At The Edge

October 5, 2009 At the start of September came the News (and impressive images of) an all women battalion of BSF guarding the Indo-Pak Border [ News link ]. Soon enough a sorry Propaganda war erupted after a Pakistani newspaper reported an investigation alleging that 178 female members of its Border Security Force had been deployed to "meet the natural needs" of its male soldiers on the Line of Control. [...] deputy inspector general of the Border Security Force said the claims were an "insult to Indian women". "These women are aged 19-25 and most of them are from small towns and villages of Punjab. You can imagine the demoralising effect it can have on them," he said.

Krish Raghav of Mint got in touch with me through email. He said they are doing a feature on the 'Blog in India', critically examine the blogosphere and blogging in India, as its been exactly 10 years since the founding of the popular blogging tools of today (Blogger, Livejournal). So, he sent me a couple of interesting questions and I tried to be coherent in my answers. It was tough to be coherent , I was facing an erratic Internet connection at the time and and an eternal Power outage, I was high on lead fumes of a buzzing inverter.[ Five minute break. Believe me, Power Outage again.] I think it may have lead me to go into Dilip Kumar of Mashaal (1984) mode, it's that 'never understood in its time' Yashraaj film in which Dilip Kumar delivered the famous heart wrenching line, 'Eh Bhai, Koi Gaadi Roko Bhai, Koi Gaadi Roko Bhai, Gaadi Roko Bhai.' Here's the Q/A session (I have cleaned up my Answers a bit, grammar and speeling and all, but then the t...

Mumbai, 26th November, 2008 And this was Mumbai long long ago

Rama's Bridge. A subset of Landsat 5 TM true color composite of Rama's bridge or Ram Setu (referred by British cartographers as Adam's Bridge). Path 142 Row 54; Bands 742 (RGB); Resolution 30 meter. Original image acquired on 6 February, 1988 at 4:42:00 GMT. courtesy: landcover.org -0- 23/7/2008 In Ram Setu case, appearing for the government, senior advocate Fali S Nariman said: “If you want to go strictly by the religious scriptures, the Padma Purana states Lord Rama broke the bridge after rescuing Sita. And according to the Hindu faith, something that is broken cannot be worshipped.” The distance from Panjayavar to Ramsher (Rameshar, Rameshwaram?) is 40 farsakh , that between Ramsher and Setubandha 2 farsakh . Setubandha means bridge of the ocean . It is the dike of Rama, the son of Dasaratha, which he built from the continent to the castle Lanka. At present it consists of isolated mountains between which the ocean flows. Sixteen farsakh from Setubandha towards...

The cover of The Reader's Digest in its first issue published in February 1922 announced: THIRTY-ONE ARTICLES EACH MONTH FROM LEADING MAGAZINES EACH ARTICLE OF ENDURING VALUE AND INTEREST IN CONDENSED AND COMPACT FORM. The magazine, now published in more than 50 editions in 21 languages across more than 70 countries reaching almost 100 Million people, has since had the same central theme. The image at the top is of the Indian edition of The Reader’s Digest Vol. 100 No. 599 March 1972. In 1972, the magazine, then published in 13 languages, was celebrating its 50th Anniversary. In the same year, the United States Government gave DeWitt and Lila Wallace Medal of Freedom, its highest civilian honor. In his presentation speech President Nixon mentioned that the award was being given to them for their “ towering contribution to that freedom of the mind from which spring all our liberties.” Watergate soon broke water on June 17, 1972 with the arrest of five men for breaking and en...

The Reader’s Digest was founded in 1922 by husband wife duo Lila Acheson Wallace and DeWitt Wallace. During World War I, DeWitt Wallace, having enlisted in the U.S. Army, received shrapnel wounds in France during the Battle of Verdun. He spent four months in a French hospital, recovering from his injuries and passing the time by reading American magazines. According to one account, this was the period of inspiration for Wallace. He realized that some articles had far more enduring appeal than others had and that the impact of most articles could be improved by vigorously condensing them, focusing on essentials. The idea took shape in his mind: Reader’s Digest that offered “An Article a Day of Lasting Interest in Condensed, Permanent Booklet Form.” The idea was finally given a body on 5 th February 1922 with the publication of the first issue. For this first issue all the selecting, condensing, editing, titling, copy reading, etc., was performed by DeWitt and his bride, Lila Acheson W...

