Author: Narayan Kaudinya

List of 70 First Indian Women Masters in Various Fields Who Made History

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India, that is Bharat, is the birthplace of Spiritual Wisdom, of Imagination. Be it giving the zero, the decimal system or even the most sophisticated rituals of Body Science- Yoga, to the world. It is the birthplace of the Buddha, Mahavira, the 10 Sikh Gurus; to an extent Indian civilisation has also been the only culture where Women were given the status of Deities and have been prayed to as Goddesses. Ancient Indian texts have mentioned that wherever a women is not respected, there Lakshmi- the goddess of wealth does not stay. There is also a Sanskrit shloka that talks about the value that girls bring in comparison to boys in a way no where else is seen in the world. दशपुत्रसमा कन्या दशपुत्रान्प्रवर्द्धयन, यत्फलं लभते मर्त्यस्तल्लभ्यं कन्ययैकया It says, that One daughter is like ten sons. And that the result of the bringing up ten sons is achieved only by nurturing one girl. But of course life of a Women has never been easy at least in the Indian Subcontinent such as the pleasing …

Children Of War and A Look Into the Parallel Universe

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Once in many years comes a project that brings your life’s reality to a halt. Probably bringing a comma or a complete stop for sometime. Even though it isn’t a big deal to be trained in the visual medium today as everyone’s eyes roll over social media like clouds moving above us, most of the times everything passes as our heads are always elsewhere but that one moment when the thunder strikes, we come back to life. Our World is at war. Still not at its peak as the real WAR is still around a few years away, but as we read this article in 2024, the world is already on a boil and soon rather anytime it is expected to burn. Only if things, governments, war companies do not mend their ways but even for that the time has already gone. Ever since the US moved out of Afghanistan; West Asia and the Middle East has become ever so vulnerable. The ever going war in Africa, Syria, Yemen, ever since in Afghanistan, Russia-Ukraine. And …

A Special Valentine’s Day Story of One Beloved Diamond more Precious than the Kohinoor of India

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There is a story that is commonly told in Britain that the colonisation of India – as horrible as it may have been – was not of any major economic benefit to Britain itself. If anything, the administration of India was a cost to Britain. So the fact that the empire was sustained for so long – the story goes – was a gesture of Britain’s benevolence. New research by the renowned economist Utsa Patnaik –just published by Columbia University Press – deals a crushing blow to this narrative. Drawing on nearly two centuries of detailed data on tax and trade, Patnaik calculated that Britain drained a total of nearly $45 trillion from India during the period 1765 to 1938. It’s a staggering sum. For perspective, $45 trillion is approximately 17 times more than the total annual gross domestic product of the United Kingdom today. Yet Interestingly, When the Britishers were plundering India, they took away not only the Money, the artefacts, archaeological marvels, and not only the Costliest Diamond of the world “The Koh-i-Noor” but also the Timur Ruby. …

The Cost of Attention A Powerful Story to Transform Children into Conscious Adults

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Its nearing four months of my grandfather’s death. He lived for 104 years and barely narrated any story in his later years but a few on insistence. And there was this one story, probably the most beautiful, the most essential one that can make any child into an attentive adult, that he had narrated when we used share a chemistry. This story had that power and possibly that is why I still remember it. As I have to choose a story a week for the Saturday Story Session at my school, I was reminded of one remarkable lore that I came across in my lifetime and I feel everyone can take something out of it. Once a king in South India had to send his son to a mystic, to a master, to learn awareness. The king was old. And he said to his son, “Put your total energy into it because unless you are aware, you are not going to succeed me. I will not give this kingdom to a man who is asleep …

Happy Birthday Ma and Other Stories: Summing Up January

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February is a special month in Life. Ever since my arrival on Earth, nature has given me people in Feb I feel I belong to. Now two, but the one who gave me birth, who showed me to serve first. She, who I realised became my inner voice, who gifted me the eyes to decipher the right from wrong and the mind to believe in myself that I can create, I can do and that I can become whatever in life I wanted to, I am. That I am because of her. And all what i can go on writing, as various people have on earth for their mothers. How much ever I may write but these words weigh nothing and will never amount to anything for how mothers are to us. Just like all the mothers of the world, they are nothing but rivers, that from wherever they pass, they nourish. And if I dig deeply and i did, I found that all along throughout my childhood it was she who has been a …

Amazing Unheard Facts about Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan and What Its Success Meant for all Indians

