Change Agent

Someone asked me to refer to Yajurveda 13.42. It meant 42nd Mantra in 13th Adhyay / chapter. I tried searching for the same. I found the verse as this: Vatasya jutim varunasya nabhimashwam jagyanam sarirasya madhye. shishum nadinaam harim-adribudhnam agne ma hinsih parame vyoman. (Sorry if some spelling is wrong; I copied this from Sanskrit) While searching on the net, I found one site where someone had written that Yajurveda 13.42 says this: "Do not kill the horse." And hence the person claimed that this verse proves that Hindus used to kill horses in the Yajurveda period! But the actual meaning of this verse is this: He (Agne) Tejaswin vidwan! Aap (parme vyomen) sarva vyapt uttam akash me (vatasya) vayu ke (madhye) madhya me (jutim) veg roop (ashwam) ashwa ko (Sarirasya) jalmay (varunasya) uttam samudra ke (nabhim) bandhan ko aur (nadinam) nadiyon ke prabhav se (jagyanam) prakat hue (shishum) balak ke tulya vartmaan (rahim) neel varn yukt (adribuddhnam) sukshm megh ko (ma) ...

Meaning of Cattle Class Travel for Holy Cows in Kerala Shashi Tharoor may have got a pay cheque from Twitter for giving them such an unprecedented free publicity, and may be Sonia Gandhi was inspired by her Roman Catholic inquisitions when she reprimanded Mr. Tharoor for his Twitter comments, but I wonder why no aam admi asked how he was expected to get insulted by Tharoor’s comments on economy class travellers: Since when aam admi started to travel in aeroplanes? Shashi Tharoor may have made a Holy Insult to Sonia/Rahul’s Austerity Drive, and may be he would also have received a Twittering Treatment for himself, but how could Maneka Gandhi remain silent seeing cows being abused by being compared with Sonia/Rahul? This is what had actually happened, rest all is Twitter Class Politics: Guest: “Tell us Minister; next time you travel to Kerala, will it be cattle class?” Shashi Tharoor: "Absolutely, in cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows." We would now try to fi...

"Above all, as a Hindu I belong to the only major religion in the world that does not claim to be the only true religion. I find it immensely congenial to be able to face my fellow human beings of other faiths without being burdened by the conviction that I am embarked upon a "true path" that they have missed. This dogma lies at the core of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism - "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father [God], but by me" (John 14:6), says the Bible; "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his Prophet," declares the Koran - denying unbelievers all possibility of redemption, let alone of salvation or paradise. Hinduism, however, asserts that all ways of belief are equally valid, and Hindus readily venerate the saints, and the sacred objects, of other faiths." Ref: Page 56, India: From midnight to millennium and beyond, by Shashi Tharoor

Learning curve is not a straight line! I think I am still growing up. And who can really grow up without going through the best and the worst of it? Somewhere on the line, I developed a very scary image of two sets of people: Keralites and Christians. And for me, these two sets overlapped to a large extent. And a weird part is that all this happened due to blogging. Before I made it my virtual home, I had only known our Keralite professor of chemical engineering, whom I revered as a role model. From Christians, I had one of my best friends and colleagues at my work place. Unfortunately, some things happened and my whole impression of them changed. Our core philosophies of life contradicted; I felt they treated their region and religion above the basic human relationships we shared; and I felt that they where emotionless and hardhearted; and the worst part: I generalised this to make such an impression of all Keralites and/or Christians. Today we celebrated Traditional Day in our office...

My new roommate had a weird habit. While sleeping or while awake, he would make certain kinds of noises. His most favourite was also one of the most basic ones: he would keep saying “Ma” or “Mago” aloud. And it was a nuisance for my sleep to be broken sometimes at 5 in the morning or sometimes 5 times in 10 minutes anytime in the day. A friend told me the reason. Since the guy was a Bengali, he remembered Goddess Kali all the time and hence his ex-pression should be naïve for me. I was not convinced as such. Once I objected to his habit and he looked at me as if I had done a crime. At another occasion I heard him explaining to someone on phone: “When a baby is born, its first sound is Ma.” He was surely inspired by mothers… Little did I know that just in two weeks his trust on Mother would be tested like this… It so happened that pigeons started entering our room from our window. Many times we would be asleep while the pigeons would come inside and start wandering here and there. He us...

These days I am walking through a lane which passes through a particular intersection. It’s a special one because everyday it makes me realise that we humans are not the only living species on this earth. On one side of the road, there are at least four goats which keep watching the traffic. The goats are also special because they are really tall and well built! (I know these special goats have survived this long only because their Muslim owners are waiting for some special occasions to sacrifice them.) This makes me remember what happened last year… I had to walk through a particular stretch everyday. It had heavy traffic, so I looked at some alternatives. I found and started using one lane parallel to the main road. This was very calm, peaceful and clean. One day I saw some function happening near one particular building, which I realised was a community hall of some Gujarati association. (The locality was dominated by Gujarati Hindus and Jains.) While I tried to walk past swiftly I ...

During recent general elections, a number of issues became ‘election-issues’, while some others couldn't. Prominent amongst the non-issues was one which had made the youth of India agitated for last 5 years. Many of us observed that very curiously, the Congress party (INC) was not mentioning any of its divisive caste and religion based policies as achievements. During last 5 years in power, the ruling government had made much advancement in dividing India on the caste and communal lines: OBC Quota, caste based reservations in institutes of excellence like IITs / IIMs, increasing creamy layer income limit to Rs 4.5 LPA, PM saying religious minorities have ‘first rights’ over national resources, making ground for caste based reservations in private sector, were all such achievements which could be claimed to belong to the Congress party. . Now that the elections are over, the government and a new set of 'champion' ministers have started their job again. So we have our senior ...

It was still dark outside when Kittu woke up and slipped out of her bed. She struggled to open the door towards the balcony, and stepped out silently. She went on and looked behind the racks and the flower pots; there lied an empty cage. She picked it up and kept it on the table. Then she went in the living room and looked around. She picked up a bottle of water from the table and came back to the balcony. She still remembers when Bhaiya had told her that chilled water from the refrigerator is not good for health. She held the bottle with both her little hands and poured water inside the cage - directly into the cup. Now she looked relieved. Some old flowers and leaves were lying near the flower pots. She picked up many blue and pink flowers from there and one by one dropped many of them inside the cage. On the top of the cage she put the biggest one - an odhaul flower. She kept looking at the cage with her hands on her cheeks... It seemed she heard some noise from inside the house and...

…That has a beginning, Also has an end. But Where and How?… It was the same spot where they had met for the first time. He used to be the brightest sportsman in his team and she was a nature photographer in a magazine. It happened that he and his friends were on an adventure trip and decided to stay back at that remote place in the mountains for a night. He had stayed sitting near the river bed for long and as he stood up he heard a scream! Actually he had come in the way of where her camera was focussing and had spoiled her picture. "Sorry" is what he had said... "Sorry" was also what she said when they parted. All he wonders now is who spoiled their picture? After a picture-perfect wedding, they had really enjoyed life for three years. Then things started changing. He left his sports and joined corporate sector. He needed to travel much for his job and she took up a challenging position and became boss of her team. Now she started remaining tense even in home due...