Mahasiv Ratri and such......

2012-02-20

Today is Mahashivratri. It is one of the main festivals  for Hindus, schools are closed ,people are fasting and visiting Temples of Shiva. It is morning but already newspapers have news of people dying in the crowds and the buses crashing in accidents etc  etc.  I wondered why was Mahashivratri celebrated and no one around me new the reason even though they are celebrating it by fasting .

So, I turned to trusted Google and there are many reasons to celebrate Mahashivratri, the main ones being  ; 1) Shiv Lingam appeared on this day from nothing and started the beginning of life, billions of years ago 2) It is the day when Shiv and Parvati got married 3) When the Gods ( trinity)  churned the oceans , the  churned milky waters produced life forms and a very potent poison. Shiv quickly swallowed the poison otherwise the newly created life would have been destroyed and Shiv Ratri is celebrated to remind of the event and importance of Shiv.

I like the third  reason the best, it is bits of truth to it ( even though clouded  by mystery and  religion. “Billions of year” . “ life from water” …sound close to science .

Religion and religious celebrations have increased many folds since I was growing up. We grew up with the respect for the religions and Gods but also quite Atheist. At that time, right after the freedom ( 1947 onwards) , the country, let by Nehru was going through Idealist phase of society building, modernizing , democracy  and well being of all Indians regardless of caste, religion or financial status. It was the golden era of India. Over the years, even though the prosperity for few has increased exponentially, I feel the income gap , dissatisfaction and material desire has increased and so has the religious orthodoxy. It is  almost a falsity that even though the “westernization” and  education is prevalent so is the religion and celebrations.

I am told that most rich people have a partnership with GOD. They commit to certain percentage of their income towards giving to Temples and religious purposes and that;s how the Temples are filled with the riches of all sorts ( one temple is said to be even richer that Vetican…and there are many more like that) . I guess the guilt of corruption and other activities drive people ( rich and poor) to GODS for forgiveness and trying to find salvation and MOKSHA.  Most people will rather give to Temples and spend precious time and money and risk their lives to so do the “DARSHAN ( see GOD’s statue) than give to poor or take care of themselves and family.

One of many Shiv statues around

I think, two biggest business in India are  religion and education. I will talk about education later, but on the auspicious occasion of Mahashiratri , I thought I was appropriate to talk about religion. There are people like KAnkaria Aunti and others who are involved in social causes but the majority leans towards giving a percentage of income , time and energy to GODs and Temples . They feel content about their  responsibility towards this and next life. 

Friends, Temples and Fun old songs..2012-02-19

College Friends and their Spouses

New relations

Tapan: Old and dear friend

Jain Temple in Indore

Statue of Jain preacher at the Temple ( this is a Dibamber sect)

Statue of the same preacher in the shavtamber sect of Jain religion ( different temple) 

Today was the day of friends and fun. Our friends from the engineering college had arranged a get together and a picnic at a local Jain Temple in Indore. There were about 60 to 70 people who showed up with very little notice . Most of them were Jagdish’s class mates and few mine. It was a full day of talk , talk and more talk. Most enjoyable part for me was the old funny songs sung by Tapan Mukherji and our new relative Dilip Kawathekar.  They are both amazing performers and entertained for over an hour with all sorts of fun songs. Tapan and I shared an office at the engineering college for three years. He is an excellent teacher, great industrialist and an amazing entertainer.  He is very involved with youth here and is known as Tapan Dada. I hope to get him interested in the Explorabox also. If you like a sample of his song, I will try to figure out how to upload a video

The Jain Temple is situated on a small hill and has great statues of their divine preachers , beautiful setting and a nice view. A little about Jain religion: It's origin is dated somewhere between 9 th to 6^th century BC before the Aryan’s came to India.  It has a series of 24 preachers who teach a way of complete NON VIOLANCE towards ALL living things. The religion later got divided into several sects ( like all other religions do) .  One sect, Digumbers, believe that the preachers did not wear clothes and do not adore their statues with anything. The other sect: Shavtambers are not so picky and decorate their gods wit clothes as well as give them human features and make up ( see the difference in the two statues of the same god) The Jain temples are typically at a naturally beautiful place and are very clean. The Jains , although a minority in India , are rich and powerful people devoted to building big and beautiful temples.

