Nadir of democracy

 

“…in which, not the law, but the multitude, have the supreme power, and supersede the law by their decrees. … The demagogues make the decrees of the people override the laws, and refer all things to the popular assembly. And therefore they grow great, because the people have all things in their hands, and they hold in their hands the votes of the people, who are too ready to listen to them.”

Can you guess when and who wrote that and about what? Well! These were written about two thousand three hundred and fifty years back by Aristotle about what in simple language can be called extreme democracy. The sheen of democracy is certainly fading. I have always believed that Lincoln was a dreamer and like a normal person who believes the whole world consists of people like him he made an emotional comment about democracy which we all read about in school or college and which is absolutely false because democracy has never been like Lincoln described or wanted it to be. In India supposedly the largest democracy in the world in fact in history, there is little democracy on the ground or perhaps too much of the same but most certainly it has failed to live up to the high ideals of so called fathers of democracy like Lincoln. From its inception democracy in India has been plagued by nepotism, elitism, regionalism, communalism, casteism and well so many fatal flaws.

It seems that worldwide the demons, the anti social elements have started to take unfair advantage of the gentle and intrinsic pro social elements of democracy to bring about unforeseen and uncontrollable devastation. Two incidents come to mind regarding the aforementioned first the anti CAA riots and the second the BLM riots. Going back to what Aristotle said and one can find the same exemplified in the two incidents, democracy has been reduced to a mockery by demagogues. These demagogues need not be in power, it is enough that they are able to brainwash and mobilise large sections of people and make them believe in lies. In case of anti CAA demonstrations cum riots in India the law that people were demonstrating against was very simple though what was the intent behind it may be disputed; the law did not at all concern Muslims in India, it was simply enacted to enable large number of stateless, poor, defenceless and persecuted Hindus living illegally in India to become citizens of India. I say again with what intent such a law was enacted can be a matter of discussion but my primary concern is that a democratic set up in India allowed a very violent series of events in which a lot of people were hurt by brainwashed mobs who trusted their leaders fully without bothering even once to check the facts. This is the nadir of democracy and in Delhi made more evident by sweeping victory of a candidate exclusively on basis of religion who later played a significant part in aforementioned demonstrations.

BLM riots are no different and they too seem to point to the fact that we have reached the nadir of democracy. While I believe that so called ‘blacks’ must be given a lot of concessions in US particularly because they did not go to that country of their own free will but their ancestors were dragged in chains on slave ships away from their homeland in Africa: at the same time conditions in the US at least to a distant observer like me look much better for them than in Africa of today. It would be crazy for anyone to say that democracy does not work in US. I think it overworks in US! One of the differences between BLM riots and anti CAA riots in India is that the latter were suppressed effectively by India, I say effectively and not brutally because considering India’s past the government has been remarkably muted in its response at least initially. In the US however riots are still going on and with much more ferocity than in India. There seems to be too much democracy in the US for government to effectively curb the criminals who want to burn the country that gave them everything, to the ground.

Mass media and democracy are intertwined in our times and where democracy is vibrant mass media too has more freedom: however mass media has a fundamental flaw it too depends upon numbers like politicians in a democracy. In a post truth world mass media has tossed truth into the sea and with lots of media houses taking money from politicians or their minions or owned directly by politicians or businessmen this is something which is going to get worse. It seems mass media will give democracy the final push that will make it reach its true nadir. I am chuckling to myself as I mention the two words mass media and truth in the same sentence; the two words are now more like two poles of earth they can never be together anymore!

What is the way forward; I was tempted to say I don’t know but I think I do know a little bit – the way forward seems to be a digital government, some kind of software or artificial intelligence – don’t laugh! Even in a poor country like India and in its poorest state Uttar Pradesh it has started although in a very ‘primitive’ manner and by, hold your breath a monk in robes! I personally feel like Victor Hugo who said ‘...not even the most powerful armies can stop an idea whose time has come’ this is the future it seems for in the last three thousand years most heads of state and their courtiers  have largely failed the people worldwide and democracy too seems to have hit the nadir.

Precautions that I have been taking to prevent Coronavirus infections

Coronavirus infection can prove to be devastating not only for health but for economic well being of the whole family. I have been a medical college student so understand just a bit more than a common person about viruses and viral diseases. I am outlining some of the important points regarding coronavirus infection.

Virus what is it?
A virus is a bundle of chemical in a protein and an outermost lipid or fat coat. A virus is non-living so you cannot kill it. A virus is harmless as long as kept away from human cells. The moment a virus enters a human cell it becomes active. The moment an infected human being moves virus also moves otherwise the virus is stationary.

How can I be safe from a COVID infection?
You can be totally safe from COVID infection if you stay indoors and do not allow anyone to enter your home. Anyone means anyone friends or relatives included. No servants no courier boys nothing; however it is not possible so I am outlining what I do to protect myself from Coronavirus infection.

I do not go out!
I try my best not to go out except for very urgent work! At present the only urgent work that requires my going out is buying medicines for parents and getting milk, bread, butter etc.

For getting milk, butter, breads etc. I buy in bulk. I buy so much stuff that I do not have to go out for at least four days. I write down what I require on a piece of paper very clearly and in big letters and I hand it over to the milk booth guy and then I move backwards all the time wearing an N95 mask, clear glasses covering my eyes and a cap. I also handover a cloth bag to the guy. He keeps all the stuff in the bag and writes the total on the paper, I hand him over the money trying my best not to talk. If you do not talk and the other person also does not talk there is very little possibility of airborne infection and vice versa.
I get home and wash all the stuff in detergent mixed virus making sure I wash my hands afterwards.
For bread packets I carefully open them using a razor and drop all the bread onto a dish without it touching outside of the packet ditto with butter.

