RELIGION Again

I don’t want to write about it again and again. But there are so many flaws in it and weather I want or not but I bump into those flaws frequently and it forces me to write. FLAWS – not in religions but in us, how we follow it.

My recent trip with my parents to McleodGanj, started on a religious note and ended on one. And unfortunately both experiences were not that good. On the way mom saw the signboard saying, Maa Chintpurni Mandir – 2 Km’s towards left. And obviously she was keen to visit. And when we reached there, needless to say, there also the commonest scene of Temple’s prevails – shopkeepers forcing you to buy Prasad from their shops, plenty of Beggers almost reaching your pockets to snatch some money, even the trans-genders; but that’s not the reason I am writing this.

Part – 1

As we reached the main Temple for offering our prayers, the Pujari reached out to hold my Prasad to offer it to the statue of Mata chintpurni. There were five Pujaris cramped in that small room; and we had to make efforts to have a look of the statue. But I was happy as it seemed that the Pujari was making personal efforts for us to reach in front and pray together as a family unlike other big temples where the pujari’s itself push you away to make room for the others to come. But that happiness of mine, was short-lived. He took a minute or two for the offerings and then asked us to come to the side gate to get the Prasad. That’s where the story began.

The pujari asked us to bow to the banyan tree branch and we obliged, he gave me the Prasad and instructed us, where to place the Chunari and what to do with the other things. He continued his instructions looking strangely at each one of us; my Dad gauzed his intentions and he pulled out a fifty rupee note to give it to him. To this his eyes opened wide in surprise and my Dad put that fifty rupee note back in his pocket to pull out a rupee hundred note. As he handed it to the Pujari, he started begging for more ‘panch log hai hum sardar ji, iss se kya hoga’. I was stunned by his behavior. Seriously, are we in a Temple? Are you a Pujari? Furious I ran out battling the small beggars and Hizras asking for money at every step we took.

Part – 2

On our return journey, we planned to stop at Anandpur sahib to offer our prayers to the ‘birth place of Khalsa’. My prime motive was to visit the ‘Virasat-e-Khalsa’ a newly built museum dedicated to Sikh history; which the Akali government boosted about that it will be an eighth wonder of the world. I was really impressed by the architecture of the building. After witnessing the architectural marvel you will enter the building thinking of a joy ride to the history, but the miss-management and arrogant & un-friendly staff will spoil your mood. Fabulous building it was, but so poorly utilized. Billions have been spent on the project, and they don’t have few hundred rupees to repair the faulty audio guides. You will have to wait for ‘don’t know how much’ time to receive the audio guides which were in use by the people ahead of you. When they finish the tour, their audio guides will come to you. There were thousands of the devices lying there, but all faulty. Blame it on the management or the illiterate people who destroyed them knowingly or un-knowingly; the later one was more obvious.

The technology was at its poorest level, one of the animations of the Golden Temple displayed there was so poor that even school children will hang their head with shame. The Audio-Visual of the Sikh history which I thought will be the high-light of the place was not working properly; two of the five projector screens were out of order and the rest three were not clear. We were pushed further by the crowd who had no interest in this poorly displayed show. We moved towards the 3-D paintings and cut-outs of the history in other rooms but that too were far behind the present technological standards. Adding  to that, the staff was not cooperative in fact very egotistical and rude. At the exit gates the girl on duty literally fought with me when I just asked her to where to place the audio device.

From the condition of the services just in few months of its operation I can just say we Indians don’t know the value of periodic maintenance. In abundance public money is spent on the project and then it was left on its own mercy. Billions of dollars went down the drain.

Please for GOD-sake stop selling out RELIGION.

Academics - Let's change it

The purpose of teaching is not the memorizing of some dates & facts, that the student is not interested in knowing the exact date of a battle or the birthday of some marshal or other - Adolf Hitler

When did the battle of Plassey started? Who won the battle of Panipat? In what period Sindh Monarchy existed? These were the questions which toppled my mark-sheets in all standards. At that time I used to think what these Integral and Differentials equations of mathematics have to do with our lives, and I am still wondering. Those boring chemistry reactions and equations which we crammed day and night, but still got doomed by their fable.

