Lord Of The Forest

Lord of The Forest
( A lecture delivered in 1937 at the inauguration of the Festival of Planting Trees)
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PREAMBLE: Much before environmental degradations became the critical cries of our times, about one hundred years ago two writers from Bengal in their writings began to sound the warning bells regarding destruction of forests and the environment. One was Bhibutibhushan who is known as the author of Pather Panchali and who depicted the essential dilemma in an amazing book "Aranyak" ( Of the Forest) and the other one was Rabindranath.

A few years before his death, Rabindranath formally initiated in the campus of the university that he had founded a program of planting of trees and an annual day was earmarked for this activity. He gave a lecture in the inaugural event. The lecture is even more relevant today, but is all the more striking for the prescience of a sensitive mind and a great seer.

Here is a translation by me of that address to the campus community. The original address in Bangla is also provided.

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Lord of The Forest
( A lecture in 1937 to inaugurate the Festival of Planting Trees)

In the first phase of creation, the earth was rocky and barren. There was no hint of her compassion to any form of life around her. In all directions the volcanoes were erupting; the frequent earthquakes made the ground unquiet. While this was going on, in an unforeseen auspicious moment the goddess of the forest sent her forest nymphs to this theater of the earth. The green grass began to cover what was naked; slowly shrubs and trees appeared as messengers of life. Animals were still not upon the scene. In order to welcome and nurture the incipient and precious life, the trees made their own food and provided shade upon the ground. Their greatest gift was to harness the fiery rays of the sun and to store them for future consumption by mankind when, much later, human beings would make their appearance . Even now our civilization continues to make progress drawing from the same source of life and energy.

Human beings are prone to being wasteful. As long as they roamed in the forests, they maintained a rich meaningful balanced interaction with nature. As they began to form settlements, they started to lose their sense of belonging with the forests. The human beings forgot their very first set of friends who brought to the earth the original and the divine gift of life; instead they began to attack the forests in the most cruel and thoughtless manner so that they could make their own homes built with wood, bricks and mortar. By ignoring the blessing brought by the primordial green trees, human beings marked the beginning of what was to become a cursed existence. Today parts of northern India are becoming arid and suffering from extreme heat during the summer months. But students of archaeology would know that these areas were once covered with forests where the hermits would stay in their simple but beautiful dwellings in the cool shade of tall trees. Human beings dealt with the gift of nature like a vulture; unhappy with the bounty offered to them, they destroyed the forests without any care in the world. Deforestation is leading to gradual desertification. If we are to avoid a calamitous end for ourselves, we have to recall the divine spirit which gave us the boon of the forests and pray that the life force that once sustained us, may the same life force protect our land; may it give us shade for comfort and fruits for sustenance.

The problem has not cropped up specifically for us or just today. Everywhere it is a great challenge to save the treasures of forests from the devouring greed of mankind. In the United States too, the timber industry has destroyed forests resulting in sand blown storms destroying fertile fields. The creator of the universe had sent the messenger of life and made arrangement for its nourishment, to which the human beings added the ingredient of death borne out of greed. Human society has been subjected to so much curse because of its superseding the divine intention to nurture life. Wanton self indulgence and consequent loss of forests have brought about gaping self inflicted wounds. Those trees which provided the canopy of leaves that would purify the air , the great mass of fallen leaves which would make the ground fecund, they have been uprooted. Whatever was gifted as life to the good earth, mankind oblivious to its own good has destroyed these very things.

It is now time to repent. Though our resources are limited, we will devote it to make the stage to welcome back the divine spirit of the life in our environment. Our meager beginning today has two parts. First is tilling the fields; tilling the fields to meet our needs; our needs for food grains. Tilling the land is our unavoidable duty to ourselves. But we must give something back in return so that we lessen the damage caused to the earth. To redress her wounds, to replenish what we take, we will inaugurate the festival of planting trees. It is our earnest hope that the seeds we sow today, the saplings that we plant today will grow into green fields and beautiful shady trees
which will make this little corner of our world with fruit laden forests and verdant fields serene and beautiful.

