TWO OLD MEN

TWO OLD MEN is a popular short story by Leo Tolstoy.Two old men namely Efim Tarasich Sheveley and Elisha Bodrov who live in the same village have long back taken a vow to go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem but somehow have not been able to keep it so far.Efim apparently is a rich man , serious natured, without any vices and always remains busy with domestic affairs. Elisha though not as rich as Efim is not poor either and is of a cheerful disposition.

One day Elisha proposes to Efim that together they proceed to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage to keep the vow taken long back and to have God's grace.Efim , involved as he is in his domestic affairs expresses his inability inter alia for the reason that he is short of money as he has already spent a lot on the construction of a new hut.But Elisha by his strong persuasion brings him round and they decide to go.Both arrange money, make necessary preparations, equip themselves with suitable dresses , shoes and necessary items , not without leaving instructions to family members to run the household.They start the long journey on foot.

They stay for the night at different places. At some places they find hospitable people who welcome them at their homes and entertain them with food etc.Efim is a fast walker and Elisha finds it difficult to keep pace with him.At a place Elisha feels a desire to have a drink and tells Efim to keep walking . Efim continues to move alone hoping that soon Elisha will catch up with him.Left behind, Elisha knocks on a door not once but many times but there is no response. At last he opens the door and enters inside.What he sees is simply appalling. This is a family of 5-6 members, literally awaiting death by starvation. Failed crop and famine seem to have taken toll on the kids, the young and the old. There is not even a drop of water in the home , not to speak of anything to eat.

Sensing the difficulty the poor family is in, Elisha opens his bag , takes out the loaves of bread, fetches water from a nearby place and feeds them .He also prepares porridge for them . With food entering their starved bodies , they slowly regain strength and are able to speak. Their plight moves him. He purchases sufficient food items for them, repays their debt to redeem their small piece of land ,buys them a horse and some implements. Seeing that they are on their own and are able to work and fend for themselves, he leaves the place silently without telling his name etc.

Having spent the money on these noble deeds, with money left only sufficient for return journey, he drops the idea of proceeding further and undertakes the back journey.

Reaching home after some days he is welcomed by all. The family members have looked after the household well and everything is fine and in order.

When asked about early return, he cooks up a story that his money got stolen.

Efim on the other hand continues alone also thinking of Elisha and hoping to meet him. Continuing the journey on foot, after many days he reaches at a place from where he boards a ship .The journey is not so smooth and literally the passengers sail through troubled waters.Meanwhile Efim had found a companion,a pilgrim who had purportedly lost his money. He had now become dependent on Efim who only half believes him, worrying all the time that he might steal his money.

Finally the ship reaches Constantinople and they disembark.Efim visits many holy places and on two three occasions finds Elisha,sitting in the front row with his back towards him. Despite efforts to meet him , in the rush and crowd of people,Efim is unable to trace him.

Having visited all places of pilgrimage, Efim proceeds on back journey. Per chance , on return journey he happens to stay at a home where he receives warm welcome and hospitality. The family tells him about a noble soul who had helped them enormously and seen them out of trouble.The description of the man resembling that of Elisha, it takes Efim no time to judge what he had seen at the holy place.

At last Efim also returns home but things at his home are not as good as he had left him.When the two old men meet again and Efim tries to broach the topic, Elisha changes it and the matter remains a secret between them only.

Efim knows that Elisha's pilgrimage has been better.

A wonderful story !

Anasuya Sarabhai

Google doodle today informs of the 132nd birth anniversary of Anasuya Sarabhai, the pioneer of Women's Labour Movement in India. Born in 1885 at Ahmedabad, in a rich industrialist family, she lost her parents at the age of nine and together with a brother and a younger sister was brought up by an uncle. She was married at the age of 13.

In 1912 she was sent to England to study medicine but simply put off by animal dissection which was against Jain beliefs, she instead joined the London School Of Economics. She was greatly influenced by the Fabian society. Returning to India, she started the Women's Labour Movement and took up the cause of women textile workers and weavers and as a result of the hunger strike undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi, an increase of 35 percent in wages was obtained. In 1920 she founded the Ahmedabad Textile Labourers' Association.She also mentored Ela Bhatt, who founded the SEWA.

She was the aunt of Vikram Sarabhai, the eminent Physicist.

Blessed with a long life she died in 1972.

Our humble tributes to the remarkable lady !

HIMACHAL ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS-2017

At last the periodical  ritual of  voting  for election to   the sixty eight seats of Himachal Pradesh  Legislative Assembly took place  today, the 9^th of November by and large peacefully,thanks to meticulous directions and instructions issued by the  Election Commission of India and the elaborate arrangements made by the state for the  smooth conduct  of this quinquennial exercise. However there is a long wait for the contesting candidates who may sit with fingers crossed as the results will be declared only after counting takes place on  18^th December  when the cat will be out of the bag.

Apart from the   massive coverage by the print and visual media , these  elections will be remembered for  the  mud slinging and the slandering game played by the parties in the fray. Somehow there was grist for every mill  and the  political  parties were on the defensive  due to lapses and irregularities  unearthed  and talked about at this crucial time. Many idioms, phrases and proverbs  learnt during schooldays , but long forgotten  due to disuse like  “the kettle calling the pot black” ,  “ sweep before your own door “  & “the devil quoting  scriptures”…..came on the tip of the tongue, effortlessly and  spontaneously  seeing what was being uttered by the campaigners and supporters. 
 During the election campaign, one saw rare ingenuity in slogans  devised by the parties ; it is another matter that the slogans  and claims  seemed   hollow in view of the ground reality . However this time  not much of  ‘dil se’ or ‘phir se’ was heard, the ball being left in the court of the voter. .
  In exposing others one got exposed itself.One is left to wonder why the so called   “ star campaigners "-   from the other states  with little knowledge of the state or its problems are thrust upon the  public. They had nothing new to say or offer   except  blowing the trumpet of the party ,  they belonged to and  were canvassing  for , repeatedly counting  policies and ‘successes’ and deriding the opposite party.   At every point  one felt that the voter had no choice  except to choose what to him or her  appeared   worthwhile, irrespective of what was being  promised .

