RANG BARSE...

I cannot understand what this fuss is all about.

All this saffronising and de saffronising of education....

Education in my experience was always coloured in one form or the other depending on what and where your were pursuing your education.

Speaking for myself, I changed seven different schools out of the fourteen years of my schooling and went to two different institutions for higher education. Thanks to my father’s transferable job with a nationalized bank.

What I have seen and experienced is a hotch potch of ideologies and ‘isms’ covering all colours from Red (Leftist) to Saffron (Hindutva) to green (Environmental) to white (Christianity) to what have you…

All that colourful influence, at the end of the day makes me wonder if it had any real influence at all on me. What I am today is dictated by the geographical, social and economic conditions that have shaped me and my circumstances.

I earn a living by working for a profit making multinational company whose business it is to develop automated software that will render human effort as redundant and thus increase profitability for the capitalists. So the leftists have disowned me.

I never as much step into a temple or observe rituals and fasts on auspicious days, so the saffron brigade doesn’t care about me.

I do collect all my non-biodegradable waste in a separate trash-can and dispose it off so that the world is a greener and cleaner place to live in, if and when my children inherit it. But the fellow who comes to collect ‘Kachda’ in my building society does not care two hoots about the two different trash-cans that I leave for him in the night. One for the biodegradable and the other for non-biodegradable waste . One morning, when I got up early, I saw him mixing the two up in his large blue bucket when he emptied out the trash cans. I wish I had not got up early and seen this... I could at least have called myself an environmentalist.

Of all the Christian school education that I received, I remember some of the Christmas carols which I learnt in the school choir group. I now hum along when I hear them in the radio or television during Christmas time.

I cannot remember as much the Sanskrit Shlokas that my grandfather taught me when I was a kid.

On the census statistics data of the gazette of India, my Religion is recorded as Hindu.


How do my beliefs that I follow or the gods that I worship matter at all in the census statistics published in the gazette of India? I do not know.

It is quite a task to dissect all my influences.

I do not remember the religious orientation of my kindergarten schools. But my 1st, 2nd, 3rd standard schooling was in the ‘Air force school’ in Pune. They later renamed them as Kendriya Vidyalaya. The ‘Air force school’ was mainly meant for the wards of the service men serving the Indian Air force base in Pune. Due to its tricolour patriotic orientation, it was a 100% secular school. The only manmade divide there was between the children of ‘civilians’ and the children of ‘service men’. I belonged to the former.


My fourth and fifth standard was spent in a Christian school, which was quite cosmopolitan and middle class in nature. There used to be a Christian prayer during the morning assembly and that was all there was to religion.

My sixth standard schooling was in a small town called Katol , where I had a history teacher who took pride in calling himself a ‘Shiv Sainik’. Shiv Sena in those days was not yet tainted by the reports of the Sri Krishna commission. It’s party followers had not yet set foot into the legislative halls of the ‘Mantralaya’ in Mumbai. A L Antulay, a Muslim Congress leader was the Chief minister of Maharashtra and Congress stronghold Sharad Pawar was not yet at the peak of his political career.

Shiv Sena was a mere youth organisation known for hooliganism against non-marathi speaking population in Mumbai with no realistic chances of making it big time into politics.

Our History classes contained of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and his conquests over the lustful Mughals . ‘Wagle Sir ‘– our history techer, did not believe in History textbooks. He would recite stories about Shivaji Maharaj and his conquests to his wide eyed audience of 12 year olds.

Jijabai, Shivaji’s mother was the epitome of womanhood and motherhood. Like a true Maratha woman, she brought up her Son single handed. Her husband lived far away and worked for the Adilshah of Bijapur.

The Mughal emperors as we knew them, were lustful loathing men, who looted property of Maratha Jagirdars and set eyes on the Maratha women . According to ‘Wagle sir’ their weakness for women was what, made them set their eyes on the Maratha kingdom and its womenfolk. Jijabai , the brave mother, had pledged her only son to protect the Maratha kingdom and instilled in Shivaji the sense of duty to protecting the honour of Maratha womanhood from the lustful conquests of the Muslim rulers .

We also knew that Aurangazeb had killed Sambhaji, Shivaji’s son by sheer fraud.

But when Shivaji Killed Afzal khan, Aurangazeb’s trusted lieutenant, it was attributed to the Maratha bravery, wisdom and strength of Shivaji Maharaj.

