सम्झी रहनु पनि पर्दैन मलाई ,
नबिर्सिदिए पुग्छ
कमेन्टस् लेखी रहनु पनि पर्दैन मलाई ,
केवल लाइक गरी दिये पुग्छ ।
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
मुक्तक
आर्काको दु:ख देख्दा कैलै नहाँस्नु ,
आफुलाई पनि दु:ख पर्न सक्छ
राम्रो अनुहार देख्दैमा माया नगाँस्नु ,
भविस्यमा पस्चाताप हुन् सक्छ ।
आफुलाई पनि दु:ख पर्न सक्छ
राम्रो अनुहार देख्दैमा माया नगाँस्नु ,
भविस्यमा पस्चाताप हुन् सक्छ ।
Monday, September 19, 2011
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Earthquake Safety Tips
Earthquakes are a common occurrence, rumbling below Earth's surface thousands of times every day. But major earthquakes are less common. Here are some things to do to prepare for an earthquake and what to do once the ground starts shaking.
Safety Tips
Have an earthquake readiness plan.
Consult a professional to learn how to make your home sturdier, such as bolting bookcases to wall studs, installing strong latches on cupboards, and strapping the water heater to wall studs.
Locate a place in each room of the house that you can go to in case of an earthquake. It should be a spot where nothing is likely to fall on you.
Keep a supply of canned food, an up-to-date first aid kit, 3 gallons (11.4 liters) of water per person, dust masks and goggles, and a working battery-operated radio and flashlights.
Know how to turn off your gas and water mains.
If Shaking Begins
Drop down; take cover under a desk or table and hold on.
Stay indoors until the shaking stops and you're sure it's safe to exit.
Stay away from bookcases or furniture that can fall on you.
Stay away from windows. In a high-rise building, expect the fire alarms and sprinklers to go off during a quake.
If you are in bed, hold on and stay there, protecting your head with a pillow.
If you are outdoors, find a clear spot away from buildings, trees, and power lines. Drop to the ground.
If you are in a car, slow down and drive to a clear place. Stay in the car until the shaking stops.
Safety Tips
Have an earthquake readiness plan.
Consult a professional to learn how to make your home sturdier, such as bolting bookcases to wall studs, installing strong latches on cupboards, and strapping the water heater to wall studs.
Locate a place in each room of the house that you can go to in case of an earthquake. It should be a spot where nothing is likely to fall on you.
Keep a supply of canned food, an up-to-date first aid kit, 3 gallons (11.4 liters) of water per person, dust masks and goggles, and a working battery-operated radio and flashlights.
Know how to turn off your gas and water mains.
If Shaking Begins
Drop down; take cover under a desk or table and hold on.
Stay indoors until the shaking stops and you're sure it's safe to exit.
Stay away from bookcases or furniture that can fall on you.
Stay away from windows. In a high-rise building, expect the fire alarms and sprinklers to go off during a quake.
If you are in bed, hold on and stay there, protecting your head with a pillow.
If you are outdoors, find a clear spot away from buildings, trees, and power lines. Drop to the ground.
If you are in a car, slow down and drive to a clear place. Stay in the car until the shaking stops.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
जीवन र मृत्युको दोसाँधमा अल्झिएको छु
जीवन र मृत्युको दोसाँधमा अल्झिएको छु
मरेकै छैन हजुर,
म थिल्थिलो मात्रै भएको छु ।
केही गरेकै छैन हजुर,
म अध्कल्चो नै छु ।
म बाँच्न चाहन्थे
तर,
मर्न खोजी रहेछु
जीवन र मृत्युको दोसाँधमा अल्झिएको छु ,
म बल्झिएको छु ,
म झुल्लिएको छु ,
म भुल्लिएको छु ,
जीवन र मृत्युको दोसाँधमा।
मरेकै छैन हजुर,
म थिल्थिलो मात्रै भएको छु ।
केही गरेकै छैन हजुर,
म अध्कल्चो नै छु ।
म बाँच्न चाहन्थे
तर,
मर्न खोजी रहेछु
जीवन र मृत्युको दोसाँधमा अल्झिएको छु ,
म बल्झिएको छु ,
म झुल्लिएको छु ,
म भुल्लिएको छु ,
जीवन र मृत्युको दोसाँधमा।
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Top Ten Reasons To Go Vegetarian
Gone are the days when vegetarians were served up a plate of iceberg lettuce and a dull-as-dishwater baked potato. With the growing variety of vegetarian faux-meats like bacon and sausages and an ever-expanding variety of vegetarian cookbooks and restaurants, vegetarianism has taken the world by storm.
