Divers explore ruins of Cleopatra’s palace

Business Line (May 27, 2010) carried a news from Associated Press titled "Divers explore ruins of Cleopatra's palace".

MSNBC carries the AP article and has a nice Slideshow: In search of Cleopatra’s palace.  Being a western topic, I am sure this would excite the Western world.  The tools and material support this expedition had is much superior to the Indian expeditions in the past on Dvaraka, some decades back.  I was reminded about the exciting archeological work of Dr S.R. Rao in excavating "The Lost city of Dvaraka".  

According to Dr. S R Rao - "The discovery of the legendary city of Dwaraka which is said to have been founded by Sri Krishna, is an important landmark in the history of India. It has set to rest the doubts expressed by historians about the historicity of Mahabharata and the very existence of Dwaraka city. It has greatly narrowed the gap in Indian history by establishing the continuity of the Indian civilization from the Vedic Age to the present day."  In an interview with The Hindu (November 20, 2002), Dr Rao explains how they went about the Dwaraka work -

We had no experience in marine archaeology. It was a new discipline to India. The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) gave us some money and we went to the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa, as there were some divers there and started work in 1981. Real work started in 1982. We hired boats. First we found some evidence in Beth Dwaraka island because local tradition points to the antiquity of this compared to Dwaraka. 

According to the Mahabharata Krishna built Dwaraka at Kushasthali - a fortress in the sea which is in ruins. Then he built another at the mouth of the Gomti river. AtKushasthali (Beth Dwaraka spelt Dvaraka) we found a wall (560 metres long) visible on the shore itself. Dating of pottery found here gave a date of 1528 B.C. So we were satisfied we were on the right spot. We unearthed an important find - a seal (mudra). The Mahabharata refers to how Krishna wanted every citizen to carry some sort of identity - a mudra.

ANCIENT FORTIFICATION: The long wall visible on the shore at Beth Dwaraka.

Besides plenty of pottery, we found an inscribed sherd with the following maha kacha shahapa (sea, king or protector). This is dated around 1600 B.C. while the mudra is dated to 1700 B.C. We found a 580 metre long wall. 

The excitement came when we found the mudra and the inscription. That was the confirming factor as by mere date one could not say it is Dwaraka. The Mahabharata
mentions the city having 50 openings. We found about 25 or 30 bastions. There must be more because they must have protected the wall against currents. On the bastion invariably there are window openings. So that may be the reference.

Hindu wisdom info website (www.hinduwisdom.info) contains a nice compilation of Dwaraka related news items.  Some excerpts from the website -

Sri Krishna is a towering personality and it is difficult to separate the human aspect of his life from the divine in Krishna concept. He is a grand mystery and everyone has tried to understand him in his own way, according to his spiritual light or vision. The Yogis considered him to be the absolute truth, the Gopis the highest object of love, the warriors as an ideal hero, Kamsa as an object of fear and Sisupala as an object of hate. 

Whether one thinks of him as an object of love or hate, one attains him. Yudhishthira attained him through friendship and Narada by devotion. Krishna is the embodiment of intellectual and spiritual glory. No other single idea has so much influenced the course of India's religion, philosophy, art and literature as the life and personality of Krishna. As a child he was wonderful, as a youth he was physically most perfect and beautiful. as an intellectual he was the very embodiment of Vedic scholarship and his teachings in the Gita embody the immortal message of desire less action, knowledge and single-minded devotion. "As a fighter he was without rival, as a statesman most shrewd, as a social thinker very liberal, as a teacher the most eloquent, as a friend never failing, and as a householder the most idea." It is with his help that the Pandavas were able to overcome all opponents and win the battle of Mahabharata. 

In the words of Annie Wood Besant (1847-1933) - "He (Krishna) is so fundamentally the God, who is human in everything, who bends in human sympathy over the cradle of the babe, who sympathizes with the play of the youth, who is the friend of the lover, the blesser of the bridegroom and the bride, who smiles on the young mother when her first born lies in her arms, everywhere the God of love and human happiness; what wonder that his winsome grace has fascinated the hearts of men."

Listen to The Bhagavad Gita podcast - By Michael Scherer - americanphonic.com.

Watch Scientific verification of Vedic knowledge.

