Reaching There

There were young men who gave up their lives for the idea of home-rule (Swarajya) for India. One such hero was Madan Lal Dhingra. His letter and statement to Scotland Yard & court will give every Indian goosebump. The second part of his statement that Scotland Yard tried to prevent from getting published, and yet it found its way in the Daily News in London as 'Challenge'. His words were a call against the occupying forces of British imperialism that were squeezing the 'golden bird'. Although the times of the colonial days in India are long gone yet his words will echo for centuries, giving a glimpse into his short but courageous life. Madan Lal Dhingra Here are his words on 10th July 1909 in front of the judge at his trial for his assassination of Sir Wyllie: I do not want to say anything in defence of myself, but simply to prove the justice of my deed. As for myself, no English law court has got any authority to arrest and detain me in prison or pass...

We all are aware of the remarks by Tamil actor Rajinikanth that have been circulating the airwaves this week. I don't have to repeat the remarks as I don't intend to write about the remarks nor I want to get into a discussion about the life of EVR Ramasamy who has been hailed as a South Indian Socrate-like reformist as well as described as having led a controversial life that bordered on  racial ideology .  I will only end this chain of thought by saying that relooking at the past requires an open mind that should have the courage to acknowledge all aspects of history as a student. It's far too easy to kowtow to one side of the event by letting the prejudice overcome your mind leading to selective deafness. Rationality is an aspect of mind that is far too often succumbing to fear-mongering and stupidity.  I only intend to talk about openness of mind.  I've observed that it's quite easy to say "I was never religious" or "I'm spiritual...

I don't think I've to set any preface for this post. I recently watched the movie Tanhaji. It's a Bollywood movie that has imagined the historical dramatization of the life of Tanaji Malusare. There is no doubt that writers have taken creative liberty and made it a true Bollywood movie with creative action sequences as well as song & dance sequences.  Why did I watch Tanhaji? Is it because of the 'hyper-nationalism' or 'revisionist history' or perhaps the binary portrayal of the Hindu-Muslim relationship during the 1600s? I beg to disagree with the film-critics who are using the crutches of JNU & AMU "activism" which started for fee hike and is seizing the debate on CAA & NRC for its' selfishness.  So why is Tanhaji important? 1. It makes me ponder about the history of Southern India and realize how much of history is missing in the textual history books. It was surprising for me to found out the Vijayanagara Empire (...

A Very Brief History of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) ASI was created in 1861, an agency created during the days of British Colonialism for archaeological excavation and conservation of India monuments. Interestingly the Survey was briefly suspended from 1865 to 1871, which is the most hypocritical joke of history in my view.  1865 was the time when the British government passed the Indian Forest Act that extended British Colonial claims over the forests of India. And due to the onset of the confederacy movement in the United States ' The eyes of a desperate Britain fell on India, and as “King Cotton” destroyed one country, it gave birth to another." (Ref:  https://www.english.uga.edu/sites/default/files/2009-2010_Barnett_Mays_John.pdf )  But they didn't have money for conserving their prized possession, the country of India. A Prolific Writer - Prof. B.B. Lal I'm digressing away from the topic of this post, Professor Brij Basi Lal, the juggernaut ...

India as an ancient maritime power is a theme I was not aware of until I read the book 'The Ocean of Churn' by Sanjeev Sanyal. India has over 7000 kilometers of the maritime border that it shares with Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and the Maldives. If you look at these countries at the history of these modern countries you can see the impact of inter-trade of Southeast Asia that was connected through trade routes. The Ocean of Churn The book brings to light the history of India that's largely ignored by norther Indian readers. And it's not because of a made-up Aryan-Dravidian divide (by the way the whole Aryan Invasion/Migration or origination of pastoral activities from Steppes have been proven incorrect in 2019!) but because our history books never talked about Nandivarman, Kharavela, Kaundinya and others who ruled over various parts of India during different time periods and also confronted the foreign invaders from the w...

As a kid, I was fascinated by the section on Indus Valley Civilization in my history book at school. To imagine an ancient India where the cities were laid out in a Manhattan-like grid, with an upper and a lower city, an advanced drainage system, and ports from where traders traveled as far as ancient Sumeria or Egypt. It's just a captivating part of our country's ancient history. I let my imagination run far with some help from the pictures of Mohenjo-daro, Harappa or Dholavira but I'm unable to relate to these ancient ancestors that traversed the same land where I was born thousands of millennia later. Seal from Indus Valley Civilization Living Modern History And then I have the modern history of India when the entire concept of India was formed from scratch. It was in the time of Dadabhai Naoroji, Gopal Krishna Gokhale,  Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Motilal Nehru, Mahatama Gandhi and other leaders of modern India spent decades of their lives to build th...

Too often we find ourselves feeling bored or simply too overwhelmed by the day to day challenges. And too often we take these situations or the circumstances as an excuse to push us in the corner. We let the circumstances that are generally temporary to stay with our mind for longer than what's a healthy dose! How can something that is debilitating be healthy? Adaptability - Remove your mind from the attack In Bruce Lee's martial art, Jeet Kun Do, one of the underlying philosophies is "adaptability". Street fight like life is unpredictable. There are times when you have to "remove the target" i.e. your mind, that is being continuously hit by this barrage of emotions; feeling of boredom, stagnation, negativity, sadness or overwhelming life challenges. Parrying - Spend time in self-development Other times you've to intercept these challenges. You've to push through the tough times through tools of self-control, courage, learning, and self-dev...