A broken nose

Source : Google photo of the Victoria memorial in my home town where the Queen sat on the pedestal with her broken nose long after Independence.

Note : You can hear the narration of this blog or any other blog by clicking on the A button in your browser if your browser is Microsoft Edge. 

 

Synopsis : What is in a broken nose ? Evidently a great deal. The British ruled India for over 250 years with ruthless oppression that made the country poor and pitiful while they looted all its riches to enrich their own country. They erected statues of their kings and queens all over India that posed as a visual symbol of their oppression but it came to an end when India became free. Someone broke the nose of the statue of King George V in New Delhi that led to a chain of events over a long period of time culminating in the erection of the statue of the great Nationalist hero Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

 

In my home town there is a huge park erstwhile called Alfred park where there used to be a white marble  life size statue of Queen Victoria  sitting on a throne with a scepter in her hand and a sphere in the other perhaps representing the globe. It was most likely made in England and transported to my home town with great fanfare and installed under a huge marble canopy.

During the struggle for independence people attacked the symbol of oppression like the statue of the Queen Victoria and broke her nose so she sat there for years with a broken nose. I used to climb to the pedestal and look closely at her stone unsmiling face and wonder how the queen of a small island called England so far away could become the ruler of a vast country called India that was now free.

During the British Raaj, the park used to be a lively place where the British ladies walked around the promenade with parasols while their maids pushed the baby strollers behind. A band played in the center just in front of the monument where the Queen sat there with unblinking eyes and perhaps wondering what she was doing in a strange land so far from home.

British men in smart evening dresses walked along with the women with their Indian servants in tow just in case they needed something. It was a park of massive proportions with trees and flowers everywhere .Numerous gardeners toiled to make the park beautiful with beautiful roses and chrysanthemums. There were flower shows, dog shows and picnics so the park was a lively place indeed.

The entire front of the monument was lined with cannons representing the might of the Empire but later the termites ate away the wheels so the cannons were placed on ugly cement blocks by the municipal office.

One day my father was going to his office pedaling his bicycle and passing by the park when he heard gun shots so he knew that something was going on inside the park so he pedaled on faster but later the news came that a great hero and revolutionary Chandra Shekhar Ajaad was involved in a gun battle with the British police that had shot him. Now the park is named as Chandra Shekhar Ajaad park but the Victoria memorial remains empty.

I was probably 10 years old when I heard that a statue of the hero was to be unveiled in the park at the spot where he gave his life so I walked several kilometers to reach the park and observed the ceremony.

At that time there was a national movement to remove all statues of British people and change all the names of roads, parks and public buildings so the statue of the queen with her broken nose was removed unceremoniously and dumped somewhere full of weeds and overgrown jungle. People just did not like to be reminded of their 250 years of oppression because the country was now free.

There was a beautiful park near our home called Minto park where we used to play as children annoying the devil out of the gardeners tending their beautiful flower beds but what we liked most was to climb on the monument that had a square base with some inscriptions chiseled into the white marble that we tried to read and understand. On top of this square base was a huge pillar with four lion heads on top and the half bust of Minto, King George V, Victoria  and others on four sides.

Later the busts were removed and the four sides with the inscriptions were defaced entirely. The park has been renamed Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya park . He was a great revolutionary who was also the founder of the Benares Hindu University (BH) that is one of the top Universities in India.

Now the younger generation does not know the British and their names so the Chatham lines, Canning road, McPherson Lake and Hewett road etc. are forgotten because all the names have been changed long ago.

Just a few days ago the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi created history by pushing a button that turned on the holographic projector that now projects a 3D holographic image of the National Hero Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose exactly at the same place where King George V statue used to be. The canopy was empty since 1968 but I always wished in my heart that Netaji Bose should be honored there because it was Bose and his Indian National Army that had pushed out the British from India no matter what the Congress propagandists say even today. People know the truth.

The Congress party ruled the country for many decades but they tried to marginalize the effort of Netaji Bose to get Independence so they tried to erase him from the history books. Thus a great injustice was done by them that has now been corrected by the Prime Minister of India.

The holographic image will stay there until a 28 foot tall statue of Netaji Bose in granite is completed and placed there. It is what I call the Divine Justice because Bose who fought the British tooth and nail and succeeded in getting them out of India stands right where King George V was.

 

Source : Google photo of the India Gate and the empty canopy in Delhi

Source : Google photo of the holographic image of Netaji Bose in Delhi

When someone broke the nose of the statue of King George V during the movement to remove all British statues in India, it stood there until it was removed in 1968 , some 21 years after the independence . Why it took 21 years to remove the statue of King George V ? The ruling party of the time was the Congress party that did not like to embarrass the British Royalty by removing the statue but a new government came to power that removed it.

The place remained empty from 1968 until this year of 2022 because the Congress Party did not like to honor our national hero Bose and perhaps wanted to place a statue of Gandhi or Nehru there but it was strongly opposed by the people of India who see the Gandhi and Nehru as nothing but the interlopers who falsely claimed that the British left due to their nonviolent agitations.

Now a great statue of Bose will be installed there as soon as it is completed. People of India have impatiently waited for 75 years for the national hero Bose to be recognized and honored this way. The freedom fighters who died in jails in Andaman or were hanged elsewhere by the British were thousands in number but most of them have faded from the collective memory of the nation because their contribution to the armed struggle to free India was suppressed by the people in power in the post-independence era of India.

