Dr. Anil Kumar Agarwal

‘ Lakhi Mela’- which is celebrated at Garhmukteshwar, an old sacred place, presents an amazing scene. More than twenty lakhs people from Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana , Rajasthan , Punjab , and other states of India come to the ‘ mela’, and dip into the holy Ganga.

It is said that there is an old story behind this fair. People even today believe the story. No body can comment on their belief. But it is certain that the fair has been celebrated for the last many centuries. It is said that at this place ‘Shivganas’ had got salvation from the curse of Durvasa Rishi. Since then it was called Ganamukteshwar.  There is a story in Shiva Purana regarding this episode. Rishi Durvasa was meditating into a cave at Mandrachal hill where Shivganas arrived wandering. They got an idea to tease Rishi Durvasa and they implemented it. Rishi Durvasa is known for his angry -temperament. So he immediately cursed them – although you belong to Lord Shiva, even then you would suffer a lot into the ‘Pisach Yoni’. Hearing the curse, they started trembling and went to Lord Shiva. They narrated him the whole story. Hearing their fable, Lord Shiva told them that he couldn’t help them in this matter. Rishi Durvasa could only help them if he wanted to do so. Shivgana went to Rishi Durvasa and lay down at his feet. They began to pray for some relief. Rishi Durvasa said, ‘I don’t know how to take back the curse, but I tell you a method to get some relief from the curse. There is an old holy place called Shiv Vallabh near Hastina Pur. If you meditate there you will get rid of it.’

After sometime, these Shivgana got the ‘Pishash Yoni’; they went to Shivvallabh area and did meditation religiously. Seeing their ‘Tapasaya’,Lord Shiva became happy, and Durvasa Rishi also got emotions for them. In this way, These Shivgana got freedom from ‘Pishash Yoni’. Since then the place had been called ‘Ganmukteshwar’, later on it was called ‘Garhmukeshwar’.

I keep my clinic closed on Monday morning but go to the clinic in evening on that day also. I was not feeling well as I have been suffering from acute bronchitis for three days. So I was asleep in the afternoon. Hearing the sound of television I woke up and sat before the television. There was an old movie telecast on a channel of television. A heroine of the picture was singing a song and trying to make her son sleep. Her son is very cute. In the next scene, she goes to a hospital for the treatment of her son. His treating physician loves the child. The doctor is an affectionate man and also the hero of the picture. He wants to see the child frequently. They meet incidentally either in a market or in a park etc. The heroine’s mother-in-law and sister-in-law don’t like their meetings. They indirectly and sometimes directly curse her and try to stop her to meet the doctor. They think that her meeting with the doctor is an unsocial act. The heroine is a widow too.

A nurse, working in the hospital loves the doctor. She does the trick and gets married with him. She is extravagant and ill natured lady. So he faces many problems but doesn’t say much to his wife. As she is a barren lady so he lives also sad. One day, he says to her that his father died a month ago but he got this news today. She shows surprise and says that he has never told about his father. He narrates her the story of his life, ‘You are my second wife. I and my first wife did the love marriage. My father got angry at my act and broke the relations with me.’ He says, according to my father’s will, my father’s grandson can inherit his whole property. The child will get ten thousand rupees per month till he becomes adult. Hearing this news the doctor’s wife becomes stunned. She starts making plans to get the property. A lawyer says to her, ‘If your father-in-law is proved insane in the court his ‘will’ will be nullified.’ She tells him the plan. Hearing her plan the doctor gets furious. One day she gets information through an old nurse that the heroine’s son is a son of the doctor.

She goes to the court to seek justice. The court’s decision comes in her favor and she gets the possession of the child. But he is not ready to live with her. So he runs away from her house. Every body starts searching the child. In this process she dies in an accident. The heroine gets her son back and her mother-in-law adopts the doctor as her son. The doctor and the heroine get married. In this way the film is ended. This is an old emotional picture. I saw such movie after a long time.

A man who himself is an allopathic physician visited my clinic yesterday. This was his second visit at my clinic as he had also come to my office last week. Although he came to my clinic two years back that time he came to me for the treatment of his wife. His son and daughter usually visit my clinic for their treatment. He is about seventy years old but still he is doing medical practice. He has been suffering from allergic bronchitis with bronchial asthma for the last many years. He is taking homeopathic treatment from me for his disease. He looks simple and behaves as if he were an ordinary man. This time, he asked me a question whether I had prescribed him some steroids. Hearing his question, I felt annoyed. I said, ‘Has he definitely read some homeopathic books? if so he should know that there is no steroidal treatment in homeopathy.’ Hearing my reply, he was looking satisfied and embarrassed.

