Soon after, I wrote Jalapaata (Waterfall) and Tabbaliyu Neenaade Magane (You have been orphaned, my Son). A singular experience inspired both these works. A revolution of sorts was brewing in the cooperative sector in the Kaira district, which not just bettered the lives of the farmers there but supplied plentiful milk to far-off places like Ahmedabad and Bombay. AMUL had gained nationwide fame as a producer and supplier of milk products. I wanted to visit the organization that had unleashed a flood of milk across the country.
Dr. Kodagali from Karnataka was a veterinarian at AMUL (Anand Milk Union Limited). In all, the organization had five veterinarians with an assistant for each. Each veterinarian had a jeep equipped with medical kits. Every alternate day, the jeep would visit villages based on a predetermined route to tend to the medical needs of buffaloes and cows. The veterinarians examined the general health of these animals, treated them for diseases, and carried out artificial insemination procedures. A farmer simply filled out an application at the AMUL office in his village to avail of these facilities. The services were free of charge.
I visited about 40-50 villages in a day with Dr. Kodagali on several trips. I also accompanied the milk delivery trucks on many occasions to study how the system worked. AMUL educated these farmers about the techniques of modern veterinary science on how to obtain the maximum output of milk. For instance, when a cow or buffalo delivers a calf, its milk yield increases substantially for over seven or eight months following which the yield decreases and then dries up. If the animal becomes pregnant again, it stops producing milk till it delivers its baby. From a milk productivity perspective, these are wasted months. These wasted months were reduced by artificially inseminating the cow when it was still lactating (i.e., when the present calf was about 4 months old). That would result in no loss in the milk output. Thanks to the insemination, a new calf would be underway. This process ensured that there’d be only two wasted months with negligible difference in the milk productivity.
Artificial insemination meant no contact of the cow or the buffalo with the male. This also meant that both the female and the male were deprived of enjoying the sensual and emotional pleasures bestowed by nature. I witnessed the artificial insemination procedure. The veterinarian used his equipment to directly “fertilize” the cow with the best seed. I followed his instructions, wore surgical gloves, and felt its uterus and other reproductive organs.
“If you ceaselessly impregnate the cow this way, without giving it any rest, wouldn’t that reduce its lifespan?” I asked him.
“It does. But it yields more milk this way with this reduced lifespan than it would if it lived a full life. Besides, you need to guage its lifespan not by years but by the milk it yields as long as it lives. If you set up a new textile mill, your focus will be on running the machinery round the clock to ensure the quickest return on your investment, minimize interest payments, and reap profits. When the machinery no longer performs as efficiently, you ‘condemn’ it, then buy a more technologically advanced replacement. Old technology is always loss making. The same revolution has occurred in Veterinary science.”
“But doesn’t the poor creature at least deserve to experience the pleasure that occurs when procreating naturally?”
“It is after all, an animal.”
In some units, they had installed machinery to milk the cows, which made the manual milking process redundant. On the other side, this resulted in completely severing the calf’s ties from its mother.
The experience deeply impacted my emotions. I was aghast at this barbaric method of extracting milk, and concluded that it was sinful to drink dairy milk. In Karmasad, several vendors weren’t part of the cooperative, and sold milk independently and let their animals breed naturally. I decided to buy milk for my home from these vendors. As far as I was concerned, the cooperative experience had rendered a massive assault on my sense of morals and ethics. Jalapata and Tabbaliyu Neenaade Magane resulted from this experience. Although the subject matter, focus, and aim of these two novels are different, they emerged from the same experience.
@Nilesh,
I am sorry for the experience you and your wife had to go through. My sympathies. My own experience (sans the wife part) pretty much mirrors your experience. In my case it was Ganapati puja. Being a Bengali, I can tell you that such hooliganism and insensitivity gets a free hand in Kolkata during the time of Durgapuja or other pujas. I have no trouble imagining the same incident getting repeated in the various parts of the country. This is not essentially a Hindu/Muslim/Christian problem, it is a problem of the Indian mindset. If you notice, in every field in this country we have replaced idea of smartness with manipulation, intelligence with loud propaganda and patriotism with blind loyalty. People deserve the the system they get. Poeple is a collective term. Where would individuals like me and you go when we know our idea of fun does not include forced listening of Bollywood music for three days in a row and teasing women in the road?
