Photo by Chinku

Quiet Flows the Kaveri: A trip to Kodumudi

A dip in the river Kaveri on the first day of the Tamil month Ayppasi brings you blessings. Blessings or no blessing, the sight of the river and that too so early in the morning was too tempting. So we set out on the road to meet her at Kodumudi on a Sunday morning. Kodumudi is 40 KM away from Erode town. Believe me; we drove little more than 80 KM (both ways) in the morning just in order to have a bath in the Kaveri.

Well, it was a pleasant experience to drive along the Kaveri Delta. The cold morning breeze smelt a mix of paddy, sugar cane and turmeric plants. Coconut trees, plantains and lots of other trees made the whole stretch look like a green blanket. Small irrigation channels run through the fields making the soil rich and fertile. Early cows were eating their grass! This was a refreshing change-- from the irrational concrete jungle where we live to this green landscape full of human life. No wonder, civilizations began on the river banks.

Kaveri at Kodumudi flowed quietly. People were already there at the bathing ghat engrossed in pujas; it was also a day to remember the departed souls. Well, upon reaching there, I realised that taking bath in a river is an art and I do not know it so well. The women around there stared at me; I was getting into the water with my pyjamas and a long shirt. The water was pleasantly cold and I took one step at a time to avoid a sudden surge of the coldness. Once you are in the water, it is fun; time flies and you don’t want to come back to the banks.

However, under the water, at the bottom, there were residues of clothes that gave me an awful feeling: the only discomfort I want to forget. Well, it was not unexpected as we are famous for dirtying our natural spots. Many treat the historical monuments as a place for eternalising their love story by scribbling on the wall.

But I enjoyed the Kavery and the rising sun. Women changed their clothes, there on the banks itself. It surprised me. I was awestruck. That they went about changing their clothes, from the wet to new, in the open space with such poise. And that too into a saree, artistically rolling the five and half meters from a public place! They did not expose themselves even a bit. It was really a talent. They did all that, oblivious of their surroundings. In a moment, the women who bathed were in fresh clothes and bright red bindis on their foreheads. Me, too self conscious, had to pay to find a place for changing. Good learning! The way of life in a village is very different. I am not romanticising. They are less pretentious than us.

An ancient Shiva temple stood on the banks of Kaveri. After the dip in Kaveri you are supposed to be bodily pure and the visit to the temple makes you spiritually pure too. Inside the mammoth temple wall, there is a major structure devoted to the main deity - Lord Shiva and there are many small structures that accommodated other Gods and goddesses. Lord Brahma is also worshiped here: perhaps this is one of the few temples that have Brahma as a deity. Brahma prathishta is under an incredibly old tree (it is supposed to be 2000 years old). The pundit told us that this particular tree won’t blossom at all and Krishna says that we can claim the legacy of genetically modified plants from as early as some 2000 years ago.

You are supposed to take 7 rounds of the deity and the tree to get the blessings. Due to constraints of time, I decided to stop with only 3 rounds and am sure I will get my due. The pundit chanted the mantras mechanically reflecting the monotony of their work.

On our way back, we bought lots of bananas as it was cheap and fresh; straight from the farm on the banks of the Kaveri; just picked

Indeed, a holiday to remember!

Book Review Published in New Indian Express on December 13, 2009


Memories of a carnage unleashed

Justice delayed is justice denied. And 25 years is a long time for people waiting for justice. This is so with the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom in Delhi and many other towns in northern India. There is a lot of talk, in recent times, of reconciliation and peace. But the simple point is that peace and reconciliation can be brought about only after justice is meted out.

On October 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her own Sikh bodyguards. In the aftermath, Delhi and some other places in the country witnessed extensive violence that left over 3,000 Sikhs dead, their establishments looted and burnt down. Rajiv Gandhi, who took over as prime minister just hours before the carnage began, shamelessly approved of the pogrom. He said: "When a mighty tree falls, it is only natural that the Earth around it does shake a little". Evidently, the slaughter of more than 3,000 people seemed a natural course to him!

And if anyone argued that Rajiv Gandhis was an innocent statement in his hour of grief, evidence that it was not came soon after. The Congress leaders who organised the pogrom and orchestrated some of the mobs were rewarded with positions in Parliament and even in the Union Cabinet. All the while, the Sikhs were denied justice.

Jarnail Singh, an 11-year-old boy in November 1984, would not have thrown a shoe at Union home minister P Chidambaram in 2009 when he was 36, if justice had not been denied. For that matter, he would not have written this book, I Accuse. The writer is a journalist with Dainik Jagran who has reported extensively on Sikh politics and defence. The shoe incident made him (in) famous instantaneously.

While some felt he violated journalistic ethics that day, few others connected it to the plight of the Sikh yearning for justice.

The book is a detailed account of the 1984 violence and the brazen miscarriage of justice thereafter. The author interviewed some of the victims extensively and presents the carnage through their eyes. He narrates the brutal killing of an ex-army man in vivid detail: The mob was chanting; ˜kill these Sardars, traitors of the country". They first surrounded Mahan Singh and pulled off his pagri...

"He is an old army man, he has fought for the country", neighbours said.
"How does it matter¦ sardars are traitors"

Mahan Singh was murdered and his 11-year-old son Harkirat cut into three pieces.

This is only one of several stories. In many cases, all the men in a family were killed. Gurdwaras were ransacked and set on fire. The police were either passive onlookers or helped the mobs, the author says.

A number of the survivors have clearly identified the political leaders who led the mobs on their killing spree. H K L Bagat, Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar, Dharam Das Sastri are names that figured in the depositions by survivors before the enquiry commissions. There were many commissions and as many reports. The Nanavati Commission, which submitted its report in August 2005, recommended registering cases against Sajjan Kumar. But no action has been taken.

For the Sikh community justice is still far away. And you cannot talk about peace when justice is denied. It is their incredible endurance that has enabled them to get on with their lives.

Reading through Jarnail Singh's account is bound to horrify anyone and leave them revolted at the government's inertia. It should be prescribed as a textbook so that generations to come will learn from it not to repeat it. Those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.