A business called religion

There was a time when churches were meant for prayers and worship alone. Its still the same in most places, except Kerala, God's own country. Now Sunday masses means an opportunity to release an 'idaya lekhanam'(circular) filled with falsehood and which is meant to help the political and monetary ambitions of those at the top of the church hierarchy. These circulars are read out during the sunday masses in churches that fall under that particular sabha. And it has nothing to do with God. There were such circulars released by various churches during elections asking the devotees to vote for a particular candidate. Later they used it in the self financing colleges issue to further their propaganda against the Govt. Its a known fact that most of the colleges in Kerala under one or the other church. And now, the latest of those circulars comes out to condemn Professor T.J.Joseph, the man whose arm was cut off by islamic fundamentalists for the simple crime of setting a question paper for his students.

The question which caused all this controversy is a simple dialogue between God and a guy named Mohammed in which the students were supposed to add the necessary punctuations. Its borrowed from a famous book by P.T.Kunjumuhammed.

Here's the translation for the same-

" Muhammad : God, God.

God : What is it you idiot.

Muhammad : How many pieces will we get if we cut one Ayila(fish)?

God : You dog I have told you so many times that there will be 3 pieces.

"

Prof T.J.Joseph after his arm was cut off

There's nothing to suggest blasphemy in the whole dialogue. But, the fundamentalists thought otherwise. They took revenge by cutting off Joseph's arm. And if that was not enough the management of Newman college(where Joseph was working) dismissed him from service. The next week the church during the sunday mass, comes out with the circular supporting his ouster. A place meant for prayers is being converted into one for false propaganda. And it was sad that in none of the churches were this was read, no true believer rose up and said "this is wrong" and showed his finger to the 'religious businessmen'. The poor professor is being made a scapegoat in the murky games that goes on in the background. A lost arm, a lost job and lost pensions, still he's smiling. His interviews shows you the picture of a learned man with liberal views, not a fanatic who will spit venom on a religion. And the students of his class for whom he made this question paper are still supporting him. Its only the uneducated fundamentalists and educated religious pimps who find fault with him.

The whole episode did send shock waves through our increasingly fake secularistic mindset. Religion in modern times is becoming more of a burden than a boon. Intolerance is at its heights and any small deviation from the accepted line of thought is branded blasphemous and the person who originated the thought is hounded till his grave. A song, a slogan, an advertisement, a movie poster, a poem or even a simple question paper as in this case, can whip up that cliched 'hurt religious sentiments' in many of us. The Govt in Karnataka has banned beef saying its against Hinduism. What about the many Hindus like me who doesn't give a damn on what these bigots think and would prefer munching on beef? Even in our company bulletin board, I've seen (educated) people defending decisions like this, in the name of religious sentiments. And then there are those ugly boards in front of some Kerala temples which scream 'non-hindus not allowed'. Why don't we just throw away those boards and allow anyone who wants to pray to get inside? This kind of religious blindness is the biggest plague that has affected modern society. Religion has also become an excuse to flaunt. Celebrities increase their market value by secretly leaking detals of how much money they offered at a particular religious place. Come to think of it, almost all the ills of modern soceity can be retraced to their origins in one religion or the other. Certainly, God won't be happy to see us using his name to further our own secret selfish propagandas.

These lines from motherjane's song 'soul corporations' makes perfect sense in this scenario..

The cross maybe the ultimate metaphor

For religion sold as a brand

A sacrifice exchanged for the almighty dollar

with the tacit blessings of the Vatican

we all have guardians trading faith for power

businessmen by whom we swear

betraying everyone from eshwar to allah

with their holy wars for market share.

We're losing our religions, entrusting our gods

to corporates that protrate before balance sheets

Unsuspecting pawns inititating brethren

into the oldest MLM to stalk our streets

Behold the soul corporations, the spiritual supermarts

dispensing salvation with a price tag

mocking the truth that resides in our hearts

Paralyzing the human conscience with practised art

And of the various hues of desecration

this makes them the hardest to beat

the unsure can't endure the liberation

the pious don't discern the need

for if there's a truth to be told

religion's just a shadow of god

illuminated by thought and understanding

sullied by the ambiguity of words.