Quli Tomb at Night Last night, I had gone to the tomb of Ali Quli Khan to listen Sufi singers Wadali Brothers and Sabri Brothers . The concert of Sufi music titled Dharohar and held by Times of India group as part of its Delhi festivals, was quite a delight. Reached the venue without pass, but that didn’t stop me or the others who had come unannounced. Everyone was welcome. The concert was supposed to start at 6:30 but it started an hour late due to a phenomenon called as Dilli Traffic . The night was dead cold with chilling winds rattling the bones of everyone present. Sabri Brothers performed first. I heard giggling sound of young girls, sitting behind me, every time the brothers called on Allah in a thick burpy voice. By the time they sang their popular song Khawaja Ki Diwani , the immensely responsive crowd was clapping and singing along. Saurab, my marwari friend who had accompanied me, was all ears when in the song they re-counted miraculous tale of Khawaja Moinuddin Chish...

'Cocktail Time' by P.G. Wodehouse, Illustration by EH Shepard ( of Winnie the Pooh fame ) about Partition of India “There may have been men in London”, writes P.G. Wodehouse about a character in his ‘Cocktail Time’, “who thought more highly of Sir Raymond Bastable than did Sir Raymond Bastable, but they would have been hard to find, and the sense of being someone set apart from and superior to the rest of the world inevitably breeds arrogance.” More and more as one looks at the characters in the Indian political pantheon, one sees a resemblance to the dramatis personal of the world of Wodehouse. The only difference is that the real world of Indian politics, which is often ridiculous, sometimes to the point of being grotesque, is not harmlessly funny. It is deeply flawed in its moral seeting. Nevertheless, the ludicrousness of many of its leaders, their pomposity and pretentiousness, and the inflated sense of self importance of even some greenhorns makes them mimic the like...

‘We pretended to be real, to be learning, to be preparing ourselves for life, we mimic men of the New World’ - Ralph Singh narrator of V. S. Naipaul’s The Mimic Men Road-Song of the Bandar-Log by Rudyard Kipling Here we go in a flung festoon, Half-way up to the jealous moon! Don't you envy our pranceful bands? Don't you wish you had extra hands? Wouldn't you like if your tails were--so-- Curved in the shape of a Cupid's bow? Now you're angry, but--never mind, Brother, thy tail hangs down behind! Here we sit in a branchy row, Thinking of beautiful things we know; Dreaming of deeds that we mean to do, All complete, in a minute or two-- Something noble and wise and good, Done by merely wishing we could. We've forgotten, but--never mind, Brother, thy tail hangs down behind! All the talk we ever have heard Uttered by bat or beast or bird-- Hide or fin or scale or feather-- Jabber it quickly and all together! Excellent! Wonderful! ...

I believe it was Nirad Chaudhuri who said something to the effect: Children in India grow old as soon as they are born. Depiction of children in Indian Cinema is just an illustration. Remember the countless Hindi movies― old and new― with perverse logic of young children singing ‘ Kya hua tera wada ’ or ‘ Bachpan ke din bula na dena ’, Son of India conducting intimate monologues with God and singing ‘Nanha munna rahi hu’. Young Bootpolish wallay bachay are asked ‘ nanhe munne bacche teri mutthi may kya hai ’and wisely they reply ‘ Mutthi may hai taqdeer hamari ’. Angry youngling with ‘ Mera Baap Chor hai ’ tattoo gets angry with God in another movie and in a frothy dialogue declares self to be a Nastik , just as the opening credits start to roll. In another movie he pulls a cart carrying his dead father, recently butchered by a mob, all the way to the shamshan ghat . In another movie, he is a beedi smoking foul mouth young would be krantiveer , he is a son of an ex-freedom fight...

Yeh raah-e-khaak saari main sar se qata ki hai, Naqsh-e-jabeen hai mere, har naqsh-e-paa jahaan hai, Mat maut ki tamanna, ai Dard, har ghari kar, Duniya ko dekh tu bhi, tu tau abhi jawam hai. ~ Khwaja Mir Dard I was fifteen years old when I first visited Qutub Minar as a tourist on a visit to the capital of India. Followed the ritual of buying a ticket of tourist bus whose route included the “hot” tourist spots India gate, Red fort, Birla temple, Lotus Temple et al, all that could be covered in one day. It was summer of May and the spots were really hot. The package also included a tourist guide who kept telling the foreign tourist― the only foreign tourist present in the bus, Arc de Triomphe of Paris is a copy of India gate. My father and an elder cousin brother, who had recently started working in Delhi, accompanied me on this tourist trip. I was excited about seeing the Iron Pillar and not the Qutub Minar. The reason for this being that I had recently read about Iron Pilla...

