As an NRI i get to watch only the online kutcheris as the Margazhi/December Music festival is in full bloom in Madras/Chennai. But whatever is available is already plateful and even this I am unable to consume wholly! Simply no time and then there is the time zone difference. Today for instance they were all the same time – Sri Rangam Venkata Nagarajan, Prince Rama Varma, Dushyanth Sridhar everyone. Stunning range to cater to all your senses, most overwhelming that we have to choose and ration time. Thanks to webcasters I am enjoying the treat from the confines of my home from OUTSIDE INDIA. I am in particular tuned in to Mudhra and Madhuradhwani and Ragamalika tv to who I want to give credit. They lend a class to our lifestyle so effortlessly! Great job! Feel refreshed totally and recharged. Soul stirring instrumental music without whose mention the post shall be incomplete. This is true of both solos/duets as well as accompaniments. My pick of the season: Amrutha Venkatesh. Soon the classical dance programs are to start – from Bharat Natyam and Kuchipudi to Kathak and Mohiniattam. Carnatic season is including healthy share of discourses (Upanyasams) this year. Of course this trend is seeing a steady rise in recent years. Love listening to newbies who all seem to be outperforming. Young talent is new blood, that longstanding cultural traditions need to be necessarily infused with year after year. Not that I am a pro in anything. Just a connoisseur of good music – music understandable to me , which is why western is ruled out for me. I enjoy anything/everything desi be it classical or folky and ofcourse filmy. You don’t need to know the a,b,cs of the classical to savour the best of it. You don’t have to be a qualified all-knowing rasika at all. Just relax and go with the flow, enjoy the sensation. That is the beauty of the Indian classical musical renditions be that vocal or instrumental. The bhakthi component is indispensable to Indian classical. As much as I love the Thyagaraja keertans, I am also at the same time partial to Muddhuswamy Dikshithar’s kirtans. Favourite composers include Papanasam Sivan (for Tamil renditions), Gopalakrishna Bharathi among others.
Soul-soothing, soul calming, soul enriching, soul awakening: this is how I describe God given gift of classical musical forms of India: Carnatic (of the south) and Hindustani (of the north). Not very familiar with Hindustani though but I have to thank RaGa sisters for introducing us audience to a slice of the spread with selective Abangs.
This is why retired life in India is BEST. Classical music, looming ancient temples that are over 1000-2000 years old spread over hundreds of acres, fresh flowers, monsoon madness, life-throbbing cities and small towns and dusty villages besides the variety of regionwise authentic matchless cuisine. No other nation on earth can come even a close second. Heat and crowd and mosquitoes are small incoveniences. You don’t burn the house to get rid of a pest. Of course, you settle for other pleasures when you don’t have to bother too much about your soul. SOUL FOOD: this you get only in India.
FG is my favourite brand and I have an account with her. But she got on my nerves repeatedly referring to Diwali as ‘festival season.’ I stopped shopping at her totally. I still look at hers sometimes but I know I will never again shop with her UNLESS SHE REFERS TO DIWALI AS DIWALI. And apologize for even unwittingly committing a mistake. You don’t send me season’s greetings for Diwali. You greet me PROPERLY ‘Happy Deepavali.’ You refer to sale as proper DIWALI SALE. You refer to Oct-Nov as Diwali season or (Navratri) Puja season or Dusshera season. Or simple, fold up your business, QUIT INDIA and start a boutique in downtown Dubai. GOOD RIDDANCE. We need to get rid of this kind of so-called benign tumours first. This is what shall later develop as malignant cancer. No, none of these manipulators are secular.
There are even more sinister attempts to secularize Diwali in some quarters by NON REFERRING THE FESTIVAL BY NAME AND REFERRINNG TO IT AS ” FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS’ OR EVEN ‘JASHN E RIWAZ’ . The nerve. We need to address this kind of cultural onslaught on warfooting basis.
Today in news is the London Khan trying to similarly remove Christmas from the celebrations. You tube has videos.
Now Diwali aka Deepavali is declared as an intangible world heritage by UNESCO. Its celebrated from time immemorial, from the day Ram and Sita returned to Ayodhya from Sri Lanka, literally in another plane of time. Fireworks were in full display welcoming them as Valmiki Ramayana mentions. Organic though.
This move also serves to authenticate the history antecedents and cultural roots of Hindus dating back by some 10,000 years (even if we need no certificate from any authority whatsoever).
DIWALI/DEEPAVALI IS PROBABLY THE WORLD’S OLDEST/MOST ANCIENT FESTIVAL THAT IS IN CONTINUUM UNTIL THIS DATE. JAI SHRIRAAM. May Ram Rajya return to India to eternity.