Not all of this was written in the history textbook, prescribed by the Maharashtra State Council on Secondary School Education. This was all passed down by word of mouth since 1666 to all self –respecting Marathas of which he claimed himself to be one.

I have never visited the fort where Aurangazeb had treacherously imprisoned Shivaji and Sambhaji when they visited him in Agra. They escaped from this fort hiding themselves among a box of sweets , that were being sent out of the fort .

However If I ever do visit this fort, I am sure; Wagle sir’s visual description that has been handed over to me will exactly match the description of the fort. Nothing will surprise me.

I say this because I have experienced this first hand.

I visited Pratapgad fort 15 years after Wagle Sir’s narration of the famous Afzal khan , Shivaji meeting , where Shivaji killed Afzal khan out of his sheer wisdom and Physical Strength.

For those of you who have visited Panchgani, the hill station near Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra, you will still find an impeccable marble tomb erected in the memory of Afzal khan with a green Muslim ( Pakistani ???) flag flying atop. Local grapevine has it that Dawood Ibrahim provides the sponsorship to maintain the tomb from the fortunes that he earns from … I do not know where.

Panchgani is full of Muslims who are supposed to be the descendants of Afzal khan.
Even today, 338 years after Afzal khan was killed by Shivaji, the tension between Marathas and Muslims is evident in Panchgani. Any untoward friendship or meeting between young girls and boys across the Muslims and Marathas is keenly watched over. Intercaste marriages are strictly forbidden and any violation could lead to the killing or maiming of the girl or boy or both in the name of honour of the Marathas as well as Muslims Respectively.

A classmate of mine who hailed from Panchgani sought asylum in faraway Delhi never ever to return to Panchgani after she announced to her family that she would be marrying her Hindu classmate. There were physical threats issued to both of them by the Muslim community of Panchgani .

History is not yet dead in Panchgani. And as a tourist to this picturesque hill station no one will tell you about all this.

When I visited the Pratapgarh fort in Panchgani, every bit of Pratapgarh fort felt familiar to me like the palm of my own hand.
The foot steps route which Shivaji did not take while coming down the fort to meet Afzal khan, the view of the villages down the fort from where he could secretly see and keep a watch on the mughal camp and the acoustics of the fort, were all familiar to me when the guide at Pratapgarh (again a modern day Shiv Sainik) described to the group. It was with the exact words, same passion and saffronised conviction of Wagle Sir that the guide explained this to the group of uninterested tourists from Mumbai and Pune who had come visiting Panchgani.


I have begun to strongly believe that Word of mouth is the most powerful and time tested medium, which influences people. It was probably for this reason that Story tellers were nurtured and respected throughout in history. Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchatantra and Jataka tales have survived centuries of Christian and Muslim conquests of India. There was no world wide web to record such things on the cyber space till about 10 years ago . There was no paper to write them down for future generations to come 10 centuries ago.

Story telling skills and oratory capabilities is a much valued competence throughout history. Talking of its comtemporary importance that is what the BJP / RSS /VHP idelogists and party workers have been identifying and nurturing for all these decades. There was nothing new about it. Indian history has always nurtured and valued this competence.

Atal Behari is an old hat. Among the recent high profile ones ,
Uma Bharati , Sushma Swaraj & Pramod Mahajan are superb story tellers and excellent orators. I listened to Pramod Mahajan in a public rally and fell in love with him.

RSS, I believe tracked down Sushma Swaraj when she was not even in her teens.
She changed loyalties to BJP much later in life.

And good story tellers and orators cut across religious barriers. The oratory and story telling skills of A P J Abdul Kalam and George Fernandez can make a deep impression in you and leave you thinking if you have listened to them .

Ask an aging Taxi driver in Mumbai and he will talk as if George Fernandez was his best buddy in the good old days.

That not the kind of competence that Manmohan singh or I K Gujral possessed.

The Nehru - Gandhi clan had to cultivate it. Barring Nehru, the rest did not have the natural flair for oratory skills like those in the Saffron camp. Nehru, as well as his descendants by blood were blessed with a refined charisma , which endowed on them the mass appeal and thus the unofficial Dynasty status.

And that is also the reason why the Gandhi’s married into the family do not appeal so much to the masses, whereas the ones who have inherited that Nehruvian Charisma can change the country’s power equations by just a few public appearences.

What cannot be genetically inherited, needs to be cultivated and nurtured.
And that is what was silently happening when boys and girls with potential oratory skills and story telling capabilities were identified in local inter and intra school competitions and Ganeshotsav's and were being nurtured.