@Peter,
If I get it correctly, you are protesting against the generalization of the christian community. But, if the christian Indian community feels the way you do, they should protest against the evangelists. Do not we see exactly opposite tendency from the community you belong to?
@Kishkindha
Thanks for the good explanation. First they will tell you to love your neighbor and then they will determine that your idea of love and their idea of love are not same. Therefore the rich and strong will teach “right” idea of love to the poor and weak. This is how religious conversion works, you see. As far as I can see, there are not many Hindus in this country, most of us converted ourselves to a pseudo-religion where a strange ignorance of one’s own culture and religion is thought to be modernism and cowardice and selfishness stands for peaceful mindset. Our own fall from Dharma makes us vulnerable to conversion.
If anyone sees how public go to Tirupati and gives money to God to please him or wash away the sins, one would not be able to miss the strange similarity between Temple and toilet paper (I apologize if I am hurting any of you with this comparison). Dharma is supposed to provide us a road that should keep us from committing sin, it is not merely a collection of ways by which one can wash sin.
Sorry for this long reply, just my four cents (inflation, man inflation
)
There are christianities. The syrian orthodox church is around for centuries it never converted or preached exclusive. culturally not very diffrent from kerala hindu. if church headquarters in india no problem,
Well said Kishkinhaa.As someone had written earlier( ? Vivekhanda) “when a Hindu gets converted to Islam/ Christianity, not only there is one less Hindu but also there is one more enemy for the Hindu”
That not all Christians are murderers and rapists is a trivial conclusion. We can say the same about any group anywhere in the world at any time. It tells us nothing about what Christianity is. It tells us nothing about, for example, why all the heathen cultures encountered by Christianity have been deliberately and systematically demonized and destroyed (and what could not be destroyed outright have been rendered as “morally oppressive” by their secular “enlightened” twins).
When Indians point out Christian/missionary actions, we are given a line about “perfect christian beliefs” and when we start to investigate the “perfect Christian beliefs” (which has turned heathen-baiting and anti-semitism (ie hatred) into an affair with scientific exactitude, premise, and rationale: one only true god stuff), we get another line: “not all christians are like that”, “Christians have cute haircuts”, and so on.
Don’t you think it is time to investigate further into the reasons why Asia has been turned upside down by this Christian ideology which purports to “save” all our souls, has been doing so violently and aggressively for past 2000 years, relentlessly, and with supreme arrogance. And which has mutated into every stripe of ideology from manifest destiny, to Nazism, to communism, Orientalism, and white man’s burden.
Christianity is the mask of (western) imperialism. The “teachings” of Jesus Christ are quite simply propagandistic diversions. When the missionary says “love”, it is simply a euphemism for accepting the conqueror as your savior. This is clear from the latest research on Christian origins which has been described here:
http://ascendantasia.blogspot.com/
The Missionary has always preceded the Conquistador, whether in the Native Americas or in Asia. Anyone can say “love thy neighbor”; just declaring such does not make any community into a functioning, kind, or caring community as claimed by Christianity (especially when we see just the opposite visited by Christianity on native communities).
What Christianity uniquely claims is that the presence of an inimitable individual, the Christ, an exemplar, “saves” mankind from all-damning “original sin”. The unique claim of christianity is that having the “right belief” is “soul-saving”. But we know from Balagangadhara that “right belief” does not impact social reality in the least. It is a false construct, through and through. At most, “right belief” “dissolves” all “problems” into an inchoate mix. Indeed, it creates, out of nothing, a whole class of problems: hypocrisy, the “stress” of not conforming to “cosmic principles”, eg the endless pro-abortion, anti-abortion theological miasma which creates endless rancor out of ‘human suffering’ in the “west” and leads to a never-ending spiral of one-upmanship in “righteousness”.
This “right belief” is, thus, the leverage of the colonizer. But, the heathen can never be “righteous” in the eyes of God (or the secular Law) because he does not have the “right belief”; indeed, he does not even have a minimum fig leaf of “consistency” in beliefs (ie a belief system), which is, of course, worse than contemptible. We love our Demons, Kumbhakarana and Vibhisana, as mush as we love our Gods. Even our Ravana attained Moksha.
