God save us from these 'godmen'

So Baba Ram Rahim is behind bars. The wily, self-proclaimed godman tried every trick, fair and foul – mostly foul - in his bag to scuttle fair investigations and trial. But thanks to upright CBI officials and above all, the gritty, incorruptible judge Mr Justice Jagdeep Singh, the long arm of the law did finally catch up with the ‘rapist’. And now we are being served an overfill of the spine chilling stories of alleged murders and sexual exploitation of young, gullible Sadhvis including the ‘witness no. 10’ who stood firm and didn’t buckle under threats, intimidation and blackmail. Hats off to this brave woman! We must also salute the intrepid journalist Ram Chander Chattarpati who dared to expose the dirty shenanigans in the ‘gufa’ and publish victim Sadhvi’s anonymous letter in his evening newspaper that cost him his life allegedly at the hands of Baba’s goons. His heroic son Anshul Chattarpati is equally deserving of admiration and applause for fighting the case in a law court putting his own life at grave risk. But for these bravehearts Baba Ram Rahim ‘Insan’ would easily have escaped the clutches of law and continued to enjoy the luxuries, comforts and the (filthy)  good life in his den, with  a battery of young Sadhvis at his command to satiate his sexual lust. Obviously his was a life of depraved luxury that in some ways even the Rajas and Maharajas of yore would be jealous of! (Doesn't in some vague, eerie way his story remind us of the panchtantra tale where the lion in the habit of having an animal a day for his meal is led to the 'well of death' by the clever hare?)

Looking back at this ‘Baba’ saga, I feel that what makes the society a healthy one, what makes the country robust and great, is not the high and mighty, the rich and the powerful. It is such common people from our midst imbued with idealism, courage, spirit of sacrifice, heroism, daring, fortitude, character and  sense of duty that do us proud. For me these men and women are more deserving of worship and reverence than even the very gods. With all my heart, I bow to them and salute them with undiluted admiration. Mr Justice Jagdeep Singh, the Chatterpatis, the investigating team of CBI officials, the prosecution lawyer, the two Sadhvis, brother of one of the Sadhvi victims, her in-laws and other family members: We are proud of you and salute you all. You are the role models for us. You are the torchbearers for us. You are our source of undying inspiration. May your tribe increase! 

==

Having said this, I must also hasten to say that not all sects and maths are bad. Some of them are doing outstanding work for public good. Ramakrishna Mission and Mother Teresa’s Nirmal Hriday for instance. But problems arise when under the veneer of public good, driven by hubris and over-ambition, greed and lust, and a sense of invincibility, the presiding deities of some organisations practice a vicious agenda of exploitation and crime. When conmen masquerade as godmen and are able to build a massive cult following by hoodwinking gullible masses. Then, in order to expand their power and sweep, they  start bedding politicians. And the politicians in turn use their huge mass following for electoral gains. Baba Ram Rahim is a telling example of this unholy wedlock. Tell me which party politician has not prostrated before him or  has not desired so? Nearer home, our own state’s political bigwigs have paid him obeisance during his visits to Himachal. Some of them openly attend the congregations of the Babas visiting the state, make public show of it and take pride in getting photographed with them. (I personally know of a Vice-Chancellor of a well-known university taking pains to have  a holy word, a sacred mantra breathed into his ears by a 'holy man' – which doesn’t come free - for prosperity and to ward off evil! And as we all know, Baba Ram Rahim has been feted, pampered and even paid huge sums of taxpayers’ money by several politicians as reported in the media. What a shame! What callous disregard to our hard earned money!

Therefore, to conclude, I would sincerely urge my dear fellow countrymen, the youth in particular, to come out of this goddam godman fixation. We are living in the 21^st century and not in a stone age. Let us shed this medieval mind-set. It is the age of science. Let’s draw a line between superstitious beliefs and blind faith on the one hand, and a spiritual but rational and a scientific temper on the other. Let’s not fall prey to these fake fakirs.  Religion and spirituality are wonderful when followed and practised in private. But things get bad when driven by herd mentality we surrender ourselves unthinkingly before the conmen.