With World Vegetarian Week here, without further ado, are the Top 10 reasons to give vegetarian eating a try, starting now!
1. Helping Animals Also Helps the Global Poor While there is ample and justified moral indignation about the diversion of 100 million tons of grain for biofuels, more than seven times as much (760 million tons) is fed to farmed animals so that people can eat meat. Is the diversion of crops to our cars a moral issue? Yes, but it's about one-eighth the issue that meat-eating is. Care about global poverty? Try vegetarianism.
2. Eating Meat Supports Cruelty to Animals The green pastures and idyllic barnyard scenes of years past are now distant memories. On today's factory farms, animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy windowless sheds, wire cages, gestation crates, and other confinement systems. These animals will never raise families, root in the soil, build nests, or do anything else that is natural and important to them. They won't even get to feel the warmth of the sun on their backs or breathe fresh air until the day they are loaded onto trucks bound for slaughter.
3. Eating Meat Is Bad for the Environment A recent United Nations report entitled Livestock's Long Shadow concludes that eating meat is "one of the ... most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." In just one example, eating meat causes almost 40 percent more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, and planes in the world combined. The report concludes that the meat industry "should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity."
4. Avoid Bird Flu
The World Health Organization says that if the avian flu virus mutates, it could be caught simply by eating undercooked chicken flesh or eggs, eating food prepared on the same cutting board as infected meat or eggs, or even touching eggshells contaminated with the disease. Other problems with factory farming -- from foot-and-mouth to SARS -- can be avoided with a general shift to a vegetarian diet.
5. If You Wouldn't Eat a Dog, You Shouldn't Eat a Chicken Several recent studies have shown that chickens are bright animals who are able to solve complex problems, demonstrate self-control, and worry about the future. Chickens are smarter than cats and dogs and even do some things that have not yet been seen in mammals other than primates. Dr. Chris Evans, who studies animal behavior and communication at Macquarie University in Australia, says, "As a trick at conferences, I sometimes list these attributes, without mentioning chickens and people think I'm talking about monkeys."
6. Heart Disease: Our Number One Killer Healthy vegetarian diets support a lifetime of good health and provide protection against numerous diseases, including the United States' three biggest killers: heart disease, cancer, and strokes. Drs. Dean Ornish and Caldwell Esselstyn -- two doctors with 100 percent success in preventing and reversing heart disease -- have used a vegan diet to accomplish it, as chronicled most recently in Dr. Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, which documents his 100 percent success rate for unclogging people's arteries and reversing heart disease.
7. Cancer: Our Number Two Killer Dr. T. Colin Campbell is one of the world's foremost epidemiological scientists and the director of what The New York Times called "the most comprehensive large study ever undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease." Dr. Campbell's best-selling book, The China Study, is a must-read for anyone who is concerned about cancer. To summarize it, Dr. Campbell states, "No chemical carcinogen is nearly so important in causing human cancer as animal protein."
8. Fitting Into That Itty-Bitty Bikini Vegetarianism is also the ultimate weight-loss diet, since vegetarians are one-third as likely to be obese as meat-eaters are, and vegans are about one-tenth as likely to be obese. Of course, there are overweight vegans, just as there are skinny meat-eaters. But on average, vegans are 10 to 20 percent lighter than meat-eaters. A vegetarian diet is the only diet that has passed peer review and taken weight off and kept it off.
9. Global Peace
Leo Tolstoy claimed that "vegetarianism is the taproot of humanitarianism." His point? For people who wish to sow the seeds of peace, we should be eating as peaceful a diet as possible. Eating meat supports killing animals, for no reason other than humans' acquired taste for animals' flesh. Great humanitarians from Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi to Thich Nhat Hanh have argued that a vegetarian diet is the only diet for people who want to make the world a kinder place.
