ChakraVyuha

As usual on the morning of the thirteenth day, Duryodhana whined to Drona about his losses and nearly accused him of letting the Pandavas away easily.

Drona reiterates his loyalty and also promises to kill one powerful Maharathi on this day but only on the condition that Arjuna is led away from the main battle, Drona says his plans will succeed. The Shamshaptakas are more than happy to do their part in keeping Arjuna distracted.

Drona arranges for this formidable and impregnable vyuha. Chakyavyuha was its name. While Drona stood at the head of the vyuha, the Pandava Maharathis tried to attack Drona, only to be repulsed by his shower of arrows. Then Drona led the counter charge throwing Yudhishtira into a turmoil. Only four Maharathis knew this Vyuha, Drona himself, Arjuna, Krishna, Pradyumna and Abhimanyu.

At the moment, Pandavas had only Abhimanyu. Yudhishtira asks him to penetrate the Vyuha. Abhimanyu agrees but voices his concern. "I know only to penetrate. If a calamity befalls me inside, I cannot get out". Yudhishtira assures him that once Abhimanyu creates an opening, the Pandava host would follow him. Bhima promises to protect him along with Drishtadyumna and Satyaki. Thus assured, Abhimanyu gets ready for the battle of his life. The battle that took his life.

Abhimanyu's charioteer Sumitra cautions him about this venture. Says proceed only after you have thought through this. Reminds Abhimanyu that unlike his father and uncles, he has been reared in prosperity. Abhimanyu waves Sumitra's concern away. Says he is ready to fight all gods. Followed by his uncles and other Maharathas, donning a golden Armour, Abhimanyu proceeds. The armies clash. Abhimanyu gains twenty feet (mistake?) and penetrates the vyuha, killing warriors in thousands. Like a young lion charging at a herd of elephants. There is an elaborate description of destruction caused by Abhimanyu. Bodies were strewn like serpents cut off after Garuda attacked them. The Kaurava soldiers fled and Duryodhana came to the forefront to check Abhimanyu. Drona hustled others to protect Duryodhana. 14 Maharathis like Droba, Asvatthama, Karna, Vrishasena, Shalya, etc surrounded Abhimanyu and provided an exit to Duryodhana.

Abhimanyu could not tolerate this snatching away of his 'prize'. Refusing to retreat, he fought on despite being out numbered. He kills the lord of Ashmaka who was fighting for Duryodhana. After claiming his first Victim, Abhimanyu now turned towards Karna and pierced him. His arrows tortured Karna to the extent that Karna fainted. But recovering soon, Karna attacked Abhimanyu back.After facing another bout of cumulative attack, Abhimanyu attacked Shalya next. The Lord of Madra did no better than Karna and fainted. Shalya's brother rushed to attack Abhimanyu and wounds him. Abhimanyu severs his head right in front of Drona.

Abhimanyu's style of fighting did not betray any sense of fatigue, if he felt any. Nor did being outnumbered perturb him. The enraged Madra army fell upon him and yet, he drove them away with arrows, giving a taste of what a combo of Krishna-Arjuna would look like. Dushasana rushes at Abhimanyu assuring Duryodhana that he will kill the son of Subhadra which would distress Krishna and Arjuna so much that they would die of grief or that in turn would make the enemy retreat forever. By then Abhimanyu had been mangled by arrows.

Yet, the sight of Duhshasana reminded him of the wrongs his father, uncle and step mother had faced. He decided to kill Duhshasana for Bhima and fought. His shower of arrows made Duhshasana swoon and the charioteer drove away to safety. Exhilarated at Abhimanyu's victory, the Pandava host began to cheer aloud and fight with renewed vigor. This agitated Duryodhana and he sent Karna again. Karna began a fresh attack. But Abhimanyu broke his bow and flag. Another one of Duryodhana's brother intervened. The new attack was intense. But at last, Abhimanyu severed his head and started slaughtering the armies. Except Jayadrata, everyone fled. Abhimanyu was like the scorching midday Sun. Earth was strewn with the dead bodies and severed limbs of soldiers.

