Netaji Subash Chandra Bose ~ Krishna Bose (41 and 42 of 2024)

It was indeed a great blessing and privilege to be at the car and the house from which Netaji made the final escape, the three storeyed house in Elgin road, his bedroom in the first floor, his foot steps (wondering how they marked it?) his life story and events from his life. The man who influenced him very much in his school days was his Headmaster, Benimadhab Das. But it was Swami Vivekananda's writings which influenced him most in his boyhood days. Just when he was grooping for an ideal life, the words of Vivekananda - 'Say brothers, at the top of your voice - the naked Indian, the illiterate Indian, the Brahmin Indian, the pariah Indian is my brother' - kept ringing in his ears. Service to mankind, Subhas realized, included service to his country. Service to mankind and your own salvation - was his ideal from that time. 

He practised yoga, meditation, went to north India on pilgrimage without telling family but returned which was his first adventure, second was beating up Professor Oaten at Presidency college. Professor later wrote :"Did I once suffer, Subhas, at your hand? Your patriot heart is stilled! I would forget!" Subash continued his studies at Scottish church college at Calcutta, joined the university training corps enjoyed rifle shooting, which helped him become the commander-in-chief of the Azad Hind Fauj. He passed BA in philosophy and MA in psychology, but his father wanted him to appear for ICS, which he did, for the want of going to London but had no hope. He qualified, but did not want to pursue that profession. On 22 April 1921 he wrote to his friend, "The way to happiness, lay in dancing around with the surging waves of the ocean." While returning Rabindranath Tagore was in the same ship and they discussed India's freedom struggle, and as soon as he landed went to meet Mahatma Gandhi who was in Bombay at that time. He worked closed with him from 1921 to 1939 though he realised that there was a difference of approach between the two. Gandhi asked him to meet C.R. Das. He started working as the principal of the National College - there was a joke saying he was teaching empty desks. He started editing political magazines. 

In 1928 congress session in Calcutta he was the General Officer commanding organised with strict military discipline and donned military uniform sowing the seeds for Azad Hind Fauj. Gandhi put forward demand for dominion status for India, but he asked for complete independence. In 1931, he was Mayor of Calcutta, On Jan 26, 1931 the first Independence day, he led a procession in the streets of Calcutta was beaten up and in 1932 started another prolonged imprisonment. His health too was failing. But he continued to inspire others especially youth wherever he went. He was deported to Europe , he decided to arouse their sympathy for the National Movement. He formed associations for India in various countries like Austria, Czec, opposed Hitler, wrote against him, met Mussoline - told Independence would come through revolution and not reforms. He was made the Rashtrapati or president of Indian National congress in Jan 1938 when he was 41 years old. Therein was discussed the problems of India, and the first National Planning Committee was set up and Nehru made it's leader.  Next year he asked to contest election as he had lot more to do, but Gandhi proposed another person Pattabhi to be the leader, so he called for election and won. Gandhi said that Pattabhi's defeat was his defeat. He resigned in 1939.

In 1940 Gandhi told Bose, he did not think the time for the freedom struggle had come, but if he was successful, Gandhi would be the first to congratulate him. It was Netaji who called Gandhiji 'Father of the Nation' first in a radio broadcast, addressing him thus, he said "In this holy war for India's libration we ask for your blessings and good wishes." Netaji had created the Forward block to work within the congress but it soon became a separate body. During world war II "All power of people here and now" was the slogan that Subhas Chandra Bose raised. He was arrested on 3rd July 1940 which was his eleventh and last imprisonment. He declared a fast unto death demanding release and when his condition became serious he was released on 5th December 1940, with the intention of arresting him again when he was better. But Netaji escaped disguised as Mohammad Ziauddin, for 10 days the news was a secret, crossed the frontier safely and entered Afghanistan and after a prolonged stay in Kabul finally left for Berlin in the guise of an Italian named Orlando Mazzotta. 

He planned to establish a Free India Centre in Belin, from where he would organize an Indian National Army. The Azad Hind Radio started functioning. Plans chalked out there were put into practice in Singapore and Burma. He did not approve of common prayers. Religion and Politics, in Netaji's opinion, must be completely divorced from each other. He would not bow before anyone. On 8th Feb, 1943 he left Germay in a submarine cramped and restricted from the port of Kiel with Abid Hasan , 90 days later he reached Tokyo. Netaji left behind the Free India Centre and the Indian legion to be looked after by A.C.N. Nambiar. Netaji flew to Tokyo on May 16th, 1943. he was a Japanese named Matsuda. When he revelled about his presence, he said "The enemy has drawn the sword and he must be fought with the sword; he declared." He arrived in Singapore with Rashbehari Bose who was in exile in Japan. 

