>( The heart-warming story of an innovative educational effort worth
> lending a helping hand)
--Reports Tushar Bhatt from Bhekhadia triban village in Gujarat
> It perhaps is the irony of our modern development,not only in the
> developing countries,but even in the developed countries throughout
> the length and breadth of the world,some remote pockets of human
> settlement remain deprived of the rudimentary fruits of growth. The
> instruments of normally adequate for most regions are not enough to
> break the stranglehold of backwardness.
> There is no exception, and despite million claims of
> vibrancy,Gujarat too, now turning 50 years of its separate, is not
> free from this syndrome. Remote areas in the State continue to lag
> behind,so far on the hazy horizon that they are hardly noticed from
> the dizzying heights of Gandhinagar. They lack in every aspect of
> infrastrcture—literacy,health care,power,water or road,name any
> catalyst of growth,it is not there in the remote regions. Their
> feeble voice becomes so weak that the ruling deities of democracy in
> the State Capital,so busy loudly congratulating itself on its own
> vibrancy, cannot catch it.
> It is a stark reality that even Gujarat has large pockets of
> penury.There are small settlements,largish villages and bigger remote
> areas of which the babudom guiding political novices does not know of.
> This is not a new phenomenon.It has been known since the days of the
> British Raj that large mountainous tracts of land on the banks of the
> Narmada still lived in another time,ages away from rest of Gujarat.One
> of the numerous names of the Narmada is Rewa and the British called it
> Rewa banks and set up a Rewa Banks Agency.
> It is not just ironical; it tantamount to the down right arrogance to
> put off consideration of seemingly impossible looking situation on the
> back burner for the future generations to handle. In the process,the
> plight of the hapless population in these areas worsen at will.They
> are the children of lesser development Gods.
> It still registers as a shock and surprise to outsiders when they
> learn that as many as a\ lakh acres of land will get irrigation from
> the Narmada.The people of the far-flung Kutch too will have some
> drinking water supply.All this beckons for what the rulers
> euphemistically hail as Swarnim Gujarat. But the neglected children of
> Rewa Kantha will remain deprived of all education.
> IT IS TRAGIC,BUT TRUE.
> Included among these areas of darkness are two tribal talukas, Naswadi
> and Kwant in otherwise industry hub,Vadodara district. It is
> tokenism,but the government itself had certified Kwant as thee most
> backward area economically and the media reported the taluka had been
> named an adopted area for development.But,tokenism still dominate in
> practice. A survey was made to size up educational facilities . A
> scheme launched in the wake of the survey by the Government of India
> had provision for model schools for far-off places. Of six approved
> schools,three each were allotted to the two talukas, Naswadi and
> Kwant.Those in Kwant area were at Mogra,Chaparia and Redi Vasan.Some
> schools were formally inaugrated even.
> But, soon,inexplicably the shifting of the six schools in 2 talukas
> was announced. The two taluka panchayat’s elected representative
> , political and social workers and others,forgetting their internal
> differences and joined hands to fight out the proposal for
> shifting.They went up to the tribal welfare minister to lodge a
> protest. But the complaint fell on deaf ears.The tribal belt lost the
> six schools to Naswasi and Kwant townships and their number came down
> to two schools from the earlier six.
> In short, the hapless villages were back to s square one,having been
> generously sanctioned the schools which then were taken back to the
> taluka town.Urban children benefited at the cost of village
> children.Bureaucratic pen has always been mightier than political
> will.
> Against the backdrop of all this, Shramik Vikas Sansthan, a
> non-government organisation,run under the leadership of Octogenarian
> social worker,Mr.Sanat Mehta, a former MP and a former finance
> minister in Gujarat, set up a centre in the remote Bhekhadia village
> in Kwant taluka,came into being some seven years ago in an endeavour
> to bridge the gap between remote areas and educational facilities.The
> cente,named after Late Mrs Thavliben Rathwa, a tribal worker,was
> locally spearheaded by a tribal leader, Ratan Bhagat.A living
> accommodation to house 40 village children was opened and the children
> were enrolled in the Bhekhadia primary school run by the State
> Government.The Rathwa Samaj,the tribals’agrred to foot the schooling
> and boarding and lodging expenses of the hostelites.The Samaj banked
> on support by member individuals.
> The idea caught on like a wild fire among the tribals and more and
> more guardians were eager to leave their children at the hostel.Indu,
> a tribal young woman, accepted to be their guardian God
> mother.However, the temporary arrangement fell short of
> requirements,especially school rooms. Mr Mehta’s organisation offered
> to bear the cost of two additional school roomswere the Rathwa Samaj
> ready to pick up food bill for a hundred pupils.
> Around this time, manging director of the Gujarat Narmada Valley
> Fertilisers Co(GNFC),Mrs Sudha Achaliya, a senior IAS officer in the
> State,came to Bhekhadia.She got interested in this micro-experiment.
> Not only was a top official a mother’s tender heart throbbed in her.
> She offered that if the Shramik Vikas Sansthan shelled out 25 per cent
> cost for building two halls accommodating a hundred resiential pupils,
> the GNFC would provide the remainder. On June 13,2008, the foundation
> for the halls was laid.The construction was supervised by a young
> tribal worker, Mr Madhu Rathwa.On completion, the halls were
> inaugurated on February 10,2010, by the chairperson of the Khadi and
> Village Industries Commission, Ms Kumudben Joshi.
> One hall with 50 girls and the other with as many boys were opened,but
> soon the accommodation ran short.The number of admission seekers
> touched 150.Said Mr Sanat Mehta:” It was difficult to say No because
> in a radius of as many as 45 km there were no other schools.Of these
> 25 students each had come from only two villages on the Narmada
> banks,Harkhod and Kuda,some 36 km away.From Sanoli,45 km away,six
> pupils had come.
> Currently, 153 students live in the hostels- 46 girls and 107
> boys.Mr.Mehta said the Rathwa clan organisation collected grains as
> donation to provide food.More pupils wish to come,but we just can
> accommodate them. It is a regret that nags me at the age of 86, as
> only a few other things in life did.” His clear voice became heavy
> with sorrow.
> He continued,outlining the dimensions of the problem:” We admit
> children from four talukas.As many as 82 came from Kwant taluka’s 24
> villages.There are 62 coming from villages in Naswadi taluka. Mostly,
> Rathwa tribal clan donated foodgrains,although there are children from
> among Bhil, Dungari Bhil and Nayak clans. Nearly 100 children were in
> 5th,6th , 7th and 8th standards.
> Parents of most children are compelled by poverty and joblessness
> locally to go to distant places in search of manual work. Their low
> wages and perpetual need for extra income result in heavy drop-outs of
> children without completing primary education. Their option is not to
> set foot in a school and go with the parents wherever they go.
> Of the 43 villages in the area,only five km away from a school; the
> rest are between 15 and 43 km away.
> All these logistics mean that two more rooms are need to take the
> number of hostelites from 150 to 200. The programme does not get any
> subsidy or even loan from either the Gujarat or the Union Governments.
> In a sense, tribals themselves bear the economic burden of the
> project. Some well-to-do tribals give personal money,others get
> donations. As he said this the sorrow in his voice lifted and Mr
> Sanat Mehta’s face acquired a glow of pride.
> He said: “ Imagine in the far-flung,remote povery-ridden tribal
> villages , most government schemes had failed despite spending lot of
> money and deplying government machinery. In such a milliue , this
> effort at self-reliance by tribals themselved had borne fruits. As
> many as 150 tribal children will lead a better life.”
> In an open letter to the citizens, Mr Sanat Mehta declared: “ All my life, I have never sought
> anything.But, I feel honoured to put out my hand to seek your mite. I
> am seeking just Rs.10 lakhs from all of you. Please give whatever you
> can,so that at least 200 souls can enlighten their being,so that they
> may have a better chance in tomorrow’s world. I ask you NOT to send
> more than Rs.10,000 per donor so that others too can join us in this
> noble endeavour. I have no doubt you all will respond. At 86 years of
> my life already covered I know I do not have time or energy. Before it
> is sunset for me,I wish to see a smile on happiness on the most
> deprived face of our tomorrow.”
> Education is not the sole programme at Bhekhadia.Tribal women here
> sale masalas worth Rs.20,000 per month.Another 100 women work on
> eight-spindke ambar charkha perfected at Udyog Bharati in
> Gondal,earning more than those who workon a government scheme for 100
> days a year guarantees.Tribal young men are undergoing
> diamond-polishing.
> The Bhekhadia project has been named Aaj ,an abbreviationof Adivasi
> Jan Utthan Samaj. Aaj is a significant name. It serves notice on all
> of us that tribal youth is no longer ready to wait indefinitely for
> the civil society and its government to act.Whatever is needed should
> be doe AAJ (Today), now.The tribals pack their masalas as Aaj masala
> and are prearing to launch a soap, Aaj sabun.
