Ghuman Literature Festival

                                        India is divided into distinct linguistic regions. Leaders of every major linguistic region project their own language to be the lingua franca of India. There are instances in our history where group of people have clashed over linguistic skills creating acrimony in society. In this madness of one upmanship a ray of sunshine is"The Ghuman Bahubhasha Sahitya Sammelan", a multi-lingual literary festival organised at Ghuman town in the border district of Gurdaspur in Punjab on April 3 and 4.

                                      Surprising it may sound, for organizing Marathi literary festival in Punjab but the reason behind it, is to commemorate the legacy of much revered saint Namdev, a legendary 13th-century reformist Marathi poet-saint Namdev from Maharashtra who lived in this village for nearly two decades. He was associated with the Bhakti Movement of that time. Locals embraced the saint as there own and incorporated 62 of the shabads(hyms) in sacred book of Sikhs, Guru Granth Sahib, as Namdevji ki Mukhbani.

                                   A Gurudwara named after saint Namdev bears testimony to the fact that the social and spiritual bond between two diverse cultures is beyond rhetoric of symbolic secularism. Thousands of pilgrims throng to Ghuman Gurudwara Darbar Sahib Baba Namdev Ji  for annual pilgrimage.

                                  Marathi language and literature acted as catalyst to support and bringing together different languages of India as most other literature festivals are dominated by English and Hindi. The Ghuman literature festival has also stimulated translation of literary work between Marathi and Punjabi languages and hopefully into other languages in future to benefit readers. The theme of this year Ghuman literature festival was “renewal and restoration” of Urdu, Punjabi, Kashmiri, Bodo and Hindi languages. 

                                   Celebrating the connections between two languages and cultures is also a way to pay tribute to the saint tradition which is progressive and liberal and literature plays a positive role in uniting the society through emotional and intellectual content in it. The Ghuman festival is aimed at building bridges between Maharashtra and Punjab through literature which hopefully will grow with time and include and revive other local endangered languages of India .

Martyr's Day

                                                               Hussainiwala Memorial 

                                   On 23rd March 1931, India pay homage to Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru on their 85th martyrdom anniversary. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev killed  John P. Saunders, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, as he was leaving the District Police Headquarters in Lahore on 17 December 1928 to avenge death of Lala Lajpat Rai but managed to successfully evade arrest.

                                 On 8 April 1929, Bhagat Singh accompanied by Batukeshwar Dutt, threw two bombs into the Assembly chamber from its public gallery while it was in session to protest against the British rule in India . The smoke from the bombs filled the Assembly so that Singh and Dutt could have escaped in the confusion had they wished. Instead, they stayed shouting the slogan "Inquilab Zindabad!" ("Long Live the Revolution") and threw leaflets. The two men were thus arrested.

                                      The Death Warrant Of Freedom Fighter Bhagat Singh

                                            On 15 April 1929 Sukhdev Thapar was arrested from Lahore and few days later Shivaram Rajguru was arrested too. Following a hasty trial of the Lahore Conspiracy Case, they were executed by the British a day earlier than the scheduled hanging in the Central Jail at Lahore at 7.15 pm on March 23, 1931.

                                                       Death Certificate Of Bhagat Singh

Happy Holi Friends

Marvelous Rusty

                                    I have never read Ruskin Bond maybe because not interested in fiction and the day my wife insisted i should read one, i relented ,and was one of the most interesting books i have ever come across. After reading few of his books i can safely say that Ruskin books are ones that can cheer up your otherwise dull day or soothe you down after hectic day. He beautifully and intuitively spun simple life stories . Most of his novels take place in scenic,serene city of Dehra Dun with incidents of nearby jungles and mountains adding more funn. The themes of his writings show inspirations from his friendships and relationships with the locals and even strangers beside nature (he seems very infatuated with).

                                 His books are about simple joys of life like flowers blooming, joys of riding bicycle early morning, scent of earth after first splash of rain etc. Not many writers have the mettle to write simple stories without dabbling into philosophy or politics and still keep readers captivated.

