On Galib, on his Birthday.

Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan was born on 27 December 1797.He is popularly known by his pen name 'Galib'. The title famous speech by J.N.Nehru upon Gandhi ji's death "The Light has gone out" was plagiarized from what Galib had written on the aftermath of revolt of 1857 about live in Delhi, by the same title, albeit in Urdu.
William Darymple in his book 'The last Mughal' states:

Ghalib was among those very few Muslims left in the city. A stroke of luck had protected the poet when so many of his friends and patrons were killed or driven out. For his muhalla, Ballimaran, contained the hakim and several senior courtiers of the loyalist Maharaja of Patiala, who had sent troops and supplies to the British on the Ridge, and who now arranged for guards to make sure that looters did not attack the street. Thanks to the Maharaja’s guards, Ghalib was one of the only citizens of Delhi to remain unmolested in his house, and almost the only member of the courtly elite to survive the fall of Delhi with his property, such as it was, intact. (Just to add to W.Darymple, Maharaja Patiala even asked Galib to move to Patiala,’ I would not because I am told youdo not get Old Joe whiskey there?’,  Galib had replied- SM)

Even so, it was a desperate time. Ghalib wrote in Dastanbuy of how he and his neighbours had shut the gate of the muhalla and piled stones against it so as to barricade themselves in as all around them ‘mass arrests, assassinations and slaughter’ imprisoned or killed scores of his friends. Meanwhile, within the barricades, Ghalib’s neighbours waited nervously, hoping their meagre stocks of food and water would last until peace returned. In his diary, the poet scribbled down his worries as to how he could survive when his city had been utterly destroyed around him: There is neither merchant nor buyer; there is no seller of wheat from whom we can buy flour, nor is there a washerman to whom we can give our soiled garments; there is no barber to trim hair, or sweeper to clean our floors. It was impossible for us to leave the lane for water or to get flour. Gradually, whatever provisions we had in our houses were consumed. Although we used the water with great care, not a single drop remained in cup or jar and we were hungry and thirsty throughout the days and nights. Beyond, mass slaughter was rampant, and the streets were filled with horrors … We are like prisoners: nobody comes to visit us and we receive no news. We cannot leave the lane so we are unable to see what is happening with our own eyes. Then one day clouds appeared and it rained. We tied up a sheet in our courtyard and placed our jars beneath it and in this way we collected water

… Still the two [adopted] children whom I have raised with such

indulgence ask me to give them fruit, milk and sweets, and I cannot satisfy their wishes …
Finally, on 5 October, three weeks after the British entered

through Kashmiri Gate, British troops climbed into the muhalla and hauled Ghalib off to Colonel Burn to be interrogated. Always a dapper man, Ghalib made sure he was wearing his best Turkish-style headdress for the interview. The Colonel looked at this strange fashion and asked in broken Urdu, ‘Well? You Muslim?’ ‘Half,’ said Ghalib. ‘What does that mean?’ asked the Colonel. ‘I drink wine,’ said Ghalib, ‘but I don’t eat pork.’ The Colonel laughed, and Ghalib then showed him the letter which he had received from the Minister for India [sic] in acknowledgement of the ode to Her Majesty the Queen which Ghalib has sent. The Colonel said, ‘After the victory of government forces why did you not present yourself at the Ridge?’ Ghalib replied, ‘My rank required that I should have four palanquin bearers, but all four of them ran away and left me, so I could not come.’
According to Ghalib’s own account of the meeting, he also added, ‘I am old and crippled and deaf, and as unfit to confer with as I am to fight. I do pray for your success, and have done all along; but I could do that from here.’ Colonel Burn let him go.

Munshi Ram Vij, aka, Swami Sharaddhanand

Sh. Munshi Ram Vij, aka, Swami Sharaddhanand was shot dead by one Abdul Rashid on 23rd December,1856. Inspired by 'Arya Samaj' founder 'Swami Dayanand Saraswati', he married off his children out of his cast. He also established girls schools and the 'Gurukul Kangdi' at Haridwar.