It took India more than 70 years to build a National war memorial in front of the India Gate in Delhi to honor all those who sacrificed their lives so that all Indians could live as free people. This credit as well goes to the Prime Minister Modi who lit the eternal flame there just a few days ago.

Now the nation gratefully acknowledges them and a new museum has been opened in the Red Fort of Delhi that shows in graphic details the struggle of the Indian National Army under the leadership of Bose.

The broken nose of the statue of King George V led to the chain of events culminating in the recognition and establishment of Bose as the true hero of India. Bose lives forever in the hearts of all Indians no matter where they are. People never forget their heroes.

Source : Google photo of the national War Memorial in front of India Gate in New Delhi that honors all the fallen soldiers and revolutionaries.

Note : My blogs are also available in French, Spanish, German and Japanese languages at the following links as well as my biography. My blogs can be shared by anyone anytime in any social media. 

Mes blogs en français. 

Mis blogs en espagnol 

Blogs von Anil in Deutsch 

Blogs in Japanese 

My blogs at Wix site 

tumblr posts    

Blogger.com Medium.com 

Anil’s biography in English.

 Biographie d’Anil en français 

La biografía de anil en español. 

Anil’s Biografie auf Deutsch 

Anil’s biography in Japanese 

Биография Анила по-русскиu 

 

  

 

 

 

Prepare yourself

 

Source : Google photo

Synopsis : Most people in this world live a mundane life and die of their old age but only a lucky few die in their sleep with a smile on their face because they had lived a full life fulfilling all their duties and obligations. They are called the true independent souls. The blog explains how anyone can prepare himself for the day so that he can live his life on his own terms until the last moment.

 

There was a cruel and fanatical Moghul king who ruled India in the 16th century. He was called Aurangzeb who had ascended the throne after killing his elder brother who was the crown prince and put his father the Emperor ShahJahan in prison in the Fort of Agra.

Aurangzeb ruled over the Hindus whom he considered the unbelievers so he desecrated their places of worship and razed to the ground their holy temples all over the country. He then forced the Hindus to convert to Islam under the threat of execution so he is remembered as the most fanatic anti Hindu ruler who made many enemies by fighting the Hindu kings and killing them. This is how the Mughals expanded their territories.

In his old age, he became very thin and bent from his waist down but he still insisted  to be carried in a palanquin to go to the battle field because his battles were never ending until he died leaving behind the widows and children of his enemies.

As he neared his death when he was near 90 years in age, he continued to knit skull caps that he sold to the faithful Moslems to earn a few pennies that he saved for his funeral. He did not take a penny from his treasury and wanted to die on his own terms so he ordered that he should be buried by the road side in a village near Aurangabad in a shallow grave, wrapped only in a white sheet of cotton cloth. He ordered that no monument shall ever be built on his grave so that his remains will always be under the sky.

Source : Google photo of Aurangzeb and his quotes

He regretted all the cruel and bad things he had done in his life and begged for the forgiveness of Allah and he died utterly alone and very lonely. All his wives and most of his off springs had died so there was no one to shed a tear on his death. We visited his grave near Aurangabad where his grave is still under the sky, just covered with a white sheet and a Tulsi plant.

Source : Google photo of the grave of Aurangzeb

Tulsi is a holy plant for the Hindus so why a Tulsi plant was planted on his grave is still a mystery. Perhaps it was his way of making atonement for all his crimes against the hapless Hindus during his reign as king. The British later built a marble screen around his grave to protect it. He was after all an Emperor of India. His empire started to weaken after his death and at last fell apart after the British exiled the last Moghul king in 1857.

As a ruler, Aurangzeb in his old age prepared himself to be buried as he wished and left the money to do so that he earned by knitting skull caps.

He was an extreme example of how some people prepare themselves for their burial and last rites. He did not want grandiose mausoleum built using his treasury money so he was very different from his forefathers who ordered massive mausoleums built for them like TajMahal, Humayun’s mausoleum in Delhi and Akbar’s mausoleum in Sikandera near Agra.

Now I come to the present era of common people living under stress, financial difficulties and tremendous cost of medical care that people cannot afford so how do you expect them to prepare themselves for the end?

I have a good example here of a friend who lived in retirement in his old age doing some gardening and doing numerous charity works but he was very self-effacing and humble. I urged him to share the photos of his lovely vegetable garden so he did after some hesitation and sent me some beautiful post cards that he had designed. He was a graphic artist.

When he was told that he had a short time to live, he started to give away most of his prized possessions to every one’s surprise. He donated his extensive collection of cameras, lenses etc. to a nearby University and donated many such valuables to others while keeping to himself his medical issues. He paid to a funeral parlor for his cremation and asked them to spread his ashes under his favorite tree.

He did not ask anyone’s help and died knowing that he had lived his life on his own terms. Very people can do that because in their old age they become dependent on others to take care of them. They fail to prepare themselves for the day when they breathe their last.

In this country people leave behind huge hospital bills that their relatives have to pay somehow because the hospital Shylocks will not release the body unless they get fully paid. The longer it takes for the relatives to pay, the bigger the bill becomes.

