Lalla Ded's Poetry: Questioning Conventions
By Dr. Nyla Ali Khan

While researching Lalla-Ded as a mystic and a poet, I found Sir Richard Carnac Temple's heart- warming translations of Lalla-Ded's verses. I was particularly inspired by the one in which the self is highlighted as the cure of all spiritual, physical, mental, and material afflictions:

Lady, rise and offer to the Name,
Bearing in thy hand the flesh and wine.
Such shall never bring thee loss and shame,
Be it of no custom that is thine.

This they know for Knowledge that have found-
Be the loud Cry from His Place but heard-
Unity Betwixt the Lord and Sound,
Just as Sound hath unison with Word.

Feed thy fatted rams, thou worldly one,
Take them grain and dainties, and then slay.
Give thy thoughts that reek with "said and done"
Last-fruits of Knowledge, and cast away.

Then shalt see with Spirit-eyes the Place
Where the dwelling of the Lord shall be:
Then shall pass thy terrors of disgrace:
Then shall Custom lose her hold on thee.

"Think not on the things that are without,
Fix upon thy inner self thy Thought:
So shalt thou be freed from let or doubt":-
Precepts these that my Preceptor taught.

Dance then, Lalla, clothed but by air:
Sing, then, Lalla, clad but in the sky.

Air and sky: what garment is more fair?
"Cloth" saith Custom. Doth that sanctify? (The Word of Lalla the Prophetess. London: Cambridge UP, 1924. 172-173)
Lalla-Ded was a visionary whose promethean verses broke the intractable frameworks of conventional thought and behavior that pinioned the self. She preempted the modern day psychoanalytic promulgation of the concept of self-awareness. Recognizing one's strengths and weaknesses enables one to pave the tortuous path toward self-advancement-a much sought after goal that would allow people of different intellectual dispositions to relegate life's peripherals to the background and face the vicissitudes of fate with courage and faith in themselves. It is a herculean task not just to recognize the self but to channelize the confidence the said recognition fosters. Self-awareness enabled Lalla-Ded to practice religious, cultural, and social iconoclasm in an idolatrous and cult-worshipping society, unobstructed by a false consciousness.
Again, anticipating the psychoanalytic emphasis on maintaining objectivity and verbalizing destructive emotions in order to defang them, Lalla-Ded exhorts the believer to,

Keep thy mind calm as the Peaceful Sea,
Slaking and quenching the fires of Wrath,
Lest from thy bondage thou set them free
And the words of rage, as flames, break forth:

Words that shall sear, as with fire, thy mind
Burnt in anger to be healed in ruth.
What are they? Nothing. Nothing but wind,
When thou hast weighed them in scales of Truth.
(Richard Carnac Temple, The Word of Lalla, 181)

In an age in which the culture was pervaded with conservative sensibilities, well-defined gender roles, and the confinement of women to home and hearth, Lalla-Ded's blatant mockery of constrictive conventions was condemned by the upholders of the hegemonic order. Her honed self-knowledge and sublimation of needs highlighted by society taught Lalla to maintain an unscarred mind in the face of thoughtless condemnation and adversity. Critical intelligence, particularly when expressed by a woman to break down societal, religious, and cultural edifices, has always been intimidating and has invited virulent criticism, as it did in Lalla's case. The ravages of time and the putative liberation of women in the twenty-first century haven't diminished the potency of Lalla-Ded's radicalism, the tangible beauty of her poetry, and its pertinence in this day and age.
It is also believed that Lalla-Ded met and held discourses on mysticism and on the different schools of Sufi thought with Mir Syed Ali Hamadani, Shah Hamadan, a regal central Asian Islamic scholar and mystic, who disseminated and perpetuated Islamic teachings in predominantly Brahminaical 14th and 15th century Kashmir. In fact, educated Kashmiri Muslims are of the firm opinion that the verses which Lalla-Ded composed after having forged a spiritual alliance with Shah Hamadan and other Muslim scholars reverberate with Islamic thought: "Lalla fills her teaching with many things that are common to all religious philosophy. There are in it many touches of Vaishnavism, the great rival of Shaivism, much that is reminiscent of the doctrines and methods of the Muhammadan S–fŒs, who were in India and Kashmir well before her day, and teaching that might be Christian with Biblical analogies, though the Indians' knowledge of Christianity, if any, must have been very remote and indirect at her date" (Richard Carnac Temple, The Word of Lalla 165). Lalla-Ded's secular and anachronistic teachings were a death knell for orthodox religion. Sheikh Noor-ud-din Wali placed Lalla-Ded in the role of the mother who honed his knowledge of the ethos of Kashmir (Bamzai, 1994; Murphy, 1999; Parimoo, 1987).
Through her poetry Lalla-Ded questioned restrictive cultural mores, religious, social, economic, and gender hierarchies, and the relevance of esoteric knowledge. The true devotee, from the non-dualist point of view, "is one who recognizes that He is all in all and that all creation and all experiences are but modes of Him" (Richard Carnac Temple, The Word of Lalla, 169).
Lalla-Ded's ability to challenge the oppressiveness created by the nexus between the institutions of patriarchy and capitalism enabled her to acknowledge the marginalized classes of society. For instance, Lalla-Ded foregrounds the work of artisans and peasants, which hitherto had been relegated to the background, in the following verse:

Lal ba drayas kapas poshi satsuy
Katsi tu dooni karnam yatsay lath
Tuy yeli khaernas zaeviji tuye
Vovuri vaana gayam alaeney lath,
Dwobi yeli chhaevnas dwobi Kani pethay
Saz ta saaban mathsnam yatsuy
Sutsi yeli phirnam hani hani kaetsuy
Ada Lali me praevum paran gath

I, Lal, set out, hoping to bloom like a cotton flower,
But was beaten and trampled by ginner and carder,
Shredded and spun into so fine a yarn,
And hung and hit by a weaver on his loom,

Thrashed and kneaded on the washerman's stone,
Pasted and plastered with soap and clayey earth,
Till the tailor's skilful scissors worked on my limbs,
And I found my place in the highest Abode!
(Translated by Professor Neerja Matto)
Lalla-Ded does not allow her vision of reality to be clouded by an idyllic mysticism. On the contrary, Lalla-Ded's visceral poetry and the fluidity of her language creates ripples in the stagnant pools of tradition and fumigates the sewers of power.
Here is another example of Lalla-Ded's erosion of monolithic religious and political structures:
Deev vatta divar vatta
Petha bon chhuy ikavaath
Pooz Kas karakh hutta Batta
Kar manas tu pavans sangaath

Your idol is stone, the temple a stone too-
All a stone bound together from top to toe!
What is it you worship, you dense Brahmin?
True worship must bind the vital air of the heart to the mind.
(Translated by Professor Neerja Matto, "Lalla-Ded as the Voice of the Marginalized")

Lalla-Ded shatters the complacency of the priest who exploits the ignorant, poor, and superstitious masses. She mocks religiosity and conformity to rituals and insipid traditions that diminish the spiritual aspect of faith in the Unseen. Lalla-Ded's unequivocal condemnation of the self-importance and hypocrisy of the Brahmin priest surpasses the language in the world of conventional women. Her syncretic faith transcended barriers of religion, religious hierarchies, and race. Although, Lalla-Ded's gender and social position did not endow her with authority, she did not hesitate to challenge social, gender, and religious constructs, which underscored the privilege of the few and enabled the subservience of the many.
*(Grand-daughter of Sheikh Abdullah, Nyla Ali Khan is Assistant Professor, Department of English in University of Nebraska, Kearney, USA).

Mesmerising Manasbal Gets A Facelift, At Last
Athar Parvaiz

Just 30 kilometers drive from Srinagar city, the Manasbal Lake is waiting to act as an alternative for those who might be feeling fed up with the growing pollution of the Dal Lake. Situated at the countryside at a quiet place, the Lake is beautifully nestled in the bosom of bewitching Krosh peak which stands at a height of 10,300 ft. above sea level.
The serene atmosphere around, while having a boat trip in the comparatively clean waters of this lake, gives such a soothing sensation that one hardly thinks about anything else. There are no houseboats to obstruct your vision if you stretch your looks around; and there are no honking horns of vehicles to jar on your ears. This tourist spot, which is the nearest tourist destination from Srinagar, appears to be the most ideal place for a weekend outing after a week-long tight schedule.
The Lake and its surroundings have got a tremendous face lift in the recent times which has made it even more attractive. This area has got an incredible potential to get developed as one of the major tourist destinations provided the necessary tourism infrastructure is put in place to make it happen.
There seems to be a lack of awareness even among the local tourists about this beautiful Lake, not to talk of the outside tourists. After having a visit to this place, one strongly believes that it should be advertised as one of the pick tourist destinations of the valley. "Manasbal Lake has dimensions of about 11 square kilometers and is 13 to 15 meters deep. This is the deepest lake in the Jammu & Kashmir and known for its cleanest form of water, water nuts, lotus roots, flowers and under-water springs. the underground perennial springs, which are believed to be 1200 in number, are the main sources of water in Manasbal lake", says Nazir Ahmad Mir, the Chief Executive Officer of Wullar-Manasbal Development Authority.
"Ours is the newly constituted development authority and we have virtually started functioning from July, 16, 2006. During this period, we only got seven month's working season, but thank God we were able to execute most of the works which, we felt, needed to be immediately done. A large-scale encroachment on the periphery of Manasbal lake in Gratabal and Qazibagh areas in the form of hundreds of trees, vegetable gardens, toilets, residential structures, garbage dumping sites etc; have been removed and the area has been fenced to avoid any future encroachment.
Further landscaping around the Lake has also been carried out and the margins of the approach paths to the Lake have been designed in such a fashion that they present beautiful scenery thereby forming the ideal ambience to gorgeous lake. Landscaping at the periphery of frontal side of the Lake, along the pedestrian walkway, has been ideally designed to welcome the tourists. The walkway has been further extended on the peripheries in order to make demarcation and to save the lake from further encroachments by the inhabitants of surrounding villages.
The restoration and up-gradation of an ancient Shiv temple, on the eastern shore of the lake, is bound to attract religious tourists to the site. According to Mir construction of Manasbal Club and Sports Centre, will be based on tradiotional colonial architectural style which has remained popular in the valley from early part of twentieth century. "The external fa‡ade will be treated with wooden fascia to give an appearance of Dhajji-dewari", says Mir.
The chief executive officer informs that a number of sporting facilities would be made available to the sports-lovers. These include: bowing alley, table tennis, snooker, boating etc. For the comfort of the tourists almost all the facilities are been put in place which include: parking area, public convenience blocks, shelter sheds, foot bridges, cafeteria etc. Nayeem Akhtar, Secretary Tourism believes that Mansbal Lake is going to emerge as a major tourist destination of the valley in the coming seasons, given its unique features. Akhtar has taken keen interest in the development of this lake, said the locals adding they owe him, as also Mir, a great deal of gratitude for developing this tourist place. "We are solely dependent on this Lake, if the flow of tourists increases; it would earn us enough money which we have been aspiring for over the years", said Ghulam Rasool, a local.
There are two camping sites on the shore of the lake. One is near the ruined Moghul Garden built by Nur Jahan, as the local peasants say. This is called Garoka or Joroga Bagh, which means a bay window. Historians say that it signifies a royal mansion with a highly ornamented and artistically built pavilion, with a seat on the window for the Mughul queen, from which she could survey the charming lake. It is possible that Aha Teng (6,256 ft.) the hillock bordering the lake in the south was in those days clothed with groves of cypress, the most favourite garden tree Of the Moghul monarchs, say the historians.
There are four terraces at the foot of the ruined wall. One is practically silted up. Here can be seen Chinar trees as well and slabs of stones suggesting there existed temples or worship places in the past. The other encampment site stands at the farther end of the lake under chinars known as Padshah Boni (Royal Chinars). This is one of the best camping sites in Kashmir. This spot is also called QozBagh having probably been planted by the Moghul judge. A canal taken from Sind by the great king of Kashmir popularly known as Bad Shah (A.D. 142I-1472) irrigates the alluvial plateau of Safapor.
The northern and eastern shores of the lake are riddled with springs and covered with watercress. On the southeastern side a stream from the Sind enters into the lake. There appears a fissure right in the middle of the lake running east to west. "It is said that the Soma plant from which the ancient Aryans extracted a juice which they offered to their gods and drank themselves, grew profusely round the shore of this lake", say the historians.
On the north-east of the lake there is a village called KondaBal (Kiln Place). This village owes its existence to a quarry from which stones are sent to Srinagar . The stones are burnt for lime. The pebbles are preferred for macadamized roads and are known as manasbal rod. It is an excellent site for founding a cement factory; however it would not be advisable for ecological and environmental reasons.
It is worth while to attempt a climb, if not to the top of Krosh Peak, which is used as a station by the survey party of India and stands at a height of 10,300 ft. above sea level, at least to lower heights from where the finest sights in the world burst into view. The ascent begins from the Manasbal Gap. The spur is devoid of trees but the gems of Nature raise their heads among the rocks and on gravelly paths. The conspicuous flower is the Eremurus himalaicus with radical leaves and white flowers on a stout raceme. Beds of iris and Kashmir tulips decorate the path. The higher one climbs the more attractive becomes the panorama. Close to Krosh Peak is another peak called Halder where there is a rock underneath which water is flowing every year, on Nirjala Ekadashi day a fair is held here. According to Pt. Anand Koul, the pilgrims sing in one chorus.