Its a shame although I have known for years or perhaps decades, and that too being an ardent, born and practising Hindu, I still finally got to read this lifechanging book only very recently. Reading for months now from my desktop Kindle. About to finish. Who am I to even review God’s own writing. This book is not fictional and this book is for those who are born outside the Hindu India to understand about the Hindu philosophy/Hindu Dharma. Why, even all of us Indians could make the best use of Shri Yogananda ji’s excellent autobiography – the kind of which I have not come across so far. Not that I am a voracious reader. Being part of the Hindu society makes most things familiar to me. Still the book holds my interest totally and I kind of don’t want it to end. I have been reading rather slowly for that reason. REason for my slow reading is that, if I finish a book fast i forget it in a flash whereas slow reading helps me retain the subject matter for long.
Anyway, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Nothing more to add. Except that, in this dry desert that is my second residence, I experienced a total of 6 rain draps in a span of 2 weeks. 3 rain drops during a walk before national prayers were called for rain. That when I checked with my spouse who was walking besides me was refuted by him that I began doubting myself. As if to confirm my doubts, the week after the national prayers, 3 more subtle rain drops fell on me. Both the times, as it is my practice, I was chanting the Lalitha Sahasranama in my mind. I chant Sahasranama always in my mind while I go for walks. For me, IT WAS LALITHA ANNOUNCING HERSELF TO ME. Just cool 3. No more raindrops. Nobody else felt them. Just 3 + 3 = 6 that grazed my skin so softly, so feebly ,and that too the first one caressing my crown – my scalp. The beauty of faith. I leave it anyone who reads this to believe this or not. But I don’t have to be reading Yogananda ji to believe in my Lalitha. I am enjoying Her subtle leela with me for years now. Very recently She gave me another unbeatable vibe. A stone is a stone if that is what you believe in. An idol becomes God when you believe God dwells in the stone.
Blessed to be born a Hindu, blessed to have been born in my punya bhoomi Bharat (India). My birth is probably REQUESTED. Souls ask to be born in my country. Evolving of faiths happens only with the arrival of the Avatars. Only Hindu Dharma has been NON STOP producing saints and avatars, hundreds and even thousands of them, for centuries and centuries now.
Before I close this post, I add one incident from a friend’s life story. Her name was Bindhu. She was my bosom school friend’s sister. We met almost everyday at school. We drifted apart. She moved to her native state Kerala. Worked for a central government department. Became a mother to two beautiful daughters. Just into her 40s, she was afflicted with kidney cancer. Died within 3 months. But Bindhu was a follower of Sri Sri. She had completed her entire course of Art of Living and had perfected a particular breathing (Yoga) technique. As the course progressed, she was becoming detached from everyone. The course seemed to have brought in a change with her. Before she passed away, she told her sister that she was peaceful, she did not fear death as she kept seeing her last 7 births then for sometime or ever since she was bedridden (for a week’s time). That made her accept her current role and her current body as temporary abode. Her sense of attachment at that point of time sounded shocking to her parents and family. Her sister and my best buddy until today, was stunned. I am using original names here. Once she was detected with kidney cancer at an advanced stage and was not given any hope, Bindhu went to see Sri Sri for one last time. Gurudev paused for a moment at a distance and looked away it seems. HE KNEW without being told – that’s what my friend says. And Bindhu accepted her destiny. After hearing this real life incident, I think of the mahans, India is producing even today. Sri Sri – for the first time in my life, I want to listen to his speeches and follow his Art of living. As I have already chosen a path to nurture my spiritual instincts, I am hesitating that’s all. All this I am saying, happened just 15 years back. This is the beauty of my holy Bharat.
You missed something so precious and unmissable in your life, if you don’t read this book. So, it goes without saying that there is no excuse of any Hindu skipping it or missing it. I am too late but better late than never.
At the back of my mind is always the omnipresent Lalitha. Its like I cannot shake Her out of my system. She is there behind my thoughts and actions; behind my every second. The books has widened my horizons of thoughts.
The swamijis of the last century: Shirdi Baba, Ramana Maharishi, Ramakrishna Parahamsa, Swami Vivekananda, Shri Lahiri Mahasiya, Shri Yuketeshwar, Shri Yogananda Parahamsa, Shri Ananda Moi, Sri Aurobindho …. the list goes on and on and one.
Even in present times we have the Siddhas and great swamijis in our midst in India. Sai Baba of Puttabarthi is no more. His centenary anniversary was held very recently. Hindu dharma is the only faith in the world that has been producing avatar after avatar for millennia.
May Dharma prevail to eternity. Sanatana Dharma ki Jai (Hail Hindu Dharma)!
Digital gold needs no intro: it is the most happening investment in world markets today making headlines for months now. There is however reportedly, an oversupply of paper gold or digital gold in the world for a while, than actual physical gold in circulation, a point missed by most of us retail investors. Trading/holding stocks in digital gold has made this possible. Holding digital gold is also hassle-free than physical possession. It is said that the ratio of paper gold to physical existing gold in the world could be as skewed as 100:1 or even 250:1. So could this bubble burst anytime crashing the gold markets one fine day? With not enough real gold to back up the digital gold, it is possible that the world economy could be heading towards a crash so far as gold market is concerned. Probably that is why, those like Warren Buffet allegedly keep off digital gold. Digital gold could be a good short term investment than a long term plan, it is said. ETFs seem to be the most favoured platform of gold investment. Owning the physical gold is still the safest way as we know because we are in direct possession of the actual gold that can be stashed away in a vault.