When the body is finally handed over to the relatives for the last rites, the funeral parlor people show up to claim a lot of money for the preparation and burial of the deceased so again the relatives are hit by the large expense the second time driving them deeper into debt.

It is not unheard of that the close relatives have to sell their house or land to pay the bills because no one has so much money to pay for all the expenses. The insurance does not cover it all but only a small fraction.

This topic is a serious topic because I want to discuss here how anyone can prepare himself or herself for the day when the end comes because it does as sure as sunrise.

Now I am not talking about the rich or the super-rich who have all the means at their disposal to do whatever they wish. They do not have to knit skull caps to earn a few pennies like Aurangzeb although he was the Emperor of a huge country called India.

I am talking about the common people like you and me who are born, live a simple life and one day leave this world without leaving anything called their legacy. They are not great writers, scientists, engineers or award winning artists, singers or actors. A short time after their demise, no one really remembers them or feels their absence. Their photos and memorabilia collect dust in the attic.

Yet these simple folks once were living beings who lived an honest life, paid their taxes and helped those who needed their help. They were religious so they donated whatever they could afford to their temples, Gurudwaras or Churches. They brought up their children well and took good care of their spouse. They may have had musical talents but were humble and never showed their talent to anyone publicly.

I knew a great violinist who lived in our neighborhood whose talent was not recognized by anyone so he played his violin alone in his living room that the passerby’s could hear and wonder at the sweet melody. He took to the bottle that ended his life one day because of frustration and poverty.

The vast majority of people in the world fall into this category of common people like the violinist I just mentioned although not everyone takes to the bottle in frustration. Some become very religious and live a simple life.

A friend of mine who was a brilliant and very intelligent person had a very good job in an International Institute.  He had a nice family and a small adorable child so everything was perfect for him and his family until one day he decided to quit his job and move to a Latin American country where there was a long running war and where the narco mafia ruled.

He was captured by the rebels and held hostage for many years until a huge ransom was paid for his release by his relatives. He moved to a small town in the US and found that his wife and children had left him so he was alone and sad. He too took to drinking heavily that eventually ended his life but he did write to me before he went. So what was his legacy and how he prepared for his end? I don’t know.

I greatly admire people who remain independent until their last breath .I don’t mean people like Aurangzeb who was cruel and did many bad things. I mean the common people like you and me who live a simple life, raise good children and prepare themselves for all eventualities so that no one needs to worry about them. Such people are born independent and remain independent until their last breath. They leave behind no debt and leave enough money for their spouse to live independently.

By their nature they are people without bad habits like drinking, gambling, smoking or borrowing money they never pay back. They are honest and live or try to live a clean life. They are also good savers.

So saving is the key word here. I believe that anyone who has a job or a business can save a part of what they earn for the retirement days. Some earn a small pension that may allow them to live a modest life. If you try to save even a small part of what you earn, it can accumulate over a long period of time to a surprising sum that comes in handy when you are old.

Another way is to downsize, sell your huge house and move into a small apartment or cottage somewhere to reduce the cost of living. The added revenue to your savings can help you live a simple but independent life somewhere. You will not need your big car, big house and large flat screen TV any more. A simple bicycle will do.

You will not need your expensive watch, fancy jewelries and fancy clothes so sell them to monetize. Believe me when I say that no one cares how you look, how you live your life and what you do. People are not interested in you unless you are Barack Obama.

So it is up to you to take care of your life until the end because no one is really responsible for you except you. But people will respect your independence and say that you lived your life on your own term without resorting to knitting skull caps to earn a few pennies.

  Source : Google photo of an inspirational quote

 

Note : My blogs are also available in French, Spanish, German and Japanese languages at the following links as well as my biography. My blogs can be shared by anyone anytime in any social media. 

Mes blogs en français. 

Mis blogs en espagnol 

Blogs von Anil in Deutsch 

Blogs in Japanese 

My blogs at Wix site 

tumblr posts    

Blogger.com Medium.com 

Anil’s biography in English.

 Biographie d’Anil en français 

La biografía de anil en español. 

Anil’s Biografie auf Deutsch 

Anil’s biography in Japanese 

Биография Анила по-русскиu 

 

 

 

Unprecedented effort

Source : Google photo of the renovated complex of the Vishwanath temple in Kashi inaugurated by PM Modi yesterday

Synopsis : When something happens after centuries of waiting and disappointment , it is rightly called historic because it changes the course of history in a grand manner like what has just happened in Kashi on December 13, 2021. Rarely a person comes to correct the historic wrongs done in the name of religion but that is exactly what has happened with the inauguration of the Kashi Vishwanath temple corridor yesterday. It will make Mr. Narendra Modi immortal.

https://youtu.be/INPMLfMhpGs

Source : U tube video of the inauguration of the temple in Kashi

What happened yesterday December 13, 2021 in Kashi was unprecedented in the history of Hindu India and the person who made his dream project of Vishwanath temple complex renovation a reality was the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. The whole ceremony of the inauguration of the temple complex by Modi was telecast live around the world to show its importance that very few non Hindus will ever understand.

Kashi also known as Benares or Varanashi is the most ancient city that has been continuously lived in the world. Its written history dates back some 5000 years so Kashi is indeed a very very old city that is known as the abode of Shiva making it the holiest city to all Hindus in the world.

