THE ART OF DAANA

Legend has it, that thousands of years ago , King Shivi, who was known as a King who never turned away anybody empty handed , was conducting a Yagna in order to propitiate the Gods. Suddenly, a frightened pigeon flew into the assembly hall , followed by a vicious eagle. Before anybody could realize it, the pigeon flew into the King's lap and asked for protection from the hungry eagle. The King, true to his self asked the eagle to let the pigeon go unharmed, to which the eagle replied that the pigeon was its food and he could not fore go his food for anything. King Shivi tried to reason with the eagle to the effect that since the pigeon had come under his protection and asked for deliverance, he could not hand over the pigeon to him. The eagle would have nothing of it, and said that it could not remain hungry in order to honour the King's pledge . King Shivi, asked the eagle to have anything it wanted as food apart from the scared pigeon. Finally a deal was worked out to the effect that the King would cut out flesh from its body and would give away his flesh which would be equal to the pigeon's weight. So the pigeon sat at one end of the balance and King Shivi began to cut out parts from his body. To every bodies bewilderment the body parts could not outweigh the pigeon.Finally, King Shivi began to cut off his head, and lo and behold the eagle converted into Lord Indra and the pigeon was also transformed into a God.Apparently the Gods had decided to test the giving power of Lord Shivi,who for all practical purposes ,passed the test with flying colours. The Gods then restored King Shivi to his original form.

Daana or the power to donate,give alms or simply give up one's possessions is considered to be amongst the biggest of virtues in the Indian culture.Even in the Gita, Lord Krishan speaks about the various types of Daana and its merits.

We therefore have the ultimate warrior Karna , who too was famous for his power to give ,he even gave away his armour which left him exposed in the battle of Mahabharata, but he did not back out.

King Ashoka gave away his son and daughter to the Dhamma (Buddhist religion) after he gave up on War, after the battle of Kalinga.Incidentally, Mahendra , the son of King Ashoka is credited with bringing the Buddhist religion to Sri Lanka.This power to give is so strongly ingrained in our system that we consider it quite natural to give rather to receive.This act of giving continued down the centuries,Pakistan was given away after bisecting the country, we gave away parts of Indian territory to China, without so much as batting an eyelid.

Post 1962, Indians became a bit stingy with the Art of giving. Therefore ,in spite of being at what Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru said,'an informal war', with Pakistan,we refused to cede Kashmir,in spite of paying a heavy price for it.Apparently 64,000 lives have been lost in being stingy over Kashmir,and the numbers are still rising.Imagine the amount of lives which could have saved, the resources utilised in a better manner ,if only we would have kept practicing the'Art of Daana' .

But there is a ray of hope on the horizon, and all is not lost.Suddenly voices are again being heard in reviving this lost 'Art of Daana'. Glory be to the 'intellectuals' who are now speaking in favour of' 'removing the chains of Indian Imperialism from Kashmir'.The Grand Dame of Indian intellectuals,Arundhati Roy has called for 'an end to Indian military occupation of Kashmir' in a recent article in the magazine 'OUTLOOK'.The same Ms. Roy had earlier given up Indian Citizenship ,post Pokhran in 1998.What of the fact that she still continues to use an India passport and has not been deprived of her Indian citizenship, as per the provisions of the Indian constitution. Well what of it? You guys are only inquisitive about trivials , instead of bowing in reverence before this modern day Daani, or modern day Karna.

Not to be outdone ,other Intellectuals....oops Daanis ,have joined in . S.Swaminathan Ankeleshwar Aiyar ,in his article in The Times of India,has compared 'Indian occupation of Kashmir, with the Imperialism of the British in India'. He too wants India out of Kashmir.Similar feelings have expressed by Veer Sanghvi,in the Hindustan Times.
Let us all hail the 'comeback' of the Indian Daanis.They are on a higher pedestal than King Shivi, since they want to cut off the Head of the nation straightaway , and then maybe proceed towards the other body parts.

One of my friends( not a daani), asked me about the lives lost ,the resources wasted,the strategic importance of Kashmir for the country and of course ,the centuries old Indian way of living in Kashmir.Do we all gift it away?

Please ignore my friends questions! The fool has no idea of the Indian tradition of Daana.Did the ultimate warrior Karna for a moment think before giving away his body armour in Daana. Whatof it ,that he was slain because of this ,in the battlefield.Well if Karna , can do it, so can Veer! And no smirking on the fact that what Karna gave away was his personal possession ,and not the nation's.

So agreed , Kashmir or the head given away. Hail the Art of Daana.

Drawing inspiration from King Shivi and the present day Daanis, I have drawn up a list of possessions we Indians could give away.None of them are our own mind you, for this is the modern day tradition of Daana. We do not give our wealth, knowledge,wisdom,energy,our other worldly possessions and such stuff in Daana, they remain for our use only.

