Source : Google photo of the widows of Vrindavan Synopsis :Of all people in the world, no one is more important than the parents because they bring you to this world, make numerous sacrifices to raise you, feed you and give you the education so that some day you can stand on your own feet when they are no longer around. They take care of you when you are sick and they console you when you are unhappy about something. They are always there like solid rock that you can count on but now we see a disturbing trend when some people mistreat their own parents. Their numbers are small but it is a shame just the same . The devotees of Krishna in India and elsewhere in the world know Vrindavan in North India as the birthplace of Krishna so millions make a bee line to visit it and offer prayers in numerous temples there. If you visit the city today, you will find many majestic and beautiful temples from where the chimes of bells can be heard from a distance. Huge crowds gather there in the evenings where prayers are offered to the Deity and religious songs are sung called bhajan meaning songs in the praise of their God. Vrindavan is an ancient holy place just like Benares aka Varanasi known for its temples and religious lives of people there. You will find lots of ascetics called sadhus in their saffron robes or white robes wandering the streets or sitting near the temples with their prayer beads. You will also see thousands of widows in white saris some old and others not so old who crowd the streets and the temples where they beg for food. They wear white markings on their forehead that means they belong to the Vaishnav sect that follows the Krishna cult. Some are so old that they can hardly walk yet they hobble along painfully on their arthritic limbs with a begging bowl in their hand and look for food. The pilgrims who take pity on these poor widows may give them a few coins and walk on feeling uneasy about the conditions of these poor widows of Vrindavan because these widows hide a dark and uncomfortable secret that the world knows nothing about so today I want to write about these widows of Vrindavan. When I was in college, we used to go on educational tours of places of interest in India and traveled as a group with a teacher as our guide because it was a part of our college curriculum. We visited agricultural research stations, farms and milk and meat processing centers but many other places as well of great touristic interests so we ended up in Mathura one day while some of our classmates went to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. So I decided to rent a bicycle and pedaled on to Vrindavan which was some 12 kms away to see the temples. It is near the Yamuna river where one can see a great number of huge turtles that the pilgrims feed so I saw the turtles and then went on to see some of the temples. There are hundreds of them. I saw many old women and the sadhus but I knew nothing about the dark secret of the widows then and went back to Mathura quite happily. I have never gone back to Vrindavan and after knowing the secret that Oprah Winfrey talks about in her video below, I never want to.
https://youtu.be/aBhpng2NzVc Source : U tube video of Oprah Winfrey visiting Vrindavan , India ( in English )
https://youtu.be/QrtIF_i75p0 Source : U tube video documentary on the widows of Vrindavan ( in Hindi)
https://youtu.be/MHqAXKzEOrc Source : U tube video documentary on the widows of Vrindavan ( in English ) This is the heart wrenching story of the widows of Vrindavan that I post here for you. There are three videos above. The first one is made by Oprah, the second one in Hindi that some of you may not understand so I will comment on it below and the last one is a propaganda video that says all is well in Vrindavan and the widows are happy there. Watch all three of them and make up your mind. The Hindu widows face a serious social problem in India. The Hindu society ostracizes them because they are widows. They are supposed to wear only white and plain sari, they may not eat meat or fish and they may not wear any jewelry. They are often unwelcome to attend marriage because people still think that a widow's presence is inauspicious during happy occasions. But this is not the worst thing that happens to a widow in India. She is often expelled from her own home by her relatives who are greedy for her property and whatever money she may have so they put her out on the streets to fend for herself in a country that takes great pride in it's ancient civilization. Her own sons and daughter do this to their mother and leave her to die on the streets or survive by begging so she takes the train to Vrindavan one day where she hopes to find succor. At the railway station in Kolkata , she pleads with the train ticket collector that she has no money and has not eaten for several days so he should have pity on her and let her go to Vrindavan. Once she arrives in Vrindavan, she is given a cup of tea and a biscuit by a kind person that she savors like nectar and then starts to look for food and shelter. Soon she finds herself in the company of thousands like her who have come from all parts of India to spend the rest of their pathetic life there praying,chanting hymns and singing religious songs in temples where she is given some food by the temple priest who happens to be a real tyrant. He may deny food to the starving woman if he feels that she is not religious enough or can't sing loud enough or for other trivial reasons so these poor women find themselves at the mercy of these so called priests who are in reality like demons who exploit the poor women. They are the real psychos but very well fed psychos. Once these proud women were well taken care of by their husbands and lived in comfort but that changed when the husband died and her own kids threw her out on the streets. It makes me ashamed to write about this shameful part of the Hindu society where such things still happen today that shocked Oprah and the world through her video. She is a very kind and generous woman who has come to the aid of these poor widows of Vrindaban and has helped them financially to live a life with some dignity. Now the Government of India has started to pay some attention and gives them some pension every month but how much of the money reaches these women is not known. Due to the corruption , some middlemen siphon off a part of the money sent to the widows by the government so now a direct deposit scheme into their bank account is being considered. But these women do not have 10 cents to their name and do not have a bank account so that is another problem the authorities have to solve. The inhumanity of it boggles the mind. I have just published a blog where I wrote about how the old parents are thrown out by their own sons on the streets due to their greed for money and property that you should also read in this context unheard-crieshere. There was a time not too long ago when very young widows were thrown out on the streets for the same reason so they used to go to Benares to find food and shelter just