Meanwhile, the Pandava host tried to keep up with Abhimanyu, but was held off by Jayadrata. Sanjaya says he was given a boon by Hara that he could withstand all the Pandava might except Arjuna. This enabled Jayadrata to keep the Pandavas away from Abhimanyu. He wounded each of the Pandava warriors. Yudhishtira tooka careful aim and broke Jayadrata's bow. But taking another bow, he wounded back Dharmaraja. Bhima broke Jayadrata's bow, flag and umbrella. But he took a third and killed Bhima's horses. Bhima had to rush to Satyaki's chariot. Kaurava army cheered Jayadrata who successfully covered the path created for the enemy by Abhimanyu.

Meanwhile Abhimanyu met Vrishasena, son of Karna. Vrishasena lost his bow, flag and charioteer. The horses bolted  away. Abhimanyu's charioteer Sumitra seized this opportunity to steer the chariot from the melee and Abhimanyu was again visible to the Pandava host who cheered. The next victim to lose his life to the Son of Subhadra was Vasatiya. After Vasatiya's death, the angry soldiers surrounded Abhimamyu again. Satyashrava and Rukmaratha (son of Shalya) attacked Abhimanyu , severely wounding him. Abhimanyu invoked the Gandharvastra and routed them all. A hundred princes lost their lives. Duryodhana tried to stop Abhimanyu, but had to retreat in a short while. 9 Maharathis incl Drona, Ashvatthama, Karna, Duryodhana , Kripa tried to attack him, but were repulsed. Lakshmana, the son of Duryodhana came to the forefront and another terrible duel ensued. Duryodhana returned for his son and other Maharathis too did, launching a cumulative attack. Abhimanyu was drenched in his own blood. He held them off and simultaneously fought Lakshmana, finally severing his head off.
Duryodhana was mad with grief. 6 Maharathis: Drona, Kripa, Kritavarma, Brihadbala,  Ashvatthama and Karna surrounded him and attacked. Abhimanyu routed them all. He then turned upon the army of Saindhava and killed the elephants. Kratha's son was the next to lose his life. The six aforementioned warriors did not leave him despite multiple repulsion. Abhimanyu wounded Ashvathama and Drona. He killed Brihadbala and faced Karna again, simultaneously killed Ashvaketu of Magadha and Martikavata of Bhoja. While Karna dueled with Abhimanyu, Duhshasana's son too attacked him. Abhimanyu fought back warning him not to flee like his father did. Abhimanyu's horses and charioteer were wounded. Abhimanyu released a sharp arrow at him which was intercepted by Ashvatthama's.

Abhimanyu brought down Ashvatthama's flag and also pierced Shalya. He brought down Shalya's flag and killed two of Shalya's charioteers. He also killed 5 warriors Shatrunjaya, Chandraketu, Mahavega, Suvarcha and Suryabhasa. Abhimanyu then turned his attention towards Shakuni. Fighting back, Shakuni told Duryodhana to re-array and finish off Abhimanyu before he finished them all.

Karna tells the same to Drona and asks for a way out. Drona asks Karna if he found a weakness in Abhimanyu. Karna says Abhimanyu's arrows hurt him and still he is managing to somehow stay on the field. Drona tells him to somehow render Abhimanyu without his bow, charioteers and horses. Even gods are incapable of overcoming Abhimanyu as long as he had his bow. At Drona's words

Karna sliced down Abhimanyu's bow. Kritavarma killed his horses and Kripa killed his charioteers.

That moment, the 6 Maharathis showered arrows at Abhimanyu, who grabbed a sword and moved around in circles still causing fear among foot soldiers. Drona broke his sword and Karna, his shield. Abhimanyu then picked up a wheel, looking like Vaasudeva himself, a sight difficult fir even gods to watch. It took a while for the Kauravas to break the wheel. Abhimanyu then picked up a club and rushed at Ashvatthama. Ashvatthama looked at Abhimanyu charging with the club and jumped down the chariot, backing away by a yard. Abhimanyu killed Ashvatthama's horses and killed the two charioteers. He then pounced upon and killed Kalakeya, a brother of Shakuni.

