The death of a 200 year old Banyan tree in Mhow (MP) India

(Monday 21 Aug 2006)

When people think of Mhow and especially so when they think of Mhow bazaar they think of the banyan tree somewhere midway on Main Street (Bombay Bazaar). Whenever I passed on the road below it, I felt a coolness. And the small Bhairav temple below it gave it a nice ambience. If one passed below it when the sun was about to set one had to be extremely careful for one of the birds could decide to drop something which would land with a plop on one's helmet or shirt. At this time one could hear the chatter of thousands of birds as they perched on the branches and prepared for bed.

(Monday 21 Aug 2006)


Well, all that changed last Friday. I was in Malwa Market getting some pages xeroxed at Inder Photo Copy when the electricity failed. I felt very irritated. But when Lalit, who works there, told me that the banyan tree on Main Street had fallen I felt very sad. I took a visit there and I could see it leaning precariously. The local authorities had arrived and were busy ensuring that it did not crash to the ground and cause loss of life and property. The temple at the foot of the tree had developed cracks due to the huge pressure on it and Karachi Tailors was also in a bad shape.

(Monday 21 Aug 2006)


Locals of Mhow tell me that this tree is more than 200 years old. That means that this tree was there even before the Battle of Mahidpur in 1818 when the British under John Malcolm defeated the Holkars who ruled Indore. It was as a result of this loss that the Holkars had given Mhow to the British under the treaty of Mandsaur to be developed as a Cantonment.

My childhood classmate Raj who lives nearby on Bhoj Marg took me there on Sunday when I had gone to his house for lunch. I clicked some photographs with my Yashica MF2 camera. I felt sad when I saw the condition of the tree. Can't it be transplanted, I asked myself. I think that they had transplanted a huge banyan in Chennai some years ago. As it would take some more days for me to finish the camera roll I went to Pradeep Studio on Main Street and asked Arshad if he could take some pictures for me with a digital camera. He promised to do so. And when I went today he gave me the photographs which I have uploaded here.

Sanjeev Kumar of Kumar Radios told me about a Parsi couple with a Mhow connection who visited Mhow after many years and spent a fair amount of time below the tree while the lady sketched it.

It is sad when a tree dies. During last year's rains the Jungli Jalebi tree which stood near the bus stop at Dreamland Chowk fell down. I remember seeing that tree from my childhood days.

(Thursday 24 Aug 2006)


A banyan tree needs space for its aerial roots to come and enter the earth. This heritage tree of Mhow did not have the space to do so. A few days ago I was standing on the banks of the Gambhir river near the Khadey Hanuman temple and I saw a huge banyan tree there with a large canopy and many columns of aerial roots embedded in the ground. I also remember the banyan tree with the huge canopy in Beircha Lake. And there is one on General's Road too. It is just before the turning for Dunn Marg as we go from the Ambedkar Garden towards Signals Vihar. It also doesn't seem to have sufficient space for its roots to enter the ground - but it doesn't seem to be in as much danger as the fallen tree. I remember the banyan tree which used to stand near the bust of Jawaharlal Nehru opposite the Bank of India. Part of Malwa Market is there now. The tongas used to stand below in the shade. Now the tongas are gone and so has the tree.

(Thursday 24 Aug 2006)

Ustad Bismillah Khan is no more

Ustad Bismillah Khan (March 21 1916- August 21 2006)

Sad news. Shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan, son of Varanasi, is no more. Read the newsreport in rediff.

It is said that Jawaharlal Nehru had insisted that he play the shehnai in New Delhi on August 15 1947. There is still some confusion about whether he played in Delhi on that day and if he did play then where did the performance take place? Was it at the Red Fort? Was it at the Viceroy's Palace (today's Rashtrapati Bhavan)?

Falstaff's tribute to the Ustaad. (Thanks to Amit Varma's blog for informing me of this)
Wikipedia entry on the Ustad.
Raji Gopalan's tribute to the Ustad on his birthday in 2005 . (From the Hindu March 18 2005)
Home page of the Ustad at musicnirvana.com

Walking in the forests near Mehendikund, Mhow (MP) India

On a Sunday afternoon in July, I and Vijay left for the waterfall of Mehendikund (Mehendi = henna; kund=pool) which is around a dozen kilometres from my house. Vijay works in Indore, 25 kms away. He is the physiotherapist of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket team. When he told me that he had never been to Mehendikund my initial inertia evaporated and I told him that we were going. It was an overcast day with light drizzle. Definitely not a perfect day for taking photographs. We went on his motorbike. I prefer walking or cycling but we were short of time as we were leaving post-lunch.