Watch Lost / submerged city of Dwaraka – The Learning Channel video

***

Dwaraka has a special importance as one of the major Hindu pilgrim place, known as the capital of Lord Krishna's Kingdom. It is also an important historical monument. The region of the west coast, where Krishna was to settle the Yadavas was full of flowering and fruit-bearing trees. Here grew the nagacampas, grapes, coconut trees and many others. It was the land of the hunter Ekalavya. Dronacarya had also lived here. Krishna decided to built a new city here and laid the foundation at an auspicious moment. He named the new city Dvaravati. Much later the poet Magha in his Sisupalavadha, sarga2, describes in slokas 31 onwards, the city of Dwaraka, sloka 33 can be translated:

"The yellow glitter of the golden fort of the city in the sea throwing yellow light all round looked as if the flames of vadavagni came out tearing asunder the sea."

Literary texts like the Mahabharata, Harivamsha, Sijupdlavadha and Puranas contain traditions about foundation of Dwaraka, its planning and glory. Before the legendary city of Dwaraka was discovered some scholars were of the view that the Mahabharata being only a myth it would be futile to look for the remains of Dwaraka and that too in the sea. Others held that the Mahabharata battle was a family feud exaggerated into a war.

The Bhagavad Gita has influenced great Americans from Thoreau to Oppenheimer. Its message of letting go of the fruits of one’s actions is just as relevant today as it was when it was first written more than two millennia ago.  

For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

Refer to Bhaja Govindam - kamakoti.org.

Listen to The Bhagavad Gita podcast - By Michael Scherer - americanphonic.com.

Watch Scientific verification of Vedic knowledge.

Watch Lost / submerged city of Dwaraka – The Learning Channel video  

* * *

Excavations done by Dr. S. R. Rao at Dwaraka prove that the descriptions as found in these texts are not to be discarded as fanciful but are to be treated as based on actualities as seen by their authors. The architecture of the old Dwaraka of Shri Krishna is majestic and wonderful. The great poet Premanand has in his "Sudama Charit" described its splendid beauty and majesty. Dwaraka is mentioned as Golden City in Shrimad Bhagvad Gita, Skand Purana, Vishnu Purana and also in Harivansha and Mahabharat.

Dwaraka on mainland which was one of the busiest ports of the Mahabharata Period met a sudden end due to the fury of the sea. After the Mahabharata War Krishna lived for 36 years at Dwaraka. At the end, the Vrshnis, Bhojas and Satvatas destroyed themselves in a fratricidal feud at Prabhasa but Krishna did not interfere to save them. The portends of destruction seen by Sri Krishna who advised immediate evacuation of Dwarakaare stated in Bhagavata Purana. Dwaraka abandoned by Hari (Krishna) was swallowed by the sea. The submergence took place immediately after Sri Krishna departed from the world. 

Interesting descriptions about its construction are found in Puranas.

"Fearing attack from Jarasangh and Kaalayvan on Mathura, Shri Krishna and Yadavas left Mathura and arrived at the coast of Saurashtra. They decided to build their capital in the coastal region and invoke the Vishwakarma the deity of construction. However, Vishwakarma says that the task can be completed only if Samudradev, the Lord of the sea provided some land. Shri Krishna worshipped Samudradev, who was pleased and gave them land measuring 12 yojans and the Lord vishwakarma build Dwaraka, a "city in gold".

This beautiful city was also known as Dwaramati, Dwarawati and Kushsthali. Another story says that at the time of the death of Shri Krishna, who was hit by the arrow of a hunter near Somnath at Bhalka Tirth, Dwaraka disappeared in the sea.

The information and material secured through underwater excavation off Dwaraka corroborates with the references to the City of Dwaraka, made in the Great Epic Mahabharata and various other Sanskrit literary works. In Mahabharata, there is a specific account about the submerging of Dwaraka, by the sea which reads thus:

Sculpture of Vishnu from onshore excavation, Dwaraka.

(image source: The Lost City of Dvaraka - By S.R. Rao).

* * *

"The sea, which had been beating against the shores, suddenly broke the boundary that was imposed on it by nature. The sea rushed into the city. It coursed through the streets of the beautiful city. The sea covered up everything in the city. Even as they were all looking, Arjuna saw the beautiful buildings becoming submerged one by one. Arjuna took a last look at the mansion of Krishna. It was soon covered by the sea. In a matter of a few moments it was all over. The sea had now become as placid as a lake. There was no trace of the beautiful city which had been the favourite haunt of all the Pandavas. Dwaraka was just a name; just a memory."

