Tibet autonomous Region

 The Tibet Autonomic region or TAR is part of Peoples Republic of China .

In reality China usurped Tibet from Tibetians who had ruled the Himalayan nation from the Potala in Lhasa ruled by the holy Highness Dalai Lama .

He had to escape to India and settled down to run a Govt in exile at Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh India .

The 1962 Chinese agression in Arunachal Pradesh was said to be because of an angry China to Nehrujis giving Dalai lama refuge .

It had plans to keep the spiritual head in its custody to quell Tibetian nationalism .

For years democratic fights raged and China used an iron hand to supress it .

It also created an alternate figure head for the Dalai lama the Panchen lama .

Slowly and steadily it made Tibet an imitation China with broad roads ,a railway line from Beijing to Lhasa ,dams, buildings and towns .

People got jobs , money ,monasteries were opened up .

Slowly they accepted the inevitable .

TAR has became a reality

Younger gen are fully for Tibet getting more modernity like in other parts of China .

Even his holiness the Dalai Lama in 2017 did not talk of freedom for Tibet but for greater development being part of China !

Where does that leave India ?

By giving refuge to Dalai lama it got eternal anger from China which invaded us in 1962 giving a shock to pandit Nehrus Indi chini bai bai slogan

China still keeps knocking our borders over the years in Nathulla pass in Dhoklam and now recently in Ladakh .

We only earned displeasure from a powerful neighbour and helped Pakistan get a strong ally in the process .

Dharamshala too is more Tibetian than Indian !

We also liberated Bangla desh ,earned eternal revenge from an already angered Pakistan

strangely Bangla desh itself is not a close friend to India now .

Nor is Nepal one .

Sri lanka after our IPKF adventure is wary of India so is Maldives after our forces landed in Mali in thier presidential struggles .

In SAARC nations that leaves only Bhutan which is not angry with India .

What does that tell us ?

Be selfish

Dont interfere in other countries but just safegaurd our nation .

Retrospective looking into history can bring such notions ,yes , and we never know the compulsions on those times

We also never took advantage in our efforts like post Bangla desh freedom we had 1 lakh Pak POWS with us and Bhutto was ready to eat out of Ms indira Gandhis hands but we just gave them away with no benifits to us in Simla accord and Pakistan continues its regular harassement of India and needles us with terrorist incursions .

We could have got back full Kashmir in post bangla desh war .

The picture shows me in Keyrung customs building between Nepal and China in Tibet and one entry point to Kailas pilgrimage .

I had also been to Arunachal pradesh and Nathulla pass and to mainland China and to Dharamsala though Dalai lama was not around then .

Ladakh and Lhasa are waiting !

9Girish Kartha, H. Shahana Shahjahan and 7 others

Jaishalmer

 Though i had seen many parts of India i haven't been to Gujarat ,Rajasthan and madhya pradesh and interiors of Maharashtra

After our three days in Ahmadabad which we enjoyed we were off to Rajasthan

We planned three days in Jaishalmer ,two in jodphur and two more in Udaipur ,we had a day free which we would go to Mount Abu .

as you can see from the map Ahmadabad was south of Jaisalmer which was near the Pakistani border almost ,it was around 536 km away and we went by an overnight train .

We had a booking in Mahindra resorts in Jaisalmer which we found was nowhere near the town on our inquiry ,we knew checking in there and coming back for sight seeing would be a costly affair as we would needed to depend on resort cabs which are generally priced more .

So we did some online search and found a

father son duo running a family enterprise established in 1987 named Adventure travel agency .

Their office is near Jaisalmer fort first gate .

They are ranked no one in Trip advisor and recognized by Dept of tourism Rajasthan .

Fathers name is Indar ujjwal and sons name Vikram ujjwal .

Phone no 00912992252558

info@adventurecamels.com

Website ..www.adventurecamels.com

We explained our plans and asked him to advise best way to see jaisalmer in 3 days ,Inder told us the main sight seeing was around fort very close to the Railway station ,it had inside several houses and havelis and then here was a lake ,then the most important sight would be a trip into desert ,he told us his jeep will pick us take us to his office near fort where we keep luggage see the fort have our lunch and his jeep would drop us in resort after seeing lake and the next day by evening his jeep would take us to a desert safari in a desert camp he owned and return by night and a price was fixed it all went like clock work

The fort itself was in an altitude with very narrow streets huge havelis or heritage houses and ornamental balconies the kings palace which was huge and gave a wonderful view fro top reached by a lift ,there were lot of jain temples inside too ,after coming from fort we went to a very famous hotel for our lunch and then were driven to the resort after seeing Jaisalmer lake

next day we went to the

The deserts of Rejisthan .

