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Reflections On The End Of The World At Bodh Gaya - 4

By Manuwant Choudhary

Bodh Gaya: If you really want to see how beautiful Bodh Gaya is you will have to hang around near the temple while the sun sets.

Its magical.

The colours of the ancient temple walls change and the Tibetan mantras still in the air....

And the near full-moon...a few days to purnima.

By night its quite chilly but the lights look so pretty you don't want to leave.

A young Sikkim boy from  a village near Pelling spoke to me how every year his family travels by state buses all the way....and he really liked being here...he spoke about loneliness....

Although he spoke good English and he had many freinds running around the temple.

I told him about the trekking routes I had been to in Sikkim and he seemed happy.

The pujas over he would be returning to the mountains tomorrow.

In that moment of solitude I also thought about how India annexed Sikkim by police action against the Chogyals.

The Chogyals were actually friends of India and Mrs. Indira Gandhi.

I thought about how the last Sikkim soldier fought India to defend his king and was killed by Indian forces on the orders of Mrs. Indira Gandhi.

I wonder if the people of Sikkim would have been better of  outside the union of India?

India is not a good friend.

Bodh Gaya teaches you how to respect life.

I have seen an old lady here walking so carefully as to not step on to a single ant.

The Dalai Lama also is a vegetarian...but Tibetans are not...and at his kaalchakra he often appeals to his followers to spare the chicken..."We come here for prayers and non-violence..not to kill all the chickens of Bodh Gaya..."

I have met the Tibetan religious leaders here..the Dalai Lama, the Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorjee and the other Karmapa claimant Thaye Dorji......

The two Karmapas are fighting over the control of Sikkims rich Rumtek monastery....and want India's Supreme Court to decide who the real Karmapa is?

What all the Supreme Court have to decide?

India's Supreme Court cannot even decide whether India is a free democracy or a socialist one?

Both the Karmapa's have huge followings...even abroad and both know the scriptures....and both respect the Dalai Lama.

Surely, the Dalai Lama can settle the matter...

But politics is not new to Buddhism....

This time I was at a prayer meeting of  Karmapa Thaye Dorji and thanks to him I got caught in the middle of a flower war...his followers suddenly started throwing flowers at one another.

How much I prerfer this to Syria !

Bodh Gaya & Las Vegas are definitely poles apart but I did watch the Miss Universe contest on a nice Haier flat TV...and Miss Venezuela was the real beauty.

But the lights at Las Vegas are no comparison to these butter lamps at Bodh Gaya....I have been here many times...earlier the butter lamps were placed around the temple but after the temple became  a World Heritage site..it was shifted to glass houses for butter lamps.

I actually walked into one of them before realising my feet was in butter and soot.

But there was an upside to this..a girl volunteer wearing masks like a surgeon was busy lighting the lamps....

There are 8000 lamps in one house and there must be 12 houses so you can multiply them....and these volunteers keep it all burning.

Just then the lamp girl removed her mask and spoke some Nepalis before telling me in perfect English that I could wear my shoes here.

I asked her where she was from and she said she replied  `Darjeeling'.

But she looked at me in the eye...the kind of look you give when you want to say..."How mad you must be...?"

She was beautiful.

Reflections On The End Of The World At Bodh Gaya - 3

By Manuwant Choudhary

Forget the Arnab Goswami's and Rajdeep Sardesai's and the Burkha Dutts, their analysis for Narendra Modi's victory is hogwash.

I met this Hindu sadhu near this message from Lord Buddha. Its on Evil.

"IT MAY BE WELL WITH THE EVIL DOER AS LONG AS THE EVIL RIPENS NOT. BUT WHEN IT DOES RIPEN, THEN THE EVIL DOER SEES (THE PAINFUL RESULTS) HIS EVIL DEEDS." - THE BUDDHA.

Democracy is actually dangerous especially if the people leave democracy to everyone else but themselves.

Like we left defeating Narendra Modi to a party as incompetent as the Congress.

