500 years since Panipat

 Today (April 21st, 1526) marks exactly 500 years since the first Battle of Panipat fought between Babur who went on to establish the Mughal empire in India and the Afghan king Ibrahim Lodi of Delhi. This engagement had a profound impact on the history of the Indian sub continent and Islamicate Asia.

Marching from Kabul in late 1525, Babur reached Panipat with around 10,000 men, vastly outnumbered by Lodi’s forces in 1 to 10 ratio. Yet numbers matter little against innovation and discipline. Babur introduced field tactics unfamiliar to India which included fortified wagon-lines, trenches and coordinated use of artillery. Using Ottoman inspired “Rumi” method, he anchored his army defensively while forcing the enemy into a narrow front. Babur then unleashed the Tulughma tactic, a fast moving cavalry sweeping around the flanks, encircling & raining arrows on the compressed enemy.

The result was decisive. The war which began at dawn on a hot day in the dusty fields of Panipat in modern day Haryana 100 years ago lasted until noon. Ibrahim Lodi was killed, his army shattered and Delhi fell soon after. The victory laid the foundation of the Mughal Empire, shaping the political and cultural trajectory of South Asia for centuries.

But the resistance to Babur didn't end there.
He had to face Rana Sanga, the King of Mewar in modern day Rajasthan who was a much more formidable rival compared to the Afghans under Lodhi. More importantly Rana Sanga did something unthinkable in Hindustan at that time. He united various Rajput Chieftains, who were known for their internal squabbling under one umbrella. The United front concerned Babur as he had heard valiant stories of bravery about Rajputs to consider themselves as descendants of Huns and an united army of Rajputs would be of dangerous proposition.

Both the armies of Babur and Rana Sanga faced off each other at Khanwa in eastern Rajasthan. One evening when ventured out of his camping Babur saw in the horizon smoke emanating from various places on Rana Sanga's side. Unfamiliar with Indian culture, he enquired why smoke was coming from so many places. He was told that the enemy's army consists of several groups based on their caste who won't eat together and have their separate units of cooking. That's why we can see so many places of smoke oozing. The Mughal King was bit puzzled by this.

Babur's army were already tired and scared of the fierceness and the greater number of Rajputs. With fledgling moral the forces from Central Asia who hated the heat and dust of India were reluctant to fight any further, wanting to go back home with their loot. But Babur managed to convince them to carry on by giving a religious color of "Jihaad" (Islamic Holy war) to fight against the infidel Hindus.

After a long, hard fought war, Rana Sanga lost the battle of Khanwa primarily due to the use of gunpowder technology which his adversary learnt from his maternal side of ancestry from China, the country credited to have invented gun powder, a game changer in the warfare for years to come. Rana Sanga's soldiers as usual went for a frontal assault for which the Rajputs are known. That was a fatal tactics to have against a battle hardened army known for its innovation, modern approach to war those days. Though brave and gritty, the Rajputs with their frontal assault attack plan were cannon fodder for Babur's blazing cannon.

Rana Sanga was injured by bullet and died shortly after. Thus ended the final resistance to Babur whose descendants continued to rule Hindustan for centuries to come. It was followed by British who like their predecessor too hated the heat and dust of the Indian subcontinent, ruled the country for couple more centuries to come. 500 years since the day Babur won the first Battle of Panipat, India has witnessed several turning points in history and possibly more to come. In millions of years its existence, the last 500 years is arguably the most memorable time in our history.

Hitler's birthday

 Today, April 20, is Adolph Hitler's 137th birthday. Love him or hate him, you cannot deny his place in history. No doubt he was a monster who caused death to millions. His role in the Jewish Holocaust was ghastly. He too was solely responsible for World War II which no doubt was Hitler's War, something he desired, something he could have avoided.

Our Hindu God Sri Krishna famously said to a recalcitrant Duryodhan in the famous epic MAHABHARAT teleseries of B.R. Chopra shown on TV during our childhood days - "SHANTI KA KOI BIKALP NAHI HAI (There is no alternative to peace). But like Duryodhan, Hitler didn't choose peace as an option and went for an all out war. Yet there is always something to learn from history and we cannot deny the place of German's Fuehrer in it.