PS- Am not an atheist. But I believe religion is something personal, which is not to be flaunted and not to be fought over. And my religion won't be affected just because somebody somewhere drew a picture or wrote an article or made a film which throws a little mud on my religion. My religion won't be affected if some people ate beef or pig. If anyone thinks such things can be bad for his religion, then he must be worshipping a foolish God and a crappy religion. So, here goes for all you fundamentalists...shove your religion up your arses..

your crusader Praveen

Himalayan Saga-VIII

The monastery hopping spree of Day 8 ended in Tabo monastery, situated in the village of the same name. Established in AD 996(No, there is no '1' to the left of that number), this series of mud structures spread over a large area is a splendid sight. Unfortunately for us, we never got to see the inside of each of those structures, as it closed by the time we reached there. In the small research that I did on this monastery, I learned that its known as the 'Ajanta of the Himalayas' because of the vast collection of paintings, scriptures and statues inside. Its a great learning centre. Overlooking the monastery are caves carved out of mountains, where the monks used to stay. The weird mud like structures makes this entirely different in design to all other Buddhist monasteries.

the entry to Tabo monastery

Merry go round

the mud structures inside Tabo monastery

olden times...locked up in memory

the caves in the opposite hill where the monks used to stay

Tabo

pretty looking windows inside Tabo

Dinner time was a disaster as we decided to try Spitian cuisine. The blandness of the food(the complex name of which I forgot) turned us off bigtime. We didn't have the heart to try out the other varieties. The night at the guest house, at the foot of a hill was a nightmare, one of our own creation. Around 12 AM, a big rumbling sound was heard and we two imagined it to be the wrath of the mountains, the landslides. We were preparing ourselves to be buried. Still we went outside to check what exactly it was. In the dark, we realised its not a landslide because it was coming from the next building. But that only increased our fear as we spent the night in terror. In the morning, we realised that the sound came from the hotel's kitchen, the sound of some stupid machine!

Day 9-Aug 15- One of the best days of our lives..

As we had another long trip to do today, we started early at 6. We had to reach Kalpa in Kinnaur district before nightfall through a road which was closed for most part of the last week owing to landslides. The first 2 hours went smoothly and we went past Sumdo checkpost. Thats when we came face to face with a big landslide. A big mountain of stones and rocks had come down on the road, perhaps some minutes back. We had no other way but to return back to the Sumdo checkpost and wait for it to be cleared. Sumdo is almost nearer to the Indo-chinese/Tibetan border and is the last inhabited village in the border.

map of the Indo-Tibetan/chinese border...Sumdo at the edge..

Opposite to the checkpost was a base of the Indo-Tibetan border police force(ITBP), a paramilitary force deployed on India's borders with Tibet. We saw the Indian tricolour fluttering inside the base. As the day progressed, we realised the wait for the road to clear up will be a long one because it being as well as Independence day, the men who are supposed to operate the bulldozers were on leave. A soldier from the ITBP distributed us sweets from the temple inside the base. We saw another soldier waiting at the gates with his big bags. He was waiting to go home after a long time. The landslide meant that his long awaited holidays will be delayed by many hours. The sun was at its peak and we thought of going back to Tabo. But something made us stay back, maybe a faint hope that the road might clear up any minute. A biker gang also joined us in the long wait. After sometime, the soldiers from the base invited us inside to have lunch there. Stranded in that lonely place, under the hot sun, with no hope of the road clearing up, this sounded like a message from heaven. And to have lunch inside an Indian military camp on Independence day was a dream come true. They served us smilingly and offered us more and more. And in the end, they didn't even allow us to clean our plates as they grabbed it and did it themselves. The only sore thumbs were 2 foreigners from the biker gang who refused to join the lunch. As an officer there told, maybe they were feeling guilty for their forefather's wrongdoings. It was a proud feeling to see the Indian flag fluttering there in these remote place amidst mountains. I clicked the Tiranga with the officer's permission. This place is covered with snow for most part of the year. And it is in these conditions that these brave men guard us. And they still manage to smile at us and have fun among themselves. I wonder, why are we, sitting in comfortable chairs in this conditioned atmosphere cribbing round the clock! This was truely an eye opener. After 10 hours of spending time there, we realised we just had one of the best days of our lives...

the tricolour hoisted inside the Indo Tibetan Border Police force(ITBP) base at Sumdo

the cute Punjabi kid who was among the few who were stuck at Sumdo

clearing up the mess...the road almost cleared up..

The landslide was cleared by evening. Now, it was over to Manoj Bhai again as he sped along the dangeroues border roads and took us to Kalpa before nightfall. In between, we passed Nako village and monastery. But lack of time meant, we couldn't stop here. Special mention must be made of the Border Roads Organisation(BRO) who made roads in these difficult conditions and is maintaining it to the best of their abilities. Not only in Himalayas, they've built roads in all difficult terrains in the Indian borders...More from Kalpa and Sangla in the coming post...

your crusader Praveen

Himalayan Saga- VII

After the non stop action of 6 days, I woke up with a severe headache on Day 7. We set aside the day for a bit of relaxation. We only had to make the journey of 50km from Lossar to Kaza. We visited the gompa in Lossar before starting the journey. Long roads through plains and hills lay between us and Kaza. I have only one memory from the day's trip- the creatures which looked like half horse-half cow or half yak-half cow and having a horse's tail. Guess the cows, yaks and horses of this area are busy indulging in adultery of the worst kind.