Swami Budha Amar Nath - An Abode of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati
By K.D Maini

Swami Budha Amar Nath temple is situated in between the main belt of Pir Panchal Range at Raj Pura Mandi, which is 25 Km on the north east of Poonch city and 10 Km on the southern side of Lohar (Loran) which remained capital of Poonch principality upto 1452 A.D. This sacred place is located near the confluence of two gushing streams (namely Nallasha Gagrai and Pulsta Nadi).
This place is surrounded by snow bound lofty peaks, thick belt of fur forest (in the eastern side) lush green pastures and crystal clear streams and nullahs. The climate of this spot is very pleasant and cool. At present Swami Budha Amar Nath temple is connected with motorable road and it is 244 Km from Jammu.
An inn has also been constructed for pilgrims near the temple where 600 to 1000 pilgrims can be accommodated at a time. Free langar (meals) has also been started by Swami Budha Amar Nath trust where pilgrims can have lunch, dinner, breakfast including tea free of cost for three days. A master plan of Rs 45.00 lacs for re-designing and re-construction of Swami Budha Amar Nath Temple and complex was prepared during 1990-91. It comprised the construction of new temple, sarai prakarma, bathing tank and bathing ghat for pilgrims. Now the construction work of 60 feet high new temple and prakarma has been completed which has given new shape and look to this spot.
This holy place has great religious importance. It is believed that Lord Shiva started narrating "Amar Katha" to Goddess Parvati at this place which ended at Swami Amar Nath located near Pahalgam (Kashmir). This temple is considered ancient than Swami Amar Nath Ji of Kashmir, that is why the shrine is known as Swami Budha Amar Nath ji.
From religious point of view it is said that one must visit this sacred place before performing the yatra of Swami Amar Nath of Kashmir. The original temple has been constructed with one big stone and has four doors in the temple - on northern, southern, eastern and western sides which indicates that the doors of this shrine are open for all the four Varnas of Hinduism. There is an unnatural shivlinga of white stone (chakmal) inside the temple. Number of ancient idols collected from nearby villages are installed in the permises of the temple. There were four holy springs near the temple in the past. At present the water of three springs near the temple have been diverted to fourth one which is on the southern side of temple. The water of these springs is considered holy from religious point of view. The pilgrims first take bath in this spring and then enter the temple for prayers.
Thousands of pilgrims with great devotion come to this place from different parts of the country every year. On the day of Raksha Bandhan a mela Swami Budha Amar Nath" festival is held here. Three days before the mela or fair, a religious congregation is held at Dasinami Akhara, Poonch for hawan and puja of Chhari Mubarak. In this congregation people from all walks of life come and pay obeisance to the sacred mace. After bhajan kirtan, hawan the procession of Chhari Mubarak starts from Akhara amid chanting of bhajans and religious slogans. A guard of honour by the Police contingent is also paid to Chhari Mubarak at the gate of the Akhara. The Swami is carried in a palanquin by the devotees along with the sacred mace. Thousands of devotees and saints accompany the procession which leads towards Swami Budha Amar Nath on foot. The first halt is at Chandak (the name after Chandi Devi) 8 Km from Poonch. Then procession further moves towards the sacred shrine and reaches Rajpura in the afternoon. There the procession is received by the local people, sadhus and workers of the trust. Then chhari Mubarak is taken to the main shrine. Then the main Mela at Swami Budha Amar Nath starts in which 40 to 50 thousands devotees participate every year.
On the occasion of Raksha Bandan, thousands of pilgrims from Poonch, Rajouri, Jammu and other parts of country come to pay obeisance at this holi shrine.
Number of legends are famous in and around Poonch city regarding this ancient temple. As per one legend Mahatma Palusta (the grand father of the King Ravana of Sri-Lanka) meditated at this very place for a pretty long time. He was devotee of Lord Shiva. There are number of references in Neelmat Puran about Palusta Rishi. As per these references Mahatma Palunta was also an-artist and sculptor. He chiseled a number of images of Gods.
Legend says that Palusta meditated with such a devotion at Rajpura that he had vision of Lord Shiva at this very place. In the memory of darshan of Lord Shiva, Palusta constructed the temple of Shiva and erected a Lingam there. Palusta was a great Rishi and sculptor and very popular among public therefore after his death the people converted this small temple into a shrine. Later on this shrine took the name of Swami Budha Amar Nath. Even now the number of idols of ancient time are available in the area. It is possible that these idols may have been created by Palusta Rishi.
Another legend goes as - in the ancient time a Bheel and a Bheelni were residing at this place. Bheelani was devotee of Lord Shiva. Once Lord Shiva decided to examine the devotion of Bheelni- He came to her house in the shape of naked sadhu when Bheel was not present at home. Bheelani welcomed the sadhu in her house and cooked meals for him. In the meantime Bheel came, when he saw a naked sadhu taking rest in his house, he got annoyed, abused the sadhu and asked him to leave his house. But his wife compelled him not to do so as there was no shelter for the sadhu except their house in that area at that time. In these circumstances the Bheel allowed sadhu to stay there for a night. On that very night a lion came from nearby forest, entered Bheel's house and killed Bheel on spot.
