“I WANT TO MOTHER YOU!”—A SHORT STORY! -------PART THREE

Story So Far. Refer to Links:-
(a) http://rajee.sulekha.com/blog/post/2008/08/i-want-to-mother-you- a-short-story-part-one.htm
(b) http://rajee.sulekha.com/blog/post/2008/08/i-want-to-mother-you- a-short-story-part-two.htm

Rajneesh dialed a number on his mobile. It rang. A soft, sweet and a polite voice responded,”Yes, this is Professor Manik Lal Sanyal of department of History of-----“
“Professor, I know you and you know me. No need for introduction. I am No1/1 of ‘M U One’. I need you to check into your archives on Operation ‘GAME OF THE FOXES’.” Rajneesh was snappy.
“No1/1 of MU One? I guess you are aware of the University rules. We do not allow anyone access to our archives without proper identification. Shoot your twenty digits Personal identification Number, PIN for short”, Professor Sanyal was firm and polite.
“All right professor. It is “07091950002130092006”
“Wait, I will come back.” professor Sanyal had commanded.
Rajneesh knew the process will take some time before professor Sanyal contacted him. Rajneesh wondered about his own coded identity of NASH. It was unique. Rajneesh had known this PIN by heart. It was easy to remember but very difficult for the uninitiated to understand it. The PIN was given to every NASH employee who left NASH or who chose a second career. NASH officer cadre never retired but became inactive after the age of sixty five. Executives went out at the age of forty five if they couldn’t make it to officer cadre. In fact everyone had an option to leave after ten years active service. After initial induction, the officer cadre was selected from within the organization based on the performance. Every failure fetched negative points; no matter how genuine was the cause of failure. The scale of –ve points depended on the nature and type of operation. The highest classification was EXCLUSIVELY SENSITIVE. Such an assignment was always given to the most trusted and out-performing EXECUTIVES. It had to be a hundred percent success—it was always closely monitored by NASH Director, MUSK Head and the NSA.
Rajneesh had opted out from the organization, when he was MUSK HEAD, but he was CO of the MUSK UNIT No 1, when Operation ‘Game of the Foxes’ was launched. He had vaguely remembered NASH director telling James and his operational team of Charmer NO 1, along with the selected Executive, that the success of the operation would greatly reduce ISI’s mischief making capacity in India. The selected EXECUTIVE was exclusively briefed on oath by NASH director. No one knew his exact mission. It was said that it involved the elimination of a top under world Don of India who was on the pay roll of ISI.
But somehow the operation had failed miserably. Though Rajneesh had saved James but the axe had fallen on the EXECUTIVE. James was disappointed after this. He had insisted that it was not the fault of his EXECUTIVE but he was up against the stringent rules. Failure in an EXCLUSIVELY SENSITIVE operation invited the harshest punishment. In this case, it went beyond all norms. He was to be executed. James had reluctantly carried out the orders but he had sought relief from the organization after this. He was allowed to go after he did his MBA and was helped to get a job in a top notch MNC at Chennai. He had also got involved in some social organizations. Rajneesh had settled down in social work too. Both of them were actively in communication with each other. Rajneesh was always on call to NASH as a consultant to MUSK head. He began to think about his association of 30 years with James.
He began wondering as to who could be behind orchestrated accident of PS James. Time and again, his ears were being blasted by the surprised words of James,”Oh, sir! It is the same old Game of The Foxes”. Why did James make this statement? The operation was aborted after orders had been given for the execution of the FOX. He was supposedly executed by the CHARMER directly working under James. It was confirmed by James. Thereafter he had left the organization. While he was wondering like this, his mobile rang and professor Sanyal was on the line.
Rajneesh answered, ”Yes, professor. Could you get something?”
“You answer first, ‘Shouldn't NIGHT be the DAY when it is EVENING? If so, what would you call the Morning?” Professor Sanyal shot a question.
Rajneesh was aware of this Challenging procedure of NASH to establish the real identity of the person trying to establish contact. The questions of ‘Identity Challenging Procedure’ were always baffling with red herrings. An ordinary recipient would be straight away confused. He took out his electronic diary. He looked at the answer to this question No 24. He shot back to the professor, “Part of the Day”.
“Repeat”, came professor’s voice.
“Part of the Day”, Rajneesh repeated.
“Did you say ‘Day’?” Professor was confirming.
“No, I said,’ PART OF THE DAY” Rajneesh corrected.
“Right, Rajneesh! You will be on the tour of the History of ‘Operation Game of the Foxes’. I caution you will be entering the most top secret corridor of information of a very very secret organization, which is officially non existent. You will have to guard it at all costs, even at the cost to your life. In case you want to withdraw even now, you are welcome” Professor Sanyal was warning.
“All right—No problem, professor, I will keep it to me, even if I have to lay down my life” Rajneesh assured.
“Right, your name is being registered as the recipient of this information. This should not be leaked at any cost. In case it does, you will meet your end like PS James.” Professor Sanyal had dropped a bombshell.
“What, what, What?” Rajneesh was fully shocked.
“ He had filed an affidavit in the Chennai High Court giving out certain details of the case, where he was being tried for the murder of HASHIM ALI on the suit filed by POACHERS ( People’s organization Against Civil and Human rights Embellishments by Repressive State).The POACHERS had filed the case on behalf of Hashim Ali’s parents. He had created a stir by telling the judge that Hashim Ali was not killed but still alive. He had blamed NASH for his disappearance. The judge’s PA was on our pay roll. We acted before he could further reveal anything. In fact, he would have almost exposed our most successful man in a Foreign Intelligence Agency. Rest of the details you can read in the document forwarded to you on your NASH e-Mail ID.” Professor Sanyal further disclosed.
“Wait, professor! Do you mean to say Hashim Ali is still alive? Then, what was the Game of the Foxes all about? ” Rajneesh became curious.
“You better read. You know nothing about Game of the Foxes. What you know is the cover story. It was planned that way. FOX was to fail by design by tipping off the foreign agency in advance. It was to establish FOX ‘s credibility with that agency.” Professor replied.
“But professor, orders for his execution and its accomplishment by Charmer One. What was that?” Rajneesh was perturbed.
“His Pakistani brother-in-law, Sabeena’s husband, became the victim of ‘Charmer One’ and he accordingly gave its confirmation of FOX’s execution. The foreign agency thinking of threat to his life moved HASHIM and his sister-in-law to Pakistan. Hashim’s wife Sakeena came to India as an alleged agent of the agency but worked for us. She was running that Sheela Devi trust in Chennai” Professor again surprised Rajneesh.
“And who was the poor victim who died in Hashim’s flat on 22 July 2003?” Rajneesh waited for another surprise
“It was your ‘Charmer One’ and his family knocked out by ISI as a revenge for Sabeena’s husband.” Professor was categorical.
“So, whole operation was designed that way. I need not read your document now or Do I?” Rajneesh was utterly shocked at such a crass ignorance even as a very high official in the organization.
“You better, Rajneesh. There is a lot in there for you to know. We have information that Sabeena’s husband’s elder brother’s daughter and her son are on your trail to seek revenge on you.” Professor had disclosed.
‘‘Sabeena’s husband’s elder brother’s daughter? How old is she?” Rajneesh was suddenly curious.
“Around thirty three or thirty four. She works for ISI. She has been spotted in Chennai.” Professor informed.
“Did she stay with Sakeena? Did Sakeena know about her?”Rajneesh questioned
“No, Sakeena alias Sheela did not know her. Her name is FATIMA. But it seems she had spoken to Sakeena on the phone three or four times and expressed her desire to meet her. Sakeena had kept this as a secret from the organization. We do suspect she might have visited her once or twice. You will find her snap in the document” Professor was giving out information.
“Thank you, professor. I am grateful.” Rajneesh said and cut off.
“So, it was Fatima, who had been sledging me on the blogs” Rajneesh thought. “It was Sakeena who was killed in that flat in Chennai by Fatima”, he began to analyse the situation. He was deeply depressed over the loss of James. But why did the organization do so? Why didn’t it fight this false case of murder against him, if it knew Hashim Ali was alive? What was that article on Sex Scandal in Chennai, linking James with all this non sense? What was his relationship with Sakeena? There was something fishy about Sakeena and her activities. What happened to Sabeena? Was all this a part of the operation? Where is Hashim Ali? Is he still alive? Who all will become victim of this game? He was totally confused.
While he was thinking of all this, suddenly a question came to his mind, “Am I myself safe? Oh, my God! I am also a dispensable commodity. I might be the next sacrificial goat to divert Sabeena’s son’s attention from the real killer of his father.” Rajneesh was getting disturbed and nervous. Then another thought sprang up in his mind, “Was this case of murder by the POACHERS on James a planted case by NASH? Yes, why not? Is he the next one to be roped in” This thought sent a shiver down his spine. He cursed himself for having volunteered out of the army to join this damn organization. “I WAS RIGHT: ONCE YOU ARE IN THE BUSINESS OF KILLING YOU ARE NEVER OUT OF IT” he reminded himself on his own oft stated quote. He began to look for a way out. He was not keen to read the document sent by Professor Sanyal. But he opened up his lap top. Logged on to the net and went straight to his NASH Mail. The document was there. He saw Fatima‘s photo. He could recognize her. She was the same lady who had met her the other day in Sangeetha’s Fast food joint in Chennai. He saw some other snaps of James, Hashim Ali and some others he did not recognize. Names were there but it meant nothing to him. He saw the report with a big caution. He started reading it:
EXCEPTIONALLY TOP SECRET
(One page only)
Caution: Information provided here is exclusively for your eyes only. Any leakage will be traced to you and you will be accordingly dealt with. Read on.
AFTER ACTION REPORT ON OPERAION ‘GAME OF THE FOXES’
“Operation ‘Game of the Foxes’ was aimed at infiltrating a mole in the intelligence agency of a hostile neighbor who had been creating deep troubles in India by inciting communal passions. The operation was planned in three phases. Phase One was an elaborate plan to knock out a top underworld don working for ISI. This task was given to a man called FOX. Phase Two was to tip off the ISI on the plan and gain their confidence. This too, was the job of FOX to win over the confidence of intelligence agency. Phase Three involved elimination of the primary actors of Phase One and Two spread over four to five years to establish the credibility of FOX. These targets were never disclosed by the Director of NASH. Phase one and two were successfully completed by May2003. They say killing of Charmer one and his family was concurrent with the launching of Phase Three. It was not called off as yet. ------------------------------------------“
Rajneesh did not have to read further. Having in the organization for 15 years, he knew what was happening. Phase Three was still on and Hashim Ali was somewhere in Pakistan and calling on the shots. But why did he go against James? Did James know his new role? He again began to search for the clues in report sent by Sanyal.
“FOX was taken to Pakistan by ISI. He revealed a number of RAW operatives in Pakistan but not the NASH. They were all arrested and tortured. Some of them died and some were facing court cases for spying. Some had been sentenced to die by the courts. It was a major success of ISI at home. He became an instant hero. To further establish his credibility, he secretly married Sabeena without Sakeena’s knowledge and approval, but with the tacit understanding of NASH director. He also applied and obtained Pakistani nationality with ISI clout.
In the mean while, his wife Sakeena moved to India as a widow. NASH had financially helped her. But she was also recruited by the ISI. She settled in Chennai as Sheela Devi. One day she came across James in Chennai. As an obligation to her supposedly late husband, James helped her set up a trust which became famous as a SHEELA DEVI POOR WOMEN’s WELFARE TRUST. She used James to send money to Hashim’s parents at Madurai.
Sometimes, in January 2008, Fatima established contacts with her. Through her she came to know of her husband’s second marriage to Sabeena. This had upset her. She told James about Hashim being alive and married to Sabeena. This brought them close. Fatima knew this and she exploited her. At the same time, Fatima informed Hashim Ali on Sakeena’s relationship with James. Hashim Ali alerted ISI on James past. Thus Fatima was asked to eliminate her. In the mean while NASH director was tipped of by Hashim Ali on the likely fall out of all this.’ Nash’ agents approached Hashim’s parents and POACHERS to fix James in a murder case. When this case was filed in May 2008, James approached NASH director and told him that he had known the real truth on HASHIM ALI and he would expose this if the case was not withdrawn. --------------------------------------------“
Rajneesh did not want to read further. He knew there will be all lies now. NASH will justify all killings. “Who next?” he thought. He decided to vacate his house next day and told his wife to go to her ancestral place at Karnal in Haryana. He slept that night. He slept like a dead log because he did not get up till a police inspector woke them up at 11 O’clock next morning. The police inspector was accompanied a police party from New Delhi. When his wife told him that Police had come to talk to him, he wondered on the efficiency of Chennai police but he was in for a shock when told of Delhi police. “Why Delhi police”, he asked himself. But inspector Desh Raj of Delhi police set the ball rolling by asking the question, “Sir, do you know Professor ML Sanyal of Delhi?”
“Of course, What about him” Rajneesh replied.
“We want to talk about him. He is NO MORE-- Killed by some motorbike riders. 20 bullets were pumped into his body when he was walking on the pavement near his house in Lodi Garden.” Inspector Desh Raj broke the sad news.
“What? But why?” he knew the question was useless. How could they answer him? But why did they come to him?
“Sir, we do not know. We are just investigating. We checked calls on his mobile. We found he made a last call to you yesterday and it was unusually a long call” Inspector Desh Raj revealed.
“Yes, we talked---well, it was purely a private matter” Rajneesh tried to wave them away.
“Sir, how did you know him?” Desh raj asked a clever question.
“Well! We were just friends.” Rajneesh was circumventing.
“You must be very good friends to have talked for 45 minutes on a very very private matter, Sir?” Inspector Desh Raj chided.
“What do you mean?” Rajneesh queried.
“In that case, I have arrest warrants for you and you will have to accompany us to New Delhi. We suspect you are involved in his murder” Desh Raj had given his authoritative command.
Before Rajneesh could say anything he was pulled out of the house and put into the waiting police van. His wife did not know what happened. It was all done suddenly and the van disappeared. Rajneesh was reminded of the days he had the authority. These inspectors were too small a fry but they were the officers in charge. They had a job to do. They had headed straight for Delhi.
Mrs. Rajneesh rang up everywhere but no one knew where Rajneesh was? Chandigarh police had raised its hands. She read a news item in the Tribune the next day. It read:
“A senior retired army officer was arrested by Delhi police yesterday from his house in Industrial Area Phase2, Chandigarh. Officer was suspected to be involved in the alleged murder of a renowned professor of history of Delhi University. The professor was killed by motorbike riding gunmen while taking a walk near his house. It is said the professor had last talked to this retired army officer for 45 minutes. The police has been provided the relevant details by the mobile telephone company.
It has also been learnt from reliable sources that the officer was also involved in flesh trade and espionage in Chennai. Earlier his friend in Chennai, an ex army officer, was killed by some unknown persons. This officer ran flesh trade business through him. It is learnt on the day of the death of his friend in Chennai, he was seen in a Chennai restaurant with a female in Nungambakkam area. Chennai police is also looking for him. The female is supposed to be the kingpin of espionage network in India. She had a hand in the killing of a social worker, Mrs. Sheela Devi of Chennai—a renowned socialite of Chennai. ----------“

