Netaji the forgotten hero

Holy land of India in every era has produced gems who with their sheer brilliance have startled the world and also inspired Indians to surge ahead amidst the obstacles that changing times have brought. While Chanakya, united India as a single political entity in ancient era in wake of aggression by Alexander, in the modern times, Netaji Subhash chandra bose established the first Indian National Army that fought for India’s independence. 

India’s greatness projected to World

In INA, no one used to ask the religion or caste and it thus brought about National Integration and forged Indian Identity free from distinctions of caste, creed or language. News of formation of INA inspired Indians scattered all across the globe. Greatness of India was evident to the world when it came to know that INA had a Rani jhansi regiment, an all women battalion which was unique in world at that time.

Signs of a greatness in past

Subhash was a brilliant student and had deep interest in spirituality and was inspired by thoughts of Swami Vivekananda. His nationalistic temperament came to light when he was expelled for assaulting Professor Oaten for the latter's anti-India comments.

Sacrifice for Mother India

While ICS was considered as close to a royal job and selection in it was a dream come true for many. A brilliant student as he was, Netaji was selected in ICS but left it later, as he realised that ICS officers worked as tool of the British government in robbing the wealth of his poor brethrens. He inplace decided to fight for liberation of his mother country from foreign rule. His golden words to his brother Sarat chandra on this occasion will remain etched in the memory of world “Only on the soil of sacrifice and suffering can we raise our national edifice”.

Vision for Mother India

While most leaders were looking for dominion status within the British framework, Subhash stood for unqualified Swaraj (self-governance), including the use of force against the British. He left for Germany and founded Indian National Army in a foreign land. He realised that British will never give up India without fight and hence found Indian National Army.

Movements for Freedom

Satyagraha movement by Gandhi ji galvanised our society and spread the tales of british oppression far and wide. Movements like salt break and quit India movement attracted vast majority of Indians to the independence movement. However to claim that only satyagraha lead to british ouster would not be doing justice to other movements.

After conclusion of 2nd WW, British government started the trial of INA soldiers and it was to be conducted in Red Fort. News of trials spread like wild fire and the soldiers who fought for INA received support from all quarters including the Indian Army. Mutiny by Royal Indian Navy convinced the army that support of army which had protected them till date cant be taken for granted. 

India achieves Independence

PM of England, Mr Attlee soon signed the transfer of power (TOP) agreement with the Indian National congress in 1947. Years later when he visited Bengal and was asked about his opinion (by Justice P.B. Chakrobortee) on what lead to British acceding to the TOP agreement with the Indian counterpart even finally, PM Attlee responded as Azad Hind fauz of Subhash chandra bose. 

More than 50000 soldiers lost their life in battling the Indian forces under british control and there was mutiny of Indian navy and embers of distrust among other armed forces, With Army showing Nationalistic sparks britishers realised that their days are numbered. Everything else they could have managed using the Army but mutiny within Army. At all times there were not more than 1 lac British soldiers living in India and rest of all were natives. 

Subhash a motivator the likes of whom India has not seen

Inspite of such high number of casualities in war, the unit maintained a cohesion which was unseen. Maj Gen G.D Bakshee described it as unbelievable.  

India’s Biggest Cover up

However soon after India’s independence, Netaji who was once the president of Indian National Congress was not allowed to return to India and facts related to his life were hidden from public view. Investigations by journalists, suggest that Govt of India, was involved in a coverup. Anuj Dhar in his book has covered this in great detail. Presence of Subhash chandra bose would have threatened the political career of most leaders as he was a tall leader with stature similar to Gandhi ji.

Antariksh (Author of this blog) with the book by Anuj Dhar

Antariksh with Anuj Dhar (Centre)

23 Jan 2016

Today 100 files related to his life will be released by Government of India. Lets hope they finally shed light on the unknown life of this great leader. And at atleast today we acknowledge the contributions of this great leader. Lets remember that past because a nation which forgets its past has no future. 

Jai Hind !

Haara hua wahi hai jisne haar ko maana

Friends,

This is a Hindi poem i wrote while in 11th standard around 14 years ago.

Recently it got first prize in a poetry competition. Please enjoy the video.