While reading Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ I took a pause at the above statement by him, and was forced to think that our educational system is still the same as the Austrians or Germans had at that time. I don’t know whether their academics has changed or not, but I can definitely say that Indian education system is still the same or we can say, it deteriorated a lot instead of improvements. Recently I was reading some reputation rankings announced by some international education authority and not even a single Indian institute figured in the top hundred.

Indian Universities have proved to be irrelevant or not good enough for the rest of the world. We may be churning out the largest number of engineers in the world, or have millions of graduates each year. But until our universities perform better and create a reputation for themselves, the degrees do not carry much value. An Indian degree is still seen with suspicion across the world. And they are right too, as there are hundreds of such Universities which are selling degrees like cakes; and these so called distant education centers made the situation worst.

In India what are pupils expected to do? Read? Write? Memorize? Think? Socialize? In my view academics have a range of deliverables, prime among them is leadership, Social etiquettes, Character development and well-being. But sad to say, here we don’t teach children even the commonest things – love for the Environment, for the cleanliness, for the fellow students; all we teach is competition. You have to score 90 - 95% doesn’t matter how you achieve it; by putting your health down or your character.

Almost everybody watched and praised ‘Taare Zameen pe’ but nobody followed the lesson it delivered. It’s really common, we like those movies which shows a different side of the stories that don’t exist in India and we want those to exist, but don’t do anything for that to happen. We either do not know the way of value creation or we are unwilling to break down the barriers to working with our ideas and intellect. Be the change, let’s open up, encourage your children to diversify to think on their own, let them generate their own ideas, their own future. There is life outside the Engineering and Doctorate madness; there is life outside the mad rush of percentage.

RELIGION

Religion – that’s the thing which can be as soothing as the morning Sun, and can be as painful as Death. In India majority of the public follow their religion to the extremes. But do they really know the meaning of the Religion?

Bowing your head to the GOD or visiting the Gurudwara/ Mandir And possessing the five K’s/ wearing Janeu will not do any good if you don’t follow the teachings of your GOD. Same is the case with every other religion, you must follow the ideologies of your GOD then only you can say ‘I follow _ _ _ _ _ Religion’

SIKHISM - is based on the wisdom of ten Gurus. But do we really follow their teachings, or is it just the outer look?

Guru Nanak Dev (1469-1539)

Preached the equality of all humans. Guru Nanak said that all people are the children of one God. Guru Nanak spoke out against empty religious rituals, pilgrimages, the caste system, the sacrifice of widows, of depending on books to learn the true religion. Never did he ask his listeners to follow him. He asked the Muslims to be true Muslims and the Hindus to be true Hindus.

Guru Angad Dev (1504-1552)

Introduced Gurmukhi script and encouraged people to learn Punjabi. Started a school at Khadur Sahib to teach children through Gurmukhi alphabet. For the youth he started the tradition of Mall Akhara, where physical as well as spiritual exercises were held. He popularized and expanded the institution of 'Guru ka Langar'.

Guru Amar Das (1479-1574)

Guru Amar Das further institutionalized the free communal kitchen called langar among the Sikhs. Guru Amar Das not only preached the equality of people but also tried to foster the idea of women's equality. He tried to liberate women from the practices of pardah (wearing a veil) and preached strongly against the practice of sati.

Guru Ram Das (1534-1581)

Founded the city of Amritsar in 1574. The standard Sikh marriage ceremony known as the Anand Karaj is centered on the Lawan, a four stanza hymn composed by Guru Ram Das. Guru Ram Das stressed the importance of kirtan, which remains an important part of Sikh worship.

