Monday 19 October 2009

A Pakistani

Early July on a beautiful sunny afternoon this man hurriedly hops down the stairs of the Gloucester Road tube station to catch the 3:00 pm from Paddington to south west.

“…Has been a hectic day starting at 5:00 in the morning , missed my breakfast and then this 4 hour hard-nosed negotiations with this wretched partner …” thinks the man. I just want to be home was the thought lingering in his mind when a sudden polite voice with a thick Punjabi accent asks “does this route go to Paddington? “

The man turns around to see a 5.9 inch tall woman with a pleasant demeanour dressed in shalwar kameez holding a bottle of water and a file holder in her hand.

The man nodds and smiles. The woman looks away anxiously wiping her forehead with the back of her hand.

The man hesitantly asks “aap ghumne aayi hain?”, the woman turns around nods in the negative, the man with inquisitiveness asks “aap india se ho?” , the woman replies , “nahin Pakistan se”. The man stood there for a while waiting for the next train and curious and eager to help this nervous looking lady asks “aap nayi lagti hain, koi madat ho sake mujhse to bataeyega” she looks back over her shoulder and smiles gently.

The train arrives and she sits beside this man and both start staring at the roof of the carriage aimlessly. The train starts to gather pace and the man looks at the woman and says “umeed karta hun ke aap ko yeh jagah pasand aa rahi hai, hamare watan se thodi mukhtalif hai”.. she looks at him smiles gently and says “aap ki urdu bahut gehri hai”.. ..the man smiles and nods and realising that this woman was in some sort of problem says, “aap koi pareshani mein hon to es watan mein mukhtalif aasrein hain aap ki madat ke liye, aur fauri nataeej dila saktein hain aapko”.. she looks at this man with some assurance and says “meri shaadi karab ho gayi hai”.

Turns out this woman in her mid-twenties is an MBA graduate in marketing from Lahore and got married to a well to do man settled in the UK eight months ago. She was treated horribly and was 1.5 months pregnant. She one day decided that enough was enough and just got out of the house with a handbag and the clothes she was wearing. Now she was on her way back to one of her known’s after a trip to the Pakistani embassy.

What she had just done in a foreign land just amazed this man. The strength of character that was obvious was just captivating. When morning sickness and lethargy would sap you she had just been out of her house for 4 days and had on her own represented her case to the Embassy and convinced them to buy her a ticket to her homeland. The man thought to himself, ..”she is a citizen of a country that some of us like to hate”.. and, yet she represented the culture the manners and the will that would give most of our Indian women the run for their money.

This woman epitomised the strength of a woman in every word. The man could not but respect the strength of character. She had no fear in her eyes and a steely determination in herself to go back to her parents and bring her child up on her own, and I can promise you no one could change her stance.

The train crawls into Paddington and they both come out. She asks the man when the train would arrive and the man replies, in 15 minutes, platform number 3. She was going to get off one stop before this man. The man asks, “aap ne England mein kya kya dekha?”, the woman answers simply “Southall”, the man bursts out in laughter ..”baas”, “jee” replies the woman. “Appne London mein kuch bhi nahin dekhi” .. “jee nahin” says the woman.

The man stands next to the woman waiting for the train and wondering how to suggest that she needs to upgrade her ticket to travel in peak time as she was carrying an off-peak train ticket that would leve Paddington only after 06:15.

The man hesitantly says, “aapko Ticket upgrade karani padegi, nahin to aap ko wait karma padega , till 06:15”... “Jee?” Quips the woman. “Jee haan”…. “Kitne paise lagenge”.. aap uski parwah naa karein.. says the man realising there is no way she could shell out £50.00 extra. She absolutely refuses to let this man upgrade her ticket and the man could guess she did not have any money. Turns out this proud woman had not even had a morsel of food since the morning. The man is just taken over by the cruelty of her plight. He says, “main aapke saath rahunga, aur 06:15 ki train ekatthe pakdenge”..the woman almost in regret says, “aap meri chinta naa Karen , aap jayen , main pahunch jaaongi”. The man refuses and steadfastly stays back.

Slowly she starts to look for a place to sit as she was worn out. After, a lot of insistence the woman agrees to eat the banana that the man had not been able to eat after getting out of his meeting.

This man, standing next to her thinks “this woman has had a hell of a time in England, with absolutely no one to look after her in this foreign country and, she has not once let go off her pride and values.. this is quite a woman standing next to me”. She was from a quite a good family that was obvious by her manners and she had a steely determination in her looks. The man springs on a thought that crossed his mind …I will try to give her some good memories of England at least. The man looks at her and says “aapne Tower bridge ka naam suna hai?”, the woman says “jee, tasveeron mein bhi dekhi hai, bahut khoobsoorat hai”, “aapne hakikat mein dekhni hai?”, she was almost child-like at that thought, “jee munasib nahin hogi, wakt kaam hai”.. the man said, “aap waqt ki parwah naa karein, who aab apke liye achchi hone wali hai”… “aap bas chalein. .. agar mujhpe bharosa kar sakti hain”. She after a bit of persuasion agreed for the man to buy her the tickets and off they went.

The woman was absolutely amazed to see some of London’s most toured places and the way she was admiring them was a treat to the man’s wishes. “Atleast I could do something for this woman”…”atleast I could make her happy … for a while”. She absolutely enjoyed every moment of those 2 hours, and at the end of it sat quietly beside the Thames and looked at the man and very innocently said to the man …”aap bahut ache insaan hain…” and smiled. The man said “..aap ise ek ek Hindustani ka tohfa samjheeyega”.. she smiled and nodded.

Tuesday 29 September 2009

Why did Hiuen Tsang walk for so long

As a 5th form student I first learned about this chinese chap called Hiuen Tsang, which I still have great difficulty in spelling. The teacher said that this chappy travelled all accross ancient india for 16 years and then went back to China where he originally came from. I thought to myself , "thats a hell of a walk", why would someone walk for such a long time, ..travel tourism pat came the reply from my classmate. Now what is that and why would one want to do that ? .. I thought.
Well, when I came over to Britain to work, I got to know of a new term like so many others along with my huge culture shock... and that term was 'back-packing'. Aparently, most of the young university passouts (or could be GCSE or A levels for all I care ) do travel where-ever they can afford to on a shoe-string budget taking odd jobs on the way to sustain themselves. This idea is very popular in the west and is thought of highly, to enhance one's perception of the world around them.
Now when I understood this term in the right context I mused to myself that I have definately missed out on something crucial here, and the idea of missing out on fun-stuff is not what I take kindly to. I thought to myself the longest journey I have taken, is a train from Allahabad to Bangalore via Chennai. 3 days and 2 nights with an interchange, but I did love all the experiences I had on the way when I made it a point to stroll on every station that the train stopped, you know, just to experience the culture first hand , not to mention the urge to savour all the different types of foods on the stations to south india. I quite enjoyed it at that time, but when I heard about this back-packing stuff I felt my experience was nothing and rightly so.
During one of the cold winter months in the follwoing years I witnessed a telivision series on SKy called the Long way around by Charlie Boorman and Euwan McGregor, and what I instantly took a liking to was motorbiking as a way to travel. So, pat I got on the case and tried very hard to get a biking licence in the UK (not easy by any streach of imagination!).
TAKE1
In 2007 I made the mistake of going to India in mid-April, big mistake! my body just didn't like it and I was absolutely de-hydrated all the time.
Actually, earlier, I tried to emulate what i wanted to achieve in England , but I had the wrong bike and the wrong sense of what I wanted to achieve. I needed a camel with trainers on it. I bought a hare on adrenalin overdose , the YZZR with 210 bhp wasn't going to cut the mustard. So I thought I would trial my idea in India.
So the idea is to achieve exactly what travel tourism achieves but in a slighlty compressed timeframe. So what does travel tourism achieve? What made Hiuen Tsang march on for 16 long years?
I guess what it does is speeds up your learning process about life itself and since you are travelling the spirit is that you are very receptive and open to all that is thrown your way.

I was in the middle of this high profile technical delivery which I hadn't taken my eyes off since Jan' 2006 and pat I went just after Easter to my boss on an April morning and said... "Simon, I am off to India for 18 days starting next friday, is that alright" , he in his remarkable skeptic style says.."you tell me, whats up any emergency back home?", I said .. "kindda but nothing to do with family just gotta be there, gotta do someing quick!". He says.. , " awright make it 14 and be back then , is that awright"..I nodded came out booked my flight called mom and said I will be there next Friday, she was amazed, happy and thought to herself why is he here in the middle of summer.
When I went to india I went there with a plan to cut accross the middle of india on a suitable bike and visit the tribal areas of MP and spend as much time with these people.
Failed! I could not acieve any of my goals. Took me a week to buy the bike because of umpteen problems. .. then realised that it would take my grand tourer 7 weeks to arrive from Germany and then a couple to get it cleared from customs... so plan B. Bought a 17.8 bhp Honda Karizma, got it in 2 days and I was quite impressed by the bike when I trialed it. Although it had a 10th of the power that I was used to.
Anyways I had the bike in 2 days but fell ill and just managed to road test the bike for 3 days and clocked 350 odd KMs on it, and had to catch the flight back to England.