>(ENDS)
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Rohit Mehta; A forgotten Gujarati philosopher of high calibre
By Tushar Bhatt
Rohit Mehta,who died at the age of 86 at Varanasi on March 20,1995,is remembered differently by different people.Some recall his cogently thought and delivered lectures on philosophy.Some talk of him as a man with legendary memory who could quote flawlessly from Sri Aurobindo,Upanishad,Gita as also Marx, a teacher with a vast repertoire and a subtle sense of humour and a prolific writer,and a man of unfailing kindliness.Still some other others think of him as a charismatic personality,donned most of the time in spotlessly white dhoti and yellowish khadi-silk kurta,slightly stocky in build,and wearing a black-framed pair of spectaclesover deep penetrating eyes.He was brilliant,but never flamboyant,solid but never seeking recognition,an original thinker who could easily and without showing any burden mix with the most ordinary.An unusual man who was extra-ordinary in many respects,and yet strove to conceal all this under modesty and non-chalance
Remembered late Prof.P G Mavalankar, former M.P. and a well-read man himself: “Rohitbhai was a five-in-one personality - a thinker,philosopher,interpreter, writer and speaker,clear in thought and precise in language and eloquent in delivery.All these took him to the top.” He was all this,and much more.A many spleandoured man,Rohitbhai as he was universally known was not just a run-of-the-mill freedom-fighter,a socialist-turned-spiritualist.He was in the world class,a thing about which he never had to seek certificates nor to boast.Yet, he was so self-effacing that one would have to hunt for a photograph of his.
How tall was he could be measured from the fact that he was one of the pioneers of the Social-ist Forum within the Congress in the early thirties.He went to prison repeatedly,starting from student days and would have gone far had he stuck to politics.It was Rohitbhai who introduced a then young Morarji Desai to the youths during the freedom struggle.He quit it in 1935,and was never to regret it.
He penned more than 25 books on philosophy,delivered thousands of lectures all over the world and sought to interpret the coming world far ahead of his time to his contemporaries.He was an able interpreter of his friend and philosopher,J.Krishnamurti,of Gita,of Upnishads and Yoga.
Yet,he was no parochial a preaccher.His vision could embrace technology and spell out its im-pact on society and mankind far ahead of his fellow human beings.
What he diagnosed in 1950 in one of his early volumes,The Intuitive Philophy,rings so prophetic after 45 years today,as if it has been foreseen in minute detail by him.He said: “Ever since the industrial revolution of the early 19th century, there have appeared such factors in our society as have led to rapid and revolutionary changes in the socio-economic structure of the world.This tendency towards rapid changes has been considerably intensified by the scientific advance in the course of the last 100 years and more. Large-scale economic production and the breaking down of the barriers of space have been the two most outstanding features of the social and economic revolution which began in the 19th century and which still continues its ownard march.”
“The new means of transport and communications, moving at terrifically increasing speeds,have eliminated distances between countries and have thus brought the peoples of all nations suddenly together.Along with this advance there has been an enormous increase in the scientific and mechanical skill as applied to economic production. This scientific technique is becoming more and more perfect so that there is today production of economic goods on a colossal scale.These goods must be sold and one country is too small an economic unit for the absorption of commodities produced on a mass basis.This factor of large-scale economic production,coupled with the elimination of distances,has tended to break down national barriers. Economic life has become international, for economic trends during the last years have moved in the direction of world unity.”
He perceptively observed: “But this economic currents have been obstructed in their progress by political forces. While the world is becoming one on the economic plane,it is kept divided on the political level.The idea of complete national sovereignty does not leave its hold on the minds of the people.”
He said:” One of the major contradictions of our age is this: the trend towards unity in the eco-nomic sphere and the maintenance of national sovereignty on the political plane. ... This is one of the paradoxes of our civilisation that while we desire,we work for war !”
“Man’s psychological inability or refusal to adjust himself to the requirements of technological revolution has created an immense problem for our human civilisation...We cannot stop the ad-vance of science producing continual changes in the material conditions of life, nor can we stop the activity of the mind which makes every change in the objective conditions too dangerous for the very existence of human civilisation.It may sound strange to say our generation is mentally tired while it has reached new heights of mental development through scientific advance.”
He thought specialisation and over-specialisation was the craze of the modern age,which had enabled us to create a wall between the real problem of life and ourselves,the real problem be-ing the increasing mental tension in the life of the individual.The problem of the individ-ual,according to Rohitbhai, was to discover the fundamental value of life.Today the subjective life of man has been rendered extremely poor while the objective conditions are changing at a terrific pace.Man is trying to cover up his inner poverty by erecting huge mansions for social, political and economic activities.But these activities, instead of providing relief, gradually create greater and greater pyshological tension in the life of the individual.Probably at no time in hu-man history was the gulf between the subjective and objective factors so great as it is to-day.Unless harmony is established anew between these two factors,the human crisis is likely to move towards a deepening horror,the result of which will be complete destruction of our civilisa-tion.We must discover a philosophical approach that would enrich the subjective life of man.” Prophetic words,coming from a man then in his early forties,and that was ages before Alvin Toffler had dreamt of his Future Shock.
Rohitbhai was born on August 3,1908 at Surat in the family of Hasmanram,who used to be a professor in physics at the Elphinstone college,Bombay.The bright child was destine to do un-usual things from the early age. At the age of 18,he led a student strike in the Gujarat college in Ahmedabad against the dictatorial behaviour of its principal F.Shiraz.His two other associates were Jayanti Dalal, writer and Nirubhai Desai,who later became a famous journalist and au-thor.Shiraz had ordered that no student shall participate in any political activity.The strike con-tinued for three months at the end of which the young Rohitbhai was rusticated from the college and the Bombay university, according to Dr Bhaskar Vyas of Baroda. Bteween 1926 and 1934,the young man was sent to jail five times for his activities in the freedom struggle,making him a blue-eyed boy of Mahatma Gandhi. He had already been an avid socialist by then,a core member of the group believing in socialism within the Congress in those days.During the floods in 1927-28,Rohitbhai did a lot of work for the poor.He went to jail during the salt satyagraha too and in 1934,Rohitbhai was handed a two-year term of hard labour,and sent to Ahmednagar.The heat and hard work in breaking stones there led to a terrible illness.He suffered a sun-stroke and then was partly paralysed.The alarmed authorities rushed him to the KEM Hospital in Bombay under the care of Dr Jivraj Mehta, who was to later become the first chief minister of Gujarat.Rohitbhai had refused even to go on parole but the Mahatma intervened. According to Prof Bababhai Patel, a Congress worker,Jamnadas Dwarkadas took J.Krishnamurti to see the ailing Rohitbhai. Krishnamurti kept his hand on the parts of the sick man’s body wherever it was paining.The therapeutic touch is said to have cured Rohitbhai completely.He walked next day, and was discharged from the hospital soon.
Rohitbhai who was in the freedom struggle along with Jaya Prakash Narayan ,was a sort of maverick.He invited Subhaschandra Bose to Gujarat,ignoring Vallabhbhai Patel’s orders.
But the spiritual bent of his mind had already started asserting over his rebelllious political mind. He had begun to realise the “soullessness” of politics and plunged into studying the works of theosophy and Krishnamurti.Leaving “the dunghill of politics”,he took to spiritualism and phi-losophy for life.He explained in 1937 his transformation in a volume called, A new world of the-osophical socialsim,predicting the eventual downfall of the Soviet Union.
In 1941,Rohitbhai went to Adyar in Tamil Nadu to act as recording secretary of the theosophical society,and soon became the international secretary.He explored the ideas propounded by many and yet did not subscribe to any one idea completely.This however was not out of an in-tellectual arrogance but out of modesty.He was to be later given a doctorate in philosophy by the Swiss University at Lugeno.Among the books he wrote were many notable ones such as Yoga-the Art of Integration, The Nameless Experience, From Mind to Super-Mind,The Call of the Upanishads,the Intuitive Philosophy,the Play of the Infinite, the Dialogue with Death,the Be-ing and the becoming, the Eternal Light,the Creative silence,Seek Out the Way,the Search for Freedom,the New World of Socialism, the Science of Meditation,and the Journey with Death.
in 1936,Rohitbhai was married to Shrideviben,a decade younger to him.She used to sing very melodiously.At his lectures,recalls Prof P.G.Mavalankar, Shrideviben would sing bhajans and hymns appropriate to the theme of his talk.”People would appreciate these after listening to Ro-hitbhai since the talk would make them understand the bhajans and hymns and their meaning all the better”, Mavalankar says. Prof.Mavalankar and his wife used to know the Mehta couple well and fondly remember Rohitbhai’s request at his talks (he would call them talks,rather than lectures): “You cannot leave while Shridevi is singing the bhajan. However,you can leave when I am talking.” Hardly anybody would go.
He used to live in Varanasi,when not travelling or lecturing around the world and the country.But he used to come to Ahmedabad for a series of lectures,which would start at 6.30 p m in the lawns of the late Rambhai Amin’s house in Gulbai Tekra,on the Labh Pancham day every year.Prof.Mavalankar remembers having seen around 2,000 people listening to Rohitbhai in rapt attention.When his health started giving in, he used to come every alternate year.