इस दुख में भी एक छुपा हुआ सा सुख है |

तभी अतिसुख होने पर व्यक्ति करता दुख है |

तुम इस दुख के भीतर छुपे हुए सुख को पहचानो |

और हार हारकर हार हारकर हार ना मानो |

हारा हुआ वही है जिसने हार को माना |

और जिसने अपने पुरुषार्थ को नहीं पहचाना |

विजय श्री चूमेगी कदम तुम्हारे जो तुम हार ना मानोगे | 

हार हारकर हार हारकर जो तुम चद्दर ना तानोगे |

जो अभी तक लड़ रहा है छोड़ी ना जिसने आस है |

बेहतर है करोड़ों गुणा उससे जो खो चुका सारी प्यास है |

जब तक ना पायो लक्ष्य को बढ़े चलो तुम |

आएँगी विफलताएँ लेकिन ना विचलित होना तुम |

एडिसन ने झेली हज़ारो विफलताएँ किंतु नहीं छोड़ा प्रयास |

लेकिन बल्ब बना दे गये सृष्टि को और सिखा गये विश्वास |

Vivekananda Katha

Today on the occasion of Swami Vivekananda Jayanti wrote and recorded a poem on him remembering the sacrifices of this young sanyasi. His life altered the destiny of India and woke up a sleeping nation.

You can watch it here or

read below

भारत की इस पुण्य भूमि की हर एक बात निराली है
किसी भी युग में होती ना ये महापुरुषों से खाली है

जब जब भारत की देव भूमि पर कोई संकट आता है
तब अंधकार में दिया जलाने विवेकानंद को पाता है

शताब्दियों के अत्याचारों से क्षत विक्षत भारतीयता जब खोई थी
और अपनों के कुटिल अन्धविश्वास से जब भारत माता रोई थी

जब भारत के प्राचीन ग्यान का मर्म ना कोई पाता था
और ईश्वर प्राप्ति की इक्चा को मूर्खता समझा जाता था

भारत को जगाने तब विवेकानंद का समय हुआ
वेदांत का गयाँ प्राप्त कर उन्हे बड़ा विस्मय हुआ |

घूम घूम कर भारत में दुखियों को देख, आघाते थे..
हे क्यूँ इतना दुख आज यहाँ वो समझ ना पाते थे |

रोते रोते कहते थे.. हे मा कब मेरा भारत जागेगा
है अंधकार से अभी भरा कब प्रकाश को ये पाएगा

मा भारती के आशीर्वाद से शीघ्रा ही वो अवसर आया
और भारत का परिचय करवाने , धर्म संसद नें बुलवाया

कहा कि, हुमको मानव मैं भेद नहीं सबको अपना माना है
हर पथ से पा सकते हो इस सत्या को हमने जाना हो..

छोड़ो इस विडंबना को कौन सा धर्म ऊँचा है
कुएँ का मेढक को देखो, वो सागर से रीता है

सुन विवेकानंद दर्शन विस्मय से सब चकराए |
जिस को ना समझा वह ब्रह्म गयाँ को है समाए |

आपका परिचय करवाना हे सूरज को दिया दिखलाना
कहा निवेदिता ने, बहुत सीखा है आपसे ये है बतलाना |

भारत माता का यश वैभव सुन निवेदिता भारत आईं.
भारत को उसका महत्व बताते वो बहुत ही हर्षाई |

इस तरह के पुण्या संकल्पों से सोया भारत जागने लगा
आलस्य अंधकार से मुक्त हो सोता शेर भागने लगा |

आज बहुत दूर हम आएँ हैं और बहुत दूर अभी जाना है |
स्वामीजी के संकल्प से भारत को विश्वा गुरु बनाना है |

अंतरिक्ष आज इस कविता से ये बतलाता है
उस युवा सन्यासी के त्याग को आज फिर स्मरण कराता है |

आत्मनॊ मोक्षार्थम् जगद्धिताय च को हम अपनाएँ |
जगत का कल्याण करें और स्वयं के मोक्ष को भी पाएँ|

है असंभव कुछ भी नहीं , इस बात को जानो तुम
परब्रह्मा के रस से भरो हो इस सत्या को मानो तुम |

- Antariksh Bhardwaj (12th jan 2016)

Malda riots - A symptom of a bigger problem

In order to understand in a better way, Lets start with events as they happened over the past days.

Course of Events:

1. Azam Khan makes a statement that RSS people are gays and that's why they don't marry.

2. Kamlesh tiwari , leader of Hindu Mahasabha makes a statement regarding Prophet Mohammad on above lines.

3. Muslims in UP start protesting and demand head of Kamlesh tiwari.

4. Around 2.5 lac muslims assemble in Malda and start rioting, they even attacked the police station and police soon flees.

5. BSF forces are attacked too and dozens of vehicles submitted to fire.

6. Malda is burning even after 2 days.

Spiritual and Political Islam

While spiritual Islam along with Indian culture will lead to making of ideal leaders like APJ kalam, political  islam will lead to creation of Bangladesh and Pakistan. 