like these women in Vrindavan and some ended up as prostitutes to support themselves. The British were appalled by such barbaric practice so they promulgated laws to give such women some protection. Many social reformers of the day in Bengal like Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar pressured the British to ban the practice of Sati where young women were forced to die with their dead husbands on the funeral pyre.Their motive was the greed for the properties the widow inherited .Thankfully this practice was outlawed by the British. Now there are some NGOs that are helping the widows in Vrindavan and Benares but the root cause is not addressed because it has to do with the immoral practice of some people who treat their parents this way. Thankfully not everybody does it so the numbers are low if you look at it that way but the evil is evil so it should be condemned as I am doing through this blog because even one helpless woman on the streets like this is one too many. When Hindus show compassion for the abused Moslem women and push for the triple talaq bill in the parliament, they are duplicitous because they should first learn to take care of their own parents. There are many evils in the society that I often write about to make people more aware. The real awareness should come from their own heart and such people should realize that what they are doing to their mothers is not only immoral, it is outright evil so they should face the full force of law. I have written in my previous blogs that women are also complicit in such crimes committed against their mother in laws so they are just as guilty. I hope someday there will be a law to punish such evil doers in India. The news papers and the media do not focus their attention on a lone old woman crying silently and waiting for the train somewhere so this sort of story is hidden in plain sight. They are treated as garbage that the garbage collector takes away and dumps at a garbage site far from the city so it works to clear their conscience because they do not see it any more. The only problem is that such people do not have a conscience. The conscience is the moral compass that guides a person to always do what is right. My Ma used to say that the real enemies anyone has are his relatives and no one else. It is very true. You will read in the papers almost everyday that someone has killed his uncle over a land dispute or a property of some value. Brothers fight over land and money and in laws fight for more dowry from the hapless parents of the girl. The step mothers , step brothers or step sisters may have no compassion for anyone just like in the Cinderella story. I still think that a child is born innocent so why such a child turns out to be evil later on ? What makes him a psycho who does bad things ? I think it has to do with how a child is brought up and under what circumstances. People say that poverty is like fire where steel gets it's strength so it can also help develop great character in a person and teaches him right from wrong. I have seen great compassion and kindness in poor people in many countries but have also seen haughtiness and arrogance in rich people. The worst kind are the poor who have become rich later in life because then they try very hard to forget where they came from and what values they had. India has many positive things to show to the world and has made great contribution to the science and technology and in numerous other fields . It is a growing economy so the poverty level is being reduced and the middle class is growing but with such rapid development, India may end up losing its soul someday if they lose compassion for their mothers who have to beg for food in the streets of Vrindavan. People should look in the mirror and ask this simple question " What have I become ?"
Source : Google photo of a man made disaster Synopsis : People continue to die needlessly when their old and dilapidated houses collapse on them all of a sudden but there is nothing sudden about it because such disasters can be prevented by evacuating people from unsafe dwellings before it happens. But people do not listen in spite of warnings because they have no other alternative. The blog looks at the alternatives. When Anarkali was buried alive by the order of a cruel king in India because as a court dancer she fell in love with the crown prince, she suffered agonizing pain but her sacrifice for love made her immortal in the annals of history . People still shed tears on her grave in Lahore where they put flowers and wish they too could have such love for a person but Anarkali died through no fault of her own. Please read my blog called The price they paid for love here. The death of Anarkali was a man made tragedy because one king could not accept a court dancer no matter how beautiful and talented marrying a crown prince so she was ordered killed in the most painful way possible. This sort of punishment has been repeated many times that are recorded in the annals of history that people still read and disapprove the injustice of it . The honor killings that are still practiced in some countries where a woman may be punished this way for marrying a person the parents and the tribal societies do not approve of are a barbaric act that is condemned all over the world but it is still a part of the tribal culture in India and Pakistan that endures. These are all man made tragedies that can be avoided if people practice kindness and understanding. But I would now like to write about other types of man made tragedies that are no less painful that are preventable yet occur on a routine basis. Recently a tall building in Mumbai collapsed due to heavy rains and the poor structure of the building where many lived and died suddenly buried under tons of rubble. Some of their cries could be heard faintly under the rubble but the rescue workers could not get to them fast enough so they died. Those who were pulled out alive were so gravely injured that they could not make it to a hospital. The city municipal engineers had warned the owner of the building that the building was not safe and could collapse any time but the owner continued to ignore such warning because he was collecting huge rents from the tenants who probably had nowhere else to go so this tragedy was just waiting to happen. This is a man made tragedy that could have been avoided if the owner had listened to the warning of the engineers. You do not hear of people getting buried under tons of rubble in the villages anywhere in Africa because the villagers do not live in concrete houses that are ten story tall. They live in small mud wall huts that may get damaged by rain a bit that they can easily repair. But people who live in big cities like Mumbai are frequent victims of such tragedies when their tall buildings collapse all of a sudden taking many lives. The natural disasters like earthquake claim thousands of lives in many countries that no one can predict or do anything about because the nature is so powerful and can strike without warning. Remember the big