Death and Obituary

I was small and had just learnt how to read headlines in the  newspaper. One morning I read in the daily of 'शोचनीय' निधन (meaning  'sad death' - I learnt much later) of an old man, who I knew lived across the road. Not knowing the meaning of the word I connected it with शौच (defecation). My little mind thought that the old man died while on the toilet seat. For a number of days thereafter I would be ' dead' scared of going to visit the toilet. Which made me constipated, the remedy for which  in those days was a dose of Castor oil floated on milk (ugh..), and fasting while the rest of the family was free to gorge on the goodies. This remedy cured me of my constipation and eventually the fear of death.
Later on, when I could read English bold type in the 'Times of India' I would curiously glance at the obituary column on page 2. I would find most of the names were of Christians - foreigners and Indian - and I got an impression that it is only the Christians and occasionally a Parsi who died.. I thought that we Hindus and Muslims were immortal. I was looking forward to live happily for ever and ever there after.
My own brush with death was when I was in the Matriculation Class. I had an attack of diphtheria and I was admitted to the ID Hospital in Pune (lately achieved fame during early days of H1N1 epidemic). My classmates had a premature condolence meeting. On the 2nd day of my admission a boy little younger than me was admitted for meningitis on the bed next to me. He died a day later. I returned home after 5 days to convalesce.
When my grandson was small I thought I should teach him how to read Marathi. He would sit on my lap and I would teach him the alphabet in bold type in the local newspaper. Very soon he started picking up the newspaper and proudly read loudly the headlines. Alas, most of the headlines talked about 'so and so' or 'so many' deaths on the previous day. Thus very early in life he became quite aware that everyone has to depart one day. He had devised a game where he would ask me how old I was and subtract his age from mine. Then he would start his mental arithmetic in the form of 'when I am so many years old you will be so many years old'. He would go on to my age up to 100 and beyond that he gave me permission to call it a day !!
Eventually I came closer to human death while training for and treating sickness.

A few years ago a friend of mine stated that he rarely gets invitations to attend birthdays or anniversaries and he said going for funerals was godsend as he does not have to carry any presents.

Nowadays every couple of days one learns about someone or the other departing for his or her 'heavenly abode'
May all the departed souls RIP

(Last 2 months have been  emotionally traumatic for me. number of my very dear friends  have either died or suffered from serious medical problems. In all these instances I had to visit them at home or in ICUs or the ultimate ceremonies. In desperation I wrote this blog on a poignant though morbid subject)

Adarsh Brahmin

In my primary school Marathi primer there was a story entitled "The Greedy Brahmin".When I grew up and raised a family it was my job to put my children to sleep. They insisted that I told them a story before they slept. One of the stories they loved was this one.
Over the years I have been mulling over this story which I have learnt a lot from. I will narrate the story I have written in parentesis how I would read between the lines  or narrate the same story now to my grandchildren.
The story goes like this:
"Greedy Brahmin"
{"Adarsh Brahmin"}
There was this Brahmin who was very honest but poor.
{He was poor because he was honest}
Everyone in the village used to respect him
{Poor people are very useful. They are respected and it is very important to keep them poor so they can vote for you election after election}
One day his wife got a craving to eat Brinjal bharta.She asked the Brahmin to go fetch Brinjals.
Brahmin had no money,yet he could not refuse his wife. On the way to the market he saw a vegetable farm growing brinjals. He noticed that the trees were loaded with big brinjals. He wondered why not get the brinjals from the farm. He did'nt see anyone around whom he could ask for some.
Being clever he had an idea. He thought he could ask 'The Fence' to the farm for permission to get some.
He addressed The Fence and he 'heard' the Fence  say 'Yes, most certainly'.
The Brahmin helped himself. The wife was happy and both of them enjoyed the bharta to their hearts content.
A few days later the wife had similar urge and now the Brahmin was quite confident as to how to get his brinjals.
{Like in the story of Adam and Eve it is always the female who leads the man to temptation}
This time the Brahmin was quite bold. He asked the Fence for  permission and started collecting the booty.
{When you succeed once it is quite easy to attempt the same ruse other times}


Unfortunately this time the watchman was watching the procedings. The Brahmin was not aware of his presence.