Since we have proceeded from head down wards,the next thing we could gift away is our hand.The North East was never part of us any way ,remember how we call them 'chinkis',and smirk at them .The North East is in a permanent state of boil, since 1947, at least . China has claims over Arunachal Pradesh, remember the 'Finger tip' area controversy , a few months back. Chinese consider Arunachal to be a part of their territory. Sikkim's accession to India has not been accepted by the Chinese wholeheartedly.Frequently , we see maps appearing on the Chinese side , depicting Sikkim as partof China. Our response to this perfidy ,is as usual, silence. Assam is innundated by illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators.Yesterday, the B.S.F, Director General ,in a press conference stated that 120,000 Bangladeshis had entered India on valid grounds , and there was no records ofthem going back .Add to this the millions who have entered illegally , and the figures are there in front of you. Ram Bilas Paswan ,has already stated that that Bagladeshis who have entered India till date, and do not want to go back, shouldbe granted Indian Citizenship.

Bravo!! What magnanimity. A round of applause for Ram Bilas Karna....oops Paswan! Wow! Citizenship for illegal people when we cannot handle the load of the legal citizens and their needs. It appearsthat this modern day Shivi will hand over his House to you, if you enter it illegally.Any body wanna try?

Coming back to the North east ,Nagaland was never Indian anyway, as can be seen from longest insurgency in the country. Our leaders hold talks with Naga insurgents in Amerstadam , Paris ....So it is International for all practical purposes.

So the hand or the North East gifted away . We will respect everybodies wishes.

The modern day Shivi then proceeds towards the legs. Tamil Nadu .....well what of it . With Prabhakaran and his dreams of the Tamil Eelam ,do we need to look any further.Priyanka Gandhi or Vadra (whatever) has already forgiven Nalini( her father's assassin) and therefore we have no issuses with LTTE.And please do not rake up the issue of IPKF and the lives lost. Soldiers are meant for dying anyway , aren't they?If Priyanka can forgive Nalini, what is the issue with the families of the army men killed in Sri Lanka.Daana has no place for the selfish.
Karunanidhi, Vaiko,Ramadoss,it appears that their heart bleeds forTamil Eelam anyway .Therefore the Indian occupation of Tamil Nadu must be brought to an end.

Long live King Shivi.

The other hand ,Maharashtra , since the blog is not in Marathi,my apologies to the ferocious cub Raj Thackrey. But since it appears that everybody who is not a Marathi Manoos is not welcome in the state and therefore Indian occupation of Maharashtra must also end.

The naxalites dream of a Red Corridor , starting from Andhra Pradesh , passing through parts of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh,Jharkhand,Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar and linking up with a now Red Nepal, and obviously Red China.

As you can visualise,the entire contiguous area looks like the arteries and veins which supply blood inside a human body . Before the modern day Karna, Arundhati Roy ( a Red by the way) ,starts talking about the oppression of the poor, down trodden people of the areas ,and their exploitation under the Indian state, how about letting them set up their sought for corridor. Atleast lives of security personnel and innocent citizens will be saved . Nepal will be too happy to have Dhoni leading thier Cricket team.

Now let us come back to the surviving organ , the Heart(Daanis don't have brains, so says my party pooper friend).

Well the heart is already infected by the virus of casteism and its proponents, and is already worn out .The arteries are clogged with unwanted deposition in the form of the fallout of casteism,poverty,lack of education and last but not the least, leaders like Mulayam and Mayawati.The blood supply to the heart has been reduced to a trickle.If the heart is weak so is the body,so say the Doctors.What follows generally is a coronary disease or in layman's terms,a heart failure.The heart failure in the instant case comes in the form of the SIMI(Student's Islamic Movement of India) and their vision of the Dar-ul-Islam (land of islam ) and Nizam-e-Mustafa(Law of Islam).These religious warriors may wage war in any part of the nation but the bulk of the cadre is drawn from Uttar Pradesh.The only problem with their law is that if implemented, people have their hands amputated,flogging in public,stoning to death,hanging in public, remember the Taliban.Wonder how Afzal Guru will be punished under the Nizam-e-Mustafa!

King Shivi's of the day will definitely not hesitate to take out their heart and gift it to the eagle in order to save the frightened pigeon.Any guesses on the frightened pigeon..............

Well let me save your valuable time, the pigeon is the common man inhabiting the nation .He is scared of everything and just wants to live in peace, no confrontations please!

My advice to the King Shivi'sof the day : Please do not try to cut off your head, in the hope of the eagle transforming into Lord Indra. These time the eagle is for real............