The diversity thats India is waiting to be explored .

Off the distant outpost a 100 km from Pakistan border and near Pokhran where our atom bombs burst ,with freezing winters, fuming summers ,amazing sunsets,and shrub ridden sand dunes .

The desert safari is a very common outing from Jaishalmer .

once famously known for its being in the silk route but once Pakistan was formed the border effectively cut off the land route .

It became just a lonely desert outpost .

the jeep and driver Devi singh recounted us with tales we went around 50 km away through a self contained village with its own school and electric connection ,Rajasthan was not at all a backward state but a reasonably prosperous state culturally and artistically inclined hospitable people

Devi sing took us till we reached the camp from where we climbed into a camel each ,we were told the names of the camels were Al

pacino and mackennas gold ! it was a happy ride in the evening into the sand dunes through the shrubs and we waited in the sands to watch the sunset ,after getting back into the camp we sat around a fire to listen to folk music and dance eating rich Rajasthani food ,we too took part in the dancing ,we were then dropped back into our resort

Later they allow you to ride a camel each for one hour into sand dunes to watch desert sunset .

They drive you back to resort, for music dance ,drinks if one wants ,and return you to your hotel .

Every single thing they promised they delivered .

Private exclusive tour

Excellent drivers and camels

Sunset in real dunes far into desert

Delicious veg food

Music dance to a small crowd

Drop back

We were picked up in jaisalmer station in afternoon on Saturday taken to adventure office .

We kept our bags there went into fort an 800 year old one still alive with more than 2000 people living in it

We went around had late lunch in a famous restaurant Thakurjees .

Later we went patwon ki haveli a very old house of a very rich family and also a famous lake .

It was in eighties that Indar with his world wide travelling experience started a desert resort .

Today his son Vikram is an efficient partner and like most in Rajasthan live happily as a joint family with Indars brothers etc .

We were dropped into mahindra resorts later in evening .

Next day we were picked up by Devi singh in his jeep at 3.30 pm for desert safari .

Devi singh gave us a lot of insights into Rajasthani life specially in villages .

He told us of the changes that had happened .

How even far flung villages had piped water and almost 95 %had electricity .

Most or all had primary schools in their village with high schools quite close.

Most girls too studied these days as TV brought to them life and luxuries after education .

But they loved their culture of joint families ,simple nourishing food ,respect to elders and weak,village rules,festivals etc

They would vote with great common sense these days for center for Modi as they know he brought development to their far flung villages

To state they would vote those who did good mostly not the one ruling center

Though BJP had both center and state they rejected Vasundhroa scindia who did nothing and elected congress with Asokh gehlot s CM though with a strong opposition by BJP .

And we in south think most of north India has uneducated masses whose votes are casteist and communal

Actually its more fitting to states like Kerala which preens itself as an educated state with evolved voters .

What a misconception .

People here are not at all rolling in poverty

They are happy cheerful and delighted with thier way of life .

After a long camel ride on Al pacino my camel and Michael jackson premilas we sat on the sand dunes waiting for the sun to set.

A hot chai given to us invigorated us

It was cool and breezy .

We went back by jeep to desert resort for excellent music dance and food and returned to mahindra by 10 pm .

Anyone going to Jaishalmer and i feel all should please use the services of this travel firm .

You will not regret it

Photo story again

 Stories from photos

His Royal highness Rawal Sunderlal Singh was part of a long line of rulers from 12 th century AD when his great grandfather Rawal Jaisal Singh had started the empire of Jaisalmer pushed through war from the great swathe of land they ruled starting from  Afghangistan .

They were a salute state of the British empire ie a state that deserved a gun salute .

Singh looked  at the man sitting across him , from the hard glass  of frosted exteriors as the icy rocks sloshed the brown liquid the fine whisky .

He sipped into it savouring its oaky casked flavour and swished its rye raunchiness of a true scotch .

The man with the hat in his jeep he had glimpsed in the courtyard surely wasnt a tourist he played to convey .

