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‘The Beatles reinvented themselves in Rishikesh’

‘The Beatles reinvented themselves in Rishikesh’

Ajoy Bose

Ajoy Bose

By Saket Suman,

New Delhi : In February 1968, members of the legendary rock band, The Beatles, arrived in Rishikesh for a “momentous” sojourn. A teenage rebel — a diehard Beatles fan himself — watched them with keen interest. Five decades later, he has compiled an account of their stay here, and maintains that the three-year period that marked their affair with India was particularly significant in the life of the band.

“This is when The Beatles reinvented themselves from being the world’s most famous pop stars into pioneering musical artists, creating new parameters of contemporary music,” says Ajoy Bose, who has written an exhaustive account of their journey in “Across The Universe: The Beatles in India”.

Bose, a well-known journalist, finds it interesting that their growing relationship with India, “led by George Harrison, who was particularly into Indian music, culture and religion, went side by side with their experiments with narcotics and psychedelic drugs”.

“Their stay at the ashram got the band away from psychedelic drugs, although they may have sneaked in a few quick smokes of pot. What we do know is that their stay in Rishikesh resulted in an astonishing creative burst of song-writing — the most prolific in their entire career,” Bose told IANS in an interview.

“I believe that the real reason why they managed to write so many songs in India was because it was the first time since they became the Beatles they were allowed to be individuals and not just a band that needed to perform or record in the studios.”

Living in a remote Himalayan ashram, the Beatles did not, for a change, have to worry about “being stars and celebrities” and the inevitable tensions that this involved.

“So a sabbatical did change the Beatles, at least temporarily, and particularly the songs they wrote in the ashram, because these were all individual pieces and were not created with an album in mind. That is why the ‘White Album’, which contains most of these songs, is considered so unique in the Beatles discography,” notes Bose.

The real reason behind the Beatles’ historic journey, however, is not really known. Bose contends that “destiny played a very strong part” in bringing the Beatles to India. It so happened, he explains, that George Harrison, the lead guitarist of the band, almost accidentally picked up the sitar on a film set.

“Harrison’s intense relationship with Pandit Ravi Shankar played an equal, if not larger role, than Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s transcendental camp… Some of the people who knew both Harrison and Ravi Shankar described their close friendship as a karmic connection — as if they were related in a previous birth.

“And the famous sitarist himself once commented that George’s surprising affinity to Indian music, culture and religion could perhaps be only explained in terms of the Hindu belief in reincarnation,” says Bose, who has previously authored “For Reasons of State”, a book on the emergency; and “Behenji”, a biography of former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati.

The Beatles visit had another fallout: It generated huge interest in India across the West. “It certainly motivated thousands and thousands of backpackers from Europe and the United States to trek across India — and many of them stayed back as Hippies,” he says.

On what prompted him to write “Across The Universe…” at this juncture, Bose says that it is “a labour of love” and a tribute to the Beatles from a fan who fell in love with them as a teenager in the mid-1960s.

“I fought with my father over listening to their music, copying their psychedelic clothes and, of course, keeping my hair as long as the lads from Liverpool. At the same time, it was not just hero worship of the Fab Four… (I wrote the book as) I really felt there was a big hole in the huge number of books on the Beatles,” he maintains, the “big hole” being their affair with India.

The English rock band that was formed in Liverpool in 1960 — with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — became widely regarded as the foremost and most influential music band of their times. Ringo, the drummer of the band, had to go back after a fortnight in Rishikesh because “his chronic stomach condition could not take Indian food and also because his wife Maureen was afraid of insects”.

The three-hundred page book, published by Penguin Viking, comes with an elaborate back note section, where the author has provided relevant references.

(Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in)

—IANS

Muslims should gift the land in Ayodhya for Ram Temple: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Muslims should gift the land in Ayodhya for Ram Temple: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

By Kushagra Dixit and V.S. Chandrasekar,

New Delhi : Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who is of late involved in mediation on the Ayodhya issue, says the best solution to the festering Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute is an out-of-court settlement under which the Muslims gift the land to the Hindus for building a grand Ram Temple.

