Happy to share my poem… The Comeback Trail… published in a leading newspaper on 5/7/26. Hope you like it.
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23/6/26 TOI.. IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF WORLD CUP’S DANCING DUTCH ROYALS
TOI 23/6/26
IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF WORLD CUP’S DANCING DUTCH ROYALS
“When heads of state, or govt, let their hair down, they make an important point”
Abhilash.Gaur@timesofindia.com
It’s unusual for Europe’s royals to be seen dancing in public, yet, on Sunday, after tiny Curacao – a nation of 1.6L people – drew their World Cup match against Ecuador, Dutch king Willem-Alexander and queen Maxima landed in their locker room to shake a leg. Their joy is understandable, for Curacao is part of the Kingdom of Netherlands. But the dance? It seems the royal couple were acting on ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes’ advice: “Always keep the people on your side.”
That’s an advice royals everywhere, but especially in Europe, have internalised rapidly in recent years. So, you find Jordan’s next-in-line, Hussein and Rajwa, and Japan’s princess Takamado, cheerleading their teams at the ongoing Cup. Spain’s king, Felipe, has confirmed attendance, and Sweden’s royals are expected too.
RATINGS BOOSTER: And with four weeks to go before the final, you can expect elected “royalty” as well – PMs and presidents of some of the 48 participant states. Macron’s presence at the Argentina-France final in Qatar, and his on-field commiseration with Mbappe, would have won him some points at home. Not that he needed them then, with polls eight months behind. But he could use a boost now. Too bad Starmer can’t. He was anyway looking in a hopeless place, with only 19% approval last month.
COMMON TOUCH: Ultimately, for heads of state, being seen at the World Cup boils down to a display of their “common touch” – an ability to communicate with and understand ordinary people. Elected leaders, if they are smart, will display it all the time. But for royals, it’s become a survival tactic. That’s why they go out of their way to appear like normal middle class people, burdened with castles. Cycling to work like former Dutch PM Mark Rutte, and regular public-messaging like former Kiwi PM Jacinda Ardern. But royals are also lucky the public doesn’t judge them so harshly when they get caught drinking and dancing – former Finnish PM Sanna Marin had to take a drug test for having a good time.
SOLID TRADITION: In our own culture, heroes of Ramayana and Mahabharat are accessible to common people. Ram gladly accepts Shabari’s berries, and Krishn welcomes his poor friend Sudama. In history, Akbar may not have roamed around his kingdom incognito, to listen to people’s woes, but the legend shows kings understood the importance of common touch. The Mughal tradition of Jharokha darshan also reinforced connection, from a distance.
In England, though, it was important for kings to actually touch their subjects. People believed the king’s touch, or Royal Touch, could cure scrofula, TB of lymph nodes. Shakespeare made it part of Macbeth’s plot. And Charles II, a contemporary of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, is said to have touched 100,000 commoners in his reign.
SNOOTY TURN: But then, this touching, hugging kind of kingship faded, and royals became all hoity-toity. In Britain, it became it became the rule not to touch the monarch on any account. When Australian PM Paul Keating placed a hand on the queen’s back, at a reception in 1992, tabloids labelled him ‘Lizard of Oz’.
So, why did royals become so aloof, and why are they now trying so hard to mingle? The answer boils down to need. When hierarchies were rigid, they didn’t care. Just a century ago, British journalist Vernon Randall mocked the common touch, then a growing phenomenon in House of Commons. He described it as “a touch of nature that makes the whole world grin, if that world has no more manners than a clever schoolboy”.
HUGS & KISSES: From ancient times, the French had greeted each other with a quick kiss, but this tradition fell with the Black Death in the 1300s. Only to make a comeback after the French Revolution in 1789. Why? Because there were no royals anymore. Everyone was equal, theoretically, and equals don’t kiss the hems of each other’s skirts. That shake hands, embrace, kiss, because these actions are deeply symbolic. Shaking hands shows you aren’t hiding a weapon. Kissing and hugging imply we trust each other enough to share germs.
STAYING RELEVANT: Their newfound common touch is a survival strategy for the world’s remaining royals. They haven’t forgotten how Italy in 1946, and Greece in 1974, abolished monarchy by referendum. When Diana, famous for her common touch, died in 1997, just five years after the ‘Lizard of Oz’ outrage, popular support for British royals had crashed to 32% from 65% in 1983. Hence, the charm offensive, everywhere from Spain to Sweden.
TOI LATE NOW? And it’s a lovely thing, this dismissal of Divine Right and other anachronistic beliefs. But the royals could have started on this mission a lot sooner, for Kipling did suggest: “If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk with kings– nor lose the common touch…”
Is it too late already? Maybe, but while royalty lasts, everyone will cheer a few blue-blooded cheerleaders in the stands as long as they pay for their tickets.