Source : Google photo of Mughal king Aurangjeb who destroyed Hindu temples and forced Hindus to convert to Islam.

But Kashi Vishwanath temple was attacked and ruined by the cruel and fanatic Moslem ruler Aurangjeb who had the temple desecrated and demolished to build a mosque in its place in 1669. The temple priest had jumped into a well carrying the Shiva linga in order to save it from destruction. It is not known if he died in the well.

The Hindus watched the desecration silently with tears but could not do anything to stop the heavily armed soldiers Aurangjeb had sent. He is known as the person who did the most damage to Hinduism by destroying their numerous places of worship and forcing the hapless Hindus to accept Islam with sword on their neck. In Uttar Pradesh alone that has a population of over 200 million has the most number of Moslems in India who were forcibly converted to accept Islam but they were all Hindus.

The looters and destroyers also came from Afghanistan for the pillage in the 12th century and many times later because they knew India as the Golden bird so came to loot, kill and desecrate famous Hindu temple of Somnath in Gujarat and others. That temple was looted and destroyed 18 times but now it has been rebuilt after the independence of India in 1947. The massive temple of Ram is also being built in Ayodhya where the mosque built by Baber after destroying the Ram temple there in 1527 was demolished by the Hindus in 1992.

 

                         Source : Google photo of Queen Ahilya Bai Holkar

Then in the year 1780 a valiant queen Ahilya Bai Holkar of Indore who was a great devotee of Shiva renovated and rebuilt the temple as it stands today. In 1835 a great king called Ranjit Singh donated 1 ton of gold to cover the top of the temple that will blind you with its brilliance today as it did centuries ago.

                          Source : Google photo of Maharaja Ranjit Singh

Over the centuries following the desecration of the Vishwanath temple, people started encroaching on the temple land and built illegal houses that enclosed within their homes numerous very very ancient temples so they were completely hidden to the public. These beautiful and historic temples were discovered only when over 350 houses were demolished to create the space where the new temple complex was to rise. People were stunned to see these temples for the first time in centuries so the new corridor has now freed them and rehabilitated all of them to restitute them to their original form and glory.

One stolen image of Goddess Anna Purna was recently brought back to India from Canada and reestablished in the complex corridor.

Due to the encroachment of the temple land by the illegal settlers, it had made the access to the temple very narrow and difficult for the pilgrims to reach the temple of Shiva to offer their prayers and pooja. The access to the river from the temple was also very difficult because of all the illegal structures that are now demolished to make a wide access corridor . Now all pilgrims can bathe in the river and take the holy water of Ganga and walk up the stairs to reach the temple directly passing through the massive courtyard and through many ornate gates. All Hindus follow this ritual of first bathing in Ganga and then carry the Holy water to the temple and offer it to Shiva. Mr. Modi was not amiss in performing this ritual that the whole world watched on TV.

All the workers who had built the massive corridor toiling for over 2 years through the covid pandemic and the lock down but still working 24 hours a day every day without break had assembled in one side to wait for their beloved Prime minister.

They could not imagine in their wildest dreams that he will come, bless them all with flowers and show his humility by sitting with them on the steps to talk to them and personally thank them for their effort and hard work. The workers were overjoyed and the whole world watched it. The invited guests watched in awe and learned a few lessons on how to be humble.

Old and people with disabilities are provided with facilities like elevators and walking escalators to reach the temple easily from the river. The huge space can now accommodate at any one time 100000 pilgrims easily.

The temple is surrounded by the gallery to show the history, prayers and Mantras etc. inscribed on marble in black letters for everyone to read. There are bookstores for religious books and reprints of scriptures, visitor’s assistance center, food court, guest house and security offices that keep an eye on the entire complex through CCTV cameras. There are more than 20 such massive buildings in the complex, 4 main entry gates and the stone paved stairs all the way to the edge of the river. Pilgrims can now arrive in modern boats that run on CNG at the jetty and climb the massive stairs to reach the temple complex.

In the courtyard they can rest, pray or meditate, do yoga or simply sit on benches to soak in the majesty of the temple and bask in its glory for the first time in the history of Kashi.

The entire road from Godhowlia crossing to the main gate of the complex has been widened and paved with pink stones of Chunar. There are stone benches for the visitors to rest on all along the way and the entire street is well lit with light posts and the motor vehicles are blocked to enter the street by the electrically operated bollards that can come up or sink into the ground as the situation requires.

All the shops on both sides are painted in a uniform pink color making it now a very pleasant street to walk on without traffic and motor vehicles. The entire city of Kashi has been cleaned up, painted pink and with street lights. The overhead offensive wires are gone and the whole city is wired with fiber optic cables underground to connect to the Internet. Kashi is well on its way to become the Smart city.

Even the narrow lanes and streets reaching the temple are paved with new stones and both sides are painted with beautiful scenes of ancient India and the pictures of famous religious sadhus and rishis. The new drainage system, buried cables and clean stone paved narrow lanes are now all done making the lanes easily passable.

Kashi Railway station, new modern airport building, ring road around the city, numerous overpasses to ease the traffic and LED lighted streets , the new highways linking Kashi to other cities are now helping Kashi to become a modern city while preserving its ancient history and culture.

