immemorial

Women, Religion and Social Change; New College of California; Fall 2004 Research Paper

What is feminism? What is the women’s movement? Is it a frill? Another aspect of individualism? An imperialistic western product? It is none of these things…The woman’s movement is a major, global and most profound shift in both human relations and thinking in modern times. Who is thinking and acting? It is the women who are at the bottom of the social structure. Margaret Mead, the eminent anthropologist, when asked about the most important periods of human development in all history, identified four such periods: …evolution; …ice age; …industrialization; …and —the period of the Woman’s Movement. After these periods nothing was the same again, she said. What is changing? Everything! When women begin to move, the whole social structure begins to shift!…Going to the great religions of the world, she [woman] finds her experience there largely encapsulated in man’s language and patriarchal structures…What, then, do women really want?  They seek to reclaim their lived experiences in past history in all fields of knowledge. They want their experience to be part of the present. Finally, they want to ensure that their lives and experiences will be included and counted significantly in a vision of a better world for the future…to see their experiences and contributions become an integral part of the world knowledge and a dynamic for structural change in human relations and social justice. -Frances Maria Yasas, “Woman Reclaiming Her Experience”

The Goddess, in Hindu religious tradition, encompasses both creative and destructive capacities, and as a myth model for women this duality serves as both a divine role model and an immanence to be experienced here on Earth.[1] The Goddess’ presence plays such a vital and essential role in women’s lives in India, I believe, because of some of the cultural obstacles they face on a daily basis. Vedantic law in general, the Laws of Manu, the Stridharmapaddhati and the Yatidharmaprakasa are just a few of the texts that place restrictive measures on all aspects of women’s lives. For example, in these texts, women are not to do things independently of their fathers or husbands; spiritual independence cannot be achieved even when a woman has devoted herself to a ‘proper’ life as a wife; there are six conditions that assist in a woman’s descent into hell: recitation of sacred texts (japa), performance of austerities (tapas), going on pilgrimage, renunciation, mantra chanting and deity worship (temple worship is included in this) and the only auspicious way to perform these things is to meditate on her husband as God, meditate on his deity of choice, assist with any of his ritual duties, and so on.[2] Although the West assumes that these laws are strictly adhered to, there is evidence of popular alternative stories, myths, scripture and female leaders in Hindu culture that show that women are not always willing to emulate the static icons of traditional womanhood.

The evidence of these alternatives does not necessarily mean that the average Hindu woman tries to fully emulate those actions directly, but they do perceive these stories, myths, scriptures and women as powerful, assertive, dynamic and accessible role models.  In fact, even traditionally “powerful” role models are not understood by Hindu women as wholly emulative. One must not infer that the powerful models of Radha, Sri, Sri Laksmi or Mahadevi give permission to women to commit adultery, to discard their husbands, or to take to fighting in battles. Kali Ma is also not looked to as a realistic model for women to emulate by hanging out in cremation grounds and beheading any men that come across her path. In this way Hindu women understand these divine females as symbolic models and affirmations of their power as females and all the potential that comes with that. Hindu women realize that the Goddess is ‘up there’ while they are ‘down here’ and therefore they do not wish to be the Goddess, but to manifest Her strength and auspiciousness within themselves.

I do not believe that all of the alternatives aim to displace men altogether in the public and private spheres, in an attempt to place women singly at the center of society, but rather offer them a “level playing field” in terms of self-actualization. These alternatives serve women as support and encouragement in decision-making; they give women alternative models of behavior to consider in their everyday experiences. What is essential in the West in attempting to understand their particular influence on Indian Hindu women is the differentiation between power and authority. Rita Gross says of this differentiation, that women encompass a largely unreported, complex set of rituals that are absent of men’s participation and that serve to empower women within their everyday experiences and that this power may not directly reflect public authority, which should and does not imply that they are powerless.

I would then offer, that in terms of everyday experiences, alternative myths, narratives and average women serve to infuse the average Hindu woman with empowerment. Because of India’s long-held tradition of drawing from the epic poems and stories of their culture/religion to cast molds of appropriate behavior, the process of retelling these narratives with women playing more active roles only serve to encourage women to regard their everyday actions as multi-faceted. No longer do women only have the compliance of Sita to Ram’s oppressive, cruel treatment of her in the Ramayana or the secondary nature of the Goddess to show women their appropriate place in society as alongside their husbands and nowhere else. They have various stories, myths, and earthly role models that represent dynamic, supportive, powerful alternatives to reflect upon.

Traditional (?) Dharma for Indian Hindu Women

The Laws of Manu, a famous Indian epic of proper social conduct seems to be the most popular piece of literature reference for persons convinced that Indian Hindu women have experienced an ominous, severely oppressive atmosphere since time immemorial.  But books such as R.C. Majumdar’s Great Women of India, casts a different light on women’s reality and their overall position in society; his research shows that between the Rig Vedic era and 1200c.e. women enjoyed many freedoms. Some of the respectful behavior toward women included: women were not allowed to be killed on any account; daughters of outcastes were not considered as such, although sons were; way was made for women in crowded streets, regardless of caste; exemption from ferry tax; women (wives) held certain rights over particular properties given to her as gifts; men were often liable to a heavy fine for deserting a virtuous wife; women could reattain their ordinary rights after committing adultery, which was not always available to men. Also Mujamdar points out that women studied the Vedas and had a part in constructing Vedic hymns and played a particularly important part in constructing fine arts, dancing, manufacture of bows and arrows, making of baskets, weaving of cloth and participation in outside agricultural work, as well as many of them leaving their marks as famous scholars and authors.[3]

During this Vedic period there is evidence of some male authors aggressively countering any texts or positions taken up by other men seeking to defile the veneration of or equality of women to men. Varahamihira’s Brihat Samhita is one such example,

Tell me truly, what faults attributed to women have not been also practiced by men? Men in their audacity treat women with contempt, but they really possess more virtues (than men)…Men owe their birth to women; O ungrateful wretches, how can happiness be your lot when you condemn them? The shastras (scriptures) declare that both husband and wife are equally sinful if they prove faithless to the marriage vow; men care very little for the Shastra (while women do); therefore women are superior to men.[4]

