Asia's greatest MEGAPLAY

Today we watched Asia's greatest, world's second largest, megaplay - जाणता राजा.
It is based on the life of the greatest Hindu warrior, leader, statesman and icon Shivaji Maharaj.
"Jaanata Raja" is being performed in Nagpur from 18th to 28th December this year.
It has a cast of about 300 artists. Only the key roles are fixed and artists for other roles are chosen from the local talent pool. The show is full of colours and the acts with horses and elephants receive an obvious thunder of applause.
But the most happening event is the coronation of Shivaji Maharaj.
The presentation, the sound effects, the fireworks - the entire ambiance takes you three centuries back and you tell yourself that this is how the real rAjyAbhiSheka must have taken place - this is how the world must have looked when the first Hindu simhAsana came to existence after centuries of Islamic invasion.

The play - as the title goes - is more about Shivaji the ruler, than Shivaji the warrior. Hence there is more emphasis on events like -

• a patil being punished for misbehaving with a widow
• hundis full of jewels found while constructing a fort, being deposited to the treasury by the workers - and their refusal to take prizes for this act
  
• Shivaji's letter to his officers on how an ideal administrator should behave with citizens
• Shivaji punishing his own maternal uncle for corruption
  
• Aurangzeb's speech before his courtsman why it is difficult to defeat Shivaji (because of his good administration and people's faith on him) ... etc

The well known battle-events of Pratapgadh (Afzalkhan defeated), Paawan Khind (Bajiprabhu Deshpande's martyrdom), Lal Killa (attack on Shaistekhan), Kondhana (Tanhaji's martyrdom) etc find relatively lesser share.

The day we went to watch the megaplay witnessed a turn-out of 19200 spectators. People from neighboring districts of Vidarbha and Madhya Pradesh had come to Nagpur to watch the show.
Many schools had organised free or discounted passes for their students.
One could find people who have watched the megaplay every time it visited Nagpur.
"Jaanata Raja" is more than a play for lakhs and lakhs of people here.


The megaplay is written by "Shivashahir" Babasaheb Purandare, who is a phenomenon in himself. If there is a single man who deserves the credit for taking Shivaji to every home in Maharashtra, it's him. He has been doing this one job tirelessly throughout his life (of 86 years now). That's what is called one man - one life - one mission.
Incidently yesterday (Dec 24) was his 86th birth annivarsary.
राजमान्य राजश्री शिवशाहिर श्रीयुत बळवंत मोरेश्वर तथा बाबासाहेब पुरंदरे यांना मानाचा मुजरा ...


Could the timing be more apt for recollecting the life and times of Shivaji Maharaj ?
The nation is yet to emerge from the shadows of nov-26 terror attacks..
If Shivaji cannot inspire us at such a moment, then who can ?

Note: The picture in this post is taken from "Flickr" (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2240/2219271152_3cc6265b7d.jpg?v=0)

Gita Jayanti

मार्गशीर्ष शुद्ध एकादशी (mArgaSIrSha Suddha ekAdaSI) was the day on which Lord Krishna told the bhagavad-gItA to Arjuna on the battlefields of Kurukshetra. The day is celebrated as गीता जयंती (gItA-jayantI) all over the world.
This year it falls on Dec-9.
I have been fortunate enough to have heard/read a little bit about gItA in last few years.
A good orator with some depth of understanding in gItA can possibly go on unfolding the beauty of this devine song for hours together, but some one of my stature should only quote some of the observations etc made by them.

1.
gItA holds the entire dharma (not to be confused with religion).
Its first sholka starts with ध dha:
धर्मक्षेत्रे कुरुक्षेत्रे समवेता युयुत्सवः । (1.1)

And the last one ends with म ma:
यत्र योगेश्वरः कृष्णो यत्र पर्थो धनुर्धरः ।
तत्र श्रीर्विजयो भूतिर्ध्रुवा नीतिर्मतिर्मम ॥ (18.78)

2.
It is a relatively very small text (only 700 shlokas-18 chapters), but has attracted many philosophers for many a thousand years, who keep on interpreting the text as it suits themselves - right from Adi Shankara to Mahatma Gandhi and beyond. Lokamanya Tilak interpreted it as the karmayoga, Gandhiji as the anAsakti-yoga. But the gItA herself is both and beyond the both.