Near Kashi are the holy Buddhist shrines and stupas in Sarnath where Buddha meditated thousands of years ago. The access road to Sarnath and the entire complex is beautifully maintained to receive the faithful who come from all over the world.

In this video the Prime Minister inspects various development projects in Kashi personally starting at the temple complex. .

https://youtu.be/fblvi71ScD4

Source : U Tube video Of PM Modi visiting Kashi projects that were recently completed .

           Source : Google photo of the Chief Minister Yogi of Uttar Pradesh

The other person who helped in the fulfillment of all projects in Kashi including the Vishwanath corridor is the Chief Minister Yogi who is modernizing the whole state with new airports, new expressways, new hospitals, schools and colleges, modern railway stations, bus terminals etc. to get the State ready for the 21st century with the state of the art facilities. He is tireless like Modi and has reduced crime rate very significantly in the entire state.

I remember the time when I went to Kashi to visit the Vishwanath temple and bathe in the river Ganga at the Dashaswamedh ghat . I had to pass through very narrow lanes often obstructed by a nasty bull or a cow that roamed freely and bothering everybody. The gutters overflowed but one could smell the scent of flowers and joss sticks near the temple. The shops were selling anything you wanted but mostly catered to the pilgrims and their needs like flowers and joss sticks or sweets. I offered my pooja and came out because no one was allowed to linger there due to the crowd pressing you on all sides.

I saw the playful dolphins that swam near the ghats and wondered why no one protected them in my home town where there were plenty of them always playing near the Fort. The Kashi dolphins are safe from poaching because people are now more aware and protect them. May be they will multiply and spread to other parts of the river.

I found a simple room and a wooden bed with a dirty mattress on it because I could not afford a fancy hotel room so I was like most pilgrims who come to Kashi from all over the country. I understand that this has changed now. Many new guest houses have been built that are clean, modern that offer you very good service, good food and place to stay at low cost. Kashi food is excellent and cheap.

https://youtu.be/o9_RVjNwfBc

Source : U tube video of the modern Khirkiya ghat in Banaras

Kashi is changing fast . Its residents are blessed with a benevolent government that is pouring millions of dollars to develop it. Khirkiya ghat, Lalita ghat, Manikarnika ghat and many others are being developed to make them modern. Paved with pink stones of Chunar and LED light illumination makes them attractive for the tourists now.

If you just visit the Vishwanath temple corridor, you will know what I mean. The river water is clean and the dolphins still play there. You will arrive in Kashi in a superfast modern train and wonder at the airport like railway station and proceed to Godhowlia from where you may walk on the newly paved wide and well-lit street that looks like a London street and arrive at the temple.

There you will stand spell bound at the massive main gate and wonder what it was like before. You will be better off not knowing.

Note : My blogs are also available in French, Spanish, German and Japanese languages at the following links as well as my biography. My blogs can be shared by anyone anytime in any social media. 

Mes blogs en français. 

Mis blogs en espagnol 

Blogs von Anil in Deutsch 

Blogs in Japanese 

My blogs at Wix site 

tumblr posts    

Blogger.com Medium.com 

Anil’s biography in English.

 Biographie d’Anil en français 

La biografía de anil en español. 

Anil’s Biografie auf Deutsch 

Anil’s biography in Japanese 

Биография Анила по-русскиu

 

Who is primitive ?

 

Source : Google photo of happy Bushmen of Kalahari 

Synopsis : Some people call others primitive and treat them as subhuman who need to be shown what civilized people can offer them to improve their lives starting with a Bible. Such self-proclaimed people have brought misery to others who are not like them so try to justify themselves with words like manifest destiny. But the notion of primitiveness is as obsolete as it was when it was first mentioned. All people have a right to live the way they want and believe in what they want to believe.

 

Michener wrote in his novel Hawaii how the inhabitants of the Polynesian Islands in the Pacific Ocean sailed thousand kilometers in their dugout canoes to reach the Hawaii islands centuries ago without a compass or any other navigation aid. Their ancestors taught them how to navigate through the ocean using just the stars as their guide.

They knew the stars, the constellations and the true north guided by the Pole star so they sailed the open sea using their knowledge and a rock solid faith in the wisdom of their forefathers who had learned it from theirs.

Thus the celestial navigation knowledge was passed on to them generation after generation that made them excellent seafarers .Even today they sail in their home made canoes from one island to another using their ancient knowledge.

When they arrived in Hawaii, they found the islands rich in soil and with abundant rainfall that made them grow their food easily .The sea provided them with all the fish and the forest teeming with wild pigs and other animals so they had plenty of food all year round. They found a safe haven in Hawaii where they lived happily until the Christian missionaries arrived to save their heathen souls from purgatory.

In one chapter Michener wrote about a missionary woman who was pregnant and was having a hard time giving birth so the Hawaiian women came to help because they were excellent midwives and knew how to help a pregnant woman at the time of child birth.

But they were not allowed to enter the tent so they waited patiently to be called to assist but it did not happen. The pastor did not believe that these so called primitive women had the skills as midwife so they were ignored while the pastor read from a handbook how to deliver a baby because it was his first time to do so. The woman cried in pain and heaved but the baby would not come because it was stuck while the Hawaiian women pleaded that they could help and save the baby and the mother but the pastor would not listen.