On the next morning Bheelni requested the hermit (the sadhu) to prepare a funeral pyre (chitta). Hermit prepared the pyre and Beelni sat on the pyre alongwith the dead body of her husband. Then she requested the hermit to light fire so that she might also die (sati) along with her husband.
At this moment, the hermit transformed to Lord Shiva and dead Bheel again become alive. Lord Shiva blessed Bheelni who requested Lord Shiva that that place must be worshipped as Shiva sathana. In a fraction of moment, Lord Shiva disappeared and a white Shiv Linga erupted from the rock exactly at that place where Lord Shiva was standing. Bheel and Beelni constructed a small temple there and started worshipping Lord Shiva.
As per another legend there was a queen of Lohar-kote principality (old name of Poonch) whose name was Chandraka. But as per Raj Tarangni there was only one queen namely Deda of Leharkote dynasty who ruled Leharkote and Kashmir from 980 to 1003. She had constructed a temple at Loharkote area in the memory of her father "Singh Raja". This temple was known as Vashno Singh Sawaman temple. There is a possibility that the same temple later on got famous with the name of Swami Budha Amar Nath, and it is also possible that during the course of time the name Deda have changed as Chandrika. She was a devotee of Lord Shiva and she used to visit Swami Amar Nath Kashmir every year at the time of Raksha Bandan. Once there was heavy snow fall on the mountains of Panchal ranges and she could not cross over to Kashmir to pay her obeisance to Lord Shiva. That night while she slept in a preturbed condition, she had a dream in which she saw that an old man accompanied her at a place and directed her to worship to Lord Shiva over that place.
Immediately she rushed to that place. But there was nothing on the surface. Then she made a Shiva Linga of snow there and paid obeisance. In the blink of eyes the snow made Shiva linga took turned solild of white stone. After this miracle the Rani constructed a temple there and named this place as "Swami Amar Nath" and later on the name was changed from Swami Amar Nath to Swami Budha Amar Nath".
There is a historical background of this area also. Since Swami Budha Amar Nath temple is hardly one kilometer north which remains the place of great importance for traders of Kashmir and rest of India upto 1452 A.D. This place which falls exactly on Tosh madian road and it was the central place for those Kashmiri as well as Punjabi for various points of view, because from this very place the high mountains of Panchal Range starts and it was not possible for Punjabi traders to cross over these mountains alongwith their loaded horses and camels. On the other hand Kashmir traders were not in a position to accommodate themselves in hot climatic condition of Punjab. Therefore the traders of both sides used to assemble at this spot for exchange of their goods. By this way the Mandi remained the trade centre. It is said that traders used to put up near the temple of Swami Budha Amar Nath in a sarai constructed there. By this way also temple remained the centre of worship for centuries. But in one cloud burst the temple came under heavy land slides and got destroyed. People of the present generation even forget that there was any such temple existing.
One more legend tells that a hermit (sadhu) who was great devotee of Lord Shiva worshipped for an year in a cave in the Himalayan range. Lord Shiva was very much impressed from his devotion and sacrifices. Once in his dream He told him that his prayer had been completed and accepted by Him. Now he must come out from the cave and go to"the present Rajpura" (Hapei) and explore the old temple. On the direction of Lord Shiva, the sadhu started travelling towards Rajpura, after some time he reached there. But there was no temple on the surface of the earth. He started excavating the rock with this trident. After some time, the top of the temple came out from the earth. When the word spread in Poonch principality about the eruption of the temple at Rajpura the Raja of the principality sent his soldiers for further excavation. By this way the ancient temple alongwith four holy springs were excavated from the earth. Then the Raja also visited the place alongwith his ministers and public and worshipped there. Therefore the place again became the centre of worship.
During the reign of Dogra Raja Moti Singh (1880 to 1892 AD) and Baldev Singh( 1892 to 1918 AD) this temple was renovated. In summer season the Rajas of Poonch principality used to shift to Rajpura for some time and therefore there remained great hustle bustle around the temple during the stay of Rajas in this area. Raja and Rani would pay frequent visits to this holy shrine during the stay at Rajpura. In this very period the yatra of Chhari Mubarak was started. In the past the sacred mace (Chhari Mubarak) would be carried from Dasnami Akhara, Tatrinote, presently in Pak Administered Kashmir and also from Shivalya Khaka Naben. But when the Disnami Akhara was renovated by the Dogra Rajas and it became a seat of Raj-Guru, then it was decided to start the procession of Chhari Mubarak from Dasnami Akhara where the Raja of Poonch would participate in the yatra of Chhari Mubarak. Since then the procession is taking place from the Akhara.
In 1947 this area was captured by the Pakistani forces but later on in 1948 this area was re-captured by the contingent of Dogra Regiment of Indian Army and then under the command of Lt Col Mulak Singh, the temple was again renovated both by the army and local people.
It is believed that Lord Shiva Himself comes to the temple on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan mela at Swami Budha Amar Nath and fulfills the wishes and desires of whosoever visits this holy shrine on this day.