What do I attribute to digital gold working? I, as an Indian housewife, am used to hoarding gold as traditional practice, and don’t fear the fall of the gold prices. But it is true that we women in India hold actual gold in our hands, how much so ever minimum could that be. For us, gold is LIQUIDITY that is matchless. Gold is economic freedom. And gold appreciates maximum, next only to real estate. All these factors make gold the most favoured investment for us ladies. If gold has to crash, then the bubble has to burst in every sector should loans be recalled at short notice, for that matter. World economy will collapse. Just recall housing loan enmasse and see what happens. Domino’s effect. Like a pack of cards, everything has to come crashing in that case. Reality is never the point in the world of economics. How do credit cards work then? Is gold the only bubble waiting to burst? Nations borrow heavily. But I do understand the need to cap the gold market at some point of time. As someone who is in the line of investment averred, gold is not a productive investment and therefore its growth is unnatural. Stocks normally boom when the productivity index improves and quarterly reports show good results. Gold however obeys no such laws. Very much akin to real estate, gold appreciates in value only because of the superficial demand its scarce availability manages to create as against its actual supply. Having said that, a humble housewife/grandma here with no compatible background to post such a comment! But I take the liberty with my half baked info/knowledge!
Can digital gold be realized into real gold? I observed this from a couple of Indian banks. First of all even the leading ones did not have the digital gold platforms that sold 24 k gold gram by gram (or ounce by ounce). ETFs/Gold funds were on offer. But there was this one bank that sold digital gold for a few months which on demand was stated to be deliverable at your doorstep. Product withdrawn from bank services with November end, no wonder! The digital gold sale by ounce did not even last a good six months! Probably the reason is that the bank feared inability to keep up with real supply on demand from customers. However, I see that digital gold sale ounce by ounce is still on offer by a few digital platforms and jewelry houses. The jewelry houses in India cleverly state that your digital gold can be acquired only as gold coins or jewelry from their premises! Well, that means, you can never encash your digital gold at these jewelry houses! In short, by investing in digital gold in these jewelry houses, you are only paying in installments/lumpsum for your future gold purchases! Govt of India and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) do not regulate these platforms trading in digital gold and therefore investment in these platforms may remain risky.
As I see, the govt of India that was issuing sovereign gold bonds for years has since withdrawn the bond issuances from last year! The big headache of paying off the maturing bonds in near future awaits the Indian govt!
Any other info I may glean, I shall update here with.
What do I think about middle class investments in digital gold. I think if you can take the risk, you can afford to invest in digital gold. It still is a great investment – long term investment in my PERSONAL opinion. Its worth the risk, provided you have other investments to bank on, in case of an unprecedented crash. So far world has not witnessed such a debacle, but let us wait and watch.
One evening I asked him a question. “Dick, what is your impression of India?” “Peace,” he said thoughtfully. “The racial aura is peace.”
(Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi (Complete Edition) (p. 513). Yogoda Satsanga Society of India. Kindle Edition.)
This conversation between Shri Yogananda and his American secretary Wright on their visit to India in 1935 says it all.
We need no further certification. I don’t care whether my country is poor or dirty or polluted or crowded or hot or dusty or whatever. In the man-eat-man world, Hindus come across as peaceful community (I mean the REAL peaceful!).
To have stamped your footprint in the sands of planet Earth for 10,000 years and NOT TO GO DOWN HISTORY as invaders, ethnic cleansers of natives, destroyers, land usurpers, marauders, barbarians, conversion mafia – this speaks a lot about Dharmic Hindus. I wouldn’t even say the same of Buddhists – as we have seen Myanmar/Burma and Sri Lanka.
There is in truth nothing to be proud of, to be thought of as ‘peaceful.’ Its just that your ancestors were HUMAN after all. Its okay not to be aggressive. Its okay to be complacent. Bravery and heroism lie in NOT DISTURBING OTHERS for our own personal gains. Not building a life out of others’.
Despite myself, I am proud of our forefathers who did not even bother to patent their inventions and discoveries, many of which are now touted as European. They couldn’t care less really. They lived well.
What Hindus have gone through for centuries, being hunted down, with their women taken away, with the men executed, with our temples ransacked and razed, with their wealth plundered, persecuted enmasse …. paying (Jiziya) taxes to foreign (Mugal) invaders for just being Hindus in NATIVE HINDU LAND INDIA/BHARAT, resisting conversion … its a miracle we are even here today. No violence, no bloodshed, no taking over others lands by invasions, no greed, SIMPLY NO BLOOD IN THE HINDU HANDS AND NO HEINOUS SIN IN THE HINDU CONSCIENCE. NO HINDU HOME OVER THE GRAVE OF THE VANQUISHED NATIVE/SON OF THE SOIL. Well done, dear ancestors. Such a clean world record.