The importance of the discovery of Dwaraka lies not merely in providing archaeological evidence needed for corroborating the traditional account of the submergence of Dwaraka but also indirectly fixing the date of the Mahabharata which is a landmark in Indian history. The Thermoluminiscence date of the pottery from Bet Dwaraka which is also connected with the Krishna legend is 3520 years Before Present. Identical pottery is found in the submerged city of Dwaraka.  Thus the results have proved that the account in Mahabharata as to the existence of a beautiful capital city of Dwaraka of Sri Krishna was not a mere figment of imagination but it did exist.

* * *

The Dwaraka discovery doesn't find much mention in the Indian media. The mass media and the academic community would generally pass of Mahabharata and Sri Krishna as myth and poetic imagination.  The same mass media would hold Cleopatra news as gospel truth.  Because it is from Western world.  Whether the academics accept or not and whether the Indian media accepts or not, for the common man and woman of this great land, Sri Krishna is no myth.  HE continues to inspire millions in their day to day life. 

A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma

Two articles on the Bhopal tragedy attracted my attention.  One is the article titled "Bhopal’s many betrayals" by Salil Tripathi (Mint, June 9, 2010).

Some excerpts from the article -

The betrayal of Bhopalis is older: It began when nobody warned the city’s poor not to live so close to a chemical plant.

The people of Bhopal were betrayed by factory inspectors who were lackadaisical in checking the plant’s maintenance, which permitted a culture where safety was nobody’s priority.

And then, on that night in December 1984, when political parties were busy fighting elections, the gas escaped from the plant, silently killing more than 2,000 people within hours

Those who survived were betrayed again by their own government, which argued their case poorly while pursuing it in the US. .... Judge J.F. Keenan was swayed by the company’s arguments, and he sent the case to India ... saying he was “firmly convinced that the Indian legal system is in a far better position than the American courts to determine the cause of the tragic event and thereby fix liability. Further, the Indian courts have greater access to all the information needed to arrive at the amount of the compensation to be awarded the victims”.

Right—and that compensation turned out to be Rs74,000 per death, and Rs26,500 per case of personal injury. For, back in India, while the government sued for some $3.5 billion in damages, it then settled for $470 million. The Supreme Court approved the deal, quashing all proceedings.

On Monday, Union Carbide was fined: $11,000. Indra Sinha, who has campaigned for Bhopal victims, and whose novel about Bhopal, Animal’s People, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2007, calculates that at 55 cents per death. Sometimes life is that cheap.

Warren Anderson, former chairman of Union Carbide was arrested when he came to India in December 1984.  He was granted bail and he left the country, never to return. Why and how he left the country has remained a mystery.

B.S. Raghavan in his excellent short article titled "A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma" (Business Line, June 14, 2010) throws some light on how Warren Anderson escaped from India (or escorted out of India, depending upon how one views the incident).  

Some excerpts from the article -

Adil Shahriyar, the son of Muhammad Yunus, who was almost a part of the Indira Gandhi family, and a mentor of both Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi, was tried in a US District Court by a jury, and convicted on an indictment of five counts ( including trying to blow up a ship, illegal possession of firearms and carrying them across State borders and drug trafficking) and sentenced in 1982 to 35 years hard labour in prison.

He appealed to the 11th Circuit US Court of Appeals which rejected the appeal on November 21, 1983 saying, “We find that the evidence presented at trial was sufficient to support the verdicts and therefore affirm the district court's (judgment).”

When Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister, it is not far-fetched to believe that he must have come under relentless pressure from Yunus to make the release of Adil from US jail his topmost priority, even if it be by using his position and broaching the matter directly to President Ronald Reagan.

It was just at that time — December 3, 1984 — the Bhopal tragedy shook the world. If Rajiv Gandhi's appeal to Reagan on Yunus' behalf were to succeed, it was imperative to make a gesture that would somehow make President Reagan deal with Rajiv Gandhi's request favourably.

Hey, presto! Warren Anderson is given VIP treatment and allowed to fly out of the country on December 7, 1984 and Adil Shahriyar is granted presidential pardon “as a goodwill gesture” and “for reasons of state” on June 11, 1985.

It certainly was a good bargain to exchange a convict undergoing a 35-year sentence for heinous offences in the US for an American corporate honcho, in order to oblige a long-time family friend.

