The Judge Monkey - A special edition on separate statehood

And thus the state of 'Telangana' is carved out of Andhra Pradesh as proposed by ruling congress(II) on the 30th day of July,2013.

In light of this very contentious, sensitive and emotional issue i recollect one popular childhood story that makes every one wonder how aptly the story fits into current day scenario..It is the story of two cats and a judge monkey where in mapping of characters is left to readers imaginations.The (short) story goes on like this..

"Once upon a time, two cats were passing through a street. Suddenly they spotted a loaf of bread lying beneath a tree.Both cats pounced upon it and caught the loaf at the same time. "It`s mine.. i saw it first" claimed first cat. While the other said,"i pounced upon it first and so it belongs to me". After having fought for a while, one cat said "Let us divide into two and take one piece each".. "Indeed it is a good idea", said the other, but how to divide it?

A monkey sitting on the branch of a tree had watched all that happened between the two cats. "The loaf of bread looks good, i could do with it myself" he thought and slowly walked down to the confused cats. The cats told the monkey what the problem was and asked the monkey to be the judge and to divide the loaf for them. The clever monkey smilingly broke the bread into two pieces..But.. one piece was a little bigger than the other. He exclaimed "Oh No!!, i will take the little portion in bigger piece to make both pieces equal" slyly. He took a bigger portion than required to make those pieces unequal again.. Now the smaller piece has become bigger and the monkey said it would take the small portion of the bigger piece to make them equal..

The two cats sat in front of the monkey seeing the loaf of bread getting smaller and smaller. When the whole loaf was eaten by the monkey,he said "I am sorry. It was really difficult to divide the loaf, I must be going now" and the monkey jumped onto the tree and was gone. "If only we had not quarreled among ourselves, we would have remained united and we need not have to go to the monkey and become hungry now" said the two cats and left with empty stomachs..

Remember that cats did not realized until the bread loaf was completely consumed by monkey. It is the monkey who gained ultimately, the bread is not his.. the quarrel is not his.. just he came in between and satiated his hunger. The cats to whom the bread belongs to, left without any bread and are left with only hunger and despair.. 

In our story - does the division bought any good to any of the cat? If you feel - yes, division of bread benefit one cat, then you need not read further.. :))

IF NOT.. here you go..The story of TELANGANA.. This article is going to be lengthy.. i could not help myself in limiting the size of this article as i want to give a complete overview of what has happened.. what is happening and what will happen.. to Andhra Pradesh!!!

As every Indian knows that we achieved independence in 1947 from British. British India was divided into different provinces for ease of administration. Some such provinces are Punjab province, Madras province, Mysore province , united provinces so on and so forth..After the division of India into dominion of India and dominion of pakistan, some of the new states were formed but then Andhra pradesh was not given. 

In an effort to gain an independent state and to protect the interests of Telugu speaking people, Shri. Potti Sriramulu fasted onto death for separate state. After his death, Andhra State portion was carved out of Madras province on 1st of November 1953 with Kurnool as its capital. Nizam province consisted Hyderebad, parts of Maharastra and parts of karnataka. Implementing states reorganizing act in 1956, the telugu speaking parts of Nizam province (Now telanaga) are carved out and were merged into Andhra State and formed Andhra Pradesh. Marathi speaking parts and kannada speaking parts were merged into Maharastra and Karnataka respectively. The ten districts of Telangana do not have independent existence at any point, they were part of Nizam province. In 1956, Andhra state with parts of Nizam province merged - formed Andhra Pradesh with Hyderabad as its capital.Under Nizams rule culture of Telangana bore influence of North India, where as erstwhile Andhra state bore culture of south India as it was part of Madras province. Here comes the first difference - Cultural differences. While merging Telangana area into Andhra state during 1956, the then state government provided safeguards to Telangana in the form of gentlemen`s agreement

There were several movements to invalidate the merger in 1969,1972 and the latest one from 2001-13. In 1969 people of Telangana expressed dissatisfaction over implementation of agreement done in 1956 and started agitation. Hundreds of people dead in the protests , when the movement was about to get its ground, The shrewd prime minister Smt. Indira Gandhi came into picture, Marri channa reddy who was the leader for this agitation was made chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. As it is said, power influences even the honest and best of men.. The agitation was pacified. Later, in 1972, Mulki rule - a rule that allows people who have stayed in hyderabad for more than 15 years were considered as locals and some grants were given to them for certain government posts. As a result, The Jai Andhra Movement started demanding a separate state for Andhra and Rayalaseema. P V Narasimha Rao resigned as a cheif minister on 10th Jan,1973 and president`s rule was declared in the state. During the same year a political settlement was reached with the government of india and the movement appeased. 