The introduction of  VVPAT at the polling stations is a welcome addition.

 Again this time also  one Shyam Saran Negi   from Kalpa in  Kinnaur ,  ‘first voter of  India’ who  has voted in all elections held since 1952 found  some mention as having turned a centenarian. Some special arrangements were reported to have been made to take him to the polling booth to  enable him to cast his vote.Today itself he was shown on the TV screeen  with a message for voting.  As reports have poured in, he cast his vote this time also. The elections apart from affording  an opportunity  to the voter to exercise his choice, also contain a lesson to  parties and the Governments that they need  to perform to  lay their claim for future governance. One  also hopes that when the New Assembly gets constituted ,   the elected  Members will be accessible to the people . 

Raja Rao

Today is the birth anniversary of Raja Rao, the doyen of Indian writing in English . Together with Mulk Raj Anand and R.K.Narayan , he constitutes the formidable triumvirate of Indian writers, writing in English and among the first being published abroad. 

His novel ‘Kanthapura’ written in 1938 was an epoch making work, being the first major novel written in English. It is a microcosm of the Indian village life in all its evils and idiosyncrasies. Kanthapura , a small nondescript village beset with social evils like untouchability, and blind faith , under Gandhi’s influence plunges itself into civil disobedience & non cooperation movements and becomes a model of passive resistance and non violence .The Gandhian way is propogated through hari katha, the traditional narrative mode. The events unfolding also show woman power asserting itself and working in tandem with the male residents of the village. In a way the novel also comes across an encapsulated story of struggle for Independence . 

In ‘Serpent and the Rope’ Raja Rao juxtaposes the illusion and the reality , the two important ingredients of Indian Culture and is a journey in search of spiritual truth in Europe and India. 

Raja Rao emerged as a nationalist novelist , despite the later part of his education being in Paris. He was deeply influenced by Gandhi and Gandhian ways and thought find a prominent place in his ‘Kanthapura’ and other writings as also his short stories. He also wrote a biography of Gandhi, called ’ The Great Indian Way: A Life of Mahatma Gandhi’, 1998. 

Besides ‘Kanthapura’ and ‘The Serpent and the Rope’ he wrote three more novels , namely

‘The Cat and Shakespeare: A Tale of India’, ‘Comrade Kirillov’, and ‘The Chessmaster and His Moves (1988)’

Besides many collection of short stories, his non – fiction works include ‘Changing India: An Anthology (edited with Iqbal Singh),Tomorrow (edited with Ahmed Ali),Whither India? (edited with Iqbal Singh) and ’The Meaning of India, essays’

He was a recipient of Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan, and Sahitya Academy Award.

Our humble tributes to the celebrity Writer !

Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee

Today is the death anniversary of Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee , OBE, the first Chief of Staff of the Indian Air Force. Commissioned into the Royal Indian Air Force in 1932, he saw action in the NWFP and the Second World War and commanded a Squadron. For his meritorious service, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire.Post independence , he was recruited in the Indian Air Force and rose to be the Chief of Air Staff in 1954.

He was the first Indian officer to command a flight, a squadron and finally the Force itself. Besides OBE, he was also the recipient of India General Service Medal,India Service Medal and Indian Independence Medal.He is also called the Father of Indian Air Force.

He died in Tokyo in 1960, aged 49.

Our humble tributes !

Sitara Devi

Today is the birth anniversary of Sitara Devi, a Kathak proponent and an eminent danseuse. Born this day in Calcutta on Dhanteras day in 1920,she was named Dhanalakshmi. She was initiated into dancing by her father and started performing on stage at a very young age. Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore seeing her perform on stage named her Nrityasamragyi, a compliment and a tribute to her dancing talent.International acclaim came to her when she performed at Royal Albert Hall, London and the Carnegie Hall New York in 1967 & 1976 respectively.

She also appeared in some Hindi film performing dance numbers.Known and celebrated as Kathak Queen, many awards and honours came her way.

She was a recipient of the coveted Sangeet Natak Academy Award and Padmashri.

In later years when she was nominated for Padma Bhushan award, she declined it calling it more an insult than an honour.

She died on 25th November, 2014 aged 94.

Our humble tributes !

One year of Demonetization

The announcement of the government decision to demonetize Rs 500/- & Rs.1000/- currency notes his day last year- Notebandi in common lingo - took everyone by surprise. A day or two before I had withdrawn some amount which was all in 500 denomination , to pay for the new dining chairs. My wife too had some amount -bigger than mine- in Rs.500 notes withdrawn for some Diwali purchases, which could not somehow mature. Put together , the amount formed a fraction of the 'dreaded' or the 'accursed' amount of Rs. Two Lakh Fifty Thousand . However the notes were deposited in the Bank standing in a queue for 2-3 hours on 10th November, the very first day at the same time exchanging the amount in new currency restricted to the limit of Rs.4000/- per person. Up came some Facebook posts boasting by some friends that they had no Rs.500/- or Rs.1000/- note with them that needed to be deposited, making others feel guilty of the 'crime' of possessing them.It took quite a few months for the things to come to normal for a person like me , but the impact on the public especially small traders, labour class and those having big functions like marriage in the family was enormous. 

Compare this to the 1978 demonetization of Rs 1000/- notes, it was a smooth transition , without creating any ripples or flutter and the Government of the day did not introduce currency of this denomination for years together.