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army, betrayal, border, India Pakistan war, Indo-Pak war, kurukshetra, Pandavas Kauravas, peace & war, political treaty, terrorists
#India & #Pakistan were born of a common land. Whereas India zoomed into intellectual, monetary, industrial and literary progress, Pakistan stayed stagnant in hatred, envy and terrorist networks.
Pandavas made a meteoric leap from arid, barren Khandav to a blindingly prosperous #Indraprastha, while Kauravas stagnated in crippling envy, hatred and murder plots.
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Pakistan gets million dollar gifts from #USA to fund & fuel further terrorism, while self reliant India builds wealth and fights terrorism alone.
Hastinapur had 100 princes. #Hastinapur had the readymade wisdom of Vidur, the military force of Drona-Ashwatthama and administration experience of Bhishm. Yet it was unable to expand its horizons, to perform Rajsuya yagna or amass wealth.
Indraprastha had just 5 princes. It had relatively less administrative experience. Yet they relied on their own counsel, they built an army literally from scratch, from zero. It was they who rose to martial supremacy, created alliances and triumphed in all directions to perform Rajsuya.
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Pakistan is aware of surefire defeat via direct war, whether it is 1965 or Kargil. Hence it resorts to underhanded techniques – planting handlers, encouraging training camps, sowing dissent and sending cross border terrorists.
Duryodhan & co. knew they couldn’t face Pandava might in direct battle, so they resorted to poisoning, arson and torching alive unsuspecting cousins. When all attempts failed, they split the land , deliberately keeping the Kingdom capital for themselves and throwing a forestland to the Pandavas.
When even this could not stop Pandava juggernaut, the Kauravas resorted to dirty games of dice.
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Pakistan gets funds and ample support from China and USA, yet remains unsated. The very existence of India is their threat, their heartburn, the acid corroding their core.
Inspite of usurping Pandava Kingdom, Kauravas found no peace. Land was not their only intent. Greed was not their only vice.
Hastinapur was threatened by the very existence of Pandavas. While Pandavas were calm & composed in exile, it is the Kauravas who spent sleepless nights. Cowardly plans continued including a surprise attack during Ghoshyatra and an idea to incite Durvasa’s curse.
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India tries every sane effort to maintain peace, to extend the olive branch repeatedly and to give Pak 2nd, 3rd, 4th…umpteen chances to improve. Yet India faces repeated betrayals, cross border attacks and breaches of political treaties.
Pandavas forgave the attempts at poisoning, lakshyagriha fire and the unfair division of land. They sent Krishn as the final messenger of peace, inspite of the horrendous insult at dyut sabha.
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Every opportunity has been given, every last attempt made. #Krishn may as well say – There is a limit to the exploitation of goodness and patience.
Has India reached its limit?
Or is there more space for peace attempts?
Does this dilemma have an easy decision?
Impractical Dreamer: Sweety Shinde 
Nice comparison. Let me Share some facts too regarding Pakistan.
1. The two nation theory on the basis of which Pakistan was created has been proven to be false with division of Bangladesh. Religion alone cannot be a binding factor for a nation.
2. Pakistan was the first Islamic state in the world. No country ever has been created solely for a religion. All religion based countries have a history other than their religion. Iran was ancient Persia, Iraq was Mesopotamia even Afghanistan has its own afghan history and culture. But this is not for Pakistan. They them-self spit on their history. Do u know that Indonesian currency has a picture of lord Ganesha , because they only changed their religion, not their culture.
2. Pakistan is a sanskrit name. ‘Stan’ is Sanskrit word meaning place or settlement.
3. Urdu is Indian Language. None of the Muslim rulers ever spoke Urdu till 18th and 19th century nawabs of Lucknow. Urdu has colonized over all the languages in Pakistan. It has nothing to do with Islam either.
4. Jehadi terrorism in Pakistan didn’t started against India. Actually it was impossible to move public away from India till Zia ul Haq govt came to power . he started systematic radicalization against India. He changed the education system of pakistan.
Now some facts from pakistani books which children read. 🙂 try to control laughter.
1. Sikander is called Sikander-e-Ajam. He was the fist hero to come to rescue pakistani people from oppressive indians.
2. No mention of Great kings like Porus, Ashoka and even Indus valley civilisation. Most of Indus sites are In Pakistan including the famous Mohenjo-daro.
3. One Muslim is equal to 10 hindus. This is not only in their books, but they also believe. Ayub khan believed it so much that he designed his military tactics based on this.