3.
Today's engineers and enterprenuers are looking for the seeds of management in it.
While in Bengaluru, my friend's roommate was asking about it - she was told that gItA can teach her management. When I was asked, I said that I see the best way to manage your activities being told in a single shloka :
यत्करोषि यदश्नासि यज्जुहोसि ददासि यत् ।
यत्तपस्यसि कौन्तेय तत्कुरुष्व मदर्पणम् ॥ (9.27)
Meaning - Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer, and whatever austerities you perform - do that, O Son of Kunti, as offerings to me !

What better motivation for doing each of your tasks in the best possible manner, than that of offering it to the Almighty ?

4.
Is gItA the best book on psychology/psychotherapy ?
Of course yes.
These two shlokas summarize the very chain of how one loses his/her own mental health:
ध्यायतो विषयान्पुंसः सङ्गस्तेषूपजायते ।
सन्ङ्गात्संजायते काम: कामात्क्रोधोऽभिजायते ॥
क्रोधाद्भवति संमोह: संमोहात्स्मृतिविभ्रम: ।
स्मृतिभ्रंशाद्बुद्धिनाशो बुद्धिनाशात्प्रणश्यति ॥ 2.62-63
Meaning - While concentrating on the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment desire develops, and from that (due to non-fulfilment) anger arises. From anger arises complete delusion, and from that, bewilderement of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost. And losing intelligence, one perishes.

5.
And psychotherapy?
Again, yes.
gItA starts with Arjuna in a state of a shock - limbs quivering and mouth drying up. (सीदन्ति मम गात्राणि मुखं च परिशुष्यति । - 1.28)
And ends with him stating that "I am now firm and free from doubt and am prepared to act according to Your instructions" (स्थितोऽस्मि गतसन्देह: करिष्ये वचनं तव ॥ - 18.73)

But this change is not easy to bring. At times Krishna shows him the carrot - you shall reach heaven if you die or else rule the earth if you win (हतो वा प्राप्स्यसि स्वर्गं जित्वा वा भोक्ष्यसे महीम् । - 2.37). And at other times the stick - by showing the Vishwaroopa, looking at which Arjuna says he is disturbed with fear (भयेन च प्रव्यथितं मनो मे । - 11.45)
At times Krishna discusses the eternity of the AtmA to dissuade Arjuna from the concept of killing and sin of killing (नैनं छिन्दन्ति शस्त्राणि नैनं दहति पावकः - 2.23).
At other times he simply tells him as a friend to 'be a man and fight' (क्लैब्यं मा स्म गमः - 2.3)

Most interesting is his reaction after Arjuna is convinced and is ready for the war.
After telling entire gItA, Krishna says - deliberate on this fully, and then do what you wish to do (विमृश्यैतदशेषेण यथेच्छसि तथा कुरु ॥ - 18.63)
Is this not the best way of motivating someone ?
Instead of simply ordering him to do what he should, Krishna increased Arjuna's level of understanding, removed any doubts he had, and then asked him to behave according to his conscience.

...
Thus, gItA is like the holy river of Ganga. How much of its water one carries back home depends on the capacity of the container s/he carries ...

Paying homages to Dr. Ambedkar

December 6 is the death anniversary of Bharata Ratna Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, the main architect of our constitution.
He had to face a very hard childhood due to one of the most sinful practice of those days - untouchability. Still, he worked hard to acquire best possible education (he was awarded PhD by Columbia University in 1927), and more importantly, used it for the upliftment of the deprived and the poor.
Looking at the hurdles he overcame to complete his education makes me feel ashamed if I crib about not getting some small facilities which I think I "deserve".
He was a true nationalist leader, and led the masses through peaceful agitations like Mahad satyagraha.
He was the finance minister of the first cabinet of Independent India.
He lived in a palace-like bunglow during his last years.
But his own stay used to be in a small room towards the end of the palace. Explaining this, he used to say, the glamour of the palace is to emphasise on my brothers that even an untouchable like them can achieve all this wealth by acquiring education; but my heart has no peace in this wealth. It is satisfied in the Baba's kuti. [Ref. Deepastambha (Marathi), Prof. Shivajirao Bhosale]

Let's pay homage to this great soul who showed a path of education and equality to the nation.

