This was my third visit to Pondicherry. It’s French heritage, beautiful promenade, Lord Ganesha temple – all attract repeat visitors to this beautiful Union Territory. But it has great significance almost like a place of pilgrimage for the devotees who throng serene, peaceful and absolutely calm Sri Aurobindo Ashram. The samadhis of Sri Aurobindo and Mother ( as Mirra Alfassa is fondly addressed by her thousands of devotees) and the meditation room are a source of divine experience to thousands of devotees of this cult, if I may call this group so!

I really couldn’t connect to the devotion and divine experience of thousands of devotees during my previous visits for I found the place to be rather rigid with an imposed calmness. I saw certain bit of artificiality about the place. During my this visit two days ago, I decided to go a bit deeper into the lives of Sri Aurobindo and Mother and picked up a few books concerning their lives and philosophy. Mother, a child of Turkish- Egyptian descent, did not have a usual childhood. She started having divine experiences from very young age. When she was 3 years old, she would sit in meditation for hours, worrying her parents. At 11 she had experience concerning Krishna though till then she had no exposure to Hindu philosophy. She was of the firm view that she would meet him one day on the earth. She was married twice and had a son from her first marriage. She was exposed to Sri Aurobindo during her first visit to Pondicherry, India in 1914 along with her husband. Sri Aurobindo by that time had left his English academic background and civil services to seek truth by doing intensive research and study in his humble Ashram at Pondicherry, a place he had made his permanent abode. Mother had another opportunity to visit Pondicherry in 1920 and this time she was clear that she had met her mentor and Krishna in Sri Aurobindo and thereafter she never left Pondicherry for next 53 years till her death in 1973. During that period of 53 years, she attained sainthood with several divine experiences, which were not exclusive to her but to several sadhaks too who served Sri Aurobindo and Mother selflessly in search of truth. While Sri Aurobindo got more and more immersed in reading and writing, the Mother forged a close bond with hundreds of devotees who got attracted to her persona. The experiences that Mother had during the Second World War and that Sri Aurobindo had during the partition of the country ( he died soon thereafter in 1950) are the stuff folklores are made of and are gospel for the followers of the cult. Mother continued her work (Auroville, Schools, daily discourses, supramental experiments etc all of which make a fascinating read into the lives of two great people separated by thousands of mile geographically at birth but who co- created a philosophy that seems a bit too advanced for their times but has all the essence of something divine. The story of mother is especially awe inspiring given her complete dedication to Sri Aurobindo in whom he saw her Krishna. I intend to study more about their fascinating lives and am sure that whenever I visit Pondicherry next, it will focused around Mother and Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

Chennai, Madras of yore, has been one of the four original metropolitan cities of the country, though after the IT boom, Bengaluru(Bangalore of yore) seemed to have overtaken Chennai on certain growth parameters. However, Chennai continues to be original in many senses for North Indians like me for whom Madrasi (of Madras) will remain colloquial for everything South Indian – people, food, culture etc. Delhi was introduced to South Indian cuisine – Idli, Dosa, Vada etc. by Madras Hotel, which continued to tickle the taste buds of gastronomes till the early part of last decade before hanging boots! Most of the civil servants and senior government officials living in and around Lutyens Delhi were people from Tamilnadu. Grand Trunk Express between Madras and New Delhi was the sole connection between these two cities till host of other trains were introduced gradually. Swami Malai Temple, Delhi Tamil Sangam etc all had Tamilnadu /Madras connection.

An avid lover of South Indian food and admirer of South Indian simplicity, I was immensely excited during my first visit to Tamilnadu with my parents, with Madras being the hub. Madras had not become cosmopolitan in the sense we know perhaps Mumbai to be, but I was fascinated by the architecture, pure form of Hinduism, discipline, extremely cheap my favourite South Indian stuff – idli, vada, dosa, aromatic filter coffee, availability of hot cup of horlicks at neighbourhood restaurant etc. With each subsequent visit, the metamorphosis of the city is amply evident. While industrialisation has always been Tamilnadu’s strength, in new Chennai, one comes across IT hubs all over, swanky buildings with glass facades, international cuisine, fast food and new age local transport -Metro! In one of my earlier visits, I was advised to take local train from the city to get down at Trisulam station from where the airport was walkable. That railway line and station still exist, but I wonder whether any flier takes this option any more in a city, where traditional is beautifully married with modern!

