Bharatbhai, Bharatbhai, Bharatbhai And Bharatbhai – My Kutch Tour Diary

Our recent tour of Kutch landed an interesting coincidence. I (Dr Bharat Desai), my wife Dr Bhavana, and our friends Dr Vijay Desai, his wife Meena Desai, Bepsi-ben and Villoo-ben made a three nights and four days plan for Kutch - Bhuj.

I contacted Dr Bharat Chhimpi of Bilimora having close relatives in Bhuj. He guided us in detail giving the tour plan, staying facility and transport arrangement. In turn, he contacted his advocate brother-in-law Bharat-bhai at Bhuj who organized everything including a vehicle for local commuting – an Innova owned by Bharat-bhai Vankar. Little too many Bharat's in this small world.

Talking about this article, I would like to tell you about our journey and experiences. Instead of history and geography of the place, I want to tell about my emotions and interactions with the localites.

Rayjibhai Ravjibhai Rabari – at Hiralakshmi Park, Bhujodi.

A tea and food serving aged person, Rayjibhai, talked and behaved so nicely with us, we will always remember him. Two sons of Hiralakshmi-ben constructed an artistic exhibition centre and a garden. They invite and host Kutchhi artists in different trades like Bandhani workers, Shoe maker, Metal work artist and similar others, and allow them to prepare and sell goods for one full month. Bhujodi has many localites doing household work to prepare Shawl. Bandhani and bed sheets.

Dudhabhai Meena – at 72 Jeenalaya, Mandavi.

Dudhabhai Meena of Dhangadhra drawing multiple imaginative designs on the pillars and walls of a very huge temple – 72 Jeenalaya – for last 18 years. His assistants do carving under his guidance.

Rickshaw Drivers Mohammad and Mustaaq – at Bhuj.

We did Bhuj city tour in Mohammad and his brother Mustaaq’s new 6-seater rickshaw. After our day long visit to local destinations like Museum, Palace, Aaina Mahal, Lake, Hill Garden, Aquarium, Tridev Temple, Swami Narayan Temple and Bhujiyo Dungar with them, and after hearing our dialogue with one another, Mohammad told us ‘Ronak aavi gayee!’ (Your company delighted our day!) I like to take it as a great compliment to our group.

Parsot Bapa – at Kheta Bapa Temple.

A very huge statue of Lord Hanuman with the statues of all the other Gods and Goddesses and sons, with multiple pictures all around the temple is worth seeing while going to Koteshwar. We got to meet Parsot Bapa, 9th generation person from Kheta Bapa dynasty, with some great conversations and his guidance us on the way of life.

Dholo Rann (White Desert) and Kaala Dungar.

1515 Feet high heel of Kaala Dungar gives an eye pleasing view of White Desert and the sea nearby. This picturesque view is just another wonder of the Mother Nature. We are often misled by the name ‘White’ Desert as a desert having white sand; please do check, it is not the case. It is a desert formed due to white crystalized salt found on the land due to drying of the sea water. In reality, it is a ‘salt’ desert, also known as ‘Khaarapat’ in South Gujarat. Only difference being the size – the White Desert is 100 x 200 Sq. Miles in area. It does not stop at your field of vision – miles long.

Haji Peer.

Dr Vijay Desai and Meena, did want to visit and pray at Haji Peer. On hearing the story of Haji Peer, practically we all got emotional.

Khavda Sweets – Gulaab Paak, Adadiya and Pakwan.

Khavda - village near Bhuj – has many cattle owners preparing Maava and its sweets. Interestingly, each and every shop in Bhuj, claims to be an authentic Khavda Sweet Shop. Localites say Gulaab Paak (made from rose petals), Adadiya (a sweet containing Udad Daal, dried ginger and 32 other ingredients) and Pakwan (a dried wheat flour item) are the specialities of this region. Sadly, I did not enjoy any of them.

Gujarat Earthquake 2001.

We met many people at Kutch telling us their memories of disastrous earthquake of 2001. I must mention a few.

Dr Hansa Dave, my wife’s classmate in school and coincidentally my classmate in pre-science college. Interestingly she too led to become an Eye Surgeon, just like me. He husband Dr Jadish Dave told us about how they spent six months in tents and the story of relatives of 25,000 dead people. No doubt, progress that followed was pleasant.

Dr Jasmin P Savani – Superintendent of aquarium of Hill Garden, Bhuj – showed us the rift (a fissure or a cleft) of 50 feet in depth in rocks at village Ratiya. Only seeing is believing - an earthquake destroyed nearly total Kutch district in general and Bhuj, Bhachau and Raapar in particular. Kutch is the biggest district in India, comprising one third land of Gujarat state.

A shopkeeper of Anjaar narrated whole event of earthquake, how he bore the loss of seven family members out of 32.

Driver Bharat Vankar showed us an earthquake affected temple.

