Kartarpur – “Gods Ville”

As per the author, SPL Bedi, after completing a bulk of his journeys and peregrinations in the land, Guru Nanak decided to settle down on the banks of the river Ravi which flowed through the heart of the Punjab. He selected a spot, and the land was given to him by his devotee, one Seth Karoria, who was one of the wealthiest persons of the region. Guru Nanak built his abode there, where he would live with his family. He himself ploughed his fields, since he was a firm believer that every man should indulge in an occupation and put in hard labour, and live off the fruits of the same. He called his home Kartarpur, or, “Gods Ville,” and inevitably, all his followers, and other people seeking his blessings, would flock to the place; in due course a gurudwara came up there. It was at Kartarpur that the Sikh faith gained some kind of an organizational semblance.

On the eastern bank of the river at that place was a mango grove where Guru Nanak held his congregation. The place is known today as the town of Dera Baba Nanak. Why he built two places of meeting at that time separated just by the width of the river Ravi remains a mystery. Strangely, the border separating India and Pakistan runs through the two spots: Kartarpur being in Pakistan, and Dera Baba Nanak being in India! Up to now pilgrims on the Indian side had to be content with having darshan of Kartarpur from Dera Baba Nanak through binoculars; now, with the construction of the corridor, they can actually cross over to visit and pray at the actual site….

Bedi writes: “But history revealed the strangest of facts, through the dynamics of happenings. When in 1947, with freedom coming to the Sub Himalayan Sub-continent, Pakistan and Hindusthan came into being as two independent sovereign states the boundary line dividing the two ran exactly between the Sat Guru’s twin seats, Shri Kartarpur on the one side going to Pakistan and Dera Baba Nanak on this side coming to India.” This he wrote half a century ago.

It is again a strange fact that when the relationship between the two countries has touched a new low, it is Kartarpur which has provided a bridge for the two to make an effort to mend the relationship. However, even a slender twig has the potential to be the foundation of a new structure, hopefully for the good of all. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Msd3AR30IBI&list=RDMsd3AR30IBI&start_radio=1https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Msd3AR30IBI&list=RDMsd3AR30IBI&start_radio=1

An old article penned by me....

A visit to Kasauli for the Khushwant Singh Litfest brought back this memory, when yours truly had the opportunity to share print-space with the two giants of the time - The late Khushwant Singh, and the Editor-in-Chief of the Tribune, VN Narayanan.

THE MAN BEHIND THE COUNTER

Krishna was a practical fellow. Learned too! He spoke at least seven languages fluently. Apart from native Kannada, he spoke Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali and Hindi. Each student was spoken to in his own tongue. But when it came to me, Krishna sighed: “It’s a pity I don’t know Punjabi!”

The menu at the mess was always a hotch-potch. Five or six courses with, in the student’s opinion, only one thing in common – all badly prepared.

“What’s this muck you give us, Krishna!” we’d often ask. He was frank and forthright: “With just two hundred and fifty rupees a month, you don’t have the right to complain. If you want fancy food, go spend your money; go to “Khyber” or “Blue Diamond!” “Khyber” and “Blue Diamond” were expensive hotels in Pune. He was quick on the riposte. No fun arguing with him, we would say.
You couldn’t put a label on Krishna’s grub. Many of us floundered while doing so. Parts of it were Marathi, parts Konkani, South Indian, Punjabi, what have you. The best description came, quite appropriately, from a scholar from the famous Gokhale Institute of Pune, who, I believe, has blossomed into an economist of national repute. Being a budding economist he had this habit of thinking in terms of definitions. For Krishna’s grub he came up with this one: “A heterogeneous conglomeration of food articles!” What else, with things like rice, hamti, dhokla, and sabzi all being served for the same meal?

Krishna came from a village in Karnataka. Like many Brahmins from the South, he too had sought to make a living from the restaurant/mess trade. How the restaurant business in many parts of southern and western India is largely in the hands of South Indian Brahmins is quite interesting. It is not just a matter of occupational preference of a certain class of people; it just follows the rules of practicality and convenience. With the rigid caste rules governing commensality in traditional South Indian society, people were very particular about who prepared and served them meals. For example, a Brahmin would accept food only from a fellow Brahmin, a Kshatriya only from a Brahmin or a Kshatriya. You could only eat out of the hands of an equal or a higher caste member! In ccordance with this principle, the Brahmin was the only one who could serve every caste. So restaurants run by Brahmins were popular, since nobody had problems eating there. In the course of time Brahmins in the South came to enjoy a monopoly over the restaurant trade. To this day, restaurants and eating houses in those parts are owned either by them or by Iranis.

While eating at Krishna’s mess, I would very often see a fat man dressed in loose white pyjamas and a white topi hanging about the place. Sometimes I would see him engaged in money dealings with Krishna. I would wonder who he was. Then one day, when Krishna had become almost like a friend, he told me that the man was a member of the Shiv Sena of Maharashtra and came to get his “cut” from Krishna’s earnings. There had been a movement in Maharashtra sponsored by the Shiv Sena to oust non-Marathis from Maharashtra. The agitations would often turn violent and the main targets were the South Indian workers of the restaurant trade. Krishna worked in an out of the way place so he felt even more insecure. Besides, he ploughed a lonely furrow. He overcame this problem by making a Shiv Sena man his partner in business!

