Source : Google photo of modern India Synopsis :There are strong indications based on the economic growth rate of India that it is well on its way to be the next economic superpower on this planet. The astonishing growth in the industrial output, power generation using renewable sources like solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and nuclear that is fueling this growth makes India very attractive to foreign investment. India's mega effort to improve its infrastructure at a rapid rate makes the country move forward in leaps and bounds. Karolina explains all this in her two videos here.
The next video of Karolina Goswami gives this assessment on India that it will become the next super economic power backed up by solid data on growth rate, foreign investment and fast growing middle class so watch these two videos to learn more about the next economic super power called India. 2. Will India become an economic superpower? Link: Will India become an economic superpower?
https://youtu.be/vMWaUjn21iQ
When I was growing up in India in the 1950s and 1960s , I remember very well the state of the economy of India at that time. India had just become independent in 1947 and was literally rising from the ashes the British left behind of once proud and the richest country in the world that India once was before the invaders took it all away. India was still reeling from the loss of more than a million people slaughtered during the process of partition of India into three parts , two of which became Pakistan to cause trouble even today. The country had long been drained of its rich resources by the British and others before the British came so the first elected government of India after independence was left the task of rebuilding the shattered economy with very limited resources. They set up what was then called the Planning commission ( defunct now) that set up a five year plan to develop the country just like in the Old Soviet style and laid the foundation for the development of heavy industries like steel mills and the hydroelectric power etc. There was a shortage of everything essential like steel, power and cement among other things so the government put them on a priority list. Massive dams like Bhakra, Hirakund, Nagarjunsagar etc. were built to generate power and make irrigation water available for agriculture. The emphasis on science and technology was the reason of the growth of Bengaluru as the future IT capital of India. The Bhilai ,Jamshedpur and Durgapur steel mills were set up to meet the steel demand that skyrocketed because the government took most of the steel and cement to develop infrastructure and left little in the private sector so one had to a get a permit to get a few bags of cement to build a house. I remember that in 1950, the Indian Rupee was made of silver and one US dollar brought you only 4 Rupees ( as compared to over 65 Rupees now) so a salary of 150 Rupees a month was considered decent starting salary for anyone with some education because it was enough to raise a family and pay the rent but not much else. Jobs were scarce but more and more people were going to school. My tuition for the grade school up to high school was about 4 Rupees a month that increased later to 30 Rupees a month in college so it became more and more difficult to pay for all expenses by the parents who were earning a fixed salary but somehow they managed and we all got college education. Things started to change in the 60s when we saw the railway electrification coming to our city and a huge gas pipeline that the Italians were building passing through as well. This was long before Indian economy grew to where it is today but we could see and feel that the country was gathering the speed to develop the infrastructure. Huge power transmission lines sprouted all over the country like magic and our city was hooked up to hydroelectric power now that the new dams generated making the smoke belching power plant obsolete that was shut down. By the 70s India was well on its way to grow even faster as the computers were introduced in all offices, banks and the railways that made many people afraid that they may lose their jobs but they were retrained in computers so they learned fast that ushered in the age of fast railway , bus and flight reservations nationwide, made banking more transparent and fast and tax collection increased dramatically. India has long moved on from those days and has now emerged as the fastest growing economy in the world but it has also brought its own problems like inflation that hurts poor people. Gone are the days when we could buy one kg. of mutton for only one Rupee or a liter of fresh milk for 50 cents. Now the kilo of mutton costs more than 250 Rupees and milk may be 20 Rupees a liter. The rents have gone up astronomically and the cost of a two room flat in a big city costs hundreds of thousands of Rupees. Karolina speaks about all these things in her two videos above but I just wanted to write about my own experience as well. The foreign exchange dollars were very tightly controlled by the government so I was given only USD 7.50 to carry when I first left India in 1967 which was not enough to pay for anything so one had to be received at a foreign airport . Now I understand that there are no such limits as India has grown huge in its economy and its foreign dollar reserve is high so you can buy as much dollar as you need but not as much as you want. Still it is better now and people are enjoying a much higher quality of life than before. There are brand new malls in most cities and towns and more are coming up fast everywhere. There are metros in all major cities now and roads and new super highways are being built at fantastic speed using modern machines and technology. New airports, new hospitals, schools, colleges and university have sprouted all over the country like mushrooms. There is a huge proliferation of technical colleges and medical colleges that educate millions. But all these development come at a price. The government now has billions to spend on the infrastructure because the country is richer but now I see every one rushing to make more money and have no time to say hello. The social interaction has taken a backseat but long ago it was not so when people stopped by and asked how are you. I suppose all countries that go through the pangs of birth and growth face somewhat similar situation so people have become more unsocial and more self centered in big cities. The small towns still manage to keep their old character to some extent but they too will lose it as they develop . It is just a matter of time when old people will die alone in their homes and the neighbors will ignore the stench like in some developed countries where they do not know their neighbors or do not care to know. In the mad rush to develop India , it may lose its soul and just become glittering glass and concrete cities with modern everything but no humanity. I still remember the old India where we made friends and played with, could watch Laurel Hardy and Chaplin movies together , go fishing in the river and enjoyed communal festivals like Holi and Durga Pooja together, visited each other and their parents gave us sweets as a treat. I remember the clutter free roads when there were few cars and trucks so we felt safe riding our bicycles. I remember riding in trains where the passengers offered us food and chatted but now it is all glitter and fast trains where people peer at their cell phones all the time or listen to Internet music through their headphones. People definitely have become more unfriendly and aloof not to mention arrogant because they are richer. I like modern India as it is making life easier for many but I also miss old India but that is the price we all have to pay in the 21st century to become the economic superpower.