In an earlier blog, I had highlighted the importance of potable water and that how this resource essential for the survival of Human Race would become scarcer and scarcer in the very near future! Yesterday, this proposition of mine was proven to be true by the Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) episode featuring Shri Rajendra Singh, rightly called the waterman of India! An ordinary man, trained to be an Ayurvedic Doctor, he got inspired first to practice in a remote village where he saw plight of villagers in that arid region due to lack of water. More than KBC the game show, yesterday’s episode was a revelation of how our traditional water resources and local rivers have dried up due to exploitation of underground water and how an ordinary man can change the scenario and in turn lives of locals through sheer determination and backbreaking efforts.

How he constructed the first Johar (a water holding pond that’s underneath a catchment area) with the help of the locals ( by exhorting the aged population as youngsters there had all migrated to nearby towns in search of livelihood and especially the ladies, who were real sufferers having had to travel miles daily to fetch water ) and revived a local river is the stuff folklore’s are made of! The story actually gave me goosebumps and inspiration to write this blog!

Open spaces and water bodies in our neighbourhood are all being encroached upon by avaricious builders in cahoots with the local administration and water mafia is running illegal boring wells to supply water. This is resulting in constant depletion of underground water table as there’s only extraction and no replenishment. Mumbai gets enough rain ( in a good year) to replenish its water sources in the form of lakes around it. But this water is not available or available adequately to meet the requirements or quench the thirst of millions living in unauthorised shanties or buildings, all relying on such supplies of underground water by mafia. Experiments with water harvesting and recycling have been few and far between!

Let’s wake up and take a pledge to treat the water as a resource more precious than our most precious possession or in next 20 years survival of the mankind is going to be endangered!

After celebrations reach a crescendo on Diwali day, everything seems to have come to a standstill. Some offices and geographies have an extended vacation and the offices that resume working the next day, like mine, virtually enjoy a disguised holiday with practically nothing happening. Of course, Diwali yet not ends for certain section of community- postman, chowkidar (security guards), house maids, servants, drivers, other helping hands who all are agog for their Diwali bakshish! Indeed, this spirit of real gifting to people who selflessly serve us throughout the year, making our lives easy, safe and comfortable is one of the finest aspects of this lovely festival.

The final leg of this festival period is Bhai Duj ( the second day after Diwali) celebrated as Tikka or Bhai Phota also all over the country. It’s a beautiful festival when sisters pray for the well being and prosperity of their brothers and brothers in turn reaffirm their love and affection for their sisters! For those not having real sister or brother, there is always extended family comprising cousins! Getting together on Bhai Duj and celebrating the festival in full spirit over sweets, special food and guffaws are the highlights of this very intimate and emotional festival.

By dedicating this blog to all the sisters, I finally end this series of blogs around Diwali and it’s festivity. May between this and next Diwali, all our problems, pains and miseries vanish into thin air so that we celebrate next Diwali again with same enthusiasm and zeal like we always do.

In school essays on Diwali, we attributed the cause of celebration to return of Lord Rama to Ayodhya after exile lasting 14 years. People lit up their homes with Diyas and distributed sweets amongst each other to rejoice the return of their favourite Rama.

Like everything else, we distorted the original rational for Diwali. Somewhere down the line, Festival of Lights became the festival of sound also with the advent of crackers. These crackers not only caused serious damage to our environment but also had ill effects of causing injuries, noise pollution and sheer waste of money. The simple sharing of homemade sweets gradually transformed into tradition of expensive gifting not always to celebrate Diwali’s spirit but to use the same as a tool for gratification of important people for achieving not too noble objectives. Other social malaise like gambling and drinking had absolutely no connection with the original spirit of Diwali.

Let’s light up our houses not because we learnt that while writing school essays but to obliterate darkness representing ignorance, taboo and other vices in our lives. Let’s distribute sweets not to diabetic overfed socialites but to poor, hungry and deprived street kids, who wait for Diwali to satisfy their cravings. Let’s gift essentials to the needy and not to fat cats to achieve some ulterior motive. Let’s sponsor a poor child’s education by the money saved on crackers. Let’s pray to Goddess Lakshmi not to give us wealth but to give us health to enjoy and properly utilise whatever wealth she has blessed us with.

May everyone have a happy, healthy and prosperous Diwali that spreads message of peace, brotherhood and unity !

One thing unique about Diwali is that it ensconces everyone into its festive spirit. No body remains untouched by its festivity.