(1937)

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অরণ্যদেবতা

শ্রীনিকেতনে হলকর্ষণ ও বৃক্ষরোপণ-উৎসবে কথিত

সৃষ্টির প্রথম পর্বে পৃথিবী ছিল পাষাণী, বন্ধ্যা, জীবের প্রতি তার করুণার কোনো লক্ষণ সেদিন প্রকাশ পায় নি। চারি দিকে অগ্নি-উদ্‌গীরণ চলেছিল, পৃথিবী ছিল ভূমিকম্পে বিচলিত। এমন সময় কোন্‌ সুযোগে বনলক্ষ্মী তাঁর দূতীগুলিকে প্রেরণ করলেন পৃথিবীর এই অঙ্গনে, চারি দিকে তাঁর তৃণশষ্পের অঞ্চল বিস্তীর্ণ হল, নগ্ন পৃথিবীর লজ্জা রক্ষা হল। ক্রমে ক্রমে এল তরুলতা প্রাণের আতিথ্য বহন করে। তখনো জীবের আগমন হয় নি; তরুলতা জীবের আতিথ্যের আয়োজনে প্রবৃত্ত হয়ে তার ক্ষুধার জন্য এনেছিল অন্ন, বাসের জন্য দিয়েছিল ছায়া। সকলের চেয়ে তার বড়ো দান অগ্নি, সূর্যতেজ থেকে অরণ্য অগ্নিকে বহন করেছে, তাকে দান করেছে মানুষের ব্যবহারে। আজও সভ্যতা অগ্নিকে নিয়েই অগ্রসর হয়ে চলেছে।

মানুষ অমিতাচারী। যতদিন সে অরণ্যচর ছিল ততদিন অরণ্যের সঙ্গে পরিপূর্ণ ছিল তার আদানপ্রদান; ক্রমে সে যখন নগরবাসী হল তখন অরণ্যের প্রতি মমত্ববোধ সে হারাল; যে তার প্রথম সুহৃদ্‌, দেবতার আতিথ্য যে তাকে প্রথম বহন করে এনে দিয়েছিল, সেই তরুলতাকে নির্মমভাবে নির্বিচারে আক্রমণ করলে ইঁটকাঠের বাসস্থান তৈরি করবার জন্য। আশীর্বাদ নিয়ে এসেছিলেন যে শ্যামলা বনলক্ষ্মী তাঁকে অবজ্ঞা করে মানুষ অভিসম্পাত বিস্তার করলে। আজকে ভারতবর্ষের উত্তর-অংশ তরুবিরল হওয়াতে সে অঞ্চলে গ্রীষ্মের উৎপাত অসহ হয়েছে। অথচ পুরাণপাঠক মাত্রেই জানেন যে, এক কালে এই অঞ্চল ঋষিদের অধ্যুষিত মহারণ্যে পূর্ণ ছিল, উত্তর ভারতের এই অংশ এক সময় ছায়াশীতল সুরম্য বাসস্থান ছিল। মানুষ গৃধ্‌নুভাবে প্রকৃতির দানকে গ্রহণ করেছে; প্রকৃতির সহজ দানে কুলোয় নি, তাই সে নির্মমভাবে বনকে নির্মূল করেছে। তার ফলে আবার মরুভূমিকে ফিরিয়ে আনবার উদ্যোগ হয়েছে। ভূমির ক্রমিক ক্ষয়ে এই-যে বোলপুরে ডাঙার কঙ্কাল বেরিয়ে পড়েছে, বিনাশ অগ্রসর হয়ে এসেছে-- এক সময়ে এর এমন দশা ছিল না, এখানে ছিল অরণ্য-- সে পৃথিবীকে রক্ষা করেছে ধ্বংসের হাত থেকে, তার ফলমূল খেয়ে মানুষ বেঁচেছে। সেই অরণ্য নষ্ট হওয়ায় এখন বিপদ আসন্ন। সেই বিপদ থেকে রক্ষা পেতে হলে আবার আমাদের আহ্বান করতে হবে সেই বরদাত্রী বনলক্ষ্মীকে-- আবার তিনি রক্ষা করুন এই ভূমিকে, দিন্‌ তাঁর ফল, দিন্‌ তাঁর ছায়া।

এ সমস্যা আজ শুধু এখানে নয়, মানুষের সর্বগ্রাসী লোভের হাত থেকে অরণ্যসম্পদ্‌কে রক্ষা করা সর্বত্রই সমস্যা হয়ে দাঁড়িয়েছে। আমেরিকাতে বড়ো বড়ো বন ধ্বংস করা হয়েছে; তার ফলে এখন বালু উড়িয়ে আসছে ঝড়, কৃষিক্ষেত্রকে নষ্ট করছে, চাপা দিচ্ছে। বিধাতা পাঠিয়েছিলেন প্রাণকে, চারি দিকে তারই আয়োজন করে রেখেছিলেন-- মানুষই নিজের লোভের দ্বারা মরণের উপকরণ জুগিয়েছে। বিধাতার অভিপ্রায়কে লঙ্ঘন করেই মানুষের সমাজে আজ এত অভিসম্পাত। লুব্ধ মানুষ অরণ্যকে ধ্বংস করে নিজেরই ক্ষতিকে ডেকে এনেছে; বায়ুকে নির্মল করবার ভার যে গাছপালার উপর, যার পত্র ঝরে গিয়ে ভূমিকে উর্বরতা দেয়, তাকেই সে নির্মূল করেছে। বিধাতার যা-কিছু কল্যাণের দান, আপনার কল্যাণ বিস্মৃত হয়ে মানুষ তাকেই নষ্ট করেছে।