Despite (or maybe in addition to) this evidence of a liberated Hindu woman of ancient times, Gross points out that contemporary Hindu women are enjoying a new liberation from traditional restrictive religious roles never experienced by them before. With this in mind, I would caution that much academic disagreement over the exact nature of the religious and cultural history of India has continued for decades and a perception of that history varies with authors. As I have laid out in this paper, there is evidence that women enjoyed many religious and cultural freedoms in early Vedic history, but that with an increase in patriarchal worldviews those freedoms became increasingly limited. With this in mind I would dare say that Gross’ focus on the contemporary freedoms experienced by Hindu women is not a new phenomenon, rather a resurgence of former religious glory experience by Hindu women. She points out that contemporary women are able to function as gurus, initiating disciples and carrying on spiritual lineages and authority. There has also been an increase in Sanskritic studies by women in universities in India. As men increasingly abandon these studies for more lucrative careers, women may soon become the next generation and sole arbiters of Sanskritic expertise. [5]

Certainly, Gross is not entirely wrong, for there is significant additional evidence of an extremely restrictive period of time in India, that publicly relegated Hindu women and many of the goddesses to a subservient, secondary role. Tryambaka’s Stridharmapaddhati (a 17th c. text written on the absolute necessity of women’s adherence and conformity to traditional religious dharma for the sake of Hindu society) is one example of literature that laid out the limiting nature of a Hindu woman’s experience. Tryambaka believed, as did Hindu society as a whole, that when women became corrupted, due to influence of their fundamental nature, all of society was lost. This is clearly an orthodox text that sees a distinct difference between ‘(essential) woman’ and ‘(ideal) wife.’ You can see this type of sentiment reflected in the traditional goddesses’ forms: some are gentle, wives and some are fierce warriors. Sati, Laksmi, Radha and Parvati are generally perceived to be the representations of chastity, fertility and prosperity- derived from being wives, subordinate and the “seat” or source of their husbands’ power. Kali, Camunda and Durga are traditionally depicted as portraying the wild, destructive, essential side of women associated with untamed sexual urges and blood from sacrifice, battle and menstruation. Tryambaka sees this latter group, as do cultural and spiritual tradition, as essentially anti-social and dangerous and needing to be tamed, which can only be achieved through marriage. Julia Leslie points out that renunciation of men means withdrawal from the household, from women and sexual relations in particular and so while male renouncers can achieve this withdrawal completely, women can never accomplish withdraw from their essential nature as untamed sexual beings.[6]

With this line of thought, I have become aware of the limitations of divine scriptures, texts. It seems to me that the dharmic regulations for women are particularly restrictive, especially when paired with cultural traditions. They seem to be geared toward controlling women and focusing on them as a means of production for the continuation of the culture; valued for their reproductive abilities and restricted by cultural and spiritual rules in order to preserve that role. I believe that patriarchal ideology in general understands that if women were allowed to freely express their dislike of restrictive roles as wives and subservience to their husbands, choose to leave in favor of a life of spiritual renunciation or  life as an independent woman, that all women would choose to do so. I believe that this type of structure is based on fear; the fear of men that women, if allowed to choose freely their lifestyles, would be inclined to leave them altogether and ultimately destroy society’s continuation as a whole. This is essentializing of women in a way I have never thought of before: out of fear, patriarchy must believe that all women have no inherent connection to men or family; or, rather, that human nature is inherently individualistic, and more so in women than in men. Thus the need for tight control. Perhaps, ultimately, Hindu criticism of Western individualism is in fact a critique of their perception of humanity as a whole and a way to justify their “successful” control, over that supposed tendency, by maintaining these severe social regulations.

The Yatidharmaprakasa, an 18thc. treatise on renunciation within the dharmasastra, is another example of the evidence of a restrictive time for women in India.[7] This text, in addition to others, frequent reference to female ascetics, although they are usually discussed with little enthusiasm. Female renunciation is generally looked down upon in a negative light and this negativity is frequently coupled with the insistence that the perfect Hindu wife never associates with female renunciates or their act of renunciation. For association with female ascetics is comparable to association with other bad influences: courtesans, female gamblers, intellectual women and women guilty of infidelity. In fact, the Yatidharmaprakasa claims that renunciation is one of the behaviors that can send women and sudras to the depths of hell.[8]

After reflecting on the negative light cast on Hindu women ascetics, one becomes aware that the Vedic Hindu tradition values as most auspicious one’s status as a householder, or rather, the following of proscribed dharma. While this householder lifestyle is favored for both men and women over a life of renunciation, the near-absolute rejection of women following this lifestyle is much more prevalent than for men. This is supported in numerous ways, one being the traditional belief that birth as a woman assumes bad conduct in a previous life and really the only way to erase the negative karma is for a female to follow the appropriate dharma, of a householder.[9]

This really frustrates me due to the inflexibility of these kinds of structures that strictly define value in terms of what serves a society’s needs over the individual’s needs. And so it follows that cultural norms of this type, regardless of what society you are discussing,  define a person as valuable only when they are following proscribed strictures. What then of women that have absolutely no desire to be a man’s wife, are gay, do not wish to bear children or cannot bear children? Within the Hindu religious milieu, such strict proscriptions doom women to either live miserably the life prearranged for them or to face exile. This is not so for men, who have an option other than householder, to live life as a renunciate. In fact, the role of a male renunciate is auspicious and supported by the society.

To Mother or Not to Mother: That Should be the Question!

Also prevalent during the early Vedic period in Hindu society was Mother worship, and not just the divine Mother, but the average mother. This may have been heavily influenced by a particular set of social circumstance: matriarchal social structure, emphasis on the child-bearing mother and inheritance lines passing through the mother. Because of this economic and social power enjoyed by women, it would naturally follow that when conceptions of divinity were imagined, the figure of the mother would be a powerful influence.[10] In fact, during this time the belief that above celibacy as “the towering ideal of the supersocial life,” was the sanctity of “motherhood as the central ideal in the social life of this land.”[11] It followed that the belief in the instinctive love and sacrifice qualify mothers spiritually to stand above all other human relationships in regard to this phenomenal plane and therefore the supremacy of the mother into the heavens as the Divine Mother became hugely popular. [12] The push by the spiritual and social community was thus to praise women for appealing to the benign quality of a chaste woman who works to enhance the beauty and sublimity of the character, to chasten the sense plane in order to manifest the Divine Mother within her all of the time. This was and, and still is, the highest spiritual objective for women. Mujamdar posits that the reverence of the Divine Mother is responsible for the adulation of earthly mothers, as the scriptures and smritis all venerate the glory of the nurturing mother, who is regarded as the highest of all gurus, exceeding a thousand fathers.[13]

This brings into question a couple of points. First, while this seemingly is a boon for women in Hindu society, it is problematic on several levels. It essentializes women as mothers and allows them no freedom to choose to not follow the path of motherhood. It equates ability to bear children with the necessity and desire to bear them; so that to follow this ‘innate’ desire and ability is the only means of societal value and elevation of a woman’s social status and spiritual potency. Secondly, where does this leave women that have a desire to bear children, but physically are unable? What if they have the desire and ability, but their husbands lack the physical capacity? Or what of women that do not want to bear children? Are they not worthy of praise? Have they nothing of value to offer their husbands or society at large? These questions are all necessary if a fair and accurate ideal of the praiseworthiness of womanhood is to be valued in a society by all of its members.