THE PLACES OF KRISHNA’S PASTIMES SURROUNDING GOVARDHAN
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THE PLACES OF KRISHNA’S PASTIMES SURROUNDING GOVARDHAN
Kamlesh Tripathi
Krishna had performed his pastimes in many places surrounding Govardhan Parvat (Hill). Noted personage Sri Raghava took Srinivasa and Narottama (icons of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition) to see places near Govardhan where young Krishna performed his pastimes, and he described it to them one by one. It commences with Kusum-Sarovar, a famous pastime spot of Radha & Krishna. Followed by Narad-Kund, where Narad Muni fulfilled his desires by performing tapasya.
At Ratna-simhasana, Radha is depicted sitting on a throne. Even the incident behind Krishna’s killing of the demon Sankhachuda took place here.
Pali is a beautiful garden in which Palita-Yuthesvari (Queen Gopi) used to stay. Sri Krishna enjoyed himself with his friends in the holy place called Ata-grama. In a place called Indra-dhvaja-bedi, Nandaraja used to worship Indra. It was here that Sri Krishna would tend his cows and call each one by the melody of his flute.
Papamochan, also known as Sankarsana-kund, is famous for its sanctity. By bathing here, a person will be freed from all vices.
In the Parasauli-gram, Radha & Krishna enacted their Rasa-Yatra in the Vasant season. At Chandra-Sarovar, Lord Krishna took rest in his rasa-dress. In the beautiful Gandharva-kund, the Gandharvas were overwhelmed by Krishna’s beautiful songs.
The devotional hymn from Stavavali and Goverdhan-asraya-dasaka describes how Radha danced with Krishna in the Rasa-sthali.
In the village of Paitha, when Krishna once hid from the gopis, they all began looking for him. Soon, Krishna appeared before the gopis in his Chaturbhuja (four hands) form. But when Radha arrived, his two hands merged back into his body, signifying that Radha and Krishna were one.
Pleasant pastimes also happened in Gauri-tirtha. The place within Gauri-tirtha is called Nipa-kund, because it is surrounded by beautiful nipa, or kadamb, trees.
The next village, Aniyora, is situated on the Govardhan Hill (Giriraj). It is famously known as the site of the original Annakuta festival, where Lord Krishna lifted the Govardhan hill to protect the villagers and ate their offerings, demanding more by saying “Aniyora!”
The sacred place called Govinda-kund has many milestones to it. It is located near Aniyora village, and it was only here that God Indra bathed Lord Krishna with Ganges water and milk to seek Krishna’s forgiveness.
Vraja-Vilasa-stava (A collection of prayers) says, Indra took hold of the lotus feet of Lord Krishna, in the company of a surabhi cow, and performed his coronation by bathing him with the waters of the Ganges River.
The sacred lake Dana-Nivartana-kund is also located here on the right side of the Govardhana Hill parikrama path. Dana-nivartana-kunda is named after the dana-keli playful pastime, which Krishna enjoyed. It relates to the collection of taxes from Gopis. Vaishnava ascetic Madhavendra Puri stayed here under a tree, and Gopala gave darshan to him on the pretext of bringing him milk. At the end of Govardhan is the Apsara-kund. People who take a bath here are considered very lucky. There are the old palasa trees here. This secluded place is called Syama-dhaka.
The footprint of the divine white elephant Airavata, belonging to Lord Indra, can be seen on the sacred rocks of Govardhan Parvat. After his defeat, Indra described the glories of Lord Krishna’s mercy from here.
The Surabhi Kund is a highly revered, ancient sacred water tank and pilgrimage site situated on the Govardhan Parikrama Marg. Established by Maharaja Vajranabh (Lord Krishna’s great-grandson), it is the spot where the Surabhi cow (Kamadhenu) fed Krishna milk to appease his anger.
Rudra-kund is another beautiful and secluded forest where Mahadeva sat in meditation. Legend has it that it was formed by the tears of Lord Shiva, who was so overwhelmed while meditating on Lord Krishna’s pastimes that he wept profusely.
Kadam-Khandi is a sacred, secluded forest grove located in Kamyavan, Rajasthan, in the Braj region. It is a revered place for meditation and is closely associated with the pastimes of Lord Krishna and Radha. In Dana-ghati, Lord Krishna took a share of the milk products from Radha while his friends blocked her way.
Brahma-kund is also situated in Govardhan. It is described in the Mathura-khand. After bathing here, Brahma satisfied Lord Hari. Indra and the other planetary rulers created other lakes nearby.
On the eastern side is Indra-tirtha, on the south is Yama-tirtha, on the west is Varuna-tirtha, and on the north is Kuvera-tirtha. Krishna enjoyed his pastimes in these locations.