Mureez-e-ishq par rehmat khuda ki, Marz badta gaya jun jun dawa ki. ~Momin Khan Momin Hakim Momin Khan Momin [b.1800 (01)- d.1851] was born to a family of tabibs (traditional Islamic doctor) that originally belonged to Kashmir and that had moved to the Mughal capital Dilli. He not only learnt Persian, Urdu and Arabic at an early age but also attained mastery in Hikmat (medicine of the age), hence the title of ‘Hakim’ in the name. Momin’s father, Hakim Ghulam Nabi Khan, was a court doctor and could afford all the comforts for his son. His education had been thorough and systematic, as is proved by the embarrassing profusion of technical terms pertaining to music, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, etc. in his qasidas. Momin grew up in a luxurious household; later he was to refuse a professorship offer from a Delhi college because he found the salary “peanuts”. The other prominent feature of this household was: Religion. His father was a follower of Shah Abdul Aziz , son of the...

Mere jeevan saathi , pyaar kiye jaa waah! waah! Haan haan ! Mere jivan saathi, pyaar kiye jaa Jawani diwani , O o! Khoobsurat , ziddi padosan satyam shivam sundaram , satyam shivam sundaram satyam shivam sundaram Jhootha kahin ka ! Jhootha kahin ka? Haan, hare rama hare Krishna Dhat! Chaar sau bees , awaara ! Dil hi to hai Hai! Aashiq hoon baharon ka , tere mere sapne , tere ghar ke samane , Aamane saamane , shaadi ke baad! Shaadi ke baad? O baap re! Haan haan haan, haan! Hamare tumhare ! Kyaa? Munna , guddi , tinku , mili , shin shinaki babla boo Khel khel mein shor! , Shor , shor ... Bhuul gaye? Johny Mera Naam Achchhaa? Chori mera kaam , Johny Mera Naam, o, chori mera kaam O! Ram aur shyam Dhat, bandalbaaz Ladaki , milan , geet gata chal , pyaar ka mausam Besharam ! Aahaa haahaahaaha! Pyar ka mausam Besharam ... Satyam shivam sundaram, satyam shivam sundaram Satyam shivam sundaram Mere jivan saathi, pyaar kiye jaa Jaa jaa! Javaani d...

Jee mein aata hai murda sitare noch loon Idhar bhi nooch loon udhar bhi noch loon Ek do ka zikar kya mein sare nooch loon I had a feeling about these lines when I first heard the song, a feeling that made me go, “Ok! Something miraculous just happened to a good but not so great a song!” My cabbie was listening keenly to the song and started laughing every time he heard the words nooch loo . Maybe he knew what just happened. This is what happened after that: he changed the radio station. But, I couldn’t get the lines out of my mind. Why the nooch loo exhortation? Then I found the answer: The Urge to Fly has done a brilliant job at finding the genesis of the song Khoya Khoya Chand from Sudhir Mishra’s recent film of the same name. The writer at his blog informs us in his in his diligent write-up that the origin of the song lies in the poetry of Urdu poet Majaz Lucknawi (real name Asrar ul Haq). Among many other observations he provides the answer to my query also. Kyun n...

Hugh Richardson (1905-2000), Britain’s last representative in Lhasa, was the first person to mention the phrase “the mind’s Tibet” to Patrick French. Richardson, who in a 1943 treaty gave up British extra-territorial rights in China, mentioned to Patrick French in a letter about “a quotation from Newbolt which I can’t find, ‘The mind’s Tibet where none has gone before.’” Patrick French describes this Tibet as: “A Tibet of the mind, a notion of pure, distant land, a place of personal escape, the heart of lightness. For some, it may be glimpsed through music, or fasting, or drugs, or prayer, or excessive exercise, or perfect love. It is the imaginary paradise, the cool correlative of the desert island with palms, coconuts and Gauguin’s women.” Patrick French looks from the origin of the line in all the writings of Henry Newbolt , but without any success until he comes across it in the September 1904 edition of the Monthly Review. It was here that the poem( which Patrick French finds...

