That evening the sun went to sleep,
And did not wake up,
The moon waited, and waited,
She also had to turn in,
It was as if Arctic nights
Had descended on the mid latitudes.
But the heavens were happy,
For, new stars were getting birthed
Thick and fast,
As wish followed wish
And, streamed in from below.
Older stars were happy too,
Each could twinkle over
Each's loved ones,
For longer nights,
On those longing nights.
Pious Pitru Paksh
To the best of my knowledge, this story is as near true as possible. The story has been threaded together from what Mr Narendra Agarwal of Agarwal Ornament House, Thethri Bazaar, Varanasi - 1 had narrated to me at Chunar, Uttar Pradesh, in the year 1997, and a publication dated 26 Feb 1985 of Shri Kashi Sarafa Mandal, Varanasi.
I had made a promise to Mr Agarwal that I would write the story of making good the loss of the stolen gold and put it up (at that time I didn't know the word 'upload') in a platform where it would be publicly accessible. Of course, at that time I had no idea about blogs or any digital platforms.
The story is a little about the theft, and mostly about the making good of the gold stolen from the Argha below the Ling of Bhagwan Vishvanathji Mandir in Beneras on the night of 4th/5th January, 1983.
I quote from the aforesaid publication, not particularly in the order given in the publication: This Mandir has been visited by many bhakts- including foreigners - who have donated generously to the Temple. It is said that Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab, in the year 1839, donated 22.5 maunds (839.7945 kgs) of gold to adorn the Mandir.
Continuing with the quote:
There has been many thefts in the Mandir after the turn of the twentieth century. The last big theft happened on the night of 4th/5th of January 1983. The thieves made away with gold from the Argha beneath Bhagwan Vishvanath's Linga.
xxxx
The brother of the main accused, Markandaya Singh, Bhagwati, another actor in the theft drama, said to Pujari Ramsurat about the theft: We went to steal. The lock of Satyanarayan was opened with a crowbar. There we got the keys to Baba. With the keys of Baba, we opened the Mandir. With the help of crowbar and screw driver we undid the gold covering of the Argha. However, we couldn't winch out the rest of the gold.
xxxx
Honouring the sentiments of the public, the UP Government took over the Temple on 28th January 1983. Immediately the concerned authorities decided that before the Shivratri festival due on 10 Feburaray 1983, the Argha would be reornamented with gold as before. In view of paucity of time required to procure the gold, and to adorn the Argha with help of craftsmen, the Commissioner of Beneras, Shri Shaibal Kumar Mukherjee called a meeting to enlist the support and help of Kashi Sarafa Mandal on 5 Feburary 1983. The meeting was attended by DC Vinod Kumar Mittal, SSP Trinath Mishra, Gold Control Commissioner G B Singh, Sarafa Mandal's Narendra Agarwal, Vinod Bihari Shukla, Govindji, Maheshwar Nath Kapur, Jagdish Kumar, Harish Pathak among others.
In that meeting, the Sarafa Mandal with great joy and alacrity agreed to adorn the Argha with gold within the stipulated time, contingent, of course, to the gold having being made available.
Under the statutues of Gold Control prevelant then, all governmental as well commercial efforts were made to procure the gold required to adorn the Argha.
Now the story as narrated by Mr Narendra Agarwal to me:
The theft took place on the night of 4th/5th January 1983. The thieves stole the gold sheet from the 'Argha' of the Shiv Ling. (2.555 kg was however later recovered by the police.) Commissioner of Beneras, Mr S K Mukherjee, IAS, Chairman Managing Committee took Rs 11 lakhs loan without interest from the UP Government for purchasing the gold and rectifying the deformity in the gold piece. For 8 days the Sarafa Mandal tried to coax the foremost jewellers of Beneras, the Kanhiyalal Sharaf Group. The Kanhiyalal Group were not ready to ready the Argha in such a short notice.
The 5th Feb 1983 Meeting that has been described earlier was convened.