10. The Joy of Veggies
As the growing range of vegetarian cookbooks and restaurants shows, vegetarian foods rock. People report that when they adopt a vegetarian diet, their range of foods explodes from a center-of-the-plate meat item to a range of grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables that they didn't even know existed.
Sir Paul McCartney sums it all up, "If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat. That's the single most important thing you could do. It's staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty."
So are you ready to give it a try?
With World Vegetarian Week here, without further ado, are the Top 10 reasons to give vegetarian eating a try, starting now!
1. Helping Animals Also Helps the Global Poor While there is ample and justified moral indignation about the diversion of 100 million tons of grain for biofuels, more than seven times as much (760 million tons) is fed to farmed animals so that people can eat meat. Is the diversion of crops to our cars a moral issue? Yes, but it's about one-eighth the issue that meat-eating is. Care about global poverty? Try vegetarianism.
2. Eating Meat Supports Cruelty to Animals The green pastures and idyllic barnyard scenes of years past are now distant memories. On today's factory farms, animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy windowless sheds, wire cages, gestation crates, and other confinement systems. These animals will never raise families, root in the soil, build nests, or do anything else that is natural and important to them. They won't even get to feel the warmth of the sun on their backs or breathe fresh air until the day they are loaded onto trucks bound for slaughter.
3. Eating Meat Is Bad for the Environment A recent United Nations report entitled Livestock's Long Shadow concludes that eating meat is "one of the ... most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." In just one example, eating meat causes almost 40 percent more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, and planes in the world combined. The report concludes that the meat industry "should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity."
4. Avoid Bird Flu
The World Health Organization says that if the avian flu virus mutates, it could be caught simply by eating undercooked chicken flesh or eggs, eating food prepared on the same cutting board as infected meat or eggs, or even touching eggshells contaminated with the disease. Other problems with factory farming -- from foot-and-mouth to SARS -- can be avoided with a general shift to a vegetarian diet.
5. If You Wouldn't Eat a Dog, You Shouldn't Eat a Chicken Several recent studies have shown that chickens are bright animals who are able to solve complex problems, demonstrate self-control, and worry about the future. Chickens are smarter than cats and dogs and even do some things that have not yet been seen in mammals other than primates. Dr. Chris Evans, who studies animal behavior and communication at Macquarie University in Australia, says, "As a trick at conferences, I sometimes list these attributes, without mentioning chickens and people think I'm talking about monkeys."
6. Heart Disease: Our Number One Killer Healthy vegetarian diets support a lifetime of good health and provide protection against numerous diseases, including the United States' three biggest killers: heart disease, cancer, and strokes. Drs. Dean Ornish and Caldwell Esselstyn -- two doctors with 100 percent success in preventing and reversing heart disease -- have used a vegan diet to accomplish it, as chronicled most recently in Dr. Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, which documents his 100 percent success rate for unclogging people's arteries and reversing heart disease.
7. Cancer: Our Number Two Killer Dr. T. Colin Campbell is one of the world's foremost epidemiological scientists and the director of what The New York Times called "the most comprehensive large study ever undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease." Dr. Campbell's best-selling book, The China Study, is a must-read for anyone who is concerned about cancer. To summarize it, Dr. Campbell states, "No chemical carcinogen is nearly so important in causing human cancer as animal protein."
8. Fitting Into That Itty-Bitty Bikini Vegetarianism is also the ultimate weight-loss diet, since vegetarians are one-third as likely to be obese as meat-eaters are, and vegans are about one-tenth as likely to be obese. Of course, there are overweight vegans, just as there are skinny meat-eaters. But on average, vegans are 10 to 20 percent lighter than meat-eaters. A vegetarian diet is the only diet that has passed peer review and taken weight off and kept it off.
9. Global Peace
Leo Tolstoy claimed that "vegetarianism is the taproot of humanitarianism." His point? For people who wish to sow the seeds of peace, we should be eating as peaceful a diet as possible. Eating meat supports killing animals, for no reason other than humans' acquired taste for animals' flesh. Great humanitarians from Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi to Thich Nhat Hanh have argued that a vegetarian diet is the only diet for people who want to make the world a kinder place.