earthquake in Bam in Iran and Port au Prince in Haiti? Part of Mexico City and the entire city of El Asnam in Algeria were leveled by earthquakes that took many lives but it is a natural disaster that could not be prevented. Now some countries that are prone to earthquake are trying to build earthquake proof buildings using modern technology like in Japan but the force of nature is often too strong to overcome so the Kobe earthquake leveled a part of the city. But the man made tragedies like the one in Mumbai could have been prevented if the tenants had moved to safer locations when they were warned of an impending disaster so why didn't they ? Why would anyone live in a building that could collapse anytime? The answer lies in poverty. If you go to Kolkata, you will notice four or five story buildings right in the middle of the city that are so dilapidated that can collapse anytime but people continue to occupy them because they have nowhere else they can move to. They pay 2 or 4 dollars per month in rent so the landlord gets practically nothing from the rent and has no money to renovate the building. The renters can't be evicted easily because the court battle in India is lengthy and costly so the owners just abandon their property. In all big cities in India and elsewhere in the world one may find such death traps where poor people live at the great risk of their life because they find no alternative. In more developed countries like the United States and in Europe , there are stringent building codes for building tall buildings so the owners are punished if they violate those codes. The old buildings are routinely torn down to make room for new and modern buildings so the man made disasters are minimized to a great extent. You will also notice that the middle income people prefer to live in suburbs that are not too far from the place of their work so they live in the safety of their own homes that are well built. The poor people who can't afford suburban living stay in the city dwellings that are often 5 or 6 story ugly tenement houses built by the government but poorly maintained. You will see such tenement housing for the poor in all big cities in the United States and in many big cities in Europe as well because poor people are everywhere so they must be sheltered. In communist countries like China and North Korea, they provide housing for everybody and often build more than what people need so you will find thousands of well built empty apartments , empty malls and other buildings in some parts of China where people do not live. People live where they find jobs so you cannot entice people to move to new apartments somewhere because there are no jobs for them there. I have seen the same phenomenon in Spain where thousands of well built apartments lie vacant. Source : Google photo of ghost cities in China The buildings that are very tall like in New York are built that way because the cost of land there is very high so they have no choice but to go up. This is the trend now worldwide so you will find the high rise buildings everywhere where people live like in pigeon holes packed tightly together. In Manila, the buildings are so tall that the fire department can't reach them in case of fire in the upper floors. To decongest the big cities like Mumbai, the government has started building suburbs where people can move to but the cost may be beyond the reach of poor people so they stay put where they are. Who wants to move if the rent they pay per month is only 4 dollars? The man made disasters that are waiting to happen are also linked to the level of corruption that is found in many countries like India . Often you will read about an overpass collapsing somewhere killing hundreds of unsuspecting people or a bridge collapsing because it was built by corrupt people who stole cement from the construction site and put more sand in the concrete. The government projects suffer from such corruption that leads to death of innocent people. What is the solution? To prevent the man made disasters like the collapse of an old and unsafe building, the tenants first need an alternative before they can leave so it is the duty of the government to provide the alternative by building affordable housing for the poor somewhere that are linked by road and rail link. Forced evacuation of tenants without giving them an alternative just does not work anywhere. People do not like to live in an unsafe place so they will move readily if an alternative is provided to them. It can even be a temporary solution until the old unsafe buildings are torn down and new ones built that the tenants can move back into later. This is one possibility but it needs resources that poor countries do not have so what is the solution ? Source : Google photo of Jimmy Carter and his habitat for humanity program I really appreciate the effort of President Jimmy Carter who started building the affordable low cost houses for the poor in many countries through his Habitat for humanity program that uses volunteers and innovative low cost building techniques but cannot build houses for all the poor in the world. It can only show the way it can be done cheaply so the countries with housing problems can learn from it. Secondly the governments have to fight corruption and make sure that the contractors build safe and solid houses under strict government supervision. Lastly the affordable houses built on mass scale using the prefabricated walls and tops that can be quickly assembled should be looked at by the housing authorities to help the poor people. Many countries are using the pre fabricated methods of building strong and modern houses that do not require any finishing and can be ready in just a few days. Here is a video I found that shows how to build a modern house using specially built cement blocks that lock with each other without needing cement mortar and can be assembled in a short time by unskilled people . The cost of the finished house is only USD 2500 so it could be adopted for mass housing.
https://youtu.be/EBkv5jjjhJ0 Source : U tube video of low cost houses assembly. We all dream of living in our own beautiful home somewhere someday if such a home could be built at a price we can afford without borrowing money so that we do not have to live in dilapidated houses that can collapse on us anytime. There is nothing worse than lying under tons of rubble and hoping that someone hears your cry of anguish and pain and see the hope slowly fade away as you breathe your last.
Source : Google photo of unheard cries of old people Synopsis:Old age comes with its own set of challenges that vary from one social group to other from one country to the next. The challenges are related to the values that are practiced by the people who have to take care of their old parents so either they keep them at home or admit them to old age homes for a fee if they can afford. When the old people are utterly abandoned by their own sons and daughters and are left to die in the old age homes, it becomes a social issue that needs to be paid attention to.
