Wishing You all "Happy Holi" - Festival of Victory of Good Over Evil

The festival of Holi is celebrated in India with a lot of enthusiasm as it marks a change. A change of season from the cold harsh winter to the colorful spring that melts the ice on the ground, and brings out the green grass and colors of the soil, the trees look radiant once again with their fresh green leaves and colorful flowers as also the colorful flowering plants in all the gardens. The days are longer once again and the sun shines it's brilliance over the mother earth bringing with it its much needed warmth so that people can shed their heavy winter garments and come out in the light summer shades of cotton fabric to enjoy the spring.

Holi is a festival that marks "Victory of Good over Evil". Since there is warmth in the air and sunshine once again, it gets reflected in the mood of the people as they express their happiness with song and dance, music, laughter, sweets, drinks and colors that considersbly cheer up everyone. This day is called Holi. What a wonderful way to begin a year, isn't it. If only this "feeling of goodness" would last till the end of the year...!

Do you know the mythological story behind why Holi is celebrated? Well for those who don't know it yet, read it here: This is how it goes..(quoted below)

"There was once a demon king by the name of Hiranyakashyap who won over the kingdom of earth. He was so egoistic that he commanded everybody in his kingdom to worship only him. But to his great disappointment, his son, Prahlad became an ardent devotee of Lord Naarayana a...nd refused to worship his father. Hiranyakashyap tried several ways to kill his son Prahlad but Lord Vishnu saved him every time. Finally, he asked his sister, Holika to enter a blazing fire with Prahlad in her lap. For, Hiranyakashyap knew that Holika had a boon, whereby, she could enter the fire unscathed. Treacherously, Holika coaxed young Prahlad to sit in her lap and she herself took her seat in a blazing fire. The legend has it that Holika had to pay the price of her sinister desire by her life. Holika was not aware that the boon worked only when she entered the fire alone. Prahlad, who kept chanting the name of Lord Naarayana all this while, came out unharmed, as the lord blessed him for his extreme devotion. Thus, Holi derives its name from Holika. And, is celebrated as a festival of victory of good over evil. Holi is also celebrated as the triumph of a devotee. As the legend depicts that anybody, howsoever strong, cannot harm a true devotee. And, those who dare torture a true devotee of god shall be reduced to ashes."

I think that it is very important to revive stories like these to our children, for in modern times, there is all the more a very urgent need to fight for "goodness" and overcome the "bad" or "evil"  that threatens to overtake the world at large...!

When I look all around me, I see a world that has changed completely and there seems to be nothing but "chaos" all around. People are confused. There is tyranny everywhere, governing systems are failing miserably leading to a very insecure and unstable environment. I feel very concerned and sad with the state of affairs in the world at large, as it is becoming more and more selfish and inhuman in nature, largely due to commercialism.

I posted this story on my Facebook wall and one of my friends from Xomba said, "thanks for posting this". I was happy to see that it was still important to some people. I strongly feel that we are severly lacking this input of traditional values, stories and culture to our younger generation in the passage of time and soon a time will come when there won't remain any "cultural" differences anymore. Due to this lack in our teachings or preachings to our children they are not able to have a smooth transition from "childhood" to "adulthood".  This may also be largely due to time constraints and parents get busy in their quest for money and trying to run the home, that they don't find any time to tell stories to their kids or even guide them with interesting anecdotes. In fact, people have even stopped writing such stories for kids now and I feel sorry for today's generation in many ways.

Children today (can't really blame them) are becoming more and more materialistic (thanks to commercialism) and learning to measure and value everything according to it...Lines have vanished, that demarcated good from bad, moral from immoral, right from wrong, legal from illegal, truth from lies, good manners and bad manners....The world at large has changed..So, what do we teach our kids today and how? Where are the role models?

How can we fight "evil" when the thin line between "good" and "evil" itself have diminished! Where are the true "devotees" today? Will there be a saviour to bring "Victory of Good Over Evil?"

I certainly hope so, for without hope, one would not be able to survive. So it is with this hope in my heart that I wish all the readers and the Xomba community a very "Happy Holi" and hope that the "warmth" this year should last through the year and bring out the goodness and also peace back on this earth.

 

Land Scams - Sukna Is Just One Of Them

The Sukna land scam is in the news for the last couple of weeks with lots of flip-flops amongst Generals, politicians et al. However this is not the first time such an issue has come to light. And like in the other cases, after a lot of talk, allegations, clarifications the issue will die down and those involved in the scam will laugh all the way to the bank.

While I was surfing the net for news on the Sukna scam, I came across a report in the Indian Express about the shady deals in the "Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society" in Cuffe Parade, Mumbai. Apparently the land which was known as Eco park was transferred to the society formed for the welfare of Kargil Heroes. The land was transferred to the society at hugely concessional rates. At the time of the article which is dated 2003 their was a lone subedar in the list of members. The deposit amount at that time was Rs 6 Lakhs. Considering the amount to be twenty percent as is the norm, the flat was valued at 30 Lakhs in 2003, A huge amount by any standard and no army jawan or for that matter an officer would have been able to cough out that kind of money in 2003 unless they were having some other source of income. 

Kargil, must have been a reason for the discounted rate. Since the rest are heavily connected Babus, senior officers and politicians. The more famous ones among these are • Admiral Madhavendra Singh Bhagwat Singh, Chief of Naval Staff uRear Admiral Raman Prem Suthan, Fleet Commander, Eastern Fleet • Lt Gen Gurbaksh Singh Shiv Singh Sihota, GOC, Southern Command • Major General T K Kaul, GOC, Maharastra and Gujarat Area • Maj Gen Varinder Singh, former GOC, Maharashtra and Gujarat Area • Ramchandra Sonelal Thakur, Subdivisional officer, Defence Estates • Subedar Ramnarain Achelal Thakur, ‘‘Kargil Hero’’ • Major Rajiv Kumar Hitnarain Singh, ‘‘Kargil Hero’’ • Kanhaiyalal V Gidwani, MLC, Shiv Sena, Mamta Kanade, wife of senior IAS officer Ramesh Kanade • P V Deshmukh, deputy secretary, urban development department,

That was 2003. Seven years later the building continues to be built and is nearing completion. However nothing is being done about it. No investigations, no questions. 

A 2 bedroom flat in cuffe parade would cost more than 3-4 crores today. Compare this with the Rs 30 lakhs, the members would have paid at that time and you can see the enormity of the scam. Surprisingly none of the news papers are following up what was a "Breaking News". Maybe they have been "taken care of".