For medicines I repeat the above procedure except that for sanitizing them I use an empty Colin sprayer filled with dishwash liquid and water. I spray on the outside of all medicine bottles and blister packs and keep them away for at least 24 hours.

For fruits and vegetable I wash them in a tub with a very dilute solution of dishwash liquid and then remove the dishwash liquid under direct running water making sure that they remain under running water for a long time. I never use hot water that will spoil the fruits and vegetables rightaway. I do not go out to buy them instead I phone up the sabziwala and he dumps all the stuff near my entrance and shouts to me the calculation and I drop the money to him from the first floor making sure he gets a tip too. I talk to him very lovingly otherwise it would not be easy for him to put up with such behaviour but he understands all this.

For groceries I have stopped going out and instead order from amazon pantry or grofers both of which have been very good so far. Both online services have saved me a lot of visits to the market and their delivery is mostly flawless. For this type of delivery I have put one old kitchen dish-stand near the gate, amazon or grofers delivery person phones me up and I tell him to deposit the package on this stand. Afterwards I empty all contents of various packs in clean containers or dishes as the case may be. If there is a second factory sealed pack inside I keep that as it is. I make sure all packaging is thrown away and never enters my home.

If at all I have to buy some groceries I take a list of all items on a paper and then I move out of the house. I never speak to the person at the grocery store as far as possible and I only speak to a servant who wears a mask. Sometimes I tell the person to put on a mask too and so far no one has objected to that. You have to forget about politeness a little bit in these things and must demand that the other person put on a mask.

I never order from online services of cooked food as I just cannot take a chance with that. I have not eaten a sweet since three months now but that is ok with me, neither a cake nor pastry.

Once I get home the first thing I do is remove my footwear outside my flat door and put on new footwear, then I wash my hands and after that I remove my mask, glasses and cap and head straight to take a bath making sure I wash my hair everytime I go out.

Latest update is that after so called unlock whenever I go out to shop I see people without masks, problem is how to cope with this; the answer to that question is face shields. I bought two kinds of face shields one that is just a thick polythene with an elastic band and one that is a polycarbonate glass shield. The polycarbonate has its own use but the thick polythene sheet is more effective. I always wear that when going out to shop for vegetables and feel a lot safer. Only mask is not enough now.

I hope my experience helps others and if you have any questions please ask using comments section.

Digital copy of my historical novel Recalcitrance based on events of 1857 in Lucknow

I welcome all those interested in historical novels and the city of Lucknow.

You can ask for free digital copy of my novel Recalcitrance by sending an email to

anurag1857(at)rediffmail(dot)com

Are we living in the post-truth world?

Are we living in the post-truth world/Journalism in the post-truth world

Is truth really important?

Going back to basics what has always bothered me since childhood was whether ‘truth’ is important. Everybody will tell you vehemently that it is; every religion in the world has truth as one of its basics principles – I am not aware of a single religion that encourages lying and well most of the religions have stood the test of hundreds if  not thousands of years so perhaps truth IS important. Perhaps it is the very basis of civilization which is something I have realized only very recently. What shook my faith in truth in my teens and twenties was watching the prosperity of two of my  relatives; they had been born in poverty their father was poor but gradually by conning people big time, an art they learnt from their father, they built estates worth crores.  I may add that crore was a big number back then. They had occupied properties worth more than crores while we were going from bad to worse so much so that sometimes my father did not have the money to pay our school fees. It is not a story; a story leaves you with only so much impact but living inside a ‘story’ shakes you up. The very culmination of dishonesty of the family was when they occupied our land and it was with a heavy heart that my grandmother, a widow sent them a legal notice. It did not work however and the land is gone.  Truth was so alien to that family; the whole town knew them  and they were notorious as high level conmen. People criticized them behind their backs but no one dared repeat the words when they were around not because of any fear but because people respected them because they could con and earn big money! So moral of the story is my personal belief in ‘truth’ was shaken badly. Imagine if whole civilization started behaving this way what would happen. Perhaps in remote antiquity they realized this and without exception all cultures gave enormous importance to truth – that unfortunately is breaking down truth is the casualty.

What is post-truth?

The word that avant garde writers and journalists have invented for this phenomena is ‘post-truth’ world. There is no doubt that parts of the world are living in such a world which includes USA, UK in fact much of Europe, the rich Europe and literate India. Literate India alone is more in terms of numbers than the population of several countries combined. I was tempted to title this piece to make it look like our media is living in the post-truth world or the post-truth world has been built by media, really the mains stream media but that is not correct however the evidence that the world around us has become post-truth is most readily evident in how media functions these days.

How it used to be before post-truth

Back in late eighties while still in school I started writing for the local English newspaper. It was not a stroke of good luck but neither had I slogged for it –journalism I now realize was a passion for our family. By class sixth I used to read the whole paper including the classifieds. The written word was sacred to us as I am sure to many other Indians back then. Gradually I became addicted to news and discovered that my father was member of a magazine club which operated from his office. I used to go there and  gobble up all the magazines there while sitting in the canteen. No one doubted the written word back then; different magazines had the same set of facts on specific events. Journalists were poor but no one had heard of a ‘corrupt’ journalist at least not the man on the street. So when did it all change?