The 61-year-old spiritual leader, who met leaders of both Sunni and Shia sects of the Muslim community recently, also says that he is not in touch with the government — and that it has nothing to do with his efforts.

Ravi Shankar, who has a global following, denies vehemently that he talked of “bloodshed” in case the Supreme Court rules the title dispute in favour of one community or the other.

“Because it’s Lord Ram’s birthplace, there is such a strong feeling connected with the place. And since it is not that important place for Muslims and (is) also in a place where there is conflict, namaaz is not acceptable. Anyway, it is not going to serve the purpose; and when it is not serving the purpose of the other community (Muslims), then, it should be gifted,” he told IANS in an interview.

Ravi Shankar said that if the Supreme Court rules in favour of the Mandir then there will be heartburn. If it rules for the Masjid, there will agian be heartburn.

“So, in either case, there will be discord in society. I want to create a win-win situation, where both communities come together and respect for each is restored, where respect of each is honoured. That is the formula we are suggesting… why not do it?” he said.

The spiritual leader said he was hopeful that an out-of-court settlement could be reached because he has been talking to people in both the communities, and they both agree that there should be a settlement.

“On that only (was) the initiative mooted. It’s not that I jumped into it suddenly,” he said.

Asked if there were any deadlines for finding an amicable solution ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he said, “No such deadline. I am just saying what would be the best for both communities. Nothing to do with elections, not at all. Only an amicable solution.”

Ravi Shankar acknowledged that the temple dispute was a polarising factor all over India and that is why there was a need for all communities to come together.

“It is more relevant to come together and build bridges — and this initiative will build bridges,” he said.

Asked about his meetings with leaders of the Shia and Sunni sects of the Muslim community, Ravi Shankar said that both the sects agree that they should settle the matter outside court.

“There is already a Shri Ram Temple existing there (at the disputed site). They all know that it cannot be removed. So, we should sit and talk,” he said.

Sunni scholar Maulana Salman Nadwi was expelled from the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on February 10 after he backed Ravi Shankar’s formula following a meeting with him — along with Uttar Pradesh Sunni Waqf Board chief Zufar Farooqui — at the Art of Living Bengaluru ashram. Ravi Shankar met Nadwi again in February in Lucknow.

On March 6, Ravi Shankar wrote to AIMPLB proposing an amicable solution where Muslims would gift the entire 2.77 acres of the disputed site to Hindus as a goodwill gesture and, in turn, Hindus would gift five acres of land near the site, to build a bigger mosque. The AIMPLB, however, had rejected Ravi Shankar’s proposal.

In a letter to the president and members of AIMPLB on March 6, Ravi Shankar spoke of “four options before the country” to resolve the dispute and discussed the possible outcomes of the Supreme Court’s verdict favouring one community over the other.

Referring to the first possibility of the court declaring that the site be given to the Hindus based on archaeological evidence that the temple existed long before the Masjid, Ravi Shankar said Muslims would have serious apprehensions about the legal system and lose faith in the judiciary. This could also lead to Muslim youth taking to violence.

Even though the Muslim Personal Law Board and other community leaders say that they will accept the verdict, in the long run the feeling that the court has done injustice will prevail for years.

If the Hindus lose the case and the land is gifted to Muslims for re-construction of the Babri Masjid, it would cause huge communal disturbance all over the country. “Winning this one acre of land, they would, however, permanently lose the goodwill of the majority community,” he said.

Ravi Shankar talked about the Allahabad High Court judgement allowing both a temple and mosque to be built there being upheld, and the “fourth option” of a temple through legislation, and said in the letter to AIMPLB leaders that “in all the four options, whether through the court or through the government, the results will be devastating for the nation at large and the Muslim community in particular”.

“The best solution, according to me, is an out-of-court settlement in which Muslim bodies come forward and gift one acre of land to the Hindus who, in turn, gift acres of land nearby to the Muslims, to build a better mosque. It is a win-win situation in which Muslims will not only gain the goodwill of 1,000 million Hindus, but it will also put this issue to rest once and for all.

“A palak nama (plaque) will recognise that this temple has been built with the cooperation of both the Hindus and Muslims. It will put to rest the issue for future generations and coming centuries,” he said in the letter.

