The 5 villages that Pandavas demanded and where are they now?

In the third chapter of Udyog Parva of Mahabharat, Lord Krishna went to Hastinapur before the Mahabharata Battle for a peace treaty he proposed 3 ideas that could stop the inevitable war. 

The first one was Indraprastha would be returned to the Pandavas with due respect to which even though Dhritarashtra, Bhishma, Guru Dronacharya ,Kulguru Kripacharya while Duryodhana said a clear no. The second one was Duryodhana and his brothers would touch Panchali, Draupadi's feet and beg for forgiveness which angered Duryodhana even more. The third one was the Pandavas would be given 5 villages,which left the Sabha shell shocked. While almost everyone considered it a fair deal, Duryodhana and Shakuni refused to nod affirmatively. "I won't give them land the size of tip of a needle",replied Duryodhana in a jiff. He proved his foolishness by trying to capture Krishna which angered him and he said a war and demise of the Kauravas is certain.

The five villages were Avisthal, Vakrasthal, Makandi, Varnavat and one more their own choice.

Modern locations of the 4 villages

 Let us first take a close look at the map of India of the Mahajanpada time.

We can see that Gandhara kingdom is located in modern day Afghanistan and other kingdoms spread over Uttarpradesh, Uttarakhand,Bihar, Madhyapradesh, Haryana and parts of Rajasthan and Nepal.

Kusasthala , also assumed to be called Avisthala is the modern city of Kannauj. Varnavata could be a place called Shivpuri which is located to the northeast of Rishikesh in Uttarakhand. Vrikasthala is assumed to be in the Gurgaon district of Haryana and Makandi is expected to be somewhere near the bank of river Ganga.

Let us look at the Google map locations of these modern day places.

Kannauj

Shivpuri

Gurgaon

Ganga River

Opinion based on Observation behind selection of these particular villages

If we take a closer look at the probable locations of the 4 villages and compare it with the map of Kuru kingdom,we can see the best example of wit and diplomacy. 3 of the 4 villages are located at the border of the kingdom while one is located at the heart of it which is a proof of possession. Even if Duryodhana would be the king,if he had chosen to negotiate,the location of the villages would infer that the real king is Yudhishthir. And that is what I love about Mahabharata,so much learning in every sentence.

This is a very personal opinion of mine,the reason behind the 4 villages and may or may not be true. The locations however are obtained from various sources on the internet, mostly Hinduism stack exchange.

Image credits- Google,Google maps.

I would again say that the logic behind the 4 villages is my personal opinion based on observation and there is no evidence of it. Corrections and suggestions are welcomed. Comment and share if you like my content.

Stay home,stay safe.

A Tale of Two Cities

We are almost at the end of lockdown. The past few days have been rough for everyone. Some have perceived this as an opportunity to find latent talents, pursue hobbies. And here we are, less than 10 days to go. Most people would have already prepared their after lockdown bucket list, visiting friends, eating out. It's a sad thing that the bucket list contains exactly what we are not supposed to do.

Coming to the topic, this blog isn't about the two cities of London and Paris. And also not Cuttack and Bhubaneswar ( Coz most of my readers will be from Odisha ). It will actually be two tales about 2 pairs of cities and how ensuring strict lockdown measures helped in truncating pandemic.

Philadelphia and St. Louis

It was 1918. The Spanish flu was yet to become a global pandemic. The city chiefs of the American city of Philadelphia decided to conduct a parade with 600 soldiers infected with Spanish flu, completely ignoring the fact that it was a potential human bomb, waiting for the right moment to burst. By the end of the week, more than 4000 people have fallen into it's deadly jaws.

900 miles away,the city of St. Louis introduced measures to limit public gatherings by closing schools,churches,play grounds and libraries within 2 days of detecting the first case.

Restrictions were imposed on gatherings over 20 people. Flu related deaths in St. Louis were half that of Philadelphia. The graph perhaps provides better insights on the statistics.

A 2007 paper  in the proceedings of National Academy of Sciences,from which this this curve is obtained states that " cities in which multiple interventions were implemented at an early phase of the epidemic had peak death rates ≈50% lower than those that did not and had less-steep epidemic curves ." 

Now you may wonder that the cities were 900 miles apart,which isn't exactly the best way of assessing effects of a lockdown. So let us take a look of a pair of Italian cities.