And so that's how Warren Anderson escapes from India.  The Indian media suddenly woke up after the judgement.  Nani Palkhivala who was engaged by Union Carbide and who said it was gratuitous and slanderous to call the Indian legal system “deficient or inadequate” and who argued that the Indian system was capable of dealing with such a complex case, is dead.  So is Rajiv Gandhi who let Warren Anderson go.  Ronald Reagon who gave presidential pardon to Adil Shahriyar “as a goodwill gesture” and “for reasons of state” on June 11, 1985 is also dead.  Warren Anderson is too old to stand trial and in any case what purpose would it serve anyway after all these years of apathy.

Thousands died due to the tragedy and several hundred thousands were affected with ailments and died a multiple deaths day after day.  Life in India, is cheap, and to quote Indra Sinha it is 55 cents per death.. Other than shedding a few tears of sorrow and praying for the departed souls to rest in peace, we can't unfortunately do anything ...

Advertisements by PSUs and private sector companies - Part 2

In an earlier post on June 13, 2010, I had pointed out -

"...Strangely, all these PSUs issued colour advertisements.  Two of them had politicians in their advertisements (ONGC & Central Bank).  Syndicate Bank, PNB, SBI & REC did not have politician or Chairman on their advertisements.

I came across advertisements by two private sector companies on May 4, 2010 - JSW and HDFC, both of which were in black & white.  The advertisements did not contain any politician or promoter photos...."

The very next day i.e., on June 14, 2010, Business Line carried this advt by YES Bank.

Well.. I stand corrected..

The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman

I enjoyed viewing this video (1 hour 49 minutes) of Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist, speaking in September 2005 at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore explaining how the flattening of the world happened.

Freefall....!

Watched this wonderful talk by Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz in You Tube (around an hour).  Joe Stiglitz presents his book "Freefall" (in Feb 2010).  Excerpts from authors@google:

The current global financial crisis carries a made in America label. In this forthright and incisive book, Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz explains how America exported bad economics, bad policies, and bad behavior to the rest of the world, only to cobble together a haphazard and ineffective response when the markets finally seized up.

Drawing on his academic expertise, his years spent shaping policy in the Clinton administration and at the World Bank, and his more recent role as head of a UN Commission charged with reforming the global financial system, Stiglitz then outlines a way forward building on ideas that he has championed his entire career: restoring the balance between markets and government; addressing the inequalities of the global financial system; and demanding more good ideas (and less ideology) from economists.

Freefall is an instant classic, combining an enthralling whodunit account of the current crisis with a bracing discussion of the broader economic issues at stake. Winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Economics, Joseph E. Stiglitz is the author of Making Globalization Work, Globalization and Its Discontents, and The Three Trillion Dollar War with Linda Bilmes. He teaches at Columbia University.

Eknath Easwaran on the Buddha's Right Speech

Eknath Easwaran explains how to learn the skill of right speech, in this short You Tube video

Eknath Easwaran on Changing Our Thinking Process

Easwaran explores the Buddha's concept of thirst, showing how it affects our mental states and our relationships, in this short You Tube Video.

Bhagavad Gita and Mahatma Gandhi

Eknath Easwaran talks about what the Bhagavad Gita meant to Mahatma Gandhi, in this short You Tube video.

Eknath Easwaran on Kabir

I enjoy reading Eknath Easwaran's books and articles.  I came across this short video in You Tube.

Advertisements by PSUs and private sector companies

While casually going through Mint newspaper for some of the days in May 2010, I came across advertisements by some companies including some PSUs.  I have written about the advertisement by ONGC earlier.  Other PSUs who advertised their financial results were banks like Central Bank (May 4, 2010), Syndicate Bank (May 5, 2010), PNB (May 7, 2010) and SBI (May 15, 2010).  These were:

There was also an advertisement by REC Ltd (May 21, 2010), a Government Company-

Strangely, all these PSUs issued colour advertisements.  Two of them had politicians in their advertisements (ONGC & Central Bank).  Syndicate Bank, PNB, SBI & REC did not have politician or Chairman on their advertisements.

I came across advertisements by two private sector companies on May 4, 2010 - JSW and HDFC, both of which were in black & white.  The advertisements did not contain any politician or promoter photos.

And both HDFC and JSW got good coverage in Mint.  In fact, HDFC was covered in 2 different pages on the same date! 

While SBI's results were covered, it was not positive.

My overall impression is that the two private sector companies paid less and got better press coverage!  But this is a completely subjective assessment made on a casual reading of Mint for May 2010.  This would not stand the test of academic scrutiny.  It is quite possible that the PSUs have issued advertisements in other newspapers where they got better coverage ... but that fact is not known to me and so for the time being I conclude that the two private sector companies were smarter than the PSU entities and they got better bang for the buck!