Clicked this pic in my mobile from my desktop kindle. The respect and honour an enlightened Hindu commands.
This is why Paramahamsa Yogananda ji and Swami Vivekananda received red carpet welcome in the US in those days. Through out the world, our yogis are received with respect and awe. World listens to them when they speak. Presidents invite them to their official residences and governments have them address even their parliaments. This is the highest respect accorded to Hindu monks in the world stage today. And this pride belongs to all of us Hindus and our long departed ancestors who sowed the seeds for a peaceful, harmonious, humanitarian society based on values and consideration and compassion over anything. Powerful and wealthy men command fear, not necessarily respect.
Shri Yogananda Paramahamsa was preceded by Swami Vivekananda, also from Kolkata, Bengal, India in 1893 who introduced the eastern ideology to the west for the first time. Many followed him to India as his disciples and sister Nivedita from America, was notable among them.
Such is the soft power of Hindus. Dominating the world as the real movers and shakers: medicos, engineers, scientists, yogis, teachers, nurses etc. Not as destroyers, bombers, terrorists, usurpers. World shall write our history thus: THE NATION THAT GAVE THE WORLD SHANTHI (PEACE) AND WISDOM.
So if such a peaceful nation as India wants to take on the evil demons head on, then the world must wake up to reality. The next time, the devils will at their doorstep, not India’s.
Wildlife enthusiast, it gives me adrenaline rush to learn of how well our big cats are doing. Here are two updates. Cheetahs in India were hunted to extinction by the British (who have also done to extinction many native tribes in Australia and America). PM Modiji, conceding to the wishes of a billion Indians, finally brought home some cheetahs from Africa a couple of years ago. Cheetahs that rarely drank from waterholes in Africa are now superbly adapting to Indian environments that now we say, ‘cheetah bhi peetha he!’
I am yet to watch this you tube video on our national animal the tiger. India boasts of the largest population of tigers on earth.
MOVE OUT WHATSAPP. ARATTAI IS HERE. From Zoho, India.
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Govt of India is already moving to Zoho, the local desi software, from Microsoft in an attempt to push MIGA (Make India Great Again because we were great for straight 10,000 years not 300). Already our central IT minister Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw switched over to Zoho office suite and set the trend. Slowly but steadily the nation is to follow.
Who is running the silicon valley in America. Without H1b no Elon Musk, no Sundar Pichchai, no Satya Nadella, nobody out there in America. Imagine retaining such a talent in India not doing charity to America. Indian parents sell property/pledge property to send their kids to the US for their masters or research programme. Fees could be over 100,000 $ already leave alone the living expenses. Not everyone can find in-campus jobs to sustain themselves. It is illegal to take up out-of-campus jobs. One US$ = nearly 90 INR . So imagine what a sacrifice Indian parents are doing to send their children to the US. Finally when the children get their H1b, they are going to buy house in the US not in India. They are going to invest in the US not India. Indian children are well bred, disciplined kids. Not spoilt like the regular American. So why should Indian kids now go to the US at all. Japan is inviting Indian kids for their masters. Germany offers tuition waiver 100%. UK, Australia, everyone is throwing red carpet to have Indian kids for masters and give them PR (equal to green card). If there is no job guarantee , there is no need for Indian kids to invest so many thousands of dollars in the US. Next year will see 90% drop in Indian kids going to the US for higher studies that some American universities or departments would have to close permanently.
Thank you President Trump for making India realize our potential. Slowly we want to ease out Google, Microsoft, Amazon everything from India and replace everything american with homegrown Indian. Already we had Flipkart, Jabong, Myntra etc., before Amazon came to us. I am still an Amazon customer – for the only reason that my future generations are going to be American. I care for America but my friends have forsaken the American brands already. People stay away from Mcdonald and don’t get Pepsi or Coke anymore. I have never seen such a public anger in India before, for America. But this is all for good. It will help India become more self sufficient and self reliant.
If America levies 100% tariff on medicine imports from India, again loss is theirs. Already I have seen how medication is unbelievably expensive in the US. My heart goes out to the middle class families who will have to go through tough times in near future.
As for me, I use only the free Excel and Word versions of Microsoft that come with ad. I was planning to buy later the package this year, but I will now buy Zoho, the Indian version instead. Thank you Trump ji for helping me make up my mind.
But I will continue to buy American products because of family connection. Other Indians have no such a binding reason to shop for anything American.
Not yet moved over to Arattai from Whatsapp. But looking forward to. Arattai in Tamil literally means ‘banter.’ Arattai is seeing thousands of downloads already and is replacing Whatsapp by gusto. Many of us have moved out of Facebook already. Facebook is out of fashion!