Remembered Mavalankar:” Rohitbhai had good diction,and he would speak neither fast nor slow,quoting with ease from a variety of works.His sense of humour would peep through in sub-tle manner every now and then.He was an optimist and knew the future lay in re-discovering In-dia.This could be done by reviving its great culture which has been showing strands of deca-dence.”
Rohitbhai was a widely travelled man,having lectured at various places in Europe,the U.S.,Africa and Asia.He could talk fluently in English,Hindi and Gujarati.”
Dr Bhaskar Vyas of Baroda, who knew him for more than two decades remembers of an at-tempt by himself and Dr D V Nene at doing a biography of Rohitbhai. He read some chapters Vyas had written and recommended: “Tear them up”. Apparently,to Rohitbhai ideas were more important and lasting than the man who thought them,even if it was Rohit Mehta.
Despite his tall stature in the world of philosophy,Rohitbhai always preferred to remain the shadows,shunning the limelight. In 1993,a greeting card he sent to his friends said:”The mind that is constantly renewing itself never grows old.It is constantly on a voyage of discovery.It never arrives.It moves on towards an endless journey.And the secret of life is found not by one who has arrived,but by one whose journey never ends.”
In January,1994,he had come for the last time to Ahmedabad.Shrivediben’s younger brother,Devendra Oza, a veteran journalist and humour writer,Vanmali Vanko in Guajrati of yesteryear,had lined up an interview for this reporter.Hours before the meeting,Rohitbhai devel-oped fever and the meeting was put off to a future date.That date would now never come.He has moved on to an endless journey of no return.
Rohit Mehta,who died at the age of 86 at Varanasi on March 20,1995,is remembered differently by different people.Some recall his cogently thought and delivered lectures on philosophy.Some talk of him as a man with legendary memory who could quote flawlessly from Sri Aurobindo,Upanishad,Gita as also Marx, a teacher with a vast repertoire and a subtle sense of humour and a prolific writer,and a man of unfailing kindliness.Still some other others think of him as a charismatic personality,donned most of the time in spotlessly white dhoti and yellowish khadi-silk kurta,slightly stocky in build,and wearing a black-framed pair of spectaclesover deep penetrating eyes.He was brilliant,but never flamboyant,solid but never seeking recognition,an original thinker who could easily and without showing any burden mix with the most ordinary.An unusual man who was extra-ordinary in many respects,and yet strove to conceal all this under modesty and non-chalance
Remembered late Prof.P G Mavalankar, former M.P. and a well-read man himself: “Rohitbhai was a five-in-one personality - a thinker,philosopher,interpreter, writer and speaker,clear in thought and precise in language and eloquent in delivery.All these took him to the top.” He was all this,and much more.A many spleandoured man,Rohitbhai as he was universally known was not just a run-of-the-mill freedom-fighter,a socialist-turned-spiritualist.He was in the world class,a thing about which he never had to seek certificates nor to boast.Yet, he was so self-effacing that one would have to hunt for a photograph of his.
How tall was he could be measured from the fact that he was one of the pioneers of the Social-ist Forum within the Congress in the early thirties.He went to prison repeatedly,starting from student days and would have gone far had he stuck to politics.It was Rohitbhai who introduced a then young Morarji Desai to the youths during the freedom struggle.He quit it in 1935,and was never to regret it.
He penned more than 25 books on philosophy,delivered thousands of lectures all over the world and sought to interpret the coming world far ahead of his time to his contemporaries.He was an able interpreter of his friend and philosopher,J.Krishnamurti,of Gita,of Upnishads and Yoga.
Yet,he was no parochial a preaccher.His vision could embrace technology and spell out its im-pact on society and mankind far ahead of his fellow human beings.
What he diagnosed in 1950 in one of his early volumes,The Intuitive Philophy,rings so prophetic after 45 years today,as if it has been foreseen in minute detail by him.He said: “Ever since the industrial revolution of the early 19th century, there have appeared such factors in our society as have led to rapid and revolutionary changes in the socio-economic structure of the world.This tendency towards rapid changes has been considerably intensified by the scientific advance in the course of the last 100 years and more. Large-scale economic production and the breaking down of the barriers of space have been the two most outstanding features of the social and economic revolution which began in the 19th century and which still continues its ownard march.”
“The new means of transport and communications, moving at terrifically increasing speeds,have eliminated distances between countries and have thus brought the peoples of all nations suddenly together.Along with this advance there has been an enormous increase in the scientific and mechanical skill as applied to economic production. This scientific technique is becoming more and more perfect so that there is today production of economic goods on a colossal scale.These goods must be sold and one country is too small an economic unit for the absorption of commodities produced on a mass basis.This factor of large-scale economic production,coupled with the elimination of distances,has tended to break down national barriers. Economic life has become international, for economic trends during the last years have moved in the direction of world unity.”
He perceptively observed: “But this economic currents have been obstructed in their progress by political forces. While the world is becoming one on the economic plane,it is kept divided on the political level.The idea of complete national sovereignty does not leave its hold on the minds of the people.”
He said:” One of the major contradictions of our age is this: the trend towards unity in the eco-nomic sphere and the maintenance of national sovereignty on the political plane. ... This is one of the paradoxes of our civilisation that while we desire,we work for war !”
“Man’s psychological inability or refusal to adjust himself to the requirements of technological revolution has created an immense problem for our human civilisation...We cannot stop the ad-vance of science producing continual changes in the material conditions of life, nor can we stop the activity of the mind which makes every change in the objective conditions too dangerous for the very existence of human civilisation.It may sound strange to say our generation is mentally tired while it has reached new heights of mental development through scientific advance.”
He thought specialisation and over-specialisation was the craze of the modern age,which had enabled us to create a wall between the real problem of life and ourselves,the real problem be-ing the increasing mental tension in the life of the individual.The problem of the individ-ual,according to Rohitbhai, was to discover the fundamental value of life.Today the subjective life of man has been rendered extremely poor while the objective conditions are changing at a terrific pace.Man is trying to cover up his inner poverty by erecting huge mansions for social, political and economic activities.But these activities, instead of providing relief, gradually create greater and greater pyshological tension in the life of the individual.Probably at no time in hu-man history was the gulf between the subjective and objective factors so great as it is to-day.Unless harmony is established anew between these two factors,the human crisis is likely to move towards a deepening horror,the result of which will be complete destruction of our civilisa-tion.We must discover a philosophical approach that would enrich the subjective life of man.” Prophetic words,coming from a man then in his early forties,and that was ages before Alvin Toffler had dreamt of his Future Shock.
Rohitbhai was born on August 3,1908 at Surat in the family of Hasmanram,who used to be a professor in physics at the Elphinstone college,Bombay.The bright child was destine to do un-usual things from the early age. At the age of 18,he led a student strike in the Gujarat college in Ahmedabad against the dictatorial behaviour of its principal F.Shiraz.His two other associates were Jayanti Dalal, writer and Nirubhai Desai,who later became a famous journalist and au-thor.Shiraz had ordered that no student shall participate in any political activity.The strike con-tinued for three months at the end of which the young Rohitbhai was rusticated from the college and the Bombay university, according to Dr Bhaskar Vyas of Baroda. Bteween 1926 and 1934,the young man was sent to jail five times for his activities in the freedom struggle,making him a blue-eyed boy of Mahatma Gandhi. He had already been an avid socialist by then,a core member of the group believing in socialism within the Congress in those days.During the floods in 1927-28,Rohitbhai did a lot of work for the poor.He went to jail during the salt satyagraha too and in 1934,Rohitbhai was handed a two-year term of hard labour,and sent to Ahmednagar.The heat and hard work in breaking stones there led to a terrible illness.He suffered a sun-stroke and then was partly paralysed.The alarmed authorities rushed him to the KEM Hospital in Bombay under the care of Dr Jivraj Mehta, who was to later become the first chief minister of Gujarat.Rohitbhai had refused even to go on parole but the Mahatma intervened. According to Prof Bababhai Patel, a Congress worker,Jamnadas Dwarkadas took J.Krishnamurti to see the ailing Rohitbhai. Krishnamurti kept his hand on the parts of the sick man’s body wherever it was paining.The therapeutic touch is said to have cured Rohitbhai completely.He walked next day, and was discharged from the hospital soon.
Rohitbhai who was in the freedom struggle along with Jaya Prakash Narayan ,was a sort of maverick.He invited Subhaschandra Bose to Gujarat,ignoring Vallabhbhai Patel’s orders.
But the spiritual bent of his mind had already started asserting over his rebelllious political mind. He had begun to realise the “soullessness” of politics and plunged into studying the works of theosophy and Krishnamurti.Leaving “the dunghill of politics”,he took to spiritualism and phi-losophy for life.He explained in 1937 his transformation in a volume called, A new world of the-osophical socialsim,predicting the eventual downfall of the Soviet Union.