[Vijay (and I) descend the slope towards the stream]



The drive towards Mehendikund was breathtaking. The countryside was all green. We crossed the villages of Ashapura and Badgonda. A left turn from Badgonda took us to an earthen dam named Nakheri. When I had first visited this area in 1979 the dam was being built. I and my college mates of Government Degree College Mhow, or GDC Mhow, as it was then known, were on a long walk on that Sunday twenty seven years ago.
We had left just after breakfast and reached back home well after dark.

My photographs:
[My shoes had got wet a few minutes ago, so I was past caring]


After reaching the dam we drove into the forest and had to backtrack as the first stream we encountered (there are three) was too slushy and we were scared that the motorbike would get stuck in the mud. We went to to keep the bike in a cattle shed. But the farmer who owned it showed us another way. I had gone by this way many years ago and had forgotten about it. The drive through the forest till the village of Badhiya took barely a minute. At Badhiya we saw two tribals ploughing a field. After spending a few moments talking to them we headed toward the gorge at the top of Mehendikund waterfall. It was green all around. It felt good to be alive.

We parked the bike on top of the gorge and walked downhill through thick forest. We encountered a group of picnickers who were in high spirits thanks to the bottles of whisky that they were carrying. They invited us to join their party but we said a polite no and continued walking along the stream towards the waterfall. On reaching the fall we spent a few moments admiring the rush of water. This is one forest which has not lost its green cover with the passage of time. I would say it had become greener. Very soon the picnickers also joined us at the falls. Some of them got into the water and swam towards the fall. Vijay also decided to join them. I stood at the bank of the pool and watched him and the others who were already there. As it was overcast I am not sure of the quality of photographs. I continue to use my old and trusted Yashica MF2.


[Thats me, while crossing a stream]



Suddenly it started raining. We retraced our way back. The motorbike ride home was as thrilling as the earlier ride. Only it had got dark. Was almost eight pm by the time Vijay dropped me home. Tired but rejuvenated - that is how I would have described my condition as I took off my shoes. Must do this again.

Hansdehar - the first Indian village to upload itself

I read about Hansdehar in a weblog a few days ago. But I lost track of whose weblog it was. A few minute ago while I was visiting the Reuters website I read about it again. Hansdehar is a village in Haryana and it is the first Indian village which has uploaded itself onto the internet. For a village which is not yet connected to the internet this is a major step.

According to Adnan Abidi of Reuters:
"Hansdehar village has uploaded itself onto the Internet, giving the outside world a glimpse of life in rural India. Visitors to Hansdehar village's Web site (www.smartvillages.org) can see the names, jobs and other details of its 1,753 residents, browse photographs of their shops and read detailed specifications of their drainage and electricity facilities."

The middle aged, the women and the elderly would like their village's presence on the net to bring more prosperity. The young want the net to give them more opportunities to try their luck in the cities and abroad. It will be interesting to see how the internet helps this village to change.

Read more about it here.

The legend of Shillong Peak

Saw this article in the INNER VOICE column of today's (Aug 18) Hindustan Times (Delhi edition). IT is titled Shillong Peak: Legend of God incarnate and is by Lapynshai Syliem. Abridged from The Evolution of Khasi Music: A Study of the Classical Content (Regency). It is a beautiful story of a beautiful girl named Lir and her son U Biel Shu Long. It is after the son that Shillong got its name. Read the full story by clicking here.

Posing for a photograph

It is like a ritual. A group of friends or a family goes to a photographer's studio and get themselves photographed in a setting of their choice. Very often those who go for their photograph are married couples. The results can not be described in words. What comes across is the innocence of millions of our compatriots who participate in this ritual with gusto.






For more pictures click and reach this page on the funtoosh site from where I got the above pic too.

And I thought tea was a safe and healthy drink

I am a tea fan. I like tea. I believe that black tea and green tea are very good for health. But is the tea that the average Indian drinks really beneficial? A few months ago I read about fluoride poisoning by drinking black tea and about how the milk we put in it helps in 'killing' the fluoride. A few days ago I read this article by management guru Gurcharan Das in the Sunday Times of India (Aug 12) in which he has flayed NGOs and the Indian government for targetting cola majors Coca Cola and Pepsi for pesticide content in their products. According to him the colas we drink in India are as safe, if not safer, than the colas sold in the West. What he writes about tea has made me worried. In his article he writes and I quote "According to European norms (EU), tea contains 187,300 times the pesticide than water used in colas. If hypothetically our colas had exceeded allowable levels by 30 times, I could still drink 6,200 glasses of cola and I would have less pesticide in my body than a cup of tea." (Italics mine) If this is true, and I do not see any reason to doubt him, then it is definitely a cause for worry as the per capita consumption of tea in India is much higher than the per capita consumption of cola drinks. The Government of India, especially the Ministry of Health, should go into this issue with all seriousness. It would be horrible if it is later found out that we have been behaving like Don Quixotes. I must add that I am not a fan of cola drinks and I feel that they are contributing in a major way to obesity and diabetes - two horrible lifestyle diseases which are assuming epidemic proportions in India. But I used to think that tea was perhaps the safest beverage to drink. Now it seems that I was wrong. I feel sad and cheated. Does anyone here know the truth?