Source : Google photo of ISRO launching rockets from Sri Harikota Space center. Synopsis:Indian Space Research organization which is called ISRO in short continues to make history in space science and research that surprises the world that underestimates India's capability in space and often derides its focus on space when the money could be spent on other pressing needs. This video of Karolina shows the truth and why India is so advanced in space. Recently India launched 104 satellites into space in a single rocket that broke all records of such effort putting India far ahead of any country that has a space exploration capability including NASA. (most of those satellites belong to the US and the rest from many countries including the biggest and the heaviest one from India itself) The complex technology, science and advance mathematics to achieve this success is beyond the understanding and the ability of most countries that puts India in the elite club of space exploration but it is not India's first success. India sent a satellite to Mars that takes high definition photos and videos of the Martian surface and does many scientific observations and did so in its very first attempt that no country has succeeded in doing so far in their first attempt. What is remarkable here is the fact that India sends satellites and orbiters into space at 1/10th the cost of NASA and other countries that have such capabilities making Indian space effort an economic success story because it attracts clients worldwide who want to benefit from it . This is the reason why so many countries sent their satellites including USA to India to be sent to space from there and more countries are lining up to do the same. India now plans to send mission to Jupiter and Saturn in the future and has already sent a rover to Moon that takes photos and videos and relays them back to India in real time. But the reason why India took to space to develop its own capabilities was because when asked for help from the USA to get satellite coverage during the Pakistan conflicts, USA refused so India decided to make its own satellites. It is the only country in the world that has its own satellite coverage like that of the GPS and monitors, scans and sends live data back of photos, videos and collects such information continuously. These Indian satellites predict weather, see the glacier melt downs in the Himalayas, monitor wild fires, the forest cover, the pollution level in the atmosphere, land and water from space and numerous other data including that of the defense and offense capabilities of its neighbors in real time. Indian ISRO is a big organization that employs thousands of the best scientists in India who work tirelessly to achieve success after success surprising the world. Karolina Goswami explains in the video here why it is not surprising that India is a leader in the space research and exploration at low cost and doing it most efficiently. It does so on its own and does not borrow any such technology from other countries . It has developed its own designed and built powerful rockets that take enormous payloads into space flawlessly time and again. It has developed and sent into space a reusable shuttle that can deliver satellites etc. into space and then return to earth to be used again. Those in the western news media who deride India's expenses in space do so out of sheer ignorance of the Indian economy that is now a multi trillion dollar economy and continues to grow at the fastest rate in the world. India spends money in ISRO to develop its own capabilities and also to make money as a business that attracts worldwide clients to make ISRO self sufficient fiscally. Mostly India does it to be self reliant in such technology using its own scientists and resources because NASA refused to help when India needed it. It is quite ironical that now the same NASA is eager to participate in the ISRO programs and sends its satellites to be launched by ISRO at a much lower cost. So watch this video of Karolina Goswami and learn more about the wonderful story of ISRO and what it plans to do in the future. Link : ISRO launches 104 satellites in one shot
https://youtu.be/2CkOlO_hLyM Note : Just click on the link to go directly to the video
India is a technologically advanced nation that builds its own aircrafts, ships and submarines for defense purposes and spends enormous sums in its Defense and Research Development Organization called DRDO to develop its ability to defend the country at any time from any threat from land, sea or air but that may be another blog in the future.
Source : Google photo of Karolina Goswami Synopsis : India is a world unto itself .There is always something new and exciting about a vast country like India that the world knows little about . Karolina Goswami , a native of Poland will take you on a tour of India like only she can and explain in the four videos presented here various interesting topics. 1.In this video Karolina Goswami explains what is beautiful about India. Link : Why I love India
https://youtu.be/aV_9fd-XZCs
2 .In this video she explains the role the non residents Indians play in other countries.
3. In this video Karolina talks about the health and medical coverage in India and how India takes care of sick and the poor in the most wonderful way. Link : How India cares for its sick and poor
https://youtu.be/jkpAkTwoOb0
4. In this video she talks about the future of Indian economy
Karolina Goswami is a phenomenon by herself who has taken the task of educating the world about India in a most beautiful, cogent and impressive way with her detailed facts based and insightful videos in her charming and beautiful way in her lilting accent. It does not hurt that she is so pretty but she is very direct and does not mince her words. She has won the hearts of millions around the world who are eager for her presentations on numerous subjects in India. She encourages all of you readers to share her videos to educate others about an Incredible country called India. I have written numerous blogs on India and its personalities , its heroes and its history but no one can come near Karolina when it comes to presenting the truth about a greatly misunderstood country called India thanks to the negative international press that spreads disinformation and passes it on as the truth. I present a few of her numerous videos here so that you readers will get to know India that is modernizing fast and is on her way to be the dominant economy in the near future. India is not just a beautiful country with endless possibilities but it is much more than that you will learn from her videos. Share her videos with people who want to know about India and see for the first time what an incredible country India really is.