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Ramayana became the 1st serial of the TeleVision world, which earned a place in the Limca Book of Records as the world’s most watched Television series. For millions of Indians, life came to a standstill for 45 minutes every Sunday morning. At 9.30 am, people settled down to watch this epic serial, the greatest hit in Indian TV history. The budget for Ramayan was Rs.9 lakh per episode, making it the most expensive show produced at that time! The shooting for Ramayan went on for over 550 days! Arun Govil received such intense love and adoration for his portrayal of Ram that he had to give up smoking in public! Ramanand Sagar’s serial Ramayana comes in the 1st category in the history of television. It was telecasted on Doordarshan, on 25 Jan 1987. When it first came on TV, no one imagined that it would get so much fame. Ramayan, which was actually the second show that Ramanand Sagar created for TV (after Vikram Betaal), remains one of the most iconic shows to have been made …

What is Success and How Did the Great American Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson Describe Success after writing ‘Brahma’ ?

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I was surfing through the net reading out loud some classic poems by English writers when I came across a poem named ‘Brahma’- being Indian, which naturally fuelled my curiosity. Emerson wrote this poem in 1857. Furthermore, as I started reading about Emerson, essays on him gave me sweet surprises, in that era and time, Emerson was challenging the traditional thought. In 1835, he married his second wife, Lydia Jackson, and settled in Concord, Massachusetts. Known in the local literary circle as “The Sage of Concord,” Emerson became the chief spokesman for Transcendentalism, the American philosophic and literary movement. Centered in New England during the nineteenth century, Transcendentalism was a reaction against scientific rationalism. Emerson’s first book, Nature (1836), is perhaps the best expression of his Transcendentalism, the belief that everything in our world—even a drop of dew—is a microcosm of the universe. His concept of the Over-Soul—a Supreme Mind that every man and woman share—allowed Transcendentalists to disregard external authority and to rely instead on direct experience. “Trust thyself,” Emerson’s motto, became the code of Margaret …

Reset Restart- 25 Lessons to Walk On In 2024

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My dearest co-travellers, from Nara family to yours, Happy Happy Happy 2024. 2023 was a strange year for me that even carried some most memorable gifts too. And as I press on this note to myself, these lessons that are not goals, neither resolutions but something that shall lead to a better day, better moments. As I reflect on the year that is history, I feel the need to share some lessons I learned or that have been reinforced over thIe pasttwelve months, that I must focus on before I think of any achievements or that light. Here you go: 1. God first. God always. God alone! 2. That value is in to serve, to solve, to uplift the ones in need. 3. Pray. Reflect. Act. 4. That reading for at least an hour each evening is 1000x better than scrolling. 5. Owning my mornings. 6. That the quality of my habits will determines the caliber of my future. 7. That a good night’s sleep prevents bad decisions. 8. Read a little. Write more. Think most. Meditate …

End of an Era

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My grandfather who saw through most of the 20th century, someone who was highly expressive yet quiet; one who taught us to be firm, to stand and lead in the times of crisis, one who moved mountains during the Indian Independence movement as my grandma used to narrate his stories; my grandfather was a formidable figure in his younger years, one who was known to attract problems only to solve them like a pro, one who knew how to remain content. He was probably the first one who enticed me into smoking a hookah, an old Indian way to smoke a water-pipe. He loved nature and above all his teak tree under which he sat and slept for over five decades. Here with my Road to Nara family, I wanted to share that my grandfather died last month on the auspicious day of Diwali in the early hours of dawn. Partially, it was the reason for my absence from the site. Even though it was strange how people and even in the family were waiting …

A Dairy of a Photographer and his Incredible Rural India Stories

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Being a Photographer myself, I have always been fascinated by the old world charm that Rural life provided to my spirit. And Its not just about India but whole of South and South-East Asia had an unexplainable charm to it, still has. There is so much in common. Culture going centuries back. And today in 2023, when the world has started sprinting at a breakneck speed; when people, younger generations have almost, already left things behind; I feel an urge and need to conserve things, documents, stories, creations and life of the past. As much as I can in my limited means. And what better there is to learn and study from someone who himself has been a conservationist in the real sense. Jyoti Bhatt’s work is a proof in itself, that had there been no him, we wouldn’t have ever known what Rural India of the past looked like. Here sharing excerpts from his travels, some never seen images and stories that only his closed ones must have known. The diary of Jyoti Bhatt …