The other day I saw one of Hitler's speeches on the History channel. He was no doubt a powerful orator and a popular demagogue, from the way he was driving his German audience crazy and berserk, responding hysterically to his histrionics and forming a set of blind Nazi Bhakts (devotees). Unfortunately that's the go of the world. When one speaks sensible things few listen, but one can drive people crazy by talking illogical and outrightly insane stuff. Hitler and demagogues like him (some very much exist in today's society) are known to be able to cast enchanting spells on humans who are inherently gullible and prone to be influenced by those who can promise to turn their aspirations and inferiority complex into reality by creating an illusion of progress. Often they successfully pick up a minority community as their bete noire whipping boys.

The British, co-towed by France sowed the seeds of the Second World War by humiliating the Germans with their absurd terms in the "Treaty of Versailles" at the end of World War I. America who until then kept aloof from global events, warned about the consequences of humiliating a proud German race, but the arrogant, cunning and conniving British had their way.

In the World War I which ended little more than a century ago, a diminutive German soldier who was poked fun at his funny moustache and short height by his strapping 6 feeter military mates sleeping inside his camp, suddenly had this strange urge to go outside. He duly followed his instinct and moments later a bomb wiped out the all the German soldiers sleeping inside where he was just moments ago. The rest is history - as this tiny man was no other than Adolf Hitler who survived that day to rewrite history by adding an important chapter to it.

World War II was Hitler's war. He started it and was on a roll with his blitzkrieg pulverizing his opponents in mainland Europe as he attacked one nation after another. Eventually he got carried away, attacking all, going for a multi front war and lost it. Had he not made the cardinal miscalculation of attacking Russia and America didn't interfere in World War II because of Japanese mistake of awaking a sleeping giant, today in all probability we would be speaking German and forced to buy their product.

It also reminds me the role destiny plays altering the courses of history. In 1556 during the 2nd battle of Panipat, Bairam Khan's hapless Mogul army were about to be slaughtered by the rampaging elephants and undefeated Army of the Hindu King Hemu when a stray arrow hit him in the eye, rendering him unconscious and causing his army to flee. Hemu was captured and beheaded. India's history could have been different with Hemu as the next Hindu King after Prithviraj Chauhan (in fact Hemu ruled Delhi for only 40 days before the fateful 2nd battle of Panipat ended his short tenure on Delhi throne).

Around 1750, Robert Clive, a frustrated Clerk in the British East India Company who pretty much failed in his life in his native England and arrived in India to try his luck, recovered from a bout of Malaria in hot and muggy Madras faraway from his home of salubrious English weather. Dejected, he tried to commit suicide by pressing his gun to his head and clicked the trigger only to be surprised that he failed again. After this incident he never looked back, had a meteoric rise, went on to establish the British empire in India.

History has its own turning points determining the destiny of the mankind and the time to follow. America was most benefited by the two world wars which catapulted it into a Superpower status. Not only the War helped US economy boom at that time and recover from the Great Recession, it also benefited by the arrival of Jewish immigrants from Europe who played a constructive role shaping the nation. One of them was Albert Einstein and the grandfather of Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg.

After Russia and Britain, Hitler's next target towards his desire for world conquest was US, though destiny had it's way. It would have been a tough call for the German Fuehrer given America's technological and military prowess. But the devilish man's Russian misadventure ended his dream.

Yet Hitler carved his niche as the Second Anti-Christ famously foreseen by the French Clairvoyant Nostradamus. The Seer also supposedly predicted the arrival of 3rd Anti-Christ and the 3rd World War. Not sure if that will happen in these turbulent times.

But one thing we have learnt from Hitler and his dream of Third Reich is that fanaticism leads to fascism and fascism leads to total destruction - as Hitler led Germany towards Gotterdammerung. We wish the man was never born this day in 1889.

Suicide at educational institutes

 A 19-year-old B.Tech student, Diksha Dubey, who hailed from Bihar, allegedly died by suicide on Thursday in the National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra in the state of Haryana. Previous suicides at NIT Kurukshetra include incidents in February and March, happening too often for comfort and raising concerns about student mental health.

NITs are considered premier Technical Institutions in India, next only to the IITs (incidentally many old NITs like NIT Rourkela, Trichy, Calicut are considered better than many new IITs which mushroomed across nation). The cream of the cream of our time used to clear a fair and highly competitive exam to earn a seat in these coveted  Technical institutes. Today also I believe it's still the same.