How it all began to  change

One day while going down to pick up the newspaper instead of the one paper I had grown up reading there was a new newspaper! It was pure horror for me. I flipped through the pages and noticed that the letters were much more neatly printed and instead of black and white there were coloured pictures! However the paper appeared ‘dense’ – it is difficult to describe perhaps it was because much more text had been crammed into a given space than I was accustomed to. Later however I realized that the difference was simply because the old paper was typeset by hand and the new one had a screen set by a computer. I pulled up the hawker the next day and he made all sorts of excuses. Since journalism was my passion I later tried to inquire in depth about his faux pas and well that is my personal mile marker for the shift in change of nature and spirit of  journalism from absolute truth gradually to post-truth and which later on brought us to the post-truth India we are living in right now. Well I missed on the details of the mile marker you must be saying here it is – the new paper had offered to bribe the hawkers big time with gifts ranging from table clock to a television if they could only seduce the readers away from their old papers. It was not something insignificant – it was the marketing department taking over or at least the beginning of the transition. Gradually my old paper died down maybe not exactly but after the change of management and change of premises that spirit left the paper. Now comes the deadly part and this is scary for me too because as I said earlier it was not a story I was actually inside the story; one of those relatives I mentioned earlier ‘bought’ the old paper I had learnt my journalism from!

How newspapers used to operate back then

Back in those days in the eighties certain very rich groups of companies owned the newspapers and allocated a certain budget to them – it was a kind of hobby for them perhaps, they never bothered about the paper unless a big amount was demanded by the editor for certain upgradations which was rare and put forth with great reluctance by the editor who used to be a very academic sort of man. It was to end though but so slowly one never noticed. I had a guru an old timer journalist who breathed and lived journalism – he quit just about the time these events occurred I was irritated with him but there was no place for such people in the new post-truth journalism which was just starting but was yet to reach its zenith.

How money crept into journalism

Perhaps selling news was an idea imported from the US or maybe the UK someone must have done some research on that and one day I will google it but a sea change had come over main stream media. Suddenly the marketing people became more important than reporters or photographers. Every square centimetre of space in the paper was pre-planned and sold with the help of marketing people. There were more adverts than news; it was not entirely new for me as I had read newspapers from UK sent in from there to British Council Library of which I was a very young member. They came in almost a fortnight late and they bored me greatly. They had many pages perhaps almost thirty six but most had adverts; Indian papers were entirely different they talked about issues that mattered whereas even at that early date the UK newspapers had started talking about movie stars and their love affairs and such in a big way. These were still taboo for respectable Indian papers.

Change finally comes

We have come a long way since then, even Hindi papers are full of frivolous news and articles; pages and pages of them; supplements are increasing and so is the frivolity. There is no need to describe what passes on as news in electronic media! Big question is why is this happening?  Question is big but the answer is simple news is being sold! News is getting modified to please the readership/viewers and nobody is trying to hide the fact. Big corporate houses, unscrupulous businessmen, builders, smugglers and criminals have their money invested in news. My journalism guru saw the future, he was a bigger news junkie than I can ever hope to be and he disassociated himself from it all. The junkie that he was he read more than a dozen newspapers everyday till the time he died.

Corporate practices creeping into media

So essentially journalism transformed from a fraternity of highly educated, visionary or at the very least honest and educated people into a trade where wage slaves worked. Next step and the most sinister part was forming of pacts with politicians. Being politically inclined was not something new to journalism it was always there but somehow truth was never a casualty till this new wave I was talking about because lies never sold well but this time it was different as it was a post-truth world. People, the general populace was never and will never be rational or objective partially because they will never be allowed to become rational or objective by the government.  In a country like India where education is a luxury that is how it is going to remain for a long time to come. People don’t value education for some strange reason. Some families are exceptions but by and large making their children ‘highly educated’ is not the ambition of most Indians unless the education is sure to rake in money, big money!

Man on the street not being objective or rational and being a customer of the new media truth was first diluted and then almost killed; I said almost because to make a lie look like truth there has to be a semblance of truth too only then it will be a very effective lie. The process was very gradual for print media but news channels responded to it in a bigger faster way. When you work for purely commercial gains and big gains you become blind, ruthless and reckless. I saw it in the behaviour of some of my relatives connected with building trade and in one specific incident recently where one of my aunt’s tenants first occupied her property and then started demolishing it endangering our house since it was on top of that property; when we approached the authorities they tried to respond but could not it later surfaced that one of the relatives of a senior leader of ruling party was thwarting government agencies from performing their duties. We were stunned to see him surface when the dispute started, we were afraid, we were shocked we entreated the man we literally begged him but he supported the errant tenant fully and we could make out that he had been paid well and was afraid that if we did not co-operate he would have to return the money. I dug my heels in and did not take back my complaints as he asked me to do he threatened me with dire consequences but somehow I stuck to my stand; we were all afraid for months we still are but moral of the story is that the said relative was absolutely blinded by money he feared no one not even the police who were on the scene and watched helplessly. Imagine if media houses are manned by such people what kind of truth would you expect? The same passion drives both earning money fast and lots of it.