40 Before Forty: My ‘Bucket List’ for Life

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Somehow, its not surprising that even after writing for last three years on this site, I never shared any kind of Bucket List with you. Rather strangely It never even occurred to me. Even when I keep a daily, weekly, monthly to-do list. But this time it felt that I must share what all is meaningful and going to move me for some years to come. To observe and record my own directions, to raise expectations even though I have worked hard to get all feelings of “expectations” out of my system in last some years; But to travel more, to be able to express from a point of stillness more, to vibe more with you, with whom i have shared my most valuable memories in these years in thought, and that you should know some deeper directions that my spirit is wishing to take. Last week, I completed an important and likely decisive life cycle on our planet Earth. Touching the other side of 35. And I felt responsible to open up with you …

The Choice Of Death: The Legend Of Madhu Kaitabha

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While they were resting, Vishnu observed that the concentration of his foes was wavering, he addressed them in a loud voice and said, “I have been very much pleased by the skill you two have displayed. Till date, I have not come across a single person who could stand up to me in concept. In recognition of your bravery, I shall grant you a boon. Ask, and it shall be yours.”

Shades Of August

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Dear Co-Travellers, August tinkers like its the doorway to change. May be the first knock towards the last half of the year. The month brings Rain and rains bring movement. An upsurge of energy. Life happening everywhere while bringing us that twilight period of Clouds and glitter, of filtering light, running rivers, thundering skies and speaking earth. I have been away from writing on the internet but I have been writing. A Project of importance or so i must feel; the law of cause and effect leads you to interesting crossroads. At home, a rally of unfortunate events one after other in the family and neighbourhood brought me to reason ‘The Origin of Disease’. About our understanding of food and ancient crops. And most importantly about self-healing. Is today’s society capable enough tackle stress, depression, anxiety, internet addiction, or even life and time management on its own? For each one who thinks of food as nourishment and life as energy. For anyone who would like to delve deeper in the realms of understanding one’s mind, …

The Mother River and a Nostalgic Journey of Nara Family to Gangotri- The Origin of Ganga or Ganges?

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I am not at all sure how did the British came up with the name ‘”the Ganges” for the Ganga. But I do know where the Ganga comes from! The river Ganga is formed at a place called Devprayag at the juncture of the Bhagirathi river and the Alaknanda river. The Bhagirathi is named after king Bhagiratha who brought down the celestial Ganga from the heavens. And the word Alaknanda literally means a young girl- the curls or the locks of hair of a young girl between 8 to 10 years which may also mean a young girl herself. The curls and locks of her hair are the waves of the river or the way of the Alaknanda in the Himalayas. When they meet at Devprayag- She is called the Ganga. Also read: The Last Journey to Ganga and scenes from my Ancestral village And The Ganga means ‘She who moves Swiftly’. It is ironical because after Devprayag, the valley slowly starts opening up. The water still remains chilled but here coming to Rishikesh from …

A Memory of the Most Beautiful Woman : A Photographic Recollection of Three Days Living in a Rural Rajasthani Home

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Dhapodi ji became a shepherd once she learnt that she would not be able to give Ambaram any children. Limping, I saw her whole life in that moment as she slowly walked away from us, with his cattle family. She took the responsibility of walking seventy goats and four cows to greener pastures. She used to take them all together for grazing, in rain, in dusty, deadly heat of Rajasthan daily, finding newer fields and branches to eat from all day to come back as the sun sat and help his husband’s second wife in cooking. Yes, second wife! Ambaram married again, in search for a boy to continue his lineage. Instead the new couple got five beautiful talkative girls, each a year apart. They went to every temple and sage to pray and ask for their blessing- leaving the older wife- Dhapodi and children back home. It became an irony that on the day Ambaram and Dhapodi got married- twenty years later, a boy arrived from the younger wife. As i Sit on the …

3rd Road To Nara Anniversary and An Announcement

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On 15th June 2020, right in the middle of the biggest lockdown India saw; that morning I was walking on an empty street finding a fruit vendor instead ended up meeting an old man sitting alone in a park. It was a time of not doing anything. May be living was the best doing we were doing. As I heard him intently talking about all the people he met in life, I thought to myself- share now Nara. I had always been writing but in diaries or for money. Three years ago on this day something changed. Some minute thing when I decided to start ‘Road to Nara’- this blog and strangely this period of my life has been the best of Mango times- ethereally sweet yet with just a hint of tanginess. With years behind me as a Teacher, a Travel Journalist and a practicing Yogi; Road to Nara came at a time when I still remembered my past- thanks to the Image memory in me while times were forcing me to look towards …

How an Old Man Taught Me to Reach the Tower of the Eternal Bliss, the Mystery of Fire And of the Universe On the Banks of Ganga?

