Eclipse

 

Science is touching new frontiers, but the basic human emotions have remained same even after millenia  .Today is the nth Solar Eclipse , a phenomenon which catches the fancy of an illiterate as well as the educated. On one hand superstitious try to save  themselves from the ill effects, which might bring bad fortunes. On the other hand the educated gaze right into the eyes of the sun  and tell how the fortunes of the star called Sun ,have changed. Overall the spectacle drwas attention from all quarters.

If an eclipse , taking place once in several years can be of so much interest, then why not the eclipse which has covered our hearts and minds be of any interest? Our hearts and minds are now muddled with the darkness akin to the eclipse. We do not care about relationships. We do not care about elders. We do not care about children as we teach them virtues of vices. We smile without and scoul within. We count excellence and quantify love.We are on a spree to gather more and better things in life, ranging from car, gadgets and so much more. We ignore each other while we sheepishly outnumber, outcompete and out win others. Well, if this is what we term development and advancement, then we might have to rethink over it.

It was only yesterday that  the country was celebrating pongal/uttrayan and sankranti while nearly half a million people have lost thier lives in Haiti. People rejoiced yesterday ushering good luck with the first harvest by the farmers. But behold there was no farmer involved in our celebrations. Farmers are somewhere aloof from all the developments which the urban elite is soaking up, dreaming about a future whcih gives them fair price for their produce. At least we are ensuring them celebration for what they did. After we have rejoiced the produce we will go back to haggling for the prices in the vegetable market and then hop on to the nearest mall and change into our serence and calm selves when we purchase a 1.5k branded pair of jens and a pair of shoes worth 5k.

With massive devastation people have discovered one more side of theirs, which is being competetive in donations. So, when poeple donate an x amount they are going to shout at the top of their voices on all social platforms about their nobility. Now the world should know that I have donated something, and believe me I am not here to opt out. I will consume more than others, compete with others and ten sing praise of my goodness and greatness for I have eclipsed myself. Yes, Eclipsed!

 

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Eclipse

Science is touching new frontiers, but the basic human emotions have remained same millennium after millennium  . Today is the nth Solar Eclipse of the world, a phenomenon which catches the fancy of an illiterate as well as the scientific community. One forgets all the worries of the world and tries to save himself from the ill effects which will destroy the person and his already ill fated fortune. On the other hand scientists gaze right into the eyes of the sun and predict the age of one particular phenomenon which might have occurred a million years ago. Both loose themselves into the dimmed reflections of the day .

If people care so much about this natural phenomenon and are affected so much, why cannot we take some time out and see what all have eclipsed our minds and hearts. We are on a spree to gather more and better things in life, ranging from car, gadgets and so much more. We ignore each other while we sheepishly outnumber, outcompete and out win others. Nature is being devastated, our relationships with our communities( anything from the family to the place where one lives) are on the brink of collapse. Writers on all platforms proudly claim to own think tanks, and spit poisonous fumes of hatred, war and destruction. Competition , numbers, targets, deadlines and target segments are more important to us than our own lives. With every passing day we shall invent more potent ways to eclipse ourselves. People die and people create a social scorecard of how much one has denoted .

It was only yesterday that  the country was greeting pongal/uttrayan and sankranti. People are ready to go to any extent to show how good they are and also how zonked out they are, but we will never care about the farmers, about whom the festival was. Farmers are committing suicides for the people do not care about them. Look at people haggling for the vegetables in the market and their face turns serene and calm when they buy a pair of jeans or a pair of expensive shoes in a mall. Now that is what I call real eclipse, and not the one which occurred today.

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Rasmadhuri

I am back from the city of the gossip mongers,shiva worshippers,food connosieurs of the highest kind,renderers of the forgotten folk songs,endless family and probably the only place where time is a luxury amidst chaos.
Title of the blog is named after a sweet prepared by a specialist chef to be consumed within three hours. Same is the case with Banaras where life is to be lived in present to fathom its entirety or else the nectar flies away. If only we lived our lives like that.
I have decided to visit Banaras again and dig deeper. After all its covered with thousands of years of its own existence.

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Roots Run Deep.