The provisional Government of Azad Hind was formed on October 21st, 1943 - Netaji was the Head of Stat and Prime Minister of the newly formed Government and also the Supreme Commander of the Army. The seat of the Azad Hind Government was moved from Singapore to Rangoon in 1944. 'Chalo Delhi' was their war cry. On 18th March they crossed the Indo-Burma frontier and stood on Indian soil. Japan was bombarded, and surrendered to Allies, on 15th August 1945, Netaji pleaded to the people of India, "There is no power on earth that can keep India enslaved. India shall be free and before long." Netaji had said 'On to Delhi' he had meant as head of a victorious army , but they were there as prisoners of war - three for them Major General Shah Nawaz Khan a Muslim, Colonel P.K. Sahgal a Hindu and Colonel Dhillon a Sikh. The Red Fort Trial was a blunder that shook Indian's when they got to know about it. 

Netaji left Singapore and halted in Bangkok for a day, he flew to Saigon on August 17th, the last available photograph of Netaji was taken when he was coming down the steps of the aircraft of Saigon airport. It is believed Netaji was going to Manchuria to seek asylum in Soviet Russia. He had decided to continue the war of independence from other territory. But destiny ordained otherwise. Netaji's plane landed in Taipei in Formosa for refuelling on August 18th, 1945 and while taking off the plane crashed. Netaji was severely burned and injured and with others injured was rushed to the military hospital at Taipei. 5 days later it was announced by Japanese Military Headquarters that he died the same evening.  Habib-ur-Rahaman was with him who was also injured but not so seriously. Netaji gave the last message to him. "Jab apney mulk wapis jayen to mulk ki bhaiyon ko batana ki men akhri dam tak mulk ki azadi key liyay larta raha hoon; woh jange Azadi ko jari rakhen. Hindustan zaroor azad hoga, us ko koi gualm nahin rakh sakta."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D1PJgNPtcM

Krishna Bose is an eminent expert on Netaji's life and struggles. After her marriage to Sisir Bose - son of Sarat Chandra Bose, the barrister and nationalist leader who was his younger brother Subhas's closest comrade - she joined Sisir's efforts to research and document Netaji's life and work.  Sisir became a renowned paediatrician as well as the founder and builder of the Netaji Research Bureau at Kolkata's Netaji Bhawan, the former Bose family residence, Krishna's prolific writings include several original books on Netaji. 

A Biography for the Young ~ Netaji : By Krishna Bose

The story begins with Netaji's dramatic escape from his Calcutta residence in January 1941. His early home life and education culminating in his resignation from the Indian Civil Services at his motherland's call are elucidated. After an eventful and stormy public life spanning over two decades he becomes the Congress President, commanding the national scene alongside Mahatma Gandhi. 

Netaji organized the Indian National Army, achieving a unique harmony and understanding among its officers and men in the country's cause, irrespective of religion, caste, sect or region. The Red Fort trials revealed the heroic saga of Netaji and the INA to the people of India. They rose as one man, not only in defence of the INA but to demand immediate national independence, thereby turning the apparent temporary defeat of the INA into a permanent victory. 

Primarily meant to be a concise biography of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose for the young, the book will help inculcate in the rising generation feelings of patriotism, national oneness, self-sacrifice for a greater cause, courage, and a concern for the poor - qualities of which Netaji was the shining example. 

The book covers 8 chapters, named - The Great Escape, Growing Up, The Freedom Fighter, Rashtrapati and After, Azad Hind, A perilous Journey, Onto Death, and Victory in Defeat. 

A True Love Story ~ Emilie and Subhas : By Krishna Bose

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's relationship with his wife, Emilie Schenkl, is one of the least-known aspects of the leader's life. They met in Vienna in June 1934 when Subhas was looking for a secretary who knew English to assist with his book 'The Indian struggle' and soon became friends, secretly married in December 1937 in Badgastein, a spa resort in Austria's Salzburg province, and saw each other for the last time in Berlin in February 1943, two months after the birth in Vienna of their daughter Anita who was born on 29th November 1942.  In honour of Anita Garibaldi, they had named her Anita. From 1934 onwards, Subhas and Emilie corresponded continuously through letters whenever the were physically separated. 

This is a letter written by Subhas to Emilie:

Born in 1910 into a middle-class Austrian family of Vienna, Emilie Schenkl nurtured her husband's memory and cultivated a deep attachment from afar to India all her life, until her death in 1996. She brought up their daughter on her own, working to support herself and Anita. Fiercely self-reliant and very private, Emilie lived a life of great dignity and quiet courage. 

Emilie was especially close to Netaji's nephew Sisir Kumar Bose, whom she first met in Vienna in the late 1940s and after his marriage in December 1955 she also formed a close friendship with his wife Krishna. Krishna knew Emilie personally from 1959 until Emilie's death in 1996. 

This book, illustrated with forty-eight photographs from archives and family albums, is a unique record of Emilie's life of fortitude and the love story of Emilie and Subhas. 