Political Islam is the combination of these thoughts progressively

l Since am believer, i will go to heaven and non believers will go to hell.

l Concept of Ummat - All muslims across the world are brothers while Non muslims are not.

l Shariat or the divine way of governance is better than any other form of rule including democracy.

l We should aspire for establishment of shariat if possible.

l ISLAM will rule the world one day.

Attack is against the state

Attack on police force actually represents lack of respect for the state and its instruments. The attack on Azad Maidan a couple of years ago where Amar Jawan Jyoti was ransacked reflected the same mindset.

The attack on police forces thus is a hidden protest for implementation of Shariat by showcasing the brute power of mob. It is through this power that direct action (in 1947) which lead to millions of death and eventually forced leaders to agree to partition in 1947.

Just two years ago lacs of muslims assembled in West Bengal in INDIA for support of Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh. (JMI is aspiring to implement shariat in Bangladesh). 

It is matter of great surprise that no one is attacked in Hindu majority India when gods of Hindu pantheon are drawn naked by M.F Hussain but hell breaks loose when it happens the other way round. I think this can be explained by bringing the concept of political Islam which progressively aims at implementation of shariat. 

Flirting with Political Islam

Unfortunately for the vote bank, the so called secular parties are flirting with extrimist ideology. AIMIM was a coalition partner of UPA till some years ago. During Lok sabha election amidst calls for ouster of Bangladeshis from India, TMC a party based in India stood for the rights of Bngladeshis and threatened consequences if  Bangladesghis were oustered. They were merely securing their vote bank but unfortunately leading India on way to much serious problems.

Congress too flirted with political Islam by overturning the Shah Bano judgement through passing  a law in  parliament.

This picture by Manoj Kureel is worth a thousand words.

Crisis for Indians

Citizens of India should realise that their leaders are playing with fire and for the sake of vote bank politics  they are flirting with political Islam. Political Islam has created what Pakistan is today i.e, full of chaos. What  to say of Hindus whose numbers have dwindled from 25 % t0 1% today, even Shias are not safe and recently house of founding father of Pakistan who was a shia muslim was blown by people. Although a tad better but something similar has happened in Bangladesh. Even Kashmir in India, has become free of Kashmiri hindus  because of political Islam.

What to do ?

l As an aware citizen one should differentiate between political and spiritual Islam and should not criticise   all without making above distinction, all as this will alienate all and most people practise spiritual Islam. However political Islamists make too much noise and voice of sensible people is not heard.

l Muslim leaders who respect all religions and talk of inclusiveness and are free from taints of political Islam should be supported. For e.x recently in Bengal a muslim headmaster by named Kazi was beaten up for  teaching national Anthem. Such people should be supported and political parties who choose to stay  mum should be reminded course correction.

l Progressive implementation of Uniform civil code should be societal ambitions as was outlined by founding fathers of our constitution.

 Respect to all religions should be made compulsory and anyone spreading political Islam should not be  included in Freedom of Speech as Political Islam stands for no freedom of speech and if this ideology wins then there will be no Freedom of Speech left.

What to do for Malda incident

l State govt should be pressurised to take action against rioters and if they are let free will send wrong   signals to be emulated across the country.

l Media should come out and explain what is happening in Malda so that India becomes aware of this   phenomenon of political Islam and nips it while it is still a child (can't use nip in bud here)

I hope sense prevails and spiritual  islamists along with other Indians are able to induce some sense in Political Islamists. Political Islam has led to much damage whether its Paris, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Maldives. 

 #MaldaRiots #WayOutForIndia

Swaccha Bharat Mission in Aligarh

3rd Jan 2016, it was the first Sunday of this year and  Art of living volunteers of Aligarh decided to start the year with a reformation note and spread awareness. .
Small plastic bags are omnipresent on roads these days and cause great damage to the ecosystem which has evolved over millions of years. Plastic is unique as being non biodegradable, its not decomposed by natural cleaners.

These plastic bags

• When merge in soil compete with plants and inhibit their growth by being stuck in roots, by depriving grasses of sunlight and reduce the fertlitity of ground.
• They choke the drains and also come in way of ground water recharge. 
• When burned they cause greater damage and pollute the air by producing noxious gases.
• When consumed by cattle it kills them
• Billions of small plastic bags are disposed in oceans and cause great damage to ocean ecosystem as well.

However the sad thing is that plastic pouches are very extensively used in almost all packaging today and many Indians consider city to be a dustbin. We approached a lot of shops in centre point area and asked them to spread awareness on handling of polythenes.

Many curious onlookers approached us and we informed them about our mission. Although we collected close to 8 -10 garbage bags full of plastic however there was still a lot of garbage on roads and unless young generation takes initiatives to remind others that city is not dustbin things wont change on ground.