Swami Shradhhanand had made agree Kashmiris to mass convert back to Hinduism, but Kashmiri Pandits threatened to commit mass suicide, thus forcing the then Maharaja Gulab Singh to ask Swami ji not to go ahead with the re-conversion programme, But Swami ji continued his conversion-back-to-Hinduism (Ghar Vapsi) at all other places and reconverted over 100,000.00 (figures can not be confirmed) back to Hinduism. 


And for this, reconverting converted Hindus back into Hinduism, 
"..a misguided youth" shot him dead.

It was Swamiji, who had called Gandhi ji, 'Mahatma' first (and not Rabindranath Tagore). Sadly, when Abdul Rashid was sentenced to death for his crime, the very same ( Thankless towards Swamiji) Gandhi ji, in order to win over Muslim appreciation, pleaded for Abdul Rashid, stating that ..he is just a misguided youth and should be let free.
The same Gandhi ji refused to plead for clemency for Rajguru, Sukhdev & Bhaghat Singh, because 'he did not beleive in their violent ways..'.

Something sinister behind Teachers Day

It was 'Teachers Day' in India yesterday, coinciding with our Second President, Late Dr. S. Radhakrishnan's birth date in 1952(5th Sept.). Dr. Radhakrishanan earned his PhD in comparative religions,and then had a spiraling career in teaching in India and U.K. He was/is considered a scholar among the scholars on Hinduism, Vedanta, advaitism....., a prolific Author and an ardent follower as well.

It is unlikely that this scholar did not know that in Indic creeds, we have 'Guru Poornina', the day we pay our obeisance and offer our respects to our Teachers, then how could he allow His birthday to be floated as a parallel 'Teachers day'??

I tried to read and research on this and came to learn that '..After He became the President, some of his students wanted to celebrate his birthday, he refused and asked them to celebrate the day with all of their other teachers...'

The government of the day, quite well known for its antipathy for anything 'Hindu' (remember, Nehru even opposed renovation of Som Nath Temple, but had to succumb to K.M.Munshi and Sardar Patel juggernaut), must have seen this opportunity to confuse the country between Guru Poornima and Teachers day, and vociferously announce it as 'Teachers day'. Otherwise, if the Congress government was so devoted towards respecting Dr. Radhakrishanan, it would have pressed for 5th Sept as International Teachers Day, and not meekly accepted 5th Oct. as one in 1994, when it was established. Didn't the present ruling dispersion get the world to recognize 21st June as International Yog Day in 2015?

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk or Mustafa Kemal Pasha of Turkey was born on this date in 1881.

He was a fascinating character. He had courageously ended the once upon- the largest Sunni Muslim Empire in the world, the Ottoman Empire.

He turned the Islamic Imperialistic Turkey into a SECULAR country.

He evicted Turkish languish from the cusp of Arabic script and gave it a Roman script.

While demolishing those pillars, he also ensured that the Grand Mufti of Turkey was robed in no less regal robes than the Pope.

Mustafa Kemal (of Turkey),Habib Bourguiba (of Tunisia) are my secular heroes from Islamic world.

I am open to be asked any questions on this subject.

The sensitive Hindu weighing system,

magine taking into weight account, the floating specks/motes one sees in a ray of sunlight through a wire mesh?My weekend post of Beautiful India this week is about amazing system of weighing that has that speck/mote counted into its weighing system. A system which has existed in this subcontinent for thousands of year. Rishi Manu(ऋषि मनु), in his ‘Manu smriti’( मनु स्मृति ) describes: 
The very small mote which may be discerned in a sunbeam passing through a lattice is the first of quantities, and men call it ‘atrasarenu’(ात्रसारेणू ).

Eight of these ‘atrasarenus’ are supposed equal in weight to one minute poppy-seed ‘likhya’(लिख्या).

Three of those seeds are equal to one black mustard-seed ‘raja-sarshapa’(रज सर्षपा).

Three of these last to a white mustard seed ‘gaur-sarshapa’(गौर सर्षपा).


Six white mustard-seeds are equal to a middle sized barley-corn ‘yava’(यवा).

Three such barley-corns to one ‘ raktika’(रक्तिका) or ‘Ratti’(रत्ती) (The Bangladeshi currency gets its name ‘Taka’ from the corruption of this ‘Raktika’.