The Billion Rupee Business Of Begging
By K.D.L.Khan

As per dictionary, Begging is the practice whereby a person obtains money, food, shelter or other things from people they encounter by request. But as per statistics, begging in India has graduated from being the asylum for humans -helpless and without any hope of succour in the world- into one of a prosperous career for the unemployed and resourceful .
With the average income for an Indian beggar at 100 rupees a day, one and half times the 67 rupees- an Indian's daily income as per the World Bank, hundreds of thousands of Indian have realized that begging tops as s profession!. Further in India it is considered dharma ( obligatory) to give alms to a beggar and many sadhus also beg strictly for food, as their traditional way of life limits any income. In fact, many of the beggars in India do so to follow family traditions, and to fulfill vows made to a deity by their ancestors. There are many pious ladies in rural villages . named Bhikki or beggar after such vows. In fact, the first requirement for a Brahmin student ( brahmachari) would be to get alms (for the teacher and for self).
According to the census of India, there were 750307 beggars and vagrants in India in 1981, which declined to 542875 in 1991, though it further increased to 627688 in 2001. Out of the total, about 2/3 were in rural areas while 1/3 in urban area. Vilas Awchat, an MLA, who raised the issue of beggars in the Maharashtra State Assembly. pointed out that the number of beggars in Bombay city, which was 20,000 in 1963, rose to three lakh in 2004. The total amount of money earned by Mumbai's 3 lakh beggars every year, is 180 crores, or an income of 6000 rupees per month or an average of 200 rupees a day. In reply to a question (STARRED QUESTION NO 439) on August 25, 2005 by Dr. R. Senthil in the Parliament regarding 'Census on Beggars", Minister of Social Justice & Employment, Mrs. Meira Kumar replied, "No reliable estimate about the number of beggars in the country is available with Government of India."
But based upon their researches, Indian social scientists state that the number of Indians living by begging in 2007 cannot be less than two million!
Just like lawyers, administrators and athletes, the beggars are very professional. They guard their constituencies withÿ great care. It is common to fight over territories. The beggar who begs in front of Ganesh hotel cannot go and beg in front of ÿKrishna hotel! When an unassuming new comer from a village strikes out his hand in front of the any temple, he is chased away. Although
the beggars do not have an association or union, they unite to defend their sources of income. While a woman begs in the name of her husband who is in the death bed in a hospital, it is not uncommon that the husband is begging in his wife's name on the next street. Then there are mafia members who make the beggar pay atleast 100 rupees per week. For this the "beggar" gets protection from the police, freedom from the sweeps that will send them to the gravel pits and ditches, clothes, begging space, food and special things like bandages or crutches. It is all too true.
There is an unwritten disability code among India's beggar population, setting out the financial benefits of maiming. Removing three fingers from one hand is a surefire way of increasing one's earning potential, amputating the lower half of a leg can prove even more lucrative, but for maximum impact, an ambitious beggar needs to have blood vessels in the arm stitched up so that the whole limb blackens with gangrene. Recently a group of investigative reporters proved that this was true, as they were able to film one senior doctor offering to perform the amputation operation for the equivalent of rupees 8000!.
The ' savvy' world of beggars recognizes the opportunity earthquakes/and other disasters provide to increase their income. If the 2001 earthquake saw many beggars from all over the country thronging Kutch to cash in on the goodies being distributed, there are no prizes for guessing why Gujarat's towns and cities suddenly find themselves relatively free from beggars, who had gone to Tamilnadu to reap the harvest from the 2004 tsunami. Conducted across a swathe of geographical regions, a recent survey by Delhi University's Department of Social Services. shows that a beggar's earnings add up to between Rs 50 and Rs 500 a day, depending upon where you are begging, a metropolis a temple town or on a festival day.
But it is true that, as it battles to stem the tremendous flow of impoverished villagers to India's cities to take to beggary,, the government has introduced guaranteed rural employment schemes and other development programs, but so far their impact has been negligible. Thus, the current institutionalized approach to beggars merely serves to punish destitute people without aiming to help or reform them. Driven to begging, these people - often unemployed, aged people, people with physical disabilities or drug problems - remain helpless.
According to the Bangladeshi Nobel Prize winner economist/ Grameen bank founder Mohammad Yunus , there is an alternative, based on the same principle as Grameen' that there is no individual who is not credit - worthy. By advancing small sums of money - the average is just rupees 150 - to beggars his organisation Grameen in Bangladesh had made entrepreneurs of many of them. Better still, many have left begging for good. As he puts it so simply and yet so eloquently , no one begs out of choice but out of compulsion. At the same time it's not easy to make people who know no other life give up begging. This is where a small loan can make a huge difference . It can launch a beggar into business (more correctly, petty trade) as the money can be used to buy simple merchandise (sweets, cheap toys, incense sticks, trinkets) that is then sold for a small profit.
-Maharaja Features

