doublethink

Crispy morning with PM2.5 level at 560. Visibility restricted to 600 meters but the feel of the new Central Vista hangs in the air. The new zone of Central Vista has its own oxygen and air purifier plants. Took my seat in the hi-tech PURIFIED AIR KIOSK with a tagline –  Air that Purifies Mind  – installed at the gate. Purified air given for 30 seconds is for free. Rs 500 for every extra minute. Sir, gate pass? Me: Sorry, I thought aadhar card will work. No sir, you need to have a gate pass to enter into the building.  Me: Okay, did not know that. How does one get it now? Uff, you people come here without any proper homework. This is not old India, sir. All information available on the website. Free helpline number also given there only to plan a visit to Central Vista.  Me: Very impressive but please help me now. I don't have a pass. Next time you come, come with prior pass only. This time helping you. Use your aadhar number to log in to  centralvista.co.in/gues...

In 1930, a sadhu named Dhoortanand had come to a wealthy household of one Lalaji, promising him to double his wealth by conducting a three-day tapasya (penance, ritual). The next morning, Lalaji had to go to the police station to report on the absconding sadhu and the missing wealth. Apparently, Lalaji was not the only one to have fallen prey to the promise of becoming richer; such a tapasya, according to the police, was conducted in at least twenty-five households. Published under the title Gerua Daaku (Ochre-Robe Robber) under a Kahkaha series (joke-stories), the story and the name itself – Dhoortanand, meaning deceitful – symbolised the extent to which the figure of the sadhu had become the stock of social mocking in the early decades of the twentieth century.   Cutting across layers of time, perhaps there is no other Indian figure that comes close to sadhus in being seen as the bearer of disguise and artiste of deceit. From the times of the Ramayana when Ravana disguised as ...