Mahashivaratri

Hinduism is one of the oldest religions in the world. And, as a result, it has many sects, beliefs and schools of thought, that have been in constant transition through the last three millenniums. One of the very popular sects of Hinduism is Shaivism, which involves the worship of Shiva. And today, is Mahashivaratri, or the Night of Shiva, one of the most popular festivals of India.

Most of Hinduism is very ritualistic and involves the worship of deities with much pomp and splendor. Sometimes, multiple priests are involved and people are not really sure if they are inadvertently committing an act of blasphemy, through unintentional omissions, even if their intents are good. With the worship of Shiva, that is generally not the case, since Shiva, the benevolent one, has very little requirement for stricture in worship. And so, thousands of people congregate in temples all across India on Shivaratri, knowing that as long as they show up with devotion, all sins will be forgiven, for Shiva, is a very forgiving God. In fact, in the worship of Shiva, no priests are necessary and so, it is perhaps the only sect of Hinduism that encourages the direct contact of man with God, with no intermediary in between.

When I first started studying Shaivism many years ago, it was a mere curiosity. I was fascinated by the many symbols that are attributed to Shiva, who at the very least, is considered a part of the holy trinity. And some consider him to be the deity, in which the creative, preserving and destructive forces of the universe reside. So, he is the supreme being of a very large number of the followers of Hinduism. People generally see a lot of contradictions in Him, which, in my opinion, sum up the contradictions of the universe. He is the ultimate ascetic, usually shown in a meditative posture, and yet, a family figure with a loving wife, two sons and two daughters. In Hindu mythology, He has saved the universe on several occasions, when other Gods failed, and yet, had to run for his own life when he gave a boon to the demon Bhasmasura, that he could destroy anyone by keeping his hand on the victims head. Of course, the demon started out by trying to make Shiva the first victim!

Most notably, when the primordial oceans were being churned for nectar, poison came out as the inevitable consequence of good being paired with evil. From the brink of destruction, the world was saved, because Shiva easily drank the poison. The moon resides in his long locks of hair and the holy Ganges flows out from them. He carries a trident and a drum, symbolizing his mastery of the martial arts and the many dance forms, the ultimate one of which is Tandava, or the dance of destruction and re-creation of the universe. He is worshiped as Ardhanarishwara,  or the form of God that is both masculine and feminine, since Hindus believe that God has both elements within. He is considered the ultimate Yogi, and the entire philosophy of Yoga, is attributed to Him. And, he is considered the oldest God in the Indus valley civilization, since the Harrapan seals depict him as Pashupatinath, or the lord of all beasts. He is still worshiped in that form in the beautiful Pashupatinath temple in Nepal, which is a sight for sore eyes.

To me, what is most delightful about Shiva is that when he makes an appearance amongst mere mortals, he is usually disguised as someone very ordinary. Mythology has it that the famous warrior Arjuna, was once on a quest for celestial weapons, and came across Shiva disguised as a tribal man in the foothills of the Himalayas. They fought a pitched battle over a wild boar, and the mighty Arjuna was easily defeated by this ordinary looking tribal. Once Arjuna knew who he was fighting, he came to his senses. In Shaivism, when you worship Shiva, you are supposed to leave your ego at home, since that is what interferes with the idea of the universe being more powerful than the individual. Ego is what makes the self more important than the awareness of it. And, the ultimate Yogi, Shiva, is there in Hindu mythology as a reminder to us all, that humility is the most important virtue.

Mahashivaratri is the day when Hindus count their blessings for the divine presence of this deity, whose simplicity has defined their religion over thousands of years. Wish you all a very happy and peaceful Mahashivaratri.

Spring is in the air

Spring in India can be fascinating.

I spent many years of my life in the temperate zones and spring would be the time when we would see people thawing out. Literally. People would slowly get more lively after mid-January. The many bizarre rituals around groundhog day would predict how long the winter was going to last. And spring would be all about celebrating the end of a long and dreary season. In some places, it would be the time of a short break, from the hot days of summer that would lazily arrive, like Nat King Cole so famously describes in his song, Roll on Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer.

But, life in the tropics has been fascinatingly different. In India, we don't have a long and dreary winter. In fact, in many parts of the world, people would probably call the Indian winter their summer.So, what do we really celebrate when spring arrives? If I had my pick, I would say, the arrival of mangoes. And right now, that still seems so many months away, even if I can see the trees blossoming everywhere I look.