Emilie had brought Anita facing lot of hardship, as it was war times too and her only comfort was her mother Omama. Emilie was so attached to Anita that she did not like anyone else getting closer to her, or she having close friends. She even rejected Martin Pfaff, when Anita introduced him. They celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their wedding in July 2015 . They have three children Thomas Krishna, Peter Arun Pfaff, Maya Pfaff

Emilie passed away in March 1996. Krishan in the obituray for her wrote: "I shall not lament for her. For her it is the end of a long separation [Bengali, biraha] from her beloved. 

Netaji surely had a charmed life.  His family got to know of his wife and child after his death so also Indian's

Long ago in the course of a benediction, Rabindranath Tagore had said of Netaji: "I can only bless him and take my leave knowing that he had made his country's burden of sorrow his own, that his final reward is fast coming as his country's freedom," Freedom came. 

It was Netaji's belief: "In this mortal world everything perishes and will perish - but ideas, ideals and dream do not....the ideas, ideals and dreams of one generation are bequeathed to the next."

Mother Teresa (40 of 2024)

 Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu - Saint Teresa of Calcutta......

Born on 26th August 1910 in the city of Skopje, which today is the Capital of the Republic of Macedonia. Her parents, Nikola and Brana Bojaxhiu, were fervent Catholics from Alabania. She was the youngest of five children. Her eldest sister, Age was seven at the time she was born and her brother Lazar, was two years old. The two other children had died as infants. Se was named Gonxha Agnes, Gonxha meaning flower bud. 

Father was a merchant and owned a shop not far from their home. Unfortunately when gonxha was just nine years old, her father died suddenly. Drana their mother, whom they affectionately called 'Nane Loke' meaning 'mother of my soul', began a small business of selling embroidered cloth. 

At the age of 12 Gonxha first heard, in her heart God calling her to follow him and she set out on her vocation at the age of 18. She wrote to the institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Loreto sisters) asking to join them because they had a mission in India. After a tearful goodbye at the train station, she courageously set out for Rathfarnham Abbey in Dublin, Ireland in September 1928. There she spent two months learning a new language - English. She also was beginning a new life with a new name Sister Teresa, she felt a deep joy and peace in her heart. Along with three other sisters, she borded a ship to the Loreto convent in Bengal via sea to reach on 6 January 1929. For two years she was being trained in Darjeeling, praying studying and training for her new life learning Bengali and Hindi as well. On 25 May 1931 she took the vow to live a life of poverty, chastity and obedience and devote herself to teaching children. On 24 May 1937, she took her final vow and become Mother Teresa. In 1944 she became the principal of St. Mary's school where she taught and was also incharge of daughters of Saint Anne's - as she was good at organising. She had good sense of humor, was cheerful and generous with an eye for the needs of others. She was quick in doing things, in 1942 she had made a private vow to always say yes to others needs. On 10th of September in 1946 when she was on her yearly retreat to Darjeeling she had a calling to Quit Loreto and start working for those in slums. 

It was finally in August 1948,  at 38 years of age, she gave up her black Loreto habit and veil for a white cotton sari with three stripped blue border  to begin the 'Missionaries of Charity' with approval from her spiritual guide, priest Father Celeste Van Exem and Archbishop Ferdinand Perier, went to Patna to stay with the Medical mission sisters to learn the medical work, that would help her begin the work in the slums. First she stayed with the Little sister of the poor, until she found a place at 14 Creek Lane on the upper floor of a house belonging to the Gome's brothers where she moved in February 1949. She needed help. In March 1949, Subashini Das a girl who had been her student at St. Mary's joined her and took the name Sister Agnes. Slowly others started joining. In 1951 she took up the Indian Citizenship. On 22 August 1952, Mother Teresa opened the first home for the dying in Kalighat and named it 'Nirmal Hriday' which means pure heart. 

With the number of sisters supporting her increasing, they had to find another place. They obtained a bigger house at 54A lower circular road, which was later called A.J.C.Bose road, she and sisters moved there on February 1953.

As more girls continued to join, they started to expand their work, first went to Ranchi in May 1959 , then in Delhi, Bombay and Jhansi and more through out India. On I February 1965 the young congregation came directly under the authority of the Pope, and the work started expanding outside India. First was in Venezuela in July 1965, before long she had missions in many other countries of the world. Her work grew quickly, like a pebble when thrown in water. Men too wanted to be part of it, and so started Missionaries of Charity brothers and then Fathers was started around 1984. The work spread to more than 120 countries around the world. 

She received many awards, first being Padma Shri in 1962, Jawaharlal Nehru Award in 1972, Bharat Ratna in 1980, Noble Peace Price on 10 December 1979 in Oslo Norway, Every aware and honor around 700 of them. All of it went to help the poor. Whereever she went she wanted to be back in her Motherhouse. She was called to talk and speak at various events, which she did not love doing, but neither refused.