A debate for India!

In the latest UK elections, politicians participated in live debates.  Mint argues in "A debate for India" (May 5, 2010) that -

In India, we already have television’s wide reach and a handful of trusted, neutral journalists to moderate—two essentials needed to make debates work. Now we only need the politicians willing to appear live and answer tough questions without descending into platitudes and ad hominem attacks.

"Handful of trusted, neutral journalists to moderate"... for once, I disagree with Mint. 'Trusted' yes.. but trusted by whom?  Maybe by politicians.  Politicians are always willing to show their face on TV.  But credibility is a serious issue.  Maybe the media in India has higher credibility than politicians.  But is it impartial?  I doubt.

Our Balance Sheet tells only half the story..!

This advertisement by ONGC in Mint(*) caught my attention.

(*) I forgot to jot down the date of issue

With C & AG auditing the Government Companies, I am sure the accounts/Balance Sheet will be credible and reliable.

In a lighter vein, it takes real courage to proudly say that the Balance Sheet tells only half the story!  That too in today's world, where lack of transparency in accounting is being blamed for the financial/economic problems in western world. 

I guess the person who made the advertisement might have thought about Tata Steel's famous decade old advertisement - "We also make steel".  Maybe he/she or ONGC thought that they can tap the same theme by implying that they do much more than what their Balance Sheet reveals. 

But, in today's context, when financial institutions/banks are being blamed for off-balance sheet items, lack of transparency in accounting issues etc, putting a politician on the advertisement, and saying "Our Balance Sheet tells only half the story", has potential of being misunderstood.

Quick Edit

From being a person addicted to reading Economic Times, to a person who has stopped reading it... it has been a journey of almost 15 years.  Now Mint occupies that prime space.  Ofcourse, good old Business Line continues to be an important reference source.

While the articles in Mint are definitely well researched and readable, the quick edits are very good too.

On June 7, 2010, Mint carried this quick edit titled "A case of indigestion"

With their palates troubled, investors can no more digest the public sector risk they were so willing to take on a year ago.

Global markets don’t like the fact that they have been forced to digest item after item of bad news. At the end of last week, they had to contend with tepid US job figures and the realization that Hungary’s sovereign default, as a government official admitted on Friday, was a real possibility.

With their palates troubled, investors can no more digest the public sector risk they were so willing to take on a year ago. And policymakers are finally starting to diagnose what the problem could be: their own policies.

At the Group of 20 (G-20) summit in April 2009, policymakers were exuberant about using “an unprecedented and concerted fiscal expansion” to combat the Great Recession. This exuberance officially came to an end on Saturday in South Korea, when G-20 finance ministers decided to drop support for fiscal stimulus.

As this newspaper has argued before, too much fiscal stimulus can be bad for health. India’s leaders should digest the idea too.

I have found Mint's quick edits concise and thought provoking.

Parliament of liars + cheats ... picture from Europe

In an interesting article titled "Europe in free fall" (Mint, May 13, 2010), Sunil Khilnani argues that a hung parliament, an economy in a tailspin, the rise of populist xenophobic parties--the vision of a pan-European identity is turning into a chimera.  Some excerpts from the article:

Britain’s collision with uncertainty is part of a more general European condition this spring. Greece is in economic free fall; Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland teeter on the edge. Resentments, long simmering, are turning ugly. And the great virtues around which modern Europe has built its identity—democracy, economic stability, a toleration for cultural diversity—are in shorter supply than I’ve ever seen them.

As the Greek economy collapses, Athens has been engulfed in a series of riots. Protesting students have torched cars and smashed shop windows, chanting “Burn it down, burn it down” about “that brothel parliament”.

The German government, trying to help out the Greeks with a pledge of $30 billion (around Rs1.35 trillion) taxpayer dollars, faces its own popular reaction. Voters have turned against the hitherto respected chancellor, Angela Merkel, and voted her party out of office in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most prosperous state.

In Brussels, Belgium’s government has fallen for the third time in three years, torn apart by language battles between the Flemish and French speakers (“Long live free Flanders, may Belgium die,” shouted a deputy of the Flemish nationalist party in the country’s national parliament earlier this month).

In Hungary, which this summer assumes the presidency of the European Union (EU), a right-wing populist government has just been elected, borne along by a wave of anti-Roma and anti-Semitic xenophobia.