In 1997, when the BJP was in power, it passed a resolution in parliament seeking separate Telanaga state along with Chattisgarh, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand. How ever in 2000 all these states were created but Telangana was not formed due to lack of support from Telugu Desam party (TDP-the then ruling political party in AP). NDA (BJP led coalition govt) blamed TDP for lack of support to form the new state.

Violation of Gentlemen`s Agreement is considered as one of the prime reasons for demand of separate Telangana..

In 2001 K ChandraShekar Rao, separated himself from TDP and formed his own party with one point agenda - creation of separate Telangana State. From 2001 to 2009, the state government was able to control this sudden demand of separate state. After the untimely demise of the then cheif minister of Andhra Pradesh Shri. Y. Rajashekar Reddy, the state government lost its control over Telangana agitation and the movement got intensified.The central government or state government never in an official statement announced that they want to comply with Gentlemen`s agreement.

Some of the major reasons on why the fight for separate Telangana state is started :

1) Education : Telangana region of AP caters institutes of higher education in versatile fields :

Esteemed schools like - Indian School of Business (ISB), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Birla Institute of Technology and sciences (BITS), Indian Institute of Information Technology(IIIT-H),Tata Institute of Fundemental Research, Nalsar university of Law, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Indian Institute of chemical technology, School of Planning and Architecture,National Institute of Fashion Technology, The institute of Hotel management catering Technology and Applied Nutrition, National institute of Rural Development, along with scores of Engineering, Medicine, Arts, Law, Humanities and Management colleges of both national and international reputation are located in Hyderabad. Warangal region of Telangana houses National Institute of technology (NIT-W) one of the prestigious technology institutes in INDIA.Also, parts of Telangana hosts innumerable centers of excellence in fields of Engineering, Medicine, Arts and Sciences.

YET the stark and surprising fact is that 7 out of  9 districts in Telangana have a literacy rate of less than 60% and 4 out of 9 districts have a literacy rate of less than 55% where as 7 out of 9 in Andhra region have a literacy rate of greater than 60% -- This inequality in education, even though there are more higher education centers in their region was strongly condemned.

2) Agriculture and Food : The two major rivers of AP, krishna and Godavari enters into AP from Mehaboob Nagar and Nizamabad districts of Telangana and merges into sea in Krishna and Godavari districts. geographically Krishna and Godavari districts are low lying coastal areas where water comes from upper parts of Telanaga, Yet the coastal belt is greener than the other regions of Telangana.. Are the reasons confined to nature of soil and monsoons in different parts of states or is it because of political negligence parts of Telangana still suffers - is an open question. The result is more areas in Telangana are deprived of nutritional supplements.

3) Employment: As per gentlemen`s agreement the state government should form Regional standing committee for Telangana which deals with development and economic planning, Public health and sanitation, primary and secondary education, employment, cottage and small scale industries etc.. There were hardly any instances neither in past nor in present, where the state government mentioned about this committee or whether this committee has brought fruitful results. Owing to the failure in implementation of this committee, the unemployment rate in parts of Telangana has increased and yielded negative results, causing youth to protest for separate state.

As per the agreement done, Allocation of resources and expenditures should also be shared between regions of Telangana and Andhra which was not judiciously done by government over a period of time.

The agreement also says, if the chief minister is from one region among Telangana and Andhra, the Deputy chief should be from the other region, the government has given least importance to this aspect.