4. Mohd Qasim is their hero. The great plunderer becomes hero in Pakistan.
5. Pakistan has won all wars with India.
6. Pakistan has strongest military in world
7. Pakistan Has ruled India for 1000 years. While in reality no Pakistan based ruler ever ruled India.
8. No one was killed on pakistani side during partition.
Some Sad facts of Pakistan
1. At the time of division , Pakistan’s per capita income was 1.5 times india. Now despite of six times population, India’s per capita income is 1.2 times of Pakistan.
2. Minority population was 10% in 1951, Now it is only 1.6 %. Owing mainly to forced conversions, murder etc.
3. It is having 52 % literacy rate out of which 24 % are taught in madrassahs and hence unemployable.
4. Ahmediya muslims are jailed and tortured to death if they call themselves Muslim in Pakistan. Also, if u want Pakistani Passport, you have to sign a declaration that you don’t consider Ahmediyas as muslims. Ahmediyas cannot have a passport. What islamic state ?
5. Highest number of child labour in world
6. Lowest compulsory education duration among 172 countries.
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Are you serious about the ‘facts’ taught in Pak schools? Totally fictional stuff at its worst.
And how can it rule India for 1000 years when it was born only 60 years ago? Uff, mathematics trampled underneath propaganda.
I wasn’t aware of the Urdu and Pak’s Sanskrit origin. I wonder if they know it at all!
Indonesia has a great Bharatiya culture imprint, what with Javanese/Balinese temples and epics similar to our Mahabharat. Even Cambodia has a huge Indian influence with Vishnu temples and carvings.
As for Iran & Iraq, I think Shakuni mama’s Gandhar kingdom is present day Afghanistan, isn’t it? Gandhar was famous for its horses, just as Afghan horses are renowned today. That kind of geographic links ensure that Mahabharat was indeed a History, not myth.
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Yes, I have seen books with my own eyes in Ebglish medium schools. I don’t know what they teach in madrassahs.
You know one more thing
Lahoe is actually Loh-awar, meaning Fort of Loh. There is Loh temple in Lahore fort. You know who is Loh ?
.
.
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Lord Rama’s son Lava. Lahore is named after this temple like mumbai is named after mumba devi.
Peshawar , formerly known as Purushpur was capital of Gandhara Kingdom. It was spread from Peshawar to Afghanistan including swat valley . The great Takshashila University was in Gandhara. no wonder the great mathematician (Gambling is agame of Mathematics).
Shakuni was from Gandhara.
Have U ever seen Lord budddha. Most of the images u have seen are in Gandhara art form in Which buddha is shown with curly hairs, Long ears, hands in 5 types of mudras, wearing a robe .
U remeber the statues of Buddha destoyed by taliban in Pakistan, they were in gandhara Art staues.
Gandhara Art is mixture of Indian and Greek art. It is one of the most popular Buddhist Art in world.
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So gambling involves mathematics? It is often described as a vice based on lady luck’s whims. Where’s the mathematics when dice decide the outcome?
Lahore & Urdu will be heartbreaking news for Pakistan.
I sorely wish Takshila was retained in India- would love to visit Chanakya’s karma bhumi. Epic channel showed Takshila had a tough entrance exam where students from round the world vied to secure a position. I wonder what common language was used for this exam? Sanskrit or some other?
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The game of chausar involves probability. Dice may depend upon the whims of lady luck, but chausar is not a single throw of dice. The probability changes depending upon position the player is in. Not everyone can find that out.
I ask you a question if u don’t mind ?
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Hmm, perhaps. But I haven’t heard of it being described as a game involving a thinking mind. Chess originated from India too, but that’s quite different from dice games.
Sure, go ahead with your question.
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Suppose I have three cards A,B,C
You have to tell me which card is joker. I know that which card is a joker.
Suppose you chose card B. Now, I try to make things a bit easier for you. I reveal card C which is not a joker( I know what is behind every card)
Now, I ask you whether you want to still go with card B or you want to change to card A.
What would u do ? Does it make any difference ?
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Well , at best that would alter the chances of being right from 33% to 50%. But it still rests on chance & luck.
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No, it would improve the chance from 33 to 66 %. Surprised ?
When you chose the card B, it was having 33% chance of being correct. It still has that same probability, irrespective of whether I reveal another card or not.
So, out of two cards left, card B has 33% chance of being Right. Therefore , Card A has 66% chance of being a joker.
This problem is famous Monty Hall problem. And it really works in real life. It has been tested many times around the world.
Most people think it does not make any difference at all whether we switch the choice or not. but reality is far from it.
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Well, if 1 card is revealed, then it leaves the choice only between 2 options, hence the 50%.
BUt cards aside, how does it translate into real life problems? Do explain more.