The suns burnish in the coppery skies and the chill of a november evening in the desert with him sitting on the sandstone turret of a towering fort .

He looked down to the teeming market as busy as ever at this time .

And then he heard a distant rumble of the sturdy jeep the man with the hat drove and saw a fine haze of dust bellow as it wound into the desert  .

A silhoutte of slowly lumbering camels on the dunes never hid the by now tiny jeep steaming ahead .

Was this the man from RAW he was tipped about

The one whose mission in life was definitely not what he feared but still his focussed gaze when they met had  disturbed him .

He turned to his old retainer standing with his walrus moustache 

Oh kon he ?

Oh ....... laughed Hukum Singh

Oh tho ek malayalee aadmi he 

Idhar se uski daddha rehte he 

 pehle saal phir ,

unka uske baath enquire karne ke aane he ,

Koi RAW aadmi ,aur police waale officer nahi ,maharaj

Ye tho maamuli aadmi he 

Koyi gadbad nahi he saab !!

 

I just heard all this in my custom built Bose  ear piece

 one of a kind .

The same mini mike Hukum singh was given to plant on the king  😊😁

It was good indeed .

Jeeves in Syria

 At times in life we meet familar characters in say a book we read ,or a film we saw .

Most of you know or would have read of Jeeves the famous Butler in the series of Bertie wooster and Jeeves by the famous humourist P.G.Wodehouse one of my favourite authors .

Plum as Wodehouse  is still fondly called had an excellent talent to caricature characters in words , so much that it was etched for eternity .

Most of his characters are live to his readers , be it the pig loving Lord Emsworth who pottered around his Empress of Blandings in his sprawling Blandings castle  , 

There was Roderick Glossop known as a reputed neuro phycician with an uncanny knack in causing many who detested him to hop like frogs but in reality was just a dismissed attendant from a loony hospital !

Or take Bertie wooster himself whose umblical cord was connected to  Jeeves brains and was needed for him to escape the attention of his bevy of aunts  ,

or think of chef Anatole the excuisite French chef whose dainty dishes were waited upon to be tasted by many 

Or the uncle who owned him always wary of his Anatole being kidnapped by other envious eccentric millionaires  .

Amongst all  Jeeves is one of his creations who reached celebrity status.

The sauve cool operator with brains fed on fish who knew he needed to loan his grey matterto a boss and his friends of the idle rich who spent thier afternoons and pound sterlings in the Drones clubs if they werent taking the afternoon train to some castle in villages around London or having thier gin and tonic gazing from the balustrade of a transtlantic steamer wearing a top hat or in the streets of Manhattan over a cup of cofee and a bite of an yankee burger closing a deal with a Hollywood producer in writing a script .

Most stories did echo the life the author himself  had led too .

 Coming back to my post this day we saw this sombre waiter when we stayed in sepulchurous old hotel in central Damascus in Syria in 2012 before it became what it would become ,a hell created by mindless fanatics .

The hotel itself was as ancient as the city and had its glory in the past but our room in top floor was huge like a tiny suite and gave an excellent view of the old Railway station just opposite to it .

Breakfast came with the room and it was nothing to talk about as we were the lone guests in a regal dining hall filled with ornamental metal tables and chairs .

Boiled eggs and untoasted breads are unimaginable topics to be mentioned by foodies whose breakfasts are worthy of emperors ie ME .

But the man who brought it with his uncanny resemblance to favourite Jeeves saved my day , though his monotony and lethargy , drove away any thoughts of a Jeeves we had in mind !!

Lady in a Hood

 Lady in a hood....

The dusk had fallen

The moon peeped through the white domes of the magnificient Sheikh Zayed mosque in Abu Dhabi

I quickened my pace to catch a glimpse of an etheral beauty in black purdah !

The cold of the desert on a december evening was felt in my bones ....

There was a stretch  of fine sand I had to cross to reach the milling crowds , but by then the damsel had melded into the horizon , disappearing like a mirage in the desert .

I waived my way through jostling the crowd to angry stares !!

No i cant miss her again !

It was my soul that was calling me not my mind for I was numb for long .

The long lines parted .

The sombre altar of spirituality was serene in its peace .

The marble reflected the purity of divinity .

There was an aura of inner solace undescribed in the bowels of the monument .

The whispering shuffle of foots on the Iranian carpets hardly broke the sepulchural silence .