Asked about his reported remarks on bloodshed, Ravi Shankar said, “I have never said that. It’s a distortion. I said that we don’t want a conflict in this country like what I have seen in Syria.”

(Kushagra Dixit can be reached at kushagra.d@ians.in and V.S Chandrasekar at chandru.v@ians.in)

—IANS

‘You can either change (your business) or you can die’

‘You can either change (your business) or you can die’

Bikram Bedi

Bikram Bedi

By Nishant Arora,

New Delhi : The last few years have seen several start-ups disappearing and large enterprises getting disrupted owing to the emergence of new-age technologies and the failure of businesses to achieve digital transformation.

The global disruption, according to a top Amazon Web Services (AWS) executive, has hit Indian enterprises too and the top leadership is now looking to acquire digital prowess to stay in competition.

Be it the 51 million-odd Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs), a thriving start-up community or big enterprises, including governments, building a digital business technology is the core fundamental requirement now, irrespective of size.

“You are going to need to give yourself servers, computer, network, security, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), deep learning, analytics and so on. All of that is going to be part of building a digital business,” Bikram Bedi, Head (India Region) at Amazon Internet Services Pvt Ltd (AISPL), told IANS in a free-wheeling interview here.

AISPL is an Indian subsidiary of the Amazon Group which undertakes the resale and marketing of AWS Cloud services in the country.

“We have over 100 services at AWS — ranging from basic compute, storage, networking and security which is the bottomline of the infrastructure — to AI, ML, automatic speech recognition, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and analytics and within these, we have different kinds of technologies like mobility, security solutions and content distribution solutions,” Bedi said.

According to him, anything which is available in the IT world should be in AWS.

Today, from PolicyBazaar.com to Bajaj Finance, online learning platform Byju’s to Apeejay Education Society and Larsen & Toubro Infotech to Tata Motors, AWS has its presence across industries.

“When you look at that whole spread and then you look at the market that you are looking to address, it is hardware, software and applications. It is an opportunity worth trillions of dollars,” Bedi said.

There is not a single vertical in the country that is not aiming towards digital transformation, says the executive.

“Be it education, agriculture, health tech, healthcare, banking, finance, non-banking finance companies, insurance, manufacturing or logistics, we are seeing it across the board. They know that if they do not innovate and build digital businesses now, they will get disrupted. You can either change or you can die,” Bedi told IANS.

According to Bedi, the adoption of Cloud has been faster in the start-up and Internet space while large enterprises are now moving forward on two basic motions.

“The first motion is what we call building factories of digital innovation and the second is what we call retiring technical debt. This is largely about new applications,” the executive stressed.

The world tolday is witnessing digital disruption where online startups like Uber and Airbnb have grown into mammoth proportions within a short span of time.

The established enterprises are now moving quickly.

“The brick and mortar guys are also looking to build something like that. So it’s across the board. Technology usage is just going to spike across the board,” Bedi said.

AWS recently became the first global Cloud service provider (CSP) to achieve full empanelment for delivering Public Cloud services to government customers in India.

By using AWS, Quality Council of India (QCI) has already expedited the accreditation process of its various projects.

“We’ve been working with the government on a number of projects. But the certification has obviously added a significant amount of credentials into the AWS offering in terms of being able to work with the government on certain projects and at certain places,” Bedi noted.

“The whole space is really nascent and new territory. Smart cities, education, agriculture, transportation, security around cities, traffic management and so on. There is just so much there that a platform like AWS could do in helping government build around that for citizen and corporate benefits,” the executive added.

In the next three-five years, everything is going to be connected.

“Your phone is going to be connected, laptop is going to be connected, probably your shirt too along with devices, wearables, refrigerators, cars, everything. The success or failure of the business is going to be dependent on how you can look at that humongous data, analyse it and take the right business decision for your customers,” Bedi told IANS.

“We are accelerating into a world where data, technology, analytics, AI and voice/speech recognition is going to be driving how we live. It is going to be a very different world in a few years from now and AWS with its wide array of solutions is ready for the upcoming challenge,” Bedi said.