Living in the zenith of post-truth world/Radiatapes

We are living as I said earlier in the zenith of post-truth world. Media houses chaired by monied people are working in cahoots with politicians both from ruling party and the opposition and are controlling the narrative. One may argue that is it plain speculation and that no one has proof that media houses are actually allowing corporate and politicians to influence them to them there is a one word answer – Radiagate. I do not need to tell you what it was – it was a nightmare for the country. A nightmare which the man in the street is not really bothered about because very few people if anyone in India or at least in my part of the world has the patience to go through the transcript of the long long and the very long conversations in the tapes. Main stream media was in absolute denial mode about the tapes not even allowing the R of Radiatapes to leak out but it gradually did tumble out; for me personally it was a horror I will probably never be free to think how deep was the nexus between star journalists, corporate houses and politicians and yes the high profile go-betweens. Post Radiatapes there should not be even a shade of doubt that we are in a post-truth India.

Star journalists these days have started living on either side of a Berlin wall like structure. Both factions can be grouped for sake of simplicity into ‘left’ and ‘right’ and they do not want to hear the other side. Both sides are pushing their own narratives which is scary enough but what is more scary is that this rivalry has come onboard social media mainly twitter which has become a battlefield. In this gigantic clash of egos of star journalist alongside their political associates truth has become a casualty. What is even more scary is that ‘twitteratti’ have become camp followers heaping the tweeters of the opposite faction with choicest of abuses. No one is bothered about the truth. No faction is even concerned with the truth they are just there to continue the narrative which they think suits their commercial needs which stems from what they perceive to be their loyal viewers. I must hastily add that no one individual is to blame for this. It is a juggernaut no one has a power over and it is a worldwide phenomena really.

Burning examples of the post-truth world

Take for example the Dadri lynching case in which one Akhlaq was killed on suspicion of killing cows for beef by a mob. The two rival factions of media houses and star journos either blamed the mob or Akhlaq but till date it is not clear whether the meat stored in the refrigerator was beef or mutton. No journalist seemed to have been interested in that and till date no one has conclusively proved what was the nature of stored meat. Star journos were shouting their heart out that Akhlaq was not a cow killer while the other faction of journos sitting hundreds if not thousands of kilometres away from Dadri along with their twitter camp followers said with conviction that Akhlaq had slaughtered the cow. This is just one of the examples of post-truth world we are living in right now.

A more recent incident that comes to mind is slapping of a girl student by the police for meeting up with a boy student belonging to another religion. The video is clear, no one is saying it is doctored still the narrative being built upon and around the incident is whether the girl should have an affair with a boy of another religion or not. The two factions are at it with the vengeance both on news channels and on social media. Ideally the question would have been whether the police were justified in slapping the helpless girl who is legally adult for meeting with a boy also legally adult and the answer would simply have been no!  The comments below the tweet containing video by star journos are really horrific where the two factions of twitteratti have inter alia condemned the police demanding that they be punished, some cheering the action of the lady cop and demanding promotions and prizes for the police team saying ‘Bahut accha kiya!’ (Well done police!) What horrifies me most is thinking how this post-truth thing will pan out around the elections in 2019!

All rights reserved no part of this article can be reproduced without prior written permission of the writer Anurag Kumar

My pilgrimage to Badrinath Ji and Kedarnath Ji

Jai Bhole Baba !

It was at the time of Shivratri this year that I made a resolution to visit Badrinath and Kedarnath as while performing puja this feeling rose in my heart.

Badrinath and Kedarnath are not so easy places to visit as I knew before but realized more so when my tour was complete.

The last railhead for journey to Badrinath and Kedarnath is Haridwar which itself is a great city for pilgrims as Kumbh Mela is held here every 12 years and ardh kumbh every 6 years.

Most of us have the misconception that if it is hills it would be cold and pleasant. This notion was dispelled in our minds forever after this pilgrimage tour.

We reached Haridwar by Janata Express which starts from Varanasi and terminates at Dehradun.

We had a lot of luggage and now the challenge was for us to find a tour operator as I seldom trust package tours maybe also because the element of surprise is killed by a package tour.

On the road opposite the railway station we found a lot of small tour operators. Finally we found one a bit reliable - Gaylord Tours. As there were two of us and a small child we hired a Mahindra Logan as it looked new and spacious for the whole tour of Badrinath and kedarnath. We made our first little mistake here we should have hired and AC car (the car did have an AC but we had not paid for it).

We put most of our luggage in the big boot of the car and settled ourselves in the cosy seat. It was so hot but we expected that as we would climb up the mountains it would get cooler so we were not worried.

We stopped for about two hours at Rishikesh to meet a holy man to take his blessings and tips for the journey. His Aashram was so nice and cosy and full of spiritual energy that we felt recharged for the big journey.

After this we again embarked on our tour. Here we would like to mention that in Uttarakhand there are mainly hilly roads which are narrow. Parking is at a premium and the moment you park your vehicle at an authorised place the police will immediately fine you. Perhaps it is for the best.

We were not hungry but the driver was and so we stopped in Kaudiyala at a restaurant opposite river rafting club office. It had tolerable food but the moment I left Rishikesh and throughout the entire journey of Badrinath kedarnath I practically lost my appetite and survived only on cold drinks.

After our lunch at Kaudiyala we again started and this time it was a cruel journey that never seemed to end. The sun resolved to burn us down and we tried to survive its merciless heat. I asked the driver to turn on the AC and charge us for it but he quoted an impossible rate perhaps because he himself did not want to turn the AC as it takes away a bit of power from the car engine. We passed Srinagar, Pauri etc. all with the merciless sun shining upon us. There was no respite from the heat. We drove on and on and on to reach closer to Kedarnath. It started to get dark and I was alarmed because the hill roads are dangerous and the smallest mistake could make one pay very dearly. 