There was no news of Rajneesh for the next 15 days. Mrs. Rajneesh had learnt through her sympathizers in the NASH that Rajneesh was taken to Chennai for some investigations. She was told that NASH was providing all possible help to get him acquitted. Then in the evening Mrs. Tara Sharma, Col Vinod Sharma’s wife, came to her house with her husband. They were the neighbors. They looked very grim and serious. Mrs. Tara Sharma asked her to watch AAJ TAK News Channel, which was breaking some news on CHENNAI SEX and ESPIONAGE SCANDAL. TV was switched on. Rightly the Chennai correspondent was giving description of the scandal. Suddenly, Mr. Asish Chaudhary, the news anchor of the story remarked, “------------And the king pin of this racket of espionage and sex scandal, Mr. Rajneesh Singh, an ex Colonel of Indian army, committed suicide by jumping in front of the train this afternoon, while being taken to the court by Chennai police for double murder charges-----------------------.”
There was stunned silence in the room and Mrs. Rajneesh fainted. TV channel was showing flashes of the dead body but no one was watching anymore. No one was even caring for the boasts of the AAJ TAK anchor that these photos were being exclusively shown on their channel alone. They had sensational news and they were breaking it. World will never know the truth.----the real truth.
Read more...

"KASHMIR--CURSE AND CURE OF ITS HISTORY"--EXCERPTS FROM SECTION ONE OF MY BOOK

Dear Readers,
I am posting SECTION 3 of Chapter1 of my book "KASHMIR--FOOTNOTES FROM HISTORY--Its CURSE AND CURE" to give you an insight into the minds of ORDINARY KASHMIRI outside the precincts of SRINAGAR. Read it , If there is a demand--I might post the entire book as a serialised blogs. It is stuck up with the Publishers for deletion of certain portions in Section THIRTEEN. I will post it later. The book is slightly different as it is based on a HISTORICAL IRONY which suggests that KASHMIR has undergone the domination of a religion every 780-800 years of its known history. They are called GRAND CYCLES of HISTORY. Each Grand Cycle is divided into three SUB CYCLES of 260-270 years. First one is ESTABLISHMENT & PATRONISATION by RULERS; Second one is CONSOLIDATION, PROGRESS & PROSPERITY; Third one is of DECAY & DEGENERATION. Currently, KASHMIR is in its FIFTH known GRAND CYCLE of history. It is of ISLAM DOMINATION. This grand cycle started in 1342 AD and its GOLDEN PERIOD of two sub cycles ended in 1820 AD--when MAHARAJA RANJIT annexed it from AFGHANS. Ever since its DECAY & DEGENERATION started and it will end by the END of 21st Century when SIXTH grand Cycle will begin. It is only then the normalacy will return. For full information on this you can read my SYNOPSIS of the book posted at the LINK:

http://rajee.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/04/kashmir-a-curse-and-cure-of-its-history.htm

Here I am posting only SECTION 3 of the book--It has 15 sections from history to dispute to theory of grand cycles and contours of Interim solution. If the response is Ok --I might post the entire book in blogs only.
Read on SECTION 3:-
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“AZADI”! A MATTER OF BASIC HUMAN NEEDS- HUNGER,



SHELTER AND CLOTHING!