Owing to so many deviations, in 2009 the then home minister Mr.P Chidambaram announced in a press release that their government is ready to consider separate state for Telangana. The government commissioned a special committee - Sri Krishna committee, to come up with possible and plausible solutions. After thorough research, the committee has given 6 options as could be solutions to central government

1) Maintaining Status of the state as it is - let the situations pacify

2) Bifurcate State - Hyderabad as union territory - Punjab Haryana Chandigarh model

3) Divide state into - Rayalaseema Telanaga - Hyd into 1 part and Coastal AP into another 

4) Seemandhra and Telanaga - Hyd as Union Territory

5) Telangana as separate state with HYD capital, Andhra state with new capital - 2nd preferred option by committee

6) United Andhra pradesh - Create Telangana regional council for Social , Economic and political developments - 1st preferred option by committee.

However Telangana leaders and people were not happy with united Andhra pradesh as they strongly feel that they are being neglected. The consequences are intense agitations for separate Telangana state hood.

Telangana leaders and agitators believed that creating a separate state will allow prospects for development of Telangana as a region and as a state. I wish their belief comes true. Regional development will ultimately leads to National development which is very much required for a developing nation like INDIA.

Great that we now know the history, we know the problems, we know their demands and we know the solutions as well. But what can be the best solution and what are it`s effects.Have our government considered them and prepared a road map ? If so, I`m happy since i could believe there will be no monkey business that can happen if the road map and end results are clear.

Remember when states of Chattisgarh, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand are carved out of Madya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar respectively. The Bill was introduced and passed in monsoon session of parliament by the then ruling party BJP. The division was done based on social and political basis but not on lingustic and ethnic basis as was proposed in the Indian constitution. The results of division were political instability and financial anarchy in all these states.

Development work came to a halt in both parent and new states.It took few years to develop infrastructure and few more for effective and purposeful administration to develop and development includes spending crores and crores of public funds. Creation of separate state is a very expensive affair !!!

Current Scenario:

Union government has announced separate Telangana state with Hyderabad as common capital (Interim capital) for next 10 years - Challenges in this proposal are :

1) Hyderabad do not share common geographical boundary with Telangana and Andhra, infact it is located with in Telangana. There is a greater scope for operational difficulties and administration in Andhra region including Rayalaseema

2) There are no constructive measures or promises made for the people of Andhra and Rayalaseema that creation of separate state would not impact Andhra state - there are speculations about many things as many people from different parts of the state made huge investments in the capital city of hyderabad.

3) As Telangana is already bogged down by so many betrayals in past, can this new state help over come such betrayals and leads to a transparent government - which i doubt it would happen

4) Andhra pradesh is called rice bowl of INDIA, already there are agricultural slides and farmer suicides reported in many parts of the state, how does the government plan to regulate and control it in two states if it failed controlling situations in one state -may be i need to wait for a couple of months to find out the answer or may be i need to wait for ever (pun intended!)

5)How does the government promises progress of telugu people in such an emotional and sensitive times. As carving a new state is ongoing and incremental process, the vision should be more clear, lest both states would have to face economic downturn and financial anarchy

6) How is government going to act against Naxalism - one of the most haunted factors in many parts of Telangana. Ignoring this issue will lead to a serious security threat and the consequences can be far from imagining. Remember the recent naxal blasts in Jharkhad? Terrain of Telangana supports easy survival of naxalites.

7) Factors such as river water distribution, distribution of natural resources such as coal from Adilabad mines and Oil& gas from Krishna Godavari basin- are contentious.

8) On National level, there are many ongoing agitations for separate state hood - Bodoland in Assam, Kuki land in Nagaland, Gorkhaland in Northern part of west bengal,Vidarbha in Maharastra, Saurashtra in Gujarat, Kongu Nadu in Tamil Nadu, Puvanchal in Uttar Pradesh and the list goes on... What is the solution to all such agitations - Can we afford to maintain DEMOCRATIC UNITED STATES OF INDIA with 50-60 states. It leads to political anarchy.

What the government plans for long term is still unclear. Does it want to give away states to whom ever demand or are there some regulations ? May be we could look at the problem this way, which ever government meets the demand of separate state (major parliament seats) is more likely to continue in power (political perception - more favorable votes).Evidently, political expediency took precedence over long-term planning and, inevitably the people will suffer.

As of now, we can only congratulate those leaders and pay respects to those people who sacrificed many things for creation of separate Telangana state to achieve up-liftment of Telangana people. Wish there will be a win-win situation unlike the case in the Judge Monkey story.