There are some 90 million people in India who are old. This blog looks at the challenges some of them have to face in their old age and exposes the bitter reality of their plight so that people can hear their cries and feel compassion for them because tomorrow it may be your turn to live in an old age home where your children do not go to visit you. The old age spares no one so most people who are old meaning over 75 years of age become dependent on their sons and daughters and live with them although some old people receive their pension which may be just a pittance considering the cost of living now. By and large most old people manage to live with their children who look after them and their needs but not all old people are so lucky. Today I want to discuss their status in the society and how taking care of old people by their children is facing serious challenges that the younger generation is failing to meet resulting in a serious social nightmare for the old who feel neglected and abandoned by their own children they raised with love and care. The neglect of old people by their own sons and daughters is a worldwide phenomenon that is a very serious subject for discussion because it affects a very large number of people who need help. The degree of neglect varies from country to country ranging from some care for the old people in old age homes to extreme neglect and even physical abuse of the parents who are feeble and in need of serious medical attention. The businessmen have opened up private old age homes that are run purely as money making ventures and have proliferated in many countries including India where they are run professionally by competent staff . There the old people are well fed, well taken care of and have 24 hour nurse and medical service available. The old people live together and play chess or other games, read books or write. They celebrate each other's birthdays or such events and have their own comfortable rooms for privacy. They are surrounded by beautiful green gardens where they can go for walks and enjoy the nature. But such homes come with a heavy price tag so it is not for those who have no money of their own or no one to pay for them to stay at such pricey homes so where do they go? There are some NGOs that run old age homes where they shelter such people and do what they can to feed them and care for their medical needs but they depend on charity so they can only take care of a few people. In India such NGOs are restricted to receive foreign funding so they have to depend on their local resources that may be a limiting factor. Then there are the religious institutions that run old age homes due to their duty to help the poor and the destitute but they too depend on charity and the donation money they can raise from the kind and charitable people so they too struggle from day to day to give shelter, care and medical help to the poor old people who have been abandoned by their own children. Many temples in India feed the poor everyday but do not provide their shelter. The Sikh gurudwaras feed thousands of people for free but they too do not provide the shelter. Lastly there are some government run old age homes that are poorly funded and poorly run by indifferent staff so we hear of neglect and appalling conditions under which the old people stay and suffer. This kind of neglect due to lack of funding and incompetent staff who are indifferent to the plight of the old people is found in many countries including the so called developed countries. Today I want to focus on India that is rapidly growing economically and industrially to become one of the top 5 countries in the world in terms of GDP growth but this rapid transformation of India has brought with it a fundamental change in the social structure that had previously supported the people in their old age. I must say that there has always been the problem of how to take care of old people in India but now the degree and the extent of abuse seems to increase as more and more people become selfish and neglect their filial duties towards their own parents. Now it seems that people are increasingly becoming self centered and are motivated by their greed for material well being for themselves and their children but not their parents. In the patriarchal system found in India, the parents usually stay with their sons in their old age and feel ashamed to stay with their daughters because the daughters leave the family after marriage and call another family their own. But in some cases where they do not have sons to take care of them, they are compelled to stay with their daughter who in her turn depends on her husband for the living expenses so it complicates the matter further. No self respecting person likes to depend on his son in law for his sustenance. Where the old people stay with their sons, a second factor emerges when the sons get married and bring a third person from an unknown family to live with them. This person who joins the family through the arranged marriage system is not expected to show any care or concern for her in laws if she is not compassionate , is very selfish and who thinks only of her own welfare creating problems for the old people. Those who can afford can live in fancy old age homes and pay for it from their savings and pensions but not all can do so. There is a sad story of an old woman who lived in a poorly run old age home where she was often neglected. When she was about to die, the manager of the home informed her son to come and visit her before it was too late so one day her son came to visit her which was rare when she said that he should put an electric fan because it was so hot and keep a refrigerator for some food to be kept. The son asked her why she was telling him so when she was about to die, she answered " Son, it is not for me but one day you too may come to live in a home like this so my soul will cry for you because you will suffer from the heat and lack of food". As your mother it will cause me anguish to think of you suffering here like me in your old age." It is pity to think of old people as useless because in their prime, some of them were great artists, pianists, musicians of note, authors and athletes. Some were great thinkers, philosophers and astute politicians and some were the leaders in their own right but the old age makes them feeble with numerous medical problems that need constant attention. If they managed their financial affairs well when they were earning then they could pay for the pricey old age homes where they could retire in comfort keeping their dignity intact but this is true of only a few people. The vast majority of old people still depend on some one to take care of them because their small pension does not pay for all the expenses specially the medical bills. Those who were self employed and do not have any pension or savings find themselves in dire straits when they are old so they seek shelter in old age homes run by the NGOs or some religious organizations. I feel sorry for those men and women who in their hour of need totally depend on someone but do not get the help they need and are forced to beg on the streets to survive. There is a case of a once well known movie star in