Regardless of being from a premier institute or not, it is so sad to see men and women at such young age taking a decision to end their lives. It needs to be noted that suicides have grown up exponentially in educational institutes these days. Part of is this reason sited by professors from IIT Madras to a friend of mine who lives in the United States and regularly visits his Alma mater whenever he makes a trip to India (America is filled with folks from IITs and NITs. It is said if you blindly throw a stone chances are it will hit someone passed from IIT or NIT). As confided by professors to him, these days many mediocre students are churned out of innumerable coaching institutes manage to clear the entrance test. Once in, when left on their own they can't cope up with the aggressive curriculum and choose to end their lives unable to face the failure and an over expectant milieu, including their parents.

Every person has right to live. It hurts utmost when someone commits suicide. And it hurts more, if that person happens to be young. Like every man and woman of their age, they too have a dream, but unwisely decide to procrastinate their unfulfilled dream by killing themselves. 

When does a person decide to end his or her life ? It's not just because of the frustration with life, it's more due to their lack of care or concern for rest of the world, which includes their near and dear ones. If I ever feel suicidal for some reason, I may resist that thought for a moment, if I think of my family, if not me. Apparently they don't care about their loved ones and decide to end their life at the spurt of the moment, never ever getting any second chance to regret over it.

Suicides in college campuses aren't so uncommon. Surging teenage hormone gone wild can create havoc in heart and mind, which can be due to failure in academics, romance or bullying by others. It reminds me of the iconic movie 3 IDIOTS where a student kills himself due to his frustration at his project being pooh poohed by the Principal of the College. The student Rancho played by the actor Aamir Khan complains about the mental stress the students undergo, leading to such avoidable tragedies. As the Principal gets defensive and refuses to take the blame, Aamir Khan replies - "I am rather blaming the entire system, not you Sir".

Aamir Khan speaks some hard truth in that movie. Students carry a lot of burden and expectations from their demanding parents and a cut throat competitive society. The simple equation Ambition - Achievement = Frustration holds good. Often they snap, as the lid of the pressure cooker comes off burning the face.

The greatest tragedy is silence of the silent majority, which is conspicuously deafening who mostly turn a blind eye to competition and peer pressure which are to be blamed. Can't resist repeating my often mentioned joke. A person once went to an astrologer, who after seeing his chart said " You will go bankrupt after two years". "What will happen after that ?" asked the person who was now somewhat concerned. The astrologer responded "You will get used to it". So the silent majority has got used to the chaotic system with a CHALTA HAI (let the status quo prevail) attitude. Don't be surprised if you hear news of more such suicides more frequently. 

RIP Asha Tai

The younger sister to the better known and more famous Lata Mangeskar, she outlived her and many prominent male singers of her time, especially the poular trio of Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh and the fanous music director R.D. Burman whom she married, all who died in their 50s. She was Asha Bhosle, arguably the last singer from the golden era of Bollywood music who passed away today.

Like her elder sister Lata, Asha had longevity in her genes (the other sister was Usha who didn't rise to the same heights as her sisters duo of Lata and Asha). She was destined to live long as predicted by Satya Sai Baba, a famous Godman based in South India. She mentioned this episode in one of her interviews. Once she visited the famous Godman in latter's Puttaparthy Ashram sometime in the 1970s along with her close female friend. The saffron clad Godman smiled at them and told Asha "you will live a long life", while he told her friend - "Take care of your stomach". Very soon her friend died of stomach cancer. Asha lived much longer, passed away today after almost 50 years from this incident at the ripe age of 92.

Initially carrying the tag of Lata's younger sister, Asha carved a niche for herself in the Bollywood industry by rendering her voice to many hit songs, winning multiple awards spanning decades. It is alleged that Lata Mangeshkar, her elder sister used her influence in Bollywood music industry to promote her ahead of other talented female singers of the time, like Hemlata, Sushma Shreshta and Indrani Mukherjee. Those allegations were never proven. Nevertheless she sang many popular and famous songs, especially duets with Kishore Kumar who was at his peak in the 1970s and 80s.

Asha used to praise the versatility of his duet partner Kishore Kumar who would make her laugh to his crazy jokes, often at his expense. Once he made her laugh so much during the recording of a song that she told him - "Dada, please stop cracking jokes. I cannot concentrate on recording". The Mangeskar sisters had a love -hate relationship with the legendary male playback singer. 