The month of March 1998 covered India with a dense fog of political instability. The results of general elections in the country created strange bed-fellows. Rank opportunists joined hands to make a concerted bid to grab political power. Political ideologies were thrown to the winds and politicians of all hue and cries threw their masks and revealed their true faces. And nation witnessed, with utmost astonishment, that all of them were dyed in one colour – only one colour – that was the colour of political power. All of them rallied under two separate banners i.e. one, donned the colours of ‘Secularism’, the other of ‘Cultural Nationalism’. ‘The Secularists’ accused others as ‘Communalists’. The exponents of ‘Cultural Nationalism’ branded their opponents as ‘Pseudo – Seculars’. While one saw virtues in corruption, the others sang swan-songs in honour of regional satraps. Power, the political power, was the end game of politicians, while teeming millions; some say 400 millions’, from city – slums to remote villages; from railway tracks to Metro–pavements; from industry labourers to construction workers, all cried aloud for ‘Food, Shelter and Clothing’. But all their cries were drowned in the din and noise of the clichéd slogans of the politicians.
Witness some of these substitutes for ‘Food, shelter and clothing’ on offer by these political masters! One thundered unashamedly, “Communalism is more dangerous; corruption is not” and beat his chest repeatedly while adjusting and re-adjusting his ‘Gandhi-cap’ to hide his greyed hair. I wondered why there were no floods the same night at ‘Raj Ghat’ in New Delhi, because ‘Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi’ would have definitely cried the whole day in his tomb.
Watch the other one, who said, “These pseudo – secularists have plundered the nation over the last fifty years and they have fooled the masses. Corruption in high places is the biggest road block in our march towards progress and development.” I waited a whole fortnight to hear the sounds of gunfire from Chennai (Tamil Nadu) and Himachal Pradesh. (Remember Jai Lalita’s and Sukh Ram’s alleged corruption cases!) I was certain some people there would definitely face firing squads.
But, Lo! The reverse had happened. The people, one had expected to be in the line of firing squads, had actually taken the role of a firing squad. And the poetical mask of the hero of ‘Nehru’s prophecy’ in early fifties was off! Then again, though Jawahar Lal Nehru would have fretted and fumed with fire in his eyes in his peaceful abode at ‘Shanti van’ but his ‘Van’ (Jungle) was not on fire, as no one requisitioned the fire brigade when the lady from Chennai threw her weight behind the prophet of ‘Hate-Corrupt-Campaign’. This makes one feel that clichéd slogan of ‘food, shelter and clothing’ for every one is essentially a self-driven aphorism of our wily ruling class? And yet, violence-torn; poverty-stricken and corruption-tormented millions in this country look towards morally-bankrupt, ethically-deficient and scruples-lacking political leaders to do wonders for them.
And the people of the Kashmir valley, the poorest of the poor Indians, are no exception. Any one who sold them the dreams of ‘Food, shelter and clothing’ down the ages, they tagged along with him. If it was Sheikh Abdulla’s National Conference in Forties, they threw their lot with him. But while he and his ‘National – Conference –people’ became rich, the people became poorer. Then came ‘Bakshi’, ‘Sadiq’ and host of others. But no one did anything to change their lot. Frustrated and disappointed, they looked west and in came ‘Zia Ul Haq’s ‘Gillanis’, ‘Butts’, ‘Lones’ and ‘Maliks’ with hopes of a better life. And, so became ‘Zaved Mirs’, ‘Yasin Maliks’, and ‘Salaludins’, ‘Majid Dars’ the instant heroes of Kashmiris. Ten to 12 years, the people waited for them to deliver. They could see only Yaseen Malik’s trust of Rs one Crore or more’ or Amanulla Khan’s bludgeoning accounts in London. They watched ‘Gillanis’, ‘Lones’ and ‘Butts’ doing tango at the behest of ‘Zia-ul-Haq’s political descendants. Where were those promised basic amenities –the food, shelter and the clothing?
In the year 1998, they were as elusive as in the year 1342 AD or the year 530 AD or in the year 250 BC or in the year 1100 BC- when Lord Krishna, the great Aryan strategist of MAHABHARTA fame, beheaded Gonanda I, who was the ruling Naga king of the land (modern Kashmir) inhabited by the descendants of Neela Nag. I do not say this. Their history, as I read and as I was prompted and exhorted by Kalmuddin on March 14, 1998, to minutely understand it, speaks for them.
I repeat what Kalmuddin said to me on March 14, 1998, “Facts speak and I do not”. It was unique day in the Indian History too. This was the day when Sonia Gandhi ousted Sita Ram Kesari as Congress President and AIADMK supremo from Chennai had given her support to Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. This was the day, when lesser mortals like Kalmuddin and me met on the snow-covered heights of Shamshabari Range. And I wonder, if this was the day Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee realized the crown he picked up from the dusty lands of Indian Politics was studded with thorns and nails of his NDA (National Democratic Alliance) barbs. Perhaps one day, poet in him, will spill out the beans. This is my poetic hunch. I may not be right. And I never claim righteousness my forte alone. But I have a story to tell of my friend Kalmuddin’s sense of history. I must get on with it.

14 March 1998! The day was as bright as it could be on those snow-covered mountains of Shamshabari range. There was 12 to 15 feet of snow all around. We walked through those tunneled pathways, panting and grasping for breath, hoping for the summer to come soon. You see, in these snow-bound areas, life in winters is miserable. Hold on! I am not talking about Siachen Glacier, where I had been in 1986-87 winters. I do not know, at this stage, if I would be able to narrate those experiences. It is suffice to know it was a bit better here.

It must have been around 11 AM on 14 March 1998, when my Personal Assistant (PA), in–walked with the name of a civilian, who wanted to meet me. I was not keen to meet anyone till he said, “He is Kalmuddin from Kachhama”. “Oh!” I said, “Send him in”. After a few seconds, the frail and fragile structure of a shabby looking Kashmiri walked into my office. I looked at him. He looked at me. It was an instant chemistry. Perhaps an immediate connection had been established. But at that precise moment I was arrogance personified.

“Suna phir Kalmu! Aj kidhar ghum raha hai? Islamabad wale aj ki kar rahe ne Hindustan Vich? Phir kadon hat raha hai teri twarikh da parda? (Hullo, kalmuddin! where are you loafing around? what brings the man from Islamabad (Pakistan’s Capital, the appellation for Kachhama!) to Hindustan? So, when is your history unveiling itself?)” I shot these questions at him with deliberate intent.

“Janab! Badde aadmi ho! Majakh kar sakde ho. Asin ki tuswan de samne? Je janab di mehar ho jaye tan kuchh roti- kapde da heela ho jaye. (Sir! you are a big man. You can make fun of us. We are a small fry in front of you. If your Lordship is kind enough to give us some employment, it will go a long way to meet our basic human needs of food and clothing”). Kalmuddin rebutted me most humbly and made a request in a most dignified manner as he could do. (Our conversation was always in a mix of Urdu and Punjabi, but for the purpose of the readers of this book, hereafter, I will give the English translated version).

I was shaken by his simple but dignified rejoinder to my unwanted barbs at him. This was the second time he had the better of me. Re-gaining my composure, I said to him, “Who is this other man with you?”

“Sir! He is Gul Peer. He is an excellent carpenter. He is very good in errecting wooden structures “. Kalmuddin had quickly responded.

“But, where is your Noor Ahmed Shah? Has he not come back”, I asked.

“Sir, he will come. Definitely, he will come to you. He is a politician and he is a very busy man these days”. Gul Peer had opened his mouth.

“Kalmuddin! What employment can I give you? I have no jobs. Why don’t you approach Civil Administration?” I tried to evade them.

“Sir, You alone can do it. Civil administration will not do it. If they could do it why should there be unrest in Kashmir?” Kalmuddin was very emphatic.

“But Kalmu, my friend, I am not an employment agency. Why don’t you understand this?” I showed my helplessness.

“Sir, you are God. Keep us as porters or whatever you think. But if you want, sky is the limit”, he flattered me.

“When you want to exploit human ego”, they say, “Go and praise the man who can serve your purpose”. I knew Kalmuddin was doing exactly the same. I only wondered if Kalmuddin and his companion, Gul Peer, were convinced that I would fall prey to their flattery! In my life, I have always hated sycophancy. In fact it puts me off to the point of hatred. I detest it so much that I develop an instant despise for its practitioner. This is my failing and this is my biggest weakness. I often show it instantly whoever its practitioner might be. I, therefore, reacted very characteristically, “Listen Kalmuddin, first of all I am not god nor do I recognize religious gods what other people believe in. No, I am not talking about a Hindu God, Islamic God or whatever other kinds of Gods people talk about. I feel if there were some ‘Supreme – Being’, he ought not to be divided as a piece of cake amongst various known religions. He is ‘One’ and ‘the only One’ – who rules the world. It is the lesser mortals like us who slice him into pieces and make our own pieces of cake with icing as per our tastes.”

“We know it, Sir. You are the person who understands the true definition of ‘God’. Why do you think we are here? It is a matter of food, shelter and clothing for us. We are illiterate and we only understand that ‘God’ who can provide us all this”. Gul Peer had tried to soften me.

“But Gul”, I said, “I am not God, the way you people are demanding things out of me. I can not fulfill.”

“Yes! You cannot. When did we say you can? But it is people like you, who have to take a rationale view of our psyche; Kashmir and Kashmiris need a ‘Kashyap’. Can you be the one, Sir?” Gul Peer threw a red – herring.

“Kashyap was the one who rid this valley of Jallodhva-an ancient terrorist. Kashyap was a great sage of ancient times. To rid this valley of Jallodhva’s tyranny he worshipped for one thousand years”, Kalamuddin was elaborating.

I was now on unknown grounds. I was being sucked into an argument, I knew nothing about it. History has never been my forte. Here was a man quoting from history to make me realize how uncomfortable I was. But I did not give in and said, “Gul! Do not bully me with your knowledge. Give me time and I will know all about this. But what has history got to do with our present problem?”

“It stems from history.” Kalmuddin was curt and crisp.

“And what is it?” I made this mistake of asking him.

“Food, shelter and clothing”, he was quick.

“Back to square one? Where does it take us”, I said?

“What is being requested to your honour is to consider our case sympathetically.” Gul Peer announced.

“Alright, If I do find a job for you, what would you like to do, besides lecturing me on history”, I teased.

“If it happens, sir, our faith in real Allah! (God) will deepen. We will not look towards ‘man-made-Gods’ to seek solace”, Gul Peer stunned me.

“What? What? What did you say? What do you mean by ‘Man –Made- Gods”, I stammered?

“Our religious icons–who thrive on our general frustration! In the name of God and Freedom – who preach blood- shed”, Gul Peer made it so simple.

“Why only Kashmir? This is applicable in all parts of India, Perhaps the whole world. For ever, man lives in eternal ‘Ghettos-of-Mind’. His fear and frustration keep him constantly imprisoned into the four walls of a religion he acquires at the time of his birth. He can never break free of it. The label of birth becomes his identity”, I spontaneously said, astonished by my own words.

“You are right, Sir! It is our birth label, which we constantly identify and display but do not follow its principles. No religion tells you to rape women; kill other and hurt people. No religion asks you to hate others. Who was that famous Urdu poet, who said, “--------Religion does not teach you to sustain mutual animosity------- so on and so forth”, Kalmuddin said. “Oh! Yea. Doctor, Sir Iqbal Mohammed”, I said.

“You know Sir! His ancestors were Khoja Hindus of North Kashmir”, it was Gul Peer who surprised me.

“What? Doctor Iqbal Mohammed owed his ancestry to Kashmir? And he talked of India? What did he say, ‘----------Hindi we are and our nation is Hindustan-------”, I asked.

“Yes Sir! “Gul Peer affirmed.

It was almost 1230 AM. Our conversation was getting stretched. All the same, I was, by now, impressed with them. I mentally decided to employ them as porters. But I wanted to first check if they were really genuine. Therefore I had to break-off my dialogue with them for the day.

“All right. Kalmuddin, come over in a week’s time, I will do something for you”, I said.

“You are our only hope. Sir, you must give us a job”, Kalmuddin insisted.

“Ok! I will do something”, I dismissed them.

After the two-some left my office, I began to ponder if Kashmir – imbroglio was only a matter of food, shelter and clothing! It could not be. There was something more to it. What did Sigmund Freud say while laying the foundation of the theory of Psychoanalysis? He had said that man was in eternal conflict because of the clash in his mind of three elements i.e. Id (Innate desires), super Ego (Social censor) and external factors (worldly realities). I wondered, then, if social systems or even political systems too, were governed by the same principle. Much water has flown into Jhelum since Sigmund Freud first pronounced his theory in 1920.