10. The Joy of Veggies
As the growing range of vegetarian cookbooks and restaurants shows, vegetarian foods rock. People report that when they adopt a vegetarian diet, their range of foods explodes from a center-of-the-plate meat item to a range of grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables that they didn't even know existed.
Sir Paul McCartney sums it all up, "If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat. That's the single most important thing you could do. It's staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty."
So are you ready to give it a try?
मृत्यु र जीवनको दोसाँधमा
मरेकै छैन हजुर,
म थिल्थिलो मात्रै भएको छु ।
केही गरेकै छैन हजुर,
म अध्कल्चो नै छु ।
म बाँच्न चाहन्थे
तर,
मर्न खोजी रहेछु
मृत्यु र जीवनको दोसाँधमा
म थिल्थिलो मात्रै भएको छु ।
केही गरेकै छैन हजुर,
म अध्कल्चो नै छु ।
म बाँच्न चाहन्थे
तर,
मर्न खोजी रहेछु
मृत्यु र जीवनको दोसाँधमा
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
A kindness
One day, a poor boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way through school, found he had only one thin dime left, and he was hungry. He decided he would ask for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry so brought him a large glass of milk.
He drank it slowly, and then asked, "How much do I owe you?"
"You don't owe me anything," she replied.
"Mother has taught us never to accept payment for a kindness."
He said, "Then I thank you from my heart."
As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but his faith in God and man was strong also. He had been ready to give up and quit.
Years later that young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled. They finally sent her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her rare disease. Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes.
Immediately he rose and went down the hall of the hospital to her room. Dressed in his doctor's gown, he went in to see her. He recognized her at once. He went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. From that day he gave special attention to the case.
After a long struggle, the battle was won. Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, and then wrote something on the edge and the bill was sent to her room. She feared to open it for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally, she looked, and something caught her attention on the side as she read these words...
"Paid in full with one glass of milk. (Signed) Dr. Howard Kelly."
Tears of joy flooded her eyes as her happy heart prayed, "Thank You, God, your love has spread abroad through human hearts and hands.
He drank it slowly, and then asked, "How much do I owe you?"
"You don't owe me anything," she replied.
"Mother has taught us never to accept payment for a kindness."
He said, "Then I thank you from my heart."
As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but his faith in God and man was strong also. He had been ready to give up and quit.
Years later that young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled. They finally sent her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her rare disease. Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes.
Immediately he rose and went down the hall of the hospital to her room. Dressed in his doctor's gown, he went in to see her. He recognized her at once. He went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. From that day he gave special attention to the case.
After a long struggle, the battle was won. Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, and then wrote something on the edge and the bill was sent to her room. She feared to open it for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally, she looked, and something caught her attention on the side as she read these words...
"Paid in full with one glass of milk. (Signed) Dr. Howard Kelly."
Tears of joy flooded her eyes as her happy heart prayed, "Thank You, God, your love has spread abroad through human hearts and hands.
Friday, September 2, 2011
हिन्दी मुक्तक
आप के होने से हमारी खुशी जुडी हुइ है…
आप कि आँखो से हमारी रोश्नी जुडी हुइ है…
मत कर्ना दुर आप्ने होठोसे ये मुस्कुराहट्…
आप कि इन हँसी से हमारी जिन्दगी जुडी हुइ है…
आप कि आँखो से हमारी रोश्नी जुडी हुइ है…
मत कर्ना दुर आप्ने होठोसे ये मुस्कुराहट्…
आप कि इन हँसी से हमारी जिन्दगी जुडी हुइ है…
हिन्दी मुक्तक
काश उस्ने मुझे पेह्चाना होता।
मेरे दिल के दर्द को जाना होता।
मेरे एक बात् को माना होता।
तो आज मै ईस तरह बेगाना न होता।
तारों मे अकेला चाँद जग्मगाता है,
मुस्किलोँ मे अकेला इन्सान हि डग्मगाता है,
काँटो से मत घब्राना मेरे दोस्त,
क्युकि काँटोँ मे हि एक गुलाब मुस्कुराता है ।
मेरे दिल के दर्द को जाना होता।
मेरे एक बात् को माना होता।
तो आज मै ईस तरह बेगाना न होता।
तारों मे अकेला चाँद जग्मगाता है,
मुस्किलोँ मे अकेला इन्सान हि डग्मगाता है,
काँटो से मत घब्राना मेरे दोस्त,
क्युकि काँटोँ मे हि एक गुलाब मुस्कुराता है ।
Where Heroes Remain Immortal
It was a beautiful evening, clear summer sky with a gentle breeze that ruffled the lush green ‘bajra’ fields on both sides of the Punjab road I was on. A Sunday and the day after when India lifted up the World Cup, both made it the prefect day for me to go visit Hussai-niwala Border( India-Pakistan) in Punjab. From where I was, Hussainiwala was a mere 17 kms from the town of Ferozpur. On the motorbike ride that pleasant evening little was I aware of what I was to find there and what I was to feel.