When the baby was finally delivered, it was still born because the baby did not get the oxygen right away so died. The women waiting outside heard that the baby was still born because the pastor did not know how to deliver a baby so they cried .Their collective wailing could melt a stone but the missionary heart was tougher so it had no effect.

The Protestant missionaries denigrated the Hawaiians in every way possible and laughed at them when they told them how their ancestors came to Hawaii in dugout canoes with the help of celestial navigation centuries ago. To the missionaries such tales were just fiction because they did not believe that the primitive people of Hawaii had the knowledge or the sophistication required to navigate through the open seas so long ago.

They came from the mainland to convert these heathens to their brand of Christianity to save their corrupt souls that had no religion so they looked down on them and ridiculed their rich culture as primitive. They had come to educate them and show them the true religion so they worked hard on them to convert them. Later they wrote to the US Congress to declare Hawaii as a state of the United States to legitimize their role in civilizing the primitive people.

These tough missionaries had a low opinion of anyone who was not white so they showed that they were openly racists and considered themselves as superior to those who were not white. They believed that only the whites had developed the knowledge of navigation and had built modern ships that could cross any ocean using compass and charts that they had prepared. They did not believe that the Hawaiians had any knowledge of medicine although the Hawaiians had a very rich knowledge of plants that they used to cure many illnesses. This knowledge came down to them through generations but the missionaries did not believe them.

They said that Hawaiians had no written language so how could they be called civilized so it became their duty to teach them the alphabets so that they could read the Bible. They set up schools for them with heavy emphasis on religion and building churches everywhere. You will notice that the missionaries do this all over the world wherever they go to civilize the native people.

There was such a fellow who went to a forbidden island in the Andaman and Nicobar in the Bay of Bengal where some tribes live. He was warned that the islanders do not like outsiders and kill them before they even land on their shores but he ignored their advice and went ahead in his boat to spread the religion among the natives because that was his mission. Later the river patrol boat found his body on the beach full of arrows and had difficulty in retrieving it because the islanders did not let anyone to approach them. This news was reported in most of the news media that eulogized the missionary and his valiant effort to bring Christianity to the primitive people but never mentioned that the islanders had a right to live in their own way.

Gauguin captured the sad mood of the Tahitian women in his painting showing the pernicious effect of evangelization by the missionaries there who ignored the rich culture of the Tahitians.

Source : Google painting of Gauguin showing sad Tahitian women

Now you will notice that I used the word primitive a number of times so now I will discuss this idea of who is called primitive and who is not in more detail. James Michener has always been my most favorite writer because he wrote about such issues as racism of the missionaries in Hawaii in the most unbiased way and backed up his writing with infallible data that he researched on for many years before writing his masterpiece.

Long before the white people arrived in the United States of America, there were very civilized people with very rich culture who lived in complete harmony with the nature. They had lived there for many thousands of years so had adapted well to the land. They were mostly hunter gatherers who lived in exquisite animal skin tepees that they could dismantle quickly to move on following the seasons and the source of food.

They made excellent clothes, shoes and jewelries and were expert hunters and fighters when they needed to fight to protect themselves from other tribes or from the white invaders who came to ravage their land and to kill them because they called them savage people. They were called Indians or Injuns and their pretty women were called squaws by the uneducated people called white trash.

The whites considered them less than human and an impediment to their rapacious desire to occupy as much territory as they could so they brought in armed soldiers and built numerous military posts surrounded by thick walls. When the Native Americans protested, they were killed. The whites introduced alcohol and venereal diseases to which these native people had no immunity so they died in large numbers. They died of cholera, small pox and other imported diseases because they had no immunity.

This self-proclaimed superiority of the white people over others was responsible for the slavery in America and other countries and the destruction of great people in the North, Central and South America on a scale never seen before in the history of mankind.

The whites proclaimed their manifest destiny to rule over less than human people, take their land and property, kill them at will if they resisted, and sexually molest their women and even children in order to destroy all that was dear to the natives. So they invaded many countries and took the possession using military means to begin the process of looting all they could find as precious like gold and silver.

This wealth was then shipped to the countries they represented like Spain or England. With the military conquest came the rabid missionaries to spread Christianity using any means including imprisonment and torture.

The bestselling book called Aztec written by Gary Jennings is worth reading here if you really want to know the gory details of how the Spaniards treated the proud Aztecs and decimated them and their rich culture after looting their gold. It was all because the white people called the Aztecs primitive who had never known Jesus so it was their duty to civilize them and turn them into the Bible thumping Christians. They succeeded beyond their expectations.

The white people invented the word Manifest destiny and used it to justify their behavior toward all the people they called primitive giving rise to the notion of racism that still prevails in many countries even today.

Their invasion of lands where people lived in peace and prosperity was justified by their greed for new land and resources in order to enrich their country so all the colonial powers like Spain, England among others became rich. It did not matter to the Kings and Queens of Europe how the riches were obtained as long as the ships loaded with gold and silver returned to fill their coffers. Many such ships foundered on their way so millions worth of gold and silver sunk in deep waters.

I have always deplored the notion that any human being is superior over others but it has been responsible for all the bloodshed in the history. They used brute military power to conquer land and dominate over people in order to loot their resources. These invaders called themselves Christians, wore gold cross in a chain on their necks, prayed in churches and brought with them the rabble priests to forcibly Christianize the heathen because as Christians they felt that it was their solemn duty to do so. The methods used were not important to them.