The Cruel World Of Ivory Trade
By Ramen Bose

Very rarely one rejoices at the vanishing of a 3000 year old art, as Archaeology reveals the esteem in which the Ivory carving art was held in ancient India. The epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, speak of ivory from Assam and ivory inlay work from Eastern India. Buddhist Pali literature mentions the ivory carvers of Benares and Sanskrit Buddhist literature mentions master craftsmen working on ivory for making bangles, kohl sticks, caskets, unguent pots, gargoyles and cutting seals.
Then the Kerala High Court proclaimed in a decisive 1997 ruling, ( in an effort to bring India in line with the the 1989 UN sponsored CITES - the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna - banning the ivory trade,) "No citizen has the fundamental right to trade in ivory or ivory articles, whether indigenous or imported". This, lead to the decrease in the number of ivory craftsmen in India , reputedly from 20000 to a mere 2000, the rest having opted out for the legal sandalwood/animal horn carving.
But recent reports of a revival in ivory carving and of ivory seizures in Kerala and other centers of the craft in India, has set off alarm bells among conservation groups and friends of the Asian elephant, the Earth's second-largest land mammal, after the African elephant.
''The ivory trade in India is staging a comeback. Recent studies have shown that value-added ivory is available for the asking in selected locations of foreign tourist influx,'' says Tariq Aziz, project officer at the India office of WWF-India (Worldwide Fund for Nature, also known as World Wildlife Fund).
Here one has to examine the economics of ivory trade. Internationally Between August 2005 and August 2006, 25,000 kilograms of ivory were seized. As per estimates, customs catches 10 per cent of what goes through, and as such. the total ivory harvest would have been 250000 kilos, killing almost 37,000 elephants, valued at 189 million Us dollars (at the current price of 750 us dollars a kilo), or 752 crores of Indian rupees.. So now in 2006 we are at 7.8 per cent annual elephant killing , higher than the 7 per cent destruction in the 1980's which led to the CITES-ban.
In the case of India, on account of the reverence the towards the elephant as Ganesha, the destruction of elephants is much less. Contrary to media reports, the notorious south Indian dacoit Veerappan did not kill 2,000 elephants. The figure is more representative of the number of tuskers (male elephants) killed in the entire peninsular region over a period of 25 years by various poachers. According to Raman Sukumar, one of the world's leading authorities on Asian elephants, it is more likely that the bandit and his gang were directly involved in the killing of a few hundred elephants, maybe 500-odd. A conservative estimate would mean an average tusk weight of 15 kg an elephant. The amount of raw ivory that the Veerappan gang would have sawn off, if it had poached 500 elephants would be above 7,500 kg. Taking the current price of ivory at 30 thousand rupees a kilo, worth internationally at 225 crores .
Officially no ivory has been imported into India for the last twenty years, but smuggling/ elephant killing for the tusks has increased. WPSI activists estimate that the four pieces weighing over 100 kilograms seized in Kerala in 2006 must have come off the tusks of at least three male elephants, probably killed in the Nilgiri forests of South India, where 65 percent of elephant deaths are caused by ivory poachers. Between 1996 and 2001, an annual average of at least 270kg of raw ivory was seized in India, indicating that national
law enforcement efforts were meeting with some success and at the same time showing that on an average 2700 kilograms of ivory are being used for the illicit trade, based on international ratings for ivory seizures.
The study by WPSI,found that the increase of foreign tourists to India and the surging number of domestic tourists, especially in the southern states has led to both foreign and Indian nationals purchase ivory artifacts. A meticulously carved artifact measuring five inches tall, three inches long and two inches wide, fetches as much as much as 50 thousand rupees.
Conservationists say they cannot rest because African ivory is reaching the hands of the Indian artisans. ''There appears to have grown up in recent years a whole international network that links raw ivory to ivory carvers at centers in Kerala and several other states,'' said the WWF's Aziz.
The better way is for the government to regulate supply of ivory from dead tuskers in limited quantities, by selling straight to craftsmen without middlemen and market the products through their cooperatives. It may revive the craft, as the art of intricate carving is passed down from father to son as the passing away of older craftsmen may mean death of this ancient art. This will also help in controlling poaching and killing of elephants indiscriminately.
The only way to wean away the public and the artisans from this illegal trade is to ensure that bones of animals like yak and camel should be used for making utility articles as well as decorative ones so far made in ivory. After the ban on the sale of ivory, bone inlay work and carved handles and jewellery had received an impetus as a cheaper alternative to scarce ivory. Tables with inlay work of bone looks as good as ivory ones and the difference is noticeable only to an expert eye.
-Maharaja Features