As we reached Guptakashi it for the first time started to get just a bit cool. I liked the place a lot and so I told the driver to pull up at a hotel at Guptakashi. He wanted to go on further but I strictly told him to pull over. 

We checked in at Hotel Himalayan inn at Guptakashi. I liked the view from the Hotel Balcony but then I saw another hotel from there with a still better view so I asked the guy showing us around about that hotel. He said that the other hotel also belonged to them. So we moved to that hotel. It was an awesome hotel very spacious and rather cheap such a place in Lucknow would have cost a fortune. There was a guy from Nepal there who was the manager as well as the waiter and porter too. 

We put off our sweat stained clothes took a bath and settled in the bed to sip some tea. Like in most of the places that we visited in Uttaranchal they rarely know how to make tea, I am talking about hotels and restaurants that is why I always carry tea bags with me to make the tea darker and more concentrated. So we did that here too and it worked. We were too tired to go out and have food so we ordered some to be served in our room. The food was so awful that we practically slept hungry but we were so tired that we slept like logs. Just before sleeping however I tried to photograph the mountain bang opposite our balcony that housed Ookhimath a place where Lord Kedarnath rests during winters as the original temple is covered with snow. It was an awesome experience to have such a gigantic mountain right in front of us.

The next day we started at 6:00 am in the morning for Kedarnath. We passed Sonprayag by the way where our driver originally intended to halt. It looked a very crowded place due to the huge influx of pilgrims and tourists. The driver said that parking was difficult so he would park the car 6 km down at Sonprayag. It irritated me considerably and I felt that if he really made an effort he could park there only but I did not want to argue so we just got off the taxi.

At Gaurikund the starting point for the 14 Km trek up Kedarnath temple it was rather cool but we later realized that it was to be for some half and hour only. We hired two guys there to carry the child and a bag with some clothes and medicines. My companion insisted that we take a palki instead of horses so I went to the Palki stand run by the government. There a guy weighed us on electronic weighing machine and gave us slips with our weights written on them. with these slips we went to the payment counter. I was stunned by the palki rates! They charged nearly 4000 rupees per palki per person.

A palki is really a wooden contraption with two poles at either ends in which a person can sit most painfully with legs resting at a narrow place in front. Four people carry the palki on their shoulders. These are generally from Nepal. the head palki bearer complained all the time that I was too heavy and that my bag was too heavy and absolutely made me furious with his rantings all along the way. We made a very very steep climb up the hill. We stopped at almost the half way point at Rambara. After this I could take the palki ride no more and hired two ponies for us and completed the trek on these. A friendly and elderly Nepali lady running a small eatery at Rambara kindly agreed to keep our heavy bag in her custody till we returned. I watched with extreme envy the Prabhatam Aviation helicopters hovering above us almost every 15 minutes.

I repeated 'Om Namah Shivai' in my mind several times. I was concerned about the safety of the infant but somehow we reached a small plain just near the Kedarnath temple and my irritation , insecurity and fear lessened considerably though from here the temple was not visible still. We left our ponies and palkies at their respective stands and walked uphill through the bazaar near the temple. Here we bought some dry prasad for in remote pilgrimage places like these one should only offer dry prasad so that he can carry the prasad back home as dry prasad like crystallized sugar, laiya, anardana and dry fruits last a long time. The temple just appeared as we reached the end of the bazaar. I felt a bit choked with emotion. The temple closes at 3 pm so we were in a hurry. It was already about 2 pm. We got into a long line and waited for our turn. 

As our turn came it was already 3 pm . I got panicky. the person at the temple gate wanted to close it but by God's grace the person at the end of the line perhaps said aloud to him that he should allow us to have darshan since we had an infant with us and so by Baba Bholenath's grace we were allowed in. The temple reopens at 4 pm but had we missed this chance we would not have been able to reach our hotel the same day and would have had to stay at Kedarnath itself without any change of clothes or bedding.

In the temple there was a great jostling and pulling and even the person behind us who was very friendly while we were in the line pushed us and got in front. i was still not sure whether we would have darshan or not but we met a Panda Ji who invited us and though averse to getting a Panda I do not know why we agreed to take him. We reached the garbha griha not quite sure whether I will be able to touch the shivalingam. The Shivalingam is huge almost the size of a table. The Pandaji was so gentle he allowed us to perform the puja undisturbed. he forcibly made me prostrate and that way I touched half my body to the jyotirlinga. After this I started weeping with ecstasy and wept for nearly ten minutes non stop all the time afraid to alarm my companions. I made the infant also lie on the shivalinga and requested baba Kedarnath to took care of it throughout its life for I was too weak to do so.

After coming out of the temple and weeping uncontrollably I asked the Pandaji about Dakshina but he was thoroughly alarmed seeing me weeping and felt that a great sorrow disturbed me realizing little that the tears were of an infant who has been teased by his companion and who feels greatly comforted and reassured in the lap of his parents. 

Pandaji said that we should give dakshina according to our financial standing. I gave him dakshina liberally and clutched his feet tightly saying that if it were not for him we might never have had the darshan of Lord Kedarnath. he was thoroughly embarrased by my clutching his feet but I could not help it. I wept uncontrollably and in fact wailed in ecstasy. I could not control myself though I tried very very hard. Such is the love of Lord kedarnath who controls every breath that we take. Lord Shiva has been very kind to me.

