I am Daarji

For men in olive greens…or as we call them the men in ‘OG’, travelling has been a one big added benefit, at least for some of us who are bitten by the travel bug.  We get to live all over India and if good fortune comes our way then perhaps we get global deputations or two like I did.  The opportunity to live in different places teaches many valuable things about other cultures and ways of life. Our families travel and so do our pets, it is a complete translocation.                               But there is a difference between those who travel to gain knowledge about the world and its people and those who travel for pleasure as well…for if you derive personal pleasure then you gain the power to feel the soul of the place and your journey becomes a spiritual odyssey.                 As I look back I could say with conf...

If I f one tries to think about history, it seems to me - it's like looking at a range of mountains. And the first time you see them, they look one way. But then time changes, the pattern of light shifts. Maybe you've moved slightly, your perspective has changed. The mountains are the same... but they look very different. - Richard Harris It was in the summer of 1967/68 that my mother and I first came to Kashmir valley. My father was stationed at Baramulla, on the banks of Jhelum River, a little outside of Srinagar. Baramulla was even then, an important military town sitting astride the Uri- Srinagar Road, which along with its travelling companion, the Jhelum river crossed over to POK a little ahead at Uri. Twenty years ago bloody history of rape and loot had been taken place on this road…. But to ­me the scars of the humanitarian crisis were not perceptible. Perhaps my teen years could not perceive. Once again it was summer, but it was summer of 1975, and as an ad...

The film Rebel Queen tells the remarkable story of the last Sikh ruler of Lahore – a fearless Maharani who waged two wars against British rule in India. She is an inspiring figure for young Asian women today. An Indian woman wearing a crinoline over her traditional clothes, and emeralds and pearls under her bonnet, walks in Kensington Gardens in 1861. She is the last Sikh queen of Lahore, the capital of the Punjab empire, and her name is   Jindan   Kaur.  She died two years later, in 1863, and was buried in west London. MaharaniJindan Kaur's life – much of which was spent raging against the British empire for cheating her out of Punjab, then a vast country stretching from the Khyber Pass to Kashmir – is the subject of a film called 'The Rebel Queen', which premiered at New York's International Sikh film festival and is set to be shown in the UK in February. Her revolt began when her husband, the last Maharaja of  Punjab, died of a stroke in...

WHO IS SANTA CLAUS? Ho Ho Ho!!! For all the kids’ world over Santa Claus is real…. But let me share a story with you that he was really real…. And this is the true story of Santa Claus. Santa Claus , is also known as  Saint Nicholas, is  called Kris Kringle as well, or we could simply call him "Santa". He is a  lovable figure  in the western world and is said to bring   gifts   to the homes of the good children on Christmas eve. By 1920 Santa Claus was generally depicted as a plump, jolly, white-bearded man wearing a red coat with white fur-trimmed collar and cuffs, white-cuffed red trousers, and black leather belt and boots— This is Santa of the 20 th  century brought to life by works of popular illustrators….And this how we picture Santa today, living at The North Pole north, in a land of everlasting snow…. With his wife  Mrs Claus , and a large number of  magical elves , and at least eight or nine  reindeers....

                                         Lohri the multifaceted festival,   is celebrated every year on 13th of January and invariably the time is such that we are caught in the midst of a bone-chilling and cold misty winter. Lohri, I often laughingly talk about it as a festival of defrosting. We could say it is a festival of seasons. The history of Lohri, over a period of time, has become quite hybridized that the root and its transition in time are latticed intricately with seasons, element and folklore. The concept is probably as old as that of Indus Valley civilization and Vedic times itself. I In Punjab, the festival of   Lohri marks   the coming of the end of winter or we could say the coming of spring and the New Year. The bonfires are lit at night and in its warmth, people come together singing lilting folk songs and h...