S Mitra Kalita, a columnist for Mint newspaper, is leaving India to go back to the US, as she was an American Indian, who had come to India to spend time here and explore her options. While she stayed here she wrote about her experiences here. I have been reading her columns on and off. However today I log on to her article and find that this is her last post for the newspaper as she is going back to the USA. Few readers expressed their pleasure in her departure while few tried to show that they too came back but did not leave and are sticking around. I could not stop commenting. However there is a 2000 character limit. So, I had to jump across the servers and write it here.

First of all let me wish you a safe journey. Of all the people who are displaying their allegiance to our so called great nation , and the people otherwise who show such allegiance when outside and being called NRIs, one thing is common. And the common thing is their love affair with India, troubled at times and rock solid at times.

Well, here in India the majority of us are chasing the dreams which the founding fathers of the US of A dreamed and not what our Father of the Nation saw. All of us want the similar economy of consumption and high disposable income. We are overjoyed with the American lookalike IPL matches. We are overjoyed when one of our relatives is selected to work with a multinational company. We are overjoyed when we add one more car to our cavalcade.

There is no parameter which is not American or NRIan and we do not follow to appraise ourselves. And India/Hindustan/Bharat as a nation is quite older than the US of A, but it seems that not wiser. We are deep into the conflict with ourselves, from the first arti in the morning to the last show in the multiplex we are constantly trying to justify and define ourselves.

With every Indian coming back to India and every Indian going back to the US such discussions will occur and one half will redeem while the other half would blame. Interestingly the very people who have not gone to the shiny, slick, packaged and homely US , might not have keenly observed their immediate lineage out of which one soul, whom they always thank for leaving their mati/soil and going to some far off unfamiliar and hostile land to eke out a living for himself and pave the road for the surpluses and prosperity of the coming generation. How many of us, the Indian city dwellers, perpetuating garbage and litter everywhere have gone back to our villages, the rooted rock to hang on to and get nostalgic, and tried to do something. Well, I have not been to my village for more than five times and was never encouraged to go back and pursue my agricultural ambitions. Now

It is too small a thing to be even thought about. One air ticket and few hours will not change things and they have not changed. Languishing villagers, drudging housemaids , yawning security guards, sweating cart pullers, haggling auto rickshaw drivers, cheating taxi drivers, malnourished village children and old men merge into the very idea called India as much as the sedan cars, popcorn filled screenings of movies, gleaming malls, multi storied offices in Gurgaon, IT jungle in Bangalore, shining smart phones and laptops .

We cannot segregate one from the other. Fate, destiny, luck, hardwork, diligence, culture, tradition, love, greed and so much more have got us here. Is there anyone here who can make sense out of it? Well, I am neither a US returned academically brilliant techie nor I am an owner of a flourishing business or an ever smiling bumbling bee like professional in an ever growing Indian multinational. In fact, I am struggling pseudo this and pseudo that from some teaching to some evangelism to some entrepreneurial jingoism and very confused. All this change and turmoil is painful indeed, but the very first step to alleviate pain is to understand it. And I wonder if understanding will come from India or from Back to US.

As  for Banaras there is no one to beat it in that sense. Banaras demands no allegiance to the village roots. It seeks no back end processors expertise. It has the world’s oldest database management system, where no matter when you visit a Brahmin, he will dig out the names and the village of your ancestors, and connect you with the entire family tree, you would not have imagined in the springest of your dreams. So, guys do anything do not challenge Banarasi. It is off the record, but Brad Pitt belongs to a village nearby called Jolia. His maiden name was Birender Pehelwan( Secret).

Neither genius, fame, nor love show the greatness of the soul. Only kindness can do that. -Jean Baptiste Henri Lacordaire, preacher, journalist and activist (1802-1861)

 

 

 

Banglored.

I have been Bangalored, which is that I haven't been allowed to leave the city which had propelled me towards the journey. The same city pulled me back, rather an angel in the city did it. Whatever be the reason, I am still very much in the city. It has been a year since I had wanted to leave this place forever. As they say," Never say Never." In fact after I had stayed back, I have found myself doing the similar things which I had aspired to do forever. Every day is full of promises which takes me closer to coffee, its plantations and its various enchanting avtaars. Everyday is providing me with a chance to redeem myself of my past, which has albatrossed itself around my neck, and never seems to be tired to leave me.
Nonetheless I will fight on and move on, very much like the city of Banaras, which has always flowed along with the timeless waves of time, which eludes everyone but not the most ancient city in the world. People have left the city , only to return back after a lineage to see the same city beckoning them with the same enthusiasm. I do not know how much of that enthusiasm remains with me, but I am sure that Coffee still interests me as much as the beloved Banaras.
So what if I have been Bangalored, Banaras has not forsaken me and so is my Coffee.