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Let me try to explain in a different manner.
What are the chances you picked the right card at first instance = 33 %
Now if you always switch your card what will happen ?
You will chose the correct answer every time except when you have chosen the correct one in the first instanceitself.
Now probability of choosing right one in the first instance is 33% only.
So if you flip every time, you would be wrong 33% of times only. This means you would be right 66 % times.
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Real life is much different than our intuitions because we do not include all the factors involved. Intuition says that above solution is incorrect, but look closely….
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Yes, but how do we apply it to real life problems?
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We tend to do the same with real life problems. We take a narrow view about it. I give u one example :-
When Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was a student , h got disinterested in his college program. He was from a very humble background . his parents had invested all their savings in his college eduction. But he found that the course was not worthy enough.
He left that course but stayed on the campus attending different classes. One of them was calligraphy . He attended it for its creative value. Nobody could imagine how this was going to help him anywhere in his life.
Decades later, while developing windows software, he used his calligraphy talent to it’s maximum. Just by using a much more ligible font, windows platform increased its appeal by many notches. Using the same screen( CRT Those days) windows system was much more legible and hence inviting. Just by tweaking design of text more text can be accommodated in the screen, hence it was possible to design programs with many function buttons like word, excel etc. A small tweak, but a huge difference.
Would u say it was just a matter of luck that he was at microsoft at the time ? I don’t think so. He was just following his instincts. He never took his eyes from his goal but was just maximising his human resource for his time to come. For an outsider, it was just a luck. He may have learned many things he never used in his life, but he learned so many small things which really helped him.
A plain observation of life makes us believe that we should only channel our energy towards our goals. But nobody tells us that the path to that goal passes through so many bizarre turns .
All I am saying that things may look probabilistic to an observer but it is not. Some people look like having a special gift to see the future, but they are the people with much broader view of life. In Science we call it educated guess. For example Higgs Boson.
Coming back to chausar, Shakuni was able to analyse situation much better than Yudhisthir. Yudhistir always thought it to be a matter of luck and kept putting bigger things on stake. But shakuni was realistic in his assessment. He didn’t allowed Duryodhana to take risks. He was able to minimize the damage and maximise the gains. Chausara is like life, the game does not depend upon the current roll of dice but on previous rolls too.
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Collateral knowledge is always an asset , if not for career options then atleast for personal gratification.
Infact it cross connects with various types of people too. For example I may meet all medicos in the daytime, but a hobby class will permit me to meet a wider spectra of humanity, which may lead to friendships which may later prove in more ways than one. Likewise I too may prove beneficial to another friend. The hobby itself may one day become my 2nd occupation.
Of course , which quality proves a surprise element is all in hindsight, not necessarily as foresight.
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It’s not about hobbies. It is about low hanging fruits that we generally ignore. There are many things that we can easily learn, but we don’t. We can increase our probability of success in life if we can at least learn what is easily available and possible. We don’t know by how nearer to our goals we have come by doing something totally unrelated but easily doable. Life is circle, whatever we learn, we get to use most of them again . learned cooking just out of curiosity, but now I cannot imagine living in different places for long periods of time without eating dal, chawal, sabji, roti. I learned pranayam out of necessity but I cannot tell you how many people I have befreinded only because of it. I never kicck the low hanging fruits. I do time-cost analysis. If a something can be learned with minimum of time and efforts, I go for it. I have learned so many things from my friends and acquaintances. All I can do is increasing probabilities.
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Wow, good for you.
I’m quite poor at time cost analysis. I tend to learn things which seem time consuming and costly, yet they are mostly unrelated to my profession. So in a way, I invest my professional earnings to fund my extra curricular activities. Whether those in turn are financially or non materialistically beneficial still remains to be seen.
But what you said is true, nothing learnt is ever a waste.
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I have rarely spent a penny. May be I am a bit Miser. Ha ha Ha
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Call it economically inclined, not miser 🙂
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May have been sanskrit. i am not sure because for a long period of time it was under achmenids , so persian may also be possibility, or may be Khorasani( Also in Iran)
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Which makes Sanskrit a more universal language than we thought. Or perhaps our ancestors were multilinguists. Either way, its a wow factor for Indians.
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Sanskrit is one of the Indo Aryan Languages. Many words are there in European languages which are of Sanskrit origin.
Bhrata= Brother
Eka = Equal
Harda= Heart
Manas = Mind
Nau= navy
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Yup. Its a pity our universities don’t offer Sanskrit the kind of aura & glamour which PhD students abroad do. I used to enjoy learning it in 10th & 12th std. Have been scouring a good centre to restart my lessons.