His son Amit Kumar mentioned this in an interview - "Baba (Dad) will ask the producer how much money the Mangeskar sisters are charging ? Once the producer replied that Lata Mangeshkar was charging Rs.90,000 per song. A competitive Kishore would demand Rs.100,000 (one lakh), a gargantuan amount those days which the proucer obliged. Bollywood is known to be misogynistic with staggering gender remuneration gap. It is said that Kishore and the Mangeskar sisters later fell apart. Months before he passed away, Kishore Kumar refused to share the same podium with the Mangeskar sisters in a concert held in Bombay (now Mumbai). The eccentric genuius, was also known to be idiosyncratic and occasionally silly. 

Having a long, eventful life with multiple marriages incidentally with her better known elder sister who never married, in passing away Asha marks the end of an era of music industry. RIP Asha Tai. Om 🕉 Shanti.

How to catch a Bhakt

 I have nothing against BHAKTs (a prolific, popular slang for the blind Right leaning devotees of Modi/BJP. The tag sticks to them as iron sticks to magnet). Like everyone else they have every rights to their unflinching BHAKTI (Diehard Devotion) towards their MAHAPRABHU (Ultimate God). I have no issues with that. Their BHAKTI (devotion) is non of my business, until they get personal and start trolling me. 

Every Spring and Fall (Autumn) I get into the mode of cleansing my Facebook friendlist of such BHAKTs and still continue this practice. I follow a very simple method of scouring and smoking them out of their holes. So far it has worked well for me and I have been quite successful in my mission of trapping & eliminating them. 

How to catch a Bhakt ? During my childhood days in our ancestral Brahmin dominated village near Puri, I have seen a semi religious occasion followed by a grand gala dinner called "MAJENA" - An offering of Fish to our village Goddess "Ma Rangini" followed by a massive feasting on varieties of mouth watering dishes made out of fish - MACHHA BHAJA (Fried fish), BESARA (scrambled fish cooked in mustard paste), MACHHA KAALIA (fish Chunk curry), MACHHA MANJI (fish roe or egg) fries, MACHHA KHARADA (scrambled fish) and so on. 

Fish is procured from our village pond. The fishermen would enter into this pond called GAAI GADIA (named after cows taking bath inside the pond), wade through it several times, toing and froing from one end to the other, deliberately muddying the water. The small fishes like "KERANDI" who get agitated and start jumping around are the ones caught first. The process is repeated until the target for the evening MAJENA session is met. 

I do the same on Facebook by deliberately posting something critical of Modi, BJP, RSS, sarcastic memes and cartoons mocking and poking fun at them, especially superstitions peddled as phoney scientific theories simply to score cheap political goals and fake portrayal of their Supreme leader as "Vishwaguru" (the Guru of the entire Universe). It riles some Bhakts to no end. A la the "Kerandi" fish they start jumping around with their asses on fire. They bite the bait, start bad mouthing me. I lose no time in giving them the option of unfriending me - to go ahead and make my day. If they prefer I oblige them by reciprocating the same at my end. In extreme cases I block them, sometimes they beat me to it.

Last week I had to unfriend several folks from my Facebook friend list. The reason, although they wrote nothing against me but irritated me by their nonsense, parochial and outright moronic statements directed to my post and comments on my posts from some of my erudite friends. A few later said sorry, but my prudence prompted me to get rid of them. If you keep snakes in your backyard expecting to bite only your neighbors, then you are living in a fool's paradise. One day they will turn their fangs on you. It is wiser to wipe them off from my friendliest rather than leave any such scope for future. 

I am also reminded of this story great folklore PANCHATANTRA (The Five Treatise), a series of meaningful short stories compiled by our ancient story teller Vishnu Sharma. A king kept a monkey as his pet. His favorite simian became too close to him as the King treated the animal as a friend. 

One fine afternoon the King was enjoying his siesta. A fly came from nowhere and sat on his nose. The monkey saw it. Not wanting to disturb the king and get rid of the nuisance fly, the monkey grabbed the unsheathed sword of the King and took a hard blow at the King's face. The fly managed to fly away, but the King was dead. The moral of the story - "MURKHA BANDHU THARU BUDDHIMAN SHATRU SHREYASKARA", often an intelligent enemy is preferred to an idiot friend. This moral from hundred years ago still holds good. Lesson learnt, good riddance. 