But a question kept begging my mind. I asked myself, “How does one analyse Kashmir issue”. It gave rise to two more questions i.e. “What lies at core of the problem” and “Where does it begin”. Whenever I cobbled up an answer to one question, a few more questions sprang up. It was a series of these questions, which impelled me to go to the roots. Sure, I had to know the history of Kashmir from the ancient times to–date, to really understand the modern crisis. As Sigmund Freud explained and as Thomas Harrison reveals in his book, “I am ok, you are ok”, the behaviour and a conduct of a man is dictated by the impressions gained in the infantile years. And I am inclined to believe, as societies and polities are human driven, though collectively, yet the same principle must be applicable to them too. Each society and a polity must have its Id (instinctual desires), which are controlled by its super ego (National and political restrictions) and interacted upon by external factors (Geographic, regional, lingual and religious realities). Repression of Id during the infantile years by super Ego causes phobias and phobias when interact with worldly realities (external factor), it gives rise to personal prejudices which explains what seems to be irrational conduct of individuals, groups, communities, societies and political systems. Therefore the problem lies in the formative years. You can explain Indo-Pak relation with the help of this theory of Sigmund Freud. And in the case of Kashmir, I identify it with its early history as known to us.

It was this thought process, which made me critically examine the history of Kashmir and evaluate its present dilemma. Kalmuddin and Gul Peer were to provide initial insight into their history.
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IN MY TIMES; IN THY LAND!

Grand Pa! Grand Pa!! Where are thou?
Dare ye answer my questions so?
What kind of freedom ye sought?
Against foreign rule, whence ye fought;
Was it to obtain freedom of expression?
Or to assume the right of suppression?
Did it envision a license to kill?
Or ye meant ‘corrupt at will’!
Were ‘law’ and ‘out law’ to move hand in hand?
So ye desired, for my times, in thy land!



‘Complete Independence’ was the slogan,
If ye remember the ‘Lahore’ resolution;
Freedom came in forty-seven,
Whence ye ensconced safely in heavens;
How could ye see houses uprooted?
Transmigration of humans mooted!
Men were slaughtered, children maimed,
Blood gushed through alleys and drains;
Women smothered, girls raped in dust and sand,
That’s the freedom of thy times for my land!



Grandson! Grandson!! I hear thee lad,
Our dream was noble, some acts went mad;
Freedom we longed of a different kind;
Issues ye raise never crossed the mind;
Yes! We strived for freedom of expression-
Free of regional and communal passions;
‘Self -rule’ with dignity what we wanted,
‘Chaos’ and ‘disorder’ were not to be granted;
‘Freedom’ sought equality in all our schemes,
‘Religion’ and ‘regions’ were excluded themes.



Grand Pa! Grand Pa!! What thou raved?
A kind of obsession harbors each slave;
‘Freedom’ ye wept; ‘Freedom’ ye screamed!
Did thou know what real ‘Freedom’ means?
‘Foreign-rule-hate’ was the only one bond-
Tied ye till ‘independence’, not beyond;
Emotionally blinded, ye had no other vision,
‘Self-Rule-thought’ was a myopic mission;
Yes! A slave only longs to be free of chains,
Concern of the future is seldom entertained.



Thy idealistic logic of a secular polity -
An alien thought, was devoid of reality!
Fractured into regions, cut by religious lanes,
How could ‘Secularism’ mould it into one frame?
Self -interests emerged when freedom came,
Regional virus spread like forest flame;
Religious gulf widened, Language obfuscating,
‘Self-Rule-dream’ soon turned frustrating;
Each group promoted its selfish brand,
'Freedom’ so hailed for my times in thy land!



Grand Son! Grandson!! Thou forget thee history-
‘Tyranny’ and ‘infighting’ led to doom our ancestry;
‘Slaves?’ thou said, ‘yes, we were slaves’-
Of foreign intrigues, not mindless craze;
Thou are slaves of money and vicious thinking,
Thy mind is decaying, thy acts are stinking;
We laid down lives to make ye people free,
Ye kill thy brethren on a selfish plea;
Marriage have become thy money-spinning fads,
Evil rules the roost in thy times in my land.


Grand Pa! Grand pa!! I respect thee emotions,
But, surely, we differ on various notions;
Boast ye may of self-less ideals,
We promote our self with utmost zeal;
Ye dreamt of India as one big frame,
We segmented it as lingual grains;
Thy endless jail-sojourns sought no rewards-
‘Pass port’ they became to make us over-lords;
‘Selfless-sacrifices’ placed power in the hands-
Of self-serving families, of thy times in my land.



Freedom ye conceived of an utopian kind;
What we practice is freedom of mind;
Mind is free to think and perceive;
Whatever one deems, as one believes;
Thou shackled thyself in peaceful processions,
Our ‘Freedom’ hates such impotent obsessions;
Policemen are free to poke ‘under-trials’ eyes,
Crime in politics is a budding enterprise;
‘Free-for-all’ is the symphony of our cultural band,
‘Unshackled Freedom’ reigns my times in thy land.



Grandson! Grandson!! Hold thy tongue;
Such clumsy thoughts do make me dumb;
We won the freedom; ye enjoy its fruits,
What freedom we desired, ye corrupted its roots;
We renounced riches for freedom sake,
Thy passion is money, rest every -thing fake;
We steered the boat out of a stormy sea;
Ye are drilling holes on self -seeking plea;
Time ye stop running foreigner’s errand!
Lest India balkanize like ‘Soviet Land’.


Grand pa! Grand pa!! Ye do make a point,
Do ideals and ethics in our context count?
Yes! ‘Rama’ and ‘Krishna’ glorify television,
But their central diktat is no one’s mission,
Deadly wars followed, when women sacrileged
‘Sita’ by ‘Ravana’;‘Draupadi’ by ‘Kaurava-breed’.
Behold! Today no conscience is pricked,
If a girl fed to flames like a wooden-stick;
Shameful! Our culture has turned so bland,
What a freedom? For my times in thy land!



Right you are! Grand pa, you are right!!
Desensitized people deserve this plight;
Incest is common; mass rapes aplenty,
Being sister or daughter is just no warranty;
In temples and shrines no priests reside;
Butchers and sages together seek a hide;
‘Criminalized politics’ makes no one dazed,
For, money is ‘God’, as all other displaced;
Alas! Democracy runs on caste-creed brands!
Upturned morals rule my times, this mighty land!
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“I WANT TO MOTHER YOU!”—A SHORT STORY! -------PART TWO

Story So Far. Refer to Link:http://rajee.sulekha.com/blog/post/2008/08/i-want-to-mother-you-a-short-story-part-one.htm

As Rajneesh was sitting in the departure lounge of the domestic terminal of Chennai air port after the security check-in, the names of Hashim Ali, Madurai, Chennai, Dubai, Hafeez, Sakeena and the ‘Dubai Times’ report of 23 July 2003, were, time and again, springing up in his mind in a disconcerted manner. He was desperately trying to connect the wires and get a complete picture. It was only in July 2006, he had left that organization. James had left in May 2003. It was James who handled that Operation ‘Games of the Foxes’ before he left the organization. A guy by the name of Hashim Ali was codenamed ‘FOX’ in this Operation. He was working, as a cover, with an oil company. He directly reported to James till he left the organization in May 2003. They used to often meet in Chennai only. But , for some reasons, FOX had to be moved out of Dubai. He had bungled one of the operations, where he failed to execute the most wanted criminal of India, who was living in Dubai under an alias. Some suspected that FOX had tipped of the guy himself before he carried out the failed operation. Amidst reports in April 2002, that he was working for ISI of Pakistan and was double crossing Rajneesh’s outfit, he was ordered to be extricated and terminated. The CHARMER of FOX was given this task and it was confirmed by the CHARMER to James, who had protested this and after the incident he left in May 2003. Thereafter, Rajneesh had never bothered to know about the case. May be, he no more considered its necessity.

Rajneesh now wondered if he was the same ‘Hashim Ali’ who was codenamed ‘FOX’ by his former organization? “So what”, he thought? “Didn’t ‘FOX’ directly report to him for some time”, he counter questioned himself? But he had a nagging doubt because as for as he recollected HASHIM was not a PETROLEUM ENGINEER and nor did he belong to Madurai. He had been recruited from Chennai in 1998. Oh yea! Wasn’t it James who had recruited him? So, was James hiding something from him? Do the wires connect to Chennai? Is it the key? Why did James bundle him out in a hurry from Chennai? Suddenly then, there was announcement for the Mumbai-bound passengers to move from ‘Gate No-3 ‘for boarding their flight. Rajneesh reluctantly got up and gave a one final look towards the city of Chennai. And he was on his way to the waiting passenger ferrying bus.

Jet Airways flight to Mumbai took off exactly as per schedule. Rajneesh had settled down in his seat next to the window. He looked at the city below. The city of Chennai, spread over an area of 181 square Kms (70 sq miles), had a rich history about itself. It was established in the 17th Century by the British and in 350 years or so it had come up as a big urban centre in the South. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal on the Eastern Coast of peninsular India. Till, the IT boom came, it was the most happening city of South India and was rightly called “The gateway to South India”. However, over the last two decades, it had lost its position of pre-eminence to Bangalore. Even Hyderabad was threatening to relegate it further in order of importance but the fall of Chandra Prabhu Naidu government In Andhra Pradesh had restored the balance.

Its earlier name was Madras. In 1996, it was changed to Chennai. It is believed the name Madras had a Portuguese origin from the village of MADRASPATTINAM which was established by them around 16th century. This village was located North of the fort of St. George. The name of MADRAS was derived either from a village established by them by the name of Madre de Deus or from the Maderios family who had consecrated the ‘Madre de dues’ Church in Santhome in 1575 AD. The name Chennai had been derived from another village called CHENNAAPATTINAM, again located close to the fort of St. George. The British had named this village after they had acquired it in 1639 AD from the king of Chandigiri through his chieftain CHENAPPA NAYAKA. They named the village after him. While the British administration preferred to address the city as MADRAS, the local sentiments were with the name CHENNAI. This duality in its name was removed in 1996 when its name was changed in tunes with the local population.

Rajneesh realized Chennai was a vast city. It could easily hide in its womb anyone who wanted to lead a nondescript life like Sheela Devi, aka Sabeena alias Shanta. It had a large economic base ranging from automobile industry to health care to software and financial services. The Chennai City is the SECOND largest software exporter of India. It accounts for almost 11 percent of the income of Tamil Nadu. It had 30 percent of India’s automobile Industry and 35 percent of auto parts manufacturing Industry. It caters for 50 % of India’s Leather exports. The city had a literacy rate of 80 percent as against the national average of 64percent. The city acted as a magnet for employment seekers and they swarmed it, as daily transients of around five lakh people. It is not for nothing Chennai is also called “DETROIT OF SOUTH ASIA”.