It is only when we shed this old baggage of superstition and gullibility that we could move forward and stand tall and proud in the comity of nations.

                                          

                                                                           ***

Photofeature

How green is my valley: An enchanting trip to Jia/Badsar/Dhanauta

                                 

On a grey, rain-free, late, mid-August morning, I set off with my two dear friends RG and Satinder to explore and savour the lushness of a relatively lesser known part of our green valley. Taking the Palampur-Dharamsala-via-Nagri road we diverted towards the right after Gopalpur, taking the Jia road. The view was fabulous. As we looked down below, to our left, there lay before us on the nature’s large canvas the sprawling Jia valley enveloped in purest emerald. The terraced fields dotted with trees with red, green, and grey-roofed houses interspersed here and there presented a magnificent spectacle. Far in the north we could glimpse a serpentine white ribbon of a stream streaking down a hill slope. There was a shroud of mist all around preventing good view of the Dhauladhar and also making it difficult to take good pictures. But at the same time this sheet of mist and fog had lent an aura of ethereal, surreal charm to the whole landscape. Monsoon clouds hung thick, dark and low over the sky and clung to the Dhauladhar as if as a matter of right. Having disembarked from the car, we spent time taking in the entire view, feasting our eyes and souls, and clicking photos to our heart’s content. Then we made it to a roadside hotel nearby, ‘The Whispering Pines’, stretched our limbs sitting on a roof top and sipped lemon tea. The tea was indeed good and refreshing.

Then leaving the Jia road, we headed off to the right towards the Tibetan monastery nestling in the nature’s wilderness. The verdant green of the meadows, the dainty little Paharan girls with their sheep and rain-weary umbrellas, clouds hanging low and surveying the scene, the all-pervading calm and soothing quietude made it look like a perfect ‘picture post-card’ scene. It seemed like being altogether in a different world, the world of peace and bliss away from the cacophony and chaos of city life.

A Gurudwara still under construction lay about a 100 meters ahead of the monastery. We opted to go there first. At the very entrance there was a shrine to our left. We walked in and paid our respectful obeisance. There, we got talking to one of the staff, genial Shri Vijay Singh, who filled us in with the history and other details of the Gurudwara. On his suggestion we went trudging down to the cave, Anand Gufa where Baba Nanak Singh Kaleranwale, we were told, had done his penance and meditation. Later we went through the Gurudwara and, being now hungry, gorged on the simple but very enjoyable prashad of dal-roti to our full satisfaction. Clouds had by now ganged up against us setting off a drizzle. Therefore we hurried to the monastery resplendent in vibrant colours, clicked pictures of the stupa, the magnificent image of the Budha standing tall and erect and of the main sanctum. It was now time to bid adieu. Refreshed and happy, detoxified and feeling blessed by the divine caresses of nature at its most sublime and beautiful, we were now heading back home.

==

When sad and sullen, lonely and lonesome - for whatever reason - or even feeling the itch to just spend a few soul-enriching moments in the lap of nature at its purest, I/we strongly recommend this short outing, not too far away from your Palampur town. If you are a good, cheerful company (and not tied-up in self-made knots), I could join in too!!!

ठंडी ठंडी हवा चलदी ओ झुलदे चीलाँ दे डालू , जीणा काँगड़े दा !

                                                ***

Lessons we must learn from Kotrupi tragedy:

Wanted a new, 'green' agenda of development

The Kotrupi tragedy is heart-rending. Imagine the entire hill sliding and cascading down with tons of muck, boulders and trees and wreaking death and destruction of such huge proportions. Grim and chilling as it is, it speaks of the shape of things to come in future. It is both a reminder and a lesson which we will choose to neglect at our own peril: Nature neither forgives nor forgets. If we tinker and mess with it, take undue liberties, fell trees, hack the hills, blast them, dynamite them, mine them, then be ready for catastrophes. Quite obviously, the Kotrupi’s is less a natural disaster and more a man-made one.

