My Reminiscences of a Treasure Hunt

Years before, or I think I should say decades before, ours was a rich family. In those ancient days when the feudalism was still prevailing, our family had vast agricultural lands and many people used to work on those lands. No doubt, our ancestors might have made good money on those days when the law of the land was the words of feudal lords. They might have enjoyed the life too very much as they were the undisputed kings of the region.

Feudalism in India

As the time passed, the generations became lazy and started living on the wealth accumulated by the ancestors. They neglected agriculture which was the main source of income for the family. The lands that left uncultivated turned venues for their unholy practices. With the power they still possessed they could make the life of common man miserable. They forgot the truth that they cannot multiply the money without putting a bit of hard work. Slowly they got exhausted with the stock of money.

The long gap from the work took its toll as they forgot how to cultivate. However they have not worried much about it as they got somebody to do the work for them. They leased out the land to those who worked hard on their farms and produced gold out of it. At the same time our ancestors were quite happy with the lease amount they receive regularly. They spent the whole day on the easy chair placed in the courtyard and nights in the huts of hapless slaves. They got acquainted with a new lifestyle which earned them money without much hard work.

As the time passed, several social reforms occurred and the agricultural lands have gone to who cultivate there in real. Family lost acres of land in the land reforms bill introduced by the newly appointed communist government and thus lost the income from those lands. Nobody knows to work as all of them spend the life on easy chairs.  There were many valuable jewelry and utensils in our house which all have been amassed by our ancestors. One by one start going out of the house for a price. Thus the old days have returned for quite some time. But there is a limit. As we got exhausted with valuable articles, the same repression period returned. 

Traditional Utensils of Kerala

However, there was an easy solution for all problems if you are lazy. Solution has been found immediately and the same was to sell pieces of lands that still rest with us. Time and tide did not wait here too. The money raised from selling lands too got exhausted. Everybody was thinking hard about the next step to take. There is nothing more to sell other than the house where we stay. Nobody is still ready to go out and work hard to earn some money for the family. We need some easy solution. We all spent days together in discussing various strategies and ideas.

During that period one of my uncles had a dream that there is a huge amount of treasure hidden in our compound. The god who came in his dreams clearly told him that the treasure is located beneath a mango tree that was in the south west corner of the compound. We did not have time to lose. We all started digging work on the very next day. The first day has gone on cutting down the mango tree. The very next day we have started digging. After three or four day’s continuous work, the pickaxe touched on a metal surface. We all became more enthusiastic. Now we are very near to a good fortune. At last we found the treasure and now the remaining task is to remove the soil around it and to take it out. Our shovels worked fast in removing soil. By early morning next day we succeeded in bringing the treasure box outside the pit.  

It was a huge and heavy wooden box locked with three locks, but no keys were seen in the vicinity. We did not have patience to wait so we broke open the box. To our utter shock, there was no treasure inside that, but there was a walking stick. Just beneath the walking stick there was a bunch of palm leaves. Such leaves were used in the ancient days to write scriptures. 

“Yes, here it is. The exact way to treasure will be mentioned in that leaves.” Shouted my eldest uncle, who was the head of the family. He took both the leaves bunch and the walking stick in his hands and started looking at the bunch of leaves closely. AS it was fully covered with dust, nothing was visible. He wiped the leaves with his hand kerchief and then started staring. There was something written on that, but he could not read it fully as it was not clear. He rubbed a wet cloth on the leaf surface to remove the remaining dust too. That was a successful effort and this time the written scripture was very clear.

My eldest uncle read it out loudly.

“When the head of the family has to dig for the treasure accumulated by his ancestors, he is eligible for this walking stick. This is the right time to show him the way out, because if he continues here, the house itself will become somebody else’s.”

As soon as he finished reading, somebody handed over the walking stick to him. He had nothing more to say. Even without saying god bye, he started walking out of the compound. And we all heaved a euphoric sigh of relief.

And India was going for poll on that day.

Will Narendra Modi Make a Good Prime Minister?

India witnessed much havoc after the main opposition party BJP named Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate. Recent surveys predict a narrow upper hand for BJP over the ruling congress led UPA. However, the surveys predict that BJP will fall short of absolute majority and will have to depend on several regional parties to form a government. In this scenario, it will be apt to discuss about the policies and ideas of Modi to find out whether he can be a good Prime Minister.

Narendra Modi

Communalist Tag is Something That Should Be Neglected

Major national parities in India such as Indian National Congress and Lefts call him as a communalist or Hindu extremist. They are alleging that he was behind the Godra riot and various so called fake encounters in which many Muslims lost their life and hard earned property. The incident has happened almost a decade back and even those allegations are remaining unproved with solid evidences. Although a couple of ministers in his ministry and a few police officers have been implicated in some cases related to riots and encounters, so far no investigation agency could name him as a suspect.

A riot has occurred in New Delhi immediately after the murder of Indira Gandhi and when asked about it, her son and Congress leader, late Rajiv Gandhi dismissed it as a natural process. According to him, when a giant tree falls down, many smaller ones will get destroyed automatically. However he could become the Prime Minister of India sooner. Here no court has named Rajiv Gandhi as an accused in any cases and so is the case of Modi too. Unless and until he is proved to be a culprit, there is no point in accusing as the one. Most astonishing thing is that all these years, India was ruled by Congress and all the central investigation agencies were under their control. This deprives them with the opportunity to allege political interference in the investigation. Now the only choices are that either they should admit that there is no evidence against Narendra Modi or they are not capable of running a government which could not complete the investigation for a period of long ten years.  Now there is no point in keep on alleging that Narendra Modi is a communalist.

