SquareShooter

It is the beginning of Paryushan parv when members of Jain community abstain from a food, and ask for forgiveness. There is a raging battle about ban on slaughter and sale of meat in Mumbai. I am not getting in to the politics of it. But, during a recent trip to Kazhugumalai and Azhagar Kovil in South Tamil Nadu, the practice of animal slaughter in public spaces, and that to spaces that are associated with communities that don’t kill or eat meat was shocking. This is like a resurgence of those who want to assert their right to kill. Once again, it may be politically incorrect to point this out, but I have to express what I felt - to see bloodstained floor just in front of rocks carved with Jaina saints was sad. I don't know who occupied the space first, the Jainas or the local deity and followers who believe in animal sacrifice. But, can't we even have that much respect for a faith that believes in extreme ahimsa? A board put up at the site states no alcoh...

“On the best of the mountains on which hang multitudes of waterladen clouds, which is inhabited by the lords serpents … in the thickest of the slopes of which … by the lord of the goddess of heroism. Which is adorned with windows, doors, beautiful picture galleries, ledges, statues of nymphs of Indra and the like, which is ornamented with beautiful pillars and stairs and has a temple of the Buddha inside” – Inscription on Cave 16 walls                                History and fiction don’t meet, but what do we do with the genre of historic fiction. Historians obviously would hate it, but to ordinary folks they can be just another story, and at times engrossing and inspiring. I might belong to the last of the generation that read Kalki Krishnamurthy’s ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ as a serial in the magazine Kalki. When Kalki, t...