The kaleidoscopy of the chandeliers reflected the multiplicity of humans milling below .

Where can I search for the elusive her in this hall of mirrors ?

It was like in a dream

The fog of time crept into eternity .

Awareness extended to infinity

I was lost in a trance .

I walked away

I came to stand in the moonlight .

For a change I was alone far from the crowd inside the mosque .

The dew of the grass touched my bare foot

It cooled my insides

I wanted to lie down

When I felt a presence

I knew who it was

It was her standing before me the veil removed with a beatific smile on her face !

And then I woke up it was deja vu 

Iam in Umayyad mosque in ancient city of Damascus ,Syria .

I knew i will find her 

I had searched the sepulchured city of Damascus ,its inner streets domed in ancient tunneled walkways ,sandstone fountains,walked its cobbled streets with a distant mandolin sounding its haunting strains .

The devout moved in silent piety 

I too walked and searched

I climbed a camel in sandy palmyra 

I saw Roman ruins sat in its broken strps of stadiums where gladiators had stabbed into giant lions or convicts and slaves fought to death

The hills of Sydnera and maloula searching for the hood and the lady

I was cold tired hungry and gazed into the fog and the distant city of Damascus from the Cassion hills 

I had limped through the bullet ridden walls of the old city nd its narrow streets where sufi dances and dervishes swirled on esctasy

I looked carefully amongst them for hooded mysteries 

And the i saw her standing in front of me 

The end if a search 

We walked out our hands interwined gazing into the moonlight and disappeared into the darkness .

Spun this from our visit to Sheik zayed mosue in Abu Dhabi and to Syria  .

Vaikom temple 2020

 

Vaikom Sree Mahadeva shetram is in Kottayam district .

One of the oldest temples in Kerala its lingas are said to exist since Tretha yuga .

It has lot of stories and legends of origin and period of worship to fit in here .

Its described in Bhargava purana and Sanal kumara Samhita as Vaiyagrha puram  or Vayahreha geham .

As its lingas was found and worshiped by  Vaiyagrapada maharsi it was called Vaiyagrahapadapuram and later with time as Vaikom .

The association with Etumanoor and Kaduthuruthy temples also of lord  Shiva is remarkable and being equidistant from each other its said its 3 lingas which were consecrated at same time and its good to visit all 3 by afternoon .

We went to Vaikom temple only today as allowed respecting Covid protocols .

Its a huge temple with mammoth structures  supposed to be consecrated by Lord Parsurama himself at the very spot where one of  the three lingas given to  Khara an asura by lord Shiva for his devotion .

Khara carried one in right hand one in left and third around neck .

In this area the idols fell and could not be removed from  the spot

Khara knew it had to be left there so he requested a holy man Vyaghrapada to continue doing puja to the lingas 

He attained moksha too

Later Lord parasurama consecrated the three temples 

He gave it to Brahmin families to manage them 

Later Vaikom had 108 families to do this and they were divided as half into two factions .

One faction morally had upper hand and were more sincere and was with the king .

The leader of the other faction Njallal nampoothiri fought with them .

Nampoothiri spat on the nivedhiya or Gods offering to offend the rival faction .

Immediately a poisonous snake bit him he dropped in the ground crawled out through western door to die .

The door they say shut automatically with angry voice emanating from temple never to open it again 

The Etumanoor and Kaduthuruthy temples are other two spots of the dropped lingas .

Vaikom temple is vast with huge grounds arounf 8 acres  and being empty looks bigger .

The lord in Vaikom is worshipped in 3 forms daily Dakshinamoorthy in morning

Kiradha moorthy by noon and Dhatipanchakshari by dusk .

Its inner sanctum sanctorum is actually elleptical but looks circular .

Only a skilled craftsman can do that .

Its supposed to be none other than the famed Perumthachan himself who was its chief architect and creator .

The Sreekoil walls are decorated by kerala temple art and an ornamental lamp in the back .

The linga itself is 6 feet in height .

To see the deity one needs to climb six steps symbolic of shad vikaras or six emotions like kama ,krodha,'lobha,moha,madha mathsarya or thanthrik chakras as per thanthrik kalpanas .

The Mooladhana chakram,Swadhistana chakram ,Manipurakha chakram ,Anahsta chakram ,Visudhi and Jnana chakram .

