To day is the Spring Equinox . Rohini bakshi has written a very informatively on the festivals associated with it.
 The above link tells us of the different ways we celebrate New Year. It is also the start of the nine day Vasantha Navaratri. Happy Vasantha Navaratri to all.
  This prayer from the rig Veda is something we must strive for in this disturbing Social atmosphere.. The site also gives the lyrics in Devanagari & English scripts along with meaning. Beautiful.
 Loka SamastahaBhava Sukinoh Bhavanthu.

  Dr.HildaRaja's Repost to Ribeiro's Rant.

Happy Chandramaana New Year greetings to all who visit my blog. On this auspicious day I have restarted my blog .  Today I am posting what my teacher/Professor Mrs Hilda Raja wrote to me as her response to Julio Ribeiro's letter in the Indian Express. She has also put this post on her blog on WordPress. Please visit her blog,too. She also mentions in one of her comments that the Indian express refused her article,too, just as Robert Rosario's was too.

 It speaks of her anguish and anger at Ribeiro 's  baseless accusations against India's Hindus. she also speaks of the record and impact of Christianity in the world .

 Please read and share.  

                                      

                                    Truth must be upheld 

I read Mr Julio Ribeiro’s ‘I feel I am on a hit list’(Indian Express dated 16^th March)I did not react immediately because I wanted to let  it sink and see if there was any foundation in what he stated. To me who am 78 the whole accusation of his seems to have no foundation. As of Julio Ribeiro- my ancestry also can be traced to Hinduism. While he agrees on this the question arises why we are Christians today. How did it happen? What kind of inducement-allurement and what strategy of proselytization were used those days for my ancestors to become Christians? Unlike Julio Ribeiro I do not feel threatened-neither do I fear that I am on a hit list and I feel very much an Indian no matter who says what. The point to note is that the Catholic Church to which Julio Ribeiro and I belong has a parampara of a persecution mania. This is  because we have inherited and are born through persecution. Not by the Hindus but by the Dutch, the Portuguese, the French and the English. This is precisely why though Julio Ribeiro acquiescence that his DNA if tested, it will not differ markedly from Mohan Bhagwat’s. The same can be said of our Hindu ancestors. Then what happened down the line.

We must agree that there was persecution, forced conversion by the conquerors. It was a question of torture and death to which the Hindu ancestors were subjected to. This is not fairy tales but recorded history when thousands of temples were destroyed, houses were ransacked and people were brutalized Those who indulged in this human rights violations were treated as Saints by the Vatican and raised to Sainthood .But now we raise a hue and cry against ‘ghar Vapsi’ What was good for one is not good for another. It is not though these were in the hoary past. Even today most of the NGOs do indulge in this proselytization. I wish the government of Indiaban all foreign funds. If China could develop without  such NGOs and the foreign funds why should India not?

I must bring the Vatican’s mind set in this context because it is relevant .When it comes to conversion it will go the extra mile .Look at what it indulged in during the regime of PiusXII. He did not hesitate to join hands with Hitler who attacked Yugoslavia. Hitler partitioned the country into the Catholic Croatia and the Orthodox Serbia  Then followed a massive ethnic cleansing The aryanisation process which separated the Jews,Serbs  as undesirables. These were deported to concentrated camps. Children were not spared. The ethnic cleansing was done by the open support of the clergy-priests and nuns supervised and Vatican followed the ‘omerta” and looked the other way. Special death camps were set up for children. Several commandants and officers at these death camps were Catholic priests.Francisan monks supervised the mass execution. This ethnic cleansing thus had the blessings ofVatican..There were monetary gains for theVatican from the Holocaust in Croatia. In the certificate of conversion which was sold for a few hundred of dinars the Vatican netted millions. Vatican was well informed and yet the Pope maintained silence. In fact not a single member of the clergy was held accountable.-though the commandants of the death camps were priests. When after the war, Archbishop Stepinak was arrested for war crimes by the Yugoslav government Puis XII excommunicated everyone who had taken part in the trial. Later the Archbishop was presented as the champion of religious freedom! It is interesting that in 1998 Pope John II traveled to the Republic of Croatia to announce the beatification of Archbishop Stepinak

It must be noted that the Vatican abetted and colluded with Mussolini and Hiltler in all their brutality. It stood to gain both in terms of power and money. Yet we often hear the word ‘Fascist’ being thrown against the BJP and the saffron brigade. This is part of the christian  parampara of the Catholic Church to which Julio Ribeiro and I belong to. Yet we are scandalized by the ‘ghar Vapsi. What about the Inquisitions held in India-in Goa .With so much of baggage how can we point a finger to others-to the saffron groups and then pretend that we are being victimized and discriminated? All rapes are abominable and need to be condemned in the strongest terms. But why only the rape of the nun-be it in Orissa and now in W,Bengal be internationalized? Why and how can theVatican interfere and want to send a delegation?

In a population of nearly one and a quarter billion- human rights violations and inhuman acts are bound to happen. These need to be severely put down not politicized. It is the NGOs which create a kind of phobia .Foreign funds flow and towards this they organize dharnas and rallies. Any violation and discrimination is being attributed to the Modi’s government. But then these things had not suddenly surfaced. There is a long gestation period of discrimination-of injecting a fear psychosis. The politicians have communalized the communities.