37th Marriage Anniversary Celebration.

Our marriage anniversary celebration at the bell ring of 12 midnight in the train compartment was a completely unanticipated event. 4th March 2013 was our 37th Marriage Anniversary. Dr Vijay-bhai, Meena, Bepsi-ben and Villoo-ben had planned a great surprise for us. They arranged an anniversary cake and hid it from us till midnight for a surprise. Ceremoniously all of us gathered and cut the cake. Quite unusually for most others, we distributed the cake to the all awake passengers of the compartment. They all happily joined and celebrated the event in such a novel way.

Amitabh Bachchan and the Chief Minister Narendra Modi have made us desirous to visit Gujarat. Has reading this article added to your craving for Kutch?

Tweet

Out Of The Box Thinking

Creative genius Swami Vivekananda gave guidance to youth of the world and showed the light to all. Mr. A R K Sharma, a Gold medalist in Science and Electronics and Telecom Engineering, wrote this book – Out Of The Box Thinking – telling about how to become a successful person, businessman or monk by Swami Vivekananda's way.

Out-of-Box thinking is the way of solving problems by looking at them from unexpected perspective. It implies that we think differently, unconventionally. It involves discarding the past experience, leaving behind traditional modes of thought and discarding the pre-conceived notions.

In-Box thinker prefers maintaining status quo. They are proud of their past experience and knowledge. To compare precisely, they are like a ‘Frog in the Well’. While out-of-box thinkers have open mind and like doing things differently. They are not satisfied by just having Wings; they want to enjoy using them and Fly. They have passion and enthusiasm in generating new ideas and implementing by overcoming all the hurdles in the way.

Out of the box thinker has ability to work at a time when the mind is awake without using memory. He observes the gap between the thoughts instead of linking them by the chain. For him, ideal time of thinking is just after awakening in the morning, but before getting up. Here, one is half awake and half asleep and memory has not taken over.

Friendship:

Friendship with the brave, courageous and confident people gives encouragement and has wonderful effect in stamping out negative spirit. They never betray us. Influence of such friends immensely benefits us in moulding our attitudes. Then we are transformed into great think-tank capable of doing wonders.

Negative Thoughts:

Stamp out negative feelings as if it were a pestilence. Following words describes negativity:

• It is not my job.
• It won’t work.
• It can’t be done.
• They won't like it.

Negative attitudes serve no good either to us or others.
Stamp out negative thoughts with positive ones. Substituting /replacing negative thoughts with positive one, opens up new gates of thinking opportunity and brings in rich dividends.
We have no right to show contempt by look or tone to anyone. You can't judge apple tree by standards of oak tree and vice versa.
Pointing out mistakes hurts feelings; instead if you speak kind words, they do improve.

Idleness:

• Never sit idle.
• Avoid idleness.
• Nothing comes of sitting idle.

Come Out Of Narrow Holes And Have A Look Abroad:

Go abroad, and observe their way of doing progress.

China will overtake Europe by 2020 and USA by 2045. How? it has opened and quickly adopted itself to the global markets.

So just look at other nations and adopt their successful methods. Every country must understand well that it has either to look at others and change for better or perish by sticking to its own narrow views.

Root out priest-craft first. Come out and see how other nations are on march. Religion must be kept within its proper limits and give freedom to society to grow.

Daughters should be supported and educated with as much attention and care as sons.

Never support castism and non-touchability.

Visit America, China, Japan, Europe anywhere to learn their technique.

Best Work Is Done By Alternate Repose And Work:

Attention Workaholics: Continuous work will cause irreparable damage to our health. We lose our enthusiasm and loose our creativity. Take frequent breaks and ponder over great things in isolation.

Physically weak persons should develop manliness first by developing strong body.

Moral and Ethical values cannot be underestimated.

Anyone who keeps learning stays young.


In conclusion, all I talked about means:

• Innovation,
• Reframing,
• Brain storming,
• Out of the box thinking,
• Process improvements and
• Lateral thinking... in the materialistic world.

And,

• Concentration,
• Choiceless awareness,
• Power of presence of mind and
• Living in presence... in the spiritual world.

So, the power of attention, when directed towards the internal world, will analyse the mind and illuminate facts for us. Out of box thinking is all about thinking without interference of memory- just going beyond the mind!

OUT OF THE BOX THINKING
Based on Swami Vivekananda's Creative Genius.

Author: Mr A R K Sharma
Distributor: Ramakrishna Mission, Fort, Belgaum 5990016 India
Pages: 176
Price: 100 INR

Book-review by:
Dr Bharat M Desai, Desai Eye Hospital, Bilimora 396380 INDIA

Image source: theclaimsspot.com

Tweet

What Went Wrong in History of India

For those who do not learn from history, history teaches them a lesson at a great cost.