On eastern side is the Manya sthana or big kitchen where Vilvamangala swamigal was supposed tp have seen lord Shiva as a brahmin eating Prathal or nivedhiya 

Today its the famous annadhaana to all 

The usually crowded temple was literally empty

We were allowed inside with covid protocol .

As crowds less we could pray well .

The roads around the temple too have lot of history in them .

Kerala was once called as pranthalayam or mad house by Swami Vivekananda when he visited it and felt disgusted with the caste discriminations and untouchability prevalent then .

Vaikom temple and roads around were prohibited for the lower castes .

It was in those roads that leaders and Gurus like  Sree Narayana Guru ,Mannathu Padmanabhan ,Dr Palpu inspired youngsters to protest against caste discrimination in famous Vsikam satyagraha along with our freedom struggle .

Mahatma Gandhi too requested  Maharani Sethu Laksmi bayi too remove the restrictions ,though she started the changes it was after the young Maharaja came to throne the famous temple declaration came to be a law allowing all Hindus regardless of castes into temples by his authority which as a regent the maharani did not have powers to do so .

Vaikatthu Astami is a very famous 10 day festival of this temple .

The drive too was pleasant but for a road block caused by an overturned lorry lying on its side after hitting an electric pole and breaking it .

By the time we returned the lorry was back on road straight though traffic was blocked still .

 

Thirunelveli Halwa

 Halwas are thickly deliciously wickedly tasty sweet dripping with ghee .

To me one of my favourite sweets 

Amongst the very many varieties of halwas  the king or queen shuld be the famous Thirunelveli Halwa .

Strangely this epic sweet originated in this hot Tamilnadu town all because of a north Indian Rajasthani settler .

In 1882 Jegan Singh one of the many settlers and business men of Tamilnadu went to his home town for a holiday .

When he returned he brought back a cook who amongst other Rajasthani food could cook an excellent Halwa and Jegan singh just loved it .

He started a small shop in the center of town with wooden shutters ill lit and mostly open in dusk to sell this Halwa .

They say it still hasva 40 watt bulb !

Slowly people started liking it so much the sweet even got Thirunelveli as its name tag 

Other shops too started selling with thier names and some like Shanthi sweets became popular too but not like the iconic irruttukada .

The very fact wheat is used for this halwa tells us its not a local delicacy in the predominantely rice eating region .

The wheat is cleaned in the pure waters of Thamarapani several times and allowed to settle down before its skimmed husk seperated and boiled

Sugar and plenty of ghee and other flavours added till it drips with ghee and tastes delicious .

The irrutkada or dark shop still continues to be so managed by the same family even today .

I used to know a family coming from Thirunelveli to Cochin for treatment in my hospital and they will bring this halwa faithfully  every time for me .

I had one of the best Thirunelveli  halwa from in a wedding of a family friends son .

Kailasam

 

This picture was taken in the North face of Mount Kailas .

The pilgrimage of Kailas ends with parikrama or holy circumambulation .

Hinduism as well as Buddhism along with Jainism and Bon religion native to Tibet believe Mount Kailas in Tibet

now part of China is the abode of Lord Shiva himself .

Strangely the mystique mountain had never ever been climbed in its life ,not to say attempts have not been made ,being shorter than Mount Everest and to a professional mountaineer it could have not been an impossible feat though not for untrained mortals but its a fact that all attempts have failed at some stage .

The will is lost they say

Its a huge mental hurdle and we couldn't take a step more

All i wanted was to come down

It was very emotional say the few who do inner parikrama who go near its foothills those who are hardy to face the icy glaciers crevices who are fortunate to touch its granite surface have burst into copious tears of joy of unexplainable satisfaction .

Forget that the very experience of circumnavigation of 53 km around the mountain by itself was completed only by around 30 % of those who reach its vicinity .

It takes 3 days of trekking ,most use horses and Tibetan guides who lead the horses,many walk .

Some Tibetans themselves who live in such terrain not only walk but walk prostrating continuously !

They take 2 months to do that .

Can you imagine that ?

Two months of bending falling flat on the rocky mountainous terrain in falling snow getting up doing it again .

If this isnt faith show me what is !

Kailas pilgrimage is a hardy one specially in the past .

It was only Indian ministry of external affairs who arranged them with batches selected every year taking into considering physical fitness and mental alacrity .

Many applied some got selected .

Between 1954 to 1972 no Indians were allowed into Tibet due to political fall outs and war with China .