Amarnath Andolan : An Inspiring movement

Shri Amarnath Yatra is one of the most sacred pilgrimages of the Hindus.
The yatra to the cave temple, situated at an altitude of 3,888 m in the Himalayas, housing a mysterious ice-linga, has a history of many a centuries[1].
The route is open only four moths in a year and the peak time is June to August. Prior registration is required with the authorities, keeping in view the hardships the route demands [2]. Still, about 400,000 pilgrims go on the 45-day yatra for the darshan of Bholenath, paying entirely for the pilgrimage from their own pockets [3], unlike the government subsidized Haj yatra [4].

Background:
The climatic conditions are quite hostile and there was a growing demand that the J&K state government should take more initiative to provide facilities to the pilgrims. In 2002, J&K assembly okayed the constitution of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB).
The governor of J&K is the de-facto chairman of the Board.

Some land near Baltal in the valley was being used for temparory arrangements of the pilgrims every year. It would take a few weeks, prior to the commencement of the yatra, to set up the facilities (shelter, arrangements for food, water and toilets etc) and equal duration to dessemble the temparoty structures after the yatra. Thus, in effect, the land was being occupied for about 4 months every year, and the cost of assembling-dessembling the "temparory" structures was being incurred.
The SASB then asked the government why not to have some permanant arrangements for the pilgrims? And after a series of dialogs and discussions (usual sarkari way of doing things), the state government of the Congress-PDP alliance, decided on May 26, 2008 that the to transfer 100 acres (0.40 km²) of forest land to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) out of the total land area of 15,520.3 km² (5,992.4 sq mi) in the main Kashmir valley to set up temporary shelters and facilities for the Hindu pilgrims.

Let me remind you here that the PDP led by Mufti Mohammad Syed, which later withdrew from the government, leading to its fall, had several cabinet ministers who were part of the decision making process.

Mufti Dances to Jihadis' tunes:
But they switched sides at the first hints of the jihadi separatists from the valley protesting the land transfer.
The protest was based on illogical arguments of "changing the demography of the valley" (this coming from a community which is responsible for throwing 350,000 Kashmiri Pandits out of their homes!!) and
"ecological imbalance" (allegedly arising from occupying 0.01% of the total land mass!!) [5].

These protests were not peaceful at all, and pelting stones at our Army and burning our national flag and chantings of "Pakistan Zindabad" soon became common on Kashmir streets.

PDP, fearing loss of votes, withdrew from the government.
The Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who has been a Union minster more than once and AICC general secretary 9 times [6] - a national level leader, I mean - chose to bow to the separatists' pressure rather than stick to the nationalist decision his cabinet had taken, and revoked the order of transferring the land to the SASB (July 1, 2008). Interestingly, SASB members, the custodians of the Yatra and all the arrangements, were not even consulted, which actually was a legal requirement.

Hindus react:
This understandably resulted in dissatisfaction among the Hindu pilgrims and peaceful protests started all over India.
The Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti (AYSS), Jammu led the protests.

On one hand, one is ashamed at the fact that Hindus have to resort to a 61-day protest to get 0.40 sq.km of land for arrangements at a pilgrimage, but on the other, there is a feeling of self-confidence that Hindus won't take it lying down any more. This is the greatest message of this Andolan.

Initially, the agitation started with usual things like marching to and registering protests at the collector-offices, conducting awareness rallies, getting people involved, etc.
But there was no sign of any consideration from the government, and the need was felt that the pitch needs to be raised so that the Hindu voice falls on the deaf government's ears. A call for Bharat-Bandh on July 3 was given, and the whole nation came to a stand-still.
The movement on the Jammu-Srinagar highway was also affected and separatists and the media suddenly started declaring that Jammu has resorted to "economic blockade" of the Kashmir valley. Media went on showing the long queues of trucks laden with goods along the highway, which was a result of a few hours of rasta-roko and eventually got cleared up within hours.