A letter was written to RBI, Mumbai that Mr Yogendra Kumar Bahal, ADM will go on behalf of the UP Government to get 3.5 kg of standard gold on credit. One Inspector of Gold Control Mr K L Khatri will also go with him to Mumbai to meet the Gold Control Administrator to get his permission for making the gold adorned Argha. Now, Argha is only an article. As per Gold Control Act, 1963 prevelant then, licensed dealers were permitted to manufacture or sell gold ornaments. They couldn't manufacture or sell 'articles'. Mr Nagendra Agarwal opined that the ADM may not be able to procure the gold in such a short period. The Executive Officer of the Mandir asked him to go alongwith ADM to Mumbai. They went directly to the airport and took the flight to Delhi. They reached Delhi by 4 PM. They took the 8 PM flight to Mumbai and reached there by 11:30 PM. They had no accommodation. All of them slept on the floor of one of ADM's relation at Juhu.
At 10 AM, next day (Monday), they met all officers of the RBI. The officers said thay they were only custodian of the gold. There was no policy of giving gold to anyone. The Gold Administrator said that he couldn't help because he was not a policy maker and could only operate within the precincts of the law. Giving gold to Kashi Vishvanath Temple was a policy matter.
The team contacted Jt Secretary, Finance, Central Government, Mr K K Bakshi. Although Mr Bakshi refused to give permission for making of the Argha (article), but he agreed to meet them personally at Delhi the following day.
Next day (Tuesday) the team took a flight back to Delhi and reached Delhi at 10 AM. They went directly to the North Block and met the Jt Secretary. A South Indian officer was also participating in the meeting. (Mr Narendra Agarwal did not recall his name.) He said that in South India all idols of Gods and Goddesses are adorned with what is called Kawacha. Mr Narendra Agarwal said that South India idols are adorned by Kawacha, and Baba Kashi Vishvanath is adorned by Argha. Now, the definition of ornament in the Gold Control Act was checked by the team. The definition given was, any item that adorns idol or person. Mr K K Bakshi immediately said that no special sanction for Argha adornment was required and the gold could be purchased from any licenced dealer.
Mr Haribhai Damani, of Chandi Chowk, Delhi refused to immediately give 3.5 kg of standard gold without money. His argument was if government fails to pay how will the team make good the loss? Standard gold is never sold in credit. It is booked in advance and full payment is made in advance. It was nearing 6 PM. Mr Narendra Agarwal argued with him till 8 PM. He went for a bio call. In the meantime the telephone rang. The Commissioner was calling. He was asked if the money would be paid on receiving the standard gold. The Commissioner said, 'Yes'.
3.5 kg gold was bought and was declared at the airport but the flight had left. Mr Damani asked for a suitcase and sent the 3.5 kg gold in cargo. The team had only one ticket so the Gold Inspector and ADM were left behind.
The team went straight from the airport to the Commissioner's residence. As an aside, the Commissioner called his wife to show her the gold. The DM, the SSP, the Executive Officer of the Mandir were all present. Next day, the payment of Rs 7,15,562.50/- was made at SBI, City Branch.
The Press was called at 3 PM and was shown the gold.
Work for restoration of Argha started outside the temple at 6 PM. Smelting continued from 6 PM to 8 PM. Lights went off at 8 PM. Miracalously, there was no deficiency of gold after smelting. Rolling finished by 11 PM. After the Mandir was closed for public at 11 PM, the rolled sheet was shaped for adorning. 2 Kgs were expended thus. 1.5 kg was smelted again and after that one patti of 2 inch thickness was put all around. Still, 108 gm of gold was left, and it was used for riveting. Now, the entire thing was brought over the Ling. Work of adornment was finished by 1 AM on 10 Feb 1983.
200 bhakts bathed in the Ganges. Mangala Aarti was performed at 2 AM on Mahashivratri. At 3 AM, the Gates were opened for public. 10,000 bhakts were waiting at the gate.
Note: There may be some gaps in my narration. I had scribbled notes as Mr Narendra Agarwal had dictated to me. I may have missed out some detail. I need to apologise in advance if there are some gaps.
Unethical hacker:
You've uncovered my vulnerability,
You've found the only chink
In my armour,
And have tore my chrysalis
With your code of misconduct
And love.