Rajneesh once again surveyed the disappearing landscape of the city and was convinced that it could easily be a safe heaven for all those who wanted to establish sleeping modules for Al-Qaida, LTTE, SIMI , HM, LET and host of other ‘Violence Perpetrating Organizations’. Only thing the members of their module had to ensure was to lead a normal and decent life, seemingly, as law-abiding citizens. No one can suspect them. It had, of late, become a hub of recruitment centre and parking place of ‘silent agents’ by the intelligence agencies, both Indian and foreign. Rajneesh, too, had indulged in this exercise, when with NASH.

Even as head of one of the MUSK (Most Unique Serpent Killers) Units of NASH (National Agency for Secure Homeland), he had authorized operations to eliminate silent agents of TANO (Terrorist and Anti-National Organizations) operating from Chennai. Hardly anyone in India or outside knew of NASH and MUSK. Everyone thought all these intelligent games were played by RAW, which was merely an intelligence gathering arm of the government of India.

NASH was created after the assassination of Sh. Rajeev Gandhi, and MUSK was its sub-unit. Initially, it had got volunteers from Army and other paramilitary forces. Officers were all from the army. Rajneesh and James were from the same unit in the army. In fact Rajneesh was the commanding officer and James was a very senior company commander when they both came over to NASH. They were all trained as ruthless killers in the specially erected school at Indore—which later shifted to Belgaum in Karnataka. From 1995 onwards, they started direct recruitment, both officers and EXECUTIONERS. Everyone was specially picked, trained for three years. Till about 2000 AD married men could join the organization but later the rule changed and only bachelors were recruited both as officers and men. They were thoroughly regimented and brain washed to dispel all emotions and remain loyal to the nation. Their emotional disposition was almost negligible—they were the carbon copy of UNIVERSAL SODIERS of the movie by the same name. On the orders of their CHARMER (one who handled the executioner) they were to just do the task without any forethought. CHARMER is the designation of a person who handles and operates five EXECUTIONERS of the MUSK (MOST UNIQUE SERPANT KILLERS). Five such CHARMERS are under a BOSS. Ten BOSSES made a WING. Two wings, EXTERNAL and INTERNAL, made a MUSK unit. NASH had three MUSK Units. Rajneesh had commanded No 1 MUSK Unit and James was his deputy.

MUSK was the executing arm of NASH. It had a license to eliminate anyone who was considered operating against the interests of the country. Generally members of TANO were their targets. Its operations were EXCLUSIVELY TOP SECRET. The National Security Advisor (NSA) and only the Prime minister of India knew of its existence. The director of NASH reported directly to NSA. The permission for operations in the foreign land was given by NSA on approval from the Prime minister. However, the operations within the country were approved by the NASH Director but the permission was given by MUSK head. As a cover, it was part of the METEROLOGICAL department’s weather forecasting unit. No one could get the wind of its existence. The members of this organization were deeply motivated, die-hard Indians. They were required to execute even their own relatives if found indulging in anti-national activities.

Members were allowed to leave after 10 years service. After they left, they were helped to get top jobs in the civil career by the organization. However, they were life long members and could be re-mustered any time. They were on contract never to reveal anything to anyone. If found out they were to be quietly executed. The executive members of MUSK were not allowed to marry for ten years after recruitment. It was a ruthless force with its members as highly trained sharp shooters and One-shot-Killers (OSK). Each member had to pass this OSK test in a specific assignment by MUSK head. It was here in Chennai that Hashim Ali had passed this test in 1998, when he had eliminated his own uncle, Shiraj Ali, a South India head of ISI module. He was thereafter whisked away to Dubai as a silent MUSK member -in-wait for further assignments. He had belonged to Chennai. His family lived here. He frequently visited it and had his relevant contacts. Chennai was now on the mental screen of Rajneesh.

In 2008, economy of the town was booming after the software industry had made its mark in the world. A large crop of IT professionals had sprung up in the city. They were very very mobile people—coming and going, like the flashes on the digital camera screens, from all over the world. Thus, the silent agents could keep lying dormant here without detection. In 2001, out of the total population of around 4.5 million, the city had a migrant population of about 9, 37000. This was around 21.5 percent of the city population. Approximately, 25% of the migrant population was from outside the state and it ought to cause a serious concern to security experts and all those entrusted with the task of crime and violence prevention.

Rajneesh knew all these relevant facts about Chennai from his past experiences It was always on the surveillance screen of NASH and was regularly frequented by MUSK Executioners and Charmers in search of their potential targets. Since 1991, Chennai had been recognized as a safe heaven for the silent operatives of TANO, who used to slip into the city after a major strike elsewhere and lie doggo here for sometimes. Rajneesh always wondered why there were no communal riots in Chennai despite a sizeable population of minority communities? Why was it an exception while Hyderabad and Bangalore did burn, in communal fires, occasionally? Was it the TANO managed peace and harmony, he had wondered? But currently, he was concentrating hard on HASHIM ALI & JAMES connection of Chennai? What was it?

According to Rajneesh’s fading memory , in the Operation ‘GAME OF THE FOXES’ , the last operation handled by James before he prematurely left the job voluntarily, he had claimed that the ‘FOX’ or so called HASHIM ALI was successfully extradited from Dubai to India. Then who was that Hashim Ali whose death was reported by DUBAI TIMES on 23 July 2003? What is all this? Rajneesh was definitely uncomfortable with himself.

At about this time, the voice of the pilot from the cockpit announced the landing of the aircraft at Mumbai airport. Rajneesh, after getting out of the aircraft straight reached the enquiry counter of Indian airlines. There was a flight to New Delhi at 2345 hours and the seat was available. Around 1.45 AM, the next morning, Rajneesh had landed at the domestic terminal of Indra Gandhi Airport. Having got his luggage, he left for New Delhi railway station and by 3 AM he was at his destination to catch the early morning SHATABADI to Chandigarh. The train left at 7.40 Am and Rajneesh slept out the three and a half our journey to Chandigarh. Thus, by 1200 hours, almost 21 hours later than his GREAT ESCAPE from Chennai he reached his home.

As soon as he entered the house, his wife asked, “What happened to James?”

Surprised, Rajneesh counter questioned,” Why? Nothing. What makes you ask this?”

“Mrs. James rang up from Chennai. She said that he had not returned home after he went to drop you at the airport” Mrs. Rajneesh informed.

“Strange? He had gone back home after dropping me at the airport”, Rajneesh said alarmingly.

“Whatever, you better speak to Celina James” Mrs. Rajneesh advised.

Rajneesh immediately dialed residential telephone of P S James and got connected to James residence. Some male voice answered the phone,” Yes, it is PS James Residence “

“I am Rajneesh speaking from Chandigarh—a friend of James—may I speak to him or his wife” Rajneesh replied.

“I am inspector Rajan Iyer of Chennai Police department. I am sorry to inform you Mr. PS James is no more.” The voice on the other side spoke very gently.

“What? How? What happened?” Rajneesh was shocked.

“He met an accident yesterday while driving back to his residence from the airport. It was a hit and run by some truck. The truck and the driver are not traceable. Some eye witnesses say his car was banged from behind and pushed down the slope.” Inspector Rajan clarified.

“May I speak to Mrs. Celina James?” Rajneesh requested.

“Sorry, sir! She is not in a state to speak—just half an hour back we had brought the body home from the hospital” inspector Rajan intimated.

“May I speak to any of her relatives” Rajneesh further requested.

“None here at the moment---you might like to ring up later. I am sorry we have to complete certain formalities here.” Inspector Rajan cut short the conversation and disconnected the line.

Rajneesh was awfully disturbed? He wondered whether it was a genuine accident or it was orchestrated one. Why should it be James? Was it Shanta, who arranged this accident? He was really puzzled and mind stopped functioning. He started glancing through the pages of Times Of India—Chandigarh edition. As he was going through Page 3 of the News paper, he found a news item on Chennai. His eyes stopped at the headline. He looked at it again, it screamed:

“A MEGA SEX SCANDAL ROCKS CHENNAI!”

Rajneesh‘s eyes began to scan the news item in a hurry. It was a news story filed by Bhootlingam Minakashi Sundaram Pillai---Chennai based special correspondent of TOI. The story read:

“On a specific tip-off, police had yesterday raided a house in Nungambakkam area for the alleged involvement of the lady occupant in flesh trade. A female Informer had intimated the police that two customers had just walked in. However, the police found the two persons in the house claiming to be working for a detective agency. They claimed they had been engaged by some ex-intelligence officer of the Government of India, probably RAW, to do a background check of a lady who had left 15 minutes before they had broken into. It is strange that a mutilated body of a middle aged woman was also recovered from the bathroom of the house. The woman has been identified from her passport as a Pakistani national, who had been illegally staying in India over the last nine years.

Reliable sources in the police have intimated that the woman had been living under an assumed name of Sheela Devi. Her actual name was Sabeena. As per her passport and other papers recovered from the house she had come in October 1998 to visit her younger sister Sakeena, married to an Indian, Hashim Ali of Madurai, who had worked in Dubai. She had a six months visa to stay in India. Her younger sister joined her husband in Dubai in March 1999 and Sabeena‘s 17 years old son too went away with her. Sabeena was alleged to have returned to Pakistan in March1999 but, presumably, she did not. She stayed on in the house of Hashim Ali, illegally. It seemed her brother-in-law had helped her in this. Hashim’sparents did not like her activities. Therefore, in June 2003, when Hashim Ali and his family were allegedly killed in Dubai by some miscreants, she shifted to Chennai. Over the past five years she had been living in the city. She led a luxurious life for a single lady without any source of income. She had told her neighbors that she was financially supported by her business man son in Dubai. She was very polite and soft-spoken. She was very helpful to her neighbors. Sometimes, she helped them financially, too. She did some social service and she had opened up a welfare home for the poor and needy women in the Pallavan Nagar. In this connection, a lot of women used to visit her daily. The name of the ‘welfare home’ was”SHEELA DEVI WOMEN’s WELFARE and EMPOWERMENT TRUST”. The activities of this welfare home were strange. The police also raided this welfare home. They recovered a lot of Pornographic material and Blue films of young girls. It seems a multi billion rupee sex scandal was being run by this Pakistani woman with the help of some local leaders and government officials. Police is of the view that full investigation might throw up some big names. Informed sources within police had intimated to this correspondent such a sex racket could only be run with the help of some intelligence agencies. It----------------------------------“Blah---blah---it went on.