Wagle Sir must have been one of them.

What I heard in the history classes of Wagle Sir, probably was handed down to him not from any text book, but thru word of mouth for the last 350 years. Approximately 6-7 generations of Marathas before it was passed on to me.

That I would call was a hard core saffron influence in my education. I am talking about 1983-84 time frame. When Madam Gandhi (Sr.) had democratically unseated the Janata party and was firmly saddled in the seat of power.

In those days Saffron was a simply a powder that you used to colour your Sooji Halwa.

While congress ruled in the center and in the states, Saffronism was slowly spreading its roots at the grassroots. It was alive, kicking and thriving in the small towns and villages ever since and much before Nathuram Godse proclaimed the dream of Akhanda Bharat.

It reached a critical mass in the 1990’s and surfaced in the form of Ayodhya.

It is just that with power and money, saffronism is today trying to acquire an organized cult status similar to what Christianity has been enjoying for centuries all across the world.

Most children today study in schools and colleges funded by Saffron minded philanthropists. A few decades ago, the saffron brigade did not subscribe to that scale of Philanthropy and power. Except for Chinmaya mission or the Ramakrishna mission, there were not many reputed educational institutions even remotely affiliated to the saffron brigade.

Let’s face it …The ‘Convent’ education and ‘Christian school’ education does enjoy a better brand image even today. Take a look at the matrimonial classifieds on Sunday newspapers and you will know the preferences for ‘convent educated’ or simply ‘Convented’ girls for successful professional boys.

I have always believed that the matrimonial classifieds in newspapers truly reflect the ethos of a society. (That will be another blog another day).
Let me now get back to the point.

Most of us, who went to school or college until a decade ago, were at the mercy of Christian missionary institutions and therefore have been influenced by Christian education at some point or the other.

My mother, studied at St. Ebbas convent in Mylapore in Madras and had Christian Nuns for teachers. Even today, she does an ‘Amen’ when she passes by a church while travelling in the bus just as much as she does a ‘namaste’ when passing by a temple. And I think all of this is involuntary reflex action from her part. She has never serioulsy questioned herself on her religious loyalties. She has never probably thought that an ‘Amen’ to Mother Mary would offend Mahalakshmi or vice versa. Neither Mother Mary nor Mahalakshmi have objected till date.

On the census statistics data of the gazette of India, her Religion is recorded as Hindu.

My cousins Indu and Janani studied at St. Kevin’s and Churchpark convent which are the most reputed Christian institutions in Chennai for girls. Notable among their alumni is one called Ms J Jayalalitha who among many other things is known for her deep faith in Hindu religion and her visits to temples hit national headlines for other reasons.

In the recent years, when the aging Mother Superior at St. Kevin’s retired, the next in line took over as the Principal of the institution. Among many other changes that the new Mother superior brought about , she banned students from wearing jasmine flowers, bindi and Kajal to school.

Indu and Janani came home to tell their mother, my aunt about the new changes.

Their mother was the first one who went and protested in the parent teacher meeting. She said that this was against the secular constitution of India. ( My aunt is one of those few thinking women I have known and admire. If you have watched the serial ‘Rajani’ potrayed by the late Priya Tendulkar in doordarshan you would know the kind of character I am talking about . )

My aunt had, over the years brought up her daughters to be professional Singers of Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam dancers . They learnt Thyagaraja Keertanas at home just as much as they sang Christmas Carols in the school choir.

Their mother argued that bindi, scientifically protected the vulnerable spot called the third eye and the Vermilion had medicinal properties which helped one maintain a balanced health. It ought not to have any religious connotation.

She challenged by asking, why there were jasmine flower sellers sitting outside of churches selling flowers if it was against the religion. She substatiated further by saying that every man , Christian or otherwise, came home with a bunch of Jasmine flowers for his wife every night. The fragrant Jasmine flowers are a perfume equivalent and represented freshness and vitality and probably had aphrodisiac properties in the southern parts of India where they grew in abundance.

She pleaded that the Jasmine flowers had nothing against Jesus Christ.

Her powerful argument, made Mother Superior of St. Kevin’s convent retract her decision against banning of Jasmine flowers to school. In St. Kevin’s school, Churchpark convent or for that matter Stella Maris College, girls, Chirstians and non-christians alike, deck themselves up with flowers and bindis and this has nothing to do with Christian ethos that the institution represents.

Coming back to my schooling influences - After a strong dose of Saffronised influence in sixth standard, I changed schools. Thanks to my father’s transferable nature of job.