The legacy of the British Raaj in India Source : Google photo of Jalianwala bagh massacre Synopsis : The legacy of the British Raj in India is a reminder of what price the Indians paid in lives and riches to make England prosper that made India poor and in need of help. Today India has risen again to be a powerful country where its economy is the fastest growing in the world. This story is better told by Karolina and Shashi Tharoor so I include their videos in this blog. I know it is hard to write this blog because it evokes a very painful past that left a dark stain in the annals of history books and put a great country like India in state of destitution just because of the greed of a country called England. It is a subject that brings to light a very stressful period in the history of India that most of us would rather not talk about or write about since the country called India has moved on to become the fastest growing economy in the world. I was just a child when the British left in 1947 but the older generation knew all about the British Raj because they lived during the colonial era and my father worked as an accountant for the Raj for which he received a silver medal minted in London for him with his name engraved on the rim for his great service to the Raaj. But if you ask anyone in India who is less than 70 years old as most Indians are, they will tell you that they only heard what their parents and grandparents told them which was not much. If you ask anyone in England today, they will probably say the same thing because the colonial era ended long before they were born. Besides who reads history books to learn about the past these days? All they know about India is what the news channels and the papers tell them which is mostly negative like India is very poor, very dirty, where people sleep on the sidewalks and defecate out in the open. They are told that India is full of untouchables, slums, caste prejudices and high population. This is the narrative that sells their newspapers and gets viewers to watch their TV news so people are very surprised to learn that India is on the road to become the second most important economy in the world in the near future surpassing the US. There is an infrastructure revolution in progress there because its speed and scale boggles the mind. I will paste a link to a video here where Karolina Goswami talks about it that is worth watching. Watch "Why is the international media unfair to India? - by Karolina Goswami" on YouTube Karolina Goswami on India
I never met any British in India but I heard plenty from my mother and a little from my father. She told me that millions of people starved to death in Bengal when she was young but my parents survived because my father being a British employee received rations. People begged for only the rice water that women threw away after cooking the rice so it was very painful for my mother to watch our countrymen and women dying of starvation. But the world does not know that this artificial shortage was created by the British. They turned away the ships from Australia loaded with food grains from the docks of Kolkata and sent the shipment to England to make huge buffer stocks there. The world does not know how India suffered during the colonial period but one can see a glimpse of it in the movie “ A passage to India” that is worth watching. India has been subjugated by outsiders since Mehmud Ghory invaded Delhi and defeated the last Hindu King Prithviraj Chauhan in 1193 but that is a story I already wrote in a previous blog. Taimur the lame, Alauddin Khilji, the Lodis, the Delhi Sultans one after the other were all invaders who shed Indian blood with abandon until the Mughals came to set up their dynasty starting with Babur that lasted over three hundred and fifty years until the British came to set up their colony. Then there were Portuguese and French as well to get a toe hold in some parts but it was the British who ruled most of India for several hundred years until Netaji Bose became the cause of their downfall but that story too has been told in my previous blogs so I will not repeat it here. I believe that no country can just move on forgetting their past or ignoring it because the past history had a decisive influence on what made the Indian people so resilient. Just ask any old Chinese if he remembers the horrors of Nanjing massacre by the Japanese or any Filipino the horrors of Bataan and the sufferings during the last war and they will be very reluctant to talk about it because it brings back painful memories that they prefer not to talk about. It is the same in India for the very old people who remember the massacre in Jalianwala bagh, the public hangings of Indians who defied the British, the torture and beatings in Andaman jails of freedom fighters and the repression by the colonial masters who put signboards outside their clubs saying “Dogs and Indians not allowed here”. India today is not the same country of yesteryear because so much time has passed and a whole new generation has grown up knowing nothing first hand of the era known as the British Raaj. The government provides cheap food grains to all Indians using massive subsidy and has built a nationwide grain storage facility in every district of the country that is connected by rail so the specter of famine is an unknown idea now. From being a net importer of food after the independence, it has become a net exporter of food. Dr.Tharoor speaks eloquently about the repression and the greed of the British during their Raj in great detail so I will not write about it just to repeat it. The two videos posted here are self-explanatory so I will encourage you to watch it in order to learn something about India that the outside world knows so little of. Here I just want to present my own thoughts on the subject because I care about our past history and have posted numerous blogs on various subjects in India. The last two blogs called A legend called Padmini and a Story of great valor and courage are an eye opener on the subject of India and our great heroes. In the annals of history of mankind, there has always been invasion, wars, mass slaughter of people, subjugation and forced conversion to the religions of the invaders . India suffered horrendous brutality in their hands for almost a thousand years that left its imprint on its psyche in a way that those who were never invaded and occupied with the cruelty will find it hard to understand. If you visit India today, you will see the graves, monuments and massive forts everywhere reminding you of the past. There are names, road signs and victory towers like Qutub Minar in Delhi and the massive Red Fort that was the seat of the Mughal power for centuries. The British names of streets and roads have all been systematically removed like the marble statues of British Kings and queens or the viceroys but I saw them as a child and remember the huge statue of Queen Victoria in our city park. As India has moved on, it wants to look forward to great progress nationwide so I can understand why people don’t talk so much about the past because to them the past colonial period has lost its relevance. There are cemeteries where thousands of British are buried but people pass by without so much