Stubble Today, Beard Tomorrow!
By Phiroze Kharegat

To shave or not to shave is the task, all men have to face every day. Atleast the office going- whom we look forward to set the so called `decorum" do not have much choice and have to labour and as per the Gillette razor company survey Indians spend 3600 hours in the task, at the rate of 20 minutes a day..
But there is also an equally powerful lobby of college going lads, who often debate and decide to follow the filmstars sprouting beards. What does Abhishek flaunt that Hrithik is happy to get rid of? For them the query is Whom to follow?. Amitabh Bachchan, Junior Bachchan, Prannoy Roy, Shekhar Kapur or even Osama Bin Laden? Here Abhishek Bachchan is the most cherished model, having come a long way from being a star-son to becoming a superstar in his own right, and on his own terms. Tall, dark and definitely handsome, he's the guy who made beards cool again.
Beards arrive uninvited at puberty, marking a celebrated progression into manhood, but whether they are permitted or even obliged to grow had, until the 20th century, been determined by class, religious beliefs, community precedent, and occupational status.
What are the unconscious reasons we wear beards? Why are so many associations dark, diabolical or subversive? What's the ritualistic symbolism of shaving? What about the gay beard, Gender-bending facial hair, drag kings? If certain beards are archetypal (like Santa or Satan), then what are all of us modern guys saying with our beards, and why now? Is it rebellion, conformity, or a half-hearted compromise between the two? Why are advertisers increasingly using furry models? .
But let us face it.The great thing about facial hair is that you can never go wrong with changing your style. As one of your most natural accessories, you can try different looks, no risk, no harm. But it takes more than inspiration to change your look - you need to make sure your facial hair (or lack thereof) is appropriate for your line of work and your image.
Before you throw away your razors, you have to decide as to What style suits your face?
Square shape: Any style that is cleanly cut around the ears or any style that provides a square frame for the face. Square face are, generally, suitable for experiments with facial hair.
Rectangular shape: A well maintained beard may camouflage a soft jawline. A carefully trimmed goatee can also infuse an element of squareness to a soft chin.
Round shape: Beards can be styled to make the face appear more oval. A neat moustache can also enhance the overall appearance and shape of the face.
Triangular shape: A French beard or its variations that helps to balance and fill out the jawline.
Pear and diamond shape: A stubble trimmed into a rounded or square shape will disguise the prominent chin.
The main trends today are
A few-day-old stubble This is a classic, no-nonsense facial hair style! If you are tired of walking around with a 'good-boy-clean-shaven' look, then try growing your hair for a few days. It lends machoism and ruggedness to your personality. If you feel like your hair is growing out of control and is turning into a beard, use a trimmer.
Sideburn When it comes to sideburn length, the norm is for your sideburns to end at the midpoint of your ear. Trim your sideburns with a razor or clippers, or have them trimmed when you go for a haircut. This is a great default style that's easy to maintain and remains timeless.
French beard A pattern of facial hair with a thin moustache, which wraps around the lips to continue into a beard that covers the chin region only. .The rest of the face, especially the cheeks, are clean shaven.
Below-the-lip goatee The quasi goatee You can call it a wannabe French Beard, this style is to give you a 'different' look - it can't be termed as casual or formal. It depends on the way you carry it off. Although simple goatees are out, a thin moustache along with a small patch of hair underneath the bottom lip and another patch of hair on the chin (none of which are attached) can help add some edge to your style.
Ramesh Sahai fashion choreographer and model co-ordinator, believes that one can't generalise on which type of beard, one looks better. "In fact on some people, stubble suits better. Models who are between 18 and 23 tend to grow a stubble to look mature or to get rid of the baby-face tag used to describe them." He adds that stubble sits well on actors like Abhishek Bachchan or Prabhu Deva and that many keep a stubble because they would look much younger without one. Then, there are guys for whom both the looks suit. For example, Madhavan looks cute without stubble, and tough with it."
Want to know the most apt and wackiest reason for keeping a beard?. It's a matter of saving 'shaving' time. One gets more quality time with "wife."
-Maharaja Features

Anatomy Of Harry Potter's Popularity
'Band wagon' effect in India, too
By Girish Mishra