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I had a quick two-day tour to Haridwar with parents. A meeting with a Guru was arranged and they were excited about it. I, as was the deal had only one plan; to walk as far and as close to the mother river Ganga, as much she allows. 4 a.m. When we reached Parents took to the ashram and I to the mother river. But this time without impressions. Past months have seen a difference in the way I am doing things and one thing that I am particularly peaceful about is leaving the camera first and then leaving this want, to make the most beautiful, meaningful looking photographs. I am not. I am not doing it. I am letting the days pass by without making any digital memory out of it. I feel no desire anymore to keep making memories. As of now I imagine I have done my quota of “always looking like a crow” to do something all the time. I am walking without me institutionally looking to make images or even …

One Deep Journey to the Indian South : A Visual Study of Thiruvegappura Ambala Observing the Culture and Music of God’s Own Country

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There is one advice I must give. Travel; at least once in your lifetime get yourself a one way ticket to any place that has ever called you. Solo is better, just like Fear of the unknown is good. I would say, rather pounce on it and do it all the way. And even do it, as you doubt your self; setting aside gloom, prepare yourself to become aware of every breath that is going to come to you. Travel. Ever since February and March graced me to undertake an odyssey to the Indian South, it opened grand doors to a time and space that weren’t only old but preserved for centuries the fragrance of its tradition, from corruption that we have become accustomed to. Ceremonies, rituals, chants and most importantly the discipline of the two magic hours; to become conscious of the rise and the setting of the sun, and it being celebrated like a reserved festival for the soul with utmost attention, precision while guiding oneself to flow in following the cycle of …

The Doors to Spring

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I haven’t been walking enough since I came from South India. It was bereft of Spring and felt winter jumped to summer overnight but the northern part has been very kind in reaching out, in showing the colors. These images found me calling on two different days I decided to leave my desk, looking out from my window when clouds seemed to be carrying rivers. Sharing here just that bit of my April with you. : ँ : Thank you If today is the first time you have arrived on The Road to Nara, you are heartily welcome ~ Namaste : ँ : I will take this opportunity to introduce you to About me and importantly; As a co-traveller, will take you through the Ten Lessons I learnt from several years on the road, before you coarse on your own Road to Nara. Also read: 9 Most Read Stories from Road To Nara in 2022 : ँ : You might also like to know about My Little School Project.  If you wish to come over for a visit someday, that you must, you will be heartily …

The Phenomena Of Mind or Conquering The Internal Nature: Raja Yoga

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Since the dawn of history, various extraordinary phenomena have ben recorded as happening amongst human beings. Witnesses are not wanting in modern times to attest to the fact of such events, even in societies living under the full blaze of modern science. The vast mass of such evidence is unreliable, as coming from ignorant, superstitious, or fraudulent persons. In many instances the so-called miracles are imitations. But what do they imitate? It is not the sign of a candid and scientific mind to throw overboard anything without proper investigation. Surface scientists, unable to explain the various extraordinary mental phenomena, strive to ignore their very existence. They are, therefore, more culpable than those who think that their prayers are answered by a being, or beings, above the clouds, or than those who believe that their petitions will make such being change the course of the universe. The latter have the excuse of ignorance, or at least a defective system of education, which has taught them dependence upon such beings, a dependence which has become a part …

Smile Professor Einstein : The story behind Einstein’s most iconic Photograph

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Smile for the camera, Professor Einstein! When the photographer Arthur Sasse asked physicist and scientist Albert Einstein to smile for the camera on his 72nd birthday on 14 March 1951 – this is the image that was taken. Einstein was tired of smiling at all the photographers and instead decided to stick out his tongue. Einstein himself later used the image on greetings cards that he sent to friends. And became one of the most famous and iconic images ever taken of laureate Albert Einstein, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 30 years before the photograph was taken. You may appreciate this memorable portrait as much as the next fellow, but it’s still fair to wonder: “Did it really change history?” Rest assured, we think it did. While Einstein certainly changed history with his contributions to nuclear physics and quantum mechanics, this photo changed the way history looked at Einstein. By humanising a man known chiefly for his brilliance, this image is the reason Einstein’s name has become synonymous not only with “genius,” …

From ‘A Man Without a Country’ : An Excerpt From an Interview With Kurt Vonnegut

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DAVID BRANCACCIO: There’s a little sweet moment, I’ve got to say, in a very intense book– your latest– in which you’re heading out the door and your wife says what are you doing? I think you say– I’m getting– I’m going to buy an envelope. KURT VONNEGUT: Yeah. DAVID BRANCACCIO: What happens then? KURT VONNEGUT: Oh, she says well, you’re not a poor man. You know, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I’m going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don’t know. The moral of the story is, is we’re here on Earth to fart around. And, of course, the computers …