We moved down south and I studied at Sri Akilandeshwari Vidyalaya in Tiruchy. We had bhajan classes every Friday afternoon where we were taught devotional songs and Meera Bhajans in that one hour session every Friday afternoon.

However it was my best friend’s father, whom I have hardly spoken to, who left a lasting impression on my colourless leanings. I would see him speaking to others when I visited my friends place. Occasionally he would come down to pick up his girls in his car when the school got over.

He was a professor of physics at a local College in Tiruchy and a hard core Rationalist, who believed in E V Ramaswamy Naicker’s philosophy of self respect for human beings and atheism. EVR Periyar as he was called, flared the passion of the thinking youth in the early 1900s, in Tamil Nadu. He brought about revolution against the wealthy Sanskritised Brahmins in South India. He believed and propagated education for women. The most unpopular among his ideals were the banning of idol worship and belief in Atheism. ‘Kadavulai nambubavan muttal’ (He who believes God is a fool) was the party’s bold tagline.


For a land known for its ancient temples and the economy revolving around them, here was a radicalist challenging that miniscule but powerful minority questioning their monopoly on the Gods, Vedas and Shastras. He pooh-poohed the value of Vedas and Shastras and called them non-sense.

An unintended spin off of which was of course the ruthless neglect of ancient temples and Heritage sites, some of which were Hindu institutions of learning. The Brahmin landlords especially the absentee landlords were overthrown. The next generation of Brahmins, went to other faraway places to take up salaried employment in business houses, nationalised banks and institutions of higher learning. With growing political hatred against them, in their own homelands, they set up home elsewhere in other parts of the country and the world, never to return back to their roots.

E V R Periyar was long dead when I first heard of him.
He had founded the Dravida Kazahgam (DK) party which kept itself away from power and politics. It propagated the self respect movement and atheism.

The secondary offshoot of his political movement was the DMK (Dravida munnetra kazhagam) which believed in his self respect and atheist ideologies. A few years in power and then DMK was also overthrown.

ADMK, the tertiary offshoot of the DK party stated by the popular Actor
M G Ramachandran carried very little of the DK’s beliefs. It treaded carefully with the unpopular ones like atheism. Its charismatic leader never really made public his belief in God and treaded on safe grounds.

However his successor Ms. J Jayalalitha of whom we have talked about earlier in the blog, flaunted her deep faith in god and religious worship.

Politically Dravida Kazhagam (DK) was as good as dead .

However, there were a few thinking people , like my friend’s father, who believed in rationalism and scientific approach. He also believed in the liberation of women and women’s education. I was thirteen years of age and was pretty much influenced by his thinking.

I am not sure if it was only the thinking.
The handsome man emanated passion in his eyes.

Although he may not know it ever, I was in awe of him.
At thirteen I must admit I had my first crush on him.

Broad shoulders, deep voice and a six foot height appearence could make any woman swoon. And at thirteen years of age, he was a safe bet to have a secret crush on.
He was tall, dark and handsome. But it was his eyes that attracted me the most.
Whenever he looked at me, albeit with a daughterly feeling, it made my heart beat faster.

He was a Professor of physics at a local college in Tiruchy, before be migrated with the family to Illinois in Chicago to work for the University of Illinois. I saw him once after that as the father of the bride, when I went to attend my friend’s wedding in Tiruchy.
I was not a thirteen year old anymore and had seen enough men.
Looking back, it made me wonder, what was it that made me have a crush on him.
This time around, he looked and behaved in a very Americanised way, fussing around about safety and hygiene in India and things like that. I was disappointed.


Years later when Maniratnam potrayed Prakash Raj as Selvan aka Karunanidhi in the film ‘Iruvar’, he rekindled my memories of my friend’s father. The looks, the talk, the style and thinking were all so familiar. My crush now shifted to Prakash Raj.

I have followed Prakash Raj’s career and the movies since then. I love watching him especially his eyes. (If you promise not to go away from my blog click here to see a photograph of Prakash Raj who looked exactly like my friend’s father, my first crush at thirteen. There are not many photographs of his available on the web.
I am linking the best one available on the www… it is the guy on the left and not the right… isn’t he striking)

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It was not the Christian education, nor the saffronised influence of Wagle Sir or the Meera bhajans at Sri Akilandeswari Vidyalaya that left an influence on me.

It was a brief glimpses with a radical, rationalist at the age of 13, which imprinted a lasting impression and influenced my ‘religious’ ??? Orientation and thinking.