Personally, i feel separation is painful and separation is not a matter of joy. Separation will not land anyone in heavens.. There is long road ahead with a caution board every where. This is not a moment of rejoice to celebrate, no one has gained anything - we divided our unity and we have shown the world that we can no longer be together as one state.

Andhra Pradesh will become India`s first non- Hindi- Speaking linguistic state to be divided. Telangana is born and INDIA now has 29 states and 7 Union Territories.

Few quotes from notable people which i find meaningful in this context are added below :

Interesting Quotes about UNITY

In Union there is Strength - Aesop (ancient Greek Fabulist)

Coming Together is beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success - Henry Ford (American Industrialist)

Remember upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all - Alexander the great (King of Macedon - conqueror of the world)

Unity to be real must stand the severest strain without breaking - Mahatma Gandhi - Father of our nation

Across the world -  from 620 BC to 2013 AD- from 6th Century to 21st Century - for almost of period of 1500 years - when all great people are preaching the importance of unity, what gain we get from these division of lands ? - Except the satiation of greed for the power - to few people(political elite).

The most beautiful thing about TEAM WORK is that you always have others on your side.. You are never alone !!! 

Stay united - Stay Strong - Stay Indian

Jai Hind 

The FALL and FALL of Indian Rupee --  Will it raise ?

Lately we have been hearing in news that Indian rupee is losing its value against dollar. Investors are expressing their concerns, RBI is announcing some measures , The Finance Ministry and the political elite are assuring general public that rupee will shortly regain its value. It fell way past the psychological value mark of 60 !!!  -- 1 USD = 60.72 INR...

Is it really sinking !!

The biggest question for which everyone is waiting to find an answer..Why is rupee sinking ? More precisely how does it matter to us as a common man whether rupee gains or loses its value in foreign exchange market.. I try to throw some light on this current situation  - fluctuating rupee value.. News papers and financial articles blame different factors for devaluation of rupee - Current Account Deficit (CAD) , Banks' Non Performing Assets (NPA), Tepid global growth and external sector challenges are some of the factors that caused pressure on exchange rate as explained by our central bank (RBI). Before giving a damn about these factors, when we try to understand in simple terms :

One of the major factors that determine exchange rate is Supply and Demand. In this case supply and demand of USD (US Dollar) into Indian market regulates the exchange rate. Examining the sources of demand and supply for USD in India : Import industry that makes payments for products purchased in USD and Individuals/Companies that are interested in investing abroad are major sources of demand where as Export industry that earns in dollars by selling goods and services, Overseas companies that are interested in investing Indian markets are major sources of supply. INDIA exports Petroleum products, Iron and Steel, Chemical,Vehicles, Machinery, Spices, Buffalo live stock and many more which contributes to export revenues where as Gold and Oil imports contributes 45% of the total imports which increases the cost. When Exports and Imports balance each other, such a situation is called Balance of Trade (Ideal situation), when Exports >(greater than) Imports, it is treated as surplus (a positive situation) where as in India  Exports <(lesser than) Imports called as Trade deficit (Current Account Deficit). Since imports are greater than exports, there is high demand than supply, increasing the dollar value.In short , the more imports we make, more will be the demand for USD and rupee value depreciates . This is the reason government encourages people to use domestic products and posts circulate in face book to use Indian goods :)

Second reason for rupee sliding is  : Inflation, The more the inflation, the higher the depreciation of rupee..When we look at purchasing power of INR , say an item which costed 50 rupees an year ago with an inflation rate of 10 % becomes 55 rupees this year, where as in US the inflation is less and the item costs almost same this year and last year, in this example rupee value is devalued as its purchasing power dropped.

Also as international markets collapse, for example Euro crisis : It effects growing economies like India since we have to rely on exports to uplift our economy, if the exports are restricted in euro zone due to financial crisis, it indirectly effects our exports there by leading to large CAD - Economy slumps. As a result Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) who were investing in India backed out and started investing in safer havens (US) further widening the gap - These are external challenges and RBI is framing guidelines and policies to handle such scenarios and to boost investors confidence.

