Book Review [59] : The Meadow

'The Meadow' by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott is a great work of investigative journalism, but i am not sure whether everything written or found by these guys is factually correct or its a part of some sinister propaganda. I read this book (more than 480 pages) during my pilgrimage to the holy shrine of Trimbakeshwar and in the end i lost almost complete interest in the book but i managed to finish the book somehow.

The central theme of this book revolves around the kidnapping of 6 foreign tourists (2 Americans, 1 Germans, 2 British, 1 Norwegian) from the Pahalgam region on 4th July 1995, few days later one hostage escaped, later one hostage was beheaded (perhaps one of the earliest incidents of subheading in Kashmir) while the remaining 4 hostages have been lost in the valleys/streams/glaciers of Kashmir, perhaps forever. Adrian and Cathy constructs the lives of the hostages in great detail but these guys conspicuously ignore the plight of Kashmiri Pandits and the ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the separatists and terrorists. This book gives a very detailed description of various geographic features of Kashmir valley and in the end it is able to paint the entire Indian Army, political establishment and senior bureaucrats in black, making them more than partly responsible for the mess of Kashmir. It also exposes the brutal truth that there is absolutely no coordination among local police, military and spy agencies of India. The current controversy over the arrest of a terrorist by Delhi Police (in late March 2013) only proves this.  May be these journalists want to lighten the burden of Pakistan bashing (in Deception) by making India look bad in this book. It claims that India pays/bribes terrorists to fight against other terrorists and uses the tactic of Divide and Conquer masterfully and it belittles the role played by Pakistani establishment in this dirty game. Overall a good read but beware it has too much of India bashing in it.  
Recommended (7/10).

A Pilgrimage

When i read "Rahul Sankrityan" essay on the lack of travel spirit among Indians, it immediately touched my deepest part and since then i have been trying to travel and explore new places by defining and redefining my own priorities. This weekend I made a holy pilgrimage to the sacred town of Trimbakeshwar in Nasik district. This holy town hosts one of the 12 Jyotirlingas spread across the Indian subcontinent (I have prayed at 3 Jyotirlingas so far: Kashi Vishwanath, Rameshwaram and Trimbakeshwar) and i believe by the grace of Gods i will cover all the 12 Jyotirlingas in my life time. The Pundits of this place are expert in conducting Pooja to remove Kalsarpa Dosha, Rahu Shanti, Pitra Dosha etc. I went there mainly to have Kalsarpa Dosha Pooja done for me and Rahu Shanti for my brother. It was a great experience but i have only one guilt that its very difficult to control one's mind in Kalyug, Pooja needs concentration and devoutness, somewhere i lack both in varying intensity. 

According to tradition, Rishi Gautama did penance to get rid of heinous 'Pap' of cow-killing and in that process he pleased the holy trinity, God Shankara agreed to let loose Holy Ganges from his hair knot to Brahmagiri range, thus Godavari started her descent. Because of the same reason Godavari is known as Ganges of the south. The garbhagriha of this temple hosts the holy trinity (Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesha) in the form of lingas. The current temple is in black stone and was built by Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao (1740-1761). Kushawat kund is very close to the temple and it is widely believed that Godawari originates from his holy area. 

Its not very difficult to reach Trimbakeshwar from Bangalore. First you have to reach Kalyan/Manmad from Bangalore by train, then you have to take bus/train from Kalyan/Manman to Nasik, and then a bus from Nasik to this holy town. Go there to see the beauty of your culture, the sacredness of your religion, devoutness of the devotees and the knowledge of the pundits.

 

Book Review [58] : Our Moon Has Blood Clots

'Our Moon Has Blood Clots' is a great work of History on the subject of exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the Pakistani supported Islamic radicals and betrayal by the government of India and Kashmir. These days it has become a fashion to simply discard the tragedies of Kashmiri Pandits as myths, some do it for the sake of their own notion of "Secularism" and some do it to remain viable in the current "extreme liberal" media polity of India. History is truth, it is polity and religion invariant although the future generations need to have an open mind to objectively take the words written in history books and the prevalent historiography. Rahul Pandita has done a great favour to Kashmiri Pandits in particular and Indians in general by documenting the exodus and ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir Valley in 1989-1991. The people who now cry about the alleged human rights violations perpetrated by the security personnel in the valley conspicuolsy ignore the plight of Kashmiri Pandits and try to wipe the slate clean. The Hindu Right on other hand has exploited the Hindu sentiments on Kashmir without doing anything for the rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits while the left and centre parties have ignored them because they are not "significant" in numbers. 

Its an old maxim that refugees have no homes and even the world becomes small for people who flee from their houses without giving a fight to the intruders, unfortunately this is true even in this case. True Secularism is devoid of any religious bias and its definition should not vary from time to time and from people to people. 'Our Moon Has Blood Clots' is a very personal story of Rahul Pandita and he has covered the two exoduses of Kashmiri Pandits really well, first one in 1947 when Pakistani tribals pillaged Kashmir and second when Kashmiri themselves pillaged its minority community. I would also like to this post by the same lines from V. S. Naipaul:
"The world is what it is,  men who are nothing, who do nothing to give them a chance to move from nothing to above, have no place in it".
Highly recommended book 10/10.

Book Review [57] : Persian Fire

Last month i read Tom Holland's prize winning book 'Rubicon' and this month i could not prevent myself from reading yet another gem from him. 'Persian Fire' explores the subject of Greco-Persian wars of 5th century with more neutrality and objectivity but yet it remains a prejudiced take on Persian history mainly because the main source is a Greek named, Herodotus (484 - 425 BC). I was greatly appalled to see the grossly inaccurate and draconian representation of Asians in general and Persians in particular while Greeks (mainly Spartans led by Leonidas) was shown as the vanguard of democracy and freedom, in '300' film. The makers of 300 deliberately omitted the very fact that in the very Sparta there was a great population of Greeks who were enslaved and were called Helots.

'Persian Fire' describes in great detail about foundation of world's first great Empire i.e. Achaemenid Empire established by Cyrus The Great in 559 BC. He was a great emperor indeed and he founded the great empire with perhaps shedding the lesser amount of blood than any other Emperor. He commissioned the building of the 2nd Temple of Solomon (after the destruction of original temple by Babylonians in 7th century). Darius succeeded him after killing all his sons and he extended the reach of the Empire beyond Hellespont, only to be defeated at Marathon in 490 BC. His son Xerxes continued the fight and sacked Athens in 480 BC but he had to retreat in the wake of defeat at Salamis (480 BC) and revolt in Babylon. Greeks displayed exemplary courage in their battles against the mighty Persians and this courage is the main summary of this book. Persia had to retreat from Europe and finally Alexander of Macedon destroyed the Achaemenid Empire of Persia in 333-331 BC. But those who say that Alexander took the revenge of Persian invasion of mainland Greece in 5th century BC are grossly wrong because that time Macedonia supported Persia in her fight against the states of Attica and Peloponnesia. Anyways this book is a great read for anyone interested in ancient history but i expected a little bit of more objectivity from Tom Holland.

Highly Recommended (8/10)