They brought so much wealth back to their kings and queens that they were given great titles, rewards and huge properties by their sovereigns who always lusted for more wealth. It did not matter to them how such wealth was acquired in the first place.

Children are taught even today wrongly that Columbus discovered America and other Spaniards brought Christianity to the primitive people everywhere. Pizarro, Hernán Cortés and Columbus are called great Conquistadores or great discoverers of new land and wealth but it took a writer like Gary Jennings to write about their cruelty.

They justified their cruelty by saying that they were sent by their sovereigns who financed their ships and their adventure who in return were expected to pay back their kings in riches so they had to first conquer the land and then collect the riches using whatever means necessary. When the king like Moctezuma was no longer useful to Cortes, he was garroted.

Source : Google photo of simple, carefree and happy tribe of Papua New Guinea

Today I was watching a video on the people who live in Papua New Guinea in isolated villages where they build beautiful bamboo houses and get all the food they need from the rivers teeming with fish. They are called primitive by the outsiders but they live happily and simply. They sing and dance. They make their own clothes and make shell jewelries. They live in complete harmony with the nature. Just because they do not have a written language or practice your brand of religion does not make them primitive.

Source : Google photo of the bamboo huts of the isolated tribes of Papua New Guinea who are simple but happy.

So primitive is an obsolete word that should never be used to describe people who have a rich culture of their own, rich history and who live simple but happy life. They definitely do not need the outsiders to tell them how to live, how to dress and which God to pray to.

What would our world look like without the rich diversity of people?

Note :  My blogs are also available in French, Spanish, German and Japanese  languages at the following links as well as my biography:

Mes blogs en français.

Mis blogs en espagnol

Blogs von Anil in Deutsch

Blogs in Japanese

My blogs at Wix site

tumblr posts    

Blogger.com

Medium.com

Anil’s biography in English.

Biographie d'Anil en français

La biografía de anil en español.

Anil's Biografie auf Deutsch

Anil’s biography in Japanese

Биография Анила по-русски

Stop all animal torture

Source : Google photo  

Synopsis : We need to be aware that all animals are precious whether domestic or wild so they should be loved and protected . This awareness should be taught to every child in every school in the world so that the future generation will learn to love the animals and protect them. Many species will become extinct unless we do this.

There is a park in the town of El Obeid in Sudan where there are a number of steel cages that keep wild animals for people to see. People who visit the park have all seen the wild lions in the cages and ignore them but the kids poke the animals with sticks in their ribs knowing full well that they cannot fight back.

The adults do not stop the kids from torturing the lions because torturing animals in their culture is not an issue that occupies their mind. I have seen the same thing in Mascara where I used to work in Algeria. There the tethered animals were routinely tortured by the children who poked their anus with sticks but their parents never told them that it was wrong to torture animals so they should stop.

Now you can imagine that those children have grown into their adulthood after so many years so what they will teach their children who also torture tethered animals for fun? They did it themselves when young.

I saw the tortured lion in its cage in El Obeid that roared in anguish and slammed its body into the cage in rage but this torture never stopped. I stopped and saw the pain, the hopelessness and the rage in the eyes of those lions who were still fighting it not knowing that they will never be free and will surely die in captivity.

All over the world we are responsible for the animal torture even if we do not torture them personally. It is because we do not stop our children who torture wild animals or even domestic animals so we are complicit. We have all seen the wild bears in India that are made to dance for you for a few pennies by their handlers and surely we have seen the wild monkeys with rope around their neck to dance and make people laugh. The handler makes the monkeys dance with the threat of beating so the monkeys are afraid of the punishment.

The bears suffer the most because their handler pulls the bear with a rope through its nostrils that are very sensitive and painful so they cry out in pain and submit. People watch the bear dance, throw a few coins at him and pass on but never ask the handler to stop the torture of a wild animal that has never meant any harm to anyone. Once I saw at least 18 bears on the road from Agra to Jaipur but stopped counting because there were more. All these bears are tortured the same way by the nomads who eek out a meagre living. The bears have torn nostrils filled with pus and infection but who cares? If they die of infection, they are thrown away like garbage and soon replaced by new bears caught in the forest so this horrific trade continues.

In China they put the bears in small cages and milk their bile that is used in the Chinese medicine. The extraction of bile from a living animal is a very painful process for the animals so they howl in pain but who listens?

The baby elephant that was used as a mascot during the Asian games in India was tortured to make him learn how to sit on a ball and do other tricks but the people did not see the torture the poor elephant was subjected to away from their eyes but the baby elephant shed tears of pain. They are a very sensitive animals who show a wide range of emotions.

In Florida a whale called Orca that used to swim in the huge tank and entertain paid visitors to the Sea World one day dragged its trainer under water and held her until she died because the animal was greatly angered by the captivity. The wild animals are only happy when they are free. They refuse to be domesticated like dogs or other animals.

I think it is inherent in all living being that they value freedom more than anything else. You can see it in their eyes. There is no animal as sad as a caged bird that seeks freedom but knows that it cannot fly away. Some cruel people clip their wings so they cannot fly away someday.