On July 21, publishing business climbed an unprecedented height. Within twenty-four hours of the release in the market, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows recorded a sale of 8.3 million copies in America alone. The total number of copes printed was 12 million, and the first twenty-four hour sale came to more than two-thirds of the total print order.
Pre-publication orders for more than two million copies were received from the countries other than the USA and Britain. India's share was 240,000. Publishers were well aware of the probable dangers posed by piracy and all necessary precautions and measures were taken to tackle it. In India, its publishers - Bloomsbury and Penguin India - were able to sell 170,000 copies on the first day. Buyers were mainly from the high-income groups. Notwithstanding all the precautionary steps, pirated copes did appear in the market. Pirates enjoyed a definite price advantage.
In China, ten days before the book was formally released, fake translations were placed in the market. Not only this, but also a number of local writers placed their own books in Chinese, entitled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! The Beijing Review (July 6) gleefully remarked: "The popularity of Harry Potter is a sign that China's youth is embracing global culture." One would have liked it to enlighten about the character of this global culture.
The extent of the popularity of the last book in the Harry Potter series is indicated by the fact that, two years ago, the sixth book The Harry potter and the Half-blood Prince could have a sale of only 6.9 million copies in the first twenty-four hours. Thus the latest in the series had a sale of 20 percent more copies during the same duration. According to an eye witness: "The excitement, anticipation, and just plain hysteria that came over the entire country this weekend was a bit like the Beatles' first visit to the U. S." (The New York Times, July 23). If we include the print order for the latest book also, the total print order for the entire series only in America comes to 133.5 million. The total sale of the first six books in the series all over the world comes to 325 million.
The Harry Potter series has been translated into as many as 63 languages (including Ancient Greek). This has made Rowling richer than even the British Queen. The Observer (July 29) has this to say about her popularity: "On today's literary stock exchange, there's a bull market in the Rowling shares, though it's safe to predict that eventually there will be a corrective reaction. Where her reputation ends up is anyone's guess. There's no doubt she will be read by juveniles of all ages for the foreseeable future. She remains formidable for her best selling accomplishments, remarkable for her consistency, but vulnerable to the charge that she's not Pullman, not Tolkien and not C. S. Lewis." It goes on to add: ". she certainly understands the importance of plot, and exhibits narrative brio with a vigorous, if slightly predictable imagination. Her prose will always lack magic, or charm."
Thanks to the commercial success of the series, Rowling is worth one billion dollar. There is no writer throughout the globe to equal her in this respect. The Forbes, in 2006 named her as the second richest entertainer and ranked her 48th among the 100 most powerful celebrities in the world. She is the 13th richest woman in Britain and occupies the 136th rank among the richest (both men and women together) in Britain.
To come up to this position, she had to struggle hard and make compromises. Born on July 31, 1965, in a very ordinary middle class family of Gloucestershire, she went to Portugal in 1991 to work as a schoolteacher of English language. She married a Portuguese journalist; but the marriage ended in divorce and she returned to Britain with her infant daughter. She had to struggle very hard to earn her living. She got a job as a teacher of French in Edinburgh. She revived her interest in writing fiction.
It was really an uphill task to get the first novel published. Publishers rejected her manuscript without even bothering to glance through it. Fortunately, the Bloomsbury agreed to publish it after the publisher's 8-year old daughter read it and found it very interesting. Rowling was paid $4,000 in lump sum. She was, however, asked to give up her real name for a pseudonym as author of the book. Publisher thought that the book could not succeed commercially if a feminine name was given as author. Thus Joanne Kathleen Rowling became J. K. Rowling as author of the book. It was published in America and became a roaring success. She got enough money to devote herself fully to writing.
Her second book, The Chamber of Secrets, was published in Britain in 1998 and in America in 1999. She became a household name and her books became best sellers as per The New York Times. By the summer of 2000, she had earned more than $400 million from her first three books, which were translated into 35 languages and had a turnover of more than 30 million copies. Her fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, had a pre-publication order for over a million copies and had a print order of 5.3 million copies. Films were made on her books that boosted both her revenue as well as popularity. A film on her latest book is to be released by 2010.
Long ago, Arthur Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes" series of stories became popular and that popularity survives even now, but it is nowhere near that of Harry Potter series. Jules Verne's books are still printed in thousands of copies and the youth read them, but he cannot equal Rowling in popularity.
Her self-professed leftist inclination is surely not a factor in her popularity. No expert till now has discovered lasting literary value in her books. She has not written anything significant besides the Harry Potter series. Bob Hoover has recently written in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "Her strength as a writer lies in her ability to create a large collection of memorable and cleverly named characters, a variety of fantastical places and situations and even darker and more threatening plots." All these skills, however, cannot place her among literary masters whose fame has been durable. Lisa Dennis, a specialist in children's literature at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, concurs with Hoover. She maintains that Harry Potter series is not likely to be a classic though it is not a simply trend of ephemeral nature. In her own words, "I don't think [Ms Rowling's] writings will stand the test of time. The series will have long life because .the original readers will share it with their children, a family favorite for a very long time."
British journalist, Will Hutton, asks: "Is Harry Potter so good and author J. K. Rowling so brilliant that these books deserve their status as, cumulatively, the best-selling ever?" And adds: "The strict answer is, obviously no. They are great stories, synthesizing with enormous narrative skill the best of C. S. Lewis, Tolkien and Jill Murphy's Worst Witch books - not to mention some Greek myths - along with some old-fashioned black magic." (The Observer, July 22).
The enormous sale is undoubtedly due to the changed nature and scale of propaganda. Buyers are so brainwashed that they do not care to read reviews. In India, where the newspapers and TV channels seldom care for Indian writers and their works, devoted substantial space to highlight its reader worthiness. Will Hutton has explained its success as follows: "The key to its global success has been the US, where more than one in four Americans over 12 claim to have seen a Potter movie. . No global cultural hit is possible without prior success in the US - which means it had to be first created in English. Had Rowling been French or German, she would never have been worth her estimated œ545m."
In India, a "band wagon effect" was obviously evident. Among English reading youth there is an irresistible urge to imitate the American way life and values. Henry Kissinger and Thomas L. Friedman may construe it as a solid piece of evidence of American cultural hegemony in the ongoing era of globalization.
-(IPA Service)