as a glance because it does not matter to them. The British designed and built numerous public buildings like churches and libraries , the university, the high court, the parks and other great buildings and monuments that are scattered all over the country but people don’t stop to look at them. The great steel bridge that I used to cross everyday going to college has the Liverpool emblem on its spans that no one stops to read because now there are more modern and great bridges built by the Indian engineers. People snicker at the antiquated railways the British built so long ago which still exists in some parts because now people are used to modern and lavish trains and are soon going to travel in Bullet trains and hyper loop that are under construction. The telegraph poles I used to see by the railway lines are now obsolete in the age of instant messaging service, free skype and e mails so no one bothers to even look at those pathetic poles. India is undergoing a massive transformation through its mega infrastructure development at a speed that has made it a technology development leader in IT. The new highways, airports, electrified railway lines unifying the whole country from Kashmir to KanyaKumari , high speed trains, metro lines in every major city,the new hospitals, schools and colleges , the massive power generation using nuclear, solar, wind ,hydro and geothermal sources, the development of dedicated rail corridors for moving freight, the self-sufficiency in food and storage all over the country, the magical improvement in education , ease of connectivity etc. are too numerous to list here but all are leading India to develop fast . Karolina Goswamy talks about it in some detail in her video that is very educative to those outside India who are unaware. But the past history cannot be erased even if the colonizers like the British choose to ignore it or pay scant attention to it to keep the new generation ignorant willfully. The deprecating comments on India when it sent its spacecraft to Mars on its very first attempt shows how ignorant most people are about India and the progress it has made in almost every sphere of science and technology, in agriculture, in industries and economy but this blog is about what the British Raj did to India to enrich itself that left it poor, downtrodden and desperate in 1947. The video of Shashi Tharoor here explains in detail the legacy of the British Raj . Shashi Tharoor on legacy of the British Raj https://youtu.be/VcWc7WqcS5M
The cost of lost lives in millions, the systematic loot of the treasures of India, the suppression of its industries and agriculture etc. cannot be estimated in dollar terms today but it brought a once proud and very civilized country like India to its knees due to the rapacity and greed of the British for its riches. It was called the jewel in the crown of the British empire for good reasons. It was the same reason why so many invaders came to India .They had all heard of its riches. The Muslim invasion is perhaps the most notorious because it lasted so long and forced its religion and culture on peace loving Indians that still results in hatred in the hearts of most if not all Indians so communal religion based clashes still occur. But the British who introduced contemporary technologies like railways, telegraph and such overlook the fact that they did so to harvest India’s resources more efficiently to enrich and develop England and not to help India grow as a nation with prosperity. The British paid a price to do so as I have written in my blog called The price they paid that may be worth a look but it made England richer and left India destitute. This sad and pitiful loot of India cannot be ignored or forgotten by anyone. Someone said that if you do not know where you came from then you will not know where you are going. I know one thing for sure. It made India more determined to regain her eminent position in the world as the technologically advanced nation with superb development in science , technology and agriculture but also as the spiritual leader that gave the world Geeta and the wisdom of Vedas. All the invaders including the British could not break the indomitable spirit of India that guides it today because the Indians are resilient. They have stood up to face all challenges in the past and present to bring what is good in India to enrich the humanity. The legacy of the British Raj is perhaps fading in the collective memory of the Indians, the British and the rest of the world but it made Indians work harder to remake their country just like the Japanese after the Nagasaki and Hiroshima and the Chinese after Nanjing. People should never forget the past.
Synopsis :Some people have to die in the most painful manner before they become a legend that people talk about for centuries. Queen Padmini of Chittorgarh in Rajasthan was such a person who gave her life to preserve her honor and dignity than to submit to the sultan Alauddin Khilji of Delhi for his depravity. This is her painful story. Source : Google painting of queen Padmini I have always wanted to write about Queen Padmini but hesitated to bring forth her story to the world although every Indian child knows about her. People shed tears when they see the movie made of her called Padmavati that was finally released in India after a lot of controversy and protest because her sacrifice was too graphic and brings back very painful memories of Muslim atrocities of the past in vivid detail. Her story dates back to 13th century Kingdom of Mewar in Rajasthan where king Ratan Singh ruled from the fort of Chittor. He had married Padmini after hearing about her exceptional beauty but her fame as a most beautiful queen spread far and wide in India. When Ratan Singh banished a Brahmin courtier named Raghav Chetan for fraud and black magic , he went to the court of the notorious sultan of Delhi Alauddin Khilji in revenge and told him about the exceptionally beautiful Padmavati. Khilji who laid siege of the fort of Chittor in 1303 became obsessed with the queen and wanted to bring her back to Delhi as his concubine but first he had to conquer the impregnable fortress called Chittor. Raghav Chetan had put a curse on the fort of Chittor saying that much blood will be spilled there. Sadly his curse came true. Source : Google painting of Alauddin Khilji and as portrayed in the movie Alauddin at first wanted to see her but a Rajput queen could not be seen by a man let alone a Muslim invader so a compromise was reached that her reflection in a mirror could be allowed. Alauddin after seeing her reflection became more obsessed and used deceit to lure the king Ratan Singh out of the fort that Khilji had failed to conquer after nearly six months of siege. His rations for his huge army were running low and his troops were restless so he took the king captive to force the queen Padmini to surrender to him. Padmini then told Khilji that she will come with a retinue of her maids in hundreds of palanquins that she filled with her fiercest warriors dressed in disguise and rescued her husband before the Muslim guards knew what was happening. Once inside the fort, the doors were bolted. Khilji then attacked the fort with all his might and finally overcame the resistance