Five Raktika’/ ‘Ratti’ of gold are one ‘masha’(माशा). Hereafter, multiples of Ratti are used to measure further like sixteen such ‘mashas’ make one ‘suvarna’(सुवर्ण) measure….

Film 'Kesari' and reality of Battle of 'Saragharhi'.

There is no bigger damage done to a country, than tampering with its history. Something that has been done on INDUSTRIAL SCALE in India. The film’ Kesari’ is one such attempt. Among many myths it promotes is that 21 Sikhs defeated 8-10,000 Afghans. No doubt, those valorous, chivalrous brave heart 21 dominated and cast such a severe dread upon the attacking Afghans, that is was no less than a moral defeat. Utilising the advantage of height to their maximum, they held the attacking Afridi Pathans for long, but the fact is that those brave 21 from 36 Sikh Regiment, perished in the attack by Afghans, killing 180 of the Pathans.
The film shows Sikh Soldiers building a mosque. According to 'True Indology' “There is nothing "historical" about Sikh soldiers of Saragarhi campaign building a mosque. Such an event never happened. Sikh soldiers of Saragarhi campaign did not build any mosque. In fact, truth is quite the opposite. They actually destroyed mosques. Lieutenant-Colonel John Haughton was the commander of ‘36th Sikhs’ regiment which fought Saragarhi battle. He writes in his memoir that they destroyed mosque of Mulla Sayad Akbar in the adjoining Waran valley during the Saragarhi campaign.”
It further writes, “As usual, Bollywood promotes fake brand of secularism by manufacturing events that never happened. Of course, they are well within their creative rights to manufacture whatever serves them well. However, passing off fictional events as "history" is another thing altogether. Mulla Syad Akbar was not the only mosque destroyed during the Tirah-Saragarhi campaign of 1897-98. Mahdi's tomb and grave was also desecrated by the soldiers. This was a meeting place of Afridi Pathans where they had called for "Jihad" in 1897 and started the entire war/campaign…..”
"The Afridi pathans, against whom the Sikh Soldiers of British Army undertook the Saragarhi campaign, themselves started the Jihad by killing and expelling Hindus from Shankargarh village in their neighbourhood in August. It would be wrong to see the Pathans as "freedom fighters...."."
These pages are from ‘The Life of Lieutenant-Colonel John Haughton, the Hero of Tirah,a memoir’, who was the commandment of "36th Sikhs" regiment which fought Tirah campaign of 1897 (of which the Battle of Saragarhi was one of the battles). The memoirs have been Edited by Major AC Yate, (Second Duke of Connaught’s own Baluch Battalion), published in London in 1900.

There is no bigger damage done to a country, than tampering with its history. Something that has been done on INDUSTRIAL SCALE in India. The film’ Kesari’ is one such attempt. Among many myths it promotes is that 21 Sikhs defeated 8-10,000 Afghans. No doubt, those valorous, chivalrous brave heart 21 dominated and cast such a severe dread upon the attacking Afghans, that is was no less than a moral defeat. Utilising the advantage of height to their maximum, they held the attacking Afridi Pathans for long, but the fact is that those brave 21 from 36 Sikh Regiment, perished in the attack by Afghans, killing 180 of the Pathans.

The film shows Sikh Soldiers building a mosque. According to 'True Indology' “There is nothing "historical" about Sikh soldiers of Saragarhi campaign building a mosque. Such an event never happened. Sikh soldiers of Saragarhi campaign did not build any mosque. In fact, truth is quite the opposite. They actually destroyed mosques. Lieutenant-Colonel John Haughton was the commander of ‘36th Sikhs’ regiment which fought Saragarhi battle. He writes in his memoir that they destroyed mosque of Mulla Sayad Akbar in the adjoining Waran valley during the Saragarhi campaign.”
It further writes, “As usual, Bollywood promotes fake brand of secularism by manufacturing events that never happened. Of course, they are well within their creative rights to manufacture whatever serves them well. However, passing off fictional events as "history" is another thing altogether. Mulla Syad Akbar was not the only mosque destroyed during the Tirah-Saragarhi campaign of 1897-98. Mahdi's tomb and grave was also desecrated by the soldiers. This was a meeting place of Afridi Pathans where they had called for "Jihad" in 1897 and started the entire war/campaign…..”
"The Afridi pathans, against whom the Sikh Soldiers of British Army undertook the Saragarhi campaign, themselves started the Jihad by killing and expelling Hindus from Shankargarh village in their neighbourhood in August. It would be wrong to see the Pathans as "freedom fighters...."."
These pages are from ‘The Life of Lieutenant-Colonel John Haughton, the Hero of Tirah,a memoir’, who was the commandment of "36th Sikhs" regiment which fought Tirah campaign of 1897 (of which the Battle of Saragarhi was one of the battles). The memoirs have been Edited by Major AC Yate, (Second Duke of Connaught’s own Baluch Battalion), published in London in 1900.

