“Why are we, the masses, insulted and humiliated by having criminals as our representatives? In fact, news just coming is that the former chief of the Wrestling Federation of India, who is also a six-time MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Kaiserganj, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, has been denied a ticket by the BJP but instead, his son Karan has been given the ticket!”
Humra Quraishi
Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara has stated that a lookout circular had been issued to arrest Hassan JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna, who is facing allegations of sexually abusing women. Prajwal is the grandson of former prime minister and JD(S) patriarch HD Deve Gowda and son of MLA and former minister HD Revanna.
A case was registered by the Holenarasipura town on April 28 after pen drives with 2,967 files went viral in the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency… A 47-year-old woman filed a police complaint alleging she was sexually abused by Prajwal and his father Revanna. Mind you, she is not the only victim but one of the hundreds of victims! Yet this politician was given the ticket to contest the elections and several of the Right-Wing’s Who’s Who even campaigned for him! Weren’t they aware of his reputation, of his sexual debauchery and exploits and tactics?
Why are controversial and tainted criminals given the political platform? Why are we, the masses, insulted and humiliated by having criminals as our representatives? In fact, news just coming is that the former chief of the Wrestling Federation of India, who is also a six-time MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Kaiserganj, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, has been denied a ticket by the BJP but instead, his son Karan has been given the ticket! Someone from the family has to be there!
It is not just dangerous but also questionable to have controversial politicians as upcoming parliamentarians or ministers or chief ministers!
World Herb Day – 6 May
That one sentence from the New Delhi-based Dr G P Sharma, “You’re fortunate to be diabetic living in India… here there are so many herbs, flowers, leaves which could be antidotes” – was uttered several years back when I was first diagnosed to be struck with diabetes but it has remained stuck in my psyche. Of course, many more sentences were uttered, more along the strain that if one was to treat oneself thoroughly and for times to come then diet coupled with herbal inputs were to be an everyday affair.
And though I had first met this doctor years back but his words have remained unmoving. Till date I am chewing neem and amrood and jamun leaves or gulping down soaked methi seeds or else mixing lady fingers’ pulp into curds or soup… And the more one delves around in the wonderland of herbs and the array of benefits which lie embedded in flowers and leaves and seeds, one is left amazed. Bewildered by the bounty that Nature has to offer. Together with that wondering: Why do we bypass these wonders sprouting and growing around us?
We do not even seem to bother what we are consuming in our everyday meals and its direct impact on our forms? No, we do not bother of what is going in, right inside you. Have you asked the cook or chef what ingredients go with this or that dish? Why those combinations or concoctions? I am no foodie so barely dine out but years back was pleasantly surprised to hear senior MasterChef C B Sankaran at Welcome Hotel Sheraton’s Dakshin Restaurant telling us what ingredients go into the making of ‘Tomato Pappu,’ ‘Alasandhe Kaazhu Saaru’ or ‘Kozhi Sukka Varuval’ or ‘Veinchina Mamsam’ … Chef Sankaran seemed to know it all and was keen to disclose what was going into our system …making one aware of the spices, those herbal ingredients, and their properties.
The same should hold out for medicines too. Don’t we ought to know what are we gulping and why should it be consumed? Whilst reading – ‘Health Matters: Homoeopathy- An Introduction for Children’ (NCERT) by the New Delhi based homoeopath Dr M Qasim, inputs focusing on plants and homoeopathy stand out. This homoeopath focused on what flowers and plants and their leaves hold out in terms of human health … each time I gulp down Calendula homoeopathic drops those flowers hold sway in my thoughts …the list is long.
Little wonder ‘good citizens’ of yester years planted trees and herbs wherever they had travelled and settled down. They had realized their sheer significance and the medical properties. …And each time Khushwant Singh and I walked in the Lodhi Gardens he would ask me about the trees and plants we’d passed on our walk and seeing a blank look on my face he’d take pains to explain their Botanical names and more along the strain. Yes, he knew not just the names of all possible trees but their flowering pattern and together with that their properties.
And another person well aware of this was Hakeem Abdul Hameed who’d set up the Hamdard Group. Each time I had met him I was amazed to hear him rattle off the medical qualities of a this or that herb …Way back he had spoken of herbal gardens and of the very significance of even those plants which sprout along waysides. Did you know that ‘Pila Bansa’ helps strengthens hair and prevents greying? Or that the ‘Kamila’ has properties to cure skin diseases or that the smoke of the ‘Datura’ leaves is useful in the treatment of Asthma!
And there are these two volumes by the Lucknow based botanist-scientist Dr .M I H Farooqi – ‘Plants of the Qur’an’ and ‘ Medicinal Plants in the Tradition of Prophet Muhammad’, focusing on what plants and trees and herbs hold out. Eye openers in the sense that there is that common perception that Muslims cannot do without consuming non-vegetarian fare but this myth has been well settled by this scientist who retired from the National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, as head of its Plant Chemistry division. He has delved deep into the subject and written extensively on not just olives, dates and figs but also focused on the very significance of everyday veggies and herbs and seeds. And written about their significance not in that scientific jargon but simply worded so that you and I can comprehend what holds out. Nature’s bounty… The array is amazing and so are the cures and benefits.
In the volume – Plants of Quran – botanist Farooqi writes: “Many fruits and fruit-bearing plants have been mentioned in the Quran, but it is the date palm which finds maximum references. It has been mentioned twenty times under the name ‘Nakhi’, ‘Nakhil’ (plural) or Nakhlat (singular). It may be noted that eight times the date palm is mentioned alone and at twelve places it is clubbed with other fruits like olive, pomegranate, and grapes…Dates are reputed for great medicinal value. It is a demulcent, an emollient, a heart stimulant and helps in checking the loss of memory. Useful in respiratory disorders in general and asthma in particular. Dates are laxative, diuretic and aphrodisiac.”
This botanist focused on what the Prophet said about herbs, vegetables, and fruits. The Prophet is reported to have said, “Black Cumin is a remedy for every disease except death. “Also, “Use olive oil. It is from a blessed tree. It is very useful in seventy diseases. Leprosy is one of them.”
Also, he is said to have commented: “Pomegranate and its rind strengthen digestion.” About henna leaves the Prophet had commented: “Make use of henna, the best of all dyes.” About the watermelon, the Prophet commented: “Eat before meals; watermelon washes the stomach and removes its diseases.”
About gourd the Prophet made this significant observation: “Let them have pumpkins, it stimulates the intellect and the brain… it strengthens the depressed heart.” About brinjal, “It is useful, taken for whatever purpose, as food or medicine.”
And if only we realized the very properties of the lentil, as stated by the Prophet, then the very lentil which you and I term as ordinary could turn extra-ordinary. This is what he commented about the lentil: “Eating lentils fill the heart with sympathy (love) and wash eyes with tears and takes away pride …lentils soften the heart.”
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