Rajneesh stopped reading it. He did not want to read it further though the story was now getting murkier. He knew this mysterious woman is some ghost from the past. But what was it? Has she managed James accident? “What lay ahead?” he thought. And there was a lot. Any moment, he could be in the police net. In fact, he had lot to answer to the police. A question would be asked on his hurried departure from Chennai. No one will listen to him that it was James who bundled him out. But, as usual, the dead men do not speak. This was no defense.

He had no time to disentangle himself from the web he was in. He was reminded of his oft-quoted advice to his ‘CHARMERS’ and ‘BOSSES’ as the MUSK head which had said, “LISTEN, dear friends, ONCE YOU ARE IN THE BUSINESS OF ‘KILLING AND BE KILLED’ THERE IS NO WAY OUT OF IT. THERE IS NO ESCAPE. YOU KILL OR YOU WILL BE KILLED. AND THE GAME GOES ON.” Rajneesh knew there was no escape from the past. He must move fast before it caught up with him. He had made up his mind and made a move.
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“I WANT TO MOTHER YOU!”—A SHORT STORY!-------PART ONE

“I want to mother you”, Shanta was straight and to the point.

“Mother me? Have you gone nuts? Do you know my age?” Rajneesh was heckled.

“I know I am younger to you by many years but I have that urge to call you a son”, Shanta came out matter of factly.

“Excuse me, madam! It is a strange proposition. I am not agitated but I feel it is a bit stupid for a young girl, I suppose in ‘mid-30s’, to think like this” Rajneesh tried to reason it out.

“There are no specific reasons. Give it a thought. I will see you again.” Shanta was curt and crisp and walked away with equal haste, leaving Rajneesh dumbfounded.

Rajneesh was flabbergasted with the strange wish of this young and a beautiful lady. He had never encountered such a situation in life. Rajneesh was a sixty years old, a retired government employee. Post retirement, he did some private jobs as a CEO of a hospitality company. But he had left the job because of his mother’s serious ailment, who expired in June 2007. He had a well settled family---both children married and well settled abroad. His rich old father of 82 years was still alive. After his mother died, he did not feel like picking up another job. Instead, he had taken up to blog writing on the NET in a big way. It was here he came across this young lady, who, too, wrote blogs. She used to occasionally make comments on his write-ups, never finding any worthwhile substance in it. Rajneesh too used to reply in the same tone and tenor. Initially, it caused some disturbance but later it became fun time. Rajneesh always looked forward to Shanta’s comments on his write-ups. When ever she commented, Rajneesh replied her in equal vitriolic intensity. The verbal tug- of- war carried on for some days. Then, suddenly, one day Rajneesh got a note from Shanta. It shook him. The note read:

{“Hi, son!

I liked to read ur fire at MIKHAL GAUTAM’s post.
Good. Keep it up.
‘Maan na maan mein thera mehmaan’ (You were uninvited guest!),
Altho' u don't like it, I have adopted u as my son and so I am ur mom ,
My blessings, altho I am many urs younger to u..”}

Rajneesh thought it was a taunt and a new offensive by Shanta. He was though not amused yet he kept his cool. He did not know the reason for such a ridiculous line of action by a young lady who could be publicly ridiculed by the recipient of this type of a note. He realized what a faux-pax she had created for herself. But Rajneesh had decency running in his blood and he opted to calm her down. He replied:

[“Dear Lady,

I am not agitated. Your choice for adoption is good. I assure you won’t regret.]

As brought out earlier, Rajneesh deliberately had not indulged in cheap thrills to say that his father urgently needed a company as he was alone after the death of his mother. In all fairness, he was a man of dignity and honor and could control his emotive reactions. All the same, he wanted to know about the mental health of the lady and learn as to why was she behaving like this? He sent her another note:

“Dear lady,

I have been seriously thinking about your mental health. I do not know but I have an uncanny feeling that you have developed some kink in your cerebral tissues. You better have it straightened. I suggest you better visit a psychiatrist. Thanks.”

Shanta was no less cool—in fact she was aggressively sarcastic. Pat came the reply:

“Thanks Son.

I have accepted your suggestion. I would go to a psychiatrist after I have met you. Would you not like to do this small thing for your mom? Come on son, come over to Chennai—ur mom”

Rajneesh had not expected this. He realized that she was really under an impression of causing him discomfort and was enjoying it, too. He had known she had belonged to Chennai. It was there in her profile besides a beautiful snap in all whites. She looked exaggeratedly smart and beautiful. But Rajneesh had known that such snaps were not the real ones; later encounter with her proved him right, though her stunning beauty had impressed him. It had proved his impression that the photos on the blogs were generally fake—particularly in case of young girls and boys. Only OLDIES had the audacity to post real snaps of theirs. Rajneesh concluded that her photo in all whites might not be the true definition of this lady called SHANTA.

In her profile page she had given no other details about self. There was a jamboree of meaningless words and phrases padded there to describe herself. It was usual confusion from a restless mind. There was no denying the fact that she was very passionate about her writings. She wrote really from her heart. She had a solid reasoning power but she was too stubborn in her thoughts to accommodate other’s point of view. She lacked flexibility. Anyone who commented adversely on her blog was recipient of verbal lashings—unheard and unexpected. No one dare point out faults in her write-up and frankly speaking, none ever did.

This is where Rajneesh had faulted. He happened to comment on her blog saying,” It is too simplistic a solution to be implemented in your dreams only.” This was the beginning of her anger. Like a wounded tigress, she pounced on him with all guns blazing. And, thus, began the spat which had brought Rajneesh to this meeting with her in Chennai.

Rajneesh had been staying with his friend PS James—an HR Head in a MNC. He had known him from his earlier profession. James was his junior. But ,somehow, he did his MBA from Punjab University in 2005 AD, after he had left the Govt job, in May 2003. Both had remained in touch. James lived in Pallavan Nagar of central Chennai. As Shanta had informed Rajneesh that she lived in the Nungambakkam Area, James was requested by Rajneesh to organize the meeting in a close- by decent restaurant. Accordingly, James fixed the meeting in the ‘Apoorva Sangeetha Fast Food’ joint on the Nungambakkam High Road. The table was booked in the left rear corner of the main hall. James had booked another table for himself some distance away. He had also hired TOP DETECTIVE agency to do a background check on Shanta. Mr. Rosy Cherian of the detective agency was keeping company with James. The other sleuths were in contact with Cherian on the mobile. They had been all watching the ‘Rajneesh-Shanta’ duo in conversation for the last half an hour or so.

As soon the meeting broke and Shanta left, James asked the sleuths to follow her and find out all the details. Rajneesh told James as to what all had happened and she had asked him to come over to the same place the following day. Both the friends were confused on the strange desire of this lady. It was James who concluded:

“Rajneesh, I think either she suffers from mental disorder or what you call schizophrenia or she is really up to some very big game. Both ways you better watch out and disconnect at the earliest”

“I agree James. I sincerely feel she is a psychic case---she couldn’t be ‘Matahiri’, could she be?” Rajneesh was expressing his honest impression.

“Come now, do not run amuck with your imagination? I do not think but there is something fishy about her. Did you notice her shifty eyes—staring left and right from the corner of her eyes, like a person scared of something” James replied.

“Anyway! What ever? We will wait for the report by the sleuths of Top Detective Agency before I decide to meet her again” Rajneesh had made a decision.

James too agreed. Both of them came back home. They had dinner at home and settled down to retire for the day. Next day, at about 0900hours, when Rajneesh opened his Lap Top, he found a note from Shanta. It read,”Do not act smart, son. I am your mom. No smart acts with me. You better behave lest I-------“ At about 1000 hours, same day, Rosy Cherian rang up James on the mobile:

“We are in deep trouble”, Cherian was sounding disturbed.

“Why, what happened?” James enquired.

“Our two detectives, who were trailing Shanta, have been arrested by the police and charged for murder” Rosy Cherian disclosed.

“What? Who has been murdered? Shanta? How? What were your men doing there?” James was firing a volley of questions rapidly.

“You see, they trailed Shanta to her Nungambakkam residence or so called residence. The lady went inside and came out after some 15 minutes. This was a god sent opportunity for them to search the residence. They entered the house by breaking the lock. Some body saw them and rang up the police. While they were still searching the house, police came and found a mutilated body of an old lady, known as Sheela Devi of around 56 years, in the bath room. Our boys were arrested for the murder for the further investigations” Rosy Cherian clarified.

“So, now what?” James sought clarification.

“We have informed the police about the employment of the agency by you to check the antecedents of Shanta. Police checked in the neighborhood and to our surprise no such women lived there. Neighbors informed the police that Old lady had only one son who lived in Dubai. He was doing some business. The old lady had come to live in the locality some five years back. She was very friendly and very amicable in her disposition towards the neighbors. She seemed to be pretty well- off financially. Perhaps, she was getting a good help from her businessman son in Dubai” Rosy gave the further information.

“Ok, what do we do now? Do you want me to come?” James posed a query.

“You will have to, sir. You see, we would have handled it but for another twist”, Rosy Cherian.

“Another twist? What is that, Cherian? Kindly do not talk in riddles?” James was irritated.

“Sir, what has happened is the problem regarding the passport found of this murdered lady. According to her passport issued in Pakistan, she is Sabeena Bano from Lahore, Pakistan. She had come to India in 1998 to meet her younger sister, Sakeena, married to an Indian Hashim Ali of Madurai. “Rosy Cherian began to give the backgrounder on SABEENA and SAKEENA. He stated thus;

Hashim Ali was a petroleum engineer in Dubai, wherein September 1990, he had met SAKEENA and her elder sister Sabeena, both living there with their Pakistani Parents. Sabeena was elder to Sakeena by 10 years. Sabeena was married to a Pakistani in 1980. Sakeena married Hashim Ali in 1991, despite parental objections. She came to India with her husband after she started getting threats from her parents. Sakeena’s parents, it seemed, shifted to Pakistan in 1992. After some times, Sakeena’s parents reconciled and they allowed both the sisters to communicate. Accordingly, Sabeena came to India with her 17 years old son to meet her younger sister. Hashim Ali had gone over to Dubai, the same year. He had taken with him Sabeena’s son, too. Then after six months, Sakeena went away to Dubai to join her husband and her elder sister seemingly returned to Pakistan. However, strange things happened in the year 2003. Hashim Ali and Sakeena were found murdered, along with their two children, in their flat in Dubai. Their nephew, Mohammed Hafiz, who lived with them, was missing. ‘Dubai Times’ had reported on 23 July 2003,the murders with a rider that it could be the handiwork of some Intelligence agencies as allegedly Hashim Ali had worked with Indian intelligence agency, RAW. Hashim’s Indian parents approached the Indian Govt for a thorough probe by Dubai Police. But no one paid heed to their requests and the matter was seemingly left to procrastinate. And it soon went out of public scrutiny. All this information police had obtained from Hashim Ali’s aged parents in Madurai, who only identified Sabeena from the passport. But the face was so badly mutilated that they could not say with certainty. They were cut off with Sabeena and suspected her son’s hand in the murder of their son and daughter-in-law along with their grandchildren.