Muslims support the Hindu cause:
Meanwhile, various Muslim organisations like the Muslim Front, Jammu Kashmir Muslim Federation and Gujjar and Bakkarwal Muslim groups, extended full support to the AYSS, as their bread and butter depends on tourism, and the yatra being one of the biggest source of income for them [7].

The first Balidaan:
The movement was in its ninth day. Seeing that there was no positive outcome, one Shri Kuldeep Dogra came to the venue, recited a poem there, and in his three minutes address said –"This movement now needs sacrifice and I shall sacrifice my life."
Saying this he sat down and immediately fell down with a bang.
Seeing froth coming out of his mouth, it was revealed that he had taken 'sulfaz' and before he could be admitted in the hospital, he had already become a martyr on the way [8].

The situation became tense. Army was deployed in Jammu.
Still, the agitation continued.
People would come out in thousands, carrying the tricolor and shouting "Bam-Bam Bhole", "Bharat Mata Ki Jay".
Army men would say, "how can we fire at those carrying the tricolor?"

The government called an all-party meeting to resolve the issue - some signs of hopes.
But the PDP chose to stay away, and the agitation continued.

The terrorists tried their usual ways to deter the movement [9], but to no success. Hindus were determined to fight for Bholenath's land.

Meanwhile, in the valley:
Separatists continued the "Jammu forcing economic blockade of Kashmir" rumor, even though the government clarified that the supply to the valley is normal [10].
A group of fruit-growers, led by the separatists, declared that they will cross the LoC to trade their goods in Muzaffarabad, PoK.
They were shouting 'Kashmir ki mandi - Rawalpindi', 'Seb toh sirf bahana hain, Rawalpindi jaana hain' .
They marched towards the LoC on August 11, and the police had to open fire, in which Sheikh Abdul Aziz, a leader of All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) was killed [11].
This angered the mob, which was apparently not expecting the Indian law enforcement agencies to stop them from crossing the LoC leading to an international problem, and more violence started in the valley. Police and army were attacked and India and its symbols abused, and Pakistan and its symbols hailed [12].
Our secular government wanted the Pakistanis breeding on our soil to be a part of the peace process, and their leaders were openly and shamelessly asking 'Why object to Islamic rule in Kashmir?' [13].

A curfew was imposed all over the J&K [14].
But the brave people of Jammu found out ways to register their protests in spite of the curfew.
They would spend the day in their homes, "guarded" by the army, and come out at the evenings. It would appear that everyone is taking an evening stroll. But everyone would walk to a pre-decided spot, usually the nearest chauraha, shout slogans, set an effigy on fire, and before any army/police-man is able to reach the spot, everyone would be back in home, the protest registered !

The independece day:
The pictures speak for themselves [15]:

In Kashmir

In Jammu

The Jail-Bharo Andolan:
A massive Jail-Bharo andolan was carried out throughout the nation, from 12th to 21st of August. A liberty was given to all the provinces to decide upon their convenient dates during this period and register protests by courting arrests.
If we take a look at the figures of Jammu itself, we can gauge the uniqueness of this movement.
Jammu has a population of 56 lakhs of which 16 lakhs are Muslims. From the rest of the Hindu society 2 lakh 21 thousand men came on foot and voluntarily courted arrest.
On the 19th, 1 lakh 74 thousand women came out of their homes and got arrested.
When asked for their names, every one of them replied 'Parvati', husband's name? – 'Shiva', address? – Baltal, Kashmir.
Perhaps this was the biggest turn up of our 'matri-shakti' in the history of world.
The third day was for the children.
1 lakh 12 thousand children between the age of 5 to 15 years courted arrest.
No mother or grand-mother expressed any concern about what will happen to the children in case of any stampede.
None of the children thought what would happen to their future career.
In the jail when asked for the name, the reply was 'Ganapati', mother's name? –'Parvati', father's name? –'Shiva', residence? – Baltal, Kashmir.
(Apart from Jammu, some 5.25 lakh people offered themselves to get arrested at 6120 places.The highlight was men of high status who generally do not come out of their homes also participated in support of this movement.) [16]


The governments of India and J&K state should actually have taken this opportunity to push a nationalist movement in the troubled state and utilize it to demolish all the separatist voices in the valley.
But the leaders, not able to rise above the appeasement politics and vote-bank strategies, failed the nation once again.