In the evening we went for a walk and had a nice dinner in a garden restaurant, “celebrity” and got another session of live music concert at the Residency Club. This was some famous sisters and the music was great. But, I thought the songs sung by Tapan and Dilip were more emotionally touching . Their presence , and fun way of singing was really heart warming and brought back lots of good memories.

I feel very blessed to have such wonderful friends even after 35 years of leaving the college. Good night and p to try to listen to the songs, they are precious.( but in hindi) …good night saroj

Back in Indore: Babies and Moms and things...2012-02-18

 Mothers with hours old babies

 New born in donated blankets

 So cute...just born

 More cute baby

 New Mom just few hours after delivery

 Another new mom of one day old baby

 Proud sister of five siblings

Auntie Kankaria with three new moms

I was going to write about the adventurous journey back from Khajuraho to Bhopal to Indore which took us 12 hours to drive 500km parts of which ( 60 km) were on the worst roads I have ever seen.

  But i want to write about the babies, babies and more babies and their mothers. I happen to visit my mother's old friend and our good friend Praveen's mom who lives few houses down from my childhood home. She was doing something in the backyard and when I asked her what was she doing, she showed me this totally inspirational story book thing. She ( an upper middle class house wife with grown up and gone kids) collects old news papers in kilos and sells them to a junk collector. She also collects the old clothes and sheets etc from local five star hotels and other places and converts everything into "gift kits" ( containing two outfits for new born, vitamins, calcium, mosquito net and some version of a  potion) and goes herself to distribute in the local hospitals. She has the system stream lined to the extend she gives employment to several women from slums for converting the discarded stuff into baby blankets, clothes and diapers, uses the money from selling papers to buy other stuff. I was totally impressed...then she called this morning to see if i will like to go with her to see the new moms in the hospital. Of course I was...

We left with two young guys and several bags of stuff ( kits and saris) and went to a local hospital five minutes drive away. ( i lived here 24 years of my life never thought of stepping inside this government( translation poor people's )  hospital ). There were 45 new deliveries in last 24 hours and we gave kits to all of them explaining the use of vitamins and calcium and the potion ( high protein food) . These women just had babies two to six hours before, the babies were right there with them and most seemed happy and normal.
Besides being a heart warming deed, there are several interesting things about all this:
1) All these women were paid 400 Rs and were brought in a car or bus to the hospital from nearby villages. The Government is trying to get people to use safe delivery methods and protect women and new born.
2) We ( meaning Auntie) encouraged everyone to use the birth control or get the "operation" done. All of them said either  a) need permission form the husband b) have only girls and will wait till the boy comes c) if there was one boy they wanted one more. Ones who  agree to get the "operation" done got 600 Rs more plus a saree... Government is using all means to educate the women and empower them , still there was a clear message of "WE WANT BOYS ONLY" there were few who were all alone and two that the husband and in laws had refused to come to take them and their little GIRL home.
It is a mixed feeling seeing all these women. There is so much need and so much 'life is unfairness" going on that to me it seems like the only way to address this by by education , empowerment of women and most of all people like Auntie. Yet, the babies were beautiful and the women were truly happy with the things they got from us. Auntie said they tried giving money instead but the husbands with take the money and use it it get drunk :(

Rest of the day, I have been resting and socializing. Oh, i also did the Yoga this morning in the Yashwant ( remember the upscale who;s who club) and I have to say the Leslie's Yoga in Los Altos is lot more authentic than what i did today. Another observation, Yoga is thousands of year old Indian practice and is called YOG ( meaning discipline) but just a few years of Americanization even the people in India call it YOGA..( i guess it makes them look and feel modern) So, i do not have to feel guilty about calling it yoga.

Time for a nice sleep...good night..saroj

Khajuraho, Temples , Gods and things....2012-02-17

2012-02-17

 Temple complex

 Monkeys and Gods

 Carvings on the outside walls

 Gods

Monkeys and Temples

Got to the Temples first thing in the morning at 6:30am and started the Temple tour along with tourists from all over the world.  There were groups of Israelis , Japanese, Korean and others. Fortunately, the place is well maintained and huge so it did not feel like crowded at all.