Therefore, unless we mend our ways, unless we reorient, redesign, refashion our flawed developmental models, such unfortunate disasters will keep on happening. So long as the construction activities of all kinds – buildings, roads, bridges, tunnels, dams for hydroelectricity - will be planned, designed and executed in the usual shoddy, unscientific manner without the least regard to the strata, geology, hill slope, ecological viability, sustainability, proper disposal of debris, such disasters will recur with only greater intensity and frequency. Until and unless in our mindless race towards urbanisation we don’t evolve eco-friendly pathways and learn to respect mother nature and live in harmony with it, such gory stories of death and destruction will keep on revisiting us. So long as we don’t shed our hubris and contractor-like mind-set of “just build; damn the environment, damn the fragile nature of the hills, damn the environmental fall-out” - nature, furious and frustrated, sick and tired, unable to bear it any more - will strike again and again. So long as the governments will let illegal, unauthorized and wilful constructions defying laws and norms go on and on and even regularise them for selfish electoral gains caring two hoots for ecology and environment, these tragic dramas will keep on happening.  Millions of rupees of tax payers’ hard earned money would keep on getting spent on building and creating ecologically unsustainable roads, seismically unfit edifices and all kinds of faulty infrastructure, and then many more millions would be spent on the relief and rescue missions and rebuilding  what has been lost, post calamity. And thus vicious cycle of death, destruction, economic and environmental loss would keep on repeating itself.

Therefore the need of the hour is to have a serious rethink, a complete overhaul of our mind-sets. Let a new crop of 'green' polticians now take over. Let there be a complete switch-over to an ecologically robust, environment-friendly, ‘green’ agenda of development. No other state needs it more urgently and immediately than our hill state: Himachal Pradesh.

                                                *

Where are "Palampur will be a district" rumour-mongers?

                                          

What happened to the buzz, noise and bluster about Palampur being declared a district on the Independence Day? A typical case of bang ending in a whimper? Well, I for one, shed no tears over it. Palampur has been spared further erosion of its ecology. No deodars, pines, tuhnis, beeuls, bauhinias, jacarandas, and other trees that dot this valley will come under the axe in the name of making it a district. No tea gardens will be erased. No JCBs and earth-moving machines will reverberate and echo around us. No hill slopes will be cut, nor will mounds of soil, rock, stone and boulder be dumped on the banks of our already choked khuds. Palampur, already showing signs of environmental stress, has been spared some more life with relatively better green cover, better air quality, some sanity, some tranquillity and less pollution, less congestion. But for how long? Anyway, so far so good.

जीणा काँगड़े दा 

How green is my valley!

***

Yes, Palampur doesn’t even need  a Corporation

I write this piece in continuation of last week’s post. While making my case against Palampur’s supposed upgradation to a district primarily owing to environmental concerns, I had suggested a Municipal Corporation as a possible alternative or a way out without applying my mind fully to the full extent of the negative fall-out of the proposed alternative. Last Sunday, on a rather languid, soggy, bedraggled afternoon I got chatting to a dear friend– a diehard Palampur and nature lover who fumes, frets and worries a lot about Palampur’s rapid decline towards a nightmarish ghastly urban ugliness. Apart from sharing his valuable thoughts on books he had recently read and relished, and wanted me to read without fail, we got talking about my last week’s blog. I was glad to know that my views on the subject of district status to Palampur had found an echo and resonance with him. We agreed how our politicians in cahoots with the powerful business lobby and those with vested interests have conspired to trumpet a tailor-made kind of ‘developmental agenda’ to just promote commercial and business interests with scant regard to – or rather at a huge price of – destroying the precious natural assets that our state and this  valley of ours is endowed with. Thus unchecked, unregulated, haphazard, and frenetic construction activity here, there and everywhere, including even on the narrow banks of khuds, defying law, defying common sense - forget about aesthetics - goes on and on… without any let up. While the politicians - whose moral and public duty it is to ensure that basic natural integrity and ecology of the hill state and that of the town remain unsullied and intact - look the other way. So do the officials whose job it is to enforce the laid-down rules and regulations without fear and favour. Well, when commerce, business, bucks, getting-rich-quick become the guiding mantras of ‘development’ this slide towards concretization and ugliness becomes an inescapable, painful reality. Be that as it may, I dare say that our politicians have let us down; they have failed us. Above all they have failed our Pradesh. No prizes for guessing how the comming generations will rate us all and what choicest expletives will they have for us for having ruined the intrinsic beauty of this hill state.

