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.

Kangchenjunga Mountain

At one time considered as the highest mountain in the world, is  now considered to be second highest.
In my school days we used to call it Kanchenjunga.  The official name by which the mountain is now known is in Nepalese language The mountain is partly situated on the border of Sikkim and partly in Nepal.
When I saw that mountain for the first time was in 1962 January from the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling. We were housed in the Swiss Cottages on the premises and while attending a seminar in the open,the mountain provided a magnificent backdrop throughout the day.
**We also had the opportunity to meet Tenzing Norge - the 1st Indian to make it to the top of Everest, his charming daughter Pem Pem who was studying at Wadia College in Poona, and other famous Mountaineers Brig Gyan Sing, Col Kumar, and Capt Kohli
We also had the opportunity to view the sunrise from Tiger Hill.The sight  is still etched in my mind. The surrounding in complete darkness and one by one the mountain peaks turning golden as if some one is switching on the lights,starting from Kanchenjunga and ending in Mt.Everest.
 On our way back to Kolkatta in the Dakota in which we flew,we had Dr. Miller who was the co climber of the Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary. He showed us all the peaks right up to the South Col of Mt. Everest.
                               

                                    I visited Darjeeling with my wife and some friends in 2007

At the HMI



I was looking forward to have a repeat of my 1962 experience. Unfortunately all the 3 days we spent in Darjeeling it was raining. We visited the HMI but the valley was covered with clouds. On the way to Gangtok we just had a glimpse of the mountain.

We had planned to go to Peling very close to the foot of the mountain but had to cancel the visit due to landslide.



From the hotel




While in Gangtok we had the sight of the Mountain

From the Hotel

 to our hearts content. We could see the mountain from our Hotel

We also had the experience of seeing the mountain at the dawn.  .



At the sunrise

 .  .




Mt. Kanchenjunga under sunshine

 

Kanchenjunga in its full glory

In Gangtok our friend took these magnificent pics of the mountain in its full glory .  Here I feel justified in calling the mountain by my school days name Kanchan Ganga meaning sacred river of gold

** In my previous blog I had forgotten this interesting part of my visit to Darjeeling which i thought was worth narrating









Star of David

Hampi, the capital of Vijayanagaram Empire is also connected with the epic Ramayana.The Pampa Lake associated with the King Sugriv and Hanuman is in the viscinity of this region.
There is a mound associated with Rama,his consort Sita and brother Laxman.Near the hillock there is a temple dedicated to Rama. In this temple, on the arch on the left you can see the Star of David.
When we asked the guide as to the significance of this symbol which is associated with Judaism he had no answer. The wikipedia gives a detailed information as to the significance of the symbol so far as Judaism is concerned
Howevever the internet provided the answer to our querry.

First Avocado Fruit in My Garden



Avocado Trees



On the South East side of my house I have these 3 big old trees.One is a 50 year old mango tree and it came with the land. It gives me 200 to 700 sweet juicy fruit every alternate year.

The green canopy
hiding the high rise

 Beside this mango tree I have grown 2 avocado trees from the stones of an occasional avocado, one has bought in an opulent mood. These trees are now about 15-20 years old and have not yielded a single fruit so far.All the dreams of my wife of fashioning exotic avocado recipes have not been fulfilled. Besides, these trees block the sun. My son occupies the ground floor bed room which faces the South East. It gets mighty cold especially when winter temperatures are below 10 deg C.Daughter in law who cannot stand cold , has so many times requested me to cut down these trees . Our daughter has also asked me to bring down these trees calling them ugly and disfiguring my garden etc. Not that she hates avocadoes.



Apartment Block

in the rear



 I have all along resisted these requests on the grounds of shielding the view of the ugly multi storied block of apartments which has been built across the canal at the back of my house. I  have also been nursing a dream of reaping a large harvest of avocados once in a while.

And this morning my son who I must say is a hawk eye, sitting in the drawing room, suddenly cried
"Hey ! What am I seeing? Look at that, is it a fruit?"

Both of us went into the garden and lo and behold we saw our FIRST AVOCADO on one of the trees

. You can see how big the fruit is. And now that the tree has shown signs that it is not fertile I am sure my wife will have enough opportunities to cook exotic avocado dishes for her parties in future .We will have enough of them to give away to my daughter and friends.

                                                        Who knows? May be for sale in the malls !!





Jaipur Blue Pottery - 2

In my last blogspot I related the story of how this art form was restored to its present status by the untiring efforts of Shri Kripal Singh Shekhawat of Rajasthan.
He gave me the formulation for the body to fashion the articles and glaze etc. which I am reproducing here:

Materials used in Jaipur Blue Pottery

Body

Waste glass ground *

( *scraped from walls of glass making furnaces)          150 mesh   100kg

Silica                                                                                            10kg

Tragacanth                                                                                     1kg

Sodium sulphate

or Papad khar

or Multani matti                                                                              1/4kg

Water                                                                                   as required

This is used to fashion articles by hand and from press moulds. After drying they are coated with a slip.

Slip

White glass ** ground 250  mesh        2.75kg

Silica                                               2.75kg

Wheat flour

(boiled and seived)                           2.75kg

Water                                      as required

**This glass is from broken glasses used to serve

chai in Dhabas

After the slip dries the article is bisqued and glaze is applied

Glaze

Borax                                     25kg

Red lead                                 25kg

Decration with overglaze tints.Most decorative designs are hand drawn by the artist.

Firing to 850 deg C in 4 hours – both bisque and glazing.

WARES ARE NOT FOOD SAFE

I have not tried this technique but seen it being carried out. The grinding of glass is done in the traditional manner by hand on grinding wheels