The trees growing along the length of the long road, the landscape of distant fields, river canals gushing with water and visions of farmers going with their family out for the evening made it a picture distinct from one I would conjure in Bangalore on a Sunday. As I lifted up my sunglasses from my eyes and kept it perched up on my forehead, I took in the fresh air, the fragrance of earth and of India.
I reached a huge bridge built across River Sutlej which also had an artificial embankment just across it which served as a spot for tourists to do boating here. We were nearing the border. I was not to deprive myself of such pleasure of boating in the wide, cool waters of Sutlej so I took my seat on the boat which could accommodate six people. The boat took us to the far periphery of the artificial embankment and I sensed my mind go beyond the present to somewhere in the distant past. When I was silent surrounded by nature I transcended from present to a time in the past and I wondered what was this place like 100 years ago and who were the occupants and where were they gone now? I was soon to be shaken from my reverie as the boat ride came to an end and we were reminded to proceed soon to Hussainiwala if we were not to miss the flag retreat held in the evening.
I wasn’t prepared to see the huge crowd of people waiting to be let in through the barricades which had been put up by the Border Security Force at the gate that marked Hussainiwala border. This perhaps was 0 Km. This was the border and just across from where I stood was probably Pakistani land. This for some peculiar reason made me more sensitive to my past, to my country and to what we as a country went through to be free India today. There was a quality in this place that made you feel this way. As I stood here it stopped to matter where I came from, what I did for a living and what kind of thoughts I carried within me everyday because the one thing that endured now was that I am an Indian and my freedom didn’t come easily. It came with a price.
People from different parts of the country come here to be a part of the retreat held in the evenings to mark their loyalty to their country. It was but expected for some of them to carry the National Flag. Not everyone really gets to go in unless you have approved tickets. In spite of having tickets I still had to stand in a long maddening queue to be finally let in through the heavily manned gate of Hussainiwala. As I passed that screening I heaved a sigh of relief now determined to absorb what I had come here for all the way from Bangalore.
The huge brick-coloured gate that stood towering over me read that this was the historical place where three great freedom fighters—Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were cremated after they were hanged to death by the British in Lahore. Following riots after their death, their bodies were brought to Hussainiwala, cremated and the ashes doused in the mighty Sutlej. If I think about it now, I feel the British had been so shrewd in making even the last remains of a hero disappear in anonymity to make sure that was the end of public rage. But had they succeeded? I doubt. Here centuries later Hussai-niwala border stood testimony to the victorious cry of a hero who would never be silenced even by a death penalty. Bhagat Singh was very much alive for whoever came this far to the border to be part of the evening retreat.
We sat in the Indian side of the court along with hundreds of others separated from the Pakistani side by a white-painted line that ran across the road. This line I was told marked the international border of India and Pakistan. On the Indian side outpost hung a picture of Mahatma Gandhi while on the Pakistani side was a picture of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. It took me some time to realise that just across the line, the hundreds of people seated across me were not Indian—they were Pakistanis. As I tried to absorb every minute thing around me, I saw not far from where I sat were two flag posts—one on either side of the international border and I saw two great flags flowing in the sky. Someone shouted “Bharatmata ki Jai!!” breaking my concentration soon after followed by, “Pakistan Zindabad”. The retreat was soon to follow, a special parade done by the BSF and the Pakistani counterparts at sundown when the two national flags are brought down together at the same time.