So, based on this shady and problematic formulation, the entire culture of India (or Asia) has been deemed “regressive” “oppressive” and “heathen”, and has been slated for elimination by the Christians, out of “love”, of course!!!
Now why don’t you tell me what we should do? And don’t say something like I am Syrian Christian persecuted by my catholic brothers. India’s culture is too important and wonderful be dismissed by such ad hocs.
@2bornot2b
That’s why I said it is their JOB. JOB means where you get paid.
They are not doing any service.
@ peter
Brother, problem is not with Christians, they are as good and as bad as Hindus, true culprit is their religion “Christianity”.
@ Nilesh
What other crimes are allowed under the shadow of democracy? Can’t you take a stance on moral grounds? If mother ill feeds her child isn’t she morally wrong? But our democracy allows her to do so.
We are not concerned about legalities of conversion,we are concerned about it from the moral grounds.
-Raghu
Nilesh – “If Christian missionaries are converting Hindus to their religion, it is not at all their fault.
They are doing their job and we can’t even stop them, because this is DEMOCRACY”
there are countries that prohibits conversaion (malaysia, dubai, saudi arabia) Democracy can change issues that is bad for the society. missionaries not only convert, they make the new converts hate their previous religion. They do a great disservice to humanity by conversion. People can do service without converting (for ex – Mata Amirtanandamayi, Art of Living etc.,). Missionaries may be doing their job (as mandated by their bosses and are getting paid for it), but they are just paid workers. There is no virtue in what they are doing. See Brazil and Phillippines… native customs have been compltely abolished and all are mcdonald, kfc type of imitation of the west. WE JUST WANT TO SCREAM TO MISSIONARIES, JUST LEAVE US ALONE.. Dont worry if we are in ignorance… We are happy and you have no *&????? right to tell us what to do. IF YOU WANT TO DO SERVICE, JUST DO SERVICE ONLY!!!!1
Kishkindha, not all christian like that. I am from Syrian church. It is mostly Catholic and evangelical church that do like that, bribe for conversion etc. Syrian christian also in India persecuted by catholics.
@all
There is no doubt that Kuran & Bible are completely misinterpreted.
Their religious leaders are taking advantage by misinterpreting them.
They have got power and they don’t want to loose it.
They know the true power of Hinduism. and they are afraid of it.
That’s why they are converting or producing more and more people for their religion.
@Raghavendra
I am not telling that all Hindus are bad or all Christians are good.
Neither I am comparing few miscreants to all Hindu community.
Problem is that it is not stopping here. It is spreading…..
My wife will not allow me to be Christian
@2bornot2b
You are also right. All festivals are commercialized.
I think, there is not much change in How Christian festivals are celebrated today and 1000 years ago.
Here Ganesh festival started in last decade and it has already lost it meaning.
I am not talking about commercialization of festival, this is manipulation of festival itself.
@Chandra
SAINT Valentine’s day was always celebrated as Lovers day and it hasn’t lost its meaning.
I know that there is nothing HOLY about it.
My concern is that our festivals are not only commercialized, but lost its true meaning too.
@All
Jesus was not GOD, he was messenger of GOD.
He taught us tolerance.
We need to take good things from every religion.
@Kaffir
You are truly right my brother, we can only save our religion.
We should not wait for Krishna to take one more birth to clean this mess. HE is inside all of us.
I just moved here before 6 months and was not part of any community around.
For next festival, I will definitely raise my voice.
But I am talking about Mumbai, biggest city in India.
I am not talking about few hundred people, I have seen thousands of people in Maharashtra who are blindly following politicians.
I know, you will say that I am confusing the trees for the forest
But remember that Cancer starts from small body part and then it spreads to whole body.
Better to cure these small parts asap.
If Christian missionaries are converting Hindus to their religion, it is not at all their fault.
They are doing their job and we can’t even stop them, because this is DEMOCRACY.