Guru Arjan Dev (1563-1606)

Compiled the Guru Granth Sahib in 1604. Built the Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib). Started the practice of daswandh - contributing one tenth of one's earnings for community purposes. Author of Sukhmani Sahib bani - the Prayer for Peace. First Sikh Guru to be martyred. Guru Arjan Dev was imprisoned and martyred in 1606 by Emperor Jahangir for not amending the Adi Granth, the Sikh holy book to reflect his views. Guru Arjan Dev was made to sit on a scorching iron plate and had boiling sand poured over his body. Guru Arjan Dev tolerated this pain and sat there chanting hymns.

Guru Hargobind (1595-1644)

Transformed the Sikhs by introducing martial arts and weapons for the defense of the masses. Guru Hargobind put on two swords - one signifying miri (secular power) and other piri (spiritual power). Built the Akal Takht in 1608 at Amritsar in Punjab.

Guru Har Rai (1630-1661)

To the Sikhs he proved to be the very symbol of service, purity and truth. The Guru gave his life while serving and healing the epidemic-stricken people in Delhi. The young Guru began to attend the sufferers irrespective of cast and creed. Particularly, the local Muslim population was much impressed with the purely humanitarian deeds of the Guru Sahib and nicknamed him Bala Pir (child prophet).

Guru Tegh Bahadur (1621-1675)

Build the city of Anandpur Sahib. Sacrificed his life upholding the "right to freedom of religion". Guru Tegh Bahadur saved Kashmiri Hindu pandits who being persecuted by the Mughals, but had to lay down his own life to protect their freedom of religion.

Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708)

In 1699, Guru Gobind Singh baptized the Sikhs and created the Khalsa (the "Pure"). The Khalsa consists of Sikhs who have been baptized and dedicate themselves to living by the high standards of the Sikh Gurus at all times. Instructed the Sikhs to keep the five K's. Compiled the 1428 page Dasam Granth Sahib. All four of Guru Gobind Singh's sons were martyred by the Mughals. He instructed the Sikhs to follow Granth Sahib as the Guru after him.

Guru Granth Sahib

The Guru Granth Sahib is the holy book of the Sikhs. It is the eternal spiritual guide of the Sikhs. Compiled by Guru Arjan Dev, it has writings of the Sikh Gurus and other saints. It contains a total of 5867 hymns in 1430 pages.

For the common Religion is True, for the wise its False and for the Rulers its Useful.

Exploring the D of Delhi - Maharaja Agrasen ki Bowli

I want to travel the whole world one day. And one day I will. But before that I must travel my India and to start this I must tour my neighboring city, APNI DILLI. There are numerous monuments and hundreds of beautiful places hidden amidst the concrete jungle.

Few months back while doing casual net surfing, the picture of Maharaja Agrasen ki Bowli caught my attention. And I decided to visit the place, but it took me few months to act on my decision.

So, one fine Sunday afternoon I picked up my camera and decided to explore this unexplored place. Plenty of times I visited the Connaught place and still not visited the Jantar Mantar and this Bowli which are just adjacent to the Heart of Delhi, C.P. I decided to go to Bowli first and then to Jantar Mantar.

As told by Google baba, we reached Barakhamba, nearest metro station to the Bowli. Weather was getting prettier with a little drizzle, and after satisfying my taste buds at the CCD adjacent to the metro station, I started my hunt for the Bowli. I asked the CCD staff about the directions but they knew nothing about the Bowli. I headed out at Tolstoy road and then KG Marg and then looked for the Hailey road. I traveled from one corner of the Hailey road to the other but couldn’t find the spot. Again after coming out at the KG Marg I asked from a city patrol police about the location of the Bowli and to my surprise even they didn’t know the place, but only the vague directions at narrow Hailey road. At the second attempt I looked closely and entered a narrow lane which I left during my first effort and that lead directly to the silent monument.

As you enter the monument a huge banyan tree on the left of the entrance with entwined branches and hanging roots welcomes you with open arms. On the other corner a big stone board with the Bowli history marked on it, attracts your attention. The Bowli was built during the Mahabharat era and is one of its kinds in Delhi.