the Philippines who was abandoned by her children in her old age so poor and destitute, she took shelter in a grave yard where she covered herself with plastic sheet sleeping on card boards and scavenged for scraps to eat. People had totally forgotten her and no one could recognize here in her present state. There are many such cases that come to notice every once in a while when a reporter notices someone unusual and reports. Women who are dependent on their husbands for their sustenance are perhaps the most vulnerable to abuse in their old age when they become widows and are often chased out of their own homes by their greedy sons and daughter in laws. I mentioned the daughter in laws who do not show any compassion toward their mother in laws and treat them badly but the sons are also complicit and cannot escape social disapprobation. A beautiful woman who becomes mother and raises her children with love and care finds herself living the life of poverty and neglect someday when feeling abandoned by her own children. This is the cruelty of those who have lost all love and compassion for the very person who gave them life and nurtured them. Why such compassion and love is in short supply in societies where people have become so greedy that they have lost their moral compass? Is it because the parents did not raise them well and teach them good values? Is it because they were aloof parents who were very busy running their own affairs and relegated their children to the care of nannies who acted as surrogate? It is not unknown in some societies where women refused to nurse their own babies and hired lactating nannies to feed the kids but normally the poor women do a better job of taking care of their kids than the rich. Such kids who are raised by their nannies also become aloof to their parents when they grow up and feel no bond with their biological parents which in some cases explains their behavior. I have seen this growing dependence on nannies to raise the kids in families where the parents have no time to look after their kids. The result can be seen later when the kids grow up learning nothing from their illiterate nannies who come from poverty and have no good values themselves. Children absorb like sponge anything they observe and are taught meaning they absorb good as well as bad things . Good parents teach good values that they themselves practice. They teach compassion if they are compassionate toward others. They teach frugality, honesty and love for others if they are frugal, honest and love others. You cannot teach others what you do not know yourself or practice. I think this is the root of the evil that later comes to haunt them in their old age. But a mother instinctively loves and cares for her children even if the father may be a complete rascal so people tend to love their mothers more than their fathers in such cases and become very defensive toward their mother. An abusive father who beats his wife and children , is alcoholic and squanders his money on gambling and bad habits can except no love and care from his children when he is old because he is hated. But a mother is rarely hated unless she too was neglectful in her duties toward her children. What then causes the rift the kids feel toward their parents when they are old and why we see more and more old people who feel abandoned and seek shelter somewhere when they should have been at home and looked after? The answer may lie in the changing structure of the traditional societies where old values are discarded in favor of self interest and excessive greed for money that allows people to buy the modern comforts like a nice home , car and other things. The sharing, caring and nurturing others is sacrificed because now the focus is on self and no one else. You will see this in a family where a son lives in comfort far away from his family where his other brothers or sisters and parents continue to live in misery. He and his wife feel no compassion for them because the focus now is on themselves and not others. This selfish focus is often encouraged by the woman who comes from a different family and feels no responsibility for her in laws as I wrote earlier. His children learn the same thing and feel nothing for their grand father and mother. This scenario is particularly true in the patriarchal system that still practices arranged marriage where love is not required. A woman who marries a man for love is not normal in such societies where such marriages are called love marriages that are not encouraged. One boy was seen making a coconut shell bowl for his father who asked him why and for who he was making the bowl. The boy answered that he was making it for him for his old age because he saw how his grand father was treated by his father and made to eat from a coconut bowl. But I have also seen the pitiful conditions of old parents in the matriarchal system as well like here in the Philippines where you will find neglect and lack of compassion for the old people no matter how much they brag about their families. There are pitiful old age home here as well that are poorly funded and managed. I found this video where the old people explain their sorrow, their grief and their pitiful conditions living in the old age home where no one comes to visit them. Once the proud, beautiful people with talents are now reduced to this so watch it and try to understand their unheard cries.
Behind Closed Doors; India's Elderly are Abused and Neglected
https://youtu.be/pQ6Zuxrt8xg Source : U tube video The following blog called Old age deserves respect is perhaps worth reading in this context.
Source : Google photo of Rajeev Dixit Synopsis :We have seen that in spite of political repression, jailing of activists who dare and the police brutality to suppress people who only want to know the truth ,there are brave-hearts who come forward fearlessly knowing the risks involved. Such a man was Rajeev Dixit in India.
Rajiv Dixit (1967—2010) was an Indiansocial activist. He launched a movement in the early 1990s as a campaign to protect Indian industries.[2][3] An aide to Ramdev, he also served as the national secretary to Ramdev's anti-corruption organisation, Bharat Swabhiman Andolan. He was a tireless crusader against corruption in the country, in it's social and political system and even the judiciary. He was highly educated and was from my hometown now known as Prayagraj. Dixit founded the Azadi Bachao Andolan (Save Freedom Movement) and was a campaigner for the protection of Indian industries[2] from the 1990s when multi-national corporations were increasing their presence in India as a part of a trend towards globalization.[4] Dixit demanded decentralization of the taxation system, saying that the existing system was the core reason for bureaucratic corruption. He claimed that 80 per cent of tax revenue was used to pay politicians and bureaucrats. He compared the budget system of the Indian government to the earlier British budget system in India, presenting statistics which he claimed showed that they were the same.