But I think Narendra Modi's victory meant bad TRP, if he lost TV news channels would get more viewers, this proves that Narendra Modi will never be India's Prime Minister.

I have been to Gujarat and there is no freedom there.

I would never like to live in Gujarat.

You can't even eat an egg without hurting Gujarati Hindu sentiment !

Imagine.

Buddha's middle path is what is needed.

As journalists we see just too much evil that sometimes it feels they (evil) always win.

But I have been wrong.

Take the example of the physiotherapist recently gangraped in New Delhi and the angry protestors on Raisni Hills - the Presidential Palace.

Its unprecedented and the western media describe this as India's Rage Against Rape !

But I still feel Indians are not angry enough or they do not know how to be angry.

Look what they are doing and talking about.

They actually go and meet Sonia Gandhi & Rahul Gandhi (whose sole aim is on how to hang on to power and not better India)

And even while the Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde keeps saying the Indian government cannot go to India Gate.

But Mr. Shinde it is time the government did go to India Gate instead of sending your  uniformed goons to assault even women protesters.

But the protesters really don't know how to be angry....they are demanding a change in laws...and hanging.

Instead, I would say India Gate should be like Egypt's Tehrir Square...a movement so overwhelming and peaceful that even the governments worst force can't move them.

Look how the Indian police assault the protestors and kill a journalist in Manipur, and governments pretend they don't own the police.

They just want the protestors to get out of the way. Putin Is Coming.

They have to sign new deals.....Defence deals....more useless Russian weaponry...more debt....

But who will defend the citizen of India?

I don't think Indians know how to be angry otherwise they would not take stupid pledges on television saying they will report every rape to the police!

Police !

The pledge should be really to demand the lockout of all police stations in the country.

You will see India will become safe.

Disarm and disband India's police force completely. Send them home.

You will see India will become safe.

I actually went to a police station and asked the inspector if he could spare one of his men.

He asked me why?

I took out my wallet and taking out a Rs..100 note I gave him and requested him to buy a BIG Lock.

He looked surprised...and asked me why again.

I told him, "This is to lock the police station.."

I don't know if any Indian has done this.

And I'm not a Maoist.

If you expect the men in uniform to be your protectors then you are highly wrong.

Treat both the criminals and the men in Khaki with the same alertness and you will see what I am talking about.

Then you look up to the judiciary.

I will tell you what happens there.

They don't believe a single witness but the judge believes the single criminal.

They call it the law.

That is why the Pakistani minister comes here and says only Kasab's statement is not enough evidence.

He wants us to believe Laskhar is a humanitarian organisation.

Indian's simply are not angry enough.

Not even when Kasab and gang butchered people on November 26.

Why do Indian's always take out candle marches?

Its like saying...."Oh my government its all right you are using water cannons against us but its cold this December, at least use hot water."

The Hindustan Times has this story on justice.

Abdul Mannan raped and killed Kalyani at Kathra village, Manigachi, in Darbhanga, on February 18, 2004.

He was awarded the death penalty for the crime.

The matter goes in appeal to the High Court and the Supreme Court.

The appeal is dismissed at every stage and the capital punishment order upheld.

The convict even escaped from prison once.

It is already 20 months since the Supreme Court described this as a rarest of rare case and ordered hanging...yet the State is still sleeping.

The rapist Abdul Mannan is enjoying his life.

I really don't think Indians are angry enough.

Otherwise they won't be asking just protection from the government, they should be asking the government to go.

Manmohan Singhji your time is up. Enough.

Soniaji please go.

Rahulji - can you please spare India?

And I don't care about Sushmaji either....or their smooth-talking lawyers.

Or Lalooji who wants the rapists to go to hell !

First his own will have to go to hell.

Remember Shilpi Jain rape and murder.

Laloo's brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav was the prime accused in the case.

I won't go into details but the courts exonerated him and when Shilpi's brother wanted to get the case re-opened he was kidnapped !