President Trump is the reason we Indians got GST cut from 18% to 5%. I shopped well this Navratri/Diwali season thanks to the price drop. Trump ji is the reason India is looking forward to MIGA. ‘Atmana Nirbhar Bharat’ ‘self reliant India’ is the election motto of BJP/PM Modiji for last 15 years. Nothing new. Finally it is truly implemented now. Thanks to President Trump India has diversified trade and is NOT suffering the tariff impositions. Even H1b fee hike is a blessing in disguise, the best gift from Trump ji to India. Thank you Donald Trump Ji, you are giving bitter pill to India to cure our malaise and make us strongest. You are the best. If not for you, we would never be adapting to Zoho this way. We would never have had the GST cut that has gone down well with the masses. Already BJP could be winning half the next elections. You made it easy and simple for us.
I wish the Indian enterprises all the success in future. Let us do it one step at a time. Let all of us prosper. Even American farmers hurting is bad. Humanity is one. Nobody should suffer that’s all.
Why should religions evolve. If a religion is evolving, there will be enlightened beings after enlightened beings churned out of such a faithful following. That is what is happening in the case of Sanatan Dharam or Hindu Dharma. For millennia now, century after century, India never ceases to produce enlightened beings who forsake materialism and who transcend the cosmic lines or laws. Islam never saw another enlightened being after their prophet. I am not a follower of Osho but he sure seems to plainly lie down the difference between world’s oldest way of life Hindu dharam and the newest, Islam. This i share without disrespect or prejudice. See, even America that is supposedly No.1 country in the world and the most progressive and advanced scientifically, has FAILED TO PRODUCE A SINGLE ENLIGHTENED BEING IN LAST 3 CENTURIES. Everything about America is ACQUISITION, ACQUISITION AND MORE MATERIAL ACQUISITION. This is their national motto. What for? To what end? What is development really. I am proudly a sanatani, a Hindu. Ours is such an evolved culture and unbroken civilization of over 10,000 years. Deeply entrenched and unimaginable, unfathomable cultural base India has, deeply entrenched for eons. Not in a million years can America or Arabia ever evolve the way the Hindu society has evolved. Even today in India, Hinduism is way of life, 24 hours a day for us, all 365 days an year. It is this social cultural fabric of ours the Abrahamics/Mohammedans of the west want to tear apart. I am too late to be reading ‘the Autobiography of a Yogi’, but please all read this real life account to understand the essence of India, and why trying to contain India shall always fail or even destroy you. Bharathiya’s power and strength lies in our spirituality. Even today India boasts quietly of thousands of evolved yogis and siddhas who easily astro travel leaving their physical bodies, returning at their whim after their space voyages. This is why we can never become another China ever. Our life purpose/goal is different. Hindus are not the staple broiler chicken like the chinese. Finally every society must evolve into an enlightened one. Our goal/purpose in life is to attain Moksha/Nirvana, escaping the birth cycle and become the part of the light. Material aspects are for the first few decades of life. You never build your world destroying others.’ Buddhism is offshoot from Hindu Dharma. There were no demarcations between Bharat (India) and Nepal until a hundred years ago. Seetha is the daughter of Nepal. Pakistan/Af will never prosper as this territory is cursed. Unless and until this region reverts to Dharma, whatever you sink here will be wiped out.
Even Jesus Christ spent 18 years in Bharat (India) learning Hindu scriptures. For us Hindus, he is one more yogi or guru that’s all. Guru is an enlightened being but is not God Himself or Herself. Prophets or Gurus lead us to The Penultimate, the Para. They are the first step. But we should never stop with them. From Hindu ‘om’ came the ‘amen.’ From Hindu ‘Brahman’ came the word Abraham. Krishna was the first cow herder who thousands of gopikas (like nuns) married (out of bhakthi/faith). Jesus was conveniently a shepherd after that to who the christian nuns got betrothed to. Even Noah’s ark is lifted out of ancient Hindu history. Nothing told by abrahamics is new but already told in Hinduism many millennia earlier in history. Since religious conversion is never a Hindu’s agenda, nothing was popularized.
Unlike christianity or islam, you have to choose being a Hindu. Until a century ago, you needed to be born a Hindu. Hindu by blood only. Now many Hindus practise sanatanic ways around the world. That is their conscious choice, not forced or bribed. Hindu gods are discreet. You need to choose them consciously. We call our Divine Mother, Rahasiya Priya, Guhya priya. She hates being forced upon others or even being told about/talked about.
You don’t have to be born a Hindu to have rebirths. YOU WILL HAVE REBIRTH. YOUR NEXT BIRTH WILL BE A LESSON ALWAYS FROM YOUR PREVIOUS ONE. Its therefore important to be kind for our own sake. Save your soul.
Imagine the kind of conversion by the Christian missionary mafia happening in India and the love jehad by the muslims targeting Hindu girls. In many cases, the muslim boys pretended to be Hindu boys and revealed the truth to the girls after impregnating them. Wait till the last drop of oil evaporates in the middle east. A new world order we shall have after this because, economics too play a part in spreading religions. Earlier, conquests and payoffs from conquests spread some religions. Kind of economics too.