The price of every commodity is driven by market forces, if demand is high, RBI ensures that prices do not fluctuate heavily - because that might benefit one section of society and prove fatal to others : For example Onion prices go up - onion trades make money but restaurants make loss.So, what we are looking at -- does a weaker rupee means weaker economy - Economists say countries across the world try to weaken their currency, so that consumers will buy less foreign stuff, as the foreign stuff will be more expensive in their currency and export more to improve their economy. A weaker exchange rate does not mean weaker economy - 1 USD = 100 Japanese Yen does not make japan a poorer economy than India!!

Economy should be moderately controlled, RBI does this either by increasing forex reserves or by increasing cash reserve ratio`s.Currently India has a forex reserve of  $ 294.82 billions, If rupee value suddenly drops and if 1 $ = 1 INR, then the pizza that costs 10$ will be available for 10 INR and there by demand for domestic products falls in turn leads to crash in domestic market and economy drops - If we are getting an imported product for the same price as domestic product which one do we prefer !! This is the major challenge for RBI on how to manage rupee value against dollar

Who gains if rupee falls :
1) Service Industries which are getting paid in USD for their services - though Nasscom chief stated that in long run there will be no benefits for IT industry, we cannot decline the fact there are benefits.
2) Expats who are earning in US can transfer and accumulate more in INR as rupee falls.
3) Export industry gets benefit - as they get paid in USD

Who loses if rupee falls :
1) Investors who want to invest in foreign currencies have to invest more because of exchange rate - sliding rupee discourages investments in foreign entities - rather it indicates people to put money in our country to improve our economy
2) Students who pursue higher education abroad, ends up paying more as rupee falls - discourages brain drain and tries at enhancing quality in domestic academic institutes to refrain local cream
3) Consumers who buy foreign goods - they have to pay more for same product - boosts domestic markets

So is it good if rupee falls.. !There has to be a mixed answer . Conclusively,there are many factors that arise from the economic structure of Indian economy that affects the evaluation of exchange rate which in turn effects the economic growth rate of a country. Wish our central bank and Finance Ministry takes proper steps to elevate our economy and boost investors interest.. Hoping for a day where other currencies should try to peg their currency with INR like today we do with USD.

Interesting fact

You Know, Chinese economy is the worlds second largest economy with a growth rate of 7.8% in 2012. It is projected to overtake US by
2027 if it continues with same growth rate.
They have Strategic National Projects and build local infrastructure. A travel from center of Shanghai (largest city in china) to its Airport  takes only 8 minutes in magnetic levitation train. Imagine the time they can save and trade they can do....
Have we ever imagined to reach airport in less than 10 minutes, from center of any city in India.. !!!!!

PS: Interesting fact has nothing to do with sliding rupee :))

An Undesirable Nexus : Naxalism
             - Strategic Centralization and Tactical Decentralization
  In the wake of assassination of Mahendra Karma, the man who kindled the 'Salwa Judam' fire, my thoughts triggered my actions to write this blog on one of the most contentious issues that India is facing today - Naxalism. It is not only a national problem, the magnitude is global and the intensity is high, considering the human cost involved in the movement.

  Some back ground on the roots and origin of Naxalism would help understand the problem clearly, so i`m presenting the published facts that i gathered from various sources on social and communication media. As it goes, the word Naxal or Naxalite is after a village name Naxalbari , near silguri in Terai region of West Bengal. An Agrarian movement started by peasants turned into a Naxal movement ,It was started under the leadership of Charu Majmudar and Kanu Sanyal in 1967. They led the peasants, weaker sections against Land lords and money lenders who committed irregularities against helpless labor.

   History (or the story) says, in May 1967, farmers who are discontent brewing in tea gardens started an agitation against land lords. Police forces tried to stop the agitation, suddenly a demonstrator shot an arrow at police and he died. The police force left that place immediately and came back with an enforcement and opened fire. This movement lead to death of many people including 9 women and 2 children. Then started the so called movement - Naxalism.

   The movement got its ground and started spreading :  Naxals campaigned in states of West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Andhra pradesh and south eastern part of UP. The area under the control of naxals is called 'Red Corridor' which is spread about 92,000 Sq.km. They go by different names in different regions. In towns bordering Bihar and Nepal they call themselves as Maoists, whereas in Andhra Pradesh they call themselves as PWG(peoples`s war group).In Bengal they are infamous as Naxalites. They (Maoists) are categorized into 2 major cadres-  Sangam : The intellectual elite who does the planning part (strategic centralization) ; Dalam : Fighters who executes the plan (Fighters deployed everywhere - Tactical decentralization). The Dalam part generally are drawn from the ignorant, religious bigots who are frustrated, deprived, discontented and uneducated. As these can be easily motivated by tall promises in ‘Heaven’ if killed in the struggle. A majority of them didn’t even have a clear concept as to what reason they have joined the movement.