but once inside, he saw nothing but death and the stench of burning flesh. Source : Google painting of Queen Padmini burning in fire Padmini had vowed that no one will ever defile her and take her by force so true to her Rajput creed, she decided to jump into the fierce flame and turned herself into ash. This act of bravery is called jauhar that became the exalted tradition of Rajput women when they knew that their warriors had lost a battle and they were in danger of being enslaved and raped so committed suicide. It is said that thousands of women inside the fort of Chittor committed jauhar and immolated themselves on that fateful day in 1303. The huge pit of fire where the women jumped to their agonizing death was where the queen was the first to jump. People even today fear to visit the place and say that shrieks of women crying in pain while they burned alive are heard in the pit during the total darkness of the moonless sky. Some hear horses galloping and others talk of hearing the chime of ankle ornaments women wore and still wear in Rajasthan today. This is the painful legacy of a very beautiful queen who only wanted to serve her people in a true Rajput way but gave her life to protect her honor and dignity. Her warriors gave a good account of themselves as only Rajput warriors could and killed over 20000 Muslim soldiers but they were no match for the huge well equipped army of Khilji and died in the process to the last man including Ratan Singh Chauhan himself. Khilji had taken the fort but at a terrible cost to his army only to find ashes of the burning queen inside and went back to Delhi utterly disappointed. By the 20th century, Rajput Hindu women of Rajasthan characterized Padmini as a historical figure who exemplifies Rajput womanhood. Hindu activists have characterized her as a chaste Hindu woman, and her suicide as a heroic act of resistance against the invader Khilji. She has been admired for her character, her willingness to commit jauhar instead of being humiliated and enslaved by Muslims, as a symbol of bravery and an exemplar like Meera. Alauddin Khilji ruled his sultanate with cruelty, murder and mayhem the same way he came to power. He was totally ruthless and a fanatic Muslim who saw himself entitled to anything he desired including Padmini but he failed. His undecorated rectangular and a very sorry looking grave near the Qutub Minar in Delhi is a testament to his failed and sad legacy of a cruel and despotic ruler who was obsessed with sex and power. He ordered a tower that would be higher than Qutub Minar but it was never finished and its ruin can be seen near the Qutub Minar. Source : Google photo of the undecorated and crude grave of Alauddin Khilji in the Qutub Minar complex in Delhi. Source : Google photo of unfinished Alai Minar of Khilji that promised to be taller than the Qutub Minar nearby. Padmini on the other hand became a legend during her time that every Rajput and Hindu woman aspired to follow her example. She remains today a national heroine of extraordinary courage who exemplified all womanhood in India with her moral ascendancy over the enemy and showed the world that her self-respect and dignity was worth dying for even in the most brutal way. Source : Google photo of Chittor fort in Rajasthan .It is a haunted place now. Chittor fort today is a haunted place millions of tourists visit. They wander through its grounds and empty shells of once luxurious palaces of kings and queens. They visit the palace of Padmini and the stairs in the tunnel that leads them to the jauhar pit where Padmini burned herself to death but no one dares to go down the steps. Source : Google photo of the secret tunnel and stairs that lead to the jauhar pit in the fort. Source : Google photo of the jauhar pit inside the Chittor fort where the queen burned herself alive along with many other women of her retinue. Can anyone imagine and feel her pain while she and thousands of women burned in the flames so long ago to protect their honor ? Does anyone really know what it feels like to be consumed by flame alive? Padmini was not only beautiful ,she had a resolve of steel that was the hallmark of Rajput women while the Rajput warriors put fear into the Muslim armies that could never truly subjugate them. Source : Google painting of queen Padmini Source : Google painting of queen Padmini It is said that the Fort of Chittor like many other such places in Rajasthan is soaked in blood of countless defenders who only wanted to live in peace within their kingdom and preserve their religion and traditions. But the price they paid in blood is staggering. The story of India is replete with countless massacres of once peaceful citizens by the invaders who built their empire on the skulls of the dead and forced their religion on hapless subjects ,destroyed their places of worship and treated them with cruelty matched only by the likes of Gengis Khan. Note : My blogs are also available in French, Spanish, German and Japanese languages at the following links : tumblr posts Blogs in French Blogs in Spanish Blogs in German Blogs in Japanese Anil's biography in Japanese Anil's biography in French. Anil's biography in English. Anil's biography in Spanish. Anil's biography in German
Synopsis : We often read the stories of great people who sacrificed their lives so that we could be free but can not imagine what they sacrificed and how much pain they suffered in the process. Indian history is replete with such great men and women who are the national heroes. The story of King Prithviraj Chauhan shines as the brightest star in the galaxy of great rulers of the past. Today I will write about an incredible person of valor and chivalry, bravery and courage. I will take you back some 850 years to the year 1166 when a prince was born in the city of Ajmer in Rajputana now called Rajasthan to the Chauhan king Someshwar and was named Prithviraj by his adoring parents. It meant King of the world and he lived up to his name as we will see. Like all Rajput princes, he was taught sword fighting, archery and horse riding but he excelled in archery the most and could hit a target blindfolded by listening to the sound of his target. He was a brilliant child who was very sharp in learning all the military skills at an early age. He succeeded to the throne of Ajmer at the age of thirteen, in 1179, when his father died in a battle. His grandfather Angam, ruler of Delhi, declared him heir to the throne of Delhi after hearing about his courage and bravery. He once killed a lion on his own without any weapon. He was known as the warrior king. Source : Google painting of King Prithviraj Chauhan When he ascended to the throne of Delhi, he built Qila Rai Pithora ( a fort) here. It is not known exactly when he ascended the throne in Delhi but assumed that he was a young man then. His whole life was a continuous chain of bravery, courage, chivalrous deeds and glorious exploits. He defeated the mighty Bheemdev, ruler of Gujarat, as a young man and is known to the historians for his love for his queen Samyukta . In those days the princesses chose their own husbands from the assembly of many kings and princes who were invited to seek the hand of the princess often by inviting them to show their military prowess in