Pune boasts of a confluence of cultures. History, geography, and the lot of heavy industry have made this possible. Pun is also a centre of education and young persons from all parts of the country and beyond come there for studies. All this gives the city a colourful atmosphere. Even at Krishna’s mess all kinds of students would come to eat. Krishna had good business sense. He knew that the only viable fare that all or most of his clients could bear was a compromise menu. That is why he served the hotch-potch. He knew no one kind of food could satisfy his clients. Although we cursed him most of the time for his “bad” food, Krishna did have a special place in our hearts. By the time a student completed his studies Krishna would know almost everything about him. For me he is like a permanent friend in Pune.

When the “food festival” (much as I hate that appellation) was held in our city recently, it did have a few enjoyable moments for me. The alien tastes on my tongue spurred quite a few memories. I realised how much I miss Krishna’s fare.
- Amit Singh

SLS Pune, Admission process - 2018 Webinar

Yours truly speaking at the Symbiosis Law School at Pune. My talking is from point 6.40 or so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y8SZDH3B_4

Your blog and your FB posts are places where you toot your own horn! So bear with me on this one -

Why does the US presidential election debate attract so much of attention? It seems the Hillary-Trump debate has broken all records of viewership on TV. Of course, the US is the most powerful nation on earth, and therefore, whatever happens in the US creates reverberations throughout the globe. The other reason in my view is that these US debates showcase to the world just how a democracy is supposed to work: the two contenders for the top job are confronting each other with their beliefs and vision, and in that manner helping a fiercely independent and free electorate to decide which person deserves their vote!

On a personal note, before this present one, I, as a child, saw the presidential debate for the first time in 1976 between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford. The setting was a lawyer’s house in Chandigarh where the USIS had arranged a little screening for Chandigarh residents, the effort on the part of USIS being to create awareness and goodwill for the United States. In those days, India was heavily aligned with the Soviet Union, though most Indians privately admired the Americans. I don’t know on what basis they thought that showing such stuff to inconsequential people in a little sleepy town was any good.

The small audience which had gathered to see the debate in 1976 was quite enthralled: people exclaimed in Punjabi: “Eh hai democracy” (This is democracy!) Jimmy Carter was the darling of the audience, and the people said that he would win the election just because he was good looking! And that was the way it went! The audience was also mesmerised by the technology: it was the first time I saw colour TV with a video recorder and playback system in my life!

This ghazal translated into English in 1843 speaks for itself....

There was a time when you needed a fortune to buy an encyclopaedia. Only the affluent people had stuff like the Encyclopaedia Britannica (don’t know if there was an Encyclopaedia Americana or Indica ever!) on their bookshelves. The elegant tomes of knowledge bound beautifully in leather would instil confidence in the veracity of every statement made therein due to their reputation, and due to the fact that there was no other credible source of knowledge! Today we have all the information that we want on a click of the mouse or a touch on the screen. 

Wikipedia is supposed to be an open source encyclopaedia inviting entries from the general public. Undoubtedly, it is an invaluable source of information and the first place where the web leads us to whenever we want to be elucidated about any topic. It turns fifteen now, and is hustling and bustling with information, though the authenticity of the information has to be taken with some caution....

Only once I tried to make an entry into wikipaedia. During my conversations over the radio with my ham radio friend, the late Derek Jeffries of Bombay (VU2 BEJ), I learnt that the word “Tombola” is of Indian origin, probably from the days of the Raj! The housie game got the aforesaid name from the native “Tum Bola!” It implied the shout which a player gives as soon as he/she has completed a row, house, etc. and wants to claim a prize. It means, “You called!” I put up that version on Wikipedia, but ran into a headlong online fight with an Italian in whose name the original entry for Tombola was credited. He insisted that the word came from the Italian word “tombolare” meaning, a raffle, and would not countenance any other version being put up there. After that, I was informed through email that the matter has been referred to an adjudication panel of Wikipedia. I never bothered to pursue it. It appears I lost, and the Italian guy won.... The version given to me by Derek never got published permanently on Wikipedia! Who knows what the truth is?

So, in the end, the stuff put on Wikipedia has to be taken with a pinch of salt.... 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tombola_(raffle)

The Corrs & Ron Wood - Ruby Tuesday (Live in Dublin 2002) (+playlist)

Ruby Tuesday



There's no time to lose

I heard her say

Catch your dreams

Before they slip away

Dying all the time

Lose your dreams and you

Will lose your mind

Ain't life unkind?



One of the most beautiful songs from the Rolling Stones. The Stones, of course, were the other side of the coin of the Beatles. If the Beatles were the bad boys, the Stones were the devilish boys.... Mick Jagger, if I remember correctly, was a student of the London School of Economics, and the lead member of the Rolling Stones. No other performer in rock music has such enduring appeal on stage, as do the Rolling Stones. Their concerts are the very best concerts one could ever see, so they say.