The routes were directly from India through Lipulehk pass in UP ,the climbing of this pass itself was a very tough proposition .

After reaching Tibet one needed to travel overland through poor roads rough terrains and cold weather to reach Manasarovar lake and later Drachen town from where Mount Kailas could be glimpsed .

Later the Nathulla pass in Sikkim was opened up as an alternate .

Private operators in Nepal had trips from Kathmandu to Tibet over hills of Nepal by road or partly by helicopters .

This was quite hardy too and landslides were real obstacles expected .

Once crossing into China with a pilgrim visa one needed to go overland for 2 days to reach lake Manasarovar and Drachen .

Alternatively one could come to Lhasa by air through Beijing or by rail or by road quote a long one and from Lhasa to Kailas which is at other end of Tibet .

These alternates have made Kailas more reachable to people with lesser physical attributes and with greater comforts .

Most places specially in Tibet ,China have developed into medium size towns with plenty of good hotels infrastructure and markets etc .

One needed to stay on.the way to avoid altitude sickness which could happen of suddenly transported to say above 12000 feet and foothills of Kailas was more nearer 15000 ft .

Hence we took more than 5 days to reach Drachen the town after the serene lake Manasarovar from where Kailas could be glimpsed as an ethereal unreality and mirage its pyramid like exuberance shimmering in the golden sunrise .

Every human being whatever be his beliefs felt the vibrations as there were lot of pilgrims who came to see the place more as a travel spot and a hardy trek .

Thats fine perfectly for it is definitely not the usual Hindu temple or pilgrim spot .

Theres no temple anywhere in and around Kailas never had been nor idols .

There are Buddhist monasteries but no temples .

Its nature the stunning enthralling magnitude of a mystique mountain standing defiantly in magnificent solitude and much beyond any temple or idol .

It s beyond words to describe the moment one sets eyes on this rare sight as one reaches Lake Manasarovar and closer from Drachen where iys looming presence was closer in every gasping step we took .

The day of our parikrama came .

We were told that a bus ride of 14 km would take us to Yama dwar .

Lord Yama in Hindu mythology is the lord of death itself .

Dwar is opening in Hindi

As the bus panted up the brown Tibetian hillock we could see two huge hills with an opening and see mount Kailas still appearing closer but at least 20 km away .

It was in Yama dwar those who wanted to hire ponies or horses and Tobetian guides could do so .

It was all well organised and one needed to pay 30000 INR as Chinese currency or American dollars for three days of Parikrama .

Many in our troupe were planning to walk the whole parikrama and did not wait for the pony business .

We would see them slowly walking later in the drizzly rain sitting on horses with our cameras slung on our shoulders and our Tibetian horsemen cursing the snorting ponies .

The first days trek to Derapuk on northern side of mount Kailas from Southern face in Drachen takes around 10 hours .

We pass the granite walls of western side of the mountain .

The trek is mild to medium hard with gentle slopes ,streams which could be waded and no steep climbs .

Rains and at times direct mountain suns exhausted one but even trekking itself on day one wasnt impossible for an untrained person .

The north face had primitive lodgings

Dirapuk gave magnificient views of mount kailas specially in moonlight or during sunrise .

Hot food was available in lodgings though common toilets made one reach out to stony foothills around to finish ones needs in the stark cold of the dark .

Panting exhausted one would reach back the tiny rooms allotted for the night .

The neighing of the tied horses the eternal silence of the great mountain looming in the inky black sky with a lone moon shining like a jewel on its head were sights and sounds which were impossible sensory inputs for any fortune .

The east face it seems is glimpsed only in inner parikrama near Gowri kund day two and east face too amongst many peaks .

That night i had physical discomforts like mild breathlessness recurrent bowel movements a wrong place to get actually .

And above all the fear of the tough second days climb to Dolma pass the toughest in parikrama with nothing to bring you back to civilisation in a crisis

All this made me decide to return back to Drachen next morning aborting my parikrama .

Many did decide but in my group maybe two or three only .

Some had stayed back in Drachen itself in the luxury of the hotel there which tempted me back too .

I have no regrets as the completion of parikrama needs more mental strength than muscle power and i was lacking in that .

My wife had only one goal and shook off all doubts as she continued into Dolma pass next morning .

Initially they would climb in horses very steep incline to reach the pass and later only trek as horses can slip and are led by horsemen who also guide you .