TAKE2

By mid Jan 2008 I had delivered the largest IT based business intelligence project of my life £118 mn project for an insurance giant and it was a big feather in my cap and our company. I was in cloud 9 and I wanted to get back to my passion, I went to Simon, and, I said I am off on a 30 day unpaid leave to India, he was bemused, but reserved his opinion and said if he needed me I must be contactable. I said yes ofcouse and packed my bags and arrived in Delhi on the 19th of January 2008 with 1 and only ambition and that was to clock as many mile as possible on my bike and go to the remotest parts of India my little sweetheart.
My mum and dad thought it was a bad idea, but I wasn't listening.
I was off for 18 days on the road solo on my bike and after 6800 Kms returned back home to Allahabad. I was enlightened beyond belief! I spent time with villagers and tribals went to places unheard of and had experiences I never thought I would have and made friends with people that I thought I would never meet!!!
I had just discovered India and what a darling she is ... I had tears in my eyes when I caughtthe plane to England.
When I came back to England I narrated the story to my friends and they thought I was a lunatic!.. they said solo on a 17.8 bhp bike in remote india for 18 days... no way!... I said yes believe me I have just been there and it is Nirvana!
TAKE3
IN early October 2008 I lost my job thanks to recession!.. i kept looking, but to no avail , after trying for 2 months I headed off to india in mid december and as luck would have it just 2 days before I was scheduled to leave I got a call from my agent that I had been selected for the role of head of strategy for a very large consultancy project to start in January. I said I was away for 50 days in India and I can't possibly change my arrangement ( a bit barmy you would think after 2 months of unemployment).
Anyways, I convindced them and they were very understanding to wait till early Feb. So off I went to India on a 50 day mission to go wherever I wanted for the next 2 months or so. I spent the Christmas and New year with my family so that they couldn't complain and then off I went on a cold and foggy morning at 6:15 am on 2nd of January 2009 and came back after 32 days and 9450 KMs later into Allahabad. It was just awsome experience of my nation's ancient culture and true indians. the villagers and tribals of my beloved motherland. It was a lesson I will never forget. AND that lesson is to be stuck into your roots and knowing who we realy are, what does it mean to be a bhartiya.
To sum it is an easy one in Bangla , "Ei desh ti, taeg er desh, bhog er naa" (.."This is a nation that embodies sacrifice and not a nation that embodies mindless consumption"), thats why the colour of this nation also has Saffron, which signifies sacrifice and not hindutva. These were the exact thoughts that crossed my mind when I had my first drag of cigarette standing in civil lines on that beautiful winter afternoon of 4th February 2009 celebrating the completion of my journey.

Take4
The next on the card is a solo to Kanyakumari from Allahabad along the costal from daman and diu via mumbai to KKR.
I am waiting for the right time.

I intend to write a seperate blog about thet houghts, the people and the conversations I had during my earlier visits.

Monday 28 September 2009

My little piece of paradise

You know, I find extraordinary piece in flowers, I can't explain it but they just attract me and enthuse me like no other things I guess.
As a young boy of 5 I got my first introduction to planting things in my maternal gardpa's garden in Lucknow over my summer holidays. I still remember quite vividly the first groundnut seed I planted and how every morning I would check the progress of the seed by digging a hole in the ground with my little fingers, and peeping in with a torch. I tell you what, the old man wasn't impressed to say the least.
fast track to 28 years later I rediscovered my affinity to plants, and flowers were the first thing to cross my mind. I decided in 2005 to move away from the suburbs of west London to somewhere more greener and less hectic. I found this property on a hill with a nice patch of land covered mostly with a lush green lawn with in an instant I started planning to get some colours into it. Its taken me 4 years to fully realise my dream to supplement this lovely county side house that I live in with 2 apple trees and 1 cheery tree with some flowers.
The results can be viewed here:

Http://www.flickr.com/photos/amitabh25

Hope the give you the same joy that they give me.

What, Super – Power?

As an Indian, I have become a little concerned about the proliferation of those who speak of India as a future ‘world leader’ or even as ‘the next superpower.’

The notion of ‘world leadership’ is a curiously archaic one. What makes a country a world leader? Is it population, in which case India is on course to top the charts, overtaking China as the world’s most populous country by 2034? Is it military strength (India’s is already the world’s fourth-largest army) or nuclear capacity or is it economic development? There, India has made extraordinary strides in recent years; it is already the world’s fifth-largest economy in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, and continues to climb, though too many of our people still live destitute, amidst despair and disrepair. Or could it be a combination of all these, allied to something altogether more difficult to define – the ‘soft power’ of its culture?

Much of the conventional analysis of India’s stature in the world relies on the all-too-familiar economic assumptions. But we are famously a land of paradoxes, and one of those paradoxes is that so many speak about India as a great power of the 21st century when we are not yet able to feed, educate and employ all our people. So it is not economic growth, military strength or population numbers that I would underscore when I think of India’s potential leadership role in the world of the 21st century. Rather, if there is one attribute of independent India to which I think increasing attention should now be paid around the globe, it is the quality which India is already displaying in ample measure today – its ‘soft power.’

The notion of soft power is relatively new in international discourse. The term was coined by Harvard’s Joseph Nye to describe the extraordinary strengths of the US that went well beyond American military dominance. Nye argued that “power is the ability to alter the behaviour of others to get what you want, and there are three ways to do that: coercion (sticks), payments (carrots) and attraction (soft power). If you are able to attract others, you can economize on the sticks and carrots.” Traditionally, power in world politics was seen in terms of military power: the side with the larger army was likely to win. But even in the past, this was not enough: after all, the US lost the Vietnam War, the Soviet Union was defeated in Afghanistan, and the US discovered in its first few years in Iraq the wisdom of Talleyrand’s adage that the one thing you cannot do with a bayonet is to sit on it. Enter soft power – both as an alternative to hard power, and as a complement to it. To quote Nye again: “the soft power of a country rests primarily on three resources: its culture (in places where it is attractive to others), its political values (when it lives up to them at home and abroad), and its foreign policies (when they are seen as legitimate and having moral authority).”

I would go slightly beyond this: a country’s soft power, to me, emerges from the world’s perceptions of what that country is all about. The associations and attitudes conjured up in the global imagination by the mere mention of a country’s name is often a more accurate gauge of its soft power than a dispassionate analysis of its foreign policies. In my view, hard power is exercised; soft power is evoked.

What does this mean for India? It means acknowledging that India’s claims to a significant leadership role in the world of the 21st century lie in the aspects and products of Indian society and culture that the world finds attractive. These assets may not directly persuade others to support India, but they go a long way toward enhancing India’s intangible standing in the world’s eyes.

The roots of India’s soft power run deep. India’s is a civilization that, over millennia, has offered refuge and, more importantly, religious and cultural freedom, to Jews, Parsis, several varieties of Christians, and Muslims. Jews came to the southwestern Indian coast centuries before Christ, with the destruction by the Babylonians of their First Temple, and they knew no persecution on Indian soil until the Portuguese arrived in the 16th century to inflict it. Christianity arrived on Indian soil with St. Thomas the Apostle (‘Doubting Thomas’), who came to the Malabar coast some time before 52 A.D. and was welcomed on shore, or so oral legend has it, by a flute-playing Jewish girl. He made many converts, so there are Indians today whose ancestors were Christian well before any Europeans discovered Christianity. In Kerala, where Islam came through traders, travellers and missionaries, rather than by the sword, the Zamorin of Calicut was so impressed by the seafaring skills of this community that he issued a decree obliging each fisherman’s family to bring up one son as a Muslim to man his all-Muslim navy! The India where the wail of the Muslim muezzin routinely blends with the chant of mantras at the Hindu temple, and where the tinkling of church bells accompanies the Sikh gurudwara’s reading of verses from the Guru Granth Sahib, is an India that fully embraces the world. Indeed, the British historian E.P. Thompson wrote that this heritage of diversity is what makes India “perhaps the most important country for the future of the world. All the convergent influences of the world run through this society…. There is not a thought that is being thought in the West or East that is not active in some Indian mind.”