In the Netherlands, which has prided itself on its tolerance of difference, another right-wing movement—this one’s main target is Islam and Muslim immigrants—is poised to do well in the June elections. A Swiss canton votes to ban minarets; the French parliament debates whether to ban the burqa.

Meanwhile, at the EU, the leadership vents against the markets in which they previously placed such trust, for the markets are losing faith in the euro. One has intimations of a citizenry in the grip of fear—and a sense of decline.

My attention was attracted to this photo "Parliament of liars + cheats":

And on this question about Parliament, liars etc, there is this interesting Q & A in www.guardian.co.uk:

Why are Members of Parliament not allowed to call each other liars in the House of Commons, when we all know this is a prerequisite of the job?

THE QUESTION answers itself: an MP is not allowed to call another MP a liar because he would thereby be telling the truth, thus contravening parliamentary etiquette.(Laurens Otter, Wellington, Salop.)

Parliament has its own version of the English language in which words have meanings different to their use outside. "Liar" can be usefully translated into Parliamentese as "Right honourable Gentleman / Member for.." or even "My honourable friend".  (Paul Worthington, Reutlingen, Germany)

Right now, the only thing uniting the myriad local concerns, across Europe, is a popular dissatisfaction with incumbent leaders, says Sunil Khilnani.  And that is reflected in the picture "Parliament of liars + cheats".  World over as the economic situation worsens, the dissatisfaction with politicians is increasing.  While such dissatisfaction used to be more pronounced in the developing countries, the recent economic meltdown, has brought such feelings to the open even in the western world.

Clouds have come ... can the rains be far behind - Part 10

I remembered the thick dark clouds which I saw last evening on the way back from office.  But today morning when I started for office, I did not see dark clouds, atleast of the variety which I saw last evening.

A short while after this, I saw a big plane about to land.

In the Santa Cruz airport area, though there were large clouds, they were not dark enough.  Nothing of the sort which will indicate that rains are imminent.

In the evening on the way back home, saw the sun set.  It was a grand scene, one which I haven't seen for years.  Well, if we have to see the sun set, then we should also leave office in time!  I was not feeling well and left around 6.30 pm and was compensated with the nice scene of the clouds trying to hide the sun behind them, of the birds going in the groups, ...  it was a grand scene.  In a few places, at times, I felt as if, something bright is burning at a distance.. the sun was grand.

The birds too were going back to their nests... but unlike humans, they were going together.  Who knows.. the market economy may not have touched their kingdom and maybe they are still living happily without worrying about the cost of living...

The sun was setting and even then the powerful rays pierced through the cloud formations, showing clearly who the boss is!  Oh! What did I see there in the distant horizon... the clouds showed themselves in various shapes and sizes, ... what does that look like... is it a mountain.. Mmm.. it looks like a river - with the water moving slowly ... maybe it also enjoyed the sun set in the Western sky and so it moved slowly.

 

In some places it looked pretty bright, as if there is a big fire in that area.

As the direction of the road changed to some extent, I came a bit closer to the sun...

I said one final namaste to Surya Bhagavan. And then I finally moved away from the western side.  As I took the right turn, I moved away from the direction of the sun with this final photo.

And that's the end of the day.. no rains today.. but was witness to a wonderful sunset.

Changing Times...

Recently, I was going through some old issues of Mint, when I came across an interesting piece "Glimpses of a dynasty" (Mint, May 9, 2010) which said that as the undisputed inheritors of Dhirubhai’s legacy, Mukesh and Anil were to take Reliance to even greater heights but as is all too well-known, that unity didn’t last long.

What struck me the most were a few pictures published by MInt.  The brothers were together, during those happy times.

The brothers were together, even during the sad times.

And then the bitter fight started.  The fight continued even after the family settlement announced by Kokilaben Ambani in June 2005.  After almost 5 years of fighting, the brothers have announced a ceasefire.  Mukesh and Anil, with an estimated joint worth of US $43 billion, both live in Mumbai, but had not been on speaking terms during their protracted dispute, reports Reuters, announcing the truce under the title - India's Ambani brothers speak "harmony" after acrimony.

What surprises me is that the brothers are one of the richest in the world.  Still it did not stop them from fighting for some more.  I can understand that if one person gets everything and the other doesn't get anything, then there is cause for concern.  A few billion USD here and there ... does it make any difference to the lifestyle of any of the them?

I wish they spend their money for the welfare of the nation, the poorest of the poor and do something good.  Something that will bring joy to the lives of the poorest of the poor and make them feel that their lives have been worth lived.