In 1941,Rohitbhai went to Adyar in Tamil Nadu to act as recording secretary of the theosophical society,and soon became the international secretary.He explored the ideas propounded by many and yet did not subscribe to any one idea completely.This however was not out of an in-tellectual arrogance but out of modesty.He was to be later given a doctorate in philosophy by the Swiss University at Lugeno.Among the books he wrote were many notable ones such as Yoga-the Art of Integration, The Nameless Experience, From Mind to Super-Mind,The Call of the Upanishads,the Intuitive Philosophy,the Play of the Infinite, the Dialogue with Death,the Be-ing and the becoming, the Eternal Light,the Creative silence,Seek Out the Way,the Search for Freedom,the New World of Socialism, the Science of Meditation,and the Journey with Death.
in 1936,Rohitbhai was married to Shrideviben,a decade younger to him.She used to sing very melodiously.At his lectures,recalls Prof P.G.Mavalankar, Shrideviben would sing bhajans and hymns appropriate to the theme of his talk.”People would appreciate these after listening to Ro-hitbhai since the talk would make them understand the bhajans and hymns and their meaning all the better”, Mavalankar says. Prof.Mavalankar and his wife used to know the Mehta couple well and fondly remember Rohitbhai’s request at his talks (he would call them talks,rather than lectures): “You cannot leave while Shridevi is singing the bhajan. However,you can leave when I am talking.” Hardly anybody would go.
He used to live in Varanasi,when not travelling or lecturing around the world and the country.But he used to come to Ahmedabad for a series of lectures,which would start at 6.30 p m in the lawns of the late Rambhai Amin’s house in Gulbai Tekra,on the Labh Pancham day every year.Prof.Mavalankar remembers having seen around 2,000 people listening to Rohitbhai in rapt attention.When his health started giving in, he used to come every alternate year.
Remembered Mavalankar:” Rohitbhai had good diction,and he would speak neither fast nor slow,quoting with ease from a variety of works.His sense of humour would peep through in sub-tle manner every now and then.He was an optimist and knew the future lay in re-discovering In-dia.This could be done by reviving its great culture which has been showing strands of deca-dence.”
Rohitbhai was a widely travelled man,having lectured at various places in Europe,the U.S.,Africa and Asia.He could talk fluently in English,Hindi and Gujarati.”
Dr Bhaskar Vyas of Baroda, who knew him for more than two decades remembers of an at-tempt by himself and Dr D V Nene at doing a biography of Rohitbhai. He read some chapters Vyas had written and recommended: “Tear them up”. Apparently,to Rohitbhai ideas were more important and lasting than the man who thought them,even if it was Rohit Mehta.
Despite his tall stature in the world of philosophy,Rohitbhai always preferred to remain the shadows,shunning the limelight. In 1993,a greeting card he sent to his friends said:”The mind that is constantly renewing itself never grows old.It is constantly on a voyage of discovery.It never arrives.It moves on towards an endless journey.And the secret of life is found not by one who has arrived,but by one whose journey never ends.”
In January,1994,he had come for the last time to Ahmedabad.Shrivediben’s younger brother,Devendra Oza, a veteran journalist and humour writer,Vanmali Vanko in Guajrati of yesteryear,had lined up an interview for this reporter.Hours before the meeting,Rohitbhai devel-oped fever and the meeting was put off to a future date.That date would now never come.He has moved on to an endless journey of no return.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Rajnikumar Pandya: A Trail-Blazing Author who shows the story instead of telling
Tushar Bhatt
More than a quarter-century ago, a banker-turned writer,Rajnikumar Pandya, hit upon an innovation in Gujarati literature—showing the story rather than telling it. Not being either a student or a pundit of literature, the 73-year-old Rajnikumar is diffident—and full of deference too-- while talking about it even today..
This is despite the fact that he has come out with more than 50 books, numerous monographs, biographies,tv serials, books on Hindi filmdom. He commands a huge fan-following and ironically,there is no major award in Gujarati that has not been bagged by the author.The literati may dislike his physical presence but the power of words could not be overlooked.The honours included the award for best rural reporting in all langauges in India,given annually by The Kolkata daily, The Statesman.
All this is sought to be played down by labelling him as a commercial writer because he earns his bread-and-butter by accepting writing assignments.
It is the same story as in the case of advertisement copy writers. Partly, this is owing to an inability among the literati to do what professional writers are doing. Most readers, attracted to a well-done advertisement, are impressed by its pithy,bright and brief copy plus visualisation. This is not everybody’s cup of tea. Jealousy comes in. The successful professionals are sought to be cut to size by calling them commercial. Rajnikumar is a trail-blazer in this area; he is highly organised,able to abide by the brief, can work smoothly with cameramen,singers,composers and even the rich who want to show to the world.Yet, he carefully keeps distinct the two original writing and assignments
To the literati everywhere, a typical man of letters means someone with unkempt hair,unshaven face,eyes red, mind full of ideas but wallet empty. Injustice is the common tag. Those writers who did not photo-fit this image are somehow viewed as intruders in the paradise.
By vocation a man who dealt with numbers at work as a bankman, Rajnikumar does not fit the shoddy image. He belives in meticulously remain a presentable personality.He was convinced in his heart that he was a man of letters, a natural story spinner, no matter what others thought.Launching himself as a columnist in an Ahmedabad daily,hearted penning what journalism called human interest stories.He thought he had arrived.
Around that time, the writing world in the West was also in a turmoil. Novels were being discarded and tv watching was eating into reading time. Newspapers and magazines too were feeling the heat of tv news channels because many marginal readers stopped buying news journals , depending on tv news. New Journalism came into vogue with journalists applying techniques of fiction writing to non-fiction. These included reconstruction of the story not in chronological order but by highlighting the most dramatic scenes by what the film makers call jump-cutting . It involves shifting from one scene to another.In doing this, dialogue of the main players was brought in. How was this done? Simple. By lnterviewing people.
Unaware of this, Rajnikumar began experimenting and the resulting stories ran under the logo,Zabkar,caught the attention of readers from all strata of society. Now, the literary establishment in many Indian languages, including Gujarati,is populated by professors,teachers,linguistic experts ,grammarians and assorted educators whose last contact with ordinary life was when they were jobless.
The establishment was bewildered. It has yet to come to terms with reality because it knew the reality via notions of literature which it passes off as principles.The literati could not credit it that the new comers were being read by a large number of people.
Oscar Wilde it was who put it tersely: Newspapers are not worth reading,but are read by a large body of people. In Gujarati,Rajnikumar showed that newspapers too can have literary writing.
But, the establishment continues to feel bad. Many writers who are popular among people are unpopular in the literati.
Rajnikumar knows he is persona non-grata in the establishment but cannot make out why. The Gujarati literati also does not know because being self-reliant not many read modern world literature. A few innocents seem to assume that the world outside Gujarat was a permissive space to be avoided. Some are so busy writing they have no time to read.
Yet, authors like Rajnikumar , Ashwinee Bhatt, Madhu Rye,Labhshankar Thacker and Chinu Modi themselves keep low profile.The basic Gujarati mentality to avoid a clash as far as possible plays a major role in this attitude.
When you find Rajnikumar walking,his gait seems to be so deliberate that you would think he is measuring the land. Actually, he is watching his tread to ensure he does not step on a literati’s toes.Generally, he behaves placatorily, verging on public relations. The Gurus think his diffidence underlines a sense of inferiority, proving he is an intruder. At the best, he may be a journalist who has used literary devices to pep-up his reports.
This tug-of-war goes on, taking an invisible tall. Crows feet are laying a siege around his eyes, his hairs are fighting to retain their black colour, face and the body betray a plumpness. His mind is full of anguish, making him think something is yet to be done.
Not many will detect a veil of somnolence wrapping the author’s persona. He commands a huge fan following but has been dreaming about something else.Only the closest of his friends know that Rajnikumar yearns to be a music-maker, wants to sing, and direct movies. These are his childhood dreams.
Late Vasudev Mehta, a veteran journalist, was the first to notice the graphic quality of Rajnikumar’s writing. He noted that among the contemporary writers, he was perhaps the lone one whose writing can be visualised and picturised.
His widely-acclaimed novel, Kunti,was a highly popular tv serial on national scale. Some years ago, he wrote a novel on an Non-Resident-Indian family,based on a true story,Pushpadaah. It was the first major Indo-US literary work in Gujarati. Rajnikumar is a meticulous writer. To know the local ambience,colours,society he travels to far-off places,to acquire realism he listens to dialogue; he not only reports,he tries to enter the mind of his character,pile up details. He always ends up with more material than he needs.But,this gives him scope to prune so that a controlled flow of the story emerges.
Rajnikumar’s innate sense of insecurity rivals with film artists like Amitabh Bachchan or cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar; all three know that to survive and win the rat race,they cannot rest on their laurels.They have to excel by being restless.
The author’s quest led him to put together a rare venture in literature; an album on Meghdut, the mammoth lyrical classic of 11th century by Kalidas. An unabashed celebration of life, the Sanskrit volume is a proof of India’s vibrant richness. Kalidas has outdone himself in compositionof verses,called samshloki ( verses written in such a way that they can rhyme and be recited musically,creating an ambience).
Meghdut followed an earlier digital documentation of the pioneering Gujarati popular journal,Visami Sadi,and its fearless secular-minded editor
In 1913,an ardent fan of Meghdut, Kilabhai Ghashyam Bhatt, himself a scholar translated the verses into Gujarati, in a manner that they too could be recited musically. Till todate, numerous translations of Meghdut were done but few could rival with Kilabhai’s work.