As I mentioned in my last blog, the spirit of Diwali starts building up immediately with the onset of Navratri. Navratri culminates into Dussehra, which signifies victory of good over evil in the form of slaying of Ravana by Lord Rama. Similarly, Diwali celebrations start building up post Dussehra and while it peaks during the very day of festival, a day prior to that has its own significance earning it the colloquial name of Chhoti Diwali.

Chhoti Diwali is like warm up matches that precede start of a cricket test series. As the teams try to acclimatise themselves in the run up to full fledged series, Chhoti Diwali is similarly a trial run to the full fledged celebration the next day. All the activities to be performed on the next day are tested – candles, decorative lights, diyas are lit up to test the lighting effect, laddus, barfis, Gulab jamuns are tasted to test the gastronomic effect and crackers are fired to test the audio effect. It’s also the time for last moment finishing touches to house cleaning. All in all it’s the same excitement that one experiences when 6 runs are required to win in the last over with 9th and 10th batsmen batting – i.e. build up of the crescendo. To put it naughtily, the feeling is almost pre-orgasmic!

Diwali heralds return of Lord Rama to Ayodhya after 14 years in exile. When an important guest visits us, the activities to welcome this special guest have to start a day in advance! I hope the importance and excitement around Chhoti Diwali is now appreciated by all my readers.

When Diwali is around, there is festivity in the air and howsoever difficult may be the circumstances around one ( pollution, heat in Mumbai and untimely fog and snow in Delhi and Srinagar respectively, Ram Mandir, Sabarimala, RBI – Govt strife, China-Pakistan bonhomie, Trump’s tantrums, election bickering, Me Too and the list is endless), the spirit of Diwali overwhelms everyone making him or her forget everything else at least momentarily.

In our childhood, the festivities used to begin much ahead of Diwali. The preparations for Diwali actually used to begin from Dussehra onwards and the shops used to stock crackers generously patronised by children. Of course, Dhanteras was for all shopping and Chhoti Diwali, a day prior to the main day, was celebrated with the same zeal as the main festival. The fun would continue right till Bhai Duj.

I am inspired to write this blog by an article in newspaper yesterday on the tradition of home made sweets (faral in Maharashtra). The article lamented the fact that traditional sweets made of stuff like Atta, jaggery, sugar, maida, dry fruits etc, were no longer in vogue and that these have been substituted by ready made stuff like kaju katli and Sohan papri! The article further states that this homemade stuff would not perish for months and children joining their parents for Diwali vacations would take tin loads of these goodies back to their hostels to be savoured by them with their friends over next several days! I distinctly remember that one of the highlights of Diwali used to be homemade preparations by my grandmother. She would make excellent besan ki barfi (made of gram flour and sugar), guney (atta and jaggery) and delicious namkeen seviyan (crisply fried salty preparation made of gram flour). But the most sought after item was Chinjan da vada (fried vadas made out of maida dough dipped in sugar syrup). My mother tried this on couple of occasions at my request but the ones made by me grandma on Diwali were special and would remain so forever!

No one cared for fat or sugar and obesity or diabetes was unheard of. Diwali was for pure indulgence and nothing else mattered. For once, I exhort all my readers to try and keep the tradition alive by preparing at least one delicacy at home this Diwali. Even if the same is not possible, let’s light up our homes and indulge whole hog this Diwali without caring for Diabetes, weight gain, cholesterol or BP. Crackers, in any case, we have all agreed not to burn to make Diwali a clean and pollution free Diwali.

Diwali is not only about lights, crackers and sweets, it’s considered auspicious for almost everything. Businesses start s new bahi khata or accounts after Lakshmi Puja. There are Diwali gifts, vacations and bonuses to be had. A diamond merchant of Surat, who is known for gifting generously on Diwali gifted flats last year and Mercedes this year to his meritorious employees.

What has, however, really gladdened my heart is the decision by BEST to give Diwali Bonus of Rs.5500 to each one of its 40000 employees. This news is especially satisfying as it came on the heels of another story that BMC was planning to freeze all the bank accounts of BEST for non payment of dues of around Rs 500 crores by the transport corporation. It would have been extremely shameful had a cash rich but inefficient organisation stifled a cash strapped but highly dependable public utility corporation.