We - the Indians - neither create history nor read history; and so writing the history is far from even dreaming of. Therefore, more often than not, we became silent spectators and slaves praising the people who made marks in history. History is repeated every often because we never read it and so never lean anything whatsoever. We do not have record of history beyond 2000 years, because we never found it worth writing and keeping a record of. No wonder, books of history give us their view point – biased – written by either Mughals as Babarnama, British or Chinese student Hu-En-Sang. It was not before 1000 years that Indian scholar Acharya Hemchandra wrote Siddh-Hem telling total history of the said period of Kind Siddhraj Jaisinh rule. Again, blackout occurred.

Before coming to what went wrong in our history, I must briefly explain how politics in India evolved.

Evolution of politics in India:

• Gan Rajya: 2600 years back, we had Gan Rajya where state was ruled by group of people elected by public. The King was elected out of them. So there was no birth-right that made any one a King. In this system, corruption and in-fighting started. Ultimately inheritance and birth-right led to becoming King.
• Brahmins: Now, I should tell you about Brahmins who invented the caste-system in the Vedic period. They divided total population in four groups according to profession. Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra. The fourth in the series – Sudra – was asked to do service as a servant. Initially, caste-system was on the basis of the work done by individual and not on the basis of inheritance, which later on turned to birth. The caste-system made a class of superior and inferior human. Insulting and inhuman mannerism of untouchability entered. Bhagwan Mahaveer in Jainism and Buddha in Buddhism corrected this telling all men are same.
• Kings: In Magadha Kingdom, first even big state having 80,000 villages king Bimbisar ruled as one belonging to Shishunag dynasty. He was killed by his san Ajatsatru who ruled as a king. Similarly, all six kings were killed by their sons to become king earlier. Seeing all this non-sense killings, people got fed up. They installed one minister as King. The last King in this dynasty Dhananad insulted his minister – Chanakya. Chanakya (321 BC) found out Chandragupta Mourya (321 BC – 296 BC) and became his advisor, guide and mentor. Chandragupta became the king of Patliputra (Patna). Chanakya said, if the King is industrious – hard working – people of his rein will be so.

Traitors:

• Jaichand: in 1192, Jaichand alias Jaichandra Rathod of Kannauj invited Mohammed Ghori; went to his camp to tell war-plans of Prithviraj and secrets of their army. Invader Mohammed Ghori easily won the battle. Poor India then became Islamic nation in no time.
• Mir Jafar: In 1757, Mohammed Jafar Ali Khan Bahadur (Mir Jafar) – then chief of army in Nawab Siraj-Ud-Daula of Bengal rule – had lust and ambition to become Nawab. He became traitor and did breach of trust in war of Plasi. So company head British Robert Clive won the battle and established British rule over India in no time to pass.

Patriotism:

We are always divided and those two segments never unit – I am talking about,

• Caste: Hindu higher caste and Hindy lower caste of Harijans.
• Religion: Hindu, Muslim, Christian, etc.
• Economic groups: Rich – higher income group and Poor – meagre or low income group.
• Qualification: Highly qualified and illiterate.
• Gender: Male and female.

Imaginary gap and distance are so much that unification of either of above is nearly impossible. This tells us – we are never united as one nation – patriotism is strictly limited to the books. For personal gains, we are ready to be traitor and do any breach of trust. Jaichand brought Mughals and Mir Jafar brought British as rulers of India. Agreed. But today as well, the scene is no different. All are ready to become either or Jaichand or Mir Jafar.

Why independent India is ruled by a single family?

All this detailed explanation telling about our mentality – psychology – of being impressed by non-Indians – foreigners, especially one having less darker skin colour, leads to conclusion that we can easily be ruled by others. I am not going to the extreme of telling we can easily be made slaves. So, present day rule of congress led by Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi is no exception to this. Single family birth-right rule fits in the past and their dominance on the total Indian public is just natural.

Well, do I want learn something from the History? As expected, if negative answer follows, we are born to live as slaves and second grade citizen in our own country - if not Moghals or British as in past – Americans, Russians or any who want to dominate us. We are hard worker, intelligent and great administrators. What will act is will to learn art of self-respect and self-discipline. Why should I feel inferior? Why should I ask anyone (say Americans) about policies of our nation? If this will continue, dominance by all around like Americans, Pakistanis or Chinese or any is not far to fetch.

Who can help us? Nobody? Oneself? I don’t know. You tell me...

Image source: our-india.com

Tweet

Way Out Formula for Unsolvable Problems

In a life time, we often face a situation called PROBLEM. And facing this makes us tense and stressful. I am trying, in this article, to come out with a formula for this state of mind. I will try to be precise, but I shall expect you to be with me all the while – your full attention and total concentration is a must.

I have this concept divided this in three stages.