Its a very precise language. There are words like mamatva and sukshma which, somehow, don’t find apt translations in English.
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Well, meaning is always lost in translation. I dont know about sukhshama and mamatva ?
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mamatva is motherly/maternal love.
sukshma is used by Bhishm to describe Dharma. Loosely translated, it means subtle, tiny or minute
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How Bhishma describes Dharma as sukshama ?
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its in relation to Draupadi’s questions on dyut sabha episode. Bhishm is shaky on his understanding of proper/improper and moral/immoral on her specific queries. Here he uses the word sukshma for Dharma/righteousness.
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Hmm.. Difficult to comprehend why he used it in such manner. May be sukshma means very small or something which cannot be divided further so Dharma must be sukshma because if dharma is divisible then it would give rise to contradiction.
Or, he may be using dharma in a context that it is something which should be analysed to the smallest level to find its true meaning.
what u think ?
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I think he meant it has fine nuances & lines which are easily crossed. Dharma can be interpreted in various ways to suit one’s situations, so yes, it is easily contradicted.
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May be. Who knows, Great people Great minds, far out of my reach.We can predict only. 🙂
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🙂
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U know who fought against muslims to save somnath temple in gujarat ? Pakistanis.
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When?
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Against Mahmood Ghazini, the gujjars and Jats for saving Somanath.
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Oh but India wasn’t partitioned back then, was it?
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No, but people residing in sindh were at forefront against Ghazini. They don’t even teach their children about this.
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Oh, I see. The border zone warriors. Yes, that makes sense in geographic pov
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Urdu was called Hindustani or Lashakari till 18th century. It was developed in Agra and Delhi mainly.
After 18th century, nawabs of Lucknow started patronizing it. It was language of soldiers in army , therefore it contains both indian and arabic words. Emperors never spoke Urdu, they spoke Persian, Afghani or Arabic Sometimes. national Language of pakistan was Born in Uttar Pradesh. Ha ha ha… our neighbours don’t know. this history, it is embarrassing to them.
Thanks god India has 22 scheduled languages and no national language. How can there be a national language for country like inida.
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You are a storehouse of knowledge. You should make an independent post out of all this information!
Persian is the same as Farsi, I suppose. That was used even as late as Shivaji Maharaj’s times.
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Yes, Shivaji Maharaj actually introduced in many states where it was not even used like, Chattisgarh, orissa, M.P. etc.
Ha ha ha , I love reading a lot. Travelling adds to my knowledge everyday. People like you also add to every day with new knowledge and information.
I will try to create a new blog for children. 🙂
I love teaching and children as well 🙂
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Please do. A blog for children is something I’d like to read as well! You must be an excellent teacher- well read and well travelled.
Whats your most fav travel quote?
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“Go for unknown to know yourself.”
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Nice one. Unknown places, literally, or unknown facts about known places?
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It applies to travelling, reading , innovations, experimentation. Wherever u seek the unknown. It applies to Zindagi ka safar too.
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True. Being a seeker automatically opens new vistas for you, unlike those with closed minds & bored attitude.
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Thanks for such kind words. I am just a passing wave 🙂
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A wave can wipe footprints or create sand dunes…:)
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🙂
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You have so nicely summed up the ongoing situation in juxtaposition with the epic pandava-kaurava war. There is neither quick solution nor an early end to Indo_Pak crisis due to complexities involved. Firstly India, Pakistan (extending to Afghanistan) and Bangladesh (and I would also add Sri Lanka) are part of what was deemed to be the greater ancient India, or Bharat Varsha, as it was called then. Thus it is the same people desperately trying to create different identities under different nationalities. But the hard fact is that it is simply not working out mainly on account of overwhelming influence of India’s age old culture of Sanatana dharma that dissolves and assimilates everything into it. The strong interconnectedness has resulted in families having relationships and affinities across borders. The Kashmir issue is merely the external manifestation of aggressive attitudes working to expand power by carving out nationalities using religion as binding force. The next factor vitiating the scene is that other countries, looking at curbing India’s reach and influence, are capitalising on the existing divide by strengthening their presence in Pakistani and Lankan territories to counter India’s interests. I have personally experienced the interconnectedness between India and neighbouring countries during my visit to the Bangladesh capital of Dacca. For me it very much felt like an extension of Kolkata. Nothing different. My son had just been to Sri Lanka recently and he was telling me about the sameness, virtually an extension of India’s Kerala. I have yet not been to Lahore or Karachi, but I have dealt with many Pakistanis during my Middle East years, and I can vouch for the strong unifying cultural mores. Jinnah wanted to be leader, and hence the creation of Pakistan, using religion and the artificially engendered rivalry and hatred between Hindus and Moslems. Hence things will remain as they are for the foreseeable future. It may also be that in the next sixty or seventy years, institutionalised religions will cease to be, and countries in the Indian subcontinent may come together to unite under a confederation. As for now, Sweety, one may simply admire your two colourful butterflies…best wishes.