 A little history lesson:  The Temples were built by Chandale Dynasty over the period 900 to 1200 AD. The story goes that Moon God fell in love with a very pretty women  Hemwati and she got pregnant ( unwed and virgin) . He  told her to go to the jungles of Khajuraho and gave her the blessing that her son will be a powerful king and he will build the temples and the empire ( I wonder why the sons of single unwed women became powerful in old times….as in Egypt’s Pharo , Jesus and quite a few Indian kings…) . Anyways, the Temples are dedicated to Vedic Trinity but as usual mostly to Vishnu ( and his incarnations) and few to Shiva and his family( Ganesh) . Again, it is interesting to note that till that time, the Hindu Gods were only three families ( Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma) and not the now popular Rama , Krishna and others. I wonder when did King Rama and King Krishna became Gods ? It seems like the poets like Meera, Tulsi Das, KAbir and others transformed them from Kings to Gods….

Anyways, the temples have amazing carvings and unlike the popularized version of the carvings, they are mostly devoted to religious stories and to daily life of the society at that time. The society was prosperous and open minded about sex and things ( including homosexuality etc)  . All temples follow a similar pattern: There is a dome with chakra, lotus and kalash ( Indian religious symbols ) on top followed by panels the Demon king holding the temple corners and of carving on the outside. The carvings are in rows and columns with set pattern of God’s legends, Dragon legends ; daily life including the erotic images of various types.  I think it is interesting to see the openness and intermingling of Kama and Karma in the temples.

Inside of the temples , there is a statue of either Vishu or Shiva and some more carvings. Inside is all religious stories and related carvings. Overall the place is quite impressive and the carvings are amazing in quality as well as in quantity. One explanation for all these carvings is that , one has to go through life of Maya and Kama ( lust…) and overcome it before one can achieve inner peace and salvation. So, one has to go through looking at the outside carvings before you can appreciate the inside of the TempleJ

Near the Khajuraho is the wild life sanctuary of Panna. It also has Tigers but we did not have enough time to go through it but managed to see the wonderful Nil Gai ( blue cow) . It is an endangered animal belonging to the deer family.  The male is light blue …as in most animals male was so much better looking than the female.

It was time to drive back and that story in the next blog…good night..saroj

on the road to Khajuraho found Pandav Caves..2012-02-16

 Going to school on Cycle Rickshaw

 Home of a pottery maker in a village on the way ( the villages are beautiful and clean)

 Village home with Dish ANtenna

 Pandav caves where the Pandavs ( good guys from Mahabharata) hid for one year

 Khajuraho at sunset

Lord Vishu and Laxmi ( glimpse of Khajurajo)

2012-02-16

Got an early start this morning driving towards Khajurao, the ancient temple complex and a star tourist destination in India. The road was excellent, undivided one lane but smooth and not much traffic. Driving on the Indian highways is like a study of Chaos theory. Anything can happen any time and seemingly randomly. I counted things like women crossing carrying loads of wood for cooking, kids running across, monkeys jumping in and out, cows , goats, dogs, loaded trucks passing from the wrong side, men on the bicycles, girls going to school on bicycles and all present speed bumps and illegal toll booths. All these but still we moved along ( I wonder if there is an underlying simple set of rules that covers this chaos and the driver follows that) 

We stopped at the town of  Meyher  where there is a powerful temple of “Mother Sharda”. Our friends wanted to visit it and we thought it will be fun and it was. Sharda is the name of goddess Saraswati . Saraswati is the goddess of wisdom and is the wife of Brahma , the creator. She does not have many temples  neither does Brahma( I guess the wisdom is not as important as the wealth J and it is more important to please the guy who takes care of day to day things ( Vishnu and his many incarnations) than the creator who creates and then sleeps for billions of years .

The Temple was up on a hill and had a modern day convenience od the tram carrying people up and down. IT was crowded as all temples are in India but was clean because they were strict about nOT EATING And throwing trash around.

On wards towards KHajuraho, we passes the city Panna which is famous of the diamond mines but we did not buy any instead we saw the sign for PAndav caves.  We decided to check it out and it turned out to be a gem. This is where the Pandavs were supposed to be hidden for one year. If you are not familiar with the epic MAHABHARATA may be a very brief lesson is required. This is a long epic story full of lessons of life, politics and good vs bad battle. This is where in the final war, Lord Krishna gave his sermon to Arjun ( it is the famous GEETA , sort of bible for hindus) . Basically, this took place about 5000 years ago when the two sets of cousin in the kingdom in north India gambled and the good guys lost. As the part of the bet , the good guys, Pandavs , had to go to the jungles for twelve years and for one year hide somewhere so no one could find the, This is where they HID. The place is beautiful with water fall , canyon and the caves. Great place to hide.