A question arises from this talk. Why has he asked me this question? The following situations are possible .1) is he a suspicious man?  2) Has he superiority complex? 3) Is he just teasing me? Or is he casually talking on the subject?

IPL organizes cricket matches in different cities of India. These matches are popular in public; people are crazy to see them. Some of these matches will be held in Delhi too. Jai Kishan, leader of the opposition in MCD wanted to get passes of these matches so he raised the issue in the standing committee meeting. But there was already a lot of hue and cry in the meeting on the issue of budget. Delhi Govt. passed its budget for this fiscal year, and it had levied so many taxes.

Jai Kishan told the officials of MCD that either they should arrange  the passes for the councilors or get open a sale counter of IPL tickets. So the councilors could buy the tickets from the window. The officials replied that they didn’t know where IPL tickets were available. Jai Kishan retorted that people now didn’t come to him for their grievances but they came for the passes. He told his problem to media also.

It is evident that Feroz Shah Kotla ground was leased out to DDCA by MCD. Its engineering department issues NOC – certificate to buildings, situated in the ground that these are in good condition. The Health Dept. issues license for food which is served inside the ground. All the roads outside the ground also belong to MCD. If MCD imposes some taxes on DDCA it can get handsome revenue.

Big B, Amitabh Bachchan v/s Ashok Chauhan

There was a news story in English daily; Hindustan Times at page no.9 – carriageway of the Bandra-Worli sealink, which was inaugurated by Ashok Chauhan, the chief minister of Maharastra, and Amitabh Bachchan was also present on the dais at that time. Some senior congress leaders objected to the presence of Amitabh there, and lodged their complaint with Sonia Gandhi, president of congress. It is evident, there is a coalition Govt. in Maharastra, coalition between congress and NCP.

Sonia Gandhi had immediately sought explanation from Chauhan.  He said, ‘I don’t know how Amitabah was present in the function.’ It is evident that the differences between Rajiv Gandhi and Amitabh’s family had developed for twenty years; the first part of the carriageway of Bandra-Worli sealink had been thrown open to public last year by Sonia, and the carriageway had been named after Rajiv. The president of the state unit of congress also told that he didn’t know about the presence of Amitabh at the function.

Hindustan construction company, the private builder constructed the sealink along with Maharastra state road development corporation, claimed that the actor had been invited by the NCP to add glamour to the event. ‘NCP’s other choice was Sachin Tendulkar’, said a HCC official requesting anonymity.

Above was the brief of the news story; in a nut-shell congress wanted to know the name of the man who invited Amitabh. The question arises why congress is irked on this issue. Amitabh is a renowned actor, and loved by millions of people in the country and abroad too. If he was present in the function he had certainly been invited. This is really bad to insult the honorable guest in such a way. If congress party is actually in grief, the party should take strict action against the man concerned, whether he is the chief minister, state president of the congress or NCP.

In India, there are so many national issues based on cast, religion, economic, and language etc. But most of them are politically motivated and based upon vote-bank. An interesting incident happened recently in Uttar Pradesh where Maya Wati is holding the post of chief minister. The story also occurred in the native village of the chief minister. The name of her village is Badal Pur situated in district Gautam Budha Nagar, Noiada, UP. The chief minister got two cremation houses constructed at the cost of Rs. Fifty Lakhs. One is for upper- cast and the other for lower – cast, although the cremation house belongs to lower cast is more beautiful and expensive.

A labor died in the village. His village was far from there so his companions decided to cremate him in the village crematorium. They took his corpse and arrived at the crematorium which was meant for the lower cast as the deceased also belonged to the lower cast. But the in-charge of the house refused to cremate the dead body as he belonged to the other village and the crematorium is meant only for the use of that village. His near and dear felt bad; even then they requested him to help them. But he didn’t change his decision. They along with the dead body sat before the crematorium under protest. They were all hungry as they couldn’t take any thing before the cremation of the deceased according to their rituals. The matter went to the level of district officers but no body was ready to take any decision; because the case belonged to the chief minister’s village.