In Manasa-ganga, Krishna enjoyed his ecstatic boat pastimes. Vraja-Vilasa-stava gives a pristine description of Manasa-ganga, which lies on the side of the Govardhan Parvat. The waves of the river splash against the splendid rocks, lining its shores.
Situated 26 kilometres west of Mathura. The mere sight of Govardhan Hill and its circumambulation rids one of his material miseries. Govardhan Hill gives unlimited pleasure to Lord Krishna, who lifted the hill with his left hand to curb the pride of Indra and protect the Braj-vasis.
The Adi-varaha Purana says, ‘Two yojanas (sixteen miles) west of Mathura is the rare teertha named Govardhan. A person who circumambulates this place, named Annakuta-tirtha, does not return to this world. After bathing in Manasa-ganga and seeking darshan of the Deity of Harideva on the Govardhan Hill, and circumambulating Annakuta-tirtha, no heart can remain unhappy. To protect the cows distressed by Indra’s torrential rains, I lifted the Govardhana Hill.’
The Skanda Purana, Mathura-khand, says that Govardhana Hill is an incarnation of the Supreme God. When the Lord lifted the hill, all the people of Braj were saved from Indra’s torrential rains. Lord Vishnu stays eternally on Govardhan. Brahma, Siva, and Laksmi also reside there. There is no doubt about this.
Written and posted by Kamlesh Tripathi
Author, Poet, & Columnist
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https://kamleshsujata.wordpress.com
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Shravan Charity Mission is an NGO that works for poor children suffering from life-threatening diseases, especially cancer. Our posts are meant for our readers, including children and adults, and have a huge variety of content. We also accept donations for our mission. Should you wish to donate to the cause of cancer? The bank details are given below:
NAME OF ACCOUNT: SHRAVAN CHARITY MISSION
Account no: 680510110004635 (BANK OF INDIA)
IFSC code: BKID0006805
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AI: WISDOM, NO GUARANTEE carried by The Speaking Tree in Economic Times by Kamlesh Tripathi
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Happy reading
Poem: In The Nature’s Lap
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IN THE NATURE’S LAP
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Kamlesh Tripathi
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At the open deck,
Of the nature’s Club,
Under the bright sun,
The slanting sunshine,
And the passing clouds.
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One gets to hear,
The tuneful chirping of birds,
The swishing of the roaming breeze,
The distant horn of a passing car,
Down below in the foot hills.
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Nature is still predominant here,
Unlike the giant megapolis,
Where nature has drowned in despair,
And life has worn a new avatar.
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The big banyan tree,
In the open deck,
Stands firm in silence,
While the hilly roads,
Wind through the mountainside.
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Nature speaks softly,
In her timeless language,
Of patience, balance,
And quiet perseverance.
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Yet man keeps adding,
His marks and signatures,
Trying to improve,
What was already complete.
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The birds know no boundaries,
The clouds carry no pride,
The breeze asks for nothing,
And the hills quietly abide.
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They teach a simple lesson:
To live and let live,
To take only what is needed,
And always learn to give.
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As the sun slowly descends,
Behind the distant peaks,
The evening whispers a truth,
That every seeker seeks.
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Amid the noise of ambition,
And the race for worldly gain,
Nature remains the greatest teacher,
Healing every joy and pain.
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Be with nature my friend,
For nature will never offend,
Life may have many views,
But nature’s view is the ultimate.
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GENERAL KNOWLEDGE 6 : OCEANIA
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GENERAL KNOWLEDGE 6
OCEANIA
The Pacific Islands were unsettled by any of the early hominid species, but with assistance from ice-age land bridges, modern humans settled the Philippines, Australasia and elsewhere by no later than 40,000 years ago (long after the earliest known boats). Eastern Polynesia may have been settled by South American sailors following the Humboldt Current. Sophisticated agriculture developed to supplement fishing.
The thousands of islands and huge ocean gulfs between them meant that settlement was uneven; some – such as Hawaii and Eastern Island – remained unsettled until well into the first millennium AD. Isolation helped create significant linguistic diversity; there are not only hundreds of different languages, but several different language families (in civilizations without writing, oral histories were greatly developed). Philologists can chart the linguistic changes, dating the settlement of each island and tracking the rise and fall of loose-knit empires, with religiously potent chieftains and various class systems
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Happy to share my short story “Return of Sangeeta” published recently in The Sentinel Assam. The story is in the backdrop of Lucknow. It’s about two classical singers and their rivalry. Hope you enjoy it.