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Sanatana dharma itself is under attack in India. People identify more with rituals and customs – and they mistake those for religion. They further this error by equating religion to dharma! Its a series of fallacies which gets compounded by utter obstinacy & intense insecurity.
No wonder outer countries capitalize upon these inner differences.
My dream India would be a place where religions & castes are not documented, not sought, not deified. No reservation either, except for the physically challenged. A place where cleanliness is a habit and playgrounds are aplenty for children. How I wish ….
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That is a nice dream to nurture and carry forward. Religions, at least the organized forms of it, only seek to divide, whereas spirituality unites, emphasizing the essential unity and oneness of everything. So the key thing is to build spirituality and soul consciousness.
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Exactly. You caught its gist perfectly.
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Pandavas made Indraprastha. How? By destroying forests & killing snakes. They had to pay for it through Parikshit. And what Pandavas did after forming the Empire of Indraprastha? They gambled it away. They had to pay it by living in forests.
In the same way, Kauravas paid for their deeds. In fact, no one is above Karma. Not even Krishna. Krishna’s kingdom & family was destroyed due to Gandhari’s curse. The hunter who killed Krishna was the none other than but Bali of Ramayana whom Rama had killed by unfair means.
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Khandav-fire episode came much later in their life, after Arjun’s 12 year exile. Whereas Indraprastha ‘s establishment came much, much earlier – immediately post-Draupadi swayamvar.
Khandav was a barren land given to them as a ‘share’, which they transformed into a kingdom with castles, turrets, temples etc. Epic describes how artists, merchants, priests and soldiers flocked to the city for survival and safety.
The Khandav-dahana later happened in just one corner of this bigger land, which was then used to build the Mayasabha. So all of Indraprastha did not come from forest-fire, only Mayasabha did.
Indraprastha formation & gambling are 2 separate events. The formation was done by 5 brothers. The gambling, was not done by ‘Pandavas’, but by Yudhisthir. Indian army won the 1971 war but its the Indian Govt. who wasted away the results of this victory. The ones who earn prosperity are unfortunately not the ones given the rights to make future decisions on the earned prosperity. Therein lies the seeds of destruction – that power is vested in hands that have neither toiled nor served to create that power.
Bheem & Arjun knew what it was to travel miles on tough war campaigns – if they had the crown, they would have never pilfered it away. Unfortunately, they did not have the rights to decide or object, which is why they were used as mere pawns by their ‘King’ brother.
Even in so-called democratic India, how many international decisions are made on citizen’s opinions? We just mutely go along, whether it is samjhauta express or others. So imagine the situation back then, when it was feudal raaj.
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Strong stuff, it seems I need to get my learning hat on some more, thanks for a very informative post.
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Welcome Ste. Always good to have a 3rd viewpoint.
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“Whereas India zoomed into intellectual, monetary, industrial and literary progress, Pakistan stayed stagnant in hatred, envy and terrorist networks.”
And one surely caused the other.
When people have little hope, they are more likely to blame others (it’s your fault we are doing well) and explode in violence.
Maybe Pakistan should take a look at the possibility of growth.
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That’s an interesting point of view. Yes, it can be both cause & effect. Envy can be crippling, can be venomous and can boomerang upon the one who harbours it. Well said.
I hope, for its own sake, Pakistan realizes its potential and capitalizes on it. Of course it has potential, afterall, it used to be a part of undivided Bharat once.
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I won’t even pretend to understand the rift to what was once one great nation, but I do hope someday peace and bond-ship will return.
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I sure hope so Kev! The divide has only created a Frankenstein’s monster. There would be so much time & energy saved if cross border matters improve, for which India has always been pro active.
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We have a lot of folks from both India and Pakistan here in GB and they seem to co-exist well enough over here, I guess that’s what make it all the more incomprehensible to me. 🙂
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Perhaps being in a foreign country makes them stick together as Asians. Or maybe the animosity exists only within minds of politicians and militants , both of whom benefit from keeping alive (and fanning) the hatred.
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Quite possibly, on both counts. But it does prove that peace and unity is possible either way. 🙂
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Amen.
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I found this all very interesting both your post and the comments which followed.
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I enjoy reading comments too. Especially when they cross my views and give rise to constructive conversations.
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