When I told people I was going for Kumbh Mela, the most common questions besides, “Why”, were, “Isn’t it so dirty?”, “Aren’t you afraid of stampedes?”, “What happens at Kumbh Mela?”, “Why is it called Kumbh?”. What made all these questions interesting was that, they were not asked by secular people, but by Hindus. But […]
Review: Uri: The Surgical Strike
One of the best scenes in the movie Uri: The Surgical Strike is at the Prime Minister’s meeting to decide how India should react following a Pakistani terrorist attack at Uri killing 19 soldiers. While everyone throws out ideas, Ajit Doval, played by Paresh Rawal, suggests surgical strikes. Then he gives a speech on how […]
Book Review: Operation Johar — A Love Story by Abhishek Banerjee
In S. L. Bhyrappa’s novel, Aavarana, there is a dialogue between a Leftist professor and his Hindu student, who converted to Islam. In this conversation, the Professor explains the path of the revolution. “There are no predefined methods to achieve complete revolution. The path shows the method. The urgent need of the hour is to […]
Madhubani Art from Mithila
The above is a painting of Radha and Krishna under a kadamba tree. It was painted on paper by Karpoori Devi in 1995 in the Madhubani style of the Mithila region of Bihar. The picture was taken at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. In this picture, the divine couple is seen in a […]
Brahma and Indra in Japan
Buddhism reached Japan in the 5th century when the monarch of the Korean kingdom of Baekje sent a mission with gifts, image of Buddha and sacred objects. The arrival of Buddhism disrupted the existing system of kami worship and eventually prevailed. Today, there are thirteen schools of Buddhism, 80,000 temples and 150,000 monks. Indra and […]
The Dangerous Navjot Singh Sidhu
There are two types of narratives on India by Urban Naxals. One is that India was never a nation. It was an assortment of princely states that was glued together by the British. This new secular, socialist India had nothing to do with the India of the past. But now that such an India exists, […]
Sanskrit Notes: Order of Words
One of the interesting features of Sanskrit is that, in a sentence, the order of the words don’t matter. You can switch them around and the meaning remains the same. Take for example a sentence like, Rama is going to the forest. You can’t say, “Rama going forest.” You need the “is” and “to the” […]
Three Stage Evolution of Mahabharata – jayam, bharatam, mahabharatam
There are clues in Mahabharata which tells us about how the itihaas grew to become the longest poem with over a lakh verses. Mahabharata is divided into 18 parvas with Harivamsha as the 19th. The core of it — around 24, 000 — verses are about the war between the Pandavas and Kauravas. Besides this, […]
Western Mythology of Cortes, Pizzaro and James Smith
In Western mythology, Hernan Cortes is a larger-than-life hero. He was responsible for single handedly conquering the Aztecs with a small army. From a story telling perspective think about the impact of this foundational story: a rich and powerful empire was conquered by few soldiers. According to one myth making site, Hernán Cortés, marqués del […]
European Origins of Manifest Destiny
In the 19th century, American settlers moved West grabbing frontier lands. The term Manifest Destiny was coined, which claimed special virtues for American people. It was imperative that they fulfill this essential duty. The United States used muscle power to deprive the indigenous people of their land. Once the natives were conquered, this theory was […]