I do sincerely hope that the old guard now opts  for a political vanprastha. They have had enough of their share of the power cake. Let a fresh crop of young brilliant and vibrant minds surcharged with energy and idealism with a grand vision of a green and beautiful Himachal now take over.

Coming back to the central point. As rightly opined by my friend whose insightful views I value a lot, as well as a few other enlightened friends, well, even the idea of a Municipal Corporation for this small town is flawed and fallacious. I agree with their viewpoint that Palampur is too small a town for such a monolith. It would do more harm and good. We know how the other MCs are doing in our state including our capital town. Closer home, the CEO of MC Dharamsala Mr Lalit Jain who was being proactive in taking on the McLeod Ganj’s  hotel lobby, unscrupulous builders and other illegal operators has been in the eye of storm lately for his ‘misdemeanours’. Alarmed and feeling threatened, the coterie prevailed on the political leadership to strip him of all the powers except the garbage disposal job. And now, finally, he has been shunted out. When Corporations and such bodies become mere handmaidens of the mighty and powerful and cater to their agenda of greed rather than working for the general public good under the ambit of law, then they become mere ugly, white elephants.  Therefore Palampur is certainly better off without one.

Instead, the sane and sensible thing would be the expansion of municipal limits of Palampur. It has so far been restricted to just the cramped confines of Palampur town, lorded over by the handful. And there are vested interests at work to stifle the ever-growing clamour and demand for the municipality’s expansion. It is already too late. The need of the hour is to purge it of the deadwood and expand its limits. It is the suburbs of the town where the bulk of Palampurwallas live. It is these areas: Ghugar, Aima, Sughar, Bundla, Lohna, the University, Kalu-di-Hatti, Chowki and Maranda which need to be embraced within the committee to provide for proper civic amenities and monitor and regulate developmental works preventing encroachments and haphazard constructions.

Therefore instead of pulling in different directions let’s all jointly stand for just one and only demand which is practical, feasible, doable and sensible: Expansion of Municipal limits of Palampur.

Such natural catastrophes will become more frequent and devastating with degrading ecology of our hills and mountains...Palampur included...at huge environmental and economic costs: Let's conserve and preserve.

                                *

                       Of Love 

I finished reading Elif Shafak’s book, ‘Forty Rules of Love’ early this week. It has been one of the finest books I have read so far. The story is simple but lucidly woven into a wholesome, heart-nourishing read. It revolves round a middle- aged homemaker American woman Ella Rubinstein leading a settled life of contentment and middle-class comfort with her husband and three children…contentment yes,  but with an undercurrent of monotony perhaps. That’s why when she happens to read a manuscript that lands on her table for a review, her life and the very philosophy of it undergo an upheaval…a sea change. Laced with Sufism and Rumi’s heart-tugging poetry, Ella is jolted by its beauty and wonder resulting in a quiet transformation in her. As her reading the MS progresses she falls more and more under the spell of its author. Finally, she rebels and spurred by the dictates of her heart - rather than head - goes on a voyage of love…unconditional love; and fulfilment.

As I said before the narrative is lucid, gripping and poetic. In the present times of crass commercialism, intolerance, lack of depth, warmth and richness in our daily, market-driven, unidimensional, cosmetic, robotic lives, our flashy, insipid lifestyles without music,  without poetry, without books, without birdsong, without a view of the first ray of the rising sun or the crimson hues of the westerly sun, heartlessness and above all lack of unconditional love in all its magnificent dimensions, reading this book becomes such an elixir for the soul. In fact after reading the book, one would feel like falling in love over and over again! And with a bit of Sufism now running in my veins I daresay that I know of many friends around, whom I deeply adore, admire and value, who are excellent, exquisite human beings, who would blossom so much more but for  a touch and spark of LOVE.