আজ অনুতাপ করবার সময় হয়েছে। আমাদের যা সামান্য শক্তি আছে তাই দিয়ে আমাদের প্রতিবেশে মানুষের কল্যাণকারী বনদেবতার বেদী নির্মাণ করব এই পণ আমরা নিয়েছি। আজকের উৎসবের তাই দুটি অঙ্গ। প্রথম, হলকর্ষণ-- হলকর্ষণে আমাদের প্রয়োজন অন্নের জন্য, শস্যের জন্য; আমাদের নিজেদের প্রতি কর্তব্যের পালনের জন্য এই হলকর্ষণ। কিন্তু এর দ্বারা বসুন্ধরার যে অনিষ্ট হয় তা নিবারণ করবার জন্য আমরা কিছু ফিরিয়ে দিই যেন। ধরণীর প্রতি কর্তব্যপালনের জন্য, তার ক্ষতবেদনা নিবারণের জন্য আমাদের বৃক্ষরোপণের এই আয়োজন। কামনা করি, এই অনুষ্ঠানের ফলে চারি দিকে তরুচ্ছায়া বিস্তীর্ণ হোক, ফলে শস্যে এই প্রতিবেশ শোভিত আনন্দিত হোক।

কার্তিক, ১৩৪৫

A mile a day ......

এমনি করে ঘুরিব দূরে বাহিরে ... ..

(Emoni korey ghuribo durey bahir-ey ... )

I shall keep wandering. Away from home. Far away .....

There are two contrasting experiences  from my childhood and adolescent years that helped me to develop a habit which  has stayed with me through the rest of my life until now.

It developed while growing up in my beautiful, beautiful village -- unless one sees my village, one would not know how delicately, how silently, how devastaingly beautiful it is ... More specifically the walks ... I could run around .. go from one village to another .. just shout out  to my very young mother that I am going to her parental home three km away and run off through paddy fields, negotating grazing cows, past those ponds dark and deep  lined with palm trees. The open sky, dazzlingly bright or filled with grey clouds, the wind across the field filled me with happiness beyong belief.

Then we came to Kolkata - five of us in a single room. Gone were the rains falling on natural ponds; here during monsson the roads became ponds filled with sewage. Still Kolkata is or was Kolkata .... and again I took to walking long distances .. through the narrow bylanes of North Kolkata .... For a good eleven years I walked along these roads, covered great distances on foot, and observed a trapesty of life that almost no city in India can offer now. I was lucky. My parents either did not want to or could not afford to keep an eye on me and I wandered round and round  a city that reverberated with gunfights on my way to school  during Naxalite movement, a city that dimmed lights at night during the 1971 Bangladesh war of liberation when according to the Dhaka radio Pakistani army would claim to have already captured my beloved Howrah bridge ( !) and a city that provided escape via trips to my village in sleepy trains .....

These walks have saved me. I know that over many years  in times of trouble Mother Mary did come to me speaking words of wisdom while I walked along roads on Long Island, Cambridge, New Jersey and many years and many kilometers later now in Bangalore.

A mile a day may or may not keep the doctor away ( certainly not for ever ), but

My walks have kept me going........

এমনি করে ঘুরিব দূরে বাহিরে,

          আর তো গতি নাহি রে মোর নাহি রে ॥

          যে পথে তব রথের রেখা ধরিয়া

          আপনা হতে কুসুম উঠে ভরিয়া,

চন্দ্র ছুটে, সূর্য ছুটে,    সে পথতলে পড়িব লুটে--

          সবার পানে রহিব শুধু চাহি রে ॥

          তোমার ছায়া পড়ে যে সরোবরে গো

          কমল সেথা ধরে না, নাহি ধরে গো।

জলের ঢেউ তরল তানেসে ছায়া লয়ে মাতিল গানে,

          ঘিরিয়া তারে ফিরিব তরী বাহি রে।

          যে বাঁশিখানি বাজিছে তব ভবনে

          সহসা তাহা শুনিব মধু পবনে।

তাকায়ে রব দ্বারের পানে,   সে তানখানি লইয়া কানে

          বাজায়ে বীণা বেড়াব গান গাহি রে

a life - lived in music ( and cricket)

My wife's Guruji ( Hindustani Classical ) passed away on Oct. 31 at the age of 89. My wife had her last lesson just five days prior to that and she says that her last lesson was just amazingly good, as her guruji's voice would effortlessly strike the upper pancham in joyful abandon. As an amazing coincidence, the raga for practice on the last day was Behag, the same raga she had learned on her very fist session with guruji some seven years ago