[5] ( Source : Wikipedia) The world has perhaps never heard of Rajeev Dixit but he was a well known social and political activist in India who was known for his fearless oratory skill and his vast knowledge of India, its history, its political leaders and its issues. He never shied away from speaking the truth no matter how unpleasant in any forum and spoke with great conviction and passion that got the attention of his enemies . He spoke about the Nehru Gandhi dynastic rule, its excesses, its failures and its rule over India as a feudal party using the Muslim appeasement as its policy. He spoke about the corruption of the Congress party members who looted the country through bribes taken from government contracts, nepotism , numerous shady deals and protected itself from inquiries by being the party above the law. He spoke about the shame of the words in the Indian national anthem that was written by Rabindra Nath Thakur in praise of King George V because Thakur was a sycophant of the British who rewarded him for it by nominating him for a Nobel prize. It is a matter of national shame that the song sung in the praise of the British King by a sycophant became the national anthem that everybody is required to sing at every occasion . It is not known outside India that there was a fierce opposition to this blatant sycophancy in the post independent India by people who wanted Vande Mataram as the national anthem but Nehru prevailed and insisted to make Jana Gana Mana the anthem. He was called a brown British who only served their interest just like Gandhi. I will post a translation of the Indian National anthem here for you to understand the words that the Indians are ashamed of. Jana Gana Mana lyrics Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people, ( meaning King George V ) Dispenser of India’s destiny. Thy name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sind, Gujarat and Maratha, Of the Dravida and Orissa and Bengal; It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas, mingles in the music of Jamuna and Ganges and is chanted by the waves of the Indian Sea. They pray for thy blessings and sing thy praise. The saving of all people waits in thy hand, Thou dispenser of India’s destiny. Victory, victory, victory to thee. Now read the translation of the real anthem that was never to be and feel the depth of the words that makes every Indian proud . It was written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and is now considered the national song of India. Vande mataram lyrics “Mother, I bow to thee! ( meaning Mother India ) Rich with thy hurrying streams, bright with orchard gleams, Cool with thy winds of delight, Dark fields waving Mother of might, Mother free. Glory of moonlight dreams, Over thy branches and lordly streams, Clad in thy blossoming trees, Mother, giver of ease Laughing low and sweet! Mother I kiss thy feet, Speaker sweet and low! Mother, to thee I bow.” He spoke about the betrayal of the greatest national heroSubhash Chandra Bose who gave independence to India by marginalizing him and his sacrifice for the country by Nehru and the Congress party in order to promote Mohan Das Gandhi and exposed the lies of Gandhi and Nehru about the freedom struggle of Indian patriots like Veer Savarkar, Bhagat Singh and all those who died for it. Please read my blogs on them here called My heroes :Bhagat Singh and My heroes Veer Saverkarhere. He spoke about the betrayal of a true patriot Sardar Patel by Nehru when he laid the foundation of the Kashmir problem that has claimed thousands of lives and still festers as a deep wound that does not heal. Read my blog called The curse in Kashmir here. And he spoke fearlessly about Gandhi and Nehru's historic mistake to divide the country on the basis of religion and create Pakistan that has caused 4 wars and thousands of deaths through active militancy of terrorists so Rajeev Dixit was a true activist who through his speeches exposed all the dirty laundry of the ruling party called the Congress party and the shenanigans of the political elites who were above the law . He often said that he is not going to live long because he felt that the shadow of death was constantly following him and could take him any day because people he exposed were very unhappy with him and his speeches in the U tube that millions watch. He often said that today this may be his last speech because tomorrow the goons may silence him but he also said that he had no fear of dying and only wanted to tell the truth that the bad people in India are trying so hard to hide. So one day his premonition came true and the assassins took his life . No one has ever found out who were they and who sent them to kill Rajeev Dixit because it works just like the mafia where they protect themselves with layers of buffers and hire people to do their dirty work. No one can ever pin down the masterminds so a great activist who only wanted to serve his country by telling the truth is now dead but his numerous speeches are recorded in U tube for anyone to download and watch. He spoke in Hindi so there is no translation for the outer world but I understood every word he said and developed a great respect for him and his fearless speeches that will move you in a way very few people in India or anywhere can. He has left behind a legacy that can't be erased by the bullets. I wish I could post some of his videos but he only spoke in Hindi that you may not understand so I have posted some other videos that support what Rajeev Dixit used to say. It is not possible to present his videos in English. Source : Google photo of Rajeev Dixit's bullet struck body . India is a fascinating country because every inch of its soil is steeped in history from a very ancient time. It is not possible to narrate its long history in a blog like this or even in twenty thick volumes. Many books have been written about India and its long history, its struggle for freedom, it's great personages and its sufferings in the hands of cruel invaders from Alexander down to the last British with many Muslim invaders in between who drenched its sacred soil with blood of the innocent who only wanted to live in peace. The world knows very little about India and believes even less about India's achievements due to the bias in the western press and the news media. To them India means a vast over populated country where the poor people sleep on the side walks , where cows roam freely, where people defecate in the open, where the snake charmers and dancing bears go about and where poverty is paramount. They are still stuck with Kipling's narrative that has lost its relevance in modern India. Some of it is still true but the country is changing rapidly and has made great progress in developing its infrastructure and is poised to become a 5 trillion dollar economy in the near future. Watch the video of Karolina Goswami here called India the next economic super power But today I want to go back to Rajeev Dixit and analyse his words to let you know what he said and why. I will start by posting a video of an interview of Arundhati Roy who is a Booker Prize winner writer of great renown who explains the myth of Gandhi and the false image projected of him to elevate him to the status of a Mahatma that he never was. This is what Rajeev also said with justification so watch this video and listen to Arundhati Roy who is also fearless .