Perhaps you may be quite sick and tired of this 'overdose'  on my part as my outpourings on this theme have become rather monotonously frequent and repetitive.

But even at the cost of boring you here is one more quote:

“A life without love is of no account. Don’t ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, Eastern or Western…Divisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions. It is what it is, pure and simple.

“Love is water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire!

“The universe turns differently when fire loves water.”

                                             ***

     Should Palampur be a district?

Will Palampur finally become a district? The rumour is hot and making rounds on the social networking sites.  The buzz is that with the Assembly elections round the corner, on August 15 when the nation celebrates Independence Day, our CM will make the grand announcement to this effect. Apart from Municipal Corporation, Palampur’s elevation to the status of a district has been a long standing, actively pursued demand of a section of Palampur’s citizenry. Obviously they will have reasons to feel happy if this happens so.

Well, whether indeed this happens so is, at the moment, a matter of pure conjecture and speculation and we shall have to wait until the D-day just a few days away. But may I please share my thoughts on the subject?

Should Palampur really be made a district? I have my reservations. The politicians will of course look at it from their own narrow perspective: whether the political fall-out will serve their electoral ambitions in the forthcoming elections. I look at it as a common Palampur resident without any political bias.

Firstly, Himachal’s economy is in dire straits. Reeling under huge debt burden it is already surviving on artificial respiration. Will it be prudent to burden the state further by creating more districts?

Secondly, what will be the environmental costs of creating a district? Construction activity will pick up. More trees will come under the axe. More concrete monstrosities will come up. The already depleting green cover will shrink even further. The rapidly eroding ecology of this beautiful town will degrade further. District status to Palampur will trigger further migration from our rural hinterlands to the town thereby adding to the population pressure. Civic amenities will come under greater stress and ultimately become painfully deficient:think of the urban chaos Shimla has become. Traffic will increase, congestion will mount, pollution will add up.  And already warming Palampur will become warmer still. Earlier the residents lived without fans. Then fans became an integral part of our homes. With mounting urbanisation that would inevitably result, the ACs will become necessary. In short, quite a lot of whatever little is left of Palampur’s natural beauty and its Switzerland like charm will suffer a major loss in the wake of making it a district.
Moreover, if Palampur and some other town such as Rampur are made districts as is in the air, this will trigger demand from other towns too staking similar claims leading to anger, heartburn, resentment, frustration, bitterness and unnecessary noise. और हमारे नेता लोगान  को अपनी अपनी राजनैतिक रोटियाँ सेकने का सुनहरी अवसर मिल जाएगा। We have already begun seeing a glimpse of it in the print media.

Dharamsala, the present headquarters of our Kangra district, is just a 30-40 minutes’ drive from Palampur. In these days of better and improving roads and faster vehicles what does this distance matter? And for the people from remote/ distant rural areas who it is argued find it difficult and tedious to travel all the way to Dharamsala for getting their odd jobs done in the district offices, I don’t think Palampur or Dharamsala makes any tangible difference.

Yes, catapulting Palampur to a district will certainly boost business and commerce. People with stakes in these kind of activities will stand to benefit from it. But at inevitable environmental costs which do not become immediately visible but can be huge and with devastating consequences in terms of landslides, hills caving in, tress falling, roads and bridges getting washed away, flash floods becoming more frequent and intense, houses collapsing, cloud bursts, crop loss, death and destruction.

Therefore, for me rather than making Palampur a district, increasing the municipal limits of Palampur and making the present MC a full-fledged Corporation seems a far more sensible and rational proposition. That would I believe ensure better, efficient and well-regulated ‘development’ of Palampur without inflicting much ecological and environmental loss.

But, as I said before, this is but an honest, humble voice of a commoner. In echelons of power with high stake political games, do such voices cut any ice? I think not.