archery or sword fights but the princess Samyukta had decided to marry Prithviraj Chauhan whom her father hated as a rival. Her father put a statue of Prithviraj at the gate of his palace to mock him but the princess took a flower garland and put it around the neck of the statue declaring that she had chosen him as her husband. The young king who was not invited to the ceremony suddenly appeared and snatched the princess away on his horse and sped away to the great anger of her father who could do nothing. Source : Google painting of princess Samyukta putting the garland on the statue. Samyukta became the queen and together they ruled for quite some time until the scourge of Mahmud Ghori descended on them. After the defeat in the hand of the invader Ghori, Samyukta was repeatedly raped by the Muslim king until one day she took her own life. Her husband and the brave king was brought to Ghazni as a prisoner and treated very badly by Ghori . The rest is mentioned in his biography below. Source : Google photo of Afghan king Mahmud Ghori ( a painting ) He expanded his empire but during this time Mahmud Ghori attacked India in 1191 who was defeated by Prithviraj at the first battle of Tarain. After defeating the army of Mahmud Ghori he was asked to attack the retreating army but in true Rajput tradition he refused to do so as it did not conform to the fair war rules. As a result Mahmud Ghori again attacked India and in the second battle of Tarain in 1192 Prithviraj Chauhan was defeated and captured. As a prisoner, he was brought to Ghazni in Afghanistan and tortured but he was defiant and looked straight at his captor. It irked the Muslim ruler who asked him to lower his gaze but Prithviraj answered that as a Rajput he lowered his eyes at no one so Ghori ordered his eyes to be gouged out with hot iron. Thus he became blind but did not lose his courage. Helped by his court poet and friend Chand Bardai, he is believed to kill Mahmud Ghori with his “shabdabhedi baan”. ( the arrow that follows the sound ) His skill of hitting the target blindfolded just on the basis of sound made by it came handy and during the archery demonstration organized by Mahmud Ghori, he displayed his skill. When Mahmud Ghori praised him, he heard his voice and shot an arrow clean through his neck killing Mahmud Ghori instantly. In order to escape death at the hands of enemies he and his friend Chand Bardai then stabbed each other and died thus ending his glorious life in this sad way. The year was 1192. The place was Ghazni in Afghanistan. Chand Bardai has earlier compiled the story of the life of Prithviraj Chauhan in his epic poem Prithviraj Raso. Prithviraj Chauhan died in 1192, with his death a period of bravery, courage, patriotism and principles came to an end. Prithviraj Raso of Chand Bardai and Prithviraj Vijay of Jayanak have immortalized deeds of Prithviraj Chauhan. (Wikipedia). Mahmud Ghori was a Muslim king in Afghanistan who had gone to India and defeated a Hindu king whom he brought back as a prisoner and treated very badly but he is eulogized by the Muslims in his country and a big mausoleum is built for him but the defeated king Prithiviraj Chauhan was buried by the road side in a pauper’s grave covered with soil and the Muslims hit his grave with shoes to show their disdain and anger because he was a non-Muslim who had killed their king Ghori just before he took his own life. You can see the shoes kept near the grave for the Muslims to beat the grave with even after nearly 900 years. It was a deliberate insult to a great king. Source : Google photo of the pauper’s grave of King Prithviraj Chauhan in Ghazni with shoes to beat his grave with. Source : Google photo of Sher Singh Rana This story was repeated in the newspapers and the media in India that came to the attention of a brave man called Sher Singh Rana who was serving a long sentence in the notorious jail in Delhi and decided to break out of his prison to go to Afghanistan and bring back the bones of the revered king for a proper burial. But Tihar jail is a maximum security jail that was not easy to break out of so he failed the first time and somehow succeeded in escaping on his second try although how he did so remains a mystery. Many efforts were made by the Indian government to bring back the remains of their national hero but they did not succeed so how could an ordinary person like Rana without any resources do it? This is where the story gets interesting and shows the great resolve Rana had to go to Afghanistan and find the grave of the king and dig out the bones so he first went to Dacca to get a Pakistani visa and then journeyed to Ghazni in Afghanistan by land disguised as a Muslim and grew a thick beard to look like one. It was not difficult for him to find the grave of the king so he made an elaborate plan to dig out the bones in secret in total darkness as it was just by the roadside but video filmed the process. Ghazni is a dangerous area as most of Afghanistan is so he took great risk in doing so knowing that the Taliban would have killed him if they had found out that he was a Hindu removing bones from a grave even if they hated the king. Sher Singh Rana then returned to India with the remains of the king Prithviraj Chauhan who had suffered ignominy for over nine hundred years in the hands of Muslims there and instantly became a national hero. He had succeeded in his effort when all others had failed so now all India rejoiced at his bravery and his deed because they all understood how much risk he took in escaping from his prison in Delhi and going to a war devastated country like Afghanistan to bring back the bones of the great king. He then surrendered to the authorities and went back to his jail cell voluntarily because he said that the justice system will eventually find him innocent and release him. Soon he was granted bail and later acquitted. He had always maintained his innocence and said that he had been wrongfully detained for a crime he did not commit. By this time he had spent nearly 14 years of his life in jail but now he is a free man and a national hero. Source : Google photo of the monument of Prithviraj Chauhan in Ajmer The great monument of Prithviraj Chauhan is erected in Ajmer in Rajasthan and in many other parts of India where he is remembered as one of the great rulers of India who tried to protect India from the invaders from Afghanistan and died doing so in 1192. He was the last Hindu ruler of India to sit on the throne in Delhi before the Muslim invasion began in earnest of which Mahmud Ghori was only the first. Indian history is replete with the stories of great bravery of kings like Prithviraj Chauhan who became the legend that the school children read about in their text books. He and his beautiful wife were great rulers who took care of their subjects but fought their enemies tooth and nail and died in the process. He did not invade other countries and force people to change their religion but defended his kingdom to the last drop of his blood. It is a sad story of a king and his queen of great valor and sacrifice. This led to the subsequent invasion of India by the Moghuls who ruled India for over 350 years until overthrown by another invader called the British but that is another story.