One early morning in 1983 when she was 73, she fell from the bed and hurt herself when she was visiting her sisters at Rome, and when they took her to doctor they diagnosed that she had a serious heart problem. Over the next few years she had several heartattacks and had to use pacemaker. Inspite of it she would not say 'No' to Jeasus and continued her work helping the poor irrespective of religion, gender or nationality. Everyone who met her knew that they were in the presence of a holy person. They could feel that she was very close to God.  

Her smile kept anyone from guessing what she was feeling inside. 

As Mother Teresa got older her health worsened and she wanted another sister to taker over as the head, so on 13 March 1997 Sister Nirmala M.C was elected to be her successor as Superior General, less then six months later on 5 September 1997 at 9.30 pm at the age of 87 Mother Teresa 'went home to God'. State Funeral was given in her honor on 13 September 1997. Her body was burried at the mother house. On her tomb were engraved the words of Jesus, 'Love one another as I have loved you'. This is what Mother Teresa did all her life. 

Was privileged and blessed to kiss her tomb on 14th May 2024. There was one paining in particular that has stuck a cord with me, of people from different time period, parts of the world and religion, sitting around a table. Wish I could find a copy of that. There were various paintings , albums and paper cutting of news about her - and many were in Malayalam. 

Pope (Saint) John Paul II beatified Mother Teresa in Rome on 19 October 2003. Pope Francis canonized her on 4 September 2016. Though she is now called 'Saint Teresa of Calcutta'; for those close to her, she continue to be Mother. 

In her words:

"Life is the most beautiful gift of God."

"Peace and war begin at home. If we truly want peace in the world, let us begin loving one another in our own families. "

Writers with Similar Name

 Alexandre Dumas and Alexandre Dumas (Father and son). So they add the suffixes 'pere' and 'fils' with the names respectively to distinguish between them - The three musketers

Arundathi Roy and Anuradha Roy - All the lives we never lived, Sleeping on Jupiter, The folded Earth, An Atlas of impossible longing

Chitrita Banarjee and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni - Latter am a big fan, and have read many of her books, formers just got her first book Eating India.

Chetan Bhagat and Ketan Bhagat. - Lesser known brother of Chetan and their writing is completely different and so has been their journey. We know about Chetan, books by Khetan are Complete/ Convenient, a story around what a man goes through once he gets the job and woman of his life. Second book, Child/God, tells the story of how fatherhood transforms a man.  Child/Currency – is about the tough times and unfairness men face during divorce.

Jeffrey Archer and Geoffrey Archer Jeffrey Archer mentions someone getting a book signed by him which was actually written by Geoffrey Archer in on of his books ( I guess Prison Diaries )

Patricia Cornwell and Bernard Cornwell - Patricia Cornwell (born June 9, 1956, Miami, Florida, U.S.) is an American crime writer, a descended from abolitionist and author of books like Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe. She's written over thirty books, most of them featuring the beloved Kay Scarpetta, a medical examiner based in Richmond, Virginia. Her crime stories are known for their substantial focus on forensic science, which often features heavily in the plots.

Bernard Cornwell is the most successful author of historical fiction of recent years. He is best known for his novels about the Napoleonic Wars rifleman, Richard Sharpe and has many Sharpe's novels to his credit. Cornwell had taken his mother's maiden name as his own. But his father was William Oughtred – and Oughtred means 'Son of Uhtred'. He realised that he had ancestors who had been part of the great Saxon invasion and settlement of what was to become England. His own Uhtred is pure fiction, he says.

Rabindranatha Tagore (39 of 2024)

 Rabindranath Tagore  was a Bengali poet, writer, playwright, composer, actor, philosopher, social reformer, and painter in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of the "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful" poetry of Gitanjali, he became in 1913 the first non-European and the first lyricist to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Tagore's poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial; where his elegant prose and magical poetry were widely popular in the Indian subcontinent. He was a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society. Referred to as "the Bard of Bengal". Although a patriot when thinking of the nation, he was, nevertheless, deeply cosmopolitan at heart. 

(Who can help read this)

Thanks Jisha that was quick

The name Tagore is the anglicised transliteration of Thakur. The original surname of the Tagores was Kushari.The youngest of 13 surviving children, Tagore (nicknamed "Rabi") was born on 7 May 1861 in the Jorasanko mansion in Calcutta the son of Debendranath Tagore  and Sarada Devi . Tagore was raised mostly by servants; his mother had died in his early childhood and his father travelled widely.Tagore's father invited several professional Dhrupad musician s to stay in the house and teach Indian classical music to the children.

Debendranath Tagore, his father was an Indian philosopher and religious reformer, active in the Brahmo Samaj (earlier called Bhramho Sabha) ("Society of Brahma", also translated as Society of God). He joined Brahmo samaj in 1842. He was the founder in 1848 of the Brahmo religion, which today is synonymous with Brahmoism. Born in Shilaidaha, his father was the industrialist Dwarakanath Tagore.