https://youtu.be/ddKzcrwC9os Source : U tube video of Arundhati Roy talking about Gandhi and Ambedkar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sBEfixrCL8 Source : U tube video of Arundhati Roy speaking about democracy and Kashmir One day she too may be silenced because she dares to speak the truth so it takes a lot of courage to speak the truth in India that claims to be the world's largest democracy where the freedom of speech is guaranteed. Why then Rajeev Dixit was killed? Rajeev Dixit spoke about the so called Mahatma a great deal and exposed him as a fraud who beat his wife, was a sexual predator, a firm supporter of British interest, a hater of blacks ( Negroes), a strong believer in the Hindu caste system that discriminated against the untouchables, a supporter of the British war effort during the World war II that sent hundreds of thousands of untrained young Indians to die in Europe, a supporter of the Muslim appeasement policy that created Pakistan and the resultant deaths of one million people due to partition. His own son became a Muslim in disgust he felt for his father. The list of Gandhi's misdeeds is long but it was carefully hidden by the ruling Congress party that promoted him as Mahatma or the great soul because it suited them politically to do so at that time. Nehru being the sycophant of Gandhi desperately wanted to become the Prime Minister of free India although Sardar Patel was the favorite of the party. Nehru was a known womanizer and exposed as a fraud that did not sit well with the Congress Party in power so Rajeev Dixit was eliminated. Now India has honored Sardar Patel with the tallest statue in the world in Gujrat state. Here is a video of another famous son of India Dr. B.R. Ambedkar who wrote the Indian constitution and spoke freely about Gandhi that validates what Rajeev used to say about the Mahatma. Speaking against a national icon like Gandhi and Nehru is still very risky in India but the times are changing so the new generation wants to know the truth that was long hidden from them. I too was a victim of the massive government propaganda as a child because no one dared to speak the truth then.
https://youtu.be/TrS8vkRQhSQ Source : U tube video of Ambedkar saying why Gandhi was no Mahatma Rajeev Dixit used to say that the myth of a Mahatma wearing only loin cloths and taking up a great adversary like the British with nothing more than non violent movement and fasting was so appealing to the Western World that they started to believe him and not in his faulty character that was not a secret to many. But in the video above Ambedkar says that Gandhi has mostly disappeared from the consciousness of the Indian people except for the fact that the Congress Party made his birthday a National holiday with celebrations to remind people how great a man he was who brought freedom to India but that too is a lie that has now been exposed. British Prime Minister Atlee clearly said during his visit to India that Gandhi's contribution to India's independence movement was minimal at best. They left India because of Bose. For the first time since independence the flag of the Indian National Army of Netaji Bose was raised in the historic Red Fort by the Prime Minister Modi to remind the nation who brought freedom to India that the Congress government had never acknowledged because it went against their narrative. They did not like to put up a statue of Bose in Delhi but later the new government established a grand statue to honor the greatest son of India right near the Red Fort in Delhi. A grand museum showing the freedom struggle of Bose and his INA has been opened in Red Fort recently. I will always miss Rajeev Dixit because he was so brave. He will be always remembered. No one may put up his statue anywhere but he will live on in the hearts of all.
Source : Google photo of dirty habits Synopsis : A habit is always acquired because no one is born with it. It can be a good habit or a bad habit that one learns from others .Collectively it then becomes a part of the culture of people like drinking tea or chewing pan. When such habits are practiced in private, it is no one's business but in public ,it becomes everybody's business. The blog looks at some bad habits that affect others in public places and some means to curb them. In every culture in any country you will find certain habits that are linked to it. Thus you will find people patiently waiting for the green light at the zebra crossings but in other countries they ignore the lights and cross wherever and whenever they want causing accidents and chaos. My French teacher was so used to crossing anywhere she wanted back in France but was very surprised when a traffic police in Washington ,D.C. gave her a 5 dollar ticket for illegally crossing an empty street. I saw the policeman hide behind a post and wait until the infraction was committed so that he could give the offender a ticket thus filling the coffers of the city with millions of dollars in fine collected from unsuspecting people. A simple show of face could have prevented the fine from us but they were more interested in collecting the fines than preventing the so called jay walking. That is their capitalistic way. In other countries they may use less persuasive but equally effective ways of preventing a misdemeanor. But what I want to write about today is about dirty habits found in some cultures that are quite repugnant. People visiting Singapore for the first time are very surprised by the heavy fines for spitting on the roads or throwing chewing gum, wrappers or garbage anywhere because to them this habit back home is unnoticed and unpunished so they carry this habit with them to other countries where they are punished for it with hefty fines. The strict rules and regulations have made Singapore a clean city and the locals try hard not to violate the rules because doing so is quite painful for their pockets. The foreigners with bad habits learn it to their dismay that urinating in public, spitting and throwing garbage in the streets anywhere is not tolerated in many countries. Source : Google photo India is one country where the old habits die hard because the habits become a part of their culture so they see nothing wrong in spitting on the streets anywhere because they chew pan that makes them salivate profusely so they spit anywhere they want including hospitals. Chewing pan is a national habit that gives employment to millions of people who sell pan everywhere and hundreds of thousands of farmers who grow pan plants and sell the leaves to the pan makers. Pan is a leaf that they use to fill it with some lime, bits of betel nut , some peppermint, shredded tobacco and many other things that people chew making their saliva red that they have to spit out. The result is seen below in the photo of a big city. Source : Google photo of pan spits on walls everywhere . So the pan makers support the habit of chewing pan because their livelihood depends on it. When I visited a big hospital in Lucknow one day, I noticed the entire wall inside the hospital covered with thick spit of pan and saliva that was truly horrific and disgusting so