“Sabeena had supposedly left India in March 1999. But it seems, she did not and stayed on in India. She shifted to Chennai under the assumed name of Sheela Devi. Her son, Mohammed Hafiz, who would be around 27 years old, had gone to Dubai with his uncle and never came back to India. Sheela Devi alias Sabeena was a very active lady. She had all the modern gadgets in her apartment. There was a desk top computer along with a lap top, lying in the house. It seems she used to write blogs under the pen name of Shanta.” Rosy Cherian gave further information.

“Ok, I am coming to the police station.” James cut him short.

All this while, Rajneesh was listening to their conversation with a visible tension on his face. He spoke,”Are we in trouble?”

“Yes, big trouble, I suppose. I do not know who was that lady you met in Apporva Sangeetha Fast food joint but the Shanta who wrote blogs has been found murdered” James replied.

“Then, who is this lady who sent me a note this morning if Shanta is dead.” Rajneesh queried.

“Yes, there is a point—a sensible one. If Shanta is dead—then who is this other Shanta who sent you a note? She should be the real shanta who we are trying to find out.” James said thoughtfully.

“What is our course of action?” enquired Rajneesh.

“I suppose, I engaged the detective agency to spy on your SO CALLED SHANTA. So, needle of suspicion will fall on me. You be out of it for the time being. I will have to seek anticipatory bail immediately. The question I have to answer is as to why did I hire the TOP DETECTIVE agency to do a background check on Shanta? Why did I? Should I tell them the truth now or wait for some fog to lift? Who was that stunningly beautiful lady around 30’s who met you in the restaurant? Is she the real Shanta?” James did some brain storming.

“I think she was. And I think she had some ulterior motive. “Rajneesh put two and two together.

“Yes, she did have. She had all the information on you. She had some score to settle with you. Do you remember our stint in -----? Oh my god it is the same old story, Sir,---remember the GAME OF THE FOXES” James was talking as if he had found an answer.

“Yea, So what dammit? What the hell? How does it connect here?’Rajneesh was worried.

“Right, let me handle it here, sir. You stay out of it. You fly out to Chandigarh, today itself. I will try and handle it here. I f need be, I will contact you there. Go way, Sir” James announced the decision.

Within minutes of this decision James and Rajneesh were heading towards the Chennai airport —the third largest airport in India after Mumbai and New Delhi. James was keen to ensure that Rajneesh was out of Chennai, when he met police with Rosy Cherian. He had no specific plans but only to discuss the latest note to Rajneesh from Shanta—who was not dead. He had got all these Shanta NOTES to RAJNEESH forwarded to him to tell the police that Shanta—the fake name on the blogs is not dead. It might have been someone else who had been staying with that old lady and using her computer and laptop to establish acquaintances. But why did she kill Sabeena aka Sheela Devi? What score she wanted to settle with Rajneesh? These were probably the questions, readers might think, occupying James mind when they arrived at Chennai airport. There was no flight to Delhi. Luckily, an immediate jet airways flight to Mumbai was there. James cajoled Rajneesh to board the flight to Mumbai and then go to Chandigarh.

Having bid farewell to his friend, James was racing away to Nungambakkam in his Honda Civic. There were tons of thoughts criss-crossing his mind. He, allegedly, had a challenge before him. He was required to unravel the mystery of Shanta and that other lady whom Rajneesh had met the previous day.

--------------------------------------------------TO BE CONTINUED IN PART ‘TWO’
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‘ARYANS’, ‘DRAVIDS’AND ‘NAGAS’---SOME LIES, SOME MYTHS AND SOME LEGENDS-PART TWO

In Part One, I had stated that VEDIC KNOWLEDGE in India pre-existed the arrival of so- called ARYANS. I had also gone on to say that the MYTH of ARYA, as a race, was created by Europeans or more particularly the GERMANS, who were looking for a racial supremacy. Therefore, when in the early twenties of the last Century, such magnificent archaeological sites as HARAPPA and MOHANJO-DARO were excavated, they were immediately linked to something superior which had imported itself from outside to the Indian mainland. People, like MAXMULELLER and MORTIMER WHEELER, could not believe that ancient INDIA could have had created such ARCHITECTURAL WONDERS IN URBAN DWELLING. Western Scholars, trained and educated on the biblical beliefs that the universe was created only around 23 October 4100BC, could not think of the world existing prior to this. In time and space,they reduced everything to within 2000BC and originating from Central Asia. Thus, based on the flimsiest of grounds, the theory of ARYAN INVASION and CONQUER was floated when a mount of dead bodies was found at MOHANJO-DARO. It was assumed that they might have been slaughtered by the SUPERIOR ARYANS. This myth led to the emergence of a SUPER MYTH on the supremacy and superiroity of a great ARYAN & VEDIC KNOWLEDGE, imported from outside. New archaeological excavations and the interpretation of the ORAL HISTORY reveal that the MYTH and the SUPER MYTH, both, were a cruel joke on the ANCIENT GREATNESS of INDIA.

I have already highlighted in Part One that ARYANS were only a lingual fraternity of SANSKRIT speaking people, who probably used it as a title to add honour and dignity to self. They did not belong to one particular race as is true of ENGLISH SPEAKING PEOPLE of today. Also, it would be pertinent to note that they did not come as a one big migration or invading hordes but as a trickle and gradually their numbers multiplied. Who can deny that SILICON VALLEY in CALIFORNIA, USA was bursting at seams today with growing population of INDIANS and ASIANS? What would you say, 500 or 1000 years hence, if the demographic shift takes place in their favor----and you have more of HINDI, Chinese or TAMIL speaking people there? I suspect something of this nature happened in ancient India in the late HARAPPAN period around 2800-1900 BC. The people speaking crude- sanskritic- dialect came as TRADERS from Central Asia and began settling down. It is a different matter that after coming to the LAND OF SAPTASINDHU they might have contributed towards the further development of the existing VEDIC KNOWLEDGE.

By the way, we call this knowledge "VEDIC" for ease of understanding and also because it was SANSKRITISED by the Sanskrit speaking people who were enamored by its greatness and depth. More ever, the main fact is that the PICTORIAL SCRIPT of the INDIGENOUS INDIANS, like the HARAPPAN SCRIPT, was too difficult for the general public to understand. Sanskrit language had become to ancient INDIANS what English language is to modern India. I would also like to emphasize here THAT THE REAL, ACTUAL AND INTELLIGBLE DEVELOPMENT OF SANSKRIT TOOK PLACE ONLY IN THE ‘SAPTA SINDHU REGION’. It was perfected by PANINI in the first Century AD and he created a GRAMMAR for it. Prior to this, SANSKRIT was the poor sister of AVESTAN ZENDA of ancient Persians. It was crude and without a proper script. Before PANINI perfected the script and the grammar, there was a tradition of ORAL TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE from one generation to another generation. GURUKUL SCHOOLS excelled in this.

It has now been established that origins of Indian civilization go back to the end of last ICE AGE, which geology tells us was around 10,000 years back. The SARASVATI River in the post 'ICE-AGE' era, and the main site of URBAN RUINS in ancient INDIA, say around 80 percent of the excavated sites, is well documented in the VEDIC LITERATURE. Old Rig Vedic litereature talks about the river from the "MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA". This phase is primarily between 5000BC to 8000BC. There is a general belief that a seismic upheaval around 4500 BC diverted its two main tributaries, YAMUNA and SATLUJ towards their current courses. This river, which was generally 6-8 KMs wide, at times up to 14 KMs, was very deep with a fast flowing current. It is assumed that between 3000BC and 1900BC, the river was gradually dying and drying. After another upheaval around 3000BC, the river used to disappear in a place called VINASHNA in the deserts of Rajasthan, where a series of lake formed themselves. The water level having further reduced, the river began to dry up and it is estimated it ceased to flow around 1900BC. RIG VEDA, HAS ITS MENTION SOME 60 TIMES WHILE THE GANGES IS ONLY ONCE. The cessation of the river SARASWATI (1900BC) corresponds with the decline of the HARAPPAN CIVILISATION. It was the drying up of the River SARASWATI that caused the ababndonment of HARAPPAN CITIES and not any invasion by some SUPER RACE. It was these ECOLOGICAL changes that led to the fall of Harappan Civilisation.

Most Western historians and some Indians too, say that RAMAYANA STORY was enacted around 1900-1500BC, that is post-SARASWATI period. Based on the same analogy, they assign MAHABHARTA the date of around 1000BC. I find major lacunae with these theories. It is that they do not take into account VEDIC RISHIS or seers such as VASHISHTA , JAGDAMBI and VISHAVMITRA, who are the creators of RIG VEDAS. So, how can these RISHIS be post SARASVATI?
This river has now been identified, through satellite imagery, as a PALAEO channel, running now along the dry channel of River GHAGHAR of Haryana –Rajasthan in India and River HAKRA in SINDH, Pakistan. It allegedly started from HAR KI DOON in UTTARANCHAL and flowed, along with its tributaries DRISHTAVADI, YAMUNA, SATLUJ etc, through KURUKSHETRA, PAHEWA, SHATRANA, SIRSA, KALBANGAN, SURATGARH (all in India) HAKRA and LOTHAL in Pakistan. Major archaeological sites have been found along this channel of the mythological river. This falsifies the super myth of INDUS VALLEY CIVILISATION. It is now referred to as SARASVATI VALLEY CIVILISATION.