Seeta Kagal - her Guruji - was a remarkable person. A great singer - student of Heerabai Barodekar and Sawai Gandharv - she was guru-behin of Bhimsen and Gangubai with whom she had a life long association. Her voice was amazing,the taans - in the true kirana gharana - would cascade down effortlessly as beads of pearls - Her last Bangalore live Radio program was when she was 88. In her youth she had traveled pre independent and independent India, the length and the breadth of it ( in trains ), had performed for the Nizams from behind the veil, had played cricket wearing a saree at Wadhia College Pune. And unlike most gurus she was a compassionate person, ever supportive of her students. I am glad that she did not suffer. Her effervescent spirit surely contributed to her amazing physical condition - even at 89 she could lift the harmonium from the floor on to her bed. I am even more glad the she passed away with one unfulfilled wish: that of experiencing a headache before she died - fortunately she died without knowing that. It is a pity that many people were not aware of her lately - but that mattered little to this cheerful person. ( She was an aunt of Chandravarkar, the musician behind the music in Ghasiram Kotoyal)

Must mention here that she was fully supported by her husband who passed away last year at the age of 93. He as a very upright Police officer from the British days - actually was in charge of Gandhi in Yervada jail and again just an amazing austere human being. They were a remarkable couple in their total devotion to and complete support for each other which was, is and will be rare whatever way one looks at it.

It was a privilege to have known them over the last seven years. I am sorry that I did not go over too often partly to save myself the embarrassment of singing in her presence as she would always ask me which raga I have been learning ( I was taking lessons for two years from a different guru in 2002-2004). How I would miss going into the well known house on CMH road - perhaps the last family house standing sandwiched between the Jealous Jeans and Karnataka bank, a house where apparently a very young 3-4 years old Rahul Dravid would come and at the time of leaving would sit on the staircase and cry refusing to go back to his home on the 12the main ( Guruji and the Dravids were family friends - how I do not know ) and where much later an octogenarian would be glued to the TV during cricket matches - that was her other passion.

For her students as well as others like me who have known her the best tribute to her would be keep living a happy, curious, engaged and passionate life free from malice, free from the weight of the world -- to live in the music of the inner mind.

14 Years and waiting .... at last a first step

14 years!!! Could not come a moment sooner than that .... I am talking about the Women's reservation bill in the parliament today. lets hope the reduced testosterone level in the parliament would lead to more substantive discussions in the future than fist fights - but with didi, mayawati and Jayalalitha u never know ....

Public Servant

I created this blog for myself to write about "people, events, places, things that may move me and might move others also ....."

By that criterion, the events in Mumbai certainly qualify.

I do not want to write about those aspects that have been covered so much - courage, senselessness, intelligence failure, etc.

In addition to all this, what also struck me is the almost total meaninglessness of the term "public servant" as applied to politicians, particularly the ruling politicians.

Just one look at R R Patil and his swaggering walk and talk to the media, and others like him convinces you that they are not what the term public servant was supposed to mean. They are their own personal servants and they do that well.

Could something be done using technology to bring our politicians face to face with this aspect in a manner that would embarrass and shame them as much as it is possible to do that to shameless people? Would a Public Servant Index ( PSI ) created out of voluntary web poll work if it lists all our CMs, and MPs along with how they have fared as a public servant? I recall that years ago the courageous N. Vittal, in his capacity as the Chief Vigilance Officer, had put up the names of politicians with the most disproportionate assets and that had worked for sometime - worked in the sense that suddenly some of the politicians had to face what they could not hide from the public - then of course they learned how to shrug that off.

Let us also point out that there have been and there are great public servants; unfortunately, the ministers and the MPs and MLAs seem to have forgotten how to be that.

One of the reasons Manmohan Singh still maintains his equity with a lot of different types of people, is regardless of whether you think of him as incompetent, indecisive, weak or not, he does project the image that he is there as a public servant and that he spends more time thinking of how to serve the public than how to serve himself.

At least for that I thank him - it would be a real pity if the Prime Minister looked and behaved like the deputy CM of Maharashtra.

a death anniversary comes alive

Yesterday morning the gandharva music channel on worldspace kept playing the Shenai. My wife suddenly realized that it must be Bismillah Khan's birth or death anniversary.

Indeed Ustad Bismillah Khan passed away two years ago on 21st August, 2006.

He was a genius who did not allow his achievement and fame take him away from his roots. This is what made him so special in this era of hype and rootless cosmopolitanism.

Almost by definition, genius do not replicate in a routine manner. It is unlikely that we will have another like him in our life time, but who knows? In the mean while, we can listen to his shenai, and feel blessed.