He asked the Brahmin as to with whose permission he had entered the farm to pluck the brinjals.
The Brahmin nonchalantly told the watchman that the Fence had permitted him.
The watchman was very clever. He asked theFence if he could beat up the Brahmin. The Fence said "Yes" and the Brahmin got his due deserts.
{When your guilt is discovered you are likely to get punished }"

But will the Adarsh Brahmin ever get punished ?

Frescoed Havelis of Shekhawati

In 1999, on a trip  to Rajasthan  i  had planned  to visit Shekhawati , specially to see the Haveli Paintings. From Bikaner  on the way to  Jaipur  we halted for one night  at Dundlod Castle


Dundlod Castle

 The brochure  about the place had mentioned about evening entertainment featuring campfire,local dancing etc.We landed at the venue rather late in the evening. We were greeted with  total power failure. We were  accommodated  in 2 large rooms right at the back of the building which you can see in the picture. There were 2 big, ferocious Alsatians let loose to guard the property.Perhaps since we 4 were the only guests that evening , there was no entertainment We thought it wise to order the meals in the room.
Next morning, at breakfast we met the Thakur Saab,the owner of the property. A very pleasant person, he was a cricket fan and an ex radio commentator to boot. Accompanying  us were one of the great spinners of the Indian Cricket  and his wife. Incidentally, Thakur Saab had done a radio commentary at a test match in which our friend had represented India.We  got into most interesting conversation with Thakur Saab, thus forgetting previous night's discomfort. When I mentioned to Thakur Saab about my interest in Shekhawati painted Havelis , he gave us some astounding information.         
                       

The State Room
and
Entrance to a chamber

  Dundlod Castle had its share of frescoes and finery. Thakur Saab told us that if we wanted to see the  best in this art form, we had to visit Navalgarh. From the directions he gave us, at Navalgarh we had to go to the end of sabji mandi to a small chai shop on the right. Accordingly at Navalgarh we landed at a small dark dingy eatery, about 15 ft x 15 ft where we found the owner of the joint busy frying samosas.He  hardly had any customers in the shop. We ordered tea and hot samosas.When we told the owner about the purpose of our visit, he most disinterestedly told us that in a room upstairs there was some kind of a wall painting.He added that since  there was a power failure, at Navalgarh we wouldn't be able to see anything. But we insisted and he reluctantly took us upstairs over a rickety wooden staircase.



In the chai shop at
Navalgarh

 

In the dim candle light what we saw was awesome.
All over the roof of the room and on the walls were frescoes depicting scenes from the life of Krishna !.
Something like Sistine Chapel !!

Frescoes on the Havelis  in Shekhawati are really most fascinating.The history and evolution of this art form has to be learnt from an expert. 

Goenka Haveli



After Navalgarh we visited other towns in this North eastern region of Rajasthan between Bikaner and Jaipur which is called Shekhawati.It's inhabitants are known as  Marwaris, who for centuries have been known for their entrepreneurship and appreciation of art. The practice of painting their residential havelis started in 18th century and reached its zenith in 19th century. It is said that in this activity there  was keen competition amongst the neighbours. The men folk used to be away on business for most of the year and would  return  to be with the families for a while. If the master found his neighbour had  painted his haveli with the scenes from Ramayana he would order his haveli to be painted with scenes from Mahabharata !
 Over the times the masters and their families moved to big cities which was the place of their business and they felt no need to keep the families away. The craze for painting of havelis started diminishing  and most of the wall paintings  faded away. But over last few years there has been a surge in the attempts to restore the  havelis to their past beautiful state. Thus as the restoration of the paintings is proving to be a great tourist attraction.
                                    



Painting on the wall
in
Jaisalmir



By and large i found Rajasthan very colourful. The colours of the clothes people wear and the surroundings of their decorated houses even in the villages stand out in  contrast to the harsh colourless desert background.

Painted havelies is  "must see" item on a visit to Rajasthan.