'Sarasvati River' has been the cradle of ancient Indian civilization. It was the FOUNTAIN HEAD of the SAPTA-SINDHU REGION. It must be noted that there was nothing 'ARYAN' or 'DRAVIDA' about this civilization. In the words of Dr. DAVID FRAWLEY and Dr. NAVRATNA S RAJARAM in their book, “HIDDEN HORIZONS”, the concepts of ARYANS and DRAVIDA races have no scientific and archaeological basis. To quote them: “ ------------The late ancient Aryan and Dravidians migrations, postulated to have taken place c.1500BCE (3500Before Present), into India from Central Asia of WESTERN Linguistic theories, occur too late, after populations and cultures were already formed, to result in the great changes attributed to them. Besides, no records of such proposed invasions or migrations have yet been found. Archaeology, literature, and science, including genetics, all contradict it. ----------------------------”

To put it simply, ARYANS were SANSKRIT SPEAKING people and DRAVIDIANS were non-SANSKRIT SPEAKING people. This was initially when crude Sanskrit was spoken before it was developed by PANINI. The word DRAVIDA is found first time in written form in a SIXTH CENTURY SANSKRIT TEXT, called TANTRIKAVARTIKA by KUMARILA BHATTA , to describe people who were inferior or lacking in knowledge and who spoke unintelligible language. This was the time, when, after the decline of BUDDHISM and emergence of GUPTA EMPIRE, HINDUISM had been given RELIGIOUS CONNOTATION with the confluence of SHAIVISM and VAISHNAVISM. This was also the time when the movement for the revival of SANATAN DHARMA would begin.

However, the word ‘DRAVIDA’ came into extensive modern use in the last half of the 19th Century when a BRITISH AUTHOR, Robert Caldwell, picked up the word from this SANSKRIT TEXT to describe the people of SOUTH INDIA—as they thought all SOUTH INDIANS speak TAMIL or DAMILA or DRAMILA. Thus, such a simplistic identification of the people is an example how SANSKRIT SPEAKING PEOPLE would have disfigured the originality of the NON-SANSKRITIC KNOWLEDGE. Actually, the idea of DRAVIDA created the myth of their migrations prior to ARYANS from Central Asia. The man behind this was CALDWELL, who regarded them as SCYTHIANS people because of some affinities between DRAVIDIAN LANGUAGES and CENTRAL ASIAN LANGUAGES.

Ancient India had movement of people from North to South and vice versa more freely. This is evident as you read the the immediate period in the aftermath of last ICE AGE. Peninsular India was the place where humans lived and cultivated. It is only when glacier melting raised the sea levels that people moved north into plain vacant areas, along the water bodies.Thus, through this Northward migration of peoples & cultures from South India, at the end of 'Ice Age', that the SARASVATI RIVER CIVILISATION WAS CREATED around 8000 BC—which was primarily NAGA CIVILISATION. But this Civilization had the best of both the regions i.e. North and South. As oral history tells us that the greatest of Rig Vedic Rishi, VASHISHTHA was the younger brother of AGASTYA –who is considered a great dominant seer in South India and Tamil Nadu It is also known that seer AGASTYA has supposedly composed 25 hymns for RIG VEDA..It establishes the fact that proto-Vedic and proto-Tamil cultures were closely related. It is further important to note that people from south like TURVASHAS and the YADUS are also mentioned in RIG VEDA as are PURUS of North India.

Anthropologists, Archaeologists and historians have now veered round to the view that the populations in the late ICE AGE were centered in the coastal areas and not along the rivers. In fact these populations preceded the river civilizations some thousands of years. Surprisingly, the historians and anthropologists have found that these sites were located not in CENTRAL ASIA, EURASIA or Europe but in the COASTAL REGIONS OF PENINSULAR INDIA or particularly now submerged LAND MASS of “SUNDA LAND”—also called GREATER INDIA. It is said that agriculture was first started in this region and when the temperatures rose at the end of Ice age, water level rose about 400 feet, submerging most of SUNDALAND—which had included whole of present day South Asia including Thailand, Myanmar and land up to INDONESIA, ANDEMAN & NICOBAR, SRILANKA etc, the people migrated to North West Region which became SARASVATI RIVER basin. Thus, began the saga of river civilizations.

HARAPPAN seals tell the story of this MUTATION of KNOWLEDGE. I would like to draw your attention to seals depicting YOGIC POSTURES—such as MULBANDHAASANA of YOGA on a seal. It is by a three headed deity who is also called PASHUPATINATH or Lord Shiva. I have said in my earlier write-up that NAGAS WERE followers of Lord SHIVA. Take another seal of SWASTIKA or SVASTI-KA meaning maker of welfare. These seals have been extensively found in Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. There is a seal with five SVASTI-SIGNS—which finds mention in Rig Veda and ‘Yajur Veda’. Again, the UNI-CORN or one horned animal seal found extensively in all the archaeological sites. It could be a boar. In Mahabharata it is described as ‘one horned’ or “EK-SHRINGA” This VARAH or BOAR seal has references in Rig Veda, ‘Yajur Veda’ and Mahabharata. Again, there are several seals as well as terra-cotta figurines demonstrating various YOGIC POSTURES. They are available on the WIKIPEDIA article on HARAPPAN SEALS. All this goes to show that HARAPPAN had this knowledge prior to the coming of so-called ARYANS. There is an artifact discovered which can be interpreted as OM sign. It is ‘bow-shaped’ with ashavattha tree leaves adorning it. I conclude from all this that VEDIC KNOWLEDGE was available to HARAPPAN people who dominated the SARASWATI –SINDHU region and who had migrated to this region from the COASTAL AREAS at the end of last ICE AGE.

Now the question arises who were HARAPPANS? Were they ARYANS or DRAVIDIANS? My answer is BIG NO. Ancient history, tradition, anthropology, literature, archaeology knows none as ARYANS and DRAVIDIANS. At best ARYA was a title used by aristocratic and educated people who spoke PERFECTED SANSKRIT—a language of the elite. I would rather say the crude language was used by the traders and adopted by ancient INDIAN SCHOLARS to replace the unscientific and difficult pictorial language of SARASVATI region. Today AMERICANISED English has overshadowed the Queen’s English. So must have been the case of INDIANISED SANSKRIT- which could have overshadowed AVESTAN ZENDA or CRUDE SANSKRIT.

‘Dravidian’ was a myth created by a SANSKRIT scholar to identify NON-SANSKRIT SPEAKING people as a derogatory reference. It later was used by BRITISH scholars to describe people of PENINSULAR INDIA. Some Sanskrit texts referred to five DRAVIDAS—or PANCH DRAVIDAS i.e. GUJRAT, MAHARASHTRA, KARNATKA, TAMIL and TELGU. It was basically to describe five regions of peninsular India. Neither ARYANS nor DRAVIDAS were a race to acquire that unique status. I would further like to reiterate that SANSKRIT, in crudest form, came to INDIA as a language of the TRADERS from the Central Asia and Iran as did English. It is known now that HARAPPAN had trade links with Egyptians, Sumerians and Iranians. It was reformed and developed in India and then utilized to transpose the KNOWLEDGE from PICTORIAL SCRIPTS to its improved version. So, who were HARAPPANS?

As a simple answer I would like to say they were ‘ancient Indians’—who had migrated from the coastal regions to SAPTA SINDHU REGION at the end of last ICE AGE, when bulk of SUNDA LAND or THE GREATER INDIA was submerged into the rising ocean. They were agriculturalists and URBAN DWELLERS who lived along the water bodies such as lakes and rivers. They knew the importance of water as they had developed agriculture in the coastal areas. Discovery of an urban city in the ‘bay of cam bay ‘ or “KHAMBHAT BAY” off the coast of Gujarat testifies this theory. Carbon dating suggests that city was submerged around 7500BC. This is around the time ICE AGE came to an end. Similar discoveries are being reported from near Chennai. And they were the ancient INDIANS. Let us not talk of color and complexion. Climate, weather and geographic features play their part. American speaks their English through nasal sounds whereas English men speak differently. The geography does have its impact on your speech.

I firmly believe that people of SARASVATI-INDUS region were the carrier of VEDIC KNOWLEDGE as NAGA PEOPLE. They were followers of LORD SHIVA—who had the entire region mapped by his temples. His followers believed in drinking SOMARAS, an intoxicant, and relished non-vegetarian dishes. They believed living happily in the present. EAT, DRINK, and be MERY was their basic philosophy of life. Natural upheavals between 4500 BC to 2000BC led to their cities being devastated. It is during this period that trading jamborees of people from WEST began to settle in the region where vacuum was created by the migration EAST and SOUTH of the NAGAS. Even Ramayana mentions that Lord RAVNA was worshipper of LORD SHIVA---he is alleged to have offered his head in YAGNA to lord SHIVA one thousand times. It is also truism that RAVNA was a most LEARNED KING—he was known to have the knowledge of FOUR VEDAS. At the time of his death, Lord RAMA and LAXMAN go to RAVNA to get the final Lesson of life. And what did he tell them: “NEVER BE HAUGHTY”. I reckon Ravna was a NAGA KING.BALMIKI, who wrote Ramayana was a CHANDAL—a NAGA. Mythology talks about them as DANAVS or DASYUS, DAITYAS, RAKSHASHAS etc. This is the time when NAGAS had withdrawn from SARASVATI region to down south and East and they had established their own kingdoms. Perhaps geography, weather and climate affected their color and complexion.

‘Mahabharata’ too, makes a mention of these NAGAS in a most derogatory sense—when it paints them as demons or dangerous people. There are three stories in Mahabharata about them. One is lord Krishna, as a child, overpowering a KALIYA NAAG on the banks of River Yamuna near Mathura. He has been depicted as half human and half snake. I am sure he must be some NAGA chieftain who lived near the river. Then there is a mention of ARJUNA marrying a NAGA girl ULUPI in MANIPUR during ‘Pandav’s’ 14 year exile who gave birth to his son. She ought to be a human if ARJUNA married her and got a son through her. Then we come to the famous YAGNA by JANAMAJAY, grand son of ARJUNA, who in his zeal to revenge his father’s killing by a NAGA Prince, TAKSHAK, took a vow to eliminate NAGA race from the earth. He systematically carried out ETHNIC CLEANSING—like what happened in KASHMIR some years back when Kashmiri Pundits (KPs) were made to vacate the valley. He went on to ravage the beautiful city of TAXILA—in Pakistan. This is the only instance I find of ARYAN butchery of the HARAPPAN people. Ethnic Cleansing has historical precedence in Indian Context.

So, who were Nagas? I think it needs to take into account historical, archaeological, anthropological and mythological tales to form an opinion. It would be better if I do it separately in another blog. I will do it in PART THREE.



------TO BE CONTINUED IN PART THREE
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