History or HerStory?

You start with yourself

Who are you, where do you come from

I felt I was the harappan woman, at one with all those

primeval terracotta images. The strata are like that in

our own bodies, we have retained that stratification in time.

To reach out-

Those are the real images of Shakti-

They are in you!

You have the radiance and power and vitality.

Women have that power- they may have forgotten.

They need to be reminded of it.

-Chandralekha

Julia Leslie points out that dominant views are expressed as dominant culture and so any group outside of this structure is muted. Women’s experience has traditionally been defined in terms of their relationship to men, as compared to men. In general anthropology has failed to highlight this dichotomy and so it becomes important to point out that in Hindu religious texts, men have played a dominant role as creators, interpreters and directors of implementation. Leslie says, “The religious role allotted to women is defined in terms of their relationship not to God but to men. For women are given what it is considered fitting for them to do; and, as Hirschon points out, there is a close correlation between what is thought fitting for someone to do and what he or she is considered capable of doing.”[14]

Despite the overwhelming amount of textual support for the ideal Hindu woman as the pativrata (devoted wife), Mary McGee has increasingly found evidence for many alternative stories that also depict the ideal virtuous Hindu wife. In these “women-centered” stories the traditional female icon becomes “a critical player, a significant moral and social agent who brings about change…notable, respected pativratas who act willfully and independently, making decisions which often go directly against the wishes or advice of a husband, king or other dominant male.”[15] Mary McGee is interested specifically in identifying these episodes as models of women making significant decisions to act that directly conflict with the outline of appropriate pativrata behavior. Many have brushed these episodes asides as inconsequential, but McGee disagrees and believes that they represent the capacity within these pativratas to identify a morally questionable situation and act accordingly despite the traditional regulations laid upon them. With the increasing amount of these women-centered stories that McGee has gathered, it becomes clear that these are examples of a pattern of behavior and also they serve as an alternative model for Hindu women to look up to. A.K. Ramanujan says these stories “present an alternative way of looking at things. Genders are genres. The world of women is not the world of men. [The stories present] an alternative set of values and attitudes, theories of action other than official ones.”[16] Ann Grodzins Gold speaks of the absolutely essential role that myths play in the majority of Indian women’s lives. She points out, through Alan Roland’s psychotherapy work, that it is apparent that “integral to the socially contextual ego-ideal for Hindu Indians is a strong mythic orientation… women especially, traditionally experience everyday relationships within the framework of myths.”[17]

Other-Worldly Role Models

The female-centered epic poems, the Devi-Gita and the Devi-Mahatmya, describe the ultimate aspect of the universe as being the Divine Mother. She is known by many different names and forms, some beneficent and some awesome. The Devi-Gita is a less well known retelling of the Bhagavad Gita. It replaces the incarnation of the ultimate male god as Krisna with the main incarnation of the ultimate female god as Bhuvanesvari. The Divine Mother is the creator who pervades and activates the entire universe. The epic poem lovingly and beautifully describes all of her various aspects and the proper conduct of humans when praying to her. The Devi-Mahatmya is a long poem dedicated to describing the efforts of the Divine Mother as the incarnate, Yoganidra. She saves the universe from the attack of the demons Nisumbha, Sumbha, Manishasura and Raktabija. The infamous Kali Ma is introduced in this poem, as the aspect of anger that sprouts from the forehead of Durga, the form that Yoganidra takes during battle with the demons. What are so important in these poems are not their stories, as they are retellings of already established stories, rather it is their ability to recover a truth of reality manifested through the Goddess, which can ultimately serve as a source of empowerment for Indian women.[18]

One mythic woman who personifies all that is good, moral and spiritual in an Indian woman is Sita of the Ramayana. It is the epic story of the exploits of Rama and his battle with the demons, specifically with Ravana the demon king. At one point in the story, Rama’s wife, Sita, is kidnapped and held captive at Ravana’s island. Sita, throughout the story is consumed with guilt and concern for protecting her virtue. She is not necessarily described as being concerned with her own safety, only in terms of how it relates to her being a wife to the great King Rama. When she is returned to Rama (mind you, Rama did not rush to the island once he killed Ravana, instead he sent Hanuman, the monkey god, and told him to make sure that Sita was bathed and adorned with jewels when brought back before him). They have been separated for a long time and all Rama is concerned with is praising himself and his soldiers and their exploits in defeating the demons and their king. Rama demands that Sita be put through a fire ceremony, agni pariksha (where she will be set on fire and if she survives the ordeal then it means that her virtue is intact). She passes and after a while Rama deceptively has her taken to the woods and left (while very pregnant) due to the gossiping of his kingdom- although he is seemingly convinced of her fidelity, he must give in to the wishes of his people. Years later, after she has lived off of the forest and raised their twins to manhood alone, Rama wishes for her to come back but tells her she must endure one more fire ceremony. In most versions of the story Sita complies with Rama’s wish, as she loves him unquestioningly.[19]

In other versions Sita refuses and is swallowed up by the earth (which is related to her miraculous birth story). In the versions of Sita refusing to go back to Rama, she is chastised for this behavior and is likened to a filthy worm (due to having been pulled from the earth as part of her miraculous birth). She gains no power from this behavior according to popular opinion. Her resistance is obvious in even the most conservative versions of the story, but increasingly women are finding even this Sita to be not assertive enough.[20]

And so popular re-appropriations of the Ramayana’s Sita character as an explicitly empowered woman are extremely important, as Sita is an overwhelmingly popular figure in India for contemporary women and men alike. Many feminists are changing the Ramayana so that Sita is infused with strength to not accept her second class status imposed by her husband and society at large. Unlike in Western thought, traditional Hindu Indian society sees the inherent truth in the superiority of the bygone eras as opposed to the present debased Kalyuga we are living in now. Because of this, Indian women see Sita as a living model, worth emulating to the best of their ability. Many Indian women, young and old, are centering their experiences around the mythological Sita (outside of the context of the Ramayana) or the writer-as-contemporary-Sita and either their actions and/or thoughts as “asserting their moral strength” or “rebelling against what they [have] come to see as the unreasonable demands of society or family” (Menon, p.2). The retelling by feminists invade the body of the story with changes, not just the end; although one of the many endings that are new conclude with Sita dramatically demolishing the justifications used by Rama (Indian culture) for his behavior towards her,

Sita:  What? Does the emperor think that I should once more go into his…presence

and once again prove myself…? Do you think I am a mere doll? …my mind and soul revolt at the very thought…

Rama:  Come to your senses! …My word is law! …I cannot take it back! …If you do not do your duty, I must reject you!