                                 Where do you get to read such magnificent lines eloquently and effortlessly conveying a message in innuendos, so enjoy reading "Rusty" as it portrays life beautifully.Some of the most impressive lines i have enjoyed reading...
"Drunkenness is really a vice because it degrades a man and humiliates him. Prostitution is degrading but a prostitute can still keep her dignity. Thieving is degrading according to the character of theft.Begging is degrading but it is still not as undignified as drunkenness. In all vices victim is aware of his degradation but in drunkenness we lose our pride our heads and above all our natural dignity."
"My old lama will, I am sure, be among the first to return ,even if he has to walk all the way over the mountain passes .Maybe that's why he plods up and around this hill every day. He is practicing for the long walk back to Tibet ".
"I watched him until he was far along the path. I wondered how long he could last. Perhaps a year or two, perhaps a day ,perhaps an hour. But whenever or however he died, it wouldn't be death. He was too old to die. He could only sleep. He could only fall gently , like an old brown leaf."
"The sick and the dying are heartened by the thought that people are still well enough to feel reckless , indifferent to each other's safety! In Delhi there's feverish desire to be first in line, the first to get anything ... In Delhi , to be second in the race is to be last"

Crony Capitalism

                                   Firstly the meaning of "Crony" capitalism is as defined -  "Crony capitalism is a term describing an economy in which success in business depends on close relationships between business people and government officials. It may be exhibited by favoritism in the distribution of legal permits, government grants, special tax breaks, or other forms of state interventionism."

                                  Crony capitalism is a curse on humanity with ability to severely dent and destroy economy, environment and eventually annihilate precious lives. India has two glaring examples of crony capitalism that has destroyed lives of innocent people but seems no lessons have been learnt till date to safeguard country and people from dwelling again in malpractices of few.

                                    India first witnessed a terrible case of capitalism going wrong, the infamous "Bhopal gas tragedy" of December 1984 and the second was the grounding of "Kingfisher airlines", a debacle by flamboyant and overambitious Vijay Mallya.

                                     Bhopal gas tragedy struck on the night of 2–3 December 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.  An eye popping case of corporate negligence comes to fore as management of company(UCIL) under invested in safety, which allowed for a dangerous working environment, allowing several safety systems to be inoperable due to poor maintenance and switching off safety systems to save money. A leak in storage tanks caused toxic gas cloud of  methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas and other chemicals to reach shanty towns located near the plant on the night of 2–3 December 1984. 

                                   The exposure to gas cloud by thousands of people of Bhopal led to travesty unprecedented in scale and numbers. Over 500,000 people were exposed to methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas and other chemicals which resulted in  3,787 (government estimate) deaths related to the gas release while unofficial estimates count death toll thrice more then the official data.The painful long term effects of Gas tragedy is unrecoverable environmental pollution and economic rehabilitation besides health hazards to local population exposed to gas.

                                   Over 500.000 people were exposed to the gas killing 8000 within three days while thousands more die in the months afterwards but the compensation offered by company was miniscule. UCIL agreed to pay $470m (£299m) to settle the initial fight for compensation in India's Supreme Court in 1989. As the survivors' legal representative, the government had asked for $3.3bn (£2.1bn). Unfortunately the struggle of survivors and victims is two pronged, fighting health hazards till date with no or little compensation provided . Bhopal gas victims and activists are still struggling for compensation with no help in sight from government or company.

                                     The second case of exploitation is even more uglier then Bhopal gas disaster. Vijay Mallya a flamboyant billionaire who fancies himself as the Richard Branson of India, launched his airline in 2005 to celebrate the 18th birthday of his son Siddharth. 

                                  With flawed business model at helm, Kingfisher Airlines soon started loosing money and was folded by October 2012. It is worth noticing that though the airline's underlying assets were far lower than its liabilities still banks (PSU) were in hurry and continued to lend Vijay Mallya.  Vijay Mallya owes over Rs 7,200 crores to at least 17 banks. It is to be noted that the employees continued to work for 6-8 months after closure of operations in hope and assurances given by Vijay Mallya to restart airlines,a ploy of management to garner more funds from banks, till airlines permanently shut down in mid-2013 with unpaid salaries of more than 3000 employees since 2012.The shareholders and employees suffered financially and psychologically while Mallya had exit plan in place to save himself . It's not a surprise that in our system banks and government machinery hobnobbing with influential individuals to exploit toothless laws and benefit immensely with malpractices of crony capitalism. 

                                   The irony is,it is not the first or last case of crony capitalism where few narcissist billionaires get unlimited freedom with zero accountability to usurp loans from public banks rampaging economy and destroying lives of innocent people. The list of such willful defaulters is long -( http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/current-affairs/not-just-mallya-manyhis-colleaguesalso-defaulters_5801561.html ) . These life sucking vampires of crony capitalism suck and dry the soul of nation by tearing apart the political ,ecological ,economical and social fabric for greed. It is high time government should initiate strong action against Vijay Mallya by recovering every penny of investors ,and also make laws more stringent for shabby businessman to comply and not go scot free.