Autumn equinox,
A glass half empty, half full?
How far is the sun?
Is it too near,
Or, is it too far?
Are the seasons in the sun gone?
Are the seasons in the sun coming?
Who knows!
He knows.
Like a wave seeking the shore,
Unmindful of the tide,
Like the trembling lips
Seeking the cheeks that cried,
Like the sunflower willfully turning
Onto the morning sun's side,
The pain will find me,
There's nowhere the heart can hide.
First a disclaimer: I have very little knowledge of the Bhagvad Gita, but lately, I have taken up reading The Gita (and trying to understand The Gita) in earnest.
The motto of my Regiment, The MADRAS Regiment, is the following:
स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेय:
swa-dharme nidhanaṁ śhreyaḥ
It is taken from Verse 35, Chapter 3, of Bhagavad Gita. The full verse is thus:
श्रेयान्स्वधर्मो विगुण: परधर्मात्स्वनुष्ठितात् |
स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेय: परधर्मो भयावह: || 35||
śhreyān swa-dharmo viguṇaḥ para-dharmāt sv-anuṣhṭhitāt
swa-dharme nidhanaṁ śhreyaḥ para-dharmo bhayāvahaḥ
In the Regiment, the English translation of the motto is:
It is Glory to Die Doing One's Duty.
स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेय: along with its English translation, 'It is Glory to Die Doing One's Duty' is prominently displayed in the Quarter Guards of all MADRAS Regiment units.
In my humble opinion, this translation is not correct, indeed it is misleading.
Two well known Gita translations: One, Gita As It Is by Swami Prabhupada, and two, The Holy Geeta by Prabha Duneja give respectively the following translation of Verse 35, Chapter 3:
This, some may say, is the Bharatiya perspective. But, the thing is that even a Western perspective, like the one given by Winthrop Sargeant in his book 'The Bhagavad Gita', writes the translation of the verse similarly:
There are some who have said that the translation may have been done to give a motivational tilt to the motto. In my humble opinion, a totally unrelated translation to fill in the purported contour of motivation is ill conceived. One cannot incorrectly translate verses from the Bhagvad Gita, however motivational the translation may appear.
We must change the translation of the line in question to the one that is given in well known books giving English translations of Bhagvad Gita.
This story is by Gp Capt Ashwani Bhakoo(Retired), my coursemate from NDA. The piece has been reproduced here with his kind permission. He is a gallant Hunter.
Ashwani is now a qualified Psychologist and because of that I say: Quiet flows the adrenaline now.
In Jan 1980, after my training, I was posted to the first operational fighter squadron, the No. 28 Sqn Air Force, called the First Supersonic. Flying the Mig 21, T-77 was simply awesome and we were at the top of the world.
It was a beautiful Thursday morning on 04 Sep 1980, with clear skies washed deep blue by the departing monsoon. Flying was in full swing and our operational syllabus was accelerated after the slowdown in the monsoon months.
Low flying was the new training phase and this required high focus as the reaction times for flying at 780 kmph at 150 mts above ground were now reduced to a fraction of a second. Any mistake at this height and the ground was just 0.5seconds away.
The monsoon had left the mighty Brahmaputra in spate and large areas of Tezpur were under water. Bird activity was very high due to many animals being swept away by the mighty river breaking its banks leading to the birds feasting on the floating carcasses.
It was on this fateful day of 04 September 1980 that I was programmed for carrying out a Low Level Navigation at 150 meters above ground at a speed of 780 kmph. The maps were prepared and Sqn Ldr V the decided to be my chase to ensure safety, as the rules dictate that no fighter aircraft shall fly single at low levels. The route selected that day ensured that we stayed clear of the Brahmaputra and avoided flying over the flooded river. Sqn Ldr V checked the maps, briefed for the sortie and revised the actions for emergencies at low level and we were off with me in the lead doing the low level navigation.