Sita (fiercely): How dare you! It is I who reject you![21]

Additionally, new poems and plays and even dances are seeking to reclaim Sita’s dignity through depictions of Sita as not robbed of her voice of opposition to her mistreatment and the personhood inherent in her which has been denied by traditional patriarchy.  “She [Sita]…stands as the perfect type of ideal womanhood in the hearts of Hindu women of all castes and creeds,” so says Swami Abhedananda.[22] It is precisely the upholding of this ideal by most Hindus, secular and religious, and the resulting glorification that bothers so many India women as well and has furthered the push to uncover these alternatives myths and/or create the new one. McGee points to an editorial letter in Manushi (a feminist journal from India) that sums up this frustration that many Indian women feel when daily assaulted with the essentializing iconic Sita:

The ideals, ethics and morality heaped upon women since time immemorial are suffocating and killing. The adjectives used to praise us have become oppressive. Calling us loving, they have locked us in the closed room of culture; calling us gentle, they have reflected us in a mirror of helplessness, calling us kind, they have tied us in cowardice, they have handcuffed us with modesty and chained our feet with loyalty, so that far from ruin, we have not been able even to walk…Now we must refuse to be Sita’s. By becoming a Sita and submitting to the fire ordeal, woman loses her identity. This fire ordeal is imposed on women today in every city, every home. Our exclusion from the scriptures, from temples, from smritis, is also our strength.[23]

The Earthly Goddesses

I too have given agnipariksha,
Not one – but many
Everyday, a new one.
However, this agnipariksha
Is not to prove myself worthy of this or that Ram
But to make myself
Worthy of freedom.
Every day your envious, dirty looks
Reduced me to ashes
And everyday, like a Phoenix, I arose again
Out of my own ashes … … …
Who is Ram to reject me?
I have rejected that entire society
Which has converted
Homes into prisons.

-Madhu Kishwar, Yes to Sita, No to Ram!: The Continuing Popularity of Sita in India

Devi worship, particularly in the Sakta tradition, is much more inclusive of women as practitioners, leaders, sources of sacred transmission of the Tantras and their female gurus and saints rank higher than in the Vaisnava and Saiva traditions.[24] Such is the case in the Sakta tradition; generally, Sakta devotees adhere to the premise of the supremacy of the worship of the Divine Mother and Sakti (the feminine, creative, active aspect of the universe). Additionally, women are considered, irrespective of race or caste, to be an incarnation of Sakti. This is not something that they must pursue outside of themselves, but rather they are inherently born with this aspect. The roots of Saktism’s belief structure explain that Sakti created and pervades the cosmos and that this Divine Energy cannot be separated from the physical form it takes as human females- as they are reflections of each other. Therefore by their very nature, women serve as sacred sources of power in the Sakta tradition.[25]

It must be made clear, that adherence to this tradition does not necessarily mean overt equality for women, but it can be used as a source of subversive empowerment. Many women in Sakta families find that they enjoy more relative freedoms than do women of Shaivite or Vaisnavite families. Recent reclamation of Sakti  by contemporary Indian women are allowing for Sakti to be seen as a binding, unifying force to empower women across communities in order to overcome great obstacles, a task that a solitary woman could not accomplish alone. Many personal accounts attest to the fact that women are determined to do battle with the centuries old traditions that are still overt in their cultures today. Geeta Sen quotes Mircea Eliade as saying, “Deeds by the Goddess legitimize the new models for women who are moving from private into public spheres of life; women who battle against social injustices and political wrongs. Deeds by the Goddess valorize the new image of the independent, dynamic woman, who is emboldened to flout conventions and codes of femininity.”[26]

Saktism is certainly not the only sect of Hinduism in which women can carve out alternative lifestyles. There are average women in nearly all villages that have attained extraordinary religious stature that serve as leaders in their communities, albeit often outside institutionalized structures. These women are additionally amazing due to their ability to function as community leaders outside of the popular tradition of acceptance of male ascetics or in addition to their domestic obligations. Erndl says, “Such women draw on the power of the Goddess and become powerful themselves.”[27] Erndl points to powerful myth-models as serving as sources of power for women such as these and the most popular manifestation of that spiritual power is possession (or playing as it is popularly known in Northwest India) by the Goddess as an expression of immanent divinity in which earthly women can participate. Possession is seen as a gift of grace and a channel through which Her devotees can receive darshan.[28] Erndl says,

The most dramatic way in which devotees experience the Goddess is through her possession of human, usually female, vehicles…Devotees approach the possessed person, worship her as the Goddess, ask her for help with their problems, listen to her pronouncements, and receive her blessings. Thus, possession is a means for the Goddess to participate in the world of humans and for the medium and her audience to participate in the Goddess’ divinity. In Hinduism there is no clear dividing  line between divine and human; gods can become humans and humans can become gods, and it is often unclear which is which. The worship of Goddess-possessed women as Matas (Mothers), as manifestations of the Goddess is the case in point. Such women are said to embody the sakti of the Goddess, that is, to become human icons.[29]

Tara Devi is one such woman; she is a thirty-four year old householder, married with four children and has been experiencing possession by the Goddess for eight years. She has a temple attached to her home (built by her devotees), her husband believes in her power and possession, as does the majority of the village, and she helps her devotees with various afflictions (sorcery and spiritual and physical health).  Tara Devi, like many other women saints throughout India, serve their devotees not for their own benefit but for the benefit of the entire community. And as discussed before, for many of them, their power also lies not in completely stepping out of their social boundaries (Anandamayi Ma, discussed below, and Tara Devi both fulfilled their dharma of getting married, and Tara Devi performs domestic chores in addition to serving her devotees), but by incorporating her societal expectations with a divine calling which no can argue against.[30] Tara Devi and thousands of women like her “have drawn on a mythic model, a very real female power, to transform their personal identities. But this transformation is not just a private affair. Their personal experiences have had public consequences. They serve as sacred sources, giving strength and empowerment to other women.” [31]