The NDA government and Vajpayee's CBI could not manage to get even the blood sample of Sadhu Yadav !

So I don't know what ABVP activists are doing at India Gate.

Sadhu Yadav is now an honourable member of Sonia Gandhi's Congress Party !

There are only two castes in the India - the politician and the people.

Does it anger you when the traffic is held up by a lathi-weilding cavalcade when Nitish Kumar is going someplace to cut a ribbon or the PM?

Or do you call them your saviours?

I think Indians are not angry.

I remember coming back to Patna and trying to enter a shop with my parents...there was water flowing outside and they had placed a wooden plank for customers to get inside....I was so angry that I went and shouted at the shopkeeper that surely he can get his drain cleaned?

He looked so calm, "Sir, I think you don't belong here. This is just a drain. Here entire colonies are flooded.."

And sure enough. As a journalist I saw entire colonies being under water..and lawyers wading out of their homes...and going to work without a word.

My colleague took a boat !

It still floods in Patna.

Indians are not angry enough.

I also saw entire north Bihar under water.....you can't imagine going on a boat for five hours and just water all around....now that looked like the end of the world.

As far as the eye could see.

And you meet an old marooned man looking up at the skies for some helicopter to drop a food packet.

Nothing comes.

He is angry.

But what can he really do.

Except shout at me..the only person who has made the effort to even meet him.

I wonder why our young men and women did not go to Gujarat.

I wish they had gone to Gujarat.

Perhaps, they are still not angry at 1000 people being killed in Narendra Modi's Gujarat.

They are not angry because they have a caste and religion.

They are not angry because they have not seen violence real close.

They are not angry enough because they have not been to Bihar and driven down the Patna-Jehanabad road where every village is witness to massacres of every kind....famous massacres...like tourist destinations.

They are not angry because they think the world will end one day..they do not know that actually the world ends every single day.

The world ends when you don't get angry.

But how will you know?

You don't know the smell of  rotting human flesh.....and blood in the killing fields....

Reflections On The End Of The World at Bodh Gaya - 2

By Manuwant Choudhary

Bodh Gaya: I think Bodh Gaya is the happiest place in India.

But of course no survey has been done on this....but a recent CNN Gallup report suggests that wealthy Singaporeans are among the least happy people in the world, less happier than people living in Iraq, Afghanistan and even Syria.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/12/21/world/asia/singapore-least-happy/index.html?iref=allsearch

I wonder why bombs make people happier ?

But yes take a walk in Bodh Gaya and you will see the laughter all around...smiling monks...and yes even stiff Europeans open up and smile.

Something to do with the place.

Also the weather.

Summers are terrible in Bihar and Bodh Gaya perhaps the hottest place.

Only Sri Lankans visit Gaya in summers....because its just like it is back home.

With malls coming up all over even Bihar's poor are waking up to preferring cooler climes like this new Bhojpuri number where the girl demands AC, AC, AC.....from the boy...and only then will she marry him.

But spiritually, happiness lies in the giving.

So pilgrims here love to give alms and thanks to our politics poverty is something  Bihar has an abundant supply of.....

But this year I noticed a damper..with the temple management committee sealing the `begging wall' completely.

Earlier, thousands of beggars had their hands stretched from behind this wall and pilgrims would happily oblige.

Now just a handful of beggars pretending to be blind sat singing in the bazaar.

But seriously we all give all the time....and if you don't give in your lifetime then you just leave it all behind like excess baggage.

What do you really need to be happy?

I don't know where Indians stand in the Gallup report.

For some happiness comes from alcohol...and Bodh Gaya also has an alcohol shop `Bodh Gaya Brothers' right on the main road.

Happiness in sex..I can understand why Thailand is such a happy place.

But monks too are happy...like I met this kid monk playing with his puppy and I could tell he was naughty enough to take on the might of  China's President and North Korea's Kim Jong !!