Tagore's oldest brother Dwijendranath was a philosopher and poet. Another brother, Satyendranath, was the first Indian appointed to the elite and formerly all-European Indian Civil Service. Yet another brother, Jyotirindranath, was a musician, composer, and playwright. His sister Swarnakumari became a novelist.

Tagore largely avoided classroom schooling and preferred to roam the manor or nearby Bolpur and Panihati, which the family visited. His brother Hemendranath tutored and physically conditioned him—by having him swim the Ganges or trek through hills.Years later he held that proper teaching does not explain things; proper teaching stokes curiosity. After his upanayan (coming-of-age rite) at age eleven, Tagore and his father left Calcutta in February 1873 to tour India for several months, visiting his father's Santiniketan estate and Amritsar before reaching the Himalayan hill station of Dalhousie. There Tagore read biographies, studied history, astronomy, modern science, and Sanskrit, and examined the classical poetry of Kālidāsa.

Tagore returned to Jorosanko and completed a set of major works by 1877. Because Debendranath wanted his son to become a barrister, Tagore enrolled at a public school in Brighton, East Sussex, England in 1878. He briefly read law at University College London, but again left, opting instead for independent study of Shakespeare's plays Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra and the Religio Medici of Thomas Browne. After returning to Bengal, Tagore regularly published poems, stories, and novels. In 1883 he married 10-year-old Mrinalini Devi, born Bhabatarini and had five children, two of whom died in childhood.In 1890 Tagore began managing his vast ancestral estates in Shelaidaha (today a region of Bangladesh); he was joined there by his wife and children in 1898. Tagore released his Manasi poems (1890), among his best-known work. In 1901 Tagore moved to Santiniketan to found an ashram with a marble-floored prayer hall—The Mandir—an experimental school, groves of trees, gardens, a library.There his wife and two of his children died. His father died in 1905. 

He has written the national anthem for both India and Bangladesh and gave Gandhi his title– “Mahatma.”

Between 1878 and 1932, Tagore set foot in more than thirty countries on five continents. As a traveller of the world, both literally and poetically, Rabindranath turned out to be a global citizen. He frequented all the continents except Australia. 

Visiting Santa Barbara in 1917, Tagore conceived a new type of university: he sought to "make Santiniketan the connecting thread between India and the world [and] a world center for the study of humanity somewhere beyond the limits of nation and geography." The school, which he named Visva-Bharati, had its foundation stone laid on 24 December 1918 and was inaugurated precisely three years later. Tagore employed a brahmacharya system: gurus gave pupils personal guidance—emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. Teaching was often done under trees. He staffed the school, he contributed his Nobel Prize monies, and his duties as steward-mentor at Santiniketan kept him busy: mornings he taught classes; afternoons and evenings he wrote the students' textbooks. His Notable writings are  My Reminiscences (1912)

He was diagnosed with severe uraemia and a blocked urinary bladder. Dr Jyotiprakash Sarkar and Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy insisted he undergoes surgery, against his wish, on July 30, 1941. Complications from the surgery led to his death a week later on 7 August 1941 (age 80 years), Jorasanko Thakurbari, Kolkata.

 “Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.” 

“And because I love this life, I know I shall love death as well. The child cries out when from the right breast the mother takes it away, the very next moment to find in the left one its consolation.” So he said

Tagore lost his mother and best friend only a few years before losing his wife, two daughters and son. These tragedies are eloquently channeled in his 1913 composition, “Gitanjali”–– a collection of poems that earned him the Nobel Prize and reputation of being the first non-European laureate.

This rapid succession of misfortune was no doubt an intense time in Tagore’s life. It is clear from reading “Gitanjali” that Tagore had a close relationship to death. In fact, he calls death a “breaker of barriers” and a “light” that shows one the way.

“I know that the day will come when my sight of this earth shall be lost, and life will take its leave in silence, drawing the last curtain over my eyes. Yet stars will watch at night, and morning rise as before, and hours heave like sea waves casting up pleasures and pains. When I think of this end of my moments, the barrier of the moments breaks and I see by the light of death thy world with its careless treasures. Rare is its lowliest seat, rare is its meanest of lives. Things that I longed for in vain and things that I got---let them pass. Let me but truly possess the things that I ever spurned and overlooked.”

When I read these verses I feel humbled and transformed. I am reminded of the brevity of my own life. I too believe death can be a reality check and can strengthen one’s humility––an attractive and powerful trait.

To be humble does not imply that we are less than others or that we are down on ourselves. Humility has a quiet confidence and requires no bragging or applause. It implies compassion and acceptance of other perspectives. It is the realization that even the things we feel so sure about might be wrong. Death has a way of sharpening these attributes. When we are humble our true greatness shines.