Built on the banks of the Yamuna River, adjacent to the proposed Commonwealth Games village, the Akshardham Temple of Noida is famous for its laser show, musical fountains and also for being a suitable hang out place for lovelorn couples who are always running out of meeting places (a situation very unique to lovers in India). The Lord of the temple house is Bhagwan Swaminarayan, a god that not all its visitors know about of, or whose teachings they might religiously follow. He must be one among approximately (on last count) 330 million gods of Hinduism . Nevertheless, the temple is a huge draw among tourists and the locals, a fact evident from it’s ever jam packed parking. In summers, bare footed people burn their feet on its graphite and marble floor, just to marvel at the 141 feet house of god. None of this is surprising. The thing that is really surprising is: Communist, Godless/godless and “religion is poison” preaching People's Republic of China has invited the Swa...

A man who cannot endure dirt, dust, stench, noise, ugliness, disorder, heat and cold has no right to live in India... The Continent of Circe by Nirad C. Chaudhuri A friend of mine took this photograph while on a visit to Kashmir. Kashmir is supposed to be the heaven on earth and the fact is that it is beautiful. But, are the doors and roads of heaven made of plastic. Can’t we humans leave anything beautiful? Do we have to perform plastic surgery on everything? We tend to close our eyes to all things ugly. It is in front of us and yet we don’t see it. We move around, enjoy the beauty, praise the splendor of nature and yet we litter away. Our roads and railway tracks are like arteries spreading this disease of ugliness. Everywhere we go, we take our ugliness with us and yet we refuse to see it. May be one day we would wake up and realize that we all are living in a big garbage dump of our own making. Many years ago an American professor, faced with asphyxiation after paying a visit ...

According to David Shenk’s book Data Smog (1998), The amount of words a typical business manager reads in a week: 1000,000. Number of words in the Bible: approximately 770,000. Number of words in the United States IRS code: approximately 2.8 million or more. Number of pages in United States IRS code: 17,000 pages. War and Peace: 1,444 pages and the Bible: 1,291 pages. Paper consumption in the US per person at the close of the last century: 2000 pounds. Amount spent on information technology in the year 2000: more than 1 trillion. In 1999, a Corpus fund of Rs.700 crores is step up to address the Year 2000(Y2K) Problem in India. The world’s total yearly production of print, film, optical, and magnetic content in 2000: 1.5 billion gigabytes. The estimated capacity of the human brain: 1 billion megabytes. The amount of Information in the New York Times on Sunday: 1 MB. Amount of Information a 19th century human was exposed to in a lifetime: 2MB. Information per person ...

The first strategy game that attempted to realistically model conflict was the Kriegspiel, developed by a Prussian staff officer, von Reisswitz, in 1824. Kriegspiel, from the German for wargame, was a system used for training officers in the Prussian army. The first set of rules was Instructions for the Representation of Tactical Maneuvers under the Guise of a Wargame, produced in 1824 by von Reisswitz, a lieutenant in the Prussian army, based on earlier work by his father. Today it is considered the grandfather of modern wargames. In 1913, Little Wars, a slim set of miniature rules written by H G Wells published. Little Wars is recognized today as the first recreational wargame and gamers and hobbyists regard Wells as "the Father of Miniature War gaming." In the 1930s, Fletcher Pratt, a Civil War historian and fantasy author, developed a set of rules for naval engagements, known by the title Fletcher Pratt’s Naval Wargame. In 1938, children’s book The Hobbits written b...

Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi released and Gandhi became an International star. Later the movie would be shown on Doordarshan every Independence Day from many many years to come. Doordarshan went national in the early 80s. Salma Sultan was reading News . Sitting in front of T.V sets, people used to reply back to her Namaskars. Ustad Bismillah Khan was on the shehnai every Independence day. Along with national broadcast came: the Antennas on the T.V set and on the rooftops. Color T.V came to India in 1982 with the Asian Games held in Delhi. Then we had serials like Hum Log of 1984 and some years later we got the megadrama: Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan ran from 1987 to 1988 . Soon came Mahabharat that ran from 1988 to 89 - the story of 23 day war was told the entire year and people developed an interest in history. A serial named Kille ka Rahasya made me a claustrophobic that I am. However, that is another story. Surf and Lalitaji were names that glued themselves t...