 India is known for its secularism-it is not because the Constitution made it secular. Even before the Constitution the hindus welcomed all religions. Butchery and compulsion and forced conversion were introduced and followed by the Dutch, Portugese the French and the English. Earlier the basic tenet followed by the inhabitants of this great country was Sanatana Dharma. Even today that is the guide and the dictum

I am 78 and thought it is time to speak out .The ordinary people like me are happy and content –feel no persecution or discrimination and are not on the hit list. Even if we are, truth cannot be hidden. In fact it was the Church which had crucified TRUTH and continues to do so. Perhaps there may be aberrations to this. It must not be forgotten that Julio Ribeiro was hounded by a minority community for the alleged human rights violations in Punjab. It was not the Hindus who were behind it. So may be JR has some deep seated fear within him. But then to generalize this personal fear into the whole fabric of the Indian populace is too far fetched

I want to appeal to the government of Modi to ban the foreign funds flow into this country. We should be able to manage with what we have. Why take a begging bowl to other countries and disrupt the peace within. If other countries can manage so can we. I would like to mention about the good works done and which are being done by nuns. But then they have enormous assets. When the foreign invaders left this country they turned over all their land and houses to the churches. As if these are their grandfathers’ possessions. By all legal rights these should have been turned over to the government of India. So the Churches had at their disposal land and finances to start with. There is no accountability. Look at the Minority education Institutions which run on their own rules and regulations. Why did the Constitution founders submit to such a request and enshrine it in the Constitution? Is that not discrimination? I have studied   from LKG to PG in Minority Institutions. Later I was a faculty in one of the elite colleges in Chennai. I know how they function. The least said about them the better. Yes good work they do there is no denying but it has a price. Money flows into Vatican. There is wealth beyond measure in these Church allied institutions and in churches. So when mammon triumphs where is TRUTH. The same lenses must be used to scrutinize Mother Theresa’s work in India.

Dr Mrs Hilda Raja,

VADODARA- 

 This post is also available at her blog in WordPress   

On Pakistan in the after math of Salman Taseer's Assasination

 posted 7 /1 / '11

This is an interesting perspective on what is happening/happened in Pakistan.Why their country is the way it is-sort of.A good interview with intelligent questions that does not try to talk down to the interviewee as in Indian Media Channels or dumb down things for the Audience.

But I don't think Mr.Fatah is entirely right about Islam .The way most people interpret Islam in Theory and Practice is entirely different,and Its Practice that counts.Maybe he has accepted that the islam he knows is all there is to it. But most Mullahs seem to think different.

Updated 23/3/15 : 

 Is there much that is different since then with Pakistan ?

The link I had posted to Mr.Tarek Fatah's  interview seems to have lapsed. So I have removed link.I also noticed a typo. 'not' has been left out by mistake. I've corrected it today.

  I think this is the original link; not sure though it matches the period.

I have been doing many things the past one year.I was not able to settle down enough to write what I have been doing.Things are still as hectic,but I want to write now.One of the things that I feel happy about is the fact that I have my driving Licence for Car and Scooter now.[I got it on the 29 th ,Jan.2010.]I realise it is a year since I last wrote on my blog.I hope to keep at this ,this time 'round.

Finnally Connected!

This week we got our Internet connection ,finally. There were some hiccups after the first day but they seem to have settled down (for now,at least).I spent the time since then in catching up with my Emails and visiting my friends on the net. Being connected to the world after four months of not being able to even go to a net cafe seems as though I had been in "agnathavasam" [ Sanskrit for being incognito /in exile] all this while and have finally gained access to /acceptance in the world.

So much has happened since 1st of October,2008 when I stopped working at the School.It was one month since we had moved to our own apartment in a 108 apartment complex in Coimbatore.[Now we are closer to our children's school,though farther from my husband's workplace.] As it was a new building a lot of civil /electrical work were pending when we moved in and stopping work outside was a necessity.We were the only people to have moved in then;now there 14 families including us.Till Vijayadasami, we were the only family.Then they came one by one to join us. Now there is another family on my floor,itself.That feels nice.The noise from outside is not so industrial any more. You can hear mothers calling and babies crying.
My father-in-law became hospitalised[12/10/'08]; we faced some economic hardship[through Nov.];we celebrated 5 festivals -- Vinayaka Chathurthi,Saraswathi Puja, Diwali, Karthigai Deepam and finally Makarasankaranthi/Pongal; my son fractured his right hand [1/12/08] which has now healed. The house is 95% set. I feel more settled now than before. Hope my life here will have more of the nice stuff than the unpleasant kind.

Hi

There has been a lot of changes in my life recently -Shifting into a new home is one of the most recent.Another is giving up a job I had recently taken up[just 3 months].So there is a lot to tell,but not much time for the same.I hope to be back once we have 'net connection [which may take a couple of months] and things are somewhat settled.So until then,Auf Wiedersehen !

Am I here or not?

When Deepa asked me if my blog has been closed,I was taken aback.I did not write anything since May 19 th because Things became really busy for me at the Home front first and later because of my new job as a Principal in a newly started school.It has only the First Std. and has a lively class of 8. It is very challenging for me not only at work dealing with new people after staying confined in my house [figuratively] that is not meeting/working with anyone other than my family or at the most my neighbours , but also trying to fit in my commitments to myself and my family. I will admit that that there have been times in the past one-and-half months if I had made the right decision in starting to work outside the home for pay. But I decided to stick-on regardless,for the work can't get worser than cleaning up after a Tsunami,would it? And Hard work does not Kill , either.

There are two things that make me like working :-

1. working with children ,helping them learn.

2.the fact that I get home to bring a modest but considerable packet now that is all mine.[this is my first decent job]

So, for now I have decided to continue,come what may.I want to do the best that I can in this job so that ,atleast'that thought will stay with me.I dont expect to be appreciated.So far ,I have not seen that;I am looked with askance as I am the only person who is new in the Teaching staff category;and people are watching me ,to see if I would make a wrong step. But still I mean to plough on.