He has left behind not only his books, stores and poems, but also Rabindrasangeet, Rabindra-Nritya, paintings, folk-culture, 

All among his life Rabindranath stood up against religious fanaticism and made spirited protests. According to him, religion is strictly a personal affair of an individual. The lesson of religion is a lesson in human fraternity. The God which Rabindranath conceives of in his book 'Manusher Dharma' (Religion of Man) has its essence vested in the human surroundings of man. The world we see before us is real, expansive and self- complete. Man and his human ambience also fare on as we command them to. Whatever heavenly or divine there may be, exists very much within this frame of reality. Rabindranath's God also, accordingly, is no abstract spiritual image. He is a worker God: 

    "Thither he's gone where the tiller has been tilling the soil and ploughing-

    Where they've been cutting up the stones to cut out new paths, toiling the whole year through

    He has been with them all, alike in the sun and the rains. His hands both have been soiled with the         dust. "

On 25 March 2004, Tagore's Nobel Prize was stolen from the safety vault of the Visva-Bharati University, along with several other of his belongings.

Was fortunate to be able to have a tour of Jorasanko Thakurbari on 14th May 2024. Looks like this house was established in 1784 by Nilmani Tagore.  Reasonable well kept the main museum, but the condition of the Sangeetha Bhavan was pathetic. The Italay visit on top, US and Hungary visit on the 2nd floor and Japan , China and a Buddhist country. 

Ente Sooryaputhrikku

Directed by Fazil and starring Amala, Srividya, and Suresh Gopi,  'Ente Sooryaputhrikku' is about Maya spoiled child of a rich man. Movie begins with her being in jail out on Parole for her wedding. 

She always creates issues in her hostel as well as in college. One day along with her friends, she decides to make fun of a Dr. Srinivas, but the doctor in turn insults her saying that she is a fatherless child. Shocked Maya understands her childish behavior and attempts suicide, but the doctor saves her and she gets back to normal, but starts loving the doctor and she also decide to find out who her father is and finally she discovers that her father had adopted her when she was baby and her biological mother was K. S Vasundhara Devi, famous singer. 

She tries her every bit to make her mom accept her. Finally her mother accepts Maya, but before she make this news to public, Vasundhara Devi is murdered by her administration employees for her wealth. Maya kills her mother's killer's and she is sent to jail. She is able to meet her father as well. 

Srinivas marries Maya while she serves her sentence.

Netrikann

 

The song "Idhuvum Kadandhu Pogum", sung by Sid Sriram, attracted me to the movie, 'Netrikann' and seeing Nainthara in it made me want to see it even more. Icing, got to know Nayanthara was in a dual role as Durga a former trainee police officer who lost her eyesight in an accident being the main character of the movie and  Nancy  a software engineer, Durga's lookalike, and James's wife

Two cases, one involving a missing person and the victim of a hit-and-run, appear related. The police search for witnesses.

Durga used to be a promising cadet at the CBI but after a horrific car accident that killed her foster brother, Adithya, and caused her to lose her eyesight, her police career ended. She reveals to SI Manikandan at the police station that on the night of the hit-and-run case, she was picked up by a taxi cab driver. Durga believes the taxi driver may be the perpetrator of the crimes. Initially, Manikandan doesn't take her claims seriously because she is blind, but when Durga displays her acute senses, the detective starts to believe her.

Manikandan and Durga subsequently work together to find the cab driver, but all their leads turn up empty. Then, someone named Gowtham, comes forward. He is a motorcycle delivery boy who claims to have also witnessed the hit-and-run. Gowtham emphatically states that the car in question was not a taxi cab, but rather an imported sedan.

Later that night, when Gowtham is walking home alone, he is followed by Dr. James Dinah, a gynecologist who kidnaps and rapes young women. Gowtham tries to run but is struck by a brick. An ambulance arrives, and SI Manikandan and Durga drive to the scene. After being released, Gowtham sees Durga across the tracks at the Metro station, followed by James. He calls her and warns her about James. As he runs to catch up with her, she goes on FaceTime and shows him her location and surroundings. He guides her out of the Metro station and to safety. Durga reaches into her handbag and sprays James with pepper spray and runs off with Kanna, her seeing eye dog. James catches up with her in the elevator, however. He kills Kanna and injects Durga with a sedative.

When Durga comes to, Gowtham is with her. At home, she gets a call from an unknown number. The caller warns her away from the case. A few days later, SI Manikandan and Durga visit Renuka, a friend of Sofia, one of James's victims, who reveals that Sofia was pregnant and had decided to get an abortion. To catch the killer, Durga disguises herself as a pregnant woman seeking an abortion. She finds James's secret clinic, and after a few turns of events, James ends up at the police station, whereupon he confesses to his crimes.