Premila had a smiling Tibetian lady to take her along .

She told me later the reaching Dolma pass was very tough and she was in a trance and strange mental frame where she felt she was in an unearthly place .

The pass itself was full of Buddhist flags fluttering in the rocks and one could see the aqaumarine waters of the Gowri kund lake down below .

The steep climb down was exhausting and it was dark by the time they could get back on thier horses to reach Zuthulpuk where they would halt for second days night .

The next day was relatively gentle trek from Zithulpuk back to yama dwar and Drachen where we waited for the yatris to return

Sir C.P.Ramaswamy Iyer

Sir CP Ramaswami Iyer former Dewan of Thiruvananthapuram ....

Tall handsome he was an impressing personality with great intelligence .

July 12 to 25 .1947 ,are important dates in the history of erstwhile Travancore kingdom .

His Royal Highness Sri Chitra Thirunal Maharaja was an young man .

The Diwan of Travncore Sir C.P and the Maharajas mother were the triumvirate who discussed and decided on matters of state .

It was Sir CP s ideas and projects that made Travancore a rich independent state

But he was also blamed for his dictatorial behavior and developing a police state .

The Congress with its freedom movement never considered Sir CP as being favorable to its freedom struggles and the communists hated him for his violent ending of the Punnapura Vayalar struggle where more than 1000 people died .

At the same time he was the force behind the Maharaja declaring temples open to all Hindus a radical reform those days .

The famous Temple entry proclamation which was much appreciated even by the Mahatma .

CP was known as a ruthless administrator .

History blames him for trying his best to influence the Maharaja and his mother in not joining with India when the British had decided to free the nation shortly .

As a relatively independent nation with its own port in partnership with Cochin ,

Plenty of free trade with foreign countries ,and a rich kingdom with good income its possible for Travanvore for considering so

Most of its industries were started by

Sir CP himself .

In fact most public sector industries of later Kerala like Indian Aluminium company ,

The FACT which was started with help of America in defiance of British irritation on this ,

Factory to manufacture Titanium Dioxide ,

Travancore plywoods at Punalur ,

Travancore Rayons at Perumbavoor ,

Aluminium cables factory at Kundara

Were all started in his tenure !

All that succeeding Indian state Govts of Kerala has ever done is to close many of them .

He developed pallivasal hydroelectric projects and many other dams in the state for power generation and irrigation purposes .

He developed the Travancore University with the Maharaja as chancellor and himself the Vice Chancellor .

Trivandrum Art gallery was expanded by him in 1937 .

Travancore was first part of India with nationalized roads and the 88 km stretch road to Kanyakumari was built of concrete .

Capital punishment was abolished

Adult franchise introduced

First women district judge was appointed .

Ms. Anna Chandy who later became first women high court judge .

Midday meal scheme for poor school children was started by Sir CP and even the famous CM of Tamilnadu M.G.Ramachandran praised this later and followed him .

Several states would follow this later .

What really happened in july 1947 ?

A declaration of Independence by Travancore was signed by Maharaja on july 18 1947 .

There are different opinions on this .

Leftist Historians like Ramachandra Guha felt Sir CP was the villain acting in consort with Britain who wanted to continue their hold on rich monazite resources of Kerala for their nuclear programme , and that CP was in touch with Md Ali Jinnah to hold power against India .

But its also felt that Sir CP wanted just more autonomy and not total independence as a seperate state .

On July 23 talks between CP and powers in Travancore and Indian Govt to be formed made him almost agree ,but for the Maharaja still not deciding .

The Nizam of Hyderabad and Goa under the Portuguese and Kashmir under Hari Singh were other kingdoms still undecided .

But an attempt on life of Sir CP by left forces which he escaped with stab wounds made him speeden up Travancore joining India .

Was Sir Chetput Pattabhiraman Ramaswamy Iyer shortly called Sir CP the autocratic traitor of India ?

or was he a clever able and strict administrator who acted on pressure !

A question needing deeper research .

Post Independence Sir CP went all over the world held important positions , taught in universities in US ,

In 1966 he had gone for researching for a book to the UK where he collapsed and died during the course of an interview instantaneously .

In short active till his last breath .

Will History and should history judge Sir CP Rsmasawamy Iyer more benevolently ?

12Sandhya Menon, Biju Sreedharan and 10 others

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