Reflections On The End Of The World At Bodh Gaya - 1

By Manuwant Choudhary

Bodh Gaya - The world comes to Bodh Gaya every winters...and so if the world did end as predicted I'd be in good company...in the midst of holiness and beautiful people...and not hiding under some bunker in Nevada desert surviving on stale bread and ration - with wierdos.

Lord Buddha is actually an amazing story...a prince - Siddarth. - out on a chariot tour sees four sights....an old man, a sick man,  a corpse and then a holy man...he is so disturbed by it all that he leaves his kingdom to go in search of truth.

It is after many wanderings that under the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya..he receives enlightenment....the four truths.

That there is suffering in this world.

The cause of all suffering is desire.

To overcome suffering one has  to overcome desire.

And the way to overcome desire is to follow the eight-fold path.

This is essentially a moral code...and even if you are not religious...you can relate to it completely.

Of course, Buddha has been completely lost in the land of enlightenment....

But the world recognises him....

And I was in VIP company...wiith Yingluk Shinawatra Prime Minister of Thailand and also the Cambodian Prime Minister visiting.

Except China's communists, I think all dictators love to come to pray here.

I wonder what Buddha tells them.

But I don't care about Prime Ministers....I wanted to meet a beautiful friend...who is doing great work in   re-introducing Buddhism to the land of its birth - India.

Its not the government of India or even the Bihar government...but Lord Buddha who is responsible for  bringing development here...imagine Bihar has an international airport and it was a pleasure to see a Thai airways flight on the runway with cyclists stopping by to watch the take-off !

But I did not meet my beautiful friend... thankfully the world did not come to an end...(to be continued)

Why I Love Miss Venezuela Irene Sofia Esser Quintero

By Manuwant Choudhary

Miss Venezuela Irene Sofia Esser Quintero is definitely more beautiful than the winner Miss Universe Olivia Culpo...

Sofia has already become an internet sensation, and not Miss USA Olivia Culpo who won the crown.

She got the third place because when judge Diego Boneta (Pretty Little Liars actor) asked her a question, "If you could change one law, what would it be and why?" Her reply was in English (although she is Spanish speaking) and it was basically `nonsensical'.

Irene, replied “I think that any leys (laws) there are in Constitution or in life, are already made. I think that we should have, uh, a straight way to go in our similar, or, eh, in our lives as is this. For example, I’m a surfer, and I think that the best wave that I can take is the wave that I wait for it. So please do our only, eh, law that we can do. Thank you, Vegas!”

Thank you Irene because Vegas and America are too Obamamised to understand you.

The world does.

There are too many laws all over the world and one should not do any wrong (go straight) and like the waves if and when laws hit you then you should just ride them.....

Well, does that make sense?

As an Indian I've been doing just that `Riding The Laws'...because we have socialist and corrupt laws...and thankfully you are not Indian girl otherwise you would say you want hanging for rape.

Laws are usually an obstruction.

Moral of the story - NO NEW LAWS....

Get it?

Irene Sofia is different....Olivia Culpo won because of her red dress and her oomph...physical attributes..but Irene has a mind of her own.

Unfortunately, the Vegas judges don't...

You are beautiful.

I love you Miss Venezuela Irene Sofia Esser Quintero.

Rape Of The Mind

By Manuwant Choudhary

Rape - every rape -  is shocking, not just those that take place closer home in Vasant Vihar in New Delhi or South Bombay.

The recent gangrape of a physiotherapist in New Delhi in a moving bus highlights not just the depravity of the act itself but also the fact that our so-called democracy is in shambles.

Criminals are not scared. They have never been scared -  not even at the stroke of midnight when the world slept and India awoke...

My grandfather actually slept at midnight when Jawaharlal Nehru hoisted the tri-colour in 1947.

I asked him why and he told me, "I don't know why Nehruji chose midnight to hoist the flag. Only thieves and dacoits stay awake at that hour..."

So India has never been safe or free.

Its not because there are no laws but because India's justice system has collapsed completely.

So do not be fooled into believing that another law against rape would make things any better or women safer.