Waste plastic on ground is a frankensteinian monster and once fully unleashed will cause havoc and make course correction later very difficult. Hence amends should be done now.

What can we do ?

• Please politely remind people throwing garbage that city is not a dustbin and point to the        nearby dustbin. 
• When in need of reusable cups, spoons and utensils prefer leaves based utensils over plastic
• Make polythene expensive like in US and Europe, and include special cleaning cost in manufacturing cost too as its not degraded by forces of nature.
• Making it mandatory to use plastic in road construction as its a good way to dispose plastic and also make water resistant roads. (Already being done in Highway construction at some places)

Thanks to Devashish and Kratika for the wonderful idea and to all others for joining us. Some beggar children came to us for begging and we gave them our gloves and employed them :)


Team in Action

Spreading Awareness 

The Team

Receding water table

Yesterday on 1st Jan 2016, i was invited for conducting a trambakam homa. After conducting the homa we sang some bhajans of lord Shiva and thereafter i gave a talk on restlessness.

Soon we drifted to life essentials.Normally human doesn't  value things which are available free of cost and realises their value only after they are gone. Air and water as life essentials are usual victims. While everyone knows about the state of Air in cities like Beijing and Delhi. Water has not been paid enough attention here.

Water is present below ground and has been procured historically using wells. In my home city Aligarh, one of the participant described that in year 1975 water was available at 35 foot below ground and was utilised through hand pumps. Soon due to excessive exploitation prompted by tubewells, the table receded further and was 100 feet till some years ago. However soon every house had borewells and this led to further lowering of water table and recently they were forced to dig deeper and bored till 200 feets. Due to mindless construction too recharge of water table has become difficult .

Trends in Aligarh are indicative of situation in other cities too. Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) had informed that around 56% of the wells are showing decline in ground water level in various parts of the country as per the data of pre-monsoon 2013, compared with decadal mean of pre-monsoon (2003-2012). However, as per the latest ground water monitoring data of CGWB for pre-monsoon 2014, compared with decadal mean of pre-monsoon (2004-2013), indicates that out of total wells analyzed, around 39% of the wells are showing decline in ground water level in various parts of the Country. 

The sewage generation capacity for Urban Population of India for the year is estimated to be 62,000 MLD approximately against sewage treatment capacity of 23,277 MLD with 816 STPs(Sewage Treatment Plants). 

I believe this is alarming situation as unlike human greed water table has a limit. When water will be exhausted our future generations would have to suffer. The solution to this lies in

•  Giving the importance to water it deserves, its much more important than any even petrol. While petrol runs the engine, water is essential for our survival.
• Conserving water and recycling it as much as possible at domestic level.
• Being aware that detergents pollute more so for clothes which are not so dirty soap or soap based powder should be used instead of detergent.
• River linking project can be of help as areas near rivers are seen to have good water table. However this ambitious projects is likely to give some shocks to the settled ecosystem for sure. Change is unpredictable.

 #DiaryEntry #WaterConservation

From Ego to Eco

Living in Delhi and daily hearing about poor air quality during the day prodded me to start early morning jogging instead of jogging in  evening. Morning air is undoubtedly more pure then in evening as during the day it becomes sullied by vehicular emissions in capital city of India.  Being a yoga practitioner i have few choices when it comes for comfort and am not choosy about food , however i cant compromise when it comes to breathing pure air.

As i was returning from the park few days ago, i noticed one big dog attacking a small puppy and i was concerned. I shouted thinking they would stop fighting. However i soon realised that they were actually playing with each other as dogs often do early morning. On hearing me shout the grown up dog thought that i wanted to join them in play. They both came near me and started licking me. The grown up one climbed on me . He showed love in such a wonderful manner that i ended up thanking God for creating such wonderful creatures. I tried to shoo them but they kept coming again and again, i was shooing them but was enjoying too. I was clothed in winter clothings and the bigger dog kept my hand in his mouth but didnt bite. He was aware that if he closes his mouth, i would be hurt. 

I was touched and realised how wonderful these creatures are that they dont want to give unnecessary pain to anyone and are full of love. They valued life and didnt harm anyone unnecessarily. Even small animals like goat and especially cow are full of love and care for creatures. A pet cow will not eat food if any member of house is sick. I have seen my pet dog skip food for days when my uncle left his body. Its a pity that humans just for taste consumes these wonderful creatures who want to live like them. 

Eating fruits offered by trees and vegetables are better way to stay healthy and also care for mother nature. Cooking meat also adds to global warming. The way of love is good not even for animals but for mother earth too.  Human should consider themselves not as ruler of the earth but as a part of ecosystem. The way of the Eco and not of Ego.