So far this strategy has worked out well for me. I have already have my quota of fish and feel satiated for this year. Now I got to wait until the next MAJENA before I go on my next fishing expedition. Spring is just getting started, so also my cleansing. Elon Musk once said, “You don't lose friends. You lose undercover haters. Real friends can never be lost". He wasn't far from the truth. 

My goutlandish story

 This April is a landmark for me. It's now a decade since last time I got Gout - a painful inflammation on my left toe. That was April, 2016. Glad so far I have been spared from getting a repeat bout of gout. Yet as always illnesses can be predictably unpredictable and have a knack of hunting you down at the most inopportune moment. Quoting Scarlett O Hara from Margaret Mitchell's classic movie Gone With the wind, "Tomorrow is after all another day".

My first bout with Gout was 16 years ago when I was in India in summer of 2010. One fine hot and humid morning I woke up to a painful, inflamed toe. It hurt pretty bad, even the slightest touch of the soft blanket on my toe gave me a throbbing, stinging pain. It was so bad that one evening I couldn't wear my  shoes and had to cancel my planned trip to Bhubaneswar Club, a place which mandates wearing shoes.
The first thought came to my mind was that it's was probably an insect bite which caused this lingering pain on my toe. I took several painkiller pills which gave me temporary relief, but the pain stubbornly refused to go away. Late Dr. B.K. Das, an eminent physician and my father's friend upon seeing my symptoms suspected it as gout. The lab tests soon confirmed it, finding my blood saturated with more than the normal amount of uric acid. Medicines prescribed by Braja Mausa reduced the pain, but it still persisted, with me walking with a perpetual limp like the legendary character SHAKUNI of BR Chopra's  MAHABHARAT serial from my college days, until the pain slowly relented after completing the full course of the medications.

Now fast forward to April 2016, almost 6 years later. My tryst with gout continued, as after years it showed at my toe step. This time on American soil as I woke up to a big, painful toe. My Primary Care Physician prescribed a medicine to reduce the pain and another to reduce my high level of Uric acid. The medicine acted fast and swiftly reduced the pain, but gave me severe diarrhea. Less than a day after I started taking the medicine, at my workplace a sudden urge to relieve myself hurried me towards the Restroom (toilet). Before I could bang through the door, my boss appeared right in front of me exchanging pleasantries, though my mood was hardly pleasant at that time.

Struggling to hold on to my bowel with a smiling face, I had to bear the imminent nature call with clenched teeth. Suddenly I remembered Shakuni ridiculing Duryodhan in B.R. Chopra's MAHABHARAT serial - "MURKH WOHI HAI JO RONE KI WAQT PAR HASTE HAIN" (Fools are those who laugh at the time of crying). My smile was now slowly turning into a helpless grin. You should have seen my face and captured it on camera. It would have gone viral with million plus hits on YouTube.

To my relief, my boss got a call on his cellphone and melted away, leaving me alone to attend my nature's call. The journey of less than 10 feet from the restroom door to the stall seemed eternal. I tip toed as fast as I could, sat, shat and burst myself. Ahh..finally I came out immensely relieved of both bowel and gout pain, which was now gone with the wind. It reminded me the story of the legendary Odia witty jester Gopal Bhanda who convinced his King that world's greatest feeling of relieving oneself after taking a huge dump in toilet.

Gout used to be known as the Rich man's disease during medieval times though me, a poor victim of gout is no where close to rich. Mughal Emperor Akbar had gout. His Hakeems (doctors) struggled to treat him. King of England Henry VIII had multiple wives and multiple bouts of gout. Protein rich, high purine foods like red meat, shrimp, crab, turkey, bean, beer etc are said to cause of very high Uric acid, leading to gout. But I know someone, a strictly vegetarian and frugal foodie who also gets periodic bouts of gout. Guess genetics plays a role here.
The prescription medicines are good at providing instant relief, but would like to avoid them as they're not free from side effects. Eating a balanced diet, drinking plenty of water and doing regular exercise are recommended to prevent gout. As always, prevention is better than cure. Thanks for your patience for hearing my goutlandish story. Glad gout has spared me for 10 long years though tomorrow is another day.