Many other women have broken traditional societal mandates and become leading figures in Hindu spirituality and culture, such as Anandamayi Ma and Amritanandamayi (AmmaChi). These two women saints are extraordinary  because in them was identified the source of all creation, the Divine Mother. Anandamayi Ma, “The Blissful Mother,” as a child was known for being meditative and withdrawn and particularly sensitive to religious ceremonies and the Divine. At the age of thirteen, Anandamayi Ma married Ramani Mohan Cakravarti, better known as Bolanath; their marriage was never consummated and remained a very untraditional union in every sense for the entire duration. Eventually, Bolanath took initiation from Anandamayi Ma and accepted her as his guru, as did much of India. She was a Saivite and Vaisnavite spiritual practitioner and performed various siddhis (extraordinary yogic abilities) in benefit of her devotees.[32] AmmaChi’s devotion to God was noticed at a young age, she says, “From childhood I had an intense love of the Divine Name. I would repeat the Lord’s name incessantly with every breath and a constant flow of divine thoughts was kept up in my mind no matter the place where I was or the work I was doing.” She has suffered many hardships, but this has not diminished her devotion to charitable works, to encourage those interested in a monastic life, to take charge of an orphanage sheltering approximately four hundred orphans and inspiring humility, compassion, simplicity, patience, love for fellow beings and selfless service into the hearts of millions.[33]

One of my favorite stories of an average woman challenging normative behavior is that of Shobhag Kanvar, as described by Ann Grodzins Gold. When Gold met her, Shobhag Kanvar was a 55 year old high-caste woman, married with four children. While most would define her life in terms of traditional kinship identities as a daughter, wife, mother, mother-in-law, and grandmother, she is also known for her devout relationship to the local deity, Dev Narayan, and His temple. She is totally illiterate and yet a fountain of unending knowledge of rituals, devotional stories and songs and is considered a religious expert in her village. She holds an honored place at temple festivals and the priests daily visit her home to enjoy tea and talk. In fact, the main priest of the temple gives her a substantial share of the offerings for her help with female pilgrims at the shrine.

Shobhag Kanvar’s story is particularly interesting for me because of the way  which she perceive herself is much different than how the rest of the village does; she defines herself as a devotee, and yet the rest of the village sees her as a rebel of sorts because her freedom and behavior is not appropriate for a woman of her caste.  Gold relays the local lore about Shobhag Kanvar’s “liberation” from strict adherence of typical domestic dharma,

One day…Shobhag Kanvar’s husband had had enough. He forbade her to continue her participation in the group of Dev Narayan’s devotees. They had strong words and she appeared to accept his authority. However, that night after he was asleep in his bed, Shobhag Kanvar took down the family sword from its place on the wall, climbed astride her husband’s chest, and poised the weapon over his neck. ‘Let me continue to worship Dev Narayan as I have been,’ she demanded. He complied. The image, of Shobhag Kanvar holding the sword over her husband’s neck, is both climax and punch line of the tale…One main strategy in Shobhag Kanvar’s complex life was to claim that she never infringed the rules of propriety…Her husband, as the gossips constructed their encounter, violated her self-image by accusing her of misconduct and thus aroused her rage.[34]

Further mythologizing Shobhag Kanvar’s resistance to confinement and neglect of her devotional duties, and particularly entertaining, was the resulting “bawdy insult song” (gali) constructed by the villagers. The village women sing this song, gleefully, about one another, substituting different husband’s names, as a praise of Shobhag Kanvar as a representation of a self-image that contradicts that of a restrained wife,

That lewd hussy X’s wife lifted a load, yes!

She climbed on his chest and pissed on his mustache,

Yes-oh-yes!

She climbed on his chest and pissed on his mustache,

Yes-oh-yes!

Get away wanton women, what have you done?

Yes-oh-yes![35]

During post-colonial times in India, many Indians were looking for a new image to describe their newly liberated country. Abanindranath Tagore provided this image to the Indian people by creating Bharat Mata, the incarnation of the Indian subcontinent. This is not an entirely unique concept, as Hindus for centuries have regarded India’s land mass as feminine, usually in the forms of Devi or Sati. None the less, Tagore’s new image is enjoying an increasing popularity amongst average people, politicians, activists, writers, artists and film makers. Her iconography depicts a beautiful woman, painted in auspicious watercolors, empowered with four hands in which she possesses  four symbols of the reconstruction of India [food (anna), clothing (vastra), a manuscript- symbolic of education (siksha) and spiritual beads (diksha)]. This iconography is full of contradictions of what her image is truly conveying: Is she a virgin? Is she married? Is she a renunciate? Is she a goddess? Is she mortal?[36]

“The nation’s identity lay in the culture and more specifically in its womanhood. In the changed political and social environment the image of womanhood was more important than the reality. Historians and laymen would complete the process by ensuring, through continued writings in the twentieth century, that the image also came to be perceived as the reality.”[37]

Indian director, Mehboob, released a film entitled “Bharat Mata,” in which the lead actress gained the reputation of a film goddess; in other words, simply playing the role of Bharat Mata imbibed this woman with power as a screen goddess which earned her the actual worship of many Indians who truly believed in her connection to Bharat Mata. Katherine Mayo wrote a book with the same title, as did Pranay Gupte on Indira Ghandi. Other authors and filmmakers are imaging their heroines against a map of India, an indication of Bharat Mata. So the icon is in fact being related to mortal women, and not just in the symbolic sense but in reality.[38]

In fact millions of Indians perceived female political leaders as the incarnations of the Divine, who could use their gender to their and the nation’s advantage. Indira Ghandi, Jayalitha, Mamata Bannerji and Mayawati are a few such leaders who rose to power with no leadership backgrounds but skilled at survival and harnessing avenging fury, much like the Goddess,  to empower their efforts. In fact, many followers perform ritual ceremonies of adulation to these women; essentially this popular behavior is the merging of politics and religion. Madhu Kishwar says of this,

“As with all the ferocious goddesses of Indian mythology and village lore, Jayalitha justifies her authoritarian ways and her vindictive politics as the legitimate response of a woman long wronged and exploited by men, until she rose in fury. Mamata has built her political career more in the tradition of an avenging deity than a politician…Mayawati does not use any personal history of persecution but claims to be avenging the collective, historical insults heaped upon the entire Dalit community. In short, women who prove themselves stronger and more commanding than men in India are able to use their gender to advantage rather than it becoming a liability for them.”[39]

Alternatives- Ultimately Harmful or Helpful?

Narratives are important conveyors of envisioned as well as applied moralities.