That Indian mind has been shaped by remarkably diverse forces: ancient Hindu tradition, myth and scripture; the impact of Islam and Christianity; and two centuries of British colonial rule. The result is unique. Though there are some who think and speak of India as a Hindu country, Indian civilization today is an evolved hybrid. We cannot speak of Indian culture today without qawwali, the poetry of Ghalib, or for that matter the game of cricket, our de facto national sport. When an Indian dons ‘national dress’ for a formal event, he wears a variant of the sherwani, which did not exist before the Muslim invasions of India. When Indian Hindus voted recently in the cynical and contrived competition to select the ‘new seven wonders’ of the modern world, they voted for the Taj Mahal constructed by a Mughal king, not for Angkor Wat, the most magnificent architectural product of their religion. In the breadth (and not just the depth) of its cultural heritage lies some of India’s soft power.

One of the few generalizations that can safely be made about India is that nothing can be taken for granted about the country. Not even its name: for the word India comes from the river Indus, which flows in Pakistan. (That anomaly is easily explained, of course, since what is today Pakistan was hacked off the stooped shoulders of India by the departing British in 1947). Indian nationalism is therefore a rare phenomenon indeed. It is not based on language (since our Constitution recognizes 23, and there are 35, according to the ethnolinguists, that are spoken by more than a million people each – not to mention 22,000 distinct dialects). It is not based on geography (the ‘natural’ geography of the subcontinent – framed by the mountains and the sea – was hacked by the partition of 1947). It is not based on ethnicity (the ‘Indian’ accommodates a diversity of racial types, and many Indians have more in common ethnically with foreigners than with other Indians: Indian Punjabis and Bengalis, for instance, are ethnically kin to Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, respectively, with whom they have more in common than with Poonawalas or Bangaloreans). And it is not based on religion (we are home to every faith known to mankind, with the possible exception of Shintoism, and Hinduism – a faith without a national organization, no established church or ecclesiastical hierarchy, no Hindu Pope, no Hindu Mecca, no single scared book, no uniform beliefs or modes of worship, not even a Hindu Sunday – exemplifies as much our diversity as it does our common cultural heritage). Indian nationalism is the nationalism of an idea, the idea of an ever-ever land – emerging from an ancient civilization, united by a shared history, sustained by pluralist democracy. Pluralism is a reality that emerges from the very nature of the country; it is a choice made inevitable by India’s geography and reaffirmed by its history.

We are a land of rich diversities: I have observed in the past that we are all minorities in India. This land imposes no narrow conformities on its citizens: you can be many things and one thing. You can be a good Muslim, Hindu, a good UP wala and a good Indian all at once. So the idea of India is of one land embracing many. It is the idea that a nation may endure differences of caste, creed, colour, culture, cuisine, conviction, costume and custom, and still rally around a democratic consensus. That consensus is around the simple principle that, in a democracy, you do not really need to agree – except on the ground rules of how you will disagree. Part of the reason for India being respected in the world is that it has survived all the stresses and strains that have beset it – and that led so many to predict its imminent disintegration – by maintaining consensus on how to manage without consensus.

In the information age, Joseph Nye has argued, it is often the side which has the better story that wins. India must remain the ‘land of the better story.’ As a society with a free press and a thriving mass media, with a people whose creative energies are daily encouraged to express themselves in a variety of appealing ways, India has an extraordinary ability to tell stories that are more persuasive and attractive than those of its rivals. This is not about propaganda; indeed, it will not work if it is directed from above, least of all by government. But its impact, though intangible, can be huge.

For soft power is not just what we can deliberately and consciously exhibit or put on display; it is rather how others see what we are, whether or not we are trying to show it to the world.

So it is not just material accomplishments that enhance India’s soft power. Even more important are the values and principles for which India stands. After all, Mahatma Gandhi won India its independence through the use of soft power – because non-violence and satyagraha were indeed classic uses of soft power before the term was even coined.

counter the terrorist threat, there is no substitute for hard power. Hard power without soft power stirs up resentments and enmities; soft power without hard power is a confession of weakness. Where soft power works is in attracting enough goodwill from ordinary people to reduce the sources of support and succour that the terrorists enjoy, and without which they cannot function.

But every time there are reports of sectarian violence or a pogrom, like the savagery in Gujarat in 2002, or a nativist attack like those by a fringe group in February on women drinking at a pub in Mangalore, India suffers a huge setback to our soft power. Soft power will not come from a narrow or restricted version of Indianness, confined to the sectarian prejudices of some of the self-appointed guardians of Indian culture (‘Bharatiya Sanskriti’). It must instead proudly reflect the multi-religious identities of our people, our linguistic diversity and the myriad manifestations of our creative energies. India must maintain its true heritage in the eyes of the world.

And that will mean acknowledging that the central battle in contemporary Indian culture is that between those who, to borrow Walt Whitman’s phrase, acknowledge that we are vast – we contain multitudes – and those who have presumptuously taken it upon themselves to define (in increasingly narrow terms) what is ‘truly’ Indian. Pluralist India must, by definition, tolerate plural expressions of its many identities. To allow any self-appointed arbiters of Indian culture to impose their hypocrisy and double standards on the rest of us is to permit them to define Indianness down until it ceases to be Indian. To wield soft power, India must defend, assert and promote its culture of openness against the forces of intolerance and bigotry inside and outside the country

India’s civilizational ethos has been an immeasurable asset for our country. It is essential that India not allow the spectre of religious intolerance and political opportunism to undermine the soft power which is its greatest asset in the world of the 21st century. Maintain that, and true leadership in our globalizing world – the kind that has to do with principles, values and standards – will follow.

Tuesday 4 August 2009

What a love story

There is this man who watched “Life is beautiful” and cried profusely and trying vehemently not to be heard in the New Delhi auditorium with a dear friend who thought this man was a very tough guy with a demeanor to match this impression.

While sat in a dark rainy night in July perched by the window sill with a profusely emotional memory he thought why he cried so much and so hard …no answers, “as if someone had died he might have thought at that time , someone dearly close…snatched away with such brutality ..” no , no, many years later in London comes the inner voice, “he actually experienced true love”, such pure emotions move you, such tender emotions survive even the nadir.

That’s why they say I guess, Love is god, because it is so bold yet so tender, can be tested by anybody but never leaves the two in love I guess.

Guy meets a girl in the most unusual of circumstances thinks nothing of the girls dilated pupils at he first sight and shrugged it off , thinking “ it was what it was but it couldn’t be what I thought”, or oh really who are you trying to kid. The charm and the grace just washes over the existence of this man and the heart just gives way to be completely devoured by that kind heart and that most softest voice, as reassuring and as comforting as his mother.

What follows just flows like a poetry, the girl just melts in his arms when sat under a tree in pragati maidan or the old fort garden, and boy just gets his heaven more than once in a day , what a fortunate creature, so dear was this to both that they would travel distances to see the slightest glimpse of each other.
What can a man give to a woman; true love and what can a woman give to a man, just unmatched love. This was just so good that neither wanted it to end but it was to end. As true and pure just isn’t available to us mortals any more in these times of pure physical relations. They use to be though, when a certain Shahjahan actually must have experienced it the similar way and got to keep experiencing it for 14 years and lost it as a sudden torrent swept thru, but I guess that’s why he built the Taj Mahal, just to remember what his beloved was to him, the physical manifestation of his love, but there could only be one Taj, what does this man do? , I guess be like the Taj.

What happened that night was to remember etched in the memory till after 10 years. The train was due to depart at 21:30 hours, the coach was S2 where the light of this man’s life was sat to leave his life and enter a new life. A heart but, wanted to say a final goodbye to his sweetheart, in the most wonderful way. Had a chocolate tucked in his front pocket rushed thru the entire length of the train till he reached the front as he didn’t know which compartment she was in and only 2 mins left to departure? Boy leaps in but can’t stay there as people who knew her may suspect something, so he wanders off to the far end of the compartment to evade suspicion, and just when the train is about to depart leaps out by saying “bye..” , forgot to give her the chocolate that she loved so much. The meaning of his existence gone in a second, someone so dear will never be seen again, what does now life has for me, thinks the man.

What an end eeh…. Or what a love story. Love just doesn’t end it makes you blossom like a flower.

