Ugadi: The Indian/Hindu New Year

Today is Chaitra Shuddha Pratipada – the first day of the year in the Indian/Hindu calendar. The festival is celebrated as Ugadi (yugAdi) in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, and as Gudi Padwa (guDhI pADvA) in Maharashtra. This is

• the 5112nd year of the Kali Yuga.
• the 1932nd year of the Shalivahana Era.
• the year "Vikruti" (Samvatsara).
  

Happy new year! :-)

Maharashtra Yatra - 2

8th January (contd)

Ellora is about 35 km from Aurangabad. It's about 500 years later than Ajanta. It has Buddhist, Hindu and Jain caves spread over some 2 km. We were shown only the four most important ones: caves 10, 12, 16 and 32. Cave 10 was a Chaitya, cave 12 a Vihara, cave 16 the great Kailasa temple and cave 32 a Jain cave. The guide's explanations help you appreciate what you are seeing. Kailasa temple is truly a marvel of India, second perhaps only to the Taj. You can't believe it's carved out of a single rock. After Ellora, we visited the nearby Grihneshwara, the 12th Jyotirlinga temple. The Linga is ancient, but the outer temple was built by Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore in the 18th century. Males who enter the sanctum sanctorum have to go in topless. We finished the tour with a visit to Bibi-ka-Muqbara, tomb of Aurangzeb's wife in Aurangabad. It's modelled on the Taj Mahal. It was evening when we got back. I checked my mail, had dinner, checked out of the hotel and boarded my bus to Bombay.

9th January

I got off at Dadar, took a train to Andheri and reached Kaddi's house by 7:30 am. The poor fellow had been woken up an hour earlier by a phone call from my dad. I had my bath, packed up and left for Dadar to deposit my luggage in a locker/cloakroom while I saw more of Bombay till 3:15 pm, when my train would leave for Nagpur. At Dadar, the TT told me that cloakroom was available only in VT, now CST. In Bombay, everything has been renamed as either VJ (Veermata Jeejabai) or CS (Chhatrapati Shivaji). I sighed and boarded a train to VT, where I did find a cloakroom. But it accepted only locked luggage. So I left my suitcase (which had a lock) and took my kit (which didn't have a lock) with me. I came outside and admired the station. Right across is the Corporation HQ, another beautiful building from the British era. Took a cab to Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, now the CS Vastu Sangrahalay.

I had 90 minutes to see the museum, 30 minutes for each floor. Check out the beautiful section on Indian miniature art. From the museum it was a 30-minute walk back to VT. Along the way, I saw the Rajabai Tower (tallest tower in the city), Stock Exchange and GPO. At VT, boarded a train to Dadar. I arrived 30 minute before the Sewagram Express to Nagpur was to depart. Amitesh and Nattu were waiting for me outside our coach. We spent the journey catching up with what each of us had been upto in the last 1.5-2 years. I wasn't too sad to leave Bombay. At first sight it's quite depressing: slums, poverty, filth. Especially for someone from Bangalore. But the people are nice and helpful. Not like Delhi.

10th January

The train reached 5 minutes early, at 7:15 am. There was supposed to be a guy from the hotel to pick us up. We called up Suchit, found out where the hotel was, and took an auto. At the hotel, we bathed and left as early as we could – the wedding was at 10 am. On the way we had to get the gift packed, which took quite a long time. The baraat arrived at the hall shortly after we reached there. The wedding was over quite quickly. We had lunch there and left for the railway station, where Amitesh had to book a ticket for Ahmedabad. Then we went to our hotel. Amitesh left at 6:30 pm, Nattu left an hour later. I was left alone.

11th January

There's nothing of note to see in Nagpur. There is one fort, but it's open to the public only on January 26 and August 15. So I left for Ramtek, 50 km away. There's a Rama-Lakshmana temple there, to commemorate their stay in that place. The temple is on top of a hill; the climb reminded me of the View-Point at Ajanta. There's also a Kalidasa Smaraka nearby, still under construction. Apparently, Kalidasa lived here for some time and wrote some of his works. It was afternoon by the time I returned to Nagpur. I boarded a bus to Wardha, 80 km away. Gandhiji's ashram (Bapukuti) at Sewagram is a short distance from Wardha. Near the ashram is a Gandhi exhibition. I then returned to Nagpur.

12th January

Woke up at 4 am, packed up, checked out and reached the railway station at 5 am to board the Gorakhpur-Bangalore Express at 5:25 am. I needn't have bothered; the train was 2 hours late. I bought a magazine to kill the time. Finally the train arrived. It was the only boring part of my journney. Maybe I was fed up – it was my third train journey in 8 days. Thankfully it reached Bangalore in time the next day, at 10:30 am. Then back to Tumkur for a long sleep!