But this is exactly what our parliament would like us to believe.

So our MPs including Jaya Bacchan for a change spoke on this crucial topic `Law and Order'.

I really can't remember our MPs discussing law and order in recent times.

Nuclear deals, FDI deals, telecom deals but its no big deal really when governments can't even focus on their primary responsibility which is to make ever Indian feel safe.

They simply have no time for that.

They want to uplift the dalits by `reserving' even promotions in jobs.

Why? Because statistics show that even though Dalits got jobs over 60 years of reservations..they were rarely promoted.

But who is to blame for this? Surely, its the same Congress Party that has been in power for 60 years.

Not upper castes but the Congress Party is responsible for not promoting dalits even when they have the job.

Its the same with the new money-transfer scheme being launched...its only an admittance of their own corruption and failure of their welfare programs.

And our politicians rape our minds every day..ever moment...before elections and after...and we do not even know.

We believe they are working for the country...at least we would like to believe.

We think that every bill in parliament is brought to lift the masses out of poverty.

But there are no principles really.

Take the new Land Acquisition bill...they plan to broaden the definition of `public purpose' so private land can be stolen by the government and given to industry (private and public) for a song.

Of course to make it all look justifiable they have to place it in the garb of `democracy'..so they talk about 80 per cent and 70 per cent votes needed locally for land acquistions.

Look at the number of times they have amended our constitution....the one we gave ourselves at independence.

Gangrape !

Brute Majority!

Democracy !

They are all familiar.

Its about force.

Its violence.....

Our MPs have never heard about fundamental rights and they don't care.

In India fundamental rights are no longer important.

Right to property has been removed from the fundamental rights....

And our MPs can pass bills that violate every other fundamental right that still remains.

They believe they have been elected to trample on every single right.

So when they shed a tear on law and order.....I wonder why they don't give up their own Z-plus security cover.

Why don't Rahul Gandhi and L.K. Advani and Manmohan Singh become the `Aam Aaadmee' they claim to reperesent?

As for television....they too rape our minds....yesterday I got such a headache...RAPE, RAPE, RAPE...on all news channels..and they shout so much..each louder than the other....competing for our eyeballs but through our eardrums !

I have not seen a piece of investigative journalism in recent times....maybe Tavleen Singh was the last one.

But who reads the `Durbar' and that too in English?

Who cares how Sonia fights with Maneka because Maneka took out the foriegn dog buiscuits in the fridge and gave it to her own `desi' bitch?

You want more bills...you will get more....

Right to Work, Right to Promotions, Right To Food, Right to Shelter, Right To Pollute, Right To Rape......

We vote for them because we allow ourselves to be raped every election.

Taj Mahal's Dahlia-man !

By Manuwant Choudhary

If life does not surprise you then it means you are spending too much time at home...so in todays world I am different because I like getting old cars repaired, enjoy a cup of tea with my car `mistry' and I also like to walk into shops and not buy.

So in Patna while I got my old car repaired at a garage opposite Kumhrar (the ancient site of Patliputra) I just took a walk and alongside a railway track I came across this nursery...and I asked its owner if he had any Dahlia saplings.

And he blurted out, "Dahlia...haan hai...aisa waisa nahin....mera Dahlia to Taj Mahal jaata hai..."(Yes, I have Dahlia's but not ordinary one's my Dahlia's go to the Taj Mahal...")

I asked him which Taj Mahal does he mean the Taj Mahal Hotel?

And he said, Nahin Agra waala..."

So I joked with him that he must be as famous as the Taj Mahal.

And he smiled back, "Nahin, nahin..main nahin, Taj Mahal famous hai...aure mere Dahlia famous hain."

His name is Mohammed Shafi.

So I decided to make him famous too.

He then took me to the rear of his small nursery and sure enough there were 6000 saplings all named varieties arranged in different colours..ready to be shipped to Agra.

He told me how he started his business as a youth and that he has been supplying Dahlia's to the Taj Mahal for 30 years now.

