Skip to main content

The Turbulence of the Ganga


About twenty years ago, I made my first trek in the Garhwal Himalayas. Hemkunt, at an elevation of 15,000 feet above sea level was our destination. The principal of my school in Delhi at that time was a passionate mountaineer and it was he who arranged this, and later a few more, trek for the senior students and their teachers. I was not quite enthusiastic initially because I doubted my stamina to make the climbs. But I was happy that I went on those treks. I am happier now, looking back. They were quite unique and rare experiences.

The first time in my life that I stood on the side of the highway and looked at the queer phenomenon of the Alaknanda and the Bhagirathi Rivers merging into one to become the Ganga at Devprayag was during that Hemkunt trip. It was queer because the Alaknanda is a crystal-clear river while the Bhagirathi is always turbulent. Their sources make the difference.

The source is important.

When I saw a picture of Devprayag in a Malayalam journal this morning, used as an illustration for a poem, I was reminded of my first trek and my fascination with the Ganga that accepted the purity of the Alaknanda and the turbulence of the Bhagirathi. The Ganga is a symbol of India; it accepts and transforms… It doesn’t destroy. No demolitions. No fabrications of history. It is a natural merge and flow.

Interestingly, the Malayalam poem in the journal mentioned above makes a vague reference to T S Eliot’s The Rock. My thoughts swayed like a trapeze artiste from Devprayag’s magic to Eliot’s Rock and back.

Where is the life we have lost in living? Eliot asks. Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

The poem was written ninety years ago when the world was not overloaded with information.

Eliot goes on to warn us: There is no life that is not in community.

And that the man of excellent intention but impure heart is deadly.

The last line of the Malayalam poem referred to above is: What is great is not without some merges.

The Ganga’s purity as well as its impurity makes up India’s national texture. No one can rip them apart without destroying the integrity. Excellent intention is not enough; the purity of the heart matters too.

  

Comments

  1. Replies
    1. Some of our leaders should read poetry instead of history.

      Delete
  2. What a great piece! "The Ganga is a symbol of India; it accepts and transforms" I don't think anyone has said it better! Thank you, I'll be using it from now on to get my point across about the ignoble changes taking place in the country~

    ReplyDelete
  3. I loved the lines...no fabrications.... just merge and flow.Very beautiful thoughts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We live in such troubled times that poetry has to be rebirthed.

      Delete
  4. That must have been an interesting trip. Sometimes we have to be pushed into things that we don't necessarily want, but we enjoy once we're there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I loved all the Himalayan treks in those days. Unforgettable experiences.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Country where humour died

Humour died a thousand deaths in India after May 2014. The reason – let me put it as someone put it on X.  The stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra called a politician some names like ‘traitor’ which made his audience laugh because they misunderstood it as a joke. Kunal Kamra has to explain the joke now in a court of justice. I hope his judge won’t be caught with crores of rupees of black money in his store room . India itself is the biggest joke now. Our courts of justice are huge jokes. Our universities are. Our temples, our textbooks, even our markets. Let alone our Parliament. I’m studying the Ramayana these days in detail because I’ve joined an A-to-Z blog challenge and my theme is Ramayana, as I wrote already in an earlier post . In order to understand the culture behind Ramayana, I even took the trouble to brush up my little knowledge of Sanskrit by attending a brief course. For proof, here’s part of a lesson in my handwriting.  The last day taught me some subhashit...

Lucifer and some reflections

Let me start with a disclaimer: this is not a review of the Malayalam movie, Lucifer . These are some thoughts that came to my mind as I watched the movie today. However, just to give an idea about the movie: it’s a good entertainer with an engaging plot, Bollywood style settings, superman type violence in which the hero decimates the villains with pomp and show, and a spicy dance that is neatly tucked into the terribly orgasmic climax of the plot. The theme is highly relevant and that is what engaged me more. The role of certain mafia gangs in political governance is a theme that deserves to be examined in a good movie. In the movie, the mafia-politician nexus is busted and, like in our great myths, virtue triumphs over vice. Such a triumph is an artistic requirement. Real life, however, follows the principle of entropy: chaos flourishes with vengeance. Lucifer is the real winner in real life. The title of the movie as well as a final dialogue from the eponymous hero sugg...

Abdullah’s Religion

O Abdulla Renowned Malayalam movie actor Mohanlal recently offered special prayers for Mammootty, another equally renowned actor of Kerala. The ritual was performed at Sabarimala temple, one of the supreme Hindu pilgrimage centres in Kerala. No one in Kerala found anything wrong in Mohanlal, a Hindu, praying for Mammootty, a Muslim, to a Hindu deity. Malayalis were concerned about Mammootty’s wellbeing and were relieved to know that the actor wasn’t suffering from anything as serious as it appeared. Except O Abdulla. Who is this Abdulla? I had never heard of him until he created an unsavoury controversy about a Hindu praying for a Muslim. This man’s Facebook profile describes him as: “Former Professor Islahiaya, Media Critic, Ex-Interpreter of Indian Ambassador, Founder Member MADHYAMAM.” He has 108K followers on FB. As I was reading Malayalam weekly this morning, I came to know that this Abdulla is a former member of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Kerala , a fundamentalist organisation. ...

Violence and Leaders

The latest issue of India Today magazine studies what it calls India’s Gross Domestic Behaviour (GDB). India is all poised to be an economic superpower. But what about its civic sense? Very poor, that’s what the study has found. Can GDP numbers and infrastructure projects alone determine a country’s development? Obviously, no. Will India be a really ‘developed’ country by 2030 although it may be $7-trillion economy by then? Again, no is the answer. India’s civic behaviour leaves a lot, lot to be desired. Ironically, the brand ambassador state of the country, Uttar Pradesh, is the worst on most parameters: civic behaviour, public safety, gender attitudes, and discrimination of various types. And UP is governed by a monk!  India Today Is there any correlation between the behaviour of a people and the values and principles displayed by their leaders? This is the question that arose in my mind as I read the India Today story. I put the question to ChatGPT. “Yes,” pat came the ...

The Ramayana Chronicles: 26 Stories, Endless Wisdom

I’m participating in the A2Z challenge of Blogchatter this year too. I have been regular with this every April for the last few years. It’s been sheer fun for me as well as a tremendous learning experience. I wrote mostly on books and literature in the past. This year, I wish to dwell on India’s great epic Ramayana for various reasons the prominent of which is the new palatial residence in Ayodhya that our Prime Minister has benignly constructed for a supposedly homeless god. “Our Ram Lalla will no longer reside in a tent,” intoned Modi with his characteristic histrionics. This new residence for Lord Rama has become the largest pilgrimage centre in India, drawing about 100,000 devotees every day. Not even the Taj Mahal, a world wonder, gets so many footfalls. Ayodhya is not what it ever was. Earlier it was a humble temple town that belonged to all. Several temples belonging to different castes made all devotees feel at home. There was a sense of belonging, and a sense of simplici...