There is no bigger damage done to a country, than tampering with its history. Something that has been done on INDUSTRIAL SCALE in India. The film’ Kesari’ is one such attempt. Among many myths it promotes is that 21 Sikhs defeated 8-10,000 Afghans. No doubt, those valorous, chivalrous brave heart 21 dominated and cast such a severe dread upon the attacking Afghans, that is was no less than a moral defeat. Utilising the advantage of height to their maximum, they held the attacking Afridi Pathans for long, but the fact is that those brave 21 from 36 Sikh Regiment, perished in the attack by Afghans, killing 180 of the Pathans.

The film shows Sikh Soldiers building a mosque. According to 'True Indology' “There is nothing "historical" about Sikh soldiers of Saragarhi campaign building a mosque. Such an event never happened. Sikh soldiers of Saragarhi campaign did not build any mosque. In fact, truth is quite the opposite. They actually destroyed mosques. Lieutenant-Colonel John Haughton was the commander of ‘36th Sikhs’ regiment which fought Saragarhi battle. He writes in his memoir that they destroyed mosque of Mulla Sayad Akbar in the adjoining Waran valley during the Saragarhi campaign.”
It further writes, “As usual, Bollywood promotes fake brand of secularism by manufacturing events that never happened. Of course, they are well within their creative rights to manufacture whatever serves them well. However, passing off fictional events as "history" is another thing altogether. Mulla Syad Akbar was not the only mosque destroyed during the Tirah-Saragarhi campaign of 1897-98. Mahdi's tomb and grave was also desecrated by the soldiers. This was a meeting place of Afridi Pathans where they had called for "Jihad" in 1897 and started the entire war/campaign…..”
"The Afridi pathans, against whom the Sikh Soldiers of British Army undertook the Saragarhi campaign, themselves started the Jihad by killing and expelling Hindus from Shankargarh village in their neighbourhood in August. It would be wrong to see the Pathans as "freedom fighters...."."
These pages are from ‘The Life of Lieutenant-Colonel John Haughton, the Hero of Tirah,a memoir’, who was the commandment of "36th Sikhs" regiment which fought Tirah campaign of 1897 (of which the Battle of Saragarhi was one of the battles). The memoirs have been Edited by Major AC Yate, (Second Duke of Connaught’s own Baluch Battalion), published in London in 1900.

Brahman Cattle

“Brahman Beef”. “Brahman Cattle”. Does it sound like a sarcastic taunt? Well I do not know about others but when a friend

used the term ‘Brahman Cattle’ a few days ago, I thought it to be a taunting expression. Yesterday, when I shared with her, the gesture of Mr. Modi to gift 200 cows to Rwandan villagers, she again used the term ‘Brahman Cattle’. And then it came out that it was not a taunt!

Brahman or the Zebu cattle of India, and has been selectively bred from mixing Indian strains of Kankrej, Ongole, Gir, Krishna and Gujarat cattle. The American Brahman was the first bred in the early 1900s from the varieties imported into the United States between 1854 and 1926. Paradoxically, the Brahman Breed, named after Brahmins who are vegetarians, has made a major impact on the U.S., Australian and other beef consuming markets.

While reading last night on this, I was not surprised to learn that India has the largest varieties of cows, than other country, but it did surprise me to know that there are just Two species of cows, Bos indicus (cattle of India) and Bos Taurus, the cattle species of Europe, and most of the sub species have been developed with Bos indicus and all these sub species of cows are generically called “Brahaman Cattle” or “Zebu Cattle”.