the cute little girl whom we met at the cafe in Kaza

Raja made a good rapport with girl

the highest retail petrol outlet in the world

the monastery at kaza

Kaza, the headquarters of Spiti valley is in a better state compared to Lossar in that the power supply here comes on for one hour everyday, in the evening. We had to call home urgently considering our last call was 2 days back. The STD booths were all closed owing to a bandh. We spotted a BSNL office there and the gentleman allowed us to call home. He refused to accept the money that we offered. Yet another of those good hearted men that we met during this trip. Night time in Kaza was a flurry of activity as the market came alive with booths and cafes filling up with tourists. Kaza also has the world's highest retail petrol outlet.

Day 8. The day started with us retracing last day's path and deviating to the road leading to kibber village. Kibber is the second highest village in the world. Its densely populated with the houses made of stone having identical appearances. Owing to lack of time, we couldn't take a tour around the village, but we had made sure that we'll be back here once again. As you travel down from this village, you will reach the Ki monastery. It is an imposing structure that stands alone among the hills. It has a history of about 1000 years and is filled with old murals. Traditional Buddhist music was heard from a prayer hall inside, where we didn't have entry. We caught sight of rain falling on a hill far away.

Kibber village from far away...at the foot of the hills..

Kibber village

Kibber...upclose

the typical houses in Kibber village

a village woman calls out to her companion as they gets ready for the day's work in Kibber..

Ki monastery..

Ki monastery..up close

the entry to ki monastery

We passed Kaza and rode on to Dhankar monastery. The roads at many places were destroyed because of the floods. The river had changed its course at many places and submerged the old road. Dhankar proved to be the highlight of our monastery hopping spree. Sitting amidst a mud like formation, this majestic structure simply took us to another world. The road to the monastery looked dangerous and only precision driving will take you till the gates. Owing to the location and its age of almost 1200 years(which makes it one of the oldest monasteries in the world), Dhankar is facing the grave danger of getting destroyed if heavy rains happen. An initiative called 'Save Dhankar' was launched recently to save this wonderful monument. A friendly monk who was cracking jokes every other minute, took us around the monastery. It was sad to see them putting up for sale old instruments and plates, all to raise money to save Dhankar. There was a dark room up above, used for meditation. That ought to be one of the quietest rooms I've ever entered into in my life. There's a special chair used by the Dalai Lama in another of the rooms. Filled with old scriptures, original paintings and manuscripts dating back to a 1000 years, this place is a real treasure trove, if there ever was one. It almost feels like the roof of the world, dwarfing everything else in its vicinity. Just hope and pray that this amazing place will remain like this forever.

Dhankar monastery...seen from the road....monastery is at the left, on top of those mud formations

dhankar...up close

rain approaching...a heavy rain can mean the end of Dhankar

rise up..dhankar

dhankar..another view

the entry to dhankar

dhankar

Our stop for the day was Tabo, a small village famous for the monastery of the same name. More on that alongwith the news from day 9.

your crusader Praveen

Himalayan Saga-VI

We were back on the road again at 5 AM on Day 6 only to get disappointed by the slight drizzling that was going on. But, the presence of the spirited Manoj Bhai behind the wheels meant that we had nothing to fear. In this geography, even a slight rain can bring the whole hill down. Localites said that rains like what were seen this season were never seen in these regions. As we rode on, the drizzle morphed into a threatening rain. We were retracing our journey to Keylong, as we had to take the deviation to Spiti valley just below Rohtang Pass. It was nightmare all over again. Small and big streams were crossing the road at several points. At one point, we had a full fledged waterfall to cross. We prayed for dear life. Yet again, Manoj Bhai calmly maneouvered the qualis over the violent waters.

On the road to spiti...barren lands...and not a soul to be seen for kilometres. This is one of the few vehicles we saw on the road..

alone with nature...those who still haven't seen the man sitting alone, look to the left corner at the bottom...