So many arrows were stuck to Abhimanyu's body by now, that he looked like a porcupine. He leapt onto the chariot of Dushasana's son and killed those horses too. The latter picked up his mace and engaged Abhimanyu till both of them fainted due to exhaustion. Duhshasana's son was the first to recover and he dealt the death blow, smashing his club against Abhimanyu's head. He fell like the setting Sun, like the eclipsed moon, like the ocean scorched dry. Sanjaya voices his opinion that Drona and Karna committed Adharma.

The Pandava soldiers started to flee . Yudhishtira called them back quoting how much destruction Abhimanyu had single handedly caused before falling and that they owed it to him to fight without grieving and dishonoring him. The sun set for the day and both the camps retire. Yudhishtira's long lament follows and Arjuna returns to the news. Hearing about the details of Abhimanyu's valour and death, and about Jayadrata coming in the way preventing them from protecting Abhimanyu, Arjuna then takes a terrible oath of killing Jayadrata before sunset the next day. Failing to do so, he declared would see Arjuna entering the blazing fire.

Source: https://twitter.com/Sai_swaroopa/status/1144177687310680065?s=20

Saving our children's backs

Today picked up my daughter's school bag & almost broke my back. It is HEAVY. I mean really heavy. We keep on talking about reducing the load on our children's back but no on has any idea on how to do it. 

I have an Idea. Nothing to do with the telecom operator. If we take out all the text books & leave just the note books in the bag it is considerably lighter. So  the challenge is to make the bag text book free. People have tried various methods in the past. Leave text book in school..not a feasibility as kids require to refer to books at home too. Have a school copy and a home copy - too costly solution.   

My recommendation for Smriti Irani:

Talk to companies like Amazon. Ask them to give Kindle like devices (with no backlight) with a certain mechanism in it which allows only Govt authorized books to be downloaded. Maybe the text books also can be installed at every school. Misuse of the device will be not possible.  Let us see the advantages due to this:

1) Multi Kilos of books removed in favor of around 200g of a device

2) Number of books to be printed drops leading to reduction of trees cut & help improving of environment.

3) Any mistake in books can be corrected easily and updated in children's  device easily.

4) Better than tablets as there will be no strain of eyes of children.

5) Book publishers will prefer as every book sold is a total profit.

6) Device makers will have a ready made market of people who would prefer to upgrade to the regular/actual device. 

7) Huge number of devices will help in ensuring that the device maker can cut costs and provide each device at a lower cost but still make huge profit.

8) The overall cost of Device+books over the number of  years will work out to be very cheap compared to the actual paper books.

9) The Govt may fund it for  Govt owned school. Seeing school children using such devices  will encourage others to  also join school to get these devices.

10) Rich Schools/parents can easily fund this  for their wards

11) If any child forgets the device one day, extra copy can easily be given from the school.

There are some other points to consider too:

1)  Charging points - Maybe all schools can have points in every bench. With the electrification of villages going on this may not be a problem in future.

2) Stolen devices - That's  why I prefer having  a device where loading of books is controlled. Without the installer option this device will become useless for  others. 

3) Damages/lost - Some amount of damage/loss have to be accepted.

Maybe others may have more pro/con points,  but I feel that the important task of reducing the weight the kids carry will be achieved.

Please  comment.

In Hindsight Vision is 20/20

I started my Company long back many years ago along with P (A friend's friend then - now 1 of the two I consider my closest friends). We were young, hard working and willing to the extra mile to make the business work. We got a big break within the first year and took in a lot of employees. We had to give24/7 support. We handled it well but still felt the need to employ a senior person to manage the show.

One of my ex-colleague, let's say K, was freshly out of job, and over talks we just decided to take him in.  As work started in  earnest I realized that my workload had increased instead of decreasing. K was making small mistakes in a number of places, which ended up having large impact. I was forced to double check everything and cover it up for him. I was getting desperate.