The Victory:
After witnessing this roudra-roop of Hindu-samaj, the government understood the gravity of the situation, and the depth at which the Hindu-sentiment is associated with the issue.
It took up the dialogue with the AYSS, and the two parties came to an agreement [17].
The government agreed that "certain decisions of the state government relating to the Yatra created misunderstandings which led to controversy and agitation and loss of many precious live".
The government also agreed that "The Board shall use the aforesaid land for the duration of the Yatra (including the period of making the required arrangements and winding up of the same) for the purpose of user by various service providers according to its needs and priorities.The aforesaid land shall be used according to the Board's requirements, from time to time", meeting the Samiti's original and only demand.

With this, the Samiti withdrew the agitation, and the 61-day struggle ended with the victory.

Thus, the Hindus steered one of the most important movements in the history of independent India through the troubled waters of separatist-pressure, minority-favoring leaders, international-pressures and even terrorist attacks.

The story of this movement will be written with golden letters in the history.

This youtube video is a nice summary of the sangharsh by the samiti:
Shri Amarnath Movement 4 - Tandava.

Time has come for the awakened Hindu Society to take inspiration from this movement, and to shed its image of being docile, always prone to be bullied and attacked by others.
We never go to attack anybody but if anybody attacks, in self-defense we should never hesitate to resist.

Bam-Bam-Bhole !!
Bharat Mata Ki Jay !!

References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarnath_temple
2. http://www.amarnathyatra.org
3. http://www.liveindia.com/amarnath/form.html
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_civil_code#Subsidies
5. http://www.blogs.ivarta.com/india-usa-blog-column149.htm
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghulam_Nabi_Azad
7. http://specials.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/27sld3.htm
8. http://kashmirblogs.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/suicide-by-a-patrioticand-his-last-peomamarnath-issue/
9. http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/jul/02jk.htm?zcc=rl
10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarnath_land_transfer_controversy#Government_position
11. http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/11jk.htm
12. http://specials.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/19slid1.htm
13. http://specials.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/25sd1.htm
14. http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/11jk3.htm
15. http://jammuburning.wordpress.com/tag/15th-august-in-kashmir/
16. RSS Sarsanghachalak K S Sudarshan's address (Vijayadashami, Nagpur 5-oct-08)
17. http://rediff.co.in/news/2008/aug/31amar2.htm

The simple Mahatma

"Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth". [Ref1]

That's what the last century's most celebrated scientist said about the century's simplest person, who gave a simple solution to all the problems - Mahatma Gandhi.

The world is celebrating his 139th birth anniversary today.

I think Gandhiji was a modern-day ऋषी.
ऋषीs aren't the bearded old hermits, they were the ones who created the Vedas.
They wrote the ऋचा. So they are called ऋषी.ऋचा is the smallest unit of ऋग्वेद. [Wiki]
They gave us all the knowledge (Veda means knowledge).

Over the period of time, we started forgetting it.
Then the modern ऋषीs came and re-established the values in the society.

Gandhiji, aptly called महात्मा (the great soul), re-established the two most sacred and most forgotten values in the Kaliyug - सत्य and अहिंसा (truth and non-violence).

One initially thinks that the Mahatma and his ways are cowardly.
But if you really try to follow what he told, you will see that it needs the topmost level of inner strength to follow सत्य and अहिंसा the way the Mahatma did.

Of course like every other mortal, the Mahatma had some faults.
And I also believe that the nation at large is today suffering because of some of the decisions he took decades ago.
But, I nevertheless maintain that had everyone of us followed the Mahatma's words in our daily and personal lives, things would have been much better.
Even now I think that if we make it a point to save ourselves (individually) from the Seven Social Sins, we shall have very less to complain about.
Some of my old friends reading this will be surprised today.
I have not been a pro-Gandhi person until recently.
I used to think the same way most of the Indian youth does.Reading the Seven Social Sins changed it.
Amongst them, the second one : Wealth Without Work
The nation was historically known for श्रम - hardwork.
The majority of the populace was dependent on agriculture and related vocations.
Some other classes of the society were responsible for education and governance.
No one would sit and eat.
Everyone was working hard to earn his bread and butter, and still the country as a whole, was prosperous.
Britishers changed it all.
Their way of education has created a mentality that doing physical work is subordinate to clerical type of jobs.
There is such a massive flow of population from villages to cities - just for "easy money".
Gandhiji's Bharat is the Bharat of villages. [Look : Gram Swaraj]
If we want that Bharat, we need to understand and stay clear of this social sin.