Enter through a small door and you will notice a beautiful mosque structure on the right and fifteen meter wide and sixty meter long Bowli on the left. As you move down the stairs, as the skyline moves afar and the view of gigantic city buildings disappear; the gurgling of pigeons and fluttering bats seems like they are eagerly trying to tell you the magnificent history of this historical structure. The silence deepens as one moves to the bottom of the stairs. Some parts of the well, with 103 steps, are permanently immersed in water, which we can’t see now. And the visible parts of this historical well consist of three levels. Each level is lined with arched niches on both sides It’s an unique blend of architecture with an impressive design known to have existed centuries ago The popularity of this Bowli, has seems to be evaporated with its water. That’s why despite just being a twenty minutes-walk from C.P. and ticketless entry it hardly sees any visitors. May be because of that, it’s quite clean and well maintained or may be because it is a protected monument by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) under the Ancient Monuments.

P.S. The Agrasen Ki Bowli in Delhi is considered haunted and is placed at 10th position in the list of ten most haunted places in India.

Organ Donation

‘Zinda Haathi lakh ka maara huya sawa Lakh ka’

Value of alive Elephant is a lakh and a dead one’s is one and a quarter Lakh

I have heard this quote hundreds of times since my childhood. Is it true only for Elephants? No, it isn’t. It’s about all the animals including human beings. As they say Human life is priceless. I will say a dead human body is eight times its price than its living entity, as you can save eight lives by donating your organs. That’s nothing short of a miracle.

Despite being a country of billions and billions of people, India has shockingly low rate for organ donation. Globally, over 117000 people are currently waiting for an Organ and there are far less donors. By burning the body or dumping it under-ground you are taking away lives of eight more people. It isn’t right at all. I don’t think there is any other noble cause better than sharing a part of yourself with others.

It has been quite a while since organ donation has been on my mind and finally I pledged it today morning at http://organdonationday.in/. I believe we all are born with ability to change someone’s life, and by donating your organs you are giving new breath to eight of them. And moreover, you become immortal and conquer death. So, Pledge your organs and convince your friends and family to do the same. Believe me, It really feels great! 

Act today and be a part of tomorrow’s better world. Organs wasted are lives lost.

Why I travel?

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page – SAINT AUGUSTINE

Few days back my friend asked me. ‘You are always on the move. Why you travel so much?’

And I was like ‘ ------------ ‘

This is a question my parents ask me regularly. ‘Why can’t you sit at home and relax, the world is a terrible place. If something happens to you, then?’

To this I always replied ‘I can’t. And if something is bound to happen then it will happen while sitting at home also.’

But this time when a friend of mine asked this, I was forced to think about it. Why? Why am I doing this?

The world is a big place. There are around 250 countries in the world and average Human life is 60 years, half of which I have already spent and only visited 12 countries; less than one percent. India has 29 states & 7 Union Territories and I have visited only 13; less than forty percent. Is it too much? Naaaaa, it’s too less, my aim is to make it hundred percent for India and for the world, if not all then at least the all the popular tourist spots in the world.

The GOD has given us such a beautiful world, there are so many people of different cultures and languages, variety of food to taste, enormous landscapes one over the other in beauty and I pity that we are not able to see it all. Scientists are trying to go out in the universe to find new planets, new moons with life and I at least can go out of my city, my comfort zone to find life which is different from mine, which is more exciting, which is more beautiful.

Enough of philosophy. The point is, I can’t sit at home on weekends. I can’t sit in front of the idiot box watching daily soups or news or movies. Instead of watching games on TV it’s better to go out and play. Instead of watching travel documentaries it’s better to go out and take those experiences first-hand. And secondly, I love travelling, specially riding my Bullet. I only need a company to go anywhere, as travelling alone is boring for me. Thirdly, I love living different lives, not in a sense of split personality or something but as in different cultural living, diverse home stays, unalike dresses, variety of foods etc. So, whenever I travel I try to mingle with the locals and try to taste their local food, live in their shelters instead of expensive hotels. And lastly, I am really a boring person, I get bored easily, so I keep on trying new things, keep moving, keep me entertained with new persons and places. Is that the reason of my travelling? Hmmmm…. I am not sure. 

