Mahamed Ali Jinnah, founding father of Pakistan and responsible,although not solely for the partition of the undivided India, has engineered posthumously yet another break-up.

This time he's pushed the Bharatiya Janata Party into a partition mode. Jaswant Singh, a veteran BJP leader & one of the recent converts to the rebels camp,- the only one to be pampered with prestigious chairmanship of Parliament's Public Accoung Commitee (PAC) even after his rebellion, has added fuel to the dying ambers of Jinnah controversy that nearly burnt L K Advani's political career.

This time Jaswant has revisited partition history and Jinnah's 'innocent' role in it in his latest book. Not without disastarous consequences,though.

For a national party like the BJP what caught everyone by surprise was the incredible speed with which it stepped. This is especially more remarkable after a killing Lok Sabha polls.The party telephonically booted out Jaswant.

As he got bounced from the the party, Jaswant ruefully pondered over what he got as a reward for after serving it for more than 3 decades. His appreciation of Jinnah servedas the proverbial last straw), there was more in store for the Rajasthan leader. His book has been banned by the Gujarat Chief Minister Nanrendra Modi who thinks of himself as the self-appointed custodian of the image of Sardar Patel. The State Government claimed Singh's book tarnishes the image of the original Sardar of India. How could Modi and Advani half-mockingly hailed by many as the chhote sardars" tolerate a publication finding fault with the Iron Man of India.

Time: Summer,1930.Place:Dhandhuka.Scene:The court room,with nearly two thousand people milling around outside.

A big-eyed, moustachioed man in his thirties, impressively dressed in a typical Kathiawadi attire, complete with a turban, had just heard Judge Isani hand him down a sentence for two years,  for trying to undermine the British Empire.It was for a speech he had never made in the nearby Barwala. But, the police wanted to imprison him badly in those days of the salt satyagrah.

In his rich voice, the man started singing a self-composed nationalist song,so poignantly that it seemed to carry the burden of the sufferings of millions of his enslaved countrymen:

Nathi Janyun Amare Panth Shi Afat Khadi Chhe,

Khabar Chhe Etli Ke Maatni Hakal Padi Chhe.

(What obstacles are on the way,I do not know,

All I know is that the Motherland calls me,and I must go.)

A hush fell over the court premises.When he finished,tears welled up in  hundreds of eyes,including the judge's.It was something that depicted the mood of India at that time,when it was impossible to predict when the sun will set on the mighty Empire.Nobody knew if the freedom struggle would lead to independence,or when,and yet none was bothered.They seemed responding to the inner call.

There is bit of an uncertainty about the exact date and year of the birth of Jhaverchand Meghani.Among the different dates,two are prominently mentioned--August 17,1897 and August 28,1896.

Two of the poet's sons,Jayant and Vinod,have gone on record to throw their weight behind the second date as Jhaverchand's real birth date-- August 28,1896.

They said that among the factors that led them to believe this date was the date given by their grandfather,Kalidas ,when Jhaverchand was admitted to the Sadar Taluka school in Rajkot in November,1901.He gave this date a his son's birth date.The two sons have quoted several other similar notings to support their be-lief.

The confusion appears to have cropped up first in 1947,when Jhaverchand died.A commemoration volume ,Jhaverchand Meghani;Smaranjali,mentioned August 17,1897 as the poet's birthday.It is possible that this was a result of converting the birth date from the day recorded as birthday according to the Vikram Samvat calendar.Shrvan Vad 5,Nag Panchami,was traditionally celebrated as his birthday.But,what year of the Vikram Samvat.If the Vikram Samvat 1952 was taken as correct it would give Au-gust 28,1896 as the birth date,and if it was taken as Vikram Sam-vat 1953,then it would correspond with August 17,1897.

Only a few would be aware today that Independent India's radio broadcasting on August 15,1947, was heralded by a rendering of Bankimchandra Chattopadhyaya's Vande Mataram by Pandit Omkarnath Thakur, music maestro, from the Delhi station of All India Radio (AIR).More so, the little known fact is that the rendering had a Bhavnagari connection. A proud son of Bhavnagar was in the small party that rendered the song that morning.

Pandit Balwantrai, the oldest living disciple of Omkarnath, had accompanied Omkarnath on tanpura. Balwantrai says that Vande Mataram was sung with a unique devotion of heart by Omkarnath in an unusual raag.

Vande Mataram, sung in the classical mode,is still there in the archives of AIR, although in a bit damaged form. Pandit Vishun Digambar Paluskar had originally composed Vande Mataram in raag Bangiya Kaphi.

The more popular version of Vande Mataram that we sing today is in such a simple manner that masses too could sing it easily. However, Omkarnath evolved a special rendering of it with such depth and innovation that it became incomparable and could not even be effectively copied by others. It was so difficult that it was destined to remain beyond the pale of common people.

Nevertheless,it had always been an enchanting and uplifting rendering that it became a classic by itself. Omkarnath had turned down many requests for its rendering by him on numerous occasions. Subhas Chandra Bose wrote to him to sing it at the 1938 Haripura Congress. Omkarnath, who had very strong views on the song, would never agree unless the organisers pledged to have the full version of Vande Mantaram and not an abridged one.

(The Editorial Team is happy to bring to the readers a famous song by Late Jhaverchand Meghani,Mor Bani Thangat...,welcoming the onset of the monsoon.Water is life and the rains provide a promise of a better tomorrow. It is a highly acclaimed translation of a song in Bengali by poet Rabindranath Tagore.Meghani himself had watched Gurudev  Tagore sing the original song of his in Bengali in 1920  during the Varsha Mangal festival at his house in Kolkata. It has been translated into several languages including English and Gujarati. . We also bring to you the English translation of the lyric.It is worth noting that Meghani's translation has been highly popular and few know that it is a translation. The input for this has been provided by Mr Jayant Meghani,Bhavnagar).

The Editorial Team has pleasure in bringing to you the English translation of a popular Gujarati story, Chandradah (Moon Burns) written by renowned Gujarati writer,Mr.Rajnikumar Pandya.The rendering in English has been done by Mr Tushar Bhatt,journalist. A scholar and critic, Dr Kishore Jadav has said the story written in the lyrical vein,creaing hypnotic effect by using symbolism of the moon."The story is enveloped by sombre atmosphere, with inherent ironyand controlled narrative. It stands out unmistakably as a brilliant sory.")

The whiff of air brought it with faint sound of a garba song being sung in the distance. The wind carried the sound for a moment and let it die, leaving behind the tentalising sensation, just like the touch of nippy breeze in the winter. Scanning the horizons all around did not reveal much. There was a vast expanse of moonlit meadow, broken here and there by a few trees and an occasional hillock or two.

“Where is the sound of singing coming from ?”