A fight ensues, in which Manikandan is killed and James escapes. Meanwhile, Gowtham and Durga are ambushed by the killer at an orphanage they are visiting. Gowtham fights James off while Durga runs to her car. The killer catches up to her, but she hits him on the head repeatedly, eventually killing him.

In the end, Durga has a new pair of eyes surgically implanted. At his remembrance ceremony, she reveals that they were donated to her by Manikandan.

Ramakrishna Math & Mission (38 of 2024)

 

If your wish to be a true reformer, three things are necessary, first is to feel, you must think next if you have found any remedy. Have you discovered means by which to keep that without any dross. What is your motive? It should not be greed of gold, or thirst for fame or power. Can you stand to your ideals and work on, even if the whole world wants to crash you down? 

It was while reforms of various kinds were being inaugurated in India that a child was born of poor Brahmin parents on the eighteenth of February 1836 in one of the remote villages of Bengal. The father and mother were very orthodox people. The life of a really orthodox Brahmin is one of continuous renunciation. Very few things can be do, and over and beyond them the orthodox Brahmin must not occupy himself with any secular business. At the same time, he must not receive gifts from everybody. Even in this poverty a Brahmin's wife will never allow a poor man to pass through the village without giving him something to eat. She is served the last. 

A Brahmin's boy must go to school, the caste restricts him to a learned profession only. Sannyasins education was different from others. No fees as knowledge is sacred and not to be sold. Students were taken without charge and given food and clothing too. They do this from the donations given by wealthy.  This boy did not like people fighting and therefore went to become a temple priest. He too is not allowed to take gifts. 

Like every book on religion breaths, he do swam in the idea of realisation - he realized God, felt God, Saw God, talked to God, but it was not easy. First  in the temple of Blissful mother he kept wondering why the God was not speaking to him, if God existed. At last it became impossible for him to serve in the temple so he left it and entered into a little wood that was near and lived The idea of sex and the idea of money were the two things, he thought, that prevented him from seeing the mother. The boy began to see visions, Mother herself became the teacher and initiated the boy into the truths he sought. An Sannyasini was surprised to see his devotion remained near the boy for years, taught him the forms of the religions of India, initiated him in the different practices of Yoga and guided and brought into harmony tremendous river of spirituality.  Then came to the grove a sannyasin, who began to teach the boy the philosophy of the Vedas; spend several months with him and initiated him into the order of Sannyasins and took his departure. 

When he was had left temple worship, his relatives had got him married as a Child, he unaware, but he had left to the grove soon after. The young girl to whom he was wedded to went in search of him, she was a maiden and pure soul, able to understand her husband's aspiration and sympathize with him. Se became one of his most devoted disciples, always revering him as a divine being.  After learning about his own religion, he set out to learn from Mohammedan saint and sects following Jesus the Christ. He then set to learn humility, because he had found that the one idea in all religions is, 'not me, but Thou'. He had the most wonderful faculty of carrying everything into practice which he thought was right. He went and worked in the house of Pariah (who works for others), stopped distinction between male and female.

His hard earned jewels of spirituality for which he had given three-quarters of his life were now ready to be given to humanity and then began his mission. He thought that it was Mother who was doing everything and not he. His favourite illustration was, "When the lotus opens, the bees come of their own accord to seek the honey; so let the lotus of your character be full-blown and the results will follow.' - A great lesson to learn. 

Be in no hurry to give your thoughts to others. First have something to give, he alone teaches who has something give, for teaching is not talking, teaching is not imparting doctrines, it is communicating. Spirituality can be communicated just as really as one can be given a flower. This teacher, was intellectual, devotional, mystic and active. Condemned no one, but saw good in all. He moved to Calcutta to impart his teachings. 

Vivekananda, asked him the question, he has been asking others "Do you believe in God, Sir?' 'Yes' he replied, 'Can you prove it, Sir? 'Yes', 'How', 'Because I see Him just as I see you here, only in a much intenser sense.' That impressed Vivekananda, as here was a man who dared to say he had seen God. That religion was a reality to be felt, to be sensed in an infinitely more intense way than we can sense the world. Master used to say 'Religion can be given and taken more tangibly, more really than anything else in the world." Be therefore spiritual first, have something to give and then stand before the world and give it. Religion is not talk, or doctrine or theories, nor is it sectarianism. Religion cannot live in sects and societies, it is the relation between the soul and God; how can it be made into a society? It would then become a business, Only our realisation will satisfy us.  

First we must give up everything for the sake of God. The religions of the world are not contradictory or antagonistic. They are various phases of one eternal religion. Applied to different planes of existence, to the opinions of various minds and various races. Religion manifest themselves not only according to  race and geographical position but also according to individual powers. For one it could be work, for other devotion, for yet another mysticism, philosophy and so on.