Maharashtra Yatra - 1

In 2003 I had gone on a trip across Maharashtra. Here is the mail I had written describing the journey:

Yesterday morning I returned from a 5000+ km tour of Bombay, Ajanta, Ellora and Nagpur. The excuse was a friend's wedding in Nagpur (on 10th January). He was my classmate at IIT Delhi.

I left on 4th night by the Udyan Express, which takes 24 hours to reach Bombay. I enjoyed my first train journey since I came home in November 2001. The best part is after Khandala and Lonavala. The ghats are beautiful, and there are several tunnels as well. I got off at Dadar. Kaddi arrived there to pick me up. We went by train to his company flat in Andheri, which he shares with a colleague. We spent the night chatting. It was 2:30 am when we slept. He made a few calls to his friends to get the information I needed to see Bombay and go to Aurangabad.

6th January

I woke up as early as I could and left for the Gateway of India, from where I could get a boat to take me to Elephanta Island. I took a local train to Churchgate, the last stop on the Western Line. From there a cab to the Gateway. A slight delay there: the cops held me up to let Vajpayee and Anerood Jugnauth pass through first. I got off and learned to my great disappointment that Elephanta was closed on Mondays. So I took a Bombay tour instead. It was 11 am by the time bus left. The 140 km tour covered some 7-8 places. Most of them were useless, like World Trade Centre, Nehru Science Centre, Hanging Gardens and Kamala Gardens. But Aarey film city, Mahalakshmi temple, Juhu beach and ISKCON temple were better. Taraporewala Aquarium and Prince of Wales Museum are also closed on Mondays. Moral of the story: don't visit Bombay on a Monday. The bus dropped me at Dadar at 8 pm. I had dinner and boarded a bus to Aurangabad, to see Ajanta and Ellora.

7th January

Reached Aurangabad at 7 am. Very few autos were available – there was an auto strike going on. Took one to a hotel. Learnt that there had been some violence the previous day: auto drivers had pelted buses with stones. So all tours had been cancelled for that day :-( I had just 2 days to see Ajanta-Ellora. And Ellora was closed on Tuesdays (Ajanta is closed on Mondays). So I paid through my nose for a cab to take me to Ajanta, 105 km away. I left at 9 am and reached there about 2 hours later. Vehicles are not allowed near the caves. You have to park about 4 km away and board a CNG bus from there. This is to protect the cave paintings from pollution.

There are about 30 caves, all of them Buddhist, carved over a period of some 500 years, starting from the 2nd century BC. They line the outer bend of a U-shaped gorge, carved out of the rock by a river. The caves consist of both Chaityas (shrines) and Viharas (monasteries). Some of the caves have paintings, which are the main attraction of Ajanta. Most of the pictures have been ravaged over the centuries by heat, cold, dust, etc. Some have been ruined our own hands: one cave's paintings have been replaced by Hindi and Marathi grafitti. Restoration work is going on to save the few that remain. Well, it's never too late... It takes 2-3 hours to see the place. Take a flashlight with you if you are going: it'll help you see the details of the paintings in the dim caves. I then climbed to the 'View-Point', the spot from where the caves were discovered by 2 Englishmen in the 19th century. It's worth the climb!

Back to Aurangabad in the evening. I was relieved to find out that tours were on the next day. I booked a tour to Ellora and also my ticket back to Bombay.

8th January

The Ellora tour started at 9:30 am. The ITDC bus was only half-full. 50% were foreign tourists. Our first stop was Daulatabad (Devagiri) Fort. It turned out to be more interesting than I expected. It has quite a history, being associated with the Yadavas, Mohammad bin Tughlaq and Allaudin Khalji. It's an impregnable fort, with hajaar booby traps and mazes. Then we left for Ellora.

Happy New Year 5111!

Today is Chaitra Shuddha Pratipada – the first day of the year in the Hindu calendar. So today is the Hindu new year day.

This is the 5111th year of the Kali Yuga, and the 1931st year of the Shalivahana/Shaka era. The name of the year (Samvatsara) is Virodhi.

If you are in Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh, happy Ugadi!
If you are in Maharashtra, happy Gudi Padwa!
To everybody else, happy new year! :-)

Of Birthdays and the Hindu Calendar

All these years I was celebrating my birthday, like most people, as per the Gregorian/Christian calendar. This doesn't make any sense. We should be celebrating our birthdays, and other anniversaries, as per the Indian/Hindu calendar.

From henceforth I have decided to celebrate (that is, whatever little celebration I can cook up) my birthday as per the Hindu calendar. For the record, my birthday falls on Kartika Shuddha Dashami. You can use this calculator to find out your birthday as per the Hindu calendar.

