Musings from Antique Origins

Bhurtpore fort in the 1860s L ast week, I read some interesting news about Bharatpur. Vishvendra Singh, scion of the erstwhile royal family of Bharatpur and a BJP leader resigned from the parliament as well as the party. Reportedly, he is joining the Congress party. Singh, a Jat royal, was political adviser to the Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje and the revolt apparently was provoked by the BJP’s decision to field Industries minister Digamber Singh from Dieg-Kumbher, one of the royal family’s strongholds. His wife, Ms. Divya Singh belongs to the Gujjar community, which had gone on violent agitations in the region during the year. Recently, the Chief Minister had appointed Divya Singh Chairperson of the Rajasthan Subordinate Services Board obviously to appease her husband as he has considerable clout in the area. Also, to counter the ill effects, BJP has roped in Jagat Singh, the controversial son of Natwar Singh, the former union minister and erstwhile Bharatpur Member of Par...

Lt.Wifred Owen (1893-1918) T hirty seven years have passed since I read Wilfred Owen’s poem, “Strange Meeting’ for the first time. While studying for my pre-degree days at a college in the remote village of Pallipuram in the Alleppey district of Kerala, this poem had been taught through the baritone voice of Mr.P.S.Nair, our English lecturer. The landscape of the village where the college was located, with its pristine white sand hues and white hillocks bore no resemblance to the smoke filled killing fields of Europe of the 1 WW years. But, the poem indeed caught my attention and years later, though the teenager has entered the twilight years of his career, many stanzas from the poem still reverberate in my mind and some of the lines do haunt me whenever I read about wars and battles. November is the month in which the First World War ended in 1918. The world, now flush with more threats and challenges is celebrating its 90th anniversary. Let’s pray for a war free world, especially ...