P noticed the incompetence of K, (P was the MD), and asked me to pull him up.  Instead I started defending K in front of P. A sense of loyalty played a part at my end. I and P ended up having a major fight. Employees were afraid. No one knew which of we both will get angry next. Some of the senior guys (age wise I & P were quite young), started advising us. I have to say that many of them meant well.

I continued in the rooms which I and P had rented, whereas P started sleeping in the office itself. We started avoiding each other. We were not on talking terms, and this was exploited by one specific person. By a strange twist of events, both I and P had put our faith on K. He played the part of "Narada" the instigator perfectly. He will create his own stories, and then carry our response to the other. Luckily for us, K got another job and left our company.

I was convinced that the end of the company  was nigh. I had planned to leave everything and go to Hyderabad where my parents were settled. P had the same plans for his hometown. One day, we met each other on the road and started walking around. Both of us remember the words, but don't accept who said it. One of us said, "Our greatest strength was we both could always sit down and discuss whatever be our differences. Why has it changed now?"
 We  discussed and openly asked each other questions. Slowly the many layers of  deceit started peeling off. We realized while we were the masters of  the company, there was a ring master who took both of us for a ride. 

Destroying that day's team was quite easy, but the same tricks will not be effective today. Now the team has been forged through fire and the trust level is too high as compared to anyone else. A system of updating each other on various issues established that day continues even now.

Hindsight: Get your info direct, do not respond on what outsiders (sometimes insiders too) have said.


DISCLAIMER: ALL  THE INCIDENTS REPORTED ARE THE IMAGINATION OF THE AUTHOR. IT DOES NOT CONTAIN ANY RELATION WITH ANYONE LIVING, PAST PRESENT OR FUTURE

National Herald Case

Salient points of NH case: 

1)Financial crisis forced Associated Journals Limited (AJL) publishers of NH founded by Nehru to close it down in 2008.

2)To pay off the employees & to help the closure congress party gave interest free loan of 90 crores to AJL.

3)With NH shut AJL had become mere real estate with properties in Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow worth over 2000 crores. 

4)Against 2000crores  properties, AJL owed just 90 crores  to congress. Otherwise it had 0 liabilities. 

5)This 1910 crore property legally and morally belonged to AJL's 1000+ shareholders. 

6)If the properties had been auctioned, most of them would have got near 1 crore rupees. 

7)In Nov 2010 a trust co named Young Indians was set up with a capital of 5 lakhs.

8)This was 76% owned by mother-son duo. 

9)In just 3 months control of this 2000 crores was passed on to #CorruptMomSonDuo

10)Balance 24% of YI is held by Motilal Vohra & Oscar Fernandez

11)In dec 2010 congress assigned 90 cr dues from AJL to YI for just 50 lakhs. Congress wrote off balance of 89.95.

12)Just to be clear, at this time AJL OWED 90 cr to YI & YI owed nothing to congress.

13)To pay off this 90 cr, 99% of AJL were allocated to YI.

14)So using 50 lakhs, SoGa&RaGa became owners of 2000 cr properties with 0 liabilities.

15)Today the court (Delhi HC) has recognized it as a scam and told the two to stand trial as accused.


BASED ON TWEETS OF @SGURUMURTHY 

Abhaya - A new phase for Indian books

*****WARNING - MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ******
I read the first novel of a new Author @sai_swaroopa, yesterday. Amazing book. If it had been an anonymous writer, I would have assumed a Dan Brown novel though based  in India.She leaves the more established Indian writers in the dust. A good novel, for me, should have a clear plot, with characters who live up to their build-up. This book has all the twists and turns to keep you hooked. Now for the Review (this is the first time I am trying a review, so please  excuse me for any faults):

This is the  story of a "Peoples Princess" -Abhaya - who really cares for all. She is forced to leave her home when it is destroyed. Her initial "villain" Anuvinda is the arrogant prince who tries to take her by force. Krishna (more mortal than God here), saves her. But rest assured, our heroine is not just a "damsel in distress". She takes refuge in the city of the Pandavas. After getting to know that a girl has been kidnapped by a cult,  she chases them and frees her up while joining the sect itself.