After having had the darshan I felt enormously changed. My fatigue vanished. I also drunk the water that trickles down from the shivalinga and after drinking that (which may make some vomit since the taste is not good at all) I felt like Napoleon and felt as if I had drunk Amrit.

I was very much ready now to take the ride back in the same palki that I despised and even felt love and concern for the palki bearers and thanked them in my mind for allowing me darshan of Lord Kedarnath.

We reached gaurikund again while it was getting dark. At Gaurikund we had a bit of chowmein in a tea shop when the shop owner warned us that if we stayed too long the gate at Sonprayag might close.

We ran out at the parking and found a mini bus who agreed to drop us at Sonprayag. Now I was feeling irritated with the driver of our taxi.

At Sonprayag however we easily found him in the parking lot and made our way back to Guptkashi in pitch darkness.

We were too tired to change clothes or eat food at Guptkashi hotel and immediately went to sleep.

In the morning we started again for Badrinath. I knew of a much smaller route through Ukhimath or OOkhimath but the driver would not take it so we just did not argue and proceeded to Badrinath via Augustmuni, Rudraprayag, karnaprayag, nandprayag, chamoli, Joshimath.

The route to Badrinath is much more picturesque than Kedarnath and the dimensions of the mountains are much bigger. It was also much cooler on the way which was a big comfort. There were huge caravans of vehicles and the road was frequently choked up. At Rudraprayag a gate closes periodically to regulate traffic of vehicles going on differnt routes and one has to wait sometimes an hour. We waited for about 2 hours . 

I fell asleep after crossing Joshimath. When I woke up it was raining and we were at Hanuman Chatti. It was dark and I could not at all make out which road was leading where. We had planned to stay overnight at Badrinath as there was no way out but all hotels the driver knew were occupied then a guy requested us to see his hotel, it was in a dark lane but since I had an infant with me and it had grown really cold I just took the infant and made my body fall on the bed in that hotel along with the infant which also felt relived. We put on some warm clothing and luckily a tolerably good restaurant named Sardeshwari was just outside the dark lane. We had a bit of lunch there and the infant had milk. It stared to grow colder and colder. In the night the infant vomitted several times and it alarmed me but by morning it was alright.

We were so tired that we slept till 8:30 am and only then got alarmed that the line for darshan must have become huge. We took some extra warm clothing and went to the temple hardly a furlong away. In the morning I also noticed that we probably had the best hotel in Badrinath since the restaurant was so near and a wide road passed just beside the hotel on which our car was parked. the hotel was named Bhumika Niketan. A caretaker there triples up as the manager, porter and waiter. I was very happy with him (as i rarely am with hotel staff) and tipped him. our driver slept in the car all night and I felt very sorry for him but was relieved to see that he had much warm clothing and a huge quilt.

When we reached the temple we saw a huge line for darshan, did I say huge no it was not huge it was HUGE HUGE HUGE. My estimate is that it was at least one and a half kilometre. the strongest of hearts are sure to lose courage on seeing that line but of course there was no question of our going back so we got in the line. 

beside the line there was a steady stream of vendors of allkinds. Some vendors carried malas or rudraksha or crystal , some carried dried prasad, some cold drinks and some souvenirs to take back. After the better part of three hours we got in at last. We were before Baba Badrinath for such a short time that I remember only his huge gold crown but then I was quite satisfied to have shown my weak self to Baba Badrinath in person so that he may bless me, a very weak man.

We also offered our prayers at the temple of Laxmiji outside. The holy saint at Rishikesh later told us that it is only in Badrinath that Lord vishnu is not in a relaxed pose but rather he is doing tapasya so if one asks him anything or expresses a wish he would be in no position to grant that but he added of course that is only for academic purpose but actually the Lord is always benevolent to his Bhaktas.

After doing darshan and crossing the holy Alaknanda river through a foot bridge we reached a restaurant just opposite the temple and had a bit of lunch.

We immediately started on our way back by the car and drove on and on till we reached karnaprayag. here I tried some hotels but they were expensive . Finally we found a very ordinary looking hotel name Hotel Ganga Darshan which had huge cosy and comfortable rooms. The most awesome part of this was that the hotel was right on the spot of Sangam or meeting point of river Alaknanda and river Pindar or Pindari.

After settling ourselves we had dinner in the restaurant of an expensive hotel nearby. I stayed awake till midnight watching one river hurtling into another just about 25 metres from my hotel balcony. If I had the right kind of money I would have bought the hotel there and then.

In the morning we started again for Rishikesh. Our driver had become very sour obviously not due to our fault but probably due to fatigue. We stopped at a place on the way which I do not remember, for tea.

We then got a phone call again from the holy man in Rishikesh sincerely and lovingly inviting us to stay with him in his ashram before making our journey further.

When we reached Rishikesh I got a porter to pick up my luggage as we had to cross Ganges through Ramjhula and only two wheelers are allowed entry on this.

The holy man was waiting impatiently for us. We touched his feet and he blessed us. I tipped the porter a bit since he gave us no problem whatever. the holy man gave the porter sherbet to drink and invited him to sit in a seat on which even well to do people would be scared to sit uninvited.

The holy man was a very meticulous planner and he had arranged for us a very cosy bed and on the bedside he had arranged a better table than a five star hotel can manage to do . Inter alia the table had mineral water coffee , liquid soap, biscuits , electric kettle, powdered milk, prasad, fruits , knife, plate and well the list is endless. 

