Sunday, April 26, 2015

C&SwYOSM

This guy would be asleep if not for the 'enlightening' Delhi morning. Just the play of morning light gives so much to be beat about. Combine that with a nip in the morning air (which at the end of April is surprising), and an invisible wind stream winding its way through the streets and trees that brought that nip in the first place - some faraway rain manifesting itself in the city in such fashion. The late spring varieties are in bloom, and another of the tropical trees joins the rest in lining the roads with gold, giving the streets a warm hue, that fails to be any lesser striking every time I venture out.

For a Sunday morning, Delhi looked empty. People don't enjoy the morning culture in the capital city. Shank's friend, whom we met the other day, has come with the same impression. Though I yield to stepping out on rare occasions, one consistent protest of mine is the dearth of morning hangouts in Delhi. Nobody has the freaking clue to replicate a simple model.. For a cyclist, runner, motorbiker, or car cruiser, these make for the pitstop places, and are the infrastructural demand. I remember Bombay - the periphery of parks dominated by juice(jyus)/vada-pav/idli-dosa/sweet-corn vendors; they make for some eagerness one has stepping out on the mornings; they probably have a symbiotic effect, in that the vendors pull crowds which pull more vendors.

Monday, April 06, 2015

Jat crazy

I have been feeling very cool to share the ancestral background of Jats. They mostly make it in the news for wrong reasons, or for reasons of having been wronged (mostly under political acumen). While the former is surprising, - but predictable, depending on planning and social welfare measures - the latter is historically accurate.

The Jats - historically speaking - are a symbol of resilience and cultural simpleness that we so seek whenever we are on travel. They are some travelers themselves. Today's Jat will be seen traveling around the city in SUVs with volume cranked up, without knowing the journey their forefathers would've taken in days with thin political boundaries. Their clan has traveled from the central Asian regions, in what makes today's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Province, that makes fore NorthWesternmost occupation of China. Xinjiang is, today, largest Chinese administrative division, and 8th largest such in the world.
During the 14th century the inhabitants of Moghulistan were known[by whom?] as "Jats" and the area they occupied was called "Jatah". This term is also used by numerous people in South Asia - in Pakistan and in parts of western India.
Not just that, they stuck out as a community for the longest while. While the rest of the Mongols turned to Moghuls (everything starts with the Mongols, esp that guy Genghis), through conversion, the Jats stuck to their pastoral and agricultural lifestyle. They loved their cattle, and stood for it. It was only upon persecution that they migrated down to the Sindh valley, which is in erstwhile Pakistan, and became a part of that culture. They migrated further to reach the Northern Plains of India, too, to Delhi and Haryana. Funny that the identity of the Jat that we relate to is the last one.