I brought the matter to the administrator of the hospital. He was very apologetic and promised to get the wall cleaned up and post some warning to visitors not to spit inside the hospital. But the guilty party was right outside the hospital who was happily selling the pan to anyone who would then go inside the hospital and spit on the wall ignoring the hospital hygiene. These pan sellers do a brisk business because chewing pan is a habit people can't seem to quit even if they know that it is a bad habit and the tobacco they chew causes mouth cancer. It is like smoking that some people can't quit no matter what the doctors say or the label on the cigarette packet says. They also support millions of tobacco farmers who make a fortune selling their tobacco to cigarette and cigar makers. The hand rolled cigarettes, bidis or cigar makers employ millions of people so some habits support the industry that in its turn supports the tobacco farmers and employs a lot of people who earn their living this way. Bidis are hand rolled mini cigarettes wrapped in a leaf that are quite popular with the poor people in India. The British brought the culture of snuff to India so the young people imitated the British and thought that it was the cool thing to do and got hooked because taking powdered tobacco to stuff your nose with is very addictive and causes cancer but nobody cared. So the snuff became available everywhere and the spread of nose cancer followed. Some people bragged about their bejeweled snuff boxes they carried in their pockets but over a period of time, it became not so fashionable anymore except some die hard snuff takers who can't quit. The government of India now has started a program of cleaning up India and has made sustained efforts to educate people so that they can be aware and change their bad habits but it is easier said than done. It is not easy to change people their ways of doing things because it has become a part of their culture that they all support and see nothing wrong with it. Indians are very clean when it comes to their homes but they see nothing wrong when they throw their garbage out on the streets and spit or urinate in public so now the CCTV cameras are being installed to catch them and fine them on the spot. The penalty of heavy fines makes people think twice before they spit or throw garbage anywhere. In south India , a thriving business is now flourishing because they have built public urinals where they collect a fee before anyone goes in. They money they collect helps them maintain the urinals and keep them clean but it also forces people to change their behavior of urinating anywhere. So you have ask how does a culture develop? Before the British came to India , there was no culture of drinking tea. It started when the British found that the hills and cool climates of north Indian hills like Darjeeling, Shillong and Assam were ideal for growing fine quality tea so they started developing large tea farms. The Darjeeling tea is now exported to many countries and earns the country a lot of revenue and employs millions of people in growing and processing of tea. So taking tea became a part of the Indian culture. If you visit someone in India and say that you do not drink tea, they are embarrassed because they do not know what else to offer you. In the north it is the tea culture and in the south it is the coffee culture because they grow coffee in the hills of south India. Drinking tea or coffee is not bad. It may even be good for your health but when you throw away your tea cup from your train or bus windows then it becomes a problem. Source : Google photo of water pipe smoking The smoking of tobacco in water pipes was introduced by the Muslim rulers who smoked perfumed tobacco in their elaborate silver water pipes before the advent of cigarettes and cigars. Slowly the elites and the rich people started imitating this practice so the poor people not to be left behind started making their own water pipes. This was cheaply made using a coconut shell, a stem of hollow wood and a baked clay cup to hold the embers and the tobacco. The coconut shell is filled with water and you inhale the smoke through it giving it the name water pipe or hukkah. Now anywhere in rural India and Pakistan you will find poor people using hukkah because it has become a part of their culture. If you go to any country in the Middle East, you will find well dressed women and men in restaurants or such public places happily smoking their water pipes that are quite elaborate like the ones Mughals used long ago. It is now a part of their culture. But when you smoke in public, others who are non smokers are inhaling your smoke that is harmful to them , then it becomes a problem. So go and smoke in your house and pollute your house. Who cares? Just don't do it in public. A culture develops over a period of time accumulating behaviors that are at first alien to them but accepted and popularized that become addictive like smoking or drinking alcohol or stuffing snuff into your nose or chewing tobacco or pan. When people say that it is a part of their culture and use it as an excuse to spit everywhere then it becomes a dirty habit. Since it is very difficult to change people and their culture, the method of penalty and stiff fines are used to curb such practices like in Singapore. The bad habits can be changed or entirely given up as I have done myself. I used to smoke fine tobacco like Amphora in my beautiful pipes that I collected from many countries but I quit smoking some twenty five years ago because I came to realize that smoking is not good for my health so I gave it up. I was not addicted to tobacco like some people are so it was not difficult for me and I do not chew pan but I can understand how difficult it is for some to give up their bad habits. Now you may chew pan , drink alcohol or smoke in private but when you make yourself a nuisance in public then it becomes mandatory to curb such habits even if you claim it to be a part of your culture. No culture anywhere should tell you it is OK to spit anywhere or urinate anywhere or smoke anywhere because it affects others. When you throw a banana peal mindlessly on the road, someone may slip and fall and get serious injuries. When you spit anywhere on the road , it creates pollution, spreads germs and spreads disease. When you urinate anywhere in public, it creates stink and very unhygienic conditions. When you throw chewing gums on the road, it gets stuck to someone's shoes and is quite unpleasant. The municipalities spend a lot of money to clean up other people's mess so now they have started collecting fines from errant people. I think that a system of penalizing drivers who do not follow road rules is quite effective so it should also work for those who dirty the public places. People change when it hurts their pocket but not otherwise. Creating awareness through schools, bill boards, media and public forums can go a long way to change people in the long run. Just ask the Singaporeans. If they can do it then it is quite possible in other countries. Please also read my blog called the dirty habits that is related to this blog.