Rounding off this post with this: Do you know this temple history. Tamil Hindu history itself reveals innumerable evolved saints over centuries. If Gods are on your side, the first sign is that, they will make you kind and compassionate and reasonable and least judging. You don’t go out of the way damaging others. In Tamil we say, ‘avan arulaale avan thaal vanangi’ which means, even to believe in God, you have to be blessed. If you are evil personification or not wanted, you will be ruthless in nature and cruel and inconsiderate. Racist and religious bigot. Even Hindu gods say that to rout out adharam, it is fine to follow adharmic ways sometimes. Adharma has to be quelled with adharma if our dharma makes us hesitate. It takes millennia after millennia to evolve into such a fine and cultured society as Hindu. The Portuguese gauged out the Hindu eyes and nailed our ancestors to the cross to convert them to christianity. Some Hindus relented to save their children and save their lives. The islamic invaders razed our temples and took our women and tried to sever the very roots of Hindu culture. Tipu Sultan hung 300 hindu men on Diwali day in front of their families for refusing to embrace islam. This is just 0.00000001 percent of cruelty and barbarity inflicted upon by islamists on native Hindus. We even paid taxes to continue to live as Hindus for centuries to these muslim barbarians in Hindu India. That is the kind of sacrifice our ancestors made to save our ancient faith and dharm. This is what India has survived for 10 centuries at the hands of christians and muslims.
Dharma is the only balancing faith and factor on earth. Without Dharma, the world will crash in no time.
So much of India bashing that I wanted to blog about this. Of course India Medical Tourism is now world renowned. Chennai, my hometown, especially is one of the chief medical tourist centers in India.
Three years back I found a lump in my right back shoulder. It turned out to be a harmless lipoma on ultra sound scan that my doc ruled out even the necessity for a biopsy. I left it at that. But wearing straps proved to be painful for me ever since. The lump also seemed to grow in size. Latest, it crossed 8 cm diameter, so I decided to go in for a surgery.
The surgeon decided to give me local anaesthesia. He said he was making diamond shaped pricks as the dimension of the lump was too big. I felt only less than a dozen pricks. He said, the number of pricks was a bit more because of the extensive size of the lump. Then I lost all sensation. The preparation was for about 15 min and the procedure itself lasted 45 min. After that I was asked to lie and rest for 30 more min. Then I was back home, but not before stopping somewhere on the way for errands. The surgeon fee was 10,000 rs and the antibiotics, plasters, the anaesthetics etc., cost me 1500 rs. Which means, this surgery was done on me for $100 or perhaps less. This was on sunday last. Yesterday I got my dressing changed. Now that is the biggest difference between America and India. There are blessings in India that you cannot even dream of in America. This small procedure itself could have cost one 10,000 US$ (or more – definitely more). Since the sum was minimal, I decided to swipe my card and not tap into my medical insurance. (I have adequate medical cover).
Every country has ups and downs, pluses and minuses.
My 80 plus aunt had valvoplasty last week. She had other complications. She is a cancer survivor, has had double mastectomy in the past. She had a relapse some years back in her throat for which she had a stent placed. She has had double knee replacement. She broke her neck and was in bed for an year in her 60s. She got covid twice. Still doctors in a local hospital thought she could survive the surgery. They cut open the sides in her hip and got the vein. My aunt weighs 100 kg. Before surgery my aunt was having breathing difficulties and her lungs were drowning in fluid retention. Now she is free of the issues on surgery but it recuperating slowly. Its just a week since the procedure. This gift of her life is possible only because she is operated upon in India by skilful hands. Entire procedure cost her 20,00,000 rupees which may be $20,000/-. Along with hospital stay, physio therapy etc., the bill may come to $21,000/-. For her age, she did not get any insurance cover. We were merely told that the procedure is very advanced and rarest.
Further more, you don’t have to wait long for your medical procedures in India. I decided on my surgery only on saturday. I got appointment for sunday. My aunt waited for three days for her procedure because she was on Aspirin.
So yesterday someone also got bitten by a housepet (vaccinated dog only) near my home. She still had to go to a clinic for some shots. She opted to go to a govt clinic. EVerything was free for her. She spent not a single paisa for the shots and she would have to go back after a month for another shot.
My regular cabbie got his spleen, liver etc., torn in an accident. Everything was repaired in government hospital. He had the PM Modi insurance cover. Last year his condition was critical. But he has survived. He did not have to shell out a single rupee for treatment. For the poorest and most vulnerable among us, from dialysis to cardiac bypass everything in this country of mine is free. And they call us a poor nation. What’s more, you don’t have to wait for long in queue. You name it, you got it. From cataract procedures to even delivery/maternity, family planning procedures, if you are in the BPL level, Indian government offers you everything for free. The ESI hospitals run by the central government and the PHCs run by the state governments are also very clean and hygienic. I am saying this because, years back I got a family planning procedure done for free in a PHC. Though I don’t have a good word to say about the state managed government hospitals. However I am told, the government hospitals in the neighbouring state Kerala are the best. Family planning is free for all in PHCs. I decided to utilize the govt concession and at that time before 30 years, saved a few hundreds of rupees chargeable by private clinics. At that time, I was surprised to find hygienic rooms and washrooms in PHCs and efficient sisters (nurses). The govt doctors are much more experienced and quick. Delivery is free in these centres for all women irrespective of your social status. I still wonder who we middle class women opt to waste money at private maternity homes.