We think that the animals are there to entertain us so we put them in cages and teach them to mimic some words to make us laugh. There are millions of parrots and mynahs in cages that can never escape and feel the air under their wings but I am sure a small hope lingers in their tiny heart that someday may be they will become free.

When I see the tortured tigers and lions in circus, I feel very disturbed. Here is a video of a tortured tiger who looks pitiful so watch this video to feel his pain. That should be enough for you to stop going to circus forever. If all the circus goers feel the same way, the circus owners will go out of business and perhaps release the animals into the wilderness.

 Link  : https://youtu.be/9p7u0MqvxSk  Source : U tube video

There is another video that shows a tortured lion that was saved from its death almost by a miracle.

Link : https://youtu.be/mtACFRsc668     Source : U tube video

In India some NGOs have started a rescue process for the bears and buy them from their handlers to put them in an animal shelter they have established near Agra where the bears get proper veterinary care, good food the company of other bears they can play with.

These tortured bears show their gratefulness for the help they get by embracing the shelter workers and shedding tears of joy. They do not harbor ill feelings toward the humans that have tortured them and show forgiveness. We have a lot to learn from them about forgiveness because we too treat our fellow humans with utmost cruelty.

This video is also on dancing bears .

Source : U Tube video

Here is another video on mistreatment of sloth bear in India .

Source : U tube video on sloth bear mistreatment in India 

In Kenya there was an elephant that escaped from its captors in the circus and went on a rampage killing many people and destroying property. Sadly no one understood the reason why the elephant was so enraged and the cruel people shot him dead.

We humans have always been cruel to animals both wild and domestic. The domestication of wild animals was started by early humans who tamed them to plough their fields or draw water from the wells among numerous other chores so they did not treat their animals badly. They were fed and sheltered properly because they were useful animals that helped them in their agriculture.

The domesticated chickens laid eggs for them and the cows gave milk. Later people raised the animals for meat or wool so a new industry developed where millions of animals of improved breeds are now raised in massive operations in many countries to satisfy the need for eggs, meat or wool. People have set up modern factories where the meat or wool are processed that are then exported to other countries.

My blog today focuses more on wild animals that are being killed for sport  or are captured and sold to people who mistreat them in circus or private homes. Beautiful wild animals are killed for their pelt or ivory or horns like in rhinos just because of greed for money so rare animals are on the verge of being extinct.

The Romans slaughtered thousands of wild lions and tigers during their sport fests that sometimes lasted many weeks. People cheered in the coliseums when a lion killed a gladiator or the gladiator killed the lion. Either way they did not care as long as someone or the animal died in a horrific manner. Romans encouraged this blood lust .

The enraged bull tries to gore the matador in the bull ring where thousands go to see the bloody battle saying Ole Ole every time the matador makes a score meaning stabbing the poor bull. The bull eventually bleeds to death in the name of sport.

Recently a wounded bull bleeding heavily stopped in front of the matador as if asking why he was being tortured this way. It did not attack the matador but just stood there bleeding so the matador was in tears, kneeled down in front of the bull in supplication and asked for its forgiveness for his sins. He vowed to never fight a bull again and retired from the sport. Now there is a demand from animal lovers in Spain and in Mexico to ban this blood sport forever. It remains to be seen if it will happen and the sport will be banned by law forever.

I have previously written about the mass slaughter of dolphins in Japan where they like to eat the meat. You can buy a chunk of whale or dolphin meat in any Japanese supermarket where they will fry the meat for you to take home. They kill the whales and other sea mammals in the name of “research” and harass the Green Peace ships that try to protect the whales. No amount of international pressure to stop the slaughter deters the Japanese whalers. It is just a business for them the same way the shark hunters kill thousands of sharks to slice off the fins that they sell for soup.

There was a time when Europeans and other hunters shot thousands of bisons from their train windows just for fun and let the animals rot in the sun. The Native Americans never understood the penchant of the white man for such slaughter in the name of sport. The tribes killed only those animals that provided them with meat and the skin. They never wasted animals like the white people did.

I still believe that we can live in harmony with the wild animals that normally do not harm us and want to be left alone. The wild animals fight back when we encroach on their territory but we should try to understand it from their point of view. The human encroachment on their territory puts their existence in danger so they fight back. The nature reserves are shrinking worldwide because the human population is increasing around the nature reserves so animal- human conflicts occur frequently resulting in the death of precious animals.

I think we should teach our children that all animals are precious and should be loved and protected so that when they grow up, they will become the activists to run NGOs to protect them or become important officials in the government to promulgate laws to do so. Our generation has not done enough to protect all wild animals but perhaps our children will be able to do so if it is not already too late for some species.

I thank my eldest sister who freed the pigeon I had put in a cage when I was young. She told me that all animals need to be free and not in a cage. I have never forgotten this lesson.

Source : Google photo

Note :  My blogs are also available in French, Spanish, German and Japanese  languages at the following links as well as my biography:

Mes blogs en français.

Mis blogs en espagnol

Blogs von Anil in Deutsch

Blogs in Japanese

My blogs at Wix site

tumblr posts    

Blogger.com

Medium.com

Anil’s biography in English.

Biographie d'Anil en français

La biografía de anil en español.

Anil's Biografie auf Deutsch

Anil’s biography in Japanese

Биография Анила по-русски