The first leg was uneventful, though realisation dawned that the mighty Brahmaputra had breached its banks and the entire area was flooded. We could not avoid flying over the massively flooded Brahmaputra specially as we approached our second point. The raging river was scary and the birds were all over. It was on the second leg, while I was looking for checkpoints that the worst fears of a fighter pilot manifested and I had a head on collision with a large eagle. The loud thud of the eagle hitting the aircraft at 780 kmph brought all my focus to the front. Half the eagle went into the engine and the other splattered the front windshield with its blood and remains.
The engine quit and the dreaded 'low level bird hit engine failure over water' manifested itself in its full form. The cockpit instrument panel went berserk, the engine rpm winding down, engine temperature heading to zero, oil pressure dropping, the orange and red warning lights blinking and the master blinker flashing in all its glory. The head phones were filled with the screeching warnings trying to wake up the numb brain. With just 50 hours experience on the Mig and a total of less than 300 hours of flying experience it was simply crazy in that cockpit. The survival instinct coupled with hours of training hammered in by the instructors took over. Adrenaline flooded the body. Despite the brain being in shock, the hands moved on their own and the immediate action to ease back on the stick and gain height by converting speed to height while checking instruments for damage was smoothly executed. During this time Sqn Ldr V was going beserk trying to call me on radio to find out why I was climbing. My jammed brain, with all the cockpit warning sounds, was responding without pressing the radio transmit button - "can't you see what has happened - I have a bird hit flameout". The brain was just focused on the speed reduction and the height being gained. I eased up to nearly 1100 mts by the time the speed reduced to 400 kmph - the lowest handling speed at which point now height had to be converted to speed if I did not want to fall out of the sky. I lowered the nose into a glide. All this time my mind was frantically going over the actions of "bird hit engine flameout". I adjusted the throttle and reached for the engine restart switch while maneuvering the aircraft to get out of the flooded Brahmaputra and onto dry land. It is said that a Mig 21 after a bird hit flame out will not relight as the engine would have been shattered by the bird. Well, I had to try, there was no option, I was not going to eject into the Brahmaputra and be swept to Kolkata and out to sea by the raging river. The relight button is positioned on the left hand side wall of the cockpit just above the throttle, it is guarded by a metal bracket to make it stand out and a technician puts a 0.005 mm locking wire across the mouth of the bracket to ensure that the switch is not put on inadvertently. It is positioned in such a manner that it can be flicked 'On' by a single finger as there is no further access.
While I was gaining height and having realised that my engine had quit, I wanted to put on the relight button but it just would not budge. I just could not put it on as the protective wiring was a bundle of many 0.005mm locking wires twisted together blocking access to the relight button. The top of the climb had been reached, the glide started, the Brahmaputra was staring at me and I could not put the relight button "On". Survival & adrenaline again kicked in and I hammered the switch guard with my fist, finally succeeding in breaking the guard though I could not break the wire. The switch was free and as I commenced descent, I put it "On".
Nothing happened. Ejection into the Brahmaputra stared me in the face. I was approaching the critical height for ejection in a descent in a Mig 21 as these were not "Zero height Zero speed" ejection seats. The ejection seat needed height and speed for a safe ejection. I tightened my straps, gave a call and continued gliding to get out of the Brahmaputra and then the miracle happened - the RPM flickered, the Engine temperature started rising, the oil pressure started moving up. I was running out of time to eject but I patiently persisted and at about 300 meters the engine started. I tentatively eased the throttle forward and slowly picked up the nose to start a shallow climb, not stopping before I reached 2000 mtrs and turned towards base. The time lapse in all this was only a few seconds but for me time had stood still, for the world & specially Sqn Ldr V, the Radar and the ATC, time had raced. I received a lot of instructions and was given a priority landing. A safe landing was done and the aircraft was brought to a halt on the Runway apron where it was immediately surrounded by the rescue vehicles.
The adrenaline which had pumped itself into my system to help me survive slowly started ebbing and the world started making sense again. A burly Sardar from the rescue team stood towering over me trying to get me out of the cockpit. He insisted, I refused his help and came down the ladder on my own but, as my foot touched the ground the adrenaline finally gave up and I collapsed into the comforting arms of the burly Sardar.