The previous prime ministers of India had schemes and airports named after them. MNREGA was Rajiv Gandhi’s. Indira Gandhi national airport for instance. Jawahar lal Nehru stadium. Even our chief ministers have airports named after them. Anna International of Chennai. Shri Narendra Modi ji could be on his way to become the longest serving prime minister of India but his name is in NONE OF THE GRAND SCHEMES. What we have is Pradhan Mantri Yojanas, Pradhan Mantri health insurance etc.
There is nothing lacking in India. We love our dear Mother India that sustains a billion and more lives. So many foreign nationals come here for cardiac procedures and for knee/hip replacement, spine surgery etc.
This country is lived in for over 10,000 years and has strong cultural roots. All the moslem and christian invasions could not erase our roots completely. We are survivors at the end of the day. They looted our nation, stripped us bare: what you see in India today is redevelopment only. We are merely trying to catch up to our previous lost glory.
This is Navrathri week. This time Navrathri is for 10 days and its on the 11th day we have the Vijayadasami or the Dushshera. This women centric Hindu festival is all about the sacred feminine. Our PM Shri Narendra Modi usually fasts for Navrathri and has only lemon juice in this period. We have a very devout Hindu PM who fasts for the nation, who locks up his entire official residence and uses only a room or so, is a vegetarian from birth, a teetotaler, a yogi who has come up in life from selling tea in railway stations to this level without any help or recommendation. He is totally self made and extremely disciplined. No family member benefitted because of his high office. His family back in Gujarat remains poor without drawing attention to themselves. Nobody knows them. Someone who meditates everyday, Modiji’s devotion for Ma Durga will take India to further heights. The Pranapradishta he did in Ayodhya for Lord Ram will go down in history, no doubt. He will be best known not as PM of India, but as the one who gave us back our Ram Lalla.
For me therefore, it doesn’t matter whether a country is rich or powerful. How you take care of your poor and weak and defenceless and vulnerable is what is important. The top brass of the nation must be incorruptible and must lead an honourable, respectable life. The heads of the states must be selfless and must not favour family businesses over national interests. I think we are having the best prime minister in the world right now for who, only India is the agenda and nothing else is.
The poorest should get the benefits. The weakest must feel thankful. The most vulnerable must feel safe and know that they are not being left out. If a president or prime minister of any nation cannot do it, then I don’t think he can be great.
Why India is not like China or America, precisely for this reason. Can you imagine them being humanitarian like us. This is not communism. This is humanity that’s all.
The newly introduced H1b visa fee hike to mindboggling $100,000 per applicant could in fact be a blessing in disguise for India.
Think of the past: America refused super computer to India in 1980s. Our own scientists soon developed it and the nation was in the forefront of IT revolution in the 90s.
America and Russia refused cyrogenic engines to India. India developed her own and it was ISRO that landed first on the dark side of the moon, not NASA.
So every curse can be turned into a blessing if we put our heart into it.
Besides, H1b is the internal policy of America. Frankly, we have no say on such matters. An onion seller has every right to sell his onions for 100 rs per kg or even 10,000 rs per kg. Whether to buy or not is up to us. We cannot be asking him to lower his price even if we think that the pricing is unfair. If we find it beyond our means, we have to move on that’s all.
There is no doubt that the American corporates are going to bleed heavily now. India never benefited from the H1b. The incomes and investments went to the US. Marginal loss is probable. We have been trying to factor in job loss from AI for years now. Sooner or later even the H1b legislation was expected. Not quite a shocker. Now we can be looking at a golden opportunity of the silicon valley shifting massively to India. Cannot rule out the possibility. Americans also must get a chance to realize what they took for granted for decades: the sincerity and dedication and more than all the cultural input and harmless presence of Indians who have contributed immensely to the growth of America. Sometimes, only our absence can teach people our value. One of the best and law abiding global citizens, brainiest, disciplined population is the Indian expat community. If they have to leave America, its America’s loss entirely. Thank you Trump ji, thanks to you Indian brains shall now work for INDIA rather than America for peanuts. Just like the chinese sweatshops cannot be worked with American labour, the deadline-chasing round the clock software industry cannot be staffed with Americans who may not have the mental makeup to follow stricter work culture. Indian American medico friends in the US used to say, they are put on back to back duties whereas the white doctors take it easy. They cannot survive the Indian kind of harshest schedules. I think this is also an eye opener for thankless Indians who talk bad about mother country India. See who you have to come back to now. But mother never rejects her children, does she?