Synopsis : In any system patriarchal or not where the male child is favored over the female leads to sheltering the child that inhibits the growth of his personality and his resolve to overcome his obstacles in life. This is the sin that should be avoided. Source : Google photo (https://pittsburghquarterly.com/between-the-issues/item/1590-a-pampered-generation.html ) I often end up discussing why some people succeed in life while others don’t, growing up under the same circumstances and come to the conclusion that while we may be genetically similar to our siblings, we are different from each other temperamentally or otherwise making us go in different directions in our individual life. My friend who comes from a somewhat similar background like mine hit the nail on the head when he said that the failures come from the curse of sheltering in the patriarchal system where the sons are favored over daughters and are given wide latitude meaning a lot of slack in doing whatever they want and are sheltered by the parents and the elders. I have written about the patriarchal system in India in one of my blogs that may be worth reading to understand why they do what they do even if it does not make sense. If you see the old Bengali style of buildings, you will notice that they all have a common feature that is a narrow veranda (called rock) in front of their houses with two cement benches at both ends. You will also notice the vagabonds and loafers who occupy these benches all day long where they smoke and gossip while whistling at young women passing by and making running commentaries on their dress or other things. The girls know these vagabonds well and are used to their insulting remarks and cat calling so they cover up their breasts some more and trot off at a greater speed just to avoid them. For the vagabonds who have nothing better to do the whole day thus spend their time and constantly demand for tea and things to eat that the obedient women folks in the house keep on sending because these loafers are sheltered. As boys they can do nothing wrong that may include cat calling or eve teasing as it is called in India because perhaps the girls are wearing short miniskirts or low cut blouses that show a bit of cleavage inviting such teasing. Now good girls do not go around looking like sluts, do they? I have written in my blogs that eve teasing is a form of social disapproval of western dresses, tight fitting clothes that are too revealing among other things so these so called self-appointed guardians of the society pass their time criticizing others while doing absolutely nothing with their own lives. They do not have to because they are sheltered. I know a case when the son went to the next town and did not return as planned because he got delayed due to some reason, you could not have imagined the agony it caused among the women folks who wondered if they should go to the police and report a missing person or perhaps check with the hospitals if the son had an accident of some sort. You could see their joy when he returned a day or two later saying that he could not finish his errands there so got a bit delayed. The son was over 40 years old but he could be even older. It did not matter. This is perhaps an extreme example of sheltering that they practice in their patriarchal system I now call a curse because it does not allow the sons to develop their own personality and the will to break out and do something useful in their life. Rare is a person who stands up to his parents and declares what he wants to do with his life because being the baby of the family has its advantages. Who does not like pampering? It is like a drug that makes a person dependent on others. He does not have to learn to cook or even make a pot of tea that he is so fond of or wash his own clothes because everything is done for him by his mother or sisters or grandmother who are the worst offenders. They say that they do it out of love but do not realize its pernicious effect on the personality of the person so pampered that makes him spineless and totally dependent on others whom he takes for granted and expects them to serve him. Why then the girls fare so badly and why boys pick on them constantly? Why the rules are so strict for girls and not for boys for the same offence? It is because of the patriarchal system that is purely tribal in nature and perpetuates the myth that boys are better than girls because girls are considered a liability by the parents. They have to get married off and leave the family while the boys are expected to stay at home and look after the olds in their hour of need. Now this attitude is slowly changing because girls are getting education and good jobs and look after the parents, build them a house, buy them a car and other comforts of life so they are shattering the myth that they are inferior to boys. They are also fighting back when accosted by the vagabonds who continue to tease them relentlessly and often beat up the cowards to teach them a lesson or two while the on lookers just gawk. They are the courageous one who take the matter into their own hands because the society does nothing to protect them. I have written about the two girls who beat up a taxi driver badly in the Philippines who wanted to rape them but they knew karate and put it to good use. Not all women learn martial art so they silently suffer the harassment and cover up their breasts some more and trot instead of walking. Now let us see how damaging this sheltering and pampering of boys can be and how it prevents them to literally grow up and develop the desire to accept challenges and overcome them to succeed in life. The pampering is really like a drug that makes you lazy and without any initiative because everything is done for you. You live in a comfort zone that you are terribly afraid to break out of. Recently we had a visitor from India who spent a month with us and promptly demanded a cup of tea after arriving from the airport. We do not drink tea and do not know how to make a good cup but I still tried .He said that the tea was not well made so he will now teach me how to make a good cup of tea. He came from his sheltered life where others made tea for him whenever he wanted or they knew his routine and made a pot of tea anyway just