Then, in 1940-41,in Palitana, a pupil named Navnitlal Shah got interested in learning Sanskrit and heard Meghdut. Later,he moved to Mumbai and spotted Kilabhai’s translaton,priced at Rs.5 or 6.Now a wealthy old man,Shah still has the copy.He did not need to refer to it since he knew the entire volume,verse by verse,by heart.
Navnitlal is a lover of literature and had earlier joined hands with Rajnikumar to bring out a volume commemorating poet Ruswa Mazlumi who wrote ghazals.Other documentation followed.Eventually, he told the author to attempt something to take Meghdut and Kalidas into Gujarati homes with Kilabhai’s easy translation as the centre-piece.
The volume was accompanied by musical recital of the verse in two CDs by noted folk singer,Prafull Dave.The music direction was done by Asit Desai, another household name.
Rajnikumar said he knew precious little about Meghdut beyond the words Ashadhasya Pratham Divase. He set about learning more and everything he found he put into the book.So the album has articles on related matters by pundits.Its richness has been augmented by sketches and paintings of scenes and people in the epic done by renowned artists like Late Kumar Mangalsinhji, late Vasudeo Smart,late Kanu Desai and a host of others,all rare.
The album has been offered to public at cost price of Rs.595,and of Rs.295 for the book only.
For the restless author, a new quest begins.
(The End)
More than a quarter-century ago, a banker-turned writer,Rajnikumar Pandya, hit upon an innovation in Gujarati literature—showing the story rather than telling it. Not being either a student or a pundit of literature, the 73-year-old Rajnikumar is diffident—and full of deference too-- while talking about it even today..
This is despite the fact that he has come out with more than 50 books, numerous monographs, biographies,tv serials, books on Hindi filmdom. He commands a huge fan-following and ironically,there is no major award in Gujarati that has not been bagged by the author.The literati may dislike his physical presence but the power of words could not be overlooked.The honours included the award for best rural reporting in all langauges in India,given annually by The Kolkata daily, The Statesman.
All this is sought to be played down by labelling him as a commercial writer because he earns his bread-and-butter by accepting writing assignments.
It is the same story as in the case of advertisement copy writers. Partly, this is owing to an inability among the literati to do what professional writers are doing. Most readers, attracted to a well-done advertisement, are impressed by its pithy,bright and brief copy plus visualisation. This is not everybody’s cup of tea. Jealousy comes in. The successful professionals are sought to be cut to size by calling them commercial. Rajnikumar is a trail-blazer in this area; he is highly organised,able to abide by the brief, can work smoothly with cameramen,singers,composers and even the rich who want to show to the world.Yet, he carefully keeps distinct the two original writing and assignments
To the literati everywhere, a typical man of letters means someone with unkempt hair,unshaven face,eyes red, mind full of ideas but wallet empty. Injustice is the common tag. Those writers who did not photo-fit this image are somehow viewed as intruders in the paradise.
By vocation a man who dealt with numbers at work as a bankman, Rajnikumar does not fit the shoddy image. He belives in meticulously remain a presentable personality.He was convinced in his heart that he was a man of letters, a natural story spinner, no matter what others thought.Launching himself as a columnist in an Ahmedabad daily,hearted penning what journalism called human interest stories.He thought he had arrived.
Around that time, the writing world in the West was also in a turmoil. Novels were being discarded and tv watching was eating into reading time. Newspapers and magazines too were feeling the heat of tv news channels because many marginal readers stopped buying news journals , depending on tv news. New Journalism came into vogue with journalists applying techniques of fiction writing to non-fiction. These included reconstruction of the story not in chronological order but by highlighting the most dramatic scenes by what the film makers call jump-cutting . It involves shifting from one scene to another.In doing this, dialogue of the main players was brought in. How was this done? Simple. By lnterviewing people.
Unaware of this, Rajnikumar began experimenting and the resulting stories ran under the logo,Zabkar,caught the attention of readers from all strata of society. Now, the literary establishment in many Indian languages, including Gujarati,is populated by professors,teachers,linguistic experts ,grammarians and assorted educators whose last contact with ordinary life was when they were jobless.
The establishment was bewildered. It has yet to come to terms with reality because it knew the reality via notions of literature which it passes off as principles.The literati could not credit it that the new comers were being read by a large number of people.
Oscar Wilde it was who put it tersely: Newspapers are not worth reading,but are read by a large body of people. In Gujarati,Rajnikumar showed that newspapers too can have literary writing.
But, the establishment continues to feel bad. Many writers who are popular among people are unpopular in the literati.
Rajnikumar knows he is persona non-grata in the establishment but cannot make out why. The Gujarati literati also does not know because being self-reliant not many read modern world literature. A few innocents seem to assume that the world outside Gujarat was a permissive space to be avoided. Some are so busy writing they have no time to read.
Yet, authors like Rajnikumar , Ashwinee Bhatt, Madhu Rye,Labhshankar Thacker and Chinu Modi themselves keep low profile.The basic Gujarati mentality to avoid a clash as far as possible plays a major role in this attitude.
When you find Rajnikumar walking,his gait seems to be so deliberate that you would think he is measuring the land. Actually, he is watching his tread to ensure he does not step on a literati’s toes.Generally, he behaves placatorily, verging on public relations. The Gurus think his diffidence underlines a sense of inferiority, proving he is an intruder. At the best, he may be a journalist who has used literary devices to pep-up his reports.
This tug-of-war goes on, taking an invisible tall. Crows feet are laying a siege around his eyes, his hairs are fighting to retain their black colour, face and the body betray a plumpness. His mind is full of anguish, making him think something is yet to be done.
Not many will detect a veil of somnolence wrapping the author’s persona. He commands a huge fan following but has been dreaming about something else.Only the closest of his friends know that Rajnikumar yearns to be a music-maker, wants to sing, and direct movies. These are his childhood dreams.
Late Vasudev Mehta, a veteran journalist, was the first to notice the graphic quality of Rajnikumar’s writing. He noted that among the contemporary writers, he was perhaps the lone one whose writing can be visualised and picturised.
His widely-acclaimed novel, Kunti,was a highly popular tv serial on national scale. Some years ago, he wrote a novel on an Non-Resident-Indian family,based on a true story,Pushpadaah. It was the first major Indo-US literary work in Gujarati. Rajnikumar is a meticulous writer. To know the local ambience,colours,society he travels to far-off places,to acquire realism he listens to dialogue; he not only reports,he tries to enter the mind of his character,pile up details. He always ends up with more material than he needs.But,this gives him scope to prune so that a controlled flow of the story emerges.
Rajnikumar’s innate sense of insecurity rivals with film artists like Amitabh Bachchan or cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar; all three know that to survive and win the rat race,they cannot rest on their laurels.They have to excel by being restless.
The author’s quest led him to put together a rare venture in literature; an album on Meghdut, the mammoth lyrical classic of 11th century by Kalidas. An unabashed celebration of life, the Sanskrit volume is a proof of India’s vibrant richness. Kalidas has outdone himself in compositionof verses,called samshloki ( verses written in such a way that they can rhyme and be recited musically,creating an ambience).
Meghdut followed an earlier digital documentation of the pioneering Gujarati popular journal,Visami Sadi,and its fearless secular-minded editor
In 1913,an ardent fan of Meghdut, Kilabhai Ghashyam Bhatt, himself a scholar translated the verses into Gujarati, in a manner that they too could be recited musically. Till todate, numerous translations of Meghdut were done but few could rival with Kilabhai’s work.
Then, in 1940-41,in Palitana, a pupil named Navnitlal Shah got interested in learning Sanskrit and heard Meghdut. Later,he moved to Mumbai and spotted Kilabhai’s translaton,priced at Rs.5 or 6.Now a wealthy old man,Shah still has the copy.He did not need to refer to it since he knew the entire volume,verse by verse,by heart.
Navnitlal is a lover of literature and had earlier joined hands with Rajnikumar to bring out a volume commemorating poet Ruswa Mazlumi who wrote ghazals.Other documentation followed.Eventually, he told the author to attempt something to take Meghdut and Kalidas into Gujarati homes with Kilabhai’s easy translation as the centre-piece.
The volume was accompanied by musical recital of the verse in two CDs by noted folk singer,Prafull Dave.The music direction was done by Asit Desai, another household name.
Rajnikumar said he knew precious little about Meghdut beyond the words Ashadhasya Pratham Divase. He set about learning more and everything he found he put into the book.So the album has articles on related matters by pundits.Its richness has been augmented by sketches and paintings of scenes and people in the epic done by renowned artists like Late Kumar Mangalsinhji, late Vasudeo Smart,late Kanu Desai and a host of others,all rare.
The album has been offered to public at cost price of Rs.595,and of Rs.295 for the book only.
For the restless author, a new quest begins.
(The End)
Friday, September 24, 2010
Chronicles of extra-ordinary tales of the ordinary
Tushar Bhatt
Usha Shukla, a young school teacher in Ahmedabad, stood stunned. In her 30s, she was already a principal, a position that pupils regard as next only to the Almighty.