(Nishant Arora can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)

—IANS

I write what I think is right, give my evidence… take it or leave it: Historian Romila Thapar

I write what I think is right, give my evidence… take it or leave it: Historian Romila Thapar

Historian Romila Thapar

Historian Romila Thapar

By Saket Suman,

New Delhi : As a globally renowned professional historian, she has in recent years been the target of vicious right wing trolls who are out to spread their own version of history. If it doesnt seem to overly bother her, it is because, unknown to most, Romila Thapars life has been one lived amidst sustained hate and criticism.

Thapar completed her PhD in 1958 from the University of London and returned to India in 1961 and joined Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, in 1970 as professor of Ancient Indian History (after brief stints at Kurukshetra University and the University of Delhi).

Just seven years after she joined JNU, her troubles began. In the late 1970s, several members in the Janata Party and the Morarji Desai government sought changes in textbooks. The books that were targeted by members of the Jan Sangh – which later morphed into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — included two significant works by Thapar: “Medieval India” written by her, and “Communalism and the Writing of Indian History”, which she wrote along with Harbans Mukhia and Bipan Chandra.

Those protesting against these books criticised Thapar for several reasons, primarily for going soft on Muslim rulers like Aurangzeb.

“I did not allow the text books written by me to be changed because every time they would want to make a change, I would say, yes go ahead and make a change, just take my name off the book. But they didn’t want to do that because they wanted the legitimacy of the name of a historian and yet they wanted to make the changes,” she told IANS in an interview.

Her troubles with the BJP did not end there. She was removed from the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) less than three months after the BJP came to power in 1999.

Merely four years later, criticism hit her again when, in 2003, she was appointed as the Visiting Chair at the US Library of Congress. She was supposed to spend 10 months at the John W. Kluge Center researching “Historical Consciousness in Early India” — but a petition against her appointment described her as a “Marxist” and “anti-Hindu”, while emphasising that it was “a waste of US money to support a Leftist”.

“Within a month of my getting there to Washington, there was a long 15-page petition saying the most vicious things about me. Really, I mean, written by people after reading whom one could make out how paranoid they were. And I was terribly disturbed at that point of time because I thought, What do I do, I am sitting in Washington, I know nobody in the embassy, I know nobody in the Library of Congress; and I wondered how was I going to manage this attack,” she recalled.

The question that many of her critics raise is why she does not respond to them, claiming that she is scared of a public debate.

“Do I respond? Or do I just keep quiet? The problem with responding is that one would then have to respond each time somebody wrote against one. When I was facing all of this in Washington, a couple of senior academics in London wrote to me and said, ‘For god’s sake don’t respond, because that’s exactly what they want you to do.’ They will want you to spend all your time defending yourself on stupid issues whereas you should be doing serious research.

“And so I thought about it at great length and eventually I decided not to respond — and I haven’t for that reason, although they call me a coward, they say I am not willing to have a public debate and so on. And my attitude is that as an academic I am not into public debate: I write what I think is right, I give my evidence, I give my references, take it or leave it. I am not insisting that you follow what I am saying,” she maintained.

“I think the main point is the insistence that I have the right to research and write and give evidence for what I am saying and make my statement about the past. I think this is the right that everybody has, and why should I be denied that right which everybody has?” she asked.

She maintains that arguing a particular position in any discipline is a constitutional mandate as long as she sticks to the given methodology and substantiates her research with enough evidence. This is also where she makes a distinction between “academic history” and “fantasy history”. Fantasy history, she maintained, is written for public consumption.

“But I have been firm on the fact that as an academic historian, I will go on saying what I wish to say, on the basis of my research,” she said.

Meanwhile, Oxford University Press has published “The Historian and Her Craft: Collected Essays and Lectures” by Thapar. This set of four volumes, according to the publisher, reflects “the scholarship of one of the foremost historians of our time”. It is a comprehensive collection of lectures and essays by Thapar, with each focusing on a theme — Historiography, Pre-Mauryan and Mauryan India, Social and Cultural Transactions, and Religion and Society.

(Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in)

—IANS

Modi not keen on appointment of Lokpal: Anna Hazare

Modi not keen on appointment of Lokpal: Anna Hazare

Anna Hazare

Anna Hazare

By Mohit Dubey,

Lucknow : Gandhian and anti-corruption crusader has accused prime minister Narendra Modi of not being interested in appointment of the Lokpal at the centre. Having hit the road in the run up to the mega show of strength at the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi on March 23, the veteran crusader Anna Hazare says Modi was “never serious about Lokpal”.

The reason behind the delay in appointment of a Lokpal, he points out, is because the prime minister is afraid that once this becomes a reality his office as well as that of his cabinet members would also come under its purview.

“Panth Pradhan ka office bhi Lokpal ke neeche aa jayega, ye bhay unko satata hai” (The PMO will also come under the ambit of Lokpal and his fear stalks the PM), Hazare said during a free wheeling interview with IANS at the VVIP guest house in the state capital.

Sipping hot green tea to fight off the signs of tiredness from his visit to Sitapur, where he addressed a well-attended public rally, the 80-year-old informs that he has written 22 letters to the prime minister in the past four years but has got a reply to even one. Even as chief minister of Gujarat, Modi tried to cold shoulder the appointment of a Lokayukta in the state, he added.

He cites the section 4 clause 2 of the Lokpal Act wherein it is specifically said that in case the appointment of Lokpal is made with some members of the select panel not being there, it is in principle binding. “This government says there is no leader of opposition hence Lokpal cannot be appointed. This is all hogwash,” Hazare says

Ask him if graft has come down under the watch of Modi and he smiles. “Wo bolta acche hai, isliye bhrastachaar ki baat chup jaati hai par vaisa hai nahin. Aaj bhi aam aadmi bhrastachar se bahut peedit hai” (He (Modi) is a good orator, hence the issue of graft is overshadowed but the reality is that the common man continues to bear the brunt of graft), he says while pointing out how the entire political system was scared of a full-fledged and effective Lokpal.

Having addressed more than 50 rallies since he started the renewed mission from November 22 last year, Hazare bubbles with energy when one mentions how his ‘andolan’ in 2011 had spurred the youth of the nation.

He is quick to inform that thousands of volunteers in the movement this time around too are putting in their whole effort so that the nation could be freed from the clutches of corruption. “If the youth gets up, the fate of the nation will change for good” he says while pointing out on how his rallies in Aurnachal Pradesh, Assam, MP, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Haryana in the past few months had garnered immense support of women and the youth.

But how would the movement be different this time round?

“See, the last time we were successful in ensuring that a legislation which was put on the back burner and resisted by the political establishment for so many decades was passed by the parliament. This time we will ensure that it is implemented in letter and spirit, he proclaims as a group of youngsters who have come to meet him and seek his blessings breaks into a spontaneous applause. Broach the name of Arvind Kejriwal and a sadness creases his face. He informs that he had cautioned the Delhi chief minister many a times that he should not “be tempted by power” but he did not pay heed.

Kejriwal, who has many times called Hazare his mentor and guru and he have not spoken for the last many years.

Once bitten twice shy, the octogenarian has now enforced a strict rule that any body who becomes part of the outfit taking forward the anti-graft crusade will have to sign an affidavit promising no role in active politics. Over 5,000 people have already signed it, informs an aide while adding that in case someone breaches the contract, Anna can take the person to court.

Quoting the teachings of eminent Maharashtrian saint Tukaram, Hazare says the greed of power and attachment can be a great road block in national service. “I have not met my biological family for the last 45 years, I lead a simple life, don’t even know what my account holds in terms of savings….my only mission is to see this country free of corruption” he muses.

As him if this much traveling doesn’t trouble his aging bones and he snaps back with a smile. “At 80, I feel younger than many teenagers. Its all about ‘mann’ (mind and heart)” he says while pointing out how his meals are simple and fast food like burgers are strictly out.

He informs that his day starts with pranayam, followed by sprouts as breakfast and two phulka (roti) and vegetables for lunch. There is no dinner, only fresh fruit juice. He vows that “till mylast breath” he will continue his struggle against graft and that he is very optimistic that the ‘Jan Sansad’ (peoples’ parliament) will make this happen.

(Mohit Dubey can be contacted at mohit.d@ians.in)

—IANS