Bangalore Via Banaras

My grandfather left his ancestral village in Eastern U.P. to pursue higher studies and a besotted life. He harbored the desire to do graduate from Queens College in Banaras, then Benares, which finally materialized. He went a step further and did his masters from the famed Allahabad University, also known as Cambridge of the East. He then worked with the government and private firms while achieving professional milestones. In that era Banaras and Allahabad were considered the most desired destinations for higher studies, with BHU( Banaras Hindu University) and Allahabad University leading the way in U.P. However the educational shift along with the professional shift carried on. My father , who did his medicine from the industrial town of Jamshedpur, joined a public company and moved all along the state, finally settling down in Delhi. And now it is time that I carry forward this tradition of ancestral wandering, in the search of life,love and so much more.

When I had woken up from my slumber, it was a whole new experience. I had mixed feelings for the past life and a half hearted anticipation for the future. I started to experience a whole new experience, which was an amalgamation of half cooked romance, zest for work, aimless search for something and dogged determination to fight against the circumstances. Days passed by, into weeks and then into months. Nothing seemed to happen, as the only thing constant was the struggle buttered with the thoughts of doing something I would love to do, which was to be found. The aimless digging of the mental dens and caves yielded nothing. In fact I was getting sucked into the black hole of debt, expenses, frustration and shameless display of calmness, declaring that everything is going as planned.

From nowhere the dead , roasted but flavorful coffee beans came to rescue. It showed me the path. I figured out with my friend S that it is this lifeless, badgered produce of nature, which has been calling us. I found out that I am going to do something with the coffee. The most logical thing is to start a cafe with a wide array of food and other beverages, other than the coffee. Bingo!! Behold, it was not easy again. However, with the new found direction, I could see the creation of a whole life out of nowhere , centered around the burnt beans(scientifically) , rising like a phoenix.
Today I am eagerly waiting to leave this city,which gave me so much of loathing , hate, abhorrence and love for nothing for so long. It is the same process of hatred and constant bickering that has made me love one thing in this world, more than anything else, that it is compelling enough to leave the city to conquer one and only frontier. S and I aim to start the first Specialty Coffee Cafe in this country. And what better place than Bangalore. It is in the hills surrounding Bangalore that coffee revolution was brewed and served around the country. I will get back to this later on.

B A N G A L O R E. Here we come. Though this does not make Banaras any less attractive . It is just that my journey is taking me to Bangalore Via Banaras, as explained above.

Banaras Varanasi Kaashi Shivnagri ....

Mark Twain called Benares older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together.


Off lately I had been posting too much of personal stuff here. It was due to a combination of my stupidity as well as some misunderstood emotions. Now I am back , to post about for what I had started this blog i.e. Banaras or Varanasi or Kashi or......
Why would a city have so many names? Are there others with various names as Banaras has? And the above three are the ones which are known to the world at large. There are numerous others which are in regular use in day to day conversation by the locals.
A friend of mine ,M,who is a travel writer describes it as the hippie land of our country. If the mythological stories are dug out and read, one could easily make out that Lord Shiva was the original hippie of the world, who went on to have a massive following in the subcontinent. I swear the hippies rule the world, and they would keep on ruling it. So, it seems very logical to term the city as the original hippie land of the world.
Banaras is the anglicised version of Varanasi which is claimed to be derived from two words; Varuna river which is a small river which meets the river Ganges near Rajghat, while Assi is the last in the series of ghats, which number between 150 and 175. The city being situated between these two landmarks is called Varanasi.
Kashi ...I still have to find out about its origins. However, if I take a wild guess, it must have something to do with the hair strands of Lord Shiva, hindi word for hair is Kesh. More on that later.
I once again, welcome you all to the world of Banaras/Varanasi/Kashi/Benares.