Less than an hour earlier,she had slapped an 8th Standard girl soundly on the face for not doing home work in the mathematics in a proper notebook. Mota Ben, as lady principals are respectfully called in Gujarat , are often stricter than the male of the species.
The teacher had felt pleased with herself in punishing the erring student who had not uttered a single word in self-defence. Usha was petrified. There was something missing and she felt inadequate to pinpoint it.It made her task all the more tough.
The frail pupil was clad in simple clothes,probably bought from a second-hand clothes vendor on a city foothpath . Middle class young teachers like Usha often realise it belatedly that keeping quiet in such situations did not mean that the student had nothing to say. It could mean more often that the pupil was helpless.
Usha finished the class and made her way to principal’s office,feeling euphoric and believing she has instilled fear of God in pupils Yet,an explicable uneasiness underlined the experience.
As she settled in her swivel chair, the school throne of power, the erring girl asked from the door way meekly :”May I have a word with you, Motaben?”
Curtly,the teahcer replied: “ Yes, what is it ? What the tiny girl had to stay left Usha contrite with remorse.
God has forgotten to give many things to teachers, but He has supplied them in abundance with the ability to empathise with the pupil .
The girl began softly, meekly and yet with a dignity the Almight gave the down-trodden to survive in the cruel world. However bad tempered they are, eventually teachers are also children of the Muse of Knowledge. The dictator in the teacher gave way to Saraswati as words rolled out of the distraught pupil.
“Ben, I have not prepared notebook for home work in not only the mathematics but no subject at all. I got second-hand books from a friend,but I cannot get notebooks. My parents are labourers who go out in the morning for work. The kitchen has nothing to cook so we come to study without food.There will be no food in the night too if the parents did not get any work.”Till I get a scholarship, there is no way to obtain notebooks.I know this is bad.”
She said in even tone that exploded on Usha like at atomic device. ” You can beat me every day, in every period and I will neither cry in the class nor stop coming to school.”
Despite brave words,tear rolled down her emaciated cheeks.
Usha Shukla was devastated by the impact. “Oh, my God. How could I be such an idiot? What kind of a taecher am I ? Am I a teacher? What a shame that I did not know about her plight? “
Instead of slapping the young student,she should have slapped herself, Usha thought furiouslylf. Who would think of her as anything but a snob?
As she remonstrated with herself, the pricipalalmost choked on her tears.Then,she decided to act.
She later told a jury of eminent citizens,led by retired chief justice of Gujarat High Court, B J Diwan who adjudged her best suited for an excellence award by the Eklavya Foundation: ” I decided to educate myself.I was nothing but a romantic dreamer.My colleagues said that there were a number of children in our school itself in similar predicament.”
Usha told them:” Come what may, we will make a beginning. “ The girl who was a victim of Usha’s wrath, was provided with not only notebooks, but everything a pupil needed. Usha and her colleagues got extra lunch boxes from their homes which will be left in a room so that the needy could quietly go and eat,without anyone knowing and hurting their self-esteem.
For the middle class teachers this was not an easy effort. In the days of steady income and spiralling prices, it requires a Herculean effort to meet both the end meet.
If God had created everthing , He should also be accountable for everything. The Brave Motherly Hearts decided never to donate money hereafter to temples, mosques, gurudwaras,churches..every placewhere a cash box for His acolytes ‘ sustenace is found. Not happy with the way He performed his job, the teachers replaced Him with school children.In the entire existence there was nothing holier that children.
Sceptics may argue that despite such kodiyan(earthen lamps) burning themselves out the darkness in our education system continued.It was as if there was darkness at noon.But,there are some Good Samaritans contnue to furrow their lone plough, and support innovative Gurus. Every year since 1997, Eklavya gives several awards for excellence in education.For more two decades, teachers from Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar districts in Gujarat have been given these awards. Usha got it in 1998.
Said Sunil Handa,chairman of the trust,”we are trying to identify the finest,most hard-working and steadfast teachers who have made a significant diference in the lives of their pupils.” It was the jury’s job to find such teachers.
The battle-hardened jury was deeply moved by the extra- ordinariness of the ordinary, when Usha narrated the simple tale.She and her colleagues were without power ot means to bring about a massive change in India.However,they were honest teachers. Everything they attempted did not mean necessarily a success. They had not been able to prevent young girls dropping out when they reached marriageable age.The parents would not want their daughter to have a lot of education so that there would be out-qualidied their spouses.For years now, girls have been forging ahead while the boys fared poorly in ssc and other competitive exqminations.
Handa was aware that piecemeal efforts were not enough. " We need a large number of grassroot level teachers who make a difference. “
Since 1997, 13 annual awards have been given on September 5, Teachers Day. Every year award winning Gurus narrate their life story and experiences.Then,in 2009, a journalist,Neerja Choudhary, was the chief guest at the award ceremony. She heard a veteran teacher,Perin Lalkaka describe her life . The story-teller in the scribe sprang into action. In her speech, Neerja,suggested experiences of the award winners should be brought out in an anthology.
Handa and his colleagues took to the suggestion and a bilingual book, in Gujarati and English, Aviram Athak ( Joyful Path,Tireless Walk) comprising of life stories in 36 walks down the memory lane is the end-result. The 168-page volume ,priced at Rs.100 a copy. was released in 2010.Its charm lies in togetherness of daily-life experiences, tunring into an extra-ordinary boquet of tributes to the mission of teaching. Alone or together, they would not bag a Nobel prize for literature.
It will ,however, bring home what ordinary citizens can do if they are are committed to a cause.A concerned and impressed parent neatly summed up: “No literary masterpiece has changed the world. But education has and will do so forever. Needed are committed teachers and a sensitive society.” We need good primary and secondary teachers. A Nobel prize can wait. A Gujarati idom says it all neatly:” Tipe Tipe Sarovar Bharay.” What is a lake of water but joining together of a vast number of drops of water?
Usha Shukla, a young school teacher in Ahmedabad, stood stunned. In her 30s, she was already a principal, a position that pupils regard as next only to the Almighty.
Less than an hour earlier,she had slapped an 8th Standard girl soundly on the face for not doing home work in the mathematics in a proper notebook. Mota Ben, as lady principals are respectfully called in Gujarat , are often stricter than the male of the species.
The teacher had felt pleased with herself in punishing the erring student who had not uttered a single word in self-defence. Usha was petrified. There was something missing and she felt inadequate to pinpoint it.It made her task all the more tough.
The frail pupil was clad in simple clothes,probably bought from a second-hand clothes vendor on a city foothpath . Middle class young teachers like Usha often realise it belatedly that keeping quiet in such situations did not mean that the student had nothing to say. It could mean more often that the pupil was helpless.
Usha finished the class and made her way to principal’s office,feeling euphoric and believing she has instilled fear of God in pupils Yet,an explicable uneasiness underlined the experience.
As she settled in her swivel chair, the school throne of power, the erring girl asked from the door way meekly :”May I have a word with you, Motaben?”
Curtly,the teahcer replied: “ Yes, what is it ? What the tiny girl had to stay left Usha contrite with remorse.
God has forgotten to give many things to teachers, but He has supplied them in abundance with the ability to empathise with the pupil .
The girl began softly, meekly and yet with a dignity the Almight gave the down-trodden to survive in the cruel world. However bad tempered they are, eventually teachers are also children of the Muse of Knowledge. The dictator in the teacher gave way to Saraswati as words rolled out of the distraught pupil.
“Ben, I have not prepared notebook for home work in not only the mathematics but no subject at all. I got second-hand books from a friend,but I cannot get notebooks. My parents are labourers who go out in the morning for work. The kitchen has nothing to cook so we come to study without food.There will be no food in the night too if the parents did not get any work.”Till I get a scholarship, there is no way to obtain notebooks.I know this is bad.”
She said in even tone that exploded on Usha like at atomic device. ” You can beat me every day, in every period and I will neither cry in the class nor stop coming to school.”
Despite brave words,tear rolled down her emaciated cheeks.
Usha Shukla was devastated by the impact. “Oh, my God. How could I be such an idiot? What kind of a taecher am I ? Am I a teacher? What a shame that I did not know about her plight? “
Instead of slapping the young student,she should have slapped herself, Usha thought furiouslylf. Who would think of her as anything but a snob?
As she remonstrated with herself, the pricipalalmost choked on her tears.Then,she decided to act.
She later told a jury of eminent citizens,led by retired chief justice of Gujarat High Court, B J Diwan who adjudged her best suited for an excellence award by the Eklavya Foundation: ” I decided to educate myself.I was nothing but a romantic dreamer.My colleagues said that there were a number of children in our school itself in similar predicament.”
Usha told them:” Come what may, we will make a beginning. “ The girl who was a victim of Usha’s wrath, was provided with not only notebooks, but everything a pupil needed. Usha and her colleagues got extra lunch boxes from their homes which will be left in a room so that the needy could quietly go and eat,without anyone knowing and hurting their self-esteem.
For the middle class teachers this was not an easy effort. In the days of steady income and spiralling prices, it requires a Herculean effort to meet both the end meet.
