Welcome Mr President!

It is in our national interest to extend a warm welcome to Bill Clinton when he comes to our country. We need him more than he needs us.

He is President of the richest and the most powerful country in the world. More than wealth and military might, the United States has rightly acquired the role of the world's policeman and judge. Most nations, even if they do not openly say so, are agreed that during Mr Clinton's tenure, America has been just and fair in its dealing with other countries.

It is because of its predominant role that NATO has been able to prevent an outright war between states which were once provinces of Yugoslavia. It has been able to cobble peace between Israel and its Arab neighbours. But for the presence of its troops and the naval forces, North Korea abetted by China would have over-run South Korea and the Chinese would have swallowed Taiwan. It has kept Saddam Hussain of Iraq, who had waged unprovoked war against Iran and then annexed Kuwait, in check and gave Kuwait back its freedom. Its role in containing civil wars has been decisive.

It is the only hope of preventing fanatical, fundamentalist Islamic groups from periodically declaring jehad against non-Muslim states like America, Russia and India. Single-handed, we will find it increasingly difficult to contend with hit-n-run guerilla warfare tactics practised by them. They can choose their targets and the time to execute their nefarious missions, explode bombs in buses, trains and market places and then escape into Pakistan.

We do not have the means to contend with the likes of Osama bin Laden on the rampage with sanctuaries available in many African and Arab countries. The US has a long reach: we do not. Its enemies are our enemies. Perforce we should join hands with them. Mr Clinton's visit will provide us opportunities to work out modalities to fight our common enemy.

We should not be over-exercised by President Clinton's brief stopover in Pakistan on his way back home. He has his compulsions. But you can be sure that his stop in Islamabad will not give legitimacy to General Musharraf's military regime. On the contrary, he is almost certain to ask the General to conduct a general election and restore civilian rule. And he is equally certain to warn him against continuing support to armed gangs crossing over into our territories. We should welcome the American President in his role as a world politician and not as an arbiter of our dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir. This will, and has to be, resolved peacefully by India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir. There cannot be, nor will be, any room for a fourth party on the discussion table. I am sure President Clinton will see the validity of our point of view.

Songster from Washington

Ezra Pound, who was regarded as a guru of modern poets, was of the opinion that there were three kinds of poetry: Melopoeia (music of words), phanopoeia (of images) and logopoeia (of intellectual arguments). To me, Pound's classification sounds arbitrary. Nevertheless, great poets like T. S. Eliot agreed with him. He submitted his epic poem The Wasteland to Pound for corrections and approval.

I had a strong prejudice against Pound because he was anti-semitic and had supported fascism. I also found his poems beyond comprehension. I believe good poetry should not only be musical, it should create pictures, stir the imagination and above all, be easy to read and understand. That is why, I acclaimed the publication of Pammy Sacher Kohli's first collection of poems, Singing in the Wilderness (Picus).

I met Pammy once briefly in Washington. Her husband Nanak Kohli is a very prosperous businessman with interests spread over the globe. In Indian circles he is known as Mr Rolls Royce because he rides one. He is an outgoing extrovert full of loud talk and laughter. Pammy on the other hand is withdrawn and a woman of few words. I learnt that she had a degree in English literature from Georgetown University, was a good mother to her three children and kept a very good home.

Everyone remarked on her good looks, but no one knew she had poetry in her. Her poems are sensitive, at times also tortured and craving to be loved. I give one example of the sort of thing she writes. Notice its lucidity, lyricism and strict conformity to rules of rhyme and meter prescribed for poetry:

Underneath the spreading banyan tree

Pammy Sacher said to me

When I'm married I shall see

My husband shares a little house with me

But he'll be upstairs; I'll be down

He in the country, me in the town

And once a year when we meet for tea,

Oh, what a happy girl I'll be!

Underneath the spreading bunyan tree.

Pammy reared their family,

Some were short and very small

Others over six feet tall

This occurred so it would seem

Because they stayed at two extremes!

Of God and Goddesses

No country has produced as many gods and goddesses as ours. With us, the process has not stopped as we go on adding to their numbers as recklessly as we produce human beings. Every village has its own favourite deities. Even buildings like High Courts and hospitals have their patron gods and goddesses to whom offerings are made.

I pleaded with David Davidar of Viking Penguin (India) to publish a lexicon of our innumerable divinities so that people could know more about their names and carnations. He agreed and Penguin Viking has commissioned a lady to compile such a dictionary. Meanwhile, an old friend of my Bombay years, Arvind Kumar, (who was then editing Madhuri) and his wife Kusum have jointly published precisely what I had in mind in Hindi: Shabdeshwari Devi Devtaon key Namon ka Samaantar Kosh. (Rajkamal Prakashan). Earlier, they had compiled a Samaantar Kosh a Hindi Thesaurus for which the couple won a Rs one lakh award from the Maharashtra Rajya Hindi Sahitya Akademi.

Arvind is an erudite scholar of Hindi. He does not wear his learning on his sleeves but is a very unassuming, shy and modest man. In his wife he has found an equally learned companion who does most of the ground work for him. They now live in comparative obscurity in Ghaziabad.

Some mind-boggling facts are presented in their compilation: Shiva and Rudra jointly share 3,411 names; next comes Visnu with 1,676, followed by Indra (451), Krishna (441), Kamdev (287), Rama (129), Skand (161) and Ganesh (141). The goddesses combine of Parvati, Durga and Kali have 900 names followed by Lakshmi (191), Saraswati (108), Sita (65) and Radha (31).

The authors also tell their readers about the power ascribed to these deities and forms of ritual in which they are worshipped. Apart from being a treasury of Indian mythology and legend, the book could be consulted by people looking for names for their children.

On Holi

Colours are splashing all around

Because we have won new ground

In ethics, law and probity

In Bihar

In a pious and holy war.

Our star is democracy's glorious hour,

Because we have built a new tower

To gubernatorial impartiality.

It is an hour of pure glee

Because jungle raj will cease to be

And every criminal will now be free

To raise his price as never before.

What more could you ask for

For a state like Bihar

Has now total peace and tranquillity.

Though it has a seven days' wonder

Let's celebrate Laloo's fall

And down each other in gulal.

(Contributed by Kuldip Salil, Delhi)