                                              

                                

                                *

   Quotes from 'The forty rules of love'

As I wrote before, this is the book that I am hooked on to these rain-drenched days. I take the liberty to reproduce a few quotes for your reading pleasure:

"In many ways the twenty-first century is not that different from the thirteenth century. Both will be recorded in history as times of unprecedented religious clashes, cultural misunderstangings, and a general sense of insecurity and fear of the Other. At times like these, the need for love is greater than ever. Because love is the very essence and purpose of life. As Rumi reminds us, it hits everybody, including those who shun love- even those who use the word 'romantic' as a sign of disapproval." 

                                               

                                               *

"Even a speck of love should not go unappreciated, because as Rumi said, love is the water of life... Submission is a form of peaceful acceptance of the terms of the universe, including the things we are currently unable to change or comprehend... May love find you when you least accept it, where you least expect."

                                             ***

                      

                                                         

      My tryst with a private hospital

One summer day, trudging long, bumpy, serpentine miles, I landed at an elite private hospital in Haryana on a sad and sultry morn with a slightly enlarged prostate. The hospital’s name and fame, and above all, my personal acquaintance with the doctor had made me brush aside other options. Neither a reasonably good private hospital in my own hometown nor even top ones in the neighbouring Panjab or the UT could override the wisdom and logic of this choice.

I underwent the suggested blood and urine tests with alacrity and willing readiness in the squeaky-clean, AC-cooled environs with the smartly turned out, eye-pleasing staff making it all look so crisp and cool. The reports came out normal and I went in a relaxed, happy frame of mind on the scheduled day for the last of the tests– ‘prostate biopsy’.

Though a little embarrassing, the young lady doctor deputed for biopsy made the thrust of the ‘sample probe’ feel less painful with her soft, comforting words. But the real pain came when my better half, looking distraught, brought the bill. It was a hefty 46000 rupees and not “15000 or so” as I had been informed earlier, albeit casually and speculatively. Stretched on a bed and horrified, I asked her to have it rechecked for errors. “No, it is absolutely correct, they say,” she said returning moments later, shaken and sad. Since my discharge had already been overly delayed and we had to leave, I paid the bill, vowing to seek clarification on my next visit.

My next visit happened about two weeks later. The biopsy report was ok, and my (personally known) doctor prescribed me the medicine with the ususal 'dos and don’ts'. After thanking him I told him in a mildly complaining tone about the bill. “46,000?” he said, visibly surprised. But, oddly, to my consternation, a moment later, thumbing through the papers, he began bamboozling me with medical jargon and concluded that the amount charged was in fact correct and in order. When I tried to reason out, he lost his cool. “You are a very strange fellow?! Why don’t you understand? Didn’t I tell you the cost escalation is because of 12 samples instead of six?” Crestfallen, I  collected my papers and hastened out of the room. Heading straight to the office  I then confronted the billing official. He too tried to obfuscate and evade the issue. But I persisted, pestering him to justify these charges and the yawning difference with the cost mentioned earlier. Finding me upset and undeterred, good sense prevailed over him and he got busy on the phone making enquiries. Finally, looking up, he mumbled, “You will get some refund,” adding after a pause, “about 22 thousand rupees.”  Our anxious wait in the lobby ended when he returned many long minutes later and told us that the refund due to me was 28000 rupees. Overwhelmed and joyous, with my pocket thus warmed with this tidy sum, I thanked him profusely for his efforts and for seeing reason. Next, we hurried to a mall, shopped and watched our own Kangna Ranaut’s new movie TWMR, and triumphantly drove back home next morning.

Later, I took up with the hospital’s MD the matter of overbilling and the likely fate of the gullible patients descending on this hospital with trust and hope. The MD was candid in admitting error and profuse in uttering apologies. But my subsequent queries specifically about the doctor’s fake justification and a further claim of refund (for, serendipitously, I had found proof of another patient charged much less for the same procedure), was answered with a grim, stony silence.

Well the reply never came despite reminders. But the bold, vibrant slogans on the hospital site – “ethical, humane and transparent work culture”, “compassionate care”- resonate and resound in my ears causing anguish and pain.