Two flags of two great nations with histories entwined together for centuries flew together high up in the air in the fading evening sun. The Indian soldier stood proudly face to face with his contemporary from Pakistan as they in unison lifted up their bugle to play the sweetest, yet saddest melody, called the Last Post. My emotions stirred. The National Flags came down gracefully as I got up from my seat to mark my respect to this moment. And somewhere in the distant past I could imagine a young fearless Indian hero cry out, “Inquilab Zindabad!!”
I guess heroes never die.
The trees growing along the length of the long road, the landscape of distant fields, river canals gushing with water and visions of farmers going with their family out for the evening made it a picture distinct from one I would conjure in Bangalore on a Sunday. As I lifted up my sunglasses from my eyes and kept it perched up on my forehead, I took in the fresh air, the fragrance of earth and of India.
I reached a huge bridge built across River Sutlej which also had an artificial embankment just across it which served as a spot for tourists to do boating here. We were nearing the border. I was not to deprive myself of such pleasure of boating in the wide, cool waters of Sutlej so I took my seat on the boat which could accommodate six people. The boat took us to the far periphery of the artificial embankment and I sensed my mind go beyond the present to somewhere in the distant past. When I was silent surrounded by nature I transcended from present to a time in the past and I wondered what was this place like 100 years ago and who were the occupants and where were they gone now? I was soon to be shaken from my reverie as the boat ride came to an end and we were reminded to proceed soon to Hussainiwala if we were not to miss the flag retreat held in the evening.
I wasn’t prepared to see the huge crowd of people waiting to be let in through the barricades which had been put up by the Border Security Force at the gate that marked Hussainiwala border. This perhaps was 0 Km. This was the border and just across from where I stood was probably Pakistani land. This for some peculiar reason made me more sensitive to my past, to my country and to what we as a country went through to be free India today. There was a quality in this place that made you feel this way. As I stood here it stopped to matter where I came from, what I did for a living and what kind of thoughts I carried within me everyday because the one thing that endured now was that I am an Indian and my freedom didn’t come easily. It came with a price.
People from different parts of the country come here to be a part of the retreat held in the evenings to mark their loyalty to their country. It was but expected for some of them to carry the National Flag. Not everyone really gets to go in unless you have approved tickets. In spite of having tickets I still had to stand in a long maddening queue to be finally let in through the heavily manned gate of Hussainiwala. As I passed that screening I heaved a sigh of relief now determined to absorb what I had come here for all the way from Bangalore.
The huge brick-coloured gate that stood towering over me read that this was the historical place where three great freedom fighters—Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were cremated after they were hanged to death by the British in Lahore. Following riots after their death, their bodies were brought to Hussainiwala, cremated and the ashes doused in the mighty Sutlej. If I think about it now, I feel the British had been so shrewd in making even the last remains of a hero disappear in anonymity to make sure that was the end of public rage. But had they succeeded? I doubt. Here centuries later Hussai-niwala border stood testimony to the victorious cry of a hero who would never be silenced even by a death penalty. Bhagat Singh was very much alive for whoever came this far to the border to be part of the evening retreat.
We sat in the Indian side of the court along with hundreds of others separated from the Pakistani side by a white-painted line that ran across the road. This line I was told marked the international border of India and Pakistan. On the Indian side outpost hung a picture of Mahatma Gandhi while on the Pakistani side was a picture of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. It took me some time to realise that just across the line, the hundreds of people seated across me were not Indian—they were Pakistanis. As I tried to absorb every minute thing around me, I saw not far from where I sat were two flag posts—one on either side of the international border and I saw two great flags flowing in the sky. Someone shouted “Bharatmata ki Jai!!” breaking my concentration soon after followed by, “Pakistan Zindabad”. The retreat was soon to follow, a special parade done by the BSF and the Pakistani counterparts at sundown when the two national flags are brought down together at the same time.
Two flags of two great nations with histories entwined together for centuries flew together high up in the air in the fading evening sun. The Indian soldier stood proudly face to face with his contemporary from Pakistan as they in unison lifted up their bugle to play the sweetest, yet saddest melody, called the Last Post. My emotions stirred. The National Flags came down gracefully as I got up from my seat to mark my respect to this moment. And somewhere in the distant past I could imagine a young fearless Indian hero cry out, “Inquilab Zindabad!!”
I guess heroes never die.
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