Prabhakar reflections

Changing Nature of the Press  ********************************* I am not a journalist by profession and hence whatever you find written below is not born out of any experience in that field. However It's born out of the same fundamental rights to expression that by insinuation the press of India also happens to exercise. The raison d'etre of the press is solely due to the persons’ or citizens’ right to be informed. The right to be informed is inherent in the right to express. Any civil society can't survive sans fulfillment of this fundamental right. Hence it's the basic responsibility of the State to guarantee this right.  Even the most authoritarian state will not accept in the public domain that it doesn't value freedom of expression.  Had it been so, we would not have seen newspapers published from those countries ruled by even dictatorial dispensations. The press exists there too;though in a subservient way.                 ...

अद्य देवोत्थान एकादशी अस्ति. लोकभाषायां इदम् "देव‌उठनी एकादशी" नाम्ना प्रचलितोऽस्ति. इत्येक: पवित्र दिवस: सम्पूर्ण भारतवर्षे. कार्तिक मासस्य शुक्लपक्षस्य एकादश्याम् तिथौ देवोत्थान एकादशी भवति. इत्येक: पवित्र: दिवस: सम्पूर्ण भारतवर्षे. मान्यतास्ति यत भगवान् श्रीविष्णु: अद्यैव प्रत्येक सम्वत्सरे चातुर्मास अवधिपर्यंत योगनिद्राया पश्चात जागर्ति.  देवशयन्येकादश्या देवोत्थानेकादश्योर्मध्ये कालः चातुर्मासः उच्यते अर्थात् आषाढ़ शुक्ल पक्ष एकादशी तिथे: सम्पूर्ण श्रावण भाद्रपद आश्विन साकम् च कार्तिक मासस्य शुक्ल पक्ष एकादशी तिथि पर्यंत परिमितावधि चातुर्मास: इति कथ्यते. अस्मिन अवधि शुभकार्यादि अनुष्ठानादि च वर्जितोऽस्ति: —इति शास्त्रानि वदन्ति. शास्त्रानुसारे अस्मिन अवधि श्रीहरि: योगनिद्रायां गच्छति. देवोत्थान एकादशी तिथ्यागमन उपलक्ष्ये जना: स्वे स्वे गृहे श्रीहरि: निमित्त पूजोपवास: भजन-कीर्तनादि च कुर्वन्ति.  अद्य प्रभृति जना: विवाह उपनयनादि वा अन्यानि मांगलिक कार्यानि यात्रादि च आरंभ कर्तुम समाचरन्ति.  अद्यैव तुलसीविवाहोऽपि भक्त जना: श्रद्ध्या आचरन्ति.  अद्य गृहे प्रतिष्ठित त...

Here goes a short story--                   *** Son- Father! What do you mean by Successful life? Father(staring at his son and thinking for a while to answer it)- Come; let us go to the field to fly a kite. The two went to the nearby field and took to flying a kite. Soon the kite went higher and higher in the sky. The son rejoiced seeing the kite soaring too high in the sky. It seemed to the boy that the tension in the string connected to the spool that controlled the flying of the kite was something that was hindering the kite from gaining new altitude. Son- Father; Don't you see that it's the string that prevents the kite from going higher? Cut the thread to free it from the spool.                               The father cut the string; The kite for a while did go higher than it was a little while before but soon the kite began to fall down waywardly under the for...