       The naxalites claim to represent the most oppressed people who are often untouched and bypassed by electoral process and they spare none when it comes to killings, extortion s ,  kidnapping, taking hostages or disrupting railways or any other clandestine operations.

    When we take a look at the India map, the red colored area represents their complete presence. They are not located in some remote parts of India, Right in the heart (Madhya Pradesh), spreading towards west in Maharastra and have great presence in one complete border from West Bengal to Andhra Pradesh. They have the ability to divide India and they are not in hurry either, they don`t want power to rule the nation (immediately).Connecting to the characters in my previous blog, the goverment (our sage -- in cave story) is drafting plans to counter the movement,  when the Naxal Movement (our rat -- in cave story) is getting a grip on our nation. Now the Movement (rat turned lion) started attacking government (our sage). Wish our sage acts before the lion feeds on him..

     Analyzing the problem at macro level, the movement got its ideological underpinnings from the great leader 'Mao Tse Tung' , communist party of china (You may find this link for more info -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoism). Based on the same strategy, Jawans in Vietnam did fragging (killing superiors) ; Che Guevara joined Fiedal Castro and defeated Batista`s regime - centralized che`s activities from sierra Maestra in cuba ; Implementing Dau tranh, vietnamese over threw french colonialism. In China, Cuba, Vietnam, Bolivia : They implemented the strategy templates and they achieved their purpose. Now it is INDIA.. I wish democracy continues. Though there is corruption, irregularities and crimes - INDIA the largest democratic nation in the world is still united and is still known for its rich and varied cultural heritage. Justice, Equality, Fraternity and Liberty are still the governing principles of our constitution. A majority of people are enjoying absolute independence in democratic India (Though there are some problems). Unfortunately, our communication and social media do not highlight the positive aspects of our nation as much as they do for negative aspects.. there by diverting my attention from main topic of this blog: Salwa Judam :)

       

    With sufficient back ground on Naxalism, we will move to 'Salwa Judam' (Meaning 'Peace March' in Gondi language- spoken by about 2 million people in INDIA - even i`m surprised :P). This was active in Bastar and Dantewada regions of chattisgarh. The idea is simple yet effective : Training and support is given to tribal youth by state government ; these trained people, provided with ammunition,  counter attack naxal activites. Why only tribal youth are selected ? Because naxal activities are operational in forest terrains (easy to attack and escape),tribal youth will definitely have good knowledge on forest geography and naxal attacks.. Easy to counter !! But , supreme court of INDIA declared this salwa judam as illegal and unconstitutional and ordered its disbanding on july 5 , 2011... why? The movement received critics for its violations of human rights (!!!), use of child soldiers and poorly trained uneducated youth for counter operations - this helped in increasing the presence of naxalites. Are human rights really violated or is this the plot of our sangam (mentioned in para 4) elite who identified the danger in existence of movement is an open question !!!

     On May 25, 2013 Mahendra karma founder of salwa judam was killed in a Naxal attack. He was reportedly stabbed 78 times, apart from sustaining several bullet injuries as per Times of India. Even if he committed so many mistakes (as reported by naxal spokesperson).. is it required to stab a person 78 times apart from firing number of bullets..just to kill him...!!! It is more like a revenge than a murder !! On May 29, 2013 : party spokesperson of maoists released letter stating karma, patel and vidya charan shukla are identifies as "people`s enemy" (as reported in The Hindu dated 29 May). The release has given apologies to the death of 27 innocent people and 32 injured apart from targeted leaders. Look at the human cost, to kill 1 leader (peoples enemy as they state), they killed 27 others.. Is this movement really doing any good.. I do not advocate that killing is good, but i want to highlight the human cost involved in naxal operations. "Does allowing this movement serves as a boon to oppressed sections or does it serves as a threat to the entire nation" is a point to think upon...I remember the stories of British coming to India in the name of opium trade and ruled her for next 200 years depriving her of her riches.. Now, we are experiencing this naxal movement in the name of protecting oppressed sections.. I`m wondered where we will land on !! 

