Rural vs urban

I think India must not sing in the tune of west. India urban-rural divide is seen in the light of infrastructure development and economic prosperity. And on those parameters rural India can be lagging behind.

There is another method of doing comparision. That is comparision with the index of happiness and satisfaction level. Rural folks are light years ahead in these index to their urban counterpart.
we should not measure happiness with the luxury stuff that prople accumulate in their entire life...but with the state of mind that produce happyness and bliss. Recently, people are gaga about the stock market boom and then fall into the gloom once sensex dips 1000 points.

They feel robbed and reduced to begger. This is all mind game. People in rural areas are only bothered about their crops and cattles , which is basic requirement for survival. Their loss can traslate into loss of life. But what they have to do if BSE or NSE sensex is crashed? Once a wise man said that sensex is not even affecting 3 percent of India's population and still media is frenzy about it. Larger issue are put at bay and the stock market talks and analysis is beamed at primetime and even live telecast is done.

What a farmer in Dhar has to do with the sensex's rise and fall. He is unaware of such things. Does that mean that he is not happy....hello.... he is much contended than the people who are making millions or billons through stock markets. So what is the magnet that pull people towards such futile worldly game.

Desire for misery ...yes true.... this is as real as craving for pleasure and happiness. So every desire has two sides.... if you have lust for wealth ...then there is also desire to give up all your money and assets. That is why many rich people abondoned wealth and property to pursue the spiritual or religious life. So beware,... growing prosperity in urban india may fuel desire for destruction and poverty and misery.

so blessed are those who have no desires...

enough for now

EGGS

We never imagined even after drinking beer mixed with whiskey when we were there before a year or so. I am not ready to accept it right now even after reading the news in local daily Gujarat Samachar and more even I not believe it after looking at the picture. They more look like stones than eggs, and why they are there? So old, 650 million year. So called modern man (Homo sapiens) is there for last 5000 years and why no one found anything till now and suddenly they found it there and why there only? And what that white chap is doing there in the picture. He is not an Indian I hope. It is good that we Indians are not interested in any such kind of activity, at least like that white man (shown in the picture- may be an anthropologist or a scientist) who does it to earn money also. Nothing done without pure ‘Academic Interest’ can create anything vital and new. We are lucky as far as this is concerned. I am not against white man or his “race” in general. I neither am interested in playing big brother nor am I a racist.

Human inhabitance in that area never ever revealed anything about that but I think those poor tribes are not interested in such activities. Ignorance is bliss. There is no proper Hindi word for Dinosaur or may be I (and tribes) don’t know the word. When I was a kid I was so fascinated by their size that I was never able to accept it afterwards during my adolescent years that they actually lay EGGS. Yes, I mean how can they? They are so big and their eggs smaller than football. Nature is strange and most difficult thing about it is to understand it. Even to give it a try. But we (I and tribes) don’t care. How all this things can happen in such a beautiful place? I don’t want it to happen again. I pray to god that they don’t find more dinosaur eggs there. Fossils, if found there can worsen the situation. Oh Mother Nature please doesn’t let those scientists ruin the beauty of deep jungles of Madhya-Pradesh. I want to go there again and again in coming years and want to go on Narmada Bhraman also. Oh God please ‘Crack’ all those EGGS found in DHAR.

Dhar expedition...

the serial story of Dhar expedition...folks you have read the first episode in Jan 2006...here I bring next episode....when we arrived at Dhar ...

It was a beautiful wednesday afternoon, as soon as we got down from the bus we saw Gyandoot centre right near the bus stand. The centre was open, we happily walked towards the centre. It was, of course, open but there was nobody sitting inside there. We enquired at the neighbouring shops and found that the incharge-cum-owner is out for a personal work and is expected to arrive soon . We waited for about one hour ,then that fellow showed up. His name was ADDULLA. After revealing our purpose of visit to him, we sought his assistance & guidance and he did obliged us with a great pleasure.

We were in hurry to complete the field job in soonest possible time, so without taking rest or break we headed towards Zila panchayat office(ZPO).This was the place where we were suppose to get all informations regarding the Gyandoot project for which we had come to Dhar. We took a autorickshaw and went straight to ZPO. after primilinary enquiry at the office, we went to the CEO office , after waiting for half an hour we were called in. The CEO was young IAS offficer , who was very straight forward and harsh. He demanded for recommendation letter from the Dean of the college, as usual, I did not had it. We tried to coax him, when he did'nt relented, we pleaded him... but all in vain, he said rules are rules and he cannot not be linient for us. Not his fault he was lakeer ka phakeeer .....finally,when he did'nt relented, we left the office dejected. then we came back to bus stand because we wanted to hire a room in a lodge and in fact, all cheap lodges were located near by the bus stand. After vigorous search we found a small dingy room in a cheapest lodge of Dhar for Rs 60 per day. we took rest for about 2-3 hours.

After the brief nap ,we decided to rush to the nearest village around Dhar for our survey; it was 5 o clock in the evening . After much difficulty we boarded on a bus to go a nearby village called Tirla. But after going 8-10 kms when we asked the bus conductor that when we would we reach Tirla village, the conductor got bewildred and told us that we had boarded on wrong bus. We immediately jumped out of the bus. We had no idea where we were. Then we started walking backwards probably towards Dhar. It was was around 6pm and the roads were deserted, hardly there were any vehicle running on the road. So on the way we enquired about the Gyandoot centre, but there was none on the way.

But soon we realize that our mistake turned out to be blessings as the nature was at its best mood .....birds were chirping ....Anando baba (first line of the poem which never got completed)...sun was at the horizon staring at us, the sky was crimson, cool breeze was blowing , beautiful landscape looked like frozen tides .The view was really mesmerizing... we could not resist the temptation and we started dancing and singing ( virtually)....enjoying every moment and we strolled forward ....on the way we found a beautiful temple of god Hanumanji ( I am a staunch devotee of Bajarangbali, and Sabu propounds the concept of celibacy) we went there for a Darshan and said prayers and took some snapshots. The temple had vibrations of peace and compassion all around. It seemed that god was really residing there.

After spending some time there we resumed our journey. After plodding for about two hours we reached to Dhar, we both were mentally & physically drained. We had no energy left...so how to recharge ourself?? we thought... tadi or quateriya,,,, han....han ...quateriya ...there was clear consensus. That is the only way we could rejuvenate ourself .......so we directly went to the wine shop bought one beer and a DSP quarter. After buying chakhna( biting), we went to our lodge started partying......for about two hours. Then came down to have food. we had it in prachur matra! then again went around exploring the town at night. Then came back to our suite (lodge) and fell on the bed like a log (kate ped ki tarah) and went in comma for about 10 hours....next day kya hua...to be continued

Images -Dhar

finally arrived in dhar after journey of a million miles

city of raja bhoj and pictures taken by gangutalis

shahjaha was here and after that tajmahal was there

idiots around

nature calling

end of day and a new dawn