What his approaches towards development says

Narendra Modi has been declared as the prime ministerial candidate of BJP and since then he had attended many public functions at various parts of the country. While attending the birth day function of Mata Amrithanandamayee, he upheld the Indian philosophy and claimed that building of a strong nation is possible only when we build the same on the robust base of our culture and tradition.

If you take look at Indian culture and heritage, it is clearly evident that it is based on agriculture sector. Various festivals, traditional rituals and beliefs are closely related to agriculture. Festivals have been fixed according to various stages of cultivation such as sowing, harvest etc. In total, if you want to stick to Indian tradition and heritage, you cannot neglect the agricultural sector. 

A scene from Kuttanadu, the rice bowl of Kerala

If you really want to improve this sector, you should concentrate more on the development of villages and on providing necessary infrastructure and facilities to the farmers. The UPA government has neglected this sector totally and was running behind the multinationals and domestic corporate houses begging to invest in various mega projects. The kuttanadu package, a project recommended by Swaminathan Commission to protect the cultivation in Kuttanadu region in Kerala has not been completed so far. But the work of acquiring lands for building IT parks and Special Economic Zones went in full pace. This approach of the government ended up in the shortage of food and in the price rise of essential commodities. Besides corruption, the price rise will be the major issue in the next general election. Can Modi give a satisfactory answer to this problem? It seemed that he can as he completed his speech at Mata Amrithanandamayee Math.

However, his inaugural speech on the National Summit on Inclusive Urban Development held at Gandhinagar brought in a different opinion about Modi. At the function where representatives from 411 districts from 26 states in India participated he said that the urbanization should not be treated as a challenge, instead it is an opportunity.

Rapid urbanization is a fact in India. But it is not a natural process. It is a byproduct of wrong policies taken by different governments in different periods. It all started when the present prime minister was a financial minster. The globalization and liberalization policies started giving emphasis on industrial sector and as a result the agricultural sector started getting neglected. When the different governments were eager to invite foreign investments and busy with establishing IT hubs and special economic zones, they forgot to provide enough irrigation facilities and other supports to the poor farmers. When they started reducing the duties and taxes on import of many commodities in the name of industrial development, the domestic producers suffered a lot. Reduction in the price of commodities and the reduction in the total production due to insufficient facilities turned farming a nightmare and many farmers had to end their lives due to heavy debts.

Thus the rural economy has spoiled leaving people with only one choice to migrate to cities in search of jobs. Thus the rapid urbanization started in India.

Evil Effects of Urbanization

Hectic traffic on city roads

In many developed countries where the population density is less, urbanization will not make much difference. But in countries like India, it is a serious problem which cannot be handled so easily. As the population increases, the cities will turn dirty and unhygienic. Many people who had to migrate to cities in search of jobs have to live in slums in pathetic conditions. Moreover, the increase in migration may result in the increase in crime rates. Thus the life in cities will be horrible if the urbanization continues like this. A country like India with 1.3 Billion people cannot offer jobs for all in cities. Poverty and the miseries then follow will contribute to the destructive tendencies and finally may end up in a rebellion.

When the cities suffer such backdrops from urbanization, villages too will suffer a lot. AS the young generation prefers to migrate, the villages will be left with old and disabled people. This will certainly effect the functioning of villages. Agricultural sector will be finished completely and we will have to depend on other countries for our food. This will make the living cost even higher and life miserable for the lower and middle class people. So, urbanization cannot be seen as an opportunity as Narendra Modi says. If his plan is to give momentum to the urbanization process, there is no doubt that the country will have to suffer more. And going with his history, there is every chance for it to happen as he always favored industrialists and corporate houses.

Will the Gujarat work for India

Narendra Modi brought in several changes in Gujarat and that is the only one reason for him to return to power for the third consecutive time with a huge majority. However, that does not support his ability to run the country as a whole. Gujarat has a population density of 308 people per square kilometer whereas the population density of India is about 383 per square kilometer. Of course there is no much difference in the figures. But the difference is huge when you understand that the population is not uniformly distributed. When Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have a population density of about 300-350 per square kilometer, it is more than 800 in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. It crosses 1000 in Kerala.

You may be wondering what these figures have to do with the development. Yes, it has. The population density gives an idea about the land available for developmental processes. Such lands are not available all over the nation and then the projects will have to get limited for certain area. In other words, if the policy of industrialization and urbanization will be followed, a few states will get benefits out of that while some others will be totally neglected. In a country like India where the states are divided on the basis of the language spoken by the majority, this will create enormous problems. The sons of the soil claims which had come up in various cities a few years back will start coming again and may result in a civil war too.

Conclusion

Now this is high time to think about the next parliament elections. It should not be the personal image or charisma of a person that should lead us. More importance should be given to the policies and plans of political parties and should vote for the best policy and plan. In a democracy, there a lot of limits for individuals as the decision will be taken by the majority.

Second thing is that one should set the priorities rightly. A communal riot which has happened a decade back and some unproven cases related to those riots should not be taken seriously. It is our life and our future that we should take care.