A forgotten tiger

“Dadu, dadu ekti golpo shonau” (Gradpa please tell me a story), the little boy would insist on a breezy summer night, and dadu would say, “aage aakashe joto tara ache gune bolo, taar pore golpo shonabo” (first, count the number of stars in the sky and tell me and then I would tell you a story.). The boy uninhibited by the challenge would start counting the stars and after 100 would stop as he couldn’t count beyond. This happened every time a request for a story was hurled towards dadu.
One day dadu was moved by this little boys unshakable faith that he could count all the stars in the sky, and said in a heavy voice, ajge ekti bagher golpo shono (today I will tell you a story about a tiger). The boy would leave his pillow and lie beside his dadu on his arms in anticipation of a captivating tale. Dadu’s story about “ram aar lokhon” (Ram and Lakshman) were blockbuster hits with the little boy and the story about “Korno” (Karna) use to make the little boy feel sorry about the epic Mahabharta character. But, today was different, the breeze suddenly stood still the stars glimmered brighter against the night sky as the whole universe wanted to hear the saga of this tiger.
Dadu starts with a shivering voice almost overtaken by pride, “Bagha Joteen holo ekti beer purush er naam” (Bagha Joteen is the name of a brave man).

So who was Bagha Joteen?

He was a revolutionary philosopher. He was the principal leader of the yugantar party that was the central association of revolutionaries in Bengal. Having personally met the German Crown-Prince in Calcutta shortly before the World War I, he obtained the promise of arms and ammunition from Germany; as such, he was responsible for the planned German plot during world war 1. Another of his contributions was the indoctrination of the Indian soldiers in various regiments in favor of an insurrection.
Jatin once learned about the disturbing presence of a leopard in the vicinity; while in the nearby jungle, he came across a Royal Bengal tiger and fought hand-to-hand with it. Mortally wounded, he managed to plunge a Darjeeling dagger in the tiger's neck, killing it instantly. The famous surgeon of Calcutta, Lt-Colonel Suresh Sarbadhikari, "took upon himself the responsibility for curing the fatally wounded patient whose whole body had been poisoned by the tiger's nails." Impressed by Jatin's exemplary heroism, Dr Sarbadhikari published an article about Jatin in the English press. The Government of Bengal awarded him a silver shield with the scene of him killing the tiger engraved on it.
And hence the name “bagha”.

In 1905, during a procession to celebrate the visit of the Prince of Wales at Calcutta, Jatin decides to draw the attention of the future Emperor on the behavior of HM’s English officers. Not far from the royal coach, he singles out a cabriolet on a side-lane, with a group of English military men sitting on its roof, their booted legs dangling against the windows, seriously disturbing the livid faces of a few native ladies. Stopping beside the cab, Jatin asks the fellows to leave the ladies alone. In response to their cheeky provocation, Jatin rushes up to the roof and fells them with pure Bengali slaps till they drop on the ground. The show is not innocent. Jatin is well aware that John Morley, the Secretary of State, receives regularly complaints about the English attitude towards Indian citizens, "The use of rough language and pretty free use of whips and sticks, and brutalities of that sort…" He will be further intimated that the Prince of Wales, "on his return from the Indian tour had a long conversation with Morley. He spoke of the ungracious bearing of Europeans to Indians.
In April 1908, in Siliguri railway station, Jatin got involved in a fight with a group of English military officers headed by Captain Murphy and Lt Somerville, leading to legal proceedings, widely covered by the press. On observing the gleeful animosity created by the news of a few Englishmen thrashed single-handed by an Indian, Wheeler advised the officers to withdraw the case. Warned by the Magistrate to behave properly in the future, Jatin regretted that he would not refrain from taking similar action in self-defense or in the vindication of the rights of his countrymen. One day, in a pleasant mood, Wheeler asked Jatin : "With how many can you fight all alone ?" The prompt reply was : "Not a single one, if it is a question of honest people; otherwise, as many as you can imagine!"
In 1908 Jatin was not one of over thirty revolutionaries accused in the Alipore bomb case following the incident at Muzzafarpur. Hence, during the Alipore trial, Jatin took over the leadership of the secret society to be known as the jugantar Party, and revitalizes the links between the central organization in Calcutta and its several branches spread all over Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and several places in U.P. Through Justice Sarada Charan Mitra, Jatin leases from Sir Daniel Hamilton lands in the Sundarbans to shelter revolutionaries not yet arrested. They are engaged in night schools for adults, homeopathic dispensaries, workshops to encourage small scale cottage industries, experiments in agriculture. Since 1906, with the help of Sir Daniel, Jatin had been sending meritorious students abroad for higher studies as well as for learning military craft.
Shortly after when World War I broke out, in September 1914, an International Pro-India Committee was formed at Zurich. Very soon it merges into a bigger body, to form the Berlin committee , or the Indian Independence Party, led by V. Chattopadhaya alias Chatto : it gained the support of the German government and had as members prominent Indian revolutionaries abroad, including leaders of the Ghadar paty. Militants of the Gadhar party started leaving for India, to join the proposed uprising inside India during World War I, with the help of arms, ammunition, and funds promised by the German government. Advised by Berlin, Ambassador Bernstorff in Washington arranged with Von Papen, his Military attaché, to send cargo consignments from California to the coast of the Bay of Bengal, via Far East.
These efforts were directly connected with the Jugantar, under Jatin's leadership, in its planning and organizing an armed revolt. Rasbehari Bose assumed the task of carrying out the plan in Uttar Pradesh and the Punjab. This international chain work conceived by Jatin came to be known as the German Plot, the Indo-German Conspiracy , or the Zimmermann Plan. Jugantar started to collect funds by organising a series of dacoities (armed robberies) known as "Taxicab dacoities" and "Boat dacoities". Charles Tegart, in his "Report No. V" on the seditious organizations mentions the "certain amount of success" in the contact that exists between the revolutionaries and the Sikh soldiers posted at Dakshineshwar gunpowder magazine; Jatin Mukherjee in company of Satyendra Sen was seen interviewing these Sikhs. Sen "is the man who came to India with Pingle. Their mission was specially to tamper with the troops. Pingle was captured in the Punjab with bombs and was hanged, while Satyen was interned under Regulation III in the Presidency Jail." [37] With Jatin's written instructions, Pingle and Kartar Sing Sarabha met Rasbehari in North India.[38]
Preoccupied by the increasing police activities to prevent any uprising, eminent Jugantar members suggested that Jatin should move to a safer place. Balasore on the Orissa coast was selected as a suitable place, being very near the spot where German arms are to be landed for the Indian rising. To facilitate transmission of information to Jatin, a business house under the name "Universal Emporium" was set up, as a branch of Harry & Sons in Calcutta, which had been created for keeping contacts with revolutionaries abroad. Jatin therefore moved to a hideout outside Kaptipada village in the native state of Mayurbhanj , more than thirty miles away from Balasore.
On reaching Orissa, in April, 1915, Jatin sent one of his close associates, Naren Bhattacharya (future M.N. Roy) to Batavia, following instructions from Chatto, in order to make a deal with the German authorities concerning financial aid and the supply of arms. Through the German Consul, Naren met Theodore, brother of Karl Helfferich, who assured him that a cargo of arms and ammunition was already on its way, "to assist the Indians in a revolution."
The plot leaked out through Czech revolutionaries who were in touch with their counterparts in the United States. In the beginning of World War I, in 1915, Emanuel Viktor Voska organised the minority of Czech patriots in USA into a network of counter-espionage, putting up to date the spying activity of the German and Austrian diplomats against USA and the allied powers. (He described these events later in his book Spy and Counter-Spy.) American publicist of Czech origin Ross Hedvíček claims that had E. V. Voska not interfered in this history, today nobody would have heard about Mahatma Gandhi and the father of the Indian nation would have been Bagha Jatin. B. Jatin wanted to free India from the British hold but he had the idea of allying against them with the Germans from whom he expected to receive arms and other helps. Voska learnt it through his network and, as pro-American, pro-British and anti-German, he spoke of it to T. G. Masaryk. This latter rushed to keep the institutions informed about it. Thus, Voska transmitted it to Masaryk, Masaryk to the Americans, the Americans to the British. T. G. Masaryk mentions all these facts in the English version of the Making of a State.
As soon as the information reached the British authorities, they alerted the police, particularly in the delta region of the Ganges and sealed off all the sea approaches on the eastern coast from the Noakhali –Chittagong side to Orissa. Harry & Sons was raided and searched, and the police found a clue which led them to Kaptipada village, where Jatin was staying with Manoranjan Sengupta and Chittapriya Ray Chaudhuri; a unit of the Police Intelligence Department was dispatched to Balasore. Jatin was kept informed and was requested to leave his hiding place, but his insistence on taking Niren and Jatish with him delayed his departure by a few hours, by which time a large force of police, headed by top European officers from Calcutta and Balasore, reinforced by the army unit from Chandbali in Mayurbhanj State, had reached the neighbourhood. Jatin and his companions walked through the forests and hills of Mayurbhanj, and after two days reached Balasore Railway Station.
The police had announced a reward for the capture of five fleeing "bandits", so the local villagers were also in pursuit. With occasional skirmishes, the revolutionaries, running through jungles and marshy land in torrential rain, finally took up position on 9 September 1915 in an improvised trench in undergrowth on a hillock at Chashakhand in Balasore. Chittapriya and his companions asked Jatin to leave and go to safety while they guarded the rear. Jatin, however refused to leave them.
The contingent of Government forces approached them in a pincers movement. A gunfight ensued, lasting seventy-five minutes, between the five revolutionaries armed with Mauser pistols and a large number of police and army armed with modern rifles. It ended with an unrecorded number of casualties on the Government side; on the revolutionary side, Chittapriya Ray Chaudhuri died, Jatin and Jatish were seriously wounded, and Manoranjan Sengupta and Niren were captured after their ammunition ran out. Bagha Jatin died in Balasore hospital on 10 September 1915.And, observes Ross Hedvíček[41] in the article already mentioned : "India had to wait for another thirty years to have her democracy... Mahatma Gandhi was as yet in South Africa." During a conversation with Charles Tegart on 25 June 1925, Gandhiji qualified Jatin Mukherjee as "a divine man." And the author of the article (son of an officer in the Special Police created by Tegart)adds that Gandhiji did not know what Tegart told his colleagues : "Had Jatin Mukherjee been an Englishman, the English would have erected his statue at Trafalgar Square, by the side of Nelson's." .
Inspired by Swami Vivekananda, Jatin expressed his ideals in simple words: "Amra morbo, jat jagbe" — "We shall die to awaken the nation". It is corroborated in the tribute paid to Jatin by Charles Tegart the Intelligence Chief and Police Commissioner of Bengal : "Though I had to do my duty, I have a great admiration for him. He died in an open fight." Later in life, Tegart admitted : "Their driving power immense: if the army could be raised or the arms could reach an Indian port, the British would lose the War". Professor Tripathi analysed the added dimensions revealed by the Howrah Case proceedings: acquire arms locally and abroad; raise a guerrilla; create a rising with Indian soldiers; Jatin Mukherjee's action helped improve (especially economically) the people's status. "He had indeed an ambitious dream."
So dadu finishes the story with an almighty glare in his eyes as a witness to India’s independence struggle suddenly freshened up in his memory. With a steely voice he asks the kid “Kee bujhle dadubhai” (What do you make of it my little one), and the little boy remarks, “aami o bodo hoe baghar motto hobo” (When I grow up, I will like to be like Bagha Jatin), little did the kid realise, that when he grows up he will be working in the country of the British with and the same people who ruled his beloved motherland for 250 years. But little boy did remember the spirit and the story of bagha ….a forgotten Tiger!!