Over the next 2 hours, we passed a number of big and small waterfalls, much more than we've seen in a lifetime. The Himalayas in the rain is a different ball game altogether. At one point, we had to cross a road half blocked by a freshly fallen big rock. One inch to the left and we would've been resting in a deep gorge. As the rain faded, we bid goodbye to Lahaul valley and entered spiti valley. The terrain began to change yet again. A more desert like appearance came into view. Mammoth mountains comprising of black sand were seen. The rugged look made it closer in appearance to Ladakh. Our next stop was Batal, a small place famous for camping. We walked into a hotel functioning inside a tent. Noodles, yet again. The only people in the whole place were us and few bikers.

smoke and ponder...Inside the tent in batal...

hairy dude

Later, we proceeded to Chandrataal lake, a kind of compensation for missing the trip to Pangong lake near Ladakh. The vehicle goes only till a point 4 kms away from the lake. Then its a pretty tiring trek of about 3-4 Kms through oxygen deficient atmosphere. It was slow progress as we gasped and panted our way forward through a path parallel to the chandra river, originating from the lake. Rain made our progress slower. The sight of the green lake was one to behold. Its easily the cleanest lake I've ever seen, mainly because very few tourists come here. The cloudy atmosphere was a dampener though. Still the leg dip in the lake felt like heaven.

chandrataal lake...

snow caps on barren mountains..

tricolour :D

river meandering through the plains..

rocky

We had to reach the next village before nightfall. The first hurdle was the kunzum pass. It is the gateway to spiti valley. The deep blue skies, one of the characteristics of this part of the world, and which was conspicuously absent all these days, made its appearance. The Kunzum Devi temple(durga devi) looked splendid against the sky. Only an old caretaker was there at the temple. There's a bowl in the temple, on top of which you can try sticking coins. If it sticks the first time itself, its said to bring good luck. Mine stuck only the second time around :P Now it was a downhill journey to Lossar village, yet another picturesque village nestled between the Himalayas. It is the only inhabited village that we've seen on our journey today.

the temple at kunzum pass

prayer flags

wild horses

a vehicle containing sacks which overturned into the river..

not an ad shot

What makes this village different is that there's been no power supply at this place for the last 35 days. And there's no phone too. Their dwindling food supplies depend on the traffic through Rohtang pass. Yet, the people were happy. I couldn't help but think about us all, who crib during those few hours of power cut here. We stayed in a small room just below a monastery. A stream was flowing next to our room. At night, I woke up with a dry throat and searched for water in the dark. I couldn't find anything. I spent the next 3 hours through a living nightmare before Raja woke up and searched out the bottle. By that time, I had almost died out of thirst, once even contemplating getting out in the dark and drinking from the stream. Thankfully, I lived on to wake up the next day... :)

your crusader Praveen

Himalayan Saga- V

I woke up with a start at 6 AM on Day 5 as Raja excitedly punched me and pointed outside the window. What I saw, took my breath away. The morning light was falling on the snow peaks alone, making it glow. Today's plan was to trek to Kardang gompa(monastery). Its a monastery facing the Keylong village and guards over it from the opposite hill. So, first we had to go down all the way from the first hill, cross the river and then begin the uphill journey. After losing way at first, we found ourselves in some beautiful fields cultivating green peas. We saw houses with cow dung pasted like cakes on the walls to dry.

the scene from the window of our guest house

The sky getting clearer

a snow mountain near Keylong

Blue..

Soon, we were on our way. A long flight of stairs took us downhill. The bridge was tied with Buddhist prayer flags, as is the tradition here. The path up was adorned with wild flowers. We were soon found gasping for breath, not because of the beauty of the flowers but because of the steep climb and lack of oxygen. The packs of chocolate that we stocked helped us out at this time. We saw the skull and bones of an unknown animal near a stream. We reached an agreement that its the skull of a goat. The climbing went on for more than 3 hours. And the funny part is, there's a road which can take your vehicle straight to the gates of the monastery. But, minus the excitement.

Livin' on the edge.

Its a long long journey

sheep grazing up the hills

a house made of stone, near Kardang gompa

a hoopoe..seen on the way up

a goat skeleton found on the way up

Kardang a 900 year old monastery. The old one was destroyed in rains in the 90s and then they rebuilt it. Its a simple one. We had to ring a bell for a monk to come and open the gompa for us. Thankfully, only four of us were there at that time and it was tranquil. We walked around the gompa turning the prayer wheels. They say turning the wheel gives the effect of reciting the mantra. So it helps if you dont know sanskrit. The view of Keylong village from top was splendid, though it was much below compared to where we were standing.

keylong town, as seen from Kardang gompa

Buddham Sharanam Gachhami

Prayer wheels..

the long winding road leading up to kardang monastery. we preferred walking straight up. we were dead tired by the end of it is another matter :D

a monastery 'on the rocks'...opposite to kardang

The trek down went faster through an easier route. We ran down through cabbage plantations and beautiful gardens. Our driver was waiting for us, half way down the road. The road back to Keylong was a long one spanning 20 Kms. We had a second sighting of the last petrol pump before Leh(almost 350 Kms away). Back at room and a good rest before the roadtrip resumes the next day!

your crusader Praveen