-Mary McGee [40]

McGee brings a very valid point that deserves attention; she says that Narayana Rao has pointed out that often times these stories’ authors subvert authority, while at the same time seemingly respecting it. McGee is curious as to whether the women retelling these stories are aware of that subversiveness and are able to utilize them as alternative, authority-challenging ideologies.[41] As I am not an Indian woman and have not yet traveled to India, I cannot answer her query in this essay, but I would like to address the idea of challenging the system through implicit inferences as opposed to overt ideologies.  As discussed before in this paper, ideas of challenging the system and liberation are different for women all over the world; for Asian women, in particular, a dismantling of the traditional family and a separation of the sexes is not in their scope of what it means to be liberated or to hold power. Could it be that a real and viable challenge of authority and power for Indian Hindu women consists of a challenge that does not drastically attempt to overturn their reality and also maintains a certain level of respect for their fathers, kings and families at large? While I believe this is possible, and actually happening all over India, this is not to imply that the alternative women-centered stories that do in fact turn “appropriate” pativrata behavior on its head are not just as valid as those that do not so explicitly challenge social norms.

Women in Manipur often make “a formal expression of deference to male authority; yet female defiance of male dominance is a profound feature of their culture…women often laugh ‘behind their scarves’ at the air of authority assumed by a man; yet outwardly they approve, and demand submission from his wife.”[42] The point here is that women’s resistance is defined in the West generally as that which shirks all norms and distances the victim from the oppressor, be it person or cultural practice. In India resistance is more often than not slight deviations from the norm. Their scope does not lessen their power, as might be believed in the West. The main characteristic of a worldview is that it is self-defining, says Leslie. The muted group’s perception may not completely fit into the dominant worldview and therefore it becomes important to focus not on description, but rather on evaluation by all members of society. For surely, all of the women of India, throughout time, have not perceived themselves wholly as invaluable and have illicited various forms of resistance, either extreme or subtle. Indian women often “create[d] their own positive construct…For Indian women rarely want to be men; nor, as a general rule, do they seek the ‘freedoms’ of Western women.”[43] In fact, many Asian women do not agree with the separatism that Western culture in general, and Western feminism in particular, espouses as the means to liberation and power. Many Asian women do no want to encourage a distancing of themselves from males or the destruction of the “family.”[44]

Dianne Jenett’s essay “Cooking up Equality: Pongala at Attukal Temple in Kerala, South India,” illustrates the capacity of power women hold with participation in traditional rituals. Attukal Pongala is a yearly ritual held in the spring in Thiruvananthapuram (the capital of Kerala), and most recently is observed by over a million women.  The ritual is an offering to the goddess Bhagavati, in which many of the participants believe that they are empowering themselves to increase the Goddess’ Shakti (power) and therefore her ability to bestow blessings on all of Her devotees.[45] Dianne points out that the process is one of reciprocity, the woman asks the Goddess to bestow a particular blessing, such as “If you give my husband a job…if my son recovers…if my daughter passes her exam…” and in return she promises to offer Pongala.[46] This serves as additional evidence of the power of women to determine the fate of her family.

In fact, Jenett found that most women who participated in the Attukal Pongala “emphasized their pride in acting collectively as women, but not in opposition to men” and says that she observed that the majority of Indian women regard Western women and feminists as anti-family. She was informed by Malayali feminists that the Western focus on independence and individualism leaves no room for an understanding of the complex nature of the joint family system and the agency a woman holds within this system, as well as the lack of desire to experience the hardships a woman left alone would face. She says, “For the women themselves, however, the themes of interdependence, unity and equality are uppermost…”[47]

Jenett’s interviews of several women at the Attukal Pongala, in her essay  show that women are challenging the traditional social norms in various ways, many of which seem to bend to the will of the traditions, but in fact are a challenge to aspects that continue the inequality of the system at large,

“Although the average age of marriage for women has been twenty-two, several of the women of this age I spoke to did not want to get married before they had a good job. Most marriages are arranged, and if a girl has a good job her parents don’t have to pay dowry, so as Asha, a college-educated young woman, remarked, she would be ‘self-sufficient’ in the marriage and ‘not a burden’ if she had a job. Two young women commented with humor that they knew their mothers were offering Pongala and asking the Devi for good husbands for their daughters, while they themselves are asking for jobs!”[48]

In this way, not only are these women asking for equality and respect within a marriage, they are directly challenging the long-held tradition of dowry and the hardships it brings to the parents of females. Consequently, this can serve to change the traditional displeasure of having female children, due to the strains it has put on families to produce dowries suitable to prospective husbands and their families, into a situation where the female is empowered to enter into a marital union as an economically-equal partner.

Pongala also serves the women themselves in yet another capacity. Participation in the ritual means a vacation from the daily duties of most women and provides a time of relaxation and revival of energies to face the rest of the year. “Peace of mind and a reduction in tension was mentioned by many women as one of the benefits of Pongala.”[49] This seemingly benign consequence of participation can be perceived as just the opposite: a defiant act by the women to break from tradition as the sole executors of domestic chores, as well as breaking the traditional belief that they must not do anything, particularly spiritual activity, without their husbands, fathers or brothers.

McGee highlights the famous story of Savitri and the yearly vrata, Vata Svitri, a ritual which allows women to ask for the blessing of longevity of their husband’s life and to be promised the same husband for the next seven lifetimes as an alternative myth. McGee goes through this story and highlights many of Savitri’s independent and willfull actions which contribute to an alternative perception of the pativrata’s appropriate behavior.[50] But I would like to take this opportunity to analyze this idea of the vrata being the opportunity for women to ask for blessings for their husbands’ lives. What is not stated is the most important aspect of this ritual, in my opinion. First, I am going to assume that not all Hindu women are required to participate in this ritual, as McGee states, “…women who observe this day…” (italics my addition, to make a point)[51] I would say then, that a husband who’s wife participates in this ritual can count himself as a lucky man, and in this way, the female has some control over the divine blessing of the longevity of a male’s life. Second, the blessings asked for by the wives can initially be perceived as benefiting only the husband, with the wife as the secondary beneficiary. But I would argue that the wife is the ultimate beneficiary, as widowhood is a most inauspicious and economically devastating predicament for a woman to be in. Additionally, for Asian women who enjoy and rely upon their families as the anchor of their reality, blessing your family, or husband, is a very powerful, self-fulfilling action.

McGee says of the alternative sources of women’s empowerment, “While some of the decisions of these women go against the wishes of the dominant male, indicating disobedience or disrespect, the happy ending that comes as a result of a woman’s agency glosses over her episodic transgressions; however, had the ending been anything but happy, the woman most certainly would have been blamed (as other stories and traditions, not considered here, illustrate).”[52] My question is where is the room for imperfection? Can imperfection not contribute to liberation or challenge of the system at large? What about stories of women who utilized moral agency to challenge a situation that was not beneficial to all involved and the story still did not end happily? I feel that stories of that nature are beneficial to women as well as the ones in which women find themselves vindicated after disobedience. For not all women are equipped with overwhelming insight and wisdom, to assume so is to essentialize them. I would venture to say that such stories of courage that end unhappily could serve to show that though women may not have all of the answers (as many of us do not), we more often than not have courage and heart, and ultimately that is what counts. The idea that it is okay to make mistakes is appealing to me in terms of learning what does and does not work on the path to creating a more just society. Social movements are rife with mistakes, ‘two steps forward, one step back,’ and that is what contributes to the education and growth of a social movement.