   

  




  
              

Once Upon A time .. In a Cave !!

Well.. I would like to start this blog with a story i remember.. A story of a old sage, but the facts presented nicely fit into present day society even.. Happy Reading !

"Once upon a time there lived a sage who was wandering from forest to forest in search of peaceful place to practice yoga for the rest of his life..He found a cave in one forest where he experienced the calmness he expected. Having decided to stay there, he started cleaning the surroundings to make it a clean place fit for his practice.While doing so, he found a little rat squeaking, running around here and there out of fear and insecurity.Our sage felt pity for the rat and assured that it would be protected under his supervision in the cave and has given strict instructions to rat not to disturb him when he is practicing yoga.

Days passed on..sage was happily performing his routines and practicing yoga as he expected. suddenly on one day while the sage was about to reach a deeper stage in meditation, the little rat came running to the sage and started squeaking. Having been disturbed, the sage opened his eyes and questioned the rat about its behavior. Rat showed a wild cat that is hunting it and wanted to get protected from the cat.. sage went and shoo away the cat and continued with his meditation. Again on the second day, rat came to him with the same complaint and wanted sage to shoo away the cat, sage did so... it continued for some days and our sage is not able to concentrate properly in his practice. On one day, sage decided to use the powers he acquired to turn the rat into a wild cat, so that it can protect itself from all the cats and would not disturb him. Having decided so, the sage called the rat and explained his decision to turn this rat into a cat !! rat felt happy and agreed with the decision.

Again days passed on... our 'Rat turned Cat' is enjoying its new avatar and started going outside the cave since it believes that it can protect itself. On one day to its surprise, it has seen a pack of dogs hunting . Having been scared of the dogs, the rat turned cat went running to the sage for protection. Sage got disturbed again, and asked the cat about its new problem. After hearing the cat, the sage now decided to turn this cat into a wild dog so that it can protect itself from other dogs.. having acquired a new avatar again, this 'rat turned cat turned wild dog' started hunting happily in the forest and returned to the cave during nights.Sage continued his practice as expected..

Days are never the same !!! this time as the 'rat turned cat turned dog' started wandering in the forest it confronted a pack of wolves, unable to fight the wolves the dog ran back to the cave for protection and disturbed our sage..This time the dog advised the sage, why to get disturbed every time it faces a problem and asked the sage to convert it into a lion so that any animal would be scared to hunt it. Having pleased with its explanation, the sage used his powers again to turn this dog into a 'Lion'. Now our rat which acquired the status of  a Lion is happy, thanked the sage went back to the forest. It was enjoying its life hunting other small animals, ruling the forest.

Now our rat which is a mighty lion needs more feed to satiate its hunger. One day it found no prey and hungrily returned to the cave.It observed the sage meditating deeply.The mere smell of human increased its already burning hunger. It fought with itself for long time not to launch an attack on sage. Unable to fight its hunger the lion decided on having the sage, and started walking slowly towards him. Foot by foot as it walked the sage could smell something wrong going around and opened his eyes. To his surprise 'the then rat, now a lion' is ready to launch an attack on him.No sooner does he gained his senses, wasting no time, he immediately turned the mighty lion into a little rat...

The sage then understood the course of nature and thought it was foolish to protect a rat from a cat or a cat from dog or anything from its natural course. The rat is destined to become food for cat, if not one day the other day.Our sage tried to change the course of its destiny and almost fell prey to his doings."

We can compare the sage to our mind which we always set to do something fruitful. The rat can be compared to the desires that we face in between. One cannot proceed with one`s course of actions if one starts protecting one`s desires. Desires are different from dreams and destinies. There is a fair chance that we can mistake desire as a dream. One should know how to control one`s unwanted desires. As in our story, sage is determined to do yoga (destiny) and wished to protect rat (desire). Finally he almost fell prey for his desire..

As they say 'Human desires are Endless', fulfilling dreams and achieving targets is not a mistake but one must keep an eye on one`s growing desires, else we will fall prey for our own desires.