Lodi and Bergamo

 See the map for yourselves. How far does this seem, 65 km? A meagre 56 min drive it is. The city of Lodi imposed severe lockdown measures after the detection of it's first case of COVID-19 while Bergamo didn't. While both had 800 cases on 7th of March,the number of cases in Lodi became half of that of Bergamo by 13th,when Bergamo had 2300 cases while Lodi had 1100.

What makes this virus perilous is a high reproduction number combined with a mammoth 6.9 % fatality. Harvard University has said even after Lockdowns are lifted, intermittent social distancing should be followed for atleast 6 months. So even if you have mighty plans of  having fun after the lockdown,choose to stay home so that you protect not just yourselves but also the people around you.

There is a great quote by Hegel,a German philosopher which goes by " We learn from history that we do not learn from history. " And our history does say that we have always been sloppy when it comes to Viruses.

Stay home,Stay safe.

Tattletale

Is life a tattletale? 

It always ends up spilling a bean

of the not so joyous days 

and the unuttered truths I behold within. 

Or may it be an X-ray vision, 

that let's it peek through

the leathered cover, 

the crumbled pages of my diary, 

which accounts of my blinded vision, 

the flimsy layer of water that succumbs my eyes, 

the pillow talks I am often numb about, 

and all remorse I sulk blatantly. 

It makes me wonder truely

that how on earth do you know of all the lights

that have been exchanged for melancholy. 

For I am no man who speaks, 

who has learnt to smile without giving a clue. 

Then how do you know about me 

more than myself, 

Mom and Dad

Am talking about you! 

Wrote this one for my parents, who have some sorta superpower! 

The co-founder who not a lot know about

     We all have heard of apple right. Not the one that fell on Newton's head, but the one for which you need to sell your kidney off!

 



      I read Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs this year, really amazing book, you won't find a better book on Apple's mercurial co-founder and ex-CEO Steve Jobs than this. And I came to know a lot about things other than Steve Jobs, like why the mac's design is so elegant, why does apple make both hardware and software, why apple is, as people say, overpriced ! If I start praising this book and the author, then I will need another article! 

     Today however, I would like to write about Apple's 3rd co-founder, Ronald Wayne. For people who didn't know this earlier and are a bit shocked, yeah I too was, when I came to know about this 2 years ago. And the people who have heard his name, have a high probability of knowing about him the same way I do, through an Instagram post like this. 

      So apple in its inception had 2 members, the Steves-Jobs and Wozniak (right to Ronald Wayne in this picture). On 1st April, 1976 Ronald Wayne wrote down the argument which included the roles of everyone at Apple. While Jobs and Wozniak owned 45% of Apple at that time, Wayne owned 10%. Sounds meagre ugg, well that 10% is worth more than 100 billion USD today! Wayne's job was that of a tie-braker at times of making decisions along with providing adult supervision and overseeing mechanical engineering and documentation. However just after 12 days, he sold his 10% ownership at 800 USD! Damn, you must be thinking what sort of an idiot would do that? Well I thought the same too, until I read this book. Most of my thoughts were because of Instagram posts which spoke only one side of the story. 

        So after I read this book, I realized Wayne's side of story. First of all, the apple, 45 years ago ain't same as the Apple today. I was like just any other startup in it's budding period. The Steves' were in their early 20s, enthusiastic, energetic while Wayne was in his 40s, the age where men are expected to be wise and responsible. While his fellow co-founders had nothing to lose, he had a house and a lot more. And that is why he quit Apple. He himself told that Jobs and Wozniak were so passionate that he just couldn't keep up. And what's more important is that he never lived a life with regret. He accepted being happy for the decisions he took. 

      While I first started writing this blog, I asked myself what point I was trying to make by writing a post on Ronald Wayne, and to be honest I still don't know of a better answer than "because not a lot of people know about him". One thing I learnt from him is never letting your past affect your future, and the other one being Instagram too is clickbaited! 

     Anyways do comment about the post ( any suggestion is welcomed). And I guess I will write an article ASAP on Steve Jobs. You guys can read Walter Isaacson's Jobs, it provides descriptive and accurate insights of the life of the greatest entrepreneur of all time. I will attach a link to buy the book at the bottom, and it's not a part of any affiliation program :P

Steve Jobs

                                                                      ~ Udaya