Closing

Rita Gross addresses the problem of the seeming lack of power Indian Hindu women deal with despite the overwhelming amount of Goddesses in their pantheon in her book, Feminism and Religion,

Hindu social and ritual forms are patriarchal, even though their religious imagery is not. That brings up a question that cannot be answered empirically and about which opinions will vary widely. Given a patriarchal situation, are women in patriarchal religions better off with goddesses or without them? Some claim that the subservient goddesses, such as the Hindu Sita…, sanctify and valorize patriarchal social norms, making them that much harder to question. But on the other hand, deities never simply mirror human society, especially in polytheistic  mythologies. Some goddesses in virtually ever pantheon defy and reverse patriarchal stereotypes, as does Kali in the Hindu pantheon.[53]

As a researcher of contemporary Goddess worship among Hindus in India, Kathleen Erndl has been asked a similar question, “Why is it that the Hindu Goddess is so powerful, while actual Hindu women are powerless?” and “Why are Hindu women so oppressed in a religion which exalts the Goddess?” Her general response is that the first assumes the powerlessness of women and the second assumes that there must be a direct linkage of worship of the Divine Feminine and the elevated status of earthly women.[54] I believe that the evidence is overwhelming in support of several points to answer these complex questions.

First, empirical date is everywhere as to the question Gross poses about the confusion surrounding the subservience of women under patriarchal Hinduism, this essay has proven that over and over. The fact that while in the midst of an often severe patriarchal religious atmosphere,  women have both, implicitly and explicitly, acted on behalf of themselves to carve out meaningful everyday and spiritual relationships within the Hindu religious and cultural systems. This is not to say that the systems are fine as they are and provide women the most egalitarian and beneficial life experiences possible. Although this essay makes clear that Indian women have the capability to not be passive victims of a patriarchal formal religious system.

Second, women would definitely not be better off without the Goddesses! This essay outlines clearly the influence the Goddess has in their lives. She offers a multifaceted approach to everyday life experiences, giving women the power of choice; they can choose how to respond to cultural, domestic and religious demands in ways that best fit their situations. Indian women find solace in her many forms and this is evident with the vast ways in which she is conceptualized and experienced here on Earth.

Third, I would like to address the generalization that Gross makes near the end of her statement, as presented above. The mere presence of Sita or Kali Ma in the Hindu cultural and religious milieu is not sufficient to answer the initial question of whether or not Hindu women are empowered by Goddesses in a patriarchal religious system. These kinds of general naming of “powerful” Goddesses has led to much confusion and misunderstanding on the part of Western scholars to fully appreciate these Goddesses’ impact on Indian Hindu women. In this essay I have tried to highlight the absolute necessity of delving deeper into these alternative mythologies. For what is not said about them is usually more telling of their empowerment. For instance, the traditional stories of Sita are not the only versions of the Ramayana, and to make generalizations that imply such, is irresponsible. I have shown that there are popular, powerful and accessible alternatives to the traditional story line of the Ramayana. Additionally, to mention Kali Ma as the representative of religious alternatives for women in Hinduism, is also irresponsible when discussed no further than that. As discussed before, Kali Ma is an important role model for Hindu women, not because of her deeds and her behavior as they relate to everyday reality. Instead she is understood as a complex, symbolic model of the potential that all women hold within themselves.

In addressing the questions Kathleen Erndl’s frequently comes up against, the tendency of Western feminism and Western culture in general to regard situations through perceptions only relative to their situations is a problem. She is correct when she points to the assumption of powerlessness and the mere presence of Goddesses requiring the obvious and overt elevation of Earthly women. This is a tendency of Western thought, in my opinion. Admittedly, I was very guilty of this when I first started to do research and study Hinduism and how it relates to the everyday lives of its devotees. I could only conceptualize of women’s participation in ritual and domestic duties in terms of how it served their individual needs. I came to the study with the assumption that the wellbeing of the individual, irrespective of their other relationships, was all that mattered, not only to me but to the Indian women as well. And that if they truly wanted to make change and be empowered in their spiritual tradition, was to basically turn it on its head. But I have come to understand that Hindu women have broken through spiritual and cultural barriers, sometimes overtly and at times implicitly, to forge their own rituals, myths and heroines to empower them in their everyday experiences while simultaneously maintaining and strengthening their relationships.

Two points that I must not neglect that are made by Dianne Jenett are also essential to understanding women’s sources of power in India. The first is a reinforcement of the assumption of the value of individualism that is forced upon Indian women by Western scholars. It must be made clear that women do not need to be recognized as individuals to be considered powerful. Second, in her description of the Attukal Pongala, Jenett points out that the difference between Sanskritic and non-Sanskritic offering is primarily in positions of authority; in the former, a priest is given the authority to mediate between the divine and the devotee. But Attukal Pongala, whose origin is found in the Dalit communities, places authority in the direct participants of the ritual, the women that offer Pongala. Although the male priests open and close the ritual and sing the songs of devotion to the Goddess during the ritual, Dianne found the sentiment of the majority of women was, “The priests just start the fire and carry the Goddess’ water and put it in our pots; they’re not important.”[55] Dianne brings up a very important point, that Westerners often “privilege the role of the male priests.”[56] I would add here, that additionally, the perception of power in most Western minds lies in the leader of a group and not in the participants of the ritual. And so in the Attukal Pongala ritual, the women’s perception of the authoritative position is that they themselves are the most essential, and therefore most powerful, element of the ritual.

This realization is so powerful and comforting to me as I can regard the future, in which I will undoubtedly be fighting for social and economic justice, as a lonely place no longer. Distracting my focus from that kind of socially ingrained individualism of the West, I can now regard myself as part of a whole. I can now understand that community is essential and that we in the West do not have the answers as to how best to define and construct community. Although, Hinduism has not perfected the idea of community, I believe that I have learned and will continue to learn much about what it means to fight for human rights and maintain those relationships that sustain us in our battles and create that sense of community, that very community I am fighting for. I think Madhu Kishwar, one of the editors of Manushi (an Indian feminist journal), sums up my determination to not be tunnel-visioned when looking to other traditions to find help to wage my battle against social and economic injustices for women and all people,

Those of us who wish to combat or reject these ideals have, however, been largely ineffective because we tend to do so from a totally Western modernist standpoint. The tendency is to make people feel that they are backward and stupid to hold values that need to be rejected outright. We must learn to begin with more respect for traditions which people hold dear. We have to make the effort to develop an understanding of why these images of Indian women have such power over the minds and hearts of women themselves. We need to begin to separate the devastating aspects from the points of strength within the cultural traditions, and using the strengths to transform the traditions.[57]

[1] Erndl, Kathleen M. “The Goddess and Women’s Power: A Hindu Case Study.” Draft for Women and Goddess Traditions. Karen King and Karen Torjesen, eds. June 1994. p.9.