Moral of the story: Don’t take slogans and mottos at their face value, more so when it relates to corporate hospitals.

                                               *

The book I finished reading this month

                                                       *

The book I am reading now

                              *

Next-to-read books on the shelf

***

Snake helpline: Letter to the Vice-Chancellor, Dr Ashok Sarial

Respected Vice-Chancellor Dr Sarial ji,

At the very outset I would like to compliment and commend you for your able stewardship and ensuring smooth and efficient running of the University. I say this not just from a rather narrow viewpoint that you have so far ensured timely and regular disbursement of wages/pension to us  but also because during your tenure the University has been in the news for all the good reasons and has not been bogged down by unseemly and unhealthy controversies.

That said, I would like to come to the primary objective of my addressing you this communication. This relates to a public issue where the University can provide a direly needed service.

As you yourself might be quite aware, during the summers, particularly when the monsoon is at its peak, the number of man-snake encounters touches an all-time high. Innumerable cases of snake bites with quite a good number of them leading to deaths become recurring news in the media. The deaths are due to ignorance about and delay in obtaining immediate first aid, superstitious beliefs leading to unscientific quick-fix measures at the local level instead of rushing to the hospital and so on. What is more, the snake capturers have a field day exploiting the fear and panic aroused by the sudden appearance of a snake in or around a house and charging huge amounts of money for snake capture. I personally know of a case in Palampur a few years back when a snake sneaked into the closed courtyard of a prominent local resident. At once a snake capturer was summoned from a distant place who charged a tidy and incredible 40,000 rupees and some additional money for the “मणि” too, which I know for sure, doesn’t actually exist except in mythological stories and in the imagination of people!

It is in this context that I solicit your kind help. I know it for a fact that earlier the Veterinary College of our University had put in place a ‘snake helpline’ with a phone number to contact in case of a snake making an appearance in or around any household. A team of bright and brilliant PG students lead by public-spirited faculty members were handling the helpline. Despite constraints and limited means, it was providing excellent help and support to the people of the area. However, sadly, as of now, this helpline has become defunct and doesn’t exist anymore.

Sir, if through your kind initiative, this helpline could be revived, it would serve a great social purpose. If ready help is thus made available, it would help reduce snake bite cases and mitigate the suffering and exploitation of people. Further, it would also have a conservational value as many snakes even if non-venomous that are killed simply out of scare and panic, would then be saved by the capture-release strategy such a helpline team would obviously follow.

For this to happen, some Vet students could perhaps be sent to herpetology centres in the country for proper training on a regular basis and it could also be made a part of course curriculum.

Personally, I strongly feel that the academic institutes  - such as the prestigious Agricultural University of ours - besides concentrating on the prescribed objectives in the fields of teaching, research and extension education etc (which it is executing with dedication and commitment) must also have some local social focus as well. By this I mean that instead of existing in a kind of academic cacoon, the institutes should utilize their physical and human resources for addressing the local environmental, conservational and public issues of the area also, to the extent possible. Naturally therefore, a snake helpline would be a welcome step in that direction which could perhaps be expanded to also include monkeys, stray dogs and cattle  later on with active public participation.

I am sure Sir, that being a public-spirited person that you are, you will kindly give due consideration to my humble submission above. And I am very sure that with your kind efforts we shall soon have an active and effective ‘snake helpline’ in place, for which, needless to say, we all shall feel immensely grateful to you.

With best wishes and regards,
With warm regards,

Subhash Sharma  

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Sun set at Palampur

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Gudiya Rape Case: What a shame!

                                         

The 'Gudiya Rape Case' makes me hang my head in total  shame

As I pray for peace and justice with frozen tears and heart aflame

Can we humans be so depraved, so brutal and so violent?

I shudder and squirm with moans and cries intense but silent

Even our gods above writhe in horror and shed many a tear

And the blood-soaked  Mother Earth shakes with rage and fear

"We made you in our own image", the gods loudly yell,

"Curse on you to descend to such depths of stinking hell."

Let all Gudiyas  sing and smile, and dream and dance

Let's make this world a home of love where hatred has no chance

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