Stage I: Define the Problem

Many a times, we have stress or tension following not so important, general or minor issues, other persons’ matters or say simply some imaginary problems. DEFINE EXACT PROBLEM. If you think there is hardly any serious matter, just come out of it. Forget and ignore such trivial issues. Be cheerful and come out fresh from such status.

Most of the times, the so called great problem may be no issue in reality.

Stage II: Attempts of Solving a Problem

Well, you have defined THE PROBLEM - labelled and found out the exact matter disturbing and bothering you. Now you are restless and do not find yourself comfortable. Here begins the attempt to solve it.

1. Apply all your primitive senses (taste, touch, smell, hearing and seeing) and secondary senses (sense of time, heat, balance, gravity and distance) to their maximum.

2. You have your own intelligence, judgement, understanding, expectation and planning. Surround your problem with all of above, it is your life and your desire to live it in your own way; no one should interfere. Now you will understand what went wrong and what you should do to correct the mistake. Just do that. It should be the end of the story.

3. Help: Help of parents, close (close and concerned, not all or any) relatives and friends can be of some help and should be tried if so is needed. The word should is important, because you are not obliged to live your life on someone's whims!

Yes, using all your intelligence and getting help should lead to the ideal solution. Admitting the mistake to self and desire to correct the same is a pre-condition.

Most of the times, we come out happily from the said situation and decide finally to remediate using the options available.

Stage III: Problem You Could Not Solve

Now, everything failed, intelligence, guidance and common sense - all ended poorly without solution.

Sixth Sense: In the mysterious borderland beyond the reach of our five senses, there is a remarkable human faculty existing to solve any issue. It is known as Sixth Sense (EPS = Extra-sensory Perception), not understood by science about its functioning technique.

It is thalamus, an inner brain organ of the little finger size, a seat of ancient sixth sense. Actually sixth sense occasionally flares brightly in primitive, unsophisticated person, children, and also an adult under great stress. The sixth sense is incited more freely when consciousness - our own brain - does not override their free play.

So to say, just tapping the potentiality of the sixth sense of brain can help solving any problem.

Intuition (Inner Voice): This is the faculty of our thoughtful mind that gives sound of inner-voice. Intelligence and consciousness have no role to play here.

Intuition is a signal we sense in a flash that another person values, virtues and vices. We are driven to our goal without any knowledge.

So intuition is a signalling by which person knows beforehand bad imminent result. Like how some women just understand the intent of sexual harassment on seeing an individual by intuition.

God-factor: We may or may not believe in existence of God. But sometimes, we need moral support and consolation from non-human elements and God-factor has role to play. Because we know we do not have control over many factors and situation leading to the end result.

Bhagvad Gita tells about total surrender to God and tells to be witness to the events occurring in personnel life without being part of it, as a part of problem solving in day to day life.

Having told everything you should do to solve the problem, here is the final ‘way out method’ from the Bible by Dr Smiley Blanton:

1. Relax. 
2. Stand quietly. 
3. Stop trying any attempts to solve the problem with conscious mind. 
4. Let creative power in your unconscious mind take-over. 
5. It can solve the whole thing if you just come out of your own way. 

Tweet

Why Do I Write?

When I started writing on my blog, I used to ask myself if I should write at all. If yes, why? I would like to share my views on this topic with you.

I write for myself. This may sound egoistic, but it is self-explanatory as well. Because I want freedom from my thought cycle, I get mental catharsis by just writing out whatever it is. While having some serious events with myself, say death of my mother first and then father, writing down makes record of my emotions at a given time which I’m never going to repeat.

I do write for my daughter Vaishali, son Rahul and their friends. I want to tell my experiences and let them know about me. I have done this in Life At 60 article series – it is my mini-autobiography, telling all about me. Article on Marriage, Parents in old-age homes, etc. are other such articles.

I want to summarise what I have read. My book reviews are one example. I can re-read the book and memorize the same after reading my own book-reviews.

I want to be a history teacher. I have read so many books on history of Gujarat, India and world, I want to tell this as a story-teller to all. History of India for No Time Tagged People, Partition of India and Before World War III Kills You are such articles teaching history without bothering much. And the series will continue.

I want to teach all major religions. It is a wide subject, but I want to write as briefly and as precisely as possible. I have done this in Jainism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. I will carry this on and on.

An ultimate for all and so me, the life expectancy of an Indian is 65, Gujarati is 70 and my caste – Anavil – is 75 years. I am 62 and so, I have to start preparing for my zeroing, I – even from the highest level of my physical, intellectual and financial gains – will be nowhere, just a zero. My writing is keeping a record of all I want to say.

If I conclude without this last point, I won’t be happy – I want to exhibit my level of high intelligence and prove it to myself, if not to others. The series of around hundred articles prove this for me and makes me a showman of the types I want to be.

Well, if you have at all read this till this point, will you suggest I should continue writing?

Tweet