Whether it is about tariff or about H1b, that is how I feel about Trump’s policies. We have to respect their internal decisions even if we cannot agree with them and even if they may hurt us. But here is what America must do as well: RESPECT INDIA’S CHOICES. We buy what we can afford. We run our nation how it suits us. 1.4 billion is simply too big a number. We have to feed that many mouths. We have zillions of automobiles. Hundreds of airports. We choose to economize. Its not for Russia, its not for Iran. We do everything FOR US, FOR INDIA. Just like you do with America. Nobody can dictate terms to India. We are not here for 10,000 years going by the same name Bharat for nothing. Who wrote Artha Shastra, the political treatise taught even in ivy league universities in America, and when. Neither are we the occupiers. WE ARE NATIVES, THE ORIGINALS. We know how to run our economy, run our country. To even advise others, you must last 1000 years as a single entity (nation), saving most of your territory and gene pool. India, China, Russia, Japan have done just that. We are all NATIVES, SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THE SOIL. If Koreans or Filipinos or Indians migrate (only) to America or Canada or Australia, it is because these are immigrant nations whose doors have been thrown open by colonists/occupiers. UK is different because they occupied India, Africa etc., for centuries in a visa free period. Now they are being paid back with interest that’s all.
What about today’s migrants? Today’s migrants are not engaged in violent ethnic cleansing operations of natives. They are not taking over native settlements and building six bedroom villas. They are not slave traders and exploiters. They have not bankrupted gold mine and diamond mine nations hunting down species of wildlife to extinction, making blood money. They are not raising nations over cemetery of locals. Today’s immigrants are merely and honestly looking for better livelihood and safe havens. Some are political asylum seekers. Today’s immigration is really legal and justifiable than what happened over centuries to Asia and North and South Americas and Canada and Australia. Immigration in the 21st century is the way really immigration must happen : for right reasons.
H1b visa hike could be a big blessing to India. A blessing in disguise. It can retain talent and can plug the braindrain from India to the US. It can help our children RETAIN OUR HINDU CULTURE without dilution. It can save generations of Indians from drugs, overt materialism, liquor addictions, mental issues etc., that are rampant in America. Its time we Indians too do our homework. What is there in America except for malls and highways. Of course as I tourist I loved American forest reserves. Nature is at its best element in the United States. Other than that America may be lacking something: THE SOUL . Everything is not about materialism, money, money, money, glamour, glitz, malls, shopping, partying, plastics, etc. In India we spend hours a day in pursuit of our spiritual goals. We still cook in our kitchens. We have happy families. Outings are not to theme parks but ancient temples that are thousands of years old where our forefathers had walked. So it really makes me happy that at last, future generations of bright young Indian minds WONT BE BUILDING AMERICA but will be building India instead. Trump has saved generations of Hindus getting lost in meaningless pursuit of materialism, in my words. There is a limit to chasing money. I would rather want our younger people to spend more time enjoying the classical Indian arts and learning our spiritual ways, living life the way how our ancestors lived: holistically. That is the big quality difference between America and India. They are bhogis. We are Yogis. India to me is class act that can come only with good breeding.
See, nobody is going to be here permanently. Many of us don’t want to think that even within next few years our house, our car, our clothes, our jewelry everything will belong to others. Hundred years later or even far earlier, nobody will know us or remember us. There will be no mention of our name. The next minute we pass away, we won’t be referred to by our name: we become THE BODY. That is what we sum up to finally. May we go with more pluses than minuses. May we go with grace. May someone miserable and poor weep for us because we lent them a helping hand. May someone miss us the good human.
As a Hindu, I believe strongly in rebirth. Our next rebirth will be whatever we despise intensely. We all have our lessons to learn. Being compassionate is not just about showing others consideration or mercy. It is also about doing something good to our own soul and saving it from future trauma in rebirths to follow. No doubt the Abrahamics will think I am a fool. But that is precisely the difference between Hindus and them. These guys think man writes history. No, the pen and the ink in the pen are from Mother Goddess Herself. She scripts nations’ destinies, not just individuals. Its Her wish. If She thinks now that enough is enough, that India has given enough talent and wealth to America and pulls the plug, then so be it. I am writing this on the first day of Navratri, celebrated throughout India in awe of the sacred feminine. Trump is not signing any document. Mother holds his pen. Its Her wish. Its Her thought that its time India starts helping self. With that I round off this post. Direction comes from up above. Why do humans credit themselves with so much power? Even Mother leaves a few pages blank for us to fill on our freewill. That is what decides our Karma. What do we want to fill up those few pages with?
Believe me Modi ji, what is happening is for the best. May Mother Goddess, our universal Divine Mother, always be with India. No need to become the richest nation on earth. Let us be the most humanitarian nation on earth. Jai Maa Kaali! Happy Navratri! Happy Dusshera! God bless India! God bless America! And belated birthday wishes to our beloved Prime Minister! You are the best.
vijiravindran's 