Tuesday 2 June 2009

The river of time





Introduction
What lies at the core of the ‘Time River Theory’ is more than just a theory, but a factual ‘smoking gun’ capable of utterly decimating what is being passed off as ‘reality’ today. The Time River Theory is undoubtedly an ‘extraordinary claim’. But it is one that is supported by ‘extraordinary evidence’. Indeed, it is this author’s position that the discovery of the Time Rivers heralds the last tick of the ‘time bomb’ that ends the illusion of the ‘Matrix’, so to speak. The new reality lets us discern who we really are, where we came from, and where we are going.
The Time River Theory primarily involves two ancient river systems: the Nile in Africa and the Tigris-Euphrates in the land of Mesopotamia. By the end of this paper, the reader will come to understand the explosive implication of the strange configuration depicted in the image right – that our planet’s major rivers have been intelligently designed. It would represent the closest thing mankind has seen to the ‘fingerprints of the gods’.
The strength of the theory lies in the fact that its basic claim can be presented concisely and understood by the average people without much difficulty. It is the unusual combination of clarity and seeming impossibility that makes this ‘extraordinary claim’ extraordinarily plausible, if not undeniable. It would ultimately come down to the question: ‘Do you believe your own eyes or not?’
It is of course ridiculous to think that major rivers such as the Nile are intelligently created ‘monuments’ bearing encoded messages. But that is exactly what is logically demanded by the body of evidence presented in this paper.
The Nile or denial – that may already be the real issue.
Having expressed the level of confidence, the author would like to sincerely encourage all to critically examine the following discussion, designed to present a key portion of the Time River Theory.
Hints of Intelligent Design




Shown below is an overview map of the Nile in Africa, the world’s longest river. This is the ancient river that gave rise to the mysterious ancient Egyptian civilization thousands of years ago.
And here are the initial clues hinting at the existence of intelligence behind the river’s layout:

The Nile is distinctively vertical (longitudinal), and it is the only notable river on this planet to flow directly northward.
The Nile begins at the equator and disintegrates precisely at 30°N latitude, marked by Egypt’s capital Cairo and Giza, the home of the great pyramids and the Sphinx.[i][1]
The generally straight Nile makes a dramatic turn southward near the halfway point. The northern peak of this remarkable bend – sometimes referred to as the ‘Great Bend’ – pinpoints latitude 19.5°N.
The significance of #3 comes from the fact that 19.5° is considered a ‘tetrahedral constant’, deriving from the geometric configuration of a circumscribed tetrahedron shown below.
In terms of the ‘hyperdimensional physics’ model promoted by researcher Richard Hoagland, well known for his investigation into the ‘monuments of Mars’, the angle even represents an inter-dimensional ‘gateway’ of some sort. This notion is echoed by the great pyramids at Giza - a place traditionally signifying a 'gateway' (Rostau) - in that their layout prominently produces this very angle.
The fact that the longitude pinpointed by the same Bend’s peak is 33.0°E intensifies our curiosity as ‘33’ too happens to be a key number detected by Hoagland’s team (The Enterprise Mission).
Indeed, 19.5 and 33 are said to be the two ‘ritual numbers’ repeatedly encoded into various aspects of NASA space missions.
In 1997, for example, the Pathfinder space probe landed on Mars at almost exactly 19.5°N. 33°W. That this was no coincidence is evidenced by the fact that: 1) the lander dropped on the ‘tetrahedral latitude’ was tetrahedral in shape; and 2) at the moment of touchdown, Earth was positioned 19.5° above the eastern Martian horizon as seen from the landing site.
As Mike Bara, Hoagland’s right-hand man at the Enterprise Mission, wrote:
Pathfinder’s unique tetrahedral spacecraft design geometry, coupled with the totally “recursive” tetrahedral geometry of the landing site itself, was obviously intended by NASA “ritualists” behind the scenes to celebrate – on their first return to Mars in over twenty years – the two key Hyperdimensional numbers underlying all the NASA rituals – “19.5” and “33.”[ii][2]
Whether or not NASA intentionally conducts such ‘rituals’ is still a contentious issue, of course. But the coincidence of the two numbers is difficult to ignore. Where there is smoke, as they say, there is usually fire.
So how should we interpret these geographical hints provided by the Nile? Are we to believe that the Nile is a 'monument' carrying some sort of message?
While admittedly a wild speculation, this is certainly not the first time such an idea has been put forward. There is, for example, researcher Livio Catullo Stecchini, whose view is presented in Peter Tompkin’s Secrets of the Great Pyramid:
The Egyptians were proud that their country had some unique geographic features which could be expressed in rigorous geometric terms and had a shape which related to the order of the cosmos as they saw it. They believed that when the gods created the cosmos they began by building Egypt and, having created it perfect, modeled the rest around it. …[The] Egyptians put great stress also on the geographic peculiarities of the course of the Nile.[iii][3]
So the question is: Are these Nilotic ‘peculiarities’ a result of some deliberate design? Did the ‘gods’ literally construct the Nile and encode into its layout their cosmic knowledge?
Throughout history much has been said about ancient monuments - such as those at Giza (the pyramids and Sphinx) - bearing very advanced knowledge surpassing all that came afterward. It is of course a controversial view that many find uncomfortable. But it pales in comparison to the much crazier possibility emerging here... that the world’s longest river, clearly visible from space, may be a gigantic ‘monument’!
A Literal ‘River of Time’?
Suspending our disbelief for a moment, let us ponder just what the encoded ‘cosmic knowledge’ may be. What kind of information could be so important as to be transmitted this way?
This question leads us to the next clue.
As noted earlier, the latitudinal length of the Nile is almost exactly 30 degrees. The number ‘30’ happens to be closely attached to the notion of time:
Saturn, traditionally considered the god/planet of time, has an orbital period of ~30 years.[iv][4]
One month – the Moon’s orbit around Earth – is approximately 30 days. (In ancient Egypt, each month was exactly 30 days.)
The apparent path of the sun in the sky (the ecliptic) is traditionally divided into twelve zodiacal ‘signs’ (Pisces, Aires, Taurus, etc.), 30 degrees each, corresponding to the sun’s movement in two hours. (The Babylonians, the Chinese, etc. actually divided the day into not 24 but 12 equal parts, and so one subdivision of the day corresponded to 30 degrees [i.e. 360/12=30].)
The seb festival of the ancient Egyptians, commemorating the symbolic death/renewal of the king, was held in the 30th year of the reign.[v][5]
So the implication here is that the Nile is to be viewed as a ‘river of time’. This is poetically appealing at least. After all, it is often said that ‘a river is like the flow of time’.[vi][6]