The third social sin: Pleasure without Conscience, is leading the entire world towards the path of self-destruction today.
Some older ऋषी said in the ईशावास्योपनिषद (Ishavasyopanishad):

ईशावास्यमिदं सर्वं यत्किं च जगत्यां जगत् ।
तेन त्यक्तेन भुञ्जीथा मा गृध कस्य स्विद् धनम् ॥

Meaning: All these is God's abode whatever place is there in this universe; Enjoy it with detached mind and do not be greedy.
And this ऋषी said : "The earth provides for everyone's need not everyone's greed "

Just like the old ऋषी s the Mahatma has given so many things to us.
We are now left with decoding it, trying to put them in today's perspective and enjoying the happiness from following them.

May we get the strength he had to stand up at every occasion in his life for सत्य and अहिंसा.

Marathi Manus in Danger - A propaganda

I recently got a Power-Point Presentation describing how there are virtually no Marathi people in the top bodies of central as well as state governments.

I have converted it to pdf and am uploading it here.

There is some Marathi text in the document, and for the benefit of those who don't understand Marathi, all of that is roughly translated to : "Maharashtrians are systematically kept away from Important Positions... There is no Maharashtrian in any decision making positions…etc. etc"

I don't object to the data given in the document : it is true that there aren't many IAS/IPS officers from Maharashtra.
But I cannot and will not accept that this is because there is some League of North-Indians who are conspiring to keep Marathi Manus out of the top-jobs.

Page-18 of the document throws up a series of comments/questions like this one:
Why Indian governers have to be Reddy and Raanganathan?
I think almost all the states have been getting non-resident governors (at least) since last few years.
Here is a complete list of CMs and governors of Indian states.
Just a random look at it tells us that

• In the north:
• Chandigarh has a South-Indian Governor : Shri E.S.L. Narasimhan (South)
  
• Bihar - Shri R S Gavai (Marathi)
• Himachal Pradesh - Shri Justice Vishnu Sadashiv Kokje (Retd.) (Marathi)
  
• Rajasthan had a Maharashtrian Governor : Smt. Pratibhatai Patil, who is now the President
  
• In the south:
• Karnataka - Shri Rameshwar Thakur (north)
• Andhra Pradesh had a Maharashtrian Governor : Shri. Sushil Kumar Shinde, who is now a Union Minister
  
• In the east:
• Nagaland - Shri K. Sankaranarayan (South-Indian)
• Orissa - Shri Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare (Marathi)
  
• In the west:
• Maharashtra & Goa - Shri S.C. Jamir (North-East) - note he is not reddy or ranganathan
  
• Gujarat - Shri Naval Kishore Sharma

Then there is this thing about Not having any Maharashtrian in decision making posts.
I think the answer lies in the fact that an average educated Marathi youth is not so enthusiastic about preparing for IAS as much as he is about preparing for GRE/Toefel.
Bihar is producing maximum number of IAS officers in the country. So they will have people in key-posts.

Maharashtrians have had a good representation in other few departments, though.
Please have a look at this list.
Of course there are many more names to be added to it - Vikram Pandit (CEO citibank group) is immediately coming to my mind.
...

Well, what really bothers me is the statement : Maarthi people must unite and fight against this injustice!!!
Maharashtra is considered as one of the progressive states.
Marathi Manus is considered honest, faithful, well-cultured, and in general well-off.
If such people decide to fight then what will those states who really have a life-and-death situation at their hands do?
Prosperous states like Maharashtra must stand up and help the other weaker states.
Is anyone aware of the ground realities in J&K or the north-east?
The total no. of engineering colleges in J&K is 8, whereas the list of engineering colleges in MH runs for 8 pages.
Thousands of students from these states come to the other parts of our country for better education, better infrastructure, better life.
What will they do if we start "fighting against the injustice"?