Did I say the spring in India is fascinating? Yesterday, I was looking at the number of insects around the trees. It seems to have gone up dramatically in the last few weeks as the weather has been warming up. I saw two giant black bumble bees, each the size of a small potato, fighting it out over the rights to the chromosomes of the next generation. And the green mangoes are already in the market. We had some great mango flavored daal a few days ago and now, I am eagerly looking forward to the fresh mango chutney in the next meal. Just fry a few slices of green mango in some vegetable oil, throw in some salt, sugar, turmeric and red chili powder, and a teaspoon of roasted coriander seeds and you will see what spring is all about.

As a kid, to me, spring was all about anticipation. The anticipation of a long summer vacation, which would provide a brief respite from the beatings at school, if I got my multiplication tables wrong. The anticipation of those long summer afternoons, when the adults would be busy enjoying their siestas and I would crawl through the house looking for pigeons and sparrows to catch (and release, of course, once the moustache  was painted on). The anticipation of a nice and ice-cold glass of  pudina-ka-sherbet (cold drink made from fresh mint) when the hot spell of loo (dry summer afternoon wind in North India) would stop in the evening. And, the anticipation of the arrival of the mango, the undisputed king of all fruits, that sends the salivary glands into overdrive, as the sweet smell escapes the straw baskets in the country markets, on those lazy, hazy, crazy summer afternoons in India.

As I keep looking at the green mangoes and the bumble bees, I keep counting the number of days we still have, until we see those glorious shades of red, yellow and orange in the fruit stalls. Till then, spring it is.

The Rocket People

Recently, India has seen quite a few scams, and the entire country is extremely unhappy with these instances of corruption in public life. Nothing seems to be sacred. People from the three pillars of our democracy, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary have been found involved in questionable practices. The fourth pillar of the free press was found to be involved in backroom dealings on political appointments. And, top brass in the military have been court marshaled for graft. But, there was one organization that people thought to be above reproach. The Indian Space Research Organization, or ISRO is India's equivalent of NASA. And recently, there was a shady spectrum deal in the S-Band, that could have involved some top people with ISRO connections. Although ISRO moved very quickly on making amends, this entire event took a terrible toll on employee morale. Of  engineers and scientists, that have selflessly served the nation for many decades now.

When a much revered organization is criticized, sometimes, people think about its historical achievements. When you compare the glories of the past to the vagaries of the present, you wonder what is happening. And, rather sentimentally, I recalled two photographs that have captured my imagination for decades.

The first one is from the early days of ISRO, when the organization had big dreams for the people of India, but, it had a small wallet to pursue those dreams. So, nose cones of rockets had to be carried on bicycles, and this picture has become rather iconic for many Indians, who are fascinated by their very own space program, and its early days. The second one is from the early eighties, when a satellite was carried on a bullock cart. In a strange irony of sorts, it captures the  the dreams of many Indians on chasing the moon while they went about their daily business riding bullock carts.

Today, ISRO is a world class organization in its own right. It launches satellites for many developed nations. It has launched a spacecraft to the moon and landed the Indian flag on our planet's only natural satellite. It has developed technologies that have helped India's farmers in predicting weather. And, many in India look at this organization with a lot of affection, since according to them, the people who shoot rockets into the blue, are big dreamers. And dreamers, cannot go wrong.

If I had to pick my favorite person from amongst the many rocket people of India, I would pick Dr. Satish Dhawan without any hesitation. In 1951, he completed a Ph.D. from Caltech in Aerospace Engineering, and while most of the fresh Ph.Ds were  making a beeline for NASA to be involved with the Apollo program, he came back home to pursue a dream, which involved carrying nose-cones on bicycles. He was an extremely talented person, who became the first engineer ever to become the director of India's flagship research institution, the Indian Institute of Science. And, after Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, the father of India's space program passed away, he became the chairman of ISRO. Dr. Dhawan was a master administrator as well, and I found a really interesting anecdote of those times at ISRO in an article by Mr. Manoranjan Rao.

The early days saw many failures. Through all those difficult times, Dhawan never lost faith in ISRO’s capabilities. He took personal responsibility for failure but when success came, he always attributed it to ISRO and his colleagues. Thus, when the first flight of SLV-3 in 1979 failed, Dhawan faced the press. When the second flight succeeded, Dhawan kept himself in the background while Kalam spoke to the press. With this kind of leadership, engineers and scientists in ISRO were never afraid to face honest failures. 

We all know that the Dr. Kalam mentioned in this article, went on to become India's missile man, and eventually, a much respected and much loved president of India.  We have come a long way from the days of bicycles carrying nose cones for rockets. The bigger challenge today is to keep our institutions free of corruption and political interference, because, we still have people like Dr. Dhawan. They just need a chance to prove themselves.