The above interpretation is reinforced by certain information transmitted by [vii]Plutarch, a renowned Greek writer and biographer from around AD 100. It concerns Saturn, the god of time, who was called ‘Cronus’ in Greek (related to the term ‘Chronos’ meaning ‘time’[viii][7][ix]):
There is also a religious lament sung over Cronus. The lament is for him that is born in the regions of the left, and suffers dissolution in the regions on the right; for the Egyptians believe that the eastern regions are the face of the world, the northern the right, and the southern to the left. The Nile, therefore, which runs from the south and is swallowed up by the sea in the north, is naturally said to have its birth on the left and its dissolution on the right.[x][8]
Not only does Plutarch reveal here that Cronus/time arises in the south and ends in the north just like the Nile, he even goes on to draw a direct parallel between Cronus/time and the Nile! This is almost an open and direct acknowledgement that the Nile may indeed represent the flow of time.
God of Time, God of the Nile
Another telling clue is found in the fact that various mythological gods associated with time are also often associated with the Nile. For instance:
Cronus-Saturn’s otherworldly domain called Ogygia is applicable to the Nile since the river was similarly called ‘Ogygian’ by the ancient Greek writer Aeschylus.[xi][9]
The Moon, associated with the ‘temporal number’ 30 via its orbital period (30 days), is traditionally identified with the Egyptian god of wisdom called Thoth. Not only was Thoth considered the measurer of time, he was also represented by the ibis, an animal closely associated with the Nile.[xii][10]
More striking is Osiris, the most revered and complex deity in ancient Egypt, popularly described as the god of the dead.
Osiris is quite simply the ‘god of the Nile’. This can be established through his traditional identification with Apis and Hapi, both considered to embody the Nile. Osiris was also known as Serapis, a name deriving from Ausar-Hapi, meaning ‘Osiris of the Nile’. We also have Herodotus’ well-known statement: ‘the Nile is the gift of Osiris, but Egypt is the gift of the Nile’.
And we find that Osiris, the god of the Nile, is also a god of time not unlike Saturn. Osiris was identified with the phoenix, the mythical fire-bird of cyclical rebirth and the patron of all time division.[xiii][11] In the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead is found the statement: ‘I am Time and Osiris’.[xiv][12] And in ancient India the name given to Orion (the celestial form of Osiris) was Kal-Purush, or ‘Time Man’.[xv][13]
To all intents and purposes, Osiris is the Egyptian version of Cronus-Saturn, the god of time.[xvi][14] In confirmation of this, historical epithets of Orion (= Osiris) include ‘Saturnus’ – i.e. Saturn.[xvii][15]
[xviii]So, at least mythologically, the Nile-time connection is well supported.










Giza Producing ‘Anchor Dates’
If the Nile really is a literal river of time – a ‘Time River’ – then the possibility must be considered that there is a tangible timeline encoded into its design. And it can be reasonably assumed that the river’s beginning point at the equator represents the earliest point on the timeline, and Giza/Cairo at the edge (30°N) the ‘end of time’. (See Appendix 1 for discussion on the beginning latitude of the Nile.)
The most sensible time-encoding system here would be one based on latitude, where a linear, northward-moving timeline is superimpose on the Nile.
To derive a timeline in this system, it is necessary to first have at least two ‘anchor points’, or 'anchor dates', placed upon the Nile. The rest would be just a matter of simple calculation. (The distance between the two anchor points will have the function of a base unit for the timeline.) But there needs to be a good rationale for selecting these points/dates.
For this, we turn to the Giza monuments, evidently an integral part of the Nile scheme (marking the river’s northern edge). Giza, through its astronomical alignments, manages to give us just what we need to turn the ancient river into a tangible map of time.
The key here is Robert Bauval’s popular ‘Orion Correlation Theory’ (or more broadly the ‘Star Correlation Theory’) which traces the Giza layout back to the stars. The basic idea is quite simple. The theory essentially says that the arrangement of the three great pyramids standing there closely emulates that of the three Belt Stars of Orion, the heavenly Osiris.
Bauval demonstrates this first by noting that the smallest pyramid is slightly offset from the diagonal line made by the other two pyramids. He then compares this to a similar offset seen in the Orion Belt Stars, with the dimmest star congruently corresponding to the smallest pyramid.
This sky-ground correspondence is supported by a passage from the ancient Egyptian ‘Pyramid Texts’ which makes it plain that the pyramid and Osiris-Orion are closely linked:
O Horus, this King is Osiris [= Orion], this pyramid of the King is Osiris, this construction of his is Osiris; betake yourself to it, do not be far from it in its name of ‘Pyramid’…[xix][16]
Next, based on this initial ‘as above, so below’ connection, Bauval points out that there was an extraordinary set of alignments around 10,500 BC:
Around 10,500 BC:
Orion reached its lowest point at the meridian in its 26,000-year precessional cycle. (Precession slowly shifts Orion and other stars up and down the meridian, the imaginary north-south line drawn in the sky where the stars achieve their highest daily altitudes.)
On the vernal equinox, the Great Sphinx, directly facing east, witnessed the rising of its two celestial counterparts – the sun and Leo.
At the moment of equinoctial sunrise (c. 10,500 BC):
Orion was positioned right at the meridian.
In the southern sky, the Milky Way was seen roughly vertical and positioned in such a way that it appeared to be an extension of the Nile. Orion was situated just to the right of the celestial river – closely mimicking the configuration of the Giza pyramids and the Nile.
It is reasonable to conclude that the builders of the Giza monuments intended to commemorate the extremely ancient epoch of 10,500 BC.
We can refine the date by taking a closer look at Point #1, i.e. Orion’s lowest transit point (‘southern culmination’). It occurred more exactly c. 10,600 BC. This, then, is our first ‘anchor date’.
As for the second ‘anchor date’, the answer turns out to be the ‘Pyramid Age’ when the pyramids themselves were built - around 2500 BC.
The date can be refined through another Giza celestial alignment, this time involving the four ‘air shafts’ (or 'star shafts') emanating from the so-called King’s Chamber and Queen’s Chamber inside the Great Pyramid.
Expanding on the theory of Alexander Badawy and Virginia Trimble,[xx][17][xxi] Bauval found that these shafts, targeted at the meridian (i.e. due south/north), are angled just right so that around 2400 BC they aligned with key stars crossing the meridian ('transit'). The southern shafts were aimed at Alnitak (of Orion) and Sirius; the northern ones were aimed at Beta Ursa Minor (‘Kochab’) and Alpha Draconis (‘Thuban’, the ancient Pole Star).
Bauval claims that these alignments collectively pinpoint c. 2450 BC, but this is not quite accurate. It should be more like c. 2350 BC. All the star-shaft alignments occurred at the latter time except for Orion’s alignment with the King’s Chamber southern shaft (c. 2490 BC). But as Dr. Thomas G. Brophy points out, the same shaft did come into alignment with the Galactic Center around 2350 BC.[xxii][18]
At this point, then, the Giza monuments have given us two solid anchor dates, 10,600 BC and 2350 BC.
A Timeline Emerges
The next step is to figure out where to place these anchor dates along the Nile.
For 10,600 BC, it is actually a simple matter. Since the ‘10,500 BC epoch’ appears to signify the mythical ‘First Time’ (Zep Tepi), as postulated by Bauval and Hancock, it would naturally go to the source of the Nile at the equator. It is where ‘time’ begins, as the Nile flows out of Lake Victoria. In support of this designation, we find that the same epoch also happens to mark the establishment of the Nile’s equatorial Lake Victoria outlet.[xxiii][19]
Additionally, the usage of the equator as the beginning latitude is strongly encouraged by Giza’s 10,600 BC celestial alignment. Let us examine it again:


Orion was positioned due south and as close to the horizon as possible, thus guiding our attention toward the southernmost source of the Nile (Lake Victoria) situated due south of Giza.
Point 1 was accompanied by the equinoctial sunrise with Leo due east. Since the equinoxes are when the sun is at the extension of the equator (called the ‘celestial equator’), it tells us that 10,600 BC is to be seen as an equatorial (anchor) date.
As for the 2350 BC anchor date, we can assume that it will go to one of the following key points on the Nile: 1) the confluence at Khartoum, 2) the Atbara confluence, 3) the Great Bend peak, or 4) Giza/Cairo. The question is: Which one?
A big clue here comes from Sirius and Orion’s Alnitak, two prominent stars from the Great Pyramid's star-alignment scheme. They happened to produce the angle 19.5° around 2350 BC.
When Sirius was rising at the horizon as viewed from Giza, Alnitak we seen hovering 19.5° above the horizon. (See illustration below.)
This suggests that the date 2350 BC and the angle/latitude 19.5° are to be united. Hence we are encouraged to assign the second anchor date to the Great Bend’s peak at 19.5°.
There are other clues supporting the arrangement - including the fact that the general region of the Great Bend (Nubia/Kush) was once called the ‘Land of the Bow’ (Ta-Seti), which strongly resonates with the ‘Sirian’ nature of the 2350 BC-19.5°N anchor point, because Sirius’ various epithets happen to include ‘Bow Star’ (as well as ‘Arrow Star’).
So, with the two anchor points firmly established, we are now ready to move on to the critical step - the conversion of Nilotic latitudes into dates.[xxiv][20]
As the highlights below show, what emerges is a startling timeline:
Khartoum at 15.60°N. corresponds precisely to 4000 BC.
The Atbara-Nile confluence at 17.67°N. corresponds to 3124 BC.
Giza/Cairo at 30.00°N. corresponds to AD 2093.
For those familiar with the general outline of ancient history, the significance of the first two dates, 4000 BC and c. 3100 BC, should be immediately clear. The third date c. AD 2100 is intriguing too for its close proximity to our own time.
For those not very familiar with ancient chronology, 4000 BC is in various ways – historically, religiously, and esoterically – the ‘beginning of the world’:
It was around 4000 BC that the first known high civilization called Sumer suddenly rose in Mesopotamia (present Iraq) to begin ‘history’.
The year 4004 BC is the standard Christian date for Adam, the first man, based on the scriptural calculation done by Archbishop James Ussher in the mid-seventeenth century (Annales Veteris Testamenti). In his calculation, Ussher even applied the date 2348 BC to the Great Flood, which almost exactly matches one of our anchor dates (2350 BC)!
4000 BC is the beginning date used in the calendar adopted by Freemasonry – a quasi-esoteric fraternal organization whose enigmatic tradition can be traced back to various ancient cultures, including ancient Egypt. (Remarkably, the highest rank in Scottish Freemasonry is called ‘33rd Degree’ as if in reference to the key Nilotic longitude, 33°E.)
The other ancient date pinpointed, c. 3100 BC, has similar implications:
The date coincides with the beginning of ancient Egypt – none other than the ‘gift of the Nile’ itself! It was indeed around 3100 BC that King Menes commenced the Dynastic period as he unified Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt – an event known as the ‘Unification of the Two Lands’.
The date coincides with what the Mayan calendar calls the ‘Birth of Venus’ (3114 BC), the beginning of the current age.[xxv][21]
For the Hindus, too, c. 3100 BC was the beginning of the present age called Kali Yuga.[xxvi][22]
It is quite evident that the Nile Timeline is very meaningful.
Now, before moving on to the next step, let us divide up the Nile according to the zodiacal Ages, each lasting roughly 2160 years. (We are currently living near the end of the 'Age of Pisces' and about to move into the 'Age of Aquarius'.) The illustration below shows the Nile so rendered.
We see that the river covers exactly six Ages – Leo, Cancer, Gemini, Taurus, Aries, and Pisces. Notice that the middle section around the Great Bend corresponds to the Age of Taurus. This will be shown to have a profound implication shortly.
Tale of Two Rivers
The historical importance of the Tigris-Euphrates river rivals that of the Nile. Just as the Nile gave rise to the great ancient Egyptian civilization, so did the Tigris-Euphrates to Sumer in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), the first high civilization in history.
That there is a hidden connection between the Nile and the Tigris-Euphrates is initially hinted by the latitudinal position of the latter’s mouth. It is at 30°N exactly – the very latitude of the Nile’s ‘edge’ marked by Giza/Cairo! This means the Mesopotamian river’s mouth is in precise alignment with the Great Sphinx’s eternal gaze which is fixed on the distant horizon due east.
This subsequently leads to the following observations:
The arrangement of the Tigris-Euphrates – two roughly parallel and diagonal rivers – resembles that of the Blue Nile and the Atbara.
The Tigris-Euphrates’ northernmost region overlaps the Taurus mountain range, perfectly echoing the Nile tributaries’ northernmost region coinciding with the ‘Age of Taurus’ segment.
There was indeed a widespread belief in ancient times that the Nile and the Euphrates ‘were but different portions of the same stream’.[xxvii][23]
The epoch marked by the Blue Nile/Khartoum (c. 4000 BC) approximately coincides with the rise of Sumer in Mesopotamia, the land of the Tigris-Euphrates. It flourished throughout the Age of Taurus.
These correspondences unmistakably hint at some kind of ‘geographical transposition’ scheme. This is even acknowledged in ancient myth:
The Nile’s Taurus Age section and the Taurus Mountain in Turkey are both associated with the saga of the ‘fallen angels’ (the ‘Watchers’, ‘Nephilim’, or ‘Anunnaki’) and the ‘Great Flood’.
The passages in Genesis relating to the ‘Garden of Eden’ reveal a clear link between the Nile tributaries and the Tigris-Euphrates.
Point 5 is supported by the work of researcher Andrew Collins who has come to the conclusion, as detailed in his book From the Ashes of Angels, that the homeland of the Watchers (‘fallen angels’) – analogous to Eden – was situated around the headwaters of the Tigris-Euphrates in Turkish Kurdistan. He also found that the same location is where ancient tradition pinpoints as the landing site of the Ark (of Noah).
But how are the ‘fallen angels’ and the Ark related to the Nile’s Taurus section? The answer here is quite interesting. First, the ‘Taurus’ region around the Great Bend is very much associated with the notion of a flood, and by extension the Ark, because the Nile’s annual inundation was caused by the Blue Nile and Atbara that join the main stream there. The Great Bend being a ‘great arc’ adds more weight to the connection in that the words ‘ark’ and ‘arc’ likely derive from the same root.
As for the ‘fallen angels’, the connection is made through Prometheus, the Greek god who gave ‘fire’ to mankind. Prometheus is the embodiment of the rebel angels. This then leads to the following:
As if in allusion to the Bend, Prometheus is closely associated with the idea of ‘churning’, ‘twisting’, or ‘turning’. For instance, the ‘mantha’ part of the Sanskrit term Pramantha (i.e. Prometheus) has the meaning of ‘churning’.[xxviii][24]
The Vedic fire-god Agni, a form of pramantha, is said to come from the confluence of the rivers as if in reference to the Nilotic confluences (Khartoum and Atbara) of the Great Bend section.[xxix][25]
The same Agni is associated with the mythological character Heimdal/Hallinskidi/Vindler whose name is said to mean ‘a bent, bowed, or slanted stake’ (Hallinskidi) and ‘to twist, turn, etc.’ (Vindler) – seemingly alluding to the Great Bend.[xxx][26]
There is an even more striking basis for Point 6 – i.e. the Eden connection – as discussed below.
Four Rivers of Eden Identified
The region around the Tigris-Euphrates’ headwaters is the site of Eden which according to Genesis was connected to four rivers, two of which were the Euphrates and Tigris. The identities of the other two – called ‘Pishon’ and ‘Gihon’ – have not been conclusively determined by scholars.
As we examine the relevant biblical passage in Genesis (2:10-14) with the foregoing findings in mind, however, it becomes clear that the two mystery rivers are none other than the Blue Nile and the Atbara!
A river rises in Eden to water the garden; outside, it forms four separate branch streams. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold… The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that winds through all of the land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris; it is the one that flows east of Asshur. The fourth river is the Euphrates.[xxxi][27]
Where is this ‘land of Cush’ through which the Gihon river is said to flow? The shocking answer here is made plain in the King James Version of the Bible, according to which the Gihon winds through the ‘land of Ethiopia’ – that is, the land of the Nile tributaries! This is a rather blatant clue, and yet it was never understood until now.
But the ‘land of Cush’ more accurately refers to the ancient kingdom of Cush (or Kush) that existed in Nubia as early as 2000 BC. Nubia closely corresponds to the Nile’s Taurus (Great Bend) region where Eden would be if the Tigris-Euphrates was ‘transposed’! And this is exactly where the Nile indeed ‘winds’ - i.e. the Great Bend - just as described in the Genesis passage!