"Sirf pichle saal...mian contract nahin liya...kyonki wo ghoos maang rahe the..." (Only last year I did not take the contract because the officers were asking for a bribe).

But he said when he visits the Taj Mahal he is treated with respect and put up at a guest house near the Taj Mahal for three days.

Mohammad Shafee buys his sapplings from Calcutta, raises them in Patna and when they are ready takes them by train to Kanpur and then by train to Agra.

I bought 80 Dahlia saplings from him for my home....so if you can't visit the Taj Mahal in Agra to see the Dahlia's in bloom, you are welcome home.

Bahadur Shah Zafar - The Last Emperor

By Manuwant Choudhary

India's last emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar is all but forgotten so it was surprising to see India's foreign minister Salman Khurshid paying a visit to the place where Bahadur Shah was buried in Rangoon, Burma, in exile.

Wikipedia describes Bahadur Shah Zafar as the Mughal Emperor whose empire extended only till the Red Fort !

Yet, if you study Indian history you will note how when a rebellion broke out in 1857 and sepoys mutinied against the British, the rebels looked towards Bahadur Shah Zafar for leadership and to give the rebellion a sense of national unity.

Bahadur Shah although weak, supported the rebels.

British historians called this a `Sepoy's Mutiny' but Indian nationalists like Veer Savarkar called it India's First War of Independence.

Savarkar said it was not a mutiny because not just soldiers but Jhansi Ki Rani, Tantia Tope and many others fought the British and they were definitely not sepoys of the East India Company.

Bahadur Shah Zafar was tried on four counts - one of them was treason - and convicted on all four but later exiled to Rangoon, Burma, where he went with his wife Zeenat Mahal and later died.

It is one thing to be strong and fight for your country but quite another to be weak yet choose to fight for your country.

In a sense Bahadur Shah Zafar was braver.

And he loved India.

Yet, I cant say the same about Salman Khurshid and India's Congressmen.

I wonder what went through Mr. Khurshid's mind when he paid homage to Bahadur Shah Zafar.

Can he hold his heart and honestly say the Congress Party is building a stronger India?

Or will India become one day as weak as the last days of  Mughal rule?

We don't even remember our hero's.

Studying in the UK an English girl came up to me and asked me, "Do you like Jhansi Ki Rani? She is my hero."

I asked her how she heard about Jhansi Ki Rani and she told me that they study her their history lessons.

Its always been economics and corruption and character of its people that makes a nation great or petty.

But when Walmart pays 125 crores to lobby for opening up FDI in retail in India, it just shows where we are heading.

It looks like the Mughal court where the East India Company representatives would come and offer expensive gifts to win favours.

What has changed really?

The Congress Party swears by socialism and disallows anybody to set-up a political party that opposes socialism.

India is a democracy for only socialist parties.

So its not even a democracy.

I still think Bahadur Shah Zafar was a greater man than our present rulers and his poetry better than Vajpayeeji's...he was denied a pen and paper in his cell and so Bahadur Shah used charcoal to write this on the walls of his prison cell...

"My heart has no repose in this despoiled land
Who has ever felt fulfilled in this futile world?

The nightingale complains about neither the sentinel nor the hunter
Fate had decreed imprisonment during the harvest of spring

Tell these longings to go dwell elsewhere
What space is there for them in this besmirched heart?

Sitting on a branch of flowers, the nightingale rejoices
It has strewn thorns in the garden of my heart

I asked for a long life, I received four days
Two passed in desire, two in waiting.

The days of life are over, evening has fallen
I shall sleep, legs outstretched, in my tomb

How unfortunate is Zafar! For his burial
Not even two yards of land were to be had, in the land of his beloved."

Happiness In Exile !

By Manuwant Choudhary

There is something about the Dalai Lama that endears him to the entire world, except China.

He said communist officials only believe in power of the gun and not the power of peace of mind.

In India he is popular and never fails to express his deep appreciation for India.

