India on the verge of losing the Taj Mahal

Image courtesy DOTW News

I read a lot of news and those that really touch my heart I blog about it. Here is a news report about two things I feel passionately about: India and its heritage monuments. I read this news report titled The Taj Mahal in danger of collapse on the online DOTW News portal. I am definitely sad but I am not surprised at all. India is one nation with a large population and a relatively small landmass. Coupled with the fact that India is full of heritage monuments, almost every small village in the country has historical temples and structures that need to be preserved.

Now given the small land mass of country, our ancestors should not have been so magnanimous to give away large tracts of territory to create smaller nations of Pakistan and Bangladesh. As if adding insult to injury the our people have ceded a third of land in Jammu & Kashmir to Pakistan to create Pak Occupied Kashmir and some more land to China in the contiguous Ak-Siachen region. Then there is the dispute with China over Arunachal Pradesh, then the Narasimha Rao government as recently as during the 1990s ceded some part of the Tin Bigha corridor to Bangladesh which has now been completely leased (read given away) to Bangladesh recently. Now with so little land left for such a huge population there is simply not enough resources in Mother India to feed, clothe and house the teeming billions.

Then we have our self-serving politicians and businessmen and the so-called societal leaders who are more interested in stripping the country of its riches and filling their own coffers. The net result natural resources of the country are ravaged, antiquities are sold. The Taj Mahal being in this kind of precarious condition is the result of this kind of the rapacity of the country.

There is a saying in Sanskrit "Yatha Raja, thatha Praja" meaning "How the king is, that is how the citizens will be". With the country being ruled by corrupt, self-serving politicians, the nations populous is equally corrupt if not more. Nobody is concerned about anything that belongs to the society, everyone is bothered only about his/ her self, immediate family, bank accounts, property. So who cares about the Taj? The media which should play the role of a promoter of national interest is doing the exact opposite. They make heroes out of terrorists and villains of the soldiers and police.

The net result is drying up of rivers, damage to our heritage and monuments like Taj will collapse. I am sure the bureaucrats and politicians who are talking about protecting the monument are more interested in the pickings they can get out of the contracts they will award to engineers, architects and builders rather than really restoring and protecting the Taj.

Independence Day Celebrations, Houston

It has been two years since I celebrated our country's Independence Day in India. Last year on Independence we were driving from Dallas to Los Angeles, this year we attended the India Culture Fest at Houston. Organized by the Indian Culture Society, Houston this annual extravaganza features dances, mostly Bollywood and fusion, singing, booths from profit and non-profit organizations and of course food.
This event was like several other Desi events I attended, the same old dances, same old costumes and same old crowds etc. The same old boring MCs who have no clue what they are doing. There were few changes though, the first positive change was that there was a performance by a Mariachi band. The band belted out three desi numbers, two Hindi and one Kannada. That was a heartening and positive change that I felt that India is making some kind of impact upon other cultures.
The other aberration I noticed was during the performance of a so-called desi band. It was Independence Day the band should have started the performance with a patriotic number, but no, they start off by singing Zubanallah..... I was shocked to hear that and for the next half an hour song after song it was Shah Rukh Khan all the way. I wonder when Indian's will ever learn to be patriotic??? This is one of the reasons I don't like to attend celebrations in the Pakistani-dominated Texas.