in case. He had travelled to a foreign country for the first time and out of his comfort zone where he did not have to do anything because there were others to serve him. He therefore had a culture shock and was eager to go back to his sheltered life where he felt more comfortable. To venture out of your comfort zone and do something extraordinary involves risks that can be frightening at first but those who do it learn that nothing is gained unless you try hard and are willing to take disappointments and the prospect of failure. I knew that I was perhaps taking a risk by going to Vietnam during the war when I was only 22 but I had a great deal of faith in myself and I trusted those who in Vietnam protected me. I took many risks that I will not write about here but you may read about them in my biography elsewhere. This willingness to accept challenges no matter what they are in life is what sets those apart from the vagabonds who have nothing better to do with their lives than just sitting in the veranda and criticizing the women passing by. My playmates in our lane did not finish high school so live in poverty and look far older than their age but they were the victim of sheltering. They do not want to talk to me or even see me because they feel inferior and are perhaps ashamed. This inferiority complex is like tuberculosis that eats away at your lungs until you can’t breathe anymore. It destroys your personality that never develops to the point when you could take some drastic decisions in your life. Life is never meant to be easy for those who dare. It throws many obstacles to test your mettle and then rewards you profusely for your tenacity to succeed. Many top CEOs were refused jobs by hundreds of employers. Many famous authors were refused by the publishers who did not believe in them until one brave person saw the talent and accepted it. Many people did not believe that a person with disability could climb Mt. Everest until he did and many did not believe that a young girl of 15 could sail around the world alone until she did. So it is easy to ignore a person who has such potential because accepting him or her is a challenge they cannot take due to the risk involved. Once Bill Gates still struggling with his company and the payroll offered few shares to his janitor instead of pay saying that someday those shares will be worth a fortune. The janitor believed in him and he is now a millionaire. But how many of us have such faith? This is I believe a key word here called faith. If your parents have faith in you and encourage you to take tough exams that you fail the first time but still encourage you, it goes a long way to help you develop your own personality and self-confidence. They do not pamper their sons but expect them to learn to face challenges and accept them and overcome them. There is no shame in taking a part time job of washing dishes or cleaning the classrooms to earn some money to pay for your education when you do not have a scholarship and no one to support you in a foreign country but many do it and get their education like I did. There is no shame in being self-reliant but it takes courage and a very strong determination to overcome such obstacles by taking whatever job comes your way. A pampered kid is scared to death when he faces such challenges and promptly backs out to go back to his comfort zone. Many students were given the chance to work in Vietnam during the war but they all backed out because they were sheltered and their parents would not let them go. Now I want to write about courageous girls who also took matters into their own hands and succeeded in life. One girl in our neighborhood got married to a fellow through the arranged marriage system and became a widow a year later when her husband died of a spine injury leaving her pregnant. It was a very unfortunate thing to happen to anyone let alone a very young girl like her but she did not wallow in self-pity and took a job in a faraway place to raise her son by herself. I call that girl courageous and with a strong will. Another girl who had a very high IQ got married also through the arranged way and one day ran away from her very abusive husband and asked for divorce that was granted. She now lives in England with her second husband who is a very nice person so together they have made a new life themselves. I know many such cases where they show courage and the will to succeed no matter what the obstacle. I think women have more courage and develop the strong personality because they are less sheltered. To grow up as a girl in a patriarchal society is tough by itself so perhaps it is a blessing that it makes women tougher than men. The famous case of bandit queen that I wrote about in a blog is quite astonishing where an illiterate girl of 18 who was gang raped by no less than 20 men in her village took revenge later on them by shooting them all dead. The whole country applauded her except the policemen for her courage and determination to get justice this way when no one would help her. Now I am not suggesting that every wronged person should take such drastic measure but I wrote that millions of women who suffer daily such ignominy applauded such courage and wished they too had it. In conclusion I just want to say that if you are sheltering your children then you are doing more harm than good to them even if you do it out of your love for them. You should think of what they will become when you are no longer around to shelter them. It reminds me of the famous song by Johnny Cash called The boy named Sue where a boy was named Sue by his father that he hated and grew up tough and mean fighting everyone who mocked him. One day he caught up with his father in a beer joint and had a big fight with him when he asked why he named him Sue? His father said that it was to make him tough and strong to prepare for his life when he was no longer around. He finally understood his father and forgave him and hugged him. But you don’t have to name your boy Sue. Just don’t shelter him and pamper him .Treat your daughter fairly and be impartial. To prefer boys over girls is a sin millions commit everyday so wake up and walk away from such tribal practice that produces spineless citizens who watch a girl being molested and do nothing.