Ocasionally, he wants India to be greater.

But its his smile thats really infectious.

So he was in Kochi, Kerala, recently to talk on `The Art of Happiness', I thought this was a greater subject that Sr Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living.

And the Dalai Lama spoke on the rich Buddhist traditions and how Tibetans as a people were more compassionate and happier.

But are the Tibetans really happy? Why would there be so many self-immolations in Tibet?

Its clear Tibetans are not happy living under Chinese rule or even in exile. They want a home....their own home.

Back in Lhasa the Dalai Lama's source of happiness apart from Buddhism was this Zenith radio that kept him in touch with the outside world.

Still the Dalai Lama is an inspiration and his is what he said on Tibetan Medicine and how to be happy,

"It is symptomatic of Tibetan culture, which is a culture of peace, non-violence and compassion. He added that since the arrival in Tibet of the message of the Buddha, with its logically presented philosophical views, Tibetan society as a whole became more compassionate. He admitted that he too is someone who regularly takes Tibetan medicine and recalled that after an international medical conference convened in Tibet by King Trisong Detsen in the 8th century CE, Tibetan medicine had become much more effective, adding that there is still room for improvement.

Inder Kumar Gujral - An Encounter

By Manuwant Choudhary

Inder Kumar Gujral is described by most as India's accidental Prime Minister.

And they are right, in a way he exemplifies how faulty Indian democracy really is.

Mr.I.K. Gujral with his beard resembles Captain Haddock in Tin Tin Comics and for many Indians he looked foreign enough to be just that - a foreign minister.

Indians in the villages laughed at him every time he appeared on television because he looked like a `Botu' - a male goat.

So for someone like that to be in Indian politics and get to the top must be quite a chance.

But I.K. Gujral did have a few similarities with Dr. Manmohan Singh.

Both were born in the area now called Pakistan.

Both made Punjab their homes.

Both are perceived to be honest personally.

Both can't win elections.

Both cheated to contest from Bihar and Assam to get into the upper house - the Rajya Sabha.

And both have been helped by another Sardar ...the Communist Harkishen Singh Surjeet to get the top job.

But Mr. Gujral disagrees and writes in his memoir that Surjeet  actually favoured Mulayam.

Both belong to the inner circle in New Delhi (read Tavleen Singh's new book Durbar).

So its not surprising Congressmen making a beeline to offer condolences while nothing from the old United Front leaders.

I.K. Gujral was an embedded Prime Minister.

If you study Indian history you will note that except the dark horse Deve Gowda and Atal Behari Vajpayee all of India's Prime Ministers have been from the Congress Party.

Even after a hard fight when the Janata Party came to power it was Morarji Desai who became prime minister and then Chandra Shekhar.

In effect, India saw no real change.

The new looked like the old.

And so the old were brought back.

So Congressmen are thankful to Shri Gujral.

I happened to get a glimpse of a unique moment in Indian history when not Delhi's 10, Janpath but  1 Anne Marg in Patna was the power centre.

Laloo Prasad Yadav was at his peak of his popularity and had just held the massive gareeb rally.

I was just a student activist then and wanted to interview Laloo Prasad Yadav for a youth magazine.

Laloo Yadav's brother had met with an accident so Laloo left for the airport suddenly.

In a semicircle all his powerful ministers sat...Nitish Kumar as well.

Suddenly an ambassador car arrived and a gentleman stepped out.

He was Inder Kumar Gujral.

None of Laloo's ministers even looked at him or even offered him basic courtesies like a chair.

I recall going up to him and introducing myself and asked him if I could ask him a question.

He replied, "Yes, yes, please."

I asked, "Sir, if your home is Punjab then what are you doing in Bihar looking for a Rajya Sabha seat?"

Shri I.K. Gujral had a nameplate in a Patna locality to fool the Election Commission.

And Shri Gujral got a bit hassled, "Thats a very journalistic question..."

He left immediately without meeting Laloo !