Nilesh, you are advocating the exact opposite, our youth have become loose and irresponsible because of influence of semetic cults which give more importance to materialism. I used to be under the false impression that every Muslim is a strict follower of Quran and is a perfect example of man prescribed by that book, but my uncle who is a cop told me that its just how many Hindus think, 99% of the chain snatchers, drug traffickers, anti-social elements arrested are from that community, most of the smugglers, idol, child traffickers, owners of bordellos are from the community u were showering praises upon. Much worse, there are many Hindus who convert so that these kinds of things are easily overlooked and pardoned once they move out of Hindu way of life. These things are overlooked in other religions not because they publicly teach such bad things but being political in nature and they are fine as long as their membership increases.
As long as the crass commercial media whose sole aim is to cash the emotions of the people and not deliver something meaningful and useful exists, these things are bound to happen. Our current media is driving all youth from every religion to act the same. It has nothing to do with Hinduism and don’t fall into trap or deliberately try to pull others into the trap.
Peter,
Christian actions speak louder than Christian words (Christian beliefs). There is a 2000 year pattern to Christian actions against heathens. Shouting from the pews about perfect Christian beliefs is a nice distractions for the horrific christian deeds. Jesus Christ is an “artifice for aggression” and this has been proven without any doubt.
Bookish knowledge of Hinduism and Vedas is of little use, unless it’s not matched by hands-on work or is not applied to real-life situations.
Nilesh,
Blatant commercialization of festivals is indeed a serious issue.
But, can I ask you something? There must’ve been an organizing committee in the neighborhood that made all those arrangements. Are you a member of that committee? And did you make efforts to contact members of such a committee and talk to them about your negative experiences? Or maybe write a letter to your local newspaper, or submit a column? Unless you tell them (the committee members) what’s wrong, how will that be fixed?
As I understand it, withdrawing from life’s battles is not what Hinduism is about, and neither is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. But getting involved in such battles and doing one’s best to correct the situation is what Hinduism teaches me.
So if you have a certain idea of how Krishna Janamashthmi should be celebrated, please share that idea with your neighbors and next year, or the year after, set an example that’s contrary to what you experienced. It’s likely that you are not the only one who was hurt by such hooliganism at a festival celebration. Seems to me that we Hindus have lost our abilities to be karma yogis and simply want ready-made laddoos that someone else should serve to us, instead of getting involved in the process of making those laddoos.
Similar mind-set is exhibited by those who cry about Valentine’s day and indulge in violence instead of offering positive alternatives rooted in our culture, or those who cry about dirty streets instead of getting organized and tackling that problem, one small step at a time.
Brother, can you enlighten us about the true Christian life?
I confess! brother, I do agree that evil is part of all religions to an some extant, but equating Hinduism with Christianity and Islam is unfair. Christianity being the elder brother of Islam has rightly taken up the first place for atrocities committed on non believers.
I’m not talking foolish, neither I’m a Hindu fanatic, if only you care for truth check out this link for yourself and know the truth….
http://voiceofdharma.com/books/hhce/
I’m open for the discussion you put forth….
Nilesh,
You’re confusing the trees for the forest. When you start pronouncing value judgments on an entire religion, a way of life, based on the behaviour of a few followers, you lose the script.
plz do not think bad of nilesh. i can understand where he come from. see as a christian i seen many bad things about christians that make me feel same way abt my religion. i saw evangelical bribing for conversion and also make money. looking at people like this they are making joke of my religion and making the great love jesus taught like it is a company to make money.
http://www.419eater.com/html/kothapalli_rao.htm
some of my brothers do not live true chirstian life. they work as government employee, rob poor people and make money for themselves and speak like they are socialist.
bad people in all religion bring bad name to there religion, i congrat nilesh for speaking what is on mind be it hinduism, chirsitian or islam.
but only qusetion i ask nilesh is bad hindu covert to hinduism make a good christian? see christian like pastor kothapalli rao in that picture with fish in one had whisky in other and bread on head!!
If some Hindu does not know real teachings of “Hinduism”, “he better converted to Christian.” – You seem to imply that every Christian knows Christianity throughly and has realised Christ within. You seem to identify aberrations of Hinduism with (true)Hinduism. What is meant by saying that Christianity does not teach “this”? What do you have to say of the SAINT Valentine’s day ‘celebrations’? Very holy it is indeed! What about largely xtian celebrations of New Years’and it’s eve? Haven’t even Thanksgiving and easter -two slightly more saner celebrations, become simply long weekends to indulge in reckless living? What do you have to say of the MardiGras carnival? All of these are very ‘Xtian’ celebrations. I can’t think of a single Christian festival that is practised in any spiritual purity today. How can you abrogate unto yourself the moral stance to declare that all of such ‘Hindus’ deserve to become Xtians?