Truth can be one and many at the same time. So all are right. Microcosm is but the miniature repetition of the macrocosm. Welcome to India! All sects of religion so we have so many. Religion is realization. Only true teacher is who can convert himself, as it were, into a thousand persons at a moment's notice. Who can come down to the level of student and transfer his soul to students, see through students eyes, and hear through his ears and understand through his mind. 

Religion is like different river going and meeting the same ocean. Renunciation is the background of all religion. Whatever any man wants and appreciates, that he will get and it is the same with nation. He died spreading the gospel - speaking for 20 hours a day, without rest. One day he said he would lay down the body that day, and entered Samadhi. 

This is the message of Shri Ramakrishna to the modern world. 'Do not care for doctrines, do not care for dogmas, or sects or churches or temples, they count for little compared with the essence of existence in each man, which is spirituality; and the more that this is developed in a man, the more powerful is he for good. Earn that first, acquire that and criticize no one, for all doctrines and creeds have some good in them. Show by your lives that religion does not mean words, or names or sects but that it means spiritual realisation. Only those can understand who have felt. Only those that have attained to spirituality can communicate it to others, can be great teachers of mankind. They alone are the powers of light. '

'Be spiritual and realize truth for yourself.' To proclaim and make clear the fundamental unity underlying all religions was the mission of Ramakrishna. He left every religion undisturbed because he had realized that in reality they are all part and parcel of one eternal religion. 

Ramakrishan Math is a monastic order for men brought into existence by Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886) the great 19th century saint of Bengal who is regarded as the Prophet of the Modern Age. Ramakrishna Mission is a registered society in which monks of the Ramakrishna Math and lay devotees cooperate in conducting various types of social service mainly in India. It was founded by Sri Ramakrishna's Chief disciple and religious leader, Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902). These twin organization have set in motion a non-sectarian, universal spiritual movement which has been silently working for more than a 100 years to catalyse the spiritual regeneration of humanity. The chief catalyst in this ongoing transformation is India's ancient religious philosophy known as Vedanta. Although several other systems of philosophy arose in India at different times, they were confined to small groups. Vedanta alone has remained the dominant philosophy of India's religious tradition from Vedic times to the present day. In modern times this ancient system of thought has been purified, unified and energized by Sri Ramakrishna and expounded in the modern idiom by Swami Vivekananda. 

Under the leadership of Swami Vivekananda whose original name was Narendra Nath Dutta, monastic brother hood known as Ramakrishna Math (order) was set in force at a dilapidated building in Baranagar, in North Kolkata in 1886. It was later moved to a better building in Alambazer, later with the funds provided by the western followers of Swami Vivekananada, a big plot of land was acquired on the western bank of the Ganga at a place called Belur, and the monastery was finally shifted there on 2nd Jan 1899. Branches of Ramakrishna Math soon came to be founded in different parts of the country. Although rooted in the 3000 year old monastic tradition of India, and forming a part of the Ten orders (dashanami) established by Shankaracharya in the 8th Century A.D., the Ramakrishan Order represents a new pattern of monastic life which combines some of the best elements of the monastic traditions of the East and the West.  Main emphasis is service, with modern outlook, governed by definite rules and regulations originally framed by Swami Vivekananda. 

It's ideology has three characteristic - It is modern in the sense that the ancient principles of Vedanta have been expressed in the modern idiom; it is universal, that is it is meant for the whole humanity, it is practical in the sense that its principles can be applied in day-to-day life to solve the problems of life.  The basic principles of ideology are:

1. God realization is the ultimate goal of life
2. Potential divinity of soul - Brahman - Atman Source of all happiness. Body, mind all one. 
3. Synthesis of the Yogas - Jnan Yoga (Knowledge), Karma (Work), Bhakti (Devotion) and Raja (Meditation)
4. Morality based on strength - Weakness is the main cause of immorality, evil and suffering. 
5. Harmony of religion
6. Avatarhood of Sri Ramakrishna
7. A New Philosophy of Work:
1. All work is sacred
2. Work as workship (Gita 18.46 and 9.24)
3. Service to man is service to God
4. Focus on service to the poor and the downtrodden
5. Work is a spiritual discipline

Motto: 'Atmano Mokshartham Jagad Hitaya Cha' - For ones own salvation and for the welfare of the world. 

Service as way of life have certain distinct features like:

1. Selflessness, Sacrifice, Love
2. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
3. Excellence, Efficiency, Teamwork
4. Truthfulness, Honesty, Transparency
5. Social commitment without politics

The emblem:

In the emblem the wavy water represents Karma Yoga, the lotus flower represents Bhakti Yoga, the rising sun represents Jnana Yoga, the coiled serpent represents Raja Yoga, the Swan represents the Supreme Self. The meaning of the ensemble is : by the combined practice of all the four Yogas the Supreme Self is realized. 

Places in Kolkota

Was fortunate to set my foot on the soil of Swami Vivekananda on 13th May 2024