The infant felt too the love and was quite at ease. The holy man had lunch ready too and it was really tasty lunch and for the first time in five days I ate heartily and shamelessly. The holy man left us to ourselves never imposing himself. Only thing he said was that we must bathe in Ganga Ji before leaving Rishikesh so in the morning we went to a very quite and secluded ghat opposite the kuti of Swami Hansananda and bathed in Ganges.

It was a befitting end to our yatra!

Jai Baba Kedarnath ! Jai Baba Badrinath!

That Hindus ate cow / beef seems like a lie concocted by the British

That Hindus ate cow seems like a lie concocted by the British

A very difficult topic indeed to write on but even before I start off please consider the following points which will come in handy later

>Max Mueller never came to India, never learnt Sanskrit at the feet of a great Hindu priest like we still do in India and latest research shows he never translated Rig Veda just paid some ghost ‘writer’ to do the job.

>Sanskrit had no script for thousands of years and Devnagri script as we know and understand it came into being only around 170 years back.

            Ever since the so called ‘gau rakshaks’ started doing their heinous acts I have been thinking, like I used to do about twenty five years back in college – is the cow really sacred to Hindus? Was the cow always sacred? Did Hindu priests really slaughter cows ritually and eat its meat?  I am sure you all must have read this for the first time in college. This is very important – college. This is the root of everything I am going to say subsequently. It is important to remember that – ‘Hindus ate cow’ is only in books; neither your grandparents nor the pujaris nor any great holy man in your area really subscribes to that view.

            I have spent many weeks researching the basis of ‘eating of cows’ by Hindus mainly on the internet; you may condemn me for only using the internet but believe me in these few weeks I have learnt more about the aforementioned topic than I can hope to learn in years of ‘offline’ learning. You yourself can google and experience the journey I have experienced but now back to our topic – who really said ‘Hindus ate cow’ or ‘cow was served to guests’ and the answer is - scholars from the west; scholars sometimes on payroll of East India Company itself! And what is more around 1857 yes 1857! So the plea of mainly north Indians who triggered the so called Mutiny of 1857 that the British were trying to convert them to Christianity is not altogether wrong. That there really was such a movement afoot; how large it was and whether it was overt or covert is a matter of a separate research.

            Most of our history comes to us from the so called ‘Marxist’ historians though to be frank I have never fully understood what that means except that until very recently they used to live in a fort that would take no breach. The Marxist historian if one is to believe the pages and pages on the internet, almost idolized people like Max Mueller who was for all practical purposes an English man and in all probability receiving favours monetary and otherwise from the great East India Company. He became most active around the time of mid nineteenth century a few years before the so called Mutiny. Such a man is entrusted with giving us the authoritative translation of Rig Veda. Imagine the glee with which an Englishman would have jumped to discover that certain words in the holiest of the holy verses of people he is about to enslave could be twisted to mean that which would be most abhorrent to those people and to make those people thus hate their past. What exactly was the twisting can easily be googled.

            So fundamentally it is the foreigner who is telling the Hindu that his ancestors were beef eaters much like the foreigner himself. I am laughing as I write this one. If I were to become an expert on Bible and its teachings living right here in India and receiving my lessons from some Dixit Ji not even Christian priests and never in fact visiting places where Christian scholars live what would you say about me. Yet that is what most mid nineteenth century scholars did including the grand daddy of Indology Shri Max Mueller. We live in an age where we do not really understand the hold that Europeans had on Indian minds so it is a lot easier for us to blame early Indian scholars and teachers for being enthralled by European scholars but that said it is time to rethink and relearn.

            Vedas were never easy to understand they never were created for a wider understanding and perhaps that is why they have been passed onto us virtually unchanged from their first creation, by very conservative estimates almost four thousand years back. Howsoever you may criticize the orthodox Brahmins but it is they who have preserved this priceless legacy of Hindus. Sanskrit is not a language that reveals itself readily and in absence of very deep understanding of Panini’s grammar it is very unlikely that a foreigner who never came to India and never met an orthodox Brahmin acharya would get an authoritative grasp on Vedas. Even now it is not easy to learn Sanskrit from a great Brahmin teacher one has to prostrate himself before a guru many times and serve him for a long time before he is convinced that the person in question is the right candidate and deserving to be imparted priceless knowledge.

            Sanskrit the language of Vedas never had a script it was only sound; but very intricate set of sounds and in retrospect perhaps a script has made it poorer rather than enriched it – because it defeated the primary purpose – imparting of knowledge only to the deserving: since post script-ising the language all and sundry can read the holy verses and could even corrupt it. That is what probably happened in Europe. Just a thought! I may add that many newbie Indologists made millions both in Germany and England by getting their books sold; the very first books on Indology.

            If ritually killing the cow was so common in Hinduism why does it not figure at all in Ramayana and Mahabharata? If it was so common to serve guests beef why ritual killing is not there on temple walls and sculptures? So far as I remember not a single temple wall or painting anywhere figures killing of cows.

            Vedas in fact prescribe strict punishment for killing of cows ranging from exile to more severe punishments. That said there are many offshoots of Hinduism and virtually unknown sects like I am sure in all religions; which practice things abhorrent to mainstream Hinduism but these cannot be used to analyse the widespread beliefs. A recently highlighted but by no means new ‘sect’ in Hinduism is aghori that reportedly practises cannibalism but they do their activities under cover and by no means have sanction of Hindus or Hinduism.