[2] Leslie, I. Julia. “Conclusion” to The Perfect Wife. Oxford University Press: Delhi. 1989. p. 322.

[3] Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra and Swami Madhavananda. Great Women of India. Shri Gouranga Press Ltd.: Calcutta. 1953. p. 23.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Gross, Rita M. Feminism and Religion. Beacon Press: Boston. 1996. p. 60.

[6] Leslie, I. Julia. “Conclusion” to The Perfect Wife. Oxford University Press: Delhi. 1989. p. 320.

[7] Ibid., p. 318.

[8] Ibid., pp. 318-322.

[9] Ibid., pp. 319-320.

[10] Mujamdar, Ramesh Chandra and Swami Madhavananda. Great Women of India. Shri Gouranga Press Ltd.: Calcutta. 1953. p. 50.

[11] Ibid., p. 466.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ibid., p. 24.

[14] Leslie, I. Julia. “Conclusion” to The Perfect Wife. Oxford University Press: Delhi. 1989. pp. 327-8.

[15] McGee, Mary. “The Virtuous Hindu Woman as Icon and Agent: Ethics and Alternative Ideologies in Women-Centered Stories.” This is an unpublished essay that was used in a reader for a class I attended in my undergraduate studies, Hindu Goddesses, with permission of the author. pp. 2-3.

[16] Ibid., p. 4.

[17] Gold, Ann Grodzins. “Gender, Violence and Power: Rajasthani Stories of Shakti” in Women as Subjects: South Asian Histories. Nita Kumar, ed. University Press of VA: Charlottesville. 1994. p. 29.

[18] Sen, Geeti. Feminine Fables: Imaging the Indian Woman in Painting, Photography and Cinema. Mapin Publishing: Ahmedabad. 2002. p. 185

[19] Hess, Linda. “Rejecting Sita: Indian Responses to the Ideal Man’s Cruel Treatment of His Ideal Wife.” JAAR, Vol. 67, No. 1. March 1999, pp. 17-18.

[20] Ibid.

[21] Ibid.

[22] McGee, Mary. “The Virtuous Hindu Woman as Icon and Agent: Ethics and Alternative Ideologies in Women-Centered Stories.” This is an unpublished essay that was used in a reader for a class I attended in my undergraduate studies, Hindu Goddesses, with permission of the author. p.35.

[23] Ibid., p. 36.

[24] Bose, Namdakranta. Faces of the Feminine in Ancient, Medieval and Modern India. Oxford University Press: New York. 2000. p.114.

[25] Ibid.

[26] Sen, Geeti. Feminine Fables: Imaging the Indian Woman in Painting, Photography and                 Cinema. Mapin Publishing: Ahmedabad. 2002.  p. 185.

[27] Erndl, Kathleen M. “The Goddess and Women’s Power: A Hindu Case Study.” Draft for Women and Goddess Traditions. Karen King and Karen Torjesen, eds. June 1994. p.5.

[28] Ibid., pp. 5-9.

[29] Ibid., p. 10.

[30] Ibid., pp. 20-26.

[31]Ibid., pp. 27-28.

[32] The brief biography of Anandamayi Ma on http://om-guru.com/html/saints/anandamayi.html.

[33] Description of AmmaChi’s early years on http://ammachi.org/amma/early-years.html.

[34] Gold, Ann Grodzins. “Gender, Violence and Power: Rajasthani Stories of Shakti” in Women as Subjects:

South Asian Histories. Nita Kumar, ed. University Press of VA: Charlottesville. 1994. pp. 38-9.

[35]Ibid., p. 40.

[36] Sen, Geeti. Feminine Fables: Imaging the Indian Woman in Painting, Photography and Cinema. Mapin Publishing: Ahmedabad. 2002.  p. 17.

[37]Ibid.

[38]Ibid., pp. 17-20.

[39]Ibid., pp. 173-7.

[40] McGee, Mary. “The Virtuous Hindu Woman as Icon and Agent: Ethics and Alternative Ideologies in Women-Centered Stories.” This is an unpublished essay that was used in a reader for a class I attended in my undergraduate studies, Hindu Goddesses, with permission of the author. p.32.

[41]Ibid., p.4.

[42] Leslie, I. Julia. “Conclusion” to The Perfect Wife. Oxford University Press: Delhi. 1989. p. 328.

[43] Ibid., pp. 328-9.

[44] Gross, Rita M. Feminism and Religion. Beacon Press: Boston. 1996. p.58.

[45] Jenett, Dianne Elkins. “Cooking up Equality: Pongala at Attukal Temple, Kerala, South India.” Forthcoming article to be published in Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. pp. 1-3.

[46] Ibid., p. 18.

[47] Ibid., p. 19.

[48] Ibid., pp. 20-21.

[49] Ibid. p. 24.

[50] McGee, Mary. “The Virtuous Hindu Woman as Icon and Agent: Ethics and Alternative Ideologies in Women-Centered Stories.” This is an unpublished essay that was used in a reader for a class I attended in my undergraduate studies, Hindu Goddesses, with permission of the author. pp. 7-9.

[51] Ibid., p. 7.

[52] Ibid.

[53] Gross, Rita M. Feminism and Religion. Beacon Press: Boston. 1996. p. 189.

[54] Erndl, Kathleen M. “The Goddess and Women’s Power: A Hindu Case Study.” Draft for Women and Goddess Traditions. Karen King and Karen Torjesen, eds. June 1994. p. 3.

[55] Jenett, Dianne Elkins. “Cooking up Equality: Pongala at Attukal Temple, Kerala, South India.” Forthcoming article to be published in Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. p. 33.

[56] Ibid.

[57] McGee, Mary. “The Virtuous Hindu Woman as Icon and Agent: Ethics and Alternative Ideologies in Women-Centered Stories.” This is an unpublished essay that was used in a reader for a class I attended in my undergraduate studies, Hindu Goddesses, with permission of the author. p. 37.

(C) 2005 By Shannon Laliberte Parks. All Rights Reserved. Please Obtain Permission to Copy.