And what is bothering me even further is Page-19: photos of Chhatrapati Shivaji, Lokmanya Tilak, Mahatma Phule, Dr. Ambedkar and Rajguru, and lines underneath asking whether the sacrifice they made was for Delhi? (ie. for the benefit of North Indians?)
It really pains when propagandists use revered figures like these to try prove their point.
They are actually diminishing the stature of these truly national figures.
They are restricting these great people to Maharashtra,
Let me remind those who are creating such documents that Shivaji did not fight for a piece of land in Western Maharashtra, he fought for the principles of freedom.
Lokmanya Tilak was not a leader of Maharashtra, he was the Father of Indian Unrest.
Phule and Ambedkar fought against the discrimination in the name of humanity, not regionalism.
And Rajguru kissed the noose in Lahore, miles away from Maharashtra, but a part of India, his motherland.
...

In the end, I just want to mention that, there will be a few who might have had not-so-good experience at the hands of some riksha/sabji-walla-"bhaiyya" in Mumbai/Pune and may not totally agree with me.
But please have a look at Page-21 of the document, saying नाहीतर स्वतंत्र महाराष्ट्र देश तयार करावा लागेल !!!
(otherwise a separate country "Maharashtra" will have to be created)
This clearly is the height of madness and any amount of support to this propaganda will mean a support to such a horrible idea.
So I request all of you not to support this in any form.

...
Finally, it is not a Raj (as in secret - pun intended) who is behind this propaganda, and I sincerely hope that this madness will fade away soon. Those notorious politicians behind this don't really have any constructive agenda, and hence are behind this propaganda.
BTW, I am a Marathi Manus myself, and wouldn't mind supporting the demand for signboards in Marathi, but I have a doubt: If I paint my shop's signboard "Delhi Durbar" in Hindi: "दिल्ली दरबार", can it be distinguished from the Marathi "दिल्ली दरबार" , given that the script is same ?

I also believe that

1. Maharashtrians from other parts of the state are equally responsible for crowding of Mumbai as is any North/South Indian.
2. Identifying and deporting illegal migrants from Bangladesh/Pakistan should take a much higher priority. And young, energetic politicians should utilize their time and energy in issues like these than regional-rhetoric.

गणेशोत्सव : The Festival of Lord Ganesha

Ganeshotsava is the biggest festival celebrated in Maharashtra today.
It is a 10-day long festival in which the entire Hindu society is swept by the wave of bhakti towards their beloved god - Ganesha, the god of wisdom, the god who rescues you from troubles (विघ्नहर्ता- vighnaharta), the god who bestows happiness on you (सुखकर्ता - sukhakarta)

The festival starting today, the fourth day of new moon of the sixth month of Hindu lunar calendar (भाद्रपद शुद्ध चतुर्थी - bhadrapada shuddha chaturthi) assumed this form since 1893, when Lokamanya Tilak made a revolution by transforming this private Hindu festival into a public national festival.

The religion part of Hindu Dharma has always been a personal affair - restricted to the devotee and the divine. But the need of the hour was that the whole populace come together to fight the Britishers. How was this to be achieved in a country like India, where people are so religious ? "Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav" and "Shivajayanti" was Tilakji's answer. This was probably the first attempt to organize the Hindus in the modern history.


Today, Ganeshotsava is known as the festival of Maharashtra, but is celebrated all over the world. May be the fact that Ganesha has been worshiped beyond India since long, has helped this festival become global.

The Ganeshotsava is a huge economic system in itself.
Thousands of craftsmen, electricians, carpenters, sound-system-wallas, and many other daily-wage workers consider this festival as their harvesting time of the year. In the short span of 15-20 days, they earn equivalent of what they would during 3-4 months of regular work.
Ganesha comes as the god of prosperity for them.
This also tells us how religion is related to a common man's life - not only in a spiritual manner, but also in a materialistic one.


Well, there's actually a lot one can say about Ganeshotsava, but this much, I guess, is enough for now.
So may the god of wisdom bless you.
Let's take a look at the symbolism in the idol of Ganesha before we depart: