04-14-2007, 01:04 AM
I note that the project has been "around" for decades. The noise and sudden realization of the National Treasure are what are new. So, people who looked forward to the advances promised by the project, will indeed ask what is behind this sudden noise.
QUOTE
There stretches, famed for evermore,
The wondrous bridge from shore to shore.
The worlds, to life's remotest day.
Due reverence to the work shall pay,
Which holier for the laps of time
Shall give release from sin and crime.
And my question is: "What is the Due Reverence to an engineering marvel?"
Some here take the position that Due Reverence means freeze things in glass cases or behind walls, and walk around them seven times, and pray.
In the particular case, I have not seen a single initiative from those most devoted to this National Treasure, to actually PRESERVE or PROTECT or ENHANCE it.
Some have been pointing to the "NASA images" (though I would be very interested to see the originals at the NASA site..) as the "proof" of the existence of the Sethu, thus implying that this realization is something new. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Survey documents for the SSC project cite surveys done even much earlier, showing that the sea is only 2 to 3 metres deep, over a width varying from zero to about 1.7 miles, for a few miles in the Palk strait. At low tide. Millions upon millions have worshipped at Rameshwaram, gone out to Dhanushkodi to look at the "white floating rocks", and gaze out along the sea-washed rocks, imagining what it must have been like when the place was hosting an army about the cross the sea.
The "Defenders of the National Treasures" were not interested then. The Sethu has been eroded and deteriorating for millennia. The landscape attached to the Sethu has changed dramatically over the centuries, with every cyclone, and the constant erosion and silt deposition.
In fact, if the research is properly done, it should show that the top so many feet are just silt from the paddy fields of Andhra, Orissa and Bengal and the Gangetic plains, washed into the Bay of Bengal.
The approaches, including that most holy of holy places, Rameswaram, are kept about as clean and neat as a pigsty, with not even the most basic sanitation, hardly any roads, and no opportunities for the local population to advance. This, they would have me believe, is their version of Worship to Shri Rama and the Vanara Sena.
This is what happens, apparently, when those who "really care" about our "National Heritage" are at work.
Oh, sure, the occasional tourist goes over there to enjoy tossing 1-paisa coins into murky pools to watch the "fun" of young human, Indian citizen kids diving to retrieve them, in order to collect enough to get some food.
And oh, yeah, they celebrate the "white beach sands" and want to protect the Whales out in the middle of the Palk Strait, while being utterly unconcerned about the kids and mothers begging on shore.
Sorry, I do not see this as being any way to show Due Reverence to my ancient traditions or National Treasures. I see the opposition as a cynical exercise of political opportunists, completely lacking in any good intentions.
Yes, I saw the demand to UNESCO to declare the region a World Heritage. Wonderful, Now we can all go home to feel good that we have solved THAT problem. Bring the UN to run the Palk Strait, and tell us what we can and cannot do there. The truly Hindu Solution.
Bodhi here now says that there was never any intent to oppose the project itself. This is a great development, and s(he) is probably right in cynically calculating that few will remember precisely what was being demanded just a few weeks ago.
But this is progress. I actually have no problem with the new-found acceptance by a certain Holy organization, of the option of dredging the Pamban channel to the required depth.
Simple reasoning about what the topography must have been, millenia ago, will tell you that the Rameshwaram Temple or Dhanushkodi are NOT where they were then. My guess is that Dhanushkodi, the legendary starting point of the Sethu, was miles away. The present location of Dhanushkodi is on a shifting sandbank, not any ancient rock. It is probably a creation in fairly recent times.
On the other hand, the satellite images show that the narrow land feature starts far to the west, and the Pamban is certainly a part of the overall "sethu". But since the British dredged it and built a bridge, there is absolutely no concern about "preserving" that part of the Sethu, since there is no political capital to be made out of it. This shows the hollowness of the whole campaign of opposition.
BUT.. I would have no problem if the SSC project, after due consideration, were to accept this route. It has many things attractive about it, not the least of which is that this part is completely within Indian territory. Trouble with this option, as I understand, is that it affects some "marine preserve" or other.
Note that the ppl who are so concerned about the "livelihood" of the fisherfolk on the coast, when there is a proposal to dredge the top 8 feet off, over a 300m-wide, few-mile-long swathe some 10 miles off shore, are completely unconcerned about the huge disruption of dredging a sea canal through the Pamban area.
What happened to the pollution due to large ships going through? What about the shells? The fish farms? The beaches?
Again, this shows that the initial opposition to the project was not based on any real considerations other than shortsighted political propaganda.
Now I am told that the canal project itself would not have been taken as a slight, it's just that it comes on top of the atrocities like "what was done to the Sankaracharya", the evangelist campaigns, the placing of EVR statues in front of temples, the Vatican-KGB-Sweden-CIA-Bush-Cheney-Musharraf Conspiracy, yada yada yada. A whole laundry list of oolitical grievances.
Why are those grounds for putting sand in the mouths of the poor children of Rameshwaram?
Why is "Bodhi" so worried when the facts, the realities, of Rameshwaram are posted on the propaganda BLOG, that they had to be censored out?
Why is "Husky" pointing to the "fever in your brain" instead of arguing on facts and reason?
What happened to the "SSC canal opening should be pointed to the WEST, let me explain why" 'science' that was part of the initial campaign?
Why is it impossible to "show due reverence" to the Sethu if ships pass OUT OF SIGHT of Dhanushkodi, having CLEARED away the sand that has accumulated on top of the ancient, sunken Sethu 10 miles off shore?
What effort is being made to recover the sunken temples off Mahabalipuram that were exposed when the sea receded during/ just before the tsunami? No interest in that any more because there is no political mileage there? UNESCO not agreeing to take that over?
The sewage from Chennai, all gazillion tons of it, and the infamous Stinko Canals of Chennai, pour out into the sea and go right over these temples. Is THAT not "hurting the sentiments" of these dedicated Hindus? Why not? Or is that duly Holy sewage, since it comes from the Holy shores?
Try not to mix political propaganda into "religion" and "science", please.
QUOTE
There stretches, famed for evermore,
The wondrous bridge from shore to shore.
The worlds, to life's remotest day.
Due reverence to the work shall pay,
Which holier for the laps of time
Shall give release from sin and crime.
And my question is: "What is the Due Reverence to an engineering marvel?"
Some here take the position that Due Reverence means freeze things in glass cases or behind walls, and walk around them seven times, and pray.
In the particular case, I have not seen a single initiative from those most devoted to this National Treasure, to actually PRESERVE or PROTECT or ENHANCE it.
Some have been pointing to the "NASA images" (though I would be very interested to see the originals at the NASA site..) as the "proof" of the existence of the Sethu, thus implying that this realization is something new. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Survey documents for the SSC project cite surveys done even much earlier, showing that the sea is only 2 to 3 metres deep, over a width varying from zero to about 1.7 miles, for a few miles in the Palk strait. At low tide. Millions upon millions have worshipped at Rameshwaram, gone out to Dhanushkodi to look at the "white floating rocks", and gaze out along the sea-washed rocks, imagining what it must have been like when the place was hosting an army about the cross the sea.
The "Defenders of the National Treasures" were not interested then. The Sethu has been eroded and deteriorating for millennia. The landscape attached to the Sethu has changed dramatically over the centuries, with every cyclone, and the constant erosion and silt deposition.
In fact, if the research is properly done, it should show that the top so many feet are just silt from the paddy fields of Andhra, Orissa and Bengal and the Gangetic plains, washed into the Bay of Bengal.
The approaches, including that most holy of holy places, Rameswaram, are kept about as clean and neat as a pigsty, with not even the most basic sanitation, hardly any roads, and no opportunities for the local population to advance. This, they would have me believe, is their version of Worship to Shri Rama and the Vanara Sena.
This is what happens, apparently, when those who "really care" about our "National Heritage" are at work.
Oh, sure, the occasional tourist goes over there to enjoy tossing 1-paisa coins into murky pools to watch the "fun" of young human, Indian citizen kids diving to retrieve them, in order to collect enough to get some food.
And oh, yeah, they celebrate the "white beach sands" and want to protect the Whales out in the middle of the Palk Strait, while being utterly unconcerned about the kids and mothers begging on shore.
Sorry, I do not see this as being any way to show Due Reverence to my ancient traditions or National Treasures. I see the opposition as a cynical exercise of political opportunists, completely lacking in any good intentions.
Yes, I saw the demand to UNESCO to declare the region a World Heritage. Wonderful, Now we can all go home to feel good that we have solved THAT problem. Bring the UN to run the Palk Strait, and tell us what we can and cannot do there. The truly Hindu Solution.
Bodhi here now says that there was never any intent to oppose the project itself. This is a great development, and s(he) is probably right in cynically calculating that few will remember precisely what was being demanded just a few weeks ago.
But this is progress. I actually have no problem with the new-found acceptance by a certain Holy organization, of the option of dredging the Pamban channel to the required depth.
Simple reasoning about what the topography must have been, millenia ago, will tell you that the Rameshwaram Temple or Dhanushkodi are NOT where they were then. My guess is that Dhanushkodi, the legendary starting point of the Sethu, was miles away. The present location of Dhanushkodi is on a shifting sandbank, not any ancient rock. It is probably a creation in fairly recent times.
On the other hand, the satellite images show that the narrow land feature starts far to the west, and the Pamban is certainly a part of the overall "sethu". But since the British dredged it and built a bridge, there is absolutely no concern about "preserving" that part of the Sethu, since there is no political capital to be made out of it. This shows the hollowness of the whole campaign of opposition.
BUT.. I would have no problem if the SSC project, after due consideration, were to accept this route. It has many things attractive about it, not the least of which is that this part is completely within Indian territory. Trouble with this option, as I understand, is that it affects some "marine preserve" or other.
Note that the ppl who are so concerned about the "livelihood" of the fisherfolk on the coast, when there is a proposal to dredge the top 8 feet off, over a 300m-wide, few-mile-long swathe some 10 miles off shore, are completely unconcerned about the huge disruption of dredging a sea canal through the Pamban area.
What happened to the pollution due to large ships going through? What about the shells? The fish farms? The beaches?
Again, this shows that the initial opposition to the project was not based on any real considerations other than shortsighted political propaganda.
Now I am told that the canal project itself would not have been taken as a slight, it's just that it comes on top of the atrocities like "what was done to the Sankaracharya", the evangelist campaigns, the placing of EVR statues in front of temples, the Vatican-KGB-Sweden-CIA-Bush-Cheney-Musharraf Conspiracy, yada yada yada. A whole laundry list of oolitical grievances.
Why are those grounds for putting sand in the mouths of the poor children of Rameshwaram?
Why is "Bodhi" so worried when the facts, the realities, of Rameshwaram are posted on the propaganda BLOG, that they had to be censored out?
Why is "Husky" pointing to the "fever in your brain" instead of arguing on facts and reason?
What happened to the "SSC canal opening should be pointed to the WEST, let me explain why" 'science' that was part of the initial campaign?
Why is it impossible to "show due reverence" to the Sethu if ships pass OUT OF SIGHT of Dhanushkodi, having CLEARED away the sand that has accumulated on top of the ancient, sunken Sethu 10 miles off shore?
What effort is being made to recover the sunken temples off Mahabalipuram that were exposed when the sea receded during/ just before the tsunami? No interest in that any more because there is no political mileage there? UNESCO not agreeing to take that over?
The sewage from Chennai, all gazillion tons of it, and the infamous Stinko Canals of Chennai, pour out into the sea and go right over these temples. Is THAT not "hurting the sentiments" of these dedicated Hindus? Why not? Or is that duly Holy sewage, since it comes from the Holy shores?
Try not to mix political propaganda into "religion" and "science", please.