She still maintains her independence. The Mahadevi of the cult, (a good woman) tries various methods to make Abhaya to accept the cult completely. How Abhaya's brother along with his wife & mother(not Abhaya's mother) and  Krishna come to save her and how Abhaya still ends up accepting the cult's rituals has to be read & enjoyed.

Please do download the book at Amazon.in


@sai_swaroopa: Anuvinda seems to be a loose end. He was left in between. Maybe you can develop his character more in a future book.

This is the original Piece written by Chyetanya Kunte but later on he had to retract because of legal pressure from NDTV. I have posted it here for posterity & preservation since Google Cache may clear it anytime. (http://cuntradiktion.blogspot.com/2009/02/chyetanya-kuntes-original-blog-post.html)
Shoddy journalism

This is the original Piece written by Chyetanya Kunte but later on he had to retract because of legal pressure from NDTV. I have posted it here for posterity & preservation since Google Cache may clear it anytime.
Shoddy journalism

Appalling journalism. Absolute blasphemy! As I watch the news from home, I am dumbfounded to see Barkha Dutt of NDTV break every rule of ethical journalism in reporting the Mumbai mayhem.

Take a couple of instances for example:
In one instance she asks a husband about his wife being stuck, or held as a hostage. The poor guy adds in the end about where she was last hiding. Aired! My dear friends with AK-47s, our national news is helping you. Go get those still in. And be sure to thank NDTV for not censoring this bit of information.

In another instance, a General sort of suggests that there were no hostages in Oberoi Trident. (Clever.) Then, our heroine of revelations calls the head of Oberoi, and the idiot confirms a possibility of 100 or more people still in the building. Hello! Guys with guns, you’ve got more goats to slay. But before you do, you’ve got to love NDTV and more precisely Ms. Dutt. She’s your official intelligence from Ground zero.

You do not need to be a journalist to understand the basic premise of ethics, which starts with protecting victims first; and that is done by avoiding key information from being aired publicly—such as but not limited to revealing the number of possible people still in, the hideouts of hostages and people stuck in buildings.

Imagine you’re one of those sorry souls holed-up in one of those bathrooms, or kitchens. A journalist pulls your kin outside and asks about your last contact on national television, and other prying details. In a bout of emotion, if they happen to reveal more details, you are sure going to hell. Remember these are hotels, where in all likelihood, every room has a television. All a terrorist needs to do is listen to Ms. Barkha Dutt’s latest achievement of extracting information from your relative, based on your last phone-call or SMS. And you’re shafted—courtesy NDTV.1
If the terrorists don’t manage to shove you in to your private hell, the journalists on national television will certainly help you get there. One of the criticisms about Barkha Dutt on Wikipedia reads thus:

During the Kargil conflict, Indian Army sources repeatedly complained to her channel that she was giving away locations in her broadcasts, thus causing Indian casualties.
Looks like the idiot journalist has not learned anything since then. I join a number of bloggers pleading her to shut the f⋅⋅⋅ up.
Update: In fact, I am willing to believe that Hemant Karkare died because these channels showed him prepare (wear helmet, wear bullet-proof vest.) in excruciating detail live on television. And they in turn targeted him where he was unprotected. The brave officer succumbed to bullets in the neck.

Update 2 [28.Nov.2300hrs]: Better sense appears to have prevailed in the latter half of today—either willfully, or by Government coercion2, and Live broadcasts are now being limited to non-action zones. Telecast of action troops and strategy is now not being aired live. Thank goodness for that.
Update 3 [30.Nov.1900hrs]: DNA India reports about a UK couple ask media to report carefully:
The terrorists were watching CNN and they came down from where they were in a lift after hearing about us on TV.
— Lynne Shaw in an interview.
1. Oh, they have a lame excuse pronouncing that the television connections in the hotel has been cut, and therefore it is okay to broadcast. Like hell!
2. I’m thinking coercion, since Government has just denied renewing CNN’s rights to air video today; must’ve have surely worked as a rude warning to the Indian domestic channels

Read more on the reactions on the Indian blogger being silenced at http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/01/30/india-blogger-silenced/