I would differ from SL Bharyappa here.
We kill chicken, fish, goats for food. We breed chicken only for the purpose of eggs and meat. In some eastern parts of India, we breed fish for meat. If we can do all of this, why not for the cow?
So long as we can secure milk for all of mankind at reasonable rates, I would support this venture.
I agree that in many villages, the cow is still a part of the family and is looked upon as “Gomata”, who gives milk.
However, traditionally (atleast in my village in Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra), once the cow is unable to breed and produce milk or when a bull is no longer able to plough the field, (s)he is taken to the forest and left there to fend for himself / herself. The villagers take pride in this fact that they leave these cattle in some nearby forest-like-area (called “raan” as opposed to dense forests called jungle) (no tigers / wolves live in the forests, but I think some adivasi communities ), rather than sell it to a butcher for meat! The thinking is that they are free in the forest (water is plentiful there, grass is reasonably ample)
Finally,
“Ashwam Naiva, Gajam Naiva, Vyaaghram Naivacha Naivacha.
Ajaaputram Balim Dadhatu, Daivo Durbalaghaatakaha.”
Nilesh – “The same kind of method is being used everywhere in world. Villagers still feel cows as part of their family, because it is earning member of family”
Correction… Villagers feel cows are part of the family, because it is so. further, cow takes part in daily life of the villagers which creates a bond. Earning ability does not determine whether someone is part of teh family or not. Even non-earning members are also part of the family.
All the same, we have become insensitive…
Or may be you are preparing your mind to get converted to Christianity and looking out for some escape route?
Mr apologetic Hindu,have ever cared to know about true History of Christianity? Don’t allow yourself to be mislead by lip sympathy, weigh things before you make judgments.
Nilesh – It is unfortunate you and your wife came across these anti-social elements, on an auscipious day. we have rougues in all religions. the spirit of festivities were lost long time including X’mas which now focuses on giving gifts and nothing else. crass commercialization of xmas can be seen in all shopping malls… the spirit of ramadhan is also lost going by the amount of food people that fast consume in the evenings (people actually put on weight during fasting month). Religious conversion is a social nighmare not a religious one. One does not have to convert to follow other religions. Conversion is done only to increase numbers for political and social strength.
>> Her father told me that “Jesus is actually a birth of Lord Vishnu” If Christians are respecting our religion so much, it is really shame on us that we are not able to preserve true Hinduism.
I don’t agree with you, If at all Christians respected our religion, why is there large scale conversion happening since decades?
What you saw as Hindus is just a minuscule population,since we allow freedom of expression, thses things are left uncontrolled,these miscreants should be tough lesson, but don’t generalize it to whole community.
History of Islam and Christianity is very proud of its atrocities on non believers,unlike them at least we feel bad about such incidents, that way we are much better than other communities.
This generalizarion and comparison is not acceptable.
Sandeep, I want you to write something on “religious conversion”. Let me tell you one incident which has changed my views. It happened on this janmashtmi. (14th dec 2009).
Before any religious festival, political parties and so called “leaders” of our Indian society, have started to put their boards all around city in Mumbai. While photos of these leaders were as big as whole board, it was hard to find “Lord Krishna”‘s photo in some corner. They were offering 10,000 – 25,00,000 (not joking, I saw the board) for dahi handi procession.
Day before Janmashtmi, I and my wife completed book “Swami Vivekananda – The World Teacher” and discussed religious conversion Swami Vivekananda also opposed the same. 14th August started with loud noise of religious songs prepared on Bollywood tunes from “Kala Kaua Kat khayenga” to some vulgar songs. I really don’t know how can I prepare such religious songs on such themes.
I was on leave that day. I made one round around my area and was amazed to see that they have called huge crane to hang dahi handi. Crane for Dahi Handi?
