Musings from Antique Origins

2004 in Malawi W hile I was working in Malawi, Southern Africa, I got introduced to the game of golf. By the time I started understanding the game, it was time for me to pack off. I used to go to the Limbe club, started by the English, where I was a member. Accompanied by my son I had practice sessions on Sunday mornings and the early morning wanderings in the golf course were quite refreshing. On other evenings, with friends we used to have a round of beer after a match at Blantyre club. Unlike Africa, other countries are far too expensive for someone wanting to take up golf as a past time for fun and exercise. Many countries in Africa with bountiful land, beautiful landscapes, good climate and the English legacy are ideally suited for the game. In India, the game used to be reserved for a few of the rich people and to the bureaucrats who always had much leisure. What prompted me to think of golf was the news of a rather unknown South Korean golfer by name Y.E.Yang overthrowing the gr...

S ankaranatha Jyotsar ,also known as Sankaranathan Unithiri or Shankar Nath Joshi) was a proud son of Kerala who was the chief astrologer and spiritual advisor to Maharajah Ranjit Singh, the lion of Punjab who single handedly built the great Sikh empire and whose right arm adorned the fabled Koh-i-Nur diamond. There are scant references in our history or other books about this remarkable man who was a courtier in one of the most dazzling royal courts in history. The only credible and authoritative source about Sankaranatha Jyotsar, I could find from sources outside Kerala, was from the link http://www.esikhs.com/articles/a_retrospect.htm under the chapter “The Sikhs - Images of a Heritage” written by T.S.Randhawa. “The other dramatis personae in the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh were the Fakir Aziz-ud-din, his Foreign Affairs Minister---- Shankar Nath Joshi, the chief astrologer to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who was from Travancore and returned there when the bloodbaths started at Lahor...

T his vacation for me in Kerala was very subdued with many personal issues warranting my attention. Heavy rains were lashing across Kerala as I had seen only in my younger years. At Palakkad it rained incessantly during July and I was confined to reading in the comforts of our house. This time the books I read were mainly in Malayalam and were biographies or autobiographies some of which I enjoyed considerably. Among the scores of books I read, some were most enjoyable because of the astounding personalities those covered. Integrity, commitment and simplicity were common traits found in great people and even in ordinary people who did great feats. Some of the books I read included the following: Manasaasmarami by S.Guptan Nair, renowned writer, critic and teacher. Katha Ithu Vare by D.Babu Paul, well known civil servant. Ente Kazhinjakaala Smaranakal by Kumbalathu Sankupillai, politician and social reformer. Smrithi Darpanam by Prof.Manmadhan, renowned Gandhian. Sneha theeram Th e...