The other Eden river in question called the ‘Pishon’ is also described as ‘winding’. But here it is said that the Pishon winds through the land ‘where there is gold’. Could this relate in any way to the same region of Nubia/Cush? The answer is definitely yes. To the Egyptians, Nubia was known primarily as a land of gold!
To top it off, Graham Hancock informs us in The Sign and the Seal that ‘the Abyssinians themselves firmly believed the Blue Nile to be nothing less than the Gihon of Genesis 2:13… [and this] was a very old tradition’; in fact, ‘the twin springs regarded as the source of [the Blue Nile] are known to this day as Giyon by the Ethiopians themselves’.[xxxii][28]
Hence it can be confidently concluded here that the ‘Gihon’ is the Blue Nile and the ‘Pishon’ the Atbara. The four rivers of Eden have thus been all identified for the first time in known history. They are the Euphrates, Tigris, Blue Nile, and Atbara.
It is now practically undeniable that the Nile tributaries and the Tigris-Euphrates are portions of the same scheme and are designed to interact. This realization leads to the next big revelation – indeed, a ‘smoking gun’.
Smoking Gun: Overlay Interaction
It is revealed when the two ‘Eden river’ systems are brought together in superimposition. This is when we realize that we are looking at the ‘fingerprints of the gods’. That’s the best way to describe the ‘impossible’ occurrence witnessed here anyway.
Obviously the paths of the two river systems do not match exactly. But we discover that the Tigris and Euphrates do manage to cross the two Nile confluences simultaneously (Khartoum and Atbara) in one particular position. And this is just the beginning. We find next that, while still in the same position, the Euphrates’ northern path precisely ‘touches’ the peak of the Great Bend at 19.5°N 33.0 E!
In other words, in one fixed overlay configuration, the Tigris-Euphrates manages to simultaneously pinpoint all three key points of the Nile’s Taurus section! And don't forget that this configuration is something strongly encouraged by the two rivers’ ‘Taurus’ parallel.
This is still not all. We discover next that the Euphrates’ Bend-contact point was originally at 39.6°N latitude. Recall that ‘39.6°’ is the exact angle of the Great Pyramid’s southern-lower shaft designed to align with Sirius in c. 2350 BC – i.e. the very date assigned to the Great Bend’s apex! (Note also that Sirius and the Great Bend are both linked to the Nile inundation.)
Here are additional observations to intensify the coherence of the overlay configuration:
As already mentioned, the Tigris-Euphrates’ Taurus mountain region directly overlaps the Nile’s Taurus-Age section.
The Tigris and the Euphrates very closely follow the Atbara and the Blue Nile respectively near the Nile junctions.
Mount Judi – the traditional resting place of the Ark – nearly marks the Atbara confluence.
The Tigris-Euphrates’ mouth (originally at 30°N) appears to rest on the Nile’s 10°N parallel, the very latitude accentuated by the Blue Nile’s W-shaped double bend.
Lake Tana is seen situated in southern Mesopotamia and in between the two rivers – i.e. exactly where the Sumerian civilization resided.
(Note: For the overlay configuration, the Nile’s longitude 33.0°E running through the Bend-Euphrates contact point is used as the ‘anchor meridian’, to which the Tigris-Euphrates’ 40.2°E is aligned. See Appendix 2 for more on this issue.)
This is the ‘Eden Overlay Configuration’ (‘EOC’) scheme residing at the heart of the Time River Theory. With it the earth suddenly transmutes into a planetary jigsaw puzzle. The overwhelming visual and conceptual coherence witnessed here virtually proves the validity of the Time River concept.
There is even an ancient Egyptian drawing - shown below - that appears to allude to the overlay interaction. It is a depiction of the ‘Primeval Mound of Creation’ - associated with Osiris - that bears an uncanny resemblance to the ‘EOC’ arrangement:
As shocking as these findings are, this is actually still only the tip of the iceberg. This is the beginning of a forbidden tale now finally resurfacing from the dark abyss of time. The Time River Theory in its entirety is much bigger than what is presented in this paper, and it is continuously evolving and expanding. Indeed - believe it or not - there are many more ‘smoking guns’...
Conclusions & Portents
In conclusion, this paper has demonstrated that:
1. The design of the Nile works superbly with the time-marker monuments of Giza.
2. Through the interaction of #1, the Nile turns into a shockingly precise and meaningful timeline.
3. The Nile timeline pinpoints the two earliest and most mysterious ancient civilizations, Sumer and Egypt.
4. The same two points on the Nile marking 4000 BC and 3124 BC, plus the 19.5°N/2350 BC anchor point, are also pinpointed by a ‘transposed’ Tigris-Euphrates (in the ‘Eden Overlay Configuration’).
5. The Tigris-Euphrates is designed to be a ‘version’ of the Nile tributaries, the Blue Nile and the Atbara. These two sets of rivers interact coherently in superimposition.
6. All this is encouraged and supported by ancient myth.
The Time River system is visually striking, conceptually elegant, internally consistent, and quite easy to understand. It is strongly supported by numerical, archaeoastronomical, textual, and symbolic evidence. And yet its existence is clearly ‘impossible’ according to the accepted model of reality. Unless there is a fatal flaw in the theory, this appears to be a checkmate situation. It is finally reality’s turn to back off.
One key thing that has become abundantly clear from the findings presented in this paper is that there is a higher intelligence monitoring - or even guiding - the evolution of mankind, and that we are not ‘alone’.
But what are we talking about here really? The ‘gods’? The ‘fallen angels’? Extraterrestrials?
The answer does not come easily. But what we now know for sure is that we are not the supreme ruler of our domain as many of us had arrogantly assumed. All history - the past, present, and even future - is already mapped out and carved in stone, quite literally. But the difficulty we encounter here is the emerging necessity to imagine someone or something that is intelligent and powerful enough to have produced such a planetary-scale ‘time map’.
‘They’ are, however, not totally faceless. For example, we do find clues in certain ancient Mesopotamian texts. These describe god-like beings called the ‘Anunnaki’ designing and digging out the courses of the Tigris-Euphrates (which is even associated with ‘destinies’):
Now that the destinies of Heaven and Earth have been fixed,Trench and canal have been given their right courses,The banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates have been established...[Oh Anunnaki, you great gods of the sky, what else shall we do?][xxxiii][29]
The Anunnaki of the skyMade the Igigi bear the workload.The gods had to dig out canals,Had to clear channels, the lifelines of the land...The gods dug out the Tigris river (bed)And then dug out the Euphrates.[xxxiv][30]
Elsewhere we are told that the god named Enlil was ‘in charge of the gods who toiled endlessly away day and night, year after year, digging out the Euphrates and the Tigris’.[xxxv][31] It is also written that, to keep the Tigris’ waters from going east into the mountains, the ‘lord directed (his) great intelligence to it’ and built a dike to control the river’s course.[xxxvi][32]
A message in a bottle from the ‘Anunnaki’ gods - this seems to be what the Time River system represents. And the indications are that the intended recipient is those living in the the 21st century, i.e. us. After all, it wouldn’t make much sense if history ended before anyone has read the message, and we are already part of the last generations facing the imminent arrival of the ‘end of time’ c. AD 2100 marked by Giza at the northern edge of the Nile timeline. (It is certainly appropriate that Giza is the site of the great pyramids and the Sphinx, i.e. monuments often thought to be a time capsule of some kind.)
So there is actually a sense of ominous urgency. Because time is short. And we can only infer that it must be very important for us to decipher the mysterious message from the abyss of time, perhaps so that we can prepare ourselves for the mysterious ‘Event X’ scheduled for our immediate future. And it promises to be the most profound event for human civilization in all history.
It is quite synchronistic that the author’s book The Time Rivers came out in 2003 to reveal the Time River scheme to the general public, because 2003 happens to be the year of the Earth’s historic close encounter with Mars - the closest in recorded history. As discussed in the book, the ‘edge of time’ (c. AD 2100) turns out to be inseparable from the Red Planet. Consider this for instance: the Great Sphinx there, the guardian of Giza, had the same name as Mars in ancient Egypt; and the name of the present Egyptian capital right next to Giza, Cairo, denotes ‘Mars’.
Indeed, Mars is actually the main theme carried by the entire Time River system. The Red Planet, it appears, represents none other than the realm of our own Genesis and destiny. It signifies an essential, but secret, part of who we are, where we came from, and where we are going.
The explosive truth had been hiding in the shadows for millennia – patiently waiting for its time to rise back into the light. At the beginning of the third millennium, the secret is finally out.