So what day were you born on? :-)

The Year Is 5110

Q: Which year is it now?
A: 2008
Q: How is it year 2008?
A: Because it's been 2008 years since Jesus Christ was born

The calendar we are using is the Christian calendar. It is a relative system, not an absolute one. When the European countries colonised most of the world during 1400-1900, they spread their customs in the lands they ruled. Thus the Christian calendar (along with many other things) became the default for the whole world.

For practical purposes we may continue to use this calendar, or at least be aware of it. But we must also be aware of our own calendar(s). The two Hindu calendars most commonly cited are Vikrama and Shalivahana. The Vikrama calendar is followed mainly in north India. Its zero year corresponds to 58 BC; so according to it the current year is 2066. The Shalivahana calendar is followed mainly in south India. Its zero year corresponds to 78 AD; so according to it the current year is 1930.

All this is very confusing. So instead of these two regional calendars, we can remember one national calendar. According to Hindu tradition, the Kali Yuga began in 3102 BC (when Krishna died). So the current year is Kaliyugabda 5110. As per this, we are in the 52nd century (not the 21st). It also fits in neatly with the notion of India being a 5000-year-old civilisation :-)

How To Write

Let us look at a simple English sentence:

Ramu ate an apple.

Let us look at the structure of this sentence:

Ramu --> Subject
ate an apple --> Predicate

This is the most basic way of breaking up a sentence. The predicate can be further broken up into a verb and an object. Thus we have:

Ramu --> Subject
ate --> Verb
an apple --> Object

Let us look at the parts of speech of the key words in the sentence:

Ramu --> Noun
ate --> Verb
apple --> Noun

This Subject-Verb-Object (S-V-O) or Noun-Verb-Noun (N-V-N) structure is the most basic form of an English sentence. Write all your sentences in this form!

So the first rule is: Use short, simple sentences (S-V-O or N-V-N form). The corollaries to this rule are:
1. Do not use adjectives.
2. Do not use adverbs.
3. Do not use additional clauses.

And the second rule is: Use small, easy words. Do not use big, difficult words.

There are many more rules (you can find them in Rudolf Flesch's book), but these are the two most important. Simplicity, clarity, and brevity: these are the three things every writer should aim for. If you want to see the power of simple writing, just pick up any book by V S Naipaul – the greatest living writer of English prose.

"South India"

If there's one thing that gets my goat, it is the terms "South India" and "South Indians". Many people think there is one place/region called "South India" and one set of people called "South Indians". WRONG! There are four states: Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu – each with its own language and culture. There is no such thing as "South India". Similarly there are Kannadigas, Telugus, Malayalis and Tamilians. There is no such thing as a "South Indian".

It is true that there are some commonalities among the people who live south of the Vindhyas, which distinguish them from the rest of the country. For example, the four languages, though distinct from one another, belong to the Dravidian family – as against the rest of the country, which speaks the Aryan languages. Some food habits are also common – the famous idlis and dosas come to mind here. But these broad commonalities do not justify putting the four states and their people into one box and calling it/them "South India"/"South Indians". People in the rest of the country are blissfully unaware of the vast diversity and differences among these four states.

When I was in Delhi, a guy from MP asked me, "You South Indians worship Ayyappa Swamy, right?" Somehow he had heard about the temple of Ayyappa in "South India", and assumed that all "South Indians" worship this deity! Statements beginning with "You South Indians...", "Tum South ke log...", "In South India...", "South mein...", etc are very common – and very irritating. This malady will not end till we actively try to put a stop to it. Therefore I appeal to all my fellow Kandus and also Gults, Mallus and Tams to correct people whenever they make this mistake. Don't worry about offending others. Don't worry about creating a scene. Don't worry about what other will think of you. Just do it. It is important to speak the truth and dispel people's ignorance.

Three Favourite Novels

Of late I have been thinking of which would be my favourite novels. Most people would have a Top 10 list. But I have read very few novels (much of my reading is non-fiction). So I have to limit myself to a modest Top 3. Here they are in chronological order:

1. War and Peace (1869) - Leo Tolstoy
2. One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
3. Shantaram (2003) - Gregory David Roberts

1. War and Peace
No, I am not being high brow. I really liked this book. It took me almost 2 months to finish, but it was worth the effort. An epic set against the backdrop of Napolean's 1812 invasion of Russia, it traces the fortunes of about half a dozen aristocratic families. The three central characters are Pierre Bezukhov, Natasha Rostova and Andrei Bolkonsky. For me the hero is Pierre Bezukhov, and the book is nothing but the story of his journey through life and his search for truth. He starts off as an earnest seeker, deeply interested in philosophy. (The account of Freemasonry's metaphysics given here sounds remarkably like Vedanta!) But the end is disappointing - Pierre concludes that there's no point in philosophy and one must just enjoy the simple pleasures of life (read marriage and children).

I'll talk about 2 and 3 later...