How to score a self-goal by Gurcharan Das; Sunday Times of India; 12 August 2006

Maria Scharff - the collage artist

"No road leads the way. The path follows behind. The journey itself is home." - Anonymous (One of Margi Scharff's favourite quotes)


The latest issue of SPAN the magazine brought out by the U.S. Embassy in India tells me about a collage artist named Margi Scharff. The article is titled An Artist's Pilgrimage and is by Daniel B Haber a Kathmandu based writer. Margi is from Los Angeles and she lives in the Paharganj area of New Delhi - the favourite haunt of backpackers. She conducts writing workshops for underpreviliged children. She is also undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer. She collects her raw materials from the roadside. Discarded newspapers and magazines, posters, labels, matchboxes, incense boxes, you name it...
Read More about her:
In pdf format: An Artist's Pilgrimage by Daniel B Haber in SPAN (recommended, opens in new window)
The same article in html (sans pictures)
Her weblog
Patterns of Life: Margi Scharff's 'Road Collages' by Philip Reeves (National Public Radio)

Kavad Yatris on the streets of Mhow

It happened a few days ago. I think it was on Monday 24 July 2006. I was on my scooter in Sanghi Street Mhow when I saw a huge saffron mass heading towards me. It was a group of Kavad Yatris. The worshippers of Shiva who walk barefoot and take the waters of a holy river to a prominent Shiva temple. I parked my scooter at the Kotwali Chowk opposite Oxford Book Depot. I was happy when I saw my camera roll still had a few shots in it.

In this part of India (Malwa and Nimar) the Kavad Yatris take the waters of the Narmada (the Narmada is supposed to be the daughter of Shiva) from the temple towns of Maheshwar or Omkareshwar and go to Ujjain via Mhow and Indore. I have often heard it said that Mhow got its name because it is between Maheshwar and Omkareshwar. There is another theory that Mhow is so named because it is short for Military Headquarters of Western India. I prefer the former theory as the name Mhow is supposed to be older than 1818 - the year the English under John Malcom defeated the Holkars at the Battle of Mahidpur and were given Mhow for a Cantonement.

After reaching Ujjain these worshippers offer the water, which they collect in pitchers and tie at the end of staves, to Lord Shiva at the temple of Mahakaal. The lingam here is a jyotirlinga and is also known as Dakshinmukhi as it is the only jyotirlinga which faces south. It is a tough walk. Omkareshwar and Maheshwar are in the plains of Nimar and these pilgrims ascend almost 70 kms of the Vindhyachal mountains as they reach Mhow on the edge of the Malwa plateau. And they do it barefeet. Even a tough infantryman would say "Well done!" That is the strength that faith can give. There are times I have seen women among the kavadiyas (as they are known). The going from Mhow is relatively smooth as the terrain till Ujjain is mostly plain. It is roughly 23 kms from Mhow to Indore and then another 65 kms or so from Indore to Ujjain.

Many of these kavad yatris are regulars and they time off during Shravan (July) and devote it to Shiva. Malwa and Nimar are areas which are primarily Shiva worshipping. 17 kms from Mhow is the hill temple of Janapao which is famous for its Shiv temple. According to local legend this is where the ashram of Jamadagni the father of Lord Parshuram used to be. It is from this hill that two rivers - the Chambal and the Gambhir originate. The Chambal is a mere trickle here and one would find it hard to believe that after a few hundred kilometres it becomes a river which is associated with violence and dacoits. The Gambhir flows quietly towards Ujjain where it merges with the Kshipra. It is more of a stream as it flows through Mhow. The English had named it Cad's River as it flowed through Mhow. The Army golf course is just besides this river.

I have been seeing these Kavad Yatris ever since I have come to Mhow in 1979. I wonder whether I would be able to take time off during Shravan and walk with them from the Narmada to Mahakaal. If that materialises it would truly be a pilgrimage undertaken from the deepest recesses of my heart.

The procession turned at the end of Sanghi Street and headed down M.G.Road when I intercepted it somewhere near Gujarati Stores. The guru leading it ordered the saffron mass to stop. I was embarassed as I wanted to click them while they were walking. He may well have thought that I was from some local newspaper. The second picture (top, centre)is more natural. It is good that I was carrying my trusted Yashica MF2 that day.