I would still like to believe, that I am a confirmed atheist.

Apart from being dragged along to a temple by friends and family for the sake of company,
I never been to any temple myself …except … for one …

And the one I am talking about is the Mahalakshmi temple in Mumbai.

**************

That morning when I left my hostel in a hurry , I picked up an envelope which had come in the mail for me. On my way to the station I opened the envelope. It was a job offer, similar to the other offer from campus which I had got a few weeks back . Everything was the same, the salary, the perks, the post except the place. This one was in Mumbai whereas the other company was offering me a job in their factory at Hosur.

I had to make a decision and communicate to the employer. Courtesy also demanded that I convey to the other employer with whom I would be declining the offer.

It was a confusing day throughout. I was mentally drained at the end of the day and had to make a decision. I went to the tea shop near the Mahalakshmi temple for a hot special tea with their signature kanda Bhaji. ( Fried onions in chick peas batter ) .

Any devotee to the Mahalakshmi temple will tell you that the visit is incomplete without the Kanda Bhaji at this tea shop. At that time I was more a devotee of the Kanda bhaji and special tea than of Goddess Mahalakshmi up there in the temple.

After my kanda bhaji and special tea I went up the stairs to visit the temple . I stood looking at the seaside where the restless waves were lashing out against the boulders. Facing the land, Mahalakshmi, Maha Saraswati and Mahakali stood there decked up in gold and diamond jewellery donated by their rich devotees.

Instinctively I made a decision. It was not the job content, or the saving potential that mattered to me. I wanted to be in Mumbai. I loved the city. I had decided that this was the city where I was going to spend a good part of my life.

There has never been a looking back. I have ventured out to Calcutta and Chennai for brief periods of time, but Mumbai has managed to pull me back.

Every time I got a promotion, a raise , a new job or when I brought my 2 BHK house in Mumbai, I visited the Mahalakshmi temple, to have kanda bhaji , to look at the waves lashing the seashore and to have a glimpse of MahaSaraswati , Mahalakshmi and Mahakali decked in their gold and diamond jewellery in that order of importance.


Despite my occasional visits to the Mumbai Mahalakshmi temple, I would still like to believe that I am an atheist, who believes more in the power of human spirit than any spiritual being.
It was just coincidental that I was at the Mahalakshmi temple when I took a decision which changed my life. (Or was it really so?)

A deity of Mahalakshmi anywhere else or in any other context may not kindle in me the same sentiments and faith as the Mahalaskshmi, Mahasaraswati and the Mahakali deities combined together at the Mahalakshmi temple in Mumbai. And not to forget the Kanda Bhaji and seashore ambience.

On the census statistics data of the gazette of India, my Religion is recorded as Hindu.

There isn’t a column for atheists. And so statistically I guess there are no atheists in India.

****************
Ustad Amjad Ali khan –was once asked what he thought about his own musical talent.

In his typical humble style he replied,
‘Inshallah … yeh sab maa Saraswati kaa vardaan hai’
( Allah willing … all this is a benevolent gift from Goddess Saraswati )
Goddess Saraswati is the Hindu goddess of learning.

On the census statistics data of the gazette of India, his Religion is recorded as Muslim.

There is an urgent need for Data clean up.

Don’t you think BJP, VHP, RSS, Muslim league, Lashkar e toiba, Bal Thackeray, Dawood Ibrahim and all others are all wasting their time and probably money based on such unreliable and faulty data...

This saffronising, de-saffronising business …what non sense ?
This country has played enough of Holi over the centuries.

Rang barse… bheege chunariwali … Rang barse …

P.S: Rang Barse… is a popular song sung during Holi. It was composed by the late Dr. Harivanshrai Bachchan and popularised in the1970’s by his son, the bollywood super star Amitabh Bachchan .

Loosely translated, it means ‘Let the Colours shower all around ‘

Holi is an Indian festival of colours. On this day, adults and children, Hindus and Muslims, men and women all get out on the streets and smear colour on each other. A day when jealousy, enmity, hierarchy and are all pardoned.

You can pull out your otherwise stiff collared bosses dressed in pyjamas out of their houses and drench them in water coloured with saffron, blue, pink, green and all available colours made from the natural dye of vegetables, fruits and Gulmohar flowers that flower in abundance just before Holi in the month of March before the onset of summer.

For more details on holi click here.
http://www.chyk.net/onlinemagazine/mar2003/articles/holi.htm