In the last, the ‘Sarpanch’ of the village interfered between them. He said, ‘It is true that the deceased doesn’t belong to the village but he had been living here for the last many years. So he could be cremated here. The in-charge had been convinced with the argument and allowed them to cremate the dead. The story was published in ‘Panjanaya’, a weekly news paper. India is a country of multiple problems as well as amalgamation of modern and old orthodox beliefs.

Yesterday, March 22, 2010 I read news in The Hindustan Times, English daily that eunuch would soon get pension. It had been passed in the house of Municipal Corporation of Delhi. A member of the house put a proposal during the meeting of the house. I have forgotten the name of the member. She said that eunuchs earn their livelihood by dancing and singing on the streets. But as they get old, they come in trouble because it is now difficult to earn their livelihood by dancing and singing. There are about three and a half lakhs of eunuchs living in Delhi as reported in the news paper. It was not clear in the news whether this pension would be given to all the eunuchs who live in Delhi or those who are senior citizens. MCD is also planning to hire their services for collecting the house tax. It is also not clear whether they will be kept as permanent employees or just on the commission basis.

The idea is not new to us. In the history, it is found that they were kept in the harem of kings. In Mahabharta, Arjuna disguised as eunuch and taught a princess dancing. Even during the war of Mahabharta, a eunuch named Shikhandi played a prominent part along with Arjuna. So MCD can hire their services. But before that MCD has to study the matter sincerely in the present scenario. Otherwise MCD may come in trouble and can be ridiculed. The quality of their work and their sincerity towards MCD should also be assessed thoroughly.

Today, in the morning, I was sitting into my drawing room and reading a newspaper. Vaibhav was also reading a newspaper there. I asked him what your todays programme was. He told me that he was going to college with no expression on the face. I said to him, ‘you are to go to the commissioner’s office as you have an appointment with him’. He replied me if you had the knowledge of it why you would have asked me. I told him that I wanted to talk to you just for the sake of talk. After that I got angry and reprimanded him. I didn’t know why I had become vexed, although he had not uttered a single word after that. He was simply reading the newspaper. After a while the matter was over. I think he is really a good boy.

Paa, a Hindi film, is a popular movie. It had even got publicity before its release, and till today its popularity is maintained. It is a story of a thirteen year old boy who is suffering from a disease called Progeria. It is a rare disease and found among one in eighty million live born. The boy role was performed by a renowned actor Amitab Bachan and his father’s role was acted by Abhishek Bachan. In the role of a progeria child, Amitabh Bachan can’t be recognized. I have not seen any real progeria patient except in photograph. Amitabs’ make-up resembles with progeria child’s snap. So it is assumed that Amitab’s make-up as a progeria patient is perfect. In the promo of the movie, the progeria child was highlighted.

I also had the great desire to see the movie but I couldn’t find the time to watch it. Yesterday, on Sunday I was at home in the afternoon and as usual television was on. I saw that a movie, paa was being telecast on a channel. So I also started watching the movie although its some parts of the beginning had already been telecast. I saw rest of the film along with advertisement in between. All of a sudden I found the film was finished. The film was slow and was revolving around the child and his father but I couldn’t differentiate who was the main character of the film. Whatever I understood in the film was this- The producer wanted to show the father as a main character and the child as a subordinate character. In the promo he highlighted the progeria child to gain publicity. He also wanted to show how a superstar Amitab Bachan looks in this role. So that people would be eager to see the movie and he succeeded in his goal.

There is a slogan which is frequently seen on radio, television, newspapers and magazines so we are well acquainted with the slogan. The slogan is – ‘Smoking is injurious to health’. A photograph along with the slogan is also found on a cigarette container. Even Govt. has banned smoking in public places. A boy although adult asked me why this slogan and an ugly snap are used to discourage smoking.  ‘Govt. is an authority to do a good or any damn thing. If it feels it is not good for health it can ban cigarette manufacturing company to produce cigarette. Govt. earns revenue from cigarette producers by imposing taxes in many forms viz. sale tax, excise tax, and income tax etc. These companies generate employment too’ He said to me, ‘Govt. can’t afford to leave a handsome and hefty amount of revenue. So after showing false sympathy to public, Govt. tries to make  public fool.’

I said to him, ‘Whatever, you think is correct.  But there is also other side of the coin too. Smoking causes addiction. Those who smokes cigarette can’t quit it instantly. If Govt. closes down cigarette factories, smuggling of cigarette will be started. One day, these smugglers would be powerful. They would start interfering into the functioning of Govt., and would create a lot of trouble for Govt.’ Hearing of this, he was looking a little bit satisfied.

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