More drive …finally reached Khajuraho around 6pm. More on Khajuraho tomorrow but it looks like a big Tourist place, fist thing wesaw was hotels like, Radisson, Hyatt and lot of Japanese and American tourists. It looks like any other place in the west. Good night from the place of 85 temples from 9^th century….saroj

Greetings from the TIGER again...Banghavgarh 2021-02-14

2012-02-14

Happy V-day from Bandhavgarh. You have to figure out where in the world this place is because I have very slow internet connection so I am not going to put the map up till another three days. Sorry…

We woke up to the sounds of howling monkeys, peacock calls and bird songs  (remember the story about blind men and the elephant) . This is another side and sounds of India. The Safari person was waiting outside our rooms at 6am and the tea and biscuits were served at 5:30am, off we went  in the park for another adventurous day.

As soon as we entered we heard loud “calls” of the deers followed by the calls of monkeys and followed by louder calls of Samber…than we heard the ROAR and series of them. It was were exciting. It was so loud and clear that  I could feel the vibrations of the sounds in my body. Our guide said the Tigress and her cubs are here and are probably eating and playing. We was the mom come by , cross the road and went in the other direction. It was beautiful. But, just a few yards more, we heard another loud call and sure enough a regal, fully mature and  self assured tiger strolled by and walked gracefully in front of our Jeep going ahead of us. We followed him for a while, he looked at us and kept on going as if telling us something and then he just went off to the other side. 

Not sure why we got so lucky but we have been six tigers in three days and people come here from all over and many times stay for a week and not see any tiger. About the Bandhavgarh National Park : It is lot smaller than Kanha , may be one third the size and there has lot less animals. It does have all the animals Kanha has  just in lesser numbers. But, it is more mountainous, prettier and lot more rugged. The safari is in four wheel drive, open JEEPS ( see the pictures) with no seat belts, no guards or rails or any protection at all. The terrain is very rugged and the trails/roads are almost none exsistant. It is an adventure sport ( sort of) and not for the faint of heart. If I think about it some more: none of these guides and the drivers have any communication device to the head office , they do not carry any protection for emergency ( like tiger attack) and they took our mobile phones before letting us enter the park . Like many things in India , you have to have one of three things : 1) Total faith in KARMA/GOD/FATE 2) or An adventure sport  enthusiast or 3) A crazy person like me ….

In spite of all this, I had fun and I will recommend this to anyone wanting to go through the adventure. It is not cheap either but you have to pay the price for protecting the priceless.  Between Kanha and Bandhvgarh, I would recommend Kanha just because it has more animals and less Tourists. Banghavgarh is easily accessible so more western tourist come here.

This is all I have to say about Tigers and National Park….Good night saroj

Road to Bandhavgarh..2012-02-13

We are at Bandhavgarh White Tiger preserve and are staying at the White Tiger Lodge inside the park. This is run by the state tourism and is basic but clean ( with the exception of big ants and other life forms running around on the floor) . The lodge makes the food  to order. It is on a river bank with a tree platform to watch the animals from. It is late and dark so we have to wait till the morning to see what is really there.

Drive here was through the country roads and was full of adventure. We stopped by the home of the friend who arranged all this and had a wonderful  home made food for lunch and then drove on. It took us all day to drive 250 km. We passed the villages with kids going to school and then in the afternoon other villages with kids coming back from school. All public schools have the same color of uniform ( blue and white for girls) and it is mandatory to send your kids to schools till high school graduation.  A huge crowd was gathered in a village, we stopped to see what was happening and it is local cricket match in this tiny village. We also passed by a very colorful and crowded village faire where lot of merchants and farmers had gathered for trading and shopping. Families were having a great time eating and shopping…we had to keep going so we did.

Just by chance we came across this wonderful gem of a museum ( quite neglected and not advertised at all) . It is the Fossil Museum of the area and has fossils from 6.5 million years ago when India was part of Australian continent. It has fossils of Eucalyptus trees as well as fossils with sea shells embedded in them.  It also has the fossils of dinosaur eggs. All this stuff is found nearby and it is a shame that it is in such a bad condition when the forest department has the money to lavishly entertain guests like us and others but  does not have the money to maintain the important piece of history.  I try very hard to not think about that and just observe and enjoy my stay. The guide ( a young girl) was very knowledgeable.

I have to say that real India as seen from these little one lane roads is really pretty and colorful. People are friendly and very willing to get a picture taken J

Today was mostly the travel day , so not much excitement to report. SO, good night and Namaste…saroj