If God had created everthing , He should also be accountable for everything. The Brave Motherly Hearts decided never to donate money hereafter to temples, mosques, gurudwaras,churches..every placewhere a cash box for His acolytes ‘ sustenace is found. Not happy with the way He performed his job, the teachers replaced Him with school children.In the entire existence there was nothing holier that children.
Sceptics may argue that despite such kodiyan(earthen lamps) burning themselves out the darkness in our education system continued.It was as if there was darkness at noon.But,there are some Good Samaritans contnue to furrow their lone plough, and support innovative Gurus. Every year since 1997, Eklavya gives several awards for excellence in education.For more two decades, teachers from Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar districts in Gujarat have been given these awards. Usha got it in 1998.
Said Sunil Handa,chairman of the trust,”we are trying to identify the finest,most hard-working and steadfast teachers who have made a significant diference in the lives of their pupils.” It was the jury’s job to find such teachers.
The battle-hardened jury was deeply moved by the extra- ordinariness of the ordinary, when Usha narrated the simple tale.She and her colleagues were without power ot means to bring about a massive change in India.However,they were honest teachers. Everything they attempted did not mean necessarily a success. They had not been able to prevent young girls dropping out when they reached marriageable age.The parents would not want their daughter to have a lot of education so that there would be out-qualidied their spouses.For years now, girls have been forging ahead while the boys fared poorly in ssc and other competitive exqminations.
Handa was aware that piecemeal efforts were not enough. " We need a large number of grassroot level teachers who make a difference. “
Since 1997, 13 annual awards have been given on September 5, Teachers Day. Every year award winning Gurus narrate their life story and experiences.Then,in 2009, a journalist,Neerja Choudhary, was the chief guest at the award ceremony. She heard a veteran teacher,Perin Lalkaka describe her life . The story-teller in the scribe sprang into action. In her speech, Neerja,suggested experiences of the award winners should be brought out in an anthology.
Handa and his colleagues took to the suggestion and a bilingual book, in Gujarati and English, Aviram Athak ( Joyful Path,Tireless Walk) comprising of life stories in 36 walks down the memory lane is the end-result. The 168-page volume ,priced at Rs.100 a copy. was released in 2010.Its charm lies in togetherness of daily-life experiences, tunring into an extra-ordinary boquet of tributes to the mission of teaching. Alone or together, they would not bag a Nobel prize for literature.
It will ,however, bring home what ordinary citizens can do if they are are committed to a cause.A concerned and impressed parent neatly summed up: “No literary masterpiece has changed the world. But education has and will do so forever. Needed are committed teachers and a sensitive society.” We need good primary and secondary teachers. A Nobel prize can wait. A Gujarati idom says it all neatly:” Tipe Tipe Sarovar Bharay.” What is a lake of water but joining together of a vast number of drops of water?
Monday, September 20, 2010
A Maha Pundit of Letters: Harivallabh Bhayani
By Tushar Bhatt
It was a little after 3.30 p m,with the May sun mercilessly beating down on the red and white houses.As the mercury hovered around 44 degrees C.,even the society watchmen had hidden himself in a shade.The man who opened the door at 25/2,Vimanagar in Ahmedabad,however,seemed oblivious to the heat haze all around.
With a large forehead,marked by waves of wrinkles made perhaps by too much of thinking,sporting a mole on the left side,the receding hairline,the prominent nose and ears and a lined face with sunken eyes that have crow's feet all around,all told a story of how Dr Harivallabh Chunilal Bhayani,has been marching with time- and is oblivous of it too.
Born on May 26,1917, he was standing on that day in the doorway on the eve of his birthday; " it is a bonus time for me",he said,reflecting on how time had fled. A foremost exponent of Prakrit ,the ancient language,Sanskrit,and old Gujarati as also the modern one,Bhayanisaheb,as is he generally known,had,however,not allowed the sands of time to run away from the hour-glass of life so far without extracting,what he had set out to do some half-a-century ago.
Harivallabhbhai today is one of the handful people who can boast -- and ,he does not -- of being an authority in linguistics,not just a man of letters,of whom there are many in Gujarat and India,but a pundit of letters.
For all his contributions in research in the ancient works in Sanskrit,Priakrit,and in enriching the Gujarati language through original work on words and their roots,Dr.Bhayani has remained in the penumbra of popular accolade.Most have heard of him,but few have known of his pioneering work in linguistics.
Yet,Dr Bhayani had no regrets that he made Ahmedabad his home.A low-profile man,with an equable nature,intellectually, he is so towering a personality that he appears to be rather non-chalant about the contemporary disinterest in him and his work by his fellow human beings.The mere cataloguing of what he has done over the past 50 years is daunting enough to tell one about how tall are his achievements.The list of his published works number 69,topped only a few days ago by the publication of a short volume on etymology of the Gujarati language.
His works encompass texts edited from the original manuscripts along with notations from Sanskrit,Prakirt,Apabrahmsa,old Gujarati and old Hindi-- titles such as Lilavati-Sara,Taragana,Rasalila,Pamdavala,Bhasha Vyakaran.Those contianing papers on linguistic,literary and cultural studies of classical litrature include four books; those on renderings or translations from the ancient languages include seven books,on grammatical and liguistic sides include more than a dozen and those of collections of critical essays number a three-fourth of a dozen,folk-literary studies and collections of folk-songs numbering six,and five volumes of miscellaneous work.These are in addition to nearly a hundred research papers published on a variety of Indological subjects.Prakrit and Apbhramsa are the languages in which the old Jain literature had been written and in the beginning of this century,it looked if these languages would be lost forever.Thanks to the scholars like Muni Jin Vijay and Dr Bhayani,many texts from these have been rescued.
What sets him apart from other researchers in the ancient literature and languages is that he thinks that neither that literature or those languages are without any relevance today. " You have to blame the professors of Sanskrit for making people view that language as something of a dead language,and its literature supposed bereft of interest today. It is not so.Through ages,languages and the literary works have an important role in shaping the life;they are full of meaning for even the modern-day life." For instance, the old literature shows us how variagated and rich our social life was,how imaginative the people were,how artistic we were.It is a rich heritage of culture,which has a definite continuity in our modern existence too.
He was born in Mahuva,in Bhavnagar district of Saurashtra,into a family where his grand-mother had a stellar role to play,in the formative years of his life. He recalled:" My grand-mother had become a widow at a very young age and had brought up my father almost single-handed.Then,when I was about a year or so,my father died.Then the mother died,and so the grand-mother had to bring me up.I had a sister,but she too died young.I grew up listening to stories and bhajans,folk-tales and songs,in a Vaishnavite household." He went to M.N.High School in Mahuva,getting through the S.S.C. with flying colours in 1934.The small scholarship enabled him to go to Shamaldas College in Bhavnagar.The lonely child seemed to have a special love for books from the very beginning.He would spend hours in company of books in the college library. In 1939, Harivallabhbhai took his B.A.with Sanskrit as special subject,again with flying colours,bagging another scholarship to go to the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Bombay for further studies in Sanskrit.He passed his M A with six papers in Sanskrit and two in Ardhmagdhi,in first class,winning Bhagwandas Purushottamdas Sanskrit prize.In 1951,he completed his Ph.D. in Prakrit.He got interested in comparative philology even while in college.He was greatly influenced by a Jain acharya,Muni Jin Vijayji,who was a distinguished researcher in ancient literature,as also by the work done by Sir Ralph Turner, a renowned Indologist and expert in linguistics,who had done pioneering work in India and Nepal.From 1945 to 1965,Dr Bhayani lived in Bombay ,undertaking teaching at post-graduate level and research in Apbhramsa literature.at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.His output has been great eversince,underlined by qualities of meticulous research,notations and explanations of ancient works,many of which would have been lost in the mist of time. "Even today,there are hundreds of manuscripts in Prakrit and Apbhramsa,lying at a number of place in Gujarat,waiting for scholars to rescue them,and bring to the notice of the people."
He considered his job as that of a link, a bridge between our ancient literature and modern one; "It is an important assignment to my mind because it helps enrich our present-day literature and language,establishes our link with the past.The past does not remain a dead burden but gets merged into the modern era through such efforts." His only regret is that there are not enough people interested in serving as these essential links with our past. " It is difficult even to get people who can do the correct proof-reading of such literature."
In 1965,Dr Bhayani shifted to Ahmedabad as professor of linguistics at Gujarat University,devoting a decade to the job.Between 1975 and 1985,he was an honorary professor of Prakrit at the L D Institute of Indology in the city.
During this professional career,his real contribution was in guiding innumerable students for their doctoral work,and in applying scientific methods to the study of the Gujarati language. In 1993,he was given the honorary fellowship of the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. Prof. J C Wright has noted a " strong correlation" between the careers of Dr.Bhayani and Sir Ralph Turner,who was the first scholar to apply then then modern "neogrammarian" methodology to the study of Gujarati.Dr Bhayani, who had first seen a work by Turner,even while in college in Bhavnagar,has just brought a volume on the Gujarati language on the pattern of what Turner had done some three decades ago.Among the innumerable awards that have come to him are Ranjitram medal for contribution to Gujarati literature in 1965,the President's award of certificate of honour as an outstanding scholar of Sanskrit in 1985,and a Sahitya Akademi award for the best Gujarati book of 1980-81.