This was my first dahi handi in Mumbai. I never saw Janmashtmi being celebrated such way. In Afternoon, I read about this festival on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna_Janmashtami
It is written as below.
the topmost person on the human pyramid tries to break the handi by hitting it with a blunt object, and when that happens, the buttermilk is spilled over the entire group, symbolizing their achievement through unity.
I read about how it is celebrated in Mumbai. So I was expecting trucks with so called “Govindas” in city. Around 4 pm, someone started to give speech. It was so loud that it was giving pain to my ears even when I was sitting in my home. After 5 pm, I saw trucks with youngsters roaming around. They were stopping by my area and were trying to break dahi handi. On being failed, group had to leave and another group came to try. There was a representator of each group, who was giving speech and was praising his group’s last year’s achievements.
I came out with my wife to see these so called “Govindas” or Krishna Bhaktas and to buy few things from market. I was shocked from these guys behavior. Instead of singing religious songs and shouting ” Lord Krishna ki Jai”, they were yelling “Hoo.. Hee… Hii..”. They were whistling and teasing young girls and women walking on road. This really hurt me and I was never so much in pain. I was burning inside like hell. Me and my wife, both were feeling the same. We were on footpath, so they didn’t see my wife. Guys from next truck also teased my wife and were giving blow kisses. My wife stopped me from shouting, but she showed them “Down thumb” and one guy from Truck showed “Middle Finger”. This was out of limit. These guys consider themselves as “Govinda” and Krishna Bhakta were showing their unity in teasing girls. Is this what written in “Bhagwad Geeta”. If there would be one group like that, I would no write it to you, but each and every group was doing the same. Blowing kisses, Whistling, Yelling. These guys were on truck and not on ground, otherwise they would definitely touch these girls.
The same guy who were looking kind of religious while trying to break “Dahi Handi” were behaving like animals. I was able to see pain in my wife’s eyes too. She told me that she is not sad because these guys are teasing her, but this is not what Krishna represents and taughts in Geeta. Does anyone of these guys have ever read “Bhagwad Geeta”?
My wife told me that if these guys are converted in Christians she would not regret. At least they will not do such things in Christianity, Priests will at least keep them away. Our society leaders are teaching such things to these guys. Our religious leaders are also not stopping these youth from wasting their energy. Breaking “Dahi Handi” will not add any value to our society, but cleaning some streets, spreading teachings of “hinduism” will definitely add some value in our future generations.
If some Hindu does not know real teachings of “Hinduism”, he better converted to Christian. That day I started to support “religious conversion”. If these Christian priests are at least teaching something better, or at least keeping them away from such religious processes, ceremonies, I would be very happy. “Christinality” is also not bad.
I have already seen Ganesh Utsav in pune for 3 years. It was also worst. I saw youth dancing on tune of vulgar hindi songs and english songs. Religious dancing on song like “Brazil”. Is this Hinduism all about? Shame on us, Hindus. At least Christianity does not teach this.
Sandeep, I am looking forward to your views on above incident. My wife is Orthodox Christian (not from India), and sometimes I feel that she understands “Bhagwad Geeta” better than me. She has done her masters on Indian Culture. “Lord Krishna” is her beloved God. She is praying Lord Krishna since age of 3. I have even see her childhood photos. I was amazed by her father’s knowledge on Hinduism. Her father told me that “Jesus is actually a birth of Lord Vishnu” If Christians are respecting our religion so much, it is really shame on us that we are not able to preserve true Hinduism.
Check out this link,
India on watch list of US.
http://news.rediff.com/report/2009/aug/13/us-body-places-india-on-watch-list.htm
we enjoy the status with other intolerant countries like Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt , Indonesia, Laos, the Russian Federation, Somalia, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Venezuela.
Its a handiwork of Christian missionary, and our government instead of shouting at them, will acknowledge the guilt and give more concession to continue their atrocity against us.
On one side we have turned blind to helpless, on other side we have become submissive to aggressor, what an Irony?
The same kind of method is being used everywhere in world. Villagers still feel cows as part of their family, because it is earning member of family.
What are your views, sandeep?
I was having my morning cup of coffee while I was reading this piece, we all are party to this sin.
I can show sympathy, but I don’t know If I can live without a coffee
. We, living in cities have grown insensitive.
I have read both his novels, it makes us feel guilty.