            Lastly in absence of any concrete proof even a court of law examines the antecedents of the person on trial to see if there is anything in the person’s life that points at his tendency towards crime and is lenient if the same is missing; similarly does anything in a modern day Hindu’s life and religion point at his cow eating past?

           

           

           Copyright Anurag Kumar - do not reproduce without permission 

Is cow really sacred to the Hindus?

Is cow really sacred to the Hindus?

A very difficult topic indeed to write on but even before I start off please consider the following points which will come in handy later

>Max Mueller never came to India, never learnt Sanskrit at the feet of a great Hindu priest like we still do in India and latest research shows he never translated Rig Veda just paid some ghost ‘writer’ to do the job.

>Sanskrit had no script for thousands of years and Devnagri script as we know and understand it came into being only around 170 years back.

            Ever since the so called ‘gau rakshaks’ started doing their heinous acts I have been thinking, like I used to do about twenty five years back in college – is the cow really sacred to Hindus? Was the cow always sacred? Did Hindu priests really slaughter cows ritually and eat its meat?  I am sure you all must have read this for the first time in college. This is very important – college. This is the root of everything I am going to say subsequently. It is important to remember that – ‘Hindus ate cow’ is only in books; neither your grandparents nor the pujaris nor any great holy man in your area really subscribes to that view.

            I have spent many weeks researching the basis of ‘eating of cows’ by Hindus mainly on the internet; you may condemn me for only using the internet but believe me in these few weeks I have learnt more about the aforementioned topic than I can hope to learn in years of ‘offline’ learning. You yourself can google and experience the journey I have experienced but now back to our topic – who really said ‘Hindus ate cow’ or ‘cow was served to guests’ and the answer is - scholars from the west; scholars sometimes on payroll of East India Company itself! And what is more around 1857 yes 1857! So the plea of mainly north Indians who triggered the so called Mutiny of 1857 that the British were trying to convert them to Christianity is not altogether wrong. That there really was such a movement afoot; how large it was and whether it was overt or covert is a matter of a separate research.

            Most of our history comes to us from the so called ‘Marxist’ historians though to be frank I have never fully understood what that means except that until very recently they used to live in a fort that would take no breach. The Marxist historian if one is to believe the pages and pages on the internet, almost idolized people like Max Mueller who was for all practical purposes an English man and in all probability receiving favours monetary and otherwise from the great East India Company. He became most active around the time of mid nineteenth century a few years before the so called Mutiny. Such a man is entrusted with giving us the authoritative translation of Rig Veda. Imagine the glee with which an Englishman would have jumped to discover that certain words in the holiest of the holy verses of people he is about to enslave could be twisted to mean that which would be most abhorrent to those people and to make those people thus hate their past. What exactly was the twisting can easily be googled.

            So fundamentally it is the foreigner who is telling the Hindu that his ancestors were beef eaters much like the foreigner himself. I am laughing as I write this one. If I were to become an expert on Bible and its teachings living right here in India and receiving my lessons from some Dixit Ji not even Christian priests and never in fact visiting places where Christian scholars live what would you say about me. Yet that is what most mid nineteenth century scholars did including the grand daddy of Indology Shri Max Mueller. We live in an age where we do not really understand the hold that Europeans had on Indian minds so it is a lot easier for us to blame early Indian scholars and teachers for being enthralled by European scholars but that said it is time to rethink and relearn.

            Vedas were never easy to understand they never were created for a wider understanding and perhaps that is why they have been passed onto us virtually unchanged from their first creation, by very conservative estimates almost four thousand years back. Howsoever you may criticize the orthodox Brahmins but it is they who have preserved this priceless legacy of Hindus. Sanskrit is not a language that reveals itself readily and in absence of very deep understanding of Panini’s grammar it is very unlikely that a foreigner who never came to India and never met an orthodox Brahmin acharya would get an authoritative grasp on Vedas. Even now it is not easy to learn Sanskrit from a great Brahmin teacher one has to prostrate himself before a guru many times and serve him for a long time before he is convinced that the person in question is the right candidate and deserving to be imparted priceless knowledge.

            Sanskrit the language of Vedas never had a script it was only sound; but very intricate set of sounds and in retrospect perhaps a script has made it poorer rather than enriched it – because it defeated the primary purpose – imparting of knowledge only to the deserving: since post script-ising the language all and sundry can read the holy verses and could even corrupt it. That is what probably happened in Europe. Just a thought! I may add that many newbie Indologists made millions both in Germany and England by getting their books sold; the very first books on Indology.

            If ritually killing the cow was so common in Hinduism why does it not figure at all in Ramayana and Mahabharata? If it was so common to serve guests beef why ritual killing is not there on temple walls and sculptures? So far as I remember not a single temple wall or painting anywhere figures killing of cows.

            Vedas in fact prescribe strict punishment for killing of cows ranging from exile to more severe punishments. That said there are many offshoots of Hinduism and virtually unknown sects like I am sure in all religions; which practice things abhorrent to mainstream Hinduism but these cannot be used to analyse the widespread beliefs. A recently highlighted but by no means new ‘sect’ in Hinduism is aghori that reportedly practises cannibalism but they do their activities under cover and by no means have sanction of Hindus or Hinduism.

            Lastly in absence of any concrete proof even a court of law examines the antecedents of the person on trial to see if there is anything in the person’s life that points at his tendency towards crime and is lenient if the same is missing; similarly does anything in a modern day Hindu’s life and religion point at his cow eating past?

           

           

           Copyright Anurag Kumar - do not reproduce without permission