7/2/26 Book review: Frankenstein Doesn’t Feel 200 Years Old
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7/2/26 BOOK REVIEW
FRANKENSTEIN DOESN’T FEEL 200 YEARS OLD
Even if Mary’s creature is now Guillermo’s
An adaptation of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a Best Picture nominee for the Oscars, for the first time ever. But in the two centuries since Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley wrote her magnum opus, countless plays, poems, novels, comics, PhDs, parodies, alongside many, many films, have been inspired by it. A podcast galore enables you to deep-dive into whichever aspect of this medley you like. Four examples:
The Director’s Cut-ADGA Podcast
In a conversation with Bradley Cooper, Guillermo del Toro says that he became a human being at age 7, when he went from church on a Sunday to seeing Boris Karloff crossing the threshold on TV. To be clear, Karloff iconically reprised the role of Frankenstein’s monster in three 1930s films, complete with bolts in the neck.
Then, at age 11, Guillermo read the novel, and thought, “Oh, that’s not the movie I saw.” He found Mary was “really brutal with the creature”. At age 61, he finally made his own movie. And now, you might think, oh that’s not the book I read.
The Big Picture – A Ringer Movies Podcast
Critics Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins discuss how Guillermo’s whole movie career is about becoming increasingly fascinated by the idea that the monster is misunderstood, and must be looked at as just as human as you or I. That’s why, while Karloff is remembered for being terrifying, Jacob Elordi’s performance isn’t about that. It’s about interiority, “tall energy”, forgiving his “daddy”, and a superhero-ness.
Books in the Freezer – A Horror Fiction Podcast
Librarians Stephanie Gagnon and Jocelyn Codner note that Mary’s novel has been deeply injected into a popstream that isn’t always about high philosophy!
The 2024 romance-horror Lisa Frankenstein has a troubled teenager hooking up with a reanimated Victorian-era corpse. The 1990 absolutely bonkers and campy Frankenhooker is about a medical school dropout resurrecting his finance with the help of prostitutes’ body parts. The 2015 young adult novel The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein is a retelling from the point of view of Frankenstein’s fiancee.
The 1986 Gothic is an origin-story film, psychologising the real-life episode where Mary, Percy Shelly, and John Polidori were stuck at Byron’s villa on Lake Geneva, and bet on who could write the scariest ghost story.
Science Fiction
Storyteller Damien Walter thinks of the four of them as a kind of goth band, with Mary as the lead singer. She is just 19 when she writes Frankenstein (in less than a year), and invents the mad scientist and his Other archetypes.
Her prolific later career would include The Last Man, which invents the apocalyptic novel, about the near-extinction of humanity by a global plague. Btw that Lake Geneva holiday also saw Polidori creating the short story The Vampyre, which too was the start of a genre that would grow and grow.
But, Walter argues, it is Frankenstein that is the new myth for the age of science, where humans are no longer thinking of themselves as made in God’s image, but as products of evolution, as machines of flesh and blood. Mary is writing for people whose world is being turned upside down by experiments in electricity and the factories of the Industrial Revolution. And as science advances into AI, Frankenstein still remains the blueprint and warning. What have I done?
21/6/26 World Music Day: A tribute to Music’s Enduring Magic by Kamlesh Tripathi
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Enjoy my piece published today.
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE 5: ICE AGES
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GENERAL KNOWLEDGE 5
ICE AGES
The Pleistocene era (beginning 2.58 million years ago) saw several phases in which Earth’s mean temperature dropped and the polar icecaps expanded towards the tropics. These are clustered into four broad ice ages- periods with cool temperatures and a significant continental ice sheet (at times, up to one-third of Earth’s land surface was covered), separated by interglacial periods of 10-15 millennia.
Nomadic humans, with fire, weapons and language, were able to hunt across the tundra and secure caves in which to shelter. Their prey needed larger areas to forage, causing humanity to spread widely in pursuit. Falling sea levels opened up land bridges across today’s oceans -most significantly, the Americans were populated by humans spreading from Mongolia, while horses evolved in America but migrated east before becoming extinct in their native land. The last significant glaciation came to an end 10,000 years ago. The last significant glaciation came to an end 10,000 years ago, although a climatic cooling of about 500 years from the century AD 1300 has been noted.
Posted by Kamlesh Tripathi
Author, Poet, & Columnist
*
https://kamleshsujata.wordpress.com
*
Like it and Share it
*
Shravan Charity Mission is an NGO that works for poor children suffering from life-threatening diseases, especially cancer. Our posts are meant for our readers, including children and adults, and have a huge variety of content. We also accept donations for our mission. Should you wish to donate to the cause of cancer? The bank details are given below:
NAME OF ACCOUNT: SHRAVAN CHARITY MISSION
Account no: 680510110004635 (BANK OF INDIA)
IFSC code: BKID0006805
***
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