Having had the first hand experience of brazenly brash, indisciplined, road hogging and aggressive DTC drivers, my respect for BEST and its staff runs deep. They drive responsibly (largely) , halt at all designated stops, are considerate to old, infirm and pregnant and the conductors are hard working going from passenger to passenger for issuing travel tickets. Ticket examiners play their role efficiently and responsibly and double up as traffic wardens when there are traffic snarls at unmanned crossings. Fleet is good though I see more instances of break downs and washing of buses has been consigned to history. It has also not been able to manage its fleet of AC buses though its much smaller, younger and poorer cousin NMMT ( transport corporation of Navi Mumbai) is managing its fleet and affairs much better! But on the whole, they do remarkably well given Mumbai’s roads, it’s population density and number of vehicles per square meter of road. I am actually so enamoured by its past glory that I had earlier dedicated a blog to BEST and its once shining red fleet, including double deckers that was at one point of time comparable to London’s local bus fleet.

In strict commercial sense, bonus is paid out of profits. But when a corporation does not decide its fare structure, has no control over fuel prices, has to constantly struggle with funds to maintain and timely upgrade its fleet, its unreasonable to call such an organisation inefficient and punish its staff. If local trains can be subsided, there is no harm in subsidising the second lifeline of Mumbai instead of dwelling on funny ideas of privatising it, rationalising its fleet and above all freezing its bank accounts. Let’s restore the past glory of this fine corporation. Happy Diwali to all the BEST staff!

Yesterday PM Modi unveiled 183 meter high statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. This is the highest statue in the world dwarfing Statue of Liberty and Chinese statue of Budha! It’s indeed a matter of pride that after a long long time India has added a place of great interest to its repertoire, which will attract more international tourists.

While we can keep on debating whether India requires statues of Sardar Patel and Chhatrapati Shivaji at exorbitant cost or bullet train for that matter, it’s also true that these developments also serve a purpose! Statues of our national heroes inspire us to learn from their deeds, modern innovations such as bullet train bring us on par with most modern nations. Of course, every nation has to set its priorities right and we should not forget that Monsoon has again played truant this year and amongst other states, half of the Maharashtra has been declared to be draught affected. Between now and the next monsoon, it’s going to be one big daily struggle for millions of residents of these areas to walk miles to fetch a bucket of water. We shall see poor farmers committing suicides under duress!

In the above backdrop, the monies spent on statues and proposed bullet train appear to be not well utilised and case of misplaced priorities. What happened to the proposed National River Unification System, where water from all major rivers was to be pooled centrally for equitable distribution amongst various states! While Yamuna has become like a dirty mullah, what’s the outcome of all the money and efforts spent on cleaning Ganga? Karnataka and Tamilnadu continue to slug it out on Cauvery water sharing! Green energy initiatives, CNG, water harvesting, afforestation, population control- all remain jingoistic talks with very little action on the ground! It’s completely incomprehensible that when draught is staring the country in its face, food and potable water shortage is being foreseen, Kashmir is going from bad to worse, Naxals are raising their head again and Pakistan is making threatening overtures, the energies of this nation are being misdirected toward Ram Mandir, Statues, RBI- Govt. tension, Sabarimala and Rafale issues.

It’s clear that nobody is seized of or concerned about the real issues – they are looking at making quick political gains!

Bullet train will be good for India as it will take our nation into a select league of advanced nations that can boast of having bullet train! It will reduce distances, bring cities and people closer and would be a step in the field of technological feats of our nation. To this extent, my views are at variance with set of people viewing Government’s bullet train plans with circumspection.

However, today I came across heart wrenching news items that have brought me closer to the thought process of aforesaid Group of circumspect people. The first is death of 3 workers who died while cleaning sewer line in Dombivli. A deadly mix of filth and noxious gases from the untreated chemical discharge by certain plants in that area snatched three poor family breadwinners from their respective families. In which advanced country is the sewer cleaning process manual that risks the lives of such workers? The second news was about the death of a father -son duo of welders who died after falling down from a multi storey Versova building where they were fixing window grille.

Yesterday, we read about a volunteer enroute the proposed Shivaji statue site dying when the boat carrying the group capsized in Arabian Sea. The Amritsar train tragedy on Dussehra and the recent events of collapse of Majerhat and Andheri bridges in Kolkata and Mumbai respectively are fairly fresh in everyone’s memory.

When our fire brigade is ill equipped to fight infernos in sky rises, police is armed with redundant equipment, hospitals are in miserable condition, roads are God forsaken, public transport is crumbling, traffic situation is pitiable and all our airlines are bleeding white, bulletproof train indeed looks a luxury that India needs the least at this juncture. Mumbai needs flyovers, sea links, local transport, airport, good roads, slum clearance and basic cleanliness much much ahead of bullet train. Let’s build our metro and resume our white elephant Monorail first before even dreaming about bullet train!