I recovered fast in the ambulance and after a brief visit to the Sick quarters reached the Squadron where Mrs Singh (The CO's wife) had sent me a big bowl of Rasgullas with a note - "What could have been…….. but what was not. God Bless".
On inspection it was found that 40% of the engine blades had been broken/twisted and it was a miracle that the engine had started. I was debriefed and planned to fly the very next day again. The miracle of life goes on……
Someone sent this message today:
He insured his heart against break
And, his heart did break, eventually.
But surprising as it may sound,
None claimed the assured amount.
Like the first ray
of the sun,
Like the first rain
On a parched earth,
Like the first gush
From the spring,
You begin me.
Like the last flourish
Of the brush,
Like the last piece
Of the puzzle,
Like the last grain of sand
In the hourglass,
You complete me.
I have been watching TV episodes on the 18 Shakti Peeths in a Serial called Sarvam Shaktimayam. The story is woven around a family that goes to visit the 18 Shakti Peeths.
The episode about Sharada Maa Peeth evoked nostalgia. Sharda Maa's Peeth, I discovered, is in POK across Krishnaganga river opposite Teethwal village in Kashmir.
In the early eighties, my unit was at Tanghdhar, in Kashmir. Down the spine of the spur of the Saari ridge, at the very end, was Teethwal village. As subalterns, we have climbed down from our posts to the path alongside Krishnaganga river. The path reached the Teethwal village. From Teethwal, we have often climbed up the Samsaari ridge and then finally descended into Tangdhar village.
When we were in Tangdhar in the early eighties we - at least I - didn't know about the Sharda Peeth across the Krishnaganga river.
This family in the episode is unable to visit the Sharda Maa Peeth because it is in POK. The protagonist in the Serial wonders if a Kartarpur style corridor could be made for pilgrims to visit Sharda Maa Peeth.
I also wonder.
I received this post today:
People don't have as strong intuitive sense of how much bigger 1 billion is than 1 million.
● A million seconds is about 11 days.
● A billion seconds is about 32 years.
This is another way of saying that a billion is about a 1000 times more than a million:
1 (day) x 365 x 32 = 11680
That is 32 years is 11680 times a day.
Therefore, 11 days is 11680/11 part of 32 years
Or, a billion is 1061.8 times a million, or about 1000 times more than a million.
The same would be true if we compare one thousand and one million.
Since a million is a thousand times more than a thousand, the same calculations would hold.
The reason for counting in the West go from one to thousand, to million, to billion... and so on is because three zeroes uniformly come in between. That is:
1 one
1000: thousand
1000000: million
1000000000: billion
It is believed that beyond three zeroes, the human eyes get confused with the number of zeores and we start counting the zeroes with our fingertips after three zeroes. That is why, when we have currency written, we often insert commas after every three zeroes:
1000,000: million
1000,000,000: billion
Now, in the Bharat way of counting, it is not the same: We have laksha (lakh)with five zeroes after and koti (crore) with seven zeroes after.
Although this may not be visually as symmetrical as the Western way of counting, I have noticed that the laksha (lakh) is always a easy way to count. Only, the West keeps calling it hundred thousand instead of lakh.
Your thoughts?
At times the grass is wet with dew,
At times the grass is wet with sweat,
Who dances on that grassy patch?
What collects at her pretty feet?
Is it sweat, or is it dew?
That patch's owner murmurs thus:
At dawn it must be dew,
Honest sweat at noon is due,
At dusk the grass withers and bends,
'Tis neither sweat nor dew.
The heart and the soul took a pledge,
Not to part, ever.
The heart could not keep its vow
And parted with the soul at death.
Though the soul carried on
It was never the same again.
Had a part of it died too?
How much pain does the soul gather
Through lifetimes and more?
How many hearts break the soul's heart?
How many vows are disavowed?
How will I know love again?
Will my pole star disappear again?
Will I be lost again?
Will my wasted heart flutter again?
Will my arid eyes moisten again?
Will I lose again?
Commutative property of addition doesn’t work in the Indian
Army:
Commanding + Officer ≠ Officer + Commanding
Commutative property of multiplication doesn’t work in the Indian Army:
C x O ≠ O x C
