DailyOh! Coronavirus grounds Modi but why Nehru arrived on a yak in Bhutan to why Holi reminds us of ‘trick or treat’

Hello there,

Hope you had a good weekend. Some of you, we know, are still having it good because you are on an extended Holi break. If you have driven out of town, good; if you have stayed back, better. Because the virus, the new coronavirus, is out there. The fear, that is. This one is complicated because the carriers may not know they have been spreading it for as long as two weeks. The number of cases is still below 50 but in a populous and chaotic landmass like ours, you can’t be careful enough.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being careful. First, Modi announced he wouldn’t be participating in Holi Milan programmes because experts have been advising that people should avoid people to stop the spread of Covid-19. This after he cancelled his Brussels visit. He has cancelled his Dhaka visit after the celebrations of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman's 100th birth anniversary were cancelled by the state government. Mujibur Rehman, as you know, is the father of Bangladesh. The PM was supposed to visit Dhaka on March 17.

There is so much talk about Modi’s foreign travels. Every time the topic comes up people begin to draw comparisons with how much other PMs travelled. Among the facts people dish out is that Indira Gandhi who remained Prime Minister for 15 years and 350 days travelled to just 113 countries (including repeated travels to the same country).

That comparison, we say, is not complete without knowing that in 2000, only 4.4 million Indians travelled abroad. In 2019, about 50 million did. Haven’t you noticed your Facebook page get increasingly flooded with that ‘travelling to XYZ’ destination? More and more of these destinations are overseas. We are travelling to foreign lands more than our previous generations. So, the incumbent Prime Minister is travelling more than his predecessors.

We don’t know why but talking of Modi’s travel reminds us of Jawaharlal Nehru’s 1958 visit to Bhutan. Do you know why the visit is remarkable? Well, because Nehru did not fly or drive in, he went on a yak’s back.

He did it because there were no motorable roads in Bhutan back then. Braving the cold, when Nehru reached Paro, a Bhutanese town, he was warmly welcomed by people who stood on both sides of the road cheering for him.

A lot of that visit is caught in this video, including Nehru on the yak-back. A word of caution though: The video quality is poor.

With that visit, Nehru helped strengthen India and Bhutanese relations. Upon his return, Nehru said in Indian Parliament, “Any aggression against Bhutan would be seen as aggression against India.”

Now, Bhutan was never colonised by Britain, but under a treaty the British had control over its foreign relations. The largely Buddhist country managed to stay aloof from the world. So, Nehru reached out to Bhutan after the British left. His 1958 visit led to Bhutan agreeing to have India’s Border Roads Organisation build motorable roads in the country. If you have visited Bhutan, or plan to, you would know what an absolute traveller’s delight it is.

Since, we are talking so much about travel, let’s look at what the word travel (actually) means and where it comes from. Travel is our Word Of The Day.

Travel is a close sibling to the French word ‘travail’, which fundamentally means unpleasant work. Apparently, about hundreds of years ago, travelling seemed to be a synonym for being tormented. Why wouldn’t it be? Imagine travelling a few hundred kilometres on foot or yak-back, even horseback. It would hurt where it hurts the most — right between the legs.

With all the rails, roads and planes, travel now is fun. A lot many Indians are travelling just for the experience of travel. They travel for work also, but they are not our concern here. They say, Indians are travelling more because they have more disposable income. They aren’t actually disposing it of but spending it buying stuff, eating out and also heading out.

Now, if you have been travelling in India, one common refrain you hear is that Indians are tourists, they aren’t real travellers. From whom? From fellow Indian. So, how does one become a real traveller?

Both tourists and travellers are on a journey. Their experiences and destination are, however, very different. A tourist visits popular places. For instance, a tourist goes to Shimla. A traveller to Kalpa. This, remember, was just for an example. A traveller will want to taste local delicacies. A typical Indian tourist would want his overly spiced food with oodles of salt in it no matter where she is. We are not trying to say individuals do not have a right to decide how they like their food. We are trying to say travellers prefer to experience local things. Tourists are out because heading out is becoming a trend. And that’s okay too because they too help the economy move and everybody is okay doing what they do as long as they don’t meddle in what others do.

But we got talking about travel because we were first talking about people’s, including the PM’s, travel plans being foiled because of coronavirus. So far, 43 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in India. A leaked presentation hosted by the American Hospital Association, however, estimates that 96 million, or 960 lakh, or 9.6 crore people are likely to get infected with the virus. The report also estimates that about 480,000 will die of the disease. Now, this is if proper medical care is not given and all necessary precautions are not taken. So, do not panic. We only shared the information with you because we want you to be cautious.

One of the precautionary measures is to avoid public gatherings. So, tomorrow just sit at home and eat gujiya. That is if you like sweet things, if you don’t then just eat whatever you like. It’s a festival. Let it be you cheat day.

So, if you cheat on your diet plan with that gujiya, know that no one knows how the delicacy came to be associated with Holi. What we do know is that it originated in the Bundelkhand region of Rajasthan. It is believed that gujiya was part of the royal kitchen even before colonial times. As part of tradition, people would move in groups from door to door asking for gujiya.

Do you know that a similar tradition is part of modern-day Halloween celebrations? It’s called treat or trick and sees children in costumes go door to door, asking for treats with the phrase "trick or treat". The ‘treat’ is usually some form of candy. In some cultures money is also given. ‘Trick’ is nothing but an idle threat to perform some mischief with the homeowner or her house.

But it’s not Halloween, it is Holi. So you go for the gujiyas.

We will leave you with this song:

We will meet you on Wednesday because tomorrow we too would be celebrating Holi.

Have a great one.

Also read: DailyOh! Why all bank crises since 1860s look the same, to how an Indian maharaja beat Winston Churchill