So, let’s do one thing. Let’s go on another trip and find out….. Are you in?

Gujarat Development Model

I am neither an economist nor a businessman, whatever I am going to write here is the vision of a common man. A common man, who wants to see development, who wants to see a developed INDIA.

Last week, I got a chance to visit Gujrat. I had never been to the state before; the media hype and the much talked about Gujarat Model made me think that Gujarat must have got transformed to Singapore or Dubai in last fifteen years of ‘Modi rule’ (not BJP only Modi as it is said).

It was a short trip to Surat, an industrial city, a textile hub and a home to diamond merchants. I knew, there won’t be anything for wonderers or tourists like me. But I had a full day to explore the city and needed to kill time. As I stepped out of the railway station, the site was in no way different from the other railway stations in the country. Litter and dirt all around, Pan-Gutka peek marks on the corners and pillars, electricity poles with uncountable number of wires dangling in and out, plenty of beggars and an under construction bridge just in front of the station worsened the scene.

Mad traffic rush (even worse than Delhi), the Auto rickshaw drivers were really crazy (they almost had an auto stand in the middle of a ‘chowk’). I found it exaggerating when the ‘auto wala’ (while urging me to hire him) told me “saheb aap chal nahi paoge koi Gaadi pair pe chadha jayega” but in no time I realized his words were true. No traffic signals on the busy ‘chowk’ and the people were not bothered by the traffic marshal present there to manage traffic; everybody was trying to jump ahead of each other.  I asked my auto-driver to take care and drive calmly but as always my request was put down calmly ‘yahan aise hi chalta hai sahab’. The traffic-noise was at its peak. Within half an hour of my presence in Gujarat, my dreams of seeing a developed state were fumed like a missed fire-cracker.

I got a little respite on entering my hotel. It was well furnished and the attendants were warm and friendly people. Before arriving I researched a lot to find some tourist spots but couldn’t find anything interesting besides ‘Dumas beach’, but that was too knocked down by the hotel staff and other locals. But going against all odds I hired a taxi and went for dumas beach about thirty kms from my hotel. I thought it will serve two purposes, I can explore the beach and while I reach there I will get to see the city sitting in comfortable chauffer driven A.C. car in this hot and humid weather.

About the Dumas beach; what can I say? This picture says a thousand words. It was as dirty as it could. And beach? What’s that? Either these guys don’t know what a beach is or the so called development has converted this once a beach to whatever it looks like now.

One notable thing in the city was the quantity and quality of bridges. There were so many of them and were in good condition, which somewhat eased out the traffic movement. And there were some more under-construction; but the pity was, no safety standards were under process during construction, same haphazard traffic diversions and iron roads and other construction material spread all around the roads. But in markets and residential areas there was less dirt on the roads and in the air, which might be because of high humidity levels.

In the evening I moved out to book my bus tickets for Lonavala. And sadly the bus terminal was in same state of mess which I need not to explain and the state transport busses were in worse condition than the DTC buses. However, there were plenty of private transport options available and I choose one to travel to Lonavala.

I wanted to experiment with street food of Gujarat, but the same un-hygienic conditions of stalls and rehri-valas forced me to change my mind and I opted for a Restaurant suggested by my taxi driver.

The few things I loved were, the Gujarati’s by nature are quite close to Punjabi’s. Bit arrogant, bit proudy but good by heart; they are very warm and welcoming, they love food and drinks. Yes, drinks…. What?  Dry state? What’s that? Everything is available, you will just have to pay some extra bucks.

P.S.     I am not against Modi, I believe at present he is the best option that we have for Indian Prime Ministerial seat. I know I am bit critical in writing but that’s what I saw with my own open eyes. For me, development is much beyond Industrial or Business set-ups,  development is good living standards, quality food, safe & comfortable transportation system, advanced free medical facilities (at least for the poor if not all), police of the people (we badly need Police reforms).