Despite his life-long study of ancient literature, Dr Bhayani is a modern critic.He regretted that there is a trend in modern literature that took it away from the real life. " I am not saying that literature should preach or propagate,but how can it remain aloof from the contemporary society and its ways? How can it behave as if literature has nothing to do with society.Our literature should also not aim at becoming the literature of the Bhadralok only.He regretted that while literacy had spread,literary development was lacking.
He perceived that a habit to turn away from the real life in literature not only made it ireelevant but also led to a dead-end.It was a pity that some people thought that literature had something to with form and language,and had little to do with contentt.If the concept of content -- or matter -- was taken out from literature,it would lost meaning. A reader could then well ask: Why should I read such literature ?
As a critic,Dr Bhayani has been forthright,but never venomous. He hates getting into a slanging match just to prove that he was right. His detractors say that he too much of a soft-hearted man to get into controversies.
Long past the prime of life,Dr Bhayani loves to listen to music,meet friends for discussions and go for walks whenever possible.He has an even temperament.Said his wife: " I have never known him to lose his temper." The only son of the Bhayanis live in Bombay while the old couple leads a life contented,but as busy as that of a bee in Ahmedabad.He has formally retired from work;but he is neither tired,nor has he called it a day in his research work.
It was a little after 3.30 p m,with the May sun mercilessly beating down on the red and white houses.As the mercury hovered around 44 degrees C.,even the society watchmen had hidden himself in a shade.The man who opened the door at 25/2,Vimanagar in Ahmedabad,however,seemed oblivious to the heat haze all around.
With a large forehead,marked by waves of wrinkles made perhaps by too much of thinking,sporting a mole on the left side,the receding hairline,the prominent nose and ears and a lined face with sunken eyes that have crow's feet all around,all told a story of how Dr Harivallabh Chunilal Bhayani,has been marching with time- and is oblivous of it too.
Born on May 26,1917, he was standing on that day in the doorway on the eve of his birthday; " it is a bonus time for me",he said,reflecting on how time had fled. A foremost exponent of Prakrit ,the ancient language,Sanskrit,and old Gujarati as also the modern one,Bhayanisaheb,as is he generally known,had,however,not allowed the sands of time to run away from the hour-glass of life so far without extracting,what he had set out to do some half-a-century ago.
Harivallabhbhai today is one of the handful people who can boast -- and ,he does not -- of being an authority in linguistics,not just a man of letters,of whom there are many in Gujarat and India,but a pundit of letters.
For all his contributions in research in the ancient works in Sanskrit,Priakrit,and in enriching the Gujarati language through original work on words and their roots,Dr.Bhayani has remained in the penumbra of popular accolade.Most have heard of him,but few have known of his pioneering work in linguistics.
Yet,Dr Bhayani had no regrets that he made Ahmedabad his home.A low-profile man,with an equable nature,intellectually, he is so towering a personality that he appears to be rather non-chalant about the contemporary disinterest in him and his work by his fellow human beings.The mere cataloguing of what he has done over the past 50 years is daunting enough to tell one about how tall are his achievements.The list of his published works number 69,topped only a few days ago by the publication of a short volume on etymology of the Gujarati language.
His works encompass texts edited from the original manuscripts along with notations from Sanskrit,Prakirt,Apabrahmsa,old Gujarati and old Hindi-- titles such as Lilavati-Sara,Taragana,Rasalila,Pamdavala,Bhasha Vyakaran.Those contianing papers on linguistic,literary and cultural studies of classical litrature include four books; those on renderings or translations from the ancient languages include seven books,on grammatical and liguistic sides include more than a dozen and those of collections of critical essays number a three-fourth of a dozen,folk-literary studies and collections of folk-songs numbering six,and five volumes of miscellaneous work.These are in addition to nearly a hundred research papers published on a variety of Indological subjects.Prakrit and Apbhramsa are the languages in which the old Jain literature had been written and in the beginning of this century,it looked if these languages would be lost forever.Thanks to the scholars like Muni Jin Vijay and Dr Bhayani,many texts from these have been rescued.
What sets him apart from other researchers in the ancient literature and languages is that he thinks that neither that literature or those languages are without any relevance today. " You have to blame the professors of Sanskrit for making people view that language as something of a dead language,and its literature supposed bereft of interest today. It is not so.Through ages,languages and the literary works have an important role in shaping the life;they are full of meaning for even the modern-day life." For instance, the old literature shows us how variagated and rich our social life was,how imaginative the people were,how artistic we were.It is a rich heritage of culture,which has a definite continuity in our modern existence too.
He was born in Mahuva,in Bhavnagar district of Saurashtra,into a family where his grand-mother had a stellar role to play,in the formative years of his life. He recalled:" My grand-mother had become a widow at a very young age and had brought up my father almost single-handed.Then,when I was about a year or so,my father died.Then the mother died,and so the grand-mother had to bring me up.I had a sister,but she too died young.I grew up listening to stories and bhajans,folk-tales and songs,in a Vaishnavite household." He went to M.N.High School in Mahuva,getting through the S.S.C. with flying colours in 1934.The small scholarship enabled him to go to Shamaldas College in Bhavnagar.The lonely child seemed to have a special love for books from the very beginning.He would spend hours in company of books in the college library. In 1939, Harivallabhbhai took his B.A.with Sanskrit as special subject,again with flying colours,bagging another scholarship to go to the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Bombay for further studies in Sanskrit.He passed his M A with six papers in Sanskrit and two in Ardhmagdhi,in first class,winning Bhagwandas Purushottamdas Sanskrit prize.In 1951,he completed his Ph.D. in Prakrit.He got interested in comparative philology even while in college.He was greatly influenced by a Jain acharya,Muni Jin Vijayji,who was a distinguished researcher in ancient literature,as also by the work done by Sir Ralph Turner, a renowned Indologist and expert in linguistics,who had done pioneering work in India and Nepal.From 1945 to 1965,Dr Bhayani lived in Bombay ,undertaking teaching at post-graduate level and research in Apbhramsa literature.at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.His output has been great eversince,underlined by qualities of meticulous research,notations and explanations of ancient works,many of which would have been lost in the mist of time. "Even today,there are hundreds of manuscripts in Prakrit and Apbhramsa,lying at a number of place in Gujarat,waiting for scholars to rescue them,and bring to the notice of the people."
He considered his job as that of a link, a bridge between our ancient literature and modern one; "It is an important assignment to my mind because it helps enrich our present-day literature and language,establishes our link with the past.The past does not remain a dead burden but gets merged into the modern era through such efforts." His only regret is that there are not enough people interested in serving as these essential links with our past. " It is difficult even to get people who can do the correct proof-reading of such literature."
In 1965,Dr Bhayani shifted to Ahmedabad as professor of linguistics at Gujarat University,devoting a decade to the job.Between 1975 and 1985,he was an honorary professor of Prakrit at the L D Institute of Indology in the city.
During this professional career,his real contribution was in guiding innumerable students for their doctoral work,and in applying scientific methods to the study of the Gujarati language. In 1993,he was given the honorary fellowship of the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. Prof. J C Wright has noted a " strong correlation" between the careers of Dr.Bhayani and Sir Ralph Turner,who was the first scholar to apply then then modern "neogrammarian" methodology to the study of Gujarati.Dr Bhayani, who had first seen a work by Turner,even while in college in Bhavnagar,has just brought a volume on the Gujarati language on the pattern of what Turner had done some three decades ago.Among the innumerable awards that have come to him are Ranjitram medal for contribution to Gujarati literature in 1965,the President's award of certificate of honour as an outstanding scholar of Sanskrit in 1985,and a Sahitya Akademi award for the best Gujarati book of 1980-81.
Despite his life-long study of ancient literature, Dr Bhayani is a modern critic.He regretted that there is a trend in modern literature that took it away from the real life. " I am not saying that literature should preach or propagate,but how can it remain aloof from the contemporary society and its ways? How can it behave as if literature has nothing to do with society.Our literature should also not aim at becoming the literature of the Bhadralok only.He regretted that while literacy had spread,literary development was lacking.
He perceived that a habit to turn away from the real life in literature not only made it ireelevant but also led to a dead-end.It was a pity that some people thought that literature had something to with form and language,and had little to do with contentt.If the concept of content -- or matter -- was taken out from literature,it would lost meaning. A reader could then well ask: Why should I read such literature ?
As a critic,Dr Bhayani has been forthright,but never venomous. He hates getting into a slanging match just to prove that he was right. His detractors say that he too much of a soft-hearted man to get into controversies.
Long past the prime of life,Dr Bhayani loves to listen to music,meet friends for discussions and go for walks whenever possible.He has an even temperament.Said his wife: " I have never known him to lose his temper." The only son of the Bhayanis live in Bombay while the old couple leads a life contented,but as busy as that of a bee in Ahmedabad.He has formally retired from work;but he is neither tired,nor has he called it a day in his research work.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
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