Treasure Hunt

Don't we all love one! I still remember days gone by, where we used to either setup Treasure Hunts or Participate in one, trying to figure out where the clues are.. Of course, it was a Merry Go Round across various places, finding clues leading to the next. And before you know, you have spent a good part of your Friday or Sunday Weekend participating in one, to end with a prize voucher.. Of course, you had a good part of the tour running along with friends, each trying to outwit one another just to get that first prize... At the end, all in good fun, followed by a good meal. Simple, Right?

So, quite impressed and amused to read the story in the +The Times of India about the Gold Rush at Unnao. A seer's dream of 10,000 tonnes of GOLD to be given to India as a gift to make it a world power. Obviously in trying economic times, this seemed like a boon and the Gold Hunt was on.

Nation wide derides, jeers, political believers, political stunt callers, back trackers, of course we saw the works. The BJP calling is a stunt, backing out because the Sadhu challenged Narendra Modi and he suddenly called him a visionary. Of course, one can term it as an outcome of Election times, and no political bureaucrat worth his or her salt, would have wanted to come out a cropper.

Two weeks later, huge resources spent, a whole lot of grave diggers taking part, the findings so far have come out a blank. Political parties backing off, not wanting to take any fall outs from a possible excavation failure. Of course, if it does come that we find a few tonnes of Gold, surely, every one would take part in the credit, and who knows, where the Gold would end up to.

What's my point? Similar to life in many a case. We hear about a miracle that can happen. Riches that can be had overnight, with limited work (Akshay Khanna got duped recently). There is easy money to be made. There is Gold hidden under our ancestral property. There is wealth hidden in the ancient walls of our ancestral house.. And we take every opportunity that we can and have to get that extra money / Gold, that is supposedly ours and we can get it for free.

True, the generations past, had huge reserves of Gold, however as today, the Gold that was with our Maharajah's was probably a 100 times more than what our politicians have today. True they amassed, but then they also had morals, that they had to take care of their people. You would not hear of a Rajah running away to Switzerland, simply because his enemies were coming. The question though remains.. Is that Gold still available? Did our forefathers leave tonnes for our use? Did the looters not loot every penny that we had before they left?

A similar thought expressed in a Blog - Gold Rush and also my second and probably more relevant question that comes to mind. Would we have been a better off civilization / country / people, had we had our riches still to ourselves? Would the greed that the average common man built in himself, been subsided? Would we have been a better world?

Why can we simply not curb our desires and be happy in what we are and we have? Is that too much to ask??

India Treasure Troves

Often wondered at times, why people go into hibernation and then suddenly come out, from nowhere. What is it that ticks them to disappear, and what suddenly turns the nerve to come out all guns blazing.. My reason for the comment: I went through the same, stopping my notes for nearly six months, since my last comment, not writing and then suddenly an article that I read yesterday, stirring me up.

50k crores worth of treasure found in Kerala (video link), underneath the temple in Thiruvanthapuram. hidden in vaults that were closed for decades and centuries. What is amazing is not the quantum of wealth hidden, as the glory and grandeur of India is well known, but the fact that the vaults despite being in the temple, were never bothered to be opened. Either the temple authorities did not know, or were simply not interested.

As our famed Archealogical department now goes temple by temple, they probably will find a lot more such treasures, amounts running into Hundreds of thousands of crores, the question arises, what happens to this new found national treasure? Of course, there will be compilations, lists, assessments, then what?

Are we really going to preserve this, or is this treasure going to land up into Swiss Banks of the Mayawatis, the Gandhis, the Yadav's and not to forget, the Jaya Amma's? Is India really capable of understanding and managing it's history? Does India or for that matter the Average Indian really care about it's glorious past? Is it something that is just meant for history pages, that every one reads in the 8th - 10th Grade and not meant for future use?

I could be wrong. Maybe the treasure would be used properly, and show cased in museums, however we all know that this will never happen. India does not have the infrastructure, nor the interest to manage it's national treasures.. We may be a nuclear country, and we may possess the best brains, and half the world may be running on Indians (or Indian origin migrated expatriates), but the fact is that we are pathetic when it comes to managing our past and our glory. The only time it is highlighted is in the PM's annual speech on August 15 and Jan 26.

This treasure could just be a drop in the ocean and surely many more such findings would come out as there is so much more that probably may not even have been found.. What do we do with these.. Put these into safe lockers, hidden from the world (as are a lot of the treasures of the Nizam era) or will the state actually build a brand new musuem with the latest in security and guard this?

Or do we spend it on development? Of course, most of it would to to the minorities, the Muslims, the Christians, even though the treasure has been found from Hindu temples.. All in the name of secularism? And why would that be, because we Hindus would be busy fighting as to which caste and sect should be the beneficary of this money.

It is really unfortunate that despite the Kings and Queens of yore having gone long back, India and more so, Hindus, have not been able to come out of the caste bracket.. We are still high class brahmins and low caste Dalits. We have to survive this way to ensure that we get our pound of flesh, and all with the help of our leaders, who themselves ensure that this fire never dies down.

One fine day, we would find out that most if not all of our national treasures are gone, lying either in some offshore accounts of our saviours, our great party leaders, our politicians or even better, moved to another country in private mansions or even adoring musueums of coutnries, who have no link to our past? There will be a hue and cry in parliament, or maybe not at all, as most of them would have been part of it? A lot might be sold to our foreign buyers, of course, with our leaders being the sellers.

The question always does arise in my mind.. Should we be finding all these national treasures? Are we capable of living with our past and ensuring that the past is preserved and the future of our country taken care of? Or do we want to ensure that the past is where it should be, in paper, not really worth the effort to preserve this.

Or really, should some one have had the balls sixty years ago, to state that India is and will be a Hindu nation, so FU, MG..